In memoriam Tony Curtis

Hollywood star Tony Curtis has died at his home in Las Vegas after suffering a cardiac arrest, aged 85.

Sad news, we like to say goodbye and thank you from here to Tony Curtis for the wonderful and diverse roles he played in his career. His performances, such as in Some like it hot, The Defiant Ones, The Great Race or Sex and the single girl (both at the side of Natalie Wood) will remain unforgotten.
And naturally his appearance in the TV-Show The Persuaders as the prototypical American playboy.
Thanks for the memories! And our condolence to his family and friends.

La Linea

Simplicity is an art.

The What's love got to do with it poster, for which the artist captured Tina Turner with a few simple brush strokes is among my favoureds. Roger Rabbit is everybody's fave and it's a great poster, too, fitting for this lovely comedy.
Gaby, while not really mine its an interesting concept along the same line (tee-hee). If only I could warm myself to these flower artworks.

Utinni!

Call me childish if you so like, but I can't help it. Everytime I see this poster for a movie called Uncle Boonmee remembers his former lives, I'm tempted to shout out "Utinni!"

Damn you, pop culture, damn you!

Pirate day, arr!

"Ay, ye landlubbers!
It's talk like eh Parrot day ... Polly wants-
What? Speak louder bub, I've got me ear full of salt water! ... Oh, I see, mate. We got a us a talk like a Pirate day, makes more sense frankly, scratch that cookie then and, ah, walk that plank if a you would be so nice. And lest I forget: Arr!"

But seriously, what better excuse could there be to cram out that ol' pearl of piraty goodness starring the inimitable Captain Blood, Errol Flynn!
Although, is it just me or does that artist seem to have had a young Ingrid Bergman on his mind when he drew Olivia de Havilland?
It’s like looking at a “For whom the Skull and Crossbones tolls” poster…

Bowling for Columbine

I’ll be honest to you and tell you right off the bat that I’m not a fan of Michael Moore’s work, or his person for that matter, quite the opposite so. I’m willing to give him that he makes a few valid points in Bowling for Columbine, other than in his follow-up mockumentary Fahrenheit 9/11 where all he deliveres are sarcastic comments about then President George W. Bush but otherwise shows himself void of any real political interests. Moore is the typical blender/mockumentary director that strives on creating controversy and putting on a show of care, populism on the lowest level.

There’s a part in Bowling for Columbine that always rubbed me the wrong way, the interview with Marilyn Manson. But in fact the cynical hypocrisy of that part is typical not only for Moore, but this whole "genre" he stands for, interviewing an artist who’s whole income is build on feeding off the hate culture which churns out kids like the two Columbine attackers, a fact Moore conveniently ignores.

It's true, neither Manson nor any of his comrades can be blamed for the tragic incidents happening on that day, not any more at least than any given part of the weapons industry.
Still it’s a laughing farce to hear that man talk about responsibility when he himself fails to take his own share of it.

Alouette, Silhouette

"I see a little silhouetto of a man... Scaram- no wait...";
as it happens it's not only a silhouetto of a man, I see.

Let the ol' times roll

It's high time again for us to highlight another DeviantArt fave:
WacomZombie / Corlen Kruger

Wonderful, sexy takes on classic favourites from all genres:
















Even as a fan of the original Death rides a horse, I've gotta say that I wonder if this take on the title would not have had, ahm, excited me more...

















Should go without saying but here's anyway:
For original sizes/more of his work visit the above linked artist pages
(You can also see the uncensored version of Ilsa there)

Art comparison

Makes you wonder if they hired the same design team.

















The US cover for Malinda Lo's novel Ash keeps reminding me of the teaser poster for the remake of Låt den rätte komma in (Let the right one in)

















For some reason I'm reminded of Freddy when I see the poster to Disney's High School Musical China, but maybe it's just that I want to see those kids die a horrible death...

Picture perfect moment

Above we see we a crucified Keoma being shown his father's dead body, one of the great ironic images that make up the same titled movie. “God is dead” is a recurring message throughout the Italian western cycle, one doubtlessly rooted in Italian’s strict catholic upbringing, but no other movie made as unashamed, nor stylistically as brilliant, a use of this as Enzo G. Castellari‘s Keoma. Essentially the whole movie seems to have been made with the one idea in mind to capture the essential myths that make up this particular genre in a row of iconic sequences so loosely connected by story that it needs a commenting narrative as movie score.
Castellari would later go and restage various parts of this famous movie for another of his ventures*, for example the iconic crucifixion, but he never again achieved the same cinematographic perfection we find in Keoma.

*Jonathan degli orsi (Jonathan of the bears)

Buried in praise

Love this teaser poster.
There's a nice ironic truth to the image of a movie getting literally buried under carefully selected Press comments.