Halloween is now over and so is Night Visions Maximum Halloween 3009. Hands down this was the best and most successful Night Visions in the history of the festival. This once again proves that people want to see all kinds of movies and they are willing to make the effort to go see them, even in the middle of the night.
The Zombies had a great time at the festival and here’s a little recap of what went on. The opening night was probably the most memorable for us, because we organized a Dead Snow Zombie Walk, with the help of Zombiewalk Helsinki, to take place before the screening of our favorite Nazi-zombie movie ever, Dead Snow. Although not too many zombies showed up, the ones that did were an awesome group of people. The screenwriter and actor, Stig Frode Henriksen, presented Dead Snow and also judged the zombie costume competition which Timo won! The opening night continued with the 25th anniversary of the amazing Finnish classic Yön Saalistajat. Matti “Reuna” Mäntylä was also present at the screening.
Read the full article about the screening of Dead Snow and Yön Saalistajat here.
On friday I went to see The Crispin Glover Experience! This was definitely the high point of the festival for me. Too bad if you missed it, because these kind of rare opportunities don’t come too often. But I do advice everyone to go see Glover’s show, if he ever comes to your town. I guarantee it will be a night to remember. We were also lucky to have lunch with mr. Glover the day before.
Read about our lunch with Crispin Glover here and the full article about The Cripsin Glover Experience here.
Night Visions had an amazing selection of films this year. The ones I was really looking forward of seeing were Richard Kelly’s new movie The Box and John Hillcoat’s depressing post-apocalyptic film The Road. I really enjoyed both of the films and I highly recommend them to everyone. Luckily both films can be seen in Finnish theaters later this year.
We had a blast at the festival and we will be eagerly anticipating next Night Visions and a another set of great movies.
We would once more like to thank Liisa Lehmusto, Mikko Aromaa and Kalle Kinnunen, and all the crew behind Night Visions. We are looking forward to continue our collaboration with upcoming festivals. Also a special thanks to our zombie expert Janne Tourunen for helping us with the Zombie Walk.
I have to admit that I was struggling with my words on this one, because how do you describe something that you had to see to believe? Yesterday I experienced something extraordinary at Night Visions Film Festival, The Crispin Glover Experience! It was indeed an experience, one that I won’t ever forget.
When I walked into the fully packed theatre, a weird circus music fills my head. It perfectly sets the mood to the show that’s about to begin. The Crispin Glover Experience! In the beginning we are instructed to turn of all technical equipment and no recording of any kind was permitted during the entire show. The lights go out and it gets totally dark and quiet. Suddenly a bright red spotlight hits Crispin Glover’s face. He welcomes us to the show and starts his performance. As soon as the first slide hits the screen, he is immediately in his element, reading passages from his books with a passionate drive. He goes trough about six books, that are just as absurd and surreal as the way he is presenting them. I loved this part of the show, especially parts from his books Concrete Inspection and Rat Catching.
When the hour-long slideshow ends, it’s time for the movie, part two of Glover’s IT-trilogy, It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. The movie is written by Glover’s friend, a CP-handicapped Steven C. Stewart who also plays the lead in the movie. It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE tells a story of Paul, a wheelchair-bound man who craves women with long hair. In his fantasies people are able to understand him verbally, women find him irresistible, and his is a legitimate threat to anyone who stands in his way.
I had seen the trailer before hand and I’m of course familiar with Glovers previous work, but I could not have imagined what was to be projected to the silver screen last night. I can say that some parts of the movie are not easy to watch to say the least, but that’s exactly why you should watch them. One of the most fascinating elements about the movie is the fact that Stewart wrote the movie specifically for himself. It made me think if he wrote the script just to be able to experience the things he probably wouldn’t have been able to to do any other way. Also I thought it was very interesting that you couldn’t understand a word that the protagonist was saying. Only way to know what he was saying, was to listen and watch how other people reacted to him, who did understand him perfectly. I’m still quite blown away about this and I don’t think I have ever witnessed anything quite like it. So the movie is definitely not short on originality.
Here’s the trailer for It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE so you get even some sense of what I’m talking about. But rest assured this movie needs to be seen in a theatre and with the director present. Trust me.
Right after the end credits had rolled mr. Glover came back on stage and asked the audience “So, is there any questions?” with a little grin on his face. He knew there were questions, he knew he had evoked thoughts. And ultimately that has always been his main goal with all his work. Glover talked very openly about his fears for traditional distributing, about financing the movie with money he’d made from Charlie’s Angels, and of course his relationship with the late Steven C. Stewart and how they came about to do the film together. The Q & A session lasted for about an hour, but I could have easily listened to it for much longer.
I encourage everyone to go see this show if you ever get a change. It was an experience like no other and it will definitely give you something to think about.
Also I would personally like to thank everyone at Night Visions for organizing The Crispin Glover Experience! This is one night I will remember for the rest of my life. And also a huge thanks to an idol of mine, mr. Crispin Glover, who not only gave me the movie experience of a life time, but also took the time to have lunch with and Timo the other day.
Yesterday we met with American film maker and actor Crispin Glover over lunch at a vegan restaurant Silvoplee. We ended up having a very interesting conversation about the future of collaborative film making, Internet distribution and of course Moon Nazis. The lunch was set to start at one, but after we passed the 45 minute mark and were still waiting in the restaurant, we started to get a bit worried. Was this going to be…
… The Invisible Crispin Glover Experience!
Well no. True that mr. Glover was a bit late (because his last interview ran longer than expected), but I was more than happy to wait and at two o’clock he arrived. To those of you who don’t know, Crispin Glover is “touring” with his one man show “The Crispin Glover Experience” and he will be performing tonight 7:00 pm at Maxim movie theatre in Helsinki. The show contains a screening of his film It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine!, a slide show, a Q & A session and a book signing.
You can read my full article about The Crispin Glover Experience here.
After a more or less formal start to our conversation, we begun talking about the future of collaborative film making and Internet distribution. Since Glover doesn’t sell his movies for commercial distribution, the only way to see his work is by attending his shows. Glover has some issues with the corporations in charge of distribution, and who can blame him. The moment you give your movie away to a traditional distributor, you are more or less bound to do as they say. You also loose all freedom of doing things your way and of course money-wise the distributor takes a big cut of the gross. Back in the day there were no other option to the traditional distribution model, but nowadays the Internet provides a market bigger that any other. Also when done right, it doesn’t cost a cent.
We told mr. Glover a little about ourselves and it seemed that after hearing the story of how Star Wreck was made by collaborating with the community and how it was distributed for free on the Internet, he became more open to the idea of Internet distribution. What we also discovered is that Glover has been looking for a new way of distributing his films, but felt strongly about still keeping the distribution to himself. He seemed very interested in all new possibilities of how to use the Internet and we were more than happy to give some advise.
After lunch I did some digging around in the net and found that Glover has been using the Internet quite well. He has his own website, but also a Facebook and Twitter account to promote his tour. This is more than I can say for most film makers. My only suggestion to mr. Glover would be to take it one step further. It would be great if there was also a tour blog and/or twitpics on Twitter. For example the director of Juno, Jason Reitman, (@JasonReitman) does this very well.
Timo with Crispin Glover
I’m going to see the show tonight and will be posting about it tomorrow. So stay tuned.
Here is the trailer for It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine! I think it is an understatement to say that the trailer speaks for itself. Wow!
It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine! is based on Glover’s friend, a CP-handicapped Steven C. Stewart’s manuscript. It’s about Stewart’s alter ego, permanently wheelchair-bound Paul, who craves women with long hair. It is “partly autobiographical, psycho-sexual, imaginative report on Stewart’s outlook on life”. The screening in Night Visions is a unique opportunity to see the film, because Glover doesn’t sell his work for commercial distribution, and doesn’t make DVDs. Glover even transports the print personally to each screening himself.
Here are some of my favorite Crispin Glover moments. What are yours?
“My career has been a mixture of having to make money and doing things I feel OK about. If I could just get a lobotomy, I’d be a lot better off.” – Crispin Hellion Glover
For more info visit the official site www.nightvisions.info
Visit Crispin Glover´s official site here.
If you’ve seen the movie 9 your head might be filled with unanswered questions and you might feel a bit confused. Don’t worry, that’s the proper and only way to feel. If you haven’t seen the movie, well then you’re probably better off…
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD (If you read on and I spoil the movie for you, it’s your own damn fault)!!!
9 is an animated fantasy adventure directed Shane Acker. It is the feature-length expansion of his Academy Award-nominated 2005 short film of the same name. The story is set in the near future when the world has come to an end after a war between men and machines (you know, like in Terminator basically). With the last breath of humanity a scientist makes 9 small creations to sustain life on earth before dying himself.
Here is the trailer…
… and also the 2005 short film, that the movie is based on.
So far so good, right? WRONG! The sorry excuse for a story doesn’t hold a candle to the amazing visuals (which is a damn shame). The story is wafer thin and so full of plot holes, that it makes the viewing experience a bit frustrating. Even the characters themselves seem to have a huge question mark imprinted in their facial expressions all trough the movie (with those round bug eyes). WHA WHA WHAAT???
The story starts when #9 is created (voiced by Elijah Wood). He start looking for answers and finds #2 (Martin Landau). Right after they meet, a horrible dog-like creature called the Beast attacks them and takes #2 away. From this point on #9 is obsessively driven to save him and everyone else. So here’s my first question.
1) Why #9 (the protagonist) does what he does? He starts off as this fragile and scared person, who suddenly transforms into a brave warrior. I can almost buy into the fact that he wants to save #2, because he saved #9′s life first. But when the story goes on it just doesn’t make much sense. Soon after, #9 finds #1 (Christopher Plummer), #8 (Fred Tatasciore), #6 (Crispin Glover) and #5 (John C. Reilly). He tries to get them to help #2, but #1 is against this because it would be too dangerous. Later on #9 discovers that #1 has send #2 out on purpose (to die), because he was old and was asking too many questions.
2) How the hell is #2 old, if he is not human and he was created just a short while ago? Did the scientist make him old on purpose or what? This doesn’t make any friggin’ sense. The timelines are all mixed up. Well anyway, #9 won’t take no for an answer and persuades #5 to go with him. #9 and #5 arrive to the old factory, where the Beast had taken #2, who they find alive. The Beast is there and they fight. Suddenly from thin air #7 (Jennifer Connelly) emerges and kills the Beast like it was nothing. Mind you that the Beast is supposedly the only machine left, and has been agonizing our creatures for a long time now.
3) So why is it suddenly so easy to kill the only threat they had?Why weren’t they able to do that before? Well there is no answer except deus ex machina. They kill the Beast and free #2. But in the middle of all this #9 inserts a small device that I call a thingamajig (which he found from the scientists study earlier) into the Great Machine.
4) Why the hell #9 inserts the thingamajig into the Great Machine? WHYYYY????!!!! This bit drove me crazy. It is just shown a few seconds ago that the Beast was trying to do the exact same thing. HELLO!!! Usually you do the opposite than the bad guys are doing! This brain fart of an idea of course awakens the Great Machine, that immediately starts building more machines. So now it’s 9 little rag dolls against hundreds of killer robots. This also raises the question:
5) Why wasn’t the Great Machine working before?Why wasn’t there any other robots left? I would understand if the war would have been fought a 100 years ago, but the human bodies laying around implicate that the war ended like a week ago. I just can’t wrap my brain around it. Well then…
6) Did the scientist have something to do with this? In the end of the movie it is revealed that it was the same scientist who had created the Great Machine. It is implicated (but not explained in any way) that maybe the scientist had taken the thingamajig out from the Machine, thus enabling it. Also when the Machine is awaken it kills #2 by sucking something that seems to be his life force (soul) out of him. Way to go #9! Because of you #2 is now dead and now you have hundreds of killer robots after you. I mean, what the f*ck were you thinking?!? At this point I had to ask myself…
7. Why did I go see this movie? Well, this I actually can answer. It’s simple. The movie had so much promise and potential. The visual world is great and Tim Burton is one of the producers. So why not, right? About that same time I was also wondering…
8. Why is #8 getting his rocks off with a magnet?I know this is not a plot hole or anything like that, it was just a bit weird.
9. What is up with that anti-climax ending?Before the movie is over, the Great Machine has killed three other creatures. No wrong in that, but it is clearly implicated that the life forces or souls of the creatures are trapped in the Machine and by destroying it, the souls can go free and the creatures can be brought back to life. But noooo. After the creatures get the thingamajig out of the Machine and destroy it, the souls just simply rise to the heavens with a very religious wibe. And then, it starts to rain…
Ok, my point is, the story leaves out so many things that you spend all of your time wondering and pondering, instead of concentrating on the movie.
So the bottom line is that the movie feels fast and unthought. Like there just wasn’t enough material to go on. The movie has great themes, that get lost in the mess. What you need to realize is that in the fantasy genre you can get away with anything if you just give you viewers the right instructions.
But truth be told, it’s not all bad. At times the movie is actually pretty decent. I loved the “steampunk”-styled visual world and the grim killer robots that the Great Machine created. Also the all-star voice cast was quite enjoyable (nothing special, but still enjoyable).
All and all I give the movie 2 1/2 stars. It could easily have been a four star movie, but the script just didn’t work.
