Review for the new movie 'Extract' by Mike Judge

This movie looks hilarious!!

Here's the NY Times review: http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/movies/04extract.html

Week of September 8th: Early Film History

This week:

Persistence of Vision

Major inventions in film history 1870-1900

Eadward Muybridge

Edison's first films (The Kiss, Fred Otts Sneeze)

Analysis of the films of the Lumiere Brothers

The works and contributions of George Melies

A Trip to the Moon (1902)

Works of Edwin S. Porter, including The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Readings on the three aspects of film: art, economics, and politics

Compare and contrast the works of Lumiere Brothers, Melies and Edison

Movies, Movies, Movies

Usually I do not sit on this blog and rave about movies I've watched because frankly I watch too many movies- too often to write for this site all the time. This still is not exactly one of those times. Since there some new people I want to give some advice and suggestions that would be helpful for all.

For those who truly want to become a director my suggestion is watch everything you can get your grubby little hands on. Do not ignore the present because film is always evolving, but the past holds some of the greatest treasures. Howard Hawk's His Girl Friday makes me laugh more than any comedy made in the past ten years. Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge embody the word "cool" and create something new out of old cliches. Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless taught me the true power of editing. Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly will forever be the first film that I noticed what a director could stylistically do with a film. These are only a handful of movies I've watched the past 2 1/2 years that have led me to understand all the powers cinema holds and let me discover what I wanted to do as a director.

If there was one thing I have learned is film cannot be taught. Not to say you shouldn't take classes, but these classes should spring board into your everyday life and lead to hundreds of hours of watching film and hundreds of hours in agony with a pen and paper, writing ideas and scripts. If you haven't bought a note pad yet, get one. This will be the best tool a director can have. You can write all the thoughts you ever had and always be able to go back to them. Never abandon a good idea because you don't know where it is going. It will lead you somewhere even if it is later in your life.

With all that said I am going to attempt to make movie suggests since too often I complain and not praise. I started my conquest into cinema with AFI's Top 100 movies list. I have not finished said list because I get side track by all the other films I have not yet watched, but it is a great starting place for anyone. Next I would suggest using Roger Ebert's Great Movie list because the list is composed of a large amount of foreign films which obviously will not appear on the American Film Institute's list. For me personally the works of Sidney Lumet, Martin Scorsese, John Huston, Jean-Pierre Melville (a director I feel is my little treasure since no one around me has seem to seen his films), Sergio Leone, Woody Allen, and Buster Keaton are the most influential around. I could go on for hours about individual movies but I'll restrain myself. What I'm trying to say is watch movies, watch a lot of them, and never lose the passion.

-On a side note I am open to talk on Fridays any time through out this semester and am more then willing to sit in front of a class and babble on about movies. My favorite subject is the movies of the 60's and 70's but I really am willing to talk about anything. -

This Should Be A Real Movie!

So, today after I got off work I came home and decided to play Minesweeper. I sucked really bad, so I figured maybe, there is a youtube video of how to be a wicked awesome minesweeper player guy. Unfortunately, I didn't find any good videos about how to play, but I did stumble upon this "movie trailer". I'd go see it if it was a movie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs

New York, I Love You

I was on imdb.com and came across this, many well known actors and actresses are involved with this film. Some are Natalie Portman<3,>http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//video/imdb/vi1159856665/

New York, I Love You Trailer - A collaboration of storytelling from some of today's most imaginative filmmakers and creative actors who together create a kaleidoscope of the spontaneous, surprising, electrifying human connections that pump the city's heartbeat.

Don't be afraid to post something new kids, if you see something that looks amazing, questionable, horrible, funny, inspiring, just post it and I'm sure you'll get the feedback you hoped for =)

September 3, 2009: Film School & Paul Feig

Journal #1: React to the Paul Feig article. What did it reveal about the true nature of Hollywood. Share your opinions about Feig and his work.

Journal #2: React to film school episode. How did it either reinforce or contradict what you know or knew about a career in film. Would you ever go to film school, why or why not? Is there a disconnect in your future between what you WANT to do with your life and what you SHOULD do with your life? Explain.

Decent reviews on this new documentary - American Casino

By now, you may have heard about sub-prime mortgages, the housing market, and the global financial collapse. For those still scratching their heads, the simplified story goes something like this: until about 2008, financial titans amassed unprecedented amounts of wealth through a housing bubble fueled by too-good-to-be-true mortgage deals until the homeowners began defaulting en masse, causing a ripple effect through credit and lending markets that sent the system into a downward spiral. Or so I’ve heard. Journalist Leslie Cockburn, along with husband and co-writer Andrew Cockburn, is among the first filmmakers to tackle the subject in her feature documentary American Casino. Given Cockburn’s left-leaning politics, it should come as no surprise who the film finds culpable in this mess: the Bushes, Greenspans, and Paulsens of the world. This is not to say that the film is utter propaganda though — this would belie Cockburn’s legitimate credentials.