woody allen’s annie hall 1977 vs. jean luc godard’s une femme est une femme 1961

i watched woody allen’s annie hall the other night for the tenth time (pp i was thinking of you saying how i am the real woody allen, which i took as a massive compliment) and couldn’t help but see so much of godard in the film a woman is a woman. of course, woody allen films are woody allen, and you can’t really compare–but i assure you, if you see the two films back to back (i didn’t but i have practically memorized une femme est une femme by now) you will see major parallels. the intellectual leftist protagonist, the talking to the audience gag, the personal relationship turned script, the humor and jab at overt intellectuality, the sexual comedy, the books and the titles, the street life, the references to great cinema, and simply the brilliance. two great films worth watching over and over again. the crazy thing is JLG’s film was made in 1961 while annie hall was done in 1977.  i always knew godard loved woody allen, but i’m sure the love and inspiration was quite mutual. by dd

CATEGORIES: clips, must see films

my best shot – ryan mcginley

great photographers talking about their favorite shots, this is another great article from the culture pages of the guardian. today, ryan mcginley. more to come.

“working on this series, 15 of us traveled to a new location every day, camping at night. after three weeks we got to this barn in marionville, missouri. I had wanted to shoot with hay for a while, as I have fond memories of Halloween hayrides as a child. I like the saturated colour of hay in photographs: the way it can be gathered easily, yet fill the air wildly.

the bales created a simple graphic background, and we had a gigantic inflatable air mattress, like the ones used by movie stuntmen. safety is always our biggest concern, so we start with low jumps and gradually get higher. public nudity is illegal in most places, so we have lookouts with walkie-talkies to let us know if there is a problem.

the model, amanda, emailed me through my website. I rarely cast anyone this way, but I’m glad I did because she is one of the best people I’ve ever worked with. some people fall like a ton of bricks but she fell like a feather, gracefully and slow. in this picture she is doing a flip and my assistants are throwing handfuls of hay simultaneously, with a fan blowing. It reminds me of The Wizard of Oz – but my own version, where Dorothy gets her clothes ripped off in the twister.

Falling is a movement that endlessly fascinates me. I guess this action traces back to activities from my youth: skateboarding or diving from stages or into pools. I want to capture the feeling of weightlessness I would get jumping from a speaker and landing in a crowd, or flipping backwards off a diving board.

I love Amanda’s face in this photo: she looks like she’s in a trance within the chaos of the hay. I shot for about four hours, rotating models. I never know who is going to end up in the final shot, or if there will even be a successful image. I guess that’s the fun part for me: finding the moment where everything lines up. Not knowing what’s going to come back is like a present: it’s the poetry of chaos.”

by pp+tg

CATEGORIES: photography, surf-skate

Moro, lasso, al mio duolo

translated to mean “wearily, i die of agony”, this is the title of one of gesualdo’s madrigals, featured above in werner herzog’s “death for five voices” …herzog has said out of all of his films, this one is incredibly close to his heart.  one can see why, carlo gesualdo was a fascinating figure.  a man whose credits include nobleman, composer, chromatic engineer, lutenist—and of course, murderer.  carlo killed his wife (and also first cousin) donna maria d’avalos and her lover when he caught them “in flagrante delicto.” notwithstanding any of his passions or shortcomings, gesualdo was if nothing else, a magnificent composer of delightfully haunting tunes. by sv

CATEGORIES: music, must be considered films

Archipelago Cinema: Ole Scheeren’s Floating Movie Theater In Thailand

“the thought of watching films here seemed surprising“ said ole scheeren. “a screen, nestled somewhere between the rocks. and the audience… floating… hovering above the sea, somewhere in the middle of this incredible space of the lagoon, focused on the moving images across the water: a sense of temporality, randomness, almost like driftwood. or maybe something more architectural: modular pieces, loosely assembled, like a group of little islands that congregate to form an auditorium…” do not feed the fish by ak

CATEGORIES: architecture, lovely, other places