after party

Did you watch the Oscars last night? 

If you did, are you in it for the red carpet? The teary acceptance speeches? The old-fashioned tinsletown celebration or the cynical how-long-can-this-go-on spectacle of it?

I, myself, am partial to the gowns and the glamor. I get drawn in to the sweeping musical numbers and get a little weepy with all of the emotional thank-yous. And it's worth the hours of settling in for all of that when you catch a quick glimpse of (my favorite) Doris Kearns Goodwin walking the post-show red carpet arm in arm with a victorious Daniel Day-Lewis and Rebecca Miller, off to celebrate, the chumiest of chums. 

Ah, Hollywood.

Faye Dunaway's breakfast with Oscar at the Beverly Hills Hotel, 1977.

Godard on Allen

Watching the recent two-part Woody Allen documentary (currently streaming on Netflix!) has sparked a bit of an independent Allen retrospective on my part. Some of his films leave me cold, but enough of them are a beloved layer of the collage of images and ideas that informed my young adult, rural-island-dwelling-heart of what it might be like to be smart and funny and to live in New York. And that is enough to keep me fairly loyal to the work (and curious enough to get right out there to catch To Rome, with Love).

And then, thanks to Mike Mills (have you seen Beginners? I mean, really, you need to see this movie as soon as possible.), I came upon this brief meeting of the masters directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Of course it is a little strange, but also insightful and worth a watch just to see the exchange between these two auteurs.

This must be the place

So many references and circular double loops going on in the less-than-two-minute trailer for Paolo Sorrentino's film 'This Must Be the Place': music by David Byrne and Will 'Bonnie "Prince" Billy' Oldham, Nazis, Frances McDormand, and oh so many nods to the 80s. The most jarring of all has Sean Penn decked out as a more melancholy (is that possible?) Robert Smith.

Seems that, so far, it has only been released in Europe and might just now be slowly making its way to the US. Has anyone seen it?

Born with a weak heart, guess I must be having fun...

Hitchcock & happiness

Here's to clear horizons, things that are creative, and nothing to worry about on your plate... have a happy weekend!

What kind of bird are you?

The trailer for Moonrise Kingdom was released last week and there has been quite a bit of analysis of just how Wes Andersony it is. I think that it's safe to say the answer to that is very Wes Andersony. Maybe you love that, maybe you hate that. I can't help but love it. But I am, admittedly and if you couldn't tell, more than a bit of a nostalgic romantic. A few elements that I especially love:
this François Hardy song and these other things...

Letter writing in a Quonset hut with the cast of Grease in the background...

Shades of desaturated coral, puffy clouds, faded sea & sky blues, binoculars and a light house!

Camp nostalgia.
(All sorts of nostalgia, of course...)

Frances McDormand, paintings of ships, and megaphones.

Yellow filters and grassy fields.

Fantastically imaginary dream tree houses.

Artfully framed catastrophe.

Petite wooden sailboats.

More yellow.

And a dramatic departure from futura.


Let's all go see it together this spring.

Voyage to the (full) Moon

French band, AIR, has composed a new album inspired by the Méliès brothers' 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune. The limited edition DVD includes a restored and remastered (and colorized!) version of the H.G. Wells and Jules Verne-inspired film.

Bande à part

Garance Doré lives out my Band of Outsiders fantasy by getting a chance to dance the Madison in a Paris café. And just to add a glossy finish to this fantasy, it was all done as an advertisement for the classically hip brand Petite Bateau and filmed by cinematic royalty Zoé Cassavetes. Some girls have all the luck.

Love is awkward...

Have you already seen this film, Eagle vs. Shark? It's not new at all... I think that it came out in 2007... it stars Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords and was distributed by Miramax, so it got quite a bit of press for a small New Zealand film. But I still missed it the first time around (blame it on graduate school) and only just saw it recently. So sweet. And sort of painful. And human. That has to be worth a watch, right? Plus, it's got a great soundtrack with songs by the Phoenix Foundation, now a new favorite. Justice is waiting...

Listen Up!

I've been listening to the new Danger Mouse album, 'ROME', all afternoon (while CAD-ing interior elevations) and I'm still not sick of it. It's an edgy shout-out to the Sergio Leone soundtracks of yesteryear. For full atmospheric impact, I really think that it's best to do something that I so rarely do these days: sit and listen to the whole album in one go. And thanks to NPR's First Listen, you can! Don't be surprised if it leads to visions of imaginary Spaghetti Westerns in your mind.

Dame Liz

Goodbye to one of the last grande dames. Her appeal, beyond the obvious beauty & glamor? A tenacity like you just don't see anymore and a tendency to dive head first into the messy passion of it all... "You might as well live" was one of her favorite sayings. And live she did: a life of big loves, big roles & big rocks.

Happy New Year

Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman share a New Year's eve kiss.

Godard on Godard

Jean-Luc Godard's 80th birthday has been commemorated with a new typeface.
Inspired by the graphics of his title credits,
it's free, pretty fantastic, and you can find it here.

Swing Time...

'I get so sentimental when I see how perfect perfection can be.'
Fred Astaire in Top Hat

An adventure film...

...tender & cruel

A love it or hate it sort of film from the French New Wave. I love many of its moments, adore its style, and especially love {always} Belmondo & Karina.

BOMBAY TALKIE

Found this postcard from a 1977 Hindi film at a
contemporary gallery in Dubai...

Early Merchant-Ivory : all singing, all dancing, all fantastic!

Nouvelle Vague

'Parenthetically, now's the time to describe their feelings'