Sunday, November 1st, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: The Big Shave)

The day after Halloween. Feels a bit empty, doesn't it? Horror films are slightly less relevant today than they were yesterday, and I am bordering from the second day in a role of severe migraine headaches due to high sugar intake. Even though we are leaving much of the horror film discussions in the past week, the countdown of the most horrifying scenes in film history that I included on the blog from Total Film last week is still swimming in my head, as it was my inaugural viewing of Martin Scorsese's 1967 short film The Big Shave, as the entire 5 minute short was number four on the list.

The film stems from Scorsese's tenure at New York University's film program, and was originally titled Viet '67, which has caused many critics to compare the nameless lead character's titular shave to America's involvement in the Vietnam War. The dark flick is considered by many the most famous of the shorts Scorsese made during his school career, and would definitely pave the way for some of the darker movie tones he would deal with later in the iconic reign over the cinematic universe that would follow. The plot may not be thick, as it is just five minutes of a man shaving his facial hair, and eventually, his skin, but in his only film appearance, Peter Bernuth, plays the stone faced role perfectly.

Most of the time during my Short Film Sunday post, I speak of what the director went on to accomplish, but I think it goes without saying that we are all familiar with Scorsese's work, as he is arguably one of the greatest directors alive or dead in the history of cinema. Some of his works include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed and the upcoming Shutter Island just to name a few of the masterpieces. Anyhow, without anything additional to say about Scorsese that has not already been uttered thousands of times previously, enjoy The Big Shave.

P.S. Please don't go to YouTube to watch the video, as for some awkward happening beyond my reasoning ability, a plethora of extremely graphic taped vaginal exams are in the related video list to the side.

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

With Halloween drawing ever nearer, I've been researching something more in the spirit of the times to post on my blog, and I ran across a great countdown of the 28 most horrifying film scenes of all time, courtesy of Total Film. Of course, the list doesn't completely stay within the genre of horror, as the infamous Divine coprophagia scene that closes John Waters' cult filth manifesto Pink Flamingos, that is picture is among the list dwellers. Also outside of the horror genre is the American History X curb stomp, the entire duration of an incredibly nauseating Martin Scorsese short The Big Shave, the eye slice in Luis Bunuel's surreal masterpiece Un Chien Andalou, and the lashing of Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ among others. Still, there is plenty of horror fun on the list at the hands of The Last House on the Left, An American Werewolf in London and Misery. A really incredible list, with video links to every scene if you're bored, and in a rather morbid mood.

In other news today, Empire posted the nominees for the British Independent Film Awards. I'm not extremely familiar with all, or hardly any, of the flicks that garnered nods. Regardless, the film Fish Tank led the pack with eight nominations, while more importantly for this blog, Duncan Jones' Moon picked up seven, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Sam Rockwell, which will certainly build a little steam towards Rockwell getting the big Oscar nod. Also, I am currently searching through YouTube to find the trailer to one of the films nominated, Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, which was honored in the form of Best Actor for Andy Serkis. The title and Serkis is enough to have me interested.

Finally, I spoke of Scorsese's appearance on the brilliant Total Film countdown up there. It may seem kind of weird to have the famed director of Taxi Driver and The Departed on a countdown of horrifying scenes, but once you think of the brutal realism usually displayed in his films, his two places in the countdown (the other being the buried alive scene from Casino) seem right at home. So what would happen when Scorsese ventures into the realm of horror? Well, a new trailer for his latest, the upcoming Shutter Island, hit the Interwebs today and looks as creepy as one could imagine. Leonardo DiCaprio stars, and it has jumped right on top of the most anticipated films for 2010 in my mind. Enjoy.

Shutter Island - Exclusive Trailer

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

One of the few things I do involving social networking on the daily basis is check on the John Waters MySpace Fan Page to make sure the iconic cult filmmaker isn't doing something I'm missing. Since I've been blogging, I've yet to record any actual news regarding Waters working on a new project, but occasionally, I do get a self-portrait or some artwork that he is doing, the featured picture being from the Albert Merola Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts. If you're bored, check out the site, see some of Waters' non-cinematic artwork, and also check out a new CD of live recordings from one of his most infamous leading ladies, the late Edith Massey.

Into actual news, I was shocked to hear today, via Deadline Hollywood Daily, that Martin Scorsese's upcoming, highly anticipated thriller Shutter Island, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, has been pushed back to a February 19th release date. Really, just the pairing of Scorsese and DiCaprio (other pairings being Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed) has gained attention as being an early contender for Oscar gold. Paramount Pictures gave the reasoning that they just didn't have the money to spend to push and promote the movie as an award contender in the late part of the year, giving it just a general release with hope for award contention in 2010. One promising note the article leaves us with, is that the release date the film now has set, is the exact date another popular thriller, the Academy Award winning The Silence of the Lambs was released in 1991. I personally hate the politics involved in securing the Oscar nomination anyhow, and award season or no, I'm still pretty stoked for this movie, and it gives me a reason to look forward to what would probably be a rather bland February in a cinephile's life.

On the topic of Leonardo DiCaprio, his production company Appian Way has announced, via Variety, who will helm the new feature film adaptation of the Little Red Riding Hood folktale, Catherine Hardwicke of Twilight fame. The brief article also gives us an official title of the movie, The Girl with the Red Riding Hood.

Variety also reports that Bryan Singer and Warner Brothers are set to remake John Boorman's 1981 version of the Excalibur story. Some of the special effects may be dated, but this is actually a fantasy film that I feel stands the test of time. I don't really see a need to reboot this thing, but with this past week's news of possible remakes of Dirty Dancing and Yellow Submarine, this would be a mild argument to take up.

Finally, all the web troubles with the trailer for James Cameron's Avatar seems to be resolved, so here it is. Enjoy.