Category Cinema

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Το περασμένο Σάββατο ήταν ημέρα κινηματογράφου και, έχωντας πρόσφατα δει τους Τρείς Πιθήκους, μια σαφώς υπερτιμημένη, πλην όμως αρκετά καλή ταινία, επισκεφθήκαμε τον Δαναό για την προβολή του ‘Βάλς με τον Μπασίρ’, μια από τις λίγες ταινίες που αξίζει να δείτε στους ελληνικούς κινηματογράφους αυτή την εποχή. Το ‘βαλς’ επιχειρεί μια ιδιαίτερα πρωτότυπη προσέγγιση ενός […]

Taking over Hollywood

It may be the case that the Red One camera has been around for a while, but it's only lately that some of Hollywood's leading directors have started to use and promote it. And that's only three years after the company was established and less than six months since the camera has been available to the general public (although apparently there's a considerable backlog before you can get your own Red, even if you're willing to spend the $17,500 it costs to buy). After Soderberg, a known fan of digital technology and longtime user of digital video along with or instead of film, Doug Liman jumps on the Red bandwagon and talks about the camera and how its changed the way he films.
Wired had a great article on the Red recently. You can find more clips from Red (at 720p) on the Vimeo Redusers group.

Remembering WarGames.

Back in April I wrote a short post on how Hollywood is royally screwing the classics by remaking them, using WarGames and 'The Dead Code' as an example. I guess this means I shouldn't be repeating myself, but it turns out Wired has a pretty cool tribute on the film that I think is worth pointing to. After all, this is a movie that shaped many of my generation's 'hackers', so if you're ever into WarGames or the early hacking culture, it's worth a read.

Screwing up the Classics, "Straight to Video".

It may not be a cinematic masterpiece, or even a particularly good movie, but WarGames (1983) was one of the few Hollywood flicks on the contemporary 'hacker' subculture set in a quasi-realistic environment and one that has since become a 'classic' of the genre. It's also one of the few movies by Lasker and Parkes (another being Sneakers from 1992 --- notice the similarities?). It's a shame then, that --- as with countless other films --- the studios chose to pick up the franchise once again. But even if this might make some sense to some, what certainly doesn't is following a movie like WarGames with a B-grade, straight-to-DVD release. I guess expecting the studios to get a clue is a bit too much...

Πολιτιστική Κληρονομιά, 'Πειρατεία' και ΟΠΙ

‘Άκουσα’ από το blog του Ματθαίου Τσιμιτάκη την (ηχητική) συνέντευξη της διευθύντριας του Οργανισμού Πνευματικής Ιδιοκτησίας, κα. Ειρήνη Σταματούδη, τόσο σχετικά με το ζήτημα της πειρατείας όσο και σχετικά με το ζήτημα της πολιτιστικής κληρονομιάς και της διαφύλαξης των πνευματικών δικαιωμάτων. Υπάρχουν διάφορα σημεία που θεωρώ ιδιαίτερα σημαντικά και άξια συζητήσης και τα οποία, αν […]

MovieLens

Movielens is a great site by the University of Minnesota that was recommended to me by Markos. It works like this: You rate movies you've seen and it makes recommendations based on your profile. The more you rate, the better the recommendations are. From the little time I've spent rating movies there, its recommendations are great: it clusters people based on their ratings and as such it starts recommending 'good' movies almost immediately. Within the first 5 minutes of my registration it started recommending movies I'd seen and that I've liked. This also accelelerates the learning process as you can rate the movies you've already seen much faster than a chonological, genre-based or other listing might allow. In about 40 minutes I managed about 250 movies I'd seen and liked, several times faster than what's possible with IMdB. If anything, MovieLens represents what IMdB sorely needs: a good recommendation service.

Steal This Film II

The second part of this community documentary on copyright is out. While biased to some extent in its presentation, it contains several interesting historical facts, a description of the current state of affairs and a presentation of the absurd corporate response to the internet revolution in content exchange, content creation and, effectively the new economic and production model. It is definitely worth watching for anyone interested in the subject of information freedom, copyright and consumer rights. You can find the first part of this documentary on the same site.

Brickfilms

This is a site dedicated to stop-motion animated movies of Lego. Amazing stuff :)

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001)

There are some films that few people know of. That fewer people have seen. But sometimes they are films that possess qualities surpassing many of the well-known, widely distributed commercial ones. Take for example Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, a truly fantastic movie about happiness, predictability and order, presented through a series of intertwined events […]