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It has a decidedly French twist. For one thing, 18 of the 28 features in this edition of the New York Film Festival bowed in Cannes in May. Four "fully" French movies and eight co-pros with French backing are being screened. Given the weight of place, of site, in this year's crop, the latter frequently translates into product placement, aka "embedded marketing," not of Converse or Nike but of France itself–more economic exchange than organic inclusion.
(I'm concentrating on films that were either not in Cannes or Toronto, or were but came in under the radar.)
Take Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo's "Night and Day," which takes place almost entirely in Paris, but was shot in Korean with Korean actors. That is about as credible a concept as is the lead actor's interpretation of a fortysomething artist who specializes in painting clouds. He plays it like a Neanderthal: For two-and-a-half hours we watch this klutz, whose wife is still in Seoul, making passes at young Korean art students, committing assorted faux pas, and just drifting. Hong is a competent director, but his non-stories, usually about conflicted males, lack the glue that might make them more enticing. Despite this guy's earthiness, occasional chords from Beethoven's "Seventh Symphony" are almost Bressonian in their impact.
Nods to French culture are less jarring in Kazakh director Darezhan Omirbaev's excellent "Chouga," a contemporary adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Filmed in Kazakhstan with Kazakh performers, it includes gratuitous scenes of French nationals making movies and dining in local eateries.
In this minimalist version, Omirbaev uses ellipses rather than spelling out the novel's better-known and more dramatic episodes. We don't see the beautiful Chouga leave her son and much older husband for her lover (now a post-Soviet, newly rich criminal instead of a count). The confrontation between her and her spouse when she attempts to return home occurs off-screen, a series of shutting doors conveying his refusal to take her back. No jump in front of a train. Omirbaev's actors are props, putty in his hands. The strategy suits the understated non-action, which runs counterpoint to his inserts of live "cultural" performances, ranging from high (an opera) to low (a strip show).
Two films are intrinsically French, both in terms of locale and their Gallic observations of familial rupture. Olivier Assayas is back in form with the poignant "Summer Hours," set in a quiet, charming country home and assorted apartments and cafes in a more frenetic Paris. Three middle-aged siblings argue over their late mother's estate, which includes the house and rare art pieces. Assayas smartly follows his actors closely with his camera. With the survivors played by Charles Berling, Juliette Binoche, and Jeremie Renier, he needn't make a big formal fuss.
The eldest child (Berling) is a traditionalist who wants to keep the old place and the artworks within the family. Assayas claims that this is the one with whom he most identifies. Binoche and Renier's characters operate on a broader canvas: They are globalized. Divorced from the past, they have moved on to places like New York and China to market their skills. (The Musee d'Orsay did commission the project, and it figures prominently in the narrative; it becomes the repository of most of the art. Mini-product placement, but it fits into the screenplay.)
Did Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri share an office with Assayas while writing Jaoui's "Let It Rain?" Much of it also takes place in an old family home, which in this case is in a provincial southern French village. (Jaoui shoots lovely scenes, in 'Scope, in the surrounding countryside, replete with baaahhh-ing sheep.) And, here again, siblings, two sisters, sort through their late mother's possessions. Jaoui portrays one, an urbane feminist-turned-politician, while the other, the conventional one who stayed in the house, is an unhappy housewife. Then there's the beloved old female servant who will, like the maid in "Summer Hours," lose her job. The overlap is strange, especially because the scripts are so bourgeois.
Jaoui does make the servant Algerian, and her son, played by the great French-Arab actor Jamel Debbouze ("Days of Glory"), co-directs with Bacri a doc-within-the-film on Jaoui's character, so that the recent recognition of multiculturalism in France is acknowledged. The problem is the premise: The "making of" device is so worn, beneath the abilities of Jaoui and Bacri (his portrayal of the docmaker as a constant bumbler is annoying). Their screenplays for "The Taste of Others" and "Look at Me," both directed by Jaoui, were original, witty. The rain of the title, here literalized, is a facile metaphor for…I'm not sure what. This is precisely the kind of French trifle that does not deserve a slot in the NYFF but should do well at the Paris Theater with the culture vultures who devour anything shipped from Paris.
Arguably the best film in the festival is a 19-minute short by Sixth Generation Chinese maestro Jia Zhang-ke entitled "Cry Me a River," the location of which is exceptionally well integrated with its characters and mise-en-scene. (On a different program at NYFF, following its Cannes debut, is Jia's feature "24 City"—in which the land upon which an arms factory had been becomes the lot for a lush condo high-rise–a unique fusion of doc and fiction that is probably the most site-specific film on the schedule.) "Cry Me a River" is shot entirely in the canal-ringed provincial city of Suzhou, the "Venice of China." Inspired by Mu Fei's Chinese feature "Spring in a Small Town" (1948), which is distinguished by gestures and silences, quiet nature walks and river scenes, Jia creates a nostalgic mood piece about memory, regret, and the fleeting power of love.
Ten years after graduation, four old friends, who had been couples as students, reunite in Suzhou for a professor's birthday. They have new families, but express remorse over the direction life has taken them. They make their confessions with spare dialog, on a small boat on a canal and inside a gorgeous park.
Wainscott, a wealthy town in the Hamptons, has none of Suzhou's charm, yet Alexander Olch's hagiographic American doc, "The Windmill Movie," captures its ambience of laid-back privilege. Unfortunately, the film is as bad as "Cry Me a River" is accomplished. Its subject, the late filmmaker and teacher Richard (Dick) Rogers, appears to have been a decent, accomplished man, born of privilege yet grounded, but he lacks cine-charisma. His widow commissioned Olch, Rogers's former student and a successful tie designer to go through reels of old footage, most of it shot by Rogers during his lifelong effort to make a film about himself. The editing is arrhythmic and self-conscious; it feels badly stitched together, without flow. Go back to your ties, Mildred.
Why is "The Windmill Movie" in the New York Film Festival, and not, say, the Hamptons, MAYBE even New Directors/New Films, or some academic series on self-reflexive cinema–especially when the NYFF has only one other doc, Ari Folman's marvelous animated Israeli wartime expose, "Waltz With Bashir," another Cannes film? (A sidebar documentary, French filmmaker Daniel Leconte's "It's Hard Being Loved by Jerks," covers the trial in Paris of the editors of an alternative magazine that was sued by Muslim groups for reprinting unflattering images of the Prophet Mohammed–a topic not longer au courant–but it is tTV-like, hardly an inspired choice in a year when documentaries with ballsy forms such as "Stranded," "Man on Wire," and "Standard Operating Procedure" have made significant splashes.)
"The Windmill Movie" is not the only American indie misfire that is done no favors by playing the NYFF. Take New Yorker Antonio Campos's "Afterschool." Yes, it does reflect a specific place, especially for those who give a hoot for the campus of a New England prep school, and it does possess a stark widescreen beauty. A troubled student witnesses, and records, the painful deaths of two girls. The film is about how the cyberworld has colonized the unconscious of the young, how its mediation undermines their moral fabric. The film's shock value is not matched by a dense enough story line, and it has that underpopulated look that screams, "low budget!"
Another movie about troubled youth, Mexican filmmaker Gerardo Naranjo's "I'm Gonna Explode," is a follow-up to his "Drama/Mex." Naranjo's camera records the unique beauty of Guanajuato, his hometown. Unfortunately, the film is Terence Malick's 1973 "Badlands" on crystal meth, a flamboyant exercise in exhibitionism–way too much moving camera and fast tracking–by the little director that could. Which is fine: He can, and he does, but he goes too far over the top for such a flimsy tale about a confused teen duo on the lam.
The boy, whose father is a wealthy right-wing legislator, is a nihilist. His girlfriend, daughter of a migrant worker–unsubtle class dynamic–is a misanthrope. (Maria Deschamps is a revelation as the neurotic Maru.) Her diary and voiceover echo Sissy Spacek's more convincing narration in "Badlands." Instead of driving around the expansive spaces of the American Midwest as Spacek and Martin Sheen's characters did in the Malick, the Mexican couple hide out on the roof of his parents' palatial home. Though Naranjo is talented, this is a tale of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Heady Portuguese filmmaker Joao Botelho sets "The Northern Land" on the island of Madeira, where women from different generations are all played by the outstanding Ana Moreira. Like Omirbaev in "Chouga," the first scene of which shows a man reading Anna Karenina, Botelho honors Agustina Bessa Luis's original text, filming pages of the novel during the opening credits. Botelho's style is NEARLY literary and NEARLY theatrical, but it is more cinema at its purest and most distilled, certainly not for everyone.
"Bullet in the Head," by the promising Catalan director Jaime Rosales ("The Hours of the Day"), is an exercise in formalism as well. The site of the film, geographically San Sebastian, Spain, is more accurately the retina of an unknown voyeur who observes a nondescript man as he goes about his banal daily activities. Most of the scenes are shot through windows and other dividers; we never hear dialog, only see (got it, we are voyeurs, too) his and his friends' lips move. Like in a silent movie, but without title cards.
Beautifully abstract if mannered and tediously academic, the movie is based on the 2007 murder of two Spanish civil guards by suspected Basque terrorists, including the fellow we have been watching for over an hour. Once violence erupts, the omniscient eye gives way to rapid action from no particular point-of-view. Incidentally, this final section takes place in a small town across the border–in France.
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Attention: Memorial Service Rescheduled
Mabel Amelia Norman (Nee Wallace)
Due to bad weather conditions, the Memorial Service previously scheduled for Saturday, November 10, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. is now cancelled and will now be held on Friday, November 23, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. in the Chapel of Providence Place, 100 – 2nd Ave. NE., Moose Jaw, SK. Arrangements in care of Alternatives Funeral & Cremation Services, Regina, SK (1-888-760-2002).

subset: commoncrawl


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Providing modern ingenuity for your backyard, the American Fyre Designs Reduced Cordova Ventless Outdoor Fireplace is a work of genuine masonry talent. Raising the outdoor room to a new standard of domestic charm, this fireplace combines tested indoor styles with outdoor originality.
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Please Note: This unit is non-convertible from Ventless to vented - the refractory panels are permanently installed.


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Submit a Support RequestContact Us
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In Monday's WNBA draft, the Chicago Sky took a player whom a rival coach had described as peerless.
No, not Brittney Griner.
With the second overall pick in the draft, the Sky chose Delaware's Elena Delle Donne, a 6-foot, 5-inch forward with the ability to play any position on the floor.
"We haven't seen a player like her come into our league," Tulsa Shock coach Gary Kloppenburg said of Delle Donne. "I guess the comparison is to Lauren Jackson, but in a way she's got a greater skill set than even Lauren with her ability to put the ball on the floor."
The Sky picked Delle Donne over Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins because they were set at point guard with third-year pro Courtney Vandersloot and at shooting guard with fourth-year pro Epiphanny Prince, the team's leading scorer last year.
Delle Donne likely will relieve some of the rebounding and low post pressure on center Sylvia Fowles as the Sky seeks to make the playoffs for the first time in its eight-year history.
"In terms of everything we needed to get better, she fit that," Sky coach Pokey Chatman said via telephone. "And then she's an exceptional player with a tremendously diverse skill set. She can face up, take you off the dribble, go back to the basket.
"I'm going to let her play all the positions. You almost forget she is 6-5 because she can do all the things a small guard can do."
Along with Baylor's Griner, whom Phoenix took with the first pick, Diggins and Delle Donne are the keystones of a rebranding effort the WNBA hopes will increase its visibility and attendance. Diggins went to Tulsa, which had the third pick.
"I am just going to try to continue to be myself and play my game," Diggins said when asked about becoming a face of the league.
Diggins, listed at 5-9, was the home-town kid from South Bend who made good at Notre Dame, where she began her career as a shooting guard and moved to the point as a sophomore.
Delle Donne was the top player in the country when she came out of high school. She signed with UConn but stayed on that campus just two days before returning to her home near Wilmington, Del., enrolling at the University of Delaware and turning to volleyball.
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The urge to get back into basketball came when she watched the NCAA Tournament at the end of her freshman year. Rather than being part of a national power, Delle Donne joined a Delaware team that had not won a game in two previous NCAA appearances and took them to the Sweet 16 in her junior and senior years.
"There was a time when I didn't feel I was going to pick up a basketball again," Delle Donne said. "Now I'm the second pick. This is awesome. I'm glad I was able to figure things out."
Despite facing defenses keyed on her, she averaged 26.7 points per game over her career, leading the country in scoring as a junior and finishing second this season while making 45 percent of 115 three-point shots.
The Sky had no pick in the second round but selected 6-foot-1 forward Brooklyn Pope of Baylor in the third round with the 28th overall pick.


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A four-minute YouTube clip containing audio samples of all the tracks that are set to appear on "Spellbound", the new album from legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, can be found below. The CD will be released on December 5.
"Spellbound" track listing:
01. Spellbound
02. High Compression Figure
03. Let Sleeping Dog Lie
04. Repent
05. Majestic 12 Suite 1,2 & 3
06. Electric Duet
07. Nasca Lines
08. Poisoned Mind
09. God Of War
10. Iron Blues
11. Turbo Amadeus
12. From A Thousand Cuts
13. Requiem For The Lost
Check out the cover artwork below.
Acclaimed heavy metal singer Tim "Ripper" Owens (BEYOND FEAR, ex-JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH), who has been fronting Yngwie Malmsteen's band both live and in the studio since February 2008, does not appear on "Spellbound".
Owens was unable to join Malmsteen at the Getaway Rock in July due to scheduling conflicts with Tim's official Ronnie James Dio tribute band DIO DISCIPLES. Handling most of the lead vocals during Yngwie's set at the Getaway Rock Festival was bassist Ralph Ciavolino.
Swedish bassist Bjorn Englen, who was a member of Yngwie's touring band for five years, left the group earlier this year and is currently on the road with DIO DISCIPLES, which is fully supported by Dio's widow/manager, Wendy.
Yngwie's last album, "Relentless", came out on November 22, 2010 via Malmsteen's own Rising Force Records.
Yngwie is working on his autobiography. Described as "the only real and true story written by Malmsteen himself," "Relentless", will be released in early 2013. Yngwie has also launched an instructional web site, RelentlessShred.com.


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Listings in Public Services, Book Stores, Food, Wine, & Treats, Seventh-Day Adventist, Greek/Mediterranean and German
Branson's Center Stage Grille & Bar
in Steak, Seafood/Fish, Pub/Bar & Grill, German, Breakfast/Brunch, American
"Branson's Center Stage Grille & Bar" is Branson's premier family eatery with Live Entertainment.
1810 W 76 Country Blvd
Branson 65616
MoMo Sushi & Grill
in Food, Wine, & Treats, Asian
"Momo Sushi & Grill" brings a variety of interesting, authentic, and very tasty sushi selections to Branson.
120 N Sycamore St
Branson 65616
Greek Gyros & Deli
in Vegetarian/Vegan, Greek/Mediterranean, Food, Wine, & Treats
Greek Gyros and Deli on Main Street will satisfy your palate.
111 E Main Street
Branson 65616
Clockers Cafe
in Food, Wine, & Treats, Breakfast/Brunch, American
"Clockers Cafe" has been a fixture in downtown Branson for many years now.
103 S Commercial St
Branson 65616
Main Street Alley Grill & Gift Shop
in Sandwiches/Subs/Grinders/Hoagies, Ice Cream/Frozen Custard/Frozen Yogurt, Hamburgers/Hot Dogs/Wings, Food, Wine, & Treats, Fast Food/Fast Casual, Downtown Shopping, American
Your fun filled passage to Historic Downtown Branson with a little bit of everything.
113 W Main Street
Branson 65616
Branson Christian Books
in Book Stores
1830 W 76 Country Blvd
Branson 65616
Calvin's Used Bookstore
in Book Stores
1819 W 76 Country Blvd
Branson 65616
Main Street Jewelry & Watch Repair
109 W Main Street
Branson 65616
in Steak, Greek/Mediterranean, Seafood/Fish
"Papouli's" has been favored by Branson/Lakes area locals for years when it comes to authentic Greek dining!
725 East State Highway 248
Reeds Spring 65737
Smack's Deli & Ice Cream
in Food, Wine, & Treats, Ice Cream/Frozen Custard/Frozen Yogurt
"Smack's Deli & Ice Cream" serves up good deli fare, but it's really all about the ice cream!
104 West Main Street
Branson 65616


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Another ramble through the eclectic mixture of things that are sent my way. Amidst a mass of tedious clone music that some commentators are describing as the "big new thing" there are, once in a while. some nuggets that stand out…..
Oakland-based dark punk collective Alaric are set to release their new full length "End Of Mirrors" on May 6th, available on CD, vinyl and digitally via Neurot Recordings and on cassette via Sentient Ruin. Album closer "Angel" is presented below…..somehow it feels a bit like going back to the mid 80s but it has some spark which appeals.
The forthcoming collaboration between Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Bitchin Bajas is very interesting indeed and here is a fascinating video of a track from the album "Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties"…..
Chelsea Wolfe has recently announced the release of the "Hypnos/Flame" 7 inch. It is available from April 1st via Sargent House, the tracks being from her most recent album "Abyss". Here is the video for the ethereal and delightful 'Hypnos'.
Former Foxes front man Nigel Thomas has just released his solo album "Travelling Man" which is a good set of songs and to my mind improves on his previous work with the band. High quality English pop music is the best description, there's a delightful charm about the set and I recommend it to you. An accompanying video for the track "Que Sera" employs the new 360 degree video technology, which is a bit of fun.
'Rainmaker' is the second single from Sarah Williams White's debut album "Of The New World". The South London born-and-bred singer and producer is part of the musical community from her corner of the capital that includes the likes of Henry Wu, Mo Kolours and her brother Paul White. A multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Sarah cites influences including Jamie Liddell, Erykah Badu and PJ Harvey as well as more contemporary acts such as Jamie Woon and Thundercat. A nice jazzy soul thing which you can grab from the peoples republic of Bandcamp.
New Manchester band Ghosts Of Social Networks release debut AA single 'Love Potion' / 'Mockingbirds' through Integrity Records on 6th May 2016. They sound like the love child of Joy Division and Stone Roses with a smattering of the Jesus & Mary Chain. Can't find out much about them on-line so I am as much in the dark as you are. Produced by the ubiqitous Gavin Monaghan 'Love Potion' is a dark tale of unrequited love and the use of alcohol to get close to someone. In the most part I like it but it does tend towards the Bonoesque at the end which is a bit off-putting.
The "drum machine gospel" of the lovely Vienna Ditto will be back soon – place your pre-order at Bandcamp. The album is called "Ticks" and releases on May 13th, unfortunately there are no previews available at this point in time.
Mr Mouse and His Space Museum launch their first full length album on April 8th – it's called "Flags" and finds the duo exploring new sonic avenues. It will be a digital download on German Shepherd Records. Here's a taster….


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Local fishers have won a hard-fought battle against environmentalists working to ban the use of controversial gill nets, which are notorious for snagging unintended victims in their underwater synthetic webs.
A bill in the state Legislature that would have likely shut down a local swordfish and thresher shark drift gill net fishery failed its first committee hearing despite widespread support from ocean and environmental advocates.
Assembly Bill 2019 was killed last week on a 7-6 vote in the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife. Now, state National Marine Fisheries Service officials are considering transferring the fishery (which is in federal waters) to federal jurisdiction. NMFS's Pacific Fishery Management Council will meet this week to discuss that as well as alternative fishing methods.
Supporters of AB 2019 were as surprised by its failure as members of the fishery, who have long contended with public criticism. Many gill net fisheries have been constrained or entirely shut down across the country, and those that remain are constantly looking for new technologies to reduce the rate of so-called bycatch.
"There were quite a few of us that were pretty close to having tears running down our face when the judgment came," said Arthur Lorton, who has fished swordfish off California since gill nets were permitted in the 1980s. "I was very worried about it. If we were shut down, swordfish in restaurants would come from the southern Pacific, where stocks are as healthy and fishing isn't as scrutinized."
The bill would have required fishers to use direct methods such as harpoons or hand-held hooked lines, but those tools don't bring in enough of the large fish to sustain the fishery's annual $14.5 million earnings, said Lorton, who operates a 67-foot steel boat in deep state waters off the coast of Southern California from San Diego to Los Angeles. Most of his catches are sold to Santa Monica Seafood, which has retail shops in Santa Monica and Costa Mesa and also distributes fish throughout the West Coast.
Accidental victims aren't strangers to Lorton's nets, he acknowledges. He's mistakenly nabbed Mola mola, sea lions, dolphins and other species. But, since swordfish and shark fishers began using wider nets and acoustic pingers in the 1990s, their bycatch rates have dropped considerably.
For Oceana and Turtle Island Restoration Network — ocean-life advocates who sponsored AB 2019 — the fishery's lower bycatch rates are nothing to cheer.
"I've been following this fishery for over eight years and, over time, it's really gone from a horrendous fishery to a horrible fishery," said Ben Enticknap, an Oceana campaign manager and scientist. "In the last six years, 61 percent of the catch has been bycatch — mostly dead. There's an average of 100 marine mammals killed per year in this fishery."
Oceana admonished California for having two of the country's nine "dirtiest fisheries," in its March report called "Wasted Catch: Unsolved Problems in U.S. Fisheries." The report states that roughly 550 marine mammals were entangled or killed in the drift gill net fishery in the past five years.
Of particular concern for ocean advocates are the dolphins, whales, leatherback sea turtles and sharks that have been unintentionally killed or maimed in the drift gill nets, which are roughly a mile long and are left underwater overnight to snare large ocean fish.
Members of Ocean Defenders Alliance, a group of volunteer divers who regularly clean abandoned fishing gear from the coastal waters off San Pedro and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, routinely encounter trapped dead and dying animals in gill nets.
Kurt Lieber, founder of Ocean Defenders Alliance, called the failure of AB 2019 a "huge loss."
"I'm really disappointed," Lieber said. "We find sea lions entangled in these things all the time. Why is California lagging behind when we could have such a healthy environment here? Those gill nets are blatantly killing all kinds of animals. In 2009, we found one gill net that had 21 dead sea lions and over a dozen cormorants."
Several instances of sperm whales killed and maimed in drift gill nets in 2010 and 2011 prompted federal officials to issue an order to halt all drift gill net fishing for sharks and swordfish for the season if one more sperm whale was caught.
Mike Conroy, president of West Coast Fisheries Consultants, helped to lobby against AB 2019 and said bycatch rates have improved considerably, and will continue to get better with new technology.
"Bycatch is sustainable," Conroy said. "And the next-generation acoustic pinger is more promising than the ones used since 1997, so I think it's going to get much better. We Californians aren't going to stop eating swordfish. We'll just import that swordfish from another area that has much less regulation" on fishers if the California fishery is shut down.
Currently, the Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are researching the viability of using deep-set buoy gear to catch swordfish in Southern California. The gear, which involves a hook at the end of a long line held up by a buoy, has proven to be less harmful to the environment than drift gill nets, but it isn't clear yet whether it will work well in the deep waters traveled by California swordfish and thresher sharks.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council's Highly Migratory Species Management Team will meet Wednesday through Friday to discuss the effectiveness of using buoy gear to catch swordfish, and will consider moving the management of the species to federal jurisdiction, said the committee's co-chair, Craig Heberer.
"We're going to provide information to the council on transferring the permit process to the federal government," Heberer said. "We'll also be looking at state protocols to look at different gear types. The gear needs to be economically viable and, while drift gill nets are a good tool because of the way swordfish group up, they have bycatch issues.
"We're looking at a way to try to maintain fishing communities, jobs and also domestically sustainably managed seafood from local harvest. So much seafood consumed by Americans is imported, but we have some of the best-managed fisheries in the world."