Lotus shoes are exquisitely small—measuring about eight centimetres each, they might snuggle into the palm of your hand. Delicately hand-embroidered in silk, it’s shocking that for more than 1,000 years since the 10th century—they were banned in 1911—millions of Chinese women had their feet broken and bound to fit into these teardrop-shaped icons of feminine […]
Arts & Culture
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Hot fuss
At first, it seemed that the geeks were going to inherit the cinemas. But while Grindhouse, with its excessive homage to a cultish genre, did disappointing business in general, the experience proved to be Mecca for those seeking their fill of insider jokes and genre satire. Enter Hot Fuzz and its director Edgar Wright. Hot […]
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Disturbia
“You’re a writer. You work from home,” Kale (Shia LaBeouf) tells his father when he says that fishing beats working. Because working from home sometimes feels like being under house arrest, that’s a sly exchange to begin a movie about a kid sentenced to not leave his house for three months. The set-up allows Disturbia […]
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Moss lady
It’s hard not to envy Australia. Its film industry produces a healthy number of talented performers who go off to Hollywood to become international stars, just like ours do here in Canada. But then Guy Pearce goes home to make The Proposition, Cate Blanchett does Little Fish and Heath Ledger stars in Candy—all antipodean stars […]
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Grindhouse
Replicating the style of the ’70s B-grade genre and exploitation films that often played as double-features, Grindhouse is an more-than-three-hour tribute to the badass appeal of schlock. The pair of movies by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino come packaged with retro-style horror and action trailers—including, in Canada, my bud Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun. […]
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Public Eye contest winners
Aliant and The Coast congratulate the following weekly Public Eye winners: • Katherine Patton of Halifax• Laura Graham of Halifax• Stephen Clyke of Wolfville• Megan MacDonald of Halifax Melanie Slade of Truro was awarded the Grand prize of a Samsung a920 cell phone, exclusive to Aliant Mobility PLUS one year free airtime, text messaging and […]
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The Lookout/Reign Over Me
If you watch enough movies, grief starts looking like a temporary setback. The death of a close relation is something a character needs to overcome to discover his or her full potential—no different than the climactic boxing match in a Rocky film, or an upcoming spelling bee that’s been consuming a character with fear. This […]
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Crazy/dutiful
“We’re the best there is. You’d be crazy to fuck with us,” announces a Canadian infantryman in a moment from The Crazy Eights, a documentary made for the CBC about a company of soldiers in Afghanistan. This is the down and dirty reality of what it means to be a fighting man in a conflict […]
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Rose-coloured glasses
There’s a scene in Thom Fitzgerald’s 2003 film, The Event, where a 30-something man (Don McKellar) tells his mother (Olympia Dukakis) that he’s gay. “I know,” she says. “I’ve known for a long time…The last girl you brought back was a prom date, and you did her makeup.” In these few lines of dialogue, Dukakis […]
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Young guns
Mary Walsh and Fred Ewanuick sit beside each other on the hotel room couch. She’s the actor/co-writer/director of Young Triffie and he is the film’s star. But their rapport suggests another relationship. In a black outfit, including impressively long boots, that contrasts with her auburn hair and tanned skin, Walsh appears the taller, worldly, still-a-little-bit-wild […]
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The Lives of Others
German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s debut beat Pan’s Labyrinth for the foreign language Oscar in a reversal of the Academy’s usual avoidance of movies about complex world issues. The Lives of Others is an indictment of adhering morals to political-doctrine shortcuts. Until its dissolution in 1989, the Stasi secret police ensured East Germany was […]
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Having a blast
The picture looks grainy, hacked-up and discoloured, as if it’s been stored in some studio basement since the heyday of blood-and-guts grindhouse cinema. Black lines, spots and other imperfections pockmark the screen and the colour has the quality of an old Polaroid photograph. A grizzled drifter with a Robert De Niro glare busts open a […]