Daddy, I do– and Cannes does too.

Daddy I do won this year’s Cannes Film Festival Documentary of the year. Interesting enough– the budget was under 50 US dollars!  It portrays the conservative extreme practices for purity/anti-sex and their consequences .

Have you seen it? Let me know what you think!

Get Your Mind and Feet Loose

Stumbled upon this video: a collection of over 40 clips of dance in films from (basically) the past century. Decided to keep the blog post simple and give you a nice nostalgia.

The dancing in film really exploded in popularity during the late 1920s and early 30s, when synchronous sound in film was incepted. One of the great symptoms of the sound in movies are surveyed below with some of the best dance scenes of all time.  Sit back, relax–or if you really want: attempt the dance moves at your own risk:

Avatar: A Marker in History or a Masterpiece?

(Although this post may seem late since the movie was released many months ago, it is in due time for its re-release! You can now watch it in select Movie Theatres, again!)

I often avoid to go along with the waves of “BRILLIANT”, “BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR” high budget hypes. While most are crowding the cinemas and waiting long lines to see the most acclaimed film I stay wary and watch some older film through my computer screen.

The process was  the same with Avatar. Though all film majors (and a good quantity of my friends) were anxious to see it, I wanted to wait and watch it in my own time. The opportunity came to me while flying to my first time in Los Angeles (and the West Coast for that matter) on Virgin Air. It was quite the opportune moment.

Written and Directed by James Cameron, Avatar was a reflexive film on humanity and how we interact and overrule nature. It seems to be part of a new trend of animated (and CGI) films that are produced with critical messages and warnings to humanity (e.g. Wall-E).

Scott Pilgrim v. My Cinematic World

Bombarded with trailers everywhere you turn, it is rare nowadays to not know what a film is about before you watch it.  Needless to say, last week, I sat clueless and hesitant in my movie theatre chair, watching the beginning of Scott Pilgrim v. The World. It seemed to be the “typical indie film” where a perceived loser has a love triumph.

However I was very wrong— I was strangely impressed by the film.

Although the cinematography and art direction captured the feel and style of the original comic book in a very modern way (though not in black and white like the original comic book), I believe the film’s success can be summed up by three main factors:

The Cosfordpolitan: Week of August 30th

Cosfordpolitan is your weekly update on what you can catch over at the Cosford Cinema at the University of Miami! This week you can catch the films below as well as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (Saturday 1pm and 10pm, Sunday 8pm). If you didn’t get to see it in the big screen here is your chance!

For exhibition this week:

“The Extra Man” 2010 USA/FRANCE

Rater R |  Showtimes - Friday Sept 3 : 7pm – Saturday Sept 4  3:30pm 8pm -Sunday 1:30pm 6pm

• 2liner: A man who escorts wealthy widows in New York’s Upper East Side takes a young aspiring playwright under his wing. MORE INFORMATION

Hear the Spanish Guitar? Pedro Almodovar Night Playlist

As you may have heard on the show– over the summer I traveled to Barcelona, Pedro Almodovar’s hometown. There I saw multiple of his movie locations, and the city’s bohemian and serious art/music scene got me very inspired.

Almodovar’s scripts and films are masterful, witty, dark and touch upon taboo subjects. They are stylistic and more importantly– ENTERTAINING. He has managed to marry entertainment and purposeful messages to breed great films.  Below is the playlist of tonight’s show–  and check out this website for his film scores.

And as extra extra bonus, here is the 2004 NPR interview I featured on the show about Bad Education.

“La Mala Educacion” (Bad Education, 2004)

VOTE DONATE AND THEN VOTE! AH THE AMERICAN DREAM!

So Many Exciting things happening– Where to begin?

IT IS RADIOTHON WEEK so make sure to help the radio station out and donate what you can! The exciting thing is– everything you donate is being matched dollar for dollar! So $25 really equals $50!

CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE STUDENT-RUN RADIO STATION WVUM

Also, We are having our in-house awards, the “Vinyl Awards” where you can vote for your favorite on air personalities and shows!

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE ON AIR WVUM SHOWS AND PERSONALITIES HERE

AND FINALLY– THE NEW TIMES is having their yearly poll to see what is the best in Miami! And if Miami is YOUR favorite station then definitely show your support!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE THINGS IN MIAMI

50′s Comedy Playlist

Some Like it Hot

• “Some Like it Hot” by Matty Malneck
• “I’m Thru With Love” Marilyn Monroe
• “Randolph Street Rag” by Adolph Deutsch
• “Running Wild” by Marilyn Monroe
• “Sweet Georgia Brown” Matty Malneck
• “By the Beautiful Sea” by Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators

The Naughty School Girl Reveals it All: St. Trinian’s

Ever wonder where the Britney Spears, the sorority girls and half of all women during halloween got the inspiration for the naughty school girl?

Surprisingly–it was not an American creations (shucks!) it was a British inspired concept when the St. Trinian film comedy series in the 1950′s and 1960′s. It was about two types of school girls in a school called St. Trinian’s : the younger, mischievous school girls and the vixen, manipulative, sexy older school girls.

The films were used as a direct criticism to the school system in Britain, which was quite corrupt and elitist at the time (to the protesters point of view). Witty and dry, with recurrent characters, these film are an addicting look at the commence of the great American Tradition: the naughty school girl.

To learn more about St. Trinian, here is a ppt I made for my Film class a year ago: St. Trinian Powerpoint

Some titles include “Belles of St. Trinians”, “Pure Hell at St. Trinians”, etc. etc.

Just see this clip of a Hamlet performance at St. Trinian’s:

They have recently made new St. Trinian films, one in 2007 and one this past year– but I wouldn’t recommend to watch these over the originals. Its like watching Land Before Time 3,853. Not necessary.

Grand Central: An Animal Collective

The band Animal Collective, whose sounds are well too common on WVUM, has not been in the Miami area since they performed in the Culture Room last summer. This time they are having a screening of their film, “ODDSAC”.  They are calling it their visual LP, and this will be premiered in South Florida tonight at Grand Central (8pm!):

Tonight you can catch the four band members as well as the director, Danny Perez, who will join the audience for a Question and Answer session after the screening.

The film has been four years in the making and won’t be released until the summer of this year, so this screening is an optimal scenario for multiple reasons.

It is $15 and tickets can be FOUND HERE