It's good. Thank goodness. And the fact that it ends mid-way through the action is a huge plus, avoiding all that sentimental wrapping-up that often accompanies the denouements of the prior films.
If you have not read the Harry Potter books, you may at some points have NO IDEA what is going on. But this does not stop any of the fun. I sometimes found certain lapses of logic and then I snapped out of it: after all, it's a film about a bloody boy wizard flying around the place on a broomstick. HELLO!
The acting in this film is also up a notch, the characters have matured a bit, though they remain stockish. The use of landscape in this film was incredible and, for the first time in a Potter film, I found the special effects completely convincing. Not spoiling things too much I will say this: like in the last film, a major character dies. Be prepared for tears.
Intoxicating song which comes at a crucial moment of Almodovar's last film, Broken Embraces, starring Penelope Cruz.
The film itself is standard Almodovar: dark, self-reflexive, profound and hilarious. It is, like all Almodovar films, essentially a soap opera with a plot so effortlessly convoluted and full of secrets that it cannot be summarised. This time, though, it lacks the edge and genuine complexity of some of the Spanish director's earlier work like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Bad Education and Talk to Her. But it is still unforgettable.
doors open at 7:30pm and films will start at 8:15pm
After last weeks film about Henri-Georges Clouzot's aborted masterpiece INFERNO we bring you his existing one... Les Diaboliques
Les Diaboliques (Henri Georges-Clouzot/France/1954/116')
Legend has it that Henri-Georges Clouzot beat out Alfred Hitchcock to secure the rights to this novel, which proved to be a veritable blueprint for an icy masterpiece of murder, mystery and suspense. Afterwards, the story goes a fellow told Alfred Hitchcock that after his daughter saw Psycho she refused to take a shower and that after she saw Diabolique she refused to get in a bathtub. Well, Hitchcock said, send her to the dry cleaners.
Véra Clouzot plays the sickly wife of a callous headmaster of a provincial boarding school going to seed, and the commanding Simone Signoret is the headmaster's mistreated mistress. Together they plot and carry out his murder, a brutal drowning that director Clouzot documents in chilly detail, but the corpse disappears and a nosy detective starts sniffing around the grounds as threatening notes taunt the women. Clouzot's thriller is as precise and accomplished a work as anything in Hitchcock's canon, a film of gruelling suspense and startling shocks in an overcast, grey world of decay. Some have accused the film of being misanthropic, and Clouzot's attitude toward his characters is bitter at best, contemptuous at worst. The viewer is left on the outside looking in, but the razor precision and terrifying twists deliver a sleek, bleak spectacle absolutely worthy of attention.The end caption of the film pleads with the audience not to reveal the ending of the film to any of their friends,a truly influential, intelligent, and unforgettable film.
This new Performance work by the artist A k u z u r u will be presented on two separate days at the COCO Dance Festival 2010: Moving Movement Museum. Performance art, though not traditionally a dance medium, is very much an interactive genre characterized by unrehearsed situations, which establishes uncontrived results. Because of its spontaneous, experimental and extended spatial process as a given, movement and stasis become the engine of its connective projections.
Act 1 RED: the prelude to the main performance on Sunday, will be in motion on Friday 26 November at 8.30pm from the Alice Yard Art Space on the street.
Act 2 WHITE: continuing as a much more extended presentation, will be in motion on Sunday 28 November. Starting at 5.45pm with a walking action from the General Hospital in Port of Spain, around the Queens Park Savannah route to Alice Yard, this performance will continue from Alice Yard at 7.30 pm on the street. The public is invited to ‘walk with me’ before viewing the main performance later on.
ABOUT:
A k u z u r u is an Experiential Artist who is known for her performance art and large sculptural-installation works. Born in Trinidad, her works have been shown internationally in the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia. Interdisciplinary in approach, the artist creates intense experiences, working primarily in the natural environment in site specific situations. Just a few examples of where she has participated in and presented her works include the Nottinghill Carnival in London; LIFT:_London International Festival of Theatre; The London Samba Festival; the 2nd. Biennale de Martinique; Rockstone & Bootheel Exhibition in USA; Solo exhibition at the National Museum of Trinidad & Tobago; Solo exhibition at the Caribbean Contemporary Arts (CCA) and her epic journey Earthology India in India.
COCO Dance Festival ’10 presents the Moving Movement Museum at Alice Yard and Bohemia
The Contemporary Choreographers’ Collective - nicknamed COCO - is a group of independent choreographers - Dave Williams, Nicole Wesley, Nancy Herrera and Sonja Dumas – which offers performance support for choreographers working in unconventional ways in Trinidad and Tobago. COCO will host its second annual dance festival from Friday, November 26th to Sunday, November 28th – this time in a series of unusual spaces.
Showtimes are as follows: Friday, November 26th and Saturday, November 27th – 8:00pm; Sunday, November 28th – 7:00pm. Tickets are available from the choreographers and from the organizers. Kindly call 622-4426 to make reservations. Security will be provided.
It's looking like a cross between Iron Man and... Iron Man. With Chris Evans (the flame from FantasticFive...or Four?) There are concerns over the tired tones:
"There is a distinct whiff of Iron Man to the debut trailer for Green Lantern, which hit the web earlier this week. Cocky hero plunged unexpectedly into superherodom and required to shape up to new responsibilities? Check. Rousing hard rock soundtrack? Check. Attractive female discarded with wisecracking insouciance? Yes, Green Lantern even borrows an early scene from Jon Favreau's 2008 film---Guardian, UK.
Simply put a_phake rocks! This INTERVIEW at Outlish online magazine (a favorite) also features some of his EDM tracks. You can also CHECK him out on MySpace here. PHOTO by Arnaldo JJ.
Do I want to make these items relate? Do I want to stamp one as a product, re-appropriated like the emotions of the individual? Do I want to draw lines between the hangman's hidden noose and the nails on the wall from which the clips hang? Little hangings, all. Little lives, bare. Paper and paint and boxes? Re-interpreted in a different manner every time. And thereby re-appropriated by the mind. Several minds.
"Why are they being labeled here in Trinidad? What would the value of labeling my work this way in narratives of development and progress?"
FROM Christopher Cozier's blog. READ an interview with Cozier, on the eve on the opening of a show at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, here.
The year is almost over, and there is still plenty of time to see lots of films but I thought I'd mention which were among my favorites for 2010 thus far:
1) I must start with I Am Love, which I love. It's a deeply melodramatic, but stunning, stylish and bravura film with Tilda Swinton playing a Russian-Italian woman. Nuf said? It's all very glossy and beautiful, but with a deeper purpose and intention in mind. The closing scenes are unforgettable, and so is Tilda Swinton who suggests oceans of emotion without batting an eyelash. Amazing. The soundtrack features music by the great American composer John Adams.
2) Reading a summary of this film, you'd be forgiven for thinking this the Brokeback Mountain for orthodox jews. Eyes Wide Open is so much more than that. This is one of the most fascinating, beautiful and compelling films I have ever seen. The attention to craft is subtle and non-ostentatious. Discover it yourself. It's probably the best film of the year, and one of the best films of the decade.
3) What more do I have to say about Inception? It is clear that the film has now transcended its commercial success and entered the public imagination in a way that only landmark films or cultural phenomena do. What I notice now about the movie, looking back, is that part of its allure is how it tries relentlessly to engage the audience's grey matter. It was almost as though Christopher Nolan, in a stroke of marketing counter-programming genius, said: I know, people are so starved for intelligent film that if I make an over-the-top film that requires some degree of complex mind-processing, then this will be a huge hit. So said, so done. In a sense, we have people like Tyler Perry to thank for this.
4) Simply put The Ghost Writer--starring Ewan McGregor--is Roman Polanski's best film in decades. Smooth, suave, assured, beautifully edited and with a political sub-text that is rare, this is the work of a director at the peak of his abilities. It also has a self-reflective context, given Polanski's arrest this year. You cannot miss this. Intriguing.
5) Edward Norton. Robert DeNiro. Frances Conroy. Compelling in an unnerving way. A blazing, messy, complex and rewarding film. The film has some dark humour. And it's worth it just seeing Norton's hair.
I disagree with Roger Ebert who claims this is one of the best films of the year.
My favorite films this year, thus far, are: Eyes Wide Open, Inception, The Social Network, The Ghost Writer and Stone. The American simply does not make the cut.
It is not suspenseful and is rather slow-burning in a bad, predictable way. George Clooney is dreary in a dreary film with no life. I guess this mirrors the central character's dilemna, but alas, the film replicates this far too effectively.
We sit and watch for minutes and minutes as nothing really happens, and then he dies at the end (or kinda) as he drives towards a woman he likes. People in the cinema walked out constantly. Sheesh. It's like the James Bond film when he gets married and then the wife dies. Cept this time its the man, not the woman, that goes down in the name of love.
Rating: **
From the best film of the year, Eyes Wide Open. WATCH trailer here.
You sit on it. You carry it. You connect it. You leave it. You leave half. You leave all. You leave none. You hear it scrape the floor. You knock it. It knocks you. You hide it. You reveal it. You disguise it. You get to know it. It holds on. It holds you.
THIS IS NEW WORK by Marlon Darbeau. SEE MORE HERE. Photos by Damian Libert.
An artificial face, for an offensively artificial character, in an offensively artificial movie.
How dare the makers of For Coloured Girls bring Nina Simone into their stinkie kankatang? Tyler Perry has hit rock bottom here with this offensive crap. Here are the reasons why:
1.I know it's based on the 1975 "choreopoem" For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, but since when have we reverted to the practice of calling black people "coloured"?
2.Nothing in this film is inherently unique to black people. Perry's adaptation has turned something that might work on stage into something quite offensive. In fact, on screen, it all comes across as a re-reinforcement of black stereotypes: black preacher woman, black slutty woman, black bitter woman, black indie woman, black abusive husband, black virile rapist man, black criminals...and on and on, with dialogue that--when it veers from the original poetry of the play--is itself a stereotype. The irony is that Perry's target audience is mainly black people everywhere. The movie should have been called: For People of Every Race Willing to Fork Out Money For This Offensive Crap.
3.Homophobia. This one needs some explaining.
Once upon a time, when Tyler Perry first broke out, he was seen as an aberration. Here was a black man who appeared in his own movies in drag. Remember Medea anyone? Black man playing a grandma. Ha. Ha. How wonderfully liberal! some thought.
Then the films happened to us. One by one they horrified us after his first big smash Diary of a Mad Black Woman--which incidentally had nothing to do with blackness or insanity.
For instance he cast Janet Jackson repeatedly in a series of forgettable movies that gave us a glimpse of his homophobic streak. Film after film, he presented black married male characters living straight lives who were actually gay. These characters were all treated as freaks: aberrations. For two movies in a row (Why Did I Get Married and Why Did I Get Married 2) Jackson played a woman in a relationship with a closeted gay man. Now, for yet a third time, Perry casts Jackson to do the same thing this time with characters not in the original play who are now specifically inserted by Perry to give Jackson yet another bite at the cherry (pun intended).
As you might expect, once more the black closeted man who is unable to come to terms with his sexuality is demonised: he did it all to hurt the woman and not because he was unable to come to terms with his identity. This time around, though, Perry turns up the offensiveness by adding another offensive stereotype involving HIV and gay people.
Janet Jackson's character coughs in scene after scene during the movie, then finds out that she is HIV positive. Suddenly, after years of being in a relationship and seeing her husband lust after other men, she realises her husband is sleeping with men. How so, you wonder? Why naturally because she has HIV and got it from him and he could have only gotten it from another gay man as we all know HIV is a gay disease.
The only disease here is Tyler Perry.
4.What is with the plastic surgery Janet? This is what she used to look like when the surgery was only mild:
Apparently not pleased with her black features, she now finds herself in a black movie in which her character bashes her husband for being true to himself by admitting his sexuality. The offensiveness is mind-boggling. People should boycott Jackson just because of the alarming message her face (see poster at top of post) now sends. I mean Michael overdid it too, but at least his music was good.
5. The disgraceful treatment of Nina Simone's 'Four Women'.
The trailer for the film has the song performed as a cover and takes the raw (supposedly 'un-commercial') elements of the original out. By the time the movie ends and the credits begin to role, Nina's version is played. For a moment you just want to forget the crap you just watched and listen to Nina. Then, the inferior cover version comes on! Bye bye Nina. The disgrace. It's a shame so many good actors are in this twaddle.
"As an artist who has been working steadily for more than 30 years, I decided to revisit my techniques and products with strong resolve to retain what has been successful and discard what has stalled and become redundant. Above all, I have summoned the creativity to produce some very large pieces from water-colour and mixed media...My intention is to maintain a high level of energy and consistency"--Sudiata on his upcoming exhibition, 'Sundiata Revisited'.
The exhibition, put on by 101 Art Gallery, runs November 9 - 18 at the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago, Cnr St Vincent Avenue and Jamaica Blvd, Federation Park, Port-of-Spain.
Fidel Castro greets the Lydians on his visit to Trinidad
The Lydians are so popular that even dictator Fidel Castro has greeted them.
FROM THE ORGANISERS:
The Lydians present
the Southern Caribbean Premiere of the Misa Cubana
This year the Lydians Christmas music, the Misa Cubana, comes from our own place in the world, the northern Caribbean. While the Misa Cubana (Cuban Mass) has been performed in Europe, the US, Mexico and Cuba, December will mark its southern Caribbean premiere. It is also the first time that the work of the living-legend, contemporary Cuban pianist and composer, Jose Maria Vitier, will be performed in Trinidad, as far as the Lydians have been able to ascertain.
The Lydians have been in active communication with both Maestro Vitier and the local Cuban community who are taking an active and participatory interest in this production. Vitier dedicated this mass to La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (The Virgin of Charity of Cobre), the patron saint of Cuba.
Lydians Misa Cubana
Queen’s Hall
Thursday 09, Friday 10, Saturday 11 December 8.15pm
On seeing this, it is clear that it engages, in a somewhat wicked way, two issues touching the black experience.
1) the idea of the exoticised "other"; the highly sexual, sexualised, hung black man and
2) the trans-Atlantic slavery trade.
These two must be examined closer. For 2) is, of course, linked to 1), considering the practice of slave-owners paying more for studs meant to increase and multiply their property (ie human beings).
The objectification of slaves, mirrors the objectification of the male form, the stereotyping of that form, the diminishing of the form itself by the focus on one arbitrary point and the failure to disentangle race from ideas of sex.
"My friends are part of a huge, fabulous exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design in New York in two weeks.
Last night I sat in Alice Yard in Woodbrook , Trinidad and watched as they took pictures of the products and installation art they designed for the show before they were shipped off for display until 2013..."
From my favorite CRB cover: Little Crippled Haiti (2006), by Édouard Duval Carrié; mixed media on aluminium, 48 x 48 inches; courtesy the artist and Bernice Steinbaum Gallery
In November and December 2010, the CRB is running a readers’ donation drive.
FROM CRB EDITOR NICHOLAS LAUGHLIN:
It’s six months since the CRB relaunched online with a new website and a renewed sense of purpose — that purpose being the sustained and serious, insightful and intelligent, but also accessible and entertaining coverage of contemporary Caribbean books and writing alongside art, film, and music.
The CRB is the only magazine in the anglophone Caribbean devoted to this kind of broad literary and cultural criticism for a general audience. Since our relaunch, we’ve published three bimonthly issues — dated May, July, andSeptember 2010 — filled with dozens of book reviews, as well as profiles and essays, original poems and fiction, interviews, artists’ portfolios, and film and music reviews. The full contents of each issue are freely available — there is no subscription fee — and we’re gradually transferring our six-year archive to the new website.
And what keeps the CRB engine running? The hard work of our small staff and our contributing writers. The generosity of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, who currently support the maintenance and growth of our website and archive. And you, dear readers.
