Metropolis

Yesterday me and Anders saw Metropolis at the Broadway. I'll be honest, I really wasn't sure about going. In fact, I was chatting to Nick on the phone just before, declaring "I don't even like songs without words and they're only 3 minutes long!" I had reservations about the length of the film and the length of time it could hold my attention for without any dialogue. In fact I loved it. It was fascinating and beautiful and I barely missed the dialogue/ ambient sounds (footsteps, doors closing etc) after the first 5 minutes. It was definitely a bit long though and I definitely had a little cat nap at the end. In fact as soon as we got home after I had to go to bed. I felt really drained, I think something in the focus and concentration needed for a film without dialogue with a pretty involved storyline just wiped me out.

The film is amazingly well restored which makes it a pleasure to watch - not like some grainy/scratchy/blurry old films. You could see the nuance of expression and it didn't feel too broad and over-acted because of that. Plus you could really see the details of costumes & sets and (even though it sounds silly) I really appreciated much more how people from the olden days (1927 to be exact) actually look pretty similar to people from nowadays. I think they always look so different in photos - stiff & still - that they feel really removed from me and my life. Seeing them crisp and clear moving and talking (silently) made it feel much more relevant for me. In fact, I thought the central male character was reminiscent of Johnny Depp & Ray Liotta.

There were some amazing things in it, and I kept wondering afterwards how much of the stuff we were seeing had been invented by 1927 and how much was sci-fi prediction genius from the director. 

For example, cars... I just checked, and they started being mass-produced in around 1910. Still, there were scenes with four lanes of traffic winding through the Metropolis, which just looked normal to me as a commuter, but in 1927 surely would have seemed a bit crazy?

The Empire State was built by 1931, so I guess the visual of this very tall, imposing, dominant city wouldn't be so unusual at the time. Still, if you were from a small town in England this would have been like Futurama looks to us now I reckon.

There's a scene where the boss of the city talks to one of his workers via telephone & TV screen - like the buzzer systems you get in flats. They were only just inventing television in the 1920s, never mind it being readily available in people's homes.

Finally then, here's the trailer:



And here's a clip I borrowed from Joey's blog, because it shows this incredible dance scene where the evil version of Maria dances and bewitches men into duelling and fighting. Check out how bewitched they are:



Plus you can see some of the effects Lang used, back in 1927 for chrissakes! They did stuff like combining miniature models of sets with real people using mirrors, with everything looking in perfect scale. They also did amazing scenes like the transformation (scene shown in the trailer) manually - exposing each individual piece of film as many as 30 times for shots which ended up lasting only about 10 seconds. Incredible.

I really enjoyed this as an experience at the cinema, and as an experience of seeing the result of lots of people's labours of love looking so beautiful up on screen.

bex
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Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee

Hello!

Went to see a preview screening of "Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee" at the Broadway last week. There was a Q&A afterwards with Shane Meadows, the producer , Paddy Considine and Scor-zay-zee. It was ace. I've read a couple of snotty reviews since (take a bow, The Times) which say "why make a film in 5 days for £48k when you could make it in 7 for £55k and it would be better?". I think it's a great idea and what they are essentially doing is trying to democratise the film-making process a bit.

It helps that the film is really good too. Paddy Considine is amazing as Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee is a natural comedic actor.

It's a mock documentary about a guy who's a roadie, landlord, plumber, manages some musicians and probably more stuff too. Shane Meadows said it's a character Paddy has been doing for years, based on loads of guys they met in the "music industry" (loosely speaking) when they were in a band when they were younger. Le Donk is a bit of a loser, and he sort of knows it and sort of doesn't. He manages Scor-zay-zee (a real-life rapper, not just a character for the film) and tries to get him a support slot when he goes to be a roadie at a big Arctic Monkeys gig.

Contrary to The Times I think the low cost, low time approach has made this feel really real, fresh and fun. Plus when you heard the guys talking at the Q&A you realised that they were so nice, so down-to-earth (Shane meadows told a story about buying a pirate copy of This Is England in a cafe on Alfreton Rd and being genuinely impressed by the quality of it) and so passionate about what they do that it wasn't just an academic excercise for them, it was a way to get back to the basics of film-making for the love of it.

Anyway, here's a little bit of Le Donk for you:



Go and see it at the Broadway, it's on from today.

Bex
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Popcorn, shoots, jumpers and other random things

Hello!

The Hello Thor gig at the Broadway on Saturday was mental. Here are my over-riding memories from the evening:

1 - Dan T's visuals looking AMAZING properly projected on a big screen
2 - Looks of dread from all 3 Hello Thor boys as BattleCat rampaged round the room almost causing destruction
3 - The wonderful aroma as Yunioshi distributed popcorn in cute individual little bags during their set
4 - VERY LOUD Wu Tang Clan as Nick stormed his way through a DJ set
5 - A weird fight and a man being wrestled out... the perils of a late licence
6 - Tez calmly standing by in the big window with a guy who was dancing & almost stripping for the crowd
7 - Saying a man's feet looked like bananas because he had yellow shoes on

In other news, it's Jumpers for Goalposts tomorrow and Hello Thor will be celebrating their birthday with a calamitous Tom Tomas Club performance.

We've planted some vegetables in our garden, after a couple of strenuous weekends building wonky home-made raised beds, and our first shoots are already coming through!! We've got radishes, rocket & lettuce growing away in the garden!

Fists are playing in Sheffield this weekend and at Dot To Dot on Sunday! Can't wait to see them playing live again so I can hear the new song Ace is the Way. It's brilliant!

Tonight is Apprentice night round our way. I love it. What a bunch of idiots. I've got my fingers crossed that James doesn't get booted off because he's ace. A big smiley slightly goofy wordsmith who comes up with beautiful phrases like "codshit". No Sir Alan, fire Braces Ben instead!

Bye for now!

Bex
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Jean Gene-y and Electro Pop-corn

Hello

There's (at least) 2 brilliant things happening this weekend...

1. There's a big charity fundraising party thing (or Arts and Fashion exhibition as I believe the organisers are referring to it!) happening at Lizard Lounge this Friday. For more info check out Leftlion and/or Facebook

2. Me and Tom and Nick are putting on a free gig at Broadway on Saturday.
It's going to be full of 303-busting beats and electronic mayhem. Line, Battlecat! and Yunioshi are playing and there's going to tons of free popcorn for everyone.



Both should be ace.
Hope you can make it
x Anders