Tag Archives: movies

Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Great New Indian Sidewalk Movie Posters

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First, does anyone know where in Bangalore, or perhaps India, I can get cardboard mailing tubes for posters? They just don't seem to be available. What is this nonsense!!! Second, if you missed these posts about the grand outsider Ramachandraiah sidewalk posters, see them now! Batch 1: Original sidewalk posters for Harry Potter, Tintin and more Batch 2: More real ...

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Andy Deemer / 18 Comments
Sweet Movies and Wild Books

The Five Indie Docs You Need to See

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My cousin Otis and I were talking documentaries this morning. It got me thinking about the best I'd seen. Films that warmed my heart, then chilled my soul, then demanded big cups of coffee, hefty scoops of Cheese-Steak ice cream, and long dark conversations after. And these were the ones I'd seen recently. ...

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment
Sweet Movies and Wild Books

A Lovely Moment from Ghungroo

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Standing alone, so desperately alone, she waits outside the Odeon. Will he come? Oh, will he ever come? This lobby card for Rajendra Jain's Ghungroo, which I pulled ripped and bent from a stack at Balaji's Rare Antiques, reminds me of college. Although I didn't wear a sari.

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment
Sweet Movies and Wild Books

A Huge Pile of Gorgeous Old Thai Movie Posters

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It was the Singapore Agent who told me about the poster guy on Rambuttri. "Rambuttri like Rambutan," he said. "But with a tree at the end. Look for the restaurant with the good pad thai, next to the massage place. That's where you'll find the poster guy." The pad thai restaurant next to a massage parlor? ...

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Andy Deemer / 2 Comments
Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Amitabh Bachchan: Comic Superhero

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I'm a huge fan of Amitabh Bachchan. But then again, who isn't? He's the king of Bollywood. BBC readers chose him as the greatest star of stage or screen of the last thousand years. I'm sure you've seen him as the angry young man in Sholay, or the angry old man in Kabhi Khushi ...

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Andy Deemer / 2 Comments
Sweet Movies and Wild Books

A Brief Aside on Dr Rajkumar, the James Bond of Southern India

Alone in the hotel, drinking Kingfisher and watching old Karanataka films. In 1981's Keralida Simha, an honest cop has to break up a party of riotous and drugged out delinquents. And it's something akin to poetry. I don't know much about Kannada cinema -- it's called Sandalwood -- but the cop with the sweet mustache ...

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Andy Deemer / 1 Comment
The Zombie Files

On The Making of Poultrygeist: “When You Need More Bloodspray….”

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We needed squibs. I didn't exactly know what they were, or how they worked, but they're little charges that explode under an actor's shirt, so it looks like they've just been shot. Just like in Die Hard or Bad Boys II. But in Poultrygeist, it wasn't Hans Gruber who'd be shot—it was the horde of ...

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment
Extraordinary Eats, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Philadelphia CheeseSteak Ice Cream

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"That's possibly the worst idea I've ever heard." Michelle didn't use these words lightly. She didn't say this when I'd suggested we fly across the country to a park staffed by 108 dwarfs, or we hand-feed live animals to hungry tigers, or we train to become professional taxidermists. But evidently Michelle has her limits, too. ...

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Andy Deemer / 30 Comments
Strange Tourism, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Porn, Rats, and Antique Projectors at Sri Lanka’s Classic Cinemas

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We heard there were rats in The Liberty. That it smelled like urine. That the sound was awful. But it's the most famous cinema in Sri Lanka's capital, a 1955 Art Moderne beauty, and how could we turn that down? So we wore socks. Rats don't like socks. It's been modified, ...

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Andy Deemer / 9 Comments
Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

China’s all-time favorite (and all-time darkest?) comic book: Sanmao

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Not many foreigners know about Sanmao. Here in China, though, he’s bigger than Disney. He's as prone to mischief as Bart Simpson. As endlessly honest as Richie Rich. And as dark as Charlie Brown. Darker. Even though Sanmao comics are as much for kids as they are adults, they're filled with death, ...

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 7 Comments
Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Red Detachment of Awesome

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This Wednesday thru Friday, if you're in Beijing, you shouldn't miss the best of the "model operas," The Red Detachment of Women (红色娘子军). Playing for three nights only at Poly Plaza. It's called a model opera, but it's actually a ballet. The eight model operas were, during the height of the cultural ...

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Comments Off
Sweet Movies and Wild Books

Film 101, with Guest Professor Kim Jong Il

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(Happy Kim Il Sung's eternal birthday!)Sergei Eisenstein wrote extensively on film theory.  As did Lloyd Kaufman.  So, knowing what a film buff Kim Jong Il is, I was proud to see he'd already hopped on that bandwagon.  I recently picked up his fascinating 1987 treatise on filmmaking techniques, "The Cinema and Directing." It's short at ...

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Andy Deemer / 2 Comments
AO Events

The World of Chinese Movie Night: Scenes of City Life

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In the last few weeks, we've brought you 1950s girl basketball melodramas, 1940s street urchin black comedies, and saucy 1920s road worker flicks. This week, though, we've got something entirely different: a fantastic pre-liberation pre-code comedy!"SCENES OF CITY LIFE" (都市风光)FREE! This Tuesday, Jan 25th at 7pm7 Dongmianhua Hutong, Beijing江湖酒吧, 北京交道口南大街东棉花胡同7号6401-4611 / ...

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment
AO Events

The World of Chinese Movie Night: Women Basketball Player No. 5 (女篮5号)

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This Tuesday night is gonna be an exciting one at Jianghu -- join us (The World of Chinese, that is!) as we welcome freezing January with Woman Basketball Player No. 5 (女篮五号), a fantastically warming 1957 sports adventure, directed by the legendary Xie Jin. It's got girls, rivalry, action, basketball, crushes, and even accordion singalongs. ...

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment
AO Events

The World of Chinese Movie Night: Cow (斗牛)

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Chinese movie night at Jianghu Jiuba continues this week with last year's incredible Cow (斗牛, Dou Niu), an hilarious black comedy set in the mountains of Shandong. It's the simple and possibly true story of a poor peasant boy, a snarky dead girl, and a monstrously large overseas cow.  "Brilliant!... A tour-de-force..." VarietyWinner, Best Actor ...

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment
AO Events

Big Road, in a little hutong, with new subtitles and a live score!

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China, 1934. There's no work to be had. No food to be eaten.  Where else to go, but the BIG ROAD?This exhilaratingly awesome Chinese classic -- a silent musical! the 30th greatest Chinese film ever made! -- has gone unseen for far too long.  We couldn't find subtitles that made sense, so we wrote new ...

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment
AO Events

"Street Angel" at Jianghu Jiuba – Nov 9th, 2010

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Two weeks ago, we showed "The Winter of Sanmao" to a packed house at Jianghu Jiuba. It was incredible. I got a little tipsy, and CCTV published three hard-hitting stories. ("Laughter was waged," they wrote.  "Outside, wind just started to moan. Inside, it was common to hear people laughing!" Oh, and my introduction to the ...

Posted on November 4, 2010 by Andy Deemer / Leave a comment