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
Remember that
Shining trailer from a few weeks back? Now they've done it with
Big. (embedded WMV)
posted by adrober
on Dec 1, 2005 -
46 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
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
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
( Matrix Revolution ) in just a few months! Warning: Link contains possible spoiler for those who haven't seen it! Looks like we won't have to wait very long until the conclusion to the cliff hanger ending of the Matrix is revealed in the sequel. Matrix 3 (Matrix Revolution)
posted by filecrave
on May 18, 2003 -
41 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
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 toughest Chelonia to every grace the media. Come on. Everyone had to love them at some point, with their pizzas and funny weapons.
This page has some interesting sketch art.
This one includes the complete cast of the cartoon and movies, with links to their career since said roles.
This site, my favorite, has the entire "Coming out of our Shells" tape for download. Remember the classic, Cowabunga?
posted by lazaruslong
on Dec 12, 2002 -
10 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
Digital projection coming to a theater near you. "Lucas says the new format is cheaper and easier on viewers' eyes because it eliminates the pops and scratches from film wear and tear. He accuses the industry of resisting change the same way it snubbed talking pictures until "The Jazz Singer" signaled the end of the silent era."
Any other mefites planning on seeing Episode II at a DLP theater? [
DLP theater list]
posted by skallas
on May 14, 2002 -
29 comments
Terminal Error was the schlock movie of the week tonight on the Pax network... featuring an intelligent virus spread by - wait for it - MP3 Files. How much do you suppose the RIAA pay for that gem?
posted by Maxor
on Apr 26, 2002 -
24 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
French politicians polish cultural credentials. France's presidential hopefuls have begun pledging to defend the country's cherished culture, hoping to drum up support from artists worried that American films and music will steamroll finer French productions.
This rhetoric makes it sound like American films are picking up guns to massacre poor defenseless French culture. Maybe American films are so successful because they give people something that the "finer French productions" don't, and if so, then is that such a horrible thing? After all, we are just giving the people what they want, right? And if that takes money away from more artsy productions, then whose fault is that anyway?
posted by epimorph
on Apr 8, 2002 -
15 comments
Neo-Nazi movie reviews, because neo-Nazis need culture, too. It's not all slurs against Jewish and black people (although there is a lot of that); there's also deep cultural insight, like:
- "Having odd sex or sex with odd things or odd people is very, very likely to make you not-ordinary" (American Beauty review)
- "Rage Against the Machine, which, if you're unfamiliar, is screechy Mexican supremacist noise." (American History X review)
- Kids are "quart-sized creeps: greedy, selfish, stupid all-consuming egomanaical tyrants who will drive adults crazy if they they let them" (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory review)
- Lord of the Rings is "a glimpse, here and now, of the kind of White culture we are working to create in the future"
[Via the April 2002
Esquire, not online]
posted by kirkaracha
on Mar 16, 2002 -
37 comments
Worse movies of the 20th century? I think not. There's lots of stinkers here, but including Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and ignoring such dreck as The Omega Man certainly has to be illegal somewhere. Let the "I thought this underrated movie was actually good" confessions commence. [via the null device]
posted by skallas
on Feb 8, 2002 -
81 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
A'll be bach – Terminiator 3 is coming!!! With a budget projected to be more than $170 million, Daily Variety reports that Schwarzenegger is working out the final contract details to star in the third installment, with Jonathan Mostow replacing James Cameron as director.
Shooting on the film is expected to begin in April ...
posted by Brilliantcrank
on Dec 5, 2001 -
39 comments
R2-D2 Beneath the Dome is cute, funny, silly and the most despicable ploy to hype a movie ever in the history of cinema. Most importantly, it diminishes the stature of
a great man, by failing to mention Kenny Baker's contribution to the successful phenomenon. It's like talking about Indiana Jones "behind the scenes" without mentioning Harrison Ford.
posted by ZachsMind
on Nov 26, 2001 -
20 comments
