Jessica Oreck

Jessica Oreck's first feature Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009) sounds and looks or looks and sound very cool, the subject is the historical and current fascination for insects in Japanese culture.

Her approach is to a mixture of images of the insects, stories of workers in various sectors of the insect business, interviews with historians, b-roll of swarming crowds, all draped in a Japanese voice-over that delves into science, poetry, folktales and pop culture.

"My main goal with anything I work on is to create a sense of wonder," says Oreck, and she succeeds.

"People usually do nature films by geographical section, or by type of animal, but what really interested me was why — why these people were so interested in a part of the natural world that the rest of the globe ignored or thought was disgusting."

Apparently she is planning her next feature, about the role of mushrooms in Eastern European life and mythology, but can't shoot it until the mushrooms come in the fall.

It just one of a dozen projects. "Almost all of them are about ethnobiology: how humans relate to plants and other animals. I think people sometimes forget that humans are animals."

Go look: beetlequeen.com

Tom Friedman talk

Fishing With John Lurie

Wim Wenders

Recent random searches have led me Wim Wender’s films and documentaries and quite a few of them have been happily spinning before my eyes.

While looking for Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith (1974) I came across Der Amerikanische Freund/The American Friend (1977), Bruno Ganz plays Jonathan Zimmermann who will most likely break your heart of hearts. Dennis Hopper plays Tom Ripley, his character is as confused as I was by him. The relationship between the book and the film is so vague that I forgot they had anything to do with one another. It’s one of those films you watch and it is not until it’s over that you realise you have been actively edged to your seat, the whole time biting your nails and you can only now exhale and relax; in a word great.

Wim Wenders

The second Wenders film that has encouraged my hunt for more was Wings of Desire (1987) this film also stars Bruno Ganz this time as Damiel an angel who longs to know the many simple and not so simple pleasures of being human. The film is blessed with the meandering Peter Falk better known to many as Lieutenant Columbo and the stunningly beautiful Solveig Dommartin who plays Marion a profoundly lost trapeze artist. Damiel finds her in the profundity of her misery and falls flat for her. I loved finding out that the cinematographer was a 77 year old Henri Alekan and that he had used a silk stocking that belonged to his grandmother as a filter for the monochromatic sequences of which the world is seen through the eyes of the angels and switches back and forth from this to colour for the point of view of humans. This switching between colour and sepia is so lovely to contemplate I wonder why it has not been seen more often.

Jaromil Jireš

Valerie a týden divů or Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

I was tipped off by m.o from Exile in Spades to watch this film.

This Czech New Wave film Valerie a týden divů/Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a film that journeys like a fever dream. Filled with a mystique of seductive imagery that haunts the corners of my mind and touches the memories of puberty and fear - Jaromil Jireš captures the intensity that links these experiences. What I liked was how this film captured the way memories and fantasies are difficult to distinguish in a time of turmoil and how both are just as important. Like Angela Carter’s Company of Wolves, this strange, hallucinatory coming-of-age tale draws on folk imagery and traditions to tell the a sweet nightmarish tale.

Happy Horse

phoenix - lisztomania *brat pack mashup*

Shunji Iwai

All About Lily Chou Chou

This film captures the experience of modern young people, creating an entrance to a world that will make you feel like you woke up and one of your siblings had cut off your hair. Shunji Iwai took his time to make this film, everything was a process for perfection, nothing important was ignored and due to this the film exposes a sole of its own. Iwai is quoted as saying "If I can choose a work that will endure after me, I want to make it this one". The first time I watched this film I was dumbstruck by its beauty and honesty, it was not until later that I found out how it was written as an internet novel and how the participation of the audience helped to create this stunning mixture of the actual and the imagined.

Shary Boyle

Shary Boyle has the kind of imagination that can make one blush. She is devilishly skilled; paints, draws, sculps and creates these live light picture shows that make my heart break.

Her Blog and Her Website

Codes

Codes and Code Breakers

I love codes, secret languages and hidden keys.

This is a pretty decent documentary.

Its about how the brits worked out how to break

the Enigma Code and basically win the war.

The people involved seem rather lovely and

I would like to know a little more about Alan Turing.

Philip Glass + Sesame Street

The Geometry of Circles

Vera Chytilová

First up: Sedmikrásky (or Daisies), a film made in 1966 by Vera Chytilová.

I only found out and hunted down this film recently, it was so much fun to watch. I was glued to the set, watching the increasing debauchery of the two female characters. We girls are not often able to indulge in being bad, especially rare it is to see girls being bad and not getting caught and punished. I don't want this to be a review, it's a list, an arrow, a pointer. Unfortunately I recently wiped my history otherwise I would add the download links, so go hunt for it, its worth it.