Hey all! Caught a double feature at the New Beverly Cinema with my friend Anthony DiSalvo. He did a write up for the show. Check it out.
SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN
AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL and HALLUCINATION STRIP
New Beverly Cinema Nov. 27, 2012
by Anthony DiSalvo
The New Beverly Cinema in Hollywood has been L.A.'s premiere revival house for three plus decades. But, even there, Tuesday's double feature may have showcased two of the most obscure double features they have ever shown - AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL (1972) and HALLUCINATION STRIP (1975). These are films so rarely shown that little exists in print or online about them in English. It was part of the New Beverly's Grindhouse series, but these are more Arthouse films, than true 42nd Street type pics. Recently, Grindhouse Releasing has acquired prints and they are making the rounds of revival houses, with a DVD of HIPPIE in the works (apparently, Grindhouse does not own the rights to HALLUCINATION and the music rights would probably be prohibitive in any case). HIPPIE has also gone on to become a midnight movie hit in Israel: http://israelity.com/2011/01/09/hippie-sighting-in-israel/
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| Asher Tzarfati and Lily Avidan - Right On! |
First up was AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL (aka THE HITCH-HIKER aka RIGHT ON!). A bearded dude named Mike (Asher Tzarfati) from NYC arrives in Israel without any real plans or friends to stay with. He hitches a ride with a free-spirited Israeli theater actress (Lily Avidan). Mike says that he is travelling the world after having served in the evil Vietnam war with all of it's "Button pushers!" They immediately make love and then set out to find other free spirits. In the course of an afternoon they pick up another hippie couple (Tzila Karney and Shmuel Wolf) who, in turn, hook them up with a larger band of free spirits (the male, Wolf, speaks only Hebrew). They go to an abandoned building to sing some folk songs, smoke weed, drink a lot and start screwing - in other words, an idyllic hippie gathering! Now, it must be noted here that a pair of mysterious white-faced mimes with machine guns are following Mike around. They first appear right as he is picked up hitch-hiking. Now, they show up in the abandoned building and gun down and kill everybody except for Mike, the actress and the first couple they hooked up with.
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| Toke it up! |
Bummer. But, this little massacre isn't going to stop Mike. The quartet are now off to a desolate island where they will show the world that you can just be free and happy all day in a commune-like atmosphere. Along the way to the coast-line they pick up a goat at a market and Mike drifts off to nap and daydream (he calls it a "flake out"). His daydream turns into a nightmare as he swings a giant hammer to destroy giant reel-to-reel "computers" in slow motion. Only, the camera that the film's director (Amos Sefer) uses was apparently not able to properly achieve the slow motion effect he wanted. So, Mike "acts" in slow motion as well! That's amusing, but, you ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until they get to the island!
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| The slow-motion nightmare |
After stopping to pick up an inflatable raft and some food and booze, the quartet (and the goat!) paddle out to the island, leaving their car on the shore. That night it's a grand party of food, drink, sex and loud proclamations to the world that they are "FREE! FREE! FREE!" They pass out and wake up the next morning only to find that their raft is missing. Frantically, they search the island, but the boat is gone - and so is the goat! Mike says he can swim well, so he'll just swim to shore and get help. Wouldn't you know it, but, there are sharks in the water! The two big plastic sharks are amusing as they re-appear a few times and always at the same depth in the water and the same distance from each other.
Trapped! The island has no vegetation and apparently the water has no fish save for a few crustaceons (and the sharks), so the quartet immediately switches from nirvana heaven mode to outright panic. Soon, it's "Lord of the Flies" time and the four are at each other's throats. And, when I say "soon", I mean in a matter of minutes! Not hours or days! The guys literally turn into cavemen, reduced to grunts and groans and they even grab the women by the hair and jerk them around. Then, the goat shows up. Instead, of joining forces to trap the goat for them all to eat, they bash each other with fists and rocks until they are left in a big heaping pile of humanity. Meanwhile, back at the shore, the two Mimes show up, jump into the quartet's car and drive away.
The End.
Now, if all of that seems like a fairly orderly and scripted film, let me assure you it's not. Save for the last 10 or 15 minutes on the island, everything in the film seems only vaguely written. The actual dialogue seems mainly improvised and the scenes of walking around and driving shamble on and on with a folky muzak backing score. There's a scene where Mike argues with his Hebrew speaking friend. They speak different languages and don't understand what the other is saying, but, they yell at each other for about 5 to 7 minutes. One take. One two-shot. It's as if Sefer just let them improvise, and left in the entire take!
Still, I kind of enjoyed the hippie vibe to a certain extent. It plays out somewhat realistically like it would in life with Mike drifting from place to place (he mentions he had been in Europe, including Rome just before coming to Israel). Of course, nobody really enjoys watching someone else's home movies! The bigger issue is just what message Director Sefer is trying to convey. The movie doesn't make Mike a very sympathetic character, but, the movie does seem to be in accord with his Anti-Vietnam and free spirit attitudes. Mike's daydream about raging against the machine ("Button-Pushers!") is also echoed in the two Mimes (Robots, perhaps?), who could be interrpreted as representing "The Man". But, the whole 'Lord of the Flies' ending, uh, flies in the face of those themes. Heavy, man.
But, if you want an even heavier dose of morality, there's HALLUCINATION STRIP (on screen title, HALLUCINATING STRIP). This is a very odd, but, interesting half-breed between a police procedural (it's original Italian title is: ROMA DROGATA: LA POLIZIA NON PUO INTERVENIRE) and post 60's youth drug film. It's an odd hybrid and you can see why it's drifted into obscurity despite having had a full English track translation, a cult actor (Bud Cort) and a decent 70s Italian Rock score ( Alberto Verrecchia) with accompanying RCA soundtrack release (ironically, that well-done score actually works against the film ever getting a proper USA DVD release with all the song rights issues).
Influenced by films like BLOW UP and EASY RIDER on one side, and THE FRENCH CONNECTION and HIGH CRIME (aka LA POLIZIA INCRIMINA LA LEGGE ASSOLVE) on the other, HALLUCINATION starts off slowly. We are introduced to Massimo (Cort) and his rich girlfriend Cinzia (Annarita Grapputo). Massimo steals an antique box from the house, which brings in the police to the situation, including rogue but honorable cop De Stefani (Marcel Bozzuffi).
Massimo and his youthful friends (supposedly high school students) are involved in drugs (and revolutionary politics). One of his friends is a spoiled pampered rich kid named Rudy. In one perverse scene, he is bathed by his mother and a maid. Rudy is planning a "happening" and needs drugs for his party so he gives money to Massimo to buy them. But, Massimo uses the cash to hide away a pair of his co-revolutionary comrades. So, his only collateral is the antique box he stole and he fences it to a drug dealer, code-named "The Sicilian". At the "Happening", drugs (including acid) are freely taken and Rudy has a long trip which gives the film it's American title. Being a policier (or the Italian equivalent, a Poliziotteschi) you can probably guess the morally "justified" ending.
But, it isn't plot that makes HALLUCINATION interesting. It's the vibe. Cort was probably lured to Italy not just because he could have a paid vacation in Rome, but, because of the political and social milieu the film takes place in. The 1968 student protests are explicitly referenced as are the beginnings of the pro-worker and communist movements in Italy. What hurts here is the script's insistence that they are High School students. Cort was 27 when this came out. There's a scene where he tells Cinzia about an experience with a hooker when he was 15 - he's supposed to be around 17, but, he talks about this experience like it happened closer to ten years earlier, not TWO. Perhaps, the Italian version has them as University students?
The acid trip sequence is both visually interesting to look at (and Verrecchia's music is solid) as well as amusing. Let's face it, it's pretty difficult to accurately depict what is in one's mind on screen. The writhing naked body-painted bodies reminds me of those 70s Playboy pictorials where they would hire someone like Salvador Dali to "imagine" his sexual fantasies into an "artistic" porn spread.
HALLUCINATING STRIP is an interesting relic of the 70s, but, you can see why it is so little seen. As a cop film, it's just ok. And, young people attracted to the nudity, drugs and music are, in the end, beaten over the head with a downbeat finale a la EASY RIDER, JOE or PSYCH-OUT. Even, the rare Pro-Drug experience film like Corman's THE TRIP had a shock ending imposed upon it. Can't a hippie just have a Hallucination in peace?
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