Jean Vigo. A propos de Nice.

Of all cinema's illustrious martyr figures, none is more romantic than Jean Vigo, poet maudit of '30s French cinema, dead at 29 after a long struggle with tuberculosis, leaving a filmography that can be screened in just over three hours and which, during his lifetime, showed every sign of vanishing into oblivion. But the ethereal beauty and earthy anarchism that permeate his two masterpieces Zero de conduite (1933) and L'Atalante (1934) are still enveloping audiences in their hypnotic atmosphere today and leaving them sure in the knowledge that Vigo was more than a filmmaker - he was a moment in film history that will never be repeated.

Already entertaining cinematic ambitions, Vigo was briefly employed by the Franco Film studio as a camera assistant. A gift from his father-in-law allowed the destitute filmmaker to purchase a second-hand camera and begin work on what would become his first movie, the satirical film essay A propos de Nice (1930). It was around this time he met his close collaborator Boris Kaufman, a Russian cinematographer. The brother of both cameraman Mikhail Kaufman and director Dziga Vertov (real name Denis Kaufman), whose masterpiece Man with a Movie Camera (1928) influenced A propos de Nice, Boris Kaufman later enjoyed a distinguished career in Hollywood, shooting On the Waterfront (1954) for Kazan and several of Lumet's early films.

A propos de Nice constructs around the central motif of the carnival a savage, frenetic vision of a superficial society in a state of putrefaction. As bold in its formal experimentation as it is in its gleefully morbid fascination with ugliness, the grotesque humour of its portraits of the holidaymakers that swarm over the Promenade des Anglais (sometimes suggestively intercut with shots of animals!) is brutally undercut by images of distressing poverty. The uneasy atmosphere of indolence and boredom boiling over into lustful frenzy while willfully ignoring the encroaching sense of death and decay that surround it makes this Vigo's darkest film. While Zero de conduite's satire is balanced with a lyrical celebration of the forces of revolution and renewal, A propos de Nice limits itself to the death dance of caricatures, caricatures all the more startling for being stolen from life with a hidden camera. As Vigo stated in an address to the Groupement des Spectateurs d'Avant-Garde, "In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial.the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution."

What is already present in A propos de Nice is Vigo's ability to capture the natural beauty of a real, non-studio setting and spontaneously elaborate on the impression, transforming the commonplace into the magical. His eye for atmosphere and detail would grow from film to film, but from the outset it was rooted in a documentary practice that simultaneously transcended the documentary.

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A whole movie in split-rar lies here in a "_Movies_" folder. (~250Mb).

Jan Svankmajer. The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia.

An incredible short film by Jan Svankmajer

A bust of Stalin is cut open on an operating table, leading to an elaborate animated depiction of Czech history from 1948 (the Communist takeover) to 1989 (the Velvet Revolution). Some knowledge of the subject is essential in order to understand the film, which is entirely visual.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this film maker's collected works, you can see how people from David Lynch to the Brothers Quay are inspired by him and there is also a great documentary on the DVDs.

Bagman - Profession: Meurtrier

"Bagman - Profession: Meurtrier" on Google Video
the hero of the future
10 minutes of trash & gore inside.

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies

Alternate Titles: Diabolical Dr. Voodoo, The Incredibly Mixed Up Zombie, The Teenage Psycho Meets

Directed by:
Ray Dennis Steckler

Writing credits:
E.M. Kevke
Gene Pollock
Robert Silliphant

I'm not going to bother referring to this film by either the name or the acronym in this review, but make sure to take a good look at the title so you know to avoid it like the plague. Brought to you by the mind of director Ray Dennis Steckler, who stars in his own films with stage names like Cash Flagg and Cindy Lou Sutters (really), this film is bad in whole new ways in the genre of bad zombie films.

It took me three tries to watch it. The first two times I tried, I fell asleep, probably in the middle of a dance number. Yes, there are dance numbers. And songs. And dream sequences about dance numbers and songs. Apparently it billed itself as the first monster movie musical. I've discovered that one thing perhaps more painful to watch than low-budget acting is low-budget dancing and singing. The film is set mostly in a carnival, so a large portion of it is of the various shows, which do nothing to further the plot except to establish that certain characters are, in fact, in a show. (To be fair, I guess this is true of most musicals.)

The zombies are the creations of a fortune teller at the carnival, who makes them that way by throwing some kind of acid in their face. Their existence is implied for most of the movie, but you don't actually see any until almost the very end. The fortune teller also has the power to hypnotize and control people with a big, spinning spiral, which I guess makes another kind of zombie, but they don't stop living. It's not clear that the other zombies ever stopped living either, but they at least look sort of like normal zombies.

I'm trying to judge how this movie would have been without the music. I think not quite as bad. The acting was bad, but not horrible. I think the plot would still have dragged in spots, which is saying a lot for the 40 minutes or so that would have been left. Still, with the music, the only way to watch this movie is with a finger on the fast-forward button.

A review by Zombierama

p.s. you can watch a trailer on the imdb.com

Un Chien Andalou (1928)

Youtube continues surprising me.

Un Chien Andalou (1928) - Directed by Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel

American film critic Roger Ebert called Un chien andalou "the most famous short film ever made, and anyone halfway interested in the cinema sees it sooner or later, usually several times."

Describing Un chien andalou is difficult because the film has no "plot" in the strict sense of the word. In terms of its structure, it is at least as nonlinear as any film ever made. It uses dream logic that can be described in terms of Freudian free association. The film is a series of apparently unrelated, and at times potentially offensive, scenes that attempt to shock the viewer. It also features surprising camera angles and other film tricks.

Some scholars argue that Un chien andalou might be the genesis of the filmmaking style present in the modern music video. Others say it is among the first low budget independent films.

"Salome in Low Land" by Christian Zagler

'Salome in Low Land', is a delightful concoction that joins the classic world of opera by Richard Strauss, and a play by Oscar Wilde with the contemporary world of retro 8-bit video games. I was surprised when heard about it's success at the 2006 Rotterdam Film Festival. Salome was a biblical princess with a bit of a mean streak. With her magical dance of the seven veils she had men eating out of her palm. Even great men, like King Herod, succumbed to her charms.

“It is a story about a man-eating woman, a femme fatale”, Christian explains, “Salome's innocent, passionate, self conscious and dangerous at the same time.” Tragedy strikes and blood flows red when the King unwillingly grants Salome one dark and deadly wish. It’s a classic tale of lust, power and revenge (opera buffs love that stuff). “My focus lies not just on the story itself, which comes from Oscar Wilde and the bible, but on aesthetics” says Christian, “I did it all on my private computer, spending more nights than days arranging pixel by pixel, influenced by a lot of computer games.”

You can watch "Salome in Low Land" here.