REPORT (1967)

Experimental/Avant Garde Cinema Week Day 7

There are several experimental or avant garde films on the 1001 movie list. In trying to figure out how to deal with them, I have tried to handle these often tough nuts to crack by just watching them and trying to answer ten basic questions about them on my personally devised standardized test. So let us conclude with..

Report

1. What happens?

A news narrative of the day of the Kennedy assassination is reported with images relating to the assassination, but not in the order or in the way we have normally viewed it.

2. Was it heavy? Did it achieve total heaviosity?

It was pretty heavy. Yes, I'm giving this one the official heaviosity label.

3. What was your favorite part?

I liked that the scenes never quite seem to match what is being narrated, and challenges your perception of what you are seeing.

4. What was your least favorite part?

The part with the bullfighting was a bit off-putting at first.

5. Did you get it?

I believe I got this one.

6. Might the viewing experience have been enhanced from either prescription or non-prescription medication of some kind?

No, you need to take this one straight.

7. What about the sex?

You may see some sex appeal from the ladies in the advertisements for refrigerators and such, but these are overwhelmed by the scenes of violence.

8. What about the violence?

There are plenty of violent images during the last few minutes of Report, though the scenes of violence from the actual assassination are missing.

9. Describe this film in one sentence starting with "This is the film..."

This is the film where you may perceive an event you've looked at many times in a new way.

10. Would you watch it again?

Yes. And it would only take me 14 minutes!

                              

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VINYL (1965)

Experimental/Avant Garde Cinema Week Day 6

There are several experimental or avant garde films on the 1001 movie list. In trying to figure out how to deal with them, I have tried to handle these often tough nuts to crack by just watching them and trying to answer ten basic questions about them on my personally devised standardized test. So let us continue with..

Vinyl

1. What happens?

Blonde male in leather lifts some weights to the indifference of those behind him. This blonde guy appears to hold contempt for newspapers and ties up a guy to a pole and tortures him. He says he does bad things because he "digs it." He dances to Martha and the Vandellas. He gets into an altercation with someone he refers to as "scum baby." At this point, he is suddenly on the wrong end of an interrogation. He is strapped to a chair as a doctor examines him and someones reads the cast credits even though the movie isn't over. He is subjected to images that change his way of thinking. He is forced to wear a mask. He is released from his bondage and listens to some Kinks and some Stones and dances.

2. Was it heavy? Did it achieve total heaviosity?

I dug it enough to say it was a little heavy, but I've certainly had heavier.

3. What was your favorite part?

When I recognized the parts that were recognizable as being from Clockwork Orange, I kind of dug that.

4. What was your least favorite part?

I think this story could have been told in half the time. I didn't dig the moments of nothing happening.

5. Did you get it?

It's a bare bones adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange before Kubrick made an actual movie out of it. I can dig it.

6. Might the viewing experience have been enhanced from either prescription or non-prescription medication of some kind?

Too much of a high may cause the plot of Vinyl to slow down to an intolerable pace. I couldn't dig that. 

7. What about the sex?

I can't say I dug the bumping and grinding sex, though it was more figurative than anything.

8. What about the violence?

I don't dig violence, and tying someone up and putting a mask on them? I really can't dig that.

9. Describe this film in one sentence starting with "This is the film..."

This is the film that Andy Warhol made loosely following the plot of Clockwork Orange, and you're probably not going to dig it. 

10. Would you watch it again?

Probably wouldn't dig watching Vinyl again. Could possibly dig watching Andy Warhol's Bad or Andy Warhol's Dracula again. Or maybe I should just try to dig staring at some pictures of soup cans.                                

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FLAMING CREATURES (1963)

Experimental/Avant Garde Cinema Week Day 5

There are several experimental or avant garde films on the 1001 movie list. In trying to figure out how to deal with them, I have tried to handle these often tough nuts to crack by just watching them and trying to answer ten basic questions about them on my personally devised standardized test. So let us continue with..

Flaming Creatures

1. What happens?

Operatic music plays. Several transvestites try on lipstick. We have a shot of someone shaking their penis. A young lady mocks protest as she is having her breast touched to the tune of Asian music. Halfhearted screaming accompanies an orgy scene. Violin music plays and we see the aftermath of the orgy...I guess. Some laying around...not much happening, frankly. More modern music plays as a drag queen comes out of a box. Nothing much happens before a couple of the people begin dancing Astaire/Rogers style. Sounds like Mariachi music now. The people spin to the dance. Look, a man points to a woman's nipple! Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula begins playing before we get a shot of a final jiggling breast.

2. Was it heavy? Did it achieve total heaviosity?

It really wanted to be heavy, but I could pick this one up and toss it across the room with one hand. Sorry, not that heavy.

3. What was your favorite part?

Other than the fact that this was better than Blonde Cobra, I would think the diverse musical selections would be the best part.

4. What was your least favorite part?

I could have done without the penis shaking part...or the mock rape scene for that matter.

5. Did you get it?

I'm afraid I did not, though I can at least understand how someone else might, unlike Blonde Cobra!

6. Might the viewing experience have been enhanced from either prescription or non-prescription medication of some kind?

It could only help. Preferably something to make you very "giggly."

7. What about the sex?

When the characters aren't lying around, it's all about sex.

8. What about the violence?

You could look at the mock rape scene as violence. You could also look at it as farce. Or somewhere in-between.

9. Describe this film in one sentence starting with "This is the film..."

This is the film that I'm giving too much credit to for just not being Blonde Cobra!

10. Would you watch it again?

I seriously doubt it. But I'd certainly re-watch it before watching Blonde Cobra again!

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THE MAN WITH THE MOVIE CAMERA (1929, SOVIET UNION)

Experimental/Avant Garde Cinema Week Day 4

There are several experimental or avant garde films on the 1001 movie list. In trying to figure out how to deal with them, I have tried to handle these often tough nuts to crack by just watching them and trying to answer ten basic questions about them on my personally devised standardized test. So let us continue with...

The Man With the Movie Camera

1. What happens?
The man with the movie camera invites you into his movie theater and begins to show you a world outside the realm of traditional cinematic language.

2. Was it heavy? Did it achieve total heaviosity?
I weighed it and can officially declare it most heavy.

3. What was your favorite part?
The shots of late the late twenties Soviet Union is even more interesting without the confines of traditional narrative. I like the way Director Dziga Vertov shows the mechanics of society through machinery, trolleys or people just going to work And I like the fact that Vertov appears with his camera throughout reminding us this is a movie in case we begin to forget.

4. What was your least favorite part?
I do admit that I did look at the clock a couple of times while viewing, but I can't blame a particular section of the film.

5. Did you get it?
I believe I got it!

6. Might the viewing experience have been enhanced from either prescription or non-prescription medication of some kind?
Yes, I think medicinal enhancement of some kind might make you appreciate it even more.

7. What about the sex?
A woman in a slip...Some slow female discus throwers and high jumpers...A woman on the beach is topless and puts mud all over her. Yeah, there is some sex here. And 1929 sex at that!

8. What about the violence?
The filmmaker is about to get run down by a train! But he isn't, it's just a trick. Violence is averted here and throughout the film.

9. Describe this film in one sentence starting with "This is the film..."
This is the film that is the grandfather of films that tell a story in a non-traditional way.

10. Would you watch it again?
Yes, and should be one I shouldn't have waited until now to see for the first time. So, thanks 1001 book!...This almost makes up for making me watch Blonde Cobra, but not quite.

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BLONDE COBRA (1963)

Experimental/Avant Garde Cinema Week Day 3

There are several experimental or avant garde films on the 1001 movie list. In trying to figure out how to deal with them, I have tried to handle these often tough nuts to crack by just watching them and trying to answer ten basic questions about them on my personally devised standardized test. So let us continue with...

Experimental/Avant Garde Cinema Week Day 3

There are several experimental or avant garde films on the 1001 movie list. In trying to figure out how to deal with them, I have tried to handle these often tough nuts to crack by just watching them and trying to answer ten basic questions about them on my personally devised standardized test. So let us continue with...

Blonde Cobra

1. What happens?

1001 movie reviewer Marc Siegel says: "Blonde Cobra is perhaps first and foremost a fascinating audio-visual treatment of the inimitable Jack Smith." 

I say: "I have no idea what happens or if anything happens."

2. Was it heavy? Did it achieve total heaviosity?

I'm making the call that it did not.

3. What was your favorite part?

After several minutes of a black screen the sudden rush of an actual image at least made me say, "Aha! An acutal image! That's good, right?"

4. What was your least favorite part?

The fact that I couldn't make out much of the dialogue during the film's thirty-three minutes. But I'm not totally convinced that is a bad thing.

5. Did you get it?

I like to think I'm very open minded about experimental films, but I can honestly say that I totally didn't get Blonde Cobra. 

6. Might the viewing experience have been enhanced from either prescription or non-prescription medication of some kind?

I don't know, but watching this made me want to take a Tums.

7. What about the sex?

No matter what team you play for, any sex to be found here is pretty darn creepy.

8. What about the violence?

Not in the film itself, but I was personally beginning to feel a bit violent by minute thirty-three.

9. Describe this film in one sentence starting with "This is the film..."

This is the film that makes Scorpio Rising look like a masterpiece by comparison.

10. Would you watch it again?

In an attempt to get some meaning out of this I did watch it again (It didn't help).

I think it's safe to say that I won't watch it a third time. Thanks for nothing, Marc Siegel!

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DAISIES (1966, CZECHOSLOVAKIA)

Experimental/Avant Garde Cinema Week Day 2

There are several experimental or avant garde films on the 1001 movie list. In trying to figure out how to deal with them, I have tried to handle these often tough nuts to crack by just watching them and trying to answer ten basic questions about them on my personally devised standardized test. So let us continue with..

Daisies

1. What happens?

These two young chicks named Daisy get into a lot of innocent mischief involving playing with food, manipulating older men, taking baths and cutting up clothes before they get into a Cartesian conversation about the meaning of life itself and whether or not the frivolity of their existence is truly significant or just an existential....never mind, I'm not really sure what happens.

2. Was it heavy? Did it achieve total heaviosity?

There were times that it achieved a bit of heaviness, especially in a lot of the quick cuts and changes in color.

3. What was your favorite part?

The continuous editing kept me on my toes.

4. What was your least favorite part?

The continuous editing kept me off-balanced and confused

5. Did you get it?

Not until the end credit that said something to the effect that "this film is dedicated to those who only get upset over stomped-over lettuce." Thanks for the explanation, otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten it.

6. Might the viewing experience have been enhanced from either prescription or non-prescription medication of some kind?

Hallucinogenics all the way. 

7. What about the sex?

The two Daises do parade around a lot in underwear, bikinis and in bathtubs. All in a coquettish sort of way.

8. What about the violence?

The movie begins with an atomic bomb and ends with the remnants of a burned out city.

9. Describe this film in one sentence starting with "This is the film..."

This is the film that had depth, meaning and subtext and completely baffled me.

So if you are scoring at home, it's Daises 1 Me 0.

10. Would you watch it again?

I think 71 minutes with the Daisies is enough for one lifetime.

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DESERET (1995)

Experimental/Avant Garde Cinema Week Day 1

There are several experimental or avant garde films on the 1001 movie list. In trying to figure out how to deal with them, I have tried to handle these often tough nuts to crack by just watching them and trying to answer ten basic questions about them on my personally devised standardized test. So let us begin with...

Deseret

1.What happens?
A narrator reads a series of New York Times stories about the Utah territory of Deseret as we simultaneously see shots of fields, deserts, waterfalls and livestock. The film starts off with black and white shots of American vistas, which I presume to be Utah. The narrator discusses such subjects as altercations between The Church of the Latter Day Saints and Native-Americans during the 1850’s. The narrator goes on to talk about Polygamy and organized violence as we see more shots of fields and deserts. We hear tales of Brigham Young and the Civil War interspersed with shots of… airplanes? We continue on into the 20th century with some color shots of what we might presume is the Utah territory and more news on the region through the World Wars and ending in the early 1990’s. To tell you the truth, I think I nodded off a bit between the part where Utah become a state and World War I.

2. Was it heavy? Did it achieve total heaviosity?
I don’t think it quite got there.

3. What was your favorite part?
I did like the way they incorporated the stories about Brigham Young into the mix. And frankly, the stories where they dished some dirt on ole B. Y. were pretty interesting.

4. What was your least favorite part?
I’m guessing that would be the early 20th century part when I nodded off. A little hazy on the details there.

5. Did you get it?
I think they were trying to tell a narrative in a different way. I get and respect that. That doesn’t mean I found it all that riveting. But I guess if I want something more exciting in this field I could always watch Ken Burns special about the National Parks!

6. Might the viewing experience have been enhanced from either prescription or non-prescription medication of some kind?
Not this time. Okay, maybe a couple of uppers to get through the slower parts.

7. What about the sex?You remember those condom commercials where they used to show wheat fields and vistas to avoid alluding to sex directly? I suppose when they showed the wheat fields and vistas during Deseret my mind occasionally wandered to thoughts of those commercials. And since condoms are related to sex…or the prevention of pregnancy…never mind…there isn’t any sex.

8. What about the violence?
There are some pretty graphic descriptions of massacres and the like, though since it is being read over waterfalls and livestock, it is up to the viewer’s imagination to visualize the carnage.

9. Describe this film in one sentence starting with "This is the film..."
This is the film that reminds be of some of those filmstrips I saw in elementary school where I would almost invariably ask my instructor, “Are we going to be tested on this?”

10. Would you watch it again?
Not unless it’s going to be on the test.

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