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Conical Solid 1974
Saw this projected through a cave. Anti-illusory and anti-fascist in the vein of Arnulf Rainer. A very welcome end to this week.
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Blonde Death 1984
Blonde Death:______::______:______
(a) Badlands, Polyester, All That Heaven Allows
(d) a filthy blonde slut with Tang, Breathless, a girl and a gun
(b) Jules and Jim, Batman Dracula, Nosferatu
(c) gidget, Mean Girls, fetch
(e) Debby Reynolds' "Tammy", Lost in Translation, Roxy Music's "More Than This"I mean, I don't actually know. I didn't go to a school for analogies.
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Crossroads 1976
A study of the figure of a mushroom cloud, refracted through space and time. Gleeson faithfully reimagines the actual sound, down to the wildlife sounds. It eventually gives way to Riley's drone score, and then everything tilts toward the sublime.
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Correction, Please: or, How We Got into the Pictures 1979
A man goes to the mansion of a notorious spy, where he quite literally falls under her spell. Yes, it's the plot of half a dozen similar films, but that's either beside the point or part of it.
Correction, Please: or, How We Got into the Pictures starts off with simple, static long shots resembling what Burch calls the "mature, primitive" period of early films. The narrative lurches forward and backward in time, occasionally replaying the same scene. The progression…
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You Only Live Once: Production Takes from a Film in the Making 1937
A strange making-of film that suggests something more than the DVD bonus feature it inevitably became. Production Takes from a Film in the Making starts off with several takes that start as the actors get set up, a few moments of gripping drama, and then the cast members easing up after the take has concluded. It's a nice rhythm that's helped by the immediacy of Fritz Lang's motifs: surprise reveals, fog, and weapons.
The bank robbery scenes didn't work quite…
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Multiple Maniacs 1970
It's been a few years since I first saw Multiple Maniacs, and it still mostly holds up. It's always entertaining when Waters holds up silly acts of transgression ("queers kissing each other like lovers on the lips!") next to serial homicide. He was clearly still figuring out how to arrange a scene here though.
Let's talk about the lobster scene though. I love the lobster scene. I loved Róisín Murphy's lobster scene. And I feel the need to write about…
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Closet Monster 2015
Stephen Dunn manages to navigate the space between Heartbeats, Green Porno, and Tetsuo: The Iron Man. How he fit them on the same map is beyond me.