Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 4/29/2011

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A look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…

Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.

Lots of marginally weird stuff appearing in theaters this week, but be sure to scroll all the way down, because it’s a huge week for weird Blu-ray releases…

IN THEATERS (WIDE RELEASE):

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night: We mentioned this Hollywoodized bastardization of the surreal supernatural comic that was also the basis for Dellamorte Dellamore [Cemetery Man] as an upcoming cinema lowlight a few weeks ago.  Now it’s finally here—and the producers haven’t allowed critics to screen it before release.  That’s always a good sign, right?  Dylan Dog: Dead of Night Facebook page.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

13 Assassins: Epic samurai actioner about assassins planning to take down a cruel noble before he can ascend to the Japanese throne.  Not weird in itself; we mention it because it’s from List laureate Takashi Miike (Visitor Q, Gozu), who’s finally won over mainstream Western critics with this conventionally-styled period outing.  Opening today in Southern California, New York City, and Austin, TX, with scattered showings to follow across the country.  13 Assassins official site.

The Arbor (2010): Experimental documentary about English playwright Andrea Dunbar wherein professional actors lip-synch recordings of actual people.  It’s not clear what purpose this “verbatim theater” technique serves, but critics have been eating it up, probably more because Dunbar’s underlying story is compelling than because of the formal experimentation.  Playing at the Film Forum in Manhattan.  The Arbor at the Film Forum.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010): Sticking to this week’s theme of weird directors garnering praise for their mainstream efforts, Werner Herzog strikes critical gold with this documentary about an expedition to the Chauvet caves in France, home to the world’s oldest prehistoric paintings.  Originally filmed in 3-D but you may be able to catch it in vanilla dimensions as well.  Cave of Forgotten Dreams official Facebook site.

Pocong Mandi Goyang Pinggul: Via the miracle of intercutting, a hopping transvestite ghost bride (or something) stars alongside American pornstress Sasha Grey (late of Smash Cut) in this bizarre looking cut-n-paste Indonesian horror/comedy. According to the broken English news site 1001zones, Indonesian Islamic extremists are in an uproar about this release: “Indonesia is full of good people and why should make a porn movie, look for kosher food in a way,” threatened (?) a spokesman for the Islamic Defenders Front. Opening in Jakarta, domestic dates doubtful. I recommend everyone visit Sasha Grey’s Facebook page and support our petition for her to use her influence to ensure this gets a proper Region 1 DVD release.

Sympathy for Delicious: We’re not quite sure what to think of the synopsis for actor Mark Ruffalo‘s directorial debut: it’s about a paralyzed DJ who becomes a faith healer for a rock band.  Is it a satire, or inspirational allegory?  Critics who’ve actually seen it seem confused, too; Slant magazine calls it “an odd mishmash that leads to some headscratchingly bizarre moments…” That sounds kind of promising to us.  Sympathy for Delicious official site.

SCREENINGS (reRun Gastropub, New York City):

We Go Way Back (2006): Drama about a 23-year old actress who finds herself haunted by her own 13-year old self.  The premise the press release characterizes as “surrealistic” sounds like it belongs in the milder category of magical realism to us.  The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the underground Slamdance festival, but it took five years to get its theatrical premier.  We Go Way Back at reRun Gastropub.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Dracula 3D (est. 2012): If you’re going to remake Dracula—a classic which has been adapted brilliantly in the past—you’d better have a unique angle on the old story lined up. To us, filming in 3D is not a promising spin on the legend.  This flick will be helmed by Dario (Suspiria) Argento, whose forgettable recent work hasn’t come anywhere close to the spooky pinnacle he hit in the 70s.  The best news we’ve heard on this possibly doomed project is that reliable Rutger Hauer has signed on to play Van Helsing.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

El Topo (1970): Read the Certified Weird entry!  Leave it to Alejandro Jodorowsky to create the craziest Western ever, full of his usual obscure religious symbolism and outrageously transgressive imagery.  Buy El Topo [Blu-ray].

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998):  Terry Gilliam‘s adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s satirical novel about a degenerate journalist and a libertine lawyer abusing mass quantities of drugs in Las Vegas is already on the List (though its entry is, er, missing at the current time).  The strange story of the movie’s distribution rights continues: the Criterion Collection acquired the rights, then lost them, and now has them back to release this Blu-ray.  This release is packed with the usual Criterion extras that are missing from Universal’s Blu-ray release that came out just last year—although we’re not certain whether any of them are new, or if they’re just restored extras from the previous Criterion release.  At any rate, among the many features are three separate commentary tracks: one from Gilliam, one from stars Johnny Depp and Benecio del Toro, and one from Hunter himself.  This is a Big Deal re-release. Buy Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray].

Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno (2009): This is part documentary, part reconstruction of “French Hitchcock” Henri-Georges Clouzot’s failed 1964 attempt to produce a movie titled L’Enfer, about a man whose jealousy causes him to hallucinate.  The remaining footage is often weird indeed, with scenes of a nude woman tied to railroad tracks and mod, psychedelic color schemes.  This is being released on Blu-ray only by Flicker Alley (who usually specialize in public domain silent films); no word on a Region 1 DVD. Buy Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno [Blu-ray].

The Holy Mountain (1973):  Read the Certified Weird entry!  Jodorowsky set himself the task of topping El Topo‘s weirdness, and arguably succeeded with this tale of a Jesus figure who apprentices to an ascended Master and journeys to the Holy Mountain. Buy The Holy Mountain [Blu-ray].

VIDEO ON DEMAND:

13 Assassins (2011): See description under “limited release” above. In the very likely event that Miike’s samurai epic isn’t playing on a big screen near you, you can watch it on a video-on-demand rental for $6.99. Warning: this cut of the film (though presumably the same one playing in U.S. theaters) appears to be 20 minutes shorter than the director’s cut. Watch 13 Assassins On Demand.

What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that I have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.

Alfred Eaker's Fringe Cinema

TOD BROWNING’S THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (1929)

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The Thirteenth Chair (1929) is Tod Browning‘s first sound film and a real curio.  Like a lot of early sound films, it is bogged down with wax museum staging.  Chair is yet another drawing room murder mystery, taken from an antiquated stage play, but being a Tod Browning production, the film cannot resist its own latent, deviant infrastructure in the acutely bizarre casting of  Bela Lugosi as the well-dressed Inspector Delzante.

Still from The Thirteenth Chair (1929)In the original play, the character of the inspector had a different name and was played for laughs.  The Thirteenth Chair was an all around testing-the-waters kind of film; a test handling that new invention called sound, which neither Browning nor the production team were comfortably with (all too clearly).  The main test here, however, was for the upcoming role of Dracula, and for that reason Browning grabbed Lugosi, who had made the vampire role a mega hit on the stage circuit.

Lugosi’s make-up, with sharply accented eyebrows, is patterned after the make-up he wore as Dracula in the play version of Bram Stoker’s tale.  His mannerisms are pure vamp, not at all what the role of the inspector originally called for.  His first appearance is shot from the back.  He is in a police station, dressed from head to shoes in white, but when he turns towards the camera, he delivers the lines as only a Transylvanian Count would.  Thankfully, Lugosi is wildly disproportionate to the role and serves as an almost surreal red herring for the film.  This may have been a test project for Browning, but he had to make it interesting for himself, and he did so first with the eccentric casting of the “Living, Hypnotic Corpse” as the inspector.

Lugosi beautifully mangles the English language, as per his norm, but his handling of the Continue reading TOD BROWNING’S THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (1929) →

Canonically Weird (The List)

86. DEAD MAN (1995)

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“Do what you will this life’s a fiction,
And is made up of contradiction.”

–William Blake, Gnomic Verses

Recommended

DIRECTED BY: Jim Jarmusch

FEATURING: Johnny Depp, , Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, , , Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton, Mili Avatal, Gabriel Byrne

PLOT: Mild-mannered accountant Bill Blake heads west to take a job in the wild town of Machine, but when he arrives he discovers the position has been filled and he is stuck on the frontier with no money or prospects. Blake becomes a wanted man after he kills the son of the town tycoon in self defense. Wounded, he flees to the wilderness where he’s befriended by an Indian named Nobody, who believes he is the poet William Blake.

Still from Dead Man (1995)

BACKGROUND:

  • William Blake, the namesake of Johnny Depp’s character in Dead Man, was a poet, painter and mystic who lived from 1757 to 1827. Best known for Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, he is considered one of the forerunners of English Romanticism.
  • Jarmusch wrote the script with Depp and Farmer in mind for the leads.
  • Elements of the finished script of Dead Man reportedly bear a striking similarity to “Zebulon,” an unpublished screenplay by novelist/screenwriter Rudy (Glen and Randa, Two-Lane Blacktop) Wurlitzer, which Jarmusch had read and discussed filming with the author. Wurlitzer later reworked the script into the novel The Drop Edge of Yonder.
  • Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum coined the term “acid Western”—a category in which he also included The Shooting, Greaser’s Palace and El Topo—to describe Dead Man. Jarmusch himself called the film a “psychedelic Western.”
  • composed the harsh, starkly beautiful soundtrack by improvising on electric guitar while watching the final cut of the film. The Dead Man soundtrack (buy
    ) includes seven solo guitar tracks from Young, plus film dialogue and clips of Depp reciting William Blake’s poetry.
  • Farmer speaks three Native American languages in the film: Blackfoot, Cree, and Makah (which he learned to speak phonetically). None of the indigenous dialogue is subtitled.
  • Jarmusch, who retains all the rights to his films, refused to make cuts to Dead Man requested by distributor Miramax; the director believed that the film was dumped on the market without sufficient promotion because of his reluctance to play along with the studio.

INDELIBLE IMAGE: Nobody peering through William Blake’s skin to his bare skull during his peyote session? Iggy Pop in a prairie dress? Those are memorable moments, but in a movie inspired by poetry, it’s the scene of wounded William Blake, his face red with warpaint, curling up on the forest floor with a dead deer that’s the most poetically haunting.

WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: Dead Man is a lyrical and hypnotic film, with a subtle but potent and lingering weirdness that the viewer must tease out.  It’s possible to view the movie merely as a directionless, quirky indie Western; but that would be to miss out on the mystical, dreamlike tinge of this journey into death.

Original trailer for Dead Man

COMMENTS: Dead Man begins on a locomotive as a naif accountant is traveling from

Continue reading 86. DEAD MAN (1995) →
Capsules

CAPSULE: THE CASSEROLE MASTERS (200?)

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Weirdest!

DIRECTED BY: J. William Carter (Billy Carter?)

FEATURING: Billy Carter, Larry McKellen, Bobby Cilantro, Stevie Dawson, Jimmy Howitzer

PLOT: None.

Still from The Casserole Masters

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST It’s certainly weird enough, but, although some of the animated sequences show talent, the live-action sequences are too amateurish, and more annoying than bizarre.

COMMENTS: I’m going to resist the temptation to start out this review with quips at the expense of the makers of The Casserole Masters, and instead give you some useful advice (for a change). Load up the movie (embedded below) and immediately skip to 24:30 for a short lecture by “Molcok the Owl” on the afterlife. It sounds like footage from a Scientology question and answer session, as the mild-mannered, mystical bird describes his visit to the interstellar Hall of Mirrors, a journey illustrated with swirling psychedelic patterns and egg-shaped spacecraft and sausages. If you enjoyed that, and maybe even if you didn’t, skip forward again to 52:05 (you’ll know you’re at the right spot when you see the proscenium floating in a blood red sky) for the strangest video Christmas card ever filmed, scored to “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and featuring a silent snowy forest, kaleidoscopic peppermint colored backgrounds, festive mushrooms, and a vintage Santa who bleeds from his eyes. These two short worthwhile segments, both animated, rescue The Casserole Masters from the “beware” rating it would otherwise earn. If I had tried to watch Masters from the beginning, without being obliged to review it, I would have given up within five minutes, because the rest of  the movie looks like home video of some Dadaist frat boys noodling around on a Saturday afternoon. Recurring characters include a guy with a magic-marker mustache, Burger King crown, and a lobotomized smile, and another character who repeatedly babbles about being Batman; they stand in a room and giggle stupidly and howl abuse at each other. All voices are electronically speeded up or slowed down to maximize the irritation factor. The largest role goes to a sheriff with a shaving cream beard who delivers monologues praising religion and denouncing drugs, and plays a “knife game” with a tied-up prostitute in pasties and plastic trash-bag panties. An authority figure preaching virtue while practicing depravity: yawn. For the climax we learn the casserole recipe, which involves tentacles in oil and a wiener. The live-action segments look like footage Harmony Korine rejected for Trash Humpers as too repetitive and annoying. And yet, as insufferable as the live action scenes are, the “animated” sequences—which are just cutout images manipulated very simply, but effectively, with zooms and pans to create the illusion of movement—are interesting, reminiscent of a slower paced, weirder, and less witty iteration of Terry Gilliam‘s animation work for Monty Python. The animations are scattered throughout the movie, sometimes laid over the filmed material, but Casserole only heats up in those two extended segments cited above. Stretching for something else to praise, I’ll mention that the synthesized score by Blue Fiction is actually very good. Still, there’s about ten minutes of worthwhile material buried inside of seventy minutes of avant-garde dreck. It may work reasonably well as background wallpaper for an acid trip, though, which may well be Casserole Masters intended route of ingestion.

We’ve embedded the video below for your convenience, but we found the playback on blip.tv to be sporadic, particularly if you try to use the slider to fast forward the movie. If you’re having trouble watching the embedded video you can try viewing it on the Casserole Masters homepage. It may also help playback if you let the file load on the page for a while before hitting “play.” Good luck!

Capsules

CAPSULE: SMASH CUT (2009)

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DIRECTED BY: Lee Demarbre

FEATURING: , Sasha Grey, Jesse Buck, Michael Berryman,

PLOT: An incompetent horror director discovers he can make realistic gore effects by killing his critics and co-workers and using their severed body parts as special effects.

Still from Smash Cut (2009)

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: With Smash Cut, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter auteur Lee Demarbre pulls back the weirdness and takes a step towards the conventional (to the extent that a comedic tribute to Herschel Gordon Lewis’ cheesy gore films, featuring a main character who considers a dead stripper in the trunk of his car to be his muse, can be considered mainstream). The results are, frankly, a little boring, though camp gorehounds might find some entertainment here.

COMMENTS: The one-sentence plot synopsis tells you all you need to know; there are very few story surprises as Smash Cut unspools.  You can figure out that the diabolical director starts to enjoy killing as his megalomania grows, finds it increasingly difficult to cover his tracks as the bodies pile up, and is eventually thwarted by the clean-cut young heroes. Since we know what’s coming, it’s crucial that Smash Cut deliver on the gags (especially the weird gags), and unfortunately this is where the movie falls down on the job. The best parts are the two films-within-the-film, perhaps because they push their deranged style to its limits and stay true to their own madness. The first is director and future serial killer Abel Whitman’s trashterpiece Terror Toy, featuring a ragdoll clown murdering a busty psychiatrist with an ink pen and one of the worst “dangling eyeball” scenes you’ll ever witness. The second featurette is a silent art film created as a mousetrap to try to play on the felonious filmmaker’s sense of guilt. In between those two highlights are some interesting, mildly absurd touches—for example, a “suicide” by harpoon and a minor character who sets army men on fire—and a lot of deliberately unconvincing, campy gore effects (though the scene where Abel extracts eyeballs with a box cutter delivers a significant cringe factor). The acting is inconsistent, which is not necessarily a problem in the overall spoofy enterprise, but Continue reading CAPSULE: SMASH CUT (2009) →

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