La Jetée, 1962

Thursday | 13 February 2014 | 12:39 PM

Tim Doyle, Blade Runner Posters

"Ford was renowned for his intense personality and his many idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. From the early Thirties onwards, he always wore dark glasses and a patch over his left eye, which was only partly to protect his poor eyesight. He was an inveterate pipe-smoker and while he was shooting he would chew on a linen handkerchief—each morning his wife would give him a dozen fresh handkerchiefs, but by the end of a day's filming the corners of all of them would be chewed to shreds. He always had music played on the set and would routinely break for tea (Earl Grey) at mid-afternoon every day during filming. He discouraged chatter and disliked bad language on set; its use—especially in front of a woman—would typically result in the offender being thrown off the production. He rarely drank during the making of a film, but when a production wrapped he would often lock himself in his study, wrapped only in a sheet, and go on a solitary drinking binge for several days, followed by routine contrition and a vow never to drink again. He was extremely sensitive to criticism and was always particularly angered by any comparison between his work and that of his older brother Francis. He rarely attended premieres or award ceremonies, although his Oscars and other awards were proudly displayed on the mantle in his home." ~ Wikipedia

"I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try." ~ Roger Ebert

Friday | 5 April 2013 | 10:06 AM

There are no happy endings.

I re-watched The Grifters for the first time in a decade this weekend. What a film. Frears, Scorsese, Thompson & Westlake combine together to form a perfect creative storm in this excellent crime thriller. Time well spent.

I readily desire this film poster for Jodorowsky's El Topo done by Martin Ansin. Also worth checking out his other work.

"I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you… stranger." ~ Heather Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight

"But trying to make sense of the movie’s [Wild At Heart] story as a mystery, or even as a plot in any ordinary sense, is ultimately to play a fool’s game. Lynch uses Gifford’s novel (with kinky additions) chiefly as an armature and a come-on for a series of lurid imaginings, an anthology of shocks and conceits that is tied to a plot only in the sense that a boat is moored to a dock."

Watching Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom.

"If you're gonna lead people, you have to have somewhere to go." ~ The Motorcycle Boy

Wild Bill is a gritty London drama set in an estate overlooking the Olympic park. It's not nearly as hackneyed as that sounds and was actually rather excellent. And worth watching if you're a Talk Talk fan for the Mark Hollis song near the end.

Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive was one of my favourite films of last year so I'm re-watching Bronson. The electronic musical aesthetic of Refn that pervades and elevates Drive is clearly hinted at in 2008's Bronson.

Worth watching.

Watching Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line.

"By the final cut, all footage of the performances by Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman, Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas, Jason Patric, Viggo Mortensen and Mickey Rourke had been removed."

"The Thin Red Line has become an English figure of speech for any thinly spread military unit holding firm against attack. The phrase has also taken on the metaphorical meaning of the barrier which the relatively limited armed forces of a country present to potential attackers.