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Le Flick

Fear Eats The Soul

July 17th 2008 06:28
During a recent trip to Hong Kong I bought a nifty little box of R.W. Fassbinder films, who, up to then, I had not properly familiarized myself with. After watching the three films that make up the so-called 'BRD Trilogy' (Veronika Voss, Lola, The Marriage of Maria Braun) I found myself amazed that I hadn't started watching his films earlier. So, the other night I dove back into R.W.'s world for a viewing of 'Fear Eats the Soul'.

This film analyses the social fallout resulting from the marriage of Ali, a Morrocan immigrant,to Emmi, a matronly widow and natural born German citizen many years his senior. Arab immigrants in Germany is still a volatile subject today, but Fassbinder handles it gently and with real affection for both characters. It doesn't preach and doesn't gloss over the human flaws that at times make even the open minded ignorant to the feelings of those they love.


I've found that I've learned something new from each of the Fassbinder films I've watched and for me this is one the highest goals a film can attain to, to educate without insistence. The challenges of the occupation in post-war Germany and the effects of the economic miracle are both intriguing backdrops for Fassbinder's storytelling.

I've now watched four straight gems from R.W. Fassbinder, I can't think of another run of films from any one director that have been this well-executed and enjoyable. If you haven't seen any of this man's work, it's time.
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Gonzo! Worth a watch...

July 7th 2008 07:11
In my last post I mentioned the 11th Annual Revelation Film Festival here in Perth WA. One of the most eagerly anticipated films of the Festival was the documentary 'Gonzo' about New Journalism maverick Hunter S. Thompson.

In the eighties, a family friend who worked in the record industry used to give me the Rolling Stone, Spin and Billboard magazines that they got for free but never read. I guess Mom saw Huey Lewis on the cover and thought it was just all tame well-intentioned fun. Hunter's articles were full of words and phrases that I could never use or ultimately had no comprehension of, and that was cool! To read words from someone who felt so comfortable excoriating the authority figures so ubiquitous in American life in the eighties, like our 'Dear Leader' Ronald Reagan, was an exhilirating but confusing experience, why could he get away with that (and get paid for it) and I couldn't tell my Mom to take a hike?


Watching this film on Saturday night made me wish I had all those copies of RS back.Although the nastier aspects of Hunters life were mildly glossed over, this was a pretty well balanced and honest look at the life of someone who deservedly belongs among the titans of American letters. Johnny Depp predictably shows up reading excerpts from the good Doctors tomes, ironically overacting. This was excusable when he was portraying Hunter but unforgivable in a documentary. Lighten up Johnny!

Conservative demagogue Pat Buchanan shows his smug face (and almost gets the last word!) as the Establishment ying to Thompson's counter-culture yang. The ever foppish Tom Wolfe makes an appearance as the serendipitous benefactor of Thompson's literary largesse; without the raw material for Hunter's Hell's Angels book, there would be no 'Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'.

I saw a few people return to the theatre from the book store across the street with copies of whatever they had left of Thompson's catalogue. His words will have the power to appeal to our sense of adventure and iconoclasm for a long time.

A few years back I had the pleasure of seeing Al Gore speak at our Perth Concert Hall. As inspired as I was to take heart in Gore's warnings about the environment, I couldn't help but sit there depressed thinking that Al shouldn't be here, he should be wrapping up a successful two-term Presidency. This was how I felt watching the portion of this film that dealt with Hunter's covering of George McGovern's disastrous '72 Presidential campaign. Promising to pull America out of Vietnam, McGovern lost to the soon to be disgraced Richard Nixon. For all the vitriol that Thompson seemed to throw onto the page, at heart he was an idealist, and seemed to absorb the disappointment he often found himself among.

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Digital Projection - Revelation Film Festival Perth

July 7th 2008 05:50
I'm purist when it comes to some subjects,like baseball for instance. The designated hitter, steroids, turf, all these things are better left out of the game in my opinion. When it comes to film I tend to be wary of new technology but try to be pragmatic. Digital Projection so far is causing me some trouble.

Living in Perth, Western Australia is skewing my perception to a large degree; the latest and greatest in DP hasn't gotten here yet and might not for some time. I'd be eager to hear from some of you about your experiences with DP in American theatres. I enjoy watching documentaries at a cinema, and this is a great time for the documentary feature, each week seems to bring a whole new batch to enjoy and local theatres do a tremendous job in giving space to as many as they can. Many of these are projected digitally now and my experiences with this burgeoning technology have gone from irritating to ridiculous , with a few bright spots in between. Now, I know why DP is good for documentary filmmakers economically, I get it. I'm all for the technology as long as, just like traditional film projection (mostly) allows, I get to see the film the way the Producer and Director intended it. This more often than not has not happened. Many times, these films were shown in small rooms inside the cinema. Shockingly, (I really wasn't shocked) some theatre managers and employees seem to get defensive and act as if I was splitting hairs when I brought this up after the film and NOT requesting a refund. One even went so far to condescendingly suggest that I was being unrealistic as the film was clearly shot on hand-held DV. I remarked that I was unaware that DV cameras had a button to "Make Post-Production Titles Look Like ASCII Text" button. Not even one chuckle.

"Excuse me, Sicko made me...um...sick"


This past Friday night saw the opening of the 11th Annual Revelation Film Festival here in Perth. The selection of films this year is inspired, thanks to Jack Sargeant, well-known film writer who's tastes and subject matter cover a wide-range of genres. The venue, the Astor Cinema in Mt. Lawley, is a great vintage theatre that makes the atmosphere authentic and fun, the staff is great too. The projection however is (it's still going, all week!), well lets say, lacking. It all culminated with a showing of the imaginative 'Milk of the Land' documentary on Sunday evening. Roughly 20-30% of the film was thrown onto the wall and ceiling, many titles (and there are many in this film) were not readable. A few people left at one spot in the film where the poor images made the viewing pointless, and I joined them. I constructively mentioned the problem with mangement and cut bait. The previous night the showing of 'Tin Can Man' had to be stopped a few minutes in to correct the aspect ratio, they thankfully restarted the film. In fact all the films I saw the day of 'Milk' had issues with the projection, they seem to get progressively worse. Either they were too wide with titles off the screen, blurry or pixellated. All in all a very disappointing experience. Some others complained and I am hoping that the rest of the movies this week in the small room might show improved projection.

I have read that many theatres are cutting costs by not hiring trained projectionists. I'm not sure if this was the problem this weekend, or it was technological. For the 'Milk' movie, one of the staff members who was engaged in my earlier discussion about the projection came in to watch the film and didn't seem to notice anything wrong on the screen even as a handful of people left in quick succession. If staff doesn't know what to expect from projection...

I prefer the environment of the theatre to watch new movies, however I understand why people like to stay at home, could this possibly be part of the problem of why more people don't find poor projection, well, poor? Many of my friends have opted for the large plasma or LCD TV's in their homes but I have only seen one of them set-up in a way where the resolution was as good as it is meant to be in advertisements and general expectation, this thing was truly beautiful, however the owner is a filmmaker with a higher expectation for his investment. The rest were like watching a brightly colored ear-splitting game of Pong. No one had set up their couches far enough away or were getting the right picture and resolution, their cognitive dissonance however was lulling them into thinking their massive expenditure had them riding the High Def wave, hell the pretzels even tasted better!

Looks great from the other room, but on your couch it looks like a banana salad. ADMIT IT!


This might be a stretch, maybe Aussies just don't get worked up about this stuff. I know what I see but as long as the film is generally 'on' the screen, and the image is not migraine inducing, I'll try to keep my mouth shut. But if I am getting an obstructed view and its hampering my ability to make sense of the content, I think its best to mention it gently and hope for the best...
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The Slow Clap - Open Discussion

May 14th 2008 06:49
Few devices in film have the utility of The Slow Clap, that crescendo of schmaltz that occasionally puncuates the end of films you'd rather forget.

Last night while I was happily re-watching 'Lucas', I was reminded of the cringe-inducing SL that occurs while Lucas is coming to terms with the realization that yes, the footballSNIFF team is givingSNIFF him his very ownSNIFF personalized football team jacketSNIFFBLOW


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Fave Raves: Holiday

May 12th 2008 07:06

The first film I always blurt out when asked to recommend an old flick is 'Holiday' starring Katherine Hepburn and Clark Gable.

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Kane Abuse

May 6th 2008 05:06
A while back a good friend and I had a spirited debate (read: argument) about the artistic merit of 'The Matrix'. I claimed there was none. It started when this friend asked me exactly how much I thought the Trilogy 'rocked'. My reply that not only did I think its rockitude was too insignificant to measure but that I did not even enjoy watching it, was met with incredulous indignation. To try and sway me to change my mind about The Matrices, he invoked the stated opinion of another of his friends (who I didn't know) by saying "It's Such n' Such's favorite movie, and his OTHER favorite movie is 'Citizen Kane' ". Parenthetically he added that this person was a film fan too.

Put your snark-filter on, this is gonna get messy


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The Fallacy of Snobbery

May 5th 2008 07:19
Some of my friends (and occasionally my wife) accuse me of being a film snob. I usually toggle between embracing the label and taking umbrage with it. It all depends on the last film I saw. If its 'Transformers' I'm offended ("I just saw Transformers!"). But after perhaps 'There Will Be Blood', I accept it as a badge of honor.

"It's ass whoopin' time Auteur Theory"

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UBUWEB - Mekas Chronicle of Ginsberg's Passing

May 5th 2008 02:10
The priceless collection of avant-garde material at UbuWeb grows every month. So much so that I have anxiety deciding what to watch or listen to first on each visit. Sam Beckett's face beams out confidently from the front page, endorsing a truly remarkable catalogue. From Kenneth Anger to Chris Marker, Philip Glass to Erik Satie, this is the perfect starting place for the newcomer to the avant-garde universe or as a resource for the student or aficionado.

I guarantee that within a few minutes of being on this site you will find something that will either move, fascinate or completely astound you


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Confessions: Withnail and I - Your Feedback Required!

May 2nd 2008 06:20
I have no idea why this man is so happy.


While talking to some friends about film recently, I mentioned I had not seen ‘Withnail and I’. This was received with several gasps of shock. The general response was that it was surprising that someone who loved film as much as I did hadn’t seen this film. When I blurted out my unfamiliarity with the film, I had no idea that ‘Withnail’ was considered one of those films (I’m still not convinced). You know, those things that people are expected to know if they want to chat to the adults about big boy subjects. Of course these things come in degrees. In literature, your baseline expectation might be that to qualify as a fan of ‘Literary Fiction’ you would have read some Ian McEwan. For ‘Fine Literature’ you must have digested some Nabokov, Woolf, and a fair bit of 19th century lit (Zola, Dostoyevsky et al.). There are always those though who feel that one who has not read a classical work in its original language is not qualified to touch the patch on their corduroy jacket


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2 Days In Paris - Part 2 - On Seeing '2 Days' in Paris

May 2nd 2008 03:55
While planning my first trip to Paris last September I couldn’t help but daydream about the possibility of spending every waking hour while there in one of the city’s many repertoire theatres, happily becoming entranced by films I would never get to see on a screen in Perth. I imagined myself a 21st Century Henri Langlois programming all my favourite films for future Godards and Truffauts to watch in my tiny one screen theatre.

Here's what happened


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