Twitter, Tin Tin and some Sunday night tidbits.

DB here. just a few quick notes before I head to bed on a Sunday before all the holidays start.

The Twitter account is live again. Things went silent after the New York Asian Film Festival for a variety of reasons. Randi and myself then got frustrated because our efforts to have Twitter automatically tweet when the posts met with the similar problems to the Unseen Tumblr page. In any case I've vowed to tweet once more so if you want to get some updates and comments to things before they show up here or about things which may never show up here take a look. The feed can be found here. (And yes we will get a Twitter button in the side bar).

As I tweeted earlier today starting tomorrow we're going to take a look at a few films that escaped in forms that were never meant for the viewing public. These are cuts of films that can not be found at the local video store (well Friday's film can). Its an interesting look at films that in three cases the directors hoped could have seen the light of day more fully.

A while back I promised a review of the new Tin Tin movie before it hits screens in the US Wednesday. As many of you know the film is already playing elsewhere in the world, but since Tin Tin isn't a major character here is the US they delayed the opening. Bully has said that he'd like to take a crack at the film, however he's been sidelined by a trip to Japan to find an egg salad recipe and one of the worst colds on record. I may or may not be kidding about the egg salad however Bully and his buddy John are genuinely sick,so much so Bully's blog has been silent for several days. (Bully please get better, or else we can't go for pancakes)

To be perfectly honest I've seen the film, and while I could review it for you all I think Bully would be a better person to review it since he's more familiar with Tin Tin and his comic origins (The film is based on 3 different Tin Tin stories.) I will throw my two cents in and say that if you like Spielberg action epics give the film a try since it's more Spielberg than Herge. I will only add that I don't like the character design since it wipes out all of the facial movement and weakens a stunning Andy Serkis vocal performance.

Wednesday I'm hoping to get into the city to see Zhang Yimou's potential Oscar nominee Flowers of War. I say potential because the film is China's submission for Best Foreign Film so it's simply one of many films that might get chosen. I mention this for two reasons, first so you keep an eye out for a review. Secondly I want to use this as an excuse to mention that in January we at Unseen will be doing nine days of films from China for Chinese New Year. Mr C is putting it together, and it looks like one of the films included will be Zhang Yimou's previous film Under The Hawthorne Tree, which is a wonderful unashamed old style romance.

Lastly a couple of links purloined from IMDB and other suggested by a great friend of the blog:

Why movies need epic failures

As a lead in to January's week of Buster Keaton films (it precedes the Chinese New Year marathon), a piece on Keaton's use of illusion.

Finally the short film Boatlift, about the boats that got people off of Lower Manhattan on 9/11. (Thank you A.L.L)