2011

New Collectables

The RMIT First Site Gallery is this week hosting New Collectables –an exhibition and art auction where you can pick up works on the sly, by Fine Arts graduates and emerging artistic greats. The exhibition (viewing) is open from Midday until 7pm on Wednesday 7th, Thursday 8th, and Friday 9th December. However, you might find it most interesting to pop in and simply view the artworks on show. Back–room sales are also happening throughout, with all artwork reserve prices under $250 –making the high–quality works quite affordable indeed.

The auction itself happens on Thursday 8th December at 6pm sharp. So come on down and experience the thrill of the auction as you nab yourself an awesome art piece for pittance!

Restless (Gus Van Sant)

You will know Gus Van Sant by a spate of films dealing with emotive angst. His film–making style is often focussed upon dramatic themes that are purposely subdued. This is executed using curious soundscapes mixed with popular music tracks and rattling cinematography. Favourites among these are the enigmatic Elephant and Paranoid Park.
His latest offering continues in this fashion. In Restless, the coming–of–age film recieves a dose of sublte sublimity. Van Sant visits a foray into a whimsical, dreamy, and ultimately cute exploration of youth dealings with death. Although buoyed by such clichés as the dual parental car crash fatality; we contrarily find the double leads Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper charming in their fine performances. There are also a handful of nods to favourite adolescent films including Empire of the Sun and Stand By Me. If you can stomach the endless melancholy of the soundtrack then you‘ll most likely relish this as such a sweet film.

Restless opens at Cinema Nova on December 1st.

The Salt of Life (Gianni Di Gregorio)

Gianni Di Gregorio‘s film is one of the more thoughtful and comically entertaining films due for release this year. Di Gregorio (Writer/Director of 2008‘s acclaimed Gomorrah) both directs and plays the leading role in this wistful comedy; markedly titled Gianni e le Donne (Gianni & The Women) in his native Italian. Gianni (the leading character, and not to be confused with the Actor/Director himself) has recently reached a turning point in his life: the onset of ‘old age‘. Having been made redundant from work, he finds himself mindful of not only his aging face & body; but of his relevance to the world–at–large.

The film is endearing to the plight of this ageing Italiano and charming in it‘s climactic (yet restrained) final scenes. Its looks at the romanticism and sexuality of Gianni as he ponders his lacklustre marriage and his attention to (and from) young women. At once an humourous, heartfelt and honest observation of the aging man –The Salt Of Life is wonderfully shot with subtle stylisation. The film won‘t stir up any media–pack accolades but it‘s surely a fine production; with a brilliant cast.

The Salt Of Life opens this week at Cinema Nova.

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Secret Wars: Scale vs. Pierre Lloga

Last night brought the noise in the Melbourne Series 2 Semi-Final for Secret Wars.

Pierre Lloga this time went head–to–head with his sometime contemporary nemesis and the Round 1 champion, Scale. Despite the fact that the two share a notional bond with one another; Scale held no fear in depicting Pierre as pathetically imprisoned within his hand–written, pencil–pushing cell: A caricature buffeting itself with cat icons; typical of Lloga‘s work. In the meantime though, Lloga invoked a graveyard–inspired defiance to see to it that Scale in turn was illustrated as the last of the graffer; as encrouched upon by Pierre himself, with the aid of a chainsaw!

In all earnestness: This battle has exhibited the best of art I have witnessed in the series so far.

So without further adieu, please do visit a video of the late evening:

http://secretwars.com.au/melbourne

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