joi, 13 martie 2025

Jose Ramirez@Transilvania Blues Nights -28.03.2025

Jose Ramirez - 28 martie 2025, Rockstadt, Brasov, ora 20.00

Pentru prima oară în România și la Brașov, ”Bad Hombre”, Jose Ramirez vine la clubul Rockstadt din Brașov pentru un concert unic, vineri 28 martie 2025, la ora 20.00!

https://www.facebook.com/events/492695487183106/

Jose Ramirez este considerat artistul latin Blues #1 din lume, nominalizat la Blues Music Award în 2021 și 2023, locul 2 la International Blues Challenge organizate de The Blues Foundation în Memphis, Tennessee. Născut în Costa Rica, Jose a fost pasionat de stilul Chicago West Side Blues. A cântat alături de Keb' Mo', Ronnie Baker Brooks, Buddy Guy, Kingfish, Jimmy Johnson și Anson Funderburgh. Muzica sa este diferită de blues-ul tradițional, are influențe latine, Soul și Rhythm‘n Blues. Este primul artist latino-american care a semnat un contract cu faimoasa casă de discuri de jazz și blues din Chicago, Delmark Records, în 2022, cu albumul “Major League Blues”, apoi cu label-ul Blue Crawlfish, pentru al treilea album al său, “Bad Hombre Live”, care a ieșit alături de un film documentar omonim despre ascensiunea sa ca artist. Deja în “Major League Blues”, Jose Ramirez ”Bad Hombre” și trupa sa, vin acum la Transilvania Blues Nights !!!
"Jose Ramirez is such a tasty guitarist, it's so refreshing " - Shemekia Copeland
" Be Warned, this cat is like Gasoline & Matches: EXPLOSIVE ! "-Jack Sullivan - Blues Music Magazine
" The most Soulful and Heartfelt Blues since Robert Cray burst onto the scene all those years ago" - Stephen Foster BBC

Preț bilete: 100 de lei în pre-sale pe rockstadt.ro, 130 de lei in ziua concertului.  Un eveniment marca Transilvania Blues Nights recomandat de Rock FM și Zile și Nopți.
Sponsori: BCR, Butan Gaz, Dräxlmaier Group, Tehnic Mihor, BitDatamining, Brasov Old Town Apartments.
Parteneri culinari: A-Ha Bistro, Coliba Haiducilor


here's Jose's wayfer for this gig:



Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party (2024)

There was one doc about Tom Petty, Peter Bogdaovich's exhaustive 4 hrs. Running Down a Dream (2007). Now there's also Somewhere You Feel Free (2021), about the amking of his album Wildflowers. And now this Lost documentary about Tom Petty in 1983. And the Heartbreakers. Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party  came out in US theaters in 2024 for a few days, ultra limited. It's the 1st film (lost too) of Cameron Crowe. Featuring the grand weird desert video of "You Got Lucky" from Long After Dark (1982). And the outtakes. And the making of a director - C.C. -


The film was restored for a one-weekend theatrical release in October2024 (on Tom's Bday), and it’s now available to stream on Paramount+ as of March 11.

Rolling Stone article here. 

miercuri, 12 martie 2025

The Monkey (2025)

I said/wrote before that Osgood Perkins' films are creepy, the atmosphere there is hard to breathe, tense, uncanny. There is something unpleasant about them. Longlegs tho was overrated, it came to me sold as the horror of the decade, century, millennium, etc. While it's not the case the film is ok, a superior thriller, veeery creepy and Nicolas Cage performance of the year 2024. Also being highly successful Perkins was asked to do The Monkey, a long belated project, adaptation of an old short story by  Stephen King, published in the anthology Skeleton Crew (1985) . The Monkey was first in print in the November 1980 issue of Gallery magazine. Then, revised and updated, in 1985's Skeleton Crew (story # 3). Inspired by the old classic The Moneky Paw by W. W. Jacobs., but with more twists and shouts.


King's original Monkey played the cymbals as the toy monkeys do. However due to Disney's copyright of the Monkey cymbal playing (from Toy Story 3), the Monkey plays now the drums !!! It's called the -Organ Grinder Monkey, "lifelike", there is no grinder and no organ, actually organs get grinded :)
King's original story was a simple one, and not a real funny one. Osgood (who also has a cameo in the film as Uncle Chip :), changed most of it, the scope, the deaths, the atmosphere, the characters and the vibe, giving it a most dark humor side, the forte of the film starring Theo James (The Gentlemen series) in a dual role, the twin brothers. The duration is pretty cool too (a tight 98 minutes), and so are the references, from King's novels (The Shining, Misery), to the Maine location (also Kings') and the Psycho (motel, stuffed birds, creepiness) and even Vertigo. The ending rises the value of the film at least a Notch. Osgood kinda exorcises himself on this one, big time ("and there was a pale horse whose named..."). Read his bio and see what I mean here. 

Results, a great little film that I hope will not be transformed into a lame franchise-James Wan produced the film through his Atomic Monster banner, surely there will be more drums to bang. 

7 out of 10 / 3 1/2 out of 5 !

duminică, 9 martie 2025

Mickey 17 (2025)

Our entire life is a punishment. 

(Mickey Barnes)

The highly expected (and most postponed release) new film of Bong Joon Ho, Mickey 17, with Robert Pattison in Multiple roles, is so-so. Frankly I don't get the enthusiastic positive reviews. The humor is lame at best with Pattison taking his ques from Jim Carrey's performance in Dumb and Dumber ! It's the Multiplicity Effect all over, clones (or how they're called here, "expendables" ), are getting dumb and dumber...duh. The film finally premiered at the Berlinale Film Fest in February with a worldwide release of March 7th. 

Budgeted at 118 mill. $ (!!!), this is surely a flop for Warner Bros. whom imo did not put a lot of faith in the finished project. The whole thing feels uninspired, the jokes are and you don't care much for Mickey or the Mickeys. Bong's humour is very personal and it worked in all his films prior to this, from The Host to Mother, also the social commentary, class commentary, leftism, was much better in Snowpiercer, which was his 1st external project out of Korea, then a flop, now a cult film and a s***ty cash-in neverending TV (streaming) series. That is why I am gonna go gloves off on Bong here. Wasting four years on this film when you were on top of the world, able to do any film you'd like, totally free of charge (he had final cut on this!). 

The source book is entitled Mickey 7 !!!, not to be confused with the 60's Mickey One ;), the material was customized by Bong for a more personal film for him, his 1st in the USA (shot in the UK Warner Leavesden studios), a follow-up to his all winning Parasite (2019). 

Shot impeccably by Darius Khondji. Dark as his TM and white -ice (the planet Nifleheim) and claustrophobic industrial corridors and chambers. Music, some of it uninspired, some good, by Bong's collaborator  Jung Jae-il (Okja, Parasite/ and the Squid Game series). 

Mark Ruffalo plays over-the-top, same Grand Guignol style as in Poor Things but here he is more like an impression of an Vincent D'Onofrio but she surely channels Trump. Toni Colette too, operatic hysteric evil lady. The aliens/monsters "creepers" are cool, but I pretty doubt they'll make a merch out of them. Starship Troopers "bugs" came to mind, but with the cuteness required. The Korean designer did work before for Bong on The Host.  


2 1/2 out of 5 / 5 out of 10 


miercuri, 5 martie 2025

I'm Still Here/ Ainda Estou Aqui (2024)

I've seen I'm Still Here/ Ainda Estou Aqui in the cinema, now after the Oscar win. A well deserved award ! Have forgoten all about Walter Salles (his last film was in 2012, On the Road, saw that in Cannes then), and I got that this was a very personal project for him. 

Ainda Estou Aqui was nominated for best picture and Fernanda Torres for best actress (she got the Golden Globe tho).  "I'm Still Here" (not to be confused with the Joaquin Phoenix/Cassey Affleck mockumentary with the same name ;) won also best screenplay in last year's Venice Film Festival. It's a powerful film, about family and predestination, and surviving against all odds in adverse situation. It's also a true story that in Brazil it's well known and publicized, now up to be seen and heard by the whole world. These events that happened in all the other dictatorrships, being right or left wing, it's told through the eyes of Eunice Paiva (Torres), the wife of Rubens Paiva, arrested and vanished during the Brazilian dictatorship of 1970's. Mother of 4, later on a strong advocate for Human rights. 

A bit overlong (2h17!-could've been at least 15 mins. shorter), but act 3 redeems the film and uppers its value. On imdb it went straight to "Top rated movie #133"! Ola for Brasil !

Stay for the end credits !


music by Warren Ellis (!), great soundtrack with Brazilian artists, Tom Ze, Caetano Veloso, etc. 

luni, 3 martie 2025

Oscars 2025 (#97): the Show

the Show -my notes:

23 awards to go til 6.10 am ;)

It starts with Somewhere over the Rainbow, it goes into the Wicked songs with the freakish Cynthia and Grande.

Conan O'Brian (hosting for the 1st time), is actually very good, natural with a good sense of pacing. With a little help of Adam Sandler and John Lithgow. Then surprise, he sings s a song, “I won't waste time”, featuring dancers, the sandworm from "Dune" on piano doing “chopsticks” and Deadpool.

Robert Downey jr. presents supporting actor and the least deserving guy gets it, Kieran, who is the same in life as in A Real Pain, as in Succession, kinda same part. Nice speech tho, talking to his wife.

He also looks like a young Kirk Douglas. Glowing eyes.

(commercial break #1)


Wow ! For Animation FLOW wins. Wonderful, Touching ! Lithuania enters the Oscars. Great film, now in Romanian cinemas, go and see it !!! Absolutely sensational, it beats Disney, Pixar and The Giant Robot.

The short animated category I didn't follow. “In the Shadow of the Cypress” won. The two Iranian directors are great ! They just landed in L.A. Three hours ago, they said.

(commercial break #2)

Costume design, no surprises there, Wicked, the first black person to win for costume design.

Another commercial break, # 3

Original script. Sean Baker wins his 1st Oscar for writing Anora. Adapted, Conclave. No surprises here. 

Surely The Brutalist and The Substance and September 5 were better choices but I'm happy for Baker. 

Commercial break, # 4, man, there's more breaks than show...

June Squibb and Scarlett Johansson present the makeup and hairstyling award to The obvious The Substance.

Then we get Halle Berry to let us know the Governer Ball's Awards (November 2024), from Quincy Jones (posthumous) to the Bond producers of EON, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (who gave a way bond to the sharks from Amazon :() -Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

and then we get a 007 tribute clip followed by a dance extravaganza with a superb Margaret Qualley (as I said before, on her way in becoming a A-lister, after OUATiH, Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness, The Substance, Drive-Away Dolls), in a red dress, then we get renditions of Live and Let Die with Lisa , Diamonds are Forever with Doja Cat, Skyfall with Raye, all in good taste, channeling the originals.

Commercial break, # 5

Nice joke of Cinemastreams, Conan featuring Marty Scorsese.

And a anniversary of Kill Bill puts Daryl Hannah on stage. She looks great, presents the award for best Editing. Again, Sean Baker rocks (2nd award !), Anora for editing ! Deservingly.

Divine takes the stage for the supporting actress award presentation. Zoe Saldana wins. Emilia Perez was here, will she win for International film too ?

Commercial break, # 6

Ben Stiller on stage with a joke stolen from SNL Vincent Price skit (& Peter Sellers & more), present the Production Design Award. Wicked". May the Biggest budget film win. And a film about architecture, nem...

Then on the sound of Sympathy for the...who ?, Sir Mick Jagger shows up. Best Song award. Making Bob jokes. El Mal from Emilia Perez win. Sorry, I couldn't care less. The nominations this year for song were awful. 

Commercial break, # 7

Conan does the second Dune Sandworm joke, playing harp ! Sam Jackson (L.) and Selena Gomez (M.) present short documentary film. The Only Girl in the Orchestra wins. Feature: No Other Land. Political moment speech. 

Commercial break, # 8

Conan & the L.A. Firemen Dpt. Firemen jokes.

Miles Teller & Miley Cyrus (in Europe Kilometer & Kilometry). Sound. Dune 2.

Gal Gadot, herself a special FX, in a red dress present the Visual Effects Award. Dune part 2 it is. 

VO/announcer (in my heydays it was Peter Coyote ;) -Nick Offerman, who's voice is kinda off (booze?). 

Commercial break, # 9

Ana de Armas and Sterling K. Brown present the last short award.

Morgan Freeman presents an homage to Gene Hackman. He played together in Unforgiven and Under Suspicion. That introduces the In Memoriam montage I had no clue Fred Roos and Adam Somner. died ..).


Commercial break, # 10

An actor presenter from each film nominated for Cinematography: Joe Alwyn for the  Brutalist. Alba Rohrwacher salutes a Ed Lachman in a wheelchair for Maria. Willem Dafoe for Nosferatu, Zoe Saldana for Emilia Perez, Dave Bautista for Dune part 2. Lol Crawley wins for The Brutalist. Fair enuff. 

Penelope Cruz presents for Best International Film. I'm Still Here/ Ainda Estou Aqui wins (Walter Salles, Brazil). Another big loss for EP, due to bad PR mostly.

Commercial break, # 10

Conan makes another Russian Joke via Anora. Mark Hamill (!!!) presents the award for best Original SCORE. Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist. Well deserved for a Grand, epic score !

Whoopy and Oprah introduce a Quincy Jones musical tribute. Queen Latifah sings a song from The Wiz. 

Commercial break, # 11

Conan: "If you still enjoying this show you have what it's called Stockholm Syndrome". 

Cillian Murphy takes the stage for best actor award. He won last year for Oppenheimer. And...Adrian Brody wins his 2nd Oscar (22 years after 2003's The Pianist) for the part of architect  László Tóth in The Brutalist !!! The most touching moment of the evening. Brody is entering a cool restricted club. Egészségedre !

Enter QT, Quentin iz in ze house ! Best director -ta-dam, Sean Baker for Anora ! His 3d Oscar, suddenly a small struggling indie director becomes a Monster Superstar in the biz. Phones will be ringing, snakes will be crawling, emails will be flowing, agents will be waltzing around & mirages will be presented to him but I have the feeling he won't sell out. Kudos !

Commercial break, # 12

Emma Stone (who won last year for Poor Things) presents Best Actress award. Aaaand surprise, Mikey Madison (Sadie in OUaTiH) wins !!! Anora's fourth Oscar ! Mikey is 25 !

Meg Ryan & Billy Crystal present Best Film. And Anora wins !!! Five Oscars out of Six ! Sean Baker is also co-producer so he gets his fifth award. Bravo !

And they even finished earlier this year ! Sorry for Demi, that was this edition surprise for me. 62 vs. 25. Baby Jane or All About Eve ? Again the SAG proof that no one guesses is perfect. The acting awards were again different from those of the guild. All in all it was a calm and cool edition with the most indie films in an Oscar race, two foreign directors, and wins for Anora 5, Brutalist 3. 

That's it, folks !








duminică, 2 martie 2025

Oscar 2025 (#97) Tonite !!!

All nominations here, my notes on the show here:

My predictions:  guessed all except Demi and not I'm still here (which I noted tho as a possibility).

that does not mean I want all these films to win !!! 


Picture

“Anora” 


Director

Sean Baker, “Anora” 


Actor

Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist” 


Actress

Demi Moore, “The Substance”  WRONG, Mikey Madison wins for Anora !!!


Supporting Actor

Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” 


Supporting Actress

Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez”


Original Screenplay

“Anora”


Adapted Screenplay

“Conclave”

Animated Feature Film

“Flow” (even if Wild Robot is considered faved, Flow is a much better film)


International Feature Film

“Emilia Perez” (France) , could be overpassed by "I'm Still Here" ! Und it was !!!!


Documentary Feature Film

" No Other Land"
I would've gone with SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT but it's too sophisticated, anti-american and with European sensibilities

Original Song

Honestly I dont give a F*** but

“El Mal”from “Emilia Pérez”


Original Score

“The Brutalist” 


Sound

“Dune: Part Two” 


Visual Effects

“Dune: Part Two” 


Film Editing

“Anora“ 


Costume Design

"Wicked"


Makeup and Hairstyling

“The Substance”


Cinematography

“The Brutalist“


Production Design

"Wicked"


sâmbătă, 1 martie 2025

RIP David Johanson

David Johanson from The New York Dolls to his alter ego Buster Pointdexter is gone. He was 75 (born Jan. 9th 1950). No more "Personality Crisis"... Amazingly he lived to be 75 while his bandmates (Johnny Thunders, Sylvain Sylvain, Arthur Kane, Jerry Nolan, Bill Murcia) and the other tough & rough dudes of the era are long gone and buried. The Dolls reunion album (only Johanson and Sylvain) in 2006 was entitled prophetically, "One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This".  , (which incidentally I found & bought at the time on CD in Romania !).


article and obit in The New York Times 

In film, he was the Ghost of the Christmas Past in Scrooged (1988), Bill Murray being a friend of his. 

*

Martin Scorsese (with David Tedeschi) directed a rockumentary, more like a concert film, Personality Crisis: For one Night Only for Showtime, in 2023.


it's a one night allshow with Johanson singing, crosscut with archival footage, interviews- talking funny about his life, a sort of comedic one, as his sense of humor was absolutely great !

He is one of the BIG ONES, of the stature of Iggy and the last of its time, only Patti Smith is still here....unfortunately the world today (hah..what world ?) has forgotten those wild dayz and wild people. Cos it seems they only cahanged t for a while, changed themselves and some of us, and the rest still conformed and zombified. Can't put Your Arms Around a Memory, oh yes, you can !!!

joi, 27 februarie 2025

Rutger Hauer-Like Tears in the Rain

The long in the works documentary  (& awaited by ppl like me) on Rutger Hauer , The Rutger !!!

 will be now on streaaming, amazon prime in March (viaplay in UK).


Trailer here:



RIP Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman, one of the greatest Actors there ever was, (it's said he could play Anyone and Antything), died on Tuesday Feb. 26th. He was 95. He died suddenly along his wife and their dog ! His wife (the 2nd, married in 1991), the pianist Betsy Arakawa, was 64 ! The Police of Santa Fe discovered all three of them....

During the last 3-4 years I re-saw /saw again some of his films with the fear he'll die any moment. So, there was him at his most funniest in Get Shorty, the neo-noir Heist, action mentoring channeling The Conversation part -Tony Scott's Enemy of the State (2 bad it had Will Smith as a lead, if could've been Denzel or Jamie Foxx it'll rock more today), more good action thriller-The Package and the comedy I caught up Heartbreakers. Forgot he had a cameo in The Mexican when I gave that film another shot (totally hated it when it came out), tried to see again The Royal Tenenbaums but remembered how he quarreled with Wes Anderson (which I find completely overrated) and paused it. It's a great part but not a lengthy on.  Also discovered some gems like The Hunting Party (1971), The Split (bit cop part) when Jim Brown died and recently, when Kris Kristofferson passed I saw Cisco Pike (1971). Brilliant wicked part for Gene Hackman, probably last seen by me. 

He was retired since 2004 after the lesser comedy Welcome to Moosesport. He was painting and writing thriller noir/ history fiction novels. 


Hackman received two Academy Awards (for William Friedkin's The French Connection & Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven), two British Academy Films Awards (BAFTA), and four Golden Globes.

My faves after the obvious characters of Popeye Doyle, Harry Caul, Little Bill Daggett and Lex Luthor are Crimson Tide, Prime Cut, The Scarecrow, French Connection II (he's better in Frankenheimer's sequel than in Friedkin's hit, it's harder bit too imo) , Bite the Bullet, Night Moves, Eureka, Under Fire, so on...

Most amusingly he played the blindman in Mel Brooks' parody Young Frankenstein, in 1974, uncredited. It's kind of a cameo but now every obit mentions it as an important part. Come on, you AI generation morons...

As a kid I saw him first in cinemas in Superman, The Poseidon Adventure, The Domino Principle, Marooned, Zandy's Bride, The Gypsy Moths (that on TV). Then later his breakthrough part in Bonnie & Clyde. 

He was a superb villain always, suave and smiling. Also he could play men in uniform, military authority at best. And grand in westerns. But his secret gift was comedy. He Is, was and will be one of my favorite Actors. And as far as I checked everyone says he  was the Best Actor that ever IS !


 "If you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being."

                                                             Gene Hackman (1930-2025)



marți, 18 februarie 2025

The Gorge (2024)

Would've been nice to see The Gorge on the big screen, but it's streaming fodder (Apple+).

The leads are charismatic, Milles Teller (Whiplash) and Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa) and they have chemistry, which helps a lot. It's also a loves troy, between two isolated snipers, one burned-out American (Teller), one Lithuanian (Joy) on watch on towers on both sides of a mysterious isolated Gorge.


The story remined me of many films, The Mist, the combo of WW2 films of action and horror with experiments gone wrong (The Bunker, Outpost, Frankenstein's Army, Overlord, Biatlov Pass, etc).

Plus the riff on the corporate evil (Resident Evil;), Sigourney Weaver in an office with the Baku Flame Towers on her back ;) 

Scott Derrickson's (Sinister, Doctor Strange) direction here is good, but I guess it's the story and screenplay that rised the bar (written by Zach Dean). Location helps, gorgeous mountain scenery (in Norway, Wales and Durham County in UK).

Score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, and good songs onto it. Rockin', grooves-The  Watchtower by Devlin & Ed Sheeran, Twisted Sister, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Ramones, The Dead Weather.

afterthoughts, "The Hollow men" and the other creatures in the gorge inspired by Polish surrealist painter Zdzislaw Beksinski. Which art is most fascinating and I suggest you dig further in.



luni, 17 februarie 2025

L'amour Ouf (2024)

L'amour Ouf / Beating Hearts in English, Iubire fara limite in Romanian. In competition (!) at last years' Cannes film festival, French star Gilles Lellouche adaptation of a Neville Thompson novel is in Romanian Cinemas now. 

Great on the big screen (widescreen!), operatic, with a superb score and soundtrack, great cinematography, this is the most American French film in a long time, and that's a good thing imo. In Cannes they kinda hated the film -of course, oh la la), way too commercial for them to enjoy it if it's not made by Tarantino or James Grey...

Epic running time: 2h46. 1st cut was 4 hours though.

It's based (loosely) on the 1997 best-selling Irish novel "Jackie Loves Johnser OK?" by Neville Thompson, whose French title is "L'Amour Ouf" ( a pun on the expression "L'Amour Fou", also a film by Jacques Rivette from 1968).

Uneven, pastiche, but highly energetic and frenetic this is not a prefect film, far from it, but I loved the energy, the musical rhythm (greta songs, from The Cure to Billy Idol, to Sirius by Alan Parsons project, cuts from John Carpenter's from Escape rom New York score, closing on Foreigner-Urgent!!!), from the opening lettering and the pulsing dramatic score by Jon Brion (with whom Lellouche worked on his second film as director, Le grand bain/Sink or swim). 

Shades of Tarantino and Wild at Heart. And of course West Side Story. And Scorsese's touch. And maybe Lelouch too ;)


original poster with announcement of coming out in 2023. 

*Alain Chabat won best suppoting actor at 2025's Cesar awards. 

luni, 10 februarie 2025

Anora wins PGA/DGA !

Anora might win best pic and best director at this year's Oscars. 

The Producers Guild of America named Anora the best picture of the year at the 2025 PGA Awards. The surprise win came just an hour after director Sean Baker took home the DGA’s top prize — establishing the Neon film as the official Oscars frontrunner for Best Picture. Anora also won Best Picture at last night’s Critics Choice Awards.



duminică, 9 februarie 2025

The Brutalist (2024)

"The American myth is something that is not frequently undressed, especially in this 'coming to America' fable that we have seen rehashed again and again"

 Brady Corbet

(best director Venice Film Festival 2024 for The Brutalist)

film nominated for 10 Oscars

Vulture: The Brutalist spans 33 years on screen and over three and a half hours of runtime, including a 15-minute intermission at its midpoint. It’s the first film in decades 9NN 61 years to be precise!) to be fully shot in VistaVision, and at the Venice Film Festival, where it had its premiere, it was projected on 70mm.

Real vs. fiction:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250206-the-brutalist-brady-corbet-and-adrien-brody-on-ww2-jewish-experience-in-the-us



TBC

a great talk between Brady Corbet and Sean Baker (Anora), about cinema, budgets, choices, passion and compromises.


The Brutalist just won 4 BAFTA awards, best director, best actor, best cinematography and best score (Daniel Blumberg), which I think deserve also the Oscar for that category.

joi, 30 ianuarie 2025

RIP Marianne Faithfull

...so Long Marianne...

that song is not about her, but Stones' are. She cowrote Sister Morphine with Mick and Keef and had her own version recorded in 1969 with Ry Cooder and Jack Nietzsche.

It has also been claimed that Marianne Faithfull inspired Stones songs including You Can't Always Get What You Want and Dear Doctor, while it has also been reported that The Beatles' And Your Bird Can Sing was inspired by her and Mick' Jaggers relationship.


pic from Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) by Jack Cardiff, where Marianne was at her most sexual peak, together with Alain Delon who kinda stole her briefly from her boyfriend Mick Jagger. 

I got a record of her, Before the Poison, and surely Broken English. She has two songs in Alan Rudolph's Trouble in Mind (1985). Her last album was in 2012 with Warren Ellis & Nick Cave & Brian Eno, She Walks In Beauty. Tru ;)



last time saw her in Irina Palm (2007) at TIFF, a risque role of a grandmother forced to work on a peephole. She was also in Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola. 

miercuri, 29 ianuarie 2025

La traque (1975)

La Traque / The track (1975) is an excellent french thriller with psychological and social touches, it can be included in the pre-survival horror genre. A riff on the Most Dangerous Game meets La regle du jeu with a bit of Straw Dogs..

The social / class commentary  (la bourgeoisie de la campagne/province), and the solid acting by some of the best French actors of that time (Jean Paul Marielle, Michel Lonsdale, Philippe Leotard, Jean-Luc Bideau, Michel Constantin), the presence of American Mimsy Farmer (in lots of giallos in Italy at that period) , the atmosphere (no music except the opening and end credits), the time unity (all almost in real time, one day) and the great photography by Claude Renoir ! make this one of the most interesting films of this kind of the seventies. An unknown gem ! Considered to be the best Serge Leroy film. 





luni, 27 ianuarie 2025

Marcello Mio (2024)

 First good film I've seen in a cinema this year. Also from last year, in the Cannes 77 film fest official selection. A very personal film, una affare di famiglia with everyone playing their own parts. 

Marcello Mio is of course about Marcello Mastroianni, and Chiara Mastroianni, and her mom, Catherine Deneuve. And the buddies, from Fabrice Luchini to Nicole Garcia, Benjamin Biolay (Chira's ex), Melvin Poupaud (un autre Chira's ex ;), all playing themselves. Also Stefania Sandrelli and Marcello MM himself in an excerpt from pietro Germi's 1961 Divorzio all'italiana/Divorce Italian Style. And Francesca Fialdini, a hot TV host from Rai.  


written and directed by Christophe Honoré (les Chansons d'amour), 

super self referential (meta-meta) and for true cinephiles, including plot points from MM's films, a dog, a soldier, a bridge, a white kitten, and family memoires, this film is not for everyone. But maybe those who see it (of course I was alone in the theater, Monday at 16.45 !!!) should dig further. from the easy clues, 8 1/2  & La Dolce Vita, to the more obscure family references (including Maria Callas, a specific restaurant in Paris, Ginger & Fred, a song about how Marcello makes you laugh, etc.)


Beautiful soundtrack, including Isao Tomita's version of Clair de Lune 

joi, 23 ianuarie 2025

Oscar 2025 (#97) nominations !!!

I have seen now  The Brutalist (wow!) and A Complete Unknown (bof...), 

those films I wrote about will have links on their titles, very happy for Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice !!! And for the 5 nominations for The Substance !  Even tho Emilia Perez will win big ( incl. best foreign film, UPDATE , that was then, after that EP fell bigtime off the US charts), I stand by Demi Moore ! And may Flow go home to Latvia with the best animation award ! Anora rocks too !!!

(some of these films are on my Top 2024 films list here). 

Talk back on March 2nd (3d in Ro.) ;)


Picture

"Anora" 

"The Brutalist" 

"A Complete Unknown" 

"Conclave" 

"Dune: Part Two" 

"Emilia Perez" 

"I'm Still Here" 

"Nickel Boys" 

"The Substance" 

"Wicked" 

Director

Sean Baker, "Anora" 

Brady Corbet, "The Brutalist" 

James Mangold, "A Complete Unknown" 

Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Perez" 

Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance" 


Actor

Adrien Brody, "The Brutalist" 

Timothee Chalamet, "A Complete Unknown" 

Colman Domingo, "Sing Sing" 

Ralph Fiennes, "Conclave" 

Sebastian Stan, "The Apprentice" 


Actress

Cynthia Erivo, "Wicked" 

Karla Sofia Gascon, "Emilia Perez" 

Mikey Madison, "Anora" 

Demi Moore, "The Substance" 

Fernanda Torres, "I'm Still Here" 


Supporting Actor

Yura Borisov, "Anora" 

Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain" 

Edward Norton, "A Complete Unknown" 

Guy Pearce, "The Brutalist" 

Jeremy Strong, "The Apprentice"


Supporting Actress

Monica Barbaro, "A Complete Unknown" 

Ariana Grande, "Wicked" 

Felicity Jones, "The Brutalist" 

Isabella Rosellini, "Conclave" 

Zoe Saldana, "Emilia Perez" 


Original Screenplay

"Anora" 

"The Brutalist" 

"A Real Pain" 

"September 5" 

"The Substance"


Adapted Screenplay

"A Complete Unknown" 

"Conclave" 

"Emilia Perez" 

"Nickel Boys" 

"Sing Sing" 


Animated Feature Film

"Flow" 

"Inside Out 2" 

"Memoir of a Snail" 

"Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl" 

"The Wild Robot" 


International Feature Film

"I'm Still Here" (Brazil)

"The Girl With the Needle" (Denmark) 

"Emilia Perez" (France) 

"The Seed of the Sacred Fig" (Germany) 

"Flow" (Latvia) 


Documentary Feature Film

"Black Box Diaries" 

"No Other Land"

"Porcelain War" 

"Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat" 

"Sugar King" 


Documentary Short Film 

"Death By Numbers" 

"I Am Ready, Warden" 

"Incident" 

"Instruments of a Beating Heart" 

"The Only Girl in the Orchestra" 

Animated Short Film

"Beautiful Men" 

"In the Shadow of the Cypress" 

"Magic Candies" 

"Wander to Wonder" 

"Yuck!" 


Live-Action Short Film

"A Lien" 

"Anuja" 

"I'm Not a Robot" 

"The Last Ranger" 

"The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent" 


Original Song

"El Mal" from "Emilia Perez" 

"The Journey" from "The Six Triple Eight" 

"Like a Bird" from "Sing Sing" 

"Mi Camino" from "Emilia Perez" 

"Never Too Late" from "Elton John: Never Too Late" 


Original Score

"The Brutalist" 

"Conclave" 

"Emilia Perez" 

"Wicked" 

"The Wild Robot" 


Sound

"A Complete Unknown" 

"Dune: Part Two" 

"Emilia Perez" 

"Wicked" 

"The Wild Robot" 


Visual Effects

"Alien: Romulus" 

"Better Man" 

"Dune: Part Two" 

"Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" 

"Wicked" 


Film Editing

"Anora"

"The Brutalist"

"Conclave" 

"Emilia Perez" 

"Wicked" 


Costume Design

"A Complete Unknown" 

"Conclave" 

"Gladiator II" 

"Nosferatu" 

"Wicked" 


Makeup and Hairstyling

"A Different Man"

"Emilia Perez" 

"Nosferatu"

"The Substance" 

"Wicked" 


Cinematography

"The Brutalist"

"Dune: Part Two 

"Emilia Perez" 

"Maria"  (Ed Lachman, great ! best thing in the film! he also has 4 noms. but no win...)

"Nosferatu" 


Production Design

"The Brutalist" 

"Conclave" 

"Dune: Part Two" 

"Nosferatu" 

"Wicked" 

miercuri, 22 ianuarie 2025

RIP John Sykes, Garth Hudson, Bernard Blier, Jeannot Szwarc & Joan Plowright

...had no time to post more, in time of our Eamonn McCormack gig on Friday 24 !

English guitar hero John Sykes, from Blue Murder, Thin Lizzy, Tygers of Pang Tang and Whitesnake, he was only 65 !!!



Garth Hudson, the last surviving member of THE BAND is gone at 87 ! After the demises of   Richard Manuel (suicide in 1986 at 42 !), Rick Danko(1999), Levon Helm  (2012) & Robbie Robertson on my Bday in 2023....



Bertrard Blier, the great French director of Nihilistic films like Les Valseuses and Buffet Froid, he was 85. 



also French director Jeannot Szwarc, at 87. Somewhere in Time, Jaws 2, Supergirl. 



and Dame Joan Plowright, sir Laurence Olivier's former wife at 95. She shot in Romania in Callas Forever. 



luni, 20 ianuarie 2025

Lynch would've been 79 (LMA !)


 David Lynch died 4 days ago. 
Today he would've been 79. 

                                                                     Lynch by Lynch

*

David Lynch, our beloved dad, was a guiding light of creativity, love, and peace. On Monday, January 20th—what would have been his 79th birthday—we invite you all to join us in a worldwide group meditation at 12:00pm NOON PST for 10 minutes. Let us come together, wherever we are, to honor his legacy by spreading peace and love across the world. Please take this time to meditate, reflect, and send positivity into the universe. Thank you for being part of this celebration of his life. Love, Jennifer, Austin, Riley and Lula Lynch

(that is Ten PM in Romania)


*****



Toototabon's song  from You Don't Know Jack !, Lynch's short film is on Netflix released on his 74th birthday !


Yesterday I saw Blue Velvet's Extended Cut. 47 minutes of lost footage put together by Felipe Guerra, it's here on youtube. 

Today I'm watching his commercials, love the ones for Japanese Georgia coffee with the Twin Peaks cast.


here are Lynch's Ten favorite films. 

Six of his films are on MUBI, streaming now for free (one week).  under the title: Delusions and Dreams !