US, Blow Up Pictures / Flan De Coco Films
Director: Miguel Arteta
Screenwriter: Mike White
Cast: Mike White (Buck), Chris Weitz (Chuck), Paul Weitz (Sam)
Note: Weitz brothers are directors and screenwriters of About A Boy.
Beautiful film. Sentimental but genuine.
February 25, 2006
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
US, Paramount
Director: Preston Sturges
Cast: Joel McCrea (John L. Sullivan), Veronica Lake (The Girl)
Astonishing. Mix of genres, ideology imbeded within plot, but the weight of the issue it discuss not a bit washed away by its comedy form. Sullivan's Travels keep changing its tones, but perfectly fused to serve the ground it stands for.
Director: Preston Sturges
Cast: Joel McCrea (John L. Sullivan), Veronica Lake (The Girl)
Astonishing. Mix of genres, ideology imbeded within plot, but the weight of the issue it discuss not a bit washed away by its comedy form. Sullivan's Travels keep changing its tones, but perfectly fused to serve the ground it stands for.
February 22, 2006
I WANT
1. Marry a rock star (preferably like one on the right).
2. Have a apartment/office in Hamlet.
3. Look like Julia Roberts in Closer. At least have her cloth when she is photographing Jude Law.
4. Have a life. And yes, you are having it right now, make the best of it.
Closer (2004)
US, Columbia Pictures / Inside Track
Director: Mike Nichols
Cast: Julia Roberts (Anna), Jude Law (Dan),
Natalie Portman (Alice), Clive Owen (Larry)
Beautiful script. Decisive and precise jumpcuts. Well performanced. Both sweet fairytale and bitter urban story.
Director: Mike Nichols
Cast: Julia Roberts (Anna), Jude Law (Dan),
Natalie Portman (Alice), Clive Owen (Larry)
Beautiful script. Decisive and precise jumpcuts. Well performanced. Both sweet fairytale and bitter urban story.
February 21, 2006
Hamlet (2000)
US, Miramax
Director / Screenwriter: Michael Almereyda
Cast: Ethan Hawke (Hamlet), Kyle MacLachlan (Claudius),
Sam Shepard (The Ghost), Diane Venora (Gertrude),
Bill Murray (Polonius), Liev Schreiber ( Laertes),
Julia Stiles (Ophelia), Karl Geary (Horatio)
Very good adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Set in New York, 2000, but keep all the language in the play. The ancient language beautifully blended into nowadays modern settings (including well-designed offices and of coures, the Guggenheim). It seems that the eternal story of Shakespeare is so powerful that what language it use doesn't matter anymore. Or thanks to the nature performance of the actors (maybe not Ethan Hawke and Julia Stiles, sometimes, monologue indeed is not easy), the story did come alive in it's reincarnation in 2000.
Though it is kind of wired to hear Hamlet doing his famous "to be or not to be" speech while walking among the aisles of Blockbuster (among other product placement), the young and perished images of actors in background videos do show the unique power of using the new media to express the classic. Beautiful photography with clips from other films used in Hamlet successfully transfer written words into images.
Director / Screenwriter: Michael Almereyda
Cast: Ethan Hawke (Hamlet), Kyle MacLachlan (Claudius),
Sam Shepard (The Ghost), Diane Venora (Gertrude),
Bill Murray (Polonius), Liev Schreiber ( Laertes),
Julia Stiles (Ophelia), Karl Geary (Horatio)
Very good adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Set in New York, 2000, but keep all the language in the play. The ancient language beautifully blended into nowadays modern settings (including well-designed offices and of coures, the Guggenheim). It seems that the eternal story of Shakespeare is so powerful that what language it use doesn't matter anymore. Or thanks to the nature performance of the actors (maybe not Ethan Hawke and Julia Stiles, sometimes, monologue indeed is not easy), the story did come alive in it's reincarnation in 2000.
Though it is kind of wired to hear Hamlet doing his famous "to be or not to be" speech while walking among the aisles of Blockbuster (among other product placement), the young and perished images of actors in background videos do show the unique power of using the new media to express the classic. Beautiful photography with clips from other films used in Hamlet successfully transfer written words into images.
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
USA, MGM
Director: George Cukor (My Fair Lady, A Star is Born)
Cast: Katharine Hepbure (Tracy Lord), Cary Grant (C.K. Dexter Haven),
James Steward (Macauley Connor), Ruth Hussey (Liz Imbrie)
Stardom is dead today, and we have no goddess to worship, either. Hepburn, Grant and Steward, you will never find any three stars in Hollywood today to replace them, and expect the same glamour you got from these three.
Director: George Cukor (My Fair Lady, A Star is Born)
Cast: Katharine Hepbure (Tracy Lord), Cary Grant (C.K. Dexter Haven),
James Steward (Macauley Connor), Ruth Hussey (Liz Imbrie)
Stardom is dead today, and we have no goddess to worship, either. Hepburn, Grant and Steward, you will never find any three stars in Hollywood today to replace them, and expect the same glamour you got from these three.
February 20, 2006
2001: A Space Odyssy (1968)
US/UK, MGM
Director / Producer / Screenwriter / Special Effects: Stanley Kubrick
Screenwriter / Book Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Timeless masterpiece. Poetic cinematography. Breath taking, mind blowing.
Director / Producer / Screenwriter / Special Effects: Stanley Kubrick
Screenwriter / Book Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Timeless masterpiece. Poetic cinematography. Breath taking, mind blowing.
February 19, 2006
[Gig] Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
FIRST GIG EVER!!!!!
Webster Hall
w/ Morning After Girl, Elephant
Robert Turner was just in front of all night, I was in heaven.
Webster Hall
w/ Morning After Girl, Elephant
Robert Turner was just in front of all night, I was in heaven.
February 17, 2006
The Searchers (1956)
USA
Director:John Ford
Casts: John Wayne (Ethan Edwards), Jeffrey Hunter (Martin Pawley)
Revisionist Western. The ending scene, the door closed in front of John Wayne, says everything. But I still think when Ethan's attitiude soften when he saw Debbie's frighten expression. But what have done to him by the time and the environment can not be undone. He never will fit in the family again.
Quite a first time experience for the male dramatic melodrama. Who says man don't buy these things?
Director:John Ford
Casts: John Wayne (Ethan Edwards), Jeffrey Hunter (Martin Pawley)
Revisionist Western. The ending scene, the door closed in front of John Wayne, says everything. But I still think when Ethan's attitiude soften when he saw Debbie's frighten expression. But what have done to him by the time and the environment can not be undone. He never will fit in the family again.
Quite a first time experience for the male dramatic melodrama. Who says man don't buy these things?
February 14, 2006
Easter Parade (1948)
USA
Director: Charles Walters
Casts: Judy Garland (Hannah Brown), Fred Astaire (Don Hewes),
Peter Lawford (Jonathan Harrow), Ann Miller (Nadine Hale)
I got to say right now I don't know how to look at the musicals. But as far as the narrative is concerned, Easter Paradejust don't have the sparks between the leading roles. It starts with several love-chasing between four charaters, but only ends up hastely binding Garland and Astaire together, maybe as any two leading roles "supposed" to be in any musicals, and leave much untold and unexplained.
But hey, it's a musical, and we got Garland and Astaire, in certain level it can't be that wrong. I think Garland was most splandid when she sang alone with a little bit naughty expression in her face. And Ann Miller did look gorgeous in her numbers. I am glad to see Nadine doesn't been punished to fail or anything just because she chooses her career over man.
Director: Charles Walters
Casts: Judy Garland (Hannah Brown), Fred Astaire (Don Hewes),
Peter Lawford (Jonathan Harrow), Ann Miller (Nadine Hale)
I got to say right now I don't know how to look at the musicals. But as far as the narrative is concerned, Easter Paradejust don't have the sparks between the leading roles. It starts with several love-chasing between four charaters, but only ends up hastely binding Garland and Astaire together, maybe as any two leading roles "supposed" to be in any musicals, and leave much untold and unexplained.
But hey, it's a musical, and we got Garland and Astaire, in certain level it can't be that wrong. I think Garland was most splandid when she sang alone with a little bit naughty expression in her face. And Ann Miller did look gorgeous in her numbers. I am glad to see Nadine doesn't been punished to fail or anything just because she chooses her career over man.
February 11, 2006
Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt, 1998)
Germany
Director / Screenwriter / Composer: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Franca Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu
Three variations of what might happened. Easily linked the idea to Kieslowski's Blind Chance. But like Heaven, Tykwer doesn't have the ambition to discover humanitity, he wants romance, shearly probe the power that could alter the future. Fate, seems to be the final salvation.
But if put the juxtapose of him and Kieslowski aside, this film flows smoothly with electronic soundtrack. An 81 minutes long rapid cutting enjoyable MV.
Director / Screenwriter / Composer: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Franca Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu
Three variations of what might happened. Easily linked the idea to Kieslowski's Blind Chance. But like Heaven, Tykwer doesn't have the ambition to discover humanitity, he wants romance, shearly probe the power that could alter the future. Fate, seems to be the final salvation.
But if put the juxtapose of him and Kieslowski aside, this film flows smoothly with electronic soundtrack. An 81 minutes long rapid cutting enjoyable MV.
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