January 2011
39 posts
3 tags
Kagemusha 影武者 (1980)
Kagemusha is a Japanese film by legendary director Akira Kurosawa. Took me a while to see this one and this is actually the last period film by him that I hadn’t seen…and what an amazing epic! The struggle just to make this film has become legend as Kurosawa was denied by his own film company and had to shop the film around before George Lucas and Francis Coppola picked it up, both of who...
7 tags
Thelonious Monk Introspection
5 tags
3 tags
Early Summer 麦秋(1951)
Late Summer is film by Ozu Yasujiro. This film marked Ozu’s return to what would become his trademark style. Coming out two years after his masterpiece Late Spring this was viewed as a return to form. All the films before Late Spring were nothing quite like it, and his films in between Late Spring and this weren’t anything like it either. It was from this film on that he would work...
4 tags
Inception (2009)
Inception is an American film by Christopher Nolan. I think this film best shows what a summer blockbuster can be when done in auteur form. Altruism has sadly crippled Hollywood, with films being pieced to together by different business elements with the general understanding that the film itself is just to serve as a vehicle for profits in all areas of merchandising. The power of...
7 tags
8 tags
Schoolhouse Rock Three is a Magic Number
4 tags
Dillinger is Dead (1969)
Dillinger is Dead is an Italian film by Marco Ferrari. The film in short is absurd. The story is simple. It is about a gas mask designer who wraps up a day at work by listening to his co-worker talk about contemporary alienation before heading home. At home he finds dinner ready, but decides to cook his own dinner. While cooking he finds a gun wrapped in a newspaper with articles...
3 tags
Stranger than Paradise (1984)
Stranger than Paradise is an American film directed by Jim Jarmusch. This was his first feature he made (after film school) that would be indicative of his films throughout his career. Originally the film was to be a 30 minute short using left over film stock from a Wim Wenders film that had just been completed. Shot independently the film was made for a mere $100,000 and grossed...
7 tags
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins I Put a Spell on You
...
7 tags
3 tags
Pigs and Battleships 豚と軍艦 (1962)
Pigs and Battleships is a Japanese film by Imamura Shohei. It is about the mutually exploitive relationship between the Japanese and US forces at Yokosuka naval base. Within in this portside town there is a constant cultural collision that Imamura attempted to capture, by focusing on the lives of a young couple caught in the middle of corrupt businessmen, a small time gang,...
4 tags
3 tags
Shirin (2008)
Shirin is a Iranian film by Abbas Kiarostami. This is a film that is unique for its simplicity, in that it is entirely made up of close up shots of faces as they are watching a movie at a theatre. Even more interesting is the director’s choice to only shoot women of various ages as they watch a film on the classic love story of Shirin, essentially about female sacrifice. In...
7 tags
Wayne Shorter Deluge
4 tags
Wayne Shorter Deluge
7 tags
Hank Mobley Remember…
…Memories...
3 tags
Frost/Nixon (2008)
Frost/Nixon is a docudrama directed by Ron Howard. I love period films and this is quite an entertaining one, in that the forgotten facts highlighted in this film are historical stunning. The very choice of Robert Frost was a highly interesting one to be granted the interview to the only president who had been impeached at the time. The premise was that he was a British man...
4 tags
3 tags
The Assassination of Trotsky (1972)
The Assassination of Trotsky is a British film by Joseph Losey. Losey’s career can be characterized as a victim of the times. He was blacklisted from the time his career started in Hollywood and subsequently had to live and work in England in exile. His career took years to resume upon which he heavily delved in art cinema making several notable films. I came across this film on...
4 tags
3 tags
Robert Capa: In Love and War (2003)
In Love and War: Robert Capa is a documentary on the life and times of photographer Robert Capa. This is the single most comprehensive documentary of Capa from his life to his tragic death. His style was a striking one as he shot in 5 different wars, going directly for the action. His saying was, “if your picture isn’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” Many of his photos contain...
2 tags
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the...”
– Lazlo Moholy-Nagy
2 tags
Decoded (2010)
Received Jay-Z’s booktitled Decoded this year for Christmas. When it first came out I was hesitant about the book because I thought it was going to be a painful breakdown of all his lyrics, but since it just appeared in my mailbox I was excited to read it. It does actually have a lot songs that are broken down which for the most part are mundane explanations, but I can see why some would need it...
7 tags
Jay-Z American Dreamin’
There is a gap in...
4 tags
Jay-Z American Dreamin’
There is a gap in...
2 tags
Decoded (2010)
Received Jay-Z’s booktitled Decoded this year for Christmas. When it first came out I was hesitant about the book because I thought it was going to be a painful breakdown of all his lyrics, but since it just appeared in my mailbox I was excited to read it. It does actually have a lot songs that are broken down which for the most part are mundane explanations, but I can see why some would need it...
7 tags
John Coltrane Time after Time
3 tags
When the Levees Broke (2006)
When the Levees Broke is a documentary by Spike Lee. This is documentary about Hurricane Katrina that struck New Orleans and much of the gulf coast in 2005. It is a requiem done in four acts clocking in it at just over 4 hours. The film’s opening sets the entire tone of what is to come with a montage of footage of New Orleans from past to present mixing elements of the hurricane to the...
4 tags
John Coltrane Time after Time
3 tags
When the Levees Broke (2006)
When the Levees Broke is a documentary by Spike Lee. This is documentary about Hurricane Katrina that struck New Orleans and much of the gulf coast in 2005. It is a requiem done in four acts clocking in it at just over 4 hours. The film’s opening sets the entire tone of what is to come with a montage of footage of New Orleans from past to present mixing elements of the hurricane to the...
3 tags
Pigs and Battleships 豚と軍艦 (1962)
Pigs and Battleships is a Japanese film by Imamura Shohei. It is about the mutually exploitive relationship between the Japanese and US forces at Yokosuka naval base. Within in this portside town there is a constant cultural collision that Imamura attempted to capture, by focusing on the lives of a young couple caught in the middle of corrupt businessmen, a small time gang,...
7 tags
4 tags
4 tags
The Sky Crawlers (2008)
Okay my last anime post :)
The Sky Crawlers is an animated feature by Mamoru Oshii. The story is set in an alternate history with the world at peace. As a result corporations, in an effort to give the population a show of violence and really make money of the economy of war, contract out armies to fight never ending controlled wars that come off as shows to the mass public. One...
4 tags
The Sky Crawlers (2008)
Okay my last anime post :)
The Sky Crawlers is an animated feature by Mamoru Oshii. The story is set in an alternate history with the world at peace. As a result corporations, in an effort to give the population a show of violence and really make money of the economy of war, contract out armies to fight never ending controlled wars that come off as shows to the mass public. One...
3 tags
Shirin (2008)
Shirin is a Iranian film by Abbas Kiarostami. This is a film that is unique for its simplicity, in that it is entirely made up of close up shots of faces as they are watching a movie at a theatre. Even more interesting is the director’s choice to only shoot women of various ages as they watch a film on the classic love story of Shirin, essentially about female sacrifice. In...
1 tag
“A system of producing, mobilising and allocating resources to sustain the...”
– Philippe Le Billon