Found this couple of days ago. Eerie but nice short, directed by Christian Simmons for a project of the Savanna College of Art and Design. It has a feel that I can only describe as, well, very slipstream.
Check their SCADshorts site for more info, high quality version and links to their earlier monthly releases of short films.
Now for that request: I’m looking for the title of an animated short, and I haven’t been able to feed Google with the right combination of words. It’s probably best described as a cut-out/stop-motion hybrid centered on a train, made by folding and cutting printouts from classic live action films (which then play on the created objects). It was made by a German group.
I got to see it during the two week introduction course to traditional animation which was one of many things I got to do at art school this last year, and it would be fun to see it again.
I watched Renaissance last night, which for those who don’t know it is an animation feature co-produced by British, French and Luxembourgian interests. Set in Paris in the year 2054, it plays as a sci-fi noir thriller about a jaded police captain, Barthélémy Karas (viced by Daniel Craig in the English version), on a mission to find the kidnapped Ilona Tasuiev, a researcher for the ubiquitous health and beauty corporation Avalon. With the aid of Ilona’s sister Bislane, he gets further into a mystery with roots reaching back to 2006.
The story might be a bit thin, and not very original, but it’s a solid one and does its job of keeping the film together. The theme is simple but comes with a twist that adds a bit of depth at the end to make it more a little worthwhile.
Now, what really makes Renaissance stand out is the visuals. Its graphic novel style is brilliantly executed. I think it’s as close to bringing the black ink style alive as anyone has come. There’s a minimal use of grays for lighting effects, but otherwise the appearance is very graphic. The result is very vivid, so much that I first thought the characters were live actors animated with some sort of rotoscoping technique, but it appears they are digitally created, with motion capture recorded movements. Even facial expressions work well, and that’s something that often makes the illusion fail. In short, it’s a film that would be worth seeing only for the style. If I get an opportunity to see it in a theater, I would gladly pay the admission just to see how it works that way.
While it was animated for English voices, I was recommended to watch the French version with English subs, and it worked well. Maybe because it is set in Paris, but maybe there’s something else to seeing animation in a language you don’t understand. I’ll watch the English version later.
Anyway, I enjoyed it. If I should rate it, I’d say its an 8/10. There are aspects that aren’t perfect, but the overall experience is great. Maybe it isn’t something for anyone, but that’s true for all films.
…William Gibson’s Spook Country, and I just “accidentally” added the Deluxe Collector’s Edition of Chan-wook Park’s “Vengeance trilogy”. Probably the most extravagant film item I’ve ever bought. More to follow on that, and that much anticipated book, when they arrive.
Last weekend ago I watched Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb – one of the best movies ever, very brilliant satire, Kubrick was a genius and so on – but it had an annoying side effext, namely the tune “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again” (I found a midi here). It’s sort of the theme song for all the scenes taking place in the bomber. It’s quite catchy. Too damned catchy, to be honest. I had that fucking tune in my head for days, and after a while it got as annoying as having an itch on the nuts while standing in front of a crowd. I thought I had gotten rid of it yesterday, only leaving the question of where I had heard it before…
…but I got an answer to that tonight, when I had nothing better to than watch tv and the best thing on was Die Hard: With a Vengeance. Quite entertaining, both for an action movie and a second sequel. But there it was. And now it’s back in my head… Johnny marching back home again… well, with a vengeance. I need to find something to help me get rid of it, or I’ll go crazy. Really crazy. Any suggestions for good music I should listen to while trying to purge it? Any similar experiences?
Oh, and I’m mostly posting this because people have reminded me that I havn’t updated the blog in a long time. It’s not that I lack ideas of things to write about, but more that I have a black belt in the Art of Procrastination… I’ll see if I can find some CDs or books to review, or something.
And some links for those who feel inspired to get the movies or just to be infected with the tune themselves:
Frank Martin is a transporter. He delivers things – not asking what or for whom. But at the moment he is filling in as chauffeur for the family of a high profile government policymaker engaged in narcotics control. Then a doctor’s appointment leads to a kidnapping, and Frank’s specialist military background implicates him as being responsible for abducting the family’s son. But Frank promised Jack never to let anyone hurt him. And the Transporter always keeps his promises…
So, what about the movie? I think the best way to describe Transporter 2 it is that it is the kind of movie that has a top of the line German sedan – armored to the outer coat of paint. And Lola, a heroin chic-type who considers the best accessories to pink lingerie to be a pair of laser-sighted sub-machine guns. And a latino mercenary practicing Kendo, as well as a few russians, including thugs and a scientist. Oh, and high-tech vials containing cartoonishly bright substances. You get the idea.
I don’t think there’s much to say about the acting – Frank Martin might not be the deepest of characters, but Jason Statham plays a good enough anti-hero, and the rest of the cast does a good job of providing various sterotypes. The script (by Robert Mark Kamen and Luc Besson) won’t win any awards. Some bits are way over the top, but it’s good enough to last the duration of the movie and provides for plenty of action.
Compared to the original Transporter, it feels like a combination of sequel and remake. The story, with Frank Martin working as a family driver, feels like standard sequel-seasoning, and the overall feel is, well, more American than European.
As a mindless action movie, I think it was quite entertaining. If you’re in the mood for something in that direction, but can’t decide if you want to watch Die Hard or something with Jackie Chan – then Transporter 2 might be what you want. There’s plenty of gunfights, car chases and clever Hong Kong-ish fight sequences. But if you’re looking for more than an hour and a half of simple entertainment, look somewhere else. Rating? 8/10 on the roundkick scale, 5.5/10 on the regular.
I’m too passive with the posting, so let’s talk about my expectations of the new year. Or rather not. I’ve never been into the year “thing”. Same shit, different number – or something like that. Where’s the big difference? Is it simply a matter of perspective, that people need to cut existence into smaller pieces thinking that they will be able to grasp it more easily? Personally, I think grasping existence is a pointless excersise, so I try to focus on whatever is at hand. Try to process life as it is within reach, and not bother with what happened last year or can happen in 2011.
When it comes to entertainment, a field where lot of people seem to put their anticipations, there’s not much either. I can’t think of any announced albums that I really want to hear, for example. Anyone got any suggestions on what will happen musically in 2006? Same thing goes for books, I guess.
I havn’t given the movies much thought either, but there one of the titles is Sympathy for Lady Vengeance(Chinjeolhan geumjassi or Lady Vengeance, original Korean and U.S. titles respectively), Chan-wook Park’s third film about revenge (following the, in my opinion, brilliant Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy. It was released in Korea last summer, opens here in Sweden in January and I think U.S. release is in March. I’m also a bit curious about how the adaptation ofA Scanner Darkly will turn out, since Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite authors. But when it comes to adaptations, anticipation can be a bad thing, so I try to keep my hopes down and assuming it will be a total screw-up. The filming of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition falls in the same field.
I finally got to see A History of Violence the other day (it opened here in Sweden three weeks ago), and I found it to be a very rewarding cinematic experience . I have noticed that opinions have been very varied, and I suppose it is one of those films that doesn’t fit everyone.
Based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, A History of Violence tells the story about the mild-mannered family man Tom Stall, who becomes a local hero after defending his diner from a pair of fugitive criminals. But the following media coverege attracts attention, and Stall’s diner is visited by a scarred mobster who greets him as Joey Cusack and claims to know him from Philadelphia…
I havn’t read the graphic novel, but I think David Cronenberg presents the story in a gritty, mundane tone that could be true to the atmosphere of the original medium. The whole film feels quite unspectacular – and that I mean in a positive sense, as I think that solid, straight-forward films are becoming too few and far apart in the main stream.
The cast is overall good, Maria Bello plays the part of Stall’s wife very well, as well as Ed Harris as Carl Fogarty, the aforementioned mobster. And then there’s Viggo Mortensen, who hasn’t made any particular impression on me, just an actor among others – until now, that is. I found this performance absolutely remarkable, but I can’t really put it in words. The same goes for the story, which I feel is of the kind that is hard to discuss unless I’m talking to someone who also has seen the film. I think much of its effect lies in the impression on the viewer, rather then in the plot itself.
There has been a few remarks regarding the violence and sexual content, but personally I don’t think it was any excessive amounts. In comparsion titles like, for example, Sin City and Kill Bill, had much more of that, but perhaps the mundane atmosphere of A History of Violence gives it a stronger, more realistic impact. Or maybe those complaints were from people who thought “Oh, I loved Viggo in LOTR and Hidalgo, I have to see this!”
In conclusion I have to say this is one of my favorite movies of the year, in close competition with Oldboy and Million Dollar Baby (I know those were originally released in 2003 and 2004 respectively, but they didn’t open here until this year so they’re on my 2005 list)
A robot may not seek to be promoted above a human being who has been at the company longer, because the human being may have a wife and kids to look after whereas the robot just goes home and tries to have relations with a bucket. -Isaac Asimov's 30 Laws of Robotics
I've mentioned that I decided it's about time I set up an artist's site, and I'll try to do better than most artists, who in my opinion very often don't take that very seriously. But I doubt it will end up as ambitious as Wim Delvoye's site, with a whole little pixel town to explore. At least not until I have studio emplyees to delegate that to. And a studio to keep them in....
Firefox 3 (you have gotten it already, haven't you?) comes with support for color profiles. Even though it's disabled by default for various reasons, I think it's good news since it means that when everything gets ironed out more images will get to be seen as they were intended to. More info from DRIA.
...haven't I read Ken MacLeod before? Why, why, why? I picked up The Star Fraction yesterday, and I'm probably going to finish it tonight. It's so damned brilliant I'm almost considering sunglasses to be a good precaution when going near it. Got to make a note to get the rest of the Fall Revolution series asap!
I think this needs some sort of change in direction, as far as there ever was one. Both closing the site down or just letting it sit here being updated every other month seem a bit like the wrong options.
...William Gibson's Spook Country, and I just "accidentally" added the Deluxe Collector's Edition of Chan-wook Park's "Vengeance trilogy". Probably the most extravagant film item I've ever bought. More to follow on that, and that much anticipated book, when they arrive.
So, the multiplying posts are gone. Seems it was an older version of this otherwise very nice Sideblog plugin not playing nice with a newer version of Wordpress.
Weird Al is back, kicking off his upcoming album with "Don't Download this Song", a Band Aid-style anthem about not downloading songs. "Don't take away money from artists like me, how else could I afford another solid gold Humvee".
I watched Renaissance last night, which for those who don’t know it is an animation feature co-produced by British, French and Luxembourgian interests. Set in Paris in the year 2054, it plays as a sci-fi noir thriller about a jaded police captain, Barthélémy Karas (viced by Daniel Craig in the English version), on a mission to find the kidnapped Ilona Tasuiev, a researcher for the ubiquitous health and beauty corporation Avalon. With the aid of Ilona’s sister Bislane, he gets further into a mystery with roots reaching back to 2006.
Anyway, I enjoyed it. If I should rate it, I’d say its an 8/10. There are aspects that aren’t perfect, but the overall experience is great. Maybe it isn’t something for anyone, but that’s true for all films.
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Frank Martin is a transporter. He delivers things – not asking what or for whom. But at the moment he is filling in as chauffeur for the family of a high profile government policymaker engaged in narcotics control. Then a doctor’s appointment leads to a kidnapping, and Frank’s specialist military background implicates him as being responsible for abducting the family’s son. But Frank promised Jack never to let anyone hurt him. And the Transporter always keeps his promises…
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is one of my favorite authors. But when it comes to adaptations, anticipation can be a bad thing, so I try to keep my hopes down and assuming it will be a total screw-up. The filming of William Gibson’s 
