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The Fall

Uh. Another movie (or maybe only the trailer?) using one of my favorite classical music pieces: Beethoven´s symphony no. 7, II. Allegretto. Fantastic. Shocking. Used for great and also frightening scenes.

Run Lola Run

This video is so cool that I wanted to watch the DVD again. But instead I´m just listening to the soundtrack. (found via Scott Berkun)

Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run from shiffman on Vimeo.

Youtube

The influx of great looking girls "sometimes looking like Drew Barrymore" on web TV channels is really astonishing. Amandon Congdon (Rocketboom), Katrin Bauerfeind (Ehrensenf, Polylux) - and, yes - this f***ing cool girl joining thousands others on Youtube.

She explains specifics on UK geographics and british swear words. Great!

Linda Linda Linda

Yesterday I watched the japanese movie Linda, Linda, Linda over at Kino unter Sternen, Vienna´s best open air film festival. A really very good movie, and very funny. The absolute star of the movie is korean actress Donna Bae (or Du-na Bae according to IMDB). She really has an interesting appearance. In the video below, she´s the lead singer of the band. Recently Bu-na Bae was also starring in the korean horror movie / thriller The host.

Below´s the title song from Linda, Linda, Linda - there´s more and more (The blue hearts original) and more (the soundtrack recording) at YouTube!

Update: Here´s the video of the blue hearts.

KDD

Worth watching. On TV (in German). Live over the internet. TV quality at 1500 kbps. Recognize the  name of the street in the opening scene?

Bond 2x

I rarely ever watch a movie twice at the cinema. There must be an exceptional reason for that to do. Or just pure chance.

That was the case with watching Casino Royale a second time last Saturday or Sunday in Poland. As almost all foreign movies run in the original language, I could watch the movie a second time in English, just with polish subtitles. Since I bought the sound track shortly after watching the movie the first time, it was entertaining locating all those tunes in the movie and re-watching favorite scenes.

So - even though this is an unfamiliar Bond, it is one of the best Bond movies of all times. Probably exactly because it´s not as every other Bond movie.

Tampopo´s soup

arte has the noodle soup recipe from my favorite japanese movie Tampopo, a culinary feast and very interesting film. And japanese of course. Certainly it tells you more about Japan than Lost in Translation, but since it´s directed by actor/producer/director Juzo Itami, that´s no surprise.

Also, the latter is just set in Japan but mostly just a love story - sort of - between Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). So Tokyo is just the background - a very exciting background though. Tampopo is more about japanese people, japanese food and japanese life. Excellent. (via esse est percipi)

Technorati Tags: Tampopo, noodles

Zorro

Today I watched the movie Zorro - The Legend of Zorro. It was a funny comedy adventure movie with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I actually didn´t know it was a sequel, and it worth watching and watchable even if don´t know the previous movie - The mask of Zorro, which should give all the basics how Zorro became Zorro. But then, a) this is sort of general knowledge anyway and b) I don´t really care about - it just a funny movie.

A few quirks happen of course too - but what would you expect? The train should have exploded, and the horse wouldn´t be able to jump on the roof of the moving (!!) train and at the end ... well, I won´t spoil the movie if you haven´t seen it yet. At least I´ve learned - movie critics should be written after watching the movie, not before.

Cat content

Nostalgia Central has a guide to 20 Things That Only Happen In Movies, such as:

20. All single women have a cat.

At the movies | Im Kino

I could really work as a movie critic movie critics selector. Here´s a small roundup - in German - of current movies worth seeing in Austria, if you don´t want to watch Star Wars. Caveat: I do want to watch Star Wars, but there are a couple of friends that would like to follow alternatives and I consider the following "alternatives" highly interesting.

> Von den Filmen die sich im Artis spielen, könnte Garden State (Drama,
> Komödie) gut sein. Auf der Website steht dazu:
>
> Neun Jahre sind vergangen, seitdem Andrew Largeman seinem
> Heimatstädtchen in New Jersey den Rücken gekehrt hat. In Los Angeles
> kämpft er sich als mäßig erfolgreicher Fernsehschauspieler durchs
> Leben, bis er eine traurige Nachricht erhält: Seine Mutter ist
> gestorben. Zu ihrem Begräbnis macht er sich auf den Weg zurück ins
> verhasste Garden State und wagt erstmals die lange vermiedene
> Auseinandersetzung mit der eigenen Vergangenheit: Er trifft
> seine alten Schulkameraden wieder, er lernt die faszinierende,
> ungewöhnliche
> Sam kennen, die sich zwar als pathologische Lügnerin entpuppt, Andrew aber
> trotzdem nicht mehr aus dem Kopf geht. Und schließlich wagt er auch den
> Schritt nach Hause zu seinem Vater ...

> Natalie Portman spielt in dem Film mit. Sundance Film Festival (Wikipedia english link)
> prämiert.
>
> Siehe auch Movienews

> Darüber hinaus könnte mich das australische Drama Somersault (IMDB)
> begeistern
>
> Als die 16- jährige Heidi von ihrer Mutter in einer kompromittierenden
> Situation mit deren Liebhaber erwischt wird, kommt es zu einer
> heftigen Auseinandersetzung. Im Zuge des Streits verlässt das Mädchen
> Hals über Kopf ihr Zuhause und flüchtet in einen Ski-Ort, wo sie sich
> auf die Suche nach Unterkunft und Job macht. Aber ihre Bemühungen
> schlagen fehl und ihre begonnenen Liebesabenteuer enden ebenso in
> Ernüchterung und Enttäuschung. Als sie Joe, den Sohn eines Farmers
> kennenlernt, beginnt eine hoffnungsvollerer aber zugleich
> kompliziertere Beziehung. Langsam und mit einigen Rückschlägen beginnt
> Heidi in dem fremden Ort Fuß zu fassen.
>
> Die Filmplakate mit der sehr gut aussehenden Hauptdarstellerin hängen
> überall in der Stadt herum. Wird mit Nicole Kidman verglichen, erinnert mich
> aber an Cate Blanchett. Naja, mir gefällt das Bild - es ist einfach göttlich!!
> Film wurde 2004 in Cannes begeistern aufgenommen.
>
> Im Gartenbaukino, allerdings: 17 und 19 Uhr in Deutsch, 21 Uhr in
> english mit dt. Untertiteln; daher eventuell vorher essen gehen

Update: Sorry, that I blatantly just copy-pasted stuff into this posting. So that was rather a selection of movie critics (the stuff in italics) than a real movie critic. We - that´s a group of friends - decided to watch Garden State. I was disappointed!

Old and not so old

I watched The Interpreter tonight. Great movie. I kept asking myself "How old is Nicole Kidman?". She looks gorgeous! Hm, I´m getting old.

Looked her up at IMDB. She´s only about 4 months younger than me, being born on 20th June 1967. Great age! :-)

DVD rulez

It´s interesting what might happen one day should the movie industry had to decide between theatrical releases and the DVD:

Barry Meyer, CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment (at the Milken conference): "It may be, in the future, that theatrical releases may well become the value add..in terms of inducing customers to buy by adding various scenes etc...right now we set the value of the movie by theatrical release and then video...in certain territories, it may become the exact reverse..."

The digital area changes it all!

And here´s a good analogy how explain the appeal of file sharing (vs. the revenue allegedly lost by the music industry): Assume, you invited a thousand people to come for free to spend a 1 week holiday in Florida -> 750 people gonna come. Now, if you invite them to coma at their own expenses only a much smaller fraction of the people will come. The same should apply to downloading music (of new and unheard bands), the people downloading the music are not necessarily lost sales!

Product value in the digital age: Another marketing goody discussed at the Milken conference (actually by Hillary Rosen, former head of RIAA) - not mentioned at paidcontent.org: if e.g. a bicycle or a candy bar get´s produced, once it leaves the factory it has a maximum value. On the other hand, a movie or a song is virtually worthless once it´s released, it only get´s it´s value once a group of people likes watching the movie or listening to the song (or rather millions of people watch the movie or listen to the song). So the worth is derived from the value of the product to a group or a peer group (compare: social, network driven behaviour).

UFOs

Long ago I enjoyed reading books on UFOs. I also enjoyed watching the TV series UFO from 1970. A website has lots of FAQs on the series and even some clips - like the opening sequence which you may know (QT). And Lt. Ellis was quite sexy - with the purple wigs women wore in this movie. Not mentioning all those powerful computers :-)
Imagine: the movie played in the future - in 1980!!

Allegretto

Tonight I listened to Ludwig van Beethoven´s symphony no. 7, op.92, performed by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. I especially loved the allegretto - and it reminded me of a movie. Somewhere in my mind these tunes had settled and got linked for all time to the movie, which actually, I haven´t see at all - just the trailer.

After a moment of thinking while listening to the orchestra at the concert hall I remembered: The movie where the allegretto of Beethoven´s symphony no. 7 is played, well, not just played, it rather makes you shiver, as this is a violent, disturbing film - is Irreversible by Gaspar Noé starring Monica Belluci and Vincent Cassel (NYT review). Newsweek called it "most walked out  movie of the year" (2002).

The symphony is played in a new version by Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter. Here´s the trailer. Listen and compare!

Great romance

Yesterday. At the movies. Premiere. 2046. A great movie. Wonderful actors - esp. Tony Leung. Wonderful music. Wonderful dialogues - even though the movie was shown in Mandarin (Chinese) with German subtitles. (more about WKW, eros - his next movie)

Amazon movies

In case you didn´t notice, Amazon.com offers 5 short movies - for online watching or downloading - featuring products available at the store. I didn´t notice, but then again I´m not visiting Amazon.com that often (as opposed to Amazon Germany).

Leaving LA, heading for NYC

Drive!. (via IT&W)

It seems as though this video is the product of some crazy high school student - but rather it´s Michael Gondry, who´s latest work is the fabulous masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And like some other work from him, this is also a music video - for the french artist Lacquer.

Teen lawlessness

Worth watching: Yesterday on TV - Marie Baie des Anges aka Angel Sharks / Marie from the Bay and Angel aka Kleine Engel, kleine Haie - an interesting french film from 1997. A disturbing story about one summer in the lives of two teenagers. Clever montage.

Why are the good films on TV always so late (2315-0045) ?

ENDURING LOVE pain

I though "let´s watch a movie trailer", but instead of seeing something funny like this, I ended watching the first four minutes of a traumatic movie: ENDURING LOVE. Worth seeing. The movie starts in the US on the 29th october and all over Europe around 19th - 26th november.

Less radical

I guess this movie The Yes Men won´t be shown here in Austria. It´s definitely not a blockbuster. Rather in the Michael Moore style of movies. Then again, maybe yes, as it´s quite funny, presenting a group of activists fighting against globalization and the WTO. These guys proposed a "market for human rights abuses" at a WTO conference. Weird!

The Yes Men follows The Yes Men, a small group of prankster-activists, as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization on television and at business conferences around the world. The film begins when two members of The Yes Men, Andy and Mike, set up a website that mimics the World Trade Organization's and it's mistaken for the real thing.

... and here´s a quote from the trailer:

We´re like Santa Claus, only less radical.