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The game of three

February 6, 2003
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OK. This is the movie trilogy game. It’s really simple. Pick three movies that form a trilogy, but weren’t meant to.

My personal favorite is this group: Henry V (the Branagh version), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and Henry and June. The Henry Trilogy. See? It’s easy.

You can go thematic, too. Heavenly Creatures, The Young Poisoners Handbook, and The Butcher Boy. The Children of the British Empire Behaving Badly Trilogy.

It’s best if it’s a trilogy with a weird angle, which is why the Henrys beat the Children all hollow, but the Children are an OK entry because who’d ever imagine three movies like that? Also, they don’t share many other elements, although Ireland (where The Butcher Boy is set) is a bit close to England (where Young Poisoners Handbook is set). You want as little in common between the movies as possible other than the linking theme… no, that’s not quite right. Elements have to either be the same (the linking theme, the location, etc.) or different. You can’t have two movies set in swamps and one set in mountains, but if all three are in swamps, that’d be OK.

Anyhow, my previous entry reminded me that the Game Show of Death Trilogy is now a going concern; Battle Royale, Series 7, and The Running Man. Again, a little weak, since two of ‘em are from the US — but Series 7 is so indie it practically doesn’t exist in the same world as Running Man.

I am still looking for a third movie to fill out Gangster No. 1 and Velvet Goldmine. The link between the two is left as a puzzle for the reader, but I will say that Scandal is very close to being perfect.

Kids behaving badly

February 6, 2003
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HKFlix.com has a new edition of Battle Royale in stock, which may be of interest to — well, it’s of interest to me. I’ve wanted to see this for a while. The plot is simple; a few dozen Japanese teenagers, all from the same high school class, are put on an island. Each one gets a weapon. Last one off wins. Refuse to fight and you die.

Yeah, I know. And everyone says “Oh, Lord of the Flies.” But I also hear a subcurrent of Ender’s Game, and I really enjoyed Series 7. So, yeah, I’m interested in this. And I’ve never been one to shy away from the lurid.

Oh, hm, there’s a movie trilogy. OK, next post for that.

Clear as mud

February 5, 2003
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This picture is probably the coolest picture I have seen in years. No kidding. It’s a no kidding high tech not yet perfected invisibility cloak.

Go look. Now. It’s a guy standing in the middle of a park and you can see right through him. It is incredibly science fictional. It’s not Photoshopped.

Best Film 2003

February 4, 2003
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I was intending to have a busy movie weekend, but after City of God I really didn’t want to see anything else. I actually went down to the Copley Place to see Intacto, but it was sold out twenty minutes before showtime, so I punted to City of God. The Copley is a lousy excuse for an art house theater, but it was the only place in town showing Intacto; thus, I wound up in a cramped little bandbox with a floor that sloped up to the tiny little screen. Pathetic.

About ten minutes into City of God, I’d pretty much forgotten that I’d get a better cinema experience from a bargain basement second run theater in Iowa.

I suspect part of my enthused reaction was just meeting a new set of cinematic conventions; I’ve never seen a Brazilian movie before, so there was a lot of novelty in it for me. On the other hand, the energy of the direction and acting was universal. The directors, Katia Lund and Fernando Meirelles, are fearlessly willing to use bullet time and stop motion — but only for real emotional effects. You get the sense that they’ve never thought about the distinction between pulp and real art; for them, everything’s just another technique to use when telling the story.

The same egalitarian approach applies to the casting. Most of the actors are residents of the slums the movie chronicles, cast after extensive acting workshops. It pays off. Philippe Haagensen in particular has real star charisma.

I’d heard the story was very dense, and it was fairly compact, but it wasn’t the sort of fast cut patchwork you see in the average Tarantino homage. There were a lot of stories to tell, but they don’t intercut; they weave together, and elements of one turn up again later. This allows the nuances time to grow, and gives the audience time to absorb.

Highly recommended.

More from the master

February 4, 2003
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Hey, it’s about time for Richard Thompson to release a new album. There’s a sample song (in WMA format, boo hiss) here. (Thanks to Jim Henley.) The album looks pretty stripped down, just him and Danny Thompson and Michael Jerome, who was the drummer on his last tour. I saw one of those shows, and I thought Jerome was really good. The first track is titled “Gethsemane” — I can’t wait.

Hm. Actually, it’s out in the UK and Europe. Surely I have some adoring European readers? HEDGE!

Wing

February 3, 2003
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This picture is reportedly a shot of the Columbia’s wing from early on her last mission. Maariv is an influential newspaper in Israel, so it would seem this is not a Photoshop job, although I wouldn’t rush to conclusions regarding dents and cracks. I don’t think there’s enough detail in the picture to be sure of what we’re seeing.

Sigh

February 3, 2003
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OK. I didn’t particularly want to poison the Columbia tragedy by saying something partisan, and I kind of hoped I wouldn’t find myself wanting to. For the most part, nobody in the blogosphere has gotten political about this. There’s been idiotic froth on both wings in comment sections, but you have to expect that, and for the record I find “Bush will use this to push the war!” and “This is Islam’s fault!” equally repellent.

However.

Sneering at the French (because he couldn’t be bothered to do a little research before passing along an unsupported rumor) and taking cheap shots at the left wing (in an essay which would have done just fine without that paragraph) are both over the line. On a day when I even agreed with Mischa’s sentiments, Glenn Reynolds managed to offend me.

He couldn’t hold the politics for a couple of days? Guess not.