A MOSCA CIECA (“Blind Fly”) Production: Italy, 1966 Director: Romano Scavolini Category: Experimental Giallo First film by Italian prodigy Scavolini, who was only twenty-five at the time; shot in black-and-white, and silent save for an electronic musical score by Vittorio Gelmetti, it is a film of an amok killer, a man Continue Reading
Experimental
IL BESTARIO
IL BESTARIO (“The Bestiary”) Production: Italy, 1968 Director: Antonio de Bernardi Category: Experimental Bernardi is a creator of colour-blasted freeform 8mm fantasies, usually featuring multiple projection. Il Bestario, designed to be viewed on four overlapping screens and heard on three soundtracks, consists of visions of “human animal creatures”, figures that are Continue Reading
LE BERCEAU DE CRISTAL
LE BERCEAU DE CRISTAL (“The Crystal Cradle”) Production: France, 1976 Director: Philippe Garrel Category: Experimental/Drugs Heroin chic to the max in this morbid, tenebrous trance-film which features the ultimate pairing of Teutonic rock sirens, Nico and Anita Pallenberg. Nico lies in a drug-induced near-coma, dreaming of mythical beings, before ending it all with Continue Reading
TOWERS OPEN FIRE
TOWERS OPEN FIRE Production: UK, 1963 Director: Antony Balch Category: Experimental The first experimental film collaboration between Balch and writer William S. Burroughs, with input from Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville, is seemingly inspired by the section “Towers Open Fire” from Burroughs’ key SF/cut-up novel, Nova Express. Running at around 12 minutes, Continue Reading
VINYL
VINYL Production: USA, 1965 Director: Andy Warhol Category: Experimental Warhol’s bizarre (and unauthorised) interpretation of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, starring Gerard Malanga as the vicious delinquent Alex (here, called Victor), plus Edie Sedgewick, and Ondine as Scum Baby, amongst others. Malanga performs his famous “whip dance” before his arrest Continue Reading
LA VERITÉ SUR L’IMAGINAIRE PASSION D’UN INCONNU
LA VERITÉ SUR L’IMAGINAIRE PASSION D’UN INCONNU (“The Truth Concerning A Stranger’s Imaginary Passion”) Production: France, 1974 Director: Marcel Hanoun Category: Experimental Produced by radical science-film director Eric Duvivier, Hanoun’s film is the most crucial cinematic vision of the Passion according to St John. After a man is found crucified at the entrance of Continue Reading
INABA NO SHIROSAGI
INABA NO SHIROSAGI (“The White Rabbit Of Inaba”) Production: Japan, 1970 Director: Kato Yoshihiro Category: Documentary/Experimental Kato was co-founder with Shinichi Iwata of Zero Dimension (Zero Jigen), the notorious street performance sect who scandalized 60s Tokyo with nude street interventions and garish “art terror ceremonies”. Inaba No Shirosagi documents the history Continue Reading
THE VIPERS + 1
THE VIPERS Production: NL, 1955 Director: Shinkichi Tajiri Category: Experimental/Drugs A short, experimental film shot on 16mm by Tajiri – a Dutch-American sculptor of Japanese ancestry – which won a prize at Cannes for its innovations in the language of film. At around 9 minutes, The Vipers is an early trip Continue Reading