Endicott Redux

Coraline Trailer

The trailer for Coraline is now online! There's also a DivX version (which has more visual detail but requires you to download the DivX plug-in) on Neil Gaiman's website.

Persian Carpet

Persian Carpet is a film made up of fifteen short films by acclaimed Iranian directors, each of whom explores the history and art of this famous textile. The films vary widely in how they treat the subject; some are documentary, some are quite poetic.

My favorite segment was "The 3-D Carpet" by Rakhshan Bani Etemad, which tells the story of an enormous three-dimensional carpet representing Isfahan's Naghsg-e-Jahan mosque. The carpet is amazing -- 6.2 meters high and 6 meters wide, with a crown of 3.7 m, made up of 83 colors and more than 33 million knots, but lives wrapped up in a closet instead of being displayed where the world could enjoy it.

Also lovely were "The Carpet and the Angel" by Darius Mehrjui, about a young woman who has lost her family in the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran, and "The Little Prince" by Nourodin Zarrin Kelk, which adds a magic carpet to the story of the boy and his beloved rose.

Learn more about Persian carpets here. And go here to see more amazing views of the 3-D carpet.

Dali

   

I recently discovered a film made in 1986 about Salvador Dali, and am quite captivated by it. I'm used to learning about artists through other people's interpretations of their work. This film, though, has lots of interviews with Dali himself, as well as footage of him painting and narrated readings from his writing. There's an odd earnestness about him as he explains what he thinks he's contributed to art...

"To art, nothing, absolutely nothing. Because as I've always said I'm a very bad painter. Because I'm too intelligent to be a good painter. To be a good painter you've got to be a bit stupid. With the exception of Velazquez who is a genius..."

...and a troubling belief in what he considers to be Surrealist acts, as he proudly tells of having kicked a blind man because "for me there's nothing worse than those blind men who walk like this down the street." (He mockingly imitates using a cane.)

The film traces Dali's life from his beginning to paint through to his living, old and extremely feeble, as a recluse. Along the way I learned much that I didn't know, like that Dali was formally expelled from the Surrealist movement in 1934 (after an actual trial) because of his "deviant political views," and that he had a studio assistant, Isidoro Bea, who painted the backgrounds of Dali's large religious paintings. And that neither he nor his agents kept track of his work, leading to questions about the authenticity of a number of pictures (let alone the sheets of paper that have his signature on them but are blank). Plus, there's nothing quite like this commercial, where Dali explains the workings of Alka-Seltzer.

And in other Dali news... while I was writing this post, Midori told me of Disney's plans to release a six-minute Dali cartoon. Evidently, according to this NPR article, in 1946 Walt Disney and Dali planned a cartoon called Destino. But the plug was pulled after it was concluded that the cartoon probably wouldn't make any money. And now Walt Disney's nephew (who heads the animation division) has revived the cartoon. Here's the description:

"Destino is a six-minute film set to a Spanish song, devoid of dialogue and without a clear story line. It follows a dark-eyed ballerina on a journey among strange objects through a desert landscape in a dreamlike atmosphere."

Look for it at festivals around the world before Oscar-nomination time, or on DVD next year (along with a documentary that tells the inside story). Or go here for a preview.

Inspiring the next generation....

Here's a snippet of a talk given by illustrator/film designer Alan Lee (who worked with director Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong) discussing filmmaking with schoolchildren as part of a young filmmakers project in Devon, England. (You might want to fast-forward past the beginning. You'll find Alan's comments about half way through.)

Feathers to Fire

Our Monday Morning Video to kick off the week: "Feathers to Fire," from Gregory Colbert's gorgeous Ashes to Snow "nomadic museum" exhibition.

My apologies for my general absence from this blog of late -- which is likely to go on for another week or two for I'm in the chaotic middle of a house move. Yet it's also a pleasure to leave the blog in Midori's capable hands, for I too am delighted and amazed by the treasures she comes up with...

Marquez and Rulfo in film

Keep your eye our for two terrific looking films based on the novels of two masters of magic realism. The first is a film version of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's beautiful and melancholy novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, directed by Mike Newell and starring Javier Bardem (what a face!). I've added the trailer below -- but if you check out youtube, you can also find some interesting short films on the making of the movie. It's due out over the holidays.

The second film is based on Mexico's brilliant magic realist novel published in the 1950s, Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo. (A novel which Marquez credits for having inspired his own 100 Years of Solitude.) In the novel, a young man returns home to his mother's village to find his estranged father.  But when he arrives, he soon learns that the town is inhabited only by ghosts. I've posted a longer review of this amazing novel here.  Eugenio Caballero, who won an Oscar Award for Pan's Labyrinth, will serve as the art director for the film, and the very dreamy  Gael Garcia Benal (of Motorcycle Diaries) has been signed on to play the role of the young man.

"Instructions" and more...

Midori has been valiantly covering this blog solo while I've been down with a truly nasty flu -- and as I'm still shaking the last of a rattling cough out of my lungs, my posting may be a bit sporadic over the next week or so.

This post is to let y'all know that there is now an "Endicott Studio Channel" on YouTube, where we'll be putting videos that we think will be of interest to fans of mythic arts -- such as the Mythic Journeys documentary from the good folks at the Mythic Imaginations Institute, Ben Okri discussing his approach to writing, an A&E biography of J.K. Rowling, a little film on artist Paula Rego, the great June Tabor singing Child Ballad #191: "Hughie Graeme,"  and more. (f you come across other good videos on YouTube, send us a note and let us know.)

The video above is of Neil Gaiman reading his fairy tale poem "Instructions" at Cody's Books in Berkeley, California. Considering his voluminous output of work over the last several years, Ellen Datlow and I will forgive him for forgetting that he actually wrote the poem at our request for our children's fairy tale anthology A Wolf at the Door, where it was first published in 2000. It's my favorite of all his poems, and a real treat to hear him read it.

(While you're on YouTube, if you're a martial arts fan, check out this little video that Howard Gayton made of a tournament/demonstration of our Kung Fu teacher's school, The Dragon Temple, in our village hall in rural Devon.)

A night of stars....

I'm back home again after a journey up to London to attend the UK premier of Stardust, the film based on the book by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. Howard Gayton and I were there by the kind invitation of Charles and his wife Karen, who I don't see nearly often enough now that I live in the UK. Neil and his extended family were there too, though Neil was much in demand over the evening and we saw him for about a nano-second.

It was truly a star-studded event (forgive the pun), and a surreal experience to walk down the famous red carpet (which in this case was actually green) while paparazzi snapped photographs and wondered who the heck we were. But what a wonderful way to see the film for the first time, sipping champagne, cheering, and celebrating our friends' big night.

The video above is the UK trailer for Stardust. You can watch a video interview with Neil about the creation of Stardust here. (I hadn't known, before this, that the story was inspired by a falling star above my winter house in the Arizona desert...how nice!) More informaton can be found on the Stardust movie site. Photos: (above) Howard, Karen, Charles and me at the premier (photographed by our companions in the Young family); (left) Neil at the premier; (below) pages from The Stardust Visual Companion, a new book that mixes film imagery with wonderful art by Charles, along with text by Neil and others.

Many thanks to C & K for a truly memorable night.

Mermaids and Levis

Here's another example of fairy tales and advertising colliding in new and pretty hip ways: a short film for Levis jeans directed by French indie video filmmaker Michel Gondry. I think the mermaids are pretty interesting...sexy and a little scary.

Make Fake Rain and Sew A Superhero Costume

Occasionally the Wall Street Journal leads me to some pretty interesting sites. Over the weekend they featured a very functional and funny site dedicated to independent filmmakers and aspiring directors. IndyMogul offers instructional videos on basic filmmaking, and the creation of BFX (backyard special effects) on a budget. Best part, if you are looking for help with a specific problem, you can write in a request for information -- which host Erik Beck is delighted to answer. So for all you out there who've always wondered how to get rain into your film, here's the video: