I'll never forget seeing this on the news when I was five years old. All those still bodies on the ground. I remember thinking why is everybody sleeping. My dad told me they were all dead.
I don't intend to make a mockery of this day with these clips and trailers. If I had loved ones who died there, I certainly wouldn't want to watch this stuff.
Though these films are pretty sensational, they serve as an attempt to understand some of the true horrors of human experience. People have always been doing that.
SISTERS OF DEATH blew my mind. Loved it completely. Reminds me of how much more of a cinematic impact can be made without showing things explicitly. The cast was super attractive and the film packed a nice punch in the end. I always appreciate that! These Mill Creek movie collections are pretty great. Sure, there are always some stinkers and the quality of the films leaves much to be desired, but you can't argue with $10 for 50 damn movies!
On the flipside of the SOD disc is WAR OF THE ROBOTS. Really great, totally silly and mindless no-fi sci-fi fun. Came in super handy in the background while I was writing scenarios for a couple of new projects late last night. One of them has the provocative title, SEX MOVIE MANIAC KILLER. This one shows the criminal exploits of the main character, Todd Hartley, in my TARD series.
I watched Jess Franco's BLOODY MOON, which I also loved. That early 80's vibe and fashions (it's so funny how the women in this movie look like Portland hipsters) are yummy and fun to look at. Lots of gore and nudity, including this great setpiece where a woman gets her head cut off by a buzzsaw. This is definitely a Franco film which, along with 99 WOMEN, I will be adding to my DVD collection soon. Can't wait to see, FACELESS, which Naxo Fiol also recommended to me.
On Saturday I helped a good friend move, so I didn't get anything done on OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. Yesterday I met my scenes to be edited quota. Today I edited three scenes and I will probably finish two more before the night is through. I entered the last two tapes of ODITHOL footage into the computer. This is the last stretch before keying in the green screen and doing all the sound editing. I am very excited and happy with the way things are looking. My favorite scene today was the hospital director walking in on a nurse who is eating an arm.
Another flick I checked recently was Anna Biller's VIVA. She's like me. She writes, directs, produces, stars in, and composes music for her movies. But her aesthetic is very different. And she shot the thing on 35mm, which is out of the goddamn question for moi. She also did all the set and costume design for VIVA, which is incredibly impressive. It's super fun to watch, although a little bit on the long side and the intentional camp never really works out for me. I think it bites off a little too much, but that's always better than not enough. I loved the gratuitous nudity. Lots of naked guys too, and that's something that's still sorta taboo in movies, especially in this new Victorian age. And they're all people who look like real people. People need to be seeing real people naked in the movies. Overall I really loved the way the movie shows how the sexual revolution worked out better for the guys than the dolls. Looking forward to future AB productions.
Think I finally nailed the coffin shut on my Jess Franco binge with OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES. The zombies were brutally phony and great. Doesn't have the poetic bite of 99 WOMEN, nor the high caliber performers, but very entertaining in that Uncle Jess kinda way. Sloppy, loose, messy no-fi fun.
Yesterday I failed my quota of editing four scenes a day for ODITHOL. I got one and a half. But a lot of stuff happened so I forgive myself. I was planning on making up for it today by getting six and a half, but I got five. May very well get one more in before I bedbye. I feel ok about it. The scenes are good and cut very differently from the way I usually do things. Actors gave me a lot to work with.
There is now some much needed balance. I started with the hardest stuff first - the long showstopping set pieces. I designed it with the idea that there'd be three or four big long scenes that go on forever punctuated by very short ones that kick along an all over the place plot. The short ones are tight and to the point while the long ones meander in a hopefully interesting way. I've been doing the short ones, hence the four scene a day quota. A longer one would take me sometimes five days. I am working meticulously on something that is meant to look like a big mess. A beautiful mess.
On the OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE front, just finished cutting a scene where id unleashed Dr. Fang finds his daughter Loris laying in the lap of rock washout Tommy Trykill after crashing from a drug binge. Fang is super anti-drug and loses his shit on her big time. Athena, the actress who plays Loris, laughs when the doctor (played by me) yanks her up from the table and smacks her around. I only got one take, so I had to get pretty creative with the editing. It worked nicely. Cutting around the giggles made it look like Fang has super human strength and pulls Loris off the table with lightening speed. I wouldn't have thought of cutting it that way if Athena wasn't laughing during the take. Rather than busting my ass to control my environment, I bust my ass to be utterly present in every moment, making sure the energy and the actors' sense of play is up and aroused. If that's going on, then there is always magic. Magic can't be faked. Everything else can.
Been going nuts on Jess Franco's movies. I knew about him but hadn't seen too many of his films. He appeared in a Spanish documentary about no-budget filmaking entitled TE EN VIDEO for which I was interviewed. I really liked the things he had to say, so I've been watching his stuff and loving it. The quality of his output varies greatly, but I like that. 99 WOMEN is the best women in prison film I've seen. Amazing ending and an incredible perf by Mercedes McCambridge as the prison superintendent. His most famous film, SUCCUBUS is a swinging late sixties eurotrash jetset mindfuck stunner. Karl Lagerfeld decked out the eurobabes and the vibe is pure decadence!
Also watched ANDY WARHOL'S BAD, which was like an iron glove ripping out my tonsils. How bout that scene where the baby gets thrown out the window?! Holy crap!!!
I'm in the thick of editing OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. This is one of the most exciting movies I've made so far, in terms of editing. I'm spending a ridiculous amount of time and being very meticulous in making something that's going to look like a messy piece of shit, but that's sorta the idea. Shot about 11 mini-dv tapes. So far I have edited six and I have one hour of edited footage. If the 1:6 ratio continues, I should have a little over two hours cut in the end. I can cut together a ridiculously long movie, or about 6 or seven 20 minute episodes, or maybe even 12 or 13 ten minute episodes. Perhaps the last way is best. This fucking thing is brutal. I edited a scene which goes on for about twelve minutes and the word hysterical is impotent in expression. Irina says the tagline should be "PRACTICALLY UNWATCHABLE". I think she is fucking right. I think if I show it at the Clinton, it should be free. You get charged if you walk out. And everyone will.
Today I cut a scene where a nurse goes down on a burn victim. I really like how it came out. I took Archee for a walk and I ate a carne asada torta from Super Torta. Yummy! I am also thinking a lot about a women in prison movie called SLAMMER TRAMPS which I am soon going to make. I also need to get started shooting the sequel to OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. It's going to be called TERROR IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. I also have to ready the upcoming DVD's. So many things to plan out. Also need to edit the HE GOT OUT script so I can get going on shooting that thing too. That one will be like a half hour teleplay. Should pack a punch!
Paul Haggis' 2004 film Crash is a great example of a shitty movie. It makes a big deal about examining modern day bigotry in the U S of A. The tone is ponderous. Its conceits are shallow. The film is a dry hollow husk for anyone with any real life experience. For people who have never had to think about these things, Crash may seem like an epiphany.
Less than 10 years before Haggis' film, David Cronenberg made a movie with the same title CRASH. I watched it again over the weekend and was truly taken with it. I bet people who love Haggis' film would walk out during the first ten minutes of Cronenberg's picture. It shows you stuff and then leaves it all up to the viewer. The latter Crash lectures us without having anything to say.
I prefer being presented with information and then making up my own mind. I don't like people telling me what to think.
This man is amazing and one of my favorite actors ever. He was a big star in Turkish cinema. On top of that, he's a poet and a doctor. Wow! In one of his movies he is billed as Kunt Brix! Yes!!!!!!
