:: Monday, June 30, 2003 ::

Here is a link to "My Top Twenty Movies Of All Time" on YMDB.comI found the website as a link on another movieblog, registered, and added about six or seven films when the site crashed. I was multitasking about four projects yesterday, thought nothing further about the "list" until this morning, when I noticed two emails referencing "comments" on my list page. Interesting, to say the least. I've had "ElectricMovies" online for half a decade, and can't seem to ever "get the ball rolling" as far as "interactivity" with the cultural bloggers out here in Cyberland, so seeing comments on an unfinished list set me to thinking about giving my all to redesigning my site, and maybe even link up to some likeminded film fans. I've now got 14 entries, oh, wait a minute, 15. I just thought of another film to add. Now with IMDB, and YMDB, not to mention Netflix, where I rent about 8-10 movies a month, I can hopefully begin to compile the ultimate movie list of the Movies That Matter in a historical cultural perspective. If only I take the time to keep at it. I have always had dreams of writing about why certain films need to be seen by everybody. Film is a Universal Medium. Even before sound, filmmakers made films for a global audience. I someday hope to be proficient in explaining the reasons why some of these films are not only popular or worthy of admission on some list, but why some of these films exist as art.
:: Michael Nyiri 6:33 AM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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Three posts today. Wow, it's starting to seem more like a workday sitting in front of a computer than a beautiful Sunday enjoying films on my filmlike projection HDTV in total darkness all night and all day long. What? Is it almost Monday, when the philosophical ramblings become technical jargon on another computer. Tonight, I am posting the first review in about a year, with it's own page and everything! The film is "The Pianist", by Roman Polanski, which took Best Directing Oscars away from Marty Scorsese and Best Actor away from Jack........Deservedly so. (I swear I wrote this all before in this blog on one of those Sunday nights when the computer crashes and you lose the whole intricate blog. Shows me that typing electronically on a computer instead of with the old analog typewriter is as fleeting as thought. And to think about it, Here is the link to My Review of "The Pianist"
:: Michael Nyiri 8:00 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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Here's the beautiful Grace Kelly from Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M For Murder" photographed off the HDTV with the digital videocamera.
:: Michael Nyiri 6:18 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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"Phantom Of The Paradise" came out in 1974. I have a Beta version, which I can't play anymore, and don't think it has ever been released on Laserdisc or DVD. I recorded it on the Tivo in letterbox, hooked the machine up to the HDTV on Zoom, and watched it for what must be fifteenth or twentieth time. (Not including the four times in a row at the Cinerama dome with my late lamented friend Tom in a revival in the late seventies. I love the movie, it is an 11 of 10 on the Mikometer, and still packs a punch with me, even all these many years later. (A "spinning newspaper shot' of Rolling Stone magazine is back when they were still in Frisco, and the font face really dates the mag for anyone who has been reading it that long. (Or perhaps stopped reading a while back, like me!) Brian De Palma is a joyous filmmaker, even, I might add, when he is deep into repeatability hell, but after the his fabulous "French Movie" last year, I know he's still in his cups, and can be forgiven for the fact that he doesn't make blockbusters, even though he sure tried after "The Untouchables" gave him a handsome return and then he tried too hard. "Phantom" is, first and formost, not only a cultural blender type story about the music biz, it is a musical, and has some very good music by Paul Williams, who plays the pop god "Swan". William Finley, Jessica Harper, an amazing Gerrit Graham, who makes Gary Glitter look like a rank amateur, the cast is magnificent, the timing is still fresh. This was once destined to become a "cult classic", and when I saw the revival at the Dome it had already attained some of that status. But it also shines as a "Hollywood Musical", and not just one of the Rock Opera riffs like "Tommy" by Ken Russell, either. When the cast is shown at the end of the movie, with Paul Williams singing the theme over the closing credits, I never left the theater untill the lights came on. Rousing good entertainment, and it still shines. (UPDATE 7/4/03: Now the link will take you to the ElectricMovies pages for "Phantom" which incorporates still images culled directly from the digital copy on the Tivo. It does take a while to "create" pages with so many images, but I must admit, the results are rather good. Check it out!)
:: Michael Nyiri 6:02 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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This week's movies: DVD rentals: "Tears of the Sun", 6 of 10, "Frida" 9 of 10, "Dark Blue". 7 of 10, Tivo": "After the Thin Man" 8 of 10, "Phantom of the Paradise" 10 of 10. That's a start, and to think I didn't even go to the "theater" for the second week in a row. This week, it's "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle", by McG, the prequel to next summer's hit "Charlies Angels and XXX: Faster and Furiouser". Last week was "Crouching Computer Generated Hulk: Hidden Meandering" by Ang Lee. I went to Universal Studios instead and saw "Shrek 2-1/2". This week I was astounded again by the simple fact that no matter what decade in history, what amount of money or star power, or what the subject matter, good cinema, truly good cinema remains artistically and socially of merit at any time. Case in point, the 1936 "silver screen" (read glorious B&W) version of Dashiell Hammet's "After the Thin Man" made by MGM (the second of a string of hit "episodes" of the movie series, which lasted from the beginning of the Great Depression to the post WWII war years. William Powell and Myrna Loy are a delight, James Stewart shows why he soon became a major star. W.S. Van Dyke directed with the flair of an old master. This could probably be called the "Charlie's Angels" of 1936. I confess, not having seen the new Angels, since I abhor battling the crowds at the cineplex anymore now that we in full throttle into "beat my weekend grosses", I can only rely on Ken Turan's review, since I haven't seen Ebert and Whatsisname yet, but Turan pretty much says "Angels" is review proof. It's a MAJOR FRANCHISE movie, much like "After the Thin Man". However, to put it in it's cultural perspective, there was no television in those days, and series were usually only heard on the radio and seen before the feature. From the start of movies, some "franchises", like the Tarzan movies, went on forever, oftentimes changing principal actors. The Thin Man movies all starred Loy and Powell, and their comic timing still makes me laugh out loud.
The set design is all art deco. This is a "murder mystery" in silver and black, with top hat and tails. Hollywood was at the top of it's monochromatic glory, sound had been underway for at least a decade, and "After" is a pure delight.
Well, as usual, now I don't want to write anymore, and have only talked about one film and haven't even told how this movie is one that matters.
It matters, as all the MTM do, because it gives modern audiences a "sense of history" no matter how "hollywoodized" it is. I was really somewhat surprised, in these politially correct times, to see Powell''s obvious lush as the hero, and to see (albeit in the criminal class) a thug grab his "moll" by the hair, and then slap her around, to which she lovingly looks at him and says, "Ya big Lug". Women like that dame like it a little rough. Nobody thought anything about offending anybody in 1936, and I bet the line got a laugh.
:: Michael Nyiri 5:15 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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The "Official Link" to the new and improved "ElvisMovies" page of "ElectricMovies" is now up and running! I hope.
:: Michael Nyiri 10:23 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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I had a dream when putting up a website in 1999 that "we would all have television stations on the web" someday. In the beginning, the little movies you would click on at sites like ifilm.com would be hardly watchable. Now a WMV file can be produced and blown up to 19" full screen size. I made an actual "MikeVideo" on the MGI Videowave program a while back titled "ElvisMovies." I now include a downloadable link to "Elvis Movies" which is taking up a lot of space on my server. Although the personal website mania of a few years ago has subsided, and now everyone is blogging, which is nothing more than the "diary" pages I've always had on AllThingsMike, I have seen a slow crawl recently of the capability to stream video and audio from websites. On ElectricMovies, for instance, to make a point about a great piece of cinematography, I can actually include a link to the clip.
Obviously, (The MikeVideo is copyrighted material the Elvis camp will probably quickly remove, although I credit Elvis Presley Enterprises with the material, and Elvis for the talent. I merely edited it together. If I can make room for them on the server, I have all kinds of ideas for video clips as links.......These files are large so far, but with the two Bollywood clips and the Elvis clips, I am now officially streaming video. (Wait a minute, I streamed the "Come What May" number from the Moulin Rouge tribute page and that was 15 minutes long, streamed as both audio and video, so the dream is still alive for the meantime. It is pretty exciting to now acutally be able to put my copy/cut/and paste digital MikeVideos online.
:: Michael Nyiri 10:09 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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Now that I have finished the delightful DDLJ, as it is affectionately known in India, or translated correctly, "The Big Hearted Wins The Bride", the 1995 film that launched Turner Classic Movies Bollywood festival, I do not want to ruin anything for potential viewers by divulging any more of the plot. I have put some video clips on the internet however, so viewers can sample some of the wonderful musical numbers for themselves. So far, I have two numbers online. I haven't put the best song, the theme song, on the page yet, but it is in the videocamera waiting for me to post it online. Click Here for the "BollyWood Page" of ElectricMovies.
:: Michael Nyiri 5:36 AM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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On Tivo June 2003
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
1995, dir. Aditya Chopra
Credited cast:
Shahrukh Khan .... Raj Malhotra
Kajol .... Simran
Amrish Puri .... Chaudhry Baldev Singh
Farida Jalal .... Lajjo
Anupam Kher .... Dharamvir Malhotra
Karan Johar .... Raj's friend
Pooja Ruparel .... Rajeshwari/Chutki
Satish Shah .... Ajit Singh
Anaita .... Sheena

Was just looking over and updating parts of the website again after many months of unuse/neglect, and noticed that this site seems to be in need of a name change to "Electric Cartoons" since it seems that's all I'm interested in these days (by looking at the entries in this site, at least). Well, that's not true, I just don't write as much as I watch, and I hadn't "been here for a while" when I started talking about Miyazaki (and his entry was deleted but there was more talk on the site before the crash, I just didn't rewrite it.) and the Animatrix shorts.

Last week TMC began a Bollywood Festival and I tuned in to the station probably first because I am truly interested in the fact that India produces about 800 films a year (and I understand the industry is in a terrorism fueled slump right now) and I haven't seen any of them. Also, the "Bollywood Style" can be distilled into a simple formula,the stettings and production design are lush, and there are always elaborate musical numbers, which drive the plot. Much like the heralded 1940's and 50's MGM Musicals. This of course is a formula I embrace fully.The musical I chose to watch just happens to be the most heralded and loved movie in India,the almost unpronounceable "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (The English translation is something like: "Persistent Young Man will Eventually, Even after two or three hours of film time, Win the Heart, Mind, and Very Soul of the One True Love that He has Been Chasing through six or seven Countries Even though she Has Been Promised to and is Destined to Marry Another in the Land of Her Father".
I'm only kidding. I am thouroughly transfixed with this movie. A short comparison would be "Flower Drum Song" with Hindis instead of Chinese and Punjab, India instead of San Francisco. The movie is a Full Blown Musical Comedy, a form which I have been preaching about for years, which American audiences seem to thave tired of in the sixties (except now that Chicago got an Oscar a trend that will soon change, I hope) and (to a Westerner, especially an American) a very involving and interesting look into another culture and a clue as to how throughout history "foreign" cultures have been colonized and force fed the Western Way, and their very existence is a mishmash of their own and intruding cultural references, some of which they exploit, some of which they embrace, and some of which they abhor. I am charmed at how some of the "imported" Hollywood conventions have been "Hindi-ized" in the Bollywood style.
To wit, the dialogue is scrumptious. I haven't even finished watching the movie, by the way, as I write, because I just wanted to put up another post not involving cartoons.But the rapid fire exchanges between Shakrukh Khan as Raj, the hero (the titular Persistent Young Man") and his father, who is not credited above, because he isn't in many scenes, reminded me of Marx Brothers routines. And as I mention, this is not a major part of the film. The plot concerns Raj's exploits to win Simran (an amazing turn by Kajol, whom I understand is a major Indian talent and poster girl, and no wonder, she is dynamite, sort of like a young Ann-Margret.) who is engaged to be married to the son of her father's neighbor in India in an arranged marriage.
Well, more to come. I'm going to tune in again, now that writing about the movie makes me want to see it. Great thing about that Tivo, I am truly almost living in a world of movies on demand.

:: Michael Nyiri 12:17 PM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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I was listening to the commentary from the Animatrix documentary on Animie. I can't remember who mentioned this, one of the directors or producers of the shorts, but in discussing animie, a lot of people immediately notice that a lot of these films involve post apocalyptic themes. The point made was that Japan is the only post apocalyptic society on the Earth. They had atomic bombs dropped on them, and the survivors are the genius talents behind a lot of the best animie films. I am ashamed now that I can't remember this particular artist, because I returned the tape, but one of the animie films I saw years ago was about a boy who survived Hiroshima.

:: Michael Nyiri 8:51 AM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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A still from the short film "Beyond" on the "Animatrix" DVD

I rented "The Animatrix" which came out on DVD this week. I am blown away. The "Matrix" sequel, "Reloaded", pales in comparison to the works of art on display in this DVD. Larry and David Wachowski commissioned Japanese anime directors to work with them on the overall "vision" of their mythology, and the animators came up with some of the more thrilling animation in decades. Certain of these "films" have been seen in theaters as teaser trailers, and four have been downloadable from the Animatrix website. Two friends had mentioned the films last month, and I dutifully downloaded the free files but didn't know what to expect from the whole project until I popped the DVD into my player. 10 of 10 on the Mikometer. Excellent animation. Excellent stories. And some fresh epiphanies gained from the documentary detailing the history of the Japanese art form of Animie and Manga. Of the nine shorts, I was particularly awed by three of them. Mahiro Maeda, best known in Japan for "Blue Submarine #6", one of the first animie collections to blend conventional animated characters with CGI composited vehicles and virtual sets, directed the two part "Second Renaissance", which serves as a very ironic, especially in these troubled times,history of the creation of the matrix, from the creation of the first robots, through their subjugation and then dismissal by the human race, which of course is finally defeated by the machines. The imagery is a mix of "newsreel footage", Buddhist Mandala impressions, and CGI generated machines which blend seamlessly into the animated backgrounds. "The Last Flight of the Osiris" by Andy Jones, one of the team responsible for "Final Fantasy" has created CGI "sythespians" which completely overshadow the previous work done on Fantasy. The short could easily be inserted into the new Matrix film and I doubt audiences would even guess it is CGI.
The best film of the nine, in my opinion, is "Beyond", which, according to the documetary on the disc, also took the longest to produce. This one isn't part of the free download, and I recommend buying, not renting the DVD, so you can savor it's elegaic imagery and the wonder emaniting from it's cels. Koji Morimoto ("Robot Carnival") is the director. He worked on the seminal "Akira" in 1988, which for many Americans, signaled their awareness of the artform. "Beyond" tells the story of a group of kids in an overcrowded Japanese neighborhood who happen upon a "haunted" house where objects do not behave as they should in "reality". The place is actually a "glitch" in the matrix, and the adventures taken by the group of kids is awe inspiring and beautiful. I have gushed about anime in the past, and have recently "discovered" the works of Hayao Miyazaki, responsible for the 2002 Best Animated Film "Spirited Away". Miyazaki directs in an almost reverential "early Disney" style rather than the "forced" or "limited" animation seen in most animie. His earlier films, 1986's "Castles In the Sky" and 1998's "Kiki's Delivery Service" (with Phil Hartman in one of his last jobs voicing Kiki's cat) are now available on DVD from Disney. (They only distribute the films. Miyazaki's studio in Japan is called Studio Gibli.) When I first saw his "Princess Mononoke" on Ebert's recommendation, I loved it, but didn't realize when watching "Spirited Away" that it was made by the same team. All the films available are now in my DVD collection. Miyazaki, like Osamu Tezuka (the Godfather of Manga) whose work inspires Taro Rin's excellent "Metropolis" from 2001, crafts some of the best films in any canon, be they live action or animated. American audiences (as pointed out again on the Animatrix documetary, "From Scrolls to Anime") think of animated films as cartoons. The Japanese just think of them as movies. And the best seem to be coming out on DVD all the time. Animatrix is merely the latest.

:: Michael Nyiri 8:35 AM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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The last couple of movies I saw in a theater are:
"Down With Love" 8 of 10, one of those wonderfully synthetic widescreen sixties pictures, like "Move Over Darling", or "Pillow Talk", which invariably starred Doris Day and Rock Hudson or DD and RH clones, and the roles Ewan MacGregor and Renee Zellweger inhabit are likable clones as well. Directed by Peyton Reed, who helmed "Bring It On", the black vs. white cheerleader feud film from a couple seasons back, and also partially responsible for "The Upright Citizen's Brigade", one of Comedy Central's inspired and cancelled satire series, "Down With Love" has been incorrectly criticized in the press because some reviewers simply thought you couldn't "spoof" one of those sixties comedies.
I say you can, brilliantly, and Reed has done so.
Renee is better than she was in "Chicago". Ewan gets better with each movie. David Hyde Pierce does a spot on impersonation of Tony Randall, who shows up in the film for good measure. There is a trend developing where movies from the sixties are being "culturally blended" into our theaters. "Far From Heaven" from Todd Haynes and "Catch Me If You Can" from Spielberg were released last year. I expect as boomer directors age, more and more "homages" will be made to the studio film. As Todd says in his commentary on the "Heaven" DVD, which was inspired by Douglas Sirk films, he wanted the locations to look like sets and the sets to look like locations.
When a character in a film is in the back seat of a car, and the background is backscreen projected behind the back window, the artifice is complete, we know we are watching a movie, and the characters know they are in one. Spielberg and Haynes are not really joking in their respective films, however, and Reed is. "Down With Love" is a tasty confection.
"The Matrix Reloaded" 5 of 10 A not very inventive "middle part" to the Matirx trilogy. "The Animatrix" DVD is better. My favorite character, Agent Smith, is back, with a slew of clones, and there are some exciting setpieces, but Agent Smith is underused, even with his evil twin hordes, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I had seen this all before somehow. (In the fourth or fifth matrix perhaps.) Viewing the trailer for the third Terminator movie before seeing the film also contributed to the Deja Vu feeling. Now that it's two years after the first Matrix hit the multiplexes, (and it didn't really blow me away till I saw the DVD to tell the truth), the flying bullet and digital Depalmarounds are ubiquitous, the freeway chase seemed to pale in comparison to, say , the one in "Minority Report", and there were far too many dank and dark shots of the ships and of Zion. Zion reminds me of the Krell's domain in "Forbidden Planet" mixed with the Road Warrior films, specifically the third one.
Anyway, not that impressed. In fact, I have "The Animatrix" on pause, and you can go see some of those on the Animatrix website. Very interesting stuff, especially the 2nd Renaissance films.
:: Michael Nyiri 7:43 AM Leave a Comment on this Post ::
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