video of the week — yeah right!

This week’s clip comes from one of my favorite skate videos, Yeah Right! It has some pretty innovative filming techniques from director Spike Jonze, like this magic board scene. You may know Jonze best for his killer music videos from Beastie Boys to Bjork, or for his film work in directing Being John Malkovich and Adaptation (yeah, he did Jackass too).

Jonze has also been making some noise lately with his filming of the children’s book, Where the Wild Thing’s Are. I loved this book and can’t deny that I’m excited for it’s 2008 debut. The movie will star Paul Dano from Little Miss Sunshine and voice cameos from the likes of Forest Whitaker. They are currently filming but if it’s anything like Jonze’s other work, you can expect some modern cinematography and an amazing soundtrack. Sneek still shot from the film here.

Celebrate Bastille Day with Nouvelle Vague

If you’re not in Chicago over the weekend for this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival and happen to be in New York City or Philadelphia tomorrow (July 14th), take a couple hours out of your day to celebrate Bastille Day by soaking up some classic French film.

Film Forum in NYC is screening the father of French New Wave, Jean Pierre Melville’s, Le Doulos (The Finger Man) for a limited time only. Le Doulos is a 1962 French crime film noir based on a novel by Pierre Lesou that “unfolds through two characters, Maurice and Silien, and consistently switches back and forth between them, leading the audience to grasp randomly for a distinct main character or hero (despite the fact that both are criminal anti-heroes). Through Maurice and Silien’s actions, the film explores just how deeply qualities such as friendship and loyalty run.” (Wikipedia)

Tickets

International House in Philly is screening Jean Luc Godard’s 1966 radical new wave flick 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (Two or Three Things I Know about Her) one time only at 7:00pm as part of their 5th Annual Bastille Day Celebration. 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle is a summation of Godard’s concerns and techniques from the decade which his films single-handedly redefined the avant-garde: the prevalence of prostitution of all kinds in modern society; America in Vietnam; the advent of the consumer society; the upward spiral of existential angst.

Tickets

Control | Unofficial Trailer

[MP3]: Joy Division  ”She’s Lost Control”

When I first learned about Control, the film expanding on Deborah Curtis’ personal account of her life with ex-husband Ian Curtis (“Touching From A Distance”), I was skeptical to say the least. Although “Touching” was a decent piece of first-source material and an informative read, the book simply further reinforced how isolated Ian Curtis had become from his family in his final months. I thought it was a bit biased to base an entire movie of a man’s life on the account of someone who was losing/lost touch with main character of the story.

Fortunately, in addition to Debbie Curtis’ chronicle, Control director Anton Corbijn (who also directed Joy Division’s 1988 video for “Atmosphere”) and writer Matt Greenhalgh interviewed all the pertinent people in Curtis’ life, including his mistress Annik Honoré. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ve heard that Mick Middles and Lindsay Reade’s book “Torn Apart” provides a lot of new information from those who knew Curtis intimately near the end of his life. The book is further strengthened by extracted letters between Curtis and Honoré.

Given Corbijn’s and Greenhalgh’s thorough interview process and after seeing the unofficial trailer from the movie, shot in beautiful black and white (check out the stills) I can honestly say I’m looking forward to the film. Control received a standing ovation and rave reviews at its opening night at the Cannes Film Festival. Variety proclaimed that “Control is a riveting, visually arresting portrait of a soul in torment / Central perf by Sam Riley is a winner, surrounded by a strong ensemble of thesps.”

The biopic also took home three awards at Cannes Director’s Fortnight, before being picked up by Weinstein Co. for its North American release, which has yet to be scheduled.

Originally it was planned to use stock footage of Joy Division performances in the film, but apparently the band gelled so well that all performances were done by the actors themselves – no stock footage. New Order has completed the soundtrack score, which also features songs by David Bowie, Sex Pistols, Roxy Music, and it’s been rumored that The Killers “cover” of “Shadowplay” will play during the closing credits (yikes!).

The title is taken from the Joy Division song “She’s Lost Control.” I’ve read conflicting reports on Curtis’ inspirations behind this song, either it was written as a reflection of his own life or about an epileptic girl he became friends with while working at a rehab center, who later died during a fit. Possibly both, who really knows?

Control is set to be released in the UK and France in September 2007. Check out the unofficial trailer below.

Orphans Screening | IFC Center

Don’t miss the film screening of Ry Russo-Young’s Orphans, this coming Monday at 10PM at the IFC Center. It is being held for one night only in rememberence of the film’s co-star Lily Wheelwright, who died last month unexpectantly at the age of 24. Wheelwright grew up in the West Village and attended Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn. She also studied at Yale, Art Institute of Chicago, and Columbia University, where she made several short films in her young career. I knew of her from Ryan McGinley’s photography work.

Orphans debuted last month at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin. Watch the trailer here.

Château Flight | Les Vampires

The 1915 silent film, Les Vampires is one of most widely celebrated French serials. The film was written and directed by Louis Feuillade and is centered on the actions of a Parisian group of thieves who call themselves “the vampires.” The vampires are led by a charismatic villainess named Irma Vep, played by Musidora, who’s name is an anagram for vampire. Vep and crew utilize disguises, poisonous gases, gadgets, and weapons to wreak havoc on the Paris bourgeois.

Feuillade’s masterpiece was filmed in the back streets and alleys of Paris during World War I, when the city’s streets were largely abandoned lending the film a surreal eeriness. Although the imagery in this nearly seven-hour (10 episodes) classic is bleak and desolate, the film is still a lot of fun. Half fantasy/half reality, Les Vampires is full of suspense and throws out one outrageous plot twist after another.

French duo, Château Flight (Gilbert Cohen and Nicolas Chaix) were commissioned to create a 40-minute soundtrack for special screenings of Les Vampires in 2006 and the results are surprisingly good. Cohen and Chaix worked on the soundtrack while continuously watching the film and had only planned to perform the soundtrack live for one of the special screenings. The duo liked the results so much that they decided to release it via Versatile.

The duo is highly successful in capturing the surrealness of the movie’s imagery. “Untitled 1″ starts off like Pink Floyd’s “On The Run” with a dark psychedelic whirl, while “Untitled 5″ treads in disco-kraut waters accented by some beautiful guitar work. With the film’s images aside, this work stands incredibly well on its own hovering somewhere between mellow eerie electronic music, prog, krautrock, and psychedelia. It’s a haunting, yet eclectic listen.

I’m assuming that the soundtrack was created for a specific episode of the serial, since they average about 40 minutes a piece. I’d be very interested to find out which episode the soundtrack was created for and pair the two up.

Pick up a copy of the Château Flight score to Les Vampires, grab the double DVD version of the film, and hit up the link below to stream the album in its entirety. Also, check out Episode 2: The Ring That Kills of Les Vampires on YouTube (the still above is taken from this episode).

Château Flight  ”Untitled 5″ (stream)

/// Also, congrats to CU on our 1,000th post! ///

Mystery Twin

I finally got around to watching Babel over the weekend and the thing that impressed me the most about the film was its soundtrack. The music fit the tension, mood, and imagery throughout the movie perfectly. There was a scene in the Japan segment of the film where Cheiko (Rinko Kikuchi), a teenage “deaf mute,” and her friends meet up with some guys in a playground and drink some whiskey and take some drugs. Already isolated from the world due to her handicap, Cheiko draws deeper into isolation following her mother’s suicide and teen angst further compounds her frustrations. In this scene, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s “Only Love Can Conquer Hate,” kicks in as Cheiko finally feels acceptance and joy and for a minute we feel relief. Sakamoto’s ambient wash of atmospheric loops plays over the blissful slow motion setting of the friends splashing in fountains and riding on swings.

What followed was one of the most heartbreaking parts of the movie as the group leaves the playground and heads out to a club while Sakamoto’s track gives way to Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” which everyone goes crazy for, except for Cheiko, who has sort of a dumfounded look on her face. The club’s imagery and sound were used to express Cheiko’s feelings and for a second I forgot she was deaf, until the camera angle changed to her perspective and the music cut out – nothing but silence and light. “September” lead into the thick heavy basslines of Fatboy Slim’s “September/The Joker” and further sexual frustration ensued as her friend started making out with the guy she was smitten with. Silence followed the Fatboy Slim track as the devastated Cheiko left the club and made her way down the bustling Tokyo streets, walking past crowded intersections and live bands, hearing nothing.

I mentioned this scene for a couple reasons, one being that it was utterly powerful and moving and the second being that it was fresh in my mind and reminded of the music of the Osaka 8-bit duo, Mystery Twin. Mystery Twin is the boyfriend/girlfriend couple of Cailan Burns and Yoshie who create dreamy downtempo electronic pop. Like Sakamoto’s “Only Love Can Conquer Hate,” Mystery Twin balances delicate beauty with peaceful atmospheric loops, textures, and glitches taking the listener into that “am I awake or dreaming state.” Their songs are powerful and moving, yet peaceful, soothing. You could almost pluck one of the tracks straight from their MySpace page, drop it in the playground scene and the movie would’ve never skipped a beat.

The pair hasn’t disclosed too much information about themselves, but it is known that Burns is also in the electronic band Pretty Boy Crossover and illustrates much of the band’s artwork. Head over to the duo’s MySpace page for some “rainy day sunshine poptronica” and check out “Underneath Your Feet” below. Hopefully the band will be putting out an EP or album sometime soon, or better yet, some soundtrack work.

Mystery Twin  ”Underneath Your Feet”

Cigarette in your Bed

I was having brunch with a friend the other day, and he commented on a very attractive woman passing by.  When she stopped to pull a out a cigarette, he totally changed his tune.  “Oh, she smokes, gross!”  He went on to describe how her demeanor of smoking was not sexy like the French.  I think he has some false world created in his mind from all those French films in the 60s.  Although, you got to admit, there was something beautiful about the way they smoked on screen.

Check out this great compilation of takes from classic French films featuring the beautiful Françoise Dorléac, set to the sounds of My Bloody Valentine. 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZYc0WwCyak[/youtube]