Today the Filmmuseum starts a large retrospective about one of the great moviestars of 60’s & 70’s European cinema, Alain Delon. This French actor played in classic films like Borsalino, Plein Soleil, and Le Samouraï. Films starring this genuine bad boy of cinema (bad reputation, criminal connections etc) can be seen in this beautiful theater all summer long until the 26th of August.

There’s a promising new UK dvd magazine called FILE. The first issue contains over 2 hours worth of content including music videos, short films, and interviews. It’s from one of the co-founders of the Specialten DVD Magazine, Fabio Sebastianelli. The magazine can be ordered online for postage all over the world.

For every movie Pixar creates a lovely short. And now - after Presto (Wall-E) and For the Birds (Monsters Inc), it’s time for… Partly Cloudy.

Pivot is a short animation film produced for the NPS Kort! animation project. It’s going to be a couple more months before it comes out, but untill it does make sure you follow the creators every step of the way on their blog:

This game trailer is better than Episodes I-III combined. Dang - Lucas should’ve got BioWare to write his prequels for him.

A great short film written and directed by Tomas Mankovsky. He and the crew got very creative with stop motion for this one. Check out the site or the credits after the video for some ‘making of’ footage. Presented by Blink.

Although it was released in 2006, it never made it to Dutch screens. And I guess Angel-A (a Luc Besson masterpiece) didn’t made it to some other countries as well. A shame for such a thoughtfull black & white hommage to Paris starring Rie Rasmussen and Jamel Debbouze but mainly the city of love.

The E3 is coming. Nowadays we even have developers talking in videos about teasers & trailers. One of the games to watch out for is Mass Effect 2, an american RPG. The first had an unique approach towards story involvement. It turns out that choices you made in part 1, like killing a character, follows through to part 2. Makes you like a movie director in your own sequel.

The big question: who is Banksy? The Daily Mail claimed to have unmasked him, but nobody was completely convinced. Adding to the hype Ivan Massow has made a movie where Banksy will have diner with Joan Collins (!?) and apperently finally reveal himself. Available in june, on DVD or for download. For now, check out the trailer.

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired. Or not…

Hadn’t seen this here before: a documentary about some of the most influential advertising visionaries of our time. Among them are Lee Clow (Apple Computer 1984 / iPod), Dan Wieden (’Just Do It’), and George Lois (saved MTV and launched Tommy Hilfiger overnight). Directed by Doug Pray and premiers at Sundance festival 2009.

Lovely news for a small but loyal dutch fan base of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The Melkweg will be showing the film version of this successful and controversial Japanese anime series on May 28th. After that the film will go to Utrecht, Breda, Arnhem, Nijmegen and Eindhoven. The release of Evangelion 2.0 will be June 27th in Japan.

Bananaz is a 90-minute documentary tracking the history of the animated band Gorillaz. The film was shot by filmmaker Ceri Levy and begins at the birth of the concept band in 2000. Bananaz can be viewed online @ bablegum.com, and more general info on the film is at bananazfilm.com.

Winner of the Dutch Edition of the international short film festival Quick Flick World in the Lost & Found theme.

A little late, but still relevant: This month Amsterdams Melkweg shows a Jim Jarmusch retrospective. One of my favorite directors who you might know from Down By Law, Broken Flowers, Coffee & Cigarettes, Night on Earth, Stranger then Paradise, Permanent Vacation or Ghost Dog. If not, here you go.

Where The Wild Things Are, a new film by Spike Jonze based on the children’s picture book by Maurice Sendak. “The original concept for the book featured horses instead of monsters. Sendak said he switched when he discovered that he could not draw horses”. I like that. Bob likes it too.

The great people from cross-media production studio Submarine re-launched the Forget the Film, Watch the Titles website. They started a collection of the most stunning and original film title sequences. I hope they add work of the legendary Saul Bass too.

Why save the world when you can fake it? Great piece of British comedy.

This April the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival (AFFF) will see its anniversary with the 25th edition. From sf to cult, from horror to experimental, and from anime to fantasy, this festival in Tuschinski cinema will tickle your senses or just scare the living daylight out of you. The program is not yet known, but there are some trailers.

I’m glad that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has won three Oscars last night. For visual effects, art direction and makeup. If there would be one film to deserve even more prices it would be this one. A brilliant film by director David Fincher and writer Eric Roth. In my humble opinion this film comes close to perfection.

Finally, the directorial début of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman can be seen in The Netherlands. It’s dark, dramatic, yet comic-filled with hidden means and illusions. Only in six theaters, go see it.

Today was the Super Bowl. Personally I couldn’t care less. Playing rugby with full body armour isn’t my cup of tea, preferring it the old english way. Anyways. Super Bowl means new trailers, specifically from the action film department with Transformers II, GI Joe and Star Trek. After all that, there’s a bonus clip to relax you again.

Hard times for the action movie star Van Damme in this docu style film by young French director Mabrouk El Mechri. JC returns to the country of his birth to seek the peace and tranquility he can no longer enjoy in the United States. Now showing at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Check out a scene at Vimeo.

Beautiful animation! A short story about voodoo dolls who try to escape from their creator.

Koningwoning already talked about it, but it deserves it’s own post. Ben Croshaw’s game reviews for The Escapist are among the best. Fast paced critical bashing with fine illustrations and always on point.

Den of Geek compiled the top 25 of ads ever shown in sci-fi movies. Some serious societal satire, but mostly plain great fun.

Great news, for me at least. My favourite children’s book Where the Wild Thing Are (because it looks so dope) is being made into a film by Spike Jonze. The monsters will be played by actors in 6-8 foot tall costumes (made by the Jim Henson company), with computer animated faces. The pics look gnarly.

In 1945 the Nazis fled to the moon. In 2018 they are coming back.

Lovely teaser for Iron Sky, a new sci fi comedy from the makers of Star Wreck.

Check out the beautiful winning video of the Aniboom Radiohead Competion. The maker is Tobias Stretch from Philadelphia. (This is also a nice one.)

7002 is a collaborative gem between HOTEL, Triomf, John 106 and Duvel. HOTEL wrote the non-linear script and directed this film dense with street culture symbolism. In collaboration Duvel responded to images and scenes with his self composed music score. The result is an intriguing experimental short film, a roller coaster ride passing through fantasy, mind scape, emotional trickery and sound! Cheers.