this is the voice of re:mote induction.Tuesday, April 13, 2004
RANDOM AND RE:MOTE
The following piece didn't entirely go to plan, it was started a week ago, about the time I lost my internet connection due to a dead phone line - which rather took the momentum out of things. still it might be worth posting?
I ended up going to see Fear X last week. Probably partly influenced by the fact that it was co-written/adapted from a story by Hubert Selby Jr. I also came across comparisons that ranged from David Lynch to The Ring/Dark Water. So I guess those made me curious. And funnily my reaction is that it was a curious film. John Turtoro trying to find out how/why his wife was murdered, via obsessive study of CCTV footage. The end result was probably hit and miss, though the sound track which was co-written by Brian Eno is worth commenting on.
One wonders what is going on with Halle Berry these days? The shockingly titled Gothika opened in the UK the last week or so. The trailers make it look like it might be watchable, though part of the appeal is more likely to be Penelope Cruz than Berry. Though the trailer shows the horrifically clichéd line of "are you scared?" "no" "you should be!" - for which the cliché cops should have been sent right in, mind on reflection I think every single line I can remember from the trailer reeks of cliché. Meanwhile with Berry, the pictures of her in the costume for her part as the role of Catwoman are doing the round. And they are generally being met with ridicule it seems, which is hardly surprising - it does look shocking!
On the subject of "superhero" films, I saw the Hellboy trailer in the cinema for the first time (having caught a glimpse of it in a late night entertainment show previously). I have to say it looks really good, it even looks like it might instil some of the personality into the characters that I always felt was lacking. Mike Mignola is of course a great artist, with a particularly strong style, which is often poorly imitated. On the other hand, Mignola is not a great writer, his Hellboy stories having always felt a little lacking for my taste. But yeah, this film looks like it is one to look forward to indeed!
I'm also looking forward to The Other Side Of The Bed, a new Spanish film to open later this month. The posters in the cinema are comparing it to Y Tu Mama Tambien, though I suspect that's as tenuous a comparison as Sex, Lies And Videotape and This Year's Love as listed in this month's UGC magazine. However the comparison, based on the description of the film, to Francois Ozon's 8 Women sounds like it might have some basis in reality. The comparison to Y Tu Mama Tambien is particularly amusing, given that one of the stars is Paz Vega, who was in the title role of Julio Medem's Sex And Lucia, which was out about the same time as the afore mentioned film. Also worth noting in terms of casting is Natalie Verbeke, who played the Hispanic girl in the comedy Jump Tomorrow.
On the weird front this month is looking to have a couple of interesting releases. As much as I couldn't really care about Ashton Kutcher, his new film The Butterfly Effect looks promising - time travel and paradox ahoy! Meanwhile Charlie Kaufman is back with his latest, following on from the success of films like Being John Malkovich, Adaptation. and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, all of which he wrote/adapted for cinema. Now we have Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, which looks to share themes with films like Paycheck and Cypher, in that this is prime Philip K. Dick territory - memory and its erasure. Jim Carey stars, and with the evidence of The Truman Show, he has shown himself capable at this kind of role.
I continue to feed my compulsion for books, despite my best efforts to calm down and try and catch up with the backlog, or even trying to divert spending money by going to the library. With which I just picked up the second volume of Neal Stephenson's Baroque trilogy, The Confusion. Another huge slab of a hard back, which is being sold with a couple of quid off if you look about, which will no doubt take me ages to read, just as Quicksilver did.
Having recently finished Bulgakov's The Master And Margarita, it is perhaps a little ironic that of the books I got from the library the one that is currently grabbing my attention is Michael Moorcock's Von Bek. One of the gaps in my reading history of Moorcock's work, and perhaps the most based in our reality, set in the turmoil of the middle ages and constant wars across Europe. Where upon the Captain Von Bek is approached by Lucifer. Just finished reading the first book of the collected three, there is that thematic continuation of the devil being a character, and the interpretation of him. Of course this first book being set in that time period in Europe also fits in with Stephenson's Quicksilver/Confusion.
I've also been catching up on some of my backlog of Science-Fiction short stories. Every year, for something like the last 6 years, I've bought the annual Mammoth Collection of The Year's Best SF Short Stories. Which are huge slabs of collections. The last one I had been reading, I had nearly completed, but ended up putting aside, too much hassle at the time to carry about. So that's put me behind on those! So to that end I just read Something About Benny, The Human Front, A Writer's Life and Tendeleo's Story.
Seeing a trailer for Troy, is it just me or has Brad Pitt been watching the Gladiator too much? Adopting as he seems to have, the voice of Russell Crow, that irritating deliberation of pitch that is a poor substitute for acting? And am I the only one bemused by the fact that the most obvious character from the story of troy is Helen, and yet there isn't a single woman credited in the trailer that makes a big deal of Pitt, Bloom, and Bana.
By contrast the most striking image for me from trailers of the new King Arthur film is that of Gueniviere as played by Kiera Knightly. All these men in armour poncing about like a spin off from Lord Of The Rings, and there is this willowy woman daubed in woad, feral and fierce. How odd.
The following piece didn't entirely go to plan, it was started a week ago, about the time I lost my internet connection due to a dead phone line - which rather took the momentum out of things. still it might be worth posting?
I ended up going to see Fear X last week. Probably partly influenced by the fact that it was co-written/adapted from a story by Hubert Selby Jr. I also came across comparisons that ranged from David Lynch to The Ring/Dark Water. So I guess those made me curious. And funnily my reaction is that it was a curious film. John Turtoro trying to find out how/why his wife was murdered, via obsessive study of CCTV footage. The end result was probably hit and miss, though the sound track which was co-written by Brian Eno is worth commenting on.
One wonders what is going on with Halle Berry these days? The shockingly titled Gothika opened in the UK the last week or so. The trailers make it look like it might be watchable, though part of the appeal is more likely to be Penelope Cruz than Berry. Though the trailer shows the horrifically clichéd line of "are you scared?" "no" "you should be!" - for which the cliché cops should have been sent right in, mind on reflection I think every single line I can remember from the trailer reeks of cliché. Meanwhile with Berry, the pictures of her in the costume for her part as the role of Catwoman are doing the round. And they are generally being met with ridicule it seems, which is hardly surprising - it does look shocking!
On the subject of "superhero" films, I saw the Hellboy trailer in the cinema for the first time (having caught a glimpse of it in a late night entertainment show previously). I have to say it looks really good, it even looks like it might instil some of the personality into the characters that I always felt was lacking. Mike Mignola is of course a great artist, with a particularly strong style, which is often poorly imitated. On the other hand, Mignola is not a great writer, his Hellboy stories having always felt a little lacking for my taste. But yeah, this film looks like it is one to look forward to indeed!
I'm also looking forward to The Other Side Of The Bed, a new Spanish film to open later this month. The posters in the cinema are comparing it to Y Tu Mama Tambien, though I suspect that's as tenuous a comparison as Sex, Lies And Videotape and This Year's Love as listed in this month's UGC magazine. However the comparison, based on the description of the film, to Francois Ozon's 8 Women sounds like it might have some basis in reality. The comparison to Y Tu Mama Tambien is particularly amusing, given that one of the stars is Paz Vega, who was in the title role of Julio Medem's Sex And Lucia, which was out about the same time as the afore mentioned film. Also worth noting in terms of casting is Natalie Verbeke, who played the Hispanic girl in the comedy Jump Tomorrow.
On the weird front this month is looking to have a couple of interesting releases. As much as I couldn't really care about Ashton Kutcher, his new film The Butterfly Effect looks promising - time travel and paradox ahoy! Meanwhile Charlie Kaufman is back with his latest, following on from the success of films like Being John Malkovich, Adaptation. and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, all of which he wrote/adapted for cinema. Now we have Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, which looks to share themes with films like Paycheck and Cypher, in that this is prime Philip K. Dick territory - memory and its erasure. Jim Carey stars, and with the evidence of The Truman Show, he has shown himself capable at this kind of role.
I continue to feed my compulsion for books, despite my best efforts to calm down and try and catch up with the backlog, or even trying to divert spending money by going to the library. With which I just picked up the second volume of Neal Stephenson's Baroque trilogy, The Confusion. Another huge slab of a hard back, which is being sold with a couple of quid off if you look about, which will no doubt take me ages to read, just as Quicksilver did.
Having recently finished Bulgakov's The Master And Margarita, it is perhaps a little ironic that of the books I got from the library the one that is currently grabbing my attention is Michael Moorcock's Von Bek. One of the gaps in my reading history of Moorcock's work, and perhaps the most based in our reality, set in the turmoil of the middle ages and constant wars across Europe. Where upon the Captain Von Bek is approached by Lucifer. Just finished reading the first book of the collected three, there is that thematic continuation of the devil being a character, and the interpretation of him. Of course this first book being set in that time period in Europe also fits in with Stephenson's Quicksilver/Confusion.
I've also been catching up on some of my backlog of Science-Fiction short stories. Every year, for something like the last 6 years, I've bought the annual Mammoth Collection of The Year's Best SF Short Stories. Which are huge slabs of collections. The last one I had been reading, I had nearly completed, but ended up putting aside, too much hassle at the time to carry about. So that's put me behind on those! So to that end I just read Something About Benny, The Human Front, A Writer's Life and Tendeleo's Story.
Seeing a trailer for Troy, is it just me or has Brad Pitt been watching the Gladiator too much? Adopting as he seems to have, the voice of Russell Crow, that irritating deliberation of pitch that is a poor substitute for acting? And am I the only one bemused by the fact that the most obvious character from the story of troy is Helen, and yet there isn't a single woman credited in the trailer that makes a big deal of Pitt, Bloom, and Bana.
By contrast the most striking image for me from trailers of the new King Arthur film is that of Gueniviere as played by Kiera Knightly. All these men in armour poncing about like a spin off from Lord Of The Rings, and there is this willowy woman daubed in woad, feral and fierce. How odd.
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