04.12.13 |
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There’s been a trend in recent years where luxury fashion companies hire big name film directors and stars for a TV spot or short video. I’ve found most to be pretty lack luster for the exception of David Lynch’s work with Calvin Klein and Gucci; even on blatantly commercial endeavors Lynch’s vision shines through. But I had fun with this series of spots for Prada by famed indie director Wes Anderson and his frequent collaborator Roman Coppola. It’s no Rushmore, but it was cool seeing Anderson’s usual tropes of centered framing and whip pans in this context.
04.11.13 |
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Classic film buff Jordan Krug collects and scans contact sheets from a bunch of legendary films, posting the results on his blog. The majority are rare and unpublished. Just scanning the past few week, there’s work here from Chinatown, Rocky and Dirty Harry. Really cool stuff.
04.09.13 |
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Film critic Wesley Morris, writing for Grantland:
They were not the first to hold movies to some broad, high standard — but they were the first to do so in our living rooms. The show became famous for evaluating films in the same way the Romans passed judgment on defeated gladiators: with their thumbs. But, really, what Siskel and Ebert instilled in the civilian filmgoer was perception. Movies had a surface that could be penetrated and explored. They taught us how else to watch.
There’s been many, many tributes to Ebert’s sad passing, but Morris’s for me was virtually pitch perfect (little surprise given he’s a rare film critic that’s won a Pulitzer.) A mix of pop enthusiasm and serious politics (Ebert championed many minority filmmakers, from Spike Lee to Justin Lin), Roger Ebert changed the game of film criticism. I doubt we’ll ever see another film critic with his impact for a very long time.
04.05.13 |
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There’s little I have to add here: Pacino yelling, going over-the-top in all his famous roles, from “Attica!” in Dog Day Afternoon to “She’s got a…great ass!” in Heat. Delightful.
04.03.13 |
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Really brilliant super cut of Bruce Willis being pursued by characters in 39 different action films. If you’re even vaguely into Willis or classic action films, it’s a fun way to spend ten minutes.
03.29.13 |
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This post over at Definition Magazine admittedly gets pretty technical, wading into a lot of hard core cinematography tools and cameras that I didn’t fully understand. Nevertheless, if you’re into film it’s a revealing read talking about shooting a film on the ground in often harsh, hostile conditions. Make sure you make it to the end where Zero Dark Thirty DP Greig Fraser talks about setting up a lab secretly in a Jordanian hotel. Crazy stuff; huge drives, a 42″ calibrated monitor and a Mac Pro all running through the night as principal photography was conducted during the day.
03.29.13 |
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Giancarlo Esposito, best known as Gus Fring from the Breaking Bad series has a really thorough, highly entertaining talk with The A.V. Club on his past roles, from Miami Vice to Malcolm X and of course Breaking Bad.
Esposito is incredibly charming and eloquent, consistent with the other journalistic appearances I’ve seen him in. A few surprises here as well, like way back in 1982 where he worked on Sesame Street (!):
But what I learned from that show was that there are never any small parts or any small characters. You could be inside a bird costume and still have an incredible effect. I absolutely loved that job, because it was like taking care of a big kid! Mickey’s all practical; he’s a guy who’s Big Bird’s camp counselor for a couple of weeks. But that provided me with a couple of weeks’ work and an opportunity to work with a master. You see Big Bird, but you rarely see who he is. You kind of do, though. You feel his mastery. How wild is life, that you only see him through his feathers? [Laughs.] He affected my life in a major way.
03.28.13 |
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Film critic Karina Longworth, writing for Slate:
Pacino’s career has long seemed to run on a parallel track to that of Robert DeNiro, and while there’s no shortage of apparent money-grubbing laurel-resting on the young Vito Corleone’s resume, De Niro has shown more agility with reinvention. His recent return to Academy approval, cultural vitality, and general respect via his supporting role in Silver Linings Playbook suggests a kind of savvy that it’s hard to imagine present-day Pacino exhibiting, as well as workmanlike humility. DeNiro’s work in Silver Linings proves that he can take and play a role that a lot of other actors could play. When was the last time Pacino played anything but Pacino?
03.27.13 |
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A super cut of Steven Soderbergh’s work as cinematographer throughout his films. Almost everyone knows Soderbergh as the indie breakthrough that’s made many very well constructed films of the past two decades, from Traffic to the Oceans Eleven series. Yet many forget he often serves as DP on his own films under a Peter Andrews pseudonym. There’s a certain aesthetic look of his that has slightly changed over the years; in more recent years he has favored very shallow focus, tighter closeups and less camera movement.
03.12.13 |
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Sizemore had a huge presence as a smaller character actor in the 90s, often as a someone with rough edges (see also Michael Madsen.) It was a bummer to see the actor go through such a messy life in the last decade, but in a way that’s what makes this A.V. Club interview so revealing. I really liked this passage talking about his relationships kept up from his time in Saving Private Ryan and Heat:
All those guys were great, especially De Niro and Hanks, who I got really close to, and Mann. They never deserted me. When I was going through my difficult times they never were far away. They’d call me and check on me. And when something happens to you, when something bad happens to you, you find out who your friends are. Those guys are my friends. They were my friends when I wasn’t doing well, and I’m happy to report that they’re my friends today.
You can be cynical and argue it’s Hollywood name dropping, but I think he’s genuine. Besides, the guy has a point regarding down times.