One of the somewhat unknown films I’m looking forward to at this years Toronto International Film Festival is the French Canadian science-fiction/thriller Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnés. The festival description of the film suggests a genre version of Kafka. My anticipation is now futher heightened with the gorgeous visuals displayed in the teaser which evoke a blending of the cinematographic styles of David Lynch and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Canadian films have never looked this good.
Teaser Trailer (Downloadable Quicktime, 5.4Mb)
Thanks to Logboy for the pointer to downloadable version.
Posted by Todd Brown at 12:57pm.
The first block of titles for the first Fantastic Fest has been announced and the four day, Austin based, genre film festival is off to a solid start. On the early slate for the October festival: Henry Selick’s Moongirl, Jon Favreau’s Zathura, Mark Mylod’s The Big White, Christopher Smith’s Creep, Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek and Paul Fox’s The Dark Hours. Now that is one solid and diverse lineup ... I can’t wait to see what they end up adding ... makes me more than a little tempted to head to Texas ... Read on for the full press release and hit the festival website here.
Continue Reading "First Fantastic Fest Titles Announced!"...
Posted by Todd Brown at 12:26pm.
Ooooh ... a regular reader of the site managed to find his way on to the Boston set of Martin Scorsese’s Infernal Affairs remake The Departed last week and he snapped us a few shots and shot a bit of video of Scorsese working with the film’s star, Leonardo DiCaprio. Thanks to Don for these ...
“Hey, big fan of the site. I go to Emerson College here in Boston and I managed to catch something half way exciting today that is up y’all alley. Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio were in town today shooting scenes for The Departed and I got to watch for about an hour and a half. As a huge fan of Infernal Affairs I was pretty damn excited. It was a big public shoot on Charles St (which is on the edge of the Boston Common). They had an army of PAs blocking off the block they were on but I was able to sneak into a nearby alley to watch, which happened to be the same alley Leo (did I actually just say Leo?) was walking into for the scene! I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was looking pretty damn bulked up for the role and looked a lot more appropriate for the role than I had anticipated. We exchanged some semi-akward eye contact after every take (as My Roomate and I were the only people in the alley not working on the film) but that’s as far as my interaction with the stars went. I talked to one of the PAs for a while who confirmed that all of the interiors were being shot in NY but was unable to confirm my questions about Nicholson’s rumored prosthetic penis so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. I did manage to get a few shots of ‘em during the shoot, but they are a far cry from fantastic. I also have some video of Scorsese giving DiCaprio direction that I’ll upload eventually (those shots are much closer/clearer). Anyway, like I said nothing huge but I thought you guys might be interested to hear about it. Keep up the good work!”
Download that video here (Quicktime, 4.7 meg) and continue on for the photos ...
Continue Reading "Photos And Video of Martin Scorses and Leonardo DiCaprio On The Set Of The Departed!"...
Posted by Todd Brown at 12:12pm.
Logboy just dropped a note pointing out that Thai actioner Hit Man File is slated for a Region One DVD release in early November. This one caught our eye back in February and now, thanks to KINO, we’re finally going to get a chance to see it ... nice ...
Posted by logboy at 11:46am.
Admiral Kendal Ozzel from ‘Empire Strikes Back’ to those of you keen on you Star Wars facts, but primarily for many millions in the UK he is to be best remembered as the truly legendary Mr.Bronson from the BBCs most important and long-running Childrens Drama series ‘Grange Hill’ in which he appeared during the late 1980s for 4 years. He managed to create a character so powerful that he became one of the key characters in a show that still runs after almost 30 years.
Breathtakingly powerful voice, incredibly intimidating presense when required on screen - but astonishingly friendly and gentle in real life, Mr.Sheard passes on aged 65 after loosing his battle against Cancer.
Having perhaps most famously played Adolf Hitler on several or more occassions, Mr.Sheard is also well know for that particular role in ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark’. His career covered an impressive 40 years in all areas. I for one think Mr.Sheard was one of Britains truly stunning Actors, and shall miss his work greatly.
Michael Sheard at IMDB. Official Site. BBC Announcement. Admiral Ozzel at Star Wars Data Bank.
Posted by Todd Brown at 11:42am.
Well, the Dogme 95 movement turns ten this year and the good people at Electric Parc Media are going and giving us all a lovely tenth anniversary present in the form of a five disc Dogme 95 box set that will include the original four Dogme films - The Celebration (Festen), Mifune, The Idiots, The King Is Alive - by the movement’s four founders along with a fifth disc of bonus materials. Now, Electric Parc just happens to be the company behind the staggering Lars Von Trier Europa Triology box set that came out across Europe a couple months back so, while the full specs for these haven’t been released yet, you can expect this edition to be the absolute definitive release for these four films. What they have said is that the box set will feature English subtitles, we can expect commentaries and docs on all films and the fifth disc will include over 200 minutes of features. Nice. Hit that link above for the Electric Parc website ...
Posted by Todd Brown at 11:00am.
Gummo check in with his fourth and final installment from London’s Frightfest ...
Had a sleep in and skipped the 10.45 Born To Fight (Dir. Panna Rittikrai). I’ve no doubt it delivered (as everyone told me who saw it), but it’s just not my type of thing..
12.45pm Day Of the Dead 2: Contagium (Dirs. James Dudelson & Ana Clavell)
I did wander in during Day Of The Dead 2: Contagium though. Curiosity compelled me enough, and it’s the kind of thing you could only enjoy either with an audience like the Fright Festers, or completely drunk with a lot of friends. Coming from the so-bad-its-almost-good school of film making, this is an embarrassment to even be linked in name to a George Romero movie. Err, talking zombies? They not only talk, they chat away and taunt quite happily.. and something that looks like the incredible melting man munches it’s way through a hospital. Terrible scripts, worse than bad acting and a contender for worst fake accent in a movie EVER make this pure popcorn fare. Rent it with friends and laugh it up.
Continue Reading "Frightfest Diary Day Four: Day of the Dead 2, P, Antibodies, Wolf Creek"...
Posted by Todd Brown at 10:57am.
Gummo checks in with Day three from the London Frightfest ...
10.50am The Collingswood Story (Dir. Michael Costanza)
Starting fresh with the showing of Michael Costanza’s The Collingswood Story, this got the day off to an effective start. As a web cam Internet chat between an estranged couple soon dissolves into something more sinister, we discover the temporary student digs of the girl has a rather unfortunate history. For a low budget flick, this was a slow yet effective movie. And although shamelessly descending into Blair Witch Project territory, it still was a rather compelling low budget movie.
Continue Reading "Frightfest Diary Day Three: Collingswood Story, Marebito, Red Eye, Nightwatch, Dominion"...
Posted by Todd Brown at 10:53am.
More from Gummo in London ...
I skipped the first flick of the morning, the Dario Argento directed ‘Do You Like Hitchcock?’ (Part of a planned TV series) in order to go and get my Night Of The Living Dead DVD signed by George Romero. Boy, did that live up to expectation.. He’s a wonderful man, and shook the hand and greeted everyone who met him.
Continue Reading "Frightfest Diary Day Two: Dead Meat, Neighbor No 13, Wild Country, The Roost, 2001 Maniacs"...
Posted by Todd Brown at 10:48am.
Twitch regular Gummo just spent four days catching twenty of the twenty two films screened as part of London’s Frightfest and wrote ‘em all up ... here’s day one:
Day 1. ‘Dead Day’
Featuring. (11.15am) Night Of The Living Dead, (1pm) Dawn Of The Dead, (3.20pm) Day Of The Dead and (7pm) Land Of The Dead.
(Dir. George Romero)
Getting things off to a fine start on the opening day, we were treated to a special ‘Dead Day’. Apparently the first time all of George Romero’s movies (including Land of the Dead) have been screen in succession. These movies are well known to horror fans worldwide, so I won’t go into detail, but I will say that seeing them on the big screen was just intense. I’m a huge fan of Romero and seeing opening movie Night Of The Living Dead (starting the day at 11.15am), on the big screen was just the greatest. Shortly followed by Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, which got the suitably audience pumped for the UK premier of Land of The Dead.
Continue Reading "Frightfest Diary Day One: Romero, Romero, Romero, A Bittersweet Life and Evil Aliens."...
GP Museum Soft K.K. (K.K. GP Myûjiamu Sofuto) has announced that it’s scheduled to release Norihisa Yoshimura’s Killer Bee (Satsujinbachi - kirâ bî) on VHS and DVD in Japan in January of next year. The movie premièred at the Shibuya Ciné la sept on April 23rd of this year. Its principal cast is as follows: Saki Kagami, Miku Ueno (she was in Tadafumi Itô’s Diet (Zesshoku) - one of the half-dozen hour-long movies in the Kazuo Umezu’s Horror Theater (Umezu Kazuo: kyôfu gekijô) series), Hazuki Suzuki (Suzuki Haduki), Ayano Yoshikawa, Natsume Sano (she’s also in Kôsuke Suzuki’s Maicching Machiko! Begins (Maicchingu Machiko! Biginzu)), Yuriko Sakuma, Nana Kasai, Kô Watanabe (8th listing), and Kotono Shibuya.
George Clooney certainly has learned from the various directors he has worked with. If Confessions of a Dangerous Mind had the visual stylings of Soderbergh, then Good Night. And, Good Luck. takes a page from the Coen Brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There. The film also is looking to be a very timely bit of agitprop. Enjoy the trailer.
Trailer (Quicktime, Various Sizes)
Trailer (Windows Media, Various Sizes)
Yahoo!Movies via AICN.
Posted by logboy at 2:19am.
Nice, as I haven’t seen them for so many years, and now because of that nice little cash-in factor we will finally get them on silver disc format. All series, 15 episodes in total (5 for the first two series, 10 for the second) of these 3-5 minute shorts, with the final 10 all 30 minutes each.
Total is 3 discs somehow - so wonder what extras will be announed? Recommended price is shy of $40, but wouldn’t be paying anything like that online.
Sure there’s a huge fanbase for these still, as they’re some of the nicest and strangest commercially successful pieces I can remember - and a great example of how cool MTV was before it was so widespread.
via Animated Bliss.
Although Takao Nakano‘s Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy (Kiseichû: kirâ pusshî) was released on sale DVD in Japan just over a year ago, I’m posting about it here and now for the benefit of those who aren’t familiar with it, and are interested in such movies. The sale DVD (DMN-059; NTSC, region 2, no subtitles) can be purchased on-line from Amazon Japan K.K..
There are two official pages (viewer discretion is advised) for Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy on the website of Total Media Corporation (TMC K.K. / K.K. Tî Emu Shî). Also, there’s a page with a downloadable trailer (viewer discretion is advised) for the movie on the J-sploitation subsite of GOMORRAHY.com.
Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy starred Sachika Uchiyama, Natsumi Mitsu (viewer discretion is advised), Sakurako Kaoru, Tôgo Okumoto, Tomohiro Okada (he was also in (Takao) Nakano’s Mikosurihan gekijô: namashibori sûpâ DX and Daisuke Yamanouchi‘s Uzuku gibo to musume: nekojita kurabe), Toshimichi Tasaki (he was also in Ryûhei Kitamura‘s Godzilla: Final Wars (Gojira: fainaru wôzu) and the late Teruo Ishii’s Japanese Hell (Jigoku)), Kanji Tsuchiya, and Yumi Yoshiyuki (she was also in (Takao) Nakano’s Mikosurihan gekijô: namashibori sûpâ DX, his Queen Bee Honey (Bikyonyû kosupure senshi: Kuinbî Hanî), Kenjirô Fujii’s Pink Ribbon (Pinku ribon), and Hiroshi Takahashi’s Ichi of Sodom (Sodomu no Ichi) - one of the four movies in Euro Space et al.’s Horror Bancho Series (Horâ banchô shirîzu)).
Nakano wrote the screenplay for Minoru Kawasaki‘s Kabuto-O Beetle (Kabuto-Ô Bîtoru). Other movies directed by him include Mikosurihan gekijô: namashibori sûpâ DX, Queen Bee Honey (Bikyonyû kosupure senshi: Kuinbî Hanî), Sumo Vixens (Hana no onna sumô) (viewer discretion is advised), and the ExorSister (Chô-yôma densetsu Uratsuki-dôji) tetralogy.
Those interested in Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy may also wish to read the Twitch articles on Masanori Inoue’s Shion (Shion - hibi), Takaaki Hashiguchi’s Kuchisake, and Seiji Yamada’s The Naked and the Living Dead (Shin kaidan zangyaku hidô: onna keiji to ratai kaibôki) - a.k.a. “Yôki kaidan zenshû: bangai-hen: onna keiji to ratai kaibôki”.
GOMORRAHY.com: Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy page (w/ downloadable trailer)
TMC: Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy video page
TMC: Sexual Parasite: Killer Pussy DVD page
Although Tamakichi ‘Anal’ Anaru‘s Tumbling Doll of Flesh (Niku daruma) was released on VHS in Japan back in 1998, I’m posting about it here and now for the benefit of those who aren’t familiar with it, and are interested in such movies. This AV-horror has never been released on DVD. The VHS (PSY-01) release sells for ¥5600 (approx. $50.00 U.S.) on the website of Aroma Planning (viewer discretion is advised), but can only be directly purchased from within Japan. A number of bootleggers, however, are selling Tumbling Doll of Flesh on DVD-R. A dozen vidcaps from the movie can be seen on the page (viewer discretion is advised) for it on the J-sploitation subsite of GOMORRAHY.com; please note, though, that the movie can’t be purchased from that site.
Tumbling Doll of Flesh starred Kanako Ôba as Kana, the tumbling doll of flesh; Kikurin as Kiku, the visceral sex performer; Yûji Kitano as the snuff video cameraman (he directed and appeared in Osore-zan: kôrei fakku, the AV quasi-sequel to Tumbling Doll of Flesh; he was also in Noboru Iguchi’s A Larva to Love (Koi suru yôchû) and Ian Kerkhof’s Tokyo Elegy (Shabondama Elegy)); and Anaru himself as the snuff video director. Anaru and Shino Setsuna were responsible for the movie’s special make-up effects. (In the story “Kyôen” in Anaru’s Suicide Dolls (Satsu satsu (ayame)), Setsuna played the woman who commits harakiri. She and he were both also responsible for the special make-up effects for his AV-horror short “Women’s Flesh: My Red Guts” ("Women’s flesh: watashi no akai harawata (hana)”.)
Two notes with regard to “Niku daruma”, the Japanese title of Tumbling Doll of Flesh: Firstly, the word “daruma” normally refers to a tumbling doll, but is also (archaic) slang for a prostitute; in the movie, Kana begins as the latter (specifically, an AV performer), but ends up as a (briefly-)living version of the former. Secondly, although the movie doesn’t show how Kana’s corpse is disposed of, the answer to that question may well be provided by the Japanese website Niku-daruma.com.
Those interested in Tumbling Doll of Flesh may also wish to read the Twitch article on Fuji Kikaku’s six Onna harakiri sakuhinshû DVDs, the third one of which includes Masami ‘Merzbow’ Akita’s Lost Paradise (‘Shitsurakuen’: jôbafuku onna harakiri).
GOMORRAHY.com: Tumbling Doll of Flesh page (w/ 12 vidcaps)
