Today I finally went and saw this movie:
I thought it was fantastic. Now, I already know the basic story of Joy Division, and I'm sure most everyone else in the audience around me also knew it, yet Anton Corbijn manages to make a very effective biopic despite the fact that he's telling a mythologically familiar punk-era story. The black and white cinematography was beautifully bleak and perfect for the grim '70s Manchester setting. Sam Riley just channels Ian Curtis (a way better depiction than Sean Harris's Curtis in 24 Hour Party People, I think) plus he sings all the songs in the film (while the actors playing the rest of the band also play the songs for real). I honestly walked into this movie feeling a little jaded about Curtis and his life, but I left feeling like I had actually experienced something...honest. Corbijn took many well-known photographs of the band in the 70s, and his real-life interactions with them gives this film an expansive sense of genuineness it may not have had otherwise. I'm glad nobody else had a chance to make this movie before he did.
I saw the movie at a theater in the East Village, and of course I got sucked into Strand Books on my walk back to the subway. I have a very hard time avoiding that place, even though I still think Powell's is the better of the two mega-indie bookstores. But the Strand is so New York: it's a little chaotic, very musty and dusty, the employees are notoriously rude, and it's always crowded and cramped...(plus I've heard that people have even seen rats scurrying around inside).
Once inside the Strand vortex, I bought a $5 book called In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser, who I had never read before until I read his audacious story in this month's Harper's called "A Report on Our Recent Troubles." God damn that is a good story...he took a subject that could have so easily veered into over-the-top gimmickry but kept it tight and controlled and even believable. Read it if you haven't already! So I am excited about checking out some more of his stuff.
I also succumbed to an expensive art book, one that I had spotted before a couple of weeks ago, while there with the lovely elleseven when she was visiting me:
We spent some time looking through it as we were as mesmerized as moths to a bug light over its gorgeous collages, all of which, in artsy-fartsy abstract ways, apparently depict a boy and a dwarf, or just the boy in one and the dwarf in another, I'm not sure. I can't find too many images of them online, but here's one:
(EDIT: Actually, this piece may not even be from the same series that I'm talking about, I'm not sure)
This one's okay, but most in the book are better. I would love to see these in person, as they are apparently pretty grand in scale. There is a weird, elegant kind of fractal-like symmetry to these pieces which makes them total eye candy to look at. Arturo Herrera now really interests me, and I want to seek out some more of his stuff. I'm gonna have to find out if there's anything of his showing currently in New York.
Well, to my three or four readers out there, that is all for now, but I will leave you with one of my new favorite photos:
elleseven, standing in front of one of the giant Jackson Pollocks at MOMA. A cute girl backdropped by an amazing work of splatter-art. What more could you want in a photo?
I thought it was fantastic. Now, I already know the basic story of Joy Division, and I'm sure most everyone else in the audience around me also knew it, yet Anton Corbijn manages to make a very effective biopic despite the fact that he's telling a mythologically familiar punk-era story. The black and white cinematography was beautifully bleak and perfect for the grim '70s Manchester setting. Sam Riley just channels Ian Curtis (a way better depiction than Sean Harris's Curtis in 24 Hour Party People, I think) plus he sings all the songs in the film (while the actors playing the rest of the band also play the songs for real). I honestly walked into this movie feeling a little jaded about Curtis and his life, but I left feeling like I had actually experienced something...honest. Corbijn took many well-known photographs of the band in the 70s, and his real-life interactions with them gives this film an expansive sense of genuineness it may not have had otherwise. I'm glad nobody else had a chance to make this movie before he did.
I saw the movie at a theater in the East Village, and of course I got sucked into Strand Books on my walk back to the subway. I have a very hard time avoiding that place, even though I still think Powell's is the better of the two mega-indie bookstores. But the Strand is so New York: it's a little chaotic, very musty and dusty, the employees are notoriously rude, and it's always crowded and cramped...(plus I've heard that people have even seen rats scurrying around inside).
Once inside the Strand vortex, I bought a $5 book called In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser, who I had never read before until I read his audacious story in this month's Harper's called "A Report on Our Recent Troubles." God damn that is a good story...he took a subject that could have so easily veered into over-the-top gimmickry but kept it tight and controlled and even believable. Read it if you haven't already! So I am excited about checking out some more of his stuff.
I also succumbed to an expensive art book, one that I had spotted before a couple of weeks ago, while there with the lovely elleseven when she was visiting me:
We spent some time looking through it as we were as mesmerized as moths to a bug light over its gorgeous collages, all of which, in artsy-fartsy abstract ways, apparently depict a boy and a dwarf, or just the boy in one and the dwarf in another, I'm not sure. I can't find too many images of them online, but here's one:
(EDIT: Actually, this piece may not even be from the same series that I'm talking about, I'm not sure)
This one's okay, but most in the book are better. I would love to see these in person, as they are apparently pretty grand in scale. There is a weird, elegant kind of fractal-like symmetry to these pieces which makes them total eye candy to look at. Arturo Herrera now really interests me, and I want to seek out some more of his stuff. I'm gonna have to find out if there's anything of his showing currently in New York.
Well, to my three or four readers out there, that is all for now, but I will leave you with one of my new favorite photos:
elleseven, standing in front of one of the giant Jackson Pollocks at MOMA. A cute girl backdropped by an amazing work of splatter-art. What more could you want in a photo?
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Seems like you're settling in and becoming a regular New Yorker!