Film: Permanent Vacation (1980)

A boy spends this time wandering the streets, at times coming across some odd characters.

I'm a huge fan of Jarmusch's work so I was excited to finally see this film. Permanent Vacation is his debut feature film, completely self funded and shot of 16mm. Jarmusch was a film student at the time of production and actually quit university to finish the film. It doesn't seem too surprising to me that the film has the same feel as a student film. The acting from the main leads is pretty terrible and is a far cry from the dream set of players that Jarmusch would soon be hand picking and writing parts especially for. Because of this the film seem too scripted and the actors at times seem to be too reliant on the script, with later films such as Down By Law a lot of the dialogue is improvised. The building used for the hospital scene also gives off an atmosphere of a student made film.

But enough of the negatives, John Lurie who would play keys in Jarmusch's next two film, has a small part as a street saxophonist. He and Jarmusch also collaborate on the soundtrack together. The main character Allie mostly wanders around streets of decay, which is the films main attraction however I think the sequence shown with the opening monologue as the stand out a moment. It shows an array of once occupied rooms which could be still in use but are purposely lacking in personal possessions.

Permanent Vacation is interesting but possible only to those with a liking towards Jarmuash or independent cinema, though it seems to be setting itself up as the archetypical indie-art house film it's probably safer to say that Jarmusch's next film Stranger Than Paradise is his true debut.

Film: Three Came Home (1950)

Since I'm currently reading a book on actor Sessue Hayakawa it is appropriate for me to at least watch some of this work. The nearest and cheapest I could find is the war drama Three Came Home, which is in the public domain and downloadable for free. Hayakawa was at the height of his fame during the nineteen teens so this may not be the best example, but I will go on about his work and the book I am reading at a later date.

Three Came Home is about a family living in Burma, when the Japanese arrive they are soon transferred to POW camps. The film reminds a lot of the BBC series Tenko however less like ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif soap opera and more cinematic which gave me the feeling of a better realism. Hayakawa plays a Japanese Colonel who is a fan of a book written by Claudette Colbert's character which is probably the key to her survival. The relationship portrayed by these two in actual fact isn't to dissimilar to Burt Kwouk relation to his prisoners in Tenko.

The film is enjoyable and probably one of the finer examples, if but few, of a woman POW camp in the war. The copy I download unfortunately went out of sync in the middle so I had skip about 20 minutes though thankfully I didn't get too lost. It is certainly a film i will have to see again.

The film downloable from archive.org in divX format, but be warned with sound problems:

Download

Cinema: Lust, Caution (2006)

In the build up to the Second World War a group of students plot to kill Yee, a collaborator working with the Japanese. It is up to 'Mrs Mak' to become his mistress in order to take his guard his down.

Ang Lee's Lust, Caution brought controversy when released in China due to the explicit sex scenes which were cut out. Consecutively in the US the film will be released in both R and NC-17 cuts. The sex scenes are indeed explicit, getting more so through out. The first being quite tame compared to what follows.

Took a little while to get in to this film but overall i loved it, even being over two and half hours long it didn't seem to drag.

Cinema: Little Dieter Needs To Fly (1997)

The story of Dieter Dengler, a German-America pilot who was shot down in the Vietnam war and struggled for survival both in the jungle and in the hands of his capturers.

A few weeks ago I mentioned I enjoyed several of the pieces on Ten Minute Older: Trumpet and desired to look more into the works of these directors. I was lucky that at my local art cinema (Metro, Derby) they were showing three of Werner Herzogs pictures, the first showing last night and the last at the start of next month. Little Dieter is an unique documentary told throughout by Dengler himself. Dengler take us through his life and even to the past by re-visiting his hometown in Germany and then going back to Laos where he fought and was captured. As he describes the horrors he encountered the film suddenly becomes very cathartic as Dengler even replays some of the moments surrounded by local people filling in for the role of his capturers.



This approach to me seems very daring, even the fact that Dengler re-visits his hometown to tell his story is something you usually see in documentaries, it is far different then the usual talk heads followed location shooting by the crew alone.

The film was shot on 35mm but by the look of the projection to me it looked like video at times. It is possible that the projection itself was from the video source, at times there were moments of interlacing. To me this low quality did not distract from the film as a whole but probably made it even greater then it ever could be. The quality to me made the film feel and look honest. Dengler and Herzog have done an amazing job with this film. Dengler tells his story boldly and without remorse whilst Herzog dones a magnificent job at capturing his unique character.

Little Dieter is an amazing, sometimes funny and sometimes shocking insight. Werner Herzog recently adapted this story into a films tarring Christian Bale called Rescue Dawn (2006), which I will see on the 3rd of February but before then it's Herzogs documentary Wheel of Time (2003), showing next Wednesday.

Currently reading...

Film: Lord of the Rings (1978)

Yesterday I watched Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings, which is based on the first two books.

Recently Peter Jackson completed the trilogy across three 3 - 3 and an half hour films (not including deleted scenes included on the extended cuts), Bakshi managed to tell half of that story in just over 2 hours. Originally subtitled as Part One, a second film was planned but never created despite commercial success. The helm would later be taken over be Rankin Bass Productions Return of the King which was made more as a follow up to their earlier film The Hobbit.

Bakshi, like in his previous work, uses rotascoping to animated his characters, the process of filming live actors and then using that as a template to create more realistic movement. The use creates an odd mix of style in this work, at times you would think this was never done and then suddenly a shot would appear with such life like characters that it looks more like Richard Linklater's Waking Life (2001) or A Scanner Darkly (2006) then your archetypical cartoon [sic]. Though Bakshi at this time was seen as one of the most daring and cutting edge animators, it's no wonder that these shots look almost like dark pop art pieces.

At two hours for an animation this may seem long but considering the depth of the original books by many this may not be long enough. I thought the earlier moments of the film just skimmed past to quickly. There are some great moments in this film the most memorable for me was the encounter of Gandalf and Saruman, however i found the unbalanced mix of animation style i bit cheap and in general it seems a little flat at times.

Film: About Love

A trilogy of love stories set in Tokyo, Mainland China and Taiwan each featuring a foreigner from one of the other respected countries.

One of many films backlogged in my DVD collection that needed watching. An interesting film that has its moments but not something that i would watch again. The subject matter around language barriers is quite intriguing.

Film: The Revenge of Doctor X (1970)

An over worked NASA scientist, who appears to have crab up his ass which won't go away, takes a vacation in Japan by the advisement of a colleague. But instead of relaxing he decides to carry out experiments on a Venus Flytrap, which he somehow managed to smuggle in to the country, to prove that humans evolved from plants. He resides in a secluded old house with his colleagues daughter and the hunchbacked housekeeper and begins with crossing the flytrap with a seaplant which somehow manages to make it grow and take the form of a human. His last act is cross it with human blood which he obtains from a sanitarium which seemed to appear from no where.



The Revenge of Doctor X was a US-Japanese co-production that was allegedly written by none other then Edward D Wood Jr. The original title of the film was The Venus Flytrap, but Revenge is the more common title. Confusing because the X seems inexplanatory and theres actually no revenge of anything. The film is badly made and always over the top throughout. The doctor can't seem to go five minutes without bursting into fits of rage and moments towards the end just seem to get more and more nonsensical. For example why does the doctor go all the way to a sanitarium to get human blood, doesn't he have his own?

The Revenge of Doctor X is just pure silliness from beginning to end, any fan of bad movies will love this. This film is bad bad bad bad baaaad. And of course any fan of Ed Wood should certainly check this out [note: apparently the opening credits are completely wrong which explains why Ed isn't listed as writer]. The movie can be downloaded for free, and legally, via torrent from Public Domain Torrents.

Links:
The hunt for Ed Wood
Download

New Moomin DVD

Since I was a kid I've been a fan of the 90s Moomin cartoon series and I have been meaning to buy this series on video. Theres only been two DVD releases so far in English, in the UK the 5 episode 'Moomin Mania' which is now out of print and very hard to obtain and in the US the 4 disc 12 episode boxset priced at over $40. The former i can't seem to find and the latter is very expensive and can only be found on the US Amazon website.

So I am very happy that Stax Entertainment will be releasing the DVD set Moomin: Series 1 in March, 14 episodes split across two discs for measly sum of only £9.99 (the same price of Moomin Mania). Hopefully the 'Series 1' part implies further releases soon afterwards. Heres a tiny picture of the artwork:



There has been many adaptions of the Moomin novels since the 60's, in many forms of animation such as the Polish stop motion series and the Soviet cut out films. The 90s cartoon series is the third Japanese-Finnish co-production anime which was dubbed by the BBC and shown in the UK in the 90s. Tove Jansson never liked the Japanese versions for being slightly departed from her original books but the series has always had a place in my heart so i am very excited about this release and only wish it was sooner!

DVD roundup

A quick roundup of the DVDs I recently, all Region 3 except True Stories which is Region 1. None of the discs include extras.

David Byrne takes on a tour Virgil, Texas as it celebrates it 150 years of specialness. Throughout the film Talking Heads songs pop up either sung by Byrne (though not in character) or the cast members like John Goodman. True Stories me instantly think of Neil Youngs own feature direction debut Human Highway and personally think that these two would make an excellent double bill.

The songs were soon afterwards released on the Heads album of the same name. I could say soundtrack but in actually it was more of the usual studio album affair with Byrnes adopting vocals of all the tracks. Cast vocal versions have been released of various Heads releases since as b-sides to singles lifted from the album.

The DVD is an early Warner Bros. bare bones release coming in the unpopular clip case. Zero extras and subtitles even the menu is a generic WB design. The picture and sound are both acceptable but i was a little annoyed by the fact that as the case states the film has been re-formatted to 4:3. However apparently the film was shot open matted (the process of shooting a film in 4:3 and then cropping it down to widescreen during projection) so we are actually seeing more then intended. WB has in the past released their bare bones discs double sided with both full frame and widescreen versions shame they couldn't do that for this film.

Unemployed lecturer, Yoon-ju, can't stand the noise made by the dogs in his apartment so he decides to kidnap and dispose of them. Hyun-nam who works close by catches him in the end and tries to save the next victim before it's too late.

I quickly became a fan of director Bong Joon-ho when I saw his incredible Memories of Murder. Barking Dogs Never Bite is his debut film, a dark comedy that i expect many animal lovers would find difficult to watch. This film along with his latest The Host confirms him as one of my favourite directors and one to keep an eye on.

Seven directors each create a short film around the theme of time. Ten Minutes Older: Trumpet featured many I had heard of but have yet to see films of so this made an excellent introduction to their works. Directors such as Wim Wenders, Aki Kaurismaki and Werner Herzog. I loved almost all the stories however I unfortunately was a bit disappointed with Jim Jarmuschs who was the sole reason I bought the film, I found the others more intriguingly. I also didn't have much interest in Spike Lees contribution, a documentary piece on the 2000 elections.

One of my favourite stories was Herzog's Ten Thousand Years Later a documentary about a Brazilian tribes decline over 20 years.

I'm a Cyborg, but that's OK - A girl who thinks she's a cyborg starves herself in a mental institute. A man who has the ability to steal intangible things tries to get her to eat. Director Park Chan-wooks first film after his 'vengence' trilogy (OldBoy) is an excellent and touching comedy.

Film: Sour Grapes (1998)

Two cousins go to Atlantic City and one wins $400,000 on the slot machine but the other think he's entitled to half since it was his quarters and it doesn't go well for either from there on. Sour Grapes is Larry Davids only directional work and his first project after Seinfeld and before Curb. Overall the humour and characters feel like they should belong in a Seinfeld episode and unfortunately would probably work better there. SG is very dark in places, one of the characters attempts to kill his own mother by scaring her to death, these quite of traits would not belong in either of Davids other projects. This is probably where the freedom lies in making a film like this as there is no recognizable characters for the audience. The film was failure both commercially and critically and I can see why, whilst Davids humour is clear it doesn't quite work. Maybe under a different director it could of been better.

R.I.P. Vampira (1921 - 2008)

Maila Nurmi aka Vampira sadly departed our world on the 10th of January. Nurmi was famed for playing her ghoulish character on her late night TV show The Vampira Show and soon afterwards appearing in a silent role in Edward D. Wood Jr's notorious Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959). Her trademark image has been much imitated most famously by Elvira who she famously tried to sue. Since Plan 9 Nurmi has only appeared in a handful of films her last being in, appropriately, the Ed Wood written I Woke Up Early the Day I Died in 1998. Other on screen appearances have included many documentaries on Ed Wood and cult cinema including one on herself Vampira: the Movie (2006).

Maila Nurmi will be greatly missed.

Film: Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaption

In 1981 three boys fell in love with Steven Speilburg's first installment of the Indiana Jones series so much that they decided remake the film shot for shot. Seven years later they were done. Shot entirely on home video the boys used magazines, articles and saw the film countless times even seeking in a sound recorder all in aid of research. They drew concept drawings, storyboards and made their own props. The dedication that went in to construction of this tribute is astonishing.



When any amateur or fan film is made there will usually be problems, as there is in this. The acting overall is pretty bad, the video being early 80s home video is mostly blurry and the sound at times is unlistenable. The boys however were 12 when began and a lot of the cast were around the same age. But at that age what they have accomplished is inspiring. All of our favourite and most memorable moments have all been faithfully reconstructed. Watch these YouTube clips for just a taster:

Trailer

Segment on BBC's Talking Movies



The film has had quite the following since its completion getting the big thumbs up from Speilburg himself and the story surrounding the remake is in the works to become a film itself (currently Daniel Clowes is set to write). Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaption is fascinating to watch and is currently only available to watch through bootleg or one of the recent cinema screenings. You can read more about the films production over at TheRaider.net.

Film: 24 Hour Party People

Firstly hello and welcome to the post of my new blog. Being that there are more blogs then people on the internet I'm not sure anyone will ever read this but let's see what'll happen. I have written blogs before and have gotten lazy and left them for dead. I'll face it, I'm not a blog person. So why start a new one? No idea. In this blog i have decided to write anything film related. Films I have seen, DVDs or things i have bought and any links of interest. Basically anything that suits me.



Tonight I watched 24 Hour Party People, Michael Winterbottom's bio-pic on Anthony Wilson the founder of Factory records, the company that has brought us Joy Divison, New Order and the Happy Mondays. It seems to me in the past year Factory has been in the spot light a lot what with the release of Joy Divison film Control, a BBC documentary on Factory, the reissues of Joy Divisions back catalogue and unfortunate death of Tony Wilson.

24 is quite interesting in style. The opening titles look particularly good backed with what i hoped for the Happy Mondays song 24 Hour Party People which the film is named after. My only qualm (misuse i know but sounds good) with the titles is that all the credits appear unreadable, but who cares it looks good. Steve Coogan plays Wilson and is backed by a cast of mostly sitcom actors (Peter Hook is played by Ralf Little and looks like Ralf Little). Very much like Winterbottoms next film (or more the film within the film) Cock and Bull Story, Coogan occasionally jumps into third person which gives the film an interesting angle and seems to be a slight theme being that the novelisation of the film is written by Wilson himself. I have seen in the past year Control and the for mentioned BBC documentary and in all honesty those were better. The BBC documentary covers exactly the same as this film but in greater depth and the fact its told in interviews rather than reconstruction seems more appropriate. Control, whilst just being about Joy Divison (though a large amount of 24 is still set around this period) is much better cast seems a lot more truthful. But still I really liked this film.

Is it good, is it bad? What does it matter and what does my opinion really matter on it. If you are interested either any of said bands or British music in general then watch it. 'nuff said.