Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars
The original title of the very first Star Wars film. I kid you not.
New Tron Legacy trailer, looking good.
Learn Na’vi, the Language of Avatar
Tired of learning Esperanto or Klingon, why not give Na’vi a shot? Although it’s vocabulary its very limited, it’s a constructed language with its own grammar. The language was specifically created for the film Avatar by professor Paul Frommer, who has a doctorate in linguistics.
Bollywood Deciphered
Warning: the subtitles are not an official translation.
The Godfather Movie Poster
Stunning poster of the classic Francis Ford Coppola film The Godfather. The image of Marlon Brando is entirely composed of hand written words, which, incidentally, also happen to spell out every line said in the movie.
Via Digg
Oscars 2008: What’s the big deal?
Yes, it’s that time of the year again, and not even the writer’s strike was able to stop the Academy Awards from rearing its ugly head once again. Writer A.O. Scott from the International Herald Tribune gives his take on the 2008 Oscars and wonders if the Oscars are worthy of all the attention:
Like anyone else I’m glad when my favorites win and dismayed when they fall short. So I am not against the Oscars, any more than I’m dismissive of the Salesman of the Year or the Employee of the Month, or opposed to lavish annual trade association conventions for actuaries or ophthalmologists. But I am nonetheless bothered by the disproportionate importance that the Academy Awards have taken on, and by the distorting influence they exercise over the way Americans make, market and see movies. The Oscars themselves may be harmless fun, but the idea that they matter is as dangerous as it is ridiculous.Releasing ambitious, serious films into theaters has become a brutal blood sport, while going to watch them has become, for the most part, a seasonal activity. From January through August the theaters are crowded with highly commercial franchise entertainment, most of it designed for the adolescent palate, with a sprinkling of alternatives for grown-up cinephiles. There follows in the last third of the year, roughly from the Toronto International Film Festival in September through Christmas, an avalanche of art. Movies arrive on autumn weekends by the dozen: tiny gems and aspiring masterpieces, heavy with significance or filigreed with nuance, all craning toward February, when their midsize budgets and grand ambitions will be validated like parking receipts at a shopping mall on Hollywood Boulevard.
C’était un rendez-vous: A Cult Film by Claude Lelouch
C’était un rendez-vous is a short film by famous French movie director Claude Lelouch. It’s a simple enough story- a man drives his car at breakneck speed through the streets of Paris to join his date, burning through red lights and traveling up one way roads to get to her as quickly as possible.
Filmed in 1976, it has become a classic staple of cinéma verité, literally “truth cinema”, a style of film making that is closer to the unpredictable and unscripted nature of documentaries. Although the film is over 30 years old, it remains very controversial. When you realize that this movie was filmed while speeding through the streets of Paris and with absolutely no blocked roads or movie permits, you quickly understand why people always have such a strong reaction to it. Claude Lelouch eventually admitted that it was a foolish act of manly bravado, but he said that at the time he loved film more than he loved the law and that the movie would never be as exciting without that constant feeling of danger. I agree with him wholeheartedly- even though it is crazy to place art on a higher level than people’s lives, every second that went by in the film seemed to draw me ever closer to an inevitably tragic outcome, and without that sense of flirtation with death, the movie just wouldn’t have much emotional impact.
Over the years this film has built up its cult status in part because it was difficult to get a copy of the movie. Because of its growing popularity, a DVD was eventually produced from the original 35mm master and copies of the movie can now be found all over the internet. But so much of the folklore centers around how the film itself was made. Was it Lelouch driving the car himself or a professional formula 1 driver? Was it a Ferrari 275GTB or some other sports car? Was it even a car and not a motorcycle? Was anyone posted at any checkpoints along the route to warn the driver of any impending danger? Was the car really travelling that fast at all? Did Lelouch get arrested after making the film?
While at first these may seem like legitimate questions, it’s shocking how many people are still confused when the answers are just a few Google searches away. Take the speed question for example, some people with too much time on their hands calculated the top and average speed of the car through the different sections of its journeys. While the car didn’t travel at very high speeds at all times, there is one part where it reached 220km/h (136.7mph), which even by today’s standards is pretty insane.
Director Claude Lelouch checking the camera mounted to his Mercedes
As for all the other points, you just need to watch the interview with Lelouch to learn about how the film was actually made. The car was Lelouch’s own Mercedes, to which he mounted a gyro stabilized camera on the front bumper and rode with two camera operators. A wired remote enabled control over the camera settings from inside the vehicle. The movie was filmed in one take without any special effects. However, the sound was overdubbed with the engine from the director’s own Ferrari 275 GTB to make it more exciting (try watching the video without the sound and you will see what a difference it makes). There was one assistant posted by the ticket booths of the Louvre that was supposed to warn Lelouch of any oncoming traffic, but her walkie talkie was broken and had no way of contacting him. Lelouch was eventually arrested by the police but he claims his permit was taken away, if only for a few moments, as a symbolic slap on the wrist for his reckless driving.
For those who know French, you can read an interview with Claude Lelouch here.
Here is a video interview of Lelouch, also in French:
