Creative professional based in Arlington, MA. Specializing in web design for political campaigns, nonprofits, and small business.
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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Stanley Kubrick Archives
Just burned a Barnes & Noble birthday gift certificate (+cash) on Taschen’s Kubrick archives. Probably not the most efficient use of my dwindling funds, but the most pleasurable that occurred to me today. Can’t wait to take a nice long afternoon to sift through the 800 high-res film stills.
Five Favorite Films with Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida
a good read.The writers of Away We Go talk about their 5 favorite movies.
Interesting list. These kinds of things are always dangerous, and tend to change constantly, but I have some time to kill:
- Cool Hand Luke. Paul Newman in the ultimate antihero role.
- 2001: a Space Odyssey. I’ve referenced it plenty on here, and so has seemingly every filmmaker for the past four decades.
- Blade Runner (Final Cut). Always loved the look and feel of it (I’m a sucker for dystopian futures AND artificial life), but Scott’s Final Cut version blew me away, and continues to dazzle me on every rewatching.
- Requiem for a Dream. It physically hurts to watch this movie sometimes, but it’s just so damned well-done. Aronofsky’s the best director of his generation, and I won’t argue this.
- Taxi Driver. DeNiro as a force of nature, before he became a caricature of himself. Scorcese at the height of his powers, creating a believable universe for Travis Bickle to live in. Zero to dislike.
The trailer for Ricky Gervais’ new movie, “The Invention Of Lying,” about a world in which everyone tells the truth. Remember the first time you got high with the funniest person you know? This is that to the 10,000th power.
I worked on this movie! Few days as an extra, one as a P.A. I thought the name change (from This Side of the Truth) was just a rumor, according to Gervais’s blog, but apparently I was wrong. Very interested to see how this came out, as the scenes I worked on were very funny. Louis CK & Gervais are the best, and there’s an Ed Norton cameo that should be good.
EDIT: why is this so damned choppy? it’s happening in the embedded version, on YouTube, even in the mp4 version. annoying too, because I can see at least two scenes I worked on but the quality is terrible.
EDIT 2: ok, i found the original, it’s a Yahoo UK exclusive, someone must have ripped it and uploaded to YouTube, losing a ton of frames in the process…much better quality here: http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/features/exclusive/
MakingOf - Insiders - Darren Aronofsky - Darren Aronofsky’s Screenwriting Strategies
I love how forthcoming Aronofsky is in his interviews, here, on SlashFilm, and elsewhere. He’s like the rare athlete that doesn’t speak in cliches and actually gives you insight into their particular universe. Every interview with him that I’ve seen or listened to has been informative, personal, and seemingly heartfelt; I really get the sense that he’s interested in helping other potential filmmakers learn. Yet another reason that I’ll watch anything he does, and why I am still a bit devastated that he dropped out of The Fighter.
Sam Rockwell Will Be In Duncan Jones' Mute
Whoa. I hadn’t heard about Duncan Jones’ next project, Mute, until now…but he’s following up Moon with another sci-fi movie that counts Blade Runner as its biggest visual influence? Sweet jeebus, I’m hooked on this guy. Duncan Jones, prepare to join Darren Aronofsky on a platform of current directors who most fascinate me.
kapi:
This is one of the most beautifully shot scenes ever.
Stanley Kubrick was a master of natural light.
Kubrick was actually the master of creating light. He rarely used natural light, he hated shooting on location and preferred to own all of his own camera’s, lights, etc. Most of the scenes which most people think are natural light are Kubrick’s genius at work: it’s all fake.
For probably more Kubrick than you’d ever want to know, check out The Kubrick Site. I basically spent college on that website. Also, watching his movies over and over again, and checking out his early photographic work for LOOK and various other magazines you start to learn that this kid was born with an amazing and keen understanding of human emotion, light and creating drama. Kubrick was, and is, a photographic genius.
Wow, great link. My favorite Kubrickism is his whole theory that film separates itself from other art forms via the editing/cutting process. Screenwriting is born from literature, cinematography from photography, acting from the theater, scoring from music, etc…but great film is devoted to the perfectionist ideal of collecting hundreds of hours of material and painstakingly editing it into a cohesive vision.
Sam Rockwell & Duncan Jones on Moon
I’m pretty much hooked on makingof.com - there’s a lot of really fascinating content here.
Still from Moon.
A, approaching A+ (contingent on rewatching). If you can get to a theater showing Moon, do it. Sam Rockwell’s amazing in his best performance since Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. The visuals are stunning, considering the miniscule $5 million budget, and Duncan Jones (nee Zowie Bowie) creates an incredible little world with nods to 2001, Outland, Blade Runner, and other sci-fi classics. Clever script as well. All in all, a pretty incredible accomplishment for a first film.
Weg zum Nachbarn - Way to the Neighbor (via bluealien23)
Clever, wonderful. Especially from about nine minutes on. This is from 1968, yet this girl wouldn’t look at all out of place in 2009; I hope she still occasionally produces this bemused smile as a sixty-something.
(via FilthyGorgeousFix)
