Scorsese does Hitchcock

Here’s something you might get a kick out of. Current filmmaker Martin Scorsese making a short “film” tribute of sorts to legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. In actuality, the piece is an ad for Freixenet sparkling wines. But the ad itself is a nearly ten-minute segment combining documentary style scenes and an actual short film. The plot consists of Scorsese purporting to have found a “lost”, four-page Hitchcock script (with one page missing), entitled The Key to Reserva, and then shooting it “the way (Hitchcock) would’ve made the picture then, only making it now”.

While the scenario’s reality is certainly in question, the enclosed short film (about three-and-a-half minutes in length) is fun to watch, as it basically serves as an homage to numerous classic Hitchcock scenes, thereby serving as a short, loving tribute to Hitchcock himself. Heck, for that matter, the whole ad is fun to watch. It’s similar to the series of amusing American Express ads (by Scorsese and Wes Anderson, among others) in which different filmmakers take good-natured shots at their own styles and personae. Likewise, The Key to Reserva plays off Scorsese’s reputation as an obsessive curator of the history of cinema, which gives a spark of life to the thought in the back of your mind that maybe, just maybe, this is the real deal, making the ad that much more fun. (The ad’s closing scene clearly lets the audience in on the joke, in case they weren’t already).

Fans say Radiohead’s online-only album of poor sound quality, may just be marketing gimmick

I find this quite hilarious. According to this MTV News story, some Radiohead fans are peeved because they pre-ordered the band’s new album — which, in case you haven’t heard, is only available online – and then found out that it’s only available in a bit rate of 160. I don’t know much about bit rates (though Chris will hopefully explain it to me), but apparently a 160 bit rate is pretty lame, far inferior to the 320 bit rate that Radiohead allegedly distributes their other albums in, and far below CD quality (though Radiohead’s guitarist says 160 bits is still better than iTunes — I don’t know … Chris, please help!).

Some disgruntled fans are even going so far as to say this Internet-only release, in which you get to decide what you want to pay for the album — and which has been hailed as a revolutionary new approach that could shake up the music industry as we know it — wasn’t radical at all. It was just a bunch of pre-hype to get people ready for the release of the physical CD, due out next year. So it’s possible that the indie rock music intelligentsia (a long, pretentious list) just got played by one of their Lancelot bands. Priceless.

[On another note, regardless of your personal opinions about the state of MTV, have you looked at their website lately? Every time you refresh it, the background is different. The arrangement is essentially the same; only the background changes. I know, I know, they're surely not the first to do it. But still a cool idea.]