SOLDIER ON! - BLACKBIRD CINEMA FEATURING THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP

Clive Candy: I heard all that in the last war! They fought foul then - and who won it?

Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff: I don't think you won it. We lost it -but you lost something, too. You forgot to learn the moral. Because victory was yours, you failed to learn your lesson twenty years ago and now you have to pay the school fees again. Some of you will learn quicker than the others, some of you will never learn it - because you've been educated to be a gentleman and a sportsman, in peace and in war. But Clive!

[tenderly]

Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff: Dear old Clive - this is not a gentleman's war. This time you're fighting for your very existence against the most devilish idea ever created by a human brain - Nazism. And if you lose, there won't be a return match next year... perhaps not even for a hundred years.   

- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

BALLARD - PRIVATE GREENE

DETAILS: 3 inch tall painted pewter army figurine, with small foot-base. Private Greene is in the "at ease" position but could still guard your desk at the drop of a helmet.

$6

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BLACKBIRD CINEMA - THE CRITERION COLLECTION

LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP

DETAILS: The passions and pitfalls of a lifetime in the military are dramatized in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's magnificent epic, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. The film follows the exploits of pristine British soldier Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) as he battles to maintain his honor and proud gentlemanly conduct through romance, three wars, and a changing world. Vibrant and controversial, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is at once a romantic portrait of a career soldier and a pointed investigation into the nature of aging, friendship, and obsolescence.

New high-definition digital transfer of the British Film Institute's restoration of the original full-length version of the film, audio commentary featuring director Michael Powell with Martin Scorsese, a collection of David Low's original Colonel Blimp cartoons and optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired

163 minutes, Color, English

$39.95

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MAIDEN NOIR

STANDARD FIT FIELD CARGO IN GREEN CAMO

Green Camo

NOTES:

100% cotton, standard fit field cargo pant in green camouflage pattern. Interior/exterior button waist closure with two button fly placket, seven belt loops and rear side adjustable button tabs. Large stitched patch cargo slanted stash pockets with additional side seam hand pockets with single button closures. Pleated stitch at knee, rear button flap pockets, and a small white Maiden Noir MFG label at upper back right.

The cut and sew pieces in the collection pay tribute to a heritage of vintage silhouettes though leaning toward a more refined and clean classic look. Fabrics used are a mix of heavy cotton twill, ripstop cotton, 60/40 cotton/nylon, and woodland camo. The focus is on the detailing, tailoring and materials. All of the pieces are made from Japanese fabrics and the selvage denim is tailored in Japan.

$198

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AT THE MOVIES: MATTHEW BARNEY CREMASTER CYCLE + De Lama Lâmina MARATHON

Guess where we are going today?  At 1:00 SIFF Cinema (in Seattle) will begin playing the entire Matthew Barney Cremaster Cycle, plus his newest film De Lama Lâmina.  Jealous? If you are interested in seeing the individual films, they will be played over the next four days.

(via SIFF) Artist Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle, unavailable in any media for nearly a decade, was an art world sensation upon its original release. An intricate and eye-popping blend of Masonic lore, Celtic myth, historical and biological arcana, and film genres ranging from thriller to western to musical and points in between, the Cremaster Cycle is a vast five-part achievement of nerve and style.

Filmed out of order (4, 1, 5, 2, 3) over nine years and named after the muscle that regulates the height of the testicles in the body based on outside temperature or inner emotions, it has been called, “The greatest fusion of Art and Cinema since Un Chien Andalou.” Cremaster is not now, nor will it in the foreseeable future, be available on DVD, meaning that the only way for fans to see it again, or for people who have only heard about it to actually see it, is on the big screen.

Plus! The premiere of Barney’s latest film creation, De Lama Lâmina.

Cremaster 1 is a musical revue performed on the blue Astroturf playing field of Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho—Barney’s hometown. Two Goodyear Blimps float above and in each blimp resides Marti Domination plucking green and purple grapes from a Vaseline sculpture and setting the narrative in motion.

Cremaster 2 is rendered as a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system. Moving from 1977, the year of Gary Gilmore’s execution to 1893, when Harry Houdini (played by Norman Mailer), who may have been Gilmore’s grandfather, performed at the World’s Columbian Exposition.

Cremaster 3 The final piece of the Cremaster labyrinth to be filmed, Cremaster 3 narrates the construction of the Chrysler Building and the mythic Masonic struggle between the Architect (Richard Serra) and the Entered Apprentice (Matthew Barney). After a prologue steeped in Celtic mythology, the narrative begins with the female corpse of the undead Gary Gilmore digging her way out of a grave. Paralympic athlete, model, and double amputee Aimee Mullins hovers over the film like a dark muse, appearing in various guises including a cheetah/woman and chef slicking potatoes with blades attached to plexiglass legs. Beautiful, mysterious, and riveting.

Cremaster 4 adheres most closely to the project’s biological model. This penultimate episode describes the system’s onward rush toward descention. Set on the Isle of Man, the film absorbs the island’s folklore as well as its more recent incarnations—including the Loughton Candidate (Matthew Barney), a satyr with nascent horns that will grow to ram length.

Cremaster 5 is envisioned as a tragic love story set in the romantic dreamscape of late-nineteenth-century Budapest. Biological metaphors shift form to inhabit emotional states—longing and despair—that become musical leitmotivs in the orchestral score. The Queen of Chain (Ursula Andress) and her Diva, Magician, and Giant (all played by Barney)—enact collectively the final release promised by the project as a whole, but the Cremaster Cycle defers any definitive conclusion.

De Lama Lâmina (From Mud, A Blade) was filmed during Carnival 2004 in Salvador De Bahia, Brazil. A collaboration between Barney and avant-garde musician Arto Lindsay, De Lama Lâmina is a vivid illustration of Barney’s fascination with “biomechanical erotica.” Barney calls the film, “a meditation on the creative process…a way to express a faith in the balances in nature… and through this faith being able to look at the world today without feeling hopeless.”

STREAMING NETFLIX PICKS: JULES et JIM

For the price of seeing one movie at the theater, you can be a member of Netflix.  I'm sure you know this.  But did you know about all of the outstanding unlimited movies and t.v. shows you can stream direct to your computer.  Oh you do.  Did you know that they have added a tremendous amount of Criterion Collection film recently? 

The Blackbird team is going to pick one movie a week we have watched on Netflix.  If you would like to send us recommendations, please email info@blackbirdballard.com.  We might just post your favorite.

Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim)

1962  NR  105 minutes

Writers Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) are close friends who fall in love with the same woman, the unpredictable Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), amid the turbulence of World War I Paris in one of director François Truffaut's best-loved films, adapted from the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché. What results is a decades-long love triangle that both tests and strengthens the bond between the two men.

Cast:  Oskar Werner, Henri Serre, Jeanne Moreau, Vanna Urbino, Bassiak, Anny Nelsen

Director:  François Truffaut

Genres:  Foreign, Foreign Classic Dramas, France, Foreign Classics, French Language, Foreign Languages, Foreign Regions

Language:  French

This movie is:  Romantic, Quirky, Dark, Cerebral

Format:  DVD and streaming

BEWARE THE SALTY DOG

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

LAND OF THE LOST: WHY IS THIS MOVIE SO COMPELLING?

Is it that I watched every episode of Land of the Lost as a child? Is it that Will Farrell is always great even when the movie sucks? Is it that I have devolved so low on the entertainment food chain that consuming this tasty morsel is all I need to survive the summer?

THE ROAD

Opens October 2009

THE ROAD by CORMAC McCARTHY

SCOUTE. is one of my absolute favorite online magazines. It's dark, it's smart and it's on point.

In the current issue, you will find an article by Eugene Rabkin reviewing The Road, a book by Cormac McCarthy that has recently been made into a movie. Rabkins descriptions of the book have me enthralled to the point of shivers. Here's some of what he says:

"They represent humanity. They carry the heavy load of moral conduct on their shoulders."

"Everything in the world is dark, the sun is barely visible, the clouds are constant, and the ash makes everything gray."

Sure it's a little grim for these flowery, sunny Spring days but a good read is a good read and I am off to the book store to pick up a copy in preperation for the film release later this year.