Number 61 » movies

Second Wind

Matthew Gipp — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:40:24 +0000

Connected

Matthew Gipp — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:19:24 +0000

Set in the distant future, Connected is a story about survival and greed with a post apocalyptic wasteland as its backdrop. Survivors of an unknown disaster shuffle through a desolate landscape, as it quickly becomes clear that not everybody has the strength to survive.

Really, just a pretty cool short.

Plastic Bag

Matthew Gipp — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:46:52 +0000

Filmmaker Ramin Bahrani ‘traces the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker, the woman who took it home from the store and eventually discarded it.‘

No, your eyes do not deceive you. Werner Herzog.

via Ebert

La Dama y la Muerte

Matthew Gipp — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:58:32 +0000

Ebert’s Closing Parenthesis

Matthew Gipp — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:56:07 +0000

Lately, Roger Ebert has been riding a streak of phenomenal—and extremely personal—writing (see: his struggles with alcoholism, the bygone London of his memories, a love letter to a Chicago bar, how he hasn’t been able to eat food since he lost his jaw).

It is, as Chris Jones writes in his brilliant new Esquire article on the subject of Ebert, evidence of a man who has made his peace with lethal time.

Sun Ra – Space is the Place

Matthew Gipp — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:31:14 +0000

Watch the 1974 film.

Luis

Sam Carlson — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:37:36 +0000

Kanizsa Hill

Matthew Gipp — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:35:05 +0000

Get Out

Matthew Gipp — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:45:30 +0000

Rushdie and Gilliam

Matthew Gipp — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:03:25 +0000

An oldie but a goodie: Salman Rushdie interviews Terry Gilliam at the 2002 Telluride Film Festival.

SR: [...] When I was writing Midnight’s Children, I used to work two days a week at an ad agency and five days a week writing my book, and I thought of it, kind of, as industrial sponsorship.

Skhizein, by Jérémy Clapin

Matthew Gipp — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:11:40 +0000

Man of Extremes

Matthew Gipp — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:47:13 +0000

Just in case you missed it—I did—here’s a New Yorker profile of James Cameron from this past October.

Alma

Matthew Gipp — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:42:24 +0000

A short by (Pixar animator) Rodrigo Blaas.

The 2009 Black List

Matthew Gipp — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:31:17 +0000

The new Black List is out. For those who don’t know, it’s described thusly:

THE BLACK LIST was compiled from the suggestions of over 300 film executives, each of whom contributed the names of up to ten of their favorite scripts that were written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2009 and will not be released in theaters during this calendar year.

The Shortlist

Matthew Gipp — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:01:14 +0000

Something I can really get behind: in anticipation of every year’s Oscar season, more and more Hollywood studios are publishing screenplays for award contenders online for free download.

Rope of Silicone has been keeping a list of links.

Dream Big

Matthew Gipp — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:34:09 +0000

You’ll recognize the following six films: 9, District 9, Napoleon Dynamite, The Evil Dead, Bottle Rocket and Boogie Nights.

You may not know, however, that they were all originally filmed as shorts by amateur filmmakers—all of whom began their professional careers by turning the short films in question into features.

Check out the roundup—with embedded YouTube videos—on Mental_Floss.

The Unmanned Mr. Fox

Matthew Gipp — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:29:20 +0000

From (the superlative) Overthinking It: rooting through The Fantastic Mr. Fox for some truly disturbing thematic material.

Caution: mild spoilers ahead!

Werner Herzog is the Most Interesting Man in the World

Matthew Gipp — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:36:40 +0000

Filmmaker Werner Herzog recently appeared on KCRW’s The Treatment podcast and talked about his preference for casting animals in main acting roles, about the capricious allure of American football, about conquering fear, about his Spanish opera, about traveling to Southern Ethiopia to film a musical, about getting shot during an interview and being the only guy who didn’t want to call it off. Listen.

The Tedious Mr. Fox

Matthew Gipp — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:42:13 +0000

You may have heard about how members of Wes Anderson’s team allegedly took exception to his ‘sociopathic’ directorial style during the extremely tedious production of The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Making Of has a short featurette on how the workflow actually worked.

It’s all pretty brilliant, but I still think It’s amazing that they got anything done this way.

Three From Buñuel

Matthew Gipp — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:23:58 +0000

The Auteurs—a site that I can only describe as a sort of streamable, pay-per-view Criterion Collection—recently added three films by Spanish surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel: L’Âge d’or, Death in the Garden and Un Chien Andalou.

They’re all free to watch. For now.

You should check them out (but only if you like your movies old, French and unsettling).