(via chained and perfumed)

JLG:3-D

If you can't beat 'em, problematize 'em: Jean-Luc Godard's next movie, Goodbye to Language 3D, is shooting this summer.  Has the great one embraced the technology of the multiplex? Sort of-à sa façon: Godard is jerry-rigging his own 3-D camera out of two mobile phones fitted with lenses.  That's par for the course given the filmmaker's curiosity about image innovation, from Raoul Coutard's night photography in Breathless to the slow-motion studies of Sauve qui peut. As for the plot, you know better than that.  Production summary excerpt: "A married woman and a single man meet.  They love, they argue, fists fly...  From the human race we pass to metaphor."  Film Socialisme DP Fabrice Aragno returns to shoot.

From Film Comment July/August 2012 Volume 48/Number 4

Sight & Sound Top Ten

While this sort of list is kind of ridiculous and could change at anytime I believe if I would've been asked by Sight & Sound this year to give my submission for the ten greatest films it would've looked something like this: 

City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)

Melancholia (Lav Diaz, 2008)

N:O:T:H:I:N:G (Paul Sharits, 1968)

L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)

Oxhide II (Liu Jiayin, 2009)

Le vent d'est (Groupe Dziga Vertov, 1970)

L'enfant secret (Philippe Garrel, 1979)

L'humanité (Bruno Dumont, 1999)

Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)

Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)

Revolution

Step Up Revolution was my second 3D experience and unlike Hugo, it was an incredibly enjoyable one.  By no means won over by the technology yet at least in this instance it didn't completely ruin the experience for me.  Why I think it works in Step Up is because it by no means tries to consistently create a 3D environment and when it does it doesn't overdo it. There's a subtleness to the use of the 3D that actually made it work. Another reason why I probably enjoyed this experience more was because the actual film was also better.  Step Up Revolution is one of the best experiences I've had at the cinema this year.  It begins with the biggest, most outrageous number and works its way into an incredible subtle and meaningful last dance. Even its reactionary ending is so abrupt and 'perfect' that its clearly a Sirkian style ending that leaves everything polished off so nicely in such a short time that its satiric.   Trevor Link at Spectrum Culture has a wonderful review here:

For those mourning the death of the movie musical, the dance film might be our only hope for the resurrection of its ecstatic pleasures. Critics dismiss these films because of their unfamiliarity with, indifference to or disdain for dance in general, but also because, in focusing on what these films fail to do, they ensure their blindness to the genre’s actual successes ... Dance dramatizes the plight of the individual against organized oppression, a sight unmistakably reminiscent of the Occupy protests. This is dance at its most cinematic, using the tools of the medium to create unique meanings incapable of being expressed otherwise ...

it's all about the ending

. . .

. . .

quadrille, sacha guitry, 1938

Learning from Griffith

. . .

lust

fulfillment

the room (evidence)

revenge

victory

death

. . .

the endless possibilities of the cinema
a passionate kiss can elapse enough time to build a cement wall to enclose the lovers
warping time perception through cinema
time traveling
magic (back to méliès)

the power of revenge
which will become one of cinema's greatest areas of exploration
a theme to be dissected through moving images

the sealed room (1909); 11 minutes

Art History (Joe Swanberg, 2011)

                       

honesty on film.
feelings through moving images.
expression through emotion.
cinematic expression.
honest culture

sexuality involvement.
balance
sexuality and creativity.
animal instincts
through creation.

the beginning of art

Revenge

.   .   .   .

SHOPSIN the pope of the food industry

The film should've been called The Pope of the Food Industry but I Like Killing Flies is not too bad. If Kenny Shopsin did become the Pope of the food industry then perhaps it would cease to be one of the most despicable industries.  He wants to feed the people.  He doesn't do it for money and he never stop.  He breaks all of its rules. He doesn't believe in fun, he simply wants to work.  And the refusal to conformity. Simply doing it his way. His rules aren't rules but act as safeguards for the slaves of the industry.  Respect for your server/cook, no picky eaters, no parties of more than four.  He builds a relationship with every customer, making sure they are worthy to be fed by him.  Its not business, it's feeding your friends. Kenny Shopsin should sit in a sacred altar in every kitchen in the world. And from the opening shot, a hilarious zoom out pan of Kenny walking from his bike to unlock the doors to the building that abruptly ends with the title I LIKE KILLING FLIES, we know we are watching something other than another talking head documentary.

Now playing on Instant Netflix. Queue it up here.