Marquis masochist

I watched the nearly unbearable Sugar Cookies last night. Neither Mary Woronov, Lynn Lowry or Jennifer Welles could save this repetitively dull stinker. Is there such a thing as a good Troma release? I'm doubting it. Even the transfer to DVD is poor and low budget. Big surprise! Oh well, I just had to see this due to my Mary devotion and Oliver Stone was a producer so that made me doubly curious.

One brief and gloriously sunshiny shot of Times Square raised my spirits and woke me up.






The Conformist, Redford and Mia Farrow delight!

Coming Disinclinations

I was thinking of starting something new where I would post a relatively current trailer (I don't want to always post trailers but it seemingly comes to that at times) that makes me feel physically ill or repulsed or both. The kind of thing that you just can't believe looks that bad and the film was made and completed and that's the thing that's trying to sell it, you know? I don't go to the cinema as often as I'd like and I only have two antennae-received channels of television to choose from so I don't see that many and, as a result, some really stand out. Sometimes when you see a new release, the trailer section can be a lot of fun if they're remarkably awful but only if that awful is done correctly and you're in the right frame of mind to be entertained by a clip from something you wouldn't take money to sit through unless you were felling particularly masochistic or stupid. I can remember laughing myself silly when I saw the theatrical trailer for 'Stigmata'. I think my friend and I laughed so hard that we actually went when it came. The trailer was better. That was before Youtube, of course, and I haven't seen it since.

I've chosen two recent pieces to share and I'm going with both this first time because when I was reviewing my thoughts I noticed that the pair come from the highly overpaid minds that were, in some capacity, also involved with "The Devil Wears Prada" which I also somehow missed during its run. They each seem to deal with somebody's idea of ultimate and perfect romance and I must state that I am not against this genre and I am a wholly sensual being who is familiar with feelings that don't necessarily make me wince. Believe it.

So, go with peace and be happy that you've saved a little money and if these two previews make you feel just a little nauseous, I apologize while simultaneously feeling a little better knowing that we're similar and in this often unfit world together and, I suppose, my work at this instant is done. But there will be more, you can wager on that.

Kinski's Wedding

It was supposed to be a civil ceremony...

bay of the carnage twitch

There is a sweet little treat over at Joe Dante's Trailers From Hell project - SHAUN OF THE DEAD director Edgar Wright presenting the gloriously graphic (as in artfully graphic, not violently graphic) trailer for Mario Bava's CARNAGE aka BAY OF BLOOD aka TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, which was recently screened here in Toronto at Rue Morgue's CineMacabre film series.

- I tried to embed the video, but the code and/or their website seems to have some issues tonight, so in the meantime, here is the link.

Other fun stuff being posted this week at TFH including Joe Dante on the trailer to Terence Fisher's HORROR OF DRACULA (Jan 2) and John Landis on the trailer to ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (Jan 4).

Edgar recently wrapped up his "The Wright Stuff" double bill film series at the New Beverly in Los Angeles where he presented an eclectic line-up of films with special guests. Paul Williams presenting PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and BUGSY MALONE! FLASH GORDON and DANGER DIABOLIK with Timothy Dalton! Writer/director Shane Black with THE LAST BOY SCOUT and KISS KISS BANG BANG! John Landis with AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and TREMORS! TOP SECRET and BANANAS! BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and HEAD! RAISING ARIZONA and EVIL DEAD 2! Even though LA is a long ways away for most of us, luckily, we can experience the fab intro conversations with Paul Williams, Joe Dante and Timothy Dalton thanks to the podcasts over at metroblogging LA and CHUD. Here is an interview with Edgar about the series over at joblo.com.

his only begotten son?

Around this time last year I went on a Kinski roll, so only fitting that I return to that subject now. While I was jet setting to Barcelona in October I found this clipping in the airline magazine:

I first came to reallize that Klaus had a son when I thought that this guy with funny eyes in the recent Raul Ruiz film KLIMT looked really familiar...

Nikolai Kinski even has his own website where he touts his modelling, musical and acting ventures. Wonder what Daddy's website would have looked like?

It turns out that father Klaus had released nearly 25 spoken word albums straining his vocal chords for Rimbaud, Oscar Wilde, Jack London, and Shakespeare. Many of these performances have recently been re-mastered on CD. Here is a clip son trying to fill papa's shoes:
Kinski speaks Kinski: Nikolai Kinski speaks poems

Postscript: Crawling around the web looking for links, I found this zippy little quote from the Kinski-monster from wikipedia:
When Steven Spielberg offered him the part of one of the Nazi villains in Raiders of the Lost Ark, he turned it down, stating: "[...] as much as I'd like to do a movie with Spielberg, the script is as moronically shitty as so many other flicks of this ilk.", preferring a part in Venom (1981), reportedly because the money was better.

"The Devil Made This Picture."

Let's say goodbye to Mailer one more time before '07 ends - Happy New Year everyone!

Just Jaeckin You Around

Trailer for Just Jaeckin's Madame Claude (title theme by Gainsbourg and warbled by Jane B!) Proof that Letraset titles can be sexy if deployed properly...

Suds 'n Gould

They could have been the Hope and Crosby of the seventies... I'm actually surprised they didn't make a Canadian Tax Shelter era comedy together. That would have been perfect, considering how Canadian Sutherland seems in this trailer.

Doctor- Patient relations

I know its TV, but remember, there were 2 theatrical movies... Anyways, catching up with season 3 of Doctor Who and missing the spark of Billie Pier as Rose.

We'll just have to see if the appearance of Kylie Minogue in the Christmas special that aired today changes anything. However, it can't be anything as good as this:

Pervy Dalek shots thanks to Cosmobells who have some special Doctor Who audio treats over at their fun little blog.

but where do they really come from?

BIG Xmas thanks to Kata for sending me these.

Part One



Part Two - for licensed importers only!

sharing the lumps of coal with the audience

Thought we might share some of the lumps of coal that we found in the bottom of our stocking this morning. After I mentionned THE SILENT PARTNER in my last post, I must of course bring up that other yuletime Canadian classic BLACK CHRISTMAS - although it turns out that David Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES is a new Canadian Christmas themed cinema offering. Head over to the download page at Canuxploitation! to listen to this radio spot for the film. Certianly can't make gags about obscene phone calls in ad copy these days... Also explore Canuxploitation for more radio ads, theme songs from films including THE BIG MEAT EATER, STARSHIP INVASIONS and PINBALL SUMMER, plus some wallpaper for other fine tax shelter productions.

While searching YouTube for "Santa" and "horror", I came across this tightly edited little gem - kill scenes from bad Santa films – and by "bad" we mean bloody and bad, not mind-numbing Billy Bob Thornton bad. With a heavy metal yuletide score, it contains some violence and nudity that is surprising for YouTube (particularly the deer antlers through the chest of the damsel in destress).

If you need a break from the loops of holiday muzak, listen to the Ken Freedman's Krampus Christmas show over at WFMU, an aural antidote for constant cheery carols with reverence paid to our dark bodyguard of Saint Nick. I have pulled a favourite Christmas country song of mine that he broadcast for your enjoyment. Go here to download it or check out the pop-up player for the song here or the real player link.Or just head over here to listen to the full 3 hour show on MP3 or with RealAudio.

Oh the horror! Santa has been really bad over in Italy! The fine folks at The Groovy Age of Horror share the secrets behind the pages of this nasty fumetti in two parts (one + two) as it is quite the cliffhanger.

And to conclude, look what we have to look forward to:

Krampus loves us cause we are bad

We knew what to expect for being "bad" all year as on December 5th we were visited by Krampus and got a good thrashing with his broom for being such little deviants. He seemed to take great delight in lashing the girls who work behind the snack bar who shrieked and threw Nibs at him in an attempt to appease Saint Nick's demonic helper.



All these pics come from a tasty new blog that I stumbled on, Monster Brains, a fantabulous bestiary of things furred and finned, with a special seasonal interest in all art that is Krampus-worthy. For more info on Krampus, read the wikipedia entry or this eye-witness account of the pre-Christian Alpine demon's wrath.

Here is a quick lesson on Krampus:

Some footage of the Krampus in spreading Xmas pain:


And his recent TV appearance in the US:

tidings and passings

Earlier this year I was trying to track down a 35mm or 16mm print of the underrated Canadian seasonal crime caper THE SILENT PARTNER starring Elliot Gould and Christopher Plummer to show in our cinema with no luck. Or at least no luck in Canada. I located a print in the vaults of The Alamo Drafthouse, but the cost of shipping it up worked against us. Maybe next year. In March Jesse posted about the release of the film on DVD with the lackluster cover art that has in commonwith the wave of RESERVOIR DOGS fashioned criminal buddy flicks than a gun and old Saint Nick.

Sadly, the reason for mentioning the film on our blog serves as an epitaph for the legendary Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, who composed the score for the film and sadly passed away on Sunday night. THE SILENT PARTNER was the only feature film that he did a score for, even though his muic had been used in the soundtracks of several films including Woody Allen's PLAY IT AGAIN SAM.

We are open

Enjoy your break to the fullest.

Mirrors

Pure arthouse goodness! Greatness, even. The trailer is gorgeous! I've got this mother here n disc and ready for re-viewing, so, come on winter break! I got so overly into Peter Greenaway after seeing 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover' in the theatre that I often get blurry on the highs and lows of the specific films (I don't think I've been further than a few of the major films up until 'Pillow Book' and I didn't like 'Prospero's Books' at all) as they tend to blend together now and then just like all that Vonnegut I read in a mid-high school frenzy. Oh well. I always loved them even if it became a little much at times so I'm really looking forward to this one which was my pet apart from 'The Cook...'. I wish I could think of an appropriate anagram.



The oh-so-stylish British quad and Michael Nyman to boot. What more do you need?

Going To The Movies In Buenos Aires

The best part about seeing a film when you're travelling is if you luck out and pick a good one to go see, you get sucked into it and when it's over, you walk out of the lobby and are suddenly reminded that you are in another city, not your own.

I saw two films when I was in Buenos Aires. My friend Matias and I had to arrange to get a cab to take us all the way out to a shopping centre in the Bs. As. 'burbs to see Beowulf: La Leyenda (in 3-D IMAX! With IMAX-sized Spanish subtitles!) The tickets cost 14 pesos - or about $4.75 Canadian. You could bring beer into the theatre as well...beer and IMAX goggles, plus the trailer for Soy Leyenda!

On my last weekend in town I went to the Palermo multiplex down the street from the massive Alto Palermo shopping centre to take in a trasnoche screening of Gone Baby Gone. A trasnoche, film-lovers, is a movie-going tradition on the weekends in Buenos Aires - shows start between 1 and 1:30 a.m and are PACKED! You have dinner at 10, maybe an ice cream afterwards, then you roll over to the trasnoche, and THEN you go out clubbing. You can get popcorn either sugared (the local preference) or salted (no such thing as buttered popcorn in this town either way). And no Diet Coke - round here it's called Coke Light. Got to see some amazing Argentine commercials plus the trailer for P.T. Anderson's upcoming Habrá Sangre. Except for kids films, all international movies are in their original language with subtitles en Castellano. Argentinian films for the most part play in their own cinemas.

I couldn't find any of the massive theatres that used to exist in Buenos Aires in their original state; the Monumental, right down on Lavalle (the pedestrian tourist trap) used to have 3,000 seats (you can get a glimpse of it in its former glory in my previous post, at the start of one of the 60's Sandro trailers I linked to) but is now a run-down movie pit - they were playing Supercool, Michael Clayton and El Asesinato De Jesse James Por El Cobarde Robert Ford, plus two films that haven't even come out in North America, a thriller by Andrew Lau starring Richard Gere and some John Travolta / Salma Hayek period piece...

I learned something about Toronto while I was travelling as well, a lesson that left my city in the general deficit column. A small Romanian film like 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days wins the Palme D'Or, and that fall it quietly pops up in Toronto and plays at the Cumberland for a couple of weeks, before winding up at the back of the Carlton for a couple more weeks. Meanwhile in Buenos Aires, the very same film plays at every multiplex downtown, often with giant ads for the engagement in the lobby, and when I went over to the Palermo on a Saturday night at midnight, the 1:30 a.m. show was already sold out. What are we to make of this?

(See my modest set of Buenos Aires movie theatre pictures here...)

Bava on Broadway!?!?

How on earth did we miss this? A UK stage production mixing a 1641 opera score with Mario Bava’s 1965 sci-fi/horror film PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES?

Taken from the Off-Off Blogway:

The Wooster Group’s production of Francesco Cavalli’s opera La Didone takes up a work from the days when opera was an emerging art form, and sets it down in a new world splintered by video imagery and made brazen by the electric guitar. Stirring another Italian cultural work of art into the mix, the Group brings into collision the ancient shipwreck tale of Aeneas and his Dido with the crashed spaceships of Mario Bava’s 1965 Sci-fi B-movie horror film Planet of the Vampires. Identical leather spacesuits, forbidding planetary landscapes and battles with the walking dead meet with the baroque qualities of Cavalli’s score.

And an article about it from The List

It means opera fans shouldn’t expect a simple telling of the legend of Aeneas as he ventures from the smouldering ruins of a defeated Troy into the alien land of Carthage and the arms of Dido. Nor should trash culture buffs expect only the tale of Captain Mark Markary whose spaceship is lured to the planet of Aura where a dying race of aliens inhabits his zombie-like crew. Rather they should expect both at once: a cross-cultural cocktail of mind-boggling oddness.

On one hand, you’ve got Dido, played by mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn, wearing a cape of sci-fi silver. On the other, you’ve got space cadet Sanya, played by Valk, who joins in with the operatic choruses. There are ray guns and baroque strings, punch-ups and arias, helmets and wigs. It’s as unconventional as the electric guitar in the four-strong orchestra and is certain to blow up a storm of outraged critical sensibilities when it opens at the Royal Lyceum.

And to refresh out memory, here is a scene that recalls a certain extraterrestrial terror franchise, followed by a piece of cut an paste experimental animation to round this post off...

This One's For Las Chicas

This report is filed from a locutorio in Buenos Aires. Locutorios are internet spots that are all over this city - in Buenos Aires, even the act of surfing the net all day can be part of your active social life.

I'm here because my vacation ends tomorrow and I'm on my way into a Musimundo store (there are no HMVs in Buenos Aires) to grab a couple of DVDs of Sandro, a living legend, a man I had never heard of before until I arrived here. He was all over the papers because he had recently turned 60 and was on yet another comeback trail (his last comeback apparently had him hooked up to an oxygen tank on stage but that wasn't enough to keep him from being snowed under by women's underwear).

But sometimes you achieve something that gets you buried in women's underwear for the rest of your life.



Sandro, the Argentine Elvis Presley (or is he the Argentine Amitabh Bachchan?) was a pop singer who made a dozen or so musicals in the sixties and seventies that were massively popular in Latin America... like Presley's films, they seemed to exist as pure vehicles to deliver the man candy to the ladies...here's a trailer or two of the goods.



If you want your own Sandro DVDs but can't hike it to Buenos Aires, you are in luck.

If we make it through December

I feel no shame in appropriating a Merle Haggard lyric for a title. None whatsoever. It's been on my lips and mind for the past week or more. This month has come screaming in and promises to beat us into submission and lead us into one bitter and cold season. Hold tight!

One good reason to live through winter this year is the (promised and speculated) 2008 release of the documentary on the late and wonderful Arthur Russell. I wasn't totally thrilled with the Scott Walker documentary that made me put away the noose last year and foolishly push into 2007 but I am keeping high hopes for this one whether wise or not. I think when you choose to profile an artist that isn't so common, you are forced (through financiers?) to use some hip and cool, known artists in there to draw the crowds and get some tickets sold. I was suspect of that when I watched the Scott Walker film and seeing Jens Lekman here makes me feel the same. Still, I am going to keep drawing frozen breaths into the next year so that I can see anything at all to do with Arthur Russell, so deep is my love for the man.

I first read about him in that stuffy British music-snob magazine, The Wire, back when they were starting to compile compilations and re-release his music and go through the archives of his huge, self-recorded output. I actually found a few cool bands through that rag but I haven't seen a copy in ages. Anyway, nothing I've listened to since falling for Mr Walker all those years ago has affected me quite like Mr Russell. There's this absolute beauty that is infused in everything from the solo, voice and cello stuff through the disco music and there is a healthy dose of melancholy as well and his voice is so perfect that it's nearly unreal. There are a million magical variables, actually. It's too tough to pinpoint but it is absolutely attracting to me and I am always stilled by listening to him, as corny as that sounds. If you're new to him, you should definitely seek him out any way that you can and I suggest you get it all. Then you can be obsessed and have a reason to smile through this bleak season without resorting to superabundant bourbon, like Haggard would.


All the info on the documentary can be found here.

"and my death – IT WILL BE GLORIOUS!"

Rest in Peace Evel. And it was only this week that you made headlines after you graciously settled a lawsuit with Kayne West. Lets all look for copies of the made for TV movie where the legendary stuntman was played by George Hamilton.





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boo-lated trick or treat with GOBLINA

I don't think I have posted anything about the fabulous job that Rue Morgue magazine does. If you haven't heard of it, Rue Morgue is a mag published up here in the Great White North (by that I mean Toronto) that specializes in all aspects of horror: movies, books, comics, music; art, games, toys and more. Each year they hold the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear, part of FanExpo, offering horror fans a wide selection of vendors and guests, providing much relief from the over catering to the likes of anime and comic fans. Past guests haveincluded Alexandro Jodorowsky (!?), Crispin Glover, Alice Cooper, Kane Hodder (Jason from FRIDAY THE 13TH, Dough Bradley (Pinhead from HELLRAISER), Larry Fessenden (HABIT, THE LAST WINTER), Tom Savini, and Karen Black. This year's guests included Dario Argento (the guest of honour), George Romero, Malcolm McDowell, Adam West, Dave Prowse (FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL), H.G. Lewis (BLOOD FEAST), Michael Biehn (TERMINATOR), Adrienne Barbeau (mmmmmmmmm), Greg Nicotero (make-up and effects guy on KILL BILL, NARNIA, ARMY OF DARKNESS and countless other hits), member of Argento's "house" band Goblin, Maurizio Guarini (who lives in Richmond Hill, a suburb of Toronto!), and the lovely actress Coralina Cataldi Tassoni (OPERA, DEMONS 2, MOTHER OF TEARS). Dedicated fans have to haul lots of memorabilia around this convention I tell ya! Below I have included some links to vids that I posted on YouTube from this years Festival that I neglected to post here.

Rue Morgue also holds the monthly CineMacbre Movie Nights at The Bloor Cinema and the last film they showed was a pristine print of Mario Bava's BAY OF BLOOD. Other screenings have included NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, HATCHET, PHANTASM, Doug Buck's SISTERS, THE ABANDONED, and RITUALS. Plus they have a radio show – the last show had Liisa Ladoucer interviewing Francois-Edues Chanfrault, the composer of A L'INTERIER and HAUTE TENSION). Basically they are making Toronto a better place to live in.

However, the real reason of this post is to show off this little clip reel I made of some photos and low res footage shot at their Halloween party, the Masque of Black Death! Costumes, booze and performers galore, it is the ultimate trick or treat. This year they had the Goblin tribute band GOBLINA play, featuring above mentioned Goblin member Maurizio Guarini and Coralina Cataldi Tassoni on guest vocals!

Thanks for the great treat Rue Morgue!

Goblina at Rue Morgue's Masque of Black Death


Romero and Argento Reunion at Fest of Fear 07<


Argento on Witches at Fest of Fear 07

triple fisted smackdown of broads, blades and blood!

This in from cinema patron Marc Walkow's blog, Outcast Cinema about Synapse Films' three-disc release of the Legends of the Poisonous Seductress. After watching these trailers, I am itching to see the features, especially the first entry in scope black and white that looks absolutely delirious! Here are the trailers and an assortment of pics from the films, but for better context, visit Marc's blog.

There is such a wealth of undiscovered Japanese films out there. Everyone goes on about the Lady Snowblood films, but there are a number of other wild action film series such as Wicked Priest or Oichi The Blind Swordswoman (aka CRIMSON BAT). Seeing these projected with an audience today would be a blast!

All is never enough

Take an oversized heaping of Russ Meyer (is that Charles Napier or just a remarkable look/soundalike?) and add a stale dash or two of post-Easy Rider bikesploitation and this seems like THE genre that needs to be revived and enjoyed right this instant while it's hot. Looks delicious!

for your bloodcurdling listening pleasure

Finally, some music to sink your teeth into!

I found this collection for download over at Keith Allison's TeleportCity along with reviews of the espionage potboiler SO DARLING, SO DEADLY (great title!), the outrageous sounding and looking KATILON KE KAATIL featuring a Bruce Lee impersonator and a baddie who looks like General Ursus from PLANET OF THE APES, Jean Rollin's GRAPES OF DEATH, SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA, DRACULA A.D., KILINK, the Turkish answer to the Italian fumetti hero KRIMINAL, and to help swallow these films, some reviews of highly potent cocktails.

late night picture show & a wild party

Stumbled across this at the fascinating SquareAmerica.com, which features galleries of found photos:

"What Was On (1957)- 48 Photos of women on TV taken late at night by a lonely photographer in 1957. Encrusted with 50 year old dust and emulsion the photos of women from melodramas and late-night talk shows are not only a record of one person's peculiar obsession but also a virtual catalog of the kind of roles women played in the popular entertainment of the era."

Here are are a few of the pics . Click here for the full gallery. Wonder what the story was behind the photographer...

Also check out this party that looks like it might have been held by Radley Metzger... come to think of it... wow... just imagine what his parties would have been like!?