And another excellent crime movie from Mexico: This one is a "serious" one and will give you the creeps. Great work again from the director of "El crimen del Padre Amaro", Carlos Carrera.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
New Darren Aronofsky's movie: "Black Swan" - Trailer
:"A psychological thriller set in the world of New York City ballet, BLACK SWAN stars Natalie Portman as Nina, a featured dancer who finds herself locked in a web of competitive intrigue with a new rival at the company (Mila Kunis). A Fox Searchlight Pictures release by visionary director Darren Aronofsky (THE WRESTLER), BLACK SWAN takes a thrilling and at times terrifying journey through the psyche of a young ballerina whose starring role as the duplicitous swan queen turns out to be a part for which she becomes frighteningly perfect."
Look amazing and, as a fan of Aronofsky's movies - including the least popular one like "The Fountain"-, I am really expecting this to be another masterpiece. I'm thinking Giallo and Gothic Horror right now.
Wow ! Can't wait.
A new "giant monsters" movie is crashing on us: "Monsters" - Trailer
Looks like a mix between District 9 & Cloverfield...Everybody seems excited.
Hope it'll meet its expectations.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Caribbean Basterds - Enzo G. Castellari is back !
Enzo G.Castellari is not only the director of Inglorious Bastards (the original), but also of dozens of others great movies form the 70's italian exploitation frenzy, including "The New Barbarians" and others post-apocalyptic genre flix.
I still consider KEOMA as his masterpiece, with Franco Nero in another "Django" character.
But this one looks.....wild, to say the least. Apparently shot in 5 weeks in Venezuela, it will have a limited release.
Coming from a 72 years old man, it looks as fresh as ever.
Rispetto direttore.
Trailer:
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Tribute to Wesley Willis
Wesley Willis was a obese, schizophrenic black man from Chicago (some says homeless but apparently not, look in the comments section at the end of the page).
He had a big black bruise on his forehead, because he used to headbutt people to say hello.
He was also, and mostly, a genius musician and painter.
Check out some of his music below and you can check his paintings here.
Short doc:
"Alanis Morisette" song by Wesley Willis:
One of his hits: "Rock'n'rolls McDonalds":
Another masterpiece: "Cut the Mullet"
"I Wupped Batman's ass"
Sorcerer - William Friedkin - USA - (1977)
Plot by Imdb: "A group of outcasts from different backgrounds/nationalities are forced by misfortune to work in a remote oil drilling operation in South America.. When fire breaks out of control, the outcasts are given the opportunity to earn enough money to get out by transporting two crates of unstable nitroglycerin through miles of jungle in ancient trucks. Will they succeed and regain their honor and citizenship, or get blown up for their efforts? "
Where to begin?
A Remake of the all-time classic adventure movie from Henry-George Clouzot's "The Wages of Fear", this strangely often forgotten masterpiece from William Friedkin is also the one movie that destroyed his career in Hollywood and sent him to the "blacklist" hell.
First, the movie: In my humble opinion, this is a fascinating piece of cinematography. Almost every aspect of 70's cinema is represented here: an overall documentary aspect (a huge influence on Friedkin), part of a gripping thriller in the tradition of the Film Noir (the main character story), the political times of the decade (for the Palestinian terrorism and the French political scandal sequences), the exotic-fantastic settings (not unlike Apocalypse Now, the jungle environment begins as an hostile environment to turn into a mental landscape of the protagonists) and the experimental cinema (for the hallucination sequence in the end) .
Mixing all this, and despite the very different backgrounds of his main characters, Friedkin shows us that, in the end, everything comes down to pure survival. And survival means pure capitalism in our world, as they all end up being forced to work for this Oil company in the middle of nowhere, risking the only thing they have left to sell: their very lives.
The cast is brillant: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, Amidou...They are all perfect and credible.
The soundtrack from Tangerine Dream is one of my favorite and works perfectly with the images, whether it is in an urban landscape or inside the "magical" jungle. Check out the trailer to hear a bit of this wonderful partition.
Last but not least, it is also a tragedy, as it will be Friedkin last movie for a long while in Hollywood. The making of the movie was catastrophic (late, over budget, filled with accidents and mayhem, etc...) and the dictatorial attitude of a megalomaniac Friedkin at the time just killed his reputation as a A-list director and sinked his career, almost for good. It would take him a long time to regain the trust of financial partners and go back to filmaking on a large scale again.
A journey to hell and back for its director, "Sorcerer" is Friedkin's "Apocalypse Now": Unfortunately for the director, it didn't end up well for him.
Absolute masterpiece, to be watched and studied over and over.
Trailer:
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
All Tarkovsk's movies online for free...All legal (if anybody cares).
Thanks to Film Annex, all of Tarkovsky's masterpieces are available online:
- Ivan's Childhood (1962)
- Andrei Rublev (1966) Part 2
- Solaris (1972) Part 2
- The Mirror (1975)
- Stalker (1979)
- Nostalghia (1983)
- The Sacrifice (1985)
As a super fan of Russian cinema in general and Tarkovsky especially, I had to share this good news with you.
Akira Kurozawa and Ingmar Bergman considered Tarkovsky as their master, or at least as the greatest director of their time.
Enjoy.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Eat the schoolgirls: Osaka Telephone Club - Naoyuki Tomomatsu - (1997) - Japan
Plot by Imdb: "Two young adults are doing dirty works for a yakuza gang, making sadistic rape/snuff films. Both of them are sexually obsessed; one is addicted to telephone sex whilst the other can only function sexually, whilst seeing mutilated female corpses."
Before joining the Nikkatsu's "Sushi Typhoon" production team, alongside with Iguchi, Nishimura and many others, Tomomatsu made this very disturbing picture, that has very little to do with his futur absurd-gory-tongue-in-cheek productions, like Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl. More a Pinku movie turn gross, "Eat the schoolgirl" is to be handled with care, as it is obviously not for everyone. Not for your girlfriend, for example. The amount of misoginistic sadism and extremely deviant male behaviour is difficult to believe. But the real interesting thing is the stylistic archievment that this movie represent: It is as weird, twisted and unsafe as other masterpieces of the genre like "Angst" or "Henry". Higly recommended if you can stomach this style of production, it shows once again that even a small production in a sub-sub-genre (pinku horror) can result in an impacting and memorable movie.
A dark, dark shocker from an interesting director. Watch it at your own risk.
Video clip made with images from the movie (the "music" has nothing to do with the movie)
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Koara kachô aka Executive Koala - Minoru Kawasaki - Japan - (2005)
Plot from Imdb:"Keiichi Tamura is a hardworking executive in a pickle company, who is making a big merger at work and struggling with memory loss and the mysterious disappearance of his wife three years prior. He's also a koala, which doesn't seem to bother people too much, but then the president of the company is a large white rabbit. Tamura enters the sights of the police when his current girlfriend is found stabbed to death and his murky past seem to imply that he is not the well-mannered Koala he appear to be."
Maybe the best work of Kawasaki, this "false" nonsensical thriller is filled by excellent ideas and witty artistic direction. The acting is great...or the animal masks are good, whatever you prefer. The gruesomeness of some scenes is made hilarious by the oddity of the costumes, until a certain point. Not unlike the masterpiece of adult animation from Satashi Kon "Perfect Blue", the childish aspect of the characters is becoming more and more odd, if not unsettling, as their behaviors grows more sinister. Perfect balance between the usual intimate stories told by iconic figures (a classic of Kawasaki, in Calamari Wrestler for example) and a denunciation of schizophrenia of the modern workplace, Executive Koala is a delightfully weird moment of cinema. If you never had the chills on front of a maniac koala, now is just a good time.
PS: I, personally, discovered a few years ago, in Australia, that they are vicious little bastards, Eucalyptus junkies without moral or ethic !!! But that’s another story...
Tense moment at the precinct (extract):
Japanese trailer:
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