Excellent discussion over at Slashfilm this week regarding the death of film as a physical media. Hosts Dave, Devindra and Adam break down the implications for a half hour, covering technology, economics and the emotional attachment to celluloid.
Because the Slashfilmcast moved to a shorter, more streamlined format a few weeks ago to accommodate host Dave’s new day job, I didn’t expect we’d see in depth discussions like this. Kudos to the team for keeping production levels high.
Two hundred plus comments on what you should watch from Netflix’s streaming library. It’s territory covered heavily elsewhere online, but especially if you’re new to Netflix and bewildered where to start, there’s some good options here.
The A.V. Club’s Mike D’Angelo on that car chase from The French Connection:
Early in the scene, it’s mostly Hackman (who later became a mildly successful amateur race-car driver) behind the wheel, clearly visible either in profile or in the rear-view mirror. But the second half features footage shot from the front bumper, and that’s Hickman (“Hickman, Hackman. Hackman, Hickman”) barreling down actual, non-staged Brooklyn traffic at what Friedkin, who was operating from the back seat, claims was upward of 90 miles per hour. Some sources—notably cinematographer Owen Roizman—claim this is exaggerated slightly…you can still tell that what you’re seeing was in no way safe, and the idea that most of those other cars are just ordinary folks going about their day is mind-boggling. Do they even know they’re in the movie, or do they just think they narrowly avoided being hit by some random asshole?
If you love films and got a few hours to spare, the latest podcast episode of Battleship Pretension is a must listen. It’s a chronological review of the 90s independent film movement, from Sex, Lies and Videotape to Bottle Rocket and The Virgin Suicides. Hosts Tyler and David discuss each film’s influence, lasting quality, and how many of the movement’s “it” directors (Tarantino, Smith, Rodriguez, Anderson) evolved in later years.
To me, Rouge! Is a traditional musical, except with twice as many shots run at the speed of a trance remix. The Transporter is a Euro-trash version of a John Woo cartoon. And Friday Night Lights with graceful camera? Nope. Boring. We’d never be able to slink into those sizzling Texas mini-worlds on network time. And I’ve not yet mentioned Paul W.S. Anderson’s jaw-dropper of a surprise, Resident Evil: Afterlife, one of the greatest uses of multi-level geometry and spatiality in cinema I can recall seeing, where oneattack scene features twenty or so color-coded Milla Jovoviches attacking hundreds of color-coded bad guys, and it’s not even a high point.
Chaos, I think, has been evolving.
He’s got a point. Much maligned “chaos cinema” would technically embrace the Bourne films. And 28 Weeks Later. True, the ratio of bad to good films in the chaos canon is staggeringly high, but let’s not completely overlook what’s great.
As she sprints through the forest, Katniss is carrying the burden of multiple symbolic identities. She’s an athlete, a media celebrity and a warrior as well as a sister, a daughter, a loyal friend and (potential) girlfriend. In genre terms she is a western hero, an action hero, a romantic heroine and a tween idol. She is Natty Bumppo, Diana the chaste huntress of classical myth, and also the synthesis of Harry Potter and Bella Swan — the Boy Who Lived and the Girl Who Must Choose.
As is clear from the above, A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis go through some pretty deep analysis of why Katniss is such a hot character in this lengthy Times piece. To its credit, it touches on a lot of social and psychological issues from The Hunger Games I've generally dismissed up till now.
Great small film websites can die, but that doesn't stop great writing from continuing on. Screened was one such site, with a wiki like interface and a lot of personality. But last week the site was sold off to new management with all the writing staff disbanded.
Nevertheless, Screened's head writer Matt Rorie is now setting up temporary residence over at his Tumblr blog. The guy is an excellent writer so check him out; not a lot there yet, but it shows a lot of promise with a kick ass review of The Raid and some commentary on Netflix.
Finally caught up with Take Shelter late yesterday evening, and Michael Shannon’s performance completely blew me away. Yet that ending…I won’t spoil anything, but if you’ve seen the film, there’s a pretty in depth discussion here over at the Criterion Forum regarding exactly what happened.
Danish film can be a hard starter for many; mainstream moviegoers harp on the usual “downsides” applicable to foreign film: subtitles, unorthodox plotting, and no recognizable stars. Even art house veterans can find it hard to dissociate Denmark’s output from the well known (infamous?) director Lars von Trier, who’s films run cold, experimental and arguably misanthropic.
There’s more out there. What follows are three very different Danish films in three varied genres, all personal favorites of mine and a starting point for learning more about what Danish (or for some, just plain foreign) cinema has to offer.
As more and more people watch film in ways different from the “traditional” formats of the theaters and DVDs, the progress bar, a indicator that shows exactly how far into a film the viewer is, has become commonplace. While instinctively it’s a great device to help navigate back and forth through a movie, I’ve got serious problems with the device, as it can completely kill the enveloping effect of a movie.
