How The West Was Won - 1962

It's been quite a while since my last movie review in July 2019, but after an illicit walk in the New Forest yesterday, we settled down to 'one of the best Westerns ever made'. It's a star studded cast including Henry Ford, Henry Hathaway, James Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Debbie Reynolds, Caroline Jones. Both women particularly fine examples of great looking actresses.

The musical score won an Oscar and demonstrates why a cracking score can uplift a great movie to another level.

"How the West Was Won", was one of the last movies shot in 3-camera Cinerama and is a screen ratio I enjoyed although we watched it in 16:9 ratio as we needed a bigger screen for older eyes to enjoy the detail and in a cinema it's designed for a curved screen, that projects sensational picture quality.

There are some scenes that are almost inexplicable in terms of special effects. I'm familiar with front and back screen projection techniques. The bison stampede is like nothing I've ever experienced on the big screen without CGI and lastly the train wreck scene uses back screen projection to a degree I don't think has ever been matched.

The principal nature of the plot is about the kind of doughty spirit that went westward finally settling in some of the most amazing scenery in the United States after many travails and tribulations. One family in the narrative is more city dwelling and the other has a more rural mindset. It's clear the genes of both these groups is evident in today's USA genome pool.

I never used to but since Q, I've believed in American exceptionalism for reasons that are relevant to this post but outlined elsewhere.

Causeway Bay by Drone

DJI Hong Kong Causeway Bay from iP Production Limited on Vimeo.

Does 70mm Hasselblad Film Melt or Freeze at 123 Celsius to -233 Celsius?

Above is the exact same 70mm film used in the Hasselblad cameras for the Apollo Moon landing of 1969 which NASA claims withstood the extreme moon temperatures of  253 Fahrenheit (123 Celsius), while at night it can drop to -387 Fahrenheit (-233 Celsius).

I have always wondered about those temperatures as a vacuum does not radiate heat and cold as much as Earth's atmosphere. On reading the unauthorized scientific explanation I can see some validity in this thinking but insufficient to withstand a maximum 7 hour 37 minute exposure on the lunar surface. The seasoned researcher will also note the 'debunking article' makes preposterous claims about 'conspiracy theorists' that unveil the purpose of the article which is to defend NASA instead of examining the many and varied claims that people who study the subject make.

Teppanyaki Kamakazi

Magician, Doc Penguino of Thailand's brilliant short film Teppanyaki Kamikaze is a must watch if you fancy a good laugh and a little insight into a very contemporary slapstick movie set in a modern Thailand that is rarely portrayed in the tourist driven media.

Watch it over here, and please vote for it if you like it as much as I did.

Adrift

Exacerbated both by modernization so unchecked it has transformed the Thai central basin into a concrete jungle of industrial zones, housing estates and entertainment complexes with little of the natural irrigation once provided by canals, forests and fields, and the man-made city ‘big bag’ wall designed to divert the northern run-off from its natural passage through central Bangkok, the severe flooding of the 2011 monsoon season left hundreds of thousands of rural and suburban addresses abandoned in stagnant waters for several months.

Such a tragedy informs us that perhaps not only from the country (the provinces) has the capital truly come adrift, but humankind itself – greedy with resources and negligent of its imprint on the ecosystem – has, too, from our hosts, the planet, become far removed.

Written and directed by Rupert James.

Cinematography by Rupert James.

Camera assistant Sarun Srisingchai.

Music by Montonn Jira.

Do We Think Too Much & Feel Too Little?

"We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost."

Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator

Metallica - Some Kind Of Monster

Highlights for me in this two hour Metallica documentary were a post-Napster-lawsuit Lars Ulrich celebrating the auction of his modern art painting collection (as above) including a Basquiat that flipped for five million dollars. The sports psychologist hired to coach them through an impending breakup starts believing he's a member of the band thus stepping over the line so they 'let him go' after two years of advice at 40 000 dollars a month.

Original guitarist Dave Mustaine is visited and sheds a Megadeath tear over years of missing out on the spotlight, and so despite the notable absence of humour between the band members this documentary unquestionably goes the extra mile in rockumentary honesty and prozac inducing hand wringing.

Most satisfyingly is lead singer James Hetfield who makes it through six months of rehab and comes out changed for the better. But not before flying to Russia for 'hunting' and shooting a magnificent bear just out of winter hibernation after lunch over a bottle of vodka. 

It's the only time a world outside the U.S. even gets a mention.

All in all Some Kind of Monster is an excellent documentary for observing the devil sign junk fed masses through the lens of money and cliche buddhist lyrics interspersed with obscenities.

Werner Herzog's - Cave of Forgotten Dreams

I'd love to see this 3D documentary by Werner Herzong. Coincidentally, I've been spending a bit of time  over the last few weeks listening to descriptions of the caves in Lascaux in Southern France where Picasso emerged and said 'we've learned nothing' after seeing the intense visionary drawings which in this instance also adorn the caves at Chauvet Pont d'Arc. However both locations (and others) liberally portray therianthropes for no explicable rational reason.

Anybody else learned of the similarities between these caves and the features of cathedrals such as Chartres? 

Man on Wire

I guess I'm not the only one who gets a little tingle from seeing the twin towers in pre 2001 New York film scenes. I particularly like seeing footage of the construction of the towers in the early 70's. It's a time that's of interest for me because it seems to resonate so strongly from the screen. I chose this Italian trailer with the Eric Satie piano piece because it's infinitely more delicate than the over the top editing for the the U.S market trailer complete with basso profondo voiceover.

I've had this story on my radar for quite some time. I'm not really sure if there was a transition from knowing about the story to being aware of the documentary but for some reason I couldn't imagine it being any more interesting than a long news clip or a very short film. I couldn't have been more wrong. There's a bunch of stuff going on in this extraordinary documentary film. There's no way of anticipating the kind of details that always emerge during the act of doing something dangerous over a period of time. The close scrapes. The near misses. The ominous omens. On their own they are reason to believe it's worth an hour and a half of your time.

But there are other dimensions that caught me by surprise. The incongruous sentiments of detailed planning worthy of a bank heist, flying back and forth between New York and Paris over and over again, combined with a sort of physical poetry of performance, and an essential ability to inspire or seduce all around him into collaborating. It's an ability that falls apart too quickly to be left unmoved by the tears of his best friend on one or two occasions.

The last time I saw something this creative was back in Beijing with the Parisian Ballet company protesting in mid act to the intelligentsia and elite of Peking (and a white boy in baseball cap) over the knee jerk sentiments of blind Chinese nationalism to Olympic torch protests in France. 

This is a moving piece of film with unexpected dynamics and curious details that I can't imagine ever being done any better. Most striking for me is the interstitial editing of film sequences of a younger Philip Pettit practising in France. There was no way of knowing it would be used for a film many years later but it's done so elegantly that the juxtaposition is fused with a sense of poetic connection. Much like the wire across those twin towers.

And Love

My career is dotted with ads I ideas I couldn't coax through the system. There was the "Freedom" idea for Coca-cola or "We Miss You" for Post Tsunami Thailand and yet when I see work like this, I feel that I'm not the only one to roll this way. Levi's suddenly become relevant again. 

I'm reminded that I recently read that Americans often insist on having their Jeans Made in the USA (complete with label), and that the luxury end of the market is paradoxically robust. This just makes sense as the United States is the home of Denim (Well you get what I mean). Great work from Levi's here. Via Influx Insights

UPDATE: The director for this movie is Cary Fukunaga and the words are by Walt Whitman who you may remember from back here. The more I see this film the more I love it.

Challenging Conventions

The Telegraph posted this trailer for Coco Chanel and I thought maybe a few of you would know if it's your sort of thing if my review was rubbish but the embed conveyed the style a bit better than I was able to explain.

Funny Old World

Sometimes people ask me to post stuff and I'm a bit snookered because it's not very good. Sounds condescending but I've kind of taken the creative classes to task for not being very creative over here.

I do also love taking time out to talk to artistic people in my own time, but for simple reasons. I like to know what they're into. If it's new I start to think new. Which is good.

In any case I was somewhat happy when I found out that Andrew Spurgeon of JWT made this because I liked it from the git go and of course I like it more now I know who made it. It works doesn't it?