Politist, adj. (2009)

The Romanian New Wave is going strong. This film is at least as successful as everyone’s 2007 favourite, 4 Months …, even though its theme isn’t as sensational. The title has been translated as Police, Adjective – in Romanian, the term “politist” means both police officer, and the quality of pertaining to police business. Thus, the film is ultimately about meaning: what it means to uphold the law, and to follow your conscience.

Dragos Bucur has really come into his own as an actor, he does a great job here. Director Corneliu Porumboiu (who also made the excellent 12:08 East of Bucharest) has made the bold decision of using many long, contemplative shots that will test the patience of today’s audience used to having a cut every 3 seconds.

Fortunately, the film is sprinkled with lots of witty dialogue, and it all pays off in the end. The ending reminded me of a similar scene in A Clockwork Orange, although the style is obviously quite different.

****

 

Peter Greenaway

He wrote and directed the tasty The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover in 1989, a brilliant film starring Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though, his filmography spans over 5 decades and is bound to contain more gems – The Draughtsman’s Contract is next on my list.

Nowadays he teaches film at the EGS, and he’s experimenting with all sorts of multimedia projects, such as this installation based on Da Vinci’s Last Supper.

This multimedia type of art is relatively new and high-brow; I’ve been getting into it recently and may become quite serious about it in the near future It’s my perception that there’s a whole lot of shitty kitchy derivative worlthless “art” to be made by mixing and juxtaposing different sorts of digital media – then again, multimedia does offer the possibility for some inspiring ways of expression, and Greenaway’s work is probably leaning towards that.

I just wish it had more exposure over here. He’s doing a VJ set in Budapest next month, maybe I’ll go if there’s nothing better to do.

 

Trail of Dead

Discovered them just yesterday, they’re pretty great. The band’s full name is …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and, who would’ve thought, the main guy is somewhat of a pretentious faggot. But fact is, he’s talented and writes some blindingly good tunes. The new album, The Century of Self (hmm.. I wonder why the name attracted me ) has a fair share of them, and the one that’s quickest to own some souls is ‘Isis Unveiled’.

Here’s a video for the shorter version, I thought it was cool.

By the way, dredg released an excellent new pop album, you should probably check it out if you haven’t already.

 

Resonance fm

Resonance is a British artsy radio station, and as with everything done pro bono, there’s plenty of throwaway stuff but also some interesting people and music on. The reason I’ve been tuning in lately is the recent appearance of legendary dreamweaver Garth Marenghi (of Darkplace) on the OST show. It was quite good, lots of tasty tunes were played and of course, any Marenghi interview is not to be missed.

Luckily for you, it’s going to be repeated tomorrow (Wednesday 22nd), at 3 PM GMT, so be sure to catch it!

 

Tunes

Been slowly catching up on some cool new music, thanks to my friends on welpfolks. Here’s a couple of albums that caught my ear.

First there’s Tombs - Winter Hours, courtesy of Alex. A fairly crushing slab of blackened sludge, get it.

Next, for some indie rock of the not-shitty variety, you could do a lot worse than Sholi’s self-titled. Thanks to Marcus, grab it from here.

‘November through June’ by Sholi

‘Gossamer’ by Tombs

And I can’t leave you without mentioning that Stewart Lee’s new episode is now on youtube and it’s probably the best yet; it’s about… comedy!

part2 part3

 

Cheer-Accident – Fear Draws Misfortune (2009)

Haven’t been posting about music a lot lately, because I’m getting a bit tired of stuff that sounds great for a couple of listens, only to be left behind afterwards. What I needed in order to get some of the excitement back was to discover a new obscure band with a huge back catalogue. Cheer-Accident are no Cardiacs (what is?), but they’ll do And of course, half the fun is tracking down all their albums, or at least the good ones.

Cheer-Accident are an especially good band to discover, cos all their albums sound quite different, at least from what I’ve heard so far. A truly progressive band is a rare thing nowadays. Fear Draws Misfortune, their new one, is the one closest to classic prog – lots of keyboards, a good balance of melody and dissonance, and influences from stuff like King Crimson circa Larks and Red, and Gentle Giant or Magma. Grab it.

Bonus: their 1991 album Dumb Ask, a raw, dark grungy monster. Here’s a sample, ‘Whitewash’

Unfortunately, they recently signed to Cuneiform and they’ve even got a review in pitchfork now, which means soon all the indie fags will be gagging over them, so grab’em while they’re still kvlt.

 

I’ve seen the best film of 2008

It’s Synecdoche, New York, and I’ll be watching it again soon.

 

The Century of the Self (2002)

Quite a while ago I wrote about the Adam Curtis documentary The Trap. I finally got around to watching an earlier BBC documentary of his, that sheds light on the way Freudian psychoanalysis has influenced democracy and capitalism in the past century. According to Curtis

The basic aim of The Century of the Self [...] was to look at how Freud’s ideas about human beings have been used socially and politically. (from here)

Like The Trap, it’s a very well made documentary that touches on many points without being too manipulative. Of course some parts should be taken with a grain of salt, and independent research is always encouraged but it provides a pretty revealing general idea. Also, it made me wanna read Freud’s stuff. Watch it on Google Video, starting here.

Oh and while we’re on the subject of manipulation, the amazing Adam Carolla needs one more peon in his army of podcast listeners. Why shouldn’t it be you? Actually, the Windell podcast isn’t his best, so you might want to wait for the next one.

 

Californicated

Watched the two seasons of Showtime’s Californication, it’s really cool. In fact, it’s too cool, and that’s because it’s made using a formula with the alternative-atheist-hedonist-rebel-sexdrugsnrock’n'roll demographic in mind. And this is the reason why Californication succeeds while more serious shows (like Showtime’s own excellent Huff) get canceled: it’s trash – really watchable trash, in fact. Stuff like the porn industry or the rock’n'roll world are little more than caricatures of their real-life counterparts, and the writers pull plot twists out of their asses. Still, there are some very good reasons to watch Californication.

The main one is David Duchovny’s Hank Moody, a great character that scores big points on the whole antihero empathy side. He’s a badass, and also makes for a good team with his agent, played by Evan Handler – which, by the way, pales in comparison with Huff’s duo of Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt.

Who doesn't wanna be/bang Hank Moody?

Then there’s all the cool references in the show (except those related to Hank’s teenage offspring) – I especially enjoyed the Cassavetes/Vaginatown episode And I just can’t resist the drama and debauchery, I know it’s formulaic and degenerate but oh well, it works.

Both season finales have pissed me off at some point:

• the first one has Hank’s daughter Becca butchering Pink Floyd’s ‘Brain Damage’ beyond recognition by turning it into an angsty song about menstruation (which supposedly she wrote a couple hours earlier)
• the second has this twerp’s pathetic lamentation:

"Boo hoo, I don't get any attention from girls"

Really? Look at the kid’s face, it’s fucking perfect. He has perfectly shaped lips and nose and eyes, he’s annoyingly handsome. And there he is, feeling sorry for himself, it’s disgusting. Hank should’ve punched his pretty face.

 

School sucks

…unless it’s on the internet. Just discovered Academic Earth – pretty cool to see what school is like at Stanford, and also to see how much of that course I already know/remember. I’m finishing my Electronics Engineering degree this year and I’m not happy with my school, but this lecture reminded me a bit of what drew me to it in the first place. Look around, maybe you’ll find something that interests you.

A quick notice since I missed it last week: tonight on BBC2 there’s the second installment of the funniest show on television, Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle. Check out the first episode on iplayer (if you’re lucky enough to live in the UK) or on your favourite torrent site, or right here: