Nouvelle Vague!

In Search of a Midnight Kiss is an award-winning American independent comedy/romance written and directed by Alex Holdridge. Produced by Anne Walker, (Before Sunrise, Dazed and Confused)
It stars Scoot McNairy (Art School Confidential, Six Feet Under) and Sara Simmonds (Echoes of Innocence).

The film is set in 24 hours, where Wilson (Scoot McNairy), a twenty-nine-year old guy who has just had the worst year of his life, is new to Los Angeles, has no date, no plans and every intention of locking the doors and forgetting the last year ever happened. That is until his best friend, Jacob (Brian McGuire), pushed him posting a personal ad on Craig's List. When Vivian (Sara Simmonds), a persistent hellish young woman, on a mission to find the right guy at the stroke of midnight responds, a chaotic, sometimes hilarious, sometimes moving journey through the black and white streets of L.A. begins.

With sharp and funny dialogue, and beautiful shots, fans of Before Sunrise/ Before Sunset will love In Search of a Midnight Kiss. When the two embark on a spiritual and emotional odyssey. Bonding through the act of conversation. When perfect strangers connect so intimately over the course of a single day.

Monochrome, a Nouvelle Vague version of Los Angeles, In the Search of a Midnight Kiss is a very enjoyable experience, the low budget made it a tight production. More importantly it gives hope to film makers who have a low small budget.

Referring to the French New Wave ,a group of French film-makers between the years 1958 to 1964. François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer. Changed notions of how a film could be made, driven by a desire to forge a new cinema, with characters often marginalized, young anti-heroes and loners, with no family ties, who behave spontaneously.
The French New Wave directors took advantage of the new technology that was available to them in the late 1950s, working on location rather than in studio. Quickly and cheaply shot with portable and flexible equipment, encouraged experimentation and improvisation, generating more artistic freedom, giving films a casual and natural look. Available light was preferred to studio-style lighting and available sound was preferred to extensive studio dubbing. In A Bout de Souffle by Jean-Luc Godard (1959), the cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who worked on many of the French New Wave films, was pushed around in a wheelchair, following the characters down the street and into buildings.
French New Wave cinema was a personal cinema. The film-makers were writers who were skillful at examining relationships and telling humane stories.
In Search of a Midnight Kiss, as in the French New Wave, the actors are charismatic and talented, and yet they're always believable as human, all too human – beings.

Many contemporary filmmakers, including Quentin Tarentino, and Wes Anderson, claim influence from the New Wave. Quentin Tarantino dedicated Reservoir Dogs to Jean-Luc Godard and named his production company A Band Apart, a play on words of the Godard film Bande a Part. Additionally, Wes Anderson's wry comedies are known to carry influence from the French New Wave; for example, the opening scenes of The Royal Tennenbaums closely mimic the style and cinematography used in the opening scene of Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7.

It seems like The French New Wave never left the scene, In Search of a Midnight Kiss gives us a modern indie version,
looks as if it's shot on the cheapest camera on the market, and yet it also feels magical when a witty, neurotic man and woman walking around a city, exchanging frank theories of love and life.
This film got more audience reaction than I've seen for a long time.
Recommended for those with big hearts.



-Laure Brosson-
Published in www.artnouveaumagazine.com

The Strangers

The Strangers is one of those rare horror movies that concentrates on suspense and terror rather than on gore and a high body count. It isn't a splatter movie, in which there are usually a large amount of dispensable protagonists, who are all shriveled, but one or two survive. This movie focuses on just two characters who don't survive, and the whole action involves showing them being really, really scared.

Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman star as Kristen McKay and James Hoyt, a young couple on their way to the Hoyt family summer home after attending a friend's wedding. There is an aura of sadness around the couple as they arrive home to find everything set up for a romantic evening with rose petals spread in the house. However, a flashback revealed that a failed proposal was the reason for the sadness. As the troubled couple talk prior to reconciling, a loud knock at the door shatters their peace and begins a long night of terror.
The couple hide in the house with James' father's shotgun and try and defend themselves against their inexplicable tormentors, whose faces are concealed by freaky masks, a sack (Kip Weeks), a doll (Gemma Ward) and a pin-up girl (Laura Margolis).

Suspenseful and invested in silence, Bryan Bertino’s debut feature gives us a creepy atmospheric thriller with a death grip on the psychological aspect.
The Strangers closely follows the off-screen violence and the idea of being terrorized in your own home seen earlier this year in Funny Games, by Michael Haneke, except that in that movie the audience sees the torturers’ faces and understands to some degree the motives behind such brutal and inhumane acts. In The Strangers, the only motive behind the torture is that the people “were home”. No twists and no surprises, which could have been read in our local newspaper, that’s for why The Strangers is so scary, frightening facts did happen, and does happen. « According to the FBI, there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in America each year ».

Both Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler deliver solid performances as a couple caught at the most fragile moment in their relationship. Liv Tyler has the perfect scream to get you shaking in your seat.

We've see all of this before, unlikely The Strangers is not about plot or character development, this is a movie about chills and atmosphere.
Writer-director Bryan Bertino reminds you how care with camera placement and ambient sound can sustain these cat-and-mouse games.
The house/set design does create the perfect atmosphere for the invasion to take place, with muted colors and a shadowy hallway providing just the right backdrop for the action to unfold.

Unfortunately, the cat and mouse game goes on too long and the tension dies a little, it's just a pity that it goes on for a further 20 minutes, then the director lets down the audience by finishing up the film with a disappointing final scene. The build up over the course of the movie is slightly deflated by an ending that doesn't match the rest of the film.

Bryan Bertino, with his first movie, shows the skills to be a promising director, in spite of redundant length, he has delivered a good-looking, sophisticated exercise in scares.


-Laure Brosson-

Cannes in a Van!

The guerrilla cinema project that does exactly what it says on the tin ran for the second time this year at Cannes and has plans to go international
Text by Laure Brosson | Published in www.dazeddigital.com
26 August 2008


Right from the back of their van, they screen movies from all over the world, The smallest mobile film festival in the world is back from the Cannes Film Festival 2008, and now travel accross UK.
Andy Greenhouse, one of the founder of Cannes in a Van is talking to Dazed Digital, giving us hope for more audacious happenings.

-When did you start Cannes in a Van? Where did the concept came from?
It came from a drunken conversation at a wedding with my mate, Simon Harris. I've held a number of film nights in London before at The 100 Club and ran a short film podcast called ShallowShorts100. It seemed like a great idea to take some of those films down to the Cannes Film Festival and screen them from the back of a van. Cannes in a Van (The world's smallest mobile film festival / Perfect Vehicle for Independent Film) was the next step. We first went last year - 2007, so 2008 was only the second year. I intend on taking the van back to Cannes every year from now onwards.

-I know you are a few people involve in Cannes in a Van, could you tell us about you?
In 2007 it was me, Simon and a young journalist named Jamie, who wrote a blog. In May '08 Simon and Jamie couldn't commit, so I needed two new recruits. I ended up with 3 - Cath (an ex film student), Stuart (an underwater filmmaker who lives in Thailand) and Janus (a 60 year old Danish straight-talking film director/producer).

-Why Cannes, and not an other festival?
Because of the name of course! It rhymes. Seriously though, the contrast between the glitz and glamour of Cannes in festival swing and a rusty old yellow Transit van screening independent film seemed like a good reason. The festival celebrates cinema from all over the world, but lately, the festival has become soaked up in its own hype to an extent. I do love the craziness of it however, and it's a chance to screen independent British film to a truly international audience of influential movie people.

-What is your film selections? And how is the audience reaction?
Films are submitted directly to Cannes in a Van via the website: www.cannesinavan.com. Selections also come from various festivals and external sources such as Rushes Soho Shorts, Birds-Eye-View Film Festival and Channel 4's 3 Minute-Wonders.
The audience reaction is appreciative. They seem to like the guerrilla spirit of the van and our approach to the festival. They stop and watch in the middle of the street, normally with a smile on their face.

- The cinema is perceived as entertainment in a lot of countries, United States, UK... and cultural in France. Do you see yourself as entertainers? Or more in a cultural way?
Cannes in a Van is definitely somewhere in the middle. First and foremost it's entertainment – we screen a huge variety of films from all genres. It's also cultural in the sense that in this age where everything is all about the next technology, the smallest, the most memory, the sharpest image – we are going the other way, taking it back to basics. We simply screen films to the public from a big yellow van. The picture's not perfect, the sound is sometimes distorted, but the experience is unique.

-And what is your view on the British film industry?
The British film industry is hopefully on the up. There are a lot of people doing exciting things when you look outside of the big multiplex cinemas. Independent talent is booming because films have become cheap and easy to produce but funding is still largely from government schemes and a handful of familiar bodies. We will never have a huge industry like the US, but I think filmmakers are looking for alternative methods of funding their work. There's an organisation called The Movie Mogul Fund in Britain which encourages financial and creative involvement from filmmakers in a form of a 'shares' scheme. It will hopefully result in some great features and shorts produced outside the usual system.

-How does that work, with a Van, a mobile festival, i read you don't have any permission to show film, no licence, How do you manage that? A little risky for the sake of cinema!
I think the police go easy on us because we're not pedalling our own stuff. We're not promoting a product, we don't charge people to watch and I think they kinda like it. It's all in the spirit of guerrilla cinema so it would be wrong to have a license for it I guess!

-Do you get any sponsor? Despite the fact, you are clandestine projectionist.
I couldn't do it without sponsors. In 2007 we put most of the money up ourselves, but on the website, had an option to 'buy parts' of the van. This meant a person or company could buy a steering wheel for £75 and would get a logo on the van.
This year we had further support from Dailymotion, Final Draft, ShallowDesign and MovieScope magazine.

-Where can we see Cannes in a Van apart from Cannes? As a mobile festival, you could be anywhere!
We just played the Secret Garden Party in a field near Cambridge and have a few screenings lined up in London. In the coming year Cannes in a Van will become part of The (Untitled) Film Festival and continue screening in new and unusual environments. We're always into new ideas.

-How do you promote yourself as your notoriety has gone bigger.
We use film networking sites like Shooting People and Talent Circle, aswell as traditional press and media if they'll have us! If people like what we do, they can go to www.cannesinavan.com or email twoblokes@cannesinavan.com.

-What is the future for Cannes in a Van?
There's talk of a Cannes in a Van world tour – taking hundreds of international films around the world to the remotest of places and screening them. We'll need a serious sponsor naturally and maybe a TV deal... but it's something I'd like to make happen. It would be nice to rock the van up at Sundance on a brisk winter morning!
Then of course there's our future Cannes trips. We'll be there as long as the sun shines, bringing independent film to the masses on the Croisette. Look out for a big yellow van showing films and chances are - that's probably us.



-Laure Brosson-

YOU KNOW WHAT…HERE IT IS IN FULL…

Yes, here is the full interview that I did for DAZED DIGITAL, & I think this does Laure credit, as her questions were pretty good...& you know me, I love to give a long answer...enjoy, i think it is better.

DAZED DIGITAL INTERVIEW IN FULL - Q's : Laure Brosson & A's : by me.

Did your upbringing in any way influence your decision to become involved in fashion?

That would have to be a yes. My Parents were in ‘the business’, wait they still are in the business. They never stop. But in answer to your question, yes. My mother, Jubilee was probably the biggest influence. She was a face about town in the late 60’s early 70’s & hung out with all the players. She was good friends with Ossie Clarke, Barbara Hulanicki (Biba)...& mad Tommy Roberts (Mr Freedom) to name a few, she knew everyone. So I was always surrounded by these creative people & being carried around Gt Titchfield Street, which is where we lived...smack bang in the middle of the Garment Industry. We then moved to Pakistan in 1973, where she & my dad Marty opened a factory.
A nice Muslim Indian/EastAfrican Woman & A nice Jewish Boy from Brooklyn & 2 kids...who says that peace process does not work. My 1st design experience came when I was about 7. I was really into Cowboys & Indians...& I loved the way that the gunslinger always wore one glove on his shooting hand. Well I remember tracing my hand over a bit of jersey & giving it to one of the sample machinists to cut the 2 sides & sew it for me. I had my own glove. My 1st Pattern Cutting & Design experience.
But to go back to the question, I always wanted to be a Photographer, but while at St Martins, I worked for my parents 3 days a week. I did everything from sweeping to window display, & in the end I felt I had a knack for the fashion business...dropped out of school & went into the business full time.

How did you progress in so many areas in the industry?

Luck & the Desire for the Know How. I wanted to have an answer to all the questions. If some one said your pattern is wrong, I wanted to be in a position to explain myself. I wanted a knowledge of the whole business, so I could see a problem & solve it. I believe you can never know everything & you should learn something new everyday not matter how trivial, & that is what drove me to try and learn as much about the Fashion Business & still learn more on every level.
Through that drive, I made the choices of what I did & who I worked for to gain new knowledge & experience. 23 years later I still feel the same & feel that there is always more to know & experience...still have that Desire...still feel 19 ha ha hah...

From your company Factor of 3, a production base, to What When and Now, a consultancy company, how did you work the transition?

Before Fof3 I was working for lots of different companies & was doing production & design. I have designed Garments for Top Shop, Miss S, & when at Gimme 5 I was designing & producing Very Ape, the UK Bathing Ape label back then. As well as editing & producing GoodenoughUK. Was even lucky enough to be involved in the design & creative process for Lagerfeld Sport (sadly that label never came to be, but what fun doing it) so being aware of more than just production just seemed natural. Also when I was 18 I went to Premiere Vision & saw the Audio Visual presentations they did of trend & colour. Once I saw that...that is what I wanted to do...so it only took me 21 years to get there.
But while we were doing production for our clients at Fof3 we were always giving some sort of consulting on the side, whether it was colour, fabrics or design...we always put our ten pence in so to speak. So it was something that was in the pipeline, but you could not do both...& in the end, even though I know production like that back of my hand...enough is enough.

Renowned as the Blogfather – how long have you been writing for?

Writing 3 years, but been an opinionated bastard for years ha ha hah. I started writing my blog about 3 years ago on Fatsarazzi, & then it just snowballed...I was invited to join blog after blog after blog. It was quite silly at first, but now I am really enjoying what I write & who I write for. Infact I want to do more & more...I have so much chat it is ridiculous...I could write for GB at the olympics.

It seems like you are constantly shifting perceptions. Where do you look for inspiration?

Wow...shifting perceptions huh ? Well I guess so, in this job you always are looking for the new even in the Old. There is inspiration everywhere if you just look beyond the everyday, the norm. I try to look beyond what is there.
It is hard to answer this question as I do not think there is a defined answer to it. If I could explain it would just be formula. It is something that just happens, you get inspired. I know that is vague, but I can’t answer it any better.

Established in Street photography – how did it developed into a pivotal part of your career? Are there any upcoming projects in the pipeline?

Career...damn wish I could make a career out of it...need a good agent...any takers !!!? I would have to say sheer perseverance & belief in what is your talent. I am always out cameras in hand documenting all that captures my eye & interests me. A projects...my Moleskin Note book is full of projects that I want to do, that I dod do when finance & time allow. One that I am really into is inspired by a photo taken by Tazio Secchiaroli of Sophia Loren ( he took loads of pictures of her ) with a Semi Fisheye Lens. It is a full body picture, & has all the back drop & the lights etc in shot. I like the idea of a shoot where the shoot is the shoot...does that make sense. Well I had the opportunity to try this out recently...a test run...& it showed promise. I want to do it again, but how I would do it...maybe in my garden...something off beat.
But I have quiet a few projects...a Helmut Newton shoot that I would like to emulate may way...a shoot from Nova Magazine in the 70’s where all the models eyes are blacked out & it looks like a criminal report...too many...I will get through them.

Much of your work has centered on portraiture, always using an eclectic mix of eccentricities and off-beat characters - how do you go about recruiting your subjects?

Luckily for me I know a lot interesting people & have shot a lot of them already, but the new...I just go up & ask...many say yes, but there are a few who say no. Sometimes I just give my card & say check my work & send me a mail I will meet you blah blah blah. & then there is the ego booster, when you ask they say, ‘yeah I know you, sure would love you to take my picture’

Any interesting scenarios/stories spring to mind?

Too many...oh there was this one time in Las Vegas, when I asked this Latino Girl if I could take her picture. She said no problem, gave me a big smile and leaned up against the wall & gave me a look. As I am taking the picture she says, ‘ Boy you smell great.’ What can I say...I love my cologne’s & that day it was Creed ‘Bois du Portugal’, Sinatra’s fave too...what did I do...I turned into a dickhead teenager & got all embarrassed & bashful. I will never forget that...all my confidence went south for the summer.

London seems to be a great backdrop for your work? Are there any other places?

London, because I am here a lot & I still believe that London is the most inspiring place on the planet. But I love cityscapes & if I had to chose some other places it would have to be NYC & TOKYO, I love taking pictures of all the life there. But I am really into India & Asia right now...I would like to go and Document Life in Bombay, New Delhi, Bangkok, Saigon & other places...revisit places I have seen, but with fresh eyes & while they are becoming more ‘Westernised’ & where the gap between Now & Tradition is ever so apparent. I want to see & take picture of that more & more.

You recently shot pictures of your son depicted as the Joker – how did this originate?

He had a fancy dress party to go to & we all sat round the table & discussed what he should be. We had a Punk on the table at one point & then he said what about the Joker, but the new Joker or what about Son of Joker. Me being a Batman fan for way too long, well I was not going to complain. We both then set about making his out fit. Taped up old school blazers and jeans & sprayed them purple & green. I then just spent time checking out Heath Ledger’s make up. Che, my son finished it up by popping his joker NE hat on his head...I though he looked too cool & needed to snap the pictures...they look good, & he has a handsome fella.

Did you find The Dark Night dark?

Oh yes...I though it was one of the best comic adaptations ever, in fact Christopher Nolan should be the only director to do comic adaptations. Heath Ledger was breathtaking as the Joker...fantastic & Mr Bale is by far the best Bat that has ever graced the screen. This is the Batman I love from the comics & the closest to Frank Miller’s comics.
So many times a movies does not live up to the hype...& this film is not one of those. Amazing....lets see what happens with ‘The Watchmen’, in my opinion one the best comics of all time.

Be Well
fats: Aug 11, 2008 - 05:12 PM

God Save the Queen!

Maradona by Emir Kusturica (2008)

A documentary celebrating the extraordinary history and resurrection of Diego Maradona: sporting hero, people’s champion, fallen idol and inspiration to millions.
Serbian Director Emir Kusturica, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes twice for When Father Was Away on Business and Underground, signs in this documentary an intimate portrait of « the God », also known for his addiction to drugs.

Wishing to show his true face, Emir Kusturica skims self-indulgence, with flattering biopic and showcase for his musical talent.
The first shot is showing Kusturica himself playing the guitar with his own band, the No Smoking Orchestra , and has a large appreciation of his own cinematic achievements , so his inability to resist paying homage to the man he fondly calls the "Sex Pistol of football" with clips from his own movies and the sounds of his own gipsy rock.

Nevertheless, Emir Kusturica doesn’t drown himself into smugness, his film, which follows Maradona as he rides the " Alba express" in 2005, with 40,000 other activists, a train which took anti-FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) protesters from across America to a summit, when Bush and his corporate partners paid a visit to the seaside resort of Mar Del Plata in Argentina bullying their southern neighbours. This allows the footballer to express his political views, and gives the pair a chance for a bit of anti-Nato bonding against the US presence in the Middle East and the bombing of Belgrade.
Not only political, Maradona, is also very moving, Diego Maradona explained at Cannes this year, for the premiere, why he agreed to the documentary: "People have written a lot of books about me, made a lot of films about me. I have been portrayed as somebody evil, somebody bad, somebody mediocre. Emir was able to penetrate to my heart, to talk about what I have been through in the good and the bad moments of my life."
Enjoying unprecedented access to the man himself, as well as to extensive archives, Emir Kusturica takes us on an intimate whirlwind tour of places and people closest to Diego Maradona. From family and childhood friends to fellow players and world leaders (Fidel Castro).
Tracing an incredible story, from the modest beginnings to world-domination, from tragic fall to glorious rebirth. Profoundly moving, joyous and life-affirming, featuring an original song from Manu Chao.
Nearly egocentric, Maradona is in fact, a unique documentation of a growing friendship between the director and his subject.

-Laure Brosson-

Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com

Rebirth of a genre?

In the 2000s, there has been a resurgence of films influenced by the horror genre combining graphic violence and sexually suggestive imagery, labeled "torture porn" by critics.
Despite an abundance of articles to the contrary, assign as "torture porn" never really developed into anything more than a collection of movies covering up gratuitous violence as halfhearted social commentary.
The Eli Roth film, Hostel (2005), was the first to be called "torture porn" by the critic in 2006, but the classification has been applied to Saw by James Wan (2004) and its sequels, directed by Rob Zombie, Devil's Rejects (2005) ,Wolf Creek (2005) by Greg Mclean and the earlier film Baise-moi (2000) by Virginie Despentes.
A difference between this group of films and earlier horror films is that they are often mainstream Hollywood films that receive a large release and have high production values, or I may say” had high production values”.
The so-called "torture porn" sub-genre has been very profitable: Saw, made for $1.2 million, grossed over $100 million worldwide, while Hostel, which cost less than $5 million to produce, grossed over $80 million. Lionsgate, the studio behind the films, has also made considerable gains in its stock price from the box office showing.
Torture Porn, and especially in Hostel by Eli Roth, differs from that of his predecessors, too, in its oddly monotonal tone and look. In the work of Craven or Carpenter, the victims were given at least a semblance of personality, even if they were archetypes: the nerd, the jock, the slut, the virgin…
The illusion was paid to the notion of actual people, in the hope that the audience might recognize something of themselves up there on the screen.
Torture Porn usually doesn't do this. The characters are barely distinguishable from one another, and are uniformly self-centered. Some would call this a failure, not only in human terms, but also in cinematic, since it diminishes the viewers' emotional involvement in the story, so their interest.
Influential director George A. Romeo with his series of "Dead", as Dawn of the Dead (1978) has stated, "I don’t get the torture porn films", "they're lacking metaphor”.
The genre itself, also speaks to the lack of empathy in contemporary American culture, as well as other trends, the fragmentation of narrative, the increasingly utilitarian, disposable tenor of human relations.
Recently, we have seen many box-office failure with the first Grindhouse, Grindhouse 2 (2007) directed by Roberto Rodriguez, Quentin Tarentino and Eli Roth is unlikely to materialise, except perhaps as a straight to DVD item. Hostel 2 opened in the US last year to disappointing box-office returns over its first weekend. We get the culture we deserve, and the US is realizing that it perhaps deserves better than this.
But newly remade for U.S. audiences Funny Games by Michael Haneke, and debuting in a fortunate timing wake of the genre's so-called commercially dead, the fact that his first version was first made 10 years ago in Austria excludes its inclusion in the « torture porn canon », since at that time (not to mention in that country) the term hadn't yet been invented. His film takes on greater artistic proportions than likely the director or the film's distributor, Warner Independent.

In fact, in creating a film that effectively takes all of the hallmarks of torture porn, Michael Haneke has not only made a gripping and terrifying work of art, but also effectively revives the horror genre as a whole by completely deconstructing it. We are not in a typical horror movie, the deadly reality of Funny Games could have been in the news in brief in our daily paper, where two psychotic young men take a family hostage.
The irony, is that horror films are typically shot and produced on the cheap precisely because they attract a lowest-common-denominator audience looking for easy, graphic, and gratuitous thrills.
In Funny Games, it's a realism meant to demonstrate how people who enjoy such movies are accessories to the proliferation of violence in media, and Michael Haneke pulls it off with a master's touch: almost complete avoiding of any and all on-screen violence which may likely turn some viewers off. That this relentless barrage of psychological and physical torture is extremely well made and powerfully performed, Naomi Watts hurls herself into her physically demanding role with heroic conviction.
Funny Games exploits, examines and deconstructs these same conventions, and will haunt viewers long after they leave the theater.

So, what does the future hold for the Torture Porn? A all lot of financial failure due to a low quality cinematic.
We'll know soon enough whether we still have a taste for "torture porn", luckily we are seeing a new breed of films uprising the genre, where the psychological aspect takes and surely needed a more important place as in terrific Haneke’s work, not to mention the promising Savage Grace, a film starring Julianne Moore, directed by Tom Kalin, based on the shocking Barbara Daly Baekeland murder case, which happened in London in 1972. The bloody crime caused a stir on both sides of the Atlantic where a dysfunctional, incestuous relationship between a mother and her son illustrates an entire Oedipal problematic.
The rebirth or the alternative as it was just during the financial high of Torture Porn, could be understood as well, in L’adversaire (2002) with a stunning contribution from Daniel Auteuil, brilllantly directed by Nicole Garcia. When a man murders his wife, children and parents, the ensuing investigation reveals that he's been living a lie for almost 20 years, based on a true story, provoking at the time a big wave of nightmares in France. The film does offer a truly disturbing exploration of the darker side of the human psyche.

As the Torture Porn diminishing, so many movies are in fact chilling experiences, involving not only one dimension to the genre but a more accomplished view, with a clever realism. Giving a boost, and expectancy to an all industry.

Flashbacks of a fool

When not on a James Bond mission, or pretending to talk to animated cats in The Golden Compass,

Daniel Craig, is actually one of the UK’s finest, serious actors.
Before going back into the world of 007 he took a break by signing on to writer/director Baillie Walsh’s feature debut, an artsy movie called Flashbacks of a Fool.

From the movie trailer, starring such an A-list celebrity as Daniel Craig, to the opening credit sequence of a night with booze, coke and hookers, we are meant to assume that the playboy narcissist Joe Scot (Daniel Craig) is in a very bad way. We could have expect a load of drug taking scenes and thought the whole film would have a dirty feel to it, drifting to a shallow entertainment, but Baillie Walsh's film is sincere about its portrayal of moral burnout, impressively directed, a genuinely moving drama about making peace with the past.

Beautiful even in his drug-addled 40s, Daniel Craig plays a Hollywood fading actor, living a direction-less, lonely life in his opulent Malibu mansion whilst outside his popularity is at its lowest. The death of his childhood best friend prompts him to journey back home to his English seaside hometown. He begins to think about his life over the years, and more specifically his teenage years. Confronted by tragedy he is forced to face up to the ghosts of his past.

Flashback to 1970's England and small town life set to the beat of Roxy Music and David Bowie. Joe's rites of passage as a young man (Harry Eden) in a tiny British seaside community lay the foundations for the Hollywood dream he goes on to experience. His budding sexuality, his boyhood camaraderie, the untoward advances of a voluptuous older woman and his teenage actions lead to unforeseen, tragic consequences, which will ultimately force him to run away in search of a new life.

The performances are fantastic, with each member of the cast creating strong characters. However, the stand-out is rising British star Felicity Jones, who's simply magnetic, particularly in the film's key scene where Joe and Ruth shared mutual love of David Bowie and Roxy Music.
Writer-director Baillie Walsh creates a strong sense of period atmosphere, with a carefully chosen soundtrack and the idyllic seaside location.
Though the film was mainly shot in Cape Town, South Africa. Slightly confusing for whose who know these landscape, as the director doesn’t establish a fairly important part of the beach's geography earlier in the film. In spite this tiny mistake, the script covers up very well the real reason Joe leaves home until the last moment, while the central theme of making peace with the past is extremely moving.

Flashbacks of a Fool is a well made, beautifully acted drama, nostalgia-fulled, that wraps a powerful emotional blow. Bravo to Daniel Craig for helping to get such a personal project made, and to his friend Walsh for putting his heart and soul into it.

Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com

Haneke's remake resuscitates horror films.

Despite an abundance of articles to the contrary, assign as "torture porn" never really developed into anything more than a collection of movies covering up gratuitous violence as halfhearted social commentary.

Previously, the remakes and films series that go to commercial success essentially brought about the subgenre's downfall by being flimsy, vulgar and just plain unentertaining.

The fact that Michael Haneke's Funny Games was first made 10 years ago in Austria excludes its inclusion in the torture porn canon, since at that time (not to mention in that country) the term hadn't yet been invented. But newly remade for U.S. audiences by Michael Haneke himself, and debuting in a fortunate timing wake of the genre's so-called commercially dead, his film takes on greater artistic proportions than likely the director or the film's distributor, Warner Independent.

In fact, in creating a film that effectively takes all of the hallmarks of torture porn, Michael Haneke has not only made a gripping and terrifying work of art, but also effectively revives the horror genre as a whole by completely deconstructing it. We are not in a typical horror movie, the deadly reality of Funny Games could have been in the news in brief in our daily paper.

Funny Games stars Naomi Watts as Anna and Tim Roth as George, an affluent couple who goes with their son Georgie (Devon Gearhart) for the weekend at their lake house, only to be intercepted by two unfailingly polite young men named Peter (Brady Corbet) and Paul (Michael Pitt). Initially dropping in only to request some eggs for a neighbor's breakfast, Peter and Paul soon insinuate themselves into the house, disable George and hold the family hostage. As Peter and Paul engage the family in an escalating series of dehumanizing games, Anna, George and Georgie quickly discover that the horrors of monster movies are nothing in comparison to the fatal triggering event of two bored young men exercising their disturbed imaginations.

In several of his films, most recently his 2005 effort Cache, Michael Haneke has examined the relationship between the filmmaker and his audience, not to mention the voyeuristic aspect of being tickled by watching films.

Funny Games is a remake of his own 1997 film of the same name is itself a commentary on the nature of our obsession with familiar ideas, but recontextualized within the actual framework of horror films. Ironically, however, it's this intelligence, not to mention his almost complete avoidance of any and all on-screen violence which may likely turn some viewers off. But for whose who prefer to see gore meticulously captured in their horror movies need not (or at least may not want to) apply to Michael Haneke's genre study.

Remarkable, however, is fearlessness of Michael Haneke's desire to really address the common clichés and themes in contemporary suspense stories. In the film's opening scenes, he coldly shows a minute of a family's idyllic weekend getaway, from their cheerful name-that-tune exchanges in the car to the unexciting unpacking of groceries to the annoyed hand-off of dog-watching responsibilities. Pointing us the reality of life. He's not trying to make us feel of a familial disharmony. He is only documenting the undercurrent of suburban irritation that comes with tackling boring everyday responsibilities. In other words, there's nothing in Funny Games that happens in a world other than our own, making the violence that much more real when it finally happens.

The irony, is that horror films are typically shot and produced on the cheap precisely because they attract a lowest-common-denominator audience looking for easy, graphic, and gratuitous thrills.
In Funny Games, it's a realism meant to demonstrate how people who enjoy such movies are accessories to the proliferation of violence in media, and Michael Haneke pulls it off with a master's touch. That this relentless barrage of psychological and physical torture is extremely well made and powerfully performed, Naomi Watts hurls herself into her physically demanding role with heroic conviction.

Funny Games exploits, examines and deconstructs these same conventions, and will haunt viewers long after they leave the theater.
Funny Games is a truly artistic achievement, remarkably thrilling and unique cinematic experience.

Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com

Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl is an Academy Award-nominated film written by Nancy Oliver, American playwright, television and film writer and directed by Graig Gillespie, who has directed TV commercials for 16 years, Lars and the Real Girl is his second film.

Ryan Gosling who became notorious playing along Anthony Hopkins in Fracture(2007), stars as Lars Lindstrom, as a strange but like able young man who manages to keep down a job but keeps mostly to himself. He barely leaves the garage where he lives when his older brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and adorable sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer) drag him to their house next door for dinner.

Lars is so shy that it’s nearly impossible for him to reply to any questions, so the uncomfortable level of his isolation is never openly discussed. It’s only when he announces he has a girlfriend in the form of plastic doll he purchased via the internet that the all community where he lives must admit his fragile mental state. No one quite knows what to do or how to help Lars, so they play along, careful not to do anything that might hurt him. The results are touching efforts of all those who love him.

To go through the surreal relationship Lars has with his doll, his psychologist (Patricia Clarkson) assures it’s maybe only a stage.

Lars and the Real Girl is a sweet love story and a film which deals with mental illness in subtle ways. The film achieves quirky humor in parts but mainly touching observations about the nature of delusions, and has been able to make such an endearing, intelligent and tender comedy.

Utterly charming and carefully and delicately directed.

Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com

Looking for Cormac

Looking for Cormac is a 33 1/3 minute, documentary that follows three filmmakers as they travel across the South West in search of the well known, solitaire author Cormac McCarthy, author of « All the Pretty Horses », and the very well known « No country for Old Men » due to the success of the Coen’s Brother’s adaptation.
So, i have found myself « looking for Cormac » as well, and interviewed Eric Davies, one of the filmmakers of Looking for Cormac.

-You were 3 involved into the making of Looking for Cormac, how did that happen? And when?

We made the film twelve years ago, in 1995. This was when Cormac was still slightly unknown. His books had been reprinted by Vintage. And the three of us, we were friends, I knew John from Japan, and Jim from New York. We also were all trying to write - we had a writing group that met infrequently and always dissolved into more of a drinking group. So we got to talking – just like it says in the film…


-Which books of his, made you decided to do your documentary, or had the biggest influence on you at the time, if there is one?

I think Blood Meridian was our favorite book, it was so big, and so bleak and violent. Outer Dark too, and Suttree to a lesser degree. I think it is important to say that we all felt like we had ‘discovered’ this guy, the next Faulkner or whatever they were calling him back then.

-Have you been to Texas before shooting your documentary?

Yeah, I think I had been there. For work, doing some film research on the Kennedy Assassination. I am not sure about the other guys. Jim has since won some awards down in Texas for his paintings, coincidentally.

-What was your motivation(s)? Knowing the man as very reclusive.
Don’t you think, it was going to go to a dead end, a little risky, or simply provocative?

That was part of the draw – the reclusive thing. I mean, truthfully, and without robbing the film of any real motivation, we never thought we would find him. But when you look around at other great writers/recluses – Salinger, Pynchon – isn’t that part of the attraction? They seem almost mythic, these writers who are hiding out, ignoring the world. Could be we were pathetic fans, I don’t know, but I do know that if we had found him we did not have any idea what we were going to say.

-Where you aware of the ignorance of the people you have met through your travel?
I mean they didn’t have a clue who was Cormac McCarthy.

Well, it felt like Cormac McCarthy was pretty unknown at this point. Much to his chagrin, I am sure. English Majors knew who he was, but the average guy on the street had never heard of him. So finding anyone, I mean anyone outside that community of writers and readers, who knew anything about Cormac McCarthy was a real challenge. We even interviewed some other authors – they did not make the final cut – and they were also somewhat in the dark when it came to Mr. McCarthy. What was really shocking, and was really the downfall of the project, was how, in 1995, few people in the FILM world knew about McCarthy, or cared about him. Since the film is actually one big homage to this man’s writing, it would have helped if everyone we showed it to had known who the f#@k he was. I suppose if we had made it NOW, things would be different.

-It really became fascinating to watch your documentary as we really have the feeling we are stepping in one of the novel of Cormac McCarthy with the number of characters running into your quest, referring to the sequence with the conversation or I’d rather say the monologue of the homeless man, who imagines where Cormac could be living, there’s a lot of irony in it. How did you handle that?

Well, we intentionally followed Cormac’s own course through America – and we visited places that he had written about – like Knoxville – but we were overwhelmed by the random characters we met. Really shocked. And we did not set out to instigate all of those interactions. That homeless man, he appeared out of nowhere, and I cannot really say we understood it, or understood the irony of the situation. Nor can I remember when we felt it – that amazing feeling like we were inside a McCarthy novel – but by the time we reached the border of Texas things had started to get really weird. You know if you have read his books, esp. his latest book, being inside the world he writes about is not necessarily the safest place to be. But we just kept shooting, letting the camera roll.

-What was the general feeling during and specially after 2 weeks of shooting for the 3 of you?

We were lost in America. It is a big place, and there are so many sad and beautiful stories. We took to drinking a lot of whiskey at the end of the day.

- Why choosing that format for the filming, a question of budget, or simply an exercise of style?

Budget. I owned the camera – a consumer-quality Hi-8 camera. Radio Shack mics. We took the color out mostly because it looked better, once we hit the post process. I am an editor now, and most of the time I know how to make something look better than it is.

-Adding more reality?

It is all reality – although people on YouTube have accused us of faking our run in with the law, when the police descended on us in El Paso. If only we had the wherewithal, or the resources, to think up something like that.

-Combining the influence of Easy Rider, and On the Road, it’s clearly a road-movie, but there’s also an other dimension to it.
In French(I’m French, by the way), we say "cinema-photographie", when we have lot’s of landscapes, the film gives us time to absorb the surroundings, like Jim Jarmusch movies, ( Dead man, Down by Law), right?

I hope so, that sounds maybe a little better, and a little more deliberate, than the film actually is. The music had a lot to do with it, the pace I mean. Most of what you hear was the banjo, played by John McKay. He had never played the banjo before but he knows a guitar backwards and forwards. Once we got back, and heard the banjo music that John had improvised, we knew we had the soundtrack. The music really lends itself to the images of the passing landscape. And we had hours of landscapes to choose from.

-After the huge success of No Country for Old Men, at the cinema, did you or do you have many people coming to you?

We have been interviewed by a Spanish journalist (based in Madrid) and we have had sporadic inquiries through YouTube (most of that unwanted interest), but aside from that – not much. One PBS producer considered incorporating the film in a series on American Authors. A professor in Ohio has used the film to teach McCarthy to his students. I guess the film has the same steady stream of interest it has always had (You used to be able to rent it from some of the eclectic video stores in New York City), and that is because people love Cormac McCarthy. They love his writing. I suppose if we were more adept at self-promotion we would have made a bigger deal of the film, riding on Cormac’s own success… like re-releasing the film on DVD, with liner notes, and a bonus track, and stuff like that. Getting a foreign distributor, that’s what we’ll do.



*(I think I mentioned, a producer and friend of mine met Mr. McCarthy and gave him a copy of the film, back in 2002. He had no comment.)

- With an honorable success, awarded at a video festival in United States( before the movie No Country For Old Men came out), did it change things career wise? For the 3 of you.

Well, it did change things, but we did not become big stars. For me, as an editor of films and documentaries, I have to say Looking for Cormac has gotten me more work than anything else I have ever done. Lots of starving filmmakers find it inspirational, and they ask me to help them with their films. Of course they have no money, so that kind of success is tempered by reality. Jim became an editor as well, after being an Art Director for years – I think the film helped him along to that career choice, but he insists he had no idea what we were up to in Texas (I should mention, Jim Collier has also had one of his screenplays optioned, so I think he knew exactly what we were up to, and just used the experience to become a better writer). John McKay has an album planned, as well as another film – based on the long-lost music of Jack Foy, a sort of Dylanesque musician, and another mythic figure – but John was already a success in the music business, and we had nothing to do with that.

So, going backwards, back in the late 90’s, we all tried to move past the ‘fame’, and the awards (film festivals are a sham actually) and we attempted to make a follow-up picture on the writer Madison Smart Bell, and bars in America. That film hit a bit of a snag when we drank the budget. We then worked apart on various films, and real life projects – like relationships and careers and families – but we hope to get back on the road someday. ‘Make another picture’ as John says.

Just so you know the version of Looking for Cormac up on YouTube is the enigmatic re-cut, done by Jim Collier. Like a re-mix. Someday soon we hope to put the original version up. Hopefully before The Road comes out as a movie, and the world rediscovers Cormac McCarthy all over again.

I really enjoyed your film, I find it exquisite! Well done!

THANKS. Cheers.



-Laure Brosson-

Published in www.artnouveaumagazine.com

An homage to Eric Rohmer?

Margot at the Wedding is a 2007 tragicomedy written and directed by Noha Baumach. It is the follow-up to his critically acclaimed, Academy-Award nominated film The Squid and the Whale.
Where the family is also very disfunctional. Although fans of The Squid And The Whale may be disappointed as Noha Baumbach couldn't top or equal the earlier film, which was very promising, taking us to a new wave of films about intellectuals, in the league of Woody Allen work.

Noah Baumbach has mentioned that Margot at the Wedding is influenced by the style of French writer-director Eric Rohmer, who is known for his character-driven, relationship-based dramas like Ma Nuit Chez Maud, Le Genou de Claire, Pauline a la Plage and Le Rayon Vert . Many of Eric Rohmer's films also deal with tensed family relationships and awkward love relationships, and often involve summer vacations. The original title was Nicole at the Beach, but had to be changed when Nicole Kidman signed on.

We are very far from Eric Rohmer work, despite similar elements as family life, sisters, husbands, children, history, secrets, jealousies.
Margot at the Wedding doesn’t make place for subtlety, but more for casuistry.

Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her teen son, Claude, travel from Manhattan to her family's Long Island home, occupied by sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Pauline's daughter, and Malcolm(Jack Black), the scrounger, Pauline will marry.
Sourness marks family discussion, the storm the sisters create leaves behind a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets while Margot is repressed, bitter, insecure, taking out her frustrations on anyone and everyone around her, especially on her son Claude. She dislikes Malcolm and constantly drains him down. Margot also has marital problems and a lover nearby. Cruelty is everywhere, inside and outside their families. It seems there is no refuge for anyone.
A film about extreme insecurity that generates insecurity. But also, tumbles into a grotesque comedy, with a lot of useless scenes as Margot can't stop herself from trying to show off by climbing a tree in whose branches she gets stuck .
Conversations would have been more appropriate than the non-stop catty comments which leaves you squirming with embarrassment, we could define Margot at the Wedding as a comedy of bad manners.

To the contrary, Eric Rohmer's films consistently question the nature of the cinematic. It is shocking sometimes to see these long conversations and not be bored by their simple, often static representation. How can so much talk be cinematic? But these conversations are more than just talk. This isn't radio, or screaming. Neither is it an interview or televised debate. This is talk visually represented. Word and image work together to create a third thing, cinema.
The hallmarks of Eric Rohmer work is the contemporary setting, the philosophical discussions, the intimate nature of the crisis of well off, self-absorbed characters.

Margot at the Wedding never fully coheres or convinces as the Eric Rohmer’s genre.

What save the film are, the cinematographer Harris Savides using old lenses and shooting mostly in natural light to get the film a wintry colors look, and the first-term performer : Zane Pais (Claude), who is the real star of the film, he manages to be mocking, teary and other-worldly at the same time.

A film that could be seen on DVD for whose who love dysfunctional family drama.

Published in www.artnouveaumagazine.com

Marion...Marion...et encore Marion!

Marion Cotillard's win was a major shock to the US. Very few Americans had seen the movie, and hadn't even heard of her until that night. Facing accusation of "conspiracy" against the U.S, with 9/11 and moon landing theories.
I've been asked to write about her and her fantastic success,
in La Vie En Rose for an American magazine.
Despite all the fuss, and without concealing my pride, here it is!

Marion Cotillard born in 1975, began acting during her childhood, appearing on stage in one of her father's plays. Her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s, with the production of Luc Besson, in Taxi (1998) which was a huge success in France.
She followed on with more than 20 various French film as Furia, Lisa, Taxi 2, Taxi 3… proving her ability to play a complex yet appealing modern romantic lead.
Although more widely known in France, Marion Cotillard was building an international presence.
In 2003, she had a small role in Tim Burton's film, Big Fish, which introduced her to English-speaking audiences. It was also her first both critically and financially successful film. She appeared in two critically acclaimed films in 2004:A Very Long Engagement, where she further demonstrated the range of her abilities by playing the murderous Tina Lombardi (garnering the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), in the drama mystery Innocence. In 2006, she appeared in Ridley Scott's A Good Year.
She was chosen by director Olivier Dahan to portray the iconic French singer Edith Piaff in the biopic La Vie En Rose, before he had even met her, saying that in the eyes of Édith Piaf he noticed a similarity with Marion's own. Her portrayal was widely praised, including by the eminent English theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn, who described it as "one of the greatest performances on film ever." It was dubbed "the most awaited film of 2007" in France, where critics said that she had reincarnated Édith Piaf to sing one last time on stage.
According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf’s voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the often troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to America to the South of France. Abandoned by her mother, Piaf grew up in her grandmother’s brothel,and her father’s circus.
According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf’s voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to America to the South of France. Abandoned by her mother, Piaf grew up in her grandmother’s brothel and her father’s circus. While singing on the streets of Paris as a teenager, Piaf is discovered by club owner Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu), and this chance encounter changes the woman’s life. Her powerful voice takes her all over the globe, but it can’t save her from the pain and suffering she can’t avoid.
As Edith Piaf, Marion Cotillard is mesmerizing. She fully inhabits the singer’s ivory skin. Like Walk The Line and Ray, this biopic creates a fascinating picture of an artist whose songs only begin to reflect the singer’s painful life.
But director-writer Olivier Dahan doesn’t take the traditional biopic way with La Vie En Rose. With such an eye for detail and created a wonderful, caring homage to Edith Piaf. The chemistry between Olivier Dahan and the hearted performance by Marion Cotillard is what made the story fascinating and visually stunning. Piaf's "memories" are just what the film examines as she starts to analize and remember fragmented moments in her life, and characters, relationships, lost loved ones are suddenly shifted and gone from one's perspective without being noticeable. Marion Cotillard is just as brilliant at playing the teenage Piaf as she is on her deathbed at the age of 47.
The amount of music, was done superbly as to not just make this a musical biography but an exciting picture of an era.
By the time the credits were rolling both of my shirtsleeves were damp with tears of sadness and tears of admiration in discovering much more about such a remarkable, true modern day, diva.
I highly recommend this film, and it’s Marion Cotillard amazing performance that makes La Vie En Rose so worth seeing.

-Laure Brosson-

Life Through a Lens

« Annie Leibovitz…Annie Leibovitz…Annie Leibovitz… »
The documentary has started. Admiring contributions from friends, relatives and subjects ranging from Hillary Clinton to Mick Jagger seems to have one big obsession : Annie Liebovitz !
Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens (2006) is a celebratory documentary of the 58-year-old photographer, directed by her sister.
It shows her progress from a military family obsessed with recording itself.
Through her start at the Rolling Stone magazine,she quickly came to attention with a unique style by her close collaboration with the subject. She followed bands on tour like the Rolling Stones, giving us lot’s of very memorable iconic images.
Then, she found herself trapped into the drug-fuelled years of the rockn’roll era.
In 1983, Annie Leibovitz joined Vanity Fair and was made the magazine's first contributing photographer,with the celebrity culture served by the magazine, her portraits became more provocative which could be describes sometimes as 'pretty shallow'.
The obvious look of the Blues Brothers faces painted in blue seems to have paid off, from simplicity to very detailed choreography when she gets George Clooney to take off his jacket in front of a ring of half-naked models shivering in the sea.
Her current position of a portraitist refers to the work of Joshua Reynolds, who was the most important and influential of 18th century English painter, specialising in portraits, with paintings like « Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney, The Archers » (1769), or « Robert Clive » and his family with an Indian maid, (1765).
Life Through a Lens is also revealing about her long-term relationship with Susan Sontag, an American literary theorist, novelist, filmmaker, and political activist.
Losing her partner and her father in a short space of time has obviously affected her profoundly and some of the film’s most moving scenes are when she talks about her loss and expresses it through her work. With a gentle humility, it shows us that Annie Liebovitz is a woman first.
A noble documentary telling us an extraordinary life achievement.

Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com

Marion Cotillard.

I have never had any sens of patriotism since i left France ten years ago, and Marion Cotillard had woken up inside me, a proud feeling to be French!
When i saw she won the Oscar for the best leading actress,
for "La Mome".
I felt tears of real joy coming into my eyes, i even called my best friend Natalie to tell her, and sent a text to my parents.
Welcome to the magic stardom, very much deserved!

Un grand bravo to Marion!

The New Gondry's!

Be Kind Rewind is a 2008 American comedy film directed, written by Michel Gondry and starring Jack Black,Mos Def, the American rapper, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow. The title is a reference to a phrase commonly displayed on VHS rental tapes during the medium's era. Jack Black and Mos Def play two guys who run a tiny video rental store and, when all their vhs tapes accidentally get ruined after being exposed to magnetism, the boys attempt to recreate some of our favorite classic films (Ghostbusters,Rush hour 2, Robocop, Back to the Future, etc ...) in order to keep the store's one loyal customer happy.

Much like The Science of Sleep (2006), Be Kind Rewind takes place in a universe full of childlike charm and hand-made wonders, like cardboard television, or surrealistic cars evocative of the imagery of the successful Mighty Boosh, a British comedy television series and live show about two friends who go on a series of magical adventures playing now on BBC3.

Be Kind Rewind is all about nostalgia. In an interview, Jack Black is sharing his taste for the “good old things”, “ The vinyl records sound better than CDs whereas video tape cassettes don’t look that different from DVDs, certainly not better than Blu-Ray. I’m an HD snob now. I can’t watch anything unless it’s HD”.

The movie looks typically like the 80’s era, from the outfits of the characters to the soundtracks of all the movies they are re-shooting as Ghostbusters, with a comedy timing, referring of those old Laurel & Hardy shorts.

It’s about the togetherness of a shared experience. Whether you are talking about a movie theatre or some other function, it is the idea of a group of people experiencing joy and happiness.

Despite the fact that Be Kind Rewind is a bit more commercial than Gondry’s previous films, Be Kind To Rewind confirms that Gondry's own films are more like dreams than movies; full of imaginative visions, fun while they're happening, easily punctured by reality, and as pleasant as they are impermanent.

Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com

Le Scaphandre et le Papillon

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Jean-Dominique Bauby (April 23, 1952 – March 9, 1997) was a well-known French journalist and author and editor of the magazine ELLE.
On December 8, 1995 at the age of 42, Bauby suffered a cerebro-vascular attack while driving in the countryside in his smart new convertible.

When he woke up twenty days later, completely bed-ridden, breathing through a respirator (diving bell), feeding through a feeding tube, he found he was almost entirely speechless; he could only move his mouth a little, and blink his left eyelid.
Despite his condition, he authored the book The Diving Bell And The Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again. Bauby had to compose and edit the book entirely in his head, and convey it painfully one letter at a time.
In 2007, American painter-director Julian Schnabel released a film version of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It starred actor Mathieu Amalric as Bauby and won Schnabel the best director prize at Cannes, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.

In addition to his work as an artist, Schnabel has written and directed three films: Basquiat, a biopic on the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat(1996), and Before Night Falls(2000) an adaptation of Reinaldo Arena’s
autobiographical novel. The film takes an episodic look at the life of the
Cuban poet and novelist (1943-1990), from his childhood in Oriente province to his death in New York City.
As a painter, Schnabel chooses topics related to his art, and we can clearly see that his form of filming is far more original than that of most of the movies released now: three feature films, which constitute a biopic trilogy about modern artists transcending limitations.

Much of the movie is shot from Bauby's point of view, so Amalric is often offscreen, although we hear his voice, in narration. The shots from Bauby's stationary hospital-bed perspective are simultaneously distressing and inspiring, as cinematographer Janusz Kaminski(who did Shindler’s List) manipulates light and focus to create compelling images that would be abstract if not for the cropped presence of a nurse or piece of furniture.

The shots finds beauty in the commonplace, evocative of the work of Willem de


Kooning or Mark Rothko, artists, painting in a style that came to be referred to Abstract expressionism, in the post World War II era. Artfully obscured, blurred at the edges and dappled with beautiful tones, reminiscent of the painting ‘Green, Red, Blue’ from the New York School artist Mark Rothko.

The beauty of the film doesn’t consist only in the photography: the character of Jean-Do contributes to it with subtlety and extreme courage.
The film begins with Jean-Do,( that’s how he used to be called by his entourage before his stroke) coming out of his coma and being told by a neurologist that he’s suffering from “Locked-in syndrome”. The English term is used by the French doctor; the spectator shares immediately in his isolation.
Initially he must come to terms with his condition and get over his death wish. His introspective makes him realise human existence is not only endurable but worthy of beautiful things and memories, as in a very moving sequence when he shaved his dad, or remembering the beautiful women of his life, like the mother of his children(Emmanuelle Seigner): such things can keep us alive. Fortunately Jean-Do has a love for culture, literature, cinema, he even calls the hospital balcony where he sits for hours thinking of movies “Cine-citta”. With his witty humour,his comments on his condition, and his perseverance are an extraordinary achievement, without self pity.
The soundtrack is sublime: tears of admiration for Jean-Do were running down my cheeks when Tom Waits sang "All the world is green".
The choice of songs is exquisite, from "La mer" by Charles Trenet to The Velvet Underground playing "Pale Blue Eyes".

The spectator doesn’t or shouldn’t feel sad, the story itself, which is without a doubt moving, tells us life is full of celebration.
A magnificent battle for life that definitely deserved to be seen.


-Laure Brosson-

Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com

My second publication!

There Will Be Blood is a 2007 film directed, written and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson, based on late 1800's oil prospectors. The film, inspired by Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! (1927) stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano. A story about family, greed, religion, and oil centres around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.
The film has excited the critic, of the New York Times: "The film is above
all a consummate work of art.",Boldly and magnificently strange," according
to Variety, compared to Citizen Kane by many critics, nominated for 8 Oscars. The film has had another 33 wins and 31 nominations.
Despite, all the fuss, I can’t get my head around this “masterpiece” my mind is divided. I don’t think I could say I didn’t appreciate it. I cannot deny the talent of Daniel Day-Lewis who has delivered a magnificent performance that will be a challenge to other actors. He carries the film brilliantly with his interpretation of a monster. His eyes, small and evil, made me uneasy during and even after the movie.
His last line will become part of movie lore, like Robert Duval's 'Charlie don't surf', in Apocalypse Now (1979) by Francis Ford Coppola.
Also, the music by Jonny Greenwood best known as a member of Radiohead adds to the sense of fear.
Visually disturbing, the opening scene presents the landscape of two mountains underscored by violent and powerful music evocative of the soundtrack of The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick.
With a powerful leading actor and strong supporting cast the film has all the ingredients to be an extraordinary feature.
Although, with such a lot going for it, why isn't this film a masterpiece?
As we say in French,the”je ne sais quoi” was missing: maybe the film was too long, maybe my expectations were too high, boosted by all the critics, and my high estimation of Paul Thomas Anderson’s work.
Boogie Nights (1998), and Magnolia (2000) were a turn-on for me, especially Magnolia, an epic mosaic of several interrelated characters in search of happiness and, forgiveness, and mainly about parent-child relationships, father-son estrangement, and the loss of a son…
One of the key plot lines in There Will Be Blood is the father-son relationship: Dniel Fairview (Daniel Day-Lewis) abandons his young son after an explosion in which the child is deafened and blinded, becoming useless in the eyes of his father the oil tycoon.
In spite of that similarity, There Will Be Blood marks a significant departure in the work of Paul Thomas Anderson.
As in Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous work, every shot in There Will be Blood seems exactly right, but its narrative form is more classical and less “auteurist”, which shows a lack of independence, and the creativity seems to be smothered by the big machine of Hollywood. Even the adaptation from the book has been unfaithful to please Paramount.
Perhaps there was too much compromise in an attempt to satisfy the studios.

-Laure Brosson-


Published in www.deadfoxfanzine.com

The other day...

...in the conversation, my friend Alexa told me she reviews books for a magazine, i shared with her my desire to do the same with movies, and it's how everything begins!

Here is my first publication!

deadfoxfanzine.com

Archive for the ‘Dead Fox Film’ Category

Dead Fox Film

January 4th

The Western isn´t dead.

The Western isn´t dead.

Western has always been in the air, in terms of fashion, music and photography. Western has always had an iconic look to it.

In terms of the Western film genre, however, it seemed to have reached a dead end… But like Robert Redford and Paul Newman´s trapped outlaws at the end of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, it finally looks like the Western film has made a return.

Despite the success of Clint Eastwood´s Unforgiven and Kevin Costner´s Dances With The Wolves, the genre that explained and defined America so well for much of 20th century, had a long period of recession, but finally it looks like Western is back and is literally galloping over the horizon!

One of the first films to regenerate the genre was the re-make of the 1957 film 3:10 To Yuma in 2007, this second adaptation of Eleonore Leonard´s short story was directed by James Mangold, who made the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line.

The story centres around a farmer (Christian Bale) who is in a desperate struggle to save his land. He is forced to escort a famous outlaw, Ben Wade (Russell Crowe), to catch the 3:10 to Yuma, for the reward of $200.

When I saw the poster I was mesmerised by how stylish these two men looked: it took my breath away. I needed to see it as soon as possible, and I thought, Western is back!

It is a real ”boys” film, visually beautiful, with a lot of dust, in the tradition of the genre, I left the cinema with the sounds of the guns still in my ears.

Continuing the Western “Nouvelle Vague”, The Assassination Of Jess James by the coward Robert Ford was released just a few weeks after the re-make of 3:10 To Yuma. The film is a drama adapted from Ron Hansen´s 1983 novel, directed by Andrew Dominik.

Everyone in 1880s America knows Jesse James (Brad Pitt): the nation’s most notorious criminal, hunted by the law in 10 states. But he’s also a popular hero, and perceived as a Robin Hood figure by the public. Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) is anonymous, no one notices his existence - well, not yet. The ambitious 19-year-old aims to change all that, by joining Jesse and riding with his gang.

This film is made brilliant by its stunning visuals, award-worthy performances, and a story that reflects a classic and stylish Western mood.

My focus really comes into the genre of western film with the much anticipated, No Country For Old Men, the Coen brothers’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy´s violent and modern wild west tale.

Acclaimed everywhere, it has been nominated for eight Oscars . Violence and troubles come after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near Rio Grande. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, a laconic soon-to-retire small town sheriff, Joshin Brolin as Llewin Moss, a welder and Vietnam veteran who flees $2 million in drug money; and Javier Bardem as Anton Chirgurh, an assassin hired to recover the money.

The film is a true visual experience, a “cinema-photo“, reflecting the style of Jim Jarmuch and leaving you with lots to meditate on. The camera work absorbs the scenery of the endless west Texas desert and captures its beautiful and haunting imagery.

The camera also seems to absorb the characters’ faces and fills your mind with their every detail - the placid, cold face of Javier Badem, and the old, beautiful, lined features of Tommy Lee Jones. Both characters are contrasted well in the film and this balance of good and evil lets you reflect on elements of human nature and injustice in the world.

The focus of the movie is more on the visual, as opposed to the plot. The Coen’s’ technical abilities, and their feel for a landscape-based western is beautifully classic.

I´m delighted with the come back of the Western, and very much look forward to the promising There Will Be Blood.

-Laure Brosson-