The Visitor is this year’s little film that could. It's based on a true story in which two very unlikely paths cross in the megalopolis that is NYC. A middle aged and bored Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins/Six Feet Under) comes home one day to find two new residents in his apartment: Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), his Senegalese girlfriend. Learning that they're victims of a real estate scam, he befriends them and allows them to stay.
Moved by this, Tarek, a drummer, insists on teaching Walter to play the African drum. The instrument captures Walter's spirit and so begins a friendship between the two men. The differences in culture, age and temperament disappear.
In what can only be described as a dark twist, Tarek is pulled up by the NYPD on the Metro after returning with Walter from a lunchtime drum circle practice. Tarek is arrested as an undocumented citizen and held for deportation. As the situation moves from bad to worse Walter departs his sedentiary existence and enters the brutal world of immigration deportation policy and detention centers.
What's interesting in this film, apart from the inside look at immigration policy and it's systemic deployment after 9/11, is the film's sophisticated and special use of music. As the central characters get to know each other through playing music, both of the characters undertake a transformation. Music is used as a method to communicate and as a way to cross language and emotional barriers. The score to the film is created by Polish born Jan A.P. Kaczmarek and lends the film a soft and gentle side to the harsh realities undergoing Tarek. But the director Tom McCarthy (Station Agent/The Wire) doesn't stop there, in using “Je'Nwi Teni” (Don't Gag Me) by Fela Kuti as their drum practice song and as the only song in the film, the director is more than judicious with his use of music and therefore makes its use all the more powerful. Somehow the use of this song reminds us of why we all share the same planet.
"Help meeeee! Heeeeeeelp meeeeeeeee!" Put David Cronenberg, Plácido Domingo, Howard Shore and David Henry Hwang together and they'll give you something to remember... "The Fly: The Opera". Dopeness abounds in this sickly 80's scarefest reworked to the LA Opera scene. Time magazine described "The Fly" as "a profound parable on love and loss." And we say Cronenberg is the king of body horror and what better way to revisit this lonely, dark sterile look at the 80's than Placido Domingo producing the Opera version. In its metamorphosis into an opera, this dark romantic tragedy presents a Kafkaesque meditation on man's uneasy relationship with technology. As the doomed scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) and his girlfriend Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis) battle some big issues with back hair.... I know an old lady who swallowed a fly...perhaps she'll die.
PRODUCTION DATES - LOS ANGELES
Sunday September 7, 2008 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday September 10, 2008 7:30 p.m.
Saturday September 13, 2008 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday September 16, 2008 7:30 p.m.
Saturday September 20, 2008 7:30 p.m.
Saturday September 27, 2008 2:00 p.m.
If you're headed to the Winter Music Conference in Miami (March 25th - 29th), you might be lucky enough to catch some of legeandary DJ Sasha’s magic. We here at SEEN are very happy to be able to offer a pair of tickets to the opening night of the Sasha and John Digweed tour at Mansion in Miami along with tickets to a private event hosted by Sasha, with a screening of New Emissions Of Light And Sound, a beautiful surf movie that Sasha scored. Spooky will also be DJing this event. Launching March 27th, at the Winter Music Conference (see Sasha and John Digweed Return), their spring club tour brings the Sasha & John Digweed brand back to action and finishing with a headlining set in the dance tent at Coachella. If you get to see him play at any of the 21 dates this spring, then you might be lucky enough to hear some cuts from the highly anticipated "Involv2er" - he's rumored to be road testing it. We'll have an exclusive interview with Sasha on his return from the WMC in a couple of weeks and we’ll be talking about the spring tour, his score for New Emissions of Light and Sound, and what's up with "Involv2er".
Here's the lowdown on the two events:
Sasha and John Digweed Spring Club Tour 2008
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
10PM - 5AM
BPM & globe present
NEW EMISSIONS OF
LIGHT AND SOUND
Directed by Joe G & George Manzanilla
With original soundtrack by SASHA
Thursday March 27, 2008
6:30pm-9:30pm
@ the Tanqueray Bespoke Gifting Suite
2228 Park Ave.
Miami Beach, FL 33140
Open Bar courtesy of & Dos Equis
To throw your name in the hat, send an email to info (at) seenmx (dot) com with your name, email, and contact phone number. One winner will be drawn at random and notified Thursday @ 4PM EST. Please remember that the show and screening are THIS THURSDAY IN MIAMI, so only enter if you know you’ll be around.
David Cronenberg definitely has something going on with violence; He's shocking and disturbing and maybe that's why his films (History of Violence, Spider, Naked Lunch, The Fly, Videodrome, and Scanners) are all so wonderful. Now out on DVD, with an Oscar nom for Viggo Mortenson in the leading role, Eastern Promises keeps the good times rolling. This gritty film follows the ruthless world of Nikolai, who's Russian angst and violent background have him indebted to London's largest Russian crime family. When Nikolai crosses paths with Anna (Naomi Watts), an innocent midwife who rides a Norton and has accidentally uncovered a brutal crime carried out by the family, Nikolai starts to unravel. It's a film that examines violence, servitude and modern day sex slavery in an unforgiving and unflinching style.
My Blueberry Nights is the English language debut film from renowned Chinese director, Wong Kar-Wai. Known for his highly stylized visual aesthetic and penchant for improvising shots and writing his movies as they are being filmed, Kar-Wai has established himself as one of China's top directors. Although Kar-Wai is relatively unknown in America, with Blueberry Night's that is likely to change. In addition to some big-time Hollywood talent (Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz), the film stars chanteuse, Norah Jones, in the lead. The film has been described as a road story meets epic love story, and is set in New York, Memphis, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. In addition to a new Norah Jones track, the soundtrack features cuts from Otis Redding, Ruth Brown, Cat Power (who also makes a cameo in the film), and Hello Stranger.
What has us excited about Blueberry Nights (besides Norah Jones, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, and Cat Power!) is that Ry Cooder composed the film's score.
Check out this splendid video a fan put together using footage from the 1996 French documenatry "Microcosmos" to Radiohead's "All I Need". What if some of your other favorite bands started scoring your favorite movies? Click on the title to read more...
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