Bartleby (1970) Hermen Melville

So here I am this memorial weekend in NY ,and i happened to watch "Bartleby" penned by the great Herman Melville, it was very strange to see london in the late 60's with the lonely John Mc Enery (British classical stage actor, best remembered for his intense, highly flamboyant portrayal of "Mercutio" in Franco Zeffirelli's film version of Romeo and Juliet (1968/I). He was nominated for a BAFTA for this supporting role).As Bartelby looking for a job in his dreary suit and slaggy trousers, finally he gets a job as a audit clerk in a small accountancy firm , things seem to go well until the boss gets a reply from Bartleby 'I would prefer not to' this is his reply to every order from his boss , and i kept thinking why does the boss not fire him ? well the directing is very creative from Anthony Friedman both from the directing of the actors and the long distance camera work to heighten the lonely and miserable character , definitely a film to watch and a masterpiece as far as I am concerned . There have been remakes of this film but the 1970 version is the best one .

" Le Chic Chef"

Oh yes its that exciting time again when i start to clap my hands and dream about the day we start filming again ,and this time the coming soon team will be in the city of light Paris . Our new film is "Le Chic Chef" featuring the extra special Chef and his love for the sun, Paris is the perfect setting for the 4th film for "Coming Soon" . We are shooting the 10th of June and again we stay always on beautiful 35mm film the way to go for films , noting beats the feel .

I have chosen the Talented Herve Koubi team to collaborate with this time so stay tuned to the next phase of our art films .

Cheers

Max Vadukul

Le Bete (Walerian Borowczyk, 1975)

Now this film is nuts, it was banned for 25 year, its a fav of the 70's gothic and over the top it is. The son of a French aristocrat is engaged to be married to an innocent American heiress. He has an awful secret, linked to rumours of a "beast" rampaging around the estate. Notorious at the time for its close-ups of horse erections, the film also features scenes showing a young woman enjoying congress with someone in a big hairy Beast costume.This would be another piece of eurotrash soft porn if not for the bizarre flourishes and a perverse sense of humor that make the movie unique and subtly, deeply wrong.

Movies to see before you die! BADLANDS 1973 Terrence Malick

This film by Terence Malick , I remember was very dark but held attention the dialogue says one thing and the visuals say another thing,elevating this simple tale to the profound.

Alice (Jan Svankmajer, 1988)

Alice (Jan Svankmajer, 1988)

This is a surrealist's film and i saw it 15 years ago and was very intrigued by the stop motion mixed in with dark disturbing undercurrent of menace.This is a superb adaptation of Lewis Carrol's Wonderland .

1000 films to see before you die.

Well its been over 100 years that we had the Lumiere brothers show Parisians 'The arrival of a Train at a Station' and freak out the minds of the viewers,and we know that more than a million films have been done since the internet has been active.

So I have selected some of the films I think you should see before you are moving of to another place in the universe .Lets start by the letter A ,and each week i will post a new title .

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
(Tom Shadyac, 1994)
A goofy detective turns town upside-down in search of a missing dolphin - any old plot would have done for oven-ready megastar Jim Carrey. A ski-jump hairdo, a zillion impersonations, making his bum "talk" - Ace Ventura showcases Jim Carrey's near-rapturous gifts for physical comedy long before he became encumbered by notions of serious acting.

Now This Film is a must see weather or not you have a sense of Humour or not ,Jim carey is out of the body experience had me in a knot laughing ,so Enjoy this movie and post your comments and i welcome a exchange on the films.

Max V

NSU Car from the 70's

If you like cars,then you will like this NSU car built in the 70's ,I remember spotting these superbly designed cars in England and always wanted one ,sadly by the time I got to actually afford one they had stopped making them .We spotted this one in Antwerp with a proud driver who would speed up and slow down to allow me to photograph him ...hmmm cute !

The Man with The Suitcase

Hi ,

This is my first blogging attempt on the 'Coming Soon Backstage' site, just to kick off let me say that the project since Coralie and I started to plan the films has just been getting better and better, and the entire team is loving it .

We started in London, then to Italy, and now Belgium. I like to keep traveling and moving, I'm posting a couple of images from the recent shoot in Antwerp; the craziest part was filming inside a house that Mr Mago lives in, I swear to you that I was getting very nervous in the crammped space and all the action busting out of the suitcase was causing a chaos that the team were not quite ready for, but als the superb crew finally got it all going and I was a happy man at the end of the day.

Cheers 

Max Vadukul