Cinedelica

Flipside presents 60s cult classic Joanna at the BFI

Make a note of 23rd July 2009 if you're in the capital - that's the date for the screening of 1968 cult classic Joanna at the BFI Southbank.

Joanna - doe-eyed and Twiggy-esque in her groovy gear, descends on the Big Black Smoke to take an education in free love, shoplifting, and art at the Royal College, her exploits soundtracked by a great Scott Walker song. Her main life tutors: driven, hollow-cheeked artist Hendrik; dapper, criminally handsome Gordon; Beryl, his devil-may-care sister, and rich, jet-setting charmer Lord Peter, played by Donald Sutherland. Dreamy, strange and inventive, this vibrant 1960s flight-of-fancy comes courtesy of one-time pop star, Mike Sarne. Joanna revels in the delights of swinging London - but dares to ask what happens when the endless party finally begins to draw to a close.

Introduced by Vic Pratt and Will Fowler, it will also feature director Mike Sarne for a Q & A session following the screening. Tickets are on sale now, the screening starts at 8:20pm.

Find out more and get tickets at the BFI website

Cult 70s music documentary Soul Power hits DVD and Blu-ray

After a brief tour round the arthouse cinemas, cult music documentary Soul Power will also hit the stores, on both DVD and Blu-ray.

The year was 1974, with a host of black American acts mixing it up with African musicians at a 12-hour, three-night festival in Zaire, playing out alongside the infamous Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

Soul Power is a record of 'Zaire '74', showing both the experiences and performances acts including James Brown, BB King, Bill Withers and Celia Cruz, with the original footage restored in HD with top-notch audio for an 'as if you were there' experience. Special features for the retail release include a number of extra songs and deleted scenes (that didn't make the cinema version), with the discs hitting the shelves on 16th November 2009. if you want to get in early, Amazon is already doing pre-orders.

Find out more at the Amazon website

Richard Burton season at the BFI

Richard Burton certainly lived his life to the full. Born in the small mining village of Port Talbot in Wales, he went on to become one of the most famous actors of his era, throwing in plenty for the gossip columns too with five marriages (including two with Elizabeth Taylor). And to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death, the BFI is offering up a long-overdue retrospective with highlights from his entire career.

That means everything from his debut in the late 40s in The Last Days of Dolwyn through his famous roles in the likes of Cleopatra (1963) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), along with his cult roles in movies like the superb Villain (1971).

See over the page for the full schedule, with the season kicking off on 6th August 2009.

BFI website

Richard Burton: Lion of the Welsh
Tony Earnshaw, head of film programming at the National Media Museum, Bradford, explores the work of a fearless and versatile performer. Lion of the Welsh is a lively and objective re-consideration of Burton’s oeuvre, using many of Burton’s own words and clips from his films
Thu 6 Aug 18:20 NFT2 Tickets £5

The Last Days of Dolwyn
Emlyn Williams’ portrait of the class divide in late-19th-century Wales is both a curious time capsule of
cinematic theatricality and a perfect example of 1940s film melodrama. Williams (as writer, director and
leading man) is the bitter and resentful boy-done-good who returns home with plans to flood the valley of his birth. Burton (in his film debut) is the proud local lad who sees through his lies.
UK 1949 Dir Emlyn Williams With Edith Evans, Emlyn Williams, Alan Aynesworth 95min U
Sat 1 Aug 15:20 NFT2, Fri 7 Aug 20:30 NFT2, Tue 11 Aug 14:00 NFT1-Seniors’ Matinee

My Cousin Rachel
Burton took on what could have been a thankless task – playing second fiddle to Olivia de Havilland’s arch villainess – and landed his first Oscar nomination. My Cousin Rachel makes the very most of its origins and lays on the gothic atmosphere of Daphne Du Maurier’s story. At its most basic this is a
whodunit that asks audiences, via Burton’s suspicious eyes, to believe de Havilland’s smile masks pure evil.
USA 1952 Dir Henry Koster With Olivia de Havilland, Audrey Dalton, Ronald Squire 98min PG
Wed 5 Aug 18:10 NFT3, Sat 8 Aug 15:50 NFT2, Tue 11 Aug 17:50 NFT1

The Robe
A self-important Biblical epic in the vein of Cecil B De Mille, The Robe represents a mighty adaptation of
Lloyd C Douglas’s tale of the conversion of the Roman tribune who witnesses the crucifixion of Christ. The first film in CinemaScope is over-blown and pompous, but conveys the era’s penchant for grandiose showmanship. Burton acts as if for the theatre rather than the sound stage but emerges largely unscathed.
USA 1953 Dir Henry Koster With Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Michael Rennie 135min PG
Sun 2 Aug 15:00 NFT1, Wed 5 Aug 20:20 NFT3

Bitter Victory
Two soldiers vie for the affections of the same woman during the Allies’ desert campaign in WWII. Burton is the fl awed hero, Curt Jurgens the superior officer whose wife Burton once romanced. The love triangle
forms the backdrop to an intense tale of jealousy and cowardice played out beneath the blazing sun.
USA 1957 Dir Nicholas Ray With Curt Jurgens, Ruth Roman, Raymond Pellegrin 103min 15
Mon 3 Aug 18:30 NFT1, Wed 5 Aug 14:30 NFT3, Sun 9 Aug 20:30 NFT3

Look Back In Anger
Burton tears into Jimmy Porter, the ‘angry young man’ of John Osborne’s bitter and acerbic play. Social realism meets explosive theatricality as the learned, frustrated and deeply misanthropic Porter rages against the world, abandons his mousy wife and begins an affair with her best friend. In one of the earliest ‘kitchen sink’ dramas, the crisp cinematography (by Ossie Morris) brings Porter’s dismal existence to electrifying life.
UK 1959 Dir Tony Richardson With Claire Bloom, Mary Ure, Gary Raymond 98min PG
Thu 6 Aug 20:40 NFT2, Sun 9 Aug 15:50 NFT2

The VIPs
Art imitates life as an oil magnate and his bored wife play out their romantic travails against the backdrop of a London airport shrouded in fog. Burton and Taylor are the ostensible leads of this all-star pageant, though some would argue their role-playing was rather too close to home for comfort. Louis Jourdan is the gold-digging gigolo with his eye on the rich man’s wife.
UK 1963 Dir Anthony Asquith With Elizabeth Taylor, Orson Welles, Margaret Rutherford 119min PG
Fri 7 Aug 18:10 NFT2, Tue 11 Aug 20:40 NFT2

Cleopatra
A magnificent spectacle with a majestic, multitudinous cast, Cleopatra is arguably modern cinema’s biggest, brashest, most sprawling historical epic. Based on the biography by Carlo Mario Franzero, Cleopatra is an example of runaway film-making at its most uncontrolled, with the added sparkle of witnessing the Taylor-Burton dalliance explode into a full-blown love affair. For sheer style and verve
it remains unequalled.
UK-USA-Switzerland 1963 Dir Joseph L Mankiewicz With Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall 243min + interval 70mm PG
Sat 8 Aug 18:00 NFT1, Mon 10 Aug 18:10 NFT1

Becket
The volatile relationship between old friends and sometime enemies Henry II and Thomas Becket is explored in this intense portrait of petulance and defiance. Creating both a consideration of friendship corrupted by power, and an unflinching depiction of idealism and faith, Peter Glenville pits two of the
most hot-blooded performers of the 1960s against one another and watches the resultant fireworks. A prime example of two stars in perfect sync.
UK 1964 Dir Peter Glenville With Peter O’Toole, John Gielgud, Donald Wolfit 149min PG
Sun 9 Aug 17:50 NFT2, Fri 21 Aug 20:10 NFT3

The Night of the Iguana
Partnered with man-eater Ava Gardner, prim Deborah Kerr and teen nymphet Sue Lyon, Burton plays a defrocked priest desperately attempting to navigate his way through his shattered life in John Huston’s magnificent adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play. Despite the usual Williams maelstrom of passions and sweatiness, Huston injects some pleasurably sly humour and is repaid with remarkable performances, particularly Burton’s.
USA 1964 Dir John Huston With Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon 118min 12A
Wed 12 Aug 20:40 NFT3, Fri 14 Aug 17:50 NFT1, Tue 25 Aug 14:30 NFT3

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Burnt out, cynical and set for the knacker’s yard of espionage, shabby spy Alec Leamas gets an unexpected chance to revenge himself on his Eastern Bloc opponent. Things are complicated when
he starts falling for left-wing activist Nan. Stark, downbeat and beautifully shot in crisp black and white by Ossie Morris, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold offered Burton the opportunity to show the flip side of 007.
UK 1965 Dir Martin Ritt With Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Peter Van Eyck 112min PG
Thu 13 Aug 18:10 NFT3, Sun 16 Aug 20:40 NFT2

The Taming of the Shrew
This zesty, witty romp is extraordinarily good fun as lusty Petruchio pursues tempestuous Katharina to make her his wife. An unrestrained, bawdy comedy spectacular, The Taming of the Shrew is a rumbustious adventure as Taylor is pummelled, pounded, kicked, slapped, spanked and generally knocked around by Burton as he woos, wins, weds and finally domesticates his fiery love. One of the very best filmed Shakespeare plays, and produced by the Burtons.
USA-Italy 1966 Dir Franco Zeffi relli With Elizabeth Taylor, Cyril Cusack, Michael Hordern 122min U
Thu 13 Aug 20:30 NFT3, Sun 23 Aug 15:40 NFT3

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Over the course of an apocalyptic, drunken evening, college professor George and his blowsy, shrewish wife Martha tear each other to pieces while the college’s latest recruit and his mousy wife watch and participate in open-mouthed horror. A biting, excoriating adaptation of Edward Albee’s play, the film garnered Oscar nominations for all four principals, with only Taylor and Dennis winning. Burton lost for the fifth time.
USA 1966 Dir Mike Nichols With Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, Sandy Dennis 132min 15
Sat 15 Aug 15:10 NFT2, Mon 17 Aug 18:10 NFT1, Thu 27 Aug 14:00 NFT3

Doctor Faustus
Burton partnered with his former Oxford University tutor Nevill Coghill for this curious exercise in theatreturned- film. In a wayward portrait of corruption and obsession there are moments of magic with Burton’s performance giving a hint of the power of his stage persona. A self-indulgent pet project, Doctor Faustus remains a curio, not least for Elizabeth Taylor’s (mute) cameo as Helen of Troy. Burton’s sole venture into direction.
UK 1967 Dir Richard Burton & Nevill Coghill With Elizabeth Taylor, Andreas Teuber 93min PG
Tue 18 Aug 20:45 NFT3, Wed 19 Aug 18:20 NFT2

Anne of the Thousand Days
Frustrated by his pious wife’s inability to produce a male heir, King Henry VIII sets his sights on Anne Boleyn, the young daughter of an ambitious courtier. Burton roars his way through this absorbing biopic as the absolute monarch whose word is law. In her film debut, Geneviève Bujold matches Burton in the acting stakes in a role that Elizabeth Taylor was told she was too old to play.
USA 1969 Dir Charles Jarrott With Geneviève Bujold, Anthony Quayle, Irene Papas 146min PG
Fri 21 Aug 17:50 NFT2, Sun 30 Aug 15:20 NFT3

Under Milk Wood
Two rollicking, nocturnal visitors pass through the quiet cobbled streets of the sleepy Welsh town of Llareggub. Sinclair’s inspired film adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ ‘play for voices’ casts Burton and Ryan Davies as the drunken strangers. A formidable Celtic ensemble breathes life into Thomas’s verse, lifting the lid on the quiet town and its delightfully eccentric inhabitants. A beautiful verbal epic haunted by the twin spectres of death and nostalgia.
+ Dylan Thomas
This beautifully shot, atmospheric, Oscar-winning documentary eloquently honours Thomas using
many of the locations where Thomas himself grew up and found his inspiration. Richard Burton trudges
along the windswept shore at Laugharne, mixes with the drinkers in the local pub and re-visits Thomas’s
poetry to produce an atmospheric, evocative and elegiac tribute that benefi ts hugely from its Bible-black
monochrome photography.
UK 1962 Dir Jack Howells 31min U
Mon 24 Aug 18:10 NFT2, Thu 27 Aug 20:20 NFT2

Villain
Less a crime thriller than a fascinating study in psychosis, Tuchner’s feature debut combines the East End’s Ronnie Kray with White Heat’s Cody Jarrett to create cruel, mother-fi xated homosexual gangster Vic Dakin. A genuine (and rare) character study by Burton, Villain offers up an authentic milieu – that of the plausible crime kingpin who rules through fear, charisma and unpredictability. If Burton’s accent occasionally wavers, his menace does not.
UK 1971 Dir Michael Tuchner With Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport, Donald Sinden 98min 15
Sat 22 Aug 20:50 NFT2; Wed 26 Aug, 18:10 NFT1; Fri 28 Aug 20:30 NFT3

Equus
Psychiatrist Martin Dysart is charged with unravelling the unsettling mystery of why troubled youth Alan Strang (Firth) blinded six horses with a metal spike. Adapted from his Broadway smash by Peter Shaffer, Equus retains its theatrical feel but is lifted by Burton’s mesmeric, Oscar-nominated performance as the tormented shrink. An absorbing movie: part psychological drama, part detective thriller and part dysfunctional family portrait.
USA 1976 Dir Sidney Lumet With Peter Firth, Eileen Atkins, Colin Blakely 137min 15
Wed 26 Aug 20:20 NFT2, Sat 29 Aug 15:40 NFT3

Nineteen Eighty-Four
In the totalitarian state of Oceania, perpetually at war with one or other of its neighbours, love is a crime.
When lowly clerk Winston Smith falls in love, the machinations of the state are targeted against him. In his final film performance Burton delivers a chilling, understated portrait of sinister intransigence as the dead-eyed Party inquisitor, O’Brien. Shot in desaturated, grainy colour by Roger Deakins.
UK 1984 Dir Michael Radford With John Hurt, Suzanne Hamilton, Cyril Cusack 110min 15
Sat 29 Aug 18:30 NFT3, Mon 31 Aug 20:40 NFT2

Wind of Change (1961) heads to DVD

I'm still amazed about the number of films I've never heard of getting a first-time release, especially when they sound as interesting as Wind of Change.

A 1961 film, but actually set amongst the late 50s race riots in Notting Hill, Wind of Change is described as 'a gripping kitchen-sink drama' focusing on the relationship between a father (Donald Pleasence) and his rebellious, unemployed son Frank (Johnny Briggs). Frank is a 'bigoted racist' who believes the black immigrants are taking all the British jobs, though he doesn’t seem too concerned in trying to get one himself. When Frank and his teen gang beat up a black man who later dies of his injuries, he must face the consequence of his actions.

Very much in the 'Absolute Beginners' era, Wind of Change is available from 24th August 2009, but you can order now on Amazon for a bargain £8.78. There's a bonus flick on there too called The Traitors (1962), but that's described as an 'espionage film', so we're not expecting much from it.

Find out more at the Amazon website

Cinedelica now has a Twitter account

Love cult film and TV? Want to chat about it on a much-talked about social networking site? Well, now you can as Cinedelica has just created a Twitter account.

To follow us, all you have to do is go to http://twitter.com/Cinedelica and you're away. And don't worry - you don't have to talk about film and TV all the time!

Cinedelica on Twitter

60s exploitation parody Viva hits DVD

Remember Viva? We reviewed it some time back when it was doing the rounds of the arthouse circuit, but now the movie has finally made it to DVD in the UK.

Check out our full review or let us tell you that Viva is a take on the Russ Meyer/Herschell Gordon Lewis-style exploitation flick of the late 60s and early 70s (think Beyond The Valley of the Dolls), with director Anna Biller heading up the cast as a bored housewife looking for kicks in 1972 LA - model work, call girl, stage star etc etc. It's very good, but don't take our word for it, check out the review and numerous others that give the movie the thumbs up.

You can pick it up from 6th July 2009 for just under £10 from Amazon via the Cine Excess label. Not heard of that? Well, you soon will do - a collaboration between Brunel University's Cult Film Archive and film director Roger Corman, it promises to offer some never-before-seen movies from the cult movie man's archive for the first time in the UK. We don't now what as yet - but we're already seriously excited about the prospect.

Find out more about Viva at the Amazon website

The Damned (1963) at the NFT reviewed

I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that I don’t know a thing about the cinema. Either that, or my memory is playing me up. My reason for booking to see The Damned was basically that I thought that I had seen it many years ago on a late night TV showing and wanted to see if it lived up to my memory of it. Even ‘memory’ is a misnomer, as all I could remember was a scene on a beach with Oliver Reed and his biker cohorts cavorting with a girl. Some things just stick in your mind, as the song goes!

The opening scene looked promising, with a shot of a beach and the early appearance of a bike gang, Oliver Reed playing their leader. There the resemblance ended, however, and we were plunged into one of the most off-kilter, creepy and plain sick sci-fi movies of the period. Several story lines are in evidence here, starting with the gang of bikers and their female lure, the lovely Shirley Ann Field, enticing strangers down lonely alleys, then beating and robbing them. The second, a tale of friendship between a ‘man from the ministry’ and a middle aged sculptress who rents a cliffside property from her friend. The property gives her the quiet and solitude she needs to create her tortured sculptures, made from driftwood and other reclaimed materials. The third, and most disquieting, is about a group of children being educated in isolation in a secret underground bunker, subjects of our ‘man from the ministry’.

It is the sometimes far from seamless stitching of these separate strands of the storylines that most intrigues you, and at the same time, throws you off-balance with its tracking from one to the next. The initial shot of the assault on a visiting middle-aged American academic contains a wealth of detail about England in the 1960’s. Filmed in Weymouth, where Victorian gentility sits side by side with the modern, the sight of virtually traffic-free roads and stylish, well-kept shop windows were as refreshing as they were beautifully photographed. The bikers, including a young Kenneth Cope, are a little on the soft side and are inexplicably led by Oliver Reed, resplendent in a hounds tooth check jacket. Reed cuts a robust Mod figure, toting a rolled umbrella, which he uses to hook round his victims’ throats prior to delivering them a beating. His sister (Shirley Ann Field) plays the bait for his traps, but she resents her brother using her in this way, even offering an explanation for his possessive behaviour; she feels he doesn’t let her have boyfriends because he’s never had a girlfriend.

A contemporary interview with the director, Joseph Losey, revealed that he felt he had had both Field and Reed imposed on him, and that Reed was ‘untrained’. I can’t claim any credentials as a casting director, but I’ve seen Oliver reed in countless films, and he never disappoints, as in this one. He plays the despicable but psychologically flawed thug to perfection, evoking an atmosphere that would have to wait a good few years to make its reappearance in films I prefer to call the ‘Violence 2000’ genre, like ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

Our lure decides to make a break for it, joining the American on his yacht, and they end up on a lonely stretch of beach, taking advantage of an empty house, already seemingly familiar to the American, no doubt from previous amorous encounters. It is of course our solitary sculptress’ house. However, the cliffs outside hold a surprise, and they get stuck in a cave when the tide comes in. It is here that the sci-fi element kicks in, as our stranded lovers are rescued by a group of children who are shocked to discover that the adults have warm skin. The adults are equally shocked at how cold the children are, and they quickly realise that the children are being held here as part of some experiment, eventually finding that their jailer is our man form the ministry.

If the title of the film hasn’t already reminded you of ‘Children of the Damned’, then these scenes with the children will. However, it differs from that classic of the ‘Soft Apocalypse’ genre, in that the relatively benign adult hero of ‘Children’ has no obvious parallel here. We learn that the children were all born to mothers who had been exposed to radiation, and are unable to live except in the rarefied atmosphere of the bunker. Our man from the ministry has been charged with the grim duty of bringing up the children to repopulate the earth after the seemingly inevitable nuclear holocaust, their immunity to radiation ensuring their survival.

It’s a long way from a tepid biker movie to a sinister apocalyptic fable about the morality of nuclear research, child psychology and isolation, deliberate or otherwise. I’ve given away so much of the plot already, but I’ll leave you to decide the ending for yourselves. It’s another film that seems to have been hiding away, in spite of the stellar reputation of its director, but it must surely find a wider audience one day. Thanks to the NFT for digging this one out of the catacombs for a well-deserved and welcome showing.

Scenester

Day of the Triffids - classic 80s TV drama back on the small screen

If you happen to be in the UK, check out BBC4 on Sunday 5th July, which sees a re-run of the 1981 BBC adaptation of Jhn Wyndham's sci-fi classic, the Day of the Triffids.

It's not exactly packing the best special effects you'll ever see on your TV, but it is fairly faithful to the original novel, throwing in a distinctly 80s twist too, which should only add to the nostalgia. Check out a clip below - and add a note in your diary.

Birth of the Cool - jazz movies at Manchester's Cornerhouse

To coincide with the Manchester Jazz Festival, Manchester's Cornerhouse is running a short series of jazz-related movies under the title Birth of the Cool.

Kicking of with the classic Chet Baker-inspired movie Let's Get Lost from '88 on 22nd July, the cinema is also showing Jazz On A Summer's Day, Mo' Better Blues and Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. If that's not enough jazz for you, there's also a gallery of photos shot by jazz photographer William Ellis.

Want to know more? See the website below.

Cornerhouse website

Horror Hospital (1973) at the NFT reviewed

A scorching hot day on the South Bank of the Thames, bright, bright sunshine reflecting off the concrete and a bottle of Australian Chardonnay to sustain us, me and my good lady picked our way to the NFT with two fellow mod era film fanatics to see The Flipside’s latest Brit Exploitation offering. With my admittedly limited knowledge of Anthony Balch’s film output, and my expectations a little on the low side I was surprised to learn what a varied career this director had. Starting out with the type of ‘beatnik’ films familiar to those of you who were regulars at the late, lamented Scala Cinema at London’s King’s Cross, he was one director who seemed to remain on the fringes of filmmaking, with Horror Hospital representing some sort of stab at a more popular genre.

The supporting shorts, Towers Open Fire and Kronhausen’s Psychomontage No 1', presented us with a typically free-form cut up of dissonant conversation and surreal situations, the former starring everyone’s favourite junkie uncle, William Burroughs and his stoned, disjointed ramblings. All made in the UK, they offered a peek into a world usually closed to the casual filmgoer and member of the public, and one he or she may not necessarily enjoy.

Balch made only a few films in his short career, the last one being Horror Hospital, a traditional shocker with a comedy base that is anything but healthy. The plot is as familiar as it could be; a young couple, thrown together by chance on a train, find themselves in a sinister hospital, run by a criminally insane Finnish Doctor with an obsession with young people’s sexual behaviour.

His deluded experiments have led to production of a zombie-like state in his subjects, the failures and escapees being dispatched by a fiendish blade secreted in the roof of his limousine, beheading them at a stroke. Played to icy perfection by Michael Gough, who is the only deliberately creepy character in the film, wheelchair bound and assisted by Skip Martin, another familiar face from the 70s, his diminutive stature helping to draw sympathy from the audience at his cruel treatment from the unpleasant medic.

The young couple are Robin Askwith, whose bare behind is probably just as familiar to cinemagoers of the 70s as is his face, and Vanessa Shaw, playing his lust object, Biba-booted and possessing all of the attributes you would expect of a girl in a horror film of this period. A storyline that takes us through a familiar landscape of science gone bad eventually being destroyed by the forces of good (young people and their carefree attitude to life) takes us back into the normal world, with a jokey shock at the end-of course.

To those of you who are not familiar with the UK horror/comedy genre, the nearest parallel would appear to be the USA’s The Evil Dead, what with blood inexplicably appearing from the bathroom taps, and strange, bloody bed sheets dismissed by the hospital staff with an aside; ‘I hope you’ll be tidier than the last people who had that room’. There is also some common ground with the previous night’s NFT offering, The Damned, in that both films seem to be having difficulty deciding what sort of genre they are destined for. In The Damned’s case, it was a toss-up between Biker/SciFi/future Shock, in Horror Hospital, Sick Comedy/Sexy-Light/Full on Horror, but this was many years before shows like ‘The League of Gentlemen’ and ‘Psychoville', and their cheerful mixing of genres and multi-layered storylines.

As a piece of Brit Exploitation, it works beautifully; there’s blood and guts for the gorehounds, a flash of flesh for the lechers, ‘Carry-On’ style laughs for the Saturday Night fun seekers and undertones of Nazi – style atrocities for the sicker and more twisted intellectual crowd. It didn’t win any Oscars, can hardly be looked on as a classic, but for those who love vicarious thrills, belly laughs and a touch of sleaze, there’s plenty here to amuse, and the film’s long availability on VHS/DVD will ensure its survival far better than if it was trying to court serious approval somewhere. It underlines why it is important not to accept only the scrawny offerings of a lot of modern mainstream cinema, but to cast the net a little further. A backward glance to that potent era of the late 60’s/early 70’s, when UK cinema was still capable of delivering a fun night at your local flea-pit; so thanks to Vic and Will Flipsider, for giving it a well-deserved big screen airing here.

Scenester

Clubbed (2008)

Some time back, someone threatened to send me a copy of Clubbed. It never appeared and to be honest, I wasn't that bothered. But with so little available to rent right now, I decided to pick it up. Well, if nothing else it has a decent soundtrack.

I would review it properly, but if the PR firm don't seem bothered, why should I? So instead, I'll give you the brief highlights and a general opinion. Which is Liverpool, early 80s, a divorced bloke has self-esteem issues, not least because he's had a kicking in the local in front of his kids by the muscle of the local gangster. He falls into boxing, joins a small gym which is run by a bouncing firm, gets in with them and gets involved in the fallout from their fall out with said gangster.

The story is lightweight and the period detail almost non-existent (two old cars and a clutch of pork pie hats) but there's here enough to keep you amused (including a decent plot twist). Just make sure you have the stomach for a particularly bloodthirsty end. You know that phrase 'decent British gangster flick'? It's never been more apt than it is here. Rent it, but don't make the mistake of buying it. Check out the trailer below.

Blow Up open air showing in Maryon Park

If you are a fan of 60s cult classic Blow Up, you'll not want to miss the open air screening of the movie in one if its iconic locations, Maryon Park.

A stone's throw from Charlton Athletic's football ground, Maryon Park was the place where David Hemmings' character Thomas snapped Jane (Vanessa Redgrave), as well as where he watched the invisible tennis match. Maryon Park hasn't changed a great deal - even the antique shop is still there (although it no longer sells antiques - or didn't when I last went).

The evening includes a full outdoor showing of Blow Up (starting at 10pm) and there will also be tours of film locations in the Park at 7.30 and 8.45pm, along with a 'swinging sixties disco'. Oh yes - you'll need to being a rug or folding chair too and be over 15 (that's the certificate).

Find out more at the Greenwich Council website

DVD Review: Magpie

I only have vague recollections of Magpie from my childhood, but I do remember one thing loud and clear - it was far more cool than Blue Peter. To me, the BBC's magazine show was an extension of school, whereas Magpie was more of a cool youth club. Watching the now reissued Magpie DVD all these years later, it seems even more true.

Let's be honest, when your presenters included a Marc Bolan lookalike, a 60s 'it girl' who didn't think much of wearing underwear on-screen and best of all, a former actress who starred in both a Bond movie and a Pete Walker horror, you're already well ahead of the game. But it wasn't just the people, watching the surviving episodes today and you find a programme that didn't patronise its teen demographic, didn't necessarily play safe and above all, managed to educate its audience by keeping things interesting. If only modern-day kids TV did the same. Having a theme tune by the Spencer Davis Group didn't do Magpie any harm either.

It's a shame that more of the older episodes didn't survive in the archives as the one Susan Stranks episode (the first Mick 'Bolan' Robertson episode too) is one of the best here, throwing in everything from the technology behind TV cameras to the humble farmer's plough, our Susan no doubt keeping young lads awake at night with her lack of bra too. If that's not enough, Leeds United's Terry Cooper even pops up with a pair of his all-new trainers for budding footballers, complete with markers showing where to kick the ball. If someone wants to make some money, reissue them now - they're unbelievably stylish.

After that, we get a number of episodes with the 'classic' trio of Mick Robertson, former actress Jenny Hanley (she of Pete Walker's Flesh and Blood Show fame) and Douglas Rae. Incredibly watchable, the episodes cover everything from riding the canals of London through to nitro racing, not to mention a James Hunt interview in Monaco, the world's biggest sports car, the meaning of various words, inner city wall painting, wind surfing, Christmas japes, dog handling and best of all, the team touring around France on holiday, taking in some 70s-style culture from the Dordogne through to the south coast. Frustratingly, an episode featuring 'the new craze of skateboarding' is mentioned but not here. Shame, but the fact that Magpie were on it in 1976 gives you an idea of how 'on the ball' the show was at the time.

The latter episodes are slightly disappointing - and that disappointment is largely based around latter-day presenter Tommy Boyd. Unlike the previous hosts, our Tommy was more like today's kids presenter - a bit of a joker, a bit whacky, a bit of an overgrown child if you like. Maybe it was what the show needed to liven it up in the late 70s, but to be honest, none of the later Magpies have the same impact as the earlier ones, even if there is the odd interesting snippet, Jamie Reid-style artwork winning the Christmas card competition for one, inflatable wrestlers, cricket lessons and a super-long custom Chopper as a few others. But judging by the 'best of' 1979 episode on here, ideas were running short as the series approached the end of the line in 1980.

The extras are worth a mention too, a number of 'orphan' clips from shows that on longer exist in their entirety (all from those early shows and just about all featuring Susan Stranks) and a 1971 'fly on the wall' episode called My Brother David, which looks at a special needs child through the eyes of his elder sister, a fascinating film that tried to show why disabled children needed both help and understanding within the wider community. Worth the admission alone.

I've got to be honest, when I got a copy of the Magpie DVD set, I expected very little outside of a bit of nostalgia and discovering that Magpie wasn't as good as I like to remember it. The reality is very different. For the majority of the two discs here, you'll find an entertaining, lighthearted snapshot of the 1970s, everything from music and sport through to travel and personalities of the day, much of it educational and much of it pitched as much to adults as to kids. If you like the idea of owning a Magpie DVD, you'll not be disappointed.

Find out more at the Amazon website

DVD Review: Home Before Midnight (1978)

We're big Pete Walker fans here, but I have to admit, I've never seen Home Before Midnight. Until now that is, as the movie has been issued for the first time on DVD by Odeon.

Home Before Midnight is one of Pete Walker's more controversial flicks in terms of subject matter, although it's dealt with in a very Pete Walker way (if you know what I mean). Mike Beresford (James Aubrey) is a successful 28-year-old lyricist for one of the big bands of the moment. He's rich, successful and cruising the highways in his Jensen Interceptor. He spots a young girl in the cafe, then gives the hitchhiker a lift home to London. Things develop and before too long, they're out on a date, spending time together and in a relationship. But there's just one thing that Ginny Wilshire (Alison Elliott) has forgot to mention to her new partner - she's just 14 years old and still at school. Not that you'll guess - the actress playing her must have been in her 20s when she took the role (thankfully).

When Mike does find out, he's shocked, but as they're both in love, neither feels able to end the relationship. So they carry on seeing each other, initially with the girl's parents' approval, who think the relationship is all about friendship. But when a TV interview spills the beans, the girl's father Harry (played by Mark Burns of A Day At The Beach fame) goes after Mike through the law, Ginny being bullied into making accusations of rape against the older man to push the case along. As the trial approaches, Mike loses all his friends, his music career and the support of his family. Will the charges be carried through or will the truth about the relationship come out?

Home Before Midnight is a strange one to review, not least because Walker himself doesn't seem to know where he's taking it. At times, the movie is just another late 70s exploitation flick, throwing in occasional nudity, some bad rock music, a bit of romance, plenty of soft focus and more minor celebrities you can keep count of - Annie Nightingale, Mick Jagger's brother Chris, 'Diddy' David Hamilton, 'the mentalist' from Alan Partridge...the list goes on and on. And as for the band, well 'Bad Accident' are more glam rock '72 than post punk '78, every bit as laughable as the majority of the acting on show.

But on the other hand, Home Before Midnight is pitched a serious film covering the serious issue of an older man sleeping with a younger girl. Is it a serious drama or is it a trashy exploitation movie? It's actually a bit of both - and that's not really a good mix. That's not to say it isn't a watchable film - if you can deal with the appalling soundtrack (by Jigsaw apparently) and don't mind a bit of random nudity, Home Before Midnight is a pretty well-written movie that will keep your attention for the full 111 minutes, even if it's only to discover the final verdict and while it's easy to laugh at some of the acting, music and cheesiness of it all, that's also part of the film's appeal, even if some of it is misjudged in context.

Not one of Pete Walker's best movies, but still one to add to your collection if you happen to be a fan, especially at the £7 price point.

Find out more about the DVD at the Amazon website

Asylum (1972)

Once upon a time, late night TV in the UK used to be the best place to see 60s and 70s Brit horrors. Indeed, for many, it was the only way to see more obscure flicks from the likes of Amicus and Hammer, titles that weren't actually available on video or later on, DVD. The only downside was the alarming regularity that some titles cropped up - one of which was Asylum.

Yet since those heady days of late night horrors in the school holidays, Asylum is a film I've neither owned or seen, but it's one I remember fondly. So in the interests of research, I reacquainted myself with it this week. It didn't disappoint.

Not that there's anything groundbreaking about Asylum, it's just pure fun, a typical Amicus compendium of tales loosely held together by a single theme - residents in the 'Asylum'. Robert Powell (yes, that one) is Dr Martin, the new doc at the stately home. He's arrived in the nick of time - the senior consultant has gone mad, got himself locked up with the rest of the patients. Standing in for him is Dr Rutherford (the ever-dependable Patrick Magee). he sets Dr Martin a task - hear the stories of all the patients, then pick out who is the doctor. So upstairs he goes to meet the orderly, who introduces him to the patients, who then tell the doctor their tales.

And there are some real gems. First up, a man murders his wife for another woman, but the dismembered body comes back to carry out its revenge on her love rival. Secondly, a stranger (Peter Cushing) asks a poverty-stricken tailor to make a suit during the night - not knowing what this suit will be used for. The third story focuses on Barbara (Charlotte Rampling) and her 'friend' Lucy (Britt Ekland), the former being looked after by her brother after mental problems, the latter making life just a little more 'interesting'. Finally, we meet Byron (Herbert Lom), whose hobby is to make miniature people - including one of himself, able to carry out his will.

None would stretch to a full feature, but together they combine as a damn entertaining quartet. All of the stories are pretty obvious, with perhaps the exception of the final 'Byron' tale - perhaps on the finest bits of comic horror you'll ever see. All I'll say is check out the matching hairstyles, glorious. There's even a tasty twist at the end, again you might guess it well before the end, but it's well executed nonetheless.

Great cast, good stories, nice twist, some great 70s interiors and 88 minutes of solid, Roy Ward Baker-directed entertainment. Just a shame you can't actually buy it new in the UK right now. Take my tip - hire it from somewhere like Lovefilm, you'll not be disappointed.

Coming to DVD: The Flesh Is Weak (1957)

We're big supporters of the British gangster movie, especially those of the vintage variety, so we're really looking forward to seeing one that's evaded us so far - The Flesh Is Weak.

Directed by Don Chaffey and dating back to 1957, it's the story of Tony Giani (John Derek), a pimp who preys on the naive, 'just off the bus' young women who come to post-war London for fame and fortune. He wines and dines them, gets them a place to stay and even finds them a job. Then he pretends he needs money fast and convinces them to prostitute themselves - to become a 'Giani Girl'. Marissa Cooper (Millie Vitale) is one such girl fresh off the boat from Italy but when she sees Tony for who he really is her life is suddenly put in extreme danger.

Both picture and sound have been restored by BBC Post Production and the release comes with a booklet based around the movie, along with some extra vintage trailers. Look out for it on 27th July 2009, priced just over £7.

Find out more at the Amazon website

Coming to DVD: Pete Walker's Home Before Midnight (1978)

One of Pete Walker's less-seen (and certainly more controversial) movies is coming to DVD for the first time (in the UK) in July, Home Before Midnight.

The subject matter is certainly where the controversy is. Songwriter Mike Beresford (James Aubrey) and his band, Bad Accident, is climbing the charts. he has money, a flash car and everything else success brings. But one day he offers Ginny (Alison Elliot) a lift home and they eventually become lovers. The trouble is Ginny is only 14 and when he eventually discovers the truth, he’s too deeply in love to give her up. It’s only a matter of time before Ginny’s parents (Mark Burns & Juliet Harmer) and the authorities find out.

The release is sourced from the original widescreen negatives and features booklet notes with a foreword by Pete Walker. Look out for it from 27th July for just over £7.

Find out more at the Amazon website

Arty Farty Film Party in Manchester goes kitchensink

It just might get even more grim up north when the Arty Farty Film Party in Manchester goes kitchensink for its next event.

The events take place every first Wednesday of the month at An Outlet, Dale Street, Manchester, kicking off at 7pm, so by our reckoning, the next one should be on Wednesday 3rd June.

The theme this time is 60s kitchensink, so you get to vote online for either A taste Of Honey, Kes, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A kind Of Loving, Billy Liar, Cathy Come Home or The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Or you can add another choice of your own. Voting closes at 9am this Friday, so get your vote in now at the website below.

Arty Farty Film Party website

Via Electric Roulette

Review: Flipside presents The Bed Sitting Room at the NFT

In these days of the ‘hit, git and split’ approach to filmmaking, a film’s title has to say it all to its perceived audience. Today’s filmmakers seem to feel that there’s no sense in using a ‘clever’ or ‘oblique’ title if what they basically have is the second instalment of a superhero’s adventures, or another romcom with one of the cast of ‘Friends’ in it. It’s with this in mind that the casual viewer might get completely the wrong impression from the bare bones of The Bed Sitting Room.

Anyone, perhaps reasonably, expecting a ‘kitchen sink’ drama will end up very puzzled and surprised by this surreal, post-apocalyptic offering from the closing years of that golden decade. Once again, the ‘Flipside’ team have come up with three ‘Bars’ and a replay on the cinematic one-armed bandit, in securing a gorgeous print of this long neglected film for us to rave over, and hot on its heels, a DVD release for those who can’t make the trip to London’s South Bank or who were indisposed that night - good excuses only, now!

I had seen this crazy, witty, profound but hopeful film only once before, on television sometime in the late 70s/early 80s, and even then it struck me how strangely it resembled 1972’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, with which it shares many cast members, and its general atmosphere of Carollian absurdity, its characters forced by remote, grandiose authority figures to behave logically in an illogical world.

The action takes place a year or so after the nuclear holocaust (referred to here with typical politician’s understatement as ‘an unfortunate incident’), and the UK appears to have only about 20 people left alive in it. Her Majesty The Queen and her entire family were some of the victims of the ‘misunderstanding’ and her ‘nearest’ relative, Mrs Ethel Shroake, her former tea-lady, has been elevated to the that historic office, as being the person closest to her. Her country now resembles a landscape of slag heaps and rubbish dumps, in which her cast of wretched, wandering subjects attempt to return to their pre-apocalypse lives, clinging to their traditions, as far as they can. A family are eking out an existence on the London Underground system, with Father (ever-reliable Arthur Lowe) raiding platform sited chocolate machines with his trusty axe and Mother (the perfectly cast Mona Washbourne) tends to the needs of her 17-months pregnant daughter

Penelope (Rita Tushingham, delightful as ever). Henry Woolf, provides power for the ailing Underground system in his role as the entire Electricity Board, pedalling like fury with his bicycle dynamo hooked up to the mains.

The first intimations that radiation poisoning are beginning to show, are touched on in the characters who have become obsessive about their former occupations, and some are even slowly mutating into human-object hybrids. Most memorable of the obsessives, is Marty Feldman as a sinister nurse, peering out of his (her?) binoculars for new patients, sick or well, willing or not! Lord Fortnum (Ralph Richardson, again perfect casting) in his best city gent attire, refusing to believe the class system has broken down and impelled only by his desire to get back on top where he belongs. His Lordship’s chauffeur is slowly mutating into a car, his shoulders bearing a very Mod-like array of wing mirrors, his breast covered by metal ‘Morris’ badges, prefiguring the mutants that would later turn up in such films as ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Beneath the Planet of the Apes’.

In case this is beginning to sound like a festival of misery, I should tell you that ‘The Bed Sitting Room’ is infused strongly with the untrammelled absurdism that made Spike Milligan such a pivotal figure in British Comedy. Originally co-written with John Antrobus for the stage in the early 60’s, and where it was a great success, the decision to take a story that was, by 1968, a little less pertinent to the state of the world’s politics must have been a difficult one for the producers to justify to their backers. I’m pleased they persuaded them, however, as the result is a remarkable piece of surreal pantomime and a very worthy addition o the already packed CV of its director, Richard Lester.

The story proceeds at its own refreshingly undisciplined pace, presenting us with characters who would have been perfectly at home in that other priceless creation of the mind of Spike Milligan, ‘The Goon Show’. Spike reprises his William ‘Mate’ Cobblers role from that brilliant radio show, a Beckettian tramp who turns up to burst the bubble of pomposity by his somewhat literal interpretations of others’ instructions.

‘I’d like that picture hanging there’ says Captain Bules Martin (Michael Hordern). ‘Mate’ duly obliges by hanging the picture on the Captain’s fingernail.

Two petty officials stalk the country in a rusty police car, supported by a hot air balloon, their officious characters played by the much missed Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. ‘Keep moving’ they solemnly intone through their megaphones to the poor, bedraggled populace, as if moving would do them any good.

With such a low survival rate to the nuclear misunderstanding, it is perhaps hardly surprising that we encounter The Army, played with ingenious schizophrenic brio by Ronald Fraser, one side of his uniform a Field Marshal, the other a Sergeant, relentlessly barking orders at and between his two selves.

Frank Thornton is an early face in the film, playing ‘The BBC’, an announcer in a tattered dinner suit (waist up only), delivering his news announcements personally by sitting behind an empty television set box, at the water’s edge. The scene is highly reminiscent of the opening scene to many Monty Python episodes, which were only a few years away in time.

For an artist who never forgot to acknowledge his debt to those who inspired him, like The Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton, it’s sometimes a surprise that more writers in the absurdist tradition don’t always acknowledge their debt to Spike. Shows like ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ would have been unthinkable without the groundwork lay down by Spike. I would go so far as to say that the entire face of British Comedy would have been very different had this Irish/Indian nurtured genius never been born.

Encountering more unique and wildly outré characters along the way, our family, now with a very Mod boyfriend in tow (Richard Warwick) for Penelope to amuse herself with, finally find their way out of the decaying London Underground system, a situation that many of the tonight’s audience can clearly identify with. They find themselves on the shore of the polluted Thames, the daughter pursued by Captain Bules Martin, eager to carry on his family line with Rita Tushingham’s character as his unwitting bride for this other, down on his luck toff. The unfortunate Lord Fortnum has mutated into the Bed Sitting Room of the title, to his eternal shame. He was on his way to Belgravia at the time, in the hope of transforming into an elegant mansion. Wistful absurdity is cranked up well beyond the point of believability as Mona Washbourne, having already detected a Dali-esque wooden drawer in her chest, later morphs into a cupboard, blending in perfectly within the Bed Sitting Room. Arthur Lowe’s ‘Father’ is slowly mutating into a parrot, all within the confines of what appears to be a stage set for a Samuel Beckett play.

The later, hilarious marriage, post-pregnancy, of Captain Bules Martin to Penelope by an underwater Vicar (Jack Shepherd), brilliantly realised with the aid of an altar that more resembles a top-sliding cocktail cabinet, complete with cross and candlesticks inside, gave me another laugh-out-loud moment before the film’s climax. Mrs Ethel Shroake is hailed as Her Majesty the Queen, the two petty officials return, this time Dudley Moore has morphed into a particularly mangy border collie, but with Peter Cook manoeuvring himself into position as a possible future leader, appropriate for a man whose family were expecting him to enter high Civil Service office! We close on a hopeful note, with Penelope reunited with her mod boyfriend as a new spring is beginning to rise, grass and flowers poking through the wreckage and waste of the slagheap landscape.

This work of fiction/future shock drama is suffused throughout with the off-kilter humour of its principal writer, but never as just a device for mere amusement. Spike’s concern for the fate of the world, and his common humanitarianism shines through the characters and their words, right through to the new dawn at the close of the film, so often missing from the later apocalyptic films of the 1970’s and early 1980’s. It is this that made Spike such a uniquely fascinating and hugely likeable writer and person, but I’m digressing, and I think that will have to be the subject of a different article.

The screening was followed by a brief ‘Q&A’ with Richard Lester and Rita Tushingham, both of whom were sprightly and full of enthusiasm for the film they made over thirty years ago, It is very difficult to believe that so many years have passed, as they have left no mark whatever on the star’s instantly recognisable features, and the director’s attitude and enthusiasm still sparkle for what was basically a financially unsuccessful film. Richard patiently answered questions about his, sometimes unpredictable, career path, recalling how difficult it was to drum up support for subsequent projects after the Bed Sitting Room’s less than exciting showing at the box-office. The fact that the owners of the completed film ‘ummed and aahed’ until its final release, to little fanfare two years later, could not have helped its chances of recouping its modest cost. Richard recalled it was not until the mid-1970s that he had a box office success again, with ‘The Three Musketeers’ Our ‘Q&A’ was so unfortunately brief, that not ever your friend and writer could shoehorn a query in, but the packed audience, including several high profile Mods of my acquaintance, went away very happy, and I’m sure the film’s reputation will only grow with its new-found DVD release.

Once again, huge thanks to the Flipsiders for coming up trumps and finding this gem of a film, but more importantly, securing its DVD release.

Scenester

Quadrophenia at the Cornerhouse in Manchester

Manchester's Cornerhouse cinema is still running its excellent Breakfast Club events and if you head down there on June 21st 2009, you can catch a screening on the big screen of Quadrophenia.

There's no point in telling you about the film, you might as well just check out our review right here (sadly within our old layout). If you want to check it out, the Breakfast Club showing throws in a full English breakfast (meat-based or veggie) and a cup of tea before or after the showing.

It kicks off at 11:50am and tickets (including that food) are £9.50.

Cornerhouse website