Monday, July 14, 2008

Be Kind Rewind & Sweding films

Who 'ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!

I did see Be Kind Rewind. It was good! Heartwarming story of how to make life more bearable. Go and see.

The genuine major theme was Sweding films. Sweding? "You take what you like and you remake something from scratch using whatever you can get your hands on."

Okay, the plot in brief. No destructive spoilers here, I promise:

New Jersey. Current time. Two guys, Mike and Jerry, seemingly looking for trouble, help in a video rental store. Suddenly a strange electromagnetic phenomenon, caused by Jerry (as excellent Jack Black as ever) and the powerplant nearby, empty all the VHS tapes. In order not to dissapoint some - unfortunately very few - customers the guys are obliged to start re-making the films that have vanished.

Those "Sweded" (see the web site) ones are only 20 minutes, but hey, they are so much better than the originals. (Who would like to watch Ghostbusters anyway? Driving Miss Daisy? Rush Hour II? The Lion King? No idea. But I'd love to see any of these Sweded.) The Sweded films, but of course, become more popular than the originals. But not at all surprisingly the guys are soon in trouble again. In BIG trouble.

To make history they must Swede the history of the beloved hero of the main character's, Fats Waller, as well as the history their own with the history of the whole neighbourhood.

* * *

"Use the weapons at hand." This is what Francis Ford Coppola said in Sodankylä, in Midnight Sun Film Festivals, 2002. Never argue saying you can't do some work of art because you lack some equipment.

See: someone has Sweded Be Kind Rewind! You will hear this lovely tune at the end of the film.

* * *

Vaiheinen was there, too. Which films you are going to have Sweded first? (Give me a camera!) My list goes like this: Apocalypse. Now. (Imagine the pyrotechniques!) Jurassic Park. La Dolce Vita. The Searchers. And ALL Empress Sissi films, but instead of the usual 20 min they can be only five minutes each. And Terminator II! (I want to do both the evil robot and Linda Hamilton.)

Mike and Jerry Sweded Last Tango In Paris. How 'bout that.

A scene in the first version of Apocalypse. Now. before it was Sweded.

5 comments:

Vaiheinen said...

I have webcam in my laptop and camera in my cellular phone. Do you think that it is enough for sweded film production?

Today my list include only sci-fi movies:

- Bladerunner (The best sci-fi movie ever, someone says)
- Matrix Revolutions (Fine special effects)
- Zardoz (This is so weird that it have to swede)
- Solaris (Why not?)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I strongly believe that sweded version will be better)

And additionally... All James Bond movies, of course. 2 minute version is enough per movie.

Tommorrow I probably prefer classic movies, but today only entertainment.

I.S. said...

We seem to have it all. I have those two, too.

Let's leave Bladerunner alone! The Holy Work of Art.

But Matrix and Solaris are both piece of cake. Z and HGTG I have not seen.

The Goldfinger would be great to Swede.

Vaiheinen said...

Ok. Let's leave Bladerunner. Let's replace it by Alien?

Z is weird movie, Sean Connery as a hero and number of amazon style ladies. Look: http://tinyurl.com/64y4v

I think Dr. No is my favorite, but I think that Octopussy will be wonderful to swede.

Anonymous said...

AND I AM GOING TO SWEDE ALL, I MEAN ALL BOLLYWOOD MOVIES, FINALLY CUTTING THEM FROM 4 HOURS TO 2 MINUTES. FINALLY. CAN I BE ACCEPTED IN THE SWEDING TEAM P L E E Z ??? By the way, why is it called swede? Why not norwege, dande, icelade ... or FINDE??? FIDE. Fine.
Ode. Ode your movies, cool ...

Anonymous said...

I have never seen any Bollywood stuff. Have always thought my life is too short. But of course they can be easily Sweded, and doing the dances in definitely my speciality.

But Ode, try to find a theater showing films with the original sound and go and see Be Kind Rewind. That will answer all your questions. Once we start filming, also in Germany, You are in, SO in.

Vaiheinen, most of that scifi-s**t looks as if it has already been Sweded so there would not be much of a challenge. But I believe once we satrt we can hop from one genre into another quite easily.

All the best, IStori