Sunday, September 30, 2012

GIALLO FEVER's GRANDE FINALE is TODAY!





TODAY at ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES catch the last two Gialli of MALASTRANA FILMS' incredible GIALLO FEVER series!

TODAY, SUNDAY Sept. 30

A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY - 6:30

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE - 8:45


More info at:

www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

http://malastranafilmseries.startlogic.com/GIALLO_FEVER/Giallo_Fever.html


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Thursday, September 20, 2012

GIALLO FEVER!





GIALLO FEVER, curated and organized by the wonderful folks over at Malastrana Films, is a mind-melting 10 day / 10 film trip though what is perhaps the best representation Giallo films have ever had in New York City.  All but one of the films will screen from 35mm (the other being screened in 16mm); and in order to provide the highest level of visual quality, many of the film prints were painstakingly sought out.  The result is not only a superb selection of titles, but also a series of stunning and immaculate clarity.  Some of these showings will likely be the only chance many will have to see these on film.  So, seriously - don‘t miss this!

Giallo is one of those sub-genres that many a film fanatic has become obsessed with.  It's easy to understand why; Gialli are typically so extreme in the flashiest ways that they’re irresistible just in terms of sheer aesthetics; though more than a few Gialli are storytelling powerhouses in disguise as genre film - and though there are a few of those in this series, Lucio Fulci’s DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972) is particularly significant.  



Though some of the directors who helmed these features have been regulated strictly to the “genius” column, (Argento, and most certainly Bava) others have at times contributed to what could perhaps be described as sheer hackery (of which this series has none).  But, one of these directors exceeds any kind of categorization.  Directing more films than any other director in this series, Lucio Fulci also has as varied a filmography as any of his contemporaries. Not all of Fulci’s films represent his finest work, but over a dozen of them indeed do.  Among those classics is DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING.  While on the surface Fulci’s films are known for their over-the-top, extravagant gore, his most dedicated fans sense a unique humanity beneath the cruelty.  Genre films can surprise with craftsmanship, narrative and originality; and though DUCKLING has these elements it’s a far rarer notion that makes it so special, and that is the rather personal, compassionate tone that's intertwined into a horrific story of child abuse and small-town mob mentality.  So many of Fulci's cinematic efforts are incredible pieces of work - his Zombie films are regarded more and more highly as time passes, and that's something that’s happened on little more than just the merit of the films themselves.  His finer Westerns linger just below Leone's; his sexy psychedelia, crime, raw horror, thriller, historical, etc. films are often concise and sober offerings to popular cinema.  But DUCKLING has that Fulci spirit maybe more than any other.  Fulci sees the world as a rather pessimistic realist: there’s violence, rape, war and crime - factors that are truly abhorrent to him, and thus these factors should be represented in a fashion that amplifies their horror.  Chains rip flesh, faces are torn apart, heads are chopped off, children are drowned - yet in all of its gruesome glory none of this endorses such wholesale brutality.  One senses a secret degree of pain on the part of the filmmaker, [spoiler alert next sentence!] and the insanely sadistic, senseless murder of the town Witch (played to perfection by Giallo regular Florinda Bolkan) is maybe Fulci’s most emotive death scene.  For all of its bloodiness, for all of its sadism, there’s an unbelievable feeling of sensitivity here - greatly highlighted by the music of composer Riz Ortolani and vocalist Ornella Vanoni.  In a way it’s practically a metaphor for Fulci’s long-standing subtext - the innocent are helpless in a powerfully cruel and brutal world, where fighting back is useless; and dying with rigid, stony dignity is the best one can do - and as ugly as it is, there‘s something somehow beautiful about it.


One of the series' most important entries is certainly Mario Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE.  Not only is it THE archetypical Giallo, it's also a delightfully nasty precursor to the body count or "Slasher" film.  Soaked in unbelievably lurid technicolor, this is perhaps the most essential of the GIALLO FEVER series to see on film.  It’s influence on Gialli to come (as well as just Horror) is immeasurable, and it’s effect on Argento’s work will be apparent to viewers even totally unfamiliar to Bava’s filmography.  Bava's other entry in the series is the original Italian version of THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (like many of these films, a different cut was released here in the US, with a different title; THE EVIL EYE), which in stark contrast to BLOOD AND BLACK LACE displays Bava’s incredible talent for black and white cinematography.  GIRL … is superbly playful, and uses its frightening setting to surprise the viewer with some very unexpected jokes.


 
Dario Argento is no doubt the most known filmmaker to the audience for this series, and BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and DEEP RED are certainly two of his most beloved films.  These will be a treat in 35mm, DEEP RED being one of his most ambitious films for color and design, and BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE sorely lacking a proper screening.  And to further stun the typical desensitized fanboy, Malastrana rounds out this program with even more extremely elusive Gialli; Pupi Avati's HOUSE OF THE LAUGHING WINDOWS and Elio Perti's A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY.  And, apart from their rarity, the quality of these two stands up quite nicely to the famous counterparts on the bill.  And it doesn't stop there - There's also Fulci's erotic thriller PERVERSION STORY, the utter depravity of Sergio Martino's THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (1971) and the sexy retro sleaze of Massimo Dallamano's WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? (1972) ... None of the films in this series will disappoint.

We here at the Freedom School commend Malastrana Films, and Yunsun and Alessio in particular, for their above and beyond programming.  Scroll down foe links to Malastrana Films, Anthology Film Archives, and showtimes ... GIALLO FEVER starts today … GET IT!






MALASTRANA FILMS:

http://malastranafilmseries.startlogic.com/GIALLO_FEVER!/Giallo_Fever.html

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES:

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/39659

 SHOWTIMES:
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Fear For Your Ears!




HEY SOUNDTRACK LOVERS! I'll be spinning a myriad of delicious Italian Soundtrack treats TOMORROW NIGHT to celebrate the beginning of this year's most astounding film series, GIALLO FEVER - details below!

Giallo Opening Party! at Mangiami 9.20.12
Bar/Restaurant
Sep. 20th 9:30PM til You Drop Dead
--DJ Mike Hunchback spins the wicked soundtracks of Giallo films.
--No cover! Enjoy Prosecco and beer on your dime.

Mangiami Bar/Restaurant
9 Stanton St.
(between Bowery & Chrystie St)
New York, NY 10002

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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

3 X JEFF LIEBERMAN at ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES this weekend!


Jeff Lieberman's finest films hit the screen twice each this coming weekend at Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003 (anthologyfilmarchives.org). Director (along with some friends) will appear daily for Q&A, check schedule for details.



1976's SQUIRM had life on drive-in screens as well as hard-tops, before its Orion VHS release cemented it in the American gore-hound consciousness forever. The man behind the camera was Mr. Jeff Lieberman, and with some talented help (not least of which was make-up maestro Rick Baker, providing so many of the film's great gross-outs) he made his debut feature quite a memorable outing. SQUIRM is one of those rare and funny films that while piling on the horror-film cliches still manages to actually break out of that mold - something Lieberman seems be very good at. It's a movie about killer worms, somehow mutated by a lightning storm, that slowly and slimily begin to take over a small town; the town wallflower and her nerdy city boyfriend being the only ones who seem to be able to stop it. SQUIRM also showcases Lieberman's ability to make a solid film, as hokey as the plot gets, it never loses steam, continuing with increasing speed towards a weird and bloody crescendo. One gets the feeling the director himself was getting excited to see everything and everyone in the film completely covered in writhing worms.



Like the other Lieberman films in Anthology's series, JUST BEFORE DAWN (1981) is a sort of "antithetical" cult classic. While so many of the films under that banner have an element of cheese that elevates them, these Lieberman films are just actually well made, low-budget films. And, if you're going to see any slasher film on the big screen this summer, why not make it a good one? JUST BEFORE DAWN, like SQUIRM, has several elements that unfold to reveal the average Horror template, but its deviation from staying within those lines, matched with its powerfully filthy, sweaty, cheap-early-80's-film-stock look, result in "a slasher film to remember". JUST BEFORE DAWN is laced with rather genuine, raw thrills - it's a film about sick hillbilly killers chasing teens around in the middle of the woods, and appropriately the movie feels delightfully twisted. Scores of films with similar plots have been birthed since, and the genre for some reason seems to have forgotten not only the true value of "grittiness", but what actual "grit" looks like. JUST BEFORE DAWN could serve as a singular, all-encompassing lesson on how to not fuck-up a slasher film.



Often when a director works in the realm of genre films, it can be assumed that he or she has a personal project looming in the back of his mind; working long and hard on other more salable fare in order to one day get the chance to make that bizarre, personal film he dreams of. BLUE SUNSHINE (1978) may not by definition belong within that category, but it certainly feels like that type of film. Its wildly fun plot, some sort of experienced-acid-head's daydream meets Sci-Fi Noir, is unique to say the least - a group of young men take a form of LSD in college only to find out that 10 years later it turns them into bald, psychopathic killers. We're thrown into the spiral of paranoia rather quickly, and though the answers drip slowly towards us piecemeal, BLUE SUNSHINE manages to fully envelop us in its rays - it's easy to sink into the film's subversive acid-logic. BLUE SUNSHINE may be Lieberman's creative best, a glowing, turquoise diamond in the often shitty sea of horror and exploitation.

Check 'em out!


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Friday, February 24, 2012

Oh, Lina ...



Lina Romay
June 23rd, 1954 - February, 15th 2012


I'm sorry for the informal, emotionally loose post - but the sudden passing of the incredible Lina Romay is weighing heavily on my mind. Lina began her career with Jess Franco in 1972 and was in most of his films (he would direct over 150 after '72) from that point on. They began a partnership professionally as well as romantically, and with Romay by his side Franco accelerated his artistic ambitions to a level that I personally believe no other filmmaker has achieved. To the most open-minded of viewers, many of his films have unique and lasting impact; and not for any repeatedly formulaic reason either. These films are anarchistic; at times purposefully and at times because there was simply no time or money. The disregard for convention is perhaps one of the strongest elements in most of his best work, and it took a little while for that to fully develop. By the late 60's Franco was itching for nothing but total freedom in filmmaking; and he casually tossed aside the possibility for success and money to embark of a lifelong journey of artistic exploration - and splendid debauchery. This wasn't the move of someone who wanted to make a name for himself as an "Auteur", or as an avant garde filmmaker; and nor was it the move of someone who would go on to make only pornography. Franco's most passionate work work lies in an area of its own, quite far from those other worlds. And as any dedicated fan of his work will tell you, this incredible achievement was aided immeasurably by Lina Romay. Her own visions were also unrestrained and wild, and her willingness to lose herself physically and mentally in these films is unmatched in cinema. Lina Romay was one of a kind. The suddenness of her passing makes it hard to comprehend, and we here at Freedom School send our love to Jess Franco and to the memory of one of the screen's brightest, sexiest, and special stars. Goodbye Lina.



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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

TERRIBLE FEELINGS


Perhaps some of you have already heard about the band TERRIBLE FEELINGS. I wanted to share some (particularly extreme) thoughts on the group after seeing them when Night Birds was in Europe because I simply couldn’t stop thinking about how great they were. When I got home (now weeks ago) I wrote what you see below. I honestly read it back to myself and laughed - it didn’t seem possible that I could be accurate, so I decided to wait a bit and re-read it, thinking my perspective might change from such an extremity. Well, it didn’t! Read the following and check this band out online. I have 2 of their three 7”s here at Co-Op 87 if anybody needs the real thing …


From the UK to Germany to France and back and more - Night Birds’ 2011 European tour was laced with cool new bands. For some reason though, the band I heard about the most was a new Swedish group - TERRIBLE FEELINGS. “Angst-ridden power-pop”, “gloomy; with great energy”, “weird, not like anything else” … it seemed like people couldn’t pin down an exact (or even helpful) description for the band, and after hearing how great they were so many times, I honestly wasn’t even sure I was going to like them. Being wrong was never more delightful. Night Birds’ last gig in Europe was in Bremen, Germany with none other than Terrible Feelings. As they hung out before the show, shot the shit with the other Night Birds, and set up they all seemed perfectly sweet and well-mannered.

Then, about to get into their set, they started to test their gear a bit … Generally, I’m not into too many guitar sounds I hear live. I don’t think of myself as a snob, but I really do lean strongly to the side of treble-soaked reverberating wackiness over anything that’s bound to come out of a Marshall stack. So, when Anton of Terrible Feelings started filling the room with his wildly echoing double Music Man amp set up, I almost dropped my drink.

THEN, they actually started playing.

It was like someone set a wild animal loose in the room. Individually, the band were trapped in their own worlds of manic but perfect performance - the rhythm section of Andy and Willy pounding away a solid foundation in an educated Garage rock fashion, leaving space above for Anton (who quite seriously is one of the greatest guitar players I’ve ever seen) to weave rabid, reverberated lines of melancholy psychedelic surf-pop all around it. And Manuela - dear God! A possessed vocalist of the highest order, at once magnetically sexual and legitimately terrifying, she can crawl and slide with the best of them. I couldn’t help but think of early prime-era Debbie Harry or Iggy. And if you’re lucky enough to catch her eye, you can see the hot-orange glow of Hell in her gaze. This is a band without fear, and everyone in the room was wrapped around their little finger for it.

Some bands can ensnare an audience with antics. Some with politics, and some with cute outfits. Rare today is the group that actually mesmerizes an audience with the base elements of pure, white-hot Rock N’ Roll - which to me means the perfect blend of one thick stream sheer unbridled live ferocity and another of naturally brilliant song writing craft. And that’s what Terrible Feelings are, Rock N’ Roll; in the truest sense of the term. Meaning that while Terrible Feelings are instantly classic and widely appealing in their energy and ability in the way that the true greats of music were, they’re also totally (shockingly) fresh. The rather drastic comparisons that come to mind are band like the RAMONES - blending their obsessions with junk culture with primitive performance and marrying love of Glam and misfit-rock to the wide-eyed simplicity of 50’s and 60’s AM top 40. Or NIRVANA, who took all that the Ramones showed them, threw in the heaviness of Black Sabbath; filtered it through inescapable familiarity with the best music on the 1980’s underground from Scratch Acid to the Wipers to the Pixies and laced it with the pained scrawlings of a suicidal teenager’s notebooks for lyrics.

TERRIBLE FEELINGS’ music displays knowledge of every worthwhile shred of music that preceded it and basically sounds like none of it. Fucking rare.

I too will offer a confounding personal description of a band that I’d actually feel comfortable calling “THE NEXT BIG THING” (a phrase that’s really become antiquated beyond belief, but still - if there’s any justice or hope left in this cold, cruel world TERRIBLE FEELINGS will end up rich and famous beyond belief). To these fairly dumb American ears I hear kinship to the tough, fuzzy genius of SHOCKING BLUE’s first LP but with keen understanding of any decent counter-culture aural fad of the 90‘s and 00‘s … or perhaps the earnest pop genius of the first two BLONDIE LPs being ground though a pre-heroin STOOGES meat grinder. Take all of that diarrhea-of-the-keyboard nonsense I just said and put it next to this - hopefully most of you are familiar with the HIPSVILLE 29 B.C. compilation series, and it’s the first thing I thought of when I heard Terrible Feelings. Painfully REAL music, with equal amounts of strength and somberness, played by young people who seem as if they would die if weren’t for being able to hammer out these crude dollops of heartfelt, honest Rock N’ Roll. It’s “the real deal”. No shit, no joke, no fuckin’ around.

As a sincerely neurotic and clinically anxious pessimist I’d also like to bring up the unbelievable lyrical content that Terrible Feelings manages to bring to the already musically-flawless table:

“Don’t have childish visions
You won’t achieve a thing
There’s no meaning”

“Deny yourself fulfillment dreams
And you will live happily”

“Where do good dreams go?
I haven’t seen them for a long, long time
To my unborn child
There is nothing to enjoy in life.”

These are lyrics of stark naked sincerity, with one foot firmly planted in the cement of teenaged frustration and the other in the tar of adult intelligence. The words of Terrible Feelings songs are akin to the kind of things those of us with an unshakeable affinity for despair repeat to ourselves in our heads over and over and over again; unable to break the dark spell of gloom cast by being able to see the world as it actually is. In a way that I can easily compare to Nirvana and Leonard Cohen, Terrible Feelings have lyrics that you’ll actually want to read along with as you listen to their records. For those of us who live in the dark, Terrible Feelings will mean a whole lot.

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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

HENENLOTTER RETROSPECTIVE AT ANTHOLOGY!



FRANK HENENLOTTER RETROSPECTIVE
Uncut, uncensored, unhinged - Director in person!

November 4-6 at Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, NY, NY 10003

“I always felt that I made exploitation films. Exploitation films have an attitude more than anything – an attitude that you don’t find with mainstream Hollywood productions. They’re a little ruder, a little raunchier, they deal with material people don’t usually touch on, whether it’s sex or drugs or rock and roll. They’re what I grew up on.” –Frank Henenlotter

Anthology is thrilled to unleash a wild and bloody batch of Frank Henenlotter’s classic films, all uncut, uncensored, and completely unhinged. Henenlotter is one of those mythic directors that people immersed in Exploitation and Horror culture absolutely worship. His knowledge of genre and classic films is scholarly, he’s been one of the primary behind-the-scenes brains at Something Weird Video since their breakout, and his films are both celebrations of American Exploitation cinema and legitimate extensions of it. It’s a tough line to toe indeed, but being an obsessive 42nd St. moviegoer from the time he was a teen was the perfect classroom for Henenlotter – he endlessly soaked up celluloid scum until he had no choice but to make his own vile offering to the cruel gods of ‘the Deuce’ in the form of his first feature film, BASKET CASE.

BRAIN DAMAGE (1988, 84 minutes, 35mm-to-video.)

Considered by many hardcore Henenlotter fans to be his finest, BRAIN DAMAGE is a wild yetcohesive patchwork of addiction-fueled mania, set in the disgusting glory oflate-80s NYC. Brian meets Aylmer, a mysterious, ancient, snake-like (ok, phallic) parasitic creature that lives off of brain juice, which it consumes by poking a fang into the host’s spine. The reward (or bait) that Aylmer offers for his meals is an overpowering color-soaked mind-trip that proves to be quite addictive. Gory, goopy, and hilarious, BRAIN DAMAGE is also somehow personal and touching. It’s perhaps the best example of Henenlotter’s extraordinary ability to make us sympathize with characters who are insurmountably separated from society by deformity and dementia. Featuring spectacularly funny (and uncredited) voice work from none other than John Zacharley! Drastically cut in its original theatrical release, BRAIN DAMAGE will be theatrically screenedhere totally uncut for the first time. – Friday, November 4 at 7:00 and Sunday, November 6 at 4:30.

FRANKENHOOKER - (1990, 85 minutes, 35mm.)

Easily Henenlotter’s most comedic film, FRANKENHOOKER still packs a wallop of 42nd St. sleaze, coated in bright purple slime. It’s the weird tale of Jeffery Franken (played by the hilarious James Lorinz of STREET TRASH and PUNCH THE CLOCK), a med school drop out who tragically loses his bride-to-be in a remote-control lawnmower accident. His love for her runs so deep, however, that he devises a way to get her back – and with a better body this time. Traveling from suburban New Jersey into Manhattan to find specimens for his fiancée’s reanimation, he crosses paths with tough guy pimp Zorro, and the downward spiral of fun andfreakiness goes full speed from there on out. It’s Henenlotter’s twist on BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and his version has a lot more prostitutes than James Whale’s. Not to mention “Supercrack”… –Friday, November 4 at 9:30 and Saturday, November 5 at 9:30.

BASKET CASE - (1982, 91 minutes, 35mm-to-video.)

The cult classic that started it all, painstakingly restored this year to its intended specifications and now completely remastered. Duane Bradley has a relationship with his twin brother that most people would consider odd – after all, Duane was born with his brother Belial growing out of his right ribcage. Yes, it’s disgusting – that’s what their father thought too, so he hired some unscrupulous doctors to sever the boys’ ties. Henenlotter’s debut is the most bizarre tale of brotherly love ever committed to film, and a brilliant, low-budget time capsule of Times Square and NYC in all its early-80s scum and glory – seeing the streets as they were then is worth the price of admission alone. Due to painfully scarce prints, BASKET CASE hasn’t been screened theatrically (possibly at all) since its 80s stint as a real-deal NYC Midnight Movie. We won’t tell you what’s in the basket though…you’ll have to see for yourself. –Saturday, November 5 at 4:45 and Sunday, November 6 at 6:30.

BASKET CASE 2 - (1990, 90 minutes, 35mm-to-video.)

Sequels can be tricky business. Duplicating the original film’s storyline almost never works, but departing from its style isn’t a solution either. Henenlotter pulls off the impossible here with a wildly original follow up that maintains thefirst film’s strong characters. Kevin Van Hentenryck returns as Duane Bradley, still toting around his big ol’ basket. This time he escapes the confines of the concrete jungle for a nice relaxing stay with Granny Ruth, perfectly played by legendary jazz vocalist Annie Ross, of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Granny Ruth has a soft spot for nature’s special ones, and she knows that other folks don’t share her point of view. So she’s worked hard to secretly operate a safe haven for freaks – lots of freaks – and lovingly takes Duane and Belial under her wing. But, as outsiders get wind of who might be hiding out at Granny Ruth’s, the boys’ sibling rivalry kicks into high gear again and the real freakshow begins.
–Saturday, November 5 at 7:00 and Sunday, November 6 at 8:30.

Credits: Organized by Mike Hunchback; special thanks to Frank Henenlotter, Joe Bob Briggs, James Glickenhaus, and Nadia Rawlings.
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