Let's Make Better Films

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January 21 at 5:10pm

Movin’ On Over

We have had a nice brief stay over here in Blogger town, but Let’sMakeBetterFilms is going to join on comrades at Hammer To Nail. We will be posting more regularly over there. For the next few weeks we will be listing and describing the qualities that in my humble opinion “make better film”. Please give us a visit as we build our new home.

And if you haven’t been to Hammer To Nail this week, you definitely need to come on over. It’s new! It’s improved! It’s a home for ambitious film!

January 15 at 10:23pm

The Pervert’s Guide To Cinema

One of my favorite viewing experiences last year was Sophie Fienes’ playful and thoughtful essay film on rockstar philosopher Slavoj Zizek’s rant on the role of cinema. As my friend described it “a clarion call for cinephilia”. Lucky for you, Sophie is distributing it herself and it is now playing at the IFC here in NYC. She’s even going to be at the theater friday and saturday evening. I almost got on the plane and flew back from Sundance just so I could see it again!

IFC describes it as:

To explore the power and mystery of movies, the charismatic, garrulous psychoanalyst/philosopher/cinephile Slavoj Zizek revisits Vertigo, Duck Soup, Dr. Strangelove and dozens of other classics. Walking through locations and sets and even inserting himself into key scenes, he declares cinema to be “the ultimate pervert art. It doesn’t give you what you desire — it tells you how to desire.” Whether untangling David Lynch’s labyrinthine work or upending everything you thought you knew about Hitchcock, Zizek illuminates the movies with passion, insight and an unfailing sense of humor, resulting in what The Times of London hailed as “an extraordinary reassessment of cinema.”

Check out the website here.

I also had a great encounter this fall when my wife spotted Zizek at a street fair. We went up for a talk, hopeful of the wisdom from one of the world’s great minds. We walked for over a mile but I could barely get a word in edgewise as Zizek and my eight year old son discussed Yugi-oh! cards and their super-specific economy and how it varied across the world. The guy knew the spell power of Green-Eyed Dragon!