NEW BLOG!

This blog doesn't exist anymore. I've moved to LA, and you can follow my adventures on:

www.unfrancaisahollywood.com

Thank you.

Huge XKCD post this week.

As much as I hate posting stuff from other blogs without any added value on my part, this is too huge to pass:

Janet Jackson's right boob, brought to you free of charge by CBS

Some good news, courtesy of the good folks at tvwatch.com.
A court decision has thrown out the $550.000 fine that was imposed on CBS for broadcasting the famous 2004 super bowl incident.

Good, you all know how pissed I am when I hear how much people feel insulted by the sight of a woman's nipple, but can watch murders, rapes, and other crimes in prime time without being so much as tingled.

The best part in this ruling? 'The court said the FCC acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" when they handed out the fine.'

Well that's just swell, ain't it? Our governing bodies' judgments are now officially "arbitrary and capricious". When we'll realize it's not only the FCC (that handles "only" media things), but also the FEMA, the government, congress, etc. - then maybe we'll get somewhere: the lowest point in US history, and then the only way is up.

The Dark Knight Breaks All Records!

Well, "The Dark Knight", Christopher Nolan's latest Batman film with Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, opened this Friday, July 19th, 2008, and is on its to way to breaking all records.

On its first day, it took more than 66 million dollars, breaking three records:
- Best Opening Day
- Best Day
- Best Friday

All three records were held by Spiderman 3, with 60 millions dollars when it opened last year. That's a 10% improvement.

Next step for "The Dark Knight": Best Saturday (Spidey 3: 51 million), Best Sunday (Spidey 3: 40 million), and of course, Best opening week-end (spiderman 3: 151 million).

Stay tuned, I will keep you informed, right here!

**************UPDATE****************

The first estimations are in: "The Dark Knight" takes 155 million dollars in its opening week-end, and breaks Spiderman 3's record.

More as soon as official numbers are in.

**************************************



As for the movie, I thought it was fantastic. although maybe not as well constructed as Batman Begins, and maybe not as riveting.

But most of all, everything that was said about Heath Ledger's performance is true. And not just because of the aura due to his death. His performance is out of this world, and in a few days, everybody will have forgotten who Jack Nicholson is.

An Appreciation of Wall-E

Well here it is, finally, an appreciation of Wall-E.
Why an appreciation, you ask, and not a review?

I don't like the term review. Certainly, you can't review everything about a movie - and it would be a waste of time to try anyway. What's interesting in so-called reviews? For the guy who writes it, to share his thoughts, whether good, bad, or both. For whoever reads it, to learn a little bit about the movie, get a sense of what it's about, what it feels like. Decide to go see it or not.

So, no review for me. Most often than not, "important magazines" journalists write a review as an excuse for some pseudo-intellectual, look-at-the-words-I-m-using, mumble jumble that makes sense only to them.

I'm not here to show you how well I write, I'm here to tell you about a movie. An appreciation, then, might be a big word, but it is what it's about. It's bullet points and short sentences. It's an absence of coherence or construction in the text. Let's face it, when you read the latest New York Times review, you skipped all the crap and looked directly for words like "Good", "Bad" or "So-so". And most likely than not, you didn't find them. Ok, let's get to work. And if I do sound intellectual somewhere in the text below, or if one of my paragraph is actually syntax-ly correct, you'll have to excuse me. I didn't mean to, I swear!

- Wall-E, in one word, is a masterpiece.

- I've always had the greatest admiration for Pixar. It's not the quality of the animation (although of course, it's as good as it gets), or the concentrated creativity, it's first and foremost the smartness of the screenplay.
It's in the details, in the true-ring there is to the stories and behaviors. Watching a Pixar movie is like listening to a Beatles song: even though you're not a robot, a fish, or a Liverpool rock-star, you know exactly what it's about. Hell yeah, all I need is love! My god, how that little fish (Chico? Bingo?) looks lost without his daddy.
And with Wall-E, thanks to director Andrew Stanton and his team, Pixar has reached new heights in the expression of their genius.

- Wall-E, more than any other Pixar, is not a kiddie-movie: it's an artsy-movie. So be warned, the first hour is entirely silent (except for a few computer noises the robots emit). It's about the landscape, it's about what this little robot shares, the way he moves, bips, and what he does. Wall-E is a robot with a personality, alone on a deserted, trash-filled Earth. Then of course, the She-robot arrives (although how "She" can a robot really be?), and the flirting starts. For a robot, you have to assume flirting is as far as it can go. And so holding hands becomes the one and only climax Wall-E has to look forward to.

- This first hour is what annoyed the few people who didn't like the movie. I'm sorry for them. It shows a lack of sensitivity, sensibility... really, it shows a lack of sense altogether. Check those eyes and ears, fellows, they're probably deficient (and if they're not... sorry, you're gonna have to replace the motherboard).

-A lot of people have said that first hour is very much like a Chaplin. I find there's a lot of Buster Keaton, as well, but I will be bold enough to say this has touched me more than a Chaplin. As beautiful and poetic as Chaplin can be, I have never been touched on a personal level by him. His candor, his walk, the twitching of his mustache, those are all expressions of a different era, when seduction was, really, very quiet and silent. God knows this has changed (for better or for worse, please debate), and Wall-E is, in fact, so much more modern. The mood-swings of Eve, a liberated female if I have ever seen one (sorry, can't bring myself to call her woman), the pride of Wall-E showing off his belongings: in every way, Pixar has managed to make today's often violent love games poetic again.

- The second part of Wall-E is extremely different. Wall-E and Eve gain the spaceship cruiser where the few humans still alive (all of them fat and obedient), and they combine forces to bring humanity back to Earth, where it really belongs.
I wish this part was as contemplative and poetic as the first, but of course, that would be impossible. It is, however, still good on average, with some great, and some not so much. A pursuit or two annoyed me a little, but it's nothing worth mentioning for too long.

- If the first part was about art, the second one is about message. There is the ecological one, of course, and then the machine bit. I've heard here and there that Wall-E, like iRobot, is about a battle between humans and machines trying to take over. I think it is, in fact, very different. In Wall-E, "Auto", the auto-pilot, tries to accomplish not his own will, but a directive given to him 700 years earlier by another human. A fight between the ship captain and his new will to live (not just survive), and the old CEO of Earth who had given up.

- It is therefore a battle between men of different times, through a machine. It seemed to me at first, than in this movie, unlike iRobot, it is the men who evolve, and the machines who stay the same. Then I remembered that the hero, of couse, is Wall-E, a robot who changed. Then maybe the difference between humans and robots is not as clear.
Maybe the humans are those with feelings (that is, humanity): Wall-E, the captain. The robots, then, are those who do not change, who have either lost hope or know only to obey: the CEO, Auto.
During the movie, the rest of the... living-beings... make their way, from robots to humans. Then comes their redemption.


- OK, let's talk about "2001, a Space Odyssey". Come on, you know we have to! The homage to 2001 is more than obvious in Wall-E, whether it's the captain struggling to stand on its hind legs (as the monkeys did once upon a time), or "Also Sprach Zarathustra", the Strauss made famous in the Kubrick classic that blasts in this scene.

- Then the Man and Machin battle we just refered to, was also central in 2001. But most of all, Wall-E and 2001 share a common theme, and that theme is "The Childhood of Humanity". I do not pretend to understand everything about 2001, but I know it is, partly, about how Man became Man, and why today's society is still the fetus of something else, to come. Wall-E deals with the same issue, which is made obvious by the fantastic closing credits. Those fat, crippled Men, are just like kids: they need to be led and can not think for themselves. The journey that brings them home, to Earth, is how they grow up.

- I was bold before, when saying Wall-E was a modern, and more touching Chaplin. I will be daredevil now, when saying it's an other 2001. I will not deny how infinitely more artistic 2001 was, how complex, how revolutionary. But the complexity makes it also less affordable, in a way, to the greater part of movie-goers. Wall-E brings us one, if not all, of the themes of 2001, in a way we can all understand. Wall-E is 2001 for the rest of us.

Destination LA, Part 1

Well, I've decided to share a little bit about my job search here on the blog. The experiences are fun (sometimes) and time-consuming (always). Maybe it'll give some of you an insight into the Entertainment world. Or someone can benefit from my experience. I might sound like those "I had cereal for breakfast" guys, but in any case, here it is.

As some of you know, I'm a producer in NY. I've worked mainly on documentaries, short videos, and made-for-the internet videos (no, it doesn't mean youtube. it's serious stuff, fellows). But I've always wanted to work in movies, so here I am, looking for the next opportunity, as an "Assistant to the producer". Yep, you always have to start as an assistant in this business, even when you have 3 years of experience behind you.

I'd love to find a job in New York, but there are so many opportunities in Los Angeles (or so they say), I have to check it out. I've never been there, so I'm planning a trip, July 22nd to 27th. To get a sense for the city. Meet some folks. Maybe land an interview... We'll see. I like walking, I like taking the subway, but then I also have a driver's license. So I gotta try, don't I?

For the first few post, I'll focus on that trip. I've spent the last 3 or 4 days on google maps, looking at the LA geography. Yep, it's a damn big city.

Today I've called some big studios. Disney, Warner Bros, Castle Rock, Amblin. It's funny how some people all over the world dream about those names, but it only takes a phone call and you can find yourself conversing with some guy (or girl) in an office over there.

Actually, I should say "being rejected". Try saying "Can I be transfered to the HR department?" and see it (hear it) happen. Those guys are well trained. "You can apply on our website". Riiiight. You can also put your resume in a bottle and let it sail the Amazon. You'll have more chances to get a call back.

I also called an agent I know, see who he knows. Waiting for a call back.

My best find of the day is Pixar. I've been wanting for 10 days to post about Wall-E, their recent masterpiece, but it's so great I find myself incapable of approaching it here. Go see it, that's all I'm saying.

So I applied to a "Development Associate" position, on their website, and followed up with a call to see if someone would pick up the bottle. Well what do you know, I got to talk to the person in charge of recruiting for the position. Introduced myself, was told I'd be given a call back if they're interested in a few weeks. At least they got my name down.

So here's the thought of the day: the best companies treat their prospective employees best.
It's funny: when looking for a job in news, I only get through, and called back, from CNN. Not from Fox News, not from ABC, NBC, or CBS News. Only CNN.
In movies, from Pixar. So yeah, there is a relation between doing good work and being good people. What do you know?!

I'll try to post regularly. If there's nothing, you'll know I spent the day naping in Central Park instead of working.

Death of a Nation

Ante-Scriptum: The following comments have been exaggerated to make a point. Although I don't love France, I don't pray for an English invasion. Not every day.

I've never tried to hide the fact that I detest France. I hate the French attitude. I despise French people. Should I remind you? I'm French...
I was born in Paris, and sure, I respect its long history. I recognize the magnificence of its culture: in paintings, literature, and most of all cuisine. But I find France, as it is today, repulsive. After a glimmer of hope with president Sarkozy's election in 2007, it looks like France is on the right track to stay the same it's always been. Behind.

Except... except I love the French soccer team. I've never missed a game where l'Equipe de France played. I know all of the players. I subscribe to a $12-a-month cable channel only to watch the 2 or 3 games they broadcast, with a delay, every year. Until today.

Today, France loss its game against Italy, and was eliminated from Euro 2008 in the first stage. In this tournament, for the first time, France, the soccer team, looked an awful lot like France, the country.

The coach, first. Raymond Domenech's attitude mirrors in every way French managers and politicians: seeing good things in a defeat ("What an effort from our 10 against their 11", he said today), being content with a draw ("We're right where we should be", he said after tying Romania in the most boring game of the decade), always happy with what it has, and never hoping for better.

Domenech: "I see things as they are, and say: 'Why not?' "

But the comparison goes for the players as well. In a dead ring for every French worker, les Bleus seem never to care, always to wait. They never seek opportunities, never try to obtain the means to get ahead. You can find them most of the time chilling, surprised to see things move around them, happy to be where they are, not understanding why they should work to get better.

Thierry Henry: "I could be in Hawaii right now!"

"Work more to earn more", promised Sarkozy, and France disagreed. Not just because they don't want to work more (they certainly don't), but because they don't even want to earn more!
More than ever, the French work ethic seems to be: "Get comfortable. Wait. Wait... Retire".

Well, I don't care for the French team anymore. Watching them play their last few games, I fell my love for them slowly die. Two years ago, after Zidane head-butted an opponent, showing to the world how French people deal with pressure and competition - freaking out and cheating - I didn't care for their victory anymore. But still liked the team. Today, now that its soccer players have joined all other Frenchmen and women in a glorious tribute for laziness and indifference, I'm happy to severe the last tie I had with the country where I was born.

I will support the US team... well, at least watch some MLS on TV... or root for Italy? No, I can't do that... I wonder if Ribery's injury is bad... Maybe he'll be back next year... There's always 2010...

Allez les Bleus!!!

XKCD

If you don't know what xkcd is, you don't know what you're missing.
Thank the gods, I'm here to help you out. The cartoon web series is, as its author put it: "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language".

There a little for everyone, whether you're a James Bond fan, a loving geek or just a hopeless romantic . And my personal favorite.

Here you go, loose your entire day on the website and the store.
You're welcome.

Baghdad Life

My friend Sarmad is Iraqi. He left his country after the American invasion, and moved to the US where he got a Master in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. He's now a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, where he writes a blog.

I find his articles fascinating. To be able to read the thoughts of an Iraqi who lived there when the war began, what he thought of Saddam, how he lived before and how he reacted to the invasion, how he deals with living far away from his endangered family today gives an incredibly humane side to this sad, never-ending story...

For once, the news is not about anonymous deaths and far away cities, it's about one man and his family's lives.

http://blogs.wsj.com/iraq/

If you want to know more about the Iraq War, and how the Bush administration butchered it, you should absolutely watch "No End in Sight" the fantastic documentary by Charles Ferguson. Netflix it today.

Good Morning New York

Indeed, good morning to you from the great state of NY. The empire state.

Well, let's be honest, lately it's been mainly the empire of morons, thanks to our dignified leader, Governor Eliot Spitzer. Let me ask you, who pays $4400 for a hooker for one night, when my Mexican friend over at ***** Street Pizza tells me it's only $120 here in Brooklyn? ("It was good", he says).

You won't hear anyone calling into Larry King with the same comment though. No, Wednesday night on Campbell Brown, the CNN panel ("Best in the nation") said "what a pity it was for someone as educated as Spitzer, who likely spent half a million dollars on his Harvard education, to go down the drain with a high-school dropout, actress-wanabee hooker". Wow, talk about dignity!

It's official, people are know ranked in value according to how much they spend on their education! This is CNN, where people are NOT equal!!!
I wonder what they'll say about Governor-to-be Patterson, who's legally blind.

On the brighter side though, always creative Virgin Mobile (do you think Mr Bronson ever paid a visit to a hooker? Difficult to believe he hasn't, and that's his charm) came up with this brilliant ad:



Of course, they're not authorized to use Spitzer's image, but they did anyway. Same thing Ryanair did 2 months ago, with this ad featuring French president Nicolas Sarkozy and then-girlfriend, singer model Carla Bruni.



"With Ryanair, my entire family can come and attend my wedding"

Sarkozy sued Ryanair, of course, and won almost $90.000 for Carla, and one symbolic euro for himself. How gentleman of him. He then got married with Bruni, and I wasn't invited. (But I'll try to crash this one, in NY).

It has to be said, though, Sarkozy is still the very trendy French president, and Spitzer the very done NY nothing-anymore. So will Spitzer sue? It might still be a good idea, a kind of rehearsal for a bigger yet-to-come trial. Gotta make sure those NY lawyers are still the greatest.

Oh! And don't worry, Ryanair still has a few tricks up its sleazy sleeve...

Breaking News!!!

The last Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be adapted into two different movies.

All the fans of the world rejoice, as JK Rowling final masterpiece deserved no less.

That's all for today...

French News

If you want to know the latest in French News, and if you speak French, I have to recommend Martin Vidberg's new blog, "L'actu en patates".

Although I disprove of hosting this fantastic blog on the very socialist-oriented Le Monde website*, I can only applaud the finesse** of the observations from Martin, also known as "Everland".

"The democrats' campaign gets tough"

"UMP" is the name of President Sarkozy's party, recently getting incredibly low ratings.

He uses here his signature style patatoes' cartoons, as he previously did with his extremely successful Everland blog. I've been following his internet success for pretty much 4 years now, and was thrilled when he published to great success, last year "Le journal d'un remplacant" that had premiered on his blog.



One of my favorite ever from Everland (as I will always call him) is "The Planet". (Link on the bottom of the page)

It's always fascinating to see someone starting small on the web, and getting famous, rich and popular***. He even does french commercials now. Pfffff!!!!



And yes, it's narrated by Andre Dussolier, the famed French actor who also did the Voice Over for Amelie.

Both of Martin's blogs are linked on the right side of this blog, in the link section. Don't forget to check him out often.


* Irony
** En Francais dans le texte
*** According to the 2011 edition of Forbes "the richest comic artists".

Bjork frees Tibet...

Today, props to Bjork, the fantasicelandic singer, for shooting "Tibet, Tibet!" during her concert in China. Incredibly controversial, and right in your face. 100% pure Bjork.

As a reminder, I worked on one of the latest Bjork Video.
Here are a couple of pics I like...

First the slate of the shoot:




Then Michel Gondry directing, and Bjork performing:







This one I like a lot: Michel Gondry alone behing a computer, thinking God knows what...




And finally, one of my favorite, the video being edited, live in Final Cut Pro, during the shoot!



You can see all those pictures and much more on my SmugMug...

To conclude, of course, the video itself!!!
Enjoy...

Beijing New International Airport

Beijing (also known to some as Pekin), the chinese capital, has a new terminal for its airport. It's supposed to welcome the tourists for the Olympics this summer.

Its size is totally insane. Yes, I read that it's the equivalent of 170 soccer fields, but you get the idea only when you actually look at it.

Here is a picture of Paris, taken on Google earth, from 5km high (click for bigger view):





Now here's a picture of the new Beijing Terminal, from the same height! The terminal itself is seen here during construction. Now complete, it joins the upper, blue boomerang shaped structure, to the lower and red, similar one...





Yeah... Scary. And now just for fun, here's manhattan from the same height.





Let's hope they included some kind of monorail!

Short & Sweet

Bravo to Marion Cotillard for her win yesterday. And if you're smart enough to come to this blog, you knew already "No Country for Old Men" was gonna win, even though "There Will Be Blood" was the better film.

A category nobody usually cares about is animated short. It's too bad, it's always beautiful, it doesn't take much time to watch, and the visuals are often stunning. So I thought I'd post a couple here.

First is a French film, short and really funny, called "Meme les pigeons vont au Paradis". I especially like the title.



Then is a stop-motion stunning short From Canada, "Madame Tutli-Frutli". There's no dialogue, but a beautiful score. It's very dark and tormented, and don't expect the story to make sense. But those guys worked more than 2 years to create those 15 minutes, so they're well worth it. It's in two parts:



And part 2:



But the winner was a Russian take on the classic "Peter and the Wolf". It's almost 30-minutes long, so I won't post it here, but check it out THERE.

That's it for today, thanks for coming, and don't forget to comment!

Awesome, I fucking shot that!!!

As some of you know, I was tapped last summer by Michel Gondry to be one of the shooter, during Daft Punk Alive 2007 Tour.
The point was to shoot their Brooklyn concert with an amateur dv camera, from the crowd. More than 100 of us were there, and it was to be edited by Michel into a double-DVD of the concert shot "a la youtube".

Turns out, the final result is a music video for "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", one of Daft Punk's most popular piece, and it's listed as directed by Olivier Gondry, Michel's own brother (and director of the famous HP's commercials).

Well, here it is. It's pretty freaking awesome:



Of course, I would be incapable of telling you what I shot myself and what was shot by others, but what the hell. It feels great to be part of such a huge project.

Finally, let me remind you that Michel Gondry's new movie, "Be Kind Rewind", featuring Jack Black and Mos Def, is out in the US tomorrow. The idea, as always with Gondry, is incredibly original, and if what the trailer promises holds true, it's gonna be a blast.



Finally, for you NYers out there, there's an exhibition at the Deitch Gallery in Soho where you can re-shoot your own movie, Be Kind-style. Check it out!

5 days to the Oscars...

Time for me to check if anyone is interested in this blog.
Would you like me to save BenZona and start posting again?

If so, you can either enter the Oscar poll (right here ->)
or comment here.

Thank you!

Support the Writer's Strike

Visit United Hollywood.com and watch this video:

Nostalgy

I was reading the new blog of an old friend this morning. He just arrived in Philly from France. And it made me think about my own arrival, 4 years ago (see post below - and the link section and the right for a permanent link to Raph's blog).

Back then, it took me 5 months to create a blog (it took him a week, which proves the blogosphere has come a long way). Anyway, here's a link to my first day of posting (5 posts in a few hours! Unbelievable! Oh yeah, and it was in Franch, back then!). It's very nostalgic indeed. Keep reading and you'll find stuff about the 2004 Bush-Kerry elections and more. And a lot of reading about Middle-eastern politics, especially in the comments. Haaa, that was the time...

While I'm here, I also created a website, back then, to incite my fellow students from INT to follow the same program I did, DMAT. That one a little more pro (thanks, Baril).

Ok maybe I'll post something original soon. In the meantime, comment G-D damned!

Anniversary

Today I celebrate my 4 years in the United States.

I arrived on August 13th, 2003, on a memorable CDG-PIT-CVG-LAN flight (that's Paris - Pittsburgh - Cincinnati - Lansing for the rest of you).

That day I visited 3 different US states! An amazing gift to who figures out which...