The man was an American institution, and even if his name was somewhat synonymous with establishment pop music, there was a gentle integrity there, and he played gamely along even when confronted with a moment like this:
We'll miss you, Dick.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Happy Alfred Hitchcock Day?
Yes, indeed, for reasons we can't, at a glance, find, March 12th is National Alfred Hitchcock Day. Though we don't necessarily need a reason to honor the Master of Suspense, we're happy offer a number of means of doing so.
You can check out projects that might have been, a fascinating series of projects that Hitchcock was, for one reason or another, unable to realize.
And, at no charge, you can watch Hitchcock's 1935 thriller The 39 Steps right here on Jaman!
You can check out projects that might have been, a fascinating series of projects that Hitchcock was, for one reason or another, unable to realize.
And, at no charge, you can watch Hitchcock's 1935 thriller The 39 Steps right here on Jaman!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Herzog goes into the abyss
In 2000 the small town of Conroe, Texas was shaken by a triple murder perpetrated by a pair of teenagers. Last year, filmmaker Werner Herzog (long fascinated by issues of imprisonment and crime) interviewed the killers (one on Death Row days before his execution, the other serving a life sentence), as well as family members and law enforcement officials involved in the crime and several people involved at various levels in the workings of capital punishment. Also included are anecdotes from local citizens, each with an unusually close relationship to death and violence, that make one wonder if there's some strange cloud of chaos hovering over Conroe.
The resulting film, Into The Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life, is one of Herzog's most probing and moving works in recent memory. Herzog's reputation has blossomed in recent years into this stentorian, nearly self-parodic diatribist railing regularly against the cruelty of nature. He seems strangely humbled by his subject matter here; his now trademark narration is gone, and there's an earnestness and humanity in his voice even as he talks to the darkest of his subjects.
But as revealing as this film is of Herzog, it's the humanity of his subjects that resonates. A lesser film would have called more attention to the incongruities that gently appear throughout the film (such as the lip service paid to Christianity, despite the ongoing violations of "thou shalt not kill"), but in letting the subjects speak (quietly, despairingly, angrily, resolutely) for themselves, the film gives us a much more powerful, and weirdly hopeful, picture of the humanity that exists even in these unlikely environs. It's a film you won't soon forget, and we hope you'll comment below and let us know what you thought of it.
The resulting film, Into The Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life, is one of Herzog's most probing and moving works in recent memory. Herzog's reputation has blossomed in recent years into this stentorian, nearly self-parodic diatribist railing regularly against the cruelty of nature. He seems strangely humbled by his subject matter here; his now trademark narration is gone, and there's an earnestness and humanity in his voice even as he talks to the darkest of his subjects.
But as revealing as this film is of Herzog, it's the humanity of his subjects that resonates. A lesser film would have called more attention to the incongruities that gently appear throughout the film (such as the lip service paid to Christianity, despite the ongoing violations of "thou shalt not kill"), but in letting the subjects speak (quietly, despairingly, angrily, resolutely) for themselves, the film gives us a much more powerful, and weirdly hopeful, picture of the humanity that exists even in these unlikely environs. It's a film you won't soon forget, and we hope you'll comment below and let us know what you thought of it.
Monday, October 31, 2011
ten for Halloween.
Though the site remains desolate as we continue the upgrade, who're we to deny this, our favorite holiday?
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3. Arbogast wraps up this year's edition of 31 Screams.
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8. Stacie Ponder is wrapping up Shocktober 2011 over on Final Girl.
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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3. Arbogast wraps up this year's edition of 31 Screams.
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8. Stacie Ponder is wrapping up Shocktober 2011 over on Final Girl.
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Interim!
As you've likely observed, the Jaman site is down for maintenance and upgrades. This is only a temporary (if indefinite) outage, but we're hoping that our services will be improved (and our offerings will increase) at the end of it. Please bear with us.
Meanwhile, we'll continue to relate noteworthy items of film news here. Among other things, our favorite Halloween events in the blogosphere (including 31 Screams over at Arbogast on Film and Shocktober at Final Girl), began over the weekend, so do check them out!
More dispatches from Jaman HQ soon!
Monday, September 26, 2011
DRIVEN!
After months of looking forward to seeing Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive (which we previously mentioned during our Cannes Film Fest wrap-up), we caught it opening day and were absolutely delighted with it.
Ten things!
-Lead actor Ryan Gosling and Refn, during the shoot, removed most of Gosling's dialogue, but he still makes an uncanny impression in each and every one of his scenes.
-Gosling, it seems, was allowed to pick his director for this film, and to his credit Refn was his first and only choice. The result is the best of all possibles when a foreign filmmaker makes his Hollywood debut: Refn is clearly working with some of the greatest craftspeople of his career, and given a great deal of free reign with the style and subject matter. If the result is perhaps less action packed than other crime films out presently, it makes the movies rare scenes of violence stand out more shockingly. And allows Refn to capture hundreds of quiet, crystalline moments and lovely character details throughout this minimalistic story.
-Word has it that Albert Brooks is likely headed for an Oscar nomination for his work here. This is completely deserved.
-And yet Bryan Cranston is just as good in his own role as the broken down mechanic who builds Gosling's vehicles. There's no sign whatsoever of Walter White, Cranston's signature role, and Cranston endows Shannon with a subtly realized broken-down grace.
-But the whole ensemble's very, very strong, with Carey Mulligan bringing weariness and quiet strength to what could have been an otherwise thankless role, and Ron Perlman finding a pleasing softness beneath his very rough-hewn physiognomy.
-As appropriate to a car-based crime film, this thing just moves. There's a strong 80s feel to the film, from the pink cursive typography of the credits through the old school electro on the soundtrack to Gosling's American Gigolo-ish isolation. Yet somehow it betrays all these influences without feeling self-consciously retro in the slightest.
-Outside the songs on the soundtrack, the action is propelled by a lovely, minimalist, and brittle electronic score by Cliff Martinez that speaks to the volumes of danger and menace lurking beneath the surfaces of this gorgeous film.
-We're damned if we can figure out how it was inspired by the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
-Still, it's one of our favorite Hollywood films of the year.
-And, quite possibly, Refn's best.
Ten things!
-Lead actor Ryan Gosling and Refn, during the shoot, removed most of Gosling's dialogue, but he still makes an uncanny impression in each and every one of his scenes.
-Gosling, it seems, was allowed to pick his director for this film, and to his credit Refn was his first and only choice. The result is the best of all possibles when a foreign filmmaker makes his Hollywood debut: Refn is clearly working with some of the greatest craftspeople of his career, and given a great deal of free reign with the style and subject matter. If the result is perhaps less action packed than other crime films out presently, it makes the movies rare scenes of violence stand out more shockingly. And allows Refn to capture hundreds of quiet, crystalline moments and lovely character details throughout this minimalistic story.
-Word has it that Albert Brooks is likely headed for an Oscar nomination for his work here. This is completely deserved.
-And yet Bryan Cranston is just as good in his own role as the broken down mechanic who builds Gosling's vehicles. There's no sign whatsoever of Walter White, Cranston's signature role, and Cranston endows Shannon with a subtly realized broken-down grace.
-But the whole ensemble's very, very strong, with Carey Mulligan bringing weariness and quiet strength to what could have been an otherwise thankless role, and Ron Perlman finding a pleasing softness beneath his very rough-hewn physiognomy.
-As appropriate to a car-based crime film, this thing just moves. There's a strong 80s feel to the film, from the pink cursive typography of the credits through the old school electro on the soundtrack to Gosling's American Gigolo-ish isolation. Yet somehow it betrays all these influences without feeling self-consciously retro in the slightest.
-Outside the songs on the soundtrack, the action is propelled by a lovely, minimalist, and brittle electronic score by Cliff Martinez that speaks to the volumes of danger and menace lurking beneath the surfaces of this gorgeous film.
-We're damned if we can figure out how it was inspired by the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
-Still, it's one of our favorite Hollywood films of the year.
-And, quite possibly, Refn's best.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Halloween horrors!
It's saddened me, the last coupla years, that there just don't seem to be as many horror films in wide release around Halloween. Ironically, though Hollywood's skimping on its horror fare in recent years, this weekend saw two fantastic events in Tinseltown that kept the Halloween Horror spirit alive.
The schlock horror omnibus CHILLERAMA isn't the first film to screen at the scenic Hollywood Forever Cemetery, but it was weirdly appropriate. Not so much for the subject matter of its increasingly delirious and wilfully offensive chapters (the most ingenious being "The Diary of Anne Frankenstein") but for its genuine earnestness in depicting and paying hommage to the drive-in movie experience. The filmmakers seem united in their dislike of the notion of the death of cult film as communal event (with some harsh words toward the notion of viewing a film on your iPhone), but, more positively, they reveled in the notion of premiering the film in such a lovely venue, in front of hundreds of simpatico horror fans. The communal aspect extends to the segments of the film itself, each giddy with the glee of good friends and colleagues (including a diverse array of horror movie regulars) coming together to create and celebrate the creepy, funny, and very very wrong films that we all love.
Meanwhile, the very next night, the HP Lovecraft Film Festival hit San Pedro for its second year, offering a slew of directly and indirectly Lovecraftian films. Per the vision of the author, the films captured horror of a somewhat cosmic bent, from the invocation of elder gods to the insanity that hits when we cross the threshold to other realms. But the most special film in the festival's first night was Berkeley Square, a delightful and romantic time travel opus from 1933. Seen by Lovecraft four times during its initial run (who was inspired by the film to create and finish disparate works from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward to The Shadow Out Of Time), the film made a new premiere in the form of a painstakingly restored 35mm print that we seriously hope will make the rounds in the coming months. On Halloween or not, it deserves your eyes and attention.
There's a thread in our Forums to discuss the horror movies you see in the next few weeks - if something freaks you out and gets you in the Halloween spirit, how about stopping there and telling us about it?
The schlock horror omnibus CHILLERAMA isn't the first film to screen at the scenic Hollywood Forever Cemetery, but it was weirdly appropriate. Not so much for the subject matter of its increasingly delirious and wilfully offensive chapters (the most ingenious being "The Diary of Anne Frankenstein") but for its genuine earnestness in depicting and paying hommage to the drive-in movie experience. The filmmakers seem united in their dislike of the notion of the death of cult film as communal event (with some harsh words toward the notion of viewing a film on your iPhone), but, more positively, they reveled in the notion of premiering the film in such a lovely venue, in front of hundreds of simpatico horror fans. The communal aspect extends to the segments of the film itself, each giddy with the glee of good friends and colleagues (including a diverse array of horror movie regulars) coming together to create and celebrate the creepy, funny, and very very wrong films that we all love.
Meanwhile, the very next night, the HP Lovecraft Film Festival hit San Pedro for its second year, offering a slew of directly and indirectly Lovecraftian films. Per the vision of the author, the films captured horror of a somewhat cosmic bent, from the invocation of elder gods to the insanity that hits when we cross the threshold to other realms. But the most special film in the festival's first night was Berkeley Square, a delightful and romantic time travel opus from 1933. Seen by Lovecraft four times during its initial run (who was inspired by the film to create and finish disparate works from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward to The Shadow Out Of Time), the film made a new premiere in the form of a painstakingly restored 35mm print that we seriously hope will make the rounds in the coming months. On Halloween or not, it deserves your eyes and attention.
There's a thread in our Forums to discuss the horror movies you see in the next few weeks - if something freaks you out and gets you in the Halloween spirit, how about stopping there and telling us about it?
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