Category Archives: Movies

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Film: Look at that fire! Oh boy!

by Editor

Sit down, turn off your cell phone, close the door. You are about to see something magnificent. Several days ago, I posted a film, Yellow Plastic Raygun, on Vimeo. And today I catch this big fish of a filmmaker from Italy who made a comment about the film and who has made a gorgeous and moving statement about war and destruction. It grabs you and just won’t let you go until it finishes.  The use of old images, combined, layered and cut into pieces to form new images and artworks fascinates me when applied to video.  This is an example of the art form at its finest.

Fabio Scacchioli made this.  He’s made others, but this is the first one I’ve viewed and I’m convinced already.  Italy appears to be very healthy in its cinema heart.

The filmmaker has a web site.

Horror Film: The Nightmare

by Editor | 1 Comment

Joseph Chrisitiana made this excellent low-budget short horror film. His lead actor is his young son who does a wonderful job under truly creepy and nightmarish circumstances. The film moves with the horrifying logic of a true nightmare, with one certain death situation leading illogically but believably into another. This film had me totally with it the whole way through to its brilliant ending.

Joseph Christiana, producer and founder of Christiana Productions, is a self-taught New York-based guerrilla writer/director. He has produced no-budget feature and short films which have been received enthusiastically at various film festivals, on indie film websites and on short film cable television shows.

I found this via Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film which has a review of the film.

Film: The Hippo’s Tears

by Editor

A film by Peter Mack that tells the story of how the tears of a hippopotamus brought water to a village. It turns out to be an advertisement for a rolling water drum that actually looks like a brilliant invention. The girl’s English is some of the most beautifully spoken English I’ve ever heard. I think that the way she says ‘cry’ is particularly lovely.

1927 ‘Metropolis’ with 25 Minutes of Lost Footage

by Editor

The TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles is hosting the North American premiere of Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction classic, Metropolis, with 25 minutes of newly discovered footage.

Metropolis is the story of a mechanized future city with rulers who live atop high towers and masses of slave workers that operate the giant machines below.  A rebellion is incited when a robot version of a young woman who works to help the poor is set out to inflame the oppressed workers.  The setting of the film is just astounding and has not been matched for beauty by any film since.  This is one of the great classics of world cinema and finding 25 minutes of lost footage is incredible.  Several years ago, I went to the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood to see a newly restored version that had still photos inserted where footage was missing.  I suspect that many of those missing scenes are now included!

The film was discovered in a museum storage room in Argentina.  So not only did Argentina hide escaped Nazis, but it has also been hiding a German science fiction treasure… unwittingly of course.  And if you look at Metropolis carefully, you can see the Nazis coming.  The film is permeated with it.  If you don’t believe me, consider that the screenwriter, Thea von Harbou did in fact become a Nazi.  Another Fritz Lang classic, Spies, is so riddled with antisemitism that it is almost impossible to watch.  So there it is.  Great classic yes, but also profoundly threatening.

Here’s the Los Angeles Times article about the restoration.

Here’s a link to the prior restoration: Metropolis (Restored Authorized Edition)

Avatar’s James Cameron Interviewed by L.A. Times Blog

by Editor


The Los Angeles Times Blog has an interview with James Cameron, the director of Avatar.

“We’re working on finishing an additional six minutes of the film — which includes a lot of Weta work — for a theatrical re-release in August. We were sold out of our Imax performances right up to the moment until they were contractually obligated to switch to “Alice in Wonderland,” so we know we left money on the table there. And the 3-D really helped “Avatar” right up until the moment that it hurt it. And it hurt it at the moment “Alice” and then “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Clash of the Titans” came in and sucked up all the 3-D screens. We went from declining 8% a week to declining 50%. Clearly, it wasn’t market forces directly; it was the availability of theaters. So we’re going to wait until there’s a time to come back in, inject the new footage into the mix and see if we can interest people in the “Avatar” experience in theaters.”

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am so sick of hearing people talk about this silly 3-D trend.  It’s just a clever scam to raise ticket prices.  I don’t care what Cameron says.  Fortunately, however, the new DVD appears to be in regular 2-D.

James Cameron: The ‘Avatar’ sequel will dive into the oceans of Pandora | Hero Complex | Los Angeles Times