Reservoir Dogs

I watched this most excellent film again the other night and it got me thinking about some of the aspects of it. First is the title. The much-quoted explanaion for this refers to Tarantino's calling the film Au Revoir Les Enfants  'the reservoir film' when he worked in a video shop. Added to the second part of the name of a film he liked by director Sam Pekinpah, Straw Dogs.
The other prominent aspect of the film is the music- in particular the use of music and voice from K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies  radio show. Tarantino's use of music in the film showed his cool taste and reaquainted film goers with some of the best of the 70s. Probably most well known now is the Gerry Raferty track Stuck in the Middle with You with his band Stealers Wheels. The track itself has become as iconic as the film.
Watch it again soon-you won't be disappointed!

Dark Horse

Another movie on at the IFI that sounds good is Dark Horse. With Selma Blair, Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken starring, the review courtesy of Le Cool.
 
"Darkhorse is the long awaited film from Todd Solandz, and with a top-class cast - Mia Farrow making a rare appearance and Selma Blair in a role that compliments her down to the ground - her character is Miranda (made for bitchface) - who marries a bit of a no-hoper because she failed in her academic pursuits. The man to her wife is Abe, unsuccessful thirty-something, gathering dust in his parents' house like baubles in the Christmas box, collecting toy horses. If the image in your mind is now a My Little Pony episode of Jerry Springer/Maury, it's not far from the premise of the film...It is charming, funny and touching, which is enhanced by its quirky, plasticky, candy coated visuals. Christopher Walken is also in it - as proof of this film's comedic quality."

Your Sister's Sister

I like the sound of this film with Emily Blunt on at the IFI at the moment.
Review from Le Cool."Lynn Shelton's low(ish) budget, partly improvised, off kilter rom-com is just the sort of film that people should see on a first date. It's intimate and charming with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments and enough poignancy to warm the heart. The female leads (Emily Blunt and Rosemarie deWitt) provide the eye-candy to balance Mark Duplass' hang-dog beer-bellied 'niche' appeal. It's a classic tale of boy meets dead brother's ex girlfriend, and her lesbian sister. Set in an isolated lakeside house in an attractively rainy north-west USA location, the action centres around the fall out from a drunken sexual encounter, a declaration of love and a possible pregnancy. The scenes featuring the sisters ring especially true, but there is an appealing sympathy between all three actors that make this a very watchable if not especially great film."
Irish Film Institute, 6 Eustace St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

1395 Days Without Red

Read about this film in The Irish Times and it sounds really interesting. It's on in NCH in the Real Tennis Court building in Earlsfort Terrace. It makes a fine cinema space, admission is free, until July 15.
from http://www.imma.ie/

Film project inspired by Siege of Sarajevo part of IMMA’s inaugural programme at NCH

A striking film work inspired by the siege of Sarajevo will go on show as part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s inaugural programme in its temporary exhibition spaces at the National Concert Hall in Earlsfort Terrace on Thursday 31 May 2012. 1395 Days Without Red, by Albanian artist Anri Sala and American composer Ari Benjamin Meyers, will occupy the Annex at the NCH. The film takes as its subject the siege of Sarajevo, one of the most emblematic events of the violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The siege began 20 years ago this year, in 1992, and lasted for 1,395 days making it the longest siege in modern warfare.
During the siege thousands of citizens had to cross streets threatened by snipers everyday: to go to work, to buy food, to visit a relative. The citizens wore dark colours, for fear of alerting the snipers watching from the hills to their movements. In Sala’s film an elegant young woman makes her way through an empty city. At every crossing she stops, looks and listens. Should she wait or should she run? Should she wait for others or take the risk on her own? The city is Sarajevo, and the route the woman takes became known as Sniper Alley. Played by Spanish actress Maribel Verdú, she relives the trauma experienced by the citizens over almost four years. The 43-minute film is her individual journey through the collective memory of the city.
Throughout the siege, the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra continued to play. In Sala's film, the orchestra rehearses Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique. The musicians stop and start, repeating different sections of the symphony, just as the woman stops and starts in her journey across the city. Hearing the music in her head, she finds the courage to carry on.
An exhibition guide accompanies the exhibition.
1395 Days Without Red, 2011, continues until 15 July 2012. Admission is free.
The exhibition is supported by the Conrad Hotel Dublin and Feast Catering.
Opening hours at the NCH:
Tuesday: 10.00am – 5.30pm
Wednesday: 10.30am - 5.30pm
Thursday: 10.00am – 7.00pm
Friday and Saturday: 10.00am – 5.30pm
Sunday and Bank Holidays: 12noon – 5.30pm
Monday: Closed

The Sunday Times Outdoor Film Festival at Meeting House Square 2012

This week is the fifth instalment of The Sunday Times Outdoor Film Festival (10th May-14th June with the screening of the 1986 classic 'Aliens' screening tomorrow night. The final film, the all-time classic 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' will mark the end of this season of outdoor cinema in Meeting House Square,Temple Bar, Dublin.
 

Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby film remake update.

Story in The Telegraph todayquestions the need for a remake of this film now.

"A Gatsby moment is upon us. The Great Gatsby is by far the most popular novel of F Scott Fitzgerald; it embodies the 1920s, and has attained an iconic status, both for American novelists and for many readers. Still, the flood of adaptations about to pour over us is unprecedented. Is there something in the air? Is there something that makes this most glamorous of novels speak to us with especial resonance?

Later this summer, a new film adaptation of The Great Gatsby will be released, starring Leonardo DiCaprio  and Carey Mulligan, as Daisy Buchanan. (Read rest of story here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9284394/Great-Gatsby-a-story-for-the-modern-age.html