Timmyhawk

QUOTE OF THE DAY
Here’s someone who shares one of my pet hates:

IF "JARHEAD" IS A SERIOUS FILM . . .
. . . then why is it being advertised with a web banner that screams: Win a Tank Driving Experience! That strikes me more as the kind of thing you would do promote some jingoist action flick, rather than a "meditation about war".
Bad PR? Or perhaps this is just super-clever post-modern advertising. One of the most noted passages in Anthony Swofford's book that Sam Mendes' film is based on, is after about how anti-war films are indistinguishable from "pro-war" ones, if you want to call them that. The point Swofford made, was that any film about war served as a sort of pornography to soldiers as it showed their grizzly skill in action, and this proved titillating viewing independent of the context. (see here)
So, perhaps the ad men were extra clued in on this and this was only for the select few who understood the deeper context between such an otherwise infantile advertising gimmick?
Somehow though I don't quite believe it . . .

WHO WANTS TO BE JAMES BOND?
The trouble is really heating up now. The shooting -quite literally too- of the new Bond flick has to start within weeks if it is to be finished for its projected launch date next autumn. However, apparently nobody wants to be the man. I can understand why many actors would turn down playing Bond. The first issue is, how serious can anybody take James Bond after Austin Powers. The other problem is of course, getting stuck in the role. I think it was Pierce Brosnan who complained that people only saw him as Bond and that that limited any further acting career moves. So, unless some actor is found who doesn't mind being the same part for the rest of his professional life, there is need for another solution. It's fairly simple really. The actors just get changed over with every film. After all, which male actor hasn't occasionally dreamed about being James Bond? By only playing it once you wouldn't become to typecast either.
The other big change that the Bond brand needs is to refocus it as a spy series, rather than an action or sci-fi flick. Do you remember "Die another Day" and the invisible car? I mean, come on . . . If it became slightly more subtle more actors might become interested, and loyal fans such as me might not be quite so tempted to abandon the next film as lost to empty action mode.
Here's hoping.

THE FILMS OUR CHILDREN SHOULD SEE
I think this is a good idea, of encouraging children to see certain films. This would well complement the generally restrictive approach to having the little ones watching films. I don’t know what it says about me, but how come I have seen only one and a half of the recommended top ten films for children? I did see the Wizard of Oz as a child back in the days when it was on every Christmas; I think it was Christmas anyway. This only counts half though as I have only a vague visual memory of it and no idea about the plot etc. As for ET I though that was pretty rubbish. My personal childhood favourites I would probably add for my own offspring are:
-The Lord of the Flies, despite all the horror films I saw still the scariest film for me; kids can’t be harmed by being taught a lesson in the fragility of social order and the evil that man is capable of.
(I’m told the original Is better, btw.)
-To be or not to be, which to this day remains one of my all-time favourites, and is probably the best war-comedy ever made; slightly controversial in some respects due to treating the Holocaust a little too flippantly, which Lubitsch could not have understood at the time he made the film.
More to come . . .

JAMES BLUNT’S ROMANTIC VIDEO
Just a random observation, but the video to James Blunt‘s song `Beautiful´, looks uncannily like this painting. I wonder if the videomakers used this imagery accidentally, whether they were inspired by Friedrich’s painting or whether they referred to 1920s German silent films, especially Nosferatu, which in turn drew on Romantic painting. Fun to see the way culture can occasionally recycle itself in different ways. Endlessly fascinating. At least to me.

WELL THERE’S ART . . . AND THERE’S STUFF I LIKE
The other day I subjected myself to viewing a short film entitled “Four”, made by none other than Yoko Ono, back in the heydays of 1969 New York. I was informed that it was making a statement for “peace”. It’s alternative title is “Bottoms”, and that was the programme too: numerous naked bums in close-up, wigglin’ around. Needless to say, it was a silent film of course; so not just all the bums, but also without any sound. For four minutes.
Well, I know it is art, but I know that I don’t like it.

If you want something artistic that in contrast is politically entirely despicable check out this collection of post-revolutionary Russian porcelain. Now, that is something I like, and some of the artwork presented here is quite impressive. If you’re puzzled by the innovative and modern touch the illustrations have, most items are from the earliest years of the Soviet regime when this sort of thing was considered the style of the moment. In later years Stalin's disapproval led to rather less inspiring “art”. *Shudder*
But generally speaking I often find that the 1920s were one the artistically pleasing decades ever.