Following its resounding success in New York, Melbourne, Toronto, and Los Angeles, “Tim Burton” -  the itinerant exhibition tracing the eccentric filmmaker’s enchantingly macabre universe from past to present– has made its final stop in Paris at the illustrious Cinémathèque Française. There’s no mistaking the very personal, childhood demons in Tim Burton’s work – his dynamic stories and atmospheric films reflect a playful darkness that are unique to his somewhat marginalized upbringing in Burbank, California. Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland, and Sweeney Todd are all universally recognizable characters from Burton’s brooding imagination but few have been exposed to his other work, composed largely of pop art and zealous sketches from his days as a student at the California Institute of Art. Widely regarded as “the seventh art”, film has always held a hallowed role in French culture and Burton’s subversive style and gothic leanings have long been lauded by French moviegoers and critics. Through August 5, 2012, visitors have access to over 700 drawings, photographs, costumes, figurines and film artifacts, many on display for the first time, in addition to a comprehensive film retrospective including limited-distribution shorts and extracts from his forthcoming projects. After discovering the exhibit organized by New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2009, Serge Toubiana, director of the museum which hosts one of the world’s most extensive film archives, was intent on bringing it to Europe. He explained, “I had the pleasure of convincing our friends at the MoMA to accept continuing the exhibition’s itinerary all the way to Paris. The decisive element was the enthusiastic agreement of Tim Burton”. Cinemathèque Française 51 rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris (Closed Tuesdays) Written by: Lindsey Tramuta

Following its resounding success in New York, Melbourne, Toronto, and Los Angeles, “Tim Burton” -  the itinerant exhibition tracing the eccentric filmmaker’s enchantingly macabre universe from past to present– has made its final stop in Paris at the illustrious Cinémathèque Française.

There’s no mistaking the very personal, childhood demons in Tim Burton’s work – his dynamic stories and atmospheric films reflect a playful darkness that are unique to his somewhat marginalized upbringing in Burbank, California. Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland, and Sweeney Todd are all universally recognizable characters from Burton’s brooding imagination but few have been exposed to his other work, composed largely of pop art and zealous sketches from his days as a student at the California Institute of Art.

Widely regarded as “the seventh art”, film has always held a hallowed role in French culture and Burton’s subversive style and gothic leanings have long been lauded by French moviegoers and critics. Through August 5, 2012, visitors have access to over 700 drawings, photographs, costumes, figurines and film artifacts, many on display for the first time, in addition to a comprehensive film retrospective including limited-distribution shorts and extracts from his forthcoming projects.

After discovering the exhibit organized by New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2009, Serge Toubiana, director of the museum which hosts one of the world’s most extensive film archives, was intent on bringing it to Europe. He explained, “I had the pleasure of convincing our friends at the MoMA to accept continuing the exhibition’s itinerary all the way to Paris. The decisive element was the enthusiastic agreement of Tim Burton”.

Cinemathèque Française

51 rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris

(Closed Tuesdays)

Written by: Lindsey Tramuta

Elena is also my friend and I have donated. Now it’s your turn. Support this project and help spread her message!

rachelhills:

My friend Elena is running a campaign on Kickstarter to help fund her film The Illusionists, a feature-length documentary about the commodification of the body and the marketing of unattainable beauty around the world.

In the style of Inside Job, Food Inc. and The Corporation, The Illusionists takes the pursuit of the body beautiful - a subject often framed in personal terms - and puts it in historical and commercial context. Such political approaches to body image tend not to go down well with the people holding the purse strings, says Elena, which is why she has decided to go to her community for funding instead. She writes:

The more I worked on “The Illusionists,” the better I understood why media companies and TV stations resist similar projects: they are afraid of scaring off advertisers, and push filmmakers to make “personal,” lighter films on the subject. It happened in my case and I refused. That’s why I’m running a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter.com: so that I can be completely candid about these topics and do them justice.

Where I am a word nerd Elena is a filmmaker, and the video I’ve posted above does more justice to her ideas than I can do in writing (without expending thousands of words on the subject, at any rate). Go watch it - and consider donating to the campaign. She’s 40% funded already, but in order to keep the pledges already received, she needs to reach her full $33,000 goal by August 5.

Click here to learn more about the film or to donate.

NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY