by Sandy | May 9, 2009 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Culture, Directors, Film, Movies
Director Spike is known for his movies – “Malcom X”, “The 25th Day” , “The Insider” and “Miracle of St. Anna” .
He makes good movies and sometimes great ones, but he also makes documentaries. He takes a risk and will veer from the fictional format that he’s conquered, to much acclaim, ever since his first films, “She’s Gotta Have It” and “Do The Right Thing”. When he tackles real events, the results are supreme.
“When the Levees Broke: Requiem in Four Acts”, originally HBO and now in DVD, was moving to watch because he let the people of New Orleans tell their stories about what happened in September 2005 when water and wind ravaged their city. Not out to ridicule or embarrass (like some recent “documentaries”), no need to fictionalize the tragedy- it is raw, angry, direct, sad.
Mr. Lee’s 1998 documentary – “4 Little Girls” also on DVD, is about the bombing of the 16th street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 and the little girls that died in the blast– he allows rage and grief to be expressed in a straight forward way. He also gives some insight into to what the racial climate was like before the tragedy and how the people of Birmingham dealt with the aftermath.
Spike’s films are often terrific. His documentaries have been terrific and powerful, always.
I’m looking forward to see his latest:
* The coming of age musical “Passing Strange”. I saw it on Broadway and was thoroughly charmed and entertained by “Stew”, who wrote the book, lyrics and music along with Heidi Rodewald.
* “Kobe Doin’ Work” about Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant
by Cybel Martin | May 6, 2009 | Art, Creativity, Culture, Directors, Movies
I went to my friend, & fellow Tisch alumnus, Rod Gailes’ New York Premier of his feature film “Camouflage” last week. It’s a very intriguing, thought provoking visual journey/film shot during the pre-gentrification of Harlem. I believe Rod began production on “Camouflage” close to 15 years ago. One of the many thoughts the film will leave you with is just how much potential, desire and hope was being suffocated in the impoverished circumstances of Harlem.
St. John The Divine, Harlem, NYC by Ronnie Ginnever
Flash forward many years later and we have that potential expressed. One excellent blog, worthy of a RSS feed, is “Harlem World”. Its a pretty content rich blog/magazine centered on Harlem. What caught my attention was just how much is focused on the arts. I just happened on the blog today (late to the party, I know) but greatly enjoyed this article on the “Negritude” exhibit at the Exit Art Gallery.
A taste:
“Harlem resident Greg Tate presents a three-room “Black Mystery Anti-Panopticon,” envisioning Négritude as a “place” for mystery and funk, music and soul. A DJ shrine, created by Tate and the artists Xaviera Simmons and Arthur Jafa, will provide a site for weekly performances; a raised stage outfitted with a drum kit, microphones, and amps will be used for occasional live music; and an exhibition of visionary black artists – including Thornton Dial, Jr., Thornton Dial, Sr., and Lonnie Holley – coupled with laminated pages from the books Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art, Vols. 1 and 2, will create a “conjuration room where willing spirits can come to get toasted, roasted, and lit the fuck up.”
Harlem World Blog also encourages “citizen journalists” to send interviews, photographs, news stories etc to: hwcontact@yahoo.com
Photo is of course James VanDerZee’s “Couple in Raccoon Coats”, which I believe is at the Studio Museum of Harlem.
[ad#review-2a]
by Bob Martin | Apr 20, 2009 | Art, Culture, Film, Movies
Recently it had been suggested that HBO was off it’s game once the Sopranos and the Wire finished there runs. And yes it took some time to come up with a series that satisfied my taste, but The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency has been well worth the wait. The series is adapted from the books of Alexander McCall Smith, about the adventures of Mma Ramotswe
Jill Scott as Precious Ramotswe
Botswana’s only female private investigator. The story lines avoid the high tech and sci fi babble of CSI or Numbers, rather the deduction work done by Precious Ramotswe reminds me more of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. No special effects and gun battles, just good old common sense.
Anika Noni Rose as Grace Makutsi
The charm of the series is how cleverly the complicity of Africa and Africans are revealed in each episode. How Beautiful the land, the people and their customs are, while still exploring and exposing some of the problems that much of the continent still needs to overcome, like Aids, Poverty and Education.
The cast and the stories are delightful, with plenty of humor and information about a culture many of us know little about. This a wonderful hour well spent.
[ad#review-2a]
by Bob Martin | Apr 11, 2009 | Art, Artist, Film, Movies
I, like a lot of people, have seen Blade Runner at least twenty times. Seeing it this time out I noticed for the first time that the year was 2019 (vs 2021 in the book) just a short ten years from now.
P.K. Dick
When the movie was first released we were certainly on track to re-create a world that look very much like this adaption of PK Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Overcrowded, polluted, constant wetness and the need to eradicate mistakes made through bio engineering. This was a world that did not know about Google, Amazon.com, Ebay, no smoking in public places, flat screen TVs, I-Phone, the Internet or 911, but nonetheless the film contributed in many ways to how we’ve seen things over the last 27 years, especially the visual look of sci-fi films. The look of the film is what makes it so believable. There is none of the cuteness of ET the Extra-Terrestrial which was released the same year as Blade Runner. ET was a huge success, Blade Runner was a box office failure but a far more durable and enjoyable film to see year after year.
We’ve seemed to have escaped, for the time being, the smoked filled skies and its’ dankness, but for some people the fear of “replicants” or clones causes nightmares. Let’s see where we are in another 10 years.
[ad#review-2a]
by Sandy | Mar 25, 2009 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Directors, Film, Movies
JANUS FILMS, a distributor of foreign and classic films, fed “Art” movie houses around the country that were brave enough to show films with *sub titles*!
If it weren’t for them, I would not have seen Ingmar Bergman’s “Seventh Seal” (1957), Truffaut’s “Jules and Jim” (1962), Fellini’s “La Strada” (1954) and classic English films like the romantic “Brief Encounter” (1945). The yearly showing of the Russian “Alexander Nevsky” (1938) at the west village Art Theater on 8th Street in NYC was always an event.
Janus Films celebrated their 50th anniversary with the issue of a 50 DVD box set. This is a fun assortment, something for everyone – from to “M” to “Rashomon”. A great purchase of course, but, you can always rent! Look at the list of films included in the set, pick your favorites, or the one’s you might have missed and enjoy!
by Sandy | Mar 19, 2009 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Film, Movies
This is a love story – backwards, but a love story none-the-less. Instead of a passion that grows and then atrophies, this story follows a dead relationship on its road to vitality and a wondrous respect.
I wasn’t quite sure why I liked “The Painted Veil”(2006). Did I fall into it so easily because of watching so much of PBS’ Masterpiece Theater “Upstairs, Downstairs”/ “Britain between the Wars” -like offerings?
Nah. I liked it because it did what I want movies to do – tell me a story, take me to time and place and make me care about how it all ends.
Beautifully filmed, this adaptation of a Somerset Maugham story takes place during the 1920s in the middle of a cholera epidemic in a small, beautiful, lush village in China.
The green of the countryside covers the spreading disease just as the British Edwardian façade of manners covers the sham of a marriage.
The English doctor and his wife drop into the middle of the ugliness of sickness and the unease of the rising Chinese nationalist fervor and as they adapt and deal with challenges, they discover and accept one another for who they are – not who they should be, wish to be, hope to be – but the reality of who they are.
And they both turn out to be much bigger than the other thought – both are truly worthy, different, but worthy. Acceptance. Love.
The actors were lovely – Naomi Watts and Edward Norton are wonderful as the husband & wife. Liev Schreiber plays the dashing fly in the ointment – the wife’s former lover. And all were tightly directed by John J. Curran.
“The Painted Veil” – good love story.
