Finally!! A REASON....

Pretty clever song - thanks to my friend Jon for bringing it to my attention.

Now, I bring it to yours.

THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN...

... is the name of the next film by Kevin Willmott that I'll be working on very soon. I'll try to put up a few more details as the start date looms and I leave for location.

What I can say at this point: it's a period Western, and the script, by Thomas Carmody, is wonderful. Most of the BUNKER HILL team will be back on this one, so it'll be a good reunion.

Speaking of BUNKER HILL, it should be finished later this year and hopefully audiences will get to see it sometime in 2008.

Jodorowsky/Raumpatrouille

A few posts ago, I mentioned picking up the Alejandro Jodorowsky DVD boxset...

Despite my claims of being a film buff, Jodorowsky was someone I'd mainly read about for years and never saw any of his films.... SANTA SANGRE I'd missed when it came out, and never did pick it up for a rental - his other films were hard to find and I'd never encountered anyone who had copies. Besides, Jodorowsky always seemed to fall under the category of someone who did "wierd hippie shit" films, and a little of those films goes a LONG way with me.

At least it was that way until mid-April, when I got a chance to see EL TOPO on the big screen, and was surprised that I liked it... instead of the wigged-out hippie western I was expecting, I got a very idiosyncratic, but intelligent and satisfying experience. I missed THE HOLY MOUNTAIN the following week, but having heard about the boxset, figured I'd catch up with it later.

THE FILMS OF ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY (the official title) is a tight collection of prime-Jodorowsky -- there's his first feature, FANDO Y LIS (previously released), his first film short LA CRAVATE (shot in the late 50's and thought lost until rediscovered last year), and EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN in excellent transfers, and with commentaries.
Most people may just want the latter films alone - they're a pretty powerful combination as a double feature - but there's great stuff to be found in the other films, as well.
Putting it in food terms: LA CRAVATE, FANDO Y LIS are the appetizers, EL TOPO is dinner and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN is the big-ass holiday meal, where you feel stuffed for a day or two after. In addition, there are extras such as photo galleries, a documentary shot in '94 (LA CONSTELLATION JODOROWSKY featuring interviews with Marcel Marceau, Peter Gabriel and comic artist Mobius), commentaries on all the features (EL TOPO and HOLY MOUNTAIN are new and all are extremely informative and entertaining), and CD sountracks for EL TOPO and HOLY MOUNTAIN.

I haven't said much about the films themselves; plots, etc. I'm assuming that whoever's into film may have heard of Jodrowsky and his work... there will be as many or more who'll go "Huh?" Look him up - it's easy! The fact is, Jorodorsky falls into that shrinking category of directors with a VISION... which means that like it or hate it, he doesn't apologize for it. Far from the "wierd hippie shit" label that I earlier applied, Jodorowsky definitely had things to say... as much as I was surprised by EL TOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN was, literally, a mind-fuck - and I mean that in the best possible way!

If you're not that cinematically adventurous, you're not going to rush out to get this -- but the discs are available on Netflix and other rental places. If you're curious, check it out first, then grab the set for your home, if you dig it.... "Can you dig it?"

Now I need to see if I can scare up SANTA SANGRE....

While looking up material for a friend on You Tube... he was interested in finding examples of 'Mod' science-fiction (think BARBARELLA), I stumbled upon this.

Which led to this... and this... then this...

then, finally, this definition/explanation of "RAUMPATROUILLE"

SPACE PATROL, as the term translates to English, was Germany's first science-fiction series, broadcast in 1966 (days before STAR TREK's debut on NBC) - in fact, the STAR TREK comparison is pretty apt, as both shows feature multinational crews zooming around the universe in spaceships... although STAR TREK didn't have an underwater bar/club where the crew could relax, as far as I can remember.

SPACE PATROL lasted 7 episodes, then became a cult show in Germany when it was rebroadcast in the 80's. It never cracked the English market, though there was an attempt a few years ago, when the episodes were edited into a 90 minute theatrical film. Probably more of the English speaking crowd may discover it via You Tube clips.

Being a cult hit in Germany, there are DVD sets out there, but they're not Region 1, and apparently hard to import (I couldn't find anyone who carried them - even the dealers on eBay wouldn't ship to the US) - well, there's not much demand for them over here.... duh! Intrigued by the crumbs on You Tube, some well focused sniffing around on the Net produced results - and I was able to view the show's run, albeit with no English subtitles and no extensive knowledge of German.

That said, it was still interesting viewing - I do know some vocabulary, and the plotlines are easy to follow, in a general sense. I've read that there's a high level of irony, most of will go over my head until my comprehension of German improves. Still, it's a pretty good show - low budget, but they made good use of the money, and some of the fx work is pretty clever, if not spectacular. It's good example of 60's serious sci-fi for T.V. -- a good alternative to some of the American shows at the time.

R.I.P. Steve Gilliard

More SONG news... it's screening this Saturday at the Santiago Rojo Sangre festival in Santiago, Chile.

It's gotten plenty of play overseas... now when are we going to see this on DVD?

Soon, perhaps, if rumors I've heard pan out...

The Life of Reilly



R.I.P. Jose Chung... and a host of other characters that Charles Nelson Reilly played, including himself -- if you grew up in the late 60's to early 70's, the man was practically a close uncle, although a very wiggy one, that would appear on the tv from time to time. LIDSVILLE, MATCH GAME, a lot of tv commercials, guest appearances and voiceovers...

Nowadays, people know him from reruns on the Game Show network, and from his appearance as Darin Morgan's put upon author, Jose Chung, from THE X-FILES and MILLENNIUM.

Not a bad note to leave on...

Leisurely observations in late April...

NEVER SUBMIT has pushed back their starting date to late June... which gives me a whole month to do the things I was going to put off until July. Not necessarily a bad thing - the basement flooding finally spurred that long overdue purge we've been talking about doing every year...

With all this unexpected extra time, I've been catching up on watching the increasing pile of DVD's I've accumulated in the past year or so. I haven't written much film criticism as of late; the Internet needs another film critic almost as much as the t.v. networks need another reality show -- let's face it, GOOD criticism is very hard to find, and the people who manage to do it day after day -- they're treasures. There's LOTS of bad/half-assed stuff that passes itself off as film criticism, and I'd prefer not to do that -- that said, I don't mind informally sharing several sentences about something interesting that I have seen.

I think I have relatively good taste in film. It's a bit odd, I admit, but you can say that of anyone who considers themselves a film buff - and in 'film buff' I mean people who actually understand AND care about aspect ratio... people who track down and burn VHS obscurities to disc... people who will buy an all-region DVD player - or at least will find a hack code to convert their player to all region.

I've been wanting PRETTY POISON ever since seeing it on the big screen almost 15 years ago in San Francisco. This malign gem finally came out last year on disc - which is reason enough to celebrate. But that just wasn't good enough - I finally decided to take the plunge and order the R2 disc, and convert my player. The reason? The R2 disc included a commentary track with director Noel Black, as well as including the script from a deleted scene. If you've never before heard of PRETTY POISON, those extras probably won't matter squat - although they probably might after seeing the movie. Either version includes the film in widescreen in a pretty good transfer - the better to watch Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld in 2 of the best roles in their careers.

Converting the player did come in handy - I dipped twice more into the PAL pool, obtaining a copy of a film that I worked on back in 2000 - THE HIDDEN (AKA FIVE YEARS), an above average domestic drama written and directed by Brett Wagner. Obviously, any good thing that I say about it is going to be very biased - and also frustrating, since the audience that would enjoy the film are more than likely not going to hack their players or shell out for all region machines to watch this.
While it's great to have a copy other than my VHS screener from when it was on the film festival circuit, this release (in English and German - it was released theatrically in Germany, retitled and sold as a 'thriller'), I'm still wondering why this isn't out on R1, where it could've had a commentary and features (all of which were available, but not used for the R2 release)... still, that's just vanity. Maybe that R1 disc will happen at some point, and more people will discover this film.

The second disc was essential - THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION, Jonathan Weiss' adaptation of the J.G. Ballard work. I'd heard about the film while it was in production, and outside of a screening at Slamdance in 1999 and some overseas festival dates, hadn't been released anywhere. First of all, it's a film with a niche audience - it's mainly "experimental" - which means there's not a traditional plot and not particularly plot driven -- there is a narrative, but it's not presented in traditional form; and there's a lot of heavy lifting to be done by the spectator in terms of forming associations and meanings. But, if you're an admirer/fan of the work of J.G. Ballard, then the above won't scare you off. Put it this way: in comparison to David Cronenberg's adaptation of CRASH, CRASH is far more audience accessible...
Even so, the spectator isn't totally left on their own - EXHIBITION has two commentaries, one by director Weiss who chats at length about the film's making and meaning and a second track with Weiss and author Ballard. Both tracks are above average, and essential to the package/presentation. Fans of 'challenging' cinema are advised to give this a try - Ballard fans should have this on order, if they don't already have the disc.

Both of these were ordered from Xploited Cinema, one of the best places to go to for discs that aren't Region 1.

I was on the fence about buying THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION, VOL. 1 (called hereafter "The Bava Box"). I've heard and read about Mario Bava for years in various books about horror/Italian films, but I'd never seen any of the films until relatively recently (in the last 5 years and two films: PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES - not great, but OK - and heavily stolen from -- er, I mean HOMAGED, in ALIEN; and DANGER:DIABOLIK, which is GREAT.) I never got the chance to see the English versions of his movies on late night/afternoon matinee television showings, so I've always been a bit nonplussed when mention of the films came up.
A sales clerk working on the up-sale, and cashing in of store credit, eventually tipped me toward grabbing the box -- and I'm very happy about that up-sale.
If you haven't seen any of the Bava films, then the Bava box is a pretty good introduction - it has 5 of his films in 3 genres: Gothic Horror (BLACK SUNDAY, BLACK SABBATH, KILL BABY... KILL!); Thriller (THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH) and Adventure/Epic (KNIVES OF THE AVENGER).
The versions are the uncut, international versions - the U.S. versions are in legal entanglements - but this isn't a bad thing, especially if you've never seen the films before.

Halfway through the TWIN PEAKS Second Year set... the extras aren't as good as on the (now out of print) Artisan first year box, but it's just great to finally have the whole run of the show. Well, except for the pilot - which is rumored to pop up on a mega set later in the year... probably with a lot of extras.

Also purchased with the Bava Box was The Alejandro Jordoworsky Box - I did see El Topo at the Screenland Freakshow screening in KC, but missed THE HOLY MOUNTAIN - the set also has his first feature FANDO Y LIS and a short film. That will be tackled in a couple of weeks, after I finish up some work and can take a break.