Filmspotting_Sam

From the desk of Filmspotting producer Sam Van Hallgren

[samvanhallgren]

https://soundcloud.com/filmspotting/525-unforgiven-oscar-picks

[samvanhallgren]

https://soundcloud.com/filmspotting/524-jupiter-ascending-top-5-rescue-scenes

[samvanhallgren]

https://soundcloud.com/filmspotting/523-blackhat-2015-preview-pt-2-goodbye-to-language-3d

[samvanhallgren]

https://soundcloud.com/filmspotting/522-american-sniper-2015-movie-preview-pt-1-oscar-snubs

[samvanhallgren]

I've come to be comfortable just admitting that I like watching movies because they make me feel less alone. I like watching them because they're entertaining and because I like being entertained. And anything that they inspire in me is emotional first; thought-provoking second; and academic never.

Writer/director Alex Ross Perry from his interview with Adam on this week's Filmspotting, due Friday. Perry's latest film is LISTEN UP PHILIP available via VOD and iTunes on 10/21. The film's star, Jason Schwartzman, joined Perry for the interview.   

[samvanhallgren]

I like that scene for a lot of reasons because it sort of explains the look on John Hurt's face all those years as a character actor.

Michael Phillips talks ALIEN on Filmspotting #501. Coming Friday 8/15. Top 5 Pre CGI Scenes + CALVARY review + interview with Calvary director John Michael McDonagh. 

[samvanhallgren]

It wasn't until I walked back out into the sunlight from viewing this film that I realized how much I'd given up hope at ever being changed again by cinema. How I had begun to doubt it ever had that ability - that perhaps only because I was simply young, hungry and impressionable movies had been able to alter me. TREE OF LIFE brought me back from the brink of cinematic cynicism. "Transcendental" has too few syllables for the film. I am so grateful to have been alive at the time of this film's release and am fired up to accept Malick's challenge of doing more with a movie than we think we can.

Pixar's Andrew Stanton, as quoted during Filmspotting #500.

[samvanhallgren]

The film critics that I love reading are all writers that I love reading. And the way their minds work is interesting. So seeing how they take in movies and how they report on what that experience of watching that movie was... that's what I really love.

Rian Johnson at Filmspotting #500. Coming Friday 8/1.

[newyorker]

Can the “day-and-date” distribution model—whereby movies are released simultaneously in theatres and on video on demand—help indie films succeed? Calum Marsh on the debate: http://nyr.kr/U4AFGd

Photograph: Mark Dye/Star Ledger/Corbis.

[samvanhallgren]

Whenever I go and talk to aspiring filmmakers, I go, "Look, at the end of the day, I can talk about craft, whether you have a soul of an artist, I don't know." Your take on things is what is either going to make you somebody we talk about or no. You have to have a take on shit. It's got to be specific and engaging. We're all standing on the shoulders of what other people have done. But you're supposed to take that and add your own sauce. It can be intimidating, believe me. When I look at amazing work that's been done, I don't look at... Persona or Hard Day's Night and think, "Oh, I can do better than that." I just look at that and say, "That's fucking amazing," and say, "What about me can make it slightly different?" So it's not just a Xerox. Everybody steals, that's a given. If you steal a coat, what are the buttons you're going to put on it? Ego is something that everybody, creative especially, has to grapple with. You need enough ego to keep going but not so much ego that you're deaf or blind, that you're making a mistake and can't fix the course.

Steven Soderbergh in Esquire.

[nevver]

Know your double, a doppelgänger field guide - John Martz

[thedissolve]

In retrospect, Khan was a bad choice for Star Trek Into Darkness—the character doesn’t look or act like the Khan of “Space Seed” or The Wrath Of Khan—and for its director’s obsession with secrecy. As a reveal, the Khan twist is either unsurprising (to fans who expected it) or confusing (to franchise newcomers who don’t know who Khan is or why they should care about him). The most ironic part of the whole Khan fiasco: If Star Trek Into Darkness has a message, it’s a call for more transparency from government. The ultimate villain is not Khan, but Admiral Marcus, who uses Khan’s terrorist acts as a pretext to instigate a war with the Klingons. The movie is deeply skeptical of people in authority, and their tendency to abuse their power in secret. And yet its entire marketing campaign was based on hiding information from the public. It’s not exactly hypocritical, but, to quote an old Vulcan proverb, it is highly fucking illogical.

[thedissolve]

A new Dissolve column looks back on the biggest hit of the month from one year ago. This time out, Matt Singer looks at the secrecy, hype, raves, and backlash around Star Trek: Into Darkness, and evaluates how the film looks from a safe distance away from its crash-landing.

[nevver]

Narcissus, London

[samvanhallgren]

Painting or short film?

[samvanhallgren]

Maybe this is the key to the success or the failure of any of these [super hero] films - the scenes that simply take it easy, let two or more of the actors sit and talk. Is it where you start checking out? Or where you start checking in?

Michael Phillips. From this week's #Filmspotting review of X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.

[nevver]

If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried (via nevver)

[nevver]

16 Weird Forgotten English Words

ASTROLOGAMAGE a medieval astrologer

CRAPULENCE denoted intestinal and cranial distress

EYE-SERVANT a servant who who did his duty only lazily except when within sight of his master

FLITTERWOCHEN a honeymoon

FRIBBLER he’s really a lady, but just won’t commit (behavior of a fribbler was called fribbledom)

GROANING-CHEESE a medieval version of an epidural, except cheese

GROG-BLOSSOM a gin blossom

LETTICE-CAP A medical device, a hair net filled with herbs for curing headaches and insomnia

MUMPSIMUS an incorrect opinion that someone clung to

NIGHT-HAG a nightmare

NIMGIMMER a surgeon who specialized in curing pox or the clap

NUMBLES animal intestines and internal organs, which were eaten by peasants in a dish called garbage pye

PETTY-FOGGER attorneys were willing to quibble over insignificant legal points … or use unethical practices in order to win a case

PIGGESNYE a sweetheart (from the phrase “pig’s eye”)

PILGARLIK a bald head, which apparently resembled peeled garlic

RATTONER a exterminator

[samvanhallgren]

"He spend their flitterwochen searching in vain for groaning-cheese. Now they are three."

[samvanhallgren]

2nd of two posts featuring Filmspotting listeners' movie tattoos. Filmspotting #491 (coming Fri 5/23) has Adam and Josh sharing their Top 5 Movie Tattoos (We Would Get). 

From top to bottom:

1) The guy who started it all - Joshua from Portland, OR. When he responded to our Jarmusch vs Sayles Death Match Poll back on FS #488, he mentioned his Jarmusch-inspired tattoo - Eva's cassette player from STRANGER THAN PARADISE. Turns out he actually made his Top 5 permanent. From Joshua's wrist to elbow, are icons representing his other four favorite films: THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (the "Team Zissou" Hat); CHILDREN OF MEN (the embryo image from the teaser poster); MOULIN ROUGE (the titular club's famous windmill); and SPIRITED AWAY (No Face). Joshua, you are our hero.

2) Two from Amanda in Vancouver. Her first is maybe my favorite of the listener tattoos we've seen - "Baby Fish Mouth." From this hilarious scene from the Nora Ephron-penned WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. Amanda writes "The Pictionary scene in When Harry Met Sally, makes me laugh every single time I see it, and that is a feat, because I have been watching this film at least a few times a year for many years." Seconded. Weirdly, "Baby Fish Mouth" is a phrase I often utter completely at random - or when I'm feeding my infant daughter a bottle. Amanda's second is the famous sketch of Alfred Hitchhock. Though according to Amanda, not famous enough. Apparently no one recognizes it. Get some new friends, Amanda. Your tattoos are awesome.

3) A three-parter from listener Adam Desaulniers. Part 1 is from this nice moment from the diner scene in BACK TO THE FUTURE. Part 2 is the first film footage Adam shot. And part 3 is from the final scene in Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA (here's a link to the still from the movie). Nice, Adam.

4) From listener Luke Mindel, who writes that he's still waiting for someone to recognize his (very cool) BARRY LYNDON tattoo.

To see more listener tattoos, click here.