Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2009 > November
November 2009
Noteworthy DVDs released 12/1/09
OTHER TOP PICKS
“Into the Storm” (HBO): Brendan Gleeson takes over as Winston Churchill in this HBO/BBC follow-up to “The Gathering Storm.”
“Tora-san” Collector’s Set #1 (AnimEigo): A four-disc set containing the first Stateside glimpse at a series of films (about a “lovable loser” played by Kiyoshi Atsumi) so popular in Japan that 48 installments were made from the late ’60s through the mid-’90s
NEW ON BLU-RAY
“Gimme Shelter” (Criterion); “The Green Mile,” “Gremlins” (Warner Bros.); “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (Universal); “The Mask of Zorro,” “The Legend of Zorro,” “Snatch” (Sony); “IMAX: Ride Around the World” (Image); “Secondhand Lions” (New Line)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX
“Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” (Fox); “Terminator Salvation” (Warner Bros.)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN
“Gordon Liu: 4 Film Collection” (First Look)
DOCUMENTARIES
“Rebuilding Hope: The Lost Boys of Sudan Return Home,” “Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia’s Children” (Cinema Libre)
BEST OF TV
“Ben 10: Alien Swarm” (Warner Bros.); “Better Off Ted” Season 1, “Love Comes Softly” Complete Collection, “Mental” Season 1 (Fox); “The Donna Reed Show” Season 3 (Virgil Films); “Legend of the Dragon” (Image); “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey’s Choo Choo Express” (Walt Disney); “Mystery Science Theater 3000: XVI” (Shout! Factory); “Pale Force” (New Video); “Saturday Night Live: Season 5 (Universal)
REISSUE/REPACKAGE
“The Jazz Singer” (1980) (Anchor Bay)
CULT CORNER
“Silent Night Deadly Night” Box Set (Lions Gate)
STRAIGHT(ISH) TO VIDEO
Sigourney Weaver in “The Girl in the Park,” Eva Mendes in the mockumentary “Live!” (Weinstein Co.)
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Crowing about a new McConaughey show
Matthew McConaughey’s older bother Mike, who goes by the barnyard sobriquet “Rooster,” is getting his own TV show, Variety tells us.
Produced by Fox and Matthew’s J.K. Livin’ company, the show’s animated and based on Rooster’s kooky life. It’s in the writing stages now and sounds vaguely “King of the Hill-ish.”
Writes Variety: “Rooster Tales” follows the world of a beer-swilling, redneck sheriff who marries a much younger woman from Mexico. The man soon realizes, however, that he’s gained not only a wife but an entire clan — 114 members and counting. “My brother’s life is so unbelievable, we had to animate it,” McConaughey said.
More about Rooster HERE.
The other, more red-necky McConaughey
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An urgent film about today’s health care crisis
So important that it’s screening twice, “Money-Driven Medicine,” a new documentary produced by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (“Taxi to the Dark Side”) and based on Maggie Mahar’s book, presents “a comprehensive analysis of the systemic causes of America’s high medical costs and poor quality of care.”
It plays at 10 a.m. at the Texas Capitol Auditorium and at 7 p.m. at the Millennium Youth Center Complex on Dec. 2. Both shows are free and followed by a discussion with Consumers Union and the Center for Public Policy Priorities.
More on the movie and its trailer HERE.
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Harry Knowles’ early rave of ‘The Lovely Bones’
We heard it first at New York Mag’s snarky Vulture meme, but, anyway, the news is out: Austin’s Harry Knowles loves Peter Jackson’s much-awaited adaptation of the smash novel “The Lovely Bones.” Note: Knowles has been close buds with Jackson ever since the “Lord of the Rings” days.
Vulture, always nimble with attitude, reports it thusly HERE.
Read Harry’s rave at Ain’t-It-Cool-News, under the headline “Harry says that LOVELY BONES is a lovely brutal film!,” HERE.
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Best movies of the ’00s?
We’re in a pondering mood as the year — nay, the decade — comes to a fold. We’re scraping up superlatives, like: What were the best movies of 2009 and — much more intimidating — what were the best films of the ’00s, or naughts?
Hmmm …
“Memento,” “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “No Country for Old Men,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Amores Perros,” “Shrek,” “City of God,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Waking Life,” “Sin City,” “Gladiator,” “Munich,” “The Dark Knight,” “Spellbound,” “Knocked Up” — these are just memory joggers, not necessarily suggestions.
What are your Top 5 best films of the the past decade? (We know ours, but won’t spill until later …)
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Noteworthy DVDs released 11/24/09
“Golden Age of Television” (Criterion): Criterion makes an odd choice this month, bundling highly esteemed but little-seen old TV productions like “Marty” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight.”
NEW ON BLU-RAY
“Air America,” “Angel Heart,” “Cujo,” “Frailty,” “Monster Squad,” “My Bloody Valentine,” “The Way of The Gun” (Lions Gate); “Blood: The Last Vampire” (2000), “Ghost in the Shell 2.0” (Manga); “My Brilliant Career” (Blue Underground); “Santa Buddies” (Walt Disney); “The Sopranos” Season 1 (HBO)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX
“Angels & Demons,” “The Maiden Heist” (Sony); “Four Christmases” (New Line); “Imagine That” (Paramount); “Shorts” (Warner Bros.)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN
“Avant-Garde 3: Experimental Cinema 1922-1954” (Kino); “Gomorrah (Criterion); “New Police Story” (Lions Gate); “Cairo Station” (Arab Film Distribution)
BEST OF TV
“Alfred Hitchcock Presents” Season 4, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” Season 4 (Universal); “Beverly Hills 90210” Season 8, “Hogan’s Heroes” Complete Series, “Melrose Place” Season 5, Vol. 2 (Paramount); “The Jerry Lewis Show,” “The Spike Jones Show” Best of (Infinity); “Life on Mars” Series 2 (Acorn Media); “Superman” Complete Animated Series (Warner Bros.)
REISSUE/REPACKAGE
“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Walt Disney)
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A peek at Pipkin’s new feel-good doc
Turk Pipkin’s latest inspirational documentary “One Peace at a Time” celebrates its theatrical launch with two screenings Dec. 4 at the Arbor. Each show is preceded by a reception party at Manuel’s Aboretum. The first reception is at 5:30 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. screening of the film. The second is at 7:30 p.m., followed by a 9 p.m. screening. Tickets are $50 HERE. Proceeds benefit construction of Mahiga Hope High School in Kenya.
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SXSW conference update
The 2010 SXSW Film Conference is gearing up and has announced the panelists for a series of discussions of visual fundamentals.
Here’s the latest SXSW release on what’s coming up in March.
First Impressions: The Art of Main Title Design
Moderator: Karin Fong, Imaginary Forces
A strong title sequence can yield some of a film’s most memorable images, allowing its themes to linger long after the lights go up. This presentation will explore the process of creating such sequences, using case studies from experiences with both studio and independent projects.
Floating Heads are Dead: Why Traditional Posters Suck
Moderator: Tiffany Pritchard, All City Media
Many studios rely on star power (‘floating heads’) to sell a film. However, iconic imagery can be more memorable, and work effectively throughout the overall marketing campaign. This is particularly important when a film has limited stills such as indies and documentaries.
Direct a Great Film by Storyboarding with Stick Figures
Moderator: Mark Bristol, Static Line Productions
No matter what your drawing abilities may be learn the tools to pre-visualize your project through storyboarding. This class will focus on teaching storyboarding and film composition.
Cinematography for Improvised Films: Lighting the Unknown
Moderator: Paul Harrill, Self-Reliant Films
Focusing on the unique challenges of shooting improvised cinema. How can a cinematographer approach working with little or no script, actors that need to be able to move freely without worrying about “hitting their light”, and live locations that can’t be controlled?
Blow Something Up! Live Action Special Effects
Moderator: Steve Wolf, Wolf Stuntworks
Learn how live effects can put your project over-the-top. Explosions, Pyro, Snow, Rain, Smoke, Fire, Bullet Hits and Stunts add visual sizzle to movies, TV, Commercials, music videos and live events. Experience how easily and affordably you can put these proven attention grabbers to work for you. Demo!
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Linklater project on hold?
Looks like the new project by Richard Linklater, “Liars (A-E),” has been put on indefinite hold.
Linklater’s new movie “Me and Orson Welles” comes out this December, and “Liars” was scheduled to be his next project. But studio difficulties have apparently arisen.
A report about the project’s demise can be found here.
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Looking for a teen star
Ever dreamed of a starring role in a Coen Brothers movie? Here’s your chance, but only if you’re a a girl of 12 to 16.
The quirky, Academy Award-winning team has decided to remake “True Grit,” which starred John Wayne and Kim Darby. As you may remember, Darby played Mattie Young, a tough 14-year-old who accompanies two marshals to track down the killer of her father.
Rachel Tenner, the casting director for the new movie, is trying to find the perfect Mattie and has held auditions in other cities already. The stop in Austin will be the last of the Texas open calls.
Here are the details: No experience required. Bring a current, nonreturnable photo and only one family member. Girls only, ages 12 to 16. Time: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 28, the Omni Austin Hotel, 700 San Jacinto at 8th St., Austin.
The ideal candidate is described as follows: “We are looking for a Caucasian girl who’s tough, strong and tells it like it is. We are open to all looks.”
The movie will begin filming in the spring of 2010. It is tentatively set for release in 2011.
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Noteworthy DVDs released 11/17/09
PICK OF THE WEEK
“Gone with the Wind” (Warner Bros.): How many film buffs realize that this classic melodrama and “Wizard of Oz,” which celebrate their 70th birthdays this fall with Blu-ray reissues, were both directed by the same man, Victor Fleming? Here’s hoping Fleming found a nice bonus in his stocking in 1939.
OTHER TOP PICKS
“Star Trek” (2009) (Paramount): Not quite the galaxy-shifter so many people claimed, this JJ Abrams relaunch was still the best Trek film in many, many years.
“Sex, Lies & Videotape” (Sony): Steven Soderbergh’s never-boring career turns 20 this year with the Blu-ray release of his Sundance-smash debut.
“Humpday” (Magnolia): SXSW stalwart Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard are unexpectedly winning as old college buddies teaming for a tabboo-tempting art project in this summer’s well received indie comedy.
NEW ON BLU-RAY
“Chasing Amy,” “Clerks,” “Scrubs” Season 8 (Walt Disney); “Fight Club” (Fox); “Galaxy Quest” (Paramount); “Leon: The Professional” (Sony); “The Open Road” (Anchor Bay)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX
“Bruno,” “The Limits of Control” (Universal); “Is Anybody There?” (Magnolia); “My Sister’s Keeper” (Warner Bros.)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN
“The Exiles” (Oscilloscope/Milestone); “Thirst” (Universal)
FROM THE VAULTS
“Betty Blue: The Director’s Cut” (Cinema Libre); “Downhill Racer” (Criterion); “Gilda Live: Warner Archive Collection” (www.wbshop.com/Warner-Archive)
DOCUMENTARIES
“Battle of Chile,” “Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution,” “A Wink and A Smile” (First Run Pictures); “The Carter” (Virgil Films); “Skills Like This” (Docurama)
BEST OF TV
“7th Heaven” Season 9 (Paramount); “Andy Barker, P.I.” Complete Series (Shout! Factory); “Farscape” Complete Series (A&E); “Rome” Complete Series (HBO); “The Steve Coogan Collection” (BBC); “Wagon Train” Season 1 (Timeless)
STRAIGHT(ISH) TO VIDEO
Jeff Bridges and Justin Timberlake in “The Open Road” (Anchor Bay); Robert Pattinson in “How to Be” (IFC)
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Traveling indie fest comes to Dobie
The special program begins Saturday at the Alamo South. All other screenings are at the Dobie. Here’s the lineup:
Saturday: ‘White on Rice,’ 2 p.m., Alamo South
Monday: ‘Visioneers,’ 9:30 p.m., Dobie
Tuesday: ‘On the Road With Judas,’ 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday: ‘Box Elder,’ 9:30 p.m.
Thursday: ‘Last Cup,’ 9:30 p.m.
Nov. 20: ‘Assassination of a High School President,’ 9:30 p.m.
Nov. 21: ‘Harmony & Me,’ 9 p.m. and ‘Impolex,’ 11 p.m.
Image from “White on Rice.”
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Resolving the ambiguity of movie endings
While so many films end with a nice and neat happy (or tragic) ending, sometimes movies just end in a haze of ambiguity. The folks at CollegeHumor.com decided to cut through all that art house nonsense and tack on some endings to a few beloved films.
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Noteworthy DVDs released 11/10/09
PICK OF THE WEEK: ‘Heat’ (Warner Bros.). Michael Mann’s steely, thrilling 1995 crime film is the rare gangster pic in which the assorted subplots (budding and disintegrating romances, ambitions and vices) are just as compelling as the heists. It only grows more impressive over the years, and a new Blu-ray reminds fans that nobody shoots outlaws in the night like Mann and his cinematographers.
OTHER TOP PICKS: ‘Up’ and ‘Monsters, Inc.’ (Pixar/Walt Disney). The same week they release this summer’s marvel on home video, the folks at Pixar are sprucing up what’s arguably their most lovable feature, the John Goodman / Billy Crystal yuk-filled adventure ‘Monsters, Inc.’
‘The General’ (Kino). Buster Keaton on Blu-ray! Here’s hoping the high-def edition of this silent comic masterpiece is the first of many.
‘Ballast’ (Kino). One of last year’s most praised movies, this under-seen indie presents a slice of life in the Mississippi Delta using mostly non-professional actors.
NEW ON BLU-RAY: ‘Logan’s Run,’ ‘The Negotiator’ (Warner Bros.); ‘Near Dark,’ ‘Red Heat’ (Lionsgate)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX: ‘The Accidental Husband,’ ‘The Ugly Truth’ (Sony); ‘The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard’ (Paramount); ‘The Merry Gentleman’ (Vivendi); ‘Spread’ (Anchor Bay)
FROM THE VAULTS: ‘The Three Stooges Collection’ Volume 7 - 1952-1954 (Sony)
BEST OF TV: Agatha Christie’s ‘Marple Collection,’ ‘Classic Collections’ and ‘Movie Collections,’ ‘The John LeCarre Spy Collection,’ ‘Midsomer Murders: Barnaby’s Casebook’ (Acorn Media); ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’ Volume 2, ‘Justice League’ Complete Series (Warner Bros.); ‘Dawson’s Creek’ Complete Series (Sony); ‘Discovery Atlas’ Complete Series, ‘Greg Behrendt Is That Guy From That Thing’ (Image); ‘G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero’ Complete Series (Shout! Factory); ‘JAG’ Season 9, ‘Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire’ (Paramount); ‘Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days’ (Genius)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN: ‘Bajo la Sal’ (Maya Entertainment); ‘Lake Tahoe’ (Film Movement); ‘A Woman in Berlin’ (Strand)
DOCUMENTARIES: ‘Enlighten Up!’ (Docurama); ‘The Many Faces of Cleopatra’ (Passport); ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’ (Passion River)
CULT CORNER: ‘Disciples of Shaolin’ (Image); ‘The Divine Weapon’ (Virgil Films); ‘Female Animal’/’Teenage Mother’ (Secret Key); ‘Heartbreak Yakuza’ (Cinema Epoch)
STRAIGHT(ISH) TO VIDEO: ‘The Echo’ (Image); ‘Evergreen’ (Indiepix); Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta in ‘The Line’ (Maya Entertainment)
REISSUE/REPACKAGE: ‘Mamma Mia!: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Gift Set’ (Universal)
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Austin Film Festival winners
The audiences voted and the winners are in. During the Austin Film Festival, Oct. 22 — 29, audiences numerically rated certain films by ballot. They’ve spoken:
Out of Competition Audience Award Winner: “Up in the Air,” written by Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner and directed by Jason Reitman
Comedy Vanguard Audience Award Winner: “Herpes Boy,” written by Byron Lane and directed by Nathaniel Atcheson
Narrative Feature Competition Audience Award Winner: “Happy Ending,” written and directed by Atsuhiro Yamada
Documentary Feature Competition Audience Award Co-Winners: “My Run,” directed by Tim VandeSteeg and “Torey’s Distraction,” directed by Tisha Blood
Narrative Short Audience Award Winner: “Love Bug,” written and directed by (Austin’s own) Kat Candler
Narrative Student Short Audience Award Winner: “Adelaide,” written and directed by Liliana Greenfield-Sanders
Documentary Short Audience Award Winner: “Mr. Okra,” directed by T.G. Herrington
Animated Short Audience Award Winner: “The Incident at Tower 37,” directed by Chris Perry
Get more, including next year’s festival dates, HERE
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Interview: David Lang, composer for ‘(Untitled)’
Does Adrian Jacob’s character compare at all to your life?
I guess a little bit, yeah. The way I set it up is it’s sort of unfolding; he’s learning how to do things, he has a small audience and then he figures out a bunch of things by doing a lot of things in public in front of almost nobody. That’s definitely something I’ve been through, but I wouldn’t say that I got into a relationship and then got dumped and then all of a sudden I was a good composer. I’m not exactly sure that I believe that people who suffer make better art.
So with your music, especially Bang on a Can, it seems that the physical performance is as much a part of it as the auditory and I see a lot of crossovers between that and “(Untitled).” Was this intentional, since they’re both experimental forms of music?
I really wanted to make it so that it wasn’t just like the music was described, but you actually see it being made and you’d actually not just see people doing things with classical instruments, which is sort of secret and arcane, you know, how do you scrape a piece of horse hair across a box and come out with a beautiful sound. There’s something mysterious about that. I really wanted it to be everyday things that people would understand, like ripping paper and dropping glass so that there’s an attempt to make music out of things that are in everybody’s lives all around them. Again, that’s very much like Bang on a Can. The physicality of making the music should be part of the appreciation of making the music.
I also think of Bang on a Can, the actual name of the organization, and then the whole kicking the bucket as correlated? Was that intentional?
Actually it was not part of the original thing and it was not my idea to have the character kick the bucket, that was the director’s idea.
Why did he want that, do you know?
I think he was trying to think of some action which was ridiculous. He was trying to think of a musical instrument that would be ridiculous and I think that’s how he thought of it.
So how were you approached by the director?
The director got in touch with me and his idea was that this composer would write this really idiotic music and then he would have this experience and be changed and that he wanted to see him going through this crisis moment out of which comes this little piece of piano music. And he came to me and said, ‘I heard this piece of piano music of yours and I want to license that for the film, I want him to go through this experience and come out the other end and I want real music there and I want it to be your piece.’ So I had him describe for me what was going on in the rest of the movie and I said you can have all this silly music; I can write the silly music, too. You know, I’m a professional. So I sort of talked him into letting me do the rest of the score, I had never done one before. It was really kind of a leap of faith on his part.
Did you work with Adam Goldberg in helping his performance?
We did a bunch of dummy performances. I wrote a bunch of music that was essentially the same music that they played on screen with the paper and the dropping things and kicking and screaming and yelling. I did all that in a recording session as a kind of model for what they should do and Adam came to that. He watched that whole recording session take place and sort of saw that music and listened to it. I didn’t work with him in that I was sitting there on screen going, ‘Okay, well now at this moment why don’t you try to yell higher or something.’ … But one of the things I did in the recording session, which I thought was so useful was that I recorded him yelling a bunch of stuff. I just made up a bunch of stupid stuff with him yelling, which is what he ends ups doing on screen and so I thought if at the beginning of this exercise of letting him know what this character is about, I’m going to make him yell this stuff and it’s going to be so embarrassing that the only way you’d be able to do it is with complete conviction. So I think very subtly it sort of told him the attitude that he needed to have for the rest of the music, although he’s a musician so he understands all this anyway. He was really great and he really understood what he was supposed to be doing.
I know that you had your initial ideas with how you wanted the score to be written. How much of it changed from the beginning to the end, or did it change at all?
The interesting thing for me about this film was that having never done one before is that the music was used in all these different ways. Music is usually used, in film at least to my untrained, unobservant background, as a helper. … So what’s interesting is that exists in this movie, there is that kind of underscoring that tells you their emotional lives, but there are all these other layers of music. There’s music that’s played on screen that’s supposed to be in a live concert; there’s music that’s composed on screen, where you see him actually writing music; there’s things where he’s assembling the sound through sampling to make a piece of music and there’s also a concert where there’s a real piece of music that gets played. … There’s a lot of music in the film which I wrote really for concert, so I felt that I had all these different kinds of uses for music and I would go back and forth between each world and go, ‘well, which category is this? Is this underscoring, is this live concert, which actually also tells you their inner life.’ It was interesting because the categories could all get blurred. The thing that surprised me the most was that the least satisfying part of it was writing the music that works the way some music works normally. So those things that actually are … okay well here’s 10 seconds where no one is supposed to be listening to the music but you’re supposed to see what is in his mind, or her mind. You know that stuff turned out to be, because it was the most normal, the least fun.
So what did you think of the final film?
I enjoyed it. I thought it was really funny. The weird thing for me was that I’d only seen it really on a computer monitor at a certain size and then you see those things over and over again and you’re writing music to them, so none of the jokes are very funny after you hear them 10,000 times. So what was really great is that I went out to the opening with my wife in Los Angeles at the LA County Art Museum and I got to walk down the red carpet … that was really fun and then you go into this room and there’s 600 people watching this film and a little joke comes on and everyone laughs. All of a sudden I felt like I saw the movie for the first time, because when you see it with other people around you, all your little impulses get completely magnified and I thought that was really beautiful. I had sort of forgotten how funny it was.
At that premiere, what kinds of responses did you get afterward? Were people coming up to you?
Yeah, people really liked it. The music is such a big part of it.
It’s a character in itself.
It is really a character. And again that’s why I was trying to make sure it had a shape from beginning to the end; that it was really kind of respectful to the idea that music and musicians are important.
It seems like a great first film for you to work on as a composer.
It was really great because the music actually was present. The thing I thought was interesting that I didn’t really understand while I was working on it was that it pokes fun of so many things. It pokes fun of art, music and people who aren’t really commercial. Some of those are really easy targets and some you don’t really know exactly where it’s going, but at the end it’s really clear that this composer … after two hours of making fun of everybody, it’s actually really serious.
In your work, “Cheating, Lying, Stealing,” I feel like there’s two different kinds of voices, you know you have your stringed instruments met with the percussive instruments and they each tell a different story. But in the end they come together and complete a whole picture. How much of your emotional input goes into your work?
I never set out to say, ‘okay today I’m really miserable so I’m going to write a really miserable piece, or I’m just going to sit and think about the problems of my life and how I can translate that into high art.’ I never do that although that’s a very kind of traditional way for people to think of what they’re doing. Certainly in the media that’s the way a lot of art is portrayed. In this film the way it’s shown how he goes and has this hard experience and that hard experience makes him better. It makes him a more sensitive artist. I don’t really like that. I don’t really think that that’s the way it works and if it works that way it can’t work that way that directly. What’s interesting about music is that it is about a certain kind of emotional expression, it’s not like working with language where you tell somebody something specific. This is actually something else. It goes some place else other than language. It uses these emotional vibrations and that way it sort of enters people on this emotional level. It comes out of you on this emotional level, whether you want it to or not. So I do spend a lot time thinking about what interests me and what I believe in and what music I love and what sounds I love and about being honest about making sure that all those things are satisfying to me. I do think there’s something fundamentally expressive about that act. And I think that because music doesn’t come in mediated by intelligence or language that’s the place where it goes inside you when you receive it.
Would Adrian Jacobs’ character make a good fit in Bang on a Can since the mission of the organization is for people who are trying things that don’t necessarily have an easy fit in any other art world?
Bang on a Can’s mission has always been to support people who are pushing some boundary, who are experimenting in some way. It’s not really about finding a style of music that we like and saying this is the best style. So a lot of the pieces which I get interested in as a presenter for Bang on a Can are pieces that may not even be great pieces. They may be things, which are just about a great vision. And so I think one of the weird things about Adrian is I wrote that music to remind me of a certain period of music history. … Let’s break down the barrier between instrument and non-instrument, the barriers between sound and noise and I associated that so much with a historical period that anybody working in that mode now, I wouldn’t be interested in presenting their music. I would be interested in presenting the music from the early sixties, which does that by the composers who are figuring that out for the first time.
So how would you describe the music of Bang on a Can now and where it’s headed?
I think it still has the same mission. I think what’s been interesting as a presenter, we started with classical music because that was our background, but we were primarily about looking at the boundaries around contemporary classical music and so over the years, what we’ve been able to do is look at the people in all the other disciplines of music … who’s pushing the boundaries and we’ve been able to expand the area that we’ve been looking at, but the criteria for judgment has always been then same. We don’t want to find a traditional thing in a traditional culture. The mission hasn’t changed at all, but the area that we’ve been applying it to has changed. As far as where it’s going, I don’t know. And I also feel like I don’t want to know where it’s going.
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Zac Efron joins Linklater at the Paramount
Richard Linklater’s terrific period drama “Me and Orson Welles” will have its official Austin premiere (it had a special sneak at SXSW this year) at 7 p.m. Nov. 30 at the Paramount Theatre. Linklater and stars Zac Efron and Christian McKay, who does a mean Orson Welles impression in a star-making turn, will be at the show. It’s presented by the Austin Film Society.
Society members can buy tickets during a member pre-sale starting Tuesday. Tickets for the general public go on sale at noon Nov. 10 through the Paramount box office, ProTix and the Austin Film Society website HERE.
Pricing: $125 VIP seating and official after-party with Linklater, McKay and Efron. $50 (Orchestra), $35 (Mezzanine) and $15 (Upper Balcony) for the screening including a Q and A.
More about the film HERE.
Efron and Claire Danes in ‘Me and Orson Welles’
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Noteworthy DVDs released 11/3/09
PICK OF THE WEEK “The Claudette Colbert Collection” (Universal): Six films starring one of the greatest screwball heroines, easily found online for a cost of under $6 per film. Contains “Three-Cornered Moon,” “The Maid of Salem,” “I Met Him in Paris,” “Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife,” “No Time for Love,” and “The Egg and I.”
OTHER TOP PICKS “The Dead” (Lions Gate): John Huston could hardly have picked a better last film as director than this elegiac James Joyce adaptation starring daughter Anjelica.
“Columbia Pictures Film Noir Collection Volume 1” (Sony): Old noir favorite “The Big Heat” joins four titles (like Don Siegel’s “The Lineup”) that have never seen DVD before, all introduced or dissected by afficionado-practitioners like Martin Scorsese and James Ellroy.
“Food, Inc.” (Magnolia): An effective and engrossing primer on the ecological and health issues raised by modern agriculture, Robert Kenner’s documentary may convince you to change the way you shop.
“Say Anything” 20th Anniversary Edition (Fox): Standing outside your beloved’s window with a jambox: heartbreakingly romantic, or cause for a restraining order? Decide for yourself on Blu-ray.
“The Taking of Pelham 123” (2009) (Sony): The new one’s fun and all, but couldn’t Sony pair it with the original for a home video double feature?
“Wings of Desire” (Criterion): Wim Wenders’s potently romantic view of angels among us gets the Criterion treatment in both video formats.
“Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live” (Time-Life): A whopping nine discs full of live performances drawn from 25 years of the HOF’s existence.
NEW ON BLU-RAY “A Christmas Carol” (1951) (VCI); “Forrest Gump,” “It’s a Wonderful Life” (Paramount); “Godzilla” (Sony); “Howards End” (Criterion); “Love Actually” (Universal); “North By Northwest” (Warner Bros.); “Two Girls and a Guy” (Fox)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX “Aliens In The Attic,” “I Love You, Beth Cooper” (Fox); “The Answer Man” (Magnolia); “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” (Paramount)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN “Before the Fall,” “Lemon Tree” (IFC)
DOCUMENTARIES “Bela Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart” (Docurama); “The Ister” (First Run / Icarus); “Unmistaken Child” (Oscilloscope); “The Way We Get By” (The Way We Get By Productions)
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE… “Christmas Story” (2007, with John Turturro) (Anchor Bay); “Home for Christmas” (VCI); “One Christmas” (Vivendi); “Scruff: A Christmas Tale” (Image); “White Christmas” (Paramount)
BEST OF TV Doctor Who: “The Black Guardian Trilogy,” “The War Games”; “Edge of Darkness” Complete Series (BBC); “The Donna Reed Show” Season 3 (Virgil Films); “G.I. Joe: Resolute,” “Mission: Impossible” Final Season (Paramount); “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” Season 1.2, “Merry Sitcom!,” “Spin City” Season 3 (Shout! Factory); “Here’s Lucy” Season 2 (MPI); “The Rockford Files: The Movie Collection Vol. 1” (Universal); “The Shield” Complete Series (Sony); “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” Season 1 (Warner Bros.); “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Season 7 (Lions Gate); Walt Disney Treasures: “Zorro: The Complete First Season” and “The Complete Second Season” (Walt Disney); “Will Ferrell: You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush” (HBO); “Wolverine & the X-Men” Volume 3 (Lions Gate)
REISSUE/REPACKAGE Almodóvar’s “All About My Mother,” “Law of Desire,” “Matador,” and “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (Sony); “Rocky: The Undisputed Collection” (MGM); “Transformers” Gift Set (Paramount); “Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut” (Warner Bros.)
STRAIGHT(ISH) TO VIDEO Dolph Lundgren in “Direct Action” and “Command Performance” (First Look); “InAlienable,” directed by Walter Koenig, aka Chekov of “Star Trek” (Anchor Bay); Robin Givens in “A Mother’s Prayer,” Vincent D’Onofrio in “The Narrows” (Image); John Leguizamo in “Where God Left His Shoes” (IFC)
KIDS’ STUFF “Dora the Explorer: Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure” (Nickelodeon); “Fraggle Rock: A Merry Fraggle Holiday,” “LeapFrog: Learning DVD Set,” “Thomas & Friends: Holiday Express” (Lions Gate)
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