Film Garden

May 31

[video]

criterioncorner: THE 5 BEST QUOTES FROM MICHEL GONDRY’S BEING JOHN MALKOVICH COMMENTARY someone at Criterion got the brilliant idea of getting Spike Jonze’s friend / arch-nemesis Michel Gondry to record the commentary track on their Being John Malkovich release. some legal shenanigans have prevented Criterion from using the entire track, but the selected-scene commentary that’s included on the disc packs an absurd amount of genius into its 57 minutes. Gondry isn’t shy about his bitter rivalry with Jonze — most of the track is a hilarious meta-commentary on the perils of jealousy among artists, as Gondry, to put it generously, gets a *bit* distracted from the task at hand.  this is something that you should really experience for yourself, so all the quotes i’ve included below have been plucked exclusively from the first 15 minutes of the commentary. it only gets more amazing from here. trust.  (note: best read with a very thick French accent. all of Gondry’s imaginative sentence structure has been kept intact) Gondry on the opening credits: “What the fuck? I didn’t do this movie! I’ve been tricked.” Gondry discussing an encounter he and Spike Jonze had when they were struggling to get their first films into production: “We run into the guy who did Buffalo 66 (Vincent Gallo), and he said he’s gonna retire from movies and become a lawyer. And he’s such an asshole, talking to us who are struggling to have a movie made and he’s complaining cause he has too much work? I felt like he was, uh… just an arrogant bastard. So everyone hate him after this commentary.” Gondry on the introduction of Mr. Lester:  “I don’t know who this actor is, I bet he’s not alive anymore. It’s kinda gross to watch movies, everyone is dead… I remember watching the movie and thinking the shoes of the guy survived the guy, the guy was dead, but maybe his shoes were somewhere still functioning. Anyway, I’m supposed to be talking about this movie… who is this actor? [Gondry is told it’s Orson Bean] Is he still alive… [a few moments pass] Great news, Orson Bean is still alive.” Gondry on the Malkovich portal: “Charlie imagined more of a vagina, but Spike imagined more of an asshole, I guess it’s just a matter of taste.”  Gondry trying to get back on task: “Jealousy is a very ugly feeling, and i hate to have this feeling, so the best way to get rid of it is to say to everyone, and this is retarded because everyone thinks i’m a bitter person, which i don’t think i am. Oh, here he’s finding the portal.”

criterioncorner:

THE 5 BEST QUOTES FROM MICHEL GONDRY’S BEING JOHN MALKOVICH COMMENTARY

someone at Criterion got the brilliant idea of getting Spike Jonze’s friend / arch-nemesis Michel Gondry to record the commentary track on their Being John Malkovich release. some legal shenanigans have prevented Criterion from using the entire track, but the selected-scene commentary that’s included on the disc packs an absurd amount of genius into its 57 minutes. Gondry isn’t shy about his bitter rivalry with Jonze — most of the track is a hilarious meta-commentary on the perils of jealousy among artists, as Gondry, to put it generously, gets a *bit* distracted from the task at hand. 

this is something that you should really experience for yourself, so all the quotes i’ve included below have been plucked exclusively from the first 15 minutes of the commentary. it only gets more amazing from here. trust. 

(note: best read with a very thick French accent. all of Gondry’s imaginative sentence structure has been kept intact)

Gondry on the opening credits:

“What the fuck? I didn’t do this movie! I’ve been tricked.”

Gondry discussing an encounter he and Spike Jonze had when they were struggling to get their first films into production:

“We run into the guy who did Buffalo 66 (Vincent Gallo), and he said he’s gonna retire from movies and become a lawyer. And he’s such an asshole, talking to us who are struggling to have a movie made and he’s complaining cause he has too much work? I felt like he was, uh… just an arrogant bastard. So everyone hate him after this commentary.”

Gondry on the introduction of Mr. Lester: 

“I don’t know who this actor is, I bet he’s not alive anymore. It’s kinda gross to watch movies, everyone is dead… I remember watching the movie and thinking the shoes of the guy survived the guy, the guy was dead, but maybe his shoes were somewhere still functioning. Anyway, I’m supposed to be talking about this movie… who is this actor? [Gondry is told it’s Orson Bean] Is he still alive… [a few moments pass] Great news, Orson Bean is still alive.”

Gondry on the Malkovich portal:

“Charlie imagined more of a vagina, but Spike imagined more of an asshole, I guess it’s just a matter of taste.” 

Gondry trying to get back on task:

“Jealousy is a very ugly feeling, and i hate to have this feeling, so the best way to get rid of it is to say to everyone, and this is retarded because everyone thinks i’m a bitter person, which i don’t think i am. Oh, here he’s finding the portal.”

(via bbook)

[video]

[video]

pantheonbooks: “This year, we celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month, and we’re also commemorating an important anniversary.  One hundred-fifty years ago, General Ulysses Grant issued an order – known as General Orders Number 11 – that would have expelled Jews, ‘as a class,’ from what was then known as the military Department of the Tennessee.  It was wrong.  Even if it was 1862, even if official acts of anti-Semitism were all too common around the world, it was wrong and indicative of an ugly strain of thought. But what happened next could have only taken place in America. Groups of American Jews protested General Grant’s decision.  A Jewish merchant from Kentucky traveled here, to the White House, and met with President Lincoln in person.  After their meeting, President Lincoln revoked the order - one more reason why we like President Lincoln. And to General Grant’s credit, he recognized that he had made a serious mistake.  So later in his life, he apologized for this order, and as President, he went out of his way to appoint Jews to public office and to condemn the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe. Like so many groups, Jews have had to fight for their piece of the American dream.  But this country holds a special promise:  that if we stand up for the traditions we believe in and the values we share, then our wrongs can be made right, our union can be made more perfect, and our world can be repaired.” - President Barack Obama, commemorating Jewish American Heritage Month on 5/30/12. Watch the full speech here, and read more about General Orders Number 11 in When General Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan D. Sarna, out now from Schocken Books.

pantheonbooks:

“This year, we celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month, and we’re also commemorating an important anniversary.  One hundred-fifty years ago, General Ulysses Grant issued an order – known as General Orders Number 11 – that would have expelled Jews, ‘as a class,’ from what was then known as the military Department of the Tennessee.  It was wrong.  Even if it was 1862, even if official acts of anti-Semitism were all too common around the world, it was wrong and indicative of an ugly strain of thought.

But what happened next could have only taken place in America. Groups of American Jews protested General Grant’s decision.  A Jewish merchant from Kentucky traveled here, to the White House, and met with President Lincoln in person.  After their meeting, President Lincoln revoked the order - one more reason why we like President Lincoln.

And to General Grant’s credit, he recognized that he had made a serious mistake.  So later in his life, he apologized for this order, and as President, he went out of his way to appoint Jews to public office and to condemn the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe.

Like so many groups, Jews have had to fight for their piece of the American dream.  But this country holds a special promise:  that if we stand up for the traditions we believe in and the values we share, then our wrongs can be made right, our union can be made more perfect, and our world can be repaired.”

- President Barack Obama, commemorating Jewish American Heritage Month on 5/30/12. Watch the full speech here, and read more about General Orders Number 11 in When General Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan D. Sarna, out now from Schocken Books.

May 30

(Source: thisindieamericanlife)

(Source: loaftness)

I feel like I just committed a crime…

I feel like I just committed a crime…

(Source: femburton)

(Source: wendernoodles)

May 29

(Source: danie1)