Movie City Indie Archive for November, 2011

Steve Jobs, On The World, In 45 Seconds

Ken Russell’s Teenage Wasteland

PDF of a review of Mr. Russell’s 1950s teenpix here.

KEN RUSSELL WAS 84

Miley Cyrus Lavishes Up Some “Riot Porn”

Dubbed as such by @WilbotOsterman. Cyrus posted the video on her 19th birthday, according to the description here: “The video begins starkly with a message in white font on a black screen: ‘This is dedicated to the thousands of people who are standing up for what they believe in,’ and for the next three minutes comes a rapid-fire montage of scenes of sign-waving protesters and pepper-spraying police as Miley sings, ‘It’s a liberty walk, walk. Say goodbye to the people who tied you up… Free yourself, slam the door, not a prisoner anymore.'”

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Joan Didion: The White Album to Blue Nights (72m vid)

“In conversation with David L. Ulin, book critic, Los Angeles Times. A literary icon for Los Angeles and a cultural visionary for the rest of America, the acclaimed author of The White Album, The Year of Magical Thinking, and most recently, Blue Nights, discusses her current work and life in Los Angeles in the 60s. Part of ‘Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980’.”

Hitler Disapproves Of A New Meme In Town: Pepper-Spray Cop

Hitler measures appropriate response and USES ALL-CAPS like a practiced commenter.

Steve Jobs Brainstorms, In Classic LP VHS (21’17”)

An episode of “Entrpreneurs,” a portentously-written but useful glimpse of Jobs at work in the NeXT computer era. Below, Jobs demonstrates how “interpersonal computing” works. [Via TNW, where there are three more videos from that time.]

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Andrea True Was 68: “More, More, More” (3’01”)

“The Sound of The Muppets (9’02”)

“In this SoundWorks Collection exclusive we talk with Director James Bobin, Film Editor James Thomas, Supervising Sound Editors Kami Asgar and Sean McCormack, and Sound Re-recording Mixer Kevin O’Connell.”

W.e.instein Trailering W.E. Anew

Trailering RAMPART

Time Code: UC Davis Pepper Spray Footage From 4 Perspectives

Brian DePalma, do you know Mike Figgis? Good. Meet Andy Baio.

NYFF 49’s Béla Tarr Forum, in full (37’54”)

Vid: “Raw Meat” for Black Lips with Leo Fitzpatrick

Cop imagery on the black-and-white streets of New York City?

“Directed by Phil Pinto, produced by Rachelyn Remz-Porter. Featuring Leo Fitzpatrick, Janell Shirtcliff, and Tennessee Thomas. ‘Raw Meat’ is from the album Arabia Mountain [Vice Records].”

Movie City Indie

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon