As the British New Wave of filmmaking took off in the late-‘50s, filmmaker Ken Russell went a slightly different route than his cinema-verite-obsessed colleagues with his 26-minute Amerlia and the Angel. Armed with a hefty £300 budget (half of it supplied by the British Film Institute), the 30-year-old newly married and converted Catholic director got Mercedes Quadros, the nine-year-old daughter of the Uruguayan ambassador to London to play Amelia for this imagistic religiously allegorical romp through the City.

Though silent like his previous two shorts, Amelia features spoken narration, which adds to its storybook quality. Russell submitted the film to the BBC, which hired him to make documentaries, and gave him the skills he’d need to eventually become the iconoclastic director of The Devils, Tommy, Altered States, Gothic, and Lair of the White Worm.

Michael Brooke at the BFI website notes:

Despite the film’s minuscule budget, there are numerous imaginative touches: the choreography of the angel ballet at the start (drawing on Russell’s own training as a dancer), the butterfly wallpaper mocking the loss of Amelia’s wings, the hand-held camera mimicking a child’s eye view of the crowded streets, the almost Expressionist treatment of Amelia’s ascent of the stairs (including a surreal shot that initially appears as an empty dress descending of its own accord), and the ascent of the artist into the heavens on a ladder (against a backdrop of painted clouds) before descending with the precious wings.

See Part II and more after the jump!
 

 
John Callahan, known for his dark, crude and morbidly funny cartoons has died.

Considering the shitty hand that life dealt him and the shit he brought upon himself, it’s a miracle that Callahan found anything funny. He never knew his birth parents and as a child was sexually molested by a female teacher. He turned to alcohol at the age of 14 to deal with the pain of having been abused. A full-blown alcoholic by the age of 21, he was involved in a car accident when the driver, a friend, ran the vehicle into a lightpole at 90mph. The crash severed Callahan’s spine, leaving him a quadriplegic.

What was a potentially hopeless situation became a profound turning point in Callahan’s life. He gave up booze and became an artist.  After a long period of physical therapy he was able to hold a pen in his hand. He started creating the cartoons that brought him notoriety and fans like Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Bill Plympton and Gary Larson. His autobiography ‘Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot’ became a bestseller.

Callahan was 59 when he died on July 24th. The causes were complications of quadriplegia and respiratory problems. His politically incorrect slaps at the status quo and unflinching honesty will be missed.  John was the kind of turd in the punchbowl that keeps us from drinking the Koolaid.

‘I Think I was An Alcoholic’ was animated by Callahan and ‘Touch Me Some Place I Can Feel’ is a clip from a documentary of the same name about Callahan.
 
see ‘Touch Me Some Place I Can Feel’  after the jump…

 
Some people bleed for their art.

French graphic designer Metastazis and Polish artist Zbiniew M. Blielak combined forces to create this poster for Swedish metal band Watain. Instead of conventional screenprint ink, they used human blood. Metastazis describes his art as being ‘scandalous yet refined.’ The Watain poster lives up to his credo.

111 posters were printed.
 

 
more bloody good photos after the jump

 
Forgive me for posting two autotuned videos in a row, but this is really quite cool. The Internet Animal Orchestra AKA ‘Autotune The Zoos’.

thanks rathergood

 
Brooklyn’s Gregory Brothers, who’ve done dozens of these, have done it again, a little remix masterpiece. They’ve auto-tuned a news report into a song that actually holds up as a song. The keyboard ending is a bit lame, but otherwise this is both funny and kind of moving.

After Antoine Dodson, a young hero from Huntsville, AL, saves his sister from an attack, he sings an important message both to his community and to the attacker himself. Evan Gregory then proceeds to play a heartfelt cover of the resulting song.

he’s climbin in your windows
he’s snatchin your people up
tryna rape em so y’all need to
hide your kids, hide your wife
hide your kids, hide your wife
hide your kids, hide your wife
and hide your husband
cuz they’re rapin errbody out here

 
Director Andreas Nilsson’s video for Miike Snow’s ‘The Rabbit’ is definitely bubblingly up into my top ten of 2010. The set design, color, choreography and little dude with beard coalesce into three minutes and 36 seconds of vibrant, color saturated bliss. Black is beautiful…and so is red, green, yellow and blue.

And the 2 Live Crew album cover is Baby Beard’s Holy Grail.

 
I’m starting to compile my choices for best videos for 2010 and this is a contender.

Dan Scheinert and Dan Kwan directed this slice of visual deliciousness for Icelandic electro poppers FM Belfast. Using variable speeds, warping, time displacement, jump cuts and stop motion, the two Daniels have created a mindbendingly cool video. And the song Underwear ain’t bad either.

 
Romain Gavras directed the controversial video for M.I.A.‘s song ‘Born Free.’ That’s the one where redheaded kids (gingers) are blown away to a sample of Suicide’s ‘Ghost Rider.’ Here’s the trailer for Romain’s feature length debut, Notre Jour Viendra, which was originally called Redheads. It looks quite compelling and I’m looking forward to seeing it. The visuals are striking and it stars one of my favorite actors, Vincent Cassell.

 
A rat rod is an old car or truck, usually from the 1920s thru to the 50s, that’s been stripped down and rebuilt using parts that date from the same era as the original automobile. A rat rod may be seriously stripped down, without hoods or fenders. They’re the punk rock rods of the hot rod scene, expressing the individuality of their owners. Aesthetically, the more rust the better.

I shot these at The Lonestar Rod And Custom Roundup in Austin this year. Music is by The Damned, Mink DeVille and The Modern Lovers.

A lot of a young cats in the Chicano community in Austin are rat rod aficionados.

The first video features a particularly groovy rusty rat rod tricked out with hydraulics and a Jack Daniels bottle containing radiator coolant. This is a low rider for people with exceptional style.

The second video contains rat motorcycles and more rat rods.

 
More rat rods after the jump…