Rock on Film Pt 1: When You're (sure that people will think more highly of you if they deem you) Strange

Jim Morrison shares a joke with the photographer

Just saw When You're Strange: a film about The Doors.

The story of The Doors goes something like this: four magic elves form a band in L.A. and "isn't it a shame about Jim?"

I have a very special reason for liking The Doors. It's highly personal, so much so that many would simply not understand: I enjoy listening to their records.

Sure, there are plenty of things that come through when listening to their records that add an air of intrigue to the experience that make the listener want to know more about them. From the time I saw the depiction of Jim Morrison in the Rock Dreams book and (this is in the late 70s) read a couple of articles in rock rags that were leading the archeology into his legend I developed an interest. I found the story compellingly dark and involving but still had only heard a few of the hit singles that local radio played (mainly as they hadn't quite caught up to the crud that they were meant to be playing at the time). Anyway, then I saw Apocalypse Now and went out and bought the albums. From that point I was a Doors fan. Still am.  When the box set with the remasters coupled with the DVD-Audio hi-res albums came out I went through the lot all over again (listening to one of them now, in fact). But there's a problem with things like When You're Strange. It bugs me.

What I'm hearing as I type this, as the title track of LA Woman shuffles and rustles through my headphones is how good the band was as a band.  They are a tight unit that allow a lot of looseness in the flow of the songs as well as stiffening up when it needs to be strident, cold or harsh. They're a band that had done a lot of playing together, knew each other well and could really deliver on their promises. They're a unit, no one's pushing in front, just a big shifting cloud of pooled skill and vision.

So why with every depiction of them on film, documentary or fictional, does the story splat against the wall as Jim Morrison: Lust for Death? Oliver Stone's hagiographic intensity defeated his talents as a filmmaker so he ended up with a series of great scenes gaffer taped together with some frankly goofy inventions (Robbie Kreiger's character: "Oh man, you get all the babes and I get all the dawgs." or Ray Manzarek - Dale Cooper in a wizard wig: "OK guys, give me a few mintues" before he comes up with the organ riff for Light My Fire. YES!). And this one wants you to believe the band virtually got the love generation going and rode the great tide of anti establishment protest on great waves of liquid LSD all the way to the tragic demise of the fragile dark poet with the mic. One of the final images from the lashings of rare footage in the film shows Jim in slow motion, walking the bowsprit of a yacht as though risking all for adventure. Well, all I could think was that whoever shot the footage had already just done that.

Look, Morrison was clearly intelligent and talented, charismatic and intriguing as a mind especially in the context of rock music when the charisma is all most of the greats ever extend to. It's just that every time I listen to one of the albums now, I hear a band. The De Cillo film attempts to spend a little more time on the other three (ie the ones you actually hear most when you play the records) and while it doesn't go down the path to purgatory that the embarrassingly slavish tome No One Gets Out of Here Alive did it still derails itself as soon as Jim starts falling apart. Compare this to The Beatles. A good basic band, sure, but all the really innovative and adventurous stuff was done by Lennon and McCartney. All four fabs get pretty much equal limelight in any major depiction.

And really, who doesn't already know this? Is it meant to be an essay (there are no interviews with the surviving players, just Johnny and a mic through the speakers)? In what, exactly? Fame? The corruptibility of fame? Jim himself? What? De Cillo uses the rare footage, some seamless reconstructions with a ringer for El Jimbo on a Mr Mojo Risin road trip. The narration is pretty linear and functional until a kind of goofy reverence surfaces and starts taking over. This fulfills the ominous opening of stark white font on black during the credits and a very slowly rising soundtrack of various human voices and music which fades into a screen filling sunrise. Look, everyone, this is important. Come on, look. Meh.

My recommendation is that if you want to view what made The Doors special go to the live stuff as there is a fair bit of it available locally on DVD. There's a pretty good 80s docco with the three surviving band members which I think was organised by the Sugarman/Hopkins book and uses the same title: No One Gets Out of Here Alive. And best of all thhere's the Classic Albums episode on the first album which offers a window into the working life of the band (and treats them as a band). But put the Soundstage Performances disc into your player and watch as they work their way through the serpentine folds of The End for an audience, each one responding to the other and together creating a big mysterious landscape of words and music. It's really fine stuff.

For those that didn't make it....

....here's your salute.

Devising the programs for Shadows seasons has always been difficult. The goal of offering films that are special to me and I think need to be shared always conflicts with the equally important one of getting people along to the nights.  I wanted the experience to be rare but also shared which often created an internal conflict: could I entice people in sufficient numbers to sit in front of films they'd never heard of and might not take to at all? Was rarity enough? Personally, I like a lot of boring films. Boring films, unwatchably violent films, films that reach far beyond what they are able to deliver and what I tend to dismiss are films that make the experience too cosy for their audiences. I always had to be conscious of the high possibility of failure to attract audiences and then give them something they could take away. So, when I made these programs I tried to mix films of varying accessibility together. The title of this post and it's completion, thus refer not to those people who couldn't make it to the nights but the flicks that fell outside of the programs, having been seriously considered.

VIDEODROME

James Woods chats to Debbie Harry in Videodrome

Such an original film it ought to be placed wherever you're meant to put things like Eraserhead or El Topo. A borderline case of local availability vs unfamiliarity to younger audiences. Invasion of the Bodysnatchers won against it for local unavailability (at least in the correct aspect ratio and decency of transfer). This is the only iteration of the Bodysnatchers story that hasn't been given a good local release.

Which Program would it have been in? Spring Pt 2 2010

What did it lose out to? Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, a kind of precursor.

Should I have shown it anyway? Probably as I suspect it has fallen by the way and younger audiences might not know it.

POSSESSION

Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill recall the good times in Possession

Has high quirk value and ABC has been host to some impressive Zulawski titles like Devil and The Third Part of the Night. I always consider it, it will fit into any schedule as it is so singular (a little like "black goes with anything), but always reject it as it's available locally and I hate Sam Neill's performance in it, however intentional it was. If I consider it I promise myself to watch it afresh but never feel like it.

Which Program would it have been in? Winter Pt 2 2009

What did it lose out to? The Rapture which worked really well.


Should I have shown it anyway? I'll have to see it again ... on second thoughts....


HAUSU

Hausu: where cute meets brute

Weird Japanese horror fable from the 70s. Stumbled upon it in a lateral search, thought it sounded interesting and ordered it. Got halfway through before losing interest (it's very selfconsciously whacky) and then saw that there were two separate other screenings of it at around the same time.  I would've beaten both to the punch but ended up not caring enough. That, and I knew it would be one of those ones where I and the audience would probably be shrugging shoulders at when the lights went up. The guy who runs Cinecult had a full house with it so what would I know? Still haven't finished watching it.

Which Program would it have been in? Winter Pt 2 2010 


What did it lose out to? Noriko's Dinner Table (for a mention of which see next entry).

Should I have shown it anyway? Nah


DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID

Jeanne Moreau lies back and thinks of her dental plan

Bunuel piece with a great central performance by Jeanne Moreau in the title role surrounded by the quirky residents and staff of a French country mansion. The more I think of it the better I like it but the initial impression was a shrug. Then again I have trusted a film's subtlety before with frustrating results (Noriko's Dinner Table, a superb deepening essay into contemporary Japanese identity which left most of its audience with the impression that it was too long).

 Which Program would it have been in? Spring Pt 2 2010

What did it lose out to? Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Should I have shown it anyway? In the right context, yes.


NIGHT MOVES

Gene Hackman finds his agent

Superb 70s noir by Arthur Penn with Gene Hackman as a detective on the trail of a missing girl. The ending resolves too much and makes the film outstay its welcome (in my affection, anyway).

Which Program would it have been in? Spring Pt 2 2009

What did it lose out to? The Hospital

Should I have shown it anyway? Right context would have made it pretty popular, I reggon.


PERFORMANCE

Mick and James get together and form David Bowie

Perfect arthouse fare with a very hot Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg and James Fox as well as some real Kray era gangsters and a superb integral song vid of Memo From Turner. Themes of shifting identity and sexuality approached boldly and relevant in the extreme to its cultural context. Parts of it are excellent.

Which Program would it have been in? Spring Pt 1 2009.

What did it lose out to? Love is the Devil which depicted London in the same era but holds more interest for me.

Should I have shown it anyway? No. Dean ended up showing it for Time Capsules later that year which made more sense, given the program he showed. 


THE TIN DRUM

David Bennent has a chuckle in The Tin Drum

Outstanding hard edged adaptation of Gunther Grass' twisted bildungsroman with unbelievably sharp casting. Does what a film adaptation of a novel should -- nails the spirit and brings you into the world between the covers.

Which Program would it have been in? Winter Pt 1 2010

What did it lose out to? Werckmeister Harmonies, which is insanely good and unlikely ever to be available locally. 

Should I have shown it anyway?  I think so. It's out locally but no longer very well known.

TOUT VA BIEN

Godard's rejected initial take on the Brady Bunch title sequence

Jean Luc Godard's mighty return from wilful obscurity in his Dziga Vertov years saw him just as angry as before but with a steadier hand on the helm. A-listers of the time Jane Fonda and Yves Montand play close to their own skeletal units as radicals softened by the failure of the May '68 revolt thrown into a situation that compels them to take a side. Both openly didactic and stylish, this is anti-class with class.

Which Program would it have been in? Winter Pt 2 2009

What did it lose out to? Wise Blood

Should I have shown it anyway? Not in that context with the disruption to the schedule which made the film night really have to sing for its supper. If Wise Blood couldn't draw a crowd, Tout va Bien would have sunk before the opening credits had finished.

THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA

Romero never did recover from the solemnity of his zombies

George Romero's second film was a social conscience comedy which involved generational conflicts and the advertising industry that Romero was still part of.

Which Program would it have been in? Winter Pt 1 2009

What did it lose out to? Man of Flowers for its workable quirk and similar themes handled better.

Should I have shown it anyway? Nah. Novelty value as rare non-horror Romero insufficient to bring it out of its own ordinariness as a film.

THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE

Eva Renzi listens for her cue

Tight and tough debut by thriller maestro Dario Argento works every time it's viewed and isn't on local shelves (well, it wasn't then, anyhow). White knuckle opening scene rivals the best of Hitchcock.


Which Program would it have been in? Winter Pt 1 2009 
What did it lose out to? Nightmare Alley which was seen by exactly three other people who left with a new favourite in their cinemaginations. Ah well... 

Should I have shown it anyway? Not then, in retrospect, but it's such a pleaser it would easily open a future season.


MADE IN BRITAIN 

Tim Roth tries out his Baggy Trousers moves

 Grim and tough tv movie starring a young Tim Roth as a skinhead making his sharded way through the welfare system. Very effective and hard to get to see outside of US or UK. 

Which Program would it have been in? Winter Pt 1 2009 

What did it lose out to? The Face of Another. Rarely scene masterpiece from Japan. 

Should I have shown it anyway? Nah. Too grim for that program or maybe any other.

JIGOKU

Queue for the first bullet train. But it still went to Hell

Very odd story of disparate group who go on a kind of retreat or holiday and end up in hell. 

Which Program would it have been in? Winter Pt 2 2010 

What did it lose out to? Kuroneko, which was well received (if not quite as wholly as the previous year's Onibaba, by the same director) 

Should I have shown it anyway? No. When I reviewed it for possible inclusion it had less going for it than I'd first thought. It's reputation rests on the final sequences set in Hell, which are impressive. The build up, involving people bending their ethics and hazarding their souls, is neither solidly melodramatic nor in any real way intriguing.

HARDWARE 

Dylan McDermott shopping

 Cyberpunk tale of tech has things to say about consumers, environment, complacency and survival as Dylan McDermott (later of tv's The Practice), a soldier, brings his estranged girlfriend, a sculptor, some robot junk he found in the desert. The junk is alive, however. Dylan splits. You can guess the rest. Made for about three pounds fifty of dodgy money in the late 80s, Hardware came long after the Bladerunners and Terminators of the era but had a little extra to say. It continues saying it throughout its short screen time and pumps in plenty of white knuckle suspense, animatronics and stunts. But somehow it just doesn't really fulfil its promises. Don't know why. It's a great entertainment piece, it's just that its essayed ideas are lost in the action and themselves seem a little rushed. 

Which Program would it have been in? Spring Pt 1 2010 

What did it lose out to? Shutter. 

Should I have shown it anyway? It could have held its own and was replaced with a similar horror film but Shutter beat it, having a little more to say and space to say it. If a future season needs some quick oomph, I'd certainly consider it.


So...


There yuz go, that's not the lot but the ones I could most readily think of.  Unless they have really been given the thumbs down I'd recommend each one. If you're inclined to leave comments and would like to see any of these in a future season of Shadows, let me know via the comment feature below and I'll consider it seriously.

October 25: Anethetised from dentistry

Review: The Road

Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit McFee share a joke in The Road.

Caught up with this one on dvd.

The Road is an adaptation of a novel by Cormac McCarthy which I spent about a year reading at the laundromat. It's not a long book but I kept getting frustrated with its prose style. While you would expect a story of a father and son trekking through a landscape of post-apocalyptic despair to be solemn McCarthy's prose just trowels on the grey concrete until the end. So when I heard that John Hillcoat was directing the adaptation and putting people like Charlize Theron, Viggo Mortensen and Robert Duvall in front of his camera and maximising the use of outdoor locations and minimising the CGI I thought: I bet it'll be better as a movie.

I was right. And the first thing that told me so was not the cinematic staging of the world of the story, the charred but frigid landscape, the massive conflagrations and loungeroom-trembling audio that gave a very present meaning to the earthquakes that happen in the story. No, what told me that the film would be better than the book was the performance of the dialogue. Most of the dialogue in the novel is the man answering his son's questions about the world, the way they have to live, their goals, nature etc. There is so much of this and it is presented so solemnly that it's so hard to care enough through a page that your washing load can go through an entire cycle before you're finished. McCarthy's prose has that precious sombreness that irritates me about almost every high profile American writer from Hemingway on, a kind of whispered reverence hushed by even the most mundane of events or experiences. So when the following exchange happens on the page I hear it delivered in a quiet monotone:

"Are we the good guys?" asked the boy.

"Yes," said the man, "we're the good guys".

When Kodi Smit McFee asks the question above he sounds like a little boy who really needs to know the answer. And when Viggo Mortensen answers, it's "YES, we're the good guys!" It's natural and paternal, a genuine response from a character who is confronted by the question but still needs to reply with reassurance. That's why this film is a better experience than its source material: it simply makes me care. And when couched in some strong cinematic imagery and soundwork it makes for an excellent example of why mainstream filmmaking can still be effective and matter to me as a viewer.


But it's not all good. Part of the solemnity of the novel is its religion. As an atheist from childhood I can find religious expression in others untroubling and often quite engaging. I'll never convert to it but the airing of beliefs simultaneously alien and familiar can be compelling. So it is with The Road, the man's religious conviction is frequently tested and he meets the tests with both a flat honesty or a wide eyed denial. Nevertheless, the novel's use of this theme is to its author's credit for its subtlety (until the end which might well be either a nasty irony or a genuine hope). Hillcoat has allowed so much of this into the film, however, that it progressively marrs the tale, it goes unquestioned and seems left to hang in the assumption that its audience will be in solemn agreement, their heart perhaps beating toward bursting with communal joy. One scene showing the pair eating around a campfire in safety ends in a wide shot revealing they are in a church, bright inspirational light blasting through a cross shaped window. Potential classic became well made bullshit in one shot.

And then there's the music score. I hate orchestral scores in most films (mainstream or not) as they always sound jobbingly rote. Here's an opportunity to get some tough sounds to harden up the probable sentimentality of this father/son journey, some musique conrcrete derived from the settings. Wouldn't take a lot of imagination just some judicious field recording and a little style with the editing and shaping. But no, we get a slushie with extra syrup; big banks of strings everytime something important happens as though the imagery needed extra coating (it doesn't, it's very powerful by itself). And what Hollywood hack perpetrated this fastfood film music? Goth rocker Nick Cave and improvisational Dirty Three maestro Warren Ellis. It's flat, routine, passionless sludge that for me knocks points off. You mean these two between them couldn't have come up with something ... real? The music was one of the only good things about the try-hard garbage of The Proposition and it was the same team. What happened? Were The Necks busy?

2 out of five for putting in more religion than the book had and the automaton score.

Recess pictures

Spoke to Avatar last night at Milos' exhibitionabout collaborating on film nights next year, assuming the space is still available.  We'll do alternate Fridays. Makes sense.  More when more emerges. Meantime, I've decided to use this blogspace for a mix of film reviews and pictures.  I need practice in both for various reasons. Here's the first.  Today I felt like an owl so that's what I drew:

Thank youse!

So, that’s it for another year.  From My Winnipeg to Spider Baby we sho did see some fine works o’ cinema.  Thanks to everyone who came along. I hope it left you a little richer.  Thanks to Milos of whom more later.

Not everything worked, of course.  My attempts to evade last year’s problems of getting bumped failed. No one remembered which Friday of the month the Core Program was showing. Lost Valhallas, a go at celebrating Melbourne’s history of arthouse cinema, also fizzed due to no one liking its irregularity.  I blamed myself and moved on to a weekly schedule at Milos’ recommendation, starting in autumn with Heathers. From then it was every Friday at the gallery bar where everybody knew your name.  There were only two bumps which is pretty good going. 

And then there were the titles that my best efforts couldn’t save from their audiences. Myra Breckinridge was generally not seen as the self performing lesson in the misalignment of concept and execution. Liquid Sky was pronounced dumb by the gen ys who came to see it. Noriko’s Dinner Table was jest plain misunderstood.  

My self performing lesson? Can’t win em all. Seriously, young and old cry time poor and when they make their minds up that’s it for eternity.  That means if I am to suggest some context for a given title I have to do it carefully which takes a lot of preparation. Time poor!

That ranted, A Woman is a Woman and Harold and Maude both gained new fans and Come and See left us again stunned and silent.Their success made up for how disturbing I found the consevatism of the younger audiences and the few lo-shows.

Now, the future. Milos who again generously gave of his space and time needs both between now and the end of the year for his own concerns including an exhibition of his own works, spending time with his famliy and the seasonal parties and functions that do more to pay his outgoings than my little film night. He got a decent round of applause during my speil for Spider Baby and deserved every last clap.He has shown every encouragement and a lot of tolerance (especially of the horror movies I keep putting in front of him). He's also suggested I come back in January to do some more.  I'm into it as long as the  bar and screen are there. If that happens you will know.

Meantime I'll be using this space to air praise and greviances of the more contemporary fare available at local cinemas.  High time I went back into the legitimate darkness of commercial movie houses and hacked into choctops of all flavours. I'll letcha know

                                                                                                                                                                                  

OCTOBER 15 2010 BREAKUP PARTY Screening

Friday October 15th 8pm

SPIDER BABY
(USA 1964)
Ralph, completely bald at 17 is an intellectual infant. Virginia, his sister, thinks she's a spider and catches the odd postman in a home made web. Remaining sister Elizabeth seems perfectly normal. I said "seems"... Meet the Merryes the last remnants of an old landowning family with their own aristocratic curse, a neurological condition that inflicts a galloping dementia on its sufferers from the age of 10.  Keeping the three children from the dangers of the world and the world from the dangers of the children is butler Bruno (Lon Wolfman Chaney jr. in his last significant film role), long suffering but compassionate and crushed by the knowledge that this equilibrium is about to tumble out of all stability.  A pair of greedy cousins appear to lay their claim on the family estate and they won't be turned away by a few minor grotesqueries.

Spider Baby sits somewhere in a multiple crash of Venn diagrams. Is it horror, black comedy, satire, exploitation, what? All and none. The budgetary limitations and shortfalls in the director's expertise provide a lot of creaking but there is a lot in this strange exercise to compel.  There is a real sense of creepy menace in the performances by the kids (particularly Jill Banner, pictured, 17 during production) and it extends beyond the Addams Family kookiness to suggest something disturbing about the world beyond the walls of the mansion as much as anything within them.

THE OTHER BIT OF THE POST TITLE

Yes, Milos needs his space.  he needs to host a few parties there as well as spend more time with family and host a rare exhibition of his own work. So this Friday's screening o' Spider Baby is the year's final. He suggested I might resume screenings in January so all is not lost. Watch this Space.  Instead of a Twilight Zone I'll just be running the movie and the year's season trailers so you can relive what you saw and seethe at what you missed.  So it's equally film night and party. Come one come all!