Romance & DVD

Just a heads up for all your Aussie fans of musicals or Kate Winslet (or, I suppose, James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Mandy Moore, etc) that John Turturro's Romance & Cigarettes is getting a direct-to-DVD release in November. Not sure on exactly what date, but my DVD service Quickflix has it listed to hire with "Coming in November" beside it. So, this means we'll finally be able to see Turturro's gangster musical featuring a, supposed, great performance by goddess Winslet.

Place Romance & Cigarettes next to the cinematic releases of films like Hairspray, Across the Universe, Sweeney Todd, Once, Enchanted and even Richard Kelly's Southland Tales - not to mention music biopics like Control, I'm Not There and La Vie en Rose - and fans of the musical genre are getting a neverending feast of singing and dancing.

An Open Letter To Americans With A BlockBuster In Their Town

Dear Americans (And Possibly People of Other Nationalities That I Am Too Lazy To Do Research About),

For a lot of last year I waxed very lyrical about the Australian film Jindabyne, which was directed by Ray Lawrence and stars The Lovely Laura Linney, Gabriel Byrne and Deborra-Lee Furness. I named it my number one film of 2006 and gave it UMA awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. I pleaded for people to go see it in cinemas but not many did. Granted, not many of you could but that's beyond the point because Jindabyne is released on DVD in America on October 2. That's just two weeks away.

So, please, if you would be so kind, do go hire this movie out on DVD. Perhaps take the dog for a walk and as you're walking past the local Blockbuster (or whatever other crazy video store chains you have in your part of the world) and ponder to yourself "Hmm, Glenn did recommend that movie with the Lovely Laura Linney". Perhaps you could be out for a jog and realise "Wow, the only thing on tv tonight is Two and a Half Men! Perhaps I'll get that movie Glenn has been raving about." No? I think YES!

If you're unsure of what you are to be looking for I will show you. If you scroll down a tad there is the cover for the American DVD release. Not only can you tell "it stars the Lovely Laura Linney!" you can also tell that "the cover design is a piece of shite!" because, let's face it, it is. Not only is it guilty of the "floating head" syndrome, it's also guilty of several other design offences, such as:

No Deborra-Lee Furness - Seriously!

Switched Name Credits - Is it so hard to have "Gabriel Byrne" and "The Lovely Laura Linney" typed above their own images?

No Deborra-Lee Furness - Again, seriously! They have mini pictures of five other cast members and not one of Hugh Jackman's wife?

A Terrible Tag Line - Cliched Uneducated Couple: "Oh, this movie is set in Australia? Let's rent Who's Your Caddy instead."

It's General Sucky Photoshop Design - It's just so... blah


But nevermind that. Please do go watch this wonderful movie. Even if you don't like it at least you will have seen it and been able to say so (just don't tell me). And while you're at it go hire out Ray Lawrence's Lantana as well. It's sort of like Jindabyne but even better!

And that brings this letter to an end.

Yours in moviedom,

Glenn

Pulp Fiction Mystery Solved!

Always wanted to know what was inside the briefcase in Pulp Fiction? I proposition that the answer may be this. It's the new five-disc special edition of Ridley Scott's masterpiece Blade Runner. Yes, you read correctly: FIVE-DISC SPECIAL EDITION. It features five different versions of the movie(!!!), including the original theatrical cut, the original director's cut, the second director's cut and the supposed difinitive director's cut. And then, on top of that, we get the original work print (what's that? the first version but with time stamps?) Also included is the feature-length making of documentary Dangerous Days and a whole bunch of other stuff on there too.

This is crazy though, isn't it? If Ridley Scott put more time into claptrap like A Good Year that he's been putting into a 25-year-old movie then perhaps he'd have his Oscar by now?

Nevertheless, I've added this epic DVD collection to my Wishlist Widget in the sidebar (it's new!) Feel free to purchase it (or anything else on there for that matter) for my birthday (October 13...!) or just as a reward for being such a nice humanitarian and wonderfully kind human being.

Oh, hush you!

Questions in a World of Lynch

If you are like me and are a die hard Twin Peaks fanatic then David Lynch's latest interview with MTV (in which he discusses Inland Empire, cooking, The Bourne Ultimatum and digital video) gives us hope that one day - ONE DAY! - we may finally get to see all those long lost deleted scenes from the Twin Peaks movie prequel Fire Walk With Me. The infamous scenes are handpicked by Lynch his apparent five-hour version of Fire Walk With Me that featured story strands from many many more characters that featured throughout the television series, but were deleted from the film because they didn't relate to the Laura Palmer storyline. The reclusive scenes have been tied up in a bitter legal debate between MK2 Films in Europe and New Line Cinema, who released the film. There were rumoured the scenes would show up on some Europe edition of the film, but nothing has come from it.

But, as I said, Lynch (notorious for being stingy on DVD goodies) has given us hope.

MTV: Are you planning to go back to any of your earlier work and add bells and whistles to the DVDs?

Lynch: The only one that's been talked about is "Fire Walk With Me." There are many short scenes that weren't in the final film that on their own are interesting. They just never fit in the film. There's talk of me editing and mixing those. There's a scene with Jack Nance. It's a short scene with Ed [Wright], who played Mr. Mibbler. I loved this guy. He was in "Wild at Heart" as well. Both of them are gone, so to fix those scenes, for the memory of them, it's real important.

It would be great if us Peak tragics could finally get the final piece of the Twin Peaks puzzle. The last footage (that is known to exist) never seen by anyone. There are several pictures on the internet from these scenes and there are online petitions and even MySpace page.






Now that I think of it, there is one more thing we Peaks fans would like, and that would be the release of Angelo Badalamenti's second series score. The first soundtrack is the highest selling television soundtrack of all time, but it was released for the first season and there are many beautiful pieces of music that were used in the second series that are currently only available in random places. The MySpace page I linked to above includes a piece of music entitled "Shelley Quits" and it's magic.

Days of Birthday

It's my birthday in two months and three days. Who wants to buy me this? My current copy is l-a-m-e comparatively.

The Kelly Gang

I just watched Charles Tait's The Story of the Kelly Gang, which I have discussed before as being the very first feature-length film made in the history of cinema. At 70 minutes the original film from 1906 was indeed the first long form film and was a full nine years before DW Griffith's pioneering (and extremely terrible by the way - have you seen that garbage?) The Birth of a Nation. Of course, all that's left is roughly 16 minutes worth of footage as the other three quarters of the film have either been lost or destroyed.


There are several sequences towards the end of the short remaining length that are clearly decomposing or what's known as nitrate damage due to the level of flammability in the original film stock (they retain the look of film being burnt on a projector), which is quite disappointing considering these marks are seen during the last stand of Ned Kelly and his outlaws, the scenes which feature the character of Ned in his famous helmet. These scenes are arguably the most fascinating and the ones of interest to most viewers, I imagine.


The film is, essentially, still easy to follow despite the plethora of missing scenes. Or, it is if you are familiar the story of Ned Kelly - a real life man who killed a bunch of policemen in the bush and robbed some others and then was hanged in the late 1880s. The study version found on the DVD, which expands upon the original 16 minutes of footage with the use of title cards like a traditional silent film is actually 30 minutes in total and is more easily followed with it's links and so forth between scenes and explaining the gaps.


It's disappointing that The Story of the Kelly Gang is never mentioned outside of Australian film discussion. This is the first feature-length film ever made yet because it's not American or French or whatever nobody even knows it exists for the most part. From what I can gather it was extremely wellmade for the times (remember: 1906). One bit I even found comical, when the bushranger Ned and his team hold up a household of people followed by the continual parade of passerbys. It's like "Why are there so many people going passed this house?"


One of the features of the DVD was you could listen to it without music, with a piano score or by Mauro Colombis or with an "experimental" musical score by Endorphin, which gives the film - strangely - a 1980s new wave soundtrack of sorts. The audio commentaries by Graham Shirley and Ian Christie are interesting if you like those sort of things (incredibly detailed history lessons).

All the images in this entry were screencaps that I took from the film to give you guys a look. You can view clips from the film over at Australian Screen Online.

From Classy to Camp in One Simple Step!

Observe:

From this...


...to this!



Simple!

Also:

The Last, Second Last and Third Last King of Scotland

I noticed the DVD cover today for the newly released The Last King of Scotland (to the left there). Now, y'all know I truly hated that movie (I gave it a D or D+ - one of the two, I try not to think about it) because it was pretty much the most unpleasant cinema-going experience of 2006 (read more about my reaction here). But, back to the DVD. Look. I know Forrest Whitaker was the big selling point of the movie (Academy Award in tow), but was it really necessary to put him on the DVD cover three times?

One Forrest is enough, okay. Surely throwing James McAvoy on there and perhaps even Gillian Anderson (who had a small part, but was the best thing about it) couldn't have hurt? No. Instead we get Forrest Whitaker (who was good, I agree, but not that good. As the movie got progressively worse, he got progressively less interesting) three times with changing facial expressions (charming, stoic, angry). Just in case you forgot who it starred, I presume.

Coming Soon to Stale Popcorn

Now that I've got those pesky awards out of the way, you guys can look forward to some of these projects:


A new Cinema of the Absurd entry. This one focusing on quite possibly the most absurd film of all time: Showgirls. I have yet to figure out the particulars, but it's most likely going to be the most epic blog entry I've ever done. I'm thinking a scene-by-scene written commentary. Analysing dialogue, costumes, monkey shit. It'll all be there. But, boy, that's gonna take some effort so don't expect it straight away.

A possible blog-a-thon. I'm not sure whether I wanna do one (for fear of major disappointment, I guess). If I did one it'd be an Australian Film theme. But until I do decide there are several blog-a-thons to partake in. There's Nat's action heroine one, there's Emma's life-changing acting one and Windmills of my Mind has a film music one. So I'll be partaking in all of those (if I remember, eep).

Reviews. Not only of 2007 releases, but also older ones. Rosemary's Baby came in the mail yesterday and I've been waiting for that for aaages. Plus, stuff like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, Funny Games and lots of other older titles have just recently been released on DVD here so I'll hopefully be commenting on them over the time.

Plus, more music, good and bad movie posters, underrated movies, career retrospectives on the likes of Sally Potter and Errol Morris and more random discussions about ultimately pointless trivial things!

Ned Screening

Late last year I discussed the very first feature film ever made and how it was actually an Australian movie about Ned Kelly entitled The Story of the Kelly Gang.

I opened my email today to find a letter from AFI saying that the film has been painstakingly restored by the National Film and Sound Archive and there will be a screening of the restored footage next week at ACMI in Melbourne (unsure about the rest of the country).

The Story of the Kelly Gang opened in Melbourne on Boxing Day 1906 and went on to thrill audiences across the country. Thanks to meticulous restoration work by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), nearly a quarter of this extraordinary film has now been pieced together and digitally restored by Haghefilm for contemporary and future generations.

Considering it was made 100 years ago and barely any of it had survived over the century, it's pretty amazing that we will actually be able to see it at all.

The existing parts of the film are to be released on DVD along with an educational guide and book. If you're at all interested in the history of the film medium then I'd suggest seeking it out. There is a screening, as I said, next week on May 17 at 6.30pm at ACMI including an introduction by those involved with the restoration. I'm not gonna be going, but if you live in Melbourne maybe you should. It's a complementary screening, after all.

All the details about booking tickets (you must book, don't just show up) can be found at Metro Magazine.

DVD Nonsense

So, I went to Blockbuster tonight after work to get some movies. I got Children of Men, Trust the Man (to watch with friends) and Clean. Now, I really wanted to watch Children of Men again and I don't particularly buy DVDs anymore until they've been out for a while and the price is reduced (yay for previously owned DVDs! Super cheap). So, I hired it instead of buying it. I got home and was looking at it and I flipped the case open to see that there was no Children of Men DVDs in either of the two slots. No, instead, there were two Casino Royale DVDs. Colour me disappointed.

I was glancing over the Clean DVD as well and saw one of the worst DVD quotes since Rosie O'Donnell was quoted as saying the Minnie Driver pageant movie Beautiful was "Good!".

"A bitter SPOT-ON POISON-PEN SKETCH of the airless, STENCHY SUBTERRANEA of the fridge rock world..."
Village Voice

The stuff in capitals and bold is in capitals and bold on the box too. What does that quote even mean though. "Spot-on poison-pen sketch"? "Airless, stenchy subterranea"? "Fridge rock world"? See, it's reviews like that that make me fully agree with the "that movie is pretentious" vibe that so many "regular" people get from films like that. If I saw that on a movie poster I would probably prefer to see something like Norbit, quite frankly. Although I won't. Ever. *shudders*. That was not a pleasant thought.

I don't have a story about the DVD of Trust the Man (yet?), but the Australian version of the poster (and DVD cover, click the right to enlarge) does amuse me somewhat. Is there really any denying what part Eva Mendes plays in this movie? I mean, the poster claims it has five main stars (David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Eva Mendes) yet the poster only features four of their faces. But it does feature a fifth person's arse, back and long flowing brunette hair. It made me chuckle.

Best. Day. Ever.

Okay, so, yesterday was pretty much the best day ever, alright. Pretty much because of two things. I will discuss each of them.

Reason #1
The Best Amazon Package Ever

Yesterday, I finally got my Amazon purchases and, omg, so good. I got the second and final season of my favourite show of all time Twin Peaks, which I have been waiting for for something like four years. I've already seen it, but that was only on dodgy VHS so I can't wait to watch it again. It was clearly one of the most polarising seasons of a television series ever. Some loved it, some despised it with the burning fire of a thousand suns. I watched the first 15 minutes or so of the season opener and it's already the most bizarre thing you're ever likely to see on TV. So great.

I also received the new "Music Edition" (that's a new one) for my favourite movie of all time, All That Jazz. It's so good. I love it. It has a new feature that skips directly to the musical sequences to save all that time and effort of fast forward through the extra bits. This movie just draws me in so much. I watch one bit and I need to watch another and another and then I need to watch the entire 10 minute finale and then I wanna watch it all over again.

I also received the special edition of Cabaret, which was uber cheap. I think the only version available in Australia is a feature-free edition so this was a worthy upgrade.

Reason #2
Jamie Bell

Jamie Bell. I love him so. Like, majorly. But y'all know that. Yesterday I read the news that Jamie is going to be taking over from Daniel Radcliffe in the West End play Equus. Yes. Jamie will be getting buck wild on stage... IN ENGLAND! Ugh. Nevertheless, my Jamie is gonna be in Equus and I'm super happy for him. It'll give him publicity everywhere, which he apparently needs because according to the Daily Mail article about it he had faded into obscurity (yeah, if you don't pay attention to indie movies and Green Day videoclips and freakin' KING KONG). Whatevs.

Hopefully we'll get some nice advertising material along the lines of what Daniel Radcliffe got. I always figured Jamie would be the kind of guy to go balls out on camera though anyway. I think it's because he's British? They seem to do that more over there than in America

If you want to follow LuLu and Ja's suggestion of a fundraiser to get me over there to go see Equus then feel free to give me your money. That'd totally be the greatest present ever.

Did I tell you guys that I replied to Jamie's golden girl porn MySpace message? I told him I think I should be embarassed that he seemingly discovered my shrine. And he replied... *sigh*... he replied:

nuttin to be embarassed bout mate
it alright. good to be thought of ya know! i didnt photoshop the golden girls pic i found it on the net.
so keep in touch and keep blogging

cheers

He... likes... to... be... though... of... BY ME!!! Holy shit, right?!

God, he tortures me so (and if he's reading this then I HOPE HE'S HAPPY!!)

I say all that with the utmost cheekiness.

Sorry

Nothing for you today. I have work and I'm very sick (but I need the $$$ so no sick days for me) so I'm not going to have the energy. But, to celebrate the DVD release today of not only my favourite television series of all time (the second season of Twin Peaks is finally released) but also my favourite movie of all time (All That Jazz comes out in a brand new special edition) I give you two YouTube clips.

The first is one of the single scariest moments ever, and it's from the Twin Peaks pilot. I remember seeing this for the first time on grainy VHS over five years ago (after seeing Mulholland Drive I went on a David Lynch spree) and it terrified me. Trust David Lynch to make even a traffic light ominous. But, the truly scary bit is... well. I'm not really sure what it is. But it sends shivers up my spine. Grace Zabriskie's screams are just so... loud. Don't whatever you do go to the clip's page and click on ANY of the other clips down the side though. They will ruin the mystery of Who Killed Laura Palmer.

The second clip is a song from All That Jazz. It's the big final number with Roy Scheider and Bob Vereen. Don't watch it if you don't want the ending spoiled. I guess you won't even know what's going on for most of it though.





How crazy is it that Twin Peaks and All That Jazz are released on the same day? I had pre-ordered them off Amazon so they should be arriving in a week or so. EEP!

DVD Update

As part of my experiment with new DVD service Quickflix, I'm being sent What Have I Done To Deserve This? and Hard Candy as I type this. That's so much better than freakin' BigPond. Buh-bye BigPond. It's been nice knowin' ya. You were there for me in the beginning but after a while I just grew tired of you. Like Renee Zellweger!

End of an Era

Dear BigPond

I'm ending it. I don't think our troubled relationship can continue on in this way and it's been like this for too long. I'm test-driving someone new and I think I'll be happier with them. What Have I Done to Deserve This? Hey?

Love Glenn

...

I think I'm gonna dump my current online DVD source, BigPond Movies, and take up with Quickflix. BigPond have been screwing me around too long with their system (set DVDs at low, medium or high preference). I always seem to get movies that, while on my list and that I want to see, aren't the ones that I really want to see - the ones that aren't available at stores like Blockbuster. I don't like having a pick and mix type situation. Hopefully Quickflix is better. I'm doing a free two-week trial to see if it goes well. Quickflix is much like Netflix (infact I typed in www.netflix.com.au to the address bar and QF popped up) in that you can list the DVDs from #1 onwards. I have a small preliminary queue until my test is up and I decide to sign up fully. My #1 is Almodovar's What Have I Done to Deserve This? and then Hard Candy and Bound. I was sick of adding new releases (whether they be new releases like Hard Candy or just new-to-dvd releases like Bound) to my BigPond list and set them to High Preference to then never receive them and just have them sit on the list for months and months. There was really no point to adding them. I'm not sure who actually got these new releases sent to them as soon as they came out, but it certainly wasn't me.

So... yeah. Goodbye BigPond. It's been good. I've seen lots of great stuff because of you, but I just don't think it's gonna work anyway. It's not me. It's you.