Avenue Kurtodrome

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed the latest Onar Films release, Captain Swing (scroll down to find it here or have a look at the DV website in case you missed it). Two years ago Onar Films released three Kilink movies on DVD (Kilink in Istanbul and a Kilink sequels double bill). If you never got round to buying those, right now might be a good option. On its blog Onar Films spread the rather disappointing news the DVDs will be gone in a couple of months. Here’s why:

As if I didn’t have enough problems, I just received a threatening message from Yilmaz Atadeniz, the producer of the 3 KILINK films I have released, that our contract period is overdue and that I must either give him MORE money to prolong the contract or return him ALL my remaining DVD’s!

Yes, our contract mentioned 18 months and I was stupid enough to believe that he wouldn’t mind giving me a break.
I was stupid enough to ASSUME that after that period, he was JUST free to sell the copyrights to another guy too.
And I was stupid enough to believe that 18 months were enough to sell out. (more)

This is so much harder for the Kilink double bill as for Kilink in Istanbul: the latter was almost sold out anyway (and as limited editions tend to go: the final one is the final one), but there are still some 400 copies of the Kilink double bill left. Copies which will be sent to Turkey, maybe to never appear again (unless they’re sold by the producer himself).

You may remember that I said the Kilink Double Bill was a good choice because a) it contains two films on one dvd (my maths department convinced me that’s quite some profit) but also b) the second Kilink movie (the first film on the double bill) starts with a long flashback of what happened in film one (we’re talking about a flashback of Boogeyman proportions).

Anyway, if you’re still interested in the Kilink movies, you’d better hurry if you wanna play safe. Meanwhile on the Onar blog a new post has appeared, asking reading not to be too negative on Atadeniz. We’ll gladly copy a link to that message too.

As for me… in a couple of days I’ll be looking at a stack of new releases from the Dutch label Filmfreak. Stick around!

The movie The Descent has already been reviewed here, so there’s no need to bring all that up again. Anyway, a couple of days ago I saw a poster for the film I hadn’t seen before. It’s good enough to share it with you here, so have a look…

And so we’ll have to wait for the Hari Puttar movie to be released in theatres. Warner Bros has fired a lawsuit against “all parties involved in the production and distribution of the Hari Puttar film” (I wonder if that includes the catering service). You see, Warner Bros claim Hari Puttar is too similar to some wizard boy franchise they have the rights of. The name’s Harry Potter, you may have heard of them.

Here’s why Warner Bros are wrong:

1) “Mirchi Movies, the makers of the Bollywood children’s film, have denied the accusations. [...] Mirchi says that Hari is a popular Indian name, and Puttar means ’son’ in Hindi and Punjabi.”
This makes one wonder: can people file lawsuits against using a popular name in a movie’s title? And if so, there must be one John Tucker out there who can go to the courts and file a lawsuit against a movie containing his name as well as containing a death threat. Also, “son”. It’ll be hard to be against the use of a word. What are Warner Bros trying to achieve? That from now on Punjabi parents will have to adress their sons as follows: “Come here, Hari, my not-daughter.”

2) Let’s never forget that Warner Bros should consider themselves quite lucky. After all, claiming it was Rowling who came up with the idea for her books is a bit of an overstatement. Discerning readers might want to discover the works of Anthony Horowitz.

So to sum up, Warner and co will protect their unoriginal ideas from being copied and people who speak Hindi or Pakistani are no longer allowed to call their sons “son” or give them a popular name.

Link to BBC article

Don LaFontaine, the man who provided the sonorous voice for more than 5,000 movie trailers, died Monday at age 68.

LaFontaine died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from a collapsed lung. He had been taken to the hospital Aug. 22 with a blood clot in the lung.

LaFontaine was known as the “king of the movie trailers,” having done the trailer voiceovers for films such as Terminator, Fatal Attraction, Cheaper by the Dozen, Batman Returns and his personal favourite, The Elephant Man.

His baritone voice and melodramatic delivery are famously associated with the oft-repeated movie trailer phrase, “In a world…”

More from that CBC article here.

And then there’s this short documentary on YouTube:

(More at engrish.com)

The Fifties teenager is one of the most recognizable images from that decade. From James Dean, tormented in his screaming red jacket in Rebel Without a Cause, to John Travolta, embodying a Seventies’ black-leather fantasy of the Fifties teen in Grease, the images tell us what we all know: that the 1950s gave birth to teen culture. The sheer volume of teenagers seemed to demand that they have a culture of their own. Between 1946 and 1960 the number of teenagers in the United States increased from 5.6 million to 11.8 million (Clark 69). Yet, the increase of teenagers in America did not give rise to optimism about the future, but, rather, produced fear in Americans writ large as the increased numbers carried the threat of violence.

This is how an essay (for Images) by Cyndy Hendershot starts. It focuses on the teens you get to see in horror movies from the fifties (what I tend to call “50s sci-fi”). After an introduction (page 1) the author focuses on four movies: The Giant Gila Monster, The Blob, I Was A Teenage Werewolf and Monster on the Campus.

Well worth reading.
Which you can do here.

The author of No One Belongs Here More Than You is Miranda July, she also stars in others’ video clips (Blonde Redhead’s Top Ranking) and makes movies (You and Me and Everyone We Know), but today I’d like to talk about her book. I don’t know what it is about Miranda July, but she’s like a ghost to me: when I wanted to go and watch her movie, it wasn’t playing (and that was the final day in my homebase, so tough luck). When her movie was going to be shown on Dutch telly, it got cancelled in favour of a repeat of the Coen brothers’ “O Brother Where Art Thou?”.

I noticed her book in Dutch translation and crossed the aisle to see if they also had her collection of stories in English version. They did. Sometimes Dutch books have lovely covers, which make you want to buy the translations rather than the originals (as mentioned in an earlier thread). This time the Dutch book looked a bit bland. The English paperback, however… well, judge for yourselves:

Wow, I don’t know about you, but I just love that picture…

I still haven’t read the book (I’m about to), but I’d like to think my money went to buying that photograph. 

Anyway, if you have a couple of minutes, do check out the website Miranda made for her book. It may just be the best book site I’ve ever seen:
http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/

I hope you agree. Even if you don’t like reading.

P.S. This is an older post. I’d planned to put it in the archive of this blog on the day I’d originally written it (March 30), but then I previewed the post to see if every link was working and I saw the book cover again. And then I decided: no, it may seem silly to repost this, but I like the cover and Miranda July’s book site (did you check the link above?) so much… it deserves a second chance. So you there you go.
Since the original post I’ve read the book. It’s full of stories with a twist: e.g. a woman who used to learn three older people how to swim doesn’t seem abnormal, until you realize there is no pool or beach in the town and she’s teaching them swimming lessons in her kitchen. Odd situations and fucked-up families, No One Belongs Here More Than You is full of such stories. Not all of them are hits, but the beauty and oddness of the more perfect(ed) stories make up for that.

Verdict: 7.5/10

Now, will you check Miranda’s book site? Pretty please?

Junko Miyazono returns as QUICK-DRAW OKATSU the daughter of a swordplay instructor who takes on a power-hungry magistrate in the second entry in the LEGENDS OF THE POISONOUS SEDUCTRESS series. Joined this time by Rui a wild young swordswoman the two sexy avengers embark on a blood-soaked quest for revenge after Okatsu is raped and her father slaughtered by one of his assistants. Okatsu and Rui slash their way through dozens of evil men in order to settle the score with those who wronged them in this swordplay classic which features some of the best fight scenes of the series. (description dvd cover)

Quick-Draw Okatsu is the second part of a trilogy with a rather odd title: Legends of the Poisonous Seductress. To be honest, after having seen the film I’m still not sure how this title refers to Okatsu. Apparently - I say ‘apparently’ because this is the only film of the trilogy I own - Quick Draw Okatsu has little to do with part one, Female Demon Ohyaku. It took only the concept of the first film and reworked it completely. And this one is in colour. The third film was called Okatsu The Fugitive, a sequel to this movie. The main thing all three movies have in common: lead actress Junko Miyazono.

Quick-Draw Okatsu introduces us to Rui, a feisty young girl in a fighting outfit/miniskirt. Rui is played by Reiko Oshida, who only made ten movies in her life. The titles of her films speak for themselves: School for Thieves, Blossoming Night Dreams (a.k.a. Tokyo Bad Girls), Crimson Bat Oishi: Wanted Dead or Alive and Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess (in which she played the lead). I don’t see Quick Draw Okatsu as a pinky violence movie (despite what it says on the DVD), but rather a female swordfighter movie. Okatsu is that swordfighter and it is she who Rui bumps into when chased by some men who work for the (corrupt) city commissioner. Okatsu is the (adopted) daughter of a famous fight instructor. Her word is good enough for the men to leave Rui alone. The instructor, Makabe, also has a son. This son, Rintaro, hates fighting and dreams of becoming a farmer with his beloved girl, Saki (who is pregnant, but has only informed Rintaro). Makabe is furious his son doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps, which has often lead to arguments. After another fight Rintaro leaves the house for good and tries to get more money by going to a gambling house. We, the viewers, see immediately the game is fraudulent, but Rintaro doesn’t and soon he’s in great debts. He tries to prove the game is rigged, but is unsuccessful. At which point Rui steps in and proves Rintaro was right. Rintaro grabs some money on his way out, which is the real start of the Makabes’ trouble. Since Rintaro has disappeared, the stolen money is demanded from Okatsu and her father. Okatsu offers to make good what her brother did wrong, which city commissioner Shiozaki and his henchmen reinterpret as Okatsu offering her body. Okatsu doesn’t want that, so they keep her locked in a cellar. Her father intervenes and demands they can punish him as much as they want to, if only they’ll let his daughter free. The henchmen pretend to oblige, but use the opportunity to torture Makabe while his daughter has to watch her father’s body being brutalized while being raped by Shiozaki. This (long and) relentless sequence made me check if Ken Loach hadn’t directed this movie. No, the director was one Nobuo Nakagawa (also the director of the cult classic Jigoku a.k.a. Hell).

After killing Makabe, it looks as if Okatsu’s days are numbered too. Luckily for Okatsu, Rui has managed to find out where Okatsu was held and jumps inside the house to save Okatsu. Shiozaki hears of Okatsu’s escape and has her announced as a dangerous killer.
Okatsu is alive with only one plan: to find the men who were responsible for her rape and the death of her father. She’s happy she still has a brother… Erm… Actually, her brother has been murdered rather cowardly and his lover was sold to a brothel. Okatsu finds out about this the hard way. Because in this film things can apparently only go the hard way.
Despite all the rapes, deaths and swordfights Quick-Draw Okatsu is not an exploitation movie. It’s violent and depressing because it’s so bleak (try and count the good characters in this film on one hand). At one point we see Saki being forced to undergo an abortion (and the question whether Okatsu will make it on time to stop the abortion). The bag with medical equipment is shown in lurid detail, Saki is shown being tied down to the table, but the bag is placed smack in the middle between the camera and Saki’s spread legs.

Quick-Draw Okatsu is in no way a ground-breaking film, all the things that happen have been seen in other films, but it’s executed rather well. It packs a lot of punch. Sadly, just not enough to become a classic or a cult classic, but it’s a good film.

Synapse Films released the trilogy on DVD. I wonder if they’ve been successful: on the IMDb the movies didn’t get too many votes. (At the time of writing Female Demon Ohyaku scored highest with only 41 votes.) Then again, not everyone who has seen the movie will go to the IMDb and vote. But still it is an indication that these films are quite obscure. The DVD comes with trailers for all three movies. Judging by the trailers, I would recommend this movie most. Female Demon Ohyaku comes a close second: it looks even bleaker (or is that the black and white factor?) and the sadistic scene where Ohyaku has revenge on a couple looks original. (The man will be guillotined if his wife moves: her hair is tied to a rope, which is connected to the guillotine’s blade.)

There’s also an audio commentary with details on the movie and its genre on this DVD, which is packed in a double-printed sleeve (so you can choose between the Synapse cover and the film’s original poster). For my money, this movie should get a 7.5/10. I’ll end this review with the link to the YouTube trailer, but first another shot of Rui, spying it out.

You can buy the DVD at Xploited Cinema (link) and DVD Pacific (link).

Stan Winston, an Academy Award-winning special effects and makeup artist, died Sunday after a long struggle with multiple myeloma. He was 62. He won four Oscars in the special effects and makeup categories for his work in Aliens, Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park.

But if you take a closer look at Winston’s filmography, you’ll spot a great number of cult movies the man worked on. His later work may be better known movies, but his career started in the 70s with Gargoyles.

A (by far in no way complete) selection of his output as make-up artist includes The Bat People, Mansion of the Doomed, An Evening with Diana Ross (no really), Zoltan, The Exterminator, The Entity, The Hand, Dead and Buried, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Edward Scissorhands and Tideland.

He was also responsible for the special effects of these movies (again, this is only a selection - if you want to see the entire list, follow the IMDb link above): Aliens, Predator, The Monster Squad, The Terminator (and its sequel) and the quite curious 80s television show, Manimal.

He even directed a couple of things (of which I’d like you to forget Michael Jackson’s Ghosts), with Pumpkinhead as the best known movie.

The death of special effects people never gets as much attention as the death of an actor or director, but if you look at Winston’s work, you’ll see this obituary was more than deserved.

I will leave you with a link to the man’s site.

Les Nuits Botanique offers a unique concept in Belgium: it’s a festival (in Brussels) that lasts a fortnight and allows lots of bands to appear in one of the venue’s rooms. There’s the Orangerie (the regular room), the Rotonde (a smaller and round room) and the Chapiteau, a big tent outside of the premises, just next to the majestical gardens. Tickets are valid for one room, which keeps the festival quite cheap: on average you’ll get to see three bands for 10 to 20 euro. And occasionally, Les Nuits Botanique raises the ticket price and opens all the rooms. In 2008 they did this for the line-up of May 9. For just under 25 euros you could watch I’m From Barcelona, Chrome Hoof, Minus, Get Well Soon, We Are Scientists, Two Gallants, V.O., Of Montreal, Blood Red Shoes, Timesbold, Nestor, The Germans and Forward Russia. We didn’t need that much incentive to get our asses to Belgium’s capital. Here’s an impression.

Two years ago ¡Forward, Russia! blew me away on Pukkelpop. Their concert may have been uneven, but the only way to describe the song Thirteen was “sheer brilliance”. Thirteen was the opening track of the album Give Me A Wall, which also contained the tracks Twelve, Fifteen (part 1), Nine, Nineteen… yes, the band didn’t bother to give their songs a name, they were named chronologically. So “Thirteen”, despite being the first track of the album, was the 13th song the band ever wrote. A gimmick for sure, but not as annoying as most of them.
Two years later the band has a new album, Life Processes, and decided there’s nothing wrong with giving a name to a song. (Suppose the band wouldn’t give up that trick and would even go as far as to name their children One, Two etc.) Last.fm allowed you to listen to the album before it arrived in the stores and my first conclusion was that the album had to do without mind-blowing tracks like Thirteen. Life Processes also contains a couple of songs that didn’t need to be on the album, but the hit and miss style of Give Me A Wall at least enabled the band to come up with excellent hits.
Add to this Tom Headwood’s peculiar vocals and you can understand why ¡Forward, Russia! annoys a lot of people. For my money, as long as they can come up with the occasional brilliant track I’ll love them. Hey, despite the uneven concert I even bought a T-shirt, mainly because it’s a beautiful shirt, but also because I want to believe there’s a future for a band like this. Even if a band’s member is called Whiskas (no really). Let’s hope there will be more tracks like Thirteen that are still on your MP3-player two years after the release (don’t worry band, I legally purchase my MP3s on eMusic and 7Digital). Let’s hope they don’t always feel the need to show off (occasionally that got in the way of the concert and the quality of the vocals). But let us believe for now…

Up next: the toughest choice. Of Montreal, Blood Red Shoes or Timesbold. Since Timesbold took longer to get started, my maths told me that if I went to Blood Red Shoes first, I could still get a large slice of Timesbold afterwards (well, if Blood Red Shoes were on time). They were. On stage just two people, Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell. Steven’s conversations with the public were often kept at “Merci!” and the occasional word in French even some of the francophones near me couldn’t understand. Laura-Mary had apparently made a promise to herself not to look at the audience too much. Still, they promised themselves to rock’n'roll and that’s what they did. The concert was poignant even though it never became excellent and half of the songs sounded exactly like they did on the record. So at times you could’ve just stayed at home and played the album in random order, but you wouldn’t get to see these two young people who made an album on their own terms after touring the country from tiny venue to tinier venue and who were suddenly catapulted into stardom. Well, stardom… a lot of people were still unaware of the duo’s existence. Here’s to hoping their concert at Pukkelpop later this year will change them. For now, the record convinced me more than their live performance, but what a wonderful record Box of Secrets is.

Over to Timesbold. Definitely not the best concert of this band I’d seen, but then again, their concert at the AB a couple of years ago was extraordinarily good. I’m not sure whether the band had an off-day or if it was the room that bothered them. Timesbold admit they’re not the most professional band in the world and it’s always nice to see them have another technical problem (during which Jason Merritt will tell another story, funny and/or cringe-worthy). The Rotonde is, as mentioned before, a smaller room and very much round. This makes a lot of the concerts quite intimate. I’m not sure Timesbold like being so naked, surrounded by audience. A dark room with the audience in front of them becomes them better. Nevertheless, people who didn’t know the band might have picked up on the band’s greatness even if Timesbold had to do without it. Said someone in the audience: I can believe they’re very good, just not today.

Is it a concert? Is it a talkshow? It’s We Are Scientists. Whereas Blood Red Shoes managed to utter only twelve words during the entire concert, We Are Scientists said enough between two songs to fill a complete novel. I had no idea how popular this band was until I went inside the tent. Are they good? Well, they’re certainly not bad, but I tend to prefer bands that let the music speak (rather than egos).

Which is why I let myself glide off to Two Gallants, appearing at the same time in the Orangerie. That room is a lot bigger than the Rotonde and it seemed as if Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel felt a bit intimidated. Their Wikipedia entry labels them an indie rock band, but don’t be fooled by that: much of this concert proved the band also liked their concerts lo-fi and intimate. Add to this large technical issues on which plug needs to go where or tracks that may be classified as background music and you may understand why I felt a bit disappointed.

I confess I didn’t know Chrome Hoof, but I’ve never understood why I’m From Barcelona is so popular (especially not after last year’s concert at Pukkelpop, which a lot of people seemed to like but I hated). And some genius had decided to cancel the last train to Antwerp, so it was either hoping Chrome Hoof would be excellent enough to spend the entire night in Brussels waiting for the morning train home or going home earlier and enjoy cocktails with a couple of friends. I don’t think I need to tell you what my decision was, let’s hope the clue my review ends here is sufficient enough.

TOP 3 CONCERTS:
1. Blood Red Shoes
2. Timesbold
3. ¡Forward, Russia!