October 1st

October day one is in the books. 

An interesting evening. 

My sleeping habits are taking hold and I am adapting to the night life.

2 films: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (62') at the historic, grand Hollywood Cinerama Dome and Night Warning (82') at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax.

The evening reminded me of a particular night out with a friend. We had cocktails and dinner at a small plate restaurant. Cocktails setting us back about $12-$15 each and by small plate, I mean $12-$15 for like 4 bites! Stuff like Beef Tongue prepared all fancy schmancy. The cocktails were great.  The food was good, but we didn't quite get full. Afterward, we looked at each other, paused and both said, "….Pink's?"  Off we went to follow up our $70 worth of appetizers and drinks with a $6 hot dog at Pink's.  For those of you that don't know, Pink's is probably the most famously known hot dog stand in Hollywood. It's been around since the days of Orson Wells. How do you think he got so large….Pinks man! 

So I started the evening off with the MGM classic from 1962 presented in it's original 3-panel Cinerama in the majestic Cinerama Dome at the upscale Arclight Theater. Then I went to the midnight screening at the very quaint Silent Theater to see an 80's video nasty that was banned in Britain. Classy to trashy!  Both good in their own way.

3-Strip Cinerama briefly lasted from 1952 to 1963. Exactly 9 films were exhibited using this process. The first being This is Cinerama (1952) and the last being The Best of Cinerama (1963). Cinerama was largely invented to compete with the rising popularity of television. It was a big theatrical event to see a Cinerama film. You just didn't "go to the movies." It was a night out. It was the main event. It was more like attending a play. In other words, it was a big production. 

The image is wide...like really wide. The aspect ratio is 2.65:1. Today films are typically 1.85:1 or 2.35:1scope. It was shot on three cameras to create a really wide panoramic image. Then projected back using 3 projectors. Eventually they combined the 3 cameras into one camera. So it wasn't easy to shoot or to project!

It was my first time seeing a film in Cinerama and honestly I was really distracted for the first 30 minutes. You can see the seams where the projectors meet. Each projector has a slightly different jitter causing the individual images to slightly move against each other. Each film print had faded in slightly different ways. Each print had different and various amounts of scratches. The actors often didn't appear to be looking at each other due to the distortion of the screen and the process itself. Actors on the side of the screen would look distorted and thin. There were lots of distractions. So for the first 30 minutes I was just noticing all the flaws. About 15 minutes into the film the sound stopped. So they had to stop the film to fix that. I imagine projection is insanely difficult for this kind of show.

Once I was able to get past all the technical stuff I was finally able to enjoy the film for what it was. The images were beautiful. The lighting was very classic. Like a painting. It was like standing in front of 86' x 32' painting. Wow!

The film is the story of the brothers Grimm, although I think it's fictionalized. They work for a living by writing. They are writing the family history of the Duke, but the brother Wilhelm wants to focus more on writing fairy tales for the kids. So there are two sides - write for a living and write for pleasure. Drama ensues. The fun of the story though is the Grimm tales that are woven between the Brothers' story: The Dancing Princess, The Cobbler and the Elves, and The Singing Bone. So it's kind of an Anthology.  It's very innocent, very heart warming, very Hollywood.

Now for some insanity!

There are films that are so deplorable, so devoid of humanity that we must protect our children and the public at large from them. Films that will deprave all who watch them. The increase of violence in todays youth can be traced to these films. So was the attitude in Great Britain that resulted in "The Video Nasties" in the early 80's.  Britain passed the Video Recordings Act in 1984. The British Board of Filim Classification was created to protect the public from videos that were deemed deplorable.  In some cases the video distributers were even prosecuted.

It backfired! Everyone wanted to see the films that ended up on the "video nasty" list. Once the fruit is forbidden it's more desirable. Films like  Blood Feast, Cannibal Holocaust, The Driller Killer, Faces of Death, I Spit on Your Grave, Nightmares in a Damaged Brain, Night Warning and The Toolbox Murders to name a few.

What titles! Hell, based on title alone I want to see these…and I have…at least 6 of the 8 mentioned. The video boxes were exploitive, graphic and lurid. 

I remember Faces of Death playing at parties when I was a wee young lad. People watched it because it WAS deplorable. Because it WAS forbidden. Get drunk and watch violence. Oh, the crazy youth!

Nightmare City: A Video Nasties Celebration is The Cinefamily's celebration of the Video Nasties. They are showing a 35mm print of a video nasty at midnight every day in October. If you see all the films I think it may alter your very DNA. It will will fry your synapses and brain functions. It will rip your guts out and feed them to your mind. Come November when it's all over, the violence level in LA will almost certainly increase to new levels. To lure you in to watching, they are hosting a contest. The one who can muster through the most "toolbox murdering, driller killing, blood feasting, evilspeaking and Mardi Gras massacring" will win prizes. I only wish I stood a chance to win. Unfortunately I will be out of town for a week in October so I fear I am out of the running. We'll see...

Surprisingly at Midnight on a Monday there was about 80 people for the first Video Nasty screening of Night Warning (AKA Nightmare Maker). Impressive! The truly dedicated….the lost…the damaged…the bottom of the barrel…the brave... This includes me!

The event starts off a little more tame. Films that you would watch now and wonder "why was this banned?" Films like Night Warning, Evilspeak, Inferno, Funhouse and The Burning.  It ends with a serious punch in the guts with the likes of Cannibal Ferox, The Last House on the Left, I Spit On Your Grave, and Cannibal Holocaust.

To set the mood they played a montage of all the films and 3 trailers for some of the upcoming shows. The crowd went bananas for the Witch Who Came From The Sea trailer, but who wouldn't go mad when they hear lines like, "Why don't you shave me you hot little bitch!" Wow! I have to see this. I mean, with a line like that in the film, I'm there! They also showed a 35mm trailer for Visiting Hours and Dario Argento's Inferno.

Soooo anyway, the movie - Night Warning. Wow! A guy I overheard talking to the concession worker as we exited best summed it up with, "Words cannot describe that!" I knew absolutely nothing about this movie going in. I didn't even know what the plot was. All I knew was that it was on the Video Nasties list. 

 What is it about?  Well 2 things: Susan Tyrrell and Bo Svenson! That's what it's about. Those 2 actors performances are gonzo, off-the-wall, bat-shit crazy, awesome!  At times funny, at times jaw dropping and at times freaky.  Susan Tyrrell who was nominated for an Oscar for role in Fat City, plays the guardian of the child of her sister who died in a terrible car accident when the boy was 3 years old. The film takes place 14 years later as the boy is preparing to leave for college. Lets just say that Auntie Cheryl has an unusual obsession with her sisters son. It's a reverse Oedipus complex.  She will do almost anything to prevent him from leaving.  Bo Svenson plays Detective Carlson who is convinced that her son is a homosexual. He's a homophobic, mentally unstable cop! Some of the words that come out of his mouth are just so un-PC and Unbelievable!

I would see this film again in a heart beat. Unfortunately it's not on DVD…or at least "officially". I think there are bootlegs out there or DVD -r's. If you ever get the chance to see this, do yourself a favor and DO!

1 down and 29 more to go! Got my first stamp on my Nightmare City contestant flyer.

Next up Hell of the Living Dead tonight at the Cinefamily.