…from “Sesame Street,” and it is a fun segment; but what’s really great about the skit is that the legendary Frank Oz plays the lead character, Mr. Draper.

What’s awesome about this is that it’s Frank’s first “Sesame Street” performance in nearly 15 years. Bert, Grover and Cookie Monster haven’t been the same since.

Check it out here:

Weird hearing a “Sesame Street” version of Rjd2’s opening song,

-Shady

I first saw Jim Henson’s experimental art film “Time Piece” in 2001, during the first (and only) Muppet convention in Santa Monica. (MuppetFest was awesome, so shut it!)

Started as a personal project, Henson would go on to storyboard, write, direct and star in the film starting in the spring of 1964. It premiered in May 1965 at the Museum of Modern Art, and was even nominated for an Academy Award in the category of “Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects” in 1966.

Since 2001, I’ve tried to track down the film online. Finally, someone put it on YouTube. Awesome.

So here it is, Jim Henson’s “Time Piece” in all its jazzy glory. You can totally see how it would go on to influence some of the shorts from “Sesame Street” years later.

Be sure to keep an eye out for brief cameos from Frank Oz (with a full head of hair) as a messenger boy, Muppet designer Don Sahlin as a stand-up comic, and head Muppet writer Jerry Juhl as a bartender.

When you’re done, check out this short “behind the scenes” segment on the making of “Time Piece.”

Help,

-Shady

Twenty-five years after it was released, The Dark Crystal, by Jim Henson and Frank Oz of The Muppet clan, still manages to unleash a cult devotion from its die-hard fans. The puppets in the film were designed by well-known fantasy artist Brian Froud. The film begins in medias res, and is set post-apocalyptically on planet Thra, a thousand years after the ancient urSkeks race cracked the Crystal. When the urSkeks damaged the Crystal, they split into two opposing races – the good Mystics and the evil Skeksis – and the Crystal changed into the Dark Crystal. Jen seems to be the last elf-like Gelfling left on Thra, after his race was murdered off on command by the Skeksis. He was raised by the Mystics and it is revealed to him that he is destined to restore the Dark Crystal before the approaching conjunction of the three suns, or else the evil Skeksis will rule for ever.

There are so many things that appeal to me in The Dark Crystal. The puppets, puppetry, décor and set design is masterfully done for one. What I liked especially is that the film does not remotely rely on special effects. It is unashamedly and authentically a film with muppets, and one is contently conscious of this fact throughout. The film succeeds, however, in transposing the viewer to another magical realm where the muppets vanish and become characters. The struggle between good and evil is addressed and thus also serves as a great instructional inspiration to young, growing minds. The film might seem like child’s play, but there is much philosophy that underlie it. The urSkeks splits into the Mystics and the Skeksis, which ultimately have to combine to become one again, and thus denotes a triune harmony in the world which might be interpreted as religious or spiritual in nature. The idea of two opposing forces that transpose their dichotomy and dissolve into a unity of balance, originates from Chinese philosophy and is quite prevalent in Zen-Buddhism. The trinity doctrine is also very prevalent in Christian religions.

SPOILER WARNING: Jen and Kira, the last man and woman left of the Gelflings, reminds one of Adam and Eve, or even of Greek mythology where original humans were split into two by Zeus for fear of their power. Kira offers herself at the end of the film (reminiscent of Jesus in Christian religion), but is resurrected when order has been restored to the earth. She and Jen can now come together in union to give rise to a new population of Gelflings. SPOILERS END HERE.

If you do not have a child inside you, you might not be able to appreciate the contradictory simplicity and mastery of this film. This film is not for everyone, even though it was the highest grossing box-office release in France and Japan in 1983. If you are a fan, though, it is interesting to note the following: A sequel to the film entitled The Power of the Dark Crystal is set for production in 2008 and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. If you want to read more about this, feel free. According to the Wikipedia, a manga prequel by the name Legends of the Dark Crystal, is also planned for publication by TokyoPop on November 13 of 2007. Together with The World of the Dark Crystal, the book created by Brian Froud during the release of the film, these works complete a pretty attractive package for the collector cult member of The Dark Crystal. And International Movies Database contends that Brian Froud and puppet designer Wendy Midener met on the set of the film and later married. All in all, fantasy turns to reality it seems.

Genre: Animation / Fantasy / Family / Adventure
Running time: 93 min
Country: USA / UK
Language: English
Directors: Jim Henson
Frank Oz
Gary Kurtz
Writing credits: Jim Henson (story)
David Odell (screenplay)
Producers: Jim Henson
David Lazer
Cinematographer: Oswarld Morris
Editor: Ralph Kemplen
Music: Trevor Jones
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Main Cast:
Jen, Gelfling – Jim Henson
Kira, Gelfling – Kathryn Mullen
Aughra, Keeper of Secrets – Frank Oz
For a complete list of puppeteers and voices, vist this address

On Halloween, I went to this Halloween party with a friend of mine at her school. A little FYI, we don’t go to the university and we met in high school. Anyway, at the party, I noticed this girl who was dressed up as Sarah from Labyrinth. At first, I didn’t know that she was supposed to be Sarah. So, I went up to her and asked her what she was supposed to be. So, she told me and I got it. Apparently, when she told everybody else who she was supposed to be, no one got it until me. I just found it interesting because apparently Labyrinth isn’t that popular with my generation.

As “Sesame Street” celebrates its 40^th anniversary this week, The Daily Record examines five of the show’s greatest musical moments.

Johnny Cash – “Nasty Dan”

Twenty years after “Cry Cry Cry” appeared in jukeboxes, Johnny Cash was singing with Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. “Nasty Dan” appears on the classic 1975 record “The Johnny Cash Children’s Album,” but Oscar is the perfect foil for the number. Cash enjoyed his fifth season spin on the Street so much, he returned to Jim Henson’s world of Muppets. In 1980, Cash hosted an episode of The Muppet Show. Cash was also the inspiration behind the 1990s Sesame Street character Ronnie Trash, who sang about the environment in Cash’s classic boom-chicka style.

The Fugees – “Just Happy To Be Me”

The Fugees immortal sophomore album “The Score” was one of the best-selling albums of the 1990s, but it wasn’t exactly kid-friendly material. Somehow, though, the divisive Elmo took a shine to the group and invited the trio to appear in his 1998 TV special. Although “Ready or Not” could have been adapted to a song about playing hide-and-seek, the Lauryn Hill, Pras Michel and Wyclef Jean opted to cover a newer song in the Sesame Street canon, “Just Happy To Be Me.” Jean has returned to the Street several times since, but Hill and Michel are perpetually M.I.A. This once prompted Snuffleupagus to hollar “Where Fugees at?”

Stevie Wonder – “1,2,3 Sesame Street”

Stevie Wonder between albums and at arguably at the peak of his career when he appeared on the Sesame Street in 1973. In a rare Sesame Street-Soul Train crossover moment, Wonder and his full band performed his recent hit “Superstition.” He then returned with the original number “1,2,3 Sesame Street,” starting a new talk box fad at kindergarteners across the country.

Itzhak Pearlman – Easy and Hard

This isn’t as much a song as a lesson with the greatest classical violinist of his generation. Itzhak Pearlman was no stranger to Sesame Street when he appeared in this 1981 clip. Polio is all but forgotten today, but the message on disabilities and talent still rings true.

Cab Calloway – “Mr. Hi De Ho Man”

Cab Calloway earned the nickname “The Hi De Ho Man” after his signature song, “Minnie the Moocher” became a hit in 1931. Half a century later, Calloway converted his handle to a greeting and performed on Sesame Street with the perpetually contradictive Two-Headed Monster. Calloway’s guest spot occurred during a late career resurgence. After spending almost a decade as a has-been, Calloway was back in the spotlight, thanks to his role in “The Blues Brothers” film. The movie was directed and co-written by John Landis, who was good friends with Muppeteer Frank Oz. Oz, who voiced Grover, Bert and Cookie Monster on Sesame Street and Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Yoda, appears as the guard who returns Joliet Jake’s belongings at the beginning of “The Blues Brothers.”

Ray Charles – “The Alphabet”

This bonus clip is from Ray Charles’ second stop on the Street in 1977. Although he’s just singing the alphabet, there are few artists who could make 26 letters swing so hard.

Given the current celebration of Sesame Street’s fortieth anniversary, I reached into my files to find an article I wrote on the Muppets for PARADE, the Sunday supplement, more than thirty years ago in 1978.  Jim Henson was forty-two; he died twelve years later, in 1990, at fifty-four.  Richard Hunt was twenty-seven; he died fourteen years later, in 1992, at forty-one.

December 24, 1978

The Magical Hands of TV’s Muppet Zoo

Article on the Muppets in PARADE on December 24, 1978

By Hank Whittemore

It’s the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature is stir ring, not even a – frog?

Unless, perhaps, there are visions stirring in your head inspired by the likes of Kermit—the nation’s First Frog – and his Muppet friends, including Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and all the other funny, fantastical, foam-rubber TV creatures whose weekly antics make us laugh while reminding us of ourselves. The Muppets delight children and grownups alike with a magical blend of illusion and reality. They may not quite have the appeal of Santa Claus, but they’re the most popular puppets in the world.

Over the last decade, more than half of America’s preschoolers have grown up watching Cookie Monster and other Muppets on Sesame Street, the daily show on National Educational Television.  Forty million viewers in the U.S., and 230 million in 103 other countries, tune in for The Muppet Show, the weekly TV series now in its third year of syndication.  And now, folks, The Muppet Movie has just been filmed, for release this spring.

With Kermit and his friends already superstars, it’s time for a look at those behind – actually, under – them. Beneath the characters is a team of five men whose hands and voices give life to the Muppets. Each is tall, slim, agile, multi-skilled and possessed of a streak of nutty humor:

• Jim Henson, 42, a soft-spoken man with long brown hair and full beard, is the Muppets. Twenty-three years ago he created Kermit (Out of a partiality to frogs) and coined the word “Muppet” to describe his own unique cross between marionette and puppet. Since then he has built a veritable Muppet empire, operating out of his New York-based Henson Associates – or just plain HA!

“I love the anonymity of it all,” Henson says, although he has allowed himself a degree of public visibility. He’s the guiding genius behind the Muppets’ success, acting as a designer, writer, producer and director, while continuing to perform below Kermit, Rowlf the Dog, Dr. Teeth, Captain Link Hogthrob, Waldorf the Swedish Chef, the Newsman and Mahna Mahna.

• Frank Oz, 34, has a mustache, spectacles and receding hairline that gives him the high-domed look of a scientist. “I was a perfectly normal kid,” he insists. “You know—serious, studious, rotten. This craziness is a contagious disease I caught from Jim Henson.” Oz, a veteran of 15 years of Muppet service, is creative consultant for The Muppet Show and a vice president of Henson Associates. Henson says Oz is “probably the person most responsible for the Muppets’ being funny.”

Oz based Cookie Monster on his own addiction to chocolate-chip cookies. He drew Grover’s character from that of his dog, Fred. When 0z’s Bert began his first routine with Henson’s Ernie, one of the great modern comedy teams was born.

Perhaps Oz’s most inspired creation is Miss Piggy. “I am certain,” a colleague jokes, “that she’s a reflection of Frank’s warped soul.” She’s a complexity of bravado and vulnerability, a coy lady pig whose delicate identity is not only sustained but fiercely protected by Oz.

* Jerry Nelson, 38, a lean, bearded, actor, is regarded as the “master of voices” among the five, especially as a singer. “With the Muppets you never stand still,” he says. “You keep growing. The character keeps learning, expanding, changing – just like a human being.” He brings alive a range of Muppets, including Robin the Frog, Sgt. Floyd Pepper, Dr. Julius Strange- pork, Fleet Scribbler, Crazy Harry, Uncle Deadly, the Count, Herry Monster and Sherlock Hemlock.

• Richard Hunt, 27, with a mop of curly hair and seemingly boundless energy, had never sent up anything more exotic than a basketball before becoming a Muppet performer. “I came aboard when I was 18,” he recalls,” so I’ve been kind of a younger brother to Jim and Frank and Jerry.  You might say I’ve grown up with the Muppets.” Hunt gives us Scooter, Sweetums, Gladys, Beaker and Statler, among others,

• Dave Goelz, 32, the newest member of the regular team, with a beard and a mischievous glint in his eyes, performs for Great Gonzo, Honeydew, Muppy and Zoot, “My background wasn’t show business,” he says, “but my whole family was raised in an atmosphere of weird.  So I guess my doing this was inevitable,”

“We’re all pretty much group people,” Henson points out, “To become part of the Muppets, you have to know how to share and work unselfishly for the total effort.”

And what an effort that is! On the set, the Muppeteers stand together, jostling around with their arms up, moving their Muppets’ mouths and arms for the camera, which is poised up high to catch the action. They speak or sing into microphones attached to headbands, following a memorized script. On top of all that, they must constantly glance sideways to watch TV monitors so they can see what the camera sees.

For a character like Kermit, who cannot grasp objects with his hands, Henson moves the arms with thin rods painted to match the background. The many other characters who can hold objects require two performers standing together. One manipulates the mouth and the left arm (and hand) while the other operates the right arm, “It takes twice the work of an actor,” Hunt says, “because you’re trying to communicate everything through a piece of foam rubber.”

“We’re really actors who use puppets,” Nelson adds. “The Muppets have a personality makeup that extends beyond caricature.  I think it goes all the way back to the cavemen, who wore animal heads. It begins as a visual stimulus, but it also goes deeper and touches something basic in man. The Muppets let people indulge in fantasy, but they’re also rooted in real emotions that people can identify with.”

New Muppets are born only after much creative input from designers, writers and performers. When a character is ready, Henson tries to “link the puppeteer with the Muppet, whenever there’s an affinity.” Only after a long period of practice with a mirror and a tape recorder does the fledgling character go public.

Rehearsals are usually relaxed, jovial sessions. “When you’re squashed under a stage all day with two or three other guys, you’d better like each other,” Nelson says.

This genial, creative atmosphere is a reflection of Henson’s quietly offbeat personality. He maintains a firm artistic hand but is singularly unthreatened by others’ talents. His wife – the former Jane Nebel, his original puppeteering partner – says the best insight into his style comes from close observation of his alter ego, Kermit the Frog:

“Kermit is the emotional pivot point for the other Muppets to work around. He sort of watches and enjoys the characters around him, taking them for what they are. Jim does the same for the people around him. The result is that they all have great respect for their characters and lend a general balance to each other,”

Jim and Jane Henson met as art students at the University of Maryland. Henson, who grew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C., had joined a puppet club during high school. Alter graduation he started building his own creations and, in 1955, toward the end of his freshman year in college, he landed a late-night five-minute TV show of his own on a local station.

Married in 1959, the Hensons kept that show, Sam and Friends, on the air for eight years. Kermit went on The Ed Sullivan Show as a regular for five seasons, and Rowlf the Dog, created for a dog-food commercial, wound up as resident comedian on The Jimmy Dean Show in the 1960’s.

“From the beginning we played to an adult audience,” Henson says, so in some ways Sesame Street was a set back. Starting in 1969, it became a tremendous success – but mostly for preschoolers.  Some of the Hensons’ own children (there are five, ranging in age from 7 to 18) helped with their reactions. It wasn’t until The Muppet Show began in 1976 that Henson’s original conception was proved once and for all: the Muppets are for everybody.

Sesame Street is taped in New York while The Muppet Show, produced by Henson and ITC Entertainment, is done in London, “We have a schedule to drive people crazy,” Hunt says, alluding to the additional travel to Hollywood to do The Muppet Movie.

“The feature film has been one of our big goals,” Henson says. “We’ve reversed the format of the TV show. Instead of guests coming to visit from outside, we’ve taken the Muppet characters out into the real world. The story begins with Kermit down South in a swamp. He hitchhikes across the country, and all the friends accumulate.”

Another movie, planned for 1980, would involve all new Muppet creations in the form of “gnomes, wizards, elves and other uglies,” according to Hunt.

Henson says it’s coincidence that all current members of the performing team are male. There have been female performers in the past – notably Louise Gold of London – and he says there undoubtedly will be again. “There are always people on the fringes and working toward joining us,” he adds,

The Hensons live in Bedford, N.Y. Of the others, all of whom are bachelors, Oz and Nelson live separately in Manhattan, Hunt in New Jersey and Goelz in California. They all have outside interests. Oz, for one, has been an Off-Broadway actor and is also a playwright, sculptor, videotape producer and enthusiastic sailor.

One day he was strolling on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, near his apartment, when he overheard two men discussing Cookie Monster. “Excuse me,” Oz said, “but I am Cookie Monster.”

“Hey,” said one of the men, “no kidding! He’s great!”

Not you’re great, but he’s great – which pretty well sums up the public identity of a Muppet performer.

Before kindergarten we all started our education on the street… Sesame Street. Can you count to forty? Well, thanks to Count Van Count, I can. Sesame Street is turning forty years old today, and they don’t seem a day over five. Sesame Street taught me everything, from near to far, from A to Z, and even that one of these things is not like the other. They even taught me loss. I, to this day, remember the day Mr. Hooper died. My favorite character from the show wasn’t even a regular on the show. No, I’m not talking about Kermit the roaming reporter. My favorite was always Barkley. What!? You don’t know who Barkley is! Barkley is the giant dog. I loved seeing him run down that hill with those kids in the end credits of every show, but would always be devastated when he wasn’t in the show. Which was like 90% of the time. I remember asking my mom, “Why would they show him at the end of every show, but never have him in the show?” I think the best part about Sesame Street for our generation, is that we got to graduate to The Muppet Show when we out grew Sesame Street. I can’t even begin to thank all the men and women who worked on this show over the last forty year, and helped raise billions of kids. However, there are two men, that we should all take a moment to be thankful for today. They are Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Would we even have a childhood without them? Not one I would care to remember.

Happy 40th Anniversary, Sesame Street! And if there’s one important lesson I learned from the show, it’s this: be careful when you sneeze that you don’t blow your nose off.

Happy Fortieth Birthday, Sesame Street!

I was only a bit more than two when the first episode premiered on this date in 1969, so my generation recalls mainly the “old school” years of Sesame Street, those pre-Elmo days from 1969 until about 1973 or 1974, when most of us were finally marched off to first grade.

While I loved the live-action segments set on the street itself — I was a big fan of Bob and Mr. Hooper — I was one of those kids who was far more interested in the sketches, short films, and animations. What Gen Xer doesn’t remember the number segments with the baker falling down the stairs at the end? Or the little girl being sent to the grocery store to pick up “a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter”?

But it was the Muppet sketches that were my favorite. Who could forget Grover serving alphabet soup — which was always missing letters — to an impatient customer (known as Fat Blue) in one of the countless restaurant sketches? Or Guy Smiley hosting “Beat the Time” with Cookie Monster as his too-eager contestant? Or the Martians (known as “Yip-Yips”) imitating the bonging of a grandfather clock? Sure, they were there to teach you counting or letters or maybe a little something about getting along — but at their best, they always felt slightly strange and twisted, gently but surely thumbing their noses at the rules. It was a humor that we might today call “Pythonesque,” after the off-kilter comedy crew at Monty Python’s Flying Circus — which also made its premiere in 1969. The Muppets were sweet but disarmingly subversive — but that was okay, because nobody got hurt, and it was always, always, funny.

There are so many great moments to choose from — but if I had to narrow it down to my top three favorite Sesame Street moments, they’d look something like this:

First, Kermit — on the scene for Muppet News — tries to interview the Three Little Pigs, only to have the Count show up and ruin the segment. Jim Henson and Jerry Nelson — as Kermit and the Count, respectively — are brilliantly funny, but it’s Frank Oz’s irritated Little Pigs that always cracked me up the most. (For bonus points, watch how the sketch breaks the “fourth wall” and acknowledges the camera):

Next, it’s the Count again, this time hiring Ernie to answer his telephone — which, as the Count warns us, isn’t as easy as it sounds:

And finally, here’s one of the finest comedy duos in television history, Jim Henson and Frank Oz as Ernie and Bert, teaching us a valuable lesson about sneezing, as well as the perils of Muppet anatomy:

Happy birthday, Sesame Street. Heck, I hope you’re still there for me to watch when I’m 82.

Luke Skywalker confronts the dark side in "The Empire Strikes Back".

(Irvin Kershner, 1980)

November 5, 2009

by Joel Crary

The beauty of a trilogy is that it lends the hero plenty of time to mess things up. Dramatic tension across a series of films is entirely different from that seen in a self-contained production. “The Empire Strikes Back” was the first Star Wars film released in my lifetime. I can only imagine what it must have been like to sit in a theatre and watch its series of tragedies and surprises unfold, to witness the audience reactions as the film tossed them into a stone wall at full speed. When Luke (Mark Hamill) hangs suspended from the intestinal antennae at the base of Cloud City, there is a “How did I get here?” moment that is unparalleled in the cinema-going experience. No hero had a worse time of things than Luke in “Empire”, and he wouldn’t find his footing again for a whole three years.

George Lucas, who wrote and directed “A New Hope”, had turned over the reigns of his vision to director Irvin Kershner along with screenwriters Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. Brackett came from a career writing John Wayne pictures such as “Rio Bravo” and “El Dorado“, among others. He knew that audiences could better connect to a hero by virtue of their vulnerability. The relative rookie Kasdan would go on to help create a hero named Indiana Jones.

It is Kershner who is never given nearly enough credit for serving as the film’s director. He had before him the formidable task of matching the first picture’s originality and success. He did so by approaching “Empire” as a Shakespearean character drama first and foremost. There is more Hamlet to Skywalker than Buck Rogers.

Structurally, “Empire” is worlds away from every other installment in the entire Star Wars series. Hamill spends over half of the film acting onscreen alongside a beeping droid and a Jim Henson muppet. Thanks to the haunting set decoration that constructs the world of Dagobah, combined with the dedicated vocal performance of Frank Oz and the puppeteering team behind Yoda, they are the film’s best scenes.

“Empire” is thick with philosophy. While Obi Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) introduced millions to the nature of the Force in “A New Hope”, “Empire” establishes it as the true existential battleground of the series. Even the scoundrel Han Solo (Harrison Ford), cocky and handy with a pistol (remember that he shot Greedo first), is crippled by the ease of Vader’s control over his weapon. Bravery only takes a Jedi so far. It his ability to put himself in tune with the natural world, to bring on a transcendental at-oneness within himself, that guarantees his ability to confront the dark side.

The film is never overtly about the martial art of Skywalker’s training. Yoda’s abilities and instruction point Luke toward the truth. He must choose between staying on Dagobah to complete his lessons or to leave and save his friends, whose future is uncertain. As a kid, I used to dread the scene in which Luke confronts himself in the cave, slicing the head from Vader to reveal his own smoking face underneath the horrific armor. At the level of symbolism, it may well be the series’ most powerful sequence.

The ghost of Ben Kenobi warns Luke that if he chooses to leave, he must face Vader alone. Later, Luke will be clutching a severed appendage in agony, hopelessly asking the atmosphere of Cloud City why he has been foresaken – by Ben, and by his father, who has turned his back on goodness. This is Luke’s entrance into individuality. It is the completion of his training. He sports a deformity that he must embrace in order to sympathize with Vader’s condition. Luke will be further tested by the dark side in “Return of the Jedi”. At the end of “Empire”, he is left to lick the horrific wounds inflicted by his first encounter.

The film contains a multitude of images that bring back childhood impressions of the cinema. To shelter Luke from the freezing winds of the ice planet of Hoth, Solo slices open the belly of a Tauntaun, exposing grey and white organs that spill out into the snow. A giant serpent-like creature nearly digests the Millennium Falcon after Solo, Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and C3PO (Anthony Daniels) narrowly escape it jaws. Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) finally captures Solo with the aid of the Empire, who encase Solo in carbonite with a look of intense pain preserved on his face.

What I’ve always liked most about the film is the fortitude of its characters. Solo and Skywalker balance each other perfectly throughout the trilogy, but here they are pulling equal duty, with Hamill and Ford scarcely sharing scenes. Solo’s bravado is traded in for Skywalker’s meditative training and vice versa. Carrie Fisher as Leia takes a far more active role as an adventurer, rather than simply the princess who needs to be rescued. Billy Dee Williams’ Lando Calrissian provides an affecting trap. I recall feeling great disappointment with each viewing of the betrayal scene, eagerly anticipating the moment he gains some redemption. And Yoda exemplifies why I’ll always prefer live action puppetry to CGI. The computer-rendered Yoda of Episodes II and III drains the heart of the creature in “Empire”, whose feeble and lifelike exterior teaches us that appearances can be deceiving.

Star Wars was part of a lot of childhoods. The films are extraordinarily rich in re-watch value. I’ve seen “Empire” far more times than I can count. The script is so effective at delivering small bits of dialogue and tiny plot advancements that they can be experienced anew with every viewing. I’m not the convention-going type, but I identify far more with the emotional value of the Star Wars universe than that of most other films.

Part of that is no doubt rooted in nostalgia. I’ve spent the last year or so thinking about 10 films that I’d consider my all-time favourites. “The Empire Strikes Back” completes the list. About a third of that list is populated by movies I’ve watched over and over again since I began watching movies over 20 years ago. Films like “Empire” established my capacity for film appreciation by drawing me in with their stories, universal in truth and imagination.

“The Empire Strikes Back” is a film of both hard-fought victories and Promethean consequences. It revels in the luxuries that a second part can afford, daring to stand on its own as better than its final act because it makes no excuses for the pain of sacrifice. For a moment, the dark side wins. Outside of the realm of fantasy, but well within the realm of tragedy, that rings true.

“Death at a Funeral” —— Directed by Frank Oz

FUNERAL—- a place to say eternal good-bye, the place with tears, the place to share some past of the deceased, OR the place where life long secrets come up on the surface.

Well, Director Oz challenged to the dark and kind a boring place for kids called funeral. With his wit and magic hands, audiences cried with laughter at the end of his film.

The story was all about funeral. So what made the film funny? The answers were in unique characters. Each of them had some trouble or problem in life: dealing drug, scared a future father-in-law, keeping a big secret, bothered by jealousy against own brother, etc., etc…….. Those problems and troubles almost ruined the funeral.  Showing something ordinary made this film so damn funny.

Usually in Japan, inside the theater is quiet and intense. Audiences showed few their emotional reactions. So I was amazed to see and hear that people’s big laughter. Plus, after the film, big smile and chats about funny scenes surrounded the theater.

Oz’s funeral MUST BE THE FUNNIEST ONE EVER!!!

Japanese Official Website→http://www.ososhiki.jp/

We’ve been moving to a new apartment, which is why there haven’t been a lot of posts lately. All our movies out from Netflix are long, epic things that we’re too busy to watch. But here’s a post anyway:

People Who Are Awesome.

Here are a few random people who happen to be awesome. I’m just saying.

Henry Fonda
Evidence:
- The Grapes of Wrath, 1940 (Tom Joad)
- The Ox-Bow Incident, 1943 (Gil Carter)
- Once Upon a Time in the West, 1968 (Frank)

Frank Oz
Evidence:
- Sesame Street, 1969-? (Bert/Grover/Cookie Monster)
- The Muppet Show, 1976-1980 (creative consultant/Fozzie/Ms. Piggy/Animal/Sam the Eagle)
- The Muppet Movie, 1979 (Fozzie etc.)
- The Dark Crystal, 1982 (co-director/Aughra/Chamberlain)
- The Muppets Take Manhattan, 1984 (director/co-writer/Fozzie etc.)

Quentin Tarantino
Evidence:
- Pulp Fiction, 1994 (director/writer)
- Kill Bill, 2003-2004 (director/writer)
- Inglorious Basterds, 2009 (director/writer)

Don Hertzfeldt
Evidence:
- “Billy’s Balloon,” 1998 (director/writer)
- “Rejected,” 2000 (director/writer/voices)
- “The Meaning of Life,” 2005 (director/writer/voices)
- “Everything Will Be Ok,” 2006 (director/writer/Narrator)
- “I Am So Proud of You,” 2008 (director/writer/Narrator)

Buster Keaton
Evidence:
- Sherlock Jr., 1924 (director/Sherlock Jr.)
- The General, 1927 (co-director/co-writer/Johnny Gray)

Os Irmãos Cara de Pau

Antes de falar do filme, vou contar uma história minha relacionada a ele. Era janeiro de 1989. Heu viajava numa excursão pela Austrália. O ônibus tinha um videocassete, onde o motorista colocava filmes de vez em quando. Heu estava vendo um filme, bem divertido aliás, sem saber qual era. Quando o filme acabou, vendo os créditos, reparei uma quantidade enorme de nomes conhecidos no elenco – atores, diretores, músicos… Logo quis saber que filme era aquele! E assim, anotei o nome “The Blues Brothers” – de volta ao Brasil, descobri que aqui era chamado de “Os Irmãos Cara de Pau” (na época era comum traduções esdrúxulas de nomes de filme).

A trama é muito simples: os irmãos Jake e Elwood Blues (John Belushi e Dan Aykroyd) precisam reunir a antiga banda para levantar dinheiro para salvar um orfanato.

Simples, não? E mesmo assim, um dos melhores filmes da década de 80!

Na verdade, os Blues Brothers não se resumiam a este filme. Antes do filme, Belushi e Aykroyd tinham um quadro com a banda no famoso Saturday Night Live. E depois a banda continuou na ativa – nos emules da vida tem vários discos ao vivo da banda.

Tem gente que classifica o filme como musical, mas para mim, trata-se de uma comédia com excelentes números musicais inseridos. Para se ter uma ideia, temos participações de James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles e Cab Calloway!

Tirando Belushi e Aykroyd, todo o resto da banda é formada por músicos, não atores: duas guitarras, baixo, bateria, teclado e um naipe com três metais. E, no elenco, temos nomes como Carrie Fisher, John Candy,Twiggy, Frank Oz e uma ponta de um tal Steven Spielberg.

O filme não só tem ótimos números musicais, como ainda tem exageradas cenas com muitos carros e muitos extras. São tantas as perseguições de carro que, na época da estreia, era o filme com o maior número de carros quebrados. Ah, sim, aquela cena com o carro dos nazistas caindo, era um carro de verdade!

O diretor John Landis também dirigiu o melhor videoclipe da história, “Thriller“, do Michael Jackson. Ele funcionava bem dirigindo comédias (“Trocando as Bolas”, “Três Amigos”, “Clube dos Cafajestes”) e tembém filmes de terror (“Um Lobisomem Americano em Londres”, “Inocente Mordida”, “Twilight Zone”). Pena que ele não tem feito muita coisa – já são uns dez anos sem filmes para o cinema, só trabalhos para a tv.

O filme teve uma continuação em 1998, dirigida pelo mesmo John Landis e também com um grande número de participações musicais legais. Infelizmente, uma das coisas mais importantes não estava lá: John Belushi, que morreu em 1982, aos 33 anos, de overdose. Uma carreira brilhante jogada fora. Belushi fez apenas sete filmes, além de vários programas de tv.

Filme obrigatório! Daqueles para se rever uma vez por ano!

How can this be, this is the first time Martin and Murphy star together!

Lame producer Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) has a script that’s brimming with possibilities. The catch? To get seed money to produce the film, it must feature Hollywood’s leading box-office star, Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy). Aided and abetted by a cast and crew of misfits, Martin makes one last stab at overnight success.

Bowfinger is what it looks like is a parody of Hollywood in general. Frank Oz directs this who is known for directing films such as What About Bob?, and The Stepford Wives creates another witty film with actually some pretty intelligent satire.

The funniest thing about the film is how this movie gets made. It is filmed by just having Eddie Murphy’s reaction to everything, and you think that will go well for a scene or two, but eventually it turns into a whole movie. His reaction to everything is priceless and as outlandish as the movie gets when they approach him, the more hilarious the reactions get, and they actually start fitting in with the movie. Great premise with a great deliverance.

The screenplay if a little drawn out is actually pretty wise. The script is very satirical but also many of the lines from Martin’s character of how he’s trying to con everyone to do this movie is really smart and actually reminds me of stuff that I would say. Much of the social commentary on Hollywood may seem a little too insider-y for some of the natural audience but if you understand what the joke is then it’s hilarious.

Martin and Murphy are really good in this film. Steve Martin does a great job at trying to be a somebody and he starts out as a bad guy but then you soon realize that he is just a person trying very hard to get his film out there no matter how crappy it actually is, sort of like an Ed Wood. Murphy in this film shows that he is still hilarious and can still act as a very mean but at the same time funny person and he has a dual role but this one is different because the other character he is playing is actually a better person and you like him more.

The problem I had with this film was that there just wasn’t enough. My expectations of the film was that this was going to be the funniest film I’ve ever seen but instead it was at times mildly funny. I expected so much more from these two comic geniuses and I know Frank Oz can be funny so why wasn’t my stomach aching by the end of the movie? I don’t know it just wasn’t as funny as I expected.

Consensus: Ozs’ satirical take on Hollywood is smart. And with two leads like Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin there are sure to be laughs just not enough in my book.

8/10=Matinee!!

My old pal A.K. introduced me to this little film called “Time Piece”. It is an experimental film that was created by Jim Henson back in 1965. It has some classic Henson elements, such as: dancing chickens, explosions, jazz drummers, colorful animated shapes, naked children, strippers, and chaos. It was nominated for an Oscar.

IMDB says this:

Dislocation in time, time signatures, time as a philosophical concept, and slavery to time are some of the themes touched upon in this nine-minute, experimental film, which was written, directed, and produced by Jim Henson-and starred Jim Henson! Screened for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in May of 1965, Time Piece enjoyed an eighteen-month run at one Manhattan movie theater and was nominated for an Academy Award for outstanding short subject.

ps- Frank Oz is also in it.

scott

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

I was watching this Labryinth music video the other day, which I’m not going to upload because it’s not mine, and I thought to myself, Tim Burton would have been a great director for Labyrinth. I don’t know why I thought that. I think what it is is that Tim Burton’s movies and Labryinth has a very similar aesthetic. The only thing that I would be concerned about would be all the puppet use in Labyrinth. Anyway, that’s just what I think.

Lataa Ohjelma (MP3)

Musiikkielokuvan pariin sukellamme taas genren ehdottomien ykköskulttisuosikkien parissa. Luvassa nimittäin The Blues Brothers vuodelta 1980 ja This Is Spinal Tap vuodelta 1982. Musiikkijaksojen jo tuttuun tyyliin paneelia täydentää MusiikkiViikon Erkki Mervaala.

Linkit:
The Blues Brothers (Wikipedia)
The Blues Brothers (IMDb)
This Is Spinal Tap (Wikipedia)
This Is Spinal Tap (IMDb)

I Rivierans guldgossar eller Dirty Rotten Scoundrels som är dess originaltitel får vi följa två sol-och-vårare Lawrence Jamieson (Michael Caine) och Freddy Benson (Steve Martin). De tjänar sitt uppehälle genom bluff och båg, då de svindlar rika kvinnor på deras ägodelar. Lawrence ser sig själv som något av en modern Robin Hood och hans svindlerier genomsyras av stil och klass. Freddy däremot är allt som inte Lawrence är, han drar billiga snyfthistorier om sin sjuka mormor för att få tag i kosing. Dessa två sol-och-vårare hamnar på samma ställe, Beaumont Sur Mer på den franska rivieran, och Lawrence inser genast att Freddys närvaro varken är bra för sol-och-vårares rykte i allmänhet, eller Lawrence svindlerier i synnerhet. Lawrence tar Freddy under sina vingar i en plan att få honom att försvinna från hans jaktmarker. Planen går snart i stöpet och snart är de två herrarna inblandade i ett vad kring 50 000 dollar och en vacker kvinna.

Detta är en trevlig komedi, som stått sig bra gentemot tidens tand. Den bjuder på kvick dialog, sköna miljöer, och bra skådespeleri. Främst lyser Michael Caine som den sofistikerade och rutinerade svindlaren. Steve Martin gör det också bra, trots att jag inte är något jättestort fan av just Martin så är kemin mellan honom och Michael Caine på topp genom hela filmen. Storyn är enkel, men fungerar utmärkt och bjuder på en hel vändningar. Regissören Frank Oz bör nämnas han har gjort ett förnämligt jobb med att hitta rätt tempo för filmen. Detta är helt klart en solid komedi från den gyllene 80-talet och kan varmt rekommenderas.

fragment uit Little Shop of Horrors / 1986 / Frank Oz

fragment uit Little Shop of Horrors / 1986 / Frank Oz