Don't you wish every Movie Theater was like The Alamo?
Best. PSA. EVER!!!
Remember The Alamo...
Monday, June 06, 2011
Sunday, April 03, 2011
It's FilmFest Time!!
Happy New Year, everyone! Yes, I know that it's just a tad late, but you know how these things are. Personal turmoil and all that comes along with it -- The Good News is that everyone made it through surgery and they're recuperating nicely. The Christmas Miracle of December transmorgrified into January's Fresh Hell, as Christmas Miracles sometimes do.
With Spring, comes FilmFest to Kansas City - excuse me - The AMC Kansas City FilmFest, as the official titling goes. That kicks off this Wednesday, April 6 through April 10.
Here's a two-part interview with founder Fred Andrews, who provides some history, from when it started as The Kansas City Filmmaker's Jubilee to its current incarnation as FilmFest. This was intended for an article last year about the festival, but the publication it was intended for no longer exists... so, not one to waste material, it became the latest from Cheap Bastard Filmworks.
My personal picks are:
WED.
Togetherness Supreme
Rainbow Town
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno
Anatomy of Vince Gauaraldi
THURS.
Andy Anderson Shorts/Detention
Seminar: Art Direction for the Indie Filmmaker
FRI.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Brotherhood
SAT.
Au Pair, Kansas
Homecoming
Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Seminars: The Big Idea
And I recommend any and all of the shorts programs.
You can find trailers for some films, as well as information about tickets and a link to a downloadable program on the FilmFest site.
Disclosure: I did work on AU PAIR, KS, and the FilmFest is the place where it will be making its world premiere, then on to festivals in Minnesota and Oklahoma.
Happy New Year, everyone! Yes, I know that it's just a tad late, but you know how these things are. Personal turmoil and all that comes along with it -- The Good News is that everyone made it through surgery and they're recuperating nicely. The Christmas Miracle of December transmorgrified into January's Fresh Hell, as Christmas Miracles sometimes do.
With Spring, comes FilmFest to Kansas City - excuse me - The AMC Kansas City FilmFest, as the official titling goes. That kicks off this Wednesday, April 6 through April 10.
Here's a two-part interview with founder Fred Andrews, who provides some history, from when it started as The Kansas City Filmmaker's Jubilee to its current incarnation as FilmFest. This was intended for an article last year about the festival, but the publication it was intended for no longer exists... so, not one to waste material, it became the latest from Cheap Bastard Filmworks.
My personal picks are:
WED.
Togetherness Supreme
Rainbow Town
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno
Anatomy of Vince Gauaraldi
THURS.
Andy Anderson Shorts/Detention
Seminar: Art Direction for the Indie Filmmaker
FRI.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Brotherhood
SAT.
Au Pair, Kansas
Homecoming
Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Seminars: The Big Idea
And I recommend any and all of the shorts programs.
You can find trailers for some films, as well as information about tickets and a link to a downloadable program on the FilmFest site.
Disclosure: I did work on AU PAIR, KS, and the FilmFest is the place where it will be making its world premiere, then on to festivals in Minnesota and Oklahoma.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
... 'Tis the Season
Christmas just seems to creep up on one closer and closer each year. I try to tune out most of the hype to keep something special about it to me; it works with varying degrees of success. Whether one believes it's the birthday of a deity or the usurpation of a pagan holiday tamed into a spiritual holiday, then warped into a celebration of the REAL God of Our Worship - namely Money and the Goods That It Buys - there is something special about the time of year... it's mainly up to YOU how special it is.
Thus endeth the sermon.
A Christmas miracle of sorts has occurred; namely regular employment - or at least the start of it. As usual, it's of low character and substance, but as long as I can fake it long enough, then things will be alright... right? It may put a crimp into the other activities I was doing, but it's not like those were making any money, eh? And money is indeed the lifeblood of most anything one wants to do these days. So, we'll see how it goes.
Another Christmas tradition - in Britain, anyway - is the telling of scary tales around the season. Just look at A CHRISTMAS CAROL... and it was a tradition in Britain in the 70's to broadcast such tales, usually adaptations of stories by M.R. James (look it up). A collection of those tales got passed around under the heading of A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS. DVDs of these shows appeared in the UK and though they're mostly out of print now, some enterprising souls put the collection out there, along with a couple of fairly recent attempts to revive the tradition, and the show that kicked it off, a late 60's adaptation of the James story, "Whistle and I'll Come To You."
Most of the shows are deliberately paced, and there's no gore to speak of. The emphasis is on atmosphere and a growing sense of unease. Those who like their horror to be slambang and bloody will be disappointed at the lack of body parts strewn about, along with boring things such as character interaction. But then, British horror has never been all about goosh and gore; it's more on how the Uncanny intrudes upon the Familiar, and turns understanding of one's world upside down...
Not a bad thing to be reminded of, in my view. Putting the 'scare' in Christmas seems to be spreading - Santa in the European tradition, has long been a figure much more complex than the jolly fat man pushing consumerism in America, and two new films from Europe, RARE EXPORTS and SINT (Saint) are ready to ride that wave... it's only a matter of time before Krampus gets his own horror film.
They're certainly better than END OF THE LINE, a film that I heard a little about a few years ago, then it dropped from sight, until finding it recently.
It's not a bad film... in fact, its central premise is a pretty good one. However, for me, it's somewhat too fatally flawed to give it a total pass, and you can probably spot those in the trailer (which really gives too much away about the picture). It could lose its first 25 minutes or so with no detrimental effect to the picture... some of that is unnecessary shock/jump effects and background that really doesn't add anything pertinent, except stripping any ambiguity away...
And even though your effects guys are pretty good - know when too much is TOO MUCH.
It sounds like I'm down on this film... I'm more irked that with so much it had going for it, it got hobbled by some bad decisions. It is worth looking for, though.
Way better was the local library getting in its copy of AMERICA LOST AND FOUND: THE BBS STORY, which in its DVD incarnation is in several discs, which the library decided to carve up and circulate as separate packages. THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS was saved for me, along with the one I really wanted - HEAD!
In Widescreen, with commentary from all The Monkees, and with some very tasty extras, including a recent interview with Rafelson, an overview of BBS, some trailers including one I hadn't seen before, and a good photo gallery.
God Bless Us... Everyone!
Christmas just seems to creep up on one closer and closer each year. I try to tune out most of the hype to keep something special about it to me; it works with varying degrees of success. Whether one believes it's the birthday of a deity or the usurpation of a pagan holiday tamed into a spiritual holiday, then warped into a celebration of the REAL God of Our Worship - namely Money and the Goods That It Buys - there is something special about the time of year... it's mainly up to YOU how special it is.
Thus endeth the sermon.
A Christmas miracle of sorts has occurred; namely regular employment - or at least the start of it. As usual, it's of low character and substance, but as long as I can fake it long enough, then things will be alright... right? It may put a crimp into the other activities I was doing, but it's not like those were making any money, eh? And money is indeed the lifeblood of most anything one wants to do these days. So, we'll see how it goes.
Another Christmas tradition - in Britain, anyway - is the telling of scary tales around the season. Just look at A CHRISTMAS CAROL... and it was a tradition in Britain in the 70's to broadcast such tales, usually adaptations of stories by M.R. James (look it up). A collection of those tales got passed around under the heading of A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS. DVDs of these shows appeared in the UK and though they're mostly out of print now, some enterprising souls put the collection out there, along with a couple of fairly recent attempts to revive the tradition, and the show that kicked it off, a late 60's adaptation of the James story, "Whistle and I'll Come To You."
Most of the shows are deliberately paced, and there's no gore to speak of. The emphasis is on atmosphere and a growing sense of unease. Those who like their horror to be slambang and bloody will be disappointed at the lack of body parts strewn about, along with boring things such as character interaction. But then, British horror has never been all about goosh and gore; it's more on how the Uncanny intrudes upon the Familiar, and turns understanding of one's world upside down...
Not a bad thing to be reminded of, in my view. Putting the 'scare' in Christmas seems to be spreading - Santa in the European tradition, has long been a figure much more complex than the jolly fat man pushing consumerism in America, and two new films from Europe, RARE EXPORTS and SINT (Saint) are ready to ride that wave... it's only a matter of time before Krampus gets his own horror film.
They're certainly better than END OF THE LINE, a film that I heard a little about a few years ago, then it dropped from sight, until finding it recently.
It's not a bad film... in fact, its central premise is a pretty good one. However, for me, it's somewhat too fatally flawed to give it a total pass, and you can probably spot those in the trailer (which really gives too much away about the picture). It could lose its first 25 minutes or so with no detrimental effect to the picture... some of that is unnecessary shock/jump effects and background that really doesn't add anything pertinent, except stripping any ambiguity away...
And even though your effects guys are pretty good - know when too much is TOO MUCH.
It sounds like I'm down on this film... I'm more irked that with so much it had going for it, it got hobbled by some bad decisions. It is worth looking for, though.
Way better was the local library getting in its copy of AMERICA LOST AND FOUND: THE BBS STORY, which in its DVD incarnation is in several discs, which the library decided to carve up and circulate as separate packages. THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS was saved for me, along with the one I really wanted - HEAD!
In Widescreen, with commentary from all The Monkees, and with some very tasty extras, including a recent interview with Rafelson, an overview of BBS, some trailers including one I hadn't seen before, and a good photo gallery.
God Bless Us... Everyone!
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
PUNK SIDE STORY - When Broadway and Punk Rock had a one night stand...
Schlong, an East Bay Punk band, had a reputation for twisted covers... such as their TUMOURS ep, a cover of Fleetwood Mac's RUMOURS album. But their crowning achievement was PUNK SIDE STORY, a complete re-do of the WEST SIDE STORY album, with drunken punks taking the place of rival gangs.
You can read about the story of its making here - and judge for yourself by the following samples.
jet song
maria
america
tonight
gee officer krupke
I feel pretty
somewhere
Schlong, an East Bay Punk band, had a reputation for twisted covers... such as their TUMOURS ep, a cover of Fleetwood Mac's RUMOURS album. But their crowning achievement was PUNK SIDE STORY, a complete re-do of the WEST SIDE STORY album, with drunken punks taking the place of rival gangs.
You can read about the story of its making here - and judge for yourself by the following samples.
jet song
maria
america
tonight
gee officer krupke
I feel pretty
somewhere
Thursday, November 11, 2010
"When Dino die, everybody cry," - R.I.P. Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis is dead, alas. Yes, the name has a certain infamy among cineastes - but let's be honest here - yes, he produced a lot of crap, but most of it was highly entertaining crap. He also produced a lot of good films, and helped a lot of directors get a leg up - David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Michael Cimino, Richard Fleischer, amongst a very long list.
And most of those films are die-hard favorites of most audiences out there.
The Bible
Danger Diabolik
Barbarella
Serpico
3 Days of the Condor
Mandingo
Drum
Buffalo Bill and the Indians
The White Buffalo
Conan The Barbarian
The Dead Zone
Dune
Maximum Overdrive
Blue Velvet
Flash Gordon
We will never see his like again in this world - and woe is us.
Dino De Laurentiis is dead, alas. Yes, the name has a certain infamy among cineastes - but let's be honest here - yes, he produced a lot of crap, but most of it was highly entertaining crap. He also produced a lot of good films, and helped a lot of directors get a leg up - David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Michael Cimino, Richard Fleischer, amongst a very long list.
And most of those films are die-hard favorites of most audiences out there.
The Bible
Danger Diabolik
Barbarella
Serpico
3 Days of the Condor
Mandingo
Drum
Buffalo Bill and the Indians
The White Buffalo
Conan The Barbarian
The Dead Zone
Dune
Maximum Overdrive
Blue Velvet
Flash Gordon
We will never see his like again in this world - and woe is us.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Happy Halloween with The Club Foot Orchestra
Excerpts from silent film horror classics, that could be grouped in the Horror genre, scored by Club Foot (composer Richard Mariott and company).
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Nosferatu
The Hands of Orlac
Pandora's Box
If you're lucky enough to be in the Bay Area on November 14, Club Foot returns to SF for a live performance at the Castro Theater.
Excerpts from silent film horror classics, that could be grouped in the Horror genre, scored by Club Foot (composer Richard Mariott and company).
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Nosferatu
The Hands of Orlac
Pandora's Box
If you're lucky enough to be in the Bay Area on November 14, Club Foot returns to SF for a live performance at the Castro Theater.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
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