Ant Timpson { Filmhead }
THE ROOM - Sexist?
Posted by Ant on 7 August 2010 at 09:53
A discussion on THE ROOM screening in NZ. Check out the comments for where it tangents into whether the director Tommy Wiseau is sexist or not.
Room = Sexist
ENTER THE VOID
Posted by Ant on 7 August 2010 at 09:51
We secured ENTER THE VOID for the festival at the very last second. Knowing that Gapser Noe's headfuck was to play on the giant Civic screen was very rewarding.
Enter The Void To Screen
TV3 INTERVIEW NZFF 2010
Posted by Ant on 7 August 2010 at 09:49
A rambling interview with the lovely Kate Rodger about this years Incredibly Strange section.
Interview
OPEN LETTER TO NZFC & MINSTER OF ARTS
Posted by Ant on 7 August 2010 at 09:48
After Peter Jackson's report came out and mentioned the V48 as a prime entity for cultivating new talent I jumped on the bandwagon and fired off this missive. Open Letter
Comments | PermalinkRDU Interview
Posted by Ant on 7 August 2010 at 09:47
Breakfast With Spanky
On the show today we had the pleasure of hearing film buff Ant Timpson's thoughts on an bloody fascinating film that's playing in Christchurch as part of the NZ Film Festival called The Room.
THE ROOM
Posted by Ant on 17 June 2010 at 11:39
We're spending more time on FB these days. So join me on FB and Twitter for all my updates. We are bringing THE ROOM to New Zealand. Join us on FB.
CREATIVE VANDALISM
Posted by Ant on 28 March 2010 at 21:37
If you see a blank V48 street poster around your town. Please feel free to vandalise it with your own catchy tagline. Send us a photo and we'll display it on our facebook page
TAG IT
Posted by Ant on 28 March 2010 at 21:36
We had an amazing response to our V48HOURS tagline competition. Over 320 entries came in from many creative wunderkinds. We have chosen three winners who will receive FREE /REFUNDED registration.
Those three alongside others will be featured on our set of postcards that will be distributed throughout the country.
The three winners are :
ONE DEADLINE NO LIFELINES
SHOOT FIRST, SLEEP LATER
GO APE-SHOOT
C4 PROMO FOR V48HOURS
Posted by Ant on 28 March 2010 at 21:35
Comments | PermalinkCOUNTING DOWN TO REGISTRATION
Posted by Ant on 17 February 2010 at 22:18
Comments | PermalinkSUNDANCE GRADES
Posted by Ant on 30 January 2010 at 15:33
In the delirium that is the Sundance Film Festival these are my hurried ratings for the films I saw. Overall the hit miss ratio seemed much better than some other international festivals of recent times. There was a concerted effort this for Sundance to reclaim the 'Rebel' spirit of its early years. This directive was driven into the audience by some expensive promos (with the tag Rebel) made by some corporate (but hip indie) ad agency. Though there were the usual star-studded preems, Sundance did in fact seem to programme quite a lot of independent material. Well as much as you can call independent these days.
They even dedicated an entire new segment called NEXT which housed under $500k features. Though many times the most common word heard from people after seeing these films was NEXT! What was missing was some high energy gonzo type indie feature that comes from nowhere and appears to be rewriting contemporary cinema. All the films, even the low fi indies seem to adhere to many well thought out tropes of success. Very few films took major risks. All had a commercial vision no matter how loopy their premise. This meant for enjoyable experience overall as there were less stinkers than expected, however the downside is being knocked out by something so left of centre. For all the hate bestowed on Gasper Noe's Enter The Void (and there was a shitload thrown at it) you have to admire the film simply for the films utter lack of any commercial prospects. Latest update on that is that it will get cut by 20-40m for US Release.
Ratings are in context of the festival itself. meaning an [A+] in the festival might only be a [B-] in terms of the last 5yrs. I guess that means an [F] would be a Z.
[A+] Un Prophet, Blue Valentine, Catfish, Exit through the Gift Shop
[A-] Cyrus, Restrepo, 12& Delaware
[B+] Winters Bone, The Oath, Sins of my Father, Four Lions, Animal Kingdom, Howl,
[B-] 7 Days, Splice, Tucker & Dale Versus Evil,
[C] Lucky, Holy Rollers, Teenage Paparazzo, His and Hers, Lovers of Hate, Douchebag, High School
[D] Sympathy for Mr Delicious, 3 Backyards, Hesher
[F] The Violent Kind
[*] Enter the Void
* Either the best or the worst. Still undecided.
THE ORIGINAL CHUNK BLOWER : Chas Balun 1948-2009
Posted by Ant on 31 December 2009 at 14:07
The man who steered countless horror fans towards the joys of Italian cannibal flicks (especially Cannibal Holocaust) and underground filmmakers like Nathan Schiff has died. Chas Balun, the author of seminal fanzine DEEP RED as well as one-offs like THE CONNOISSEUR’S GUIDE TO THE CONTEMPORARY HORROR FILM & HORROR HOLOCAUST finally lost his long battle with cancer. He was 61yrs young.
I remember buying the very slim beautifully printed and illustrated (by him) book THE CONNOISSEUR’S GUIDE TO THE CONTEMPORARY HORROR FILM from the NY mail order company FantaCo and being impressed with it as a youngster. Balun eventually began the pro-zine DEEP RED which was inspiration to a lot of horror fans, especially when he started profiling all the horror zines around the globe. Suddenly this network of movie zines sprung up everywhere and it inspired me to started writing VIOLENT LEISURE in 1988. Through DEEP RED I met up with the Crimson Celluloid guys (Brett and Dave) in Australia and they supplied movie prints for the very first festival I helped Charley Gray put on. It was the Bad Taste Film Festival. So I have Balun to thank for linking us together.
His writing for DEEP RED was full of hyperbole and enthusiasm for everything from Fulci through to unheralded US indies. He was a champion of the little guy and in some ways he shot his load too early. If he had come onto the scene when the internet exploded, I honestly think he might have been behind an AICN or a CHUD.
Balun was also the source for the bootleg vhs of the GUINEA PIG shocker (Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985) that ended up being screened at a party Charlie Sheen was at. Sheen freaked out and called the FBI and suddenly Japanese torture porn was all the rage around the tape trading scene.
Balun had some fierce wars with Film Threat's Chris Gore over the years, I remember the writer Greg Goodsell telling me once about Balun confronting Gore at some convention (Gore apparently narced on Chas to FBI) and it culminated in some physical connection and ended with Balun threatening to tear Gore's head off. The guy was no weedy horror fan. He may have been a hippy in the late 60s but the guy was built like a steroid Grizzly Adams.
Balun went on to form good relationships with the company Rotten Cotten and Fangoria. He actually wrote a lot for Fangoria and especially GORE ZONE. I also remember he won or came second.. in the Draw the Thing for Fangoria competition way back in the day.
The guy was multi-talented and passionate. His style of writing was fun at the beginning but as I discovered more genre writing (Sleazoid Express etc) I kind of stopped reading Balun and eventually lost track of what he was up to.
So its sad to hear that he went out after battling and losing to fucking cancer. I was happy to hear his long time wife Pat Petric was there with him all the way. I think they may have beaten Robbins and Sarandon and thats nice to know.
Rest in Pieces (how many websites will say that I wonder)
Mr Chunk Blower.
NB - Here's a much better obit to Chas Balun by acclaimed artist and movie nut Steve Bissette Obit
SPCS : Society for the Promotion Community Swindling
Posted by Ant on 31 December 2009 at 13:33
If you don't know who SPCS or David Lane is then you can read some of the background under the Press tab to the right. Lane was head of an organisation who made my life as a film festival director a pain in the ass for a couple of years. Now after putting the heat on me and other individuals/groups (Bill Hastings, Bill Gosden, Steve Crow, Prostitutes, Gays etc Lane and his sham of an organisation are being accused of fraudulent behaviour and tax evasion. Oh man this is too good to be true... I can't wait to see Lane's response to all this . Read about it all here... Steve Crow calls David Lane and SPCS frauds!
TOP 50 HORROR FILMS OF THE DECADE
Posted by Ant on 30 December 2009 at 10:23
I really hate making movie lists.
So this is my second of twenty Top of the Decade lists. Ha ha. I'm not Roger Ebert and my opinion is as good as your butchers but I decided to make it official by photoshopping a graphic announcing that this is my Top 50 list! Otherwise I would just delete it and pretend it never existed. Making it official means I now have to stand behind it and take the abuse. Bring it on.
For me, making a Top Horror list is like attempting to put live cockroaches into a line. It's constantly in a state of flux and the only way to finish it, is to glue them down and squash them into place.
This is what I did with the films below.
Many were wriggling towards pole positions but they never made it. Some of the films in the top 20 weren't even in my top 100 when I first saw them. Films have a way of playing with memory and nestling in deep recesses of the mind. You're not sure just exactly why some movies do this and others don't.
It's best not to think about it as the answers may scare you.
So love them or hate them, here are my Top 50.
1. The Mist (#1 B&W version)
2. The Descent
3. Inside aka L'Interieur
4. Jeepers Creepers 2
5. Session 9
6. The Others
7. [REC]
8. Bug
9. Kairo
10. Pop Skull
11. Uzumaki
12. The Happening *
13. Spider
14. Hypnosis
15. Wrong Turn
16. Ils aka THEM
17. Let the Right One In
18. Mother of Tears *
19. Dumplings
20. Final Destination 2
21. The Orphanage
22. House of the Devil
23. My Little Eye
24. Calvaire
25. Dog Soldiers
26. One Missed Call (Miike)
27. Open Water
28. Haute Tension
29. Saw
30. Frailty
31. Wolf Creek
32. Grace
33. Malefique
34. Suicide Circle
35. Sheitan
36. Slither
37. Splinter
38. Pontypool
39. Identity
40. Touristas
41. Paranormal Activity
42. The Orphan *
43. The Loved Ones
44. The Signal
45. The Ruins
46. Bhoot
47. Drag Me To Hell
48. Shaun of the Dead
49. The Lost
50. Severance
* Phenomenal Trash
FAVE 50 MOVIES OF THE DECADE
Posted by Ant on 29 December 2009 at 23:36
I hate making 'best of' lists about movies. The minute you do one, you're committed to stand behind it. You can tell I'm committed by the time and effort taken to photoshop my name on the graphic to the left!
I think when I read some peoples "Best Of" lists they always appear to include a few films that the compiler obviously thinks are necessary but probably weren't their favourites by a long shot. This is the pressure of making and standing behind lists. It reveals all your inadequacies but most of all, it highlights your extremely shitty taste.
The list below comes with a personal guarantee that all the movies impressed and stayed with me after I left the cinema. It's a pretty populist list. If I was more of a snob I'd have searched back through film festival websites to find obscure Iranian films that all the critics got woodies over and including them to make me appear smarter than I am.. but who am I kidding? No one would buy that bullshit from me.
There are a few filmmakers I have left off the list which is a shame but they didn't make great films in this decade.. I'm talking to you Scorsese and Cronenberg! Both made films that could easily appear on the list below but I'm keeping them off on principle and to be honest their films this decade just didn't stay with me.
In my youth I used to revisit films are lot. It wasn't uncommon to watch a film like 'The Wanderers' twenty times or more. These days with family life taking a precedence and having to watch films as a job, the days of multiple viewings are a thing of the past. Well exceptions to this rule are the sublime shitlficks that transcend their shittiness to become highly watchable works.. ie see Demon Cop. So films have to make an impact on first viewing. You can keep all those "Oh you have to see it three times to get it" comments to yourself.
I think it's been a pretty great decade for film. I'd say its probably the best since 1970-79. Some might find that sacrilegious as they're in love with the films of the 80s but to me there's no comparison between the two. The eighties represented excess and superficiality, its a fun cinema decade but by no means a great one. And the 90s simply sucked donkey dick in cinematic terms. So many one trick ponies regurgitating over each others styles. There were of course brilliant films made in both those decades but none would match my top ten of the 2000s.
I can say that because it's my list and my opinion.
Now I've shown you mine, now show me yours!
1. Irreversible (2001) Gasper Noe
2. Keane (2003) Lodge Kerrigan
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Andrew Dominik
4. Cache (2005) Michael Haneke
5. Gerry (2002) Gus Van Sant
6. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000)
7. Love Exposure (2008) Sion Sono
8. Wet Hot American Summer (2002) David Wain
9. Lantana (2001) & Jindabyne (2006)
Ray Lawrence
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Michel Gondry
11. 25th Hour (2002) Spike Lee
12. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) Park Chan Woon
13. Dragonfly (2001) Marius Holst
14. Capturing the Friedmans (2004) Andrew Jarecki
15. No Country for Old Men (2007) Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
16. In My Skin (2002) Marina De Van
17. The Piano Teacher (2001) Michael Haneke
18. Mind Game (2004) Masaaki Yuasa
19. Inglourious Basterds (2009) Quentin Tarantino
20. Primer (2004) Shane Carruth
21. Raw Deal (2001) Billy Corben
22. Mulholland Drive (2001) David Lynch
23. City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund, 2002)
24. The Room (2003) Tommy Wiseau
25. Audition (2001) Takashi Miike
26. Zodiac (2006) David Fincher
27. Chopper (2000) Andrew Dominik
28. AI (2001) Steven Spielberg
29. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter .. And Spring (2003) Ki-duk Kim
30. L.I.E (2001) Michael Cuesta
31. There Will Be Blood (2007) Paul Thomas Anderson
32. Bad Santa (2003) Terry Zwigoff
33. Amores Perros (2000) Alejandro González Iñárritu
34. United 93 (2006) Paul Greengrass
35. Open Range (2003) Kevin Costner
36. Half Nelson (2006) Ryan Fleck
37. Donnie Darko (2001) Richard Kelly
38. The Low Down (2000) Jamie Thraves
39. The Host (2006) Joon-ho Bong
40. Children of Men (2006) Alfonso Cuarón
41. C.R.A.Z.Y (2005) Jean-Marc Vallée
42. L’Enfant (2005) Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
43. Ken Park (2003) Larry Clarke
44. Man On Wire (2008) James Marsh
45. The Prestige (2006) Christopher Nolan
46. American Psycho (2000) Mary Harmon
47. The Hurt Locker (2008) Kathryn Bigelow
48. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007)
49. Old Joy (2006) Kelly Reichardt
50. Antichrist (2009) Lars Von Trier
