Fresh Cheap Bastard Filmwork - SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT (STREETS OF FIRE)

 I've always thought that the Rachel Sweet version of "Shadows of the Night" did so effortlessly what STREETS OF FIRE attempted to do (and came up short) - so I finally put it to the test.

FREEFALLING THRU THE FUCKERY: CALIGULA THE ULTIMATE CUT

About the heading: Things are Bad, but this is just the Beginning; we haven't even truly started to get into The Bad Times yet - if you're not Hispanic, Palanstinian, a foreign student or a resident alien, you might find that statement slightly laughable & naive. Being an American, that's slightly permissible, since those who aren't MAGA or MAGA adjacent/sympathetic still believe that there is still a chance to turn things around - despite the fact that we've continually squandered every chance given so far.

While America (and specifically Whyte America - because nothing of note actually happens in this country until Pissed-Off Whyte People get involved) does its Hamlet-bit trying to convince itself it still has a soul), it feels like one is just Freefalling Thru The Fuckery until things coalesce into some definite action.

While that slowly happens - I watch movies. I write. At least until I can't do either one or the other.

Or both.

One of those notorious films where the behind-the-scenes shennanigans were way more interesting to talk about than the actual film was to watch. There's a lot of baggage - it's one of those films that wind up on that 'dare ya' list of films to watch (like SALO, COME AND SEE, A SERBIAN FILM, etc.), plus its history and reputation and numerous attempts to justify its existence as a thwarted masterpiece or unrepentant trash... or both.

I had the "Imperial Edition" set with the theatrical version and alternate pre-release version for a bit, planning to finally see it for myself. After hearing about a possible recontruction in the works, I  held off watching it; waiting to see what the reconstruction would be, if it ever came to be. A rare opportunity to see the film for itself, without having anything previously burned into my brain.

That objectivity is pretty much impossible if you've already seen CALIGULA, judging from most of the reaction to the Ultimate Cut, which has also garnered its own share of controversy, and its own lore - reconstructed from footage from the entire shoot using alternate takes and going back to Vidal's original script. Adding some fuel to the fire was an earlier, 'unofficial' attempt at a reconstruction hewing closer to director Tinto Brass' original vision, which got sidelined due to change of ownership of Penthouse assets in favor of this official reconstruction of the film, which has no imput from Brass.

The result is sort of a compromise between Vidal's script and Brass' interpretation using Malcolm McDowell's performance as a baseline. Using the alternate takes does show that there were nuances; the more manic ones were chosen for the theatrical which made it seem that Caligula was nuts from the outset. The Ultimate Cut gives him more of an arc and makes it more clear of power corrupting rather than just a madman from the start. It helps lift the production up. There's much more Mirren and Theresa Ann Savoy, which helps their characters immensely. An opening animated sequence by Dave McKean which really helps in setting the context. There's still a lot of nudity and sex, though the nudity has been slightly dialed back (hard to believe, I know) and all the hardcore is gone, thankfully - it was too distracting. What sex remains is NOT arousing, which is kind of the point in the orgy sequences. There's still a trashy vibe and honestly, there's just no way to completely remove the Guccione Taint.

It also accentuates the theatricality of the whole enterprise, rather than attempting at any sort of 'realism', which I think helps both Vidal's intent on a story of how Power corrupts within a larger institution and Brass' framing it as a political satire. It's hard NOT to make some thematic comparisons towards current events and people in the U.S.A. The Ultimate Cut would make a curious companion to another reviled/ridiculed film, MEGALOPOLIS, which oddly enough attempts to do sort of the same thing, except with way more class, no graphic sexual content and is a fable on how Power can be utilized by not succumbing to corruption.

So I'm glad that this was the version I watched before the others. This version is NOT a trainwreck, so it at least proves that there was a legitimate film to be found amongst the chaos, once the egos and bullshit could be gotten past. The Ultimate Cut is probably the best representation we'll ever get of CALIGULA being a 'legitimate film'

This was released on blu-ray by Drafthouse Films and Unobstructed View; a 2 disc set with The Ultimate Cut on Disc 1 and the 1980 theatrical cut on Disc 2. There's also a 4 disc UHD release that includes a soundtrack CD of the new score by Troy Sterling Niles and an extra featurette with an archival interview with Tinto Brass. There are two commentaries, both with reconstruction producer Thomas NegovanL one in tandem with editor Aaron Shaps and the second in tandem with writer Grant Morrison. Both are very worthwhile to listen to. The featurette, "The Guccione Scandal" is a breakdown analysis of the additions that Guccione made to the film - yes, that infamous hardcore footage.

FREEFALLING THRU THE FUCKERY: THE KEEP

About the heading: Things are Bad, but this is just the Beginning; we haven't even truly started to get into The Bad Times yet - if you're not Hispanic, Palanstinian, a foreign student or a resident alien, you might find that statement slightly laughable & naive. Being an American, that's slightly permissible, since those who aren't MAGA or MAGA adjacent/sympathetic still believe that there is still a chance to turn things around - despite the fact that we've continually squandered every chance given so far.

While America (and specifically Whyte America - because nothing of note actually happens in this country until Pissed-Off Whyte People get involved) does its Hamlet-bit trying to convince itself it still has a soul), it feels like one is just Freefalling Thru The Fuckery until things coalesce into some definite action.

While that slowly happens - I watch movies. I write. At least until I can't do either one or the other.
Or both.

 

I've always sort of looked down on Michael Mann's adaptation of THE KEEP despite liking a lot of the elements of the film. Mainly because I'm a fan of the novel and it was yet another lesson on Failed Hollywood Adaptations. It's comparable to Ridley Scott's LEGEND which came a few years after and sharing not only the same cinematographer, but the same primary problem - both are visually stunning but the mechanics of story & plot are sacrificed in execution and ultimately end up unsatisfying.
Taking in account that the success rate wasn't very high, to be fair - though THE SHINING, BLADE RUNNER, THE THING and DUNE have been reassessed 30-40 years after initial release, that still leaves projects like the tv miniseries of THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, GHOST STORY... only CONAN THE BARBARIAN seems to have had the luck to had continued success from time of release to current day.

(One of many missed opportunites in The Era Of Streaming is the failure to attempt more faithful takes on GHOST STORY, which is an OK film - held aloft by the presence of Old Hollywood Greats classing things up, Dick Smith makeups and mainly by naked Alice Krige - but a tepid version of the Peter Straub story and THE KEEP, both which would've benefitted from having 8 - 10 episodes to play out, IMO.)

Many reasons have been kicked around for THE KEEP's failure; a troubled production, mortally wounded by the death of their special effects supervisor early in post-production and the inablility to complete things as planned and then cut down from close to 3 hours to about half of that time and released to theaters with very little fanfare all contributed. The main reason lies in the film's conception - in an interview with Film Comment magazine during the production, Mann states that his initial starting point came after making THIEF; wanting to do something along the lines of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" To quote from that interview, "The idea of making this film within the genre of horror films appealed to me not at all."

One can certainly admire the ambition behind that, but one also has to question the wisdom of hanging all of that on a story that is firmly set within the parameters of 'horror'. For all of the name-checking of Bruno Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment" and stating that the film was 'a fairy tale for adults', Michael Mann couldn't accept the fact that he was making a horror movie and that more than anything else undermines the whole film. In more snide terms, I've referred to THE KEEP as Michael Mann proving to the world that he is NOT Stanley Kubrick - Kubrick, at some level, DID know he was making a 'horror film'.

Despite that, it's gained a solid cult following; mainly due to it being the outlier in Mann's filmography and to it not being readily available, save for VHS and a laserdisc release which has been the basis for DVD bootleg releases. That changed late last year with Vinegar Syndrome's UHD/Blu-ray 4K release (the limited edition w/slipcover & booklet selling out quickly).

So, what to think of THE KEEP now? Well, it's still a stunner visually, even more so with the restoration. This time around, I'm a bit more charitable towards the film and to Mann's intentions, having had more exposure to European Cinema since the last time I saw it. In fact, I think the film would play somewhat better if it were dubbed in an Eastern European language. But that doesn't alter the film's main flaw, which wasn't helped by the truncated runtime.

It holds up a lot better than LEGEND does, mainly due to having a solid narrative at its base. I don't know the history of LEGEND's script other than it started as an 'adult fairy tale' and got softened and narratively more nebulous over time, but the lack of a solid narrative just makes the (admittedly stunning) visuals vacuous. THE KEEP flirts with this in its current version, but that may be due to different rhythms; one can argue that Mann may be being 'pretentious', but realizing that he's doing an American version of European Arthouse makes a case that a longer version, if it still exists, could possibly qualify it as a 'masterpiece' that its fans have claimed it to be.

Maybe. I don't know if I'd go quite THAT far yet...

But I'd be pleased if that turned out. Despite some harsh remarks and Michael Mann CineBro Snark, there are elements that stay in the memory - the visuals, obviously and the Tangerine Dream score, both of which converge in a sequence near the end cutting between Scott Glen's character prepping for The Final Confrontation and Ian McKellar's removing a talisman and starting to exit The Keep, which is the thing that hooked me when I finally saw this years ago.

VS gives this an overdue respectable release with great extras - there's a really informative commentary by film historian Matthew Aspery Gear along with several featurettes - the best being an interview with author F. Paul Wilson talking about the genesis of the novel and his view of the finished product; interview with Johannes Schmolling who was part of Tangerine Dream at the time speaking about their work with Mann and some light finally shed on those KEEP bootleg soundtrack releases; interviews with fx makeup head Nick Maley and vfx artist Peter Kuran; an interview with actor Michael Csrter (Molasar) and a short interview with producer Gene Kirkwood.

As great as this is, there was some disappointment that deleted scenes that've surfaced over the years didn't get included or a more extensive documentary, namely the long-in-gestation A WORLD WAR II FAIRYTALE - which will show up on Imprint's edition coming later in the year.

I guess a better comparison rather than LEGEND, would be to Lynch's DUNE - which I like better even in it's truncated theatrical cut, and is much better when longer (Spice Diver cut).

FREEFALLING THRU THE FUCKERY: NA SEBRNYM GLOBIE (ON THE SILVER GLOBE)

About the heading: Things are Bad, but this is just the Beginning; we haven't even truly started to get into The Bad Times yet - if you're not Hispanic, Palanstinian, a foreign student or a resident alien, you might find that statement slightly laughable & naive. Being an American, that's slightly permissible, since those who aren't MAGA or MAGA adjacent/sympathetic still believe that there is still a chance to turn things around - despite the fact that we've continually squandered every chance given so far. 

While America (and specifically Whyte America - because nothing of note actually happens in this country until Pissed-Off Whyte People get involved) does its Hamlet-bit trying to convince itself it still has a soul), it feels like one is just Freefalling Thru The Fuckery until things coalesce into some definite action. 

While that slowly happens - I watch movies. I write. At least until I can't do either one or the other. 

Or both.

Mondo Vision is a boutique label that has been solely dedicated to making the work of Polish director Andrzej Zulawski available on physical media since the late 2000s. Releasing packed Limited Editions (expanded booklet, card swag and an OST CD) and Special Editions (booklet only) starting with LA FEMME PUBLIQUE (The Public Woman), L' IMPORTANT C'EST D'AIMER (The Most Important Thing: Love), L' AMOUR BRAQUE (Limpet Love), SZAMANKA (She-Shaman), POSSESSION and LA NOTE BLEUE (The Blue Note), MV's releases were a true labor of love for Zulawski's work - early video releases were OOP (Anchor Bay's DVD) or were of dodgy quality (PolArt's DVDs of DIABEL and GLOBIE). MV did hi-def transfers, approved by Zulawski and had great extra features such as a Zulawski commentary and meaty featurettes, the pinnacle being their blu-ray edition of POSSESSION.

But excellence don't come easy; the periods between releases got longer and longer, the market changed with people wanting DVD, then blu-ray, then 4K discs. Hardest of all was Zulawski's death in 2016. After the release of LA NOTE BLEUE in 2017, MV went silent and rumors that the label was dead seemed to be turning out legit. By now, Zulawski's films were getting easier to find -new blu-rays from Kino-Lorber (L'AMOUR BRAQUE) and Film Movement (L' IMPORTANT...) not to mention POSSESSION releases on blu and 4K UHD, turning it into THE EVIL DEAD of boutique releases.

Just out of reach was The Polish Trilogy - TRZECIA CZESC NOCY (The Third Part of the Night), DIABEL (The Devil) and NA SEBRNYM GLOBIE (On The Silver Globe). The last two got DVDs, but the transfers weren't great; TRZECIA got a pretty good DVD from UK label Second Run. Complicating things further was the Polish Government's foot-dragging in restoring those films until nearly the end of Zulawski's life and then wanting a large amount from Western countries/labels to licence them. The first blu-ray release of the Trilogy was a Japanese set which had no English subtitles and nudity blurred on GLOBIE. The Eureka 'Masters of Cinema' release of the Trilogy just a couple of years ago set the quality bar high, with French and German releases soon to come. And if you had an all-region Blu-ray player, things were Good, since it seemed that there was NEVER going to be a Mondo Vision disc.

 

Until this March, when a very strong hint was dropped on the Bluray.com forums that MV would be making an announcement soon. Shortly after the Eureka release MV changed their heading to GLOBIE's head graphic and "Coming Soon" - but nothing since then. Then in April - Easter month, very appropriate - MV came back from the dead with the announcement of the Limited and Special Editions of GLOBIE, release date set for the end of May. So imagine my surprise when a package showed up just after the first May weekend! A good gesture on MV's part, if you ordered directly from them.

This is also their first 4K UHD release; most companies have been doing UHD/Blu combos for the past few years, but like the DVD/Blu combos that slowly phased out when Blu took a bigger share of the market, I suspect that more of the specialty labels will start going exclusively 4K in the near future. And what that means is at somepoint, the hardware will have to be upgraded. So it was finally time to pull the trigger to go 4K - especially before the tariff bullshit goes into effect. And it made sense to again, go all-region and have the ability to play Anything. I'm still pretty much a format slut.

Eureka's Zulawski set is still worth getting, if you're region-free but not 4K yet: the tranfers are great and extras are solid. But if you are 4K ready, then I'd say Mondo Vision's release will stand as the definitive release of the film.

It's an interesting artifact - it was originally planned for release in 2012 and most of the extras are from that time - the Zulawski commentary, obviously; that alone makes it definitive and Daniel Bird's featurette on the making of the film. The newest extra is the documentary ESCAPE TO THE SILVER GLOBE (2021), which was also part of the Eureka release. I sprung for the Limited Edition with an expanded booklet (more essays), card/poster swag and the OST CD - which more than justified getting this edition. The score by Andrzej Korynski, a long-time Zulawski associate is fabulous, and this is its first official release.

 

As to the film itself - it's an adaptation of Zulawski's great-uncle's (Jerzy Zulawski) science-fiction trilogy from the early 1900s THE LUNAR TRILOGY, comprised of On The Silver Globe, The Conqueror and The Old Earth, a work very influential on Stanislaw Lem (SOLARIS) and literary sci-fi in Europe. Not known at all in Western countries - it didn't get its first English translation and publication until 2021. In terms of epic science-fiction, this would be on the level of DUNE - which coincidentally, Alejandro Jodorowsky was attempting to adapt to film at roughly the same time, which never came to fruition. GLOBIE almost had that fate; that story of the film's production and near-death probably being more known than the actual film and which ESCAPE TO THE SILVER GLOBE gets into with much detail.

 

Epic SF in film didn't fully come into existence until the 60s - the George Pal productions of the 50s (WAR OF THE WORLDS, CONQUEST OF SPACE, etc.) were precursors visually, but Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is usually considered to be the first, although a good case could be made for the 1963 Czechoslovakian IKARIE XB-1 directed by Jindrich Polak. There were efforts like some of the East German DEFA films such as SIGNALS; Tarkovsky's SOLARIS continues in that vein and GLOBIE could've continued that path, had it not been hindered, uncompleted and unseen/unknown. STAR WARS usurped and supplanted the idea of Serious Epic SF; it was epic, but it was also pastiche based on the FLASH GORDON serials and not serious at all - that came later with the Prequel Trilogy and its offshoots which tried to infuse Seriousness and Meaning into what had become a franchise with varying results.

A quick factoid illustrating SF Film - STAR WARS, NA SEBRNYM GLOBIE and DAMNATION ALLEY were all in production roughly during the period 1975 - 1977 and of those three, GLOBIE was finally seen in 1987, which would drastically limit any potential influence it could've had. Its most direct descendant is Aleksei German's 2013 adaptation of HARD TO BE A GOD (though I personally find it to be a slog). But would seem to have put out a vibe; see Tarkovsky's STALKER (1979), Peter Fleischmann's 1989 adaptation of HARD TO BE A GOD, and of course, David Lynch's DUNE (1984) - although Fleischmann and Lynch are steered closer to the STAR WARS Epic SF aesthetic than Zulawski and Tarkovsky were.

 

NEW CHEAP BASTARD FILMWORK - GOD BLESS THE FIREMAN

 An appreciation of TWIN PEAKS  and the indie rock band Christmas.

**WARNING** SPOILERS for TWIN PEAKS:THE RETURN

 

KEVIN WILLMOTT FILM FESTIVAL - FEB. 18-21 2025 LAWRENCE, KS

A four-day celebration (well, technically three days, since a snowstorm killed the 18th - forcing a double-feature for the kick-off on the 19th) of Mr. Willmott, honoring his retirement from KU - but not his retirement from projects with a new film scheduled to shoot this Spring and various scripts in development. KU Film & Media Studies Department & Liberty Hall gave him a warm Farewell metaphorically, though the theatre itself was chilly due to the single-digit temperature outside.

The Kevin Willmott Film Festival consisted of four features - DESTINATION: PLANET NEGRO, THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN, JAYHAWKERS and C.S.A. - THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, with special guests in post-screening talks and on the last night, tribute videos sent in by many friends & colleagues who couldn't make it in person.

I was only able to make it to two of the showings, T.O.G.I. & C.S.A. - though I'm fortunate enough to have his work within arms reach on the DVD shelves. And despite the winter climate, it proved to be well-timed as a healing tonic in the opening days of the Musk/Trump Regime.

As a public service, here's audio from both of those screenings:

 

THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN Aftertalk w/Willmott, actors Wes Studi & Laura Kirk and writer Tom Carmody, Moderated by Jancita Warrington, Executive Director on Native-American Affairs, State of KS.

Of note: it had recently been announced that Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence had come under the thumb of DOGE, with 30% of its staff being 'retired' At 22:08, you'll hear former Kickapoo Nation chairperson Steve Cadue referring to that.

C.S.A.'s screening kicked off with KU Film & Media Studies Interim Chairperson Anna Neill giving the audience a preview of proclamation from the City of Lawrence declaring March 4, 2025 Kevin Willmott Day!

  

Following that, Dr. Novotny Lawrence, KU alumnus & associate professor of Cinema and Media Studies and the Director of the Black Film Center & Archive, Indiana University - Bloomington, came to introduce the film...

  

... and joined Willmott in a spirited aftertalk.

 

 

CHEAP BASTARD FILMWORKS - New Super-8 projects

Well, kinda 'new'; decided it was the time to find out what was on those rolls of unprocessed Super-8 that had been sitting around for years on end - early in the 2000s, I won a eBay auction of a lot of Ektachrome 160-G film cheap and promptly discovered the reason for that was that it was expired film (date on the boxes is 'DEC 79' and a type where one of the chemical ingredients used for developing was becoming very scarce) - and expensive to process, so 4 rolls sat in storage, along with a couple rolls of Tri-X, having forgotten exactly when & what I shot on them.

After some research, I decided to use Negativeland, a lab in Ridgewood, NY that could process it (as B/W negative; best option to get an image) & scan it, along w/a print of my 16mm film-school project to be scanned.

THE RESULTS:

The Super-8 was questionable - but it turned out Good; only one roll had serious deterioration, and even managed to pull an image from that - has the feel of footage shot over a century ago... 

 

Even better, it turns out that I shot these during production of THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN (in Wichita and Cottonwood Falls, KS) and the Traci Lords family comedy AU, PAIR KS [aka THE SOCCER NANNY] in Lindsborg, KS - I had completely forgotten that I brought the Super-8 with me.

The 16mm [empty, try another] looks pretty good, a 2K scan of a print. My interest in oblique metaphoring and love of musical minimalism probably has roots here - literally done with no money, which is why the credits were originally done orally (Director's Answer™® - "It's a Truffaut homage").

  

Thanks again to Ben Kufrin, Jon Knoll, Tracy Holliway-Wiggins, Jane Brockman and everyone else who lent a hand.

More personal excavation to come? Perhaps...