This Savage Art

On the meaning of “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”:

It’s fine to keep that open because each audience has the privilege to see it in his or her way. But I think it’s basically a new form of film noir… The climate of time is favorable for film noir. When there is insecurity in things like the financial system collapsing. It’s always in these moments, as an echo, that you see film noir coming up.

You heard it people. Herr Herzog said it so it must be true. Any producers want to capture the moment and strike while the iron is hot I have a very relevant crime drama screenplay that takes place in New York City, noir capital of the world.

Any takers? Anyone? Anyone? [cricket]

Popularity: 3% [?]

While some sites are dicking around with reviews of Kung Fu Panda [I kid, I kid] there’s an avalanche of good stuff on the interweb today:

• A massive film resource database is here for all to enjoy. The Moving Image Source. Well…enjoy! [via The Reeler.]
• Writer/director/one of the reasons I pray to the film gods Paul Schrader and cinematographer extraordinaire Ed Lachman speak at BAM. [Video clips.]
• More Schrader. Notes from Kevin B. Lee on the underappreciated Light Sleeper.
• Steven Boone crashes Antoine Fuqua’s Brooklyn block party.
• How dare you disrespect Abel Ferrara!!!

Popularity: 25% [?]

When a lot of independent [for lack of a better word] filmmakers that are getting recognized now for their brilliance were making there bones back in the 90′s there was a charge in the air. It was real. You know, all the Spikes, Mikes, Slackers and Dykes. Sayles, Jarmusch, Spike, Haynes and many more. There was no agenda other than making the most creatively compelling film you could make with what little you had – by any means necessary. Time has passed and the climate has changed but it’s good to see the spirit of that style of filmmaking is still alive and kicking with Frownland.

In Ronnie Bronstein’s valentine to the immediacy of 16mm independent filmmaking, Frownland takes a look at a small circle of socially retarded individuals living on the fringes of white urban twenty-something life. At the center is Keith, an inarticulate brain aneurysm waiting to happen. As he performs his reverse commute out of the city, feebly attempting to sell coupons door-to-door, Keith is challenged by the simple minutia of life. There is so little this character can actually handle but when he attempts to it is pure heartbreak.

To keep in time with the fractured nature of the film let me quickly segue into the quote that sums it up beautifully from heir director:

More succinctly, Frownland is my own small contribution to the sinking barge of the 16mm indie model; both an overripe tomato lobbed with spazmo inaccuracy at the spotless surface of the silver screen and a mad valentine to the craggy tradition of unadulterated cheap-o-independent expression. Its inelegance is its spirit. – Ronald Bronstein

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the way you sell a film. I’m sorry I can’t describe it better than that but I look at this as a good thing. Films that I have had trouble articulating immediately after seeing them are the ones that have never left me like some chip that’s been embedded under my skin. Bad Lieutenant, Lost Highway and now, Frownland. Props to all involved in making this film, selling out the IFC Center screening last Wednesday night and reminding us what it’s really all about.

I still can’t get the snot bubble out of my mind.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Abel Ferrara gets some high marks for his new film Go Go Tales and the buzz over Bad Lieutenant, ’08?

Popularity: 5% [?]

A film like Bad Lieutenant is like a black cloud that hangs over the MPAA board. Recognized as nihilistic and repugnant in nature, no one knew what to do with such a deviant take on the human condition. Well, until now. Here is a more humorous look at what the MPAA might have pulled from the film.

Popularity: 7% [?]