SWAMP&REVIEWS

THE END? NOT REALLY, ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!

I’m putting this blog to sleep. It’s been a good 3 years, but I’ve had enough of this free-for-all format and I need a blog that - this is going to sound pretentious - suits my plans and vision for 2012 and onward. The layout is much more visual, finally allowing myself to blog in a purely screencap-driven way, when needed, yet make my writing pleasing to the eye the rest of the time. I will not write less, but my writing will be increasingly careful and concise - as you can already see with the few posts on there. This is a secondary blog so I can’t follow back and can’t activate replies - and I think I like it that way. If you want to talk, let’s talk by all means - you’ll know where to find me, I’m sure.

The pages at the top will be my attempt at historicizing my film consumption. Give it time, they will fill up quite quickly.

I was going to wait until January 2012 to make the switch but I got impatient, started posting, got to a satisfying level of HTML experimenting - only me riffing on an available theme, nothing major - and some people already know about it so I felt like announcing this now.

Suggested are more than welcome as well! Let me know!

I have to say both bloggers nosex and branduponthebrain were quite inspirational, as far as film blogging format & looks are concerned.

Thank you angelica for the design & HTML tips.

Oh, the adress! Not awfully complicated: filmghoul.tumblr.com. I will most probably get my own domain name in the future -and install comments - so I’ll let you know then as well.

See you on the other side! I’m actually quite curious to see who follows me there!

-Ariel

PS. I will also complete my “2011 in film” list on this blog so expect 2 final posts!

Also, something slightly different: reviews & thoughts might be added below the screencaps retroactively so I’d recommend checking back once in a while through the main page rather than the dashboard…I realise this is unpractical but it will happen!

#

Fritzi (as Bobbi from Dressed to Kill) and myself (as a lazy skeleton) doing some silly dancing for Halloween @ Blue Sunshine’s Prom Night screening, Friday night - in front of a Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College poster. [Photo by King-Wei Chu]

#

Hey Arnold!, 1x01a: “Downtown as Fruits”

ME: You don’t know Hey Arnold!? It’s so great, it’s this show about an adopted football-headed 4th grader —

FRIEND: - His head is shaped like a football?

ME: — and his friends living in this crummy neighborhood and it’s so great, his best friend has this long-ass head and he’s like the son of Marge and Carl on The Simpsons —

FRIEND: What?

ME: — and there’s this horrible girl named Helga that’s also in love with him in this total Charlie Brown-type relationship and it’s so good ‘cause right in the first episode they find themselves stranded downtown as fruits and it’s so funny ‘cause Arnold is dressed as a banana and his friend is the strawberry, but really it should be the other way around ‘cause Arnold’s head is sticking out of the banana sideways and Gerald’s head is sticking out [waves vertically] that way and —

FRIEND: — I’m sorry but I’ll have to watch this show myself ‘cause your explaining it to me makes no sense. “His head is sticking out of the banana?” You say his grandfather has a penis face?

#

Today was ridiculously great

Woke up late after too little sleep, drank a giant-ass mug of coffee; left the house at least half-an-hour late, somehow managed to get to my 8h30 Eastern Religion class on time; learned I wasn’t failing the class because I somehow got 70% on that horrendous mid-term; went to English class, we watched Paranormal Activity 2 because having “The Horror Genre” as your English class is the greatest; bought the 1st season of Hey Arnold!; saw The Thing remake/prequel (meh, as expected); made it back to school for my last class; had a greasy poutine and hot-dog for supper; saw Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In aka La Piel Que Habito (amazing!) then raced to catch Romain Gavras’ Notre Jour Viendra (unexpectedly hilarious); made it back home using a faster and more pleasant itinerary; found out that my VHShitfestbootleg copy of Hellroller aka Hellrozzer had finally arrived (thanks Dan & Tim!) and am now eating curry and getting ready to watch some Hey Arnold! before going to bed.

#

GPOY: The “I Want To Go Back” Edition [Photos by Laurence, obv.]

#

punkandstuff:

Fucked Up at Église St-Édouard. Going home to pass out.

Great night. I was there as well, after catching/working the screening of Susanne Kumi Tabata’s Vancouver punk documentary Bloodied But Unbowed at Blue Sunshine with goddamn Randy Rampage (from D.O.A.) in the house, then going down to Club Soda (catching a glimpse of the overcrowded, over-hipstered free Arcade Fire show) to see Neil fucking Hamburger perform, followed by an amazingly brief and energetic set by The Spits. Pop Montreal; hitting it hard this weekend! Tomorrow: Kier-la Janisse’s R. Stevie Moore film, the Phil Ochs documentary and potentially seeing R. Stevie Moore live as well! Goddamn it! I’ve gotta be at school in 5h but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

#

Another day, another picture of me /dramatic lighting/ sharing a moment with an octopus. By Laurence Philomène.

#

GPOY: The “Back from seeing the entirety of Freaks & Geeks in a row” Edition.

#

David Bertrand (half of Blue Sunshine) and Jesse Hawthorne Ficks! (Previously)

#

Midnite for Maniacs’ Double-Triple Bill of After School Specials @ Blue Sunshine

Saturday night was wonderful. San Francisco-based journalist and film curator Jesse Hawthorne Ficks - amazing guy with whom I spent most of Monday - came all the way up to show us these gems on 16mm. As I was unaware of until this weekend, After School Specials (as most of these are; either produced by ABC or NBC in the 70’s or 80’s) or even Mormon educational film such as Cipher in the Snow (my favorite of the bunch) are some of the most fun, sad, confrontational and tearjerkin’ little snippets of TV ever made, painfully lacking from our screens in this day and age. Designed to inform kids on a variety of grim subjects and deplorable conditions such being an orphan, losing your Mom, euthanasia, Fascism, being stuck in the snow and old-age dementia (being just a few of the things tackled in here), this double-triple bill (which totalled about 3h of material) served both as a great introduction to this wildly unseen world, but also a genuinely moving experience of pure filmmaking manipulation, which culminated in the devastating Peege…
Henry & The Polka Dot Kid (1976) and Luke Was There (1976), both directed by Return of the Jedi’s Richard Marquand (and both featuring characters named Luke as well!) dealt with orphans. The first one finds the titular “polka-dot” kid developing a special bond with an old dog - until his adoptive father ties a rock to the poor dog’s neck and hires the town’s weirdo to throw it in the fucking. Luke Was There leaves you hanging but stars a young Scott Baio and is ultimately quite pleasing in its underlying sombre implications. Robert M. Young’s Snowbound (1978) ended the first segment on a touching tale of acceptance and snowy car accident - in which the characters are attacked by a pack of wild (and abandoned, of course, because there’s no escaping those abandonment anxieties) dogs.
The second block started with the absolute downer (and my favorite film of the whole block), the (although not apparent) Mormon-produced educational short, produced by Brigham Young University. Cipher In the Snow (Keith J. Atkinson, 1973) was a film shown to students and teachers every year and was meant to raise awareness about the “ciphers”, the zeros, the quiet kids. Indeed, the incredibly dark and depressing short tells the story of a kid who dies unexpectedly one his way to school. As his math teacher tries to piece the reasons behind this premature death, it becomes clear the kid died of sadness (or suicide!), as a result of being constantly ignored and/or bullied as well as going through a divorce and shitty-ass parents. Grim fucking stuff that left the whole room speechless - remember, these are supposed to be kids’ films! Watch on Youtube if you feel like you could use the depression.
Robert Fuest’s My Mom Was Never a Kid (1981) was a welcome comedic breather before the final blow, telling the story of a girl who travels back in time, meets her Mom during WWII and comes back, understanding and willing to forgive her mother’s shortcomings. On the other hand, Randall Kleiser’s (most famous for Grease and Blue Lagoon!) short film Peege (1978) utterly destroyed us with its highly manipulative and incredibly effective story of a family visiting their Alzheimer-striken dying grandmother Peege and reminiscing about the good days. How effective is this? It was included in the National Film Registry in 2007 and had a room full of adults crying their eyes out.
On Monday night, Kier-la dug out a VHS copy of The Wave (1981) for Jesse and I to watch; another stunning TV short - this time inspired by true events - in which a high school teachers turns his class - and the whole school - into a fascist regime called The Wave, in order to teach his students a thing or two about Nazi Germany and Hitler. Read about the real life “Third Wave” experiment HERE. Chilling stuff.
In addition to bringing these great films to my attention, Jesse introduced me to the wonderful films of Jafar Panahi (currently serving a 6-year jail sentence and 20-year ban from on directing films for “assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic”) as we catched the screening of Crimson Gold, as part of Cinéma du Parc’s half-assed (all DVD projections except for one print) “In Support of Jafar Panahi” retrospective. More on that later, of course.

Midnite for Maniacs’ Double-Triple Bill of After School Specials @ Blue Sunshine

Saturday night was wonderful. San Francisco-based journalist and film curator Jesse Hawthorne Ficks - amazing guy with whom I spent most of Monday - came all the way up to show us these gems on 16mm. As I was unaware of until this weekend, After School Specials (as most of these are; either produced by ABC or NBC in the 70’s or 80’s) or even Mormon educational film such as Cipher in the Snow (my favorite of the bunch) are some of the most fun, sad, confrontational and tearjerkin’ little snippets of TV ever made, painfully lacking from our screens in this day and age. Designed to inform kids on a variety of grim subjects and deplorable conditions such being an orphan, losing your Mom, euthanasia, Fascism, being stuck in the snow and old-age dementia (being just a few of the things tackled in here), this double-triple bill (which totalled about 3h of material) served both as a great introduction to this wildly unseen world, but also a genuinely moving experience of pure filmmaking manipulation, which culminated in the devastating Peege…

Henry & The Polka Dot Kid (1976) and Luke Was There (1976), both directed by Return of the Jedi’s Richard Marquand (and both featuring characters named Luke as well!) dealt with orphans. The first one finds the titular “polka-dot” kid developing a special bond with an old dog - until his adoptive father ties a rock to the poor dog’s neck and hires the town’s weirdo to throw it in the fucking. Luke Was There leaves you hanging but stars a young Scott Baio and is ultimately quite pleasing in its underlying sombre implications. Robert M. Young’s Snowbound (1978) ended the first segment on a touching tale of acceptance and snowy car accident - in which the characters are attacked by a pack of wild (and abandoned, of course, because there’s no escaping those abandonment anxieties) dogs.

The second block started with the absolute downer (and my favorite film of the whole block), the (although not apparent) Mormon-produced educational short, produced by Brigham Young University. Cipher In the Snow (Keith J. Atkinson, 1973) was a film shown to students and teachers every year and was meant to raise awareness about the “ciphers”, the zeros, the quiet kids. Indeed, the incredibly dark and depressing short tells the story of a kid who dies unexpectedly one his way to school. As his math teacher tries to piece the reasons behind this premature death, it becomes clear the kid died of sadness (or suicide!), as a result of being constantly ignored and/or bullied as well as going through a divorce and shitty-ass parents. Grim fucking stuff that left the whole room speechless - remember, these are supposed to be kids’ films! Watch on Youtube if you feel like you could use the depression.

Robert Fuest’s My Mom Was Never a Kid (1981) was a welcome comedic breather before the final blow, telling the story of a girl who travels back in time, meets her Mom during WWII and comes back, understanding and willing to forgive her mother’s shortcomings. On the other hand, Randall Kleiser’s (most famous for Grease and Blue Lagoon!) short film Peege (1978) utterly destroyed us with its highly manipulative and incredibly effective story of a family visiting their Alzheimer-striken dying grandmother Peege and reminiscing about the good days. How effective is this? It was included in the National Film Registry in 2007 and had a room full of adults crying their eyes out.

On Monday night, Kier-la dug out a VHS copy of The Wave (1981) for Jesse and I to watch; another stunning TV short - this time inspired by true events - in which a high school teachers turns his class - and the whole school - into a fascist regime called The Wave, in order to teach his students a thing or two about Nazi Germany and Hitler. Read about the real life “Third Wave” experiment HERE. Chilling stuff.

In addition to bringing these great films to my attention, Jesse introduced me to the wonderful films of Jafar Panahi (currently serving a 6-year jail sentence and 20-year ban from on directing films for “assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic”) as we catched the screening of Crimson Gold, as part of Cinéma du Parc’s half-assed (all DVD projections except for one print) “In Support of Jafar Panahi” retrospective. More on that later, of course.

#

The Cinémathèque Québécoise is doing a full month of Japanese cinema, including 35 and 16mm prints of Imamura, Oshima, Teshigahara, Ishi (1967-1992), a complete retrospective of the work of beloved Hirokazu Kore-Eda (with the director in attendance two nights!!!!) and a selection of contemporary work from 1990 to the present. I am so excited about this I can barely speak. I’ve already mapped out my schedule and I’ll attempt to catch as many screenings as I can around school, my duties at Blue Sunshine and at the Pop Montreal festival (Film Pop, mind you). Getting a membership for the Cinémathèque is dirt cheap, and while I’m hoping I’ll get a job this month, hopefully it doesn’t conflict my cinevore ambitions.

#

Started school again on Wednesday. While I’m depressed by the idea of it and hate everyone, I have to admit this might be the best chunk of classes just yet.

Film & Social Issues, which I briefly audited last semester, should be quite interesting. This semester we’re looking at homelessness, dysfunctional families and the theme of dystopia. While I couldn’t care less for the assignments, which aside from the reviews journal I can’t wait for, consists mostly of ridiculous conceptual arts & crafts (wtf, right), the selection of films is quite good, going from Dark Days, L’enfant to Soylent Green and Romper Stomper.

Imaging Technologies, is essentially a straight-up photo class, which sounds good. While not owning a DSLR will certainly prove to be a pain in the butt, the teacher looks like she’s very easy-going, many fieldtrips to exhibits are planned and a lot of free lab time will be enjoyable as well.

Media Production will be more of the same, but I can’t wait to get back to making films. We’ll have to produce an experimental short (1m) and a longer narrative or documentary short (4-5m) and I’m quite excited because I know exactly what I’m going to do. Hopefully, I’ve gotten better at Final Cut Pro last semester and I don’t encouter that many problems this semester.

World Views: Great Thinkers of the World, is a class I’m going to stick with because of the subject matter alone. Looking at the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, Karl Marx and Thomas Hobbes (with hints of Machiavelli, Proudhon and more, if I decide to dig deeper into the great textbook) will hopefully make up for the fact the teacher is as creepy, monotone and boring as they can get. Almost fell asleep during the first class, which is never a good sign.

Eastern Religion & the Arts will be fucking awesome. Taught by a dude with a serious Jodorowsky vibe going on for him, the whole thing will be about the “alternate anatomy of the human body, according to Eastern philosophies” and how it impacts the arts. We’ll be looking at India, China, Tibet, Japan and more. We’ll be watching films, discussing reincarnation and chakras. My kind of jam.

The Horror Genre - Reality Horror is a dream. Taught by Kris Woofter, an amazing person and great friend I’ve had as a teacher twice (Reality Horror and Haunted House courses) at the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, I literally can’t believe this is an English class I’m taking for real credit. The course is essentially a film class and aside from analyzing all kinds of awesome stuff like Blair Witch, Cropsey, Diary of the Dead, Blow Out, the course - as expected - is deeply theoretical (FINALLY!), looking at texts from Carroll, Dovey, Freeland, Hutchings, Mulvey and obliquely at the fiction work of Poe, Lovecraft and Peter Straub as well!

Aikido as gym class should be great. I haven’t had it yet (Monday) but there’s little that can go wrong. I love how thematically Asian this semester is going to get. After doing karate for 5 years - and quitting for lack of interest, money and time - I can’t wait to renew with martial arts, even if its in a school context.