If I was ever on mastermind I would like to think Italian horror movies from the 70’s would be a specialist subject I could have a fair pop at – They can be at time surprisingly well crafted, great for their time and they have killer dark wobbly prog funk soundtracks which quite frankly get me pretty excited.
One of the classics of the of the ‘giallo’ genre is ‘Suspiria’ – a tale of a pretty ballet dancer who starts at a new dance school where dark forces are murdering other students. Dario Argento directs, and yes the effects are pretty hammy and yes the blood looks like nail varnish – but the shoestring budget is pushed well into breaking and the gorgeous lighting and colour hues really do work.
So if you do fancy a slice of this horror pie then I suggest you catch the screening as part of the Curzon Midnight Movies and Cine-Excess of a restored print of SUSPIRIA introduced by the cult film director himself - Dario Argento and composer Claudio Simonetti (“Goblin”).
I actually didn’t enjoy the movie but at the time I thought the transformation of Benjamin over the years was astonishing seamless filmmaking. Being a geek I checked out the behind the scenes film created by Digital Domain, the company who provided the visual effects.
I then found stumbled upon a specfic site detailing more of the effects, makeup etc and I was amazed by the level of detail that the production has gone into to show how they created the effects. The realisation that for half of the film the Brad Pitt performance is CGI motion tracked onto other actors really does show there is no separation between realtity and hyper-reality. As the film proceeds, the de-aging process applied to Brad and Cate gives you a chill that film making has now moved into a new era of visual manipulation.
This certainly gives me hope that the forthcoming James Cameron film ‘Avatar‘ will be able to live up to the lofty claims of a photo-realistic CGI film.
WIWP Presents “Now Showing”
Exploring the Lost “Art” of the Film Poster.
COSH Gallery
Soho, London
PV: Thursday 29th May
6.30pm—9.30pm
40+ Creatives were given the task of creating their own interpretation of a Cult, Classic or Obscure film poster from the past, whether it be a literal or abstract solution. The result is Now Showing, an Art exhibition paying homage to more than 70 years of film, through the form of Prints, One Off Screen Prints and Sculptures.
Artists who’s work was on display include: Mr Ian Wright, Hellovon, Non Format, Corey Holms, Grandpeople, Marian Bantjes, Tomer Hanuka, Pure Evil, James Joyce, Michael Gillette and Many More.
Saw V For Vendetta over the weekend and I came away thinking it was a decent take on the novel but just had too much phantom of the opera to really really believe in it. I thought it was generally really good…however it looks like it it got shitpanned across the reviews…Ho hum.
The excellent onedotzero team land at the v&a museum for a special late night opening. Lots of fine people guesting and some very interesting digital work.
Rescoring cult classic movies is becoming the performance piece of the every hip artist these days…but when its done right it can be genius. I was pretty excited to see that Jimi Tenor is rescoring William Kliens – ‘Mr. Freedom‘. This is worth going to just for the film itself. Its a satire, it has a superhero dressed as a american football player…and its french! Oh yeah and the master Serge Gainsbourg originally scored it and he also pops up as mr drugstore…oh yes!
The showing is at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday 24 March 2006, 7:45 pm.
About 2 years ago at the Big Chill, Strictly Kev (aka DJ Food) rescored a film. That film was ‘Head’ by the ‘Monkees’…this film is insane. Its like a good acid trip of film. I’m not joking either!
It blew my mind when kev rescored it live, and it will blow your mind in the comfort of your own home as you can now watch its warped genius over and over again…and rock out to kevs amazing audio work.
Just email – i-want-head-please@hotmail.com asking to buy a copy. Trust me its well worth the 10 squid I think they are going for!
