Thursday, August 28, 2014

Martin Scorsese’s List Of The 39 Foreign Films You Should See Before You Die


I dig the list, but man, where the hell is The World of Apu by Satyajit? Nights of Cabiria by Fellini? Come on! Without these two it's not a real list. What else is missing?

Link below goes to article and trailers of many films:


1. Nosferatu (1922) - F.W. Murnau
2. Metropolis (1927)- Fritz Lang
3. Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922) – Fritz Lang
4. Napoleon (1927) – Abel Gance
5. Grand Illusion (1937)– Jean Renoir
6. Rules Of The Game (1939) – Jean Renoir
7. Children Of Paradise (1945) - Marcel Carné
8. Rome, Open City (1945) - Roberto Rossellini
9. Paisà (Paisan) (1946) - Roberto Rossellini 
10. La Terra Trema (1948) – Luchino Visconti 
11. The Bicycle Thief (1948) – Vittorio De Sica
12. Umberto D. (1952) – Vittorio De Sica
13. Beauty & The Beast (1946) – Jean Cocteau
14. Tokyo Story (1953) – Yasujirō Ozu
15. Ikiru (1952) – Akira Kurosawa
16. Seven Samurai (1954) – Akira Kurosawa
17. Ugetsu (1953) – Kenji Mizoguchi
18. Sansho The Bailiff (1954) – Kenji Mizoguchi
19. High and Low (1963) – Akira Kurosawa
20. Big Deal On Madonna Street (1958) – Mario Monicelli
21. Rocco and His Brothers (1960) – Luchino Visconti
22. The 400 Blows (1959) – François Truffaut
23. Shoot the Piano Player (1960) – François Truffaut
24. Breathless (1960) – Jean-Luc Godard
25. Band of Outsiders (1964) – Jean-Luc Godard
26. Il Sorpasso (1962) – Dino Risi
27. L'avventura (1960) – Michelangelo Antonioni
28. Blow Up (1966) – Michelangelo Antonioni
29. Before the Revolution (1964) - Bernardo Bertolucci
30. Le boucher (1970) - Claude Chabrol
31. Weekend - (1967) Jean-Luc Godard 
32. Death by Hanging (1968) - Nagisa Ôshima
33. The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
34. Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (1974) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
35. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
36. Kings of the Road (1976) – Wim Wenders
37. The American Friend (1970) – Wim Wenders
38. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) –Werner Herzog
39. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) –Werner Herzog

Thursday, August 21, 2014

amazing young poet I saw last night at Hollywood Bowl

She was great because she wrote about what she FEELS, not what she thinks we feel. So good, so encouraging. To all you young writers out there - write what you feel!

I was there, I felt it. Her words, emotions, thoughts. No bullshit or pretension. Just honesty.



Young Poet Steals John Legend Show With Ferguson Tribute


Click on link to watch her perform her poem:

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

8 Creative Writing Tips from Kurt Vonnegut

#2 is my favorite and yes, 3# equally important. Who wants to hang out with people they don't like in real life - why the hell would you want to watch someone on the screen for two hours if they're unlikable - in some way.


  • Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
  • Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
  • Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
  • Start as close to the end as possible.
  • Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
  • Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
  • Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
  • Monday, August 18, 2014

    This! (Degas landscape)


    I want to create/shoot a scene which can look like this. Yes. With people talking. Will it be a dream? Or how the future will look?

    "To love beauty is to see light." -- Victor Hugo

    Indeed. Embrace beauty, we have but one life. 

    Friday, August 8, 2014

    John Cleese talks about what is creativity and how to stimulate it.

    Great talk on creativity by John Cleese. Gotta be "open!"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmY4-RMB0YY#t=53

    Karl Ove Knausgaard interview (LA Review of Books)

    Great interview with  Karl Ove Knausgaard who's written a very autobiographical novel of some 3500 pages, published in 6 volumes. I've read book one and am now on book two. Really good.


    What makes the book so hypnotic is both its size and its apparent elasticity. In approximately 3,600 pages, Knausgaard chronicles his own transition from boyhood to adulthood, including meditations on death, marriage, art, and children. The book is so expansive that it manages to include a 400-page essay on Hitler as well as lengthy, detailed descriptions of daily routine. His readers have stood by in silence, like the best of friends, as Karl Ove made a standard midweek meal, flicked the lamp on, smoked a cigarette. Whose preferences for cleaning products do you know other than your mother’s, your lover’s, your own? If you’ve read Book One, you also know Karl Ove’s. 

    http://lareviewofbooks.org/interview/karl-ove-knausgaard

    Thursday, August 7, 2014

    FEATURED BOOK: How To Make a Feature Film For Under 25K by James Savoca

    FEATURED BOOK: How To Make a Feature Film For Under 25K by James Savoca

    New_gorilla_SocialMedia_FINALGenre: non fiction
    If you are thinking about or planning to make a low budget feature film, this book will show you all the tricks to keep it affordable and provide a critical checklist to get a film in the can that you can sell. The author, indie filmmaker and USC film professor James Savoca, debuted with the ultra-low budget film Sleepwalk that premiered at The South by Southwest Festival and sold to the Independent Film Channel. Here he gives a concise, practical step-by-step breakdown of surprisingly affordable independent filmmaking.
    Savoca explains how to develop the right idea for an indie production, how to raise funds, how to secure crew and actors, and prep your film for completion, all for $25,000 or less! The digital revolution is here, with incredible access to low cost camera and lighting equipment, editing systems and no budget distribution. This book can turn a regular person into a filmmaker without a studio, allowing anyone to become a “gorilla filmmaker.”

    Tuesday, August 5, 2014

    Peace


    AROUND JUNE on showtime

    Folks, peddlers, athletes, scholars, students and all else,

    My last film Around June is currently playing on Showtime. Below is a link to their site with times. Ya dig?

    http://www.sho.com/sho/movies/titles/3408214/around-june#/index


    AROUND JUNE:


    Upcoming Airings (All Times ET/PT)


    Thu, Aug 07, 7:45 AM
    SHO NEXT
    Thu, Aug 07, 6:25 PM
    SHO NEXT
    Fri, Aug 08, 10:30 AM
    SHO 2
    Mon, Aug 11, 8:45 AM
    SHO NEXT
    Wed, Aug 13, 6:10 PM
    SHO 2
    Sat, Aug 16, 11:05 AM
    SHO NEXT
    Sun, Aug 17, 2:15 PM
    SHO 2
    Wed, Aug 20, 12:55 PM
    SHO NEXT
    Sun, Aug 24, 2:00 PM
    SHO NEXT
    Mon, Aug 25, 7:00 AM
    SHO 2
    Thu, Aug 28, 11:30 AM
    SHO NEXT
    Sat, Aug 30, 9:30 AM
    SHO 2
    Sun, Aug 31, 4:40 AM
    SHO 2

    Monday, August 4, 2014

    good interview with JOHN LURIE

    A new, honest interview with my old pal John Lurie, not like that piece of crap The New Yorker had years back. This is an interview, not a bullshit "journalistic" piece on the man, brother, painter, actor, blower of horns, etc.

    "I root for whoever is behind." Amen.

    Article here:

    http://pleasekillme.com/a-sad-and-beautiful-life-my-conversation-with-john-lurie/