I'm not Herzog

Mission of Burma + Jonathan Kane + Third Border @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

2008-01-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

Mission of Burma Great show 4/5. I took some horrible concert photography with my cheap camera, and might post later. 1 hour show plus 2 encores for 20 minutes. From about 11:10 to 12:30. Roger Miller did not have those gun range mufflers on fyi.

Jonathan Kane's February 3/5 Saw them last summer in LES park, and this show was definitely better. Instrumental rocking out ala 1960 something. Jonathan is a pretty damn good drummer.

Third Border
Ben Miller the guitarist here is Roger Miller's(Mission of Burma) brother. 3/5 nice rocking out stuff in a good way.

Born Reckless - Ford at Fox - Museum of Moving Image

2008-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

MOMI:
Born Reckless
Saturday, January 19, 5:00 p.m.

1930, 82 mins. 35mm. With Edmond Lowe, Lee Tracy. A notorious New York criminal sentenced to fight in the war returns as a hero. Working around the technical problems that plagued early sound films, Ford created some impressive near-silent scenes, including a delightful baseball game sequence.

The fun of that baseball sequence- a batted ball hits a general's horse on the ass making him buck and throw him on the ground. All the buddies jet and leave some palooka holding the bat. Fun with the gen. ensues. The movie is almost unintentional comedy drama. There is also a parallel with the sister brother thing as you had with Scarface

NYC Connecetion: Although filmed on Hollywood sets, we see Williamsburg Bridge and some shots of elevated, when people are riding in a car. LES and Jamaica Bay swamps are mentioned.

NYTimes review from 1930! Second one down.

Spoiler- he takes out one of the kidnappers in a gun battle in Jamaica Bay shack(nice shots of full dark room and just guns flashing) and saves the kid. They return to their hang out and Big Shot is there, he finds out that big shot was also the guy who set up the banker to be killed during the robbery. The bartender makes himself scarce and gun shots follow. Big Shot is dead and Louis Beretti is shot and needs a doctor for sure, but his buddy who just comes in with the news he returned the girl to the mom says he needs a shot of whiskey first, from the top shelf. That's the movie.

Conclusion: 3/5 I'd show it as 1-2 with Scarface, which came out 2 years later.

Opera Jawa - Nugroho - Global Lens 2008 @ MOMA

2008-01-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

Official site
MOMA:
Opera Jawa. 2006. Indonesia. Directed by Garin Nugroho. With Artika Sari Devi, Martinus Miroto, Eko Supriyanto. The operatic opulence of this uniquely exciting and poetic film encompasses all elements of the filmmaking: musical numbers with acrobatic choreography; sets that include multicolored mountains covered in artificial flowers and the pristine beaches and densely forested heart of Java; costumes and design that reinvent Surrealism; and performances that defy naturalism, not to mention every standard for movie musicals. Part of the commissioned New Crowned Hope project, the film combines gamelan music, ballet, and eye-feasting visual pageantry in a tale of a village potter's unfaithful wife and his vengeance against her seducer. Based on "The Abduction of Sita," from the Hindu epic The Ramayana, Opera Jawa is offered by Nugroho as a requiem for the victims of violence and natural disaster. In Bahasa Indonesian; English subtitles. 120 min.

Unlike some of the other viewers I found the political dimension to be one of the good things about this movie, the social unrest parts and how they are interwoven into the plot. Art installations and dancing were good and yes the guy who danced with Madonna makes this movie. Also the fat singer who sings in the bar, a welcome diversion.

Excruciatingly dull was the lead male star (no wonder his wife wants to be seduced) and the repetive slow tempo vocal singing. I think it was the same pattern throughout the movie, and by the end I felt like I could have composed (see it coming) those vocal lines.

Spoiler- Setio kills both lovers, although I missed where he killed Ludiro(Ludiro return to his mother and want to return to the womb, but apparently he dies). He kills Siti in that tent on the beach, which is a pretty shocking moment.

Conclusion: 3/5 however, not if you have short attention span. I would watch it again just to clarify some minor plot points for myself.

The Green Slime - Fukasaku on TV (TCM)

2008-01-20T07:10:00.000-08:00

Fukasuku directed the Japanese parts of Tora Tora Tora just a year later. And he did the Yakuza Files series of movies. Also the special effects team (Watanabe and Wanoba) I notice those are the same guys who are responsible for most of the Keiju-Godzilla flicks of that era.

ALthough the movie has a serious low budget look, it's still a treat for Japanese monster movie fans. Not to mention it looks like a precursor to lot of later sci fi.

Spoilers - after an asteroid is discovered on collision course with earth a crack team is send up to blow it up by setting charges (Armageddon). On landing they find mysterious oozing green slime, which gets splashed on the leg of one of the astronaust, which no one notices (Alien- looks like some shots are direct homage to this movie). They blow up the asteroid and return to the space base. Once on board the slime activates feeding on energy, turning into a big one eyed moster from the poster, and there are many of them. The plot also includes a love triangle, and some pretty tense moments of who is gonna get the girl(Italian girl Luciana Paluzzi who is also the space station doctor), and this boils over into arguments over professional competency. At the end one of the commanders (Robert Horton) organizes the escape, however the other one(Richard Jaekel) who was put upon stays on board to manually work the space station controls. Commander Rankin get there in time to take out some of the creatures but too late for Commander Elliot who is killed by the slime.

The slime monsters kill by electrocution. The are very hard to stop and once they start to multiply due to abundance of energy there are dozens of them. The movie achieves a level of dread that is quite surprising, almost on the Forbidden Planet level. These monsters can't be stopped, if you shoot them with lasers they just get stronger. Also I should mention the search for the monsters in the air ducts just like in Alien as well. Overall hard to believe it was only 10 years between this and Alien, the special effects were like night and day.

conclusion: 3/5

Jigokumon ( Gate of Hell ) - Kinugasa on TV (IFC)

2008-01-18T23:37:00.000-08:00

Critically acclaimed film, won Palm D'Or, NY Critics and foreign language Oscar. The copy of this film(from Janus films) shows was slightly color faded and with some noise artifacts.

Summary w/ spoilers: During an uprising against one of the clans, Maritoh is escorting Lady Kesa who is send out of the fortress as a decoy, and saves her from capture. They arrive at the lords outpost and by mobilization are able to put down the rebellion (including Maritoh's brother). The rebels are hung at the Gate of Hell, the gate to the fortress.

Maritoh for reward for service asks the lord for Lady Kesa's hand in marriage, but unbeknownst to him, she is married to one of the palace guard, Wataru. He will not easily forget this lady. During a horse race tournament he defeats Wataru's team, but they quarrel when it is implied by some other samurai that Wataru let him win on purpose (which throws Maritoh into rage). He decides that he must have Kesa even if he has to kill her mother and the husband, or even kill her if he cannot have her.
He corners her in the woods and tells her she must arrange for her husband to be alone that night so he will kill him. She seems to obey. When the time comes Maritoh strikes at the figure behind the curtain, but it is Lady Kesa herself who he has struck with his sword.

Maritoh realizes his evil ways and decides to repent and become a monk. Wataru forgives him.

3/5 Released 1953, less than a year prior to the Seven Samurai and Godzilla. I take it the movie is trying to be allegorical, and show where uncontrolled sexual desire can lead. Also, husbands should not be too passive lest their wives have to sacrifice themselves? So a sort of Greek(or I guess Japanese, dont know source material if any) tragedy, and for me it just doesn't work. Perhaps the huge amounts of praise this was getting at the time is due to this being the first Japanese technicolor film, or first one to be distributed internationally.

Andjeo cuvar ( Guardian Angel ) Paskaljevic @ MOMA

2008-01-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

MOMA synopsis:

Andjeo cuvar (Guardian Angel). 1987. Yugoslavia. Written and directed by Goran Paskaljevic. With Ljubisa Samardzic, Jakup Amzic, Neda Arneric, Saban Bajramovic. Paskaljevic's mordant view of gypsy life was made in Yugoslavia two years before Emir Kusturica's fantasy Time of the Gypsies, but there is nothing romantic in Paskaljevic's treatment of modern slavery. In order to survive, families sell their children, who are transported west, trained as pickpockets and thieves, and viciously abused if they do not comply. The film follows a journalist who, appalled by the situation, tries to rescue a boy. Conceived out of sheer outrage, Guardian Angel is the closest Paskaljevic has come to making a thesis film. In Serbo-Croatian, Romany, Italian; English subtitles. 90 min.

SPOILER: The Journalist goes to Venice and manages to rescue the boy from the people for who he is working. They return to Belgrade together, but soon the boy leaves the apartment when the journalist goes out to get groceries and bring a woman friend to see the boy. He goes to Gypsie town looking for the boy and it is a big holiday on this day for them. He doesn't find the boy but is cornered by few of the big shots of the town, beaten severely and thrown on the garbage heap. Day passes and we pan to the journalist on top of the heap and he is not moving and in same position, possibly dead. Shots of processions for the holiday. Now it is dark again, and still the same. END SPOILER

My favorite scene was when the boy tells him why he had to be sold, his mother was dying and one of the elders said a pure white ram had to be sacrificed to save her. This ram is so expensive the boy had to be sold for work. The flashback scene of the sacrifice is intercut with the telling, and the theme music, the fabled guardian angel who comes in the night, as seen in the first scene of the movie. The fable which you tell strangers that children disappear in the middle of the night.

At the end credits tell us 20,000 Yugoslav children a year were sold into slavery every year (film made in 1987).

An important movie and must be seen. However I think it suffered a bit in the lead role of the reporter, his seeming passivity and gentleness, although we could say he was the "guardian angel" of the title. Still it was perhaps a bit incongruous, also I wish he showed more emotion than that half smile. The movie was at its best showing the gypsytown conditions. 3/5

Poseban Tretman ( Special Treatment ) Paskaljevic @ MOMA

2008-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

MOMA Synopis:
Poseban Tretman (Special Treatment). 1980. Yugoslavia. Directed by Goran Paskaljevic. Screenplay by Paskaljevic, Dusan Kovacevic. With Ljuba Tadic, Milena Dravic, Dusica Zegarac, Danilo Bata Stojkovic. Paskaljevic's wry and soulful portrait of practices in an alcohol treatment clinic is a mischievous look at the abuse of power. The head doctor, an autocrat, uses unorthodox tactics—including the music of Richard Wagner, the flapping of hands, the eating of apples, and amateur theatricals—to cajole his reluctant patients into sobriety. When he brings his wards to perform in a brewery, all does not go as planned. The film may be read as a comic metaphor for a benign totalitarianism. In Serbo-Croatian; English subtitles. 94 min.

Spoiler: The doctor is distracted into a sex scene with one of the brewery workers, the patients get loaded on beer. So performance is marred by their drunkenness, comically. But the doctor doesn't give up, gives a motivational speech that despite their wishes to get drunk, he knows best what is best. Final scene is he takes them to a field for the exercises but they run away over the hill and away.
END

Not so much a study of alcoholism, (precious little to show it here) but a study or allegory of dictatorship aka Marshall Tito. Alcohol = freedom, something the doctor/dictator doesn't want people to enjoy. Apparently this movie is being remade, according to the recent interview in NY Times. I wonder how it will work now being stripped of this dimension, as slapstick? Another Road to Wellville?

my rating: 3/5

Transylvania - T. Gatlif on TV - Sundance Channel

2008-01-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

This flick stars Asia Argento, one of my favorite actresses. Three reasons to see this movie are the great perfomances by Asia and the male lead, Birol Unel, as the gold dealer, second, the great wide-screen Panavision cinematography (it's the kind of film which will have you asking at the end who shot those pictures- Celine Bozon), and third is the music in this film, which really ties it all together, eastern european folk, gypsy, religious, traditional, much of it written and/or arranged by the director Tony Gatlif. I must see more of his work. 4/5

Asia Argento web site

Transylvania web site incl trailer and pics.

Kubrador ( Bet Collector ) Jeturian @ MOMA

2008-01-14T22:11:00.000-08:00

from MOMA calendar:
An Evening with Jeffrey Jeturian
Toward the end of The Bet Collector's weeklong run as part of Global Lens, 2008, the director discusses his technique and his work in relation to Filipino cinema.
Kubrador (The Bet Collector). 2006. Philippines. Directed by Jeffrey Jeturian. With Gina Pareño, Fonz Deza, Soliman Cruz. Amy, the family matriarch, makes ends meet by running a small convenience store out of her home, but she is forced to supplement her income by working for an illegal numbers game. Her days follow a stressful routine of dodging the police, and her nights are filled with anxiety over the survival of her family, as she counts her meager commissions. The director's brilliant shots of the narrow, crowded streets become part of the psychological portrait of a once-proud woman reduced to working as a petty criminal. Anchoring the film is a luminous, emphatic performance by veteran actress Pareño, who makes vivid not only the daily struggle faced by the Filipino underclass, but also the humor, wit, and charisma her character applies to her unstable profession. In Tagalog; English subtitles. 98 min.

Just didn't feel this movie. I think it fails mainly in the acting, given only the lead is a professional and she is usually a comedic actress, and this was a dramatic role. Plot was a little mundane as well. 2/5

Manohla Dargis gave it a sort of thumbs down at the Times.

Spoilers- the politicos and cops are corrupt as we know. Even as the ticket taker is arrested, the cop asks her to place bets in the precinct. The big drama unfolds when some numbers come up jackpot but one of her customers gave the ticket to her husband who has forgotten or was too lazy to give her the order. And now the guy wants his 160,000 pesos. So this is a set up for the climax? No, the next day they just go to visit the graves for All Saints Day, and Amy(the ticket taker) gets caught up in street shootout over a fender bender, but tis just a graze wound. That's it, the movie's over....

Giants 21 - Cowboys 17 on TV

2008-01-13T22:26:00.000-08:00

Photo: David J. Phillip/Associated Press
In NY Times:

I'd just like to say thats the most thrilling win for the Giants since the Super Bowl win vs Buffalo, in my personal book. To beat the hated Dallas Cowboys in that fashion, in Dallas, is just feeling of, triumph. My heart rate definitely doubled those last 2 minutes.

As for the Chargers vs Colts, looked to me like the refs did their best to screw the Chargers, once on that holding call on the td interception return, and 2nd time on that tic tac interfernce call in the second half. Anyone that was neutral was pulling for the Chargers, and def lot of happy people tonight.

Four Sons - John Ford at Fox @ Moving Image

2008-01-13T22:22:00.000-08:00

Four Sons
With live music by Steve Sterner
Sunday, January 13, 2:30 p.m.

1928, 100 mins. 35mm. With James Hall, Margaret Mann. In this famously heartwrenching war drama, a Bavarian widow’s four sons fight in WWI, including one on the American side.

3/5. I will write more about this later. The most popular movie of 1928, apparently.

Royal Albert Hall Project - Bob Dylan tribute at Wintergarden

2008-01-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

Place holder, straight after the movie went to this and made it with 5 minutes to spare. Will write more about this later and post some pics.
from NYT:
“The Royal Albert Hall Project,” a tribute to Bob Dylan’s May 17, 1966, concert in Manchester, England (early bootleggers got the location wrong), featuring Jesse Harris, Laura Cantrell, Lenny Kaye, Kelly Joe Phelps, Marshall Crenshaw, Richard Julian, Jim Campilongo and others.

The Iron Horse - John Ford at Fox @ Museum of Moving Image

2008-01-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

The Iron Horse
With live music by Steve Sterner
Saturday, January 12, 5:00 p.m.

1924, 132 mins. 35mm. With George O'Brien. Ford's epic drama about the building of the Union Pacific Railroad was his first major success, notable for its period detail, its panoramic vistas, and the intimate drama at its core. Shown in Ford’s preferred domestic version, which was restored by The Museum of Modern Art.

Place holder, I will write more about this later/

Just Pals - John Ford at Fox @ Museum of Moving Image

2008-01-13T08:08:00.000-08:00

Just Pals
With live music by Steve Sterner
Saturday, January 12, 3:00 p.m.

1920, 50 mins. 16mm. With Buck Jones. For'’s first movie for Fox was a charming rustic comedy with western star Buck Jones as a good-hearted ne'er-do-well who becomes the town hero.

Just Pals is a comedy adventure actioner, only it was made in 1920! I rate it 3/5. Plot is a bit convoluted even for the time, but acting is not that bad, especially the kid, and many humorous scenes, like the sheriff in the tree, the showing of the badge during church collection, etc

Favorite scene- When the school teacher goes to the bridge over the river she sees a lady and a kid, and they are about to throw a satchel into the river. She can't bear to do it, the satchel falls down and kittens emerge, the kid rejoices as they escape. The whole theater went "awww" in that "isn't that cute" way.

Plot summary- A hobo kid Bill(Georgie Stone- very good acting for 13 year old or so) jumps off the train in Norwalk "A border town between Wyoming and Nebraska" and quickly becomes pals with the town bum Bim (Buck Jones). Another kid looks up to Buck as a hero and runs away from home. Bill and Bim go through some adventures (a butcher tells them they can eat if they can slaughter some chickes, they can't bear to axe them).

Eventually Bill is noticed by local good folks and is forced to go to local school but kids don't like him. At this school is a girl teacher with a bank clerk boyfriend who has been taking money from the register. He asks his girl to lend him some money, and she does, from the charity collection.

Bim decides he has had enough of this town and decides to hop on the next train out of town. Bill sees him and runs after the train, but falls down and hits his head trying to hop on. Bim jumps down and takes the boy to a nearby house where he is looked after. But the family sees a reward add in the paper for a runaway boy, and think this is the kid.

The teacher is distraught over the money since the elders are coming to town to collect. She tells Bim, and she gives note to Bim to take to her boyfriend that she needs money back. Bim discovers the truth when he reads the note. In the meantime the elders have arrived and no money on hand teacher decides to drown herself in the river. She is pulled out alive. In the meantime Bim infiltrates the bank tellers gang who are going to hit it during service and foils the robbery. But when the law arrives the gang accuse Bim of planning the whole thing.

The teacher though reveals the truth and Bim is let down just about as he is about to become hanging decoration on the nearest tree. He goes to see his pal Bill and just then family arrives for the reward. But it is not the boy. However the real boy is there in the town(this part wasn't very clear to me), and Bim gets the 10 thousand dollar reward. He goes off into the sunset with the teacher, and we get a feeling that they will be more than "Just Pals".

Bure baruta ( Powder Keg or Cabaret Balkan ) Paskaljevic @ MOMA

2008-01-12T00:43:00.000-08:00

By far my least favorite of movies shown in the retrospective. Extreme violence done in a jokey action movie manner, a comedy/horror. A movie that is apparently aimed at the young audience which is seeking a thrill (precisely the audience it found during it's box office breaking run in Belgrade). I just found it empty. Possibly more disturbing than A Clockwork Orange. Also the message(that Belgrade was too violent) is so gratuitously shown (garish Technicolor primary color palate), the criticism of the regime(too much Police who do nothing) is so besides the point, as to be almost irrelavant to the viewer. Or maybe that was the point. I will write more about this later. 2/5

edit: The plot is episodic look at one night in Belgrade, with some characters interweaving through the scenes.
SPOILERS:
Boris the esoteric cabaret artist comments on the situation in the Balkans, it is a powder keg.

A young man crashes his car into another man's WV, who loses control and smashes his windows. The young man escapes during the commotion but is tracked down by the angry WV driver back to his home, where he and a pal barge in and terrorize the father smashing up the apartment while the young man hides in the toilet. He manages to escape and jumps on a train.

At the same time two middle aged pals get into a serious fight at their boxing gym after they start to one up their stories of mutual betrayal, which results in an eventual stabbing with a broken beer bottle. The "The Boxer Who Takes the Train" Lazar Ristovsky, then boards the same train and menaces a young woman, who is sitting in the same compartment as the "reckless driver". "The Boxer" forces himself on the young woman, who is mourning the loss of her man in the war. She pulls out a hand granade from her deceased lovers belongings, but "The Boxer" doesn't care, blowing them both up, in the train.

In the meantime a "young man chewing gum" takes a bus hostage as the bus driver is having coffee outside. He terrorizes the passangers, he asking the elderly man in front of his wife if he likes looking at young women and if that gives him erection. He forces Ana "the flirt on the bus" to open her legs and lift her skirt, and the old man to look. He threatens to kill the elderly man in a leather jacket by stabbing him. Finally the bus driver arrives and hits the young man on the head with a club or tire iron.

A former police officer meets in a pub a man who tells him he was the one who broke 33 bones in his body. They drink together.

Ana meets her boyfriend George and tells him what happened, and George tells her she probably enjoyed it. The revolutionaries happen on the scene and terrorize the couple, and are about to rape Ana but George gets the gun and shoots the "Che" revolutionary. The second revolutionary runs from the scene but is mistaken for a gasoline thief and set upon by the locals. Just then a man lights a cigarette and the parking lot explodes from the spilled gas.
END OF SPOILERS
According to the directors talk the filming took 8 or 9 weeks all at night in Belgrade. The authorities weren't really paying attention to what was going on.
The film was shown at a festival in France and Mr Pasklajevic was to be intervied by TV2, when the NATO bombing of Belgrade commenced. The asked him to comment and he said he had nothing to say he wanted to go to the street corner and cry, and this was reported on all the news channels the next day. Mr Paskaljevic also said in the talk that he wants each of his movies to be of their own style, and not to repeat himself, and that is certainly true from seeing his movies in this retrospective.

In retrospect I still find the movie garish and sensationalist, it sensationalizes the violence. It is very much in the vein of that type of Eastern European action thriller, the mix of comedy and horror is a troubling one.

Pas koji je voleo vozove ( The Dog Who Loved Trains ) Paskaljevic @ MOMA

2008-01-12T00:22:00.000-08:00

Loved this movie. Probably my favorite of any in this retrospective yet. Svetlana Bojkovic as the female lead Mika gives a great courageous performance.

In the introduction the MOMA curator mentioned that Mr. Paskaljevic with his wife has set up the first animal shelter in Belgrade. Also the character of Cowboy in this movie was a real life character who was quite famous Yugoslavia at that time(late 70s), and helped with coming up with some of the action and settings for the movie. Stunts with horses in his western show, and the stunt on the carousel (climbing on top of it) are some of the highlights of this film. Well what am I talking about, this was just an amazing movie. A strong 4/5

Plot: from MOMA notes: Paskaljevic's sophomore film is a picaresque tale at once melancholic and delightful. A young woman, a delinquent on her way to a labor camp, escapes and meets up with two raggedly charming misfits: a Yugoslav cowboy, and a motorcyclist looking for his late father's dog, a remarkable canine who was trained to jump trains.

later SPOILERS: The cowboy in a turn of events decides to turn the woman in to authorities but she escapes with the motorcyclist. The spend the night in a motel, the young man apparently a virgin. The pair arrive in Belgrade, where they visit her parents who reject her as a law breaker. The woman meets her drug dealing compadre to obtain fake papers so she can escape to Paris where her brother lives. But the drug dealing hood sets the woman up to be raped and beaten by local no goods when she comes back to pick up the papers. She makes her way back to the motorcyclist who is unable to help her. The go back to a hotel but the next day the cowboy sees the motorbike in the parking log. He invades their motel room and demands his money back(some of which was stolen apparently when the two made a get away). He then goes to burn the motorcycle in the parking lot.

The distraught woman runs into a rail yard followed by the motorcyclist who pleads with her to calm down. The woman hops a train, and sees the young man has accidentally hit his head on a lamp post and fallen in front of a train and is apparently killed. The woman looks in a blank stare at the scene, looks down, looks up again. Look at her face in a long extended close up. A sound in the wagon and cut to the doorway, there sitting on the floor of the wagon is the dog who loved trains. A great ending.

Available on DVD from this site http://www.yu4you.com/items/sr/dvd/item_124.html

Legenda o Lapotu ( Legend of Lapot ) + Zemaljski dani teku ( These Earthly Days go Rolling By ) Paskaljevic @ MOMA

2008-01-10T22:50:00.001-08:00

Legend of Lapot is Paskaljevic's graduation film. Sparse dialogue, minimalistic percussion music and stark mountain imagery. This is really a sorts of a horror film. The final scenes are especially powerful and frightening. The harvest is poor and there won't be enough food to feed everyone in the winter. It is so decided that the old man must be sacrificed. He is then prepared by washing and grooming, and carried up into the mountain peaks. To be left alone to starve with a loaf of bread at his head "It is not we who kill you it is the bread". But no just then a man appears with a big rock in his hands ready to throw it. The they all throw the boulders, the movie ends. The audience gasped.

The rock at the end to me evokes Kieslowski's Decalogue episode "Thous Shall Not Kill" same method of killing. Was Kieslowski conciously echoing this scene? Also in the program notes Mr Paskaljevic mentions Shohei Imamura's The Ballad of Narayama, which I have not seen. 4/5

These Earthly Days go Rolling By refers to a song featured in the movie. This film was filmed with one 16mm camera direct to positive print (no money to make negative) with an all amateur cast, in just 12 days of shooting, and I gather a lot of improvisation. Resulting in a documentary / fiction hybrid, and probably one of the best films about ageing or elderly that I have ever seen.

The main male lead gives a great performance as a sea captain who decides to leave his shack/boat house by the river for a retirement home, mainly for some human company. The movie than becomes centered on a music/talent show, and then a great party for New Years Eve. The whole time Captain tries to get his aloof cantakerous roommate to join in the activities. But just as the party is at it's zenith, the captain becomes unwell, and is taken to the hospital with a heart attack. His roommate goes to visit him taking along the parrot over which they argues previously, only to find out his friend has passed away early in the morning. There is no solace, the last shot is the title song and tug boats on the river(mirroring the opening shots).

Mr Paskaljevic said that this is one of his favorite, if not the favorite of all his films. Also, in one of the scenes the home tenats watch Legend of Lapot(which opened this program) on television, with a morbid fascination. Special mention to the music in this movie, during some of the songs I could hear the Yugoslavs in the audience singing along under their breath. I imagine those songs must have been especially emotional for some. 4/5

San Zimske Noci - ( Midwinter Night's Dream ) - Paskaljevic @ MOMA

2008-01-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

Although shot on DV camera, this movie has a great look, some very evocative imagery, like trees in bloom, those iconic shots of the girl in butterfly wings, the landscape seen outside the bus window (opening shot). This movie is also apparently connected to The Powder Keg, which I haven't seen yet. The protagonist here is the same man who kills a friend in that movie? Also notice the scene where he goes asking some people fishing what happened to the Powder Keg, by the bridge.

Mr. Paskaljevic said in the intro that he lived with the family of the autistic girl for about 6 months prior to shooting. Shooting was difficult in that Jovana, the autistic girl could not really take direction, so I guess lot of the scenes they were hoping for the best. It did come out the best though. He also mentioned that it is one of his few if not the only movie where there's not too much humor (although there is some).

To me the most powerful scene was the protagonists(Lazar) revelation to the girls mother about his past, and the atrocity that his squad committed during the war, and the killing of his friend for which he served 10 year prison sentence. Also the later scene which shows the party inside the house and the eye looking from outside. This is flashback/dream sequence which really startles the audience. Another sequence to look for is the special school performance of Shakespeare Midsummer Nights Dream (Down syndrome and autistic kids)

After this revelation scene Lazar finally breaks through his own shell (he is in a frozen emotional state at the start of the movie, mirroring the girl in a way), and there is a start of a romantic relationship with the mother. However the movie ends tragically when a man (possibly the father of the girl or another lover) stabs her with scissors. Lazar arrives home to find the body, and just then a jealous neighbor(who robbed Lazar's mothers possessions from the house, but was forced to return them after his return from prison) accuses him of murder. Lazar panics and takes the girl with him for a drive. The final scene is in a blooming orchard, the girl exits the car and walks into the distance, Lazar apparently commits suicide as we hear a gunshot. A bleak ending reminiscent of Wozzeck, many parallels could be drawn between these two works. 4/5

Goran Paskaljevic retrospective at MOMA

2008-01-09T21:54:00.000-08:00

A very nice turn-out was on hand(prob. at least 75 percent full) for the opening and Mr. Paskaljevic was there in person. He gave short opening remarks about the movie we were about to see (how nothing has changed for young people in his country in 30 or so years, except now they can't go to Sweden for work, because now you need a visa.

Link to Article in NY Times

MOMA write-up

Programs- 24 pages full color, distributed gratis. Each movie with a short summary, and essay notes by the director.

Pan Hrstka (Mr Hrstka)1970 (4/5) Documentary style. A middle aged gent and his day at work, bored and perpetually tired. In spare time he does nude modeling for art studio. At night he goes home to his little house by the rail-road tracks. As the film unfolds co-workers, foreman, student artists etc comment on Mr Hrstka in voice-over(often quite humorous remarks) and finally Mr Hrstka has a few things to say at the end. It reminded me of Kieslowski, but with a sense of humor. Or if you remember Amator (Film Buff) the part where Stuhr character makes a doc about the dwarf co-worker.

Cuvar Plaze U Zimskom Periodu (Beach guard in wintertime) (3/5) A youth(fireman apprentice- (an homage to Forman's Horí, má panenko?) gets married, but is only able to get this dead end job and gets stuck living very bad conditions. His parents seem accepting of this situation but hope for a friend from Sweden to arrive and arrange a good job for the kid. However the girls parents are not pleased and finally convince her to leave her husband. The boy's father arrives one day and proposes a cold cure of a swim in the river and dies of an apparent heart attack after jumping off the dock. At the funeral finally the friend from Sweden arrives and they make arrangement to go together by train. Last image is the train entering a black tunnel. The youth is pretty hapless, even though he is in almost every scene, he can barely get a word in.

In the after-talk Mr Paskaljevic dedicated this screening to Danilo Stojkovic who played the dad here, and played in many of his other films, and had passed away 2002. Mr. Stojkovic touching here as the well-meaning soft-touch dad. Also during the talk the dir. explained that the humor of the movie (id say comedy/drama, in answer to a question about mood changes in the move) was two-fold, one if he put humor in he had more hope of getting it through censorship, and 2, he thought humor is a natural coping mechanism when people are facing tough times, and this is something he observed a lot first hand growing up, and wanted to show in this movie.

The film is autobiographical in some details only (for ex the dir grew up near train tracks). He talked about working as a ticket taker at his step-fathers cinematheque, where he got to watch the movies, his afficinity with classic, C. Chaplin (someone asked him if he was thinking of Chaplin with the father role, what with the mustache, and he said "but it's a Hitler mustache" which got a laugh. He also talked about some technical limitations, like the huge camera which took up half the room (therefore mostly static shots) and limited availability of film stock. He mentioned how most of the Yugoslav actors also work in theater which facilitates things like long takes and improvisation which he likes to use (he said some of his films were almost entirely improvised on the set). Also, the fact that there was a period of about 6 years (1970-76) when ambitious films and directors were not given opportunity to direct in Yugoslavia, and this movie was just the beginning of the thaw in censorhip of cinema (the silence, powerlessness of the boy might be symbol for this very powerlessness of Yugo directors of the time).

Finally he told the story of the films private screening for Tito at the Yugoslavian film festival and how he got the word that Tito laughed throughout, and liked this movie, which assured it's win.

So, very engaging conversation, probably one of the best such things I've been to. And BTW- Mr. Paskaljevic promised that he would be attending some future screenings for the rest of the retrospective, so I'm really looking forward to that as well.

Medeski Martin and Wood @ Borders Columbus Circle

2008-01-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

Medeski Martin and Wood, 45 minute set, playing stuff off their new kids album. Never expected them to play that long, all things considered real top notch effort. "Where's the Music" was a big sing-along. Kids were into it as well. 4/5

http://www.myspace.com/letsgoeverywhere

Thurston Moore + MV & EE + Tall Firs + Religious Knives @ Knitting Factory

2008-01-08T23:07:00.000-08:00

Religious Knives

Tall Firs

MV & EE

Samara Lubelski

Thurston Moore

Steve Shelley

T.M.

Religious Knives :
http://www.myspace.com/religi0usknives 3rd time seeing them if I remember right. Their No Fun Fest gig was my favorite. Something is not quite clicking, they are pretty loose on these last gigs. But I really like their experimentations. 3/5

Tall Firs: http://www.myspace.com/tallfirs this is more standard issue stuff. Drummer is quite good. They closed with the Woods, great song. Sounds a bit like the National 3/5

MV & EE: http://www.ecstaticpeace.com/artist.php?id=8 Psychedelic, blues, jam band comes close to accurate description. To be honest I think they got the least of the reception of any bands there, just a smattering of applause. Maybe because we were getting tired. Drummer seemed to be having trouble getting in synch with the band. I think it might have been monitors issue, since the way they set up all the amps were set up in a wall in front of him, might have made it a tough show. 3/5

Each band got around 30-40 minutes set and it started around 8:30. Religious Knives of these three were my favorite, thou the audience seemed to prefer Tall Firs.

Derek from Awesome Color was spinning disks all night(mostly 60-70 Detroit style rock), nice choice of VU's I'm Waiting for the Man before Thurston's set. Thurton was strumming his acoustic to it.
Thurston Moore Group: This was close to the same show as they played at Music Hall of Williamsburg last fall, minus the guitar player who's in Africe. SO this was a treat, as Thurston tackled all the parts. Samara Lubelski added some nice texture, and Steve Shelley of course was excellent (by far the best drummer on the night).

Thurston took a small break on the stage towards the end of his set and fielded questions. Some chicks were pestering him, so he showed them his wedding ring, which he pulled from his pocket as it chafes his finger when he plays acoustic. He also said Kim is in LA (partying>) and she let him play this gig on Tues night. Also he asked how the primaries were going ("the chick or the black dude?", and we got an update that it was too close to call. Then someone asked him who should win and he said "Fuck em all" and that got quite a nice laugh. Also some chick from Alaska asked him to come play there, and he said yeah he'd like to visit, never been but he seen Into the Wild and read the book, and wanted to "live the McCandles experience". Yes, they closed with "Psychic Hearts", just him and Steve on the drums. So, a good show a feel good show, it was good. 4/5

You are not living, you are killing time

2008-01-07T20:56:00.000-08:00

Fahrenheit 451 (1966) 3/5 I've seen this movie quite a few times but never on the big screen, and this movie has never clicked with me. It should have been much better. Truffaut I think botched this material, and I always thought the culprit 1A was the weak job done by the protagonist, Oskar Werner- he just cannot carry this movie. Apparently if you go by Wikipedia, by the end of the movie the star and director weren't even on speaking terms, and I guess it shows here why. Julie Christie is pretty foxy (a word which since Sat is part of my every day lexicon) but not foxy enough to save the day. Special effects are pretty bad as well, even considering the year. The airborne police was a theater wide laugher. The script was sort of stiff as well, as explained by the fact that almost no one involved in this movie actually spoke English. Also it seems to me that the usually great Bernard Hermann just mailed it in with the music score here. That being all said I still have to give it a 3/5 stars, just because it is Truffaut (+1), and it does give you a vision of a sorts of a possible future distopia. I guess the biggest fun of this movie was seeing which books were being burned, and patting ourselves on the back for being so well read. When Guy picks an EA Poe short story collection to memorize, we all go "ahh, great choice".

Seen at MOMA with a close to a packed house, and it must be said, there was an ovation at the end.
Here's a clip. Truffaut almost flips that Salvador Dali book page for page...

I am quietly judging you

2008-01-06T20:14:00.001-08:00

Punch-Drunk Love (2002) 4/5 I've never seen this before but this gets the extra point just for being damn weird. Barely realistic, it verges on experimental, and as pointed out in the notes similarities to absurdity in Tati's Playtime are clear, the music is very evocative of that movie, or what I can remember of it. The strangest scene is when he destroys the windows at his sister's party, which somehow just blows over and never comes up in the subsequent discussion in the movie, to the point you wonder if it really happened, or if it was only in his mind's eye.

Also shown was a short film(12 min) Blossoms & Blood (2003) 4/5 with vid art by Jeremy Blake, this is apparantly on add-on on the DVD, again experimental mode and it worked quite well in foreshadowing some key scenes in the movie.(a must see I think, watching the short before the feature works best I think).
NY Times article from 2002

So this being Museum of Moving Image, and with the more than an hour break between movies I went to the Cup for some refreshment. Order of Buffalo Wings, Steak Fries and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale set me back $16. Waiter forgot to mention no beer happy hour on the weekends (contrary to what the sign says) so beer is $5. Sunday special is Martinis for $6. He also botched my check, but I will get back to you on that.

Magnolia (1999) 4/5 Even though I had this on dvd for over a year already, I never before actually sat down and watched it properly. The music in the middle section detracted from the movie for me. Clearly not as good as Boogie Nights. Also, I wonder if Anderson saw Warsaw Bridge by Portabella, who built the whole movie around the scubadiver story. I do think Warsaw Bridge was the superior film, it would make a good double feature. I think Julianna Moore had a few false notes here, over the top lunacy. Maybe. Still just for the audacity, you have to see it.
Here is Hoberman's take on it, a bit down the page (he rates it number 6 movie of 1999)...

BTW- What a great opening sequence, with Aimee Mann's "One"

You won't feel or see a thing

2008-01-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

Three movies in a day, that is fucking hard, but it was just one of those can't miss days at MOMI. I almost didn't go because 1. had a bad sore throat still nagging me and 2. I meant to go to Sightings at Midway which was tonight, but well, blew that off. Sore throat was taken care of by $1 extra strength caugh drops, pick them up at the 99 Cent store on Steinway. When you exit the station and walk towards the museum, there it is, like a godsend cause my caugh was really bad.

So this was the program:
Films of Paul Thomas Anderson:
Hard Eight (1996) 4/5 I've seen this one before but not recently. Loved those references to My Darling Clementine (One of my all time favorite movies, John Ford classic). Once when Sidney first meets Clem(Paltrow), and then later he yells at her for fucking up that john. (Would make a good double bill?)
Article about this movie(tracking shots in it) in Senses of Cinema

Boogie Nights (1997) 5/5. One of my absolute all time favorite movies, got the Criterion edition DVD of it, but it was first time in the theater. Notice the chiming bell used at start of Hard Eight, and during that key scene when Dirk gets beat down in the parking lot, intercut with Roller Girl and Jack in back of the limo attempting an amateur porn shoot. The way the scene is cut and music here, just spine chill inducing moment. Also learned from program notes Gwyneth Paltrow was up for a role here (presumably for Roller Girl), but didn't take it for family reason. Heather Graham is just incredible here, especially in that limo scene.
NY TImes review from 1997 by Margy Rochlin is a very good read.

2nd best scene in the movie, but great use of music, and acting, Dirks 1000 yard stare/space out, with the camera eye coming in on his, just phenomenal:

Just noticed, this retrospective got a nice write up in NY Times.
So, can't wait to go back to this tomorrow. Maybe I should mention there was a small incident before Boogie Nights with a guy getting ejected over some kind of an altercation over a seat. I didn't see what happened but security took the guy out, unfortunately cooler heads didn't prevail I guess. But security people, they were class.

Anyway, after this there was a reception for J. Hoberman upstairs on the second floor. We loaded up on free sandwiches(fancy stuff like black bread w/ smoked salmon, etc) and wine(Coppola Bianco Pinot Grigio) and Pellegrino water. It was almost like NYE at Jack Horner's house...

After that, we moved down to the theater and there was the talk, David Schwarz did a great job introducing J. with a top ten lists of why we like him, he hit all the spots including his top ten lists, and the fact he is anti-Anti-Intellectual. Which are reasons why I like him.
Then AO Scott and J. had a pretty long conversation, which covered some of the history of movie-going in NYC going back to the 70s on. Also Jim's historical perspective, seeing films in their historical context.
movies shown:

Mission to Mongo (1977) 3/5 Experimental short montage of Mao and some sort of martial music. Hoberman directed. I guess this was a surprise pulled on him by David. It was fun.

Square Times (1967) 3/5 Short doc. Seeing Times Square like it used to be alone makes this a must see. Times Square the way it used to be back in the day. During the talk Hoberman observed that sometimes the worse a movie is, the better a time capsule it becomes. Not that this was bad, and perfect choice considering the movie shown next.

Day Night, Day Night (2007) 3/5 Film makers were there, but the director was too shy to take a bow I guess. Hoberman put this as #7 on his top 10 of 2007. This was shot in DV, so not the kind of look I like. The parts in the city were superior, and a different camera was used here than in the first half. It almost felt improvised, and I think it put you in the place and time. To me the protogonists performace though, it was just too, emotionally withdrawn? Of almost autistic quality. Her passivity, politeness in the beginning it just unnerved. You just could't read anything in her face as many close-ups of it as we got in this movie.
J Hoberman's review, he loved it.

BTW- J. Hoberman's top 10 Lists 1977 to 2006
2007:

Cronenberg, I think he is not that bad...

2008-01-04T21:50:00.000-08:00

Stereo (1969) 2/5 I had to to see this since this is one of the few Cronenbergs I was yet to see. This is def. a flick for die hard fans only, and works nicely as a kind of prequal to Scanners. The pseudo-academic jargon discourse was a trip to understand.
Funny part is, or maybe not funny, the projectionist stopped the movie about 5 minutes in, and turn the lights on since there was no sound (as of the helicopter landing scene). Well, there was no sound as it turns out. It's not like the characters in the movie are not talking to each other, they are, there is just silence, and discourse where some scientific observation is made. Favorite scene was when we see some kind of murder I think off in the distance, ala Blow Up. Then it zoomes in and under leaves and branches, a dead deers eye? and the guy lying down. Also quite a bit of homosexual content here, which again foreshadows some of his future work.

Program opened with Necrology by Standish Lawder, 2/5. Not as exciting as it seems in the program, credits roll naming all the people in the shot, which got a laugh, since there were quite a few people, with their little description, but the marching band music? I guess it made it jokey.

Here is MOMA plug:
Necrology. 1970. USA. Directed by Standish Lawder. A single shot reveals people "ascending" the lower depths. 12 min.
Stereo. 1969. Canada. Written, directed, photographed, and edited by David Cronenberg. With Cronenberg, Ron Mlodzik, Iain Ewing. Sensing the promise in Stereo, the strikingly original and edgy debut feature of twenty-six-year-old Canadian filmmaker Cronenberg, MoMA presented its American premiere and acquired the black-and-white, virtually dialogue-free film in 1969. Set, perhaps, in the future, the film chronicles an experiment at the Canadian Center for Erotic Enquiry in which young adults volunteer to sacrifice speech in favor of telepathic enhancement. 65 min.

Had some time before the movies to check out the museum. Who knew there was also a museum besides the movie theater? Anyway, my first time actually going through all the floors since it reopened, It goes chronologically from newest on the lower floors to oldest on the upper floors. However where was the design gallery? Did not see that one. The place was packed of course to the gills, this being free friday. Last weekend to see Georges Seurat drawings. Made me want to pick up my pencils and draw something. Seurat Exhibit Catalog

Do you feel a little sick?

2008-01-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

Sore troat and burning eyes on the coldest day of the winter? Yes. Anyway some pictures:
DD just few minutes into 2008

DD havent updated their blog yet, but here is some youtube:
The Gardener, one of the most moving parts of the set:

the user Jaxxengine is god for posting these. She even captured the hoola hoopers, one of the girls was a true artist, mesmerizing:

Brian got Roger Waters part down scary good:

Fuck, was that a good show, one of the best I've ever seen.

So anyway, movie for the day, I fucking suffered through Cherry 2000 (The Melanie Griffith movie from 1986) which was probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen, taped off DVR on advice of someone at work. I will never have to watch this again, fortunately.

NYE and Jan 2 - Welcome to my blog

2008-01-02T21:41:00.000-08:00

This blog will be about all the stuff I did this year(2008). As much as I have time to write about. Im planning on spending about 30 minutes on it per day. Then if I start making money on it I will spend more time. Maybe.

Kicked off the year with Dresden Dolls at Hammerstein. 4th time seeing them and they were amazing as usuall. 5 stars. Luminescent Orchestrii and Meow Meow kicked it off. I will write more about this later. Incl a pic I took 30 secs into the New Year.

Besides music, Im really into movies, and will keep a chronology of stuff I see this year. Not every single thing cause that would be boring. Also when I have time I will write in proper grammar and put in links and stuff. You just watch!

Ok. so, movies:
1. When Worlds Collide (1951) George Pal flick. First time I seen it, put it on off my DVR while making breakfast and such. Nice scenes of NYC flooded, and then that matte painting. Special effects done in loving detail. Decent flick, but for big sci fi fans only I think. 2/5

2. Ratatouille (2007) MOMI- this was number 9 on VV critics poll? I thought it was weak. This barely appealed to me as an adult, even pretending I was a 9 year old don't help. The dumbest goofs got the biggest laughs from kids (the hair pulling/puppet shtick). 2/5

3. Transformers (2007) DVD, my sisters place. Kids loved it, especially the yellow "bumble bee" transformer. "Bee yach" car deodorant? How do you explain that to a 4 year old kid? Watching this I thought, this is the type of movie Nazis would be making in they won the WW2. 1/5

Wed- All those movies and going out gave me a cold, everyone seems to be sick btw, and coughing. That don't stop me from going to the movies after work though, since theres a good double feature at MOMA:

4. Never Fear (The Young Lovers)1950- Ida Lupino had Polio. I did not know that. I don't know if I liked the happy hollywood ending. I suppose it happens sometimes. The guy dumps the girl, but comes back to her in the last scene. Pretty sexy movie though, those scenes when she asks him if he would treat her like a woman. 3/5

5. Painters Painting 1972- The print was pretty bad and color faded. The black and white parts even looked terrible. Still it was good just to see those artists like Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg (who comes across as the funniest dude) and Andy Warhol talk about their art. 4/5 (picture quality 2/5)