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Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)
Jan
7
Wed
Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) in his tank. Around him visions of clouds, fishes, the ocean. DP: Jordan Cronenweth.
“I'm a man in search of his true self. How archetypically American can you get?”
– Eddie Jessup
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Die Sage vom alten Hirten Xeudi und seinem Freund Reiman [The Legend of the Old Shepherd Xeudi and His Friend Reimann] (Hans-Jakob Siber, 1973)
Dec
11
International Mountain Day
The two friends setting off on their track of the Swiss mountains. Their chalet can be seen in the foreground. DP: Hans-Jakob Siber.
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Die Sage vom alten Hirten Xeudi und seinem Freund Reiman [The Legend of the Old Shepherd Xeudi and His Friend Reimann] (Hans-Jakob Siber, 1973)
Sep
3
potatoes
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Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)
May
18
tea
An almost monochrome man and woman in Edwardian costumes sit at a round table under a parasol. The couple looks out over a field with bright orange poppies. The flowers are filmed through a fisheye lens and appear to be on a grassy green planet.. DP: Jordan Cronenweth.
“She's still crazy about him. He's still crazy.”
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Manson (Robert Hendrickson + Laurence Merrick, 1973)
Aug
6
American Family Day
A large group of hippies somewhere outside in front of canopy. They appear to pose as if for a stage play. One of them wears a T-shirt with a Christ-like, bearded man on it. On closer inspection, some familiar faces. Captions reads “The Family”. DPs: Jack Beckett & Louie Lawless.
Everything America stood for – God, liberty and justice for all – fell apart in the 60s. A much-loved president and family man killed on live television. Teenagers shipped to a country many never heard of before, only to end up as cannon fodder. Peace loving middleclass white kids from well-to-do families gathering en masse in Haight-Ashbury, collectively fell to bum trips and bouts of gonorrhoea. What America needs is family. Someone who takes you in, understands you, sings you songs and feeds you. An older man with friendly eyes appears on the scene, doing just that.
“These children that come at you with knives, they are your children. You taught them. I didn't teach them. I just tried to help them stand up.”
What the press dubbed The Family was a microcosm of American society; a loose collective of lost kids. Taken in by charismatic peddling pimp #CharlieManson with a steady supply of #LSD and a place to be themselves, rootless kids like Lynette “#Squeaky” Fromme and Paul Watkins were finally part of a family again. The family grew too; besides more lost souls and the occasional Beach Boy visiting Spahn Ranch, babies were born at the Devil's Slide.
Hendrickson and Merrick's Manson offers a candid and by times surreal portrait of a few #MansonFamily members (Squeaky makes out with a riffle, purring about how killing is like having an orgasm while Atkins lays out her plans to murder Frank Sinatra) right in the middle of the spectacle [sic] court-case. It was even nominated for an Oscar – which went to that other charismatic 70s evangelist, Marjoe (1972), while Manson was banned after Fromme's botched assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford in '75 and was lost for decades.
Stylistically inspired by Woodstock (1970) and soundtracked by the Family themselves, Manson remains a fascinating curio in the undying output of #Mansonsploitation movies. However gruesome, the American family is forever cemented in that holy cornerstone of self-immolation.
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The Mask [Eyes of Hell / The Spooky Movie Show] (Julian Roffman, 1961)
Jul
22
Jaws 3D release day
strobe warning: click to toggle image
Rudi Linschoten as Dr Allan Barnes' alter ego in one of the jaw-dropping 3D scenes. With red/cyan glasses you can see the 3D effect in all its eye-popping glory! DP: Herbert S. Alpert.
“Put the mask on, now!”
– recurring on-screen prompt
Julian Roffman's The Mask is an extremely watchable psychotronic affair. The 3D effects during the nightmarish Andreas Vesalius-inspired sequences are well implemented and yes, there's stuff flying at you for all the right reasons. Not quite #WilliamCastle gimmicky, but made with lots of love for the potential of 3D.
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Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968)
Jul
10
Bahamas Independence Day
After Micky (Micky Dolenz, R) jumps of a bridge, the picture becomes pseudo-solarized and to the sweet tunes of Gerry Goffin and Carole King's Porpoise Song, he meets a siren (actress unknown, L). DP: Michel Hugo.
“Clicks, clacks, riding the backs of giraffes for laughs,
S'alright for a while,
The ego sings of castles and kings,
And things that go with a life of style,
Wanting to feel, to know what is real,
Living is a, is a lie”
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Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 1968)
Apr
28
Clean Comedy Day
A Blue Meanie pirouetting on a blossoming flower that pushes itself up into the sky. The sky is white while the flower and clouds are multicoloured.
A Gen X-er, I grew up in a completely different world where so many films and TV that kids watched – if watched with today's eyes — were not particularly kid-oriented at all. I fondly remember Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and reenacting the Black Knight scene in the school grounds. Yul Brynner as a faceless, rampaging cyber cowboy in Westworld (1973)? Sure, bring it on! Not that the official kid's movies were “clean”. Did you spot the chicken decapitation in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)? Well, you will now.
“Once upon a time, or maybe twice, there was an unearthly paradise called Pepperland. 80,000 leagues beneath the sea it lay, or lie. I'm not too sure.”
– narrator
Alright, I'll keep it clean and suggest a dose of Yellow Submarine. A fantastic adventure starring The #Beatles (well, their likeness mostly) who are summoned to save utopian, music-loving #Pepperland from the music-hating Blue Meanies. Trippy fun, and lots to discover the older you get.
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La folie du Docteur Tube [The Madness of Dr. Tube] (Abel Gance, 1915)
Apr
23
World Laboratory Day
The professor's assistant is a young Black kid, maybe 10 years old. He's wearing a white lab apron over his dark outfit and glances at something off camera (I assume he's waiting for his cue from the director; this is the scene where the hallucinogenic powder is about to reach him and he has to act the part). In the background is Dr. Tube, cracking up under the influence of his own invention. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
Dr. Tube (Séverin-Mars) invents a powder that distorts reality and promptly tests it out on some oblivious test subjects, who quickly can no longer recognise the world around them. The brilliance of La folie du Docteur Tube is its use of practical in-camera effects that makes us, the viewer, experience the hallucinogen.
This little folly by the great Abel Gance features Albert Dieudonné in a small part, who later would again work with Gance in his Napoleon (1927), as Napoléon Bonaparte.
This is one of the few (French) comedies from the time that I'm aware of with a Black character who is not a horrible racist stereotype or a white person in blackface. If you have any idea of who the professor's assistant is, please reach out on Mastodon.
