Face(s) of the day: Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin.

Godard and Mieville make a commercial.

From 1992, Godard and Mieville’s cigarette commercial ad bears a striking resemblance to his features of the late 80s and early 90s, especially in the striking use of modern, urban settings, combined with his ever present use of text. The final shot works as amalgamation of Alphaville and Hail Mary, the text juxtaposed with a focus on the desires of the physical body.

A Brief History of Cool: Tom Waits

A Top Ten (at the moment).

This is the first year I haven’t been keeping up a top ten all year long in a while. So this is an experiment, especially since I still need to see Juno, Sweeney Todd, There Will Be Blood, Persepolis, and others that I outright missed: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Zodiac, etc.

But anyway, here’s my current top ten:

1. I’m Not There (Todd Haynes)
2. Rescue Dawn (Werner Herzog)
3. Shotgun Stories (Jeff Nichols)
4. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
5. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
6. No Country for Old Men (The Coen Brothers)
7. A Mighty Heart (Michael Winterbottom)
8. The Living Wake (Sol Tyron)
9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (David Yates)
10. Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright)

Honestly, as much as I love those last two, the fact that they are on the list just shows what i missed, and what I have still to see. It also kills me that they are all in English (especially after re-reading part of Rosenbaum’s brilliant Movie Wars last night. But that is the best of what I’ve seen so far in 2007. Not bad all around I’d say, With some particularly brilliant debuts from Jeff Nichols (who won our Narrative Feature award this year, full disclosure) and The Living Wake crew (Sol Tyron, Mike O’Connell and Peter Kline).

Also every year that has Herzog is a good year.

Face of the day: Clara Bow.

It just won’t end…

So the House finally gets it together and passes an act re-banning torture by this nation. And Bush is threatening to veto it.

It would almost be comically evil if it wasn’t also frighteningly real.

Full story.

Okkervil River’s Golden Opportunities Mixtape

Semi-Austin based band Okkervil River just put up a new record consisting of covers that they recorded on tour in 2006-7 on their website for free. It is fairly amazing, especially if you, like me, want to hear Okkervil sing Randy Newman.

Track list:

1. APRIL ANNE (John Phillips)

2. SIMON SMITH AND THE AMAZING DANCING BEAR (Randy Newman)

3. I WANT TO KNOW (Charles F. Olsen/Ed Sanders)

4. DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO (Jimmy Webb)

5. I CAME HERE TO SAY IM GOING AWAY (Serge Gainsbourg/Trans. by W. Sheff)

6. THE BLONDE IN THE BLEACHERS (Joni Mitchell)

7. ANTARCTICA STARTS HERE (John Cale)

8. LISTENING TO OTIS REDDING AT HOME DURING CHRISTMAS (Will Sheff)

9. SOLO (Sandy Denny)

3 Songs and 3 Movies on my mind right now.

1. Billy Liar, The Decemberists
2. Pale Blue Eyes, The Velvet Underground
3. Reno Dakota, The Magnetic Fields

1. His Girl Friday, Howard Hawks
2. Band a parte, Jean Luc Godard
3. No Country for Old Men, The Coen Brothers

How come no one asks Bob Dylan why he sounds so much like Dewey Cox?

I’m Not There is my favorite movie of the year (so far). But it’s not the only great bit of Dylan-alia available right now. From John C. Reilly(and songwriter Dan Bern) this is genius:

Indeed.

New blog, this the fourth I have had. We’ll see how it goes…