Delectable extract from the silent film “The Cat and the Canary” directed by german expressionist PAUL LENI, in 1927, at the Universal Pictures Studios.
The movie has been remade a few times after it became a reference of a certain Comedy Horror Film genre.
A word of caution… A few people exposed to this dance sequence from Hal Hartley‘s Simple men have experienced the following :
- strong temptation to shout “I can’t stand the quiet” along with Martin Donovan (or at least contemplating the possibility of doing something similar someday)
- unexplainable crush on Elina Löwensohn mostly based on her effortlessly cool way to move to Sonic Youth‘s Kool Thing
- the strange feeling that Tarantino was not the first one to like Band of Outsiders a little bit too much .
This could happen to you (or not).
When one thinks of John Hughes‘ most famous movie, there are many moments and quotes to remember but the power of the late director was also in the quiet moments, like this museum scene.
Filmed in the Chicago art institute, home of one of the best collections in modern art, where Hughes found comfort during his teen years. He said this scene was an excuse to get back there and show off his favorite paintings and sculptures. He also said the end of the sequence was for him the key to the movie…
The music is a cover of The Smiths‘ Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by Dream Academy (yes it does sound a little bit like elevator music, but you should see the video)
It has just been announced that Paul Greengrass, the king of shaky-cam, will remake Richard Fleischer‘s pop trip into the human body. The voyage of the title is the one undertaken by scientists, in a miniaturized ship travelling to a diplomat’s brain to get rid of a menacing clot. It is also a wonderful excuse for some special effects that were groundbreaking them and are just charming now.
Unnofically remaked before in 1987 under the name Innerspace, it then became and animated series and even a Disneyland attraction so realistic it had to be closed down (many visitors felt a little ill when the ship came close to the heart). The new version will be in 3D and James Cameron is producing which might make for a nice trip if Greengrass goes against his no-tripod policy for once.
In this sequence from Arizona Dream, Vincent Gallo‘s frantic character (Paul Léger) performs a stunning rendition of Cary Grant‘s surpringly minimalist acting in the most famous scene in Hitchcock‘s North by Northwest.
Here is the trailer of “Summer palace” / “Une Jeunesse chinoise”
directed by Lou Ye.
The movie was presented at Cannes festival 2006.
“Two young lovers play out their complex, erotic, love/hate relationship against a volatile backdrop of political unrest. From evening to dawn, their future stretches before them, two changed souls in a changed world”.
The chinese government has forbidden the film, and prevented Lou Ye from making movies, so the director is preparing to shoot his next film in France. Tahar Rahim will play one of the character.
HERE you can watch an interview of the director from Michel Reilhac’ s blog (Arte).
Among the forgotten gems of the 80′s, Paperhouse by Bernard Rose never really enjoyed the success it deserved.
It’s a hard film to describe, a movie about children but not really for children, clearly rooted in fantasy and sold as the horror film it never really becomes. It’s about a little girl who starts visiting in her dreams the house of her drawings, a journey into the unconscious who could best be described as an ancestor to Neil Gaiman‘s Coraline.
You gotta love the americans. They can take anything and turn it into an action packed ride if you give them 2 minutes. Take this trailer for Truffaut‘s hommage to Hitchcock, one of his co-productions with United Artists.
If you’ve never seen the film, you’ll think it’s the sixties’ Kill Bill (actually, if you’ve seen the film, you’ve probably noticed the connection too). But, as always with Truffaut, it’s so much more than that… (like, for instance, The man who loved women‘s unofficial prequel)
Waking life, directed by Richard Linklater, probably one of the most quotables movie ever, depicts a series of dreams where Wiley Wigins (one of the main protagonists of Dazed and Confused) encounters philosophers, scientists and artists, each one rotoscoped with a different animated style.
It could be a collection of random ramblings about life but it turns out to be so much more it becomes quite an experience.
In this brief scene, he meets performance artist Tiana Hux.
Saul Bass, one of the most influential graphic designers, is mostly known for his opening sequences for Hitchcock, Preminger and Scorsese among others, but it is less known he also directed this weird gem of a movie in 1974 about an ant invasion.
Written and directed by Aurélia Morali. (2006) // With Clémence Poésy & Adrien De Van // Soundtrack: Au Revoir Simone // In the middle of a wheatfield, a girl throws a paper plane in the air. It falls at a boy's feets...//
