CINEMANIA:

Coming soon to these pages: My review of the latest by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk, Rant.

RANT takes the form of a fictional oral history of Buster “Rant” Casey, in which an assortment of friends, enemies, admirers, detractors, and relations have their say about this evil character, who may or may not be the most efficient serial killer of our time.

Check back for my Rant contest as well, which could net you your very own copy of Palahniuk's novel.

Satantango (Hungary, 1994, Bela Tarr)

Wherein Ben and I take a long time to wrap our heads around the film, only to find it appears to have the better of us.

Please read the following with the understanding that Ben wrote four lengthy posts on the film which I didn’t read because I hadn’t yet had a chance to see the film. Most of what I have written below, tucked into the midst of Ben’s review, was penned before I’d seen what Ben had to say about the film.

Manufactured Landscapes (2006, Canada, Jennifer Baichwal)

Wherein Ben reveals the mind and I revel in the heart of this great documentary

Ben Begins:

Only about the photographer just enough to provide some explication of the photographs themselves, this is a movie about the photographs themselves. I couldn't help but flash on Tarkovsky's incorporation of still life paintings in his motion pictures.

L'Atalante (France, 1934, Jean Vigo)

A mild disagreement over the relative qualities of this film ends with the discovery of some common ground vis a vis Murnau's sublime Sunrise.

Ben Begins:

How do you tolerate me? Your recent reply to my review of Children of Paradise was empathetically educational for me. I saw and reviewed that film long enough ago (a month?) for your reply to have caught me completely disconnected from my experience of it.

Children of Paradise (France, 1945, Michel Carne)

Wherein Ben and I admire a film's Gaul.

Ben Begins:

Boy, talk about a complete cultural statement in support of national identity. The film is so utterly French. It positively oozes Brie. After it had unfolded a fair play, I thought of Mayhew's proto-sociological character sketches and Dickens as well as Brechet's Three Penny Opera, itself based on the much early English Begger's Opera. But Monica corrected me: "Balzac." Oui.

Darwin's Nightmare, redux.

As I've now seen the film, Ben and I are able to share our shock and awe at the power and the glory that is Darwin's Nightmare.

A reminder of what Ben sed:

I have struggled to find my opening sentence and this lame offering is it. This is a must-see film, a great cinematic essay.

Cuba 2007 (pt. 4: But not a drop to drink)

Our first piece of inclement weather, it rained for about ten minutes--and we're talking REAL rain here, not that pussified mist that we bitch about in Victoria.

No, this was pounding down like nails on your scalp-type tropical rain--just as we were about to take off on our day-long catamaran ride. Everyone aboard, about thirty or forty of us, haling from ports as far afield as Russia, Germany, Mexico and Brazil, skittled under cover.

Cuba 2007 (pt. 3: And the Beat Goes On)

This peacock was strutting his stuff in the Museo de la Cuidad. I have nothing else to add other than, like Havana itself, he was purdy.

These shots of the Capitol building, designed after the same building in Washington D.C., only quite a big bigger, were taken by Jessica. She was smart enough to capture the building's name in the shot.

Cuba 2007 (pt 2: Into the breach)

You probably recognize the dude on the right--Che is to Cuban iconography what Coca-Cola or McDonald's is to that of the west. The fella on the left is Camilo Cenfuegas, another lesser known hero of the revolution. Laugh if you must, but on my first day in Havana, a local gave me a "Camilo" shout out. Other than a similarity of hirsuitedness, I'm not sure I see the similarity.

Cuba 2007 (part one: the opening gambit)

Where we stayed in Havana (the lovely Hotel Sevilla). View from the balcony of a paladar across the street (the mighty fine Dona Blanquita)

By way of contrast, a more typical piece of architecture in Havana has a much

more rundown facade.

That being said, the government is pouring a lot of money into restoration, so that these centuries old marvels will survive the ravages of time.

The Palace of the Revolution.