as a fan of Jonathan Lethem, I like hearing about new books from him and I like hearing of the possibility of new movies based on his books (though I don’t like Ed Norton essentially casting himself as the lead in Motherless Brooklyn). 

Guns, with Occasional Music is one of those books that I loved to read but wasn’t sure could ever be a movie. Or at least a successful movie.  depending on who is involved,  I can certainly see it being pulled off. But with its mix of Dashiel Hammet style detective story with weird sci-fi, I’m not sure I see an audience for it unless it is drastically changed for the screen. Which would take out all of the fun.

So, if it gets done, I’m hoping for something with a modest budget, modest special effects, and a director who knows how to stretch a buck and get the image he wants (I’m thinking Gondy or Jean-pierre Jeunet, personally).  Whatever happens, it’s a project I’ll probably follow.

Chi non sente la mancanza delle VHS?  Bè, le videocassette appartengono al nostro passato ma con tutte le loro piccole scomodità rendevano la visione di un film un’ esperienza dall’esito incerto e unico. Essì perchè ,oltre all’obbligo di riavvolgere il nastro,  la temibile smagnetizzazione era sempre in agguato e periodicamente perdevamo i pezzi pregiati delle nostre collezioni vintage. Ma a nessuno è mai venuto in mente di sostituire i vecchi nastri rovinati con dei piccoli remake self-made, idea che invece è venuta ai protagonisti di Be Kind Rewind che fanno del maroccamento un’ arte.

Non a caso il regista è un certo Gondry (chettelodicoafare)che ha fatto della creatività il motivo dominante dei suoi film (vedi anche L’Arte del Sogno) e della sua esistenza e anche qui nel rifacimento di piccoli e grandi capolavori del cinema da sfogo a tutto il suo estro. E allora anche noi ci possiamo sentire dei piccoli registi e ,realizzando improbabili effetti scenici, sfidare le mega produzioni hollywodiane, perchè no?!

☺☺☺☺☺

Alla prossima pillola!

PAIXÃO E LIBERTAÇÃO

Antes de mais nada: Rebobine, Por Favor não é nem uma análise nem uma defesa da pirataria. É um filme sobre cavadores.

Cavadores que se lançam em terrenos desconhecidos apenas com a força de vontade e a paixão em busca de um tesouro, uma relíquia.

No caso, dois rapazes que se lançam a refazer cenas de filmes “clássicos”. Não interessa a capa de sim o conteúdo: os dois querem fazer eles mesmos, e no fim das contas refazer é uma pulsão criativa, é um passo à caminho da originalidade. O desfecho só poderia ser uma filmagem de uma história original identificada com a origem mitológica de seus criadores.

Há certos deslizes durante o filme, o ritmo às vezes é lento e algumas cenas chave não funcionam tão bem. É um filme com irregularidades inegáveis. Mas no fim das contas fica um desejo e um olhar de alguém a fim de instigar o espectador o que diferencia Gondry de mais da metade dos diretores hoje.

Com este pequeno filme, Gondry instiga o espectador a criar também, iguala aqueles que ficam na frente e atrás da dela. O espectador pode fazer também, pois antes de tudo é preciso paixão. A originalidade é apenas um ato de libertação.

Rebobine, Por Favor (Be Kind Rewind), dir. Michel Gondry (Telecine Pipoca – 22h00)

El de la absenta me mata!!!!!

I’m a week late, but here’s some news I enjoyed (selected from my del.icio.us feed, as usual), which is film related:

• There are a lot of interesting horror films coming out soon. Splice is one of them, you can see a sneak preview here. It looks truly strange. It comes out in November and it’s got Adrien Brody. Also, a film called Corpsey featured at this year’s DOCFEST, looks great.
• Best article on Twitch this month? Definitely, “Where are My Bleepy Crunchies.” A suggestion of the top five films integrated with electronic music. Number one is Pi, but I haven’t seen several of the others and they look superb.
• The new Fantastic Mr. Fox trailer gives the film just about as much “future of film” hype as I’ve heard about Avatar. Anyway, I think it looks sweet (a look at Wes Anderson behind the scenes in the previous link).
• Contenders for Best Picture of 2012, already? Yup.
• I saw two films this week in the theater: Jennifer’s Body, and Zombieland. Both really enjoyable, though I certainly favored the latter (which I’m biased toward because of the cameo [BR], which I won’t spoil in case you haven’t seen it yet, and the genre [I'm a big Zombie fan]). What I haven’t seen yet, and would really like to see is The Informant. Mainly due to, besides the good trailers and promotional materials, an episode of This American Life, that I’d strongly recommend.
• Herzog is hosting a series of lectures/seminars in L.A. about film making. I’d go, except it cost about $1500. It’s titled Herzog Rogue Film School. Speaking of Herzog, a reviewer at TIFF for Twitch has the first look at his collaboration with D Lynch.
• Thom Yorke went out of his way this past month to promote a film called The Age of Stupid. I’d link to the blog article from DeadAirSpace, but it doesn’t have permalinks…
• The villain has been selected for M Gondry’s rendition of The Green Hornet: Christopher Waltz. You may remember him from such great roles as, the best villain ever in Inglorious Basterds (this link is to Tarantino interviews which you may find interesting).
• Other Movies: Reviews for The Road look pretty favorable. Videocracy looks fascinating, though I bet it’s too late to have any useful analysis of the media publicity overhaul by the Obama Administration (could you imagine George Bush on Twitter?). Year of the Carnivore looks like a good indie romantic comedy. More info on Korine’s presumably-fucked-up-as-usual musical: Trash Humpers. The final trailer for [rec]2, hope it doesn’t “ruin the mythology” to quote Tarantino. Terry Gilliam’s got a film (Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus) that immediately makes me think of “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium”, but doesn’t co-star Natalie Portman, to my knowledge. Can’t find anything else about this film, but Я looks awesome (from the 15 seconds I’ve seen). Criterion collection releases a box set of Japanese Noir? You bet! And, they are re-making Plan 9, and I can’t understand why even in the slightest (wish they’d give up on the Barbarella re-make, too)
• One-liners from TIFF, Thanks Vulture.
• I discovered possibly the best food related film I’ve seen all year: Disappearing Manhattan from the always entertaining Anthony Bordain.
• The Best Cut in Cinema. Duh, from 2001: A Space Odyssey. In parallel, the greatest long takes in cinema history. Also, 100 years of Visual Effects (ignore the shitty music).
• Time Travel in popular Film and TV (Primer would be impossible to quantify on this map).

A director whose films i enjoy immensely, Gondry also appears to be working on a couple of projects.
Not long after ‘Be Kind Rewind’ we heard tell that he would be directing another film starring Jacks Black called ‘Masters of Space and Time’ but it would appear that its a while until we see anything of that as its not due until 2011.

In the meantime Gondry is working on two other films the first that was apparently due this year but i strongly doubt it is ‘Megalomania’ an animation thats being produced by Curious Pictures and written by Gondry, Daniel Clowes and Paul Gondry.

The next in line is ‘Return of the Ice Kids’ which is set for 2010 and apparently follows the story of teenagers who invent a drink which makes people hear music when it’s drunk. So very much a Gondry film!

we’ll have to wait and see which of these films does come out first but it’s nice to see that he’s continuing in his trend of slightly unusual films.

Este muchacho cada día tiene cosas más excéntricas. Desde un humor exquisitamente camorrero, hasta sus suicidios con pistolas de agua al final de cada episodio, pasando por su tatuaje en el antebrazo izquierdo que dice “temporary”, nadie puede evitar que este muchacho les robe una sonrisa. Parece un niño, pero de cerca lo es: por un problema hormonal este hombre que ya ha superado los 30 se encuentra afortunadamente atrapado en el cuerpo de un chico de 15 (¿o era la mentalidad de un chico de 15?). Vedlo!

All around me are familiar faces
worn out places
worn out faces
bright and early for the daily races
going no where
going no where
their tears are filling up their glasses
no expression
no expression
hide my head i wanna drown my sorrow
no tomorrow
no tomorrow
and i find i kind of funny
i find it kind of sad
the dreams in which i’m dying are the best i’ve ever had
i find it hard to tell you
i find it hard to take
when people run in circles its a very very
mad world
mad world
children waiting for the day they feel good
happy birthday
happy birthday
and i feel the way that every child should
sit and listen
sit and listen
went to school and i was very nervous
no one knew me
no one new me
hello teacher tell me what’s my lesson
look right through me
look right through me
and i find i kind of funny
i find it kind of sad
the dreams in which i’m dying are the best i’ve ever had
i find it hard to tell you
i find it hard to take
when people run in circles its a very very
mad world
mad world
enlarging your world
mad world

It’s taken weeks but I finally have a Heavy Rotation with an actual theme. And what a theme!

As you read on, feel free to take the exclamation point off the previous sentence at any time. But musical tastes being subjective and whatnot, I’m going to head off to the club and spend a little time discussing French House.

House music being very much an offshoot of disco, usually featuring a somewhat milder tempo and more vocals than your average techno genre, has enjoyed immense popularity in Europe. However, the French have actually taken the idea and run with it (rather than from it, like so many other ideas, like defending your country).

The positives they’ve added are: fewer vocals (for me, this is a positive), more filters and some of the funkiest basslines ever etched into vinyl.

Previous versions here:
Heavy Rotation Archive.

Alan Braxe – Rubicon
Release in 2004 to much fanfare (I would imagine), Braxe’s lovely slice of funky French house travels pleasantly along with some tasty pads and synths and, of course, a little de rigeur electro-cowbell. Almost works in a verse-chorus-verse structure except for the noticeable lack of vocals.

Note to Claire Collins: this video does include parallel parking.

Bob Sinclar – Gym Tonic
Fantastic tune from another French House player. Sinclar stole the greatest sample ever, hooking some vocals from a Jane Fonda workout album. Funky as hell, and after a few virtual spins I guarantee you’ll be walking around counting out loud. “2-3-4-5-6-7-8 and back…”

Sinclar was forced to delete this from his catalog thanks to Ted “TNT” Turner, whose explosive temper and fat wallet intimidated the penniless Frenchman into acquiescence. However, the version I have uploaded has the original “vocals” as does the video below. Enjoy.

Daft Punk – Around the World
While not my favorite track by the helmeted duo, it was the first track I heard by them. Another “gets stuck in your head” sort of track that is greatly aided by Michel Gondry’s (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind). Featuring the appearance of another trademark French House staple, the vocoder.

This is off their monsterously awesome debut album Homework. If you are going to buy only one French House album, make it this one. Understandably, most people will only need one French House album, if any at all. Again, make it this one.

Embedding for the kickass video has been disabled by EMI. For more information on EMI, consult the Sex Pistols.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4

DJ Mehdi – Signatune (Thomas Bangalter Mix)
French electro producer DJ Mehdi gets all Housed up by Thomas Bangalter, one-half of Daft Punk. This track is all kinds of fun. The synth lines get stuttered, dragged around, shuffled and ground to a halt. A prime example of the French filter fuckery that is Bangalter’s trademark.

Note: while I enjoy these noises and distortions, I realize that many of you will not. My partial apologies for that. However, give it a shot and perhaps you’ll see things my way and presumably seek help immediately.

Justice – Phantom Pt. II (Soulwax Remix)
The new face of French House, although the face is French, the house is not really house. More of a high-energy electro-pomp combining everything bombastic about soundtrack music and thumping 808 beats into an arena-filling monster. Belgian producers Soulwax up the ante with one of the greatest remixes done anywhere at anytime. Brace yourself for the sudden drop about 2/3’s of the way through the track. This track has killed more dancefloors and turned on more houselights than anything since Black Strobe’s Fireflies.

All tracks in one zip file (link opens in new window):
Heavy Rotation Vol. 11

-CLT

[All music posted on Fancy Plans... is kick ass and too awesome to be contained. All music is also posted temporarily and, due to it's high level of ass-kicking, should not be distributed without a prescription and care should be taken while operating heavy equipment or dancing around the living room (clothing optional, but do remember that the blinds are open/kids are still awake).
Should you wish to have your brilliant artistic statement forced back into confinement, please email me at 2timegrime@gmail.com. Feel free to leave a comment, as that will probably be noticed sooner.
By all means, if you like what you hear (and you will), please support the totally rocking artist(s) by purchasing some music or heading out to see them live.]

    Michel Gondry es un realizador audiovisual francés -director de Eterno resplandor de una mente sin recuerdos, Human nature y Soñando despierto entre otras-. Comenzó su carrera haciendo videoclips y ha dejado una marca importante en ese campo, realizando quizás los mejores videos de la historia-si consideramos por ejemplo Bachelorette de Bjork, Let forever be de Chemical brothers-. En muchos de sus trabajos puede advertirse un tratamiento casi plástico de la imagen, con fuerte impronta de técnicas artesanales de animación como el stop motion.

    En este video que realizó para el tema Fell in love with a girl de White Stripes utiliza esta técnica, aplicándola a cubitos Lego.

    En este video del cantautor platense Javi Punga, realizado por Jo Goyeneche-cantante de Valentín y los volcanes-podemos ver cierta influencia de aquel video. Se repite el aire de protoanimación pixelada, movimientos básicos y estilo naif. 

     En este video que recientemente presentó Sr. tomate para su tema Infarto-realizado por Ayelen Aguero, Paula Funes, Anabella Molinari Fernandez, Florencia Muriel y Juan Schmidt- también podemos ver la influencia estética  de Gondry y en particular del video que realizó para el tema Knives out de Radiohead.

Tokyo! Is similar to Paris, je t’aime and New York, I Love You in that it is a series of short films about a particular city, in this case Tokyo, Japan. However, whereas the other two are fifteen to twenty shorts, these are only three, averaging about half an hour each. To give a better review, I’ll be separating each segment by director and title.

Title: Interior Design

Director: Michael Gondry

Impressions: Made by the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, this short is about a young couple that moves to Tokyo so the boyfriend can pursue a film career. The girlfriend, Hiroko, is the protagonist of the film, and it deals with how she copes with her friends and also the harsh nature of life in large Japanese cities.

I feel like each of these films has to do with some aspect of Japanese culture, and in this case it could be the feeling of distress at the years of dedication to attain elite jobs in the Japanese economy. Hiroko is left with few options for jobs and begins to feel useless because she has no hobbiess or interests. The best thing about this film is that it sets the tone for the rest of the shorts… it ends up being much more than a movie about a floundering couple, in a way that I found surprising and fun.

3 out of 5

Title: Merde

Director: Leos Carax

Impressions: This short concerns a subterranian creature who lives in Japanese sewers and harasses the citizens of Japan. Everytime he emerges from below he causes damage, and eventually the government arrests him and puts him on trial to decide his fate.

While there is some beautiful camera work involving shot length and shadow in this piece, I felt like it was a very flat-feeling short. Merde (shit in French) is a strange character, maybe too strange for audiences to relate to. Because he doesn’t speak Japanese, there is a lot of translation-within-translation, which is a lot for non-Japanese speaking audiences to swallow.

However, these is perhaps a hidden message here concerning the way Japanese react to foreigners, as Merde makes constant anti-Japanese statements during his trial and the people shrink away from him at all possible times.

1 out of 5

Title: Shaking Japan

Director: Bong Joon-ho

Impressions: If you watched the South Korean horror film The Host then you’ll know Bong Joon-ho. In this short, he chronicles the life of a hikikomori, a Japanese term defined as (according to Wiki) “the phenomenon of reclusive individuals who… withdraw from social life… because of various personal and social factors in their lives.”

Eventually the hikikomori is forced to leave his house and discovers the shocking truth about the outside world. I feel like this film’s theme was the most obvious and relatable to me. There is definitely a large group of Japanese people who withdraw from social life and subsist on their parents’ generosity and not much else. It’s a scary thought, to think someone would choose to cut off all ties with humanity and live in a box, venturing out only at night. This was my favorite of the three shorts.

4 out of 5

In a unique twist, none of the directors for this film are Japanese. American, French, and Korean, but not Japanese. I suppose you can read into it as you like, but maybe these films represent how outsiders view Japan and it’s people. I wonder if this would have been a significantly different movie using three Japanese directors and the same scripts.

It’s somewhat unfortunate that my first “review” will be of such a worthless movie.  But it is also somewhat appropriate and fitting; it’s nice to not have to make too big a deal out of anything.  Be Kind Rewind wasn’t completely awful.  Gondry is an interesting director, so there will always be some great visuals and relatable themes.  Jack Black and Mos Def are fun actors / comedians, so there will be some laughs and genuine responses.  But on the whole, this movie just missed the mark.  It didn’t go much of anywhere.  I didn’t really understand or care, or understand why I was supposed to care or care about what i was trying to understand.  Honestly, for me, it was mostly about two funny dudes recreating classic movies in funny and interesting ways.  I probably could have watched two hours of them doing that, and enjoyed myself more than attempting to follow whatever “quirky” story lines and characters they threw in to give the film shape.  Gondry has more great films in him.  I am confident of that.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of them.

Ou comment combattre tout risque d’humeur dite “groin-groin” nuisible à tes relations sociales après une lutte perdue contre la température tropicale de la nuit précédente …

Solution n°1: La “laisser mollir” attitude

Pas désagréable du tout …  carrément de saison (cri-cri de cigale)

Vu sur mon réveil ce matin: “5:55″ (quand Charlotte Gainsbourg ne manque pas d’Air)

D’accord, on ne peut pas dire que la miss fasse baisser la température

…

Perso, je vais opter pour ça: mon plat du jour qui danse, avec un café bien serré, merci garçon !

Solution n°2: La “bouge-toi, le reste viendra” attitude

Chemical Brothers: Let forever be

(Gondry et ses frères chimiques voient tout en multiples exemplaires … c’est louche …)

This was the movie i first saw during my transoceanic flight. I loved it and managed to catch it on DVD recently. It was as great as it was the first time.Brilliant,innovative,keen humour,grounded  real characters all come together to bring to us what at the end becomes a larger than life experience without intending to be.

Jack Black(awesome with his microwave paranoia),mos def,danny glover all keep you glued to your seat with their everyday joe performances.The movie hits a nadir when they begin shooting the blocbusters in their own no budget,no frills, use whatever you see to make the reshot,unstarred,unintentional hillarious rip off of the originals, which look absolutely stunning in their imagination on reptrospect. Through all this i just laughed till my guts almost spilled out.A david v/s goliath angle thrown in for some measure to finish the emotional kill.

Michael Gondry truely proves his earlier outing was no flash in the pan. Defintely recommended for sunday afternoon viewing, am sure you will not disagree.

Es cierto mi amigo, se nos fue un grande.
Él era noumenoide, lo quiera la gente o no.
Más allá de que fue un filósofo de ley, dado que trataba de cosas mundanas, como la canción Vine en Jean (¡qué garrón!) un día que sus amigos lo invitaban a jugar al julbo, o de temática más histórico-crítica, como su hit con tonada cordobesa Un Smooth Criminal (Un Vermouth Criminal, dicen otros intérpretes) que le señalaba a la sociedad de consumo que el criminal suave, delicado, astuto, era el capitalismo (de allí que preguntara en su estribillo repetidamente: Lenin ¿are you ok? Lenin ¿are you ok? ¿are you ok Lenin?…) con todo, digo, el no era noumenoide por la intensidad de sus ideas sino por la metafísica de su baile. Le demostró al mundo que para ser blanco sólo necesitás tener las manos y el rostro; el resto llenalo de vendas y medias blancas como hacía él. En síntesis:

Mais pourquoi est-il aussi méchant ?

Je fais l’effort de vous copier la quatrième de couv’, parce que je suis trop bonne:

Hugleikur Dagsson nous vient d’Islande.

(tu m’étonnes, avec un nom pareil! Je viens de finir “La femme en vert” d’Arnaldur Indridason, et magré la glauquitude de l’ambiance assez réussie, j’ai ri comme une dinde à chaque nom propre … Tolkien n’avait pas été cherché si loin!)

En Islande la nuit dure dix-neuf heures l’hiver.

En Islande il n’y a pas de nuit l’été.

En Islande la boisson nationale est la “Black death”

En Islande, le plat national est composé de viande de requin faisandé.

En Islande, ce livre est un best-seller.

Dans mon salon aussi !

J’ose pas mourir de rire, il serait capable d’en faire un dessin, le bougre d’affreux.

…

Sinon, en Islande, il y a Björk (oui, j’ai du mal à ne pas coller de la musique partout, c’est compulsif)

J’aurais pu faire ma Gondry-groupie de base avec la video de “Human Behaviour”, mais je vais plutôt mettre en avant le travail de Chris Cunningham (réalisateur de l’époustoufflant mais difficile “Rabbit in your headlights”, par exemple)

Dans ce monde baignant dans le cynisme à l’acide chlorhydrique, la petite survoltée nous interprète

All is full of love

Et si j’émigrais ?

PS: merci, frère de moi, pour la découverte!

Check out the

Trailer for the

new film, Tokyo.