Author: bernardovillela

Music Video Monday: Marisa Monte – Doce Vampiro

Posted on by bernardovillela

Original Intro

The music video is spawned from short films and can be as creative if not more so than their predecessor. Far too often it does just become singing heads. I want to try and buck that trend and find ones both new and old that do something somewhat outside the box, at the very least have some sort of visual narrative. 

Updated Intro

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something in this category and it wasn’t a feature that ever became very regular and I want to try to remedy that. So for now the plan it to post this feature once monthly. 

Marisa Monte – Doce Vampiro (Live)

This is a live performance music video which makes it different from any previous selection. However, there is some visual intrigue in this video the smoke hanging in the shafts of stage-light paired with the dissolves make it play more like seafoam than smoke.

Costuming, lighting, and performance are in perfect synchronicity here in aesthetic terms. It’s also a cover of a song by the recently deceased queen of (Brazilian) Rock n’ Roll Rita Lee. Lee was an influence on Marisa Monte and many other Brazilian vocalists and artists (myself included I’ve included two versions of a poem I wrote in Lee’s memory beneath the video).

Ode a o Que Rita Trouxe

by Bernardo Villela 

I

O Barão Vermelho me trouxe

Os jardins suspendidos de Babilônia 

E me disse que ela lhes construiu.

Mas só ela, mesmo, podia trazer

Os Beatles para português 

E devolver-los ao inglês.

Só ela, obviamente, podia ser rebelde

e também ter a ternura para dar-nos le

Premiere bonheur du jour tão angelical como Françoise Hardy.

Só ela, claro, podia macumbar

Batman numa batucada tanto

indígena quanto psicodélico.  

Só ela podia cantar

lento sobre as pessoas 

na sala de jantar. 

II

“Ainda não havia para mim Rita Lee

A tua mais completa tradução”

As Caetano wrote and sang astutely.

Que me comove agora

Mais do que nunca

Vendo como Rita falava português e inglês

Entre outros idiomas.

Dizem que Pessoa

Era tão bom como poeta por causa

Da proficiência dele em inglês.

Isso pode ser porque Lee

Brincou liricamente tão facilmente

Desmontando e combinando

Palavra portuguese semelhantes que 

Outros levaram a toa. 

Era uma noção 

Assumido e sumido

(That was assumed and subsumed)

Nas mentes de muitos

(In the minds of many)

Our past years together passed by hurriedly

(Nossos anos juntos passaram apressados)

And now without your so-called rock-in-role

(E agora sem seu tal de roque enrow)

I walk rather switched off

(Ando meio desligado)

Undo may-ooh dis-league ah-doo

Ode to What Rita Brought

by Bernardo Villela

I

The Red Baron brought me

the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

And told me she built them. 

But only she, really, could bring

The Beatles into Portuguese

And then get them back into English.

Only she, obviously, could be edgy

yet tender enough to give us the day’s

first hour as angelically as Françoise Hardy. 

Only she, clearly, could macumbar 

Batman to a drumline both

indigenous and psychedelic.

Only she could sing

Slow about the people

in the dining room.

II

There is still is not for me Rita Lee,

Your complete translation

As Caetano wrote and sang astutely. 

Which speaks to me now

More than ever

As Rita spoke Portuguese and English

Among other tongues. 

It’s said that Pessoa

Was such a great poet because

Of his proficiency in English.

This might be why Lee

Played lyrically, so easily

Disassembling and combining

Similar Portuguese words that

Others took for granted. 

It was a notion

Assumed and subsumed

(Que foi assumido e sumido)

In the minds of many 

(Nas mentes de muitos)

Nossos anos juntos passaram apressados

(Our past years together passed by hurriedly)

E agora sem seu tal de roque enrow

(And now without your so-called rock-in-role)

Ando meio desligado

(I walk rather switched off)

Undo may-ooh dis-league ah-doo.

Movie Holiday: Season of the Witch Day

Posted on by bernardovillela

On the Internet I’m sure you’ve seen memes pop up on dates featured in popular movies. Some notable versions of the idea of a movie holiday are Mean Girls day, Back to the Future day, and Breakfast Club day. However, the dates that get viral or are pushed by social media teams aren’t the only ones worth noting.

One such date I noted last year and celebrated with a screening was the first story day of Halloween III: Season of the Witch. One reason this date is worthy of a screening and note because if you watch one (or more) Halloween movie on the day itself, this one doesn’t quite fit into that program for obvious reasons and because a lot of the film is about the lead-up to the day. And in that spirit you can also observe Season of the Witch day on the subsequent story days prior to the big day: the 24th, 27th and 29th.

So if you’re like me and have a fondness for this member of the series, mark this on day on your calendar yearly for a screening and countdown to a happy, happy Halloween.

Film Thought: Taylor Swift Winning the Box Office is a Great Thing

Posted on by bernardovillela

And it’s a great thing whether you consider yourself a Swiftie or not. An that’s because it’s both a telling and extraordinarily refreshing thing that the #1 movie at the domestic box office last weekend has a “-” in its distributor column. It’s an appropriate slap in the face to the studios in the AMPTP that Taylor Swift put her concert movie out there without even dealing with them for two reasons: first, because the AMPTP just walked away from the bargaining table with SAG-AFTRA, and were later called out by the entertainment unions as a whole for not negotiating in good faith. Second, because as many major releases have shifted on the calendar movie theaters need the boost of revenue that comes from any project–especially one without a distributor–with over $125M in presales. This means additional incremental revenue in fees for movie ticket apps like AMC Stubs, Regal or Fandango. After Barbenheimer was perhaps even more crucial to the box office than Top Gun was post-COVID because many movies this summer either bombed or underperformed. Following a summer where studios and many theaters were buoyed essentially by two films having two dueling strikes severely hurt the Fall and Holiday seasons would be two steps back, so something like this concert film that came seemingly out of blue is a great thing.

VFX Uninonization Gaining Momentum

Posted on by bernardovillela

As of this writing SAG/AFTRA and AMPTP are heading into a fifth day of negotiations in their current session. I’m more than a bit disappointed and flabbergasted the studios seem to still be playing hardball considering the season of scripted network television hangs in the balance. There was some news after day one of the clichéd “cautious optimism” after day one, but not much since. However, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been labor news.

Just recently Disney VFX workers joined Marvel (who were first) in voting unanimously for unionization through IATSE. It’s incredible to believe that these positions remained non-union for so long, but the fact that they were not led to hard deadlines and excessive hours leading to less-than-desirable work in both trailers and finished films. This move is a long time coming and could lead to more and hopefully better conditions and work product for an increasingly necessary tool in the gamut of filmmaking.