From browsing through the wall poster racks of Sam Goody in middle school, thinking, "Which one of these will impress my friends the most?" to spending $40 on a Pierrot Le Fou poster off the net in my college dorm room, thinking, "Who needs friends when I can look at this all day?," film posters have always held a special place in my camphor, nitrocellulose heart.
There's without a doubt a stirring inner circle of filmmakers and made-in-Hawaii films starting to surface in the past few months. Just look at the recent 'Oiwi Film Festival and 'Ohina Short Film Showcase 2010 -- Hawaiian filmmaking seems to be everywhere.
Case in point: Two weeks ago, I met an aspiring local actress - and recent NYU Tisch graduate - who invited me to help on the set of a short she just so happened to be acting in (turns out, she just so happened to have written it also). Producer + Screenwriter + Actress = triple-threat Katherine Emily Mills. Gathering talent from New York City and Hawai'i, her cast and crew shot on-location in Kahala and the North Shore under the Last Pictures banner. If you've ever been on a shoot before, you know orchestrating that many bodies and equipment takes time and eat-your-breakfast energy, otherwise you might go Christian Bale on someone. Luckily I have infinite patience and I don't know, there's just something about small teams and operating on a shoe-string budget that really makes you feel like you're a part of something special (am I right, HIFF team?)
We covered the half-social networking/half-video-on-demand indie film site, MUBI, last week, but what we forgot to mention was this 2.0 business model is just the beginning. Check out this article from last Tuesday's New York Timesabout on-demand options for hard-to-find films.
Serious moviegoers may still see on-demand channels as a dumping ground for films that were in theaters six months ago or weren’t good enough to be in theaters at all. But as more and more “small,” serious films fight for screen time, a few distributors are starting to see on-demand television as a first option — which means that the quality of on-demand offerings is beginning to rise.
New poster art for the Joaquin Phoenix "documentary" (I would use mockumentary here sans the "ironic" punctuation, but the film is being released as something un-Christopher Guest, whatever) that reared it's vice-y Vincent Gallo head on Letterman over a year ago, and I gotta say, behind this blurry and bearded mess, I'm into it.
Directed by Casey Affleck (Phoenix's brother-in-law), the footage depicts theAffleck shooting Phoenix in the head star's "public" "breakdown" from his "announcement" that he's "retiring" from "acting" to "pursue" a "career" as a hip-hop "artist." My guess is the two are attempting to fog the line between fact and fiction (and is-there-even-such-thing-as-a-line?) with the depravity dripping Hollywood industry as a backdrop while making a commentary about fame, fortune, and happiness along the way?
The whatever-this-is is due out September 10 and I will probably see it because it looks weird.
According to an online poll taken by "American Cinematographer" magazine last month, subscribers have named AMELIE,shot by Bruno Delbonnel, as the best-shot film of the decade (1998-2008).
To eat crème brûlée with Audrey leSIGH
Here's the complete Top Ten:
1. Amélie: Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC (AC Sept. ’01) 2. Children of Men: Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC (AC Dec. ’06) 3. Saving Private Ryan: Janusz Kaminski (AC Aug. ’98) 4. There Will Be Blood: Robert Elswit, ASC (AC Jan. ’08) 5. No Country for Old Men: Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (AC Oct. ’07) 6. Fight Club: Jeff Cronenweth, ASC (AC Nov. ’99) 7. The Dark Knight: Wally Pfister, ASC (AC July ’08) 8. Road to Perdition: Conrad L. Hall, ASC (AC Aug. ’02) 9. Cidade de Deus (City of God): César Charlone, ABC (AC Feb. ’03) 10. American Beauty: Conrad L. Hall, ASC (AC March & June ’00)
If you've seen CHILDREN OF MEN, then you're not surprised to see why it's so high up here considering that insane tracking shot near the end complete with the accidental blood splatter that's so mad good, I feel stupid talking about it, so I'll leave that to the actual filmmakers.
Yes, I know, because you absolutely need just one more social networking that connects you with absolute strangers to join. But if you're into film, then there's a strong chance percentage you will be into this. And if you're not into film, well, then there's a strong chance percentage you're on the wrong website.
Mubi
Allied with Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation and partnered with the Criterion Collection (speaking of, the number of Criterion DVDs I own are the new benchmark by which I will measure success in my life -- currently I own 2 / 540), MUBI allows users to screen both mainstream and hard-to-find feature films (for ≤ $3) and engage in clean and civil discussion forums (looking at you here, IMDb).
Because you can't get enough of us, here are the profiles of some HIFFy bloggers you can follow: Matthew, Dana, and Chris.
Flip through the pages of Vogue / GQ / that-indie-fashion-rag-"only-you"-read and you've probably noticed a trend you can't exactly strut down the catwalk. Or if you haven't, then take off those wayfarers or aviators or wayfarer-ed aviators (whatever it is we're supposed to be wearing these days) and you'll see this blog isn't talking head-to-toe denim-on-denim here, people, but "Fashion Films."
In terms of "cinematic advertising," we haven't seen torque like this since BMW's glossy high-budget campaign, THE HIRE, almost 10 years ago. And while recruiting the talents of Hollywood stars and directors isn't an original marketing move or anything, with the mainstreamed-Internet and YouTube, well, why not?
Dior looks to be a cut above the rest (remember this patisserie cupcake of an ad from Sofia Coppola?) with their latest campaign LADY BLUE SHANGHAI starring legend-in-the-making Marion Cotillard, directed by already legendary David Lynch. And Prada's FIRST SPRING by filmmaker Yang Fudong leaves its mark by mixing minimalist-existentialism in a way I'm sure can be deconstructed a la Chuck Klosterman, but they're playing really awful local covers of Crosby, Stills, and Nash in this coffee shop, so I'm not in the mood right now. Oh yeah, and I'm not Chuck Klosterman.
Full of Lynch signatures: smoky dream-like logic, wide shots of drab set design with a vomit color scheme (by John Galliano, an added bonus), flickering electricity and HEAVY DRAPES EVERYWHERE.
This summer celebrates 50 years of the French New Wave classic by the single most influential auteur of the movement himself Jean-Luc Godard and it's an anniversary that couldn't be more deserved.
It's often said movies are divided into the two categories: before-Breathless and after-Breathless. I mean, where would independent cinema be without this piece of innovative celluloid? Charmingly raw with it's use of shaky hand held cameras, jump cuts, freeze frames, use of non-professional actors, jumbled narrative, improvised naturalistic dialogue, shooting on-location with everyday lighting, film reference upon film reference upon film reference, breaking-the-fourth-wall and self-reflexiveness, Godard's Breathless influenced, well... EVERYTHING. Fin.
I had this friend who said he saw BAND OF OUTSIDERS in a movie theater once and it changed his life a little. Now I want my life to change a little!
As the last vintage movie house on Oahu, Queen Theater on Waialae Ave in Kaimuki would be the perfect venue for these sort of films. Concerned residents are already forming a coalition to save it, which you can read all about in the June 23rd issue of the Honolulu Weekly. Be a part of their cinephile army? Visit friendsofqueentheater.org and join their email list to add your signature to their "1,000 Friends of Queen Theater" petition.
I've been obsessed with screen tests lately. Must be all that effortlessly cool (warning: watching these videos too closely/for too long could bruise you). Here are three of my favorites. The Entire Male Population, take notes.
