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.
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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 Bob Martin | Mar 22, 2009 | Art, Film
Visually, comic books turned into movies are just that, visually interesting. For my taste, there needs to be more and in the case of Watchmen, there was tons of more needed. The movie has been bashed by critics since it’s release, so there is no need to pile on, besides it won’t make a difference. What’s done is done and you could see this in watching the coming attractions, there are more (blow out your ears, over saturated and poor scripting) big volume comic books on the way this summer. I won’t like them. Having to be seen on the big screen won’t save them in my view.
What surprised me about our movie venture was the lack of people in the multiplex. I had never seen it that empty. Another first was that someone was checking tickets a 2nd time just before going into the theater. Everyone is trying to cut the fat out of the economy. Snuggling up with a good comic may prove to be a more valuable experience.
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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.
by Sandy | Mar 10, 2009 | Blogroll, Books, Directors, Writers
“Precious Ramotswe “ is Botswana‘s only female private investigator – the main character of the “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith.
I noticed a few years back that Ms Ramotswe and the author’s name were listed week after week on the SF & Bay area California paper back bestseller list. “Precious” just sort of kept catching my eye and I got curious. I discovered that the Botswana detective has a worldwide cult following.
The author was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, practiced law in Scotland and when McCall returned to Zimbabwe, he began to write about a red bush tea drinking female private eye – “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”. In this, and the books that followed in the series, our lady sleuth tracks down wayward husbands, missing children and solves village mysteries all the while keeping to the traditions of her culture and maintaining the standards of both Queen Elizabeth and Nelson Mandela (she admires both).
BTW: Directed by the late Anthony Minghella, “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency “will soon come to an HBO screen near you. Produced for the BBC in 2008, “Precious” is played by singer Jill Scott. Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose and Idris Elba from “The Wire” are also in the cast. Should be fun!
Books in the series:
* 1998 .The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
* 2000 .Tears Of The Giraffe
* 2001 .Morality for Beautiful Girls
* 2002 .The Kalahari Typing School for Men
* 2004 .The Full Cupboard of Life
* 2004 .In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
* 2006 .Blue Shoes and Happiness
* 2007 .The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
by Bob Martin | Mar 5, 2009 | Actors, Art, Directors, Film, Movies
I decided to look at (review) “There Will be Blood” as if this was a movie about today, these times. I can see easily the similarity between the turn of the last century and the “The Great Depression”. For over a hundred years we have been in a battle with greed, religion, and oil and we seem not to know how to break free.
PT Anderson, does not do a prequel to Giant, there are no good guys, then or now. Rather he deconstructs the USA, how we’ve become the country we are, through Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis).
Texas Oil Rigs 1920's
Plainview has a permanent chip on his shoulder, never feels respected or appreciated by his family and when given the chance is a bully.
The first time I saw this film, I missed the significance of Plainview’s remarks to Henry. “I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.” followed by “There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking.” and “I don’t need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I’ve built my hatreds up over the years, little by little, Henry… to have you here gives me a second breath. I can’t keep doing this on my own with these… people.”
Over the past decade or more I’ve gotten the feeling that we sometimes give lip service to caring about people. In order for us to really care we need an incentive, like a tax deduction or in Plainview’s case, the right to lease land for a pipeline.
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.
