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Saturday, October 16th, 2010
 Ellen and I watched Never Let Me Go this evening -- I am not sure quite what to say about it other than that I think it is an extremely faithful adaptation of the book: watching the movie felt very much like what I remember of the experience of reading the book. I would certainly recommend the movie on that basis alone; I thought it was a great, great book to read. But at the same time I'm not sure how necessary the movie is -- what it adds to the book. Some of the images were very powerful, such as Ruth hobbling on her walker the first time we see her after she has started donating, and Daniel screaming at the end of the film. And it was nice to have the "Never Let Me Go" song be an actual song that you could listen to. In general I liked the filming of the second half of the movie, when they were adults, much better than the portion set at Hailsham, which did not ring as true to me. The actors who played adult Tommy, Kathy, and Ruth all did a fantastic job.
 (I'm just really puzzled by Manohla Dargis' review, the only review I've read of this film, by her claim that "your emotional response to the slow-creeping horror will most likely soon die, snuffed out by directorial choices that deaden a story already starved for oxygen." This just seems really off to me in a couple of different ways. * The direction seemed to me really well-done. * The movie is thoughtful and emotional, and the thoughtfulness does not kill the emotional response, quite the contrary. * You will find it confusing in places, how to respond emotionally, not be able to figure out quite what is going on until you think it through; this is an asset of the movie, one of the best things about it (and a way in which it is very successfully modeled after the book); Dargis seems to be complaining the movie is not manipulative enough, which just strikes me as a bizarre reaction.) (...As James Sanford notes in his review, the transition from "young Kathy" to "adult Kathy" is excellent.)
posted evening of October 16th, 2010: 1 response
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Friday, October 15th, 2010
 The Wrap runs an article by Jeff Reichert on the Bad History That Gerrymandering Often Produces -- Reichert directed the new documentary Gerrymandering, in theaters now. He writes about "detouring into the odds and ends of history" -- "the meat of the film is everything that happens around" the main story, which concerns a redistricting fight in California. The film is strongly influenced by Mason & Dixon; a quote from the novel was hung on the studio wall during production, Captain Zhang's feng shui observation that
Nothing will produce Bad History more directly nor brutally, than drawing a Line, in particular a Right Line, the very Shape of Contempt, through the midst of a People,-- to create thus a Distinction betwixt 'em,-- 'tis the first stroke.-- All else will follow as if predestin'd, unto War and Devastation.
posted evening of October 15th, 2010: Respond
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Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
 I'm so excited! Heard from Lauren that Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go has been made into a movie and is in the theaters -- I go over to check listings and it is playing in Montclair right now! Ellen and I are going to see it this weekend. (...And, making a mental note to myself to try and keep up with what movies are playing that would be interesting to me... It would have been a shame to miss this.)
posted evening of October 13th, 2010: Respond
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Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
Two things to be watched and listened to in conjunction:
- Björk talking about and to her television:
- Robyn Hitchcock talking about and to his television.
posted evening of October 12th, 2010: Respond
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Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
 David Byrne was in Detroit for a week, working on Paolo Sorrentino's forthcoming movie Divo; while he was there he composed a post about the feeling of being in Detroit -- his writing coupled with the breathtaking photos were enough to take me there briefly.
Speaking of breathtaking photos of Detroit, you should by all means take a look at the slideshows on detroiturbex.com, some amazing images including the string band I've excerpted here. (Thanks for the link, Todd!)
posted evening of October 5th, 2010: Respond
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Sunday, September 12th, 2010
A nice mash-up of The Big Lebowski and The Matrix, from Three Finch Lynch.
(Thanks for the link, Henry!)
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Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
 Coming the last week of September, a movie of Howl -- the trailer looks very promising. And available right now, a graphic novel of the poem, by Eric Drooker -- Drooker worked on an animated sequence for the film, and had previously collaborated with Ginsberg on the book Illuminated Poems.
posted evening of September 7th, 2010: Respond
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Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Fini Straubinger:
Saramago (in Pontiero's translation):The blind man had categorically stated that he could see, if you'll excuse that verb again, a thick, uniform white color, as if he had plunged his eyes into a milky sea. A white amaurosis, apart from being etymologically a contradiction, would also be a neurological possibility, since the brain, which would be unable to perceive the images, forms, and colors of reality, would likewise be incapable, in a manner of speaking, of being covered in white, a continuous white, like a white painting without tonalities, the colors, forms and images which reality itself might present to someone with normal vision, however difficult it may be to speak, with any accuracy, of normal vision.
Borges (and guess how excited I am to find the Seven Nights lectures online! At least one of them...):
 ...People picture the blind man enclosed in a world of black. There is a verse of Shakespeare's which would justify this impression: Looking on darkness which the blind do see; if we understand "darkness" to mean "black," this verse of Shakespeare's is mistaken.
One of the colors which the blind (in any case this blind man) are strangers to is black; another is red. "Le rouge et le noir" are colors we miss. For me, who was used to sleeping in total darkness, it was a great deal of trouble trying to sleep in this world of fog, a greenish fog or blue, vaguely luminous, which is the world of blindness.
↻...done
posted evening of August 31st, 2010: Respond
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Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
A new Moomin movie has come out! Well -- "new" needs a little qualification here; the movie is compiled clips from the Fuzzy Felt Moomins TV show of the '70's, with new voices and soundtrack (featuring Björk). It came out in Finland a few weeks ago, and the production company says it will be distributed internationally... I can only hope it will be in theaters here sometime this fall. (The same company released a Moominsummer Madness movie a couple of years ago, which I did not hear a word about. But they seem to have ramped up a good deal more publicity for this one.)
posted evening of August 24th, 2010: Respond
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Monday, August 16th, 2010
  Javier Cercas and Joan Ollé, who directed the film adaptation of Soldiers of Salamis, appeared on the Catalan TV program La Mandrà gora; some of the actors from the movie were also there. Stills and quotes (in a mix of Spanish and Catalan) here; Ollé says, "The letters of the novel do not move, do not dance. This is not a fault: the movement is internal. One word provokes ten thousand images of everything you have lived." An earlier appearance of Cercas' (from 2002) is written up here, and video of that interview is in three parts starting here.
posted evening of August 16th, 2010: Respond
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