An aspiring comedian tries out new material in an underpopulated industrial zone.
POD 366, EP. 55: THE COMPLEX INTERVIEW (WITH FABIO D’ORTA AND RICCARDO AMORESE)
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Quick links/Discussed in this episode:
Aggro Dr1frt (2023): Discussion begins. Harmony Korine‘s latest project is typically experimental and alienating: an action-packed, infrared video-game-on-film starring rapper Travis Scott. The release strategy has it playing in unconventional venues; this week, it plays its first non-festival date at an L.A. strip club (sorry, already sold out). Aggro Dr1frt distributor (?) EDGLRD’s official site.
Burnt Offerings (1976): Discussion begins. Read Gregory J. Smalley’s review. A great cast for this haunted house movie— Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis—but it’s only on the far fringes of weirdness. It’s nevertheless a fondly remembered cult item, as this Kino Lorber special edition Blu-ray suggests. Buy Burnt Offerings.
The Complex Forms (2023): Discussion begins. Read Giles Edwards’ Apocrypha Candidate review. Today’s interviewee, Fabio D’Orta, made this rare (in today’s climate) independent Italian fanatstique film about aging men volunteering for possession. No official word on distribution prospects yet, but the film has received a warm reception, so we’re cautiously optimistic this will be widely available after it finishes its festival run. The Complex Forms Instagram.
Dark Crystal (1982)/Labyrinth (1986): Discussion begins. Read Gregory J. Smalley’s Dark Crystal review and Labyrinth review. Shout! Factory re-releases Jim Henson‘s two weirdish 80s puppet fantasies on VOD. Not that they weren’t available previously, but they are now being offered (via Apple) in a bundle together with all the special features you would usually find on Blu-ray. Wave of the future? Buy Dark Crystal/Labyrinth digitally.
Frogman (2024): Discussion begins. A deadpan found-footage spoof about a documentarian searching for the elusive cryptid known as “Frogman.” As a marketing gimmick, this was pre-released in a limited edition VHS (already sold out, unfortunately, but if you are curious you can see it here). Debuts more widely in early March. Frogman distributor Rotting Press on Twitter “X”.
The Memory Police (202?): Discussion begins. First announced way back in 2020, we’re finally seeing movement on Charlie Kaufman‘s adaptation of Yōko Ogawa’s 1994 dystopian/surreal science fiction novel “The Memory Police
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:
We have no guest scheduled for next week’s Pod 366, but Greg and Giles will be back with more coverage of the week’s weird movie news and releases.
In written reviews, Shane Wilson handles another that Came from the Reader-Suggested Queue with The Dark Side of the Heart, a lightly surreal 1992 comedy from Argentina about the romance between a poet and a prostitute. Pete Trbovich‘s written contribution is also a reader suggestion, as we finally get around to Trainspotting (1996). Meanwhile, Giles Edwards visits the distaff dystopia of Ladyworld (2018), and Gregory J. Smalley finds out what the heck’s up with England’s just-released telepathic jellyfish indie, Ozma. Onward and weirdward!
APOCRYPHA CANDIDATE: MARKETA LAZAROVÁ (1967)
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DIRECTED BY: Frantisek Vlácil
FEATURING: Frantisek Velecký, Magda Vásáryová, Ivan Palúch, Josef Kemr, Michal Kozuch, Pavla Polaskova
PLOT: In the early Middle Ages, a pair of brothers rob a caravan under protection of the King, setting off a chain of events that eventually leads to the kidnapping of Marketa, a virgin pledged to the convent.
WHY IT MIGHT JOIN THE APOCRYPHA: Dreamy pagan sequences adorn a stylized and hallucinatory landscape in Vlácil’s stark medieval epic.
COMMENTS: Although Marketa Lazarová is almost universally praised, everyone remarks on its confusing narrative. The film, which begins with a highway robbery and kidnapping, starts off with a lack of context, and the remainder of the story is fragmented, peppered with abrupt changes of scene, and with dreams, visions, and flashbacks which are sometimes impressionistic, sometimes indistinguishable from reality. The plot elements are comprehensible—a petty noble goes too far and angers the king, a virtuous maiden is snatched from her home—-but the main problem is keeping track of who is who, and where their loyalties lie. If you are prepared for confusion, you can soldier through it and the parties should sort themselves out within an hour or so. But if you would like some guidance, I’ll start this review with a short overview of the major players to get you oriented.
Despite providing the film’s title, Marketa Lazarová herself is not a prominent character until the film’s second half. The story atually centers on her eventual abductor, Mikoláš, a lanky and handsome man in a tight beard. Mikoláš’ brother and partner in banditry, Adam, is easily identified because he has only one arm (although watch out for flashbacks where he has two). Although they behave like highwaymen, Mikoláš and Adam are pseudo-nobles, the sons of Kozlík, a bald and bearded feudal yeoman who rules the walled town of Roháček. Long-haired temptress Alexandra, a brunette contrast to Marketa’s blond innocence, is their sister. In the first chapter the brothers kidnap Kristián, a German youth of noble blood, intending to ransom him. Meanwhile, Lord Lazar rules Obořiště, Roháček’s rival village; he is Marketa’s doting father. Mikoláš spares Lazar after catching him scavenging the wreckage of the caravan the Kozlík clan intends to loot, but later regrets his mercy when Lazar refuses to provide assistance against the king. In revenge, Mikoláš kidnaps the virginal Marketa, whom the (relatively) pious Lazar has pledged to the nunnery. The relentless Captain “Beer,” the king’s military representative in the region, is easily distinguished by his bushy mustache. These are the major players; many minor characters enter and leave, but if you can keep these straight, you should be able to navigate the main thrust of the tale—though details are often elusive.
The narrative confusion matters less because the film is so beautiful. The black and white vistas show off the wintry Bohemian countryside, bare interiors where scar-faced men in furs and chainmail Continue reading APOCRYPHA CANDIDATE: MARKETA LAZAROVÁ (1967)
IT CAME FROM THE READER-SUGGESTED QUEUE: TEKNOLUST (2002)
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DIRECTED BY: Lynn Hershman Leeson
FEATURING: Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Davies, James Urbaniak, Karen Black
PLOT: Dr. Rosetta Stone creates three “self-replicating automatons” in her image, who generally stay hidden away in her apartment except when one goes out to harvest the Y-chromosomes they require to survive; her creations’ growing dissatisfaction with their confinement threaten this arrangement.
COMMENTS: Years before Zoom culture, Teknolust latched onto the power of screens to bring communication to those trapped in their rooms. Rosetta’s isolated, phosphor color-coded creations – unsurprisingly named Ruby, Marinne, and Olive – speak to her through large flatscreens mounted in each of their matching bedrooms, and she peers back down at them and their silly antics through her own screen. The catch is that, rather than a phone or a tablet, Rosetta’s viewscreen is the disguised window panel of a microwave oven. It’s not exactly Star Trek, but then Teknolust is only interested in enough science fiction to get things going. After that, it’s devil-may-care.
Consider that title, for example, which suggests a neon-accented erotic thriller on early-90s Cinemax. Teknolust is a much lighter, frothier confection. Once we get past the opening minutes, in which one of the automatons uses her sexual wiles in a steamy modern-decor bathroom to extract valuable “nourishment” from an unsuspecting male, the movie settles down into something closer to a romantic comedy. In fact, it’s remarkably evocative of 1987’s Making Mr. Right, which also features an asocial scientist who constructs an empathic android in his own image.
Even if we focus on the “lust” part, the strongest emotions held by Rosetta’s three creations (it is never clear if they are actual robots, clones, or computer-generated beings) are not their sex drives, but their compulsion to see the world beyond their window. It’s surprising that femme fatale Ruby jettisons all of her powers of seduction (which she gleaned from watching three public domain films) for Davies’ hapless copyboy, but given her lack of a life otherwise, it’s only logical that she latches on to his dweeby innocence. (His mother’s surprise that this angular, statuesque vision would take up with her scruffy, underachieving son is worth a chuckle.)
The roles of Rosetta and her creations point to Teknolust‘s gravest sin: wasting the bottomless reservoir of weirdness that is Tilda Swinton. Casting her to play four separate roles – three of which are constantly interacting – seems like a masterstroke, but the four women are given precious little opportunity to assert themselves beyond surface-level characteristics. Rosetta is your classic flustered nerdgirl, right down to the terrible perm and oversized glasses. Marinne is a petulant schoolgirl, Olive is eager to please, and Ruby is mainly the one who gets to go outside. Swinton can’t figure out anything else to do with them, which suggests these underdeveloped parts might have worked better with someone a little closer to the comedy genre they seem to be stereotyping, like Sandra Bullock or Reese Witherspoon.
A number of oddball characters populate Teknolust, who all turn out to be little more than their affectations. The script develops bit parts, like the doctor who speaks exclusively in an ASMR whisper, just as much as prominent figures like Karen Black’s cellar-voiced private detective Dirty Dick. There are interesting depths to be plumbed in such characters, but we never delve deeper than their surface oddness. They probably wouldn’t hold Leeson’s interest anyway, as she repeatedly demonstrates by crosscutting between storylines with almost no regard for timing or narrative flow. She’s always got a new thing she wants to show off – little hints in the story about an entire family being wiped out by a virus, or the implications of a disease that manifests a barcode on the victim’s forehead – and she’s in an awful hurry to get you there.
Like a sugar cube, Teknolust is pleasantly sweet in the moment and gone in a flash. There are some intriguing ideas at work here, but don’t get too attached to them. It’s got just enough in it to hold the attention of someone staring at the video screen on their microwave, waiting for the tea to steep.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:
(This movie was nominated for review by Motyka. Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)
SATURDAY SHORT: THE NIGHT JANE WENT INSANE (2023)
Middle-aged science fiction fan Jane begins hearing voices coming from her appliances. Starring scream queen Brinke Stevens, with the voices of fellow scream queens Michelle Bauer and Linnea Quigley.