A quoi ca sert l’amour

Utterly delightful animated short film set to Edith Piaf’s A quoi ca sert l’amour, or What Use Is Love?.

It made me smile. For various reasons.

The Curse of James

This tubby moustachioed loon has loomed on my horizon again. The Curse of Jeff was on in Newcastle at the weekend, at a Northern Screenwriter’s meeting at the Side Cinema. It’s nerve-wracking but fun watching a film you’ve made with an audience. It kind of reminds you why you do it, and I really needed reminding.

I’ll admit it was nice to be asked where I found the actor who played Jeff, and if I was still in touch with him. Well, we’ve fallen out a couple of times, but he’s still around, yeah…

Then a nice lady from an atheist film festival based in Florida got in touch, wanting to screen the Brummie mentaller. Apparently I’m promoting “reason, critical thinking and freedom of inquiry through the medium of film”. I thought I was just putting on a silly accent and having fun with a baseball bat, but maybe she’s right. I’m like Richard Dawkins, me.

She kept calling the film “The Curse of James”. Which interestingly is the name of a song I’d just wrote*, innit. Coincidence? Nah. That’s God’s hand at work, if you ask me. I’ll not tell her that.

*I’m supposed to be writing a film, hence lots of songs. I’m a doyle.

Tooth

A couple of years ago I got dressed up as a rabbit and shot some people in a pub in Sunderland. Written and directed by Dee Chaneva of the Bulgarian Broadcasting Borporation.

Stingers 2009 Launched

NFM have quietly launched Stingers 2009, their lottery-funded new filmmakers scheme. Only 6 films being made this time.

Link.

Stingers Digital Short Film Scheme is broken into two strands this year – Mini-Stingers and Maxi-Stingers. Mini Stingers is open to new writing and directing talent. 3 short films will be made through the mini-stingers strand for a budget of £7,500 per film. Maxi Stingers is open to writers and directors with more experience. 3 short films will be made through the Maxi-Stingers strand with a budget of £12,500 per film.

Le Cheval 2.1

Directed by Alex Kirkland and my bleached-blond Bristol-based coffee-buddy Stephen Scott-Hayward, this film is so deep the dialogue should be sub-sonic, never mind French.

How To Tell When A Relationship Is Over

Heh. Well, you have to laugh. Because it’s a funny short film! Written and directed by Tony Roche, part of the writing team for The Thick of It and In The Loop. I like the pigeon.

The Big Story

I first saw this in the cinema, as it toured the UK supporting Pulp Fiction in 1994. Directed by Spitting Image alumni Dave Stoten and Tim Watts this is a great pastiche of old time Hollywood and features the vocal talents of The Riddler himself, Frank Gorshin.

The film has stayed with me all these years, and the last line in particular made me chuckle just because of the delivery, but I’ve only just now got the joke, fifteen years later. What a doyle!

We Sing the Forest Electric

You’ve probably already seen this. I know I have. But I think it’s lovely. For me, it’s the dancing beaver that makes it. If everybody danced like a beaver, why, this world would be… weirder. Like, a lot weirder. But more nicerer too.

Sunday – Short Film

Depending on how deep you want to go, Nacho Vigalondo’s Sunday is either a funny film with a simple-yet-clever punchline (the basic idea behind which is similar to one I had once, but hey, you snooze, you lose) or an allegory about what happens when you get so focussed on the petty concerns and trivialities of life that you miss the true magic happening right in front of you. Or behind you. Or behind the camera.

Yeah. Actually, that analysis doesn’t really hold up when you think about it so… don’t think about it. What can I say? I’m no Chris Tookey.

Great film, though.

Advanced Cat Yodelling.

For fans of cats. And yodelling. Taken from the sweetly funny “An Engineer’s Guide to Cats”. Youtube it!