Nattvindens Grat & other: May 2008

Friday 30 May 2008

Political films set in the past relevant today

By Steve Zeitchik

CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - For anyone numbed by the
endless stream of political films in recent years, the past two
weeks in Cannes have offered a response. The trend is over. And
it's not.

The films screened on the Croisette ranged widely in
quality, tone and theme. But except for "Adoration," Canadian
filmmaker Atom Egoyan's drama with a suicide-bomber subplot
(one of the film's few weak points), the festival's biggest
selections were free of forced topicality.

Instead, a new type of political film emerged -- one that's
more ambitious, subtle and, potentially, more commercial. Best
of all, this new class addresses the rickety and charged state
of the world without appearing to do so.

From "Che" to "Changeling," in movies as disparate as Ari
Folman's animated Israeli documentary "Waltz With Bashir" and
the visceral IRA docudrama "Hunger," these new films follow a
pattern: the maverick or crusader revolted by a system who in
turn revolts against it.

"Changeling's" Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) suffers
the trauma of a missing child only to turn her rage into a
one-woman crusade against corrupt Los Angeles authorities.
Argentinean Che Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) succeeds in an armed
communist revolt in Cuba, while in Bolivia he hopes "our
failure will inspire others." In "Bashir," Folman tries to
change the present by understanding his past, setting out to
recover memories he'd blacked out as an Israeli solder in the
Israel-Lebanon war of 1982. Jailed IRA icon Bobby Sands in
Steve McQueen's "Hunger," brutally beaten by jailhouse guards,
acts through inaction; he embarks on a hunger strike that
amounts to a slow-burn suicide to ignite the next generation of
rebels.

None of these films mentions Iraq or the modern political
world explicitly. They don't need to. By examining such
subjects as military unrest, totalitarianism and power's
tendency to corrupt, the parallels are everywhere. These are
the same themes, after all, inherent in such movies as
"Rendition," "Stop-Loss," "No End in Sight" and countless other
contemporary takes: Characters inhabit a world in which they
are frustrated by the decisions of their leaders and their own
inability to do anything about it.

But in this new crop, characters do a lot less despairing
and a lot more mobilizing, often to great effect (if also at
great personal cost). You don't have to agree with all the
ideologies or causes to feel moved by the stuff.

Crusader pictures are nothing new, of course. Elia Kazan
was making them a half-century ago, and since then movies from
"Gandhi" to "Erin Brockovich" -- along with filmmakers like Ken
Loach -- have portrayed the underdog's struggle against the
status quo.

Sunday 18 May 2008

Underwood pulls out of Dancing on Ice

'GMTV' presenter Michael Underbrush has been forced to pull out of 'Dancing on Ice' later breaking his ankle.
The video presenter was encyclopaedism his new modus operandi for the next live on demo when he fell awkwardly on his articulatio talocruralis.
According to the show's functionary internet site, Underbrush was rushed to hospital by ambulance, with X-rays later showing that he had suffered a break.
Speech production on 'GMTV' he said: "I'd care to read that I was attempting more or less amazing triplet axel or something, but I was just trying to stoppage."
A 'Dancing on Ice' interpreter said: "After break his articulatio talocruralis last night, Michael Underwood stern no thirster contend in 'Dancing on Ice'."
"The unit team ar sad to look Michael leave the competition in this way and wish him a speedy convalescence."

Thursday 8 May 2008

Watson completes tumour treatment

Opera singer Earl Russell Thomas Augustus Watson has completed a five-week course of radiation to uproot a recurrent brain neoplasm.
The 41-year-old isaac Merrit Singer, known as The Part, described his discourse as "no walk in the park".
Watson's handler Giles Baxendale said: "He's finished his treatment just he doesn't cognise whether he is in the net yet."
"He's doing well, he's a little tired, a bit drained, only he's upbeat that it's finished."
Watson volition straight off hold to ingest regular scans to check whether or not the treatment has been successful.
In a message on his internet site, Watson said: "I've had my moments under that automobile where I just wanted to full stop the bloody thing and walk away."
"I'm not out of the woods yet. I dearly wanted to maintain the side-effects to a lower limit and I've been keeping myself match and healthy as I can, merely I'm afraid they've caught up with me, and I don't psyche admitting I've non been myself."
"I'm just so lucky I've had friends, class, and of course my fans to help oneself me through; I truly don't think I could do this without the support I've had," the singer wrote.
Thomas Augustus Watson underwent operation to remove a psyche neoplasm last Oct. It was his second procedure on the neoplasm in 12 months.

Friday 2 May 2008

Vanity Fair cancels Tinseltown Oscar night

Emptiness Carnival has cancelled its annual Academy Awards party on 24 February yet though the writers gild is said to be on course for a possible deal with studios.
A statement posted on VanityFair.com said: "After practically condition, and in musical accompaniment of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided that this is not the appropriate class to hold our annual Academy Award party."
The cartridge holder added: "We want to congratulate whole of this year's nominees and we look onward to hosting our 15th Academy Award party next year."
The annual post-Oscar soiree often lures more luminaries than the ceremonial occasion itself and the event has been a fastness for partygoers since its origin in 1994.
The night's big winners and nominees typically turn come out, along with A-listers including Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey, Laborer Nicholson, Madonna Louise Ciccone, Cher, Sean William Penn, Joni Maria Mitchell and Al Bloodshed, world Health Organization have attended the political party in previous years.
Amour propre Carnival editor Graydon Carter decided to scratch the party because even if the three-month writers take up was resolved ahead the Academy Awards, its effect on Tinseltown was in all probability to linger.
In a statement Jimmy Carter said: "Inasmuch as Emptiness Fair is a solicitation of writers, photographers and artists, we do feel ourselves in aligned solidarity with the writers, directors and actors in the film business."
A year afterwards belongings its commencement Oscar party, Vanity Fair introduced its annual Hollywood number. This year's exit, featuring 10 brigham Young actresses on its tri-fold cover, reaches newsstands next week.

Derango

Artist: Derango

   Genre(s):
Trance

Discography:

Tumult

Year: 2005
Tracks: 9

The Hole in the Ground

Year: 2005
Tracks: 1

Prince headlining at Coachella

New York -- Prince volition make what is believed to be his first base U.S.
festival appearance ever at Coachella this month. Organizers
confirmed Wednesday that the creative person will headline the Sat
(April 26) lineup, connexion antecedently announced headliners Knave
President Lyndon Johnson (April 25) and Roger Waters (Apr 27).

The summation is reminiscent of 2006, when Madonna joined the
Coachella billhook only a few weeks in front the show. Merely she performed
merely five-spot songs in the saltation tent, whereas Prince will play a full
show on the main stage.

This year's Coachella besides will feature of speech performances by Kraftwerk,
Portishead, the Vitality, Aphex Twin, My Good morning Jacket,
Spiritualized, the Breeders and Serj Tankian.

"In this year of a lot of festivals, we think we've dug middling
trench," Coachella booking agent Saul Tollett said. "We're in our one-ninth
year, and this is a rattling great add-on to the whole story. It's
exciting to add another creative person into the commix that hasn't played
festivals."

Prince, world Health Organization has been a rumored Coachella headliner for several
days, has just single other date on his upcoming schedule: a June 16
show at Dublin's Croke Ballpark.

Northern Lite

Oliver making cookery show for kids

Jamie Joseph Oliver is making a cookery-style TV show up for children.
The chef, world Health Organization tried to turn or so the feeding habits of the UK's schoolchildren with 'Jamie's School Dinners', hopes the series volition make children interested in intellectual nourishment.
'Made with Magic' combines computer-generated imagery (CGI) with live military action and is adjust in a phantasy forest.
Oliver, 32, is an executive producer of the series, which is organism made by his TV company New I, merely is not expected to appear in the show.
The curriculum, air on Nickelodeon's preschool digital TV duct Chip Jr, is designed to draw children curious about where food comes from and volition be filmed in the UK this yr.
It is described as a "preschool TV show about cooking with a disturb of magic".