The Black Isle

Mad kitty, killer lampshade, psychedelic gals and much more. An action-packed clip from Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Hausu (House) from 1977:

And here — Obayashi’s equally madcap avant-garde film Emotion, a supposed “tribute to Roger Vadim”:

Exactly as advertised: The Dark Knight trailer in LEGO!!

The Dark Knight Trailer IN LEGO!!! from Keshen on Vimeo.

A very, very cool log: threeframes.net

New mugs. Coffee tasted very odd this morning.

John’s article on our dinner with Agnes Varda last week. From Vogue.com.

Postcard from Cannes, Part 2: every word/phrase of the following comes from the Tuesday, May 19, 2009 issue of Variety (Cannes Daily edition), I KID YOU NOT:

II.

CHAOS REIGNS

In shimmering monochrome
with hardcore insert shots of pubescent bodily fluids
The Danish bad boy,
who’s kind of bored with rural, middle-aged gaydom,
demonstrates his own breach birth using
kitchen tongs,
a moist watermelon and
- ripped from the headlines -
an egg.

This is a heavy meal to digest outside of fest arena
with potential offshore as a niche item
that could reach fractionally beyond
the pain-is-pleasure demographic.

Yet Middle East auds, like its protags, are
subject to things like nitrate burning,
and vinegar syndrome.
They cut
a big fat art-film fart
at this arrogant endurance test, especially the oh-so-real dialogue.
Distribution outside of gay-fest ghetto is both unlikely and undeserved.

An unexpectedly jazzy fox, rising out of the ferns,
refuses to endorse this death sentence:
“Many incidental pleasures!”
The Tzar’s Dogs reply: “Too late!”

Postcard from Cannes: A “poem” I just came up with, inspired by charming “trades” lingo. Except for the line “extensive genital mutilation,” every word/phrase in this thing was found in the Sunday, May 17, 2009 issue of Variety (Cannes edition).
PS. Damn this wordpress-format thing, it doesn’t let me do my fancy-schmancy line indents, so here it is without ‘em:

THE TRADES

Gallic pic, while
not exactly
an exploding bathroom stall of a movie,
is a standout sales title
that will likely delight
the sibling auteurs’ marginal fanbase
without expanding it.

As popcorn entertainment, it fails to deliver:
Brit thesps and minimal dialogue above par
Tech package superb
Freshmen helmers and all-femme crew
have created a semi-glossy Egyptian meller, clocking in at 205 mins.
But the Cassavetes-esque camerawork with lingering
shots
of extensive genital mutilation
means
it looks like a mild B.O. contender
with no arthouse
prospects.

Flemish ancillary, however, should respond.

The Cannes list, unveiled today, is jaw-droppingly, heart-stoppingly, depression-liftingly FABULOUS. I am psyched. Crazy psyched. No, CRAZY psyched.

First of all, the feature film jury has an edgy madwoman slant: It’s headed by Isabelle Huppert and includes Asia Argento and Robin Wright Penn.

Then there are the MOVIES.
Some highlights:
Jane Campion’s BRIGHT STAR (about John Keats)
Pedro Almodovar’s BROKEN EMBRACES
Andrea Arnold’s FISH TANK
Jacques Audiard’s UN PROPHETE
Ang Lee’s TAKING WOODSTOCK (starring, of all people, Demetri Martin)
Lou Ye’s SPRING FEVER
Gaspar Noe’s ENTER THE VOID
Alain Resnais’ LES HERBES FOLLES
Park Chan-Wook’s THIRST (a vampire movie!)
Lars Von Trier’s ANTICHRIST (trashy horror — see trailer from last week)

PLUS: Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (starring Brad Pitt and Cloris Leachman!) and Terry Gilliam’s DOCTOR PARNASSUS movie (the one Heath Ledger never got to finish), and new works from Bong Joon Ho (the guy who made “The Host” and “Memories of Murder”) and my one-time festival co-juror Pen-Ek Ratanaruang.

Full list (including running times) here.

Lars von Trier’s Antichrist - Official Trailer from Zentropa on Vimeo.

Lars Von Trier’s overwrought and funny (I find) new film, “Anti-Christ,” to be unveiled (I hope) at Cannes next month.