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.
Despite the yawns over this year's struck Golden Globes, some serious shit went down. Mad Men won for TV's best drama, and the show's Jon Hamm won for best lead actor. This show came out of nowhere and is the best thing on right now. Again, it's off network (it's AMC's first ever drama) and it begs the question how will the networks ever catch up to cable? It's 1960 New York City and "Advertising is Happiness." It's the America that's not yet grown up through Kennedy and Vietnam, women are seen as second class citizens, and smoking is still cool.
The mad and ruthless advertising world is shaping the heart of the American Dream. This cut-throat world is so ego driven (nothing new there) that it's a wonder these people could sleep at night. Maybe that's why it's constant cocktail hour. What's refreshing about this show is the stellar writing and fantastic performances. It's a lush bygone era that's so similar to today, it's amazing. We’re sure Madison Avenue is hooked. The music is perfect too, with music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas dishing up classic tunes from Bobby Vinton, Gordon Jenkins and Don Cherry. Main title is the whacky "Beautiful Mine" by RJD2 (Def Jux) and Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" was on promo duty earlier in the season.
Music highlight from the series premiere: The song that plays through the surprise reveal that Draper is married with kids is Vic Damone's take on the My Fair Lady song "On The Street Where You Live". The sentiment of the song makes it feel like Draper adores his family, but is really just visiting them as his real home is back in the city. And let's not forget that My Fair Lady is about a woman giving up her dreams of a career to marry an emotionally stunted rich man, something that the secretaries at the agency all seem to aspire to.
Playlist: Mad Men - Ep101
1. "Band Of Gold" - Don Cherry - Draper talks to waiter in bar
2. "Shangri-La" - Robert Maxwell - burlesque show
3. "Caravan" - Arthur Fiedler - men commute home to the suburbs
4. "On The Street Where You Live" - Vic Damone - Draper with wife and
kids/credits
Check out the trailer here. It's on Thursdays at 10pm on AMC.
When you listen to a Sigur Rós track it's like you're visiting the end of the world. In fact their music could be the end of the world. The band has been written and talked about by everyone under the sun and for the past several years their fanatical following has grown and grown. Now they've collaborated on a film. And it's wonderful.
Last week the band played an up-close and personal show at the Vista movie theater in LA. It was the LA premiere of the documentary Heima and needless to say the performance was spectacular. There are the obvious references to Bjork and all things Icelandic but there's something equally as special in Sigur Rós. It could very well be something in the water. And if it is? Then we want some. In fact water features in such an important and prominent way in the gentle yet brutal landscape of this film, that it makes you want to visit Iceland.
The film features a series of magical free concerts that the band threw as a thank you to the people of Iceland. In a way, the band used the shows to help them reacquaint themselves with their "heima" or home, the settings are equally as incredible as the band’s music and together they border on a religious experience. If you've ever seen the band perform live in a big venue imagine capturing that energy in a disused Icelandic herring factory in front of 30 people.
If you blink you might miss it but underneath all that beauty and power is a David Fincher (Zodiac, Se7en, Fight Club)-like noise. It's as if he got hold of the film and infiltrated a sub text to it that is Sigur Rós. There's something lurking underneath as these gentle, incredible souls warm you to their home of Iceland.
Directed by Dean DeBlois, who very strangely also made Lilo and Stitch, this is a layered and beautiful noisy film.
Heima is in cinemas on November 2 and on two disk DVD on November 5. Disk one is the film and includes two exclusive new songs "Guitardjamm" and the traditional "A Ferd Til Breidarfjardar 1922". The second disk contains extras and all the songs from the film. There's exclusive new performances, and the brand new track "Heima".
On October 16th, 2007 Soulsavers released their new album It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land on Columbia Records. The band is made up of producers Rich Machlin and Ian Glover, and 5 of the songs on this album feature vocals from Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, QOTSA, Twilight Singers). The reviews have been pretty impressive, including a 4 1/2 stars on All Music and 9 out of 10 stars from PrefixMag. They also enjoy the distinction of being one of the first bands signed and released under the new Rick Rubin regime at Columbia.
We loved the record the first time we heard it because of it’s dark, moody atmospheres and gospel vocals laid on top of grimy, laid back beats that sound like they’re ripped straight from Endtroducing (Soulsaver’s first album, Tough Guys Don’t Dance was often compared to Unkle’s first release). Lanegan sounds like a contemporary version of Johnny Cash reflecting on his darkest moments. The album is also beautifully cinematic. Each song sets a scene where a dark tunnel might lead to sorrow and pain or redemption and enlightenment. Please check out the excellent "Paper Money" on our SEEN Music player (to the right of this very blog post) and you can see for yourself why we are so drawn to this group as both musicians and just plain ’ol interesting individuals.
Recently we were able to ask co-producer Rich Machlin a few questions about his cinematic influences and what video games keep him and his mates up until morning.
SEEN: Your music is so cinematic, do you picture scenes while you are writing songs or does the music grow into that organically?
Rich Machlin: It usually just grows organically, but cinema is still a pretty big influence on the music we make for sure. There's no doubt that a couple of tracks like 'Ask The Dust' & 'Arizona Bay', the main influence on them pieces of film i'd seen.
S: Have you done any writing specifically for film, ads, games or other visual media?
R: Yes, a few different ones. I'd started out doing scores for a couple of feature length documentaries & I'm looking to cross into features.
