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Reviews, previews and chuckling and snorting...
I'm a Sydney-based film reviewer that loves to review local screenings and film festivals. Want me to cover your event? Email me at cibbuano ~AT~ orble ~DOT~ com.
Ricky Gervais' latest project is the alternate-reality comedy film, "This Side of the Truth", a movie that imagines a world where no one ever lies - and Gervais becomes the first.
I Watch Stuff nicely points out that Gervais' blog about the production of the movie is a damn funny read, especially when he shoots co-star Jason Bateman in the ass with a Nerf dartgun.
If you're familiar with Gervais' work, you probably already know that he has an unhealthy obsession with Karl Pilkington, who he did the podcast with.
"Spent a couple of days filming in Quincy... It was some of the funniest stuff yet. Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, Jeffrey Tambor, Louis CK, and Karl Pilkington all in the same scene. Amazing.
I was in it too but they were all much funnier.
There was a competition between Louis, Jonah and Karl. It was simple test of who could look the most stupid and vacant on camera.
It was so unfair. Louis and Jonah had no chance. Karl was never told of the competition by the way."
This 1947 film noir is staged around the traveling carnival, using the temptations of wealth and trickery to bring the heavy hands of fate on the main character, Stan, played by Tyrone Power.
Stan starts off as a young apprentice to a mind reader named Zeena, who, it is rumoured, used to be in the 'big-time', before everything came crashing down. Towed along behind her is her alcoholic husband, Pete, who appears so downtrodden and wretched, that he has to beg for money from his wife for a drink.
Zeena is a hustler, naturally, as all the carnival people are, looking to separate people from their money. Nevertheless, she carries a deck of Tarot cards which she uses to dvine the future - it's an odd juxtaposition, and one that Stan laughs at, even though we know that the cards will come true.
"Nightmare Alley" is certainly a movie lacking in a strong narrative structure, but that certainly does not take away the movie's charm. Directed by Edmund Golding, the film uses the location of the carnival without joy or bright lights, preferring, instead, to hide in the shadows. Goulding uses his lighting meticulously, obscuring faces, then illuminating them; his masterful control of the frame is mesmerizing, to say the least.
Stan proves himself to be an excellent 'mentalist', a mind reader that can scam the best of them. When he gets ostracized from the carnival, he takes his wife and starts a nightclub show in Boston, wallowing in the hot spotlights of fame and fortune.
He's ambitious, though, and it's never enough. A chance encounter with a psychologist shows him the way up; to him, what is a psychologist, or even a gifted minister, but a mentalist in fine robes? From culturecourt.com:
"The attraction between Stan and Lillith is immediate, presents an interesting conurbation of the old and the new, that is, the outlaw tradition of mentalism and its modern child, institutional Freudian psychology. "
"Nightmare Alley" opens with Stan looking at the carnival's main attraction, the "Geek", a crazed man that seems like a protohuman, barbaric, unshaved and unkempt, willing to do anything, as long as he gets his bottle of drink and a place to sleep. The crowd goes wild as the announcer throws a couple of live chickens in the Geek pit, and says 'Now, it's feeding time!'
Naturally, Stan cannot understand why a person would degrade themselves like that. After all, he's young, handsome and gifted, able to sweet talk just about anyone into anything. He'll reach for the 'Big Time', just like Zeena did, and the question is: will he fly, or will he fall?
The movie is flawed in so many ways, and the acting, normal for the time, seems laughable now, especially any of the corny romantic dialogue. "Nightmare Alley" is hardly a much-loved classic, but it is an excellent look at film noir: the setup, the dames, the temptation, and the punishing price for failure.
I say: I was lucky enough to see it at the incredible Art After Hours event at the Art Gallery of NSW. It's definitely a great unknown classic, worth seeing.
See it for: Stan falls for a young carnival girl, played by Coleen Gray, who is quite pretty, with a bright, clean face. Tyrone Powers reminds me of George Clooney and Coleen Gray reminds me of Jodie Foster!
I'm going to post an image that I captured last week... I was looking for articles to write about, and I found this collection of images from the 60s on the Daily Mail.
It was an article about how celebrities in those days were so well-mannered and well-behaved, in sharp contract, of course, to the celebrities of today, who are always seen "falling out of nightclubs drunk or showing off a little too much leg or cleavage
[ Click here to read more ]
Dario Argento's "Suspiria" is one of his most renowned and best loved films, with his mastery of audio and visual language on full effect for this barely coherent horror movie centered on a coven of witches.
[ Click here to read more ]
The Art Gallery of NSW is fighting against Wednesday night television by opening the museum up to film, music and art. It's called Art After Hours, and it's a fantastic series of events that make you realize that this is why we choose to live in the city, with the traffic, the pollution and the wretched hive of villainy.
To be honest, I'm furious with myself. I've known about this for years and never bothered to go. Wednesday nights are tough - you've in the middle of the week and it's a good night to relax before gearing up for the weekend
[ Click here to read more ]
Some of our Australian readers may often wonder "What's going on in America? This is a country that invented the Internet, deep-fried Coca Cola, elected George Bush, worships Britney Spears and built the atom bomb. What's up?"
Well, I don't know much about Spears and atom bombs, but I think America is a fabulous place to visit, with breathtaking scenery, a powerful musical history and the ability to entertain 24/7
[ Click here to read more ]
Lasse Gjertsen is Norwegian multimedia artist that came to prominence with his wonderfully edited music clips, "Amateur" and "Hyperactive" (both videos down below).
His latest piece, "Lasse does London", is short, but hits the point very quickly, taking sampled sounds from London, along with their footage, and mixing it all into one noisy, boiling cauldron. The shocking thing is realizing that there's actually a musical progression, and it sounds damn good
[ Click here to read more ]
Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" is one of those movies that is universally loved by fresh-eyed college boys, drawn by its themes of alienation and the nature of choice. As a first-year university student, it was easily my favourite movie, appealing to me with Kubrick's sterile sense of style, the wonderful mise-en-scene, and the heady rush of sex and violence.
[ Click here to read more ]
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