Cracks, the feature length debut of Jordan Scott
by Directed by Jordan Scott, the daughter of Ridley Scott, and starring the sensual Eva Green, Cracks is an unsettling, yet tragically beautiful movie set in the lush surrounds of the English countryside and featuring a Lord of the Flies-ish storyline in which a group of English boarding school students turn on a new Spanish-born classmate when they feel threatened by her evident exotic-ness and worldliness. With a dark subtext in which boundaries between teacher and student and the students themselves are increasingly blurred, and beguiling cinematography, this film, which I saw at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, provides plenty of talking points, not the least of being the stunning performance of Green as the teacher whose fantasises about a life that she had never had the opportunity to live ultimately lead to a calamitous outcome.
Tagged: Eva Green, TIFF, Toronto, Toronto International Film Festival
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Turtle: The Incredible Journey
This beautiful documentary charts the journey of a loggerhead turtle from its traumatic hatching on a Floridian beach and its frantic scramble to make it to the sea, to its battles with the currents as it makes its way on its genetically programmed path of discovery through the temperamental oceans. Partly fictionalized to allow for the many years over which the ‘journey’ takes place, the cinematography is stunning and the storyline engrossing, making this one of the standout screenings at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.
Dorian Gray, as directed by Oliver Parker
Whilst in Toronto last weekend for the International Film Festival, I caught a screening of Dorian Gray, the superbly realised adaptation of the Oscar Wilde classic which first appeared nearly 100 years ago in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine and now stars the unheralded Ben Barnes and the meticulously brilliant Colin Firth. Directed by Oliver Parker, the film is a dark, dangerous, yet stunningly shot expose on the trappings of beauty and the inherent temptations that its combination with youth and curiosity can bring. The costume design, in particular, is wonderful, not just for the aspirational seduction of the draping and the romanticisim of the accessories, but for its shaping of an alluring but frightening world where darkness and light go hand in hand and the descent into madness is both sudden and expected. This is a compelling film, though not without its flaws. Mind you, the best of them rarely are.
Toronto International Film Festival
I’m off to Toronto this weekend to check out a few of the films that are screening as part of the Toronto International Film Festival [TIFF] — a charitable, not-for-profit cultural organization. All up, there will be 335 films from 64 countries screening over ten days, so I’ll be scrambling to fit a few in, but some of the highlights include Mr. Nobody [photo above], ‘which tells the story of Nemo, the world’s oldest man’; Crab Trap, ‘a meditative look at daily life in a remote village on the Pacific coast of Colombia’; and She, A Chinese, ‘a hybrid of documentary, creative writing, visual poetry and cinema’.
Also by ZOLTON
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Filmmaker creates LEGO stop motion to propose to girlfriend
Now, this is one for the ages: back in 2010, Atlanta film-maker Walter Thompson created a jaw-dropping LEGO stop motion to propose to Nealey Dozier, his girlfriend of four years. The video took 22 hours of shooting and some 2,600 pictures to splice together, a small sacrifice to pay for years of happiness together. Right? Right! Oh, and she said yes. Bonus.
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A lot of dark, metal-inspired art these days tilts heavily towards horror vacui style busyness, but Russian artist Denis Forkas Kostromitin goes for thick atmosphere and brooding moodiness over fussy and intricate lines. Think black and doom metal versus technical death metal. Read more
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Heavy metal and hip-hop are perhaps the most popular forms of rebellion for kids the world over. In Malaysia, metal — particularly black metal — has taken such a strong hold that the Fatwa Council there banned it, fearing that the music would compel listeners to rebel against religion. Contrary to the council’s intentions, black metal is as popular as ever in Malaysia, and is a recognizable cultural touchstone there, as indicated by the above clip from the 2005 film Filem Rock.
Canadian designer Michael Surtees takes pictures of the same patch of sky every day as seen from his Manhattan apartment. Read more
As often as possible, the Hence72 blog will be publishing a thought-provoking illustration accompanied by a random quotation. Sounds like fun, huh? Come play. Read more
Metal icon Peter Tägtgren has produced the harshest and most underground music of the European metal scene — Immortal, Dimmu Borgir, Celtic Frost, among many others. His own band, Hypocrisy, is one of the most revered melodic death metal bands in the world. Read more
Luxury goods have been getting a bad rap lately, and for good reason. Now I don’t know how you roll, but we don’t know many people who enjoy covering themselves head-to-toe in someone else’s initials. Yet for some reason designers think that diamante logos and monogrammed tapestries are the best mediums to communicate their brand. So it’s just as well LA based eyewear label Barton Perreira doesn’t play by the rules. Starting out less than a year ago, you won’t find their designs getting over-excited by insignia. Instead, these guys hand make their frames in Japan to rely on precision, fit and design. And that’s the way it should be.
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Cookie Boy’s creative cookie designs
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Communication prosthesis by Sascha Nordmeyer
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Danot has created a stunning line of new illustrated tanks and tees, featuring our latest obsession, the Forlorn tanktop. Is it a bird? Or a face? Or all of the above? Dive into this graphic and decide for yourself. While you’re there, check out the other great new Danot pieces in the Lost At E Minor store
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Zac Zavos said | 25 September, 2009
Looks like a cracker of a film.