So i have been hemming and hawing on starting this blog
I can't help but feel it may be important to at least document some of the things I have been up to. "Perhaps," I think hopefully, "the reader will be interested," but again maybe not...
First up for discussion is THE TALKIES (thanks to Ben Russell for the name), a new series I started back in october of 06. it's a two night event: the first night is the film screening in 35mm; night 2, screening plus the director providing commentary throughout the screening. taking something that the dvd offers (canned director's commentary) but making it o.o.o. so much better (live director, skipping down memory lane).
For the first installment I brought in Herschell Gordon Lewis, The Godfather of Gore, and his film 2000 Maniacs. The 35mm print was surprisingly stunning, most prints from around this time are faded due to the popularity of a particular eastman stock that was unstable. The film, 200o Maniacs, is a brigadoon inspired slaughter fest. where a ghost town re-emerges to catch a number of un-suspectin' yanks to be their "guests of honor". Herschell got everyone in a killin' mood by singing the theme song with a local banjo player before the film began. Once the film got started Herschell, began skipping on down memory lane. One thing that I found of particular interest, among others, is how this film that was shot in just a few days and on the drive-in screens so quickly and that it now also serves as a document of an area of Florida that was quickly absorbed by good ol' Mickey Mouse and his Magic Kingdom. I found his ruminations on the switchboard that was used a few times in the film, fascinating. All of these documentary elements seemed to come to the fore-front. Not to say that Lewis' approach to the horror genre is not worthy of celebration just that there is more that exists in this film than simply the narrative.
Lewis also shot out zingers such as "You never heard take two on my set!" or "The only difference between Peckinpah and I is that I am still vertical." This last one confounded me a bit since I have never thought of Peckinpah's film-making in the same vein as Herschell's but in respect to how violent acts are committed, represented on screen there may be something there. Needless to say after this engaging conversation Herschell was having with the screen and all of us in the audience privy to his thoughts and memories that were conjured up I knew there was something to THE TALKIES. So the next logical guest to follow in Mr. Lewis' footsteps was John Waters and we just wrapped up the 2nd installment of The Talkies with John Waters on May 19th 2007. We screened his film Polyester in Odorama. More to come on this weekend.
hgl sellin' tickets to his own show.
I can't help but feel it may be important to at least document some of the things I have been up to. "Perhaps," I think hopefully, "the reader will be interested," but again maybe not...
First up for discussion is THE TALKIES (thanks to Ben Russell for the name), a new series I started back in october of 06. it's a two night event: the first night is the film screening in 35mm; night 2, screening plus the director providing commentary throughout the screening. taking something that the dvd offers (canned director's commentary) but making it o.o.o. so much better (live director, skipping down memory lane).
For the first installment I brought in Herschell Gordon Lewis, The Godfather of Gore, and his film 2000 Maniacs. The 35mm print was surprisingly stunning, most prints from around this time are faded due to the popularity of a particular eastman stock that was unstable. The film, 200o Maniacs, is a brigadoon inspired slaughter fest. where a ghost town re-emerges to catch a number of un-suspectin' yanks to be their "guests of honor". Herschell got everyone in a killin' mood by singing the theme song with a local banjo player before the film began. Once the film got started Herschell, began skipping on down memory lane. One thing that I found of particular interest, among others, is how this film that was shot in just a few days and on the drive-in screens so quickly and that it now also serves as a document of an area of Florida that was quickly absorbed by good ol' Mickey Mouse and his Magic Kingdom. I found his ruminations on the switchboard that was used a few times in the film, fascinating. All of these documentary elements seemed to come to the fore-front. Not to say that Lewis' approach to the horror genre is not worthy of celebration just that there is more that exists in this film than simply the narrative.
Lewis also shot out zingers such as "You never heard take two on my set!" or "The only difference between Peckinpah and I is that I am still vertical." This last one confounded me a bit since I have never thought of Peckinpah's film-making in the same vein as Herschell's but in respect to how violent acts are committed, represented on screen there may be something there. Needless to say after this engaging conversation Herschell was having with the screen and all of us in the audience privy to his thoughts and memories that were conjured up I knew there was something to THE TALKIES. So the next logical guest to follow in Mr. Lewis' footsteps was John Waters and we just wrapped up the 2nd installment of The Talkies with John Waters on May 19th 2007. We screened his film Polyester in Odorama. More to come on this weekend.
hgl sellin' tickets to his own show.
0 comments:
Post a Comment