Memorial Day mini-film fest at O Cinema, from Basterds to Balrogs

Beginning tonight, one of South Florida’s bold little indie cinemas will recognize Memorial Day weekend with a mini film festival of war-related films. O Cinema will host screenings for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and Kathryn Bigelow’s the Hurt Locker. Each screens one night, beginning this Friday and continuing through the weekend. The capper, however, arrives Monday with the epic battle for Middle Earth: the Peter Jackson’s entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy— the extended editions (that’s over 11 hours).

The weekend starts with Inglourious Basterds. I spent 2010 bitching at the lack of recognition for this film during Oscar® season. There are just too many good scenes and set pieces to single out one, so here’s its trailer:

Stanley Kubrick’s film screens the following day. What to say about Kubrick (my MA thesis subject, by the way)? He is a true master, and the effort he puts into every second of his movies shows. He does not waste a single frame. Though Full Metal Jacket is typical Kubrickian perfection, as a student of Jung, I do have a favorite scene. After Private Joker (Matthew Modine)  explains “Born to Kill” and a peace sign drawn on his helmet as a reference to “The duality man” to a questioning colonel (Bruce Boa: “What is that? Some sort of sick joke?), the colonel gives a pregnant pause and delivers one of the best lines in the movie:

As for the Hurt Locker, It won the Oscar® over Avatar for best picture, but barely anyone saw it. No one should doubt the skills of director Bigelow, and this movie, too, should not be missed as a great example of the modern war film. Early in the film she sets the intense tone with this scene featuring Guy Pearce as part of a bomb disposal team:

Monday will be something for the serious film nerd. There are epic battles galore (of course including the one between and that great creature of the underworld noted in the title of this post and Gandalf [Ian McKellen]). However, the film is filled with many great human moments thanks to the talent of the actors and Jackson’s patience in leading up to the action sequences. One of my favorite interactions comes early in the trilogy when Gandalf visits the hobbit Bilbo (Ian Holm) about the ring of power.

See O Cinema’s schedule of events for individual tickets. All current and former military personnel will be treated to a free beer and a small popcorn during the weekend films.

–Hans Morgenstern

(Copyright 2012 by Hans Morgenstern. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)

Independent Ethos jumps aboard Twitter

When I heard “New York Times” media writer David Carr declare Twitter as something that was not going to go away anytime soon during the documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times, I came close to signing this blog as an active Twitter user. I already had several accounts for work, business and private use. Just following a few interesting bands, writers, artists, publications, studios and record labels soon began to overwhelm with information. I could not stand it for more than a half hour at a time. However, Carr is right, Twitter is not going away.

Seeing as this blog has lead a few people to my Facebook account, where I often share more than my blog posts, why should some of the regular followers of Independent Ethos miss out? Follow me here:

@Indieethos

I promise to keep “Tweets” relevant to the principles of this blog. I do not care for trivialities but in illuminating the aesthetic of independent artists in film and music. Do not expect to be overwhelmed by minute-to-minute Tweets. I might start with only a few a week, in fact. Still, there is so much to cover beyond the extensive articles I publish here, and I hate not having to share it all, but the restriction of 140 characters should promise for some interesting experiences, including previews to bigger articles on this blog and follow-ups to past articles. Of course there will be relevant re-Tweets as well by followers. You will also receive alerts to just-published articles.

In keeping with brevity, I encourage all my followers here on WordPress to follow me on Twitter.  Let’s do this…

–Hans Morgenstern

(Copyright 2012 by Hans Morgenstern. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)

Hello world!

“Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!”  <– That’s WordPress’ generic first entry. I’m leaving it to show you how long it took me to start this and partially figure this thing out. I still am learning lots, as I am just a lowly writer and no publishing/tech expert. I will post quicker than this though, promise!

Star