Minimal/Clean/Feminist

Orlando (1992)
Seen: Sunday, April 20, 2008

I was long overdue to see some Sally Potter films by the time Ebertfest rolled around back in late April, so in preparation for her 2004 film, Yes that was scheduled to screen at the festival, I picked up Orlando (1992), just to get a sense of her cinema before hand. Potter's style is so simple. Clean, bright sets, minimalist, but striking mise-en-scene, and compositionally it feels more like a modern painting. Even in the image shown above where Tilda Swinton's character is cloaked in ornate 18th century garb, there is a sense of separation from it. Mostly, perhaps, that is because Orlando (Swinton) often turns away from her own space and time to address us, speaking directly into the camera. It's sort of an acknowledgment of a primarily 20th century technology that didn't exist when her character would have. So there's an eternal life of her character that transcends time, which is, of course, the premise of the original novel "Orlando" by Virginia Woolf. Young, male Orlando decides not to age, but when he wakes one morning years later he is a woman. Swinton herself has a wryly androgynous look to her; she couldn't have been better cast. I found this film to be so curiously, almost coldly feminine, a feeling that repeats itself again in Yes, in particular. More on Potter to come...

Another for the Top Ten

Flight of the Red Balloon (2008)
Seen: Sunday, April 20, 2008

If I have any weakness when it comes to critiquing a film, it's one thing: plot. It is the driving force of American cinema, particularly that coming out of Hollywood; its formulas are tried and true and practically hammered into any movie-goer's head from the time they are toddlers. So it's not so much that I haven't digested the three-act plot structure, it is just the least interesting part of a movie to me personally.

That can work for and against me given the movie. If we're talking about a summer blockbuster, for instance, or an early spring release of a chintzy romantic comedy, the odds are I could recite the plot even if I haven't watched the movie. No surprise there, in general those stories are predictable enough. On the other hand, when that rarer gem of a movie experiments with classic structure and plot points, I am usually in a mild daze--at least temporarily.

Lining up who is who, and why he suddenly appeared two scenes ago with the woman (and was he holding the clue in his hand?) always eludes me, always to my own shame and embarrassment. It can get you down, being the dummy who pieces the story together hours after the movie has faded to black. Press notes help immensely in this regard, so do smart friends who can memorize the dialogue of a scene after seeing it only once. But I've only got the notes for probably less than 1% of the movies I see, and even fewer friends with enough patience to summarize the story for me in their free time (though, thank goodness some were around for last year's Bourne Ultimatum!)

With that, it's a lucky day when a movie comes along so pretty and meditative--and in the case of Hou Hsiao Hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon, it manages to be both of these things without a hint of heavy-handedness--that I get to indulge my visual sense without a care in the nearly narrative-free world.

In Flight of the Red Balloon, the audience gets to be Parisian for a couple hours. Paris's marvelous landscape is show in a range of sequences: interior and exterior, panorama and close-up, with a meticulous attention to the mundane and urbane manners of the people in this metropolis. It is a curious and privileged peek at a single French woman's familial dynamic with her young son and his nanny, and also at their politely intrusive neighbors, much like the bird's eye view of the peculiar red balloon that follows little Simon (Simon Iteanu) home and about town. We hover around them, behind curtains and columns, bookshelves, or just beside Suzanne (Juliette Binoche) on the sidelines of a puppet show where she plays a character's voice. Simon sits at the kitchenette table with his nanny Song (Fang Song), and as his mother whirls through the front door and empties a small sack of groceries before them, this simple task has never looked so pleasing.

It is also an idyllic picture of city dwellers, and in the case of Suzanne and Simon who are left to contend with their downstairs neighbors, easily one that is simpler to look at from a distance with a lazy grin than experience firsthand. There's something about this romanticized picture of city life where space is so tight that people's emotions collide publicly like little bumper-to-bumper accidents. Somehow, the idea of Suzanne yelling at me down the stairwell seems so sweet! But again, that's easier to witness onscreen than experience firsthand.

As a foreigner himself to Paris's landscape, director Hou Hsiao Hsien of Taiwanese nationality seems to be taking an indulgent insider's tourist trip for the rest of us. I haven't read any French reviews of the film, but I'd be curious to see how that audience perceived Hou's vision of their city. In any event, Flight was for me what I love most about the movies: pictures that are personal but are not bound to strictures of narrative; the kind that find a relaxed life of their own, and impart something beautiful to their audience, even if there isn't a great overarching message. That much I can get right away, with or without press notes.

Southern Gothic/Psychedelic

Undertow (2004)
Seen: Saturday, April 12, 2008

Here is a review from Michael Wilmington that encapsulates many of my feelings about Undertow. Though I want to also mention the strange stylistic element director David Gordon Green used in this film, which was never in any of his previous movies: at the start there is a sequence where the film is treated to look like the negative, then colored with an LSD inspired color palate. So as the naturalistic setting of the story opens, suddenly it is jarred into a bright, artificial color swirl. I had no idea of what to make of it at the time, and I can't say I have any leads now either. It looked like something you'd maybe see on MTV, but (more) drug induced. For me, this is going to make for a curious comparison with his new movie opening next week (8/6/08), The Pineapple Express, which I anticipate will move us as far away from his naturalistic roots as possible.

Black Emo Hairstyles Photo Gallery

If you are looking for an all black emo hairstyle pictures, check out these diverse looks. Whether you want that sophisticate chic look, a natural do, sleek or just wanna look exotic and mysterious. You will be amazed by the many different hairstyles for black emo hair that are available. SammyxMariiie Gallery will help you pick an emo or scene hairstyle that is perfect for you. No blondes, no highlights, just black.

"Wha happened?"

A Mighty Wind (2003)
Seen: Saturday, April 12, 2008

Watched my favorite mockumentary filmmaker, Christopher Guest's A Mighty Wind (2003) again, and am reminded (again) about how much I adore Fred Willard. "Wha happened?" Frankly, that line alone is reason enough to rewatch the movie...

Frankie and Annette with an X Rating

The Warped Ones (1960)
Seen: Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Gene Siskel Film Center had a wonderful, rare series of Japanese Nikkatsu action movies screening back in April. All of them were shown with "soft" subtitles in which a translator advances each English translation by hand for the entire duration of the movie (no small feat); and none had been previously screened on film in the United States (perhaps, even, North America, though my memory can't confirm that). The first I caught was Koreyoshi Kurahara's The Warped Ones (1960), a story of the highly distressed emotions of its characters, teenagers, giving a veritable middle finger to Japanese societal norms. While on the other side of the globe Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello where playing Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) with a soda-pop sugar buzz, The Warped Ones were less covert about sexual tensions--a sublimation of Japan's post-war disillusionment at large--showing one of the most terrifying and graphic rape scenes to date. The girl lays helpless on the ground in the openness of the noontime sun, while her predator surveys her body, gloating with power. Though the movie is not something you'll return to again and again for fun (it is certainly not a "fun" movie to experience), it has a solid set of merits: its sharply contrasted black and white photography and raw performances from its actors, both of which work together to illustrate the bigger talking point of the film, the quiet frustration of Japan's strength nearly twenty years out from the end of the war. It shares the moodiness and look of American B-noir films from the '40s, and even something more artistically conscious, like Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958). It was a lucky peek at one of the rarest pictures to tour through Chicago.

"Help, help! I'm being repressed!"

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Seen: Sunday, April 13, 2008

Here's a still from what might be the best fight sequence ever put on film. (I also wrote a small bit about Monty Python and the Holy Grail over here, as one of my few "Movies of Shame.")

I'm also officially declaring Tuesday as "National Worst Day of the Week Day," because it is a day pathetically stuck in limbo and lameness. It has no clever office name like its brother Wednesday's title "Hump Day," and it is in poor form to complain about Tuesday blues, as if it were Monday (i.e. "I've got a case of the Mondays").

So to freshen up Tuesday, I've taken the initiative to start a mini-blogathon! This blogathon also comes at the mid-point of 2008 when we're about to cross the threshold to the coveted fall movies, the Oscar contenders, and more importantly, the slew that will adorn us critics' Top Ten lists with sugary delight. And mostly, because we can't stop our addiction to Listmania--you must be crazy if you think we can wait until December--this gives us a moment to indulge.

Seen and Scarlett Cinema's bother and sister blogs are all participating, including:
-Michael Anderson and Lisa Broad at Tativille
-Matt Singer and Rob Sweeney at Termite Art
-Andrea Janes at Spinster Aunt
-Mike and Maggie Lyon at Tits and Gore
-Karen Wang, Minjae Ormes, and me, Pamela Kerpius at Scarlett Cinema

Lists run the gamut from the Top Ten Best Actors, Top Ten Best Movie Theaters, Top Ten Movies of Mid-Year 2008, and even Top Ten Actors I'd Like To Have Over For Muffins...and MORE!

Be gone, Tuesday doldrums, Listmania has arrived!

Does your hairstyle fit?

We go to the store and try on clothes to make sure they fit and look good on us. Why shouldn't you do the same for your hair?

I remember when I was young that I wanted to cut bangs at one point. So, I would take my hair and pin most of it up, leaving the ends across my forehead so I could see what bangs would look like. I used to do the same for trying out shorter hair.

Now there is a very easy way to try on different hair styles and you don't even have to be near a mirror. It is called hair imaging software and it has come a long way over the last few years to make it very easy and quick to find and try on hair styles.

Most programs let you upload a recent picture of yourself. Then you can browse through the extensive galleries and experiment with literally hundreds of different hair styles. Thinking of changing your hair color? No problem, there are many different color options for you to try out.

So what are you waiting for, come and check out these free demos on trying on your hairstyle to make sure it fits. Hairstyles demo

Bonjour, Paris!

L'Atalante (1934)
Seen: Friday, April 4, 2008

It’s another dreary Monday morning; I am in a collective mental haze for starters, but it happens to be drizzling rain outside too. So I’ll consider it good luck that Jean Vigo’s 1934 film L’Atalante is next up in the Seen queue—because if darling Dita Parlo can’t lift your spirits, you’re in for a long lifetime of perpetual Mondays. Just by the look of the film you can tell it comes prior to the Citizen Kane (1941) revolution. Many of the long shots grow hazy without any deep focus lenses, but it happens with a gauzy, dreamlike style, and I think adds to the wonder of Ms. Parlo’s first jaunt through the streets of Paris. I also enjoy her crusty shipmate (played by Michel Simon?) and his gang of feral kittens staking claim over everything from the bed to the dinner table.

And look! Just as I write this the clouds are lifting—the sun is out in Chicago! Happy Monday indeed.

And Then There Was Paradise...

Le Enfants du paradis (1945)
Seen: Tuesday, April 1, 2008

"I think this is the best movie I've ever seen."

This is the only line I wrote in my notebook in the late evening after I returned from seeing Marcel Carne's beautiful Le Enfants du paradis (1945), and I think that statement is still true.

I will always have my personal favorites (e.g. Taxi Driver, City Lights), but Carne's wartime film exists on another level. It's a masterpiece.

Hair Styling Tips

Always use a protecting spray when blow drying your hair, this helps from damaging your hair. Then do a few more quick spray of the protector before straightening it. To really get a good hold use an extreme hold hair spray.

Colors are always a good way to make an emo style stand out. For those who can't color their hair, pick up some non-permanent hair color. It is temporary and will wash right out. You can find them in sprays and gels. All colors too- red, black, purple, blue, pink, green, teal, yellow, aqua, etc. You can always use more than one color!

The cut says it all. Short or long- it doesn't matter. Cut or have your hair cut in choppy, uneven layers. Side bangs are the bomb! Throwing some color in them will def. draw some attention. Using a razor will give you more texture- which is a great thing with emo hair.

If your hair is thick and you want it thinner to style better- use or have your stylist use a thinning sheer- this while thin out your hair (but not too much) and also give you texture.

thanks to Crystal

Simple Steps in Fighting Excessive Hairfall

Having excessive falling hair is a condition that is commonly shared by a lot of people. Many factors contribute to this, such as stress and tension, poor diet and malnutrition, hormonal imbalance, over-processing of the hair, and frequent use of styling products and chemicals, to name a few. Just because it is a common condition does not mean that it should be ignored and left untreated. If you allow the condition to persist, you might find yourself dealing with bigger problems in the future, such as hair loss and baldness. If you suffer from excessive hair fall, here are some simple steps to follow in order to arrest the problem.

Reassess your diet and eating habits. Make sure that you are providing your body with the right amount of vitamins and nutrients. Eat a lot of food rich in protein and Vitamins B and E, as these promote the growth of healthy and lustrous hair.

Avoid combing or brushing your hair when it is wet and refrain from putting it up on a ponytail or a tight bun. Hair is at its weakest when wet and brushing or combing it makes it prone to splitting and breakage. Fixing your hair up in a very tight hairstyle may also cause unnecessary damage to the hair follicles and may result to hair loss.

Lastly, always keep your scalp clean and free of dirt or product buildup. Wash it on a daily basis to get rid of dirt, grime, excess sebum, and styling product buildup. Massage it every so often to aid in the circulation of blood to the scalp. This allows the scalp and the hair follicles to breathe and to stimulate the growth and production of healthy hair.

A Barry Jenkins Film

Medicine for Melancholy (2008)
Seen: Saturday, March 29, 2008

I was not at SXSW to catch director Barry Jenkins' first feature Medicine for Melancholy on the big screen. Nor was I at Sarasota or L.A. or any other festival where the movie was screened this year (and it is probably safe to say I won't be at Toronto either), but I guess having long-time friends who are working their way into the business has paid off ever so slightly, because my pal Barry generously sent me a DVD screener of Medicine, which I am happy to report was picked up by IFC Films for theatrical distribution in 2009.

When I put his movie in the DVD player I was struck with a little conundrum, What if I didn't like it? As someone pursuing a legitimate (read: paid) career in film criticism, if the movie wasn't any good I had to be honest about that. Still, the author of the film being my friend, it would be a terribly awkward and hurtful moment to have him read this potentially bad review. But I sucked it up and decided it was business. And then the movie played and all of that anxiety disappeared--Medicine for Melancholy is a poetic montage of the San Francisco cityscape and two nascent lovers, set to an indie music soundtrack that alternates between youthfully energetic and melancholic.

And I suppose that's the best way to understand Medicine, as a tale of ambivalence, first between Micah (Wyatt Cenac) and Jo (Tracey Higgins) as they wake in the shameful light of the morning after a one-night-stand, and later as they try to feel out one another's personalities. There's a constant push and pull between the two young lovers, which is centered upon one essential common characteristic: they are both black.

Race is the primary subject of exploration, but Medicine works precisely to avoid conflation with the greater social and cultural issues that that topic embodies; the conflict for Micah and Jo is manifest in a series of conversations about blackness. Micah bites with condescension and contempt for Jo's interracial relationship; he comes to life, has a sort of energy that bubbles up when this prime opportunity knocks to confirm his suspicion of Jo's commitment to a white boyfriend. It is almost as if her boyfriend is the subsidy that supports her existence in San Francisco's urban space, which has been gentrified at a murderous rate.

While we wouldn't believe for a second that Jo's boyfriend (who we never see, and who we know only through Jo's one-sided responses to him via cell phone) is acting out of white guilt and providing reparations for institutionalized racism, there is also a pointed moment when we learn Jo lives for free under her boyfriend's roof, while she herself is still "figuring it out."

But Medicine doesn't linger on these moments for long, and is balanced with small delights like a color-saturated montage of San Francisco's sites and skyline, a cute homage to Godard's Breathless (1960) as Micah flashes faces in the bathroom mirror, and very simply, in its sum total, Medicine is a playful picture to look at. Amidst some rather serious moments are a spattering of jokes, the quiet ones that go unnoticed in everyday conversation.

As the movie begs the question, What does it mean that out of the 7% African American population in San Francisco, Micah and Jo found each another last night?, there is no commitment to a sense of fate in their meeting, nor is there an algorithm put forth for pragmatic understanding either. In other words, this is a social drama with romantic elements of a very earnest and exploratory nature.

This measured tone transforms even the most heavy-handed scenes into profound ones. As the black couple strolls into the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), Jo whispers, "I didn't even know it was here." Quietly they meander through the museum corridors. The name "MAYA ANGELOU" is etched on the frame like a title card, until the door it is printed on swings open and the two cross its threshold. In a previous scene, they ascend a staircase along a vast collage of disconnected faces in black history: they are suddenly connected to an identity that is quickly being forgotten. It is in this instance that a seemingly innocent affair from the night before takes on a sobering importance.

Scene hair colours

Scene hair colours
You are able to choose several different colors for your scene hair, but it is not a rule. Imagine old metal hair scene cropped up with whole the sophistication of nowadays. It does not matter if you are a scene boy or a girl,what counts is your ability to pull it off with self-confidence.
If you wondered what it would be like to have a different hair color, but perhaps you should check this scene hair pictures gallery:

Two Unexpectedly Cute Movies: Win A Date With Tad Hamilton (2004) and My Blue Heaven (1990)

My Blue Heaven (1990)
Seen: Thursday, March 27, 2008

Even when Steve Martin in bad he is good. But in My Blue Heaven's cleanly symmetrical framing of suburbia being crashed by a very bad New York Italian-American accent (Steve Martin), he is just plain great. Rick Moranis (also infallible in my book) plays alongside Martin as his putzy FBI guard dog, while he continues to trudge through the mundaneness of a world without street attitude. Martin procures a price sticker gun at the grocery store, his only manageable act of defiance; a mound of steaks under a buck pile up at the end of the cashier's conveyor belt for a bit of silent slapstick, while Joan Cusack stomps around in her classic mad and appalled way. You can certainly ask for more in a comedy, but this is pretty happy middle ground.








Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! (2004)
Seen: Friday, March 28, 2008

Yes, it's a teen movie. Yes, it's melodramatic and fluffy at times. But ooh-wee, it is much fun, which cannot only be credited to Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!'s great script, but to its headlining costar Topher Grace. We don't see enough of him, that's for sure. Back in February I caught In Good Company (2004), a story that delightfully plops into the corporate rivalry of a fifty-something veteran ad man (played beautifully by Dennis Quaid, in an understated comic role) and his smooth-skinned, fresh from college boss (Topher Grace), who's young enough to be the elder's son. This, and his role as the uptight, slightly effeminate supermarket manager in Win A Date, shows Grace at his best: sympathetic and self-deprecating. One scene says it all, as his thin, pale bodice attempts chopping wood next to the tanned hunk of Alpha-male muscle, Josh Duhamel--no shirts required. Its been too long now to remember more detail, but the great thing about Win A Date is that it also doesn't take itself too seriously, bouncing along with a knowingness of its tweeny categorization.

So Nice to See You, Seen!

Honey, I'm home!

Poor Seen. I have been away from you for so long; been spending most of my time over at your sister's joint, Scarlett Cinema, but I promise to share some time with you too, old chum!

As you might imagine, there are a-many movies to be updated in this humble diary. Where to begin? At the beginning!



Monday, March 24th movie was where we left off (in case you forgot, that's four days after the flick before it, This Is England, see below), and on that fateful Monday I met my favorite film so far this year, Chop Shop. I was lucky enough to interview the film's director Ramin Bahrani a few weeks ago for a piece on New York City geography in cinema, which will be out in the coming days through the New York Asian-American Film Festival (links to come!). In the meantime, if you missed the movie in theaters, it is now available on DVD. Lucky you.

In light of the subject of my essay with the AAFF, my favorite element of Bahrani's film is its setting. There is a close, intimate feel with the space--a dilapidated area called the Iron Triangle in Queens, New York just beyond the perimeter of Shea Stadium. Breathtaking shots of the stadium lit at twilight loom behind the characters kicking across the dirt roads in the extreme foreground. The roar of the crowd mixes with the characters' spoken dialogue in real time, and the film becomes as much a historical document as it is entertainment. This is true New York cinema.

Emo Anime FanArts

I recently ran across a German website that has some really interesting emo fanarts.