Sophia Coppola's "Somewhere" Trailer

Coppola's new film stars Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning while also featuring music by Phoenix. It's set to come out in December.

The beautiful song in the trailer is a demo version of the Stroke's You Only Live Once called, "I'll Try Anything Once."

Beauty and the Beast

Dir. Jean Cocteau (France 1946)

Disney is leagues away from Cocteau. Whilst the story is classic, the visual effects were my absolute favorite. They add a delightful whimsy to the film that remind me of the more contemporary film maker, Michel Gondry. This is especially noticeable with the personification of the objects in the Beast’s castle. The doors whisper, the wine pours itself, and bodiless hands light the castle. Rather than try to deceive the viewer, the cinematic illusions are blunt and display extraordinary imagination and creativity.

One of this film’s most beautifully striking moments is when Belle first enters the castle. Her skirt dances in slow motion as she runs through a hallway lined with isolated candle-holding arms that move as she passes by to light her way.

This classic story combined with its avant-garde stylings is a total triumph.

The Spirit of the Beehive

BRILLIANTAMAZINGHAUNTINGWONDERFULSTUNNINGGORGEOUSBEAUTIFUL.







Dir. Victor Erice (Spain 1973)

Any words here cannot do this film justice. This is film is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. The story, the performances, and the cinematography were all impeccable.

The film takes place in 1940 (after the Spanish Civl War) and is centered around the two young girls of a disjointed family. Ana, the younger of the sisters, is an adorable little girl whose world unravels quietly and darkly after viewing Frankenstein with her sister at a traveling cinema.

At just five years old, Ana Torrent delivers an extraordinary performance. The viewer feels the same suspense and fear as she escapes into the forest and sees her reflection turn into Frankenstein's. The fear and curiosity in her eyes can be easily and completely absorbed. Apparently, she wasn't only acting, but she was also living in the world of the film. Her reactions to Frankenstein are completely genuine, since Erice captures her as she views the film for the first time.

And the cinematography, OH GOD the cinematography! To begin with, (as over-used as this is) every single shot is like a beautifully composed photograph. Beautiful golden tones are used throughout the film to aid the allusion to the beehive, and even the windows of the house have a hexagonal pattern. Frames contain vast empty landscapes and desolate imagery. In fact, I want to call this a minimalist film because of the economical dialogue, clean lines, and white space in the framing (oh boy do I like white space). Every word spoken had incredible weight to it because of the small amount of dialogue, but it was something I really appreciated- to receive only the essential dose of phonetic information. The visuals were vital in setting the mood and communicating the somewhat difficult-to-decipher story. To top it off the film's cinematographer was going blind during the making of the film!

BRILLIANTAMAZINGHAUNTINGWONDERFULSTUNNINGGORGEOUSBEAUTIFUL.

Don't do drugs

Here's a music video from 15 year old L.A. rapper Earl.
Just watch for yourself. And not on a full stomach.

Moving Countries foward with Moving Images

These spots for amnesty international speak for themselves.

Death to the Death Penalty



Russian Dolls

Adicolor

So Adidas launched Adicolor back in 1983 and the premise of the campaign was to customize your footwear. You would purchase a pair and inside the box there would be goodies for you to decorate your shoes with, cool right? Well Adidas relaunched this concept in 2005 but things got a lot cooler; the trainer shoes used for the campaign included characters like Kermit, Miss Piggy, Betty Boop, and Tron (to name a few). The best part about this is the promotional viral videos made.


Charlie White made Pink (and one of the most pleasurable minute twenty seconds of video that I've ever had the privilege to lay eyes on.




Neil Bloomkamp, the director of Yellow, went on to direct District 9.




The darkest of the series was (surprise surprise) Black, directed by Saiman Chow.



There's also one for green, red, white, and blue. You can watch all of them here.

kids and youtube

my seven year old cousin is visiting me from boston and all we've been doing is wrestling and playing really intense games of chess. so that i could take a break from his insanity i sat him down and we decided to watch some youtube videos.

i think this gummy bear thing is the new thing people should roll too. thank you cousin.



also, i showed him yo gabba gabba and he flipped out. i think it tripped him out too much.



i seriously don't understand how yo gabba gabba got a show on nick jr. but i can say this much, i wish i was dj lance rock. he's raising a generation of ravers.