Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse film festival is coming to an with a couple of Bruce Lee movies today and tomorrow. Last night I believe he presented Death Proof and Cry of a Prostitute in person as it was advertised on the internet that he would attend. I can only image that there was a crowd, unlike the night before when I attended the same 2 movies, not expecting Tarantino to be there, but happy to see him show up unannounced.
Man it has been a hell of a run with all of these killer movies playing and I'm bummed now that the Grindhouse Film Festival will be running only once a month as before. I believe two movies from Rolling Thunder director John Flynn are scheduled for the future as he died recently, in fact he died since attending a screening at the Grindhouse Film Festival just last month.
American-turned Italian star Barbara Bouchet was the guest of honor at Friday and Saturday's Italian crime double bill. She is a fan of many of her movies, a good number of them being b-movies and Italian sex-comedies. The Q+A focus completely on her, with no questions aimed at Tarantino about his Grindhouse film. Still, Tarantino probably talked more than Bouchet, going of on various tangents about Italian directors and Italian horror. It was rather fascinating really and completely hilarious. Tarantino's buddies Joe Dante and Eli Roth were also in attendance.
As I mentioned, Bouchet is proud of her career in films that garner little respect from anyone other than Quentin Tarantino and fans of foreign b-movies like me. None the less, Cry of a Prostitute is a film she could not recall, perhaps in part because of the title being different in America, but all perhaps largely in part due to the role, that one might one to forget utilizing a selective memory.
Bouchet's first scene features her taking a milk bath in a barn, rubbing milk all over her breasts and thighs while the camera lingers on the dripping milk for an extended period of time. She also gives head to a banana for at the dinner table, not eating any of it. Bouchet is also beaten with a belt, which drives her to suicide, but what really takes the cake though, is the scene where she has sex in the kitchen while her naked body in shoved into the bloody open carcass of a pig hanging from the rafters. I kid you not.
Despite homework assignments, my bullshit 16mm short, and lots of parties, I still got out to QT's Grindhouse Film Festival in time to catch the last 25 minutes of Grave of the Vampire and then the entirety of the rare treat Jailbait Babysitter, of which nothing was written about on the internet at all - I did extensive searches. Both John Hayes movies are ripe with directing problems (Grave I've seen before) yet each have their moments, especially Babysitter, the tale of a virgin on the run, trying to fit into an adult world as a wannabe escort. It's more outrageous than the synopsis sounds, believe me, in fact you might need to take a shower after watching the old and hairy meet the under age and innocent in a 70's bedroom.
I just got some rabbit ears for my TV and I do get some LA channels now, a whole bunch of them in fact. On that subject check out the yahoo group TV_Obscura that discusses 70's television including all those made-for-TV horror movies that have cult followings today.
These movies are playing one more day at the New Beverly Cinema as part of the two month Grindhouse Festival. The Muthers is a blaxploitation film made in the Philippines involving the sex slave trade - yeah it crosses genres. Director Cirio H. Santiago has brought us dozens of jungle films and woman in prison films, as well as the occasional horror movies such as the hilarious Vampire Hookers and the awful Black Lagoon-style Demon of Paradise. The Muthers certainly has its moments, but I think I'd be pretty bored watching this at home on tape where no one is yelling at the screen. Too many campy machine gun shoot outs.
Fight for Your Life is a must see. I've never heard so many racial slurs in a single movie, well not since Coonskin a few weeks ago. Here is a revenge film for ya. The final showdown is not to be missed. I think the writing and story are terrific - victims. Definitely a film about race that intends to give you food for though, that is if you can get past the shocks.
Not there are not already lots of goodies on the market, but not everything is in print, not at all.
Note: I am not endorsing this company, just reporting the releases as news - and saying: send me shit! You guys might have noticed I lost interest in writing up some new direct-to-DVD shit and even turned down having some DVDs sent to me. Well that may be have been crazy - I was going through hard times, but what I really want to get my hands on are classics, so companies, take note.
link: Deimos to Kick Off Grindhouse DVD Line
Have not heard of the first batch of movies, except for the Paul Naschy films, which are killer. He's going to be at the Los Angeles Fangoria convention and may be the only guest I want to see - besides some of the usual suspects whom I love and respect, but have seen several times.
Saw the Grindhouse feature film and I liked it, though Death Proof has me scratching my head. Never seen Vanishing Point. Maybe it's got those strange wide shots Tarantino used. I rather liked those shots, but for the most part I have no idea where Tarantino was coming from or what movies he was borrowing his style from.
I really enjoyed how Don't parodied the British/Euro/gothic horror (specifically some American video nasties, banned in the UK, like Don't Go in the House with it's similar trailer) I love so much - I've never seen that stuff spoofed before.
Sex and violence at the New Beverly Cinema for QT's Grindhouse Film Festival.
the douche report - enjoy it:
In my telecommunications class a guy says he does not think they should "be allowed" to release HD or Blu-ray DVDs because he has a hundred regular DVDs and does not want to replace them. He is a dumb fuck for several reasons.
A) Who said you had to replace your current DVDs? If there being a superior version of a title on the market of a DVD makes you feel inadequate, then perhaps your real problem is that you are inadequate in the member department - really.
B) A hundred DVDs? So what? That's not so many, plus I bet his collection is 70% the same as any given set of hundred DVD's every other douche in the class has sitting on their shelves. Go fuck yourself.
C) DVDs ain't shit. They look like shit on a big screen. They ain't magic. Got this quote at Popcorn and Sticky Floors...
"Video (think DVD) killed the spirit and showmanship that movies was all about and turned the mob-mentality of a theatrical screened movie into a solitary, consumer experience that plays into the arrested-development "collector" mentality of these nerds who just want to "own" everything that came out in a certain genre and sit there like lumps and fast forward through everything. But they don't own the movies, they just own the bad, shitty little xerox copy."
- Jack Stevenson
Add to that what I said before. The douche is not even a collector of anything rare or special. Look, there are legit concerns about the new formats and their value for the consumer - especially since niether one been established as the dominant format yet, but this guy is just on the wrong track with his bullshit.
I'm sure some of you have heard about this already, director Bob Clark and his 22 yr-old son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, were killed by a drunk driver in a head on collision, Wednesday night.
I previously wrote a long recap on Clark's last visit to the Hollywood Grindhouse Film Festival (now in the public eye thanks to Quentin Tarantino), where I raved about A Christmas Story, the original Black Christmas, and Clark's general enthusiasm and good nature. I believe he had also showed up for the December Grindhouse the previous year and was expected to continue doing so as part of a Christmas tradition.
Clark's movies, besides A Christmas Story and Black Christmas include Porky's, Porky's II: The Next Day, and the zombie films Deathdream and Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. Clark's more recent films were not popular with critics or fans, Baby Geniuses and Baby Geniuses 2, but the man had more exciting projects up his sleeve.
I can't write an eloquent obituary, so this will have to suffice, but belive me I am upset and angry.
In breaking news, Clark's killer has been deported.
