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Running a small business in this economic climate

2011-09-14T23:37:00.000-07:00

After a two month unplanned hiatus, Like Anna Karina's Sweater is back, and with a new look to boot. It was never my intention to stay away for so long, but matters both personal and professional consumed nearly all of my waking hours. Running a small business in this economic climate, and specifically a DVD business -- well, let's just say that the money isn't pouring in. Still, there are some very exciting developments with Benten/Watchmaker that will be announced in the coming weeks.
As a means of celebrating the blog's revival, I thought I'd offer a gift to all of you -- an unofficial (and unauthorized) soundtrack to the 2009 New York Film Festival, which is currently in its waning days. I'll have much more to say about the festival in future posts, which was quite a mixed bag this year, but not without a few genuine surprises (Hadewijch) as well as the inevitable "how-did-this-wind-up-here?" bombs (Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire).
Putting together the following compilation was a labor of love, and I spent what can only be described as an unhealthy amount of time tracking some of them down.

Another tale of l'amour fou from director Christophe Honoré

2011-09-14T23:36:00.005-07:00

Another tale of l'amour fou from director Christophe Honoré, but this time set in high school. It's nowhere near as interesting as Love Songs or Dans Paris, but there's something about the poster -- is it the red background or simply the haunting Léa Seydoux and her disembodied head? Come to think of it, this might just be a bit of poor Photoshopping. Regardless, there was something about seeing this plastered all over Paris that left its mark. Bonus bit of trivia - actress Léa Seydoux can be seen, briefly, in Inglourious Basterds, playing one of the farmer's daughters in the opening sequence.Though not quite as inappropriate as the The Death of Mr. Lazarescu poster that Adrian referenced, this one for Jeanne Waltz's film is both extremely odd and misleading. A drama about the relationship between a young woman (Isild Le Besco) and the teenager she cripples during a failed suicide attempt is here marketed like....what...a magazine cover? A deodorant ad? The poster may say nothing about the film, but there's something spontaneous and natural about it that works. Bonus points for using a somewhat unflattering picture of Le Besco.

c Some are quite bad, in fact

2011-09-14T23:36:00.004-07:00

Well, it's not quite the long-promised return to blogging (which, as Buddha is my witness, will happen in the near future) but I did want to mention that besides my occasional stint at Time Out New York, or getting beat-up over at Salon.com, the fine folks at across the pond at Eye For Film have asked me to contribute to their fine site, and my first review for them, The Ghost Writer (directed by some Polish guy) has just been posted. Inspired by my good friend Adrian Curry, whose Movie Posters of the Decade post over at The Auteurs led critic (and Twitter fiend) Roger Ebert to issue forth a "bleh" (and then respond with his own choices), I thought I'd join in on the fun and put together a post on posters as well.
Yet rather than "best" or "favorite" I decided to focus on films and/or posters that aren't as well known here in the States -- things I saw at film festivals, or in a Paris Metro station, a billboard in Shinjuku, etc. Others I simply stumbled upon online.
Not all of these are great films. Some are quite bad, in fact Also, I'm not making any claims as to the design quality of these posters -- some might violate every rule or standard -- but each of them caught my attention (sometimes for embarrassingly simple reasons) and remained memorable enough for me to recall them for this little divertissement.
Where applicable, I've made some attempts at grouping them either by theme or style, but please don't read too much into that. It's simply an alternative from the numbered list approach.

Fifteen tracks that make up an eclectic mix

2011-09-14T23:36:00.003-07:00

It's certainly far from complete, and there are a few critical tracks I wanted to add but couldn't find information about them (namely, two songs from Hadewijch).
For those not in the know, the ingenue on the makeshift CD cover is Sylvia Miles, who's been in everything from Midnight Cowboy to Wall St. to Go Go Tales. She's been a staple at the NYFF press screenings for ages, and this year she made an unexpected appearance in a podcast I recorded with Aaron Hillis and Armond White.
Fifteen tracks that make up an eclectic mix, to say the least. I did my best to find a sequencing that isn't too schizophrenic, and I'm extremely proud of the Handel --> Bobby Brown segue. I'd like to give a special thanks to Gina Telaroli who helped me out with some of the tracks from films that played at Views From the Avant Garde. Download links are below. If you like it (or even if you hate it), please leave a comment. Enjoy!

The event is hosted by Greencine's own Craig Phillips and Aaron Hillis

2011-09-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

Between the newly inflated Best Picture category, the battle-of-the-sexes banter, the joy from fanboydom, the shenanigans of an over-zealous producer, and the feigned ex-spousal rivalry drummed up by the media, the Interweb has been all ablaze with Oscar-related stories at a rate that far exceeds previous years, or so it seems. (I guess it's a distraction from discussing economic genocide.)
Few of the films I cared about in 2009 are represented among the nominees, and those that are stand little chance of winning, at least if the terabytes of speculation discharged over the past months are any indicator.
That said, there's still part of me that looks forward to the event -- the tacky pageantry, the fake smiles, the caked-on veneer, and most of all the chance that somebody says something either terribly poignant or unbelievably stupid.
Which is why for the third year in a row I'll be participating in GreenCine's Oscar Live Blog this Sunday, along with some of the bestest and brightest voices from the world of cinematic musings, including festival darling Matt Singer, the recently recuperated Lisa Rosman, Eric Kohn, Josh Ralske, Steve Dollar (who outdoes me for curmudgeonliness), James Rocchi (a dooly appointed federal mahshall), and Jürgen Fauth & Marcy Demansky (the Nick and Nora Charles of online film criticism). The event is hosted by Greencine's own Craig Phillips and Aaron Hillis.
The fun begins at 7:30EST/4:30PST, and the best part is that you are all welcome to participate. Just login at this address and join in on the conversation. I'll be the one in the corner scowling about the lack of nominations for Julia and The Informant!
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