Dead Mountainner’s Hotel / ‘Hukkunud Alpinisti’ hotell [M] (1979) is a very, very strange puzzle film / sci-fi flick that’s set in an isolated locale where a murder investigation takes a strange turn.

Even if the whole story doesn’t quite jibe, there’s this amazingly strange atmosphere, a beautiful look that isn’t garish seventies, and a great prog-rock score by Sven Grunberg that’s all warm & fuzzy analogue.

Test Pilot Pirxa / Test pilota Pirxa [M] (1979) is equally compelling, but more for the intellectual arguments extrapolated from Stanislaw Lem’s short story about a space commander charged with testing his human and robotic crew. Problem: he’s never told who’s inhuman, so the blind test can truly challenge the validity of using invulnerable robots for dangerous missions.

Lem’s big claim to fame is author of Solaris, later turned into a classic sci-fi / psychology meditation in 1972 by Andrei Tarkovsky, and both films share the author’s interest in brainy arguments instead of action-oriented sequences. Problem: Pirxa’s director felt the need to do some action-styled goosing, and it makes the film a fairly wonky production.

Both Pirxa and Hotel share similarities with the film version of Blade Runner (1982), and it’s possible director Ridley Scott and the film’s writers were exposed and softly influenced by either film. It’s also a funny coincidence the two Estonian films were produced in the same year, but they also reveal the unique films the state was making for export to other Soviet markets.

Both films are accessible on YouTube, but what’s really needed are respective Blu-ray Special Editions, supported by material that details the inventive, odd little films made within the East Bloc’s most prolific film production hub.

Didn’t know Estonia was so involved? Neither did I, which is why more of its product should be shared with the world market.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

Choo-choo twain!

Back in T.O. after a short vacation with 3000 emails on the server, 925 videos in the mailbox, and 3285 soundtracks in the courier box. Well, perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration, but there’s certainly stuff to do over the weekend that’s supposed to be a holiday weekend. At least it’s not one of those noxious holidays where banks & government agencies get the day off, and the rest of the populace doesn’t. Never understood why bank tellers deserve more holidays than a construction worker, vet, sales clerk, whatever.

Infantile (but not wholly unreasonable) rant over.

At present my netbook & files & images are at the office, so new stuff won’t appear until the afternoon or evening. Just didn’t want to tote along electronics at night and risk losing a lot of important data, particularly footage that’s irreplaceable. The paranoid component of my brain mandated backing up data on multiple sources just in case, although one medium – a micro SD card – crapped out yet again.

Can’t say I’m fond of the format; seems the movement of large files (.mov format in particular) hurts its brain and causes Windows to pause all actions and ask you ‘This disc is not formatted. Format now?’ Maybe the best word to describe the mini-flash card is, what’s the word… “Shit” ?

Both to and from Ottawa didn’t necessitate the use of the portable DVD-ROM to watch movies because there was actually a lot of little projects to do en route. Towards Ottawa, shooting a short film plus recording little chunks of sound easily killed 5 hours, whereas on the way back to T.O., editing Q&As from HotDocs for future online posting, logging audio for Short Film #2, and watching the Asus EEE 1000HE netbook handle big audio files killed another 5 hours.

Amazingly, you can open a 75 min. MP3 320 kbps file, chop off rubbish, add fades, knock down hot spots, boost volume, and do a quick DC adjust before saving without a full-tilt crash… but it takes 7 mins. to save the file, so make sure you’re sitting beside the window. Bottom line: the Asus can handle audio editing on a basic level without intermittent saves, but its processor power is perhaps on par with a Pentium 3. The program did crash after a big save, but not during, so that counts for something.

As for VIA’s onboard WiFi, well, I still couldn’t get it to work. The signal was strong, but there must have been some setting I neglected to use to enable a connection. Whatever. Maybe next trip it’ll be easier to latch onto.

I’ve no idea what happened in the world between Monday & Thursday, but presume Rob Ford’s still a buffoon, and Harper’s still an ideological taskmaster with Messrs. Del Mastro & Baird stirring up bloated verbal arguments to look Important and On the Beam for Canadians.

Four words: Blefuscu, Mully-Ully-Goo.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

It’s Day 2 of my short-short vacation, and I just uploaded reviews for a pair of Jan Kadar films as a sly tie-in to Criterion’s Czech New Wave boxed set (which I’ll cover in due time).

I recently reviewed Kadar’s classic CanCon film Lies My Father Told Me [M] (1975), and the follow-up reviews are for his Oscar-winning The Shop on Main Street / Obchod na korze [M] (1965), and the little-known, barely-seen, long-forgotten mini-masterpiece Adrift / Desire Called Anada / Touha zvaná Anada [M] (1971)

Shop is already available from Criterion (and in need of a proper HD transfer / special edition), whereas Adrift is, well, gone, except for a copy chopped into 10 parts on YouTube. I suggest you A) read my review; B) watch the online version, as it sports English subtitles; and C) write Criterion in the hope they may give it their time and care.

I hope to have another review up within the next day or two, depending on time. Technically I’m on vacation, but I’ve also been shooting footage for a pair of short films – one arty-farty, the other a vignette of sorts. All I’ll say at this point is I love my Canon SX-220 HS camera, and my Sony ICD-SX712 audio recorder; they’re a filmmaking set that fits into two wittle pockets.

That is all.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

American Musical Theatre: Elmer Bernstein [M] (1961) features a snappy, young Bernstein conducting extracts of his recent, best-known scores, and discussing his work with host Jim Morske and an audience of shiny bright musical minds from the NYC school system. There’s apparently one surviving copy at the Paley Center for Media, and it deserves to be released on DVD (if not available for online streaming).

Also reviewed (technically in 2005, in tandem with its limited DVD release) is Fred Karlin’s 1995 doc Film Music Masters: Jerry Goldsmith [M], which was also screened at TJFF. Apparently the sparkling master went over well with audiences, so prorammers should take note that A) there’s an interest in the doc; and B) it is possible to screen the film for public enjoyment beyond YouTube rips.

Lastly, some quick flm music news. As reported on the FSM Message Board, Varese Sarabande will anounce titles in their Varese Encore series. Timed for the label’s 35th anniversary, Encore will bring back into circulation (presumably as a limited series) remastered versions of long out of print titles.

Also reported on the FSM board, BSX Records is releasing a re-ecorded version of Tangerine Dream’s Legend (1986) score. The griping has aleady begun, but I’m looking forward to hearing their spin on this much-maligned score. It’s not the original recording, but given Universal cheated fans by including mono cuts from the album as a phony-ish isolated DVD score track in 2002, it’ll be a while until the master tapes ever make it to CD. (Then again, you nver know.)

I’m taking a short vacation this week, but will try and post some eflective blogs from afar, plus a few reviews that have been sitting in the archives for a bit.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

SLC Punk! [M] (1998) showed he could carry a film, but punk rocker / anarchist Stevo was still a physically broad character, making it easy for other filmmakers to exploit Lillard’s dynamic performance style in horror and  suspense films.

The big surprise for his fans was his straight role as a bigamist in The Descendants [M] (2011) – essentially an exotic road movie with a tragic element designed to manipulate populist audiences. George Clooney was fine as the emotionally suppressed father, but Lillard stood out for giving a cliched, remorseless jerk a faint sense of humanity.

Reportedly the desire to direct a film version of K.L. Going’s Fat Kid Rules the World [M] (2012) had been on the burner for about 9 years, and the finished film gets its Canadian run as part of the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival (May 10-12), covering films about and made by youths.

Toronto premieres include 17 Girls (2011) and Themba: A Boy Called Hope (2010); Canadian premieres include Cupid’s Balls (2011), Fat Kid Rules the World (2012), Mosquita Y Madri (2012), and Re:Generation Music Project (2012); and the International Premiere of This Space Available (2011).

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

Title translation: 'My bread is over-sinned'

Just uploaded are a pair of Blu-rays that contain a ‘few’ degrees of separation – aka, lots of amusing links and coincidences.

Desirée [M] (1954) co-stars Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, two actors who were supposed to co-star in The Egyptian [M] (1954) until Brando bailed, and was legally ‘cajoled’ into honoring his Fox contract by appearing as Napoleon, the historic figure who established the Napoleonic Code with which Stanley Kowalski (Brando) bullied Blanche DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire (1952), a film that, like Desirée, was scored by Alex North.

Like Vertigo, Bell Book and Candle [M] (1958) co-stars James Stewart and Kim Novak, with Novak also supported by actress Janice Rule, who was the original Madge in Picnic [M] (1955) but was passed over in favour of Novak. Picnic and Bell were both scored by George Duning, and both scripts were written by Daniel Taradash, who also wrote Desirée, which brings us full circle in this fascinating ‘few’ degrees of separation game.

Next week’s trivia challenge: which type of rolled oats were used in breakfast & horse feeding scenes in 13 Fox films featuring scores arranged by Jimmy Van Pootz, but themes *not* composed by Alfred Newman.

The winner will receive a copy of Jimmy Van Pootz’ 2010 autobiography ‘I Make Music Much Good: Songs Tasty Like Ovaltine.’

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

Today marks the last day of HotDocs, and the festival winners have been posted at the official website, as well as info on encore presentations.

This Sunday also marks the last day of operations for the Cumberland Cinemas, which will shutter forever after the last HotDocs films – Colombianos and Buzkashi! – are screened later this evening.

Reports of the cinema’s closure went out to its employers earlier this week, and BlogTO has a piece on the closure, but like the old Uptown, this marks another cinema shuttered after the end of a film festival. Must be a curse for the Bloor strip between Yonge & Bay.

The info is still minimal at this stage, but instead of another badly needed luxury condo, the building may house another badly needed upscale coffee shop, because as many who traverse the area know, Bay & Bloor has a terrible paucity of java outlets, and I’m frankly sick of pushing away doe-eyed caffeine addicts wanting a sip of my coffee.

In any event, it’s worth checking out the reader comments at the end of the piece which pretty much sums up the love/hate relationship for the vintage 1981 cinema that used to specialize in foreign & indie films and slowly lost its luster. I always loved its convenient location, but maybe all those reports of its imminent demise and poor marquee signage on Bloor made most people thing the cinema was shuttered eons ago, as with most vestiges of Cineplex’s compact movie houses of the era.

Lastly, the Hollywood Reporter posted Fox will stop distributing 35mm prints  to cinemas, becoming the first major studio to go fully digital.

What follows over the next year – in terms of other studios – will be intriguing, but I wonder what’ll happen to prints of classic films. Will they be withdrawn? Will they be allowed to disintegrate and never be replaced by a new one? Will there be a specialty division devoted to the distribution of classic titles for festival outlets? Will cinematheques be stuck with projecting up-res’d DVD or Blu-rays? Or will Fox and others provide 2K transfers of existing classic films so their beloved CinemaScope catalogue, for example, isn’t restricted to specialty channels and 3rd party licensed home video discs.

Coming shortly: reviews of Twilight Time’s Desiree (1954) and Bell Book and Candle (1958) on Blu.

And not far off: Editor’s Blog on this afternoon’s 35mm print screening of Planet of the Apes (1968) and maybe, if I have time, some snapshots of the Cumberland. Yes, it’s old, boxy, and has little luster, but I don’t like it when a cinema closes, and festivals may have to extra scrambling to get needed screen time.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

'Why do I keep hearing a jazzy piano solo?'

Sat. May 5

Although it’s officially Day 3 of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, today marks the beginning of the film music sidebar series, The Sound of Movies: Masters of the Film Score.

Toronto author & film critic Kevin Courrier begins the series with his FREE talk, Notes and Frames: The Neglected Art of Film Music, at 1pm at Innis Town Hall. For a taste of Courrier’s insight & humour, the CBC’s archived his talk with Fresh Air’s Mary Ito, which originally aired this morning at 7:30am.

Also at Innis, Courrier’s talk will be followed at 3pm with a FREE screening of the documentary Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann, which is part of a 4-episode series that ran on PBS and Brava several years ago.

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Sun. May 6

Also part of the PBS series is Music for the Movies: The Hollywood Sound, which is being introduced by curator Ellie Skrow. The doc screens at the Al Green Theatre at 12pm, and is also FREE.

Back at Innis, at 3:30pm Canadian composer Mychael Danna will introduce an archival 35mm screening of the original Planet of the Apes, which features a superb score by Jerry Goldsmith.

The day’s film music series ends with a screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, and composer David Shire will both introduce the film and re-emerge for a discussion & Q&A with Kevin Courrier after the screening.

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Mon. May 7

Shire returns for an intro & discussion for a screening of the once impossible-to-see teleplay Evening Primrose at 3:15pm, at the Al Green Theatre.

Closing the day at 8:30pm at the Bloor is a rare screening of The Last Butterfly, based on the novel by Canadian author (and my screenwriting prof) Michael Jacot. In addition to a rarely-seen NBC interview that’ll precede the film, Last Butterfly’s producer, Steven North, will provide an introduction, and will return for a Q&A with myself after the film, focusing on the movie and the film’s composer, Alex North, his amazing father. After the Q&A there’ll be a rare screening of the Emmy Award-winning doc The Gingerbread Revolution, about Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution which occurred during filming.

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Wed. May 9

At 3pm at the Al Green Theatre there’s a screening of the doc Michael Nyman in Progress + the Howard Shore featurette “A Composer’s Dream,” and at 8pm the theatre will screening Jack Garfein’s Something Wild (1961), starring Carroll Baker & Ralph Meeker, and featuring a jazzy score by Aaron Copland.

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Fri. May 11

At the Al Green Theatre at 4:30pm, I’ll introduce a screening of a rare live TV appearance by American Musical Theatre: Elmer Bernstein from 1960, plus two Charles & Ray Eames shorts scored by Bernstein: “House: After Five Years of Living” and “Tops”.

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Sat. May 12

The sidebar series’ concludes with a FREE screening of the rarely seen doc Film Music Masters: Jerry Goldsmith (which comes from a broadcast quality master, not DVD) at the Bloor Cinema. Yes, Goldsmith at the Bloor at 4pm on a big screen with the cinema’s gorgeous new sound system. Somewhere in Heaven co-director Fred Karlin is smiling, and maybe saying ‘It’s about time!’ He worked hard on the damned thing, and fans will enjoy the plethora of film clips, music clips, and home movie clips of the Composer God who scored Alien, Gremlins, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and guilty pleasures like The Boys from Brazil and Damnation Alley – the latter a barely function film if not for a great, grim soundtrack.

The final program at the Bloor at 7pm (and FREE) is Movie Music: A Portrait of Lalo Schifrin, a doc which joins the composer during a concert tour, and has him reminiscing about his amazing career in jazz, film, and the concert world. If time permits this week, I’ll have a review of his autobiography, but until then, here’s a short interview done at the time of the book’s publication.

I think I’ve said this before, but this may be the most film music-related material & appearances at one time in Toronto. Even if you’re mildly curious about movie music & its makers, try out a few screenings, because based on the success of this series, it could provoke programmers in T.O. to add film music related content in additional festivals. We have a glut of film festivals, and every culture has its musical heroes. (Yes, I came up with that sappy tag line all by myself.)

Lastly, do check out the other screenings at the TJFF, because there’s a lot of music-related docs that are not or aren’t easily available on home video. There’s nothing worse than missing a film that sounded intriguing in the catalogue, and it never reappears again. Hate that, particularly when you forget the name.

Skip work, lie about being sick, and pretend you’re ‘at a conference’ at your discretion (but don’t drag my name into it).

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

Just started today: Toronto Jewish Film Festival, with the first film music sidebar screenings to begin this Saturday. Read Eric Veillete’s piece, though one correction: the Alex North-related screening isn’t Streetcar Named Desire, but The Last Butterfly (1990).

Of note to monkey fans: a rare 35mm archival print screening of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes, with composer Mychael Danna providing introductory insight into Jerry Goldsmith’s remarkable score.

Current mental state: not bad, but this goddamn weather system is making it another Advil Day.

Link of the moment: Planet of the Apes colouring book gallery. Not mine, but I still have the ones I coloured when I was 10. I managed to draw within the lines. Most of the time.

That is all.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )

'I wonder what would happen if I press the blue button instead of the red one...'

This post sort of got lost in the shuffle of the past month, so here’s Part 1 of Not-so-nice North Korea, a series that’ll focus on documentaries and available films from / about the hermit kingdom / wackyland where at present nuclear warheads are controlled by a 29 year old destined to develop the same bad hair as his father.

The first film in this series is Patty Kim and Chris Sheridan’s superb documentary Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story [M] (2006), one of the most dramatic docs I’ve ever seen. The story of an abducted Japanese teen by North Korean spies may be largely unknown in North America, but hat’s just a small piece of a larger story which unfolds like a gripping novel, except the tragedies and cruelties are horribly real. Absolutely devastating, and worth tracking down on DVD.

Related (in a more surreal way) is Pulgasari / aka Bulgasari [M] (1985), the North’s attempt to create grand propaganda via a Godzilla knock-off using Japanese designed special effects, and an actress & director kidnapped from South Korea. Not a good film, but a good bad one for its sheer weirdness – onscreen and behing-the-scenes. The film was released on VHS years ago but hasn’t popped up in a clean DVD, although there is a copy floating around in YouTube. Wonder if the North still give the film play on TV, or have buried it as a failed attempt to create commercial propaganda.

The next week will yield odd waves of updates as I uploaded DVD, soundtrack, and film festival reviews, but the Francophrenia capsule review will be up shortly, along with other stuff.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com ( Main Site / Mobile Site )