Saul Bass, Ant Enthusiast
It makes perfect sense that the world reknown master of cinema titles, Saul Bass [saulbass.tv] should have made a film. It makes even more sense that said film is more visually stunning than especially well written or acted. What is surprising is the subject matter: Mutant Killer Ants. Two mad scientists locked in a bucky ball [wikipedia.org/fullerene] with a particularly useless token female character wage war against hyper intelligent ants. Cue amazing super close-ups of ants communicating with each other, spooky ant hill sculptures, kooky 70s computer technology and loads of lab equipment smashing in slo-mo. A mini masterclass in technique if not a mildly diverting b-movie [iMDB].
The Modern Metropolis Disappears
“For Londoners, London is obscured. Too thinly spread, too private for anyone to know. Its social life invisible, its government abolished, its institutions at the discretion of either monarchy or state or the City, where at the historic centre there nothing but a civic void, which fills and empties daily with armies of clerks and dealers, mostly citizens of other towns. The true identity of London is in its absence. As a city it no longer exists. In this alone it is truly modern. London was the first metropolis to disappear”
— Taken from the 1994 film by Patrick Keiller [screenonline.org.uk] simply entitled ‘London‘ [iMDB].
Lost Classics: Zeroville
In one of the more ‘irregular’ series of posts on Boicozine, we present another awesome film that has, through no fault of it’s own, been relegated to the dusty archive of forgotten cine classiques. Zeroville, or to use it’s correct Russian title, Город Зеро (Zero City) [iMDB] is a droll yet hypnotic film whose steady tone only highlights the escalating absurdity of the story and the bizarre mini tableaux (there is actually a number of scenes featuring a few literal tableaux) that populate it. Sadly, near impossible to find and rarely on the telly, you’ll have to make do with a handful of YouTube clips for now, like the one below, or you could check out more accessible films made by director, Karen Shakhnazarov [russia-ic.com]. If you get a chance to see this one either on telly or at the cinema, pop along (even if just for the scene in the restaurant when our main character is served a cake that bears a remarkable resemblance to his own head). There’s nowt like it.
Melbourne Festival City
Melbourne, like London, has the cool sweat of festival fever right now (even though it’s winter). For people who haven’t heard what’s up down under, here’s the skinny…
The Melbourne International Design Festival is on again, and getting bigger and better every year. There’s loads of things to do and see and make. We like the idea of Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Garden thing [nationaldesigncentre.com] (see the image below) and an exhibition that tells the story of, arguably the best course of it’s kind in the country, the National School of Design at Swinburne University’s Graphic Design degree [nationaldesigncentre.com]. Over at the festival’s ’satellite’ series of shows entitled State of Design [stateofdesign.com.au] there is another truck load of interesting events. the ones we really like are mostly in Design for Everyone [stateofdesign.com.au].
If your feeling a little jaded by this design overload, how about spending some time alone in the dark? The programme for The Melbourne International Film Festival [melbournefilmfestival.com.au] is looking as strong as ever, we especially like the idea of Ozploitation [melbournefilmfestival.com.au].
All City, All the Time
Movie posters might be shite these days… (I mean, have a look at your local cinema… would you honesty put that up on your wall) but it’s nice to see movie poster designers All City Media [allcitymedia.com] are not letting it get them down and putting those high quality yet rejected designs online so we can start to imagine a world free from unimaginative marketing directors and associated killjoys. Found via Danny Grey’s excellent blog [binkythedoormat.com] where he’s been getting stuck into the problems with modern movie poster design lately. I blame Adobe for encouraging people to design in Photoshop. It’s for messing about with photos not designing stuff, you dolts. The clues in the name (er… no, I don’t know why it’s a shop either).
Gillette Covers Bond
Penguin are reissuing a whole heap of Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 stories with new covers designed by Michael Gillette [michaelgillette.com] to help celebrate a centenary of 007. The covers have been illustrated with a generous nod to the films that each book spawned. There’s an interview with Mr Gillette about the new 007 covers over at Bond geek site, mi6 [mi6.co.uk]. The books are due for release at the end of May [penguin.co.uk].
Over Marketed
I’ve been looking for an excuse to post an image of this poster since I first saw it over on Daniel Grey’s Binky blog [binkythedoormat.wordpress.com]. It’s possibly one of the best film posters that’s come along in some time. Even the copy is spot on (“You must admit you bought this on yourself”), giving the viewer an impression of the film without explicitly stating anything about the plot or what it might contain apart from the facts that it’s sinister and Naomi Watts gets quite upset (having been too wary to see the original Funny Games [iMDB], I’m guessing this is a bit of an understatement). Crew Creative [crewcreative.com] have been a bit clever too in crafting an intelligently designed poster that still puts the big name star up front, ticking off the first rule of modern movie marketing.
Now here’s the rub. Apparently, according to the bright sparks marketing Funny Games in the U.K., British audiences aren’t sophisticated enough to understand the sinister intrigue that permeates in this poster. They have issued a new version based on the image in the poster shown at the bottom of this post (click to enlarge)… only with vivid red blood instead of black, a clunky over emphasised line of copy and a kind of scattershot typography that attempts to give the star names, copyline and film title equal billing (though the film title is in red, natch).
Everyone is saying it. Film posters are shite these days. This special U.K. revision of the Funny Games poster exemplifies the reason why. It’s ‘over-marketed’. The film industry has reached a point where the type of marketing they use has bottomed out and become a hollow ’style’ which they apply liberally to most of their output. In an attempt to ‘catch all’ they have missed to point of targeting distinctive markets and instead constantly aim for the Lowest Common Denominator. So, instead of a poster that will intrigue, unsettle and make you want to seek it out to find out more about this film you get a poster that condescends to all, bar people with the most base of intelligence who are happy to have culture prescribed to them rather than trying to work out things for themselves, and although we often like to believe otherwise, surely this is actually targeting the minority.
Review 2007: Things of the Year #5
Protein’s [protein.co.uk] packaging for their Daft Punk’s debut film, Electroma [electroma.org] turns the DVD case into a hard bound picture book. No plastics involved, just a bit of glue.
Review 2007: Andrew Losowsky
When Mr Losowsky [losowsky.com] tells you something is worth reading then you better be paying attention. This man know his magazines. Editorial Director for Le Cool [lecool.com] (and international jetsetter), Andrew also played a major role in setting up Colophon2007 [welovemags.com] early last year, curating the exhibits alongside Jeremy Leslie [magculture.com] as well as acting as editor on the book to accompany the event entitled We Love Magazines [die-gestalten.de]. So without further a-do here’s is Andrew’s stuff of the year 2007…
Publications
Cut me this year and I bled ink (Pantone 032). Among the paper delights I fell in love with are Omagiu (Romania) [omagiu.com], Etiqueta Negra (Peru) [etiquetanegra.com.pe], Carl*s Cars (Norway) [carls-cars.com], the printing of IGN (Hong Kong), the protest edition of Flaunt (USA) [flaunt.com], Good (also USA) [goodmagazine.com], Dumbo Feather, Pass it on (Australia) [dumbofeather.com], B East (Various Eastern European places via Stockport) [beastnation.com/beast], Kasino A4 (Finland) [wearekasino.com], the online edition of T magazine from the New York Times [nytimes.com/t], S Publication (Denmark) [spublication.com], Coupe (Canada) [coupe-mag.com], the GQ 50th Anniversary Edition [gqat50.com]. But my favourite? Lemon (USA) [lemonland.net]. I’ve only seen the Kubrick edition, but it’s so bloody fantastic, from idea to execution, that I can’t wait for more. And neither can any of the people who work in my office. Everyone loved it, even those who don’t speak English. Lemon is this year’s winner. May their crown be swiftly stolen by something even better. /
Music
This year I seemed to fluctuate between three classic crooners: Bill Withers, Paul Simon and Lou Reed. My favourite new discovery was Tok Tok Tok [toktoktok.eu]. Thanks to the barman in Begin the Beguine in Madrid for that one. Mellow. /
Film
For a cinema buff, I’ve seen surprisingly little this year. Those that were memorable and worth your time (if you can track them down): El Orfanato [IMDb], El Labarinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth to you) [IMDb] and the marvellous Czech Dream [IMDb], a documentary about creating a non-existant supermarket in the Czech Republic. A triumph of substance about style. /
Art & Design
The Riverstones bowl from the MoMA Store made me gasp [momastore.org]. I own it now. Lovely. The huge wall of scribbles at MoMA made me laugh, a lot (can’t remember who did it, sorry Mr Artist). Also the newish terminal at Zurich Airport [zurich-airport.com] — not new this year, but a new discovery for me, a slick wooden object of beauty with a hilarious spoof Tiroler Hut upstairs [tirolerhut.co.uk]. If you look out of the window, you can see the outdoor kids rooftop playground on the other side. Bouncy! /
Events & Exhibitions
Leaving aside the obvious Colophon2007 plug (it was such fun!), the fog box in the Antony Gormley exhibition made me feel like I was in a weird filmic dream [southbankcentre.co.uk/gormley]. Loved it. The Alan Fletcher retrospective, if that was indeed this year, made me smile, which is as it should be [designmuseum.org]. The new De La Guarda show FuerzaBruta send my jaw spiralling to the floor [fuerzabruta.net]. And the Revealing Histories displays at Manchester Museum was a brilliant, brilliant way of re-examining a museum and what’s in its collection [revealinghistories.org.uk]. Controversial, eye-catching and rather clever. Well done, everyone. More please. /
Purchases
My Monster iPod Shuffle headphones. Changed my commute and occasional jogging forever. I then lost them (boo) but my girlfriend gave me another pair for Christmas (hurray!). No more annoying wires and accidentally changing tracks mid-podcast. My weekly Radiolab [wnyc.org/radiolab] moments are safe again. /
Places to Visit
I’ve been a very bad carbon boy this year. Top places: Melbourne (would love to live there), Angelos Pizza in New York on a Monday (try the garlic bread, tip your singing waiter). Bestest of all: Lake Atitlán. Google it and gasp [wikipedia]. /
Worst Place to Visit
Miami fucking Airport. I’d explain why, but then I’d have to kill you, me and everyone you know. We shall never speak of this again.
in Cinema / Events / Music / Places / Publications / Review 2007 / Things
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Tomorrow Comes Today
Perky Pop Practitioners, Saint Etienne [saintetienne.com] have been collaborating with film maker Paul Kelly ever since they released the film to accompany the album, Finisterre [plexifilm.com]. Together they are helping us hold onto the fragments of London’s recent past including many of the old style cafés that are disappearing under an avalanche of Starbucks and Pret a Mangers. They have put a bunch of their films up on YouTube too including this one about the New Piccadilly Café which closed only a couple of months ago, along with snippets from their latest feature, This is Tomorrow.
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