The scenes around this moment were the best for me. Awed scientists and tense military gathering for ‘first contact’. After the appearance of Gort, and the ‘unpeeling’ of Klaatu, I started to get bored. The pace was slow and the characters dull. It’s a great story, it just didn’t feel like a great movie. By the time the ‘apocalypse cloud’ showed up, I didn’t care. Big disappointment, same as I am Legend.
2012 might be more dramatic. It’s a doomsday thriller based on the Ancient Mayan calendar which ends on Dec 12th 2012. According to some, Dec 12th is the dawn of a new enlightened age. To others it’s the dawn of Armageddon… queue 2012 the movie with epic natural disasters. If the trailer is anything to go by, the special effects will be impressive.
Filming of the new Bond movie hit a snag when a local mayor crashed into the set. The mayor’s action was a protest against the scenes being set in his local town – Baquedano, on the outskirts of Antofagasta in northern Chile, which is being used to represent Bolivia.
“In the film Bond only briefly visits Bolivia, but the decision by the producers to use locations in Chile to represent Bolivia has inflamed local tensions,” the Telegraph reports. “Protest in a Chilean newspaper read: Chile is Chile. We’re not Bolivian Indians. Imperialist British out.”
“I disagree with national territory being used as locations [to represent] other countries,” said the mayor, Carlos Lopez. “Even in a fictional film, unfortunately, friendly, neighbouring countries use decisions like this to make unjustified claims.”
According the Telegraph: “Chileans traditionally look down on the poorer Bolivians and there have been protests about the Bond crew using Bolivian flags and uniforms while filming on the streets of Antofagasta. Bolivian militants clashed with Chilean border guards when filming began…”
No one was hurt during the mayor’s protest, and he was detained for causing a public disorder. Full story
One of last year’s bizarre but true productions will soon be played out in the UK – an operatic version of Lost Highway, the gritty film noir by David Lynch (released 1997).
According to the TimesOnline: “you might be familiar with one key scene. A charming but psychopathic gangster called Mr Eddy has just brutally kicked a man within an inch of his life for committing an antisocial act. A car mechanic called Pete looks on with some horror. “Sorry about that, Pete,” says the gangster, “but I just can’t stand it when somebody doesn’t obey the rules. That’s one thing I cannot tolerate.” “I can see that,” says the mechanic.
Now imagine those lines being rendered as part of an opera. The gangster is rapping in a rhythmic, jagged, Brech-tian speech-song, leaping from low growls to high-pitched squeaks, while the mechanic responds with a sweet, bel-canto whimper. “You like pornos?” growls the gangster, suddenly changing the subject. “Give you a boner?” “No thank you, sir,” sighs the mechanic, in his prettiest operatic voice.
It’s both terrifying and hilarious, like watching Lynch’s already disorientating film noir being played through a wobbly circus mirror. Welcome to the rehearsal studios of English National Opera…”
The opera was written by Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth. It premiered in her home town of Graz, in 2003, and was performed last year at Miller Theatre in co-production with ColumbiaUniversity. Lynch gave his full support to the adaption, and the outcome gets a thumbs-up, according to a New York Times review: “The resulting score is enigmatic and labyrinthine, constantly morphing from one thing to the next. Ms. Neuwirth … knows how to bend and twist sound like no other.”
It will interesting to see how the work is received by UK critics. The opera opens on April 4 at the Young Vic. Full story
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The scenes around this moment were the best for me. Awed scientists and tense military gathering for ‘first contact’. After the appearance of Gort, and the ‘unpeeling’ of Klaatu, I started to get bored. The pace was slow and the characters dull. It’s a great story, it just didn’t feel like a great movie. By the time the ‘apocalypse cloud’ showed up, I didn’t care. Big disappointment, same as I am Legend.
Posted by JANrobot 
