Dear internet, my brain has forgotten a word. Damn.

So, what is it called when you look back at the past and only see the positive things?

Brain failure D:

... you've probably come across André Bazin, the big daddy of film theory, and you've probably learned to love him or loathe him. Either way I think you can appreciate the awesomeness of this photo, it amused me anyway.



Sorry, thinking about that image while I study his work makes it so much better XD

One of my favourite tunes at the moment... (it's not old)




(sorry for posting so much pointless music stuff)

( more awesome Four Tet tunes )

How many times do I hear people complaining about not understanding a simple film? How many time do I hear people saying, "I don't go into the cinema to think!" Taking a look at most Hollywood cinema today you notice the story telling involves telling you everything. The editing and music and pace is formed in such away that the audience cannot think about what's on screen, their mind and eyes are taken over and taken for a ride, they get turned on auto. Even films with some ambiguities and some 'interesting twists' are still just a mindless insipid product. And it gets worse, the more cinema dumbs us down, the dumber we become, and the dumber we want cinema to be. I'm not claiming all Hollywood cinema is like this and I'm not going to praise only art-house films. But now the line between Hollywood and art-house seems so large. Some of the more interesting films hardly get shown, and hardly get seen, and are completely ignored by a wider audience even though they are accessible and interesting films to everyone. While the audience accepts such idiocy then it'll only get worse and excellent films might be lost. If I hear people say 'I don't watch films to think' I might just lose my mind. I'm not implying every film people watch has to be a thinker, but once in a while you might go to a cinema and think, and it just might change your opinion on things.

The other week I couldn't sleep, so I was watching the backlog of Mark Kermode's vlogs. This one really stood out as a good one. It's a review of Eagle Eye, but it's not really... it's a rant about what Kermode calls 'Bayification' and reiterates some of the points I've already made.... only he's funnier about it.




Love him <3

"Michael Bay isn't just a bad film-maker; he's the enemy of creative thought."

Facebook is so fucking shit.

Yeah yeah, I like my lists. I like reading them. I like making them. Today I decided to browse Empire's Top 500 and the position of some films, side by side, well... the comparison made me laugh.

Pardon me, but this is my film snobbery at its worst. Sorry :( Obviously I understand it's a poll and a mixed bag, which is good, but it still doesn't stop me finding some of these things funny.

( Read more... )

I'm feeling blue right now and seeing as it's not about time I redid my top 50 films list I thought I would do a top ten favourite characters in film. It's tragic I like to make lists so much. But I thought of it as I should be going to see 400 Blows in the cinema tomorrow (for free) if I can get up in time. And, well, Antoine Doinel has to be one of the greatest characters in cinema. So, here are my top ten:

In a vain attempt to try to talk about something other than films I want to share some great The Hollies tunes as I'm on a big The Hollies kick at the moment *repeat repeat repeat* Do enjoy, lots of tunes under the cut!

But lets start with an obvious one, and then go to something more upbeat

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother


( Read more... )

The festival will officially be over soon and it seems very unlikely I'll see any more feature films. If I'm well enough or awake enough or can be bothered enough, I will possibly see some short films tomorrow. But, nonetheless, no more features for me to watch. I missed many I would have liked to have seen due to university, festival daily work, or just I'm broke/cannot be bothered to spend 24hrs at the festival!

So in order of my favourites, where available, trailers for the feature films I watched!

Look out for them in the future :)

(Sorry, I really would like to stop thinking/watching/writing about films, but from having no choice but do that recently my brain is now broken and can't think of anything else. Not even kittens)

What what what what what what?!?!?!?! Is Film4 doing something weird like, showing an interesting film by a good director? What is this Film4, doing something RIGHT?!

Film4 will be showing Mirror by Andrei Tarkovsky on Thursday the 24th at 11am!



I think it's ridiculous to show it at such a time though. even a 1am slot would be better and more suitable, people like 'weird' films more late at night.

Next week will be quite mad, the film festival (which I'm writing for) and starting university! I know my uni timetable, but now I'm working out what films I will be seeing at the festival. I'm only telling you all in case anyone wants to see anything with me XD let me know if you do! It would be fun!

Key:
* = seeing it to review for the festival daily
(if it's in there twice it's cos it's showing more than once during a time I can see it and I'm not sure which one to go to yet)

Thursday 17th
18:15 The Agent *
21:00 Mental
21:00 Identity of the Soul (special 5 screen 'cinematic event')

Friday 18th
13:30 Mental
20:30 Desire *
17:00/18:30 Identity of the Soul

Saturday 19th
20:45 Navidad *

Sunday 20th
19:15 Treeless Mountain *
17:00/18:30 Identity of the Soul

Monday 21st
18:30 Link (going with soundslikebuuu)

Tuesday 22nd
18:30 Identiy of the Soul

Wednesday 23rd
18:45 Tulpan *

Thursday 24th
18:00 Easier with Practice *

Friday 25th
13:30 The Best of Cambridge Super 8
17:00 Machinima (Programming with Light) * (about machinima ^^)

Saturday 26th
13:30 Animated Shorts
16:00 For My Father

Sunday 27th
11:00 A Short Film Collection on Love
13:30 For My Father

The End.

That is a lot of films! There is more I would love to see but they simply clash with other stuff or university :| Watch me get really sick and not see any of them!

The final lot of photos. And it's a big lot! These photos are taken with Mamiya/Sekor 500TL. Simple stuff really. I think I need to stop taking photos of plants/flowers some time soon. Try to do something more interesting. I think I need to leave Cambridge and take photos elsewhere, Cambridge is really starting to bore me.

Do take a look at the photos though :) please XD

Scanning actually took nearly the entire day in the end, from around 3pm until 10-11 at night. Crazy.

This next set was shot with Diana+, only something was more unusual about this... the film expired in 2001. The result? If it was my fault, the camera's, or the film's, I'm not sure, but the roll was very underexposed and covered in little gold/white sparkles.

I'll show full size one of the more 'normal' photos, but click the thumbnails to see full views.

Because I am broke I am selling stuff. I currently have two Blythes on ebay if anyone is interested.

Check them out.

Thank you :)

After nearly two months I've finally got some photos back! Finally! The last few months haven't been very productive photography wise. Just because each film is very different, I'm going to post them in several posts. First we have an experiment I did. I put a roll in my beloved Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim. I merrily shot it. Once it was finished I rewound the film. I then took that film, and loaded it back into the camera. I then merrily shot it again, having forgotten what I had originally taken. The effect, unpredictable double exposures! The whole thing is made more uncontrollable by using a cheap, shit, plastic camera with zero controls. Just shoot and hope for the best.

I've not had the energy or sunlight to do much photography over the last months. The last time I got some photos back was mid July. Shocking! And although I don't have any to show you today, I need to celebrate that FINALLY some will be on their way. I packed up a little box today.



A box with some films to be processed! It'll be in the post tomorrow morning! Sadly it also contains a cheque, and sadly Peak's prices have gone up *gulps* nearly £17 I cannot afford, but I miss getting photos back SO MUCH! But there is about 84 exposures in there.

Maybe I should take out the polaroid for some instant gratification!

The Cambridge Film Festival programme has been released and is now available to view on their website (or pick up a copy from the Arts Picturehouse and other culture spots around the city)

Take a look here!

I don't know why I did this, probably to get my mind off things, but I capped Breathless.... a LOT of it! Sadly they're not very good quality, nor that interesting, but I think I'm going to try to capture more films, do a better job of it, and post the results in film_stills

For now, Breathless captures!

Jean-Paul Belmondo <3 Jean Seberg <3 Jean-Luc GODard <3 What is there not to love? <3

From the beginning now~

No epic attempts to write something decent about the books I've read recently, no effort to find nice images to prettify this post. I just feel like updating you with what I've been reading, just in case anyone cares XD (and what rating I gave it on goodreads)

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck : Such a charming read, I loved the episodic nature of the novel as it's actually something I enjoy in films. I grew attached to Cannery Row, the melancholy, the humour, the vivid character of the novel.
4/5

Blindness by Jose Saramago : I didn't finish it and the only reason I got most of the way through it was because it was so easy to read. I found it too predictable and very boring in it's opinions/statements. I felt constantly insulted by it, not because of the atrocious things that happen, but because of the stupid statements it was trying to make. It never shocked or surprised me, it didn't make me think, I kept on giving it the chance to change my mind over and over again, but just as I got close to finishing it I decided I didn't give a damn. To think both Steinbeck and Saramago won a Nobel prize for literature... as I actually read them side by side, Saramago is so very very pale in comparison. Maybe I just didn't get it, but I never cared to. The religious nature of the novel was akin to jabbing a crucifix into you eyes. I also hated with a passion every time he would write 'and the characters did this, who knows why they did it, no one does, we will never know, but they did do it, it's just things happen like that in life sometimes, you know, people do things, and they don't know why, am I spelling out for you enough how I cannot put their thoughts and actions into words, that sometimes people do things for reasons we're not so sure about, etc etc etc.' SHUT UP! We get it, you don't have to explain everything in a book. Much like my pet peeve in films, YOU SHOW, YOU DON'T TELL. You can't quite apply that with novels, but it's the same thing.
1/5

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte : Nothing much to say about this. Was fun, interesting, a decent read. It just didn't grab me that much. I enjoyed it, just not immensely.
3/5

Farewell Waltz by Milan Kundera : I can't remember why I picked this one, I've read other (more popular) Kundera novels and wasn't that thrilled with them. I think the subject matter interested me and I was very happy with this read. It had all the things I loved in Kundera's other works, minus all that I didn't like (namely the going into a philosophical rant rather than attempting to incorporate it MORE into the story). It really hit the spot for me. It was funny, emotional, exhilarating, profound, and most of all it had the one thing I love most in 'works of art', it was exceptionally human.
5/5

Something else I want to share. I often dip into Kafka's short stories once in a while, and I wanted to share one I read last night and enjoyed. I'm going to type it up as I couldn't find it online, sorry if I make a typo.
( Bachelor's Ill Luck )