WHEN YOU GROW UP YOUR HEART DIES

Anyone familiar with my earlier videos, may be aware of my fondness for John Hughes and in particular the series of films that compose his core body of work dedicated to teenagehood. Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day-Off. And to a certain extent "She's having a baby" which is a clear farewell to his previous films and an insight to John Hughes personal transition to adulthood. He was a talented writer and, to my own judgment, a brilliant director. Many thought his directing skills were not up  to it but I could not agree less. 

"Pretty in Pink" or "Some kind of Wonderful", which were (written and) produced by Hughes, lacked the directorial vision and the humor of John Hughes. Something was obviously missing in these films. 

I saw "Ferris Bueller's day off" (dubbed /La Folle Journée de Ferris Bueller) in a French cinema in the eighties and I will never forget the experience. I was alone in the cinema and the print showed serious signs of use. It was in 1987 and I was studying in a boarding school in the south of France. I spent most of my time in the cinemas watching all the teenage comedies that came out at that time and was always disappointed by (most of) them. I felt as misunderstood as any teenager of my age and was looking for some kind of comfort in these movies and "Ferris Bueller" was probably the first film along with Risky Business that made me feel something and gave me some food for thought. It was so satisfying to see someone like Ferris trying to break away from the pressure and taking life with such an easy going attitude. 

Breakfast Club was, and still is, a brilliant movie and it's probably John Hughes most interesting film. It is full of intricate subtextual themes that relate so well to most of the teenagers' concerns. This is how I saw it then and this how I see it now. 

Sixteen Candles and Weird Science are also magnificent examples of John Hughes simplicity and complexity. Simple premises which turn out to be interesting human stories and great comedies. 

Technically, It is important to underline that John Hughes (with some help form DOPs such as Tak Fujimoto) took great care of compositions and made very good use of Close Ups. The Museum sequence in Ferris Bueller showcase his love for static compositions. If the camera moves it will be to follow a character and he made very, very little use of tracking shots or cranes. The only one that I can recall is the shot of the ferrari leaving the school after Ferris picks up Sloane or Ferris running through the different houses at the end of the film. 

His use of music was uncanny. Just look at the number of tracks included in Sixteen Candles, it's like the American Graffiti of the eighties. Kajagoogoo, Wham, Paul Young, Spandau Ballet, The Specials, Thomson Twins but also Patty Smith and Frank Sinatra. I discovered Zapp when I first saw Ferris Bueller and heard the song "On the Radio". There is so much to say about John Hughes and his relation to music. 

Hughes understood cinema, understood stories, understood music and understood people. He was so talented. After "Planes Trains and Automobiles" (which I love), I believe he took a different path as a film maker and gave up on his previous achievements. He did the best you can ever do with the "teenage genre" and, in a way, he saved it. So I am really grateful we did not have any sequels to these films but we came close to disaster: just think of the Ferris Bueller short lived TV show (TERRIBLE) and the Weird Science series (SOOO DULL). 

PRINCE REQUIEM

For the last few days, I have been digging in my old hard drives and found some videos I completely forgot about. They were done back in 2006 and 2007 and while they clearly show a lot of inexperience and weaknesses, they are part of my curious and moody body of work.

One of them is called "Prince Requiem" and is, as the name suggest, a piece dedicated to the artist formerly known as Prince and currently known as Prince. I lost track of Prince in the last few years but if you grew up in the 90s you may remember all the fuzz related to the name of the artist which became for a short time a "symbolic" sign 

I do like Prince and particularly the "Purple Rain" LP, but I'm basically fond of any track from his 80s productions. He was as influential on me as Quincy Jones, Roger Troutman or Michael Jackson. I also enjoyed all the side projects running along his most glorious years: Sheila E., The Family, The Time and so on.

Anyway, in early 2007, I did a 5 minutes+ video combining some audio from some of his songs mixed with a track I discovered through a Mylo compilation: Mylo ‎– A Rough Guide To Rave. The track I used in the video is by Ran Shani and it is called "Cool like that". I really felt the track had this Prince vibe and decided to do something with it. Unfortunately, I do not think I can share this video: it needs rework and I understand anything related to Prince is quite problematic on youtube. This one will probably remain on my hard drive just like a few others...

THE NEXT VIDEO EP?

STEWRAT

First a statement and a fact: StewRat means a lot to me.

Back in 2010, when I first heard the track "Disagreements", I did not know how influential Ryan's music would be on my work. Disagreements showed up at a difficult time: I had given up on my (side)work as RedRose and concentrated on writing screenplays. Unfortunately things did not worked out that well for me as a writer or, to be more specific, I did not push enough and expected far too much from my film producers' friends. It was a no go.

So I found "Disagreements" through our friends at French Express. AND It was magic. That sound, that sample, that beat. It is STILL the perfect track for  me.

At first, I resisted but after the 10th listen, it was clear I had some images in my head that could work and had to go back to my editing tools. And I knew without a doubt that it had to be images from "Angel A" by Luc Besson. 9 hours later the video was ready. I edited overnight and it should have been 5 in the morning when I rendered the final cut of the video. This is how I used to work back then.

What you have to understand is that I own a large library of original films on many formats (DVD, HD-DVD. Bluray but also older formats such as Laserdiscs). A few thousand titles, I try to revisit from time to time and my head is basically filled with images from all these films. I am aware that owning films on physical format is a bit of an anachronism. But I admit, I feel passionate about it and love the physical format. Vinyl is another one but no point in discussing this now.

And the other thing is that I choose these film clips for my videos on the base of the images and not for the film itself. Some of the films I have used for my videos are not particularly good...

But I am drifting and need to go back to the basic point of this post: I am extremely grateful for having been able to discover StewRat at that very particular period of time. It gave me a second chance with RedRose and helped me push my skills a little bit further.

Here's the last video I have done so far with StewRat's music; it's called OCEAN. I did this video a few months ago but did not feel it was right. Maybe it is too dark, I dunno. Still the music is brilliant and Ryan told me he liked it, so let's share it.

Thank you Ryan!



 
StewRat - Ocean from Hugo RedRose on Vimeo.

DOUBLE ENTENDRE (2015)

Double Entendre was meant to be a companion piece of a cubic statue created by an established Spanish Artist and Architect, Juan Serrano Muñoz. I was given little time and almost no funds to do it, so I had to figure out something that would essentially work for me from a creative point of view and be extremely cheap. I relied on my sentimental companion Irene Lázaro to model (as I always do) and did a conceptual Hitchcockian take on Vertigo... kind of.

double entendre (2015) from Hugo RedRose on Vimeo.

REWORKS AND REMAKES

It's in the air or, to be more specific, it's been there for as long as post-modernists have been active. Hollywood being the main drive of an unstoppable remaking trend. We are running short of ideas. And I would also be tempted to think that I am also running dry. But some of the videos I did back in 2006 and 2007 are in need of visual updates and I am going to try to revamp as many of those as I can. I already did something similar with "So Electric" by Lifelike which was one of my earlier videos. I have done the same now with the DJ CAM track, "Return at Bates Motel, L'Angoise".

Here are some captures of the original video which I edited back in January 2007:

These are some captures of the version I reworked last week:

THE JOHN WICK EP

I discovered John Wick a few months ago and felt a certain fascination for this, apparently, superficial action flick. But it's much more than that. It's a straightforward, well acted and brilliantly directed movie with a very simple premise. A premise so well executed, it deserves some praise. Here's my ode to John Wick.

The John Wick EP: Someone to Love from Hugo RedRose on Vimeo.
The John Wick EP: God took your Wife from Hugo RedRose on Vimeo.