Wednesday 29 June 2016

TWEET


























Predrag Knežević, Ivana Stefanović, Marjan Radojičić: Bird Songs (1976)

Monday 27 June 2016

HER MAJESTY





















QUEEN OF BLOOD, d. Curtis Harrington (1966)

At the end of the film, the green skinned space vampire is revealed to bled to death from a scratch. The hasty conclusion is that she must have been a haemophiliac. This wild conjecture continues with 'perhaps she was some sort of royalty where she came from, a Queen, maybe'. From such tenuous ideas are horror film titles made.   

Thursday 16 June 2016

Friday 10 June 2016

ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING




















UNHOLY ROLLERS, d. Vernon Zimmerman (1972)

Filmed in an episodic, documentary style Unholy Rollers is a fun film with one extraordinary element: Claudia Jennings. Jennings, who had recently appeared in Playboy, gives an amazing performance. Her character is mean, scheming, contrary, and anarchic. She doesn’t care what anyone thinks, and thrives on bad vibes and jealousy. Her brief period of fame only makes her worse, and she learns absolutely no life lessons from her very public fall. She is unapologetically and irredeemably bad: there is no soft focus redemption scene, no heartrending backstory, no big, tearful speech about how badly the world has treated her. It’s enormously refreshing to realise that she simply doesn’t give a care. She’s great.

The roller derby world is something of a closed book to me, but it seems to be a true working class sport: unfashionable, small time, full of fighting – but democratic and empowering, seedy and magnificent in equal measure. It’s a great setting for a film and says everything you need to know about the characters and the limited options they have available to them.  

Friday 3 June 2016

SANS BONGS



Library music is strange, isn't it? It gets made on a speculative basis, then is sent out into the world with a note attached to it reading 'do what you like with me' - and it doesn't care who or how many people use it. Little wonder then that interest and amusement can be derived from hearing familiar music in an unfamiliar setting, like here in the 1973 cheapo Fiipino action adventure film Beyond Atlantis, in which a fight to the death between two attractive women is scored by the soundtrack to ITV's News At Ten (minus the chimes of Big Ben).

Wednesday 1 June 2016

2016 FILM DIARY, PART FIVE















From Bye Bye Monkey

01.05.2016 - 31.05.2016


Haunted, d. Michael A. De Gaetano(1976)
The Great Silence, d. Sergio Corbucci (1968)
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, d. Emilio Miraglia (1971)
The Incredible Professor Zovek, d. Rene Cardona (1972)
Blue Demon and Zovek in Invasion of the Dead, d. Rene Cardona (1972)
Anonymous Death Threat, d. Aldo Monti (1975)
Crystallization, d. Carroll Ballard (1975)
Night of the Seal, d. Jean-Jacques Birge (1974)
Solarflares Burn For You, d. Arthur Johns (1973)
Akenfield, d. Peter Hall (1974)
Bye Bye Monkey, d. Marco Ferreri (1978)
Rica, d. Ko Nakahira (1972)
Rica 2: Lonely Wanderer, d. Ko Nakahira (1973)
Rica 3: Juvenile Lullaby, d. Kozaburo Yoshimura (1973)
Eddie the Eagle, d. Dexter Fletcher (2016)
Flowers of Darkness, d. William Templeton (1972)
Angel Dust, d. Chuck Wintner (1980)
80 Blocks From Tiffanys, d. Gary Weis (1979) 
Flyin' Cut Sleeves, d. Henry Chalfant & Rita Fecher (1993)
NY77: The Coolest Year In Hell, d. Henry Cora (2007) 
The Man From Ganimedes, d. Juan Carlos Olaria (1976)
Night Of The Bloody Apes, d. Rene Cardona (1969)
The Mummies of Guanajuato, d. Federico Curiel (1972)
Arnold, d. Georg Fenady (1973)
Shanks, d. William Castle (1974)
Bug, d. Jeannot Szwarc (1975)
Pee Wee's Big Holiday, d. John Lee (2016)
Invocation of My Demon Brother, d. Kenneth Anger (1969)
Lucifer Rising, d. Kenneth Anger (1972)
Satanik, d. Piero Vivarelli (1968)
Sexy Cat, d. Julio Perez Taberno (1973)
Captain America: Civil War, d. Joe & Anthony Russo (2016)
Von Richthofen and Brown, d. Roger Corman (1971)
Aces High, d. Jack Gold (1976)
The Boy Who Turned Yellow, d. Michael Powell (1972)
Where Has Poor Mickey Gone?, d. Gerry Levy (1964)
The Fiend, d. Robert Hartford-Davis (1972)
The Astral Factor, d. John Florea (1976) 
The Bermuda Depths, d. Tom Kotani (1978)
Beyond Atlantis, d. Eddie Romero (1973)
The Devils Triangle, d. Richard Winer (1974)
On The Game, d. Stanley Long (1974)
Holiday, d. John Taylor (1957)
A Welcome To Britain, d. Anthony Asquith (1943)
The Night Caller, d. John Gilling (1965)
The Ghost Ship, d. Mark Robson (1943)
The Leopard Man, d. Jacques Tourneur (1943) 
The Seventh Victim, d. Mark Robson (1943)
The Insomniac, d. Rodney Giesler (1971)
Tales That Witness Madness, d. Freddie Francis (1973)