#like theres so many games in the current era that will just be lost media forever

[dawnblade]

.

[idadayalla-blog]

Brazil’s emotional election period got me emotional ...

So it has already been two weeks since the elections and the news about Bolsonaro have spread globally meanwhile. On the night of that election Sunday, I had actually been very calm. I picked up the result at the counter of a bakery as a cashier quietly updated another cashier and it was just my turn to pay my bill. I was on my way home by bike from a little hike with friends. Some cars honking had been passing me and I heard noises of firecrackers justifying me that Bolsonaro had won. This behavior of victory celebration, like after soccer games, personally matched my notion of Bolsonaro voters.

The week before the second ballot I had become very emotionally touched because of all the news considering street violence linked to the elections, conversations with friends about politics and experiencing the effort at my university to demonstrate resistance against an anticipated far right shift for the country. I became extremely worried about what is actually going on in the world right now. Right-wing populism isn’t just a phenomenon in Brazil; it is gaining more and more popularity in many countries of the world right now and has already settled within positions of power. If I am thinking of going back to Germany, I would certainly not return to a soil not being infected by that cancer yet having the AfD as the third strongest party right now within the Bundestag (German parliament).

Well, I literally felt that major bricks regarding democracy are breaking right now. Usually I used to not take myself and the world I am living in too serious, however these days something just felt so profoundly serious about this planet leaving me literally unable to focus on stuff I wanted to do during the day like writing this text.

The internet totally consumed my mind shortly after the election Sunday.

- The Pittsburgh shooting (to me: a brutal evidence of anti-Semitism and basically hate)

- Angela Merkel’s (Germany’s chancellor) speech to announce her retirement after the current election period (although I am not an elector of her party, her speech left me impressed on her rhetoric capability and honest attitude regarding the current government’s work. But the intention of her speech also left me sad.)

- chatting with my mom and my former host dad from the states regarding politics, as my host dad writes that they would “joke (for now, at least) about civil war between far right and the left, problem is, the far right has all the guns!” (right after that message, I saw and read a then recently posted vice article with the headline “A new American Civil War feels closer than ever after Pittsburgh”)

- youtube documentaries on Brazilian politics

- the usual random madness within the facebook feed: Seeing the latest news on post elections violence in Brazil: A kid being killed by a gun during Bolsonaro victory celebrations, vandalism in indigenous communities, people wearing T-Shirts with the number “64” which dates the initial year of the past military dictatorship in Brazil (comparable to Neonazis wearing shirts with the number “88”.). But then also videos plopping up about positive thinking vibes, a kitten drinking milk “to brighten your day”, some holiday pics from long forgotten classmates, a video about an American motel trying to give shelter for people which are basically totally lost in their life, a video collecting all homophobe statements of Bolsonaro and so on… within the mess theres had also been a call to sign a petition to attack the plan of a pro Bolsonaro student deputy (as far as I understood the news) who wants to led professors be videotaped while holding lessons. The student deputy says: ‘what do they say which society is not allowed to hear as well?’

By the time I saw news that the “Nigerian army is using Trump’s words to defend gunning down dozens of protesters” (vice), I’ve luckily already made my way out of this depression trap called internet. However, when I was walking along my street for instance and passing neighbors I just felt so little trust in the faces I saw. Like I was thinking meanwhile: “Oh she/he probably voted for Bolsonaro as well”. And many of them did so for fact, as there is apparently a lot of arguing going on in my street’s groupchat on WhatsApp, which is what my hairdresser neighbor told me the other day while giving me a new look. Gosh, am I glad that I am not in that group. I am hating group chats in general. But anyway she voted for him as well, as she didn’t really answer to my concerns and criticism on Bolsonaro except “He might had been kidding a lot” and “Well let’s see”, in Portuguese ‘vamos ver’, also belonging to one of the most outspoken sentences over here and expressing the uncertainty within the Brazilian mentality pretty much on point. Well, she might had voted for a radical candidate but during my appointment she had been a bit afraid and hesitating in giving me, as she said, a ‘radical haircut’. I was asking her to do me a very straight-lined hair. “Do many people have that haircut in Europe?” Me: 🙄. Well, back to the group chat misery:

A guy I met at a friend’s birthday said that the group chat of his apartment complex is full with pro Bolsonaro content and he wouldn’t dare to text something contra. Most of the people he is sharing the building with are apparently evangelic. “I’d be probably screwed leaving a red scarf or so on my door handle”, he was joking. Because the Pro Bolsonaro side argues/d that the left-wing would want to turn the country communist.  

So now, post elections, many people are very afraid, especially the ones belonging to minorities or being activist. Uruguay is a considered country among those and professors and artists and maybe other people as well to emigrate to. Some of them have already left the country prior to the elections because the victory of Bolsonaro had been a pretty save prediction. A friend of mine told me that he basically doesn’t see a future for him. On election day he held a specific meditation, to mentally prepare himself for a new era. Within the WhatsApp group of my university, ‘UDESC against fascism’, a five screen long guide with security advise in fascist times had been dropped immediately after the result was final. And last week in my ceramics class I could definitely feel a despondent mood capturing the studio.

But how am I feeling eventually? First of all, the major voting motivations seemed very ridiculous. At the second ballot, the majority of people would vote for one of the two candidates to not let the other win. I mean, voting for a party based on being supportive on their political plan is totally left out in this sort of voting scheme. In general, many people voted for Bolsonaro as a matter of protest against the past year’s corruptive politics by the PT. On the other hand, had many Haddad voters (in the second ballot) not been convinced by him or his party, but basically voted for him to save democratic values in their country. A fact that made me very angry is that many people of my social environment haven’t gone vote because they didn’t transfer their voting region in advance. They moved to Florianópolis within the past years, e.g. to go to university here, but they didn’t officially change their location of residency to then be able to vote at the polls here. They are all against Bolsonaro and saying that his voters are ignorant but to me this way of letting the election just happen is ignorant as well and letting shine through a pretty lazy attitude on top. Some people drove back home over the weekend to go vote but many whose parental residency are farer away, like outside of Santa Catarina or its bordered states, didn’t due to the travelling effort and expenses.

Postal vote isn’t possible in Brazil which is what I am usually doing in Germany. Thus I suppose all the Brazilians living in the exterior, which certainly aren’t just a few, didn’t influence this election at all. So, I guess there could have been a chance on flipping the result if left orientated people would have made use of their right to vote having been more urgent than ever to make use of, and if the voting conditions for people living outside the country would be sorted out in some way. I mean, ultimately the voting difference had only been 10% and something between the two candidates.

Above all it is kind of crazy to already feel that this election will very likely divide the country’s society in two sides, as already happening in the United States. Over here, the two mindsets clash with each other even within inner family circles. In many families the older generations, parents and grandparents, are pro Bolsonaro and the children contra.  And so it is in the family of my former flat mate, thus he decided to not travel back home for Christmas this year.

In general, it is very disillusioning to see another success of an election campaigning targeting to create fear and anger within the people and doing this mainly via social media platforms. It feels nasty that there is a specific agency supporting Trump, AfD, Bolsonaro and surely many more right-winged politicians and parties in other countries besides USA, Germany and Brazil, and thus supporting that antidemocratic and inhuman behavior becomes accepted again. It is kind of ridiculous to see that people turn very nationalist again while everybody is making use of a globalized world on a daily basis. And yes, here you can receive a “Go back to your country” as well, as this sentence became very common to hear in public in Germany after its refugee wave in 2015.

Well, but Ida come to a point: I realized that living in a democracy had been something very unquestionable for me. I guess people of my generation take it very much for granted. And so far, my political interest had been very low or not there at all. But I can feel that the circumstances over here and the emotions I am absorbing are making me aware to become more involved. We, the generation Y and close by generations, are spending so much time by dealing with ourselves. We are so busy in discovering ourselves, finding the sense and fulfillment for our lives. But meanwhile, the shelter to do so, to develop our personalities freely, is losing its power. And that is frightening me. I surely do not want to live in an environment where repression is ruling, where being oneself, being authentic in public, is in danger.

[topsolarpanels]

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes films need is high time to marinate’

The director of the cult favorite Donnie Darko was once hailed as the next David Lynch. Now, as fans rediscover his 2007 flop Southland Tales, he explains why patience is still a virtue and Trumps victory was a grotesque inevitability

Talking with the writer and director Richard Kelly, its easy to steer the conversation toward the end of the world. After all, Kelly developed a fervent cult following( and alienated it) through tales of prophesied apocalypse 2001 s cult curio Donnie Darko and 2007 s cult-classic-in-the-making Southland Tales. But its not the collapsing buildings or rivers of blood that fascinate Kelly; its what comes right before. The sneaking anxiety. The normalizing of madnes. The casual disregard for your neighbor. The glob in your throat that signifies your newfound understanding that this was inevitable.

If those impressions sounds familiar in our current Trump-addled dystopia, that was not Kellys intention. Southland Tales, a post-9/ 11 satire melded with a retelling of the Book of Revelation that also includes a complex theory of hour traveling, was never meant to feel like a pre-game show for the next decade of global misery.

The sprawling narrative set in an alternative 2008 in which a nuclear attack on Abilene, Texas, triggers a third world war revolves around an amnesiac action starring named Boxer Santaros( played by Dwayne The Rock Johnson) who falls in love with a porn starring/ talkshow host/ entrepreneur/ pop superstar/ psychic who goes by the professional name Krysta Now( Sarah Michelle Gellar ), who has written a screenplay about the end times.

Oh, and theres also a government agency dedicated to spying on Americans, an underground neo-Marxist cult, alternative solutions energy source that might be ripping a hole in the space-time continuum, a United States military been supported by Hustler and Bud Light, and a mind-altering medication that keeps American soldiers docile and dependent. Jon Lovitz plays a racist cop, Seann William Scott plays identical twin police officers, Amy Poehler shows up as an anarchist improv comic, Justin Timberlake plays a drug-addled war veteran and Wallace Shawn of The Princess Bride fame is the antichrist( or a reasonable fax ).

Its overwhelming to process, and reflects so much of the nervousnes of our age, even if it isnt always pleasant to watch. I actually wanted it to be something that you would get lost in and that would sustain multiple viewings, Kelly tells me over dinner in Los Angeles. When discussing the movie, his eyes widen and he projects an impish yet tentative enthusiasm as though hes feeling out whether youre going to receive his ideas without judgment. Now, that ambition can be a self-defeating prophecy, as we watched clearly.

Kelly seems wistful about the experience of making and releasing the film, which, after a disastrous Cannes screening at which the movie was booed heavily, virtually lost theatrical distribution. We were in Boston, in pre-production on[ his Southland Tales follow-up] The Box, the weekend Southland Tales opened in 50 -some theaters. The upcoming Monday was our first day of principal photography. We were scrambling for our first day. We had done the AFI Fest premiere and they rushed me back to Boston. And then, I remember that morning, were shooting Cameron[ Diaz] and Frank Langella, this really emotional scene in the Boston Public Library. Someone comes up to me and tells me per-screen medians on Southland Tales. It was such a bummer. A screening Kelly attended with the actor James Marsden was attended by only four other people. Roger Ebert likened the cinema to the third day of a pitch session on velocity. One of the rare positive reviews of the movie came from the New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who called it funny, audacious, messy and feverishly inspired.

I definitely remain proud of the ambition of it. I feel like sometimes things just require is high time to marinate, he says. The cinema has started to find a new audience. At the time of our meeting, hes in between hosting screenings of Southland Tales thanks to a roadshow tour of the film sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse chain of arthouse theaters. The newfound appreciation for Southland Tales by both audiences and emerging pockets of critics hasnt yet translated to tangible opportunities for Kelly. I dont ever want to feel defeated or that Ive let the system defeat me, he says.

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Southland Tales. Photograph: Publicity image from cinema company

Southland Tales discovering an audience nearly 10 years later would not mark the first time one of Kellys cinemas gained esteem upon second( or third) glance. Donnie Darko grossed a scant $517,375 when it was released a month after 9/11. When it observed a huge audience on video and DVD, Kelly became a hot commodity, an heir apparent to the surrealist tradition of directors like David Lynch. Sometimes, the wind is at your back. Sometimes, its at your front, Kelly says about the ups and downs of his career. Darko remains his greatest up, a cinema thats become a touchstone work for the generation that grew up with it. Darko was a disaster at Sundance too, he tells me. No one remembers that, but it was. Im grateful for any rosy light of hindsight. I remember it took us virtually six months to sell the movie. It nearly ran immediately to the Starz network. We had to beg them to put it in theaters. Christopher Nolan stepped in and persuaded Newmarket to put it in theaters.

After those issues, Kelly could have gone the expected route and taken on a big-budget studio tentpole. He could have directed the sequel, which he declined to do( it aimed up being terrible and running straight-out to DVD ). Instead, he choice this peculiar, dense story about the decline of American power.

President-elect Donald Trump was merely a reality show curiosity when Southland Tales was released, but his mixture of profane and pious could easily have constructed him a character in the film. I think that Donald Trump is this grotesque inevitability that has gotten this far because there was something really, really dangerous concealing beneath the surface, that has been concealing beneath the surface for many, many years. The Republican Kelly imagined in Southland Tales were the neocon religious zealots that seem almost quaint to modern eyes. They seemed like the ultimate boogeymen in 2007, but as Kelly points out , no one in the Bush family would even show up at the RNC[ Republican national convention ].

What Southland Tales conveyed better than most politically charged films of the Bush era was the sentiment that it would get worse, that something had been unleashed that could not be put back. At the time that we were building Southland Tales, it was Iraq war and Britney Spears. That dichotomy on your Tv screen. The branding and everything was happening. It seemed inevitable that everyone would start to co-opt branding. Social media hadnt actually exploded yet. To watch legislators running after each other on Twitter, its bizarre. To insure Elizabeth Warren quoting the monorail on the Simpsons. To see legislators co-opting this millennial social media branding, its a blur of the lines.

Each of his three cinemas reflects that sheepish rebellion that is part of his personality. Donnie Darko was a mostly passive protagonist struggling against both the oppressive system of high school and the levers of fate that he could only pull at the cinemas climax. Boxer Santaros is a pawn in a conflict between fascism and socialism, religion and science, and love and demise. Eventually, those characters succumb to a power greater than any on Earth, something unknowable. So does Kelly think all this is down to higher power pulling the strings?

I dont believe any of this happened by accident. Thats just depressing and absurd, in my opinion, he answers. I do think theres a design to things, and we can never hope to know it in any of our lifetimes. Proportion of the challenge is trying to make sense of it. Thats whats cathartic for me as an artist, to try to make sense of it.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes films need is high time to marinate’ appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

from Top Rated Solar Panels http://ift.tt/2wUh3Mh via IFTTT

[topsolarpanels]

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes films need is high time to marinate’

The director of the cult favorite Donnie Darko was once hailed as the next David Lynch. Now, as fans rediscover his 2007 flop Southland Tales, he explains why patience remains of virtue and Trumps victory was a grotesque inevitability

Talking with the writer and director Richard Kelly, its easy to steer the conversation toward the end of the world. After all, Kelly developed a fervent cult following( and alienated it) through tales of prophesied apocalypse 2001 s cult curio Donnie Darko and 2007 s cult-classic-in-the-making Southland Tales. But its not the collapsing houses or rivers of blood that fascinate Kelly; its what comes right before. The creeping anxiety. The normalizing of madnes. The casual disregard for your neighbour. The glob in your throat that signifies your newfound understanding that this was inevitable.

If those impressions audios familiar in our present Trump-addled dystopia, that was not Kellys intention. Southland Tales, a post-9/ 11 irony melded with a retelling of the Book of Revelation that also includes a complex hypothesi of time traveling, was never meant to feel like a pre-game show for the next decade of global misery.

The sprawling narrative set in alternative solutions 2008 in which a nuclear attack on Abilene, Texas, triggers a third world war revolves around an amnesiac action starring named Boxer Santaros( played by Dwayne The Rock Johnson) who falls in love with a porn superstar/ talkshow host/ entrepreneur/ pop star/ clairvoyant who goes by the professional name Krysta Now( Sarah Michelle Gellar ), who has written a screenplay about the end times.

Oh, and theres also a government agency dedicated to spying on Americans, an underground neo-Marxist cult, an alternative energy source that might be ripping a hole in the space-time continuum, a United States military sponsored by Hustler and Bud Light, and a mind-altering medication that keeps American soldiers docile and dependent. Jon Lovitz plays a racist policeman, Seann William Scott plays identical twin police officers, Amy Poehler shows up as an anarchist improv comic, Justin Timberlake plays a drug-addled war veteran and Wallace Shawn of The Princess Bride fame is the antichrist( or a reasonable facsimile ).

Its overwhelming to process, and reflects so much of the nervousnes of our age, even if it isnt always pleasant to watch. I genuinely wanted it to be something that you would get lost in and that would sustain multiple viewings, Kelly tells me over dinner in Los Angeles. When discussing the film, his eyes widen and he projects an impish yet tentative enthusiasm as though hes feeling out whether youre going to receive his ideas without decision. Now, that aspiration can be a self-defeating prophecy, as we considered clearly.

Kelly seems wistful about the experience of making and releasing the movie, which, after a disastrous Cannes screening at which the movie was booed heavily, virtually lost theatrical distribution. We were in Boston, in pre-production on[ his Southland Tales follow-up] The Box, the weekend Southland Tales opened in 50 -some theaters. The upcoming Monday was our first day of principal photography. We were scrambling for our first day. We had done the AFI Fest premiere and they rushed me back to Boston. And then, I remember that morning, were shooting Cameron[ Diaz] and Frank Langella, that is something that emotional scene in the Boston Public Library. Someone comes up to me and tells me per-screen averages on Southland Tales. It was such a bummer. A screening Kelly attended with the actor James Marsden were engaged in only four other people. Roger Ebert likened the cinema to the third day of a pitching session on speed. One of the rare positive reviews of the film came from the New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who called it funny, audacious, messy and feverishly inspired.

I definitely remain proud of the ambition of it. I feel like sometimes things just require time to marinate, he says. The cinema has started to find a new audience. At the time of our meeting, hes in between hosting screenings of Southland Tales thanks to a roadshow tour of the cinema sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse chain of arthouse theaters. The newfound expressed appreciation for Southland Tales by both audiences and emerging pockets of critics hasnt yet translated to tangible a chance for Kelly. I dont ever want to feel defeated or that Ive let the organizations of the system defeat me, he says.

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Southland Tales. Photograph: Publicity image from cinema company

Southland Tales observing an audience almost 10 year later would not mark the first time one of Kellys movies gained esteem upon second( or third) glance. Donnie Darko grossed a scant $517,375 when it was released a month after 9/11. When it observed a huge audience on video and DVD, Kelly became a hot commodity, an heir apparent to the surrealist tradition of directors like David Lynch. Sometimes, the wind is at your back. Sometimes, its at your front, Kelly says about the ups and downs of his career. Darko remains his greatest up, a cinema thats become a touchstone work for the generation that grew up with it. Darko was a disaster at Sundance too, he tells me. No one remembers that, but it was. Im grateful for any rosy glow of hindsight. I remember it took us almost six months to sell the movie. It almost went immediately to the Starz network. We had to beg them to put it in theaters. Christopher Nolan stepped in and persuaded Newmarket to set it in theaters.

After those issues, Kelly could have gone the expected route and taken on a big-budget studio tentpole. He could have directed the sequel, which he declined to do( it ended up being terrible and running straight to DVD ). Instead, he choice this peculiar, dense story about the decline of American power.

President-elect Donald Trump was only a reality show curiosity when Southland Tales was released, but his mix of profane and pious could easily have attained him a character in the film. I think that Donald Trump is this grotesque inevitability that has get this far because there was something actually, really dangerous concealing beneath the surface, that has been hiding beneath the surface for many, many years. The Republicans Kelly imagined in Southland Tales were the neocon religious zealots that seem virtually quaint to modern eyes. They seemed like the ultimate boogeymen in 2007, but as Kelly points out , no one in the Bush family would even show up at the RNC[ Republican national convention ].

What Southland Tales expressed better than most politically charged cinemas of the Bush era was the sentiment that it would get worse, that something had been unleashed that could not be put back. At the time that we were attaining Southland Tales, it was Iraq war and Britney Spears. That dichotomy on your TV screen. The branding and everything was happening. It seemed inevitable that everyone would start to co-opt branding. Social media hadnt really exploded yet. To assure legislators going after one another on Twitter, its bizarre. To see Elizabeth Warren quoting the monorail on the Simpsons. To ensure legislators co-opting this millennial social media branding, its a blurring of the lines.

Each of his three films reflects that sheepish rebellion that is part of his personality. Donnie Darko was a largely passive protagonist struggling against both the oppressive system of high school and the levers of fate that he could only pull at the films climax. Boxer Santaros is a pawn in a conflict between fascism and socialism, religion and science, and love and demise. Eventually, those characters succumb to a power greater than any on Ground, something unknowable. So does Kelly suppose all this is down to higher power pulling the strings?

I dont guess any of this passed by accident. Thats just depressing and absurd, in my opinion, he answers. I do think theres a design to things, and we can never hope to know it in any of our lifetimes. Part of current challenges is trying to make sense of it. Thats whats cathartic for me as an artist, to try to make sense of it.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes films need is high time to marinate’ appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

from Top Rated Solar Panels http://ift.tt/2wMkEvN via IFTTT

[topsolarpanels]

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes films require time to marinate’

The director of the cult favorite Donnie Darko was once hailed as the next David Lynch. Now, as fans rediscover his 2007 flop Southland Tales, he explains why patience is still a virtue and Trumps victory was a grotesque inevitability

Talking with the writer and director Richard Kelly, its easy to steer the conversation toward the end of the world. After all, Kelly developed a fervent cult following (and alienated it) through tales of prophesied apocalypse 2001s cult curio Donnie Darko and 2007s cult-classic-in-the-making Southland Tales. But its not the collapsing buildings or rivers of blood that fascinate Kelly; its what comes right before. The creeping panic. The normalizing of insanity. The casual disregard for your neighbor. The lump in your throat that signifies your newfound understanding that this was inevitable.

If those feelings sounds familiar in our current Trump-addled dystopia, that was not Kellys intention. Southland Tales, a post-9/11 satire melded with a retelling of the Book of Revelation that also includes a complex theory of time travel, was never meant to feel like a pre-game show for the next decade of global misery.

The sprawling narrative set in an alternative 2008 in which a nuclear attack on Abilene, Texas, triggers a third world war revolves around an amnesiac action star named Boxer Santaros (played by Dwayne The Rock Johnson) who falls in love with a porn star/talkshow host/entrepreneur/pop star/psychic who goes by the professional name Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who has written a screenplay about the end times.

Oh, and theres also a government agency dedicated to spying on Americans, an underground neo-Marxist cult, an alternative energy source that might be ripping a hole in the space-time continuum, a United States military sponsored by Hustler and Bud Light, and a mind-altering drug that keeps American soldiers docile and dependent. Jon Lovitz plays a racist cop, Seann William Scott plays identical twin police officers, Amy Poehler shows up as an anarchist improv comic, Justin Timberlake plays a drug-addled war veteran and Wallace Shawn of The Princess Bride fame is the antichrist (or a reasonable facsimile).

Its overwhelming to process, and reflects so much of the anxiety of our age, even if it isnt always pleasant to watch. I really wanted it to be something that you would get lost in and that would sustain multiple viewings, Kelly tells me over dinner in Los Angeles. When discussing the film, his eyes widen and he projects an impish yet tentative enthusiasm as though hes feeling out whether youre going to receive his ideas without judgment. Now, that ambition can be a self-defeating prophecy, as we saw clearly.

Kelly seems wistful about the experience of making and releasing the film, which, after a disastrous Cannes screening at which the film was booed heavily, almost lost theatrical distribution. We were in Boston, in pre-production on [his Southland Tales follow-up] The Box, the weekend Southland Tales opened in 50-some theaters. The upcoming Monday was our first day of principal photography. We were scrambling for our first day. We had done the AFI Fest premiere and they rushed me back to Boston. And then, I remember that morning, were shooting Cameron [Diaz] and Frank Langella, this really emotional scene in the Boston Public Library. Someone comes up to me and tells me per-screen averages on Southland Tales. It was such a bummer. A screening Kelly attended with the actor James Marsden was attended by only four other people. Roger Ebert likened the film to the third day of a pitch session on speed. One of the rare positive reviews of the film came from the New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who called it funny, audacious, messy and feverishly inspired.

I definitely remain proud of the ambition of it. I feel like sometimes things just need time to marinate, he says. The film has started to find a new audience. At the time of our meeting, hes in between hosting screenings of Southland Tales thanks to a roadshow tour of the film sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse chain of arthouse theaters. The newfound appreciation for Southland Tales by both audiences and emerging pockets of critics hasnt yet translated to tangible opportunities for Kelly. I dont ever want to feel defeated or that Ive let the system defeat me, he says.

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Southland Tales. Photograph: Publicity image from film company

Southland Tales finding an audience almost 10 years later would not mark the first time one of Kellys films gained esteem upon second (or third) glance. Donnie Darko grossed a scant $517,375 when it was released a month after 9/11. When it found a huge audience on video and DVD, Kelly became a hot commodity, an heir apparent to the surrealist tradition of directors like David Lynch. Sometimes, the wind is at your back. Sometimes, its at your front, Kelly says about the ups and downs of his career. Darko remains his greatest up, a film thats become a touchstone work for the generation that grew up with it. Darko was a disaster at Sundance too, he tells me. No one remembers that, but it was. Im grateful for any rosy glow of hindsight. I remember it took us almost six months to sell the movie. It almost went directly to the Starz network. We had to beg them to put it in theaters. Christopher Nolan stepped in and convinced Newmarket to put it in theaters.

After those issues, Kelly could have gone the expected route and taken on a big-budget studio tentpole. He could have directed the sequel, which he declined to do (it ended up being terrible and going straight to DVD). Instead, he chose this peculiar, dense story about the decline of American power.

President-elect Donald Trump was only a reality show curiosity when Southland Tales was released, but his mix of profane and pious could easily have made him a character in the film. I think that Donald Trump is this grotesque inevitability that has gotten this far because there was something really, really dangerous hiding beneath the surface, that has been hiding beneath the surface for many, many years. The Republicans Kelly imagined in Southland Tales were the neocon religious zealots that seem almost quaint to modern eyes. They seemed like the ultimate boogeymen in 2007, but as Kelly points out, no one in the Bush family would even show up at the RNC [Republican national convention].

What Southland Tales expressed better than most politically charged films of the Bush era was the sentiment that it would get worse, that something had been unleashed that could not be put back. At the time that we were making Southland Tales, it was Iraq war and Britney Spears. That dichotomy on your TV screen. The branding and everything was happening. It seemed inevitable that everyone would start to co-opt branding. Social media hadnt really exploded yet. To see politicians going after each other on Twitter, its bizarre. To see Elizabeth Warren quoting the monorail on the Simpsons. To see politicians co-opting this millennial social media branding, its a blurring of the lines.

Each of his three films reflects that sheepish rebellion that is part of his personality. Donnie Darko was a mostly passive protagonist struggling against both the oppressive system of high school and the levers of fate that he could only pull at the films climax. Boxer Santaros is a pawn in a conflict between fascism and socialism, religion and science, and love and death. Eventually, those characters succumb to a power greater than any on Earth, something unknowable. So does Kelly think all this is down to higher power pulling the strings?

I dont think any of this happened by accident. Thats just depressing and absurd, in my opinion, he answers. I do think theres a design to things, and we can never hope to know it in any of our lifetimes. Part of the challenge is trying to make sense of it. Thats whats cathartic for me as an artist, to try to make sense of it.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes films require time to marinate’ appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

from Top Rated Solar Panels http://ift.tt/2taBJPm via IFTTT

[topsolarpanels]

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes films require time to marinate’

The director of the cult favorite Donnie Darko was once hailed as the next David Lynch. Now, as fans rediscover his 2007 flop Southland Tales, he explains why patience is still a virtue and Trumps victory was a grotesque inevitability

Talking with the writer and director Richard Kelly, its easy to steer the conversation toward the end of the world. After all, Kelly developed a fervent cult following( and alienated it) through narratives of prophesied apocalypse 2001 s cult curio Donnie Darko and 2007 s cult-classic-in-the-making Southland Tales. But its not the collapsing buildings or rivers of blood that fascinate Kelly; its what goes right before. The creeping anxiety. The normalizing of insanity. The casual disregard for your neighbor. The hunk in your throat that signifies your newfound understanding that this was inevitable.

If those feelings sounds familiar in our present Trump-addled dystopia, that was not Kellys intention. Southland Tales, a post-9/ 11 satire melded with a retelling of the Book of Revelation that also includes a complex theory of time travel, was never meant to feel like a pre-game show for the next decade of global misery.

The sprawling narrative set in an alternative 2008 in which a nuclear attack on Abilene, Texas, triggers a third world war revolves around an amnesiac action star named Boxer Santaros( played by Dwayne The Rock Johnson) who falls in love with a porn starring/ talkshow host/ entrepreneur/ pop star/ psychic who goes by the professional name Krysta Now( Sarah Michelle Gellar ), who has written a screenplay about the end times.

Oh, and theres also a government agency dedicated to spying on Americans, an underground neo-Marxist cult, alternative solutions energy source that might be ripping a pit in the space-time continuum, a United States military sponsored by Hustler and Bud Light, and a mind-altering medication that maintains American soldiers docile and dependent. Jon Lovitz plays a racist cop, Seann William Scott plays identical twin police officer, Amy Poehler shows up as an anarchist improv comic, Justin Timberlake plays a drug-addled war veteran and Wallace Shawn of The Princess Bride fame is the antichrist( or a reasonable facsimile ).

Its overwhelming to process, and reflects so much of the nervousnes of our age, even if it isnt always pleasant to watch. I genuinely wanted it to be something that you would get lost in and that would sustain multiple viewings, Kelly tells me over dinner in Los Angeles. When discussing the movie, his eyes widen and he projects an impish yet tentative enthusiasm as though hes feeling out whether youre going to receive his ideas without judgment. Now, that ambition can be a self-defeating prophecy, as we saw clearly.

Kelly seems wistful about the experience of making and releasing the cinema, which, after a disastrous Cannes screening at which the film was booed heavily, virtually lost theatrical distribution. We were in Boston, in pre-production on[ his Southland Tales follow-up] The Box, the weekend Southland Tales opened in 50 -some theaters. The upcoming Monday was our first day of principal photography. We were scrambling for our first day. We had done the AFI Fest premiere and they rushed me back to Boston. And then, I remember that morning, were shooting Cameron[ Diaz] and Frank Langella, that is something that emotional scene in the Boston Public Library. Someone comes up to me and tells me per-screen medians on Southland Tales. It was such a bummer. A screening Kelly attended with the actor James Marsden was attended by only four other people. Roger Ebert likened the movie to the third day of a pitching session on speed. One of the rare positive reviews of the film came from the New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who called it funny, audacious, messy and feverishly inspired.

I definitely remain proud of the ambition of it. I feel like sometimes things just require time to marinade, he says. The cinema has started to find a new audience. At the time of our meeting, hes in between hosting screenings of Southland Tales thanks to a roadshow tour of the movie sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse chain of arthouse theaters. The newfound appreciation for Southland Tales by both audiences and emerging pockets of critics hasnt yet translated to tangible opportunities for Kelly. I dont ever want to feel defeated or that Ive let the organizations of the system defeat me, he tells.

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Southland Tales. Photo: Publicity image from movie company

Southland Tales seeing an audience virtually 10 years later would not mark the first time one of Kellys cinemas gained esteem upon second( or third) glance. Donnie Darko grossed a scant $517,375 when it was released a month after 9/11. When it observed a huge audience on video and DVD, Kelly became a hot commodity, an heir apparent to the surrealist tradition of directors like David Lynch. Sometimes, the wind is at your back. Sometimes, its at your front, Kelly tells about the ups and downs of his career. Darko remains his greatest up, a cinema thats become a touchstone work for the generation that grew up with it. Darko was a disaster at Sundance too, he tells me. No one remembers that, but it was. Im grateful for any rosy light of hindsight. I remember it took us almost six months to sell the movie. It almost ran immediately to the Starz network. We had to beg them to set it in theaters. Christopher Nolan stepped in and convinced Newmarket to set it in theaters.

After those issues, Kelly could have gone the expected road and taken on a big-budget studio tentpole. He could have directed the sequel, which he declined to do( it aimed up being terrible and running straight-out to DVD ). Instead, he preferred this peculiar, dense narrative about the decline of American power.

President-elect Donald Trump was only a reality show curiosity when Southland Tales was released, but his mixture of profane and pious could easily have constructed him a character in the film. I think that Donald Trump is this grotesque inevitability that has get this far because there was something really, really dangerous hiding beneath the surface, that has been hiding beneath the surface for many, many years. The Republicans Kelly imagined in Southland Tales were the neocon religion zealots that seem nearly quaint to modern eyes. They seemed like the ultimate boogeymen in 2007, but as Kelly points out , no one in the Bush family would even show up at the RNC[ Republican national convention ].

What Southland Tales expressed better than most politically charged films of the Bush era was the sentiment that it would get worse, that something had been unleashed that could not be put back. At the time that we were making Southland Tales, it was Iraq war and Britney Spears. That dichotomy on your Tv screen. The branding and everything was happening. It seemed inevitable that all individuals would start to co-opt branding. Social media hadnt really explosion yet. To see politicians going after one another on Twitter, its bizarre. To consider Elizabeth Warren quoting the monorail on the Simpsons. To ensure legislators co-opting this millennial social media branding, its a blur of the lines.

Each of his three cinemas reflects that sheepish rebellion that is part of his personality. Donnie Darko was a mostly passive protagonist struggling against both the oppressive system of high school and the levers of fate that he could only pull at the films climax. Boxer Santaros is a pawn in a conflict between fascism and socialism, religion and science, and love and demise. Eventually, those characters succumb to a power greater than any on Ground, something unknowable. So does Kelly guess all this is down to higher power pulling the strings?

I dont suppose any of this happened by collision. Thats just depressing and absurd, in my opinion, he answers. I do think theres a design to things, and we can never hope to know it in any of our lifetimes. Portion of current challenges is trying to make sense of it. Thats whats cathartic for me as an artist, to try to make sense of it.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes films require time to marinate’ appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

from Top Rated Solar Panels http://ift.tt/2sdcTZQ via IFTTT

[topsolarpanels]

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes movies need time to marinate’

The director of the cult favorite Donnie Darko was once hailed as the next David Lynch. Now, as fans rediscover his 2007 flop Southland Tales, he explains why patience is still a virtue and Trumps victory was a grotesque inevitability

Talking with the writer and director Richard Kelly, its easy to steer the conversation toward the end of the world. After all, Kelly developed a fervent cult following( and alienated it) through narratives of prophesied apocalypse 2001 s cult curio Donnie Darko and 2007 s cult-classic-in-the-making Southland Tales. But its not the collapsing builds or rivers of blood that fascinate Kelly; its what comes right before. The creeping panic. The normalizing of madnes. The casual neglect for your neighbour. The clod in your throat that signifies your newfound understanding that this was inevitable.

If those impressions audios familiar in our current Trump-addled dystopia, that was not Kellys intention. Southland Tales, a post-9/ 11 satire melded with a retelling of the Book of Revelation that also includes a complex theory of day travel, was never meant to feel like a pre-game show for the next decade of global misery.

The sprawling narrative set in an alternative 2008 in which a nuclear attack on Abilene, Texas, triggers a third world war is organized around an amnesiac action star named Boxer Santaros( played by Dwayne The Rock Johnson) who falls in love with a porn star/ talkshow host/ entrepreneur/ pop star/ clairvoyant who goes by the professional name Krysta Now( Sarah Michelle Gellar ), who has written a screenplay about the end times.

Oh, and theres also a government agency dedicated to spying on Americans, an underground neo-Marxist cult, an alternative energy source that might be rending a pit in the space-time continuum, a United States military sponsored by Hustler and Bud Light, and a mind-altering drug that maintains American soldiers docile and dependent. Jon Lovitz plays a racist cop, Seann William Scott plays identical twin police officers, Amy Poehler shows up as an anarchist improv comic, Justin Timberlake plays a drug-addled war veteran and Wallace Shawn of The Princess Bride fame is the antichrist( or a reasonable fax ).

Its overwhelming to process, and reflects so much of the anxiety of our age, even if it isnt always pleasant to watch. I truly wanted it to be something that you would get lost in and that would sustain multiple viewings, Kelly tells me over dinner in Los Angeles. When discussing the movie, his eyes widen and he projects an impish yet tentative exuberance as though hes feeling out whether youre going to receive his ideas without judgment. Now, that aspiration can be a self-defeating prophecy, as we assured clearly.

Kelly seems wistful about the experience of making and releasing the movie, which, after a disastrous Cannes screening at which the movie was booed heavily, almost lost theatrical distribution. We were in Boston, in pre-production on[ his Southland Tales follow-up] The Box, the weekend Southland Tales opened in 50 -some theaters. The upcoming Monday was our first day of principal photography. We were scrambling for our first day. We had done the AFI Fest premiere and they rushed me back to Boston. And then, I remember that morning, were shooting Cameron[ Diaz] and Frank Langella, that is something that emotional scene in the Boston Public Library. Someone comes up to me and tells me per-screen medians on Southland Tales. It was such a bummer. A screening Kelly attended with the actor James Marsden was attended by only four other people. Roger Ebert likened the movie to the third day of a pitch conference on velocity. One of the rare positive reviews of the movie came from the New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who called it funny, audacious, messy and feverishly inspired.

I definitely remain proud of the aspiration of it. I feel like sometimes things merely need time to marinate, he says. The movie has started to find a new audience. At the time of our meeting, hes in between hosting screenings of Southland Tales thanks to a roadshow tour of the movie sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse chain of arthouse theaters. The newfound expressed appreciation for Southland Tales by both audiences and emerging pockets of critics hasnt yet translated to tangible opportunities for Kelly. I dont ever want to feel defeated or that Ive let the organizations of the system defeat me, he says.

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Southland Tales. Photo: Publicity image from movie company

Southland Tales finding an audience almost 10 year later would not mark the first time one of Kellys cinemas gained esteem upon second( or third) glance. Donnie Darko grossed a scant $517,375 when it was released a month after 9/11. When it found a huge audience on video and DVD, Kelly became a hot commodity, an heir apparent to the surrealist tradition of directors like David Lynch. Sometimes, the wind is at your back. Sometimes, its at your front, Kelly says about the ups and downs of his career. Darko remains his greatest up, a movie thats become a touchstone work for the generation that grew up with it. Darko was a disaster at Sundance too, he tells me. No one remembers that, but it was. Im grateful for any rosy light of hindsight. I remember it took us almost six months to sell the movie. It almost went immediately to the Starz network. We had to beg them to set it in theaters. Christopher Nolan stepped in and convinced Newmarket to set it in theaters.

After those issues, Kelly could have gone the expected road and taken on a big-budget studio tentpole. He could have directed the sequel, which he declined to do( it objective up being terrible and going straight-out to DVD ). Instead, he choice this peculiar, dense tale about the decline of American power.

President-elect Donald Trump was only a reality show curiosity when Southland Tales was released, but his mixture of profane and pious could easily have attained him a character in the film. I think that Donald Trump is this grotesque inevitability that has get this far because there was something truly, really dangerous concealing beneath the surface, that has been concealing beneath the surface for many, many years. The Republicans Kelly imagined in Southland Tales were the neocon religious zealots that seem almost quaint to modern eyes. They seemed like the ultimate boogeymen in 2007, but as Kelly points out , no one in the Bush family would even show up at the RNC[ Republican national convention ].

What Southland Tales expressed better than most politically charged cinemas of the Bush era was the sentiment that it would get worse, that something had been unleashed that could not be put back. At the time that we were stimulating Southland Tales, it was Iraq war and Britney Spears. That dichotomy on your Tv screen. The branding and everything was happening. It seemed inevitable that everyone would start to co-opt branding. Social media hadnt truly exploded yet. To find politicians going after each other on Twitter, its bizarre. To find Elizabeth Warren quoting the monorail on the Simpsons. To find politicians co-opting this millennial social media branding, its a blurring of the lines.

Each of his three cinemas reflects that sheepish rebellion that is part of his personality. Donnie Darko was a mostly passive protagonist fighting against both the oppressive system of high school and the levers of fate that he could only pull at the cinemas climax. Boxer Santaros is a pawn in a conflict between fascism and socialism, religion and science, and love and demise. Eventually, those characters succumb to a power greater than any on Ground, something unknowable. So does Kelly believe all this is down to higher power pulling the strings?

I dont believe any of this happened by accident. Thats just depressing and absurd, in my opinion, he answers. I do think theres a design to things, and we can never hope to know it in any of our lifetimes. Component of the challenge is trying to make sense of it. Thats whats cathartic for me as an artist, to try to make sense of it.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes movies need time to marinate’ appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

from Top Rated Solar Panels http://ift.tt/2qnuywL via IFTTT

[topsolarpanels]

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes cinemas require time to marinate’

The director of the cult favorite Donnie Darko was once hailed as the next David Lynch. Now, as fans rediscover his 2007 flop Southland Tales, he explains why patience is still a virtue and Trumps victory was a grotesque inevitability

Talking with the writer and director Richard Kelly, its easy to steer the conversation toward the end of the world. After all, Kelly developed a fervent cult following( and alienated it) through narratives of prophesied apocalypse 2001 s cult curio Donnie Darko and 2007 s cult-classic-in-the-making Southland Tales. But its not the collapsing houses or rivers of blood that fascinate Kelly; its what comes right before. The sneaking anxiety. The normalizing of lunacy. The casual neglect for your neighbour. The hunk in your throat that signifies your newfound understanding that this was inevitable.

If those impressions voices familiar in our present Trump-addled dystopia, that was not Kellys intention. Southland Tales, a post-9/ 11 satire melded with a retelling of the Book of Revelation that also includes a complex theory of period travel, was never meant to feel like a pre-game show for the next decade of global misery.

The sprawling narrative set in alternative solutions 2008 in which a nuclear attack on Abilene, Texas, triggers a third world war revolves around an amnesiac action star named Boxer Santaros( played by Dwayne The Rock Johnson) who falls in love with a porn star/ talkshow host/ entrepreneur/ pop star/ psychic who goes by the professional name Krysta Now( Sarah Michelle Gellar ), who has written a screenplay about the end times.

Oh, and theres also a government agency dedicated to spying on Americans, an underground neo-Marxist cult, alternative solutions energy source that are likely to rending a hole in the space-time continuum, a United States military sponsored by Hustler and Bud Light, and a mind-altering narcotic that keeps American soldiers docile and dependent. Jon Lovitz plays a racist cop, Seann William Scott plays identical twin police officer, Amy Poehler shows up as an anarchist improv comic, Justin Timberlake plays a drug-addled war veteran and Wallace Shawn of The Princess Bride fame is the antichrist( or a reasonable facsimile ).

Its overwhelming to process, and reflects so much of the nervousnes of our age, even if it isnt always pleasant to watch. I truly wanted it to be something that you would get lost in and that would sustain multiple viewings, Kelly tells me over dinner in Los Angeles. When discussing the cinema, his eyes widen and he projects an impish yet tentative enthusiasm as though hes feeling out whether youre going to receive his ideas without judgment. Now, that aspiration can be a self-defeating prophecy, as we saw clearly.

Kelly seems wistful about the experience of making and releasing the cinema, which, after a disastrous Cannes screening at which the cinema was booed heavily, virtually lost theatrical distribution. We were in Boston, in pre-production on[ his Southland Tales follow-up] The Box, the weekend Southland Tales opened in 50 -some theaters. The upcoming Monday was our first day of principal photography. We were scrambling for our first day. We had done the AFI Fest premiere and they rushed me back to Boston. And then, I remember that morning, were shooting Cameron[ Diaz] and Frank Langella, this really emotional scene in the Boston Public Library. Someone comes up to me and tells me per-screen averages on Southland Tales. It was such a bummer. A screening Kelly attended with the actor James Marsden were engaged in only four other people. Roger Ebert likened the cinema to the third day of a pitching conference on speed. One of the rare positive reviews of the cinema came from the New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who called it funny, audacious, messy and feverishly inspired.

I definitely remain proud of the aspiration of it. I feel like sometimes things just need time to marinate, he tells. The cinema has started to find a new audience. At the time of our session, hes in between hosting screenings of Southland Tales thanks to a roadshow tour of the cinema sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse chain of arthouse theaters. The newfound expressed appreciation for Southland Tales by both audiences and emerging pockets of critics hasnt yet translated to tangible a chance for Kelly. I dont ever want to feel defeated or that Ive let the system defeat me, he tells.

Sarah Michelle Gellar in Southland Tales. Photograph: Publicity image from cinema company

Southland Tales find an audience virtually 10 years later would not mark the first time one of Kellys films gained esteem upon second( or third) glance. Donnie Darko grossed a scant $517,375 when it was released a month after 9/11. When it saw a huge audience on video and DVD, Kelly became a hot commodity, an heir apparent to the surrealist tradition of directors like David Lynch. Sometimes, the wind is at your back. Sometimes, its at your front, Kelly tells about the ups and downs of his career. Darko remains his greatest up, a cinema thats become a touchstone work for the generation that grew up with it. Darko was a disaster at Sundance too, he tells me. No one remembers that, but it was. Im grateful for any rosy light of hindsight. I remember it took us virtually six months to sell the movie. It virtually ran immediately to the Starz network. We had to beg them to put it in theaters. Christopher Nolan stepped in and convinced Newmarket to put it in theaters.

After those issues, Kelly could have gone the expected route and taken on a big-budget studio tentpole. He could have directed the sequel, which he declined to do( it ended up being terrible and going straight to DVD ). Instead, he chose this peculiar, dense tale about the decline of American power.

President-elect Donald Trump was only a reality show curiosity when Southland Tales was released, but his mix of profane and pious could easily have made him a character in the film. I think that Donald Trump is this grotesque inevitability that has gotten this far because there was something truly, really dangerous hiding beneath the surface, that has been hiding beneath the surface for many, many years. The Republicans Kelly imagined in Southland Tales were the neocon religion zealots that seem virtually quaint to modern eyes. They seemed like the ultimate boogeymen in 2007, but as Kelly points out , no one in the Bush family would even show up at the RNC[ Republican national convention ].

What Southland Tales conveyed better than most politically charged films of the Bush era was the sentiment that it would get worse, that something had been unleashed that could not be put back. At the time that we were stimulating Southland Tales, it was Iraq war and Britney Spears. That dichotomy on your TV screen. The branding and everything was happening. It seemed inevitable that all individuals would start to co-opt branding. Social media hadnt truly explosion yet. To consider legislators going after one another on Twitter, its bizarre. To consider Elizabeth Warren quoting the monorail on the Simpsons. To consider legislators co-opting this millennial social media branding, its a blur of the lines.

Each of his three films reflects that sheepish rebellion that is part of his personality. Donnie Darko was a mostly passive protagonist fighting against both the oppressive system of high school and the levers of fate that he could only pull at the films climax. Boxer Santaros is a pawn in a conflict between fascism and socialism, religion and science, and love and demise. Eventually, those characters succumb to a power greater than any on Ground, something unknowable. So does Kelly guess all this is down to higher power pulling the strings?

I dont guess any of this happened by collision. Thats just depressing and absurd, in my opinion, he answers. I do think theres a design to things, and we can never hope to know it in any of our lifetimes. Portion of current challenges is trying to make sense of it. Thats whats cathartic for me as an artist, to try to make sense of it.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: ‘Sometimes cinemas require time to marinate’ appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

from Top Rated Solar Panels http://ift.tt/2obTzih via IFTTT