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Delightful Alfred Hitchcock interview, 1973
07.01.2011
03:18 pm
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Famed director Alfred Hitchock sat for this hour-long interview with Tom Snyder for The Tomorrow Show in 1973. Even the normally inept Snyder seems to up his interviewer’s game around the master (who is framed with his iconic profile in full view, as you can see below).

Synder tells Hitch at the outset that he wants to discuss “ideas” and not just talk about films. He’s fairly successful (for Tom Synder). Hitchcock is on form here, this is a delight.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.01.2011
03:18 pm
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Things: Depraved, idiotic, no-budget 80s Canadian gore film
07.01.2011
11:56 am
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“It’s a terrifying sensation that will rip apart your soul.”

I’m not so sure about that, but Things, a pathetically inept, blood-splashed straight-to-video “shocker” will probably do something for you…

Is there anything better than a no-budget gore flick that makes you laugh out loud? Think Bloodsucking Freaks. Extreme gore and humor (especially when it’s unintentional) are two great tastes that taste great together—at least if you are in the right frame of mind, I suppose—but when you add in a hefty dollop of ineptitude, it gets even tastier. The newest “outsider cinema” release from The Intervision Picture Corp. and Severin FIlms, Things looks like it’s a stand-out of the “wow this sucks, but it’s GREAT” genre. They’re the experts!

In 1989, it became the first Canadian shot-on-Super 8 gore shocker commercially released on VHS. Today, it remains perhaps the most bizarre, depraved and mind-boggling chunk of Canuxploitaion ever unleashed upon humanity. Adult film superstar Amber Lynn and co-writer/producer Barry J. Gillis star in this surreal saga about two friends who visit a remote cabin, only to discover a womb of monstrous horror that demands graphic dismemberment. It’s an inexplicable orgy of eye ripping, beer guzzling, boob baring, skull drilling, sandwich making, chain sawing, bad acting and post-sync dubbing from co-writer/producer/director Andrew Jordan that has spawned its own disturbing cult of fans. Some will be repulsed. Others may be transformed forever. But you have never seen anything like THINGS.

Now there’s a factual statement if ever there was one… Order a copy of Things if you dare…

There will be a special midnight screening of another recent Intervision/Severin release,Sledgehammer, Sunday night, July 3rd at the big Everything is Festival! at Cinefamily in Los Angeles. Check the website for more information and tickets.
 

 
I like this clip also. WHY are they behaving like this? If you saw this bug sitting on your toilet, would you laugh? WTF???
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.01.2011
11:56 am
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Ingmar Bergman interviewed by Dick Cavett, 1971
06.30.2011
07:37 pm
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The great Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman made a rare appearance on American television when he visited The Dick Cavett Show in 1971, with actress Bibi Andersson, for a lengthy, in-depth interview.

Ostensibly about his then current film The Touch (with Andersson, Max Von Sydow and Elliot Gould), Cavett leads the conversation in unexpected places (fascism, drugs, his estrangement from his parents, working with women, his temper on set, artistic freedom). Bergman often turns the conversation around and poses the questions back to Cavett before he eventually answers. The whole thing is fascinating. Cavett is his usual knowledgeable self. Bergman tells a great story about getting one of his favorite shots ever in Wild Strawberries.

It’s difficult to imagine a conversation like this taking place on American TV forty-years later, isn’t it? It’s also weird from the vantage point of 2011 to consider that a mainstream audience might have actually known who the guy was back then! How times have changed and not necessarily for the better…
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.30.2011
07:37 pm
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Hey Jayne Mansfield Superstar!
06.30.2011
12:34 am
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Jayne Mansfield died on this date in 1967.

“Hey Jayne Mansfield Superstar!” performed by Sigue Sigue Sputnik live in Tokyo, 2002.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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06.30.2011
12:34 am
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Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii
06.29.2011
03:31 pm
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The Pink Floyd performing in the ancient (and empty) Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy in October of 1971, right before Meddle came out. There are three different versions of Live at Pompeii: the one embedded here, which is the original; a 1974 version that inserted “fake” studio sessions for the by-then already completed Dark Side of the Moon; and the expanded “director’s cut” of Live at Pompeii that came out on DVD in 2003. It’s a pretty spectacular performance, I think you’ll agree. Listen LOUD.

1. “Intro Song”
2. “Echoes, Part 1”
3. “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”
4. “A Saucerful of Secrets”
5. “One of These Days”
6. “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”
7. “Mademoiselle Nobs”
8. “Echoes, Part 2”

The Beastie Boys video for “Gratitude” is a spot on parody of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.29.2011
03:31 pm
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When Jean-Luc Godard met Woody Allen
06.28.2011
04:09 pm
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If you are a fan of either Woody Allen or Jean-Luc Godard, then Godard’s 1986 short Meeting WA should tickle your fancy. Featuring Allen’s trademarked neuroses and some standard Godardian cinematic tropes, it’s a 26-minute gem. Filmed when Allen was participating in Godard’s nearly universally-panned King Lear adaptation.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.28.2011
04:09 pm
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Destroyer ‘Kaputt’: The Sound of the Summer
06.28.2011
09:27 am
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Destroyer is a Canadian band, but it’s also principally the work of singer/songrwiter Dan Bejar. Earlier this year Destroyer released their 11th album, called Kaputt, to a mixed reception. I kind of get why - this is an album that smells of sun tan lotion, so a mid-January release date seems a bit odd.

Ok, first off I have to admit that I am new to this band. This is worth mentioning at the start because Destroyer have been around for over a decade, have released ten albums already, and Bejar has worked with the acts Swan Lake and New Pronographers. The response to this album from the Destroyer fanbase has been mixed, as it is quite a departure from their better known sound. Some have been turned clean off it by the musical reference points (Avalon-era Roxy Music, Don Henley, Prefab Sprout, mainstream 80s soft rock, I even detect a smidgen of Enya in there). But this hasn’t put me off at all - not just because I admit to having a soft spot for that kind of thing, but because Bejar infuses the album with such a strong personality and sense of musicality that he makes it work, especially over the two final tracks that combined last more than half an hour.

If there was one word I would use to describe this record, it’s “Balearic”. The longest-running myth about the British dance scene is that in 1987 a group of DJs went on holiday to Ibiza, discovered ecstasy, and returned to London to start the acid house revolution. The problem with that is that the renowned DJs in Ibiza at the time were not really playing acid house - they played a mixture of different genres that all tended to fall under the British umbrella term “Balearic” (after the group of islands of which Ibiza is a part). In essence “Balearic” was anything that sounded good on a beach, and in practise this could include some music that dance snobs and music purists would find reprehensible (Chris Rea, The Blow Monkeys, etc).

To me Kaputt captures the essence of those musics perfectly. It’s music for lazing around on sunny summer holidays, for playing on the drive to the beach, or after the barbecue. It’s a perfect post-club record too, as the tracks blend seamlessly into one another bringing to mind a more 80s sounding Air, all held together by Bejar’s unique songwriting and delivery. If there is any justice, this will get picked up by dance fans as their new classic comedown soundtrack.

Destroyer - “Kaputt”
 

 
Destroyer - “Song For America”
 

 
Destroyer - “Savage Night At The Opera”
 

 
Destroyer - “Suicide Demo For Kara Walker”
 

 
You can get Kaputt (on double vinyl) here.

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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06.28.2011
09:27 am
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His [Unspoken] Girl Friday: A no-dialogue cut of the world’s most chatty film
06.27.2011
07:25 pm
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If you’ve seen the legendary 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday, you’ll know why this edit clocks in at only 8 minutes. If you haven’t seen it, just know that it’s one of the fastest paced and dialogue-heavy films ever made. Director Howard Hawks made sure that Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell spoke their lines over each other as much as they possibly could because, well, that’s what people do in reality.

But all that disappears in this cut by video pro Valentin Spirik. The dialogue is completely cut out, leaving an almost hypnotic quick-cut body of jerky scene sequences layered with incidental verbal and atmospheric noise. Check it out.
 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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06.27.2011
07:25 pm
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Scenes from the Suburbs: A film by Spike Jonze and Arcade Fire
06.27.2011
04:44 pm
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I have to say, this trailer looks good. I have been a big fan of Spike Jonze in the past (Being John Malkovich is a classic IMO) and an admirer of the Arcade Fire but have gone a bit, well, cold on them both more recently. This looks intriguing though, with its homeland war/terrorism and teenage love themes. I just hope the film (a short, clocking in at 30 minutes, and co-written by Win & Will Butler based on last year’s album The Suburbs) delivers:
 

 
**EDIT**
You can watch Scenes From The Suburbs in full HERE for the next 24 hours only.

Thanks to Joe Spencer. More info at the Arcade Fire website.

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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06.27.2011
04:44 pm
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Paul Newman and James Dean screen test for ‘East of Eden’
06.26.2011
12:03 pm
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A star paring that never was - James Dean pouts as Paul Newman jokes in their screen test for East of Eden.
 

 
With thanks to Eurico de Barros
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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06.26.2011
12:03 pm
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