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DVD & Blu-ray Interviews music Podcast

Interview: Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith on The Hammer and Tongs Collection

The directing and producing duo Hammer and Tongs (aka Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith) have a new DVD out which features their various music videos for artists such as Blur, R.E.M., Pulp and Vampire Weekend.

The collection also features various audio commentaries from band members featured in the collection, including Jarvis Cocker, Graham Coxon, Norman Cook and Ezra Koenig.

Garth and Nick first started making videos in the early 1990s for dance act SL2 and gradually began to make promos for acts including Pulp, Eels, Fatboy Slim, Supergrass, Blur, R.E.M., Beck and Vampire Weekend.

There are also various short films on the DVD that showcase their work from 1998 until 2009, including behind-the-scenes footage from the various videos and their two feature films so far, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and Son of Rambow (2008).

The tracklisting for the DVD is as follows:

  1. Blur: “Coffee & TV”
  2. Vampire Weekend: “A Punk”
  3. Vampire Weekend: “Cousins”
  4. Radiohead: “Nude”
  5. R.E.M.: “Imitation of Life”
  6. Pulp: “Help the Aged”
  7. Pulp: “A Little Soul”
  8. Supergrass: “Low C”
  9. Supergrass: “Pumping on Your Stereo”
  10. Bentley Rhythm Ace: “Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out”
  11. Bentley Rhythm Ace: “Theme From Gutbuster”
  12. Badly Drawn Boy: “Disillusioned”
  13. Badly Drawn Boy: “Spitting in the Wind”
  14. Beck: “Lost Cause”
  15. The Wannadies: “Little by Little”
  16. The Wannadies: “Big Fan”
  17. The Wannadies: “Hit”
  18. Moloko: “Flipside”
  19. Fatboy Slim: “Right Here Right Now”
  20. Eels: “Cancer for the Cure”
  21. Eels: “Last Stop This Town”

I spoke with Garth and Nick recently at their offices in North London and you can listen to the interview here:

You can also subscribe to the interview podcast via iTunes by clicking here or by downloading the MP3.

The Hammer and Tongs Collection is out on Monday 22nd November from Optimum Home Entertainment

Buy the Hammer and Tongs Collection on DVD from Amazon UK
Tongsville – The official site for Hammer and Tongs

Categories
DVD & Blu-ray

DVD: The Hammer and Tongs Collection

* Listen to our interview with Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith here *

The directing and producing duo Hammer and Tongs (aka Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith) have a new DVD out next week which showcases their various music videos for artists such as Blur, R.E.M., Beck, Fatboy Slim, Pulp and Vampire Weekend.

The collection also features various audio commentaries from band members featured in the collection, including Jarvis Cocker, Graham Coxon, Norman Cook and Ezra Koenig.

There are also various short films, under a ‘Home Movies’ section, that showcase their work from 1998 until 2009, including behind-the-scenes footage from various videos and their two feature films so far, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and Son of Rambow (2008).

Amongst the highlights in this section are: the puppets used for a Supergrass video, the elaborate planning needed for an R.E.M. video, a psychedelic trip out to the Joshua Tree nationa park, on-set footage from Son of Rambow and a subsequent screening of it in New York and the shooting of Vampire Weekend’s video for Cousins in a particularly long alleyway.

The tracklisting for the DVD is as follows:

  1. Blur: “Coffee & TV”
  2. Vampire Weekend: “A Punk”
  3. Vampire Weekend: “Cousins”
  4. Radiohead: “Nude”
  5. R.E.M.: “Imitation of Life”
  6. Pulp: “Help the Aged”
  7. Pulp: “A Little Soul”
  8. Supergrass: “Low C”
  9. Supergrass: “Pumping on Your Stereo”
  10. Bentley Rhythm Ace: “Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out”
  11. Bentley Rhythm Ace: “Theme From Gutbuster”
  12. Badly Drawn Boy: “Disillusioned”
  13. Badly Drawn Boy: “Spitting in the Wind”
  14. Beck: “Lost Cause”
  15. The Wannadies: “Little by Little”
  16. The Wannadies: “Big Fan”
  17. The Wannadies: “Hit”
  18. Moloko: “Flipside”
  19. Fatboy Slim: “Right Here Right Now”
  20. Eels: “Cancer for the Cure”
  21. Eels: “Last Stop This Town”

The Hammer and Tongs Collection is out on Monday 22nd November from Optimum Home Entertainment

> Buy the Hammer and Tongs Collection on DVD from Amazon UK
> Official site for Hammer and Tongs

Categories
Cinema

Blu-ray: Peeping Tom

The 1960 film which scandalised British critics and all but ended the career of director Michael Powell has been digitally restored for a 50th anniversary release at cinemas and on Blu-ray.

Over the years Peeping Tom has had its reputation was gradually restored with enthusiastic supporters such as Martin Scorsese and is now regarded as a classic of the era.

An unsettling exploration of voyeurism and violence, it is the story of a disturbed photographer (Karl Heinz Boehm) who films women before murdering them in order to study their reactions to death.

Although tame by today’s standards, the film still has a creepy power, placing the audience in the position of the killer.

It is also an interesting study in psychology as the motives of the killer are firmly rooted in his troubled upbringing by a cruel psychologist father (intriguingly played by Powell himself).

It came out the same year as Psycho and has often been compared with Alfred Hitchcock’s landmark film.

Both deal with a disturbed protagonist, feature groundbreaking depictions of violence and make the audience complicit voyeurs to the onscreen action.

The UK press were scandalised by both films, but whereas the US success of Psycho ensured a swift reappraisal and enormous financial success, Powell’s film effectively ended his career.

Elements of the media had harboured suspicions about the innovative films of Powell and his partner Emeric Pressburger, and with Peeping Tom they had a field day, denouncing it as perverted and sick.

Fifty years on the film has been digitally restored for release on Blu-ray and will also get a theatrical run at selected UK cinemas.

Recently Martin Scorsese and his regular editor Thelma Schoonmaker attended a screening at BAFTA in London to discuss the film (Powell was Schoonmaker’s late husband).

Scorsese talked about how difficult it was to see the film in New York during the 1960s and its relevance to the modern age:

“No one was sure it existed …it was like a rumour. In our society today, in the era of YouTube and surveillance, it is even more relevant. The morbid urge to gaze needs to be thought about today.”

The extras on the Blu-ray include:

  • Introduction by Martin Scorsese
  • Interview with Thelma Schoonmaker
  • Commentary by Ian Christie
  • The Eye of The Beholder (30 mins – Scorsese, Schoonmaker and Christie among others talking about the film)
  • The Strange Gaze of Mark Lewis (25 mins) about psychology of protagonist
  • Restoration Comparison
  • Trailer
  • Behind the scenes stills gallery

Peeping Tom is out at selected cinemas from Friday 19th November and on Blu-ray from Monday 22nd November

> Buy Peeping Tom on Blu-ray from Amazon UK
> IMDb entry
> Find out more about Michael Powell at Wikipedia