The Tree of Life, Dir. Terrence Malick

The reclusive director Terrence Malick didn't show for a press conference to reveal his new film The Tree of Life at the recently wrapped Cannes Film Festival. Unusual in this day and age of endless ego-fuelled self-promotion and back-patting. Malick isn't a usual artist, and this isn't a usual film, his fifth in a mysterious but oft-admired career. He took home the top prize at Cannes after polarizing the audience amongst boos and cheers alike.

The Tree of Life isn't easily loglined in so many words or less. This non-linear work is intended to wash over our senses and create a mood rather than tell a story with beginning, middle, and predictable end as will every other film currently screening. To root out a traceable plot-line, Jack O'Brien, an architect in Huston and played by Sean Penn, reflects back on his family and upbringing in Waco, Texas in the 1950's, remembering snippets of the good and bad times, memories as sensory-experiences in short bursts of impressions. This is storytelling we recognize; suburban Mom and Dad have three sons, a house and yard, and a 50's inability to relate emotionally to their boys or each other. Father, Brad Pitt, is a strict, frustrated, yet loving disciplinarian, while Mother, Jessica Chastain, a young and playful enabler not yet familiar with the women's lib movement. These dualities, grace and nature, also love and faith, define a path which shapes the boys' lives and the film itself. But adult Jack isn't just pondering his own childhood and how it made him who he is, but who are all of us, and how did we come to be? In an effects sequence supervised by Douglas Trumball of 2001 fame, we see possibilities of how all came to be; a  big bang, primordial ooze, dinosaurs...yes, CG dinosaurs...we go way back then fast forward in hyper-speed, stopping to examine human life lived by the O'Briens mid-century and on.

Malick may have meant for his film to not be broken down, to not be explained in a formal fashion. I've done it a grave disservice in attempting this. There are frustrations, however, I can pinpoint. Sean Penn is quite underused here, given so little to work with. Visual sequences and metaphors are occasionally overused or heavy-handed, such as fields of breezy sunflowers, uptilted shots of great oak trees, a venetian mask dropped into water (giggles at that one during my screening), yet all are gorgeously filmed by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.

The Tree of Life is a cinematic dwelling on the meaning of life, impressionistic and spiritual, observing and cerebral. Box office returns and test audiences be damned, Malick's film will be debated long into the future after superhero and buddy-comedy trifles fall away. This rarity in today's cinema is so deeply personal to the filmmaker, such an original work of art, is what we think nearly inconsequential? I'm cheering, nevertheless.

Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy

This 2002 public music complex in Rome was a must-visit for me a few years ago. Designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano, half of the team who created the Pompidou in Paris, also recently opened a modern-art wing for LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), the Parco della Musica is three beetle-like concert halls surrounding an ampitheatre reminiscent of Greco-Roman performance spaces.

                                                                                    
                                                                                    The three separate halls and outdoor theatre are joined by a continuous lobby and various rehearsal rooms and recording studios. Red brick is used in tribute to Rome's ancient structures and in contrast to the grey metal hall roofs and adjoining modern glass and steel structure which consists of a restaurant and bookstore. 

    

 

Walking through the foyer, one will come across a luminous route with 20 neon compositions, made by Tuscan artist Maurizio Nannucci. Since the mid 1960's Nannucci has devoted himself to exploring relations between language, writing & visual images, and in 1967 began to create neon "writings", adding another dimension of meaning to his work. These permanent pieces have been created exclusively for the Auditorium Parco della Musica. 

Greg discovers neon art by Maurizio Nannucci



Lerf Ewe by Klai Brown

Local LA-area artist Klairat Brown has created Lerf Ewe, art and ceramic ware, with her cool style on drawings, hand-thrown cups, vases, and mugs, available in her online shop and various stockists. 

She's on to new creative endeavors, but took a minute to chat w/mossangeles.

mossangeles: I've become such a fan of your work and style, as you know I'm acquiring a small collection of your pieces. Where does your style get inspiration from? Or from whom? It really speaks to the modern girl, and guy for that matter.

klai: I think I just grew up being a fan of graphic lines, I've always loved the line quality of ink drawings whether in comic books or asian calligraphy. As far as content I'm an avid listener and lover of stories. People, their faces, their stories, the lives they lead and the lines that carry the detail of their stories intrigue me. An expression, is like a picture with a thousand words. I'm totally inspired by people and the character in their faces.

m: How did ceramics and your drawings/painted works come together? Did you set out to be a ceramicist?

k: I transferred out of Cypress Community College. While I was there, their ceramics program was super lively-there was always music playing, good food cooking, people talking and building things. I was intrigued by what the students were doing in THAT room. I took an elective ceramic class there. I was hooked the first time I bent over a potters wheel and inhaled the earthy elastic mound under my hands. The coolest thing to me was that this stuff under my hands could become anything-and after I made it into the anything, I could fire it and make it timeless.. at least until it got dropped :) / My drawings didn't find their way onto ceramic work until years later. I've always been a fan of drawing. After mastering form and technique in ceramics I began to make things just to draw on. I wanted to tell stories with pictures and faces..

m:  The DIY movement has exploded in LA and various cities, you sell at the Renegade and other indie craft shows. Having artist-created handmade pieces is such a special experience, but could you see your work on a larger scale? Is it even appealing?

k: DIY, is the coolest. I love being a part of Renegade and participating in the handmade movement. The level of craftsmanship and creativity is so high at these shows. They are the neatest places to get your shopping on-Hey, funny you ask..yes, I could definitely see my work on a larger scale. I'm currently finishing up my very first ceramic bust of a girl character. She'll be one of a series, that look a lot like the people I draw on my ceramic ware. So, yes, it is totally appealing to consider working on a different scale..

m: Thanks for your time and the inspiring work. And yes, I'm due for a trip to your studio!

http://klaibrown.com/klaibrown.com/home.html

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004) is a documentary about 1970's to 1980's Los Angeles pay cable station Z Channel, directed by Xan Cassavetes, daughter of the late Hollywood director/actor John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands.

Z Channel was one of the first pay movie channels in the US, preceding HBO and Showtime, and serving the bucolic
rolling hills neighborhoods of Los Angeles where studio heads and filmmakers lived but couldn't get decent television reception.

Z Channel promised an eclectic variety of films, including foreign, silent, documentary, overlooked, under-appreciated, erotic as well as mainstream films, without commercials, uncut and letterboxed when possible. It was a hit, and everyone from industry folk to everyday viewers went along for the film education ride only Z Channel provided.

In the early 80's, Jerry Harvey came on board as Programming Director, and became a man who was almost single-handedly responsible for getting so many great films shown to the public. The documentary details the rise and fall of both Harvey and Z Channel, as Harvey pursued a purist vision of film as art and translated that into the programming, yet was suffering from mental illness which resulted in life-ending tragedy. The night Harvey and Sam Peckinpah ran Peckinpah's version of The Wild Bunch at the Beverly Canon Theater in 1974, the Director's Cut was born. Later, on the Z Channel, Harvey would premiere many more, from Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Once Upon a Time in America to 1900 and Heaven's Gate. 

Cassavetes gives us insight into Harvey's constant battle with personal demons, yet reveals his complete dedication to preserving, exposing, and exalting films in a way never again duplicated. On a local radio program taped in Santa Monica, the interviewer comments on how dedicated Harvey is to film, but asks if
he's interested in doing anything outside of film. Jerry Harvey cynically mumbles, laughs, "what do you mean"? We see hazy, slo-mo shots of various LA locales, fade into the sunset.

Hotel Lautner, Desert Hot Springs

       We bid adieu to Modernism Week 2011 in Palm Springs:

 

Probably my favorite modernist SoCal architect is John Lautner. His designs in the greater Los Angeles area from the 1940s on represent some of the best in contemporary design - dramatic, visionary, far ahead of their time. His buildings have lent their inherent drama to feature films such as "Diamonds Are Forever", "Less Than Zero", "Body Double", and "The Big Lebowski", among others.

In the 1940s, a film producer commissioned Lautner to design a desert oasis near Palm Springs. Lautner produced an intimate escape of 4 interconnected rooms, each with an interior glass wall looking onto a private desert garden, sheltered by the connecting wall of the next guest room. Stepping up from the lowered main space is your own private patio, perfect for sunning and dining. Each unit is complete with its' own small kitchen and breakfast bar. The ingenious concept of a slanted roof gave each unit shelter from the harsh Desert Hot Springs winds and sun, while filtering in natural light through multiple glass panels and clerestory windows. Pools were originally planned to complete the retreat but were never built.

An interior designer and furniture designer recently purchased the Hotel Lautner and after much restoration this desert gem is now reopened, with future plans to complete Lautner's original concept of including pools,

plus an outdoor lounge and a clubhouse. But the project seems to be much about giving guests the opportunity to experience Lautner's work up close and personal. As the website notes, "Lautner’s residences have long been documented and photographed but seldom open to the public. This hotel will allow long time admirers and future admirers the opportunity to 'live' in a Lautner environment and to feel the unique experience of his design style."

http://www.hotellautner.com/

Wexler Steel Homes

                                                                              Welcome to Modernism Week in Palm Springs!

In the early 1960's, architect Don Wexler devised a pre-fab home design of steel and concrete slab, which he felt was perfect for the harsh Palm Springs desert environment. The sleekly modern houses were to be built as an entire neighborhood plan, each could be built in about 2 days, but only seven were completed when steel prices rose too high. Most of the houses have been beautifully preserved and restored and are listed as Class 1 historical sites. PS Modern Tours exalts the treasure trove of mid-century modern design in Palm Springs: http://www.yelp.com/biz/ps-modern-tours-palm-springs