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We’re putting up a second filmevening at David’s place in Hoegaarden on the 26th of March. The first edition focused on experimental shorts (with a length of maximum 10 minutes) - We’re now applying the same formula to feature films, i.e. cutting out and screening the most interesting or remarkable scenes. Be there.
Found a record by Henri Chopin in the local thrift shop this weekend. It was sitting in a sleeve of a Jacques Lizène record, so it’s more of a half-and-a-half find. Finding them both in their respective sleeves would have been - well - very nice.
A quick and logical follow-up (see my previous post). Later!
Len Lye - KALEIDOSCOPE - 1935
John Whitney “Catalog” 1961
Harry Smith
Jeff Keen FlikFlak
Fernand Leger - Ballet Mécanique
Man Ray - Le Retour A La Raison
Yesterday I was visiting a friend who had just been searching the web to buy a DVD of Stan Brakhage [wikipedia]. He was surprised to hear I never heard of him. That friend and I also have slightly different opinions on whether or not film needs to contain a narrative aspect. For me one doesn’t go without the other. Discussions like this remind me of the fact that it has been a very long time that I have done something with film (myself). Maybe in my next project I’ll try to prove my point. For now much of my time goes to photography, and other random and highly uninteresting things, like doing nothing.
Below is “Mothlight”, from 1963. But I promise I’ll do more research on Stan Brakhage later. For now I find the three last comments that go with this clip on youTube very interesting. I include them with this post as well for completeness.
“Me and my fat friends on minimum wage like to watch BB while drinking cider and smoking mayfairs. We don’t really care about it, we just hope somebody will get naked. Then we talk about football for a while then we go for chips at the chicken shop while we worry about the constantly rising price of ikea furniture.”
“Me and my artsy friends just love to watch this while listening to 4′33 and smoking clove cigarettes. Then we spew pseudo-intellectual gibberish at each other to cover up the fact that we only like it because we think we’re *supposed* to. Then we go to Denny’s and drink black coffee while looking glum.”
“Me and my artsy girlfriend watch this smoking marijuana, drinking ice water w/ lemon, listening to a Syd Barrett record. We don’t like it all that much, we pretend to for about 47 seconds and then decide to vacuum the living room instead. Then we open our eyes and stop breathing and eat plums until the morning looks like day again.”
A week ago I attented meeting about a possible artshow that’s going to be set up in May. Somewhere in the first 10 minutes the word “fait divers” rolled out of somebody’s mouth, I picked it up from the floor and it has been sticking with me since then. I didn’t know there are other things, besides “faits divers”. I tried to explain to my - english speaking - partner what a “fait divers” is (a random fact) - and the way she pronounced it came near to “fête d’hiver” (winter’s party).
All we do is worth shit.
And now, as a more optimistic note: on the 26th of March I’m doing another filmevening at David’s place. Flyer is finished and will be uploaded soon. I’m also working on the programm and I promise it’s gonna be as exciting as the one of last edition.
The Estonian artist Eda Lôhmus is having an expo in Hoegaarden (Nermstraat 161) - Opening is on saturday 20 february.
See more of her work on her website: www.edaade.com
Since we enjoyed the previous filmevening that much, we have set forth a date for a next edition: March 27, a saturday. Hope to see you then!
Welcome at the second part of our shortfilm evening. If you missed the first part, click here.
Hamlet Hovsepian - Itch (1975)
The first movie shown during the pause is by Hamlet Hovsepian, born in 1950, in Ashnak, Armenia, where he still lives. The movie - a silent one - is called “Itch” and for a bit more than 4 minutes we see a man from the back, scratching itself. Very Fluxus. Other movies Hovsepian made had titles like “Yawning”, and “Washing Hair, Biting Nails, Yawning”. I get the impression life in Ashnak was pretty boring.
http://www.springerin.at/dyn/heft_text.php?textid=1443&lang=en
http://www.ubuweb.com/film/hovsepian_itch.html
Jean Genet - Un chant d’amour (1950)
Dating from 1950 “Un chant d’amour” touches what in those days was a very delicate theme (and to many still is): homosexuality. It contains a couple of explicit scenes, hence the movie was banned from the big screen for many years. Jean Genet worked together with Picasso and Cocteau. When he was 18 he enlisted in the foreigner legion, but got kicked out when he got caught in the act of homosexual activities. Well well well.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2191169673913401693
Stan Vanderbeek - Breath Death (1963)
At first (and for many months) I would have sworn that Stan Vanderbeek was from Holland - In reality, he’s from the US. He studied architecture, later turned to filming. Breath Death (or is it Death Breath?) made a profound impact on Terry Gilliam, known from the Monty Python animations, when he saw it in 1964. For Breath Death, follow the link to ubuweb - The clip below is “Science Friction” and comes from youTube.
http://www.ubu.com/film/vanderbeek_breath.html
Maya Deren - Ritual in transfigured time (1946)
Maya Deren was an influential avant-garde filmmaker and filmtheorist. She was involved in socialistic activities, worked on a film with Marcel Duchamp (which never got finished) and died the same way as Michael Jackson. Check wikipedia for more info.
Storm De Hirsch - Peyote Queen (1965)
I lacked the time to do research on Storm De Hirsch, so google for yourself if you want to know.
Antony Balch & William s. Burroughs - The Cut-Ups (1966)
Keeping in line with the theme of the previous one (drugs) the next one features William S. Burroughs, and is made by Antony Balch. It was Antony Balches ambition to film Naked Lunch, and The cut-ups were a first attempt at doing so. He was negogiating with Mick Jagger to do the soundtrack for the final movie, but they got an argument. He had an interest in horror-movies as well. Towards the end of his life Antony Balch became pretty disfunctional, “spending his days moving around the room and bumping into furniture” - His friends would say “He was ahead of his time”. Oh, and when The Cut-Ups were premiered lots of people complained about feeling nausea while watching it. The original (up on ubuweb) lasts 18 minutes.
http://www.ubu.com/film/burroughs_cut.html
Michael Snow - Wavelength (1964)
Wavelength is considered as the most important Canadian avant-garde film. Watch it and judge for yourself.
http://www.ubu.com/film/snow_wavelength.html
John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Rape (1968)
In “Rape” a woman is followed by a camera-team for 45 minutes, from the street up to her bathroom, where she is cornered and finally breaks down under the pressure of the camera. This one used to be up on ubuweb, but it seems they have removed it.
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/rape/images/2/
Kenneth Anger - Invocation of my demon brother (1969)
Music by Mick Jagger.
Donald Duck - The Führers face
Donald wakes up in Nazi-land. The grand final is hilaric.
“Nazi Propaganda”
To get the feet back on the ground after the previous movie.
Boys beware (1950)
Hoempapa. Spot the differences between this one, and the one by Jean Genet, shown earlier. I like contrasts, so I included this one as well.
Hors série: A long distance realisation.
For those still present: a message from your hosts.
In case you’re wondering why I’m not posting things on a (near) daily base anymore, or why they seem to be off-topic by moments: I’ve got so many things on my hands these days that I can’t keep up the past frequency. Economising on time also means making choices and putting forth priorities. One of the projects I’m currently working on involves shooting a shoebox of expired (Ilford) rollfilm (some dating back to 1983) - Here’s a preview (scanned from the negatives, I haven’t made any actual prints yet).
A week ago I also replaced the viewing screen of my Bronica S2A with that of a Kiev 88 (the one of a Kiev 60 or 6C would also work). When doing research on this I noticed that there was some discussion on the web. Some people doubted that such an “upgrade” could successfully be done, since the fresnel and mattscreen in the Bronica S2A are two seperate pieces, while the Kievs sport a combined viewing screen - hence some concluded, unless the Kiev has got the fresnel on top, the infinity focus would be off after installing the new screen. Some suggested keeping the original fresnel screen and stacking the Kiev screen on top of it, so that infinity focus is achieved again, but the solution is really dead simple: just pop the Kiev screen into your Bronica upside down. That is: fresnel side facing up, matt side facing down. Yes, this sound weird, but it works. You’ll also have to file two sides of the screen to the right size. The Kiev screen is a couple millimeters too large. Filing them down proved easier than using a cutter. I wrapped some tape around the screen to avoid damaging it.
Luis Buñuel - Un chien Andalou (1929)
The first film we had wanted to show was “Un chien Andalou” [wikipedia] - Being one of the best-known surrealist films made in the 1920s it might not be the most obscure, but as the movie is a landmark in filmhistory I didn’t want to omit it.
Since I had forgotten the DVD at my place I screened Scorpio Scorpio (1964) by Kenneth Anger first, mainly because of the soundtrack. But also because of the leather-clad bikers, the occult themes and Jesus and the Nazis.
Raoul Servais - To Speak or Not to Speak (1970)
The first official movie of the programm was a Belgian one, To “Speak or not to speak” - an animated movie by Raoul Servais.
Andrzej Warchal - Cinema Verite (1971)
Cinéma Verité is a one minute experimental movie from Poland, made just one year after “To speak or not to speak” by Servais. They more or less deal with the same theme. Poland, as you all know, was back then still part of the Soviet Union.
Herman Wuyts - De Overkant (1964)
I learned about the following movie, “De overkant”, through an American textbook on the art of filmmaking. I think it’s virtual unknown over here, in Belgium. Wif identified the place where the action takes place as Ghent. Herman Wuyts also made “Princesse” - a movie that was never aired on national TV because it contained “too much tits and violence” and probably broke Herman Wuyts’ carreer - it’s recently been released on DVD though.
Julian Antonisz - What Do We See After Closing Our Eyes? (1978)
Julian Antonisz specialised in non-camera movies, meaning he scratched or painted the images directly onto the film. I also like the soundtrack in this one a lot - sounds as if he applied the same technique on the audiotrack as well.
Frans Zwartjes - Visual Training (1969)
Frans Zwartjes is a Dutch artist active in many fields, including sculpture, painting and music - He made several experimental movies in the late sixties and seventies. His last movie dates from 1991. He influenced a whole generation of Dutch moviemakers (like father and son de Nooijer) - The fact that he teached film at the academy has of course something to do with that too.
Lasse Braun - Cake Orgy (1972) (Super 8)
At this point I decided it was time to throw in something different, like a porn movie in the good old super 8 format. Sticking with the theme of the evening - experimental shorts - I decided to show Cake Orgy by the illustrous Italian director Lasse Braun. When I checked youTube a couple weeks ago you could still watch the first couple minutes of Cake Orgy on their site, but they have removed the clip since then. I say use Google. Lasse Braun is more or less a cult figure.
Terayama Shuji - Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1971)
Terayama Shuji is a Japanese filmmaker - His most known movie is Emperor Tomato Ketchup, in which he depicts a society ruled by children, reigning over and abusing the adults who have no rights whatsoever. Showing children and adults simulating sexual activities (intermixed) made this movie controversial when it was released.
http://www.ubu.com/film/terayama_vol1.html
http://www.ubu.com/film/terayama.html
Yevgeny Yufit - Lesorub (1985)
Yevgeny Yufit is a Russian director (still active) who was part of the parallel cinematic movement in Russia, back then still part of the USSR. They made movies that went in against the official Soviet idea (and rules) about film. Some directors of the parallel cinematic movement were at Cinema Nova earlier this month, but I only discovered that a few days ago, so totally missed them.
More doctors smoke camel than any other cigarette (1949)
And we’re ending the first part of the evening with something different - a TV commercial showing how much the times have changed since the late 1940s.
The rest of the programm will be online soon. Remember, extra info on the movies and directors can always be found using Google, or check wikipedia - most of them have a page up there.
The “Shortmovie Evening” that we did last saturday at David’s place was a nice experience - It was a good motivation to dive deep into filmhistory, hunting the web for interesting short movies and directors. I’ll post the programm and links to the shown movies asap.
This event also forced me to search the internet for a tool that would allow me to edit mp4’s directly - something simple that would enable me to do some basic cut-up work, and ultimately join mp4-movies together in a simple and quick way. The first tool I came accross was Open Video Joiner [website], but after the installation I discovered you’re supposed to register the product (read: purchase). Well, for one thing, they could have told me that before I downloaded and installed their programm. The next piece of software I stumbled upon was Yamb, which is a user interface for MP4Box [info]. I downloaded and installed their latest beta version (version 2.1) and at first the programm looked quite promising, with a comprehensive interface - but when I tried to play the resulting mp4 in VLC or Mediaplayer the original individual mp4’s were all opened, stacked one upon another in multiple instances of the player. Version 1.6 (sporting a slightly more archaic interface) exhibited the same behaviour. I’m not the only one that ran into this problem - there are more people reporting this behaviour. Also something that people reported: when uninstalling Yamb 2.1 it deletes a good deal of your short-cuts in the start-menu of windows. Although I had read the reports on this behaviour I decided to go through the process, and uninstall it - And guess what? Yep, about half of my short-cuts dissapeared, forcing me to do a system restore. Bottomline: apart from me being stupid I can’t recommend Yamb and would even discourage people from installing it, reason why I’m not putting a link up to their site. Another MP4Box interface is My MP4Box GUI [info], I haven’t tried it out (yet) - since the next programm I came accros Avidemux [website]. Avidemux has a lot of things to offer, including the possibility to make cuts in mp4’s - it is said to have some troubles syncing sound and image, and indeed after joining together 12 mp4’s in one mp4-file the sound got completely out of sync from the 30th minute on. No problem when joining together 2 or 3 mp4’s though. Maybe something wrong with the original mp4’s? Bottomline: next time I need to join or split mp4’s I’m definitely going to try out My MP4Box GUI, for now Avidemux did the trick. Avoid Yamb, as their latest beta can seriously mess up your system. For burning DVD’s Imgburn [website] is the way to go.