NEW! The biWeekly Digest–Issue Three: 'Reduction'

NEW! The biWeekly Digest–Issue Two: 'Electric Lightning'

NEW! The biWeekly Digest–launching today...'Sauna Politics'

More Scribble Art!
New Observations and Encounters.
Collected since finishing the U.S. and I project.
Different format and now issued two times a week: Mondays and Fridays.

As always, click to enlarge!

Go and See...

...State of Play.
I liked this a lot.
Here are some thoughts:
Russel Crow looks like Jesus only twice as heavy and with hair that's half as long.
He's the kind of journalist that can type fast even with a bandaged hand.
Orange seems to severely underpay their actors. The dark haired protagonist of their obnoxious 'don't let your mobile ruin your film'-campaigns has to do jobs on the side. We might think he has earned enough money and a lifelong free use of broadband and unlimited mobile phone calls. But no. He has many mouths to feed and therefore appears in this movie, too, causing the whole audience to break out in uncontrolled, nervous laughter whenever he's on screen. So much for ruining a couple of scenes.
The script writers thought it a good idea to have Helen Mirren say 'Geezer' more times in those 2 hours than I've heard it in the last 2 months in London. Just to make sure every last member of the audience understands she is British.
Oh, and watch out for the bad guy. Well, he's hard to miss, really, sporting a constant grim look on his face and the old scar underneath the eyebrow.
But, I did like it. And the end credit sequence is really nice. Really.

NEW! The biWeekly Digest–coming soon...

Not dead...

...just too busy to blog/think straight (preparing for graduation).

More posts more frequently soon. Promise.

Heart in Berlin

Go and See...

...The International.
Never mind what Mark Kermode says, the shoot-out scene in the Guggenheim is ace! And the other 110min were alright, too. All the Germans were allowed a German accent, very refreshing. Naomi doesn't do much. But Clive, ah, Clive sorts it all out. The end is a bit weird.

Go and See...

...7 films in 11 days.

Rachel getting married
I like the structure and concept of the film, the way it's filmed and the way it lets the actors carry the audience through this authentically told family story. Anne Hathaway does her job well, but for some reason she just always remains Anne Hathaway for me, never a character.


Frost/Nixon
Well acted, well told. Very enjoyable tension.


The Silence of Lorna
Newest film from my favourite film makers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who made films like The Child, The Son, Rosetta, La Promesse. Not their best work but still a great film. As always no score, all the work comes from the actors. An astounding, yet, as always, understated performance by the lead character, this time Arta Dobroshi. Hard to find a cinema where this film is shown, I went to the Barbican, but I am not sure it is still on.


Waltz with Bashir
We went to see this at the Prince Charles Cinema. It's that place in central London where you used to be able to see films at an unbelievably cheap cost. The cinema which once fought for affordable cinema tickets. Hah, no more. Credit crunch century. It has now given in to the silly idea that two cinemas are better than one and getting back the cost of renovation through horrendously priced cinema tickets is absolutely fine (oh and no student discount, because us students 'have all that money for booze, too'). However, Waltz with Bashir was great. I was so astounded by the animation, I hardly followed the story. This is a good and a bad thing. Basically, I think the film is a great success, but really not because of a great story, but because of an animation technique that blows you away. The soundtrack is also very, very nice.


Milk
Mr. Sean Penn, according to Mickey Rourke the most homophobic man in Hollywood, or something, pulls it off so so well. Truly captivating and very moving. I still think it could have been done braver, it seemed very TV not cinema, according to Mark Kermode, with whom I agree. I love Gus van Sant very much, but I think the qualities of films such as Elephant or Paranoid Park have been slightly lost here.


The Wrestler
Stomach turning. Some people better wait for this to be out on DVD and get ready to watch with the thumb securely resting on the remote control's fast forward button. Needless to say a great performance. From everybody, Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. I know people don't like the father-daughter bit, but I think it is ok.


Better Things
Ahh. Not a film to watch if you want to believe in the bright futures of adolescents in the English country side. Very bleak. But very good. No happy ending, and that's why I like it. Beautifully photographed, really stunning, and also very well cast. I went to the Q&A with the director Duane Hopkins and it was very interesting to hear how he approached working with these young adults. A great piece of contemporary British cinema.

Cameras

Trashed Tea for Two

Abstract silkscreen prints

1st plate


1st and 2nd plate


1st, 2nd and 3rd plate


all 4 plates

Altered Peripheral Vision III

Experiments with hand-made lens caps.

Altered Peripheral Vision II

Experiments with double exposures.

Altered Peripheral Vision I

Photographic Experiments to represent that our peripheral vision is black and white (1) and that the first colours we see are yellow and blue (2). Combination of black&white and colour negatives of same shot (1), combination two negatives of same shot with differently died lenses (2).
Click to enlarge.

Go and See...

...The Reader.
Ok. Hold on. What happened here? German book, English film maker. German setting, English speaking. English actors speaking English with German accents, German actors speaking English with...yes: German accents!?
Aha.
Was it assumed that there were no good German filmmakers to make a German film? Or was it assumed the English speaking audience was going to be too lazy to read subtitles like in any other film?
Why, Mr. Daldry, don't you make a film with the undoubtedly talented Mrs. Winslet, that doesn't require long-loved German actors like Bruno Ganz (The Downfall) to make a complete monkey of themselves by speaking a foreign language with their own accent in their own country?

On a lighter note, it was nicely photographed, and David Kross' performance was outstanding. Ralph Fiennes, who I actually like very much, had to do a bit much of his 'I just bit my tongue/bit into a lemon/ lost a loved one'-face. (As seen plentifully in The Constant Gardener).

I read the book in highschool. And I remember somehow you were not supposed to like it; while the book was considered to be important, Bernhard Schlink was accused of 'cultural pornograpy'. He was critisised for manipulating the reader into identifying and ultimately liking a nazi. The question of Hannah's guilt and her involvement in 'the final solution' is not dealt with sufficiently.
My main criticism of the film is that Stephen Daldry had the chance to deal with those problems, but did the opposite: The end is just completely ridiculous.
According to its international success it seems hardly anyone in the audience notices that. I assume: Sad ending + tragic music + Fiennes' hurt face = Emotional overload -> audience unable to judge film rationally.

Self Portrait III

Self Portrait II

The landlord's cat

Click to enlarge

New York fantasist on carbon tax

Click to enlarge

Go and See...

...Che: Part One
Directed by Steven Soderbergh with Benicio Del Toro as a very believable Che Guevara.
On at the Curzon Soho and Renoir.

Self Portrait I

Go and See...

...This Is War! Robert Capa at Work, Gerda Taro, On the Subject of War at the Barbican.

Robert Capa, Segovia front, Spain, Late May-early June 1937 © International Center of Photography. International Center of Photography.


American soldier landing on Omaha Beach, D-Day, Normandy, France, June 6, 1944 © Cornell Capa International Center of Photography


M-246 Semi Automatic Weapon, Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal, Iraq, 2007. Image courtesy: Murray Guy, New York.
[Photo by An-My Le, part of the exhibition on the ground floor.]

Photographer on ice

(shot by my aunt).

Camera drawings

for new film about 16mm and 35mm relationships.