Cao Fei recorded her experiences within the online social platform Second Life. The result is a wistful, surreal vision of an alternative reality sprung from the pop culture fantasies and hyper-consumerism of contemporary urban China, while also trying to transcend its real-life limitations. It can be seen as an answer to the challenge posed by River Elegy: how to envision a new Chinese destiny founded on principles of individuality, creativity, discovery, and freedom. The film also reflects the contemporary condition of the virtual supplanting our experience of the real.
A colour anamorphic musical look at London's Heathrow airport over 24-hours in November 1971. The subject was shot entirely at Heathrow airport without recording any direct sound. LHR's many layered tracks were all compiled, recorded and laid in post-production.
Lucy, a young Victorian woman in the Old West, is being tormented by nightly visits from an incubus. Her friend Madeleine tries to console her, but is unable to help. A fallen woman, Lucy gets a job singing at the local saloon. However, the Incubus has followed her there; and things take an unexpected turn as Lucy and the Incubus, amidst the rowdy cowboys and saucy can-can girls, have their final showdown.
In the first half of the movie Nick Zedd has a rough sexual playtime with two young women. In the second half, whilst dressed in drag, he attempts to fellate a too-drunk Rick Strange. All the while, Killdozer's 'King Of Sex' grinds away on the soundtrack.
Although Gainsbourg and Birkin had appeared in a string of films since their magnetic collision in Pierre Grimblat’s Slogan, Melody was a bit of diversion from their collaborations since it’s a series of interwoven videos inspired by the Gainsbourgalbum. For '71 it’s a novel concept to bring visual life to an LP, but even more surprising are the short film’s amazing visuals that director Averty crafted using a wealth of video filters, overlays, camera movements and chroma key effects. Averty applies these in tandem with the increasing tone of Gainsbourg’s songs, which more or less chronicle an older man's affair with a young girl. Each song is comprised of steady, sometimes brooding poetic delivery, with refrains timed to the phrase repeats of each song, while Alan Parker’s buzzing guitar accompanies and wiggles around Gainsbourg’s resonant voice. The bass is fat and groovy, the drums easy but steady, and the periodic use of strings or rich vibrato makes this short a sultry little gem.
A clip-show music video for the album of the same name and vintage. Includes 5 songs from the album ("Mousetrap", "Disco Mickey Mouse", "Watch Out For Goofy", "Macho Duck", "Welcome To Rio").
[…] A reel was shot of the Noh drama Momiji-gari (Maple Leaf Hunters, or Viewing Scarlet Maple Leaves), in which Danjuro played opposite Onoe Kikugoro V (1844-1903) as an ogress who has disguised herself as the Princess Sarashina. Filmed by Shibata Tsunekichi in the open air on a windy day in November 1899, Danjuro would allow only the one take, so that when his fan blew away in mid-performance the scene had to stay. The film re-emerged at the Kikikan theatre in 1907 where it was a great success and inspired a wave of fiction filmmaking based on traditional Japanese narratives. (cont. http://victorian-cinema.net/danjuro)
A Pop Art extravaganza by Fred Mogubgub from the late-1960s, innovative in the use of the quick cut, this film is a parade of pop icons of its time. Features a pre-Playboy, pre-N. O. W. Gloria Steinem.
This is an animated version of Yanase Takashi's picture book featuring the friendship between a mother dog, Muku-muku, who lost her puppy, and the baby lion Buru-buru, who lost her mother.
Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.
Gypsies sing and dance around the fire while their children dream.
A short animation based on the Edward Lear poem
A gang of Nazi bikers prepares for a race as sexual, sadistic, and occult images are cut together.
The Cat in the Hat is all set for a lovely picnic, but the evil Grinch changes his plans by inventing a contraption that captures noise and makes it sound ferocious. The Cat has to save the world from the clutches of the Grinch and the only way to do it is to reach Grinch's soft spot.
A man in tight jeans buffs his car to the strains of The Paris Sisters' "Dream Lover".
This film resulted from the unfinished short film Puce Women. The film opens with a camera watching 1920s style flapper gowns being taken off a dress rack. The dresses are removed and danced off the rack to music. (The original soundtrack was Verdi opera music; in the 1960s, Anger re-released the film with a new psychedelic folk-rock soundtrack performed by Jonathan Halper.) A long-lashed woman, Yvonne Marquis, dresses in the purple puce gown and walks to her vanity to apply perfume. She lies on a chaise lounge which then begins to move around the room and eventually out to a patio. Borzois appear and she prepares to take them for a walk.
A group of stable hands is given a race horse when its owner retires from the business. They raise money to run the horse in the Hollywood Derby at Santa Anita race track. Many Hollywood personalities attend the event.
A group of African-American waiters on a railway believe they have made a deal to secure a railroad dining car that they set up on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles as a diner. To bring in customers, they sing, their voices providing most of the musical accompaniment as well. At the diner, in front of a crowd of swells, the police deliver the bad news.
Donald and Daisy are walking when he is hit by a flowerpot. He's convinced he's a famous singer, and he croons divinely, but does not recognize Daisy. He in fact does become famous. Daisy is devastated by her inability to get over him and sees a psychiatrist. He tells her she has to choose between the world having Donald, or her getting him back. She picks herself, and drops another flowerpot, which restores him.
A dancing bear escapes from the zoo and finds his way to Tom and Jerry's house. He dances with Tom, making it impossible for Tom to call the authorities; Jerry takes every opportunity to play music and keep Tom and the bear dancing