Cinemension

Doctor Who's Top 11 Catchphrases

2012-01-29T11:10:00.000-06:00

5 Things I Don't Like About Doctor Who

2012-01-29T11:09:00.000-06:00

COLOURISED DOCTOR WHO - The Babelcolour Portfolio

2012-01-27T02:14:00.000-06:00

Every Doctor Who Story 1963 to Now - A Babelcolour Tribute

2012-01-26T02:15:00.000-06:00

The Penelopiad

2012-01-25T05:23:00.000-06:00

Megan Follows- why isn't she a Hollywood icon?

Theo Angelopoulos Dead

2012-01-25T03:01:00.003-06:00

Reports say he was killed by a motorcycle, at 76, and some reports claim it was a Greek donuteater. Fuck! No trilogy ending. Release The Dust Of Time on DVD in the USA! Release all his films!

Cats of Mirikitani Trailer

2012-01-24T03:01:00.000-06:00

Ok doc with potential unfilled.

Bill Cunningham New York Trailer

2012-01-23T03:02:00.000-06:00

A good, solid doc that's been wildly overpraised, but which fails to get at the nub of the man. It plays it too safe.

2001 Space Odyssey - Blue Danube (fullhd)

2012-01-22T22:26:00.000-06:00

THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE. Robert Evans

2012-01-21T03:45:00.000-06:00

Kurt Vonnegut in Back to School

2012-01-20T21:01:00.000-06:00

Kurt Vonnegut makes a guest appearance as himself in a bad 80s movie.

The Kid Stays in the Picture Trailer

2012-01-20T09:12:00.000-06:00

A good doc.

Banksy filmed live by The Sunday Times

2012-01-19T10:36:00.000-06:00

Banksy in Palestine

2012-01-18T08:57:00.000-06:00

"Exit Through The Gift Shop" - Official Trailer [HD]

2012-01-17T11:14:00.000-06:00

Ridiculously bad doc.

Buck | trailer SUNDANCE 2011

2012-01-16T10:17:00.000-06:00

So-so doc.

Her Name is Sabine - preview

2012-01-15T10:58:00.000-06:00

Bad vanity doc.

Victor Erice's The Spirit of The Beehive

2012-01-14T23:55:00.001-06:00

Erice is one of those directors that very little is known about them. He made three movies only, one of them is a documentary. The other two are "The Spirit of The Beehive" and "The South". Only Beehive (Erice's very first long-feature work) is available in the US (thanks to Criterion) and it is a superb work.
In one line, it's about Anna: a little girl who lives a traumatizing experience. But the film is an excellent study of childhood via Anna and her sister Isabel, one of the best I've seen. Adding to this is the superb (painting-like) cinematography and the visual settings that Erice used in the movie.
The cinematography was done by Luis Cuadrado who started to suffer from a blinding illness during the shooting of beehive, he ended up with total blindness a few years later.

I hope the movie will play one of these days on a big screen in NYC so I can watch it the way it is supposed to be watched. His other work (South) is supposedly a masterpiece too, Criterion should consider acquiring it, meanwhile I will not pay $100+ to get it from France or Spain.
The movie is available on Youtube (though not the way it should be watched), I re-watched it tonight on Hulu (on a big-screen TV).

Links for the DVD extra (Criterion) and the movie itself:

Ulysses´ Gaze Best Scene

2012-01-14T10:37:00.000-06:00

Eleni

2012-01-13T02:20:00.000-06:00

A great movie my cat likes.

Trois Minutes - Theo Angelopoulos

2012-01-12T01:56:00.000-06:00

Harry Escott: Unravelling ("Shame" Motion Picture Soundtrack)

2012-01-10T14:00:00.000-06:00

Harry Escott: Brandon ("Shame" Motion Picture Soundtrack)

2012-01-10T13:59:00.000-06:00

Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass 1

2012-01-10T13:53:00.000-06:00

Ceylan's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

2012-01-08T21:52:00.001-06:00

Though Ceylan's latest work is described as a movie about police procedural and a detailed trip to recover a corpse, it is intended by Ceylan to be about the psychological/internal/existential journey that the involved professionals (mainly a prosecutor, a police officer, and a doctor) will take during this trip. There are other interesting characters, like the criminal himself and the driver but they are relatively less developed. The film promises a rewarding experience, but this is not the case. Despite the effort to give those characters depth and a believable existential struggle (the whole point of this movie), the result is half-acceptable for the most developed ones (the prosecutor and the doctor, to a lesser degree the driver), at times cartoonish (the officer)...etc
After the first half and especially towards the last third the movie starts to lose focus, some scenes are not needed, some scenes are forced to give some depth (the doctor going through old photos of his ex-wife to "explain" his reaction towards one woman they met on the trip). Though I think it will be criticized but I'm glad that Ceylan left the motive behind the murder almost unexplored, and so is the criminal's character. (At some point it is hinted that he is not actually the killer) This would have even a much stronger effect on the movie if the characters were written with more complexity to achieve the existential trip that Ceylan wanted.

That doesn't mean the movie is bad, but it is not an excellent work. Ceylan still suffers (despite the help from his wife and his friend) content-wise. This is a major problem. Some moments are great and well crafted and executed, those were mostly some mundane ironies that are scattered in the movie (similar to those in climates and distant). Visually the film is stunning (maybe his best).
Visually this movie is very similar to tarr's work (usually I don't compare Ceylan's to Tarr's work but I couldn't escape the resemblance with the Man From London and Damnation despite those being in Black and White). Theme-wise it has a lot of Kiarostamian moments: the landscapes of The Wind Will Carry Us, the falling objects: in "Close Up" an empty bottle, in The Wind Will Carry Us a fruit, here an apple keeps rolling aimlessly and is tracked by the camera. The professionals and even the trailer above itself may resemble Tarkovski's Stalker, though is movie is not even close to Tarkovski's excellent work.

So overall, it is a major step up from Three Monkeys substance-wise and style-wise (less contrasted and less digitally manipulated), but it is not near Distant or Climates. Maybe Ceylan will never be able to make a third great movie again, unless it's a skeleton cast of 2 or 3 unprofessional actors with less ambitious stories, or maybe he won't at all.

A much milder disappointment than Three Monkeys.

SHAME: "Sidewalk Conversation"

2012-01-07T09:48:00.000-06:00

Shame Trailer # 2

2012-01-06T10:16:00.000-06:00

Shame (2011): trailer

2012-01-06T10:14:00.000-06:00

Greta film.

Who Is The Bigger Gay Icon?

2012-01-06T10:08:00.004-06:00

M&M?

Or Leo D.?

Whats my line Steve McQueen

2012-01-04T11:35:00.000-06:00

STEVE MCQUEEN - KING OF COOL

2012-01-03T09:41:00.000-06:00

CHE Steven Soderbergh @ NYFF Q&A Part 1

2012-01-01T13:55:00.000-06:00

HUNGER Q&A: Steve McQueen at NYFF

2011-12-31T08:37:00.000-06:00

"Hunger" [Film] by Steve McQueen [Director] - Interviews (3/4)

2011-12-30T10:06:00.000-06:00

"Hunger" - Steve McQueen interview (4/4)

2011-12-29T01:20:00.000-06:00

Out of Time: The story of a man who forgot about time.

2011-12-28T15:52:00.002-06:00

Out of Time - Trailer from Zeke Brizuela on Vimeo.

Check out this trailer of a short film by an up and coming Argentinian film maker named Zeke Brizuela. Looks interesting. Read more about it here.

The subject reminds me a bit of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's film Distant.

"Hunger" - Steve McQueen interview (3/4)

2011-12-28T07:48:00.000-06:00

"Hunger" - Steve McQueen interview (2/4)

2011-12-27T09:32:00.000-06:00

"Hunger" - Steve McQueen interview (1/4)

2011-12-26T11:09:00.000-06:00

HUNGER - OFFICIAL TRAILER

2011-12-25T15:10:00.000-06:00

Great film debut. Best non-musical soundtrack I've heard in a long time.

It's A Wonderful Life Original Uncut Version 1946

2011-12-24T18:10:00.000-06:00

Jackie Evancho The first noel

2011-12-24T08:33:00.000-06:00

Jackie Evancho first audition Americas Got Talent full with result and c...

2011-12-23T12:01:00.000-06:00

Jackie Evancho - Angel (from PBS Great Performances)

2011-12-22T09:27:00.000-06:00

Damn, what a talented kid.

Actor Who Played Danno On 'Hawaii Five-O' Dies

2011-12-21T09:19:00.000-06:00

Jack Lord Changes over 12 Seasons of Hawaii Five O

2011-12-20T10:31:00.000-06:00

Jack Lord on the Mike Douglas Show - Part 2

2011-12-19T01:33:00.000-06:00

"SESSION 9" Official Trailer (2001)

2011-12-18T15:45:00.001-06:00

Because I am sick of Dan posting this horrible writing advice from this hack writer, I thought I'd post a trailer of a film I streamed last night.

This is an example of a movie that didn't know where to go. On one hand, it is supposed to be a "horror" film (read: scary) and then on the other hand, the film spends a lot of time focusing on the working class characters hired on to clean up an abandoned insane asylum.

Ok, this isn't nec., a bad thing, right? Except for the fact that the movie doesn't have enough character development for it to work on the working-class character level, and then it is not even remotely scary enough to work on the horror level. After watching, I have no idea what this was even about because the ending was left very ambiguous. And while ambiguity is great for a poetic film, it doesn't work for a rote, linear a-b-c plot driven film as this.

I still have no idea what "Session 9" was referring to--there is a case involved but I fail to see how it connects with the men cleaning the building. Did the looney bin "possess" them in some way? Was the guy who became nuts somehow related to it? It tried to offer "twists" to a plot that made little sense.

It is a rarity for me to complain about plot points being unanswered. But if the film fails on the level of depth, character development AND horror, what else is there? This was like the director had one foot on the boat and one on the dock, and neither worked. The ending peters out and I have no idea what the point was. Something tells me neither did the folks who wrote this film.

Resist the Urge to Explain -- Lessons From Silas Marner by George

2011-12-18T09:58:00.000-06:00

Keep Unlikable Characters From Alienating Readers

2011-12-17T02:47:00.000-06:00

Ugh!

Who Said What? - Identifying Dialogue Speakers

2011-12-16T02:37:00.000-06:00

All of these points means she must hacve very little room to write anything of depth.

The perfect book for her to [pen is HOW NOT TO WRITE WELL.

Nick Apollo Forte - Agita

2011-12-15T23:05:00.000-06:00

Great song from Broadway Danny Rose.

Is Your Story's Clock Ticking? - Lessons From The Guns of Navarone

2011-12-15T10:27:00.000-06:00

One wonders if this babe ever had an interesting insight?

How to Write an Epilogue That Works - Lessons from How to Buy a Love of ...

2011-12-14T09:15:00.000-06:00

The sweeping assumptions this woman makes shows how linear, limited, and trite her mind is.

Hawaii Five 0 Intro

2011-12-13T16:19:00.001-06:00

Also watching this: 15-20 seconds in. Jack Lord was a Motherfucker and an Asskicker. Greatest theme credits entry in history. The wobbly camera approach up to the balcony, and Jack- as McGarrett, smoothly and calmly turns around and says, 'Be cool, bitches. I got this by the balls!' What a better way to encapsulate and define a character!

Mission: Impossible Opening Montage 1

2011-12-13T16:17:00.000-06:00

Been watching old episodes of this. Great theme song.

Three Places Where You Should Tell Instead of Show - Lessons From Patric...

2011-12-13T10:23:00.000-06:00

Even when she recommends writers, they are bad. Just Google.

This woman is actually quite cute, and has a sweet personality. Too bad her ears have a wind tunnel betwixt them.

More Weiland

2011-12-12T12:17:00.001-06:00

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2009/07/making-cliches-work-for-you.html

Read the horror. She has no clue as to what a cliche is, even as she recognizes the need to undo them.

A Hack's Hack

2011-12-11T14:27:00.001-06:00

http://www.amazon.com/Behold-Dawn-K-M-Weiland/dp/0978924614/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323634895&sr=1-4#reader_0978924614

Herein the trite opening to a book by K.M. Weiland. It's so trite and larded with cliches, which is expected since her advice is so trite and predictable. Be a hack like me, she says!

Are You Sabotaging Your Own Character?

2011-12-11T10:23:00.000-06:00

Again, not a dram of showing, even though KM Weiland repeats the cliche dof showing not telling.

How to Tell if Your Backstory Is Boring - Lessons From The Three Muskete...

2011-12-10T09:52:00.000-06:00

I've come to the conclusion that this gal is to writing what a big boobed stripper is to a date. You just wanna tell her to keep her mouth shut.

Skip the Boring Parts - Lessons From Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

2011-12-09T09:56:00.000-06:00

It's amazing that she never uses a single quotation from the works she cites.

How Scene and Chapter Length Control Pacing

2011-12-08T10:44:00.000-06:00

More bad advice. Short chapters and sentences do not necessarily mean nor imply speed. There are numerous other things it can mean- such as allowing gray in the moment or character, and inviting a reader to imbue more into such.

It's no wonder writing today is so bad when people like this are giving advice.

Help Readers Keep Your Characters Straight

2011-12-07T01:27:00.000-06:00

Typical MFA bullshit: obvious, but irrelevant to writers of quality. The 3rd 'helpful hint' is ridiculous.

The 3 Mortal Sins of Fiction

2011-12-06T10:39:00.000-06:00

Why does she not 'NAME' Jane Austen? She's been dead a few hundred years.

Plus, of all of Austen's sins of commission, these 3 listed are NOT among them, nor are they problems; unless you are a hack formula writer who does not have the ability to connect with readers in a deeper manner....sort of like Ms. Weiland, perhaps?

The Cure-All for Long and Boring Narrative

2011-12-05T03:14:00.000-06:00

This woman would make a terrible teacher. She never demonstrates- put up the text!

Drama vs. Melodrama: Can You Tell the Difference?

2011-12-04T10:10:00.000-06:00

This woman is incredibly banal and obvious. She also gives no examples of the things she discusses.

How to Bring Adjectives to Life - Lessons From East of the Mountains by ...

2011-12-03T01:27:00.000-06:00

Well, this is generic and bad advice about writing.

Authors@Google: T.C. Boyle

2011-12-02T03:02:00.001-06:00

A hack explaining hackery. Around 28 minutes in, he basically admits he's shallow.

Donald Ray Pollock's "Pills"

2011-12-01T09:33:00.000-06:00

Oh God, a movie from that piece of shit book?

Expelling A John Cheever Myth

2011-11-30T10:20:00.000-06:00

Don DeLillo & John Humphrys

2011-11-29T12:46:00.000-06:00

Don DeLillo & Melissa Block

2011-11-28T09:32:00.000-06:00

HUNGER - OFFICIAL TRAILER

2011-11-26T21:28:00.000-06:00

Wow, this is an impressive film. On streaming and worth the watch. The 1st half has pretty much no dialogue and only images, and then a long dialogue sequence between a prisoner and a priest. I would have to rewatch it to catch everything, but it's not based on the Knut Hamsun novel. If you want something visual, philosophical and existential, this is for you.

Don DeLillo Reads from Mao II

2011-11-26T02:21:00.000-06:00

Larry McCaffery Discusses William T. Vollmann at MLA 2011: Part Two

2011-11-25T09:44:00.000-06:00

William T. Vollmann Part 1

2011-11-24T09:16:00.000-06:00

Another writer who's 'fame' is that he self-marginalizes himself and writes diarrhetically.

12. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

2011-11-23T09:45:00.000-06:00

Woody Allen: A Documentary - First Look | AMERICAN MASTERS | PBS

2011-11-22T10:24:00.000-06:00

American Masters: Woody Allen

2011-11-21T22:17:00.000-06:00

I just finished watching the PBS American Masters doc. on Woody Allen, which is available online. (Part 1 as of this writing and Part 2 shortly will follow.)

While this 3.5 hr doc. is mostly thorough, Part 1 and 2 are almost like different films. (I said almost.) Part 1 is the better half, since it goes into how Allen got involved in film in the first place, and covers his early development as an artist, his relationship with Diane Keaton, etc. Part 2 is more on commercialism and scandal, though it does cover his films with Mia Farrow.

But as for a few things that disappointed me: all the critics made it seem like Stardust Memories was a "misstep" and a "failure" of grand proportion, though none of them really stated why. Just read Dan's review and see how he disagrees with that. Stardust Memories is one of the greatest films I've ever seen in my life, so to call this masterpiece a "failure" even more than 30 years after the fact made me depressed a little.

The second disappointment is that the doc. didn't even mention Another Woman, which is another one of his greatest films. In fact, if I could rank his three best films overall, they would be Stardust Memories, Another Woman and Crimes and Misdemeanors. One out of those films was mentioned as a failure and the other wasn't even mentioned at all.

Yet why the boner for Matchpoint? Ah, because it made some money and sort of made him "cool" in a way, after various lackluster films like Jade Scorpion, Hollywood Ending and Anything Else. Though the doc. neglected to mention that Allen recycled his own material from Crimes and Misdemeanors, albeit differently. Granted, Matchpoint is a good film, but no Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Perhaps the most ridiculous was when they made it seem like A Mid Summer Night's Sex Comedy was somehow an indication that Allen was back on the "right track" after having "fallen off it" as result of Stardust Memories. Other than being the first film with Mia Farrow, it's just an ok, lite movie.

The doc. is worth the watch, even though I found the critics ill informed and overall ignorant about what makes for a great film. Oh, and for only calling Interiors "heavy." Heavy? That's all they can say about it? What a bunch of Joeys.

Hawaii Five 0 Intro

2011-11-21T10:33:00.000-06:00

Jack Lord was one badass motherfucking asskicker! Another great great tv theme song.

Mission: Impossible Opening Montage 1

2011-11-20T10:39:00.000-06:00

Terrific show from the 60s. So MUCH better than what passes for drama on TV these days- better writing, better acting and one of the better theme songs in TV history. Up next: Hawaii 5-O.

Dave Eggers TED Prize 4 Minute Talk

2011-11-19T09:55:00.000-06:00

Amazing how many hacks win awards like this TED Prize or the MacArthur Genius Grants. So totally out of touch with reality.

Bret Easton Ellis Slams Self-Censorship Among Artists

2011-11-18T10:01:00.000-06:00

Interesting that these interviewers never ask any questions that don't kiss ass. Never anything controversial.

Fight Club's Chuck Palahniuk Talks Latest Book, Tell-All'

2011-11-17T02:07:00.000-06:00

Another vapid interview: Upchuck ponders why people don't read literature. Does not that, de facto, require that the queried actually write literature?

Walt Whitman: American Experience (Subt. español).

2011-11-16T08:20:00.000-06:00

Whitman PBS DOc. online.

Arts: A Conversation With T. C. Boyle - NYTImes.com/Video

2011-11-16T01:37:00.000-06:00

Another bad writer who somehow gets praised despite bad dialogue, no characterization, and no depth, plus an over-reliance on cliches.

Joyce Carol Oates - On Writing Characters

2011-11-15T09:59:00.000-06:00

It would actually benefit if the speaker could actually practice what she preaches.

James Frey Interview #1

2011-11-14T10:33:00.000-06:00

One of the rare sub-DFW level writers.

Texas Water - Part 2 - Elmer Kelton: The Time it Never Rained

2011-11-13T11:19:00.000-06:00

Elmer Kelton Western Writers of America 6/08

2011-11-12T10:41:00.000-06:00

Spark Media interview with Elmer Kelton, the voice of Vardis Fisher in S...

2011-11-11T01:08:00.000-06:00

Charlie Rose interviews David Foster Wallace, 1/4

2011-11-10T03:33:00.000-06:00

The world's least interesting man continues to drone....

Endnotes: David Foster Wallace (BBC Documentary)

2011-11-09T10:08:00.000-06:00

What a bad doc.

David Foster Wallace on Commercial literature and reading

2011-11-08T10:46:00.000-06:00

What an idiot. listen to the first 30 seconds.

David Foster Wallace on Literature

2011-11-07T10:40:00.000-06:00

His writing's banality is only rivaled by the utter vacuity of what he speaks.

Raymond Carver (2 of 5)

2011-11-06T09:26:00.000-06:00

Raymond Carver (1 of 5)

2011-11-05T10:16:00.000-05:00

Philip Roth at The Center for Fiction (1/3)

2011-11-04T12:01:00.000-05:00

Blake Bailey on John Cheever (2/3)

2011-11-03T03:00:00.000-05:00