Monthly Series – Page 2 – Spectacle Theater

WHY IMITATE REALITY? THE FILMS OF MARCELL JANKOVICS

Posted on October 21, 2016December 28, 2019 by Taylor Adams

WHY IMITATE REALITY? THE FILMS OF MARCELL JANKOVICS

It’s impossible to mistake Marcell Jankovics’ work for anyone else’s. Fluid, gorgeous, hallucinogenically colorful, his films fully exploit expressive possibilities only available through animation. Despite outsized brushes with the U.S. – part of his short film Sisyphus was used in a 2008 GMC Superbowl ad (notably nixing the rock rolling back), and pre-production on Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove (never seen after the film devolved into its “stupid, kitschy final version,” in Jankovics’ words) – the director remains criminally underknown in this country.

His deep appreciation of mythology (having written numerous books and articles on the subject) is reflected in a body of work rooted in folk- and fairytales, mining the specific, yet fleshing out to the underlying universal. Often adapting material he feels hasn’t been properly expressed in other mediums, Jankovics’ careful consideration of the emotional and psychological impact of each aesthetic element results in the definitive version of the work.

Starting at 19, he rose through Budapest’s Pannonia Film Studios from in-betweener to director in a mere five years, and continued working through governmental shifting to and from Communism. With a prolific career spanning over a half-century, Marcell Jankovics continues to produce incredible, emotional works to this day, and Spectacle is proud to present a small selection of them.

Special thanks to the Hungarian National Film Archive, and please read Cartoon Brew’s excellent (and unfortunately rare) interview with this amazing and thoughtful man.

FEHÉRLÓFIA (SON OF THE WHITE MARE)
Dir. Marcell Jankovics, 1981
Hungary. 81 min.
In Hungarian with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5 – 10:00PM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13 – 5:00PM
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22 – 10:00PM

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A glorious work of unparalleled brilliance, FEHÉRLÓFIA melds ancient legends of the Steppe people into a kaleidoscopic rumination on the cyclical nature of time and space. Originally combining several existing folktales on time’s recurrence, Jankovics was forced to write an original story after his first script was deemed anti-Marxist (according to Marxism, time is irreversible). Raised hidden by his mare mother in the World Tree, immensely strong Fehérlófia must venture forth to find the Underworld’s entrance and, with his brothers’ help, defeat the dragons who seized power from the ancient Forefather and Progenitrix. The constantly morphing concentric images, looping back on and mirroring each other, perfectly fit a film dedicated to the early nomads. Only the second film to come out of Pannónia Studios, FEHÉRLÓFIA is a masterwork of color and story.

JÁNOS VITÉZ (JOHNNY CORNCOB)
Dir. Marcell Jankovics, 1973
Hungary. 74 min.
In Hungarian with English subtitles.

Showing with
KUZDOK (THE STRUGGLE)
Dir. Marcell Jankovics, 1977
Hungary. 3 min.

MÉLYVIZ
Dir. Marcell Jankovics, 1970
Hungary. 2 min.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4 – 10:00PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22 – 7:30PM

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Commissioned by the government for the 150th anniversary of national poet Sándor Petöfi’s birthday, and based on his epic poem of the same title, JÁNOS VITÉZ is the first Hungarian feature-length animated film. Completed in a mere 22 months, the visuals blend Peter Max pop and traditional Hungarian folk art into a bright, vibrantly-hued world. The story follows titular János, whose love for country maid Iluska distracts him from shepherding. Banished from the village after losing the entire flock, he vows to return on better terms to marry his beloved. Joining a battalion of Hussars, he travels the world over (including ludicrously fanciful interpretations of Venice, Mongolia and the Sahara) on wild adventures, yet always dreaming of Iluska. His triumphant return home is shattered when he learns Iluska was worked to death by her wicked stepmother. No longer caring what happens to him, János goes on a series of increasingly dangerous adventures, hoping if he can’t live happily to at least die gloriously. Giants, witches, French court life, and drinking songs all merge and blend in this pastel chimera. Unfortunately the Hungarian government’s restoration of the film, currently ongoing, won’t be completed until sometime next year, so for now we must make do with a less-brilliant version of this dynamic tale.

The film screens with two shorts highlighting Jankovic’s gift for conveying emotion through pure visuals and texture.

SPECTACLE SHRIEK SHOW VI

Posted on October 1, 2016December 28, 2019 by Taylor Adams

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29 – ALL DAY!

Crunch a leaf, smash a pumpkin, key a car! The time is at hand. Tricks, treats, and everything in between – the 6th (!!!) Annual (!!!) SPECTACLE SHRIEK SHOW is upon us! Post up for 12ish (probably 14) hours of cerebellum boiling insanity with your favorite Spectaghouls. This year we have the premiere of Appalachian satanists, perilous board games, some rare and secret archival prints from Radical Hardware, as well as the usual who’s who of fiendish friends, shorts, songs, and surprises. After five years strong of marathons this one is truly one for the books. Don’t miss out! As always, $25 for the day or $5 each film.

NOON: THE SCREAMING SKULL
2PM: Camp Motion Pictures presents SPLATTER FARM
4PM: Junk Food Dinner presents BEYOND THE GATES
6PM: Radical Hardware presents SPARE THE ROD…
8PM: DON’T LET THE DEVIL IN
10PM: Vinegar Syndrome presents HORROR HOUSE ON HIGHWAY 5
MIDNIGHT: Massacre Video presents WOMEN’S FLESH: MY RED GUTS

GET YOUR TICKETS!

THE SCREAMING SKULL
dir. Alex Nicol, 1958
68 min, USA
In English

Newlyweds Eric and Jenni decide it’s a good idea to move back to the mansion where Eric’s first wife died under mysterious circumstances. Luckily for the couple, the grounds have been maintained by an old family friend – Mickey (director Alex Nichol) the gardener. After settling in, the already mentally exhausted Jenni begins hearing bumps/screams in the night. Is the ghost of Marianne come back to seek revenge? Is it her jerky new husband gaslighting her? Some combination of both? Hard to say, we think you can guess though. Fun fact: when the film was first released director Nichol promised a free burial to anyone who died of fright during the climax of the film.

Camp Motion Pictures presents: SPLATTER FARM
dir. John & Mark Polonia, 1987
70 min, USA
In English

Special thanks to Mark Polonia!

Two twin brothers (played by the filmmakers, as they are wont to do) visit their aunt at her farm seated deep in beautiful rural Pennsylvania. While they think they’ll simply be honing their green thumbs and helping their dear old auntie, things take a harrowing turn. Can you believe it? Terrible acts abound, folks are turning up missing (or worse!), and it’s revealed their aunt’s farmhand has a very disturbing set of extra-curricular activities.

The Polonia Brothers hold a special place in the hearts of us here at Spectacle. Having had a blast with FEEDERS once upon a midnight, we at the Shriek Show are honored to be blessed with showing this slab of analog insanity to an audience hungry for tape hiss and mini-Butterfingers especially hot on the heels of Mark Polonia’s new work. As always, many thanks to Camp Motion Pictures who have been down with the burning S since forever.

Junk Food Dinner presents: BEYOND THE GATES
dir. Jackson Stewart, 2016
84 minutes, USA
In English

Special thanks to Jackson Stewart!

Two estranged brothers reunite at their missing father’s video store to liquidate the property and sell off his assets. As they dig through the store, they find a VCR board game dubbed ‘Beyond The Gates’ that holds a connection to their father’s disappearance and deadly consequences for anyone who plays it.

Cult film podcast juggernauts Junk Food Dinner (who provided commentary for the upcoming blu-ray release) and filmmaker Jackson Stewart bring a loving tribute to the evil’s of VHS and tabletop gaming to Spectacle for a special Halloween treat. Barbara Crampton (FROM BEYOND) stars alongside Chase Willamson (THE GUEST) and Brea Grant (HALLOWEEN II) in a flick certain to make you reconsider picking up the dice ever again. Also, we’ll be giving away a copy of NIGHTMARE (The Video Board Game) to a lucky audience member so you can experience the terror at home or maybe a motel that still has a VCR in it but no continental breakfast.

Radical Hardware presents: SPARE THE ROD… (Secret 16mm!)
dir. Robert Enrico / Don Weis, 1964 / 1963
60 min, France / USA
In English

Oooooooh baby. It’s about six o’clock. The 6th annual Shriek Show is rolling right along and we are in the ZONE! The sun is setting, it’s TWILIGHT! Man it’s almost like we’re in some sort of TWILIGHT ZONE. Like you’re so comfy in your seat and you hear the soothing whir of a projector as it fires up. Yeah that’s the stuff. It’s almost like Radical Hardware is coming through the velvet curtains and screening not one but two pristine 16mm archival prints of a beloved and game-changing show from almost 55 years ago. Crazy right? Like maybe you’d be watching two works written by genre masters Richard Matheson and Ambrose Bierce. Is it an illusion? Is it a secret screening? Is it the first time in Shriek Show history we’ve had the 16mm projector out? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

DON’T LET THE DEVIL IN (NY Premiere!)
dir. Courtney Fathom Sell, 2016
80 min, USA
In English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAr9eiiSqf0

After suffering a miscarriage, Newlyweds John and Samantha Harris relocate from New York City to a small Appalachian town where they become wrapped up in a nightmarish tapestry of evil.

Sell’s film eschews conventional genre and instead hops gleefully around – owing as much to the backwoods horrors of last years standout MIDNIGHT as it does to Satanic Panic mainstays like ROSEMARY’S BABY. Aided by the rolling hills and picturesque backdrop of rural West Virginia, the film lures the viewer into an expansive wilderness and then manages to trap you in it. Also featuring Ed Wood/Mark Pirro player Conrad Brooks!

Vinegar Syndrome presents HORROR HOUSE ON HIGHWAY 5 (New restoration!)
Dir. Richard Casey, 1985
87 minutes, USA
In English

A mysterious killer, wearing a Nixon mask, terrorizes and murders a young couple. A professor assigns his students a project investigating the strange events connected to a possibly dead Nazi scientist, Dr. Fredrick Bartholomew. The doctor’s assistant kidnaps students, holding them hostage and torturing them. Meanwhile, Nixon stalks the night!

One of the most confusing and compelling homemade horror films ever made, future music video director Richard Casey’s debut feature film, shot over years on nights and weekends, is a delirious collage of oddball gore, ludicrous plot twists, and a general milieu of weirdness unlike anything else in cinema history. Newly restored from original 16mm vault elements by the almighty Vinegar Syndrome, HORROR HOUSE ON HIGHWAY 5 finally gets the treatment it so richly deserves. A head-scratcher of this magnitude hasn’t graced the Shriek Show screen since…well, probably last year!

Massacre Video presents WOMEN’S FLESH: MY RED GUTS
Dir. Tomakichi Anaru, 1999
54 min, Japan
In Japanese

Director Tomakichi Anaru made a splash with his first feature and foray into the field of extreme cinema – TUMBLING DOLL OF FLESH, a pseudo-snuff nightmare – but WOMEN’S FLESH: MY RED GUTS is more of a slice of life. Like we’re seeing something we’re not supposed to see. Finger eating, tongue slicing, dismal bathroom lighting, and flashbacks flicker across the screen while you squirm in your seats. Massacre Video (a Shriek Show/Spectacle mainstay) has never been one to shy away from rare and often shocking titles – MONDO MAGIC, THE ABOMINATION, and 555, all come to mind – but this is one for the books.

Closing out this years marathon with easily one of the most grizzly entries to date, this is not for the faint of heart – consider yourself warned.

SPECTOBER V

Posted on September 30, 2016December 28, 2019 by Spectacle

For the fifth year, Spectacle is proud to present a month-long, lovingly-selected series of unknown, mysterious, and shocking films from around the world. This time around includes surreal French slasher reductions, American gore classics, Yugoslavian political repression murder sprees, and a rare full cut of insanity from Mexico’s Panic movement.

DARK WATERS (TEMNYE VODY)
Dir. Mariano Baino, 1993.
UK/Russia, 94 minutes.
English.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13 – 7:30PM *Special Introduction by Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni*
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 10:00PM

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DARK WATERS is the recipient of the Prix Du Public at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival and the Vincent Price Award at Rome’s Fantafestival and has been hailed as a “masterpiece of arthouse horror” by Filmmaker Magazine’s Scott Macauley and an “unholy hybrid of Bergman and Argento” by Film Review magazine.

Young Englishwoman Elizabeth travels to an ascetic convent on an isolated Eastern European island to settle the affairs of her late father, against his last wishes. Confined by the sea and chambers of the convent, and under the ireful scrutiny of the sisters, Elizabeth experiences disorienting visions of a horror she can not recall. Director Mariano Baino shot the footage for DARK WATERS in Ukraine just after the Soviet Union’s dissolution. The rich cinematography and gorgeous location add to the eeriness of this Lovecraft-adjacent horror story.

Join us Thursday October 13 at 7:30pm for a special screening of DARK WATERS, introduced by actress and multi-talented artist Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, star of director Mariano Baino’s latest short LADY M 5.1 as well as his upcoming feature, ASTRID’S SAINTS, which Baino and Cataldi-Tassoni co-wrote. Cataldi-Tassoni is known for her work in seminal European films such as Dario Argento’s Opera, Phantom of The Opera, Mother Of Tears and for her starring debut as Sally Day in Lamberto Bava’s Demons 2. Cataldi-Tassoni is also an accomplished painter, singer and musician, and her work can be viewed here.

MADELEINE, STUDY OF A NIGHTMARE
Dir. Roberto Mauri, 1974.
Italy, 110 min.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2 – 5:00PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12 – 10:00PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22 – 5:00PM

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Given that writer/director Roberto Mauri’s best known for schlock like THE PORNO KILLERS and CURSE OF THE BLOOD GHOULS, the sustained unease of MADELEINE’s sun-soaked scenes seems happy coincidence rather than intentional. Similar to LE ORME, MADELEINE creates a palpable sense of dread and mystery by delaying an inevitable confrontation with reality (before throwing it away with a boiler plate twist ending). Camille Keaton’s laisse faire acting style works to the advantage of a story about a woman unable to directly acknowledge deep personal trauma, but trying to; her efforts mostly take the form of swanning around a gorgeous Italian villa seducing one man after another (if this is a nightmare, sign me up). And yet, the increasing sense her will is not her own, that her mysterious husband/lover/benefactor isn’t acting benevolently, that her very self is slipping away, turns what could have been mere softcore into a haunting look at a woman struggling with her own id and losing.

SCREAM BLOODY MURDER
Dir. Marc B. Ray, 1973
USA, 90 Minutes

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22 – MIDNIGHT

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A troubled young man with a hook for a hand (he lost it as a boy while killing his father with a tractor) and a serious aversion to sex murders anyone who gets in the way of his love for a prostitute in this grimy slasher flick from 1973. Much in the vein of films like “The Witch Who Came From the Sea” and “Criminally Insane,” “Scream Bloody Murder” seems to have crawled directly from the gutter, (though actually it was made by the writers of Ann-Margret and Raquel Welch TV specials) with a warped internal logic that effectively drags you into it’s bleak, blood-drenched world. From the creators of “The Severed Arm.”

LA MANSION DE LA LOCURA (THE MANSION OF MADNESS)
Dir. Juan López Moctezuma
Mexico, 99 min.
In English (originally shot in English, dubbed into Spanish)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15 – 5:00PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21 – 10:00PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26 – 10:00PM

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“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
Beginning with Poe’s story The System Of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, in which a reporter visits an asylum to discover the system by which the insane and the caregivers has become a bit muddled, we enter into a place where political satire and surrealist horror blend into a truly astonishing film, where a man becomes a chicken, the body becomes a musical instrument, and nothing is ever as it seems. Director Juan Lopez Moctezuma (ALUCARDA, MARY MARY BLOODY MARY), a member of Mexico’s Panic movement alongside Alejandro Jodorowski and Fernando Arrabal: the three having worked together on FANDO Y LIS, which should give you some idea of what you’re in for. Led by the great Claudio Brook (CRONOS, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL) as the mad Dr. Maillard (as well as Raoul Fragonard), the film is as a dream, a ritual, a series of living tableaux. Describing the plot would be to cheapen the film, but it’s worth noting no less than Leonora Carrington served as art director. We are honored to present this film in its longest known cut, with the original English dialogue, miles from public domain cuts. Those expecting cheap horror will be disappointed; those expecting clarity will be confused, those with eyes to see will behold a revelation.

FOLIES MEURTRIERES
Dir. Antoine Pellissier, 1984
France, 47 min.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28 – 10:00PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31 – 10:00PM

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The slasher film, like any genre, has various approaches. From the baroque excess of its giallo roots to the meta-awareness of the Scream series, from scuzzy video nasties like The Toolbox Murders and Don’t Answer The Phone! to the satirical aspects of The Slumber Party Massacre, there’s a variation for any taste, so long as your tastes lead to seeing people get killed. It can also be stripped down to its most minimal elements: 80s synth dirge, long POV shots and gruesome set piece murders. That’s what FOLIES MEURTRIERES provides: the slasher boiled down to a kind of dead-eyed late-night trance, all VHS tape hiss and HG Lewis-style gore effects and zero relateable character development or or wisecracking comic relief. Anyone looking for a well-written mimetically plausible story won’t find it here: this is homemade murderdrone haze. Information on this film is sparse, which may be for the best; it’s a film that you might pick up from a box of unmarked VHS tapes on a streetcorner only to discover diseased dreams of torment and bloodshed stained onto magnetic tape. We will say director Antione Pellissier’s day job is medical examiner, which is fitting for a film far closer to Grand Guignol than the action-film-jump-scare world of contemporary horror.

“The woozy, warped tape of Folies Meurtrieres has no subtitles. That’s okay, as there are maybe five lines in the film that aren’t a narrator reading off the date of the murder you are about to see. The 47 minute film is just that: a series of murders without context or plot, and within each murder sequence lies a different variation on the classic slasher scenario.” -Peter Galvin, MURDERDRONE

THE APE WOMAN
(aka LA DONNA SCIMMIA)
Dir. Marco Ferreri, 1964
Italy/France, 100 min.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 10:00PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 – 5:00PM

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By means of disclosure: THE APE WOMAN is not a scary movie per se, but rather a withering satire of masculinist culture, the apparatus of “freak show” exploitation, and the tacit racisms of the so-called Western World. (Who would expect anything less from Italian auteur Marco “DILLINGER IS DEAD” Ferreri?) Annie Giradot stars as the nominal donna scimmia Marie, a beautiful young woman suffering a rare condition that covers her body with long, thick hair – based on the real-life case of Julia Pastrana, whose hypertrichosis terminalis left her resembling a cross between simian and human. She comes under the thumb of an opportunistic lout played by Ugo Tognazzi, who begins to make big plans for the two of them – showing Marie off, concocting bogus tales about her discovery “in Africa”, training her to whoop and holler for the audience.

Via Marie’s prolonged expectations and unfulfilled hopes, a tender and devastating parable ensues, a study in gender relations (to say nothing of the Italian Catholic church) and the politics of what is/isn’t “scary” according to 20th century showmanship. THE APE WOMAN still has plenty to say, and fits alongside THE SEED OF MAN and BYE BYE MONKEY as one of Ferreri’s blistering works that’s long overdue for reevaluation.

“The only redeeming feature of this oddly distasteful film is the fact that a certain haunting pathos does emerge from it.….It is evident that the censors have used their shears on this film. The producer should have beat them to it. He should have used shaving cream.” – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

DÉJÀ VU (VEC VIDJENO)
Dir. Goran Markovic, 1987
Yugoslavia, 102 min.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 10:00PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30 – 5:00PM

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Déjà vu concerns a troubled piano teacher, Mihailo (Mustafa Nadarevic), and his efforts to come to terms with reality through a love affair with a poor but industrious girl, Olgica (Anica Dobra). When she dumps him for a younger boyfriend (hoping to make a political career in the Communist Youth organization), Mihailo is overrun by the ghosts of his past and begins a killing spree. Flashbacks which explain the killer’s motivation are intrinsic to the film’s central idea. The apparent contrast between the past and the present becomes a parallel, thanks to the clever transitions between shots. Mihailo becomes unable to distinguish the ‘reflections’ of the past upon his own present, and is thus driven over the edge.

Written by Ghoul via IMDB

TIDEPOINT PICTURES: WEIRD WORLDS

Posted on September 28, 2016December 28, 2019 by Spectacle

Tidepoint Pictures, specializing in bringing contemporary and cutting-edge Asian films to North American audiences, turns 20 this year. As part of the celebration and in the spirit of Halloween, Spectacle presents a selection of Tidepoint films that go beyond (or directly mock) typical JHorror while showcasing Tidepoint’s diverse catalogue.

IDOL IS DEAD
Dir. Yukihiro Katô, 2012
Japan, 63 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

Real-life J-pop anti-idol group BiS (Born idol Society) star in a perfect showcase for their aggressive parodying of all things idol. Starting off meta, BiS play failed idols despondently working as hostesses at a sleazy café. After not-so-accidentally dispatching their more successful rivals in a rumble gone wrong, BiS realize they can turn murder-lemons into success-lemonade by posing as the now-dead group. They’re going to sing, dance, and claw their way to stardom one supermarket opening at a time, and the only thing that can stop them is the mad-scientist-resurrected, extremely pissed lead singer of the original group! What price idoldom? Featuring gore, depravity, and the bubbliest J-pop this side of a knife fight.

SCREENING WITH:

SANGUIVOROUS
Dir. Naoki Yoshimoto, 2011
Japan, 53 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

Wearing a debt to Dreyer’s silent classic VAMPYR on its blood-soaked sleeve, SANGUIVOROUS is a highly stylized tale told through text and textures, an impressionist fever dream of a young woman’s realization she’s related to an ancient vampire clan. Kidnapped by older vampires, all consume and are consumed by blood and darkness.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 – 7:30PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 17 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 7:30PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

WOMAN OF MUD (ANG BABAENG PUTIK)
Dir. Rico Maria Ilarde, 2000
Philippines, 105 min.
In Filipino/Tagalog with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 – 10:00PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12 – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21 – MIDNIGHT

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Recently graduated and with a sexy San Francisco trip just around the corner, medical student/Olympic-level archer Mark just wants to get away from it all to focus on his true passion, writing horror about limb-severing serial killers. But when he finally hikes to his uncle’s dissident safe-house in the boondocks, he’s struck with a severe bout of writer’s block. As thanks for rescuing him from the local junta, scrub magician Ben gives Mark a magic seed he promises will be the answer to his needs, but cautions him to not be deceived by appearances or plant the seed during a full moon. In a fit of blue-balled inebriation, Mark plants the seed during a full moon. It grows and hatches into a beautiful, mute muse he dubs Sally who immediately cures both of Mark’s problems. But soon, local villagers begin disappearing, and Mark notices Sally prefers raw meat to his delicious dishes…Featuring excellent gore effects, gorgeous countryside, and lots of home cooking, WOMAN OF MUD is an underseen creature-feature gem.

THE GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND (aka SECURITY GUARD FROM HELL)
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1992
Japan, 96 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 10:00PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8 – 5:00PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13 – 10:00PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

Unfairly derided as a generic slasher flick ground out before Kiyoshi Kurosawa moved on to better-known and -received works, including CURE and PULSE, THE GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND features all Kurosawa’s signatures in nascent form – loneliness and isolation amid the everyday, dingy, banal locations made haunting, terror stemming from the gloom and nihility of human existence rather than shock or gore. Art historian Akiko begins her new job at a corporation the same day as an immense security guard, who happens to match the description of a murderous sumo wrestler released due to an insanity plea. The outsized antagonist is a true void – stating no one truly believes people like him can exist and repeatedly telling people not forget him, he’s a walking warning monsters are real and around us.

Kurosawa’s penchant for layering on social commentary is also present – Akiko’s corporation is so large it outsources and doesn’t control its own security, and her department, hastily thrown together to buy and sell art as commodity, technically doesn’t exist. All this housed in a sallow, sickly building constantly trapping its occupants even without the help of a vicious killer. Kurosawa once named Hitchcock and Ozu as his influences, and GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND’s direct blend of moody atmosphere and meat-and-potatoes suspense lands squarely between them.

TETSUDON: THE ABCS OF FOOL JAPAN
Dir. Various, 2016
South Korea/Japan/Hong Kong, 105 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 – 7:30PM

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Comedy film fest TETSUDON put together an anthology of 26 ‘foolish’ films by 26 different directors. Japan and ‘Japan’ are covered in full, with kaiju, anime, salarymen, panty shots, calligraphy, samurai, gothic loli, bushido, and everything else from A-to-Z thrown into the mix. Audience participation’s encouraged:

After all of the 26 short films are over, the ending credits come up soon. During the credits rolling, you can see all of the films’ images from A to Z again. At that time, if your favorite comes up, please clap your hands. If a damn film comes up, please say “Boo”! That’s the way the producer wants you to enjoy until the end mark.

So, let us know which ones you liked!

FOLIES MEURTRIERES

Posted on September 24, 2016December 28, 2019 by Spectacle

FOLIES MEURTRIERES
Dir. Antoine Pellissier, 1984
France, 47 min.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28 – 10PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31 – 10PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

BORO IN THE BOX

Posted on September 24, 2016December 28, 2019 by Spectacle

BORO IN THE BOX
Dir. Bertrand Mandico, 2011.
France. 40 min.
In French with English subs.

LIVING STILL LIFE
Dir. Bertrand Mandico, 2012.
France/Belgium/Germany. 15 min.
In French with English subs.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20 – 10PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29 – 7:30PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!

Bertrand Mandico might be one of the last great surrealist filmmakers in operation. His films occupy a unique area of the fantastic uncanny, where babies may be born encased in wooden crates, and artificial natural environments erupt into the colors and signs of deepest dreams. But the look and feel of his world is all his own. His “Incoherence Manifesto” sheds some light on a methodology which favors all manner of the unnatural and anti-real, along with all in-camera effects shot on expired film stock and a refusal of the cinematographic rationality of narrative and genre. And yet his films are far from abstract or storyless. Instead, they tell entrancing stories of twilight lives spent in pursuit of macabre marvels.

BORO IN THE BOX is Mandico’s ostensible biopic of Polish animator-turned-eroticist Walerian Borowczyk. But where we might expect a biopic to dramatize the rough facts of a life, Mandico’s, instead, seems to express only the seething subconscious of Borowczyk’s speculative formative experiences and artistic impulses. The results may be the only biography that’s truly up to a filmmaker as singular as Borowczyk: an alphabetical series of phantasmagoric tableaux on the voyeurism of film, psychosexually-fraught familial relationships, and the struggle to create. O, of course, is for Obscene, but that doesn’t even begin to cover it.

The film will be accompanied by one of Mandico’s finest shorts to date, LIVING STILL LIFE, also taking on the story of an idiosyncratic artist. Frequent collaborator Elina Lowensohn (who also plays Borowczyk’s mother) appears as an outsider animator who uses her art to briefly resurrect dead animals recovered from a virulently-colorful wilderness of autumnal decay. Like BORO, the film follows a determined structure, a progressive increase in stakes as she pursues larger and more serious subjects. Meanwhile, a stranger looks on, awaiting the moment to precipitate a haunting final act.

PRE-WRINKLED FANTASIES

Posted on August 26, 2016December 28, 2019 by Spectacle

SIN
Dir. Nico B, 2009.
USA. 60 minutes.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

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From the Director of PIG and BETTIE PAGE DARKEL comes the erotic, surreal, film SIN. Three episodes, staged in the 1920-1940s, where each story tells the duality of a female protagonist; the belly/frolic dancer (with Angelita Franco of Tinto Brass’ Kick the Cock), the sculpture model versus the nun (with Caroline Pierce), the legless aristocrat and the nurse (with Dahlia Dark).

Inspired by early 19th century vintage erotica and surrealistic filmmaking, Nico B’s exploration and discovery of the subliminal curse of destiny we call SIN. Super 8 silent film with a soundtrack by Claude Debussy.

VINTAGE EROTICA: ANNO 20
Dir. Diverse, 1920-1929.
France. 90 minutes.
Subtitles French/English.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – MIDNIGHT

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To accompany SIN, we bring you some erotic relief directly from the era of surrealism, madness, and style. Expect costumed role-play with nuns, ballet dancers, satyrs, apes, telegraph operators, monks and bellboys. This is the first in a four decade series put out by Cult Epics, intended to open up the long history of erotic expression.

LARRY BUCHANAN’S MIDNIGHT HOURS

Posted on August 25, 2016December 28, 2019 by Spectacle

There’s a general notion that Larry Buchanan was a generic schlockmeister who made cheap sci-fi/exploitation filler for bored drive-in teens. Allow us to float a counter-notion: that Larry Buchanan, drunk on his own weird muse, pursued a singular path through fringe cinema, a particularly Texan low-rent alternative dimension Oliver Stone or perhaps a dreamier variant on Larry Cohen.

From his early work adapting Noita palaa elämään as THE NAKED WITCH to his time at American International, directing films like ATTACK OF THE THE EYE CREATURES and IN THE YEAR 2989 and into his increasingly conspiratorial works THE TRIAL OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD and GOODBYE NORMA JEAN, we can see a history of films that always lived up to the Roger Corman principle of earning more than they cost to make, in this case spending as little on production as possible. There’s a contrarian streak in even the goofiest of his movies, a notion things are never as they seem, a Quixote-esque quest to consider other options beyond the traditional narrative. That’s certainly the case with DOWN ON US (which presupposes Nixon had leftist rock stars murdered), while the romantic folklorist side comes through in STRAWBERRIES NEED RAIN, a lovely meditation on death.

Are you going to let the internet tell you what to think your whole life, or are you ready to make your own decisions? Decide for yourself this September with LARRY BUCHANAN’S MIDNIGHT HOURS!

STRAWBERRIES NEED RAIN
Dir. Larry Buchanan, 1970.
USA. 85 minutes.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 – MIDNIGHT

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STRAWBERRIES NEED RAIN was Larry Buchanan’s self-proclaimed stab at Bergmansploitation, if by way of Mary Travers and LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. Racing against the Scythe of Death, a pre-Patch Monica Gayle tries out every prude, sleaze, and lecher she can find, wistfully strolling through a few fields along the way. If this extra day of life previews her chances for love and human companionship, then she probably shouldn’t fear the reaper. Which she doesn’t, because she is a brave and beguiling woman with hair that wouldn’t look out of place in a 90’s Calvin Klein ad. You will root for her all the way to the last breath or die trying.

BEYOND THE DOORS/DOWN ON US
Dir. Larry Buchanan, 1989.
USA. 117 minutes.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – MIDNIGHT

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A government assassin is out to kill Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison because they are turning youth culture against the Vietnam war, or simply because they are performing ludicrous imitations of their own work. The Buchanan budget did not cover the licensing fees to use originals, so get ready for some lesser-inspired covers that almost sixty years out sound so right. The charm of BEYOND THE DOORS is that you feel like you could be watching a high school local access TV program. After the generations of attention heaped of this part of rock and roll history, that is all we even need.

AMERICA LATINA REBELDE

Posted on August 24, 2016December 28, 2019 by Spectacle

The conquest of the Americas did not end with the defeat of the Aztecs and Incas, it was only the initiation of a procession of protests, strikes, and uprisings between the indigenous peoples and colonizers, immigrant workers and landowners, slaves and masters, mass movements and dictatorships. The films that retell these struggles portray a dramatic history fixed in flux.

The ability for South American artists to capture such struggles changes with the regimes–if one favorable to the people manages to obtain power, the heroism and atrocities of previous generations may finally be told. Argentinian director Hector Olivera is a case in point, his sometimes satirical but always deadly serious work focuses on the individuals who struggle through dark times of political violence. In 1973 he made a REBELLION IN PATAGONIA, a film telling the story of a Patagonian wool farmer’s strike in the 1920’s, based on a previously banned book by the anarchist writer Osvaldo Bayer. When the dictatorship returned the book and its adaptation were once again banned. With a renewal of democracy in the 1980’s Olivera was free to make political work again, telling the story of the dictatorship’s torture and execution of student activists in NIGHT OF THE PENCILS.

With a majority indigenous population, many of whom continue to live a largely traditional lifestyle, landlocked Bolivia historically lagged behind the economic advances of its neighbors. In the 20th century, the State’s solution to lagging modernization occasionally relied on neo-eugenics, and Jorge Sanjines’s BLOOD OF THE CONDOR tells of an uprising of an indigenous village against North American “Progress Corp” volunteers who they believe sterilized women without their consent.

Together with the indigenous at the lowest rung of the caste system was the African slave, who, likewise, had a long history of struggle against their masters. The Maroon culture developed independently in Brazil with the Quilombos, the Black Seminoles in Floria, and Palenques in Colombia and Cuba. In the Cuban film MALUALA, a village of runaway slaves is depicted in colorful detail, both in terms of their music, traditions, and fashion, and their lifestyle of constant resistance to renewed subjugation.

REBELLION IN PATAGONIA
(aka LA PATAGONIA REBELDE)
Dir. Hector Olivera, 1974.
Argentina. 110 minutes.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 – 10PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 – 10PM

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Oswaldo Bayer’s historical novel Patagonia Rebelde, about an anarcho-syndicalist labor union’s insurrectionary uprising against the Argentinian elite in the 1920s, was banned and publicly burned in the 70’s before becoming a bestseller and feature film. The story begins with a hotel workers’ strike so successful one forgets why the working class would ever lose given its objective strength. But as the victorious anarchists sing their anthem, a group of Chilean laborers, immigrants among immigrants, sit quietly in the back of the labor hall. Although they have been elevated to equals by the principal of international solidarity, their silence foreshadows the bloodshed to come.

For decades, Argentinian politics swung between the Nationalist populism of Juan Peron and a series of military coups, eventually centrally coordinated under Operation Condor, aimed at suppressing the socialist elements that made him so widely popular.

In 1970 Bayer’s book was banned and publicly burned, but with Peron’s return in 1973, the leftist Jorge Cepernic was elected governor of the Patagonian state of Santa Cruz. He worked with Bayer and director Hector Olivera to create an epic film version of Patagonia Rebelde, featuring large scale protest and battle sequences. In 1976 the military seized power once again, ushering in a brutal 7 year dictatorship in which the film was banned, Bayer, Olivera, and several of the film’s actors were blacklisted, and Cepernic was imprisoned. In jail, he asked his warden if he deserved such cruel treatment simply for being a member of a Left-of-center party. “ No, you’re not a prisoner because of your affiliation,” the warden reportedly said. “You’re a prisoner because you allowed Rebellion in Patagonia to be filmed.”

THE NIGHT OF THE PENCILS
(aka EL NOCHE DE LOS LAPICES)
Dir. Hector Olivera, 1986.
Argentina. 105 minutes.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 – 10PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 – 5PM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29- 7:30PM

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The repression of Operation Condor was centrally organized by military commanders of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Broliva, and Brazil, aiming to finally wipe out any traces of marxist or revolutionary thought. Argentina saw the highest numbers of disappeared and executed leftists, between 15-30,000. When democracy returned to Argentina in 1983, Olivera was free to make films about the State terror he witnessed. El Noche de los Lapices depicts the organization of a student strike against increased bus fares in La Plata. Only a few months into the dictatorship, some of these students were kidnapped, raped, tortured, starved, and killed.

Beginning with an seemingly innocent protest against the increase of bus fares in La Plata, a student march is attacked by police. In the night, several of the organizers are rounded up by men posing as police and taken to a dungeon. Used as test subjects for torture, the fate of the students would mirror tens of thousands of others in the coming years. A cultural element in the process for “justice and reconciliation,” which included the imprisonment of some of the students’ torturers in 1985, Olivera used the testimony of one of the few survivors for his adaptation.

BLOOD OF THE CONDOR
(aka YAWAR MALLKU)
Dir. Jorge Sanjines, 1969.
Bolivia. 70 minutes.
In Quechua, English, and Spanish with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 – 10PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – 10PM

**GET YOUR TICKETS HERE**

Ignacio, the tragic hero of Jorge Sajines’s first film, was a perfect stand-in for the utterly impotent situation Bolivia’s indigenous population faced in the 1960’s. When his wife’s third consercutive pregnancy terminates, he is driven into a rage, and she is the target. A series of flashbacks and flashforwards shows more violence in every direction. We soon find out the reason for all of it is the sketchy, but outwardly well-meaning American aid workers who recently appeared in the village.

Inspired by anti-Imperialist Marxism and new wave European cinema, this was the first feature of Sanjines, who would become one of Bolivia’s most awarded directors and a central figure in Latin America’s “Third Cinema” movement. The heavy-handed villainy of the Progress Corps gringos and the obedient facilitation of their schemes against the indigenous population by Bolivian authorities represents a political cosmology that radiates through the history of post-Colonial South America.

Sanjines worked with native actors and audiences alike, designing the film to be watched in indigenous communities that were not yet familiar with cinema. The results were mixed, as many did not understand narrative motifs such as the flashback sequences. Overall, the film was influential enough that repelling Peace Corps volunteers became a cause of cultural autonomism, and they were expelled altogether in 1971. Although it’s unlikely the Peace Corps was running a sterilization program, the history of condescension, instrumentalisation, and exploitation of indigenous people made the allegations ring true. Their very presence, along with the self-congratulatory Western doctor character, were symptomatic of an all-pervasive imperialist influence, alluded to by use of rock music and the culturally assimilated but still helplessly subservient Sixto, ensuring repressive hierarchies, and the violence inherent within them, remain firmly in place at every level.

MALUALA
Dir. Sergio Giral, 1979.
Cuba. 95 minutes.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – 10PM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – 10PM

**GET YOUR TIKETS HERE**

With several historical films reflecting on the experience of slavery in Cuba, Sergio Giral is perhaps Cuba’s best known Afro-Cuban director. In Maluala, he takes up the subject of Cuba’s Palenques, a network of about 30 communities hidden in Cuba’s Eastern coast mountains comprised of runaway slaves with different ethnic origins, but a common cultural rejection of the bondage that brought them across the Atlantic.

Among these was Maluala, whose chief, Gallo, present a petition to be left alone by the Colonial government. The counteroffer is for the habitants of the Palenques to turn themselves in before being formally freed, a proposition three other chiefs accept, but Gallo refuses in a conflict reminiscent of Gillo Pontecorvo’s divide-and-conquer epic BURN!, only from the colonized’s perspective.

SPACE: THE F∞KED-UP FRONTIER

Posted on July 7, 2016December 28, 2019 by Spectacle

SPACE: THE F∞KED-UP FRONTIER
Dir. Various.
70 min.

FRIDAY, JULY 8 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 – 7:30 PM 47th anniversary of the faking of the moon landing!

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SPACE: THE F∞KED-UP FRONTIER!!!!
Get HIGH with this show!

Weren’t we supposed to have astronauts on Mars by now?
Where is the space wheel?
How come the U.S. and Russia don’t have domed cities all across the moon?

Well, it looks that, in regards to the so-called “Conquest of Space,” we sure fucked up.
Mankind’s attempts to touch infinity have all failed, like legendary Icarus, and the mud of the earth will forever be our home, the stars perpetually out of reach. Even the shuttle program is dead, and all R&D is now conducted by plutocrats seeking to save themselves when our sad and pathetic Earth is finally, completely poisoned.

From genuine NASA footage to slick computer graphics to crude claymation, this series of shorts, created to celebrate the 47th Anniversary of the Faking of the Moon Landing, examines the stellar beauty just out of our reach, as well as casting a cosmic eye on the awful behavior humans are sure to take with them into the galactic void. For roughly 70 minutes, 25 short films take the viewer out of this world, sometimes calming the soul—and other times disturbing it.

See the planets dance!
See spaceships fight black holes—and lose!
See humans and aliens interact—poorly!
See how far the IRS will actually go!
See Patti Smith’s secrets about flying saucer!
See more eyeball kicks than stars in the galaxy!
See more things in Heaven and Earth and Mars than are dreamt of in your philosophies!

A show that will blast you off–
It is SPACE: THE F∞KED-UP FRONTIER!!!

SPACE: THE F∞KED-UP FRONTIER Dir. Various. 70 min.

FRIDAY, JULY 8 – MIDNIGHT WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 – 7:30 PM ** 47th anniversary of the faking of the moon landing! **

SPACE: THE F∞KED-UP FRONTIER
Dir. Various.
70 min.

FRIDAY, JULY 8 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20 – 7:30 PM 47th anniversary of the faking of the moon landing!