Music Day

It's June 21st, time to listen to some music to kill time...

DVD of the Week: Charlie Wilson's War

A Congressman who snorts cocaine, hangs out with strippers, only employs young women in his office, never says no to alcohol, always finds the words to get a smile or a laugh (thanks to Aaron Sorkin, the writer ) and at the same time helps defeat USSR in Afghanistan ...

Seriously, what else do you need to watch Charlie Wilson's War?

DVD of the Week: Up In The Air

For those who know me, it wouldn't appear to them as a surprise that I love a film about a character who does not hide his desire to never start a family, whose profession is to hop from companies to companies to inform employees that they are fired and cherishes the fact that he only has to spent forty miserable "days" at home and the rest between airplanes and airports.

More seriously, Up In The Air is an example of a film that makes you smile (and think a little along the way) and will let many of you surprised to have spent 90 very pleasant minutes despite its very bleak subject -in appearance.

By the way, girls, did I say George Clooney is in it?

2009. Directed by Jason Reitman. With George Clooney and Vera Farmiga.

A little something about Nollywood

A nice little article about Nollywood (Nigeria's film industry) and the cinematic black hole Africa is turning into.

The SelfHelpless Movie - part 2

You may or may not remember it, but I posted an article (that I didn't translate, so you actually don't remember it) a few months ago about the Self Helpless movie. The film was directed by a small team of friends from the East Coast of the U.S. that has decided to shoot a small independent film and make it available for free on Bit Torrent.

I must admit that despite its free availability, the trailer didn't make me want to invest an hour and a half of my life in The SelfHelpless. On the flip side, if the distributors of Alice in Wonderland or Iron Man depended on me to earn a living, they would be unemployed, so make an opinion for yourself...

A month after the movie came out, the producers announced proudly on their blog that SelfHelpless has been downloaded 60,000 times. They are now asking everyone who saw the movie for free to contribute financially by buying DVDs, ashtrays, T-shirts, etc. ...

A not-so-stupid strategy, that could be turn out to be profitable given the low-budget. Except that 60,000 free downloads on BitTorrent does not automatically mean that the film was seen by 60,000 Web users (you tend to take more of a product than you actually need or use when it is free), and even less that those who saw the film in its entirety have liked it enough to contribute financially after the fact.

Slightly more puzzling to me is the insistence of the producers producers to show they are not seeking any return on their investment nor to get hired by the Hollywood machinery by using this film as a calling card. Unless of course, this is only a facade, although I think they really are sincere in their approach.

Because, beyond basic human greed, if their little film is actually good but they don't care about accumulating debts without getting enough money back, how will they go about shooting a second?

Ask the Greeks, you always end up repaying your debts ...