Charlie Graham-Dixon

FD mix on Fabric blog

2010-04-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

New mix by my brother on the Fabric blog ahead of his set tonight.

FD - FABRICLIVE Promo Mix (April 2010) by fabric

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

2010-04-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

With Roman Polanski’s latest (and probably one of his last) films, The Ghost, being on current release I thought it was an apt moment to visit his earlier work. I watched his 1968 supernatural chiller Rosemary’s Baby last night and experienced that wonderful feeling of discovering a film’s true brilliance by seeing it for a second time. The film is, along with The Exorcist, Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, one of the truly terrifying films of the 60’s and 70’s.
Like the other films I have just mentioned, Rosemary’s Baby does not rely on gore or even jumpy and shocking moments to elicit fear in its audience and like the other films, it is via its slow and deliberate build-up that the sense of fear and paranoia is best generated.

As I watched the film I realised that I was quite frightened. However, this was not in the sense of dread or heart-pounding anticipation but the way that the entire mood and feeling of Polanski’s film had enveloped me. Polanski’s direction and Richard Sylbert’s production design are central agents in forming these emotions as is the vulnerability that Mia Farrow displays in her performance as Rosemary. Much in the same way that Rosemary finds herself trapped in her New York apartment as her pregnancy develops, we the audience also find ourselves trapped there as Polanski refuses to provide relief from the stifling and empty building. When Rosemary does leave the apartment it is as much of a relief for the audience as it is for Rosemary.
It is the film’s power to immerse its audience into its settings and into Rosemary’s mindset that gives it it's frightening power. Rosemary’s apartment is beautiful and spacious but becomes cramped and depressing as the realisation that she is being intentionally held there becomes apparent. The building’s very walls and rooms and the objects within them become elements of fear as they all psychologically suggest to audiences that they are part of the same grand design of evil to trick and tempt Rosemary.

(Rosemary's not-so-friendly neighbour gives her a herbal drink to 'aid' her pregnancy)

Polanski’s skill in this film is his ability to place the audience alongside Rosemary so they can feel each emotion she experiences. I would imagine this is even more acute for women seeing the film as it deals with such sensitive and private subjects and explores female vulnerability and fears so explicitly. As I was watching, it also occurred to me that the film must have been particularly frightening at the time of its release as its frankness in dealing with subjects of rape, menstruation and abortion were not topics openly discussed in cinema and to combine such modern and open discussion with ideas of satanism and the occult must have felt like terrifying and uncharted territory for many. The combination of frankness in both dialogue and visual technique such as the many hand-held scenes and shots combined with slow, brooding and majestic shots of the apartment corridors all add to the film’s power. It is a strange dichotomy to see classical cinematic technique combined with, what was at the time, European style and expressionism. For these reasons alone, I can't think of anyone other than Roman Polanski directing this film.

(Rosemary discovers the horrible truth)

Like the best horror films and particularly like the ones mentioned near the start of this article, Rosemary’s Baby possesses an overriding aura, a bleak and melancholy atmosphere that I have always found to be as frightening in films as moments of shock or horror as the emotions of bleakness and futility can act as a slow immersion into fear in itself. This atmosphere is created by Polanski very deliberately and makes Rosemary’s descent into fear and paranoia all the more believable. Christopher Komeda’s hugely bleak score must also be given a large proportion of the credit for making Rosemary’s Baby the frightening film it is. The opening melody that plays over the title credits is widely known and for good reason. It provides the initial backdrop of emotion to the film and sets in motion the way the audience will feel for the duration of the story. David Lynch is another master of providing, via music and direction, a pervading atmosphere of dread, paranoia and uncertainty and his films are excellent reference points for anybody wishing to see films that are able to elicit fear without relying on violence or gore.

Charles Graham-Dixon ©

Matt Reid aka Matt Doo

2010-04-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

It's extremely hard to find any info on NY artist Matt Doo who took his own life a few years ago. All I know of him is that he designed the brilliant covers of 2 of the greatest and most influential hip-hop albums ever made: Organized Konfusion's 1994 LP 'Stress: The Extinction Agenda' and Company Flow's seminal 1997 debut LP and Rawkus Record's first release 'Funcrusher Plus'. Matt is also given shout outs on EL-P's debut album Fantastic Damage and Prince Po dedicates the track 'Be Easy' to him on his debut solo album The Slickness.
Producer, DJ and artist Ge-ology talks about his memories and friendship with Matt Doo below:

The 'death' of film criticism?

2010-04-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

(Pirates of the Carribean- hated by critics but many didn't care and the film made millions)

A very interesting article in the Guardian by Ronald Bergan who says that the role of the professional film critic is under extreme threat from free sources such as blogs, imdb.com and a variety of others. He says that since it is so easy for people to gain access to film reviews and comments online written by amateurs simply expressing their opinions, the position of the professional film reviewer with a strong academic film background is something of a dead duck.

Bergan argues that many people ignore film critics as they feel one's view on a particular film is merely a matter of taste and everybody has their own opinion. I personally find this rather troubling as it renders the informed and educated reviewer as totally redundant and can be pointed to all aspects of review and criticism. Why, for instance, would anyone wish to go to X restaurant as some people like fine dining and others like fast food? For me, while I may not always agree with critics, I generally respect them as I know they possess a level of expertise in their field that permits them to be given such a position.

As someone who considers himself to be an amateur film critic and is trying to become professional, I obviously find this trend quite worrying as not only does it render my career aims as potentially futile, it also renders the degree's I and others have taken took to hone our skills of expertise to be similarly pointless as 'everyone is entitled to their opinion'. However, as Bergan says in his article: 'Anybody can tell you what happens in a film. There is no difficulty in describing the "whatness" of a film, but there is more trouble with the "howness" and the "whyness".'

(A Prophet- lauded by critics leading to strong box office returns throughout Europe. Does this demonstrate critic power?)

The point is, some people will always go and see certain films regardless of how they have been reviewed or critiqued as they are against critics on principal and I suspect these people are less into non-commercial and art-house cinema than those people who choose what they go to see carefully and will more likely choose something that has been favourably reviewed in publications they respect. I form part of the latter and for my sake I hope there are still a large enough amount of people like me out there.

Woman starts talking in Chinese accent as a result of migraine

2010-04-20T03:51:00.000-07:00

A woman who spoke with a broad west country accent was struck with a bout of severe migraines resulting in her being afflicted with Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS). Check the video here

KEITH ELAM AKA GURU 1966-2010

2010-04-20T03:21:00.000-07:00

I found out from a few decent sources today that Guru from GangStarr has died after a battle with cancer. This is awful news not only for Guru and his family and friends but also for all fans of hip-hop music and culture. While not necessarily, the most gifted of MC's, Guru along with the prodigiously talented DJ Premier, formed GangStarr- a deeply influential group and one of the early pioneers of jazz infused and jazz sampled hip-hop.
Guru was everything that summed up real hip-hop rather than the tacky pop music that is played on commercial radio and seen on TV now. GangStarr were hip-hop in its purest form- beats, rhymes and samples. With his solo efforts, Guru made his series of Jazzmatazz albums where he would further experiment with the combination of jazz and hip-hop and collaborated with Donald Byrd, Courtney Pine and Herbie Hancock to name a few.
GangStarr's music, however, must be considered Guru's finest work. Albums such as Step in the Arena, Hard to Earn and The Ownerz are amongst my favourite of all time and strongly shaped my love and appreciation for real hip-hop music. Rest in peace Guru.

CHICKEN, CHEESE, BACON, MAYO, CHEESE, CHICKEN

2010-04-13T06:38:00.000-07:00

Imagine a burger that uses 2 fried chicken fillets as a substitute for the bun....
KFC's new 'Double-Down Sandwich' is insane. It's the kind of thing some idiot would conjure up in a stoned 'imagine if' conversation when severely hungry but would never assume could be sold in reality. I'm not completely critical. If I was drunk out of my mind and hungry then this, as a one off, would be something of a treat- a drunken, guilty, shameful and ultimately humiliating treat.
I just find it funny/insane that this 'burger' is now being sold. You do not need to do any nutritional information research to know that it must be horrendously bad for you. Aside from this, it's also disgusting in a practical way. Battered KFC chicken fillets are greasy enough without having to grip them in your palms so using them as handles is just madness. Anyway, this is why lots of people are fat.

This guy is as weird as the sandwich though probably more annoying and his hairstyle is certainly less palatable than the food as is his attempt at an English accent

A look into Wayne's future

2010-04-08T04:47:00.000-07:00

Wayne Rooney is undoubtedly a great player. The childlike enthusiasm he brings to professional football is unique. You can almost imagine him having only just realised that he actually gets paid to play for Man Utd. I reckon he'd happily be paid in jelly babies as long as he gets to score goals. To Wayne, getting paid just means he can spend more on sweets and toys.
He also reminds me of Gazza. Like Gazza, it's clear that if he didn't play football he'd be an overweight drunk probably on the dole or working in Gregg's the bakers. I like the sense that just a little bit of lager for our Wayne is clearly a rare treat to be relished.

Great movie posters 3

2010-04-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

(cheap) Hipster rioting

2010-04-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

I realise my friends at Video Thunder already have a similar post on this subject but I wouldn't mind getting my 2 penny's in too.

A bunch of lame wankers fighting over shit cheap clothes. Pathetic. If they were giving away expensive designer clothes filled with £50 notes I might understand it slightly but American Apparel? Come on. Rummaging for their corny merchandise is a stupid waste of energy and surely there is some kind of irony in the screaming fools in the 'melee' who think they're being anti-establishment and 'giving it to the man' as they scrabble like a bunch of fucking rats over their clothes that have no doubt been made by a kid with no eyes in a hole in Cambodia.

I particularly hate the banshee-like screams of some girls who think a fool jumping on a car bonnet is worthy of such squealing. You're all dicks.

Tunes

2010-04-03T03:48:00.000-07:00

2010-04-01T09:12:00.001-07:00

'I corrr-ected her...'

2010-04-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

Following on from my Shutter Island and The Shining comparison article I thought I would post one of my favourite scenes from Kubrick's 1980 masterpiece The Shining. Jack Nicholson is, of course, brilliant in the film but Phillip Stone's brief yet remarkable performance as Grady is often overlooked. Stone is what I would describe as a Kubrickian Acolyte- an actor you associate only with the work he did with Kubrick and a true personification of the great director's work. I can not imagine him in a film by any other director. His cold and often bleak performances as Grady in The Shining, Alex's Dad in A Clockwork Orange and Graham in Barry Lyndon are all understated yet key small performances, all providing essential components to the finished films.

Below is a clip of Stone as Grady talking to Jack in the ballroom bathroom of the Overlook Hotel. His change from a mild mannered apologetic 'Jeeves' type into a murderous figure of evil is truly sinister:

I am a...............chocolatier

2010-04-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

SHUTTER ISLAND (2010)

2010-04-01T05:45:00.000-07:00

From its opening frames it is clear to see that Martin Scorsese’s latest offering, Shutter Island, is highly stylised and is in no way afraid to display its influences and homages. Those with only a passing cinematic interest can appreciate the film for being a slickly made psychological thriller while for those who consider themselves ‘film buffs’ or cinephiles, the constant visual and aural references to other films make Shutter Island an incredibly enjoyable experience. With all of Shutter Island’s references and homages, it is clear that Scorsese enjoyed making the film. He is famously, a cinephile with a wonderful and broad knowledge of all aspects of the cinema. It is a safe bet to assume that Scorsese had and always has done his research when it comes to making his films. Shutter Island shows Scorsese harking back to the horror and suspense films of time gone by and there is the palpable sense that the director experienced a thrill in overseeing the creation of what is a nostalgically beautiful film.

Shutter Island is filled with links to other films, genres and directors. A shot of a shower-head mirrors that of the shower scene in ‘Psycho’. Leonardo Di Caprio running into the pond to retrieve his murdered children recalls Donald Sutherland in Don’t Look Now. Possibly the strongest and most conscious links and homages in Shutter Island, however, are reserved for Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Before the film’s first image even appears, the music of Gyorgy Lygeti can be heard. Anyone who has seen Kubrick’s film more than once will instantly recognise the music. The music is used most memorably in The Shining when Jack Torrance enters room 237 to encounter the old crone in a bathtub. The similarities between the two films do not end here.
Aside from visual links to Kubrick’s film, such as the dead children covered in blood acting as a grisly reminder of the dead Grady girls in a corridor of the Overlook Hotel, it is via theme and characterisation that the films are most interrelated.
Both films contain buildings as central agents to their respective narratives. Both Shutter Island’s Aschecliff Hospital and The Shining’s Overlook Hotel are characters within their own rights. Much as the opening to The Shining shows, from a helicopter shot and accompanied with deeply foreboding music, the Torrance family driving into the Rocky Mountains and eventually to the Overlook, Shutter Island employs a similar technique. The music is menacing and a helicopter shot shows Di Caprio being driven into what could be the mouth of hell. Both films showcase the mental disintegration of their central characters within the confines of buildings with a history of violence and murder.

(Di Caprio entering Ashecliff)

Scorsese is, like many others, a huge admirer of Stanley Kubrick’s work. Every Kubrick film was different and he never repeated himself. Having made a heist film with ‘The Killing’, a black comedy with Dr Strangelove, a science fiction film with 2001- A Space Odyssey, a period drama with Barry Lyndon and a satirical drama with A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick made The Shining, a supernatural horror film. Using the supernatural narrative as a basis, Kubrick could enjoy himself more and perhaps visually express himself further as supernatural stories in themselves are unpredictable and ambiguous and Kubrick could reflect this through his style. He could break rules and defy standard narrative convention as a film focusing on the mental deterioration of its central character like Di Caprio’s in Shutter Island, meant he could afford to be more visually and thematically ambiguous and make art in arguably an even purer form than he already had.
It feels like in making Shutter Island Scorsese is making his Shining. Rather than simply using Kubrick’s material, Scorsese is showing his respect and admiration for the filmmaker because in reaching his old age and having made many different films he is expressing himself cinematically with an ambiguous supernatural tale just as Kubrick did when he adapted Stephen King's novel.

Clearly Shutter Island borrows it influences heavily from the films of Nicolas Roeg, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick to name only a few but does this mean the film is actually any good? The short answer is yes but it was in fact not so simple to arrive at this conclusion. It was only after seeing the film for a second time that it registers as a great film. On first viewing, it is clear that the film is a rich visual treat but the question is whether or not its narrative and characterisation stand up to its obvious visual merits.

(The dark and claustrphobic 'Ward C')

Most that have seen Shutter Island will say off-hand that it contains a ‘twist’ ending, something I personally disagree with. The end of the film does reveal that Di Caprio’s character is actually somebody else and that he is insane and has been living the delusional existence of a fictional person and rather than investigating the island, he is in fact a patient. This though, comes as no real surprise and the fact that it is predictable does not serve to be a negative aspect to the film as a whole. The clues for this ‘revelation’ are revealed throughout.

Shutter Island is a beautifully made film with glorious production design by Dante Feretti who worked with Scorsese on Gang’s of New York. The buildings of Ashecliff are used to great effect and ‘Ward C’ is a frightening and claustrophobic place. The cinematography, in particular the use of colour in exterior scenes and shots, are a highlight. A particularly memorable shot shows a huge portion of a wind and rain lased cliff-face teeming with huge black rats- a frighteningly Gothic image if ever there was one.
In recalling Hitchcock thrillers such as ‘The Birds’, the colour of the film is breathtaking. When Di Caprio stands clearly and intentionally superimposed near a cliff’s edge, the grey sky provides the sense of a modern film consciously using a technique from 60 years ago to brilliant effect. It is as though Scorsese is recalling what he and many others found wonderful and awe-inspiring in the days of big budget Hollywood studio films. At times Scorsese makes Shutter Island feel like it is all shot inside a giant studio or sound-stage and this is no bad thing.

With uniformly excellent performances from the cast including a memorable turn from veteran Max Von Sydow and the virtuoso direction of a director clearly having the most fun he has had making a film for some time, Shutter Island is a rich and enjoyable experience. It may lack the edge and youthful exuberance of his 1970’s films like Mean Streets and Taxi Driver or the operatic 1990’s violence of GoodFellas and Casino but Shutter Island shows a veteran director at his most skillful, summoning all his cinematic knowledge and his fondness for the once great cinematic institution of Hollywood and making the kind of film he has not made before. Like The Shining, Shutter island may have its critics but with any rich and textured film, repeated viewings are far more rewarding.

Charles Graham-Dixon ©

William Friedkin

2010-03-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

Billy Friedkin is a strange guy who by all accounts was a nightmare to work with. It's not that I don't agree with what he's saying here, there's just something a little unsettling about his voice, clothing and the way he walks into the shot.

Friedkin has made some undeniably great films though. Check out the famous car chase from 'The French Connection' (1971)

And here's the updated version from his underrated 1985 film 'To Live and Die in LA'

Another great scene from the same film shows a young Willem Dafoe aka 'Rick Masters' (what a name) showing us all how to counterfeit money. Thanks Rick

A recent sweetandsound.co.uk article of mine

2010-03-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

THE ROAD

The first time I read Cormac McCarthy’s remarkable and haunting end-of-the-world novel ‘The Road’, I had the conflicting feelings that the novel was at once ripe for movie adaptation but also that doing so would be a massive challenge. The book is so bleak and restricted of colour and has few characters, other than the father and son, it would take a brave director to do it justice.
McCarthy’s novel is an unflinching and powerful work of art. The use of language is simple but its explorations of the deepest human emotions from love to despair are far reaching. McCarthy’s world is an America coated in ash, a grey and barren wasteland where an unexplained disaster has left few survivors. Those that do survive, walk the road looking for anything to eat from dusty tins of fruit to humans themselves.

Australian filmmaker John Hillcoat is the man given the task and privilege of adapting McCarthy’s novel and the results are mixed. Aesthetically, the film presents the world of ‘The Road’ much as I imagined it from the novel. The America of the film is a vast, grey unforgiving wasteland. Buildings are dilapidated, cars are burnt out, the skeletal remains of creatures long dead, strewn along roadsides and ash, a dead grey coating on all the eye can see, acts as an overriding symbol both metaphorically and literally, of the state of the land and civilisation and the minds of the father (Viggo Mortnesen) and son (Kodi Smitt-McPhee) who must navigate it.

Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe is the man responsible for the remarkable but entirely appropriate palette of the film. Other than the flashbacks of the father’s life before the great apocalypse, the film is an almost relentless barrage of scenes involving the father and the son as they move toward the coast in a fruitless bid to find warmth and ‘good guys’- those people not resorting to cannibalism to survive. The colour of the scenes showing father and son on the road are drenched by Aguirresarobe in differing shades of grey, brown and black. The rain, howling wind and the sounds of thunder and lightning, all reminders of the world’s doom-laden scenario, are constant presences. The photography is perfect and for me remains the finest aspect of the film as it captures the way I saw the novel in my mind.

The overuse of flashbacks in the film is where I begin to find faults in Hillcoat’s vision. As I believe I have established in this article, McCarthy’s novel is bleak and frankly rather depressing. A novel focusing on two starving characters in a grey world shrouded in dust and dirt always has the propensity to be so. However, these qualities and moods of the novel should not necessarily be seen as a negative. I never understand when people say, ‘I’m not sure I want to see or read a particular film or book because it looks and sounds really depressing.’ Yes, The Road is a depressing tale but some things we see and read are uplifting and some bring us down. Art exists to elicit emotions within us all but there is no rule that says it must make us happy or not depress us.
Anyway, I digress. My point is, Hillcoat’s departures from the novel by regularly employing flashbacks of the father and son’s home-life with the wife and mother played by CharlizeTheron in scenes that are nearly all filled with warm glowing shades of colour, shows his agenda to give audiences some relief from the scenes involving the desperate plight of the characters as they move along the Road. The novel does sparingly recall moments before the apocalypse was at hand as the father thinks of his wife with fondness but these moments are certainly not used as liberally as they are in the film. These scenes disappointed me initially as they strayed from the novel, something the Coen Brothers never did when adapting ‘No Country For Old Men’, but also as I felt, either due to pressure from Hollywood executives or from his own fears, John Hillcoat had copped out somewhat. The Road, to reemphasize, is a dark and bleak tale of the world ending and if the director or studio executives don’t feel the audiences can handle this, then the film should not be made in the first place.

Hillcoat’s countryman Nick Cave of the Bad Seeds, is responsible for composing the film’s score and I’m afraid to say his work here lends an aspect of weakness to the film. Those scenes that are not amongst the most deeply emotional and heart-wrenching are scored simply, minimally and well, but scenes such as Theron’s exit and death or the scenes of tenderness between the father and son and the father’s death are accompanied by overly sentimental high notes and strings. It is as though Cave is reminding the audience that these scenes in particular are where we should feel tearful and sad. This adds a patronising quality to the film and provides an uncomfortable sense that we are being manipulated into feeling certain emotions at different times. The performances and imagery of such scenes are powerful enough within their own right not to require such musical sentimentality to remind us, the viewers, how we should be feeling.

Overall, Hillcoat’s adaptation has elements to recommend it and similarly elements that render it weak. It is visually where the film is at its most impressive. Readers of my previous article on this site will be aware that I’m not CGI’s biggest fan but those shots of the destroyed, burnt-out towns that employ the technique are done both sparingly and impressively. The sense of the father and son’s isolation in a vast emptiness where millions of people once lived is vividly exposed in many of the vast long shots in the film and does provide a sense of the awesome scale of the apocalypse’s destruction.

The Road is letdown by its tendency to veer towards sentimentality. The novel’s subject matter focuses on deeply traumatic and dispiriting events but the sense of despair, love, fear and tenderness the characters encounter as well as the ultimate futility of the characters’ journey could have been conveyed to audiences without forcing the issue via emotional reminders throughout and without equating to basic sentimentality. A good film but not a great film. I will end with the old favourite truism- the book is better.

Charles Graham-Dixon ©

MATT FEAR (MOORED IN MIAMI)

2010-03-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

CHECK OUT THESE NICE MIXES BY MATT FEAR:

Altered Natives VS MAW - Work out by MOOREDINMIAMI
Jan Riddims by MOOREDINMIAMI
MOOREDINMIAMI - AQUAWUNK ? by MOOREDINMIAMI
MIAMI NICE by MOOREDINMIAMI

FD- 'CANOPY'

2010-03-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

My brother has a new tune released on Critical music. Have a look/listen here:

http://www.bm-soho.com/store/AutoKey/116022/fd/hydro/+/kezacanopy

DENNIS HOPPER

2010-03-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

I found out today that Dennis Hopper has contracted terminal prostate cancer. Terrible news. Hopper has appeared in some of the most celebrated films of all time such as Easy Rider (1969), Apocalypse Now (1979) and Blue Velvet (1986).

Here are some clips of the above films and Dennis Hopper at his best and most memorable:

Blue Velvet

Apocalypse Now

IVANSXTC (2000)

2010-03-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

‘Ivansxtc’ is English Director Bernard Rose’s modern retelling of the Tolstoy story, ‘The Death of Ivan Illych’. Set in Hollywood and starring Danny Huston, it tells the story of Ivan, a slick and successful Hollywood agent living the last hedonistic days of his life, discovering he has cancer, telling nobody and dying alone.

The character of Ivan is truly tragic. While being a member of the essentially unlikeable Hollywood agent pack, the brilliant performance of Danny Huston generates sympathy and pathos in abundance. Ivan lives the irritating mantra of ‘working hard and playing hard’ to the maximum. He drinks heavily and consumes copious amounts of cocaine. Surrounded by a plethora of shallow LA hookers, actors, screenwriters and agents, the partying lifestyle, for Ivan, is inescapable.

The film’s narrative unfolds in flashback and begins with Ivan’s secretary receiving a phone call from a hospital informing her of his death. At a board meeting at Ivan’s agency that day, his secretary informs the other agents that Ivan has died of cancer. The initial shock gives way to disbelief followed by cynicism. Those in the meeting room say that Ivan, the hedonist, the renowned drinker and drug taker, could never have died of cancer. It must, they believe, be a mistake or a cover up for the real truth that he actually overdosed. What is clear from this scene is that there is no real sadness or grief over Ivan’s death. As the agents begin to squabble like vultures over how Ivan’s clients should be redistributed amongst them, it becomes evident that the world Ivan has left is one of selfishness, vanity and ego which makes the following flashback of his last days and the sensitivity of his character all the more heartbreaking.

Released in 2000 and shot using hand-held digital cameras, Ivansxtc was, along with The Blair Witch Project released the previous year, one of the early independent releases to be shot digitally. The look of the film is both startling and understated. Unlike many of the modern Hollywood movies to be shot using digital cameras, the use of digital technology in Ivansxtc does not feel overly stylized or gimmicky. The look of the film does not serve to be evidence of style over substance or the director flexing his aesthetic muscles and thus sacrificing the true importance of the film- the humanity of the central character and the tragedy of his story. Rather, the film’s look serves its most appropriate purpose of providing a documentary-like realism that lends a huge weight of authenticity to the overall picture and provides the stripped down grittiness of image that digital photography in the cinema can do so well.

(Danny Huston as Ivan)

Perhaps the single most powerful element of the film is the central performance of Danny Huston. Ivan comes across as an essentially nice guy in a corrupt world. He has chosen to involve himself in this world but it is still difficult not to feel sorry for him as things fall apart. As an agent he has to possess an element of false charm and display a sunshine grin in order to flourish at what he does. This film suggests that Ivan, like all other Hollywood agents, does 'fake' brilliantly- it’s in the job description. However, these character traits, which on most occasions would render a person or character unlikeable and untrustworthy, do not have the same effect with Ivan. The film underlines the idea that in Hollywood nobody cares about anyone else. All people are concerned with is whether their screenplay will be passed on and commissioned, whether they have got the part they want in an upcoming film and where the next line of coke is coming from. Early in the film we see a brash character played by Peter Weller snort a line off the thigh of Ivan’s girlfriend in the back of a limo with Ivan present and looking on. Ivan says nothing. His reasoning tells him that Weller is a friend and meant nothing by it and it’s Hollywood anyway where everyone’s doing stuff like this.

When Ivan finally discovers he has cancer, he is close to telling people but simply doesn’t. He wears the same forced but now far more painful smile he has worn throughout, never dropping his façade as the successful partying agent. As Ivan lies alone in a hospital bed, a multitude of tubes and machinery hooked up to his prone body, the scene showcases one of the most realistic and harrowing portrayals of death shown on film. During this scene Bernard Rose’s digital cinematography comes into it’s own and the stark imagery of a deathly white and terrified Ivan dying with no one around him, marks a scene of immense power that is both disturbing and beautiful at the same time.

Some films may be publicized to death and break box office records while some may be lauded in artistic and critical circles but make no money. Alternatively, some films may achieve all of these things although this is a rare feat. Bernard Rose’s extraordinary film seems to have passed beneath the collective consciousness completely. Rose’s other notable work is the brilliant 1992 horror 'Candyman', another film that may be considered underrated although certainly more well known than Ivansxtc.

This is an unflinching work of cinematic art and should gain a far higher degree of recognition and credit than it has as it is shot beautifully and its warnings of the dangers of excess and loneliness are far reaching. Danny Huston as Ivan is magnificent. Highly recommended.

Charles Graham-Dixon ©

sweet and sound

2009-12-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

A new article of mine is on sweetandsound.co.uk- have a look....

http://sweetandsound.co.uk/december/animarticle.html

Gluttony

2009-11-18T12:58:00.000-08:00

Each time I cook only for myself, I invariably cook pasta, in partiuclar Di Cecco spaghetti or linguine in some kind of tomato sauce concoction containing too much chilli. Without fail, I will not only cook too much but I will also eat far far too much resulting in sweats, mild nausea and regret. And each time I swear to myself it will not happen again. It's an obvious comparison/metaphor but it is a little like drinking too much. A bit is fun but too much is nasty. Tonight was, i'd estimate, the 500th time i've done this. I found the biggest plate in my house which is actually almost a dish (you could serve a roast chicken on it) and filled it with my spaghetti. Telling myself, as I ate, that it was only one plate and that I wasn't greedy as I would not be having seconds, I proceeded to eat the entire plate/dish which in reality contained around 3 normal sized helpings. I have no reason to share this other than the shame I am currently feeling. I hope I learn.

Edward Woodward 1930-2009

2009-11-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

Edward Woodward was a fine British actor. He appeared in a variety of films and TV dramas in the UK and Australia. I will remember him best as Sergeant Howie in the original and best 'The Wicker Man' (1973). If anyone reading this has not seen it then shame on you, see it now. It is one the finest horror/mystery films ever made in Britain. Rest in peace Edward, you will be missed.

Best original tunes and hip hop that sampled them #1

2009-11-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

The Gap Band's 'Yearning For Your Love' and Nas's 'Life's a Bitch'

The Jones Girl's 'When and I'm Gone' and Royal Flush's 'What A Shame'

Jean-Jaque Perrey's 'E.V.A' and Gangstarr's 'Just to get a Rep'

SWEET AND SOUND

2009-11-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Cool website with lots of interesting stuff on it. I got my first published bit of writing on it. It's a retrospective article I wrote on the horror film 'Pet Sematary'which I have posted already on this blog but here it is again. Unfortunately the editor posted the draft with spelling mistakes and missing words etc but it's all good:

http://sweetandsound.co.uk/november/petsematery.html

Best Stephen King film adaptations #1

2009-11-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

If it isn't already obvious, i'm a Stephen King fan. King was once unfairly regarded as something of a trashy novelist comparable to John Grisham, a writer whose books are best suited for reading in an airport departure lounge. This reputation was mainly due to the incredible success of his writing and because his main genre trope is the misunderstood world of horror. However, in recent years perceptions of King's work have slowly changed and he has begun to be recognised by critics as the fine writer and storyteller he is. Below is a list of the best adaptations of his work of which there have been many. There are the classic posters and clips of the films themselves:

I feel like an idiot...

2009-11-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

After blogging about Pete Rock and CL Smooth's imminent 9th November appearance at the Garage on Highbury Corner which is about a 5 minute walk from my house, my friend and I realised we hadn't got tickets. In a painfully predictable chain of events that involved phonecalls and visits to a variety of websites and outlets, it became clear the tickets were 'all souled out'. Pardon the pun.
I've been listening to All Souled Out, Mecca and the Soul Brother and The Main Ingredient for years now and to miss such a rare show is incredibly frustrating. I felt worse after going to the venue that night on the off chance I might be able to get tickets only to again be dissapointed. My friend and I proceeded to enjoy the other option available to us- sit in a pub, moan about how we couldn't get tickets and pray that the night itself was a disaster, that Pete and CL were knackered or didn't turn up and that in the end we hadn't really missed a thing and our night in various boozers was far superior to anything on offer from hip-hop's finest. We were wrong. Selecting our post drinking kebab later that night, we came upon some smiling punters and asked what the show had been like. Barring the opinion of one fairly strange individual who described CL Smooth as 'self indulgent', the universal opinion was that the Pete Rock & CL Smooth show had been a stonking success. Bollocks.

Here's a clip from the show

And here's my favourite tune they ever did

John Fashanu...John Fashanu...John Fashanu

2009-11-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

Classic Al rant

2009-11-09T06:45:00.001-08:00

errrm....

2009-11-08T13:37:00.001-08:00

True....

2009-11-08T13:29:00.001-08:00

Brilliant tune

2009-11-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

Great Movie Posters2

2009-11-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

The Innocents (1961)

2009-11-07T05:23:00.000-08:00

An article by Jack Wormell

Due to the glut of repugnant, juvenile and unpleasant swill that comprises 90% of mainstream horror films these days, I find myself increasingly sceptical of my first cinematic love. Whatever you want to call it, personally I think ‘Horror’ doesn’t always cut it as an epithet for a genre this broad, I’ve always been drawn first and foremost to movies that scared me; particularly one’s with monstrous or supernatural elements. I relished, in perverse pleasure, the terror slowly creeping up inside me, a terror that would intensify until I was unable to go to sleep with the lights off.
But these days all I see are films that rely on shock and gore. And that’s it. Don’t get me wrong, these two elements are old friends of the horror plot, but it’s their relation to the overall mood of the piece, not to mention the story, which creates genuine fear, rather than an easy way to make an audience jump. A shock only really works when it’s one of the few in the film.
On top of this, most horror movies appear to be combining (male) society’s twin obsessions of sex and death into crude, demeaning murder fantasies. Ogle the girl, fuck the girl, butcher the girl when you’re done. When I watch the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I am disturbed, and not in the way I want to be disturbed by a horror or a psychological. I’m certain I’d feel the same about Hostel, which I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing, or Rob Zombie’s new flick, Halloween 2 (a whole ‘nother article about Hollywood’s obsession with horror remakes and sequels may be in order).
But the other day I had the genuine pleasure of watching a very creepy, scary film called The Innocents. This is proper ‘Horror’; it was well paced, mature and, most importantly, frightening. It’s fairly famous, you may well have heard of it or even seen it. Released in 1961 it tells the bleak story of a young governess, Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr), who is given charge of a brother and a sister, Flora and Miles, by their indifferent uncle. Set in a large country mansion and it’s grounds, The Innocents generates the all important fear factor through suggestion, something that Hollywood seems to be running full speed away from, even though, time and again, it’s proven to be the backbone to any truly frightening film.
Miss Giddens arrives, and we see the beautiful grounds of the country estate. The camera dwells on the large lake surrounded by trees, completely empty of any life, planting unease in the viewer. Why is this being shown to us? The emptiness suggests that later, maybe it won’t be so empty. Miss Giddens hears someone singing, the melody drifting over the serene, empty lake. She mentions it to the housekeeper when she reaches the house. But the plot whisks them, and us, along and they never establish whom it was singing out there, preventing us from dwelling on this little seed of disquiet. Moments such as this are expertly done throughout, and the fear gradually escalates.
A scary film is all about taking the familiar, the comforting, the safe, and slowly altering them. Warp it; pervert it; but subtlety, so that we, the viewers, almost don’t notice. And before you know it, you’re in a cold, sinister place, where smiles have turned to leers, laughter sounds like the shriek of insanity and the staircase, well, don’t go up that dark staircase. The Innocents achieves this brilliantly. Glimpses of people down hallways, lone figures staring from afar (I believe that the human gaze/stare is one of the scariest things ever. If I had my way, cinemas would be full of strangers staring at the protagonists, rather than teenagers having their legs cut off with rusty barbed wire. Then being raped.). To draw a comparison with today’s mediocre crud, which endlessly relies on the quick shock, a truly good horror will confront the viewer with something scary, a face for example, and leave it on screen, staring down the audience, daring them to look away. It makes it more real, more believable. And when you start thinking about that, things start getting very frightening.
The key to The Innocents though, is the brother and sister. Children: the most harmless, sweet, adoring and, well, innocent humans on earth. Especially Flora and Miles, who are chatty, intelligent, adventurous and loving, always a smile on their faces for Miss Giddens. So when our comfort in this certainty is slowly subverted throughout the film, the fear and unease ratchets up. Especially chilling is a game of hide and seek in the old mansion…
But, as you can probably tell, I don’t want to give away too much. Watch The Innocents for yourselves. Maybe afterwards you’ll be a little nervous about those dark corners of your house, and those odd noises, which are probably just the heating…

© Jack Wormell

This is great

2009-11-06T02:38:00.000-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/7745706.stm

Male pride- the pitfalls

2009-11-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

Jesse Ventura ended up as Governer of Minnesota....

2009-11-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

Arnie ended up as Governer of California. When The Running Man came out in 1987 I wonder if people realised that Captain Freedom and Ben 'The Butcher of Bakersfield' Richards would end up in charge of 2 extremely powerful states....

Learn to cook with Christopher Walken

2009-11-04T10:55:00.000-08:00

Crepes..

2009-11-03T10:32:00.000-08:00

Tunes

2009-11-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

DJ Spinna's new album sonic smash is nice...

Some old Spinna tunes here. For me, Spinna is incredibly underrated

AFTER HOURS (1985)

2009-11-03T04:22:00.000-08:00

After Hours is an underrated black comedy from Martin Scorsese. Along with The King of Comedy (1983) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), the 1980's treated Marty somewhat unfairly. His films in that decade, barring Raging Bull in 1980, were not as grand and operatic in scale as GoodFellas or Casino but were arguably similarly fine direrctorial ahcievments.
After Hours tells the story of computer expert Paul Hackett played by Griffen Dunne (American Werewolf in London) who after a typically dull day at work meets Rosanna Arquette in a New York coffeeshop. After being given Arquette's phone number, Paul makes the unusually spontaneous decision to go to Soho later that night in order to buy a plaster of Paris paperweight from Arquette's roommate, a smokescreen which can result in him meeting Arquette again.
As soon as Paul loses his $20 bill in the the taxi on the way to Soho, his night goes from bad to worse as the seemingly simple process of returning home becomes a nightmare. Over the course of the night Paul meets a host of Soho crazies from gay vigilantes to skitzofrenic waitresses.
The film is a fantastically dark, paranoid black comedy about mistaken identity, suspicion and a contains a satirical view of the hipster art community in New York at that time, almost a pre-cursor to Nathan Barley and those that inhabit Shoreditch currently.
Dunne and Scorsese handle the comedy perfectly and knowing that the mid 80's for Scorsese was also a period of large cocaine consumption, the frenetic and paranoid nature and unfolding of the plot, seems perfectly suited for the director's state of mind at that time.
After Hours is a wonderful little film and one of Scorsese's best and most underrated. Recommended

© Charlie Graham-Dixon

GREAT MOVIE POSTERS part1

2009-11-03T03:51:00.000-08:00

Film posters used to be good...

FILM/DVD REVIEW #2

2009-11-03T03:50:00.000-08:00

If anyone’s wondering why I’m writing about Pet Sematary, a fairly unpleasant film that was received poorly both critically and commercially and has only received a bare-bones Region 2 DVD release (chapters, film, trailer), I really don’t have an answer other than to say it is for reasons of childhood memory and the fact that I still find myself watching it from time to time that I regarded giving it a review as being worthwhile.

I first saw this film at a sleepover with a group of school friends when I was about 11 and the film has stayed with me ever since. It was the second part of a double bill that night that began with Candyman which, I don’t mind saying, scared the shit out of me at that time. By the time we stuck in the Pet Sematary vhs about half an hour later, I was in a state of calm shock not realising that Candyman would give me sleepless nights for the next couple of weeks. Unlike Candyman, I didn’t find Pet Sematary as conventionally frightening, in fact, most of the film was spent with people laughing at some of the moments of unintentional hilarity that occur in the film. However, as the film reached it’s climax the room was fairly silent not necessarily because those watching were scared but because the film and its source material eventually leave both viewers and readers alike with such an overwhelming sense of bleakness and futility that that emotion in itself can become quite consuming and, in its own way, quite frightening.

Stephen King’s tale tells the story of the Creed family who move into the small hamlet of Ludlow, Maine. When all of the family other than the father, Dr Louis Creed, are away for a weekend, the family cat dies after being run over by a thundering truck on the road outside the family house. Louis’s elderly neighbour Jud Crandall played by Fred Gwynne aka Hermann Munster, suggests not merely burying the cat in the local Pet Sematary, but in the ancient Micmac burial ground beyond it. Doesn’t that just sound like a great idea?
Unsurprisingly, the burial ground has the powers of resurrection and the cat returns to the Creed family virtually the same only smelling somewhat different and possessing all the malevolent charm of a zombie. Rather than tell the entire plot, I will summarise by saying: ancient Indian burial ground with the powers of resurrection, the tragic death of a young family member in the same road that killed the cat and the combination and fusion of these two narrative elements and you have the ingredients of a particularly macabre and disturbing story.

A few years after seeing Pet Sematary I read Stephen King’s novel. I would say with no hesitation that it is the only novel I have ever read that is genuinely scary. King mentions in the book’s introduction that he himself was scared by what he had written: ‘All I know is that is that Pet Sematary is the one I put away in a drawer, thinking I had finally gone too far…I was horrified by what I’d written and the conclusions that I’d drawn.’
Given Pet Sematary’s subject matter and the conclusions that King draws, it is no surprise that he was horrified. The film deals with family bereavement, the grief this causes and the possibilities of resurrection. The conclusion King draws is that sometimes dead is better.
Why I think this a DVD worth reviewing is that is essentially a terrible film yet on an almost unfathomable level it can be regarded as a success. Director Mary Lambert, whose previous work was mainly Madonna’s music videos from the 80’s, directs in incredibly clumsy fashion. The clumsiness of Lambert’s direction is matched only by the frankly awful performances of the actors, the only redeemable performances being that of the toddler Gage, and Church, the family cat. Worse, perhaps, than the direction or the acting are many of the lines of dialogue in the film or perhaps it is the unbelievably wooden way the lines are delivered.
Despite all this, Pet Sematary still has many elements that make it a film worth recommending. The film’s settings are perfect, in particular the path and the woods leading towards the pet sematary, the sematary itself and the Micmac burial ground being highlights. This must certainly be down to the close presence of Stephen King to the film’s production. Many of the particularly bad adaptations of King’s work did not include the writer near or around the production resulting in films that ultimately fail to capture the very human style of his writing and subsequently present very 2D characters. Ironically, it was King who wrote the sometimes awful script with its often awful dialogue, yet it is his presence that provides the film with the ingredients it requires to be frightening and effective.

What ultimately makes Pet Sematary an effective horror film is that it is frightening. The horror is genuinely horrific. Think, a reanimated toddler with a scalpel slicing through a pensioners ankle tendon and you’ll get the idea. The overriding aspect that makes the film frightening, I feel, which transfers well from the novel, is the overwhelming sense of depression and despair that it gives the viewer. There is no redemption or happy ending- the film is about death and loss and the extremes to which people seek to cope with such emotions. I would suggest actually seeing the film first and enjoying it for the reasons I have given which in some way are the basic reasons we enjoy horror films- to be horrified and scared and then to read the novel which is excellent and adds a far deeper and more permanent layering of the overall feelings this disturbing story provides.

© Charlie Graham-Dixon

MEDIUM 11.11.09

2009-11-03T03:45:00.000-08:00

My brother and the Medium crew will be bringing their own brand of unconventional drum and bass and dubstep to Plastic People in Shoreditch. Medium has been going for almost 3 years and the night has gained an ardent following. So far the lineups have included: Break, Paradox Live, Fracture, Icicle, D-Bridge, Martyn, Rohan & Sabre, Marcus Intalex, Breakage, Calibre, FD and Alix Perez

CHRISTMAS LIST PART 1

2009-11-03T03:43:00.000-08:00

FILM/DVD REVIEW #1

2009-11-03T03:34:00.000-08:00

Michael Mann’s Collateral fits somewhat awkwardly within the director’s body of work. The film tells the story of a cab driver who is forced at gunpoint to chauffeur a professional hit-man around L.A as he attempts to assassinate several key witnesses involved in the indictment of drug trafficking cartel. Primarily known as a director of intelligent action based crime films such as Heat or taut paranoid thrillers like The Insider, Mann’s work has focused almost solely on isolated male protagonists struggling to exist within urban environments who are so professionally driven that everything else in their life, in particular their intimate relationships, inevitably suffers.

On the surface Collateral would appear to fit nicely into the typical Mann themes that preoccupy his films such as Manhunter and Thief. Collateral’s story takes place in Mann’s filmic playground, L.A, and its story occurs over the course of one ill-fated evening for cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) as he picks up the passenger from hell in the shape of the archetype Mann protagonist, the ultra professional slick silver-haired hit-man Vincent, played with surprising relish by Tom Cruise who can add another memorable bad guy to his repertoire along with his portrayal of Frank T.J Mackey in Magnolia.

Visually, Collateral also ticks all the Mann boxes. The film looks almost dreamlike at times as the use of high-definition digital video permits a depth of field to the screen that surpasses what film stock is capable of and allows the L.A night shots to create a deeper meaning for Vincent’s facial expressions as, standing in their foreground, he stares into the distance, the hazy L.A sky acting as a canvas on which his vast indifference towards his violent job can be metaphorically painted.
Many scenes, for their narrative content, are typical Mann too. One flawed but memorable scene involves Vincent at one minute discussing jazz, in particular Miles Davies, with a jazz club proprietor (Larry Shabaka Henley) before the mood turns ugly as the proprietor in question realises he is one of Vincent’s scheduled ‘stops’ on his night in L.A. The face to face tension of the scene is palpable and recalls the memorable coffee shop scene between De Niro and Pacino in Heat. This scene though, is flawed as Max, at the moment of highest tension when the proprietor is given a chance to live if he correctly answers where Miles Davies was taught music, pops up with the answer that Miles was taught ‘in music school’. The line is inappropriate and ill-fitted to Mann’s style which would never usually involve such clumsy moments that ultimately contradict the meaning and tone of what is otherwise a great scene.
The introduction and sudden withdrawal of Jada Pinkett-Smith, a member of the Hollywood A-list and wife of Will Smith, early in the film, is another typical flaw. Her meeting and subsequent intimate connection with ‘mere cabbie’ Max suggests she will play some kind of key role later in the film and, of course, she does as she turns out to be the defence lawyer who is the last stop Vincent must make. It is these rather clumsy narrative elements that detract from what is at times an enjoyable and often visually stunning piece of work.

Given that Collateral contains certain moments of such impressive action and visuals that far outweigh the vast majority of anything to emerge from Hollywood in recent years, readers of this review may consider any criticisms of the film as somewhat harsh, however, this is Michael Mann we are discussing here. Mann has been responsible for creating some of the finest films to come out of Hollywood in recent years and Heat could arguably be considered the best film of the 90’s.

It is no coincidence that the one film out of Mann’s 10 features that he has not written is also his weakest and seemingly most commercially minded. Collateral’s Achilles heel is its script. Written by English screenwriter Stuart Beattie, the structure of the screenplay with its one evening time frame feels ill-suited to Mann whose films up to this point have been grand in their sheer scale such as the lavish Last of the Mohicans or grand in their presentation of time such as Mohammad Ali biopic Ali.

The redeeming factor of Collateral is Mann himself who has clearly done his best to add what directorial flair he can to what is, in many ways, a rather gimmicky premise but gimmicks don’t suit a director of Michael Mann’s considerable talent. He should stick to being a writer/director, it’s what he does best.

© Charlie Graham-Dixon

NAMING MY NEW BLOG

2009-11-03T03:14:00.000-08:00

In trying to change the url of my last blog, toweringalan.blogspot or keshup mayanaze?, I managed to end up deleting the entire thing which was irritating. I subseqently spent the next few hours trying to think of snappy and or witty names for the new blog. This was surpisingly hard as most blog names are taken- you'd be suprised which ones aren't. The following names were the suggestions of my friend Matt:
Charlie's bumper blog of feelings
Sausage down an alleyway
Gaby Roslin's toothpick face fuck
Eclair care laid bare (this would have to be a pastry maintenance based website)
The Return of Balzac
On 'da' case - A more urban feel to this one
The Brothers Grim
Cream Leisure
The Sycamore connection
Thrust
4reel
Breaking Away
Forever in Excellence
Kinky Plaza
Dukes of Puke
Battenberg Groove
1998 Was A Slutty Year for Margot
Memories of Peterborough

Anyway, in the end, I decided to opt for the highly original eponymous title and named it after myself. I will re-post some of the old stuff that I managed to save. Enjoy....