Some Cast it Hot Episode 12: Aggretto

In Some Cast it Hot’s 12th episode, we discuss The Fall and share our suggestions for Frame Narrative films.  Alex and Sasha delve into festival talk as they go other their recently viewed movies.

Films discussed include: Water for Elephants, The Trip, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Submarine, Catechism Cataclysm, Dragonslayer, Boy Cheerleaders, The Fall, Big Fish, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and The Princess Bride.

You can listen to it (and all of our other episodes) here: Link!

Thanks for listening!

Costume Envy: The Fall

My friend Lucy suggested that I do a Costume Envy post on the Black Bandit from The Fall.

Costumes for The Fall where designed by Eiko Ishioka, who is known for her Oscar award-winning designs in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Cell, and the upcoming Immortals.

So technically speaking, I don’t really understand the choices made with the Black Bandit’s costume design.  It’s a pretty basic black get up, at once a military uniform and a cowboy’s gear, with a bright red Zorro mask thrown in.  But the hat?  The armless top?

Probably, if I had been Tarsem I would have vetoed it, but I’m also a complete idiot.  Ishioka has created a costume that is extraordinarily iconic, even while grabbing from different sources.  It works really well, considering the story that Roy Walker (Pace) is creating comes from a billion different regions.  At times, he seems to be grasping at straws, but the Bandit’s costume fits in wherever, even though it is entirely outlandish.  Who is he supposed to be, anyway?  The French soldat, who left for sunnier climes in the American West?  Only he got turned around and wound up in Mexico, where he got his wide-brimmed hat and the red mask idea?  And where did the shaved head and eyeliner come from?

But the Bandit is recognizable: You see him, and he’s a bandit.  He’s the man in the black, seemingly like Zorro, only American (or French or Spanish) and it makes him mysterious.  Highly suspicious, as all good bandits are, but intriguing. 

Visual Films: The Fall

The Fall

(2006)

Directed by Tarsem

12 Movie Meme

I was tagged by Caitlin at  http://1416andcounting.wordpress.com/  for the 12 Movie Meme, where you design a film festival using your own brains, braun, talent, and personal choices (be what they may) created, as a daunting task, by http://lazyeyetheatre.blogspot.com/2008/07/12-movies-meme.html, who says: 

“On the surface it seems fun and easy, and yet scratch the surface a bit and you’ll find a very daunting task because what you choose is a personal reflection. And you can’t willy nilly it. Your 12 movies should be like a good mixed tape. Strong at first, brought down a little right after, then up again, solid in the middle with a big finish.

So here are the Meme rules:

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.”

So now I come to ponder to myself, just what WOULD I show at some crazy film festival, where I had veto power and I’m the one concocting this thing to begin with?

To, start:

It’s Gotta Be Southern

Big Fish

This is one of the unique plumes in Tim Burton’s hat-o’-films for various reasons, one being that it actually was shot in the same area as where the movie takes place.   Further, it’s… bright.  And is full of Britisth actors faking Southern accents like they were born down south.  This movie is a good beginning film, since it is part fairy tale, part family drama.  I love the angst Billy Crudup manages to work up as Will Bloom, who can’t seem to understand his father at all.

Dead Man Walking

Someone in my Cinema Ethics’s class this year pointed out that this is a quintessencial nineties movie, what with Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon as the stars and… that’s pretty much true.  All of the action takes place in Louisiana and it’s technically a biopic about a nun’s relationship with a man on death row.  After the light, comes the deep, dark issue-y goodness that is Dead Man Walking.  And, if anything else, you can snicker at Sean Penn’s mullet.  Then cry your eyes out at the end of the film.

Growing Up in Japan

Late Spring

This is a post-World War II flick about one family in Japan.  Namely, the only daughter of a novelist who still lives with her father and is pressured into marriage.  Noriko is in denial about her situation and repressed–she doesn’t want to get married because she’s comfortable living with her father.  Until about a quarter of the way through, Noriko is just annoying because her smile is permafixed to her face and it’s more than just a little disturbing, but then the layers of sorrow come out.  Not an upper of a film, but enlightening to the Japan of sixty years ago.

Kamikaze Girls

My favorite hyper-lolita-friendship movie.  Ever.  With Cabbage to spare.  This movie combines my love of quick cuts and weird characters with the Japanese fashion movement Gothic Lolita.  There’s a novel and I’d love to read it (once i get through the 25ish books kicking around my room).  What’s fun with this movie is that you could try to read into while watching, or you could just sit back and let the crazy take you.

 A Night of Fantasia

The Fall

ZOMG, Charles Darwin?

I saw this movie about a month ago, and it blew me away.  It makes you think about stories and story telling, while the relationship between Roy and the little girl is just adorable and actually touching (going where few movies are able to go to anymore).  The fantasy of the second plot, the stories Roy tells, reveals this beautiful world of colors and ruins and Charles Darwin in a really ugly coat.  The extra plus?  This movie did not use any CGI.  Everything was set designed or filmed on location.

Mirrormask

When Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean come together: Magic.  This contrasts with The Fall well because it moves from having no CGI at all to having over half of the movie entirely CGI.  This is one of the modern fairy tales in film that just leaves a person smiling.  Character to watch is Valentine, who is hilarious and weird and wraps up the ending well, when it comes.  Also, if you happen to like audio books, this one is brilliant.

Ed Wood Nite

Plan Nine from Outer Space (MST3K Version)

Part of why Plan Nine from Outer Space fails at being a “good” movie, is that it’s boring.  It’s the most terrible movie in the world for a reason, and that’s a big one.  With the guys from Myster Science Theater 3000, the entertainment level is raised and keeps people laughing and awake for the night.  In time for…

Ed Wood

The cute lil’ biopic directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp.  It’s fun!  It’s weird!  It’s wanton!  It’s in black and white!  This is one of Burton’s gems in his crown of career, critically acclaimed, and all of that rot.  This movie is just fun: as Ed Wood, Johnny Depp is this eternal optimist or likes to wear women’s clothes and hangs out with Bela Lugosi and Criswell.  It’s endlessly quotable and a good finish for the night.

 Dude, That’s Murder

Rope

Rope just happens to be one of those movies that matches this idea.  And it’s Hitchcockian with it’s “pure cinema” and the murder happens immediately and… whatever.  It’s about snobby rich kids who commit murder to see what it’s like and to impress James Stewart. One’s a psychopath and the other is twitchy because he doesn’t want to get caught.

 M

M is the epitome of classic murder stories.  It’s an early German sound movie that totally kicks ass, but near the end I feel for the murderer.  And ethical questions are posed!  While a weighed trial is held.  Fairly deep and an interesting look at the German city life in the thirties, even through film, or just the end of innocence.

And to end this festival of terrors and delights:

Love, Blood, and Rhetoric (Crack Movies I’m Addicted To)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

This movie makes me blink and say “What the fuck?” aloud everytime I watch it, because it’s technically the closest version of Dracula to the book, but it’s still really crackfilled and… not like the book.  I don’t believe in Francis Ford Coppola after this movie… seriously.  I watch it because of Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkin’s and Winona Rider’s green dress.  But it’s my guilty please, the movie I watch with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Karamelsutra on my lap with the lights off and a sketchpad next to me.

Sleepy Hollow

Blood, Love, and Rhetoric all wrapped up in a film created because Tim Burton and Johnny Depp said “Hey, remember Hammer Horrors?  Let’s make one of those.”  I really enjoy the plot of this movie, but it is one of those films that I watch because I want to watch a hot Johnny Depp or the costumes are gorgeous.  And they are– I might kill someone for the stepmother’s dress (You’ll know it if you’ve seen this movie).  But I’m ending the festival with this because it is one of my favorite movies.  Even if it’s not close to the original plot of the Washington Irving story, it’s beautiful and a great mystery story for those who like them unpredictable.  (hey, can you guys tell that I like Tim Burton?  Because I don’t think I made it obvious enough…).

Thus ends the great and terrible film fest.  God, that took me awhile to come together… but I’m glad I put the effort into it.  It was worth it.

Forward, MARCH!