All posts tagged: Director

Unsettling & Beautiful: “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”

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I’m not one for reviewing movies, so lets call this a brief one-sided discussion in which you are welcome to join in the comment section below. A few weeks ago I watched Lily Ana Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night because it was available on Netflix and I remembered reading such great things about it after its 2014 Sundance premiere. The reason I wanted to write a bit about Amirpour’s film is because it felt so new and original to me that it demanded a post of its own. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night takes place in a close-to-empty Iranian town called Bad City. The film’s tone is new wave cool, with a spaghetti western vibe and a vampire-horror theme. Although her style of filmmaking is clearly influenced by many genres, I believe Amirpour’s film transcends all genre stereotypes. With A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, I felt like I was watching something important unfold before my eyes. It’s one of those films, like 8 1/2 or Mulholland Drive, that’s iconic the very moment it’s completed. I want to hear from you! What did you think about A …

10 Facts About Francis Ford Coppola on His Birthday

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1. Francis Ford Coppola was born in Detroit, Michigan on April 7th, 1939, but grew up in a New York suburb. 2. When he was young he caught polio, so during his quarantine he practiced puppetry and spent time watching movies. 3. He graduated with a drama degree from Hofstra University and went on to receive an MFA in Film Production from UCLA in 1967. 4. He is considered a part of the New Hollywood wave (or American New Wave) of filmmaking, which includes other masterful directors such as Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Mike Nichols, Hal Ashby, Roman Polanski, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas, among others. 5. His family is full of accomplished filmmakers and actors including, but not limited to, Sofia Coppola, Nicolas Cage, Jason Schwartzman, and Gia Coppola. 6. He owns a successful winery – the Francis Ford Coppola – of which I can personally vouch for. 7. Supposedly George Lucas based the Star Wars trilogy character Hans Solo on Coppola. 8. He is credited for directing 12 different actors in Oscar nominated performances, …

David Lynch is Leaving the ‘Twin Peaks’ Reboot

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When I heard yesterday’s news that David Lynch is leaving the Twin Peaks reboot, I was devastated. That may sound extreme, but I was seriously looking forward to seeing where he would take the story in this new season. As you may recall from my previous post, ‘Twin Peaks’ is Returning, I watched Twin Peaks for the first time this past year and fell absolutely in love with the story and characters. The ending to the second season was so very incomplete (due to ABC pulling the plug after the second season finale, removing the chance of having a proper series finale) and like many other fans, I wanted to know what happened to everyone within the story world! Fire Walk with Me just wasn’t enough to satisfy my appetite for more. How is it that TV can feel this important to one’s personal life? Lynch shared on Twitter that the reason he left the project was because not enough money was offered to do the script the way he wanted it to be done, and I don’t blame him. …

Quentin Tarantino on Good Ideas, Hollywood & Filmmaking

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Some love his work, others hate his work, but all know his work. I happen to belong to the first group, so today, in honor of Quentin Tarantino’s birthday, I’d like to share a few of my favorite Tarantino quotes. “If you just love movies enough, you can make a good one.” “The good ideas will survive.” “To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.” “I steal from every movie ever made.” “I’m not a Hollywood basher because enough good movies come out of the Hollywood system every year to justify its existence, without any apologies.” “I couldn’t spell anything. I couldn’t remember anything, but I could go to a movie and I knew who starred in it, who directed it, everything.” “All of my movies are achingly personal.” “If I wasn’t a film-maker, I’d be a film critic. It’s the only thing I’d be qualified to do.” “Movies are not …

David Lynch – A Visual Celebration

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David Lynch is an auteur. His work is exceptionally distinct, with a mood and tone that’s unusually hypnotic and sensual. He’s said before that words aren’t all that important to him – that what he creates lives in its own world – and for him, discussing his work in detail means that the viewer has less room to explore on their own. This idea of cinema existing within its own realm, where the audience must absorb the work and process it themselves, is quite beautiful to me. In honor of David Lynch’s birthday and his wildly influential career, here are a few iconic stills from Blue Velvet,  Mulholland Drive, Fire Walk With Me, and Twin Peaks.

MUSIC VIDEOS || Spike Jonze

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From David Fincher to Michel Gondry, many successful film and television directors got their start directing music videos and commercials, and some continue to do so today. Among my favorite music video directors is Spike Jonze, whose videos are always extraordinarily fun and exceptionally creative. I would describe his work as being simple in a bare bones kind of way, but infused with an intense burst of imagination and kinetic energy. Here are a few of my favorite Spike Jonze videos – what are yours? DROP – The Pharcyde DRUNK GIRLS – LCD Soundsystem OTIS – Kanye West, Jay Z SABOTAGE – Beastie Boys WEAPON OF CHOICE – Fatboy Slim

Scorsese + DiCaprio

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This summer I posted behind the scenes photos of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro working together on their many collaborations – from Mean Streets to Casino. With two birthdays in November, I thought it would be a great time to post photos with Scorsese’s other common collaborator, Leonardo DiCaprio. Enjoy! Gangs of New York – 2002 The Aviator – 2004 The Departed – 2006 Shutter Island – 2010 The Wolf of Wall Street – 2013

Martin Scorsese on Culture, Cinema, and Celluloid

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“Can a film really change anything? I mean, what was the last time? Maybe the Italian neo-realists, where they became the voice and the heart and the soul of Italy, a nation that had been destroyed. I don’t know.” “A lot of what I’m obsessed with is the relationship and the dynamics between people and their family, particularly brothers and their fathers.” “Howard Hughes was this visionary who was obsessed with speed and flying like a god. I loved his idea of what filmmaking was.” “There was always a part of me that wanted to be an old-time director. But I couldn’t do that. I’m not a pro.” “The cinema began with a passionate, physical relationship between celluloid and the artists and craftsmen and technicians who handled it, manipulated it, and came to know it the way a lover comes to know every inch of the body of the beloved. No matter where the cinema goes, we cannot afford to lose sight of the beginnings.” “I love studying Ancient History and seeing how empires rise …

Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

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Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) “There’s no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” “Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.” “Drama is life with all the dull bits cut out.” “A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it.” “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” “Give them pleasure – the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.” “If it’s a good movie the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.” “Luck is everything…My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I’m fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn’t make a good suspense film.” “Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell …