DeZ Vylenz Log
A captain's log of activities and projects, affiliations and developments involving the Shadowsnake ship and various guerilla film expeditions. Updated in between storms by DeZ Vylenz, Writer - Director - Martial Arts Choreographer
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Things to get for Christmas part 1: Films
I'm not a big fan of the whole X-mas consumer hype, but it's a good chance to catch up on some culture, reading and viewing during the holidays.
So a quick overview of some good films to catch up on (none of which I have had time to get myself):
1) The Prisoner complete box set. Classic TV-series with Patrick McGoohan. Secret agent cold war paranoia psychology mixed in with 60s psychedelica.
2) Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre DVD. The Alejandro Jodorowsky mystical film feature classics now collected together.
3) Jan Svankmayer, The Complete Short Films (BFI collection). Top class stop motion animation and wild imagination from the Czech master.
4) Iron Monkey (1981). Starring Chen Kwan Tai. Not to be confused with the 90s Donnie Yen title, this one is an absolute Kung Fu classic.
5) The Living Planet (and all the "Life" series), The Blue Planet or any of the BBC documentary series narrated and produced by David Attenborough. The man's enthusiasm and compassion is inspiring with fantastic cinematography and classic film making skills that explore the wonders of our world. The Life of Plants for example shows the world of vegetation as never seen before with violent struggles and other concepts of time than our human mind could imagine.
Check it out.
Posted by DeZ Vylenz
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Bio-Machine overdrive
No time to update weblog last week. After some very productive meetings had to leave London on intense 6 hour/day training sessions etc.
In an urban environment one can quickly get caught in the ratrace and forget that the body and mind also need to be pushed to their limit in exercise, not only in business and the constant pursuit of achievements.
For a filmmaker this is also important, as it gives a certain drive and dynamic range to the projects and the rhythm of the script. Life itself is a script we constantly write and adapt, improving on the sets of reality.
To be continued
Posted by DeZ Vylenz
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Welcome to Jamrock
My musical taste or at least what I listen to is broad and eclectic. Today is my birthday, so time for introspection and mental cleansing.
So some music from the roots to ponder upon. I usually see a sharp divide between music lovers, e.g. metal/rock vs reggae, or electronic vs acoustic--an unnecessary polarization. I believe in Unity rather than dualities or fragments.
For those that never listen to Reggae, I'd say you still have to check some of the classic stuff with thundering bass (e.g. Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar as legendary rhythm section) and intense performance as the energy is actually similar to Rock (with more African roots of course).
Reggae itself evolved from the 50s and 60s rhythm and blues from America (check out The Studio One Story, great little informative box set with docu and music CD). When I grew up in Suriname, Reggae was everywhere in the privately run public transport buses pumping out through 120 W speakers. But there was also a smaller niche of rock afficionados and I always scoped out both niches for what personally sounded good to me rather than following trends.
Quickly generalizing here: I don't like the extremely slow and monotonous Reggae myself, especially if the performances are mediocre. In general I prefer more upbeat and aggressive undertones, particularly with a Rasta Warrior vibe. Dub is more trippy of course with a whole range of electronic and spacy effects, but still has that incessant heartbeat rhythm going on.
Anyway, time to move.
Put up the bass on this one and enjoy a new era Jamaican artist: Damien Marley. Welcome to Jamrock.
Posted by DeZ Vylenz
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises
It’s not in my nature to get depressed. Maybe pissed off, maybe bored, maybe extra pissed off or bittersweet, but not depressed in that modern mundane middle class kind of way. But recently the amount of bullshit films coming out has put me on this bad low down from cinema and pop culture in general--and yes, actually it is depressing.
Because I like the excitement of new works of fiction coming out, energy that seeps into our culture and consciousness from the brains of novelists, musicians and filmmakers. Film being the most accessible and immediate of all media and --despite all the headache that comes with it— still being my chosen field of profession, I try to make as much time possible for the cinema.
And then I don’t mean catching up on the classics, but simply walking into a cinema and getting surprised and actually transported to another world of experience. Then this Tuesday I realised David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises was on at my local cinema in between all the cutesy scheisse comedies, glammy Bollywood dance fests, psuedo-gritty torture horror programs and all the stuff that doesn’t justify my valuable 150 minutes of time. I missed it at the opening of The London Film Festival, so after a long but productive day of paperwork toil and biznis, popped into the warm womb of the cinema.
And from the first frame on, the film lived up to its promise and raving reviews(which I try to avoid reading before a film, but one article annoyingly gave away parts of plot , characters and the hidden homo-erotic undertones between characters etc.) and immediately transported the viewer to a realistic yet surreal world of Russian mobsters and other immigrants in a phantasmagorical kind of London.
Without spoiling it for anyone’s delicate virgin eyes, I have to say the film is incredibly well paced and terrifyingly beautiful, yet simple. The script is well written, the fight choreography very realistic and effective, the actors are all superbly intense and comfortable in their roles.
At times in his oeuvre, I found Cronenberg’s approach very cold and distant (although it deliberately seemed the intention in films like Crash or Dead Ringers), but the amount of restraint he (and the lead actors, especially Mortensen) applies here, even during intensely violent moments, is a great example of what separates the men from the boys and the old masters from the wannabe horror directors.
It’s one of those films where you feel your eyes widen in anticipation of what’s going to come and not because of some gimmicky plot twist or surprise, but simply because you want to know what’s going to happen with each of the characters. (Will be interesting to see Ridley Scott’s American Gangster too, as I saw some billboards in LA and Oakland)
In a lot of crime films there’s always something in the defiance of gangsters as rebels that the audience can identify with, because most of the time even crimes like drugs smuggling are still in a moral twilight zone (as it often is a matter of adult choice). But in this case the audience has to juggle its empathy (and secret catharsis with these men of seductive tyrannical power) with the abhorrence of slavery, the most sordid pit of human exploitation. Yet, we somehow understand the rules of the monetary game played in this world we would rather tuck under the carpets and are forced to experience the amoral nature of reality.
I saw a quote in the cinema paper Cineworld Unlimited: "Vincent Kassel portrays the volatile Kirill. "Think of Kirill like Saddam Hussein's son." Cronenberg explains: "Too much power, too little depth, and a lot of insecurities--a very dangerous combination." In fact this could easily apply to most of our politicians and policy makers on a macro scale.
Anyway, I won’t go on and ruin a fresh look at it, it’s all personal taste in the end, but it’s great to see the director who made The Fly return to incredible form in his execution of the craft. Check it out.
Posted by DeZ Vylenz
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Back across the Big Pond
The Eagle has landed. Back in London on Tuesday morning, although the plane left San Francisco Monday afternoon. So my mental calendar and bio rhythm are slightly messed up as it's impossible to get any real sleep with crying babies on board of the plane and upright chairs. Straight back to work without resting, the usual red tape and a few kilos of post to go through, then running in some fresh victuals, at night a battery charge of 14 hours, which must be a record as I usually only need 7-8 hours of sleep per day (often don't have more time than 6 1/2).
I realised I didn't read or watch films in the last two weeks, except 28 Weeks Later (weak horror compared to the first one) on the plane going to CA and Sugarhouse (mediocre pseudo-realistic British drama-thriller with again the usual "hard and violent" character, a middle class and a junkie stereotype). I actually don't miss films if there's enough exposure to music. People are always surprised that I never watch TV, although I'm a filmmaker. Watching some of the rubbish "reality" shows in the USA such as I Love New York, the Judge shows (some kind of civil court with people fighting over petty things and material possessions) confirmed my prejudice. There are periods when I prefer real people and real communication over pre-fab audio visual programming.
And in the Bay Area / San Francisco I was mostly with friends and connections from the reggae music scene, so plenty of stuff to catch up on. Also met up with London born DJ Brixton Hitman:
New musical discovery by the way: Fantan Mojah, artist to watch out for. He's got the fire, he's got the beats and he's got the message. Check it out
The last 5 years of travelling have always brought me inside the real heart of the cities I visit, rather than the surface touristic settings and "famous" locations or buildings. Once you actually communicate with people in their homes and habitat, you get a much better and more realistic sense of what the soul of a city is, rather than the postcard image projected in the media.
This is obviously a personal thing, as I rather check out what's going on underground rather than the glossy marble tiled shopping malls or fancy restaurants which are of course also part of a city's landscape, but can give a false sense of security far away from the real vibration of the various subcultures and scenes within an urban scape.
Therefore, every place has a story of failure and one of triumph. No place can be judged by what's presented in the media alone or by a single personal experience or contact with other people and places. So far my favourite city in the USA is still San Francisco (fitting that I'm apparently getting some kind of proclamation or key to the city from the mayor), or better said the entire Bay Area, as it's surrounded by a lot of wild space and has an incredible cosmopolitan vibe and mixed population. I even met coincidentally with people from Suriname two years ago, who were just as surprised as I was, given the fact that most of our country's brain-drain seeped into Florida, Canada and The Netherlands. Especially the jazz musicians are notoriously itinerant creatures.
In Oakland alone I saw so many different bars and scenes, e.g. one night I passed a soul bar and just had to step in because there was some great old school blues and soul band playing, and the place was loud and happening. Only the day after when a friend asked me where I'd been, she told me that it was supposedly a rough place where a lot of dealers went. In the end it's the vibe I care about and stories can be good warnings to remain alert and careful, but it is still how you walk through life and meet others that will keep you safe from harm.
The world in the end is a small ball of dirt compiled of even smaller chunks of land and it is unfortunate that the majority of our population remains ignorant, minds stuck into individual mental ghettos, even when well travelled or educated. Anyway, I'm back in dark and cold London and focusing on a few different projects, some short term, some long term, a lot of work, so to answer another question that came in: no, I most likely will not have more time to write the weblog more than once a week.
Quality still rules over quantity.
Posted by DeZ Vylenz
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