EGYPTOLOGY

 

Riddles Of The Sphynx, d. Laura Mulvey & Peter Wollen (1977)

Stills from this extraordinary experimental film treatise, capturing the enclosed back garden, the subsidised canteen, the smoking room, the outer office, the Arndale, BHS, a corner of the kitchenette. Perfectly observed details that sum up the artificiality and banality of life in the 1970s, particularly for the women expected to inhabit these places.

I once spoke to Laura Mulvey after a lecture. The conversation lasted approximately three minutes, which was more than enough time to know she was one of the most intelligent and interesting people I have ever met.

NOW YOU SEE IT

 

THREE SHOTS, FOUR SPOCKS

INBETWEENERS

A selection of backdrops, transitions and incidental details from Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-74).

THREE SHOTS

From Road Games, d. Richard Frankin (1981)

PSYCHEDELIC SCHOOLDAYS

School In The Crosshairs, d. Nobuhiko Obayashi (1981)

I've been watching a lot of Japanese genre films* lately. They can occasionally be lurid, and are sometimes obviously driven by dramatic conventions that I'm not particularly familiar with. They veer between tasteful restraint and hyperbolic fantasy. There is lots of shouting, screaming and the metallic quivering and wet thunks of sword blades slashing at flesh. It's good value, and there's lots of it: dozens of mad movies about yakuza gangs, delinquent girls, women in prison, travelling samurai warriors, groups of kooky kids trying to find their own way in a mixed up, often dangerous world. 

School In The Crosshairs has an awful lot going on, and calls to mind a haphazard mix of Grease, The Omen and drugs. The story of a high school infiltrated by evil aliens who install a fascist prefect system, it was directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, perhaps best known for horror comedy film Hausu (1977), a film that has wormed its way into the vocabulary of film hipsters all over the world. I don't say Crosshairs is a superior film, but it's just as much fun, and deserves to be better known. 

* I don't actually know what genre School In The Crosshairs is.

ROUGH SEA @

The Victorians had a thing for depictions of rough seas - not only on these oddly fragile postcards that mix photography and painting, but also in short films. Perhaps it was the allure of the primeval power of the elements being made small and safe and separate by technology, or just a new way of presenting an old obsession. Either way, I collect these odd artefacts in a casual way, and they fascinate me, so I thought I'd share a few from time to time.. The internet is all about sharing, isn't it? Whether you like it or not.

These rough seas @ Bournemouth, Eastbourne and Dover, respectively.

ALL THE ANGLES

 

A small but striking selection of traffic signs, signals and markings by German artist Winfred Gaul (1928-2003)

MORE CLARITY

More exploitative S*ientol*gical bullshit. I hate / love this stuff.

CHANNEL CLEAR

The Church of S*ientol*gy absolutely KILLING the mid 1990's corporate training video aesthetic with this feature length 'How To Spend Thousands of Dollars and Go Insane' film. Unfortunately, it's from 2009. Come on, people, aren't you supposed to be super advanced and from the future or some such shit?

Shots are from disc one of a two disc set. I illegally downloaded it off the internet, but I'm sure you can still get copies direct from the source. They probably only cost about £700.

I wouldn't normally censor myself, but I'm too old and tired to have some fucking psycho who thinks he's an elite, immortal alien going through my rubbish and writing shitty e-mails to my employers.