I've been obsessed by the TV show Lost since it started. I happened to be visiting a film festival (thank you Sergio and Chris at Cinema Paradise!) in Honolulu the night in September 2004 when the TV show premiered.
The festival was over (I think) and so I had taken a scenic driving tour around the island (gorgeous) that day and passed by where the most expensive TV pilot in history had been filmed. The local media was obsessed with how this show could create an Hawaiian boom. Getting caught up in the local hype myself, I made sure I was home at my hotel room -- eating a probably non-authentic Hawaiian pizza -- to catch the pilot. From then, I was hooked.
When I moved to England in early 2005 I had to wait for the series to start there but was soon back on track. The only hiccup was when Channel 4 lost the broadcast rights to Sky (boo!) and I had to buy DVD sets off eBay. I think that DVD set of Season 4 I watched almost in a single weekend it was so good (and it took my mind off a bad breakup).
So now for season five, living again back in the US of A, I've been glued to the set. I have to say this season hasn't blown me away completely -- of course things are confusing and I am about sick of the flashes of light/time travel blips. But last night's episode was probably the best hour of TV I've seen all year (sorry Don Draper) and proves that this smart, confounding, amazing show is worth sticking with. Here's one obsessive fan's analysis of what happened last night. I can't wait to see where the journey takes us next. The only thing that could make it better is if somehow Chuck Bass is revealed as the secret founder of the Dharma Initiative.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
A Movie and A Singer
Two things to enthuse about today:
The first is a singer that I discovered at the Friday night music series at the American Folk Art Museum. Her name is Alexa Woodward and she's a banjo player/singer/songwriter. She has a new CD coming out soon and is hosting a CD release party on April 18 in NYC. See her website for details.
And the second recommendation is the documentary Dear Zachary. I had missed it over at Cinema Village but kept hearing great things, but then my friends at Oscilloscope are now releasing it on DVD later this week. Not sure what the release status is in the UK for my British friends but look into it.
Dear Zachary really is one of the strongest stories I've seen on film all year -- the filmmaker, Kurt Kuenne, attempts to pay tribute to the life of his murdered longtime friend Andrew Bagby. And then it turns out his murderer ex-girlfriend is having Bagby's baby. The film takes some expected twists and turns -- it will break your heart and maybe change your life. Simply amazing. I turned off the DVD player and immediately started thinking who I could lend it to first -- it feels like every one I know would be moved by this piece of work. Seek it out.
The first is a singer that I discovered at the Friday night music series at the American Folk Art Museum. Her name is Alexa Woodward and she's a banjo player/singer/songwriter. She has a new CD coming out soon and is hosting a CD release party on April 18 in NYC. See her website for details.
And the second recommendation is the documentary Dear Zachary. I had missed it over at Cinema Village but kept hearing great things, but then my friends at Oscilloscope are now releasing it on DVD later this week. Not sure what the release status is in the UK for my British friends but look into it.
Dear Zachary really is one of the strongest stories I've seen on film all year -- the filmmaker, Kurt Kuenne, attempts to pay tribute to the life of his murdered longtime friend Andrew Bagby. And then it turns out his murderer ex-girlfriend is having Bagby's baby. The film takes some expected twists and turns -- it will break your heart and maybe change your life. Simply amazing. I turned off the DVD player and immediately started thinking who I could lend it to first -- it feels like every one I know would be moved by this piece of work. Seek it out.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Cabin Fever
Thanks to Carrie (and Melissa's car), I found myself with a weekend away in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania, at this great cabin owned by lifestyle guru Danny Seo. Some very cool decorating ideas. And if you’ve got a spare $350,000 you can buy the cabin for yourself.
Highlights of the weekend include NOT having a visit from Jason Voorhes on a scary Friday the 13th in the woods, the Golden Nugget flea market, seeing transvestites out for V-Day dinner in quaint Lambertville, and a visit with Carrie’s friends Tom and Kay who also have a house nearby. As cool as Tom and Kay are, their cats may be even cooler. Callie and Sam are Cornish Rex-es with a lot of personality. Such as jumping on Carrie’s back without warning or nesting in my sweater for an hour. While I was wearing it.
More pics over on Facebook.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Romance, Bed Stuy Style
This Valentine’s Eve seemed like the perfect time to share my favorite Bed Stuy storefront. I walk past this lingerie store every few days and the name never fails to make me laugh.
Just imagine the scene:
“I've got the perfect name! Let’s call it Panties In A Bag!”
“Yeah but don’t forget to add the word 'boutique' to give it a touch of class.”
Happy V-Day Everyone!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tea Time in Tribeca
London's a tea city and New York's a coffee town, I think. So as a non coffee drinker, I have been missing the English cuppa in the past few months -- although thankfully good tea is getting easier to find in America in general (less of that abysmal Lipton everywhere!).
I had a meeting in Tribeca the other day and had time to kill so I stumbled upon a relatively new shop called Amanzi Tea. Well designed store/cafe with an insanely large menu of many dozen types of tea - black, white, oolong, green, you name it. I sampled a few exotic blends but settled on a nice cup of Earl Grey, which was fantastic. Anyway if you like tea check out the store on Chambers Street or the site; or if you are in need of a non-Starbucks during the forthcoming Tribeca Film Festival keep this place in mind.
I had a meeting in Tribeca the other day and had time to kill so I stumbled upon a relatively new shop called Amanzi Tea. Well designed store/cafe with an insanely large menu of many dozen types of tea - black, white, oolong, green, you name it. I sampled a few exotic blends but settled on a nice cup of Earl Grey, which was fantastic. Anyway if you like tea check out the store on Chambers Street or the site; or if you are in need of a non-Starbucks during the forthcoming Tribeca Film Festival keep this place in mind.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Cool Moules
So after Rotters, I took the train over for a quick two days in Brussels to meet Neil from London. I have to say I thought Brussels might be ultra-boring and feel overly clean, staid and traditional and be full of EU bureaucrats. But it was a pretty hip place, saw lots of cool design and music stores, bars, restaurants, and so on. The food was FANTASTIC. Probably on par with Paris prices I guess, but probably the best food I’ve eaten all year (outside of Rome which doesn't really count as normal food).
Moules frites, Belgian waffles, chocolate - all lived up to the reputation and then some. And of course great beer, though I didn’t stray too far from the Stella/Leffe family. The nicest meal we had was at a great place near Sablon, Au Vieux Saint-Martin. Seemed to be a lot of posh locals in there and some amazing art on the walls if you get tired of staring at your frites.
Other highlights were the comic strip museum (lots of Tintin), walking around looking at some great old buildings, and a funny accidental trip to Anderlecht. We wanted to see a Belgian brewery in action (it appeared to be long shut) but instead went to the heaving food and butcher’s market near the aptly titled Boulevard de l'Abattoir, where it seemed all of Belgium’s Polish immigrants were gathered on the freezing cold sidewalk drinking Zywiec on Sunday morning. Further proof -- along with graffiti and some interesting run down buildings even in the city centre - that Brussels isn’t as scrubbed clean and boring as I feared.
A very nice place to spend a weekend (the city, not the scary butcher’s market) especially with the Eurostar zipping over there from London.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Rotterdam 2009 highlights
I'm now back in NYC after an inspiring trip to the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009. I was there for almost two weeks working at the festival's own newspaper, The Daily Tiger.
And at the risk of sounding like I'm sucking up those people who hired me, I do have to say it was hands-down the best Rotterdam I've attended in the past few years. New programme sections, even a new tiger logo -- something was working despite the credit crunch.
Once you've done 'the circuit' for a few years, it almost seems like festivals start to blend into one another -- that everyone is programming the same 20 festival favorite films in a different city each month. So that's why Rotterdam seems like such a rare and refreshing festival with a true sense of identity. Sure these films are challenging and won't be to everyone's taste -- but that's better than being boring, I think. The only drawback is that Rotterdam becomes
the sort of place where one (or maybe it's just me) can be made to feel embarrassed for being drawn to a straight narrative. I almost (but not quite) watched Road House in the hotel one night because it had an easy story to follow and might have given my brain a break.
Anyway with a programme of hundreds films, there's no way I can pretend to have seen a large chunk of them (by concentrating on new films I missed out on retrospectives, for instance). But I did see nearly all the Tiger competition films (first and second features) and I thought it was a particularly strong year. Of the three winners (Breathless, Wrong Rosary, Be Calm And Count To Seven), none of them were my personal favorites, but I could see why a jury chose each. And could have easily agreed with another five Tigers that had their own merits.
Part of the credit of course goes to the veteran programmers at IFFR, and some of it also goes to the new festival director Rutger Wolfson. He was temporarily at the helm last year and was in the job more permanently this year, and I heard a lot of industry guests and film-makers remarking about how he was making an impact.
The city itself is well suited for a festival -- great cinemas (especially those enormous Pathe screens), easy walkability between venues, and enthusiastic local audiences that will seemingly sit through two hours of just about anything. One especially cool feature of IFFR 2009 was part of the Size Matters project, which saw the festival commission works by Guy Maddin, Carlos Reygadas, and Nanouk Leopold and project them on buildings in the city center. Looked very cool against the modern Rotterdam skyline (even the skyline, such as it is, is growing on me).
Of course, I think any festival experience can depend on your own personal state of mind. And for me, seeing films and interviewing filmmakers was a rejuvenating way to spend two weeks. It was busy but not the same kind of stress as doing dailies for Screen, where obviously my job is to talk to industry sources and report on news and deals (I like that stuff too). But for contrast it was nice to kinda ignore the commercial prospects and just enjoy some films. And have an
excuse for a trip to HEMA - sort of like a Dutch version of Target.
Anyway, whatever the combination this was an energising festival for me and hats off to the IFFR team, my fellow Daily Tigers, and the film-makers.
[Is all this too sickeningly positive? Maybe I need to start an alternate negativity blog where I can write about the cockroach in my hotel bathroom, those ridiculously small beer glasses, the public health hazard of frost on that metal Schouwburg square, and the fact that the Dutch can't seem to make a decent sandwich.]
But back to the good stuff -- of the films I saw, these were my favorites:
Morphia
The late Sergei Bodrov Jr's script is adapted from the autobiographical stories A Country Doctor's Handbook. Its 1917 and a doctor arrives deep in the Russian countryside, where he's got to deal with all kinds of medical crises. (Hard for this squeamish viewer to watch the amptuation scene!) He also falls in love with a nurse and develops a crippling morphine habit. A fascinating portrait of the time, and also one man's descent into addiction hell. Director Alexei Balabanov laces black humour throughout, and delivers a note-perfect ending. The kind of film people were saying could have easily been in Cannes competition, and I agree.
The Ferrari Dino Girl
Czech New Waver Jan Nemec recently got the original footage he shot in 1968's Prague Spring. It's the same footage he used in Oratorio For Prague, but now he's restored it and used it as something of a centerpiece for this inventive autobiographical project. Nemec casts Karel Roden (mostly heard through voiceover) as the director and revisits the locations of the past, when he had to smuggle his footage out of Czechoslovakia with the help of Prague's most beautiful
girl and an Italian friend. It ends with a personal reflection of Nemec's about his past and his present film-making. Very moving and funny and an inventive way of telling a personal remembrance of an important historical time.
Troubled Water
Norwegian director Erik Poppe's third feature. Almost won IFFR's audience award (which went to Slumdog Millionaire which frankly doesn't need it right now!) A film full of surprises for me -- thanks in part to its unusual structure. A kind of thriller, a kind of psychological character study, the story follows a young man just released from prison where he served his sentence for murdering a young boy eight years ago. The mother of the young boy comes back into his life and we start to follow her point of view. Moving and disturbing and shows a masterful touch from the director. Too bad the title is easy to confuse with Frozen River and Trouble The Water.
Be Good (Sois Sage)
Debut from French filmmaker Juliette Garcias. Reminded me a bit of Innocence by Lucile Hadzihalilovic. A glacially paced story about a young girl new in a country town who is lying to everyone about her past, as the truth is slowly revealed. A very unusual story about incest. I thought the lead actress Anais Demoustier was stunning and that Garcias has an amazing eye -- the film's mood was sustained by a series of artful and sometimes shocking images -- a girl's bloodied cuticles pawing at her thighs, a hand plunged into a bucket of snails, an ice cream scoop being swirled in milky water.
Turistas
Another Tiger film by a female director, Chile's Alicia Scherson. A bourgeious couple is going on holiday when their relationship takes a sudden turn, so the wife sets out on her own to a nature reserve where she's thrown into a sort of alternate society. Beautifully shot and observed, I thought this was funny and compassionate at the same time.
Unmade Beds
Alexis Dos Santos follows up his lauded debut Glue with this story of immigrants in contemporary London's east end. The script had some holes for me (do squatters really have money to go skydiving??) but it would be nearly impossible to watch this film and not have some kind of affection for its lead characters, a Belgian girl trying to get over heartbreak, and a Spanish boy looking for his father. Displays a real youthful exuberance that is hard to capture on film.
Daily Tiger English issues available here.
My Facebook pics here.
And at the risk of sounding like I'm sucking up those people who hired me, I do have to say it was hands-down the best Rotterdam I've attended in the past few years. New programme sections, even a new tiger logo -- something was working despite the credit crunch.
Once you've done 'the circuit' for a few years, it almost seems like festivals start to blend into one another -- that everyone is programming the same 20 festival favorite films in a different city each month. So that's why Rotterdam seems like such a rare and refreshing festival with a true sense of identity. Sure these films are challenging and won't be to everyone's taste -- but that's better than being boring, I think. The only drawback is that Rotterdam becomes
the sort of place where one (or maybe it's just me) can be made to feel embarrassed for being drawn to a straight narrative. I almost (but not quite) watched Road House in the hotel one night because it had an easy story to follow and might have given my brain a break.
Anyway with a programme of hundreds films, there's no way I can pretend to have seen a large chunk of them (by concentrating on new films I missed out on retrospectives, for instance). But I did see nearly all the Tiger competition films (first and second features) and I thought it was a particularly strong year. Of the three winners (Breathless, Wrong Rosary, Be Calm And Count To Seven), none of them were my personal favorites, but I could see why a jury chose each. And could have easily agreed with another five Tigers that had their own merits.
Part of the credit of course goes to the veteran programmers at IFFR, and some of it also goes to the new festival director Rutger Wolfson. He was temporarily at the helm last year and was in the job more permanently this year, and I heard a lot of industry guests and film-makers remarking about how he was making an impact.
The city itself is well suited for a festival -- great cinemas (especially those enormous Pathe screens), easy walkability between venues, and enthusiastic local audiences that will seemingly sit through two hours of just about anything. One especially cool feature of IFFR 2009 was part of the Size Matters project, which saw the festival commission works by Guy Maddin, Carlos Reygadas, and Nanouk Leopold and project them on buildings in the city center. Looked very cool against the modern Rotterdam skyline (even the skyline, such as it is, is growing on me).
Of course, I think any festival experience can depend on your own personal state of mind. And for me, seeing films and interviewing filmmakers was a rejuvenating way to spend two weeks. It was busy but not the same kind of stress as doing dailies for Screen, where obviously my job is to talk to industry sources and report on news and deals (I like that stuff too). But for contrast it was nice to kinda ignore the commercial prospects and just enjoy some films. And have an
excuse for a trip to HEMA - sort of like a Dutch version of Target.
Anyway, whatever the combination this was an energising festival for me and hats off to the IFFR team, my fellow Daily Tigers, and the film-makers.
[Is all this too sickeningly positive? Maybe I need to start an alternate negativity blog where I can write about the cockroach in my hotel bathroom, those ridiculously small beer glasses, the public health hazard of frost on that metal Schouwburg square, and the fact that the Dutch can't seem to make a decent sandwich.]
But back to the good stuff -- of the films I saw, these were my favorites:
Morphia
The late Sergei Bodrov Jr's script is adapted from the autobiographical stories A Country Doctor's Handbook. Its 1917 and a doctor arrives deep in the Russian countryside, where he's got to deal with all kinds of medical crises. (Hard for this squeamish viewer to watch the amptuation scene!) He also falls in love with a nurse and develops a crippling morphine habit. A fascinating portrait of the time, and also one man's descent into addiction hell. Director Alexei Balabanov laces black humour throughout, and delivers a note-perfect ending. The kind of film people were saying could have easily been in Cannes competition, and I agree.
The Ferrari Dino Girl
Czech New Waver Jan Nemec recently got the original footage he shot in 1968's Prague Spring. It's the same footage he used in Oratorio For Prague, but now he's restored it and used it as something of a centerpiece for this inventive autobiographical project. Nemec casts Karel Roden (mostly heard through voiceover) as the director and revisits the locations of the past, when he had to smuggle his footage out of Czechoslovakia with the help of Prague's most beautiful
girl and an Italian friend. It ends with a personal reflection of Nemec's about his past and his present film-making. Very moving and funny and an inventive way of telling a personal remembrance of an important historical time.
Troubled Water
Norwegian director Erik Poppe's third feature. Almost won IFFR's audience award (which went to Slumdog Millionaire which frankly doesn't need it right now!) A film full of surprises for me -- thanks in part to its unusual structure. A kind of thriller, a kind of psychological character study, the story follows a young man just released from prison where he served his sentence for murdering a young boy eight years ago. The mother of the young boy comes back into his life and we start to follow her point of view. Moving and disturbing and shows a masterful touch from the director. Too bad the title is easy to confuse with Frozen River and Trouble The Water.
Be Good (Sois Sage)
Debut from French filmmaker Juliette Garcias. Reminded me a bit of Innocence by Lucile Hadzihalilovic. A glacially paced story about a young girl new in a country town who is lying to everyone about her past, as the truth is slowly revealed. A very unusual story about incest. I thought the lead actress Anais Demoustier was stunning and that Garcias has an amazing eye -- the film's mood was sustained by a series of artful and sometimes shocking images -- a girl's bloodied cuticles pawing at her thighs, a hand plunged into a bucket of snails, an ice cream scoop being swirled in milky water.
Turistas
Another Tiger film by a female director, Chile's Alicia Scherson. A bourgeious couple is going on holiday when their relationship takes a sudden turn, so the wife sets out on her own to a nature reserve where she's thrown into a sort of alternate society. Beautifully shot and observed, I thought this was funny and compassionate at the same time.
Unmade Beds
Alexis Dos Santos follows up his lauded debut Glue with this story of immigrants in contemporary London's east end. The script had some holes for me (do squatters really have money to go skydiving??) but it would be nearly impossible to watch this film and not have some kind of affection for its lead characters, a Belgian girl trying to get over heartbreak, and a Spanish boy looking for his father. Displays a real youthful exuberance that is hard to capture on film.
Daily Tiger English issues available here.
My Facebook pics here.
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