Zeitgeist Films

For all of you guys who didn't have the chance to watch NB Ceylan's latest two works: the masterpiece Climates and the visually stunning Three Monkeys. They are both now being released as region-1 (US format) DVD by Zeitgeist Films. Climates was previously released by The New Yorker Video that went out of business around a year ago. The company was supposed to release Three Monkeys as well.

This is the Trailers for both movies:





I always enjoy reading Dan's review about these two works (see links above) but also the great review he wrote about Ceylan's Distant (I read it more than ten times and I enjoyed each reading).

There Will Be Blood

Just watched this latest Paul Thomas Anderson film and it's the latest in a series of so-called masterpieces from well known directors that are not what is claimed, and worse, represents a severe regression in the filmmaker's canon. Like N.B. Ceylan's Three Monkeys and Bela Tarr's The Man From London, this film is a regression for Anderson, and a worse film than Punch-Drunk Love, Boogie Nights, and even, arguably, Magnolia (yes, I know that had Tom 'The Mannekin' Cruise in it)

Simply put- no tale, hammy acting by Daniel Day Lewis, and no character development. It is Anderson's attempt to make a 21st Century Citizen Kane. But he's not Orson Welles.

The trailer:

Bela Tarr's 'Woody Allen' Moment

2007's The Man From London, by Bela Tarr, is the least of his 4 'mature' films I've seen, and for two major reasons.

1) the plot is not just confusing- as many critics claim of films they do not understand- just simplistic and not believable in its own diegetic timeline.

2) Tarr's film steals major visual and thematic elements from his earlier films- Satantango, Damnation, and Werckmeister Harmonies- and in far lesser ways, that it reminds me of Woody Allen's films of the last 17 years, as they mimic his 1977-92 Golden Age.

Along with the disappointment of N.B. Ceylan's last film, Three Monkeys, this pains me to say, but Tarr may be on a long downward slide from here. He just seems to have nothing left to say and no original ways to say it.

I just hope that when it's finally released on DVD, Theo Angelopoulos's The Dust Of Time does not also fail, like Tarr and Ceylan did.

Here's the trailer, and note it's nothing like the film, a clip of which follows below:


MAN FROM LONDON: Movie Trailer - The best home videos are here

Three Monkeys (Take Three)

Ok, so I got around to seeing the film- a bit of a disappointment. Visually, Ceylan continues to improve, but storywise, this is a second rate soap opera, and a bit too moralistic.

I wrote of it here, and will have a forthcoming review, but overall, a disappointment.

Three Monkeys Redux

Ok, I got the DVD of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's latest and will watch it this week.

He, like Bela Tarr, seems to get better with each film, so here's to trends.

And here's the trailer: