Cinema is Dope

BAY AREA CASTRO SCREENING - NOVEMBER 5TH

There Will Be Blood which world premiered at Fantastic Fest will be screening in the Bay area at the Castro on November 5th (details).

VARIETY REVIEW

Todd McCarthy reviews There Will Be Blood (read here) and he seems to on a technical and artistic level be highly impressed with it. However, he never seems to pin himself down to how good he thinks the movie actually is. We hear a good technical and artistic analysis of the film but I can’t seem to find any overall summation of it being good or bad. While I don’t necessarily always find the need for a critical review to be just a report card stressing good or bad, it’s nice when someone definitely says if they liked it and if so how much or vice versa. Perhaps he is trying to avoid such praising of the film and go the route of a more critical overview that is mixed with personal feelings. In that regard Mr. McCarthy more than succeeds. With such pre-existing glowing reviews his review certainly stands up as a strong echo of everything that has already been said. I can say mainstream reviews are rarely this well written and seem so vivid and alive with genuine thought and feeling. It’s nice reading something that stirred a persons film loving heart. Though if I did run across him I’d definitely have to ask, “So you liked There Will Be Blood… right?” My gripe as such is only a tiny one in an otherwise highly remarkable and exceptional review.

VIDEO CLIP OF P.T. ANDERSON @ FANTASTIC FEST

For those wanting the actual story of how the film came about screening at Fantastic Fest and to see the full Q&A can check out a video of it at (view here).

MY RESPONSE TO SOME OF THE REPORTS I READ IN REGARDS TO THE FANTASTIC FEST SCREENING

Everything is bigger in Texas, including our love for great cinema!

Despite rumors from various print press that weren’t at the Fantastic Fest screening, I can tell you the audience that saw it there was actually Austin’s most hardcore cinephiles (comprised of print press, musicians, artists, politicians, filmmakers, film crew of all kind, bloggers, AICN, some fanboys and various online film press). The audience was one of the most diverse and mixed I’ve ever attended in 10 plus years of attending film screenings in Austin. Some initial reports seem to falsely indicate the audience was 100% fanboys or overzealous online writers? Anyone that has been to or explored the Austin scene knows that it’s home to rabid cinephiles that judge a movie on its own merits that is independent of anyone other voices. Being a mad humping and screaming orgy of sheep that follow in unison is that last thing we are. Overzealous isn’t a phrase I would ever use to describe anyone in the Austin film scene. I know this is a hard fact that most people at the There Will Be Blood at Fantastic Fest somehow all seemed to nearly speak in one unison for a change to proclaim it one of the best films of this decade if not ever. This alone is no small feat and aside from the diversity, marks the only other film I can even recall having the same unanimous Austin “we LOVE this film” reaction was a retrospective screening of Gambit years ago.

The fact it was a world premiere was lost on most that attended, so that aspect of the films screening didn’t come into any post-thoughts or posted reviews in my opinion. Anything you may have read close to gushing or overly positive was the result of the audience not being prepared to see what for most turned out to be one of the best films they had ever seen in their life. When you walk into a surprise screening such as this and then see a film you really know next to nothing about it, there is a jarring aspect to it as it unfolds and you have no idea where it’s going and are loving every minute and second of it. You think a film like this might be good but when it transcends even that you get beside yourself as if you just got hit by a speeding car. If nothing else P.T. Anderson has crafted a film again that reminds us about the magic of cinema and why we even love it in the first place. It’s like experiencing first love all over again but with a film.

Share on Facebook

Over at Twitch, Todd brings us some incredibly exciting news on Timecrimes! Not only that he drops first official word of Nacho’s follow up to the film (if this was a karaoke party we would be queuing up David Bowie’s Space Oddity to celebrate).

::: Magnolia Bringing Nacho Vigalondo’s TIME CRIMES To The World!
Todd, Twitch

Share on Facebook

Over at Headquarters 10, Matthew has announced he will be doing a Dick Miller Blog-A-Thon for Tuesday, December 18th (he likes to plan in advance I take it)!

::: Announcing The Dick Miller Blog-A-Thon!!!

I should also be like Matthew (view here) wish Run Run Shaw a belated happy birthday. Also check out “Who Will Run Shaw Brothers After Run Run?” (view here) from Forbes last month.

Share on Facebook

Zoe Bell who does some amazing car stunts in Quentin Tarantino’s latest “Death Proof” talks about the film in a new interview over at MegaStar.

::: Ring Our Bell
MegaStar

Share on Facebook

Viz Pictures has bought the North American theatrical and DVD distribution rights to the live action series Death Note. Both films in this series will be screening at Fantastic Fest this year!

“Both films were smash hits in Japan upon their initial release and the established popularity of the manga in the United States, combined with the highly anticipated debut of the anime series, will prime audiences for the excitement and tension that the live feature films bring to the story.” ~ Seiji Horibuchi President and CEO of VIZ Pictures

::: Read the Press Release

::: Shusuke Kaneko (Interview I did on Twitch)

Fantastic Fest Screenings:

Death Note

Sunday, September 23
12:30 PM

Wednesday, September 26
9:05 PM

Death Note: Last Name

Sunday, September 23
3:30 PM

Wednesday, September 26
11:45 PM

Share on Facebook

“I don’t intend to direct past the age of 60… Then I will become a novelist in my twilight years.”

~ Quentin Tarantino to Phil Key of the Liverpool Daily Post

::: Quentin Tarantino in Liverpool for UK film launch
Liverpool Daily Post

Share on Facebook

::: Hong Kong director Johnnie To wrapping up 3 movies
The Star

Well it has been no secret that Johnnie To is a big fan of Melville but this is the first time I remember reading about him teaming up with Alan Delon for a film. Separate from that he is also working on remaking Melville’s “Red Circle.”

More on To:
::: Your Johnnie To weekend update
Kaiju Shakedown

Over at Outcast Cinema Marc has a nice post on some behind the scenes of the “Horrors of Malformed Men” DVD release and the upcoming Yoen dokufu-den series. Having watched Marc interview Shinya Tsukamoto for the Malformed Men release in this small courtyard at The Nippon Connection I’m really interested to see how it came out. The nightmare (no pun intended) of doing interviews that day was the fact we were right under a route for airplanes. I plowed ahead in when I interview Tsukamoto before Marc just hoping that my digital audio recorder would be good enough to balance out the whizzing noise of the planes. Which for the most part seemed to only make certain words tougher to hear. I’m looking to get my interview with him up on Twitch in September. When Marc interviewed Tsukamoto they had to stop when the planes came near which made it a challenge and had everyone perking their heads up like kids in the street playing hockey would at the sound of a possible approaching vehicle. Another small challenge doing the interviews by selecting it to be out in a open courtyard that was mostly surrounded by a building was keeping other people away. When you have a small outdoor place with walls around it, chatter and voices carry much stronger than normal. Marc had eyed the courtyard for quite a bit of time out at Nippon and really never caught anyone out there. I never noticed anyone ever out there myself. So as it would go as soon as everyone set up shop out there for the interviews various packs of college students started coming in to sit down for refuge and chatting. We kicked them all out politely though. The only thing we couldn’t stop that day (outside of the airplane noise) was some type of piano lesson going on. So if you listen to the Tsukamoto interview closely enough perhaps you will be able to hear it.

Over at the Drafthouse South Lamar Henri is throwing a DVD release party for R. Kelly’s new chapters of Trapped in a Closet. For those that can’t wait for Monday you can view the new chapters at IFC.com here (… and yes there is a chapter 12.5 now that recaps everything that has happened so far). I went to Henri’s original sing-a-long for the original set of chapters and have to say it was one of the crazier nights I’ve been to at the Drafthouse Downtown - beach ball condoms, stage acts and an audience singing along like it was their last day to be alive.

::: 2007 DEAD CHANNELS—Interview With Jack Hill
Michael Guillen, Twitch

::: ‘Days of Heaven’ Due for “Radical Departure” on DVD
Peter Martin @ cinematicalINDIE

Share on Facebook

Next week my interview for Twitch will be with filmmaker Nacho Cerdà on his film “Los Abandonados” aka “The Abandoned.” I love the “Los Abandonados” title of the movie the most. Really fun interview and one of the longer ones I’ve done this year. The following week I will more than likely post an interview I did with a Russian filmmaker (I’ll announce who it is next week).

I had originally thought I would put up the interview I did with Chris Graham on “The Ferryman” but I’ve decided it should go up the first week of September in prep for this years Fantastic Fest, where it will be screening. Will also give me more time to finish transcribing it (50 minute long interview).

If you missed it here is my interview for Twitch this week:
AUSTRIAN SLASHER CINEMA - Interview with Andreas Prochaska

Blake

Share on Facebook

My interview with Andreas Prochaska on his Austrian slasher film “Dead in 3 Days” is now up on Twitch:

::: AUSTRIAN SLASHER CINEMA - Interview with Andreas Prochaska

Share on Facebook

::: BLUE UNDERGROUND & FORGOTTEN 70′S CINEMA - Interview with Bill Lustig

Share on Facebook