tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post4004908019947835137..comments2023-12-08T00:45:09.046-08:00Comments on The Fullfillment* Centre: carlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886258675618058752noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-50710192706273342222012-10-08T12:23:57.265-07:002012-10-08T12:23:57.265-07:00Dan Zukovic's "DARK ARC", a bizarre ...Dan Zukovic's "DARK ARC", a bizarre modern noir dark comedy called "Absolutely brilliant...truly and completely different..." in Film Threat, was recently released on DVD and Netflix through Vanguard Cinema (http://www.vanguardcinema.com/darkarc/darkarc.htm), and is currently <br />debuting on Cable Video On Demand. The film had it's World Premiere at the Montreal Festival, and it's US Premiere at the Cinequest Film Festival. Featuring Sarah Strange ("White Noise"), Kurt Max Runte ("X-Men", "Battlestar Gallactica",) and Dan Zukovic (director and star of the cult comedy "The Last Big Thing"). Featuring the glam/punk tunes "Dark Fruition", "Ire and Angst" and "F.ByronFitzBaudelaire", and a dark orchestral score by Neil Burnett.<br /> <br />TRAILER : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPeG4EFZ4ZM<br /> <br />***** (Five stars) "Absolutely brilliant...truly and completely different...something you've never tasted<br />before..." Film Threat<br />"A black comedy about a very strange love triangle" Seattle Times<br />"Consistently stunning images...a bizarre blend of art, sex, and opium, "Dark Arc" plays like a candy-coloured<br />version of David Lynch. " IFC News <br />"Sarah Strange is as decadent as Angelina Jolie thinks she is...Don't see this movie sober!" Metroactive Movies<br />"Equal parts film noir intrigue, pop culture send-up, brain teaser and visual feast. " American Cinematheque <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-27057323272682447612008-09-15T22:11:00.000-07:002008-09-15T22:11:00.000-07:00This post is awesome. Thankyou for articulating wh...This post is awesome. Thankyou for articulating why I hated Amelie.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-25360785276331273822008-09-02T16:16:00.000-07:002008-09-02T16:16:00.000-07:00Impostume, this is the essence of your objection t...Impostume, this is the essence of your objection to Leigh, and I think it's based on a misunderstanding:<BR/><BR/><I>"presenting precisely the <B>barriers to empathy and identification</B> of the more mainstream fare that he imagines his work offers an alternative to."</I><BR/><BR/>Well, creating barriers to what you call "empathy and identification" is precisely what Leigh is about, or at least one thing he is very much about. And not because he objects to either of these things per se, but because he knows why a perceived demand for (frictionless) "empathy and identification" often results in films that misrepresent experience.<BR/><BR/>Ray Carney describes the difference between Hollywood's "depths" and Leigh's "surfaces" here, eloquently:<BR/><BR/><I>Mental Identities: When Being Replaces Doing</I><BR/><BR/>http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/carncult/mental.shtml<BR/><BR/>- w.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-18781915747304221442008-08-29T09:50:00.000-07:002008-08-29T09:50:00.000-07:00It was the funniest thing I've read all dayWell, t...<I>It was the funniest thing I've read all day</I><BR/><BR/>Well, there are days like that. I hope things brighten up for you this evening.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-8835945611105226962008-08-29T09:46:00.000-07:002008-08-29T09:46:00.000-07:00ahh.... how high minded. Give us a laugh then warz...ahh.... how high minded. Give us a laugh then warzawa. a bit of a non-Blokeish, non-ironic fun.. I'd hate to come away from this thinking you were just a sententious old stick-in-the-mud. You big self important old mr grumpy pants! what would Poppy say!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-8926276688404292922008-08-29T09:35:00.000-07:002008-08-29T09:35:00.000-07:00It was the funniest thing I've read all day, and t...It was the funniest thing I've read all day, and that includes myself.ithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10565403340913552852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-25537829724774264452008-08-29T09:31:00.000-07:002008-08-29T09:31:00.000-07:00"Update! Some gobby bird starts giving it all that...<I>"Update! Some gobby bird starts giving it all that over on her blog. She could do with a couple of kiddies that one, keep her out of trouble. I'd knock her up myself if the missus wasn't always standing over me with the rolling pin. Right. I'm off down the boozer.<BR/>Gotta laugh, innit?"</I><BR/><BR/>In fact, no, not gotta laugh. Not at comedy that strains so desperately for effect, and so entirely in vain.<BR/><BR/>'Irony', thy name is Bloke.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-3591531911787044882008-08-29T09:03:00.000-07:002008-08-29T09:03:00.000-07:00I fucking hate Mike Leigh and his stupid stoic wom...I fucking hate Mike Leigh and his stupid stoic women. <BR/><BR/>Just a vote from the no-tail team.ithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10565403340913552852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-34096128451180714312008-08-29T08:55:00.000-07:002008-08-29T08:55:00.000-07:00why ARE you so keen to define the opposition ...why ARE you so keen to define the opposition as "blokeish"? just out of interest....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-50281486834932623472008-08-29T08:53:00.000-07:002008-08-29T08:53:00.000-07:00Warzawa, congratulations on getting rid of your...Warzawa, congratulations on getting rid of your inner bloke! No alpha-male chest-beating for you! <BR/><BR/>I agree: no women dislike Mike Leigh and all right-thinking women despise Hitchcock. and any who do like him have no justification whatsoever for doing so. they're probably just " ladettes". mysogyny is only manifested in acts such as rape and murder and there's no way a film could be mysogynistic if it doesn't contain these elements.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-18660628879222119902008-08-29T08:45:00.000-07:002008-08-29T08:45:00.000-07:00"That wasn't me, no."Glad to hear it, Owen. Shame ...<I>"That wasn't me, no."</I><BR/><BR/>Glad to hear it, Owen. Shame you didn't see fit to answer the questions, though. If I were going to accuse a filmmaker of being "uncinematic", then I'd take care to know what I meant by that word. <BR/><BR/><I>"My Thatcherite, misogynist, misanthropist, theory-obsessed, film-theory, blockbuster-loving attention span is snapping just about...now.</I><BR/><BR/>And he's off, in a huff of smoke. <BR/><BR/>Just a reminder, Owen: I didn't start this. Nor did I praise the post that started it. Nor did I empty a cesspit on Mike Leigh's head. Nor did I start throwing around terms such as "misanthropic" and "uncinematic". That was other people, several of them, including you. <BR/><BR/><I>"Enjoy yourself, won't you."</I><BR/><BR/>Oh, I will and I do, but not here for much longer. The quality of the opposition isn't up to much. In fact, here's The Anonymous Bloke huffing into view again, steaming with resentment, complaining predictably (along with the Guardian) about "class-contempt", presuming, foolishly, to instruct me on what working-class people are <I>really</I> like, and thereby weakening the opposition even further. <BR/><BR/>Bless him, though. He's a survivor. <BR/><BR/>- w.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-69637700459300120172008-08-29T08:30:00.000-07:002008-08-29T08:30:00.000-07:00ps. I'm not 'Owen' O Astute One.If a film is talki...ps. I'm not 'Owen' O Astute One.<BR/><BR/>If a film is talking heads sitting in one or two grubby rooms talking, talking, talking, with some banal sub-plot more appropriate to a TV soap - well no, it's not cinematic as far as I'm concerned.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-50419420696698676402008-08-29T08:24:00.000-07:002008-08-29T08:24:00.000-07:00That wasn't me, no.My Thatcherite, misogynist, mis...That wasn't me, no.<BR/><BR/>My Thatcherite, misogynist, misanthropist, theory-obsessed, film-theory, blockbuster-loving attention span is snapping just about...now. Enjoy yourself, won't you.owen hatherleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943115307136493045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-29697466508880726732008-08-29T08:23:00.001-07:002008-08-29T08:23:00.001-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.ithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10565403340913552852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-61921071735086358102008-08-29T08:23:00.000-07:002008-08-29T08:23:00.000-07:00Crying 'mysoginy! The last gasp of fuzzy thinking....Crying 'mysoginy! The last gasp of fuzzy thinking. What next? 'Anti-semitic!' After all, I can't stand Steven Spielberg either.<BR/><BR/>Are you actually capable of commenting on the films mentioned, as opposed to the subconcious drives of the comments box?<BR/><BR/>How about the class-contempt mentioned 50+ comments ago? As someone who - apart from attendance at certain parties - has been working class pretty much all their life, I can assure you that working-class people (then or now) were never as 'lumpen' as Leigh wants to tell us they are. <BR/><BR/>I can also assure you that the only people I've met who actually like Mike Leigh are like Poppy in that fuckin' film ie. middle-class public sector twerps who have nothing to declare except their loudly announced heart of gold - male and female. Do you fit this dresciption, Gdansk?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-68120512846296040052008-08-29T08:12:00.000-07:002008-08-29T08:12:00.000-07:00Owen (I presume), defining "cinematic":Appropriate...Owen (I presume), defining "cinematic":<BR/><BR/><I>Appropriate to a large screen at 90 minutes plus, a contained narrative with sustained reliance on movement and image,</I><BR/><BR/>Yup, Meantime and Naked fit that bill very well. So they're "cinematic" all right.<BR/><BR/><I>not overtly text-based, not made to be experienced as a 'domestic' encounter (which much of TV works well for). </I><BR/><BR/>This is precisely what I expected you to say, but it's still disappointing to hear you say it, because it's such a tired cliché. You do realise just how many outstanding British and foreign films you are dismissing with this set of arbitrary (and clichéd) personal preferences masquerading as an aesthetic law? <BR/><BR/>In any case, Meantime and Naked were not "made to be experienced as a 'domestic' encounter", and are, therefore, de facto cinematic, by your definition. Nor are they "overtly text-based". They do contain quite a lot of spoken words, yes, just like Hitchcock's and Kubrick's and Powell & Pressburger's, and indeed Billy Wilder's. But of course the same is true of most films since The Jazz Singer; and there is, in fact, no law against it. Not even an unwritten one.<BR/><BR/>- w.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-44773778336909458022008-08-29T07:54:00.000-07:002008-08-29T07:54:00.000-07:00"It's also notable that all three of those don't f...<I>"It's also notable that all three of those don't feel the need to have the ever-present, fundamentally identical (usually female) flawed-but-heroic-battlers, which is easily Leigh's most pernicious tic"</I><BR/><BR/>Yeah, god forbid women should be shown <I>coping</I>. Pernicious as hell, that. Leigh, being a bloke, should know better: a woman's place is in the gutter, or (even better) in the nick. <BR/><BR/>Ask the Impostume, who (being a bloke) is also not amused, or, more precisely, <I>not entertained</I> by Leigh's women:<BR/><BR/><I>"“Vera Drake”? Two hours of Imelda Staunton shuffling around in her pinny, boiled-cabbage complexion to the fore as a working class Holy-Innocent back street abortionist, who, <B>acting spontaneously from her great naïve wellspring of proletarian female love without the slightest grasp of the social implications of her acts</B> eventually gets gratifyingly sent down for ten years’ hard labour. That’ll learn you. Do a Sociology O-level or something while you’re banged up, for fuck’s sake!"</I><BR/><BR/>"Gratifyingly". Right. She had ideas above her station, that old bint. Even worse, she also actually <I>did things.</I>. Not a wise move. Being a bloke with O-Levels, the Impostume knows better. And boiled-cabbage complexions are not what he paid his hard-earned cash to see.<BR/><BR/>Are we starting to see a pattern here? <BR/><BR/><I>"Poppy is so superhumanly empathetic that not only does she have no fear of seeking out violently deranged tramps hunkered down in bits of wasteland <B>(“is this the bit where she gets raped and murdered?” a small gleeful voice kept asking in the back of my mind as I watched) </B>"</I><BR/><BR/>"Gleeful". But of course. That Inner Voice, that Inner Bloke, <I>will</I> insist on being properly entertained. He paid for his ticket, didn't he? And after all, being raped and murdered is what women are <I>for</I> in films, as opposed to surviving. Being a bloke, not to mention a Genius, Alfred Hitchcock knew that, as do most filmmaker-blokes and (most especially) most theory-blokes.<BR/><BR/>We're starting to see a pattern here. Misanthropy is hip, and misogyny is an indispensable element of it. Thatcher and Blair have not lived their lives in vain.<BR/><BR/>- w.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-13276964419555796242008-08-29T07:27:00.000-07:002008-08-29T07:27:00.000-07:00Appropriate to a large screen at 90 minutes plus, ...Appropriate to a large screen at 90 minutes plus, a contained narrative with sustained reliance on movement and image, not overtly text-based, not made to be experienced as a 'domestic' encounter (which much of TV works well for). Basically the difference between The Sopranos and Goodfellas, or MASH on TV vs. its very different film.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-45310950116617789532008-08-29T07:18:00.000-07:002008-08-29T07:18:00.000-07:00Owen wrote:"there are about three films I like a l...Owen wrote:<BR/><BR/><I>"there are about three films I like a lot, ridiculously uncinematic and mannered as they are"</I><BR/><BR/>You tell us these three films are Abigail's Party, Naked and Meantime. Well, AP was indeed made for the theatre and only reached the telly as a rush-job when a slot suddenly and unexpectedly became available. Very little time was available to translate the play to TV; so little, in fact, that Leigh nearly turned down the opportunity. So he's never been happy with AP, because it's not just not-cinematic, but not-even-properly-televisual. (Just for example: the set and the characters are filmed almost entirely front-on and in medium-close-up, if seen from the front edge of the stage.) <BR/><BR/>But what on earth is "uncinematic" about Naked or Meantime? And precisely how do you define "cinematic", anyway?<BR/><BR/>- w.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-3607735123318093112008-08-29T06:35:00.000-07:002008-08-29T06:35:00.000-07:00"isn't leigh's stuff essentailly botched as it's a...<I>"isn't leigh's stuff essentailly botched as it's a half-way house between Lindsay Anderson and Terence Davies..a kind of hodge- podge of the elegiac and absurdist."</I><BR/><BR/>No, clearly not. Next question. <BR/><BR/>("Essentially botched", "interesting but flawed"... jesus christ almighty. Witness the self-appointed secular clerisy at work, with a book of [film-]canon law in one hand and a stout stick in the other, on the prowl for miscreants.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-45290572075506893512008-08-29T05:23:00.000-07:002008-08-29T05:23:00.000-07:00owen, you know nothing about film AT ALL and ...owen, you know nothing about film AT ALL and have no right to hold an opinion. why don't you go and live in a brutalist gulag in siberia if you like Vertov so much!<BR/><BR/>sorry..just trying to draw in....<BR/><BR/>CarlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-61382183228021011342008-08-29T05:20:00.000-07:002008-08-29T05:20:00.000-07:00isn't leigh's stuff essentailly botched as it's...isn't leigh's stuff essentailly botched as it's a half-way house between Lindsay Anderson and Terence Davies..a kind of hodge- podge of the elegiac and absurdist. i suppose i wonder if there is a particular, coherent canon of "british" film that one would want to champion.. something more than just a list of disparate but great "individuals"?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-74208140844120244202008-08-29T03:59:00.000-07:002008-08-29T03:59:00.000-07:00... which definitely applies to pop music too (see...... which definitely applies to pop music too (see the post below on Tricky, for example).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-4540324976629619922008-08-29T03:56:00.000-07:002008-08-29T03:56:00.000-07:00There isn't any way British cinema 'should' look l...There isn't any way British cinema 'should' look like - if anything, the most notable CINEMATIC filmakers (whatever their respective merits) are somewhat eccentric (Hitchcock, Whale, Powell, Roeg, Russell, Cammell, Anderson, Peter Watkins, Boorman, Terence Davies, Michael Reeves etc.); exiles (Losey, Kubrick, Polanski etc.) or dependable technicians that usually gravitate towards Hollywood by their third film.<BR/><BR/>There's another route of Brit film that to me is artistically stillborn ie. the TV/theatre aspect. Whether its Branagh, Richard Curtis, Mike Leigh or Loach. Of course there's wide variety of quality there, but they all seem to assume what works well on TV can translate as 'world' cinema. It doesn't. I've laughed at Hugh Laurie playing buffoons on 'Blackadder', but would never sit through him leading a feature film. Loach's approach works wonderfully for TV (politically as well as artistically - there's a whole wealth of theory on the different modes of address between TV and film), but to me makes for dull cinema. <BR/><BR/>British cinema may appear 'also-ran' due to the very closed nature of our media culture in general. The journalist married to the artist reviewing the book by his uni chum who's married to the filmaker who used to go out with the pop star who's the nephew of the front-bencher etc. etc.<BR/><BR/>The only room for artistic flair - to me - comes from its exiles, eccentrics, and occasional working class paractioners.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31416501.post-50929252869995676502008-08-29T03:49:00.000-07:002008-08-29T03:49:00.000-07:00cinema- wise i think we're also-rans.British cinem...<EM>cinema- wise i think we're also-rans.</EM><BR/><BR/>British cinema could look like Michael Powell, Carol Reed, Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Asquith, Humphrey Jennings, Lindsay Anderson, Nicolas Roeg, Mike Hodges, Peter Watkins, Kevin Browlow, Derek Jarman, Terence Davies, Bill Douglas (oh sorry, the last two are too 'autobiographical')<BR/><BR/>...always thought Truffaut's idea of Britain as inherently uncinematic to be absolute nonsense. However Leigh and Loach are both huge in France, I'd wager for similar reasons to why <EM>Il Postino</EM>, <EM>Amelie</EM> or <EM>Cinema Paradiso</EM> play well over here - so exotic, so heartwarming. Also, both largely made better television than they did cinema. <BR/><BR/>I don't really hate Leigh enough to get too stuck into this argument - there are about three films I like a lot, ridiculously uncinematic and mannered as they are (the reference upthread to Leigh's use of music is hilarious, as if the occasional bit of tuba is somehow some non-diegetic masterstroke), and many others which range from slightly interesting to annoying. <BR/><BR/>Perhaps 'misanthropy' is a <EM>slight</EM> red herring - what I (at least) meant by that there's a certain bitterness and cruelty which is plain in his best films (and absent from his worst) - which are also often the most (obliquely) political. I once read Jarvis Cocker describing <EM>Abigail's Party</EM> as a portrayal of Thatcherism about to happen and <EM>Naked</EM> a portrayal of what it did to people - which sounds convincing. <EM>Meantime</EM> similarly. It's also notable that all three of those don't feel the need to have the ever-present, fundamentally identical (usually female) flawed-but-heroic-battlers, which is easily Leigh's most pernicious tic (other than the honking performances) - Adorno on the enjoyment of watching someone struggle against the system being essentially an enjoyment of the workings of that system springs pretty frequently to mind.owen hatherleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943115307136493045noreply@blogger.com