Things just ain't what they used to be. In my day etc etc.
A familar rant and one I am not immune to. However, in some cases it is immutably true and the cinematic world throws up plenty of exceptional examples.
Probably the star witness in any such case would be the improbably epic Fritz Lang film, Metropolis. Made in 1927 and featuring more than 38000 extras, this is the most expensive silent film ever made costing more than 5 million Reichsmark (not far off 1 million pounds, which considering that my grandma said that everything then cost a penny, is, officially, a fuckload). The special effects still resonate on any viewing as much as the plot still feels relevant and sharp and the original soundtrack featured the likes of Richards Wagner and Strauss.
I am therefore extremely excited to reveal that Metropolis will be given a cinematic re-release in the UK on the 10th September and be featuring a full 25 minutes of lost footage thus making it the film in totality that Fritz Lang always intended!
If you haven't seen this film already then whet your appetite with the trailer that is available here and be prepared to have improved your life a notch. If you have, then you will all know what I am making such a fuss about.
If ever the word spectacular could be applied to a moviefilm, then Metropolis would be at the head of the rowdy queue.
Ah, London's East End. Culturally and historically one of the most interesting, vibrant and diverse bits of Europe and many of us are fortunate enough to call this our home.
I am constantly reminded of this fact by the sheer amount of opportunities and new avenues to explore that pop all around us. Just when I thought I had my finger on the pulse, another previously unknown and untapped vein ruptures in my face.
Just such a spurt, is the East End Film Festival which has previously avoided my gaze and looks to be a veritable treasure trove of cinematic delights. A showcase for new stars pushing through and homegrown, independent releases, films will be shown, events will happen and music will be played all round some of East London's institutions including The Genesis in Mile End, The Rio in Dalston, Spitalfields Market and The Whitechapel Gallery.
Also taking in some of the shinier venues including Rich Mix and Vibe Gallery, this aims to be a forum and exposure for those who have created and an inspiration to those who aspire to and all within walking distance of many of our doorsteps.
Having made a brief allusion to this in a previous post I thought I'd fully big this up now that more details have been released about it. Drum roll please....................The East Festival!
This is a six-day event that celebrates, promotes and educates about the creative, multi-cultural, diverse jumble that is East London.
There are two filmic events this month, one that fulfills an oft-held desire and the other which is particularly close to my heart, being as it stars a friend of mine.
First up, UCL are hosting a rare showing of the original 1916 film of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. A groundbreaking film at the time that wowed crowds with it's special effects and underwater shots, you will also have the opportunity afterwards for a complimentary glass of wine and a meander round the museum.
Starring the glamourous and lovely Rachel Stubbings, Can We Talk was nominated for the recent Sundance Film Festival and has been going great guns on the short film circuit.
11 minutes full of sexually-charged comedy, brutal honesty and painful laughs it is fully deserving of it's nomination to Sundance and the Shooting People's award for film of the month.
So. It’s January. You’re back at work with memories of the festive period as fresh in the mind as the bastard behind the eyes still lingering this morning.
Fear not though. We live in a city that continually offers the plink-plonk-fizz of the Alka-seltzer of cultural remedy and, even as the first solar flare pierces the horizon of 2010, opportunity abounds.
Let’s start with the old-old-school.
The British Museum is playing host to an epic exhibition on the Aztec ruler Moctezuma, whose name roughly translates as “he who is angry in a noble manner”. Ultimately, he was the fall guy to the Spanish invasion but the legacy of the Aztec’s ritual and architecture is revealed in exhibits being seen in the UK for the first time ever.
As I know you all enjoy getting your own hands dirty, to tie in with this, the British Museum is hosting two one-day Mexican sculpture workshops with the ceramic artist Tiburcio Soteno.
These will take place on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th January from 11:00 – 17:00 and cost £30 or £20 for concessions. Very limited places so book soonest.
The Host Gallery is, well, playing host to an affecting show from photographer Rena Effendi.
In her first UK exhibition, her images highlight and explore the lives of those living on and affected by the 1700km long BTC pipeline that flows through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
Tuesday 12th January also sees the gallery as the setting for an evening conversation with the artist herself.
FREE
Flipping over to the contemporary, place-to-be Berlin art scene, SilberkuppeRooms Without Walls take over the Hayward Gallery Project Space with their exhibition. Usually an independent contemporary art space in Berlin, the group use this opportunity to reflect on the collective cultural scene in the two decades since the fall of the Wall through the medium of pop and art.
FREE
In the main Hayward Gallery, in a slightly less free exhibition is a 50 year retrospective of Ed Ruscha, an important figure in both the pop-art and beat movements.
Tickets are a tenner although there is a sneaky little two-for-one offer here.
Sticking with the Southbank Centre, that loveable scamp and one man vocal orchestra, Shlomo is still Artist in Residence.
Working with one of the most exciting UK composing talents, Anna Meredith, Shlomo will be performing the Concerto alongside a full orchestra made up of parts from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment and Philharmonia Orchestra.
Tickets are £20 or £10 for concessions
On the gig front, as usual, there is a veritable smorgasbord (love that word!) of aural delights to partake in…here is a little selection to swill around before deciding whether to spit or swallow…
Moving swiftly on to that bastion of trendy noisecore bands and fine film, the ICA, there are a couple of interesting celluloid additions.
That doyen of eclecticism, Jim Jarmusch, has a new release, The Limits of Control, and he of Being John Malkovich fame, Jon Malkovich takles JM Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel in Disgrace.
Another new cinematic release that has been hotly anticipated, not least in my household, is the Ian Dury biopic, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Starring the much underrated Andy Serkis in the lead role, this opens in cinemas this weekend including at The Barbican, Screen on the Green and The Ritzy.
A late recommendation, and I have it on very good authority that the new Mexican film Voy A Explotar (I'm Gonna Explode) is a bit of a cracker. I think it only prudent to take the advice of a source as reliable as this. Showing at The Barbican, tonight at The Ritzy and at The Renoir.
January also strikes me as an excellently apt month to remind oneself of the experience of Waiting For Godot and we are blessed to be able to have the opportunity to see one of the finest actors around leading this. Magneto. Sorry, my bad, I meant Gandalf, of course.
Running from the 21st January for 11 weeks.
In other more cosy theatrical surroundings, the Arcola Theatre is running a mini German season featuring their new production Innocence showing from the 6thth January. There are the usual pay-what-you-can evenings on Tuesdays but also the opportunity, should you be young and fresh-faced enough (alas!), for a FREE ticket… – 30
Alongside this, between the 10th and 17th Jan, the Arcola Bar will be turned into a 1989 Berlin bar for an interactive recreation of the night the wall fell and the 15th and 16th will play host an evening of Kurt Tucholsky music, a satirist, writer, poet and cabaret singer of the Weimar Republic. These are both FREE.
Given my penchant for musical obsession and geekery, I am taking the liberty of including a segment with my current soundtrack to life.
Naturally, you also have the liberty of ignoring this but I can assure you that, as anyone who knows me can attest, I have impeccable taste in music… ;)
Fever Ray – Fever Ray. The new solo project from Karin Dreijer Andersson of famously reclusive sibling electro duo The Knife. Dark, haunting and mesmeric. Get yourself lost in this.
Birds Demo – Kuryakin. Little known Swedish duo making beautiful music by exchanging samples through the post. It’s all about the Scandinavians…
Snowdonia EP – Mechanical Owl. This falls under that unfortunate moniker of ‘folktronica’. Despite that happenstance, this veers between tender indie and cultured electronica. With a bit of Stuart Murdoch-style storytelling thrown in for good measure.
Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know – Múm. One of my favouritebands, ever. Consistently innovative, always beautiful, defiantly intricate. Their new album hits the heights again after the only very good, rather than brilliant, Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy. In case of emergency of never having heard Múm, follow these simple instructions.
Stop whatever it is you are doing right now.
Use Spotify to immediately fill this gaping hole in your life
Go out and buy this album to satisfy those long-term cravings.
And relax.
Cymande – Cymande. Depending on your musical leanings Cymande are either a band you worship or a band you have never heard of. A band from Birmingham making Rastafarian-influenced funk doesn’t immediately sound promising but even on the first listen to this album, subsequent artists who have begged, borrowed or stolen from them start to pile up in your head, from A Tribe Called Quest to The Fugees to DJ Yoda. Impossibly tight.
Although not on this album, to really put a bounce in your stride, and the roll into your stroll check out Brothers On The Slide. Fuck yeah…
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