What Godard Said (2005, 29MB, 5:19 min.)
Two pieces, extraordinary in both ambition & affect,
from filmmaker Helen Park.
It takes a little while, ‘it did for me’ then not only
does the quiet ecstacy of the thing kick in, but your
mouth drops open at how boldly and confidently this
world grows & blossoms from very simple & at first
apparently unpromising material.
Helen Park also maintains a rather good vlog.
Belleville Rendez-Vous (2003, 6.2MB, 2:08 min.)
A deliciously dark and twisted French comic animation film
in which a “Tour de France” cyclist is kidnapped by the Mafia.
Directed by Sylvain Chomet.
Inland Empire UK trailer (2006, 13.6MB, 1:53 min)
OK, so there’re the famous rabbits.
It’s only just come out over here so I haven’t
seen it yet but it sounds great.
The New York Times certainly thought so.
UK site
US site
from ‘A Night at the Opera’ (1935, 1.6MB, 50 sec.)
from ‘A Night at the Opera’ (1935, 1.7MB, 1:19 min.)
From the excellent & mind-bogglingly comprehensive
‘Night at the Opera’ treasury, two clips from the Marx Brothers classic,
the first of which includes the best punchline ever, no argument, the best.
The Shining (2005, 9.5MB, 1:24 min.)
Stanley Kubrick classic horror as a romantic-comedy family flick.
A masterful trailer cut by Robert Ryang.
Sleepless In Seattle (2005, 19.4MB, 58 sec.)
This is what happens when the ultimate chick flick gets
the horror/thriller trailer treatment from – Demis Lyall-Wilson.
Untitled Iowa (2007, 31MB, 5:57 min)
Gorgeous & deft chunk of Americana from Aaron Valdez
with all the Hoppery, Wyethy, Portery &c nods
but nonetheless standing nicely on its own feet
For my taste that high reverby modal piano(?)
tiptoes along the border of clich
For Sore Eyes (2006, 23MB, 2:17 min)
I like this (though what I mean by that is sort of provisional; read on)
& also it, the piece, bothers me a lot.
I watched it once, context free, then I read a statement Anders Weberg supplied*
and quite honestly still felt pretty context free, and it’s that very elusiveness
which makes me say I like this and it’s that very elusiveness
which makes me say this bothers me, a lot.
Questions:
# Is the woman drowning, fighting for breath?
# If she is drowning & we find the film in some sense beautiful
are we then complicit in something terrible?
# Or is she frolicking in the water & does the slo-moness &
the sound mislead or, perhaps, just lead us.
# Is the footage appropriated or was it shot especially?
# If yes, was it slow in the original?
# Was the image treated in any way other than (possibly) being slowed down?
# Did either the music or the sound come with the original?
# Either way, is the provenance of music & sound different?
# It sounds like the sound really is the sound of something
(perhaps something terrible, I don’t like to think) happening underwater.
Is it?
# Is there a general lightening of tone just before the end?
# Does she free herself from the water?
# Is she now safe?
# We’re happy because she’s safe. Does this feeling
in us represent a cop out by either filmaker ( if there
are two, the original & the appropriator), a failure to follow
through,a failure of nerve?
# Or is she just leaping from her frolicking in the water,
shaking it from her hair in a kind of elemental ecstacy?
# Why is everything so dark?
# If everything is OK why is everything so dark?
*‘For Sore Eyes is another exploration of the ambivalence of the male
gaze and gendered (dis)order.
It is a suggestive reflection of life in the
pyrotechnic insanitarium of consumerism freedom.
But what really is freedom?’
1Z0-803
High and Dry Trailer (2003, 8.6MB, 1:53 min.)
Trailer for what looks like a really neat film about the Tucson music scene.
Main attraction of this trailer for me is that it features the God-like genius of Howe Gelb.
but I’m sure it has other merits too.
8 halfmile (2006, 6.9MB, 2:21 min.)
“Fellini’s classic film re-mixed Eminem-style…”
by – The AV Club, from Film Threat.
Wakefield Gala – clip (1920s?, 1.1MB, 23 sec.)
Munitions Factory – clip (1940s, 884KB, 21 sec.)
Berry Picking – clip (1950s ?, 891KB, 20 sec.)
Three clips from the Yorkshire Film Archive in the UK.
& a glimpse of some lost worlds.
It’s a crime more of these films are not digitised & available
for immediate view & that the online documentation is so poor.
Makes one doubly thankful for the wonderful Prelinger Archive…
