Hello weirdos and weirdettes and welcome to another edition of “what’s in the pipeline” for the coming week. Our upcoming slate of movie reviews features the searing schizophrenia drama Keane (2004); coverage of the cult favorite fantasy puppet pic The Dark Crystal (1982); the trilogy of weird featurettes from the Spanish underground that goes by the name Codex Attanicus; and Tod Browning’s The Devil Doll (1936) (notorious as the movie where Lionel Barrymore appears in drag).
Thanks to everyone who applied for the screener reviewing position. The position is filled, and we’ll see reviews start showing up soon (hopefully within two weeks).
As usual, we had a rash of bizarre and confounding search terms flow through our server logs this week, and we like to recognize them in our weekly “Weirdest Search Term of the Week” contest. To the person looking for info on “how to kill a weird mummy,” we sincerely hope you found the information you needed in time. Unfortunately we can’t help here without more specific information, as each weird mummy requires its own unique method of execution (as opposed to conventional mummies, who can be killed using ordinary ant and roach spray that you can find at your local grocery store). We also send out our sincere hope that the guy looking for the sadly non-existent site “exploding collegegirls.com” eventually found something suitable for that particular fetish (we have no problem with this particular kink so long as all explosions involve consenting adults). Proving once again that sometimes the simplest searches can be the weirdest, we award our “weirdest search term of the week” to “weird and bizarre movies that have lollipops.” Hmm… not much is coming to mind… The Wizard of Oz, maybe?
Here’s how the reader-suggested review queue stands (more titles after the break, as usual): Dark Crystal (next week!); Perfume: The Story of a Murderer;Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (this appears to be unavailable at present, actually); The Nines; The Pillow Book; Final Flesh; Lunacy [Sílení]; Inmortel (2004); Tetsuo; Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE→
That’s right, David Lynch has his own brand of coffee, and this product would not be complete without an add by Lynch himself to promote it. Needless to say, it’s unlike any commercial you will see broadcast on television. Rather, it seems to mock the unrealistically positive advertising plots that we’re accustomed to.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 andEl Topo—to describe Dead Man. Jarmusch himself called the film a “psychedelic Western.”
Neil Young 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
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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.
