Filed under: Film
Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing was made way back in ‘56 and it’s a film noir heist caper about a buncha guys tryin’ ta rob a racetrack. Note the duality in the title in it referring to a windfall as well as to death. Noirs never get a happy ending and this one tells you as much.
I thought the start of the film was a touch confusing as you don’t get introductions to characters, not that it’s necessary. It jumps right into the idea that this was a heist and it starts right about when the robbery takes place, slowly revealing more scene by scene, placing things in a timeframe and not having a linear time scale. One interesting thing was the multiple different views and perspectives the film shows you to build the story and give each character their own story.
Sterling Hayden, whom I previously saw in another noir, The Asphalt Jungle, plays the lead role as Johnny Clay, the guy who just got outta jail and saw his wife after 5 years only to decide it’s time for another ill-advised criminal caper. He strings along a few acquaintances and friends to do a big job, $2million dollars by robbing the racetrack. He hatches an elaborate plan involving a marksman, a wrestler, a bartender, a ticketer and a cop. Each one of ‘em has their own issues and reasons to need the dough.
So we get this interesting play of personalities and needs and the idea that crime doesn’t pay. No one gets away scot free but it’s an intriguing take on how desperation never gets the best out of man. You just know it’s all going to end ugly, but you don’t know how. That’s what the film is really about.
So my Objectified DVD just got in the mail like 3 days ago and last night was a time when I could muster the strength to watch it. Its just been one late night with an early start after another so whatever. So right, the film. It’s nice, I suppose. Gary Hustwit is really good at noticing these little details that attach the viewer to humanity at large in relation to the context of the film. He also focuses on very quaint, yet poignant, statements and ideas that address the behemoth that is design, or more precisely industrial design.
There’s plenty of stars from the design world featured here, from the Bondi bum attitude of Marc Newson to the sagely Dieter Rams or the childlike Naoto Fukasawa, it’s definitely interesting if you’re a designer fanboy like I am. I dunno why but I reckon I just admire the philosophies that each individual has. You can say all you want about each one but they’re all where they are today because they think different than you or me.
I appreciate that the film is one that provides a good amount of insight into the design process and all its trials and tribulations. The film takes the viewer from idea conception and generation through to the solutions, then the refinement processes and the eventual outcome and also the ramifications of what they have done. You get to see Jonathan Ive compare an aluminum blank to the finished keyboard cover piece on the Macbook Pro (unibody version) and how designing it wasn’t so much designing the keyboard cover but the processes involved to make it possible. Or the team at IDEO generating completely random and silly ideas for a toothbrush/oral care concept. Or Smart design take out a box full of foam models that eventually led to the OXO good grips peeler. Or Naoto Fukasawa talk about why he put facets on a handphone because of a memory of peeling potatoes as a child. It’s like memories of uni revisited. Hello long nights in the studio! I so do not miss you.
For most people, I think design still remains far removed but I think it should stay that way. Like most of the designers in the film, I too believe design shouldn’t even be seen. Like Apple’s monitors where they try to remove everything and leave you with the screen or the indicator lights that only appear when they need to. You could argue that in the former, nobody really cares or maybe it’s an evil Apple plot to mind control humanity into slavery in Steve Jobs future robotic utopia but it’s really about attention to detail. Great designers make stuff nobody even notices and take for granted. They just do what they’re intended for. You can’t please everyone though. Between the money men and raving teenagers or cranky people. It’s a tough life being a tastemaker.
I’ve always obsessed over the material world, from having the biggest brand whatever to the most hyped this or the legendary XXX designed that. And when I hear Dieter Rams right at the end talking about how design will be more about survival in the future, I almost feel a pinch of hypocrisy in myself. But sorry, I remain indignant that I am a materialistic bigot that thinks he has better taste than everyone else. Rams excluded. Have you seen his pad? It is the shiznit. And his accent and mannerisms. MY GOD! So German! So Kunst! So cold. Just like his coffee maker. Yes I miss his coffee maker. Even if I much prefer expresso coffee, that Braun makes me wish I were drinking drip. I guess I always feel more for the object than for the activity. The tangible, material world rather than the experienctial, emotional one. I must be part German maybe. No. I’m way too humorous.
I think it’s nice to have a film like this. That appreciates the under-appreciated and the maniacal few that decided that they wanna be designers. I think the next film Mr. Hustwit tackles should be a food one. Where he puts his keen eye for detail real up close and personal (you can actually see the lines the lathe makes when it carves out the objectified logo on a piece of white polycarb!) and people can get really hungry. He could do a few of the Michelin starred peeps and then some of the old school guys and some weirdos or whatever. Or maybe a fashion one with the Antwerp 6 at a roundtable sharing jokes or Dolce & Gabbana & Bruno hello?
I always remember that scene where Harrison Ford is about to order noodles from like this floating Asian noodle spaceship but his colleague stops him in his tracks. Or the one when he’s running after the female replicant wearing the transparent raincoat and the multiple awesome flyby city scenes like the one above. Bladerunner is just one of those movies where visuals > content and it’s something I find admirable, although the storyline itself was good as well. Sometimes it just doesn’t matter what you’re looking at because it’s just beautiful.
I probably should get the entire Woody Allen catalogue. 2 films in and I’m worried I want to become him, the wry wit and dry humor, the intellect, the style, the neuroses, the dating 17 year olds… At least that’s what he does in Manhattan, not what I want to do.
I love the film and I’m actually still only halfway through but I figure I’d write about it because I don’t need to see the finish to appreciate it. It’s good. I love the space. I love the black and white. If you wanted to know what NY was, you don’t gotta get some Lonely Planet or a wallpaper* guidebook. You should just watch this movie. It distills the essence of the city into a beautiful, poignant film about romance and the fickle attitude with which humans go about their lives in the concrete jungle of jungles.
I love the opening scene with the Gershwin and Allen narrating about how he’s going to open on his new book about the city. It’s splendid, dry and incisive. Makes me wanna drop everything and get a loft. Like the one scene where he’s talking to his 17 year old lover in his apartment. Because the film is shot in super widescreen, you get a full on view of everything and the city itself becomes a character. In the scene I’m talking about, the 2 characters are moving around within the apartment but the camera is still and they go from right to left to left to right, talking about their relationship and how silly it is. Then they finally exit through the circular stairs, brilliantly lit in the shot and utterly drawing in the sense of space and architecture that makes the city what it is. This is a scene which explains why loft living is so NY.
Then there’s the restaurants and the inimitable NY accents on a variety of people. I love how everyone’s busy, going to art shows, getting caught in the rain in central park, going to black tie events… Everyone’s rich and dapper and cool and interesting and they rattle on pretentiously about various personalities. So vacant, so existential, yet very modern and spirited.
Maybe in 10 years, I’ll get an address with a 10001 zip code.
Filed under: Film
You normally associate lightbulbs with ideas or whatever. Not in this French film helmed by Georgian director Gela Babluani. 13 Tzameti (Tzameti is 13 in Georgian) is about a poor immigrant in France working on the roof of a drug addict’s house. The addict is constantly fainting and looks like he’s gonna die at any time. One day, a friend visits him asking about money. The immigrant, Sebastien, overhears their conversation and learns that his client is expecting a letter to arrive that tells him how to do a job that would make him a lot of money.
Then, the client receives the letter and goes to take a bath but ends up dead due to an overdose. The letter, through some strange twist of fate, ends up in Sebastien’s hands and he decides he’s going to take the client’s place. Things aren’t quite what he thought they would be and he ends up getting deeper and deeper into a dark abyss.
The film is spare and minimal. Shooting in black and white, Babluani really plays up the tension to a hilt. If you like thrillers, this one won’t disappoint. The film title and the nature of the story leads to some obvious conclusions but it’s still gripping to watch. Definitely an interesting film that does great with the slow reveal.
They’re remaking this in a Hollywood version with the same director who says it will be altered slightly and it’s expected to star Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, 50 Cent, Ray Liotta and Sam Riley (he played Ian Curtis in Control) in the lead role.
I’ll admit I had no idea what this movie was about when I queued it. I just went by the fact that it had a famous director, Aki Kaurismaki and a ridiculous title. Turns out I wasn’t going to be disappointed. Leningrad Cowboys Go America is one helluva hoot. The story starts somewhere in mother Russia or some random Eastern European locale where the Leningrad Cowboys are auditioning for a music producer. He turns them down on account of the fact that their folky pop wasn’t commercial enough, but sends them to his cousin in America, where they’ll “take any crap”. So guided by the selfish svengali of a manager they have, the band heads to the US & A.
It’s essentially a road movie that has a bit of a political slant to it. Given that it came out in ‘89, you realise much of the film satirizes the Cold War and the stereotypes of life under Communism and Democracy. But don’t bother about that nonsense. The film is funny in and of itself. From the first moment I set eyes on the Cowboys, I knew this was gonna be good. Must be something to do with the uber exaggerated Elvis pomps they wear on their heads or maybe their foot (as in the measurement) long pointy shoes.
Upon arriving in Nueva York, they audition again only to learn that the musical style the people like in America is something called rock n roll. The brilliant, if ruthless, manager realises they need to adapt to survive and asks the band “Have you ever heard of rock and roll?” “No”, the band reply. “Study this book.” is the sagely advice from the manager. From there, they head South towards Mexico where another cousin has a wedding lined up, adapting their music along the way, from rock and roll to country to mariachi.
They get into plenty of hijinks and I’ve forgotten to mention that they also brought along their frozen stiff bassist (he died practicing outdoors the night before their big audition back home) along for the trip. They strap him to the top of a car they buy from Jim Jarmusch in a cameo role and the manager even uses the coffin to store Budweisers. They also get into jail at one point where they get out by doing a blue man group impersonation. Released presumably because they were too annoying, as evidenced by the fact that the warden was wearing ear muffs when he let them go, asking them never to come back.
Throughout all this, the band is almost completely deadpan, which adds to the hilarity because how is it possible that grown men wearing fake wigs and silly shoes and zoot suits could keep straight faces when they have to reminisce about former loves, like tractors in the old farm or sing songs about the times when they were farmers on a collective.
I am very much inclined, at this point, to check out Aki Kaurismaki a whole lot more. Even if I know that this film is a departure from his usual thing. Or maybe I should start with the sequel to this film, also by Kaurismaki, Leningrad Cowboys meet Moses. Or maybe the band itself.
Filed under: Film
Pixar never disappoints. They typically push the boundaries. I finally watched a movie in a real cinema for once and Up left me melancholic. Happy that the film was a really good one but sad that it tugs at the heart strings so. The story is just told so simply and wonderfully. The opening montage has scant dialogue apart from when the lovers in the story meet. It’s surprising to find a topic so adult in an animation that is probably still targeted at kids. It’s actually got a lot of stuff you’d be aghast to answer if ever your child were to become quizzical. Death and old age are approached with a certain sobriety, perhaps a sign of the times but ultimtely, you still get a happy ending so it’s not all doom and gloom. Plenty of funny characters also make the film plenty enjoyable and the action rather thrilling.
You wouldn’t normally associate films where cannibalism is the central focus to be funny. But Delicatessen is. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, it was first released in 1991 and promptly won some Cesars among some other things.
The setting is a strange post apocalyptic random French locale, where there’s hardly any food and people trade in legumes. One distinct group of survivors forms the main subject. They live in an apartment block and look pretty normal for the most part. As the film progresses, we learn more and more about each one’s idiosyncrasies. The leader of the apartment is the butcher, who’s a fatass that commands respect because he sets a system in place that keeps everyone in the building alive. This system is basically attracting newcomers on the pretence of employment, only for the butcher to find some way to murder them and sell the meat off to the tenants.
The main plot revolves around the latest arrival, a former clown who is naive but cheerful. He starts out as the handyman for the place but begins to form a romance with the butcher’s daughter. We also learn about all these other characters. Like a rich man whose wife keeps trying to kill herself because she thinks she’s crazy. Apparently she’s hearing voices, which come from downstairs, which is where two guys make these things that make the sound of sheep. There’s also an old guy who lives in a room that’s perpetually flooded and filled with frogs and snails and a chunky but really hot mistress of the butcher.
One famous scene has the butcher making love to his mistress on a squeaky bed and everyone else in the apartment doing stuff, with the rhythmic sounds coming together, figuratively and literally. They start slow but get progressively more into each task, (be it cello playing, painting the ceiling, pumping a tire or getting hot and heavy) increasing in gusto until the butcher climaxes and everyone else has a mishap. In fact, a lot of the film feels like a musical. It’s almost like the cutscene in Band of Outsiders where they just get up and dance in the cafe, only here, it’s a cello accompanying a “musical saw” like what you see below.
I loved how there’s a lot of interesting details to the film, the saturated orangey brown filter the majority of the film uses grants it a very unique look. The mise en scene is filled with gritty, drippy, old timey, crusty, dusty stuff that lends a definite richness to the visuals which gets a contrast with the 50s France decor in the interiors and clothes. Then there’s the idea of survival in the film and how we try to keep up appearances. The people in the apartment all try to live normal lives, behaving mostly normal except when they get hungry and reveal their more savage natures. Contrasting this is another group living outside the apartment, the Troglodistes. These guys are vegetarians and live underground in a pseudo militaristic manner. They dress like each other, in wetsuits with hardhats and lamps, rubber boots and stuff. It’s pretty awesomely hilarious. They seem to accept that they need to adapt to survive rather than bluff themselves like the surface dwellers seem to. Whilst the premise of the imaginary world the film presents may not make complete sense, it’s a superb setting for the weirdo characters. We get to see these really strange people in their natural habitat, trying to stave off starvation and living on as it were.
So many scenes were absolutely memorable but the one below really takes the cake for me. The visuals and the comic timing is superb and whilst some bits felt like cramming weirdness to justify entertainment, it was interesting nonetheless. Overall, Delicatessen has to be one fine film, a must watch.
BoO has this new photoshoot for their F/W 2009 collection with Jason Schwartzmann hamming it up as a Godard character.
Filed under: Film
John Huston directs what some consider one of the first noirs ever. The Asphalt Jungle is a crime caper involving a german mastermind called the Doctor, who’s just got out from behind the wall. He holes up with Cobby, a bookie with underworld connections. One of these connections is to a reputed lawyer, Emmerich. The Doc’s got a proposition you see but you needs money to bankroll it and he hopes Emmerich’s his man. They meet and thrash out a deal that involves robbing a jewelry store and then fencing off the goods.
They hire a pro safecracker, Louis Ciavelli, a driver in Gus and the thug in Dix. Each guy comes with their own little story. Doc has been doing big heists for years but he’s a perv. First thing he does when he gets to Cobby’s is stare at this calendar with 50s poster girls on it. Cobby’s a nervous wreck all the time and he’s been running an illegal bookmaking racket. Louis Ciavelli’s got a family to take care of and needs the dough. Dix left his farmland in search of a better life but ended up as a hoodlum. Emmerich’s front is a rich, respectable lawyer but in truth he’s broke as and therein lies the problem. The poncey old man keeps a mistress on the side, played by Marilyn Monroe in a minor role, which helps to suck his finances dry. He reckons he can get away with double crossing the crew with a little help from a PI. Good thing Doc’s wise to this and enlists the help of Dix. Can they get the money or will the cops get em first?
Crime doesn’t pay. I don’t really think urbanity breeds crime or that rural = simple though. You get that in the film with the contrast between the various people with various statuses, from high rolling white collar to blue collar types and pro crims and finally the peasant. The film is shot beautifully and I dug the cinematography. But hey, it’s a film noir so it’s already full of win.
Also, the first scene has to have inspired Le Samourai’s line up with Jef Costello when Dix gets pulled in for a robbery. Great quote from the film comes via Alonzo D. Emmerich, “Crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavour”.
