Just like Tony Curtis I'm going to be hitting the road so will be away for a short while. It's going to be similar to last year, only hopefully this year I will be able to communicate a little better.
28 June 2007
The curtain comes down...
Just like Tony Curtis I'm going to be hitting the road so will be away for a short while. It's going to be similar to last year, only hopefully this year I will be able to communicate a little better.
24 June 2007
Coming attraction
"My favourite of Cassavetes films...very explosive...very raw" Pedro Almodovar.
Links
IMDB entry for Opening Night, link.
Part of the John Cassavetes season at BFI Southbank, link to earlier post.
BFI Southbank, link.
19 June 2007
17 June 2007
Kenneth Anger
...which reminds me, I was supposed to post some thoughts on when Anger came to the London Film Festival last October...
Coming attraction: Charlie Chaplin - Complete Mutuals 1916-17
Here is a rare treat - 12 films made by Charlie Chaplin for Mutual between 1916 and 1917 (restored) with live music from Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, composed and conducted by Carl Davis, intended to be an experience very similar to how they were first shown. Sounds fantastic to me.
Link
Cadogan Hall's website, link.
Coming attraction: Jan Svankmajer
Apologies, I am quite behind on various blog posts, so this isn't so much a coming attraction but something that is currently ongoing. I like the quote from Milos Forman on the front of this - "Disney plus Bunuel equals Svankmajer".
16 June 2007
Coming attraction: At the BFI Southbank in July
The big season seems to be Mikio Naruse, of which I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen any although I have been toying with buying the Eurkea/Masters of Cinema set for quite some time but still haven't got 'round to it.
Links
BFI Southbank - 'When a Woman Ascends the Stairs', link.
IMDB entry for Mikio Naruse, link.
Articles on Naruse on 'Senses of Cinema', link and 'Bright Lights Film Journal', link.
Links
BFI Southbank - 'When a Woman Ascends the Stairs', link.
IMDB entry for Mikio Naruse, link.
Articles on Naruse on 'Senses of Cinema', link and 'Bright Lights Film Journal', link.
Wendy Craig
Ah, the 1960's.... Wendy Craig, 'The Servant', 'I'll Never Forget What's'isname' and I see from a cursory glance at IMDB a Basil Dearden/Dirk Bogarde flick from '62 called 'The Mind Benders' which sounds like it belongs more in the San Francisco-Jack-Peter-Roger Corman canon, anyhow I found the above image ages ago, don't worry I'm not starting a series on Wendy Craig, just thought I'd share this for those who most remember a very different Wendy Craig.
Peter Watkins
Bumper month for fans of Peter Watkins, BFI Southbank (National Film Theatre in old money) is showing 'Privilege' during July (Sunday 29th and Tuesday 31st) along with 'Forgotten Faces'. From the programme "Ahead of the game in '67, Watkins forsees the complete assimilation and exploitation of rock 'n' roll music by 'The Man': in this case the Christian Right. A reluctant, tortured Christ like poster-boy - sharply played by Paul Jones of Manfred Mann - fronts an overblown version of Onward Christian Soldiers alongside giant crucifixes, before he cracks under pressure. Only Jean Shrimpton questions the facade."
Also, I think I saw earlier today that Eurkea/Masters of Cinema were giving their normally excellent treatment to 'Edvard Munch', however I can't seem to see any reference to it on their site.
I quite fancy seeing 'Privilege' on the big screen, it remains one of the hardest British films of the 1960's to actually see.
Links
Peter Watkins's own website, link.
Bright Lights Film Journal article on Privilege by Tom Sutpen, link.
Pan Paperback book cover, link.
Paul Jones sings songs from 'Privilege' (HMV EMI EP front & rear), link.
02 June 2007
Cassavetes and Falk in the same month...
...well nearly. I found out by accident that Peter Falk was here this week to promote his book 'Just One More Thing' meanwhile over at the NFT they have a Cassavetes season this month (15th-30th June).
Sadly I also found out the book signing event at Piccadilly branch of Waterstone's was cancelled as he had to return to the US. Had I known I might have popped along, I picked up a copy of the book for a browse and it looks decent.
Links
Review of 'Just One More Thing' on the Waterstones site, link.
Cassavetes season at NFT, link.
25 May 2007
24 May 2007
Star Wars Blog-a-thon
Apparently tomorrow is the 30 year anniversary of Star Wars, so much to answer for...
There is a Blog-a-thon in celebration of May 25th 1977 and the films release at Eddie on Film starting tomorrow, I am posting late at night on 24th as I will be tied up most of tomorrow and it's after 11pm here.
I did go to see this on its release although I am sure it didn't reach my town until sometime in 1978, I would have been five to six years old. I had been to the cinema before but the only film I recall was 'The Jungle Book', which we all went to see, for 'Star Wars' my Mother took me, the queue was right around the corner of the small one screen cinema in the town I grew up in. I was excited, at least I think I was. I estimate that this film could have been out maybe six months before it hit our town, maybe well over a year before the film was released in the USA.
I don't rememeber how we came to see this as my Mother most certainly wasn't interested in it, so I must have nagged my parents, I'm guessing there was so much hype about this film at the time, probably nothing compared to today's hype and the general marketing of films but I certainly knew people at school who had the plastic dolls and had talked about seeing it.
Anyway I experienced something that has frequently happened to me inside cinemas since- I fell asleep. In this case I remember waking up towards the end, the part where they have to shoot straight to destroy the death star. I had no idea what was going on in the film at this point, I am not even sure that I had enjoyed the film, I certainly had no idea about half of what the characters were saying. I remember looking at my Mother, she seemed to be sucked in to whatever was happening in the film.
A strange thing happened when we left the cinema, it was daylight as it had been a matinee and it was the first time I had experienced stepping out into the bright daylight after hours inside a dark cinema.
That's all I can remember about the first time I saw 'Star Wars'.
Link
Eddie on Film, Star Wars Blog-a-thon, link.
13 May 2007
Julie Christie
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