May our tears dry on their own...

RIP Amy. What a sad news weekend this has been.

Criterion + B&N = Excitement

...for me anyway.

Rumor has it the 50% off (maybe more depending on a few things) Criterion sale at Barnes & Noble will start July 12th. I, naturally, have been planning for this for months. The coupons seem to be running out (they have changed a lot of little fine print things to prevent coupon overuse) so I had to be a bit more creative. I bought a $25 gift card from the gift card exchange for 15% off, and then I earned 2 $25 cards by filling out surveys online. That makes $75 to use on the sale for about $20 (and time filling out surveys). My wish list this time is smaller, so that helps out as well.

Must gets:

-Eclipse Series 27: Raffaello Matarazzo's Runaway Melodramas (this sounds right up my alley)

-People on Sunday

-Zazie dans la metro

-The Music Room

-Leon Morin, Priest

After that:

-Diabolique (reissue)

-WR Mysteries of the Organism

-Fish Tank

-Children of Paradise

Maybes:

-The Great Dictator (this should be a "must" but that cover is god-awful)

-Crazed Fruit

-Red Beard

Can't wait!

Jams (no. 3)

New (first?) album out July 19th!

I want this to be my "theme song" ala Ally McBeal.

Design Sponge: the Book

My favorite blog (besdies my own) is now a book! It looks great (and I already pre-ordered it).

Good job gurl.

Where were you?

I finally got to see The Tree of Life, and it was worth the wait. I sat up front, and I could feel the collective "WTF?" from the people behind me, but that's their deal. The film was so private and emotional, like getting to listen in on a troubled person's prayer to God. While the creation sequence gets the majority of talk, for me it was the middle section that followed Jack's childhood and discovery of the world that stood out to me. The child actors were so fantastic and really made the film.

Before the film, I wanted to see how this film felt next to Tokyo Story, my favorite "how life is" film. For me, the film addresses the same issues of disappointment and questioning and I think they would make for an interesting double feature.

On Fire

So, I'm only a small fantasy fan. I like it okay, but don't get a big thrill out of it. I liked the Harry Potter books, but the Lord of the Rings films weren't my favorite. However, I heard all the hype about Game of Thrones and even picked up HBO to watch it. Well, that was a very good decision on my part. The first couple episodes were just okay (it seemed to be written by 12 year old boys--"watch this guy's head get cut off! Cool! Let's show this girl naked!") but about half way through the season it seemed to find itself and more than made up for my time and financial investment. The last two episodes were flawless and the most exciting episodes of TV I've watched in a very long time. My heart was just pounding and my mouth was just hanging open. I especially love the character pictured above and the final reveal of the dragons. Fantastic. Now I have to decide whether to wait for the next season or spoil myself and read the books.

Movie Time

Criterion announced their September titles yesterday, the two above being the most interesting to me. I already have the Madman edition of Les Cousins, but not Le Beau Serge, so I'm happy to get that one. I haven't seen The Phantom Carriage,but it looks good and one I'll try to get if Barnes and Noble has a sale in November.

Criterion also has a channel on Hulu, and it is great. They have a ton of films, many not yet in the collection proper (but hopefully will be). So far I've really liked the Korda films (both Zolton and Alexander) and hope they actually get to DVD at some point.

I actually went to the movie theater this week (!) and saw Midnight in Paris. It was excellent and well worth the trip out (and the really over priced popcorn). The Tree of Life's release date here is still a mystery--the official website said it should start playing here tomorrow, but the movie theater has no sign of it.

I Don't Care

...the Beyonce album is great. I was just thinking that there hasn't really been a good R&B album in awhile--something like En Vogue or Brandy or SWV. Then comes Beyonce with just that. The album is risky in that it is very much like those artists mentioned and not the club banger people expect. People are already down about the album, but it really is great and her best album yet (there aren't many singles, but the overall quality of the album is the best she has done). I love "Countdown" "Till the End of Time" "I Care" and "Best Thing I Never Had". Good job gurl.

Criterion Announcement & Tree of Life

August seems to be a good month for Criterion. Though I haven't seen it, The Killing seems like it will be right up my alley and it has maybe the best cover in the collection. I don't know much about the Eclipse set other than that the director worked with Nikkatsu and is part of the Japanese New Wave (and really that's good enough for me). Secret Sunshine is getting excited reactions, so I might try that one later on. I already have L'Atalante on DVD, but I might be drawn into double dipping on the Vigo set for the other films.

Then, in case that wasn't exciting enough, The Tree of Life finally screened at the Cannes film festival. Reviews are mixed but mostly positive. The negative reviews were expected given Malick's style (the word "pretenious" gets thrown around a lot) but those don't seem to be the norm. Good news.

Cannes Cannes

So, while of the two big euro film festivals I prefer Venice (and their wonderful Golden Lion trophy), this year it seems everything big is opening at Cannes. I've already posted about The Tree of Life, but there are plenty more I want to see (eventually). Here's some teaser trailers/clips that look good to me:

Okay, so that one's in french, but its the Dardennes so it should be good.