Agnes Varda's delicious Faces Places (Visages Villages) had a brief run in Zeitgeist, then two showings in the French Film Festival at the Prytania last month. It is available on Amazon download now, for purchase or rental. It is rewarding to see, a few times. Henry and Jonathan discuss the chemistry between Agnes Varda, with Godard the last of the Nouvelle Vague, and JR - a small woman of 89 years and an active, wiry guy of about 35. JR has a short, high, square van decorated as a giant lens equipped with a photo booth and a printer - I think they are called giclée - that makes poster prints about three feet by five feet that roll out through a  long slot in the side of the van. There is a lot more to this film than the photo van, of course, but making the process immediate and participatory, it catalyzes the interaction. The people are photographed in the booth or in outside scenes, the posters printed and the pasting up done almost immediately with the participation of the subjects and the village. Not just images, the photos are part of an event. Several of the Agnes Varda films mentioned in the Conversation are on Filmstruck: Murs Murs, Vagabond, Cleo from 5 to 7, La Pointe Courte and Le Bonheur. Filmstruck has 14 Varda films - so far. I learn a lot from Henry and Jonathan’s discussions, but to get the blend of simplicity and complexity in Faces Places - the visual and emotional charm and challenge of the places, the rapport of JR, who is about 35, and Agnes who is 89, their travels, projects and creative cooperation, somehow mixing successfully with visual and verbal reference to their own works and styles - try to see it.                 Download Episode! iTunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nolascape-is-talking/id1292354513?mt=2 ©NOLAscape 2018

NOLAscape is talking!

Faces Places (Visages Villages)

The recording of our Morvern Callar Conversation, published February 23, had some technical audio problems. We got reports that some listeners couldn't hear it. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Jonathan took it into the backroom where the secret software hides and gave it the treatment. We hope this works better. If you haven't seen Morvern Callar yet, Lynn Ramsay's engaging study/story of an inscrutable woman played by Samantha Morton, it is on Amazon, free to Prime subscribers. iTunes NOLAscape Conversations publish on Libsyn, They are also posted on iTunes, sometimes a day or two after they go up on Libsyn. The easiest ways to locate them there are enter NOLAscape in the iTunes search box, or go to the Podcasts section, then enter NOLAscape in the search. Download Episode!   (c) NOLAscape March 2018

Morvern Callar re-run

It's a busy day, with a council meeting and some special events, but I managed to get about 16 minutes of Nadine Ramsey's time to discuss some issues of interest.

CM and Candidate Nadine Ramsey - District C

A must-see, written, directed and produced by Samuel Fuller, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan and Gene Barry. If at first view it seems like a common-or-garden Western - watch it again, and listen to Henry and Jonathan work through it in this NOLAscape Conversation.

Forty Guns

Popeye - an inspired selection for our movies series. It’s hard to think of an aspect of the art of film that is not superb in Popeye: a great director on top form directing superb actors, the sets, colors, sound, songs . . .  but I should quiet down and let Henry and Jonathan tell you about it.

Popeye

Henry Griffin and Jonathan Freilich discuss In the Mood for Love, a visual and auditory delight that kept me on the edge of my seat waiting for something quiet that didn't happen. Wong Kar Wai takes hold of and manipulates your sense of expectation. If you haven't seen it, you should. If you have, see it again. 

In the Mood for Love

Henry Griffin and Jonathan Freilich discuss Tetro, a film Francis Ford Coppola released in 2009. An example of the intense perfectionism of Tetro is that the cinematographer, Mihai Malaimare, spent eight months in Buenos Aires working with films and video to get the tones and contrasts right to express Coppola's vision. Henry Griffin is a New Orleans based scriptwriter, script doctor, director and expert in all things movie, now professor at UNO. Jonathan Freilich is a multi-genre, multi-media musician and composer. He is founder, co-founder, leader or principal composer of, among others, The Naked Orchestra, The New Orleans Klezmer Allstars and 007. In one of his career tracks, he has composed for and sound-designed for videos and movies, and has taught the subject at NOCCA.   

Conversations 1.01: Tetro

Conversations about movies, politics, music, cities, history, life - cabbages and kings. New Orleans talking and listening.

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NOLAscape is talking!

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