Uncertain Times: film

Showing posts with label film. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Rare footage of Stanley Kubrick

From the Dutch television program, "Startdust".

Malcolm McDowell's anecdote is worth hanging out for.

(big view)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Evelyn Lambart & Norman McLaren - Begone Dull Care/Caprice en couleurs (1949)

(Dephaad)

NFB.ca Curator's comments:

As a teenager, McLaren became interested in Colour-Music, an art form in which moving patterns of coloured lights were projected. When he was at art school, McLaren and fellow student Stuart McAllister tried to create colour-music by painting abstractions directly onto 35 mm movie film. McAllister would later become a great editor of documentary films. McLaren was delighted with the experience but knew the results were primitive. Then, in London in 1936, he saw Len Lye’s revolutionary hand-painted-on-film Colour Box. It did not influence McLaren but it gave him the confidence to continue drawing directly on film. He had to wait ten years, however, before he would have access to a three-colour film printing stock, which would allow him to copy a multi-hued hand-painted original. And what an original it is! For me, it is hard to imagine a more satisfying jazz film – in this case, a marriage of hand-painted improvisations to the piano improvisations of a young Oscar Peterson.

hat tip to Brand Upon the Brain!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Hauschka - Morgenrot

(Jeff Desom)

film by Jeff Desom
music by Hauschka

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Gary

(Gary)

Directed by Clément Soulmagnon, Yann Benedi, Sébastien Eballard & Quentin Chaillet

Gary-lefilm.com

via CEEBEE

Friday, February 27, 2009

Gork

(SteamRolln)

Painstakingly created over a four year period while a student at the California Institute of the Arts, animator John Ross shot Gork live action on 16mm film and then spent the majority of that time painting cels and rotoscoping it the old-fashioned way with a "downshooter" camera system.

Interesting note: Ross was taught how to rotoscope by Michael Patterson. An instructor at CalArts at the time, Patterson was also a freelance artist who, with his wife Candace Reckinger, was in the midst of making a music video for the song "Take On Me" by an obscure Norwegian pop group known as a-ha.

via A Very Wide Array

Monday, February 23, 2009

stray bullets

Exploring a ‘Deep Web’ That Google Can’t Grasp Beyond those trillion pages lies an even vaster Web of hidden data: financial information, shopping catalogs, flight schedules, medical research and all kinds of other material stored in databases that remain largely invisible to search engines.... Now a new breed of technologies is taking shape that will extend the reach of search engines into the Web’s hidden corners. When that happens, it will do more than just improve the quality of search results — it may ultimately reshape the way many companies do business online. (via) (prev)

Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci discovered in Basilicata What may be a hitherto unknown portrait of Leonardo da Vinci in middle age shows that the Renaissance genius had piercing blue eyes, a long nose and long greying hair with a droopy moustache.

A design for life (The history of the smiley face symbol) Feelgood corporate logo, acid house icon and txt msg emoticon: one chirpy yellow emblem has kept grinning since the first summer of love. Jon Savage celebrates the life of Smiley.

Q&A: Dennis Hopper I don't spend a lot. Most of my art collection I got by trading it or through knowing the artist. I got Andy Warhol's first soup can painting for $75. I lost it to my first wife.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

lost in a moment

(dennis wheatley)

A one take impromptu film made in Tokyo by Dennis Wheatley and Stefan McClean.

music: Shrift - Lost in a Moment

via Posthuman Blues

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Soul Detective feat. David Lynch

(Think Tank)

Director: Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro

A detective enters a train car where he finds different manifestations of a force that haunts the place. Using his telepathic powers he tries to enter the mind of a recently deceased man before all his memories vanish.

Think Tank is a series of visual essays presented by the Brazilian production house, V2 Cinema. Monthly online videos feature various well-known artists whose works and viewpoints are interpreted by V2's stable of filmmakers. This story is built around an interview with David Lynch.

Interview: Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro on The Soul Detective

via Cabinet of Wonders

Friday, February 6, 2009

Curiosity

(video link)

Simon Panrucker

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by Destiny

Director: Daniel Eskils
Producer: Johan Junker
D.O.Ps: Erik Vallsten, Claes Helander
Stylist: Anja-Lisa Rudka

Captain Ahab: Richie Puzz

Eskils Junker Film

Slagsmålsklubben

via videos.antville.org

Monday, January 26, 2009

Mike’s

(video link)

A reclusive roommate realizes there's more to life than he imagined.

Directed by Ted Chung

The End

A Night At The Opera, 1935.

No, it's not the end of Uncertain Times, though I'd be tempted to use something like this for a farewell post. (I'd wager it has been done.) This is from The End, a collection of movie end frames on Flickr.

It seems that end frames have fallen out of fashion in the film industry. (It was kind of a redundant practice.) I haven't seen one in quite a while. Does anyone know when the last one was used?

via crackunit.com

The Island

(bluetonguefilms)

On a wintry bay, far from home, a young child witnesses something truly unexpected.

Written and directed by Kieran Darcy-Smith.
Cast: Kieran Darcy-Smith, Remi Rebillet-Nicholls
Music by Alex Lloyd

blue-tongue films

Don't read below until you've watched the film.

Back in 1972, when I was nine years old, my father and I rode from Pittsburgh to Mexico on his BMW 750. Although I got sick on the way and came home with a bad sunburn, I'll always remember it as an amazing trip. It was a lot like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but without all the grim philosophical bullshit.

The first day in Mexico, we stayed in an old-timey cheap hotel in the heart of Matamoros, a small town on the border near Brownsville, Texas. My recollection of that time is a bit fuzzy, but I do remember that I had long light blonde hair and people would gather around to gawk at me. I also remember drinking a lot of orange soda, as we were avoiding the water. However, the most indellible memory was from that first night in the hotel.

There were flies everywhere. I remember we were just hanging in the hotel room, quiet and tired. My father was smoking a cigarette and out of the blue, he said to me, "Watch this."

I sat there in silent anticipation. He was holding his hand up with his index and middle finger spread out like a peace sign. In a blink, he closed his fingers and asked me to look closer. He then opened them and the fly that he had caught buzzed off, unharmed. It might not sound like much to you, but for a nine year-old boy, that was totally awesome. My father was, and still is, The Man.

This film reminded me of that moment. Thanks, Dad.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Terry Gilliam on the making of Brazil

(NOTAMARKinc)

In this excellent interview, Gilliam discusses a variety of issues surrounding the production of his film Brazil - from his creative process to communication, bureaucracy, science fiction, his battles with Universal, poo-poo, and much more. They cram a lot into 13 minutes.

previously: Terry Gilliam - Storytime (1968)

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Frank Zappa documentary (1971)

(HollandDoc)

directed by Roelof Kiers

A long play at 54:32, but a "don't miss" for fans. Frank talks about his youth, his interest in explosives, his musical influences, and the establishment of The Mothers of Invention, amongst other things - including a glimpse into the world of the Zappa family. Film-wise, this is the most up-close look into his life that I have seen to date.

via Kill Ugly Radio