Animated Discussions: Loving Vincent

I'm looking out for "Loving Vincent" - a film produced by Polish animator Dorota Kobiela and film director Hugh Welchman (who also worked on the 2006 animation "Peter and the Wolf"). They just got an Oscar nomination and the European Film Academy gave it their 2017 European Animated Feature Film Award.
The project was Kobiela's labour of love which everyone said could not be done: a film about Vincent Van Gogh animated with frames individually painted in the style of the man himself. "CGI it": they said. "No": said the team whose dream it was.

From a test run in 2012 they managed to tackle problems such as frame size vs varying canvas size of source paintings; film timeline vs depicted seasons in chosen image; varying styles of the painter (Van Gogh) himself... you name it.

And with a team of 80+ painters (including Helford-based artist Sarah Wimperis) and a method involving rotoscoping live-action filming ... They did it.

Take time, if you can, to watch the "making of" video at the end of Ashley Lo Russo's  Review of "Loving Vincent" on the Canadian Animation Blog.

Animated Discussions: Wolf Children by Mamoru Hosoda

I am not so much of a wolf ... as I am a rabbit. But you know that I love my cartoons and that I love Japanese cartoons particularly.
Yesterday I watched "Wolf Children" -  Mamoru Hosoda's 2012 film release, very reminiscent of the Ghibli tradition of fantasy family tales for all ages.

Its story is about student Hana who falls in love with a mysterious young man she sees at her college lectures. But his dark secret is that he is a werewolf, a race long thought to have died out in Japan. Their love affair continues and he and Hana go on to have two young children: a girl, Yuki (Snow), and a boy, Ame (Rain). Fate forces Hana to lose her lover and soon the intrusions of modern urban life prove too much for Hana and her tiny human-wolf children. Hana moves to a rural community and the film follows the family as the children grow towards adulthood. How can Hana raise them as a human on her own? And how will they live? As wolves or humans?

I enjoyed the film very much but somehow it missed something that I find in the Ghibli classics. It's not so much the visuals, I think, as in the story-telling. Ghibli or rather Miyazaki's characters can be subtly drawn in terms of ambiguity or gender "type". In Hosoda's film it seems that boys are expected to be "tough" wolves and girls to be more human "tender" and perhaps woe betide if they do not conform that easily. Mmmnn! (She do say stroking her old-lady chin thoughtfully.) But it's a great story which involved me and The Old Man easily on a wintry evening.

And I wouldn't mind getting hold of a copy of the the next Hosoda: "The Boy And The Beast".

Animated Discussions: Bath House by Niki Lindroth von Bahr

For fans of Nordic Noir ... or "slow film" as in Roy Andersson  ... Bahr's award-winning "Bath House" is a meticulous stop motion film set in a Swedish public swimming bath.
If you think you've had a bad day at work take pity on this shift manager. I think it's funny in a bleak way but then I love the aforementioned Andersson and I adored the Icelandic comedy series set in an all-night garage -The Night Shift.

The film is in Swedish with English subtitles. If you don't get the subtitles, click on the CC button at bottom right on video bar.

Bath House from Niki Lindroth von Bahr on Vimeo.

Travels With Our Film Life: West Cornwall, 1895 - "Tin"

Well, we didn't have to travel far for this one...a few miles down the road to be precise....
and a bit of time travel back to the 19th century tin mines, churches and mermaids of West Penwith.

We did indeed get ourselves to the local picture house alongside 40 or so others to watch Miracle Theatre's "Tin". And so successful has it been... the cinema chain has put on second showings and extended the run. (Get it while you can...in certain salubrious cinemas.)

It's a gem of a low-cost movie... using quite a degree of green-screen digital scenes via the skills of St. Just-based animation company Spider Eye. Can one have an intimate melodrama? Think that's what it is. A tight-laced, religious mine captain, his invalid mother and their pretty housemaid...add the owner of a struggling tin mine and the swindling ways of bankers (boo!), a love lorn vicar and a traveling opera company bringing "Fidelio" to the Cornish masses.... and you do have plenty of adventure.
It is said that the banking swindle was based on a real-life "accountancy error" (eh-hem) what be written up as a novel by Edward Bosanketh in 1888. (It is rumoured the bank concerned bought up all copies they could find and did destroy them. Well, I never.... Obviously one or two got through.) Lovely performances all round... though the "walking" against a digital background did leave a bit to be desired, mind... Hats off to many and a special doff to Steve Jacobs's anguished Parsimonia, invalid mother of Ben Dyson's thoroughly repressed mine captain, Rundle.
The Old Man be beside himself to hear Ben Luxon and we all do wear a candle on our heads in celebration.

Another Night At The Cinema: Coming Soon... "Tin"

I do not know what have come over The Old Man. When I do yell that there is an email about the up-coming showing of Cornish film "Tin" at the local cinema and... does he want to go? I am momentarily discombobulated when he shouts back "Yes".
Can this be true? Am I to go out of an evening yet again? So Soon? Like... within the year?
It appears the ease of getting to a picture-palace to see something different have become an approved thing on his part.
So there it is. I have booked a couple of tickets for a week or so's time. Well, Well.....

So... Cornish film.... Cornish Theatre Company... Cornish story and setting.... retired Cornish  opera singer Ben Luxon, Kernow-philes Jennie Agutter and Dudley Sutton, and numerous Cornish and Cornwall-based actors. All celebrating a saga of tin-mining, banking and touring theatre. We is looking forward.
Hah-Haarh Poldark!


Tin Trailer 2015 from Miracle Theatre on Vimeo.

Animated Discussions: "The Congress" by Ari Folman

Just watched The Congress on DVD - a combination live action/animation film. Now I couldn't find it in the shop under "Animation"... but I did find it under "Sci-fi". And that sci-fi hating Old Man did watch it. Mainly because it is another film from Ari Folman whose full animation "Waltz with Bashir"  (based on memories of his own and of friends who were soldiers in the Israeli army at the time of the Shatila Massacre).....he do like.

The Congress stars Robin Wright... as Robin Wright, a middle-aged film star facing the choice of accepting her final contract... to be digitally scanned and become the property of the film company. She must not act or perform in any way for the duration of the 20 year contract, because the film company Miramount owns the character Robin Wright. She finds this an outrageous offer but her son is ill... and as an "aging" Hollywood property she has no prospect of work. What follows is a long exploration of identity, choice, reality, fantasy not to mention the Hollywood machine.
I found it a quite difficult but fantastic film. It is layered with allusions... even the animated sequences refer to different animation styles, including my favourite Japanese master, Miyazaki. Towards the end the film reminded me of "Solaris"... the Tarkovsky version... it had the same flavour of psychological journey. Then when the credits went up I saw that it was based on The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem, the author of the originating novel of Solaris. Which sends The Old Man scurrying to his bookshelves to see if he has it.... cos he do like Lem. But No. Have to get on the internet and see what we can find.

For me The Congress is a feast of a film which left me pondering for some time afterward.

Travels With My Film Life: Ireland, 1930s - Ken Loach's "Jimmy's Hall"

.... County Leitrim during the 1930s ...and Ken Loach's latest,  and perhaps last, feature film. (He says you need a lot of energy to make a film... and as he is nearly 80....)

A right blood-boiler is "Jimmy's Hall"  too... based on the true story of Irish exile-returned Jimmy Gralton who rebuilds the local "hall" as a place to learn, dance (jazz even), meet and so on. But it is shortly after the Irish War of Independence and such socialist goings on were not to be countenanced.
The film tells the story of Jimmy and his friends' struggle to keep the Hall going against strong opposition from the Church and local Law and Order....

Beautifully shot and filmed...
You know how you can see a scene in a film and know what time of day it is by the light and the quality of the sound? Well that's just what happens with some of the exteriors around the "Hall" ....And... veteran Irish actor Jim Norton gives a splendidly chilling performance as the local Priest.

Animated Discussions: Real-life Settings And Lighting for Paul Howell's "Husk"

With a life-sized puppet and real backdrops - "Husk" is a stop motion animation set on the streets of Melbourne and telling the tale of a dryad amongst feral fairies! It's currently doing the rounds of film and animation festivals. The film is by animation software "Stopmotion Pro" owner, Paul Howell with music by Bruce Smeaton.
Follow this link to a set of blog posts that describe its making... including some of the problems involved in shooting on real-time city streets.
And this is a very short trailer!


Husk film trailer from Paul Howell on Vimeo.

Travels With My Film Life: Ireland, Sligo... "Calvary"

The other night we visit Sligo with "Calvary".... a wonderful, dark, moving film by John Michael McDonagh.
In a small coastal community, a priest, Father James, hears confession in which a man recounts his years of abuse at the hands of a priest and tells his confessor... how much better to kill a good priest than a bad one. The man's abuser is dead now anyway... so Father James must make his peace and prepare for his own death in one week's time, for he is the "good" priest chosen. Father James is played by Brendan Gleeson (am now a fan... after watching him as Ray of "In Bruges") and what follows is both at times humorous and at other times bleak. Perhaps a metaphor based on Christ's approach to his place of execution, this is certainly a study of man, conscience, love, faith... I dunno. But it is the sort of powerful film, packed full of strong performances, that you can't help thinking about long after it's finished.

Guilty Pleasures: Film Music - The Old Man Speaks

The Old Man do remonstrate with me that he DO like film music.
I say "Huh!" to that.
"Yes," he say " I like that man what wrote the music for Truffaut's "Day for Night".
"Who's that?"
"Can't remember.... But I also like the one who wrote for Cocteau... Er.... Begins with a A..."
"Auric." say I, forever the reference librarian.
"Yes. That's it."
So there we are. We both like a spot of film music. But he likes French and I like Italian.

And here's a trail for Cocteau's "Orpheus" including some of Auric's music from the Criterion Collection over at YouTube.

Guilty Pleasures: Film Music

I do admit that sometimes I like to listen to film music.
I have the odd CD of such....(Ennio Morricone)
Why is this a guilty pleasure? Because The Old Man do not approve of such a thing. Despite his own passion for  Badalamenti's "Twin Peaks" music. Well...like many, including myself, our own passions are the exceptions that prove the rule... He do sneer at the genre as a whole.... 'cos it is not proper stuff.
But if I like it. I love it.

So there I be on Saturday afternoon.... minding my own business... when Radio 3's "Sound of Cinema" pops up. This episode is not a mixed one, but a programme dedicated to the music of Nino Rota... (Zeffirelli, Visconti, Coppola's "The Godfather"...) I'd already missed Part One last week... but I be able to listen to this one - dedicated to his work with Fellini.
I be transported to the world of Italian film. Sunglasses on, I bop around a bit. Oh, I enjoyed it, me.

Brit-based listeners can catch this episode over the next few days til about 23rd August - here.

Animated Discussions: "The Maker" by Zealous Creative

The Maker is an award-winning animated short by Los Angeles based production company Zealous Creative - who produce ads, corporate videos and short films.
Devised as a vehicle for a music score by Paul Halley and using the puppets of Amanda Louise Spayd the end result is a wonderful tale of the excitement...and pain behind being "A Maker".

You can watch an accompanying, fascinating, short that describes the long journey of  "making" of "The Maker" here.

Travels With My Film Life: Naples, 1963 - Rosi's "Le Mani Sulla Citta"

Ciao! We are having a very noisy and dramatic time in what has turned out to be a very noisy, dusty city. All this building going on... And the music is very loud also. The Old Man is getting grumpy and looking for ear plugs.
We spend most of our time amongst the wheeler-dealers of Naples - Councillors, politicians, developers .... Councillors who ARE politicians and developers...
We are watching "Le Mani Sulla Citta" of 1963 by Francesco Rosi. Starring American actor Rod Steiger (dubbed) as property developer and councillor Edoardo Nottola. (This is the same year that Rosi's mentor Visconti released his film "The Leopard" starring another American name - Burt Lancaster.)
Nottola's building practices cause the collapse of an adjacent tenement, killing two people and maiming a young boy. But most of the film is about what goes on in the City Hall as elections come up - much wheeling and dealing.
The music is loud, the people are loud... there is much arguing and shouting going on all the time. But above all this is a film about corruption... about the underbelly of the development race going on in Rosi's native Naples at the time. Certainly the opening shots are jaw-dropping as the aerial shots of the buildings reveal new blocks perched on "stilts" over the frail sloping land.

Listening To: "I Lie" by David Lang From Soundtrack of " La Grande Bellezze"

A friend recently gave me the soundtrack recording for "The Great Beauty" (see previous post) and this is just one of the items on the double CD. The Yiddish lyrics for "I Lie" are from a song written by Belorussian-born Jewish poet, Joseph Rolnick who died (1955) in the USA aged 76. The lyrics...perhaps the words of a girl waiting for her lover... were set to music by composer David Lang as a commission for all-women vocal ensemble Kitka, first performed in 2001.
"I lie down in bed alone.....

Travels With My Film-Life: Italy's "La Grande Bellezza"

We be back in Italy.... Roma.... sampling "The Great Beauty". A philosophical journey for us oldies as we contemplate the value of our.... values and where one finds the beauty. All that we call "beautiful"... and notions of success.
The film itself is beautiful.... a succession of images,days, thoughts, even memories of the 65 year-old, world-weary journalist Jep Gambardella - played by Toni Servillo.... a Sorrentino regular whom we do watch in "The Consequences of Love" (that post is here).
I contemplate this Roman procession after the film ends and think it is moving but demands some time and patience to sink in.
The Old Man do not indulge time and patience when it comes to forming opinions, so he do be more doubtful about it all.

Graphic Passions: Snow Piercer

I be excited to read a review in the Independant of Part One of the two-part graphic novel - "Snowpiercer" - to be published over the next couple of months by Titan. It's the long awaited English translation of  "Le Transperceneige" - a 1980s French comic by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette.
In a post-apocalyptic  frozen future all that's left of humanity travels on a permanently moving, globe-circling train. The dregs of society get the rear of the train - furthest from the engine - whilst the carriages between reflect society's hierarchy as they stretch towards those of the powerful and privileged at the front. But people are getting restless and rebellion is coming...

The project looks to be a tie-in with the cinema release of Korean director Bong Joon-ho's film adaptation, starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton. But there has been controversy over the film's release date in the US and UK due to legal battles over who makes the "final cut". It has already been released unedited in Korea and France, I think.
Here's the French (appropriate) trailer for the film .... it's loud of course.

The Old Man Vetoes Woody Allen Consumption

So I... I guess I'll have to call a halt to watching Woody Allen movies for a while. I mean....we watched "Manhattan" and The Old Man thinks it is the "best" Woody Allen of our season and he is very impressed with its Gershwin-only soundtrack. And OK... I did think it has more meat on its bones than some of the others we watched. In fact I would have liked to have shown you a trailer but.... everything in the trailer is so dark.....  like life.

But we watched Midnight in Paris ....in which Owen Williams plays...er.. well he plays Woody Allen ..who else? His character is a Hollywood scriptwriter engaged into the kind of family where the poisonous parents-in-law-to-be shower him with daily contempt.... He falls in love with a magical 1920s Paris.... and things get.... otherworldly.

Let me see... we also watched "Hannah and Her Sisters"... "Shadows and Fog".... "Radio Days"...."Annie Hall" "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex" and finished with "Manhattan".
I have to admit that Mia Farrow gets on my nerves after a while... Diane Keaton I prefer. I lerve Dianne Wiest. Both The Old Man and me were taken aback revisiting Michael Caine in "Hannah...". He do get an Oscar for it. I don't think so really when you see it again...
But like I say... The Old Man has had enough... so to speak...  Me? Well there are an awful lot of Woody Allen films out there... and I still want to watch more.

Meanwhile I am hoping to forget all about my existential angst and possible deathly illnesses by watching some thing else..... Like a "Popeye" retrospective... tell you more about that some other time.

Woody Allen - "Shadows And Fog" Trailer

I never saw this one before..... with Mia Farrow, Woody Allen, John Malkovich... and plenty more..... a tribute to 1930s German film I think... like Fritz lang's "M"....

Woody Allen - Annie Hall Trailer

 After which every girl rushed into trousers, waistcoats and ties by way of tribute to Diane Keaton's style.

The Perils Of Watching A Woody Allen Season...

...are that I too.... am full of angst at present....
You see...
I am very fond of a Woody Allen film.
And I... Well... I haven't exactly watched any for quite some time so... over the Christmas and New Year period I watched quite a few... so to speak. That is... alongside The Old Man... who... did not feel himself to be that familiar with Allen's films.....
Apart from "Manhattan" that is.
Which he insists we saw together... at the cinema... and at the time of its release....
I... I don't know... It's all a bit of a blur to me you see...
Oh God... What am I to do? I mean.... I don't feel too well... and the way the world is going... I don't know...
Perhaps I shouldn't watch too many more Woody Allen films.......