Lithuanian Film Posters

Went to see “Source Code” at the Rich Mix Last night (review to follow) and was plesently suprised by the new gallery upstairs, which currently has a cracking exhibition of old Lithuanian movie posters. In all honesty I had no idea they had a film industry to speak of.

If you’re going to the Rich Mix in April I recommend leaving a spare 15 to 20 minutes to have a look round these. Far more enjoyable than the depressing crop of trailers I endured (“Little White Lies”, “Rango”?).

Now to track down a copy of “Bermuda Ring”.

The Southeast Asia Movie Theatre Project

Dramatically and mysteriously named, “The Projectionist“, has produced a truly enthralling body of work that proves the ability of blogs to excel. Touring Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, he is documenting standalone movie theatres. The result is a mix of a photo journal, a travelogue and a social history. As a whole it creates a compelling tribute to these decrepit global outposts of cinema.

Some are still strong commercial enterprises showing a mix of dubbed foreign blockbusters, others have only survived by switching to programmes of pornography. Others again have either been given over to other industries or fallen into disrepair. In all cases he has dutifully and lovingly recorded the history of the building and its current situation. For example Mi Mi, the wife of a projectionist, has taken over the back of one for her sewing workshop.

This enigmatic character’s affection for these church’s of the medium is infectious. Expect tentative, but most-likely inferior, attempts at such documents in the future.

Ben Jenkins

Essential Killing Released in UK Cinemas

It’s finally out on general release this week. As the London Film Festival was a few months ago now, I thought it would be worth reminding you that me and Gordy thought it was well worth a watch.

I read a enlightening interview with Jerzy Skolimowski in this month’s Sight and Sound the other night so I’ll pass on a few snip-its. Turns out that Vincent Gallo did indeed eat the raw live fish, and when he read the script he hoped that the ant scene would involve a fist-full of the things but the cold made that impossible. I wouldn’t expect anything less after the meal in “Buffalo 66″. There was no mention of the veracity of the lacto-scene however. Fingers crossed it was the real deal.

For the Cronenberg fans amongst you I learnt that Jerzy played Stepan in “Eastern Promises” and that actually marked his first foray in film since 1991. Looking back over his filmography I think I’m going to try and check out “Deep End” soon. Long thought lost; it was restored for DVD release last year. Looks like it might be a coming of age gem.

“Withnail and I” Statue in London

I wrote about this a while ago on Film Knight’s Facebook page but a Guardian article today reminded me of it. I can’t tell you how jealous I am of Detroit’s Robocop statue so it got me thinking, what movie statue should my home town of London get? Here are a few suggestions:

1)      The Elephant Man (David Lynch’s)

2)      An American Werewolf in…

3)      Mary Poppins

4)      A zombie (28 Days Later)

5)      Withnail (…And I, drinking lighter fluid obviously)

OUT WITH THE OLD

So we thought it was time to kick the old tumblr to the curb and give Word Press a whirl. Still meeting up a couple of times a month to watch films, eat popcorn, sip on beer and whip up illustrated reviews in response to each films, the FILM NIGHTS will continue following our old set of rules. But we realized that separately we were watching a tone of films that we wanted to shout about. So we decided to just keep one simple rule:

THE RULE:

1. Reviews must be a minimum of 10 words and include a black & white illustration. Submissions welcome (email analog_boy@hotmail.com).

So expect the new blog to build up with an array of new reviews from Me, Ben and a load of guest reviewers/illustrators we have lined up. Plus a new zine is on the way, as well as plenty of random film related crap which we will be blogging about from our new Word Press HQ. Also we have finally jumped on the twitter band wagon and it is pretty additive. Check out the feed on the right.

GORDON

FILM NIGHT 17 – MILLER’S CROSSING – REVIEW 01

I don’t know, I think I may have gone into this with the completely wrong mindset and maybe wanting White Russian’s, cattle guns or a even a young Nicolas Cage, which granted, I was never going to get. It may have 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But this film failed at the box office back in the 90s, bringing in less than half of its original budget and failed for me some 20 years later.

Cross with caution.

RATING – 1/5

GORDON ARMSTRONG

FILM NIGHT 18 – TRAILER

FILM 17 – MILLER’S CROSSING was directed by those siblings Joel and Ethan Coen. The Coen brothers also directed The Big Lebowski, which featured a White Russian drinking, dressing gown wearing character called ‘The Dude’ who would often hit up the bowling alley to knock down a pin or ten. Ten Pin Bowling is the back bone behind the 90s slapstick comedy Kingpin which starred Lin Shaye (the mum from Detroit Rock City) as a rather dirty landlady. This leads us nicely onto our next film, as Lin Shaye pops up in FILM 18 which is INSIDIOUS.