A Couple From The Censored Eleven

The Censored Eleven are eleven Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes Cartoons that were withheld from syndication with United Artists in 1968. Why were they censored? Mostly because of racism and the prevalence of a wide number of black-face jokes and depictions.

Here's the list:
"Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land" (1931)
"Sunday Go to Meetin' Time" (1936)
"Clean Pastures" (1937)
"Uncle Tom's Bungalow" (1937)
"Jungle Jitters" (1938)
"The Isle Of Pingo Pongo" (1938)
"All This and Rabbit Stew" (1941)
"Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs" (1943)
"Tin Pan Alley Cats" (1943)
"Angel Puss" (1944)
"Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears" (1944)

So here are a few "highlights" from the list.

All This and Rabbit Stew
Bugs Bunny and The Horrific Stereotype. Black Elmer Fudd?


Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs
Clampett's jazz-age reimagining of the fairy tale. According to Wikipedia, this is the most frequently defended of the eleven.

Guitar Drag

This short film by Christian Marclay is simple, but quite provocative. In the film a plugged in electric guitar is dragged around San Antonio from the back of a pick-up truck with a rope. This is an amazingly inflammatory work and absolutely riveting. It makes me deeply uncomfortable, though I'm not entirely sure why.

Guitar Drag

Der Fuehrer's Face

I owe a lot to a film history course I took with Michael Powell. Many of the excellent surrealist and avant-garde films I have posted I first saw in his course. This is another clip in this category, and probably the most amazing. It's probably most notable for being the film in which you can hear Donald Duck say "Heil Hitler!" about fifty times. Hyper-patriotic, racist, and Disney: Magical.

Der Fuehrer's Face

Rose Hobart

Rose Hobart is an experimental film from 1936 by Joseph Cornell. It features the titular actress in the b-movie East of Borneo. Cornell re-edited the footage along with other found footage to create, along with the already posted Meshes of the Afternoon, one of the most important American experimental films.

I couldn't dig up an embeddable version, so here's a link to a wonderful ubuweb entry about Joseph Cornell, information about the film, and of course, the work in its entirety.

The Avalanches

Supposedly these Australian vinyl wizards have a new record coming out eventually. Until then I content myself with Since I Left You, which is much more than a small comfort. It's hard for me to believe this record came out in 2000. The videos for the two singles, I also, incidentally find particularly enjoyable. In fact, I probably like them better than the songs.

Frontier Psychiatrist


Since I Left You


I'd Rather Dance With You
Not The Avalanches, but The Kings of Convenience. Included simply because it is sweetest music video to ever be set in a dance studio.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

In 1970, Jaromil Jires, released a movie called "Valerie a tyden divu," or "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders." This Czech movie is supposed to be a stunning and otherwordly series of dreams and hallucinations by which a girl first experiences menstruation. I have yet to see the movie, but fell in love with the soundtrack released by the good folks on Finders Keepers. So, I queued it up on Netflix, and hopefully watching it won't be as disastrous as the time I tried to watch Vampyros Lesbos. In any case, here are some clips of what promises to be an amazing movie.

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Girls Gone Wild

Here are the trailers to a series of films about teenage girls being wild, violent, sexual, and criminal... sort of. Five trailers of teen delinquent exploitation films from 1957 and 1958. Sensationalist gold.

Live Fast, Die Young


Girls on the Loose


Teenage Doll


Reform School Girl


High School Hellcats

Perils of Pornography and Perverts

Let us not forget that weekends also have their dark sides: the creeping sexual perversion that is encompassing our society. I have included two short films to teach you about the horrors of pornography and how to spot a pervert (Hint: Are they over 35 and ask if you have a MySpace account?).

Perversion for Profit


How To Spot A Pervert

The Weekend Is Coming

Since the weekend is coming I thought I would offer you some helpful advice on the best ways to handle your self. Here are two short film strips by the fine folks at Coronal Instructional Films telling you how to throw a party and date.

What To Do On A Date


What Makes A Good Party

Posters From Beyond the Iron Curtain

Admittedly, this owes a good deal to two posts I saw at BoingBoing, a wonderful website, which offers me the overwhelming temptation to repost all the good stuff they put up. I will try to reist that temptation as long as you promise to diligently read BoingBoing. Deal?

A Soviet Poster a Day


This comes from a wonderful blog that has vowed to post a new Soviet poster every day, complete with background information and relevant history. Rad? Yes. This will confirm the sneaking suspicion of every college dorm room wall that Soviet propaganda never goes out of style.

A Soviet Poster A Day

Polish Movie Posters


These sites illustrate what I hope will become an overwhelming new trend in dorm room style: Polish movie posters. I don't know how this happened, but somehow, Polish poster artists developed a tradition of really great poster design thats stunning for even the most banal, mundane films. I've got a few links of sites you could look at for this with galleries, history, and purchasing information, you little consumer, you.

A Grayspace Poster Gallery
CinemaPoster
Polish Poster

Luis Buñuel

I spent a lot of today working on a paper on surrealist film. So, in honor, two of the finest works of Luis Buñuel. First, the beloved short film, then the equally beloved feature length masterpiece.

Un Chien Andalou


L'Âge d'or
Forgive the weird intro.

Panorama Ephemera

This 2004 film was created by Rick Prelinger of the excellent Prelinger collection. This is a massive archive of a wide variety of different types of film. This film has been made available for public use. Rick him self shows how this can be done in this feature length series of vignettes taken from other sources,that highlights just how surreal and funny America was and is. The film is hosted at the Internet Archive (archive.org) along with a huge sampling of the good stuff in the Prelinger collection.

Panorama Ephemera

Jesus Franco Trailers and Oasis of the Zombies

Jesus Franco has made over 200 movies. These two hundred movies cover the full range of human expression: From lesbian vampires to nunsploitation to Nazisploitian, Franco has done it all. Here are the trailers from a few of his fine works as well as the complete cut of Oasis of the Zombies.

Vampyros Lesbos
I first learned of Jesus Franco through the ultra-rad soundtrack to this film. Through the power of Netflix, I finally watched the movie. I can confidently say that you are probably better off watching the trailer and listening to the soundtrack.


Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS
A fragment from what I can only imagine is an amazing trailer to a horribly offensive movie.


Justine
An adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's infamous work with legendary actor Klaus Kinski.


Oasis of the Zombies
The full movie. How can this fail?

Russ Meyer Trailers

Russ Meyer is a great American director and don't let anyone tell you differently. In ten days it will be the third anniversary of his unfortunate death. His tombstone at Stockton Rural Cemetery bears this inscription:

RUSS MEYER
"King of The Nudies"
"I Was Glad to Do It"
FILM PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR
MARCH 21, 1922
SEPT. 18, 2004

Here are the trailers to some of his sexploitation classics.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
This is a special trailer in its "behind the scenes" feel but it notably includes plenty of footage of the man at work.


Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Original Version)
Delightfully manic.


Mudhoney
Shamelessly rough.


Common-Law Cabin
The name says it all?


Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
The work of a genius.

Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola is one of my favorite contemporary directors. She has a wonderful subtlety and eye for particularly clever moments. Her career as an actress, however, is somewhat less than stellar. The Godfather III is perhaps the most glaring example of this. On the other hand she is pretty brilliant as an actress in a couple music videos.

Electrobank
Chemical Brothers song, directed by her then-spouse Spike Jonze.


Mildred Pierce
In 1990, Sofia Coppola takes on the Joan Crawford role for a Sonic Youth music video.


I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
Sofia Coppola directs Kate Moss pole dancing to the White Stripes. This is like a fantasy come true.


Lick The Star
As a bonus, here is (in two parts) Sofia Coppola's directorial debut. In this movie you can see the seeds of the ideas for a large portion of Sofia's first feature, The Virgin Suicides.

Mighty Warriors, Warlocks, and Cats

Jason Forrest is far and away one of my favorite musicians. I can't get enough of those cheeky, often abrasive beats. The videos that have been made to accompany the singles has been pretty good as well. Both have strange fantasy undercurrents and the breakcore mashup show that Jason Forrest used to host was called Advanced D&D.

Coincidence?!?!

War Photographer
This is the more famous video. The song itself is pretty rad and I daresay it makes Blood, Sweat, and Tears sound cool.


Steppin' Off
This video is simply genius in its details and style.


About Fun
Not Jason Forrest, but rather Psapp. The video is, however, pretty adorably wonderful, despite no obvious connection to Dungeons and Dragons. The song is catchy too. Only recently did I learn that Psapp did the theme song for Grey's Anatomy. Go figure.

The Roots Vol. 2

Speaking of involuntary plagiarism and secret influences of the student film I made in high school, "Lucidity," somehow, I managed to rip off a classic German Expressionist film which I had never seen before.

The twist ending of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is basically the same as the twist ending of our film. This is also the one contribution I made to the plot of the film. I thought it was a useful frame that made sense of the story and also offered a sense of closure. The ending of Dr. Caligari was similarly tacked on to the original film at the insistence of the studio, completely changing the message of the film. They too thought it was a useful frame, but most critics agree it compromised the piece. Oops. Did I ruin "Lucidity" by ripping off films that ripped off this film?

The world may never know. But, anyway, thanks to the magic of the public domain, here is the entirety of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari." There are other cuts that are about 20 minutes shorter, but I have erred on the side of caution by picking the fullest cut I could find, and even then it's only slightly longer than an hour. I find it hard to watch and can't really imagine it being scary, but the distorted mise-en-scene is pretty rad, and it has been a pretty damn influential film.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Touch Of Evil

My girlfriend is involved in media production and film studies and today she mentioned the Orson Welles movie, "Touch of Evil." Whether or not this is a great movie is certainly open to interpretation, but it has some brilliant moments and compelling sequence shots (notably, the opening shot). The real treasure that I wanted to share here though was an old trailer for the film.

Touch of Evil Trailer
Kitschy and brilliant. This trailer is a masterpiece of film noir trailers.


Touch of Evil Opening
This includes the famous car bomb opening sequence, which is a real triumph of the sequence shot and sound design in particular.



Children of Men Sequence Shot
Children of Men was possibly my favorite film of last year. The film includes several stunning sequence shots (which is why I mention it here). This one in particular demonstrates why I think it's a sin that this film didn't win the Oscar for Best Cinematography.

The Roots

In high school I helped to make a film that was called "Lucidity." It was a largely incomprehensible symbolic and psychological film with lots of silence and bizarre dread. I didn't write it, but its influences seemed clear: Decades and decades of the tradition of student art film. Thanks to years and hordes of well-meaning but overly-ambitious students, there had evolved a distinct genre of pretentious short film. Anyway, a couple of months ago I finally got around to watching one of the landmarks of American avant-garde film. I was stunned. I think I can safely assume that the authors of our movie had never seen Maya Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon" but its influence had somehow trickled through the years of tradition and recrystallized in "Lucidity."

However, "Lucidity" was not a very good film. "Meshes of the Afternoon" is rad as hell and you can watch it below. Sadly (or maybe not), "Lucidity" was only burned to a small handful of DVDs, which I suspect were promptly lost, depriving you of the comparison. Sorry. I think.

Meshes of the Afternoon

Esquivaliant!

Esquivaliance is the heroic shirking of one's official responsibilities. Esquivaliant is the adjective form, though both forms derive from the word, esquivalience, which is, to those with absolutely no imagination, not strictly a real word. I once wrote about it's origins here.

That was on my old blog. It was a complicated affair where I actually tried to generate original content. The end result is that I wrote a lot about the rise and fall of various nascent internet phenomena using lots of graphs as well as lot of linguistics oriented analyses of the word "fuck." I was pretty happy with it, and I'm delighted at the heavy traffic it still gets.

This, however, is not The Definitive Truth.

This site will mostly consist of embedded video and links to other websites. Occasionally, I may interject commentary and useful background info, but this I think, will be more useful to people. Allow me to demonstrate.

Trailer for Master Killer
It shouldn't take you long to figure out who this influenced.


Ballet mechanique - Fernand Leger
Really beautiful and sad. From 1924!


Upright Citizens Brigade: Ass Pennies
From the unfairly canceled show. It speaks for itself.

From Crackle: ass pennies