more frrrreee films

Apparently the EU is committed to having you watch their films.

Mr. Bird's new album is sublime. You can listen to it here.

new Jody Hill project

via Ny Mag via Film School Rejects: A mall cop movie with Seth Rogen Ray Liotta and Anna Faris, written and directed by Jody Hill.

Books to read in 2009

Last year I made a list of books I'd like to read in the next few years. Stuff I should have read in high school, college or growing up that I just haven't. For this year I picked thirteen books from that list:

1.Animal Farm
2.As I Lay Dying
3.The Awakening
4.A Tale of Two Cities
5.Lord of the Flies
6.Of Mice and Men
7.The Old Man and the Sea
8.The Stranger
9.Leaves of Grass
10.Walden
11.Winesburg, Ohio
12.The Phantom Tollbooth
13.King Lear

It's kind of a dry list but obviously I'll be reading other stuff too!

Krzysztof Kieślowski

One of my New Year's goals is to focus on the work one director and one musician every month. With the directors, it's an attempt to intentionally continue my film education and see a lot of films I need to see, and with the musicians, I'm trying to learn something about music since I know next to nothing about it.

The first semester I tried to go back to Pitt (but had to drop out of all my classes for various reasons)I was enrolled in a class about Krzysztof Kieślowski and out of all the classes I was taking, I was most broken-hearted about having to drop this one. In the two classes I attended we watched the first of the Three Colors trilogy and I was in love. But as much as I enjoy his work, I've seen very few of his films. I actually own Dekalog, his ten one hour films based on the ten commandments, but have only watched the first film. So far this month I've rewatched that first film and I'm hoping to watch Blue with some friends some time this week...

Alice & Darkness Light Darkness

Last night I treated myself to Jan Svankmajer's stop-motion, Czech version of Alice in Wonderland, and his short stop motion film Darkness Light Darkness. If you would like to be wondered and creeped at the same time, look no farther. The film is mostly silent except for some dialog all in Alice's voice, paired with close ups of her saying who said the stuff (eg: "...muttered the White Rabbit.") When Alice is tall, she's a girl, and when she's small, she's a doll, except when she gets caught and put in a glue pot and then she is this:



All of the animals have bulging fake eyes, including the caterpillar:



and they also have real tongues, used to great effect.

The tongue is also evident in the short film, which is a story of creation that ends up very cramped:



You can probably watch it on youtube but I recommend netflixing it. A full description is here.

Too many movies!!!

Filmmakers schedule for January is chock full of great films. Looks like I'll be spending my January evenings and all my Christmas money at the movies!

Let the Right One In Jan 1-8 Harris
Swedish vampire film! I've watched the trailer three times and I'm more creeped out every time. I was sad I missed seeing this with Mike and Tessa the other night but I have big plans to see it this afternoon! Most likely alone, but that's okay.


Diva Jan 5-8 Regent Square
French film from the 80s about a postman who bootlegs a performance of his favorite opera singer. Looks amazing.


The Pool Jan 9-11 Harris trailer
This is Chris Smith's(American Movie)new film. This was one of the films I wanted to see at the film festival but was too consumed by school work to go see. It probably would have done me some good to have taken a break and see it, but I'm very happy that I get a second chance.


Vertigo Jan 11 Regent Square
It took me several viewings to get into this but now it's one of my all-time favorite films. Interesting, it was watching the film on a laptop that made me love it. It's going to be incredible to see it on the big screen. Here's the trailer:

Regent square is showing Hitch films that feature Bernard Herrmann scores every Sunday this month. I've seen both Psycho and The Birds in theaters several times, but I'm tempted to see them both again.


Frozen River Jan 16-18 Harris
Melissa Leo from Homicide!


Fear(s) of the Dark Jan 30-31 Melwood
Animated horror shorts that Tessa posted about this a few months ago. It would have been sweet to see around Halloween, but gloomy old January is kind of a month for creeps too.


Ballast Jan 30-Feb 5 Harris
Another film I missed that was at the film festival. Looks a little like early David Gordon Green and a lot like amazing.

And that's not all: Man on Wire and Chop Shop, two films I saw and loved this year will be showing, and I wouldn't mind seeing Dear Zachary or I've Loved You So Long.