Daily post 01 Jun 2006 06:56 am
Scattered
- I’m sad to note that the brilliant film director Shohei Imamura has died. He was an inspiration to me for many years. I discovered his films at a retrospective at the Japan Society in NYC in 1979. Over the course of several weeks many double bills of his features were screened until they went through them all chronologically. It was one of the highlights of my filmgoing experiences.
Here is his NYTimes obituary. Black Rain, The Insect Woman and Vengeance Is Mine are singular masterpieces.
- Writer, J. Hoberman, in this week’s Village Voice has a short but good article about Richard Linklater’s thoughts in comparing his two current features, both of which premiered at Cannes. A Scanner Darkly, together with Fast Food Nation, represent a picture he has of today’s America.
In a separate mini-review, Hoberman wrote: “Richard Linklater took a hit for his insipid Fast Food Nation but recovered and then some with his animated A Scanner Darkly—not just the best Philip K. Dick adaptation since Total Recall but an adaptation that brings quite a bit to the original. This paranoid drug-opera will soon be coming to a theater near you, improving the summer movie season even more than it did Cannes’s American presence.”
The reception from other critics wasn’t as kind, often comparing it unfavorably to Waking Life. Perhaps Hoberman’s bent for more eccentric film making styles played more in tune with Linklater’s newer opus. I have to admit I’m curious to see whether the rotoscope style used in a more traditional, through story will help it.
- I love Lane Smith’s artwork. Consequently, I love Lane Smith‘s blog currently following the release of his newest book, John , Paul, George & Ben. Everything on it is done with a real sense of fun. Today’s post reprints negative reviews for his book, and his last post featured a mural drawn by him and Mo Willems. As a matter of fact, you can watch a short movie of them painting it.
There was a short time when Lane Smith was to direct an animated feature for Nickelodeon, and that project ultimately fell through. Too bad, it might’ve changed what we think about animated features. And like everything else he does it would have been family friendly, a lot of fun, and brilliantly daring. Not just Paramount’s loss, but ours as well.
(Images enlarge by clicking.)
on 03 Jun 2006 at 2:09 am 1.Ward said …
I once met Lane in NYC back in ’97 when I took Richard Williams’ Masterclass (the second week). My understanding from seeing him at the Masterclass was that he wanted to get some animation knowledge under his belt for an animated version of his fabulous Stinky Cheese Man. Wasn’t that the film he was set to direct for Nickelodeon? I wasn’t too sure, but I had always heard that’s what it was. Yeah, too bad it wasn’t to be. I’m sure Lane’s brilliant design and humor would’ve been a nice diversion from the usual animated fare during the mid- to late-90′s.