Move over Jackie Chan and Jet Li, there is new star in town and his name is Tony Jaa! Not only does his last name sound like a battle cry, he must also be the first big martial arts actor to come from Thailand. In this hit movie that took Asia by storm, Jaa is the undisputed champion and probably one of the most spectacular fighters ever to appear on film. He has the acrobatic skills of an Olympic gymnast, the moves of a break-dancer and the toughness of 20 Mexican boxers. With a fighter this great you don’t really need a story to make a good movie. And so it doesn’t have one. Well, practically doesn’t.

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The title of the movie refers to the linear perspective in which parallel lines travelling away from the viewer converge at a point in the distance called the “vanishing point”. In fact, it is the road how it is seen towards the horizon from the perspective of a speeding car. Kowalski is the ‘rebel without a cause’ hurtling to an unknown destiny at that horizon. This cult classic is often called one of the ultimate car-chase movies and although the white Dodge Challenger is seen racing throughout the whole movie, it is not about the car as much as it is about the man driving it and what he symbolizes.

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It’s a strange concept to think that the dynamic directorial duo, the Coen brothers, would choose to do a remake. After all, these are the same guys who brought such original films to the screen as Raising Arizona, Fargo and The Man Who Wasn’t There (just to name a few). So when they did decide to go for a rehash they at least had the good sense to pick a script that was pure classic comedy. Based on the original 1955 film by the same name, starring Alec Guinness, The Ladykillers is a predictable and yet still highly charming comedy of errors. The question is did it really need to be remade? Wasn’t the original already a piece of perfection?
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My personal favourite teen movies are feel-good ones or feel-very-bad ones. Clean fun versus sex, drugs and destitution. As a tale of a thirteen-year-old girl veering dangerously off the straight and narrow tracks, Thirteen clearly falls into the latter category.

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Investigative journalist and author of New York Times besteller House of Bush, House of Saud, Craig Unger, will be at the Amstelkerk (Amstelveld) in Amsterdam for a debate followed by questions on Thursday 29 August, 8.30pm. The book which details relations between the Bush family and the Saudis was an important source for Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. In fact, Unger was featured in the documentary being interviewed by Moore.

‘Craig Unger has done America and the world a huge favour by clearly and precisely documenting how the Bush inner circle is in the very deep pockets of the brutal Saudi dictators.’ Michael Moore.

American professor Dr Ruth Oldenziel (UvA) will moderate the debate and interview Unger. Following the debate, Unger will sign books (note that there there will be only Dutch copies of the book available, De Familie Bush en het huis Saud). The event has been organised by Amsterdam-based Mets & Schilt publishers www.metsenschilt.com

More info at www.fahrenheit911.com

You hardly ever notice it, but a score can either make or break a movie’s atmosphere,
and also play an important role in either its success – or failure. In the old days, scores were written in close harmony with the editing of a film, as was the case, for instance, with many old Orson Welles productions. Welles admitted that for Citizen Kane he adjusted his editing to the likes of Bernard Herrmann’s score. The use of original scores accompanying a movie was a direct extension of the live (piano) music played live along to silent movies, as well as the development of sound-tapes. Nowadays, scores seem to be an important element in the appreciation of a film’s atmosphere and music is used to convey the events portrayed in the film, rather than being a separate entity. One of the most famous contemporary score writers passed away a few days ago: Jerry Goldsmith.
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What looks like a fascinating documentary on Rupert Murdoch’s FOX News channel, the leader in sensationalized biased reporting in America, is being independantly distributed. Sponsors of the video include MoveOn.Org an extremely wide reaching online grassroots political organization in the US.

You can watch a clip from OUTFOXED and find yourself OUTraged by their ridiculous tactics. I don’t get this channel and actually watch very little TV, so I was blown over when at the end of the preview they showed that the network’s slogan is that they provide “fair and unbiased” reporting. Watch the clip and you will be amazed that their claim is even legal.

Of the countless number of Dracula productions that have flooded cinemas for the past century, this one – directed by Francis Ford Coppola – is definitely one of my favorites. It tries to stay faithful to the original novel and was an interesting choice for Coppola to direct after his successes with The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now. The film was originally intended to be a TV production and although there are many questionable performances (most notable: Keanu Reeves), there is only one actor that stands out: Gary Oldman.
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The biggest success, commercial-wise, of 2002 was beyond any doubt Spider-Man and even before this movie had had its première, director Sam Raimi and most of the cast signed up for the sequel. The casting of Tobey Maguire for the title-role was uncertain for a long time, after he had serious back-injuries from shooting Seabiscuit (Pip probably didn’t notice, but I fell asleep during that one). Jake Gyllenhaal was ready to take over, but eventually Maguire felt strong enough to repump his muscles and do the sequel, uninspiringly called Spider-Man 2.
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He looked like a sequinned blow-up sex doll by night and like a child molester by day. Leigh Bowery is someone not everyone has heard of, but who a lot of people would recognize on sight, especially as Leigh was always a ‘sight’. Australian born, Bowery moved to London in 1980 hoping to find more freedom to realise his extravagant and often shocking fashion designs than he had experienced whilst studying fashion at the Melbourne Institute of Technology.

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