Totally Dublin

Grizzly Bear. More than a fantastic costume to scare away black-cat-wielding chissileurs, the year’s joint-biggest-indie-success-story clear the bonfire-smoke haze on Sunday with their first show since the glorious(-ly overhyped) Veckatimest. We do like the prep-pop of their latest album, though it’s not a patch on their previous opus Yellow House. ‘The Knife’ is our deadline-day soundtrack, and we once had a dream where Shakira put ‘On A Neck, On A Spit’ on a mixtape for us. A healthy mix of both albums from their Vicar Street set on Sunday night. More details here.

The Laser DVD Trash section. Like a black space vacuum sucking in all that pass it, Laser DVD’s ‘Trash’ shelf is the last refuge of the damned, desperate, and dirty. After you’ve seen slo-mo-filtered ninjas chop off Godzilla’s monster in badly-dubbed rage, or Christopher Lee morph into a gelatinous blob, Pet Sematary’ll seem like zombie Peppa Pig. Dig out such classics as FRANKENHOOKER [A Terrifying Tale of Sluts and Bolts] and THE WILLIES [You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, You'll Puke, You'll Die!], grab a portable DVD player, and go search out your local piss-and-cider fuelled bonfire for appropriate background noise. 

Mumblecore Season: The recent commercial glut of schmaltzy ‘indie’ films, as with its music genre counterpart, has its origins in an earlier purple patch of the discipline at start of the decade. Hipper than an American Apparel onesie (and even harder to pull off without looking like a try-hard diptwit), Mumblecore moviemaking is a low-budget, Cassavetes/Jarmusch-derived noted for its… mumbling. Typical Mumblecore dialogue might go a little something like this:

Marnie: Hey, if you could move anywhere, if you were moving out of here, just anywhere in the country, or anywhere I guess, where would you move? 

Alex: I dunno. I guess a better question is: if you were thirteen feet tall, would you rather be that or have eyes on the stalks on top of your head? 

Not a whole lot happens in a mumblecore movie, but the majority are charming and warm enough to warrant the hour and a half spent in their company. And hey, thanks to the Douglas Hyde Gallery’s season you can even do so for free. The season started on Monday (sorry for the late heads-up, we had a headache the size of Tipperary), but some of the genre’s peak moments are still up for grabs: catch Aaron Katz’s Dance Party USA, and the scene’s figurehead Andrew Bujalski’s Mutual Appreciation. The uh… like, full programme is over here, or something.

Soap & Skin, Austria’s 18-year-old Anja Plaschg, is one of the most singular acts on this year’s rather-quite-large DEAF line-up. Makes sense then that she’ll cast the first stone of the festival, opening the festival at the Button Factory tomorrow night, then. She’ll be preceded by a small Filmbase shindig with Beautiful Unit, and followed by the looptastic Alexander Tucker. Think Antony and the Johnsons, except actually a girl, and you’ll get something near what to expect. Or just watch this instead:

IADT alumnus Sonia Shiel will open a new exhibition in the Royal Hibernian Academy tomorrow. A mix of video, painting, and sculpture, Shiel’s work is a humorous, multidisciplinary exploration of creativity itself. Have a look at some jpegs below, and then find out details right here.

Sonia Shiel, Do you think anyone will come?, 2009, Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm, Image courtesy of the artist

Sonia Shiel, My name in lights, 2009 Wood, card, tape & markers, (dimensions variable 290 x 180cm), Courtesy of the artist.

Hard Working Class Heroes festival too often resembles shooting fish in a barrel. A barrel with too many fish and not enough water where most of the fish are going to die anyway, because the barrel’s too small and nobody buys CDs in it anymore. The festival’s motive - to highlight upcoming Irish bands of all shapes and sizes and represent the FUTURE of Irish music - is an admirable one, but we all know the future of today is the past of tomorrow today (or something). Picking a winner from the line-up can be a difficult task, but it’s not impossible to find the most sparkling names in the sludge of this year’s line-up - if you’re nipping down to one of the festival’s six venues this weekend we’d recommend catching the newly-Domino-signed Villagers [Friday, 11pm, Andrew's Lane], the post-punk clunk and crunk of Not Squares [Friday, 10.10pm, Academy 2], our favourite Oz-quoting hardcore spazzers Adebisi Shank [Saturday, 11.15pm, Andrews Lane], the soon-to-be-featured-on-our-site Hunter-Gatherer [Saturday, 2am, Twisted Pepper], the Albini-bothering Jogging [Sunday, 8.50pm, Twisted Pepper], and sunny-side-up good eggs 202s [Sunday, 11.05pm, Andrews Lane]. The chap below is launching his new 7” in Road tomorrow with an instore at 2 if you fancy, too.

More here.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is the biggest draw to the picturehouse this weekend, as the morbid, the curious, and the curiously morbid gather for Heath Ledger’s last big-screen appearance. Terry Gillam’s work has been praised for its aesthetics (then again, even an ad for Cilit Bang with Lily Cole in it would be), and its magic-mirror premise is a winner. We’ve a full review here, and a big ol’ set of cinema listings here. Avoid Vince Vaughan at all costs.

Freefall - Receiving raver reviews than a Blobbyland rave party, the Corn Exchange’s contribution to this year’s Theatre Festival is this weekend’s must-see for theatre-tots. A work of breadth and sophistication, Freefall sets out to be ‘a sharp, humorous and exhilarating look at the fragility of a human life’, and winds up being a whole lot more.

More here.

And just because it’s Friday.

Spandau Ballet - Apparently the very reason Billy Bragg took up the guitar, and the impetus behind a 30% increase in gold lamé sales in the 1980s clothing sector (this was before American Apparel was even born, remember) the New Romantic quintet are back for cash at the O2 tonight.

Details here

Laurina Paperina - Bad! Laurina Paperina’s work walks a thin line between being ironically playful and just being downright mental. Her 2007 collection (How to) Kill the Artists, comprised sketches and animations of famous artists being crushed, mauled, stabbed and generally slaughtered by their own creations, in glorious technicolor. As Frida Kahlo gets beheaded by her faithful monkey, Francis Bacon has his face reconstructed by one of his crucifixion figures, while Andy Warhol comes a cropper at the hands of a knife wielding and homicidal Marilyn Monroe. With this wicked sense of humour, Paperina rejects the hyper-intellectualism of much conceptual art, preferring to turn the artistic focus back in on itself, which an emphasis on fun, accessibility and mischief.  

Six videos from her Kill the Artists series have made it into Bad!, her current show running at the Rubicon Gallery, though they are by no means the focus. It is in fact the title piece, Bad - Post It that steals the show, by nature of its sheer size and surprising complexity. Composed of 297 arranged post-its, each bearing an individual sketch, the work bears endless re-reading, as it offers bite-sized artistic satire, that is both nutritious and hilarious. You’ll stare at this menu for hours my friend, like a vegan at a drive-thru. 

More here.

Up! - Everybody else has seen Up! 3D already (or at least enough people to make it the biggest opening weekend for an animated film this year), so we’re blowing up some balloons and floating over to Cineworld tonight to get our slice of the Pixar pie. Bring some microwave popcorn and Minstrels and we’ll see you down there.

More here.

An Evening of Reading, Music & Conversation with Nick Cave - By far the best company to spend the evening in tonight is grumpy Uncle Nick’s. To coincide with the release of his novel ‘The Death of Bunny Munro’ (which we haven’t read yet, but are informed by an English grad friend that it’s McCarthyesque) the first man of Australian rock noir is spending the night in Vicar Street, flouting the smoking ban and knocking back whiskeys. The problem? It’s long sold out. However, as the below video of skeletal Nick taking fellow antipodean Zane Lowe down ten notches should be enough to have you on the hunt for a nearby tout-on-crutches shouting “buyin’ or sellin’ tickets dere folks?”
Details here. 

Keith Farnan - Touted as a Dylan-Moran-In-The-Making (we’re not sure whether he shares the same penchant for swigging from bottles of wine), Keith Farnan’s stand-up takes the piss out of the death penalty tonight at the Project.

Details here.

Tales of Ballycumber - Despite having received something of a panning (the Guardian wrote that ‘ It is beautiful but strangely inert’), Sebastian Barry’s Wicklow mountainside-set Tales of Ballycumber is still the biggest theatre pull in town with noted performances from Stephen Rea and Aaron Monaghan.

Details here.

From today until to Sunday some of the most innovative artists, performers and film-makers will converge on Dublin’s Smithfield for the Darklight festival, an annual celebration of art in its various forms. Here Programme Director Derek O’ Connor introduces this year’s diverse schedule of events, explains how the festival has progressed in the decade since its establishment and why it’s more significant now then ever.

In what ways do you think the Darklight festival has evolved in the years following its foundation?

I think that it’s constantly evolving. We’re always looking forward. This year we’ve given the festival the title of ‘New World Order’ which refers to a comment Gordon Brown made earlier this year in one of his speeches about how the political and financial landscape has drastically changed. Similarly the landscape of film, art and performance has taken a huge shift. Every year there are new trends and we’re constantly trying to stay ahead of the crowd and gage what they will be.

Most festivals tend to focus on one particular discipline but Darklight celebrates the convergence of art, film, theatre, performance and technology making it the only festival of its kind in Ireland. Why do you think it’s important for us to have a festival like this?

I think that’s the answer. It’s an important festival because it’s the only one of its kind. People always ask us what exactly Darklight is and that’s a question we ask ourselves all the time. It’s mainly about celebrating art, film, technology and their convergence. We’re very dedicated and passionate about we do and the festival is a way of bringing people together who are driven by a similar enthusiasm. A key focus of ours is to encourage creativity wherever possible. We’re a very artist-friendly event. We’re interested in the successful artists of the modern age but also try to encourage and support the next generation of artists. Darklight is as much about the people who aren’t as well known and providing them with a platform to showcase their work.

Do you think that the festival caters for a very specific community or that it’s accessible for all?

I think in the past there was some concern that it might be seen as something for the cool kids. If anything we cater for geeks of all ages and sizes. We’re actually having a geek lounge on Saturday which is basically a chance for media, technology and design enthusiasts to hang-out and get excited about new applications and technologies. It would be inclusive if we confined ourselves to traditional spaces but we take art and film out onto the streets. We’re trying to reach out to everyone. I think ultimately the festival appeals to anyone who’s into fun, interesting and experimental work. We get the most eclectic crowd imaginable, where film-makers and artists are part of the audience as well as contributors.

Darklight is a festival concerned with cutting-edge technology and its incorporation into various artistic mediums. How do you think that advances in technology have affected the festival?

Ultimately what technology provides is freedom for people to create imaginative work un-tethered by financial constraints. Technology is no longer a means unto itself. People are using it to create new and exciting work. There’s a whole new generation of artists who are constantly coming up with interesting artistic concepts and figuring out new ways to present them. We have created a forum where people can view and appreciate that work but we also try to showcase the new approaches to media and technology behind it, for example we’re showing a lot of shorts and animated film this year which there have been some incredible progressions in.

Darklight is all about innovation, experimentation and pushing at the boundaries. Are these things that you’ve tried to reflect in the programme that you’ve chosen?

I think so. We have two-time Turner prize nominee Willie Doherty doing an installation on one of the empty shop fronts. His piece is a commentary on urban living spaces and our relationship with them. The screenings of course are a core element but we’re also excited about our Straylight programme, which is the visual arts strand of the festival. Amanda Coogan, one of the most exciting visual artists around at the moment, will be working with an artist called Niamh Murphy and together they’re co-ordinating a performance weekender. It will be a really concentrated, intense session for people who are interested in performance art.

We’re also organising a series of forums and seminars this year, one of which is with Pirate Party member Anna Troberg who represents a very valid, forward-thinking ideology about the freedom of copyright, which is a topic that’s generated a lot of discussion of late. Una Mullally is doing a pop culture seminar which we’ve called Has pop eaten itself? It’s about how pop culture has accelerated and morphed to the point that there’s no reality or authenticity in it anymore.

We’re also showing an REM film that was shot live in Dublin’s Olympia theatre by Vincent Moon. He’s famous for organising jam sessions in really strange places. He once got The Arcade Fire to do a show in a lift. It’s a fantastic concert movie.

The centre-piece of the festival is Niall Sweeney’s spectacular show Revolver on Saturday night and it’s performance-based which has never been the case before with a main event.

In the middle of all of this is our main international guest, Mark Romanek. He’s a hugely influential film-maker who has done features such as One Hour Photo, but his music videos like Johnny Cash’s Hurt and Jay Z’s 99 Problems are also stunning. His work is truly as good as that medium gets. We’re doing a film-making session with him, a general Q&A and retrospective of his career so far where we’ll show his greatest work.

Why did you decide to change locations this year?

Normally the festival is more Dublin-wide. We decided to pool our resources and concentrate our efforts on one place this year. What’s interesting is that Smithfield was originally intended as one thing and now has become another. The area was a bright, shining paragon to Celtic Tiger Ireland but we’re in a post-boom phase now and because of the cheap rent and available space there it’s become a haven for artists. There’s this curious dynamic to the district. I think it’s in a fantastic state of flux at the moment and we’re seizing that moment.

Research has shown that people embrace artistic mediums such as the cinema and theatre for escapism in times of economic instability. Do you think that the success of Darklight and other celebrations of the arts is a testament to that fact?

I think that financial success doesn’t necessarily correlate with creativity. The last ten years have been one of the most inspired and creative times in Irish history. The next couple of years will be very interesting because of the current political and financial extremities. I think the reaction to what’s happening will be a swell of creativity in Ireland. There’s very little money to be made in artistic endeavours so the people who pursue them will be involved purely for love of the work. It’s an interesting time, a tough time but we have to try and derive some positives and I think one positive is that people will be inspired and create great work.

For more Darklight coverage, including an interview with savage Savage director, Brendan Muldowney, have a look here.

Words Aoife O’Regan

It appears that there may be some substance behind recent rumours that Lars Von Trier’s ‘Antichrist’ is to be made-over in computer game format. The film has inspired widespread division with many hailing it as the eccentric Danish director’s finest achievement to date, while others condemn its appalling misogyny.

Evidently aiming to cash-in on the publicity generated by the controversy surrounding the film, game developers Zentropa have announced their bizarre intentions via Danish website Politiken. The game, to be entitled ‘Eden’, is being likened to a night-marish version of ‘Myst’ that challenges the player to confront their darkest desires and fears. William Dafoe has agreed to lend his voice to the project which is still in the early stages of development and reportedly being undertaken by ‘Hitman’ series writer Morten Iverson. Eden will be released pending the approval of the finished product by Mr Von Trier himself, who is allegedly an avid computer gaming fan.

A zealous Antichrist review here.

This week the IFI pays tribute to one of the most pivotal periods in the history of cinema, the French New Wave. The movement, this year celebrating its 50th anniversary, began as a reaction against the generic, creatively stagnant content that had become pervasive in Hollywood cinema. The interests of famed New Wave directors such as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddard lay in the condemnation of the practices that had come to dominate cinema as a whole through radical stylistic innovation. Truffaut’s semi-autobiographical ‘The 400 Blows’ is the perfect manifestation of this aim, and is allegedly the film that initiated the entire movement. As a young boy in working-class Paris Antoine struggles with parental neglect and victimization at school, eventually resorting to delinquency to fill the void. ‘The 400 Blows’ is an interesting portrait of how anti-social behaviour is shaped that still manages to be quite jovial despite its bleak content. Antoine’s is more than just characteristic attention-seeking behaviour, but a rebellion against what he perceives to be a grave injustice in society.       

 The film contains many of the hallmark features of French New Wave cinema that have endured to contemporary times, including a preoccupation with the expressive potential of the face. The inability of words to communicate efficiently is an idea that also frequents and long, lingering shots of the characters aspire to demonstrate that unspoken sentiments are far less restrictive. While the experimental techniques employed are not as instantly recognizable as in the later New Wave work, what does link these films is a very prominent rejection of classical cinematic form. The extensive festival programme offers an opportunity to watch this notion evolve through ten key films, which created an immeasurable influence that still reverberates in the film world. 

And the rest? The programme still has some of New Wave’s most iconic films to come.

Paris Belongs To Us (Paris nous appartient)                            July 11^th 2.20 p.m.
Vivre sa vie                                                                                      July 11^th 5.00 p.m.
Last Year in Marienbad  (L’Année dernière à Marienbad)       July 12^th 2.30p.m.
The Girls (Les Bonnes femmes)                                                   July 12^th 5.10pm
Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim)                                                         July 18^th 2.40 p.m
Contempt (Le Mépris)                                                        July 19^th 1.00 & 7.00 p.m.
Band of Outsiders (Bande à part)                                               July 25^th 3.00 p.m.

From the Bic pen of Aoife O’Regan

Is it better to live with a bullet lodged in your brain, even if it means you might drop dead any time? Or would you rather have the bullet taken out and live the rest of your life as a vegetable? Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Is scrap metal worth more than landmines? Can you get drunk from eating waffles? Can a woman fit inside a refrigerator? What’s the human cannonball world record?
Confused? Yeah, me too. But supposely the latest creation, Micmacs a Tire-Larigot, from french cinema’s favourite, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is a return to form after a brief hiatus which saw him delve into the world of epic cinema with his war themed A Very Long Engagement. The synopsis above seems to reference his two celebrated works Delicatessen and Amélie, pre empting similar success perhaps? Swapping Audrey Tautou for Dany Boon (he’s big in France), from what I can gather from the trailer the story surrounds some bloke who has been shot in the head. The trailer is in French, donc si vous ne le parlez pas il vous semblera plus confondre que le premier paragraph .

They seem to have the longest lasting love affair in Hollywood, and are currently midway through filming a dark and gloomy version of Alice in Wonderland. However, they’ve already made plans for a project once Alice has found her way back out the rabbit hole - a feature-length remake of the 60s TV show Dark Shadows. A script is in the works as we speak and Johnny is said to be “very excited” as he’s been a fan since early childhood. Don’t hold your breath though, Alice is unlikely to hit cinemas until mid 2010, so Dark Shadows could be another 2 years away.

Go to the very hub of Dublin film here.