Hollywood has never quite known what to do with Park Chan-wook. On the face of it, a director of extremely violent genre films like Sympathy For Mr Vengeance and Oldboy, dig a little deeper however and Park’s output isn’t that easy to qualify. His films are violent, yes, and often in the most grisly sense possible, but they are also astonishing to watch – beautifully styled and composed – and undercut with a rich sense of the absurd.
David Bowie’s return to active service with The Next Day has been described as the greatest comeback ever and I’m sure every Bowie fan is hoping this will in fact be the truth of the matter when they finally get to hear the album, which is released on March 11, still a tantalising couple of weeks away at the time of writing.
In the issue of Uncut dated December 2008 (Take 139), Kevin Ayers talked us through the making of some of his finest albums - including the Soft Machine’s debut, through his collaboration with Brian Eno, John Cale and Nico, his much-loved solo album Whatevershebringswesing, and more.
Interview: John Robinson__________________
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a week or so now, but pesky deadlines for next month’s issue of Uncut kept getting in the way. Anyway, here’s some thoughts on the trailer for the new Coen brothers film, Inside Llewyn Davis.
In his memoir, Prince Among Stones: That Business With The Rolling Stones And Other Adventures, which I’ve just reviewed for the next Uncut, Prince Rupert Loewenstein, who was the band’s financial adviser for nearly 40 years, reflects at one point about how time as he gets older has started, as they say, to fly. Thinking about this, he is reminded of a famous quote by the grand old thespian, John Gielgud, who wryly remarked that in his old age time had started to speed by at such a pace that it seemed like breakfast was being served every 10 minutes.
