David Thomson's Suspects

In anticipation to the No Exit Press re-release of David Thomnson's fabulous book Suspects, in which the narrator writes short biographies of classic film noir characters and then these characters start to meet each other outside the films as if they were real people with real needs and passions, here are some Noir classics culled You Tube, the universe's converging point for all things that move. Kamera will be running an interview with Thomson soon, so watch this space.


Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard




Edward Robinson in Scarlet Street




Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity




Okay, this is not footage from a film but Joan Crawford was the star of one of the greatest Noir films ever, Mildred Pearce (1945), which is not to found on YT. However, I did find this bizarre interview with a tipsy Crawford arriving at an aiport in America in 1968.

Orson Welles' wine commercial

Orson Welles remains one of my all-time favourite film personalities and this video showing what Gawker described as a "long-debauched Orson Welles drunkenly slurring his way through a few takes on the Paul Masson wine commercials from the 1970s" brings Welles even closer to my heart. Salud!

Touching Politics

The Goethe-Institut London will be presenting between Wednesday 20 September and Tuesday 26 September a series of films selected from the archives of the Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek, Berlin, under the banner Touching Politics. The mini season is curated by film practitioner Florian Wüst.

Set against the backdrop of outstanding moments in 20th century history, the four programmes combine avant-garde classics, and rarely screened documentary and experimental films by filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger, Bruce Baillie, Hollis Frampton, Joris Ivens, Sharon Lockhart, Hans Richter, or Joyce Wieland. Made between 1926 and 1994, the twenty-two films of these programmes present an "exemplary synthesis of artistic vision and political engagement, of autobiographical approaches and social contexts, of sensuousness and conceptual rigour". Florian Wüst will introduce the first two screenings.

The Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek in Berlin is one of Germany’s most important film institutions. It maintains an archive and runs a distribution branch that share an extensive international collection of historical and contemporary feature, documentary and experimental films characterised by their formal experimentation as well as their engagement with social and political issues.

Goethe-Institut London

Milano Film Festival

After Venice, it's time for the Milano Film Festival, which starts on Friday 15 September. According to the organisers, the event's aim is "to promote and give young and less known directors a chance to emerge". The films are screened without being divided into categories. They will all be screened in original language with Italian and English subtitles, and their directors are invited to present their works to the festival audience.

Full programme +

Venice 2006 winners

The Golden Lion went to Sanxia Haoren (Still Life) by Jia Zhang-Ke, the Silver Lion for Best Director went to Alain Resnais for the film Private Fears in Public Places and Ben Affleck got the Coppa Volpi award for Best Male Actor for his role in Hollywoodland. Check out the rest of the winners of the Venice festival here +

Destricted: not a turn-on

Ever the film anthropologist, yesterday I tried to see the art/porn flick Destricted, currently showing in London. A group of short films directed by Marina Abramović, Marco Brambilla, Matthew Barney, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noe, Richard Prince and Sam Taylor-Wood, Destricted was curated by New York-based arts man Neville Wakefield. Sadly, the screening was sold out, which seems to indicate that sex continues to sell, despite the current media saturation of sexual imagery that is enough to make the idea of a chastity vow seem like a viable protest option.

I will try again tomorrow because I'm very curious to see what the artists/filmmakers have come up with (I haven't taken the vow yet, you see). I personally think the one name involved in the project that makes absolute sense is Larry Clark's because blurring the line between art and pornography is his leitmotif - but where is Bruce LaBruce? And why Sam Taylor Wood? While I can't give you my personal verdict on Destricted, here's a round-up of reviews around the web.

Film Threat claimed that "as a sociological statement on human sexuality, it’s practically worthless". Future Movies didn't like it either and said: "Whatever most of the filmmakers here were trying to achieve, it sheds no light on porn, simply reproducing it at its most trite, stale and unimaginative." Deep Focus's review was a bit more lubed. It said, "Destricted is as hit-and-miss as you'd expect of a collection of art-porn shorts." I also found an interview with Larry Clark on Nerve magazine about his contribution to the project and I particularly liked his correction of the information previously given to the interviewer that all collaborators had had talks with Neville about what they would do. Said Clark, "My deal was, they gave me the money, I made the film, they didn't know what I was doing until I sent them a rough cut of the film." Clark, it must be said, is blessed with a delightful penchant for straight talking and incapability to use art world lingo, an aspect of his rebel personality that I experienced first-hand when I saw him at the ICA last year.

Venice's blonde ambition

Maybe I'm imagining things, but this year's edition of the Venice Film Festival seems like a blond fest, or at least that's what it appeared to me when I was checking the photos that arrived at Kamera's picture desk. Why, even Juliete Binoche, who's been a patron saint of brunette film stars since she became a brunette film star in the 1980s, has shown up at the sinking city doing an impersonation of Nastassja Kinski in Paris Texas. Maybe they all got inspired by the golden mane of the lion or something...
(pictured: Juliette Binoche, Scarlett Johansson, Guillermo Del Toro, Douglas McGrath, Catherine Deneuve, and Aaron Eckhart)

Venice Film Festival

Our man in Europe, film journalist Boyd van Hoeij, who runs the superb European-films.net site, gives us the lowdown on the sometimes not so dolce vitta behind the scenes at the oldest and, according to Boyd, worst organised film festival in the world.

Read more +

Hal Hartley's back

Hal Hartley (pictured) has been named juror for Independent Exposure 2007, Microcinema International's touring short film and video festival, which enters its 12th Season. Says Hartley: "Independent Exposure is one of those cool and vital efforts at curatorship which helps new films get seen by audiences who seek out new forms of entertainment. Microcinema does a great job of pulling together exciting new work and I look forward to being the judge for the 2007 season."

Having lived in New York a great part of his film career, Hartley recently relocated to Berlin in Germany. And those who have been waiting for a new Hartley film for ages, here is the good news: he has just completed shooting his newest feature, Fay Grim , throughout Europe and Southern Asia with Parker Posey, Tom Ryan, Jeff Goldblum, James Urbaniak and others.

Hartley won the Young Filmmakers Award at the 1994 Tokyo International Film Festival for his film Amateur (1994), which was also premiered at the Cannes Director's Fortnight of that year. Retrospectives of his work have been presented at The Rotterdam Festival in 1992 and Gijon, Spain, in 2003. He won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes in 1998 for his film Henry Fool (1997) (see clip here +) and best screenplay at Sundance in 1991 for Trust (1990).

The director was made a Chevalier of arts and letters by the Republic of France in 1997 and taught filmmakingat Harvard University from September 2001 until May 2004. Shortly after that, he was awarded a fellowship by the American Academy in Berlin.

More about Hartley +

Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films - this Friday!

Just a quick post to mention that things have changed with this year's Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films since my last blog on the subject.

First of all, Crispin Glover is the Guest of Honour and the great actor will be showing a 35mm print of his directorial debut WHAT IS IT? Glover is, of course, one of the finest character actors of any generation - having headlined 2003's excellent "Willard" and also featured in the classic "Back to the Future" and "River Edge". Other notable roles include both "Charlie's Angels" films, "Twister" and, of course, his brilliant cameo in David Lynch's masterful "Wild at Heart".

Also appearing at the fest is Lamberto Bava with his British debut. Bava is the director of "Demons", "Demons 2", "Macabre" and "Body Puzzle" - although his finest work is his shocking giallo "A Blade in the Dark", which the fest will also screen. His most recent work includes "Ghost Son" and he has also apprenticed his father - the legendary Mario Bava (on "Shock" aka "Beyond the Door 2") as well as Dario Argento.

Fans attending will also have the chance to meet Ken Foree - who will introduce a 35mm showing of "The Devil's Rejects" and talk about his work in such flicks as "Dawn of the Dead", "The Dentist" and the upcoming "Brotherhood of Blood".

The web site is here:

http://fantastic-films.com/festival/

Have fun!

Calum Waddell

RIP Joe Stefano - writer of PSYCHO

A very sad thing to find out - the legendary writer of "Psycho" and creator of "The Outer Limits" Joe Stefano passed away on Friday the 25th August, aged 84. Stefano was a talented and innovative man and one whom I had the pleasure to meet in person and to interview. I'll be submitting a more substantial piece on the great personality and his work to Kamera. Stay tuned.

Calum Waddell

With thanks to www.fangoria.com

Mike Leigh's Sarajevo honour

British director Mike Leigh has been honoured at the Sarajevo Film Festival with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award for his "outstanding contribution to the art of cinema and the support to the development of the Sarajevo Film Festival."

Read full story +

Godard's Histoire(s) du cinéma clip

It was with much excitement that I came across Godard's Histoire(s) du cinéma for quite while I was doing one of my archive-vulturing on Youtube.The clip is just over nine minutes long but it's well worth it and gives an idea of the complete piece's form.

Tom Cruise's fall from grace

Like a lot of independent and arthouse film lovers, it's with a strong sense of Schadenfreude (and pride for finally being able to use this word in the correct context!) that I have been watching the tacky exchanges between the Cruise and the Viacom money people. Is this perhaps the end of the era when A List stars can demand half of the budget of a film and leave the rest of the world gaping at the surrealness of their situation? It's time someone put a stop to the Hanks, Roberts and Cruises of the world and rechannel those astronomic salaries to the production of thousands of small-budget masterpieces! Ann Magnuson, of the LA Woman blog and someone who always tells it like it is, has published some interesting thoughts on the whole story. You can read them here +

Jonas Mekas year-long film marathon

Jonas Mekas (pictured), that 83-year-old indefatigable veteran of art cinema activism who founded the New York Anthology Film Archives in 1970, has been hired by Apple’s video iPod to produce 365 short videos, releasing one a day, beginning September 15. Plus, he’ll be curating a downloadable series of classic shorts by experimental filmmakers and videos by the likes of Martin Scorsese, John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, and Abel Ferrara. You can sign up to receive updates about Mekas's Small Apple adventure on Jonasmekas.com +

São Paulo International Short Film Festival

Those of you who can't make it to the 17th São Paulo International Short Film Festival, one of the biggest showcases of short films in the world, fret not. The excellent online exhibition platform, Porta Curtas, has teamed up with the festival to show part of the programme.

Enjoy it...

Kirsten Dunst's makeover

I know that make-up can do wonders for a Hollywood starlet, but this shot of Kirsten Dunst for the September cover of Interview magazine really takes the biscuit. It's a good job they have her name written really big on the page otherwise, who would have guessed? Anyway, she looks great...whoever she is...

Harmony Korine's video for Sonic Youth

Fans of Harmony Korine must be wondering what the Kids writer has been up to. Teaming up once again with his friend Macaulay Culkin, he made this quite sweet video for the band Sonic Youth. You can watch here.

Oliver Stone's World Trade Center

"In his new film, 'World Trade Center,' the director turns the events of 9/11 into an easily digestible myth of American heroism, with an almost happy ending. Huh?"

Anthony Kaufman, Alternet.org

Full story +

Derelict London

The site dedicated to all things derelict in London called, you guessed it, Derelict London, is an internet idea that promises boundless material to work with. It includes a section on former cinema theatre sites. Pass the handkerchief...
(Pic: Walthamstow's Dominion)

Crumbling London film houses +

Screening room: Ciao Manhattan

Filmmaker David Weisman recently discovered over 30 hours of pristine 35mm outtake footage from CIAO! MANHATTAN, the film that has become better known as as a document of the final drugged-out days of famed heiress and Andy Warhol Factory muse Edie Sedgwick (pictured left).

Watch it +

Screening room: Bettie page clips

As the summer takes a break from the heat and converts, temporarily I hope, to an early autumn, warm up with the lovely Bettie Page, whose biopic, the Notorious Bettie Page, is out in the UK this weekend.

Machester Festival of Fantastic Films 2006

Held from Friday September 1st to Sunday September 3rd, this year's Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films is shaping up to be something special. The guests this year include "Dawn of the Dead" legend Ken Foree (who will present a 35mm showing of "The Devil's Rejects", in which he also has a starring turn) and Fassbinder protege Ulli Lommel, best known as the man behind the famed horror flick "The Boogey Man" and the Tony Curtis headlined "Brain Waves." Lommel rarely makes festival appearances but has made an exception in order to present his classic shocker "Tenderness of the Wolves", starring Kurt Raab.

Other movies showing are Tim Sullivan's insane "2001 Maniacs", Tobe Hooper's "Mortuary", the upcoming "Wilderness" and such promising indies as "Lie Still", "33 x Around the Sun", "Venus Drowning" and "Pervert."

For more information check out the fest's web site: http://fantastic-films.com/festival/

Hope to see you there

Calum Waddell

Harvey Weinstein and Michael Moore together again

Via Chron.com: "Harvey Weinstein backed Michael Moore's hit documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Now, the film mogul is backing Moore's Traverse City Film Festival." Moore announced Friday that Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax Films, and former Republican Gov. William Milliken will serve as honorary co-chairs of a new community group called Friends of the Traverse City Film Festival.

Read full article +

Indie-gestion

Via Now Playing: "As I’ve commented before, there’s a lot of bad independent cinema these days that just sort of floats by hazily, its attempts at courting more overt commerciality ironically rendering it indistinct. Then there’s something like Shadowboxer..."


Read full article

Screening: Pasolini´s La Ricotta

Enjoy it...

Short is short

Via Shortfilm.de: "In the early days of cinema, all films were short films. This is a banal acknowledgement and really nothing remarkable as such. But what is interesting is that, after over one hundred years of technical and aesthetic advances, some of the characteristics and criteria that identified short film back then are still valid today: short film is defined by its length. The short form is also a medium for innovation, as versatile as cinema itself. Looking at things from this historical perspective, we can perhaps succeed at circumventing some of the difficulties we face in defining what exactly short film is."

Read full article +

Underground American cinema

Today on Kamera's screening room are clips of some classics of American Underground chic: Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls and Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising. Plus a documentary on the Velvet Underground. Enjoy it!

Chelsea Girls




Scorpio Rising




Velvet Underground

Richard Linklater: "The Dostoyevsky of movie dialogue"

I'm going through a Richard Linklater phase right now. So here's yet another link to an article on the Texan auteur, penned by Gary Indiana.

Read full article +

Fans angry at Battle Royale's Hollywood remake

Via the International Herald Tribune: "When Variety reported last month that New Line Cinema had purchased rights to remake the director Kinji Fukasaku's "Battle Royale," the reaction on fan sites and Asian film blogs was, well, heartfelt. "I hate Hollywood," wrote one fan. "Is nothing sacred?" asked another."

Read full article +

Noting camp

Kamera's contributor Deborah Allison has published this article about camp in relation to George Kuchar's film Hold While I'm Naked. So, like an illustrated lecture, here are a couple of clips from the film to give you folks an idea of what she means.

Interview with Werner Herzog

Via Wired.com: "In Werner Herzog’s films, the main characters tend to be ambitious explorers who find themselves crashing in spectacular failure."

Read full article +

The indie bandwagon...

World Entertainment News Network wrote on IMDB that "Kevin Spacey has pledged his allegiance to independent movies, despite starring in blockbuster Superman Returns. Spacey is quoted saying: "I'll never be a leading man in the traditional Hollywood sense, I'm a character actor, but as a result of that I think I get a lot more interesting parts."

Memo to Mr Spacey: the independent film scene is very happy to put him on a permanent loan to braindraining Hollywood considering his indie credentials so far, which amount to, well, nil.

Channel 4 warns against new ad rules

Via Buzzle.com: Channel 4's channel could be forced to slash its commitment to showing European cinema because of new advertising rules planned by the European commission, the broadcaster warned today. The commission's new audiovisual media services directive is set to restrict advertising breaks to once every 35 minutes in televised films, news bulletins and children's programmes.

Read full article +

Parker Posey: she's Super indie

Indie icon Parker Posey (pictured with Kevin Spacey in Superman Returns), who is currently doing a bit of bread-earning in Hollywood's superhero land, gave an interview to New York Magazine about her status as the most hard-working indie-queen. Posey's New York neighbour Chloe Sevigny happened to pass by during the interview... it's the independent world's equivalent of Sex and the City.

Read full article +

Around the web

Kamera's regular contributor Thessa Mooij recently published an article on Cineaste magazine about Bollywood. And, since I have a soft spot for his films, I'll recommend this interview with Larry Clark in the Village Voice.

Ken Loach at the Barbican

Ken Loach's appearance as a guest of the Barbican's ScreenTalk series is available to download from the organisation's site.

Here +

Atom Egoyan at the Barbican

Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan will be talking to journalist Gareth Evans on Monday 3 July, following a special screening of his experimental camcorder documentary Citadel, which traces the deeply personal return of actor Arsinee Khanjian, Atom's personal and professional partner, to Lebanon after a 28-year absence.

Says Egoyan: “Citadel was shot on a Sony Mini DV camera during a family vacation to Lebanon. Arsinee was born and raised in Beirut. She hadn't been back for 28 years. Upon looking at the footage on our return, several ideas began to cross my mind. This film is a spontaneous reflection on what the trip meant to us. The film was edited on a home computer with Final Cut Pro. Needless to say, this film was made without a budget, script or any sense of pre-conception. Citadel was completed for Camera, a multi-media gallery designed for digital projection. Twenty years ago, I shot my first feature film, Next of kin, for $25,000 on 16mm. Twenty years later, digital technology has allowed me to make Citadel for a fraction of that amount.”

Further info

Expanded Cinema book now free to download

The seminal 1970 book Expanded Cinema by Gene Youngblood is now available for free download, which is great, since the book is no longer in print.

Here's a short description of Youngblood's visionary book:

"In a brilliant and far-ranging study, Gene Youngblood traces the evolution of cinematic language to the end of fiction, drama, and realism. New technological extensions of the medium have become necessary. Thus he concentrates on the advanced image-making technologies of computer films, television experiments, laser movies, and multiple-projection environments, laser movies, and multiple-projection environments. Outstanding works in each field are analyzed in detail. Methods of production are meticulously described, including interviews with artists and technologists. Expanded Cinema is filled with provocative post-McLuhan philosophical probes into :"the Paleocybernetic Age," "the videosphere," and "the new nostalgia," all in the context of what the author calls "the global intermedia network." In "Image-Exchange and the Post-Mass Audience Age," Mr. Youngblood discusses the revolutionary implications of videotape cassettes and cable television as educational tools. His observations are placed in a comprehensive perspective by an inspiring introduction written by R. Buckmister Fuller. Vast in scope, both philosophical and technical, Expanded Cinema will be invaluable to all who are concerned with the audio-visual extensions of man, the technologies that are reshaping the nature of human communication. "

Get it here +

The sex 'issue' - part II

Last week I wrote about how 'realistic sex' has become the remit of independent cinema as a chaste Hollywood currently shies away from anything remotely erotic. I also wondered what indies will come up with and whether arthouse audiences really want real sex on the screen. Well, yesterday I came across this video showing the standing ovation that John Cameron Mitchell received in Cannes following the screening of his sexually explicit Shortbus film (due out in 2007). I guess the reaction of the crowd answers my question...

Watch: Varese & Le Corbusier - Poeme electronique -1958

Beautiful 1958 musical collage from the the Electronic music genius Edgard Varèse, created for the World’s Fair at Brussels. Via Screenhead.

The real thing...

Via Boston.com: 'When is an indie film not an indie film?'

Read full article +

Richard Linklater, America's most European director

Austin360.com published an insightful profile on Austin native director Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise/Before Sunrise) focusing on his European influences.

Read full article +

And here's the trailer to Linklater's upcoming Fast Food Nation:

Vertigo Magazine and Cahiers du Cinéma get together for week-long event

Between 23 and 29 June at Ciné Lumière in London, our friends from Vertigo film magazine and the iconic publication Cahiers du Cinéma will be holding a joint event called Crossing Borders: Vertigo, Cahiers du Cinéma and independent film. The organisers promise a line-up of "the very best in imaginative, innovative and always resonant world cinema."

The encounter between the two magazines will also mark the relaunch of Vertigo as a quarterly magazine with the publication of its first, expanded issue and a newly designed website.

Founded in 1951, the Cahiers du Cinéma was in its early days intimately involved with the Nouvelle Vague, publishing essays by Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Chris Marker and Claude Chabrol, among others. Even though it has lost the authoritative reputation that it once enjoyed, the publication still is a reference for cinephiles the world over.

Showcasing a dozen new and recent features, including UK premieres and rare screenings for little-seen and important work, the season will "defend difference and diversity in film culture, with director Q&As and three major discussion events contextualising the programme. Highlights include the UK premieres of Chris Marker’s Chats Perchés and Xavier Beauvois’ Le Petit Lieutenant. The season will look at the role played by both magazines in developing a broad film culture, and the influence of experimental work and world cinema on the aesthetics of contemporary cinema.

Guest speakers will include Cahiers du Cinéma editors Jean-Michel Frodon and Emmanuel Burdeau, Vertigo editors Holly Aylett and Gareth Evans, screenwriter Tony Grisoni, documentary maker Ken Fero, writer Iain Sinclair and others.


Vertigo

Cahiers Du Cinéma

Trailer watch: The Notorious Bettie Page

Mary Harron, who directed I Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho, has now turned her attention to the most famous American pin-up girl: Bettie Page.

Trailer.

War of the Worlds

Orson Welles' famous broadcast of War of the Worlds is now available for streaming and dowloading from the Internet Archive.

2006 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival awards

Via African News Dimension: Mo & Me, a documentary about photojournalist Mohamed “Mo” Amin, won Silver Screen Award at the festival held in New York City. The film offers an unflinching and deeply personal recollection of the man whose TV footage of the 1984 Ethiopian famine so galvanised the world.

Read full story+

Francesco Vezzoli at the Tate Modern

Those of you who will be venturing near London's South Bank between 03 June Sunday and 11 June Sunday should check out Francesco Vezzoli's MARLENE REDUX - A True Hollywood Story, which will be screened on a loop daily for free between 12noon and 4pm in the Starr Auditorium of the Tate Modern.

The Italian artist's new video project "takes as its starting point the impossible ambition of remaking Maximilian Schell’s 1984 documentary Marlene, which starred Marlene Dietrich and influential textile designer and Bauhaus figure Anni Albers. Vezzoli reformulates this classic film as a sensational fake television programme about art, fame and the deconstruction of a public persona. "

More+

Julie Delpy sings!

I knew Julie Delpy looked like an angel, but I didn't know she could sing like one too...

Read and listen +

DOC'S KINGDOM presents this year's programme

DOC'S KINGDOM, the documentary cinema gathering that will take place between 13 and 18 June in Serpa, Portugal has posted the programme for the event. Frederick Wiseman will be attending, which makes the event quite unmissable really.

Festival site.

Ken Loach wins the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival

Ken Loach won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with his new film, The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

Read more +

John Waters: No Smoking

I just came across this in the viral section of Ifilm...priceless...

Enron former execs found guilty

While the film Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room has been doing really well in the UK - it took £37,746 on just six screens when it opened on 28 April - former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and founder Kenneth Lay have been found guilty of conspiracy and fraud following the 15-week trial which involved a total of 54 witnesses and a jury of eight women and four men.

The decision came after six days of deliberations, with Kenneth Lay proved to be guilty on all six of his charges and Jeff Skilling found guilty on 19 of the 26 charges he faced. The former executives have been found guilty of misleading the public about the true financial health of Enron, which has become one of the biggest business scandals in American history and has sent shockwaves through corporate boardrooms worldwide.

The documentary feature Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, which received an Oscar nomination this year, is still playing round the country. The film is based on the best-selling book The Smartest Guys in the Room by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind and features insider accounts and corporate audio and videotapes.

Film site.

Executives step in to defend Da Vinci Code film at Cannes Film Festival

Via the New Zealand Herald today: "Senior movie industry executives went on the offensive yesterday in defence of The Da Vinci Code after its mauling by the critics at the Cannes Film Festival. Executives took the almost unheard-of step of speaking personally to the press to deliver initial box office results that indicate a strong public appetite for more Dan Brown, despite criticisms that the adaptation of his bestselling book is boring and baffling."

Full story +

Kenneth Anger in Bremen

Those who happen to be visiting the German town of Bremen until 25 June (as you do) should take the opportunity to see a show of Kenneth Anger's films at the Künstlerhaus Bremen under the title Pleased to Meet You (ed: a reference to the Stones' Sympathy for the Devil, which rock and roll legend says was inspired by Mr Anger).

The text that accompanies the show gives us a brief introduction to Mr Anger's life and times:

"At the Festival du Film Maudit in Biarritz in 1949 a group of young cinéastes came together. With their challenge to established cinema, they incorporated the new generation, the later Nouvelle Vague. The winner of the festival in the category Poetic Film was the 19-year-old American Kenneth Anger with his film Fireworks. One weekend in 1947 – Mr. and Mrs. Anger had gone to a funeral – 17-year-old Kenneth had availed himself of the opportunity and made an experimental film in his parents' apartment; it was to become a milestone in the history of the genre. While the Nouvelle Vague attempted to oppose the bourgeois traditions of the cinema, Anger's films constituted a critique of the dream factory Hollywood. He had his own, very different approach to collective dreams, myths and desire. Anger's films are not narrative, they present images of magic rituals in which each sign points to some unknown transcendence. The heightened sensuality resulting from the intensely opulent colours and the way individual images are blended imbue these films with a baroque splendour. Anger's technique of linking image and sound and his borrowings from popular culture were formative and would later impact the genre of the music video. Anger inspired the Rolling Stones to their hit song Sympathy for the Devil and greatly influenced film directors such as David Lynch, Donald Cammell, Roger Corman, R. W. Fassbinder and Martin Scorsese, who called Anger “an artist of exceptional imagination”."

This exhibition of Kenneth Anger's oeuvre at the Künstlerhaus Bremen is his first solo exhibition in Germany.

Teaser: Wal-Mart the Movie

Watch it +
©American Rights at Work www.americanrightsatwork.org/walmart

Cannes 2006

Cahier du Cinema's May issue has a special section on Cannes.

The magazine gave the cover to Sophia Coppola's Marie-Antoienette, starred by Kirsten Dunst (the rest of the cast includes god and his wife). The same issue has a French language review of Almodovar's new film 'Volver', which apparently is due out in the UK in August.

Documentary on Jack Smith

Having been a fan of director/performer/artist/writer underground pioneer Jack Smith since I discovered him in 1999 thanks to the now defunct cinema in Hoxton Square, London, I was pleased to find out about Mary Jordan's debut feature on Smith called Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis - those familiar with Smith's work will know what the reference in the title is all about (he was obsessed with Atlantis, The Thousand and One Nights and Maria Montez).

Jack Smith (left) in action

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis screened at the Tribeca film festival which folded last weekend (7/5; a review of the festival is being uploaded tonight) and hopefully will be arriving in the UK in the near future.

Meanwhile, the film's website contains clips and all sorts of Flash animations. It also gives the uninitiated a good introduction to Smith's legacy.

Hi-Beam's page on Jack Smith +

It's Cannes time...again

Is it me or it seems like yesterday since the last edition of the Cannes Festival? The arrival of the festival always catches me by surprise, like a preying feline suddenly jumping on the road. Indiewire has filed a good overview of the independent corner of Cannes 06:

"Italy, Australia and Romania are the hotbeds of world cinema, with Spain and Mexico not far behind, while Middle Eastern and Asian movies have lost their luster. That is, of course, if you believe the films chosen to screen at next week's Cannes Film Festival can be taken as a sign of cinematic prosperity."

Full article +

European Media Art Festival

EMAF, Europe's leading media art festival, starts tomorrow in the town of Osnabrück in Germany and I'll be there during the coming weekend as a guest and exhibitor. My video 'Job Interview' was selected for this year's programme. I'll be filing a dispatch early next week.

The objective of the festival is to offer comprehensive overview over the latest tendencies and developments of media art. This year's programme includes 200 new experimental films and videos plus 50 installations, performances, lectures and discussions.

Under the motto "Smart Art" the EMAF's organisers are promising to show "current works that question social conventions, take familiar things out of their context and subtly track down the absurdities of individual and social everyday life. The approaches range from popular subjects to
provocative statements that go down new paths of artistic debate in film, installation and expanded media, making playful and intelligent use of various media."

Check out the festival's site to see more details of the programme.

24 in London

The film version of the hit TV programme '24' will be shot in London, wrote the Telegraph.

Full story+

So bad it's good

Via the Guardian: a feature article about what it takes for a bad movie to be promoted to the 'so-bad-it's good' category.

Full article +

Online viewing...

See how the internet is adding possibilities to the world of film. Online film site Clickflicks.net is hosting the online voting for candidate short films, spec commercials and music videos for the 2006 Gotham City International Film & Video Festival, to be held between 29 October and 5 November in New York City.

Voting started yesterday and goes on until 15 June. The candidate films, commercials and music videos will be available for online viewing and voting in a special festival section of the site. The top two films from each of nine categories will become finalists in the festival.

Clickflicks +

Gotham Festival +

Congratulations

Kamera arrived back from its Labour Day break to find out that our regular contributor Calum Waddell is a semi-finalist in the 2006 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Congratulations Calum!

Lists

For those of you who like best director lists, here's the latest.

Arrested development

As far as attempts to call media attention go, this press release that arrived this afternoon at Kamera's newswires takes the (dog's) biscuit. Cashing in on Snoop Dogg's Heathrow arrest, who arrived in the country yesterday to promote his new film, the PR people promoting the film issued a note to tell the media "the film is ironically told from Snoop’s prisons cell, telling the story of his life in the fast lane as a pimp. Unlike the golden prison bars and diamond crusted locks shown in the film, Snoop will be held in a West London police station. Let’s hope that his lawyer will be as good- looking as the honey in the film! Snoop’s DVD will be released on Monday, let's hope that he will be too!".

The world is getting smaller...

The San Francisco International Film Festival dedicated part of its programme to 20 films made for mobile devices with 2-inch-by-3-inch screens as part of its Pocket Cinema section.

Read full story.

Vertigo then and now

Fans of Hitchcock, which I think the whole of the Kamera fraternity are, will love this website which constrasts stills of San Francisco from the film Vertigo with images of same spots now. The places chosen looked much better on the film, I thought...

Let me see it.

DeNiro's Tribeca festival opens

The Tribeca film festival, founded by Robert De Niro, opens today with the world premiere of a movie about the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Full story

The Return of a Legend - Herschell Gordon Lewis

Recently my good friend Andy Lalino at 51st State Productions announced that he was going into business with a true legend - the exploitation director Herschell Gordon Lewis ("Blood Feast", "Two Thousand Maniacs!", "She Devils on Wheels", "The Wizard of Gore"... need I go on?). Mr Lalino was kind enough to include me on his press releases and below is the response to the HG Lewis/ 51st State Productions team-up, which will begin with a film entitled "Herschell Gordon Lewis's Grim Fairy Tales"...

Cheers!
Calum Waddell



We've experienced a tremendous reaction to the Grim Fairy Tales/Back in Blood press release sent out March 7th:
- Major horror-themed trade magazines, Fangoria and Rue Morgue, personally contacted us, with RM requesting an interview with H.G. Lewis.
- We have received inquiries from actors, crew people, and distributors. Correspondence is currently being reviewed.
- Hits on the Film State 51 website skyrocketed to over 2,000.
- Bloggers and "boardies" (message board fanatics) from all over the U.S. and the world have been writing with excitement about our projects.
- Fangoria.com, The Horror Channel, Creature-Corner and many other horror-themed websites have publicized the press release on their news pages.

H.G. Lewis is All the Rage: 2 new major studio remakes:
In addition to FS51's Back in Blood, other studios have been busily producing and releasing remakes of H.G. Lewis's films. Even more reason to begin production on our films!
- March 2006 is the release date for 2001 Maniacs, a sequel/remake of Lewis's famed horror film Two-Thousand Maniacs! on DVD. 2001 Maniacs stars Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street) and was produced by Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel).
- A remake of Lewis's 1970 horror hit The Wizard of Gore is in production starring Crispin Glover as Montag the Magnificent. Montag is the lead character in Back in Blood, and FS51 feels that Glover's film will garner us an untold amount of free publicity and will familiarize the general public with the character of Montag. We can't stress how important this development is.
Carnevil kicks off pre-production
What promises to be FS51's first horror feature - Carnevil - officially kicked-off pre-production in Atlanta, Georgia this past weekend. Director/Producer/Screenwriter Andrew Allan, Producer Andy Lalino, Director of Photography Wes Pratt and Lighting Director Jeff Scolaro ventured to the site where Carnevil will be shot - a working carnival on the outskirts of the city, where the team scouted the area and shot some test footage. The weekend was a huge success as the crew prepares for production, which is slated for summer '06. Carnevil is a new feature horror film from FS51 about a cursed amusement park that seeks bloody revenge on its hellraising guests.

Grim... & Back in Blood mentioned in Fangoria magazine:
Hot off the presses! If you pick up the latest issue of Fangoria magazine (#253), the world's most popular horror trade magazine, and turn to page 20 you'll see both Grim Fairy Tales and Back in Blood listed as two H.G. Lewis features that are coming soon (look under the Terror Teletype section)! Filmmakers/FS51 partners Andrew Allan and Andy Lalino are also prominently mentioned.

For more info about FS51, please visit our official website:
www.filmstate51.com

Stage fright

New York Magazine has published an interesting article about Julia Roberts's debut on Broadway, but I beg to disagree with the author when he calls her the 'ultimate film star'. I know she's the highest paid smile in the world, but...

Read the full article.

Masters of Horror gets UK box set

About time too!

Originally the plan from Anchor Bay was to release the Masters of Horror episodes as double discs - 2 installments every couple of months. The first of these was a really impressive double helping, featuring "Dreams in the Witchhouse" by "Re-Animator" director Stuart Gordon and "Cigarette Burns" by John Carpenter. Although the Gordon installment is, arguably, a little bit creepier than the already first class Carpenter one - this made for a fantastic release. Then the news came that the next two in the set would feature Don Coscarelli's "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" (not seen this one yet, sorry folks!) and "Chocolate" - the offering from series producer Mick Garris (this one is brilliant and features regular Garris actor Henry Thomas of "ET" fame).

This has now been cancelled, however, in favour of a box set of all the one hour television episodes - including the uncut helping from Japan's Takehsi Miike (which UK viewers were treated to on cable channel Bravo in early April). Cannot say I am complaining as, so far, this series has yet to offer a dud installment (Tobe Hooper's "Dance of the Dead" seems to be the one that splits opinion, although I found it to be one of the best things the director has done over the past two decades - and certainly much better than his latest feature "Mortuary").

Right now season 2 is shooting in Vancouver, Canada, with such new names as George Romero, Wes Craven and Tom "Fright Night" Holland back onboard.

Anyway, as a wee treat, here's a few words from Stuart Gordon on how the Masters of Horror circle began.


"How it started was that Mick Garris organised a dinner for us which was a couple of years ago and there had been a documentary made by Universal called The Masters of Horror. It interviewed each of us and we didn’t get a chance to meet each other, so Mick said, ‘Let’s all have dinner together.’ It was one of the funniest dinners and everyone showed up – it was at a restaurant out in the valley and Guillermo Del Toro was there and there were some people at the next table and someone brought out a birthday cake to them. So Guillermo started singing Happy Birthday to them and he got us all to join in at the table and when we finished Guillermo said, ‘The Masters of Horror wish you a happy birthday’ (laughs) and right afterwards he said, ‘We did pretty good – maybe we should do a Christmas album.’ So we kept getting together every couple of months and new people would come each time – David Cronenberg came along once, Bryan Singer and Rob Zombie and it expanded and got crazier and crazier. Out of that came the idea of doing a series of movies and it evolved from there. It turned out everyone had a pet project that they wanted to do – so here was the opportunity. We always have fun when we get together."


Calum Waddell

Crashing out

You would have thought that being an Oscar winner translates into piles of cash, but apparently not. Entertainment Weekly magazine has written that Cathy Schulman, awarded for her production role in Crash, is 'broke' due to the legal wrangling between her and producer Bob Yari.

Full story.

U - Carmen eKhayelitsha trailer

Coming up soon in Kamera is a review of the South African film U - Carmen eKhayelitsha, directed by Mark Dornford-May. U - Carmen eKhayelitsha is that rare thing: an artistically successful adaptation of Bizet's opera Carmen. In U - Carmen eKhayelitsha, the setting is a South African slum. Absolutely magical. Out on 21/4.

Watch the trailer.

Tate Modern shows pioneer video work by Stuart Marshall

Still from Pedagogue

The pioneer video work of the late Stuart Marshall, who died of Aids in 1993, is being shown at the Tate Modern as part of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Marshall's work was included in The Video Show, the first ever video exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 1976. He was an educator, writer, composer, and independent film and video maker. In 1976 with Tamara Krikorian, Steven Partridge, David Hall and others, he established London Video Arts, an artist-run workshop, distribution and promotion agency. His work focuses on the historical and political construction of homosexual identity as a deviant, outsider category, positioning the homosexual as the catch-all bogeyman of societal fears and conformist pressure. The first programme is tonight at 6:30 pm and will includes Pedagogue (1988, made in partnership with Neil Bartlett, who will introduce the film) and the next one is next Tuesday (11/4) at the same time and will include The Streets of... (date unknown) and The Love Show (1980).

At the Starr Auditorium, Tate Modern.

Further details.

Immigrant lifen wins Sundance hearts

Two films examining immigrant life in America, the Hispanic teen drama "Quinceanera" and the Sudanese refugee documentary "God Grew Tired of Us," won top honors Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival.

Read full story

Dispatch: Night and Fog lecture/screening at the Ciné lumière, London 25/1

Last night was the launch of Wallflower's book on the 50th anniversary of Alain Resnais' film, Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard), the first film to deal with the holocaust, and a seminal piece in the construction of a visual memory of the collective memory of humanity's worst calamity. The screening of the film was preceded by a presentation by the editor of the book Uncovering the Holocaust: the International Reception of Night and Fog, Ewout van der Knaap, who analysed the impact the film has had throughout its 50-year career in Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Netherlands and the USA.

Van der Knaap said that the analysis of the film's reception is like "a litmus test for the memory of the holocaust" and that is it is "central to Jewish American narrative", but not really so in the UK where Hocaust awareness is alarmingly low. Overall, he said, the film has had a huge impact, one that began right after the controversy during the 1956 Cannes Festival, when it was withdrawn by request of the German government, who thought it could hinder the reconciliation process at the time. But after a debate in the German parliament in April of that same year, it was decided that it should be used an educational tool and 200 copies were made to be distributed for educational purposes. Three years later, on 26 April 1959, the film was shown on French television.

The talk was followed by a screening of the film. Silence befell the audience, broken by the occasional gasp of horror, such is the power of the imagery. Resnais used the grass in Auschwitz as a metaphor for memory and a voiceover written by the poet Jean Cayrol, himself a non-Jewish Holocaust who had published the book Poems of Night and Fog back in 1945. Despite the long-standing grudge that the film never mentions the word Jew, Night and Fog has to be one the most powerful essays on the inexplicability and banality of evil.

Brokeback Mountain galloping towards the Oscars

That Ang Lee knows how to please the critics. His 'gay cowboy' (a misnomer, by the way) Brokeback Mountain has been mopping up awards in America, first at the LA Film Critics Awards and today it received seven Golden Globe Nominations in New York. It's interesting to see why Lee's film is doing so well and will probably follow suit when it comes out in the UK in early January. It looks good, it's a repressed love story (the middle-classes love that) and it's got an overall 'classy' feel about it that includes the ever-so-fashionable references to Edward Hopper. But is it worth the hype? The full review is coming up soon.

Richard Pryor Remembered

It is somewhat depressing that only a short month after writing about the death of Moustapha Akkad, here I am again paying my respects to one of the world's greatest comedians.

It is impossible to do Pryor's wide and varied career the justice that it deserves in the small space here, or to really emphasise his influence on a whole new generation of comedians, which includes Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy and Will Smith - among so many others. However, as with most children of the eighties, I came to know Pryor's work through his time as an A-list actor - headlining such classic comedies as 1976's Silver Streak and, especially, 1980's Stir Crazy; both of which also featured Gene Wilder. In his autobiography entitled Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences Pryor sheds little light on this time of his life - prefering (perhaps understandably) to talk in detail about his amazing career as a stand up comedian - but he does at least reveal that, when doing Stir Crazy, he lived in low rent conditions in order to 'get into' the part of Harry Monroe, the wrongly convicted, working class drifter. Pryor would team again with Wilder for 1989's See No Evil, Hear No Evil - which he claims to have done solely for the pay cheque although the film is actually an enjoyable romp - and 1991's Another You, where his deteriorating health was all too obvious.

Pryor's other film highlights include writing the screenplay to Mel Brook's masterpiece Blazing Saddles (1974), his supporting roles in the cult hit Car Wash (1976) and the ambitious The Wiz (1978), as well as his promiment appearance in the otherwise bland sequel Superman 3 (I983).

If we're being brutally honest, the films that he choose as his starring projects were usually disappointing and certainly not suited to such a huge talent. Few laughs were to be had with failed comedies such as 1982's The Toy, 1985's thoroughly mediocre Brewster's Millions, 1987's Critical Condition and 1988's Moving. Furthermore, whilst his 1989 appearance opposite his heir apparent Eddie Murphy should have beena dream made in Hollywood, the end result was a disaster.

Even so, on the back Stir Crazy (one of the best films of the eighties. Period) and his lively, incredibly political and emotionally charged stand up appearances (the best of which is captured in his 1979 Richard Pryor, Live in Concert document) he will be forever remembered as an incredible comedy talent.

As with so many huge talents, Pryor also had his dark side - which included being raised in poverty (and a brothel) drug addiction, wife beating and his notorious attempt at suicide via lighting himself on fire. Such information makes his comical demeanour and - especially - his comparitively light hearted comedy film outings from the eighties all the harder to fully comprehend. For those who wish to attempt to do, then his aforementioned autobiography is as a good a place as anywhere to start.

In the meantime, RIP to a comic genius.


Calum Waddell

Hidden triumphs at European Oscars

Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche in Hidden

Austrian director Michael Haneke'S acclaimed French language thriller Hidden (Caché), starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche, garnered five awards at the European Film Awards in Berlin on Saturday (3 December). The awards for were:

Best European Film 2005 - Caché
Best European Director 2005 - Michael Haneke
Best European Actor 2005 - Daniel Auteuil

Best European Editor 2005 - Michael Hudecek and Nadine Muse

Best European Film Academy Critics Award 2005 - Prix Fipresci

Hidden is a very original film which captures the mood of contemporary Europe without being essayist. It's also an intriguing portrait of guilt and paranoia. Georges (Auteuil), who hosts a popular TV literary review show and his wife Anne (Binoche) who works in the publishing business, begin to receive packages containing videos of themselves and their son Pierrot - shot secretly from the street - and alarming drawings whose meaning is obscure. As the film progresses, the family's personal drama turns in a different direction.

Members of the European Film Academy judged 47 films this year. The awards, voted by the academy's 1,600 members, have been handed out since 1988 and are considered Europe's equivalent of the Oscars.

Hidden is released in the UK on 27/1/2006

Frederick Wiseman at the Tate Modern

Those of you who have never heard of Frederick Wiseman should take yourselves to the Tate Modern for the ongoing mini Wiseman festival that's taking place there in conjunction with the Jeff Wall show. Wiseman is often dubbed the greatest American documentarian and there seems to be truth in that. I saw his classic The Store (1982) yesterday and I was astounded by the intelligence that Wiseman displayed in the construction of this masterpiece. The Store is a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the day-by-day at Neiman Marcus department store in Dallas. Shot on film stock, the camera is never acknowledged and never hand-held as it usually is these days, which creates the impression of this being a fiction film. Wiseman's smooth editing and visual puns manage to create a visual essay on consumerist society that is more beautiful and eerier than anything David Lynch ever made. Yes, life is stranger than fiction, especially in America. Wiseman will be present for a Q&A session on Sunday, 11/12.
More info

Moustapha Akkad - RIP

Today the horror film lost one of its great producers in Moustapha Akkad, who passed away after being hit by a suicide bomber attack whilst staying in a hotel in Amman. His daughter also died in the blasts, alongside many other innocent people.

Early in his career - in 1976 to be precise - Akkad faced controversy when he produced a film entitled "The Message", dubbed "the story of Islam". The picture was targeted by Islamic extremists - who believed that showing the prophet Mohammed on screen was blasphemous. Obviously aware of the vast opportunity for filmmaking in the United States, Akkad setlled into Los Angeles and - alongside Irwin Yablans - he executive produced 1978's "Halloween" - which, at the time, became the highest grossing independent movie of all time. It made an overnight millionnaire of Akkad, Yablans and director John Carpenter (as well as his girlfriend, and producer, the late Debra Hill) and launched the career of its teen star Jamie Lee Curtis.

With "Halloween" comes Akkad's true legacy, as he continued to exploit his cash cow for decades to come. Although he also produced a handful of other films, including the largely unsuccessful war movie "A Lion in the Desert" (which featured Anthony Quinn, who also headlined "The Message"), Akkad's name became synoymous with the slasher series - whose sequels began in 1981 with "Halloween 2" - a decent, if less than worthy, follow up. Carpenter, Hill, Yablans and Oscar winning cinematographer Dean Cundy jumped ship after the failure of "Halloween 3", which oddly did not feature the iconic Michael Myers but remains one of the eighties spookiest and most underrated horror titles, but Akkad ploughed on and in 1988 the surprisingly enjoyable "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" hit the number one slot at the US box office. With 1989's disasterous "Halloween 5" setting the series back, Akkad took his time and finally geared up "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" for October 1995. Sadly, the film was a bomb and stands as the worst of the franchise - as well as marking the cinematic swansong for the late, great Donald Pleasance.

Nevertheless, Akkad was quick to capitalise in the interest from Jamie Lee Curtis in returning to the series (she was last seen in part 2) and in 1998 proved there was life in the beast yet with "Halloween H20", hands down the best of the sequels and directed by an old pro in Steve Miner. Curtis would return one last time for the botched "Halloween: Resurrection" in 2o01 - at which point Akkad's prized franchise ground to a commerical and artistic halt.

Rumours continue to pop up about a potential "Halloween 9", and it seems inevitable that Michael Myers will stalk again. With that, Akkad has left us with a legacy to be proud of. He took part in the fathering of one of the great films, horror or otherwise, of all time in the original "Halloween" and he helped to nurture one of modern cinema's great boogeymen.

I had the pleasure of meeting Akkad, and interviewing him, in 2003 in Pasadena, California. It is a memory that I will cherish - and the finished piece appeared in Britain's "Shivers" magazine (issue 110). During our conversation it became blatantly obvious that he was passionate about "Halloween" and grateful to the fans that have made the series such a success. For taking the time to speak to me, Mr Akkad will always have my sincerest thanks.

His legacy will not be forgotten.



Calum Waddell

Daniel Craig is new Bond... reaction

With all the rumours flying about in regards to everyone from Clive Owen to Dougray Scott being lined up as the next 007, it was something of a surprise when the far more low profile Daniel Craig was confirmed as the successor to Pierce Brosnan for next year's "Casino Royale". Hard to say what Craig will be like in the role - but Chester born actor is certainly the ideal age (late thirties) to carry the franchise to a new high should he win over audiences. If successful, methinks we can expect Craig in the role of 007 for another decade at least, if not more (Brosnan and Moore played 007 well into their fifties).

However, "Casino Royale" is supposidly a prequel/ "back to basics" Bond film... and this has always proven difficult for Eon to translate into big box office. Usually, the 007 owners like to do things by the tried and tested formula of hot women/ striking locations/ widescreen photography and ball busting stunts but whenever the series has gone for a more minimal, gritty action thriller approach the commercial reaction has been lukewarm to say the least. This was what toppled Dalton's interpretation of Bond (although 1987's "The Living Daylights" is a fine, if overlong, movie whilst 1989's "Licence to Kill" is a largely underseen gem), not to mention Lazenby (ironically "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is still the best of the lot to date). Even when Moore was required to take on 007 with a grittier, nastier personality (in 1981's "For Your Eyes Only") it lasted for one film... and 1983's "Octopussy" quickly threw Moore back into the zany/ arched eyebrow spy-comedy that he obviously excels in. "For Your Eyes Only" remains one of Moore's less successful Bonds among the general public although - after "The Spy Who Loved Me" - it is surefire bet for his second best.

So what am I saying? Well, we should all be happy that the Bond franchise is making a comeback after the misstep of "Die Another Day", which is a fine fantasy romp but perhaps a bit too over the top for even 007. However, before we really begin to anticipate the dawning of a new era for the character let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Bond buffs, such as myself, are all too aware of the difficulty in bringing in changes to the character that we know and love.

If they are going with a "back to basics" Bond, here is hoping that the public embraces Craig with wider arms than they afforded to Lazenby and to Dalton.

Calum Waddell

Ruggero Deodato the honoured guest at Horrorthon 2005

An update to my past below - I've now got the go ahead from festival organiser Ed King to mention that our special guest at Dublin's Horrorthon 2005 this year will be none other than Italian director Ruggero Deodato, the man responsible for "House on the Edge of the Park", "Cannibal Holocaust", "Dial Help", "Cut and Run" and many others. So if you ever wanted to question the controversial director, and indeed get his signature, now is the time. Deodato will be present from Sat the 29th October until Sunday the 30th October and will conduct a Q and A with the audience for the big screen showing of the notorious "Cannibal Holocaust".

Another nice touch is the showing of the fantastic documentary "Midnight Movies: From the Margins to the Mainstream", which yours truly caught at Cannes and was genuinely excited about bringing to a European genre fest. My report on the film can be seen at the Fangoria web site:

http://www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=4476

And, once again, the Horrorthon web site is here:

www.horrorthon.com

If you do make it along, don't be shy and please say hello!

Calum Waddell

Horrorthon 2005, Dublin, Ireland

Dublin's annual Horrorthon event is fast approaching, with this year's festival being held from the Friday 28th to Monday 31st October. I'm really pleased to be helping out organiser Ed King this year (producer of "Dead Meat" - the fantastic zombie flick that has been pleasing genre fans on DVD and in festivals over the past year) and the line up is shaping up very well indeed.

Brand new features being screened will include director Kim Ji-Woon's "Bittersweet Life", a worthy, well directed follow-up to his previous art house hit "A Tale of Two Sisters". Also showing will be Bernard Rose's "Snuff Movie", the latest flick from the director of "Candyman", Dario Argento's "Do You Like Hitchcock?", the awesome low budgeter "The Collingswood Story" (I'm biased, I know), the UK's hilarious slasher spoof "Freak Out", Germany's "Anti-Bodies", Jeff Lieberman's stunning "Satan's Little Helper" - which stars "Pulp Fiction's" Amanda Plummer - and Tim Sullivan's genius "2001 Maniacs" - the remake of the sixties cult hit. "2001 Maniacs" stars genre fave Robert Englund and "Playboy" model Christa Campbell, and is one of the most enjoyable horror movies of the year, a perfect blend of comedy and shocks.

Retrospective space will be given to the notorious "Cannibal Holocaust", the classic "Jaws", Sean Cunningham's franchise spinning "Friday the 13th" (but do you remember how just damn effective the original is?) and a late night screening of "I Drink Your Blood" - the cheesy, good natured 70s Drive-In mainstay.

More to be announced very soon - including guests. I'm tight lipped right now on who will be attending but, rest assured, it will be very special indeed.

Official website: www.horrorthon.com

Hope to see you there.

It's only a movie

There's an interesting dialogue about a horror film posted by Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert on his Web site. He recently reviewed a low budget NC-17-rated horror film called Chaos (2005), a brutal murder/rape film in the vein of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left (1972) that thrives on unapologetic nihilism and violence without moral context or other connecting tissue that would raise it above the level of bold, unadulterated exploitation. (The film's intentional link to Last House is clear; Chaos's working title, according to the IMDb, was The House in the Middle of Nowhere, and its poster recycles Last House's marketing tagline of "It's only a movie ... it's only a movie ...")

Ebert gave Chaos a rare zero-star review, calling it:

"... ugly, nihilistic, and cruel -- a film I regret having seen. I urge you to avoid it. Don't make the mistake of thinking it's 'only' a horror film, or a slasher film. It is an exercise in heartless cruelty and it ends with careless brutality. The movie denies not only the value of life, but the possibility of hope."

Chaos's producer and director responded to Ebert's review in a full page Sun-Times letter that reportedly cost $14,000 to place -- not an insignificant amount of cash for a film with such sparse distribution -- to pat themselves on the back for not sanitizing and moralizing the film's violence like the media and PG-13-rated horror films:

"Natalie Holloway. Kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq shown on the Internet. Wives blasting jail guards with shotguns to free their husbands. The confessions of the BTK killer. These are events of the last few months. How else should filmmakers address this 'ugly, nihilistic and cruel' reality -- other than with scenes that are 'ugly, nihilistic and cruel,' to use the words you used to describe Chaos."

Ebert published a full page response himself, which is duplicated on his Web site along with the original letter from the Chaos filmmakers. It's an interesting response that looks at his personal expectations for horror films and implies a certain (artistic?) responsibility for filmmakers to provide viewers with more context than strictly just an "evil reigns and will triumph" message. (Ebert notes that he gave Last House on the Left a four-star review because it was "a way of dealing with tragedy, human loss, and human nature.") Most interesting is Ebert's final paragraph:

"Animals do not know they are going to die, and require no way to deal with that implacable fact. Humans, who know we will die, have been given the consolations of art, myth, hope, science, religion, philosophy, and even denial, even movies, to help us reconcile with that final fact. What I object to most of all in Chaos is not the sadism, the brutality, the torture, the nihilism, but the absence of any alternative to them. If the world has indeed become as evil as you think, then we need the redemptive power of artists, poets, philosophers and theologians more than ever.

Your answer, that the world is evil and therefore it is your responsibility to reflect it, is no answer at all, but a surrender."

Those are heavy words, and heavy responsibilities, for filmmakers that I'm not sure I entirely agree with but find thought-provoking in that they make me consider my own relationship with, and love for, horror films. Yes, I love them and always have, but my relationship with them has definitely become more complicated over the years.

Whereas I rabidly soaked up every gory '80s slasher film I could as a teenager, I've grown to despise horror that's pure exploitation or an exercise in violence fetishism, a fine (and extremely subjective) line in many horror films. Unlike Roger Ebert, I hated Last House on the Left for its absurd extremism and exploitive violence. I also hated French filmmaker Gaspar Noé's Irréversible (2002), a cynical rape/revenge film that caustically (and falsely) comments on love and human nature while showcasing an exploitive real-time rape sequence that betrays its artistic pretext with a stylized camera zoom into the victim's face after the camera remained distant and mostly immobile for the entire sequence.

But I adore French filmmaker Claire Denis's Trouble Every Day (2001), a bloody, graphic film with unclear motives on the surface that personally resonated with me as an emotional representation of the pain of infidelity and loss. And the brutally violent and shockingly realistic Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) is one of my all-time favorite films for its skilled implication of the viewer's bloodlust and a twisted moral universe that's righteously turned on its head by the end of the film.

By Ebert's logic, all four films should have at least a base level of redeeming value, but I reject two for similar reasons that he rejects Chaos. Which goes to show you that one man's Chaos is another man's Last House on the Left.

Kenny Glanaan & other Brit directors

Totally agree with you there Tim - Yasmin is moving, powerful and impeccably made. Funnily enough I had the chance to meet up with Kenny Glanaan, the film's director, at last year's Cornwall Film Festival, where Yasmin was shown. He was a warm and tremendously engaging young director, full of passion for his medium and totally committed to experimenting with film. His way of working is very loose, unstructured and free-flowing - like many of Britain's best directors, he's entirely happy to go into rehearsals with only the barest bones of an idea and let the story take its course. Mike Leigh was one of the other keynote speakers at last year's Cornwall Film Fest - and to hear his stories of what it takes to get a film made is enough to make a grown man weep.

Apparently his ideal project would be to go into an inner-city housing estate and just shoot what happens...tough to get the funders excited on that one, maybe, but still tremendously refreshing to hear. There's an undercurrent of exciting directors and writers in Britain right now - but how is it they never seem to get the credit or the support they deserve? How can a filmmaker as brilliant as Shane Meadows still be struggling to get his stuff made? Why don't the British public go an see his films? They're funny, smart, moving, and brilliantly directed - Dead Man's Shoes has more ideas and a higher standard of performance than ANYTHING that came out of Hollywood in the last 12 months - and yet hardly anyone went out to see it. In France or Germany, he'd be hailed as a genius. In Britain, somehow, people are still saying "Shane who?"

YES

Sally Potter's new film, Yes, comes out this Friday (5 Aug.). Set in London, the film is about the romance between an American scientist (called 'she') and a Lebanese doctor working as a cook in London (called 'he') who after a while of afternoon casual sex, starts to resent the power relationship between She and He. I thought the film was a missed opportunity to discuss the contemporary rift between the West and the MiddleEast: it's all very cliched and superficial, if very nicely packaged. I was wondering if anyone had a different opinion on this one.... (Antonio)