Showing posts with label films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label films. Show all posts
Friday, 22 January 2010
Another Helping of Robinson:
Friday, 7 August 2009
JH the music
Please, please, please, let me get what I want.
A quick update to say the one place you could hear good music at the cinema in 80's especially the likes of The Smiths and New Order was ironically in the American films of John Hughes.
Doubly ironically that Mozza nest egg is made up in part from the sort of teenagers he's always claimed to detest...
Anwyay here's those nice national boys doing Pretty in Pink of the hair jell and cheek bones it's rather good.
Lastly here is Johnny & The Hurricanes with Red River Rocks with some big dumb cheery saxophone nonsense on my crackly vinyl, it must be the best way to drive across the USA with John Candy in a burnt out car .
Pretty in Pink By The National
Red Rivers Rocks by Johnny & The Hurricanes
A quick update to say the one place you could hear good music at the cinema in 80's especially the likes of The Smiths and New Order was ironically in the American films of John Hughes.
Doubly ironically that Mozza nest egg is made up in part from the sort of teenagers he's always claimed to detest...
Anwyay here's those nice national boys doing Pretty in Pink of the hair jell and cheek bones it's rather good.
Lastly here is Johnny & The Hurricanes with Red River Rocks with some big dumb cheery saxophone nonsense on my crackly vinyl, it must be the best way to drive across the USA with John Candy in a burnt out car .
Pretty in Pink By The National
Red Rivers Rocks by Johnny & The Hurricanes
Thursday, 6 August 2009
John Hughes 1950-2009
Even though I am closer to Uncle Buck now than Ferris Beuller (scarily so in many respects) I still love John Hughes films the clip below is wonderfuly done and shows something that is often over looked in John Hughes' films that they looked great. As well as being funny, soppy and a bit sexy.
I never had a life like his teenagers but well that didn't matter then or now.
I never had a life like his teenagers but well that didn't matter then or now.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
You gave me poison.......
In the morning I give you Phaedra, no that won’t do....... beware of Greeks bearing milk and honey..... no that’s just cheesy (feta’ed with cliché!) ......how about more songs about “Love and Death”.....
At last a great sleeve and a mythical tune (snaps, crackles and pops the artists own)
Enjoy!
Melina Mecouri & Anthony Perkins Rodomisto (from Phaedra OST )
Friday, 25 April 2008
Knowing me Knowing you
Why do so many Adults watch kid's films?Interesting article about Kid's films in the paper, it covers most of the bases explaining how kid's film full of post-modern adult friendly jokes have muscled into the formally childrens’ world. The main point missing from the article is that the reason these films get made is not just the fact of entertaining adults with kids but simply that adults go to see them without kids.
A straw poll in a mixed group the other day showed that in the group of 5-8 adults of 21-45 year old’s (mostly without children) at least 6 had been to see Ratatouille. The rest had been to see some really grim torture horror films. One woman got really defensive as she had only it seemed been to see children’s films (without any kids). I ended up feeling like some ivory tower elitist intellectual having only been to see No Country for Old men and Juno (ya know adult films)!
The kidult group are the same types who only read Harry Potter et al. All the time Hollywood can draw in these high spending individuals as well as the family crowd these films will get made.
My view is that the good children's films should be written for children forget the post modernism, if a film is well made and thoughtfully written it will engage adults. The fact that they weren’t knowing and were just good stories, well told is why Wallace and Gromit and the first Toy Story are great films, full stop. School of Rock is on the boundary but I think it works because its innocent and playful and just good fun, the plots not super complex, there will be others I'm sure.
The list of great films I liked as a kid are all predictable really anything with animated skeletons or swords fights, star wars and fantasy films, I don’t ever remember sitting through a whole children’s film foundation film.
A straw poll in a mixed group the other day showed that in the group of 5-8 adults of 21-45 year old’s (mostly without children) at least 6 had been to see Ratatouille. The rest had been to see some really grim torture horror films. One woman got really defensive as she had only it seemed been to see children’s films (without any kids). I ended up feeling like some ivory tower elitist intellectual having only been to see No Country for Old men and Juno (ya know adult films)!
The kidult group are the same types who only read Harry Potter et al. All the time Hollywood can draw in these high spending individuals as well as the family crowd these films will get made.
My view is that the good children's films should be written for children forget the post modernism, if a film is well made and thoughtfully written it will engage adults. The fact that they weren’t knowing and were just good stories, well told is why Wallace and Gromit and the first Toy Story are great films, full stop. School of Rock is on the boundary but I think it works because its innocent and playful and just good fun, the plots not super complex, there will be others I'm sure.
The list of great films I liked as a kid are all predictable really anything with animated skeletons or swords fights, star wars and fantasy films, I don’t ever remember sitting through a whole children’s film foundation film.
What are people's favourite kid's films?
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Coming to a cinema near you....
The Fool’s Gold Mine
(alt title: Fool’s gold diggers)
Imagine the scene.
.
A sodium lit tunnel the camera view is low down close to the road in the distance a pair of head lights are getting closer, as is the roar of a highly tuned sports engine. In an instant the car speeds up to and over the camera.
Cut to reverse shot as the car roars away down the tunnel
Cut to medium shot, the car is a red Alfa Romeo Spider driven by a young dark hair man in dark glasses wearing a pale blue polo shirt and driving gloves.
Close in POV on the driver’s hands on the wooden wheel the exit of tunnel bright before him.
He looks down at the passenger seat; there is attaché case on it.
A surge of engine noise and the dials sweep up to a 100.
Then blinding light as he bursts from the tunnel, it’s a coastal road and then dark again as he hits another tunnel (the sound rises and falls).
Music starts EL Bimbo by Bimbo Jet
Cut to Interior: a young woman is hurriedly collecting some things into a bag, she’s attractive wearing a bikini as she turns to us she to puts on sunglasses.
The woman leaves the room and we see she’s on a luxury motor yacht.
Cut to the Driver he roars out from the final tunnel and a Riviera town is before him, down a winding switch back road, the Girl’s yacht is anchored in the distance.
The girl still in a swim suit throws a bag into a speed boat and climbs in, casts off and powers away.
The guy’s car is in town now; he narrowly misses some school children being led by a cowled nun, the child laugh as he blows her a kiss leaving her blush
ing.
We see the town from the speed boat, the girl is smiling.
The guy pulls onto the sea front, waved on by a traffic gendarme.
The boat is coming into the harbour
He parks at the end of the jetty, gets out with the case, walks the length of the jetty, puts the case down as the girl’s head appears at the head of the pier steps.
He offers her his hand she leaps up the last rungs; they remove their sun glasses and embrace laughing.
In the distance the motor yacht explodes.
The music stops.
I Prefer the Instrumental version of this 70's disco oddity.
El Bimbo by Bimbo Jet
The vocal side is edging towards cheese but is still groovy, I know very little about the band apart from this being a Europe wide hit in 1970’s ,see the marvellous footage below.
(alt title: Fool’s gold diggers)
Imagine the scene.
.
A sodium lit tunnel the camera view is low down close to the road in the distance a pair of head lights are getting closer, as is the roar of a highly tuned sports engine. In an instant the car speeds up to and over the camera.
Cut to reverse shot as the car roars away down the tunnel
Cut to medium shot, the car is a red Alfa Romeo Spider driven by a young dark hair man in dark glasses wearing a pale blue polo shirt and driving gloves.
Close in POV on the driver’s hands on the wooden wheel the exit of tunnel bright before him.
He looks down at the passenger seat; there is attaché case on it.
A surge of engine noise and the dials sweep up to a 100.
Then blinding light as he bursts from the tunnel, it’s a coastal road and then dark again as he hits another tunnel (the sound rises and falls).
Music starts EL Bimbo by Bimbo Jet
Cut to Interior: a young woman is hurriedly collecting some things into a bag, she’s attractive wearing a bikini as she turns to us she to puts on sunglasses.
The woman leaves the room and we see she’s on a luxury motor yacht.
Cut to the Driver he roars out from the final tunnel and a Riviera town is before him, down a winding switch back road, the Girl’s yacht is anchored in the distance.
The girl still in a swim suit throws a bag into a speed boat and climbs in, casts off and powers away.
The guy’s car is in town now; he narrowly misses some school children being led by a cowled nun, the child laugh as he blows her a kiss leaving her blush
ing.We see the town from the speed boat, the girl is smiling.
The guy pulls onto the sea front, waved on by a traffic gendarme.
The boat is coming into the harbour
He parks at the end of the jetty, gets out with the case, walks the length of the jetty, puts the case down as the girl’s head appears at the head of the pier steps.
He offers her his hand she leaps up the last rungs; they remove their sun glasses and embrace laughing.
In the distance the motor yacht explodes.
The music stops.
I Prefer the Instrumental version of this 70's disco oddity.
El Bimbo by Bimbo Jet
The vocal side is edging towards cheese but is still groovy, I know very little about the band apart from this being a Europe wide hit in 1970’s ,see the marvellous footage below.
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Lights, camera, action
Can I direct you towards my new film/making blog, I thought I'd have an entire area dedicated to my filimic blather. If you have a film to share this the place to do it. Enjoy!Thursday, 11 October 2007
Love will tear us apart...
Control: Review:
Went to see the Anton Corbijn new film about Joy Division Control last night. It’s really good, far better than I thought it might be. Even though I know a great deal about JD/New Order et al I was fully engaged delighted and moved. One of the excellent tricks it pulls off is, is not falling into the trap that Ian Curtis’ death was inevitable. The sad things the film shows well, is that he did have choices and a future, if he could have got over what in most lives would be a medium sized blip his life would have fine. After all “rock star has more than one wife” is hardly news. It does come back to the whole “no adults” being around in rock it’s a bit glib and I’m not belittling depression or epilepsy but he really just needed a little support and perhaps a break from touring.
The other aspect of the film which is great is the recreation of late 70’s Britain, people have said it looks like another country but it looks familiar to me! Corbijn shows again the fact that 1960’s took a long time rolling out across Britain. Ian Curtis grew up in world were people still got married young mainly so they could have sex, where news from the “underground” came through hard to find books by William Burroughs or via Iggy and Bowie’s records and where having a girlfriend from Belgium is the height of exoticisms.
Obviously the film would have failed if the concert performances where poor but they are really well done, Sam Riley (as Curtis) inhabits his character amazingly well and from the many times I’ve seen New Order the actors playing Barney, Steven and Hooky look the part. One interesting thing is that Riley occasionally looks very like Steve Morris, (he was up his role in 24 Hour Party people!) This could be coincidence or maybe Steven Morris picked up some of Ian Curtis mannerisms?
So, a wonderful film, go and see it.
Extra points:
Don’t go to see any film especially Control at the Trocadero. Because:
A: they keep their prints in a bath full of sand, dust and horse hair.
B: they employ a one eyed projectionist with the DT’s
C: when you have a moving cinematic experience coming out into a garish hell hole full of video games and trinkets stalls fresh from a souk is a bit full on.
New Order will never escape the accusation of being rightwing if they go around picking Hitler’s secretary to play Ian Curtis’ girlfriend.
It’s evidently clear we now all live in Chicken Town.
John Cooper Clarke’s strident poem/rant appears in Control but also popped up strikingly and a little jarringly at the end of the Sopranos the other week.
Went to see the Anton Corbijn new film about Joy Division Control last night. It’s really good, far better than I thought it might be. Even though I know a great deal about JD/New Order et al I was fully engaged delighted and moved. One of the excellent tricks it pulls off is, is not falling into the trap that Ian Curtis’ death was inevitable. The sad things the film shows well, is that he did have choices and a future, if he could have got over what in most lives would be a medium sized blip his life would have fine. After all “rock star has more than one wife” is hardly news. It does come back to the whole “no adults” being around in rock it’s a bit glib and I’m not belittling depression or epilepsy but he really just needed a little support and perhaps a break from touring.
The other aspect of the film which is great is the recreation of late 70’s Britain, people have said it looks like another country but it looks familiar to me! Corbijn shows again the fact that 1960’s took a long time rolling out across Britain. Ian Curtis grew up in world were people still got married young mainly so they could have sex, where news from the “underground” came through hard to find books by William Burroughs or via Iggy and Bowie’s records and where having a girlfriend from Belgium is the height of exoticisms.
Obviously the film would have failed if the concert performances where poor but they are really well done, Sam Riley (as Curtis) inhabits his character amazingly well and from the many times I’ve seen New Order the actors playing Barney, Steven and Hooky look the part. One interesting thing is that Riley occasionally looks very like Steve Morris, (he was up his role in 24 Hour Party people!) This could be coincidence or maybe Steven Morris picked up some of Ian Curtis mannerisms?
So, a wonderful film, go and see it.
Extra points:
Don’t go to see any film especially Control at the Trocadero. Because:
A: they keep their prints in a bath full of sand, dust and horse hair.
B: they employ a one eyed projectionist with the DT’s
C: when you have a moving cinematic experience coming out into a garish hell hole full of video games and trinkets stalls fresh from a souk is a bit full on.
New Order will never escape the accusation of being rightwing if they go around picking Hitler’s secretary to play Ian Curtis’ girlfriend.
It’s evidently clear we now all live in Chicken Town.
John Cooper Clarke’s strident poem/rant appears in Control but also popped up strikingly and a little jarringly at the end of the Sopranos the other week.
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Let's go for the burn...
Leaner, fitter, faster movies
I was tr
ying to sign up for a preview screening for the new Joy Division film, and had to fill in a questionnaire, as it was for cinema events there was a list of film genres to tick: sc-fi, thrillers, comedy, Bollywood etc all fairly predictable except the one at the bottom which was “Fitness”.
It’s a while since I’ve seen the film and my attention (if I’m honest) wasn’t on the plot but did a film made in 1984 really feature a lap top computer? You’d think “leotard”, “aerobics” and possibly “back lit lingering shower scene” might feature higher than “tape recording”.
I was tr
ying to sign up for a preview screening for the new Joy Division film, and had to fill in a questionnaire, as it was for cinema events there was a list of film genres to tick: sc-fi, thrillers, comedy, Bollywood etc all fairly predictable except the one at the bottom which was “Fitness”.Putting aside the fact that most cineastes can be rather sedentary, what on earth is a “fitness” film? Racking my brains I can only think of Jaime Lee Curtis in “Perfect” (1985) which was a graphic expose of her fantastic legs… sorry “the torrid world of the early 80’s LA gym/dating scene” oh and the more recent “Run Fat Boy Run”. Hardly enough to make a genre, that’s unless anyone can think of anymore (shall we exclude obvious sporting movies)?
Ps. I think Perfect’s appeal had less to do with “fitness” and more to with being an extended opportunity to “marvel” at JLC’s “physique”.
Slightly chilling P.P.S I’ve just thought there aren’t people going to preview screenings of Kerry Katona’s new Pizza and line dancing workout video are there!?
Oh
and another thing: Just seen the Plot Keywords on IMDB for Perfect.
They are “Male Nudity / Tape Recording / Female Nudity / Laptop Computer / Stripper more “
Ps. I think Perfect’s appeal had less to do with “fitness” and more to with being an extended opportunity to “marvel” at JLC’s “physique”.
Slightly chilling P.P.S I’ve just thought there aren’t people going to preview screenings of Kerry Katona’s new Pizza and line dancing workout video are there!?
Oh
and another thing: Just seen the Plot Keywords on IMDB for Perfect.They are “Male Nudity / Tape Recording / Female Nudity / Laptop Computer / Stripper more “
It’s a while since I’ve seen the film and my attention (if I’m honest) wasn’t on the plot but did a film made in 1984 really feature a lap top computer? You’d think “leotard”, “aerobics” and possibly “back lit lingering shower scene” might feature higher than “tape recording”.
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