Author results: Martyn Pedler
Hunger
Word association: when I say "hunger strike", do you think "brimming with cinematic possibilities"? Maybe not. Turner Prize-winning artist and first-time feature director Steve McQueen thought otherwise, and it just won him the Camera d'Or prize at Cannes. (Shows what you know, huh?)
It's easy to see why.
Focus on Johnnie To
In Hong Kong, Johnnie To's films are such blockbusters that he's credited with single-handedly keeping their entire film industry afloat. But here? Any film that's not in English gains a weird arthouse sheen, and you'll have to head to ACMI's latest retrospective to see what the fuss is about.
There are twelve examples on show from Johnnie To's prolific career, but maybe start with the trailer to 2001's Fulltime Killer.
Celebrity: Dominick Dunne
Why does Dominick Dunne hate Frank Sinatra? Because Ol' Blue Eyes once instructed a flunky to punch Dominick in the head as a lark. Yes, Dunne's career trajectory - from social climber to movie producer to "the defining voice of Vanity Fair" - is weighed down by a torrential downpour of Old Hollywood name-dropping.
CHOKE
Chuck Palahniuk owned the late ‘90s. From the moment Fight Club splattered into popular consciousness, he stood in the cyclone-eye of our every swirling subcultural anxiety.
It seemed inevitable that we'd be bombarded with so many Palahniuk film adaptations that we'd finally have to learn how to spell his name - and yet it's taken this long to see CHOKE hit cinemas, translated into a dirty indie comedy with delusions of grandeur.
David Lynch DVD Collection
Has David Lynch just become a friendly caricature of American oddness? I mean, once you turn sixty, start evangelising about meditation and release your own brand of coffee - how strange can you really be?
A new five-disc DVD collection gives a before-and-after glimpse of Lynch's career. You can start with the industrial nightmare of fatherhood that is Eraserhead, and then wash your mind clean afterwards with his early short films like the adorable The Frenchman and The Cowboy.
Beyond Our Ken
What:
Beyond Our Ken
When:
Very limited season starts today, Thurs Sept 18
Where:
Cinema Nova
Watch the trailer:
Here
Description:
When people are protesting your documentary, you must be doing something right. Beyond Our Ken is a self-funded, low-budget film that turns the microscope onto the controversial KENJA group and their promises of unleashing ‘human potential'. (Feel free to replace ‘group' with ‘cult' and ‘human potential' with ‘charges of sexual abuse'.
Event: Film
Stimulus: A
WALL-E
Why does everyone love Pixar? Exhibit A: when Pixar became aware of footage showing someone who cried every time the hero of their latest film simply said his name, they flew her to the wrap party. They're that awesome.
Director Andrew Stanton's last masterpiece was Finding Nemo and it opened with the massacre of almost an entire family of baby fish.
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