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Nathaniel Dorsky On….
30 August 2009 12:35 PM, PDT
With the calendar for the San Francisco Cinematheque Fall program officially announced, I’m reminded of the great job Executive Director Jonathan Marlow has done in breathing life into the institution and how he has singlehandedly trained my focus towards experimental cinema. I’ll get back from the Toronto International just in time to catch the San Francisco Cinematheque’s season opener: José Antonio Sistiaga’s rarely-screened ere erera baleibu icik subua aruaren. In the months following, I look forward to programs on Tom Chomont, Robert Beavers, Chick Strand, and the Kuchar Brothers. Anticipating same has likewise reminded of my favorite event of San Francisco Cinematheque’s last season: Nathaniel Dorsky speaking on his most recent films Song & Solitude, Sarabande and Winter.
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- Michael Guillen
Poster Alert! Sneak peek. Aaron Horkey’s Dead Man
30 August 2009 12:28 PM, PDT
Fans of Alamo Posters listen up and listen well. Those following the poster scene know that Aaron Horkey is a certified genius and his prints are some of the most astounding works out there, both in terms of beautiful imagery and sheer artistic talent. Horkey has been tapped to make a poster for the Jim Jarmusch western Dead Man and a couple of days ago Mitch Putnam posted a few process pics of the piece on his website omgposters.com.
This thing is going to kill. Kill I tells ya. A high quality giclee print (museum quality digital print) with letterpress accents.
The thing drops in just about a week and I’ll give you the heads up when it does.
Click the link below to check out those pics.
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- Swarez
Chris And Phil Present: Film4 Frightfest Fright Bite Three!
30 August 2009 9:21 AM, PDT
Day three of the Film4 Frightfest in London has come and gone, bringing with it screenings of Lee Demarbre’s Smash Cut, Spanish chiller Hierro, Us horror anthology Trick R Treat, Japanese splatter Vampire Girl Versus Frankenstein Girl and the proverbial so much more. And, once again, Chris and Phil were present and present to us edition number three of their daily Fright Bite podcast! Check it below the break!
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- Todd Brown
Sex And Violence In Serbian Film
30 August 2009 8:40 AM, PDT
The Serbian film industry, while growing in stature around the world by producing more and more films of higher and higher quality, is also notably trending towards violence on screen, a trend that would be denounced in most nations but one that the director of the Film Center Serbia has actually gone on record defending as a valid expression of his country’s history and ongoing troubles. And nowhere is that trend towards violence - in this case violence fused with explicit sex - more pronounced than in the upcoming Serbian Film.
Milos, a retired ex-porn star, now leads a normal family life with his beautiful wife, Maria and five year old son Stefan in tumultuous Serbia inn a modern era of transition, trying to make ends meet. A sudden call from his former colleague, still hot porn actress Layla, will change everything. Aware of his financial problems, Layla introduces »
- Todd Brown
Machine Girl, Juon and Tokyo Gore Police Directors Join Forces For The Ancient Dogoo Girl!
30 August 2009 8:26 AM, PDT
Okay fans of Japanese cult film here’s a little collection of talent to taunt you with. Noboru Iguchi (The Machine Girl), Takashi Shimizu (Juon) and Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police) are among the talents behind upcoming project The Ancient Dogoo Girl, the story of a ten thousand year old girl revived to fight evil in modern society. Kind of like Ultraman, really, but with the hero in a clay bikini instead of a full body suit and with a lot more cleavage shots. And why is this a taunt? Because Dogoo is a television series - not a film - due to start airing in October and given that I can count the number of Japanese television series to receive releases here on one hand, the chances of this one ever crossing over are pretty much nil. You can, however, check the trailer below the break.
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- Todd Brown
Go Nagai’s Abashiri Family Coming To The Big Screen! * Updated With Trailer *
30 August 2009 8:17 AM, PDT
[The trailer has just been added below the break. It’s looking cheeeeeeap.]
One of the best known manga artists in the world today, Japan’s Go Nagai has won a horde of fans around the globe thanks to Cutie Honey and he’s about to make waves with another cult title hitting the big screen.
“The Abashiri Family” are one of the most notorious mafia family members in the world. Even though their family consists of only five members, just the words “Abashiri Family” strikes fear in other gang members. The head of the mafia clan then decides to send to his cherished only daughter Kikunosuke (Erica Tonooka) to a boarding school. What the father doesn’t know is that the boarding school are run by enemies of the Abashiri Family and they have no intentions of graduating their students ...
A live action adaptation of Go’s manga has just been completed with Ultraman veteran Teruyoshi Ishii directing from a script by Sadayuki Murai (Perfect Blue, »
- Todd Brown
Frightfest 2009: An Afternoon Of American Werewolves In London
30 August 2009 1:46 AM, PDT
Yesterday afternoon John Landis fans were treated to a newly restored version of An American Werewolf In London, preceded by Brit Paul Davis’ new making-of documentary Beware The Moon: Remembering An American Werewolf In London. Landis was around for the afternoon, excitable, outspoken, enthusiastic and a little bit rude, as if you’d expect anything less. Davis’ doc takes a fairly typical and conservative approach, with a mixture of present day visits to the locations used in the film (The Slaughtered Lamb, the Welsh hillside etc.) and talking head interviews with a multitude of the stars and crew. Whilst inevitably some of the material touches on ground familiar from the DVD releases, there are some new nuggets of info and some more candid than usual revelations. In particular Davis has done a commendable job in bringing together such a huge breadth of the talent involved. One realises this is fandom »
- James Dennis
[K-film Reviews] 잘 알지도 못하면서 (Like You Know It All)
29 August 2009 5:31 PM, PDT
A new start. A fresh new start is all it takes.
Like voices brimming inside our souls, adamant to explode out in the open and be revealed for everyone to listen, such instincts can be very alluring, some of the most impulsive whims known to man. Sometimes you let them take over, wake up in the early morning in a Jerry Maguire-like frenzy and witness all that energy spurt out, to then somehow regret it later. Or maybe you make it a sort of real life McGuffin, only there to maintain status quo, like for Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung in Wong Kar-Wai’s 春光乍洩 (Happy Together), not making a single step forward but always living off that wish, that distant chimera in the desert called a new life; a fresh new start. Especially when it comes to artists, such temptations can be very strong, devastatingly so. Think of »
- X
Argentine Cinema: The Headless Woman—Onstage Conversation Between Lucrecia Martel and B. Ruby Rich
29 August 2009 3:56 PM, PDT
As a companion piece to my Q&A transcript of the La Ciénaga screening at the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts earlier this summer, I offer the subsequent evening’s conversation regarding La Mujer Sin Cabeza (The Headless Woman) between filmmaker Lucrecia Martel and cultural critic B. Ruby Rich. This conversation is not for the spoiler-wary.
The Headless Woman will be screening as part of the San Francisco Film Society’s Kabuki Screen on September 18-24, 2009.
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- Michael Guillen
Second Trailer for Extract. With Maximum Simmons! (J.K. & Gene)
29 August 2009 12:57 PM, PDT
Not quite as novel as the original trailer, but still emphasizing that Mike Judge‘s return to the workplace should be a good middle-brow time at the movies. After all, Judge is somewhat of a pioneer in smart stupid movies, from Beavis & Butthead to Idiocracy. This is the first I’d heard that Kiss frontman Gene Simmons has a cameo, here playing a shyster ambulance chasing lawyer. No sign of mechanical spiders though.
Extract opens on September 4th in limited release, very likely on more screens than his last picture.
New Trailer, Original Trailer and a couple of clips over at Apple.com
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- Kurt Halfyard
Tiff 09: Second Agora Trailer Arrives.
29 August 2009 12:45 PM, PDT
Alejandro Amenabar’s Egyptian epic Agora drew somewhat mixed reviews when it premiered in Cannes but whatever people may think of the commercial prospects of the film there’s no denying the sheer scope and attention to detail with this thing. Agora could very well be the definition of ‘sumptuous’ on screen. The original trailer for this one came out a good long time ago and we haven’t heard a peep since but with the film about to arrive on North American shores at the Toronto International Film Festival a new trailer has arrived. Check it out below the break!
Here’s how the festival describes it:
From the director of the Academy Award-winning biopic The Sea Inside comes a rousing historical epic recreating the early religious conflicts of fourth-century Alexandria, Egypt. The film boasts a smouldering turn by Rachel Weisz, who has evinced greater and greater depth with each new role. »
- Todd Brown
A Bad Trailer For An Unnecessary Sequel! Descent 2 Is Coming ...
29 August 2009 12:39 PM, PDT
The first Descent is a truly great piece of film, one of the best horror pictures of the past decade. The sequel? I’ve seen it and it aint. And not just because it’s thoroughly unnecessary but also because it’s hugely repetitive, filled with bad actors and devoid of original ideas. And the trailer is below the break. Icky.
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- Todd Brown
Tiff 09: New Trailer For Nicolas Refn’s Valhalla Rising
29 August 2009 12:30 PM, PDT
For years, One-Eye, a mute warrior of supernatural strength, has been held prisoner by the chieftain Barde. Aided by a boy, Are, he kills his captor and together they escape, beginning a journey into the heart of darkness. On their flight from bounty hunters, One-Eye and Are board a Viking vessel, but the ship is soon engulfed by an endless fog that first disintegrates as they sight an unknown land. As the new land reveals its secrets and the Vikings meet a ghastly fate, One-Eye discovers his true self.
Just on time for the upcoming world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, a new - and much improved - trailer for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Valhalla Rising has appeared on the scene. Tighter, better resolution, and just generally leaner and meaner this trailer is reason to get awfully excited about the latest from the director of Pusher and Bronson. »
- Todd Brown
Learn To Be A Psychic Spy In The Men Who Stare At Goats!
29 August 2009 11:43 AM, PDT
I will freely and happily confess to giggling more than a little bit when I heard that Jon Ronson’s book The Men Who Stare At Goats - a real life piece of investigative journalism exploring a real Us military program devoted to creating psychic soldiers capable of killing (goats were the test subjects) with their minds - was being made into a film. Ronson’s work is brilliantly fun to read, odd and quirky and meticulously researched, the experience made all the more strange and bizarre by the fact that it is all absolutely, 100% real. I had a bit of a sad twinge over the fact that they were fictionalizing the film but, honestly, it probably makes more sense to do it this way and I was confident that in the right hands this would be one fantastic film.
Well, I’ll have my chance to see it soon »
- Todd Brown
Chris And Phil Present: Film4 Frightfest Fright Bite One!
29 August 2009 10:54 AM, PDT
While we’ve got our very own James Dennis keeping an eye on things at the just-begun Film4 Frightfest - you’ll find his review of Christopher Smith’s Triangle here - you know what they say: You can never have too much of a good thing. And so when erstwhile UK film podcasters Chris and Phil - you’ll find their complete archive here - offered to put together a series of daily podcasts from the ffestival exclusively for Twitch, I said the only thing I could say. Hell yes. You’ll find Fright Bite number one - with another quality dose of Christopher Smith talk - lurking below the break in streaming form.
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- Todd Brown
Nikkatsu Noir: Takumi Furukawi’s Cruel Gun Story
29 August 2009 8:11 AM, PDT
Note: Certain aspects of the film’s plot are discussed, which may cause those allergic to spoilers to convulse.
Takumi Furukawi’s Cruel Gun Story, which was released in 1964, is a snappy, suspenseful heist film centered around a great performance by Joe Shishido. The central character is Togawa (played by Shishido), an ex-con who is sprung out of prison early by the mob. In exchange for his freedom and some cash, the mob asks Togawa to rob an armored car carrying 120 million yen in gambling money from a race track. Togawa is skeptical, but his desire to help his sister Rie (Chieko Matsubara), who was crippled in a car wreck, leads him to at least entertain the idea. Togawa is given the names of three crooks to help him pull off the job. With the help of his old buddy Shirai (Yuji Odaka), Togawa tests the mettle of his potential partners in crime, »
- Rodney Perkins
Frightfest 2009 Review: Shadow
29 August 2009 5:02 AM, PDT
Having not in the least bit of affection for Rob Zombie’s forays into film making I approached this one from another rock-star-turned-horror-director with some trepidation. The debut feature from Italian pop rock star Federico Zampaglione harks back in no subtle way to horror legends Argento, Bava and Deodato in its treatment of the backwoods horror flick. In a topical twist on proceedings, Shadow centres on young soldier, David, who upon returning from the war in Iraq embarks on a mountain biking holiday in a wintry Europe. After the briefest and most perfunctory of set-ups, he bumps into a couple of hick hunters intent on tormenting the local hottie, Angeline. David steps into the fray and a terrifying chase takes off. As the violence escalates and they battle for survival we’re suddenly plunged into an even greater nightmare as they face a common enemy lurking in the woods. Captured, »
- James Dennis
A Tiff Programmer Talks Sawasdee Bangkok
28 August 2009 8:01 PM, PDT
[The Toronto International Film Festival’s south-east Asia programmer Raymond Phathanavirangoon has been giving us a guided tour of his selections for the big festival and today he checks in with some thoughts on Sawasdee Bangkok.]
Hi everyone! After my introduction of Pen-ek Ratanuruang’s Nymph, here’s another project at Tiff that the same director is involved in: Sawasdee Bangkok. Yes, like Paris je t’aime and New York I Love You, this is another city omnibus. But the big difference is that all the filmmakers here are Thai. They know their own city off by heart, and as such the four shorts here are much more intimate and insightful than the usual 5-minute-and-it’s-over clip. Plus, there’s a real charm to all the films, which only makes the title Sawasdee Bangkok all the more fitting.
The four filmmakers are some of the biggest names in current Thai cinema. Wisit Sasanatieng of Tears of the Black Tiger and Citizen Dog fame; Aditya Assarat, who took the cinema world by storm with his award-winning Wonderful Town; Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, acclaimed screenwriter and the director of the quirky Midnight, »
- Todd Brown
Tiff 09: First Look At Maggie Q And Joe Odagiri in The Warrior And The Wolf
28 August 2009 7:55 PM, PDT
As any regular rerader of this site will know, we are big fans of Japan’s Joe Odagiri around these parts and loyal followers of his career. And Odagiri has been on a bit of a world wide tour of late, taking on roles outside of his native Japan, one of the longest brewing and most interesting being Chinese epic The Warrior And The Wolf, in which he stars opposite Maggie Q. For a film with two such high profile stars, this one has been keeping a remarkably low profile on the market circuit and snuck in to the lineup of the Toronto International Film Festival so quietly that I honestly missed the initial announcement. But not now! We’ve just been passed our first look at stars Odagiri and Q in the film and the look is absolutely gorgeous. Hit the link below to see a much larger version »
- Todd Brown
Shing Fui-On Rip
28 August 2009 2:51 PM, PDT
Hong Kong actor Shing Fui-On has succumb to nasopharyngeal carcinoma yesterday after being diagnosed with the disease in 2004. He was 54.
For anyone who watched many Hong Kong films from the 80’s to early 90’s, chances are you seen Shing’s face before. With a tall and rugged appearances, its not so hard to forget and its no wonder why he has become well-known for often playing villainous roles as a Triad boss, a personal favorite of mine with him is in the heroic bloodshed film The Killer. His only leading role throughout his 31 years in the showbiz was the horror comedy The Blue Jean Monster.
He’ll be missed.
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- Al Young
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