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.
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.
Watch Alex Fitch’s video of the show:
A discussion on femmes fatales, including the heroines of Laura (1944), Baby Face (1933) and Gun Crazy (1950), with writer and filmmaker Nicola Woodham and former Plan B editor and musician Frances Morgan, hosted by Virginie Sélavy.
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.
Podcast produced by Alex Fitch.
Virginie Sélavy talks to William Fowler, archive curator at the BFI National Archive, about Peter Watkins’s uncompromising pseudo-documentary Punishment Park (1971) in relation to the rest of his work, in particular The War Game (1965), the influence of the 1969 Chicago Seven trial and the 1970 Kent State Shootings on the film, the improvisatory techniques used and the critique of the media’s pretension to present ‘objective truth’.
Peter Watkins’ The War Game will be released in a beautiful new dual format (Blu-ray and DVD) double feature edition along with Culloden (1964) on 28 March 2016 by the BFI. Punishment Park is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Eureka Entertainment.
The Lair of the White Worm + talk
Writer/director: Ken Russell
UK 1988
96 mins
Certificate 18
Screening date: Wednesday 14 March 2012
Doors: 7pm
Venue: Horse Hospital
Address: Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD
Price: £6/£4
Advance tickets: £5 from WeGotTickets
Horse Hospital website
Electric Sheep and Strange Attractor Present:
The Lair of the White Worm + Talk with Flipside programmers
‘It has a lair, it has a worm, the worm is white.’ Roger Ebert
Electric Sheep and Strange Attractor are proud to present a rare outing for this unjustly neglected horror romp from the late Ken Russell as part of Ken Russell Forever, a tribute to the director organised by the good people of Scala Forever to coincide with the release of The Devils on DVD in March that runs from 10 to 20 March 2012.
Tenuously based on a 1911 novel by Bram Stoker – itself inspired by the ancient tale of the Lambton Wyrm, a staple for every book of true monster stories – this shamelessly camp horror comedy is generally considered to be Russell’s last great film.
Our Ken gleefully captures the spirits of Hammer and Carry On, doses them both with LSD and then dangles them over a bottomless pit containing an 80ft phallus while standing at the side pointing and laughing.
Featuring a soon-to-be-all-star cast including Hugh Grant, Peter Capaldi and Amanda Donahoe, gags and gore galore, not to mention sex, folk rock and slapstick, The Lair of the White Worm is a joyful outrage from beginning to end.
Plus talk with BFI archive curators and Flipside programmers Vic Pratt and Will Fowler.
Advance tickets £5 from WeGotTickets.
Ken Russell Forever runs from 10 to 20 March. For more information on other Russell Forever events, please see the Ken Russell Forever website, the Facebook event page, or follow Scala Forever on Facebook and Twitter.
Two great reviews of The End: An Electric Sheep Anthology have been published this month:
In the US magazine Cineaste, Mikita Brottman says: “What these essays all share is a certain sensibility – an informed, intelligent, playful, and slightly offbeat tone that is characteristic of Electric Sheep’s articles, reviews, podcasts and blog. This appealing, 250-page volume is beautifully designed. The essays are illustrated not only with stills from various films, but also with fabulous black-and-white illustrations.”
On the Critics’ Circle website, Laurence Boyce writes: “It’s this eclectic nature of both writing styles and design (the book is excellently laid out with some nicely illustrated pieces and a lovely end essay/poem dedicated to Bill Morrison’s Decasia) that make it such a fun and worthwhile [read]. Passionate yet informed about cinema, it makes one hope that The End does not live up to its name and that another volume is one the way.”
From the gutter to the avant-garde, The End: An Electric Sheep Anthology brings together a mind-bendingly eclectic programme of films, authors, artists and directors, including Bill Morrison’s chemical ghosts, the bad girls of 50s exploitation films, apocalyptic evangelical cinema, the human centipede, Spanish zombies, Japanese nihilists, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s lost masterpiece Inferno and Ingmar Bergman’s visions of the end. A must-read for all film lovers and those who like to wander off the beaten cultural track!
To buy the book, go to the Strange Attractor website.
Read ‘Darkness Audible: Sub-bass, tape decay and Lynchian noise’ by Frances Morgan with illustrations by Lisa Claire Magee.
Take a look at some sample pages:
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.
First broadcast on Resonance 104.4FM on 10 January 2012.
Podcast produced by Alex Fitch.
RADIO
Panel Borders: Unnamable horrors in genre comics
Concluding a series of shows about H.P. Lovecraft, Alex Fitch talks to three creators who have recently penned comics inspired by his monsters and scenarios. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning talk about adding a Lovecraftian twist to Marvel Superheroes in their titles Realm of Kings and The Thanos Imperative, which feature alternative versions of Captain Marvel and the Avengers possessed by the ‘Many-angled Ones’. Also Ed Brubaker discusses Fatale, his latest collaboration with artist Sean Phillips, following Sleeper, Criminal and Incognito, which mixes noir storytelling with occult ceremonies and tentacle-faced Nazis.
8pm, Sunday 18 December 2011, Resonance 104.4FM / extended podcast on Panel Borders after broadcast
PODCASTS
Lucky Cat: The best Asian films of 2011
On Saturday 10 December, Virginie Sélavy was Zoe Baxter’s guest on the show Lucky Cat to discuss the East Asian film releases of 2011, including The Yellow Sea, Villain, Gallants, Sparrow and The Ghost Cat and the Shamisen.
To listen to the podcast, go to the Lucky Cat website.
Panel Borders episode 250: Alan Moore and the horrors at Red Hook
Continuing a month of shows about H.P. Lovecraft, Alex Fitch talks to Alan Moore about his final graphic novel that isn’t part of the continuing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen narrative – Neonomicon – which has just been published, along with its prequel The Courtyard, as a graphic novel by Avatar Press. Both comics follow on from Lovecraft’s tale ‘The Horror at Red Hook’ and Alan discusses why he chose that story in particular to explore further, plus the origins of The Courtyard in an abandoned short story collection called ‘Yuggoth Cultures’, and examples of Lovecraftian imagery in his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen saga.
Listen to the podcast on Panel Borders.
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 and Alex talks to their creators about the making of each project and their ambitions to get the films to larger audiences.
Cleaning Up will be screening next on 10 January 2012 at the London Short Film Festival at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith. The LSFF runs from 6 to 15 January 2012, celebrating the very best in contemporary British short filmmaking and providing a snapshot of the UK film scene. More information on the LSFF website.
Pulp receives its UK premiere on 2 February 2012 at SFX Weekender Sci-Fi convention, Prestatyn Sands, Wales.
Podcast produced by Alex Fitch.