All things Cult Cinema

Started by wilder, March 27, 2017, 06:00:36 PM

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jenkins

Quote from: wilder on March 31, 2017, 10:38:16 PM
Anna Biller joins the AGFA advisory board
via American Genre Film Archive
BY JOE ZIEMBA • MARCH 30, 2017



We are beyond honored to welcome Anna Biller, the filmmaker behind VIVA and THE LOVE WITCH, to the AGFA advisory board.

At the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA), we believe that genre films should rule the world. But we can't make this happen alone. Our advisory board is a coalition of like-minded fans who believe in the importance and preservation of genre films. Together, we ensure that these movies will be available on 35mm until the end of time. Or until the planet explodes. Whichever comes first.

The AGFA advisory board consists of Alamo Drafthouse founders Karrie and Tim League, filmmakers Paul Thomas Anderson and Nicolas Winding Refn, and musician RZA. Today, we're proud to welcome Anna Biller to the ranks.

"I am thrilled to be included on the board of the American Genre Film Archive," says Biller, "I believe passionately in continuing the legacy of film, and in preserving some of the great genre films that are such a vital part of our history and culture."

Anna Biller's work is an inspiration. Meticulously crafting VIVA and THE LOVE WITCH on 35mm, Biller is a breath of fresh air for twenty-first century genre filmmaking. She channels the hyper-stylized aesthetic of Jaques Tati, the surreal melodrama of Nicholas Ray, and the pop-art pulp of Doris Wishman to create movies that feel like nothing else before or since.

For more on Anna Biller and her work, visit: www.lifeofastar.com

Quote from: wilder on November 16, 2017, 05:11:57 PM
Quote from: wilder on July 31, 2017, 06:45:45 PM
November 21, 2017

William Morgan's The Violent Years (1956) on blu-ray from the The American Genre Film Archive and Something Weird Video, from a new 4K restoration.



Paula Parkins is the teenage daughter of wealthy parents whom don't seem to make time for her, so she looks for thrills as the leader of her all-girl gang who steal, rob, and rape young men. Screenplay by Ed Wood. (The label has also confirmed that the film will be paired with Boris Petroff's crime thriller Anatomy of a Psycho).

The Violent Years (1956) - Amazon






jenkins

American Genre Film Archive

their list of titles is actually quite long and there's a lot more i can learn about them. i quoted two of wilder's posts about them. there's also a Lady Street Fighter post in this thread. and a Bat Pussy post exists somewhere i think, i can't find it

Oct 9 they're releasing Ninja Zombie




jenkins

Keeping the exploitation-film fires burning with Nicolas Winding Refn

I like Nicolas Winding Refn's films—the ending of The Neon Demon was enough to redeem that otherwise flawed film for me, though that's a topic for another time—but I'm a huge fan of his ongoing side gig as a film preservationist. He first caught my eye when he bought a collection of film prints by obscure exploitation director Andy Milligan, including the only known copies of several of Milligan's works, back in 2012. I was delighted when he said he was motivated to buy Milligan's work by Jimmy McDonough's (now out of print) biography The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld Of Filmmaker Andy Milligan, which I had just finished shortly before the news broke. I later wrote about attending an exhibit of Refn's movie-poster collection in 2015, at which I shyly sidled up to the autograph table and told him that I collected movie posters, too.

Refn likes to speak in modest terms about his obsession with vintage exploitation films, saying, for example, that he hadn't even seen most of the movies in his art book The Act Of Seeing. But the care and attention to detail with which he restores these films and re-presents them to the public betrays his affection for the material, an affection that seems at least partially driven by sympathy for the filmmakers whose works end up in landfills. As he told The New York Times at the end of July, "A lot of the films [had] maybe just two prints existing—once they were gone, there would be nothing. All the hard work in making a film and then they would be lost, which would be really sad." I identify with that sense of duty, as anyone who has lived with me, and therefore has had to deal with the crates and crates of weird old VHS tapes I drag with me to every new apartment, can attest.



So perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that I would be really into Refn's new preservation venture, byNWR, a highly curated—and free, if you're watching on a computer—streaming service that was announced last October and has been slowly rolling out new content ever since. byNWR, which describes itself as "an unadulterated cultural expressway of the arts," combines the best attributes of two other speciality streaming services: the curated selection of Shudder, and the excellent supplemental features of FilmStruck.

The content on byNWR is truly unique: These are films in danger of being lost forever, not well-known cult classics. And frankly, they're not to everyone's taste. They're all crudely made, many of them have pacing issues, and some are downright offensive to contemporary sensibilities. (This is particularly true of the "hicksploitation" films featured on the site.) If you stumbled on one of them on some bizarre late-night cable channel, you'd probably change the channel after a couple of minutes. But byNWR puts them in context, not only historically, but also artistically, revealing their true value as fascinating documents of their respective eras and misunderstood works of outsider art.

Titles are released in quarterly collections, each with a new film released monthly. Last fall came the "Regional Renegades" collection, featuring the films The Nest Of The Cuckoo Birds (1965), Shanty Tramp (1967), and Hot Thrills And Warm Chills (1967). I watched the latter, a collection of vignettes loosely strung together by a thin plot about a gang of female jewel thieves plotting a heist during Mardi Gras. You never actually see the heist, but you do get a lot of footage of the French Quarter in the mid-'60s, as well as burlesque dancers with gloriously caked-on eye makeup and sky-high hairdos performing their signature routines. Materials accompanying the film include extensive interviews with the four self-proclaimed "broads" who make up the core ensemble—one even includes some of her poetry!—as well as essays from various authors about regional cinema, the music and culture of New Orleans, and the art and business of exotic dance.

This month launched a new, slightly more highbrow series called "Missing Links," which opened with a title I had heard of before: Night Tide, a 1961 magical-realist horror-romance from prolific '60s and '70s B-movie director Curtis Harrington. (He also did a pair of Grande Dame Guignol movies, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? with Shelley Winters, and What's The Matter With Helen? with Debbie Reynolds, in the early '70s.) The film is notable not only because it features a very young Dennis Hopper, but also as a document of the early '60s L.A. beatnik subculture (there is a lot of bongo drumming in this movie) and as a bridge between '50s drive-in cinema and the then-nascent American independent film movement. The plot recalls a gender-swapped The Shape Of Water, as lovestruck sailor Johnny Drake (Hopper) falls in love with reluctant mermaid Mora (Linda Lawson) on the Santa Monica pier; the pace undeniably drags, but the film is hypnotic and worth a watch anyway.



Next month's looking to be a good one on byNWR, as the service adds the second film in its "Missing Links" series: If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? (1971), an infamous Christian scare film from holy-rolling huckster Ron Ormond that contains an absolutely gobsmacking scene where a Communist gets a bunch of kids to renounce Jesus and embrace Fidel Castro by giving them candy. (It's embedded above.) I've seen it, and can attest that it's a must-see for those who watch Pure Flix films ironically. After that comes November's selection, Spring Night, Summer Night (1967), an obscure art film shot on location in Appalachian Ohio that was re-edited for maximum sleaze and released under various titles to capitalize on its incestuous theme. In its original form, however, it's reportedly more Killer Of Sheep than Common Law Cabin. I'm looking forward to it.

byNWR is now up and running on its own website. It isn't currently available in its free form as an app for Roku et al, but if you prefer to watch the films on a TV (and don't have one of these also-recommended cables that essentially turns your TV into an external monitor), they also stream on MUBI as they are released

jenkins

Patty Mayo has 3,755,420 subscribers on his youtube channel about being a bounty hunter.

this is his bio:
QuotePatrick Thomas Tarmey, better known online as Patty Mayo, is an American entrepreneur and YouTube prankster-turned-vlogger best known for his bounty hunting series profession and stringing vlogs.

He is the former owner of Boston businesses Paramotor Tours, Abington Airsoft and Abington Zombie Apocolypse, under the name Patrick Tarmey. These were all sold when he moved to CA.

Now living in Burbank, CA, he owns his own production company - which plays a large part in creating his videos.

History

Early days
Patrick Thomas joined YouTube on November 12, 2013 and spent the following two years producing roughly a dozen reasonably popular prank videos. Beginning to experience significant monetization issues affecting his earnings, Thomas elected to pursue work as a bail bondsman agent or "bounty hunter," a profession he describes as "one of the first jobs as an adult I ever had..." Branding the initiative as the "Southland Bounty Hunters" in reference to the geographic locale of southern California in which he works, he began documenting his experiences as a bondsman.

Rise in viewership
Bringing along his longtime girlfriend Kayla as his initial bond agent partner and camerawoman, Thomas began producing 10-20 minute on-the-job vlogs, detailing the work involved in finding and apprehending wanted fugitives. Due in part to the exotic nature of his profession and the high level of filming and editing accompanying each video, his viewcount skyrocketed through the summer months of 2017.

In early June of 2017, Thomas acquired a new, genuie bounty hunting partner in the form of fellow YouTuber DeMar "Bounty Hunter D." Their cutting wit and chemistry, in addition to their decision to take on more potentially dangerous fugitives, led to an increase in viewership through the latter part of the summer, during which time Thomas hit one million subscribers. The duo briefly parted ways after an altercation in their personal lives but publicly reunited and buried the hatchet in November of 2017.

Current events
Thomas' video release levels reduced significantly in the latter half of November for several reasons. Due to a reappearing illness related to a previously sustained head injury that nearly cost him his life, Thomas was placed on light duty by his bail company employer to provide him time to recover. Secondly, he and Kayla had simultaneously begun production of a live show related to their part-time work as stringers, documenting their attempts to capture footage of dangerous events and natural disasters in California.

Equipment
As a legally-sanctioned bondsman, Thomas is licensed to carry firearms in the state of California. In addition to his 9mm handgun, he also carries a taser, tactical and chain handcuff variations, assorted flashlights and other such items. He generally appears in videos wearing Southland Bounty Hunters clothing merchandise, augmented through the inclusion of various levels of body armor sporting his badge and clearly notating his profession.

Vehicle-wise, Thomas has been known to drive both a blacked-out Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor equipped with strobe lights and a spotlight, as well as a black Dodge truck equipped with a video communications/surveillance suite in lieu of a flatbed. Though initially he did not possess a license to run his CVPI's ELS lights, it is believed that he has since acquired this license, though as of December 2017, this remains speculation.

Sponsors
Since his early days, Thomas has been sponsored by Edubirdie.com, a company whose support Thomas credits as being invaluable for funding the switch from prank videos to more serious bounty hunting videos during the preceding YouTube monitization issues. He has also received smaller sponsorships from companies like EvoGimbals who occasionally supply him with gear.

Personal life
Thomas's longtime girlfriend Kayla plays a significant role in the channel's operation; in addition to being Patrick's first bounty hunting partner, she currently serves as the main camerawoman of the operation, and assists in major behind-the-scenes administrative work necessary to locate and apprehend fugitives.

Thomas also runs a second channel with more intimate content related to his personal life called "Extra Mayo". Though much of the content is related to his life with his girlfriend Kayla, members of Thomas' family occasionally make cameo appearances.

i heard about him impersonally over the internet

jenkins

sending The Shaggs movie straight to cult. they're just so remarkable. it seems kind of embarrassing i've never listened to them. seems even without realizing it i've heard about them. Philosophy of the World has the golden moment where it's somehow the perfect title. it's fair to say many other albums would be more serious with the title. their backstory is next level

QuoteThe conceptual beginning of The Shaggs came from Austin Wiggin's mother who, when her son was young, had predicted during a palmreading that he would marry a strawberry blonde woman, that he would have two sons after she had died, and that his daughters would form a popular music group. The first two predictions proved accurate, so Austin set about making the third come true as well. Austin withdrew his daughters from school, bought them instruments, and arranged for them to receive music and vocal lessons. The Wiggin sisters themselves never planned to become a music group, but as Dot later said, "[Austin] was something of a disciplinarian. He was stubborn and he could be temperamental. He directed. We obeyed. Or did our best." Austin named The Shaggs after the then-popular shag hairstyle and as a reference to shaggy dogs. In 1968, Austin arranged for the girls to play a regular Saturday night gig at the Fremont, New Hampshire Town Hall.

and within all this it's legitimate cult nerdery that's carried them this far. that's always so beautiful.

this song finalized my reverence



it's so wrong but it's so right and you just couldn't pull it off if you wanted to


jenkins

adding it to cult because it hasn't been released on blu-ray yet (i just checked). this is the best John Fante screenplay that happened,* with Ben Hecht, Edward Dmytryk director, and it's a lovely example of southern melodrama (which i adore). it's my good fortune that someone made this trailer for it



*despite his self-adaptation of Full of Life maybe, i've never seen it actually

jenkins

what are your favorite cult movies just list them it's easy no pressure calm down.  this is inspired by me wanting to watch a light movie last night, and realizing i experience escapism through cult cinema.

they're my favorite way to experience fun via media. i don't think about them as much as i used to, but that's because i used to think of them quite a lot.

i'm going to define cult cinema like this: esoteric genre movies. clearly nothing comic book movie counts, since that's in a mainstream era. if you're a comic book movie fan you'll be cult-okay in the future, it's like 50s sci-fi films now. being off of a contemporary culture radar is how you are esoteric.

this is my list

Romero's Dawn of the Dead
a younger me might've gone with Night of the Living Dead, that was me yesterday, maybe tomorrow. i think Night of the Living Dead is fantastic, and i find its global impact extraordinary. but which movie is more fun? well. and oh wait, what is in fact the most fun zombie movie i've ever encountered my entire life? Dawn of the Dead. it's a weirdo staple and i own it, i don't own Evil Dead II and that's kind of preposterous.

Eraserhead
bound to include a criterion release i'll go early and with this one. i don't think it's ever considered Lynch's best, like through serious  consideration. but with Lynch the consideration is hilarious the entire time anyway. and somehow it really is only he who can be himself. every inch of the creativity in this movie is wildly impressive. i don't believe he's grown as an artist because i don't believe he started small.

Sparrow
fuck i have to say To, same as i have to say Bava. this is because of what they meant to me in my life, truly. in the rest of my list i'm demonstrating how easy it is to make a list like this, but here i'm showing off a bit. i can name this one because of how well i know To, and of course i know it's somehow not one of his most frequently mentioned. pft. his action movies feel like a french new wave film. this is his actual french new wave film.



Dead Alive
Dawn of the Dead is the most fun zombie movie ever according to me, and this is the most creative horror movie ever according to me. this is why i don't own Evil Dead II.

Le Boucher
this could be Hitchcock instead, it could be De Palma also, the master genre makers you know. tbh i'm not sure if i'd call Chabrol a master, compared to them, based on limited sampling actually. but i would call this a movie about a killer that's deeply affected me. i find sympathy for a killer disgusting. but somehow this movie makes me say maybe not always, that's so cult, providing me with another perspective about what i previously thought was disgusting.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man
it gives the weird a lot of love. in fact one scene in this is awful. this movie goes too far. it's an abomination and let them play it at my funeral.

i "got into" writing that post because i was thinking of my favorite things. but my whole objective here was to hear your own favorites, in order for me to feel inspired toward watching more cult this year.

jenkins

No one named their favorite movie-movies ftw

wilder

Quote from: jenkins on January 06, 2019, 05:49:41 PM
No one named their favorite movie-movies ftw

Speaking of favorites, there are 6 copies left of a newly restored German blu-ray edition of Czech filmmaker Juraj Herz's Beauty and the Beast (1978) on Diabolik DVD (snagged one). Region B locked, and no subtitles, unfortunately.



A more horrific and gloomy version of The Beauty and the Beast. Julie is a bankrupt merchant's daughter who as the only one of the three daughters chooses to save her father's life by going to the Haunted Wood's Castle where she meets Netvor. He wants to kill her, but her beauty prevents him from that. Although she is forbidden to see him she starts to love him and the love rescues him from his curse



————————————————————————————————————

And I've got these on the agenda to watch tonight, the Milligan partially inspired by your post quoted below (which I initially thought you wrote, before noticing the link at the top). Excited to dive in, regardless.

Quote from: jenkins on September 23, 2018, 05:44:19 PM
Keeping the exploitation-film fires burning with Nicolas Winding Refn

I like Nicolas Winding Refn's films—the ending of The Neon Demon was enough to redeem that otherwise flawed film for me, though that's a topic for another time—but I'm a huge fan of his ongoing side gig as a film preservationist. He first caught my eye when he bought a collection of film prints by obscure exploitation director Andy Milligan, including the only known copies of several of Milligan's works, back in 2012. I was delighted when he said he was motivated to buy Milligan's work by Jimmy McDonough's (now out of print) biography The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld Of Filmmaker Andy Milligan, which I had just finished shortly before the news broke.



Nightbirds (1970)

While living rough on the streets of London's East End, a young man, Dink (Milligan regular Berwick Kaler – Coronation Street, Red Riding), encounters the beautiful and mysterious Dee (Julie Shaw – The Big Switch). Concerned for Dinks welfare, she invites him to stay with her and get off the streets. The two soon develop a curious relationship which oscillates, often without warning, between sexual intimacy and raging jealousy. As tenderness gives way to cruelty, they become consumed by darkness and their relationship spirals out of control.

Quote from: Mikatonic Institute of Horror StudiesANDY MILLIGAN: ARTIST, AUTEUR OR ASSHOLE?

Between 1965 and 1988, Andy Milligan produced, wrote and directed 29 films. He also photographed, edited and provided costumes, make-ups and set design. He is the embodiment of the fierce self-reliant filmmaker, a literal one-man powerhouse taking on the jobs of several people. Even more fascinating was that Milligan also ran an off Broadway theater, producing and writing plays as well as staging the works of other writers.

Yet, despite all the energy and productivity, Milligan was long regarded as a pariah in cult film circles. In Michael Weldon's book The Psychotronic Encyclopedia, he wrote "If you're an Andy Milligan fan there is no hope for you." Producer Richard Gordon wrote a letter to Fangoria magazine after they published an article on Milligan, ranting against Milligan and the lack of production value in the films he made. Most cult film fans tend to relegate Milligan to the bottom of the barrel and use disparaging remarks when describing his output. Yet since his death in 1991, Milligan's work has attracted a lot of attention and re-evaluation, most notably in Jimmy McDonough's book The Ghastly One (2001).

Milligan laid bare his soul in just about every film he made. Wallowing in a sea of self-hatred, Milligan willingly shared his misanthropy and laid it out for all to see on the screens of some of the scummiest grind houses and drive-ins this side of 42nd Street. He never let a film go by without using the classic Milligan tropes, all of which stem back to his life, which started in Saint Paul, MN, in 1929. In Milligan's view all problems start at home and usually with the mother, and he used the films he was contracted to make for the exploitation circuit as his therapy.


Confessions of a Young American Housewife (1974)

An attractive but conservative mid-30's housewife stays at the house of her sexually open daughter and soon becomes involved in her daughter's swinger lifestyle.




wilder

*ECSTATIC*

April 16, 2019

Andy Sidaris' Malibu Express (1985) on blu-ray from American Genre Film Archive, from a 4K restoration



A smooth-talking private eye is assigned the task of investigating who is behind the hi-tech computer technology leaks to the Russians.

Malibu Express (1985) - Amazon

NSFW




April 16, 2019

Andy Sidaris' Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) on blu-ray from American Genre Film Archive, from a 4K restoration



Two drug enforcement agents are killed on a private Hawaiian island. Donna and Taryn, two operatives for The Agency, accidentally intercept a delivery of diamonds intended for drug lord Seth Romero, who takes exception and tries to get them back. Soon other Agency operatives get involved, and a full-scale fight to the finish ensues, complicated here and there by an escaped snake made deadly by Toxic Waste!

Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) - Amazon






February 26, 2019

Party Line (1988) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative



Brother and sister Seth and Stacy live a secluded life in their family's beautiful Beverly Hills mansion. But these upper class siblings share a dark and violent hobby of using sexually driven 'party lines' to meet and lure lustful strangers into a deadly ménage à trois, the climax of which is a razor slash to the throat! With the victim count steadily rising, Detective Dan is under the gun to crack the case, but when his girlfriend falls prey to the maniacal duo, Dan goes rogue, taking his own violent measures to dispense justice.

Juxtaposing a slasher film setup with police drama and erotic thriller plot points, William Webb's PARTY LINE is a forgotten oddity, bridging the late 80s slasher craze with the soon to rise early 90s 'skinemax' obsession.




wilder

4K restoration trailers for Andy Sidaris' Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) and Malibu Express (1985)






More Andy Sidaris releases from new restorations are coming to blu-ray from Mill Creek later in the year:

Savage Beach (1989)



On their way to make an air delivery, two drug enforcement agents will need to do an emergency landing on a remote island, rumoured to have a gold treasure.


Picasso Trigger (1988)



Double agent Picasso Trigger is assassinated in Paris by double-crossing bad guy Miguel Ortiz. Then Ortiz begins eliminating agents of The Agency who were involved in his brother's death. The Agency (belatedly) springs into action to stop Ortiz' heinous activities. The usual gunplay, romance, and nifty toys with bombs ensue.

wilder

Quote from: wilder on March 15, 2019, 06:52:18 AMMore Andy Sidaris releases from new restorations are coming to blu-ray from Mill Creek later in the year:

Savage Beach (1989)



On their way to make an air delivery, two drug enforcement agents will need to do an emergency landing on a remote island, rumoured to have a gold treasure.


Picasso Trigger (1988)



Double agent Picasso Trigger is assassinated in Paris by double-crossing bad guy Miguel Ortiz. Then Ortiz begins eliminating agents of The Agency who were involved in his brother's death. The Agency (belatedly) springs into action to stop Ortiz' heinous activities. The usual gunplay, romance, and nifty toys with bombs ensue.

Both coming to blu-ray July 9th






jenkins

omg apparently it's old news but it's omg to me like i just said

Paris Is Burning is coming to criterion and they even released a new trailer for it via entertainment fucking weekly



HELL YES. so sad if you don't like this movie

jenkins

oh wow, this movie is landing exactly where it belongs. that's cool. i wish i was thirteen again, to really appreciate what playlist describe as "the most bonkers, ludicrously over-the-top action films you'll see all year" in what's somehow a negative review, sometimes it's like god what more do you people want


wilder

Quote from: wilder on January 15, 2018, 04:54:12 PM

A rookie cop with her own way of doing things decides it's time to throw away the rule book when her partner is killed by drug dealers in a war for control of the Los Angeles market. Cinematography by Howard Wexler (Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Malibu Express).


Up for pre-order from Massacre Video