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kottke.org posts about movies
Dignan’s notebook
Dignan’s 75-year plan from the movie Bottle Rocket.
E. Develop outside interests
a. Travel
b. Art
c. Science
(thx, tommy)
Gone Baby Gone
Ben Affleck’s status as a lightweight is hereby permanently suspended. This is a serious movie by a serious, thoughtful director. The film also fits into a theme that’s been developing around these parts lately related to switched identities: Switched at Birth, The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar, and Don Draper.
Andy Warhol’s Blow Job
Short film: Blow Job by Andy Warhol. Mostly SFW…it’s just the face of the recipient. Here’s some info on the film.
When Andy Warhol decided to shoot Blow Job, he rang Charles Rydell and asked him to star in it, telling him that “all he’d have to do was lie back and then about five different boys would come in and keep on blowing him until he came,” but that the film would only show his face.
Charles agreed, but when he didn’t show up for the following Sunday afternoon shoot, Andy reached him at Jerome Hill’s suite at the Algonquin and screamed into the phone “Charles! Where are you?” Charles responded: “What do you mean, where am I? You know where I am - you called me,” and Andy the said “We’ve got the camera ready and the five boys are all here, everything’s set up!” Charles’s shocked reply was: “Are you crazy? I thought you were kidding. I’d never do that!”
Unreleased 1972 Rolling Stones movie on YouTube
In 1972, Robert Frank followed The Rolling Stones on their tour of North America and made a film called Cocksucker Blues. The title referenced a song written by the band as a fuck-you to their outgoing record label. The film was never released but bootleg copies exist…and a copy has inevitably found it’s way onto YouTube in nine parts (93 minutes total).
Part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, part eight, and part nine.
The quality is not very good but for hardcore Stones and music fans, it’s probably worth a look if you haven’t seen it. NSFW.
Ebert, how to read movies
Roger Ebert talks about how to read a movie.
This all began for me in about 1969, when I started teaching a film class in the University of Chicago’s Fine Arts program. I knew a Chicago film critic, teacher and booker named John West, who lived in a wondrous apartment filled with film prints, projectors, books, posters and stills. “You know how football coaches use a stop-action 16mm projector to study game films?” he asked me. “You can use that approach to study films. Just pause the film and think about what you see. You ought to try it with your film class.”
I did. The results were beyond my imagination. I wasn’t the teacher and my students weren’t the audience, we were all in this together. The ground rules: Anybody could call out “stop!” and discuss what we were looking at, or whatever had just occurred to them.
This article also contains the most information-rich paragraph I’ve ever read online…it’s like an entire film class in 12 lines. Fascinating stuff. One of the points is that, generally, the right side of the screen is more positive. In a later comment, Ebert adds:
In all the years with Siskel and on all the incarnations of the show, I always quietly made sure I was seated on the right. When Roeper came aboard, the producers insisted I “belonged” in “Gene’s seat.” Sentiment won over visual strategy. Did I really think it made a difference? Yes, I really did.
Also, he should do this online…post film stills and let people leave comments, discuss, etc.
Unlikely action heroes
Who would have thought ten years ago that Hollywood’s biggest action stars would be Tobey Mcguire (Spider-Man), Matt Damon (Bourne), Elijah Wood (LoTR), Christian Bale (Batman), Johnny Depp (Pirates), and maybe even Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man)? No Stallones, Schwarzeneggers, or Van Dammes in that group.
Star Wars influence chart
The Star Wars empire has grown into one of the most fertile incubators of talent in the worlds of movies (Lucasfilm), visual effects (Industrial Light & Magic), sound (Skywalker Sound), and video games (LucasArts). Along the way, some of the original Lucas crew has gone on to become his biggest competitors.
The Flash interface is really annoying and not useful…the whole image is a better way to look at it. Very Mark Lombardi. (via vc)
Alec Baldwin, an appreciation
A profile of Alec Baldwin by Ian Parker for the New Yorker.
He recalled a day, a few years ago, when he was driving through L.A., saw a car run a red light, smash into another car, and keep moving. Baldwin gave chase and, eventually, blocked the culprit in a cul-de-sac. Before the police arrived, the driver got out of his car — “Typical drug-addict, alcoholic, fuckhead look on his face. He was, ‘O.K., what? What? You’re chasing me. What?’ This nineteen-year-old kid, his eyes blazing. I’m thinking, I’m going to come over there and knock your teeth down your fucking throat just because you’re asking me ‘What?’ You know what, you little fuck? I saw you. I’m a pretty liberal person, but my liberalness comes from what the government should be doing with its excess of wealth. That doesn’t mean I’m not a law-and-order person. I’m the kind of person — you catch the kid who’s drunk and high and he almost killed a girl, let’s take him in and beat the shit out of him for a couple of hours. Then he’ll learn.” He laughed. “I believe that!”
Things I have enjoyed Alec Baldwin in:
The Hunt for Red October
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Departed
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Aviator
But what firmly installs Baldwin onto my list of favorite actors of all time is his many Saturday Night Live appearances. Watching Schweddy Balls and Inside the Actors Studio (with Baldwin as Charles Nelson Reilly) still brings tears of howling laughter to my eyes. I gotta bump 30 Rock to the top of my viewing queue.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno trailer
The R-rated trailer for Kevin Smith’s new film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Promising!
In a world, RIP
Don LaFontaine, the voice of countless movie trailers, is dead at 68. I liked this tribute from the Washington Post:
In a world of people who all have some sort of private omniscient voice-over running things inside their heads, sometimes God, sometimes Mom, and sometimes Don LaFontaine…
In a world where marketing is far more important than content…came one man…with a Voice.
Check out a brief bio video of LaFontaine with his voice in action.
Kubrick porn knockoffs
Panopticist has a quick round-up (with clips) of a few adult movies inspired by the films of Stanley Kubrick.
There have been several other porn films inspired by Kubrick’s oeuvre, including Spermacus, 2002: A Sex Odyssey, Thighs Wide Shut, and A Clockwork Orgy.
NSFW.
Saul Bass on film titles
Thirty-five minute video in which Saul Bass talks about some of the iconic movie title sequences he created in his career. (via smashing telly)
Koyaanisqatsi
This is my favorite scene from Koyaanisqatsi.
Unaware at first of the camera, she sees it. Then smiles almost imperceptibly and turns away. Then self-consciously looks everywhere but at the camera. And finally, a last contemptous peek at the camera.
Update: Sorry, the video is not available outside of the US.
Movie-going rules
I triple endorse every single one of these 17 simple rules for going to the cinema with me.
9. You will not involuntarily exclaim any of the following, or any derivatives of the following, ten minutes before and ten minutes after the end of the screening: “Oh SHIT! OUCH!”, “Woah!”, “Oooooooh!”, “PAIN CITY!”, “Holy [anything]!”. Such exclamations are not involuntary. If you are a Tourette’s sufferer, you will provide a confirmatory note from a registered and reputable practitioner of medicine before purchasing your tickets, whereupon you will be politely refused entry.
My insistence on the strict adherence to rule #1 is why I often find myself at the movies alone (sobbing quietly, friendless).
Hands on a Hard Body on This American Life
I linked to Hands on a Hard Body yesterday. If you need a little extra prodding to watch it, check out the first segment of this old episode of This American Life.
We hear a long interview with Benny Perkins, who won the truck one year and was back the year they made their film to try to win again. He says a contest like this is not easy money. You slowly go crazy from sleep deprivation.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the movie
They’re making an animated movie of my favorite book from childhood, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
“It’s actually only loosely — very, very loosely — based on the book,” Faris explained. “But it’s about a small town that rains food, basically. So hamburgers come down, and ice cream, and [the residents] have to figure out a way [stop it]. Eventually, it gets more and more dangerous, and they have to figure out a way to stop the satellite machine that’s raining food.”
It stars Andy Samberg and Anna Faris. I’m prepared to be *very* disappointed. (thx, kimberly)
Movies families, painted
Paintings of notable movie families, including the Clark W. Griswolds and the Jack Torrences from The Shining.
Hands on a Hard Body
Hands on a Hard Body is available on Google Video in its entirety. From Wikipedia:
Hands on a Hard Body: The Documentary is a 1997 film documenting an endurance competition that took place in Longview, Texas. The yearly competition pits twenty-four contestants against each other to see who can keep their hand on a pickup truck for the longest amount of time. Whoever endures the longest without leaning on the truck or squatting wins the truck. Five minute breaks are issued every hour and fifteen minute breaks every six hours.
I *love* this movie. (via waxy)
Update: Whoa! The contest on which this film is based was cancelled after a 2005 competitor shot himself shortly after he left the contest.
Vega had been a contestant in the internationally popular Hands on a Hardbody contest at Patterson Nissan in Longview when he killed himself Thursday morning after leaving the contest at the beginning of its third day. The 24-year-old East Texan walked away around 6 a.m., when he politely excused himself just before a scheduled 15-minute break for competitors, a witness said.
A lawsuit filed by Vega’s widow alleging that the dealership was “negligent in organizing and conducting the contest” was just recently settled. (thx, justin)
Blu-ray sale, 50% off
Amazon is having a Blu-ray sale…selected Blu-ray movies are 50% off. Titles include Mad Men season 1, No Country for Old Men, Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Reservoir Dogs, and Gangs of New York.
Ebert thinks 3-D sucks
Roger Ebert is not a fan of 3-D movies.
Ask yourself this question: Have you ever watched a 2-D movie and wished it were in 3-D? Remember that boulder rolling behind Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark?” Better in 3-D? No, it would have been worse. Would have been a tragedy. The 3-D process is like a zombie, a vampire, or a 17-year cicada: seemingly dead, but crawling out alive after a lapse of years. We need a wooden stake.
Bottle Rocket, The Criterion Collection
Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson’s first film, is getting the Criterion treatment in both DVD and Blu-ray formats. Lovely cover. (via goldenfiddle)
Movies on Hulu
Some movies Rex didn’t realize you could watch in their entirety (for free and in 480p) on Hulu: Metropolitan, The Fifth Element, 28 Days Later, Requiem for a Dream, Lost in Translation, Koyaanisqatsi, and Eternal Sunshine.
Me either! Also available are Raising Arizona, Lost Highway, Hoop Dreams, Sideways, Master and Commander, Ghostbusters, The Karate Kid, and Groundhog Day.
The Parallel Universe Film Guide
The Parallel Universe Film Guide catalogues hundreds of movies that never were but may exist in another quantum reality. Titles include Help! Our Camera Has Palsy, Adorable Italian Stereotypes Al Dente, and Who’s Tired of Philosophical Hit Men? Not Me! (via vsl)
Good Brendan Fraser movies?
Recent critical clinkers The Mummy: The Third Mummy Movie and The Journey to the Middle of 3-D Mediocrity caused me to wonder: has Brendan Fraser ever appeared in a good movie? A trip to IMDB refreshed my memory — soiled by several Pauly Shore vehicles — that Fraser appeared in Crash, Gods and Monsters, and Dead Poets Society School Ties, and a couple of other movies that didn’t suck.
Hoop Dreams online for free
The entirety of Hoop Dreams, which appeared at the top of the best documentaries list I posted yesterday, is available on Hulu to watch for free. Watch for Gates getting his pocket picked. (thx, skeets & david)
2008 movie box office chart
Neat infographic of the 2008 US movie box office. It’s more or less the same as this epic chart from the NY Times earlier in the year.
Top 25 documentaries
In October 2007, the International Documentary Association made a list of the 25 best documentaries.
1. Hoop Dreams (1994), Steve James
2. The Thin Blue Line (1988), Errol Morris
3. Bowling for Columbine (2002), Michael Moore
4. Spellbound (2002), Jeffrey Blitz
5. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976), Barbara Kopple
6. An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Davis Guggenheim
7. Crumb (1994), Terry Zwigoff
8. Gimme Shelter (1970), Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin
9. The Fog of War (2003), Errol Morris
10. Roger & Me (1989), Michael Moore
11. Super Size Me (2004), Morgan Spurlock
12. Don’t Look Back (1967) D.A. Pennebaker
13. Salesman (1968), Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin
14. Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance (1982), Godfrey Reggio
15. Sherman’s March (1986), Ross McElwee
16. Grey Gardens (1976), Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer
17. Capturing the Friedmans (2003), Andrew Jarecki
18. Born into Brothels, (2004), Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski
19. Titicut Follies (1967), Frederick Wiseman
20. Buena Vista Social Club (1999), Wim Wenders
21. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Michael Moore
22. Winged Migration (2002), Jacques Perrin
23. Grizzly Man (2005), Werner Herzog
24. Night and Fog (1955), Alain Resnais
25. Woodstock (1970), Michael Wadleigh
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