“Like most of my contemporaries, I first read The Fountainhead when I was 18 years old. I loved it. I too missed the point. I thought it was a book about a strong-willed architect…and his love life….I deliberately skipped over all the passages about egoism and altruism. And I spent the next year hoping I would meet […]
Author Archives: lisathatcher
Maajun – French prog 70’s style with a tiny bit of everything else.
posted by lisathatcher
Oh Prog – how I love thee. Let me count the ways! I’m not completely sure why I love prog rock so much – it may be the drama and the glam – it may be the undisguised theatrics – who knows? It’s probably my generation – I love this post “rock n’ roll” ethic […]
SFF: Faust – Sokurov reads between the lines.
posted by lisathatcher
Easily my most challenging moment of the Sydney Film Festival was Alexander Sokurov’s Faust – a film I billed as the best of the festival until I saw Holy Motors, which for me just nudged Faust to the side. In some ways the two films are very similar, taking a dystopian, ultra contemporary view of […]
My son My son what have ye done – Lynch and Herzog team up.
posted by lisathatcher
“I mean I’m not going to take your vitamin pills, I’m not going to drink your herbal tea, I’m not going to the sweat lodge with a hundred-and-eight year-old Native American who reads Hustler magazines and smokes cool cigarettes. I’m not going to discover my boundaries; I am going to stunt my inner growth and […]
Mune – Claire Bergerault and Jean-Luc Guionnet use sound against the signifier.
posted by lisathatcher
In the journey through sound as a signifier, interruptions to existing symbols are (as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows) considered by myself the most interesting art being practised today. I review a lot of experimental music albums on this site, and will continue to do so, because I think the creative work being done to […]
SFF: Captive – Brillante Mendoza goes Political
posted by lisathatcher
I saw Captive at the Sydney Film Festival last week and despite the fact that it is terribly clichéd, I had a reasonable film experience. Like so many of these sorts of films, based on true stories, it has received terrible press. I have to confess, the poor reviews are warranted. This is a terrifying […]
Wire’s 100 Records that set the world on fire while no one was listening. 81 – 85
posted by lisathatcher
The overlaying theme of todays little additives is experimental – but where these guys took that is not into the now rather clichéd world the previous decades of beloved records were taking them. Sure Royal Trux (sigh) had the free jazz undertones, Conlon Nancarrow has electronica sourcings, Fingers say thanks to soul, and if you […]
SFF: The Angels Share – Ken Loach and the power of feeling good through Whiskey.
posted by lisathatcher
Strangely, whiskey played a rather large role in my very enjoyable experience of the Sydney Film Festival. It started when I saw copious amounts consumed in On the Road and came full circle with The Angels Share last night. What a lovely film this was, filled with all the usual left-wing agendas we know and […]
SFF: On the Road – Salles takes Kerouac for a spin
posted by lisathatcher
One great thing that this film version of On The Road did for me was get me onto excellent whiskey. I must say, after watching the film the desire for one was intense. Was it watching these youths swill it for two hours or the desire to forget these youths that switched me onto it? […]
SFF: Holy Motors – Leos Carax and the question of Free Will
posted by lisathatcher
Up until last night, Faust was the best film I had seen at the Sydney film Festival – a film I have yet to review on the blog here. That’s all changed after seeing Holy Motors. This is easily the best film of the festival. To award it the Palm d’ Or would have been […]
Lisa Thatcher 