Równowaga

Balance braci Lauenstein:

znalezione na słowa i obrazy

. . . Add though a context. A time and place to the film’s creation. Germany, 1989. If you do, you realize a whole host of additional readings and levels are available to enjoy. The fact that the men are identical but for their numbers, is this not a oft-used symbol for the anonymity desired of those in a Communist society? That they are all the same and thus interchangeable? The cooperation they display at first is perhaps indicative of Socialism, and the box, what is the meaning of the music it plays, the dancing it inspired? Radio Free Europe used to broadcast American music, such as the jazz heard coming out of the box, into Communist countries throughout the Cold War. Perhaps the box is a symbol of possibility, of what is outside the closed system, which inevitably undermines said system.

And so a parable about selfishness becomes an allegory about German society and Soviet Communism at its fall. The sad and ironic ending of Balance, who is at fault? The men that fail to do what is best for them? Or the system that fails to acknowledge this human quality?

Jason Sondhi, Short of the Week

Mulatu Astatke

Dziwiłam się niepomiernie, skąd ostatnio w radiu tak dużo Mulatu Astatke. Umarł czy co? A tu nie - koncert jest. Jak dla mnie, pretekst jest wystarczający.





Jeśli komuś samo nazwisko nic nie powiedziało, a muzykę kojarzy, to bardzo prawdopodobne, że z filmu Jarmuscha "Broken Flowers".

. . . we were playing a concert in the New York Winter Gardens. A friend told me the film maker Jim Jarmusch was coming to the concert. I didn’t know who he was but I said please come over and see us. After the concert Jim and the whole crew came over to see us backstage, he had some CDs of mine that I signed, he said he enjoyed the show, said it was a beautiful concert and said ‘I have something in mind, I want to use some of your music in my film.’ I said, ‘Please do. You’re welcome. Just let me know how you get on.’ So we shook hands and he left and after a few months he contacted me and said ‘I’ve selected the songs. It took me six years to find the right music for this film! Now I have the right music!’ So that’s how it happened . . . I thanked him so much for the chance to show people the Ethio-jazz.

Mulatu Astatke, The Quietus

Disgusting. Offensive. Stupid.

Ten film jest dokładnie taki, jak się reklamuje: potężna i ciężka do strawienia dawka WTF. Zwiastun nawet w połowie tego nie oddaje:



Przypadkiem natknęłam się na dyskusję, z której wynika, że Uwe Boll (czyli reżyser "Postal") jest człowiekiem znanym i cenionym, szczególnie wśród fanów gier komputerowych. To tylko taka chamka jak ja mogła go do tej pory nie znać.

Żeby była jasność: ja wcale tego filmu nie odradzam!

Do you Americans speak any other language besides English?

Kto widział "Bękarty wojny", temu nie muszę się tłumaczyć z mojego niekłamanego podziwu dla zdolności językowych Brada Pitta (dobrze, że Niemcy nie mają ucha do włoskiego). Jako bonus Brad wymiatający w języku Irish Travellers (poprawna politycznie wersja Pikey):

Irish Travelers use a secret argot or cant known as Gammon. It is used primarily to conceal meaning from outsiders, especially during business transactions and in the presence of police. Most Gammon utterances are terse and spoken so quickly that a non-Traveler might conclude the words merely had been garbled.

Most Gammon words were formed from Irish Gaelic by applying four techniques: reversal, metathesis, affixing, and substitution. In the first, an Irish word is reversed to form a Gammon one - mac, or son, in Irish became kam in Gammon. In the second, consonants or consonant clusters were transposed. Thirdly, a sound or cluster of sounds were either prefixed or suffixed to an Irish word. Some of the more frequently prefixed sounds were s, gr, and g. For example, Obair, work or job, became gruber in Gammon. Lastly, many Gammon words were formed by substituting an arbitrary consonant or consonant cluster in an Irish word. In recent years, modern slang and Romani (the language of the gypsies) words have been incorporated. The grammar and syntax are English.

Sharon Gmelch w Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman (1986), podaję za wiki

Ulica Krokodyli

Pytanie - czy mając bliźniaka można być normalnym? Czy widoczny duplikat w naturalny sposób nie uzewnętrznia własnej schizofrenii? Czy objawy obłędu nie są czymś bliskim w takim przypadku? Bracia Quay - szaleńcy, bliźniacy, artyści, filmowcy. Rocznik '47. Urodzeni w Ameryce jak najszybciej uciekają z niej, by osiąść w Londynie. Quay X 2 - urodzeni z piętnem dualizmu, harmonii, cztery ręce, cztery nogi, dwie głowy. Ich rzeczywistość w naturalny sposób musi odbiegać od przyjętych norm. Artyści pozbawieni współczesnego piętna pragnienia bycia pop. Gdzieś na obrzeżach kultury od prawie trzydziestu lat realizują swoje nieokiełznane obrazy.

Bo filmy braci Quay to po prostu ruchome zdjęcia, klasyczne animacje z wykorzystaniem bezdusznych lalek. Opętanych postaci próbujący się przeciwstawiać odgórnemu prawu otaczającego ich świata. Dekonstrukcję otaczającej rzeczywistości. Świat, w którym wszystko jest jedyne w swoim rodzaju, świat pełen niepowtarzalnych struktur. Dynamicznych, nieopisanych, rozbitych, rozciągniętych, poszarpanych. Quay, Quay owładnięci piętnem niemieckiego ekspresjonizmu, surrealizmu, nurtów awangardowych. Spadkobiercy Franza Kafki, Bruno Schulza, Jana Svankmajera czy Jorge Luisa Borgesa. Bogowie klaustrofobicznego świata materii. Sztukmistrze antropomorficznej skorupy.

Marcin Bałczewski na stronie Puzdra Krytycznego

znalezione na (porzuconym, niestety) blogu Animation and Film Reviews

Muzykę skomponował Lech Jankowski (jeszcze przed powstaniem obrazu).

Nollywood w zbliżeniu

Nollywood (...) produces movies on its own terms, telling stories that appeal to and reflect the lives of its public: it is a rare instance of self-representation on such a scale in Africa. The continent has a rich tradition of story-telling that has been expressed abundantly through oral and written fiction, but has never been conveyed through the popular media before. Stars are local actors; plots confront the public with familiar situations of romance, comedy, witchcraft, bribery, prostitution. The narrative is overdramatic, deprived of happy endings, tragic. The aesthetic is loud, violent, excessive; nothing is said, everything is shouted.

In his travels through West Africa, Hugo became increasingly intrigued by this hyperactive industry, in constant production. He compiled a list of the iconic images and scenes that had attracted his attention, and imagined photographing in these settings. Initial attempts to photograph on actual film sets however failed, in Hugo's mind, to capture the intensity of the situations. He decided to take his interpretation of these staged realities into another realm by assembling a team of actors and assistants. He asked them to recreate the stereotypical myths and symbols that characterise Nollywood productions, reproducing the dynamic of movie sets.

Michael Stevenson

znalezione na today and tomorrow