Glamour of the Gods

Two days ago, I went to see Glamour of Gods exhibition at National Portrait Gallery in London. The show is the collection of photographs and portraits of Hollywood stars from 1920s to 1960s. Personally, I absolutely adore that period in American Cinema, this was the time when magic, mystery, sophistication, beauty and, after all, glamour was still alive in Hollywood films. So, I went in with an intention to feel all the mentioned above. However, what came as a great disappointment were not the prints itself (even though I was not entirely satisfied with the sizes) but the curating strategy of the exhibition! The space was cramped, the lighting was poor and the pastel blue-greenish colour of the walls in the room did not make any justice to the prints. All together, it looked utterly dull and unexciting. There was no hint of Glamour. I left feeling like I have just wasted my time and money.

'Glamour of the Gods', 'More stars than there are in heaven' - those are the hook lines NPG use. So, if that was also an intended feel of the exhibition, I'd say it failed big time.

City A | Short film.

Ok, so this is my new film, produced together with lovely Beatriz Cebas. I want to thank our team and everyone who has supported us. Will not add more.

Let The Wind Carry Me. | To the places unknown...

I haven't been posting here for a while. On the other hand, my other blog ts. is quite busy at the moment. I have made a rule not to write much descriptions or any personal thoughts on the things I am uploading there. For some odd reason, I really like it that way - keeps my eyes busy and head clear.

So, as a quick update on what I've been up too, I can confirm that this is probably the busiest time I have even been in my entire life. I am freelancing at FST again and working on couple of personal projects (one of which includes a psychological short film). This will be followed up by a new documentary project. Here we go, and this is just a small part of a bigger picture.

I also have a long list of films I want to watch, one of which is Let The Wind Carry Me, a stunning looking documentary on legendary Mark Lee, a cinematographer who worked with beasts like Wong Kar-Wai, Tran Anh Hung, Hirokazu Koreeda and Hsiao-Hsien Hou. Grand man, Grand talent, Grand films.

ts. | one more.

Okay, so I have a tumblr too now. I am not promising it to be something specific. One thing for sure, I am still going to be quite selective over what I post. For now just think of this blog as a letter and the 'ts.' as a post scriptum. I always enjoyed post scriptum in letters, they like a small final touch, that gives a closure or a new start to the sense. So, here we go - click here to follow...

ts. I have no idea why I chose the image of Takeshi Kaneshiro and Michelle Reis from Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels for that post. It's juts, for some reason I find it quite suitable.

Nobuyoshi Araki | Love and Death. ... And sex of course.

'People nowadays neglect the act of touching. They all try to keep a distance. They don’t connect with the city, with women, they don’t even feel with their eyes...' - Nobuyoshi Araki

The book 'Araki - Love and Death' has just came out. You can find it in Magma stores.

Read the full Vice' interview by Tomokazu Kosuga here
Image taken from Tokyo Dandy.

This is my dream | Yohji Yamamoto

"Beautiful things are disappearing every day. I want to keep it back. I want to say don't go too much, too far, too easy...' - Yohji Yamamoto

I have spent about half an hour talking about Yohji Yamamoto with a friend today. Trying to pin point why I admire him so much... as a man, as a dressmaker. There are a lot of reasons, but if I had to put it all in one short sentence? Because I prefer meaning to triviality and dignity to vulgarism.

Yohji Yamamoto's new documentary is coming out Spring this year. Watch the trailer here.

Street Art... Whatever. | Short documentary.

So, this is one of the reasons why I haven't been posting much recently. I've been busy working on this street art documentary piece. Enjoy.

Produced and directed by: Tess Savina, Beatriz Cebas, Alica Paskova, Yuting Zhu

Artists: Pure Evil, Stik, Nathan Bowen, Macay

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me... | ノルウェイの森

On Tuesday 1st of March I went to a talk organised by Asia House with Norwegian Wood's director Tran Anh Hung (The Scent of Green Papaya, Cyclo) and the lead actress Rinko Kikuchi (Babel). It was a last minute decision to go there and what can I tell you - it was probably the best decision i've made in a while, since the talk was extremely interesting and educational.

Tran Anh Hung... well I've been a fan of his work for a while and now after meeting him, he made me realise some things that I probably wouldn't come to realising myself. So, after exchange of smiles and few words I had to thank him for my fast 'brain crash' course and also thank him for making Norwegian Wood happen. I know that some people out there thought sceptical about letting the legendary Japanese Novel to be put on screen by a non-Japanese guy. However, in my opinion, I cannot see anyone else who would fit that project better than him.

Norwegian Wood opens Pan-Asia Film Festival at BAFTA today and then takes off country wide on March 11th. おめでとう!

Based on Haruki Murakami's novel.

Director: Tran Anh Hung

Main Leads: Rinko Kikuchi, Kenichi Matsuyama, Kiko Mizuhara

Music Composer: Johnny Greenwood (Radiohead)