For those of you interested in "the man behind the curtain," an interview I did for Film in Focus' blog went up yesterday. All of the questions related to this here blog as part of their Behind the Blog series, which they started little over two years ago with our ol' pal Andrew Grant. Let me know what you think. The goal for the day is to get some more of the Decade List's entries written up, but I've had a cold that's been annoying and wishy-washy (it can't decide whether it wants to turn into a full one or go away) for the past couple of weeks. With just over two months left in the year, I'm trying to wind things down, but I'm still taking suggestions if you think of some films I must see before even attempting to embark on a Best of the Decade list.
Also, I just noticed that the Butt Magazine Blog put up some great photos of Rossy de Palma, one of my favorite of Almodóvar's muses. de Palma, who has an all-too-brief appearance in Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos], was interviewed in a recent "straight" issue from Butt.
I had heard a while back that Lorber Films were looking to, or had already, acquired Ursula Meier's Home, which stars Isabelle Huppert and Olivier Gourmet as bohemian parents of three children whose happy existence is threatened by the opening of a new highway about twenty feet in front of their once secluded abode. Home was selected as Switzerland's official submission for next year's foreign language Academy Award, and according to Variety, Lorber Films will release it in New York on 27 November. I'll be writing about the film soon. Think of a warmer The Seventh Continent. Or... maybe not.
Wow, I have been looking for his kever for many years. It's a shame that its fading away. Do you know what it would cost to replace?
Rabbi Klein:
Around $5,000.
A little steep, I'll see what can be done.
I falsely assumed that the closer I got to the present, the bigger the music posts would get... and while 2007 has 120 individual songs singled out, I couldn't find much more than ten, or eleven, albums worth listing as my favorite. Naturally, PJ Harvey's finest offering this decade, the piano-based, moody, stripped-down White Chalk, topped the list. It's perfect timing, seeing as it's been close to two years and a month since White Chalk was released, and I can think of no better autumn album (though the weather here has been more nasty than mild this year).
By limiting his second full-length album to close to half the self-titled's songs, a single disc and a lot less "Daft Punk Is Coming to My House" obnoxiousness, LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy crafted an amazing, layered electronica album in Sound of Silver. The sole pop album, Kylie Minogue's X, felt disappointing upon its release, but, at least for me, has managed to hold up two years later, certainly better than M.I.A.'s Kala, a step up from her debut (aside from the grudgingly overplayed "Paper Planes") but an album whose delights reveal themselves too quickly. No Age's Weirdo Rippers filled in at the eleventh spot as it technically isn't an album as much as it is a compilation of their previous EPs. The rest of the albums below are listed in vague order of preference.
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Again, I've singled out the best songs, in my not-so-humble, extremely-biased opinion. Below you'll find the Top 35, an arbitrary round-ish number, in descending order of preference. Below that you'll find 85 more songs, not organized in any way. Strangely, I have little to say this year.
I will, however, point you to some of the more impressive music videos (some of which weren't released until 2008 with the actual single). Naturally, Feist's lovely "1234" [d. Patrick Daughters], Kanye West's "Flashing Lights" [d. Spike Jonze], Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." [d. Jonas & François] (which was nominated for MTV's Video Music Award for Best Video, only to lose to Rihanna's "Umbrella." Similar to the year the Academy nominated David Lynch for Mulholland Drive, MTV should have just not nominated the video if they weren't going to give it to them), Björk's "Dull Flame of Desire" featuring Antony Hegarty [d. Christoph Jantos, Masahiro Mogari, Marçal Cuberta Juncà] (a collaborative video combining three fan-submitted ideas that works rather seamlessly) and M.I.A.'s "Jimmy" [d. Nezar Khammal].
Special mention for two live-recorded Beirut videos, for "Nantes" and "Cliquout" (with Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear lending his vocals instead of Zach). And for the person who got Beyoncé and Shakira to look like the same damn person!
PJ Harvey - "Dear Darkness" [White Chalk]
Dr. Dog - "Heart It Races" [Architecture in Helsinki - Heart It Races single]
Kylie Minogue - "Wow" [X]
Ra Ra Riot - "Dying Is Fine" [Ra Ra Riot EP]
BARR - "The Song Is the Single" [Summary]
Yoko Ono - "Walking on Thin Ice (Pet Shop Boys Electro Remix)" [on both Ono's Open Your Box and Pet Shop Boys' Disco Four]
Vera November - "Our Last Night Together" [Four Songs by Arthur Russell compilation]
Sophie Ellis-Bextor - "Me and My Imagination" [Trip the Light Fantastic]
Pantha du Prince - "Saturn Strobe" [This Bliss]
Though MPI, IFC Films has announced several more DVD releases for the first part of 2010, most notably Philippe Garrel's Frontier of the Dawn [La frontière de l'aube] for 26 January. The only worthwhile Blu-ray I saw announced was a 20th anniversary edition of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas from Warner, slated for 16 February. Lionsgate also announced a Joel Schumacher film that I (predictably) haven't heard of, changing the title (predictably) to sound more horrific, from Town Creek to Blood Creek. The film (predictably) stars a trio of British heartthrobs: Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill and Michael Fassbender. The DVDs below are listed in descending order of release.
- 9, 2009, d. Shane Acker, Focus Features, also on Blu-ray, 29 December
