a seemingly random journey through cinema's heart of darkness. so to speak.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

YouTubing-to-Obscure-Shameless-Self-Promotion...Sunday Evenings

I'm pretty sure this blog has devolved into either me plugging my writing alongside quickly chosen YouTube clips or me apologizing for not plugging my writing alongside quickly chosen YouTube clips. Meanwhile, as my sidebar now says in bold, I actually do update my Twitter page, figuring that something (i.e., 140 characters or less) is better than nothing at all. I've not decided where this blog is heading, but I feel, in the spirit of the recent, violent change of the seasons here on the Northeast Coast, I should decide on something. You'll hear about it soon as I decide what that something will be.

Anywho, treading on. In honor of Anton Corbijn's Ian Curtis biopic Control, for which I have mixed feelings, here's possibly my favorite stretch from another movie partially about Joy Division, Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People. Winterbottom's rollicking, pomo-heavy style is lightyears removed from Corbijn's flat and forbodingly gray work, which plays like one of his photos of Joy Divison sprung to (inert) life. All things considered, I think I prefer Winterbottom's worldview, at least here. All across the film, he's about knocking legends off their pedastal, reducing famed meetings and landmark decisions to tossed-off, anticlimactic occurrences. Here, Martin Hannett (played by Gollum) agrees to produce Joy Division purely for the cash and in mere seconds. Later, Winterbottom shows them listening to the final mix of "She's Lost Control" in a beat-up car. It's a moment the movie Once stole then completely fucked up by letting the song take over the soundtrack -- not, as here, recording the shitty sound from inside the car along with the band oohing and ahhing over it.

Sorry for the anamorphic squeeze:



Weekly! From 10/31 A Six Pack on Godly movies for the Godless (mostly Dreyer and Dreyer-influenced), reviews of Terror's Advocate and the Branagh/Pinter Sleuth, and Rep.

From 10/24 A Six Pack on sightly B&W movies from the last decade in honor of Control, which I review here, along with Reservation Road, O Jerusalem and Bella, which are all big pieces of shit. Also, Rep.

posted by matt prigge at 6:13 PM |

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

YouTubing-To-Obscure-Shameless-Self-Promotion Wednesdays: Sorry 'bout the Wait

Yeah, no excuses. Just a very particular combination of busy and lazy. (I have, however, been rather good at keeping up my Twitter page. Go there for near-daily updates.) Here's the Shameless Plugs from the many weeks I've been gone.

Let's start with today's issue. Firstly, I did a web-exclusive interview with Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola that went up Monday. I also mentioned Anderson in my Six Pack, which concerned directors who should act more (as opposed to those who should act less, like good old QT). Also, a review of Kurt Cobain: About a Son and Rep.

From the 10/10. A biggish article on locale niche film fests, in honor of the just-beginning Terror Film Festival, a review of We Own the Night and Rep. I also did a Six Pack on movies about rich white people abroad, in honor of The Darjeeling Limited. One of the entries was Kip Pardue's mindmelting, Ugly Americanish jaunt around Europe from The Rules of Attraction and this week's YouTube! Whee!



From the 10/3. A Six Pack on American westerns directed by foreign-born directors (i.e., no Spaghetti Westerns) in honor of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Cowards at Warner Bros. Also, reviews of The Last Winter and Lust, Caution, where I actually got the phrase "Tony Leung's nut sac" into print. Lastly, Rep.

posted by matt prigge at 6:58 PM |