::: metaphlog :::
Sat, Apr 21, 2007
Shining — The Feel Good Movie of 1980
YouTube justifies what Metaphilm readers have known all along... Shine On, You Crazy Diamond.
Sun, Apr 01, 2007
WARNING! SITE UPDATE COMPLETE. CHANGE URLs
Metaphilm has upgraded its back-end software from pMachine Pro to Expression Engine. This is now complete. Please visit us on the new system. Sorry for any broken links. The new Atom/RSS feed is here. (RSS 2 is here). This old feed will be discontinued in a little while.
Mon, Mar 19, 2007
Is Sandra Bullock the Cure for the Common Cold?
Dave White's compelling interpretation of the psychosomatic relationship between Sandra Bullock's films and the viewer's health.
Mon, Mar 12, 2007
This Is Not Happening
This Is Not Happening.
This Is Not Happening.
This Is Not Happening.
Mon, Feb 26, 2007
How Many Great Films Does A Guy Have to Make...
...To Win A Goddamn Oscar? Answers Here.
Tue, Feb 20, 2007
Marshall McLuhan: Film Critic, Political Strategist
Rod Dreher bites into media ecology, at long last...
"Cultures shaped by the printed word prized logic, reason and dispassion. But a global culture conditioned by television – which is to say, by the power of sound and image – to process information a certain way, Mr. McLuhan taught, will revert to pre-modern modes of thought. It will be more emotional, more tribal, less trusting of traditional authority and more inclined to privilege individual judgment. And it will have more political and religious extremism.
If you want to see what can happen to leaders who don't understand the political effect of the revolution in consciousness Mr. McLuhan prophesied, go see the Oscar-nominated film The Queen. The drama, which concerns a crisis in the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, is a McLuhanesque parable of how traditional authority and the power that comes with it can slip through the fingers of those who don't understand how television and mass media have utterly transformed everything they've touched."
Fri, Feb 02, 2007
A Bright Guilty World
Film noir, neo-noir, now this: Sunshine Noir. Oh, and while we're at it, "Robert Altman was a great pothead". Thanks to David Velasco for the Artforum links.
Mon, Jan 29, 2007
Star Wars Meets YouTube
Unlike our earlier Matrix link, this fan-created film actually has a bit of humor and style in it. Subsequent episodes aplenty.
Sun, Jan 21, 2007
The Matrix Meets YouTube
"You think that's air that you're breathing?" Thanks, um, to Bob Gates for the link, we think.
Wed, Jan 17, 2007
David Bordwell Speaks, But Is Not Seen
Film students everywhere will want to listen in on Annie Frisbie's podcast interview with omnipresent film text author David Bordwell as he answers her questions regarding cinema, YouTube, and related cineminutiae. Sound quality is not that great due to what seems like Prof Bordwell's phone, but that may be simply a function of UW-Madison's ancient telephony - the whole thing lends itself to the pre-existing undergraduate perception that the professor is, in fact, a disembodied voice narrating the movie of our times...cinematic! Thanks to Annie Frisbie for the link and the interview.
Fri, Jan 12, 2007
Chewbacca: Matchmaker, Mythkeeper, Main Character
It's 2007 and nearly a full thirty years since the original Star Wars came out on May 25, 1977. In light of Episodes 1-3, you owe it to yourself to finally and fully understand the significance of Chewbacca (and to a lesser extent, R2-D2). Keith Martin stands up to the task of reinterpreting post-prequel Star Wars brilliantly. Thanks to Scott Greider for the link.
Wed, Nov 29, 2006
Get Happy, Get Bliss
If you don't have time to watch Modern Times, Citizen Kane, Brazil, The Wall, E.T., the Australian satire Bliss, Office Space and The Matrix, then steal a few moments to watch More, the stop-motion-animated film that captures the message of those films with the density and essentialness of a zen koan. In the age of time compression, look for this as the trend of future filmmaking: two years to make a six-minute masterpiece that is itself a condensation of 70 years of filmmaking.
Mon, Oct 30, 2006
Lloyd Cole, Film Interpreter
Perennial hopeful-yet-melancholic Lloyd Cole has a new album out, Antidepressant, which is worth noting to Metaphilm fans for the song, Woman In A Bar, which is a fine tribute to both Lost In Translation as well as Girl With A Pearl Earring. Opening lyrics:
Idealized vision of a woman through a smoke-filled,
twentieth-century screenplay, advancing,
Toward protagonist with paperback and beard,
manifestly failing, to disappear.
Now that the children are asleep, you want to play,
But you're so lazy...
She walks into the bar,
There you are.
Still life watercolour Woman In A Window...
Other films seem to be referenced, which your publisher has not seen, and then later in the song, Cole admits what his true obsession was all along:
No longer angry,
No longer young,
No longer driven to distraction,
Not even by Scarlett Johansson.
The Meatrix Has You
The sequel to The Meatrix is now up, and it's Revolting. Must-see for Matrix fans and organic farmers (and the foodies who love them) everywhere.
Wed, Sep 20, 2006
This Comes Highly Recommended
This comes highly recommended, from several sources.
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