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.

If you only see one film this month, make it Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, a masterful, richly enigmatic evocation of the ‘Nazi generation’ as children. Lighter entertainment comes courtesy of whimsical comedy Bunny and the Bull, directed by Mighty Boosh‘s Paul King, and outrageous Japanese porn farce Lalapipo. The Korean Film Festival is at the Barbican and there is a Bong Joon-ho retrospective at the BFI Southbank, which includes screenings of his latest, Mother, as well as The Host and Memories of Murder.

Also in UK cinemas in November are Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno, a documentary investigating the gorgeous-looking crime thriller the French master could not complete, and low-fi indie romance Paper Heart, for which we have capsule reviews as part of our round-up of the 53rd London Film Festival – read about unknown gems as well as films you can look forward to see on UK screens in the near future. We Live in Public, a documentary about internet pioneer Joshua Harris that also screened at the LFF, is out this month and we have an interview with director Ondi Timoner.

In the DVD section, we look at two very different French works, the acclaimed documentary on France under German occupation during the Second World War The Sorrow and the Pity, and extreme horror thriller Inside and its connection to the Paris riots of 2005. We also review a documentary on the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival.

We have an interview with Momoko Ando, the young director of the wonderful Kakera – A Piece of our Lives, conducted during the Raindance Film Festival last month. You can read the winning review in our Rollerball film writing competition, which we run every month in connection with the Electric Sheep Film Club at the Prince Charles. And our Film Jukebox this month features the very unusual Non-Commissioned Officers, who formed a band to promote a film – or was it the other way around?

The Electric Sheep Magazine team

Be ready to spend most of the month in dark rooms as October is offering a bumper crop of excellent films. Top of the list is Sion Sono’s extraordinary love and guilt epic Love Exposure, which premiered at the Raindance Festival. Equally as good in a very different style, Johnny Mad Dog is a gut-wrenching portrayal of wild child soldiers in an unnamed African country – we talk to director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. Elsewhere, the grande dame of the nouvelle vague Agnès Varda tells us why she chose to revisit her life in cinema in her latest film, The Beaches of Agnès, while Marc Price of the ‘made-for-£45′ Colin reveals the secrets of low-budget zombie filmmaking. Park Chan-wook returns with stylish vampire love triangle Thirst, Shane Meadows offers the hilarious roadie mockumentary Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee, and newcomer Peter Strickland’s debut Katalin Varga, made in Romania, is an unusual take on the rape and revenge film.

Also out this month are compelling circular horror thriller Triangle, and smart zombie film Pontypool, which premiered at FrightFest in August. Mamoru Oshii’s animé masterpiece Ghost in the Shell is released in a CGI-enhanced version – this is the occasion for a discussion of the current trend of ‘retrofitting’ old sci-fi films with modern CGI animation. In the DVD section, we applaud the release of Georges Franju’s striking debut feature La Tête contre les murs, and re-assess the social critique offered by British avant-garde film Herostratus.

We report back from the last Secret Cinema event and from the AND festival, which offered a variety of visual delights to the intellectually curious. And in our Short Cuts section we review the outstanding Siggraph Asia programme that screened at the London International Animation Festival in September.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team

‘Ther’s tha devil movin’ in my blood’. The autumn 09 print issue of Electric Sheep looks at religious extremes on film from Christic masochism to satanic cruelty. The extraordinary White Lightnin’ explores the Old Testament world of demented mountain dancer Jesco White while Klaus Kinski disastrously reinterprets the New Testament in Jesus Christ Saviour – and subversives Alejandro Jodorowsky and Kenneth Anger dynamite divine myths. Plus: Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Raindance 09, political animation, and louche mariachi rockabilly Dan Sartain picks his top films! [The magazine contains exclusive articles and interviews not available on the website.] The new issue is available from the specialist book store Cinéphilia, at selected retailers and cinemas or online from Wallflower Press.

This month sees the release of the exceptional White Lightnin’. You can read a short review online, but the interview with director Dominic Murphy is only available in the autumn 09 issue of the print magazine. Also out at the cinema this month is another unmissable film in an entirely different genre: Big River Man is a documentary about Slovenian champion Martin Strel’s attempt to swim the Amazon. Hilarious and tragic at the same time, with definite Herzogian undertones, it is one of the most enjoyable and affecting films of the year so far.

A crop of excellent festivals will be offering unique cinematic experiences throughout the month. Abandon Normal Devices is a new festival that seeks to challenge preconceptions about the moving image, taking place in Liverpool. AND will preview Pontypool, one of the smartest and wittiest zombie movies we’ve seen in a long time. Now in its 12th year, the digital festival onedotzero will also be showcasing new forms of moving images, including shorts, animation, music videos and audio-visual performances, starting in London before going on tour. And to mark the opening of the 17th Raindance Film Festival on September 30, we have a review of Kakera – A Piece of Our Lives, which will be screening as part of the festival’s focus on Japanese women directors.

In the DVD reviews we have wonderful, long-lost giallo Footprints, beautiful, melancholy Japanese teen-centred chiller Goth: Love of Death, little-known Charles Bronson gem Rider on the Rain, Peter Sellers’s first film outing Penny Points to Paradise and a short extract from the discussion of Jane Arden’s Separation, which appears in full in the autumn 09 issue of the magazine.

Finally, we have an interview with Steven Severin and Danny Plotnick about their work in music and film, conducted at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival by our Australian correspondent, while in the Short Cuts we have a piece on a Don Hertzfeldt event organised in June by the London International Animation Festival, which is in full swing right now.

The Electric Sheep Magazine team