Door of the Day

Yes, I'm still swooning over glossy black doors.  But this one is extra swoon-worthy--it's the front door of Holly Golightly's apartment in NYC, which is for sale!  Though the building doesn't seem to include the fantastic stairwell, which was always my favourite bit of the film design-wise (well, that and the bathtub couch).

Arthur Christmas

I didn't include it on my list because I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to see it, but last night a friend and I found ourselves with the evening free and a desire to catch a movie, so we saw "Arthur Christmas." I think most have written this off as one of lots of the throw-away holiday movies that crop up every year, and I am here to tell you that that is a grave, grave mistake.  I knew we were in for something special when I recognized Aardman in the credits (the folks behind Wallace & Gromit, as well as many other things).  Obviously, this isn't claymation, but the sweetness and charm we've learned to expect from Aardman was present in this, in spades.

Combine that with clever writing and a truly, truly stellar voice cast (James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, James Broadbent, Bill Nighy, and more), and you've got a sweet, fun, funny Christmas movie that would warm even the hackles of the Grinch's cold heart.  I should mention that the friend I saw it with can be kind of a Grinch himself, and there was one point in the film where he completely lost it laughing.

Do yourself a favor and don't write off "Arthur Christmas."  See it.  Take your family, take your kids, take your grouchy coworker, or go by yourself.  And don't be surprised to discover that this is the heart-warmiest thing you see this holiday season.

December Movies!

Have you ever gone to the movies on Christmas Day?  We do sometimes, and I sort of love it.  It's always a little bit quieter than usual, and everyone there seems to be smiling and content.  I'm not sure if I'll catch a film on the day this year, but here is the list (in no particular order) of stuff I am going to see the heck out of this holiday season!

1. The Muppets - I have already seen this, but it's going on the list because I loved it THAT MUCH.  See it, love it, buy the soundtrack, and have "Man or Muppet" stuck in your head for the rest of your life.  You will not regret it.

2. Hugo - I've heard mixed things about Hugo, but one thing every review I've read has agreed on is that this is a gorgeous film.  I get the feeling it's going to be a film I want to live inside of, and I love those.  I know I said no particular order, but this will be the next one I catch.  And I'll shell out the clams for 3D while I'm at it.

3. The Artist - Sometime in elementary school, while I was home sick from school, I happened to switch on Turner Classic Movies.  Greta Garbo was the artist of the month, and they were showing all of her films.  Before I knew what had hit me, I had been seduced by old Hollywood, giving birth to an obsession that lasted several years.  By the age of 12, I had seen more obscure black and white films than your grandmother.  I can still sing the One Reel Wonders jingle from memory.  I'm not saying that's the main reason I'm dying to see "The Artist" (I heard a fantastic interview with the director on NPR, the lead actor and dog both won awards for their performance at Cannes), but, yeah.  It's a factor.

4. Tintin - I didn't grow up reading Tintin stories, but I wish I had.  Detective, dog, mysteries?  Basically a formula for something I love.  While I'm not crazy about Motion-Capture Animation (it tends to fall too far into the Uncanny Valley for me), there are so many people whose work I love involved with this movie that I am willing to overlook just about anything, honestly.  I'll definitely be checking this out later this month.  Still undecided on whether to go for 3D, however.

5. Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows - People, I saw the first film in the theatre four times.  The question here is not whether I'm going to see it, it is how many times.  And whether I'll feel the need to go home and shower and sleep between viewings.  I just...really like Robert Downey, Jr.  And yes, it'll probably be all Guy Ritchie flash-bang-explosion a lot of the time, which is not usually something I go ape for, but I don't care.  There is something about this franchise.  I love it.

6. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Oh my, I can't wait for this movie.  Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Mark Strong, and Ciaran Hinds?  In an espionage film?  A period espionage film?  Yessir, sign me up.  I am especially looking forward to Gary Oldman's performance in this.  I've heard he's fantastic.

7. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - I was working in a bookstore the summer that everyone and their mother went crazy for Steig Larsson, so naturally I stayed away from the series.  It's a thing some of us bookstore folk do with the madly popular books.  I haven't read Eat Pray Love, either.  I'm a little bit excited for the movie, however.  I adore Daniel Craig, the premise sounds interesting, and I actually like the idea of seeing the film without having read the book.

8. We Bought A Zoo - This one is a little bit about Matt Damon's face, I admit it.  I like it when he plays the family man.  But I like the premise, too.  I probably won't get to this until after the new year, but I am excited about it.  This one will be a Mom and Me date, I guarantee it.  

There's a lot of good stuff to choose from this time of year!  What are you looking forward to seeing this month?

movie title collection

Christian Annyas has seen a lot of movies.  To prove he'd seen them (or at least the first ten minutes of them) to doubting Thomases, he began collecting stills.  His website preserves for posterity the title and end shots of hundreds of films, all the way back to 1902.

When I was a kid and I stayed home sick from school, I would watch hours and hours of classic films on Turner Classic Movies.  I have no idea what drew me to it, but I was hooked.  These stills take me back to those days drowning in opening credits accompanied by orchestral suites and grand "The End" screens.  Even if you don't hold the same sort of nostalgia, I recommend checking it out.  The website itself is an excellent example of stylish and functional design.

visit tranquil miranda

There's nothing I love more than a good vintage travel poster.  Except maybe science fiction.  I like sci-fi quite a lot.  What's that, you say?  This product combines vintage poster design and Joss Whedon masterwork Serenity??  Swoon!

From the fine folks at QMx.

amelie revisited

Last night, all alone in the house, I cut up some pita, mixed up a bowl of hummus and olives, poured myself a tall glass of Diet Dr. P, and put on Amelie.  It's one of my favourite movies, but this was only the second time I'd watched it.  About halfway through, I paused the film, turned off the lights, and lit my favourite mango candle (okay, it's my only mango candle.  My only candle, in fact.  Note to self: need more mango candles).  I had forgotten one of the things I loved most when I saw Amelie the first time: watching Amelie makes me want to be in Amelie.  So I thought I'd share that feeling with you.

Ah, je l'adore.  The colors, the music, the wallpaper and architecture.  All of it.  If that doesn't make you want to pack up, move to Montmartre, and fall in love with a charming weirdo, then...what are you even doing at this blog?  Are you lost?

screenshots from here

collaborative art on the web

I'm a little bit in love with hitRECord.org, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's production company, which is basically a giant, wonderful, collaborative art project machine.  When I say "machine," I don't mean something along the lines of James Frey's fiction factory, I mean something far more organic, where each component part is entirely independent, victim to no one's whims but their own.  I think of it like a gigantic craft drawer, filled to the brim with buttons and bits of ribbon, just waiting for someone to come along and stitch them all together into something larger.

They've produced large projects, like Morgan M. Morgensen's Date With Destiny, which showed at Sundance and incorporated the work of over 180 collaborators, but personally I prefer the smaller pieces.  Take, for example, this video:

hitRECord user Tori accidentally played a recording of David Hyde Pierce reading "Sonnet 29" over a piece of music, and was inspired to pull the two together.  She found two videos on hitRECord which would work with the text of the sonnet and edited them all together.  All told, the above minute and twenty-seven seconds of film involved 5 things: the sonnet, Pierce's recording of it, Lizziemackie's music, Claranovich's film of the girl, and thatpeterguy's film of the guy.  Pretty bits and bobs on their own, stitched together into something else entirely. 

It's an enormously clever use of the interconnectedness of the internet at its best.  I look forward to seeing the things they continue to produce.

quick and dirty holiday movie reviews

I never realized how much I love seeing movies in the theatre until I moved to a town without a cinema.  So it's been a bit of a priority, these past six months, to see movies whenever I am in a town with one.  These times tend to coincide with holidays.  Over Thanksgiving, I saw four movies in four days.  For this trip, I made a list of my hopefuls.

Here's what I saw:
1. Tangled - Saw this over Thanksgiving and loved it, then caught it again with two friends this week.  I adored it, but if you're on the fence about seeing it, I recommend this review.  Pretty much sums up my opinions.

2. Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Chris and I felt like catching a fun, mindless movie, and this one fit the bill.  The Narnia movies are enjoyable enough, but they always make me want to go home and reread the book.  This one was no different.  Much more fun was getting schooled in Rock Band by my Chinese family and playing the drums with rolling pins.

3. The King's Speech - Fantastic movie, wonderful cast, but the whole of it rests on Colin Firth's performance.  Fortunately, he does not disappoint.  As someone who notices interiors and costumes, I'll say that they did not disappoint, either.  My one complaint was that the film sometimes felt like a series of close-ups.  By the end, I had every pore on Colin Firth's face memorized.

4. Tron: Legacy - I expected a light show, and that's basically what I got.  It was a thrill ride, to be sure, but what there was of plot was fraught with holes. There's nothing about the film that lingers, except perhaps the music.  Daft Punk's score was so spot-on and present in the film that it may as well have been another character.

5. Black Swan - There was nothing easy about this movie.  It's painful and challenging to watch, though it has its moments of unexpected humor, and at the end one is left with the lingering sense that something magnificent has just occurred.  It's a film that keeps you guessing until the very end, and makes its final point with such resonance that you can't help but carry it with you.  Natalie Portman is wonderful.  I'm glad I saw it once, but I could not watch it again.

6. True Grit - There's something about the Coen Brothers and the American West that just goes hand and hand.  This was funny, striking, and entertaining as hell.  Jeff Bridges is fantastic.  I think I enjoyed Matt Damon's bumbling Texas Ranger more than anything else I've seen this week.  Some of my favourite moments in it came straight from words, and I realize I like the Coens best when they're working from a book.  I wish I could remember the music, but I'm blanking, so sadly it didn't make any kind of impact.

High marks to most everything on this list, save Narnia, really.  I wouldn't pay to see Tron in IMAX, if you have the option.  It's fun, but not $20 fun.  Tangled is worth catching in 3-D.  The King's Speech is a solidly great movie, but you'll see it for Colin Firth.  If you're in the mood for a movie to really sink your teeth into, go with Black Swan or True Grit.

Ah, movies.  Someday I'll live in a place with a cinema again.  Someday.

last minutes with oden

I'm not going to lie, this short film, about a man saying goodbye to his beloved dog, will make you cry.  Especially if you've ever had to say goodbye to a pet of your own.  It all but slayed me, and I hate crying.  But you should watch it, because it's a beautiful film, and when you finish wiping your tears away, you will feel so good.

And then you'll go out and adopt a three-legged dog.

via Time

twi-why?

I live with two fellow VISTAs in my West Virginia house, and since one of them is a soccer nut and the other a self-professed "Twihard" (but only the films, thank you very much) I pretty much laughed my behind off when this showed up last week.  I shared the heck out of it on Google, and quoted it to many people, and thought that would be the end of it.  Little did I know.

Despite the fact that my Twihard roomie (we'll call her Kappa) has already seen Eclipse (and drove 2 hours through the mountains to do so), my other roomie (who we'll call Stitch) rented Twilight and New Moon so that she'd have some background before going with Kappa to see the new one.  I chose to read over watching Twilight, but tonight found myself at ground zero for the New Moon viewing.  Why not, I figured.  Aside from a few exploratory excerpts, I've stayed at least 10 feet from the books since the craze hit, but what harm could watching a movie do?  Perhaps I'd find myself swayed and decide to give the books another try.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.  I mean, my God.  First of all, just to get it out of the way, I am Team Jacob all the way.  It's mostly Team Not-Edward (I've got nothing for respect for Robert Pattison, but MY GOD he plays a creepoid in these movies), but will freely admit to being rather fond of the Jacob character.  Fond enough that I wish he'd find himself a girl willing to kiss him on the goddamn mouth rather than just lead him on and flail her arms about like a brain-dead turkey.  I knew from the moment he entered the film that he would be getting his heart stomped on and that it would piss me off.*  And yes, I'm not going to lie, tt doesn't hurt that Taylor Lautner looks the way he does (as Kappa put it, she'd never before understood the guys who were thrilled when the Olsen twins turned 18).  But our (Stitch's and mine) real beef was with the girl herself, Bella Swan.

I met a brood of Bantam chicks on Saturday at the farmers market with a greater collective intellect than that girl, I swear.  She's the worst example of a potential role model character I have EVER seen from a young adult series.  She's reliant entirely on the men in her life, not only to keep her alive, but to keep her from killing herself.  I'm surprised she manages to stand in the rain without drowning.  I can see how a dude with a white knight complex the size of Canada would go for her, but what attracts female readers/viewers to the series?**  I spent half the movie wanting to smack her, and the other half wanting to smack Stephanie Meyer.  If it's an escapist thing, that's all well and good, but I can recommend a half-dozen romance novelists off the top of my head who can write circles around Meyer, and throw in some heroines with brain function greater than that of a pickle and, you know, SPINE, to boot.  Damsel in distress does not necessarily equal automatic moron.  Just sayin'.  Got a thing for vampires and/or werewolves?  That's cool, I can supply writers of those, as well.

Just...jeez.  How did we go from the craze over Harry Potter, which were intelligent, well-written books, to this?

*If you're interested, I recommend this highly intelligent article about how Jacob was doomed to lose in Stephanie Meyer's universe.  I read and loved it even before I watched the film.

**Aside from those there to see Taylor Lautner shirtless.  Which, by the by, is the second thing to pop up in the auto-complete when you start to type his name into Google.

some more movie love

On Friday night I caught How to Train Your Dragon at the local cinema.  In a word: fantastic.  When it comes to animation, I tend to be sort of a Pixar fangirl and haven't been terribly impressed with Dreamwork films in the past.  They totally make up for ANY past disappointment with this film.

It's not fall-down-laughing funny, though it does have its moments.  No, the strength of this film lies in the story, the cast, and the design.  The story is poignant, but not overly cutesy.  I LOVED the thought and detail which clearly went into the Viking homes, which were rich with authentic carved designs.  And yes, Vikings probably did not speak with Scottish accents, but it's a cartoon and for whatever reason it worked.  Jay Baruchel as Hiccup is perfect.

See this movie.  In 3-D, if you can.  It works extremely well in the flying scenes.  I'm tempted to go back and see it IMAX for just that reason.

you have bewitched me

It was Thanksgiving 2005.  My family was in South Carolina, but I had traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to keep my best girl Laura company while she worked over the holiday.  She insisted on making an entire turkey for the two of us.  I contributed instant mashed potatoes and green bean casserole, the bottom of which was burned when it was left sitting on the stove to cool with a burner on beneath it.  When it was time to eat, we cleared a shelf on a bookcase to use as a serving area, which then collapsed under the weight of the food.  I spent 20 minutes vacuuming up stuffing while Laura wrestled with the stubborn turkey.  There's a photo of me somewhere watching the Macy's Day Parade with a pot on my head.

Night fell.  Exhausted by our foibles in the kitchen, we decided to catch a movie.  We took a bus across town to a cinema Laura had never been to because it was the only one still playing the film we wanted to see.  It was an old one, with velvet-covered seats beaten down by the years.  It had once been a single theatre-style cinema, but someone had long since split it in two.  There were gold sconces on the right wall, but not the left, which looked straight out of the 1980s.  Only half the ceiling fresco was visible.  We saw Pride and Prejudice. It was perfect.

This poster brings all of these things to mind.

via Kate, of course

lost things

I just love this stop motion film, Lost Things, by Angela Kohler and Ithyle Griffiths.  It stars Alison Sudol, who's also the voice behind the music accompanying it.  Fanciful and perfect.  Love love love.

via Oh Joy

dodos in action

There is nothing I don't love about this short film about the oddest requests ever submitted to the Getty Hulton Archives--a collection of images and film.  Maybe the most impressive thing of all is that this was a one-man project.  Laurie Hill filmed during the hours when the Archive was closed, and all his cut-outs were made from copies of images in the collection.  The film gives an excellent perspective on the sheer size of the archives, and the archivist comes across as a daring hunter, adventuring through the jungle of a warehouse.

Thanks to Gloria for the tip!

2009 in film

I didn't actually have any special plans last night, until I got an e-mail from Gloria letting me know that she was home from Alaska.  Of course, I jumped on that, and it was decided that we would sparkle up, have some wine and dessert, and catch a late movie.  We saw The Princess & the Frog, which I had already seen, but as you have probably figured out, there are some movies I don't mind seeing twice (or, er, three times.  Or four).  It was silly, and girly, and perfect.  In that vein, here is a list of my favourites of the films I saw in '09.
In a vaguely chronological order:
Coraline

Star Trek

Up

Whip It

The Princess and the Frog

Sherlock Holmes

What were your favourite films of '09?

oh, sherlock

You may recall that I was excited about the new Sherlock Holmes, made by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey, Jr.  I'm a big RDJ fan, and have been ever since seeing Chaplin in a theatre class in high school.  Still, some of my friends scoffed at my excitement.  It's not terribly surprising, considering that the Sherlock Holmes we have all come to know and rely on is a character somewhat removed from Arthur Conan Doyle's original.  This review (sent to me by Adam), sums it up best, I think.

"The Holmes we have become used to from later interpretations is sort of Holmes-as-Vulcan, the Mr. Spock of the gaslight era; cool, cerebral, controlled, a bit disdainful. Forgotten in the Holmes-as-Vulcan version is that the original Holmes was an eccentric drug addict who went to pieces in the absence of a degree of mental stimulation ordinary life could not afford him. Also forgotten is that he was written as a man of tremendous physical energy, a boxer and martial artist who relished describing his victory in a brawl (The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist)."

I would bet serious money that Robert Downey Jr. read the entire canon, or at least most of it, in preparing for this role. I would bet more serious money that Ritchie gave him wide interpretive latitude and that some of the best lines in the film were ad-libbed from deep within character. Because Downey’s performance is right. It is truthful to the original in a way that the Holmes-as-Vulcan version could not be.

I've seen the movie twice now, and I heartily agree.  In fact, there's not much of anything I don't like about the film.  Mark Strong is his villainous best, Jude Law is the perfect Watson (and this from someone who's not usually a fan), I even loved Rachel McAdams, despite having been prepared to be underwhelmed by her part (although I would have liked to see more of her).  Kelly Reilly, who you may be familiar with if you've watched Pride and Prejudice as many times as I have (she's Caroline Bingley) as Watson's fiancee hits every note right in every scene she inhabits.

This is a movie that I actually miss when I'm away from it.  The review criticizes the "sepia-and-grime thing," but I think that's a big part of why it works.  It feels real, and Victorian.  I want more of it, of Irene Adler, of Mary, of Watson, and especially of Holmes.  Goodness gracious, I hope there's a sequel!

alma

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

My little brother, home from school, just took my laptop from me, typed a bit, then handed it back to me with this up on screen.  I love the music, the animation, and oh that gorgeous art nouveau styles.  But man, I hate dolls.

tauntaun sleeping bag

This is by far the geekiest thing I have ever seen.  And do you know what kind of competition a statement like that has?  A LOT.  But this wins--hands down.  I wish there was someone I could give this to, other than me.  Its zipper is a light saber.

If you don't know what this is, you clearly have not watched Empire Strikes Back as many times as I have (thanks for that, Dad!).

via Johnny Zeitgeist

days of heaven

A couple years back I dated a guy who was a total cinemaphile, and when the Criterion edition of Days of Heaven came out, let me tell you, we were at the nearest Best Buy to pick it up, hoo-boy.  We headed straight back to my house to watch it, and when it was over, he asked me what I thought of it.  My reply was, "The interiors were incredible!" which probably wasn't the response he was going for, but I think he was just glad I wasn't traumatized, like I was after we watched Punch-Drunk Love.

I kind of thought I was the only one to have noticed the interiors (keep in mind that I was the only person of my acquaintance who'd even seen the film), but apparently I am not.  It's no secret that I love Amy Merrick's Living In series for Design*Sponge, and, as usual, she is spot-on.

I really wanted to move into that house, and her picks totally reinforce that desire.

vintage home movies

San Francisco 1958 from Jeff Altman on Vimeo.

I love these films Jeff Altman makes using "inherited tens of thousands of feet of 16mm" film his grandparents recorded.  In this footage of San Francisco in 1958, the combination of truly fantastic editing and the music make for a gorgeous, dreamy video.  Makes me long to throw on a dress and some red lipstick and just step into the past.


via beach bungalow 8