Yes, boys and girls, a new season is upon us. Summer has departed, autumn has arrived. The kids are back at school. the cottage is shuttered and soon there will be buckets of new stuff to watch on the TV. And a new season outside means a new season at Twitch, as well. Yes, our favorite transplanted Brits - film makers Adam Mason and Simon Boyes - are back with a brand new edition of their regular podcast. But this is no mere Podcast Eleven, oh no, this is the first episode of a whole new season of podcasts! Whatever will the future bring? Listen and learn, boys and girls, listen and learn.
I don’t think it’s any exaggeration at all to say that Dave McKean is a legendary figure in certain circles, his illustration work on Sandman alone would be enough to guarantee that. The man is one of the most distinctive visual artists in the world whether his work is presented on the page or, increasingly, the screen. And so when the news broke a good while back that McKean was preparing a DVD release of his early and seldom seen short films it was met with great excitement. The project was titled simply Keanoshow and while it was fraught with delays and, sadly, could not be cleared for release in America, the DVD has now arrived and McKean was gracious enough to sit and talk with us. The following interview was conducted by good friend to the site Don Hill.
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The history of 한성별곡-正 (Conspiracy in the Court), as you can read, was filled with interesting events, making what came before and after the drama just as special as what happened in between. For instance, without the passion shown by the DC Inside Conspiracy in the Court Gallery, there certainly would be no Director’s Cut DVD available to buy now, as they were the ones who fought for its release up until the end, even sending the money in advance to convince KBS this masterpiece was worth selling – just as much as the unwatchable crap which often gets quick releases thanks to the Hallyu. If it weren’t for their efforts, those few lucky hundreds wouldn’t even have dreamed of being able to read and collect what is one of the nicest pieces of fan appreciation you’ll ever see, the Conspiracy in the Court review book, full of reviews, photos, historical essays and some of the most candid interviews you’ll read. The reason this was possible also comes down to the fact Conspiracy in the Court‘s makers knew all too well this would become a niche, cult affair. That it would be something not many people would watch, but which would become part of those selected few’s memory for a long time. The passion and guts shown by the actors and crew, by writer Park Jin-Woo and producer Kwak Jung-Hwan is what really made this little legend possible.
We recently had a talk with producer Kwak, about the Conspiracy phenomenon, his latest work 구미호 (Fox with Nine Tails), the termination of the 드라마시티 (Dramacity) franchise, the industry in general and much more. Take a big breath (this is kind of long, but you probably knew that, right?), and let’s jump in…
Continue Reading "[SAGEUK WORLD SPECIAL – pt2] Twitch Talks with PD Kwak Jung-Hwan"...
CONTINUES FROM PART 1
TWITCH- We could start with the novelty of Myeong-Ok (Park Min-Young) being the youngest out of all the “foxes with nine tails,” but this was the first time a Gumiho went beyond the ghost story symbolism, and was humanized. She wasn’t just the scary perpetrator hiding her identity, but she changed into an innocent victim, which was also quite fresh. Just like you focused on characters completely different from the sageuk canon in Conspiracy, was the reason you chose an illustrious subject like Fox with Nine Tails to once again break from tradition?
KWAK- I should probably start by mentioning it wasn’t really my intention to choose Fox with Nine Tails. An older colleague of mine who was working on this had to step out, so it was a project I inherited from him. Because of the symbolic value it carries, we couldn’t leave Fox with Nine Tails out of this new Hometown of Legends, so that’s why. Subject aside, I really wanted to break from the traditional narrative structure of Hometown of Legends. Conventional characters and ghosts, linear plots, familiar accidents and situations etc. etc. I thought we needed to overcome all those cliches, although of course this meant those feeling nostalgic and expecting those same elements must have ended up feeling much more disappointed. Re-enacting Fox with Nine Tails‘s conventional themes could have become a strategy in itself, but on the contrary I wanted to break from its traditions, and tell that story through a different vision. Just like what I did with Conspiracy, I find breaking standard habits and traditions, while constantly striving for new and creative things much more rewarding. More than going after success through familiar characters, casting and stories, I find focusing on unfamiliar characters and fresh casting, and striving to tell new story much more interesting (laughs).
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The first trailer for Rick Jacobson’s Bitch Slap has been tearing up the internet since it first appeared, and why not? As he puts it himself, what’s not to like about a trio of beautiful, well endowed women loaded up with assault weaponry? A deliberate cult flick in the vein of the the old b-flicks of the sixties and seventies, Bitch Slap is working it’s way through post right now and director Jacobson agreed to take some time out of his schedule for a chat earlier this week. Covered within? His days on Baywatch, Hercules, Xena, the casting process, working with Death Proof‘s Zoe Bell and shooting the self-proclaimed Greatest Chick Fight In Cinema History. Read on!
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One of the key aspects of Pascal Laguier’s film Martyrs is the soundtrack. The music ranges from creepy ambient to acoustic balladry, all of which adds an extra emotional depth to the film. The main theme is particularly effective as the soft melodies and contextual lyrics are a stark contrast to the film’s hard imagery.
The persons responsible for this great work are Alex and Willie Cortez, who operate under the moniker of Seppuku Paradigm. Many are probably not familiar with the work of this duo but that is likely to change soon. The pair also created the soundtrack for Eden Log, which is screening along with Martyrs as part of the Midnight Madness section at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Given the important role of music in Martyrs, it seemed appropriate to pose an inquiry to the Cortez Brothers about their experience working on the film. Their first person account is featured below.
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Tak Sakaguchi has been a busy man in 2008. In addition to choreographing fights for Tokyo Gore Police and serving as action director for High School Girl Rika: Zombie Hunter, he directed two features this year: Be a Man! Samurai School and Samurai Zombie (Yoroi) . Twitch sat down with him in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 in order to gain some insight into his current and future projects. The discussion, which was conducted with translation assistance by Chiho Mori, focused on his most recent output, including United Red Army, Samurai Zombie (Yoroi), and the rumored Versus sequel. He also provided some information about a new project he has in development. As usual, details are contained beneath the fold.
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If in an alternate universe, Edgar Wright had a brother living in Iceland making his own Spaced feature on the fanboy culture, then Astrópía (Dorks & Damsels) is at that film and Gunnar B. Gudmundsson is that brother (no they are not really related). Astrópía is a rush of fantasy cinema that is drawn to parallel the current world of fanboys. It’s a refreshing and highly entertaining comedic spin through all things fanboy that is dare say the most charming film in theaters this year. You don’t have to know a single thing about it to enjoy it as Gudmundsson carefully layers the film whereby novices and more intimately familiar audiences can follow along. He also wonderfully realizes the real world of the characters and shows us in full detail their fantasy worlds. If ever there were a perfect film for Comic-Con audiences, this is it. Astrópía makes certain to poke fun at everything while also highlighting its thrills and excitement without ever seeming condescending. In any other hands this film certainly would have been plagued with too broad or simplistic takes showing how nerdy everyone is that reads comics, LARPs, watches cult videos and more. Gudmundsson and the Astrópía screenwriters have demystified this culture, which is a very diverse and passionate one and has now made walking into a comic book store feel cooler than a Reservoir Dogs movie opening. This indie low budget gem is by far one of my favorites for 2008.
I recently interviewed Gunnar B. Gudmundsson to go over Astrópía in more detail and learn about its making. Interview follows after the link bump.
Continue Reading "NIFFF 2008 - Gunnar B. Gudmundsson Talks Astropia/Dorks & Damsels"...
To Malaysian eyes, it would seem like Woo Ming Jin never stops working. When he’s not shooting short films or digital features, he’s busy making a TV movie. Apart from that, you can usually find him in some film festival.
After years of making short films, Woo debuted with his digital feature, Monday Morning Glory, a film about terrorists in a fictional country, in 2005. It premiered at the 48th San Francisco International Film Festival. His last feature, The Elephant And The Sea, picked up four awards in Spain, Italy and Korea, including Best Director and the Critics Award at the Cine Digital Seoul Film Festival. The film tells the story of a coastal fishing village facing an unknown threat, and is billed as a dramedy. After travelling the international festival circuit, it will finally open in Malaysian cinemas this Thursday.
The Elephant And The Sea has put you on a winning streak. I guess some people would look at this and say “Hey, what took you so long”?
Woo: Haha ... I don’t think I took too long ... or that I’ve “arrived” in any way. I hope I make better films in the future. But I’m quite happy with the film and the reception it’s gotten in so many festivals. Now I hope the Malaysian public will come out to watch it!
Continue Reading "Woo Ming Jin, Director Of THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA, Talks About El Mariachi, Dead Pigs And Pachyderm"...
It’s no secret we here at Twitch love up-and-coming director Adam Wingard’s low-low-budget shocker Pop Skull. On the eve of the release of his freshman feature, Home Sick, in a feature-laden special edition courtesy of Synapse (the disc streets August 26th, 2008), I had the opportunity to speak with Wingard about his work thus far and what fans can look forward to from him in the future.
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Yet another entry in our stream of coverage from the San Diego Comic Con, this time in the form of a complete transcript of a group interview conducted with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes on the US DVD release of their classic show Spaced. I could say more, but in the spirit of the thing I’ll skip to the end. The interview is below the break.
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Yes, yes. Comic Con may be gone but our coverage continues rolling in as erstwhile camera man Joseph Perez continues digitizing and uploading the panels he attended at the orgy of geekery. And today? Possibly the biggest geek of them all. Below the break I present to you the Joss Whedon panel.
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Jesus Franco is one of the most prolific filmmakers alive and one of the few that makes Miike look lazy by comparison, which is really saying something! At the 2008 NIFFF (Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival) in Switzerland I sat down with him and went over a wide variety of topics.
In this interview we talk about:
* On Projects Like Far Out That Pay Homage to Him
* Making Films Then Versus Now
* Favorites of the Films That He Made
- Venus in Furs from 1969 aka Black Angel
* He Really Likes Jerry Bruckheimer
* On Daniel White
Interview after the link bump.
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“It’s surprising that pulp writer David Goodis never named a novel Cul-de-Sac,” ponders Pacific Film Archives curator Steve Seid, “His stories conjure a dead end, littered with the wreckage of lonely losers and lowlifes. An ill fate befalls the typical Goodis fall guy, who often glimpses the high life, however fleetingly, but then through some irascible compulsion or sinister defect must stumble back to the seamy streets. Goodis’s own life follows the same pattern: at age thirty, he saw his novel Dark Passage adapted for the screen and parlayed that into a contract at Warner Bros., but his questionable proclivities made him an outcast even in Hollywood. Back in his hometown of Philadelphia, he churned out paperback originals while prowling the seedy saloons with unguarded desire. At age forty-nine, he was dead of cirrhosis. Though Goodis persisted in relative obscurity, his works falling in and out of print, filmmakers mined his shady novels for their criminal content. Jacques Tourneur’s Nightfall and Paul Wendkos’s The Burglar were grim highlights of the American mid-fifties, while across the pond, cinema’s continental ops found his soiled vision most suitable for their noir knockoffs. Truffaut’s fanciful but faithful Shoot the Piano Player was the first in a lineup of a half-dozen suspects, all with a French accent. Goodis’s pulp is not about plot; it’s about the struggles of his beautiful losers to free themselves from sordid obsession and inbred failure. It’s also about Goodis’s smothering fixation with the fall—from grace, perhaps, or just from the curb to the gutter.”
Whereas Steve Seid’s curatorial involvement with the Gabriel Figueroa series might have been more administrative than creative, there’s no question that the PFA program “Streets of No Return: The Dark Cinema of David Goodis” is Seid’s bawling baby, as he revealed when he spoke briefly with me about the upcoming series. For general information on Goodis, check out his IMdb and Wikpedia profiles. Kelly Vance gets on the horn with Elliot Lavine who helps her assess the PFA series for The East Bay Express.
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“Figueroa skies.” The image conjures the big sky country of the Mexican desert, embraced in high contrast by billowing cumulus clouds enhanced by infrared filters, and limned by the persevering thorn of the impoverished agave and the heartfelt offerings of ubiquitous cala lilies. Beneath these immense skies, Mexicanidad toils the soil, tolls cathedral bells to call the common soul to mass, and tells fiery stories of evolving revolutions.
In his introduction to the PFA series celebrating the artistry of Gabriel Figueroa—Hecho Por México—curator Steve Seid writes: “Gabriel Figueroa was more than a cinematographer. A consummate artist, he captured with grandeur a sense of Mexico that would—as the poet Carlos Fuentes affectionately observed—bring us to ‘see Figueroa’s Mexico and not the one that really existed.’ Beginning in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, Figueroa’s rich chiaroscuro embodied Mexico’s entrenched contrasts—the monumental faces weathered like the arid land, the expressively lit cathedrals dark against turbulent skies, the timeless agave, stark and prickly. The painters Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco were Figueroa’s intimates, and their influence can be detected in what Siqueiros called ‘murals that travel.’ Figueroa was the man who made manifest Luis Buñuel’s sardonic surrealism by underscoring mundane but unexpected details. And he will forever be associated with director Emilio ‘El Indio’ Fernández, who said with remarkable swagger, ‘There only exists one Mexico: the one I invented’—but it was Figueroa’s highly dramatic feel for the land that engendered this invention. In the mid-thirties, Figueroa apprenticed to Hollywood cinematographer Gregg Toland, and was much admired by American directors such as John Ford and John Huston, who used his signature style to great effect. He cut a dashing figure across the film industry, but his social conscience always preceded him: Gabriel Figueroa’s aim was to give back to Mexican culture a dignified image of itself, and this he did, al lo grande.”
Though hosting duties during the San Francisco Silent Film Festival precluded my attending the opening doublebill of PFA’s Figueroa series—Let’s Go With Pancho Villa! (1935) and The Pearl (1943)—I’ve committed myself to the remainder of the selection. To prepare for the experience, I met up with Steve Seid for a few words on the series.
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