A rare screening of Stan Brakhage’s legendary experimental feature film, Dog Star Man (1961-1964, 75 min.), in its original silent 16mm format, as the filmmaker intended.  A new print will be shown.

Screens with Legendary Epics Yarns and Fables, Part 2: Stan Brakhage (Stephen E. Gebhardt and Robert Fries, 1969, 9 min.), an interview film with no interlocutor.

“I wanted it to be as real from the very beginning as life happening.” — Stan Brakhage

Four years in the making, this influential and much-revered abstract work is widely regarded as the masterpiece of legendary filmmaker Stan Brakhage, who made more than 350 films over 50 years. A psychedelic freakout, mytho-poetic dissertation and aesthetic shot-across-the-bow all in one, Dog Star Man is an unforgettable work of high artistry, as challenging as it is rewarding.

Unlike Brakhage’s later and better-known painted films, Dog Star Man draws mainly on filmed actualities. Its components are all contained in the stunning Prelude. Over the next four parts these elements are fragmented, manipulated and recombined in a mosaic of increasing complexity.

On one level the film depicts an intensely mythic spiritual quest, a deeply personal farago informed by Brakhage’s lifelong study of poetry and symbolism. On another level it is a purely visual tour de force of editing and composition that can be experienced solely on its own (or your own) terms.

Dog Star Man was a landmark that proclaimed the vibrancy of the experimental cinema, both by its length and for its radical departure from (most) prior experimental film aesthetics.  It influenced (and often divided) the discussion, creation, and very conception of experimental cinema for decades to come. For Brakhage, Dog Star Man represented an aesthetic rebirth, moving past the psychodramas of his youth, which he was already respected for, into the visually tactile poetry of his mature years.

Time Magazine, 1967:
“Stan Brakhage, 37, a husky hypochondriac who lives with his wife and five children in a log cabin in Colorado, has radically rewritten movie grammar. By fragmenting his films into frames, Brakhage has established the frame in cinema as equivalent to the note in music; whereupon he proceeds to make films with frames the way a composer makes music with notes.”

Fred Camper:
“More than any other filmmaker, he defined the cinema as a visual being, liberating it from non-visual considerations, and as visually useful for expressing a totality of thought.”

Jake Euker, PopMatters.com:
“Dog Star Man [is] a 74-minute epic on what Brakhage calls ‘the big daddy’ theme, or man in his natural state as father, husband, lover, and provider, pitted against nature, and seen from the atomic to the astral levels. …Its very conception — a portrait of a man in all of life’s roles — recalls in part James Joyce’s depiction of Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. Dog Star Man is a work of realism into which abstraction intrudes. It was in this film that he first scratched and painted designs directly onto film, and his use of such devices as under- or over-exposing film or experimenting with focus, not only render much of Dog Star Man truly abstract, but signal the full acceptance by the filmmaker of those methods which bloom so magnificently in his later work.”

P. Adams Sitney, Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943-1978:
“Dog Star Man develops in mythic and nearly systematic terms the universal vision inherent in lyric films. More than the entire body of the American avant-garde cinema, this work is situated in the rhetoric of romanticism, in its description of the emergence of conscience, the cycle of the seasons, the battle of man against nature and the sexual ambivalence in the visual evocation of an earthly titan bearing the comic name, Dog Star Man.”

August 4, 2010
Dog Star Man (1961-1964)
Northwest Film Forum (advance tickets available now)

Stan Brakhage’s landmark experimental feature film, shown in its original 16mm format and silently, as intended by the filmmaker.  Screens with Legendary Epics Yarns and Fables. Part 2: Stan Brakhage (1969), a short interview film by Stephen Gebhardt and Robert Fries.

September 23, 2010
First Words: The Birth of Sound Cinema, 1895-1929
Northwest Film Forum

A program of rare short films tracing the evolution of sound from its earliest experiments through its transformation of the entire industry.  Plus, period 78rpm records played on a real Victrola by collectors Robert Millis and Jeffrey Taylor of the bands Climax Golden Twins and AFCGT.

November 11, 2010
Breakaway: Films by Bruce Conner
Northwest Film Forum

A rare opportunity to see a selection of Conner’s outstanding film works in their original format, celebrating what would have been his 77th birthday.

Also: we’re hoping to have another Halloween Spook Show Spectacular — stayed tuned for updates!

Part of the year-long 69 series.

Northwest Film Forum
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
8:00 PM

16mm (original format) / 71 min.

A selection of landmarks in avant film from 1969, featuring classic short works by many of the year’s greatest pioneering artists. Featuring classic “analog” films and examples of the birth of digital cinema, with early video art and even some of the first digital computer animation ever made.

Watch streaming video and more info about the artists and films

Invocation of My Demon Brother
Kenneth Anger, with synthesizer soundtrack by Mick Jagger
His last film for 21 years.

Our Lady of the Sphere
Larry Jordan
Surreal cut-out animation by a master

Moon 1969
Scott Bartlett
Mesmerizing video/film art

Le Labyrinthe
Piotr Kamler, with electronic score by Bernard Parmegiani
created for Pierre Schaeffer’s ORTF in Paris

Binary Bit Patterns
Michael Whitney
Pioneering digital computer animation

Beatles Electronique
Electronic Moon no. 2
Jud Yalkut and Nam June Paik
Visionary video art

Hermann Nitsch: An Introduction to the O.M. Theatre
Stephen Gebhardt
A shocking documentary of the ground-breaking Aktionist performance artist and composer

Part of the year-long 69 Series.

Northwest Film Forum
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
8:00 PM

16mm (original format) / 88 min.

A schizoid sampling of the incredibly diverse underground documentary and newsreel film scenes in 1969. The Black Panthers meet Pentecostal Christians amidst the psychedelic ruins of Chicago’s Democratic Convention Riots. Plus, a rarely-shown early interview with the legendary Kuchar Brothers.

Just added: Fallout Shelter Analysis by Computer Graphics, a Dept. of Defense instructional film for what was then a cutting-edge computer interface using a “light pen” stylus.

Testimony
Brian Patrick
A group of Pentecostal Christians in Athens, Ohio

Mayday!
California Newsreel
A “Free Huey” rally held by the Black Panthers in San Francisco, on the May 1 international labor holiday. Crypto-commie perennial Bob Avakian makes an appearance at the microphone as well.

Legendary Epic Yarns and Fables, Part 4: The Kuchar Brothers
Stephen Gebhardt
A no-holds-barred interview with the legendary underground exploitation filmmakers

Leo Beuerman
Gene Boomer
An Oscar-nominated look at the life of a severely handicapped man in Lawrence, Kansas

Campaign
Tom Palazollo
The 1968 Democratic Convention and its aftermath as seen through a local experimental lens

Just added!
Fallout Shelter Analysis by Computer Graphics
University of Utah Computer Center, for ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), US Dept. of Defense

Grand Illusion Cinema
Friday, October 30, 2009

Carnivorous Cartoons, Shocking Shorts, Asphyxiating Animation, Terrifying Trailers, Putrescent Previews…and Real Live Mayhem!

Do you dare to witness the ultimate onslaught of MONSTER MAYHEM as the Grand Illusion Cinema is overrun with creeps, spooks, ghouls, and fiends? Join us on our journey into the strange, dark world of the SUPERNATURAL as we try to make contact with the other side and invite the diabolical denizens of the spectral realms into our theater. You will see a GHOST! But you may not SURVIVE! Be there on October 30th and behold as the phantoms take over the screen for a night of the most unbelievably SHOCKING, THRILLING, and AMAZING fright films ever to scream their way into your rapidly melting mind. Can you survive the GRAND ILLUSION SPOOK-SHOW SPECTACULAR? See if you have what it takes!!

Among the pieces Lerman will be performing is Sections for Screen, Performers and Audience (1974), the score for which is on 16mm film projected so that both audience and performers can see it.  Joining Lerman in performing the composition are members of the Seattle-based ensemble Eye Music, which specializes in playing graphical scores.

The concert is being produced by Nonsequitur, a longtime supporter of avant garde and creative music.  The Sprocket Society will be helping out by projecting the 16mm film score.  We’re honored and excited to be participating in the program.

Other pieces being performed include:

• Sonic Journeys 2 — excerpts from Lerman’s Transducer Series: multi-channel field recordings made with self-made microphones played over dual video projections of footage from more than fifty Super 8 films made between 1982-1988
• Entrance Music — for home-made microphones and Walkman cassette tape delay
• Changing States 8 — for metal microphones, butane torches and computer
• Music for Plinky, Bicycle & Straw — for home-made instruments, bicycle, drinking straws, and Walkman cassette delay

Beginning the evening’s concert will be “a sonic celebration” for esteemed Seattle musician, sound collector, and instrument builder Susie Kozawa in honor of her 60th birthday. Everyone is encouraged to “Bring an object that makes a sound.”

Richard Lerman bio:

As a sound artist, performer and composer, Richard Lerman traverses worlds of sound and music.

For over forty years, he has been gathering, scanning, seeking sounds and creating works that weave through nature and draw upon living communities and memories in notable landscapes.

Lerman’s performances and recordings rely on everyday objects and traditional instruments as well as basic, self-invented equipment and state-of-the-art technologies, as they were available since the 1960s.  His scores and instructions are deceptively simple, yet produce extraordinary results.

As a filmmaker, sound documentarian, installation artist, and collaborator with other artists, he demonstrates that his conception of sonic reality and musical experience is interdependent with visuality, motion, actual sites and moments, theatricality, live audiences, and politics.

His art takes him from studios and concert halls to cities and the outdoors, worldwide.

It’s a good, basic but fairly thorough primer on how institutions (or individuals) with little or no funding for such things can undertake film preservation.  It includes the fundamentals (terminology, basic tech) as well as strategies and practices that should be followed.  It’s all very practical and realistic, easy to understand, and highly recommended.  There’s even sample forms like condition reports you can print out and use.  The “Resources and Bibliography” section is brief but well selected.

Preparation of the manual was funded by a grant several years ago from the Washington Preservation Initiative (WPI), which awarded $20,000 to the University of Washington Libraries to preserve films in their Special Collections (much it on 16mm) and create the manual for free distribution to other institutions.

This effort by Visual Materials Curator Nicolette Bromberg and her staff provided a springboard for the Washington Film Preservation Project in 2005-2006.  Funded by a $29,000 grant from the WPI, the Project brought together eight other museums, archives and libraries, as well as several institutions within the University of Washington, to learn film preservation techniques, and use the UW Libraries Special Collections’ facilities to inspect, clean, repair, and rehouse the films in their collections, as well as prepare digital masters and videotape viewing copies of selected holdings.

Also participating in the Washington Film Preservation Project were:

• The Burke Museum
• The Seattle Municipal Archives
• Everett Public Library
• The Highline Historical Society
• The Museum of History and Industry
• University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives
• Weyerhaeuser Company Archives
• Providence Health System Archives
• The Museum of Flight
• The Yakama Nation

Among the member organizations, “there are approximately 6,000 films in collections ranging in size from 50 reels up to thousands, most of which are original and irreplaceable materials. The format of most of the films is 16mm, although there is some 35mm, Regular 8mm and Super 8mm among the holdings. The films come from every corner of our region and cover every conceivable genre from industrial and educational films, to documentation and research films, to films created by students and those produced by professionals.”

This was followed by public screenings of preserved films at the Northwest Film Forum, the Yakama Nation Native American Film Festival, and elsewhere.  Excerpts from 27  films in the UW collection are now available as Quicktime video on the Libraries’ Digital Collections web site.

Bromberg also made presentations about the Project to the Seattle Area Archivists, the Oregon State University Archives, and at the 2007 Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) annual conference in Rochester, NY.

Poster for 'Zorro's Fighting Legion', 12 chapter movie serial

It’s official — The Sprocket Society will be curating Secret Sunday Matinee II at the Northwest Film Forum this spring, March 1 – May 24, 2009!

Now at a later time — 3 PM (by popular demand).  Each show will be a full two hours of classic and rare movie entertainment.  Series passes will be available.

Our movie serial this time will be Zorro’s Fighting Legion (1939), one of the all-time classics from the legendary Republic Studios, packed with literally non-stop action and featuring legendary stunt work.

The Secret Features — dating from the 1920s through the 1950s or so — will lean toward westerns, adventure, and swashbucklers, but we’ve got some curveballs in mind to keep you on your toes.  There will be two all-silent film programs (except for the serial, of course), and the return of the 13th Episode Show, a series-finale cavalcade of extra-special surprises.

The shows will remain family-friendly (suggested for ages 10 and up), but we’ll be aiming for a slightly older audience this time — sort of a kiddie matinee for grown-ups.

No self-respecting weekend matinee would be caught in public without its shorts, and there are even more surprising and rare treasures in store this time around — silents and sound, cartoons, comedies, music, trick films, experimental animation, and the just plain odd.

Watch this site for more info soon…

This was the first event we did under the moniker of The Sprocket Society, an idea me and Brian have been toying with which may or may not turn into something more. I was also able to use my new Elmo 16-CL, which meant matching projectors and no need to borrow the second one. Both were equipped with 38mm lenses, which meant an image about 50 percent larger than the standard 50mm lens — very nice.

Anyway, here’s the film list. As always, everything was shown from 16mm prints from my collection.

A still from 'Betty in Blunderland'

Betty in Blunderland (1934, USA, cartoon, b/w)
Directed by Dave Fleischer. Animated by Roland Crandall and Thomas Johnson.

Betty Boop falls asleep while working on a jigsaw puzzle of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” characters. The White Rabbit in the puzzle comes to life, and Betty follows him through a mirror into Blunderland, which is just like Wonderland, except that it has subway stations and a beverage called Shrink-Ola. Songs and wackiness ensue until the Jaberwock runs off with Betty. (Watch the film at Archive.org. Read an essay about this film by Paul Verhoeven.)

Take One (1970, USA, b/w & color)
An anthology of mostly obscure late-’60s period cartoons and short films by various artists, including student filmmakers.

• Ashes of Doom (1970, CA, live action, color) — Directed by Grant Munro & Don Arioli; Munro also appears as a vampire. A comedic anti-smoking PSA produced for the National Film Board of Canada.
• Pollution (1969, USA, animated, color) — Directed by James Conrad and other students of the Univ. of Southern California’s Animation Workshop Project. An animated treatment of the song (live version) by the great Tom Lehrer, which was also once shown on The Carol Burnett Show. (This is a different film from the 1966/1967 versions produced by Astrafilms for the US Communicable Disease Center.)
• 

  Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (1967, USA, live action, color) — Directed and written by George Lucas. An impressionistic depiction of a dystopian future in a surveillance state, and a man escaping from an underground city. Lucas’ famous but rarely-shown student film that helped launch his career and would later be the basis for his feature film, THX-1138. Showing this was only appropriate, since this night was the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars. (Watch the film via Google Video.)

• Eat to the Beat (n.d, animated, b/w) — A film by Ernie Schmidt. A parody of game shows and consumer culture.
• Lullaby (n.d., live action, b/w) — A bored married couple in bed, and the wife’s fantasy. Sorry, but I don’t have filmmaker info logged.
• Bananas (n.d., stop-motion animated, color) — Some fruit get it on. Sorry, again I’ve not logged the filmmaker credit.

A Trip to the Moon (orig. Le Voyage dans la Lune) (1902, FR)
Directed by Georges Méliès.
Shown with “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” by Pink Floyd, from Live at Pompeii.

The original science fiction epic (costing an astonishing 10,000 francs), borrowing liberally from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and thus a fitting prelude to the evening’s feature. This print includes the extremely rare concluding scene in which, after the travelers’ return to Earth, the citizens of the port town fete the heroes with medals and marching band, and a captured Selenite is paraded for public view. (Watch the film at Archive.org.)

The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1961, USA dubbed theatrical version)
Originally: Vynález zkázy (1958, Czechoslovakia)
Aka A Deadly Invention (Britain) and Les Aventures Fantastiques (France)
Direction and Production Design by Karel Zeman. Screenplay by Frantisek Hrubín. Set Decoration by Zdenek Rozkopal.

“A magical world of baroque submarines and sailing ships, killer octopus and undersea bicycles dazzles audiences as human actors, puppetry, animation and fanciful scenic design interact to create a cinematic experience that is unique by any standards. Mixing slapstick comedy, action adventure pacing and Méliès style film magic, this little known Czechoslovakian gem transcends the juvenile literature at its source to create cinematic art of the highest order.” (Quoted from RottenTomatoes.com)

Based on the Jules Verne short story The Deadly Invention with additional elements from the novels Face the Flag, The Mysterious Island, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Master of the World.

The story concerns the machinations of evil millionaire Artigas, who plans to use a super-explosive device to conquer the world. Artigas operates from a pirate submarine, wherein he has imprisoned the explosive’s inventor, Professor Roche, Roche’s assistant Simon Hart, and Roche’s daughter Jana. All are spirited away to Artigas’ secret base inside a huge island volcano, where the professor — foolishly believing that Artigas is a humanitarian — designs and builds the enormous, fantastic machines required to make the super-explosive. The uncooperative Hart sees the truth of the situation and tries to stop Artigas’ mad plan. In the end, Hart and Jana escape in an observation balloon as Professor Roche, now stripped of his illusions about Artigas, detonates the explosive himself and destroys the entire island in a mammoth atomic explosion.

The real star of the show is Karel Zeman’s gorgeous production design, which makes everything on screen look like an 19th century engraving come to life. Indeed, Zeman drew extensively (sometimes verbatim) on the original illustrations created by Alphonse de Neuville and others for the French editions of Verne’s novels. Zeman’s effects work is spectacular, using nearly every trick available at the time: miniatures, forced perspective, stop-motion and flat animation, marvelously detailed sets, matte work, and more. The American distributer dubbed the approach “Mysti-Mation,” though Zeman himself never gave his techniques such an overarching name. If you can find it, the Wade Williams DVD of this film includes a bonus “making of” short showing Zeman and his crew creating the effects for this and other Zeman films. (Scarecrow in Seattle has it for rent.)

Some related links:

• Selected clips from The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (via YouTube)
• Original press materials (in German): page one and page two
• Video clips from Eastern European animation masters (including Zeman) via Darkstrider.net

Poster for 'The Fabulous World of Jules Verne'

Original poster art for 'Nosferatu' (1922).

On Friday, September 29, Brian and Gary and I had a second Backyard Movie Party behind their duplex, just three weeks after the one on Labor Day Sunday. Miraculously, the weather cooperated and it was clear, slightly crisp night.

There are a couple great Flickr albums of low-light photographs of the evening by Patrick and Brian.

Following are the film list and post-facto program notes from Backyard Movie Party 2006, Part II – The Sequel. When available, the soundtrack on the film was used. For silent prints (and one sound film), recorded music from various modern sources was played. (iPod Nanos were just made for stuff like this.)

Cinematograph Souvenirs of America (1896, Lumière, FR)
Louis and Auguste Lumiere, and various operators
B/W Silent. Music: “Souvenirs” (1982) for organ by John Cage, performed by Stephen Drury.

Actualities and views filmed in the US by the Lumiere brothers during their first world tour in 1896. They and a crew would shoot new films in the country they were visiting. This footage would then be shown along with the original French prints at huge gala screenings received with tumultuous ovations. Included in this Blackhawk Films compilation are Lumiere actualities of Washington DC, New York City, a police parade in Chicago, and others. The organ music by John Cage was spacious, often very quiet and subtle, and slightly ominous. (I also like the intellectual pun of using Cage to provide the obligatory silent movie organ music.)

KoKo and the Kop (1927, US) b/w
Directed by Dave Fleischer. Produced by Alfred Weiss.
B/W Silent. A 1950 rerelease by Stuart Films, with added jazz soundtrack.

Max Fleischer, in his den, makes cardboard cutouts of some drawn city streets and buildings, tacking them to the wall. The inkwell is opened, and out come KoKo and his sidekick and foil, Pup. KoKo is a policeman who tangles with the hungry Pup, a prankster who’s intent on stealing a bone. Features some particularly surreal and fluid animation for the time. It not only got laughs tonight, it was played again as an encore by audience request. Earlier in 1927 there had been business changes (including a new producer), and the Koko series was renamed from Out of the Inkwell to Inkwell Imps. The different capitalization of Koko/KoKo’s name was a result of related copyright details.

'Betty Boop's Ups and Downs' - Earth for sale

Betty Boop’s Ups and Downs (1932)
B/W Sound. An NTA television print ca. late 1950s or early ’60s
Animated by Willard G. Bowsky and Ugo D’Orsi.
Directed by Dave Fleischer. Produced by Max Fleischer. Executive Producer: Adolph Zukor.

It’s the depths of the Depression, and Betty is dispossessed. As she leaves her house, a “For Sale” sign goes up. The picture backs away, and then the whole block is for sale, then the whole country, and finally, the whole world. The Moon gathers all the planets around to auction off the Earth. Mars and Venus do not bid high enough, but the planet Saturn gets the high bid to buy Earth (of course, the Moon demands cash up front from Saturn, not really seeming to trust him). Saturn decides to see what happens if he takes gravity out of the earth…so he reaches in and pulls out a large magnet. With no gravity, Betty and all her friends and the houses, etc. begin falling up. Gravity is reversed, along with all other activities on earth.

Aladdin’s Lamp (1906, Pathé Frères, FR)
(aka Aladdin and the Marvelous Lamp, orig. Aladin ou la lampe merveilleuse)
B/W, originally hand-colored. Silent. Music used: “My God My Love Has Come” by the Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar on Jajouka Between the Mountains (Womad Select CD, 1995)

Directed by Albert Capellani. Production Design by Hugues Laurent. Produced by Ferdinand Zecca.
Cinematography by Segundo de Chomon (who also photographed tonight’s The Red Spectre). With Georges Vinter as Aladin.

A trick film telling the legend of Aladdin and his magic lamp in simplified form. Peasant Aladdin falls in love with a princess. Promising he can win her hand, a mysterious stranger leads him to an enchanted cave, where he is beset by acrobatic gremlins and strange phenomena. He finds the magic lamp and uses it to escape. Back home, the lamp brings Aladdin wealth, luxury, and even marriage to the princess. But an evil magician appears and steals the lamp for himself. All of the magic is undone and Aladdin’s charade is exposed. He must regain the lamp or lose everything — even his life. Aladdin defeats the evil magician, regains the lamp and the princess, and lives happily ever after. In direct competition with Melies, Zecca was responsible for all trick films (and much else) for the Pathe company.

Original release poster for 'The Skeleton Dance' (1929)

The Skeleton Dance (1929, Disney US)
B/W Sound. Blue toned print
A Disney Silly Symphony (using the Cinephone sound process)
Animated by Ub Iwerks. Music by Carl W. Stalling. Directed by Walt Disney.

Watch The Skeleton Dance at YouTube. The supernatural hijinks that go on in a graveyard at night. A Halloween-season classic featuring dancing skeletons playing each other like xylophones, lovely animation art, and one of the very first Carl Stalling cartoon scores ever. This was the first Disney Silly Symphony film, a sound series created in the immediate afterglow of the smash success of Steamboat Willy. Shown was an extremely rare toned print (or rather, a color copy of a toned print). This is different from tinting, where a wash of colored dye is applied to black-and-white film. This colors the whites and affects the greys, but leaves the blacks (mostly) black. This is the most commonly seen early color process. Toning, on the other hand, is kind of the reverse. Through a chemical process, the black is replaced with a color — red, or blue, or whatever. The blacks still look true, and the whites in the image are still white. But the “greys” are now shades of the color — the red or blue or whatever — instead of black. It’s unusal to see now, and it can be very striking (like in this film). But during the later silent era it was increasingly common. Some deluxe productions even used tinting on top of toned stock. Imagine the possibilities.

The Merry Frolics of Satan (1905, Star Films, FR)
(orig. Les Quatre Cents Farces du Diable)
B/W with multi-colored tinting. Silent. Music: “Hal on Earth” and “Calling All Mothers” by the Hal Russell NRG Ensemble from Hal on Earth (Abduction CD, 1989)
Produced and directed by Georges Méliés.

Melies as Satan

Melies is at his peak in this riotous 1905 film. A pair of British dolts visit an old wizard to obtain magic “pills” (more like “bombs” really) that explode and create whatever the thrower wants. Naturally, the wizard is actually Satan himself, who pursues and, well, bedevils the hedonistic fools with an army of acrobatic imps. The more the dolts use the magic bombs, the worse things go. After destroying various vehicles, taverns and dining rooms, the Brits flee on a carriage…until the horse transforms into a demon and carries them all down a volcano, straight into Hell. Dancing legions of demons and imps hoist them overhead, roasting them on a giant gerbil-wheel spit as Satan waves with glee from his throne. Explosions, flame, and brimstone smoke obscure everything, and the film ends. Melies was commissioned to film a version of this to be part of a theatrical pantomime staged by the Châtelet. The show, based on an 1839 chestnut called The Devil’s Pills, included the “demon horse” sequence as film — the rest was staged live. After that production closed, Melies expanded the film, shot new sequences, and put it into general release through his Star Films company.

The Red Spectre (1907, Pathé Frères, FR)
(orig. Le Spectre Rouge, aka El Espectro Rojo, Satan de Divierte)
B/W with stencil color and hand-coloring. Silent with added electro-acoustic soundtrack of unknown provenance.

Directed and photographed by Segundo de Chomón (who also photographed Aladdin’s Lamp in this program).
In a strange grotto deep in the bowels of the earth a coffin uprights itself, dances, then opens, and out steps a demonic magician with skeletal face, horns, and cape. The devilish magician then performs a series of magical acts. A classic trick film of the time, much enhanced by Pathe’s trademark stencil coloring (albeit rather faded in this print), with the rather unusual addition of selected hand coloring. A beautiful and strange film. This particular print also came to me with an unusual optical soundtrack of electro-acoustic music — chamber-orchestral instruments combined with electronics. Some fragments I also recognized in the Blackhawk sound-added print of Nosferatu shown tonight. If the soundtrack was stitched together from royalty-free sources, then someone really put some love into it. Great stuff.

Fall of the House of Usher (1928, US)

A still from 'The Fall of the House of Usher'

B/W Silent. Music used: “Sense of Doubt”, “Moss Garden”, “Neuklon” by David Bowie (with Brian Eno), “Heroes” (LP, 1977)
Director/Cinematographer: James Sibley Watson, Jr. Set Designer: Melville Webber. Writers: Watson, Melville Webber and e.e. cummings, from the 1839 story by Edgar Allen Poe.

A beautifully abstract rendition of Poe’s dark story of the cursed Usher family and their doomed castle. One of the great silent avant garde films. Not to be confused with the longer French version by Jean Epstein and Luis Buñuel, also released the same year. Read some program notes about this film that I compiled in 2003.

Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922, DE)
(orig. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens)
B/W Silent, with added orchestral soundtrack (Blackhawk Films print)
Directed by FW Murnau. With Max Shreck as Count Orloff.

The great Murnau horror classic, albeit in the truncated 65 minute edit that has been most common. Fortunately, 90-plus minute restored versions are now available on DVD. Read more about Nosferatu at Wikipedia, which also has an interesting entry on the origins of the word “nosferatu”.

A backyard movie party

Blah blah blah…

Shortly after the September 3 Backyard Movie Party, house host Brian emailed me and said, “Let’s do another one on Friday, September 29.” I was positive it would rain, but said sure let’s do it. One 3D movie festival later and I’m back in town and Brian’s still up for it — so we go for it. By some miracle the weather actually cooperated beautifully (though it was a little chilly and the post-sunset condensation was more intense than I’d expected — note to self: more plastic bags next time).

Slightly smaller attendance this time, owing in part to the last-second invites (gotta stop that), and despite some returnees mostly a different crowd. Everyone was friendly and had a good time. I was especially flattered by the kind praises of an older gentleman I did not know who, I think, was of British extraction.)

Once again there was a feature (the one-hour version of Nosferatu with a pretty good added orchestral soundtrack) and a bunch of shorts. This one had a slightly artier bent. It was almost all silent film, with added music of one sort or another — except for two early sound cartoons from 1929 and 1932. Basically the program was influenced by the choice of feature (The Fabulous World of Jules Verne was another candidate) and anyway despite being a silent film geek, I don’t get to show them to audiences very much.

I’ve been doing movie parties since I was a kid (a tale for another day), but I can only remember one year when I was able to do two (one in the living room and one in the garage). Multiple screenings, sure, but not movie parties.

Brian has posted a Flickr album of photos from the night — some very nice low-light shots.

It was fairly last-minute and invitations were kept intimate, but even still there were a good 20 people or so lounging about Brian and Gary’s perfectly bowl-shaped backyard.

For me it was an extra special occasion as it was the 10th anniversary of having moved to Seattle, with the backyard movie party tradition being carried on, intermittently and mostly thanks to Scott Colburn, to now. I’ve been doing movie parties in backyards and garages since I was 10 or 11, so it was especially fun for me to celebrate this way.

This was also only three days before I left for the 10-day World 3D Film Expo II, about which I’ve been posting copiously. All the more reason, then, to show a couple 16mm anaglyphic 3D films.

Here’s the playlist of films we showed (all 16mm):

Superman: The Bulleteers (1942)
Fleischer bros.
8 min, color, sound
The 5th in the Fleichers’ legendary Superman series, and one of the very best of the lot.

Koko’s Earth Control (1928)
Fleischer bros. — prod. Alfred Weiss; director & animator(s) unknown
8 min, b/w, silent
Music: Integrales by Edgar Varese, cond. Pierre Boulez
One of the very last Koko the Clown films. In it, the world ends because the clown’s dog flips the wrong switch on the Earth Control machine. Features probably the bleakest ending of any mainstream cartoon ever. I thought the Varese hyper-doom worked very well with it.

[Maurice Sendak] (ca. 1964)
opening title & credits missing; provenance unknown
15 min, color, sound
Hanging out w/ Maurice in his studio, talking toys, books, and illustration. Awesome film.

The Palace of the Arabian Nights (1904)
prod. & dir. Georges Melies
15 min, b/w, silent
Music: tracks 6, 7, & 8 from Master Musicians of Jajouka, Apocalypse Across the Sky (Axiom/Island, 1992)
Hallucinatory “adaptation” of the Arabian Nights stories, featuring some of Melies’ most elaborate stagings ever. Rare.

Third Dimensional Murder (1941, aka Murder in Three Dimensions)
A Pete Smith Novelty, dir. George Sidney
7 min, red/blue anaglyphic 3D, sound
Early 3D release made to show off the effect. Seven minutes of non-stop throwing of shit at you! And the Frankenstein monster!!

It Came From Outer Space [digest] (1953)
dir. Jack Arnold
18 min, red/blue anaglyphic 3D, sound
A well made digest that has turned a little red with age but is still effective.

Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster (1974)
(aka Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster, orig. Gojira tai MekaGojira)
dir. Jun Fukuda
80 min, color, sound
The special feature presentation was more-or-less kept secret. The cheer that erupted when the title card flashed (after a nonsequitur intro) was one of the best moments of my summer. Not to be maudlin or anything.

Bimbo’s Initiation (1931)
Fleischer bros., animation by Myron “Grim” Natwick (uncredited)
7 min, b/w, sound
Great and weird early Bimbo / Betty Boop cartoon, complete with gleeful ass-slapping. “Wanna be a member? Wanna be a member? ……….Nyo.”

We had to scramble and relocate into the basement of Brian’s half due to rain. Unfortunately, the rain also meant a bunch of folks didn’t show up as they didn’t realize we had the basement option. On the other hand, it was already kinda cozy down there just with the folks who did show up, so maybe it was just as well.

The observant may note that some of the films shown were repeated for later backyard movie parties. This was largely because attendance for this one was sparse (plus they’re awfully good films). Now, however, effort is made not to have repeats…which is also easier now that my collection is larger. Then again, all rules were made to be broken, n’est ce pas?

Wabbit Twouble (1941, Warner Bros., USA)
Color, Sound.
Directed by Robert Clampett. Animation by Sid Sutheland, w/ Rod Scribner & Robert McKimson (uncredited).

Elmer seeks some west and wewaxation by going camping at Jellostone National Park. Unfortunately for him, he sets up atop Bugs’ rabbit hole. The first Bugs cartoon directed by Clampett, and the first of only four appearances of the “fat Elmer” character design (based on the real-life appearance of Arthur Q. Bryan, who provided his voice). The credits are written in Fudd-ese: “Diwected by Wobert Cwampett” and so on.

Betty Boop’s Ups and Downs (1932, USA)
B/W, Sound. An NTA television print ca. late 1950s or early ’60s.
Animated by Willard G. Bowsky and Ugo D’Orsi.
Directed by Dave Fleischer. Produced by Max Fleischer.

Earth goes bankrupt and is auctioned off. Saturn buys it and removes the magnet at the center, taking away gravity. Hilarity ensues. Includes some funny live action shots. One of the best Boop cartoons. (Repeated for Backyard Movie Party 2006, Part II – The Sequel.)

The Red Spectre (1907, Pathé Frères, FR)
(aka El Espectro Rojo and Satan de Divierte; orig. Le Spectre Rouge)
Tinting and stencil color, Added sound
Directed by Segundo de Chomón. Produced by Ferdinand Zecca.

A demonic magician attempts to perform his act in a strange grotto, but is confronted by a Good Spirit who opposes him. A delightful trick film that is only further enhanced by the added soundtrack of unidentified electronic and electro-acoustic music (portions of which were also used on my Blackhawk print of Nosferatu). Although the color has faded somewhat, it is still a lovely example of the Pathé Color stencil process.

The Merry Frolics of Satan(1905, Star Films, FR)
(orig. Les Quatre Cents Farces du Diable)
B/W with multi-colored tinting. Silent. Music: “Hal on Earth” and “Calling All Mothers” by the Hal Russell NRG Ensemble from Hal on Earth (Abduction CD, 1989)
Produced and directed by Georges Méliés.

A pair of British dolts visit an old wizard to obtain magic “pills” (more like “bombs” really) that explode and create whatever the thrower wants. Naturally, the wizard is actually Satan himself, who pursues and, well, bedevils the hedonistic fools with an army of acrobatic imps. The more the dolts use the magic bombs, the worse things go. In the end, a demonic carriage carries them into Hell, where they are roasted on a spit. One of Melies’ very best and most riotous films. (Repeated for Backyard Movie Party 2006, Part II – The Sequel.)

A Chairy Tale (1957, Nat’l Film Board of Canada, CA)
(aka Il était une chaise)
B/W, Sound
Norman McLaren, with music by Ravi Shankar

The amusing, surrealistic fable of a young man (Claude Jutra) who struggles to sit on a chair (animated by Evelyn Lambart) that refuses to cooperate. The film used McLaren’s pixilation technique of stop-motion animating people and objects. A superb film that was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Canadian Film Award and a BAFTA Special Award.

Night on Bald Mountain (1933, FR)
(orig. Une nuit sur le Mont Chauve)
Alexandre Alexeïeff and Clare Parker

An animated interpretation of the orchestral “musical picture” by Mussorgsky with additional inspiration from a short story by Gogol based on a Slavic fairy tale. It was the first film to use Alexeieff and Parker’s creation, the pinscreen — an obliquely-lit board with thousands of movable pins which create varying shades of white-to-black depending on how far they extend out from the surface of the board. The result is a gorgeous mezzotint-like effect. Alexeieff was also an illustrator and engraver whose works graced a number of books and anthologies.

Third Dimensional Murder (1941, MGM, USA)
(aka Murder in Three Dimensions)
A Pete Smith Novelty. Directed by George Sidney.
B/W 3D (red/blue anaglyphic), Sound

An early 3D release made to show off the effect. Seven minutes of non-stop throwing of shit at you! And the Frankenstein monster!! (Repeated for Backyard Movie Party 2006.)

Frankenstein (1931, USA)
B/W, Sound
Directed by James Whale. Art Director: Charles D. Hall. Set design: Herman Rosse.
With Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, and Dwight Frye.

The original horror masterpiece, with legendary sets and stunning expressionistic photography. This print includes the famous “Well…we warned you!” prologue, but does not have the complete scene of the monster with the little girl, cutting away just before he throws her into the water. That scene was censored after the initial release and was not restored to the film until after 16mm prints were no longer being made of the film. Still, a fantastic film that still holds up 75 years later.

It Came From Outer Space [digest] (1953, USA)
B/W 3D (red/blue anaglyphic), Sound
Directed by Jack Arnold

A well-made 18 min. digest that preserves the narrative of the classic sci-fi feature. The print has turned a little red with age but still has effective 3D. (Repeated for Backyard Movie Party 2006.)

A still from 'Frankenstein' (1931)