Rodriguez

Watched Searching for Sugarman last night - it was SO GOOD!
A documentary about a '70s musician who, unbeknownst to most of the world (and, perhaps most surprisingly: himself), has been a total hit in South Africa. A favourite of the anti-apartheid movement, he's been "bigger than Elvis" for decades.
Weird!
And pretty fucking awesome.

I just bought the soundtrack and looks like today is the perfect sunny day to walk around listening to it in search of my favourite drug (caffeine) ;)

Yum!

Great new films you've probably not yet seen!

Today I bring you two worthy reccomendations from the Bath Film Festival! I urge you to get your paws on these! All I can say is: I wish I had time to see more movies at BFF... They feature exactly the kind of films I'd like to see more of, but usually I'm not quite sure where to find them or even how to find out about them. I think they've done a SPLENDID job of curating cinematic treats on a limited budet.

Silent Souls
Russia 2010
Director: Aleksei Fedorchenko

“In this land there are only two gods: love and water”

When Miron’s beloved wife Tanya passes away, he asks his colleague Aist to help him say goodbye to her according to the rituals of the Merja culture, an ancient Finno-Ugric tribe from Lake Nero, a picturesque region in West-Central Russia.

Absolutely beautiful.

Sound if my voice
USA 2011
Director: Zal Batmanglij

An amateur journalist and his girlfriend get pulled in while they investigate a cult whose leader claims to be from the future. A perfect example of a movie that makes you questin everything about it.

Can you tell if it's sci-fi?

The Man with the Miniature Orchestra

by Dave Algonquin

"There were phrases of Beethoven’s 9th symphony that still made Coe cry. He always thought it had to do with the circumstances of the composition itself. He imagined Beethoven, deaf and soul-sick, his heart broken, scribbling furiously while Death stood in the doorway, clipping his nails. Still, Coe thought, it might have been living in the country that was making him cry; it was killing him with its silence and loneliness, making everything ordinary too beautiful to bear."

I wish there was a "rest of the story" to read on... I'm catching up on Mad Men on my holiday while the Bath Christmas Market is being erected around me. Under seige!
Doesn't coffee taste so much better when you have nowhere to go?

Bed, Bath and Beyond!

If you are looking for exciting new things to do you should consider:

1. Seeing Minima Live

Minima is an instrumental wonder-band. They performed a live movie score to the original 1922 vampire classic Nosferatu at the Holbourne museum the other week, and it was fantastic! So much so that I vow to see them again if and when they perform somewhere commutable. Their repertoire includes cult silent cinema hits such as Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Aelita Queen of Mars. A must see!!! Click here for their performance schedule.

2. Listening to Ice Music

Curiosity in Corsham?! Who would have thought!? "Norwegian composer and musician Terje Isungset performs each show using instruments crafted from glacial ice to produce a haunting, ethereal sound." At Corsham's Hartham Park on Dec 1st. Sadly, I will be otherwise occupied, but it definitely sounds like something worth seeing live!

3. Watching a movie (or five) at the Bath Film Festival

Lots to choose from at this year's Bath Film Festival! 14th to 25th Nov - so better book your tickets now! Download the brochure here or pick it up from the Tourist Information shop next to the Abbey.

4. Ice Skating

Because it is so much fun when all the little kids are much much better then you at something!;-) Nov 23rd till Jan 6th will see a sizable skating rink appear  in Victoria Park with 1 hour sessions (including skate hire) under £10 per adult. The last time I put on skates was in NEGATIVE 22 degrees Celsius last February in Warsaw. I lasted a good 20min before my limbs froze off. By comparison skating in Bath sounds extremely tempting!

5. Dressing up to dance

There is nothing like a winter masquerade party! I have heard good things about this pop-up vaudevillian cabaret show night in Cambridge on 1st of December. My costume may have lots of feathers...

6. Browsing at the Market

Fancy getting trampled on by hordes of tourists? Oh shush, you'll come anyway. Because it's worth it. Because there is something magical about the randomness and thrill of browsing dozens of stalls, gaping at fairy lights and getting drunk on cheap mulled wine. I am all for it! I'm especially looking forward to the Transient Graffiti planned for the Abbey and Holbourne museum.

7. Listening to The Bookshop Band

The Bookshop Band write songs about books and perform in independent bookstores. Geek out! Live at Mr B's bookstore on the 6th and the 11th of December. Note to self: do not miss.

Oof.
Enough for now...;)

Soulboy

OK, dig this: it is definitely one of those movies I probably shouldn't admit to liking, but... I can't help it! It's SO disarmingly teenage-y! Packed chock-full of good music and bad ass moves.

It reminds me of my time at Leicester uni - there was this Thursday night out at the Student's Union called Shampoo with 60-70's music AND a free drink if you fancy-dressed it up! I can't even begin to describe how nostalgic I get just thinking about it... When I did go with my friends we were the first on the dance floor and the last ones to leave.

I need Shampoo back in my life!

Here's the soundtrack playlist if you please:

Monster.

animated surrealism: Solipsist

Eerie, colorful, bizarre.
Directed by Andrew Huang and a recipient of the Special Jury Prize for Experimental Short at the Slamdance Film Festival.

What's better than a bit of art to cheer one up on a gloomy Friday?
How about "three more night shifts to go until my holiday in Europe"?
The thought alone puts the colour right back in my cheeks!

Shimmy

Lalalalala I'm gonna shimmy it up vintage style! like so:

The Artist

My favourite thing about seeing the movie The Artist at the cinema was the soft quiet sound of a running projector that filled the room during the silences.
A very endearing faux-vintage touch:)

I must see this movie!

Roman Polanski's new black comedy "Carnage" sounds riveting! Based on a theatre play about two pairs of parents who meet to politely discuss their sons' fight at school, but instead descend into an evening of eruptive chaos, it promises a rare taste of true filmed theatre. I can't wait to see how the controversial polish director (yeah, yeah: let's layer on my Polish pride) dissects humanity with 4 actors, 1 set in less than an hour and a half.
And reportedly makes Kate Winslet vomit on the silver screen.
Can not bloody wait!

Validated!

"Validation" is a sweet little fable about the magic of free parking. Guaranteed to make you smile!

Black Swan

Where do I start? Well, first of all: my praises! It is a great movie, and I recomend catching it on the big screen.
A powerful and engaging performance on many levels: it is a thriller, a ballet, a meditation on life, a tale of a sexual awakening, a dream, an allegory, a story of rise and downfall. Black Swan is deeply and deliciously symbolical with fascinating dichotomy in characters and decorations. In the end it is whatever you want it to be... No wonder there are so many mirror scenes in the movie, huh?;)
It skillfully intertwines cultural references and studies the universal, raw human nature. Black and white sets and costumes visually drew me towards the Eastern notions of yin and yang. The ballet art form and Vincent Cassel's French accent ties in with the "old world" and European sensibilities, while the modern New York setting makes the story current and cosmopolitan.
The main character's progression and development gracefully dances down the theoretical line between painful existential transformation and psychotic breakdown. Through a medically-tinted lens you may pick up specific symptoms: paranoia, illusions, delusions, hallucinations, and progressive loss of insight. But all these negative changes are mixed in with positive ones as the character gains more energy, success, strength, determination, self-worth, discovers the pleasure of sexual expression, frees herself from her protracted childhood and rebels against her controlling suffocating parent figure. She wins and looses. Holds on and lets go. Perishes and becomes. But which is which?
When you watch this movie, will you see a story of a life broken down under pressure, or of a struggle for freedom and self-realisation? Once the credits roll out, will you have had seen a happy ending, or not?
Perhaps your reaction can tell you a bit about what your own white to black swan ratio is...
Go see it and gain a taste for growing a few black feathers!;)

Here's a poem to match:




The monkey is reaching
For the moon in the water.
Until death overtakes him
He'll never give up.
If he'd let go the branch and
Disappear in the deep pool,
The whole world would shine
With dazzling pureness.

Hakuin

To be watched: Bad Lieutenant (2009)

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of call - New Orleans

Director: Werner Herzog (!) (he's still alive?!O_o)
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer
How can I sum up this movie? Taxi driver meets Sin City meets the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou?XD I can't put my finger on it... I think I'm still in shock. A good bad baaad cop story embedded in New Orleans sweat with music, murder, hallucinations, drugs, sex, gators and iguanas to suit. Watch it and tell me it isn't great! I dare you!

*pretty fish!*

Chick Habit v. Faster Pussycat Kill Kill

Niiiiccce!XD

Broken Bells: The Ghost Inside

Joanie from MadMen in a SciFi scenario!?! So hot! *swoon!* I didn't even know I dreamt about this, but now I'm pretty sure I did! ...and the music is pretty good too;)

Christina Hendricks Broken Bells
Uploaded by slammywammy. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

David Shrigley

also there's this, if you haven't seen it yet:

David Shringley is my new personal hero!:D
Ok, enough frivolous posting... must get back into the honest solid mindset for memorising lots and lots of usefull crap!

Lazy Saturday movie: His Girl Friday (1940)

click below to see it on YouTube:

His Girl Friday (1940)
starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell
Spitfire dialogues from the black and white world of funny hats, luscious accents and sexy cigaterre smoke. Oh, can you believe all the delicious witty wordplay?! Ehh, they don't do movies like that no more, that's fer sure!

Quote: "A big fat lummox like you hiring an airplane to write: "Hildy, don't be hasty. Remember my dimple. Walter." Delayed our divorce 20 minutes while the judge went out and watched it."

Hot hot Iceland!

Ok, I promise this is the last one!;P

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

Amazing Graffiti animation!

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Wristcutters: a love story

This movie came well reccomended and did not dissapoint! Not too indie/pretentious, decently acted out (go Eugene!) and with a delightfully dark subtle sense of humour. It stars Tom Waits and features a Gogol Bordello infused soundtrack.

Turns out when you commit suicide you end up in a place that's pretty much the same, only a bit worse. Everything is slightly washed-out, there are no stars and you can't smile. So if you're in a mood for some morbid jokes and an afterlife roadtrip in a car with no headlights and a black hole under a passanger seat, take this movie for a spin!

Listen to this!:D (and ignore the video):

Sarah Blasko - No Turning Back

Ok, this is a nice song, but the supercute video makes it complete:)