The business of architecture
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine and I caught up to see a film. We're both fans of the science fiction genre, so the much-hyped Ad Astra was an easy choice. We had heard murmurings that this might be the new Interstellar, which stirred giddy excitement, but sought to curb our enthusiasm... Continue Reading →
This is the 4th of twenty-one lessons for design students, gathered from the combined experience of being a student, and teaching students. I will published one lesson each weekday until they're done. 4. Jaws in space It is rumoured that big Hollywood film studios have the attention spans of goldfish. When pitching a film therefore, a director is required to... Continue Reading →
What is it? A film by Mexican director, Alfonso Caurón, that explores the fragility of human inhabitation of space. Gravity begins 600km above the Earth's surface, where a NASA Explorer shuttle is docked to the Hubble space telescope. Civilian scientist, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), is retrofitting the telescope as part of a scientific grant,... Continue Reading →
What is it? The most recent film by cult director, Quentin Tarantino. Set in southern American slave country in the late 1850s, Django Unchained is one in a long line of loose reinterpretations of 1966 Italian western, Django. The film's title character, played enigmatically by Jamie Foxx, is a black slave who is freed by... Continue Reading →
Who is he? Batman, a comic book superhero created in 1939 by DC Comics artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. Most recently (and in case, dear reader, you have been living under a rock the past few years), he has been the protagonist of a now-concluded film trilogy by director Christopher Nolan. Played by... Continue Reading →
What are they? An awards ceremony this Sunday afternoon (Pacific Standard Time) conducted by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that recognises excellence in film making over the past 12 months. Separate awards are bestowed upon the best film, best director, best actor, best actress and a host of other individuals. The Oscars is... Continue Reading →
What is it? New film by Gavin O'Connor starring Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as mixed martial artists, Tommy and Brendan Conlon. The two are entrants into a world MMA championship, Sparta, for which the winner-takes-all purse is $5m. More importantly, the two are also brothers, estranged from one another and from their father, Paddy, played... Continue Reading →
What is it? The 12th Italian Film Festival that screened in Palace Cinemas across Australia over the past 2 weeks. We saw four films - Habemus Papam (We Have A Pope) by Nanni Moretti, Manuale D'Amore 3 (The Ages Of Love) by Giovanni Veronesi, Sei Venezia (Six Venice) by Carlo Mazzacurati and Benvenuti Al Sud... Continue Reading →
What is it? The 60th Melbourne International Film Festival that concluded on Sunday night. We saw four films - Circumstance by Maryam Keshavarz, Super by James Gunn, Bobby Fischer Against The World by Liz Garbus and Another Earth by Mike Cahill. All four were worth seeing (two in particular, as discussed below) and each was... Continue Reading →
After recently seeing, and thoroughly enjoying, the third Transformers film, Dark of the Moon, it came to our mind that not all film trilogies are created equal. Some are imagined with great creativity and care, are built to endure. Others cut corners wherever possible, chasing a quick box-office buck at the cost of quality. Here follows... Continue Reading →