October 13, 2005

Seu Jorge is Cool

Seu Jorge is a very talented musician from Brazil. Seu Jorge has been popular for quite a while in his native country, his album "Samba Esporte Fino" won the 1999 Brazil Album of the Year. Seu Jorge has only recently hit it big in North America due to his exposure in the delightful Wes Anderson film "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" starring Bill Murray. Seu Jorge is the guy playing covers of David Bowie in Portuguese throughout the movie on solo guitar. These delightful covers (which in a way I actually prefer over the original) are an excellent compliment to this quirky film, and as well inspired me to do more research into the music of Seu Jorge. I am in the process of hunting down his music so I can hear it as I type this. However while reading up on the music of Seu Jorge, I ended up reading all about Wes Anderson movies.

Wes Andreson is cool.

Wes Anderson's other movies include the classic "Rushmore" also selling Bill Murray and "The Royal Tenenbaums" also featuring Bill Murray and an all star cast including Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Anjelica Houston, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Luke Wilson. As well as a movie called Bottlerocket which I have not seen but now plan to. Wes Anderson movies are really hip and cool. They have a really dark sense of humour to them and aren't your typical laugh out loud film. Rather they are this amusing blend of stupidity and sheer amazing intelligence. His movies have also provided a spotlight for the deadpan look that made Bill Murray an Oscar contender for his role in Lost in Translation (and if there was any justice, he should have been an Oscar winner.) An interesting fact is that he has ended all his movies with a slow motion shot. As well he is apparently a big fan of wide angle lens shots. This may seem all well and good but when you view his movies you realize how he uses these devices to great effect and subtle laughter (such as the cut out of the boat in The Life Aquatic). Wes Anderson is quoted as saying:

"In big six-camera shots, you're supposed to have six cameras going. And I don't know what to do with the other five."

Despite my medium being music and not film I can sympathize. Sometimes 1 is enough....

1 comment:

Stu Cooke said...

I should go watch Lost in Translation again.

Mmm...Scarlett Johansson.