Before YouTube, there was the cheaply made VHS tutorial. 1995's Perfect Individual Routine (the follow up to Perfect Posing) tells us aspiring competitive bodybuilders all we need to know about how to make the most of a mere 90 seconds on stage, including smooth transitions, choosing the right music and, of course, the correct form for special auxiliary poses. It really is the definitive guide to 'hide specific weaknesses and highlight strengths in a KILLER routine'.
Sam Sobie Sterem, d. Katarzyna Latallo (1971)
I've seen a few translations of the original Polish title, mainly variations of 'I'm in Control'. But this hapless looking gentleman isn't in control of anything, least of all himself and his environment, as the director places him in a series of unnatural settings (a void, the pages of a book, underground) and makes him gyrate and perform, all the while flooding the frame with psychedelic colour and solarisation effects. It's pleasing to note that the director is a woman, and this is the early seventies, so it makes a change to see a bloke being messed about.
When boring people bang on about 'health & safety', you can always thread the 1928 film Noah's Ark into the conversation. This epic Hollywood movie (a transitional talkie, i.e. sound technology became available towards the end of filming and they incorporated it where they could) culminates in a recreation of The Great Flood, with 600,000 gallons of water being pumped onto a set filled with thousands of extras. Three drowned, one had to have his legs amputated, and there were dozens of other serious injuries.
Director Michael Curtiz later avoided a repeat of this debacle by setting Casablanca in the desert.
These screenshots are taken just before the disaster, and feature pagan demagogue King Nephilim, and Jaguth, their imposing and terrifying Jacob Epstein-like idol. Don't worry, they'll both soon be underwater, and then Noah and his kids can repopulate the world with nice proper Christian people.
Issue 94, week ending August 4th, 1976.
Obviously inspired by the incorporation of Dracula Lives into the Planet Of The Apes comic in issue 88, this cover gleefully ramps up the usually neglected gothic horror aspect of the series to exhilarating effect.
Dresden Dynamo, d. Lis Rhodes (1971)
While still a student at North East London Polytechnic, Lis Rhodes applied a range of Letratone stickers directly onto 16mm film and used filters to create red and blue colours. No camera was used.
On projection, the stickers create a range of unusual and atonal sounds: buzzes, fuzz, bleeps and throbs, and these random sounds complement the pulsing images as if by design.
Rhodes said later: 'It was an attempt to make a material connection between what is seen and what is heard. The image is the sound.'
If any of you are familiar with my musical project, Beam Weapons, and ever wondered what inspires some of the noises we make, simply watch this film, a source of ongoing inspiration.
Supplemental: Dynamo Dresden are a German football team formed in 1953, originally affiliated to the East German Police, then the Stasi, the secret police and state security agency. Highly successful during the lifespan of the DDR, often by nefarious means (intimidating referees, transfer fixing, blackmail, violence and murder) they have fared less well since reunification, and currently play in the German Third Division.
My eleven year old self was absolutely obsessed with Alien in 1979, although I wasn't able to see it until 1981, when it finally came out on VHS. I did, however, have the novelisation, and The Book Of Alien, a fantastic compendium of stills, sketches and extracts from the script. I have no idea where either of those went. I also had a small collection of bubblegum cards of which this is the only known survivor and is, therefore, my favourite in the series.
How disputes should be settled: in a well-appointed room, with comfortable leather chairs, plenty of plants and a deep pile rug. Both parties seem intractable at the beginning, but may well move towards consensus in this quiet and neutral environment. If they don't emerge as the best of pals in an hour, simply chuck a couple of medieval weapons into the room and firmly shut the door.
The Touchables (1968) is a lovely idea, but it runs out of steam very quickly. The visuals remain great throughout, however, with this sequence featuring dancer / model / actress Esther Anderson a particular pop art delight / highlight.
The multi-talented Anderson was originally from Jamaica, and played a pivotal and somewhat unsung role in popularising reggae in the UK, including helping to develop Island Records. She later became a photographer and film maker, and remains a very interesting person.
Patty Hearst, d. Paul Schrader (1988)
'Marie Antoinette didn't know anything about the French Revolution until they cut off her head'.
On February 4th, 1974, 19 year old heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by a terrorist group called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). The original plan was for the SLA to exchange her for some imprisoned comrades, but this didn't happen, and the group refused all offers of ransom money from her parents.
After two months of imprisonment, sensory deprivation, indoctrination, intimidation and rape, Patty was given the choice to 'join or die' so, on April 15th, she helped the SLA rob a bank whilst wielding a machine gun.
Hearst was finally returned to her family in September 1975, 17 months after being taken prisoner. The following year, she was sentenced to seven years in prison for bank robbery and using a firearm during the commissioning of a felony. Brainwashing was not used as a defence, as it had no precedent in law. The sentencing Judge stated: 'rebellious young people who, for whatever reason become revolutionaries, and voluntarily commit criminal acts will be punished'. Motherfuckers*.
Paul Schrader's fast moving film is unambiguous about the ordeal that the previously sheltered and naive Hearst goes through, and Natasha Richardson plays Patty as permanently scared, off-balance and confused (her IQ dropped by about 30 points during her captivity, and her health was seriously affected). Crammed into a small apartment, the SLA spend their time doing calisthenics, posing with guns and sleeping with each other. Worst of all, THEY WILL NOT STOP TALKING, not even for a moment - endlessly and monotonously droning on about race, about class, about power, about violence, about sex, about money, about offing pigs- the whole scene is claustrophobic, suffocating, stultifying, deafening - it makes your brain itch. After half an hour I was ready to shoot someone.
*Hearst was released after two years at the behest of President Carter, and later pardoned.
.png)
.png)
