June 16, 2003
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On a Russian theme…
We went and saw Russian Ark last night at the Chauvel. In spite of the glowing reviews by David and Margeret from The Movie Show, in spite of the hype about the entire movie being a cinematographic masterpiece shot with a single take blah blah blah …. it was really quite dull.
Think ‘Wings of Desire’ in a museum. In this case, it’s The Hermitage, and you would be tempted to think it was the Hermitage that funded the project to promote tourism. In short, this film felt like a nostalgic tribute to old opulent imperialist Russia (Look! there goes Anastasia!) with banter between two narrators who are supposed to be ghosts; one of whom is really annoying and breathes heavily with a wheezy sound….
The French diplomat (a bedraggled-looking Sergey Dreiden, speaking Russian without any trace of a French accent while bearing a striking resemblance to the Scarecrow in “The Turkish Wizard of Oz”) amuses himself by sniffing the paintings with a fetishist fervor and annoying the various people of the different eras -Phil Hall
Eddie: The experience was on a par to watching some tedious Czech stop-motion film.
These two reviews sum it up: From Filmthreat and Popmatters
Laika (from Cosmic Baby)
While on a Russian theme…
Last week we watched Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky on DVD… a 1938 black and white Russian propaganda film with awesome epic battle scenes. Lots of scary-looking badass teutonic knights with massive antler-type helmets VS Prince Nevsky’s Russian peasant army (with bowl haircuts). Now this one’s worth checking out.
In the past week we’ve also had dinner at The Russian Coachman in Bourke St, Surry Hills. Overpriced, awful food and service. The Russian Accent is much better. (Taylor Sq, Darlinghurst). On weekends there is a performer/synthesiser organist who does (Russian-accented) covers of disco and rock songs…
There’s an article on Blogging in this weekend’s SMH Icon.
Authors using hosted systems don’t have to turn themselves into programmers, or even understand much about servers. In fact, you don’t even need a regular computer. Since everything is stored for you, it means you can go on holiday and update the blog from wherever you get access to the web.
There is a downside to all this blissful ignorance, however. You must also have faith in the company providing the service that its servers don’t suffer disaster, and lose the blog.
Which is why I am sticking with Xanga (a lesser know weblog provider). Fast server, reliable and supereasy to use unlike others. No major technical problems yet. Touchwood.
Movies watched recently:
We have been frequenting Dr What’s video every Sunday and hiring a weekly stash of videos & DVDs. Here’s what we’ve been watching this month:
Amelie: charming feelgood romance with stunning, timeless art direction. There was way too much voice over narration though…
Chasing Amy: An intelligently written film with a message about sexuality and relationships for the straight geeky male. Enjoyed it!
Swingers: Funny movie, great characters, very hip L.A. with locations like The Dresden Room (we were there!), The Derby, etc,… Has a sweet ending. It’s kinda a “guy movie” but fun.
Monsters Inc: Technically brilliant 3D animation as you would expect from Pixar. The story was typical predictable Disney fluff though, with lots of overacting. I preferred Toy Story.
Cool site – Savoy Style
Stompin at the Savoy: A bleak chick flick set during the Depression in NYC. There was some jitterbuggin’ and swingin’ at the Savoy but not enough! The characters were all kinda one dimensional and you couldn’t convince me that was Ella Fitzgerald…
Mon Oncle: Supposed to be a charming French pantomime-type film with groovy 60′s visual stylings but… it’s incredibly slow. All wide shots. Hardly any dialogue. No story. I fell asleep.
I Am Cuba: Totally awesome piece of cinematiography with a camera that really travels and brings the scenes of pre-Castro Cuba to life. There is music, dancing, poverty, injustice. This is pure propaganda but highly recommended
Twist: Documentary version of John Waters’ ‘Hairspray’ which charts the evolution of all those 60′s fad dances. Lots of cool archival footage! Wish there was more!
Touch of Evil
Touted as an Orson Welles noir classic and you can see why. It is dark, sombre, gritty, great (bongos) soundtrack with Orson playing a corrupted detective against Charlton Heston as a Mexican. But we were disappointed. The plot was convoluted. There was way too much talking and the Orson Welles character was just not likeable. ‘The Third Man’ was much much better.Mad Max 2: A film like this makes today’s action (road-chase/heavy digital fx) flicks seem cold and soul-less by comparison. It’s raw, it’s dirty with lots of metal, leather, fur and smoke. The fashions are totally dated now but I can see why this one became a hit in its time.
Best In Show: A dog lover would love this film. Funny, quirky mockumentary with some almost-cringey moments because most of these characters are such losers. The terrier was cute but the bloodhound should have won.
Casino: It’s like ‘Goodfellas’ set in a Las Vegas that no longer exists, before it became a Disneyland. Same characters. same themes, lots of violence. The insider gambling moments and casino scenes were kinda cool especially since we were in Vegas not long ago.
The Archies: Well, we really got this out for the theme song ‘Everything’s Archie’ because it’s so bad it’s funny. Everything else was kinda dull…
Gorillaz (DVD borrowed from Evan): The character designs, art direction and animation style are slick and awesome even though the music doesn’t really grab us too much. (nor the humour)To think I almost worked on the ‘Clint Eastwood’ music video two years ago at Halo Pictures (I was animating our Lucha School pitch video instead)
Quadrophenia: We watched this last night after the Russian Ark. It’s a 1970′s film that is supposed to be set in the 60′s but unfortunately it looks and feels and sounds like the SEVENTIES! The hairstyles are all 70′s! The Who soundtrack is mostly late 60′s/70′s! (And isn’t the music of Mod Culture more diverse than this? What about ska, rocksteady and motown?) Anyhow, it was worth watching, seeing that there aren’t many mod flicks around.
Speedy Gonzalez: We love Speedy! I never noticed before how most of the “Spanish” dialogue is just a bunch of Spanish words strung together and doesn’t make sense… *BTW, Speedy makes a cameo appearance in Mucha Lucha Season 2!
Watching this week: All That Jazz, Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Producers…
Cool site of the day: www.australianinfront.com.au - online community of Australian designers and illustrators. Check out the Directory.
Comments (1)
Holy smokes… that’s a whole heck of a lot of movies!
Swingers… wheeeee.