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I have next to no experience with anime. Which film of his should I seek out first?

I'd recommend Paprika. It's actually been brought up a lot recently in comparison to Inception.

Most fans (and people on this board especially) have run hot and cold on Kon's films. As such, it's pretty tough to get a consensus "best" film of his. Many people like Millennium Actress but it's my least favourite of his. I'm a Perfect Blue fan. A lot of people swear by Tokyo Godfathers, but some people hated it. Paprika is probably the best summation of his pet themes up to now.

I'd say start with Paranoia Agent, that's where I did, but that is a huge task. Perfect Blue is probably the safest place to start as it's his first movie, very good, and a tad more typical of the genre it's in. Millennium Actress though is his best movie and that should be a good jump off point too. Really the only place not to start is Tokyo Godfathers, which while not bad is definitely the odd man out as a more generic Capra sort of thing.

Paranoia Agent is actually fairly typical of the anime genre. While I feel it is a good work, I do feel people overstate its power.

I do feel Tokyo Godfathers is a good Christmas movie. I'm sure many would disagree.

Paprika is surely his crowning achievement.

Sad to lose Kon. Other than Millennium Actress I've found most of his films sort of an interesting jumble of ideas, culture, and characters with less than successful narratives. The timing and storytelling just always seemed "off" and it took me a while to find this groove. When I did though Paranoia Agent became my favorite (with Millennium Actress and Paprika not trailing far behind). It's just a trashy and chaotic mix of cultural oddities and cliches with a great self-referential, back-slapping finale. R.I.P.

david hare wrote:Given the innate sadness of the thread, maybe this review of Schlingensief's princess Diana play a few years ago might bring a smile to the face. It had me laughing out loud on the train.

What a riot.
I do hope vonTrier actuallydoes the film.
The only other director who could do it justice is Ken Russell & I fear he's not in any shape to direct a film these days, even if someone would hire him.

Since we are momentarily on the subject of Princess Diana (that play sounds uncomfortably close to the truth of the situation, as I would imagine it!), that reminded me of a recent Mitchell and Webb sketch.

Kihachiro Kawamoto.

Not a good week for Japanese animation.

And 99,999% of cinephiles doesn't even know this (super)man existed.

What a bad week!
House of Flame and The Demon are masterpieces. I've never seen his recent feature length film, though.

Here's a rough translation of Satoshi Kon's lengthy final message.

Too damn sad.

Alain Corneau.

Oh, shit. I'd just watched Serie Noire. I hope he didn't suffer. RIP.

Cammie King Conlon
Actress who played Bonnie Blue Butler in 'GWTW' dies

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Robert Schimmel

The first hour-plus of Howard Stern's show today was a eulogy to Robert Schimmel, and there will be an hour-long tribute tonight on Sirius/XM 101 at 7 PM EST. How ironic that with all his health problems, this is how he died.

Woah. Otho.

I remember him from Heathers, but yeah, whoa.

I guess he's not someone I ever gave much thought to, but he was pretty amusing in Beetlejuice

Rich Cronin, who was particularly candid about celebrity girlfriends' sexual proclivities (particularly Jennifer Love Hewitt) and that boyband managing pedophile's numerous sexual advances in an interview on the Howard Stern Show last year. Seemed like a nice guy.