If you’re an 80s kid like I am, then you might appreciate Etsy shop GrimcatProductions’ handmade NeverEnding Story tablet cover. From the description:
Customize your reader with a cover that will for sure bring back the nostalgic moments of luck dragons, noble warriors, and epic quests. These book covers are hand-crafted from high quality leather and suedes and bound with filigree and an auryn on the cover, just like the book we all know and love. These are made to fit Kindles and Nooks, and for an added cost can be done up for an iPad or a Galaxy tablet.
There are still several screenings left of Kinji Fukasaku’s bloody, over the top cult film, Battle Royale, at Cinefamily in Hollywood this week:
The most controversial Japanese film of the millennium comes to The Cinefamily over the extended Xmas weekend in its first North American theatrical run EVER! In A Clockwork Orange for the 21st century, the late, great Japanese auteur Kinji Fukasaku tackles the anti-authoritarian Battle Royale — a gorefest with a purpose, an astonishing opus of teen rebellion, generation-gap satire and gleeful bloody anarchy. Seasoning the time-honored “Most Dangerous Game” scenario with an adults vs. teens twist, Fukasaku tells the dystopian tale of a depressed society run rampant with teen violence, as the government decides to tame insubordinate youngsters by shipping entire 9th-grade classes to a remote island for the ultimate test in survival. Whether goody-goody or troublemaker, the kids must prepare to kill or be killed. Shocking, hilarious and as thrilling as any classic Spielberg or Scorsese epic, it is one of the most incredible and explosive action films of the last few decades, made even better by a devious, ice-cold performance of a lifetime by Beat Takeshi (one of Japan’s greatest movie stars). Withheld from U.S. distribution since its original release in 2000 due to its disturbing teen-on-teen carnage, Battle Royale will blow you away. Whether it’s your favorite film, or you’ve never before witnessed this masterpiece of mayhem, join us for the theatrical experience of the season!
Below, the Cinefamily-created trailer for their exclusive theatrical run of Battle Royale:
It’s the Man in Black vs. the bombastic Welsh crooner…
I like the Johnny Cash version, it’s cool, but more for a James Bond film that might take place in Texas than underwater. It’s pretty obvious why they didn’t use this one!
And here’s a smoking live version from the 1960s by the one and only Tom Jones….
40 psyche-pop tunes serve as the soundtrack for the bizarre Santa Claus vs.The Devil (1959) in a special Christmas Eve mix from me to you.
01. “Is Anybody Home” - The Mirage
02. “Henry Adams” - The Frederic
03. “Princess Of The Gingerland” - Glitterhouse
04. “Travelling Circus” - The Epics
05. ‘Punch And Judy Man” - Pop Workshop
06. “Red, White And You” - Sounds Around
07. “The View” - Gary Walker and The Rain
08. “Tomorrow Today” - Kippington Lodge
09. “You’ll Find Me Anywhere” - Hi-Revving Tongues
10. Mix within the mix featuring The Groop, The Kinks,
The Tages, The Exceptions, The Cyrkle, Frank Zappa,
The Zombies, Mark Eric, The Sidewalk Skipper Band,
The Beach Boys, Stained Glass, The Shaggy Boys,
Free Design, Eternity’s Children, Summer Snow,
The Counts, Johnny Cobb and The Attractions,
The Family Tree (courtesy of FCR)
11. “What Are You Gonna Do” - The Summer Set
12. “Stop” - The Pan Pipers
13. “My Race Is Run” - The Motleys
14. “Buses” - The Hung Jury
15. “Alfred Appleby” - The Carnival Connection
16. “You Gotta Be With Me” - The Onyx
17. “Midnite Thoughts” - The World Column
18. “In The Land Of Make Believe” Jennifer’s Friend
19. “Walk In The Sky” The Crackerjack Society
20. “Your Way To Tell Me Go” - Plastic Penny
21. “Green Circles (Italian version)” - The Small Faces
There are so many - albeit unintentionally - disturbing elements to Rene Cardona’s film that it’s difficult to select just one. Advertised as “an enchanting world of make-believe”, it’s a whacked out battle between Father Chrimbo and Satan, who sends his minion, Pitch, to interfere in the spreading of comfort and joy. Prime nuggets? Pitch whispering to the young ‘uns that Santa’s actually a murderer (classy!) and Santa’s cloud-borne castle that looks less like a cheery base for making toys and more like something from a Bond villain’s architectural wet dream.
Enjoy the music. I don’t think you’ll miss the dialog. Merry Christmas.
Claude Lelouch’s poetic short film Iran was made in 1971. Shot in stunningly beautiful color, perfectly edited, and featuring a musical score by legendary French composer Francis Lai, this 17 minute masterpiece was never widely distributed, despite winning a half dozen prestigious international film awards.
Thank you Internet for giving films like Iran new life.
Click on the HD options on the Youtube channel to watch in higher resolution.
Cinderella 2000 is grindhouse schlockmeister Al Adamson’s low budget sci-fi sexploitation musical from 1977. If that doesn’t sound like something that would interest you, move along…
Here’s a description of the film from DVD Drive In:
In the year 2047 (so what if the film is titled CINDERELLA 2000?), the world has been taken over by an authoritarian government that forbids sexual activity, due to population overgrowth. Surrounded by this oppressive atmosphere is Cindy, a dirt-covered maid living with her heavily-accented German stepmother and two stepsisters (a nasty white girl and a surprisingly nice black girl). While crooning a tune about Cinderella after reading a fairy tale book, she is visited by an intergalactic Fairy Godfather, who introduces her to the art of making love by transforming woodland animals into humans in tights and giant masks who grind crotches and perform a musical number. Ugh?
The late Kim Jong-Il was a notorious film fanatic, but did you know that in the 70s he kidnapped a movie director called Shin Sang-ok, brought him to North Korea and forced him to make feature films? The most successful of these films is Pulgasari from 1985, a Godzilla-inspired monster movie-cum-allegory for capitalism run wild.
I was unaware of this incredible story until details of Kim’s life started emerging after the announcement of his death on Monday, but in 2003 Shin Sang-ok spoke to the Guardian about his ordeal:
In 1978, he fell foul of the frequently repressive government of General Park Chung Hee [South Korea], who closed his studio. After making at least 60 movies in 20 years, Shin’s career appeared to be over.
What followed, according to Kingdom of Kim, Shin’s memoir, was an experience that revived his career in an unbelievable way. Shin and his wife were kidnapped by North Korea’s despot-in-training, Kim Jong-il, who sought to create a film industry that would allow him to sway a world audience to the righteousness of the Korea Workers’ Party. Shin would be his propagandist, Choi his star.
Shin’s story is as fantastical as many of his movies. He writes of being caught trying to escape, and spending four years in an all-male prison camp as a result, left to assume that his wife was dead.
Then, just as suddenly, he was brought into the inner sanctum of Kim Jong-il, the would-be successor to his father, Kim Il-sung, who ruled the country for nearly 50 years. Shin’s talents then officially fell to the service of North Korea, and he made seven movies before he and his wife made a breathtaking escape in Vienna in 1986.
That entire piece is well worth reading, it’s fascinating! For those of you wondering what Pulgasari is like, here is the full, 94 minute film (in 9 parts, with English subtitles.) The story of a doll made of rice that comes alive after contact with human blood, and feasts on raw metal, the production values actually aren’t that bad - it’s certainly not the worst obscure B-movie I have ever seen (although admittedly I didn’t make it to the end.) But we will let you decide for yourselves, dear readers, whether Pulgasari is the crowning achievement of the Supreme Leader’s legacy:
The Love of Zero is a rather remarkable, short experimental film, made for $200 by director Robert Florey, in 1927. Owing much to German Expressionist cinema, the film tells the story of a young man, Zero (Joseph Marievsky), and his love for a young woman called, Beatrix (Tamara Shavrova). It was Florey’s second film, and reveals the talent he would employ in his long and successful career as a Hollywood director of such films as Murders in the Rue Morgue, Ex-Lady, The Marx Brothers’ Cocoanuts and The Beast With Five Fingers, plus a whole range of TV series including episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits.
