FEATURED POSTS

10 Questions with Shane Briant

The talented British' born actor Shane Briant made his screen debut in the Hammer horror film Demons of the Mind. Since then he's gone on to appear in over 60 films and television productions including Straight On Till Morning (1972), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973), The Mackintosh Man (1973), Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974), Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), The Naked Civil Servant (1975) and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981). Currently Briant is focusing his attention on writing fiction and he has recently completed a psychological thriller called Worst Nightmares that will be released May 12th. I've admired his film work for many years so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to ask Shane Briant a few questions about his early movies and current writing projects. READ MORE

THIS MONTH'S FEATURED POSTS

The Girl On a Motorcycle (1968)

The talented director and cinematographer Jack Cardiff has passed away at the age of 94. As the tributes start to roll out from various news sites and film blogs its become clear to me that most people regard Jack Cardiff as a great cinematographer and have little regard or knowledge of his directing contributions, which is a shame. Cardiff was a brilliant photographer and his groundbreaking contributions to cinematography are well worth celebrating. But his impressive work as a director on films like the wonderful D.H. Lawrence adaptation Sons and Lovers (1960), the entertaining spy thriller The Liquidator (1965), the excellent erotic drama The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) and the effective horror film The Mutations (1974) is also worthy of applause. READ MORE

THIS MONTH'S FEATURED POSTS

Favorite DVD Releases of 2008

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but overall 2008 was somewhat of a lackluster year for new Region 1 DVD releases of '60s and '70s era films when compared to the previous two years (See: 2006 and 2007). Some of my favorite DVD companies such as BCI Eclipse and most recently New Yorker Films have folded. Boutique DVD companies are releasing fewer products and what is being released is often of questionable quality. With the failing economy and the rise in popularity of Blu-ray discs, it seems like the number of new worthwhile DVD releases might continue to drop dramatically in 2009. READ MORE

THIS MONTH'S FEATURED POSTS

Resurrecting Yusaku Matsuda

Toru Murakawa's Resurrection of the Golden Wolf (aka Yomigaeru kinrô; 1979) is a wildly uneven Japanese crime film that left me wishing it had been helmed by another director. The film's script was adapted from a popular novel by Haruhiko Ooyabu and directors like Seijun Suzuki have had great success turning Ooyabu's hard-boiled fiction into films, but Toru Murakawa doesn't have Suzuki's eye for detail or his pop art sensibility. Resurrection of the Golden Wolf runs much too long and the dramatic filler weighs down the action, but even with its flaws the movie still keeps your attention thanks to the star performance of Yusaku Matsuda. READ MORE

THIS MONTH'S FEATURED POSTS

We Are Controlling Transmission

This year analog broadcasting is coming to an end. On June 12th 2009 television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch permanently to digital. Digital broadcasting promises to provide viewers with a sharper picture and more diverse programming options, but this unavoidable change is forcing millions of people to buy new television sets or opt for getting a converter box that will often cost them $40 or more. I feel for these people because I didn't have complete cable TV Access or a digital television myself until 2007. READ MORE

Modern Mondays: Bright Future (2003)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 29, 2009

Categories | Japanese Cinema, Modern Mondays, Tadanobu Asano

My regular readers may have noticed that my blog was impossible to access for 3 or 4 days. This was due to a major problem with the blog servers. They’re still ironing out the bugs so don’t be surprised if Cinebeats disappears again. Hopefully the problems will be worked out soon.

In the meantime, Modern Mondays has sort of snuck up on me. Since I’ve been unofficially counting down my favorite films of the last decade I thought I’d continue to do so with some shots from Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Bright Future (aka Akarui mirai; 2003). Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of my favorite Japanese directors at the moment and his chilling 1997 film Cure made my list of “31 films that give me the willies.” Bright Future is another one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s best films and it features a stunning low-key performance by Tadanobu Asano.

I didn’t have time to write anything substantial about the film, but here’s a bit of text borrowed from the Bright Future DVD box: “Friends Mamoru and Yuji are aimless young men stuck in dead-end jobs in a dreary factory in Tokyo. Mamoru, the more antisocial of the two, is obsessed with his pet project of acclimating a poisonous jellyfish to fresh water by gradually changing the water in its tank. One night, he inexplicably murders his boss’ family and is sentenced to death. Yuji, left to continue the jellyfish experiment, befriends Mamoru’s estranged father, and the two form a bond. But Yuji’s attachment to the jellyfish is even stronger, and problems arise when he accidentally releases the poisonous creature into the canals of Tokyo ”

Of course the film is so much more than that simple plot outline, which is why Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films have garnered a lot of praise in recent years. Much has been written about Bright Future already and if you’d like to read more about the film I highly recommend visiting Michael Guillen’s blog The Evening Class. During last year’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa Blogathon Michael put together a great collection of links to some of the best writing about Bright Future that’s available online.

More images from a film filled with stunning imagery. . .

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Goodbye Childhood

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 25, 2009

Categories | News, Rants & Raves, Television

Top: Farrah Fawcett Doll (Mego), The Jackson 5 Toon (Rankin/Bass)
Bottom: David Carradine Kung Fu Lunchbox and little me in the ’70s

Lately it feels like whatever remains of my childhood is slowly being flushed down the pop culture toilet. I couldn’t find the words for David Carradine’s death because I was deeply saddened by the news and everyone else in the world seemed to have something to say about it. As I’ve mentioned before, Kung Fu (1972-1975) was one of my favorite television shows when I was a kid, as was Charlie’s Angels (1976-1981) and the Rankin/Bass Jackson 5ive (1971-1973) cartoon. I saw some of these shows in reruns, but that didn’t lessen the impact they had on me. Like a lot of little preteen girls who grew up in the ’70s, I fondly remember that one of my first crushes was on a very young and incredibly cute Michael Jackson and for years I wanted to be a private detective thanks to the influence of Charlie’s Angels.

When I think about being a kid in the ’70s my memories are filled with Kung Fu lunchboxes, Charlie’s Angels’ dolls and Jackson Five records (or The Jacksons as they were called at the time) that my mom ordered from the Columbia Records mail-order club. David Carradine, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson were truly iconic figures of the ’70s (as well as the ’80s in Michael’s case) and thousands of writers will be eulogizing Michael Jackson for years to come. Whatever I have to say today really means nothing in the big scheme of things, but if you grew up with these people on your television, on your lunchboxes and in your toybox, they sort of take on an almost mythological status through the years that’s hard to explain. And yet, here I am trying to explain how their deaths make me feel, but frankly I can’t. It sort of feels like the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus all died within weeks of one another. This feeling isn’t helped by the fact that I recently experienced another death in my own family. June has been a cruel month.

I realize that the ’70s officially came to an end 30 years ago, but today it feels like they’re finally and forever over. At least for the little girl in me who still owns her original Farrah Fawcett doll.

. . . Earlier this year: Bob Wilkins 1932-2009

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Modern Mondays: Love Songs (2007)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 22, 2009

Categories | Movie Reviews, French Cinema, Musicals, Romance, Gay Interest

When I first mentioned that I was going to start “Modern Mondays” at Cinebeats I briefly discussed how much I liked musicals so I thought I’d share a few thoughts about the best musical I’ve seen in recent years, Love Songs (aka Les chansons d’amour; 2007).

Love Songs was directed by the talented French filmmaker and writer Christophe Honore (Ma mère; 2004, Dan Paris; 2006) and features an original musical score by composer Alex Beaupain. It also stars one of my favorite working actors, the incredibly handsome and charismatic Louis Garrel (The Dreamers; 2003, Regular Lovers; 2005, Dans Paris; 2006). The film tells a rather simple and bittersweet story about three young lovers living in Paris who are torn apart physically and emotionally after one of them unexpectedly dies. Romantic films featuring bisexual threesomes instead of typical “boy meets girl” couples are rare enough, but I’m pretty sure that Love Songs is one of the first full-length musical involving a ménage à trois.

The film’s unconventional take on love and loss is refreshing and beautifully handled by director Christophe Honore. In many ways Love Songs is the director’s love letter to French cinema from the ’60s. Fans of classic French films such as Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Francois Truffaut’s Jules and Jim (1962) and Jean-Luc Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman (1961) will easily spot their influence on Honore’s film, but like the nouvelle vague artists that he celebrates here, director Christophe Honore is clearly interested in breaking new ground. He sidesteps much of the ambiguity that was often a trademark of ’60s French cinema to unabashedly deal in honest human anguish, passion and desire.

Love Songs is a sentimental film and I appreciated its sweetness and romanticism, but it’s also a thoughtful meditation on loss and the painful grieving process that occurs after we loose someone we deeply care about. There’s nothing more agonizing than the sudden and unexpected death of a loved one and I think Love Songs greatest achievement besides it’s wonderful score, smart script and beautiful cinematography is the way in which it expertly conveys that overwhelming sense of unexplainable sorrow that can become paralyzing after you suffer a great loss.

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Remembering Yasuharu Hasebe (1932-2009)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 21, 2009

Categories | Movie Reviews, Directors, Japanese Cinema, Crime, Blogathons, Tokusatsu, Pinky Violence

Akira Kobayashi in Yasuharu Hasebe’s Black Tight Killers (1966)

While I was trying to compile a post for the Japanese Cinema Blogathon currently happening at Wildgrounds I read the news that one of my favorite Japanese directors, Yasuharu Hasebe, had died after contracting pneumonia on June 14th. Hasebe was 77 years old, but he was still an active director and his last project was the police drama The Case Files of Mamoru Yonezawa (Kanshiki: Yonezawa Mamoru no Jikenbo; 2009), which was released earlier this year.

After learning about Yasuharu Hasebe death I immediately decided to put aside my previous plans to write about one of my favorite Japanese actors (Akira Kobayashi) and focus on writing a bit about Hasebe’s films instead. In a sad coincidence, Akira Kobayashi also appeared in some of Hasebe’s best films.

Only a handful of the movies that Yasuharu Hasebe made are currently available on DVD in the US, but they showcase the work of a talented director who injected his action-packed dramas and violent pink films with pertinent social messages and lots of style. Although he’s not as revered as many of his contemporaries, Yasuharu Hasebe was able to masterfully navigate through the Japanese studio system while carving out his own distinct creative path. The director wrote or co-wrote many of his best films, which often touched on similar themes including female oppression and exploitation, as well as race relations and the American occupation of Japan. Yasuharu Hasebe’s films are frequently sited for their orchestrated action and extreme violence, but I think that many of them have maintained their power because of the director’s socially conscious scripts and keen sense of mise-en-scène.

Yasuharu Hasebe seemed to enjoy placing his camera in unexpected places and shooting his films in an intimate manner that is often surprisingly innovative. His frequent use of extreme close-ups and wide long shots is often breathtaking and although I’ve never seen it mentioned anywhere else, I firmly believe that the recurring visual motifs and framing techniques seen throughout many of Hasebe films mark his work with an individual flair that is undeniably his own. I wouldn’t hesitate to call Yasuharu Hasebe an “auteur” but I know that I’m in the minority. It’s important to point out as I’ve often done before, that western film criticism of Japanese cinema is still in its infancy and I suspect that Yasuharu Hasebe ’s films will receive much more critical attention and acclaim in the future as more critics and film scholars are exposed to his work.

Here’s a brief rundown of some of my favorite Yasuharu Hasebe films and television productions that are currently available on DVD in the US . . .

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Nevada Bound

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 12, 2009

Categories | News

Family aka the cast and crew of John Huston’s Nevada tale The Misfits (1961)

I’m off to the land of misfits and malcontents to see family for the next week. My partially functioning laptop is coming with me, but I won’t have much internet access so emails and blog comments will be answered when I return. Happy trails to you all! Until we meet again . . .

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Modern Mondays: The Left Bank (2008)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 8, 2009

Categories | Movie Reviews, Horror, Modern Mondays

Last year critics and horror fans showered praise on the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In aka Låt den rätte komma (2008). The attention was well deserved and I enjoyed seeing critics twist themselves up in knots trying to explain their enjoyment of a horror film. The genre is still incredibly misunderstood and this can partially be blamed on the glut of lackluster American horror films churned out year after year that manage to overshadow the more worthwhile horror films coming out of Europe right now. Thankfully cinema fantastique is still alive in well in countries like France and Belgium. You just have to dig a little deeper to find it.

While the world was becoming enamored with Let the Right One In, I was falling in love with another horror film called The Left Bank aka Linkeroever (2008). The Left Bank is the first full-length horror film made by the talented Belgian director and writer Pieter Van Hees who’s earlier efforts seem to suggest an interest in sports. It shouldn’t be too surprising then that The Left Bank also features an athletic protagonist named Marie in the form of charismatic newcomer Eline Kuppens.

In the film we’re introduced to Marie just as she is being forced to drop out of an important track competition after showing symptoms of an illness her doctor assumes is associated with stress and iron deficiency. The doctor orders Marie to rest, but that’s not an easy task for the energetic running enthusiast who also hoped that the competition would offer her an opportunity to escape the prying eyes of her overprotective mother.

Things begin to look up for Marie when she develops a romantic relationship with a handsome archer named Bobby (Matthias Schoenaerts). The young couple seems to be incredibly well-suited for one another and Marie soon decides to move in with Bobby who lives in an apartment on Antwerp’s Left Bank. The film does a wonderful job of capturing the passionate carefree days that occur early in a relationship when two people meet and fall head-over-heels for one another. Marie and Bobby rarely seem to leave their apartment and instead spend most of their waking hours making love and just enjoying each other’s company.

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Modern Mondays

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 2, 2009

Categories | News, Rants & Raves

Cinebeats was recently mentioned (along with fellow bloggers Forward to Yesterday and Self-Styled Siren) in a piece by Danny Leigh for The UK Gaurdian titled The View: Why we love being stuck in the past.

In Leigh’s extremely thoughtful and well-written piece he discusses how the DVD age has made it much easier for film enthusiasts to loose themselves in the many forgotten pleasures of the past and in turn, forsake modern cinema. As much as I’m deeply flattered to have Cinebeats mentioned in Leigh’s piece, the ideas that he explores in his article are somewhat problematic for someone like myself who isn’t afraid or ashamed to call herself a “cinephile.”

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Summer Blogathons

by Kimberly Lindbergs | May 29, 2009

Categories | News, Blogathons

The long hot lazy days of summer are upon us and the film blogosphere is turning up the heat with an interesting batch of blogathons. I really like the community spirit behind blogathons and they often encourage some great writing as well as an interesting exchange of ideas. If you enjoy writing about film and have your own blog please consider participating in some of these upcoming events.

The Japanese film blog Wildgrounds is hosting a Japanese Cinema Blogathon June 15-21. This is a wide reaching international event that encourages participation from film bloggers all over the world no matter what their native language happens to be. The idea behind the Japanese Cinema Blogathon is to unite Japanese film fans in an effort to “promote Japanese cinema” and “help readers discover films” that have often been overlooked. This is a subject that’s near and dear to my heart and I’m glad that Michael has made an effort to put this blogathon together. For more information please visit the link below:

- Japanese Cinema Blogathon June 15-21

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