Clare Townhill

The Flight Patterns of Insects Around a Streetlight

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

'Charlie McCarthy, a Michigan based film maker shot 156 photographs of insects flying around a street light. He then put the shots together to make a pretty cool short video.'

Beautiful.

LoudDreams Blog

Children's Films, Adult Problems

Hugely anticipated and vastly over budget Spike Jonze's adaptation of 'Where the Wild Things Are'. Whilst drawing praise from fans and critics Warner are worried about the adapt and more acutely the marketing department are concerned about the breadth of the films appeal. A film with so bloated a budget needs big audiences;Warner's 'private' concern has surfaced very publicly in Adage:

"It doesn't look like a family movie," said the head of creative advertising at a rival studio familiar with Warner's angst. "Are they going for the cineastes or are they going to convince kids to go? It's the most interesting marketing problem in town right now."

Adage: Marketing 'Where the Wild Things Are' won't be child's play'

Which brings me to the other kidult film dilemma: the woeful Coraline. Billed as a 3D spectacular, today's darling format. Sadly, even in 3D this would be a disappointment unless those specs have acquired the magical property of being able to add a dimension to the characters. Two hours of deeply unnerving if beautifully crafted animation. Largely devoid of charm and bizarrely passed as PG. Coraline is very scary: at one point I grabbed the arm of the male friend who I was with for comfort, something I haven't done since I watched the Omen for the first (and last) time. Despite all this reviewers can't seem to get enough of Coraline and her nasty button-eyed friends. Five stars all round. Odd. Very odd indeed.

Butterflies and Benylin

The MET in New York are doing a special season ofmatinee performances streamed live in HD to cinemas around the world. Yesterday, after glugging down a hearty measure of Benylin - noone likes a cougher at the opera - I went to see Madama Butterfly at a sell-out showing at the Imax on Charlie Chaplin Walk. Now, I've never been to the opera (I'm not really sure if I have now) but I will definitley be going to more screenings. It was absolutely wonderful if a little uncanny at times: the audience were dressed for a nght at the opera, we also clapped along with the 'real' audience in New York. We definitely all cried along too. Madama Butterfly sang in New York and cinema audiences wept.
I've put a link to the programme if you fancy a shufty.
Download Madamabutterfly

'Unser Taeglich Brot'

I feel a bit mean blogging about this given that it's only showing for one more day at the ICA (8.45pm tomorrow is the last one, and if you can you should, although it's not really Valentine's Day fodder for the romantically inclined). This strange and wonderful film blew me away. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas about the scenes of mechanised farming and slaughter. Having the chance to breathe as a viewer, a chance to think whilst mesmerised by the process of grand scale of harvest and death is strangely moving. This precious, un-VO-ed documentary is such a far cry from the recent extravaganza of opinionated, celebrity chef-driven programming on C4.

Good news! UTB is on until the end of the month. Go! Go! Go!