The spring issue of Electric Sheep focuses on Tainted Love to celebrate the release of the sweet and bloody pre-teen vampire romance Let the Right One In, with articles on incestuous cinematic siblings, François Ozon‘s tales of tortuous relationships, destructive passion in Nic Roeg‘s Bad Timing, Julio Medem‘s ambiguous lovers and nihilistic tenderness from Kôji Wakamatsu. Also in this issue: Interview with Pascal Laugier (Martyrs), Berlin squat cinema, screen vamps, the Polish New Wave that never existed and comic strip on the Watchmen film adaptation! It is available from the specialist book store Cinéphilia, at selected retailers and cinemas or online from Wallflower Press for a 15% discount!

In March we turn our attention to Berlin with a report on the 59th Berlinale and a feature on Julia Ostertag, a guerrilla filmmaker from the underground scene that exists on the margins of the German capital’s film industry. Exclusive to the print issue we also have an article on squat cinema in Berlin.

New cinema releases include the Watchmen adaptation, Paolo Sorrentino’s exquisitely ironic take on Italian politics Il Divo, Nanette Burstein’s documentary American Teen, Bronson, Nicolas Winding Refn’s stylised biopic of ‘Britain’s most violent prisoner’, and Ozploitation documentary Not Quite Hollywood. Do not miss the John Samson retrospective at the London International Documentary Festival at the end of the month!

In the DVDs, we take a look at Isidore Isou’s 1951 avant-garde tour de force Traité de bave et d’éternité, the new box-set of films by French master of hard-boiled fatalism Jean-Pierre Melville, Herk Harvey’s 1962 seminal horror movie Carnival of Souls, Royston Tan’s heartbreaking meditation on loneliness 4:30, and the collection of short films by British experimental filmmaker Jeff Keen.

We have an interview with Paolo Sorrentino and a review of the best and rarest films seen during the Wild Japan season at the BFI in December, including Blue Film Woman, Gushing Prayer and Secret Acts behind Wall. In the Short Cuts, we preview the wonderfully eclectic Flatpack Festival and the supremely stylish Ipso Facto tell us about their favourite films in the Film Jukebox.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team

This month has a very definite oriental flavour, starting with no less than two Asian Westerns competing for our attention: in the ridiculously enjoyable The Good, The Bad, The Weird, Kim Ji-woon does Leone Korean-style while Takashi Miike takes on another 60s Italian cult classic in Sukiyaki Western Django. In our interview with Kim Ji-woon, the director explains all about ‘kimchi Western’ and why this spicy cabbage dish is the perfect symbol for Korean people.

For the second year running, the ICA is hosting Reality Fiction, a season of Japanese films inspired by real-life events. And if that’s not enough Asian thrills there is also the DVD release of the controversial Korean thriller The President’s Last Bang and the Shaw Brothers’ classic kung fu movie The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

In other cinema releases, Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns with Three Monkeys, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Climates, the British thriller Franklyn experiments with an innovative hybrid of real-life drama and fantasy, and Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself in the bizarre, hilarious, sincere, self-reflexive JCVD. On DVD, Kim Longinotto’s Divorce Iranian Style takes a warm and honest look at the lives of Iranian women. And we have a feature on the thoroughly brilliant West London Fantastic Film Society.

In Short Cuts, we have a report on the Club des Femmes strand of the London Short Film Festival while songsmith Eugene McGuinness tells us about some of the films that have impressed him.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team

The film year is starting with the release of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s subtle domestic drama Tokyo Sonata, the South Korean retelling of the Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, Frost/Nixon, adapted from Peter Morgan’s intelligent play, atmospheric Hitchcockian thriller The Broken and poetic-realist British rural drama Better Things. Not to forget Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, showing as part of the BFI Southbank’s Sam Peckinpah season.

In the DVD releases, we look at the exuberant Japanese pop melodrama Memories of Matsuko, Jim Jarmusch’s masterful take on the Western Dead Man, Marcel L’Herbier’s 1928 ambitious depiction of greed L’Argent, the controversial Vietnam vets documentary Winter Soldier and the Flaming Lips’ space oddity Christmas on Mars.

The screening of Code 46 as part of the Architecture on Film season at the Barbican was the occasion for an interview with Michael Winterbottom. We also bring you a preview of the brilliant London Short Film Festival and reports of Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival and Discovering Latin America 7.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team

The winter issue of Electric Sheep explores celluloid snow with articles on Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World, Aki Kaurismäki’s Calamari Union, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Christmas slasher movies and cult Japanese revenge tale Lady Snowblood. Plus interview with Asif Kapadia and Jerzy Skolimowski, preview of the London Short Film Festival, and a comic strip review of Kamikaze Girls! It is available from Wallflower Press for a 15% discount!

Asif Kapadia’s tale of love and revenge in the Arctic Circle, Far North, triumphantly ends the cinematic year. Also out this month are Béla Tarr’s long-awaited incursion into noir territory The Man from London, melancholy samurai tale Love and Honour and two documentaries on American icons, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr S Thompson and Patti Smith: Dream of Life.

In the DVD releases, we have Lotte Reiniger’s exquisite animated Fairy Tale Films, 60s Brazilian master Glauber Rocha’s Black God, White Devil, psychedelic Polish fantasy Hourglass Sanatorium, Strangers on a Train-themed giallo The Designated Victim, George A Romero’s fascinating feminist horror Season of the Witch and documentary The Mindscape of Alan Moore.

We have an interview with DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus about their documentary The Return to the War Room, which screened at Sheffield Doc/Fest last month. We celebrate the wonderful project of The Close-Up Video Library and preview the ICA cinema’s 40th anniversary season as well as the very exciting Wild Japan season at the BFI Soutbhank. And as 2008 draws to a close we review the best and worst cinematic moments of the year.

In the Short Cuts we review the Cinema16 collection of world short films, and in the Film Jukebox we have The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the New York indie pop band that is currently making even the most jaded critics giddy with excitement.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team

Cinema this month is all about Baader-Meinhof, with the release of the controversial drama The Baader-Meinhof Complex and the screening of Andres Veiel‘s acclaimed 1993 documentary Black Box Germany at the German Film Festival on November 30.

This month also sees the release of one of the year’s best films, the astonishing Israeli animated documentary Waltz with Bashir, which is included in our round-up of the best of the 52nd London Film Festival. Also out this month is lo-fi Japanese charmer Fine, Totally Fine, the Chuck Palahniuk adaptation Choke and sharp observer of French social mores Agnès Jaoui’s Let’s Talk about the Rain.

In the DVD releases, we have the mighty Joseph Losey Collection, Johnnie To’s schizophrenia thriller Mad Detective, and Hitchockian suspense story The Clouded Yellow. And we review Starfish Hotel, a captivating East meets West dark fairy tale, and interview its Welsh-born, Tokyo-based director John Williams.

At this year’s Raindance film festival we were able to interview Peter Greenaway, who told us about his multi-media project around Rembrandt’s The Nightwatch. Elsewhere we have a feature on Dolly Mixture, who were the subject of a film shown at the Barbican’s Pop Mavericks season. And we report from the Colombiage festival, which makes us very much look forward to the Discovering Latin America film festival, opening on November 27.

In the Short Cuts we review the Future Shorts DVD. And in the Film Jukebox, indie popsters with an edge Shrag tell us about their favourite films.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team

To psyche ourselves up for the scares and thrills of Halloween, we focus on the black and white French animated film Fear(s) of the Dark, in which celebrated illustrators and comic book artists explore our most profound phobias. Comics expert Paul Gravett reviews the film for us and we also have an interview with Charles Burns (the author of the acclaimed Black Hole), whose section is one of the highlights of the film.

In the cinema releases, we look at the perversely pleasurable Korean thriller A Bloody Aria, twisted female-centred indie anti-rom-com Good Dick, Tarsem’s visual feast The Fall and socially conscious Mexican thriller La Zona

DVD releases include the warped dream world of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, John Carpenter’s anti-apathy B-thriller They Live, psycho-political western Terror in a Texas Town, explosive black British youth manifesto Babylon, Abel Ferrara’s gangster tale King of New York, the two sci-fi classics Westworld and Logan’s Run and more B-movie fun with Killer Klowns from Outer Space. And we celebrate the re-release of Eraserhead and discuss David Lynch’s shorts, now available on DVD, in relation to his entire career.

As the festival season closes, we have a preview of the London Film Festival and a report on the Toronto Film Festival. And fuzzy folksters Christy and Emily pick their favourite films in the Jukebox.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team

Our autumn issue is available now at selected retailers and cinemas or online from Wallflower Press for a 15% discount! The theme is cruel games, from the politics of human blood sport in the Corman-produced ultra-violent Death Race, to sadistic power play in Korean thriller A Bloody Aria, fascist games in German hit The Wave and Stanley Kubrick’s career-long fascination with game-playing. Plus: an interview with comic book master Charles Burns about the stunning animated film Fear(s) of the Dark and a fantastic London Film Festival comic strip, which surely is worth the price of the issue alone!

This month’s film releases include Wong Kar Wai’s sumptuous Ashes of Time Redux, acclaimed documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad, taut South Korean thriller The Chaser, superb animé The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Hong Kong experiment in collective filmmaking Triangle, directed by Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Johnnie To.

In the DVD releases, we look at Carl Dreyer’s masterpiece of eeriness Vampyr, the Walter Hill Collection, which includes minimalist thriller The Driver and urban subculture shocker The Warriors, art documentary Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe, Judex, a surreal treat from George Franju, the Ennio Morricone-scored giallo Who Saw Her Die?, more Italian exploitation with Inglorious Bastards, soon to be remade by Quentin Tarantino, and a discussion of seminal sci-fi movie Dark City.

We also preview the 16th Raindance Film Festival and the Compass of Mystery Film Festival, report on Film4 FrightFest 2008, investigate the MacGuffin Library and talk to Helen McCarthy about Japanese manga and animé master Osamu Tezuka. And we have an interview with Ivan Kavanagh, whose Tin Can Man was the talk of last year’s Sydney Underground Film Festival.

In the Short Cuts, we have a profile of Sebastian Godwin and Tom Harper, who both won awards at last year’s Raindance Film Festival. In the Film Jukebox, Greg Weeks from Espers regales us with psychedelic folk and erudite film choices.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team

Fright fans rejoice, FrightFest is back, and what a line-up! Organiser Alan Jones talks us through the goodies on offer at the bank holiday festival, from the subtle poetry of teen vampire story Let the Right One In (a film we totally fell in love with at the EIFF) to the splatter fest of Tokyo Gore Police. For the more sensitive souls among you, the bank holiday weekend offers another kind of cinematic treat: Asia House is putting on an oriental feast that stretches from the Gulf to the Far East.

August is shaping up to be a great month for film fans in the UK, with some very exciting new releases. Top of our list is Sakuran, the gorgeous, exuberant, pop-punk story of a rebellious prostitute by photographer Mika Ninagawa – definitely one for our ‘Rock’n’Roll Movie’ category! Also out is Man on Wire, James Marsh’s documentary on Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire stunt walk between the Twin Towers, Ben X, the visually inventive and touching story of a computer-game-playing Asperger teen bullied at school and Shane Meadows’s latest film Somers Town. And at the BFI Southbank you will be able to see one of our all-time favourites, Badlands, which really deserves to be seen on the big screen.

Jesus Christ Saviour, which documents Klaus Kinski’s ill-fated 1971 New Testament stage monologue, was another remarkable film that screened at the Edinburgh Festival and we were lucky enough to talk to its director, Peter Geyer. We also caught up with the great British director Peter Whitehead at the Biograph Film in Bologna. And to celebrate the summer and outdoorsy cinematic fun, we chart the rise and fall and furtive pleasures of the drive-in.

In the DVD releases, we review the new Jeunet/Caro box-set, which gathers Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, look at more French sci-fi with Eden Log, rave about Kisses, the first feature by the brilliant Yasuzo Masumura, rediscover the early work of Kinji ‘Battle Royale‘ Fukasaku, enjoy the atmosphere of South Korean supernatural tale Spider Forest and look back at the Lynch classic The Elephant Man.

In the Short Cuts section we have a feature on Uncut, the excellent film forum for young directors that runs monthly at the ICA. And in our Film Jukebox 21st-century Renaissance woman Crazy Girl tells us about her top films.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team