Random Thoughts

So, I’ve just watched The Souvenir Part II, which is a kinda-sorta autobio film… about making this film, I think.

This may be Tilda Swinton’s first film? And she’s in The Souvenir, too, playing Joanna Hogg’s mother. It’s all very meta.

It’s the earliest Swinton film I haven’t seen before (ed note — add some grammer), but you can find it on youtube now. Some kind soul uploaded it seven months ago? Synchronicity. And I guess you should watch it before people discover that it’s there.

This is very different from the film-within-a-film in Souvenir… that one was totally what I’d expected a student film to be. This is something completely different and unexpected! It’s goofy and funny.

And very snappy.

And I have to say that the video quality is fantastic. I was expecting it to be a VHS dub or something, but this looks like it was transferred straight from film. (Overly compressed, but it’s youtube.)

Heh, there’s a kind of … fashion film within the film here.

So it’s really a film about fashion? (I think Hogg is agin it.)

The film students know how to use a couple buckets of paint.

Perfect.

Anyway, I was quite enthusiastic at the start of this, but… it’s kinda dragging now. There’s some good jokes, but it feels like it could have been edited down a bit.

Yeah, I can see that:

On graduation, Hogg directed several music videos for artists such as Alison Moyet

I did enjoy this, but it’s, well, kinda studentey. Which is very true to what this is. I’m still a bit disappointed. I think one of the problems here is that it’s a bit like a very long music video, but all the music is crap. I guess it’s good that she didn’t use non-licensed music, because then there’d be immediate copyright strikes and nobody would get to see it, but…

Caprice. Joanna Hogg. 1986.

This post is part of The Tilda Swinton Project.

Tania Libre. Lynn Hershman-Leeson. 2017.

I was unable to locate this film anywhere for my Tilda Swinton project. If somebody knows where it can be found (either in some physical format or online), please let me know.

This was really good! Swinton and Almodóvar should work together more! And that’s totally what I want my next apt. to look like. I mean, a fake house in the middle of a big hangar. I’d love that. Yes, yes, I know, it’s all metaphorical and stuff, but I still want it.

It’s gorgeously shot, Swinton is great, and it’s great fun. (And a bit touching.)

I wasn’t able to get this through any of my usual channels, but then a kind reader notified me that it seemed to be totally available? And indeed:

From everywhere! What!

But only in the UK. Here’s the results from Norway:

Not available here. I guess I could VPN over to the UK, but… eh… I’ve let all my VPN setup elapse, so… I just downloaded it from the torrents. Sorry, Pedro! I can send you five pounds via Paypal? Or whatever?

I think we all imagined that these regional rights issues would just disappear in this brave new world, but… nope. Still too much money tied up in those systems, so it probably won’t happen for a couple of decades still.

The Human Voice. Pedro Almodóvar. 2020.

This post is part of The Tilda Swinton Project.

That’s what I want my living room to look like!

In the 80s, if you were interested in interesting science fiction (think Octavia Butler, Joanna Russ or Samuel Delany), everybody would recommend the two Olaf Stapledon books — Last and First Men and Star Maker. They’re proto-sf novels… and I really did give it a go finally a few years back, but I didn’t make a dent in the books. Hey! I even blogged about it!

But it makes a lot more sense as a novel, with Tilda Swinton narrating the deathly prose.

EXTERMINATE!

Oops wrong show.

This looks great! But I can’t help imagining the Icelandic hipsters in the crew carrying around these… balsa wood? things around before the shoot starts.

I mean, that’s what they have to be?

Or… is it just CGI made to look like 16mm? Oh! I bet that’s what it is.

I liked the image of Icelandic hipster carrying around styrofoam statues more.

Now I feel stupid:

The 16mm black-and-white film is predominantly of memorial sculptures erected in the former Republic of Yugoslavia.

If only there was a way to edit those words I’ve already written! I guess computer technology will get us there one day and I won’t have to keep publishing embarrassing and incorrect meandering thoughts.

I started this blog series because I thought it’d be interesting to see, in this age of “everything accessible on the internet” whether that was true: Tilda Swinton is a major name, but has also appeared in many interesting art films. So would it be possible to watch everything she’s appeared in? And the answer is definitely no: Look at the number of missing movies here.

It’s a pretty sorry state of affairs.

Here’s hoping things will become less absurd over the next twelve months, and I’ll see you sometime in the summer of 2022.

(And as always: If you know where I can score any of the movies that are missing here, I’d love to hear from you.)

This blu-ray was released by Deutsche Grammofon.

Last and First Men. Jóhann Jóhannsson. 2017.

This post is part of The Tilda Swinton Project.

Is it that time of year again? I think it is!

A few years back, I randomly decided to watch all of Tilda Swinton’s movies, and now I seem to be doing yearly mop-up evenings where I watch her new movies, and any old movies that I’ve been able to score ove the last year.

This is the shortest mop-up evening yet: It’s just two movies. I guess there wasn’t a lot of movies released last year? Why? Did something happen? Looking at IMDB, it looks like next summer will be busier…

So here’s the first one.

So much drama!

Heh heh.

The cinematography is a bit… I mean, I get the desaturated colours — they just didn’t have as many colours in thee oldee tymey days, right? Right. It’s just steadicam work, though, so everything floats all the time… is it supposed to be slightly dreamy? I’m getting a bit sea sick…

The editing pace is variable — usually very fast, but with some longer shots almost at random.

It’s very pretty… and doesn’t look obviously greenscreened, which is unusual these days. Were some of these scenes done on location!? Is that even allowed any more!?

Oh, it’s… it’s… er… who is that…

*googles*

Brienne of Tarth! I totally did and didn’t recognise her at the same time. I think it’s because she embodies such a different character here…

So evil!!!

I guess the slight unrealness of it all helps make even scenes like this seem almost natural in context.

This movie is growing on me. I was a bit put off by the zaniness in many of these scenes, but then things snapped into focus once we arrived at the Trotwood house.

Like this bit. I laughed out loud, even.

This movie got off on the wrong foot for me. It started with the birth scene, and it was ALL THE DRAMA, what with the editing and the colour grading and all that stuff. I instantly disliked the movie. But… it really turned around about half an hour in, and I’m really enjoying every single scene — there’s so many little details that are really endearing.

So I wish I could say that I’ve now changed my mind completely and that this is a work of genius, but… I didn’t get quite there.

But there’s a bunch of lovely performances, and that’s enough.

The Personal History of David Copperfield. Armando Iannucci. 2019.

This post is part of The Tilda Swinton Project.