Michal Levy

Micah Levy is an art director, musician and painter, but above everything else she is the creator of two brilliant animated films: "Giant Steps" and "One". I can't decide if I want to work for her, tattoo her face on my lower back, steal her identity or make twenty films that look like hers and then hate myself for being an unoriginal little wannabe.

While I make up my mind, enjoy her work at:





"One" was animated by my talented friends at Studio Fatcat.

shitmydadsays

Ok, I think that most people are aware of "Shitmydadsays" on Twitter, but just in case you're not - you should be, it's fantastic! And now they're making it into a TV pilot.
Dare I say it? ...... I'm jealous of the old man!

Edge of Darkness

Remember those movies they used to make in the 80-s with the evil corporation, and someone who discovers something, and they get killed, but they were related to Mel Gibson, so now Mel's going to do whatever it takes, and he's not going to play by the rules, and everyone's afraid to talk, and there's a henchman with too much gel in his hair, and there's a car coming right at Mel, but Mel shoots into it and kills the driver at the last moment, and it turns out that there's a US senator involved, but that won't stop Mel either because all he wants is justice? Don't you ever wish they made another one of those? No? Well, they've made "Edge of Darkness" anyway:

To the last I grapple with thee!

Finally we're starting to see some kind of serious objection to the filthy behavior of the thing called Aniboom. I am continually surprised that this very real and overt abomination is never mentioned by those who keep score of Israel's immoralities. Probably because soldiers in uniform are so much easier to portray as evil than chubby bearded men with cartoon t-shirts. But evil has many faces my friends, and we shall know them by their fruits: Dear Sesame Street...

animated

Green, super green!

I've been noticing for a while now that "The Fifth Element" made a couple of pretty accurate predictions about the future. First of all, they've predicted the metrosexual man - the guy who acts gay in every way, except that he sleeps with women. And is, for some reason, irresistible to women. I remember watching the film back when it came out an thinking "OK, that's never going to happen".
Secondly - and this thing is just seconds away from happening - they predicted that "green" would become the new "cool". Already people seem to get a little buzz when they say things like "green technology", the next step is just around the corner.



So, when in a few years people start getting really really into opera, remember not to act surprised!

Victims of the flat screen technology

The computer screen toys ;...(

Main lesson learned from "Moby Dick":

If you're really determined, it's possible to present a single profession as a metaphor for everything in the world - especially if it's one of those barbaric, destructive professions that men need to go away into the wild to engage in - but you'll just end up sounding pretentious and annoying. But hey, maybe that's what Melville was trying to show.

הפעם אי אפשר להאשים את הכרוֹם

Knife in the Water

"Knife in the Water" is, as far as I know, Roman Polanski's first feature film. It is a Freudian allegory about a power struggle between a younger and older man, involving the older man's wife and his yacht, conveniently named after the wife.

Extremely uptight about not letting the viewer miss a single drop of its message, the film is very useful as a teaching tool. Polanski will become a more subtle director in the future, but it is already clear that he's a master of composition.

One of the things he does is to make sure there are lots of sharp angles in the frame. He constantly cuts the screen into pieces diagonally and makes the actors fill one part of it, while leaving the rest very open:





 Then there are the symbolic poses:



And the coolest thing he does is the long scenes where the camera stays in the same place, only turning from side to side to follow the actors, and letting them trade places and sizes in the frame as they fight for dominance.

Each one of these is a single shot:

Come on Eileen

Is this the best song in the world? It certainly is the most widely loved song I know, and the video is enchanting.

     

 It wasn't easy to find it in decent quality either. Were the 80-s really that long ago?
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in the details

When one narrative is based on another, the point is in the way they are different. Quick example: Cain kills Abel and is turned away to become a vagabond. In "East of Eden", Charles nearly kills Adam, and then Adam goes out into the world, while Charles remains buried in the family farm. Punishment in the new world is the opposite of punishment in the old world.

Radical Narcicist

Looking for Lary David's stand-up on the internet is like searching for diamonds ... if diamonds were something there's only two of in the world, and they were relatively easy to find ... aaanyway:



Here he manages to have an environmental message while proudly remaining a total prick:



There's also a longish interview of him with Ricky Gervais. It's really cute how Gervais is all star-struck in the beginning:  Part one, two, three, four, five, six.
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Arrest In Peace

I had a little start a few days ago when I saw Rip Torn's picture in the news, thinking he had died, but then I was glad to hear that he was only arrested for being "intoxicated and armed inside a Connecticut bank".

This is a good opportunity  to remind ourselves of Rip Torn, not as a small character in the highly mediocre show "30 Rock", but as Artie, the god-like producer in "Te Larry Sanders Show" - the historic masterpiece that preceded all of this decade's favorites and did it better:

Happy birthday Rip!

פאסיב-אגרסיב

קינטור

אני אגיד את זה ראשונה: יהיו בעיות להשיג ויזות כניסה לארה"ב לשחקני "עג'מי".י

Daybreakers

Who are the Spierig brothers and where did they come from?

Their excellent film "Daybrakers" is in danger of becoming lost among the flood of zombie movies (made by people who don't like to bother with thinking characters) and teenage vampire movies (made by people who want to keep teenage girls from having sex with their boyfriends).

The entire time I was watching "Daybreakers" I kept thinking "How come noone's made this film before?", since the basic idea is so simple and rational - what happens after the outbreak, after the battles between humans and vampires have been fought an lost, after all the running around and popping into car windows going "BOO!" has been done - what is it like in a world ruled by vampires, and can it exist at all?

The second trailer has too many spoilers, so I'm using this one:

Standing on the mustaches of giants

The most interesting things about the boring film "The Men Who Stare at Goats" is that Kevin Spacey has morphed into Gene Hackman: