The Black Isle

The exterior of the church, from my porch. Unfortunately I couldn’t take pictures of the marvelous interior, which has been transformed into a Gothic cathedral, complete with hundreds of candles, stations of the cross, crazed statuary, and a bombed out pulpit area, leaving only a wooden Jesus, high and mighty atop his cross. The attention to detail is astonishing. I especially like the controlled candle glow. If I had my cards to play all over again, I would want to be a student of light. I hope the CGI rain and destruction won’t look too phony.

Loved this movie at the LAFF last night. Captain Ahab as a child, as reimagined by director Philippe Ramos (via Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer). Hypnotic and magical, even as Denis Lavant plays the grownup Ahab, sour and missing a leg. It will next show at the Seattle Film Festival, should good fortune take you there.

Oh, and it’s in French!

They’re building massive light-boxes outside the church across the street (to shine through the stained glass windows) and creating ornate new floors inside for the Valkyrie reshoots. They’re using the codename “Rubicon” but that’s fooled no one in this household.

Who sez they’re going all the way to North Africa? The production’s right here in Southern Cal; in fact they just shot a battle sequence in the desert right by Victorville a few days ago. We heard from the (friendly, good guy) location manager that Katie Holmes (”the girlfriend”) and the demonbaby went all the way out there to watch the shoot from a black limo in the 120 F heat.

Two of the solemn guys in this photo (third from left and fourth from left — Bill Nighy and Tom Cruise) will be doing a dialogue scene here on Thursday. Nighy’s replacing Kenneth Branagh, who was originally supposed to be in this scene. The church will then be CGI-ed to have a missing roof (the work of Allied bombers) and digital rain pouring down from the smoky Berlin sky.

Let the Right One In: Saw this most original vampire movie from Sweden at the Los Angeles Film Festival last night. It’s so damn good I wouldn’t classify it under horror. Because it’s based on a novel, it’s filled with emotional density. The protagonists are twelve year olds! But it’s not cute, not campy — and falls to none of the usual cliches. The US release will come (who knows when) via Magnet.

The jungle… the jungle…

Beta site of the new new thing in movies: stream Philippe Garrel (not that you would wanna), Claire Denis, Jia Zhangke rarities FOR FREE, plus discover other cinematic gems from everywhere, including oldies by Chabrol, Bunuel and Antonioni. (They don’t just put crap on.) Recent gems on here include “Bashing” (from Japan) and “It’s Winter” (from Iran). This is the backdoor, early bird sign-in:

The Auteurs

Also from the Wellcome Library, London:

Malayan black magic (Ilmu Sihir) charm intended to curse its recipient with a fatal illness. The Arabic letters surrounding the human figure are incantations and spells written in the language of Djinns and Syaitan (demonic spirits) 19th Century

The Wellcome Collection may have an unwieldy name but it is a marvelous new museum of “medicine|life|art” in London.

The lobby:

Samples from the Medicine Man permanent exhibit, quirky-illuminating items from the personal collection of medical pioneer Henry S. Wellcome (whose name you must recognize from non-generic malaria tablets, etc.):

Tea time treats at the lobby cafe:

If those prove too sweet, there’s always the Blackwells bookshop with sections devoted entirely to dying, death and depression.

See also: its truly amazing library, with ancient and modern paper artifacts relating to the life sciences (including magic and international witchcraft) and its generous pictorial archive.

The Cranach show at the Royal Academy was also beguiling:

Ah… London was great and good.

I’m finally back. And back to work. My friend Hisami tells me I have to check out manga artist Suehiro Maruo’s “Laughing Vampire” series. Until I get a hold of that, I’m admiring these portraits by master Maruo: