Godard does with 3D in Goodbye to Language what he did to cinema’s conventions with Breathless. Pushing dimension into low-grade cell phone footage, or exaggerating the depth to the extreme of a street scene, at times rendering different images in each eye. But the surprising star of the show was the play of sound, volume in particular. The event’s host told us that the projectionist wanted the disclaimer made that all extreme leaps in volume are deliberate and not a technical error.

“I have always detested characters. From birth, we are forced into them.”

In this vein, Goodbye to Language is an ontological exploration actually well-served by the exploitation of the media’s limits: Immediately in the title sequence, Godard delineates the 2D from 3D planes and then effectively makes the 2D the more reliable, as 3D low-grade images smear across in the background, searching, searching, just the like the dog upon which he spends most of the film – pointing out that through the gaze of an animal are we able to access the real world.

Friday, January 23 – Thursday, January 29, 2015
Exclusive Los Angeles Engagement – 3D
Aero Theatre Santa Monica
1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, 90403
More information at American Cinemateque

The post Film Review: Godard’s “Goodbye to Language” appeared first on TheCulturepin.com.

This is my fifth year publishing my own lists here at the Culturepin.com because I find that in sharing them, it exposes me to further insights furnished my readers. It not only helps me organize my thoughts in a turbulent sea of information, but it also serves as insight-bait to attract further tips from anyone who may know something about the catalog that I don’t. And ultimately I hope that it will help you to navigate it all and have an amazing film going experience.

So if you will indulge me a few moments, and permit me to be your sub-curator, I will share with you the fruit of my labors thus far.

Here are my first-draft picks for films to see at TIFF 2010. Please, I implore you to comment away!

Aftershock | Feng Xiaogang

Country: China
Year: 2010
Language: Mandarin

My choice to position this film at the top of my list should give an indication not only of the caliber but also the intensity of the choices available at this year’s festival. TIFF’s programmers pull no punches, and in narrowing down my first round picks, I trust I have twisted the winch even further. Aftershock is truly an explosive but also deeply emotionally rooted grand work. It may be as difficult for me to sit through as was 2008’s Hunger.

The most successful Chinese movie of all time, Aftershock is based on the novel of the same name by Chinese Canadian author Zhang Ling. An intimate epic, the film sweeps across three crucial decades in recent Chinese history and explores the resilience of a family devastated by 1976 Tangshan earthquake.

Watch the trailer for Aftershock at the tiff website.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams | Werner Herzog

Country: USA
Year: 2010
Language: English

For anyone cynical about the new 3D movement, Werner Herzog offers a new promise for its utility and meaning. Alas, here is a real reason to not wait it out for a VOD release, but instead to actually get your butt off the couch and go out to the movies for what will undoubtedly be an uplifting cinematic experience.

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting. He puts 3-D technology to a profound use, taking us back in time over 30,000 years.

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow | Sophie Fiennes

Country: United Kingdom, France, The Netherlands
Year: 2010
Language: French, German

Rivers and Tides, the documentary about the time-based work of artist Andy Goldsworthy affected me so deeply that I have been looking for its successor ever since. I suspect this to be a contender. But because I have not seen it and can only suspect, I will rely on Noah Cowan’s summary from the official tiff website:

“Anselm Kiefer’s monumental artwork explodes into the spaces it inhabits. Dirt and twisted metal, wildly thick impasto and found garbage compete in grand painterly gestures. His themes are volatile and confrontational, often addressing his native Germany’s Nazi past and the ravages of the Holocaust through the lens of poetry (Paul Celan is an acknowledged influence) and the Kaballah. In an era dominated by clever conceptualism, his work consistently evokes strong emotions in the museums and galleries where it is exhibited. It is common to find patrons transfixed and deeply moved by his work.” – Noah Cowan

Machete Maidens Unleashed! | Mark Hartley

Country: Australia
Year: 2010
Language: English

Blood, breasts, beasts – the three B’s form the subject to Mark Hartley’s follow up to one of my favorite Midnight Madness films in 2008: Not Quite Hollywood, this time with a focus on genre films out of the Phillipines. I grew up on really bad b-movies and the thought of going behind the scenes with the people that made them for a couple of hours is just irresistible.

Watch the trailer for Machete Maidens Unleashed! at the tiff site.

Biutiful | Alejandro González Iñárritu

Country: Spain, Mexico
Year: 2009
Language: Spanish

From the director that brought you Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel, comes an intense, small-scale intimate nerve-gripper starring the man who made a coin toss creepier than your alcoholic uncle Jimmy. Javier Bardem plays a former drug dealer with a bi-polar wife who works as a prostitute in Iñárritu’s first film in his native Spanish since his startling debut.

Check out the killer trailer for Biutiful at the tiff site.

Tabloid | Errol Morris

Country: USA
Year: 2010
Language: English

The director of The Thin Blue Line and the Academy Award®-winning The Fog of War tells the story of a former Miss Wyoming whose quest for one true love led her across the globe and onto the pages of tabloid newspapers.

Errol Morris doing what he does best: an examination of the dark side of society in this examination into how we are shaped by the media.

The Trip | Michael Winterbottom

Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2010
Language: English

Reprising their hilariously fictionalized roles from Tristram Shandy: A Cock and BullStory, which screened at the festival, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite with director Michael Winterbottom for an acerbically witty trip through the English countryside.

Winterbottom makes a road trip movie? The guy who brought us 24 Hour Party People? The same guy who depicted a woman giving her lover a footjob until he shot a load, all on camera in 9 Songs? Something tells me this isn’t going to stay inside the margins.

Rabbit Hole | John Cameron Mitchell

Country: USA
Year: 2010
Language: English

I had the good fortune to meet John Cameron Mitchell when he was casting Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Little did I realize at the time that he would move from an underground subculture superstar into a refined, measured powerful directorial figure in the modern American film landscape. I can’t admit that that happened with his sophomore release Short Bus, but with Rabbit Hole, he has Aaron Echkart and Nicole Kidman under his watchful gaze doing what some call among their finest work as a couple struggling to deal with the immense sense of loss from the death of their son.

Based on the Pulitzer prize winning play by David Lindsay. I include this film here because the package is most certainly well worth viewing, however, I trust this will get a US theatrical release due to the cast and source so I will not work too hard for a ticket on this one during the festival.

Film Socialism | Jean-Luc Godard

Country: Switzerland
Year: 2010
Language: French

I did a double take on this one. Godard is alive? Alive and well and making films? I’m so out of the loop – I mean, I read tomes about this guy and the influence his films had when he made them over a half-century ago.

This so-called “symphony in three movements,” that attempts to make sense of a world beyond comprehension, seems to confirm that he is alive and kicking. Undeniably an experience not to be missed.

The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town | Thom Zimny

Country: USA
Year: 2010
Language: English

Never-before-seen archival footage substantiates the bulk of this behind the scenes look by Grammy and Emmy Award-winning director Thom Zimmy’s at Bruce Springstein’s fourth and much beloved album. The Boss himself is scheduled to attend. For fans, this is like dying, going to Heaven, and then dying in Heaven and going to the one beyond that.

Edge | Alexey Uchitel

Country: Russia
Year: 2010
Language: Russian

Anyone who knows me even remotely has likely heard me extol the virtues of Andrei Tarkovsky’s surreal post-apocalyptic masterpiece The Stalker. In fact, I often put it at the very top of my list of favorite films of all time. So when I see a description like:

“Fusing steampunk aesthetics with selective fragments of Russian history, director Alexey Uchitel hurls his new love-laced war epic straight into post-apocalyptic territory”

…you had better believe I will be rolling my sleeping bag out onto the sidewalk to get a ticket.

Daydream Nation | Mike Goldbach

Country: Canada
Year: 2010
Language: English

I <3 Kat Dennings, and this Canadian film from Mike Goldbach (director of Childstar) doesn’t yet appear to have an American distributor so it might be one that could otherwise be overlooked once it arrives on the Netflix list.

The Housemaid

Country: South Korea
Year: 2010
Language: Korean

Essentially a remake of director Kim Ki-young’s original film Hanyo made over 50 years ago and recently restored by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, The Housemaid under director Im Sang-soo’s vision alters the dynamic from vengeful femme fatale, to a startling showdown between a high-powered wealthy family and an ordinary women who enters their world. Adding a healthy helping of international cinema to the tiff menu is a must, and to my taste, this Korean fare looks like a perfect pairing with the rest of this list.

Watch the trailer for The Housemaid at the tiff site.

Black Swan | Darren Aronofsky

Country: USA
Year: 2010
Language: English

OK, for what it’s worth my friend Daniel Waters (writer of Heathers and Sex and Death 101) told me personally that his own buddy Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler) has made a near-perfect masterpiece of a film; a film that he, Daniel himself, wishes he had written. With a cast that includes Natalie Portman, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder, Black Swan is a chilling exploration of the psyche of a young ballerina “whose starring role as the duplicitous swan queen turns out to be a part for which she becomes frighteningly perfect.”

Interestingly enough, Aronofsky told MTV in a recent interview that Black Swan and the Wrestler began as one project:

“I was actually developing a project that was about a love affair between a ballet dancer and a wrestler, and then it kind of split off into two movies. I realized pretty quickly that taking two worlds like wrestling and ballet was much too much for one movie.”

Why is it a “must” ticket for me at the fest? Not because it won’t get a release, but because I just can’t goddamned wait any longer to see it.

Watch the trailer for Darren Aronofky’s “Black Swan” at the tiff site.

And I haven’t even touched on the excellent Midnight Madness fare…

Agree? Disagree? Know something I don’t? Post your comments below!

The post TIFF 2010 – The Toronto International Film Festival – My First Draft Film Picks appeared first on TheCulturepin.com.

2009 delivered, as box office saw enough success and available screens to be called a watershed year for 3D Cinema, where some films can even be profitable on exclusively 3D theatrical releases. Speaking at the National Association of Braodcasters Conference in Vegas, Chris Chinnock, President of consultation and market research firm Insight Media predicted that 2010 will be a “watershed year for 3DTV.”

This is an amazing prediction considering most consumers have yet to hear or see anything about 3D solutions for the home theater. And yet the installed user-base is already sufficiently in place that the chicken/egg conundrum that usually delays new platform rollouts due to lack of standardization has already been hatched; over 2 million DLP/Plasma 3D screens already sit in consumer home-theaters and yet 99% of their respective owners aren’t even aware of their home screens capabilities. As the content becomes avaialble and is broadcast, these screens will be able to handle the incoming signals.

Chinnock and his companies research identified over 40 different market segments for 3D in play today each with their own hardware and software approach to the emergent technology.

While the public is most familiar with standard stereoscopic 3D that requires either active or passive glasses to view properly, end-users will begin seeing more and more AS-3D products – that is – auto-stereoscopic 3D – that require no glasses to be correctly viewed. Already there are AS-3D picture frames coming out of China for a street price of about $300 although at this time quality is still considered sub-par, and with a viewing angle between 15 and 45 degrees.

I will continue to report on this market segment over the coming days from here at the NAB show in Vegas.

The post If 2009 Is Watershed Year for 3D Cinema, 2010 Will Be Same for 3DTV appeared first on TheCulturepin.com.

If the story proves to be true, one could argue they saw the light in the wake of California’s recent state of bankruptcy (in case you live under a rock, the state is handing out I.O.U.’s in lieu of tax refunds and most road work has been stopped, two buck chuck is no longer as a tax on wine is being implemented, the list goes on…) or perhaps they folded under other pressures.

Visiting the official SAG site at SAG.org, however, provided nothing to substantiate this claim.  I read the story in various places including E Online, but now I am beginning to wonder if it was just a PR campaign by those who oppose the strike.

UPDATE: It is official: SAG loses support for strike vote.

Meanwhile, the nominees for the 2009 Oscars was announced.  I’ll likely chime in on my podcast at KeramCast.com about my thoughts on the nominations. As I predicted in episode eleven, Man On Wire got a nom for best doc.

Here is the list for your consideration.  Would love to hear your opinions on this year’s contenders.

(technical categories excluded):

BEST PICTURE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Gus Van Sant, Milk

BEST ACTOR
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Frozen River, Courtney Hunt
Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh
In Bruges, Martin McDonagh
Milk, Dustin Lance Black
WALL-E, Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Pete Docter

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth
Doubt, John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan
The Reader, David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory — Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

BEST ART DIRECTION
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306

BEST EDITING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
The Class (France)
Departures (Japan)
Revanche (Austria)
Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

BEST MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
Defiance, James Newton Howard
Milk, Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman
WALL-E, Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
”Down to Earth,” WALL-E
”Jai Ho,” Slumdog Millionaire
”O Saya,” Slumdog Millionaire

BEST SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Wanted

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Leave me a comment about your Oscar 2009 predictions, or who or what you think should have been on this year’s list of nominees…

The post 2009 Oscar Nominees – Complete List + SAG drops Strike Vote? appeared first on TheCulturepin.com.

They are meeting this challenge in a variety of ways, principally among them the idea that 3D is a movie viewing experience that can uniquely be appreciated in the IMAX 3D screening theater. The Hannah Montana movie of 2007 made almost 3 times as much on its 3D screenings as it did in conventional 2D theaters – earning almost 60 million in 3D showings off its meager 15 million dollar production budget.

The studios have taken notice, and there are no less than 25 3D movies in the production pipeline including comers from Dreamworks, Disney, Sony, Universal and even some independents.

Interestingly enough the companies that manufacture the 3D production equipment were caught off-guard by this sudden backing from Tinseltown. Caught with their pants down, they are now scrambling to get everything from cameras, lighting systems and stereoscopic editing solutions to market. And they are meeting the challenge – companies like Iconix, makers of the world’s smallest HD camera showed a high-def stereoscopic camera system at this year’s NAB show that can be had for somewhere in the ballpark of US$250K. Sounds like a lot, but that is just the first wave. Digital Ordnance showed a High-Def stereoscopic video playback system for newar realtime playback of your 3D content on set so you know you are getting things right. This is quite something considering the massive amount of bandwidth required to spit out synched, near parallel streams of full 2k HD of an array of hard drives.

But enough geek talk.

Another very interesting event that took place at this year’s NAB show was the live satellite 3D television broadcast from Howie Mandell in Los Angeles. The company behind the demonstration, 3ality, has managed to acheive this using a simple single stream no different than 2-D television.

Yes, you heard me right. Live. 3D. Single-stream. Broadcast.

Samsung and Mitsubishi are already selling 3-D ready digital televisions, and recently WIRED magazine featured an exclusive stream of Bjork’s new 3D video. They pointed out that the stream HAD to be viewed from their site because of a special encoder that permitted it to work. see the trick here? it requires a proprietary encoder for playback – that means, until some hacker/coder develops a freeware/open source version of a hi bandwidth 3D streaming encoder, people can control where viewers access content. Advertisers LOVE this. And so do the content creators because they get financed by the advertisers. So 3D is big business and mark my words, before you can say “What is Blu-Ray?” you will be getting a catalog from Fred Segal’s with a price list for the latest Gucci Polarized 3D glasses – you know the tortoise shell ones with the miniature diamonds in the arms.

Because in a year’s time, you won’t leave home without them.

ps. the above Gucci is FAKE and they had nothing to do with this article which is entirely speculative.

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