Crows Zero

Manga Adaptations: Tackling Fukushima, delinquent school boys and vengeful women

As the Terracotta Festival presents the UK premiere of Sion Sono’s Himizu this month, using a comic to tackle the fallout from Fukushima, we take a look at manga adaptations with Takashi Miike’s stylised, violent high school movie Crows Zero, Toshiya Fujita’s 70s revenge tale Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld, Korean manhwa vampire Western Priest and SF actioner Gantz while the Reel Sounds column focuses on Ichi the Killer.

La Grande Illusion, Aki Kaurismäki’s light-hearted fable Le Havre, Pablo Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place, Norwegian crime thriller Headhunters, revisionist Western Blackthorn and striking Austrian debut Breathing, about an ex-convict. In DVDs, we look at Pasolini’s The Gospel according to Matthew, Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Tree and Peter de Rome’s erotic gay films.

We have an interview with French director Dominik Moll for The Monk, adapted from Matthew Lewis’s Gothic novel. In Short Cuts we report back on the Flatpack festival, in Alter Ego Darran McCann is George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life and the Dominion of Canada column looks at ice hockey movies.

PODCASTS:
Roee Rosen: Vile, Evil Veil: Israeli artist, writer and filmmaker Roee Rosen talks about his first UK solo exhibition Vile, Evil Veil, which consists of the installation Live and Die as Eva Braun, exploring the life of Hitler’s lover in the bunker at the end of the Second World War, and the film Out (Tse), which stages a sado-masochist exorcism between a queer left-wing activist and a possessed ultra-nationalist woman. Rosen discusses the dynamic of power in human relationships, both personal and political, the importance of the victim/victimiser dichotomy in Israeli identity and how to exorcise the demon in all of us.

The Devils

Ken Russell: Master of Excess

In March we celebrate the flamboyant brilliance of the late British director Ken Russell with articles on The Devils, his famously outrageous depiction of possession in 17th-century France, released on DVD in its original version for the first time, his psychedelic drug movie Altered States, his take on Byron and Shelley’s famous ghost story writing competition Gothic, and Savage Messiah, his portrayal of French sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, as well as a defence of his much decried Litztomania and an article about his fraught relationship with the press. In this month’s Alter Ego, Nick Harkaway is Michael Caine’s Harry Palmer in Billion Dollar Brain while Reel Sounds is about Russell’s composers and we have a Comic Strip Review of Women in Love.

In cinemas we review Werner Herzog’s death row documentary Into the Abyss, uncompromising Spanish award-winner Black Bread, disquieting Austrian paedophile portrait Michael, Argentine corruption drama Carancho and Norwegian thriller Babycall. We have a feature on Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan to mark the release of Once upon a Time in Anatolia and an article on avant-garde Japanese filmmaker Shûji Terayama, whose work is being shown at Tate Modern.

In the DVDs, we look at Polish master Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s 1959 Night Train and affecting, original A Horrible Way to Die. CineLit reviews books on Spaghetti Westerns while in the Jukebox East Asian culture connoisseur and DJ Zoë Baxter picks her favourite films. In the blog, we report back on the Berlinale and FrightFest Glasgow.

PODCASTS:
Exploring The Lair of the White Worm: In a panel discussion recorded at The Horse Hospital arts club after a screening of Ken Russell’s lurid Bram Stoker adaptation on Wednesday 14 March, Mark Pilkington discusses The Lair of the White Worm (1988) with BFI Flipside programmers Vic Pratt and Will Fowler, touching on the legend of the Lambton Worm, titillation and absurdity in British cinema and Russell’s three-picture deal with Vestron Pictures in the 1980s.

Ken Russell: ‘All Art Is Sex!’: In a special programme to honour the late Ken Russell, Virginie Sélavy is joined by Strange Attractor Press editor Mark Pilkington, Electric Sheep contributor Richard Bancroft and Electric Sheep assistant editor Alex Fitch to discuss the director’s achievements, including The Devils, Altered States, Lair of the White Worm, Lisztomania, Dance of the Seven Veils and Music Lovers.

Laura

Femmes Fatales: Deadly dames and murderous man-eaters

To mark the restoration of Otto Preminger’s magnificent Laura, we celebrate femmes fatales, including Peggy Cummins’s gutsy bank robber in Gun Crazy and Barbara Stanwyck’s sassy social climber in Baby Face. We have a feature on the female action hero and a Comic Strip on David Lynch’s temptresses while Reel Sounds is enthused by a wild jazz scene in Phantom Lady and in Alter Ego Katy Darby is Bridget Gregory in The Last Seduction.

New cinema releases include the intelligent, creepy cult victim tale Martha Marcy May Marlene, the excellent James Ellroy-scripted LA crime thriller Rampart, Polanski’s ferociously funny middle-class satire Carnage, and Cronenberg’s disappointing A Dangerous Method. And we have a feature on doyenne of lesbian cinema Barbara Hammer, who is the subject of a retrospective at Tate Modern.

In the DVDs, we look back at 80s classic Repo Man and we have an interview with Alex Cox. We also review 70s Vietnam vet vigilante drama Rolling Thunder and Bulgarian neo-noir Zift, and to give context to the latter’s interest in bodily waste, we have an article on toilet scenes in the movies.

In Short Cuts, we review the screening of Swedish feminist porn shorts Dirty Diaries at the London Short Film Festival while Cine Lit peruses Auteur books on 60s British cinema. In the Film Jukebox, soulful, dreamy chamber popsters The Tindersticks pick their favourite films.

PODCAST:
Making Film Interactive: Interviews with Alex Cox and Julian Napier: In a pair of interviews about innovations in filmmaking, Alex Fitch talks to two directors who have embraced new technology: Alex Cox talks about Repo Man, computer generated backgrounds its sequel Repo Chick, interactive cinema and using CGI in the re-release of his Western Straight to Hell. Julian Napier, director of Madame Butterfly 3D, a new film of the Royal Opera House’s production of Puccini’s classic tale, explains how filming the opera using 3D cameras makes the cinema presentation a more immersive experience.

Punishment Park

Fake Documentaries: Political satire, media manipulation, horror trickery

We start off the year with the real truths behind fake documentaries to mark the Blu-ray release of Peter Watkins’s incendiary Punishment Park. We also have articles on the Joaquin Phoenix hoax I’m Still Here, Danish political satire AFR, the infamous BBC live ghost-hunting show simulation Ghostwatch, Kôji Shiraishi’s pseudo-documentary on supernatural phenomena The Curse, and a comic strip on The Blair Witch Project, plus Norwegian monster mockumentary Troll Hunter is out on DVD. Our Reel Sounds column is on Brian Eno’s soundtrack for SF hoax Alternative 3.

At the cinema, we review Jean Vigo’s poetic gem L’atalante, Steve McQueen’s much anticipated study of sex addiction Shame, Tatsumi, an animated film on the life and work of the eponymous manga artist, and financial thriller Margin Call.

In the DVDs we look at legendary road movie Two-Lane Blacktop and we have an interview with director Monte Hellman about his latest film, Road to Nowhere.

We also review Teuvo Tulio’s flamboyant melodrama Cross of Love, and we have a feature on films in which everybody dies and guitar-slinger Dan Sartain interviews George Hardy, star of Troll 2. In Short Cuts we preview the London Short Film Festival. Musician Barry Adamson of Magazine and the Bad Seeds fame picks his favourites in the Film Jukebox while writer Tom Benn is Blade Runner’s Roy Batty in Alter Ego.

PODCAST:
Cult Animation: Alex Fitch talks to a pair of directors of innovative short animated films: Oscar-winner (2011 co-director Short Animated Film) Shaun Tan about the adaptation of his acclaimed picture book The Lost Thing and web animator Jonti Picking about his cult animated series Weebl and Bob as well as his adverts for Cadbury’s Creme Eggs (is it that time of year already?) and Anchor Butter.

Take Shelter

2011 in Film: The year’s highlights and low points

We look back at our favourite cinema releases, DVDs/Blu-rays, festival films and filmic events as well as the great expectations that proved to be big disappointments. This month’s featured artist picks The Ides of March as his best film of 2011 in a Comic Strip Review and we have a Reel Sounds column on The Artist. We also have an interview with Takeshi Kitano, whose latest film, Outrage, features in our best festival films.

At the cinema in December you can see Jan Švankmajer’s psychoanalytical fantasy Surviving Life, Argentine poetic road movie Las Acacias, affecting docu-drama and festival hit Dreams of a Life while in the DVDs we have Pasolini’s take on classic Greek myth Medea. We review The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, screened at Brighton’s Cine-City, and Pipilotti Rist’s Eyeball Massage exhibition, and we have features on suitably wintry director Larry Fessenden and innovative German trilogy Dreileben.

In Short Cuts we look at the London Korean Film Festival’s offerings while our brand new Cine Lit column peruses books on Tarkovsky and exploitation cinema. In Alter Ego, the author of The Night before Christmas Scarlett Bailey dreams of being Scarlett O’Hara while all-female contemporary choir Gaggle pick their favourite films in the Jukebox. And we report back on Zipangu, Toronto (take 2) and the 8th China Independent Film Festival.

PODCAST:
From Pulp to Cleaning Up: Low-Budget Filmmaking: Alex Fitch talks to director Tom Guerrier about his short film Cleaning Up, featuring Doctor Who stars Mark Gatiss and Louise Jameson as a hitman and his landlady; and to Adam Hamdy, co-director, and actors Jay Sutherland, Gavin Molloy, Simon Burbage and Lee Ravitz, about Pulp, a caper movie set in the small press comic community. Both films are starting to tour festivals (Cleaning Up will be screening next on 10 January 2012 at the London Short Film Festival) and Alex talks to their creators about the making of each project and their ambitions to get the films to larger audiences.

A Man Vanishes

Shôhei Imamura: The cultural anthropologist

In November, we focus on Japanese master Shôhei Imamura, with reviews of A Man Vanishes, The Ballad of Narayama, Pigs and Battleships and Profound Desires of the Gods, an article on his 1960s heroines and a Reel Sounds column on Black Rain.

Out at the cinema are gleefully gross shocker The Human Centipede 2, much loved French classic Les enfants du paradis, compelling Norwegian junkie tale Oslo, August 31st, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters documentary Magic Trip, twisted Japanese thriller Revenge: A Love Story, British ghost story The Awakening, dark comedy Black Pond, Errol Morris’s Tabloid and Australian serial killer movie Snowtown. We have an interview with Terence Davies about his war-time story of complicated love The Deep Blue Sea and we talk to Michael Shannon about the affecting American tale of personal apocalypse Take Shelter.

In the DVDs, we review Miklós Jancsó’s revolutionary film Red Psalm and we have a feature on Berlin duo Stereo Total and their score for Underwater Love. We have an article on David Lynch’s soundtracks of decay, a piece on Lawrence of Belgravia and the last part of our London Film Festival coverage.

We preview brilliant Japanese cinema festival Zipangu and we have a Comic Strip review on Abraxas, about a Buddhist monk musician. In Alter Ego, Welsh writer Vanessa Gebbie wishes to be Gozzi the gunsmith in Day of the Jackal, and in the Film Jukebox, ex-Baby Birkin Raechel Leigh Carter recommends ten lesser known Klaus Kinski films.

PODCAST:
The Art Theatre Guild of Japan: Julian Ross talks about the summer’s seasons of experimental and independent Japanese cinema of the 1960s and 70s. In the 60s, the Art Theatre Guild of Japan (ATG) in Tokyo became the centre of a vibrant independent filmmaking scene, encouraging bold experiments and innovative collaborations with other artists. The discussion focuses on the ATG, its related space Theatre Scorpio, and the films the ATG helped produce or distribute, including works by Nagisa Ôshima, Kôji Wakamatsu and Shôhei Imamura.

Silent Running

Eco Sci-Fi: Dead forests, mutant animals, food riots

We look at environmentally-concerned science fiction with Silent Running, directed by special effects genius Douglas Trumbull, the Roger Corman-produced mutant sea monster movie Humanoids from the Deep, the dystopian and prescient Soylent Green, post-apocalyptic adventure Damnation Alley and Saul Bass’s only film Phase IV, also the subject of our Reel Sounds column. We have an article on director Larry Fessenden and an Online Movie column on the Astronomy Photographer of the Year while in Alter Ego, dystopian SF writer Alastair Bruce identifies with Fargo‘s Marge Gunderson.

At the cinema we review the Guillermo del Toro-produced Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Soderbergh’s pandemic movie Contagion, hard-hitting Mexican drama Miss Bala, intelligent murder thriller The Silence and exhilarating Korean crime drama The Yellow Sea.

In the DVDs, we look at two depictions of murderers, the unflinching Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer, and Michael Mann’s take on Hannibal Lecktor, Manhunter, as well as ground-breaking 90s Harlem gangster drama Juice. Our Comic Strip Review is on Quatermass and the Pit.

After the Venice festival we look at rape on film. We have an article on Maya Deren and an interview with Michael Tully about Septien. In Short Cuts, we review expressionistic animation film Lipsett Diaries. In the Film Jukebox, bombastic Welsh pop-rockers Race Horses pick their favourites. In the Blog, we report on Toronto, L’Etrange Festival, Raindance and the London Film Festival.

PODCAST:
Wicker Tree/Buried Land: In this special Halloween-themed podcast, Alex Fitch talks to three directors who have made films about man’s relationship with the land: Robin Hardy, Larry Fessenden and Steven Eastwood.

Red White & Blue

Twisted Romance: Awkward love, destructive desires, murderous tenderness

September films are full of heartbreak and misshapen affection, starting with Terrence Malick’s glorious rural tragedy Days of Heaven and on with Sion Sono’s perverse melodrama Guilty of Romance, Post Mortem’s love in the time of dictatorship, and deadly jealousy in La piscine, and we have a Comic Strip Review of Black Heaven. We interview Simon Rumley about his unpredictable murder ballad Red White and Blue and Athina Rachel Tsangari about offbeat Greek drama Attenberg.

Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, gender drama Tomboy and Kevin Smith’s Red State are out in cinemas as well as some of the FrightFest hits: gritty crime thriller Kill List, mountaineering terroriser A Lonely Place to Die, enjoyable horror comedies Troll Hunter and Tucker & Dale vs Evil, and Lucky McKee’s controversial The Woman.

In the DVDs, we interview Ruggero Deodato and review his classic shocker Cannibal Holocaust, Masaki Kobayashi’s savage samurai epic Harakiri, Dario Argento’s Cat o’ Nine Tails, Peter Jackson’s celebrated Heavenly Creatures and provocative documentary Children of the Revolution, and we look at TV series The Story of Film.

Reel Sounds is on Sound of Fear, Peggy Sue pick their favourite films, and in Alter Ego David Flusfeder is drawn to Red River. The Dominion of Canada column honours the memory of film-loving politician Jack Layton. We have a feature on the dos and don’ts of an indie filmmaker and in the Blog, we preview Raindance and report on Venice and FrightFest.

PODCAST:
Secret Societies – part 2: In a companion piece to our May podcast on Secret Societies, we have a panel discussion recorded in the atmospheric confines of a Masonic Lodge on Liverpool Street in London as part of the East End Film Festival, including talks on Jack the Ripper, witches’ covens and religious cults in film.

Funeral Parade of Roses

The Art Theatre Guild: The creative explosion of Japanese independent cinema in the 1960s

In conjunction with the BFI and Close-Up seasons, we focus on The Art Theatre Guild of Japan (ATG), which became the centre of a vibrant independent filmmaking scene in the late 60s. We have articles on Teshigahara’s ghostly coal mining drama Pitfall, Masao Adachi’s surreal dreamscape Galaxy, Funeral Parade of Roses, a stunning gay take on Oedipus, Buddhist incest tale This Transient Life, Lost Lovers, a portrait of post-war youth, and cine-poem Silence Has No Wings. Our Reel Sounds column focuses on Fluxus associate Yasunao Tone’s soundtrack for Galaxy.

In new cinema releases we review Muslim punk band movie The Taqwacores, acclaimed Japanese drama Villain, Lee Tamahori’s Uday Hussein dramatisation The Devil’s Double, James Marsh’s documentary Project Nim and Pedro Almodóvar’s latest, The Skin I Live In, as part of our report on the Karlovy Vary festival.

New DVDs include Bill Morrison and Jóhann Jóhannsson’s The Miners’ Hymns, offbeat Romanian vampire mystery Strigoi, Mamoru Oshii’s intriguing animé Musashi, Chris Marker’s La jetée and Sergei Paradjanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates and we have a Comic Strip Review of Uruguayan horror film The Silent House. In Alter Ego, Nick Lake is blind swordsman Zatoichi. Our Dominion of Canada column returns with a look at male layabouts in Fellini’s I vitelloni and we preview the London Animation Festival.

PODCAST:
Kosmos: Russian scholar Sergei Kapterev (Institute of Cinema Art in Moscow) talks about Soviet science fiction, the connection between SF cinema and politics, the impact of the space race and the importance of Andrei Tarkovsky. Plus, in a Q&A recorded at SCI-FI-LONDON in 2010, Alex Fitch talks to Polish poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and SF writer/journalist Wojciech Orliński about cinematic adaptations of the work of Stanislaw Lem.

Solaris

Andrei Tarkovsky: metaphysical landscapes, mystical visions, melancholy longings

To mark the release of a box-set of his films and the Kosmos season of Russian science fiction at the BFI, we celebrate the work of Andrei Tarkovsky, with reviews of Solaris, Stalker, Mirror, Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev and The Sacrifice. Tarkovsky also inspires an exploration of Immaterial films in our Online Movie column.

Out at the cinema this month are gripping Spanish prison drama Cell 211, fascinating documentary Bobby Fischer against the World, charming Japanese comedy Sawako Decides, Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme and subtle drama Poetry – read our interview with Korean master Lee Chang-dong. We also have articles on Terrence Malick for Tree of Life and on the summer’s programme of experimental Japanese cinema. Romain Gavras (he of M.I.A.’s ‘Born Free’ video controversy) talks about his provocative first feature film, Our Day Will Come.

DVD releases include Shôhei Imamura’s vivid portrait of Japanese society’s underbelly, Pigs and Battleships, Lars von Trier’s ground-breaking series The Kingdom, the surreal Hungarian tale Szindbád, Dario Argento’s Tenebrae and David Hemmings’s supernatural drama The Survivor, while The Twilight Zone is our first animated Comic Strip Review!

In our Alter Ego column, writer Cressida Connelly imagines herself as Dumbo and we have a feature on spy films from the other side of the Iron Curtain. American garage pop combo Crystal Stilts do a visual Film Jukebox and in the Blog, we report on the Edinburgh and Sydney festivals.

PODCAST:
Sounds of the Living Dead: As part of the launch of The End: An Electric Sheep Anthology on Tuesday 7 June, DJ Robin the Fog performed a live rescore of Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated (2009), adding a new experimental electronic / musique concrète soundtrack to the animated version of George Romero’s classic zombie film.