Vertigo Falls

More MUBI updates from the South of France where ...

2013-05-20T17:13:00.001-07:00

In Cannes the films dance

From Daniel Kasman's Sunday report

Like Raúl Ruiz last year (Night Across the Street), a Chilean returns to his home country to conjure a past to stage in the present. Alejandro Jodorowsky's first film in over twenty years is a complete family affair, the very definition of a personal film: an autobiographic-biography first of himself as a child (played by, I believe, his grandson) and then of his father (played by his son), with even more family both before and behind the camera. Staged in Jodorowsky's hometown of Tocopilla in the present but set in the 30s, the simple digital phantasmagoria, sourced from fiction and non-fiction books by the director about himself and his father, conjures the demons and alluring visions of the era's contests between Communism, fascism, anti-Semitism, and the Catholic church. In this context, with Tocopilla modestly appearing not as history but as a more fantastical but never unreal present day, La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality) unabashedly fuses the compassionate grotesquerie of his Chilean town's underclasses with sweetly archetypal familial drama and a fierce political struggle both naïve and direct. It is a truly musical film, scored (by a Jodorowsky) from end to end (and featuring Jodorowsky's mother as a super-buxom, always-singing goddess of robustness) and episodically moving along part sketch-like, part-picaresque, part-nostalgia trip (in all senses of the word). I am reminded not just of Ruiz's last picture—its gentle returns, the passing and re-passing over of time, people and memories, its elaborate, playful but deeply earnest political consciousness—but also of Agnès Varda's, the self portrait essay The Beaches of Agnès, wry, divergent, melancholy and hopeful. It is impossible to tell if this is a parting shot (Ruiz) or a new salvo (Varda, let's all hope), but in either case the return of Jodorowsky is a most welcome immersion into a very missed world. ■

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/cannes-2013-passing-shots-farhadi-kore-eda-kashyap-jodorowsky

And now a word from our sponsor

2013-05-20T13:08:00.001-07:00

Dodge Commercial, Vertigoed on Vimeo

Oddly moving Vertigoed Dodge commercial. More Vertigoed later in the week. Should you want to vertigo something drop me a link here at the blog.

From the sublime to the, well,

2013-05-20T13:04:00.001-07:00

Jackass Number Two Vertigoed on Vimeo

Let's just say before seeing this moment Vertigoed, well, Damn, I'm not sure what to say. I've never watched any of the Jack Ass films so this snake-y bit was a real shock. And with Herrmann's Scene d'amour, I may never recover.

Have you Vertigoed today?

2013-05-20T12:56:00.001-07:00

Psycho Vertigoed on Vimeo

I uncovered a cache of films that have been Vertigoed--taking Bernard Herrmann's score for Vertigo and laying it in as the soundtrack for another film. Most people choose contemporary films. This entry from the blogs Press Plays 2011 contest chose that other Hitchcock film, Psycho.

Cannes report from MUBI

2013-05-19T18:08:00.001-07:00

Cannes 2013. Passing Shots: Farhadi , Kore-Eda, Kashyap , Jodorowsky on Notebook | MUBI

I keep moving forward, but it feels like my past is rushing at me

2013-05-14T21:48:00.001-07:00

Great reel with examples of film techniques, high lighting the Vertigo effect. Buy the book on the making of Vertigo for how that effect and other cinematic tricks.

Video of the day: Top 20 Cinematic Techniques Part 2 | Sound On Sight

The conversation for the decade: Vertigo, yes, but...

2013-05-14T18:48:00.001-07:00

No buts or apologies from me, here is something of a reassessment:

Defending 'Vertigo' From…Myself. | Eric Kohn

One of the joys of the new Criticwire blog is Matt Singer's weekly email to critics. In addition to asking us to name the best movie currently in theaters, Matt also includes a new hypothetical question each week. The last one was tied to Sight & Sound's annual poll of the best movies ever made, and -- oh, shoot! -- I still need to submit mine. (Thankfully, taxes aren't the only thing with extended deadlines.)
The poll contained a two-part question: Firstly, which film not listed in Sight & Sound's current top 10 would you add? And because you're adding a film, you have to drop one. So which film gets the cut?

I acted on instict and chose two Chaplin films, "City Lights" and "The Gold Rush." I doubt anyone would mount a major argument against the notion of these films as monumental cinematic achievements. But when it came to give one movie the ax, I struck a sensitive nerve:

"I'd take out 'Vertigo.' It's a wonderful thriller viewed on its own terms but does not command the same aesthetic or cultural importance of the other films on this list -- nor is it Hitchcock's best movie."

Notice that I did not say "Vertigo" lacks aesthetic or cultural importance. For god's sake, it's one of the most important American movies of the 20th century, full stop. Still, the other day, one of the canny cineastes at Reverse Shot came across my brief statement and called me out on Twitter:

Don't do it, Reverse Shot! This film thing needs you!

And...for the record, it needs "Vertigo," too. But look: To my mind, the chief strengths of "Vertigo" are its refined camerawork, its swooning romanticism and a narrative drenched with intriguing Easter Eggs that mold the character's confused subjectivity into the ultimate anti-hero. Yep, it's a masterpiece, but I could apply that same basic description to "Citizen Kane," also on the Sight & Sound list. So if we're dropping one, why not "Vertigo"? I put "Kane" first because "Kane" came first.

List-making invites a simplistic thought process no matter how hard one tries to deflect it. By virtue of thinking in list-making terms, I knew I was stepping into a trap. So, again, I am very much a fan of "Vertigo."

However, I would also like to note that the final moments of "The Birds" and "Psycho" (meaning the final shot, not the preceding psycho-babble with Norman Bates in a straightjacket) are just as powerful, and those movies also contain a visceral punch that "Vertigo" never aims for. Over the decades, they have received somewhat less serious consideration than "Vertigo" -- partly, I think, because of a prevalent hesitation to take horror movies as seriously as movies that reach beyond the constraints of the genre. The moments of terror in both "Psycho" and "The Birds" are so terrifically ingrained in cultural memory that people tend to forget both movies spend about an hour getting to the scary stuff. These are human stories invaded by monsters rather than monster movies sprinkled with humanity. I find that balance to be a tremendously affecting reflection of life's undulating moods, and Hitchcock renders them in ways that (gulp) "Vertigo" delivers in much quieter doses.
Still, the director's brilliant navigation of moods, seamlessly shifting his focus from detective story to ghost story to something far more abstract than either, has no real parallel anywhere else. As that equally iconic swirling poster art implies, "Vertigo" is a superb search for meaning that underscores the thematic fixations of every great Hitchcockian achievement.

So yes: "Vertigo" rocks. To suggest otherwise would, in fact, imply a fundamental disdain for film as art.

In short, I'll eat my words. And then write my list.

Vertigo to be screened at Ebert tribute

2013-05-13T09:47:00.001-07:00

American Cinematheque to celebrate the late Roger Ebert - latimes.com

Notes from the sub librarian on those spirals

2013-05-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

In practice, any orbit around Lagrangian points L1, L2, or L3 is dynamically unstable, meaning small departures from equilibrium grow exponentially over time.[2] As a result, spacecraft in libration point orbits must use their propulsion systems to perform orbital station-keeping.
Wikipedia

Silent Hitchcock Shanghied

2013-05-13T09:22:00.001-07:00

Shanghai Festival to Screen Hitchcock's Early Silent Films - The Hollywood Reporter

There's always been of Hitch in Spielberg

2013-05-12T17:28:00.001-07:00

Steven Spielberg says that he once snuck onto a Hitchcock set at Universal only to be banished by the director. He learned much from Hitch and is today recognized and respected as an artist with Hitchcockian abilities of controlling audiences. Saw this over at Jason Kottke's and recommend it to my friend's here at the Falls.

Watch "Steven Spielberg's techniques and themes.mov " on YouTube

Ambassador falls, part the first

2013-05-10T17:40:00.001-07:00

Graham Greene says a story's beginning is arbitrary, that the story's record needle can be placed anywhere on the record, the writer spinning the story out in quick tight ever opening lissajous spirals that rotate out of the woman's and therefore into our own "seeing". We are superstitious folk and will not allow for the grim reality of God's arbitrary nature. So, like Monday morning soothsayers, we look back, choose where the tale starts and spin forward so that our friends are amused or alarmed.
"Don't worry. She will either sign the housing papers or I'll fire her." This is what he said. This is what Bret Boylan, owner of the Ambassador Apts, a four story hulk of crumbling faux balconies and institution inspired colors and my home.
I am worried because I know Bret and he is a human bedeviled by many fantasies, one of which is that he is a decent man and the other that he is a man of action. A glance at Bret's apt, the building, his very person betray the lie that he is either. What Bret is mostly is a coward in pain. This is about all that makes him human and deeply endearingly to the rest of us cowards in pain. It is all though that Bret aspires to be. He bought the Ambassador more than a decade ago, placed things on cruise or auto pilot to fast fade tenement. The buildings health and his seem horribly bound, a Long Beach House of Usher. And until Bret's bold lie, I was fascinated by the morbid nature of Bret and his Boyland.

View from my Ambassador apt

But like all of us, Bret's accidental perfection as libertine and sadist, had cracked recently. Bret is aware that he lies and cannot confront his lies so he hired someone else to be a man and act. This is the her that Bret will fire if she does not do what he says. You can hear the Greek chorus laughing, Fate trying to sharpen her dull overused blade while we poor mortals act out a scene that if hadn't happened, I would have cut as ludicrous. The trouble with the truth is that by its nature there are variations to it and it's absurdity does not blunt it's cold knife. That is what makes a lie such a wicked and cruel tool. The lie will not stick around as the truth batters us. The lie whispers to us and blinds us, never permanently, no just long enough so it hear Lear's howl when it dawns on us.
This whopper of Bret's conjoined with other smaller receipts and parlayed with a few of Allison's awkward lies, so that when the truth jumped out, the surprise would be homeless and lose my HOPWA/section 8 housing voucher.
How this lie destroys home and health in the next part.
Readers: I work hard here at Vertigo Falls to keep things on topic, but I am currently homeless and writing posts in McDonald's. It would be absurd not to stop the show briefly and give some apology for lack of Vertigo focus. And I will accept your help. I am approaching 50 and let's just say street life is not easy. Here where home is sidewalk, entrance and alley, there many good men and women my age and older. I am not alone and I am happy in heart. Writerauiler@gmail.com is my email and if you bank at Bank of America you can send gifts with just that information. Forgive me for not making it any easier. I do have some stubborn pride and my blog series on what's happened serves to clarify my thoughts on what happened and to make me feel better. These are the priceless gifts of writing.

If you have access to the way back mschine

2013-05-09T11:58:00.001-07:00

Celebrate Saul Bass’ 93rd Birthday with a Slick Animated Google Doodle: http://cultr.me/13iqsa0

Scorsese on Vertigo's companion, The Searchers

2013-05-01T22:14:00.001-07:00

"Review: Martin Scorsese on 'The Searchers'" http://feedly.com/k/ZYe4fu

Required viewing: Soderbergh on today's cinema

2013-04-30T17:05:00.001-07:00

State of Cinema: Steven Soderbergh from San Francisco Film Society on Vimeo.

On Vertigo, memory and movie flashbacks

2013-04-30T15:42:00.001-07:00

The Remains of the Screen

How Bad Can It Be: Birdemic 2 Answers

2013-04-30T15:21:00.001-07:00

Watch "Birdemic 2 Premiere in London, England - Director James Nguyen's Statement" on YouTube

From Variety

APRIL 29, 2013 | 10:05AM PT
Much less transfixing than its predecessor, this sequel takes far too long getting to its slender amusements
Dennis Harvey
The advertising tag — “You asked for it” — is the best thing about “Birdemic 2: The Resurrection.” Its 2010 predecessor, “Birdemic: Shock and Terror,” was one of those rare instances of filmic ineptitude so distinctive it could pass as inspired folk art, winning the biggest midnight-movie following since Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room.” Lacking the bizarro-world charisma of that film’s auteur/star, however, James Nguyen’s sequel is a much less transfixing whatsit that takes far too long getting to the slender amusement of its ludicrous “action” scenes. Nonetheless, fan curiosity should propel this self-distributed follow-up on a niche road that’s already scored various midnight and one-off showings across the U.S. and Europe.

Nguyen instantly re-establishes his signature style with a long opening credits sequence in which simply capturing a protagonist walking down a street — in this case, Hollywood Boulevard — mightily challenges the acting and directorial skills on tap. Bill (Thomas Favaloro) is a successful indie director whose career has stalled since his last film, a mainstream Hollywood flop. Arriving at a restaurant for a meeting, he promptly sizes up waitress Gloria (Chelsea Turnbo) as a possible leading lady in what seems like a sleazy casting-couch manner, though there’s no indication Nguyen sees it that way.

Bill’s lunch dates are the first film’s leads: old friend Rob (Alan Bagh), a Silicon Valley-enriched millionaire, and Natalie (Whitney Moore), his model-turned-aspiring-actress gf. Rob commits to funding Bill’s comeback feature about the struggle to make it in Hollywood, the protags expressing awe that the subject’s never been done before. That settled, the four of them (now including Gloria, cast in the lead) traipse off to enjoy themselves at various Los Angeles attractions; these include the La Brea Tar Pits, where, for reasons murkily attributed to global warming, prehistoric eagles and vultures arise from the muck to attack humans.

Trouble is, getting to this active point consumes more than half the film’s runtime, an excruciating buildup dominated by dialogue intended to show off Nguyen’s deep knowledge of how Hollywood and indie filmmaking work. But any seventh grader who reads IMDb News could do as well, or better. With Doris Wishman-like attention to irrelevant detail and people doing trivial things at boring length, these first 40-plus minutes are strikingly amateurish without being much fun.

When the horror content finally arrives (following umpteen blunt references to Hitchcock’s “The Birds”), things do get livelier. The spectacle of actors waving wildly at laughably obvious f/x raptors is amusing for a while. Ditto the crazy basic-logic gaps: Why don’t these people seek indoor shelter? Why do characters disappear/appear at random points? (Obvious explanation: They’re day players who didn’t stick around.) Why do “South Park”-styled fake explosions sometimes accompany bird attacks for no reason whatsoever?

But Nguyen’s partial self-awareness of his new movie’s camp value — encompassing brief incorporation of zombies — only makes it an effortful, half-understood in-joke rather than the guiltily pleasurable unintentional joke that was “Birdemic: Shock and Terror.” The sequel also falls pathetically flat in finding any kind of narrative ending.

The attacking-bird sequences are as outrageously primitive as before. Otherwise, the pic is marginally more pro in general packaging and design contributions, which isn’t saying much. “Birdemic 2” does make one thing perfectly clear: Mr. Nguyen has a thing for blondes, invariably cast as wannabe actresses who’ll do whatever to attain “stardom.” In a film less authentically dumb, this misogyny might actually be offensive. But one thing one can say for both “Birdemic” pics is that their unique qualities arise from a filmmaker who truly appears not to know any better.

Film Review: ‘Birdemic 2: The Resurrection’
Reviewed online, San Francisco, April 25, 2013. Running time: 79 MIN.
Production
A Moviehead Pictures and I Got a Fish Prods. presentation of a Moviehead production. Produced by Jeff Gross. Executive producers, Adam Deyoe, Loren Semmens. Co-producers, Scott Pearlman, Jed Shepherd.
Crew
Directed, written by James Nguyen. Camera (color, HD), Bobby Hacker; editor, Joe Pascual; music, Michael Gordon Shapiro; visual effects, Mike Wu, Andrew Jewell; sound, Christopher Pham, Sam Noble; re-recording mixer, Seth Talley; assistant directors, Lizzie Sam, Carlos Vega, Andrew Makishima; casting, James Gonis, Ted Maier.
With
Alan Bagh, Whitney Moore, Thomas Favaloro, Chelsea Turnbo, Stephen Gustavson, Carrie Stevens, Brittany N. Pierce, Jordan Monroe, Thuan Luu, Aaron Pressburg.
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It's not just Kim, but Billy and Bernardo too at retro-Cannes

2013-04-30T10:47:00.001-07:00

Cannes Revives Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Bernardo Bertolucci Classics for 2013 Fest | The Wrap Movies

Scoring THE Score: Herrmann's Vertigo

2013-04-24T15:43:00.001-07:00

Watch "Vertigo - Soundtrack - Full Album (1958)" on YouTube

Another fan tribute for Vertigo

2013-04-24T15:40:00.001-07:00

Watch "This Is My Heartbeat" on YouTube

Always fresh, The Lodger with live accompaniment

2013-04-24T15:36:00.001-07:00

Watch "The Lodger - HITCHCOCK with live music - Anselmo Mancini - (The Room)" on YouTube

Hitch Restored: The Lodger

2013-04-24T15:34:00.001-07:00

Watch "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)" on YouTube

Hitchcock more intimate, remote

2013-04-24T09:40:00.001-07:00

Perspectives: Jonathan Ross: Alfred Hitchcock - Made in Britain, ITV, review

Lucinda Everett reviews Perspectives: Alfred Hitchcock - Made in Britain, in which Jonathan Ross follows the life and career of the most celebrated director in the history of cinema, Sir Alfred Hitchcock.

Jonathan Ross visits the former site of Gainsborough Studios in ITV's Perspectives on Alfred Hitchcock. Photo: ITV

By Lucinda Everett

11:00PM BST 21 Apr 2013

5 Comments

There are two things I should mention. The first is that I am something of a Hitchcock novice. The other is that I can only watch Jonathan Ross for any extended period if he’s talking films – the “me, me, me” chat show hosting just isn’t for, well, me. What better viewing then, than the latest in ITV’s Perspectives series (Sunday), which saw Ross explore Hitchcock’s early career, and the 23 films he made in Britain before decamping to Hollywood in 1939? Using archive footage, interviews with members of the film industry, and a Hitchcock treasure trail around London, last night’s documentary gave us a jam-packed, if superficial, rundown.

Let's hope Cannes is better

2013-04-23T21:04:00.001-07:00

Major Vertigo Embarassment - Hollywood Elsewhere

A little twisted humor, from the Archivist at Vertigo Falls Public Library

2013-04-23T21:00:00.001-07:00

Losing It: The Vertigo Restoration