25 Films Added to Library of Congress

It's always great when movies are recognized as being historically and culturally significant. It's too often that in the wake of Hollywood Blockbusters, we forget that film is an art form and can be just as culturally significant as any other. This year the National Film Registry has added the following 25 films to be preserved in the Library of Congress:

Airplane! (1980)
All the President’s Men (1976)
The Bargain (1914)
Cry of Jazz (1959)
Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (1967)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Front Page (1931)
Grey Gardens (1976)
I Am Joaquin (1969)
It’s a Gift (1934)
Let There Be Light (1946)
Lonesome (1928)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Malcolm X (1992)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Newark Athlete (1891)
Our Lady of the Sphere (1969)
The Pink Panther (1964)
Preservation of the Sign Language (1913)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Study of a River (1996)
Tarantella (1940)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
A Trip Down Market Street (1906)

What An Amazing Year

There are always a ton of these video compilations done every year, but this is the best one I've seen for 2010. It's really stunning to watch everything juxtaposed like this and see just how many pieces of cinematic magic were released in just one short year. Do yourself a favor and find five minutes to watch:

Movie Recommendation: Exit Through The Gift Shop

I loved Exit Through The Gift Shop, as you can probably tell by the fact that I’m writing a recommendation for it. This pseudo-documentary examines the world of street art and in doing so shines a light on the meaning of art and the way we relate to the world around us. The film demonstrates the inherent irony in pieces of street art – an essentially rebellious art form – selling for ridiculous fees in galleries or the absurdity of the fact that a man can go from nobody to acclaimed artist almost overnight through the right combination of passion, insanity, and public endorsement. Art is meaningless except for the meaning we place upon it; it is about the process through which we relate to the world around us, and more unique viewpoints, often termed genius, have always attracted attention and large sums of money. What’s unique about Exit Through The Gift Shop is that it points to the sad, yet logical, conclusion to this trend in the information era, where we no longer step back and examine a work, but instead get caught up in the pop splash created by that work. While the film doesn’t mull on an answer to this problem, I propose that we appreciate art for the way it helps us deal with the absurdities of the world around us. We need a frame of reference instead of artificially rising prices and praise. I’m all for an artist being able to earn a living, but simultaneously an artist should care foremost about his craft, not just making it big an exiting through the gift shop.

I highly recommend this movie to everyone with even a passing interest in documentary or art. Or anyone else for that matter. Fuck it, everyone should see this film. 

Behind-the-Scenes: Black Swan Sound Design

As you can probably tell from David's review below, both of us loved Black Swan. While Aronofsky's psuedo-delusional visuals are to account for much of the films enjoyment, praise must also be given for the film's sound design. Here is a short (8 minute) look at the level of detail that went into the sound of Black Swan, which takes a Tchaikovsky score and properly perverts it into a format fitting the film's plummet into the depths of delusional obsession. Definitely worth a watch:

SoundWorks Collection - The Sound of "Black Swan" from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Movie Recommendation: The Red Shoes

The Red Shoes (1948) can be seen as a huge influence on Aronofsky's Black Swan. This classical tale of tragedy centers around the story of a ballerina torn between romantic love and her passion. The film centers around the nature of artistic passion and the validity of the claim that in order to make true beauty, an artist must sacrifice everything. When Victoria, a dancer, is caught between two passions she is forced to make a choice. However, true passion is all-consuming, it doesn't just open its hand and let you go. Faced with this realization, Victoria is crushed by the resulting paradox.

The movie is an enjoyable watch with beautifully shot dance scenes and a strong orchestral score. Although it doesn't have Aronofsky's haunting mind behind it, it does serve to be a strong commentary on what we expect of our artists and what the thirst for beauty will drive people to do. As a culture, we place almost unreasonable expectations upon our entertainers, who sacrifice for their craft and for public appeal. The Red Shoes pulls away the curtain and reveals the obsession behind the art, and the tragic consequences that can result. If you're looking for a strong ballet movie and Black Swan hasn't opened near you, The Red Shoes will sate your appetite. It's now streaming on Netflix.

WTF Hollywood

We've all experienced it before: ten minutes into a movie and already wanting to gouge our own eyes out; watching for a movie that no man, woman or child would ever want to see; reading the reports of a casting choice and wanting to throw yourself off a cliff. These are the moments when we realize that executives in Hollywood really have no fucking clue what they're doing. They fill movie fans with rage, making us want to throw up in a bucket, burn the theater down, or just slap a baby. (OK, maybe being a bulimic, arsonist, baby slapper is a personal issue, but you guys know what I mean). These are the moments when we cringe in our seats and say "WTF Hollywood". . .and now there's a blog section dedicated to them. Aren't you all happy that the internet gives you everything you never knew you wanted (but secretly did)?

First to the stand is this atrocious trailer for Rabbit Hole:

I'm not really sure how large the "middle aged couple who tragically lost a child" demographic is, but Hollywood sure has reached out to it here. Honestly, from the "Why didn't God just create another angel? He's God" line, I really thought this was going to be a comedy. Unfortunately, I was sadly wrong.

Does anyone who hasn't read the book know what the hell this movie is about after watching the trailer? Does anyone even care? I mean, maybe it's just me, but isn't a trailer supposed to intrigue in order to attract an audience instead of scaring one away? Maybe someone out there was fooled by the switch from somber score to Broken Bells, or maybe there's an soft lighting and shoddy acting. But really, I feel that whoever was responsible for this movie should be thrown off a cliff. . .or at least barred from ever working in Hollywood again. Well, except for Aaron Eckhart, but that's just because his smug smile convinces me he saw this whole project as an elaborate joke.

The sad part is, I bet this movie will be received well. People will all be caught up in the "ooh, it's based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play" and rush out to see it. (By "people" I mean the readership of The New Yorker). For my part, I hope that if there are really tons of me's out there, that the rest of them weren't subjected to the atrocity of this trailer.

Somewhere Trailer

I know I'm a little late on this, but here's the trailer for Sofia Coppola's Somewhere. As you guys may or may not know, Lost in Translation is just about my favorite movie in the world. I am extremely excited to see what Sofia does with this movie. She's a talented writer and director, and is able to use sound and stillness to illicit emotional melancholy better than any other director I know. True to form, this brilliant trailer is largely silent except for a haunting track by The Strokes.

Somewhere stars Stephen Dorff as an actor on the edge who is reconnected with his daughter, played by Elle Fanning. The movie was filmed entirely on location at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles and should provide a look into the hollowness of celebrity. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, where the jury was headed by Quentin Tarantino. Somewhere is to receive a limited release on December 22nd, with more theaters to receive the movie throughout the month of January.

127 Hours Review

Danny Boyle has done it again. Following his hugely successful Slumdog Millionaire, he has created another brilliant movie in 127 Hours. The movie centers on the true story of Aron Ralston (James Franco) who – while mountain climbing in Utah – got his arm lodged under a boulder, where he survived on a small Nalgene of water and a couple scraps of food before cutting his own arm off with a dull multi-tool, 127 hours later. While this may seem pretty dull fare for a feature film, Danny Boyle uses his Millionaire-demonstrated gift for flashback along with pseudo-experimental styling to turn this story into a taut and visually stunning movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat (and induces a few cringes).

Hollywood Fights Terrorism

No, really. I woke up this morning to an interesting post over on /Film, which points out that – according to wikileaks – Hollywood films are doing more than the American-funded propaganda efforts to increase the perception of American culture to young Saudis:

The diplomats told Washington that certain themes in American movies seemed to appeal to the Saudi audience: heroic honesty in the face of corruption (George Clooney in Michael Clayton), supportive behavior in relationships (an unspecified drama that was repeated during an Eid holiday featuring an American husband dealing with a drunk wife who smashed cars and crockery when she wasn’t assaulting him and their child), and respect for the law over self-interest (Al Pacino and Robin Williams in Insomnia).

Score one for Hollywood. Full article here.

Great Black Swan Interview

I came across this great interview on Charlie Rose featuring director Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman, talking about Black Swan. This is a movie I'm really excited about, especially considering Aronofsky's most recent work The Wrestler. (The fact that its limited release on Dec 3 didn't include Philadelphia is hugely frustrating to me). Both Portman and Aronofsky are hugely talented and extremely intelligent, which makes this interview an insightful look into the themes within the movie and where they were derived from. Especially interesting to me was Portman's interest in ballet, due to its alignment with visual representation of emotion, which ties in nicely with the way film functions.

Black Swan gets a broader release on December 10th and a wide release on December 22nd.

Happy Holidays to everyone!