Monsieur Appleby from the nifty Wes Anderson fan site The Rushmore Academy has graciously invited me to guest blog a few pieces about… well, Wes Anderson of course! Anderson, along with Richard Linklater, David O. Russell, Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola, and Michel Gondry are the subjects of my new book.
I don’t even know where to begin with this song. It’s been covered repeatedly over the years–maybe most sensationally and disappointingly by Primal Scream and sex kitten Kate Moss, though the Lydia Lunch/Rowland S. Howard version has its murderous charms–but no one has been able to capture the wild doom and psychedelic potency of the original. As an aside, director Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher) used the song in her second film Morvern Callar to great effect.
Without further ado… here’s Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra singing “Some Velvet Morning”. One of the strangest, most beautifully bizarre pop songs ever. Hell, it may be the best pop song ever.
Starting on July 15th and running through the 25th, Britain’s More4 channel is going to be celebrating the films of the great Stanley Kubrick. Along with Francis Ford Coppola, Kubrick was the first director I fell in love with as an eleven-year old boy, sort of the first person who I understood to actually be a filmmaker and what it meant to be.
Here’s the wonderful ad promoting the film series, an hommage to The Shining, and also to Kubrick’s daughter Vivian’s short documentary Making The Shining. Good thing Channel 4 didn’t try to reenact Kubrick berating actress Shelly Duvall.
It took thirty-some years… but I finally fell in love with the films of Jacques Demy early last year. Well, to be exact, I fell in love with Demy’s debut Lola (1961), starring the alluring Anouk Aimée as the title character, a dancehall girl with big fantasies and a broken heart, and the subsequent phantasmagoric musicals by way of an ever shifting Gallic naturalism, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (1964) and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967). The latter two films are connected to Lola in loose but fascinating ways (as is Demy’s first feature for an American studio, Model Shop from 1969, which I haven’t seen) and redefined the musical genre by juxtaposing sometimes gritty or provocative subject matter with memorable musical flourishes from composer Michel Legrand. I still need to see Demy’s second film, La Baie des Anges (1963), starring Jeanne Moreau, and then there are his post-1969 fantasy films like Peau d’Âne and The Pied Piper.
Demy, who during the early days of the French nouvelle vague was widely appreciated, especially by Godard, was pretty much derided by the time May 1968 came scorching in… especially by Godard again who felt that his old compatriot should take his head out of the cinematic clouds and engage with political reality. But Demy maintained his own artistic trajectory, though in doing so he arguably dimmed in the eyes of many critics and audiences alike. His reputation since his death in the early 1990s seems to have slowly regained some footing and it’s about time.
This clip is from the opening moments of Lola. Lensed by the great Raoul Coutard (who shot many of the pivotal films of Godard and Truffaut), the scene perfectly sets up the mystery at the heart of the tale and within Lola herself. And maybe Ludwig has a little something to do with it as well.
But in no way did the gloriously imaginative Spanish side bomb like they have for generations. This was creative football at its finest.
Congrats to you all, especially to the amazing midfield of Iniesta (my crafty fave), Xavi (another Barca lad), Silva (one of two brilliant Davids who play for Valencia), and Fabregas. And then there’s Senna, player of the tournament in many ways.
Forgive me for posting football (soccer) related material on this site. I keep that to my other blog:
But I just couldn’t help it in this instant. Viva Espana! Viva Furia Roja! The 44 year “curse” has finally come to an end. You are champions once again… and deservedly so.
My friend and fellow Odyssey writing workshop comrade Dave Schwartz’s first novel is now out in the UK. It’s called Superpowersand deals with the… oh, I’ll just let him tell you all about it:
The 2008 Cannes Film Festival is now over, the awards have been doled out, and the filmmakers, celebrities, critics, distributors, paparazzi, and everyone else have slouched back to their countries of origin, nursing a 12-day hangover of glitz, garishness, and grotesquerie.
But the 61st Cannes fest was also an anniversary year. A little over 40 years ago almost to the day, the 1968 incarnation of the film festival was embroiled in social turmoil, mirroring the student and working class struggles blowing up in the streets of Paris and elsewhere across Europe. Godard, Truffaut, Malle, Forman, Polanski, and others shut the festival down. No doubt, the outrage that these filmmakers felt (especially Godard and Truffaut) was sincere and passionate… but especially in Godard’s case, the outrage was mixed with a more volatile emotional cocktail as well. You can read more about the revolution on the beach here. And watch some footage of the protest below. Unfortunately, it’s not subtitled in English, but the anger is loud and clear. Watch for actor Jean-Pierre Leaud.
Today is the last day of the Cannes Film Festival and it will no doubt be interesting to see what film sweeps out of town with the Palme d’Or. From all reports, the 61st annual fest has been a bit of a let down from previous years, though there are always a few films eager to bully and tussle their way into the modern canon… and perhaps onward to real greatness.
Garrone’s film sounds interesting, though haven’t we seen this countless times already? I think I can go the rest of my lifetime without seeing another mob movie, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit interested since it seems that Gomorra does have a conscious social/political context to it, something you can’t say about Stateside takes on the crime/organized crime genre outside of HBO’s superb The Wire series.
Personally, I’m most interested in Steven Soderbergh’s two anti-traditional takes on the biography picture, The Argentine and Guerrila, unveiled at the festival in one 4 1/2 hour fell-swoop as Che, about the legendary revolutionary, and Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York. Both films have critics buzzing with praise though perplexed and aggravated as well. Distributors seem to be wary also, especially regarding the running time of Soderbergh’s ambitious epic and the complications involved with the manner in which he hopes and wants it to be screened in cinemas. Deja vu of when Francis Ford Coppola talked about his rough cut of Apocalypse Now at Cannes in 1979, even with releasing Che as a roadshow event sans credits and with a program given to patrons. I hope Soderbergh sticks to his guns and the film rolls out like the big event it should be. It may tank in the States, but there’s a whole wide world out there who will be anxious to see Che off of the T-shirts and flickering twenty-feet high instead.
Speaking of Kaufman… here is a short clip of the news conference after the screening of his film at Cannes on Friday:
It’s a study of contemporary (mostly) American filmmakers Richard Linklater, David O. Russell, Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Spike Jonze, and Michel Gondry. There are a few other surprises inside, as well, such as a look at Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko, Steven Soderbergh’s Schizopolis, PT Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, and Roman Coppola’s CQ.
My hope is that it will appeal to film lovers of all stripes, from those with a more scholarly bent to the pop-culture subgeniuses to the novices who don’t know their Godard from their Gondry.
The book is available from the usual suspects, including here.
No Comments » | 
Books, Film, Life, Personal, Ramblings, Writing, movies | Tagged: charlie kaufman, spike jonze, michel gondry, sofia coppola, richard linklater, david o russell, wes anderson, new wave, the life aquatic with steve zissou, rushmore, academy, bill murray, american, charlie kaufman and hollywood's merry band of prankster | 
Permalink
Posted by derek
