the goddess of 1967

I have recently watched the indie Australian roadmovie "The Goddess of 1967" (2000), the title of which refers to a car. That's right, a car. But it's not any car, it's the so-called goddess which is English for the French word déesse = DS = Citroen DS (nice play of words ;-).

The movie starts with a mysterious and eccentric Japanese buyer who flies to Australia to pick up the goddess, he had purchased online. This adventure is the context for following the car's and its owner's history back several generations. The main character of the movie is the actual car owner, a blind young woman, with a more than difficult past that will have to be explored.

I am not quite content with the directing by Macau-born Clara Law and husband Eddie Fong. The slow pace of the movie is not balanced and makes it seem draggy. Moreover some issues seem to be left unfinished, some choices unexplained, some scenes superfluous, some characters (like the Japanese man, or the young woman's mother) don't seem to develop and the flashbacks segment the narrative in an unfavourable way.

Nevertheless, the movie's strong points are amazing and make me recommend the movie without hesitation: the amazing cinematography (exquisite frame composition, beautiful colors), the strangeness/bizarreness (at least to me, reminiscent of Arizona Dream), the serious, almost distressing themes (death, coming of age, child abuse, revenge etc.), the focus on the female universe (even the car is a feminine entity) and the brilliant(!) performance by Rose Byrne.

Watch a "behind the scenes" documentary about the movie here: part1, part2, part3

I watched it since it was suggested by Scott in a comment to a post by Danica on Kitsune Noir and I loved the trailer (music: Walk Don't Run 64 by The Ventures), which is why I am sharing it here as well:

moonassi

Daehyun Kim, aka moonassi was born in 1980, has studied traditional Korean painting at the College of Fine Arts, Hong-Ik University and lives and works in Seoul, Korea. He is working at "Lomography Korea" as a designer and likes to write poems, as well. I have been instantly mesmerized by his illustration artwork, I somehow feel they are simple, yet elegant, extremely clever and also relevant to myself. I am sharing a couple of them below, although I strongly advise you to visit his website for more:

Moonassi's black and white illustrations usually depict two identical characters engaged in what at first glance appear to be strange interactions. Some times one of the two characters is layered, broken into pieces or has tiny replicas of himself emerging from his body. It really takes a closer look at all the ingenious details to be able to understand the relationship between the characters and decide on its significance.

"I'm anyone or anything anywhere", says moonassi and by this he points out at the universal character of his theme. The artist's statement also underlines the anonymity of the individuals in his illustrations, which potentially mirror the viewer's own thoughts and emotions.

I am not sure whether this was the intention of the artist, but to me, moonassi's consistently identical figures represent an individual and his alter egoes. I think one of the major themes in his work is the duality (and multi-layer-character) of a person's self-concept.

dust kid

It's saturday morning, it's cartoon morning!

Today I want to share a Korean animation by Yumi Jung: "Munjiai" aka "Dust Kid" (2009). It tells the story of a young woman who wakes up in the middle of the night and starts tidying up her apartment. In this small nocturnal universe, her only co-inhabitants are small versions of herself that she finds hidden in every dusty corner of her room, always naked, sad, maybe frightened, ashamed. These dust kids, appear consistently and suddenly and are in some way reminders of her own true self, that she tries so hard to hide in the comfort and predictability of routine. But are not welcome, they are uncomfortable intruders and the young woman tries to crush them, flush them away, drown them, throw them away.

Highlights of this animation are the incredibly minimalistic pencil drawings, the wonderful use of sounds (the slippers, the moving of objects on the table, the buzzing of the fridge), that enhance the feeling of loneliness and the fact that it opens up for reflection.

Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010 [2]
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via Ma Kuangpei on Facebook

Note: A kind commenter has pointed out that the animation actually says Seoul International Animation Festival not Tokyo International Anime Fair, as suggested by the video description. I don't speak either Japanese or Korean, so I can't verify that. I do know however that the animation was present at the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010, as well as a number of other international festivals. I also realize that at the beginning of the video it says that it is supported by the Seoul Animation Center /Seoul Business Agency. If anyone can clarify this, please leave a comment.

burnout

Note: Sorry, it's one of those finds, the author of which remains a mystery to me. If you know him/her, drop me a line and I will credit.

two

French dancer Sylvie Guillem in one of the four parts of the fascinating "Push" ("Two", "Solo", "Shift", "Push").

outside

I have recently watched a wonderful 15-minute documentary about Beijing and aspects of the life of its people, titled "Outside". The director, Sérgio Cruz, explains:

"In China, culture and the arts are very closely linked to people and their lives. The street life in Beijing is a 24-hour live show full of music, dance and sports. Over a period of month residence time (September 2007), I was observing Chinese life, collecting 'road images', documenting quotidian performances (...)"

But this beautiful piece of film, that portrays the fast-paced and busy life in the noisy and continually changing city, paradoxically manages to achieve a wonderful, tranquil effect by avoiding speech, creating beautiful transitions and using an overall slow pacing.

In my view, the film doesn not necessarily focus on the city itself or people's actions (be they dancing, performing or excercising) but rather on the context of these. And he manages to give the Western eye a glimpse of the interdependency and -connectedness of people in a collectivistic cultural frame.

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

we are postrock

Via We like that I came across a wonderful website, titled We are postrock, the purpose of which is explained in the following:

"Our purpose in this is to subjectify ourselves in the music and visualize imagery for the postrock community. We genuinely believe that perhaps the really provocative area for future musical development lies in postrock.

We record and produce these HD concerts because we want to capture the closest thing to what it’s like being at a live postrock/instrumental show - doing it all for the love and passion we have for postrock music and all its bands."

Here I want to share two videos.

The first one is "Black Dunes" by This Will Destroy You, where the beautiful music is matched by the stunning visuals of the video.

"This Will Destroy You are an instrumental quartet from the great state of Texas who play a cascading brand of cinematic rock music. Often compared and linked to purveyors of the “post-rock” sub-genre, the band has managed to transcend the tag and carve its own niche via a delicate and balancing infusion of electronics, strings, and an array of unconventional “rock” instrumentation over bombastic and receding harmony."

I was happy to see that they also feature Mono, one of my favourite bands. "Battle to Heaven" is like an epic tale, so powerful that it's almost kinetic:

"The band’s style of instrumental rock music is influenced by the genres of experimental rock and shoegazing, as well as by both the classical and contemporary classical periods of classical music, and also by noise and minimalism. We found that their musical structure reflect classical compositions & movements intertwined in a meditative narrative progression."