I never knew

One of my favorite things in Inception is the way everyone is dressed, mix of futuristic and cool retro. Jeffrey Kurland did the costume design and there’s an interview with him on Clothes On Film. He also did Ocean’s Eleven and Collateral, two other movies with great suits and looks.

Not wanting to date the film, I was trying to create an upscale world of business and intrigue with architecture being a constant metaphorical thread running throughout… definitely forward thinking, without being futuristic. That enabled me to travel from reality to dreams and back, keeping a certain amount of stylization that would serve all the situations presented in the script.

I was lucky enough to see Brett Gaylor’s Rip: A Remix Manifesto at the a premiere screening last fall and now it’s your turn. I’ve know Brett for a couple of years and made the first couple of versions of the site (not the latest) but it’s got nothing to do with my appreciation: his movie kicks ass! Seriously, it’s a fun and instructive (rare combo) ride through what Copyright, copy left, Creative Commons and the digital culture in general is about, the legal crapola going on that’s threatening it and the great stuff happening in the space.

On top of the movie’s quality in it’s own right, Brett’s a good guy living in Montréal and part of our local scene, we’re always showing up at various events and little launches to encourage the locals doing good, this is a full length theater released movie tackling a big issue. If it’s not the time to show up, I don’t know what is.

For what it talks about, for the importance of the issues, for your own awareness of what’s involved and, well, so it keeps on being shown in cinemas, you have to go see this movie. In Montréal it’s showing at AMC until Wednesday and at Cinéma du Parc for an open run as well as in various other cities across the country now and in upcoming weeks.

If you don’t come out to encourage and learn from this movie, you suck.

Ben Brown is one of the guys I’ve been reading the longest, before the word blog even existed I believe. I keep reading because he’s funny, the original Internet Rockstar, builds cool stuff and believes in ideas like this :

I still believe in this oldskool way of launching sites, and I still believe a little website run by people who really care can be just as good as a website funded with tons of easy-to-spend cash. Thanks in advance for helping us out!—HoorayMovies.com Launched!

So check HoorayMoovies.

Vimeo Tribute: Star Wars from Casey D on Vimeo.

Yes! Apple now offers movie downloads and rentals on iTunes Canada. One less retarded thing for us.

Now that I’ve got a Zip account, a flight to europe with 4 movies each way and a girlfriend who loves movies, I’ve been watching quite a number of them but I haven’t posted much and so, as often happens, I have too many to write about for any length. Quick takes.

Shrek The Third. Kind of funny, saw it on the plane and I might actually rent it to see the whole thing… or not.

Ocean’s 13. Not as good as the first or even the second. Funny if you like the characters. Not all that good. (on the plane)

Wild Hogs. Better than I expected but I expected a steaming pile of poo so it’s not saying much. (on the plane)

Blades of Glory. See Wild Hogs but a bit better. (on the plane)

Fantastic Four Rise of The Silver Surfer. I would have rented that one, not so sure anymore. Maybe to get a better look at the Surfer but that’s about it. (plane)

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Again, not as good as the previous 2 but this one was quite fun, might try to see the whole thing in a proper setting. (plane)

You, Me and Dupree. Kate Hudson is cute. Nothing else to say.

Spartan. Decent. I like that type of movie and Val Kilmer. Not bad at all but I’ve seen better.

The Driver. Pretty good. Great chase scene, Ryan O’Neal was better than I expected. Movies from those years have completely different rythms than they do today.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Jack’s brilliant, the movie is brilliant, the ending wouldn’t happen today. I see why it’s a classic.

Last Tango in Paris. The french subtitles bugged me and couldn’t be turned off. Weird, disjointed, great look. Brando is awesome. Again, different rythm.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Dark movie set in a period I didn’t know much about. A good movie that also teaches a bit of history.

The Departed. Loved it. Frickin’ DiCaprio surprises me every time, quite an actor who really inhabits his characters. Hell of a cast, pretty shocking ending.

The Dogs of War. Kind of lame, even with “the man”, Christopher Walken. Couple of nice parts but botched ending.

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Two legends on screen together. Well done, well played, great chemistry. Ending feels a bit thrown together.

GoodFellas. I’d seen good parts of it before but never in one go. Great movie, damned violent in parts (duh!), stereotypical gangster flick but so well done.

The Darjeeling Limited. Didn’t fall in love with it as much as some but I did love it. Beautiful “universe”, superb colors, great acting. They could come out with a photography book filled only with stills from the movie.

On The Waterfront. Brando again. Brilliant again. “I coulda been somebody, I coulda been a contender!”. I’m not sure why, “a man’s man”? Though, troubled guy? Simple but real? I have the same kind of feeling watching Brando as I have reading Hemingway.

Rebel Without a Cause. Eeesh. Would this movie be talked about at all if Dean hadn’t died shortly after? I think not. Mostly lame.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Seymour Hoffman is brilliant, as usual. I liked it, nothing exceptional but enjoyable. I like Ethan Hawke but he’s overacting most of the time, hate the guy who plays the dad, he gets on my nerves. Twisted plot. Not exceptional but I’d recommend it.

Say Anything. Classic teenage flick that still plays well. Nothing but Cusack in common but it could almost play as “High Fidelity the early years”. Fun.

In trying to post books in smaller batches, these three since the last post and one more movie.

L’annulaire, Yoko Ogawa

Je ne suis pas certain si ce sont les nouvelles japonaises ou les nouvelles japonaises traduites ou les nouvelles japonaise traduites qui sont vendues ici en librairies ou les nouvelles japonaises traduites vendues ici en librairies qui attirent mon attention ou encore la traduction du japonais au français mais il y a toujours une simplicité dans l’écriture et dans l’histoire que j’aime beaucoup. Malgré que l’on puisse trouver plusieurs niveaux en termes psychologique et dans l’imagerie, l’histoire elle même est toute simple; une jeune fille qui travaille dans une “boutique” de spécimens et quelques mois de sa vie. Beau petit livre.

La solitude lumineuse, Pablo Neruda

Un autre très cour livre, dans ce cas-ci c’est que je n’avais pas remarqué la note; “Ce texte est extrait de J’avoue que j’ai vécu”. Un extrait de 80 pages donc, traduit de l’espagnol. Comme Neruda a longtemps été consul du Chili dans différents pays d’orient, c’est un récit de voyage par un poète. Plein de belles descriptions et une vision de l’orient différente des colonisateurs présents à ses côtés. Je vais me trouver l’intégrale.

Bullit with Steve McQueen

An old action flick with a crazy ass car chase in San Francisco pitting a ‘stang and a Charger (thought is was a Barracuda though). Funny how the pace of old movies is often different from recent ones. I liked it, nothing extraordinary but very well made and I loved Bullit’s, calm no nonsense don’t fuck with me attitude. The whole ending is indered by an impossibility but at least now I know where the final scene from Heat was copied from.

I always mean to post about each quickly and individually but, as with many things, never get around to it.

• Paris, je t’aime. Une collection de films courts tournés à Paris par différent directeurs. La plupart des commentaires parlent d’une qualité très inégale et c’est vrai mais j’ai trouvé que même les “moins bons” sont quand même pas mal du tout et les meilleurs sont vraiment excellent. Niveau de qualité moyen quand même plus élevé que bien des films donc. Tous les segments sont listés sur Wikipedia, Quais de Seine et Faubourg Saint-Denis me sont restés en tête plus que les autres. J’ai aussi bien aimé Père-Lachaise pour la scène et le choix d’acteurs et Parc Monceau pour Nick Nolte. 14e arrondissement était pissant.

















• Syriana was a bit heavy and complex to get but well worth it. Love the George as always. Not fall backwards good as some claimed but highly recommended.

















• Illusionist, The. Supposedly one of the two magician movies that came out almost at the same time was good. This was not that one. Suckage.

















• Notes on a scandal. Wonderful, gorgeous sexy Cate Blanchett. Lady Judi Dench is awesome. Dark, very british movie. Excellent.

















• Diggers. “A coming-of-age story about four working-class friends growing up in Long Island, New York, as clam diggers.” Pretty good in an indy film kind of way. Nice performances from a good cast.

















• Dans Paris. Bons acteurs, scénario un peu moyen mais avec de beaux flash. J’ai bien aimé.

















• 300. Just watch the trailer 10-12 times in a row and you’ll save a few bucks. Gorgeous visuals but it’s just one big fight scene, literally. Very disappointed.

















• 23. Would have been a decent scenario if it had been a little less obvious in it’s use of flashing arrows. Jim Carrey is somewhat interesting.

















• Papillon. A classic with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. I read the books years and years ago but had forgotten a lot of the story so I wasn’t caught in the “it matches the book or not” loop. Loved it, great actors, great story, well made, impressive job on changing McQueen’s appearance throughout the film.

















• Annie Hall. Second movie to come to me through Zip where I piled a bunch of must see movies. I’ve seen almost no Allen movies and know of him mostly from reputation and his crazy personal life so I enjoyed seeing is pretty lovable, funny, idiosyncratic persona here. Annie Hall’s character isn’t at all what I expected but well delivered by Keaton. But why am I even writing about this movie? Everyone knows about it already.

















• War Made Easy. Not bad and something many americans still need to see but nothing that we haven’t seen many times (and often better done) on The Daily Show. Couple of places where they skip over details to suit their purpose. Including Clinton’s US going into Kosovo to stop a genocide with Vietnam or Dubbya’s Iraq bugged me. It was put there pretty much only to build a fake uninterrupted string of presidents lying about reasons for war.

• An Inconvenient Truth. I’m surprised so many well informed people were fawning over the movie that much. It is very very good but very little new information if you were half way well informed before. Superb effort and results though when matched with the what most people know before seeing it. Some infographics were fantastic but disapointed me a little because they are so good Gore certainly didn’t make them and I always liked the mystique of him perfecting his slide set. Them ain’t slides in the movie.

As happens regularly, Michael Geist is writing up a storm and I can barely keep up just reading it in between everything else. A few things you shouldn’t miss:

Canadian Cultural Policy Must Adapt to an Internet World

As the importance of the Internet and new media grows, the Canadian cultural strategy must surely adapt to this new reality. The CRTC showed signs of recognizing this with its 2005 satellite radio decision that implemented Canadian content safeguards better suited to the technology. Internet-based content presents an even greater challenge since there is no hope – nor any need – to bring Canadian content requirements to the likes of Joost or YouTube. The policy emphasis must instead shift toward creating Canadian content and touching as many people as possible involved in the creative process.—Canadian Cultural Policy Must Adapt to an Internet World

Putting Canadian “Piracy” in Perspective – The Sources

In his sources post he gives lots of links to backup the numbers and claims from his “Putting Canadian “Piracy in Perspective Video. Very saddening to see how the government just rolled over on that one.

Canada’s Communications Outlook: Average At Best

Yet more evidence that Canada sucks at mobile.

Canada ranked second last in the OECD for the total number of mobile subscribers. For medium mobile users, Canadian plans ranked among the most expensive in the OECD.

Canada placed far behind other countries for innovation. For example, Bell Canada was the only Canadian telecom provider to obtain patents in the United States with four since 2003. By comparison, AT&T, British Telecom, NTT, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, and Korea Telecom have all obtained dozens (or hundreds) of patents in that same time frame.

Diversity of Voices

The Diversity of Voices proceeding comes in response to the growing consolidation of Canadian media and seeks commentary on whether the changing corporate landscape has had a negative impact on the diversity of perspectives within the Canadian broadcasting system. The CRTC’s interest in the issue arises directly from the Broadcasting Act, which includes a statutory objective that Canadian broadcasting “provide a reasonable opportunity for the public to be exposed to the expression of differing views on matters of public concern.” … The need for an open consultation on media diversity is long overdue.—Diversity of Voices

Corus Calls For Net Neutrality Task Force

Canadian creators and producers need to ensure that they can continue to have access to the networked bit stream on the basis of equitable rules. The CRTC should examine its potential role in governing net neutrality to ensure that access remains open to Canadian services on new digital distribution platforms. Corus recommends the establishment of an Industry Task Force on net neutrality.—Corus Calls For Net Neutrality Task Force

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are teaming up to direct and produce three back-to-back features based on Georges Remi’s beloved Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin for DreamWorks, Variety reported. The trilogy will be produced in full digital 3-D using performance capture technology. The two filmmakers will each direct at least one of the movies.—Spielberg, Jackson Team For Tintin

Humm. Not sure how I feel about this. “Full digital 3D”, will they keep the same look? Tintin’s very 2D. Make some kind of weird adaptation? How about Spielberg directing? Not so sure. How about Jackson? Did LoTR show he’s a master at translating to film or “simply” that he was a gigantic fan of the books? I’d love to see a good adaptation but I’m very skeptical it can be achieved. Then again, Sin City was superb and showed how a very distinctive look on paper can be taken to film so who knows, maybe they’ll blow our minds.

Yulscript? Caro considère partir un groupe de scénaristes. Bonne idée, vous pourrez avoir vos meeting au coworking quand ça va finir par partir.

“We all know the best parts of most films are the parts with Steve Buscemi in them—this is a proven fact. Here at Buscemi Club, we offer you all the glory of Buscemi without all the bullshit. Relax and enjoy.”































Hell of a crazy job of editing for the Buscemi Club.

Most recent Bourne Ultimatum trailer is online, seems Sebastien Foucan is in this after doing some parkour for Casino Royale.