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the prince and the peeperprince gropetarantino grope


- dave 3-29-2007 12:46 am [link] [4 refs] [add a comment]

I saw 300. I totally missed the build-up until Jim mentioned it a couple of weeks ago and then I saw a History Channel treatment of the “facts”. It’s quite a piece of work. Easily the best approximation of comic book values into film that I’ve seen. That means an adolescent male ethos which is no more defensible than the cartoonish vision of history, but criticizing these things is beside the point. What struck me was the way it achieved a mythic scale (even though it’s Greek history, not myth.) The storytelling is highly condensed, with lots of voice-over and semi-static tableau, like comic book panels. I found it a great relief from the psychological “realism” that pervades even the worst of Hollywood films, in which actors strive for that subtle brow wrinkle which no more than suggests the deep mental turmoil within. It’s kind of like the difference between Poussin and Rembrandt, where Poussin uses an established roster of rhetorical facial expressions to convey a narrative, while Rembrandt’s faces have no expression, allowing us to read whatever we want into them, thereby appearing more “realistic.” The film’s success apparently came as a surprise to the establishment, but you’d think they’d have figured it out by now. Every Marvel comic movie has debuted at number 1, even though they’ve all suffered from the realistic treatment. The real tragedy is that crappy Brad Pitt Troy movie a couple of years back: if they’d put these guys in charge we might have had something worth watching.

Oh, and when Jim described the story I recognized it as Thermopylae, but couldn’t come up with the T. S. Eliot reference: it’s Gerontion.

- alex 3-20-2007 4:37 am [link] [4 refs] [add a comment]

Helvetica - a movie about graphic design.
- jim 3-15-2007 9:30 pm [link] [4 comments]

the naked city was shot on location in nyc in 1947. much of the action takes place around rivington st. when i noticed the shapiros wine i realized that this was not shot on some hollywood backlot. so, a nice snapshot of the neighborhood. they even have a scene in the essex market. robert osborne said many of the bustling street shots were taken from a truck which preserved the cameramans anonymity and the naturalistic ambiance.

- dave 3-14-2007 8:39 am [link] [2 refs] [add a comment]

The Parts Left Out of Chicago 10

from paul krassner's blog at huffpo
- bill 2-10-2007 12:08 am [link] [1 ref] [1 comment]