As different as they are, both films showcase Copeland’s dynamic range and knack for emotional arrangements (he’s a favored collaborator too, having worked with various filmmakers multiple times, including Loach and Dickerson). And they give you something to enjoy during the wait for Copeland’s next project, the profoundly awesome-looking Ben Hur Live, to hit a town near you!
The anthology film, a format in which several shorter stories are presented (often with a framing story for context), is a natural framework for the horror film. Given that many of the best known horror writers began with short stories (including Poe, Lovecraft, and King) the anthology horror film has literary precedents in magazines like Weird Tales.
The anthology horror film offers a nice parallel to a bag of Halloween candy: a variety of tastes, some better than others, and if the whole thing is ultimately kinda bad for you, at least it’s fun to just dive into. This being the season, Jaman is delighted to offer several anthology horror films that make ideal Halloween viewing. Indeed, the Trick or Treat segment of Visions of Horror offers a look at what you might be in for on October 31…
Meanwhile, Darna Mana Hai offers an intriguing Bollywood take on the anthology horror sub-genre. You can’t go wrong with the framing device of people telling stories around a campfire. Especially when the narrators start disappearing.
Finally, Ten Nights of Dreams is more an anthology fantasy, but we’re going to include it here because frankly it’s awesome. An imaginative film spun from the classic Japanese book by Natsume Sōseki, each of the book’s segments is realized by a different director, from veterans Kon Ichikawa and Akio Jissoji to horror masters Takashi Shimizu and Yuudai Yamaguchi.
And as always, you are extolled to pop by the Halloween thread in our Forums to let everyone know what’s spooking YOU this Halloween season!
I can’t believe we ever thought he was crazy. Harrelson is to be applauded for his vigilance against the zombie plague, and for stepping into an ages-old and diverse cinematic tradition in which movie characters and their real-life counterparts square off against the walking, hungry dead.
From the heroes of the Irish indie horror Dead Meat…
Since a couple of people have sent the link our way, the story’s too good not to share:
“…(Lauren) Bacall writes on her Twitter.com page, ‘Yes, I saw Twilight - my granddaughter made me watch it, she said it was the greatest vampire film ever. After the ‘film’ was over I wanted to smack her across her head with my shoe, but I do not want a (tell-all) book called Grannie Dearest written on me when I die. So instead I gave her a DVD of Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu and told her, ‘Now that’s a vampire film!’ And that goes for all of you! Watch Nosferatu instead!’
We could hardly have said it better ourselves and are prouder than ever to offer F.W. Murnau’s expressionistic vampire classic (”…the greatest vampire film ever made,” according to Slant Magazine) free right here on Jaman.
2009 has proven to be a busy year for world cinema, with many of the finest filmmakers releasing new material: The Hurt Locker marked the return of the much-missed Kathryn Bigelow to theatres; I just caught Park Chan-wook’s Cannes-prize-winning vampire romance Thirst (and liked it quite a bit); and Steven Soderbergh’s forthcoming The Informant! will be his fourth film to play in US theatres this year (after both parts of Che and The Girlfriend Experience).
It is often valuable (and almost always fun) to bone up on a filmmaker’s older work before seeing their new work on screen, and the experience of the most recent work is often enriched by this prior exposure. Happily, many filmmakers now bringing out new work have films available on Jaman. As mentioned in the previous entry, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are both opening films today, and their last films, Death Proof and Planet Terror, are both newly available on Jaman. It amuses this writer to ponder the radically different ways Rodriguez’s berserk, FX-driven creativity manifests in his two films (the gore-laden and sexy Planet Terror and the family-friendly Shorts), but I don’t doubt that similar artistic flourishes can be found in both films.
I’ve also noticed that Danish filmmaker Ole Christian Madsen also has a new film premiering on US screens this week, with his WWII resistance thriller Flame and Citron opening in arthouses across the country. The film reunites Madsen with frequent collaborator (and Jaman Top Ten Star) Mads Mikkelsen, and at least one of their previous collaborations, Prague, can be screened here on Jaman as well.
The two films originally played together in the omnibus three-hour movie Grindhouse. For their subsequent releases, the films have been recut by their respective directors into stand-alone features. Though Grindhouse bewildered many viewers upon its release, Planet Terror and Death Proof remain delightful (and delightfully profane) B-movie masterworks. With Rodriguez and Tarantino both releasing new work in the coming weeks (Rodriguez’ FX-heavy and kid-friendly Shorts; and Tarantino’s Brad-Pitt-vs-the-Nazis spaghetti Western Inglourious Basterds) it’s the perfect time to revisit these films.
And below is Machete, a fake trailer made by Rodriguez for the Grindhouse package, and a perfect introduction to the look, feel and spirit of either film:
Has anyone ever reflected that it isn’t just STUPID that music video channels no longer run music videos, but WRONG as well? Isn’t it a bit silly that MTV spends more time showing artists’ homes than they do their videos?
The internet has pretty much overtaken music video channels for showing music video. And even though music companies are cracking down on users posting music videos without their permission, more sensible companies are setting up their own YouTube channels to show archival music videos from their artists. Though there’s still plenty that’s not available on line, there’s still several libraries worth of audiovisual wonders – I startled myself this morning by finding an Arcadia video that a friend swore existed over 20 years ago but that I never saw (directed by Russell Mulcahy, no less).
And if, like me, you’re musically stuck in the 80s, do check out Australian Made, a lively concert documentary featuring many of Oz’s finest musicians. INXS’ performance of “Melting in the Sun” which opens the film is worth the rental fee on its own - there are other great performances from Models, The Saints, The Divynls, and I’m Talking (half of whom this 80s-loving scribe hadn’t even heard of).
The most compelling hero Hollywood’s given us so far this summer isn’t a hirsute superhero with adamantinum claws, or a headstrong starship captain (now revised with George Bush’s entitlement and daddy issues), or even the future leader of Earth’s resistance. It’s a square old man (physically, I mean) with a heavy heart and a floating house.
UP, the new film from Pixar, is possibly their most ambitious and complex work, and yet it offers a funny, accessible, and very sweet story. I don’t want to talk about that story in too much detail (it’s best to go into the movie as cold as possible). But the quest undertaken by the film’s two heroes - sullen 78-year-old Carl and rambunctious 8-year-old adventurer Russell - is a perfect balance between them. UP’s profound grasp of loss and longing makes it Pixar’s most adult feature yet (it comes by its PG rating honestly), but the whimsical and fantastic story is one that an eight-year-old would tell.
The movie’s subtlety extends to its effects. Technically, it’s gorgeous, and the 3-D effects are well-used to bring you into the world of the story, rather than wow you with stuff flying at the camera.
It’s definitely a film for everyone, grounded in emotional reality, aloft in the very heights of fantasy, and an adventure worthy of the spirits of its characters and its creators.
A discussion has been opened in our forums here - if and when you see the film, please stop back here to talk about it!
We’re always happy to hear word of a new film from any of our Top Ten Directors, but it had been a while since the fiery and provocative Lars von Trier has had a film to offer. We were intrigued by advance word that his new film, Antichrist, would be a horror film (and largely a two-hander at that, starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg). Well, Antichrist had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and though the reviews are split over the film, they’re passionate either way: Hollywood Elsewhere calls it “easily one of the biggest debacles in Cannes Film Festival history and the complete meltdown of a major film artist,” while Movieline hails Antichrist as “the most original and thought-provoking work von Trier has done since Breaking the Waves.”
This is hardly the first time a new von Trier film has aroused this kind of controversy. Love his work or hate it, it’s hard not to be challenged by it. Happily much of von Trier’s work is available here on Jaman, allowing you a chance to figure out where YOU stand on the work of this distinct and unique figure
Last night I was lucky enough to catch an advance screening of Tetro, the latest film by Francis Ford Coppola, in San Francisco’s East Bay. The film tells the story of Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich in a remarkable feature debut), a young sailor who takes the advantage of a few days downtime in Buenos Aires to look up his seriously estranged older brother Angelo, who settled there years prior. Angelo (Vincent Gallo) has forsaken all ties with his family, and redubbed himself Tetro. The reunion of the brothers initiates a chain of events that includes the rediscovery of some lost writings, and the revelation of several long-buried, painful secrets.
The first three minutes of the film can be seen here.
The film is certainly a new masterpiece from Coppola - the story is moving and compelling, and it’s delivered in high style. Looking over the short list of Coppola’s favorites of his own oeuvre, one finds many commonalities with Tetro: the film echoes the road movie aspects of The Rain People; the timeless B&W cinematography and tale of brothers in extremis recalls Rumble Fish; and the collaborators include editor Walter Murch (a key player on both The Conversation and Apocalypse Now), cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. and composer Osvaldo Golijov (the latter two key players on Coppola’s previous film Youth Without Youth). The film feels like one of Coppola’s most personal films, and its commonalities with these other works suggests that it’s been gestating long in the director’s mind.
The evening concluded with a generous Q&A by Coppola’s producer/long-time cohort Anahid Nazarian, who offered background on the film’s genesis and production. The film was loosely-based on Coppola’s relationship with his own older brother, and the story initially took the form of a five-page treatment Coppola composed at age 19 (in this incarnation, the story was set in working-class Detroit, where the brothers Coppola grew up). Ms. Nazarian also noted that the notoriously tempestuous Gallo was an ideal on-set collaborator, and that Coppola had never seemed to have as much fun with a single actor as he did with Gallo during Tetro’s 70-day shoot. When asked which of Coppola’s films was her favorite, her immediate reply was simply “This one.”
After its screening in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, Tetro’s set to open wide in Europe. Here in the US the film is being self-distributed by Coppola’s company, American Zoetrope, and will open next month in seven cities. Here’s hoping the film garners enough success to spread to more cities throughout the summer – meanwhile, Jaman’s US viewers can enjoy The Conversation right here:
Viewing Peter Greenaway’s marvelous, mind-expanding essay filmRembrandt’s J’accuse at the SF International Film Fest last night was like skimming the wildest art history text. The film lays out many (31, to be precise) mysteries surrounding Rembrandt’s famous painting The Night Watch. One of many digressions was a mention of the assassination of Theo van Gogh, a controversial and outspoken Dutch filmmaker killed by radical Islamist Mohammed Bouyeri. Though the circumstances surrounding van Gogh’s death tend to go against the Italian connection suggested by Greenaway, I was delighted to have my memory jogged.
van Gogh is a favorite here at Jaman – his dedication to free speech and his intense political engagement with the issues facing Holland and the world fuelled a remarkable body of work, both visceral and personal. Ironically, the film he was finishing at the time of his murder, May 6th, was itself spun from the events surrounding the assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. The film’s page is here; the trailer’s below.
Additionally, van Gogh’s earlier feature Cool!, a work about (and starring) juvenile delinquents, is also available.
American television is rife with them: familiar faces that deliver subliminal but memorable comedic bits and then disappear. Sometimes, like Flo above, they become downright ubiquitous – it’s hard to imagine spending a couple of hours within the American TV landscape these days without running into Flo at least once. She’s become an incredibly popular spokesfiction for Progressive Insurance – their business has picked up considerably since introducing her to America, and many people are unaccountably smitten with the perky, white-uniformed lady.
After doing some digging into her origins (being not completely immune to her charms myself), I’ve found that Flo is played by actor/comedian Stephanie Courtney. Like many actors playing those memorable but anonymous comedic bits you see on television, Courtney is a veteran of the Groundlings, a Los Angeles improv comedy team that has trained some of our best-known and most loved funny people (including half the cast of Saturday Night Live – the other half come from the equally storied and largely-Chicago-based Second City).
Pleased was I to find that we had some of Ms. Courtney’s earlier work right here on Jaman. Flo-fans (or just those seeking quality, quirky comedy) are hereby commended to Melvin Goes To Dinner, a quietly funny film directed by Bob Odenkirk (himself an insanely funny person from the Chicago side, best known for HBO’s Mr. Show). Courtney is but one of several solid comedic talents on view in the film, an award-winning, low-budget adult comedy. You’ve been warned. Enjoy!
