Far Too Enthusiastic

Sydney Film Festival 2009 Highlights

admin — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:04:34 +0000

God knows what’s happened with the Sydney Film Festival this year. The promotional material has gone from being gorgeous, arty and incredibly cinematic to, well, featuring an ugly dog sitting on a chair. The festival is running for a week shorter than usual. The program is a tangled, unclear mess and the hype engine seems to be running on empty. I can only conclude they’ve lost a significant amount of funding due to the Financial Crisis. But despite these setbacks there are still some fantastic films showing, if you look hard enough through the program to find them. See below for some of the real highlights!

$9.99

Geoffrey Rush, one of the all-star voice cast in this first Australian-Israeli co-production, calls this animated ensemble piece ‘a claymation of Robert Altmans Short Cuts’, and that’s a spot-on description for a funny, surreal film. Single dad Jim Peck (LaPaglia) endures a day of sartorial accidents. Sons Dave (Samuel Johnson) and Lenny (Ben Mendelsohn), have their own adventures, as does soon-to-be-married Ron (Joel Edgerton), fiancee Michelle (Claudia Karvan), youngster Zack (Jamie Katsamatsas), retiree Albert (Otto) and kinky supermodel Tanita (Leanna Walsman). Created in 40 weeks by nine animators under director Tatia Rosenthal, the provocative $9.99 winner of the Mexico City festival’s audience award is unlike anything else in this, or any, film festival.

http://www.sff.org.au/Festival/Films/FilmDetails.aspx?id=39

500 DAYS OF SUMMER

Sure it only got made because Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine and Juno were commercial successes. But it still looks charming, and features Tommy from “3rd Rock from the Sun” all grown up. -D

The Rom-Com is pleasurably reinvigorated in Marc Webb’s post-modern spin on the agonies and ecstasies of unruly, unrequited love. Hapless Tom (Gordon-Levitt, Brick, SFF06) architect by training, romantic by nature and a greetings-card writer by trade is instantaneously smitten with the alluringly kooky Summer (Zooey Deschanel, Yes Man), but she happens to believe that true love just doesn’t exist. The wryly comic dissection of their subsequent new millennium romance is chronicled, with considerable verve and pace, in a non-linear sequence that catches us constantly off guard. Visually inventive and brimming with playful references, there’s a lot to embrace in this unconventional tale of idealism and self-discovery set to become the indie flick du jour.

http://www.sff.org.au/Festival/Films/FilmDetails.aspx?id=43

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF PHIL SPECTOR

Phil Spector is basically the white Michael Jackson, and fittingly there’s been hardly any public discussion about what’s occurred. -D

Legendary music producer (Lennon, Harrison, the Ramones etc), songwriter (’You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’), originator of the ‘Wall of Sound’, and accused murderer, Phil Spector is interviewed at length in this mesmerising documentary. Archival footage of his greatest hits (The Righteous Brothers, Tina Turner, and more) is interspersed with scenes from his 2007 murder trial. Spector talks about his father’s suicide (when he was a toddler), his early singing career, and his spat with Scorsese over the illicit use of ‘Be My Baby’ in Mean Streets. His bizarre hair backgrounded by the famous white piano from Imagine, he rants about everything and everyone (Tony Bennett is a frequent target), making Jayanti’s film, notwithstanding the violent crime of which Spector is accused (and since the film was completed, found guilty of), highly amusing, and his discriminating musicianship all the more startling.

http://www.sff.org.au/Festival/Films/FilmDetails.aspx?id=106
(more…)

I spent the day with the Doctor…

admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:28:04 +0000

What The Fuck? Patrick Wolf’s “Vulture”

admin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:55:52 +0000

I’ve always proudly claimed that if I was every going to go gay, it’d be for Patrick Wolf and no one else. But even I’m a bit thrown by his latest video.

It’s a BDSM party-town, that makes me feel like the early 90s never died. I can’t help but feel like it’s exactly what Madonna wanted the Vogue video to be.

It’s described on his myspace as:

Show[ing] an enraptured, semi naked Patrick writhing in a full S&M, bondage outfit. The controversial scenes are intercut with those of Patrick as the leather clad ‘Vulture’ and as an unmasked icon. Inspired by experiences Patrick gained and suffered on the American leg of the 2007 ‘Magic Position’ tour, the video perfectly depicts these experiences, which Patrick describes as ‘getting involved in some dodgy satanic sex games and exploring the many dark sides of Los Angeles.

All I want to know is what the hell did he get upto in LA, and why was Trent Reznor involved?

What do you think?

Patrick Wolf - Vulture

Recession is fun!

admin — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:27:20 +0000

I don’t know how many of you have come across Microsoft’s “SongSmith” yet, but it’s their new program that “creates” “music” to go along with data, or more usefully, your voice. Thank god! My future has finally arrived! Anyone can become a internationally successful recording artist with the help of a computer (after all, the RIAA keep telling us that they can’t afford to keep making music on our behalf).

They’ve been trying to promote it with this absoloutely terrible (yet awesome in every conceivable way) advertisment they’ve posted online, which ironically almost exclusively features Macs. (Those stickers aren’t fooling anyone YOU IDJETS!

The best SongSmith tune I’ve heard so far, is the one generated to a whole bunch of miserable, “end-of-the-world” type data. It’sunsettlingly jolly! Check it out below.

EDIT: This competes for the best tune title, Billy Idol’s White Wedding Bluegrassified!

I am - are you?

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:38:25 +0000

(via - Boing Boing)

Malcolm Turnbull’s Christmas Message

admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:25:19 +0000

God this is awkward! You’d think they’d atleast plan what they were going to say beforehand. Obviously no one’s let them in on that little television secret that nothing goes on air without a script (aside from, say, Lateline. But perhaps this explains Turbull’s confusion).

The Dutch Conmen

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:59:50 +0000

Oh god - here we go again. There’s another “environmentally friendly” fad that’s going to get everybody all wound up. The problem, however, is that it’s not actually that helpful at all. It’s just another covert commercial endeavour hiding behind the myst of peoples lack of understanding. (After all, who can forget “Blackle” - which made a tonne of money for its owner, and did very little for anything else).

What’s the new kid on the block, you ask? The ecofont.

Made by the Dutch communications and design firm SPRANQ (did we mention SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ, SPRANQ?), it attempts to convince us that using a font with a series of holes in it will reduce ink usage by 20% (proven, how?).

The sad truth is, it’s just as easy to reduce your ink usage by setting your printer to a drafting quality than using their special font. But I guess you just won’t get that warm, fuzzy-inside feeling.

I also don’t know why you’d want to lock yourself into using one particular typeface? Especially when it’s one of the most publicly hated ones around…

Any innovation that leads to more ecologically efficient workflows are a real winner in my eyes. We all just need to be a bit more critical in our judgements in order to steer clear of the snake oil salesmen.

Citizen Kubrick: Or Explorations Along the New Frontier

admin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:32:19 +0000

The Guardian has continued to prove itself as my new favourite newspaper. In an article published in 2004, Jon Ronson wrote about his extensive and deeply personal access to Stanley Kubrick’s estate in Hertfordshire. The article showcases some of the mans’ expected, yet non-the-less fascinating, quirkyness while also exposing a deeply rational and human side to someone who liked to groom an image of the mad hermit genius.

Tony takes me into a large room painted blue and filled with books. “This used to be the cinema,” he says.

“Is it the library now?” I ask.

“Look closer at the books,” says Tony.

I do. “Bloody hell,” I say. “Every book in this room is about Napoleon!”

“Look in the drawers,” says Tony.

I do.

“It’s all about Napoleon, too!” I say. “Everything in here is about Napoleon!”

…

“Somewhere else in this house,” Tony says, “is a cabinet full of 25,000 library cards, three inches by five inches. If you want to know what Napoleon, or Josephine, or anyone within Napoleon’s inner circle was doing on the afternoon of July 23 17-whatever, you go to that card and it’ll tell you.”

It also provides some insight into the use of typefaces in many of his films, which is fascinating for any of us typophiles out there. I wonder if Wes Anderson’s obsession with Futura is a kindly reference to Kubrick?

I take a break from the boxes to wander over to Tony’s office. As I walk in, I notice something pinned to his letterbox. “POSTMAN,” it reads. “Please put all mail in the white box under the colonnade across the courtyard to your right.”

It is not a remarkable note except for one thing. The typeface Tony used to print it is exactly the same typeface Kubrick used for the posters and title sequences of Eyes Wide Shut and 2001. “It’s Futura Extra Bold,” explains Tony. “It was Stanley’s favourite typeface. It’s sans serif. He liked Helvetica and Univers, too. Clean and elegant.”

“Is this the kind of thing you and Kubrick used to discuss?” I ask.

“God, yes,” says Tony. “Sometimes late into the night. I was always trying to persuade him to turn away from them. But he was wedded to his sans serifs.”

Tony goes to his bookshelf and brings down a number of volumes full of examples of typefaces, the kind of volumes he and Kubrick used to study, and he shows them to me. “I did once get him to admit the beauty of Bembo,” he adds, “a serif.”

“So is that note to the postman a sort of private tribute from you to Kubrick?” I ask.

“Yeah,” says Tony. He smiles to himself. “Yeah, yeah.”

Citizen Kubrick at The Guardian

John Howard at Madame Tussauds

admin — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 04:41:02 +0000

Well if this isn’t the creepiest thing I’ve seen all week…

Apparently Howard was “waxified” in early 1997. Although he appears to look more like a creepy zombie alien than a real person. It’s well worth looking through the other photos on Flickr. Also, had anyone else forgotten how creepy he looked early on in his term? (or life). He certainly aged well.

[Flickr Gallery]

A History of East Central Europe.

admin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:36:31 +0000

Hey Everyone,

I just thought I’d let you all know that the book I’ve been working on for the last couple of years has finally been published! You can check it out on Google Books now, or head over to Amazon and buy it! If you’re real nice to me, I might even autograph one for you!

Google Books | Amazon

Obviously, if you ever have any questions about the particular nuances of the constitutional monarchy in Lithuania between1386-1795, don’t hazard to ask!