Our friends at Grolsch Film Works have a website where you can find out what they’ve been up to and read/watch interesting stuff about films. Every week we’ll be plucking the highlights. This is that.
WHEN TV SHOWS BECOME MOVIES
Being a massive fan of Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge from his introduction on BBC Radio Four’s On the Hour, through Knowing, Me Knowing You and the near-perfect I’m Alan Partridge, the news that this sublime comic creation was to be made into a film didn’t really excite me greatly. Films made as a result of TV shows often feel rushed and seem to be made only to appease fans of the original series without bringing the depth and scale required for them to work as feature films.
With Alan’s latest outing Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa in mind, it’s time for a run-down of the most notable films borne from TV shows. Apologies for anyone hoping to see The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation, Sabrina Goes to Rome and Hannah Montana: The Movie – these titles only narrowly missed the cut, great though they are.
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WATCH WERNER HERZOG’S DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE DANGERS OF TEXTING WHILE DRIVING
The legendary Werner Herzog‘s latest documentary,From One Second to the Next, has been released on YouTube – hooray for YouTube!
The 35-minute documentary, commissioned by AT&T as part of a public awareness campaign, is about the dangers of texting while driving and the harrowing outcomes – here told from the perspective of the victims’ families as well as the drivers – when things do go wrong. It’s compelling, heartbreaking and a seemingly new direction for the director, whose most similar documentary is probably Into The Abyss, which explores capital punishment in Texas through conversations with an inmate on death row.
TEN FICTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
Last week, we compiled a list of some of the greatest photography documentaries available to watch online for free. Inevitably this made us think about cinema and the various screen incarnations of the photographer. Whether riffing on the clichés of the recluse-type (High Art) or the fearless photojournalists in war-torn countries (Under Fire, The Year of Living Dangerously), the majority of movies portray photographers as crazy obsessives.
Celebrating fictional photographers in films, we’ve picked ten of our favourites. But how about you? Do you have a favourite fictional photographer? Let us know in the comments below.
WATCH SPIKE JONZE’S ‘HER’ TRAILER
We really have been waiting with bated breath for this one. Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) is back with a seemingly uncharacteristic sci-fi movie entitled Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Amy Adams.
The story follows a lonely writer (Phoenix, sporting an incredible ‘tache) who develops an unlikely relationship with his newly-purchased operating system that’s designed to meet his every need. HAL-esque? Possibly.
SHANE CARRUTH ON UPSTREAM COLOUR
Since its debut at Sundance Film Festival in January, Shane Carruth’s Upstream Colour (the long-awaited follow-up to his brilliant 2004 debut Primer) has attained near-immediate cult status. A nearly unclassifiable and deeply immersive blend of stunning visuals, philosophical musings and keenly-felt romance, it stars Amy Seimetz as Kris, a young woman whose life is irrevocably altered by a complex parasite which likely has its origins in a mysterious pig farm operated by a field recordist entitled ‘The Sampler’. (We said it was nearly unclassifiable!)
Keep your peepers peeled for more Grolsch Film Works updates next week. Go to grolschfilmworks.com to see what’s happening right now.
