Stars at Noon (2022).For any true connoisseur of modern poésie maudit, the prospect of Claire Denis adapting Denis Johnson comes with its own ineluctable gravity. The union of these two artists—Johnson, the late visionary poet and novelist, Denis the dark romantic-turned-French art house institution—affirms their long-apparent, subterranean resonances. Both have labored at the edges of their tradition in pursuit of its particular truth; both have elevated the lives of drifters and criminals to the station of saints. In recent years, even in her mellow late style, Denis still retains a coiled viper’s intensity and, with 2018’s High Life, she settled any doubts that a genuine star vehicle—let alone one shot entirely in her second language, English—could support her sensuous, elliptical filmmaking. Johnson, despite his cult following, has only been adapted for the screen once before, to mixed results.Denis's choice of material is characteristically heterodox.
- 10/20/2022
- MUBI
1963
Johnny Cash: Blood, Sweat and Tears (Columbia)
Some of Cash's '60s concept albums were burdened with much too talking between tracks; here the tribute to the American working man gets to mostly stand alone on its musical merits, and shines. Notably, it incluces the top version of the traditional "John Henry"” about the most legendarily heroic working man ever, and the version of "Casey Jones" here is classic as well. Politically and psychologically, Cash was the perfect man for this job.
1968
Byrds: Notorious Byrd Brothers (Columbia)
Sometimes transitional albums, confusing listeners expecting a group's earlier style, are underrated. Not so with this classic. It's true that it didn't sell as well as earlier Byrds LPs, nor did the single from the album chart very high, but for decades Notorious Byrd Brothers has been widely revered, and not just by fans; some critics have even anointed it as the band's best album.
Johnny Cash: Blood, Sweat and Tears (Columbia)
Some of Cash's '60s concept albums were burdened with much too talking between tracks; here the tribute to the American working man gets to mostly stand alone on its musical merits, and shines. Notably, it incluces the top version of the traditional "John Henry"” about the most legendarily heroic working man ever, and the version of "Casey Jones" here is classic as well. Politically and psychologically, Cash was the perfect man for this job.
1968
Byrds: Notorious Byrd Brothers (Columbia)
Sometimes transitional albums, confusing listeners expecting a group's earlier style, are underrated. Not so with this classic. It's true that it didn't sell as well as earlier Byrds LPs, nor did the single from the album chart very high, but for decades Notorious Byrd Brothers has been widely revered, and not just by fans; some critics have even anointed it as the band's best album.
- 1/30/2013
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
In a 1983 Village Voice piece, gonzo critic Richard Meltzer praised the Minutemen for, among other things, the raw poetry of the band’s lyrics—“whether or not (and ‘relevantly’ or not) its meter-and-pulse as delivered (recited, ‘sung’) has ever particularly meshed with that of its music accompaniment (which of course is the Point).” Clearly he saw kindred spirits in the avant-punk group’s two singers, guitarist D. Boon and bassist Mike Watt. Soon after, Meltzer offered the Minutemen 10 of his own poems—“spiels”—in hopes of collaborating. That hope was dashed in 1985 when Boon died in a ...
- 1/17/2012
- avclub.com
Here are a few articles of interest I’ve stored in my Instapaper.
There’s a new website for Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, and it takes something of a transmedia approach. Chuck Tryon explains:
As you enter the website, it invites you to follow one of two forking paths, the father’s way or the mother’s way, while a haunting, almost mournful score plays in the background. Once you choose, you encounter a split screen with half the screen filled by a semi-circle of video clips and the other a white space with some cryptic text that evokes a moral parable. Below that are some of the social media responses to the website, and although many of them are direct expressions of fandom, others emphasize the aesthetics of the website, Malick’s characteristic use of slow pans and subtle camera movements. None of the video clips...
There’s a new website for Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, and it takes something of a transmedia approach. Chuck Tryon explains:
As you enter the website, it invites you to follow one of two forking paths, the father’s way or the mother’s way, while a haunting, almost mournful score plays in the background. Once you choose, you encounter a split screen with half the screen filled by a semi-circle of video clips and the other a white space with some cryptic text that evokes a moral parable. Below that are some of the social media responses to the website, and although many of them are direct expressions of fandom, others emphasize the aesthetics of the website, Malick’s characteristic use of slow pans and subtle camera movements. None of the video clips...
- 4/10/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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