It would seem that contemporary Hollywood’s current love affair with the silent era isn’t going away anytime soon. Following on from last years Hugo, a love letter from Scorsese to pioneer Georges Méliès, this weekend sees the release of Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist.
Favourite Films
The Artist – Review
American:The Bill Hicks Story – Interview
Last week, in the curious but somewhat apt setting of The Jesus Centre, London, ThisfilmisON sat down with directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas to discuss their cracking new documentray American:The Bill Hicks Story and all things Hicksian.
THISFILMISON: You could have any documentary subject in the world, so why Bill Hicks?
MATT HARLOCK: I think Bill was someone who was seen as, especially in the UK, culturally significant. For some reason there had never been a full length feature about his life. There had been one documentary made just after his death…
TFIO: Just a ride…
MH: Yeah but that was only about 35 minutes long and didn’t include much of who the real Hicks was. It was just clips of him performing and a brief overview of his career, so the attraction to the story was the amazing biographical details of his life. A struggle with drugs and alcohol, getting clean, coming from a religious family, trying to break through, (SPOILER ALERT) getting terminal cancer at the age of 32, seeing how much he achieved. These were all attractive elements deserving of wider cultural recognition, something we felt deserved exploring. Didn’t like his comedy much…(laughter)
The Tuesday Preview – Predators
During his life Stan Winston was responsible for some of cinemas most impressive practical effects, The Terminator, Edward Scissorhands, and even this week’s Iron Man. However one of the most enduring has to be the deadly Predator.
Back in the 80’s Winston was drafted in last minute when John McTiernan, director of the original Scwarzenegger vehicle, realised the Jean Claude Van Damme mincing around wearing the head of a one eyed dog wasn’t particularly menacing. Eight months later and Winston returned with the iconic, nightmarish visions we’ve all come to know and love tucked away in his sketch pad.Twenty four years, four movies, around twenty computer games and a series of wicked cool comic books later and the Predator title is back and this time it’s in safer hands than those AvP fuck tards.
Adam Buxton Talks Film
In what we at ‘thisfilmison’ hope to be a continuing series, we find people that we think are just the bees knees and ask them all about movies and such. Then we copy and paste their answers for you to read. Because we’re nice like that.
Cinema Etiquette: Or How To Stop Annoying People And Love The Movies
I’ve been working in my local multiplex for over five years now. You get less time in prison for killing a baby. That last sentence has nothing to do with anything really, because I love my job. I get to be around movies most days, rarely miss a good one and as a projectionist I get a whole auditorium to myself when I ‘print check’ (watch the movie, make sure it’s not damaged, make sure it’s in order). This ‘private cinema’, though, has its downsides. Every now and again I’ll watch a film with ‘you people’, the general public. What a bunch of noisy, retarded fuckwits you are.
I’m not on a crusade to drum up cinema business, but to quote the advert, for me, it really is the only place to watch a movie. No matter how big your plasma screen is, how much gold-plated cable your HD has connected to your sub woofer via your donkey flange, it’s no match for 24 frames of 35mm on a screen the height of three buses with wall-to-wall speakers. So, and I know this isn’t just for me, here is a guide to how to watch a film without annoying your fellow man and inspiring tendencies of a truly homicidal nature. (more…)
Drop your Gameboy, put on your best tracksuit top and come downstairs, Uncle Hollywood is coming to visit……………………..
……………and he’s not leaving until your piggy bank is empty and you’re crying in the corner repressing every moment of your childhood.
"Sexy Cats"
Like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the 80’s happened and we have all had to learn to deal with it. Unlike those fated Japanese cities however, the way to survive the horrible mutilating physical and mental scars was not a lead lined bunker but something much more organic, being a child. (more…)
