BlackBook

When I look back on my favorite films, it's not only the narrative, acting, cinematography, and direction that comprise of what makes it both astonishing to watch and powerfully memorable—it's the look of the work as well. It's the way the story is told through the established world provided by brilliant set design, the construction of a cinematic universe that we're able to become immersed in and live in for the alloted time. It adds to the director's complete vision and the mis-en-scene of the film as a whole. And this week, the Criterion Collection is highlighting some of their favorite examples of brilliant art direction and set design on film. From Paul Schrader's visually arresting Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters to Takeo Kimura's Tokyo Drifter, check out the aesthetically remarkable and expertly-crafted films free for the week on Hulu.

Well folks, I hope you feasted yourself on Criterion Collection films this weekend, because today is the last day to gorge yourself on wonderful cinema for free. And as it is technically a holiday, hopefully you’re home lounging around and can make up for lost time if you haven’t already been glued to your television for the past 72 hours. Personally, I spent the better half of the weekend falling deeply in love with Rainer Werner Fassbender and revisiting some old Bunuels. But on this last day of free movies, here are some more suggestions from 1970s German melodramas and avant-garde beauties to emotionally devastating American classics. Enjoy.

Oh IFC, you devils! Now we will all in fact get to see the glorious disaster that is The Canyons. I was worried for a moment there that this brilliant piece of filth would flutter off into oblivion and never see the harsh light of day but alas, we're saved!

Paul Schrader once said, "What fascinates me are people who want to be one thing but who behave in a way contradictory to that. Who might say, ‘I want to be happy, but I keep doing things that make me unhappy.' He's always been a man of contradictions and juxtapositions—whether's it's been within himself or in his films. Schrader wanted to be happy but would sleep with a load gun in his mouth; Travis Bickle wanted love but frightened people away.

Like we've said before, The Canyons appears to be a disaster. Directed by the man who gave us one of the seminal films of the last 50 years with Taxi Driver, Paul Schrader, and penned by satirical writer of yuppie melodrama turned Twitter-bully, Bret Easton Ellis, word on the film has been anything but hopeful. And with the slew of ridiculous promotional trailers popping up in every genre, little has been left for desire with this one.

“This movie is as good as Citizen Kane...no, it’s better than Citizen Kane, it’s got more heart,” said John Cassavetes to Martin Scorsese after watching Who’s That Knocking at My Door for the first time. Scorsese nearly passed out. He worshipped Cassavetes, and from then on Cassavetes looked at him like son. And although both Cassavetes and Scorsese both put out some of the best films of the 1970s, they were from two entirely different schools of filmmaking. The Scorseses of the world inherited what the Cassavetes generation had paved the way for. But Cassavetes was just insular in his world, extremely consumed by his own concerns. It was moreso the Hopper-Beatty-Nicholson generation that filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, stumbled down from. These young filmmakers were now able to operate on the notion that there could be a conversation between them and the audience. “They were the benefactors, the prodigy of New Hollywood battles fought and won for artistic integrity and youth recognition by everyone from Arthur Penn to Stanley Kubrick and Peter Fonda," said Peter Biskind in his book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls that provides perhaps the best written account of this era in Hollywood.

And here I thought—well okay, nothing could possibly be worse than The Informers. But I think I may have just spoken too soon. By now we've all had a chance to read the wonderfully in-depth New York Times article that dives into the production of Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader's upcoming drama, The Canyons. In the article, we gain insight into both the distressing motives of the film, Lindsay Lohan's constant battles, and even Steven Soderbergh being turned down to edit the film. However, one shining detail remains: this looks awful. And the promotional teasers for the film are only making things worse.

Holy cow, Solange. Sure, we've been paying a lot of attention to Beyoncé's moves lately, and it seems like her kid sister didn't want to stand in her shadow too much longer. Last night, the singer-songwriter attended last night’s Girls premiere party in a Just Cavalli patterned suit. You have our attention, Solange. We’ll spend the afternoon listening to “Losing You” on a loop. [MTV Style]

Quentin Tarantino's slavery spaghetti western Django Unchained delivers all of the usual Tarantino goodness: brilliant dialogue, over-the-top cartoonish violence, fantastic performances from Tarantino regulars Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson, and a whole lot of controversy. More impressively, the film's soundtrack is the usual combination of familiar tunes from Tarantino's cinematic inspirations, as well as a few original tracks from John Legend, Rick Ross, and RZA. While we'll have to patiently wait for another year or two before those musical sequences to end up on YouTube (only to be likely taken down because of copyright infringement), let's take a look back at Tarantino's catalog and take a listen at the songs we've come to associate with the modern-day auteur.

Paul Schrader is a fucked up dude. The first time he saw a film in theaters (as a teenager) he hallucinated and ran out screaming. When he was little, his mother used to poke him in the hand with a needle if he was bad and tell him that this is what hell would be like for an eternity. He used to sleep with a loaded .38 in his mouth. Once, while writing a film, he couldn’t quite get into the guilty headspace of the character so he drove out to Vegas and tried to lose all his money. Not feeling that he quite nailed it on the way home, he ditched his car. Also, for a while there in the '70s, his kitchen counter cutting board was always adorned with a brass crown of thorns and loaded gun at all times. His strict Calvinist upbringing left an obvious impact on him and his work, and he embraces cinema as a way to expose his darkest desires and impulses. His characters are always morally torn and struggling between what is forbidden and what one must do. He puts his sins on paper as a way to relieve himself of them. And naturally, he’s always been a cinematic hero of mine.