1 Jul 2016

Online viewing picks of the week (1 July)

From Widescreen, 9:20 am on 1 July 2016

The best* online video we’ve been watching over the last seven days.

Last Saturday morning Kim Hill interviewed the legendary (a justifiable description, surely?) German director Werner Herzog whose new film Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World is featuring in this year’s International Film Festival. Here’s Herr Herzog in an earlier era, extolling the virtues of English footballers:

You can listen to Kim’s interview here:

 

Kirby (Everything is a Remix) Ferguson’s thesis that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a remix of A New Hope (and also an exemplar of current cinema’s aversion to originality) isn’t in itself terribly original but his video is so well put together that we had to include it here:

[NB: It opens with a brief un-skippable commercial message.]

 

In Luc Bergeron’s mash-up Space Story we discovered that the real villain in dozens of famous science fiction movies was our old friend Darth Vader and the Empire. Now, in his sequel Space Story 2: Suicide Mission, our heroes are fighting back (featuring bits from more than 30 different films including, oddly, Space Cowboys):

 

Finally, Batman: The Killing Joke (an animated adaptation of one of the most celebrated graphic novels ever) is getting some theatrical screenings on 24 July in advance of its home video release. In it, Kevin Conroy (Bruce Wayne etc.) and Mark Hamill (The Joker) reprise their roles from the much loved Batman: The Animated Series from the early 90s so this appreciation of the series by John Keefer is timely as well as fascinating:

 

[*May not be the actual best. We haven’t watched the entire internet. If there’s anything you know of that we’ve missed, let us know at widescreen@rnz.co.nz]