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A lot of people know Satoshi Kon from his anime films âPerfect Blueâ, âPaprikaâ and perhaps his TV Series âParanoia Agentâ that got an american run on Adult Swim ( Itâs one of my favorite TV shows of all time & I also recommend it, but I donât know if itâs legal to recommend something like this within the Perfectly Imperfect Newsletter). I am a huge fan of his work, a lot of which is pretty dark, scary, challenging and so on. But if I had to pick my favorite of his, it would have to be his second movie âMillennium Actressâ which feels like his sweetest and most heartfelt work. Itâs a super surreal, dreamy, gorgeous movie. Especially insane how small the budget was for an anime feature, and his last movie to use actual cel animation before going digital. It also has my favorite original soundtrack from any movie, composed by Susumu Hirasawa, who went on to do the music for Paprika and Paranoia Agent. Susumu Hirasawa is famously known for doing the theme & other music for the anime BERSERK, but is an electronic music pioneer in his own right. The soundtrack he made for Millenium Actress is so unique, beautiful, and inspired. Itâs this combination of his singing which is what I would poorly describe as gorgeous yodeling teetering into operatic howls which he digitally manipulates, pitch shifts, layers, and samples, over these electronic dance tracks which then veer into reverb-y orchestral plucking and religious choir chanting. Itâs very emotional & atmospheric and I am doing a horrible job describing it so I will just make one of the songs my next recommendation and hopefully it can be hyperlinked. The final thing Iâll say about this movie is that I showed it to a friend a few years ago and he said that âthis is not a feminist film and Iâd say it would actually pass a reverse bechdel test whatever that isâ and I completely agree. But sometimes itâs really beautiful when a woman has no other meaning in life than to find her crush! đ
Oct 15, 2024
Related Recs
Great movie to kick off the new year, on at 9 PM on the 31st at the Studio Galande cinema in the 5th arrondissement, lots of fun and probably very nice people to meet. Come dressed up for extra fun.
As a bonus, I believe it's the only theatre in the world that's been showing the movie weekly with actors since it first came out in 1975, so that's pretty cool !
Dec 27, 2024
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If youâre from brooklyn or new york city or just moved here, i know, this is cliche. But i! Donât! Care! The truffle popcorn is addicting, even if I'm farting for the rest of the movie, itâs worth it. Plus they have cute little trailers to gab about with your date or friend, but i also go alone because nobody tried to have small talk with you at the movies and you can just disassociate peacefully in blissful high-power air conditioning on a hot nyc summer day. They have guest curators on a monthly basis and do fun screenings of old flicks. Highly recommend it. Nitehawk > Alamo.
Aug 7, 2023
I have another indie theater that I prefer because itâs cozier, has better vibes, is much closer to me, and everybody who works there is genuinely passionate about film. Itâs not really anything special visually but itâs a beautiful institution and itâs so fun to be there â¤ď¸
But this one is an old art deco theatre designed by architect John Eberson (he designed Loewâs Paradise in the Bronx and the Paradise Theatre in Chicago)! Itâs pretty run down/poorly managed and staffed but itâs a gorgeous building and definitely worth visiting. Not my photos but included for illustrative purposes!!
Nov 14, 2024
Top Recs from @patti-harrison
I donât like to read and I accept that. But if you have ADHD or think you could have it, I prescribe this to you!!! My therapist put me on to this book a few years ago during lockdown. My procrastination & inability to motivate myself to finish the simplest tasks had become debilitating. I felt petrified in life, depressed, stuck in a sludge, and all that jazz. (lockdown probably had a wittle bit to do with it). Knowing that I am unable to finish every book, my therapist recommended the audiobook version of âAHDH 2.0â. The authors are both doctors who also have ADHD and they really understand their demo. Itâs an extremely quick, easy listen, and left me feeling scarily encouraged and hopeful. Put it on in the background while youâre drafting an apology email for missing a deadline and simultaneously masturbating at your standing desk that was supposed to change everything!
Oct 15, 2024
I wouldnât say Iâm a like a mega fan of Madonna, but I am a fan in the sense her music was so ubiquitous during my youth a lot of her songs are ingrained in there. I did realize the other day I can remember the lyrics to more Madonna songs from start to finish than I can from bands I claim are my favorite bands. Iâm fake and you can come kill me in my house for that. But there is this video of her performing Ray of Light on Oprah in 1998 that is soooooo funny and truly incredible. It just is such an odd combination of things. I remember as a kid Oprah airing around 4pm when I was getting off the school bus. Iâm sure Oprah was probably filmed at like noon. Madonna comes on stage wearing a pretty normal outfit. Itâs like a black blouse with leggings and wedges? No crazy hair or makeup. I think this is shocking to me because the bubble has burst with every top 40 musician dressing all crazy now in a way thatâs oversaturated and makes dressing crazy completely normal. To see Madonna in what appears to be head-to-toe Ann Taylor Loft parent-teacher conference wear is so jarring. She literally looks like she should work in a candle store and she just walks right on stage and starts belting this 6 minute long song dancing like sheâs on meth and it shreds. An audience of women wearing primary colors and plain pastel business casual blouses are on their feet jumping and clapping the whole time. And Oprah is flatlining, her eyes rolled up in her head. At one point she starts dancing with the microphone up to her mouth as if sheâs about to sing, but never does? Cock tease! The energy is so trance-like it really feels like theyâre all about to summon something. Itâs actually shocking that Bahamut does not appear by the end of it and pull her down into the hellmouth in a burst of flames leaving behind only the foam that was spewing from all her orafices. It genuinely is such an incredible performance from Madonna, made all the weirder that itâs on day time TV and probably was taped in the late morning or early afternoon. And i feel I must mention that sheâs either 39 or 40 years old at the time and just adds to how incredible she is. Unfortunately, I look at the current day Madonna and feel a bit sad, probably in a patronizing way that you can come kill me in my house for, but this video truly reminds me that Madonna is the real deal and made me feel a lot more respect for her despite the fact I never want to meet her because she seems lizard brain mode full time. Respectfully!
Oct 15, 2024
If you were a fan of the Onimusha, Okami, Otogi, or Ninja Gaiden games, I highly recommend Kunitsu Gami! Iâm playing it on PS5, but itâs also available on PS4, XBox, PC, and Steam. Itâs impossible to explain and yet here I go!!! Basically⌠itâs a strategy-based, hack and slash action/horror game where you take control of Soh, a genderless katana wielding dancing bodyguard to a magical goddess named Yoshiro who is tasked with ridding the mountain villages of âdefilementâ which is basically, as you may have inferred, demonic overgrowth entrapping and possessing all of the plants, animals, and villagers of the mountain. Your job is to clear a path for the Goddess through each village, and rescue villagers who you can then employ as soldiers of different classes and abilities. Day time is spent gathering resources, racing against the clock to stock up on health and set trap before sunset, which is when the portals to the demonic realm open and all kinds of ghouls & monsters start to crawl out. You then must survive the night by killing all the demons that emerge while making sure they donât reach Yoshiro. It seems complicated at first but it is pretty simple once you play through the first two levels. This game is so fucking weird in the best way. It really feels like the heyday of Capcom making very specific games with weird-ass, eccentric character and creature design, a la Onimusha, Okami., and Viewtiful Joe. The art direction of this game is wild. In this making-of video on youtube, the creators said they wanted the players to feel like theyâre moving through a diorama. To accomplish that, instead of digitally creating the environments, they had sculptors build full miniature villages, forests, traps, and effects BY HAND and then 3D scanned all the handmade miniatures and models into the game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This makes me want to kill someone in a positive way. Art is not dead! So much love went into it and you can tell. This is that BTS video if you want to watch it
Oct 15, 2024