The Beautiful Bearded Men of Cinema # 1

General Zod from the 1980 flick, Superman II

Not For A First Date

Just got notification from Lovefilm that they’ve broken down the flaming barriers of the Royal Mail picket lines and have some flicks winging their way to me as we speak. I’ve been waiting a while for this title since watching a documentary on Blaxploitation cinema, an under-researched era from a personal point of view.

Can you imagine putting this little beauty on for a new girlfriend, or when your mum came to visit?……. It has the potential to be wrong on so many levels….. We’ll wait and see.

Enjoy this little snippet in the meantime, the French subtitles come at no extra cost.

Corman Meets Poe

It feels like a country age since I last put up a post of substance. Please accept my apologies for the slackness on the blog front as I’m writing my dissertation and the treatment / script for the next flick which will be shooting sometime around March / April. We’re currently in the process of cleaning up The Three Tenners for entry into next years Edinburgh International Film Festival so everything that can be crossed, is crossed for that.

The dissertation is on the subject of adaptation which has meant watching tons of interesting flicks. I’m on a little strand of the Roger Corman / Edgar Allan Poe adaptations so it’s maybe right I should bring some of this stuff to your attention, should you have seen them or not. There’s 8 of them in total which Corman made between 1960 and 1964….. That’s almost 2 flicks a year, and he was making films in between! 5 day features man, bring em’ back. Well I suppose Shane Meadows already has with Le Donk.

Anyway, here they are in chronological order….. Seek them out!

House of Usher (1960)

Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

The Premature Burial (1962)

Tales of Terror (1962)

The Raven (1963)

The Haunted Palace (1963)

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

The Bedroom Film Festival

It’s been a long time since every minute of the waking day was taken up with watching flicks. Saturday was such a day. rather than write about them I’ll let them speak for themselves in all their poster glory. It’s better that way…….

They look pretty cool together I think, it was a fantastic day in.

A Rediscovered Exercise in Homage

Now that the main body of work for Chodzenie – Siberia is over, I’m turning my attention to little loose ends that require tying up before I start writing the next script.

While flicking through the stuff on my hard drive, I came across this exercise we did at film school about 2 years ago. The brief was to go out and make a 2 minute music video and, being in the midst of an intensive Woody Allen binge, I thought that tribute should be paid the only way I know how.

Those of you who know the film MANHATTAN will get it immediately, those who don’t should see it immediately. The feedback I was given at the time was the idea was smart but I could have done with shooting for another day. Fact of the matter was, my partner in this exercise, who was supposed to be shooting second unit, got drunk the night before and never shot a minute so the film became a solo project and I went with what I had. The only reason I’m putting it up now is I only just desaturated it tonight and some shots are worth looking at now it’s in black and white.

My girlfriend Cindy thinks I have a rather grim opinion of Edinburgh judging by the footage I chose for the sequence……. I’d tend to agree. It’s positively grim though.

An Afternoon With Bruce and Mike

……….So I arrive back in my homeland last night after 12 hours of travel preceded by 2 months of the most challenging work I’ve ever done.

Another 30 Bird project has been successfully completed. Check out their website HERE.

After spending 4 hours back at the day job this morning, the urge to go on a flick binge hit me like an angry woman, it was kept pretty contemporary.

Based on the article “A Farewell To Arms” by John Carlin (check out the link incidently, it’s an interesting read) this flick brings back the unstoppable John McClane who is tasked, once again, with thwarting the intentions of a determined (and way too sharp looking) band of terrorists.

This is a quite different fight however.

Now there’s a hell of a lot of shooting and blowing up in this flick but the main fight, or should I say attack, is carried out by subverting the computer systems that run the mechanics of everyday life. Automated systems that are taken for granted to the point of being invisible are turned against the masses. From traffic lights, to the rail network to the FAA mainframe to every CCTV camera in any given place, these terrorists are all about remote devastation and they’re bloody good at what they do. With the click of a mouse and some furious key tapping, chaos reigns. It is, as John Carlin intimates in his article, I-War. Not to be confused, under ANY circumstances, with I-Robot………

Structurally the picture is simple. McClane is given a normal sounding job to pick up a computer hacker for the feds. Said hacker turns out to have unknowingly been writing programmes for the bad guys and is now a target for extermination as he’s served his purpose. Both worlds collide in a gorgeous example of overblown cinematic coincidence which leaves McClane and his weedy, but super smart sidekick to try to save the world with apparently no help at all from…… Well, anyone.

Helicopter Pilots Beware: Cars CAN Kill

I found this film to be a lot of fun. you know what you’re getting from a Die Hard movie and this example makes no attempt to insert any Felliniesque flourishes. McClane survives so much in this flick that it’s often on the verge of becoming ridiculous (Jet fighter anyone?) but you forgive it as the action sequences are well constructed and work in the context of the flick. If you start poking holes in plot or character structure the whole thing collapses of course but, unlike Transformers, you don’t get bored and you don’t despise the filmmaker for burning / wasting enough cash to fund a decades worth of independant production……. The director here even waits until the final stand of scene to unveil the “Yippe-Ki-Yeh” …… We all knew it was coming.

Second up and sourced for free from the good folks at Lovefilm is the 2009 James Toback documentary Tyson

Many reviews for this film berate James Toback for the pun loaded reason of pulling his punches, I completely disagree.

This movie is constructed like a confessional. The only time the camera diverts from Tyson is to show footage of either Mike at work in the ring or clips of the people that were influential in his life. Now he doesn’t confess to rape on film and goes so far as to call Miss Washington “wretched” and this is the main bone of contention amongst critics. “Why didn’t Toback press him on this?” they cry in blinkered unison. For me it’s clear. Tyson has, all through his life, been his own worst enemy and he does exactly the same here. The words are his, they’re said in the comfort of his home with no pressure on him forcing him into a corner. Toback’s camera is merely recording this man verbally fabricating the rope he’ll use to hang himself.

It’s a facinating insight into the mind of a man who was the perfect product of his environment, only to be plucked from that environment and be lauded as a king. For all his wrongdoing he is extremely candid, sometimes profound and occasionally sweet. All this despite honesty where it mattered most.

Here’s a taste.

Meet The Sister

Warning!!! Gratuitous new blog plug imminent……

www.mundanedays.wordpress.com

It’s a much needed place I can throw my oar in about all non-movie related stuff. Self indulgent therapy if you will.

Feel free to drop by and put my factual inaccuracies right.

A Killer Filler

It’s been many days since the last post. I find myself buried in a complex edit whilst bouncing around the script for my next flick.

The edit’s going well and should be ready for departure date, where I head down south to show thing a week on Monday. It’s all a bit experimental, I hope to post a bit on the site soon.

Life hasn’t been without movies. My good buddy David Nicklen and I took in the new Tarantino flick INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS which has a lot wrong with it but is given, in my view, unfair treatment, especially in the more highbrow of cinema publications. More on that soon.

I was thinking about Tarantino though. Quentin has given me many moments of cinematic glee over the years and I’m willing to stick up for the dude. Here’s my opening statement.

And All Free Today

The good folks at Sight and Sound magazine have an inside cover ad for a new website that’s sprung up showing interesting indie movies…… FOR FREE!!

There’s not a huge amount on there as the thing is very much in its infancy but it’d be good to drum up some support in the hope the site expands and offers up lots of little known gems for us to enjoy en masse.

One flick I did notice was the 2001 Ray Lawrence film LANTANA. I recall seeing this picture in an Australian double bill with SOMERSAULT and being HUGELY impressed by it, so much so that I bought it as a Christmas present for someone.

If I get time this week (things are still heaving busy) I may take in a flick, blog about it, then demand you watch it for yourselves. After all, there’s no excuse not to……

Check it out:

http://www.indiemoviesonline.com

Headin’ South

I’m in the middle of my 3rd collaboration with 30bird productions and leave today for a week of filming and wandering in London town.

Don’t be having any mad parties and remember to feed the cat.