Tag Archives: film

Jan 11 2012
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Remake that Fairy Tale

Is it just me or has there been a large influx of edgy remakes of fairy tales and/or Disney movies?

First there was Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland featuring Johnny Depp. I was so excited, maybe too excited; it sounded awesome but it did not quite meet my expectations.

Then there was Red Riding Hood with Amanda Seyfried produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Seyfried did okay but all the other acting was weak. It did have some nice imagery though. How can you go wrong with a blood red cape against a snowy white background?

I have not seen the movie but I saw a very creepy/cool trailer for a naughty Sleeping Beauty remake which may or may not have to do with child prostitution? Either way, I want to see it especially since Sleeping Beauty was always my favorite Disney movie. (I think this was because I loved the fairies. For anyone who knows it, Alicia was the green one because that was her favorite color, Jon was the red one for some reason, and inexplicably, I was the fat, complainy blue one.) Also, what a beautiful movie poster.

I recently saw a trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman with Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen and Kristen Stewart as Snow White. I am excited for it, it seems dark and a bit scary.

Unfortunately, I then saw a trailer for a different remake of Snow White (coming out within a few months of the movie above) called “Mirror Mirror” with Julia Roberts as the evil queen. I like Julia Roberts but her fake British accent in this sounds atrocious and the whole thing looks like a joke. They are obviously targeting a different audience with Shrek-like humor but it really looks awful. It even has one of the dwarves say, “Say hello to my little friend.”

I guess you can also argue the “Twilight” saga follows this same theme (or did they start it?) because of its age old vampire and werewolf themes, but this one’s more a stretch.

I do not consider myself a movie buff or anything so don’t take my comments too seriously, but why is there a need for remaking all of these fairy tales? I always think they look good and then I am disappointed. Is this inevitable because nothing can really live up to something I loved as a child? It forever holds a place in my brain and when someone tries to change it, it has to be really awesome to work. However I will keep going to these movies even if I do get disappointed because there is that glimmer of hope that it will give me that warm fuzzy feeling of enchantment.

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Dec 02 2011
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Any Ever by Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris last Sunday with my husband to see Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch’s exhibit called Any Ever. As soon as you enter the gallery, you know that you’re in for a different kind of museum experience. You enter a world that takes the rhythm of our materialistic, consumer- and career-obsessed US culture and blows it up to Olympic proportions. Out-of-control hyperbole ensues. Encouraged to take flash photography, you move from room to room with an increasing awareness that you are part of the project itself. Each room houses a video installation and a unique sculptural theater in which the viewer is invited to sit in any seat that is accompanied by headphones. You find yourself sitting on bleachers, bed frames, hammocks, picnic tables, and couches, surrounded by hodge-podgery of everyday life (cabinets, sand, chains, hammers to name a few) that make the rooms seem as if they are in the midst of being torn down…or maybe being put up in the first place. Reality is under construction.

My husband’s succinct take on the whole thing, “It was just so annoying.” Although he did enjoy the seating. My own impression on the videos fluctuated between hilarity and fear. The characters are so splintered, multiplied, disjointed, and looped that it is easily the biggest spoof of US mainstream culture and attitudes I’ve ever seen in my life. The characters own their phobias and mania and I’m pretty sure I’ve met versions of aspects of the characters in real life…and hated them/felt bad for them. As hyperbolic and loud (literally) the scenes were, they also weren’t so far from the truth. I heard on the radio today that over 50% of US television is made up of reality TV shows, and its cinéma vérité style is mimicked throughout the rooms. And we are obsessed with our careers! At least in Silicon Valley we are. We’re driven by money or by wanting to get rich and being a do-gooder at the same time. Every other schmo in the valley has his own startup, hoping to make a cool mill off some crap social media idea. Trust me, I study this for a living. So, this is where the “fear” feeling comes into play. I fear that these films are more of a mirror than we’d like to admit.

The New York Times has a great review of the show from when it was at MoMA PS1.

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