Vinegar Syndrome et al.

[therewillbeblus]

We're All Going to the World's Fair (Utopia)

Maybe my favorite film of the year so far, slowburn ambient horror with an evolving, semi-narrative structure. Schoenbrun has an elegant, minimalist style that's hard to pull off. I'm glad it's getting a proper release and Chloé Galibert-Laîné, video essayist and maker of desktop films, is the perfect critic for this material too.

I have a pretty strong stomach for horror films, but I found this deeply unsettling and don't ever want to watch it again. I suppose that's a recommendation? It's not even graphic or anything, just a too-real vision of the hell of the internet. I liked Alex G's soundtrack though!

Ha, I watched this last night as well, and didn't like it at all but agree with your impressions. My biggest takeaway was the terrific Alex G OST

[Telstar]

Has anyone else ordered Ilya Muromets from a third-party retailer (deep discount, importcds) and gotten an out of stock message?

My order from Target was delayed to July 12 and then again to July 19.

[therewillbeblus]

This has been happening to me from DD with other partner releases too, like The Other French New Wave disc, which wasn't listed as backordered when I ordered it last week. I imagine that VS is scrambling to fulfill their partners-only sale orders and this is causing unexpected backup by DD et al.

[Finch]

Thanks, all. So no reason to panic (yet).

[swo17]

Is there any information out there about the five early Super 8 shorts included in the Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. double feature? There's nothing mentioned about them in the booklet accompanying the release or on the disc. I imagine they were made sometime in the late '60s. If it provides any clues, the runtimes are 3 min, 7.5 min, 7 min, 2.5 min, and 6.5 min. These would appeal to a more general audience of experimental film. I found the fifth one in particular quite striking

[ianthemovie]

Is there any information out there about the five early Super 8 shorts included in the Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. double feature? There's nothing mentioned about them in the booklet accompanying the release or on the disc. I imagine they were made sometime in the late '60s. If it provides any clues, the runtimes are 3 min, 7.5 min, 7 min, 2.5 min, and 6.5 min. These would appeal to a more general audience of experimental film. I found the fifth one in particular quite striking

I haven't picked up this set yet, but I'm guessing if anyone would know anything about the shorts it would be Liz Purchell since she helped produce the special features for the disc and her knowledge of these filmmakers is encyclopedic. She's active on Twitter so maybe she'd be responsive if you reached out to her.

[swo17]

Thanks for the tip!

[zedz]

Were we warned that the outer slipcase for the Doris Wishman set is magnetic? Front cover only. I can stick it to my fridge so I can read the list of titles on the back, but not so I can look at the cover while I snack. Unfortunately, the BluRay player in my fridge does not seem to be working.

[swo17]

It was advertised as a "special limited edition spot gloss magnetized slipcase & slipcover set" but I'm confused--aren't the magnets on the back? I noticed the four big bumps there, on the same side as the list of titles, though admittedly I have not yet attempted to stick the box to my refrigerator

[therewillbeblus]

I just assumed they were gonna throw in a free mini-fridge as an eater egg extra. I guess that was just wishman thinking

[zedz]

It was advertised as a "special limited edition spot gloss magnetized slipcase & slipcover set" but I'm confused--aren't the magnets on the back? I noticed the four big bumps there, on the same side as the list of titles, though admittedly I have not yet attempted to stick the box to my refrigerator

There are indeed four big bumps on the back, but they don't seem to be magnetic. The front of the case nearly flew across the room to kiss the fridge, however.

Maybe this is a southern hemisphere thing.

I am breathlessly awaiting your report back from the fridge.

[Glowingwabbit]

The magnets are so all three volumes can stick together. Even though this one came out first, it's the Twilight Years so presumably it would go at the end of the sets.

[CSM126]

Trying to imagine a scenario where I would say “man I wish these box sets would stick to each other so it’s more annoying to take one off the shelf”

[swo17]

I am breathlessly awaiting your report back from the fridge.

Who can say how magnets work, but apparently it's the same in both hemispheres:

[bamwc2]

It’s not gonna be for everyone, but Final Flesh is such shoddy surrealist trash that it becomes art. Mileage will vary, but if you have a tolerant palette for deeply irreverent humor combined with bad acting mirroring for deadpan delivery to heighten shock value, here you go. If this was just random for random sake a la Family Guy, I’d hate it, but it’s more focally driven around antisocial comedy- the kind that queasily inverts expectations from human behavior in mannerisms and logic- and that worked for me. Unfortunately the extras are sparse, but I’ll be picking this up. Now everyone who watches this can freely judge me!

I just saw this and can't decide if it's a brilliant work of art or a gross violation of privacy akin to posting non-consensual nudes online. So, Chatman made the film by paying independent porn producers for personalized content that I can only assume they thought was going to be privately consumed by the person paying for the video (the whole point was that none of them were in on the joke, and believed that they were making it for a fetishist). I can't speak for any of the filmmakers, but I doubt that they wanted these tapes to be publicly released without their consent/further compensation. Does anyone know if Chapman got their blessing to use their work in his film? If not, then I find it to be a deeply immoral thing to have done despite the hilarity of the end result. I tried to find the answer to this online, but couldn't. Does anyone know?

[domino harvey]

No doubt they signed something if it’s being widely distributed. Surely there are more pressing things to feel bad about

[bamwc2]

No doubt they signed something if it’s being widely distributed. Surely there are more pressing things to feel bad about

Thanks, Domino, but I'll never run out of things to feel bad about.

[Adam X]

The description on VS’s website says each quarter of the script was sent to four separate producers of custom videos, but there’s nothing there to suggest those involved didn’t know what the content was being used for.
Unless the extras say otherwise.

[swo17]

If this is an indication of anything, the release includes a kind of blooper reel

[L.A.]

Thriller – A Cruel Picture @ Mondo Digital

[bamwc2]

The description on VS’s website says each quarter of the script was sent to four separate producers of custom videos, but there’s nothing there to suggest those involved didn’t know what the content was being used for.
Unless the extras say otherwise.

I read a synopsis (on KG?) that said the actors had no idea that said they were not aware they were part of an art film, but rather that they were making a genuine fetish video.

[zedz]

I am breathlessly awaiting your report back from the fridge.

Who can say how magnets work, but apparently it's the same in both hemispheres:

Thank you swo17, the Man with the Leatherette Fridge.

[swo17]

Been bracing myself all week for the fridge remarks but it still stings

[Finch]

My copy of Ilya Muromets was shipped by importcds today. Hopefully everyone else's copies are on their way to you too.

[therewillbeblus]

I got mine from VS direct, but watched it the other week and enjoyed it as a fun comfort movie. The original non-Corman cut is definitely in no way MST3K-worthy, not even in a 'good'-bad way.

I also watched Don't Let the Angels Fall, and it was a lot stranger than I expected. The film takes a novel nonmetrical approach to its material, implementing uneven tonal information to murkier spaces than usual, as there are no sturdy thematic ideas to guide us despite the obvious melodrama-touchstones on alienation, which are really just the tip of the iceberg. The entire film functions like a scattered memory, but its subject isn't constant either so there isn't a clear focal point of character or thematic purpose of examination remaining constant. The film is in part about the erosion of a mezzo family system, but also the macro socio-political culture drowning out our agency to act with tangibility, and the micro-psyches of the isolated individuals in the family unit coping with their own nebulous troubles.

Everything is portrayed so irregularly and without definition or catharsis outside of brief transient sober moments, that I'm not sure what to make of it, but such a strategy feels humbly appropriate to the disorientation of these principals lost astray. I got the sense that the themes we're getting are just projections for these people to latch onto something palpable when they're just lost to themselves, and so it feels appropriate for our vicarious schematic information to be so arrhythmic and disjointed. There are scenes that highlight prisons of banality but also ones that soar us into the clouds of our own past significant intimate relations, ones that are impermanent and belong to cherished memories. These come through strongest in the early vacations with Sharon Acker, who is just incredible, coming across as an authentic person rather than a part in these sequences- moreso than an actress has in as long as I can remember.

I'll be picking the disc up for the shorts, but also because I think multiple viewings will yield richer rewards. It took me a day to even be able to grasp what I took away from it, and that feels like a strength. I hope to be more convinced on a revisit.