
Jazz
on a Summer's Day

Jazz
on a Summer's Day

Jazz
on a Summer's Day

Jazz
on a Summer's Day

Steppenwolf

Strangers on a Train

Strangers on a Train
USA
BLOOD FOR DRACULA
(1974, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
If you wanted to enjoy Blood for Dracula as pure entertainment, Morrissey
gives you this outlet in spades. However, behind the goofiness lies the heart
of a film that actually bothers to look at Dracula in a way that hadn't been
done before.
BURDEN
OF DREAMS
(1982, Colour) Director: Les Blank
'Burden of Dreams' documents the making of Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo.
The film is a fascinating record of an obsessed film-maker's battle to finish
his work against all odds.
FLESH
(1968, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
The opening sequence of Paul Morrissey’s
Flesh compellingly breaks all of the rules cinema (notably, never frame a
single shot longer than thirty seconds), but in so doing signals the start
of an amazing treatise on family life in the laissez-faire world of the late
‘60s.
FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN
(1973, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
In most filmed versions of the Frankenstein legend,
Baron Frankenstein is merely a mad scientist whose reanimation project leads
to monstrous results. Morrissey's black comedy takes a different approach
to the story. In Flesh for Frankenstein, the baron is a degenerate married
to his sister. Holding his own silent, voyeuristic offspring in contempt,
Frankenstein's reanimation experiments are aimed at producing a "perfect,"
beautiful pair of zombies who will in turn produce children.
HEAT
(1972, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
Continuing his examination of fading society, Morrissey
turns to fame and travels from New York to Los Angeles for this outrageously
funny but almost painfully sharp comedy.
With a much bigger budget than the earlier films, slicker editing, glorious
photography and a strong John Cale score, this is a polished, dialog-based
film . But as it takes a swipe at everything from sexuality to showbiz, it
stays consistently entertaining and very telling.
INTERVIEWS
WITH MY LAI VETERANS
(1970, Colour) Director: Joseph Strick
Terrifying and indescribably
sad, this piece of cinema-verite is a series of interviews with five men who
participated in the My Lai action in Vietnam, all of whom are now out of the
army. These clean-cut American lads recount with smiles, indifference and
poise, how and why they murdered.
JANICE
(1973, Colour) Director: Joseph Strick
Two young truck drivers set
out from New Jersey with a load of meat. On the journey they pick up Janice
- for a price. From that moment on bad luck strikes at them from all sides......
An original work of art - the Observer
JAZZ
ON A SUMMER'S DAY
(1959,
Colour)
In
1958, a 28 year old Bert Stern had built for himself a reputation as one of
the world's leading fashion and advertising photographers. Although he had
ambitions to turn his talent to film, the opportunity did not present itself
until the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival invited him to "take some pictures".
That request would evolve into a full-fledged motion picture presenting some
of the most remarkable scenes of live jazz ever brought to the screen. Performers
include Louis Armstrong, Gerry Mulligan, Mahalia Jackson, Thelonius Monk,
Chuck Berry and Chico Hamilton.
MADAM
WANG'S
(1981,
Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
Lutz
(Patrick Schoene), is a self-proclaimed East German sailor-spy who has jumped
ship while in Long Beach harbor so he can prepare the way for a planned Soviet
invasion. Lutz is a handsome, musclebound type who attracts a following as
diverse as a mixed salad: a rotund mother and son whose affection for hamburgers,
fries, and ice-cream is self-evident, a gay pimp cum door-knob collector,
an attractive call-girl from the Temple of Dance Arts, and other flotsam and
jetsam of the human condition. The antics of this troupe enliven the film
as they head to Madame Wang's punk show, where Lutz shows off an eccentricity
of his own
MIXED
BLOOD
(1985,
Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
Brazilian
drug dealers in the lower east side of Manhattan start a war with a rival
gang of Latino drug dealers. Their soldiers are Latino kids all under 17 because,
as Rita La Punta says, "They can kill and not go to jail." The war
escalates to include their German heroin supplier, his sexy English girl friend,
a Puerto Rican ex-cop, and the Japanese police captain. This movie is about
racism, police corruption, junkies and drug dealing. There is plenty of killing
and even a visit to a store dedicated to the Latino pop group "Menudo."
A
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN
(1977, Colour) Director: Joseph Strick
Joseph (Ulysses) Strick returns to his favourite author James
Joyce. An outstanding achievement - Films & Filming.
THE
SAVAGE EYE
( 1958, Black-and-white) Director: Joseph
Strick
Judith McGuire, young and divorced, suddenly finds herself cut off from the
life she knew so well. To escape the ghosts of old memories she immerses herself
in every form of pleasure and sensationalism she can find...... A work of
startling and disturbing
brilliance - The Daily Mail
SCORSESE
X 4
(1964-74,
Colour & black-and-white) Director: Martin Scorsese
Scorsese Four brilliant films revealing the influences that produced 'America's
greatest living director'. What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place
Like This? (1963), made while Scorsese was still at University, he describes
as a tale of 'pure paranoia'. It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964) foreshadows
'Mean Streets' in its portrayal of the small-time hoods of Little Italy. The
Big Shave (1967), a gruesome fable, won Scorsese his first European prize.
Italianamerican (1974) offers a definitive account of the community that continues
to shape Scorsese's greatest films - plus his mother's recipe for spaghetti
sauce!
STEPPENWOLF
(1974, Colour) Director: Fred Haines
This Faust-like and magical story of the humanization of a middle-aged misanthrope
is a self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human and half wolf.
This stunning film is as faithful an adaptation of Herman Hesse's poetical
novel as one could possibly expect.
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
(1951, Black-and-white) Director: Alfred Hitchcock
After the unfavourably received Under Capricorn
and Stage Fright, Hitchcock returned to America and produced Strangers
on a Train for Warner Brothers. The film at once re-established him in
the high esteem of critics and the public. To this day, it remains on of the
most discussed and analysed thrillers in the medium. It is one of Hitchcock's
clearest, most accessible films.
TRASH
(1970,
colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
Joe Dallesandro stars as the impotent heroin-addict,
suspended in a state of asexual bliss and perpetual disconnection, and the
film thinly – and mostly hilariously – follows the attempts of
many women (and men) to seduce him, and those of his live-in girlfriend to
salvage him/them-as-a-couple (a great, celebrated performance by transvestite
actress, Holly Woodlawn). Those brave enough to venture into the film will
be rewarded with an unyielding canvas of transitory but chilling emotional
truths. At the end, it's up to the viewer whether to take it seriously or
not, but either way, it's essential viewing.
WOMEN IN REVOLT
(1971, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
This film is a satire of the women's liberation
movement, staring a trio of female impersonators. Candy (Candy Darling) is
an aloof heiress caught in an unhappy relationship with her brother. Jackie
(Jackie Curtis) is a virginal intellectual who believes women are oppressed
in contemporary American society. And Holly (Holly Woodlawn) is a nymphomaniac
who has come to loathe men, despite her attraction to them. Together, they
join a militant feminist group, P.I.G. (Politically Involved Girls), but their
newfound liberation doesn't make them any happier.