As It Is In Heaven
This film is now a couple of years old, but has slipped past unnoticed by most to DVD obscurity, despite collecting many accolades along the way. A famous conductor suffers a heart attack and retires to his isolated hometown to rest. What he is searching for though is a particular purity of sound where both emotion and voice combine into something ethereal. He attempts to live as a recluse, but is coaxed into helping with the local choir and at this point the film could easily divert to the much travelled road of heart-warming drama and comedy. Instead it sticks to a more interesting route and while there are some helpings of slickly feel-good, for the most part the supporting characters are drawn with enough depth and complexity that cliché is avoided. Ultimately, it is an uplifting story, but told with such grace and originality that it can’t fail to be deeply affecting. Keep the tissues close by and be ready to feel good about yourself.
Tagged: cool foreign films
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I saw a show of Cherie Weaver’s a few years back at a local café in Austin and absolutely fell in love with her style and the little goat/human/squirrel creatures that inhabit many of her pieces. So much so that I commissioned her to do the artwork for my album, One Thing Right.
Andrea Innocent’s work is heavily influenced by Japanese art and culture. Themes range from investigations into the cult of Otaku, to traditional Japanese folk tales and textiles. Read more
The Australian film collective behind the sci-fi spoof, The Time That Time Forgot, perfectly capture the look and feel of awkward, low-budget rip-offs from the ’70s — the psychedelic lighting, bad dubbing, and amazing hair. One almost wishes Italian Spiderman was for real. [more about Italian Spiderman]
Can this be true? Florent, the legendary eatery of New York’s Meat Packing District, is about to become the next victim of sky-rocketing Manhattan leases. Luckily we still have one more month to be nostalgic at Florent. I’m going (with a whole bunch of friends) this weekend. Read more
Woohoo! Another flash game that actually tests your cognitive abilities. LightBot is a difficult, but satisfying game in which you direct a little robot using a system of simple commands in order to light up various squares on a grid. The first few levels guide you through the seemingly easy process, but when there are multiple sets of directions requiring you to write what are essentially codes, it can get pretty hairy.
The Phenomenal Handclap Band is a collection of musicians and artists from Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who perform live as an eight-member powerhouse, creating an eye-popping spectacle more akin to a spiritual church revival than a rock show. We have their single, 15 to 20, available for free download via the Music Download section of Lost At E Minor.
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My band, Bloody Panda, used to perform on stage wearing executioner hoods. We’ve stopped doing that, but I’m going to suggest that we all wear panda hat/scarves.
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