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Hot off the heels of his Guthrie Theater debut in Servant of Two Masters , playwright and actor David Hanbury's got a slew of exciting stuff in store, including the next round of the Women in Crisis Film Series at the Bryant-Lake Bowl this weekend, and the return of Mrs. Smith Live in May. Hanbury will also be launching a new Mrs. Smith concept re-imagined as a children's show to be developed at the prestigious Berkley Rep. In it, Mrs. Smith and her cat, Carlyle, travel through space. Related: Women in Crisis Film Series returns with Rose McGowan thriller This Friday, the Women in Crisis Film Series will present The Landlady. The Lifetime Canada movie stars Talia Shire, known best for her roles in Rocky and The Godfather. Here, she portrays a psychotic landlady who's obsessed with one of her tenants, Patrick, played by Jack Coleman, best known as the actor who played gay Steven #2 on Dynasty (he replaced Al Corley in the part, and the change of appearance was attributed to plastic surgery the character had after an oil-rig explosion -- for you trivia buffs). Shire plays Melanie Leroy, a religious woman who murders her husband after she discovers he's having an affair. She inherits an apartment building soon after, where she murders tenants who break the rules, and uses her landlord powers to spy on Patrick. The body count in The Landlady is higher than any Women in Crisis Series film yet, and includes lots of externalized monologues by Shire. In case you are tempted to feel sorry for the Academy Award-nominated actress for being in such a stinker, look only to the fact that she actually produced the film, so "she's to blame for her predicament," says Hanbury. Like past events in this series, the fun is in the audience talking back to the movie, led by Hanbury and a panel of his snarky friends. |The Landlady, a quality piece of cinema| Meanwhile, Hanbury is excited that he and his collaborator, Andrew Rasmussen, have been selected to be a part of a summer lab at the Ground Floor, Berkley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. They'll be developing Mrs. Smith and Carlyle: To Mars and Back Again! , where Carlyle goes to outer space and Mrs. Smith goes after him. The two-week residency will give the team a space to work and a place to stay while they develop their show. The piece is intended to be educational, Hanbury says, exploring the solar system and the moon and such, but it will also have all the Mrs. Smith ridiculousness that fans are used to. "Andrew and I have very clear ideas about what this show could be," he says. "We're excited about it." It's particularly exiting because Berkley Rep has been a launching pad for Broadway shows, such as American Idiot. Hanbury hopes that the Mrs. Smith children's show can be presented at regional children's theaters around the country. While Mrs. Smith started as a concept for adults, he thinks the character is great for a children's audience, too. In fact, his nephews, who enjoyed the story around the ages three and eight, were completely transfixed by the tales of Mrs. Smith and Carlyle. Not a lot needs to be changed from the original show, either. "I don't do blue humor," Hanbury says. Meanwhile, Mrs. Smith Live (for adults) returns to the Twin Cities May 9-19 for a run at Camp Bar . It's the show's first gig at Camp, which should work great, as people can socialize, drink, and dance afterwards at the bar. Hanbury and Rasmussen launched Mrs. Smith Live last May, but had to cancel a bunch of shows because Hanbury got injured. The production is a "snazzy jazzy evening of stories and songs," Hanbury says, a la Liza with a Z or Elaine Stritch's At Liberty . She basically tells her life story using the great American songbook as her soundtrack, with lots of dancing and other characters (and puppets!) to help the story along. While Hanbury has incorporated music into his Mrs. Smith act for a while, he realized when he started working on Mrs. Smith Live that "she's the perfect fit for classic Broadway songs," he says. IF YOU GO: Bryant-Lake Bowl Theatre 810 W. Lake St., Minneapolis, MN

Oregon town leads nation in green power use (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Oregon State University is the largest single purchaser of green power in Corvallis, buying enough to meet about 75 percent of its needs. “College towns with a university or college that are making a commitment to renewables are that much farther ahead,” Corvallis Mayor Charlie Tomlinson said. For Oregon, will a small-bite-at-a-time tax cut boost spending? (Oregonian) Patrick Emerson, an economics professor at Oregon State University, said he got a skeptical reaction from his students when he discussed the stimulus bill in one of his classes last week. “Their instinct was what a lot of people think,” he reported, “that this is not big enough to make a difference.” Scholarships abound, applicants are scarce (Associated Press) “Lots of times a lot of these scholarships just sit there,” said Marydee Bombick, a member of the Master Gardener association. The association offers a $2,500 scholarship to an Oregon State University student from Jackson County studying horticulture. In the past seven years, the association has awarded the scholarship three or four times. Bill Boggess, the first of five candidates for Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, will interview this week. His schedule will include a presentation at a campus forum for faculty and staff today, 10:30 am – 12:15 p.m., in the MU Journey Room. You may learn more about Boggess, and the other candidates, by visiting http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/dean-candidates. The forums will be streamed via the web and available at the search web site within 24 hours of each scheduled interview. Join us for Beaver Strides group walks! We meet each Monday at noon, in front of Student Health Services (Plageman Building) near the east entrance. We walk for approximately 45 minutes. Walks are held rain or shine. The Sponsored Programs Office is hosting a workshop on Gift/Grant/Sponsored Agreement/Testing Agreement/Contract today at 2 p.m. in Memorial Union room 211. The complete program description, can be accessed at the Sponsored Programs website: http://oregonstate.edu/research/osp/education.htm . For more information, call Vickie Watkins at 541-737-0668 Lecture: “Do Animals Have a History — and Why Should we Care?” by Anita Guerrini, 4 p.m., Memorial Union Room 109. Guerrini will explore whether animals have been participating in human history and whether they have a history of their own. Information: 541-737-8560. A lecture on sustainable ranching and its impact on your quality of life: “Creating a Value-driven Food Production System: Understanding Sustainability through Country Natural Beef” will be given by “Doc” and Connie Hatfield, founding members of Oregon-based Country Natural Beef, now with more than 120 ranches and revenue of $55 million. It takes place at 7 p.m. in LaSells Stewart Center, Construction and Engineering Auditorium. For more information, contact Zhaohui Wu at Zhaohui.Wu@bus.oregonstate.edu or call 541-737-3514. NEW! Support the OSU Food Drive and take part in the soup lunch at The Valley Library Staff Lounge on the third floor, behind the Willamette classrooms. It takes place 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Feb 4, and there are a dozen soups to try for only $5 (bread, crackers and beverages also provided). NEW! The OSU campus is invited to tour the completed renovation of our historic 1898 Apperson Hall, Feb. 6 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The rejuvenated building created in the renovation, Kearney Hall, now serves as a teaching tool for our CCE students as well as a classroom facility: structural elements and key mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are all exposed. There are windows into shafts and places where students can see the reinforcing steel within the concrete. Join us for light refreshments and short building tours hosted by many of our student groups. See the renovation timeline and photos, http://engr.oregonstate.edu/prosperity/appersontokearney NEW! The Provost has invited five candidates to interview for Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station. Please visit http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/node/512 for candidate bios, CVs, photos, and the evaluation form. Once finalized, the full interview schedule for each of the candidates will also be available at this site. Campus forums for faculty and staff have been scheduled as shown below. Feb. 11, Steven Lommel, 10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., MU Journey Room Feb. 16: Craig Beyrouty, 10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., MU Journey Room Feb. 18: Gregory Bohach, 10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., MU 213 Feb. 23: Sonny Ramaswamy, 10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., MU 208 These conversations will be streamed via the web and available at http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/node/512 within 24 hours of each scheduled interview. NEW! The 2009 Crossroads International Film Festival will feature films from India, Africa, Dominican Republic, Bhutan, Uruguay, Europe, Middle East, and USA, on consecutive Sundays in February at the Darkside Cinema, 215 S.W. Fourth Street in downtown Corvallis. Some showings will include special cultural activities, ethnic food, or discussions. The schedule at http://oregonstate.edu/international/crossroads/crossroads-international-film-festival-2009 provides times for each showing, as well as additional discussions or activities provided for some films. Two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker Bill Guttentag will visit OSU Feb. 5, as part of the Visiting Writers Series. Guttentag will show clips from his work and discuss storytelling for the screen, the business of film and future trends in the film industry. Guttentag will give a talk, followed by a question-and-answer session at 7:30 p.m. In addition, there will be a 5:30 p.m. screening of his documentary film, “Nanking,” on the same date. The lecture and film screening will take place at the C&E Auditorium of OSU’s LaSells Stewart Center, 875 S.W. 26th St. Annual Soup & Bread Buffet, sponsored by the statistics department, takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in 128 Kidder Hall. The cost is $5 for all you can eat. All proceeds benefit the OSU Food Drive. An open forum on drafting OSU’s climate action plan will occur from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in Memorial Union room 208. During the session, OSU’s sustainability coordinator, Brandon Trelstad, will update participants on action to date and present a draft conceptual framework for moving forward. Smaller group meetings will be arranged at a later date to focus on topics in the draft framework found at: http://oregonstate.edu/sustainability/energy/climateplan.html Author Max S. Power will deliver a lecture titled “America’s Nuclear Wastelands” on Feb. 11, at 4 p.m. in Memorial Union 109B. Power will address the complex issues of public policy, cleanup, and accountability that are involved in the cleanup of nuclear weapons production, including the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. For more information, contact the History Department at 541-737-8560 or visit www.oregonstate.edu/cla/history/lectures The Oregon State Cheerleaders will be hosting a cheer clinic Feb. 28 beginning at 10 a.m., for kids in grades K – 8. The clinic is limited to the first 150 participants that sign up. The clinic includes a t-shirt and a ticket for the participant to the game. All participants are encouraged to wear tennis shoes and must have the permission form signed by a legal guardian. For more information, call the Oregon State Cheerleading office at (541) 230-0590. Cost: $25; Siblings $10. The Giustina Gallery at the LaSells Stewart Center is showcasing a new exhibit, Sustaining the Spirit of Oregon’s Bounty: Our Fish Story. It features art from more than 30 Northwest artists. A reception will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Feb. 6. Light appetizers will be provided by OSU Catering and wine by the glass will be available for purchase. The exhibit runs through March 10. An accompanying exhibit, Striking Renderings of Oregon’s Rivers, Mountains and Valleys by Susan Rudisill, will be displayed in the Murdock Gallery. For information call 541-737-2402 or see http://oregonstate.edu/lasells On Feb. 5, Linn Benton Community College, with support from OSU, will host several events for the National Teach-In on Global Warming (http://oregonstate.edu/sustainability/events.html) , a nationwide dialogue between students, community members and decision makers around climate change policy. Events begin at 10 a.m. in Albany and feature Mayor Charlie Tomlinson, Albany Mayor Sharon Konopa, David Van’t Hof, Sustainability Advisory to Governor Kulongoski and Dan Whelan, Field Representative and District Aide to Congressman Peter DeFazio. An afternoon session will bring together students from LBCC and OSU to discuss their vision for global warming solutions and a green curriculum for the two institutions. Students are encouraged to attend. For more information, email email@example.com For more current and upcoming events, go to http://oregonstate.edu/events/newsevents/events.php News for Employees NEW! Wait! Don’t throw that away! Recyclemania, the nationwide recycling competition between universities, has begun and runs until March 28. Currently OSU is ranked #1 of all the Pacific Northwest universities competing, but only 71st nationally. We need your help moving us up the ranks by recycling items such as cans, bottles, paper, and cardboard. Details on what can be recycled on campus can be found at http://recycle.oregonstate.edu/recycleguide/listitem.cfm. Competition info and weekly stats can be found at http://recycle.oregonstate.edu/recyclemania/ NEW! Nominations are requested for the 2009 Mason Prize for Integrity and Moral Courage. The prize is intended to honor, encourage, and empower people at Oregon State University whose work demonstrates academic virtues such as truth-telling, courage, integrity, open-mindedness, moral imagination, and independence of mind. University faculty, staff, students, and groups are all eligible for the prize. Deadline for nominations is March 20. Full details of the nomination process are available at the Spring Creek website: http://springcreek.oregonstate.edu/ Email or mail the nomination to The Mason Prize, The Spring Creek Project, Philosophy Department, 101 Hovland Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331 Provost Randhawa is accepting submissions for the 21st annual Provost’s Literary Prize for undergraduate students at OSU. The prize consists of an award of $500 and publication for on-campus distribution. The literary work can be fiction, poetry (including a group of poems), or creative nonfiction written for a general audience. The prize is open to currently enrolled undergraduate students at Oregon State University, who may submit their own work or have work nominated by faculty members. Submissions must be the student’s original work, typed, no longer then 20 double-spaced pages for prose, or 8 manuscript pages for poetry, and include the full name, year in school, current mailing address, phone number, and student ID number of the writer. Deadline for submission of work for consideration is 5 p.m. Feb. 25. Submissions should be turned in to the Provost’s Literary Prize Committee via Keith Scribner in the English Department Office (Moreland Hall 238). Questions may be directed to Professor Scribner at 541-737-1645 or firstname.lastname@example.org. Campus Recycling is looking for your responses to our Question of the Quarter, “What was your reduce-reuse-recycle resolution this New Year’s?” If you didn’t make one, it’s not too late! Answer by Feb. 6 and your response may be featured on our website or in an upcoming newsletter. Sign up to receive our quarterly newsletter. The Research Office is now accepting applications for the Faculty Release Time (FRT) for Spring 2009 for the 2009-10 Academic Year release. Applications are due in the Research Office by Feb. 23. The complete program description, application materials and proposal criteria can be accessed at the Research Office website: http://oregonstate.edu/research/incentive/frt.htm The Israel and Palestine Film Series is a timely film series that spotlights Israeli and Palestinian culture, history, politics and art. Members of the OSU Geo Club and the Hydrophiles will travel to Israel and Palestine this spring. In an effort to create a forum for learning and discussion, they have put together this series of contemporary award-winning films and documentaries on Mondays nights in Owen 103 beginning at 7:30 p.m. International Programs invites applications for the position of Associate Provost for International Programs. The Associate Provost is appointed by, and reports to, the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and International Programs. This is a full time (1.0 FTE), 12-month, fixed-term position. To view a complete description of the position and/or to apply, please visit http://oregonstate.edu/jobs and search for posting #0003784. Closing date: Feb. 27. Today will be mostly cloudy with a high of 53 degrees. Tomorrow the high will reach 54. OSU Today is a daily e-mail news briefing provided by OSU News and Communication Services. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the mailing list, go to http://lists.oregonstate.edu/mailman/listinfo/osutoday. Questions, comments and ideas for news briefs may be sent to Theresa Hogue at email@example.com. More news from OSU News and Communication Services is available at http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/otw/.

Out of all the ridiculously cheesy “Bruceploitation” flicks that came exploding out of the bowels of China’s film industry after the death of Bruce Lee, director Kei Law’s 1977 kung fu comedy “Dragon Lives Again” (aka “Deadly Hands of Kung Fu”) is probably the most offensive of the bunch. The film follows the otherworldly adventures of the iconic martial arts hero as he goes about his business in the busy streets of Hell. Yes, dear readers — Hell. Like all good sinners who are unstoppable masters of kung fu, Lee opens a school and promptly begins instructing students, including Kain from “Kung Fu” and Popeye the Sailor Man. I kid you not. As per usual, not everyone is happy with our hero’s do-gooder ways, and he soon finds himself running afoul of a peculiar group of sinister thugs who are looking to take control of the underworld. His adversaries — which include Zatoichi, James Bond, Emmanuelle, Clint Eastwood’s The Man with No Name, The Godfather, and, last but not least, Dracula and his zombie army — begin hatching one hair-brained scheme another another to rid the world of this ass-kicking thorn, though he’s clearly way too smart to fall for their pathetic tricks. “Dragon Lives Again” makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and, unfortunately, it’s not always for the better. Had the fight scenes been a bit more engaging, my opinion of the film probably would have been a lot more positive. The film exists as a bizarro curiosity piece, nothing more, and you probably won’t feel the need to watch the damned thing more than once. Still, it’s a lot of fun to say that you’ve seen it, especially if you’re a fan of “Bruceploitation” cinema.

Week in Sloth The Week in Sloth “Into the Pride” (Animal Planet 6 p.m.) Lions get the “Meerkat Manor” treatment. “Neil Diamond—Hot August Night: NYC” (KRQE-13 7 p.m.) Sorry, but even after the Urge Overkill cover of “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” in Pulp Fiction and that Johnny Cash-style makeover Rick Rubin gave him a few years back, I still can’t see Neil Diamond as anything other than a ’70s cheesemonger. But if you wanna hear “Cracklin’ Rosie” again, enjoy! “Woodstock: Then and Now” (VH1 7 p.m.) It’s the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, don’t you know? VH1 compares and contrasts. “Chefography” (Food Network 7 p.m.) Food Network kicks off its new show by recounting the life story of Guy Fieri. ... Um, he won “The Next Food Network Star” a couple years ago, and now he’s the spokesperson for T.G.I. Friday’s. What more do you need to know? “2 Months, $2 Million” (G4 7 p.m.) Four world-champion Internet poker players pool their resources to rent a house in Las Vegas and spend two months gambling away their fortunes in real life in this new docu-reality show. “Mad Men” (AMC 8 p.m.) Season 3 launches tonight. Be there, or be Squaresville. “My Antonio” (VH1 8 p.m.) Thirteen women arrive in Hawaii with hopes of winning the heart of actor Antonio Sabàto Jr. ... It just ... it never ends, does it? “Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami” (E! 10 p.m.) Thank god somebody finally wised up and gave Kourtney and Khloe their own reality show spin-off, because it’s been clear to me for ages who the real talentless celebutards behind “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” are. “Glenn Martin, DDS” (Nickelodeon 6 p.m.) It’s like “The Great American Road Trip,” only funnier. And with stop-motion-animated puppets. “Woodstock: Now & Then” (History 7 p.m.) It’s the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, don’t you know? Unlike VH1, History Channel contrasts & compares. “Hoarders” (A&E 8 p.m.) OK, so I’m forced to admit a sick fascination with this new documentary series about people who obsessively (and I mean obsessively) collect crap like ... well, sometimes literal crap. “Shaq Vs.” (KOAT-7 8 p.m.) Remember last week when Shaquille O’Neal inexplicably started calling out David Beckham, boasting about his soccer-playing skills? Yup, just a lame publicity stunt for his new TV show. Tonight, he plays football against Ben Roethlisberger. “House of Jazmin” (MTV 11:30 p.m.) I’ve never heard of fashion designer Jazmin Whitley and don’t know a thing about the woman, but if TV has taught me anything, it’s that reality show stars are whiny, overprivileged idiots who get drunk a lot, make out with strangers and scream at their assistants for no reason. Welcome to the club, Jazmin. “Bobb’e Says” (Cartoon Network 9 p.m.) Hey, that loudmouthed kid from Role Models got his own TV show. Good for him. A Christmas Story (1983) at KiMo Theatre Classic film about 9-year-old Ralphie and what he wants for Christmas: a BB gun. Friday Filmmakers Coffee at Jean Cocteau Cinema Dark Matters presents: Horror Bites! at Guild CinemaMore Recommented Events ››

With Funny Games, an update of his 1997 German film of the same name, Michael Haneke joins the shortlist of foreign directors who have remade their own movies for Hollywood, a group that includes George Sluizer (The Vanishing), Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge) and Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch). That he proves more successful at the remake game than those filmmakers is due to the fact that he's been allowed to remain completely faithful to his original vision—no studio-imposed happy endings, movie-star concessions or editing-room tinkering for this bad-boy European auteur! In fact, the only major difference between the German and American Funny Games is the language the actors speak. Always one to follow the beat of his own perverse drummer, Haneke has recreated the original film line for line and shot for shot. Depending on how you felt about the ’97 Funny Games, this is either great news or one more reason to avoid what is an undeniably unpleasant night at the movies. Filmed on sun-dappled Long Island, Funny Games opens with a lyrical overhead shot of a car cruising along the increasingly smaller roads leading to the land of New York's grandest summer homes. Inside the vehicle, an ordinary American family—doting parents Ann (Naomi Watts) and George (Tim Roth) and their towheaded offspring Georgie (Devon Gearhart)—listen to classical music, while smiling serenely at the thought of the long, relaxing days ahead. Arriving at their beautifully decorated retreat, they go through their usual pre-vacation routine: Father and son get the boat ready for sailing, while Mom puts the kitchen in order. But then two strangers turn up at the front door, a pair of young men dressed in tennis whites who claim to be friends of the family's next-door neighbors. They've only stopped by for some eggs and some friendly conversation, but Ann quite rightly suspects that something's off about Peter (Brady Corbet) and Paul (Michael Pitt). Sure enough, the real purpose behind their visit is to play a game with Ann, George and Georgie—a game that involves torture, humiliation and, finally, murder. So why would anyone in their right minds want to put themselves through the grueling experience of watching Funny Games once, let alone a second time just to hear the dialogue in English? It's a fair question, and Haneke himself might caution viewers against seeing both versions. After all, his primary motivations behind remaking the film in the first place were commercial rather than artistic. As the story goes, he had originally wanted to make the movie in English so it would receive wider distribution in America, but when he was unable to secure stateside financing, he went ahead and shot it at home. (The irony, of course, is that the American version won't reach a wide audience either, at least during its theatrical run, where it'll be largely exiled to the art-house circuit.) That's why the remake follows the original film so slavishly; it was the movie he always intended to make, just with an American cast. That said, if you do take the risk and watch both movies back-to-back, you'll be able to spot a few subtle changes that slipped through the director's iron grip. Most of these involve the background scenery or lighting in a particular shot, but the actors also bring a different energy to each film. Watts' Ann, for example, seems frailer than Susanne Lothar's Anna, and baby-faced Corbet is a far more childlike Peter than Frank Giering. But the real revelation here is Pitt, who delivers a chilling performance as Paul that stands distinctly apart from his predecessor, Arno Frisch. With his chiseled features and athletic build, Frisch resembled a European model and he used his good looks to lull his character's victims into a false sense of security. In contrast, there's something vaguely sinister about Pitt from the get-go, which means his Paul has to be more blunt when forcing himself into other people's lives. I know that if someone with Pitt's dead eyes and off-kilter smile turned up on my front porch, I'd sneak out the back door before he had a chance to open his mouth. Haneke has said that Funny Games is the one movie he made to provoke and he's not joking; in both of its incarnations, the movie triggers intense reactions in even the most jaded moviegoers. A substantial portion of the audience will no doubt find themselves cursing the filmmaker's name and that's not necessarily an inappropriate reaction. Like the movies Haneke claims he's critiquing—gory serial-killer pictures like Se7en and torture-porn bloodbaths like Saw—Funny Games often takes far too much pleasure in rubbing the viewer's face in pain and suffering. The fact that he insists he's doing this as some kind of academic exercise doesn't excuse his obvious glee at upsetting the audience. At the same time, if the definition of a good horror movie is one that creates a sustained mood of high tension and abject fear, Funny Games fits the bill. Under Haneke's taut direction, a simple shot of a golf ball rolling across the floor is more frightening than any scene of Freddy Krueger slashing his victims to bloody bits. And here's a final bit of food for thought: Although Funny Games inspires a lot of conflicting emotions in viewers—fascination and frustration, anger and admiration—isn't it always better to leave the theatre feeling something than nothing at all? Over-scaled, too dark and only intermittently charming Sondheim musical adaptation does a disservice to a great cast and is often so noisy you can't even appreciate the music. More » After rewriting the rules for modern fantasy cinema, for the better and worse, Peter Jackson’s six-film Tolkien saga slams, bangs and shudders to a long-overdue conclusion. More » » Blue Sheets FJI's guide to upcoming movie releases, including films in production and development. Check back weekly for the latest additions. ORDER A PRINT SUBSCRIPTION Subscribe to the monthly print edition of Film Journal International and get the full visual impact of this valuable resource for the cinema business. Learn how to promote your company at the Film Expo Group events: ShowEast, CineEurope, and CineAsia.

I have read a few articles in the last week that have bashed the switch to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The typical criticisms include that the CCSS are too much of a one-size-fits-all approach, that the CCSS put too much emphasis on high-stakes testing and that student readiness levels are inadequate. Here in Illinois, teachers are feeling the push towards a higher standard and the consequence of how student achievement is going to be measured against our own evaluations. I am feeling the pressure as much as anyone. Special education students don’t make typical amounts of yearly progress as a rule. I am not a tenured faculty member anywhere. The stress of what all of this means has not been lost on me. Knowing all of this, I am writing in defense of the Common Core. Students were expected to learn because these curricula said that students were successful using them. From a special education point of view, the below-level components that are included as a fixed series with these types of boxed curricula are inadequate and do lend to an inclusion environment. What all students really need is a creative teacher who is willing to try various methods to help them learn. They need to take time to learn things at their own pace. They need multi-modal and sensory-based education. My special education students need this, but as I work in an inclusion classroom, I can tell you: ALL kids need this. This is what the CCCSS is bringing us. We have time to try new and different things because we are not on an express train through a curriculum manual. Instead, we can delve deeper into fewer topics. We can make sure that all students have achieved some competence or mastery in a topic before we have to move on. We can compose thematic units and supplement with interesting projects and current events. We can work in a cross-curricular space. Nothing I have said here is news to a good teacher. In so many ways, the Common Core is nothing new. It supports good teaching. It gives good teachers the chance to do what they do best. It is my hope that more good teachers realize that the Common Core may just be a gift to all of us. Embracing the Common Core has made me feel like an empowered teacher who is not afraid to be unconventional and to try something new. Right now, that something new is technology. As promised in an earlier blog, I would like to share a project that my co-teacher, my class and I completed today. We have started reading a new story from our basal textbook. It provides highlighted vocabulary words, but instead of doing a worksheet, we tried something a little more interactive. The kids created interactive vocabulary posters-turned-cinema! They were excited, engaged and working collaboratively to create polished work that they are looking forward to sharing with their peers in the other fourth-grade classrooms. This is what the Common Core is teaching us in Room 15 -- that we can work as a team on our journey to being active and effective learners.

“ London Borough of Sutton „ The borough of Sutton is part of South London includes other towns such as Carshalton and Wallington and is often thought of as being one of the better parts of London to live in. There are a number of high performing grammar schools in the borough including Wilson's and Sutton Grammar and the borough is consistently represented as being one of the best environmentally to live in as the environment is one of the Liberal Democrat council's main priorities. However there are downsides to living in Sutton as although many of the residents of the borough of Sutton are rich many are also poor and crime is fairly high in some areas and although the police force do their best to prevent crime it has always been a problem as in much else of London. I would recommend that you do not walk alone in some parts of Sutton if you do not know the area well as muggings is a fairly common incidence I have been a Suttonite for my whole life so I thought I'd write a review and detail some of the weird and wacky characters in Sutton as well as Sutton as a whole. However, I won't talk about the schools as I have no children! Sutton is located to the south east of London and is considered to be part of London. To get to London, the best way is to catch the fast train to Victoria which takes about 25 minutes. There are numerous buses that also go into London but they obviously take much longer. It is for this reason that many people have moved to Sutton. It is close enough to London to get you there easily but far enough for you to escape all the hassle In terms of areas around Sutton, Croydon and Kingston are the more popular destinations if you want to do more hardcore shopping or drinking as these are bigger and have a massive choice. Croydon is only 10 minutes by train and Kingston is about 30 minutes by bus. You also have the area borough of Epsom and Ewell nearby which is only about 15 minutes drive but feels like you're out in the sticks. There are plenty of lovely green areas and of course there is the Epsom Racecourse which has its own attractions. Sutton high street is basically one long road. It is not one of these high streets that go off on different roads but don't let that fool you, it will still take you a good 20 - 30 minutes to walk from the very top of the high street to the very bottom. The whole way down you will be surrounded by shops which include the usual things like Debenhams, M&S, Woolworths, BHS, HMV, Zavvi, Waterstones, numerous phone shops (all basically opposite each other), Curry's Digital, lots of sport shops, etc. As far as I'm concerned, there's more or less everything you need. There are always new shops opening and I have certainly noticed that the quality of these shops has steadily been increasing over the years. In terms of Supermarkets, you have got a Morrisson's and Asda in Sutton but also have a Tesco and Sainsbury very nearby so there is plenty to choose from. In terms of night life, there is plenty of that in Sutton. Within a radius of 2 minute walking distance, you have about 10 pubs / bars and 3 clubs (Vodka Revolution being the largest one). The close proximity of these pubs and clubs is very useful but it does mean that any new places that aren't located conveniently don't really get a chance to compete. The majority of the pubs are 21 and over with the exception of the Wetherspoons pub which is 18 and over. Apparently, a few years ago this pub was making one of the highest profits of all the pubs in Surrey so that tells you how busy it gets. There are plenty of restaurants in Sutton. These range from the bog standard Pizza Hut to Italian, Chinese, Thai, Spanish and Indian. More recently, Burgershack by Smollensky's has opened up. This was originally a Smollensky's bar by they changed it. There are plenty of restaurants with varying price tags and all fairly close to each other. There's also the usual fast food places like McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, etc. In terms of things to do, there is an Empire cinema which has around 7 screens and always shows up to date listings. There is also a bowling alley with many lanes, a Riley's pool and snooker club which has about 20 tables to choose from. On a nice weekend, there is sometimes a miniature fun fair that happens at the top of the high street. On the odd occasion, there are various markets that will appear all the way down the high street such as a farmers market, German market or French market. You may also see displays of dancing or musicians in the street to keep you entertained. There are also a couple of good gym's nearby and a fairly small park just off the min high street that is nice in the summer as well as a couple of larger parks nearby. Sutton library is also very good. It has recently been refurbished and looks very good. Sutton station is a very good station. As I said previously, it takes 25 minutes to get into London and these train come around every half an hour or so. Otherwise, you can get a slow train which takes about 45 minutes. There are 4 platforms so most places nearby are within easy reach. There really are some weird characters in Sutton. The most popular, and recently deceased, was the affectionately know "Jesus Man." He used to walk around in a white suit with a long grey beard and used to hand out money or cigarettes if you asked him for it. One of the more recent characters is the Wizard. This is a man that walks around wearing a purple cape and has a black cat. I'm yet to encounter him but if you search for him, or Jesus Man, on Facebook then you can have a look at them. The final person I'll mention is a woman that sits on a wall near the station and wears a 1930's dress and pretty much just sits and smokes all day. She is completely harmless. Obviously there are more characters in Sutton but these are my main ones. All of them are harmless really but give a lot of character to Sutton Overall, I'd say that Sutton is a good place to live. I'm not going to sugar coat it and say that its crime free and wonderful because it isn't but it could be a hell of a lot worse! I moved to Sutton 3 years ago and thought I would pen an opinion. I have listed the main subject headings important to any area and gone from there. ~~Brief History~~ Sutton dates back as far as year 727 and was initially called “south tun” or “south farm”. In the mid 18th century Sutton was a very small village. Growth started round about 1850 when the railway was built. At the end of the First World War, the major housing development took off and paved the way for the thriving community it is today. HG Wells once lived here. ~~Location~~ Sutton lies to the South West of London. A Sutton address will show you as a Surrey resident but the Council is a London Borough and telephone numbers are also London 020. Just to the north is Wimbledon, Croydon is to the east, Surbiton/Thames Ditton to the west and to the south is Epsom, Leatherhead, the M25, M23 and beyond. The town is well placed for proximity to Central London and also to Gatwick Airport. ~~Transport.~~ The town is well served by trains, buses and roads. Connex runs the rail services (at the moment) and there is a regular, fast service into Victoria that takes about 25 minutes with all trains going through Clapham Junction making Sutton a popular commuter area; the station is currently being modernised and at time of writing the refurbishment is at an advanced stage. Roads into Central London are heavily used, as you may expect, and a journey by car into at 7.30am can be extremely tedious with the return leg often pushing you close to tears! Running through from east to west is the A232 which will take you from Epsom all the way to Croydon and beyond into Kent; this is a busy road and a red route all the way now. Going south out of Sutton is the A217 which connects you with the beautiful Epsom Downs and the not so beautiful M25 Junction 8…!! ~~Accommodation / Property~~ Sutton has been branded “flat lan d”. Property is predominantly 30s and 70s buildings with many of the larger Victorian examples now either converted into flats or have been replaced with new developments of town houses or purpose-built flats. It is not uncommon to find 2 adjacent older houses replaced with a dozen or more town houses. The town can be divided into 2 areas; Sutton and South Sutton. Some northern parts of the former still suffers a certain amount of deprivation but a great deal of work has gone in to improve the situation. South Sutton has larger properties in quieter, wider, tree-lined roads and consequently house prices are significantly higher. This is Surrey so prices are not necessarily cheap. As a guide, a one bed flat with a small garden will go for about £110,000 and 3 bed houses sell from about £200,000. Council Tax seems about average with a £100,000 flat rating at £770 per annum. Prices seem to be rising quite steeply this year so far. ~~Shops~~ The nearest large shopping centres are at Kingston and Croydon. However, Sutton has many of the High Street multiples: M & S, BHS, Boots, WH Smiths, Wooloworths, Currys, Dixons etc. There is the usual plethora of mobile phone shops and in fact The Link, Phones 4U and Carphone Warehouse are literally adjacent to each other with the Orange Shop and DX Communication practically opposite. For food there is Safeway at one end of the High Street and Tesco at the other. Within easy reach by car are 2 Asdas, another Tesco (open 24 hrs) and a Sainsburys. It seems that whenever a shop closes, it is replaced with a fast food restaurant or another pub! ~~Schools~~ As Rachel and I are currently childless, we have not had a need yet to scrutinise the education standards and services. I do know, however, that there are 2 nursery, 40 primary and 6 secondary schools in the area as well as 4 special schools. ~~Leisure~~ Pubs are plentiful including many of the chains: JD Wetherspoon, All Ba r One, Hoggshead, O’Neills, Rat & Parrot and Scruffy Murphys. I think the town could do with more restaurants; there is an excellent Tapas bar next door to Safeway and a couple of good Indian eateries. There is a 6 screen UCI multiplex showing all the latest releases and a couple of theatres one of which, called the Secombe Theatre, is named after the late Sir Harry Secombe. Parks are fairly plentiful including the huge Nonsuch park at Cheam. Sutton does not have it’s own public swimming baths but there are 3 within easy driving distance. Cannons now have 2 fitness clubs in the area one brand new with a swimming pool and all mod cons; the other is part of Sutton Cricket Club which, in turn, is almost adjacent to Sutton United FC. Holmes Place are also opening a massive centre in the High Street this year sometime I think so that will make the area well equipped. There are a couple of nighclubs but, to be honest, I have never tried them and probably never will… at nearly 35, I am happy with a can of beer, dooyoo.co.uk and bed by 11pm! :o) Hotels and Guest Houses are not that plentiful but there is a larger Holiday Inn just next to the High Street and seems about average in terms of price and services. ~~Jobs~~ There is not much industrial activity in Sutton; in fact there never has been really. Main employers are Sutton Council, Zurich Insurance (used to be Eagle Star) and Reed Business Publishing who have a large office block over-looking the station. As transport into London is pretty quick a lot of people work elsewhere ie Central London, Croydon etc. ~~Summary~~ Close enough to London to work there, close enough to the countryside to escape at weekends. Property is relatively inexpensive for London standards but get in quick if you are thinking of moving; prices are rising fast. Shopping and amenities are very adequate for everyday needs. If you were to arrive at Sutton station you would probably find yourself reeling at the moment at the state of the place. It's been devestated, and with good reason. The guts have been ripped out of it as Connex revitalise what was a fairly dingy little station into a 21st Century showcase for rail transportation. I am sure it will look fairly nice when completed, but right now, it makes things pretty difficult, and when the lack of comfort is added to Connex South Central and their inability to run an adequate train service, being trapped on the station for any period of time is no fun at all! That aside, things look up from here. Or downhill, rather, as the station is situated at the top of the high street, which follows the hill downwards. Leaving the station and heading downhill you will pass several rather nice eating places and watering holes. Near the station itself stands the site of Pierre Victoire as was, which then became Deja Vu, and so on and so forth. They're all gone now, which is a great shame, but it is a testament to the other restaurants in Sutton that such an excellent value chain was driven to extinction here. Pizza Express and other such chains as McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway aside - they're hardly an attraction, although they do dominate the central shopping area - you have a wide range of places to choose from. A decent sized Garfunkels provides some excellent middle of the road fare, and their all you can eat salad bar is very good indeed. If you're feeling a little more exotic, there are several Thai or Chinese places, probably the best of them being Hins chinese restaurant at the far end of the highstreet near Tescos. Alternatively, if you are just after a fast greasy traditional English fry up you can try the greasy spoon which is about half way down the highstreet and off one of the side streets. They offer decent sandwiches out front, and the back serves fried eggs that you'd cry for. Nevertheless, you might want a more party atmosphere while you eat. The tapas bar near the top end of the high street is the place for you then! Apart from serving SUPERB tapas (and I have eaten in several tapas places, ratingthis one the best) they have a true wild time here. On weekday nights I have seen people dancing on the tables and indluging in tequila slammers with total strangers in the most outrageous manner. A real friendly place, but rather small. It is wise to book in advance to be sure of your seat. Pubs are a plentiful resource on the High Street. Various chains have a high presence here, the largest being All Bar One, JD Wetherspoon, and the Hogshead chains. They all provide variable service. All Bar One is definitely a place to be seen and not a place to do any serious drinking, as their prices are exorbitant, but they do have a very spacious and friendly spot. The Wetherspoons is a very nice family pub, with the usual benefits of that chain (see my review of them for more details!) while the Hogshead is probably a more evening venue, serving as it does some great beer in vast quantities. As far as shopping goes, Sutton is slightly disadvantaged by being so close to Croydon. Road and rail links to Croydon are fast and easy to use, and Croydon is a much larger shopping area. However, Sutton can provide a quieter place to shop, a cleaner place to shop, and for anyone local, it should have all they need. Apart from the Tescos at the bottom end of the high street, a large Safeway can be found near the station, covering all aspects of grocery shopping. With the usual run of Waterstones, Virgin, Woolworths, HMV, various phone and clothing shops (One 2 One, Burtons, Dorothy Perkins) and the ever present BHS and Marks and Spencers, most chain stores are covered with no problems at all. Sutton also offers several speciality shops, including The Ash Can for comics (at the far end of the high street) which rivals Croydon's Forbidde n Planet and is the only decent comic shop within easy reach, the next best being in London proper. Sutton boasts a fair amount of nightlife apart from the pubs and several clubs. A multi-screen UCI Cinema shows all the latest movies, and is cheaper to enter earlier on Sundays, should you be so inclined. A decent bowling alley is just off the high street, as is a good gym. During peak times for shopping, a ferris wheel or other fairground entertainment can be found in the high street, which is by and large a pedestrianised area. Displays of line dancing, local dance schools, or other street entertainments are common, and a market is often open down the high street. Occasionally, farmer's markets and foreign markets come, so look out for rare treats from them. There are several decent charity shops in Sutton, offering good bargains if you have the time to look. In short, Sutton is a fairly good place to come to shop, eat, and enjoy yourself without having to pay the higher prices of London. Explore and enjoy!

Web Site: http://www.lovehappensmovie.com Description: When a self-help author arrives in Seattle to teach a sold-out seminar, he unexpectedly meets the one person who might finally be able to help him help himself. Dr. Burke Ryan is on the precipice of a major multimedia deal, but the therapist who asks his patients to openly confront their pain is secretly unable to take his own advice. Eloise Chandler has sworn off men and decided to focus on her floral business. However, when she meets Burke at the hotel where he's speaking, there is an instant attraction. But will two people who have met the right person at exactly the wrong time be able to give love another chance? Movie summaries and listings powered by Cinema-Source Related Content on Movies from Infoplease: 24 X 7 Explore Math Answers ,

I turned 23 today. And yesterday, was probably one of the nicest nights I have ever had. After getting off a long day from work, I met someone over coffee, which eventually turned into a movie. We saw Robocop last night. Movie was hell better than watching Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones in the cinema. PLEASE DON'T EVER TRY SEEING THAT MOVIE IN THE CINEMAS. A late dinner followed shortly after. Originally planned to eat out at somewhere in Metrowalk but ended up going to Tiendesitas. We had dinner at Ho galbi, a Korean restaurant at Tiendesitas Pasig. We had a couple of shots of Soju and a big serving of their special Bulgogi! Yum yum! I should've taken a picture of it. OOTD from last night! Except for the make up and shoes. I didn't expect I'd be going out last night so I didn't make any effort to fix my face/hair but I still dressed up, because I wasn't coming to work on my birthday and decided to wear my birthday dress anyway. My leg still feels awful, but I still managed to wear my nude heels. Red dress - Memo. Gold chain necklace - Robinson's Department Store.

El Paso's first IMAX Theater opens tonight. "We were excited when we made the deal (in 2011 to bring IMAX to El Paso), and they were excited because they wanted one in El Paso," said Gary Moore, chief executive officer of Premiere Cinema Corp., which remade part of its 18-screen theater complex in Bassett Place in East Central El Paso to construct the IMAX Theater. "They felt there was a real pent-up demand in El Paso (for IMAX), and we think they are right." It took about seven months to demolish two auditoriums in Premier's theater complex in Bassett, and build the 409-seat IMAX auditorium. It features a 5-story-tall, 75-foot-wide, curved screen, and special sound system. Moore wouldn't divulge construction costs. Premiere now has 16 other screens in its Bassett theater complex. Others have screens that "aspire to be IMAX. But they just blow up a movie for a bigger screen," Moore said. "IMAX digitally enhances the color contrast, remixes the audio, to produce super clear, sharp images on a huge screen. It's a very immersive experience." About 25 Hollywood movies are reformatted each year for IMAX, Moore said. Some of those are in 3-D. "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" will be the first IMAX movie shown here. The movie will show at 8 p.m., and 11:15 p.m., tonight. Besides first-run Hollywood movies, the new theater also will show IMAX documentaries, Moore said. Those will be aimed at schools to bring in students, but public showings also will be offered, he said. Showings of documentaries are expected to begin this spring, another Premiere official said. "IMAX has a library of documentaries. A lot of nature and space films," Moore said. But those no longer are the mainstay of IMAX, he noted. "IMAX is now a much bigger brand with Hollywood content." Marguerite Byers, marketing manager at Bassett, said the IMAX theater should bring more people into the mall, bring them from a wider area, and help keep people in the mall longer. "This is a whole new way to view movies in El Paso," Byers said. Moore said IMAX should draw people from Las Cruces and other areas outside El Paso. IMAX has 785 theaters worldwide, including 653 in commercial multi-screen theaters. IMAX has a theater in Juarez -- in the Cinepolis movie theater complex in the 9-year-old Las Misiones Mall. An IMAX Dome Theater, which shows documentaries, is in the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, N.M. Premiere, a 22-theater chain based in Big Spring, Texas, also has IMAX Theaters in Lubbock, and Bryan/College Station, Texas, and one under construction in Temple Texas. It has plans for another IMAX in Texas and another in an unspecified state, Moore said. He would not divulge the other proposed locations. Premiere may put another in El Paso in the future, he said. "El Paso is a good movie-going town -- a good market. People tend to go to the movies in El Paso frequently," Moore said. Premiere's other IMAXs have done well, Moore said. The Lubbock IMAX routinely is among the top 12 in ticket sales among IMAXs in North America, Moore said. Tickets at Premiere's IMAX in Bassett Place cost $14 for adults, and $12 for children and members of the military -- almost twice as much as an $8 adult ticket, and double the $6 cost for a child's ticket for movies in other Premiere auditoriums. A lounge outside the IMAX theater with a bar serving beer, wine, and frozen cocktails is under construction, and it's expected to be open by the end of the year. Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421 What: IMAX Theater opens today Where: Inside the Premiere Cinema complex in Bassett Place, at Interstate 10 and Geronimo. When: Two showings of the movie, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" are at 8 p.m., and 11:15 p.m. Cost: $14 for adults, $12 for children and military members. More information: pccmovies.com; imax.com

After updating its Kindle e-reading app for the iPhone and iPad last month with the X-Ray for Textbooks feature, the online retailer Amazon today refreshed the software, having added the useful X-Ray for Books capability. Basically the “bones of the book”, as Amazon puts it, X-Ray for Books helps you learn more about notable characters, places and phrases with nice descriptions from Shelfari.com and Wikipedia. In addition to this feature, the new Kindle app also boasts Manga image rendering improvements, per iTunes release notes. The new Kindle app is still a free universal binary and it looks great on all iOS form factors, including the iPad mini… Amazon back in September refreshed its Kindle lineup, adding a number of interesting software features. Among them: X-Ray for Books, Textbooks and Movies. X-Ray support for Books and Textbooks intelligently retrieves additional information when you tap an on-screen object, like a movie character, book passages, glossary and what not. It also pulls related data from Wikipedia and YouTube to enhance your e-reading experience. Here’s Amazon’s chief executive Jeff Bezos demoing the X-Ray features at the September 28 media event in New York. With today’s update, Amazon’s Kindle app for iPhones, iPads and iPods now works with both X-Ray for Books and X-Ray for Textbooks. X-Ray for Movies, which isn’t yet available on the iOS platform, allows viewers to learn more about the movie’s cast and characters by just tapping the screen, which produces relevant content by cinema site IMDb. Did you try X-Ray features on your device? What did you think?

The Malayalam actor turns 62 today Born on September 7, 1951, Mammootty is one of the few Indian actors who can boast of spending over three decades in cinema and still be a headlining star. While he dabbled in Malayalam films from the early ‘70s itself, it was the late ‘80s that brought bigger roles and recognition for Mammootty. In the mid-eighties he was prolific, notching up some 150 films as protagonist. It was also during this time that he made his award-winning films like Thaniyavarthanam. He won his first National Award for Best Actor in 1989 for Oru Vadakkan Veerakatha and Mathilukal by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Two more national awards came his way for Vidheyan and Ponthan Mada in 1993 and for the biopic on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in 1999. Mammootty’s success and vast popularity has to do with his ability to excel in art house cinema and keep his mass appeal intact. Into his sixties, he has some ten films lined up for this year, including Kadal Kadannoru Mathukutty co-starring Mohanlal, Immanuel and The Gangster. What’s more, he now has the satisfaction of seeing son Dulquar Salman making waves on the Malayalam cinema scape. Here’s wishing this amazing actor a very happy birthday! Do send your wishes!

I Served the King of England Ivan Barnev, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Milan Lasica, Zuzana Fialová, Martin Huba, Marián Labuda, Josef Abrhám / Fiction / Czech A lavishly indulgent paean to food, flesh and fierce ambition. Jan Díte has one ambition: to be a millionaire. And he has only one notion of how to achieve this: to be the best maitre d’ at the flashiest hotel. Or at least at the best brothel. Or, for that matter, in Nazi human breeding camps… Jirí Menzel is on top form with this lush new adaptation of Bohumil Hrabal’s novel. Played with splendid charm by the two leads (Ivan Barnev, playing the younger Díte; Oldrich Kaiser as the older version), the film is a gently humane comedy about ambition foiled by circumstance. Menzel wields a broad palette to conjure period atmosphere: silent-era trompe l’oeil effects, and some odd but charming experiments with frame-rate, fit seamlessly with flamboyant CGI techniques. What’s most striking technically, though, is the gorgeous cinematography by long-time collaborator Jaromír Sofr (who also shot Menzel’s 1966 masterpiece Closely Observed Trains, another Hrabal adaptation). It took Menzel and his producers almost ten years to secure screen rights for I Served the King of England, and having finally succeeded, they clearly decided not to stint in the execution. During elaborate flashbacks, an older, wiser Díte recalls his rise through the ranks of hotel maitre d’s in the decades before the Second World War. There’s ample scope here for an excoriating attack on any or all of the elite castes whose iniquitous shadows darken Díte’s youth – the wealthy inter-bellum industrialists; the Nazis; then the Communists – but Menzel largely avoids the obvious targets. The real culprit here – as he realises in his later years – is Díte himself. By exposing the aspiring waiter’s unthinking eagerness to serve any morally bankrupt elite, Menzel develops a quietly withering criticism of collective Czech acquiescence during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Díte’s goals are wholly material: he kowtows unquestioningly to wealth and power; he spends the war years cheerfully servicing German soldiers and Aryan test-brides; he happily makes his fortune by cashing in the postage-stamp collection his card-carrying Nazi girlfriend stole from wealthy Jewish households. In short, he is entirely complicit in the appalling crimes of the successive regimes he aims to please. What’s most impressive about Menzel’s approach is that he develops this criticism without pressing the point in an accusatory, sensational ways. Díte remains a man guilty through weakness and error, not evil; just a hapless fellow, and quite a nice one at that, who acts just as any one of us might have acted under the circumstances. Menzel thus paints a tremendously sensitive and forgiving portrait of the man, while drawing from it a barbed critique of the nation at that time. A major achievement by one of the giants of European cinema. 2014 Festival Diary: Click on a day to highlight movies on that day. Share this page Share this Film Festival page with your friends and family. Find Films By Strand EIFF is split into Strands. Use them to help find your films.

+44 (0)7890 200 617 A series of custom posters for The Five and Dime Picture Show. Mix of vector and raster work created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop Find The Five and Dime on Facebook and Twitter. Print available HERE Official poster for Celluloid Screams Horror Film Festival 2014.Digital painting created in Adobe Photoshop with Wacom tablet.Printed as quad and one-sheet posters as well as festival program cover. Videodrome piece created in collaboration with Steven Key Group art exhibition curated in partnership with festival director Rob Nevitt. Group exhibition celebrating retro videogames curated in partnership with The Five and Dime Picture Show. Poster and logo created in Adobe Illustrator, artwork for the exhibition created in Adobe Photoshop. On display at The Wick At Both Ends, Sheffield from November 21 to December 5 2013. EP cover for I Am A Cat by Magpies. Digital painting created in Adobe Photoshop with Wacom tablet. Official poster for Celluloid Screams Horror Film Festival 2013. Digital painting created in Adobe Photoshop with Wacom tablet.Printed as quad and one-sheet posters as well as festival program cover. Official poster for Tramlines 2013 flyer pack produced by FYI. Vector work created in Adobe Illustrator. 10,000 posters were printed on 120gsm FSC approved uncoated stock and distributed around Sheffield for the duration of the Tramlines Festival from July 19 to July 21. Created for the Iconic Images exhibition which celebrated key images in the music industry. Digital paintings created in Adobe Photoshop with Wacom tablet. Featured as part of a group exhibition in a pop-up shop on Division Street in Sheffield. The show was curated by Common People and music industry photographer Ian Tilton. Common People - Pop up Shop A collection of digital design work created for Sheffield-based company Yorkshire Tee. All designs are available through the official Yorkshire Tee shop. Buy this t-shirt HERE Official team logos commissioned by local and international roller derby teams. Vector designs created in Adobe Illustrator. Logos appear on team uniforms and merchandise and feature in publicity material. Photo by Joe BoneShaker Armitage Photo by Wicked Shamrock Photography A collection of digital work focused on iconic women of cinema. This exhibition was on display at The Old Sweet Shop in Sheffield from April 12 to June 2 2013. Work created for the annual art exhibition at the Celluloid Screams horror film festival held at The Showroom Cinema, Sheffield. Exhibition curated in partnership with festival director Rob Nevitt. Created for World of Superheroes, this series explores the connection between comic and live action representations of superheroes. Acrylic on canvas 30" x 40". This collection was part of the Heroes exhibition on display at S1 Artspace in Sheffield from July 6 to July 11 2013. Solo exhibition celebrating actors from 1980s cinema. This exhibition was on display at The Forum in Sheffield from November 14 to December 4 2010. Created for the Child's Play exhibition curated by Geo Law. Acrylic on canvas 30" x 40". This exhibition was on display at The Forum in Sheffield from June 6 to July 4 2010.

A popular uprising, as potent as ever / 'Battle of Algiers' retains urgency, Walter Addiego, Chronicle Staff Writer Published 4:00 am, Friday, February 13, 2004 The Battle of Algiers: Political drama first released in 1965. Italian- Algerian co-production directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. Written by Franco Solinas, based on the book by Saadi Yacef. With Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin, Saadi Yacef. (Not rated. 123 minutes. At the Castro through Feb. 26.) "The Battle of Algiers" is a masterwork of propaganda that once inspired armchair revolutionaries but since the 1960s has slept comfortably on numerous top 100 lists, perhaps more praised than watched. It's back in a handsome new black-and-white print, and it's still powerful stuff -- you can see why Pauline Kael wrote that it was "probably the only film that has ever made middle-class audiences believe in the necessity of bombing innocent people." The re-release may have something to do with the publicity resulting from the remarkable fact that the film was screened last year for the special operations department at the Pentagon, presumably because the film's detailed account of an urban insurrection against an occupying force resembles what the United States is facing in Iraq. To compare Algeria and Iraq is tempting but simplistic, although commentators are divided between those who believe the analogy is apt and those who think it isn't. But whatever one feels about the film's relevance to Iraq, response to "The Battle of Algiers" has been overwhelmingly positive. The enthusiasm is understandable. This documentary-style account of the violent uprising of Algeria's National Liberation Front in the 1950s, and the bloody French countermeasures, is a graduate course in how to work on viewers' emotions. Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo is so skillful here that critics have been moved to make extravagant comparisons to great early Soviet filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein and Aleksandr Dovzhenko. The film begins as rebel leader Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag) is cornered by French forces under the command of the relentless Col. Mathieu (Jean Martin, the only professional actor in the cast). In flashbacks, we watch Ali rise from petty criminal to committed insurrectionist working with the charismatic revolutionary El-hadi Jaffar (portrayed by Saadi Yacef, a real- life veteran of the Algerian uprising and author of the book on which the film is based). Pontecorvo recounts the escalating conflict between the impoverished residents of Algiers' Casbah and the French middle class, who have the distinct advantage of police and military protection. The insurgents begin assassinating police officers, and the cops retaliate by placing a bomb outside a suspect's residence, with horrific results. The rebels vow vengeance, and in one of the film's most powerful sequences, we watch as three female insurrectionists disguise themselves as French women and plant bombs in public places frequented by French civilians. Each of the women gazes with (presumed) sympathy at their victims-to-be, but each fulfills her mission. Mathieu is an expert at counterinsurgency and will do whatever it takes to break the rebellion -- meaning that suspected terrorists will be tortured until they name names. Scenes of brutal interrogations are shown (potent but not excessively grueling by today's low standards of explicit violence). Mathieu is direct with French reporters who question his methods: This is what it takes to do the job, he says, and bluntly adds: Should we be in Algeria? The reporters again function as audience stand-ins when they ask a captured rebel leader how he can countenance killing innocent bystanders. We don't have your weapons, the man says coolly. Give us your warplanes, and we'll hand over our (bomb-filled) baskets. The French may have been victorious in the battle of Algiers -- the rebel leadership was destroyed and the insurrection temporarily put down -- but they lost the war. Algeria won independence in 1962. Some critics are making too much of the supposed timeliness of the picture's re-release. For them, the film succeeds if it prompts us to ask: Should we be in Iraq? But Pontecorvo learned much from the Italian Neorealists, whose aims were less openly political, who taught him the virtues of location shooting, use of nonactors and the importance of convincing viewers that a film is capturing the moment as it happens. The director's real achievement is not in making a piece of agitprop but in using these fundamental tools of cinema in such an extraordinarily affecting way. Advisory: This film contains scenes of combat violence and torture.

Praybeyt Benjamin is a 2011 Filipino comedy film released in October 26, 2011 produced by Star Cinema and Viva Films starring Vice Ganda with the title-role. Private Benjamin is the following movie of Vice Ganda. After the winner of the first running role of Vice Ganda’s movie Petrang Kabayo, now Vice ganda is going functioning on his second movie Private Benjamin developed by Viva Films. Granting to reports, one of hist running man is the basketball player Paolo Hubalde. Paolo became the apple of Vice’s eye when the hunk attended as client evaluate in Showtime. This inspired Vice to advocate Paolo to become one of his leading men in his next film and corresponding to him, Viva Films recognized his wish. Watch Praybeyt Benjamin 2011 DVD COPY Movie Online Stream soon for free below.

Samsung's venture into virtual reality has becoming slightly more real today, with a tease of its new Gear VR software platform. Sam Mobile is behind the latest leaked screenshots, showing off Gear VR Manager, Samsung's software that is required with its Gear VR hardware. The Gear VR Manager includes some core apps like VR Panorama, VR Cinema and an early version of the HMT Manager. Once you've got it all paired and setup, there's a tutorial that will show you how you can slide your Galaxy smartphone into the VR headset, connecting it with Gear VR using a USB 3.0 connection. Sam Mobile has confirmed that there is a touchpad and back button being built into the Gear VR headset itself. How will you be able to control Gear VR? Thanks to Samsung's S Voice, you'll be able to speak voice commands into Gear VR. The rumors are that Samsung will launch Gear VR sometime this year, most likely alongside the launch of its upcoming Galaxy Note 4 smartphone.

By Charles Kenny | http://animationanomaly.com August 21, 2013 at 8:14PM That cat is out of the bag as far as the Los Angeles Times is concerned. Animated films are coming out thick, fast, and too close together for the market to bear. Box office grosses are down, and large studios like DreamWorks are starting to feel the pinch (although they claim that Turbo will be profitable in the end.) The problem of course isn't so much that there are too many animated films, rather it's that there are simply too many of the same kind of animated films. Pixar set the gold standard with kid-friendly films that had more than a wink and a nod to the adults in the audience. The world and his dog took notice, and started to crank out facsimiles en masse. Unfortunately, the market can only ever support so many of the same kinds of films. If you want a cautionary tale, just look to the Western. Hollywood flamed out on them 40 years ago, and they've been a tough sell ever since. Animated films face the same problem today. The concern is that animation continues to be treated like a genre (even though it isn't) and guilt by association could hinder adult-oriented animated films if the kid-friendly ones overstay their welcome. So what kind of animated films should we be seeing if we are to avoid this fate? High school comedies? Sure, why not. Action films? That ones easy, we just need to re-classify a few that are already out there from live-action to animation. Family dramas? Absolutely! The Incredibles could easily count if it had a few bad words in it, right? I mean c'mon, it already had the whole infidelity angle going for it. The point is that animated films that adults will enjoy and animated films suitable for adults are not mutually exclusive. It's tough to get a kid to watch a courtroom drama because it's simply not interesting to them. There's no reason why there isn't more diversity in animated films besides studio's reluctance to embrace them, and a mentality that the juvenile approach is the best way to attract the 18-34 demographic. The only obstacle is grabbing the headlines away from what's out there today. News organisations cannot resist falling over themselves for the latest kid-friendly animated film but won't touch one for adults with a 10 foot pole. If we can get over that, maybe we can start to see greater variety in animated form at the cinema. Charles Kenny writes prolifically on his own blog, The Animation Anomaly.

In 1932, International House began screening a number of foreign films that were not given wide Chicago (or sometimes, U.S.) distribution. By 1940, all of the energy combined to form the Documentary Film Group, a socialist group dedicated to screening exclusively non-fiction films that furthered its cause. “This early group viewed film as a catalyst for discussion more than an art form. That changed quickly as they added ‘fiction films’ and repertory titles after it became clear that grim documentaries wouldn’t pay the bills,” says English major Kyle Westphal, the finance co-chair and unofficial historian of Doc Films. Academic film study at the U of C, the rise of home video, and a decline in the number of film societies, Westphal reminds me, led to the founding of the Doc Films that exists today—an organization full of diverse participants and an even more eclectic group of films each quarter. “For me, Doc is great because it can show disparate masterpieces like Sjöström’s The Wind, Cronenberg’s Shivers, and Godard’s Prenom Carmen on the same calendar,” says Westphal, who is programming this quarter’s Sunday series, “Maurice Tourneur: Hollywood Pictorialist.” It was an idea that blossomed “after catching an excellent print of Tourneur’s Trilby for a melodrama seminar organized by the great Tom Gunning.” Doc Films has been one of the most popular organizations on campus, bringing in thousands of students every quarter to special screenings of recent widely released films like Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men and Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, while also devoting days to projecting gems from 1930’s French film to classic Alfred Hitchcock (beginning this quarter). But how does all of this come about? Weekly themes are determined more or less by a democratic vote. Westphal explains: “Weekly programming meetings are held throughout each quarter to determine the next quarter’s calendar. Intrepid volunteer programmers spend weeks putting together series, preparing a budget estimate, presenting them to their compatriots, soliciting suggestions, fine-tuning the hell out of them, and then putting them up for a vote.” Now in his 18th quarter as a volunteer and 14th as a projectionist, fourth-year Kian Bergstrom will oversee “Cinematic Sexualities in the 21st Century” on Thursdays this quarter. He says that he chose his theme because of an interest in the change in the ways that sex is presented in film. “Sex and the way it’s shown is not just for show, not just spectacle, but intimately and viscerally important to the artistic working of the films. It’s this that I set out to survey in my series, including both landmarks in the movement, like Wayne Wang’s The Center of the World, and brand new films that people in this country won’t really have had a chance to see yet. I’m particularly excited about the showing of All About Anna on [January] 18.” In that case, Bergstrom had to negotiate with the North American publicist and a Danish production studio. And where do the films come from? Doc has ties with a handful of large distributors that negotiate contracts with major studios to distribute films to smaller venues like Doc Films. There are also a wide variety of smaller distributors that have access to the more obscure films that we see at Doc. It can cost anywhere from $700–$1000 for a new release film like Little Miss Sunshine, which screened last weekend. Not even a “financial quagmire” (as Doc Films Co-Chair Yana Morgulis calls it) last year can stop Doc from doing what it does best. Since that financial difficulty occurred, there has been substantial reevaluation and the organization’s business model has been improved considerably. “We conducted surveys, made Doc Films T-shirts available so that Doc Films as an image and organization can have a place beyond the cinema space, and came out with a newsletter this quarter (thanks to the efforts of second-year Luke Joyner, our calendar chair) to provide a background and familiarize our patrons with the story behind each weekday series as well as showcase several director and faculty appearances,” Morgulis said. To coincide with this year’s 75th anniversary celebration of the little group of socialists who evolved into a multi-dimensional, multi-directional group of students with a passion for film, Doc will invite distinguished professors Wendy Doniger, Robert Pippin, and William Wimsatt to host free screenings of a film of their choice, as well as surprise guest film directors to appear in the spring and next fall. Through all these efforts, Doc has emerged as one of the leading student film organizations in the country. The organization’s popularity can be seen far beyond the reach of its core organizers. Fourth-year International Studies major Nicholas Carby-Denning says that he finds Doc useful for viewing great movies in their original medium: “There is something to be said about seeing a film like Apocalypse Now in the theatre as opposed to viewing it on DVD. Nothing compares to the silver screen.” Fourth-year Ana Maria Sinitean says, “although I don’t like waiting outside in the cold for several hours, I still enjoy the opportunity for advanced screenings of new films that Doc offers. I probably go to those more than I participate in the film series.” So the diverse opinions echo the sentiments of those who are more involved in Doc’s day to day orchestrations. “The purpose of Doc is two-fold,” Westphal concludes, “provide popular entertainment to the campus and community at large and present programming that often cannot be seen outside of cinémathèques and film archives. We’ll change however we need to change so that we can continue to fulfill that mission. We want our programming to rival that of places like UCLA, Film Forum, and the Harvard Film Archive in depth, richness, and rarity.” I don’t think anyone can argue with that. Doc Films holds weekly meetings every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in Ida Noyes, Room 216. All are welcome to attend regardless of expertise or involvement.

Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror A Special Report by John Pilger John Pilger dissects the truth and lies in the 'war on terror'. Directed by Steve Connelly and John Pilger Produced by Christopher Martin, Carlton Television Executive Producer: Richard Clemmow Written and Presented by John Pilger NOTE TO ACTIVIST GROUPS: We are making this video available at a special price of $59 to activist groups. Please order under our Activists' Page. This gives you the right to show the film in public as long as no admission fee is charged. TV rights are NOT available. "Astonishing...should be required viewing in every home, school and office." The Guardian (U.K.) Award-winning journalist John Pilger investigates the discrepancies between American and British claims for the 'war on terror' and the facts on the ground as he finds them in Afghanistan and Washington, DC. In 2001, as the bombs began to drop, George W. Bush promised Afghanistan "the generosity of America and its allies". Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. In "liberated" Afghanistan, America has its military base and pipeline access, while the people have the warlords who are, says one woman, "in many ways worse than the Taliban". In Washington, Pilger conducts a series of remarkable interviews with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and leading Administration officials such as Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. These people, and the other architects of the Project for the New American Century, were dismissed as 'the crazies' by the first Bush Administration in the early 90s when they first presented their ideas for pre-emptive strikes and world domination. Pilger also interviews presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, and former intelligence officers, all the while raising searching questions about the real motives for the 'war on terror'. While President Bush refers to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as two 'great victories', Pilger asks the question - victories over whom, and for what purpose? Pilger describes Afghanistan as a country "more devastated than anything I have seen since Pol Pot's Cambodia". He finds that Al-Qaida has not been defeated and that the Taliban is re-emerging. And of the "victory" in Iraq, he asks: "Is this Bush's Vietnam?" Grade Level: 10-12, College, Adult US Release Date: 2003 Copyright Date: 2003 DVD ISBN: 1-59458-040-5 VHS ISBN: 1-59458-025-1 "Astonishing...should be required viewing in every home, school and office. With facts bristling from his fingertips, Pilger revised the Bush/Blair version of events leading up to the conquest of Iraq to reveal an agenda of unprovoked aggression, excused and obscured by ruthless manipulation of September 11." The Guardian (UK) "BREAKING THE SILENCE is a film with enormous emotional power, bringing us the human consequences of our military attacks on Middle East countries. It also provides us with important insights into the reasons for these cruelties, exposing the emptiness and hypocrisy of the claims made by the Bush administration that it is fighting terrorism and promoting freedom. I wish this film could be shown in every classroom in the United States, to guard young people against the lies they will hear from on high, and to prepare them to be active citizens in the struggle for a peaceful world." Howard Zinn, Author, A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present, Terrorism and War "In 52 minutes, John Pilger succeeds brilliantly where the U.S. mass media have failed miserably -- to examine the war on terror with tough-minded humanism and uncompromising journalism. The result of Pilger's efforts is a powerful expose that demolishes the pretensions of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. In 2004, we need Pilger's documentary BREAKING THE SILENCE more than ever. From Afghanistan and Iraq to New York City and the insulated bastions of power in Washington, this film jolts us to consider the real human costs of flagrant lies still being told in high places. Whether you live in the United States, Britain or anywhere else on the planet, BREAKING THE SILENCE shatters some key myths that often prevent us from developing news media and political priorities to protect human life instead of destroying it." Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy "Provides a frighteningly lucid account of President George W. Bush's potentially never-ending war on terror." The Sunday Times "This Special Report by John Pilger is as welcome as it is contentious." The Daily Mail "Another inspirational hour from John Pilger, which feels like hitting an air pocket after drowning for years in the deluge of 'with us or against us' on-message, embedded reporting." "Raises crucial questions about the real motives behind the violence...Pilger [makes] a very valid point about the terrible distance between the public statements of the American and British Governments and the actual actions they have taken." Educational Media Reviews Online "A compelling documentary, almost haunting at times, which takes one of the biggest political bones...and chews it to pieces...[BREAKING THE SILENCE] is as disturbing as it is compelling and, undoubtedly, some of its claims will sound long and loud after this hour ends." Sydney Morning Herald "Hard-hitting and thought provoking...spectacular archival and contemporary video footage...raises some unsettling questions that can generate effective discussions in current affairs curriculums." School Library Journal "Provides an important foundation to understanding how the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began and why they have devolved into catastrophic endeavors... [BREAKING THE SILENCE] should be required viewing for those who are increasingly concerned about the lack of results in the war on terror. Highly Recommended." "Pilger's willingness to probe makes this a welcome counterpart to the often too-credulous mainstream media. For public and academic libraries." "Remind[s] us that you cannot achieve peace and justice without universal respect for human rights." Stephen Bowen, Amnesty International UK "With a subject so loaded, writer-journalist John Pilger must marshal-and succeeds at doing so-an impressive array of speakers whose many areas of expertise contradict official versions and confront the placidity and ignorance of the U.S. viewing public... Pilger's message has historical importance for concerned citizens, but it is important for students of anthropology, in particular. It can make significant contributions in classes on the anthropology of human rights, political and visual anthropology, the Middle East, unpopular culture, women's studies, and discourse analysis. Breaking the Silence presents a model of courage, because it speaks truth to power. Pilger confronts high-ranking Washington war spokesmen and think-tank dogmatists unflinchingly, and with a mastery of facts... The film is of interest to anthropologists of media because it experiments interestingly with media styles and worlds, juxtaposing ethnographic interviews, verite footage, processed imagery, and televised mainstream Peter Biella, Ph.D., San Francisco State University, review for American Anthropologist "Politically unapologetic and relentless... Piercing the verbosity over the economic development aid and the liberation of women in Afghanistan, Pilger's camera records the devastation of living conditions and the continued violence agaist women... appropriate for a Western classroom to deepen the student's understanding of Iraq and the complicated realities of the war on terror... Breaking the Silence presents a hard edged expose of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq." Lynne Rogers, Al Jadid Magazine Besides playing the program straight through, you can also play it by chapters. The chapter stops have been chosen to give teachers and others immediate access to key portions of the film. In addition an extensive 24-page Special Report is included in the DVD-ROM portion of the disc. The Report provides vital background information with sections on · Afghanistan's 'New Era of Hope' · The Warlords Who Still Rule Afghanistan · America and Britain's Role in Creating Afghanistan's Terrorists · The Price of Empire · A Selection of Major US Interventions since 1945 · An Imperial Project · The Neoconservatives Waging Global War: Washington's Warlords? · Targeting Iraq · Sanctions and Occupation - A High Price Paid by Iraqis · What Can We Do? Also included is an extensive list of websites, a bibliography, and a complete list of references for the statements made in the guide. John Pilger's web site Awards and Festivals Gold Award, WorldMedia Festival, Hamburg Nominated for Best Documentary, BAFTA (British Oscar) Awards Honorable Mention, Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival Vermont International Film Festival Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival Freedom Cinema Festival Istanbul International Labor Film Festival Middle Eastern Studies War and Peace |Palestine Is Still The Issue| John Pilger returns to the Middle East and questions why there has been no progress towards peace. The War on Democracy John Pilger reports that, in spite of a history of repeated US-backed suppression, popular democratic movements are gaining ground in Latin America. Tells the inside story of how the U.S. government adopted torture as official policy in the aftermath of 9/11. A seven-part series that gives context and perspective to events since the 2000 presidential elections and 9/11. Focuses on the human cost of the Iraq War to contrast corporate-controlled media coverage with independent media. Paying the Price John Pilger exposes the devastating effect that UN sanctions had on the children of Iraq during the 1990s. Return to Kandahar Post-war Afghanistan, as seen through the eyes of Nelofer Pazira, star of the movie "Kandahar," as she searches for her childhood friend. A brilliant visual essay about the costs, benefits and history of the vast, invisible world of government secrecy. The New Rulers of the World Award-winning journalist, John Pilger, investigates the realities of globalization by taking a close look at Indonesia. John Pilger investigates the history and brutality of the military dictatorship in Burma. ... more Reviews "Provocative...John Pilger pulls together all the threads of evidence to present a complete picture of the real motives and outright deceit that lie behind the 'war on terror'." Common Dreams News Center

Suspended Lives, Revenant Images. On Harun Farocki's Film Respite by Sylvie Lindeperg Note: Suspended Lives, Revenant Images. On Harun Farocki's Film Respite was first published in Trafic, no. 70/2009 and is reprinted in Harun Farocki | Against What? Against Whom? edited by Antje Ehmann and Kodwo Eshun. Harun Farocki's Respite is something of a ghost film, revisiting his exposition on the intersection between productivity and violence (as captured by the unseen reconnaissance photographs of Auschwitz) in Images of the World and the Inscription of War, and dissecting the nature of image production and its role in inscribing - and intrinsically, codifying - history. It is an attempt to connect the visible and the invisible that is also suggested in Sylvie Lindeperg's essay, Suspended Lives, Revenant Images. On Harun Farocki's Film Respite. To this end, Lindeperg describes Farocki's use of found footage and archival photographs as an "exhumation", suggesting the dual nature of these companion films (Respite consists of footage from the Westerbork transit camp) as a critique of history and filmmaking, both converging on the implication of images. Moreover, since the Westerbork footage exists as a set of unedited rushes rather than a completed work, Lindeperg reinforces this analogy by referring to Farocki's deconstruction in Respite as the figurative reassembly of a "phantom film". Images of the World and the Inscription of War underlines the troubling proximity between acts of conservation and acts of destruction, the relationship between the violence of war and the technologies of recording and reconnaissance, the instability of meaning at work in the image ...[The film] therefore forcefully underlines the necessary "collusion of image and text in the writing of history." The knowledge constituted by eyewitness accounts permits us to decode elements hidden in the image, to recognize what was inscribed there, but neither interpreted nor even seen at the time it was recorded. The conjunction of seeing and knowing thus allows us to recover the unthought of the photograph at the moment of its making. This reading appears as the product of an encounter between historical knowledge, the regime of memory, the symbolic and social demands that condition the exhumation of photographs, the questions addressed to them, the ways of decoding them. In introducing this parallel image of a ghost film that can be reconfigured to reveal malleable layers of reality and meaning, Lindeperg broaches on the idea of filmmaking as archaeology and an act of conjuring. However, rather than a treatise on the ambiguity of truth and fiction in the vein of José Luis Guerín's Tren de sombras, Lindeperg illustrates the intrinsic paradox of the wartime footage intended to capture (and preserve for history) the way of life of a people who were targeted for extermination: Fritz Hippler recalls the instructions given to him by Goebbels while filming in Lodz in 1940: 'Film everything you see: the life and the crowds in the streets; the commerce and trade, the rituals in the synagogue, crime, none of this should be forgotten. It has to be captured in its original state.' ...These remarks attributed to Goebbels reveal, above all, the conjunction between the act of archiving and disappearance that prefigures the tragic encounter between putting-in-an-image and putting-to-death. From 1942, in fact, filming was continued and increased in the Polish ghettos. The Nazis filmed those that they were going to kill, documenting them because they were going to kill them. It is this dichotomy that underscores the idea of cinema and image-making as the process of preservation and destruction, where memory is formed by the sequencing of images, each one supplanted by the next. In Images of the World and the Inscription of War, Farocki juxtaposes photographs from diverse sources in order to decode the traces of the event inscribed in the pictures while simultaneously taking the measure of what is not immediately represented. In Respite, however, he starts with a single source in order to evoke memory-images. The sequences of Westerbork thus become palimpsest images, which summon to the surface other image-strata, which recall the memory and history of cinema. Accordingly, the black intertitle cards play the role of crystallizers of memory and facilitators of vision, while simultaneously providing a space for absent images. In this respect, Respite not only proposes to refigure history, but also to resurrect the dead through reconstituted images, to form a more durable image-memory in their absence. There is another meaning of the title Respite that refers to the notion of latency, to the passing and the work of time, the time that mirrors the forgotten scenes of life in the camp and that extends to the present. In this sense, the force of Farocki's film depends on the contextualization of these shots within the mechanisms of propaganda as well as the confidence he places in their autonomous power. Detached from the intentions of the film, the luminous faces of the persecuted appear before us as revenant images. This spectral effect allows an emotion to surge forth that assures the posthumous victory of these captive men, women and children placed in front of the camera at the whim of their jailor, since time can foil the designs of the conquerors, and the image, as Chris Marker observed, has the power to transform the dead into something eternal.

Re: Aynone else kinda done with Jackman's Wolverine? Originally Posted by I SEE SPIDEY Call me an anal nerd if you like but thats what I want. This is a FAMILY forum Spidey, keep your kinky fetishes out of here! A Michael Bay movie isn't bad. It's bad by the cultural standards of western cinema. Why does the Asian market love it? Because they are live action animes. Musclebound heroes, big chested women, grand scale fighting and destruction. Transformers is nothing more than Dragon Ball starring bosses from Kingdom Hearts.

February 16, 2011 It being that time of year, I am off on a skiing holiday in Switzerland with my best friend Asha P. and my something-or-other-by-marriage Babita. My friend Mike suggests I take along an inexplicably neglected friend of his whom he calls The Bomb, Praveen Choudhary. She has always seemed like good fun to me too, so: the more, the merrier! All three of these ladies make me envious with their ability to tease up a big bouffant and their cat’s-eye makeup, perfect for setting off a fur collar or parka hood. My plan is to have them teach me these valuable life skills when they are too tired to ski any more. And while they wear themselves out on the slopes, Gemma and I will be making friends with the bartender in the nearest cozy firelit lodge. I don’t ski, myself, but I do love a good ski resort! read more » November 15, 2010 My feisty best friend Asha P. calls to ask me to come cheer on the sports team she captains. Shashi offers to walk over with me and Gemma; since we are always proud to be seen with my stylish and handsome brother-in-law, and it is a beautiful afternoon, we happily set forth. Alas, we arrive at the playing field to discover that the opposing “Heroes” team is unfortunately anything but: led by their crazy-eyed coach Amrish Puri, they are cheating like mad. Shetty says nothing, but his shiny bald head and bulging muscles are intimidating. Ajit on the other hand is quite vocal, shouting lunatic threats of world domination and lobbing firecrackers in all directions. The Heroes have in fact scored one goal already, probably by accident. read more » February 15, 2010 I’ve said on these pages many times that actors in Hindi cinema become like family after you watch enough films over the years. The same faces, essentially playing the same roles…eventually you wake up one day and realize that they are as familiar to you as the people you grew up with (well, many of you DID grow up with them, you lucky souls!). Anyway, I got to thinking the other day about what a Memsaab family photo might look like. Who would be in it, who would be cropped out. Of course, I would be at the center of it: me and my beloved Shammi, and little Gemma too—probably trying to lick Shammi’s hand. Sisters Laxmi Chhaya, Kumari Naaz, Bela Bose, and didi Helen would flank us, completely overdressed for the occasion. Moody and unstable brother Shyam Kumar would be off to the side, so that we could easily trim him out should he really go over the edge one day. Naughty-boy neighbors Ranjeet and Feroz Khan would lurk nearby, waiting for Shammi to turn his back so they could wink at me and maybe cop a feel. Faithful family retainer Nazir Kashmiri would water flowers with the “help” of dog Moti; but horses Raja and Badal would be absent, off grazing in the meadow and keeping an eye out for that rascal dacoit Vinod Khanna, who is constantly trying to kidnap me. Which is why Shammi hired Dharmendra as my bodyguard (he’s trusting, is my Shammi). read more »

|Buy The blu ray here| Stuart Rosenberg directs James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and others in this horror film that documents the strange happenings of the Lutz family. As the story goes, the Lutz clan found an incredible house for cheap, and they want to move in and settle down. They are more than happy to do so, but there are problems that keep pushing into their happiness, until things really start to come apart. Haunted houses are nothing new to the idea of horror film, but this one seemed to manifest a whole new level of fear. The slow breakdown of George Lutz is the focus of this film, much like the insanity that happens to Jack Torrance in “The Shining”. As the movie goes through some slow moving plot points, the supernatural starts to settle in and George goes through a transformation that is epic in nature. With a haunting, you get true fear manifesting through several aspects of the house, and while it doesn’t nearly pay off like many fans think it will, it still has enough frenetic momentum at the end to get you through a tub of popcorn. The strength of the film relies heavily on Kidder and Brolin’s performance, alongside the story that supposedly happened in real life. I can’t testify to the validity, but if real life moves as slow as some of the moments in this movie, then I’m definitely going to be afraid. The Amityville Horror is tame by today’s standards. Even though it’s rated R and there are some moments that will scare younger viewers, it’s more of a historical cinema piece than anything else. I recommend it as part of a box set, and as a little bit of background into the novel, even though I haven’t read it. Pick it up, and let me know what you think. I just know that I like this version better than the one that stars Van Wilder. Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.

“Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.” ― Mark Twain As we march towards the Oscars and Hollywood readies itself to crown its new king, the director category sits there like the guests at the dance who didn’t bring a popular date. Every other member of every other branch, seven in total, but only six if you count the individual branches using the preferential ballot, picked Argo. But the directors didn’t. In the past 40 years of Academy history, Chariots of Fire is lone Best Picture winner that trailed its competition with the 4th highest nominations tally overall. Argo stands in line behind 4 other films this year with only the 5th highest total. With that 8th nomination, a directors nod, Argo would have tied with Silver Linings Playbook and Les Miserables, giving Affleck a realistic chance to win. But there was a reason Argo was left off the Best Director list. No one has adequately come up with a good enough reason to satisfy his fans. “It was a fluke,” some say. “It was just a quirk of weird timing in a weird year.” But the truth is that the directors branch knew Argo was a frontrunner and they knew everyone expected them to nominate Affleck. We were all surprised when he wasn’t on the list. Probably he split up the vote along with Bigelow, Tarantino, Anderson and other strong directors in a strong year. Affleck’s unexpected absence ended up working in the film’s favor and now, inexplicably, Argo is the film to beat. No film has ever won with the fifth most nominations. If the names that replaced Affleck and Bigelow had been bad choices, lazy choices I could see condemning the Academy. But you have to admire a group that picked Benh Zeitlin and Michael Haneke, stepping outside the box to reward visionary auteurs. How can you complain about that? For once, the Academy has proved itself more daring than the critics. Whoda thunk it? In a logical world, the strongest two directors in the race would be Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee. And in a logical world Affleck would have been nominated, you might be thinking, but without the perception of a “snub” it’s hard to imagine this kind of momentum being built. After all, Argo entered the race the film people were least excited about. They liked it okay, some thought it was great, but after he was “snubbed” it became #teamaffleck. So if Argo prevails its win will be bittersweet. No director nom has already predetermined that. I don’t think George Clooney, Ben Affleck or Grant Heslov are going to care how it was won, the winning will be worth their time and trouble, director nod or no. They are the producers. They will all walk away with Oscars anyway. Everyone was expecting the same old Spielberg with Lincoln. They were expecting rousing battle scenes and smeary sentimental rack zooms. They were expecting “more action scenes” and not a movie about people “just sitting around talking.” They wanted Gone with the Wind and they got To Kill a Mockingbird. And they hated him for it. The fanboys especially. But it wasn’t just them — many in the bubble of film criticism and blogging, and those who cheer on from the sidelines of this dog and pony show we’re all a part of it — they just couldn’t stand to sit there and listen. To listen. Just to listen. The beauty of what Spielberg and Kushner did with Lincoln was to bring what we all remember as Lincoln’s external world and transform it into his internal world. I admit you have to have patience for that. Most people don’t. Not when you have movies that give it all to you in one go — and there are a few of them this year and one is probably about to win Best Picture. But if you do listen, if you do take the time to watch this film again, a whole different movie will emerge. The film is about passing the 13th amendment but it is also, and primarily about, changing minds. And not the minds of the people in the film. Their minds won’t be changed for hundreds of years. They mostly had to be tricked into doing the right thing and that was Lincoln’s gift — knowing when to exploit opportunity to do the impossible. The Emancipation Proclamation was passed following one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war. And the 13th amendment was passed right before the end of the war, with leverage to end the war being the main motivator. A movie about people talking that’s made almost $175 million? 12 Oscar nominations? Lincoln got caught up in “they admire it, they don’t love it.” Emotions are temporary. They don’t amount to much in the end except for recording a moment in time and what people were feeling at that moment. If I could wave my magic wand and change anything about the Oscars I would change that. I would say, make it about what it’s supposed to be about: high achievement in filmmaking. Extraordinary work rewarded, not momentary passion. But I am not a magician. I’m just a lowly Oscar blogger and no one ever listens to me. Another such triumph is Ang Lee’s Life of Pi — a celebration of life but it’s also a brilliant example of Lee’s willingness to go as deeply as possible to make the film he wanted to make. So much of it rests on the shoulders of the film’s star, Suraj Sharma, who worked so closely with Lee throughout that one could make the logical assumption Pi was Lee’s own avatar. For Lee, it is a movie about the power of God. For many of us, it is also a movie about the willingness to choose God. It is about that but it is also about cinema — about 3-D and the endless possibilities therein. Like Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, Lee plunges us into the third dimension not so that we think “wow, that looks real” but instead to pull us deeper into the story — full immersion. That is what 3-D, when done right, has to offer. But Pi works on its own, without the 3-D. It’s true it’s polarizing, like Lincoln, but the best films always are. The preferential ballot doesn’t allow for these kinds of films to win, that means it’s going to be a while until a truly great movie can ever win the Best Picture Oscar again, maybe if they switch back to five. The one to watch out for is probably Benh Zeitlin. I’ve never had a movie take the breath out of me like this before. I thought “breathtaking” was just a word. But it does have meaning and it happened to me at the end of Beasts of the Southern Wild. I suspect this film could upset in both Director and Screenplay. Can it win Best Picture with a preferential ballot? Oh, probably not. But its originality is what got Zeitlin the Oscar nom for directing. It never once played it safe – Zeitlin decided not to listen to the critics or anyone else who told him he couldn’t do something. He decided he would do what he wanted regardless. He and his producer found a way. And they did it for under $2 million. Instead of celebrating Zeitlin, and the Academy’s willingness to embrace change, the chattering class instead were upset that the Oscar race they were predicting was derailed. Though I agree that Affleck deserved a nom, and so did Bigelow, how can you not be thrilled with Zeitlin also getting in? Michael Haneke wrote and directed Amour, the other critics darling next to Zero Dark Thirty pre-controversy. Haneke is an odd duck. His films are usually strangely cold. But he is an auteur like no other. He enters the Ingmar Bergman realm with Amour. How thrilling to be living at a time when the directors branch is reaching back to those roots, when they really respected these outside-the-box directors enough to nominate them. Amour is a love story but more than that, it’s an explanation of what love is. Love isn’t skipping down the street and kissing in the rain, it isn’t being rescued by Prince Charming, and it isn’t a way to find life’s ultimate happiness. Love is a slog. It’s sticking by someone even as they begin to decay. It’s the desperate ties that bind us to each other. I’ve never really seen a movie define it that way before. Haneke is always surprising no matter what he’s doing. He’s an old timer but he’s young in the mind. I could see him upsetting also in the screenplay and director categories. And then there is David O. Russell who, like Affleck, is showing the awards community that he really wants to win. He went down the awards gauntlet with The Fighter and lost to Tom Hooper but he’s back with the kind of movie Oscar voters are supposed to love. The relentless campaigning for Silver Linings could push it through to a surprise win; after all, Argo doesn’t have a lead performance to pin itself to as most Best Picture winners do. The Artist — Jean Dujardin, The King’s Speech — Colin Firth, even The Hurt Locker had a corresponding nomination for Jeremy Renner. Even when the lead actors aren’t nominated, having that strong, central performance matters. And Silver Linings has that, plus four acting nods. The Academy liked it enough to give Russell a director nomination to boot. To win Picture and Director, Russell would have to be the first and only movie since Annie Hall to win without having first won the Globe in the musical/comedy category. Since their narrative has shifted from love story to mental health story, perhaps they have a better shot at it now. Lincoln has 12 Oscar nominations, heading towards $175 million, three acting nominations and director nod. Life of Pi has 11 Oscar nominations, and insane worldwide box office of $550 million and climbing, and a director nomination. As far as the Oscar race goes, and Oscar history, these would be the two films to beat. It seems as if these two would be the most likely contenders for Best Director. It’s funny to think of it like that since both these men had what many consider to be the biggest Best Picture upsets in Oscar history; Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan losing to Shakespeare in Love (most nominations), and Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (most noms) losing to Crash. For Spielberg to win his third directing Oscar that would put him in the ranks of a select few who have won three: Frank Capra, John Ford, William Wyler. John Ford is the only director with 4 wins. No director has won a third Oscar for directing since 1959. In a split year, you have to go back to 1966 to find the winner of Picture or Director that didn’t go to the film with the most nominations. Reds vs. Chariots of Fire, Brokeback vs. Crash, Chicago vs. The Pianist, etc. That makes it seem both likely and unlikely that Spielberg might win a third. He certainly deserves it and his 40 years of filmmaking put him in the leagues of a select few; that he is still making great films all of these years later is astonishing. Right behind Spielberg is Lee, who hasn’t made as many films as Spielberg but has tried something new every time. How many directors do you know that could have made movies as diverse as Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, then Sense and Sensibility, then Brokeback Mountain, then Lust, Caution, then Life of Pi? A versatile, robust body of work by a cinematic genius is also very worthy of the prize. Like Spielberg, though, he hasn’t won any major awards yet because both have been thwarted by the Argo steamroller. To my way of thinking, though, and it chafes against the general consensus and the status quo, Oscar doesn’t like to split. When it does split, the DGA usually determines the Best Director Oscar. But it can’t do that this year. So I think one of three scenarios will play out. The first, and to my mind most likely, picture and director will not split. So, either they will pick Spielberg and they will pick Lincoln to go with it and not have to defy Academy history to do so. Or they will pick Ang Lee and Life of Pi or they will pick David O. Russell and Silver Linings Playbook. The second scenario is that it will split and Argo will win and Spielberg or Ang Lee will win Director. That’s the generally agreed upon consensus. With the brutal treatment of Spielberg and Lincoln in the press of late, god only knows what kinds of whisper campaigns are circling around it, I fear the worst in that regard. The third is the weirder one to call and that’s a split with either Argo winning, or even Lincoln or Life of Pi winning and one of the newbie directors taking the award in a freak surprise. Most of the scenarios we’re predicting have similar parallels at some point in Oscar history so it is definitely not your typical year. But Ben Zeitlin, or Michael Haneke could win. When we say wide open, we mean WIDE OPEN. At the end of the day, I think Lincoln deserves to win a multitude of Oscars. Behind Lincoln for me would be Life of Pi. And after that, Beasts of the Southern Wild, then Amour, Zero Dark Thirty, then Argo, then Django Unchained, then Les Miserables, then Silver Linings Playbook. For Best Director in a split I’d probably have to predict: 1. Steven Spielberg 2. Ang Lee 3. Benh Zeitlin 4. Michael Haneke 5. David O. Russell For Best Director in a non-split year I’d have to go: 1. Steven Spielberg 2. David O. Russell 3. Ang Lee 4. Benh Zeitlin 5. Michael Haneke.

Harpoon Ultimate Edition – PC Game Review Harpoon Ultimate Edition. PC Game Preview. Publisher: Slitherine/Matrix Games. Developer: Advanced Gaming Systems. $59.99 Digital Download and $69.99 Physical Box. Passed Inspection: Highly immersive with tense action. Complete look at modern naval warfare with no limits as to the scenarios. Over 20 previous editions of the game are also included! Failed Basic: I had trouble finding the same scenario twice. Could not find tutorials in the Ultimate Edition folder. Outdated graphics. Could not find the multiplayer mode option. - Subscribe to Armchair General Magazine - Subscribe online and save nearly 40%! Harpoon has been the Cadillac of modern naval warfare games for over 20 years but, sadly, this new edition of the game falls short of bringing the game up to 21st Century expectations. Harpoon was the brainchild of designer Larry Bond and started life as a minature game in 1981. It rose to popular prominence when it was revealed that Tom Clancy had used the game for research for his books The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising. Clancy even wrote supplements for the minis game. In 1989, the game was released for the PC/MS Dos platform with Macintosh and Amiga versions following in 1990 and 1991. Both the minis game and the computer games were so advanced that they transcended the term “game” and are generally referred to as modern naval warfare simulations. Harpoon has been used by the US Navy to provide tactical naval warfare training since the 1980s. Matrix Games and Slitherine have released what may be the most complete version of Harpoon on a PC platform. Packaged with the Harpoon Ultimate Edition are 20 older versions of the game making this new release the ultimate Harpoon lover’s feast. Any older scenario can now be imported in to an edition of Harpoon which works on modern computers. But it is this huge 3GB bundle of different editions of Harpoon which leads to confusion but more on this later. Let’s first look at how the game is played. Harpoon is a real-time war game. As each second passes for your units, a second passes for you, the player. The player can accelerate time so that up to 30 minutes can pass per second. The player controls one or more ships, submarines, helicopters or airplanes as they fight for the control of the seas. The amazingly extensive database of units includes all major air and naval units that are either in use currently or have been used in the last 30 years. For each type of unit, Harpoon’s programmers have given us a full data file including pictures, weapon load outs, sensor abilities, range, etc. The game accommodates one player and the A/I is very challenging. The Ultimate Edition of the venerable game actually includes all previous versions of the game and over 290 scenarios covering everything from the Cold War of the 1980s, the 1st Gulf War of 1991, alternate universe Soviets vs NATO, modern pirate interdiction actions, and more. Plus the game offers an extensive scenario builder. The idea behind the compilation is that various versions of the game treated aspects differently. For example, one version may treat torpedoes in a way that players like and other versions (both past and future) do not. The basic game play screen includes two tactical display windows which show the disposition of the player’s naval and air assets plus little things like land masses. Once screen is used to plot attacks while the other screen provides information overviews. The player has the option of zooming in to a particular area or locking the chosen unit in to the middle of the view. Two other windows provide data on the speed, course, number of units, number of damaged units, and designation of the selected unit. The other window is used for intelligence updates on attacks, contacts, nuclear states, etc. These updates are delivered by a naval officer. When weapons launch or weapon systems impact, a window opens up to show the player overhead low resolution graphics of the attack. The top of the screen offers buttons for easy control of the games turn speed in seconds and minutes, attack options, speed and depth settings, course settings, unit formations, air asset controls and sensor settings. A button is also offered to lock the selected unit in to the center of one of the tactical screens. A “Help” function is included but does not work on Windows 7 operating systems. The game features a PDF basic manual which runs around 153 pages. This manual gives the player what he needs to know playing Harpoon but seems to apply to an earlier edition of the game as the screen shots look different from this Ultimate Edition. The main game menu also contains the option to create scenarios and access the 20 Years of Harpoon option which gives the player access to over 20 past editions of the game. Harpoon is easy to play with the buttons on the main play screen controlling the action. A brief overview of the book and a couple play throughs should be enough to get the player started. Tutorial Scenarios are included but are difficult to find in the scenario menu unless the player boots up an older edition of the game. This lack of one clear menu for scenarios is one of the negatives of this new edition of Harpoon. The player can access many of the scenarios from the menu of the Ultimate Edition but some specific scenarios (including one I played years ago on Harpoon for the Amiga 2000 HD computer) can only be found in the scenario menus of earlier editions of the game. The sheer number of scenarios, battle sets, etc. also makes it difficult to find a particular scenario that the player would like to replay. All the scenarios should have been organized and grouped in to one easy to use menu system. While this edition of Harpoon may garner a whole new market share of fans, a secondary element which may stand in its way are its graphics, which don’t appear to have evolved from 8 bit technology. The game’s land masses are photorealistic but the combat animation and units look a little out of date. While the graphic style may be accurate as to what the Navy sees on its shipboard computer systems, an “amped up” graphics mode should have been included to take advantage of newer computers. While antiquated graphics are expected on the past editions of Harpoon included in the package, I expected somewhat more from this “Ultimate” edition. Another difficulty is Harpoon’s multiplayer mode. The publisher claims that it has this mode available but I couldn’t find a way to access it. If I had, I am told that there is no player matching service. Games are connected the old school way – by inputting the IP address of your opponent. These few flaws are only a couple of barnacles on the bulkhead of this fine and venerable modern naval simulator. For real fans of modern naval warfare, Harpoon Ultimate Edition can’t be topped and this edition should satiate the call of the ocean for many war gamers. Armchair General Rating: 85 % About the author: A college film instructor and founder of Nouveau Cinema Group, Inc., an organization which rescues old movie theaters, Richard Martin has also worked in the legal and real estate professions, is involved in video production, film criticism, sports shooting and is an avid World War I and II gamer who can remember wargames which came in plastic bags and cost $2.99 (he’s really that old)!

|PROFANITY: (View Profanity)| The S-word is spoken 26 times. God's name is spoken in vain twice. There are 19 other profanities spoken. |SEX & NUDITY:| People and animals are vaporized; people take falls; glimpses of bleeding wounds; aliens are shot and exploded. |DRUGS & ALCOHOL:| Some alcohol drinking at a bar. Lots of destruction; vaporization; explosions; gunplay; chases on foot and by vehicle. Lots of fantasy alien, vaporization, and electromagnetic charge effects; some fairly realistic destruction effects. Home | Theaters | Video | TV Your Comments and Suggestions are Always Welcome. © 2014 Cinema Review, All Rights Reserved.

Saw: The Videogame PS3 Review I was expecting a shocking experience from Saw. Shocking in two ways. First of all, as part of the Saw franchise, I was expecting the familiar experience of gore and torture-porn that shocks the senses and can be difficult to watch. Secondly, as a game, I was expecting it to be shockingly poor. I’m sure everyone is aware of the pedigree of movie-to-game crossover franchises and the usual standard they adhere to. I was expecting a similar level of production from Saw. You start the game by gaining consciousness in a grimy bathroom, reminiscent of the first Saw film. You are Detective Tapp and you are caught in one of The Jigsaw Killer’s traps: you have a suitably evil-looking contraption clamped around your head. You don’t need Jigsaw to tell you that if you don’t remove it bloody soon, you’ll quickly have to learn how to reconstruct a human head – without having one yourself. But he kindly finds the time in his busy schedule to tell you anyway. And he has been busy. More on that later. You escape from the trap by twizzling the left stick and pressing the correct face buttons when they appear on the contraption. My first thoughts were “oh no, not a QTE-heavy game”. But once out of the trap you have to escape from the bathroom with a more challenging and typical Saw mirror puzzle. And here is where the first shock comes. The key is buried in a toilet full of syringes. To get the key and escape you need to plunge your hand in to the bowl and fish out the key. As well executed as this set piece is in the game, the shock is somewhat lessened because you’ve seen it before in the films… and better presented (despite the advancement of computer game technology over the last few years, the cinema still has better graphics). You leave the bathroom and find yourself in the halls of a long-abandoned insane asylum. A locale that has been much used in the horror genre, so much so that it is something of a cliché. But Saw does it very well. It is dirty and dark – and with only a zippo lighter as a light source, the atmosphere is extremely oppressive. Scattered around the asylum are case files that can be read and devices to inspect which give you some insight in to the atrocities that were conducted when the asylum was a fully functioning hell hole for the psychologically challenged. And so as you progress, Jigsaw tells you just how busy he has been. He has a number of other people in traps – people who know Tapp – and it is up to you to save them. By doing so, you will gain your own freedom. Adding to your woes, the asylum is littered with other unfortunate saps who are also trying to escape. Their challenge is to kill you. So you roam the halls of the asylum, being led by Jigsaw to the people you need to save. And it becomes clear that you are playing something of a “3rd person puzzle-em-up”. Making your way through the asylum involves finding keys to locked doors and solving puzzles. The majority of the puzzles are minigames. These include creating sequences of cogs to connect two fixed gears, lining up pipes to redirect a flow of gas or aligning similar coloured blocks to pick a lock. The minigames are well thought out and fun, but, as there are only about 5 or 6 variations, become extremely repetitive after an hour or so into the game. Punctuating the exploring and minigames are more creative and challenging puzzles, which often involve piecing together clues to disarm bombs or find a lock combination. The climax of each chapter is a set piece where the person you need to save is in an extravagant trap that will kill the unfortunate person (and usually you too) in an extremely gruesome way. Your challenge is to free them before they are ripped open/poisoned/electrocuted. These puzzles are without doubt the highlights of the game. Often difficult but always challenging, the time limit restrictions add an extra element of panic to each encounter. The only negative is that some of these set pieces use the same minigame puzzles that you have encountered throughout the game. There are only six of these “boss puzzles”, and the fact that the developers weren’t creative enough or didn’t have enough time to think of six different challenges is something of a letdown. Using the term “Exploration” is actually being rather generous to Saw. Doors will often automatically close and lock once you’ve gone through them and any exploration you do get to do is usually confined to two to three rooms, as everything else is cut off. So it is fortunate that the items you require at a certain point just happen to be found right next to where you need to use them. Although there is a map in the pause menu, it is rarely, if ever, needed. You are led everywhere by Saw’s clues and anything of interest or that can be searched flashes, just to let you know you should take a look. There is minimal combat in the game and confrontations can often be avoided altogether. And thank god that this is the case, because the combat system is one of the most cumbersome I have ever encountered. Littered around the asylum are baseball bats, mannequin limbs, desk lamps, mop handles, pipes, nail bats and many other items that can used as a weapon. Occasionally you’ll even get a pistol or Molotov cocktail to play with. This all sounds quite interesting, but combat is slow and defeating an enemy often feels like luck rather than skill. Although this does make every encounter tense and exciting, it is also extremely frustrating. However, you are also able to collect items that are scattered around the asylum and create your own traps to deal out death to your pursuers. Pulling off a well executed trap is particularly rewarding and leaves a grim smile on your face. On the technical side of things, although the graphics aren’t bad, they are somewhat underwhelming, reminiscent of late PS2 games. The animation is clunky, particularly in combat. Punching a bathroom door and seeing my hand disappear in to it and then magically reappear again was somewhat disconcerting. The environment certainly isn’t destructible in Saw, in fact it doesn’t’t even move. You can run in to a chair at full speed and it won’t budge an inch. The lack of a tutorial was rather worrying at first, until I realised that you only need about four buttons to play the game. You punch or swing your weapon with just two buttons (light and heavy attacks) and block with a third. All other interaction with the world is performed with the X button and you are prompted onscreen whenever you are able to do so. But not everything is bad, there are some very nice touches in Saw. As you walk over broken glass with your bare feet, you leave bloody footprints on the ground. A nice little touch when you first realise that they are your footprints. As I mentioned earlier the atmosphere created by the game is extremely tense and oppressive. This is partly due to the well created location, but it is also due to the ambient sounds and music in the game. The voice acting of Tobin Bell as Jigsaw adds some extra credibility to the game and his gravely tones certainly help to up the tension. Every weapon in the game has “ammo”. So even a baseball bat or mop handle has a number of blows it can dish out before it breaks. This adds another level of tension to combat and requires some tactical awareness. But the nice touches are far outweighed by the sloppy and poorly executed elements of the game. Fans of the movies will be able to suspend disbelief and ignore many of the games flaws, but for most it will be a struggle. My experience with the game certainly wasn’t all negative and I did feel compelled to keep progressing. So upon reflection, I wasn’t shocked by Saw. The game is tense, but most of the shocking experiences in the game – vats of syringes, exploding heads and so on – have been seen before in the films. But it also isn’t shockingly poor. The fact that the game hasn’t been released to coincide with the release of a film has undoubtedly given the developers some extra time. The concept of the game is very good and there are so many “nearly there” elements. But a little more variety and an improved combat system would have raised this to another level. Fans of the films or genre should certainly give it a go, but I don’t think anyone would find it a particularly good investment.

Why do you think Shelley chose to include the letters at the beginning of the text? What function do they serve? 2 Answers | Add Yours I am assuming that the question is in reference to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Frankenstein opens with Robert Walton's letter from St. Petersburgh, Russia, to his sister in England for several reasons, both literary and psychological. There are many examples of works in English and European literaturethat begin with a tale within a tale: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Wuthering Heights readily come to mind. But whereas those are tale-within-a-tale narratives, Frankenstein is actually a letter written by a brother to his sister. In order to understand why Shelly chose to situate the letter at the beginning, let me refer you to a very interesting book by the late Edward Said called Beginnings (1985). In this book, Said analyzes the beginnings of several types of literary and journalitic works and comes up with the hypothesis that, in the begiining of a work, a microcosm of the whole work is embedded. This is why, writes Said, perhaps with tongue in cheek, authors write the introduction to their works last! Applying Said's theory to the letter with which Frankenstein opens, we find that this letter contains, not only the moral of the story of Frankenstein, but, in fact, parts of the letter signifies and even foreshadows what is to follow in the story proper. To begin with there is that thirst for adventure and knowledge; an indomitable desire to know everything there is to know, to create that ultimate phenomenon that will answer all questions humans are capable of asking. But beware: desire for knowledge caused the angels to fall! The witnessing of the man-made monster is of course, quite literally a foreshadowing of the story, a near cinematic image before the days of the cinema! But it is more than that. To Christian readers, this part of Walton's letter can be understood as the ultimate perversion of human desire -- the creation of a deformed creature because only God makes human beings in His own image. Not only, is the monster ugly, he is dangerous -- for he has a human brain to go with his super human strength. Finally, the story. The letter ends with the announcement of the story, in the conventional tale-within-a-tale that sets up the actual story of Frankenstein as a prologue would a play. I hope this answers your question. First, the technique of using letters at the start of a novel of this time period serves as an authenticating device, suggesting to the skeptical reader that the seemingly wondrous tale about to be told is not mere fiction. The letters provide a sense of realism to a story that will require the suspension of the reader's disbelief. The letters that begin Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, serve to highlight and parallel for the reader some of the key themes of the novel, including the dangerous quest for knowledge beyond human purview and the consequences of alienating oneself from one's community. Robert Walton, who writes the letters to his loving sister, is on a journey to the North Pole in the hopes of discovering how the magnetic forces in the universe work. Not only is his journey fueled by his insatiable curiosity and the thirst for knowledge, but, more significantly, it is fueled by his desire for glory. He wishes to "accomplish some great purpose " and prefers "glory to every enticement that wealth placed in his path" (Shelley 15). In other words, once he discovers how the magnetic forces work, he hopes to control them to better mankind. To achieve this goal, he has isolated himself from the loving company of his sister. He acutely feels the loneliness of his choice and "desires the company" of someone with whom to share either his joy or disappointment (17). Walton's tale told in his letters is the first of three tales told in the novel. When Walton rescues the almost-dead Victor Frankenstein and brings him on board the ship, the second of the three tales begins. After Walton shares his story of the purpose of his journey, Victor is compelled to narrate his story as a cautionary tale to his new friend. Victor's tale is another story of a quest for knowledge, a quest for glory, and a quest for mastery of nature's and God's mysteries. Finally, the letters parallel the monster's quest for knowledge, the acute loneliness that he feels, his alienation from mankind, and his desire for human companionship. He, too, must tell his tale. As you read Walton's letters and then read Victor's and the monster's stories, look for similarities in phrasing and language. You will find, repeatedly, lines that parallel each other in wording, tone, and theme. In fact, if you were to erase the narrator's name from the tale, you might find yourself thinking that any of the three characters might have uttered the line! I hope that this helps in your "quest for knowledge" about the letters. Join to answer this question Join a community of thousands of dedicated teachers and students.Join eNotes

Two entertaining but lesser Dirty Harry movies, The Enforcer (1976) and Sudden Impact (1983) have been released to Blu-ray before, first in 2008 as part of Warner's pricey Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition, and again this past February as the more reasonably priced Dirty Harry Collection. This Action Double Feature follows the similarly-formatted Dirty Harry/Magnum Force twofer, but buyer beware; if you also want the last series entry, The Dead Pool, it's presently available only as part of those two, all-inclusive boxed sets. Both The Enforcer and Sudden Impact include previously released extra features and apparently utilize the same transfers as before. Back in the 1970s and '80s, Dirty Harry was the cornerstone of Clint Eastwood's fame, more so even than his Man with No Name Westerns for Sergio Leone. For a time Eastwood felt obliged to make a new Dirty Harry movie or something like it every few years; even after the series unofficially ended, later films like The Rookie (1990), a terrible movie, were Dirty Harrys in all but name. This week Clint Eastwood became an octogenarian, and doubtlessly aware that with much effort he's been able (and continues) to transcend his fame as a mere superstar of action-thrillers. Over time he became a competent director of such films and an especially inspired director of Westerns. Better still, Eastwood kept improving, both as a director and as an actor. In the latter capacity he was a genuine revelation in Million Dollar Baby (2004) and continued taking chances in Gran Torino (2008). Those and other later career works like Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003), and Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) have been among his best films, all but erasing the bad taste left by occasional turkeys such as Pink Cadillac (1989). Back in 1976, however, Clint Eastwood was perceived a little more than an action star that sometimes directed his own projects. However The Enforcer, the third Dirty Harry movie, was helmed by James Fargo, a former assistant director/unit production manager under Eastwood, as well as Steven Spielberg's Duel, The Sugarland Express, and Jaws. Suggested by the Symbionese Liberation Army's (SLA) crimes of 1973-75, The Enforcer's screenplay fashions them into one-dimensional hippie terrorists with no lofty socio-political ambitions at all. In the movie, the People's Revolutionary Strike Force (PRSF) is in it strictly for the cash! The PRSF steal M72 LAW rockets and other military hardware from a warehouse, killing a guard and fatally wounding Inspector Frank DiGeorgio (John Mitchum, Robert's brother) - who is also Harry Callahan's (Clint Eastwood) partner. The PRSF then threaten the City of San Francisco with the weapons, announcing their intention to detonate a series of bombs and cause other mayhem unless the city agrees to pony up several million dollars. Callahan, meanwhile, gets a new partner, newly appointed Inspector Kate Moore (Tyne Daly). The ultra-conservative senior cop is appalled; bad enough to be saddled with a rookie - but a woman! With Moore tagging along like a lost puppy, Callahan tries to extract information from black militant "Big" Ed Mustapha (Albert Popwell, the "punk" who didn't feel quite so lucky in Dirty Harry). However, Callahan's martinet of a boss, Captain McKay (Bradford Dillman), decides Mustaspha is behind the acts of terrorism and has him arrested. Meanwhile, the PRSF ups the ante by kidnapping the Mayor (John Crawford), holding him hostage in the dilapidated ruins on Alcatraz Island. (To subdue him they use a taser gun, a new invention in 1976.) Clocking in at a tight 97 minutes, The Enforcer moves along at a better clip than the other, generally overlong Dirty Harry sequels, but its plot is even more empty-headed than usual. The villains come off as thugs-of-convenience with no shading and are such an incongruous bunch that it's hard to believe they'd ever band together in the first place. Fifty-eight-year-old screenwriter Stirling Silliphant doesn't help matters by giving them phony lines like, "Jive-ass bastard!" Most of The Enforcer follows the tried-and-true Dirty Harry formula, incorporating already tired but audience-pleasing clichés. There is, for instance, the opening action set-piece, establishing Callahan as the rogue cop who plays by his own rules: at a hostage stand-off in a liquor store robbery gone bad, Callahan drives a police car right through the front door, the criminals' shock at his audacity allowing Callahan just enough time to pick 'em off with his trademark .44 Magnum. As with other Dirty Harry movies, The Enforcer has its own particular catch-phrase, Callahan's cynical "Marvelous." "Go ahead, make my day" it's not. No, if The Enforcer is remembered at all, it's because of Tyne Daly's Kate Moore, a performance that almost certainly played a role in her eventual casting opposite Sharon Gless in the long-running police procedural Cagney & Lacey. The daughter of actor James Daly (but unrelated to the film's producer/Warner Bros. studio head Robert Daley), she was an inspired choice, striking a perfect balance in expressing a fierce determination to succeed at her job while at the same time coming close to being overwhelmed by its myriad challenges. Critics ignored or disliked Eastwood but were nearly uniform in their praise for her. Unfortunately, the film treats this character with such obvious calculation that at most a moderately interesting relationship between Moore and Callahan is established. They dress her in over-emphatically frumpy wardrobe and in early scenes turn her into something like a comedy relief character. The movie was a big success but audiences generally disapproved of the way her character is handled for the big climax. By the time Sudden Impact came along, Dirty Harry Callahan was no longer a neo-fascist anachronism but part of the conservative mainstream, so much so that then-President Ronald Reagan was even quoting dialogue from Callahan's latest adventure. Accordingly, the movie grapples with exceedingly complex social problems by turning them into simplistic, black-and-white extremes. To wit: In an early scene, Callahan is chastised by a judge (Lois De Banzie) for lacking probable cause in a search of criminals obviously as Guilty as Hell. At a shootout in a coffee shop where a waitress (Tarantula's Mara Corday) is held hostage, Callahan's Wild West shoot-out is completely justified because all the bad guys are shot while none of the hostages are injured. Nevertheless, because of all the negative press Callahan is ordered to take a vacation, but that's as difficult to imagine as Joe Friday taking time off to visit Disneyland. The main story concerns Jennifer Spencer (Sondra Locke, Eastwood's soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend), an artist famous for her dark, brooding oils. (Her latest collection: "Dark Visions.") In fact, ten years before Jennifer and her younger sister were victims of a gang rape, the experience leaving the sister catatonic and in a nursing home. After a chance encounter with one of the rapists, Jennifer decides to murder the men (and their sadistic lesbian accomplice) one-by-one execution-style, after an initial gunshot to the groin. (The basic plot is a variation of the first two Death Wish movies. It's as if Hope Lange, not Charles Bronson, survived and went after all the bad guys instead.) The clumsy screenplay by Joseph Stinson, from Earl E. Smith and Charles B. Pierce's story, has Callahan becoming romantically involved with Jennifer, unaware until the climax that she's also the very killer he's pursing. He comes off as less than brilliant. Sudden Impact is dumb and borderline offensive but also quite entertaining. Confronting the hood that the liberal judge foolishly set free, Callahan grabs him by the necktie and, eyeball-to-eyeball, warns him, "To me you're nothin' but dogshit, you understand? And a lot of things can happen to dogshit. It can be scraped up with a shovel off the ground. It can dry up and blow away in the wind. Or it can be stepped on and squashed." It's not exactly Shakespeare, but Eastwood's over-the-top intensity makes it amusing. As a director, Eastwood seems to have been influenced by Hitchcock for his single Dirty Harry stint as director-star. At its center is the requisite Hitchcockian icy blonde, and the film opens with a Psycho-like series of aerial-to-intimacy shots, while the climatic fight atop a whirling carousel recalls Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. It's still a heck of a long way from Vertigo, but there are these little visual flourishes. The movie makes some unfortunate choices, first among these giving Callahan a slobbery English bulldog that he eventually names Meathead. Eastwood crudely cuts to the animal (often seen urinating) for Cheeta-like comedy relief. Also noteworthy is lesbian gang member Ray Parkins (Audrie J. Neenan), who completely dominates her male counterparts. In some ways Neenan's go-for-broke performance makes Parkins the best Dirty Harry villain since the original film, but as written she's also an embarrassing gender stereotype: the foul-mouthed, coarse, unattractive bull-dyke. I doubt this won many awards from GLAAD. Though a registered Republican, Eastwood himself quickly tired of the Harry Callahan character, and in Gran Torino seemed to be directly refuting its simplistic notions of law & order, vigilantism, and gun violence. I wonder what he makes of these movies now? Video & Audio Both films were shot in Panavision though stylistically their approaches are quite different. The Enforcer has the bright sheen of a mid-'70s big studio "A" picture while Sudden Impact opts for a more noirish look, with more subtle and subdued lighting and, significantly, frequent, extremely shallow focus even in many wide, medium shots. This works against the Blu-ray's high-def capabilities, having so much of the frame deliberately out-of-focus, but it reflects the theatrical presentation well enough. Each movie gets its own single-sided disc. English audio is offered three ways: in DTS-HD Master Audio, 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, and 5.1 Dolby Digital, with mono tracks in Spanish and French, along with subtitles in all three languages. The mixing on both films is pleasant but not particularly exceptional, to my ears anyway. My Japanese PlayStation 3 defaulted to Japanese menus and language options. Supplements, all previously released, include: The Enforcer: Audio commentary by director James Fargo; "The Business End: Violence in Cinema" and "Harry Callahan/Clint Eastwood: Something Special in Films" featurettes plus trailers. Sudden Impact: Audio Curmudgeontary by Richard Schickel; "The Evolution of Clint Eastwood" featurette. To buy or not to buy depends entirely on one's own particular needs. If among the series you want just one or both of these films but none of the others then, obviously, this is a good deal, but if you're likely to purchase all the Dirty Harry movies eventually, you might be better off targeting the less expensive of the two boxed sets. In any case, while The Enforcer and Sudden Impact have become pretty dated (while at the same time Eastwood's Westerns seem to get better and better), this is still a fun double-feature and comes Recommended. Stuart Galbraith IV's latest audio commentary, for AnimEigo's Musashi Miyamoto DVD boxed set, is on sale now.

Description: A behind-the-scenes look at the emerging sport of women's professional boxing through the eyes of Lucia Rijker as she battles her way toward her first championship bout. Bankowsky participated in the 1995 Golden Gloves tournament--the first open to women--and, after she lost by a decision, promptly took a ringside seat from which she filmed the rest of the tournament and the first footage of this film. With as much introspection outside of the ring as strength, poise, and determination in it, Rijker's pursuit of the world championship reveals the world of boxing and it's intrinsic contradictions: the shocking brutality and graceful control; the personal sacrifice and the public reward; the knockout punch and the final embrace. Movie summaries and listings powered by Cinema-Source Sign up for our free email newsletters and receive the latest advice and information on all things parenting. Enter your email address to sign up or manage your account.

Key films -- those grossing $500,000 or more -- did nearly $98 million, up 43 percent from $68 million last year. THE TOP TEN DreamWorks and Warner Bros.' PG-13 rated time travel fantasy drama The Time Machine landed atop the chart with a fantastic ESTIMATED $22.5 million at 2,944 theaters ($7,643 per theater). Time's average per theater was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend. The film is being released domestically by DreamWorks and internationally by Warner Bros., which co-financed its production. "There were only a handful of movies released in the first half of March that ever grossed more than $20 million, so we're pretty happy about this," DreamWorks distribution head Jim Tharp said Sunday morning. "The tracking going into the weekend had indicated maybe a $15 million opening. So this is well above expectations based on tracking." Focusing on the film's audience composition, Tharp noted, "I think we got the sci-fi fans along with young males. An indicator of that is that in locations where school was out for spring break, there were extremely strong grosses coming out of those theaters. As spring break rolls throughout the country, the movie should hold pretty well and do well mid-week." Time is the latest film to perform strongly at the box office despite an unfriendly reception by the critics. "I think on any wide release, the reviews can either help a little or hurt a little, but it's not something that's drastic at all," Tharp said. "With limited release movies when you play upscale markets, then obviously they mean a lot. But on a wide release, reviews can help a little or hurt a little, but that's all." Paramount and Icon Productions' R rated Vietnam war drama We Were Soldiers slipped one peg to second place in its second week, but held very well with a still powerful ESTIMATED $14.4 million (-29%) at 3,143 theaters (theater count unchanged; ($4,598 per theater). Its cume is approximately $40.8 million. "We're very happy with the hold on Soldiers," Paramount Distribution president Wayne Lewellen said Sunday morning. "We took a bigger drop on Friday. It was off 37 percent on Friday, but Saturday was only off 24 percent. I'm estimating today off 26 percent, but it could be a little better than that or a little more. "It's really strong. We know it's playing to an older audience and they just don't come out that strongly on Friday. We know the audience last week was a little older. 73 percent of the audience was over 25." Asked where Soldiers is heading, Lewellen noted, "If the picture holds at this level again this coming weekend, it could get into the $90-100 million range. That would be a multiple of five times the opening weekend ($20.2 million), which is really strong playability, which we do have on this picture." New Line's R rated urban appeal buddy comedy All About the Benjamins opened in second place to a muscular ESTIMATED $10.13 million at 1,505 theaters ($6,728 per theater). "Benjamins is right where we figured it would be," New Line Distribution president David Tuckerman said Sunday morning. "We're very pleased. We've had a long association with Ice Cube and he's delivered for us once again. His last picture for us was Next Friday and he's got The Friday After Next at Thanksgiving for us." Miramax and Universal's R rated romantic comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights fell sharply in its second week, down two slots to fourth place with a less appealing ESTIMATED $7.1 million (-42%) at 2,399 theaters (+174 theaters; $2,959 per theater). Its cume is approximately $22.9 million. New Line's PG-13 rated man-against-the-system drama John Q dropped two rungs to fifth place in its fourth week, still alive and well with an ESTIMATED $6.0 million (-30%) at 2,382 theaters (-74 theaters; $2,519 per theater). Its cume is approximately $59.1 million, heading for $70 million in domestic theaters. "John Q is holding up very nicely," New Line's David Tuckerman said. "It's hit a nerve with the American public and they're enjoying the hell out of the movie!" Buena Vista/Disney's G rated animated Return to Never Land slid two notches to sixth place in its fourth week, still showing good legs with an ESTIMATED $4.7 million (-32%) at 2,498 theaters (-120 theaters; $1,869 per theater). Its cume is approximately $41.7 million. Universal and Spyglass Entertainment's PG-13 afterlife thriller Dragonfly fell two pegs to seventh place in its third week with a calmer ESTIMATED $4.06 million (-39%) at 2,431 theaters (-76 theaters; $1,670 per theater). Its cume is approximately $24.9 million. Directed by Tom Shadyac, it stars Kevin Costner. Universal, DreamWorks and Imagine Entertainment's PG-13 rated drama A Beautiful Mind -- which has eight Oscar nominations including best picture and saw director Ron Howard win the Directors Guild of America's award Saturday night -- held on to eighth place in its 12th week with a still solid ESTIMATED $3.91 million (-16%) at 1,795 theaters (-167 theaters; $2,180 per theater). Its cume is approximately $144.3 million, heading for $150 million-plus, depending on how well it does Oscar night. Universal's PG rated family comedy Big Fat Liar fell two rungs to ninth place in its fifth week with an OK ESTIMATED $3.43 million (-31%) at 2,074 theaters (-158 theaters; $1,655 per theater). Its cume is approximately $43.3 million. Liar, which was made for only about $15 million, should be very profitable for Universal. Rounding out the Top Ten again this week was New Line Cinema's PG-13 rated blockbuster The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, still holding well in its 12th week with an ESTIMATED $2.6 million (-22%) at 1,210 theaters (-93 theaters; $2,149 per theater). Its cume is approximately $291.1 million, heading for $300 million or more in domestic theaters, depending on how it performs Oscar night. This weekend also saw the arrival of Paramount Classics' PG-13 rated comedy drama Festival in Cannes to an encouraging ESTIMATED $0.04 million at 6 theaters ($6,625 per theater). Written and directed by Henry Jaglom with additional writing by Victoria Foyt, it stars Anouk Aimee, Greta Scacchi, Maximilian Schell, Ron Silver and Zack Norman. There were no national sneak previews this weekend. On the expansion front this weekend Lions Gate Films' R rated drama Monster's Ball, which has two Oscar nominations, went wider in its 11th week with an okay ESTIMATED $1.65 million (-9%) at 696 theaters (+36 theaters; $2,365 per theater). Its cume is approximately $15.4 million. USA Films' R rated whodunit Gosford Park, which has seven Oscar nominations including best picture and won the Writers Guild of America's best original screenplay award Saturday night, added a few more theaters in its 11th week, holding well with an ESTIMATED $1.6 million (-17%) at 918 theaters (+3 theater; $1,725 per theater). Its cume is approximately $33.2 million. USA Films' R rated romantic comedy Monsoon Wedding added theaters in its third week with a still festive ESTIMATED $0.78 million at 76 theaters (+65 theaters; $10,250 per theater). Its cume is approximately $1.2 million. "We opened in 12 new markets and the print average in those markets for 25 or 30 theaters is going to be around $13,000," USA Films distribution president Jack Foley said Sunday morning. "The picture's doing extremely well and we're very happy about it." Miramax Zoe Films' R rated French comedy Amélie widened in its 19th week with a quiet ESTIMATED $0.63 million (-1%) at 254 theaters (+12 theaters; $2,480 per theater. Its cume is approximately $28.8 million. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, it stars Audrey Tautou. Miramax's R rated romantic comedy Italian For Beginners widened in its eighth week to a still hopeful ESTIMATED $0.35 million at 79 theaters (+13 theaters; $4,430 per theater). Its cume is approximately $2.1 million. Directed by Lone Scherfig, it stars Anders Berthelsen. Key films -- those grossing more than $500,000 -- took in approximately $97.82 million, up about 43.31 percent from last year when they totaled $68.26 million. Key films for this three-day weekend were down about 2.29% from the previous weekend of this year's total of $100.11 million. Last year, DreamWorks' second week of The Mexican was first with $12.24 million at 2,959 theaters ($4,138 per theater); and New Line's opening week of 15 Minutes was second with $10.52 million at 2,337 theaters ($4,503 per theater). The top two films one year ago grossed $22.7 million. This year, the top two films grossed an ESTIMATED $36.9 million.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Arcola Theatre Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle PRESENTED by simple8 (The Four Stages of Cruelty), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari runs at the Arcola Theatre (Studio 2) from February 12 to March 16, 2013. Written and directed by Sebastian Armesto and Dudley Hinton with simple8, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is inspired by the 1920 silent horror film of the same name which came to define cinematic Expressionism and inspire Film Noir. Franzis Gruber, a lowly bureaucrat, lives a neat and ordered life in a sleepy, provincial German town. When a travelling fair arrives, full of clowns, freaks, magicians and sleepwalkers, it drags Franzis into a series of nightmarish murders – spinning dreams into reality, the imagined into truth and order into chaos. In 1920s Germany, foreign films were banned and yet the public clamoured for cinema. So producers and directors decided to make their own films quickly and cheaply. They ended up with ‘Expressionism’ – painted back-drops and simple set-ups that told ghoulish, crazy, sometimes incoherent stories as effectively and directly as possible. In a way it was ‘poor’ cinema. simple8 specialise in ‘poor’ theatre. They use what they have to tell the story in the most economical and simplest ways. Rather than re-creating The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, simple8 have transmuted the original material – as eight actors create the swirl of life, bureaucracy, showmanship, murder, love and insanity that drag Franzis Gruber into a fast, frenetic fairground attraction. The cast includes Ollie Birch, David Brett, Christopher Doyle, Hannah Emanuel, Joseph Kloska, Sophie Roberts, Mat Wandless and Sargon Yelda (tbc). The production is designed by Simon Alison and has lighting by Sherry Coenen. Tickets: £17, £12 concessions – available from the box office on 020 7503 1646 or online at www.arcolatheatre.com/. Times: 8pm, plus 3pm matinees on February 23 and March, 2, 9 and 16. Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (no interval). NB: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is suitable for ages 11+ (due to themes and some strong language). The same ensemble cast will perform Moby-Dick at the Arcola Theatre from March 27 to May 4 2013. This new production captures the spirit and atmosphere of Herman Melville’s masterpiece – romantic, ambiguous and rich with allegory. It tells the story of Ishmael, a schoolmaster who enrolls under Ahab, Captain of the Pequod – a man bent on destroying the white whale that lost him his leg. Certain that revenge will slake his thirst, Ahab’s single-minded pursuit of Moby-Dick consumes Ishmael, the crew and the Pequod itself.

Whenever a film is released with captions for the hard of hearing we do try to schedule it at our cinemas - captioned for hard of hearing performances are listed separately so you can choose these specific performances. To find a subtitled performance at your local ODEON, simply select the “Subtitled” filter when viewing the performances at your cinema. In addition, the "Your Local Cinema" website provides full listings of captioned performances at ODEON and other cinemas. For more information about "Your Local Cinema", please visit Your Local Cinema (opens in new window). We also have Infra Red headsets available to improve your hearing of the film soundtrack. Please enquire at the cinema Box Office if you require one of these headsets. In addition, hearing loops are available at some of our Box Office and food and drink counters – just look for the hearing loop symbol. Disability & Accessibility Helpline Our agents are available to help between 11am and 8pm. Phone: 0800 138 3315 Textphone: 18001 0808 1560 609 Alternatively you can send us a message via our Contact Us form.

Kim Novak and the ‘Vertigo’ of aging beauty When 81-year-old actress Kim Novak walked out on to the Oscars stage Sunday night to present the award for best animated feature, titled, unfortunately for her, Frozen, she looked very different from the screen siren of old. Her face looked distorted by plastic surgery. Novak had not managed the trick of altering herself just enough to be considered “natural.” The response was as rapid as it was vicious. Twitter exploded in snark over the frozen look of Novak’s face. Commenters fumed that she had not aged “gracefully” like fellow presenter and octogenarian Angela Lansbury, whose own admitted nips and tucks had rendered a more acceptable look. (Though Lansbury was never really considered a sex symbol.) Headlines about Novak’s “shocking” appearance popped up on virtually every entertainment site. On Monday, the ladies at ABC’s The View offered that perhaps Novak ought to closet herself. Even Donald Trump, no stranger to ridicule, piled on the mockery. A screen siren is supposed to be immutable — the eternal feminine. She is frozen in time, and fixed in place by our gaze. When such a woman acts off-script, when she ages, for example, it offends us. Her alteration gives us unpleasant inklings about our own mortality. Better to leave her sealed inside a movie reel, preserved for generations to fixate on. Analyzing beauty destroys it. We aren’t supposed to be aware of the tricks — the lighting, the make-up, the hair. When plastic surgery announces itself as plastic surgery, it disturbs the illusion of beauty and makes us uneasy. In our narcissism, we want to identify with an ideal. Anything else and we instinctively recoil. For violating our expectations of proper sex symbol aging, Novak got a media flogging. Maybe she was used to it by now: Hollywood had wounded her well over half a century ago. Marilyn Pauline Novak arrived in Hollywood in the early 1950s as — hold the tweets! — “Miss Deepfreeze,” the spokesmodel for a refrigerator company. The plump, shy young woman quickly learned that getting movie work required a head-to-toe makeover. Columbia studio boss and epic control freak Harry Cohn ordered her to ditch the Slavic surname. She refused, consenting only to change her first name to “Kim.” But there was no resisting demands to alter her appearance: Cap those teeth! Bleach that hair! Trim that body! Doubtful that the person he reportedly called “that fat Polack” could sell as an “It Girl,” Cohn put her on a strict diet. He would decide what she ate, what she wore, and whom she dated. When his blonde goddess defied him by dating Sammy Davis Jr., Cohn threatened the black star with mob violence unless he gave her up, according to Vanity Fair’s Sam Kashner. Novak may have managed to fend off Cohn’s own sexual advances, but she had to put up with the rest, carrying deep resentment and a permanent wound as her star ascended. It was this edgy, wounded quality that made Novak a standout on screen. She was a beauty uncomfortable in her own skin, signaling torment even at her most seductive. Her performance in Picnic (1955), as a small-town girl seeking to be loved for herself and not her looks, was mesmerizing enough to gain the notice of Alfred Hitchcock. The director cast her in Vertigo (1958), now regularly cited as one of the best films ever made. Novak portrays the brunette shop girl Judy, who pretends to be the aristocratic, blonde Madeleine to help pull off a murder plot. When Scottie, a police detective played by Jimmy Stewart, falls in love with the mysterious Madeleine, Judy must keep up the fantasy to retain his affection. “Wouldn’t you like me, just me the way I am?” pleads Judy. No, he wouldn’t. Any time her real self peeks through, Scottie’s joy quickly turns to despair. In many interviews, including a 2012 discussion with the British Film Institute, Novak described her identification with Judy: “The role appealed to me because it was the resistance of Judy — who was in a sense me – trying to become the Hollywood person, trying to be Madeleine, needing to loved, and willing to be made over.” She recalls Hitchcock’s total fixation on her hair, her clothing, her make-up — as if the director was embodying the obsession of Scottie, whose fanatical gaze follows Judy/Madeleine throughout the film. The movie screen is a magical mirror that reflects our fantasies and obsessions. In her influential essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” film critic Laura Mulvey focuses on classic Hollywood’s ability to deliver sumptuous visual pleasure by making women the object of the male gaze. That turns out to be a tricky place to be. The screen siren, particularly the carefully groomed star of the old studio system, may be an object of pleasure, but her image also evokes a certain anxiety. To quell this anxiety, she must be either punished or tamed into a fetish object. Both these things happen in Vertigo, as Scottie alternately feeds his desire by fetishizing Madeleine and acts out his discomfort by punishing Judy. In the end, Judy is unable to fulfill his fantasies, and must die. Part of Hitchcock’s brilliance was to make the audience feel complicit in the fantasies projected on to the screen. When Judy dies in Vertigo, there’s a haunting feeling that we have participated, with Scottie and the director himself, in idealizing and punishing this agonized woman. “I walked into danger and let you change me because I loved you,” Judy tells Scottie. Obviously, it wasn’t enough. PHOTO (TOP): Matthew McConaughey and Kim Novak present at the 86th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, March 2, 2014. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson PHOTO (INSERT 1): Actress Kim Novak smiles at photographers after she received the “Golden Bear Award” for her liftetime achievment at the 47th annual Berlin film festival, February 21, 1997. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch PHOTO (Insert 2): Actress Kim Novak gesture on stage during the closing ceremony of the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, May 26, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

There's no chivalry, Guinevere love triangle or quest for the holy grail in King Arthur - just plenty of male bonding and Bruckheimer-esque action. Garry Maddox reports. Lancelot looks across at the murderous Saxons as he prepares for battle in King Arthur. "There's a large number of lonely men out there," he says to the young Guinevere. "Don't worry," she answers coolly. "I won't let them touch you." That moment is in the trailer for Hollywood's latest version of the Arthurian legend. But it is not in the movie. The spirited Guinevere, played by Keira Knightley from Bend it Like Beckham and Pirates of the Caribbean, actually answers, "I won't let them rape you." That says a lot about the way Hollywood sells movies to the widest possible audience. It also says a lot about the tough, take-no-prisoners attitude that director Antoine Fuqua has brought to an action drama - a drama that has been dividing critics like Arthur's knights divide Saxon skulls. "An engrossing, highly intelligent re-imagining of the legend," gushed The Hollywood Reporter. "A blunt, glowering B-picture," thundered The New York Times. After decades of movies about the legend such as Camelot, Knights of the Round Table, Excalibur, First Knight and even Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this one strips it back to basics. There is only passing reference to the sword in the stone ... or in this case, a burial mound. Merlin is a kind of Celtic shaman, a mystical guerilla leader rather than a magician. There is only a veiled suggestion of romance between Lancelot, who fights with twin swords, and Guinevere, who wields a mean bow and wears skimpy leather in battle. There is no quest for the holy grail. No chivalric tradition. Not even much in the way of shining armour, at least not without a layer of grime and blood. The biggest change is that the knights of the fabled round table are reluctant soldiers from Sarmatia, which is now Georgia, who have been forced to join the Roman cause and are fighting for their freedom. Screenwriter David Franzoni, who co-wrote Gladiator, says the legend dates from a much earlier period than historians have traditionally believed. The half-British, half-Roman commander Lucius Artorius Castus and his Sarmatian troops were sent to protect Britain in the fifth century (although other sources say the second century). Their victory over the Saxons in the battle of Badon Hill is said to have inspired a legend that was decorated with all the familiar elements centuries later. "This is King Arthur as The Wild Bunch," Franzoni says. You can also throw in The Magnificent Seven, The Seven Samurai, The Dirty Dozen and Braveheart. English actor Clive Owen (Croupier, The Bourne Identity) plays Arthur. His knights include Ioan Gruffudd as Lancelot, Australia's Joel Edgerton as Gawain, Ray Winstone as Bors and Mads Mikkelsen as Tristan. The filmmakers dated the story much further back in history than usual, going to great lengths to recreate the era. They even built a version of Hadrian's Wall, which divided Roman Britain from the barbarian north, in Ireland. It was 950 metres long and up to 10 metres high, with a walkway on top. "There was no building in Ireland the whole of that summer," jokes Gruffudd, who is best known as TV's Horatio Hornblower. "All the scaffolding was in Hadrian's Wall. The piping was just unbelievable. Every building project was put on hold for six months." Gruffudd admits he knew nothing about the Artorius story before the movie. "Historians are slowly coming around to believing that these characters from Sarmatia or from Russia were literally drafted into the Roman army to become a sort of elite cavalry or fighting force - the SAS of the Roman Army," he says. Gruffudd doesn't believe this new version takes anything away from the romantic legend. "We're actually making it more accessible, I think. There have been myths and legends and stories. "Now we're bringing it to a real person, so you associate it much better with the character." Gruffudd says there is another realistic element to the story - the knights are reluctant about fighting for their cause. "They don't want to be soldiers any longer. They've given their life to the Roman army and they don't want to do it any longer. We're not glorifying it. Every time they go into battle, they're dreading it." Gruffudd adds that making the movie was similar to starring in Hornblower in that it was a kind of boys' own adventure on set. "It was like being a child again. There's no real acting involved. With Hornblower, I was in the costume, physically out at sea, sailing. "With Lancelot, I'm on the back of a horse dressed in this costume with two swords. You're just living it." Gruffudd insists that acting in the re-created fifth century was not as difficult as it looks. "We had an amazing summer in Ireland - the hottest on record, I think. So all the elements that you see in the film are manufactured by the special-effects guys, the snow, the wind and the rain." The actors still had to go through a two-week Dark Ages boot camp to get the level of realism required by Fuqua and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. "In the mornings, we'd learn how to ride the horses," Gruffudd says. "Then we'd choreograph the fights in the afternoons. And then in the evenings, there'd be a bit of social bonding to get that sort of camaraderie between the knights." Franzoni might be pushing a new historical interpretation but Fuqua wasn't too troubled about the accuracy of the accents. The knights in King Arthur mostly speak with modern English accents. "We didn't want to go for the Russian," Gruffudd says. "That would have been a bit distracting. Clive - obviously he's English - used his own accent. I was trying to put [on] a bit of an English or Celtic accent. "I think we used our own accents really, although Joel had a bit of a British accent going. Mads Mikkelsen, who's from Denmark, was using his own accent. That adds to the flavour of the film and helps define the characters." Fellow knight Edgerton also noticed the difference between the trailer and the movie. "I remember being there on the day of the shooting and thinking, 'wow'," he says. "I was kind of impressed that the line made it into what is essentially a Disney film. It's pretty hard-hitting, but it kind of works in the cinema." |text | handheld (how to)|| Copyright © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald. |advertise | contact us|

From Cobra Commander to GLaDOS: The Most Iconic Voices in Pop Culture - 6:30 am | There are a lot of masks, avatars, talking robots and even disembodied speaking computers in geek multimedia, and behind every one of those iconic characters there is a voice – sometimes one that becomes as much a part of pop culture as Luke Skywalker or the Iron Throne. That means that casting a voice actor can be as important as casting … well, any other actor. Take, for example, Cobra Commander, infamous for his shrill, grating tones in the '80s G.I. Joe cartoon. But when it came time to cast the new G.I. Joe: Retaliation, director Jon M. Chu decided to go in a different direction. “I mean, it [was] high-pitched screaming," Chu said. "We couldn't go there, it was just too annoying." But even after he tapped Robert Baker – an actor friend from his college days – for the man behind the chrome, it still took a while to get exactly right. "Ultimately what we found was that his breathing was something very important," Chu said. "Every time he breathes in, you hear this hiss. Not a hiss – it's a rattle. You could get personality out of that rattle." And with voicing a villain, particularly one who had a previous cartoon incarnation, knowing his personality is half the battle. Whether it's Johnny Five fretting about "No disassemble!" or the passive-aggression of rogue AI GLaDOS in Portal – not to mention the overthrow-plotting sass machine that is Siri – the voices behind some of the most interesting characters in media have become as recognizable to us as their faces (or lack thereof). To honor their righteousness, we here at Wired compiled some of our favorite voices from movies, TV, videogames and music. Above: Cobra Commander The Cobra Commander featured in the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero cartoon of the early and mid-1980s was – despite being the leader of a dangerous terrorist cell – not really all that threatening. Sure he had the über-militant royal blue uniform and faceless, steely mask, but also the ear-piercing wail of a male version of an evil witch going through puberty. Voiced by Chris Latta – who was the voice of the equally shrill Starscream on the Transformers cartoon of that time – Cobra Commander back then was all hiss and no bite. If there’s a single iconic robot voice, it’s got to be Douglas Rain’s haunting turn as HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (reprised in 2010). Rain’s monotonous delivery was simultaneously inhumanly eerie and childishly petulant, and his pleas for life and ultimate, sinking delivery of the song "Daisy Bell" – a moment of wink-and-nudge homage to the first singing computer – make HAL’s death the most memorable scene of a movie rife with iconic moments. – Rachel Edidin If HAL 9000 has competition for “most memorable singing computer,” his closest challenger is GLaDOS, voiced by actress and opera singer Ellen McLain. Aperture Science’s murderous rogue AI was equal parts passive-aggressive stepford charm and homicidal cheer as she guided, taunted, and thwarted players through the two Portal games. In Portal 2, GLaDOS shared the spotlight with (and is briefly supplanted by) another AI, the bumbling Wheatley; a colorful cast of turrets returning from the original Portal, also voiced by McLain; and several of GLaDOS’s own dysfunctional personality cores, voiced by Nolan North. – Rachel Edidin The voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars flicks might be the most recognizable villain voice of all time – and probably one of the most imitated, too. The bellowing vocals of James Earl Jones, and that creepy, raspy breathing made Vader the voice of the Dark Side. The mask and the cape were nice touches and all, but that booming, breathy voice is what really commanded everyone's attention – from the crew of the Death Star to every single viewer who ever watched it. – Angela Watercutter Many actors have appeared in more than one of the Star Trek shows, but only one sports every single iteration on her resume: Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who, in addition to playing a bevy of face roles – most memorable among them, Nurse (later Doctor) Christine Chapel in the Original Series and Lwxana Troi in The Next Generation – has been the voice of Starfleet AI from its inception through J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. Roddenberry recorded the computer sequences for the 2009 film in the final months of her life. – Rachel Edidin When French electronic music duo Daft Punk dropped "Around the World" back in 1997 it got dance floors moving, well, around the world. It also brought with it something new to do the Robot to – an actual robot. Daft Punk'd vocals aren't really so much a singular "voice" as they are a chorus of various Vocoder/Auto-Tune/digitally tweaked hooks mixed up a little bit differently on every hit. From the holler-if-ya-hear-me Romanthony chorus of "One More Time" to the Kanye West favorite "Harder Better Faster Stronger" each robotic-sounding Daft Punk vocal may be distinct, but is still somehow easy to identify the second the disco droid voice drops on the beat. – Angela Watercutter Sounding (and occasionally looking) like a digitized Jim Carrey, Matt Frewer had a great run in the 1980s as the weird, future dystopia TV reporter Max Headroom. In addition to his own TV show, Headroom was also able to adapt his smart-ass, wry tone to become, well, a talking head for Coke and other gigs. Max was once even imitated during the hijacking of a pair of Chicago television stations in 1987. However, that never-identified person didn't really get the voice right. – Angela Watercutter Number 5/Johnny Five For a period in the 1980s, having a robot become self-aware became a far less frightening concept thanks to Short Circuit's Number 5. How'd he do it? Well, he just sounded so sweet and clueless. After being struck by lightning and escaping the lab of Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg), the newly conscious Number 5 – who later takes the name "Johnny Five" – befriends an awesome cat lover named Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy). Normally one would think that a young woman confronted by an autonomous talking robot might be a bit freaked out, but his "Number 5, alive!" talk is so endearing, she can't resist – even when he rolls in on her bath and comments on her "nice software." (Fun Fact: Tim Blaney, who voiced Number 5, was also the voice of Frank the Pug in the first two Men in Black movies.) – Angela Watercutter Wall-E's voice shouldn't work. For one thing, he barely says anything the entire movie, and for another, his voice is basically the same as E.T.'s when it comes down to it (maybe a little less croaky, but still). And yet … every time that little doe-eyed robot warms up his voice box, he melts our hearts just a little bit more. Cute without being cloying, Wall-E manages to sound like every adorable Saturday Morning Cartoon sidekick: childlike and filled with wonder at the simplest things. Perhaps less really is more, after all. – Graeme McMillan If there was a better way to convey the essential uptightness of Star Wars' second most popular droid – sorry, Threepio; maybe you should start learning how to pilot an X-Wing instead of just complaining all the time – than giving him a posh English accent, then it's hard to imagine what it could be. Anthony Daniels' vocals were instantly reminiscent of the stereotypical upper-class English butler, immediately conveying the character even before he introduced himself as a protocol droid programmed primarily for etiquette. He was so good at sounding panicked, out-of-his-depth and just a little snippy about everything that it just made him so much easier to love. – Graeme McMillan In every Halo campaign, Master Chief has had Cortana, the gentle female voice guiding his missions and giving him – and, by extension, players – backstory and advice. Voiced by Jen Taylor, the AI wing-woman's tone was at times soothing, at times stern, and by Halo 4 it was even a little heartbreaking. But regardless how she said what she said, she was always there to guide the way. – Angela Watercutter Max in Flight of the Navigator So, Max is a bit of an outlier. He's an artificially intelligent spaceship that sort of abducts a 12-year-old boy (it's complicated) and since Disney's Flight of the Navigator didn't go on to become a treasured piece of American cinema – despite having a young Sarah Jessica Parker – it's hard to say Max is iconic. However. Max is voiced by Paul Reubens, aka Pee-Wee Herman, and if there's anything better/funnier/weirder than hearing Pee-Wee Herman be the voice of a young boy's personal spacecraft – particularly while singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" – we don't know what it is. – Angela Watercutter

Wednesday, September 27, 2006 Cool suprise ...I know this chick & I thought that was cool to see of her work She models with Aliance Model Management , and if I remenber correctly she also owns a fashion cloting store in NY.. If you swing by here..bonne continuation to an African sista doing the damn thing:) Djaa le Senegal est chaud:) Mr Desmond & his daugher Thandy & Shaft..lol The internationalle reknown South African Archbishop, Desmond Tutu was honored on September 18th like a true Hollywood star in Beverly Hills. The ANSA (Artists for a New South Africa) organized a gala for his 75th year. Everybody who's anybody in Hollywood showed up from Samuel Jackson, Alfree W.,Blair Underwood, and suprisingly a lot of Caucasians actors. Djaa South Africa est dans le chaud aussi:) Wearing proudly the malian colors:) Mmm ca va hein...lol Anywhoo found this recent shoot of this Malian/French soccer player...29 years old, Muslim, plays for Sevilla... I guess if you wanna more watch more soccer:) Djaa le Mali est dans le chaud:) Sept 24th at a recent game:) Our fav' Somalian beauty ambassador (y'all know who I am talking about right) has been a very busy lady lately, attending the lauching of the Bonnie Young Children Clothing Line on September 16th and attending the New Metropolitan Opera Opening Season on Sept' 25th. Djaa la Somalie est dans le chaud:) Pictures of Cesoria @ the Nice Jazz Festival/July 2006 Waouh after reading accounts of her life I have a new respect and admiration for this woman. Her career started to pick up late in her life (at 47 years) tragedy, sadness, abuse of alcohol and the lost of her first real love marked her life. When Cesaria is asked the question to know if she's sad that she became "the voice of Cap Vert" late in her life...she replies no..& that she's happy to be able to live hapiness now...better late than never right.... Her last cd "Rogamar" is now available. For those of you who live in France or who plan to visit: She'll be at the Olympia on November 23rd, 24th & 25th. For more info: I can't wait to see a movie about her life..it's a trully a reminder that all suffering come to an end ..and that God is All Powerful...:) Djaa Le Cap Vert est chaud:) Thursday, September 21, 2006 Ok....I won't pretend c'est ma go (my gal) I was wondering where she was during New York Fashion Week..didnt see much of her...but naways I was able to catch up w/her at London's Fashion Week which is taking place now.. Djaa le Sudan est dans le chaud:) The beautiful Terry Pheto Nelson Mandela congratulating the cast:) If you haven't seen the movie yet, the dvd came out in July ..!! It's the story of Tsotsi a young man who lives a dangerous life in the streets of Joburg (played by Presley Chweneyage).. While pursing his criminal activites one day while he steals the car of a woman , he founds out a lil later that he stole more than a car ; a baby.. Being that he was an orphan he gets quicky attached to the baby and is faced to the difficlut decision of either returing the baby or keeping him... But Tsotsi is way more than that..it's about the consequences of poverty and of misery on the youth... Sad, poignant, touching...great piece The movie won an Oscar for best foreign movie... Djaa le Cinema Sud Africain est chaud:) South Africa est dans le chaud:) Picture of her at Radio City Hall where she was invited by the Roots /may 2006 Love..love that woman... !!! Haven't been to any of her concerts yey..but it'll happen eventually...lol Her upcoming concert date in England is: The Sage Gateshead I can't wait to hear whatever she'll have next..great artist Djaa le Benin est chaud:) She personifies in this 1 candor, sweet elegance!! Love her smile and the hair:) Yo what's really good w/Ethiopian blood.. Ethiopian sisters are just gorgeous.... Im so glad I was finally able to find info about this model, that you've seen for sure on Banana Part of the Elite modeling company, She shows that you could be 31 and be fabulous ladies:) Djaa l'Ethiopie est dans le chaud:) What's really good people?!! As you all know or should know already :) it's the anual UN Conference (to be quite exact the 61st )which is being held in New York City right now..yep all the big leaders are in town.. Im sure you've heard of Chavez the Venezualan presi' calling Mr Bush the "Devil"mmm.. Anywhoo was able to get a few pictures of some of leaders,w/whom we agree or disagree on their leaderships...but here we are naways...... During the conference , the African leaders denouced corruption, the trade inequalities, the consequences of poverty ... Wanna know more: Djaa the UN est chaud:) Djaa la Politque Africaine est dans le chaud) Tuesday, September 19, 2006 Hey people, someone referred to this great non profit agency here in New York called the "African Services"..it was founded by Ethiopian ressortissants here in NY..it's goal is :"improving the health and self-sufficency of the African Community"... Check this out ,they also provide business loans to entrepeneurs....come on :) They have great "free" programs: English ClassesEvery Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evening at African Services Committee. Intermediate class from 5:00 to 6:00 pm and beginner class from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. Support Groups for ClientsWeekly support groups for clients. Please contact Claudette Francois at 212-222-3882, ext. 109 for details. Loans for EntrepreneursProject Enterprise holds information sessions on small business loans every Monday and Thursday from 6:00 to 7:00 pm at 144 W 125th St., 4th Fl, New York, NY. For more information on services they provide, call 212-678-6734. Free Asthma ScreeningEvery Tuesday, 3:00 to 5:30 pm at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, 445 Lenox Road, Brooklyn, NY. For appointment call (718) 270-2020. Free Cardiac ScreeningEvery Monday, 5:00 to 8:00 pm at Family Health Services, 840 Lefferts Ave., Brooklyn, NY and Wednesday 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at Downstate Medical Center, 470 Clarkson Avenue, Suite C, Room A1-708, Brooklyn, NY. For appointment call (718) 270-2020. Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and Vision Screenings at African ServicesWe hold free vision, diabetes and high blood pressure screening in our office on a bimonthly basis. USE THE RESSOURCE OR FORWARD TO PEOPLE WHO NEED IT! For more info: Djaa African People Are on top of their health:) And since it was founded by Ethiopians... Djaa l'Ethiopie est dans le chaud:) Friday, September 15, 2006 Ajuma for Catherine Malandrino Nnena for Imitation of Christ I kept looking for our sistas..today marks the end of the fashion frenzy in ny... A few pics of the African gazelles: Oh and by the way for those American Next Top Models addicts , Nnena ..u remenber the nigerian sista ? ...well she was reppin for us as well...cool hun ..good luck 2 her:) Djaa African Women Are Beautiful:) Atalakou dj to Nigerian Women:) Atalakou dj to Kenyan Women:) Atalakou tj to Sudanese Women:) Starting today September 15th to September 16th Senepronet(senegalese networking group) will meet at CUNY Baruch College , New York City. The theme for this conference is establishing menaingful business relationships between Senegal and the USA w/various business savy speakers from the UN, New York's mayor office and established African business owners in the United States. For more info: Djaa le Senegal est chaud:) Mark your calendars my people...Putumayo (the music label)..by the way they have some of the most interesting cds out there...u can get them at Virgin ..great mix:) Anywhoo..well Putumayo is bringing alive the rebellious and fierce acoustic sound of 3 robin hoods of the "I'm proud of my roots and I'll sing the praises of my continent and our values..no matter what y'all think"... Habib Koita from Mali (hey mum)...Vusi Mahlasela from South Africa (hey Palie)...and Dobe Gnahore (Ivory Coast)...they will perform in 40 cities in America and in Europe so you have no exuses...open your ears to # sounds my people.. A few dates: Los Angeles, CA The El Rey Theater McFarlin Memorial Auditorium Fort Collins, CO Walker Art Center Glen Ellyn, IL The McAninch Arts Center Old Town School Of Folk Music Wisconsin Union Theater Demmer Recital Hall Notre Dame, IN Leighton Concert Hall Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium Williams Center for the Arts New York, NY BB King's Blues Club Pearl Street Nightclub For more info: Djaaa South Africa est chaud:) Djaa I.Coast est chaud:) Djaaa le Mali est chaud:) I love his work...didn't know much.... ok (nothing..lol) 'bout him or his work but love...love it He's a reknown "ivoirien" (there's no translation for the word...so my english speaking people ..bear w/me plizz ) painter who digs deep in the "Naif African Art" category ... (l'Art a l'oeil nu...what u see is what u get) In one interview, he explains his facination w/the curves of the African woman; by saying that way back in time ..when African definition of beauty was not westernized yet...men loved our curves...we were proud ourselves of our butts, chests, thighs... he wants to reconect w/ the regular african mama..celibrate and revived them through his vivacious use of colors and his descriptions of "everyday" activities... Great non ... His artwork is exposed in Cannes at the Gallerie Koussam and he also owns an art gallery in Atalakou (Big up) at tous les ivoriens qui passent par la. Djaa la Cote D'Ivoire c'est chaud:) Tuesday, September 12, 2006 ( I'm gonna claim senegal right..lol) Oluchi for Luca Luca Ajuma for Jowonik Hawk It's Fashion Week in NY.. Our soul-sistas were there representing Africa.. not too many of them were present.... but hey they were there :) (c'est le plus important) Djaa African Models are doing the damn thing:) Call me ignorant.. but I didn't know much about this African tyran...(comme quoi there's always room) 2 learn more..I got interested in his story when I saw this piece in the new Essence magazine where they talked the new movie" The King of Scotland" in which the actor Forest Whitaker plays Amin. Aparently..he's done his share of dirt in Uganda ..He took the power par " coup d'etat"in 1971 and terrorized its citizens by killings his oponent supporters. He's remenbered as an extremely violent and childish "leader"... Anywhoo if you want to learn more 'bout him: I see that there's been countless documentaries as well as movies about him..so it should not be hard to learn more about his atrocities. And also keep ur eyes open for the movie: "King of Scotland" which will show 1 aspect of his life. Anywhoo atalakou to all my Uganda people:) For my african reggae heads..and there are ...lol Please be adviseg..huge concert with Kojo Antwi , the Nigerian Rosk Kimono as well Mr. couper decaller ( I guess reggae 2) ...Soum Bill. The concert date is October 16th, 2006 at 11: 30 PM (Waouh) at BB Kings. Tickets are 25$ For more info: Djaa le Reggae Africain est chaud aussi:) Courtesy of Cake and Ice Cream What has our buzy fashionista been up to? Well for 1 the Ethiopian beauty has been covering the new Fall Gap ads and attending the Diddy's "Black Style" event to celebrate the "Black Style Expo" which is taking place in New York starting September 9th to February 19th 2007..so if you are in NY or will be and wanna do som' different check it out at the Museum of the City of New York. Djaa l'Ethiopie est aussi dans le chaud:) Thursday, September 07, 2006 I know many people dread going to the museum..or wouldnt think of it as the perfect date/destination quoique I would be very impressed if someone invited me out there and seemed very interested or somewhat..lol Anywhoo the National Musuem of African Art in Washington DC is hosting couple of expositions this fall: If you are in the area... Resonance from the Past: African Sculpture from the New Orleans Museum of ArtOctober 5, 2006--January 28, 2007Body of EvidenceThrough February 2007First Look: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art CollectionThrough December 3, 2006African Gold from the Glassell Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonThrough November 26, 2006 Family & kidsStorytellingFierce Beasties & Funny Faces! Fri., Sept. 2210 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m.Sat. Sept. 2311 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:15 p.m.Ages: 3--8 & their adults Reservations required, 202.457.1500 Join Ghanaian storyteller Kofi Dennis for an exciting, interactive storytelling session, which is followed by a "treasure hunt" in the galleries. For more information, call 202.457.1500 or visit www.DiscoveryTheater.org. Djaa l'Art Africain c'est chaud:) Tuesday, September 05, 2006 I know that I've already introduced her work to you..but I think that she's so cute..dat I can't resist posting new pics..of our Malienne Model Prefere for Trump Models... Djaa le Mali est chaud:) Ok finally getting to know a lil bit more 'bout more about my people in Mozambique.. Enter into the world of Nela, a fashion designer, interior decorator..bref une artiste Here's her webbie: Djaa la Mozambique est elle aussi dans le chaud:) Cool campaign initiated by the "Keep a child Alive" non-profit organization.. The aim of this non-profit is to help children affected by aids and poverty as well as educate the general people by telling them that not all non-profit believe in bureaucracy.. U know how like people are very suspicious into where the money that they donate is going...this non-profit wants to prove to people that they actually" help" With great ambassadors as Alicia Keyes and Iman ... This last one had the great idea of reaching out to celebrities/friends such as Richard Gere, Tyson Beckford, David Bowie, Sarah J.Parker..ect...by using tribal signs in the ads ..hoping to reach out to people even if it's a bit controversial... The official webbie is: DJAA L'AFRIQUE C'EST CHAUD:) And since A.Keyes is really involded..I'll rep for her:) A.Keyes est dans le chaud:) Somalia est dans le chaud aussi:)

Safe Islanding of Power Grids Series: Part I The recent Indian grid failure on two consecutive days creating a total blackout for 600 million consumers possibly shows why risk managing failures by safe islanding techniques adopted recently by the IEEE has come of age. There is little doubt that it was faulty management by the Northern Grid operator that led to the successive failures and the Eastern Grid and the North Eastern Grid were pulled into the crisis due to no fault of theirs. However India’s oldest private sector operator the 113 year old CESC decoupled from the faltering Grids in time isolating itself from the chaotic breakdown. Supply from CESC plants operating at full steam was back within minutes providing power to both the Calcutta Metro and thousands of its consumers when most of the nation faced a blackout. The power supply from CESC also proved critical in providing the starting power for quick restoration of the Eastern Grid. What CESC achieved was not rocket science. Load sensors at its synchronizing point at Howrah detected the demand supply imbalance in the connecting WBSEB grid. The Sanjiv Goenka led management was alert enough to isolate itself before being sucked into the demand surge from the northern grid that caused a total collapse. Why sensors and protective relays of the Power Grid at Agra, Lucknow or any other high demand synchronizing point in the Northern Grid did not isolate the demand centers from the grid on Monday night is anybody’s guess. Were the load sensors not operating? Were the protective relays bypassed? Were the Under Frequency Relays out of service? Was the operating staff not empowered to switch off the overdrawing units or whether the overload detection mechanism did not function is a matter that the enquiry would perhaps establish. Consumers may never know the real reason of the Grid failure but to blame it on the overdrawing State Governments is like accusing gate crashers of spoiling your party when your own security personnel were missing. That comes to the critical point of who ensures Grid compliance, the Power Grid Corporation managing the grid or the State Electric Boards who are being asked to voluntarily play by the rules, but we shall come back to that later. As per independent reports on Monday night 2.30 p.m. when the first blackout occurred Haryana was overdrawing from the Grid by 25.5% , Uttar Pradesh by 20.8% and Punjab by 5.5% . Over 385 million consumers were blanked out for nearly 12 hours and a smug power minister Sushil Shinde took credit on its quick restoration next day but not the blame for the Grid failure that he characteristically passed on to the states. On Tuesday afternoon when the Grid failed for the second time all affected generating units of the Northern Grid had not returned and were not functioning at full steam. The power ministry in its anxiety to restore electricity to the consumers advised drawing from the Eastern and North Eastern grid which was purely a political decision to save face of the Government. Technology however does not bow to political masters and with the Northern Grid demand supply gap exceeding 30% it collapsed again and brought down with it the Eastern and the North Eastern Grid. It is reported that during the second blackout Haryana was drawing excess power by 22.4% but UP had reduced its overdraw to 6.4% and Punjab to 1.2%. So the excess withdrawal would have been nominal not big enough to really create a massive frequency dip. However since the generating units had not been fully restored the demand supply gap was bigger and the second collapse brought down all three grids resulting in a blackout for 600 million consumers. To say that the Grid failure was accidental and the Government was not aware of what was happening is a misnomer. The fat has been on fire since mid June though the reasons of malaise go back even a few months more and is indirectly linked to the excess agricultural load on the system. As per Central Water Commission CWC data the live water storage capacity measured on 15th June (pre monsoon data) at the Bhakra Beas reservoirs was 16% at Bhakra, compared to 37% last year due to some irrationally heavy withdrawal during early this year. This caused the demand of power needed for sowing to rise during the paddy season. The Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd [PSPCL] revised its demand estimates by 20% within the first fortnight of the season. PSPCL initially attempted to buy more power from outside on a day ahead basis but the load dispatch centre NRLDC imposed constraints did not permit Punjab which is allowed to draw up to 5,100 MW only from outside. As per reports on June 21 PSPCL purchased 750 MW on day ahead basis at Rs.3.84 per unit, but NRLDC allowed transfer of only 450 MW due to transmission constraints. Similarly UP had estimated that its power demand for the season would be 13,000MW against a local availability of 9500 MW and hence had started implementing unpopular measures to close malls, shops and Cinema halls by 7.00 p.m. by mid June. Doubtless that it would have resorted to buying additional power to satisfy the agriculture demand of the state in a month when monsoon was below expectations. States have the grouse that only Delhi the national capital gets a fair treatment from NRLDC in regularizing the excess buying needs, and they have to resort to overdrawing because they are not allowed to buy extra power. Over drawing happened regularly during the month of June and July and both the regulator as well as the grid operator was fully aware of the dangers. However instead of taking action to limit excess withdrawal they kept on issuing missives to state Governments to stop excess withdrawal like a schoolmaster pleading with errant students. It is true that there is no Automatic Demand Management System in place still in the Northern Grid but the problem was apparent for months and could be dealt with the existing protection devices. The Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre [NRLDC] a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation had already recorded in June that frequency on certain days remained below the accepted 49.5Hertz for 70% of the time. A petition on the need to self discipline appears on the NRLDC website that says that on several days the instantaneous frequency in the new grid went below 48.8 Hz which was the setting at which the under frequency relays should have kicked in. The fact is that the Grid operators and the SEB’s believed that the system could be managed on the brink and would never fail. Everyone believed that fines and higher market driven prices could solve the problem and there was no reason to cut off offending units. However in true Indian tradition nobody would be ready to accept the blame and the enquiry is likely to be pretty opaque and produce no conclusive evidence of negligence. The finger pointing that started initially against SEB’s is likely to subside as negotiations begin to camouflage the truth behind the decision to draw from the Eastern and North Eastern grid that resulted in the bigger and second collapse. Following ‘The nobody killed Jessica’ precedence it may be even possible that the enquiry will declare that dangerous and repeated low frequency operation was not a cause of the grid failure and the real reason was other complex technical problems beyond the understanding of the public at large.

1. Watery Grave Lothlorien once glowed with life and energy, the trees sang and the elves were there to listen. All was warmth and light, and by the grace of Galadriel, Arwen spent years upon years in happiness beneath the golden eaves of the forest. The leaves are falling, which should herald the passing of Winter into Spring. But Spring has not yet come. Though Arwen walks among the same trees and feels the same dappled sunlight on her skin, the singing has ceased. And where once there was a soft carpet of grass and flowers now dead things crackle beneath her feet. It is lonely here, and she thinks often of her family - of her children and how their company felt empty without Estel. She could not stay with them. She came here to mourn, and to live out her remaining days. She chose this - always she must remind herself - she chose to be alone. And so, alone, she mourns. But if she cries, it is not so much now for her loss, but because she does not want to die. And though it only makes things worse, she thinks about sailing to the west, and being with her people again. She misses them - not even Celeborn remains here now. She wants to see her family again, especially her mother, who was hardly even herself when she left Middle Earth - only a shadow of Celebrian in the end. Arwen tries not to think of what she has herself become. But of her mother she does think, and of how they did not know, when they said goodbye, that they would be forever parted. It seems terribly unfair. She wishes her mother was with her. In her weakest moments, she wishes anyone was. She is so lonely, and afraid to die, and she wants her mother, but most of all she wants to live. Now, in this stark solitude, it seems horrific that she has brought this on herself. But, had she the same life to live over again, she has to believe she would make the same choice. There is bitterness and sorrow, but there cannot be regret. Near the old borders of the woods, which are not so defined as they once were, she comes to walk alongside the Nimrodel. The ice must be melting up in the mountains, for the stream is high up the banks and flows fast and chill. The sound of the rushing water is still soothing and melodic though, and she listens, thinking back on times past. It is a thing valued by her people, remembered in song, and its waters have brought relief to many a weary soul. She does not look for healing here, though, for she knows she will find none. Still she idles by the waterside, for one place is as good as another, after all. Then, for the first time in a long while, something unexpected happens. There is a figure before her in the stream who was not there before. A woman, standing waist high, water cascading down bare limbs and yellow hair. Arwen starts forward suddenly. For a moment, it might be her grandmother there in the river, all golden radiance like a bright sunlit morning. But even as she steps closer to the water's edge, the illusion of likeness is gone. 'Who are you?' she asks of the one who is not Galadriel. 'Goldberry I am called by some. River-daughter am I. And you are the Evenstar, that I have come to speak with. Many water-ways have I taken to be here, over land and under.' She does not know what to say to this woman risen up out of the water, her long hair her only covering, who is really not like Galadriel at all. She is golden and glowing with a warmth that speaks of the earth and living things. Galadriel was hard and pure as the stars. And whoever - whatever - Goldberry may be, she is more than elf-kind, Arwen realises. Familiar-seeming too, though Arwen is certain they have never met before. 'You spoke the name of Galadriel to me,' Goldberry says. 'She it was passed through the land of my lover, as she went on her final journey. She bade me bring this message to you.' Arwen is curious now. It was over a hundred years ago that Galadriel left the shores of Middle Earth forever - the message has been a long time in reaching her. 'What is it?' she asks. 'That you are not forgotten.' She is bewildered, and does not understand. She suddenly wants to cry, and for all the weeping she has done, now she finds she cannot. 'Galadriel saw this fate you bear, Arwen, dearest daughter of your people. She could not remain here for you, and was sorry for it - that you should be now so alone. But I have always been here, and always will be, and I would give you now what solace I may.' Arwen has many questions, but only gives voice to one of them. 'What would you do for me?' she begs, and as the tears finally fall she would take anything, anything. The woman raises an eyebrow. There are many things in her gaze - warmth and light and laughter, and things far, far beyond understanding, and gentle pity, worst of all. 'Many things, perhaps. We will see.' Goldberry is laughing now, or perhaps it is the joyful babbling of the brook - that Arwen only just now notices is still joyful, despite everything - or perhaps they are one and the same. She comes up out of the water, until it only reaches her ankles, and holds her hands out for Arwen to take. 'Come and swim,' she invites, laughing again, 'The water is cold and beautiful.' Arwen is drawn out into the middle of the fast-flowing stream where it is deepest. Goldberry was right, it is icy cold - she feels it keenly against every inch of her - and it is beautiful. The water washes over and around her, holds her softly, receives her tears and carries them away. She is not healed, but there is comfort in the river's embrace, and some relief from the great weariness that lies upon her mind and body. Day by day she feels herself ending. Little by little, fading like a flower between the pages of a book. She has felt it since the moment she bound herself to him. Now though, there is nothing to dull the sensation of her life draining away. It aches sharply, a constant weeping wound. The current is swift and when it catches and pulls at the heavy material of her skirts she does not resist - just lets her feet be swept out from beneath her. She does not have the strength to keep it from sweeping her away. Then long golden arms are around her, bearing her up in the water, the hold firm and sure. 'Not yet,' whispers the river-daughter, and cradles Arwen to her chest, and strokes her cold wet face. Arwen is almost sobbing now. She wants to turn and cling to the other woman's body, but she has no strength. It has been so long since last she felt the touch of another. Mortal or immortal, it is something all beings crave. How long has it been? It feels like a long time since she held her children in her arms that last time, since she left them behind. And yet she lives still, here, in Goldberry's embrace. Hearing the clear lilting voice crooning words of comfort, she is reminded not of Galadriel as before, but of her mother and the warmth of her love. 'I do not know how to bear this,' she confesses. 'I do not want to die, but... I want this to end.' 'Be comforted,' is the reply, 'It is not for you to be carried off to the sea. Enjoy the water - given time it washes all things clean.' And the river-daughter turns Arwen's face towards her own. Goldberry's kiss is a different sort of drowning. The waters pour from mouth to mouth, she cannot tell in which direction they flow, but the rushing sound of it is loud in her ears. The sea is with them - and summer rains and winter snow and the clouds ever in the sky - the relentless life-blood of the earth that washes all things clean and wears all away, witness to the change of seasons, to time itself. The current is fast, it pulls at her, and its lure is strong. But she holds on, clinging tight, because there is so much she has given up already - it is all she can think of. But it is the only way, in the end. Her own choice brought her here, and that is a comfort, at least - that she chose her own fate. And so she lets it go, lets it all go. Relaxes her hold and realises what a tenuous grasp she has had on it all along. It is so simple, so effortless this time, to give up all the long years of her life. The water passes through her and over her and flows away down the Nimrodel to the sea, bearing her memories of such bitter loss and the knowledge of all she has brought upon herself. And she is left shaking in Goldberry's arms, feeling empty and weightless. Her heart is lighter. To dull the edge of her sorrow there is forgetfulness, and also hope. She sees clearly what lies before her at the end - it is not death, but a return to her lover. A time when she will be whole again. Though, it seems far away, and not quite with her but with another Arwen, one she has been in another time and place, or perhaps an Arwen she will become. She has no need to ache for it. What she feels is not bliss, but neither is it pain, and so she is grateful. 'This will pass, Evenstar,' says Goldberry, and rests her cheek against Arwen's dark hair. 'As all things do.' Then she sings a long, soothing song, like rain, that softly and sweetly fills the air and for a time it almost seems that the trees are not so faded - that they remember their life and power of former years. It is as if Spring has come to Lorien. To the sound of the river-daughter's voice and the echoing whispers of the trees, Arwen falls asleep... And wakes to find Goldberry has pulled her from the water, and is holding her face and looking at her with timeless eyes. She is saying goodbye. 'Now I must go,' she says, 'For I too have a lover, who will also be waiting.' The river-daughter gently kisses her forehead, which she barely feels, then her mouth, which lingers, thankfully, since this one last caress must last the rest of her life. And then Goldberry is gone, swallowed by the water. Arwen is alone, her clothes and hair sodden, so heavy with water she does not have the strength to lift her face from the mud of the bank on which she lies. The stream laps at her toes till night comes on, and still she does not move but looks up at the stars through the overhanging branches. Tomorrow, she thinks, she will go to Cerin Amroth. One place is as good as another, but still she wants to see it again, to remind herself of that place where, she thinks, she might have been happy for a time. Tomorrow, she thinks. Tomorrow she will go there. This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author.

Hand me a pack of dromedaries Trip Start Sep 07, 2005 124Trip End Aug 18, 2006 Map your own trip! Show trip route Where I stayed Having slowly but surely learned our lesson, our first step was to hit the internet and formulate a plan. We did some research on possible jumping off points and even exchanged a few emails with some camel trek vendors on the other side of the country. In the end however, we decided that Marrakech would likely prove a better point of departure because we remembered seeing several set tours advertised in town that included dromedary adventures The next day we again got lucky. Almost by chance we stumbled across an internet site that advertised a very affordable packaged Sahara tour with camels and Berber tents that departed from Marrakech. We made our way over to the Hotel Ali, the home base of the tour operator, and inquired within. To our great delight they offered everything we were looking for at a price that even we were willing to pay. We paid the required fee and showed up the next morning ready to head to the desert. Predictably the small tour we had been promised had miraculously exploded into a 20 person gathering. One medium sized bus slowly gave way to two smaller busses and the more savvy travelers in the group jockeyed for position in the group that they believed had the largest number of relatively un-offensive people. Naturally, we gravitated toward the stodgier of the two mini-busses and were pleased when the older and saner looking driver also included himself among our ranks. Later in the trip we thanked our lucky stars for our choices that morning as we watched in horror as the less sane diver got out of his moving vehicle and climbed onto the hood as his moronic patrons cheered from inside. But for now, the program was to traverse the broad valley in which Marrakech sits, covered with palm groves and olive trees, and to climb into the snowcapped Atlas Mountains stationed picturesquely behind the city. While we were grateful for being awarded the saner of the two drivers, we quickly discovered that wasn't saying much; we had horror flashbacks to Bolivia as this new driver careened around mountain curves that glistened with moisture Ait Benhadou is strategically placed on the banks of a small river and on the top of a modest hill overlooking the plain below. We crossed the small river, perhaps a little more swollen due to the light rain we were walking through, courtesy of several sandbags placed across it like stepping stones, and then we climbed up the hill to the entrance of the kasbah. Inside, the small alleys contained both ancient patterns decorating the sentinel's towers and modern shops selling soda, handicrafts, and postcards. After wandering the maze of streets, we headed to a watchtower, built on the crest of the hill, and gazed out on the palm-laced, sheep-covered valley. It looked just like one might imagine - just like in a movie! Next up was a lunch stop in Ourzazate, a hub for moving tourists and home to the Studios of Cinema, but notable for little else Late in the day, we zoomed by an intriguing rock outcropping, and we shouted to the driver to pull over to the side of the road. The site that we found ourselves marveling at was a cross between the thin red rock structures found at the Garden of the Gods, Colorado and the round bulbous rocks found in Veedavoo, Wyoming. Unfortunately our driver was not able to explain the geologic phenomenon that produced this magnificent oddity, but even our rather un-scientific view was that we were marveling at what must have been some sort of volcanic formation. Our guess was that the strange outcropping of rock stretched along the floor of the canyon for over a mile and reached a height of nearly 400 feet. Despite the cold blustery weather we stood in awe for several minutes and resolved to learn more about what we were looking at After our short photo session with the rocks, we were again back in the mini-bus and heading ever closer to the desert. But the night was quickly closing in, and the driver directed the bus to the Dades Gorge, where we were to spend the night in one of the coldest hotels on the face of the planet. The hotel was situated in a narrow valley, right by a rushing stream, seemingly with the hope of minimizing the amount of sunlight and warm air. The hotel administration succeeded admirably in achieving this goal. We could see our breath in our room, and the only sources of heat were a fireplace in the common room and random propane tanks interspersed throughout the hotel. The fireplace, which appeared to lack a flue, quickly inundated the common room with smoke. We couldn't decide whether it was better to freeze in our room or suffer asphyxiation in the common room until the smoke spread upward to our room, at which point we chose the common area. The propane tanks, which were outfitted with strange apparati that emitted warmth, weren't as noxious at first sniff, and we quickly absconded with one for our own personal use in the room. But after an hour of the propane burning away in a closed room, we didn't notice a substantial improvement in temperature but did wonder whether the slight headache we both felt was a result of its operation. So the propane tank was hauled back out into the hall, and we climbed into bed fully clothed, hats and hoods and jackets and all The next morning we awoke rather too early for vacation and were trundling along, again at full speed, by seven forty-five. With more driving came more rain, but we reasoned it couldn't possibly be raining in the desert. Around ten, we made a quick stopover in a largish town, but, because of the rain, we couldn't stroll in a nearby palm grove, as our itinerary would have dictated. Alternatively, we were taken into a "traditional Berber house," this one replete with several levels, indoor wiring and what appeared to be an electric meter on the outside of the structure. A Berber man and his wife greeted us, poured hot tea for us, and then recited a lengthy but prepared spiel about how they made Berber carpets and the meanings of certain symbols weaved into the carpets. We dutifully asked questions (Steve wanted to know what percentage of carpets in Marrakech were Moroccan-made; the man replied that fully fifty percent of them were imported from China, which convinced Steve, ever skeptical, that the percentage in actuality was quite a bit higher), and, after some awkward silences in response to the man's promise that he would give us good prices on his carpets, we were finally dismissed and filed out, ready to be released from the "wait and stare" selling technique. We later brainstormed ways of repelling such advances, our favorites being: 1.) ask how to differentiate fakes from authentics, inquire as to whether they sell any fakes, and then declare a preference for the fake variety; and 2.) announce a desire not to pay anything less than a fair price that would fully compensate the workman for his craft, inquire what that price is, and then announce the price is simply too high for your budget. Demur when the salesman offers to go lower, insisting that you can't, in good conscience, pay less than a fair price to the workman; and finally, one that we did not make up ourselves, but instead read in a book 3.) just matter of factly state "no thank you, I am a Christian" - an author we came across reportedly used this technique to successfully deflect offers to buy everything from hashish to macramé. Of course, the one that we have used on several occasions is less a response than a bluff: instead of engaging the vendor and giving a reason for not being interested in their product or offer, we simply pretend that we do not speak whatever language they throw at us by quizzically asking "Krakosia?" That one works fairly well, but the credit should go to Tom Hanks in the movie Terminal - thanks Tom. By noon, we reached yet another gorge - the more famous Todra Gorge - and ordered lunch before setting out for a half an hour stroll through the gorge in the rain. The Todra is a massive fault in the plateau dividing the High Atlas from the Jbel Saghro, and, at its narrowest, the gorge rises to three hundred meters high. It sits at the end of a valley thick with stunning palm groves and berber villages, and we hear the gorge is also a welcome relief from the heat in the summer; a crystal-clear river runs through it in which one can stand knee deep to cool off. But the thought of putting our feet in the freezing stream didn't appeal while standing in driving rain, so we retired instead to lunch - greasy, salty French fries with coffee and mint tea. It is probably fair to say we were a bit tired of tajine. Again we piled into the truck and set out for our final push to the Sahara. We amused ourselves during the drive by laughing - quietly - at two Japanese guys in our group who had initially showed up wearing traditional jellabas, which was absurd enough. Somewhere along the way, they also picked up matching scarves and fashioned them into turbans, berber style, which provoked some private ridicule, as well (although, in their defense, from the back one couldn't discern their nationality and the outfit could have been deemed authentic). Finally, though, they got cold from the rain and the wind, and, refusing to remove their jellabas, they simply piled their winter coats over the flowing gowns - the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, particularly because their hoods were adorned with a furry trim, and the back of their coats were emblazoned with puffy appliqués of bucking horses. The ensemble, taken together, was one of the funnier conglomerations of fashion we've laid eyes on this trip. The paved road finally petered out and we were left to drive on hard packed dirt, petrified rocks and fossils, at which point the driver of the other vehicle performed his "watch me get out of the car and sit on its hood while it is still moving" trick. We weren't amused, but we weren't affected, either, although we can promise you Steve kept a close watch on our own driver - he wasn't prepared to tolerate such shenanigans. Another thirty minutes more and we approached a sprawling, faux-looking kasbah and, in the background, the very real-looking Erg Chebbi - a massive stretch of Saharan dunes, some of which reach more than 50 meters high. We were told to pack only small bags of essentials and then herded to the back of the kasbah where sixteen camels - two caravans of eight each - were strung together, patiently waiting, and kneeled at the ready for "easy" mounting. We were all assigned a camel - each of which had been outfitted with a saddle - and, one by one, each stood up, a process that was liable to buck the passenger if he or she wasn't gripping the saddle tightly (the camel straightens his front legs first, pitching the passenger backward, then unfolds his back legs, hurling the passenger forward). No one was pitched off, however, and no one was spat upon, a surprise to us since we had been told that camels are generally very cantankerous. And so off we traveled into the sunset on our ships of the desert, over and around the magnificent orange and ochre and golden dunes, textured and nuanced with the cloudy light playing upon their surfaces. Up close, the sand appeared to be a living thing - velvety one minute, hard and metallic the next, variegated and grooved another. And, looking up, we could see the caravan of camels in front of us, and we ruminated about what the place would have looked like when the route was really used to transport gold and spices and slaves from Timbuktu to Marrakech, fifty two days across the desert, some caravans containing up to 20,000 camels. (Steve, perched high on his camel and having bonded with the camel behind him, calculated that 20,000 camels could very well equal 40 camel miles). Not only did the topography of the place captivate us, but the camels themselves amazed us: they are so well adapted and well equipped for what they are asked to do. Their large eyes are covered by long eyelashes, a thick eyebrow, and three sets of eyelids for each eye - each eyelid moving a different way to protect the eye from blowing sand and dust. Further, their cloven hooves are shaped like large paddles to prevent them from sinking into the sand - much like a snowshoe for dromedaries - and, of course, they store enormous quantities of water in their humps, allowing them to go for fifteen days in the desert without drinking. We spent an hour and a half on the camels, battling the growing dusk, before we arrived at our Berber camp, where would spend the night. The camp had seen plenty of tourists before us, and will certainly see plenty after us, but we liked the notion of staying in a tent out on the dunes, regardless of the tourist factor. Berber tents - at least the ones we stayed in - are structures with a wood skeleton and rugs pinned together to form a ceiling, a floor and walls. Waiting for dinner, we sat on the carpeted floor in a large communal tent, chatting with fellow tourists and our guides, and experimenting with a set of drums. Our efforts there were unavailing. Meanwhile, an attention deprived and ADD-inflicted cat of the camp bounced from one lap to another, meowing forcefully with demands to be petted. Dinner arrived, and we were instructed to gather together in groups of four to eat Berber-style - with our hands. A large tajine of meat, carrots, onions, zucchini and potatoes was set before us, along with pieces of flat bread, with which we were instructed to sop up the tajine's juices and grab hunks of meat and veg. While the tajine wasn't the best we'd ever tasted, we were nonetheless amused by the method of eating and basically cleaned the plate. Later we had tasty tangerines and sweetened tea for dessert. We also were given an impromptu performance on the drums by one of our guides, Hassan, a black Berber who hailed from Mali. His dexterity with the instrument and the range of sounds he could make it emit was really quite impressive, but he interrupted the concert and insisted we ask questions about the Berber people, so we obliged. Hassan explained that Berbers were the first inhabitants of Morocco before hoards of Arab invaders swept in to rule the country. Currently, he said, Morocco is fifty percent Berber and fifty percent Arabic, but he cautioned that Berbers, in general, were a disappearing population, with dwindling numbers only in West and North Africa. And he claimed that the nomadic existence of living in tents and caves traditionally enjoyed by Berbers was also falling away, as Berbers realized that wealth in Morocco lies in owning either camels or hostels - and that hostels are appearing to be a better bet. Frankly, though, his speech left us confused, as it conflicted with much we had already heard about this enigmatic people. Indeed, one of the enduring mysteries for us coming away from Morocco will certainly be: what IS a Berber? As far as we can tell, there is no shared race or ethnicity between Berbers (some very fair and some extremely dark), nor is there consensus surrounding where, in fact, one can find them. In different circles and with different tellings, Berbers can be the victims or perpetrators of prejudice, bias, and favoritism. About the only thing we can point to as a common feature knitting the Berbers together is a shared tongue, which hardly seems to be a sufficient basis to classify such divergent people within one group (unless you are French, perhaps). We retired to our sleeping tent and prepared for another very cold night, although we did find it ironic that the tent was demonstrably warmer than our hotel room the prior night. And, after piling several blankets on top of us - blankets we had used that day as camel saddles - we eventually drifted off to sleep, warm, surrounded by the scent of dromedary. We were rudely awakened in the middle of the night, however, by the persistent meow of the resident feline, who had taken it upon herself to run over the sleeping bodies of tourists, either in an effort to rouse us from our slumbers, or perhaps just in order to find a suitable place to make her own bed. In either case, the cat continued to run across the six of us - laid out like piano keys - for the remainder of the night, vocalizing the entire time. Not exactly how we envisioned a night in a Berber tent. The next morning - Steve's birthday - we were slated to climb a nearby dune to watch the sunrise, but just as we began our ascent Hassan called us all back and instructed us to mount up toute suite because the rain was coming. And indeed it did: ten minutes into our return trek it started to sprinkle, and twenty minutes in, it was a proper rain. The rain carried on for another twenty minutes or so - just long enough for us to complete the circuit back to the kasbah and grab breakfast, at which time the clouds dissipated and the sun broke through. We spent the rest of breakfast watching the sun play off the dunes in the distance, sipping tea, and contemplating the harrowing drive back over the Atlas Mountains and into Marrakech. When we eventually made it back to Marrakech late that evening we took a moment to reflect on our trip into the desert. As you have no doubt gathered, we very much enjoyed the camel trek and despite the weather we also appreciate the drive up and over the Atlas Mountains. All things considered, we felt that our additional time in Morocco turned out for the best. Our experience in and around the Sahara, however, did get us thinking about the impacts, benefits and drawbacks of tourism in the third world. Clearly, from a purely economic point of view, those who are able to take part in this ever more lucrative economic activity are measurably and significantly more wealthy. The impacts on the wider society, especially in areas where the tourism business seems to have become the only game in town, are more subtle, but clearly less favorable. Imagine a world in which the only way to make money is to produce goods for or provide service to a class of people who, by all outward appearances, neither understand, appreciate, or in many cases even notice your existence. Often we have felt that the people we interact with in these places have adopted a service-oriented mentality that threatens to supplant their own sense of self worth. When financial incentives are considered these extreme displays are predictable if not somewhat understandable, but the harder nut to crack is when there are no apparent economic motives underpinning these subservient behaviors. We wonder if at times a tourism only micro-economy compels locals to sacrifice their own sense of self worth and identity. Irrespective of the measurable monetary benefits, this type of outcome is rarely worth the price. Please forgive this minor digression; it is almost certainly the result of too much time in the back of the van and not enough experience or insight into life in a third world economy. With any luck we can refine these and other related thoughts in the weeks and months ahead.

Compiled by the staff at Moviehole, Quick News is an assortment of news bites and other miscellaneous items, linkage and plugs that we just couldn’t find either time or space (or both) to place as individual news items. If you’d like something included in this section email us or tweet us! Sony have scheduled their “Total Recall” reboot starring Colin Farrell for August 3, 2012. And yeah, sorry, Marshall Bell’s still not in the film. Johnny Cab is also out of commission. Nobody’s ever truly dead in Bon Temps, it seems. The bereaved ‘Godric’ returns to “True Blood” in Season 4. [Bloody Disgusting] “Battle Los Angeles” director Jonathan Liebsman mentioned last week that his next employer, Warner Bros (he’s doing “Wrath of the Titans” with the Burbank boys) is converting “Inception” into 3D for DVD. Warners reponse to Liebsman’s claim? “At this time, the plans for ‘Inception’ 3D cannot be confirmed”. Hmmm, how very non-committal [Cinematical] The poster for James ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Gunn’s new flick “Super” has crashed the Interweb (below) Jimmi Simpson (“Date Night”) has been cast as Josh Steed, loyal assistant to Abraham Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) in “Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter“. [Variety] On behalf of Universal Pictures, we are excited to announce that college students across America now have the chance to bring a Hollywood premiere to their school with the new R-rated comedy “Your Highness” starring Natalie Portman, Danny McBride and James Franco! The campaign marks the first time that the location for a movie premiere has been determined by COLLEGE audiences. College students will have until March 20th to log on to http://eventful.com/yourhighness and Demand that their college becomes the one to roll out the red carpet for premiere of “Your Highness”. The winning college will also host an exclusive after party, which will be attended by stars Danny McBride and James Franco, as well as director David Gordon Green. Idris Elba (”Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”), Sean Harris (”Creep”) and Kate Dickie (”Outcast”) have joined the cast of Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” [BSC Review] Quentin Tarantino is programming the line-up at the New Beverly Cinema for a whole month over March and April. One of his selections for unspooling is “Kill Bill : The Whole Bloody Affair” which, of course, squishes both “Kill Bill” films together to make the one robust feature. Treat Williams and Kate Mara, both whom feature in “127 Hours”, have joined the cast of “Blackbird“,Stefan Ruzowitzky’s film about two desperate sibling fugitives (Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde) on the run who subsequently collide with the holiday homecoming of a troubled ex-boxer (Charlie Hunnam). [Variety] Australian actress Frances O’Connor (“Cashmere Mafia”) has been enlisted to join Jesse L.Martin in the ABC pilot “Hallelujah. It is set in the town of Hallelujah, Tenn., which is being torn apart by the forces of good and evil and whose fortunes change when a stranger, Rye Turner, comes to town, bringing justice, peace and possibly restoring faith. O’Connor will play Rye’s wife dealing with the aftermath of their son’s brain injury.” [Deadline] Tony Goldwyn (“Ghost”, “The Mechanic”) has joined the cast of Sonda Rhimes’ “Damage Control“. Goldwyn will play a JFK-esque President in the drama series. [Deadline] Joel McHale and Giovanni Ribisi has joined the cast of Seth MacFarlane’s “Ted” [BackSeat Cuddler] Morgan Creek CEO James G. Robinson says Charlie Sheen better “straighten up” if he wants to be a part of “Major League 4“. “When Lindsay [Lohan] was doing Georgia Rule, she would miss full days of work” says Robinson. “When an actor doesn’t show up for work, you can lose half-a-million dollars a day paying the 250 other people there for the shoot and the costs for the set.” [TMZ] “Serenity” star David Krumholtz has joined the cast of TV’s “Playboy“, a drama set in a ’60s Playboy club. Krumholtz will play the boss of the club. [Deadline] The poster for James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s “Insidious” has come online [Below] :

The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures Created and maintained by the National Digital Library Program team—Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Reviewed Feb. 22–27, 2006. The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures, part of the American Memory collections of the Library of Congress, will prove an invaluable Web resource to scholars and students of early film, turn-of-the-century culture, and U.S. military, naval, imperial, and political history. It presents sixty-eight short films produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company and the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company between 1898 and 1901. Users can search for films alphabetically, topically, and by keyword and download them in multiple formats. A short descriptive summary accompanies each film to guide viewing. The Web site features a section entitled “The Motion Picture Camera Goes to War: The Spanish-American War and the Philippine Revolution,” which organizes the collection topically. Each subcategory contains a contextual essay, drawn primarily from Charles Musser’s extensive research, that sets the historical background for the pictures and provides useful details on their production. Those discussions highlight the creative uses of the medium, as well as its limitations, in presenting the “actualities” of war. They call attention to the use of film reenactments (such as Edison’s Skirmish of the Rough Riders (1899), reenacted by National Guardsmen in New Jersey) as well as misrepresentations (such as when Biograph passed off footage of the battleship Massachusetts as the Maine) to capitalize on public interest in war-related events. The presentation also includes a wonderful and rarely discussed dramatic film entitled Love and War (1899), which narrates the tale of an American soldier going to war in Cuba, with remarks on its musical accompaniment. Although the supplemental analysis effectively illuminates the political and military contexts of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, the Web site misses an opportunity to draw out the broader cultural implications of the films themselves. The text fails to situate the war pictures in the history of early film and to comment on their non-narrative structure, visual practices, reception, and close ties with print and theatrical culture. Users would do well to consult James Castonguay’s “The Spanish-American War in U.S. Media Culture,” to initiate such discussions. Furthermore, the site links to The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War, a valuable bank of resources and information on the war’s leading events and personalities, which includes a chronology, bibliographies, maps, and sections outlining the history of Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Spain in relation to the war. Its centerpiece is an overview essay written by the historian David Trask that offers a cogent analysis of the major military and political developments of the war, but it falls short in tracing the war’s impact on notions of gender, race, sexuality, nationhood, and empire, which recent scholarship has deemed integral to understanding the narratives and debates motivating American actions in that moment. That criticism aside, The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures documents the first U.S. war captured on film in an easily accessible and thoughtfully organized collection. The fascinating glimpses of the machinery of war, the glories of battle and homecoming, and the struggles of colonial resistance open up an illuminating vantage point to consider the dynamics of war and colonization and its convergence with the development of cinema and modern mass media. Bonnie M. Miller Johns Hopkins University

Editors honored at first annual Canadian Cinema Editors Awards Editors were feted Friday night at the inaugural Canadian Cinema Editors Awards in Toronto. The ceremony took place in front of a sold out crowd at the Capitol Event Theatre, where awards in eight categories were doled out. Best editing in a feature-length dramatic went to Michele Conry for Splice, while best editing in MOW/mini-series went to Mike Lee for Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story. For the small screen, Lisa Grootenboer (pictured) took home the award for best editing in one-hour broadcast long-form dramatic for The Tudors (Ep 405, “Bottom of the Pot”) and David B. Thompson’s work on Living in Your Car (Ep 101) snagged the editing award for half-hour broadcast short-form dramatic. Other winners included Nick Hector for documentary (Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie), Jay Prychidny & Jeff Reynolds for lifestyle/reality with Canada’s Next Top Model (Ep 308 “Rockin’ The Runway), Annellie Samuel for animation (Producing Parker, ep 120 “How Green Is My Parker”) and Roderick Deogrades for short film The Day I Thought I Died. Four students – Deborah Gurofsky, Lauren Horn, Cameron Nixdorf, Ernesto Sosa Lopez – also snapped up Student Merit Awards. For more information, head over to www.cceditors.ca Tags: Annellie Samuel, Cameron Nixdorf, Canadian Cinema Editors, David B. Thompson, Deborah Gurofsky, Ernesto Sosa Lopez, Jay Prychidny, Jeff Reynolds, Lauren Horn, Lisa Grootenboer, Michele Conry, Mike Lee, Nick Hector, Roderick Deogrades, The Tudors Over 5,000 company listings!

What keeps film alive as a creative artistic medium is the influx of exciting, challenging new movies from countries we never expected to be factors in contemporary cinema. The latest is Romania, which in the last couple years has given us several powerful, naturalistic dramas that address life as lived far better than CG-addled Hollywood seems capable of doing. These include The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, 12:08 East of Bucharest and now director-writer Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which won the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival. It is a 2007 release that played well earlier this year in art houses around the country and within Ohio, yet -- in one more example of our local art-house bookers' unenthusiastic timidity for the new -- never screened here until now. Fortunately, Cincinnati World Cinema is bringing the film to the Cincinnati Art Museum July 22 and 23. It's already on DVD, though not easy to find, but this is a way to see it on a big screen -- which it merits -- and have a discussion with moderators afterward. The film, set in the drab Bucharest of 1987 before the vile Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu fell, concerns the efforts of one young woman to help another -- both single college students -- get a then-illegal abortion. The title refers to the stage of pregnancy for the one needing the procedure. The woman who needs the abortion, Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), actually is only peripherally in the movie. She is immature and irresponsible, especially about making arrangements for the procedure. It thus falls on her friend Otilia (Anamaria Marinca, an actress to be reckoned with in the future) to improvise her way through the devastating problems that ensue. As she does so, the movie slowly increases its tension, especially as Otilia confronts a potentially dangerous (and sexist) male abortionist (Vlad Ivanov, in a nuanced but scary performance). It'd be foolish to say this film isn't about the politics of abortion and feminism. It starkly presents us with the only issue that in the end matters -- will women of the world have safe, legal abortions or unsafe, illegal ones? -- and views this period in Romanian history as the bad old days. But it isn't at all a pleading or polemical movie on the subject like Mike Leigh's Vera Drake. It is a taut, suspenseful and melancholy drama -- a thriller, really -- about Europe's haunted recent past. It compares well with Cache, The Legends of Rita and The Lives of Others. Mungiu and his cinematographer Oleg Mutu use long takes, sometimes steady and sometimes briskly on the move with the actors, to maintain a sense of immediacy. The film is devoid of flashy crosscutting or artistic lighting and doesn't have a score -- the barking of the city's wandering dogs is used to unnerving effect. There is an ambiguous, enigmatic "anything can happen" quality to the film that itself seems like unplanned pregnancy. It starts in a completely off-handed way, with the camera first focusing on a fishbowl in a room and then moving to a nervous, cigarette-smoking Gabriela as she gazes warily. We hear a "yes" from somewhere -- it is from off-camera Otilia -- who then walks from the room down the hallway to the shower room on an errand. This is a dormitory, but for a while we don't know where the women are. It could be a prison. Mungiu has faith that his actors can make long underwritten scenes happen by the force of their presence. In one, the camera looks on from a distance at a crowded dining table as a silent, struggling Otilia tries to stay polite while others chatter. She is worried about Gabriela back in the hotel. You know this is going to lead to something wrenching, but what, when and how? The director keeps you guessing. If there is a weakness to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days it's that Mungiu keeps you guessing a little too much. There are a few unresolved doppelgangers, mostly involving Otilia's problems with the abortionist. But overall, this marriage of searing realism to a ruminative, artistic sensibility marks him as a powerful director to watch. Grade: A- CINCINNATI WORLD CINEMA screens 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days at 7 p.m. July 22-23 at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Get screening details, buy tickets and find nearby bars and restaurants here.

Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine and Wolverine 2 Director of X-Men Origins: Wolverine gives further insight about the film, the sequel, and his feelings about District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Thanks to Rottentomatoes.com, an interview with Gavin Hood was conducted where he discussed "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and his thoughts of Neill Blomkamp. On whether he will be directing the sequel to "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," it appears Hood isn't too sure on the matter. "I have no idea. All that's happened at the moment is that the studio has just commissioned the script for Wolverine 2 to be written. Whether that film will ever get made will depend on so many factors -- whether the studio likes the script, whether they find a director who responds to the script. Might that be me? Sure, I'd be extremely interested and thrilled if they were to send it to me," he said. One of the biggest complaints of the film dealt with Hood linking Sabretooth and Wolverine as half brothers and he mentioned recently it made sense to in order to create a stronger emotional attachment. It seems in this interview, the half brothers position didn't exist from the beginning of the script. "In the original script they were not half brothers. There was some resistance to that, because in the world of the comics there's only a small suggestion in one particular comic that Victor Creed and Wolverine may well be half brothers. I just gravitated to that. Just having one good guy versus bad guy, with no emotional connection just felt like "Whoa -- you'll have nothing but punching and kicking". That was a way to build up the emotional power of the film. I thought Liev Schreiber did a phenomenal job. I'm very pleased that on the Blu-ray disc there's a particular scene that I was attached to that didn't make it into the movie. I say that without saying "It should have!" I think it probably should have been in the movie, but I understood the argument against it, and at the time there was much to-ing and fro-ing about it. It's a great thing to be able to put that sort of scene on the Blu-ray and let people think of other themes and idea that were in my mind when we made that scene," he explained. When asked about Neill Blomkamp, he seemed to possess a level of pride for the fellow director who is also from South Africa. "We have spoken because I had to tell him what a phenomenal job he did. I sat there in the cinema -- and probably it was a great deal of patriotic pride -- but I thought, here was something so fresh and so out there, yet so emotionally powerful. It was just so fantastic to see the originality of the piece," said Hood. On whether he felt "District 9" represented South Africa accurately. "Yeah. Scarily so. I know those characters. Those [adopts a funny Afrikaans accent] very well meaning policemen, who think they are being very nice to you who, but are completely on the side of authority and they're patronizing you to death. Yeah. We grew up around those guys. Scary!" : This article was submitted by a volunteer contributor who has agreed to our code of conduct . ComicBookMovie.com is protected from liability under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and "safe harbor" provisions. CBM will disable users who knowingly commit plagiarism, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement. Please contact us for expeditious removal of copyrighted/trademarked content. You may also learn more about our copyright and trademark policies HERE

National Film Development Corporation Ltd. (NFDC), a Government of India Enterprise, established with a view to encourage and foster the good cinema movement successfully concluded 'Film Bazaar India - 10' amidst much fanfare. Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, the Director of Deool (Temple) which was part of the Co-production Market won the Hubert Bals Award and a cash prize of Rs 5000 Euros to develop his script and begin the pre-production. This award is given to one of the promising directors from official selection of Film Bazaar co-production projects. One of Film Bazaar's earliest supporters, CineMart of the Rotterdam International Film Festival, has selected 4 young producers - Mr Guneet Manga for the film 'Urban Moon' from Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt. Ltd., Ritesh J Batra for the film 'Story of Ram', Rajesh Shera for 'Echoes' from Rajesh Shera Productions, Priya Sreedharan for 'Shanghai' from Dibakar Banerjee Productions to attend and train them at the Rotterdam Lab as the emerging producers. The Film Bazaar was aimed to create opportunities for networking and business for producers, filmmakers and distributors from across the world. Film Bazaar 10 also promoted co-productions by facilitating collaboration amongst potential domestic and international partners, with special focus on projects from SAARC countries. The aim of the bazaar was to provide a proficient stage for prospective buyers & sellers of film rights from India & abroad. Over the years, Film Bazaar has become more popular. This year almost 400 delegates from 33 countries had attended the bazaar. It's a place to grow ones knowledge and information base solely focused on increasing international trade for film fraternity members from across the country. Film Bazaar witnesses multi-cultural diversity of delegates this year who came to find people with the same business interests and broaden their global network. Film Bazaar has grown and gained wide popularity in the international film circuit since its inception in 2007. This year prominent international buyers and sales agents like Farabi Foundation ( Iran), Cinetic Rights Management (USA), Fortissimo Films ( UK), The Yellow Affair ( Finland), Rapid Eye Movies (Germany), Wide Management (France), Railto, (Netherland), Hanway Films (UK) and Wild Bunch (France) have participated at the market with sales and production interest. Some highlights of Film Bazaar included Co-Production Market, Exhibitors Pavilion, Industry Screenings, Screenwriters Lab, Work-In-Progress, Prime Exchange and Knowledge Series.

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PHIL 448/547, Pelletier Mondays 1800-2050; CAB 357 Prof: F.J. Pelletier Assiniboia Hall 3-45 This page will be the place where I post (links to) readings, assignments, due dates, and general announcements, so you should monitor this for class information. Most of my downloadable documents are pdf, so you need a pdf reader to read them. A reader is free and can be downloaded from here. A syllabus for this course is here. Some ramblings about things to read and a possible order in which to do the reading is here. This is tentative, except for the fact that I want to start with Russell's "Logical Atomism” of 1924. It is in our Ayer anthology, and various other places, such as the Bertrand Russell Logic and Knowledge (ed. R. Marsh), in case you happen to have a nice Russell library. I will try to get a pdf of it for this class. Keeners and want-to-be-Russell-scholars could also read the very long Russell (1918) Lectures on Logical Atomism, which was also published in four parts in the 1918 Monist, so you can get them online through our library. After reading the Logical Atomism original document, you may wish also to look at a nice article on Russell's Logical Atomism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu). As a comparison with Wittgenstein, here is an article on Wittgenstein's logical atomism from the same Encyclopedia. And here is an article by Bernard Linsky on the metaphysics of Russell's logical atomism. It was published in The Cambridge Companion to Russell (ed. N. Griffin, 2003). A fun thing to read is this about Wittgenstein’s PhD oral. You might already know, but we’ll mention it in class, that Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was published in German in 1921 (and in English the year following), it wasn't until 1929 that it was used as the basis for a PhD from Cambridge. Frank Ramsey was the (official) supervisor, G.E. Moore and Bertrand Russell were the examiners at the Viva (as the final oral exams were called). Here is a "recreation" of Wittgenstein's Viva - sort of on the "unfriendly" side, written by Laurence Goldstein. After this period…starting in the late 1920s…(English- and German-language) philosophy took two differing directions: (mid-life) Wittgenstein-influenced ordinary language philosophy and logical empiricism (aka logical positivism). We will look at writings from both of these schools. Stay tuned for a list of readings; we’ll start with the positivists. (Abbreviations for our anthologies: Ayer = A.J. Ayer Logical Positivism; Rorty = R.M. Rorty The Linguistic Turn; Friedman = M. Friedman Reconsidering Logical Positivism; Lyas = C. Lyas Philosophy and Linguistics. Maybe I’ll add more abbreviations later.) As mentioned above, the first reading is Russell’s “Logical Atomism”. It is available as the first article in Ayer. It is also available in the collection of Russell papers by R. Marsh (ed.) Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901-1950; and D. Pears The Philosophy of Logical Atomism. The much longer series of eight lectures “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism” was published in The Monist in four installments between Oct. 1918 and 1919. This is reprinted in the Marsh and Pears volumes just mentioned. The Pears book is available online as pdf, and you can get a copy from here. If you want just the 1924 “Logical Atomism” essay, it is available here (the version as reprinted in Pears). As mentioned above, the other secondary literature about Logical Atomism will give you a deeper appreciation of the theory. If you have the time (it’s still early in the semester!) you should read the SEP entries mentioned above and perhaps the Linsky article. Here is a short biography of Wittgenstein from the “Basic Famous People” people. There are many aspects of Wittgenstein and his life that it doesn’t talk about. As part of our “sociology of philosophy” in the 1920s and 1930s, you should read the recreation of Wittgenstein’s Viva, mentioned above. It’s short and fun. We will also see the movie Wittgenstein, which is an “experimental cinema” by the director Derek Jarman. Here is a writeup about it. Later in the class we will talk more about this “sociological” aspect of philosophy. The standard biography of Wittgenstein is Ray Monk’s Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (1990). But there are lots of other works that round this picture out more fully. Later in the course we’ll look at material from Norman Malcolm’s Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir, and possibly O.K. Bouwsma Wittgenstein: Conversations 1949-1951. The first readings from the Logical Empiricists (aka Logical Positivists) are by Moritz Schlick and Rudolf Carnap. We are going to read these before turning our attention to the more “popular” version of Empiricism presented by Ayer in his Language, Truth, and Logic. On the “Partial Schedule of Readings” I listed Schlick (1930) “The Turning Point in Philosophy” (in Ayer) (1932) “Positivism and Realism” (in Ayer) (1930) “The Future of Philosophy” (in Rorty) Carnap (1932) “The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language” (in Ayer) (1934) “On the Character of Philosophical Problems” (in Rorty) (1950) “Empiricism, Semantics, and Ontology” (in Rorty) [and here (html)] I asked that you read at least two of either Schlick or Carnap, and one by the other. Reading all is good for you. The Ayer book also contains two further essays by Schlick two more by Carnap. It’s all good for you!...if you have the time. We will also be discussing the notion of “Protocol Sentences”, as it makes its appearance in the Empiricist’s thought. Here are some articles: Otto Neurath (1932/1933) “Protocol Sentences” (in Ayer) Schlick (1934) “The Foundation of Knowledge” (in Ayer) (there were others, too: Carl Hempel “On the Logical Positivists’ Theory of Truth” Analysis 1935; “Some Remarks on ‘Facts’ and Propositions” Analysis 1935; and Bela von Juhos “Empericism and Physicalism” Analysis 1935) As became apparent in last night’s lecture (Sept. 24th), I’ve been very sloppy about readings and what is going to be discussed. Despite what I said just above, my lecture (in the second half of the class) was about (and will continue to be about, next week) Carnap (1932/1933) “Psychology in Physical Language” (in Ayer) Neurath (1932/1933) “Protocol Sentences” (in Ayer) Schlick (1934) “The Foundation of Knowledge” (in Ayer) All of these are about the role of “protocol sentences”, with attempts to define them. Carnap takes a “physicalistic sense-data” approach, Neurath denies incorrigibility, and Schlick tries to find a midpoint between these two approaches. If you can read German, these three articles are available electronically through our library in their original form (Erkenntnis, volumes 3 & 4). As mentioned above, there will be a presentation about Carnap’s 1928 Logical Structure of the World (often called the Aufbau, from its German title). There are a couple of copies of this book (bound together with Carnap’s Pseudo-Problems in Philosophy) in the Rutherford Library. There probably are also copies in the Departmental library. As well, you could probably borrow Sam Hillier’s copy or Bernie Linsky’s copy….or others in the Department. There’s a lot of detail in the book, but we are going to stick with general issues (I believe—it’s up to the presenter!). Some few years ago the journal Topoi started a series of “untimely reviews”. These are reviews of classic works in philosophy but written as if the work had just appeared. Here is the half-page description by the journal editors about their project. One of the first, if not the first, of these untimely reviews is of Rudolf Carnap The Logical Construction of the World (the Aufbau). Here is that untimely review, by Hannes Leitgeb. The Aufbau’s project was continued by Nelson Goodman in his The Structure of Appearance (1951), but otherwise the general project of “constructing the world logically” has fallen out of favour. [Goodman’s book was very favourably reviewed by Carl Hempel in Phil. Review 1953. Here is that review.] Michael Friedman has tried to re-invigourate the discussion in his “Carnap’s Aufbau Reconsidered” chapter of the Reconsidering Logical Positivism recommended book. There is also a chapter in the book on “Epistemology in the Aufbau”. These were both published earlier in journals, although the book versions are updated. [The former is in Nous 1987; the latter is in SynthŹse 1992.] I mentioned earlier that Rose Rand, the mathematician and a younger member of the Vienna Circle, kept track of various Wittgensteinian positions and whether the members of the Circle agreed with them or not. Here is her original document (it’s a jpg). Although it is in German, you can see that she employed a colour scheme to code blue for "yes", red for "no", green for "meaningless", and a ? mark for "indeterminate/undecided". Each of the questions is asked about "before the Tractatus", "in the Tractatus", and "after the Tractatus", and each of the main members of the Circle have their answers coded in. I guess there is Schlick, Waismann, Carnap, Neurath, Hahn, and Kaufmann. (As far as certain of the discussions we’ve had in class go, #3 on her notes is “Language pictures Reality”; #6 is “A sentence pictures a fact”; #7 is “The meaning of a sentence is its method of verification”. I’ll give out the English translations in class next week…I really ought to check my versions with a native German speaker.) Well, I only checked out the second thesis with a native speaker, who, like me, found it puzzling. But despite that possible lack of precision in my translations of the various “theses”, here’s what I’ve got: 1. By establishing rules, philosophy will clarify the concepts and rules of science. 2. Philosophy aims at clarifying the concepts and propositions of science and everyday life. [It accomplishes this] not by prescribing rules for the use of words but by displaying the rules of the use of a word and by pointing out the logical consequences of such rules. More precisely: Philosophy does not mandate certain uses of a word but it legislates against confusing the consequences of adopted rules or against not to follow [such a rule once it is adopted]. 3. Language is a picture of reality. 4. Language is a system of sentences which are compared one to the other. One is not allowed to talk about a picture of reality, because that would be to introduce a metaphysical concept. 5. A sentence is a configuration of words that become meaningful by means of their syntax. [?...that are determined by means of their syntax?] 6. A sentence pictures a fact. 7. The sense [meaning?] of a sentence is its method of verification. 8. The method of verification exists in the definition of the words that occur in the sentence. Words in the definiens can be further defined. 9. Verification comes to an end when one comes to ostensive definitions, which define the word with reference to the given. 10. There is only one kind of definition: namely, definition by words. Definition by reference to experiences is not possible, because one is not allowed to speak of experiences. 11. Definition is an end. [?...is a determination? …comes to an end? …is definite?] Check out on Rand’s chart who believed what, before and after the Tractatus and what they thought was said in the Tractatus. I will talk about the following topics on the first half of the October 1st meeting and the October 15th meeting. (Recall that October 8th is a holiday). We will finish the discussion of protocol sentences; I will talk about the Positivist’s view of ethics, and we will discuss the (in)famous principle of verification. The second half of the October 1st meeting will see Andrew Tedder talk about Carnap’s Aufbau. New Readings: First a reminder: if you are totally on top of things about the positivists, you will have read the articles about protocol sentences….both the ones I set out at the beginning and the other Carnap one that I actually talked about. You would also have read the Leitgeb “untimely review” of the Aufbau (links to all that stuff are above), and maybe you would have found the Pinnock article in Philosophy Compass (2009) that discusses the Aufbau. (Here is a pdf of that article). And maybe you would even have read some of the Aufbau itself! The next readings to do come from Ayer’s Language, Truth, and Logic, and a related article. I will be talking myself about the following two things in this Ayer book: Ayer’s Introduction to the 2nd edition…paying particular attention to his discussion of the principle of verification, and his Chapter 6 “Critique of Ethics and Theology”. Related to this chapter on ethics is the article by C.L. Stevenson “The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms”. This article is in the big Ayer anthology, and is also here. Related to the principle of verification is a famous article by Hempel, which is in the Ayer anthology and which you can find here. Assignment: You will recall that you are supposed to do two short summaries over the term. It’s time for your first one!! Normally I would assign it a week before it is due, but since next weekend (and Monday) are the Thanksgiving Holiday, I thought I should extend the due date to Thursday, October 11th. Please submit them electronically, before 11.59pm on Thursday October 11th. Recall that the goal of these short summaries is to prove to me that you actually read some article that was not one of the assigned pieces. To do this, you should summarize the article…possibly making a quick criticism of it, if something occurs to you…taking two pages of regular typing to do it. Here are the articles you can choose from: 1. Articles in the Ayer anthology that we have not already mentioned, and not ones for future discussions. So, you canNOT write about the articles (you’re supposed to have already read them!...or will read them soon) a. Russell “Atomism” b. Schlick “Turning Point”, “Positivism & Realism”, “Foundations of Knowledge”, “Future of Philosophy” c. Carnap “Psychology…”, “On Protocol Sentences” d. Neurath “Protocol Sentences” e. Hempel “Empiricist Criterion” f. Stevenson “Emotive Meaning” g. And don’t do any of the “Analytical Philosophy” articles, which are the last three in the Ayer anthology. h. Note an exception: You are allowed to write about the three Carnap articles mentioned way above in this page: “Elimination of Metaphysics”, “Philosophical Problems”, and “Empiricism, Semantics…” 2. Chapters that have an independent interest in Ayer’s Language, Truth, Logic, and which we won’t discuss so much in class. This means you can write any one of Chapters IV, V, VII, and VIII. When you prepare your paper, please put your name and “Phil 448” or “Phil 547” (as appropriate) at the beginning, and state what paper/chapter you are summarizing, as your title. Try to stay within two pages. Although I won’t mark off for overly-long summaries, that is not the intent of this exercise. Try to highlight the important points made in the work under discussion, and don’t get carried away by too many “interesting follow-up topics” or “details of argumentation” (unless these are themselves particularly interesting). As I said above, I’m giving these assignments to convince myself that you have actually read the work you are discussing! I can accept any of doc, docx, rtf, pdf, txt, dvi, tex, ps and maybe other formats. (But the Word, rtf, and pdf are easiest to comment on electronically). Don’t submit wpd (WordPerfect) documents…a program I don’t own. If you use WordPerfect, please save as doc, docx, or pdf and send that. After the discussion of the Verifiability Principle and the Emotive Theory of Ethics, we will leave the Logical Positivists/Empiricists and pick up “ordinary language philosophy” of the 1930s and 1940s. One of the topics that was mentioned at the Oct. 1st class concerned the Prioritätstreit (“priority dispute”) between Wittgenstein and Carnap over Carnap’s paper “Die Physikalische Sprache als Universalsprache der Wissenschaft” (Erkenntnis 1932). The literal translation of the title would be “Physical Language as the Universal Language of Science”, but it was translated into English by Max Black and published in 1934 as a short book titled The Unity of Science. I mentioned in class some of the Wittgensteinian assertions about plagiarism and some of Carnap’s comments in response. I attach a paper “Wittgenstein versus Carnap on Physicalism: A Reassessment” (an slightly earlier version of David Stern’s paper of a different title that occurs in A. Richardson & T. Uebel (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism, 2007, pp. 305-331). I think you would find it interesting. Part II of the work is a timeline for when and how Wittgenstein met various members of the Circle. You might find it especially interesting in the discussion of Waismann and Wittgenstein. (Wittgenstein had engaged Waismann to “write up Wittgenstein’s new philosophy”; but it never got published until 1967 — reference in the bibliography: under Waismann Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle: Conversations Recorded.) But it is Part III that quotes extensively from the Wittgenstein-Schlick-Carnap exchange and which tries to adjudicate the extent of “plagiarism”. It’s quite interesting. One offshoot of the Vienna Circle was “Logical Empiricism in Scandinavia”, led by Arne Naess (often spelled ‘Ness’, especially early on). We will very briefly look at a few of his pre-WWII things, and postpone the remainder until after we talk about the 1930s—1940s ordinary language philosophers. An early article of his that you may wish to look at is his short “Common Sense and Truth” from Theoria 1938. In it you may see similarities with modern “experimental philosophers”. We are now ready to move away from the Logical Empiricists. This will be a bit of a shift backwards in time, back to the early 1930s, when Wittgenstein was presenting new thoughts to students and professors at Cambridge. A nice early piece of his evolving ideas comes from the beginning of The Blue Book. These were notes, dictated to Francis Skinner, from his 1933-1934 class, which were bound up and printed with a blue cover. (The 1934-1935 notes [dictated to Skinner and Alice Ambrose] were printed up with a brown cover. [There was also the Yellow Book (containing further material that Wittgenstein apparently decided not to have included in the Blue and Brown books). Further, just recently a manuscript in pink covers…the Pink Book…was discovered in 2011 in the archives of the University of Cambridge. See http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/unpublished-wittgenstein-archive-is-explored/ .] The Blue and Brown sets of notes were distributed to “friends”…which most definitely didn’t include Carnap…but weren’t really published until 1958 when they were compiled and edited by Rush Rhees as Preliminary Studies for the “Philosophical Investigations”, Generally known as The Blue and Brown Books.) Wittgenstein himself thought of translating these into German, but gave up on the project as “worthless”. I am told that Petra von Morstein who taught for years in the Philosophy Department at the University of Calgary has the distinction of being the only translator of Wittgenstein into German. She translated the Blue and Brown books into German as volume five of Die Wittgenstein-Werkausgabe und ihre Quellen im Nachlass. You can buy an electronic version of the (English version of the) Blue and Brown Books at barnesandnoble.com for $14.10. I can’t find any electronic version of the beginning few pages, so will scan it and put it here. G.E. Moore also attended most of the 1930-1934 lectures by Wittgenstein, and published his notes from those classes in two articles: 1954 and 1955. You might also find the article by Bouwsma reviewing the published version to be very interesting, both philosophically and historically (it contains reminisces by Alice Ambrose about the process of taking these notes…and seems to be the source of the “class” that was imagined in the Jarman movie that we watched). This article also discusses later portions of the Blue Book that are not included in the opening few pages scanned above. And, it gives a nice example of the style of “doing philosophy” – as opposed to propounding philosophical theses that are buttressed by arguments – that was favoured by the Wittgensteinian school during the 1930s/40s/50s. (It is in contrast to the Oxford-style of “ordinary language philosophy” that we will study a bit later). Another account of what teaching and doing philosophy in this style is given by “D.A.T.G and A.C.J.” (their full names weren’t disclosed, although they presumably were students of Wittgenstein) in an “In Memoriam” article in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 1951…sort of a philosophical obituary. It was written of course after Wittgenstein’s death but before the publication of Philosophical Investigations. Here is that article, which gives a vivid picture of being a student under Wittgenstein. Other obituaries and reminisces of Wittgenstein are by Russell and by Wisdom (the greater). Georg Henrik von Wright wrote what is often reckoned to be the best biography of Wittgenstein, although I also recommend that you look at http://www.wittgen-cam.ac.uk (and click on Biography; then work your way through the entire life) if you are interested in this topic. The von Wright biography also appeared as the opening essay in Norman Malcolm’s Wittgenstein: A Memoir. (Unfortunately, Malcolm’s essay doesn’t seem to be available electronically. A review of the Malcolm book by C.D. Broad can be found at http://www.roangelo.net/logwitt/broadcd.html . As you will see, if you read this review and the commentary about Broad that follows this version of the review, Broad “couldn’t stand” either Wittgenstein’s manner of philosophizing nor Wittgenstein himself. [Broad thought philosophy was an exercise in explicit reasoning—where reasons are given and explanations of meaning were not shunned; they were not a place for oracular pronouncements. Wittgenstein thought “giving explanations spoiled their [his ideas’] beauty.”] Broad objected to the Tractatus being awarded a PhD on these grounds; but despite his opinions, he said that “to refuse the chair to Wittgenstein would be like refusing Einstein a chair of physics”. (Broad was the Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge at the time Wittgenstein was proposed as the Professor of Mental Philosophy and Logic to succeed G.E. Moore.) Bernie Linsky gave me this document, which seems to be published by a special interest group (interested in religion) from the University of Colorado. He says he thinks it was in Adam Morton’s materials when he left here. But I wonder if it maybe was in his father’s collection. Anyway, it contains (starting on the inside, on p.2) a strange article by John Nelson. It recounts the visit to Cornell Univ. by Wittgenstein in 1949, and the talk he gave to the Cornell Departmental Colloquium. Apparently the overall article (by Nelson) was written in 1978, but published in this format in 1986. It also contains a chunk of a 1968 book review by Bill Glass that recounts the same events in a different way. And finally, it contains a letter from Norman Malcolm (who housed Wittgenstein during this period) asking whether it was Nelson’s or Gass’s account that was right. Ordinary language philosophy has two different flavors, and seems to have arisen from two different fonts: the one from Wittgenstein at Cambridge and the other at Oxford, perhaps by Gilbert Ryle. The former is usually characterized as anti-theoretical and the latter as “systematic” (or sometimes, “theory-friendly”). For the former group we will read not only the Wittgenstein work mentioned just above, but also A brief Wikipedia entry on Wittgensteinian methodology (copied into rtf here) John Wisdom’s “A Feature of Wittgenstein’s Technique” (Proc. Aristotelian Soc. Supp. Vol. 1961, and available here) John Wisdom’s “Philosophical Perplexity” (in the Rorty anthology, and available here). O.K. Bowsma’s “Descartes’ Evil Genius” (Phil.Rev. 1949, and available here). Norman Malcolm “Moore and Ordinary Language” (in Schilpp The Philosophy of G.E. Moore 1942) (also in Rorty) And although we won’t be reading stuff from Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations in any detail, I’d like to contrast the material in §§23-28 with the work of John Austin in How to do Things With Words. Here is an rtf file with this part of the Investigations copied into it. I’m not sure why it has the weird formatting issues… A second type of ordinary language philosophy seems to start with Gilbert Ryle’s 1932 “Systematically Misleading Expressions” (which is in the Rorty anthology, and available here). Since Wittgenstein (and many of his students) were “philosophically opposed” to publishing things…the students partially because they would have to get approval from Wittgenstein, who would always either deny that they were reporting him correctly or say that they were misappropriating his ideas…the strand of ordinary language philosophy that became the central part of academic philosophy was the Oxford version, whose main leaders were Ryle and John Austin. More detailed reading about them will be put up in the following weeks. Other works of Ryle that we will look at are: Material on “Categories” and “Category mistake” in his Concept of Mind. This is mostly in Chapters 1 and 2. An electronic version of the Concept of Mind (first edition) is available at http://archive.org/stream/conceptofmind032022mbp#page/n1/mode/2up. Just skim the first couple of chapters, looking for his remarks on category-mistakes. (Ryle had written an early article with the title “Categories”, which is here, if you wish to look at it. But the stuff in The Concept of Mind is sufficient for what we will discuss.) Related to categories is this early criticism by J.J.C. Smart (1953). Other things we need to discuss by Ryle are: “Ordinary Language” (1953) “Use, Usage and Meaning” (1961) (symposium with J.N. Findlay) Along with the Ryle material on ordinary language we will look at this methodological work of John L. Austin: “A plea for excuses” (1956) This article is long, but pay special attention to the “methodological part”, starting with the paragraph that begins “So much, then, for ways…” (mid-p.7) and going to the end of this part marked by *’s on p.15. Of course, the different “general lessons to be learned” that begin just after that (labeled #1--#13) are also of great interest. Some articles that surround this topic are: R.M. Hare “Philosophical Discoveries” 1960 P.L. Heath “The Appeal to Ordinary Language” 1952 R. Gale, D. McGee, F. Tillman “Ryle on ‘Use’, ‘Usage’, and ‘Utility’” 1964 J. Passmore “Ryle’s Use of ‘Use’ and ‘Usage’” 1954 One of the topics that came out of the discussion of the methods of ordinary language was “the paradigm case argument”. Here are a few papers on that topic: J.W.N. Watkins “Farewell to the Paradigm-Case Argument” 1957 A. Flew “ ‘Farewell to the Paradigm-Case Argument’: A Comment” 1957 H.B. Alexander “More about the Paradigm-Case Argument” 1958 J. Passmore “Arguments to Meaninglessness” in his book Philosophical Reasoning pp.100-118. In Rorty. C.K. Grant “Polar Concepts and Metaphysical Arguments” 1955/1956 The topic of the Nov. 5th class will be the Ryle “misleading expressions” and the material on “categories” (from either Concept of Mind or “Categories”, you choose). Included here is the Smart article cited above. As well, we will look at the indicated portion of Austin’s “Plea for Excuses”. An example of the methodology in action from one point of view was given by Malcolm in the piece that was presented last week. Another example is in this Henson piece which accuses Russell of violating ordinary language. We probably will also be looking at the three “paradigm case” papers and the Passmore piece. Besides the paradigm case argument, another of the arguments used in Oxfordian Ordinary Language Philosophy was “the argument from contrast”, discussed in various books that I will bring to your attention but apparently not discussed in any specific article (although some discussion of it is in the Passmore selection just cited). Here is a recording of Austin’s voice: http://olponline.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/audio-j-l-austins-voice (a few minutes into the clip) Somewhere along the line I want to bring (some parts of) Austin’s How to do Things With Words to your attention. This is Austin at work trying to classify all the different things that can be done with language. But unlike Wittgenstein, who seemed to think that there was literally an unlimited or infinite number of such things (see the material above from his Philosophical Investigations), Austin thought that it was manageable (although large) and that there could be a complete theory of “what we can say”. I’ll post a few things from Austin’s book a little later, and we’ll discuss them maybe in the last class meeting. Don’t forget that there is NO CLASS ON NOV. 12th! I will make the second “short summary” assignment on Nov. 19, and it will be due one week later (electronically, as before) by midnight on Nov. 26th. Here is a link (available Nov. 19th) to the list of articles for you to do your second summary about. As before, two or three pages that demonstrate that you read and understand the article. And here is a link to a set of possible paper topics for your final paper. It includes what I could remember of topics I mentioned in class plus some other things. Of course, you are certainly free to choose your own topic, so long as they are relevant to the course. You can discuss possible topics with me, if you wish; but this is not a requirement. I am also required to remind you about the University’s position on plagiarism. Short story—don’t do it. It’s not nice. Just credit every source you use—quote them or paraphrase them, but then cite the article/book that had the idea or words in it. (Use page numbers in addition to just saying the title). Here is something I once wrote for grad students in Computing Science (who were not used to writing research papers, unlike philosophy students). I have modified it for this course. Even though it contains a lot of stuff you already know, you might wish to look at it as a source for organizing your papers. On Nov. 19th we will look at the underlying assumptions of “ordinary language philosophy”, including such issues as whether there is any such thing as “ordinary language”, and who the “we” is when they say “we say X; we don’t say Y”. This sort of argumentation includes issues of whether it is really legitimate to infer anything about “what’s going on in the world” from the way “we” use natural language. And of course, just what is “natural” about natural language. Much of the positive argumentation for ordinary language philosophy is embodied in the Austin “Plea” selection. Additionally, Ryle in particular discussed issues concerning the difference between (correct) use of language vs. the usage that may be common in the community. Read the two papers by Ryle linked above (his 1953 and 1961 papers). Some people also find the Hare paper (link above) to be helpful as an explanation of ordinary language philosophy (he uses an analogy of knowing what steps a dance consists of vs. being able to dance correctly). Various people objected to this general account. The Heath paper (above) gives one direction that objections take. [This paper has a number of citations at the end for further argumentation of this sort against ordinary-language philosophy. If you have some time, you could check them out. Maybe even write a term paper on the topic, trying to adjudicate who is right.] A different direction, aimed especially at Ryle’s use vs. usage distinction, is in the Gale/McGee/Tillman paper (above). I will also report on some of the argumentation that occurs in Ernst Gellner’s Words and Things (1959). The following will probably be the topic of the following week, Nov. 26th, but it is possible that some of it may be part of the Nov 19th discussion. This will lead into what I think was the most telling of the series of arguments. This direction came from two sources: one source (which was pretty much ignored until a lot later) was from Arne Naess and his students of “empirical semantics”. (Rather than reading the rather difficult Naess works, take a look at Crockett 1959 and the amusing Tennessen 1959 and 1960, if you have the time.) The other source, which is strikingly similar to at least one part of Naess’ “empirical semantics”, started with an article by Benson Mates and a reply by Stanley Cavell. (Note that they both appeared in Arne Naess’ then-new journal Inquiry.) In turn, there were a large number of articles that took one or the other side of the Mates/Cavell debate. We will look at least at Fodor & Katz (1963) [maybe Jerry Fodor’s first publication?] and Henson (1965). There was a lot of heated controversy among philosophers and many claims of intellectual dishonesty directed at ordinary language philosophy and it practitioners. Check out Bertrand Russell on Ordinary Language Philosophy. More of this sort of thing will come. One of the things I’ll be reporting on later is Ernst Gellner’s Words and Things (1959). Bertrand Russell wrote the “dedication”(?) remark (before the table of contents in this copy of the beginning of the book) and also a “foreword”, which occurs after the table of contents in this copy. More invective from Russell! (I highlighted the “dedication” so you don’t miss it J). Gilbert Ryle was the editor of Mind from 1947 (when he took over from Moore) to 1971 (when David Hamlyn took over from Ryle). Dan Dennett says “He [Ryle] edited the journal autocratically, reading all the submissions and making most decisions regarding publication without consulting anybody.” When the Gellner book was sent by the publisher to Mind for review, Ryle returned it saying “Abusiveness may make a book saleable, but it disqualifies it from being treated as a contribution to an academic subject.” Ved Mehta puts it thus: “Ryle refused to have this book reviewed on the ground that it was abusive and, at least by implication, accused many of these [ordinary-language] philosophers of disingenuousness.” (Here is a review in the Times Literary Supplement of Ved Mehta’s Fly and the Fly-Bottle.) Bertrand Russell wrote an indignant letter to the Times (of London), which generated a number of replies, mostly from philosophers. But also one from Ryle which said Sir,--In the book referred to by Earl Russell in his letter published on November 5, about 100 imputations of disingenuousness are made against a number of identifiable teachers of philosophy; about half of these occur on pages 159-192 and 237-265. GILBERT RYLE, Editor, Mind Someone who is taking a leisurely vacation over Christmas and wants something to read while otherwise doing nothing, could get a copy of Gellner’s book and see whether or not they can find about 50 imputations of disingenuousness on those pages. There were also opinion pieces and further commentary on the issue of whether – even if it were true – imputations of disingenuousness should make a book unsuited for review in Mind. (Rumour has it that Bertrand Russell told Ryle a year later that he made a silly and stupid mistake in not reviewing it. If he wanted to have the book make no impression, he should have given it a medium-sized review (in the middle of many other reviews) that said it had some interesting points to make but was sometimes not too accurate in its target. And then misspell the author’s name.) Here is a review in the Economist of Gellner’s book (unsigned, but obviously by an ordinary language philosopher); and here is an article from the Economist about “the hatreds of the philosophers”. Here is a longer review (in Phil. Review, by Willis Doney, an American philosopher) that is pretty negative about Gellner. In North America the feeling among non-committed Wittgensteinians (well, maybe except Doney) seemed to follow the first sentence of Clark Glymour’s preface to his Theory and Evidence (1981). It didn’t help Ryle’s reputation on this side of the Atlantic that he had published (1949) a nasty and (most think) uncalled-for and just plain ignorant review of Carnap’s Naming and Necessity (1st edition, 1947). Many American philosophers, especially those of a more formal bent, thought it showed a lack of understanding of Carnap, and a particularly unsavory side of ordinary language philosophy. Here is that review. Quite amazingly, there is still someone trying to defend ordinary language philosophy and does it by attacking the Gellner book. T.P. Uschanov (in “Ernest Gellner’s Criticisms of Wittgenstein and Ordinary Language Philosophy” [available both as an early version on his website and as a chapter in G. Kitching & N. Pleasants (eds) Marx and Wittgenstein: Knowledge, Morality, Politics (2002)…available as ebook at our library, the article starts on p.23…but the earlier version is more juicy]) claims “I think that Words and Things is a very bad book and that its influence has been almost totally deleterious.” He also says “One of the first things that strike the reader of Words and Things is Gellner’s extreme rudeness. Hardly a paragraph goes by without some invective being used.” Uschanov wants “…to take some tentative steps to clean the name of a period in which, in P.F. Strawson’s words, ‘the gains and advances in philosophical understanding made … were probably as great as any that have been made in a comparably short time in the history of the subject’.” So, I guess if you’re going to read Gellner, you should also read this article for the other side. The area of Ordinary Language Philosophy died sometime in the 1960s or 1970s. Some people think that the area called Conceptual Analysis is the same as Ordinary Language Philosophy, and therefore think that it too died then. Others think that they both are the same as Analytic Philosophy and so it also is dead (as opposed to “the Analytic Tradition”, which in their mind continues as methodology only and no doctrine). The reasons given for the death of Ordinary Language Philosophy are varied, and you will find the following amongst them (given in [my impression of] the order of their popularity as reasons for the death): 1. Quine’s “demolition” of the analytic-synthetic distinction in “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”, and his related work on naturalizing philosophy. 2. Grice’s work on “Logic of Conversation”, which illustrated reasons – totally apart from the “meaning” of the words/sentences – that we would (or would not) use some particular phrase/words/syntax instead of some other one. 3. The Mates/Cavell exchange and the resulting literature. 4. The Ernst Gellner Words and Things (1959) together with Ved Mehta’s The Fly and the Fly-bottle (1963), which were more “popular” books that resonated with “the educated non-philosopher”. 5. Various particular criticisms, such as the ones we studied concerning the Paradigm Case Argument, the Argument from Polar Contraries, and the problems with Categories, made a number of outsiders more sure that there wasn’t anything to Ordinary Language Philosophy argumentation. And there were also some more extended academically-oriented books, such as C.W.K. Mundle A Critique of Linguistic Philosophy (1970) and Keith Graham J.L. Austin: A Critique of Ordinary Language Philosophy (1977). But these more “serious” books are rather later than the fatal illness, and maybe are more like obituaries that record the dubious youthful mis-adventures of a dead or dying doctrine. We will have a presentation on Quine’s “Two Dogmas” and the reply to it by Paul Grice and Peter Strawson. This will be on Nov. 26th. Be sure to read the articles and have some critiques or questions for the presenter. The final topic will be about Grice’s “Logic of Conversation”, and will be on the last day of class, Dec. 3rd. (This version is the first published version of [this part of] Grice’s 1967 William James Lectures (Harvard), published in 1975…although they were circulated “underground” for many years beforehand. I have a mimeographed version copied in 1969. Grice’s many works on language are collected in his Studies in the Way of Words, 1989. This version includes a lot of Grice’s “afterthoughts” and “retrospective essays” on these topics. In addition it includes Grice’s work on “presupposition”. Every serious philosophy of language student should own this book.) And on that same last day of class we will look also at parts of Austin’s How to do Things With Words. Here is one part of that book. I seem unable to find an electronic version of Austin’s discussion of “locutionary/illocutionary/perlocutionary acts”, so I am putting up John Searle’s commentary (he likes it basically, but thinks Austin is too confusing). You can find a discussion of Austin’s “speech acts” in most elementary philosophy of language books, if you think that is an easier read than the Searle. Do try to look at something or other about the distinction. DO NOT FORGET that final papers are due electronically before midnight on Monday, Dec. 10th.

JACKSONVILLE FOODFIGHT TAKES ON HUNGER Arizona-based folk punks Andrew Jackson Jihad find kindred spirits in Jacksonville Northeast Florida restaurateurs step up for the city’s friendly food-related competition — sadly, not an actual foodfight — to raise funds for the Nourishment Network, which seeks to eradicate food insecurity locally. According to Foodfight organizers, one in six adults and one in four children in this area face going to bed hungry every night. The event, now in its 24th year, raised about $80,000 last year; it’s raised more than $1 million since 1989. 6:30-9 p.m. June 5 at Touchdown Club East, EverBank Field, Downtown, $60 in advance, $70 at the door, jacksonvillefoodfight.org. 48-HOUR FILM PROJECT KICK OFF Filmmakers take on the challenge of creating a film in 48 hours from scratch. Don’t panic. Just caffeinate. Through some combination of creativity, nervous breakdowns, hard work, stimulants and skill, moviemakers compete to produce the best short film they can. Each team is randomly assigned a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre. Films are screened at Sun-Ray Cinema in 5 Points (June 10-12), then those judged the best screen July 12 at The Florida Theatre. The winner of this year’s event, the eighth edition, goes up against winning films from 48-Hour competitions around the world. Kickoff is 6 p.m. June 6 at The Jacksonville Landing, Downtown, $175 late registration, 48hourfilm.com/en/Jacksonville. ANDREW JACKSON JIHAD Folk punks Andrew Jackson Jihad started as a duo 10 years ago in the hot, dry air of Phoenix. All of their hard work, tears and sweat paid off, and they built a cult following that responded by funding a new van on Kickstarter, helping make this tour possible. They’ve also gone full-band for this one, but are still anchored by singer-songwriter Sean Bonnette’s honest, personal, attachment-creating lyrics. Says keyboardist Preston Bryant, “I think that Arizona and Florida are kind of kindred spirits, because most of the time when our states are in the media, it’s for something really bad.” 8 p.m. June 5 at Jack Rabbits, San Marco, $12. If you’re aiming to swap lead with a The Quick and the Dead-era Gene Hackman-type at high noon, any song off Gossamer Frontier’s nine-track rambler Anywhere from Everywhere will set the tone nicely. If you’re not, it’s still a great listen. Johnny Dealy coaxes innovative, moody riffs out of his Telecaster; they meander like tumbleweed, starting from elemental notes and building into climaxes. Vocalist Shannon Vaughn croons over that foundation with loose, Robert Plant-style swagger, singing about typical neo-Western subject matter (defunct relationships, old habits, missed opportunities) in a way that makes this material stand out. 8 p.m. June 9 at Burro Bar, Downtown, $5. 21ST ANNUAL BEACH BASH It’s a fun, family-oriented outdoors event. (Parents, read: Get your kids tuckered out so you can finally enjoy some peace and quiet.) After a wide variety of activities, including sandcastle and sculpture contests, scavenger hunts and geo-caching events, you just might get time to grab a glass of chardonnay at the end of the day and catch an episode of Game of Thrones without wondering if adoption is still an option. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 7 at Anastasia State Park, St. Augustine, $2-$8, floridastateparks.org. U.S. SOCCER SENDOFF U.S. national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann isn’t soccer fans’ most beloved person these days, not after he cut the best U.S. player ever, Landon Donovan, who scored a hat trick the last time the team played here. While cutting Donovan shook the U.S. more than anything Congress did this year, the cacophonous crowd at EverBank Field for this U.S.-Nigeria match — the last friendly before the Americans fly off to the World Cup’s Group of Death in Brazil — will be busy cheering on the players anyway, with perhaps only a smattering of boos for Klinsmann. 6 p.m. June 7 at EverBank Field, Downtown, $30-$350.

What is the 21st century outlook for the world's freshwater future? Some expect a dystopian future of drought, pollution, water and food shortages and, ultimately, "water wars" among nations. But World Water Week reminds us that cooperation might be more likely. In late May, water scientists gathered at a conference and issued a stark warning about global freshwater challenges in this "Anthropocene" era. Yet their recommendations for research, scientific training and ecosystem-friendly solutions fell short of what's needed: a recognition of humanity's place in the web of life. What do we know about the giant food companies' social and environmental practices even as they produce so many of the familiar food products we buy and eat every day? According to Oxfam's "Behind the Brands" campaign, we don't know enough, and what we do know is a bit troubling. Major American universities are practicing "land-grabbing" - buying up African farmland in deals that will likely result in displacement of small farmers, environmental devastation and the further impoverishment and political destabilization. Students and alumni: you have the power to change this. Michael E. "Aquadoc" Campana's story is a testament to the fact that at times something can be found unexpectedly--like a career in hydrogeology. Dr. Campana is a Professor of Geosciences at Oregon State Univ., the president of a professional water resources association and a prolific blogger. HOME, a new documentary from French filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand, narrated by Glenn Close, is a tremendous illustration of nature at its finest and humanity’s impact on it at its most destructive. The film is showing for free at the East Village Cinema starting tomorrow.

**½/**** Image B+ Sound B Extras C starring Millie Perkins, Lonny Chapman, Vanessa Brown, George "Buck" Flowers screenplay by Robert Thom directed by Matt Cimber ***/**** Image B+ Sound A Extras A starring Willem Dafoe, Marin Kanter, Robert Gordon, J. Don Ferguson written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow by Walter Chaw Looking and feeling a lot like a classic 1970s Seka porno flick, Matt Cimber's seedy, disquieting The Witch Who Came from the Sea straddles an exploitation line in telling a simple tale with an unexpected degree of pretense and, if only occasionally, artistry. History suggests that most of this is due to the contribution of cinematographer Dean Cundey, working here early in his career in his preferred 'scope format and offering the sort of stunning seaside-tableaux counterweight he would employ to greater success in John Carpenter's underestimated The Fog. His landscapes dwarf the lost heroine of the picture, swallowing her whole in the ocean of her past, her obsession with television commercials, and the culture of machismo that manifests itself in 1976 Southern California as muscle beaches and professional football. Opening with Molly (Millie Perkins) telling a tale of her long lost sea captain father to her two nephews (shades, again, of The Fog), The Witch Who Came from the Sea finds its themes topical even when its presentation skews often and badly into the unfortunately-dated. It seems that spaced-out Molly--Perkins's performance is virtually always at the level of carefully-enunciating television personality--has issues with men stemming from a long-repressed childhood trauma. She's associated images of the sea with consumption, sexual or otherwise, and as her beloved nephews reach puberty, she begins to lose contact with reality. It's worth noting that the majority of her scenes of dementia are triggered in liminal spaces: the beach, a boardwalk, a bathroom; and as most of the triggers also have something to do with sailor lore (boats, virility, tattoos), male sexual aggression, and father figures, it doesn't take a lot to divine the nature of the skeleton in her closet. She finds herself in frequent skylarks triggered by her own sexual arousal, casually perusing the packages of men around her and fantasizing about television spokesmen and sports heroes recast in the role of her dearly departed nautical father. Many of her dreams, somewhat shockingly, end with her castrating the men in orgiastic bouts of pleasure/pain--the most uncomfortable of which involves a shaving razor and a repeated motion that evokes cheese getting grated. It'll be done better in a few years and with less squeamishness by Paul Verhoeven's The Fourth Man, but in the annals of American '70s cult, B-exploitation cinema, The Witch Who Came from the Sea is in roughly the same neighbourhood as Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, Meir Zarchi's I Spit On Your Grave, and even Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha. The strengths of the piece begin with Cundey's eye and an elliptical narrative that takes a cue from Dario Argento's gialli (long-time admirer Cundey cites Argento's Suspiria as a key visual inspiration for his work on Carpenter's Halloween), i.e., their elaborate, drawn-out murder set-pieces featuring the known killer--who has, often, suffered a childhood trauma he's compelled to re-enact. A pair of detectives inserted into the mix function as mute, ironic commentary on the uselessness of masculine ratiocination in what is essentially an opera of female victimization and murderous empowerment. (It is in period and introduction a tame graft of Kenji Misumi's astonishingly visceral Lone Wolf and Cub series.) The Witch Who Came from the Sea is a rape-revenge fantasy couched self-consciously in Jungian/Freudian symbolism, going so far as to illuminate the castration mythology ancillary to Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", giving the film its name and Molly both her modus operandi and inspiration. Where the film starts to fall apart is in too close a read of the picture's clumsy subtext (it clunks along like a '50s psychodrama with splatter and tits), and too much attention is given over to Cimber's shake-and-bake style. Only Cundey asserting himself now and again (particularly in a masterful ménage a trios sequence shot in hallucinatory slow-motion) grants The Witch Who Came from the Sea its lingering cult status. Abused little girls ("Daddy, he ain't done nothin' to me you ain't done a hundred times before!") becoming phallus-wielding avatars is the loam of the tragic subplot, too, in Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery's The Loveless, a beautiful ode to Monte Hellman's insanely good Two-Lane Blacktop and Kenneth Anger's provocative Scorpio Rising. But watching it is, distilled into a pure essence, watching the film debut of one of our national treasures, Willem Dafoe, in a film directed by the woman who would next helm Near Dark, and of the man who would play the Cowboy in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and serve as producer on Lynch's "Twin Peaks" and Wild at Heart, which reunited him with Dafoe. That feeling of decay is Americana under siege and seething, bursting at its seams with malcontents in black leather (vampires or otherwise) and at war with the only marginally less appalling authority figures. The shots of Georgian diners, motels, and barn-housed garages in an airless summertime are carried off with a kind of breathless suspension haunted by Dafoe's lanky, Ziggy Stardust-androgynous biker, Vance. In a backwater to meet-up with Davis (singer Robert Gordon, eventually inspired to turn Vance's cherry-red bike into his real-life coffee table) before heading off together to the Daytona Speedway, Vance meets up with a stripper/waitress whose stuttering striptease against a lime-green Venetian blind backdrop to the jeers of a roomful of bikers reminds of the headlight-lit, car-top gyration in Blue Velvet, and he falls for whisper of a waif Telena (Marin Kanter--a clear precursor to Jenny Wright's will-o-the-wisp in Near Dark) in her little red corvette. The compositing of the striptease with a pair of lovers making out to the cry of cicadas against a red brick wall is alight with hyper-reality and the promise of future brilliance. Long takes of the wild ones throwing switchblades at one another, of Dafoe smoking a cigarette, and of a sex scene comprised almost entirely of televised scenes of a race riot betray the influence of the French New Wave. The film's pacing is languid, at times hypnotic, especially effective in sequences where Vance rides his bike at impossible speeds along the back-roads of the verdant yet barren South. And while most of The Loveless feels like what it is (a Columbia graduate thesis for Bigelow and a preview of coming attractions for Bigelow's and Montgomery's future work), there remains something of the deadpan all-American road flick that predicts Jim Jarmusch's own early-career take on the same. It's a minor classic of a certain attitude, twenty years or so past when it was fashionable, but honourable--if only for the awesome rockabilly soundtrack--just the same. THE DVD - THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA Subversive Cinema does yeoman's duty on The Witch Who Came from the Sea, offering it in its first DVD incarnation in a definitive transfer, at least until the standardization of HiDef DVD. Its stunning 2.35:1 anamorphic presentation, supervised by Cundey, does for this film exactly what the Cundey-approved transfer of The Fog did for that film: it resurrects it, transforming a marginal not-recommend in the case of Cimber's film into a marginal recommend based on the strength of Cundey's gorgeous cinematography. Note how the picture is bookended by shots of the ocean, the first of Molly and her charges on a threatening beach (crepuscular, somehow, in its natural lighting) and the last of Molly sailing away into a haunted, bird-infested horizon: an illustration, perhaps, of the alternative to Tippi Hedren's domesticization at the end of The Birds--of the re-assimilation of the feminine destructive energy into the long reach of a symbolic sea. It's just not the same on a cropped, smudgy VHS bootleg. By itself, the transfer merits the picture a look as a case study on how a talented DP can salvage a high-aspiring bit of, let's face it, high-minded garbage. The original mono track is offered alongside a near-identical DD stereo option, the sole substantive difference coming during the abovementioned three-way tryst/double-castration, where an adventurously distorted soundmix (parts suggest a fetal heartbeat monitor) is rendered with more clarity. Subversive has loaded the disc with supplements, starting with a film-length yakker featuring Cundey, Cimber, and Perkins--the same trio that appears in the disc's 35-minute making-of doc, "A Maiden's Voyage". Though it sounds like it was recorded into a coffee can, it's a generally rapturous session that accords due credit to Cundey's master shots. No great surprise, I guess, as before this transfer, the last time people saw Cundey's compositions in their original aspect ratio was probably upon the film's theatrical release. Loving filmographies of the principals and extras dominates the track, sadly, with particular hagiography reserved for the late Robert Thom ("A genius," proclaim Cimber and Perkins), who, as Perkins's husband at the time, wrote the role of Molly specifically for her based on the couples' backgrounds and contemporary problems. Long on expediency and short on subtlety, The Witch Who Came from the Sea is, essentially, Perkins's and Thom's The Misfits, for what it's worth. Cundey's observations are the pithiest while Perkins reveals herself as unappealingly prim in her golden years. "I can't believe I made this!"--and, in the documentary, "I didn't do any drugs in that time because I had children, thank you." You're welcome. And when did we return to Victorian England? More, it's a rather startling proclamation following fast as it does the revelation on the doc that she rather enjoyed being topless on film. Eager to show his clear-eyed wisdom through rhapsodic reveries on how evil the world is, Cimber tells his favourite story here and in the docu of how the MPAA didn't like the incest and pedophilia stuff in the flick, as though he were imparting a nugget of incalculable anecdotal value. I hate it when guys like Cimber (looking and sounding like Garry Marshall) say, "Remember a great film called M?" Way to dig deep into the archives, sport. Best bits of a packed commentary go to Perkins, however, revealing the parts of the flick (more than comfortable) that are actually autobiographical for either Perkins or Thom. For as much as I admire Subversive's laudable dedication to unearthing grindhouse gems, the direction and editing (by Eric Gersh) on the documentary itself is abominable. Distracting for one, it borders on glib and disrespectful for another, dissolving the interview spots forward along to other points so as to render opinions half-delivered and sometimes without context. If you've purchased this disc, watched the film, and remain hungry for information on the making of The Witch Who Came from the Sea, then it's more than possible that unexpurgated interview pieces would be welcomed with open arms, at the least more so than Gersh's decision on which bits to keep and in what order. Compounding the problem are the slow push-ins and pull-outs and willy-nilly insertions of scenes from the film that sometimes complement the pullquotes but at other times (as in an early insert of the "surprise" flashback over Perkins's difficult admission that her ex-husband's stepfather used to hide in closets to scare him) minimizes Thom's abuse and exposes the relative silliness of the film at the same time. Later, after Cimber calls Perkins "an actress of some standing in Hollywood" and the star of "one of the biggest films of the decade" (probably in reference to her turn in The Diary of Anne Frank), Gersh segues into a clip where Molly says, "It was on television! You know how I love television!" Consider that the picture is in many ways an attack on the all-invasive venality of television and then think hard about how this juxtaposition speaks of the actress, the value of the director's opinion of the actress, and, fast-following, of how we take Cundey's remembrance of Perkins as the star of movies that he studied in film school. I don't know if it's supposed to be funny, but if it is, it's humour at the expense of the interviewees. A trio of okay filmographies for Cundey, Cimber, and Perkins plus trailers for this film and other Subversive titles (Living Hell, Battlefield Baseball, and Gemini) round out the disc. VIDEO WATCHDOG's Tim Lucas provides liner notes. THE DVD - THE LOVELESS Blue Underground (another company that, like Subversive, was formed by émigrés from niche gold standard Anchor Bay) gives The Loveless a 1.85:1 anamorphic video transfer every bit the equal in terms of revelatory power of The Witch Who Came from the Sea's. Bigelow's and Montgomery's hands are apparent in every frame of the picture, from the long, God's-eye interiors to the long-lonesome exteriors, and, in particular, in the use of primary colours and filtered-lighting that would mark their later output. The often-stilted dialogue (Montgomery bemoans in the commentary that he wishes they'd, he and Bigelow, spent more time on the screenplay) and amateurish biker-boy performances blown out of the water by Dafoe's oily naturalism are reproduced in three audio mixes: DD 2.0 mono, DD 2.0 stereo, and the preferred DD 5.1, the latter of which does a remarkable job of distributing information across the soundstage. Note an introductory scene of a stranded motorist waiting for Vance's guardian fallen angel rumbling up from behind-into-the LFE channel. Nice work. Dafoe and Bigelow join forces for a feature-length yakker that's interspliced with comments from Montgomery (moderated by Blue Underground's David Gregory). Alive with reminiscences of the background and peculiarities of the rushed, low-budget shoot, the track contains realistic appraisals of the successes and failures of the piece largely courtesy the folksy Montgomery, although Dafoe does offer the wonderful observation that as he's watching The Loveless now, some twenty-odd years after the fact, all he can see are the circumstances surrounding the shoot. He marvels that he can remember every word of his first introduction to the silver screen. Of minor interest is Bigelow's memory of early festival screenings and the perhaps unsurprising embrace of The Loveless by the Yank-o-phile Japanese. A fascinating theatrical trailer that plays like a hygiene reel directed by Lynch and a literally exhaustive still gallery split into nine segments (posters, black & white stills, colour stills, wardrobe test stills, behind-the-scenes, pressbooks, storyboards, video, and credits) round out the handsome, essential platter. Originally published: March 3, 2005.

The 50 most memorable action movie moments Gunplay, car chases, shouting, one-liners and kung-fu — here’s our pick of the 50 most memorable action movie moments… You’d think that compiling a list of memorable action movie moments would be quite simple, since there are so many violent, exciting, funny and downright bizarre nuggets to choose from. As we quickly discovered, the sheer number of classic moments in the genre’s history makes whittling them down to 50 extremely tricky. To this end, we’ve established a few arbitrary rules: one, that the movies in question have to be live-action – so the wonderful downhill chase sequence from last year’s Tintin, for example, is out of the running. Second, only movies that are in the action genre first and foremost actually qualify. Action movies with sci-fi, fantasy or comedy elements are fine, but space operas with action elements (sorry, Star Wars franchise) and dramas with glimmers of pulse-racing violence (The Godfather, Michael Mann’s Heat) are out of the running, too. Third, no comic book movies – the quantity and quality of such films has been so exceptional in recent years, they’re probably better off with a list of their own. So with those silly rules established, what on earth does that leave? The kind of movies whose fight scenes, explosions, car chases and amusing one-liners had audiences queuing around the block to see – or more often, paying to watch on video, or tuning in to see on late-night television. We’ve tried to come up with a decent mix of the startling and the absurd, the eastern as well as the western, and the sublime and the ridiculous. There are appearances from famous names we’ve all heard of, but there are a few less familiar faces thrown in there, too. We can’t please everyone, of course, and there are more than likely a few omissions in the list below that you’d have preferred to see. If so,you know the drill: add them in the comments. With all that out of the way, let’s unleash a rousing Schwarzenegger battle cry, and move onto the first entry… Out on the beat There are so many classic moments of satire, outrageous violence and quotable dialogue in Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop that it’s almost impossible to know which to choose. Here’s a less obvious selection, though: the first sequence after cop Alex Murphy is brutally killed and resurrected as RoboCop, where he’s shown stomping back into his precinct, shocking everyone with his extraordinary shooting skills down on the practice range, before driving triumphantly off on his first patrol – all cut to Basil Poledouris’ rousing march. Wonderful. Under Siege (1992) It’s the post-Die Hard action movie that saw Steven Seagal at the height of his glowering potency, and Under Siege also treats us to some sublime, chortling, villainous performances from Gary Busey and Tommy Lee Jones. And if Under Siege teaches us absolutely nothing else, it’s that you should never, ever spit in Steven Seagal’s soup. Hard Boiled (1992) If you ever need proof that John Woo is one of the greatest action directors of all time, look no further than the remarkable hospital shoot-out sequence from 1992’s Hard Boiled. A three-minute-long orgy of gunplay with only one (almost seamless) edit, it’s yet to be topped for sheer ambition and pace. The story of how it was shot is even more remarkable: although it looks as though our two heroes move between two floors in a lift, the scene took place on a single sound stage. When the pair enter the lift and the doors close, people are frantically clearing up the devastation ready for what’s meant to be the next floor. Hard Boiled was Woo’s last Hong Kong movie before he set off Hollywood – and what a spectacular way to end that particular chapter in his career. Arnie’s battle cry Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981) Another classic film with too many great moments to count, the first Indiana Jones movie is surely one of the best action movies ever made. For the sheer brilliance of its stunt work, ideas, directing and editing, the moment where Indy tenaciously stays on the trail of the Nazi convoy and its precious relic is a true highlight. Riding off on horseback, Indy engages in a remarkable six-minute pursuit, cling onto vehicles for dear life, and getting beaten and shot in the process. It’s a high point not only of the movie, but the entire Indiana Jones series. Willis goes swinging Die Hard (1988) The greatest action movie of all time? If Die Hard’s not at the top, then it’s pretty damn close. Somehow, all the right elements are in place in this first and best entry in the series; the athletic yet relatable, funny hero, the engaging roster of villains, the claustrophobic location, great script, and, of course, brilliantly directed action. Our favourite bit? If we had to choose, hero John McClane’s slow-motion dive off the roof of the Nakatomi Plaza. Using a hose as an improvised bungee cord, McClane swings away from a huge explosion, shoots out a window, crashes through it, only for the falling hose reel to start dragging him back off the ledge. It’s one of the coolest stunts of the 80s, and also features one of the finest explosions of the decade, too. Row, row, row your boat Dirty Harry (1971) The film that provided Clint Eastwood with one of his signature roles, and would go on to define the modern cop movie for decades afterwards, Dirty Harry remains a grungy, violent action thriller. Its shoot-outs and stunts may seem a little low-key by modern, post-CG standards, but they merely add to the film’s veneer of realism. And besides, in this memorable moment, where the evil Scorpio has commandeered a school bus full of kids, it’s Eastwood himself who leaps from a bridge and onto the speeding vehicle’s roof. Now that’s what we call dedication. Stairway to heaven A Better Tomorrow 2 (1987) It’s really no surprise that John Woo’s movies would eventually come to the attention of Hollywood – the real surprise is that it took so long. Although not Woo’s best Hong Kong film, the apartment shoot-out in A Better Tomorrow 2 is a remarkable feat of shooting and choreography. Chow Yun Fat takes on an army of bad guys in a claustrophobic building, dragging with him a temporarily insane brother who’s absolutely no help at all. An almost six-minute long orgy of shotgun violence is punctuated by a bit where Yun Fat slides backwards down a flight of stairs, offing a villain with his trademark two-handed pistol technique. A stunning highlight in an otherwise flawed film. Boards don’t hit back Enter The Dragon (1973) The legendary Bruce Lee utters the line above shortly before his short, jaw-dropping fight with the hulking O’Hara (Robert Wall) the high-kicking right-hand man to the evil Han. There are many, many fight sequences in Enter The Dragon, Lee’s final and most successful film, but his fight with O’Hara exemplifies his prowess, I think, better than any other: his style is economical, direct, and powerful. The slow-motion segment where O’Hara, enraged at Lee’s superior speed and agility, attacks him with a pair of broken bottles, concludes the fight in spectacular, bone-crunching fashion. Vanilla ice cream with a twist Assault On Precinct 13 (1976) John Carpenter’s predatory score and equally cunning use of editing makes Assault On Precinct 13 a masterpiece of action and suspense. We were initially reluctant to put this sequence on the list because it’s so horrifying, but there’s no getting away from it – the casual manner in which the leader of a gang shoots an innocent little girl at an ice cream van remains a jaw-dropping, unforgettable moment. Unpleasant though the sequence is, it serves two purposes: provides the catalyst for the tense siege of the second half, and most importantly, proves just how evil the bad guys really are. Everybody was zombie fighting Encounters Of The Spooky Kind (1981) This is surely among the greatest kung-fu movies ever made, and certainly one of the most successful fusions of action, horror and comedy you’ll ever see. It’s hard to choose just one brilliant moment, because there are so many, but the sequence where our hero Bold Cheung (Sammo Hung) fights a hopping zombie fresh from his coffin is a magnificent one, shifting effortlessly from suspense, as Cheung tries to stop the creature from escaping (using hen’s eggs) to full-on action, as the two engage in an expertly choreographed fight. The road warrior Mad Max II (1981) The 1981 sequel to Mad Max didn’t make as much money, but I’d argue it’s the far superior film, both in terms of its cinematography and action. And as 80s action sequences go, you can’t get much better than its opening chase – a high-speed chase that reintroduces Mel Gibson’s embittered petrol head, and his post-apocalyptic environment, all without a single word of dialogue. Unless you count the primal scream of a feral bad guy, that is. Take the bus 48 Hrs (1982) The movie that, for better or worse, made Eddie Murphy a huge star, and a great (if somewhat dated) bit of action directing from Walter Hill. If it’s a memorable moment you’re looking for, then how about the bit where the bad guys commandeer a bus, resulting in a high-speed chase and shoot-out through night time city streets? It’s short, exciting, and appears to have been borrowed by Hill himself for the remarkably similar Red Heat (1988). John Woo’s Hollywood action epic was originally supposed to be a vehicle for Stallone and Schwarzenegger, but putting Nic Cage and John Travolta in their place was a masterstroke. The two have great fun impersonating one another’s tics and mannerisms when their faces are swapped at the end of the first act, and some of their exchanges are, remarkably, more memorable than the trademark Woo action sequences (he has the copyright on the word ‘balletic’, we understand). This leads us to a vintage batty performance from Cage, and my personal favourite moment: his grandiose, stoned way of saying, “I want to take his face... off.” The response, from one of the character actors playing a henchman (“No more drugs for that man”) is so apt, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d simply blurted it out on the spot. Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) In this James Cameron-penned sequel to First Blood, John Rambo’s pulled out of jail to take some pictures of prisoners of war in Vietnam, which is a bit like hiring David Hockney to decorate your living room. Unsurprisingly, Rambo soon loses his Nikon and starts shooting the bad guys with a gun instead – much to the relief of action-hungry audiences everywhere. The most memorable moment in this amiably daft 80s relic? Aside from poor Julia Nickson’s appalling acting, surely this one. Bad day at the office, John...? The Last Boy Scout (1991) Few sequences sum up screenwriter Shane Black’s ability to write an action scene as this one from 1991’s The Last Boy Scout. Bruce Willis’ world-weary detective is being repeatedly punched by a sneering bad guy with a particularly annoying laugh. “Touch me again and I’ll kill you,” Willis murmurs, provoking yet another punch in the face. Willis’ response? A sharp heel strike to the face, shattering the goon’s nose and killing him instantly. Eye-watering, but brilliant. You wanna see crazy? Lethal Weapon (1987) An undercover cop in a drug bust – a familiar enough staple in any action thriller. But Shane Black’s classic Lethal Weapon completely upended the predictable formula by making his protagonist Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) a suicidal maniac. And nowhere is this better illustrated than in the quite brilliant three-minute sequence where he accosts a group of Christmas tree salesmen who sell bags of cocaine on the side. In a perfectly judged mix of tension and comedy, Riggs first poses as a wet-behind-the-ears customer (“A hundred thousand? I can’t afford that. Not on my salary”), then slaps his badge on the table, does a Three Stooges impression, and triggers a big festive gun-fight. It’s possibly Mel Gibson’s career-best performance, and the original Lethal Weapon is undoubtedly the best. Carter Wong explodes Big Trouble In Little China (1986) A crazy collision of comedy, mysticism, kung-fu and special effects, Big Trouble In Little China was undoubtedly one of the most eccentric and fun action movies of the 80s. Sadly, it took audiences a while to realise this, and the film wasn’t a big hit for John Carpenter when it came out. Thankfully, it’s picked up a loyal following since, and it’s aged surprisingly well, partially because it plays out like a pastiche of 80s action movies rather than a straight-up genre entry. The most memorable moment in this 80s oddity? How about the bit where Hong Kong legend Carter Wong becomes so angry that he swells up like a balloon, before exploding in a shower of comedy gore? Spectacular. Red Heat (1988) When doves cry The Killer (1989) As a marriage of both drama and action, The Killer is perhaps the pinnacle of John Woo’s career, and Chow Yun Fat has never been better as an hitman who forms a relationship with a young woman he accidentally blinded during one of his bullet-strewn encounters. Determined to do the dreaded one last job to pay for an operation that might just save the girl’s sight, Fat’s concluding shoot-out in a eerily-lit church (complete with doves, long before they became a Woo cliche) is a spectacular one, and among the very best action sequences Woo ever staged. Bond’s big jump The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) Critics have never been particularly enamoured with this Bond outing, with many bemoaning its attempt to cash in on the martial arts movie craze then at its zenith, and decrying its toe-curling attempts at what some described as Carry On style humour. Whatever you make of Roger Moore’s second 007 picture, you’ll surely agree that, tucked away in this lesser Bond entry, there sits one of the greatest car stunts ever committed to film. After uttering the line, “Ever heard of Evel Knievel?” Bond drives his AMC Hornet straight at a broken, twisted wooden bridge at top speed, executing an immaculate aerial twist and landing on all four wheels on the other side. Except, of course, it wasn’t Bond who performed the stunt, but the unspeakably brave "Bumps" Willard, who managed to pull off the feat in a single take. What a travesty, then, that Albert Broccoli allowed composer John Barry to undercut the bravura display with the sound of a peeping penny whistle… Let off some steam You really can’t beat an action movie starring Arnold in his prime, and Commando hails from the Oak’s 80s heyday. Starring as Colonel John Matrix, he shoots, blows up and batters an army of bad guys who kidnapped his innocent, deer-feeding daughter Jenny (or ‘Chenny’ as he calls her). One of the most absurdly over-the-top action movies in a career full of them, Commando ends with a fight with head honcho Bennett (Vernon Wells). When the inevitable happens, and Matrix shoves the unfortunate fellow into a broken hot pipe, his send off is a charming, “Let off some steam, Bennett.” Action cinema needs more one-liners like this, it has to be said. Cop shop killing spree The Terminator (1984) From the moment Arnold Schwarzenegger’s time travelling cyborg arrives in 80s Los Angeles, James Cameron keeps his tech-noir action thriller speeding along at an extraordinary pace. Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton spend much of the film just about one step ahead of their flesh-and-metal hunter, until this key sequence, where they’re tracked to a police station. That the building’s full of heavily-armed cops means nothing to the Terminator, who proceeds to massacre everyone he sees within its walls without mercy. Like the ice cream shooting in Assault On Precinct 13 mentioned above, it’s a scene that perfectly illustrates the antagonist’s ability to kill without emotion or fear of authority. Sylvester Stallone’s homage to rogue cop classic Dirty Harry isn’t, it has to be said, a great film, nor has it aged particularly well. Watched in the right frame of mind, though, Cobra has a certain amount of goofy, 80s charm to it, and Sly gives a classic mumbling, hangdog performance as Marion ‘Cobra’ Cobretti, a cop more interested in the discharging of firearms than the letter of the law. In a scene long trimmed by the BBFC, Cobretti’s angry style of policing reaches its peak in the final act, as he sets a hapless goon on fire and snarls, “You have the right to remain silent” as only Sly can. Effin’ Chuck Norris Way Of The Dragon (1972) The early 70s saw Chuck Norris at the height of his powers, and when he fought Bruce Lee in the martial arts flick Way Of The Dragon, he was an international Karate champion. Say what you will about the somewhat unconvincing Colosseum set, the rather dated usage of zooms, or Norris’ incredible body hair, the fight itself remains a great one – not least because it appears to have been shot from the perspective of a saucer-eyed kitten. Just one shot Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981) We all know the legend by now: Indy was supposed to fight the simitar-wielding warrior, but his alter-ego Harrison Ford, suffering from gut rot, said to Spielberg: "Let's just shoot the fucker." The rest is history. Riding the escalator Neveldine/Taylor’s work of utter madness is without doubt one of the craziest action movies ever made. The irrepressible Jason Statham stars as a hitman who has to keep his heart pumped full of adrenaline, otherwise a lethal drug called a Beijing Cocktail will kill him instantly – a bit like Speed, except with a bloke that can’t slow down instead of a bus. The sheer chaos of Neveldine/Taylor’s filming and cutting makes Crank a memorable film in its entirety, but for sheer strangeness, the finest moment is the one where Statham drives into a shopping mall, tips the car on its side, leaving the vehicle to trundle up an escalator. The British government could use the scene as one of its ‘don’t use mobile phones while driving, kids’ cautionary TV ads. Highway wrecking ball Fast Five (2011) The Fast franchise flipped from lingering modified car porn to full-on action flick for the fifth instalment, and the results were unexpectedly brilliant. Two hours of Rio violence, an oiled-up Dwayne Johnson shouting, swearing, glowering and punching Vin Diesel culminated in an audacious, ridiculous car chase where a gigantic safe full of cash is towed through city streets. It’s all physics-defying nonsense, of course, but that doesn’t stop it from being a lot of fun, and one of 2011’s stand-out action scenes. From safe cracking to helmet busting in Tony Jaa’s extraordinary debut, Ong Bak. If you haven’t seen it, words won’t do the unforgettable scene in question justice, so just watch this clip, and prepare to be amazed. The Raid (2012) Gareth Evens’ action epic may not even be out in the UK until May, but we suspect that it’ll soon go down as one of the great genre films of recent years. We won’t spoil the movie by giving too much away, but an early scene in which a group of elite cops, cornered by a high-rise building full of ruthless criminals, use their guns to shoot their way through the floor to the level below is exciting, imaginative, and brilliantly edited. And just when you think the whole sequence couldn’t get more violent, one of the cops comes up with a great way of gaining the upper hand – by making an improvised bomb out of a gas can, a fridge and a hand grenade. If you love action films, you really must go and see The Raid. Jean Claude Van Damme versus Bolo Yeung “You break my record, now I break you. Like I broke your friend” says beefy bad guy Chong Li (Bolo Yeung) before the final fight in Bloodsport (or rather, a voice actor does – the line’s clearly dubbed). There follows a brilliant, extremely daft high-kicking fight between JCVD and Hong Kong legend Yeung, which concludes with the following unforgettable dramatic moment: Moscow car chase The Bourne Supremacy Just when the James Bond series seemed to be running out of ideas, along came the Bourne films to remind us how a globe-trotting action film should really be made. The spectacular car chase in The Bourne Supremacy, in which our hero hurtles through the streets of Moscow in a stolen yellow Taxi, is a truly brilliant piece of action filmmaking – tense, immediate, and wisely opting for realism rather than the outlandish, improbable sort of CG-assisted seen in most modern action movies. The Transporter (2002) Forget special effects and Matrix-style wire-fu. For a truly great action scene, all you need is Jason Statham, a warehouse, a few stunt actors and a big bucket of oil. With these simple ingredients, 2002’s The Transporter created a funny, exciting and truly memorable action sequence. Outnumbered by the bad guys, a topless Statham evens his chances of survival by smothering both the floor and himself in engine oil. Now unable to balance, the half-a-dozen or so goons get royally thrashed by our hero, who slips and skids about like a belligerent Fred Astaire. The Crazy 88 Kill Bill (2003) A deliriously violent homage to Japanese chanbara movies, the extraordinary 10-minute-long scene of bloodletting in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill is quite possibly the most unforgettable action sequence of the decade sometimes referred to as the noughties. Blood flows in geysers, limbs fly and heads roll as Uma Thurman’s Beatrix Kiddo cuts a swathe through the evil O-Ren Ishii’s personal army of masked Crazy 88s. Conan The Barbarian (1982) Madagascar free running Casino Royale (2006) It may have taken the Bourne movies to show Bond where to head next, but the resulting Casino Royale was a fine reboot, and surely the best 007 movie in years. At last, all those memories of invisible cars and silly speedboats jumping out of the MI6 building on the Thames can finally be put to rest. With Casino Royale, and new Bond Daniel Craig, the franchise took a much more grounded, visceral approach to its action, and the early set-piece where 007 chases a bad guy through a Madagascar construction site, across rooftops and buildings was a convincing statement of intent. This new Bond was more athletic, ruthless and daring than ever, and the entire sequence is an unforgettable one. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol The Dubai tower climbing sequence was a major selling point in Ghost Protocol’s marketing, and rightly so – Tom Cruise’s gonzo antics on the side of Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest building in the world, dominate not only the entire film, but represent the pinnacle of the whole franchise in terms of stunts. In the context of the film, hero Ethan Hunt’s meant to be climbing up the glass structure with the aid of a pair of high-tech gloves. In reality, Cruise is securely fastened by climbing ropes, later removed with the power of computers. Even with this in mind, the vertigo-inducing cinematography, the exotic location and the great use of IMAX cameras makes it an unforgettable, thrilling sequence. Hollywood filmmakers have often resorted to using 3D to achieve a sense of depth, but the added detail afforded by IMAX’s huge 70mm film stock provides the same sensation without the distraction of silly glasses. As director Brad Bird himself put it late last year, “When we were first looking at the image of Tom climbing the Burj […] you actually saw the glass warp slightly because of the pressure of his hand. You would never see that in 35mm. The fact that the screen fills your vision and is super sharp seems more life-like.” Liam Neeson’s deadly throat chop Even the mightiest men in the universe are no match for a riled Liam Neeson and his deadly karate chops to the throat. In his long and illustrious career, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s wrestled a bear, punched a camel, punched a horse, and chewed the neck of a vulture. Then, in 1996, he did this. Put the bunny back in the box Con Air (1997) Simon West’s knowingly over-the-top Con Air is a Den Of Geek favourite, and the sequence where hero convict Cameron Poe (who else but Nic Cage) fights a bad guy convict in the underbelly of a prison plane perfectly sums up the movie’s absurd machismo. Poe despatches his opponent with the aid of a conveniently located (and very sharp) metal pipe, and utters the immortal epitaph, “Why couldn’t you put the bunny back in the box?” McQueen in a Mustang We couldn’t very well put together a list of memorable action moments without mentioning the car chase sequence in Bullitt, one of the earliest and best of its kind. Totalling almost eleven minutes, Steve McQueen (in a V8 Ford Mustang, fact fans) is pursued by a pair of hitmen in a Dodge Charger, and the resulting sequence – cool, tense and thrilling – has been copied, referenced and lampooned ever since. For a recent example, compare this sequence to the opening of Drive, where Ryan Gosling coolly evades the cops in a benighted Los Angeles. Bullitt is a lasting inspiration to filmmakers everywhere. Jackie Chan versus Hwang Jang Lee Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow (1978) Of all the performers in martial arts cinema, Hwang Jang Lee is surely the most menacing. Although not exactly a household name, Lee appeared in some true Hong Kong classics, usually as the villain. He was the bad guy in Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow, an early hit for the young Jackie Chan. From his performance here, it’s easy to see how Lee received the nickname Thunderfoot – his fighting style is absolutely ferocious. So ferocious, in fact, that according to legend, Lee managed to knock out one of Jackie Chan’s teeth during the filming of Snake’s last fight sequence. Whether that’s true or not, it’s a classic scene – no special effects, no weapons, just some great direction from Yuen Woo-ping, and two performers at the absolute pinnacle of their abilities. El Mariachi (1992) A stunning debut from the then 23-year-old Robert Rodriguez, there’s a certain grit and vigour to El Mariachi that he couldn’t quite recapture in his own, more expensive remake, Desperado. Mistaken for a ruthless criminal because he’s dressed in the same black attire, a mariachi (Carlos Gallardo) becomes the target of a drug lord and his hitmen. It’s the catalyst for a series of simple yet extremely exciting and well-shot action and chase sequences, including the one chosen for this entry, where the mariachi slides down an electrical cable and straight onto the bonnet of a moving bus. Quite how Rodriguez filmed this on a reported budget of just $7000 doesn’t bear thinking about. Terror at 15,000 feet I’m pretty sure that Family Guy’s scheming baby Stewie Griffin was modelled on John Lithgow’s scene-stealing, villainous performance in Renny Harlin’s Cliffhanger. At any rate, Cliffhanger’s a great 90s action movie, and marked something of a return to form for Sly Stallone following a series of unfortunate career choices (see Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot. Or rather, don’t). The film’s action centrepiece is its 15,000 feet aerial transfer scene, once the most expensive such scene ever produced, in which stuntman Simon Crane slid from the tail of a DC 9 down a rope to a smaller getaway plane. If the stunt looks dangerous on the big screen, it was – Crane was almost sucked into one of the plane’s engines at one point. Demolition Man (1993) Fighting by the book The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) Matt Damon’s odyssey into improvised weapons concluded with a spectacular sequence in his final Bourne movie to date, the superb Ultimatum. After a startling free-run chase, Bourne engages in a desperate close-quarters punch-up where a book is applied forcefully and repeatedly to his opponent’s face and throat. We could make wry comments about actions speaking louder than words, ‘he really threw the book at him’ and things of that nature, but we won’t. Get to the chopper Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) For sheer audacity, in terms of both stunts and what was possible with CGI at the time, the sequence in Terminator 2 where the T-1000 commandeers a helicopter takes some beating. Having already stolen a highway patrol officer’s bike, the relentless shape-shifting assassin smashes through the window of a multi-storey building, clings onto the front of a police helicopter, head butts the windscreen, and oozes into the passenger seat like a dribble of metallic toothpaste. Okay, so the CG side of the whole thing doesn’t look quite as seamless as it did 20 years ago, but it’s still an extremely cool idea. “Get out” indeed. Umbrella bus ride Police Story (1985) Few action sequences showcased Jackie Chan’s extraordinary athletic prowess and apparent love of danger than the show-stopping opener in Police Story. In it, Chan’s fearless supercop engages in a highspeed chase through a hillside shanty town after a group of criminals. When said criminals make their escape in a bus, Chan continues the chase on foot, first hanging off the side of it using an umbrella as a hook. When that doesn’t work, Chan takes a shortcut down another steep hill, and forces the bus to stop by standing in front of it with a gun pointed at the driver. The bus screeches to a halt, throwing two criminals standing on the top deck straight through both windows and crashing to the road below with bone-crunching force. Hollywood later paid Chan the ultimate compliment by ripping this classic scene off in two movies – Bad Boys II, which borrowed the downhill car chase section, and Tango & Cash, which recreated the same technique of stopping a bus almost frame-for-frame. Neither, it has to be said, are as thrilling as Chan’s original. You have ten seconds to comply Yes, it’s probably cheating to stick two entries from one movie in the same list, but we don’t care – RoboCop more than deserves such special treatment. The second classic moment, then, has to be the spectacular introduction of ED-209, a new-fangled law enforcement droid that somehow manages to be both menacing and absurd – much like the film itself, in fact. In this classic scene, executives at Omni Consumer Products are demonstrating the prowess of its newest invention, only for the hulking menace to malfunction and shoot a young executive for what feels like several minutes. Having reduced the poor chap to the consistency of a milkshake, someone shouts out the priceless, “Someone call a goddamn paramedic!” It’s a moment that perfectly summarises the film’s violent, pitch-black sense of humour. Get away from her you bitch Having already given us a film packed full of quotable lines, James Cameron tagged on a somewhat expected coda, and one final zinger for the audience to leave the theatre with. Just when Ripley, Newt and Bishop think they’ve escaped from the spindly-fingered inhabitants of LV-426, a decidedly angry alien queen emerges from the landing gear of their drop ship, and tears poor Bishop in half. Shaken but with plenty of fight left in her, Ripley scuttles away and then re-emerges clad in a yellow power loader outfit. Her resulting “Get away from her you bitch” is the opening cry for a great one-on-one joust. More than a quarter of a century later, it remains a classic line, and an unforgettable final fight. Add your own suggestions in the comments.

Last weekend I was really lucky to be invited down to watch “The Hunger Game: Mockingjay Part 1” with Dolby Atmos! One of my favorite movie title along with the future of cinema sound, isn't that the best of both world? So I was wondering how much can it improve since Dolby 5.1 and 7.1 was already ‘all around you’ , well Dolby Atmos is literally feeling every dimension, with OVERHEAD SPEAKERS (Something new) and surround sound format that pan through the speakers in the cinema – like the aircraft in film that was flying pass, you can really hear them flying literally over you, the whole 2 hours in the cinema I felt like the movie came alive with all the breathtaking detail as the different sound over around me. I even got a picture for all of you to see how it actually look like in the cinema, look at the amount of place around the cinema (EVEN OVERHEAD) It was definitely a huge shift of Dolby 7.1 to Dolby Atmos as I felt that I enter a whole new whole of sound rather than a few enhancement. Where major Hollywood studios are participating in producing sound with Dolby Atmos, those titles are rising to the Top of the Chart, with their success, more and more films are using Dolby Atmos (more than 180 films) has been released with the renowned Dolby Atmos. Sound is an important part in life, so we can’t exclude little details like sound of rain, wind, rustling of leaves. Dolby Atmos technology really enhanced the whole movie experience- SPOILER ALERT, like at the war scenes when Katniss was at District 8 where the we can hear all the aircraft zoom through the sky and which really felt like it was flying pass my head. And how the realistic the whole bombing scene was and how the fire kept on burning, yes even the sound of burning was so lifelike has really added value to movie-watching, I was really immersed in the movie, as if I was in the cinema alone as each scene and sound was so out-of this world. Truly am flabbergasted with sound system Dolby pull through this time. Even Top Directors Gareth Edwards (Gozilla and Gravity) are using Dolby Atmos to bring extreme experience to the audience. So now you know that even though we are so used to hearing sound, sound can be extra ordinary, sound can be deeper, and audio can be precise from any direction with Dolby Atmos. Really natural and lifelike with powerful bass, in addition to 360 degree of sound in higher definition. I felt like I was each of the Character in Hunger Game, I was shooting Arrows like Katniss, I was the Handsome Gale, and at the same time, I was the wind and the explosion! I really do suggest all of you to watch Hunger game or any other movie in Dolby Atmos to experience what I experience which is to Feel every dimension of the sound. With the other bloggers And I found out that we can bring that futuristic sound system back too, if you purchase Onkyo Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers (for home theater) you can experience this in the comfort of your own home! How AMAZING! After experiencing it with my sister, we even want to bring one Onkyo Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers back home! HAHA I seriously can’t wait to catch part 2 of the Hunger Game in Dolby Atmos! And I think action pack block buster films like “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” will definitely be awesome to be watching it with Dolby Atmos!

By Vanessa Wolf On Wednesday, June 12 at 8 p.m. the Maui Film Festival’s Celestial Cinema will air “Hawaiian: the Legend of Eddie Aikau.” Shortly before the screening, the late Eddie Aikau – represented by his family – will receive the 2013 Maui Film Festival Visionary Award. Nainoa Thompson, the developer and teacher of “wayfinding,” or non-instrument navigation, a system that synthesizes traditional principles of ancient Pacific navigation and modern science will be receiving the award as well. Barry Rivers, Director of the event, commented, “The Maui Film Festival is deeply touched to have the privilege to present 2013 Visionary Awards, given previously to only H.H The 14th Dalai Lama, to both the Aikau ‘ohana in memory of Eddi Aikau and to Nainoa Thompson,” Said Rivers. “Both men have helped guide not only the mission of the Maui Film Festival, but even more importantly, people all over the world to navigate their personal life journeys in service to the great good.” Aikau is one of the most respected names in surfing. Born on Maui, Aikau later moved to O’ahu with his family in 1959. In 1968, he became the first lifeguard hired by the City & County of Honolulu to work on the North Shore. Not one life was lost while he served as lifeguard at Waimea Bay. Aikau braved surf that often reached 20 feet high or more to make a rescue. Along with saving many lives, he become a well-known big-wave surfer, ultimately winning first place at the prestigious 1977 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship. The local saying, “Eddie Would Go,” refers to his willingness – if not enthusiasm – to take on big waves that other surfers would shy away from and his courage to make a rescue in impossible situations. Aikau also became involved in perpetuating his Hawaiian heritage. In 1976, the Polynesian Voyaging Society sailed the Hokule’a on a successful 30-day, 2,500-mile journey following the ancient route of the Polynesian migration between the Hawaiian and Tahitian islands. In 1978, a second voyage of the traditional sailing canoe was planned. Then 31, Aikau was selected for this voyage as a crew member. The Hokule’a left the Hawaiian Islands on March 16, 1978. The double-hulled voyaging canoe developed a leak in one of the hulls and later capsized in stormy weather about 12 miles south of the island of Molokai. In an attempt to get to land to save his crew and the Hokule’a, Aikau paddled toward Lanai on his surfboard. Hours later, a commercial airplane spotted the Hokule’a and the rest of the crew were soon rescued by the US Coast Guard, but Aikau was missing at sea. Despite extensive search efforts he was never seen again. Nainoa Thompson has inspired and led a revival of the traditional arts associated with long-distance ocean voyaging in Hawaiʻi and throughout Polynesia for 35 years. The last navigators to practice his way-finding system were voyagers in the 14th century. Thompson continues to develop and implement a multidisciplinary, culturally relevant educational program focused on teaching Hawaiian children the values of Polynesian voyaging. The program emphasizes both traditional and modern scientific knowledge about the environment, and stresses the importance of eco conservation of resources and a sustainable future for the state and the planet itself. Thompson has already received numerous community awards, including 2012’s Unsung Hero of Compassion, which was awarded by the Dalai Lama on behalf of the organization Wisdom in Action; and the Native Hawaiian Education Association’s Manomano Ka ʻIke (Depth and Breadth of Knowledge) Educator of the Year Award. The documentary film “Hawaiian: the Legend of Eddie Aikau,” narrated by Josh Brolin will air after the awards presentation, followed by “Islands of Sanctuary” at 10 p.m. Tickets are $22. Have an idea for a fun or thought-provoking story or topic? Get in touch: we want to hear from you. -Vanessa (@mauinow.com) |1 Disqus Comment|

Sinister Seven: Dark Regions Press publisher Chris Morey on Clive Barker’s “The Midnight Meat Train” Poor Chris Morey – here he is, an innocent publisher in the throes of one of the biggest projects to roll out of his Dark Regions Press this year, and he’s stuck in a dark room with no food or water until he coughs up answers to Rue Morgue’s Sinister Seven. The topic: Dark Regions’ upcoming release of Clive Barker’s The Midnight Meat Train Special Definitive Edition. Serves him right for hanging out with horror journalists. Delivery, starring Laurel Vail and Danny Barclay, is a game changer to the found-footage subgenre. Concealed under the premise of a giddy, daytime television series exploring the adventures of a pregnant couple, we are instead mercilessly detoured down the path of a pregnancy gone demonically awry. Currently hailed as a modern rendition of Rosemary’s Baby, Delivery (out from Anchor Bay) was recently screened at Rue Morgue’s Cinemacabre Movie Nights. Writer/Director Brian Netto and Producer/Co-Writer Adam Schindler join us to discuss how they pulled off their diabolical film. Concluding our Dawn of the Dead 35th anniversary interview series is Scott Reiniger who played the part of Roger. This interview was conducted during the Weekend of Horrors convention at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, Germany. How did you get the part of Roger? SR: I was an actor in New York, and it was the first film I ever did. Before, I had done some commercials and classical stage work. One day I received a call from George Romero’s then girlfriend, Christine: “You know George Romero?” I said, “Sure I know him from Night of the Living Dead,” and she said, “Well, he’s auditioning for this new film called Dawn of the Dead, and would you like to come in and audition?” Joining us for the third installment of our Dawn of the Dead 35th anniversary celebration is Leonard Lies, who played “machete zombie.” The following interview was conducted during the Weekend of Horrors convention at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, Germany. [The Rue Crew has thus far been mightily impressed by Stalled, the indie zombie comedy from director Christian James and writer/star Dan Palmer. Richard Gladman, the voice of Rue Morgue UK, checks in with an interview with Palmer.] The UK’s biggest and most prestigious horror film festival, Film4’s FrightFest, has a reputation for discovering new talent and premiering low-budget movies that might otherwise have slipped under the radar, and the 2013 festival was no exception. Voted by many as their film of the festival, Stalled is a low-budget British zomcom set almost exclusively in a ladies restroom on the night of an office Christmas party during a zombie outbreak. Our hero (played by Dan Palmer) gets trapped in one of the stalls and makes numerous hilarious attempts to escape the ravenous living dead. Joining us for our second interview celebrating the 35th anniversary of Dawn of the Dead is Joe Pilato. (We kicked off our DotD interview series a few days ago with actor Jim Krut.) Although Joe is better known for his work as Captain Rhodes in 1985′s Day of the Dead, he began his career in Dawn of the Dead playing a police officer raiding a dock. The following interview was conducted during the Weekend of Horrors convention at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, Germany. Thirty-five years before the world went Gonk-ers, director George A. Romero released Dawn of the Dead, a film about four people taking shelter in a mall while attempting to evade an undead onslaught. The world spirals out of control around them, with looters, renegade police, and politicians so busy disagreeing about what’s causing the problem, that no solution is ever reached. In spite of being banned in some countries and heavily censored in others, the film received roaring praise, most notably from the late Roger Ebert who said, “Nobody ever said art had to be in good taste!” Today, Dawn of the Dead is still acclaimed as one of the best cult movies of all time, having launched the careers of special effects maestros Tom Savini (Friday the 13th, Creepshow) and Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), as well as having inspired the “zombie apocalypse” trends we see today. I’m sure many of you are familiar with The Black Museum, but for those that aren’t (and should be), this ingenious undertaking, curated by Rue Morgue contributors Andrea Subissati and Paul Corupe, is a lecture series devoted to the scholarly side of scary things. Past seasons have mostly concentrated on film, with subjects ranging from zombies, to parallel realities, to Bigfoot; in its third semester The Black Museum is broadening its horrific horizons to touch on Halloween costumes, soundtracks and even video games. According to their mission statement, the Detroit Underground Film Festival is “a celebration of cinema’s unsung vanguard.” Only in its second year, the Detroit Underground Film Festival (or DUFF) is a “three-day pressure cooker” of independent, alternative and mostly disturbing movies. Boasting an impressive past line-up including The Manson Family, Rubber’s Lover, Last House on Dead End Street and Schramm: Into the Mind of a Serial Killer, DUFF is back again this Thursday, August 22 to add a little more depravity to Detroit, with screenings of off-kilter classics including Mutilation Man and Street Trash; recent oddities such as Spidarlings and Wire Boy; and a mini-retrospective of creepy cult filmmaker Damon Packard. I got in touch with DUFF founder Drew Boggemes, to talk about this up-and-coming festival, and why one should make their way to Michigan immediately to catch this year’s edition.

Dir. Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo Christina Ricci lovers, take note: the 30-going-on-20-year-old actress spends almost half of After.Life wearing nothing but a flimsy red slip, and most of the rest wearing even less. Sure, she’s pale, bruised, and possibly even playing a corpse, but that should only make the film more appetizing for the Tim Burton side of her fanbase (not to mention the Black Snake Moan droolers). Although everyone else will likely be disappointed by this plodding “which character is the crazy one?” thriller, collectors of her screen-caps should go ahead and “save” the film on Netflix now. Ricci plays Anna Taylor, a far less appreciative girlfriend to Nice Guy Justin Long (stripped of his wit and reduced to a shouty, quivering pussy) than Alison Lohman was in Drag Me To Hell. Like Lohman’s ill-fated heroine, a traumatic automobile experience leaves her haunted by visions and fearing death, only the cackling gypsy is replaced by a genial mortician (Liam Neeson) who tries to convince her she’s already dead. Sam Raimi’s sadistic flair is also replaced by first-time director Agnieska Wojtowicz-Vosloo’s inept mix of portentous dream imagery (Ricci holding her heart out to Long, looming voids) and B-movie clichés (in one of the most absurd races against time in cinema history, Ricci can barely unlock a door in the time it takes Neeson to leave his isolated mortuary, get gas, and return). Initially just an awkward slog (watching a serene Neeson discuss the need to accept one’s death is more than a little disturbing considering he lost wife Natasha Richardson mere months after filming), After.Life finally careens into incoherency with a frenzied Rosemary’s Baby homage involving animated vines and a coven of witches. Even for an ostensible hallucination, the sequence doesn’t make a lick of sense or connect to anything that precedes or follows. Thankfully, Ricci is fully-clothed in that moment, making future reminders of the scene unlikely.

127 Hours review |REVIEWS - MOVIES| Closing out the London Film Festival is a vertiginous outing from Danny Boyle... The eagerly anticipated follow up to Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire is yet another triumph for director Danny Boyle. The Manchester-born filmmaker has teamed up once more with screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, producer Christian Colson, and composer AS Rahman to create a masterful account of mountain climber Aron Ralston’s epic 127 hour struggle for freedom after his hand was pinned by a displaced boulder in the near-deserted Blue John Canyon in Utah. Mumbai, this is not. It is to Boyle's credit that the hour spent alone with actor James Franco in the narrow crease of rock manages to find plenty of ways to entertain. The main tools at his disposal are music and comedy, both of which are spot on, as well as the judicious use of flashbacks to demonstrate how seemingly insignificant moments in Ralston's life can replay themselves in his desperate attempt to maintain sanity. However, if the bulk of the film rests on the fearless climber’s struggle, the best moment comes in the set-up, when he gives an impromptu guided tour of the canyon to two lost young American women. Suffice to say there is a huge drop involved, and, unless you are used to that kind of thing, your heart is likely to beat a little faster. Boyle will take all the kudos here, but a great deal of the credit ought to be shared with Franco whose warmth, charm and wit are embodied in the sheer emotional investment he gives to his character. This is one of those rare films where most of us will already know the outcome before they step into the cinema. It really doesn't matter, and only serves to demonstrate the art of filmmaking at its supreme best as the incredible events slowly unfold and play out amidst the wondrous backdrop of the canyon. 127 Hours is not a perfect film, but in its unflinching portrayal of 'human versus nature' it allows Boyle to employ all the skills he has learnt over the last thirteen years. Therefore, for posterity's sake as much as your Saturday night's entertainment, this is a film you really ought to watch. IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR SITE, AT NO COST WITH ONE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK 'LIKE' BUTTON BELOW: If you're interested in writing for Shadowlocked (disc and screening reviews, etc, or just getting some extra coverage for your extraordinary writing talent, get in touch with us.

The opposite of love: Safer v. Schnabel on 60 Minutes Marley Safer and David Browning apparently dislike Julian Schnabel. This “60 Minutes” segment from last night tries extremely hard to paint the artist/filmmaker Schnabel in the worst light possible. I gathered two things from these tasteless 12 minutes: first of all, Safer showed up for the interview insufficiently prepared (at least in Schnabel’s mind) and because of this, the two got into a verbal battle of the egos. Secondly, 60 Minutes is barely worth watching these days—a sad fact given that it remains one of the better news programs currently airing on network television. Maybe Schnabel was acting like a pompous ass with Shafer in his home, but as Schnabel’s multiple appearances on Charlie Rose's show attest, he can just as easily come across as a fascinating artist capable of delivering an excellent interview. I know little about Schnabel’s art beyond his films—all three of which stand out as almost mandatory additions to any filmophile’s movie collection. I saw “Basquiat” as a teenager. The picture single-handedly sparked my still active fascination with independent cinema. Schnabel’s latest, “The Diving Bell and Butterfly,” easily makes my top ten list of the greatest movies ever made. If I had watched 60 Minutes last night without having previously seen Schnabel’s films (or his conversations with Charlie Rose) I likely would have never bothered to pick up "Basquiat," "Before Night Falls," or "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

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Hughes the Force: An Interview with Actors Nathaniel Weiss (Simon) and Taylor Treadwell (Leia) by Adam Lamping On January 28th, 2012, Hughes the Force screened for only the third time publicly at the Seattle's LTD. Art Gallery in conjunction with the gallery's all-Star Wars pop art exhibit. Two of the stars of Hughes the Force were in attendance and took a few minutes to chat about the film. AL: So how did you first hear about Hughes the Force? NW: Every day, I go on websites that have job postings for actors, and the one I happened to find his on was L.A. Casting and I was scanning all different kinds of acting jobs and I saw Hughes the Force, submitted my headshot and resume electronically online and I got an email saying we'd love to have you come in for an audition. And I was stoked. You know, most actors, when you come to L.A., you don't know anyone and you don't have any connections. I came here, a brand new babe, fresh from the farms of New England; I didn't know a soul. So you have to start at the bottom, and just go online, and just submit, submit, submit, because I didn't know anybody, and I got really, really lucky, that I happened to be on that website, on that day. Once you saw "Hughes the Force," I was like, "oh man, that sounds cool!" Even the title. So I submitted to it, got an audition, nailed the audition and got a callback. I was really excited and then one fateful night, I got a phone call from J.C. who said we'd love you to do the role, and I was ecstatic. TT: Justin Okin, who plays Henry, he and I are in an acting class together on Monday nights and he said, "hey my friend's doing this Star Wars/John Hughes movie and you should audition for the role of Leia," and I was like, "Really? Me? Leia? OK, I will try, I would love to." And then he said, "I've seen the work that this guy's done and he is an incredible director. He's really passionate and he really dedicates and puts his whole life, blood, brains and guts into everything he does." That really spoke volumes to me and so I thought, yeah, I'll go and audition, and I went and auditioned and somehow I lucked out and got the part. I wore the tightest black outfit I could find and went for it! NW: She really touched on something key, I think. It was the script that hooked me in, but it was J.C.'s passion that kept me. Once he started talking about his vision for the project and ideas about who he wanted to get involved in it, just the way he makes films, by bringing people together who have a common passion, and it's not so much about money or making fame, but just having fun. Making something quality and meeting new people and his passion really inspired me and I was like, wow, if this guy's really as serious about this as he says he is, then I know this is going to be good. I know it's going to be fun and worth my time and I was immediately hooked and ready for the ride, right away. AL: And I guess it's as you imagined, or is it more? NW: Even better. I mean when he first approached me in the callback for the second round of auditions, that was when he started talking to me directly about his idea for the project. He told me it was going to be a five-day shoot, this little idea he had, his grand schemes of getting Kevin Smith and maybe some other people, and I was like, alright dude, sure, whatever! And then everyday I showed up to the set, he would come up to me with news, "oh, so-and-so has heard about it," or "we've gotten in touch with so-and-so and it's getting bigger and the buzz is spreading, and we've gotten James and Catherine on it and maybe we're gonna get Kevin Smith." Every day it just got bigger and we were like, alright, this is becoming important, this is going to be a really big thing. So everyday, the passion, and everything, just grew and got more exciting, so I've been completely overwhelmed and surprised in the best of ways, absolutely. AL: You've pretty much summed it up by what you've been saying Nate, but to the both of you, what really drew you to your particular roles? I mean, Taylor, you were kind of earmarked for one role anyway, but what was the appeal? TT: Well for me, it was just playing something that was so iconic. Actually, it was the combination of two iconic characters that I grew up watching and wanted to be. I told J.C. in the audition, that when I was a little girl, I wanted to be Kelly Le Brock in Weird Science, and I loved that movie growing up. And with Star Wars, it was like, if you were a child of the eighties, then it was as if you were born a Star Wars fan somehow, so stepping into the bikini, both literally and figuratively, was a huge, huge, honor. And also, with these two guys, and everyone else on the film and with the script being so charming and intelligent and smart. I feel very lucky. NW: For me, the thing of the specific role that interested me was, I'm very much like Simon. I spent most of my childhood as a sort of outcast or a nerd. I never had a lot of social confidence, so I can really, really relate to someone who is very passionate about things that they're interested in, but just don't quite know how to talk to girls or feel confident around girls and I just felt that I could relate to the character very, very well, and I was like, I need to play this character and give life to this kind of person that I feel is inside of me and I kind of want to pay homage to this person that I feel like I used to be and still am in some ways. And in terms of the whole project, it was the idea of giving something back to the Star Wars community. I've been a huge fan of the movies my whole life and the idea of it being something where we can actually become a part of the industry and part of the community, by contributing our own art, that is really special to me. It's very rewarding. AL: Again, I'm kind of rehashing some of what has already been said, but you're obviously already familiar with the source material, so I don't think we really need to cover that one, but did you have to do any research for the role or were you so familiar that it was just like second nature to fall into? NW: I didn't have to research, but I did. I watched the Star Wars movies, one more time through, before we started filming, just to get back into the energy and the passion of the project, and then the only thing I did, research-wise, was for every line or reference made in the movie, J.C. sent us a video clip from the actual Star Wars movie it was from, because for a lot of the moments, he wanted us to say it as it was said in the movie, or as close as possible, to make it familiar to all of the fans. So I would watch Harrison Ford saying you know, what was it? AL: Never tell me the odds NW: That's it. Never tell me the odds and I tried to mimic how he said it like that and I just wanted to watch the movies again and get back into the passion of the project. TT: It was a little harder for me because I had to combine the hotness of Kelly Le Brock, with the wisdom of Obi-Wan Kenobi, so you know, it was like a little cool blend of that. But thankfully, these guys are so on top of things that they sent us clips, and like Nate did, I really tried to match it as closely as possible, just so that we could really pay homage. NW: The funny thing is, I saw Weird Science after we'd finished filming. I'd seen Star Wars probably 30 times each film, but I'd never seen Weird Science, whereas Justin, who played Henry, had never seen Star Wars. AL: Yeah, I'd heard that. NW: But he's seen Weird Science right? TT: Yes he has. NW: So we were kind of the opposite; he'd seen Weird Science and I hadn't, so it was fun for me to see it after the fact, to go back and watch Weird Science and say "oh, that's why we did that" and in terms of that, I kind of created my own Simon character, in that way. I didn't want to watch too much of Weird Science, because I didn't want to mimic what he was doing. I knew enough about the Star Wars world to give my own take on that. AL: Has being in the movie given you a greater appreciation for John Hughes movies and for Star Wars? TT: Absolutely, I can't tell you. The Star Wars references now, ring so true to me. Before they were just sort of like a residual effect of my childhood and now, I'm tickled with laughter whenever I see a Star Wars reference, or watching the films or see someone walking down the street with a sort of Star Wars-y t-shirt, that if you're not a Star Wars fan, maybe you wouldn't recognize it, but now that I've been so immersed in it... AL: You've kind of lived it now. TT: Yeah, so every time I see something, I'm always a little joyful, and I have a little secret with that person. NW: What I noticed in watching Hughes the Force several times now is that people don't really make films the way John Hughes made them anymore, and it's a genre that's almost gone from cinema today and it's really sad because John Hughes movies are such great kid/teenage/young-adult feel-good/adventure/coming of age movies, so it was really cool to kind of help bring that back a little bit and just do an homage to him, because so many of his films affected all of us as children. And as far as the Star Wars aspect of it, for me what was really cool was seeing, well, I didn't really know or realize the fandom was so large and so passionate. Coming to screenings like this and Comic-aze and talking to people who had maybe heard of the movie but were really just big fans of Star Wars and not just the movies but comic books and the expanded universe, and the artwork, I never really realized how extensive the fandom was and how passionate, and how really interesting all of the people who were involved in it were, so it was really cool for me to be able to explore this new realm. I was familiar with the films but not the rest of the universe. Delving into a whole new realm for me was really interesting. AL: And that pretty much answers my last question which is, the reception you've had from Star Wars fans. So how have people's responses to the movie been and how have you received that? NW: I think very solid. I think everyone loves the references; I think people recognize that it's more than just a fun movie which we've put out and tried to not copy, but just honor the work of the artists who have gone before us and I've seen nothing but people loving it and I'm really happy about that. TT: And people are excited. Star Wars fans have seen the Star Wars films nine hundred million times and to see it come together in a different way and sort of in a lighter, comedy way with the John Hughes references, I think people really appreciate it in a different form, if you will, and they really respond to it. NW: I think people really identify with the Simon and the Henry characters. To me, I grew up watching Star Wars and John Hughes films as a child, and I think of how you're meant to watch them, I think there's something very, I don't know, the way it touches into your... NW: Yeah, your innocence and your hope for the future and in your passion towards life and it's been very rewarding to be a part of that rebirth. Rebelscum Breast Cancer Awareness Charity Patch Posted By Philip on November 25, 2014: Thanks to everybody that ordered patches. I sent a check for $1,600.00 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation on Monday. While it's not as much as I hoped for, it's still very much appreciated. They will remain for sale in the store for anybody that still wishes to purchase them. Details after the jump.

The Greenfield location of Dr. Dawg, the hot dog, sausage and hamburger shop, opened this morning at 7700 W. Layton Ave. It's the second Milwaukee-area location for the counter-service restaurant; the first is at 6969 N. Port Washington Road in Glendale. »Read Full Blog Post One regrettable, if inevitable, occurrence during a film festival is that films you want to see often play opposite each other. That occurs Sunday at the Milwaukee Film Festival with parallel screenings of "The Act of Killing" (Downer Theatre) and "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me" (Fox-Bay Cinema Grill), both at 8 p.m. "The Act of Killing" is an appalling yet compelling and strangely beautiful documentary in which the Indonesian gangsters and paramilitary group members who killed 1 million Chinese "communists" in 1965 re-create their crimes as surreal movie scenes. »Read Full Blog Post

José Sacristán as Santos in The Dead Man And Being Happy I said to Javier, there is no perversion without innocence. He agreed, "in fairytales you have both, innocence and perversion. They are like silent cinema". Javier Rebollo on the road with Anne-Katrin Titze in New York City Photo: Eric Schnedecker Javier Rebollo: It was great! The audience in New York is great, they are like children. They have an innocence and a passion - the enthusiasts are the progenitors of life. What I meant with my earlier comment was that New York is so fast. Look at you, you were breezing in here [from a teeth-cleaning at my dentist's]. In New York, audiences don't hide themselves that much, they arrive open, with less pride. Compared to a public that goes to see movies and believes to be more intelligent, without giving anything back. When I film, I don't hide anything. AKT: You also don't expose for exposure's sake. Sometimes I wonder, for example, why did Michael Haneke have to expose Emmanuelle Riva's breast in that way [in Amour]. The scene felt spiteful and totally unnecessary. JR: I agree. The Austrian touch. Roberto Rossellini said, the only point of life is tenderness. He lacks that. AKT: I felt a lot of tenderness in Léos Carax's Holy Motors. JR: Léos Carax is a modern cinéaste, as opposed to a classic one. He does not hide that the film is a film. Stanley Donen is a modern filmmaker too, because the dispositif is not hidden. That is the honesty. Artifice is honesty. Raoul Walsh, William Wyler, John Ford, I like them, but they hide the construct. AKT: You don't shy away from using animals in your films. In The Dead Man And Being Happy you use many dogs [and one sleepy cat]. How did you work with them? All the dogs in my film are amateurs AKT: On the road, Santos and Érika (Roxana Blanco), pick up the two hitchhiking girls, one is from South Africa, and drive them to the beach between paradise and apocalypse. JR: I like having people with different languages. A lot of different accents give depth to a movie. Just think of Peter Lorre, or Marlene Dietrich, or Greta Garbo. AKT: In Dead Man, the character of Érika does not want to return home to her family's estate. Once we see the place and the family, it does not look so bad. JR: She is hiding her past. They arrive in Salta - the world she comes from is like the one shown by Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel who is from there. The family is like a sect. And the father is breeding dogs and gets rid of the undesirables. AKT: There are some very funny, absurd moments on the estate, when Santos and Érika are given grandma's room during their visit. And then we see grandma, sitting around, very much alive and present, exiled from her room, as if this were the most natural thing to do. JR: She is 102 years old. She is treated like a piece of furniture. They don't respect her. AKT: Another great absurd exchange occurs in the mountain village, the German colony, when Érika asks Santos, how he recognises them as Nazis. And he responds, "by their walk", after we just saw a very frail old man hobbling around a mini-golf course with a truncated walker. Not exactly the triumph-of-the-will-stride one imagines. JR: I like actors asking questions without getting answers. The history of cinema is a history of walks. From Chaplin to Gary Cooper to Rita Hayworth. AKT: For someone as well-read and immersed in theory as you are, what are the starting points, the kernels of your movies, if you will? JR: Flamenco and jazz. You can't be a slave to the technique. Free yourself. With insecure filmmakers you see the references. When you have too many references, you forget about life. The poet wants to be more important than the poem. AKT: You told me that your next project will have elements of a musical. José Sacristán and Roxana Blanco as Santos and Érika AKT: Hearing you talk, I do imagine scenes out of Powell-Pressburger films. JR: That's good. And you won't know exactly what city you are in. The poverty is universal. The poverty inside the homes is one of terrible loneliness. There will be a scene at the Longchamp Racecourse... AKT: You brought up Jacques Lacan during the press conference. I was thinking about the difference of object of desire and object-cause of desire. The objet petit a [the reason why you desire someone] in your film is Érika's limping. That is why Santos desires her, he doesn't know it, but the voice-over does. JR: Lacan said, things we cannot talk about, they don't exist. In my film Woman Without Piano (2009), the housewife doesn't exist. In Dead Man, the skin is very important. The needles for the morphine are constant penetrations, little deaths… Or death in reverse. AKT: The greatest desire is for the desire to continue. The worst would be for it to end. The melancholic, who has lost all desire, is not a position you offer. JR: The desire never stops. The words are caresses. With The Dead Man And Being Happy, Rebollo reinvents the Road Movie, and takes us on a journey through a rapidly changing Argentina, archiving what is about to disappear. He creates a visual time capsule, where pistols are infected with tumors and history becomes a utopia, where Don Quixote will encounter Twin Peaks.

Beer Wars may sound like just another belligerent night in DC’s Adams Morgan, but it’s actually a fascinating documentary about the ongoing struggles between independent breweries and corporate beer giants. See it at Arlington Cinema ’N’ Drafthouse Thursday at 7:30. $9. A tasting of craft beers is available at an additional cost. The 9:30 Club has launched its own record label, and the venue is hosting a Thursday party for its first release: an EP by Virginia native Justin Jones called The Little Fox. E-mail email@example.com to see him perform bluesy rock that IndieShuffle.com called “refreshingly soulful and genuine.” Doors open at 7. Free. Wish the American constitution a happy 223rd birthday Friday, when the National Archives celebrates the anniversary of the document’s signing. Constitution Day events include birthday cake for the first 223 guests and a screening of The State of the Constitution, which looks at the American public’s understanding of our constitutional rights. Free; click here for exact times and locations. Renowned authors and sisters Ntozake Shange and Ita Bayesa read from their new novel, Some Sing Some Cry, Friday at the National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium. The book follows a family as it moves north from a plantation during post-Civil War reconstruction. 7 PM. If book readings aren’t your thing, hop across the Mall to the Freer & Sackler Galleries’ Meyer Auditorium for this week’s installment of the Paris Asia Film Series, Late Spring. This 1949 Japanese film, directed by Yasujiro Ozu, tells the story of a widowed man and his daughter as they confront the uncertainty of a modernizing world. The film starts at 7; free. Head to Union 206 (206 South Union Street, Alexandria, Va) in Alexandria to see The Maltese Falcon, the classic movie starring Humphrey Bogart as a San Francisco private investigator. Tickets are free, but you must RSVP to firstname.lastname@example.org. Beer, wine, and popcorn are available for purchase, or you can BYOB. Stick around afterward for a discussion of what makes a film a masterpiece. 8 PM. Enjoy the dregs of summer at the last Swim Meet pool party of the year. With barbecue, DJs, and a bar, you’ll forget that it’s already mid-September (yes, really). The party’s at the Hilton Washington Embassy Row from 1 to 9; $10. H Street, Northeast, has changed a lot over the years, and the H Street Festival is a great way to see what this up-and-coming entertainment district has to offer. There’s food, live music, dancing, a pie-eating contest, fashion shows, and loads more. Click here for the full events schedule. H Street between 12th and 14th streets, Northeast; Noon to 6; free. Once again, it’s time for the ever-popular Mousetrap dance party at Black Cat. DJ Mark Zimin starts spinning at 9:30; $10 at the door.

Just got the list of theaters in the country that will be showing Episode II in DLP, and we are one of the lucky few that is. This is the first real confirmation. Here you go: The 19 theaters set to digitally show STAR WARS EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES have been announced. Here, short and sweet, we bring the info to you: They are: Harkins Arrowhead Cinemas 18 in Peoria, Arizona AMC Media Center 6 in Burbank, California Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21 Megaplex in Irvine, California El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, California Loews Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California AMC Mission Valley 20 in San Diego, California AMC 1000 Van Ness in San Francisco, California AMC Pleasure Island 24 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, Illinois AMC Studio 30 in Olathe, Kansas General Cinema Framingham 16 in Framingham, Massachusetts Show Case Cinemas Randolph in Randolph, Massachusetts Edgewater Multiplex Cinemas in Edgewater, New Jersey AMC Empire 25 Theatres in New YorkCity Clearview Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City Loews Cineplex E-Walk in New York City Cinemark at Valley View in Valley View, Ohio Showcase Cinemas Springdale in Springdale, Ohio Cinemark at Legacy in Plano, Texas!!!!!!!!

First Trailer for Asia Argento's 'Misunderstood' Premiering in Cannes Kicking off this week in France is the Cannes Film Festival, with films from Ryan Gosling to Tommy Lee Jones. Another film premiering in the Un Certain Regard category is Asia Argento's latest feature, titled Incompresa, or Misunderstood, a sort of semi-autobiographical story about her own childhood as the daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi. This early trailer still doesn't have English subtitles, but presents a very bold, punk look at growing up. I'm down to see it, and hope it's as good as this looks. It's said to have "nuances of the cinema of Sophia Coppola and Paolo Sorrentino." Take a look below. Here's the first trailer for Asia Argento's Incompresa, or Misunderstood, found via The Film Stage: Incompresa, also known as Misunderstood in English, is co-written and directed by Italian actress Asia Argento, who has directed a few films previously including The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things and Scarlet Diva. Her latest feature is loosely inspired by her childhood as the daughter of the genre maestro Dario Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi, who collaborated on classics such as Suspiria and Inferno before going their separate ways. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays the lead Italian role, based loosely on Nicolodi. The film will play in Cannes before opening in Italy in June this summer. Here's the first poster for the film: Asia Argento's Incompresa will premiere at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard. Curious?

A psychologically distraught woman is committed to a private sanitarium by the man whom she witnessed commit a murder. - IMDB Description Keywords: Film-Noir; Vincent Price; Movie Powder; avi Downloads: 12,658 (2 reviews) |Strange Illusion - Edgar G. Ulmer| "Adolescent believes that his widowed mother's suitor may have murdered his father. Stylish cheapie by the recognized master of stylish cheapies." - noir expert Spencer Selby Keywords: film noir, Ulmer Downloads: 26,246 (8 reviews) |Blonde Ice (1948)| A society reporter keeps herself in the headlines by marrying a series of wealthy men. They all die mysteriously afterwards though. Mystic Nights Videos Keywords: Robert Paige; Leslie Brooks; Russ Vincent; Michael Whalen; Mystic Nights Videos Downloads: 40,171 (10 reviews) An engrossing film noir with Mickey Rooney, Peter Lorre, and Jeanne Cagney. Needing money for a date, Rooney borrows $20 from the cash register, starting a chain of events that includes car theft, burglary, and possibly murder. Read more at the IMDB. (The video is interlaced in both the MPEG2 file and the Cinepack. If viewing with VLC, deinterlace with menu-path Video/Deinterlace/Blend.) This is a better copy than the previous versions that were uploaded... Keywords: suspense; noir; crime; Mickey Rooney; Peter Lorre Downloads: 149,982 (14 reviews) |Escape By Night| You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page. Keywords: drama; crime Downloads: 19,930 (14 reviews) |The Strange Love of Martha Ivers - Lewis Milestone| "Man is waylaid by chance in old home town, meets a girl down on her luck and a turbulent couple with whom he shares a dark childhood secret. Significant noir melodrama focusing on provocative, intermingling relationships of neurotic love, guilt and fear." - noir expert Spencer Selby Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas (his first film), Judith Anderson, Roman Bohnen, Darryl Hickman... Keywords: Martha Ivers, Lewis Milestone, Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas Downloads: 31,372 (18 reviews) |D.O.A. - Leo C. Popkin| D.O.A. (1950) is a film noir drama film directed by Rudolph Maté, considered a classic of the stylistic genre. The frantically-paced plot revolves around a doomed man's quest to find out who has poisoned him – and why – before he dies. The film begins with a scene called "perhaps one of cinema's most innovative opening sequences" by a BBC reviewer. The scene is a long, behind-the-back tracking sequence featuring Frank Bigelow (O'Brien) walking through a hallway into a police station to repo... Keywords: suspense; film noir; pdmovies Downloads: 259,847 (51 reviews)

By Alan Scherstuhl By Amy Nicholson By Charles Taylor By Stephanie Zacharek By Brian Feinzimer By CAROLINA DEL BUSTO By AMY NICHOLSON By Amy Nicholson "I don't mind if you take a shot of me eating," William Friedkin tells the photographer between bites of an avocado sandwich. "People know I do that." Friedkin and I are downing a quick dinner in the green room of West Los Angeles' Skirball Cultural Center, an hour or so before he takes the stage to introduce a screening of the John Huston classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The screening is part of the ongoing series "Cinema's Legacy," in which established directors are invited to present a film that inspired or influenced their own filmmaking careers. When the American Film Institute, which organizes the series, asked me if I would moderate the evening, I happily accepted, knowing full well that Friedkin would be doing most of the talking. Several times over the years, I've seen him discuss his own movies in front of different audiences, and on each occasion he has held them rapt and left them wanting more. On the set, he may be legendarily demanding and difficult — not for nothing did he earn the nickname Hurricane Billy — but give Friedkin a stage and a microphone and he is witty and devilishly charming, a consummate Hollywood storyteller, and as firm a believer as John Ford in the relative value of truth and legend. In a somewhat offbeat pairing, the screening of Sierra Madre is to be preceded by a trailer for Friedkin's own latest film, Bug, which Lionsgate will release the weekend of May 25, just as the third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean sets about plundering the nation's box offices. Not surprisingly, given how much movie fortunes depend on the fickle tastes of teens and 20-somethings with money to burn on a Saturday night, Bug is being marketed as something of a horror picture, "from the director of The Exorcist." And, to an extent, a horror picture it is, albeit one of the psychological rather than satanic variety. Adapted by Tracy Letts from his off-Broadway play of the same title, Bug may best be described as an apocalyptic folie à deux between an abused, down-at-heel bar hostess (Ashley Judd) and the mysterious drifter (Michael Shannon) — possibly a Gulf War deserter — who enters her life and slowly pulls her into his deeply conspiratorial worldview. Set predominately within the confines of a fleabag Oklahoma motel room, it is a movie about paranoia as contagion, in which little of what we see on the screen can be taken for granted. For his part, Friedkin says he has no idea how much of what happens in Bug is "real" and how much is the shared delusion of its central characters. More important, he says, is that the actors "have their own reality and aren't playing a metaphor. One of the things I was very clear about was that they had to believe everything that they did and said." Fortunately, Friedkin chose the right actors for the job. Reprising the role he created for Bug's original London production, Shannon projects an unnerving mixture of all-American innocence and simmering rage, like the boy next door who grows up to become the psycho next door. But it's Judd who makes the biggest impression, as Friedkin taps into a hardness, a desperate quality in the actress that has been left unexplored by her cottage industry of wronged-woman potboilers. "The first thing I look for in an actor is intelligence," Friedkin says. "I don't really care what they have or haven't done before, so long as they're physically right for the part, or can be, and they have the intelligence to dig in and find out who the character is. That's a long-winded way of saying that Ashley is not those characters she plays in the women-in-jeopardy movies. She's just making a living. If you do one thing that's successful in this town, then that's what they want you to do every time out." Directors, of course, can become typecast too. The first time I met Friedkin, the year was 1995 and he was doing publicity for Jade, a silly "erotic thriller" penned by Joe Eszterhas in the era when the studios were paying the writer millions for ideas scribbled on the back of cocktail napkins. It showed. Jade was far from Friedkin's best work, but it did contain one of his great sequences — a perversely slow car chase set in the midst of San Francisco's Chinese New Year parade. I said as much in my review, and a few days after it was published, Friedkin phoned up to say he thought I'd been fair. In the dozen years since, Friedkin has continued to toil on a series of middling Hollywood projects (the best of which, the Tommy Lee Jones–Benicio Del Toro pursuit thriller, The Hunted, shares some of Bug's lean intensity). When he saw Bug during its New York City production at the Barrow Street Theatre, Friedkin knew almost immediately that he wanted to make it into a film, but was equally sure that no studio would go anywhere near it. So he set up the project independently, much as he did early on in his career when another edgy off-Broadway show, Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band, had similarly stoked his creative fire. It seemed only fitting, then, that when the film version of Bug had its world premiere, at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, it was presented not in the festival's tony Official Selection, but rather in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar, which is traditionally seen as a showcase for the work of vanguard younger directors. At 71, it was as if the Young Turk of the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls generation was an enfant terrible all over again. "I frankly am not on the same page with most of the films that are being made by the studios now," Friedkin says. "I certainly can't think of any that I wish I had directed. This is not to degrade these pictures they're making today, like Spider-Man 3. I'm just not seeking them out, nor are they seeking me out." As Bug opens in the U.S., Friedkin will be returning to the Directors' Fortnight for a special revival screening of his most maligned and misunderstood film: 1981's Cruising, starring Al Pacino as a Manhattan detective who goes undercover to investigate a series of unsolved murders in and around the gay leather-bar scene. At the time, Cruising was widely attacked for its supposed homophobia and unflattering depiction of the gay lifestyle. Today, it has been somewhat critically rehabilitated, and if its colored hankies and studded bracelets unavoidably seem like fossils of a bygone cultural era, the movie's unabashed approach to its subject, its jarring narrative ellipses and its enigmatic resolution (or lack thereof) retain their unsettling power. "The film doesn't turn away from the sexuality," says Friedkin, who notes that the Cannes screening will be followed by a theatrical re-release, complete with a new Dolby Digital sound mix, in select U.S. cities this fall. "That means it will still disturb a lot of people on both sides of the issue." He does wish, though, that the studio (Warner Bros.) had been able to find some of the 40 minutes of deleted scenes that he was forced to remove from Cruising 26 years ago at the behest of the MPAA, all of which are now feared missing or destroyed. Most of that footage, Friedkin allows, "did not move the story forward at all. It was me filming in great detail everything that went on in the clubs: I filmed fist fucking, in such a way that it could be used as a manual. Golden showers. All of that." But there is one scene he's particularly sorry not to have been able to restore: An alternate opening in which the movie's two abusive vice cops (including one, later revealed to be a patron of the leather bars himself, played by cult character actor Joe Spinell) engage in a game of "liar's poker." "One cop says to the other, 'Whoever wins gets to beat the other guy on the ass with a billy club,'" recalls Friedkin, who based the scene on an actual incident reported in the New York papers. "So they play it out, and you see that the cop played by Joe Spinell has the winning number, but he claims he has a lower number and the other guy wins. Then Spinell says, 'Okay, you've got to beat me on the ass now.' And the other guy says, 'Yeah, right! Are you out of your fucking mind?' And Spinell says, 'No, a bet's a bet.' So, they get out of the car under this bridge, Joe takes down his pants and leans over the hood of the police car, and the other guy beats him hard while Joe sings 'I'm Going to Kansas City.'" These days, it's a different sort of musical entertainment that occupies much of Friedkin's time. In 1998, at the behest of the conductor Zubin Mehta, Friedkin agreed to direct a production of Alban Berg's atonal opera Wozzeck at Florence's Teatro del Maggio Musicale. He's been actively staging operas ever since, in various cities around the world, including Los Angeles, where his acclaimed double production of Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Puccini's beloved farce Gianni Schicchi premiered in 2002. Of the latter, Friedkin notes that it is actually part of a trilogy of one-act Puccini operas, collectively known as Il Trittico and intended to be performed together over the course of a single evening. Recently, he says, Los Angeles Opera artistic director Placido Domingo proposed the idea of doing just that, with Friedkin directing the two parts he didn't stage the first time around. And as for Gianni Schicchi? None other than Woody Allen will take the reins. "They haven't announced it yet, but we're going to do it in September of 2008," Friedkin says with a sly chuckle. "Now let's see if his is as funny as mine!" Join My Voice Nation for free stuff, film info & more!

Cross Pointe Cinema 6 5075 Morganton Road, No one has favorited this theater yet Located in the Cross Pointe Shopping Center on Morganton Road across the street from the Cross Creek Mall, the Cross Pointe Cinemas opened on May 15, 1987. The cinema was Fayetteville’s second multiplex theatre and the second one to open under General Cinema Theatres as a six-screen cinema with a seating capacity of 1,500. At the time of its opening all auditoriums have state of the art Dolby sound, plush rising seats throughout, expanded concession stand not to mention acres of front door free parking and same day advance ticket purchasing for coming attractions. The opening attractions for the grand opening of the Cross Pointe cinemas were “Lethal Weapon”, “Creepshow:Part II”, “Campus Man”, “Cyclone”, “The Gate” and “Round Midnight”. This theatre under General Cinema and the Cross Creek Mall Cinemas across the street were not helped by the fact that Carmike put up two multiplexes nearby that muscled out the competition. As a result, General Cinema closed this theatre in 2000. It was demolished later on to make way for a Bed Bath and Beyond which was bulit on the site of where the Cross Pointe Cinemas once stood. Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater

Raymond Frederick Harryhausen created one of the earliest successful forms of stop motion animation. He and pioneer Willis O’Brien won an Oscar for their work on the film “Mighty Joe Young.” Harryhausen also created one of the most famous screen swordfights ever between Jason and a group of skeletons in “Jason and the Argonauts.” Harryhausen died today in London at the age of 92. KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis discussed his legacy with two people who were inspired in their careers by Harryhausen. John Landis has directed many films, among them “The Blues Brothers” and “Beverly Hills Cop III,” and Adam Savage is a special effects designer and co-host of the Discovery Channel series “MythBusters” and “Unchained Reaction.” “I cannot – literally cannot – think of anyone who has had such a massive influence on four generations of filmmakers in the movies we see.” – John Landis Harryhausen used a painstaking process of stop-motion filmmaking, often edited in-camera. “A lot of his innovation in cinema was about bringing elements that were animated into a live action movie, so that you forgot they were animated. You just saw Jason fighting a bunch of skeletons,” Savage said. Harryhausen was known for working alone or with a small group of employees to create his sequences. “First of all, it predates everything we’re doing now,” Landis said, “but also, it was one man doing all of this work that now takes an army of technicians.” Director Tim Burton also talked about his admiration for Harryhausen. This was originally recorded for an episode of KCRW’s “The Treatment,” with Elvis Mitchell, on Feb. 5, 2013: Watch the famous skeleton swordfight scene from “Jason and the Argonauts”:

My Name is Khan Film: My Name is Khan Star Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Jimmy Shergill, Soneya Jahan, Zarina Wahab Dialogue: Niranjan Iyengar, Shibani Bathija Screenplay: Shibani Bathija Cinematography: Ravi K Chandran Associate Director: Karan Malhotra Director: Karan Johar Producer: Hiroo Yash Johar, Gauri Khan Duration: 2 hours 40 minutes One more cinema that motivates, moves, inspires and forces you to think. My Name is Khan not only brushes out the history, but also builds up an astonishing vignette with its challenging scenes that lay out a question in front of its audiences and debunk all the myths that have been laid down up till now. “My Name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist” is the kind of message left by the movie to its audiences. The movie is unquestionably one of the meaningful and touching films, being rolled out from the Bollywood reels and its hilariously overfilled and extremely enjoyable performances moving on the drive make the movie a worth watch. My Name is Khan effectively unfurls as a love story with Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan) who grows up with his mother (Zarina Wahab) and younger brother (Jimmy Shergill) in Mumbai and is forced to join him in the US and sell out beauty products, which is their family business. In one of the business meets he meets up Mandira (Kajol), a hairdresser and a single mom. Later on he decides to move in with Mandira and her son Sameer (Yuvaan Makar), in a turn convincing her to marry him. This love story proceeds with a feathery flow until 9/11. Post 9/11, Rizwan and his family have to bear the burden of racial prejudice in a greatly personal way as a result bringing down their bastion. On the whole, the film remains a story of the good man who wishes to live with good people inside a good world. The movie is completely overflowing with scenes that are inspiring, uplifting and tear-jerking. Also, the performances by all the actors are so much inspiring that it seems as though you walk out with the characters and take them home inside your car after the movie. Shahrukh has no doubt given his best act, and Kajol as Mandira is a complete winner throughout the film. There is a scorching kind of simplicity maintained throughout the movie through Karan Johar’s narration and also, choosing a character who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome seems to be a completely planned move on the part of the film maker and has worked up like a masterstroke throughout the movie. Towards the end, My Name is Khan has taken up a difficult task of trying to tell its audiences that tolerance is the crucial asset for the 21st century and it has got no room for the casteists, class and cultural chauvinists, communalists, regionalists and other fundoos that do not let the world rest in peace.

|[Photo by Ashley Meek]| Twelve events sold out during this year's festival, including the Opening Night Gala with "Darling Companion," A Conversation with William H. Macy, "Jeff, Who Lives at Home," "High Ground," "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," "The Lady," "Surviving Progress," "Lucky," "Kumare," Shorts Programs 1 and 2, and the Closing Night Awards Ceremony and screening of "Chasing Ice." "We had another outstanding year and provided our audiences with compelling independent films and left them with issues and themes to think about," said Robin Beeck, BIFF's Executive Director. "The 2012 Festival was a huge success made possible by BIFF's unique combination of celebrities, accomplished filmmakers, cinema lovers, sponsors and volunteers, and we thank them all for their important contributions, without which the festival could not succeed." BIFF 2013 is February 14-17, 2013!

The New Year kicks off with an exciting evening of expanded cinema and live soundtracks, co-hosted by Salon Bruit and LaborBerlin at NK Projekt, Elsenstr. 52, 12059 Berlin. The program features a spectrum of different styles and formats, with musicians improvising to films, films driven by sound, and sound transforming images. Chloe Griffin, Michael Busch Guillaume Cailleau + Jan Slak Christopher Becks + Axel Dörner Doireann O’Malley + Okkyung Lee Sylvia Schedelbauer + Jeff Surak Paul Clipson + Aidan Baker Friday, January 4th Doors 22:00 Performances 22:30 Elsenstr. 52, 12059 Berlin Christopher Becks makes films that circumvent intentionality to reflect (on) the act of seeing. Select screenings include the Centre Pompidou, Austrian Film Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and Toronto International Film Festival. http://www.christopherbecks.com/ Aidan Baker is a Canadian musician & writer alternately based in Toronto & Berlin. A classically trained multi-instrumentalist, his primary instrument is the electric guitar with which he creates music ranging from experimental/drone to ambient post-rock to contemporary classical. In addition to his solo work, Baker also plays with the group projects Nadja, Caudal, and B/B/S/. Baker has released numerous albums on such labels as Important Records, Alien8 Recordings, and Beta-lactam Ring Records. http://www.aidanbaker.org/ A former member of the experimental multi-media theater group LUXUS BERLIN, Michael Busch is a filmmaker and composer who creates music for both cinema and theater. His most recent film-performance DAS ELEKTRISCHE PARADIES premiered at the Berlinale in 2010, selected presentations include the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museo Reina Sophia in Madrid. http://www.buschfilm.de/ Guillaume Cailleau’s work encompasses film, installations, video and performance. He is interested in disclosing things that are just next to obvious, while exploring and exploding the boundaries of the cinematic image; often in collaboration with other filmmakers, musicians, graphic designers, painters, scientists, theater directors, and children. His work has been shown internationally, at Centre Pompidou, Royal Ontario Museum Toronto, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, and at the International Film Festivals in Berlin, New York and Rotterdam, and at the Shortfilm Festival in Oberhausen etc. Paul Clipson often collaborates on films, live performances and installations with sound artists and musicians such as Tarentel, projecting largely improvised in-camera edited experimental films employing multiple exposures, dissolves and macro imagery that bring to light subconscious preoccupations and unexpected visual forms. Paul has shown his films internationally in various galleries, festivals and performance venues. http://www.withinmirrors.org/ Chloé Griffin was born behind a gas station in El Cajon, California, and raised in Canada. She is based in Berlin and has recently lived in Cairo and Beirut. She makes films involving cut-up and hand painting processes and is currently working on a book about the life of Cookie Mueller. Axel Dörner has worked together with numerous internationally respected figures in the fields of “Improvised Music”, “Composed Contemporary Music”, “Jazz” and “Electronic Music”. He has developed a unique style of trumpet playing based in part on unusual, often self-invented techniques. He has toured in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Japan and Asia (Hongkong) and appeared on numerous CD and record releases. Okkyung Lee has been developing her own voice in a contemporary cello performance, improvisation and composition. With her solid classical training as a foundation, she incorporates jazz, sounds, Korean traditional music, and noise with extended techniques to create her unique blend of music. http://okkyung.wordpress.com/ Doireann O’Malley is oringinally from Ireland, she Lives & Works in Berlin. Her work encompasses film, photography, poetry, drawing, found images and sound. Selected upcoming shows include: Triskel Arts Center, Cork, Ireland; Elisa Platteau & Cie Galerie, Brussels; Galerie Parisa Kind, Frankfurt Am Main. Sylvia Schedelbauer’s films negotiate the space between broader historical narratives and personal, psychological realms mainly through poetic manipulations of archival footage. Awards include the Gus Van Sant Award for Best Experimental Film (2012), the German Film Critics’ Award (2008) and the VG BildKunst Award (2007). http://sylviaschedelbauer.com/ Jan Slak, drummer, student at Drum Academy Berlin, plays with punk rock bands, studies jazz and performs with multimedia artists. Jeff Surak operates in the netherworld between composed and improvised music, moving between musique concrete, drone, noise, & free improvisation using whatever sound implements at hand. Surak runs the Zeromoon label and directs the annual Sonic Circuits Festival in Washington DC. http://violet.zeromoon.com/ Salon Bruit is an open platform for international artists of various backgrounds who experiment with sound, art, music and noise in unconventional ways. Activities include concerts, performances, independent radio projects, creative workshops and exhibitions in Berlin and other European cities. http://salonbruit.org/ LaborBerlin is a non-profit, independent film collective, open to everyone interested in artist-run initiatives. Focussing on analogue film practice, which embraces a hands-on D.I.Y. approach to experimental film production. http://laborberlin.wordpress.com/

For the moment, step 1 is going out more often. My strategy so far: going to the cinema as it's summer and a lot of fun films are released Last week was 'Men In Black III 3D'. Fun, but Tommy Lee Jones look very much older in it, I do not know if they have aggravated the signs of age in the movie, or in the contrary have stopped using make up and touch up that are usually used on pictures or TV! Today was 'The Amazing Spiderman 3D' - visually very impressive, 3D worked REALLY well, and the actor is really cute - as in adorable, puppy cute, you can believe he's 17 (even if he's actually one year older than me!). I'd liked ' Spiderman' but I'd say the characters in this year's version are more realistic, and Emma Stone is far less irritating as the love interest than Kirsten Dunst was Next movie will be 'Ice Age 4'!

FILM FRENZY: 48-Hour Projects To Be Screened In just 48 hours, teams from across Iowa wrote, filmed and edited 50 short films. Fleur Cinema will showcase the films Wednesday and Thursday night at 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. 50 teams drew random genres Friday and then handed in their films Sunday evening. This is the 9th annual 48-hour film project in Des Moines. One film will win the Best of City award, $1,000 and a chance to screen at the Cannes Film Festival. Des Moines is one of 135 cities worldwide to compete.

Edinburgh practice completes £1.4million ‘invisible’ house [FIRST LOOK + PLANS + DATA] Taylor Architecture Practice (TAP) has completed this £1.4million house in Edinburgh The 520m2 three-storey house by the Edinburgh-based firm is set into the hillside overlooking the Water of Leith. ‘Invisible’ from the street, the five-bedroom house is accessed through a gate in a traditional stone boundary wall which opens out onto a courtyard. The timber-framed house includesfive bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, open plan living, kitchen dining spaces, a study, a home cinema and a gym and sauna. Located in a conservation area, the plot previously had planning for a large neo-Victorian villa, the architects and the client – who lived next door – negotiated with the planners to get a contemporary scheme through on the site. The architect’s view ‘Set into the steep hillside above the Water of Leith we have built a new three storey, five bedroom house that, from the street, is all but invisible. Passing through a gate in a traditional stone boundary wall you enter a courtyard, then through a door to unexpectedly find yourself at the top of a three storey light-well with expansive views over Colinton Dell and the Pentland Hills. ‘A central stair zig-zags between landings, connecting the top floor entrance, living spaces in the middle and the bedrooms at the bottom. Cut-backs, terraces and rooflights create a variety of bright internal spaces whilst minimising overlooking to and from the taller, neighbouring houses. The stepped, terraced form also allows the interior to have level access to the external spaces on each floor, following the reconfigured topography of the site.’ Location Edinburgh, Scotland Type of project private house Client Stewart Clark Structural engineer McColl Associates Quantity surveyor Morham and Brotchie Limited Main contractor Clark Douglas Developments Civil engineer Colorado group Tender date mid 2011 Start on site date March 2012 Completion date April 2014 Contract duration 24 months Gross internal floor area 520m² Form of contract and/or procurement Traditional, JCT Total cost £1.4million Annual predicted CO2 emissions 13kg/m²/year Predicted primary energy demand 94.78 kWh/m²/year

Video Vortex number 10. Site, details, etc. Istanbul, October 2014. Softcopy is a material change to writing, perhaps the most significant material change to writing since the rise of popular literacy and the printing press in western Europe. The specificity of this change matters, for what I’m particularly interested in is the implications of this for writing largely because for humanities academic research it is surely the possible changes for how we write that has the most significant implications for us as scholars. Writing, to repeat a refrain that appears to run my work much like the hook in a pop song, is the site of my research as a practice. It is where the complexity, density, and messiness of ideas and thought and the world happen and are negotiated. As a non-fiction writer (for this is what academic writing is) and a critical theorist I recognise that the traditional academic essay, the sorts of things we normally write and publish (and for that matter read) are as formulaic as those science papers we sometimes mock, and apart from the odd pun and sometimes playful alliteration, a lot of effort is expended (well perhaps not) to tame our writing and thinking so that thought becomes singular and well composed, which in many instances simply means it deports itself in ways that lets it, as writing, stay polite, and calm, and, well, utterly domesticated. We tame or let thought become subdued in our writing as the clamour of ideas–in–themselves get politely sent to, on a good day, a footnote, even in writing that argues for and advocates some sort of multiplicity or other acentred view of some content area. Humanities academic writing in our traditional but oh so very usual way is then, as in the sciences, a reporting upon what has been found, of what we already know, and in this domestication, which is a mix of the self policing of an academic milieu and the hegemonic reification of the a particular notion of the rational that print (Ong, Stafford) instantiates, we reduce the complex to the simple (even where we use long words and innumerable clauses). Such a writing, and its form, is intrinsically teleological. To this extent what I’m almost parodying as the canonical humanities academic essay shares this quality with classical realist fiction, in both literature and cinema, for here, too a ‘good’ story is one that simultaneously presents the illusion that it could really have been, and also that how it ends and its means of arrival are inevitable, ‘natural’, and rationally understandable. Stories, whether fiction or nonfiction, do not have to do this. That they do this is a consequence of the linear finitude of their material substrates, to wit because there is a last page, because there is a last frame, they have to end. Because they have to end the ending becomes a problem (much like beginnings). Congratulations to now Dr. Seth Keen on his PhD which I co supervised. It is available at http://www.sethkeen.net/blog/2014/09/23/seth-keen-phd/ and describes the idea of the ‘documentary designer’ for interactive doco practice. Abstract for an essay that is underway: Much writing on online video uses a media and cinema studies tradition that relies upon a tripartite separation of critical theoretical frameworks that considers either audiences, institutions, or the texts themselves. In the specific case of critical writing on online video these three broad models have remained largely untroubled, epistemologically, as they have been used to examine online video. As a consequence much scholarly attention in regard to online video has looked to the ways in which it challenges, disrupts, or reconfirms what has already been said about cinema and TV more broadly. This is unfortunate, as these traditional approaches risk missing the specificity of digital video including its engagment with the formal properties of the World Wide Web. Networked digital video has a material thickness and obdurate recalcitrance that is neutered when the digital is treated as immaterial and virtual, or merely as an avatar of earlier media. This essay will develop a series of propositions for a poetics of networked video. It will begin with Deleuze’s concept of the ‘minor’ as something that makes a major language ‘stutter’. Networked video will then be seen as a stuttering media in itself that, in turn, also makes traditional institutional forms of cinema and TV stutter. This stuttering of network video will be literally and figuratively described, much as Latour’s actor–network theory advocates, to critically articulate the things that networked digital video can do. This descriptive method evades the acculturation of online video to existing theoretical frameworks. It wil not account for what happens through the lens of audiences, institutions or the texts in themselves. Such description allows us to approach digital networked video in the manner advocated by recent scholarship in speculative realism (for instance Ian Bogost’s work) and materialist media studies (Jussi Parikka) and will eschew the correlationist impulse to elevate story and narrative as an explanatory deity. The terms of a poetics of minor video are that networked video no longer has ownership of the screen, as has been the historical case with film and TV. The screen is now personal, owned and controlled by its user, and subject to local and minor affective action. Hardware, software, and an economy of codecs and protocols aligns to network characteristics of an algorithmic making, while glitch, compression artefacts, interruption and pause are features (and not bugs) of a network specific practice that, as in lo–fi music, offers its own aesthetic autonomy. In relation to TV and cinema’s traditional literal occupation of time, digital video offers new paradigms for cinematic duration and, finally, cinema’s immanent granularity — it’s ability to be cut and rejoined through editing — shifts from a historical subservience to narrative toward other, machinic, associative, poetic, and relational ends. WordPress 4.0 now has improved media embedding. It relies on the oEmbed protocol that lets a site ask for media content from another site and for the correct HTML to be delivered. I don’t know if oEmbed works for video stored already in a WordPress install (it can talk to wordpress.tv so presumably?) and if it can then it also means embedding video becomes elegantly trivial… Once upon a time to embed video I would make a single frame poster movie, embed that using a lot of embed code, including the URL that the poster needed to link to, and so on. Ah, the good old days. From an abstract I am currently working on: This essay will develop a series of improvisational propositions for a preliminary poetics of online video. It begins from Deleuze’s concept of the ‘minor’. The minor will be understood as something that makes a major language ‘stutter’, and so is both a stuttering media in itself, and in turn makes traditional institutional forms of cinema and TV also stutter. Considered as minor, stuttering online video is not only digital but can be claimed as a network specific media form and practice. This stuttering will be literally and figuratively considered and is evident when we describe, much like Latour’s actor–network theory advocates, the existing things that networks and videos can do. Such description evades the acculturation of online video to existing theoretical frameworks that seek to account for what happens through the lens of audiences, institutions or the texts in themselves. This description also allows us to approach digital networked video in the manner advocated by recent scholarship in speculative realism (for instance Ian Bogost’s work) and materialist media studies (Jussi Parikka is exemplary here) as it eschews the correlationist impulse that elevates story and narrative to an equivalence with light in a vacuum for physics. This looks like a very useful two volume collection. “The Emergence of Video Processing Tools Television Becoming Unglued“. A lot of material, no idea how good, but the general approach is good.

(aka 'Lady Hamilton') One of cinema’s most dashing duos, real-life spouses Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier live their greatest on-screen romance in this visually dazzling tragic love story from legendary producer-director Alexander Korda. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars of the late eighteenth century, That Hamilton Woman is a gripping account of the scandalous adulterous affair between the British Royal Navy officer Lord Horatio Nelson and the renowned beauty Emma, Lady Hamilton, the wife of a British ambassador. With its grandly designed sea battles and formidable star performances, That Hamilton Woman (Winston Churchill’s favorite movie, which he claimed to have seen over eighty times) brings history to vivid, glamorous life. Theatrical Release: April 3rd, 1941 DVD Review: Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC |DVD Box Cover|| CLICK to order from: |Distribution||Criterion Collection - Spine #487 - Region 1 - NTSC| Average Bitrate: 6.80 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |Audio||English (Dolby Digital 1.0)| commentary featuring noted film historian Ian Christie NOTE: There is a bare-bones Region 4 (Australia) DVD of That Hamilton Woman already released but I don't have access to it for comparison purposes. The 1.33, progressive, Criterion transfer is pictureboxed (see our full description of 'pictureboxing' in our Kind Hearts and Coronets review). NOTE The Criterion captures below have been put in their own table to show the amount of pictureboxing (black bars circumventing the edge). Where this may benefit systems that produce overscan (ex. production cathode ray tubes) - the lesser resolution detracts from systems that do not requite it (ex. HTPC). There are plenty of vertical light scratches, that after the digital restoration, appear just beneath the surface of the image. It's not particularly detailed and doesn't export Criterion's usual level of contrast although the latter attribute is certainly acceptable. We can only suspect that any weaknesses are inherent in the source and as much was done as possible for SD. On the positive, the image is consistent and certainly watchable. Audio is about as imperfect as the image quality with some consistent, but light, hiss. The mono track is only capable of doing so much with the wonderful Miklos Rozsa score. It's important to remember this film is 68-years old now - the track reinforces that realization. There are optional English subtitles. Supplements are typically Criterion-strong. British film historian Ian Christie gives a great commentary - professional and loaded with information from bio minutia to intriguing production factoids. Alexander Korda Presents, contains a 15-minute group of 1941 promotional radio pieces for the film featuring excerpts from the film and commentary from the set. We get a 35-minute interview with author and editor Michael Korda, Alexander’s nephew, who discusses growing up in the Korda family and the making of That Hamilton Woman. There is a theatrical trailer and an 18-page liner notes booklet featuring an essay by film critic Molly Haskell. This is a wonderfully romantic period-piece - especially for those keen on older, historically-based, cinema but I find the Criterion price quite high for those who may only have a passing interest in vintage film. The commentary alone is worthy for fans of Olivier and Leigh. Especially the latter as a vehicle showcasing her star-quality which is strongly displayed by this Korda effort (although, some may say, wasn't everything). Those who do decide to indulge will, most likely, be vey satisfied at seeing the film and it's two stars in such strong roles. The bountiful supplements are very much worth accessing as well.

"Fabulous" is how the neon lights welcoming the 33 million visitors a year describe Las Vegas. The city is experiencing spectacular growth. Its population has increased by 50% over the past 10 years. Recent developments in the world capital of entertainment, with its 1.3m inhabitants, have given an unprecedented boost to job creation. It was by chance that in 1829,explorer Rafael Rivera came across an oasis in the vast Nevada desert that he called Las Vegas ("the Meadows"). Over the next few decades, the region was a stopping-off point for pioneers prospecting for silver and also provided a refuge for Mormons (1). In the late 19th century, this youthful city was spared the fate of the region’s ghost towns when it was included on the railway link between America’s east and west coasts. Las Vegas owes its reputation as “sin city” to the state of Nevada’s relaxed laws on gaming, prostitution and divorce. Back in 1931, when prohibition was still in force in puritan America, gambling was legalised there. Brothels operate freely in 13 of the state’s 17 counties (2). The availability of quickie divorces has also made Las Vegas the capital of marriage and divorce on demand. In one or other of the 250 “wedding chapels” (including some drive-in chapels where you can get hitched without even getting out of your car), a minister, witnesses, musicians and even - a house speciality - Elvis impersonators are always on hand. On average, there is a wedding every five minutes and a divorce every 45. Modern Las Vegas was born when gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel built the Flamingo hotel in 1946 (3). Controlled by the Mob and immortalised by Hollywood, the town became a legend and the byword for American glamour, the setting for the shows and the escapades of stars like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. From the 1960s, anxious to improve its reputation, Nevada declared war on the Mob. In a famous incident, the gaming board refused to allow Sinatra, suspected of links with the underworld, to become a casino owner. Other investors - particularly the Hilton hotel chain and eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes - arrived in force. But, though weakened, the Mob was far from finished. In fact, Oscar Goodman, who became mayor of Las Vegas last year, made his career and fortune acting as lawyer for mobster “families”. Since its start Las Vegas has assiduously cultivated the image of an uncompromising far west populated by tough pioneers, but it also owes its prosperity to the United States government. The construction of the neighbouring Hoover Dam, one of the most spectacular projects of the New Deal era, brought far-reaching changes to the American southwest. Taming the waters of the Colorado River made it possible to prevent Las Vegas from drying up, both physically and financially. Lake Mead, created as part of the project, is the country’s largest artificial lake feeding the enormous fountains, swimming pools and other water features that abound in the Nevada desert. This vast and sparsely populated state is also generously endowed by the US defence department. Outside the city, the military has a presence extending from Nellis Air Force base to the vast nuclear weapon testing zones and including the mysterious “area 51” to which there is no public access and which fires the imaginations of fans of the “X Files”. Even Las Vegas international airport - in terms of passenger numbers, the 13th largest in the world and the seventh largest in the US - was built in 1926 to meet military needs. A generous helping of mythology From the late 1970s the quasi-monopoly Las Vegas had enjoyed in the gaming industry began to erode. In 1978 Atlantic City, in New Jersey, authorised gambling. Ten years later, a federal law allowed casinos to be built on Indian reservations. Those developments compounded the effects of the 1979-82 recession, and Las Vegas decided it was time to diversify. In 1984 the city managed to persuade Citibank, the country’s largest financial institution banking, to set up one of its principal data-processing centres in Las Vegas. It required an amendment to the law to enable banks with their headquarters in other American states to set up subsidiaries there. And to avoid worrying its customers, the bank, which employs 1,700 people in the city, secured agreement that its postal address would not mention steamy Las Vegas but rather the idyllic The Lakes, Nevada. Other companies also set up their data-processing or customer service centres in Las Vegas. There are many advantages to be gained from setting up in Nevada: absence of taxes, an easy-going atmosphere, an abundant workforce, the low cost of living and above all the 24/7 mentality (4). In a city that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, employees tend to be very flexible. In a city that never sleeps and where there are no clocks, people do not object to working nights or overtime. Few companies ever shut, and employees are mainly categorised by their working hours: the daytime shift (from midday to 8 p.m.), the swing shift (from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.) and the graveyard shift (from 4 a.m. to midday). A new era dawned on 22 November 1989 when the huge Mirage Hotel (with over 3,000 rooms) - the first hotel-casino to be opened in 14 years - opened its doors. Promoter Steve Wynn’s gamble, financed by junk bonds issued by his associate Michael Milken, proved to be a winner. Wynn’s philosophy was this: Las Vegas needed to offer all kinds of entertainment, no longer restricted to adults only but catering for families, and the hotels needed to provide all kinds of attractions and services in order to encourage their customers to spend the bulk of their time there (5). Another innovative feature was a volcano at the hotel entrance, designed to captivate kids of all ages as it erupted every half-hour. Over the next 10 years the Strip, the city’s five kilometre-long main street, was transformed as other mega theme hotels copied the Mirage formula. We have the Mandalay Bay (3,300 rooms) designed to recreate a tropical paradise with its lagoon, wave pool and sandy beach; the ancient Egyptian Luxor (4,427 rooms); the imposing MGM Grand (5,005 rooms) allegedly the world’s largest hotel and the Paris-Las Vegas (2,916 rooms and 295 suites) - neon city’s tribute to the city of light. In all of them, the big hotel chains have managed to distil history and geography with a generous helping of mythology thrown in for good measure. The Paris-Las Vegas (cost $790m) opened last September and offers quintessential France as rewritten by Hollywood. The hotel’s 4,000 employees (called "citizens" as in the good old days of the French Revolution) have a limited French vocabulary: bonjour is thrown in at any opportunity. The more adventurous even manage something like a comment ça va?. Policemen in kepis, accordion-players and purveyors of French loaves perched on red tricycles strut their stuff under an artificial grey sky. Signs direct the clientele to “le car rental” or “les show tickets”. But the “genuine” reproductions are impressive: a half-size Eiffel Tower 164 metres high (with a view of Las Vegas from the top), two tiers of the Arc de Triomphe, the Paris Town Hall, the Opera, the Alexander III bridge and so on. In a just few hours then, and without leaving Las Vegas, you can visit the court of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, stroll around a Roman Forum, “do” Paris, New York or Monte Carlo or take a trip on a gondola along Venice’s Grand Canal, rowed by a singing gondolier sporting red scarf, smock and straw boater. Circus acts, thrill rides and entertainments of all kinds are included in the programme. In the evening, the options include a battle between Merlin the Magician and a dragon, a naval battle, a pirate raid on a ship, scenes from the realms of science fiction and a whole lot more. The scale, the variety and the riot of special effects have made Las Vegas the world capital of entertainment once more. This new look has been accompanied by a huge attempt to clean up a city that nonetheless continues to be tainted by an odour of sin. You have to go to downtown Las Vegas to rediscover the old atmosphere of a sassy city that still looks like the setting for the gold rush. The Las Vegas of the locals meantime is down-at-heel and plagued by social problems such as suicide and alcoholism - tourists simply do not go there (6). But people are still moving into the city, particularly since the extra 50,000 hotel rooms it has acquired in the past 10 years has turned Las Vegas into the undisputed capital for major exhibitions and conferences. Comdex (the microprocessor fair) and the Consumer Electronics Show take place there every year, filling the city’s hotels. Though there has been economic diversification, gambling in all its forms is still the main revenue-earner. Each of the 33 million visitors a year leaves an average of $500 on the gaming tables. Hotels and casinos compete with each other in thinking up ways to relieve visitors of their savings. The slot machines (known as one-armed bandits) are omnipresent, except in schools and hospitals. And from airport to petrol station, it is important to foster the illusion that everyone could be a big winner. Switch on the TV in your hotel room and there is a television channel to explain the basics of the many games on offer - black jack (or 21), roulette, dice, baccarat, keno and so on - painting an alluring picture of the fortunes there for the winning. The casinos take bets on all sporting events. Getting to the restaurant, theatre or cinema always involves passing through the gaming rooms. But America is a litigious country, and the casinos take precautions to avoid being accused of causing ruin. Like alcohol or tobacco advertising, the publicity for any particular game contains a barely legible statement to the effect that excessive gambling can be harmful. And whenever cash is drawn, the ticket issued by ATMs (automated teller machines) invites “compulsive gamblers” to see a psychiatrist. It comes as no surprise that such a peculiar economy has its own rules. In the kingdom of the phoney, artificial prices hold sway. The more than reasonable prices charged by the hotels, restaurants and attractions are designed to attract customers. The real profits come from the gaming tables. One of the most frequently heard expressions is “comp”, short for “complimentary”: as in the days of the Mob, some customers get free meals and accommodation. As soon as they start spending enough, alcohol is on the house. This has the twofold benefit of keeping gamblers at the tables and clouding their judgement. Small-time players are bombarded with small discounts and “special offers”, but the high rollers who can prove their solvency are the focus of attention. The gifts they are offered (drinks, meals, free rooms or suites and trips) are commensurate with their probable losses. The suckers with the big wallets get VIP treatment: hostesses to take care of them and special lounges that are off limits to common mortals. Moreover, the dealers and other staffers are always attentive, not to say obsequious because, in a city in which the majority of workers get the minimum wage, they live on their tips. Outside the hotel-casinos, Las Vegas has the permanent air of a vast building site. Renovation, face-lifts and new buildings are always on the agenda. Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” is transformed into reality here. Relatively recent hotels that form part and parcel of the show business mythology are pulled down without a second thought and replaced by others that are bigger, more luxurious and better attuned to the mood of the times. Thus, the Bellagio has replaced the Dunes, the Venetian the Sands and the Mandalay Bay the Hacienda. Indeed, in a world where “event marketing” never lets an opportunity slip, demolishing big hotels actually provides a magnificent firework display that attracts tourists of its own. Steve Wynn’s most recent hotel is the jewel in the crown of the career of a man who was the most powerful man in Las Vegas, but it also marks the beginning of the end of his empire. The Bellagio, named after the Italian village on the edge of Lake Como, cost $1.6bn and currently employs 8,000 people. The hotel marks a new stage in the development of the theme hotel-casinos: no neon signs, no children and the epitome of luxury. The restaurants and shops are the most elegant on the Strip. In quintessential Las Vegas style, an “art gallery” advertisement reads: “Now appearing: Van Gogh, Monet, Cézanne and Picasso”. Twelve dollars gets you into the single room that houses Wynn’s private museum. But the Wynn empire is collapsing under the weight of debt, and the main shareholders in the Mirage Resorts company have accused him of misuse of company assets and bad management. A few months back, Wynn had to resign as president and sell his shares to the giant MGM. A big stock market battle is under way.

If Wreck-It Ralph signified the movie industry finally settling up with its biggest competitor, the more lucrative world of video games, then this is an even more ironic reconciling of debts: a film that attempts to steal money back from the toy industry. Since the 1960s, films have merchandised themselves with plastic objects. The idea was that kids could carry the movie world into their own imaginative play, be it through mini James Bond Aston Martins or little Chewbacca figurines. What’s hilarious and subversive about this film, though, is that it yanks the imaginative world of a popular (and expensive) toy around with the power of cinema, turning private child’s play into a shared dream in a dark theater. It’s satiric, sure, but everybody’s making money off of it at the same time. It stands to be mentioned that The Lego Movie works hard to stay as subversively funny as critics claim. There’s tons of fun in gently ribbing pop-culture figures like Batman, Superman, and in the movie’s best animated moment, a visit from the Millennium Falcon. The plot, which pits Emmet, an everyman construction Lego, against a super-villain named Lord Business (oh, the ironies are endless) expands into another kind of gently self-deprecating satire. In complicated ways, the movie takes apart the cliché about heroes being both normal and special, and all of it dissolves into a funny musical number called “Everything Is Awesome.” But it’s best not to know too much plot. Trust me. The nature of Lego is the creation of lands, environments, and worlds, and the true strength of this wacky movie is the way it keeps breaking walls and entering new dimensions. Suffice it to say, this is one of those rare films in which every aspect of the medium — computer 3-D animation that seems to be made of plastic bits — seems perfectly suited to the messages being delivered. Maybe it’s not quite as moving as Wreck-It Ralph, but almost everything else about it is awesome. For showtimes, check the Independent's movie listings, here.

|Current mood:|| happy| As much as I love the money that my job brings me, I've had some lovely days with Lauren that makes it worth it. Just things like going to Yo Sushi, and Pizza Express, and we saw Bride Wars at the cinema (and new Underworld out soon, yay!) and some nice shopping trips (my new purple Marc Jacobs bag is my joint favourite bag). We have concerts, trip to London and holiday to look forward to, aswell as beckys birthday in leeds. I'm hoping that because my working week is now split into two, and I have lots of nice things in between, it will make working 45hrs a week easier. And pretty new car is coming soon!

Festival season is in full swing, from North America to the Middle East. The fifth annual Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF) in Canada is currently running and on until Sunday. Programmer Dania Majid tells us how TPFF began, explains why Palestinians need to tell their own stories and predicts which filmmakers are about to enjoy the spotlight. DFI: How did TPFF begin? Dania: In 2008, a group of people held a discussion on how to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba in Toronto. Screenings of films on Palestine had been well-attended, so it was decided that a week-long festival featuring films about the Nakba and Palestinians in Palestine and diaspora would be a great away to tell rarely heard stories. There was a vacuum in Toronto around Palestinian and Arab arts and culture. DFI: Everyone who puts on the Festival, including you, is a volunteer. What does it take to put it on? Dania: There are around 10 committee members each year. Each is responsible for a core area like programming, promotions, volunteers, theatre and ticketing logistics, special events and fundraising. We meet once a week and have a great dynamic. This is how we’re able to put TPFF on with such limited resources. DFI: What’s different about this year? Dania: This is our most ambitious Festival. We’re hosting Marcel Khalife and the Al Mayadine Ensemble on closing night. Khalife is paying homage to the late Mahmoud Darwish by performing his poems in song. DFI: How many films do you usually screen? Dania: Approximately 25. Many are Canadian and North American premieres. We’ve screened critically acclaimed films including ‘Salt of this Sea’ and ‘Slingshot Hip Hop’, and lesser known films from up and coming directors such as ‘Arafat & I’. DFI: Why is Palestinian cinema important? Dania: As filmmaking technology becomes more accessible, a greater number of Palestinians are using film to tell their stories to a broader audience. While they might not be able to cross international borders, their stories in film can travel around the world. There are many great films about Palestine made by non-Palestinians, but it is very important that Palestinians access filmmaking to tell their own stories in their own voice. DFI: What are the challenges? Dania: Most Palestinian filmmakers are independent so it’s difficult for them to secure funds. There may be pressure from foreign funders to change their stories and make them more ‘western-friendly’. For projects filmed in Palestine, there is the added complication of navigating the occupation. Once shooting is over, there are added costs: post-production, trying to find a distributor and finding festivals to screen the film. Without a national film industry, many Palestinian filmmakers are forced to navigate this complicated process on their own and rely on outside sources for assistance. DFI: Who have you got your eye on as the next big thing? Dania: At Toronto International Film Festival this year, two great Palestinian filmmakers attended their world premieres – Annemarie Jacir and Mahdi Fleifel (‘A World Not Ours’). I expect great things from these filmmakers with these films and future projects. We’re pleased that others that have screened at past TPFFs are completing films too, including Cherien Dabis with ‘May in the Summer’. DFI: What are the Festival’s greatest achievements? Dania: In our first year, Suheir Hammad came to represent ‘Salt of this Sea’ in the first year, and Danny Glover came to the screening. Jackie Salloum closed with her amazing ‘Slingshot Hip Hop’. Both were premieres and enjoyed sold-out screenings. In our second year, Michel Khleifi, a founding father of Palestinian cinema, attended with the Canadian premiere of ‘Zindeeq’. We’ve also held several panels with great filmmakers including Ken Loach, Paul Laverty, and Ossama Bawardi. DFI: Complete this sentence. The most important people for TPFF are… Dania: …the audience. Without them it would just be empty rooms with films playing.

Jackpot - Magnus Martens interview (exclusive) Interview by Rob Carnevale NORWEGIAN director Magnus Martens talks about some of the challenges of making Jackpot and why he enjoyed working with Jo Nesbo and paying homage to the Coen brothers. He also discusses the recent success of Norwegian cinema, studying at the London Film School and his forthcoming television series, which is based on a popular Icelandic show and film. Q. What was the biggest challenge of making Jackpot, given how much it twists and turns? I’d image finding the right tone was one of them? Magnus Martens: Definitely! It was really hard trying to find the balance between what was funny, what was creepy and the crime element of it. It wasn’t as hard while writing but it was quite tricky while shooting, especially when it came to doing the comedy because it can be so easy to get carried away when doing the jokes. When you’re doing more serious things, you have to stay a little bit more focused. The even harder part, though, was during the editing and trying to find the balance again based on what footage you had. So, basically that was more about throwing away jokes and making it less funny. It was also kind of hard being a story that’s told retrospectively because everything had to fit all the way through to the ending. And we shot two or three different endings, so they all had to resonate. Q. How did you choose which ending to go with? Did you find yourself ever second-guessing yourself? Magnus Martens: We did test screenings, basically. Obviously, there is also a gut feeling as well. But the different endings were more about how clear the ending should be regarding what had happened in the film and who was guilty and who was not. I had a coupe that were even clearer and also one that was very open. But this ending, I think, is satisfying because some people think they understand everything that happened and others don’t have a clue… and I like that about it [laughs]. Q. How was working with Jo Nesbo? Magnus Martens: Very good. He basically let me do more or less what I wanted to do with the story. But he was there all the time in the shadows and he helped me and offered suggestions and gave some tips and ideas. He also has a cruel sense of comedy, which I think fitted very well with my sense of humour. I think he just wanted to make sure that everything felt like a Jo Nesbo story but beyond that I could do what I wanted. Q. Were you a fan of his prior to working with him? Magnus Martens: To be honest, I hadn’t read that many of his books! Whereas, most other people in Norway had read almost everything he’d done by that point. But I think perhaps that was good in a way because in order to make the film I needed to make the material feel like it was mine. So, it was good to have a certain distance. Q. And while it does retain a lot of Jo Nesbo elements, it’s also deliberately evocative of other films, such as the work of the Coen brothers. Is that fair to say? Magnus Martens: Absolutely! That was very deliberate. There are a couple of homages to the Coens in there and I’m not ashamed to say that at all [laughs]. They have been such a big influence on what I do and what I regard as funny and good characters and funny characters. Basically, they have forged my taste as a filmmaker. I’m a big fan of all their work. In fact, I’m probably one of the few people who really, really like Burn After Reading, which I think perhaps people don’t find that funny. I think it’s great. Q. I love it too… I mean the ‘scene’ between Brad Pitt and George Clooney is genius! Magnus Martens: Right [laughs]. Q. Is there perhaps elements of Guy Ritchie in Jackpot too? Magnus Martens: Well, obviously, he has done something really good and great and correct but, to be honest, I’m not his biggest fan. But the comparisons come from the nature of the criminals in Jackpot, and their appearance and the way they have that same kind of sensibility. The pacing and speed of the movie is also similar to works of his such as Snatch… as well as the use of these ‘stupid’ criminals. In fact, when we did test screenings, we asked people what kind of genre they thought the film was and a lot of people said ‘action comedy’. We never treated it that way, but if you look on IMDB then Snatch is also regarded as an action comedy and that’s basically because of the kind of characters and the pacing of it. It feels like action. But if you look at Snatch, there’s not that much action. It’s people moving fast and talking fast… a lot like Jackpot. Q. Of the cast members on Jackpot, you’ve previously worked with Henrik Mestad, who plays the police inspector, on United. Did that help to create a nice short-hand? Magnus Martens: Well, I knew he was very good at doing deadpan, quirky comedy. He’s a very serious actor normally. I think when I was doing United with him that was his first really comedic role. But his sensibility is such that he treats comedic roles the same way he does serious roles. He spends a lot of time finding the character. In this case, it was so important for him to find the right coat for the detective [laughs]! We spent ages trying to get the right coat for him. It was also very important for him to have a very small earring, which I don’t think you can even see in the film! We tried so many different rings. But he’s a very methodical actor and he has exceptionally good timing, which when it come to doing comedy is crucial. Q. Talk about your main character, Oscar. Would you describe him as a hero? Magnus Martens: [Smiles] Yes and no. As long as you trust him, he is the hero. It was a hard role for Kyrre Hellum to play and it was a hard role to write. But I absolutely regard him as a hero because the story is told through him. Obviously, we did try to play with the notion of having moments where we absolutely trust him and moments where we’re more unsure of whether he telling the truth or not. But that’s part of the fun. Q. And the dynamic between Kyrre and Henrik had a Usual Suspects kind of vibe about it… Magnus Martens: Those comparisons were kind of inevitable because of the way we use the interview and retrospectively let the story unfold through the viewpoint of Oscar. So, I knew that people might say, ‘it’s The Usual Suspects all over again’. But I just put that film away from my mind and tried to do things own way. I just tried to forget about Keyser Soze! Q. Would you like to see Jackpot re-made for an American audience? Magnus Martens: I would probably go and watch it but I would not have anything to do with it. It would be interesting to see what people would do with it. The premise of the story is pretty clear and it’s obviously a story that could go in so many directions. So, from that point of view it would be interesting to see what someone did with it. Q. Would you like to make a film in America? Magnus Martens: Absolutely! I was born and raised on American films… and British ones. There are some things cooking at the moment but I’m taking it slowly and seeing what happens. Q. Isn’t it true that you studied at the London Film School? How come? Magnus Martens: Yeah, I was at the London Film School in the ‘90s, basically because it was so easy to get into that school [laughs]. We didn’t have a film school in Norway at that point and the funding system was quite difficult for Norwegian films at that time. Whereas the London Film School was private at the time, so I think they let anybody in who had money… and we had money from the government [laughs]. I’m still paying it back [laughs again]. But it was frustrating at times because not everybody really wanted to work in films… some of the students just seemed to feel it was cool to study film and weren’t that serious. But I learned a lot about how things work while being there and, also, being there meant being part of the London scene and watching endless hours of films. So, it was a good time for me. Q. You’ve just completed making a new television series with Troll Hunter’s leading man, Otto Jesperson. Can you talk about that? Magnus Martens: It’s called Nattskiftet and it’s based on an Icelandic series which was hugely popular there. I think it went on for three seasons and was also made into a feature. The Icelandic do have a really strange sense of humour, so we had to re-write everything from scratch more or less. In fact, it became so popular over there that when the film came out it sold more tickets than Avatar. The series is about three people who are working at a petrol station at night, where nothing happens. But then a lot of things happen. It’s very quirky and very dark and sometimes a bit cruel. I have no idea how this will be received in Norway when it comes out. But I like it! Q. Norwegian cinema is having a boom period based on the success of films like Troll Hunter and Headhunters – s this something you’ve noticed and does it make it easier to get films made and seen by wider audiences? Magnus Martens: Yeah, Scandinavian cinema in general has had a lot of attention lately because of the films of Stieg Larsson and the likes of Headhunters and Troll Hunter, so I think we’re very lucky with the timing of this film. I feel there is a bigger following of Scandinavian films now, which is fantastic – and not only crime films…. we do make quite good films from time to time despite having a small film industry. Whereas in the past we might have been known for more personal films, the success of films like Headhunters has made it easier to finance more genre films and that, in turn, makes Norwegian cinema more accessible to audiences abroad. So, it’s a great time for us. Jackpot is released in UK cinemas on Friday, August 10, 2012

A year ago today a young man I knew became another statistic. One of the 16 cyclists killed on London's roads last year. Two-thirds of which were (like him) killed by HGVs. The majority of these deaths (like his) happened after large vehicles turned across the cyclist's path. Dan Cox was 28-years old, a magnetic ball of energy whose potential was enormous. He had been working on a show with the artist Andy Holden at the time of his death and had recently curated a show at my gallery. Dr Simon Sullivan, his tutor at Goldsmiths said: "Dan was without doubt the most intellectually gifted student I have taught at Goldsmiths... Dan was also able to communicate with clarity, generosity and a kind of joie de vivre the difficult ideas the rest of us were grappling with." The driver of the HGV that collided with Dan has since been charged with an offence related to not having a required mirror (one of the near-side wing mirrors was missing). Dan Cox came to work part time as an intern at our gallery. I didn't know Dan very well at all at the time of his death. We'd had lots of conversations and shared hundreds of ideas and discussed art, cinema and food (a lot), but nothing really too personal. Apart from having an incredible intellect he was also hysterically funny. A few days before he died we had gone to see a show at the Tate and talked over future projects we could work on together at the gallery. He was always so excited and I loved bouncing ideas off him. We never made it to the show (Gaugin I think) as we stayed in the café talking about numerous ideas. If there is one person I have met in my life who had potential, it was him. Within minutes of meeting him I just knew I wanted to work with him. Within weeks of hiring him I asked him to work as a curator on a show we had coming up. And within months of knowing him, he was dead. The artist Daisy Delaney and I went to his funeral. She didn't know him well either, and I think we both felt a bit as if we were gatecrashing, but we just felt we had to show how much our gallery loved him and missed him. So many artists, filmmakers and general creatives at our gallery had a brief but shining piece of Dan and we wanted say thank you. The funeral was packed to the rafters with his close friends and family and probably some people like Daisy and I, who knew him only briefly. If a funeral could be described as 'perfect' then this one was. Dan had so many friends whose lives had been better because he was in it, for however short his life was. I was knocked off my bike for the third time over 20 years ago and I haven't cycled in London since. I figured no amount of protection can protect you against stupid drivers. But is it really too much to ask that London lorry drivers are forced by law to have some form of cycle-awareness training? That cycle-awareness becomes part of the driving test? Dan's 'ghost bike' was placed where he was killed at Dalston junction. If you live near there you can't miss it as it's always covered in flowers, garlands and Christmas lights. It's five minutes from where I live and whenever I drive past, which is most days, I think of that funny little guy who was just adored by so many people. I never really noticed ghost bikes before, like much of London, everything eventually just blends in. But now when I see one, I think of all the people who must have loved that anonymous person who has become yet another statistic. Today, his mum, Christine Cox will be setting off at 4.30pm from 54 Lower Clapton Road, and be joined by friends of Dan, as well as other wellwishers. The group expect to arrive at Dalston Junction at 5pm, where they'll stop to pay their respects at the ghost bike put there in memory of Dan.Then they'll continue to Camden, expecting to reach the Edinburgh Castle pub (where Dan worked) towards 7:30pm. As Christine says: "If we could get lots of cyclists to join in too perhaps that would help draw attention to the needless loss of life on our roads and in particular to the senseless loss of our beautiful boy." Andy Holden's wonderful show 'The Dan Cox Library for the Unfinished Concept of Thingly Time' opens on 17 February at Cubitt gallery. I saw it last year in Cambridge and apart from being a great show, it is a fitting tribute to Dan. The London Cycling Campaign 'No More Lethal Lorries' appeal aims to reduce road danger to cyclists. You can find out more or donate here. Follow James Payne on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PAYNESHURVELL

WBAB / WBLI COMMERCIAL The borough offers various opportunities to treat Mom to a great time for her big day and impress her with your ability find top-notch entertainment and no or low cost. Here’s the rundown. May 9, The Cinema of Immigration, 2 pm. Part of a 10-week series exploring the immigrant experience in the U.S., the Queens Museum of Art presents Anna, a 1987 film directed by Yurek Bogayevicz. Sally Kirkland gives an Oscar-nominated performance as a middle-aged Czech actress who was a star in her native country, but struggles to survive in NYC. Mark Ethan, an Actors Studio member who has been presenting this series since 1998, introduces the movie and leads a discussion afterwards. Free.QMA, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, www.queensmuseum.org, 718.592.9700. May 9, New York Polish Film Festival, 7 pm. The Museum of the Moving Image presents a new digital restoration of master director Andrzej Wajda’s 1975 masterpiece Promised Land and the acclaimed new feature You Are God. $12/$9 children, MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria/LIC, www.nypff.com, 718.777.6888 May 10, Queens Symphony Orchestra, 7:30 pm. QSO pairs Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony with Manuel de Falla’s El Amo Brujo. A Spaniard, de Falla takes a fiery look at love, flamenco style. Free. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., Flushing, www.queenssymphony.org, 718.570.0909. May 10, Let’s Get Bizzee: A Carl Clay Film, 6:30 pm. The original movie about community and politics that launched the careers of Lisa Nicole Carson and Doug E. Fresh. Shot in Southeast Queens, this film began the call for youth to get involved in the political process. Afterward, State Senator James Sanders Jr. and the Black Spectrum Theatre will host a debate: Attack on Black Leaders, Corruption or Conspiracy? $5. BST, Roy Wilkins Park, 177th Street and Baisley Boulevard, Jamaica, www.blackspectrum.com. May 10, Dreamgirls, 7 pm (May 11 at 2 pm and 7 pm; May 12 at 3 pm) The York College Performing Arts Center presents a musical about a young female singing trio from Chicago that gets their big break at an amateur competition. $20-$10. YCPAC, 94-45 Guy R. Brewer Blvd., Jamaica, www.york.cuny.edu May 11, Carol Sudhalter and the Astoria Big Band: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Big Nick Nicholas, 7 pm. Saxophonist/flautist Carol Sudhalter, founder and director of the Astoria Big Band, has been awarded two grants to produce a concert tribute to three jazz legends from Queens. Free. Sunnyside Reformed Church, 48-03 Skillman Ave., Sunnyside, firstname.lastname@example.org, 917.667.5331. May 11, Kite Flight, 11 am. Build, decorate, and fly kites, and kick off the annual kite festival. Event includes a free kite-making workshop with artist Miguel Luciano, outdoor yoga and Tai Chi. Free. Socrates Sculpture Garden 32-05 Vernon Blvd., LIC, 718.956.1819. May 11, Jamaica Drum Jam presents Just Jammin’, 2 pm. Take a musical journey of cultural rhythms from around the world. Join in the fun, play along with small hand-held percussion instruments, or just clap your hands to the rhythms. Free. Queens Central Library, 89-11 Merrick Blvd., Jamaica,www.queenslibrary.org, 718.990.0778. May 11, Ragtime (1981), 1 pm. Saturday afternoon at the movies with Greater Astoria Historical Society, popcorn and hot chocolate. GAHS, 35-20 Broadway, Astoria/LIC, www.astorialic.org, 718.278.0700. May 11, Black Spectrum Book Fair, 2 pm to 5 pm. Blackcurrant Press Company and Black Spectrum Theatre present a second annual book fair featuring authors Cheryl Wills (Die Free), Tonya Pinkins (Get Over Yourself), Cathleen Williams (Singer Mother The New Father) and Beverly Burchett (Queen Kinni). Free. Roy Wilkins Park, 177th Street & Baisley Boulevard, Jamaica, www.blackspectrum.com. May 11, Hands-On History: A Garden for Mary, noon. The King family loved agriculture and gardening. Join King Manor staffers as they plant the vegetable garden. Make your own compostable flowerpot and plant seeds in it to take home and grow your own flowers or vegetables. Free. King Manor Museum, Rufus King Park, Jamaica, www.kingmanor.org, 718.206.0545. May 12, Queens of Queens LGBT Comedy Show, 8 pm. In the headline spot is straight-but sassy Michelle Buteau. Also springing onto the stage are Chris Doucette, winner of Chicago’s Snubfest Comedy Festival; Sheba Mason, who takes after her famous father, Jackie; Jami Smith, Gaysayer Tweeter for The Advocate Magazine; and Tarik Daniels, Gaylarious2 in Washington DC. As always, host Adam Sank (NBC’s Last Comic Standing) keeps the show moving gaily forward. $15 with two-item minimum, Laughing Devil Comedy Club, 47-38 Vernon Blvd., LIC, www.laughingdevil.com, 347.913.3845. May 12, Growing and Aging Talk and Tea Reading, 1 pm. The Voelker Orth Museum offers a reading-and-discussion series in partnership with the New York Council for the Humanities. VOM provides the tea, the setting, reading materials and an engaging facilitator. Participants contribute to the discussion. The texts include poetry, essays and a novel that explore questions about entering middle age, growing older, caring for aged loved ones, and finding satisfaction in later stages of life. $5 suggested donation. VOM, 149-19 38th Ave., Flushing, www.vomuseum.org, 718.359.6227. May 13, Professor Discusses Jews in Post-WWII Germany, 1:30 pm.Nearly 70 years after the Holocaust, a Jewish community has been re-established in Germany. Professor Roland Dollinger, who grew up in Germany and is now an associate professor of German at Sarah Lawrence College, will discuss the reemergence of Jewish communities in the country. $6 suggested donation. Central Queens Y, 67-09 108th St., Forest Hills, www.cqy.org, 7182.68.5011. May 14, Queens Taste 2013, 6 pm. Join roughly 800 others at the borough’s best food/networking event. About 45 food and drink purveyors offer samples of their products for free in a festive atmosphere full of Queens residents and business people. Attendees receive a special ticket offer from the Mets. $125. Caesars Club at Citi Field, 123-01 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing, www.queensny.org, 718.263.0546. May 14, Comedy Festival, 8 pm. The Laughing Devil Comedy Club launches a six-day festival featuring comedians from around the world competing for cash and prizes, along with some hilarious celebrity guests. $20 on day of your choice. LDCC, 47-38 Vernon Blvd., LIC, www.laughingdevil.com, 347.913.3845. The “It’s In Queens” column is produced by the Queens Tourism Council with the hope that readers will enjoy the borough’s wonderful attractions.

Undoubtedly one of most significant DVD releases in recent years in the early and silent cinema field was Flicker Alley’s Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913). Issued in 2008, this 5-DVD set features 173 titles made by the premier filmmaking genius of the early cinema period. It brought together material from collections around the world in as near comprehensive a form as possible, turning what had previously would have taken half a lifetime for just a handful of dedicated researchers to see into something available to all. The set contained revelations for everyone, whether early cinema expert or those stumbling upon these visionary films of magic for the first. The Bioscope produced a review with full listing of all of the titles, including Star-Film catalogue number (the name of Méliès’ film company), the original French title and English title on the discs. The set was extensive, but it was not complete. More Méliès films were known to be out there, and now Flicker Alley has just announced Georges Méliès Encore, a single disc follow-up which adds a further 26 titles produced by the Frenchman between 1896-1911, plus two titles by his Spanish contemporary Segundo de Chomón done in the Méliès style which have long been is taken for his work. That latter offering sounds a bit odd (let’s instead see a comprehensive DVD dedicated to the supremely artistic work of de Chomón alone one day, please), but the chance to take things that much closer to the complete extant archive is a cause for rejoicing. The production description available on Amazon.com gives these English titles: The Haunted Castle from 1896 relies on shot-substitution, the filmmaker’s first trick discovery; it is a work in 21 shots at a time when everyone else in the world was making only single-shot films! An Hallucinated Alchemist is a beautifully-colored trick film from 1897, which survives in perfect condition. Among other surprises, the set includes military re-enactments (The Last Cartridges, Sea Fighting in Greece), dream films (The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship, Under the Seas), dramatic narratives (The Wandering Jew and The Christmas Angel, both with original narrations), slapstick comedies (How Bridget’s Lover Escaped, The King and the Jester, The Cook’s Secret), and, of course, a substantial group of the lovely trick films on which rest Méliès modern reputation. Flicker Alley has now (updated information, 27 January) provided a full title listing on its website, from which the Bioscope has produced this listing (which corrects some slips): 15 – Défense d’afficher / Post no Bills 78-80 – Le manoir du diable / The Haunted Castle 95 – L’hallucination de l’alchimiste / An Hallucinated Alchemist [Note: this is a misidentification – see comments] 100 – Sur les Toits / On the Roofs 105 – Les Dernières cartouches [Flicker Alley call this Bombardement d’une maison] / The Last Cartridges 110 – Combat naval en Grèce / Sea Fighting in Greece 359 – L’omnibus des toqués ou Blancs et Noirs / Off to Bloomingdale Asylum 392-393 – l’oeuf du sorcier / The Prolific Egg 397 – Éruption volcanique à la Martinique / Eruption of Mount Pele 430-443 – Les aventures de Robinson Crusoé (fragment) / Robinson Crusoe 472 – La flamme merveilleuse / Mystical Flame, The 545 – Un peu de feu s.v.p. (fragment) / Every Man His Own Cigar Lighter 662-664 – Le juif errant / The Wandering Jew 669-677 – Détresse et charité / The Christmas Angel 550-551 – Les apparitions fugitives / Fugitive Apparitions 662-664 – Le juif errant / Wandering Jew, The 669-677 – Détresse et charité / Christmas Angel, The 693-695 – Le baquet de Mesmer / A Mesmerian Experiment 750-752 – L’île de Calypso / The Mysterious Island 786-788 – Le dirigeable fantastique ou le cauchemar d’un inventeur / The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship 888-905 – Robert Macaire et Bertrand, les rois des cambrioleurs / Robert Macaire and Bertrand 912-924 – Deux cent milles sous les mers ou le cauchemar du pêcheur / Under the seas 929-933 – Le mariage de Victorine / How Bridget’s Lover Escaped 1010-1013 – Satan en prison / 1040-1043 – François 1er et Triboulet / The King and the Jester 1476-1485 – Hydrothérapie fantastique / The Doctor’s Secret 1530-1533 – Le papillon fantastique (fragment) / The spider and the butterfly The three Pathé titles are Le vitrail diabolique / The Diabolical Church Window (1911) Les roses magiques / Magic Roses (1906) Excursion dans la lune / Excursion to the Moon (1908) So, where (and what is) The Cook’s Secret? Georges Méliès Encore is released on 16 February 2010, price $19.95.

Wild Target will get a limited release in NYC and LA on October 29th. I’ve added new official trailer of Emily Blunt in ‘Wild Target’ movie. Video has been uploaded & screen captures have been added to the gallery. Wild Target is what you get when you combine British deadpan, a hitman with a conscience, Ron Weasley, a con artist on the run, mobsters, a lot of shooting, and the world of artistic forgery. In other words, something real funny. Bill Nighy (Valkyrie) plays hitman Victor Maynard who’s sent to kill a con-lady played by Emily Blunt (The Wolfman) after she ripped off a mobster. Instead of making the kill though, he finds himself drawn to his mark and wants to protect her rather than putting two in the back of her head. Before you know it they’ve hit Rupert Grint (Harry Potter) with a car, and the three are on the run from the mob.It looks like director Jonathan Lynn (The Fighting Temptations) has taken an unlikely trio and put them together to form a fairly adept comedy team. Nighy looks the part of a slightly over the hill hitman looking for a little redemption (or even a dose of playing the father figure) and Grint brings just a hint of Ronald Weasley’s nervous doofus side to the role of a wannabe killer. Blunt appears more than capable of playing the girl who just doesn’t quite get the trouble she’s made. Oh and in case you didn’t know already, from the trailer you’ll learn that Rembrandt is, in fact, dead. - (x069) Wild Target: Screen Captures > Trailer I have uploaded 3 new stills of Emily in ‘Wild Target‘ to the gallery. – Wild Target: Stills London-based sales company Protagonist Pictures has taken international rights to Magic Light Pictures’ feature comedy Wild Target, directed by Jonathan Lynn. It will have it first marketing screening at AFM. Pre-sales have already been signed for France (Other Angle/Studio 37), Portugal (Valentim), Middle East (Phars) and CIS & Baltic (MGN Paradise). Entertainment Film Distributors will release the film in the UK. Cinetic are handling North American rights. Wild Target stars Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Rupert Grint and Rupert Everett. The screenplay has been adapted by Lucinda Coxon, based on Pierre Salvadori’s French hitCible Émouvante. It is produced by Martin Pope and Michael Rose of Magic Light Pictures. Blunt plays Rose, a beautiful, quick-witted con-artist, who makes money selling fake paintings. When she scams an art loving gangster (Rupert Everett), he sets Europe’s most efficient and expensive assassin (Nighy) on her tail. Protagonist Pictures will be handling sales rights for the world outside North America. The film is a CinemaNX and Isle of Man Film Presentation, in association with Entertainment Film Distributors, of a Magic Light Pictures production with Matador Pictures and Cinema Four in association with Regent Capital. I have uploaded two new stills of Emily in Wild Target, thanks to Ki from Cherry-bomb.org. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival this year and signed with Vue Entertainment to distribute it. Also, the Wild Target soundtrack is officially complete. The score is put together by the british composer Michael Price, who has also done scores for movies such as “Children of Men” and “The Lord of the Rings”. On the soundtrack, it also includes a song by Irish rockabilly singer Imelda May. She recently mentioned on her myspace that the movie was expected to come out this SEPTEMBER! – Wild Target: Stills - Wild Target: Stills I’ve uploaded new filming photos of Emily on location filming Wild Target with Bill Nighy on September 30, 2008. Enjoy! - Wild Target: Filming – September 30, 2008

The legendary New York City video cinema and dining experience is open in Denver for a until June 1st . The audience sits inside a giant cube of four 24-foot screens. Denver marks the first city outside of New York in an expected three year national and international tour. Capacity is limited to 32 per seating, so book your tickets soon.February 27 - June 1, 2014 Two seatings each night: 6pm and 8:30pm All remaining seatings are SOLD OUT , EXCEPT, we released tickets for a 10:45pm seating on Sunday, June 1st. We will make room for 60 additional people to bring blankets and pillows to "picnic" inside and (mostly) outside the cube and watch the "bonus" screening. We will be serving Sangria and edibles. Tickets for the 10:45pm "floor/picnic" seating - includes plenty of Sangria and ediblesPurchase here . (They will not last.) Our "original" video program continues on Tuesdays and Thursdays through Saturday in May . It is the same program that screened in March and April. It features 17 artists , including: Shana Moulton, Takeshi Murata, Peter Burr, Kelly Monico, Will Rahilly, Laleh Mehran, Johanna Billing, Jeremy Couillard, Agnes Bolt, Quintin Gonzalez, Theo Angell, Milton Melvin Croissant III, Jonathan Monaghan, Chris Coleman, Alex McLeod, Phil Solomon, and Montgomery Knott For Wednesdays and Sundays in May , we are screening an entirely new program that includes a 30-artist exquisite corpse video work for Psychic TV's seminal 1983 album Dreams Less Sweet , plus a hand-drawn animation by Portland artist Lori D, a 4-channel roller skating film by Sarah Friedland, the conclusion to Montgomery Knott's The Waxwing Slain and other artists; as well as the scheduled weekly performances. Monkey Town 4 has partnered with The Populist and City O City/WaterCourse Foods and Noble Swine , who have created tasting menus with wine pairings (including vegan/vegetarian/gluten free options). Menus will change slightly over the course of each month.

Think about it. Walt Disney's unique theme park is based upon the animated and live action films of Disney Studios, some of the most popular motion pictures of all time. As the Disney people see it, Disneyland is just one giant "show," where the customers get to mingle with the performers "on stage." Disneyland has a unique viewpoint of the park and its employees, complete with its own language, which you could call "Disney-speak." According to the company philosophy, Disneyland is not just an amusement park, it is a "show" that takes place "onstage" in what amounts to a series of three-dimensional movie-style sets, called "lands." Those who help put on this "show" aren't called "employees," they are called "cast members," who "audition for roles," and wear "costumes" instead of uniforms. Visitors to the park are the "audience," and the public sections of the park where these "guests" stroll are considered "on stage" by the "cast members" (as opposed to the "backstage" areas, which are off-limits to the "guests"). Many people tend to think of Universal Studios Hollywood as a Hollywood-themed "movie park," and Disneyland as a more generic theme park. But the truth is that Disneyland was letting people "ride the movies" long before Universal got into the act. It was, in reality, the first theme park built around the motion picture experience. We sometimes forget just how many of the attractions at Disneyland are based on Walt's classic films, beginning with the tiny Main Street Cinema, where you can watch the original 1928, black & white cartoon of "Steamboat Willie," the first cartoon with a sound track (made shortly after "The Jazz Singer"), and the movie that first put Disney on the map. The Tarzan Treehouse actually started out as the Swiss Family Treehouse in Adventureland is a copy of the elaborate treetop dwelling portrayed in Disney's 1960 adventure film "Swiss Family Robinson." It was re-themed in 1999 to match their more recent animated film, "Tarzan." Right next door is the Indiana Jones adventure, based on "Raiders of the Lost Ark." And those Jungle Cruise boats nearby owe more than a little to "The African Queen" for inspiration. In Frontierland, both the Mike Fink Keel Boats and the Davy Crockett canoes are borrowed from Disney's hit TV series "Davy Crockett." In Tomorrowland, two of the attractions actually were movie theatres: the 360-degree Circlevision Theatre, and "The Magic Eye Theatre" with its 3-D Michael Jackson movie, "Captain Eo." (The recent renovation of Tomorrowland has eliminated CircleVision, but Captain Eo has been replaced by another 3-D movie: "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.") Nearby, Star Tours is based on the popular "Star Wars" series of movies; the robots R2D2 & CP3O welcome you aboard the ride - which is more or less a movie itself (with a ride simulator). Inside the Sleeping Beauty Castle you can view colorful dioramas straight out of that 1959 animated musical. And now there's Toontown. Toontown was inspired by the 1988 film, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?," and it is simply one giant, loony Hollywood set - a wacky animated movie come to life, in all its vibrant colors, crazy sounds, and wild shapes. This is where the stars of the 'toons live. Here your kids can visit the homes of Mickey Mouse and Minnie, climb aboard Donald Duck's houseboat, or ride Roger Rabbit's "Car-Toon Spin." You can even visit Mickey, the actor, in his backyard movie studio, replete with props from old Disney movies lying about, and a director decked out like DeMille. Even the attractions that aren't directly based on a particular Disney movie have their roots in Hollywood storytelling. "Pirates of the Caribbean," for instance, harkens back to such Disney classics as "Treasure Island" ; the submarine ride is more than a bit reminiscent of "20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea." The universal movie themes of jungle adventure, cowboys & Indians, and futuristic sci-fi epics round out the mix of Hollywood legends celebrated here. Disneyland was the first theme park to apply movie-making methods to its rides. Previous amusement parks simply offered basic thrill rides, such as roller coasters and carousels. Walt attempted to re-create the movie experience, in effect to put the ride-goer into the middle of a movie set. Take "Pirates of the Caribbean," for instance. To develop this ride, Disney brought in his team of veteran movie-makers and plotted out the entire adventure, much as you would write a script for a movie. Ride-goers sail into a scene straight out of every well-known pirate movie, on a boat that passes between two pirate galleons as they blast cannonballs at one another - except that these pirates are three-dimensional animatronic figures and not just projected images up on a screen. In short, Disneyland was the first "movie park." And recently, Disney has reversed the process. They have begun making movies inspired by the rides at Disneyland, including "The Country Bears," "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The Haunted Mansion". Ironically, most so-called experts predicted that Disneyland would be a failure. The amusement park professionals of the time told Disney he couldn't charge admission, that the rides were too expensive, and that he had to sell beer to make a profit. Well, Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, and just seven weeks later the one millionth visitor passed through the Disneyland turnstiles. Ten years later, it was 50 million. Now, almost 400 million people have visited the Magic Kingdom. And if you want to see stars, Mickey Mouse is as big a star as Clark Gable ever was. In fact, the famous mouse holds the Guinness world record for the most fan mail ever received by a star! So if you or your kids want to see your favorite Toon stars up close & personal, this is the only place where your kids can shake hands with Donald Duck, pose with Cinderella, or watch Tinkerbell fly through the night time sky. The best place for the kids to actually meet and shake hands (or hugs) with the Disney characters is in Main Street's Town Square (in front of the Mad Hatter shop) when you first enter Disneyland. Second best is Toontown, where they can meet Mickey up-close in his home (but be prepared for a long wait in line). They can even get the stars' autographs. But the Hollywood spectacle at Disneyland isn't limited to the rides or costumed characters. There are also movie-themed shows. And what shows! Fantasyland Theatre (near the entrance to Toontown) has presented live, musical, on-stage versions of 1990's "Dick Tracy," 1991's "Beauty and the Beast," and 1995's "Pocahontas," with spectacular results. The "Beauty and the Beast" musical was so good, in fact, that a revised version of the show later opened on Broadway and became a smash hit! More recently, they staged a rousing musical version of "Hunchback of Notre Dame" ("Festival of Fools") at the former Big Thunder Ranch. The late Main Street Electrical Parade featured a host of Disney toon stars ablaze in millions of sparkling lights, and the annual Christmas Parade showcases similar characters in a winter holiday setting. In between are such movie-related parades as "The Lion King Celebration," last summer's "Hercules" parade and current "Mulan" parade. The incredible "Fantasmic" show (on the Rivers of America, in Frontierland) brings together just about every major Disney character, in a eye-popping blend of music, fireworks, fountains, lasers, giant flowers, live performers, and holographic projections on special water-mist screens. It's a spectacular show that pits Mickey in a magic contest against infamous Disney villains (such as the demon from "Fantasia" and the fire-breathing dragon from "Sleeping Beauty"). It's a show to end all shows. So, when's the best time to visit the park? Crowds can range from 10,000 on rainy Winter weekdays to 70,000 on hot August weekends. To avoid the crowds, don't come in mid-Summer, or during a holiday weekend. (The worst crowds of all are on July 4th and New Years Eve!) My suggestion is to visit on a weekday in late May or early June, when the summer season has just barely started. The weather will be Spring-like, the crowds will still be relatively light, lines may be short, but most of the Special summer attractions will be in full swing. Or better yet, come at Christmas time. For a Christmas visit, come in the weeks before Christmas, for a wonderful, uncrowded time, with lots of special holiday events. (Avoid the week after Christmas, when the park is always very crowded.) (Also see the page about the many Hollywood stars who have visited Disneyland.) see the page about Disney's California Adventure, right next door.) Admission Price (as of May 2014): (for one-day passports) price includes free concerts, parades & shows. Prices keep going up, so phone ahead to check on the current cost of a admission. Disneyland usually offers discounted admission to California residents during the winter season.) Hours: Open daily, 365 days a year. Hours vary with season. Phone for exact hours. During the main summer tourist season, the park is usually open daily from 8 AM to Getting there: Disneyland is located in the city of Anaheim, at the northwest corner of Harbor Boulevard and Katella Boulevard. / From the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, take the Harbor Boulevard exit. Follow the signs south on Harbor to the Disneyland gate, then turn right (west) into the park. / Alternatively, from the Garden Grove (22) Freeway, take the Harbor Boulevard exit, then drive north up Harbor about 3 miles and turn left (west) at the Disneyland gate (just past Katella Boulevard). Looking for something in particular? Search the Seeing-Stars website! [Note: Double-underlined GREEN links are advertisements from IntelliTXT.] Click Here to Return to the Main Menu Advertise on seeing-stars.com Copyright © 2014-Gary Wayne All Rights Reserved This webpage is not associated with any business described in the article above, and does not constitute an endorsement of this or any other business. The photos of celebrities on this page also do not constitute endorsements by them of any kind, and are used by the author solely to illustrate this online article. (Click here to read other disclaimers)

Manufaktura in Lodz has become home for a Cinema City. It is a Multiplex with 15 regular screens and one IMAX Theater. Visitors will be able to see the newest movie releases. A wide range of presented movies will allow everyone to choose something to their own taste. View Lodz's Cinema City and Imax Theater guide > - Updated by

THIS year marks the 25th birthday of the hugely-popular Alliance Française Film Festival in Australia and Emmanuelle Denavit, director for the third time, exudes excitement at the many celebratory features. For one thing, the festival will now have a patron in the form of French-born Julia Zemiro of “Rockwiz” fame, whose mother, it turns out, has a long-time involvement with the Alliance Française.Bearing in mind the “terrific response” from Australian audiences over the years, this year Denavit handed over the choice of the closing film to them, with online voting resulting in the selection of Jacques Tati’s “Mon Oncle”. Chic cocktail events are planned both for that and for the Canberra opening night selection, “The Finishers”, a heart-warming film about a disabled triathlon contender. This year they will break their own conventions by staging a retro-tribute to the seminal director François Truffaut, who died in 1984, with “Finally, Sunday!”, “Jules and Jim” and “The 400 Blows”. Three documentaries from French Polynesia will head up that increasingly important part of the event, including “Jacques Brel, The Home Stretch”. As well, three short films by up-and-coming star directors will showcase the finesse of the national French film school, La Fémis. There are 46 films in the festival and Canberra will get all of them. In a mighty coup, “The Finishers” will be released in Australia even before it hits Parisian cinemas and “Folies Bergère”, featuring Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Michael Nyqvist, will have its world premiere in Australia.Children’s films will be “even stronger than ever… when you start early, you keep going to the cinema,” Denavit tells “CityNews”, saying there will also be education kits and a schools’ program. “Kiddies’ corner” films for 2014 are “Billy and Buddy”, starring a red-coated cocker spaniel; “Belle et Sébastien”, featuring another lovable dog; “Kirikou and the Men and Women”, a popular animation about the Senegalese crusader, Kirikou, and the poignant “My Mommy is in America and She Met Buffalo Bill”, about six-year-old Jean, who doesn’t know his mum has died. A special treat for diplomacy-minded Canberrans will be “Quai d’Orsay”, a satirical comedy in which Thierry Lhermitte plays the beleaguered French foreign minister “Alexandre Taillard de Worms”. Shock, horror. After many years of festivals dominated by Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve, you won’t see either of them. Denavit concedes that both are still “very productive”, but it’s a case of “not this year”. Alliance Française Film Festival in Australia 2014, Palace Electric Cinemas, NewActon, March 6-25. Bookings to affrenchfilmfestival.org and palacecinemas.com.au

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom debuted this week in just four theaters around the country, but its $700,000 box office haul is one of the strongest ever for a specialty opener, reports Deadline. And just so you're ready when this film does arrive at a cinema near you, be sure to watch this little preview narrated by (a drunk?) Bill Murray. Also produced by The Weinstein Company is the very-worth-watching French film The Intouchables, which brought in just $137,000 in its domestic premiere, but has already earned more than $300 million overseas. Again, we repeat: worth watching!

Battle of Britain - Street Date: - June 3rd, 2008 - Reviewed by: - Peter Bracke - Review Date: 1 - May 28th, 2008 - Movie Release Year: - MGM Home Entertainment - 132 Minutes - MPAA Rating: - Rated G - Release Country - United States The Movie Itself: Our Reviewer's Take An oft-leveled criticism of today's Hollywood is that it favors spectacle over substance, but one need only look back to 1969's 'Battle of Britain,' however, to see that the movies have never lacked for big, empty-headed effects extravaganzas weighed down by weak scripts and characters that are secondary. 'Battle of Britain,' while technically impressive, is a failure as a story -- despite being almost forty years old, it might as well have been directed by Michael Bay. The real Battle of Britain was one of the pivotal skirmishes of WWII. Fought over the shores of England and the English Channel during the Summer and early Fall of 1940, the Germans attempted to obliterate the aerial squad of the Royal Air Force to pave the wave for a full-scale German invasion of England. All manner of aircraft clashed in the night skies, with the RAF eventually inflicting enough carnage on the Nazi forces to force them to retreat (though the Germans would go on to change tactics and begin highly-destructive land-based bombings of Britain). 'Battle of Britain' was produced by Harry Saltzman, who was then flush with success from the James Bond series. He took 007's flair for spectacle to heart, turning 'Battle of Britain' into an effects-filled, star-studded affair that was launched amid a breathless wave of pre-promotion. Hawked months in advance, various trailers and footage promised that the film would boast some of the most impressive visual sequences yet seen in a Hollywood film. And indeed, 'Battle of Britain's mix of vintage aerial photography and complex original footage utilizing matte paintings, compositing, and miniatures (all expertly executed by Freddie Young, Skeets Kelly, and John Jordan) still holds up today as a feat of ingenuity (if now inevitably dated). It's just too bad Saltzman seemed so concerned with little but showmanship. The biggest deficiency of 'Battle of Britain' is the poor script. The characters are all stock archetypes, and only a few game players, particularly the dependably crusty Robert Shaw (as an over-the-top squadron leader) and Laurence Olivier prove at all memorable. There is little human drama aside from the soap opera variety, most irritatingly a gooey romantic subplot (apparently to appease the female audience forced to go see a war flick with their husbands) between the Christopher Plummer and Susannah York characters. It's like something phoned-in from another movie. The reason to see 'Battle of Britain,' then, is to enjoy the production values and effects work. Though again dated, the film does contain some thrilling aerial sequences, and the basic outline of the story is faithful to the actual events of the battle. I also enjoyed the strong score by William Walton (with additional material by Ron Goodwin added in later) which really pumps up the action. There is also some fine cinematography, and the costumes and production design ring true. It's just too bad the 'Battle of Britain' couldn't support its bombast with a decent script. The Video: Sizing Up the Picture MGM offers a 1080p/MPEG-2 transfer for 'Battle of Britain,' framed at 2.3:1. After reviewing the studio's 'A Bridge Too Far' Blu-ray (which also streets the same day), I can say that "Battle of Britain' is the lesser of the two presentations. This image still looks good, but it remains a bit bruised from wear and tear. The print is in pretty good shape. There is frequent dirt (noticeably worse during the effects shots) but no major blemishes, such as scratches and the like. However, there is print wavering with contrast that fluctuates, though black levels generally hold firm. Colors can be somewhat muted (typical of '60s cinema) but there are moments of lovely saturation, and overall the palette is quite pleasing -- fleshtones in particular are an attractive shade of orange. Detail is good for a film of this era, and while the image can be flat I was overall quite pleased with how much depth MGM was able to squeeze out of such old elements. Unfortunately, the transfer is marred by significant edge enhancement, which improves sharpness but at the cost of irritating ringing and other artifacts. 'Battle of Britain' certainly has many good points, but it's rather inconsistent. The Audio: Rating the Sound An intriguing trio of audio options are offered for "Battle of Britain' (all in English): DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround (48kHz/16-bit), an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround option featuring Sir William Walton's Score Mix (at only 448kbps), and the original English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (192kbps). The DTS-MA mix is certainly the best in terms of fidelity, but it ain't all that great anyway. The high-res mix still suffers from limited dynamics. High end is flat and cramped, even considering the film's age, with a hollow sound to the score and effects. Dialogue feels sharp and compressed, with little spatiality to the front soundstage. Surrounds are likewise weakly employed, with nary a discrete effect to be found. Nor is there any discernible bleed to the score or atmospheric elements. The William Walton Sound Mix version is even worse, with inferior heft to the mix and a rear presence that is nil. 'Battle of Britain' just doesn't sound particularly good. The Supplements: Digging Into the Good Stuff There is not a single bonus feature -- not even a theatrical trailer. HD Bonus Content: Any Exclusive Goodies in There? There are no high-def exclusives. 'Battle of Britain' is an impressively-mounted spectacle (if certainly dated by today's technological standards), but it's lacking as a narrative. The characters are ciphers, and the drama inert. This Blu-ray delivers solid video and audio, however, which should please fans of the film. Unfortunately, given the lack of extras and high $40 list price, it's hard to recommend this one even for diehards. - BD-25 Single-Layer Disc - English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround (48kHz/16-bit) - English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (448kbps) - English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (192kbps) - French Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround (192kbps) - English SDH - French Subtitles - Spanish Subtitles - Portuguese Subtitles Exclusive HD Content All disc reviews at High-Def Digest are completed using the best consumer HD home theater products currently on the market. More about our gear. Puzzled by the technical jargon in our reviews, or wondering how we assess and rate HD DVD and Blu-ray discs? Learn about our review methodology.

The Decline of the Stereoscopic Cinema My concern in these columns has been the stereoscopic cinema, and secondarily stereoscopic television. (By “television,” I mean that device that sits in your home that plays Internet protocol TV, cable channels with video on demand, discs, and home movies and —oh yes! terrestrial broadcasting.) I’m looking at the August 4th Display Daily, which is sent to professionals in the display industry. It’s published by Insight Media, and this latest column called “Pushing Back Toward the Ditch” was written by the boss of Insight Media, Chris Chinnock, a paragon of conventional wisdom. In the past month there has been a significant pushback in the press with regard to the stereoscopic medium, and I have to hand it to Chris for summarizing the current print media climate and for bringing me out of hibernation, since this is the first blog (gotta love a word that rhymes with smog and hog) I’ve written in a month. What is happening in the press at this moment vis a vis 3-D movies is an excellent example of reasoning to a firmly held belief. Conventional minds have been waiting to pounce on 3-D movies and at last, here it is — a good moment given a couple of so-so performing movies in the last few months. They were not good movies and lo and behold, color, sound, and widescreen didn’t help them. Oddly there are no outraged critics rising up to ban color, sound, and widescreen. Chris calls to mind “crossing the chasm,” a well-known concept about the introduction of new technologies. The idea is that after the initial acceptance of a new technology by the early adapters there is going to be a chasm that the technology or product in fact, somehow has to cross to find the later adopters and full market acceptance. Chris is applying this idea to the entire stereoscopic display industry but it’s usually applied to the efforts of a single pioneering company. This is an interesting point but with thousands of theaters installed with 3-D capability, scores of movies about to be released, and hundreds of millions being spent on the technology and promotion of 3-D TV, I’d say the bridge over the chasm has been all but crossed. Chris also quotes the New York Times headline that read “Resistance Forms Against Hollywood’s 3-D Push,” and he cites a number of directors, including Chris Nolan and Joss Whedon who oppose the medium. These are some first-rate commercial directors, who according to the Times do not want to make their movies in 3-D, feeling that the studios are mostly concerned with making money and they don’t want to use 3-D for aesthetic reasons; they just want to do it for profit. That should have been the subject of the New York Times headline: Studios Want to Profit from 3-D. If you had to rank faux revelations on a scale of 1 to 10 you’d have to give this one an 11 on the Spinal Tap Scale. Shakespeare was a commercial playwright, and if his plays didn’t make money he wouldn’t have been able to send money back to Anne Hathaway in Stratford so she could buy her second best bed. Moreover, these directors, as good as they are, aren’t Akira Kurosawa. Is this the group to assert that the studios are overly concerned with money? Can it be that they don’t like 3-D because it will not allow them to fulfill their visions of collapsing cities, werewolf transformations, mutant zombies, vampire blood sucking, and exploding spaceships? (It was a different Chris Nolan I heard after a screening of Inception who was open minded about the use of 3-D.) Next Chris Chinook talks about the fact that 3-D ticket prices are higher than 2D prices, and that has to be a disincentive for people to go to the movies. A possible incentive would be to pay people to go to the movies, but that hasn’t come up in the discussion. The conventional mind is not questioning that people are willing to fork over the extra bucks to see an IMAX movie. Why isn’t there a pushback, why isn’t the press questioning IMAX ticket prices – a complaint that could be made for both 2D and 3-D IMAX? The press is focused on ticket prices for conventional 3-D movies and I think one reason for that is that much of 3-D projection in neighborhood cinemas is too dark. In my opinion Dolby, XpanD, and Master Image systems can only project decently bright images on smaller screens, say 35 feet or under. And very frequently exhibitors use the systems in auditoria that have screens that are too large for the product they have installed. The only single projector system I know of that can produce decent brightness levels on just about any size screen is the RealD XL system. (I should tell you that I helped develop this product.) In terms of viewer comfort the RealD system (and MasterImage and IMAX), using lightweight single-use eyewear, are far more pleasant and appealing to use than klutzy Dolby or XpanD eyewear. If 3-D is projected well, and the eyewear are comfortable, then it is a premium experience and perhaps people won’t balk at paying the extra money. There have also been articles in the press lately talking about the decline in 3-D attendance. A short time ago it was not uncommon for a 3-D movie to produce a disproportionate share of revenue on a per-theater basis but of late that has not held up. One of the reasons that it’s no longer true is that there are still not enough 3-D theaters. Several years ago there was only one 3-D movie in release at a time, and sometimes weeks or months between 3-D movies. Now there are two or three 3-D movies in release, so the effective total number of theaters at any moment may not be any greater, and there are theaters that have to pull shows that should be holding but are forced to leave before they’ve fulfilled their 3-D profit potential. And not to forget, not every 3-D movie is going to be a good movie. Next Chris brings up the concept that all movies aren’t going to profit from 3-D. This is another piece of conventional wisdom — that 3-D is just not meant for all subjects. For whatever reason My Dinner with Andre is frequently cited: “Would you make a 3-D movie of My Dinner with Andre?” Let me ask those who raise the issue, why don’t you ask the same question about color for My Dinner with Andre? My Dinner with Andre didn’t need to be in color. Maybe Andre should have been shot silent and released with title cards. While there is a business rationale there is no esthetic rationale for making virtually every movie in color (or scope or wide-screen for that matter). Cinematographers and directors know this, and they often use techniques to make their movies more or less monochromatic. But if the public expects color, and the movie business is a responsive business, it has to give them color. Are the critics of 3-D movies conservatives, trying to uphold the status quo, or are they reactionaries, trying to return us to the prior state of flatitude? Perhaps they are afraid that there are compelling parallels between the present transition and that which occurred in the late twenties and early thirties with sound. The transition to sound profoundly changed the cinema from one of pantomime and reading title cards into a cinema that was more nearly like stage plays. The transition to 3-D will be far less disruptive. Actors won’t lose their jobs because they don’t look good in 3-D. I predict that Nick Cage’s wigs will continue to distract in 3-D. And speaking of Mr. Cage, I’ve just seen an ad for his soon-to-be-released Drive Angry 3-D, which read: “Shot in 3-D.” This a marketing approach that is an attempt to make a distinction between a movie that was shot in 3-D (good) and one that was shot in 2D and converted (bad). That’s because recent conversions have not been successful according to the public and the press. I have not seen either of the recent conversion jobs that were decried, Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender. I was about to see Clash in 3-D with my boys, Noah and Jonah, 14 and 16, but when we got to the theater they wanted to see the 2D version. They had read the on-line complaints about Titans’ conversion. “Dad, don’t make us go see this.” I said: “Boys, it’s my business. I’d like to see what it looks like.” But they prevailed because it was vacation, and sometimes the kids are right. I’ve heard so many complaints about these movies that I’ll simply accept that the complaints have merit. On the other hand, an excellent example of conversion was G-Force, which I thought was a fun and ridiculous movie. I happen to like guinea pigs, and I’m a sucker for furry little talking animals in 3-D. Who isn’t? Just ask my dogs.

Redd Pepper’s Movie Trailer Maker for iOS Devices Buckley, United Kingdom – Quapps Interactive today is pleased to introduce Redd Pepper’s Movie Trailer Maker 1.0 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. From the makers of the #1 entertainment application Peter Dickson’s Pocket Announcer comes a new addition to the series. We have all seen movies in the cinema right? Ever wonder who the really loud, scary voice is introducing the trailers whilst waiting for the film to start? Wonder no more as we introduce Redd Pepper. Redd Pepper is known for his movie voiceovers and his amazing, terrifying voice and now you can have him on your mobile device to drop a personalised movie trailer as and when you need one. Be afraid … be VERY afraid. Movie Trailer Maker: Using the Movie Trailer Maker you are able to construct an unlimited amount of unique trailers and have them played back by Redd immediately from your device. Redd has recorded several Thousands of words and phrases and ALL of them have been added into the application for you to use in your trailers. You can also save your sentences for use later and even select from pre-defined sentences. Redd has recorded a selection of ringtones and alarm wake up calls for your iDevice including: * Pop quiz, your phone is ringing * Wake up, it’s Friday * Pick up your g**damn phone * Your mother in law is calling, do not pick up the phone * And many more * iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad * Requires iOS 3.2 or later (iOS 4.0 Tested) * 42.8 MB Pricing and Availability: Redd Pepper’s Movie Trailer Maker 1.0 is $1.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Entertainment category. Located in Buckley, United Kingdom, Quapps Interactive is a privately held company established in 2009 by Will Roberts. Leveraging over 1 1/2 decades of web design, development and IT background, Quapps Interactive is dedicated to producing unique and original content for the iPhone platform, with a major emphasis on total customer satisfaction. Their applications are created with every bit of care we can give and all releases are put through extensive in-house testing procedures beforehand. Copyright (C) 2009-2011 Quapps Interactive. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Usage restrictions are in place and must be adhered to at all times. More information within the application for licensing.

Despite the "YUV" in the name, it does not compress the YUV color space, but YCbCr. The codec can also compress in the RGB color space. "Lossless" means that the output from the decompressor is bit-for-bit identical with the original input to the compressor. Lossless only occurs when the compression color space matches the input and output color space. When the color spaces do not match, a low loss compression is performed. Huffyuv's algorithm is similar to that of lossless JPEG, in that it predicts each sample and then Huffman-encodes the error. The original implementation was written for Windows by Ben Rudiak-Gould and published under the terms of the GPL. The Huffyuv 1.1 was released in 2000. The implementation is considered very fast, giving a compression throughput of up to 38 megabytes per second on a 416 MHz Celeron. The official Huffyuv has not had a new release since 2002. Huffyuv 2.1.1 with CCESP patch 0.2.5 was released to address problems particularly for compatibility with Cinema Craft Encoder. Huffyuv 2.2 is available on some alternative sites, but is reported to have problems on some computer systems. There is a currently developed fork of the code named Lagarith which offers better compression at the cost of greatly reduced speed on uniprocessor systems. The FFmpeg project also contains an implementation of HuffYUV which allows HuffYUV files to be created & played on Linux and Mac OS X. Additionally, this means that many of the applications which use FFmpeg as a base can also play/create HuffYUV files, including VLC media player, MPlayer and ffdshow.

Eventually, a voice came out over the intercom... announcing that the train was running five minutes late. The children, none too depressed by this announcement, let out a hearty avuncular roar of approval: "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!", or sounds to that effect. It was then that I and the rest of the regular commuters decided that children and trains should not be trusted. Thus it was with some trepidation, dear reader, that yesterday I found myself advancing into the Northland cinemas, for the second week in a row, to buy a ticket to the movie 'Thomas the tank engine and friends: the great discovery'. On the previous week, I had arrived at the cinemas some ten minutes before the movie was due to start and had discovered all the seats in the film sold out, and adult life forms banked up from one corner of the cinema right into the Pancake Parlour, with children tugging at their sleeves and asking anxiously when they were going to see the train. I say that I advanced there with trepidation: well, terror might be a more adequate description. As luck would have it I arrived just as the ticket booth was opening and managed to get myself one of the first tickets. On walking into the cinemas some minutes later, I discovered it overflowing with children, running all over the place. It was if a movie version of Lord of the Flies had suddenly, and startlingly, manifested itself in real life. I took a seat somewhere in aisle five and attempted to relax. I say attempted: some child in aisle four was turning and wriggling around as if he could hardly bear to sit any longer. An aisle one adult was flapping disturbing pieces of linen in the air. Another aisle five child was querying their parent about Thomas, and there were sounds of childish distress coming from aisle seven. Possibly tom toms as well, but I think I blocked that out. Meanwhile, the cinema, in an attempt to calm us all down, was piping generic movie music in, but even this did nothing to quell my rising horror. For one thing, they appeared to be playing an L J Hooker ads instead of music. "Nobody does it better... nobody does it half as good as you!", etc. This was followed, even more disturbingly, by James Bond music. (I had noted previously, and with some disapproval, that this edition of Thomas was narrated by previous Bond star Pierce Brosnan, and not Ringo: they have a Bond movie out at the moment that I have no interest in seeing). Was this some kind of way of subliminally encouraging the children to be supervillains? When the lights went out, I began to feel some anxiety on the part of my mortal soul.... The film itself was just about what you would expect. Forty-five minutes long, with narration, as I have just noted, by Pierce Brosnan, presumably on the assumption that he is universally identified as an Englishman, like Ringo. Never mind the fact that his accent is probably put on: Brosnan is from Ireland, not England. Brosnan also has a disturbingly high voice: I don't know why nobody has noticed it before, but this former 007 is sometimes in danger of squealing. That charming dramatic creation, The Fat Controller, has been largely retired, and replaced by a Aside from Occupational Health and Safety difficulties, Thomas may also need a psychologist. It's rare for a steam rain to have a psychiatric condition, but Thomas becomes startlingly envious and avaricious when introduced to Stanley, a gleaming white engine with a silver smoke stack. All in all, not a terrible way to spend an hour or so. Yesterday evening I also went to see Excalibur at the Astor, a much more adult affair with knights donging one another all over with maces and all manner of implicit Freudian themes being made, explicitly. But I think the day belonged to Thomas. You should see it too. Go on. You'll be chuffed!

British-based Islam Channel, which has a deep reach into the Middle Eastern, Mahgreb and European markets, is pressing even further afield -- right to the tip of Africa. Veiled means added value in Bahrain, according to commercial TV managers. Queen Rania of Jordan has been honored with the first YouTube Visionary Award for her efforts to encourage young people to tackle stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs, her office announced. A film centered on the antics of a teacher-turned-bottle-retriever netted the Golden Award for Czech film director Jan Sverak at the 16th Damascus Film Festival, which wrapped on Nov. 11. Free expression continues to be no more than a dream in six Middle East countries, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in its newly published annual World Press Freedom Index. Charismatic Egyptian Islam televangelist Amr Khaled is branching out into the world of reality television with a show that aims to recruit a new generation of young preachers. Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan has entered the international property market -- in a multi-billion dollar way. Media in Dubai said the superstar -- currently the biggest name in Indian cinema -- has… Another Ramadan has come and gone -- and in Egypt yet again a historical series managed to win the chase for auds during the Muslim holy month, when viewing rates peak across the Arab world. Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers has expressed concern over a surge in fatwas, or religious decrees, calling for the murder of journalists in Arab and Muslim countries. The troubled life of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, found stabbed to death in her Dubai apartment July 28, is to be the focus of a movie titled "Qitah wa arbaa thiab" (A Cat and Four Wolves)…

In Conversation With Paul Banks Yes, I was one of those rabid Interpol fans who followed them since their very beginning and had to own every single vinyl, rarity and bootleg they ever released. For years their music spoke to me like almost no others. I have always admired vocalist and guitarist Paul Banks in particular, for his twisted, absurdist lyrics and his continuous literature-inspired quotes in the interviews. A few years later, I've grown up as they say and their music has somehow changed. But yeah, while I'm waiting for Paul to meet me in the hotel lobby a few hours before his London show in support of his second solo album Banks, I think I'm a bit nervous. But as soon as he arrives I realise how unbelievably friendly and down to earth he is (much more than anybody else I have ever interviewed), that I feel totally at ease and relaxed as if I have somehow known him forever. We then sit down for over half an hour, talking about his music, as well as his sources of inspiration, art and his biggest achievement. Lets first talk about your writing process. I know you usually come up with a guitar riff and then you develop the original idea adding instruments on Logic. What is more rewarding for you: the initial input or seeing things slowly taking shape? That's a good question. It was really a special kind of moment for me when I started using Logic, because when I was in College I only had a type of 4-track machine, so I could just lay four tracks down when I was making songs. But it was very tricky and I could just use my voice, guitar and sound effects on all those old demos. So when I discovered Logic I was finally able to add the strings parts that I had been hearing in my mind for years, and all other music, all other instrumentations that I wanted, and that was very special for me. So that was really an important part of my career as a musician because it was like having a big band at my disposal, and I always wanted to write in that manner, like an orchestra. So today it's really rewarding once I put the initial idea into my computer and then I can build it up as if I had a big band at my disposal, in fact more than just a big band. However, where it all comes from is that other thing you mentioned which is that first idea, and that's what I've been doing since I was 14. And I think that's what I have very much in common with Daniel who is also that kind of guitar player, as once a while I just pick up a guitar, then something would happen and that would be the seed of a new song. And that's what is all about for a musician like me and many others, that initial moment. So the Logic is a separate thing which is also very special though maybe not as appealing, but at the same time one of the biggest moments of my life as a musician was the access to other instrumentations that Logic gave me. 'Perimeter Deactivated' is your own interpretation of the theme from 'The Running Man' movie, Another Chance. Have some dialogues from your friend Sebastian Ischer's film Black Out. How much does cinema inspire you to write music? I don't know about how much it inspires me to write music, but it does inspire me as a person. I never knew this was odd but many people comment that I have the tendency to quote films very often and I kinda assumed that was more normal, but apparently people don't remember movies as much as I do. I don't know what it is, but they certainly do inspire me, but it's not something that I immediately translate into a new song. Talking about films, can you give us some news on Mine to Kill, the movie you star in? Is it still in pre-production? I think that got kind of misrepresented as being made. It's not been made yet. My friend went to this writing workshop at Sundance Festival, I read the entire script and it's really good. But we only shot certain scenes from the film to use for the trailer in order for him to find the funding. So it's not actually a movie that has been made yet. Back to your sources of inspiration, you have a literature degree. Does literature still play an important role for you? Lately less so, which is very disappointing to me. I really enjoyed the fact that people were asking me about books and authors, but it has been embarrassing lately as I barely have been reading for the last year and an half. I read newspapers and everything online, but as for novels which used to be my thing, I haven't been reading much. It's such an important part of me that I will get back to it at some point, but lately no, I haven't used it as a source of inspiration. But I also feel I go through phases when one art sort of fills the void. When I was working on this record, before I started working very hard on it I was painting a lot, like every day. Then the day when I began focusing on the new album I stopped painting and then worked on music every day. I worked on the release of this record for over a year and that sort of eclipsed other interests. And now when I go to bed, and I try to pick up a book, I then just wanna watch TV instead which is really a bad habit, but that's partly because I've consumed myself over a medium of art on most part of the day that now at night, when I used to read mostly, I just want to tune out. So I feel I've been very productive and have been stimulating my imagination a lot, just not so much to literature I would like. Since you just mentioned painting, and I know for instance that the cover of your new album is a photo you took in Panama, have you ever considered branching out into other creative fields, such as writing, painting or photography? Hmm - how do I put this without sounding really cynical? I love to paint and I love to write, but although I was raised in a family full of music appreciation, we are not professional artists, and the idea for me of being an adult means making a living. But when I went into music I was comfortable not making a living out of it and still loving music to be my life, I was comfortable being poor and having a shitty job forever that wouldn't take away from my time making music. Now that I'm older and I sort of feel the responsibility to make a living, lots of times I just look at Art as a hobby, not as a means to make money. So I will do painting, and I will do writing but I don't know if I will ever branch out into either. I mean, I'm attracted to the idea of painting as people don't steal paintings but they do steal music. So there's almost an argument to be made that it will be a great idea for me to stop music altogether and try to get some more painting, but then I know it would just be a fluke if I made a lot of money, because that would simply be a matter of getting trendy at some point, not because I'm a better painter than somebody else if my work is suddenly considered cool… and then someone would pay me a bunch of money for a couple of months till I stop being cool. But I do think about that as a possibility. I don't think I'm there as a painter to be able to do that yet, but maybe in some years. So I guess to answer your question, if I did that I would do it in a serious fashion in order to make money, as that's still an art form people pay for. And sometimes you're a bit jaded as a musician as that's a form of art people don't pay for, not in the way they do for films, writing or painting. Interpol as a band don't seem to be into covers. But you covered J Dilla, Frank Sinatra, the Pixies and I recall some old interviews where you seemed the only one in the band not against it. Do you want to talk about that? It's a really fun process for me. I think I maybe gravitated towards it because unlike most songwriters and guitarists that I know who have learnt how to play guitar by playing other people's songs, as you learn a lot about songs structure and songwriting when you do that, I have never learnt anyone else's songs ever. I learnt maybe the intros of about 5 songs, then I started writing my own music. I have never learnt someone else's songs except for Daniel's , and I actually learnt a lot about songwriting from his songs and then worked on my own music over the years. So when I do a cover, it's a bit like a great insight into somebody else's mind as a songwriter, and I think that's a great exercise as an artist. When I did the Sinatra and J Dilla covers it was like doing a painting course. I remember walking through some post graduated painting classes once, and there were these excellent students that were recreating Modigliani, Cezanne or some sort of classical paintings. I'm not sure if I'm good at it, but that's the kind of thing you do at advanced painting courses, you try to recreate the works of the masters. That's how I looked at my Sinatra or J Dilla covers. I literally tried to get into their minds and get closer to them as artists by discovering what they did to make that song. I just looked at it as a sort of study. And recently you also covered 'Stephanie Says' on BBC 6. Have you considered doing more acoustic shows like that, as I think that was your original intention when you started as Julian Plenti over a decade ago? That has come up a lot and as you said originally Julian Plenti started as just guitar and vocals, but I felt that somehow something was missing. Pete Doherty sometimes play shows with just acoustic guitar and that's just fucking incredible. That's a funny thing and I'd love to be able to do that, but the songs I write today don't work that way. For instance at the same show I also played 'The Base' with just the guitar but that didn't really work to me. It worked at the beginning of my career but now it just doesn't anymore, as in my songs you need all those pieces in the composition in order for them to work. For instance if you look at 'Over my Shoulder', what the bass player is doing is just as important as what I'm doing when it gets to the chords, if not more important, so without both those pieces the chords don't even exist, it doesn't make sense musically. And much of my work feels that way to me. What I'm doing alone doesn't constitute the song, you need the counterpoint and the other countermelodies and then you have the song. I would like to write songs with just guitar and voice, but I just don't tend to do that. Talking about the old songs, what happened to 'Cellophane'? I think that's the only song from the early Julian Plenti era you never released. I don't know. There was that song and also 'The Larynx that you have'. But that was the same song, maybe? No sorry, I forgot about that one. That's a different song. I don't know… those two songs were written around the time I also wrote 'Girl on the Sporting News', 'Fun that we have', 'On the Esplanade', and 'Fly as you might'. But those four songs I just mentioned stayed in my head over the years and I would keep playing them every time I picked up a guitar. For some reason I wouldn't play 'Cellophane' when I picked up a guitar so it kind of faded. I noticed that on the last few shows you've been playing 'Goodbye Toronto' again, which made its first appearance towards the end of the Skyscraper tour. Is that song going to be released as B-side or something? Yeah, it was supposed to be on this last record. It was actually supposed to be on both records, but then I just forgot to put it. I don't miss it on the new album though, as I don't think it would have fit. That's a song that in fact I'm still writing. I think we've played it three nights on this tour so far and every night is different. And now I think we are finding a version that finally works. It's like 'Cavern Workship' which I put on my EP: that's a song that never gets there, I kinda never get the composition satisfactory to me. It's one of my favourite pieces I have ever written but it's just this big mess that's hard for me to nail down. And 'Toronto' is a bit like that. But I'm almost certain that I will put it on my next record. What would you consider your biggest achievement as an artist or as a person? Hmm - it might be learning to surf. That may sound dumb to people but I think the hardest thing I've ever done physically is learning to surf, in the first couple of weeks, as I was on this very difficult beach and it took me almost two weeks before I was even considering standing up, as I was just paddling my surf board. Surfers would know what I mean… those two weeks were the most painful of my life as every day it felt as if I had broken my ribs and that I was going to drown. That was the most focused and committed I had ever been, two weeks of dealing with incredible pain and very little results. And then I finally broke through. How are you coping with fame? Is it something that you enjoy or do you somehow hate it? I don't think I have ever hated it. I had a bad relationship with media but I think that was due to my personality type and being young. I also think it's all relative. I'm famous in a room full of Interpol fans, but the cab driver has no idea of who I am. I think I'm just slightly famous. I just feel very lucky to be able to make music for a living, as that was my dream, and privileged that I wouldn't have had to have that shitty job I was telling you about. The idea that I can spend my time trying to make sound compositions is really amazing to me. But I'm also a very conscious person and I don't want to take it for granted so much. I just want to stay focused. I think I am concerned with being worthy, rather than sort of feeling untitled or self-satisfied. My concern is if I do deserve this and how I can get better. Everybody noticed that you now seem more open both in your lyrics and interviews. You also communicate to fans much more, like for instance with the 'Ask Paul' thing on twitter. What made you change so much? There was a degree of reserve that I had with Interpol because I have never looked at myself as the mouthpiece of Interpol. I didn't want to hijack the interview. If we did an interview as a band it was our interview, as we are all equal members in that band. So I guess I would sort of withhold a little bit in order to just speak the line of the band, to just be a member…you know what I mean, like I could say this or Sam could say this. I'm not the guy fronting the band in that sense, we are all fronting, we are all collaborating with this band. When I work alone I don't care if this guy doesn't agree with what I'm saying because it's just me. In fact it's not the matter of someone else not agreeing with me, it's just that I didn't want to speak for those guys because I can only speak for myself. And I also think I got even more removed because I felt that what critics and journalists were writing in the early days was so off-base to me, they bothered me so much that I just didn't feel like showing them anything if they didn't get it at all, and I felt antagonised by what people were saying, which as I said was due to my personality type and being young. I think now I realised it and don't take it too personally anymore. I'm sorry but I cant help but ask you a couple of Interpol related questions. I know you guys have been working on new material, right? What do you think of the Turn on the Bright Lights 10th anniversary edition Matador recently released? Were you part of it or was just a Matador thing? Personally I was busy but the band was definitely part of it. It was mainly Daniel's baby actually. I think it was a pretty special re-release as Daniel doesn't do anything by halves as they say. As a band we have an attitude that we shouldn't really do anything like that unless you make it worthwhile. There is a lot of rarities on that thing, like very old, unseen material (Ha, he doesn't know that I've actually had all those rarities and soooo much more since the early days!). Even for me being in the band I would say that's pretty good re-release as there is a lot of our archived stuff. I knew exactly what Daniel was compiling, but I was busy prepping for the road when that was being done. Also had I listened to the early work that's on it, I would have said “you can't put it on there.” So I told the guys “if you think our fans are going to enjoy listening to me singing like shit in the early days, then go ahead, but if I listened to it I wouldn't let you put it on there”. So I just did what I think was just best for the fans, which was keeping myself out of it, as I'm very conscious about how I sounded live and how all my early stuff sounded. To me it's sort of funny that especially lately you don't seem willing to take credits for Interpol songs much, saying that you just write the vocal parts, when personally I think vocals are very important and can totally change a song, a bit like editing in filmmaking. But I think you almost entirely wrote 'Hands Away'. That's not completely true. I introduced that song, that's one of my compositions, but it wouldn't be what it is without the keyboards that Carlos wrote. Can I ask you the meaning of the word "ham" in the "lets see about this ham" line? I think I understood the meaning of that song, but... I doubt you understood the meaning of that song. It's so absurdist, it's an almost dreamy snapshot of a scenario that involves homosexuality, you know, like bondage and some weird sexual partnership which at the time I felt was very radical as a lyrical context for a rock song. And I felt like I gotta do this as this is crazy. As I've said, usually it's Daniel that introduces a new song but that song I was the one introducing it. As for taking credits, like you said, that was more on recent interviews because our fourth record was written in a little different way from the others. I was more involved in the previous albums, but on the last one it was mainly Daniel and Carlos generating the music, presenting it to the band and then we just kinda put our touch on it. It's not that I don't feel comfortable taking credits, it's just that I'm being honest that on our fourth record I was just less part of it than the other ones. Finally lets talk about touring. How important is for you to feel the audience when performing live? Oh that's very important for me. The energy in the audience in the sense that they are enjoying themselves, in the sense that they let the music speak about them… that fills any musician in any band ever. There is an absolutely symbiotic relationship between the audience and the artist on stage. But at the same time for me sometimes if I focus too much on a person in the audience for instance, then I freeze up and I forget what I'm doing . And I think there is a part of me which requires a special kind of concentration, and that has probably to do with playing guitar and singing. So I almost have to internalise myself a little bit in order to perform well and also to feel what's happening. I feel that the audience would respond more if you are enjoying yourself, and the way I enjoy myself playing music tends to be somehow introverted. It's not more fun for me to go “Hey check this out”. It's actually more fun for me to play right and feel what's happening. So my stage presence is really just based on me trying to simultaneously enjoy what I'm doing, feel what I'm doing and do it correctly. Do you still get nervous? Not anymore as it's become routine now. I mean there are still some situations like a TV performance or something that's out of the ordinary that get me a bit nervous, but when it's a room full of people that are there to see you, why be nervous? They don't want me to have a bad time, they want me to feel good and have a good time playing the show, and they also want to have a good time, so there is no reason to be nervous, and I just focus on having fun and everything will be fine. So no, I don't get nervous. You can visit Paul Banks by heading to bankspaulbanks.com Purchase and listen It's 5.30pm and I’m informed that Paul Banks is running a little late, which is fine as it gives me time to pour another drink, stretch and relax a little. After swapping a few pleasantries, I ask if he’s ok to dive straight in to discuss his latest solo project, Banks and he graciously obliges. [read more] ”Me and Paul, we play chess together and just hang out. He came and spent two weeks at my house – I have a guesthouse in my studio.” RZA explains, adding that the pairing was all his idea and that when questioned by his manager about whom he’s like to record an album with, he answered “Well, Paul just has an energy about him. I think if we put our sandwich together it will be great.” [read more]

The great French actress Isabelle Huppert stars as three different women visiting the Korean resort town of Mohan in this triptych of tales from director Hong Sang-soo (The Day He Arrives, Woman is the Future of Man). The result is a set of delightful, brilliantly constructed variations on a theme. (Hong Sang-soo, France/Korea, 2012, 89 min., English and Korean with English subtitles, D-Cinema) Part of the Freer and Sackler’s ninth annual ‘Korean Film Festival DC,’ copresented with AFI Silver Theatre. Event begins at 1:00PM Presented by: Freer and Sackler Galleries - Smithsonian Institution