Shyscapes (2011)

Music: Nils Frahm
Tristana
Album: Wintermusik

Alejandro Jodorowsky — La danza de la realidad (2013)

Sunday's idiotic post: Werner Herzog on chickens

Werner Herzog's letter to his cleaning lady

The Sabotage Times has published what is presented as a letter from Werner Herzog to his cleaning lady. The mention "by Dale Shaw" and the total exaggeration of this letter leads me to believe this is a fake. But it's a good, funny fake.

Rosalina. Woman.

You constantly revile me with your singular lack of vision. Be aware, there is an essential truth and beauty in all things. From the death throes of a speared gazelle to the damaged smile of a freeway homeless. But that does not mean that the invisibility of something implies its lack of being. Though simpleton babies foolishly believe the person before them vanishes when they cover their eyes during a hateful game of peek-a-boo, this is a fallacy. And so it is that the unseen dusty build up that accumulates behind the DVD shelves in the rumpus room exists also. This is unacceptable.

I will tell you this Rosalina, not as a taunt or a threat but as an evocation of joy. The joy of nothingness, the joy of the real. I want you to be real in everything you do. If you cannot be real, then a semblance of reality must be maintained. A real semblance of the fake real, or “real”. I have conquered volcanoes and visited the bitter depths of the earth’s oceans. Nothing I have witnessed, from lava to crustacean, assailed me liked the caked debris haunting that small plastic soap hammock in the smaller of the bathrooms. Nausea is not a sufficient word. In this regard, you are not being real.

Now we must turn to the horrors of nature. I am afraid this is inevitable. Nature is not something to be coddled and accepted and held to your bosom like a wounded snake. Tell me, what was there before you were born? What do you remember? That is nature. Nature is a void. An emptiness. A vacuum. And speaking of vacuum, I am not sure you’re using the retractable nozzle correctly or applying the ‘full weft’ setting when attending to the lush carpets of the den. I found some dander there.

I have only listened to two songs in my entire life. One was an aria by Wagner that I played compulsively from the ages of 19 to 27 at least 60 times a day until the local townsfolk drove me from my dwelling using rudimentary pitchforks and blazing torches. The other was Dido. Both appalled me to the point of paralysis. Every quaver was like a brickbat against my soul. Music is futile and malicious. So please, if you require entertainment while organizing the recycling, refrain from the ‘pop radio’ I was affronted by recently. May I recommend the recitation of some sharp verse. Perhaps by Goethe. Or Schiller. Or Shel Silverstein at a push.

The situation regarding spoons remains unchanged. If I see one, I will kill it.

That is all. Do not fail to think that you are not the finest woman I have ever met. You are. And I am including on this list my mother and the wife of Brad Dourif (the second wife, not the one with the lip thing). Thank you for listening and sorry if parts of this note were smudged. I have been weeping.

Your money is under the guillotine.

Herzog.

Ben Frost — There Are No Others, There Is Only Us

There Are No Others, There Is Only Us is a video installation by Marc Silver, filmmaker about the power of crowds. The visceral music of Ben Frost (already discussed in this blog) has been composed to accompany the images.

In a time where the world is ever more connected and unbordered, Marc Silver considers whether crowds are a force for oppression, or a potential for resistance. There are no others, there is only us is a powerful visual metaphor illustrating the nature of collaboration and the power of crowds, with music composed by producer Ben Frost.

Fire Walk With Me — Group show [Corpo Gallery]

Corpo Gallery in Los Angeles presents a group art exhibition called Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. In february 2011 an exhibition called In the Trees was held at Clifton's Brookdale restaurant (you can see some of it here). However since Clifton is a restaurant, the art was only displayed during one week. Corpo Gallery contacted David Lynch and proposed doing a sequel to the first exhibition. See more at High-Fructose

Lori Earley

Brett Amory

Essao Andrews

Ryan Heshka

Martin Wittfooth

Stanley Kubrick: New York in the 40's

Before Stanley Kubrick, the director, there was Stanley Kubrick, the photographer. In 1945, at the age of 17, Kubrick sold one of his photos to Look magazine, a few months later he joined the staff as a photographer. He worked for Look until 1950 when he decided to make a career in filmmaking. Not surprisingly there is something of his movies in these photographs, the composition, the lighting, the drama.

Android Dreams — Tokyo Time-Lapse

I love the Blade Runner soundtrack...
Fits perfectly with this Tokyo Time-Lapse.

Dead Can Dance — Yulunga (1988)

I already posted the splendid Dead Can Dance video for The Host of Seraphim. Here is the second video made out of images of the Movie Baraka by Ron Fricke.


Dead Can Dance
Yulunga
Album: Into the Labyrinth (1988)
Images from the movie Baraka by Ron Fricke

Tomasz Stanko — Grand Central (2009)

I'm in no way a jazz expert but I do enjoy a few jazz musicians. The polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko is definitely one of my favorites. He has an album called Dark Eyes released as The Tomasz Stanko Quintet on ECM Records and I keep returning to it. There is something dark and introspective in his music that I haven't found in a lot of jazz musicians.

Just found out this fantastic official music video for the song Grand Central featured on Dark Eyes. It was created by Katarzyna Kijel and Przemyslaw Adams. It was nominated Best Animated Music Video at the Yach Film Festival in 2010.


Tomasz Stanko Quintet
Grand Central
Album: Dark Eyes (2009)

Cliff Martinez — First Sleep (2002)

Cliff Martinez
First Sleep
Album: Solaris soundtrack (2002)

Andrei Tarkovsky — Polaroids [Instant Light]

Polaroids by russian director Andrei Tarkovsky (Solaris, Andrei Rublev, Stalker). These images have the dreamlike quality and color of his movies. If you want to see more of his photographs I recommend the book Instant Light Tarkovsky Polaroids.

"Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." — Ingmar Bergman

Like tears in the rain

It is thirty years ago (on the 2nd of March 1982) that Philip K. Dick, science fiction writer passed away. He was the creator of strange, paranoid universes. His books have inspired many science fiction movies (the best being Bladerunner in my opinion).

Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts (2007)

It was just last summer that I stumbled upon the work of Philip Glass. I became addicted to his music and the album Solo Piano played in my house every evening. The same thing happened to director Scott Hicks (Shine), when his son took him to a midnight screening of Koyaanisqati, a movie scored by Glass. Since then, he became an unconditional fan.

In 2005, Hicks started working on a documentary about the composer. The result is an intimate portrait of Philip Glass. In this movie we discover a man who is profundly human, funny, intelligent and spiritual. But also a man who can be stubborn, obsessed by his work and makes huge sacrifices for his music. Scott Hicks followed the composer during a two years period, filming him at home, in his cottage in Nova Scotia and also at work with famous directors. I wouldn't recommend this movie for people who don't know the work of Glass, but this film is essential viewing for anyone interested in the work of the composer.

If you want to discover Philip Glass and you are intimidated by his huge discography, here are my suggestions: Glassworks (1982), Koyaanisqati (1983), Solo Piano (1989) and the Songs from the Trilogy compilation of works for the opera (1989).

Short movie — The Cat Piano

Country: Australia
Director: Ari Gibson and Eddie White
Narrator: Nick Cave

Wings of Desire

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
From Her to Eternity
Album: From Her to Eternity (1984)
Scene from the movie Wings of Desire (1987)

Vision - Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen (2009)

I took the bad habit of checking movie ratings on imdb. It can be interesting but also very misleading. Some very good movies don't really have such a fabulous rating there (in my opinion at least). Anyway all that to say that I wasn't expecting much from Vision (with a 6,6 rating on imdb) but I was pleasantly surprised.

The movie is the romanced biography of Hildegard Von Bingen, Benedictine abess in the 12th century. I already knew about her musical compositions, but not much about her life. She was a writer, an herborist, an expert in many scientific fields and she had a correspondance with some of the most influential people of her time. She was also having visions (some heavenly, some apocalyptic). Her reputation as a visionary gave her an important credibility with the church, but also with politicians. Historians now believe that she suffered from terrible migraines and the visions were the consequence of her affliction. She is now remembered for her beautiful musical compositions.

The movie is by Margarethe von Trotta, German feminist filmmaker. Obviously a lot of the movie is portrayed in a feminist point of view. A perspective that is very pertinent considering the place women had in the medieval society. The historical retelling of events is very interesting, and seems to be accurate from what I later read. And the main actress, Barbara Sukowa (known for her roles in Fassbinder movies) is very good. Of course there is the mandatory love story, probably fictional, taking place between Hildegard and her novice Richardis von Stade. Unfortunately we don't see much of Hildegarde's visions, it could have been a pretext for beautiful scenes. Instead, the movie is more centered on the historic storytelling of the life of the Abess. My biggest dissapointment is probably with the general atmosphere of the movie, everything seems very... clean, not like I imagine the middle ages.

Alejandro Jodorowsky — Quote of the day

"Most directors make films with their eyes;
I make films with my testicles."

Amer (2009)

I often feel a little bored with the tactics of todays cinema. So of course movies with a bit of nostalgia speak to me. If you like italian horror cinema, have a look at the movie Amer by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. It is a very nice homage to the 70's italian movies of Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci and company. The soundtrack is beautiful (some of it borrowed to Sergio Leone and other italian composers). The movie has that original feel, splendid images, with a lot of use of close-ups, saturated colors and rough montage. It is a fun stylistic exercise in a genre that we don't see anymore.

Short film

Tune for Two (2011)
Country: Sweden
Director: Gunnar Järvstad

Can't get that damn song out of my head!