On The Beach Of Time
More comfy with the silence? Snotty leaves on the pavement and no (barely enough) sun. Mood set. S.A.D. Nothing new. So yeah this is the third winter in a row I didn't (but planned to, my wishbook doodled with little suns, palmtress and smiley 30+ Celsius marks) retreat in warmer climates. Same old story, uhu. No luck in finding sufficient means and no brilliant thoughts to start - once again - climbing the ladder of easy escape, I am stuck to this sillyness, surviving the wrong climate with the least adapted personality. Gosh, poor me. Teleport me to Darfur or some other godforsaken ( just politely worried souls to ease our western mindsets) place.
I know, I know...
Anyway, winter time is killing time. Reading books (or rather the sweet attempt; What is the what by Dave Eggers is eagerly waiting to get finished for more over then, this is pathetic, 3 weeks already) or with penguin movies, Happy Feet, or Disney's latest one, Surf's Up. And no, don't bother to point at the pointlessness of it, I don't get it too, that latest animated Antartic animal craze, tap-dancing artic birds or surfing frosty dudes. To think of it, the only frame I can remember watching is what looks like a pristine (80's?) version of Raileh Beach (see pic) but I guess that's to no ones surprise....
Again.
Running Free
Nothing new again. My excuses for my non-presence, lack of posts lately. I’ve been frustrated, stumped and annoyed, and sorta braindead I stumbled over this little movie from the DepicT! competition. If I was in a better mood (or the sun did shine, whatever ticks me to the other side), I would have shown one of the other last years winning movies 'And the red man went green', but I choose for some classic B&W. Maybe all will be fine, eventually.
DepicT! is Watershed's unique filmmaking competition, part of Encounters International Short Film Festival, which challenges filmmakers from across the globe to come up with a compelling, imaginative idea and distil it into 90 seconds of cinematic originality.
No Escape
A collective of young Dutch artists known as Studio Smack were commissioned to put together a video reflecting the enormous amount of visuals that plague us every day. They stripped away everything in our path but commercial and graphical messages leaving us with a very dark and sad truth.
Here is the YouTube video.
Art Thou a Pirate Johnny?
So now I finally have seen the 'At Worlds End', the latest Pirates of the Caribbean, I might as well say, or should I say confess, I still prefer The Crimson Pirate (1952), that classic swashbuckler with Burt Lancaster as the tongue in cheek hero (who did all the stunts himself being a trapeze guy before), and Nick Cravat as his mute sidekick.
Hmm... why? Maybe it's my childhood 'making things bigger then it was' emo taste. But hey, all I remember is that i rarely saw that movie in its original language, always dubbed in German and still, as tiny me with wooden sword hitting tinier brothers, I totally loved it. That must mean something, not? I wanna bet Johnny sounds awful in German.
Future Foes
I am not a fan of The Strokes, they're ok though, but hey I am big sucker for doomsday scenarios. Born in the same year of the Cuba crisis (does anyone remember?), getting into teen adulthood in the 'No Nukes' Eighties (aw... volatile pity, soddy character me, always prone to expect the inevitable in the very soon future with the grandeur of instant annihilation, so why bother to study, so why getting a career, why grow up, all that no future crap that still makes me kinda nostalgic for firm what's the point, lets get over with it believes, the 'better be red then dead' mumbles, the easy new wave shrug of nothing matters that for some reason made me quite attractive on friday 'no way I am dancing' evenings) so yeah, what else to expect?
Ah well, of course this video is heavily based on Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey ('68), which is kinda the only nice SciFi film (the original Solaris ('68) and Soylent Green ('73) as a nice backup) they ever made.
In Control
Sure, of course I know a girl who listens to Joy Division when she is kinda down. She shouldn't be too alarmed by that, and I am sure she isn't, cause where I come from listening to yesterdays soundtrack (the feverish fridays and destroyer mondays of doomed eighties teenhood) is actually a quite adorable thing to do, even now. Also I think she is in good company, Anton Corbijn must have those same moments over and over. But not now, since his first feature film 'Control' , his portrayal of the troubled singer Ian Curtis (of Joy Division), won the title of Best European Film at the festival of Cannes. Based on 'Touching from a Distance' by Ian's wive Deborah (and now co-producer), shot in moody black and white, the film received a standing ovation at its premiere.
Nice detail, Sam Riley (born in 1980), who plays Ian (died in 1980), appeared also in '24 Hour Party People' (the film of Manchester in late seventies into the eighties) where he played Mark E Smith. Mark E Smith of the Fall still lives. Well, sort of, since he makes the same album over and over and over for the last 25 years.
Life is sorta funny I guess.
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