La Planète sauvage - based on the novel
Oms en Série by Stefan Wul, and known to the English speaking world as
Fantastic Planet, is a wonderfully psychadelic animated Sci-Fi film from 1973. An international production between France and Czechoslovakia, the movie has a cult following, mostly from viewers who saw it on USA's
Night Flight in the 1980's. Although it has languished in obscurity for some time, Hollywood has decided it's time for a
live action remake. For those who haven't seen it, or for people who haven't seen it in twenty years, some kind soul
has uploaded the entire film to Youtube. You'll never look at your pets the same way again.
posted by smoothvirus
on Dec 11, 2006 -
36 comments
We Were All On That Train If any adventurous film festival directors happen to be reading, a Spanish production company called Docus Madrid has just released a
fine documentary, comprising 24 short films, about the terrorist train attacks in March. The pressbook can be downloaded from the home page in MS Word, in English: otherwise, it's all in Spanish. Ticket money goes to relatives of the victims.
posted by Holly
on Feb 2, 2005 -
14 comments
TCM is playing tribute this month to Archie Leach, better known to the world as
Cary Grant. The range of films, the types of roles, the co-stars. Makes you long for another era of american film-making. Of interest to you
architect types might be
Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House of 1948, with the fabulous
Myrna Loy - whose 1947 film The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer partly occupies that special message place on my answering machine. Grant's films with Hitchcock - especially North by Northwest with its great fake FLW house and fantastic Saul Bass titles - Cukor, and Hawks are well worth searching out. Don't miss his final role - Walk Don't Run - a film set at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and itself a remake of The More the Merrier of 1943. Who said that Hollywood couldn't do remakes?One of the most interesting items to come out of the TCM documentary is Cary's embracing LSD in the early pre-illegal tests of it.
posted by grimley
on Jun 1, 2004 -
25 comments
"What did you think of Seabiscuit?" the young man added helpfully. Even the deadpan Jarmusch laughed.
Jim Jarmusch's new movie (the first feature-lenght after 1999's
Ghost Dog),
"Coffee And
Cigarettes", is "
a droll, ironic look at two of our favorite addictions". The black and white movie (trailer
here) has a strange (or
Stranger than Paradise?) cast: Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett, Meg White, Jack White, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan, GZA, RZA, Bill Murray, ... Jarmusch's philosophy: "When you're watching movies, the guy's girlfriend calls him, she's having something bad happening, and he says, 'I'll take a cab. I'll be right over.' Cut to him getting out of the cab. And my brain always says,
what about the cab ride? The incidental thing, the thing that's not the destination?". (more inside)
posted by matteo
on Mar 28, 2004 -
18 comments
From the
Liberation Journal, Gregory Flanagan's "Libercratic"
[?] Website:
Misogyny on TV; Feminazi Propaganda:
Portrayals of amazon freaks denigrate and pervert females, attack feminine identity and incite in men a lust for sexual violence...
#4. Charlie's Angels (80s) ... Among the many barbaric and obscene shows, one featured women playing tackle football.
#18. Buffy, The Vampire Slayer (90s) ... the idiotic vampires are just the excuse--their real enemy is femininity.
#25. Xena: Warrior Princess (90s) ... Extreme, obscene violence that provokes in men an overwhelming, obsessive lust to rape and slaughter these bitches.
See also:
Misogyny in the Movies, etc etc.
They're
out there, folks. This man needs his ass kicked by a "girly girl" martial artist. Or maybe that's secretly what he wants?
(Site hosted and LOTSA POPUPS by directNIC.com. For shame, dierctNIC!)
posted by Shane
on Feb 26, 2004 -
18 comments
Mystery Solved. Somewhere in the Catskill Mountains, two nature filmmakers are busy shooting a documentary on rabbits in their natural habitat. In the morning dew they are about to meet something considerably bigger than a rabbit... [Flash and safe for work]
posted by KevinSkomsvold
on Nov 11, 2003 -
14 comments
Coming to a phone near you. The creative entries you'll see here fit not only the small screen size, but the on-the-go nature of mobile use. Entries typically run up to 3 minutes. All are sized and purposed to work in small handheld formats.
Flash, live action, 3D animation, its all here at the World's Smallest Film Festival.
posted by Grod
on Oct 27, 2003 -
3 comments
If this summer's unending parade of spiritless sequels has you down on that whole film-can-be-art thing, I strongly recommend you rejuvenate your sense of wonder by taking a journey with the Polish Brothers to the Heartland of their America,
Northfork, Montana. It's the third installment of a cinematic trilogy that has taken them to
Twin Falls Idaho and
Jackpot, Nevada. You will either
love Northfork (
Ebert: "There has never been a movie quite like "Northfork"") or you'll
hate it (
McDonagh: "meticulously crafted but frustratingly meaningless"); there seems to be
very little in between. Some
background won't hurt, if you're the literal type; hearing from
the filmmakers in their own words provides some additional perspective. But in the end, all that matters is
what you see... Please. Just
go - it's not very likely you've ever seen much else like it...
(Flash-enabled pages at those official film sites, sorry...)
posted by JollyWanker
on Jul 21, 2003 -
14 comments
A movie theater in Kansas City, MO now prohibits children under 6, and requires children between 6 and 16 to be accompanied by an adult. They no longer show movies rated G or PG, instead deciding to go with "adult films, independent films and films geared toward adult audiences." There's even a VIP lounge where adults can sit in recliners and drink alcohol while watching the film. Speaking as someone who actually goes to movies to see the movie, not use it as a place to park brats for two hours, this is a revolution, but I can understand why parents would feel discriminated against.
posted by RylandDotNet
on Jul 6, 2003 -
88 comments
The Dance of Death. Die Totentanz: A German-language
site spotlighting, for example, the dance of death in
literature,
graphic art,
music and
film. For those, like me, whose German is not so good,
this page offers an English-language history of the phenomenon, and the Catholic Encyclopedia has an
article too. See also
Holbein's Dance-of-Death;
Lübeck's Dance-of-Death; and umm,
this.
posted by misteraitch
on Jul 3, 2003 -
14 comments
"Once Upon A Classic." A Boston Globe article by Ty Burr (reprinted on the PT Anderson website) that lists the new "classic" film canon for the post-MTV generation. Here's the top five: 1. Pulp Fiction, 2. The Godfather, 3. Fight Club, 4. Run Lola Run 5. Amelie. Discuss!
posted by adrober
on Apr 15, 2003 -
109 comments
The Parlor is worth watching again once you figure out what is going on
[Some language nsfw]. From the 2002 Chrysler Film Fest, reg. required for the full versions of the 2003 films but you can see clips
here.
posted by dogwalker
on Apr 12, 2003 -
6 comments
Film Mogul is an online RPG that's "a simulation of what it is like to be a power player in the movie industry today." Take on the role of studio head, agent, producer, critic, or journalist and make
virtual movies every bit as crappy as the ones that the real Hollywood churns out!
posted by MrBaliHai
on Apr 6, 2003 -
5 comments
Two segregated film crews, one black and one white, used the perspective of race to create a documentary centered on the dragging death of a black man by three whites five years ago in Jasper, Texas. The New York filmmakers behind the
"Two Towns of Jasper" found the differences in perspective before filming began and the divide only grew more distinct during the two-year project. Premieres
January 22nd on PBS and has already won multiple film awards.
posted by suprfli
on Jan 20, 2003 -
13 comments
Do you know this scream? Originally labeled in studio reels in 1951 as Man Being Eaten by Alligator, the sound effect now known as the Wilhelm has turned up in
dozens of films; sound designers have made a game out of sneaking it past the director's notice.
This NPR feature (includes link to RealAudio file) tells much of the story of the Wilhelm Scream. Or you could just watch the best of Wilhelm, compliled in this (27MB)
video compilation (read the making-of
here). (By the way -- an orc in
The Two Towers lets out a Wilhelm as he falls to his death.)
posted by argybarg
on Jan 3, 2003 -
45 comments
The other one in Weird Science What was it like to be a 15-year-old boy kissing 30-year-old Kelly LeBrock? Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) tells all about his childhood acting days. He did not turn to a life of drugs, but to a life of academia. Is it "healthy and important for us to see that the guy who played Wyatt is a real person"? I'm not sure about that, but it was an interesting interview, and, of course, a great movie.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink
on Dec 3, 2002 -
13 comments
The British Empire in Colour -- a three-part documentary series from the producers of the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award-winning
Britain at War in Colour will air this month. The series is supposed to include "a treasure-trove of early colour movies filmed before 'technicolour' transformed film making in the 1930s. Unique colour footage of the Edwardian splendour of 1906 British India, soldiers of the First World War and class divided Britain in 1926 as seen for the first time by a modern visually sophisticated audience."
Apparently, it also includes
Horrifying footage of last days of Raj.
posted by Bixby23
on Sep 2, 2002 -
17 comments
HMOs sign on with William Morris. "We're not saying it's verboten to attack some part of the health care system. We're saying there is another side to what we do." No word yet on whether the American Association of Health Plans is set to star opposite Tom Cruise in the next summer blockbuster.
But, aside from moving beautiful people from casting to marquee, I believe this is the first time in history that the William Morris Agency has been set up as a Hollywood lobbyist. It's bad enough that
more than 100 product placement agencies continue to
bombard movies with
increasing junk. But, assuming the studios take this representation seriously, is it too much to ask that corporate interests be denied any potential sullying of the cinematic voice? Will CAA follow suit and take on the NRA? Or are today's movies beyond salvation?
posted by ed
on Jul 16, 2002 -
4 comments
Attack of the Hollywood Clones Flametracker investigates how some actors are being cloned so that they can work on twice as many projects. See also Julia Roberts and Monica Potter, Keira Knightly and Natalie Portman, Robert Redford and Brad Pitt ...
posted by feelinglistless
on Apr 25, 2002 -
18 comments
The "Sum Of All Fears" trailer recently went online, and is already causing some
heated discussion over major changes from the book. In the wake of 9/11, it seems that terrorists in the film have been changed from Muslim to Neo-Nazi (who then go on to detonate a bomb within the United States). Hollywood knee-jerk reaction or a good call given the timing of things? Discuss...
posted by almostcool
on Mar 28, 2002 -
28 comments
Alexandre Dumas on film This AP/CNN article says Dumas’ books make good movies, but aren’t being read as much as they used to be. Do the changes the movies make improve the books, or would more faithful adaptations be better?
posted by kirkaracha
on Feb 2, 2002 -
15 comments
Tilda Swinton: Action Heroine Who’s next among alabaster-complected redhead action heroines – Julianne Moore? “In the end, what ensures our fixation on the screen is Tilda, Tilda, Tilda. Has she been pumping iron or what? Previously known for her glacial composure, here she’s virtually an action hero”
posted by joeclark
on Dec 16, 2001 -
14 comments
Actor Ralph Meeker portrayed hardboiled private dick Mike Hammer in the Robert Aldrich film "Kiss Me Deadly", a celluloid masterpiece of brutal cold-war paranoia that introduced the filmgoing public to the concept of suitcase nukes back in 1955. For some reason, I find the thought of
Conway Twitty films far more disturbing.
posted by MrBaliHai
on Nov 13, 2001 -
9 comments
The true gut feelings we know of will become this, purified and rare. Emotion is not something we will be born with.
Part II.
Warning: These are flash movies and do contain some minor "adult content".
posted by bytecode
on Oct 22, 2001 -
3 comments
