Diane, A Shaded View on Fashion

El Topo (1970) - Trailer-Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

61st Cannes-festival kicks off

Interview with New York film Director and writer - Alan Brown

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Alan Brown

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Almost two decades ago when I was a fashion designer living in New York I signed up for a class in Japanese at the New School. It was an intense course starting at 9h on Saturday mornings. I think I lasted about 6 classes and then dropped out. While I was there I met my neighbor on West 11th street, Alan Brown. More than 10 years ago I was looking for a present for a friend in a book store in London. I picked up Audrey Hepburn's Neck thought it looked interesting and turned to the back cover to read about its author and found out it was written by Alan Brown. I bought two copies and found it a very provacative read. I sent a message to Alan through his publisher just to congratulate him. He wrote back but I had not seen or heard from him since then. Recently when I was in NYC as a guest of the Metropolitan Museum for their Mode-Blogging panel, I ran into Alan at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. We were both there to see the work of a video artist. It was a wonderful New York reunion.

DP: We met at the New School, I was a Japanese drop out and you went on to live and study in Japan for 7 years as a Fulbright scholar. You have received many writing awards including the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright and NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. At what point during your stay in Japan did the idea for ‘Audrey Hepburn’s Neck’come up? Was this your first novel?

AB: The idea for AHN came to me late in my stay in Japan, after a trip up to northern Hokkaido, where the novel is set. This was my first story, but I’d written and had published quite a few short stories previously.

DP: Are there any other writers or directors in your family? Is this something that you wanted to do since you were a child? Did you direct little scenes when you were a kid? If so can you describe an early but memorable one?

AB: I didn’t grow up with any writers or directors in my family, but there are other writers in my generation, a few cousins and second cousins. I had no specific interest in directing films as a child. I went to art school, and ended up with a degree in Photography, so I suppose I was on that path without knowing it.

DP: Who is your favorite director? Did the work of any particular director inspire you to do what you do now?

AB: I like lots of different directions, and films. I like Gus van Sant, Atom Egoyan, Danny Boyle. Almodovar. As a genre, I tend to like French films a lot. I’ve liked some Oliver Stone films. Larry Clark’s Bully. It’s hard to make a list. There are some films I watch over and over again. I certainly liked Y Tu Mama Tambien. And the Australian film Lantana certainly inspired me. David Gordon Green’s first two films. The list goes on and on, as I like certain films for certain things – often for specific actor’s performances.

O Beautiful

DP: Was O Beautiful your first short film or were there other shorter ones before that?

O Beautiful (2002) is the story of Brad, a young gay victim of a homophobic agression that was left abandoned half nude in a corn field, when one of the bashers returns with remorse and a secret.

AB: O Beautiful was my first film. (It’s actually not that short: 33 min.) I had no inkling that I would direct film before that one. It was something of a fluke the way I fell into it.

DP: In 2002 you wrote and directed O Beautiful and that film won you the Future Filmmaker Award at the 2002 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival and also your film was in the official selection for Sundance. WHat were your biggest challenges in making this film?

O Beautiful

AB: The biggest challenge of course was that I’d never directed a film, never even taken a film course. So I walked into it having no idea at all how the process of filmmaking worked. I did instinctively know how to work with actors, though. And I found very quickly that I had a talent for organizing and collaborating, and for getting people to work hard. That and being able to find and hire talented people who know their jobs is much of what a director does. And I also discovered, not incidentally, that I LOVE making decisions and telling people what to do. (That’s a nice way of saying I like to boss people around.)

DP: How did that immediate positive reaction to your work effect you? What doors were suddenly opened that were closed before?

Book of Love

AB: Well, it was exhilarating, and it confirmed what I was feeling: That I’d found the thing – writing and directing films – that I was meant to be doing in life. And it immediately opened the door for me to make my next film right way, the feature, BOOK OF LOVE, which actually premiered at Sundance the following year.


Book of Love

DP: Do you consider yourself politically engaged?

AB: Very.

Superheroes

DP: What was the starting point for Superheroes?

AB: I was reading about the horrible treatment returning Iraqi War vets were receiving, and it horrified and enraged me – as did just about everything connected with Bush’s war. So I wanted to say something about it as an artist.

Superheroes

DP: Are you trying to effect any change by drawing attention to the situation with Iraq war veterans by making Superheroes? Do you know any people that have suffered from PTSD? As part of your research did you spend any time with a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder support group? If so, what was your relationship with the group and the individuals and how did they help shape your main character?. Did you relate on any level to the filmmaker?

Superheroes
AB: Superheroes was an artistic response to a situation. I never thought of it as a didactic, ‘educational’ film. That said, of course I hope that people seeing are moved to act, to make changes. I did consult with psychiatrists who specialize in PTSD and trauma in general, and also with vets, but I didn’t spend time with any groups. I also spent an enormous amount of time on line viewing footage of PTSD groups and individual interviews. There’s an enormous amount of material available.
As for the ‘filmmaker’ character, I didn’t relate to him – except possibly in his frustration and impotence in the face of the vet’s war experience and his terrible, unknowable suffering.

DP: How was it that Book of Love was screened at both Sundance and Slamdance? How does that work?

AB: BOL actually premiered in the Dramatic Competition at Sundance. It didn’t screen at the Slamdance Film Festival actually. But during the year, in NYC, Slamdance does (or did) a monthly ‘Best of Slamdance’ series. And each year, they invite one film to screen that wasn’t at Slamdance but which the Slamdance directors admire. We were honored that Slamdance invited ‘Book of Love’ to be that film.

Book of Love

DP: How long do you spend casting your films? Again, biggest challenges in the making of.

AB: Casting is such a huge challenge, but financing is always cast-dependent. Particularly for my films, which are totally character-driven, casting is fraught with anxieties. I write for actors. Each film was a different process, but generally it takes months and months.

Book of Love - at Sundance

DP: What have your film festival experiences been like? To date, which one was the most rewarding and which one was the most intense?

AB: Hmmm. Hard question to answer. They were all intense and rewarding. That’s the nature of independent, low budget filmmaking, and making films that you’re committed to. All filmmaking is certainly physically intense and exhausting, but big budget Hollywood films aren’t often rewarding for the people involved. I’ve been fortunate in that my cast and crew have always been committed to the vision of the film. And we’re always a small group, so there’s a lot of emotional bonding, particularly with me and my actors. I’d say that my latest film, SUPERHEROES, was the most intense and rewarding artistically, because it was essentially me and two actors working together up in the country for a few weeks. It was like film summer camp, except that it was emotionally very challenging and draining material. But I loved it.


DP: Words like haunting, courageous and disturbing have been used to describe your work, What nerves do you tap into that brings out such strong reactions?

AB: I’m writing psychological dramas, people whose lives have been affected by politics, or whose personal behavior can also be considered political. And also about people in extreme situation: A gay high school boy who has been brutally beaten in an encounter with one of his attackers; a married couple facing the wife’s infidelity with a fifteen-year old boy; a returned Iraq War vet with a body filled with shrapnel confronting a just-out-of college naïve filmmaker who tries to reach out to him. These are situations fraught with emotional peril and possibilities.

DP: How long after the ‘Audrey Hepburn’s Neck’ was published were you approached about turning it into a film? It’s been a long journey from then to now, can you take me through it? If I remember correctly, originally you were asked to write the screenplay but someone else was going to direct it?

AB: I was actually approached about the film version of AUDREY before it was even published. A producer heard me give a reading of a section of the novel in SoHo and she optioned it along with the director Wayne Wang – who was originally slated to direct. That was the beginning of the journey. The film ended up at Miramax, with various directors attached over the years. I wrote the early versions of the screenplay, but I wasn’t a director at the time. After a few years at Miramax, where in the process of developing the script, they pretty much destroyed it, making it unrecognizable. That’s a fairly common result of the studio development process. Anyway, they dropped it, and Goldwyn picked it up for about a year. And then it sort of languished. There was interest occasionally, but nothing that interested me. Finally, a French, Paris-based producer, David Barrott, read the novel while was living briefly in Tokyo. And when he approached me, I’d begun directing, so I signed on as writer and director.

DP:Will you be casting well known actors or do you prefer to work with ‘unknowns’.

AB: To be honest, I’d be happy to work with unknowns. There are so many talented, unsung actors, particularly in New York, where there’s a theatre community. But it’s hard to get a film financed with unknowns.

Book of Love

DP: I know that certainly Bryce Dallas Howard , daughter of Ron Howard, who played Heather in Book of Love, was not unknown but for the most part the rest of the cast members were, weren’t they? DId you ever meet her Dad?

AB: I didn’t meet Bryce’s dad. And actually at the time I cast Bryce, she was unknown – except in NYC as a very good stage actress who’d come out of NYU’s theatre program. I didn’t even know who she was when she came in to audition. The casting director chose not to tell me. But I cast her anyway, because she was so good.

AB: But the other leads were very well known. Simon Baker at the time was the star of his own CBS TV drama, The Guardian. And had done quite a few films. He’s since gone on to do The Devil Wears Prada, and other films. And Francis O’Connor had starred in Spielberg’s AI (she was the mother), and opposite Brendan Fraser in “Bedazzled,’ and she was the star of the Jane Austin adaptation, ‘Mansfield Park.’ So she was actually quite a big name for us. And Greg Smith, who played the boy, was at the time the star of the WB series, ‘Everwood,’ which was extremely popular, and had done some film as well.

DP: I read somewhere about you being in the process of casting “Swan Lake” a psychological thriller, what is that film about? How many projects do you work on at the same time? WHen you write films do you have specific actors in mind?

AB: Yes, I’m casting ‘Swan Lake’ right now – which seems an endless process. At this moment, I’m juggling ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Audrey Hepburn’s Neck’ both of which are in the casting stage, and both of which I hope to make in the next year. And I’ve just begun negotiations and the creative work on all-male version of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ which some producers approached me about earlier this year. That’s exciting to me: The opportunity to do Shakespeare. And I’m working on a screenplay, another psychological thriller, with my friend, the actor Simon Baker, who was in Book of Love. And I just finished a stageplay about the Iraq War, ‘Nights in Falluja,’ which I’m very excited about. Most of the play swirls around a gay soldier stuck in the desert outside of Falluja. I had a reading of it last week, it was the first time I heard it aloud, and I’m very enthusiastic about working in the theatre. I don’t usually have specific actors in mind when I write. I’m very open to thinking about and envisioning different actors for my roles. That’s exciting to me. I don’t like to ‘lock’ a character into a particular actor or look or interpretation. I love to see what different actors bring to it.

Superhereos

DP: Which actors would you dream to work with?

AB: Hmm. That’s a difficult question. There are so many actors I admire. Some of them are NY theatre actors whom I know personally. I don’t ‘dream’ of working with any particular actor. I would be thrilled to work with Dash Mihok (‘Superheroes’) again, and likewise Simon Baker. They’re both awesomely talented, and I feel we collaborate well. Rather than a particular actor, I’d say that I dream of working with actors who are talented, and who understand and respect the collaborative process and aren’t afraid to trust me the director- in exchange for my trust.

DP: I have a feeling that you work on multitudes of projects at the same time, what is on your plate right now?

AB: I think I answered this question above. I think I pretty much covered everything I’m working on except possibly one: a commercial screenplay I’m writing for a producer, which isn’t for me to direct, it’s just to sell and make money. It’s about a woman serial killer and real estate. Not my usual fare, but it’s been fun and a challenge. I will, however, be glad when it’s done.

DP: What would be your dream situation?

AB: My dream situation would be finding a really good producer who understands and supports my vision, and who would produce all my films. And to have financing that isn’t cast dependent, so I can cast the most talented actors who are right for the roles, not the actors who will bring in the most money in overseas and dvd sales. In other words: My dream situation would be to be able to make my films without have to worry and fret constantly about money.

"Superheroes," the award-winning feature film directed by Alan Brown and starring Dash Mihok and Spencer Treat Clark is now available on Comcast, Cablevision, Cox and Time Warner providers under the banner IFC in Theaters Festival Direct. Go check it out, and please pass this on to your friends!

Maverick Spirit Award: 2008 Cinequest Film Festival.

Best Feature Film Award: 2007 Avignon/New York Film Festival

Special Jury Mention for an Actor: Dash Mihok: 2008 Austin Film Festival

Best Feature Narrative: 2008 Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival

Special Jury Mention, Feature Film and Acting Ensemble catagories: 2008 Ashland International Film Festival

For more information go to:

http://www.ifcfilms.com/viewFilm.htm?filmId=836

http://www.superheroesthemovie.com

Later,

Diane

"SUPERHEROES" written and directed by Alan Brown airs on IFC Video on Demand!

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Superheroes is the current exhibition at the Met, Iron Man the film about the metallic monster is a box office success but the Superheros of this text is a film dealing with war veterans from Iraq suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. When I was in NYC I ran into my old neighbor from West 11th Street, Alan Brown. I had not seen him in 17 years. During that time he's made one short film and 2 feature films and is currently casting for a 3rd feature. Alan directed Superheroes (2007), Book of Love (2004), Boys Life 4: Four Play (2003) and O Beautiful (2002). Book of Love was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival in 2004 and also screened at Slamdance, It was considered by some viewers to be the best film that they had seen at Sundance. An interview will appear on my site next week.

Superheroes follows the return of an Iraq war veteran, Ben Patchett, to American life, and explores the damage inflicted on one man by war and the limitations of redemption. While Ben was away, his wife left him for another man, taking their daugheters with her. His body filled with shrapnel from a mine explosion and pumped full of medication, Ben is back living with his parents in his childhood home in Queens, traumatized and in constant pain. He attends a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder support group at a V.A. clinic in New York. There he meets Nick Jones, who has volunteered to videotope Ben's PTSD group. Just a year out of college, Nick half-heartedly pusues a career in documentary film, while living with his dancer ex-girlfriend. When Ben invites Nick to come and film him during his stay at a borrowed house in the Catskills, a wary but ultimately tender friendship evolves between these two very different man.

"Superheroes," the award-winning feature film directed by Alan Brown and starring Dash Mihok and Spencer Treat Clark is now available on Comcast, Cablevision, Cox and Time Warner providers under the banner IFC in Theaters Festival Direct. Go check it out, and please pass this on to your friends!

Maverick Spirit Award: 2008 Cinequest Film Festival.

Best Feature Film Award: 2007 Avignon/New York Film Festival

Special Jury Mention for an Actor: Dash Mihok: 2008 Austin Film Festival

Best Feature Narrative: 2008 Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival

Special Jury Mention, Feature Film and Acting Ensemble catagories: 2008 Ashland International Film Festival

For more information go to:

http://www.ifcfilms.com/viewFilm.htm?filmId=836

http://www.superheroesthemovie.com

Later,

Diane

Exotica by Atom Egoyan

Elias Koteas reminisces about his first meeting with Mia Kirshner

La Belle et La Bête-Jean Cocteau

Anna Magnani

Kenneth Anger Montage - Easter Monday gift for you

Montage - Kenneth Anger one of my all time faves

Marlon Brando screen test - THe WIld One - A Street Car Named Desire -On the Waterfront -

screen test for Rebel Without a Cause

Marlon Brando ~ The Wild One(1953)

A Streetcar Named Desire

On the Waterfront

So Much Tenderness - Guenther Kaufmann- Lost Highway, David Lynch

Song:So Much Tenderness
Written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Peer Raben
Performed by Guenther Kaufmann in the film Der Amerikanische Soldat (1970)

Lost Highway-David Lynch

Fred (Bill Pullman) and Renee (Patricia Arquette) are attending a party at the home of a shady friend of Renee's. Fred has a very strange conversation with a mystery man (Robert Blake), who tells Fred that they have met before.

lost highway this magic moment lou reed

Alfred Hitchcock cameos

Later,

Diane

Jack Smith

Scotch Tape (1963)- Jack Smith

Embedding disabled by request but take a look at: Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis - Trailer

Naked Lunch - Videodrome -David Cronenberg-Fellini 8 1/2

Naked Lunch

Videodrome

Fellini - 8½

Neil LaBute

1997 Theatrical Trailer for "In the Company of Men", released Fall of 1997 by Sony Pictures Classics. Produced by Mark Archer, Directed by Neil LaBute. Winner of the Filmmaker's Trophy, Sundance Film Festival, 1997

2nd Flight productions, Some Girl(s) by Neil LaBute

Liquid Sky

1982 cult classic directed by Slava Tsukerman

Invisible aliens in a tiny flying saucer come to Earth looking for heroin. They land on top of a New York apartment inhabited by a drug dealer and her female, androgynous, bisexual nymphomaniac lover, a fashion model. The aliens soon find the human pheromones created in the brain during orgasm preferable to heroin, and the model's casual sex partners begin to disappear. This increasingly bizarre scenario is observed by a lonely woman in the building across the street, a German scientist who is following the aliens, and an equally androgynous, drug-addicted male model. (Both models are played by Anne Carlisle, in a dual role.) Darkly funny and thoroughly weird. Written by Marty Cassady {martyc@vt.edu}

Dino has been in touch with the director for You Wear it Well 3. At that time the star...Anne Carlisle, modeled for one of my first shows.

Later,

Diane

Maria de Medeiros film clips

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Last night I showed you Maria de Medeiros receiving the UNESCO Artists for Peace award. I had just moved to Paris when I saw the film Henry and June 1990, I found Maria mezmerizing, little did I know that seven years later I would work with her on a film doing her costumes and that we would eventually become friends. I am writing a piece on her for the next issue of ZOO and enjoyed reviewing a few clips, thought you might enjoy them too.

Henry & June 1990 - Maria as Anaïs Nin

Henry & June 1990 - Maria as Anaïs Nin

Pulp Fiction 1994

The saddest music in the world - Guy Maddin 2003

Later,

Diane

DINO DINCO : WOMEN IN THE CITY

JENNY HOLZER / CINDY SHERMAN / LOUISE LAWLER / BARBARA KRUGER

LOS ANGELES

a West of Rome project

WOMEN in the CITY
February — March, 2008

"Women in the City" is a viral public art exhibition spread throughout the streets of Los Angeles that will start in February 2008.

The work of four seminal women artists, who began to emerge on the international art scene at the beginning of the '80s within the feminist movement, will penetrate the urban and social geography of the city.

Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler and Cindy Sherman disseminate their work in various locations in on-the-road billboards, video screens, storefronts, a movie theater and even propagation through widely distributed stickers.

Why "Women in the City"? One of the fundamental achievements of the historical feminist movement was the appropriation of the streets: thousands of women were invading the cities of the western world fighting for their rights. Now that those rights have been asserted and women have begun to fully permeate and influence politics, culture and the art system, "Women in the City" can showcase the art of women in empowered position.

http://womeninthecity.org/#

EGR REPORTS FROM NY

Talking about films my friend BRUCE LABRUCE JUST RELEASED on you tube THIS FULL TRAILER OF HIS next GAY ZOMBIE MOVIE :

OTTO
SONG IN THE TRAILER BY COCO ROSIE

I WILL BE COMING BACK WITH MORE FROM NEW YORK FASHION WEEK WHEN I HAVE A CABLE TO DOWNLOAD MY PHOTOS TO MY COMPUTER.
XX

Go Go Tales - Abel Ferrera

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Clip l of Go Go Tales by Abel Ferrera.

I've been a fan of Abel Ferrera ever since I saw Driller Killer, his 1979 film and then after seeing his 1990 film King of New York, I became addicted to his work . I had the opportunity to meet him a little over a year ago when he was screening his film, Mary in Paris. One of my all time favorite directors is John Cassavettes so to see Abel Ferrera do Go Go Tales as a musical comedy sort of hommage to the 1976 Cassavettes film, Killing of a Chinese Bookie was all too perfect. In my opinion the two directors define independent cinema.

My friend Shanyn Leigh, who plays the role of Dolly in Go Go Tales, invited me to the screening of Abel's last film, Mary and afterwards I joined her at the party. When I met Abel there I asked him if we could set up an interview before he left town, he agreed but he left town earlier than planned and the interview never did take place. Even for those few moments I got such a kick out of listening to his very powerful, New York, gravelly voice, I was really looking forward to that interview but hopefully it will happen at some other time. I have not seen him since but I spoke with Shanyn last night and she told me about the Go Go Tales clips on youtube. Of course, it gives me a special kick to see Shanyn on the big screen, okay, it was youtube, small screen, but i can imagine the impact on the big screen. Shanyn is the beautiful actress wearing the apricot slip, the one that says "Don't grab my tit hon."

Later,

Diane

Directors quotes - 60th edition of the festival de Cannes

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I enjoy reading what the directors have to say about the making of their films. Here are a few quotes taken from the official site of Cannes.

Press conference for Go Go Tales by Abel Ferrara shown out of competition
.
On defending his own style: “It depends on how much you bring to it. You’re always in search of your own vision and your own freedom and you can’t make an excuse anywhere along the line. You have to play all your cards and you have to play to win. For me there’s a lot of personal satisfaction in this film. It took me a long time to bring this film to the screen; It’s a good feeling.”

Abel Ferrara on improvising during the shooting: “When we design a screenplay, the story is there and then the actors, it’s for them to come into their role. It’s within the structure of the script to create that woman [Asia as Monroe]. My job is not to create that woman, my job is to capture the woman that she’s going to create.

Asia Argento on working with Abel Ferrara: “For me Abel is like going to film school for an actor to observe and work, because he gives you elements and forces you to move within this climate and create your own thing. If you do the take twice the same way, he’s like, ‘I got that. You don’t need to do the same thing again.’ And I learned to have fun with acting…I was really surprised because he shoots with two different cameras on two different floors and he’s got two screens and you’re moving from one floor to the other into another scene. And there are actors working on this scene and actors working on the other floor and it’s complete madness, but he’s got it all figured out in his mind.”
Abel Ferrara on the filmmakers who inspire him: “I think Sturges is one of the great American directors. I wish I could make a film like that. How did he get his actors to talk like that, to be like that? But when we were going to make this film, the two films we really concentrated on were Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose.”

Quentin Tarantino on his inspiration for Death Proof: “My starting off point was that I wanted to do a slasher film. But the one thing I don’t like about slasher films is that the genre is so rigid and they’re all the same. So I tried to do a completely different thing, but use the structure of a slasher film… That is the third act of every slasher film is the final girl who rises up and has the moral fortitude to beat the boogeyman.”

Quentin Tarantino on the characters: “It always starts with me, with the characters first. It’s all about the characters and then I have to find the right actor for the character. Whenever I cast an actor and try to make them fit into the character, I’ve always regretted it…Whenever I’ve written a character like in the case of Zoe, I didn’t write it for them, I wrote it about them. Zoe is Zoe. Same thing with Uma.”

James Gray - We Own the Night. James Gray on working with Joaquin Phoenix: “Working with Joaquin is a trip to the home of Marquis de Sade. It’s very fun. It’s somewhere between “Alice in Wonderland” and Salo by Pasolini. He’s a wonderful artist and …a great actor.”

James Gray on the continuity of his work: “If you’re lucky, you get to make the same film over and over again. What I want to do hopefully is to have a certain progression, like with the two-brother thing; it’s what you draw upon to make it authentic. You want the film to be deeply felt and to me, the only way I know how to do it is to try and mime my own life for some things. Genre is only the excuse. What you’re really trying to get at is the emotionality of it. I think it has to be personal. So if you’re making the same film over and over again, then it’s a good thing. My favourite director of all time is Fellini. How different is Les Vitelloni to Amarcord that was made 20 years later?”

Paranoid Park - Gus Van Sant on filming bodies in movement and the use of slow motion: “Coming from a visual background, it’s the movement and the blocking, the things that are usually moving are the bodies, the people... Recently there’s been a dislocation from dialogue, that the dialogue is its own idea and entity, and in some ways, some of the films haven’t been a concern of the story or the audience, it’s more coming from the movement, the characters or the movement of the bodies, like a dance. I think that comes from just trying to work with the movement, what I call blocking. It’s always eluding me; it’s not quite the way I want it… Slow motion, it really comes from Chris.” All the actors were cast through MySpace.

Chris Doyle on slow motion: “I think it’s because neither of us are skaters and the only way to approach what we assume is the emotional and physical experience of skating was to give it a form that we know and obviously to celebrate this incredible energy and the beauty of movement and the physicality of skating.”

Mr. Lonley by Harmony Korine screened Un Certain Regard. "I basically started thinking in terms of images that really have nothing to do with anything," Korine mused. "Just simple images. I started dreaming about flying nuns, falling out of airplanes and praying the whole way down and surviving. Then I started to fixate upon specific images and characters. One of them was the idea of a Michael Jackson impersonator walking the streets of Paris. I had these different images although they really don't have anything to do with one another. But I knew that there was something in there that I was trying to get out, a unified idea, but I wasn't sure how to say it."

I am hungry for some good films.

Later,

Diane

Go GO Tales by Abel Ferrera at Cannes

Love Abel Ferrera, Love that he said yes to participating in You Wear it Well 2

Abel Ferrera in Paris for his film Mary. Shanyn Leigh with DP, love seeing her on the red carpet with Abel for Go Go Tales

Wouldn't it be the best if they were actually in LA for the launch of You Wear it Well 2? I know that he lives in Rome, but...I can dream.

Guy Maddin, Abel Ferrera and Maria de Medeiros in You Wear it Well 2, you could say that Dino and I are in heaven. The lovely French actress, Julie Gayet is currently at Cannes making a short film for us too. French director Francois Rotger is also making a film for You Wear it Well 2. Ami I happy?

Maria is on the Jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Maria's film, Je t'Aime, Moi Non Plus about the relationship between directors and their critics is currently playing in Paris. Don't miss it. In addition to her films, both as an actress and a director, Maria has a new album out, "A little more Blue".

Maria de Medeiros photo by Sue Rynski - during an interview I did with her for Je t'Aime, Moi Non Plus for ZOO magazine.

Later,

Diane

a scene from the 1973 film THE HOLY MOUNTAIN by director Alejandro Jodorowsky.

a scene from the 1973 film THE HOLY MOUNTAIN by director Alejandro Jodorowsky.

synopsis: A Christlike figure wanders through bizarre, grotesque scenarios filled with religious and sacrilegious imagery. He meets a mystical guide who introduces him to seven wealthy and powerful individuals, each representing a planet in the solar system. These seven, along with the protagonist, the guide and the guide's assistant, divest themselves of their worldly goods and form a group of nine who will seek out the Holy Mountain, in order to displace the gods who live there and become immortal

alejandro jodorowsky about the holy mountain and el topo

"If art is not the medecine for society, it is the poison."

Cannes 2007 - cannes.telerama.fr

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Finally I've found decent coverage of Cannes 2007, even if you don't speak French you can enjoy the bande announce.

http://cannes.telerama.fr/

I cannot begin to tell you how dissatisfied I've been with the official Cannes site. Not up to date at all, in fact in all the years that I've visited that site, this is by far the worst and slowest coverage ever. Maybe it will get better as the week goes on. It's improved slightly today.

Feature Films In Competition

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS directed by Cristian MUNGIU
ALEXANDRA directed by Alexander SOKUROV
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN directed by Fatih AKIN
DEATH PROOF directed by Quentin TARANTINO
IMPORT EXPORT directed by Ulrich SEIDL
THE BANISHMENT directed by Andreï ZVIAGUINTSEV
LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON directed by Julian SCHNABEL
LES CHANSONS D'AMOUR directed by Christophe HONORÉ
THE MOURNING FOREST directed by Naomi KAWASE
MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS directed by WONG Kar Wai
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN directed by Joel COEN and Ethan COEN
PARANOID PARK directed by Gus VAN SANT
PERSEPOLIS directed by Marjane SATRAPI and Vincent PARONNAUD
PROMISE ME THIS directed by Emir KUSTURICA
SECRET SUNSHINE directed by LEE Chang-dong
BREATH directed by KIM Ki-duk
SILENT LIGHT directed by Carlos REYGADAS
TEHILIM directed by Raphaël NADJARI
THE MAN FROM LONDON directed by Béla TARR
UNE VIEILLE MAÎTRESSE directed by Catherine BREILLAT
WE OWN THE NIGHT directed by James GRAY
ZODIAC directed by David FINCHER

Feature Films Out of Competition

A MIGHTY HEART directed by Michael WINTERBOTTOM
BOARDING GATE directed by Olivier ASSAYAS
GO GO TALES directed by Abel FERRARA
DAYS OF DARKNESS (THE AGE OF IGNORANCE) directed by Denys ARCAND
OCEAN'S THIRTEEN directed by Steven SODERBERGH
SICKO directed by Michael MOORE
TRIANGLE directed by Johnnie TO , Tsui HARK and Ringo LAM
U2 3D directed by Catherine OWENS and Mark PELLINGTON

Also visit Cannes 2007 Le Monde.fr

Abel Ferrera in Paris for Mary

I am looking forward to Abel Ferrera's Go Go Nights shown out of competition.

Later,

Diane

Je t'Aime,Moi Non Plus artistes and critiques by Maria de Medeiros

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I am very happy to tell you that the intimate documentary film directed by Maria de Medeiros about passion and discussion between film directors and their critics will be released on May 9th. I absolutely love this film. Maria invited me to a screening over a year ago and I laughed all the way through it. In fact I wrote about it in ZOO. The film was shot with a small crew at Cannes and because Maria has been in the film business since she was a child as both an actress, a film director and a singer, she was able to get the directors and their critics to open up to her. Anyone that has ever put themselves in front of the public knows how it feels to be criticised. You will be enlightened and entertained by the love/hate relationship between the directors and their ciritcs. I especially loved hearing Atom Egoyan, Almodovar and David Cronenberg and many, many more.

Bravo Maria and don't forget to work on your short film for You Wear it Well 2.

A Paris, au Latina (20, rue du Temple 75004) et à l'Espace Saint-Michel (7, place Saint-Michel 75005).

Later,

Diane

DINO DINCO : LOS ANGELES, TONITE, SCREENING @ LACE

DAVID WOJNAROWICZ film event in LOS ANGELES

Semiotext(e), LACE, Hedi El Kholti and Chris Kraus invite you to celebrate the launch of:

DAVID WOJNAROWICZ
A Definitive History of Five or Six Years on the Lower East Side

Interviews By Sylvère Lotringer, Edited By Giancarlo Ambrosino

————————
With a Screening of Rare East Village films:

Fire in My Belly (1987): David Wojnarowicz, Music Diamanda Galas. 4'
Sex Series and Others (2005): Marion Scemama & François Pain. Music, Text and Photos David Wojnarowicz. 3'
When I Put my Hands on Your Body (1990): Marion Scemama. Music Ben Neil. 4'
Last Night I took a Man (1989): Text David Wojnarowicz, Images Marion Scemama, Editing François Pain. 4'
What is this Little Guy's Job in the World (1987):David Wojnarowicz. 2'
In This House (1989): Text & Image David Wojnarowicz. 3'
If I had a Dollar to spend (1989): Live Performance filmed by Marion Scemama. 4'
Around Clown (1987): David Wojnarowicz and Steve Doughton. 3'
Fear of Disclosure (1990): David Wojnarowicz and Phil Zwickler. 4'
Interview with Sylvère Lotringer (1989). 1'
Monologue (1989): David Wojnarowicz, images and editing Marion Scemama. 1'
Stray Dogs (1985): Richard Kern. 4'
Where Evil Dwells (1985): Tommy Turner and David Wojnarowicz. 28'

Introduced by Jennifer Doyle

Drinks! Refreshment!

Friday, January 19 at 8 p.m.
LACE
6522 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles 90028
(323) 957 1777

————————

Big thanks to my homeboy, Stuart Comer, Film Curator at the Tate Modern, for letting me know of this not-to-be-missed event happening in my own backyard.

Scenes of a Sexual Nature - a British comedy with Ewan McGregor produced by Suran Goonatilake

The film is released November 3rd accross the UK. The film has a stellar cast - Ewan McGregor, Catherine Tate, Sophie Okonedo et al – and is about “seven different relationships, one afternoon, on Hampstead Heath”. To see the trailer of the movie, go to www.myspace.com/scenesofasexualnature

Later,

Diane

By the way, Suran is the co-founder of IQONS.com along with Rafael Jimenez

Dito Montiel - A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Visit the trailer -A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
OPENS IN NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES ON SEPTEMBER 29TH

Written and Directed by: Dito Montiel
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Shia LaBeouf, Chazz Palminteri, Dianne Wiest, Channing Tatum and Rosario Dawson.

http://www.myspace.com/agtrys
http://www.firstlookpictures.com/guide

Later,

Diane

Frenchie the Clown starring Pierrot

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I've been missing my friend Pierrot. Today I got news and the link to the trailer of Frenchie The Clown, Laugh Now Die Later . Pierre was the inspiration and clearly got top billing. Cannot wait to see it. How long is that trailer?

"we had the new york premiere of frenchie the clown at the antology film archives on second avenue....a riot....
to tell you, i even enjoyed my self in it." it is going to be distributed by troma film and will be available in france sometimes next year...in the 5th of august it is going to the coney island festival......then woodstock...maybe."
http://myspace.com/HEIDISJURSEN

Later, Diane

The Passenger first film by Francois Rotger

Dear Shaded Viewers,

The Passenger came out in Paris yesterday and my friend Amy anad I went to see it. First, I cannot believe that it is a French film because in general, contemporary French films don't usually get to me. I don't know why it just feels like in France if you hang around long enough, and are French, anything can get made. The fact that this is a first film is mindblowing. I might add that Francois Rotger used to be a fashion photographer, he gave that up years ago to pursue film. He left home at the age of 16 to live in London and Amsterdam. At 20 when he returned to France he studied at the Beaux Arts and two months after he was working as a graphic designer and a photographer.

This film feels more Japanese or let's just say international. From the first grainy image of a dog race the film immediately pulls you in. Amy does not speak French and had no problem entering into the emotion and beauty of the film. It is not a dialogue driven film.The dogs are a metaphore for a race violent and aesthetic. A beautiful young man makes love with a high school girl. Both their parents are yakusas.

The children have to pay the debts of their parents. They are like the dogs desperately running.
The beauty of the film is penetrating and I even liked the acting of Gabrielle Lazure under the direction of Francois Rotger, a new master. Francois is off to Canada working on his next film.

After the film we went to see the LA exhibit at the Pompidou Center. It closes on the l7th of July and I highly recommend it. James Turrell is a master of lighting and somehow seeing his work right after the film made perfect sense.

Later,

Diane

The Passenger by Francois Rotger comes out 12 July in Paris

Francois Rotger, director of the film "The Passenger"

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I am impatient to see "The Passenger" by Francois Rotger, the beautiful posters are all over Paris. Years ago when I was the fashion editor for Joyce Ma, Francois used to be a fashion photographer. He left that behind to change gears and enter the world of the cinema. July 12th "The Passenger" will be in a theatre near you, that is if you live in Paris. I might add that he is incredibly beautiful and this photo does not do him any justice but it does give you an idea of what he looks like.

Later,

Diane

DINO DINCO : THIS IS OUR "OSCAR"

DEAD's Jon Auderson (www.dead.is) generously created this unique "perched owl" sculpture exclusively for the audience-chosen winner of YOU WEAR IT WELL in Los Angeles, Tuesday 01 August 06 at CineSpace. (I'm so tempted to just steal it for myself but I'm trying to change my ways....) I nearly had to beat people off of me after I picked up the owl from Jon's hotel on rue de Turenne.....

I just hope the customs and security officials at Charles de Gaulle Airport are understanding when I'm carrying this caped bird onto the plane back to Los Angeles.

DINO DINCO
PARIS

Step off, Superman - Hrithik Roshan is gonna kick your ass! by Glenn Belverio

While the rest of gay New York, and its gay tourists, were readying themselves for PRIDE (which I don’t celebrate because ‘pride’ is one of the seven deadly sins) on Friday, I was making a holy pilgrimage out of Manhattan and into the wild, uncharted territory of Jackson Heights, Queens. I went to pay homage to Hrithik Roshan—subcontinental superstar of the just-released Bollywood superhero film KRRISH, which was playing at the Eagle, an old Art Deco theater and former porn house in Queens’ Indian neighborhood. (Even though I just found out that KRRISH is actually playing in Manhattan too! Take that, Superman!)

KRRISH is being promoted as B-Wood’s answer to Superman, Spiderman, Batman, yadda yadda, but has little in common with those lycra-wrapped quasi-spectacles. First of all, Hrithik has more sexual charisma in his (extra) thumb than the American variety has in their entire over-hyped bodies. (My friend Damion summed it up in an email to me regarding the upcoming Superman film: "Interesting that Krrish comes out the same time as the Americans with their Superman….It's a bird, it's a plane – oh no no no you stupid child, it's just American neuroses of waning omnipotence in light of sustained military defeat, economic impotence and cultural decline.”) And second, and most importantly of all, the Superman actor and the rest of his limitedly talented ilk lack the most important skills of all: Singing and dancing! To see Hrithik dance—to gaze upon him as he gyrates his formidable, breathtaking bod before Bollywood’s trademark snowcapped mountains and impossibly azure skies (hyper-idealized settings which remind me of images from Nazi and Chinese Communist propaganda)—is to experience a divine, cock-tease fantasia (all those almost-kisses!) wrapped in layers of dizzying, mystical orchestration and recherché kitsch costuming. It’s like the moves of Gene Kelly morphed with Michael Jackson’s and possessed by the entire pantheon of Hindu deities who’ve each consumed a triple shot Shiva power boost non-fat chai latte. Hrithik Roshan is, in short, the bee’s knees. (When Hrithik appears in public in India, riotous frenzies erupt among legions of delirious fans—a phenomenon dubbed “Hrithikmania” by the Indian media.)

And his female co-star does a fantastic job as well. (Yes, I did notice there was a woman in this number too.) The above clip is from the science fiction film, Koi Mil Gaya which KRRISH is the sequel to. Koi is like E.T. combined with Jerry Lewis’s The Nutty Professor. Hrithik plays Rohit, a mentally retarded man still attending grammar school who is transformed into—dare I say it—a metrosexual version of Lewis’s Buddy Love by an alien named Jadoo (Hindi for ‘magic’). Since many Bollywood films deal with issues concerning India’s class system and religions—after all, Bollywood’s main audience is the country’s 300 million people who live below the poverty line—it’s obvious that Rohit is meant to represent an ‘untouchable’ from the subcontinent’s lower caste. The aliens represent the mystical forces of Hinduism (Rohit is visited by Jadoo after he prays to Lord Krishna) and demonstrate the rewards one will receive for keeping the faith. The analogous religious theme carries over into KRRISH where Rohit’s son, also played by Hrithik, is named Krishna—later shortened to Krrish when he’s in superhero costume mode. Because Protestant America lacks the transcendent, flamboyant aesthetics of Hinduism—an integral force in Bollywood song and dance numbers—we’re left with a Superman whose interplanetary pedigree seems vague and rootless. Examining this secular sci-fi invention which is a product of a young nation and culture, one would probably have to resort to Freudianism for parables—Superman as omnipotent father figure in a country where the concept of family is comparably unstable. (The strength of family bonds is a major theme in Bollywood films.) It’s interesting to note that while America has been producing superhero epics since the 1930’s, it’s taken India 70 years to catch up—probably because the need to manufacture a supernatural protector was unnecessary in a country saturated in ancient, ubiquitous religious faith and ritual. And while KRRISH’s light pop culture treatment of Lord Krishna will unlikely do much to alter Hinduism’s stance in Indian culture, America already began its descent into postmodern religious cynicism in the early ‘70s—witness ‘Jesus Christ’ in a Superman T-shirt and a full face of clown makeup in the musical Godspell or the camp relic that is Jesus Christ Superstar. (Yes, believe it or not, mighty Madonna was not the first to tinker with Christianity in a musical context.)

Before I’m accused of over-intellectualizing or justifying an erotic obsession, let’s get to the root of the real issue here: What role can I realistically play in helping Hrithik crossover into the American market? How can I, a fellow Capricorn (Hrithik’s birthday is one day before mine), help a 6’2” Hindu make it in the land of midget Scientologists? Well, as a writer I could do for him what Norman Mailer did for Marilyn Monroe. (I don’t think his wife will mind me hanging around their Mumbai suburb home—I’ll help in the kitchen and do Hrithik’s laundry.) I could help him get a Calvin Klein underwear modeling contract in New York. I could introduce him to my friends in Hollywood (Vaginal Davis and the Goddess Bunny, but it’s a start). I’m sure Hollywood can computer generate his extra thumb out (check it out in the photo below) even though I certainly don’t love him any less because of this peculiar deformity (it’s considered good luck in India to be born with three thumbs.) As my friend Corey and I were leaving the theater in Manhattan after my second viewing of KRRISH, two beautiful young Indian women—who seemed mildly embarrassed by their country’s melodramatic camp excesses—asked us if the film was “cheesy enough for us.” When I revealed myself as a huge fan of Hrithik’s, one of the women dropped her cool pose and gushed with giddy abandon. “Isn’t he the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen? If only we could clone him and have an entire world full of Hrithiks….it would end war and hatred and we’d all live in Hrithik harmony.”

"Sounds good to me,” I replied.

 

Hrithik often resorts to the seductive armpit pose in order to conceal his third thumb.

P.S. - My first book, Confessions from the Velvet Ropes, will be released in two weeks...a website/blog will launch later this week and there will be two parties in New York. I will post the details here at A Shaded View soon.

Thanks for reading,

Glenn Belverio