Sunday, May 17, 2015

Nightcap 5/17/15- We're All Made of Stars, Desire for Beauty, Lew Ayres, a week of interviews and links


A bunch of odds and ends this week.

To start things off this week, as of right now I’m planning on continuing doing Unseen until at least out 7th birthday (February 2007). I know that may not sound like much but some things happened in the last ten days which resulted in a major session of “okay where is this going?” I’m not going to get into it but the long and the short of it but a few things transpired where it was sit or get off the pot as far as Unseen was concerned. I decided not to get off the pot. Making that choice is now going to force some changes to happen. I’ll keep you posted
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WE ARE ALL MAD HERE (Or: How Nick Fouquet blends into The Mad Hatter) from Bruno Miotto on Vimeo.
I need to apologize to Virginia Cademartori

She asked me to do a piece on WE ARE ALL MADE OF STARS, which is a hopefully new web series that ponders what various fictional characters lives might be like if they were real. Its an intriguing idea that could be something special. Right now they are trying to get the funding on Indegogo to make it a possible.

I’ve been trying to write something up about it for two weeks but I haven’t been able to do it. Its not that I don’t have enthusiasm for the project, I do, it’s just I find it hard to write about something that still is in the planning stage.

Personally I think you should take a look at the Indegogo page and decide for yourself if its something that you think should be funded.
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I was recently asked to take a look at a couple of documentaries by Green Box who produced them. I’ll be running a review of DOWN BUT NOT OUT in a day or so, but I wanted to take a moment here to say a word or two about DESIRE FOR BEAUTY

The film is a look at the idea of beauty and how people chase it. Its interesting documentary that I find I admire more than I like. Its not that the film is bad, rather it’s that the film seems to walk the fine line between a documentary and a “fiction” or staged film. There were times I wasn’t sure what was real and what was made up. Technically the film is impeccable with great cinematography mixing with a very good score to make little moments that really pop.

I have a longer review of this somewhere- no really it is somewhere-I just don’t know where- because I realized about five minutes into watching the film I had seen this before and had written it up. I don’t know where because I don’t see it here at Unseen. When I find that review I’ll post it.

The film can be found on Hulu.
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I have been debating whether or not to briefly talk about Lesley Coffin’s Lew Ayres Hollywood’s Conscientious Objector because I’m a bit uncomfortable doing a full review. The reason I’m uncomfortable is that Lesley is a friend and a contributor to Unseen so my desire to overly gush about the book may sound like I'm just hawking a friend's book but I'm not. Lesley’s book really is just a great read.

The book is, I believe, the first book length biography of Ayres. While the book covers his entire life the primary focus of the book, and its best part, focuses on Ayres during the period just prior to the start of the Second World War onward through his quiet declaration of being a conscientious objector and return home after serving in the medical corps in the pacific .This center section is an amazing piece of writing that not only lays out Ayres physical life but also his internal one. Somehow Lesley charts the course of Ayres' soul and feelings about life and humanity in a way that’s deeply moving. Its this section that makes the book a must read.(And the feeling that I can't do that piece of writing justice is another reason I've been hesitant to do a full review)

Buy it at Amazon or get it from your library-either way just read it.
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This week I’m not following the movie a day formula, instead I’m mixing things up and doing something different-interviews. I’ve been busy doing interviews so this week I’m going to unleash a few.

First up is going to be an interview I did with Alonso Ruiz Palacios who directed GUEROS. I spoke with him last year at Tribeca but since it was so early in the festival I couldn’t get it transcribed in time for the festival and instead I held it for the theatrical release which happens Wednesday. The middle of the week is going to be taken up with the massive talk I did with John Wildman and his partner in crime and everything else Justina Walford about their film LADIES OF THE HOUSE. The interview went almost 2 hours of which 80 minutes was recorded. Despite by best efforts to chop it up there was too much to do so so I’m presenting almost all of it over three days. The week ends with the interview Hubert and I did with Cosima Spender and her husband Valerio Bonelli about their film PALIO.

There will be more than just interviews this week with reviews, word on the Mammoth Lakes film Festival and some other things
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And now Randi’s links

Bob Leafe Photography
Uncle Floyd Show Pictures
Hop Hop Speedy
Confession of a location scout on why bits of stereotypical NYC doesn't exist
Favorite movie locations
Insects are eating history
Disney spent 15 billion to limit their audience
How not to mount a Broadway show-the troubled history of REBECCA
The Beatles
Speakers Corner on pictures
The worst of 1980's movie racisim
Chinese fans brought to tears by poor AVENGERS AGE OF ULTRON subtitles

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