Oh yes! How magic is this?

Tim Burton's TV spot for his exhibit at MOMA.

Treasure Found: Charlie Chaplin Footage Purchased for $5!!!

So this man, Morace Park, buys $5 can of film stock from an guy on ebay. What he ends up getting is all kinds of magic in my book. Footage of planes flying during World War I, some early stop animation and some outtakes of Chaplin films. WHAAAAAAA???? Can we say that's totally awesome! Forget the war footage, but animation and Chaplin from the early 1900s! Holy amazing. This would be the find of the century for me, aside from unseen Fellini footage. But wow! I'm excited for this guy, I am. Should be awesome. Hopefully they'll release some of it to the public. So we can all enjoy.

Happy moviegoing!

Look who's talking...Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

/Film just reported about Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Click here to see the post. Click here to see the post I did a while back about it. Looks like this thing is actually under way. I'm excited!

Happy moviegoing!

Steve Martin Co-Hosting the Oscars!...Umm Let Us Assess for a Second....

I heard it several times in the past few days that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were set up to host this year's Academy Awards Ceremony. /Film confirms that yes Martin and Baldwin will co-host the Oscars. Now let's just asses for a second cause, despite my reservations about Alec Baldwin, I am super excited about Steve Martin and I think it will be awesome because of him. /Film says Steve's statement on the decision is: “I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin.” This is why the show is going to magic! Can't wait!

Mary and Max

This stuff just gets me going. I love it. From award winning director and writer of Harvey Krumpet, Adam Elliot, Mary and Max, tells the tale of two pen pals. Voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette, Mary and Max form an unlikely friendship from across the world. Max, a forty-four-year old, obese man, with Asperger Syndrome hailing from New York and Mary, an eight-year old living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. The film is being praised for its "genuine celebration of the value of difference." It opened up the Sundance Film Festival. Being one of the only, if not the only, animation film to ever open the festival since it's beginning. I am super excited to see this and I don't think it can disappoint. Trailer is below. Enjoy! Happy moviegoing!

Le Samourai Remake??? Please No!

What the hell is going on here??? /film reports that John Woo wants to remake Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï. My response is simply NO. Stop this nonsense. Think of something else.

For those of you who don't know, Le Samouraï (1967) is a film starring Alain Delon, in one of his most memorable roles, as a contract killer with the distinction and poise of a samurai warrior. I own this on criterion and its one of my favorites. Criterion describes the film quite perfectly as: "A razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture..." It's too plain to say but this film is just cool. It's just too perfectly cool. Alain Delon defines a history of assassins on film in this feature and does so in a performance met by no other. And despite the comment below the film is gorgeous, subtle, simple, but gorgeous, without even trying, which makes it brilliant.

Let me give you some words from the director himself. Melville said about Le Samouraï: “I don’t want to situate my heroes in time; I don’t want the action of a film to be recognizable as something that happens in 1968. That’s why in Le samouraï, for example, the women aren’t wearing miniskirts, while the men are wearing hats—something, unfortunately, that no one does anymore. I’m not interested in realism. All my films hinge on the fantastic. I’m not a documentarian; a film is first and foremost a dream, and it’s absurd to copy life in an attempt to produce an exact re-creation of it. Transposition is more or less a reflex with me: I move from realism to fantasy without the spectator ever noticing.”

Now please tell me how Mr. Woo plans on achieving anything quite like this? Has he seen his own films? I think not. Either way I urge seasoned filmmakers to take the time to sit down, read something, or maybe even just stare at some nature, but please don't make films you cannot live up to. Let's leave em where they stood. You want to honor it and bring it to the new generation? Fine. But do it in another fashion. Re-release, or do a lil party to commemorate. You want it to inspire your work? Fine. Let it, enjoy, nothing is truly authentic anymore. But please don't think that you can take on the task of remaking something that cannot ever be duplicated. Don't do it. I hope this never transpires.

Metropia

Proof that the field of animation is the most exciting and innovative mediums out there today. This is beyond impressive and I can't wait to watch it.



Happy Moviegoing!