I loved the documentary Catfish and judging from the recent trailer I have seen in theaters, am starting to get curious to see if they’ve changed it and given it some sort of mad re-edit. The film itself is sweet, charming, funny and touching with a somewhat heartbreaking and very surprising ending. However, it is NOT by any means anything like the Blair Witch Project type showdown they seem to be selling in the trailer. That said, pending any drastic changes to the original I saw a few months ago this is a really great film and worth seeing. It opens September 17th, the filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost are pictured above.
Stereolab has been creating amazing music since 1990. They have a new double vinyl album called ‘Not Music’ due out November 15 on Rough Trade Records. In the meantime singer Laetitia Sadier will release her first solo album, ‘The Trip’ on September 21, 2010 via Drag City.
Shirin Neshat is one of my favorite artists. I can’t remember where I first got introduced to her, I think it was at The Whitney Biennial in New York in 1998 and again at a museum in St.Petersburg Russia, both times with her video installation Rapture which blew me away. Ms. Neshat came to the US as a teenager from Qazvin, Iran and went on to study painting at the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned an MFA, emerging as a photographer and filmmaker in the late 90’s. Most recently she had a film at Sundance earlier this year called Women Without Men, which also won her the Silver Lion for best director at the 66th Venice Film Festival. The film is set against the backdrop of Iran’s August 1953 CIA-led,British backed coup d’etat that brought down the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah to power. ‘Women Without Men’ is an adaptation of Shahrnush Parsipur’s novel that chronicles the intertwining lives of four women during a four day period at a time that would change Iran forever. I tried several times to see it at Sundance but kept missing it so am still looking forward to it.
The new hardcover book by art critic and historian Arthur Danto explores all of the above in detail. SHIRIN NESHAT By Arthur Danto with a foreword by Marina Abramovic came out in May 2010 and is available from Rizzoli New York $75 www.rizzoliusa.com
This is one of my all time favorite films. It is pure painting on moving film and beautiful beyond words. The first time I saw Wong Kar Wai’s masterpiece In The Mood For Love I could not take my eyes off the screen, the long takes, the breathtaking airy pacing and the gorgeous silent dialogue that permeates throughout. I love love love this film. If you get a chance to see it on the big screen, run. It will change your life or at least your eye and aesthetic.
If you happen to be in Berlin check out Aaron Rose’s new show of paintings called TROUBLE at Circle Culture Gallery. Aaron is best known for his own Alleged Gallery in New York and later LA that first brought to attention artists like Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills and Shepard Fairy but he is an artist in his own right as well. He also curated the show and later directed a documentary of the same name, Beautiful Losers which came out two years ago and is SUCH a fantastic film. If you haven’t seen it yet you must. It’s the precursor to Exit Through The Gift Shop if you are interested in amazing art in general or street art in addition to Banksy who I am forever obsessed with, of course. The show runs September 9th thru 25th. www.circleculture-gallery.com
A while ago I was zigzaging through the shops on Abbot Kinney and stumbled upon this great book on Florence Broadhurst, an Australian designer, performance artist and all around amazing woman who is best known for creating beautiful wallpaper from her own designs (see above). She also led a pretty eccentric and fabulous life in the early Twentieth Century and the book, Florence Broadhurst, Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives by Helen O’Neill goes into all kinds of details about her and the whirlwind adventures she created for herself. I love getting introduced to someone like this out of the blue. I am sure she is not news to interior design fans the world over but for me this was a fun find. The book also has a red floral fabric cover and is full of all kinds of inspirational stuff.
Shoe darling Nicholas Kirkwood is collaborating with the Keith Haring Foundation to design a line of his sky high stilettos using the legendary late artists’ iconic 80’s pop creations. Mr. Haring, who is infamous for bringing street art to the world passed away in February of 1990. I heart this marriage of genius and talent and can’t wait for February 2011 when the shoes start hitting stores.
Zhang Yimou has a new film out. He has remade the Coen brothers’ classic Blood Simple. Enough said. One of the greatest filmmakers alive, his lengthy list of beautiful classics from the Chinese New Wave era gave new meaning to the word film. He was a former cinematographer so it makes sense that his films are like stretched out moving photographs. Raise The Red Lantern is still one of my all time favorite films. There are a few directors out there (Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Todd Haynes, Agnieszka Holland, Lars Von Trier, Wong Kar Wai) who never fail to produce something either profoundly beautiful, moving or at the least disturbing in an unforgetable way. Can’t wait to see this. A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop opens today!
