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.
First broadcast on Resonance FM 104.4 on Friday 20 January 2012.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, Friday 16 December, 5-5:30pm, Resonance 104.4 FM
Virginie Sélavy and Electric Sheep contributors Jason Wood, director of programming for Curzon cinemas and author of The Faber Book of Mexican Cinema and 100 Road Movies, former Plan B editor and musician Frances Morgan, and writer Eleanor McKeown talk about the best films, shorts, re-issues and events of the year.
Virginie Sélavy talks to Julian Ross 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.
Julian Ross is a commissioning editor at Vertigo Magazine and the programme coordinator for the Theatre Scorpio season at Close-Up Film Centre and the Art Theatre Guild season at the BFI Southbank.
First broadcast on Resonance FM 104.4 on Friday 19 August.
I’M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP, Friday 18 November, 5-5:30pm, Resonance 104.4 FM
To mark the opening of Zipangu, the UK’s foremost Japanese film festival, Virginie Sélavy talks to festival director Jasper Sharp and to Neil Cantwell and Tim Grabham, directors of the opening film, KanZeOn. KanZeOn is a unique documentary on the role music and sound play in Japanese Buddhism looking at three musicians: Akinobu Tatsumi, a young Buddhist priest who is also a hip-hop DJ and is prone to bouts of beat-boxing in the forest; Eri Fujii, master of the sho, an ancient Chinese bamboo wind instrument evoking the cry of the phoenix; and Akihiro Iitomi, a performer of Noh theatre and jazz lover. We are delighted to announce that Tatsumi Akinobu will give a performance of his Buddhist chanting and beat-boxing skills on the show.
The Zipangu festival runs from 18 to 24 November at the ICA and Cafe Oto in London. Full details on the Zipangu website.
In this special Halloween-themed podcast, Alex Fitch talks to three directors who have made films about man’s relationship with the land. At this year’s FrightFest, Robin Hardy discusses his classic horror film The Wicker Man and its new, belated thematic sequel The Wicker Tree, which both deal with fertility and terrifying pagan rites, while Larry Fessenden talks about his eco-themed monster movies No Telling, Wendigo and The Last Winter. In addition, in a Q&A recorded at the East End Film Festival, Alex interviews Steven Eastwood, co-director of Buried Land, a ‘mockumentary’/docu-drama about the real-life discovery in a small town in Bosnia of an ancient, buried pyramid, which may re-invent mankind’s knowledge of pre-Christian architecture and empire-building, but in the short term has changed the fortunes of people in the area.
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’.
