Art with Strangers: Olafur Eliasson
May 9th, 2008
Take your time: Olafur Eliasson is currently at MOMA and P.S.1. More Art with Strangers.
Tribeca: Isild Checks Her Email
April 26th, 2008
Between that movie about the Egyptian anesthesiologist who loves fish and the one about the family eating couscous, the best thing I’ve seen at Tribeca 08 so far was Isild Le Besco checking her email during Thursday night’s party at the Apple Store. [more photos]
The Secret of the Grain. Abdel Kechiche, 2007. N/R
The Aquarium. Yousry Nasrallah, 2008. **
Two Mothers. Rosa von Praunheim, 2007. ***
Easter Leftovers
March 25th, 2008
I’ll have photos from holiday sojourn on Cape Cod later, but in the meantime I wanted to point to Commander König’s eerie and beautiful Easter-inspired photo series.
I just happened to mention Phish’s 1998 Prague shows the other day — turns out, the second night is being officially released on LivePhish today. You can listen to the Ghost for free. Some other time, I’ll tell you about how we stayed at an expat commune stalked by a mysterious “sickness” and the mirthless lectures on materialism I received from a future Park Slope real estate agent. I still have the poster we managed to rip off a downtown wall without being arrested by the Czech secret police.
Screening-wise, it’s been a slow week. I walked out of Olivier Assays’ Boarding Gate after it became clear that the tats on Asia Argento were the only interesting thing about it. Instead, I’ve been obsessing over my There Will Be Blood DVD — much more on this later.
Boarding Gate. Olivier Assayas, 2007. N/R
Berlin Faces
March 1st, 2008
In no particular order: the guys from Babel, David Hudson of GreenCine Daily, Mama und Papa, the friendly proprietor of Absinthe Depot, Andew “Filmbrain” Grant, Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger, Danny Kasman, Martin Scorsese, Charlie Watts, and a selection of medival statues from the Bode Museum, which you can also find in a flickr set that prompted my favorite flickr mail ever:
:: hi
I add you ass contact because I’m interessting about a trip
in germany and by your photo you make my day …….Ich bein
er berliner the Holy Germanic Empire’s rising again by your
art
Well then. From last year’s visit, more photos from the Bode and other Berlin museums.
Konsum: Poodlesitting
February 3rd, 2008
Poodle-in-law Bo needed my loving attention and finely honed dog-walking skills last week, so I only saw three new films along with the never-ending (and frequently repeating) slew of half-watched classics that drifted by on suburban cable TV. Expect this ratio to shift dramatically when I hit the Berlinale next week.
In Bruges. Martin McDonagh, 2008. Review forthcoming. They sent us In Bruges hats, so you know it’ll be a rave! Updated: My About.com review. ****
The Witnesses/Les Témoins. André Téchiné, 2007. Marcy reviewed. ***
London to Brighton. Paul Andrew Williams, 2006. Especially after the grace and humanity of 4 Months, I found this sordid tale of abused women difficult to stomach. *
Also:
The Empire Strikes Back. Irvin Kershner, 1980. *****
One, Two, Three. Billy Wilder, 1961. *****
The Dreamers. Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003. Marcy’s review. ****
Quadrophenia. Franc Roddam, 1979 ****
The Big Lebowski. Joel and Ethan Coen, 1998. *****
The Birds. Alfred Hitchcock, 1963. ****
Musical Bonus: As featured in The Witnesses, here’s Les Rita Mitsuko.
