Cave on writing a version of his novel for iPhone

Sixth Sense spells the end of the laptop and iPhone

If you're wondering what's next in the world in the world of IT and computer technology, here's the answer. Say goodbye to the old-fashioned notion of portable digital hardware - netbooks, laptops and smartphones, because it looks like they're headed for the scrapheap - and faster than you may think.

Sixth Sense, the device that appears destined to replace them is not just some fanciful theory. It has already been developed at MIT Media Lab in the US.

This "wearable gestural interface" is a small device worn around your neck that allows the wearer to project digital images without the need for an electronic screen, issue commands without the need for keyboard or cursor.

Want to view an image? Project against a wall, glass, a table or piece of paper.

Phone a friend? Dial up by touching the numbers on your fingers.

Take a photo? Form your hands into the shape of an oblong in front of your eyes and say "click".

As I said, the technology has already been developed and has been made available as open source (meaning no patent or copyright) by the MIT team led by Pranav Mistry.

The above clip, showing a live demonstration of the interface by Mistry, was one of my favourite clips of 2010. I was too busy at the time to post it here - increasingly I post material I like on Facebook and Twitter since it gets the message out faster and with less time and effort. But since many of us, me included, have a bit more time on our hands over the Christmas break, I've posted it here for those who have yet to see it.

The clip lasts for just under 14 minutes and is a bit slow to get started, but stay with it. I'd be surprised if you're not all goggle-eyed and gasping in amazement by about half way, as I certainly was. If nothing else, Mistry offers an inspiring example of the power of lateral thinking.

You can find more clips and text on Mistry's website

Happy viewing - and a great 2010.

(Note that I use Facebook mainly for networking rather than social purposes. Anyone who wants to access my Facebook links and who doesn't want to go on Twitter, please send a note or invitation via F-bk and explain who you are and include a weblink or two. I accept most people who have a genuine connection to film, music, arts festivals, blogging, academia or journalism)

Avatar's 3D is only "an enhancement" - Cameron

Avatar writer-director James Cameron sees 3D as "an enhancement", not as a new "genre" of film-making or a game-changer as profound as the advent of sound. See Variety for full interview, where he also talks about the economies of scale that will make his planned two sequels much cheaper to make.

Extract:
Cameron says Avatar "shows how 3D can be naturally, almost casually, integrated into a cinematic style. I did not poke you in the eye, or remind you every 30 seconds that you were watching a 3D movie filled with gimmicks. I used 3D to create an enhanced sense of lucidity.

"People have compared it to the advent of colour, but I would compare it more to digital cinema. Nobody would deny digital sound made movies much better, but it didn’t change the way people composed shots or wrote scripts..."

"3D has to be thought of as that kind of an enhancement. You don’t make a digital sound movie, and you shouldn’t write or think of making a movie just because it will be good in 3D."

(Image: chud.com)

How China wrecked any hope of a deal at Copenhagen

If you read only one piece on what happened at Copenhagen, make it this one - written by Mark Lynas, delegate for the Maldives, who watched the whole disaster unfold at close quarters. From the Guardian - full piece here.

"The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen.

"China's strategy was simple: block the open negotiations for two weeks, and then ensure that the closed-door deal made it look as if the west had failed the world's poor once again. And sure enough, the aid agencies, civil society movements and environmental groups all took the bait...."

The incredible photo above is by Lu Guang. For more of his prize-winning series of photos, Pollution in China, go to the China Hush website.

Nowhere Boy - the review

My review of Nowhere Boy appeared in the December issue of Limelight.

Opens December 26
Genre Musical biography
Three and a half stars

UK video artist turned filmmaker Sam Taylor Wood and Control screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh have delivered a vividly entertaining film about the young John Lennon (Aaron Johnson) whose strengths outweigh a few flaws.

While Nowhere Boy covers the formation of The Beatles from the remnants of teenage skiffle group The Quarrymen, the focus is on Lennon’s difficulties at home.

The most acerbic and rebellious Beatle had a famously troubled life as a youngster. His father left when he was young and his mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), handed him over to her elder sister, the snobbish, albeit fondly loving Mimi (whose formidable presence is captured to perfection here by Kristin Scott Thomas).

The film’s accuracies extend from the explosive influence of American rock’n’roll in lower middle-class suburban Liverpool to the ambiguously sexual feelings John had for his biological mother, Julia, when she re-entered his life.

Newcomer Johnson gives a vibrant lead performance that leads the viewer into overlooking his somewhat soft features (a little too feminine for the hard-faced Lennon).

Soft-soaped is Lennon’s cruel side, excused as a direct response to personal tragedy, and his voracious reading is entirely ignored. Not that anyone but a Beatles tragic will notice. _ Lynden Barber

The French Kissers - the review

My review of The French Kissers, opening nationally on Boxing Day, appeared in the December issue of Limelight magazine and is reproduced below.

Opens December 26
Genre Drama-comedy
Four and a half stars

There’s a big difference between films made for teens and films about them made for adults. This marvelous film, a deserved hit in its native France, is firmly in the latter camp.

Writer-director Riad Sattouf focuses on the sheer awkwardness of the mid-teenage years, wryly capturing the maturity gap when most girls seem about three years ahead of their male peers.

Plain 14-year-old Herve is pursued by Aurore, a smart, confident and unconventionally attractive young woman in his year at school. Like so many youths his age, Herve can only think about young women in the abstract - contact with the real thing throws him into total disarray.

On the surface his rude and sour reactions are unpleasant. But the film renders this behavior funny by showing how clearly it springs from the insecurity and ignorance many adults will recall with embarrassment from their own teenage years.

A few years ago a film called Show Me Love won high praise for its director Lukas Moodysson from fellow Swede Ingmar Bergman. It remains one of the most astutely observed films about teenagers I’ve ever seen, but The French Kissers comes close to matching it. _ Lynden Barber

(The January issue of Limelight is now in newsagents with my reviews of Broken Embraces and In The Loop, while my colleague Fenella Kernebone gives the once-over to the upcoming Bran Nue Dae and The Road.)

Why making TV programs under the influence of marijuana is a bad idea

TV is the new cinema - Campion

Seems I'm not alone in thinking that TV is the new Cinema.

Michael Bodey reveals in The Weekend Australian Review that Jane Campion is developing a six-hour mini-series for the BBC with the writer of her debut feature, Sweetie, Gerard Lee.

Not that this is the director's first TV project, of course - An Angel at My Table was made as a three-part NZ mini-series before being premiered in cinemas as a result of film festival plaudits.

Bodey writes that Campion is enthused about television's possibilities and dismayed by film's conservatism, and quotes her as saying: "You have to look at the industry and know what's going on, and to me it's really hard to make features right now.

"I feel like there's more freedom in doing TV; my mouth gaped open at some of the exciting stuff being done on HBO as compared to how conservative a lot of film is. You have to do event cinema now."

Campion, says the article, "laments that films today must have some other incarnation - a musical, series of novels or comic book - to gain financing or attention." Me too.

Campion's latest feature film, Bright Star, opens on Boxing Day. Sad to say, despite enthusiastic reviews, it failed to do spectacular business at the US box office.

Films and TV I loved this decade - a partial list

I've been reading a few more Top 10 of the Decade lists. I think they're mostly a bit conservative and predictable, in that they're overly dependent on titles that had widespread distribution.

I'm not saying that being popular in commercial cinemas should be a disqualifier (some of the titles I list were also very popular) , I'm just saying that great work was to be found in a far broader field than many critics' lists would appear to suggest.

I bashed out my initial thoughts on Twitter and reproduce them below. This is meant to be a mixture of the unabashedly personal and the objective - while they're all titles I suggest people should seek out, several represent significant aesthetic currents.

Please note - initial thoughts. I'm sure there are titles I've forgotten about. I may add further thoughts in later posts.

Note also there are more than 10 titles here and that some of them are TV productions (for the reason that television and its sibling, the boxed DVD set, have consistently set high standards when it comes to dramatic screen art). I'm not claiming that long-form TV is the same as feature film because it's clearly not.

(1) Memento - inspired 2000s fixation on non-linear narrative form, viz Kaufman scripts;

(2) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - martial arts genre reconfigured as art film. It influenced audiences & filmmakers alike;

(3) Pusher 3 - I'm The Angel of Death, pictured top, (and Pusher 2). Crime thriller powerfully reconfigured as existential drama - not to mention a piquant dash of horror (see also The Sopranos, below);

(4) The Wire, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Mad Men etc - US high-end TV drama = adult & ambitious (while Hollywood movies = juvenile)

(5) Funny Ha Ha/ Mutual Appreciation - Andrew Bujalski reinvents the USA indie (both available on DVD in Oz via Accent, folks)

(6) The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Avatar - Cinema of the Spectacle in transition to a new audio-visual form?

(7) Let the Right One In - horror/ vampire thriller in an art film's clothing - or was it the other way around?

(8) Climates - Turkey's Niri Bilge Ceylan a worthy successor to the mantle of Antonioni and Tarkovsky

(9) Shirin - Kiarostami mixes cinematic & gallery video art aesthetics (see also Thailand's Weerasethakul, Taiwan's Tsai Ming-liang)

(10) Bright Leaves - Ross McElwee, the master of the 1st person doco, is the guy who paved the way for Mike Moore and here is still on peak form.

Miss Piggy does Peaches

In the spirit of free expression, here's another clip that might get this site caught by Senator Conroy's internet filter - an hilarious mash-up that has Miss Piggy warbling Peaches' Fuck the Pain Away. Watch Animal go!

The original Peaches clip below is also damn fine. (Anyone know whatever happened "electroclash", the movmeent to which Peaches was originally said to belong?)




Tip of the hat - Wednesday Kennedy.

Avatar - the politics and the spectacle

Some of my thoughts on James Cameron's Avatar - which opened across Australia yesterday are now up at newmatilda. A couple of weeks ago I expressed dismay at the still images and trailer, which had then just been released. A viewing of the film on the big screen in 3D swept these reservations away.

After examining the film's leftist politics and the likelihood of rabid attacks from the usual right-wing attack dogs I look at the film's possible influence on future Hollywood cinema.
Comments at the bottom of the article rather than here, please. Thanks.

Extract:
"...in the long term Avatar is likely to increase the division between what we see on the small screen — that is, drama with human interaction — and the big screen.

"In Avatar, Cameron is redefining what we might call the Cinema of Spectacle. Independent filmmaking and domestic film industries around the globe are grappling with a proliferation of viewing platforms: pay TV, downloads, mobile phones and iPods and so on.

"Avatar has strengthened my view that Hollywood blockbuster cinema is gradually developing into a new form: a kind of Super-Cinema. In this new form, video game technology is as much an influence as traditional cinematic storytelling, which is why Avatar's two-dimensional characterisations and trite dialogue probably matter less than some critics seem to think..."

12 reasons why global warming isn't natural

New Scientist magazine has published an article, 50 reasons why global warming isn't natural

Here's 12 of them


Michael Le Page, features editor

A British newspaper today published a list of "100 reasons why global warming is natural".

Here we take a quick look at the first 50 of their claims - and debunk each one.

1) There is "no real scientific proof" that the current warming is caused by the rise of greenhouse gases from man's activity.

Technically, proof exists only in mathematics, not in science. Whatever terminology you choose to use, however, there is overwhelming evidence that the current warming is caused by the rise in greenhouse gases due to human activities.

2) Man-made carbon dioxide emissions throughout human history constitute less than 0.00022 per cent of the total naturally emitted from the mantle of the Earth during geological history.

Misleading comparison. Since the industrial age began human emissions are far higher than volcanic emissions.

3) Warmer periods of the Earth's history came around 800 years before rises in CO₂ levels.

In the past 3 million years changing levels of sunshine triggered and ended the ice ages. Carbon dioxide was a feedback that increased warming, rather than the initial cause. In the more distant past, several warming episodes were directly triggered by CO₂.

4) After world war 2, there was a huge surge in recorded CO₂ emissions but global temperatures fell for four decades after 1940.

In fact, temperatures fell during the 1940s and then remained roughly level until the late 1970s. The fall was partly due to high levels of pollutants such as sulphur dioxide counteracting the warming effect.

5) Throughout the Earth's history, temperatures have often been warmer than now and CO₂ levels have often been higher - more than 10 times as high.

Which shows that higher CO₂ means higher temperatures, taking into account the fact that the sun was cooler in the past. The crucial point is that civilisation is adapted to 20th century temperatures.

6) Significant changes in climate have continually occurred throughout geologic time.

Yes. And sea level has been up to 70 metres higher during warm periods. If that happens again, there'll be no more London or New York.

7) The 0.7 °C increase in the average global temperature over the past hundred years is entirely consistent with well-established, long-term, natural climate trends.

Wrong. The rapid warming since the late 1970s has occurred even though other factors that can warm the planet, such as the sun's intensity, have remained constant.


8) The IPCC theory is driven by just 60 scientists and favourable reviewers, not the 4000 usually cited.

Untrue, as even the briefest look at the scientific literature can establish.

9) Leaked e-mails from British climate scientists - in a scandal known as "climategate" - suggest that that has been manipulated to exaggerate global warming

Nothing in the emails undermines any of the key scientific conclusions. Independent groups have come to the same conclusions.

10) A large body of scientific research suggests that the sun is responsible for the greater share of climate change during the past hundred years.

The sun may have contributed to the warming in the first part of the 20th century but it has not caused the rapid warming since the late 1970s.

11) Politicians and activists claim rising sea levels are a direct cause of global warming, but sea levels have been increasing steadily since the last ice age 10,000 years ago.

Wrong. Sea level rose very rapidly as the North American ice sheet melted after the last ice age but levelled off and has been nearly stable for the past 2000 years or so. Now it is starting to rise rapidly again.

12) Philip Stott, emeritus professor of biogeography at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London says climate change is too complicated to be caused by just one factor, whether CO₂ or clouds.

He is right. All sorts of factors affect climate, even the lead in petrol. However, the recent warming is mostly due to rising greenhouse gases, and if we pump out more CO₂ it will get even hotter.

Sex shop musical - watch before it's too late

ATPS - HD 3.0 from Michael Rehfield on Vimeo.

The world's first porno shop musical. Inspired. Doubtless it'll get banned under Stephen Conroy's Chinese-style internet censorship filter (announced yesterday) so better watch now before it's too late.

Screen Australia turns towards genre?

Screen Australia has just released news of its latest investments, including four features. Details below.

What's interesting is that three of them sound much closer to the kind of genre projects that industry critics have been hammering the agencies for cold-shouldering.

The approved projects include a 3D tsunami story from Razorback and Highlander's Russell Mulcahy, and a crime story based on a prison breakout that promises "a modern take on the ‘revenge-Western’."

Producer of the latter is Al Clark, whose credits include crime st

ories The Hard Way and Chopper (the latter as executive producer) and of course the cheerful Priscilla and the grim

Blessed.

No science fiction, by the look of it. As I've observed recently, our industry's failure to explore what is arguably today's most popular genre is peculiarly short-sighted.

A third title, Blame, sounds very much like a revenge/ action thriller - perhaps with elements of horror, given its producer is Wolf Creek's David Lightfoot.

It's hard to get much sense out of the synopsis for Jonathan Teplitzky's Burning Man (Gettin' Square; Better Than Sex) however: "the reckless, romantic, irreverent and ultimately tear-jerkingly beautiful story of a father and son’s struggle to deal with the unimaginable."

It's obvious Burning's production team is trying not to give away a vital plot detail with that mystifying reference to "the unimaginable". Trouble is this blurb totally fails to give even the faintest clue as to what kind of film this is. Yet another story about family secrets complete with flashbacks, or torture porn dungeon set-piece? Who knows.

BAIT 3D
Arclight Films, Pictures in Paradise & Story Bridge Films in association with Black Magic Design Films
Executive Producers Chris Brown, Mike Gabrawy
Producers Todd Fellman, Gary Hamilton and Ian Maycock
Writer/Director Russell Mulcahy
Sales and Distribution Paramount, Arclight
Synopsis When a massive tsunami hits the Australian coastline, a pack of tiger sharks threaten survivors trapped inside a flooded supermarket.

BLAME
Factor 30 Films Pty Ltd and 3 Monkey Films Pty Ltd
Executive Producer David Lightfoot
Producers Ryan Hodgson, Melissa Kelly and Michael Robinson
Writer/Director Michael Henry
Sales and Distribution The Pack, Highpoint
Synopsis A group of young vigilantes seeking revenge for a sexual betrayal fall far from grace. When the truth is out they find themselves on the dark side of justice.

BURNING MAN
Meercat Films Pty Ltd
Producers Andy Paterson, Jonathan Teplitzky
Writer/Director Jonathan Teplitzky
Sales and Distribution Transmission, Filmbox
Synopsis The reckless, romantic, irreverent and ultimately tear-jerkingly beautiful story of a father and son’s struggle to deal with the unimaginable.

RED HILL
Red Hill Films Pty Ltd
Executive Producers Greg Mclean, Rob Galluzzo, Craig McMahon
Producer Al Clark
Writer/Director/Producer Patrick Hughes
Sales and Distribution Transmission, Arclight
Synopsis A young Melbourne police officer relocates to the small high-country town of Red Hill with his pregnant wife. When news of a prison break in Melbourne sends the local law enforcement officers into a panic, his first day on duty turns nightmarish. A modern take on the ‘revenge-Western’.

Call that ukelele? THIS is a ukelele

You've doubtless watched that great clip of Hawaiaan Jake Shimabukuro playing George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Sleeps on ukelele (see below). It wracked up a million hits on YouTube a couple of years ago (and is now past the 4 million mark), circulated around Facebook countless times and is doubtless now well on its way to distant galaxies.

I don't know anything about the young kid in the clip above but I do know that he's scarily musical. My guess is that he's Shimabukuro's son, or at the very least one of his pupil's. His take on the tune clearly follows the Jake blueprint.

Too darn tired to post...or do anything much. Roll on Xmas!

Oh no - it's List-o-mania

It's Best Films of the Year/ Decade time. As if you haven't noticed

My musings on the "best of" list phenomenon are at Unleashed on the ABC's new opinion website The Drum . Comments there please, not here.

Extract:

"...I must have at least a dozen pages open on my PC with different best-of listings. Talk about List-o-mania.

"First major outlet to get rolling was The (London) Times, which published its 100 Best Films of the Decade list on November 7. It decided the very best title had been Austrian director Michael Haneke's Hidden (Caché), a philosophical mystery about a couple being stalked via mysterious video footage, which turns up on their doorstep. Quoting The Times, "It is only as the decade draws to a close that it becomes clear just how presciently the Austrian director Michael Haneke tapped into the uncertain mood of the Noughties."

"The first lesson to be learned here: if you're spruiking for intellectual cred you might think twice about typing out "the noughties" - two words that nobody, other than journos compiling "best of" lists, has ever been seen or heard to use for fear of being pelted with mouldy cabbages..."

Why film critics have buckley's chance of getting an editing award right

I've summarised my keynote speech at the annual awards of Australian Screen Editors at newmatilda today, where I argued that film critics should never give awards for editing because they're not qualified to judge. Comments at the end of the full article rather than here, please.

Extract:
"....I was knocked out by Anthony Buckley's extraordinary editing in the recently restored 1971 Australian classic Wake in Fright, directed by Canadian Ted Kotcheff. The gambling in the pub and the kangaroo shoot are nightmarish sequences that will remain imprinted upon the minds of anyone who sees them.

Buckley, who would go on to greater recognition as a film producer, edits expressionistically here. He presents intense, almost jagged montages that assault the viewer. Watching these scenes, you know you're watching something that's been edited, in the same way you watch Citizen Kane and become quickly aware of the way it's been directed.

More frequently, however, an editor‘s job requires the assembly of sequences that don't draw attention to the way they've been spliced together — even most of Wake in Fright works in this way. An alert critic may be slightly more alert to this than the average filmgoer — but not by much..."

Planet 51 - yes, aliens love their children too

First two pars of my SBS film website review of Planet 51, which opened in Australia yesterday:

"Planet 51 is a family-oriented animation made by a Madrid-based digital entertainment company called Ilion in conjunction with Britain’s Handmade Films, best known for the Monty Python movies.

"Interesting, that, because watching it you’d never suspect for a second that it was anything less than full-blown, California number-plated vehicle forged in the foundries of Hollywood entertainment industry. Using American voice talents including Jessica Biel and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, and scripted by Shrek writer Joe Stillman, it looks and feels as American as a Chevrolet with fins. This is certainly one interpretation of globalism – folks from Spain and the UK get to play being Americans and get away with it...."

You know you're a Real Film Critic when you....

Think Ken Loach and Mike Leigh have similar styles

Call any instance of realism in film, tv or photography "gritty"

Describe a slightly unconventional film as "cutting edge"

Call Penelope Cruz Almodovar's "muse"

Greet every minor quirkfest by the Coen brothers as a timeless masterpiece of comic genius . Even O Brother, Where Art Thou?, A Serious Man and The Hudsucker Proxy.

More suggestions welcome.

(Image: Daily Mail UK)

Ever get that sinking feeling? Well do something about it

With all minds focussed on the Copenhagen conference now is a good time to urge readers to enter the My View climate change video competition. You have until Januarty 31.

This terrific initiative by international development agency the Asian Development Bank is open to anyone living in Asia or the Pacific region.

Just enter a digital video lasting between 1- 5 minutes on a theme of global warming. You can use any format, including mobile phone footage.

I'd be entering myself except I'm judging the awards along with Chinese director and writer Zhu Wen, Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza (named best director at Cannes this year) and Indian film editor Jabeen Merchant.

Applicants need only complete a short online registration form, and upload their videos to YouTube.com or Youku.com.

Please put this link on Facebook and Twitter and ask your friends and contacts to share and re-tweet.

Details below are taken from the official website.

"Your film can be in any digital video format – you can even use your mobile phone. We accept films in any genre, including but not limited to animation, documentary, drama, experimental, art, testimonial, etc.

"Videos can be in any language, though contestants are strongly encouraged to include subtitles and a full length script in English, in order to facilitate public outreach and the contest process.

"Anyone who is a citizen of any one of ADB's 67 member countries who is interested in climate change can join. ADB employees and their family members are not eligible to compete.

"There are three contest categories:

• Youth (under 21) from ADB Developing Member Countries
• Open (21 and over) from ADB Developing Member
• Open (all ages) from other ADB Member Countries

Prizes

US$10,000 in prizes!

Grand Prize (best overall): US$ 2,500
1st Prize, all categories: US$ 1,500
2nd Prize, all categories: US$ 750
3rd Prize, all categories: US$ 300

Limited consolation prizes: Flipcam video camcorders

How to Join

It's easy! You may submit as many entries as you like. All you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Just upload your video on YouTube.com or Youku.com.
2. Tag your video with "ADB climate change".
3. If you're a Youtube user, please join the ADB Climate Change YouTube group and submit your video on the group. Youku users proceed to step 4:
4. Fill out this simple online registration form or alternatively, download the form and email it to us."

(Images: http://gstaadblog.files.wordpress.com
http://www.reallynatural.com
http://samuelatgilgal.files.wordpress.com)

Play this clip before you die - or live the life unlived

This incredible clip to Bob Dylan's Series of Dreams (unaccountably left off his Oh Mercy album but eventually issued on the first of CBS's retrospective Bootleg series) seems new, with a measly 550 YouTube viewers and only three comments to date.

Sadly I can't place it directly on the blog since the embed code has been officially disabled but I urge all to hit the link above - even those of you who don't count yourselves as fans.

The track is possibly the least well-known of Dylan's indisputably great songs. Unique in his canon, it benefits from an epic Daniel Lanois production inspired by Phil Spector's wall-of-sound (and in particular, Then He Kissed me - clearly referenced in the organ vamp that appears half-way through.

Haunting lyrics and a great vocal performance raise this to the heavens. Many thanks to Luke Buckmaster for bringing this to attention.

I was thinking of a series of dreams
Where nothing comes up to the top.
Everything stays down where it's wounded
And comes to a permanent stop.
Wasn't thinking of anything specific,
Like in a dream, when someone wakes up and screams.
Nothing truly very scientific,
Just thinking of a series of dreams.

Thinking of a series of dreams
Where the time and the tempo drag,
And there's no exit in any direction
'Cept the one that you can't see with your eyes.
Wasn't making any great connections,
Wasn't falling for any intricate schemes.
Nothing that would pass inspection,
Just thinking of a series of dreams.

Dreams where the umbrella is folded,
And into the path you are hurled,
And the cards are no good that you're holding
Unless they're from another world.

In one, the surface was frozen.
In another, I witnessed a crime.
In one, I was running, and in another
All I seemed to be doing was climb
Wasn't looking for any special assistance,
Not going to any great extremes.
I'd already gone the distance,
Just thinking of a series of dreams.

Dreams where the umbrella is folded,
And into the path you are hurled,
And the cards are no good that you're holding
Unless they're from another world.

I'd already gone the distance,
Just thinking of a series of dreams.
Just thinking of a series of dreams.
Just thinking of a series of dreams.

(Image: www.contactmusic.com)

SPAA chief to producers - up against the wall

This week at newmatilda I take a look at the suggestion of screen producers association president Anthony Ginnane that Australian film funding needs to stop using cultural criteria and shift decisively to commercialism.

The weird thing, Anthony, is that it's been doing this for the last three decades already...

Comments at newmatilda rather than here, please.

Extract:

"As a studio guest with Ginnane on Radio National's Australia Talks last week, I was amazed to hear him listing the box office figures for past hits like Crocodile Dundee and Happy Feet before declaring that "here we are giving T-shirts these days to Australian producers whose films make a million dollars. They should be lined up and shot".

"I assumed I misheard him: no representative of a peak film and TV producers' organisation would suggest on national radio that some of his own members be lined up and executed for the crime of earning only $1 million at the box office — surely?This week I downloaded the broadcast and listened again. There it was, clear as day: "They should be lined up and shot".

"A drum roll and blindfold please for producers Melanie Coombs (Mary and Max, domestic box office earnings $1.4 million), John Maynard and Rebecca Williamson (Balibo, $1.3 million), and Emile Sherman, Steve Jacobs and Anna Maria Monticelli (Disgrace, $1.1 million). One last cigarette, folks?..."

Imageaubreyedwards.com)

Spike's wild and woolly tale

My review of Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, based on Maurice Sendak's children's bestseller about a kid journeying to a land of giant woolly creatures, is up at the SBS Films website.

Extract:

"...Yes, I love Catherine Keener and Mark Ruffalo as much as the next person but how come they (along with about three other actors) seem the only ones these days allowed to be in indie-style films with any budget to speak of?

"Max is portrayed as such a wild child that my first instinct was to assume that his problem, and it’s clearly serious, is autism. The condition however is never mentioned and it seems likely that Jones and co-writer Dave Eggers only intended to make him an averagely disturbed child of a broken family."

Put on your bathers and start swimming...

Thanks to mrego, http://twitpic.com/rojzr

The Matrix vs. The Bible - in LegoVision

Funny. Now visit The Brick Testament for a Biblical application of the world's favourite Swedish toy housebricks.