I justwatchedAgnesVarda’s great documentary Black Panthers and was surprised to see the name Michel Hugo in the credits as one of the cameramen. I took a course in Cinematography he taught at the Hollywood Film School back in about 1977. He was a great guy. He shot a lot of cool movies including Jaques Demy’s Model Shop, a movie I love. I didn’t know this until today! Check out his credits! A lot of great films!
The great DP, Michel Hugo
Anyway here’s a clip from Black Panthers.
Andas an added bonus a sequencefrom Lions, Love, (Lies) Agnes Varda’s LA film. Some of the street signsare very close to my house. I love the way these French filmmakrers show Los Angeles, so dreamlike and so real.
Here is a silent serial that was a big hit with the Surrealists back in the day. One look at the imagery in this trailer and you’ll see why. Elements of Grand Guignol A French Theater of Shock and Horror popular at the time) and a newspaperman/Detective hero give it a contemporary relevance, but especially the wonderful, Irma Vep, a female super villian. Ahead of it’s time! Check out the trailer and watch the whole thing on the Criterion Channel. This is excellent silent film making, location shooting, death defying stunts, headless corpses, the list goes on. It is sort of a film version of a comic book, but in my opinion much better than these CGI laden bloated monstroisities from Marvel that are ruining the Film Industry. So Check it out and Enjoy!
Here is a very cool film dirrected by the master opf atmosphere Jean Negulescu. Based on a very good book by Eric Ambler, the greatest thing about this film is the re-pairing of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, fresh off their intial work together, Casablanca. Negulescu started out as a painter and his visual sense is evident throughout his films, especially his Film Noirs, like this one. Anyway Enjoy! I found a link to the whole movie on the Internet Film Archive. But first here is the trailer.
Here is a documentary about the amazing Delia Derbyshire, a pioneering electronic musician, probably best known for the Dr.Who theme. She never got official credit and therefore any music rights, i.e. money. She changed music.
Here is a beautifully shot low budget film, made in NYC in 1961. What amazing locations, check out Penn Station, an architectural marvel, before it was torn down to put the box of Madison Squarer Garden in it’s place. A real crime against humanity. This movie featurtes a ton of voice over by the great gravel throated Lionel Stander, who was in Once Upon A Time In The West and other cool films, like Unfaithfully Yours by Preston Sturis, and Cul de Sac by that perverted dwarf Roman Polanski.I think the VO was added later to help the film, I don’t think it was in the original script, there is a seperate credit for voice over writing. The Ending of this film is a classic, you have to see it, kind of reminiscent of the end of Truffaut’s Shoot The Piano Player.The director and Star of this film made another film after this called Pie In The Sky or Terror in the City. I havent seen it but I will be on the lookout for it. Then he went onto direct TV shows. Too Bad. The guy has real talent, he should have stayed in the Cinema. But we all have to make a living. So too bad.
I think there is a re-release of this film happening. I went to see it at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly on a double bill with Nighty Of The Hunter. First time I’ve been in a movie theater since the pandemic! Two great prints! They looked amazing! See it in 35mm if you are able. From the opening Out Of The Tunnel Birth sequence to the terrific ending, it’s worth it!
I just found out that a 4k restoration of this film is being shown in theaters. I think it’s one of Dennis Hoppers best films. I hear tell it started as an after school special, then Hopper took over and turned it into a crazy Art film. But it really is cool, great characters and acting, totally unexpected things happen in it, Check it out!
Here is a surreal Fairy Tale in Stop motion Claymation that freaked me out as a young kid. Gumby always had elements of strangeness. There’s one about Indians thats also pretty deep. These were made by Art Clokey, who I hear tell, dropped LSD and became a free love hippie type , abandoning his middle class family and chasing teen aged chicks, at least so the legend goes.
Sneaky Pete Kleinow
One of the animators on Gumby was the amazing Sneaky Pete Kleinow, who later went on to animate the Terminator metal monster in the first Terminator film. He also did the Pilsbury dough Boy, Poppin Fresh, a lot of commercials. But he was also an amazing pedal steel guitar player! Check out his playing on Frank Zappas Waka Jawaka album, Outstanding. And he played on a lot of C&W records, plus he was a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers. What an unsung genius!
I read that they were re-releasing this film in a limited release,stating in NYC. So I figured I’dcheck it out. It is directed by Fransesco Rosi ,a very creative,political filmmaker. I’ve seen a few of his other films, Salvatore Giuliano, Hands Over The City, The Swindlers. All very good and all shot by the great camerman Gianni DeVenanzo. This one however was not.Gianni died unexpectedly at age 46,but his operator Pasqualino DeSantis did shoot this film.And he did a great job,beautiful. (In my opinion no one comes close to Gianni when it comes to moving the camera around moving protagonists,the sense of space you get is magical. )
Illustrious Corpses stars the great acor Lino Ventura,a real presence on the screen. He is a real movie star. He didn’t want to act,he had to be talked into it by his friend Jaques Becker for Touchez Pas La Grisbi. And it paid off very well for him and for us,the film watchers! So thanks Jaques Becker! Also on hand are Max Von Sydow and Fernando Rey, icons of Bergman and Bunuel. The great Piero Piccione provides the score and the editing is by Ruggerio Mastroianni, brother of Marcello! Anyway the entire movie is on Youtube. The only problem I had was with the sound level, it keeps changing, quiet for dialog, loud for musical sequences. But watch it! It is a great movie! I think my favorite of Rosi’s so far. I still have a lot of his films to see, a thought I find very reassuring.
Here is a video of the great Alice Coltrane playing her harp, which her husband John Coltrane gave her. It cost &50,000, some of his profits from A Love Supreme. Alice is ba spiritual musical master, she forged her own direction in music and founded an Ashram in Los Angeles. An amazing woman and a great artist. She is also the great aunt of contemporary musicia Flying Lotus. Check out her albums, she had a long creative history with Pharoah Sanders as well, another giant on the jazz scene.
Here’s a CBS news piece from 1965, a veritable treasure trove of underground film/Art subjects! All crammed into uder 6 minutes. You get to see the early Velvet Underground, Barbara Rubin dressed as a nun in Piero Helcizer’s film as it’s being shot. Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Andy Warhol with his borrowed Norelco Video rig, Edie Sedgwick. It’s amazing. So travel back in time to NYC at the height of the Underground Film movement thanks to Youtube.
Everyone equates Nosferatu with F.W. Murnau, one of the all time great directors, and they should. He brought the film to life in such a powerful way that it still lives today. 90% of films made back then are either gone or forgotten, probably more. But let’s give credit where it’s due, Albin Grau ,who produced the film through his short lived company Prana Films also thought up the concept and designed the film. Here are some amazing images he created.
Albin Grau
F.W.Murnau
Pretty Damn Cool! You can see he was a huge part ofthe stylization,imagecreation,atmosphere,everything.Murnau ,being the supreme film artist that he was, created the celluloid realizations of these images, plus he shot on location which gave the film more reality, making it scarier.
Bram Stoker’s widow sued and won a copyright infringement lawsuit, she tried to have every copy of the film destroyed. And she almost succeded! Luckily for us a few prints and a negative escaped destruction. But Prana films was kaput! Albin Grau was forced to declare bankruptcy even though the film was a hit. The curse of Nosferatu continued with the tragic early death of Murnau in a car crash in California on the deadly Pacific Coast Highway. Years later his skull was stolen from his grave, presumably by some Satanists. Berg moved to Switzerland and worked as a graphic artist. Here’s a trailer from the restored version, so you can appreciate the beauty of Fritz Arno Wagner’s cinematography.
Here for Halloween we have a Mexican Horror film that is being screened at RED CAT, the theater under Disney Concert Hall here in Los Angeles.
