The Girl With The Yellow Stockings

June has traditionally been a month with fewer posts, but this year that will not be true. The Avenue will get an update today as well as on the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th and 30th of this month. How is that possible if there’s hardly time to even check in if someone liked the most recent post? Well, if I have the time, I’ll write a new review. If not, you can enjoy a short movie. Hand-picked and with a short explanation why.

We kick off the series of shorts in Germany, with Das Mädchen mit den gelben Strümpfen (The Girl with the Yellow Stockings). This six minute short introduces us to a young couple, lying on bed. He wants to marry her and has even bought the rings. She doesn’t want to make life that simple for him and simply refuses. It doesn’t exactly make her the most sympathetic woman in a short, but the YouTube crowd are way ahead of you: the insults written there are misogynic at best (often dragging the World War into this, a simple love tale). For my money, I saw a girl too young to commit: in her heart, she wanted her knight in shining armour to make an effort for his princess, not just ask her bluntly on a bed. She doesn’t refuse him: that would be have led to a phrase like “I like you, but…”, she simply says “no”. She wants him to ask again, without a promise that the answer will be positive. Maybe she wants to be sure his proposal wasn’t just an impulse. But that’s the Avenue’s take on The Girl with the Yellow Stockings.

Directed by Grzegorz Muskala in 2008, the couple is played by Rosalie Thomass and Thomas Fränzel. Happy viewing!

Animated short by Regina Pessoa

Not entirely my cup of tea, but I noticed that it was on tv tonight and found it on YouTube.

Una Historia Tragica Com Final Feliz
a.k.a. “Tragic Story with Happy Ending”
R: Regina Pessoa
Portugal, 2005
animation without dialogue
7 minutes

This short story “received 3 prizes in Annecy “Espace Projects” 2001 and recently won 26 awards including: Spécial Jury Award Cinanima’05, the CNC’06 Quality Award, the Best Animation award at Granada’06, the Special Jury Award at Anifest Trebon’06, the Grand Prix at SICAF’06, the Grand Prix at Annecy’06, the Prize Best of Section at Melbourne ’06, Nominee for the Cartoon d’Or 2006 – Europe, The Special International Jury Prize Hiroshima’06, the Grand Prix at Mecal’06 and a prize at AniMadrid’06.”

Regina Pessoa: I lived in the countryside in a small village near Coimbra until I was 17 years old. My entire universe was rural. We didn’t have television, which was very boring…but in retrospect, thinking things over, maybe it saved me. We read and listen to our elders telling stories.

My uncle used to draw on the walls and on the doors of my grandmother’s home, with pieces of coal. Seeing my uncle drawing on the walls gave us a sense of freedom because we didn’t have paper and pencils but we always had walls and doors – maybe this stayed with me unconsciously because know, much later, it’s already the second film that I’m making in engraving technique…

Cinema 16: 3 shorts compilations

Released just when Delirium Vault was going on hiatus, the Cinema 16 DVD releases never got that much attention. Now with DV’s grand re-opening (please, tell me you’re reading this dressed in your tuxedo!?) it seems as good a time as any to refresh your minds about these releases.

Cinema 16 is a collection of short movies, made by known to very famous directors. There are three Cinema 16 releases: one for British, one for European and one for American directors. This does beg the question as to whether the British directors are so great they need a whole DVD for themselves, whereas Europe and America have to be content with just one DVD per continent.
Mind you, the British DVD has names like Mike Leigh, Peter Greenaway, Lynne Ramsey, Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan, so there’s isn’t too much reason to complain as you’ll still get good value for your money. However, of the three releases thr British DVD is not the best. Mind you, Peter Mullan (who’s Scottish) and the English Chris Morris are featured on the European disc. Which is just confusing to me. Unless I missed the news and England and Scotland have just left Great Britain and joined Europe. In which case: welcome!

The DVDs feature names like Lars von Trier, Jean-Luc Godard, Lukas Moodysson, D.A. Pennebaker, George Lucas, Andy Warhol and Alexander Payne. Enough for any movie fan to get water in his/her mouth? Let’s check out which movies are featured.

Another great idea was to feature audio commentaries on certan movies. Sadly (here we go again), the UK release has to do without commentaries, but there are some commentaries on the American release (I’ve marked them with *) and all the European releases feature a commentary track. (I didn’t get the British release myself and sources vary on whether there commentares on some or all the movies on that release.)

Cinema 16: US Directors
1.The Lunch Date (Dir. Adam Davidson, 1990, 11 mins)
2. Carmen (Dir. Alexander Payne, 1985, 18 mins)
3. The Discipline Of D.E. (Dir. Gus Van Sant, 1982, 13 mins)
4. Daybreaker Express (Dir. D.A. Pennebaker, 1953, 5 mins)*
5. Vincent (Dir. Tim Burton, 1982, 6 mins)
6. Terry Tate: Office Linebacker (Dir. Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2003, 4 mins)*
7. The Wrath of Cobble Hill (Dir. Adam Parrish King, 2005, 15 mins)*
8. Freiheit (Dir. George Lucas, 1966, 3 mins)*
9. Feelings (Dir. Todd Solondz, 1984, 4 mins)*
10. Terminal Bar (Dir. Stefan Nadelman, 2002, 22 mins)*
11. Necrology: Roll Call of the Dead (Dir. Standish Lawder, 1969-70, 12 mins)*
12. George Lucas in Love (Dir. Joe Nussbaum, 1999, 8 mins)*
13. Meshes of the Afternoon (Dir. Maya Deren, 1943,15 mins)
14. Five Feet High and Rising (Dir. Peter Sollett, 1999, 29 min)*
15. Paperboys (Dir. Mike Mills, 2001, 41 mins)
16. Screen Test: Helmut (Dir. Andy Warhol, 1964, 5 mins)

Cinema 16: UK Directors
1. About A Girl – Brian Percival
2. Dear Phone – Peter Greenaway
3. Doodlebug – Christopher Nolan
4. Eight – Stephen Daldry
5. Gasman – Lynne Ramsay
6. Girl Chewing Gum – John Smith
7. Home – Morag McKinnon
8. Joyride – Jim Gillespie
9. Inside Out – Tom and Charles Guard
10. Je T’aime John Wayne – Toby McDonald
11. The Sheep Thief – Asif Kapadia
12. The Short And Curlies – Mike Leigh
13.  Boy And Bicycle – Ridley Scott
14. Telling Lies – Simon Ellis
15 .UK Images – Martin Parrand
16. Who’s My Favourite Girl? – Adrian McDowall

Cinema 16: European Directors
1. Bara Prata Lite (Talk) – Lukas Moodysson (Sweden)
2. Le Batteur Due Bolero – Patrice Leconte (France)
3. Charlotte Et Veronique (Ou Tous Les Garcons S’Appellent Patrick) – Jean-Luc Godard (France)
4. Copy Shop – Virgil Widrich (Austria)
5. Epilog – Tom Tykwer (Germany)
6. Fridge – Peter Mullan (Scotland)
7. Il Giorno Della Prima Di Close-Up (The Opening Night Of The Close Up) – Nanni Moretti (Italy)
8. Gisele Kerozene – Jan Kounen (Holland)
9. Harlig Ar Jorden (World Of Glory) – Roy Andersson (Sweden)
10. L’Homme Sans Tete (The Man Wihtout A Head) – Juan Solanas
11. Koncert Zyczen (Concert Of Wishes) – Krzysztof Kieslowski (Poland)
12. My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117 – Chris Morris (England)
13. Nocturne – Lars Von Trier (Denmark)
14. El Secdleto De La Tlompeta – Javier Fesser (Spain)
15. Valgaften (Election Night) – Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark)
16. Bonus film [Jabberwocky - Jan Svankmajer]

A BIT OF CRITICISM
All three releases feature a lot of bonafide names and Cinema 16 (if you still don’t know why they chose that name: look again, each DVD contains 16 movies) started with the idea of a British release, followed by the American release and then the European release. This is somehow reflected in the output: the European release is the most interesting as it combines lots of styles (there’s a mile of difference between the tastes of horror trash king Jan Kounen and the deadly serious Nanni Moretti) and all shorts are accompanied by a commentary.
The American DVD is also a nice release as it contains both the older and the younger names: new directors like Solondz and Payne are found hand in hand with household names like Warhol and Lucas. The Pennebaker short is a nice find and, for those who still didn’t own it, Tim Burton’s Vincent (featuring the voice of Vincent Price) is a must. All this doesn’t mean the British release is not good, it’s just it’s harder to compare it to the other ones. It’s a nice release, but slightly outshined by the other two.

You can find out more about the releases and the movies featured on the Cinema 16 site. The releases are available at Xploited Cinema (US) and Play.com (UK/Europe).