The Teenage Gaze by Petra Collins

I recently came across the work of Canadian photographer Petra Collins, a 20-year-old artist who usually works with Rookie magazine, and i simply adored her portfolio of The Teenage Gaze. It has a kinda 90s mood about it, some melancholy and some The Virgin Suicides and Larry Clark's Kids vibes if i may add, or at least it made me think about them when i was browsing this particular set of photos.

It really captures that time during adolescence of being alone in your bedroom, staring at yourself in the mirror, or hanging out with friends, spending time in our own private world, the eternal boredom, as well as the feeling of being trapped in highschool, the feeling of not belonging there. 

There are far more pics at the source but enjoy the ones i liked best after the cut, enjoy the beauty and the bitterness of going back to highschool.

The other side of 'Gravity'.

(This contains HUGE spoilers)

'Gravity' was the first movie i ever watched in 3D, the thing was ok but that format is simply not for me, and the film in general was nice, not as great as everyone was saying it was but not bad either. Still, there was a scene that really touched me, that stand out for me in the movie, and that was when Ryan Stone, Sandra Bullock's character, has no hopes of survival and believes she's gonna die while she makes contact with someone on the radio that doesn't understand her cries for help. 

Now a shortfilm has just been released that shows what happened on the other side of the radio, directed by Alfonso Cuarón's son Jonas Cuarón, and is beyond beautiful. If there was something that touched me to the core was when in that scene the voice on the radio starts singing a lullaby to a baby that's crying on the background, and that makes Ryan Stone to calm down and fall asleep in a quiet and peaceful way to death, up in space where there's just silence. 

What happens on that other side is also touching and has a sad turn in the end. Watch:

sources: stayforthecredits & youtube

David Bowie for Louis Vuitton

This is such great news, i can't even: Mr. David Bowie, the only and only, is featured on Louis Vuitton's new ad campaign with a series of new ads and a fashion shortfilm coming up.

Shot between the Louvre in Paris and the canals of Venice, it shows a decadent masked ball which recalls the one in 'Labyrinth', where Bowie also stars and which is one of my fave movies ever, so this couldn't be more perfect. The shortfilm, titled 'L'Invitation Au Voyage', also features model Arizona Muse and is directed by Romain Gavras, and will premiere on the label's app on November 7, so we'll see it in full very soon. In the meantime, here's the teaser that already looks delicious, kinda like a Marie Antoinette meets Labyrinth party, aka perfection:

UPDATE: the director's cut:

sources: vogue & pitchfork

'Blue Jasmine' (2013).

(Spoilers) Last time i watched a new Woody Allen movie, 'To Rome with Love', i despised it. It makes you consider why he doesn't take more time between projects (he writes and directs a movie per year), because let's be honest, that film was awful. But 'Blue Jasmine' is something else. We're talking good old Woody Allen, funny but devastating stuff in the end. The Woody Allen that we fell in love with.

Cate Blanchett owns the movie, if there was anyone else out there that didn't dig her as an actress, this is where she shines her most. As if the role was written with her in mind. Her portrayal of this now broke New York socialite that has to start again without wanting to give up her luxury lifestyle is flawless. Because this movie is darker than one might think while watching, even for some it might come as a surprise in the end as viewers can get lost in the comedic part of the movie and don't pay attention to the signs of depression. We're witnessing the decay of someone who simply doesn't want to accept her new life, someone who daydreams about the time when everything was perfect and she was oblivious to anything else out of the perfect life she has created for herself (from Janet to Jasmine). Because for her, ignorance was bliss, the most perfect life she could have. She just can't stand this new reality and that's why in the end, in that heartbreaking scene, she finds herself alone talking to strangers, finally loosing her mind and living more in the past than in the cruel present she refuses to live.

I can say that i loved 'Blue Jasmine', it leaves you a weird feeling with that ending scene, but that's something that i adore after watching a movie, that it gets stuck in your head for days. As I said, good old Woody Allen with a for sure Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category, or at least it should. Be careful while watching because 'Blue Jasmine' can break your heart.

"Anxiety, nightmares and a nervous breakdown, there's only so much traumas a person can withstand until they take to the streets and start screaming."

sources: blogslanacion & theessentialfilms

'Flowers in the Attic' remake trailer

The long awaited (at least for me) 'Flowers in the Attic' television movie remake has finally a trailer out, and i'm not sure what will come out of this but so far it looks, accurate.

The story is about a recent widow who goes back to her strict parents' house with her children and has to hide them in the attic in order to make amends with her father who has no idea of the children's existence. This book has a lot of twisted plots and it seems this new television adaptation is including them all – unlike the 80s movie adaptation that kept the incest out– and while the trailer looks like a hot mess, i'll watch it no matter what, because i loved this series of books. 

The television movie has a really nice cast with Ellen Burtsyn as the evil grandmother, Heather Graham as the mother of the kids and Kiernan Shipka as Cathy and i can't wait to watch it. It will premiere sometime in January 2014 but take a look at the trailer, kinda spoilery if you aren't familiar with the story, but well:

sources: ew & youtube

'Afterlife' by Arcade Fire directed by Spike Jonze at the YTMAs

i know it's late to post this due to internet standards, this was up the other day so it's already old news, but it was so grand that i had to post it here. Spike Jonze directing a music video during a live performance of Arcade Fire's 'Afterlife' at the YouTube Awards with indie actress Greta Gerwig, dancing the pain away of the break up that narrates this song. In other words, perfection. To put on such a show live, like it was a musical it's genius and only Spike Jonze could do such a beautiful thing.

Also, the song is flawless, i haven't liked 'Reflektor' that much, it's kinda of a let down after the previous Arcade Fire albums but this song makes it up for everything. If you haven't already watch it, do it because this is superb:

Can we work it out? If we scream and shout till we work it out.

Can we just work it out?

Scream and shout till we work it out.

Till we work it out, till we work it out.

sources: warp.la & youtube

It's Witches season! The top 5 witch covens.

Halloween is coming and it seems that witches are everywhere, on TV shows, in the big screen and i love it. There's a Best Witch Movie list on imdb and it's pretty accurate, with some classics like 'Rosemary's Baby', 'Suspiria', 'The Crucible' or 'Hocus Pocus' but here are my top five witch covens in movies and TV shows because when witches don't fight, we burn:

American Horror Story Coven

Ok, so far, we've only seen three episodes but damn, it looks good as hell. I like this show, it always starts really good and somehow towards half of it, it becomes this big mess but hopes are up with this new season. Because how can you go wrong with such a storyline and with such a female cast: the superb Jessica Lange always, Kathy fucking Bates, flawless Angela Bassett, the always great Sarah Paulson and Lily Rabe, rising star Taissa Farmiga, lovable Jamie Brewer, badass Gabourey Sidibe and fierce Emma Roberts? That should be about enough.

More after the cut:

Discovering Florrie

Lately i've been listening to Florrie a lot, i've just discovered this English drummer, singer and songwriter and it's become my latest addiction.

This former model (and former face and voice of the Nina Ricci perfume campaign) has been releasing her solo music since 2010 but she doesn't have a full album out yet, only EPs and singles, so i'm posting some of my favourites from her. It sounds a little like Annie but less produced and more fresh, take a listen and dance to carefree pop music:

I Took a Little Something

Give Me Your Love

Left Too Late

Call 911

Begging Me

sources: papername & youtube

10 favourite TLC songs

In the wake of the unnecessary and upcoming TLC movie CrazySexyCool – why bother? i would take a VH1 Behind the Music any day before a lame biopic, i've come to realise that i still know all the lyrics by heart of any TLC song. CrazySexyCool was the first album i bought in CD format (so proud of that) and to this day, they remain my favourite girlband ever.

So, honoring their legacy i've decided to make a list with my ultimate fave TLC songs, in no particular order and just because, though obviously, 'Creep' is my #1. Check out the rest of the list behind the cut and take a look at their vids, they're pretty amazing and they made them go bankrupt, no lie.

Creep

Stereotyping you by your favorite director

By now you know i love the "Stereotyping" kind of posts, i've already posted the Stereotyping you by your fave 90s band and Diagnosing your romantic issues based on your fave literary couple, so now it's time to stereotype you by your favorite director. I'm missing directors like Michael Hankeke, Francis Ford Coppola, Kevin Smith, Jane Campion or Pedro Almodóvar but it's a funny list and i've marked my fave ones so check out the full list at the source and get stereotyped. According to this i'm a weirdo who wouldn't mind to be Jewish, who loves the 80s and quotes way too many movies and would love to be a filmmaker. Pretty accurate:

Wes Anderson

Indie music fans (although none will fess up to it).

Steven Spielberg

People who haven't seen any movies.

Jim Jarmusch

Literary music lovers who aspire to live on the Lower East Side.

Jean-Luc Godard

Francophiles who are bitter.

François Truffaut

Francophiles who are joyous.

John Cassavetes

People obsessed with Ray Carney.

Ingmar Bergman

People who prefer books to movies.

Sofia Coppola

Girls who want to make movies.

M. Night Shyamalan

Kids who want to be the next Spielberg.

Spike Jonze

Skaters.

Gus van Sant

LGBT teens.

Martin Scorsese and/or Paul Thomas Anderson

Really angsty film students who probably attend NYU.

Todd Solondz

Misanthropes.

Michel Gondry

DIY types who are too busy making stuff to watch a whole lot of movies.

Michael Bay

Complete dumbasses.

Harmony Korine

Very intelligent stoners who secretly wish they were black.

Tim Burton

High school art students with piercings and wild hair.

Judd Apatow

Bros with good senses of humor.

David Lynch

Kooks (an eccentric, strange, or crazy person).

Michael Moore

Politically active pinko liberals.

John Hughes

Teenagers who love all things cheesy and forever belong in the 80s.

The Coen Bros.

Cynics with a penchant for old movies.

Woody Allen

Gentiles who wouldn't mind being Jewish (and vice versa).

Stanley Kubrick

Kids who just got their first camera.

Quentin Tarantino
People who insist on demonstrating their cinephilia by incessantly quoting movies.

Wong kar-Wai

Hip jet-setters.

Federico Fellini

People obsessed with their dream lives.

Richard Linklater

Slackers.

 sources: popandcinema & sawdustanddiamonds