Look & Listen

movies

The Matrix Revolutions
This first installment of this cyberpunk trilogy felt like the big bang of modern science-fiction cinema, drenched in attitude, haute-couture, religious mysticism, and bracing kung-fu action. But while writer-director brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski continue to ponder the essence of identity and reality in the final episode, much of that envelope-shattering magic and intellectual density is missing.
Blow-Up
Michelangelo Antonioni’s episodic, surreal, voyeuristic slice-of-life work about mod British fashion photographer in ’60s-era London who witnesses a mysterious murder. Both controversial and much-acclaimed upon its release, this film still interests fans of New Wave cinema and those who appreciate existential philosophizing.
Intolerable Cruelty
Joel and Ethan Coen update the screwball comedies of the ’30s and ’40s for a crasser, more litigious age. Schemes a-plenty unfold as a smarmy Beverly Hills divorce attorney comes up against the wily, enterprising wife of an incurable philanderer, and the two punch it out in a classic battle of the sexes.
The Hours
Interpersonal drama exploring the parallels in the complicated lives of three conflicted women – a Manhattan book editor, a California housewife, and famed author Virginia Woolf – living in different places and eras. Though well-cast, the film requires as much patience as the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Michael Cunningham.

 

music

The Shadows’ Greatest Hits
It was during a hot summer day in June 1960 that The Shadows entered Abbey Road studios to record “Apache”, the track that was to become the instrumental hit of the decade. This collection highlights the group’s polished, crisp sound and unique knack for drawing out the sweetest melodies in their most haunting form.
Turin Brake – Ether Song
Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian have departed somewhat from the intricately-woven acoustica of their 2000 debut album, to astonishing effect. Without abandoning the soft-spoken aesthetic that initially enchanted its listeners, the duo this time uses electronic instrumentation to elevate its songs to a whole new level.
The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For Free
On his critically lauded debut, Mike Skinner pushed UK rap forward as he sang about “birds” and “geezers” in a thick cockney accent. With his follow-up, Skinner has made an oddly intimate concept album: 11 tracks of railing about a dissolving relationship amidst garage beats, strings and samples, and numerous pints and plumes of smoke.
CoCoRosie – La Maison de Mon Re^ve
Two eccentric sisters with a taste for junkyard melodies, swampland field recordings, cheap drum loops, and brilliant, sleepy-headed poetics. This is an album full of “street beauty” – the wandering woman who praises her own independence while singing the saddest, loneliest love songs to the man who done her wrong.

 

CDs and DVDs available at www.bontonland.cz and www.dvdexpress.cz.


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