#a megalopolis of cages

[foldbaron]

Matthew Mercer as Nicolas Cage in Raising Arizona Travis Willingham as Nicolas Cage in Con Air Marisha Ray as Nicolas Cage in The Wicker Man Robbie Daymond as Nicolas Cage in Honeymoon In Vegas Sam Riegel as Nicolas Cage as John Travolta in Face/Off Ashley Johnson as Nicolas Cage in The Rock Laura Bailey as Nicolas Cage in City Of Angels Liam O'Brien as Nicolas Cage in MANDY Taliesin Jaffe as Nicolas Cage in Valley Girl

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

2024 movies I’ve seen, crudely summarized:

The Substance —> The Barbie movie but with the charm of The Fly

Twisters —> Hallmark Channel movie but with the budget of a Marvel movie

Trap —> M. Night Shyamalan directed a music video for his daughter, then slapped together a story to try to pass it off as a movie

Transformers One —> Transformers: First Class

Deadpool & Wolverine —> Ryan Reynolds fanboys over the Marvel universe for two hours

Longlegs —> Silence of the Lambs, but instead of Hannibal Lecter, it’s Nicolas Cage being normal

MaXXXine —> evil La La Land

Speak No Evil —> Andrew Tate as a horror movie villain

Inside Out 2 —> “damn, that’s me onscreen fr fr” the movie

Megalopolis —> The Room 2

Civil War —> “we’re making some kind of a political statement” the movie

A Quiet Place: Day One —> a drama about a terminally ill movie living her life to the fullest in her last days…oh, and there’s aliens I guess

Bad Boys: Ride or Die —> cops going through mid-life crisis: the movie

Monkey Man —> The Raid 3

In a Violent Nature —> Jason Voorhees nature documentary ASMR

Cuckoo —> the trailer sold the movie —> something scary is supposed to be happening, I guess

Road House —> UFC commercial

Night Swim —> “goofy ahh monster ruins the entire atmosphere” the movie

Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver —> boring Warhammer 40K crossover fanfic with Seven Samurai and Star Wars

Alien: Romulus —> It’s totally a different Alien story, bro. Very original and new. —> it’s just the first Alien but slightly changed —> should’ve seen this coming because the director did the same thing with Evil Dead

[a-tale-of-legends]

Hmmm. " Not in our powers to fight with Solgaleo" is interesting. I know that it's already established that the ultra recon squad are not battlers, using their technology to solve their problems. And given how casually they talk about Solgaleo, it seems they don't exactly see it as a god as the Alolans do.

At the same time, the usage of the words " borrow it's power" plus the aforementioned " not in our power",does imply some sort of power scaling, no? Also the "summoning Lunala to this place". Which does imply some sort of....respect of a higher power?

I'm not entirely sure how to take this personally. How the ultra recon squad,and by extension, the people of their world views Lunala and Solgaleo. It seems to be similar to Necrozma though - they call it the Blinding One, a god so to speak, but also used it as a recourse for them. The same for Lunala and Solgaleo. They are talked as if they are respected, but are also used by the ultra recon squad as transportation.

Honestly when you put it like that it's so interesting, and it makes me all the sadder that the ultra recon squad and their people weren't explored more. Because their story, the history that we know of pretty much shows a case of a god being trapped and used by its people. It became a resource by them. And it, of course, backfired terribly. And that is a wonderful contrast to Chosens, because Chosens don't have that control, more often than not, it's the legendary, the god, who takes the initiative and the Chosen is merely a long for the ride. For the most part anyway. If we don't want to talk about Chosens, then let's go to the Tapu's. The game really makes it a point to say that the Tapu's are fickle. They do what they want. They don't bend to you, you bend to them, and that's how it'll always be. They can't be contained, they won't be disobeyed, etc etc. And we hear of what happens when people cross the Tapu's too. Look at the ghost trail site!

And if we want to go even further, we can look at Eternatus and Rose. The whole thing with Necrozma is basically a precursor to what Rose did. The hubris of man, the wanting to turn a god -alien thing into a resource, trapping it within a cage until it inevitably broke out- like! It's really fascinating! And it just made me wish we got more of Ultra Megalopolis!!!

[mylifeincinema]

My 25 Most Anticipated Films of 2023!!

No intro this year. Just, y’know, here they are...

PHOTO ONE:

1. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg) – 1.27.23

Haaaave you seen Possessor?!? Plus, that trailer!!

2. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Peyton Reed) – 2.17.23

Bring on Kang...

3. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski) – 3.24.23

I’ll never not be excited to see Keanu kill the shit out of people.

4. Renfield (Chris McKay) – 4.14.23 

Nic Cage as Dracula... I repeat, Nic Cage as Dracula!!

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (James Gunn) – 5.5.23 

The trailer alone has me more emotionally invested than anything I saw in 2022, period.

PHOTO TWO:

6. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Dos Santos, Powers & Thompson) – 6.2.23

Haaaaaave you seen the first one?!?

7. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson) – 6.23.23

Wes is one of my very favorite directors. Enough Said.

8. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold) – 6.30.23

If you’re actually questioning why this is here, you clearly did not know how obsessed I was with Temple of Doom and Last Crusade as a little kid.

9. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One (Christopher McQuarrie) – 7.14.23

Cruise can do no wrong... until he does... but even then the footage of his death will be a fucking blockbuster, and all his fans will give him the exact sendoff he’s apparently begging for. Can’t wait to see how he almost dies, this time.

10. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) – 7.21.23 

So very excited to see Nolan take on something more dramatic... plus, look at that cast!!!

PHOTO THREE:

11. Barbie (Greta Gerwig) – 7.21.23

Margot and Greta... enough said. Oh, but I’ll say more... we live in a world that will soon be home to a Barbie movie co-written by Noah Baumbach!! That’s beautiful.

12. Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve) – 11.3.23

The first felt too unfinished to not be excited to see where Villeneuve brings it next.

13. Wonka (Paul King) – 12.15.23

Really couldn’t care less about Chalamet, and this project is totally unnecessary. But... I’m a die-hard Roald Dahl fan, and this is directed by the man who gave us Paddington 2, so... yeah.

14. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) – TBD 

C’mon... It’s Scorsese!

15. The Killer (David Fincher) – TBD  

C’mon... It’s Fincher!

PHOTO FOUR:

16. Napoleon (Ridley Scott) – TBD 

I love Ridley Scott... and Joaquin Phoenix looks like he’s going to murder this role.

17. Maestro (Bradley Cooper) – TBD 

The theatre geek living deep down within me is enough reason. But then I also want to see if A Star Is Born was a fluke.

18. Ferrari (Michael Mann) – TBD 

Michael Mann directing a movie about Enzo Ferrari starring Adam Driver... why aren’t you excited about it?!?

19. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster) – TBD

No clue what we’re in for... but I’m certain it’s going to fuck me up for a week or two.

20. Peter Pan & Wendy (David Lowery) – TBD  

David Lowery... enough said. I mean, seriously, have you seen A Ghost Story or Pete’s Dragon?!?

PHOTO FIVE:

21. Lee (Ellen Kuras) – TBD  

If Kate Winslet wasn’t enough... well, it is... it really is.

22. Blitz (Steve McQueen) – TBD 

It’s McQueen doing a WWII drama starring Saoirse Ronan...

23. Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola) – TBD  

I’m hoping it’s as wild as those set photos have been...

24. The Way of the Wind (Terrence Malick) – TBD

Malick does Jesus...

25. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson) – TBD

 I doubt this is actually going to release in 2023, but it is already in post, so in case does, I really need you all to know just how excited I will always be for new Wes Anderson.

There they are!

As for My Best of 2022, once again all of the major lists will not be getting posted until mid/late January, but I’m going to try to get some of the early lists – such as Posters, TV & Non-2022 Films – sorted and posted over the next week or two. Please Feel Free to Follow Along So You Don’t Miss Anything!

Stay Tuned!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[safarigirlsp]

Did you see the announcement that Adam is going to be in Heat 2 with Michael Mann again? What are your thoughts on that? Do you have any dream team directors you would like to see him work with? I wish he’d do the Chloe Zhao Dracula movie!

HI! Sorry it took me a while to get to this.

I did hear the Michael Mann announcement, and all AD movie announcements are definitely good news to me! I've never been super impressed with Mann as a director and I have disliked all of his movies that I've seen, which admittedly aren't all of them. I'd be very happy if he did a Last Mohicans 2 and let AD have long hair and run around shirtless for 2 hours fucking people up with a hatchet, but Heat 2 isn't really blowing my skirt up. In all fairness, I've never Heat 1 so now I need to. I'll see how he looks in it before I get too excited lol. I made that mistake with Megalopolis by getting super excited over an upcoming movie only to have my hopes crushed when the first pics leaked. Megalopolis now falls under the same category for me as White Noise - I'll watch it, but I'm going to bitch the whole time, and need a Jacques and Mills mental palette cleanser afterward!

I haven't see a Chloe Zhao movie, so I can't weigh in on her as a director. But I have heard the Dracula rumors and how it's supposed to be a Dracula Western and omfg I would love that!! That would definitely be on my dream list of AD movies. However, I personally speculate that with the new stupidly fun looking Nic Cage Dracula movie coming out, AD will not want to take a Dracula role. Which is really too bad. But I think he likes to be more original than that. I'd love to be wrong though!

Here are the directors I'd love to see him work with! The first three are my top three in order, then they're just random as they came into my head.

Chad Stahelski aka the John Wick director! AD needs to be the next John Wick! Or a bad guy in a John Wick movie! Or anything similar! Absolutely one of my dream roles for him! The John Wick movies are favorites, complete with some of the best action around, hot and well dressed men, gorgeous cinematography, and kick ass music. I love them! AD in a John Wick sort of role and all the things that are bound up in that get my #1 vote!

Quentin Tarantino. I have my fingers crossed that AD will be in his upcoming movie! That would be a dream for me! Inglorious Basterds, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Django Unchained, and Deathproof are some favorites of mine. AD really has to get Tarantino on his punch card for the best directors out there, and I really hope he doesn't miss the opportunity to work with him.

Clint Eastwood. Preferably in a western playing a scruffy cowboy with facial scars! I love Clint Eastwood and he's so good and genuine with creating rugged manly men. I grew up watching his movies and loving them all and I still do. Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Two Mules for Sister Sara are favorites of mine.

Robert Eggars. I would actually bet that AD will team up with him at some point because they’re both young and have plenty of time to do so, and they both like strong talent and making dark weird things. They’re meant for each other! I personally want another hyper masculine role like Northman. I would kill to see AD in something like that! They could even repeat the naked volcano fight and I wouldn't mind at all!

Tim Burton. Gorgeous movies with great occult vibes! AD would be perfect to play a dark disturbed Victorian dude!

Guy Richie. Great action, great characters, hilarious dialogue. His movies are all a blast!

Kenneth Branagh. HIs movies are so beautiful! I'd kill for AD to have been in Death on the Nile! That would have kept my adventurer vibes going for years! Any intelligent, beautifully filmed, period murder mystery would be great by me.

Guillermo Del Toro. Another director who does beautiful and dark so well! Weird, macabre, and a match made in heaven!

Ridley Scott. In another period movie! By making him so unbelievably hot as Jacques and letting him lean fully into his hotness, Ridley is now one of my all-time favorite directors! He was in my favorites anyway and I love so many of his movies, but that gave him an extra boost! Ridley did two awesome period movies with Russell Crowe. They actually did five movies together total - three of them were great and one was even a romantic comedy! Ridley owes the same with AD as a minimum! He's another top tier choice for me for another period piece or an epic.

After Cocaine Bear, Elizabeth Banks gets my vote for the woman director he should work with first! That was so much fun and I would love to see AD in a campy action/horror comedy where he could do dark physical comedy.

These next three would never happen, but it’d be so much fun!

Gore Verbinsky. Some first rate adventure like Pirates of the Caribbean! I love those moves so much!

Stephen Sommers. The Mummy and Van Helsing are some of my all time favorites and anything similar would be a blast with him!

Baz Lurhman. I don’t actually like a lot of his movies, but they’re all SO gorgeous and he lets his men be hot! AD needs to make more pretty movies! Baz took my second favorite, Hugh Jackman, and gave him his hottest role ever in the western Australia. It was hard to top Wolverine, but Baz did it!

I actually feel super lucky and very happy that two of my dream roles for him he’s already done, and even luckier that they’re the two where I find him the absolute hottest! A badass knight and a rugged action hero!

I'd love to know who everyone else has on their dream list of directors if anyone wants to weigh in!

[tlaquetzqui]

I think if you endorse Scorsese’s remarks on comic-book movies, like Coppola did, and then make Megalopolis—a film that is basically a less coherent version of a very bad comic-book movie—your entire family should be banished. Yes even Nic Cage.

Coppola even had the temerity to say Dune was just like everything else out of Hollywood, which is an opinion entirely unique on the Earth. One wonders if he also praises Paul Verhoeven for his light touch and understated treatments.

[thenerdparty]

Megalopolis - Film Review

Written by Shawn Eastridge

Hoo, boy. This one’s a doozy. 

Your appreciation of Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded passion project, Megalopolis, will largely depend on how familiar you are with the film’s troubled history. One can’t help but be impressed by Coppola’s sheer gall and tireless devotion in getting this film to the big screen. Since the early eighties, he’d struggled to secure funding for his ambitious production. Despite having made three of cinema’s great masterpieces (The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now), its massive scale demanded a sizable budget that no studio in their right mind dared commit to. Coppola pushed forward, undeterred by these setbacks, even going so far as to hold a table read for his script in the early 2000s, featuring the likes of Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Uma Thurman. 

Nothing came of it.

Then in 2021, Coppola sold his Sonoma County wineries, finally securing the $120 million he needed to produce Megalopolis and ensuring his vision would shine through without any studio meddling. And here we are, three years on from that sale and forty years on from Coppola’s earliest envisionings, with the final result. 

Does anything about the above story inspire or excite you? Then Megalopolis may be worth checking out. But I’m not sure its appeal will extend beyond the realm of devoted cinephiles who understand the pain and turmoil that went hand-in-hand with its production. For the average, adventurous moviegoer, your overall enjoyment will more likely depend on your willingness to roll with the punches this ambitious mess throws your way. And believe me when I say, there are a lot of punches you’ll need to roll with if you want to get anything out of this. 

I, for one, was happily along for the ride. Despite Megalopolis’ myriad issues–which include but are not limited to its nonsensical, overstuffed storytelling; its scattershot focus; its stretches of dull philosophizing–I found Megalopolis to be genuinely impressive. For Megalopolis is nothing if not impressive. Chalk it up to Coppola’s seemingly bottomless well of ideas, all of which have been thrown into the mix with the kitchen sink, and then some. Throw in some not-remotely-subtle references to the Roman empire (the film’s time-stopping main character is named Cesar Catilina, for crying out loud) for good measure, and you end up with a final product so wacky, I couldn’t help but be swept along by the entire effort. 

It’s kind of like what would happen if you resurrected Fellini, introduced him to America’s current political landscape, and asked him to make a film about it, but also threw in an element of goofy “we’re all in this together as ONE HUMAN FAMILY” optimism that wouldn’t feel out of place in your standard Disney film. (Though now that Disney owns Marvel, Disney, and Fox, I’m not sure what exactly qualifies as a “standard” Disney film anymore. I’m not even sure Disney knows the answer to that one.) But the whole thing is so unabashed, so unrestrained, so unequivocally BONKERS, you have to appreciate it on some level. 

Coppola is aided by Adam Driver’s supreme acting chops, which manage to turn the most absurd clunkers into passably respectable dialogue. Driver delivers a lead performance that contains a “go-for-broke” energy, imbuing Megalopolis with genuine humanity and emotion. Nathalie Emmanuel and Giancarlo Esposito are lovely, managing to do a whole lot with a whole little, Aubrey Plaza and Shia LaBeouf are having a ball, and Talia Shire manages to steal the only scenes in which she has anything to say. None of these performances, nor the film’s undeniably fantastic imagery, can make up for a narrative that simply cannot handle the weight of Coppola’s seemingly ceaseless musings, none of which are given the time needed to truly flourish. Plotlines and characters are introduced only to be forgotten on a whim. (Does Cesar’s ability to control time amount to anything outside of a cool visual gimmick?) I keep forgetting that certain, massive names, such as Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman, are even in the movie. Once all in Megalopolis is said and done, I’m not exactly sure what was actually said or done.

But look. These kinds of grand cinematic experiments simply aren’t made anymore–at least, not by anyone not named Christopher Nolan. Whether the film succeeds or fails at the box office is irrelevant. The true victory is that, after decades of struggle, one of the world’s greatest filmmakers finally got his passion project on the big screen. Its time there may be short-lived, but it happened nonetheless. You can’t help but root for him and his hilariously sweet and optimistic vision of the future. 

And wait for Criterion to pick up the inevitable four and a half hour director’s cut.

FINAL RATING: 3/5

[terrence-silver]

Can you write little one shot snippets of, lets say, old man Terry taking his beloved to various locations around the world?

Paris

He's been here a million times all throughout his life. Alone. For business. For pleasure. With other people. Creatures dangled on a puppeteers string. Meaningless. Replaceable. But it is beloved's first instance here. They're amazed at everything, watching things with newborn eyes. Still high off of the flickering, dimmed lights of Champs Élysées as he holds their hand tight, wrapping them into his jacket oversized on their body to keep away the chill of the rain at dusk reflected on the shimmering, smooth pavement of the winding, soaked avenues crowded with the buzz of people. If someone asked Terry, he'd say Paris is the most overrated, overromanticized, blase city in the whole world, but for their sake, he indulges them and he smiles at them overtaken by their infectious, innocent happiness.

London

A foggy cloud rises after a cold downpour and Terry closes the heavy velvet window curtains of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde hotel located at 66 Knightsbridge. He's been missing the perpetual sunshine of California he's grown accustomed to and he scoffs, mellowing somewhat when his eyes fall on the King size bed concealing the contour's of beloved's sleeping body huddled beneath layers of immaculate white sheets, pillows and blankets shielding them from sight. He's glad they're here as company. An old man's sole comfort with the gloomy weather disposition plaguing the darkening vista. Another place he's visited countless times, but this time around, he figures --- this time's different a bit different than every other previous one. This time he's glad to nuzzled beneath the sheets with someone.

Seoul

Everything here has changed indescribably since he's been visiting with John to take lessons from their Sensei in the 70's after Vietnam. The city has practically transformed into a new age megalopolis of blooming scrapers and neon dazzle. The thing that remained the same for over thirty years are the private, drawn-in bistros and cafes followed by the scent of peach blossoms at spring and there's a sense of nostalgia, familiarity and serenity as he watches beloved manage the chopsticks he's been teaching them how to use. Normally, Terry would feel a sense of disdain in witnessing someone not knowing how to handle eating utensils, but there's patience where there was never any patience before as he carefully, tenderly reaches to adjust their fingers for them.

Zermatt

With an unprecedented forty five inches of snow, the managerial staff at the Swiss mountain resort recommends its guests to stay inside and keep to their rooms until the conditions for skiing and other activities thaw. Terry should be annoyed, but he technically isn't. Locked in? Unable to move? Practically barricaded inside? This was a dream come true. He should leave his personal complements to the people running the place for the perfect setting delivered to him on a silver platter. Beloved wouldn't be going anywhere on this vacation, that was for sure. They'd stay here. With him. For two weeks straight. Some people were daunted by the concept of Cabin Fever and Terry knew what it was like to be in a cage. He supposes everything has its perks, though. He wasn't in a cage alone.

[universallycrownpirate]

Francis Ford Coppola (* 7. April 1939 in Detroit, Michigan) ist ein US-amerikanischer Regisseur und Produzent. Als Regisseur von Klassikern wie Der Pate und Apocalypse Now zählt er zu den bedeutendsten Filmschaffenden des US-amerikanischen Kinos.

Da er dem etablierten Studiobetrieb Hollywoods kritisch gegenüberstand, gründete Coppola 1969 das unabhängige Filmstudio American Zoetrope, wo unter anderem die ersten Filme von George Lucas verwirklicht wurden. Nachdem er mit dem Studio in finanzielle Schwierigkeiten geraten war, inszenierte Coppola ab Mitte der 1980er Jahre auch kommerziell ausgerichtete Filme mit weniger künstlerischem Anspruch.

Nach dem Studium entschloss sich Coppola 1959, an der Filmhochschule University of California, Los Angeles weiterzustudieren. Während des Studiums traf Coppola auf den unabhängigen Autorenfilmer Roger Corman und wurde dessen Assistent. Er half Corman bei der Produktion einiger Filme, darunter zum Beispiel The Terror – Schloß des Schreckens, nahm dabei die Aufgaben eines Drehbuchautors, Produktionsassistenten, Tonmeisters und Regisseurs wahr und eignete sich so praktische Erfahrungen im Filmbereich an. Während seiner Studienzeit war er auch an Produktionen mehrerer kleiner Horror- und Erotikfilme beteiligt. Sein Regiedebüt gab Coppola 1961 mit dem Western Das gibt es nur im Wilden Westen, danach drehte er 1963 den Horrorfilm Dementia 13. Das Drehbuch dieses Schwarz-Weiß-Films, der von einem Serienmörder handelt, schrieb Coppola selbst. Dementia 13 wurde mit einem Budget von rund 20.000 US-Dollar in Irlandgedreht. 1968 beendete er sein Studium in Los Angeles mit der besten Note seines Jahrgangs

Dann wurde ihm „ein Angebot gemacht, das er nicht ablehnen konnte“ (CBS News): das Mafiaepos Der Pate (The Godfather) von 1972, nach einem Roman von Mario Puzo. Dies wurde sein Durchbruch als Regisseur. Die zwei Jahre später veröffentlichte Fortsetzung war bei Kritik und Publikum ebenfalls sehr erfolgreich. Coppolas letzter großer Erfolg war dann 1979 das Vietnam-Epos Apocalypse Now, in dem unter anderem auch Marlon Brando und Robert Duvall aus Der Patemitspielten. Erst nach einer Drehdauer von 1976 bis 1979 konnte Coppola den Antikriegsfilm endlich fertigstellen. In der Produktionszeit kam es zu Differenzen mit dem Filmverleih United Artists. Trotzdem wurde das Werk zu einem finanziellen und künstlerischen Erfolg. Apocalypse Now ist bis heute einer der einflussreichsten Filme der vergangenen fünfzig Jahre.

Filme wie Die Outsider und Rumble Fish drehte er nur, um seine Schulden abzubezahlen; beiden war ausreichender kommerzieller Erfolg beschieden, und die von Coppola eingesetzten Schauspieler wurden als Brat Packdie Jungstars ihrer Generation. Sein Wunschfilm Cotton Club wurde dann aber erneut ein Misserfolg, und Coppola drehte anschließend Peggy Sue hat geheiratet. Diesen Teufelskreis aus künstlerisch ehrgeizigen Flops und handwerklich soliden Auftragsarbeiten konnte er bis heute nicht durchbrechen. So sah er sich entgegen vorherigen Beteuerungen 1990 doch gezwungen, Der Pate – Teil III zu drehen; die Kritik reagierte verhalten. Gleiches gilt für den Kinderfilm Jack mit Robin Williams und die John-Grisham-Verfilmung Der Regenmacher. Ein danach geplantes Projekt, das ihm schon lange am Herzen lag, Megalopolis, kam nicht zustande. Dafür veröffentlichte er 2007 den weitaus persönlicheren Film Jugend ohne Jugend, über Alter, Tod, Angst, Liebe, Sprache, Frühgeschichte, Traum, Reinkarnation und Atomwaffen. Mit dem vollständig digital gedrehten Film brachte er es auf die Titelseite der renommierten Cahiers. Die Kritik in den Vereinigten Staaten reagierte aber sehr ablehnend.

Coppola produzierte zahlreiche Kinofilme anderer Regisseure, darunter George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973), Akira Kurosawas Kagemusha (1980), Godfrey Reggios Koyaanisqatsi (1983), Paul Schraders Mishima – Ein Leben in vier Kapiteln (1985) und Tim Burtons Sleepy Hollow (1999). Für Jack Claytons mehrfach ausgezeichneten Film Der große Gatsby (1974) schrieb er das Drehbuch. Coppola gelang damit eine werkgetreue und dennoch Hollywood-gerechte Adaption von Fitzgeralds Roman, an der unter anderem Truman Capote gescheitert war.

Finanzielle Einnahmen erzielt Coppola heute vor allem mit seinem Weingut.

Francis Ford Coppola ist seit 1963 mit der Dokumentarfilmerin Eleanor Coppola verheiratet. Er ist der Onkel der US-amerikanischen Schauspieler Nicolas Cage und Jason Schwartzman, Vater der Regisseure Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) und Roman Coppola (Musikvideos und Kinofilme) sowie Bruder der Schauspielerin Talia Shire. Sein ältester Sohn, Gian-Carlo, kam 1986 bei einem Bootsunfall ums Leben.

[peakwealth]

Aux armes, citoyens du monde!

Old trusty, holding court in front of the sliding door of 7 Eleven (Tong Lor, Sukhumvit road, Bangkok)

And so one falls in love with the world, just as it is. It may take time for the realization to sink in, but eventually it does - as I noticed once more on arrival in Bangkok last month.

It's been many years since I made my peace with this complicated megalopolis, easygoing in the morning, hyperventilating by late afternoon. Now I happily surrender to it. And it is not just Bangkok or Hong Kong or Tokyo. The world's map is dotted with little lights flashing deep inside me, each one an invitation to return and feel at home. The list is still growing but the groundwork was laid decades ago. Call it cosmopolitanism or old-fashioned wanderlust if you wish, or simply being at ease in the world. It happens to many of us fortunate enough to have roamed the planet when the going was good.

To return to my corner of Bangkok is to be welcomed by the same scuzzy old dog, seemingly immortal, snoozing on the sidewalk in front of the nearest 7 Eleven.  I would be heartbroken if he wasn't there. Arrival in Bangkok involves a quick look around my intersection: dental clinics on this side, opticians on the other (next to the  escalator to the Skytrain). Right around the corner are the stalls selling premium mangoes while the flower market is across the street (treacherous crossing for pedestrians). Then there are the moneychangers, the language school, the post office and the shop selling car batteries on the sidewalk. A little harder to spot are the backstreet water dispensers (where you can fill up your bottle for one baht). It's a five minute walk to the branch of my favourite faux Japanese/French bakery (Saint-Etoile). It manages even such profoundly un-Asian things like Kouign Amann quite well. And since this is Bangkok, the food options are infinite: Korean or Japanese noodles maybe, or rice and duck for under two dollars; crispy pancakes with condensed milk in the afternoon; mango with sticky rice at night; inevitably there's a place that believes it does pad thai better than anywhere else.  All served with unfailing courtesy.

When, later in the day, I end up taking the subway I bite my lip as the female voice reminds me to 'please mind the gap between train and platform'. I can hear it in my dreams. Of such mundane stuff cosmopolitanism is made.

I guess that makes me a ‘citizen of nowhere’ in the infamous words of Theresa May, the British Prime Minister and leader of the 'nasty party' who pompously proclaimed, last October, that “if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere”. I suppose May's putdown is in tune with the fearful, parochial sentiment of the times - nativist is the word of choice now - but it doesn't make it any less insular, xenophobic or, as some have pointed out, implicitly racist and antisemitic. Or simply backward. It reflects that ancient worry still echoeing from the cave: are you from here or are you not from here?

Every twenty or thirty years, the monsters of populism are let out of the cage: nationalism, ethnocentricity, misogyny, protectionism (or de-globalization at it is now called). Stop the world, I want to get off.

The current populist surge is particularly worrisome since one of its most primitive protagonists has somehow bamboozled himself into the White House and seems set on doing great harm.

We, the happy citizens of nowhere, the unrooted ones who have our feet firmly on the ground in Hong Kong or Milan or Capetown or anywhere in between, have got our work cut out for us.

DV

[richmondcomix-blog]

New books for 1/18/17

1. A-FORCE TP VOL 02 RAGE AGAINST DYING OF LIGHT 2. ADVENTURE TIME COMICS #7 3. ALL NEW X-MEN #17 IVX 4. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #23 BIANCHI VAR CC 5. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #23 CC 6. ANGEL SEASON 11 #1 MAIN FISCHER CVR 7. ANGEL SEASON 11 #1 VAR DEKAL CVR 8. AQUAMAN #15 9. AQUAMAN #15 VAR ED 10. ARCHIE #16 CVR C VAR DEAN TRIPPE 11. AVENGERS #3.1 12. BATGIRL TP VOL 03 POINT BLANK 13. BATMAN #15 14. BATMAN #15 VAR ED 15. BLACK HAMMER GIANT SIZED ANNUAL #1 16. BLACK PANTHER WORLD OF WAKANDA #3 17. BLACK ROAD #6 (MR) 18. BLACK WIDOW #10 19. CAGE #4 (OF 4) 20. CAPTAIN AMERICA SAM WILSON #18 21. CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #4 (MR) 22. CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #4 VAR ED (MR) 23. CHEW TP VOL 12 (MR) 24. CLONE CONSPIRACY #4 (OF 5) BAGLEY VAR CC 25. CLONE CONSPIRACY #4 (OF 5) CC 26. CLONE CONSPIRACY #4 (OF 5) LOZANO CONNECTING D VAR 27. CURSE WORDS #1 CVR A BROWNE (MR) 28. CURSE WORDS #1 CVR B YOUNG (MR) 29. DEADPOOL AND MERCS FOR MONEY #7 IVX 30. DEADPOOL THE DUCK #2 (OF 5) 31. DEADPOOL THE DUCK #2 (OF 5) JOHNSON CONNECTING VAR 32. DESCENDER #18 33. FEW #1 (MR) 34. FLASH TP VOL 01 LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE (REBIRTH) 35. GAMORA #2 36. GODDAMNED TP VOL 01 THE FLOOD (MR) 37. GREEN ARROW #15 38. GREEN ARROW #15 VAR ED 39. GREEN LANTERN HAL JORDAN TP VOL 01 40. GREEN LANTERNS #15 41. GREEN LANTERNS #15 VAR ED 42. GWENPOOL #10 43. HARLEY QUINN #12 44. HARLEY QUINN #12 VAR ED 45. HARLEY QUINN TP VOL 05 THE JOKERS LAST LAUGH 46. HE MAN THUNDERCATS #4 (OF 6) 47. HORIZON TP VOL 01 48. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #3 49. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #3 ANKA VAR 50. JAMES BOND HAMMERHEAD #4 (OF 6) 51. JUSTICE LEAGUE #13 (JL SS) 52. JUSTICE LEAGUE #13 VAR ED (JL SS) 53. JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA THE RAY REBIRTH #1 54. JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA THE RAY REBIRTH #1 VAR E 55. JUSTICE LEAGUE SUICIDE SQUAD #5 (OF 6) 56. JUSTICE LEAGUE SUICIDE SQUAD #5 (OF 6) CONNER VAR 57. JUSTICE LEAGUE SUICIDE SQUAD #5 (OF 6) KUBERT VAR 58. JUSTICE LEAGUE TP VOL 01 THE EXTINCTION MACHINE 59. KAMANDI CHALLENGE SPECIAL #1 60. KILL OR BE KILLED #5 (MR) 61. KILL OR BE KILLED TP VOL 01 (MR) 62. LEAVING MEGALOPOLIS HC VOL 02 SURVIVING MEGALOPOLI 63. LUCIFER #14 (MR) 64. LUKE CAGE IRON FIST AND HEROES FOR HIRE TP VOL 02 65. MANIFEST DESTINY #25 (MR) 66. MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 NOW 67. MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 RETAILER BONUS VAR NOW 68. MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 SIQUEIRA VAR NOW 69. MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #11 MAIN CVR 70. MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #11 UNLOCK ACTION FIG 71. MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #11 UNLOCK VILLAIN VA 72. MIGHTY THOR TP VOL 01 THUNDER IN HER VEINS 73. MONSTERS UNLEASHED #1 (OF 5) 74. MONSTERS UNLEASHED #1 (OF 5) FRANCAVILLA VAR 75. MONSTERS UNLEASHED #1 (OF 5) NEW MONSTER VAR 76. MONSTERS UNLEASHED #1 (OF 5) NIMURA VAR 77. MOSAIC #4 78. MOTOR GIRL #3 79. NIGHTWING #13 80. NIGHTWING #13 VAR ED 81. PATSY WALKER AKA HELLCAT #14 82. POKEMON XY GN VOL 09 83. POWERPUFF GIRLS (2016) #6 84. POWERPUFF GIRLS (2016) #6 SUBSCRIPTION VAR 85. RAVEN #5 (OF 6) 86. REVOLUTIONARIES #1 87. REVOLUTIONARIES #1 SUB VAR A MICRO COMIC VAR 88. REVOLUTIONARIES #1 SUB VAR C BLANK SKETCH CVR 89. ROM TP VOL 01 90. SCARLET WITCH TP VOL 02 WORLD OF WITCHCRAFT 91. SIMPSONS COMICS #236 92. SLAM #3 93. SPIDER-GWEN #16 NOW 94. SPIDER-MAN 2099 TP VOL 05 CIVIL WAR II 95. SQUADRON SUPREME #15 96. STAR WARS DOCTOR APHRA #3 97. STAR WARS TP VOL 04 LAST FLIGHT OF THE HARBINGER 98. STAR-LORD #2 99. SUICIDE SQUAD MOST WANTED #6 (OF 6) EL DIABLO & AM 100. SUPER POWERS #3 (OF 6) 101. SUPERMAN #15 102. SUPERMAN #15 VAR ED 103. THEYRE NOT LIKE US #13 (MR) 104. TMNT UNIVERSE #6 105. TRANSFORMERS TITANS RETURN TP 106. TRINITY #5 107. TRINITY #5 VAR ED 108. ULTIMATES 2 #3 109. UNCANNY INHUMANS #18 IVX 110. US AVENGERS #2 111. VENOM #3 112. WALT DISNEY COMICS & STORIES #736 113. WWE #1 MAIN CVR 114. WWE #1 UNLOCK BLANK SKETCH VAR

[jasontoddsrevenge]

Pt.2 to my earlier post, I started writing! This is just a tiny piece, and it’s very very rough. Any feedback is highly appreciated! No title currently, though I’m fond of “Prodigies”.

On a lonely stretch of road, a streak of golden lightning passed over the cracked pavement at supersonic spear. After only a moment of the bright light, the blur resolved into an young man, somewhere in between his teens and twenties, his chest heaving with deep breaths. He looked down the street, in the direction he’d come from, eyes wide with wonderment.

“Whoa.” was all Jacen Jacobs could say. Reaching into his pocket and opening his phone, he made a note of his speed. It was his fastest yet- he’d pushed himself hard this time around, and it was paying dividends. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and assumed his starting position.

Small arcs of golden lightning appeared on and around his body. He touched the ground, focusing those little sparks, drawing the Speed Force into himself- KRAKOOM!

With a supersonic boom that sent the birds from the trees, Jacen sped further down the road.

Several miles down that backroad he sped along was his hometown- Jump City, a sprawling megalopolis of mega-skyscrapers and neon light. The overstuffed city had many points of interest, but perhaps none more banal and overlooked than a dilapidated old science center. Once a large building, it was dwarfed by the rest of the city; it was tucked away in the old industrial park, surrounded by tall barbed wire fencing. Peeling white and blue paint still proudly displayed the name of the science center; CADMUS BIOENGINEERING.

The citizens of Jump City who would drive by that old park often rarely noticed the building, assuming it to be done unimportant, abandoned ruin from a different age. However, little did they know, the inside of the building had advanced with the times; it showed little of the wear and tear of its exterior. Slick and lit harshly by fluorescent light, the upper level of this building had over ten wrought iron security doors, cored with lead and mounted with twin machine guns that could turn intruders to jelly. After this gauntlet of doors, bioscans confirmed the identity completely, perhaps the most cutting edge technology on Earth. After this, one would take the elevator to the only true floor in this building- the Panopticon. High walls lined with catwalks circled a massive dip that stretched hundreds of feet across- but was only play to one curious thing; a cage.

In an observation deck overlooking the cage, a group of scientists clad in their white coats waited to awaken their greatest project yet; a superhero.

“Jillian,” said a deep, slightly accented voice. A monitor activated before him, reflected in his round spectacles.

“Yes, Doctor Martinez?” asked the AI. Dr. Martinez looked at his colleagues and nodded.

“Awaken subject one zero zero zero. Passcode: Conduit.”

Spotlights appeared on the cage; a bare mattress was in the middle of the cage, occupied; other than that, it was empty. There was short sharp snap- a shock- and the man in the bed awoke suddenly, sitting up. After a moment of confusion, the young man’s eyes widened and his head darted around, until his eyes found the observation chamber high up. He stood to his feet suddenly, eyes filling with tears nearly instantly, as he grabbed onto the bars of his cage and openly wept.

“Please!” He yelled, sounding less like a twenty year old man and more like a scared boy, “Please let me go! I won’t... I won’t tell anyone! I’ll do anything!”

There was no reply. His sobs filled the silence, as his body threatened to crumple to the ground. His onyx eyes, once bright and full of hope, were now pleading as he looked back up at the chamber. His lower lip shook.

“Papí! No more experiments! Please let me go!”

Up in the control room, Dr. Martinez didn’t even flinch. He typed a command on the keyboard.

“Jillian, dear. Activate his implant.”

The boy in the cage was still sobbing, even as he felt something on the side of his head beep progressively louder; though the control room was far away, he still could see his father. His sob barely left his body before the small rectangular implant on the side of his head beeped one last time. His face slackened, then hardened into something more focused and, perhaps, angry; his back straightened; his hands fell to his side from the bars, curling into fists. In the control room, his father smiled.

[micaramel]

Artist: Zhang Enli

Venue: Xavier Hufkens, Brussels

Date: September 6 – October 19, 2019

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release, and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Xavier Hufkens, Brussels 

Press Release:

Xavier Hufkens is delighted to announce the representation of leading Chinese artist Zhang Enli (b. 1965) and his inaugural exhibition with the gallery. In this presentation, the varied facets of the artist’s erudite and lyrical practice are brought to the fore in a thoughtful and representative selection of works spanning both gallery spaces.

Zhang Enli is a painter whose oeuvre has gradually developed from visual interpretations of everyday objects to abstraction. Interested in the morphology of painting and its relationship to space, he works in both two and three dimensions and often creates works directly on the surfaces of walls or cardboard structures. In recent years, he has made a series of immersive, site-specific environments known as ‘space paintings’ that push the boundaries of his chosen medium. Uniting this diverse yet coherent oeuvre are the enduring themes of memory and emotion, which the artist frequently explores in relation to his experience of growing up in rural China and the present-day reality of his life in Shanghai.

The exhibition opens in the main gallery with a large mural. This practice typifies Zhang Enli’s intuitive and spatial approach, but also serves as an introduction to his distinctive painterly style. The artist is known for his mastery of thinly applied pigments, which he manipulates using rapid and fluid brushstrokes. Moving from section to section, he adds semi-transparent layers to the wall but never allows texture to accumulate: the end result appears as an indivisible part of the architectural surface while retaining the vestiges of the physical gestures behind its creation.

In the adjacent rooms, Zhang Enli presents a series of oil paintings that form a dynamic contrast to the mural. Like much of the artist’s abstract work, the canvases stem from his interest in human perception and the subconscious. They are directly related to memory and the ever-fluctuating relationship between past and present. More specifically, the artist investigates the fleeting moments in which traces of bygone events, places and impressions make themselves felt in contemporary day-to-day life. Though invisible and elusive, these sensations are intensely palpable and form the springboard for his explorations of colour and composition. Just as his life has embraced two diametrically opposed worlds – the rural/traditional and the urban/hyper-modern – so too is his technique indebted to both Western and Eastern artistic conventions. The gestural brushwork and sparsely applied paint, both of which are evocative of classical Chinese painting, feel worlds apart from the hard-edged urbanism of twenty-first century Shanghai. This is also true of the colour palette, which seems to have a greater affinity with early twentieth-century modernism than the loud colours one might associate with the bustling metropolis today. These delicate qualities imbue the oil paintings with an air of otherworldliness, as though they emanate from a more distant time and place.

The second space is dominated by a monumental tower made of painted cardboard boxes. These in situ objects have long featured in Zhang Enli’s practice, either as the subjects of paintings or as part of actual physical structures. For the artist, cardboard boxes are humble, friendly and often overlooked items. He utilises them here to create a sculptural form, allowing painting to escape the confines of a two-dimensional canvas. This self-assembled ‘three-dimensional painting’ is as unpretentious as it is ingenious, and a tour de force in terms of scale and execution, echoing the verticality and architectural parameters of the gallery space.

The nearby ‘apartment’ series of paintings are based on impressions derived from spartan rooms occupied by the artist in various corners of Shanghai and at different stages of his life. They touch upon the notion of transition and evolution, both on a personal level and in terms of the city’s own meteoric development. While the ‘old’ Shanghai that the artist first encountered in the 1990s has disappeared beneath the weight of a futuristic megalopolis, Zhang Enli alludes once again to the meshing and merging of past and present. In this sense, the apartment series correlates socio-economic progress to different types of accommodation, and a fight for survival that often plays out across the city. From the chaos of the urban sprawl, dominated by some of the tallest buildings in the world, he distils a serene emptiness, devoid of all detail and lacking any human presence.

Zhang Enli (b. 1965, Jilin Province in China) lives and works in Shanghai. He graduated from the Arts & Design Institute of Wuxi Technical University, China in 1989. Selected solo exhibitions include Zhang Enli, K11 Foundation, Shanghai, China (2019), Bird Cage: a temporary shelter, Galleria Borghese and the Uccelliera, Rome, Italy (2019), Gesture and Form, Firstsite, Colchester, England (2017); Zhang Enli, Moca, Taipei, Taiwan (2015); Landscape, Museo d’Arte contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy (2013); and Space Painting, ICA, London, England (2013).

Link: Zhang Enli at Xavier Hufkens

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from Contemporary Art Daily http://bit.ly/2O0VWA9

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: A Portrait of a Predator

Miguel Calderón, installation views of Caída libre, 2017. (all images courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City 2017)

MEXICO CITY — Miguel Calderón’s latest 25-minute video work paints a haunting portrait of a predator, the murderous main character and narrator, Camaleón (Chameleon), a falconer born with an evil pedigree, pursued by violence, and, like a falcon, always returning to roost in Mexico City’s sleazy underbelly. What tender force of nature draws the falcon back to the falconer’s glove? Projected in a soaring offsite warehouse space, presented by Kurimanzutto, Calderón’s Caída libre (Free fall) shrouds the difference between documentary and fictional narrative, sending uncomfortably real shivers down the spines of viewers.

The unfinished space opens behind black curtains to reveal a collection of falcon perches covered in droppings but absent the avian hunters. The perches extend across the impromptu gallery space from the curtains to the screen. In the video cast across the darkened space by a projector, Camaleón coos that over his falcon like a lover. “What happens to me is always violent,” he says in a deep smoky voice, recounting to the camera the story of killing four would-be assassins with a knife. He tells the camera matter-of-factly about his gunshot wounds, the 274 scars covering his body, and “the 15 or 17 surgeries” he’s endured after 29 years of working as a bouncer. He equates his own sexual conquests to his falcon’s capture of prey, comparing the stains of menstrual blood on his bed sheets left by the women he brings home to the stain of his bird’s prey on its feathers.

Still from Caída libre (2017)

The video switches between scenes at the nightclub where Camaleón works as a bouncer, looming over the crowd, expelling belligerent drunks by their belts, to Camaleón cruising the city on his moped, weaving between Mexico City traffic, to his dungeon-like apartment where grime drips down the walls, and to the outskirts of the city where he brings his falcon to hunt in misty grasslands. He never speaks directly the the camera, but his disembodied voice is edited into the composition, recounting ambiguous anecdotes of a life in the moonlit underworld — a life outside of regulated society. Inside the exhibition, sounds of passing airplanes and traffic permeate the space, making the viewer ever aware of the monstrous city rumbling outside.

Installation views of Caída libre (2017)

Falconers, usually outsiders and introverts, often compare their falcon’s hunt with the way they meet women, Calderón tells Hyperallergic. How true their stories are is up for debate, he says. Conceived from a genuine interest in falconry, the portrait of Camaleón went beyond the imagination of the artist. The candidness of one falconer, coldly laying out his vulnerabilities for Calderón’s camera — nightmares about losing his bird, his absent secret-agent father — humanizes the man who could otherwise be seen as evil. Camaleón himself insists he’s done evil things due to circumstance, because trouble always finds him, and from a young age he learned there wouldn’t be consequences for the blood on his hands.

Still from Caída libre (2017)

“I’ve always had this obsession with understanding how animals live and hunt, and how they’re guided by instinct,” admits Calderón.”Even as a kid, it made me question my own instincts.” His obsession with falconry— begun when the artist won a hawk in a childhood bet — led to the discovery of Camaleón, a human predator raised and caged in this city where his illicit life often caused red blood to flow. He lurks in the nightclub; he hunts for women, and he acts on his animal instincts. His story is a story of domination and survival. As in the old adage, “Everything in the jungle wants to kill you,” Mexico City is depicted as a glowing techno jungle full of creatures possessing the same aggressive instinct to survive at all costs.

Installation views of Caída libre (2017)

But there’s a hidden sophistication to Camaleón, as revealed by Calderón’s video. His affection for his bird contradicts his tendency for violence. This man, covered in tattoos up to his neck — a real, living monster — is engaged in an ancient ritual that has become rarefied. Falconry was originally used for hunting in the Middle East and Asia, but later became a bourgeois pastime during the Romantic period. Camaleón is the sort of contradictory character only possible to capture via the infrathin breath left in the video register — to borrow Duchamp’s idea. The falcon, the falconer and the artist together suggest a wild and poetic freedom, within the oppressive smog and stress of urban chaos.

Installation views of Caída libre (2017)

The show represents a sort of homecoming for Calderón. The space harkens back to La Panaderia, a seminal DIY space that Calderón co-founded and ran with other artists of his generation who all led the emergence of Mexican contemporary art in Mexico City in the 1990s. The warehouse were the video is presented was actually the artist’s former studio. The HD production quality of the video and audio is in stark contrast with the roughness of the space, and the morbid subject matter.

In a side room that has the same style of decayed tile floor as La Panaderia, Calderón also included a suite of photographs where urban spaces and nature collide, for example, an image of rattlesnakes strung up in a chain link fence. Images of Camaleón’s bedroom look like they could have been shot in the same space where the photographs hang. “With these projects about falconry, I’m interested in the conflicts between the city and nature,” Calderón explains.

Still from Caída libre (2017)

There are many ways to interpret the layers of meaning in the video. Synonymous images attach to each other creating a sticky network of cross-references with no direct assertion of an intellectual hypothesis. Camaleón is dangerous, like his falcon who knocks pigeons out of the sky and shreds their flesh with its powerful beak; a swarm of Mexican police choppers (helicopters) stalk the city below, showing that the state is also predatory. While the choppers drift across the screen, Camaleón’s voice recollects his father’s stories of torturing suspects by hooking a car battery to their genitals during his time in the Mexican secret service. And the megalopolis contains it all, tenderly, violently, like a dominatrix’s dungeon.

Caída libre by Miguel Caldarón will be on display at the temporary exhibition space (gral Manuel F. Loera 42, col. Daniel Garza) until February 25. 2017

  The post A Portrait of a Predator appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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