Y’know, originally, I
was going to be posting this on November 1 or 2—not almost at the end of the
month!
Here are some photos
from my cell phone as illustrations (electronic desk-clearing as it were…)
I call the above
piece, “Flame Monster Scorched Floor Policy; or, Terminate With Extreme
Hydrocarbonizing.”
Movie viewing has
been severely interrupted by my grad school studies.
It’s funny, I don’t
feel like I’m missing a lot: the classwork and reading are keeping me busy—and
oh yeah, my grad school application! Those things have been keeping me very
busy. But active and alive, with the thought of a greater goal in mind, keeping
me on the path.
While I’m taking grad
school classes, I’m a non-matriculating student currently, and have a pile of
paperwork to complete, especially some heavy-duty essays which I have to
complete toot sweet!
Meanwhile, I’ve
gotten some part-time work at the Writing Center, and that is great training as
well as a routine dose of intellectual exercises—every hour on the hour I get a
new set of problems to help solve and a new student to help out. Edjumakashum,
baby! (That said, I did a lot of reading—but not any books completely…All stuff
for grad school!)
FILMS SCREENED IN
OCTOBER 2014
Less and less films
watched, but of an increasingly more eclectic variety—let’s face it, this is an
ODD mix of movies! But it’s what I needed to watch, it’s what I wanted to see,
it’s what I needed to see!
The Empire Strikes
Back—Uncut (2014; multiple filmmakers)
Can be viewed HERE.
Tons of fun, I like
this fan version better than the “original,” and would watch it again sooner than the original.
This new film borders
on Dadaism; I really want to know what someone who has not seen the Star Wars flicks would think about this?
I’d be fascinated to
hear what they have to say; because this film can be sensory overload. I love
this fan-film-remix-recontextualiztion—but I also have the same problems that I
have with the original source text, the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back. Sure, a fun film, but not a complete movie
as far as I was concerned—and being on the edge of the grandiose
self-aggrandizing that would come with the desperate attempt at
connection/condoning with/from Campbell, the movie reeked of self-importance.
Five Dolls on an
August Moon (1970; Mario Bava) As if Bava was trying to do a Russ Meyer
movie—or if Ed Wood tried rewriting Camus’ The
Stranger as a “Ten Little Indians” mystery—or if you took a John Waters
movie and played it very straight and earnest. Lots of style, but a weird,
weird flick, bordering on existential nihilism. And what’s the flicks ultimate
game? We know the “murderer’s” identity very early, so what’s going on? Weird
flick….
1941 (1979; Steven
Spielberg) One of the few Spielberg films I like (along with Jaws and Empire of
the Sun; and the Martian destruction scenes from War of the Worlds)—
Breathlessly paced—I
watched the original theatrical version that Netflix Streaming offers, as
opposed to Spielberg’s sanctioned extended cut—I like its high-speed insanity;
a nonsensical flick, but probably the last of the 1970s “mocking authority”
movies, done on an incredibly grand scale. And what a cast! However, the flick
would be so much better if Spielberg didn’t feel the need to have a close-up of
a screaming face, going “Whooooooooooooaaa!”, every time something “crazy”
happens. It was an excessive “elbow in the ribs,” if you ask me.
Film, Film, Film
(1968; Fyodor Khitruk) A fun animated short (18 minutes) from the Soviet Union
about how a movie is created.
White Homeland
Commando (1992; Elizabeth Le Compte/The Wooster Group) Fantastic stuff!
Jeez, how to explain—let’s find a URL!
Here’s a link to the
Spectacle Theater screening, where I saw it.
A fabulous low-budget
film that overflows with great ideas
that go in unexpected directions.
Invasion of the
Saucer Men (1957; Edward L. Cahn) Available to watch here!
Originally titled
(the more honest) “Spaceman Saturday Night”—originally on a double-feature with
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (forever
trapped in legal limbo—)
Anyway—
Special Makeup FX man
Paul Blaisdell’s BEMs are now classic!
Great opening
titles—let’s you know this is a comedy from the get-go…
It’s evident from the
opening credits and the wise guy narration that this flick doesn’t take itself
seriously—nor should you.
This is a dopey
movie, only memorable for its hideously domed spacemen—now cult classic
curios—many more people know what these alien critters look like than have seen
the movie.
Interesting seeing
Frank Gorshin trying to break into Hollywood—supposedly he had an incredible
nightclub act, but aside from a handful of roles in offbeat venues (The Riddler
on Batman; appearing in Skidoo and much later, 12 Monkeys).
But overall Invasion of the Saucer Men is actually a
bad movie—poorly written, bad pacing, lousy acting…
I mean, sometimes this
movie is interminable!
Although I have to
say that the fight between the alien and the cow was incredible, like some
Dada-puppet show—it starts at about 50 minutes; low budget deliciousness:
inventive and stupid!
Film is interesting
in how, in 1957, UFO/flying saucer lore already includes how the USAF is
covering it up!
Les Maudits (The
Damned) (1947; René Clément)—a new favorite!
Claustrophobic,
existential noir set at sea;
Multi-layered film of
Nazis on the run at the end of WWII to South America via submarine— Nazis and
collaborators bicker and quarrel.
Very akin to a “Lost
Patrol” movie, as one by one, our cast is picked off.
They kidnap a French
doctor—he narrates the story… Fascinating, uncliched characters that don’t seem
like cardboard cutouts.
Tense and grim, with
a wonderful French nihilism where just about anything can happen—and does.
There’s a level of
perversion about this flick—or more accurately, adult themes that Yankee
audiences would take another 50 years to get even close to…
Fantastic camerawork,
with a superb and ahead-of-its-time tracking shot through the length of the sub;
damn, The Damned is a fine flick!
State of Emergence
(2014; The Anti-Banality Union) Using a bunch of zombie movies—but leaving out
the zombies—the Anti-Banality Union creates an alternate reality where the
tensions and fears and socio-politico-economic nightmares that use zombies as
metaphors are denied that distancing effect and we are forced to look straight
into the face of horror: and it’s a mirror! Aaaaaiiiiiee! (Screened at the Spectacle;
soon available on vimeo, perhaps?)
Despair (1978; Rainer
Werner Fassbinder; script by Tom Stoppard, based on the novel by Vladimir
Nabokov) What started off as a great film began to wear out its welcome:
Honestly, this should have been trimmed by 20 minutes at least. Dirk Bogarde is
fantastic, and the first hour is brilliant, but then…
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