Jesus Camp

Jesus Camp (2006)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/]

The Gist:

Jesus Camp could pass for one of the most unsettling horror films I've ever seen. As it stands, it's merely a documentary about the extremism of evangelical Christianity in our country and the indoctrination of the youth into that staid and potentially dangerous set of beliefs. Here we a Christian summer camp take the shape of a cult, spouting nonsense in the same vein as Muslim extremists waging their holy jihad. It's all stupidity, and it would be ridiculous and something to laugh off if it wasn't so god damn (heh) terrifying in its practical implications on our society and our future as a nation and as a human race. Anyway, my opinions about the Christian Right and subsequently this specific film are pretty clear at this point, ne?

Cleo from 5 to 7

Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055852/]

The Gist:

Cleo from 5 to 7 is about a woman named Cleo (obviously) who is waiting for medical results that will tell her whether or not she has cancer. The whole film is imbued with a sense of doom, since it opens with a tarot card reading that makes predictions both to the characters death and to the "talkative man" she meets near the latter half of the film. She wonders around Paris in a sort of dejected, petulant daze, but when she does actually meet the man the film shifts into a gentle poetry. The film becomes more about how the people we meet and our interactions with them shape our lives and give our lives meaning. It's beautiful New Wave stuff.

Screening Pastiche: Andy Warhol

A Quick Note About Warhol:

Warhol is the kind of filmmaker that either really works or really doesn't. When he's working with a concise and contained premise his films are pretty fascinating but when he tries for something more complicated his films become pretty damn tedious. Kiss and the Screen Tests are pretty damn interesting but Vinyl is really hard to get through (though the ending is great, and according to my professor if you watch it again knowing the ending it really makes the whole film).

Anyway, full list:

Vinyl (1965) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059880/]

Kiss (1963) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213035/]

Screen Tests (Note: I might mute these, since that's how they're supposed to be seen):

Edie Sedgwick

Ann Buchanan

Dennis Hopper

Week Two

New Queue:

La Bete Humaine (1938) - check

Jesus Camp (2006) - check

Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) - check

Screening Pastiche:

Andy Warhol Films - check

Andrei Rublev

Andrei Rublev (1966)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060107/]

The Gist:

Andrei Rublev is the third Tarkovsky film I've seen and it's just as beautiful as the first two. However, I will say that out of the three, this is perhaps my least favorite simply because the medieval setting isn't as engaging to me (It's about a religious icon painter). Tarkovsky uses science fiction in the former films, Solaris and Stalker, as a way to add depth and subtlety to the minimalism. With Rublev you don't get that fascinating duality quite as much. However, the way Rublev's narrative shifts around in time, leaping through years and decades without warning, and the way the narrative leaves the protagonist in order to center itself on another characters that the protagonist has some weight or pull with is fascinating. Honestly, it's a masterwork just like the first two, it has moments of staggering filmic beauty, and it's three and a half hours of film and I can't think of a single thing to cut. I will say though, that the last segment with the bellmaker could have easily been a film itself and in fact should have been. There's a perfectly confined story arc there.

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2006)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795406/]

The Gist:

This film is a documentary about Jack Smith. Who's that you ask? Jack Smith was a avant-garde filmmaker from the 60s, an eccentric gay stringently non-commercialized entity that in many ways inspired the zeitgeist of the underground film scene of the era. He took his set pieces and costumes from garbage cans, had his film banned for nudity and depravity (apparently Flaming Creatures is still banned from playing in New York, or at least until very recently), and took his own inspiration from campy Universal pictures from the 40s featuring Maria Montez. After Flaming Creatures, he decided he would never truly finish another film (and risk having it change and become distorted through the commercialization of the industry) and instead would edit and re-edit his film as the screening, blurring the lines between performance and film. More fun tid-bits about his fascinating, purist lunatic: lived off of cheese and water (at a point when he could have cashed in easily on his films), became Andy Warhol's main inspiration (and lent to many of Warhol's "most important ideas"), and purposely contracted AIDS because he thought it would be a marvelous way to die. Weird guy, good artist, interesting documentary.

A Town Called Panic

A Town Called Panic (2009)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1433540/]

The Gist:

A Town Called Panic is a delightfully whimsical and imaginative creation. It also holds the distinction of being the most insanely bold use of claymation/stop motion I've seen on screen. The story is a haphazard mash up of one ridiculous situation after another and can be summed up by the following synopsis of its opening moments: Horse (played by a plastic horse) is having a birthday so Cowboy and Indian (played by a plastic Cowboy and Indian) decide build him a barbeque. They try to order 50 bricks to build it but accidentally order 5 million. And the hundreds of trucks come to deliver it and Cowboy and Indian hide the bricks on top of the house.... You know, I'm realizing now that I can't accurately sum up the film's craziness in a meaningful way. Just trust me, it's brilliant.