Can I just say I'm so excited by this trailer?
Three things I've heard about this movie give me cause to maybe believe my hopes on this one:
1. Good director. A director who understands filmmaking and who won't just try to bring the book (the contents of the book) to the screen, but who will actually make a film out of it (i.e. what the director of Watchmen didn't do).
2. The studio doesn't like it. It tried to shut it down (after watching the finished product) and bring on a different director (i.e. someone who do the opposite of what I said just above).
3. Maurice Sendak, the author (and kind of a crotchety old man), likes the movie.
That's all I need to hear. I'm in. (It doesn't hurt that the trailer is gorgeous! What a fantastic job of bringing those monster's to life!)
A forth thing would be that, I know that there is more going in to the book than meets the eye. Sendak's traumatic childhood, his life experience of being a part of people-group that is as persecuted as they were/are, etc. go into this book, so that gives me the confidence to think that they're is room for expansion here.
Do you not love the first few moments of the trailer? So enchanting!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Yeah, Coraline was cool.
About this cool:
It was a sweet movie. Please see it in 3D if you can. It was great. (Plus you get to keep the glasses.)
By the way...
... this is exactly what my brother, Christopher looks like in his glasses:
It was a sweet movie. Please see it in 3D if you can. It was great. (Plus you get to keep the glasses.)
By the way...
... this is exactly what my brother, Christopher looks like in his glasses:
Saturday, March 21, 2009
So cool to see this...
Stumbled upon something today at the blog of screenwriter Mystery Man.
The original transcript for the 1978 story conference between Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan over the wunderkinds' next movie.
Which movie?
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
You can download it here:
Some fun highlights (cinematic history being made!)
Friday, March 20, 2009
A Trumpet!
Is Dylan going Sufjan on us?
This from Uncut (on the new Bob Dylan album, Together Through Life):
More here.
This from Uncut (on the new Bob Dylan album, Together Through Life):
Together Through Life gets in your face immediately – with the wallop of the cheerfully-titled “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”, which is driven by spectacular drumming and massed horns, a trumpet prominently featured – and over the course of its 10 tracks doesn’t back off, doesn’t appear to even think about doing so, Dylan’s voice throughout an unfettered roar, a splendid growl.
More here.
Abstract Beauty
I've been thinking a lot recently (well, maybe not that much; I don't think that much about too many things) about abstract beauty and just the concept of abstraction and non-representationalism in general.
I've been thinking about the importance of things we don't understand and of things that speak to us on a sub-conscious level (and, I suppose, things that are also said on a sub-conscious level, where there is not a specific agenda or message being pushed).
I've been making a deliberate effort recently when I draw or engage in other kinds of creating, to deliberately try to create something abstract or something that doesn't particularly stand for anything. Not because I believe in meaninglessness or chaos. But because for many years I have suffocated parts of myself which do not speak verbally, which are hard to understand. "Groans words cannot express."
I believe there is value in me as an artist approaching a page not with an idea of where I am going to take the page or what I am going to say through what is represented on the page. But rather, in a mystical kind of way, listen to the page. Listen to the things involved (and listening to my heart, as that is also something very much involved, a very valid voice at the table).
Thus, when I watch the clip involved, I think about the sheer abstract beauty involved in the tons of water and ash and who-knows-what-else being shot to the sky. I think of the reality of it and the abstraction of it.
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.”
(Psalm 19)
Interview with the Good Docter.
Read an interview with the director of Pixar's Monster's Inc. and the upcoming 3D feature UP, Pete Docter, here.
Some highlights:
Found here.
And, in case you're in the mood, you can still listen to the Terri Gross interview with Andrew Stanton here.
Some highlights:
Radix: How would you say that being a Christian affects how you do your work?
Docter: Years ago when I first spoke at church, I was kind of nervous about talking about Christianity and my work. It didn’t really connect. But more and more it seems to be connecting for me. I ask for God’s help, and it’s definitely affected what I’m doing. It’s helped me to calm down and focus. There were times when I got too stressed out with what I was doing, and now I just step back and say, “God, help me through this.” It really helps you keep a perspective on things, not only in work, but in relationships.
At first you hire people based purely on their talent, but what it ends up is that people who really go far are good people. They’re good people to work with, and I think God really helps in those relationships.
Radix: I know you do a lot of praying, and that’s a big part of the artistic part of what you guys do.
Docter: Yes. You could probably work on a live-action movie that takes maybe six months hating everybody else and you’d still have a film. But these animation projects take three or four years, and it’s really difficult to do without having a good relationship with the people you’re working with.
Radix: Do you ever see yourself making a more explicitly Christian movie?
Docter: Not at this point. I don’t know that that’s really me. I don’t feel so comfortable with that. Even if you have a moral to a story, if you actually come out and say it, it loses its power. Not that we’re trying to be sneaky or anything, but you have more ability to affect people if you’re not quite so blatant about it. Does that make sense?
Radix: That seems right in line with what Jesus’ parables were too. He tended not to come right out and explain, “This is what I was trying to say.”
Docter: To me art is about expressing something that can’t be said in literal terms. You can say it in words, but it’s always just beyond the reach of actual words, and you’re doing whatever you can to communicate a sense of something that is beyond you.
Found here.
And, in case you're in the mood, you can still listen to the Terri Gross interview with Andrew Stanton here.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
I Love This Man
Bod Dylan, on his changing audience:
As with all his work and words, this makes sense to him, and that's all that matters.
Full interview here.
"They feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. Images don’t hang anybody up. Like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed."
As with all his work and words, this makes sense to him, and that's all that matters.
Full interview here.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Eating Movies
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I believe that it is important to eat movies. This is not unusual. This is in keeping with my general idea that we should eat things in life in general. We should eat the cars we ride in, the music drifting down the hall, the broken dish, our hat, our friend’s hat.
We should eat the Bible and we should eat conversations. We should eat looks and glances. We should eat shoes and trees and houses and pain and loneliness and the laundry piling up in the corner.
We should eat our lunch.
That is to say we should not let these things slip by. We should not swallow them with our nose plugged and a large glass of water. They should not slip through our bodies, our digestive system unawares.
We need these things.
We need and loneliness and emptiness and frustration. We need love and coincidence and time. We need need.
Whatever is around you, you need. Grab it up, like Robinson Crusoe after the wreck.
Because whatever is around you, is telling you something. Something you need to hear, something you need to know, on a gut level.
About the level of your stomach. So please, for God’s sake, eat up.
Eating Movies
I believe that it is important to eat movies. This is not unusual. This is in keeping with my general idea that we should eat things in life in general. We should eat the cars we ride in, the music drifting down the hall, the broken dish, our hat, our friend’s hat.
We should eat the Bible and we should eat conversations. We should eat looks and glances. We should eat shoes and trees and house and pain and loneliness and the laundry piling up in the corner.
We should eat our lunch.
That is to say we should not let these things slip by. We should not swallow them with our nose plugged and a large glass of water. They should not slip through our bodies, our digestive system unawares.
We need these things.
We need and loneliness and emptiness and frustration. We need love and coincidence and time. We need need.
Whatever is around you, you need. Grab it up, like Robinson Crusoe after the wreck.
Because whatever is around you, is telling you something. Something you need to hear, something you need to know, on a gut level.
About the level of your stomach. So please, for God’s sake, eat up.
We should eat the Bible and we should eat conversations. We should eat looks and glances. We should eat shoes and trees and house and pain and loneliness and the laundry piling up in the corner.
We should eat our lunch.
That is to say we should not let these things slip by. We should not swallow them with our nose plugged and a large glass of water. They should not slip through our bodies, our digestive system unawares.
We need these things.
We need and loneliness and emptiness and frustration. We need love and coincidence and time. We need need.
Whatever is around you, you need. Grab it up, like Robinson Crusoe after the wreck.
Because whatever is around you, is telling you something. Something you need to hear, something you need to know, on a gut level.
About the level of your stomach. So please, for God’s sake, eat up.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, March 09, 2009
A very happy birthday to Juliette Binoche!
And now I am going to finish up Flight of the Red Balloon.
And now I am going to finish up Flight of the Red Balloon.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
From the Onion
You'll be glad to know...
Truly, spring daylight-savings time is a monstrosity. It is made bearable only by the promise of "falling back" this autumn.
For my readers who feel likewise, consider these words:
"Spring is here, but fall's a-comin'!"
Truly, spring daylight-savings time is a monstrosity. It is made bearable only by the promise of "falling back" this autumn.
For my readers who feel likewise, consider these words:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
"Spring is here, but fall's a-comin'!"
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