The Saragossa Manuscript

Link

Link to the official fansite for The Saragossa Manuscript, link.

Coming attraction: Wim Wenders in London & Spain (un)censored

Our friends at NFT or to give it is 'proper' new name: BFI Southbank will be running in January a Wim Wenders season with the man himself coming over on January 10th for a Q&A, I've already bought my ticket (Alice in the Cities) will show earlier that evening. Plus, a great season called 'Spain (un)censored' which looks like it reaches us via MoMa in New York.

Raindance - 15th year

I'm just trying to catch up on stuff I meant to post way back during September, October and November, here is another: Raindance.

Link
Raindance, link.

More missed films...

PiF - PaF or Polska i Film - Polska a Film, which was held at Shepherds Bush Vue 10-13th November, looked like quite a decent showcase of old and new Polish cinema.

Link
PiF-PaF, link.

For the stamp collectors...

Next year Royal Mail will be releasing "Ian Flemming's James Bond" - a very nice looking set of stamps replicating the book jackets from the novels - nice! Available 8th January 2008.

Then on Tuesday 10th June they release another set (no pictures in the booklet they sent me) called 'Classic Carry On and Hammer Films'.

Link
Royal Mail, stamps and collecting, link.

51st London Film Festival

More missed films...

Actually I had planned to go to at least one of the Jacques Demy films but again, missed them all.

Missed attraction

Link
Invitation to a dream was at Ciné lumière (Institut français) but I missed them all, here is the link.

Coming attraction: KM 31 aka Kilómetro 31

Link

IMDB entry for KM 31 aka Kilómetro 31, link.

November 29th...2 months since last post and...

I'm somewhat embarrassed to be posting, a quick look shows I haven’t posted in two months. It’s been a busy two months and my tiny contributions to the blogosphere seem to be decreasing by the week. I aim to try to rectify this with the forthcoming holiday period, all things going to plan.

So last month I took in four films at the London Film Festival. Here is a quick summary, something I had been meaning to write for around about a month:

Rescue Dawn
I went along because I had really enjoyed ‘Little Dieter Needs to Fly’, it hadn’t occurred to me some of the (brief) comments I’d seen later, now that it is on general release that it’s Herzog’s first Hollywood film. I enjoyed it, there is a scene where a dog walks right to left in front of the camera and the actors on it’s hind legs which, for me was a nice, Herzog touch.

Mister Lonely / Harmony Korine Q&A
There was quite a crowd for this one on the Friday I attended. No idea when it is coming out here, other than at some point next year. It has two ‘storylines’ for want of a better word. One of them, the one we see least of was for me the better part of the film.
Sadly I just couldn’t really get into the main part of the film at all, that said it is a concept which not too many people would even try to put on screen. I haven’t had a sniff around online to see what others think of this yet.
The following Sunday was a NFT Q&A interspersed with the usual clips. It was very well attended, some decent questions from the audience and quite a lot of fan-type adulation. I may well post more on this, if I can recall the event but can’t promise, it was after all this time of year I attended a Kenneth Anger Q&A and I still haven’t managed to post about that.

Son of Rambow: A Home Movie

The highlight for me. A small British film, without a release for the UK market, which if audience reaction (I know could be dangerous!) is anything to go by could do very well here, I’m sure people will bandy around comparisons to Shane Meadows, Wes Anderson and maybe a few others. For me it was spot on in it’s depiction of school life in the 80’s, a sort of ‘Grange Hill: The Movie’ but updated, I think many people in their mid 30’s can relate to dodgy pirate copies of ‘First Blood’ and for that reason it will, I hope do well. A US distributor has picked it up and it will get a release in May. Be very interesting to see what American audiences make of this.

Link
Read James Rocarols review of 'Son of Rambow' at Cinema Attraction, link.

Anyway today, is the three year anniversary since I started this, so I thought I had better post something. I’m glad I did, maybe I will get back into it a little more now.

Blogathon: Luis Buñuel

Link

Luis Buñuel blogathon at Flickhead, link.

Blogathon: Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel on location for 'Las Hurdes'.

Blogathon: Luis Buñuel

Coming attraction: September at BFI Southbank

Coming attraction: Tribute to Alain Robbe-Grillet

Blogathon's

Well worth checking out will be:

Coming next week - Luis Buñuel blogathon at Flickhead, link.
In November - Film & Faith blogathon at Strange Culture, link.

Tomorrow, for the first time in London: Lebowski Fest UK

Link

Lebowski Fest UK, link.

Today, born on this day: Ingrid Bergman

Real location #7 - The Leather Boys

Although the facia of the Ace Cafe has changed since 'The Leather Boys' was made in the early 1960's the location remains the same. Importantly the A406, or as it is mostly known; the North Circular road, has moved slightly.

In the film we see Reggie (Colin Campbell) race Pete (Dudley Sutton), possibly to Staples Corner and back to the Ace Cafe, they stop underneath a railway bridge with advertising Ferodo products. This remains more or less identical today with the exception that the line, which leads to Euston has been electrified.

Interesting, for me is that at one point the North Circular was what the M25 road is today, an outer-London ring road.

Links

IMDB entry for The Leather Boys, link.

The Ace Cafe, official site, link.

Ace Cafe on a map, link.

A link to some other pictures I took at the Ace Cafe, link.

Wikipedia entry for the North Circular, link.