Wednesday, October 15, 2008

It feels so good to feel again

This video is an experiment I have made using material from internet, TV and old movies and then editing the images...

The beautiful song in the background is called "Feel", performed by Motorpsycho. This is one of my favourite song and it doesn't have a video. I thought it was worth to make one for it...

Friday, October 3, 2008

La storia dell'uccellino

Tra gli spaghetti-western, Il mio nome e' nessuno (di Tonino Valeri, 1973) e' sicuramente uno dei miei film preferiti. E non solo per l'indimenticabile colonna sonora di Ennio Morricone o l'inconfondibile mano di Sergio Leone, che ha girato alcune scene e aiutato nella sceneggiatura, ma anche e soprattutto per l'ironia e la scanzonatura che pervade tutto il film rappresentata dai due caratteri opposti ma complementari, quelli di Terence Hill (che interpreta Nessuno) e Henry Fonda (Jack Beauregard).



Il mito e' il Far West che fa da scenografia naturale, mentre l'omerico Nessuno, dopo aver sapientemente preparato l'uscita di scena dell'eroe lo "sostituira'" liberandolo finalmente dalla sua pesante eredita'...

Ed ora la morale finale della storia dell'uccellino:

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Muppet Show

Who does not remember the fantastic Muppet Show?

On YouTube is full of videos from the show, this one is with Peter Sellers. Fantastic, but also sad. When he says: "there is no me" he actually means it...



More Sellers and Muppet Show soon. Stay tuned!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Andy Kaufman

Today's suggested movie is Man on the moon (1999, directed by Milos Forman).

The movie tells the story about Andy Kaufman, a
famous artist in US at the end of 1970's beginning of 1980's, almost unknown in Europe. I would therefore define it as an "american" movie, where you must pay attention to a lot of details (remember the "Saturday Night Live" ?) to get into the story, but it is also a contribution of a great director to that kind of art in the balance between genius and crap.

Maybe Kaufman was really a genius, maybe just a slob... Definitely Jim Carrey's performance in this movie is awesome. No one else could have played Kaufman, his "nonsense", his improvisation, his insanity and his artistic delirium.

With this movie Carrey finally gained the respect and the fame of a great actor, and Definitely he's one of the most versatile actors in the Hollywood industry nowadays.

Just watch this movie and judge yourself...


Monday, August 11, 2008

the man who couldn't sleep

Christian Bale is much more than Batman. Some of you will remember Bale as Patrick Bateman, the main character of American Psycho. Thanks to the Gotham City's hero, Christian Bale gained more fame and now is one of the most appreciated Hollywood actors.

I would like to post one of his movies, which I considered a cult and that i really liked. I am talking about The machinist (2004, il titolo italiano e' L'uomo senza sonno).

It's a dark movie, a sort of psychological thriller which plays on the border between surreal and real. Christian Bale is Trevor Reznik, a clear reference to Trent Reznor, leader of the cult rock band Nine Inch Nails. The screenplayer, Scott Kosar, and Brad Anderson, the director, have been clearly influenced by Dostoevsky (and Trevor is shown while is reading The idiot).

A demanding role for Christian Bale, who had to lose 30 kilos in order to play Trevor Reznik, a man that is keeping such an horrible secret in his unconscious that has not been able to sleep for over one year.


Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Breaking the waves

Breaking the Waves (titolo italiano, Le onde del destino) is not just the story about the love of a woman for her husband. This movie, directed in 1996 by Lars Von Trier, is a mixture of passion, love, religion that drive a woman to simply destroy herself to do everything for her husband. Bess, is a simple and childlike woman who has difficulty living without Jan when he is away on the oil platform in the Nordic sea, where he works. She prays for his return, till one day he has an accident and he gets paralyzed. She will start to think that it's her fault, because she wanted him so much at home with her. No longer able to make love, and mentally affected by the accident, Jan asks her to have sex with other men, and he will try to get some "joy" from the details she tells him about. Bess slowly begins to believe that what she is doing is the wish of God and she can't stop doing it.

Emily Watson is the fantastic actress playing Bess. She's absolutely one of my favourites, you may know her also from Gosford Park, The boxer, The life and death of Peter Sellers, Angela's ashes (in italiano, Le ceneri di Angela), Punch-Drunk love (titolo italiano, Ubriaco d'amore, opera singola di Paul Thomas Anderson, regista di Magnolia e Il petroliere - There will be blood).....

Lars Von Trier 4th movie, the first of the "Golden Heart" trilogy (the other two are The idiots and the wonderful Dancer in the dark), is not very faithful to the Dogma 95 realism, of which Von Trier was a founding member. But I think in this movie, what really matter is Bess and her character, her strength and passion. But, above all, her love. A sick love





Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Kowalski! Kowalski! Kowalski!

Today's post is dedicated to one of my favourites road movie, Vanishing point (1971, directed by Richard Sarafian, titolo italiano, Punto Zero).

As usual, I am not going to say much about this movie as you can easily check the plot on your own on Wikipedia. It's considerend a cult, one of the Tarantino's favourites and a very good example of exploitation movie.

Kowalski's silence and the 70's rock soundtrack are a perfect mix of how a road trip will have to be on the endless American highways. Super Soul, the DJ that is almost taking Kowalski along his race through the States, very much remind me the omniscient radio DJ of The warriors (I guerrieri della notte): they both report the events, but Super Soul is actually talking for Kowalski, he seems interpreting his thoughts, almost as being his soul.

A great road movie, it's worth seeing it again.