#the amazing maurice posters

[walks-the-ages]

Book! Eight! Teen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of Arsene Lupin!! Can't read it yet because I'm still on book 2 and want to read them in complete order , but this was such an amazing find! Every book is completely free, and also has covers made with Public Domain art!

And this site is run by one single person!

If you want to help support them, you can donate just whatever you want, or they have options for you to buy the entire current (free) ebook collection as a 10GB zip folder for $15, or you can donate $25 to get 4 updated links every x months when they add new books to the collection as a ZIP file

[ID: a gif of spongebob squarepants repeatedly bowing in worship towards a poster of a krabby patty (hambuger) with a mom bucket on the floor next to him. end ID]

#public domain #free books #Arsene Lupin #Arsène Lupin #the mysterious mansion #The Mélamare Mystery #Global Grey Ebooks #media preservation

[mydigitalplanet-uk]

Topic: Gallery Visit - Victoria & Albert Museum. Part 1/4.

The brief for this blog post was to visit the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The aim was to see many different types of artwork and have the senses stimulated. Specifically, the brief requested to go see two exhibitions – the OPSAAAL, Solidarity & Design and the Maurice Broomfield: Industrial Sublime; but also suggested and encouraged students to get inspiration throughout the Museum. The OPSAAAL exhibition: The OPSAAAL was a group born in Cuba 1966 to bring political solidarity across nation from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The exhibition showcased the struggles of those people, its political activism for social justice and anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism around the globe. The group closed in 2019. For me the Che Guevara poster titled “Day of the Heroic Guerrilla, 8 October, Elena Serrano 1968” was one of the highlights of the exhibition, where the artwork celebrates the life of the famous & iconic Cuban revolutionary leader. Followed by “Day of Solidarity with Guatemala, 6 February, Antonio Marino 1970”. It was interesting to notice the small and limited colour palette used by the artists throughout the exhibition. Maurice Broomfield: Industrial Sublime: Unfortunately, the Photography Centre was closed for refurbishing on the date I visited the Museum and I was unable to visit the exhibition. Another highlight of the visit was the cast of the most famous sculpture in the world: Michelangelo’s David (1501-4). David, slayer of the giant Goliath, was a symbol of civic freedom for the Florentine Republic. In the photo, I have tried to capture the magnitude of the artwork and its size in proportion. Also, interesting to notice the time span & history behind the whole Museum’s collection raging from different centuries. I have seen artworks ranging from 1375 to 2018. Amazing! Finally, I would like to mention the magnificent wing with the stained-glass windows and the Kyiv Monastery Gates (1784) which were given to Ukraine by Catherine the Great of Russia. In conclusion, the visit was fantastic and inspirational. And the OPSAAAL showcase of political activism for social justice and anti-imperialism & anti-colonialism inspired me for the theme I suggested for the E3 – Narrative Project: Street Protest - End Racism. In the future I would like to visit the Maurice Broomfield exhibition, which I have confirmed will be opened until May 2023.

[aliciaphen]

☆ ALICIA’S MONTHLY MEDIA MENTIONS: NOVEMBER `22

it's mid-December. school is eating me alive. but here are my media faves of November.

Visual:

Howl's Moving Castle (2004) dir. Hayao Miyazaki - I was never a Ghibli kid growing up, and I think part of the reason why is that I was not exposed to it when I was younger. But holy shit was I missing out. I loved the story, the animation was gorgeous. It has further cemented this desire to pursue a career in filmmaking.

Class Action Park (2020) dir.  Seth Porges & Chris Charles Scott - So, this is a documentary about Action Park, a New Jersey water park from the 70s and the crazy fucking way it operated. I'd recommend watching it, just because it's absolutely wild seeing the different attractions they had and just how dangerous they were. But just a heads up that it swings between nostalgic past employers/customers to families who have been victimized by the owner who prioritizes capital gain over human life.

Extracurricular (2020) dir. Kim Jinmin - I don't watch too many k-dramas, because I feel like most of them have an unnecessary romance going on that I just don't want to see lol. This is no exception, but the plot is interesting. It's about a couple of high schoolers and how they get involved in a prostitution ring. It gets you asking some moral questions; it's one of those dramas you'd like to debate with someone over. Justice for Seo Minhee.

She Loves Me (film) dir. David Horn, Scott Ellis (staging) - For a school assignment, I'm making a theatre poster for the play Parfumerie, a Hungarian play written by Miklós László, set in a 1930s perfume shop, and watching She Loves Me was part of my research of the play. It's a sweet, romantic story between two coworkers who have unknowingly been exchanging letters with each other. For the trope fanatics, it's an enemies-to-lovers story. I wouldn't say the songs are quite memorable compared to other musicals I've watched, but it would be something fun to see as the holidays approach.

Fire of Love (2022) dir. Sara Dosa - This is a documentary about two French volcanologists, Maurice and Katia Krafft, and the exciting lives they led studying, filming, and photographing volcanoes. I watched this on a really cold day at the Hot Docs theatre in Toronto. I feel like I went in expecting a romantic movie about the pair, but it didn't quite feel that way. It focused more on their lives and the crazy expeditions they took to study volcanoes. If anyone has watched Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, the final episode, The Murmuring dir. Jennifer Kent, feels similar.

Atlanta, S4 EP8: The Goof Who Sat by the Door (2022) - My awesome roommate got me into watching Atlanta. So within a month or so, I had binged all four seasons. If you're unfamiliar with the show, it can only really be described as afro-surrealism - it follows its main cast through their ventures in Atlanta and navigating the music industry, and has the occasional off-plot single episode. And it's created by Donald Glover - so you know it's good. This episode is one of those off-plot ones and it's a mockumentary of the career of Thomas Washington, the first black animator and CEO of Disney. I went in thinking this was real LMFAO. But if you go in with that mindset, it's such an impactful episode. Any exaggeration or irony flies right past you and you just see the story and how amazing it is.

Music: November 2022 Spotify Playlist

SMITHEREENS (2022) - Joji - Ugh. What can I say? It's so good. that good Joji sadness we all love to cry to. A few faves include Glimpse of Us, Die For You, YUKON (INTERLUDE), and 1AM FREESTYLE.

'The ReVe Festival 2022 - Birthday' - Red Velvet - I'm always excited for a Red Velvet comeback. I think the album is solid, but by far my favourite track is Celebrate. I listened to this album for the first time with my roommate, and it just so happens that both our birthdays are coming soon. (We're born three days apart!)

Books:

These are all books I'm in the midst of reading.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - I decided to read this solely because I couldn't get enough of the film and decided to read the book as well.

Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon - I'm still in the middle of it, but I'd recommend this to fellow artists! An insightful, useful guide to making your way in the art world.

#alicia phen #alicia's monthly media mentions #november 2022

[xogedicad]

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  Sujet : The Iron Knight (The Iron Fey, #4) full book free pc, download, play. The Iron Knight (The Iron. Répondre. Titre original : The Iron Fey, book 1.5: Winter's Passage (2010) 2011 [E-book] Editions Harlequin (Darkiss) Langue anglaise | Format : PDF. Découvrez le livre Les Royaumes invisibles, Tome 1 : La Princesse maudite : lu The Iron King - Anglais; The Iron Fey, Book 1 : The Iron King - Anglais The Iron King is the first book in the Iron Fey series, and follows the adventures of a girl named Meghan Chase. On her sixteenth birthday, Meghan discovers Based off the New York Times best selling novels. The Iron King is the first book in the Iron Fey series, and follows the adventures of a girl named Meghan The Accursed Kings, Tome 1, The Iron King (The Accursed Kings, Book 1), Maurice Druon, Harpercollins. Des milliers de livres avec la livraison chez vous en Gary Chapman, Stephen Covey, Andrew Scott, Books, Movie Posters, Colette, The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa | 21 Amazing Young Adult Series That Ended InBased off the New York Times best selling novels. The Iron King is the first book in the Iron Fey series, and follows the adventures of a girl named Meghan

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[pinerkey]

Hue and cry art

“Comparing the color prints made in the late 1700s against those made 100 years later, we can appreciate not just the remarkable technical leaps forward at the level of color print processes, but also the amazing degree of visual inventiveness and experimentation,” Leonard said.Īt the same time, a changing world eased the re-entry of color into the world of French printmaking. Color prints were described as “garish,” “cheap,” and “commercial,” discouraging their production even after technical advances made them more feasible and affordable. The old print techniques, expensive and difficult to achieve, were frowned upon aesthetically in post-Revolutionary France. Popular taste turned away from the lighthearted subjects of rococo and artists increasingly sought noble themes of public virtue, pursuing the austere clarity of the neoclassical style. Extremely costly, they were available only to the wealthy and became associated in the popular imagination with the decadence of the aristocracy-a clientele that disappeared violently in the course of the French Revolution. During most of the 19th-century, prints were considered to be a black-and-white art form-if a print had color, it failed to qualify as fine art.Ī century before the “color revolution” of the 1890s, however, color prints had reached a zenith of technical perfection in France. “Many beloved artists of the 19th-century did their most creative work in the print medium and the element of color endows these works with a visual appeal that still speaks powerfully to us today," she said in an earlier interview.īrightly colored prints and posters, synonymous with Belle Époque Paris, are popular with modern audiences, but that appeal masks the fact that colored prints were long an outlier phenomena. Leonard, who came to the Clark in 2018, knew early on that she wanted to organize an exhibition of the museum’s French color prints. The exhibit was curated by Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs for the museum. They feature prints by the likes of Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Jules Chéret, Maurice Denis, Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Edouard Vuillard. The works on display are extremely light-sensitive and are rarely displayed. Hue and Cry, French Printmaking and the Debate over Colors, a new exhibit unveiled at the Clark Institute of Art this past weekend, explores one of these changes in esthetic direction, tracing the surprising but steady opposition to colored prints in 19th-century France through to their re-emergence in the late 1800s. Fashions come and fashions go, nowhere more than in the world of art.

#Hue and cry art

[jobamakes]

[Project Story] Sugoi Muscle Party

What is it? Dj Event + Promotional Videos When: 2020 Where: Vietnam Roll: Co-organizer / Designer / Video Director What I Did: Organized an event with japanese bodybuilders and made funny videos with the guest DJs lifting weights to promote them. With: Thibaut Rabier

I always had a strong natural attraction towards japanese people, since Brazil - which has the bigger japanese community outside Japan, and weirdly enough, most of people are not aware of this.

So did Thibaut, he lived a few years in Tokyo when he was young, and as soon as we started hanging around Hanoi, we ended up meeting a lot of Japanese people. I didn’t know at that time, but Vietnam is one of the biggest markets for Japanese and Korean companies, so you have a huge amount of expats from both countries working everywhere around Vietnam.

From all those incredible japanese people, we crossed paths with Seiji Yokohama. Always with an easy smile on his face, he used to DJ a lot (of good house music) around Hanoi and we ended up being friends. On one of those endless nights on Kobala’s rooftop, we were just having a laugh the three of us as usual, and I’ll never forget this exact moment when the idea of uniting Japan and Muscles came up simultaneously. A PARTY INSIDE A GYM WITH JAPANESE BODYBUILDERS we shouted as one.

SUGOI ----MUSCLE ---- PARTY

Those 3 words sounded really amazing, screaming them out loud, drunk, in a rooftop in Hanoi at 2am - sugoi means amazing btw.

SMP vol. 01 poster design

We did a first event, just the three of us, which was just to set up the music genre. Then for the second event, we teamed up with Tony From Japan, a Japanese bodybuilder that has a private gym in Hanoi, and Toby aka Tobiceps, a UK DJ, good friend of ours, and gym fan as well. Both got nice pecs.

Tony’s gym was too small for an event, so we decided to do it at Kobala’s, the birthplace of the idea. We managed to bring a few dumbells and equipments from Tony’s anyways, and turn Kobala into a gym. It worked like a beauty.

Promotional DJ set for SMP vol. 02 featuring Tobiceps, guest DJ, inside Tony’s gym.

The party was an absurdity. Tony couldn’t stop lifting weights in front of the DJ booth, people were just throwing yoga balls at each other and the lifting games we did had people going mad, all of it under pumped 80s Italo Disco tracks.

Tony and Seiji, which had just turned Dad that week.

Some pictures from SMP Vol.02 by Tobiceps. Here I’m trying to motivate a party goer to lift that sh* up in exchange for tequila.

We didn’t manage to take off a lot of shirts though, our dream of a party inside a gym playing 80s track with everyone lifting weights shirtless was still ongoing.

But we knew this wasn’t gonna happen in north Vietnam, so we decided to make the vol. 03 in Saigon, Vietnam’s party capital. We started enhancing the promotional material as well, doing funnier videos showcasing the guest DJ in weird situations, all related to the 80s gym esthetics.

As for the the posters, I took reference from the 80s/90s jav porn VHS covers.

poster design for SMP vol.03, others editions here

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Never had so much fun in my life shooting those SMP vol.3 promotional videos haha

The promotion worked perfectly and Saigon edition was pure madness, the best party we ever did in Vietnam.

Later on, Vietnam went through a few other covid waves that held up the organization of others SMP but we managed to organize 2 more editions, one with Rob, longtime welsh friend, and a last one in Saigon with Robat, french filmmaker and DJ, goof friend of ours too. We lost Seiji though for those last editions, he had to come back to Japan unexpectedly =/ But we made a blood promise before he left: we’re bringing SMP to the (few) gyms of Japan.

Can’t wait for the next one !

More pictures: vol.2 / vol.3 / vol.5 More videos: vol.4 / vol.5

#design #music

[gaysails]

I’m rereading amazing maurice to cleanse my mind from that awful movie poster and it’s just so so sad seeing how the animation/character design alone has already fucked up my first and best beloved terry pratchett book before this movie is even finished production. literally compare this bit to that terrible bad movie poster. not my beautiful charming rogue archetype cat

“Maurice had lived on the streets for four years and had barely any ears left and scars all over his nose, and he was smart. He swaggered so much when he walked that if he didn’t slow down he flipped himself over. When he fluffed out his tail people had to step around it.”

#it's like the designers saw ''fluffed'' and ignored the rest. it's a Children's story and they're making it a Kiddie story 😑 #like I read the book when I was 11-12 and I ate that shit UP. stuck in my brain so firmly and I revisited it over and over #it's dark and heavy while still being written plainly enough for children to comprehend #and it doesn't talk down to kids or try to uncomplicate things. the movie stills just look so sugary and soulless in comparison. zero stars

[adamwatchesmovies]

Miami Connection (1987)

Miami Connection contains everything you want in a cult film; an action movie so awesome and yet so poorly put together it becomes one of the most entertaining experiences you will ever have. It only gets better with each viewing.

Mark (Y.K. Kim, the film's martial arts consultant, casting director, producer, and co-story writer), John (Vincent Hirsch), Tom (Angelo Jannoti), Jim (Maurice Smith), and Jack (Joseph Diamond) are orphaned black belt university students living in the same apartment. Together, they are Dragon Sound, “a new dimension in rock and roll”. They’re so awesome their success puts other bands out of business. This is where their troubles begin. When their disgruntled musical rivals team up with a gang of thugs led by Jeff (William Ergle) whose sister Jane (Kathy Collier) just started dating one of the band members, he brings in a group of motorcycle-riding ninjas to help take down Dragon Sound once and for all.

A masterpiece takes time, dedication, passion, effort, and a lot of talent. The people who made Miami Connection had all these qualities… except for the talent. The plot is ridiculous; merely an excuse to tie together action sequences, ninja battles, and Dragon Sound performances. The acting is wooden. The dialogue is laughable. The special effects are cheesy, the violence is gratuitous, and the choreography is lackluster. Many of the characters could have been cut out completely and it wouldn’t have changed a thing. All of them are paper-thin. The unbelievably good soundtrack and the escalation of absurdity make it a riot. The whole thing feels like an episode of Denver the Last Dinosaur or Jem and the Holograms if you took out the dinosaur and the holograms and replaced it with karate. Lots and lots of karate.

Just a few scenes in, you’ll be giddy with excitement. You can’t make a film this entertaining without pouring your heart and soul into it. That earnestness is palpable. This is a labor of love that didn’t turn out to be very good, but it’s got everything you want in a film that’s so terrible it’s entertaining. You’ll lose track of the multitude of deliciously quotable lines. When someone asks you what your favorite scene was, will you go with the argument between two managers that goes from 0 to 200 in less than six seconds? How about the maniacal ninja leader who seems a little bit too eager to shed blood? I’ve got to go with the musical numbers - half the musicians are just pretending to play between throwing karate kicks in the air.

The script is memorable (not to be confused with polished) and the way the actors deliver their lines matches. Inconsequential moments become gems of absolute hilarity. A scene of mail being opened is so amazing the good people at Drafthouse films put it on their poster. I can’t do it justice, you’ve just got to see it for yourself.

For the soundtrack alone, Miami Connection is worth seeing. If you don't "get" why people enjoy bad movies, you will after this one. This is a great party movie, a quotable comedy, a bonkers action film, a rock musical with crazy lyrics, and an experience you won’t soon forget. (On Blu-ray, July 2, 2016)

#MiamiConnection #Movies #films #MovieReviews #FilmReviews #actionMovies #ActionFilms #sobadit'sgood #RichardPark #Y.K.Kim #VincentHirsch #WilliamErgle #SiyungJo #KathieCollier #JosephDiamond #MauriceSmith #1987movies #1987films

[tinkerd]

Interview with www.achuka.co.uk

See Original post here: https://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/meet-an-illustrator-14-david-litchfield/

Meet An Illustrator 14 – David Litchfield APRIL 17, 2021 BY ACHUKA  self-portrait © David Litchfield

ACHUKA is thrilled to have David Litchfield as the 14th guest on Meet An Illustrator, an informal weekend feature introduced this year.. Do visit the backpages  to read the responses from previous guests.

The Bear And The Piano, David’s debut picture book, was published just 5 years ago, but he is already established as one of the UK’s leading illustrators and picture book creators. That debut title won Waterstones Illustrated Book Prize in 2016. Much more recently he has come to attention as the cover illustrator for David Almond’s Bone Music:

The Bear And The Piano became a trilogy with publication in 2019 of The Bear, The Piano, The Dog And The Fiddle and, this year, with the third title The Bear, The Piano And The Little Bear’s Concert.

A particular favourite of ACHUKA’s is Lights On Cotton Rock:

His 2021 publishing year kicked off with illustrations for A Shelter for Sadness by Anne Booth

and the paperback edition of Rainbow Before Rainbows by Smriti Halls is published this coming week:

Next month (May 2021) we can look forward to Pip And Egg written by Alex Latimer:

and, as we hear below, there is lot lots more to come.

As a child, what were the first illustrations you remember being pleased with?

I think that it was a drawing of a panda. It was in primary school and we all had to draw one. We then put them all on the wall and I remember feeling a bit arrogant and quietly smug that my panda was definitely one of the best ones on that wall.

Who/what inspired you when you were young?

Again at primary school our teacher sat us all down and read us Where The Wild Things Are. I remember being absolutely blown away by Maurice Sendak‘s drawings and characters and totally felt transported away from the reading mat in that classroom to that dreamy monster island. Mr Sendak and Albert Uderzo were absolutely the two biggest influences on making me want to draw every day.

Who inspires you today?

Still mainly Sendak and Uderzo. But I love finding out about new illustrators. There are an infinite amount of styles and techniques and approaches to drawing and I love being surprised by how different people create a spread or tell their stories. My current 2 favourites are Sydney Smith and Frances Ives. They both have such a free and natural style. They are amazing.

Did you study art/illustration?

I actually studied Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Art. Graphic Design felt like the most sensible career choice in the art world. I loved the course and I met some great people there. But I was really shocked at how little drawing was involved. I think more than anything that course showed me how much I really loved to draw and that I just wasn’t a Graphic Designer.

What is your favourite artist tool/product?

It sounds obvious but a pencil and a sketchbook. My absolute favourite part of a project is when it’s just me, a pencil and a sketchbook and I am just letting the idea develop by scribbling and experimenting and making a mess.

Where do you buy your art supplies?

I have two favourite shops here in Bedford. One is called the Arc which sells all kinds of incredible arts supplies and exotic paints and brushes etc. I also like Coleman’s which is obviously more of a standard stationary shop. But I don’t know, I like their pens. I spend far too much money on pens.

What software/apps do you use?

I only really use Photoshop. I tried to get my head around Illustrator but I’m just not that technically minded to be honest. I have had a play with Pro Create but my kids keep stealing my iPad so I have not had enough time to learn it yet.

What was your first commission?

My first commission happened when I was 13 years old and I drew a poster for a local comic shop. They paid me in comics. My first proper paid commission was with The Beano comic. I think that it was in  2013 or so when the editor Michael Stirling found my drawings online. For a few weeks I drew the illustrations that accompanied a poetry section in the comic. It was amazing to be drawing for a comic I had been in love with for most of my life. I will forever be grateful to that team for giving me that opportunity.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am just finishing drawing a pretty epic book written by Gregory Maguire. After that I’m so happy to be working on another ‘Earth’ book with Stacy McAnulty. I love drawing these books, and I learn so much about our planet too. After that I’m starting a beautiful book with the writer Nell Cross Beckerman which is going to be a total stunner. Towards the end of the year I’m creating artwork for my next author/illustrator book too.

Which is all very exciting. I always feel like I’m being very vague when I don’t give too much info but I’m never sure how much I’m actually allowed to say. What I can tell you is that my author/illustrator book is going to be a Christmas story set in Victorian times.

Twitter or Instagram? Instagram I think. I love Twitter but Instagram just feels a lot friendlier. Also as an illustrator it is a great, visual medium to share work on. I have also found so many new great artists from this site.

Coffee or tea?  

I love coffee. But I have had to cut back a lot. I was getting the jitters because I drank it so much. Now I just have two cups a day. And only in the mornings.

Cat or dog?  

Oh my goodness Dog. Dog every time. I always had dogs growing up. They were my best friends. We got a dog last summer. I was adamant that my two boys should have a dog growing up. My wife wasn’t that convinced I don’t think but now that we have one she loves her as much as we do.

Grape or grain? 

Hmmm, both good, but I would have to say grape.

Sunrise or sunset? 

Sunset. I don’t know if it’s a getting older thing but I love sitting in my garden as the sun starts to go down. It’s like a magic time of the day where everything is winding down and becoming peaceful.

What do you listen to when you are working?  

Mainly loud rock music.  But I’ve also started to listen to a fair few podcasts. My favourite ones at the moment are ‘Pod Save America‘- helps me get my head around American politics, which I can sometimes find quite baffling from time to time- and The Force Center – which is a massively geeky Star Wars podcast which has none of the snark and negativity of other fandom type discussions. I recommend it if you are a Star Wars nerd like me.

Where can we follow you on social media? I’m on twitter: @dc_litchfield Instagram: @david_c_litchfield

I also have a blog at:

tinkerd.tumblr.com

and a Facebook page at

facebook.com/davidlitchfieldillustration

-but to be honest I do keep forgetting to update that one.

#illustrator #illustrator interview #illustration

[a-duck-with-a-book]

REVIEW // The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld, #28) by Terry Pratchett, narrated by Stephen Briggs

★★★★★

- January 2021 review - Pratchett is such an accomplished storyteller, weaving together a whimsical and comical tale that still manages to tug at your heartstrings. I got in the habit of listening to the audiobook before going to bed; Pratchett's writing, mixed with Stephen Brigg's narration, is so soothing and hypnotizing that it always managed to empty my mind of the anxieties that permanently reside there and lull me to sleep (in the best way possible, since I'm realizing now that this may make the book seem boring when it is really anything but!). Something about the way Pratchett voice carries through in his writings has a timelessness that makes it appropriate for people of all ages.

// image: poster for the stage adaptation of the book by Sal Vador //

- March 2012 review - Terry Pratchett does not disappoint. A great balance of intrigue, comedy, action, and an air of mystery that keeps you reading. In other words, a great example of a Terry Pratchett book. I could not put it down. If you want a short read that will keep you guessing and make you fall in love with the Discworld series, this is the book for you.

#discworld #terry pratchett #maurice #the amazing maurice and his educated rodents #audiobook #audible #book #book review #read #reading #goodreads #a duck with a book #fantasy #fiction #fivestars #bookblr #bookish #bookworm #review

[theothersideofthecinema]

The Captive Lover – An Interview with Jacques Rivette, Frédéric Bonnaud

(September 2001)

Translation by Kent Jones

This interview was originally published in Les Inrockuptibles (25 March 1998) and has been republished here with the kind permission of the author.

* * *

I guess I like a lot of directors. Or at least I try to. I try to stay attentive to all the greats and also the less-than-greats. Which I do, more or less. I see a lot of movies, and I don’t stay away from anything. Jean-Luc sees a lot too, but he doesn’t always stay till the end. For me, the film has to be incredibly bad to make me want to pack up and leave. And the fact that I see so many films really seems to amaze certain people. Many filmmakers pretend that they never see anything, which has always seemed odd to me. Everyone accepts the fact that novelists read novels, that painters go to exhibitions and inevitably draw on the work of the great artists who came before them, that musicians listen to old music in addition to new music… so why do people think it’s strange that filmmakers – or people who have the ambition to become filmmakers – should see movies? When you see the films of certain young directors, you get the impression that film history begins for them around 1980. Their films would probably be better if they’d seen a few more films, which runs counter to this idiotic theory that you run the risk of being influenced if you see too much. Actually, it’s when you see too little that you run the risk of being influenced. If you see a lot, you can choose the films you want to be influenced by. Sometimes the choice isn’t conscious, but there are some things in life that are far more powerful than we are, and that affect us profoundly. If I’m influenced by Hitchcock, Rossellini or Renoir without realizing it, so much the better. If I do something sub-Hitchcock, I’m already very happy. Cocteau used to say: “Imitate, and what is personal will eventually come despite yourself.” You can always try.

Europa 51 (Roberto Rossellini, 1952)

Every time I make a film, from Paris nous appartient (1961) through Jeanne la pucelle (1994), I keep coming back to the shock we all experienced when we first saw Europa 51. And I think that Sandrine Bonnaire is really in the tradition of Ingrid Bergman as an actress. She can go very deep into Hitchcock territory, and she can go just as deep into Rossellini territory, as she already has with Pialat and Varda.

Le Samourai (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)

I’ve never had any affinity for the overhyped mythology of the bad boy, which I think is basically phony. But just by chance, I saw a little of L’Armée des ombres (1969) on TV recently, and I was stunned. Now I have to see all of Melville all over again: he’s definitely someone I underrated. What we have in common is that we both love the same period of American cinema – but not in the same way. I hung out with him a little in the late ’50s; he and I drove around Paris in his car one night. And he delivered a two-hour long monologue, which was fascinating. He really wanted to have disciples and become our “Godfather”: a misunderstanding that never amounted to anything.

The Secret Beyond the Door (Fritz Lang, 1948)

The poster for Secret Défense (1997) reminded us of Lang. Every once in a while during the shoot, I told myself that our film had a slim chance of resembling Lang. But I never set up a shot thinking of him or looking to imitate him. During the editing (which is when I really start to see the film), I saw that it was Hitchcock who had guided us through the writing (which I already knew) and Lang who guided us through the shooting: especially his last films, the ones where he leads the spectator in one direction before he pushes them in another completely different direction, in a very brutal, abrupt way. And then this Langian side of the film (if in fact there is one) is also due to Sandrine’s gravity.

The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

The most seductive one-shot in the history of movies. What can you say? It’s the greatest amateur film ever made.

Dragonwyck (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946)

I knew his name would come up sooner or later. So, I’m going to speak my peace at the risk of shocking a lot of people I respect, and maybe even pissing a lot of them off for good. His great films, like All About Eve (1950) or The Barefoot Contessa (1954), were very striking within the parameters of contemporary American cinema at the time they were made, but now I have no desire whatsoever to see them again. I was astonished when Juliet Berto and I saw All About Eve again 25 years ago at the Cinémathèque. I wanted her to see it for a project we were going to do together before Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974). Except for Marilyn Monroe, she hated every minute of it, and I had to admit that she was right: every intention was underlined in red, and it struck me as a film without a director! Mankiewicz was a great producer, a good scenarist and a masterful writer of dialogue, but for me he was never a director. His films are cut together any which way, the actors are always pushed towards caricature and they resist with only varying degrees of success. Here’s a good definition of mise en scène – it’s what’s lacking in the films of Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Whereas Preminger is a pure director. In his work, everything but the direction often disappears. It’s a shame that Dragonwyck wasn’t directed by Jacques Tourneur.

The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

It’s Chandler’s greatest novel, his strongest. I find the first version of the film – the one that’s about to be shown here – more coherent and “Hawksian” than the version that was fiddled with and came out in ’46. If you want to call Secret Défense a policier, it doesn’t bother me. It’s just that it’s a policier without any cops. I’m incapable of filming French cops, since I find them 100% un-photogenic. The only one who’s found a solution to this problem is Tavernier, in L.627 (1992) and the last quarter of L’Appât (1995). In those films, French cops actually exist, they have a reality distinct from the Duvivier/Clouzot “tradition” or all the American clichés. In that sense, Tavernier has really advanced beyond the rest of French cinema.

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

Of course we thought about it when we made Secret Défense, even if dramatically, our film is Vertigo in reverse. Splitting the character of Laure Marsac into Véronique/Ludivine solved all our scenario problems, and above all it allowed us to avoid a police interrogation scene. During the editing, I was struck by the “family resemblance” between the character of Walser and the ones played by Laurence Olivier in Rebecca (1940) and Cary Grant in Suspicion (1941). The source for each of these characters is Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, which brings us back to Tourneur, since I Walked with a Zombie (1943) is a remake of Jane Eyre.

I could never choose one film by Hitchcock; I’d have to take the whole oeuvre (Secret Défense could actually have been called Family Plot [1976]). But if I had to choose just one film, it would be Notorious (1946), because of Ingrid Bergman. You can see this imaginary love affair between Bergman and Hitchcock, with Cary Grant there to put things in relief. The final sequence might be the most perfect in film history, in the way that it resolves everything in three minutes – the love story, the family story and the espionage story, in a few magnificent, unforgettable shots.

Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1966)

When Sandrine and I first started talking – and, as usual, I didn’t know a thing about the film I wanted to make – Bernanos and Dostoyevsky came up. Dostoyevsky was a dead end because he was too Russian. But since there’s something very Bernanos-like about her as an actress in the first place, I started telling her my more or less precise memories of two of his novels: A Crime, which is completely unfilmable, and A Bad Dream, a novel that he kept tucked away in his drawer, in which someone commits a crime for someone else. In A Bad Dream, the journey of the murderess was described in even greater length and detail than Sandrine’s journey in Secret Défense.

It’s because of Bernanos that Mouchette is the Bresson film I like the least. Diary of a Country Priest (1950), on the other hand, is magnificent, even if Bresson left out the book’s sense of generosity and charity and made a film about pride and solitude. But in Mouchette, which is Bernanos’ most perfect book, Bresson keeps betraying him: everything is so relentlessly paltry, studied. Which doesn’t mean that Bresson isn’t an immense artist. I would place Trial of Joan of Arc (1962) right up there with Dreyer’s film. It burns just as brightly.

Under the Sun of Satan (Maurice Pialat, 1987)

Pialat is a great filmmaker – imperfect, but then who isn’t? I don’t mean it as a reproach. And he had the genius to invent Sandrine – archeologically speaking – for A nos amours (1983). But I would put Van Gogh (1991) and The House in the Woods (1971) above all his other films. Because there he succeeded in filming the happiness, no doubt imaginary, of the pre-WWI world. Although the tone is very different, it’s as beautiful as Renoir.

But I really believe that Bernanos is unfilmable. Diary of a Country Priest remains an exception. In Under the Sun of Satan, I like everything concerning Mouchette [Sandrine Bonnaire’s character], and Pialat acquits himself honorably. But it was insane to adapt the book in the first place since the core of the narrative, the encounter with Satan, happens at night – black night, absolute night. Only Duras could have filmed that.

Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1959)

I’m going to make more enemies…actually the same enemies, since the people who like Minnelli usually like Mankiewicz, too. Minnelli is regarded as a great director thanks to the slackening of the “politique des auteurs.” For François, Jean-Luc and me, the politique consisted of saying that there were only a few filmmakers who merited consideration as auteurs, in the same sense as Balzac or Molière. One play by Molière might be less good than another, but it is vital and exciting in relation to the entire oeuvre. This is true of Renoir, Hitchcock, Lang, Ford, Dreyer, Mizoguchi, Sirk, Ozu… But it��s not true of all filmmakers. Is it true of Minnelli, Walsh or Cukor? I don’t think so. They shot the scripts that the studio assigned them to, with varying levels of interest. Now, in the case of Preminger, where the direction is everything, the politique works. As for Walsh, whenever he was intensely interested in the story or the actors, he became an auteur – and in many other cases, he didn’t. In Minnelli’s case, he was meticulous with the sets, the spaces, the light…but how much did he work with the actors? I loved Some Came Running (1958) when it came out, just like everybody else, but when I saw it again ten years ago I was taken aback: three great actors and they’re working in a void, with no one watching them or listening to them from behind the camera.

Whereas with Sirk, everything is always filmed. No matter what the script, he’s always a real director. In Written On the Wind (1956), there’s that famous Universal staircase, and it’s a real character, just like the one in Secret Défense. I chose the house where we filmed because of the staircase. I think that’s where all dramatic loose ends come together, and also where they must resolve themselves.

That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977)

More than those of any other filmmaker, Buñuel’s films gain the most on re-viewing. Not only do they not wear thin, they become increasingly mysterious, stronger and more precise. I remember being completely astonished by one Buñuel film: if he hadn’t already stolen it, I would have loved to be able to call my new film The Exterminating Angel! François and I saw El when it came out and we loved it. We were really struck by its Hitchcockian side, although Buñuel’s obsessions and Hitchcock’s obsessions were definitely not the same. But they both had the balls to make films out of the obsessions that they carried around with them every day of their lives. Which is also what Pasolini, Mizoguchi and Fassbinder did.

The Marquise of O… (Eric Rohmer, 1976)

It’s very beautiful. Although I prefer the Rohmer films where he goes deep into emotional destitution, where it becomes the crux of the mise en scène, as in Summer, The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediathèque and in a film that I’d rank even higher, Rendez-vous in Paris (1995). The second episode is even more beautiful than the first, and I consider the third to be a kind of summit of French cinema. It had an added personal meaning for me because I saw it in relation to La Belle noiseuse (1991) – it’s an entirely different way of showing painting, in this case the way a painter looks at canvases. If I had to choose a key Rohmer film that summarized everything in his oeuvre, it would be The Aviator’s Wife (1980). In that film, you get all the science and the eminently ethical perversity of the Moral Tales and the rest of the Comedies and Proverbs, only with moments of infinite grace. It’s a film of absolute grace.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992)

I don’t own a television, which is why I couldn’t share Serge Daney’s passion for TV series. And I took a long time to appreciate Lynch. In fact, I didn’t really start until Blue Velvet (1986). With Isabella Rossellini’s apartment, Lynch succeeded in creating the creepiest set in the history of cinema. And Twin Peaks, the Film is the craziest film in the history of cinema. I have no idea what happened, I have no idea what I saw, all I know is that I left the theater floating six feet above the ground. Only the first part of Lost Highway (1996) is as great. After which you get the idea, and by the last section I was one step ahead of the film, although it remained a powerful experience right up to the end.

Nouvelle Vague (Jean-Luc Godard, 1990)

Definitely Jean-Luc’s most beautiful film of the last 15 years, and that raises the bar pretty high, because the other films aren’t anything to scoff at. But I don’t want to talk about it…it would get too personal.

Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)

Along with Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945), it was the key French film for our generation – François, Jean-Luc, Jacques Demy, myself. For me, it’s fundamental. I saw Beauty and the Beast in ’46 and then I read Cocteau’s shooting diary – a hair-raising shoot, which hit more snags than you can imagine. And eventually, I knew the diary by heart because I re-read it so many times. That’s how I discovered what I wanted to do with my life. Cocteau was responsible for my vocation as a filmmaker. I love all his films, even the less successful ones. He’s just so important, and he was really an auteur in every sense of the word.

Les Enfants terribles (Jean Cocteau, 1950)

A magnificent film. One night, right after I’d arrived in Paris, I was on my way home. And as I was going up rue Amsterdam around Place Clichy, I walked right into the filming of the snowball fight. I stepped onto the court of the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre and there was Cocteau directing the shoot. Melville wasn’t even there. Cocteau is someone who has made such a profound impression on me that there’s no doubt he’s influenced every one of my films. He’s a great poet, a great novelist, maybe not a great playwright – although I really love one of his plays, The Knights of the Round Table, which is not too well known. An astonishing piece, very autobiographical, about homosexuality and opium. Chéreau should stage it. You see Merlin as he puts Arthur’s castle under a bad charm, assisted by an invisible demon named Ginifer who appears in the guise of three different characters: it’s a metaphor for all forms of human dependence. In Secret Défense, the character of Laure Mersac probably has a little of Ginifer in her.

Cocteau is the one who, at the end of the ’40s, demonstrated in his writing exactly what you could do with faux raccords, that working in a 180-degree space could be great and that photographic unity was a joke: he gave these things a form and each of us took what he could from them.

Titanic (James Cameron, 1997)

I agree completely with what Jean-Luc said in this week’s Elle: it’s garbage. Cameron isn’t evil, he’s not an asshole like Spielberg. He wants to be the new De Mille. Unfortunately, he can’t direct his way out of a paper bag. On top of which the actress is awful, unwatchable, the most slovenly girl to appear on the screen in a long, long time. That’s why it’s been such a success with young girls, especially inhibited, slightly plump American girls who see the film over and over as if they were on a pilgrimage: they recognize themselves in her, and dream of falling into the arms of the gorgeous Leonardo.

Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen, 1997)

Wild Man Blues (1997) by Barbara Kopple helped me to overcome my problem with him, and to like him as a person. In Wild Man Blues, you really see that he’s completely honest, sincere and very open, like a 12-year old. He’s not always as ambitious as he could be, and he’s better on dishonesty than he is with feelings of warmth. But Deconstructing Harry is a breath of fresh air, a politically incorrect American film at long last. Whereas the last one was incredibly bad. He’s a good guy, and he’s definitely an auteur. Which is not to say that every film is an artistic success.

Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997)

I like it very much. But I still think that the great Asian directors are Japanese, despite the critical inflation of Asia in general and of Chinese directors in particular. I think they’re able and clever, maybe a little too able and a little too clever. For example, Hou Hsiao-hsien really irritates me, even though I liked the first two of his films that appeared in Paris. I find his work completely manufactured and sort of disagreeable, but very politically correct. The last one [Goodbye South, Goodbye, 1996] is so systematic that it somehow becomes interesting again but even so, I think it’s kind of a trick. Hou Hsiao-hsien and James Cameron, same problem. Whereas with Wong Kar-wai, I’ve had my ups and downs, but I found Happy Together incredibly touching. In that film, he’s a great director, and he’s taking risks. Chungking Express (1994) was his biggest success, but that was a film made on a break during shooting [of Ashes of Time, 1994], and pretty minor. But it’s always like that. Take Jane Campion: The Piano (1993) is the least of her four films, whereas The Portrait of a Lady (1996) is magnificent, and everybody spat on it. Same with Kitano: Fireworks (1997) is the least good of the three of his films to get a French release. But those are the rules of the game. After all, Renoir had his biggest success with Grand Illusion (1937).

Face/Off (John Woo, 1997)

I loathe it. But I thought A Better Tomorrow (1986) was awful, too. It’s stupid, shoddy and unpleasant. I saw Broken Arrow (1996) and didn’t think it was so bad, but that was just a studio film, where he was fulfilling the terms of his contract. But I find Face/Off disgusting, physically revolting, and pornographic.

Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)

His work is always very beautiful but the pleasure of discovery is now over. I wish that he would get out of his own universe for a while. I’d like to see something a little more surprising from him, which would really be welcome…God, what a meddler I am!

On Connaît la Chanson (Alain Resnais, 1997)

Resnais is one of the few indisputably great filmmakers, and sometimes that’s a burden for him. But this film is almost perfect, a full experience. Though for me, the great Resnais films remain, on the one hand, Hiroshima, mon amour (1959) and Muriel (1963), and on the other hand, Mélo (1986) and Smoking/No Smoking (1993).

Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)

What a disgrace, just a complete piece of shit! I liked his first film, The Seventh Continent (1989), very much, and then each one after that I liked less and less. This one is vile, not in the same way as John Woo, but those two really deserve each other – they should get married. And I never want to meet their children! It’s worse than Kubrick with A Clockwork Orange (1971), a film that I hate just as much, not for cinematic reasons but for moral ones. I remember when it came out, Jacques Demy was so shocked that it made him cry. Kubrick is a machine, a mutant, a Martian. He has no human feeling whatsoever. But it’s great when the machine films other machines, as in 2001 (1968).

Ossos (Pedro Costa, 1997)

I think it’s magnificent, I think that Costa is genuinely great. It’s beautiful and strong. Even if I had a hard time understanding the characters’ relationships with one another. Like with Casa de lava (1994), new enigmas reveal themselves with each new viewing.

The End of Violence (Wim Wenders, 1997)

Very touching. Even if, about halfway through, it starts to go around in circles and ends up on a sour note. Wenders often has script problems. He needs to commit himself to working with real writers again. Alice in the Cities (1974) and Wrong Move (1975) are great films – so is Paris, Texas (1984). And I’m sure the next one will be, too.

Live Flesh (Pedro Almodóvar, 1997)

Great, one of the most beautiful Almodóvars, and I love all of them. He’s a much more mysterious filmmaker than people realize. He doesn’t cheat or con the audience. He also has his Cocteau side, in the way that he plays with the phantasmagorical and the real.

Alien Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997)

I didn’t expect it as I was walking into the theater, but I was enraptured throughout the whole thing. Sigourney Weaver is wonderful, and what she does here really places her in the great tradition of expressionist cinema. It’s a purely plastic film, with a story that’s both minimal and incomprehensible. Nevertheless, it managed to scare the entire audience, while it also had some very moving moments. Basically, you’re given a single situation at the beginning, and the film consists of as many plastic and emotional variations of that situation as possible. It’s never stupid, it’s inventive, honest and frank. I have a feeling that the credit should go to Sigourney Weaver as much as it should to Jeunet.

Rien ne va plus (Claude Chabrol, 1997)

Another film that starts off well before falling apart halfway through. There’s a big script problem: Cluzet’s character isn’t really dealt with. It’s important to remember Hitchcock’s adage about making the villain as interesting as possible. But I’m anxious to see the next Chabrol film, especially since Sandrine will be in it.

Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 1997)

I’ve seen it twice and I like it a lot, but I prefer Showgirls (1995), one of the great American films of the last few years. It’s Verhoeven’s best American film and his most personal. In Starship Troopers, he uses various effects to help everything go down smoothly, but he’s totally exposed in Showgirls. It’s the American film that’s closest to his Dutch work. It has great sincerity, and the script is very honest, guileless. It’s so obvious that it was written by Verhoeven himself rather than Mr. Eszterhas, who is nothing. And that actress is amazing! Like every Verhoeven film, it’s very unpleasant: it’s about surviving in a world populated by assholes, and that’s his philosophy. Of all the recent American films that were set in Las Vegas, Showgirls was the only one that was real – take my word for it.I who have never set foot in the place!

Starship Troopers doesn’t mock the American military or the clichés of war – that’s just something Verhoeven says in interviews to appear politically correct. In fact, he loves clichés, and there’s a comic strip side to Verhoeven, very close to Lichtenstein. And his bugs are wonderful and very funny, so much better than Spielberg’s dinosaurs. I always defend Verhoeven, just as I’ve been defending Altman for the past twenty years. Altman failed with Prêt-à-Porter (1994) but at least he followed through with it, right up to an ending that capped the rock bottom nothingness that preceded it. He should have realized how uninteresting the fashion world was when he started to shoot, and he definitely should have understood it before he started shooting. He’s an uneven filmmaker but a passionate one. In the same way, I’ve defended Clint Eastwood since he started directing. I like all his films, even the jokey “family” films with that ridiculous monkey, the ones that everyone are trying to forget – they’re part of his oeuvre, too. In France, we forgive almost everything, but with Altman, who takes risks each time he makes a film, we forgive nothing. Whereas for Pollack, Frankenheimer, Schatzberg…risk doesn’t even exist for them. The films of Eastwood or Altman belong to them and no one else: you have to like them.

The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997)

I didn’t hate it, but I was more taken with La Femme Nikita (1990) and The Professional (1994). I can’t wait to see his Joan of Arc. Since no version of Joan of Arc has ever made money, including ours, I’m waiting to see if he drains all the cash out of Gaumont that they made with The Fifth Element. Of course it will be a very naive and childish film, but why not? Joan of Arc could easily work as a childish film (at Vaucouleurs, she was only 16 years old), the Orléans murals done by numbers. Personally, I prefer small, “realistic” settings to overblown sets done by numbers, but to each his own. Joan of Arc belongs to everyone (except Jean-Marie Le Pen), which is why I got to make my own version after Dreyer’s and Bresson’s. Besides, Besson is only one letter short of Bresson! He’s got the look, but he doesn’t have the ‘r.’

* * *

[queerforster]

we have a poster by our amazing publicity designer charli foreman ! it’s so surreal to actually see this project taking shape. we’re in talks to shoot a promo video, and we’re already selling tickets which is amazing ! if ur around the area, please come along if u can ! it feels so incredible to bring maurice back to cambridge

https://www.adctheatre.com/whats-on/play/maurice/

follow along on our journey in the tag /maurice+cambridge+2020

#maurice #e.m forster #cambridge #cambridge university #maurice 1987 #theatre #adc theatre #maurice cambridge 2020 #em forster #gay

[nuclearblastuk]

SOILWORK | TOUR RECAP AND STÅLFÅGEL LIVE CUT  After their insanely successful co-headlining tour with label mates AMORPHIS (18 sold out shows) in support of their globally acclaimed new record, 'Verkligheten' (album of the month in Metal Hammer, Rock Hard, Aardschok and Scream), Swedish visionary metallers SOILWORK have issued the following statement:   "'Verkligheten' has been out almost two months now and we keep getting amazed by the recognition it gets. We just finished off a successful EU tour with our friends in AMORPHIS, JINJER and NAILED TO OBSCURITY. Once again we want to thank everyone for attending our shows and making it memorable.  To sum up our journey through Europe, we chose to make a live video out of ‘Sålfågel’ as the crowd reaction, when playing it live, was just INSANE!!! 'Verkligheten' is a new era of SOILWORK and we are ready to take this journey with our fans. We cannot wait to get back on the road this summer and bring 'Verkligheten' to life again!!! See you all soon!!!" Watch the intense live video for the anthemic hit song here: https://youtu.be/EhgDVPeuDFM The clip was shot by Jörg Harms from Black Vision Films and mixed by Tommy Bertelsen and SOILWORK's Sylvain Coudret.

ICYMI 'Arrival' visualizer: https://youtu.be/nuItul-D0PA 'Stålfågel' music video: https://youtu.be/8-kcWrCX9rA Studio webisode #1: https://youtu.be/wc6BaYOI3h4 Studio webisode #2: https://youtu.be/9SRtzjDKnr0 Studio webisode #3: https://youtu.be/YtcATGBBHNs Album Trailer #1: https://youtu.be/8w0UdGCAY4Y Album Trailer #2: https://youtu.be/LUkqSGhEM3s Album Trailer #3: https://youtu.be/eB6Br1maU7w 'Verkligheten' is out now via Nuclear Blast. The first edition digipack, as well as the vinyl, also contain the exclusive 'Underworld' EP, carrying 4 more songs (see tracklist below). The digipack version also features special artwork with lavish foil print. The album as well as accompanying merchandise is available now in various formats (Deluxe Box-Set including Digipack CD, lanyard with lavish metal application (mock missing), metal pin, patch, sticker, signed photo card and poster, Digipack CD + T-Shirt bundle, Digipack CD, black vinyl as well as digital download/stream)  

'Verkligheten' album tracklist:

01. Verkligheten 02. Arrival 03. Bleeder Despoiler 04. Full Moon Shoals 05. The Nurturing Glance 06. When The Universe Spoke 07. Stålfågel 08. The Wolves Are Back In Town 09. Witan 10. The Ageless Whisper 11. Needles And Kin (feat. Tomi Joutsen/AMORPHIS) 12. You Aquiver  

'Underworld' Bonus EP tracklist:

13. Summerburned and Winterblown 14. In This Master's Tale 15. The Undying Eye 16. Needles And Kin (original version)

SOILWORK live 14. - 15.06. E        Zamora - Z! Live Rock Fest 19. - 22.06. FIN     Nummijärvi - Nummirock 03. - 06.07. D        Ballenstedt - Rockharz Open Air 07.07.         SRB    Novi Sad - Exit Fest 25.07.         SLO    Tolmin - MetalDays 26./27.07.   P         Vila Nova de Famalicão - Festival Laurus Nobilis Music Famalicão 01. - 04.08. RO      Rasnov - Rockstadt Extreme Fest 03.08.         F         Saint-Maurice-de-Gourdans - Sylak Open Air 06.08.         SK       Bratislava - Majestic Music Club (w/ HYPOCRISY, DOOMAS) 09./10.08.   B         Kortrijk - Alcatraz Metal Festival 11.08.         UK       Derby - Bloodstock Open Air 14.08.         D         Dinkelsbühl - Summer Breeze 16. - 18.08. F         St. Nolff - Motocultor Festival 22. - 24.08. D         Sulingen - Reload Festival 29.10.         SGP     Singapore - EBX Live Space (Ebenex) 31.10.         AUS     Brisbane - The Triffid 01.11.         AUS     Sydney - Manning Bar 02.11.         AUS     Melbourne - Max Watt’s 04.11.         JP        Osaka - Umeda amHall 05.11.         JP        Nagoya - Reny Limited 06.11.         JP        Tokyo - Shinjuku Blaze

 SOILWORK is:

Björn "Speed" Strid - vocals

David Andersson - guitars

Sven Karlsson - keyboards

Sylvain Coudret - guitars

Bastian Thusgaard - drums

www.soilwork.org | www.facebook.com/soilwork | www.nuclearblast.de/soilwork

#SOILWORK #AMORPHIS #Nuclear Blast

[sandboxworld]

They Came From Beyond Space

They Came From Beyond Space

Here is a movie with a great poster, but very little money for the film budget. It is based on the book “The Gods Hate Kansas” by Joseph Millard. The disc artwork is amazing but what is inside is quite the opposite. From 1967, the movie features Robert Hutton, Jennifer Jayne, Michael Gough, Zia Mohyeddin, Bernard Kay, and Maurice Good. It is directed by the legendary Freddie Francis who also…

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#Bernard Kay #Freddie Francis #Jennifer Jayne #Joseph Millard #Michael Gough #Robert Hutton #They Came From Beyond Space #Zia Mohyeddin

[petecaswell]

New Post has been published on https://petecaswell.co.uk/wp2/the-top-10-european-alpine-resorts-by-pete-caswell/

The Top 10 European Alpine Resorts by Pete Caswell

Top 10 European Alpine Ski Resorts and Snowboard Resorts. Its a hard call but someone has to do it and test them out. As part of my ski paintings work, if you can call it work, I have travelled to most of the main Alpine resorts in Europe and skied and boarded them at various times in my life. I first skied Norway at age 3, then Austria at 4 and then Flaine at 5 so I have been around a fair few places, the States and New Zealand too, and even skied the Yorkshire Dales with James Heriot and above the set of Withering Heights .

I am a pretty picky person when it comes to resorts. But one thing that doesn’t really go into the equation is nightlife for me. So other than a recommendation that if you want nightlife head to Austria where it is just great, then I will stick to the day time pleasures on offer; Lunches on the slopes, scenery, access, height, expanse, variety, challenges, snow and all that goes into an epic days skiing.

I can’t pin down a real perfect resort as so much depends on conditions and time of year,,,, but in the top running for me are Tignes / Val d’Isere, Verbier, Zermatt, Portes Du Soleil, 3 Valleys. These are the epic resorts you should all ski before you get too oland and are a good bet . This doesn’t mean to say that the others are not as good. In fact in the right conditions some others may be better, cheaper, and more fun. But these big resorts cover the widest rages of options and have more top end fun.

Morzine Ski Painting Ski Print and Ski Poster

My four top picks are Tignes / Val d’Isere and Verbier, Portes Du Soleil and 3 Valleys. Its hard to choose between these 3 resorts as they each have their own plus points and all are not to be missed.

Tignes and Val D’Isere in Espace Killy are one of my favourites. Its a great choice for early season skiing and a bit of early off piste action. Unlike a lot of resorts the off piste is ready here a lot earlier needing less snow cover. Its high and the Grande Motte Glacier is a super expanse of open space which can attract some wonderful snow conditions. When you reach the top of Grand Motte Glacier on the cable car you will see why I love this place, even in a snow storm this place rocks. Try a coffee at the top of the Funicular first to put you above cloud 9.

Nendaz Ski Painting

Its also pretty close to drive too from the UK. The pistes are varied with some real challenges on and off piste. The resort is pretty expansive and great fun to explore. The off piste is easy to access. Lift access from the resorts is pretty amazing and at 2000m you usually have snow to the back door. The only downsides are lack of wooded areas for those white out days, not much for the beginner and can get a bit busy early season when its the only place with snow….. and the typical French issues of crazy skiers, terrible coffee and food which is nearly edible, but really not that great. So self cater and take your own coffee machine with you in your back pack and that sorts out a lot of these worrying issues. The Sun Cafe in Val is a good stop for me. One of the small downsides to this area is getting there is not so easy from Geneva Airport, but it can be done by train or bus Bens Bus, or Alti Bus or better still hire a car. Other options include the Snow Train to Bourg Dt Maurice and then the local Alti Bus which is a different option or to Grenoble or Chambery and get the bus, Bens Bus, or Alti Bus or slightly more complicated the SNCF Train as you have to get to the train station.

Take a look at the Tignes Val D’Isere Piste Map just to see what a large ski area it is.

Val d’Isere Cafe ski painting

My second pick is Verbier in Switzerland or the Four Valleys . This choice is a bit of a conditional choice. If you have fresh power and are not there in peak season then this place is just epic. In fact it rides well above epic, its in the Heavenly region, with fluffy white clouds and angels floating around dropping star dust. You don’t believe me, but fresh powder in early December and at the top of Mt Fort on a narrow snowy ridge, with 2 cable cars worth of descent ahead of you into wide open powder bowls,,,, then tell me angels don’t exist.

Morzine Ski Painting

But you have to avoid the crazy prices which means trying not to stay in Verbier. Take a look at dare I say it Siviez, one of my favourites. Anyone of you would look at Siviez and spot 3 apartment blocks, one bar in a tent and a minute shop….. But then think about it and look at the piste map here as it has the most unbelievable off piste access you can get. Take a look at Siviez and imaging after a big snow dump…. who will get to the snow first Verbier or Siviez ? So when this place dumps you get these incredible off piste patrolled areas under Mt Fort and these are huge indeed and such a blast in the early morning after a dump. Huge big bowls of powder and from the top of Mt Fort to Siviez that is one amazing descent of free flowing powder junkies heaven on wood. There is a little bit of wood land for white out days but not a lot, and over in Verbier can get too busy. Coffee is still not great but maybe a little better than the French unless you have a bulging wallet and can afford a boutique mountain cafe. Again self cater and take the portable coffee machine up the slopes with you and that beats it. Outside of Verbier the apartment rentals are actually pretty reasonable. You can get there by train and bus easily from Geneva Airport. Also Alpy Bus for shared transfers Its just the food that gets a bit pricey, but in my last visit in 2019 I noticed the mountain restaurants had tamed their crazy prices and they were actually a bit cheaper.

Take a look at the Verbier, Nendaz, Siviez For Valleys Piste Map

Grand Massif Flaine Snowboard Painting

After these 2 resorts I have to put the next 3 in a kind of raffle for next prize. Why, because they all have something special but don’t quite tick the very top box, but they are pretty close to it and again sholdn’t be missed.

Portes Du Soleil, including Morzine, Avoriaz, Les Gets some beautiful small Swiss villages, Chatel, Champery, Montriond, Morgins Torgon, St-Jean-de Aulps, Abondance, La Chapelle d’ Abondance, Val-d’Illiez Les Crosets , Champoussin . This is a new entry onto my list. I have always discounted this place. Not challenging enough. Not enough good off piste options off the lift, and too low. But then I went there in a perfect week with lots of fresh snow and perfect conditions and it blew me away. While on paper it seems just as expansive as Tignes / Val and 3 Valleys it appeared to be a Tardis of a ski area and seemed never ending. Partly I am sure as it was my first trip, but it seemed to have lots of nooks and Crannies which went on forever and gave a real feeling of exploring a vast area of intricate villages. Take a look at the list of Beautiful Swiss villages in this ski area and you will see what I mean, this is quite some list of villages to ski betweenMorzine seemed to have a wonderful buzz about it for a French ski resort and Avoriaz was ok but being higher it had the better access to the mountains. So skiing being the trump card we stayed at Avoriaz, but my stomach would have quite liked Morzine. There were lots of friendly tasty cafes especially above Morzine and Les Gets which is not that common in these big French ski areas. At the top of the Swiss Wall there was an excellent cafe with great coffee, tea in large tea pots and smiling waiters. I think this was something to do with it being on the Swiss French Boarder line that somehow teleported it to a place outside of these 2 countries into an international zone where the food was weirdly good and the waiters oddly happy. The scenery over the Swiss wall was really epic, just stunning. Over at Morzine and Les Gets there was lots of tree line skiing for those snowy days. Very close to Geneva Airport makes this a really great choice with bus, Easy Bus and train options. SNCF Train to Cluses and then the local bus Alti Bus The only slight downs are no real epic top peaks to ski off, not really high for early season skis and not too challenging. But these are only very small downs in what is a great place.

take a look at the Portes Du Soeil Piste Map just to see how expansive it is.

Val d’Isere Ski Painting

More in the next installment next week. Follow me on Facebook to get to see the next instalment..

[artofthemovies]

It was wonderful to see movie poster legend Drew Struzan recognised as a 2020 Hall of Fame Inductee to the prestigious Society of Illustrators. Founded in 1901, its Hall of Fames includes Norman Rockwell, Maurice Sendak, Frank McCarthy, Frank Frazetta and Jack Davis. A truly illustrious crowd. To celebrate, here is one of our favourite Drew Struzan movie posters from 1991 for Steven Spielberg's magical fantasy comedy "Hook", based on the play and books of J.M. Barrie. Apparently the inspiration for the movie came from screenwriter Jim Hart's son who asked his father "What ever happened to Peter Pan?" The 'all-star' cast includes Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins and Maggie Smith in a tale set two generations after the original Peter Pan story. This absolutely amazing poster is one of the best of a golden period of movie poster illustration. Congratulations Drew! #artofthemovies #drewstruzan #hook #1990s #illustratedmovieposters #originalmovieposters #originalmovieposter #filmposter #filmposters #vintagemovieposters #movieposter #vintageposters #cinema #collectibles #vintage #poster #posters #film #art #films #interiordesign #homedecor #retro https://www.instagram.com/p/CGK0OdIlWbe/?igshid=14s93x4wguvpu

#artofthemovies #drewstruzan #hook #1990s #illustratedmovieposters #originalmovieposters #originalmovieposter #filmposter #filmposters #vintagemovieposters #movieposter #vintageposters #cinema #collectibles #vintage #poster #posters #film #art #films #interiordesign #homedecor #retro