The Science of Sleep is a newish film from Michel Gondry, the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (my review); it's a charming, enthralling, and ultimately alienating and frustrating fairy-tale romp through the whimsical world of a complete loon.

Here's the IMDB plot summary: A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is lovestruck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.

Yup.

Here's something from Marc Savlov via RottenTomatos.com (where it scored 67%): An endearing, beautiful, hopelessly honest mess that's supported by a pair of performances so unnaturally natural that they draw you in and clutch you, struggling, to their flipping, flopping hearts.

Yup.

On the plus side, it features the totally fuck-able Gael García Bernal and the utterly lovely Charlotte Gainsbourg (or did I get those two the wrong way around?) in the lead roles, as well as supplying this week's farce. And so without further ado....... I give you........ this week's farce.

In summary, why would you turn this:

The Velvet Underground - After Hours (1.96 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

...into this:

Gael García Bernal, etc. - If You Rescue Me (chanson des chats) (3.91 MB mp3)

...or, god forbid, this, even:

Linda Serbu - If You Rescue Me (acappella) (2.12 MB mp3)

Still confused?

Why would you turn one of the most sweet, touching songs of all time into a cutesy little ditty about...... a kitten.

I dunno.

Gah.

Labels: cat photos, films, Friday farce, lol, music

According to the Commonsense Nihilist, David Lynch's Inland Empire is a masterpiece; bloody good news, and I can't wait to see it.

UPDATE

Billy didn't think nearly so much of it.

...


People in rabbit suits remind me of Donnie Darko, that most vague and troublesome of flims. What do I mean? In addition to the original theatrical release (which I hated the first time, and loved the second), and the DVD release which gave you the expanded and changed (to some to an unnacceptable degree) director's cut, there is now available a three-DVD version out which includes the theatrical and director's version, as well as a further DVD of extraneous nonsense.

Sometimes I think I should just give up trying to make sense of all this and get me a Frank the Bunny talking action figure.

...

NP: Pavement - The Killing Moon (Friday farce)

Labels: films, heroes

From Rotten Tomatoes:

Warner Bros is set to release a DVD box set of Blade Runner that rivals all other special editions and will keep the fans drooling until it's on shelves this December 18th. Presenting the film in HD formats, the DVD collection will come in a briefcase with, a three-hour documentary and (count them) five different versions of the film, including Ridley Scott's dark "work print."

Hmmm I hope that it will not only be available in HD formats, as this consumer electronics late-adopter will not be supporting Blu-ray for quite some considerable time yet.

Labels: films, heroes

It's a little weird to be sitting and wondering how to say that the film you saw last night -- the new one by Werner Herzog, your favourite filmmaker ever -- kinda sucked.

Rescue Dawn -- the real-life story of U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler, a German-American shot down and captured in Laos during the early days of the Vietnam War -- played at the Embassy last night and its 2+ hours really dragged. I was almost glad when it was done.

Putting it into context, though -- (1) I have seen Herzog's documentary on the same story, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, a goodly number of times -- so I knew the story almost backwards, thereby rendering the dramatised version free of almost all suspense, or uncertainty as to how things would pan out; (2) for some reason I really can't stand that Jeremy Davies guy; and (c) the jingoistic "U S A! U S A!" ending grated and frankly seemed in poor taste given the current global political climate. (Or am I just over-sensitised to that?)

I have to forgive Herzog because never before have I watched one of his 50-odd feature or documentary films that I didn't -- at the very least -- think was pretty bloody good. Indeed most of the time I'm perfectly happy to bandy about the term "genius" in relation to his work. Everyone is allowed to slip-up from time-to-time. So it goes. And I will concede that visually, the film was a delight to watch.

Lumiere Reader reviewed the film here and here, and didn't really seem to like it that much either. I gotta say, however, in response to Tim Wong's piece, that I remember no scene with no fucking grizzly bears. Curious and curiouser.

Labels: films, heroes