Issue 46: Freeze


Rare Exports

Theme: Freeze
Rare Exports
The Big Chill: Frozen Emotions in American Independent Cinema
-Freeze Frames and Stasis in La jetée
Attack of the Frozen Things!
Reel Sounds: The Shining

Interviews
Srdjan Spasojevic: A Serbian Film
Hisayasu Satô

Feature
Segundo de Chom&#243n

Film Reviews
A Serbian Film
Until the Light Takes Us
On Tour
Monsters

DVD Reviews
Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot + Playtime

Comic Strip Review
Boudu Saved from Drowning

Online Movie
Horse Glue

Short Cuts
Aston Gorilla

Alter Ego
Sarah Moss

Blog
Zipangu
Cine-City
Review of 2010

Film Jukebox
The Loves

Podcast
Guerilla Filmmaking and Fleeing Monsters

Freeze: Iced up Santa, freeze frames, Antarctic creatures

Read about the real evil Santa in his ice prison in twisted Finish fairy tale Rare Exports, chilled emotions in American independent cinema, freeze frames and stasis in La jetée, Lovecraftian ice monsters + a Reel Sounds column about The Shining‘s soundtrack.

This month sees the release of the much talked-about A Serbian Film, which was heavily cut by the British censors – read the interview with director Srdjan Spasojevic. Norwegian black metal documentary Until the Light Takes Us also provoked controversy at festival screenings this year. Also out is Mathieu Amalric’s acidic burlesque comedy On Tour and charming British sci-fi romance Monsters.

In the DVDs, we review Jacques Tati’s Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot and Playtime, and we have a Comic Strip Review of Boudu Saved from Drowning. Our Online Movies column looks at the wonderful Horse Glue, Short Cuts focuses on Tom Browne’s football gorilla nightmare Aston Gorilla while in Alter Ego author Sarah Moss is Filippa in Babette’s Feast.

We have an interview with one of pinku eiga‘s Four Devils, Hisayasu Satô, and a feature on Spanish pioneer Segundo de Chom&#243n. You can read festival reports on Zipangu and Cine-City in the Blog while retro popsters The Loves pick their favourite films in the Film Jukebox. For a look back at the year in film, check out our review of 2010.

PODCAST:
Guerilla Filmmaking and Fleeing Monsters: In a Q&A recorded live at this year’s Sci-Fi London Oktoberfest and broadcast on Resonance FM, Alex Fitch talks to British director Gareth Edwards about his genre-crossing film Monsters, which features a photo-journalist escorting a spoilt rich girl across Mexico following an alien invasion. Gareth Edwards discusses his use of special effects and the pros and cons of shooting guerrilla-style with a small cast and crew South of the Border.

Issue 45: Women on the Verge

Possession

Theme: Women on the Verge
Dream Home
Tears for Sale
Possession
Morgiana
Reel Sounds: The Innocents

Interviews
Apitchatpong Weerasethakul: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Michael Rowe: Leap Year
Hammer and Tongs
Zhao Dayong

Feature
Peeping Tom: Staring into Medusa’s Eyes

Film Reviews
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
We Are What We Are

DVD Reviews
Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide

Comic Strip Review:
Big Tits Zombie

Short Cuts
Lewis Klahr

Alter Ego
Rebecca Hunt is Ferris Bueller

Blog
onedotzero
Raindance
7th Chinese Independent Film Festival

Podcast:
Dangerous Women and Foxy Heroes

Women on the Verge: Psychotic spinsters, possessed housewives, troubled temptresses

This month is dominated by fraught females, from the homicidal young professional in Dream Home and the desperate Serbian spinsters of Tears for Sale to Isabelle Adjani’s unhinged demon lover in Possession and the murderous sister in Czech extravaganza Morgiana. Plus our Reel Sounds column focuses on The Innocents‘ soundtrack to a governess’s unravelling.

Possession was banned as a ‘video nasty’ and new documentary Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide provides a timely context for its UK DVD debut. Another notorious film vilified on its release is celebrating its 50th anniversary: Michael Powell’s seminal Peeping Tom.

Thai reverie Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is on UK screens this month – read our interview with director Apitchatpong Weerasethakul. We also review intriguing Mexican cannibal tale We Are What We Are and we talk to Michael Rowe, director of the Mexico-set psycho-sexual drama Leap Year.

In the DVDs, we have a Comic Strip Review of Big Tits Zombie while Hammer and Tongs discuss their work. Short Cuts focuses on collage artist Lewis Klahr while writer Rebecca Hunt’s Alter Ego is Ferris Bueller. The blog has previews, including onedotzero, and reports on Raindance and the 7th Chinese Independent Film Festival – read the interview with director Zhao Dayong.

PODCAST:
Dangerous Women and Foxy Heroes: To complement this month’s theme, we present a pair of Q&As recorded at Electric Sheep film club screenings. Alex Fitch talks to Zoe Baxter, the presenter of Resonance FM’s radio show about Asian culture in the UK, and they discuss the epic ‘wuxia’ film Hero, which featured memorable roles for female action heroes Maggie Cheung and Ziyi Zhang. In the main interview, Electric Sheep editor Virginie S&#233lavy talks to Brixton-based filmmaker Rebecca Johnson, director of Top Girl, about the classic ‘blaxploitation’ film Foxy Brown, starring Pam Grier.

Issue 44: Dario Argento

Inferno

Theme: Dario Argento
The animal ‘trilogy’
Transatlantic Trauma
Reel Sounds: Operatic Terror

Interview
Joe Dante

Feature
Bruno the Black

Film Reviews
A Town Called Panic
Jackboots on Whitehall
Carlos
Legacy

DVD Reviews
Brother
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood

Online Movie
The Alder Woodwasp and Its Insect Enemies

Comic Strip Review:
City Lights

Colonial Report from the Dominion of Canada
Autumn

Short Cuts
London International Animation Festival

Film Jukebox
Piney Gir

Blog
London Film Festival
Venice
Toronto
L’Etrange Festival

Trailer
Confessions

Podcast:
Joe Dante and Tobe Hooper – Masters of Horror

Dario Argento: The Lush Colours of Terror

This month, we celebrate the sumptuous world of Dario Argento with an article on his early animal ‘trilogy’, Transatlantic Trauma, a feature on his unhappy foray into Hollywood and a Reel Sounds column on his use of opera.

Animated features are fairly rare but this month sees the release of two on the same day: Hammer and Tongs’ surreal tale A Town Called Panic and Jackboots on Whitehall, an alternative history of the Second World War. Also on UK screens is French 70s terrorist saga Carlos. The Colonial Report from the Dominion of Canada focuses on Kashmiri film Autumn, and we have a review of Raindance highlight Legacy. Watch the trailer for Confessions, Tetsuya Nakashima’s superb new revenge tale, which premieres at FrightFest Halloween All-Nighter.

New DVDs include Takeshi Kitano’s only American film Brother and animé series Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights gets the comic strip treatment and our new Online Movies columnist looks at The Alder Woodwasp and Its Insect Enemies.

We also have the second part of our Joe Dante interview and an article on the recently departed Bruno S, most famous for his role in Herzog’s Kaspar Hauser. In the Short Cuts we report on the London International Animation Festival, and in the blog you can read coverage of the London Film Festival. We have reports on the Venice and Toronto festivals as well as on L’Etrange Festival. In the Film Jukebox, Kansas-born country chanteuse Piney Gir picks 10 bright and colourful films.

PODCAST:
Joe Dante and Tobe Hooper – Masters of Horror: To coincide with the start of a month of horror film releases in the cinema and on DVD in the run-up to Halloween, Alex Fitch interviews two veterans of horror cinema, Joe Dante and Tobe Hooper.

Issue 43: Futuristic Cities

Metropolis

Theme: Futuristic Cities
Metropolis
Futuristic Cities on Film
Escape from New York
Reel Sounds: Things to Come
Alter Ego: Ed Hollis is Wall-E

Interviews:
Gaspar No&#233 on Enter the Void
Joe Dante on Splatter
interview Fr&#233d&#233ric Temps on L’Etrange Festival

Film Reviews
The Last Exorcism
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?
Winter’s Bone
Enter the Void

DVD Reviews
Adelheid
Mother
Compulsion

Comic Strip Review:
Pet Shop of Horrors

Colonial Report from the Dominion of Canada
Frank Cole

Blog
A Serbian Film Censored
Film4 FrightFest Festival Report
Shinsedai Festival Report

Podcast:
Filming the Last Exorcism

Futuristic Cities: Cinematic visions of metropolises to come

To celebrate the release of Fritz Lang’s restored silent classic Metropolis, we have articles on futuristic cities on film and Escape from New York and a Reel Sounds column on Things to Come while Ed Hollis tells us why he would be Wall-E if he were a film character.

In the cinema releases, we review The Last Exorcism, Herzog’s brilliantly skewed police procedural My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?, the harsh and beautiful hillbilly tale Winter’s Bone, Franti&#353ek Vl&#225&#269il’s subtle war tale Adelheid and we interview Gaspar No&#233 about his latest provocation, Enter the Void.

New DVDs include Bong Joon-ho’s fantastic Mother, Richard Fleischer’s take on the Leopold and Loeb murder case Compulsion, starring Orson Welles and we have a comic strip review of Pet Shop of Horrors, courtesy of the Queen Mum. We also have an interview with Joe Dante about his new interactive series Splatter.

We interview Fr&#233d&#233ric Temps, founder and director of the wonderful L’Etrange Festival and Frank Cole is the subject of this month’s Colonial Report from the Dominion of Canada.

In the blog, we have an opinion piece on the much talked about A Serbian Film, as well as reports on the Film4 FrightFest and Shinsedai festivals.

PODCAST:
Filming the Last Exorcism: During Film4 FrightFest, Alex Fitch interviewed producer Eli Roth and director Daniel Stamm about their new ‘mockumentary’ horror film The Last Exorcism. Daniel Stamm talks about how using a documentary style to make supernatural movies helps break the fourth wall for the audience to help draw them into events, while Eli Roth talks about how his experience of producing his own movies Cabin Fever and Hostel differs from his more advisory role on this film.

Issue 42: Propaganda

The Eleventh Year

Theme: Propaganda
Earth
A Sixth Part of the World
No Politics: The New US War Film
Reel Sounds: Triumph of the Will

Interviews:
Bong Joon-ho on Mother
Sylvain Chomet on The Illusionist
Fran&#231ois Ozon on The Refuge
Peter Whitehead on Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts

Film Reviews
The Human Centipede


DVD Reviews
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
Paranoiac
Kamui

Comic Strip Review:
Cargo

Trailers and videos:
trailer for Oddsac

Podcast:
The Films of Vincenzo Natali

Propaganda: Revolutionary Soviets, Nazi bombast, apolitical America

This month’s propaganda theme was prompted by the recent releases of Alexander Dovzhenko’s Earth and Dziga Vertov’s A Sixth Part of the World. We also have a feature on the absence of propaganda in recent American war films and a Reel Sounds column on the soundtrack of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will.

New cinema releases include the notorious extreme body horror movie The Human Centipede, and we have an interview with Bong Joon-ho, whose extraordinary Mother is out this month. We also interview Sylvain Chomet about The Illusionist and Fran&#231ois Ozon about The Refuge.

In the DVDs, we look at classic Technicolor romance Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Hammer’s excellent atmospheric thriller Paranoiac and disappointing ninja movie Kamui. We also have a comic strip review of Swiss sci-fi thriller Cargo. And we interview Peter Whitehead on Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts.

In the Blog, we have previews of FrightFest and the London Animation Film Festival. And you can watch the trailer for Oddsac, a film by Animal Collective and Danny Perez.

PODCAST:
The Films of Vincenzo Natali: Alex Fitch talks to director Vincenzo Natali about Splice, his previous films with actor David Hewlett, and his forthcoming adaptation of William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer.

Issue 41: Outlandish Westerns

Django

Theme: Outlandish Westerns
Italian Westerns: Django, Keoma and A Bullet for the General
Antonio das Mortes
Reel Sounds: The Great Silence
Alter Ego: Patrick Hargadon is The Gunslinger

Interviews:
Claire Denis on White Material
Catherine Breillat on Bluebeard

Film Reviews
Inception
Splice
Gainsbourg
Down Terrace

DVD Reviews
Profound Desires of the Gods

Comic Strip Review:
Martin

Colonial Report from the Dominion of Canada:
Le combat dans l’île

Short Cuts:
Edinburgh Film Festival’s shorts

Blog:
Istanbul Film Festival
Secret Cinema: Blade Runner
Edinburgh Film Festival

Film Jukebox:
Cours Lapin

Trailers and videos:
Splice
The Brothers McLeod’s Sticks

Podcast:
alt.cowboy

Outlandish Westerns: a wild bunch of demented gunslingers, mystic outlaws and revolutionary bandidos

To celebrate the release of a box-set including Django, Keoma and A Bullet for the General, we have an article on Italian Westerns. We also look at Glauber Rocha’s take on the holy bandit, Antonio das Mortes, and admire Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack to Corbucci’s The Great Silence while writer Patrick Hargadon imagines being Yul Brynner as The Gunslinger in Futureworld.

We interview Claire Denis who revisits Africa in White Material, and Catherine Breillat who reworks the classic fairy tale Bluebeard. Other cinema releases include Christopher Nolan’s dream thriller Inception, Splice by Cube director Vincenzo Natali, French musical genius biopic Gainsbourg, and original British gangster movie Down Terrace. Watch the Splice trailer and the Brothers McLeod’s new animated film.

In the new DVDs, we review Imamura’s stunning epic Profound Desires of the Gods and George A Romero’s vampire satire Martin gets the comic strip treatment. This month’s Colonial Report from the Dominion of Canada looks at Alain Cavalier’s neo-noir Le combat dans l’île.

In the Short Cuts, we review the Edinburgh Film Festival’s shorts programmes, including Maska, the new film by the Brothers Quay. In the Jukebox, Danish film score composers Cours Lapin, who mix chanson française and twisted fairy tales, tell us about their favourite films. In the blog, we have reviews of the Istanbul Film Festival, the latest Secret Cinema event and the Edinburgh Film Festival.

PODCAST: alt.cowboy: Alex Fitch talks to BFI programmer Emma Smart about gay themes in Westerns after a screening of Midnight Cowboy and to Ian Rakoff about the crossover between Western-themed comics and movies before a screening of For a Few Dollars More.

Issue 40: Jim Thompson

Serie Noire

Jim Thompson: Mean men, hellish women, savage minds and corrupted souls

With Michael Winterbottom’s take on Jim Thompson’s The Killer inside Me out this month we explore the films based on the hardest of hard-boiled novelists, including The Grifters, After Dark, My Sweet, The Getaway and a Reel Sounds column on Série noire. In Alter Ego, writer Ryan David Jahn wonders about being Jim Thompson.

Other cinema releases include Coppola’s Tetro and faux horror documentary Resurrecting the Streetwalker. In the DVDs, we take a look at Guy Hamilton’s notorious 60s beatnik movie The Party’s Over, Jan Nemec’s Diamonds of the Night, Johnnie To’s Vengeance and Thai horror anthology Phobia. We review the Vice Guide to Mexican Narco Cinema in our Online Movies and we have a Kurosawa comic strip.

We interview the Brothers Quay about Institute Benjamenta, and we present the first Colonial Report from the Dominion of Canada, which deals with The Golden Age of American Television, as well as articles on Fassbinder’s sci-fi tale World on a Wire and two Lucio Fulci releases.

In the blog, we have a report on the Terracotta Festival and a preview of new BBC show Pulse. In the Film Jukebox, uke-wielding indiepopsters Allo’ Darlin’ pick Abba-centric movies. Read the winning review of Midnight Cowboy in our film writing competition.

PODCAST: The Polish New Wave?: Alex Fitch talks to Andrzej &#379u?awski about his struggles in getting his esoteric sci-fi epic On the Silver Globe released and the travails involved in making his horror films The Third Part of the Night (1971) and Possession (1981) under the eyes of a communist regime. Alex Fitch also talks to Polish poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and his wife Danusia Schejbal about working on the fringes of Polish filmmaking in the late 1970s.

Issue 39: Confined Spaces

Lebanon

Confined Spaces: From tanks to locked rooms and futuristic cubes

As the powerful war drama Lebanon, which is entirely set in a tank, is released this month, we look at confined spaces, with articles on bird-watching British thriller The Hide and metaphysical horror film Cube as well as Krzysztof Komeda’s soundtrack for Knife in the Water.

This month’s new movies include Herzog’s demented Bad Lieutenant, charming punk sci-fi tale Fish Story and the documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story. We also review Kafkaesque Estonian drama The Temptation of St Tony and we have an interview with Teddy Chen.

In the DVDs, we look at Paradjanov’s lyrical film poem Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and Australian cannibal drama Van Diemen’s Land. We have a comic strip review of Dario Argento’s The Card Player and our online movie is Girl Number 9.

We are very excited to present our very first Colonial Report from the Dominion of Canada from Careful producer Greg Klymkiw and we also have a feature on Magic Lanterns. In the Blog, we have a preview of the Terracotta Film Festival, and reviews of the Nippon Connection, American backwater documentary Zoomer, Iceland’s first horror film Reykjavik Whale-Watching Massacre and Joe Dante’s rarely seen pop culture film collage The Movie Orgy.

In the Short Cuts, we look at Georges Pal’s puppet animation while Lali Puna pick their favourite movies in the Film Jukebox. And you can read the winning review of Battle Royale in our April film writing competition.

PODCASTS: Until the End of the World: In the latest Electric Sheep podcast, we’re looking at apocalyptic movies: Virginie Sélavy talks to John Hillcoat, director of the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in an interview recorded at last year’s London Film Festival, plus Alex Fitch talks to Helen McCarthy, a British expert on manga, anime and Japanese visual culture, in a Q&A recorded before the Electric Sheep screening of Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale at the Prince Charles Cinema.

Issue 38: Momma’s Boys (and Girls)

Dogtooth

Momma’s Boys (and Girls): The deviant offspring of excessively loving mothers

To mark the release of the brilliant psycho-sexual drama Dogtooth, we look at momma’s boys (and girls) with articles on White Heat, The Piano Teacher, Psycho and an interview with director Yorgos Lanthimos.

In the new cinema releases, we review Todd Solondz’s follow-up to Happiness, Life during Wartime, Mamoru Oshii’s wonderful The Sky Crawlers, Borgesian fantasy Double Take, Brit kidnap thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed and Australian teen-lovers-on-the-run tale Samson and Delilah. We also have a feature on Sergei Paradjanov.

In the DVDs, we look at beautiful Czech classic Valley of the Bees and Henri-George Clouzot’s Inferno, we have a fantastic comic strip review of Dr Jeckyll and Sister Hyde and a feature on Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell. We also look at new filmic PS3 game Heavy Rain and at the innovative space cowboy series Stingray Sam and we report on South by South West.

We have interviews with Todd Solondz and Momoko Ando, whose film Kakera is now getting a UK release. In the Short Cuts we have a feature on the much loved Flatpack Festival. In Alter Ego, author Craig Silvey is the Fantastic Mr Fox and in the Film Jukebox psychedelic hard rockers Dead Meadow tell us about their favourite movies. And you can read the winning review of Careful in our film writing competition.

PODCASTS: Body and Souls: In the latest Electric Sheep podcast, we’re looking at two films by female directors that deal with issues of absence and loss. Alex Fitch talks to director Sophie Barthes about her film Cold Souls, a Kaufman-esque science fiction comedy about soul-trafficking starring Paul Giamatti, and to Mirjam Van Veelan about her documentary Megumi, about the kidnap of a Japanese girl – Megumi Yokota – in 1977 by North Korea (with thanks to The Barbican for arranging the interview with Mirjam).

Issue 37: Guy Maddin

The Saddest Music in the World

Guy Maddin: The poetic, macabre and playful visions of a wonderfully twisted mind

March is all about Guy Maddin and we celebrate his genius with articles on Careful and The Saddest Music in the World, a Reel Sounds column on modern silent films and a double bill at the Prince Charles Cinema.

In the new cinema releases, we look at Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Iranian musical subversives in No One Knows about Persian Cats and Argentine woman-in-prison drama Lion’s Den. You can also read a feature on Tom Harper’s The Scouting Book for Boys and an interview with Peter Greenaway for Nightwatching. And we have an article on Mexican 70s horror movie Alucarda, which we are proud to be presenting at the Flatpack Festival on March 26.

In DVD releases, we have a comic strip review of metaphysical comedy Cold Souls and an interview with Antonio Campos for his brilliant debut Afterschool. In our blog section, you can read our final dispatches from the Berlinale, which include a review of Banksy’s Exit through the GIft Shop, and reports on the International Rotterdam Film Festival and the PhotoFilm season.

In Short Cuts, we have a feature on Monuments, which screened at Rotterdam last month while mythogeographer Phil Smith is Mick Travis in our Alter Ego column and Josiah Wolf tells us about the films that have marked him in the Film Jukebox. And you can read the winner’s entry in our Kiss Me Deadly writing competition.

PODCASTS: Listen back to Alex Fitch’s interview with Peter Greenaway for Nightwatching, a dramatisation of the theory that Rembrandt included clues to a murder mystery within the imagery of his masterpiece, The Nightwatch. In the podcast, Greenaway discusses the crossover between filmmaking and fine art and the master painter Rembrandt’s position as a pioneer of both.