Antichrist

No, no. Not me.

A new movie by Lars Van Trier which debuted in Philadelphia last week at the Philadelphia Film Festival.

The premise is simple; following a terrible tragedy, a young married couple (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) retreats to a cabin in the woods to cope with their grief. When a series of bizarre and surreal events starts occurring, the couple begins to crack from the stress, threatening their bond forever. In the hands of an auteur, this basic concept becomes something much more shocking. Famous for his uniquely searing arthouse melodramas, von Trier ups the ante yet again, and returning with what is, without a doubt, his most controversial work ever. Like most pieces of thought-provoking art, Antichrist is best viewed completely fresh with little to no prior knowledge of the material. From the first glimpse of its gorgeous black and white opening sequence to the uncomfortable rumble of its perfectly colored climax, the audience is treated to a plethora of brilliant twists and metaphors. For those willing to take the risk, the film offers incredibly beautiful imagery and surgically precise manipulation, but its content makes von Trier’s previous films like Dancer in the Dark look like a walk in the park. Consider yourself warned. –– Michael Lerman

I was at work one day talking to someone about movies, about films that really rocked me and I started talking about Dancer in the Dark. That move kinda affected me and it’s doubtful I will ever watch it again. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I want that experience to stay exactly what it was, if that makes sense. So after overhearing the conversation between me and Lamont, Aimee and I started talking about DITD’s director Lars Van Trier, and what he is known for.

So last week she noticed his new film playing at the film fest and sent me the link to the show which was sold out, as well as a blurb about the controversy when it when it was screened at Cannes.

Seems that this year’s Cannes Film Festival entry by past “Golden Palm” winner Lars van Trier has created the first real scandal this year. The press screening was accompanied by laughther, hisses and booing at the end – there are even reports that at least one reporter fainted during paticularily graphic scenes. Not many reviews seem to be out yet, but what is out is pretty devastating – “appaling” is a mild adjective, and there are predictions that this movie could end van Trier’s career – pretty unlikely given that the careers of past generators of Cannes Film Festival scandals seem to be doing just fine.

The italicized part is mine, but how could that not make me want to see this?

The Bat Segundo Show

As someone who has done a bunch of interviews, I always try to go for good questions. Not the same 20 questions that have been asked and re-tread in a thousand other interviews someone has done. As someone who also loves to read and is eternally fascinated with artist’s creative the process (almost more-so than the product) but is completely turned off by high-brow, self absorbed, intellectual babble, I think Bat Segundo is perfect. The show consists of extremely well researched, astute and insightful interviews by Edward Champion.

The Bat Segundo Show is a cultural and literary podcast that involves very thorough long-form interviews with contemporary authors and other assorted artists.

I stumbled across it when looking for interviews with WTV (here and here), and now I am pouring through the catalog of podcasts. The selection of people is amazing. It sounds like the interviews take place in a cafe, and there is great ambient (but not distracting) background noise. Champion knows not only who he is interviewing inside and out, but their body of work as well, so he is able to ask pointed questions.

Standard questions that have been asked of guests over and over are avoided, whenever possible.

Not only is this appreciated by the listener, but many of his guests seem surprised (I’m sure after suffering a litany of boring interviews) as well. Champion is also not afraid to ask tougher questions, or try and elicit an answer if the guest seems squirrely. Not that he is trying to blindside them or it is in an aggressive manner, but it certainly is not only softball questions either. All of which make for an interesting interview, as opposed to simply an interview. Not only is this the aim or sound like a nice blurb on his About page, but Champion succeeds with an extensive collection of interviews. I often find myself googling his guests, so it’s a great way to also find new authors and new books.

There’s a lot to take away from Champion’s interviews. Not only about his subjects, but stylistically how to do a great interview, and the result.

Ed also does a companion blog that is full of jewels too.

Movies

So apparently, I have been going to and seeing a bunch of movies with all this new found free time. (Side note: we are doing an issue, so it may get get busy again for a minute…) Over the past week or so.

I thought I would do a brief recap.

The Cove

How could you not want to see a movie that was tagged as, “A cross between Bourne Identity and Flipper”? Someone else thought it was a mockumentary, but in reality it’s a straight documentary. I thought it was pretty good. Pretty crazy. The lengths the Japanese go to to continue a practice of unnecessary dolphin slaughtering, and the lengths the film maker and crew went to uncover it. In the end, you still walk away thinking, “Sucks, but seems sort of low on the priority list.” Sorry.

Inglourious Basterds

Definitely not Tarantino’s best, but still really fucking good. Didn’t even realize it’s 2.5 hours long. Not nearly as bloody (I did say as bloody. There’s still a good amount of gratuitous, over the top, bloodshed.)  as all his other movies. Some pretty classic scenes, and Brad Pitt does the whole, not-a-ton-of-dialog-but-still-delivers thing.

The Soloist

I liked. Like Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, and the story was good and well acted, if not a little sappy, but it did make me want to pick up the book. It struck a chord with the whole “journalism can make a difference/ change lives” thing. In today’s economy and state of media, I will take a little juice where I can get it.

Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi

Wow. Powerful. Makes you look at and think about war and war reporting in a new light and with a whole new respect. Humanizes Afghanis. Very interesting look inside a foreign correspondent’s process for gathering information, doing interviews, etc. Again, provided a little journalistic fire. Unfortunate it has to come from such a sad place.

The Trials of Ted Haggard

I guess I would say worth watching, considering at the end I felt empathy for a homophobic, philandering meth-head. Haggard seemed pretty contrite and blamed himself, while still admitting attraction to guys. The film made him kind of… human. Go figure.

The Cove

The Cove Trailer

I think this looks crazy good…
Gas thought it was a mocumentary.