Movie City Indie Archive for October, 2011
Gerhard Richter Talks Work, Life On Eve Of Tate Retrospective (22m)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-hiBxnbjRI&feature=player_embedded
Cronenberg On Today’s Real-Life Video Nasties (cf. Gaddafi) 7’22” vid
Appropriately grisly images are shown. [From Newsnight, via “A Piece of Monologue.“]
Launch Vid: GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO H&M Fashions (60-sec)
Leonard Cohen’s “Prince Of Asturias Award” Speech
Goodness has everything to do with it. October 11, 2011: “It is a great honour to stand here before you tonight. Perhaps, like the great maestro, Riccardo Muti, I’m not used to standing in front of an audience without an orchestra behind me, but I will do my best as a solo artist tonight. I stayed up all night last night wondering what I might say to this assembly. After I had eaten all the chocolate bars and peanuts from the minibar, I scribbled a few words. I don’t think I have to refer to them. Obviously, I’m deeply touched to be recognized by the Foundation. But I have come here tonight to express another dimension of gratitude; I think I can do it in three or four minutes. When I was packing in Los Angeles, I had a sense of unease because I’ve always felt some ambiguity about an award for poetry. Poetry comes from a place that no one commands, that no one conquers. So I feel somewhat like a charlatan to accept an award for an activity which I do not command. In other words, if I knew where the good songs came from I would go there more often.
“I was compelled in the midst of that ordeal of packing to go and open my guitar. I have a Conde guitar, which was made in Spain in the great workshop at number 7 Gravina Street. I pick up an instrument I acquired over 40 years ago. I took it out of the case, I lifted it, and it seemed to be filled with helium it was so light. And I brought it to my face and I put my face close to the beautifully designed rosette, and I inhaled the fragrance of the living wood. We know that wood never dies. I inhaled the fragrance of the cedar as fresh as the first day that I acquired the guitar. And a voice seemed to say to me, “You are an old man and you have not said thank you, you have not brought your gratitude back to the soil from which this fragrance arose. And so I come here tonight to thank the soil and the soul of this land that has given me so much.
Because I know that just as an identity card is not a man, a credit rating is not a country.
Now, you know of my deep association and confraternity with the poet Frederico Garcia Lorca. Read the full article »
John Hawkes’ Music Video for MMMM’s “Marcy’s Song”
As written by the late Jackson C. Frank. His Wikipedia entry opens with a most bountiful paragraph: “When Jackson Frank was 11, a furnace exploded at his school, sending a ball of flames down corridors until it ended up in Frank’s music classroom in the Cleveland Hill Elementary School in Cheektowaga, New York. The fire killed fifteen of his fellow students and burned Frank over more than half his body. It was during his time in the hospital that he was first introduced to playing music, when a teacher, Charlie Castelli, brought in an acoustic guitar to keep Frank occupied during his recovery. When he was 21, he was awarded an insurance check of $110,500 for his injuries, giving him enough to “catch a boat to England.”
2 Comments »Fritz Lang and Billy Friedkin have a chat (1975) (49 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpKV1HqEdIs&feature=player_embedded
[H/t David Hudson.]
David Lynch Photographs His “Silencio” Nightclub: “Time gets funny at night.”
At Nowness, an interview with his photographs as well as an audio interview on growing up in the woods and his first cigarette. “The mood and feel that exists in the club comes from great lighting… You think of colors and shapes and the way the light plays off those things. The club has no windows, so once you’re inside, you could be anywhere, or nowhere.” Are you a nighttime person?
“No. Well, I am, but I don’t like to go out. I like to stay home. I like to work. I’m not a dancer. But I like the mood at night. Time gets funny at night.”
Framed: The Gaddafi Capture-Pistol-Whipping Video
Jarring, jagged, Ali Algadi’s iPhone footage is up in the late dictator’s face as he’s dragged to a truck to be taken away, apparently already wounded. The FPS of the footage jumps, nothing’s smooth, making distinct frames into individual, horrific compositions. GlobalPost describes: “In this exclusive footage obtained on the scene by Tracey Shelton of GlobalPost, Col. Muammar Gaddafi is caught by fighters for the new Libyan government. The shock discovery of the former dictator, found cowering in a water drain on Thursday in his hometown of Sirte, was captured by Ali Algadi, a rebel fighter, with an iPhone just seconds after Gaddafi was dragged from the drain in which he was hiding. This is the earliest footage to emerge so far. Although clearly injured, Gaddafi is still alive during the capture. His captors can be heard shouting, “Dont’ kill him! Don’t kill him! We need him alive!” throughout the footage. According to an official statement by the National Transitional Council, Gaddafi was shot before his capture and died from his wounds on route to Misrata.” Global Post’s video is here. Three frame captures are below. It looks like nothing less than a PETA video shot by Derek Jarman.
3 Filmmakers, Chicago Int’l at 47: Swanberg, King, Naranjo
At the just-ended 47th Chicago International Film Festival, I moderated public conversations with prolific Chicago filmmaker Joe Swanberg [above] and Braden King, director of HERE [below], as well as interviewing Gerardo Naranjo (Miss Bala), Wim Wenders and others.
Jonathan Demme’s “End the War, Tax the Rich, We’re the 99%, Occupy Wall Street” (14’52”)
David Lynch’s In-Studio “Crazy Clown Time” Film (1’25”)
Mr. Lynch offers a track-by-track guide to his musical adventure.
TRACK-BY-TRACK:
“Pinky’s Dream”
“The horror and sadness of losing someone to other dimensions.”
“Good Day Today”
“About being sick of negativity.”
“So Glad”
“This kind of feeling comes up from time to time in our lives. It doesn’t always have to do with people…”
“Noah’s Ark”
“About being saved by love.”