bass, baker and bogart

My favourite parts of Chico and Rita

The car chase scene that was like an Edward Hopper painting on crack

The dream sequence featuring Josephine Baker and Humphrey Bogart, reminiscent of 1950s illustrations and the movie title sequences of Saul Bass.

The scenes where the talking stopped, the action slowed down and the viewer could just sit and revel in the amazing music...

anger's puce moment

Looking through some notes I'd made in an old notebook the other day I found a reference to Kenneth Anger's Puce Moment. Anger is someone who I've found interesting for a while now, he links lots of figures and elements of the counter-culture that was present in 1960s California and the controversy and issues surrounding many of his films and his life in general I never tire of reading about. Also I love that he's one of those people who brings up loads of other weird interesting stuff and leads you in to strange little time absorbing pockets of the internet when you do start researching about them.
Anyway back to Puce Moment it's a short six minute film made in 1949 of a glamorous actress languishing around in her mansion - initially supposed to be part of a longer film that was never made. It was originally scored to one of Verdi's overtures but Anger changed the soundtrack during the 1960s to music by Jonathan Halper - to the kind of folk-rock that was coming out of California during that time. I find that there's something quite tragic about old Hollywood glamour in a strange kind of romantic way, another thing I find endlessly fascinating, which I think Anger's film almost but not quite portrays. For me I think it's because I find the soundtrack really distracting and I would like to find a version with the original soundtrack to see the difference it makes. But still each time I see this I find it hard to believe it was made as long a go as 1949 as Anger's techniques make it seem much more modern.
Incidentally I saw Anger's apartment block a few years ago on holiday in California when I went on this tour (which I highly recommend!). Anger's presenting some of his films at Tate Modern tonight which unfortunately I can't go to but I will be making a trip to see his exhibition at Sprueth Magers which opened today sometime. I'm off now to sit in the bath and read some of his Hollywood Babylon instead....

fantastically foxy

I finally got to see Fantastic Mr Fox the other night and it was worth the wait. I like Wes Anderson's films a lot but I often find the storylines to be a little weak. The quirkiness of the production design and the idiosyncrasies of the characters for me are his forte and so I felt that his interpretation of Dahl's story worked particularly well as there was already a good story there for him to work with. I loved that it had been animated using stop-motion techniques rather than CGI and that the animation wasn't slick and perfect but a little bit off beat. My favourite character was the Foxes' son, Ash, with his cantankerous adolescent attitude. And of course I loved all the typical Anderson details like Mrs Fox's pockets in her dress for paint brushes and scissors and spoons, that she was a landscape painter who paints thunderstorms and hurricanes, that the Foxes drank coffee and from a Bialetti espresso maker, their maniacal dancing style and the juice boxes they find in the supermarket.

(Images from indiemoviesonline.com and filmofilia.com)