Dunno if anyone’s noticed, but I worked my last day at FiT many weeks ago…
I send this final message from the beyond to thank Karl for posting a link (to the right) to Lucid Screening , a film criticism site that I regularly write movie reviews for (Jeff writes there too, on average about once every six months). Thanks Karl!
Oh, and what the hell is the Mariner’s problem?!
Man, here’s a guy with ups and downs. He had a fantastic one-two punch in the early ’70s, with The French Connection (for which Friedkin won an oscar) and The Exorcist. His next film, Sorcerer (a remake of The Wages of Fear), was a box office flop, but it’s a really good film in any case, and even compares favorably with the excellent original.
After that came the reviled-by-many Cruising (finally coming to DVD September 18) and the uneven To Live and Die in L.A. (which, I know, has its defenders). Then came TV movies, TV episodes, and the awful-by-any-standard Jade.
The Hunted, from 2003, is by no means prime Friedkin, but showed that he had some energy and flair left in the tank.
And now, out on DVD on September 25, is his newest, Bug. I haven’t seen it yet. Anyone else? Where does it fall on the Friedkin scale?
New Releases:
New Releases (TV Series):
New Arrivals & Customer Requests:
New Releases:
New Arrivals:
Yes, it is actually happening. The complete Twin Peaks series will finally be released in
October 2007!
This includes two versions of the elusive Pilot episode, seasons 1 and 2, and bits and pieces of special features and retrospective. The only part of the Twin Peaks catalog missing from this box set is Fire Walk With Me, but that is already available seperately. The 2nd season was released a couple of months ago, while the 1st season has been out of print for quite some time, and the pilot has never been available in the States (our own copy is an import).
Start saving up kiddies, October isn’t too far away.
I couldn’t turn away, I couldn’t breath, it had me and wasn’t letting go, which is exactly what I wanted. Such is Inland Empire.
I have been waiting for Inland Empire to come to DVD for months now, since I never leave Bellingham (it played in Seattle for a bit) and it didn’t get picked up by the Pickford, I was quite ready for Lynch to back up his 3 hour exploration into stringing a series of smaller clips/stories into a larger context. Zack had seen it down in Seattle, and when asked, all he could really say was that it could only be experienced not dictated. Another friend of mine said the same, so this was my chance.
With IE Lynch doesn’t really push us into unfamiliar territory, utilizing the same interpretive characters and faint wisps of a plot to keep us engaged, while maintaining mystery and breaths of abstraction. Perhaps the biggest departure for Lynch is the noticeable use of digital photography, to which he has stated he will never go back to film in favor of the quick and easy digital medium. It was actually a bit distracting for me at times, especially during really dark scenes (which makes up most of the film) at which pixelation and crude layering occur, but I have a semi-permanent distaste for digital cameras in the first place, and you eventually get used to it. I do appreciate the fact that Lynch decided to do everything as low-budget as possible, the special effects are simple and do not distract from the actual story (something I’d say 99% of most films do nowadays), and you can always count on a literal spotlight or two to be used to highlight important moments. I’m not a fan of traditional theatre, but Lynch uses some techniques from the stage that work well on screen.
Overall, it kept me awake at 3 in the A.M., and there is certainly a lot to be said for that. I found my heart beating insanely at points, nervous and thankful for the rare bits of comical relief that break up the otherwise constant thriller (both the ketchup scene and the Jeremy Irons/gaffer interaction left me in stitches). Laura Dern shows us a role that I can now only really see her playing, and deserves her acclaim. I’d like to say more, but as was told to me before, you have to see it to really even know where to begin.
I will say that fans of Lynch will be happy with his latest effort, and those who don’t care for him probably should avoid this one. This is not a film to be watched on a whim, but one for which you prepare to be challenged as a viewer and prepare for glory…oh wait…no, that’s not right…
In light of my recently listed favorites, I felt an urge to also note a man who has done many over the years in direct contrast to the blasé movie posters of the modern day, subversively influencing me in my illustrious pursuits through his works for years to come.
Drew Struzan is possibly the most recognizable poster artists of all time. This is largely because of his paintings being attached to many popular films (such as the Back to the Future Trilogy, Indiana Jones Trilogy, Star Wars Hexalogy, and films by John Carpenter to name very few). Everyone has seen his work at one time or another, but the artist’s name is often sidelined in such cases (ah…the life of an illustrator).
I was actually surprised to see him still cranking them out, if even for Torrente 3 and Labou, while also making some that go unused for such films as Pan’s Labyrinth and Zathura, it seems his moment in the spotlight is limited to the 80’s and an urgency for nostalgia amongst DVD covers and re-releases, but Mr. Struzan has made his mark on the history of cinema, whether the general public realizes this or not.
Here are two sites where you can browse some of his catalog of work.
Inspired by Tyler’s post, here are five of my favorite movie villains (in no particular order).
Christian Szell, Marathon Man
The Baseball Furies, The Warriors
Raymond Lemorne, The Vanishing (Spoorloos)
Wez, The Road Warrior
Bill the Butcher, Gangs of New York
Who are some of your favorite villains?
I listen to a lot of music, but rarely to film soundtracks. I honestly can’t think of very many that stand on their own as albums; nor necessarily should they - good film music oughta be inseparable from the images it accompanies. This excludes the more prevalent modern tendency to use a collection of pop songs to score a film. That’s an art unto itself, and one I admire: Kubrick, Scorsese, Tarantino, Charles Burnett, Wes Anderson, etc. all have as remarkable ears as they do eyes, and the talent and imagination to combine image and sound to create something new and memorable from the two. But the examples I’m giving here are original scores - music specifically written and recorded for a film.
I’m not a musician and I can’t write technically about it (for example: I still don’t understand what a “chord” is, and I doubt I ever will despite many people’s attempts to explain it to me) but I think I can talk about why this music works in each film, or at least why I like it and think it’s worth your interest.
First up is Lalo Schifrin’s amazing score for the original Dirty Harry film, directed by Don Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Shootist). Schifrin’s most familiar tune is probably the Mission: Impossible “lit fuse” theme, but he’s composed music for dozens of other notable films and TV shows, and collaborated with a surprising variety of musicians including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Diana Ross and Quincy Jones. And of course his work has been sampled by the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, N.W.A., Cypress Hill, Portishead, etc.
