Criterion have bucked the trend of December being a "quiet" month, releasing their second "Trilogy of Life" box set in as many months, the original film adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, Christopher Nolan's first feature, and a long-awaited Blu-grade of Brazil.
This is an exceptional HD transfer, and I say that having recently seen a clean 2002-vintage 35mm print. Review coming soon.
It's serendipitous that my guest-sidekick-ing on Andy Ihnatko's show coincided with edition 00042 of his wonderful program, since we're both BIG fans of the great Douglas Adams.
Comic book fans should note that this marks the first-ever canonical instance of a guest sidekick in an installment of The Ihnatko Almanac, so preserve this holofoil-stamped issue in your Friendly Local Comic Shop's finest Mylar bag and board tech.
In our quest to define the meaning of life, the universe, and Everything, we look at the minimalist travel lifestyle, the joy of downsizing the junk packed in one's travel trunk, and the world's impending conversion to being EarPod people. We cringe at the prospect of Brawndo-infused phones being what some dudes crave, and we also discuss various new Apple devices for a moment or two.
This edition of The Ihnatko Almanac is brought to you by Brawndo. Is your shit all fucked up? Get Brawndo, it's got electrolytes, and it's what dudes crave.
My third shot co-hosting with the venerable Mr. Horace Dediu finds us talking about this past week's Apple Event.
We discuss how the announced gadgets re-assert Apple's substantive platform lead over others, while also pondering how they are actively looking to kill the iPhone as the cornerstone of their strategy, just like they did with iPod.
That's right, Apple is trying to kill the iPhone...and cinema, and loads of other things.
Just listen to the show. Horace is brilliant, and more prescient on this than most.
Universal is really knocking it out of the park this year. More evidence has arrived. Extended thoughts Monday right here, preliminary thoughts sooner on the latest Screen Time podcast.
On first through fifth viewings, fellow Texan Kathy Bates has always been my favorite element of Titanic. I had planned to feature this frame today even before I saw she'd revealed via Twitter that she's recovering from a double masectomy due to breast cancer diagnosis. Didn't know she had a Twitter until today.
As a young actor in suburban Dallas, I loved that such a vibrant and resonant talent as Ms. Bates had studied acting at SMU, a college that I desperately wanted to attend to study acting myself. I haunted the campus, seeing shows and lectures. When I was on the grounds, I regularly thought "holy shit, Kathy Bates rocked this joint".
Kathy Bates is unsinkable. If there is a group of people who have the strength to beat the everloving shit out of cancer, she's team captain.
I thought there'd be just the one terrible rebranding today! AdAge covers the rebrand of Gannett's flagship publication.
Old compared to new. "That's no moon..."
Three Elaborated Problems:
1) Their "masthead" version of their new "logo" is more like "headline" formatted "text". It gets the viewer immediately, completely lost in an impenetrable wall of text. At the very, very least, it simply blends rather than pop. Was that the goal? If so, success!
2) The new utilitarian-ization of their sections could use a strong icon-based do-over, if the plan is to make that succeed in strongly marking what section you're in at a given time. The "turquoise moon" and the typeface change make this look like an offshoot of the USA Network instead of a news publication.
3) This half-hearted rebranding is unfortunately indicative of the fact that their business model fundamentally does not understand digital delivery and is limply kicking and screaming to not adapt and evolve. This is why Gannett and other publishing monoliths have been on the decline for years.
I do brand consulting for money. It's a thing I do. Welcome to the first bit of commentary on that world on AC.
eBay unveiled a new logo today. It's terrible. Why? Three reasons off the top of my head:
1) Needless dumping of an iconic, non-problematic brand identity.
2) Insanely terrible kerning. John Wayne Gacy-level insane.
3) See item 1
One of my favorite movies, and an outstanding Blu-grade from Criterion. Anderson is another candidate for my series of ongoing Retrospective Series...maybe sooner than later.
People like to write this one off, and I think that usually comes from resenting its popularity and success.
Showing it to my wife last night, she was wholly captivated. She "never watched past the first tape" 14 years ago, and said quite plainly that she didn't care to invest in watching it "because everyone [the masses] liked it so much". She assumed it couldn't be any good. It was great watching her seeing it for the first time, not really remembering the pieces she had seen.
I've seen it three times, with this being the fourth, and I plan on somehow screening the 3D discs too.
Especially considering its Cuban connections, I'm amazed I've gone this long without seeing Chico & Rita, which was nominated for Best Animated Feature in last year's Oscars. The Blu-ray drops on 18 September in the US, including some extras and the full soundtrack on CD.
This grab taken from the included DVD, since I couldn't get the Blu-ray to load in my screencap software.
These Appendices are designed to be the a biographical catch-all for individual performers and collaborators, as well as provide additional context for Ozu's career. All of the individual entries related to the subject will be listed in the corresponding post. I will update the Appendix articles over time so that new information can be included and so that the links are relatively up to date.
The moment that gets me every single time.
One of the best frames of I Flunked, But..., where a pair of sweethearts have a private moment together.
Kinuyo Tanaka gets some loving close-ups. There were rumors that Ozu was very sweet on her, but she didn't return his affection.
Ty Burrell in a decidedly non-Modern Family-esque role: "Someone wanna tell me why I had to log off BangingGrannies.com for this?"
The Digital Bits notes that the Bond 50 set loses some specific extras:
The only exceptions are the Mission Control menu-based content from the previous DVDs, many items from Charles de Lauzirika's original 2003 Die Another Day: Special Edition and 5 items from the 2008 Casino Royale: Collector's Edition BD (The Art of the Freerun, Catching a Plane: From Storyboard to Screen, Storyboard Sequence: Freerun Chase, Filmmaker Profiles and Bond Girls Are Forever). So if you have those discs and want to retain all the bonus content, definitely keep them.
Ah, l'amour.
They've finally announced casting for both The Joker (Michael Emerson) and Superman (Mark Valley) for the upcoming animated adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns, which is being split into two installments. Adding these two guys to the already-announced Peter Weller as Batman is pure genius. Can't wait.
The last of Ozu's 1929 films and the first half of those he made in 1930 reveal a filmmaker in transition. He is in search of his voice in addition to how he can push that individuality out around the edges of the studio system's staid templates.
Sadly, out of the seven movies discussed in this chapter, only two survive in complete form. Fragments of three survive, and yet two more are completely, irretrievablty lost.
From 1930's I Flunked, But...
I kept telling myself that when the extras-packed, gaudy mega-set dropped under $100, that was my sweet spot. It's under $90 on Amazon today only. Call me a sucker.