Germany drops Mohammed's head

Deutsche Oper Berlin has cancelled performances of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1781 opera Idomeneo originally scheduled for November, following advice from the German police.

In his interpretation of the opera, director Hans Neuenfels includes a scene featuring the decapitated heads of Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and Poseidon. The production was performed in 2003, though it was felt that a revival this year may incite Muslim protests and thus put the safety of the performers and audience at risk.

Presumably Christians and Buddhists (and ancient Greeks?) would also be offended by the opera, though it is the possible Islamic reaction which has prompted the cancellation. Christians and Buddhists may be offended, though they wouldn't try to burn down the opera house or issue death-threats against the cast, whereas Islamic extremists might have done so.

Advertising Is Dead

Advertising Is Dead: Long Live Advertising! is Tom Himpe's new survey of unconventional advertising campaigns. As Naomi Klein explained in No Logo, commercialism and branding are increasingly dominating every available surface area, and Himpe presents some of the most unusual and inventive examples of this visual space invasion. (Klein and Himpe are, of course, writing from opposite ideological positions - Klein condems branding, whereas Himpe actively promotes it.)

Himpe is an advertising copywriter, and his book is primarily a manual for other creatives on how to create distinctive campaigns. For general readers outside the industry, the book's illustrations of specific adverts serve as the first detailed overview of this new field of graphic design.

Exactly how to label this new field is a matter of debate. Ambient advertising suggests an encroachment into new territories and environments, as advertising appropriates non-traditional spaces (i.e., beyond billboards). Guerrilla advertising implies a certain subterfuge or underhand unconventionality. Himpe cites both labels, and others, though doesn't settle for any of them as an umbrella term. (Tony Kaye's preferred term, hype art, is unfortunately not included.)

Advertising Is Dead's only serious rival is Guerrilla Advertising, from increasingly interesting art publisher Laurence King. However, its selection of examples is far less interesting than Himpe's (the only exception being Red Bull in Worms 3D, the first example of computer game product-placement, which is covered in Guerrilla Advertising though not by Himpe). Also, Himpe's book has the gravitas of Thames & Hudson behind it, one of the premier established art publishers.

The book organises its examples into a series of fascinating categories, including Intrusion (unconventional spaces, such as the Hans Brinker hotel logo pinned to dog excrement on the street), Transformation (metamorphosis, for example the Volkswagen ice sculpture parked in London for a day), Installation (a huge pile of empty plastic bottles in Cape Town, resembling a scene from the Thai film Modern Dog), Illusion (trompe l'oeil effects, such as a Nike poster whose perspective matches its surroundings), and Sensation (campaigns which interact with our senses, as in the cinema air-conditioner suffused with Panettone in Brazil).

Advertising Is Dead is not a definitive survey of ambient/guerrilla campaigns, though it is the first detailed study. The examples occupy the majority of the book, with little real analysis or history. (A comprehensive account is yet to be written; indeed, there has not yet been a comprehensive history of advertising in general published so far.) As a sourcebook of illustrations, it's unsurpassed, although my favourite example is sadly not included: the Puma contact-lenses worn by Linford Christie in 1996, surely the most ingenious instance of branded space.

Holy War

In January, Fresh Baked Video Games, a programme on American channel Spike TV, created a trailer for a fake computer game called Holy War, in which various religious figures fight to the death. One sequence showed Mohammed defeating Mormon founder Joseph Smith, and another featured Moses beheading Mohammed.
The Holy War sequence was broadcast after the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures were published, though before their international condemnation.

World Trade Center

World Trade Center is Oliver Stone's take on the New York terrorist attacks of '9/11' (11th September 2001). Stone is really the only director with the pedigree for such a project, as he has previously tackled major American political events such as the Vietnam war (Platoon and Born On The 4th Of July), the Kennedy assassination (JFK), and Watergate (Nixon).

The difference this time is that Stone's film has no agenda. He is at his best with provocative historical revisionism, most notably in JFK, though with World Trade Center he takes no stand and instead depoliticises his subject-matter.

Kubrick once commented that although the Holocaust involved the deaths of millions of Jews, Schindler's List was instead about hundreds of Jews who survived. The same argument can be used in the case of World Trade Center: 2,602 people were killed in New York, though the film is primarily about two people who lived. The film does not successfully convey the scale of the devastation in New York and across America. The impacts of the planes and the collapsing of the towers are not depicted in the film, perhaps because of the ubiquity of such images in the news media.

The film would be dramatically improved with the omission of two short (and cliched) sequences. A montage of peoples from various countries and cultures, all watching open-mouthed as the towers collapse on CNN, propagates the rather offensive notion that the attack on the World Trade Center was an event which shook the entire world. Other countries are facing indirect repercussions, such as increased security, though the tragedy of 11th September was largely an American tragedy. Also, when one of the trapped men slips into unconsciousness, we actually see his vision of Jesus, bathed in white. Idyllic flashbacks are one thing, though Jesus and the tunnel of light represent a step too far.

Dansk Folkeparti Mohammed cartoons

The Dutch political party Dansk Folkparti asked a group of Dutch students to draw Mohammed cartoons, in a parody of the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures, and the event was broadcast on Dutch television last month.

L'Affaire Des Caricatures

L'Affaire Des Caricatures, a book by Mohamed Sifaoui about the international reaction to the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures, has been published in France. It includes a new cartoon of Mohammed on the cover.

coup tanks

Today we went to Dusit, the area of Bangkok where the main government buildings are located, and I was able to photograph the tanks enforcing the military coup, across the road from Government House.

The tanks are purely symbolic, and the soldiers were happy to receive (equally symbolic) flowers from the public. They were not moving, and are confined to the Dusit district, away from the city centre. Downtown, there are a few soldiers on guard at major intersections, though there has been no violence and everyone is going about their business as usual.

All schools and banks in Bangkok were closed today, though everything will reopen tomorrow. Sonthi has given a press conference, announcing that a new caretaker Prime Minister will be appointed within two weeks, but a general election may not be held for another year.

Thai coup confirmed

Army chief Sonthi, along with the heads of the other Thai armed forces and police, has appeared on TV here to confirm his coup d'etat. He has formed a Democratic Reform Council and declared martial law.

Sonthi explained in his prepared statement that the coup was a result of extreme frustration at Prime Minister Thaksin's corruption and abuses of power. The state of emergency, declared by Thaksin last night, has been revoked. Thaksin cancelled his planned UN speech, and is thought to have travelled to London, where his daughter is studying.

Both houses of parliament, the constitution, the cabinet, and the Constitution Court have been dissolved. However, the Supreme Court and Administrative Court (which were independent of the Thaksin regime) remain operational.

We now have more details about the chronology of events. It seems that Sonthi attempted to negotiate with Thaksin's representatives and General Prem (head of the Privy Council, and effectively the King's spokesman). Sonthi sought assurances that Thaksin would leave politics, though Thaksin refused to do so. It was then that Thaksin sacked Sonthi and declared a state of emergency, at 9.30pm last night. The coup took place very shortly afterwards, before 10pm.

There has been no resistance from Thaksin's supporters within Thailand, and Sonthi has stressed that he has no intention of assuming power himself. He has pledged to "return power to the people" with a general election as soon as possible.

Military coup in Bangkok

The political problems here have suddenly come to a head. We have just heard that there has been a military coup against the government in Bangkok, possibly led by army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin. The situation is very unclear, though it seems that Sonthi took advantage of Thaksin's foreign trip to stage a coup a few hours ago.

The army has taken control of Government House and are also controlling all TV stations. Local media is simply playing archive footage of the King, and CNN/BBC cable channels are blocked. The coup appears to be an act of support for the King by the army, which thankfully suggests that it will be non-violent.

Thaksin has now sacked Sonthi. He was able to broadcast a brief message on TV Channel 9, declaring a state of emergency, before the army took over the signal. However, as he is currently at the UN in New York and the coup is hostile, Thaksin's influence is now practically non-existent. He will address the UN later today.

As I write this, almost nothing is certain. Thailand has a long history of military coups, though the last one was more than a decade ago and there had been progress towards a stable democracy. (There is a general election scheduled for 15th October, and my main hope is that it will still go ahead on that date or shortly thereafter. An army spokesman has appeared on TV to assure us that they will return power to the democratic government after the election.)

It is now almost midnight Thai time, and I will write more tomorrow morning when, hopefully, we will have more information confirmed. Right now, it's scary that there are tanks surrounding state buildings. I do want to stress that there has been no violence, though, and things are calm here.

Contemporary American Cinema

Contemporary American Cinema, edited by Linda Ruth Williams and Michael Hammond, is the first book to attempt a truly comprehensive examination of post-classical cinema (that is, American film-making since 1960, after Hollywood's golden age).

The book implicitly positions itself as an unofficial sequel to The Classical Hollywood Cinema (by David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, and Janet Staiger). It was only published this year, so only time will tell if it can earn as high a reputation as Bordwell et al., though it does gain instant significance as the first study of its kind.

Major trends are all covered in some depth: the decline of the studio system and the rise of New Hollywood in the 1960s, big-budget blockbusters in the 1970s, bombastic action movies and indie cinema in the 1980s, and "Smart Cinema" in the 1990s. (Maybe it's still too soon for a clear appreciation of 1990s cinema, as the "Smart Cinema" tag doesn't seem substantial enough.)

Of the book's contributors, only Kim Newman really stands out, though co-editor Linda Ruth Williams and her husband and co-writer, Mark Kermode, are also excellent writers. I can't help but contrast Contemporary American Cinema with The Oxford History Of World Film, whose format is similar though whose collection of contributors and essays is far superior. That may be an unfair comparison, though I make it only because, in their introduction, Williams and Hammond say that they commissioned "some of the best film writers and academics in the world" to write "a series of first-class essays".

Although it was written as a university film studies textbook, complete with suggested essay questions, it can also be read as a work of general film history. As a survey of trends in American cinema circa 1960-2000, it's a unique and important book.

Full Metal Jacket in high-definition

Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is one of a handful of films released by Warner in the new high-definition DVD formats. A HD-DVD version was released in May, and a Blu-Ray version appeared last week.

High-definition offers increased picture resolution and fewer compression artefacts, though the film has sadly been reformatted specifically to suit home cinema equipment. The HD-DVD and Blu-Ray versions are both framed at 1.78:1, the HDTV standard ratio; furthermore, their soundtracks are 5.1 surround, also the standard format for home cinema.

To me, this is an unfortunate compromise. Full Metal Jacket was originally released theatrically at 1.85:1 with mono sound. Before 2001, all Warner laserdisc, VHS and DVD versions were 1.33:1 unmatted, in mono, which was Kubrick's favoured video format.

When Warner remastered A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket in 2001, they produced 5.1 surround mixes (optional for A Clockwork Orange, thankfully), though at least they kept the images 1.33:1 unmatted. Not uncoincidentally, the remastering took place after Kubrick's death.

Now, however, the new high-definition versions have no fidelity to Kubrick's intentions at all, and are instead formatted with home cinema audiences in mind. Just because people buy a 16:9 HDTV, every film shouldn't have to be exactly the same ratio. Just because people have 5.1 surround speakers, films shouldn't have to utilise all of them.

The easiest solution would have been for HDTV to have adopted the 1.85:1 theatrical ratio as a standard, instead of the almost-but-not-quite-the-same 1.77:1. Because the two ratios are different, films are being cropped to fit HDTV.

The problem was the same when the CRT TV ratio was set at 1.33:1 - ever-so-slightly different from the Academy theatrical standard 1.37:1. This means that the thousands of old films shown theatrically in Academy (basically, almost every film before the mid-1950s) has to be ever-so-slightly cropped for VHS and DVD.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray offer improved picture quality, though the version of Full Metal Jacket that most closely match Kubrick's own intentions is the unremastered Warners DVD from 1999.

Apocalypse Pooh & Blue Peanuts

Apocalypse Pooh is a combination of Apocalypse Now and Winnie The Pooh & The Blustery Day: clips from the cartoon set to the film's soundtrack, and vice-versa. So, Winnie becomes Martin Sheen's Willard, Piglet becomes Dennis Hopper's manic photojournalist, and Marlon Brando's Kurtz becomes Eeyore.

It was directed by Todd Graham in 1987, and has circulated on bootleg VHS and online (ifilm.com). It's arguably the first-ever Mashup film, as it synchronises audio and video from two different sources; it can even lay claim to being the first Anime Music Video, as it includes Winnie flying a kite set to Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones.

Apocalpyse Pooh was originally distributed with another short film, Blue Peanuts (even more obscure, though now on youtube.com). This features a Peanuts cartoon overdubbed with Dennis Hopper's profane dialogue from Blue Velvet.