Smattering of some Sunday background music...

Cat Power - Cross Bones Style
The xx - Crystalised
Jeff Buckley - Mojo Pin
Rufus Wainwright - Poses
PJ Harvey - Down by the Water

*All can be heard on YouTube

Latest news on LULLABY (and) PERIL

Here's my latest update on my two film projects.  I send these out about once every couple months:

THE LAST LULLABY (AND) PERIL UPDATE
August 13, 2011
Thank you all for taking time to register for our updates.  Today I will cover
four topics:


- Lullaby Distribution
- Update
- Facebook Fan Pages!
- Other Fun Stuff


Lullaby Distribution
As I mentioned in my previous update, we have signed with Level 33 Entertainment to distribute The Last Lullaby in the United States.  On September 13, a new, upgraded DVD will be available to purchase.  It is already available as a pre
order at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Last-Lullaby-Tom Sizemore/dp/B00555ZTHO/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1313240086&sr=1-1), as well as in a multitude of other places.  The distributor has asked me to go ahead and also encourage everyone to add the film to their Netflix queue (http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Last_Lullaby/70115888?trkid=2361637).  It will be available as a rental on Netflix very soon.


The new DVD will include some fun things like deleted scenes, as well as the option to play the film for the first time in 5.1 surround sound.  All of this is fantastic news as it will allow many more people to discover and see our film.  




Update
The Last Lullaby continues to find an audience. One of the most popular independent film radio shows, Film Courage, just let us know that we're the #2 most-watched show of all time.  That is a fantastic honor.  Here's a link to the piece if you would like to have a listen:


http://filmcourage.com/content/film-courage-top-10-shows-august-11th-2011-powered-hotpixel-post-production


I also continue to move forward with my next film, Peril.  I'm still putting all the money together, but I am extremely excited about the film and very optimistic looking ahead. 




Facebook Fan Pages!
I continue to grow the audience around both Peril and The Last Lullaby.  If you haven't already, please take a second to join our Facebook Fan Pages for Peril and
Lullaby:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Peril/266972237358?ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Last-Lullaby/19456164241?ref=ts

Just click on the links above and then click "Like!"

Jeffrey Goodman

Favorite (four), part thirteen

Just like in my other twelve posts thus far in this series, I want to take a second to single out the highlights of my recent film viewing.  I'm trying right now to take in almost a film a day.  Most have been first-time viewings, and most I have been glad to finally see.  But only very few have stayed with me.  This series is my filter for those (and hopefully one or two of these will be good to someone else, too).

Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger

Antonioni's incredible talents are all over -- his meticulous framing, his daring yet languid camerawork, and his feel for spaces that the medium has yet to capture.  Still very slow and cerebral like almost all his work, but The Passenger gains some warmth from its summer exteriors and more rustic locations.  One of the cinema's great road movies, and in the same family as Wenders' Alice in the Cities and Kings of the Road. 

Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life

Malick is looking at different ways for cinema to work.  Although his connection to nature may not jump off the screen like it did in The Thin Red Line, his incredibly specific memories of childhood allow him to wash connections over us.  He does it in very short brush strokes, and as he swims through his own fleeting images, we see so much of ourselves. His work with the children is extraordinary.  And I think his style really gains, with many of the jump cuts remaining in the tool box. Full of narrative courage and exploration (the first time the animated sequences break the narrative it seems as though a new prototype for story is being offered), and a work of tremendous ambition.  I think there are flaws.  Sometimes his elliptical wanderings go too far and end up feeling more elusive than illuminating.  And after seeing the film twice, I'm still not convinced he wouldn't have benefitted from a stronger actress than Chastain.  But it's a dense film, inviting discussion and multiple visits.  

Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid   

A loose, mournful western from one of the late masters.  Peckinpah meanders, ponders loyalty and lost ideals, and delivers what might be the most personal of all his works.  The loss of a lifestyle, the onset of civilization, and a western about not fitting in, that doesn't really fit into anything that's come before or since.  


Ermanno Olmi's The Tree of Wooden Clogs 

An incredibly ambitious venture that is acutely observed and warmly rendered.  Ambles and captures the countryside in ways that remind of McCabe & Mrs. Miller, sans Altman's quirky stylings.  Never have I seen the rural parts of Italy look so alive.  Olmi asks for patience, but his eye is as natural and unobtrusive as the glory days of Kiarostami in Iran.  

A collaboration I'd like to see...

Saw Terrence Malick's latest, The Tree of Life, a couple of times last week and think he and Mark Hollis of Talk Talk need to work together at some point.  Artistic bedfellows, both operating well out of the norm and able to create transcendent, almost religious moments in their work.  They are both very special guys. Challenging, difficult artists. Here are some of my favorite Mark Hollis moments:

Talk Talk - Ascension Day
Talk Talk - April 5th
Talk Talk - I Believe in You

*All songs on YouTube