Foreign Dispatches

Sir Ridley Scott is Brilliant

If you've ever wondered how it is that Sir Ridley Scott has managed so consistently to make awe-inspiring movies - Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster, etc. - wonder no more: the man is quite simply brilliant, as this interview with Wired magazine reveals. Not only does Scott display a wide-ranging knowledge and understanding of both the history of  (and the contemporary developments in) architecture and the various arts, but his in-depth explanations of the rationale behind some of his directorial decisions serves to convince you that virtually nothing is left to chance with a Ridley Scott film: if something in a movie of his happens to strike one as particularly clever or subtle, it's nearly certainly the case that this is because Ridley Scott wanted it so, not merely because a happy accident occurred. Think I'm exaggerating? Just read the article in full and see for yourself.

Even Better than the Real Thing

If you have 15 minutes to spare, I suggest you sit down and watch this short film: if possible, click through to the Vimeo site to watch it in HD resolution.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

"Avatar" Piracy: an Act of Utter Pointlessness

The New York Times is reporting that James Cameron's "Avatar" is setting records not only in the box office, but on the torrent sites as well. Having seen the movie in the cinema in 3D, I have to say that downloading this particular movie has to count as the daftest act of film piracy ever. Without a Blu-Ray or DVD release anywhere on the horizon as yet, the only way any torrent copies of "Avatar" can have been obtained will have been through individuals taking their shaky little handycams into a movie theatre and pointing them at the screens, the resulting low visual quality of which totally ruins the very thing that is most compelling about the film, namely the stunning and richly detailed visual world James Cameron has managed to conjure up as "Pandora".