The Con Man talks about his meeting with "The Dark Knight" at the multiplex, and his flap with Uma Thurman's father, Professor Robert Thurman of Columbia, about the violence in Quentin Tarantino's movies. Also: handicapping McCain-Obama.
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Monday July 28, 2008.
1 comment July 28th, 2008
Can’t think of a better news hook than the Dalai Lama’s visit to Aspen to talk about violence in the movies of Quentin Tarantino. Call me crazy and I’ll zip your head off with the sword I just stole from The Bride.
I’m in the genius camp when it comes to Tarantino, the auteur of “Reservoir Dogs,” “Kill Bill,” and even the lessermost “Jackie Brown,” all with their heavy doses of patter and splatter. But I never thought of him as anti-violent until Uma Thurman’s father came on my “Con Games” radio show in Aspen to lead me monkishly down the path of virtue.
It turns out Robert Thurman, the author of “Why The Dalai Lama Matters” is not only a professor of Indo-Tibetan matters at Columbia University but also the very first Tibetan monk to come from America: he was ordained as a mendicant in the mid-1960s before he opted out for the more secular life of a scholar. In the bargain he fathered Uma, the actress most associated with Tarantino’s voluminous “Kill Bill” movies, both Volumes I and II.
Continue Reading Add comment July 28th, 2008
The Con Man wonders why we love war so wisely and unwell, then welcomes Plum TV for a recording of a television pilot. His subjects for hour two: the faux anti-war movie "Iron Man," and Paige Price of Theatre Aspen talking about the summer 2008 season--and singing "Tits and Ass" from "A Chorus Line."
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Thursday June 5, 2008.
Add comment June 5th, 2008
When Robert Downey Jr., the inherently ironic leading man, arrives on the scene in the Marvel Comics blockbuster “Iron Man,” it takes us a beat or two to realize his character, Tony Stark, is a drunk, philandering scumbag who just happens to be in the back of a Humvee in Afghanistan, where bad things are all but guaranteed to happen.
A little stark? You can say that again. But it’s not booze or the references to multiple rendez-vous with pin-ups that make Tony Stark a consummate ass—it’s his status as the greatest arms inventor and dealer in the world. You immediately wonder how in the name of all that’s Uzi are we going to end up liking this hipster merchant of death, a quandary multiplied by the realization that in the Great American Blockbuster Movie you have to end up loving this guy.
And we do.
Suffice to say that post-Afghanistan Tony Stark is both (a) an iconic super-hero; and (b) a pacifist who swears off the military industrial complex like an alcoholic face-to-face with a cold Budweiser on a hot day.
Continue Reading Add comment May 18th, 2008
AspenFilm's 17th Annual ShortsFest comes to a close today already. Wasn't really a short week but it was a quick week filled with great variety, creativity, humor and passion when it came to this festival's short Films. This was a more social ShortsFest for me somehow and I think that was a reflection of the nature of the films, i.e. encouraging conversation with friends and strangers and also of AspenFilm's evolving presence and awesome staff. I made some new friends this week, both local and visitors who I hope will return. I managed to work in six of the eight programs in my busy pre-off-season-travel-preparation week. I'll attempt a brief overview here.
Continue Reading Add comment April 6th, 2008
AspenFilm's 17th Annual ShortsFest Competition Program begins this evening at 5:30 PM at Aspen's historic Wheeler Opera House. Programs one and two are today followed by programs each day concluding the competitive showcase on Saturday with program eight beginning at 9 PM. $20,000 in prize money is up for grabs and you get to vote . . . if you are there to view the short films.
Continue Reading Add comment April 2nd, 2008
That's right, AspenFilm is kicking off the 17th annual Aspen ShortsFest April 2nd - 6th! We've screened about 3500 short films from around the world representing nearly 30 countries and have chosen the best of the best for screening right here in Aspen. Filmmaker Magazine called Aspen's ShortsFest, which is an Oscar-Qualifying event, "one of the most prestigious festivals devoted to short films in the world."
Continue Reading Add comment March 27th, 2008
The Con Man continues his prescient dissertation on 4,000 dead American soldiers and John McCain, then segues at the end of the show into a discussion of the "King Kong" cover of Vogue featuring LeBron James and Giselle Bundchen.
The complete discussion of the five-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion, followed by a discussion of short films and Aspen Shortsfest by Filmfest executive director Laura Thielen.
Continue Reading 8 comments March 25th, 2008
March 10, 2008 (Aspen, Colo.) - Filmmakers around the world will join film audiences April 2-6 when Aspen Shortsfest 2008 arrives at the Wheeler Opera House and other venues in Aspen and Carbondale, Colorado.
Now in its 17th year, Aspen Shortsfest is considered one of the world's leading showcases for international short film and video. The centerpiece International Competition features fifty-three finalists from more than 24 countries; the live-action, animation, and documentary finalists were selected from 3,500 previewed submissions. The International Competition finalists will be presented at public screenings where they compete for more than $20,000 in cash and other prizes. With more than a third of the films screened being U.S., North American, or world premieres, Shortsfest offers viewers an unparalleled chance to see exciting new work from up-and-coming talent from all corners of the globe.
Continue Reading Add comment March 11th, 2008
If you think about the epic moments in media that draw us together as a nation—and who doesn’t ponder such things—then you must be watching “The Sara Connor Chronicles” on Fox, the latest version of the “Terminator” movie series that not coincidentally starred the Governor of California as the bad-guy cyborg from the future who learned how to love.
The latest version of a dark future centers on Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor, the teenager who will live on into the future to lead “the rebels” against “Skynet,” the computer network programmed to destroy all humanity. But there’s a twist: cyborgs are dispatched from the future by both the older John Connor and the faceless Skynet to either protect or destroy John Connor, depending on their persuasion. They are literally programmed to terminate his life, and nothing stops them.
The trope is terrific, a chronologic displacement even the novelist Milan Kundera could love. With time travel, robots, and Armageddon, it doesn’t get any better than this. But it’s not science fiction that makes the “Terminator” series indestructible in the good ole U.S.A.: it’s the rebel yell embedded in our DNA.
Continue Reading 4 comments January 17th, 2008
