Wild Shots - A Loose History Of Underground Cinema
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Sat 24 November 2012 // 20:00
(Sat 24th / 8pm / £5/4)
Tonight the Cube’s 16mm projector is aflicker with rare cinematic delights.
This sampling of underground celluloid nuggets from the UK, US and Canada touches on both highly reputed classics - Life & Death of 9413 – A Hollywood Extra (Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich) , O Dreamland (Lindsay Anderson) and Lonely Boy (Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroiter) – as well as obscure but exceptional oddities - Siamese Twin Pinheads (Curt McDowell), Hardcore Home Movie (Greta Snider) and Meet the Thinking Fellers (Gibbs Chapman), sure to surprise and potentially repel.
Also, a special expanded cinema treat from the celluloid magician
Robert Fludd.
From the maverick rare-films collector and exhibitor Jack Stevenson’s
collection, Wild Shots comes to Bristol on its tour of European underground cinemas from the Kino Climates network, of which the Cube is a proud member.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF 9413 - A HOLLYWOOD EXTRA - 1928, 10 min., b/w, This famous surrealist short by Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich is the first of the American films to show the influence of German Expressionism and the French avant-garde films of the Twenties. It’s a satiric fantasy about a man who wants to become a Hollywood movie star. He gets a number - 9413 - stamped on his forehead and begins his career. This avant-garde experimental short was shot largely in Vorkapich's kitchen using cut-out miniatures; it is a masterpiece of low budget art and a timepiece of Hollywood cynicism.
O DREAMLAND – 1953, 13 min., b/w, D: Lindsay Anderson. Produced by the British Film Institute, photographed by John Fletcher. This documentary about a day in the life of the funfair in Margate was an important contribution to the British ”Free Cinema” movement of the fifties but Anderson’s intentions with the film are hotly debated. Was he paying affectionate tribute to the joys of the working class or is it a scathing critique on the shabbiness of modern life with all its fakery and bad food? You decide. In any case this is a landmark of analogue cinema - the equivalent of a scratchy old 78’record.
LONELY BOY – 1962, 27 min. b/w, Produced by Canadian Film Board, directed by Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroiter. With Danish sub-titles. A landmark cinéma-vérité style documentary that seeks to explore the world of boyish pop idol Paul Anka. Anka plays concerts, meets his fans and philosophizes. While he croones up on stage teenage girls weep and shake in spasms of joy at the sight of their idol. Lonely Boy attempts to capture the irreverent spirit of the pop lifestyle and its loose, spontaneous feel would come to influence almost every subsequent rock documentary as filmmakers sought to capture the essence of their subjects subjectively in casual unstaged moments.
SIAMESE TWIN PINHEADS – 1972, 6 min., by Curt McDowell. McDowell and creative partner Mark Ellinger perform their “Siamese twin pinhead act,” a perverse, repulsive and perhaps even oddly therapeutic re-enactment of old fashioned freak show excess. In 1998 Lars von Trier challenged us to “find our inner idiot” – but these two guys, key figures both in San Francisco’s rebellious underground film scene of the 70’s, were way ahead. Is this supposed to be funny?! God only knows.
HARDCORE HOME MOVIE – 1987, 6 min., By Greta Snider. This energetic fast-motion document of San Francisco punk scene in 1987 contains a fractured mix of verbal testimonials and mug-shot style portraits of concert going punks, and brief footage of a Bad Brains concert. Captures the youthful anarchy of the scene. Brief, potent, with sound and image purposely fractured and non-synced.
MEET THE THINKIN’ FELLERS – 1992, 7 min., By Gibbs Chapman. A portrait of the legendary San Francisco band, The Thinkin’ Fellers. Members of the band appear in fleeting vignettes as the group’s music provides the musical accompaniment. No dialogue or narration. Gentle, poetic, surreal, humorous…
Tonight the Cube’s 16mm projector is aflicker with rare cinematic delights.
This sampling of underground celluloid nuggets from the UK, US and Canada touches on both highly reputed classics - Life & Death of 9413 – A Hollywood Extra (Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich) , O Dreamland (Lindsay Anderson) and Lonely Boy (Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroiter) – as well as obscure but exceptional oddities - Siamese Twin Pinheads (Curt McDowell), Hardcore Home Movie (Greta Snider) and Meet the Thinking Fellers (Gibbs Chapman), sure to surprise and potentially repel.
Also, a special expanded cinema treat from the celluloid magician
Robert Fludd.
From the maverick rare-films collector and exhibitor Jack Stevenson’s
collection, Wild Shots comes to Bristol on its tour of European underground cinemas from the Kino Climates network, of which the Cube is a proud member.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF 9413 - A HOLLYWOOD EXTRA - 1928, 10 min., b/w, This famous surrealist short by Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich is the first of the American films to show the influence of German Expressionism and the French avant-garde films of the Twenties. It’s a satiric fantasy about a man who wants to become a Hollywood movie star. He gets a number - 9413 - stamped on his forehead and begins his career. This avant-garde experimental short was shot largely in Vorkapich's kitchen using cut-out miniatures; it is a masterpiece of low budget art and a timepiece of Hollywood cynicism.
O DREAMLAND – 1953, 13 min., b/w, D: Lindsay Anderson. Produced by the British Film Institute, photographed by John Fletcher. This documentary about a day in the life of the funfair in Margate was an important contribution to the British ”Free Cinema” movement of the fifties but Anderson’s intentions with the film are hotly debated. Was he paying affectionate tribute to the joys of the working class or is it a scathing critique on the shabbiness of modern life with all its fakery and bad food? You decide. In any case this is a landmark of analogue cinema - the equivalent of a scratchy old 78’record.
LONELY BOY – 1962, 27 min. b/w, Produced by Canadian Film Board, directed by Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroiter. With Danish sub-titles. A landmark cinéma-vérité style documentary that seeks to explore the world of boyish pop idol Paul Anka. Anka plays concerts, meets his fans and philosophizes. While he croones up on stage teenage girls weep and shake in spasms of joy at the sight of their idol. Lonely Boy attempts to capture the irreverent spirit of the pop lifestyle and its loose, spontaneous feel would come to influence almost every subsequent rock documentary as filmmakers sought to capture the essence of their subjects subjectively in casual unstaged moments.
SIAMESE TWIN PINHEADS – 1972, 6 min., by Curt McDowell. McDowell and creative partner Mark Ellinger perform their “Siamese twin pinhead act,” a perverse, repulsive and perhaps even oddly therapeutic re-enactment of old fashioned freak show excess. In 1998 Lars von Trier challenged us to “find our inner idiot” – but these two guys, key figures both in San Francisco’s rebellious underground film scene of the 70’s, were way ahead. Is this supposed to be funny?! God only knows.
HARDCORE HOME MOVIE – 1987, 6 min., By Greta Snider. This energetic fast-motion document of San Francisco punk scene in 1987 contains a fractured mix of verbal testimonials and mug-shot style portraits of concert going punks, and brief footage of a Bad Brains concert. Captures the youthful anarchy of the scene. Brief, potent, with sound and image purposely fractured and non-synced.
MEET THE THINKIN’ FELLERS – 1992, 7 min., By Gibbs Chapman. A portrait of the legendary San Francisco band, The Thinkin’ Fellers. Members of the band appear in fleeting vignettes as the group’s music provides the musical accompaniment. No dialogue or narration. Gentle, poetic, surreal, humorous…