13 June 2009

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. 1964.

This one is just strange and a perfect one for December. I love old movie posters.

See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

I wasn't anticipating this movie nearly as much as Where the Wild Things Are. Mainly because I forgot it was coming out. Anyways, I LOVED it. I think it was better than Wild Things. I loved how you could tell it was so Wes Anderson. I really was not sure what to expect, but it was great. I especially loved the wall paper and and the textiles. Mrs. Fox had an awesome brooch. It's great. Go see it.
">

Where the Wild Things Are

I'm usually jaded when I hear about such projects. Making a movie based on Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are"? Give me a break. But with Spike Jonze directing, Dave Eggers writing the screenplay, and The Arcade Fire providing the soundtrack, it has some serious potential. I will definitely be catching this in the theatre. Maybe this time I will actually be able to see it in 3D, unlike the Coraline fiasco. 

Coraline

I finally got to see Coraline this weekend. I was really excited to see a 3D movie, because I never have before. The theatre said it would be in 3D, but when we got there it wasn't! Turns out a 5:45 show on Saturday isn't in 3D. Thanks for letting me know internet. We didn't want to wait around until 7:00 to see it in 3D. Anyways, the movie was still amazing. I am most blown away by how it was made. There are tons of great videos on youtube that show the artists making all the crazy stuff. Did you know the cherry blossoms are actually popcorn? Watch this talented lady make miniature sweaters:

And this woman poke on every single piece of hair(!):

Helvetica

I recently have splurged and got a netflix subscription. I have never been a fan of programs that recommend items to you, but the netflix one is pretty good. Without it I would have never found, quite possibly, the greatest documentary ever made: Helvetica. When I saw the title, I immediately added it to my queue without even reading the description. And yes, it is ALL about the font. Not only could every gray-haired Western European interviewed be any relative on my dad's side, but they all understood my idea of aesthetic, which I thought was quite impossible to describe. Anyways. Go see it.

One Great City!

Just so happens that the San Francisco International Film Festival is on right now. So far I have seen three movies and am going to my fourth. The movie I want to talk about is "My Winnipeg", Guy Maddin's homage to his/our city. I was particularly impressed at the mention of the "Winnipeg Coincidence". Now I can't remember if that was something Guy Maddin told us in his introduction or if that was actually in the movie. It was the typical "Winnipeg Coincidence" that I was even at the movie with my sister. Just the fact that my sister and I are both coincidentally living in the Bay Area. I knew about the film festival but didn't know about the movie until I was buying tickets for another movie and the description for "My Winnipeg" was in the description for the movie I was buying tickets to. Who would have thought that I would have ever seen a movie about Winnipeg in San Francisco with my sister. We checked out the audience for familiar Winnipeggers, but didn't see any. I guess Guy Maddin was the only one. The Q&A after was awesome. Guy Maddin could seriously do a spoken word which could possibly rival Henry Rollins. Seriously.
Running into other Winnipeggers in random cities is part of the "Winnipeg Coincidence". When I moved to Oklahoma, I ran into one on my first day. We would have never have known each other because we were in completely different graduate departments. I also ran into this same person when I my sister was visiting. I could think of a myriad of other examples, but I have already broken my rule of making really short blog posts. Oh well.

06 May 2008
I feel like I need to add some post scripts to this post that I forgot to add earlier. I was wondering if maybe only Winnipeggers will enjoy 'My Winnipeg'. Just like Coupland's "Souvenier of Canada", nobody really gets it unless they have an intimate connection to Canada. Although I must say the audience seemed to like it, but I think they were serious Maddin fans.
More on the "Winnipeg Connection" I could probably think of a million of these. I was visiting a friend of mine in Victoria, BC, where she had recently moved. We were just walking downtown and just happened to a guy we went to undergrad with in Manitoba. The "Winnipeg Connection"!