Yet another momentary lapse on the blogging front. All it means is more Criterion DVDs to list and further films to add to my ever growing “to watch” pile. *shudder*. So here we have: serial killers and arty-porn, cocrophilia and cosmonauts & talky-indies and backwards aging. Hell of a mixed bag.

Week 16:
Man Bites Dog (1992 Dir. Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel and Benoit Poelvoorde)
In The Realm Of The Senses (1976 Dir. Nagisa Oshima)
Week 17:
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975 Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Solaris (1972 Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)
Week 18:
Kicking an Screaming (1995 Dir. Noah Baumbach)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008 Dir. David Fincher)

Previously on The Criterion Collection: Click here

The next in our series of clips from Trainspotting is a big of a sing-song, of sorts. I say of sorts because to be honest, most people were probably too terrified of Niall Sheehy to actually join in. In this scene Begbie briefly speaks about the injustices of “real life”, appearing to Renton (Ross Costigan) as a sort of abstract, heroin-withdrawal apparition. Renton drags himself to his feet and does his best David Byrne impersonation.

Of note: In the original stage adaptation (which is set in the 90′s and not the 80′s) the song of choice was Chumbawamba – Tubthumping…. Yeah, I think you’ll find that setting the show in it’s original era was an infinitely better choice…

Read more about The Devious Theatre Company’s Trainspotting at our homepage
Visit our YouTube account for further clips from this and other shows.

Week number fifteen of the Criterion Challenge brings La Jetée/Sans Soleil (La Jetée being the basis upon which Terry Gilliam made 12 Monkeys) and Schizopolis, one of Soderbergh’s experimental movies he used to do before he decided to get lazy

Below is an embedded video of La Jetée in it’s entirety. Do give it a watch…

La Jetée/Sans Soleil (1962 Dir. Chris Marker):

Schizopolis (1996 Dir. Steven Soderbergh):

Previously on The Criterion Collection: Click here

Episode 4 of Vultures dealt with dates: Poisoned ones. But not the ones you eat. The ones you go on. With a ladyfriend.

“The Case of the Poisoned Dates” hit the internet last January and in case you didn’t get enough of that story, here’s some bonus footage featuring two missing scenes and one extended take. In it, Vultour ineptly prepares for his faux-date with TY Work Experience girl, Janine Drew, whilst Dan McGrain nervously practices his introduction to Jane. Tennyson’s plans are less romantic as he plans a trip to the picturehouse. Hopefully this snippet will make up for the serious lack of Fred Bass and Spade in Episode 4. Enjoy!

For more on Vultures please visit www.vulturespi.com

So, gone are the signature beats of her electronic roots, instead replaced by drones and synthetic ambient sounds. An undercurrent of menace pervades from start to finish that’s genuinely unsettling at times. The opening track, “If I Had A Heart” sets the scene beautifully as it hums and warbles along to lyrics disguised by deep, hollow voice-manipulations. Words slosh in and out of the mix of ambience, accent and vocal gymnastics. Pieces of images appearing out of the dense fog of the eerie, atmospheric soundscapes. There’s also something so very claustrophobic about this album. This claustrophobia never lets up throughout it’s 48 minute lifespan, wherein the pacing remains even and pretty steadfast: without the ‘fast’. What we have here is slow, opaque and strangely calming at times. Less dancey than The Knife and lot more synthy 80′s, like The Cure or Echo and The Bunnymen.

On a side note: The coverart (seen above) looks to be created by Charles Burns. If you havent read Black Hole, I suggest you do. David Fincher is adapting it into a moving picture.

Fever Ray – If I Had A Heart:

Fever Ray – When I Grow Up:

Fever Ray Linkety Links: Wikipedia / MySpace

Week 14 is an all-out French new-wave extravaganza! Having watched Pierrot Le Fou over the Easter weekend, my love for the nouvelle vague has been rekindled.

Masculin Féminin (1966 Dir. Jean-Luc Godard):

Jules and Jim (1962 Dir. François Truffaut):

Previously on The Criterion Collection: Click here

On a Criterion related note: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was recently announced as being numner 476 in the collection. There was, of course, a backlash to this from some Criterion elitists who feel that it’s place isn’t warranted in such a prestigious collection alongside the “continuing series of important classic and contemporary films”. I think this argument is completely undone by this, and this.

Regardless, I quite enjoyed Benjamin Button, even if it was just a repackaged Forrest Gump. The special effects (just like as in Zodiac) where astounding in their subtly, performances were solid all round and as with any Fincher film, it looked incredible.

My only quibble with the CC version of Button is the cover. I understand that for the more commercially viable releases, Criterion need to feature artwork that is more in line with what’s featured on a cinema marquee than what would hang in an art gallery. The slipcases for both The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic are perfect examples of this. Frankly, the poster campaign for Benjamin Button was lazy. Very lazy. Brad Pitt is an extremely bankable actor, but it’s incredibly poor and blatantly obvious if your poster is just his FACE on a black background. The filmmakers may as well be saying: “Look, we don’t have a fucking notion how to market this…but Brad Pitt is in it! You love him, don’t you?”. I would have thought that Criterion might have rectified this by featuring the one decent piece of artwork that was released for the movie. Alas, they chose the floating, giant faces. Anyways, below is the actual Criterion artwork and below that, is the mockup I madeup in Photoshop.

DVD Artwork:

What could have been the artwork:

We close the curtain on Act 1 of Trainspotting with these two new clips from our show that ran last June in the Watergate Theatre.

Clip number one is of Mark Renton’s (Ross Costigan) attempt to finally kick his heroin addiction once and for all. Pip ‘Stephen’ Colfer also features as a foosty old cunt and multiple other roles. Before we hit the stage with the show, many people wondered would this scene remain intact in all it’s scatalogical glory. Those in the shit firing-line in the first two rows on all four nights probably wish we’d dropped the toilet scene entirely. Don’t worry folks, it was only a concoction of Snickers bars, honey and water! And diarrhoea.

Clip numero two is the final scene in Act 1 wherein Renton, Spud (Stephen Colfer) and Alison (Maria Murray) pop some pills and lep about to some Frank Zappa. I absolutely adore this scene due to how overtly insane it feels. I thought it was the perfect way to close an act: the highest of highs before we hit them with the lowest of lows. Kudos to all actors in this scene. Some damn fine merri-go-round miming out of ye!

You can read more about Devious Theatre and our various theatrics at our wonderful interwebsite here.

Devious Theatre’s Trainspotting – Tripping Through the Meadows:

Quite strange for me to be even mentioning this or promoting it considering I’m a week late (sorry Eddie!) but last Friday night in Cleere’s there was a night of 80s music held for charity. All in all, the night was a roaring success. So, if you have access to a time machine, set the time circuits to April 3rd 2009, park up the Delorean on Parliament St and join us a week ago in the past for a great night of 80s music. Ahem.

Above is the poster I made with my hands for the night. Below you can see the initial poster I created that never went to print. Might as well put it here as it’ll just fester away in the bowels of my Macbook if I don’t.