Werckmeister Harmonies

Hungarian filmmaker BÉLA TARR works in a timeless tradition unmoved by contemporary trends. This opening scene from WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES captures his style and tone beautifully, notably his use of long takes and the roving camera that completely ignores the standard rules of editting—namely the 180 degree rule. That's right, his camera crosses the line, in fact, it's fair to say that in his films, there is no line.

BÉLA TARR's newest film THE MAN FROM LONDON will be playing all this week at the MUSEUM OF MODERN ART.

MySpace proof

When someone gets popular on MySpace, they run the risk of getting fake profiles made about them. The solution is posting a video of yourself on your profile page reciting your MySpace URL I.D. number, offered as "proof."

Artists BRAD TROEMEL and RANDI HEYLEK cut together a series of videos of MySpace girls authenticating their identities. The resulting montage is like a shopping list of commodified online personas, revealing the twist of a new kind of personal branding.

Baby, don't forget my number.

Journal for People

What makes the difference in video art is often the ability to transcend the medium and the software. Since so much of digital video art is automatic and clichéd, it takes a lot of hard work and talent with software to make work that stands out, especially in the highly aesthetic world of pop.

Tokyo-based electronic composer and video artist TAKAGI MASAKATSU manipulates video footage with painterly digital effects, and in this video for his song GIRLS he utilizes a hand-painted look that is both resolutely human, yet totally dependent on digital processes. A rare feat, and a rich viewing experience.

What do you think Ferris is going to do?

A group calling themselves PROJECT BUELLER is planning on recreating the famous TWIST AND SHOUT parade scene from JOHN HUGHES' classic 80's film FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, during the Sept. 6th DEITCH ART PARADE.

Will it come off? The website posts this rather low-quality (and French-dubbed in the beginning) YouTube clip, calling for viewers to recreate the extras in the Chicago-land scenery. Hopefully you'll be able to distinguish the right outfit for your version of "Evelyn," or at least have time to practice your choreographed stair dance.

Giant white glove

This video is from a 2007 project called White Glove Tracking, in which a collective of online users collaborated to produce a source code tracking MICHAEL JACKSON's white glove from the footage of his legendary BILLIE JEAN performance.

TIM KNAPEN, the artist here, uses the data to greatly expand the white glove, to surreal and comical effect. A new classic.

Your favorite horse

This music video for BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY's remake of his own NO MORE WORKHORSE BLUES was done by HARMONY KORINE in 2004. KORINE is the master of the oddly affecting, whacked out image.

Here, he uses a cast of two shot with bright, sunny video tones, and chops it up using a two-frame stutter effect that is not unlike the 3-D simulacra-style used by video artist KEN JACOBS. The last shot sees a cameo by WILL OLDHAM, the artist himself.

The Perfect Human

This 1967 short film from Danish filmmaker JØRGEN LETH was the subject of LARS VON TRIER's provocation THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS, in which LETH was challenged to remake the film five times, each with new "obstructions" set by VON TRIER.

On its own, the film is certainly a singular production, merging documentary style with Structuralism, cast in a New Wave sense of off-handed poetry. For contemporary film fans who have seen the VON TRIER film, THE PERFECT HUMAN never appears in full in that movie, so it's a real pleasure to watch the original, without the weight of any further challenges.

What happens in Vegas...

One of the most delightful film experiences I had last year was catching the work of OLIVO BARBIERI, both at film festivals and galleries. His photography from the SITE SPECIFIC_NEW YORK 07 series was on view here in NYC, but my first encounter with his unique shooting style was this film, SITE SPECIFIC_LAS VEGAS 05.

The beguiling yet simple technique used by BARBIERI involves a tilt-shift lens, throwing what looks like a narrow depth of focus on far-away scenes of cityscapes. First-time viewers, myself included, have a hard time deciding if the scenes are real, or models. But all of BARBIERI's toylike depictions are shot from a helicopter, using a slightly more advanced tilt-shift technique which he won't fully disclose. The result is a chance see well-known landscapes from an unusual perspective.