A Short (Test) Film
(Salaam y’all. Got a free letter for you this week! As usual, if you are enjoying these letters or simply want to support, please hit the like/heart button that appears at the top and/or bottom of each letter, and consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5 a month. Hope everybody is well and thriving!)
As some of you may know I recently got a new camera which I have been super excited about. I’m currently writing and planning out future projects to work on with it, which have already been occupying a lot of time in the best way. But since my camera is 16mm, was made a long time ago, and also ordered off of eBay I had to test it out, and so I made a short edit of the footage I got and posted it on youtube for you all to watch this week.
(Note: Make sure to watch it in 1080p if the quality seems low!)
Here it is!
Films I’ve Watched Recently
Nosferatu the Vampyre
By Werner Herzog
Look, I understand that Dracula films are supposed to be scary and all, and trust me, I am a huge Dracula fan, I love the book by Bram Stoker, I love the various renditions and spinoffs of vampire stories and films, but I must say, this was not only the most funny Dracula film I’ve seen, but also now in my top favorites. Klaus Kinski played the hell out of Dracula in this, and Isabelle Adjani as Lucy was perfect casting. Kinski made Dracula even more abject and off-putting than ever, constantly, creepily approaching Jonathan Harker and violating his space, saying things like “what a beautiful throat” upon seeing a picture of Lucy, and running in zigzags with his cape flapping behind him through the courtyard. I loved this film, had a great time with it.
Hackers
By Lain Softley
Movies like The Social Network make you hate techies, but then there are films like this, that actually make you kinda want to learn how to code… I might just f around and take a bootcamp to learn how to because of this. Hackers is one of the absolute coolest films to exist, the Y2Kness of it all probably can’t be matched anywhere else, despite it being made in 1995! The fits in this are insane, the visuals super trippy, and the pacing of it all was so well executed, its kinda hard to believe. A classic.
Recent Dictionary Entries
Alex Descas - Alex Descas is a French actor known for his roles in films by Claire Denis and Jim Jarmusch. In France he is also known for his role as Schneider in the French TV series Un Flic.
Ned Hermann - William Edward Hermann was an American creativity researcher and author, known for his research in creative thinking and whole-brain methods. He is considered the "father of brain dominance technology."
Antinovel - An antinovel is any experimental work of fiction that avoids the familiar conventions of the novel, and instead establishes its own conventions.
Theatre of the Absurd - The Theatre of the Absurd is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s. It is also a term for the style of theatre the plays represent.
Borgo Pass - Tihuța Pass is a high mountain pass in the Romanian Bârgău Mountains connecting Bistrița with Vatra Dornei. The pass was made famous by Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, where, termed as "the Borgo Pass", it was the gateway to the realm of Count Dracula.
Maloja Snake - The Engadine Valley may be famous for its crystalline winter light called diamond dust, but cloud porn reaches its animistic apex here atop the Maloja Pass, a road that soars to an elevation of 6,000 feet and connects the valley to Chiavenna, Italy. It's a prime spot for sightings of the dense, white, serpentine-shaped cloud known as the Maloja Snake that slowly twists through the jagged tips of the peach-hued mountains in mornings and evenings. The weather phenomenon has existed for centuries but it came to popular attention thanks to the 2014 film Clouds of Sils Maria that was shot here and that stars Juliet Binoche and Kristen Stewart.
A Page from My Journal
“There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.” - John Calvin
That's all from me for this one. Thank you for reading. And please drop a like, comment, or even send a personal reply to these emails if you feel inclined to. I'll be here.
B.