DVD Review: Les Maîtres du temps (1982)

The second of René Laloux’s widely-spaced sci-fi trilogy, Les Maîtres du temps is the weakest of the three, having neither the trippiness and allegorical smarts of The Fantastic Planet (1973) nor the visual inventiveness of Gandahar (1988). Nonetheless, as a children’s film (the other two have distinctly adult themes and imagery) it shows an admirable moral probity and has a serviceable if rather pedestrian story.

The cold open sees an imperilled spaceship crash-land on the remote and inhospitable planet Perdide. The occupants are a father and his young son. The father, Claude, sends an emergency distress call and gives his son Piel an interstellar communicator before dying of injuries sustained in the crash.

Review: Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush at the NFT

The Scenester skips along to the NFT to check out the showing of Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, complete with Hunter Davies Q&A.

What other decade could a film with the title Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush possibly has been made in? It was probably unnecessary for our friends at the National Film Theatre to place it fairly, but not squarely, in the Psych Sunsplash 67 series, so evocative was that title.

A few of you VHS devotees may have picked up a copy from television many years ago, but for those of us who missed it, this nugget was a real treat. So with a spring in the step, I raced to the South Bank as soon as the 5:30 bell rang, and sank a swift one before diving into the fabulous NFT1, beneath London Bridge. Hunter Davies, a man who needs little introduction, was on hand to let us know how he came to write the novel this film was based on, even showing us his personal copy of the book, complete with appliqué lips on the cover that seemed to pucker up when you walked past it. If anyone out there in Modland has an original copy with these lips still intact, you’ve got a valuable artefact, as Hunter reckons that constant handling in the shop nearly always resulted in the lips falling off!

DVD Review: Gandahar (1988)

The third and final animated feature in René Laloux’s sparse but luminous career is often compared unfavourably to his groundbreaking The Fantastic Planet (1973). In fact Gandahar is a compelling, moody, visually stunning work which though flawed evokes a genuine sense of the alien and the dreamlike.

Warrior Sylvain has been tasked by the Council of Women to discover the cause of a recent spate of deaths and abductions in peaceful, agrarian Gandahar. He travels across the ‘circumscribing oceans’ and discovers a race of mute, murderous androids who have been petrifying Gandaharians and spiriting them through a mysterious door. And the mystery deepens: for each body brought through the door, another android marches out.

Before solving the puzzle – an unusually satisfying and cerebral solution for animated SF – Sylvain has time to meet beautiful blue-skinned Airelle and a race of deformed mutants, both of whom are of help in his quest. Indeed, the imaginary menagerie of alien creatures is one of the film’s highlights.

Coming soon: The Sweeney - The Definitive Collection

What's not to love with The Sweeney? Fast cars, nasty villains (and even nastier wives), 70s fashions, a funky soundtrack, plenty of punch-ups and some of the best storylines and characters ever seen on the small screen.

It's all available from 29th October as The Sweeney - The Definitive Collection. Definitive mean everything, the first time all 53 episodes from the four series in uncut form plus the three Sweeney movies - Regan (1974), Sweeney! (1977) and Sweeney 2 (1978) - have all been released in one package.

The recommended price should be £99.99.

Find out more at the Network DVD website

Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who (2007)

Music biopics and documentaries seem to be popping up all over the place this year and one of the new music documentaries currently getting rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival is Murray Lerner's Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who (2007). The film was authorized by The Who and it's being called "the definitive" film about the band. The documentary runs two hours long and features lots of archival footage, as well as insightful interviews with the surviving band members.

The film has only gotten a limited theatrical release so far, but Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who is being released on DVD in North America on November 2nd and it will be released on DVD in the U.K. on November 5th. For more information visit the film's official website and check out the trailer below:

- Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who - Offical Film Site

- Kimberly Lindbergs

Cult Clip: Brain Damage trailer (1988)

Hopefully you have checked out our review of the DVD reissue of Brain Damage. If you're still not sure whether to buy or not, check out the original cinema trailer - which isn't too gory, you may or may not be pleased to know.

DVD review: Brain Damage (1988)

Ironic, that a film called Brain Damage should be smart and funny, and likely to give your brain a much better work out than LSD. Never mind the dry social subtext of Cronenberg. Frank Henenlotter makes his points just as well with a script that's as quotable as All About Eve. Gone is the rough dark and kit-gore of his earlier film Basket Case. Here, we get something a little more sophisticated. And just as much fun.

Things get underway damn fast.  It's not long before Brian, our hero, is host to a speaking parasite (part turd, part penis, part muppet) and some security guard is getting his skull drilled. From then, it's all you would expect from an 80s horror that's taking its cues from a culture of sex and drugs. A cheeky bit of bloody fellatio in a night club called Hell. A sequence that moves from seedy showers to toilet stalls with all the tension and tease of a Brian De Palma set piece. And of course, the cold turkey segment, which delivers some of the film's best lines in between twisting our melons with nightmare red stuff.

Win the best of British film on DVD

On the BBC and the cinema screens, we've been experiencing the Summer of British Film, showcasing classics and lesser-known gems from the British movie archives. And if you like what you have seen, you'll want to own the best of British film on DVD.

We've teamed up with ITV DVD and Optimum Home Entertainment to give away two sets of five key titles, each recently reissued - the controversial modern-day love story 9 Songs, Brit horror classic and must-own The Wicker Man, wartime blockbuster The Dam Busters, classic post-war thriller The Third Man and one of the finest British movies of the 1960s - Billy Liar. A great starting point for any budding movie collector.

The competition is running over on our sister site Modculture. If you want to enter, just follow the link below to find out more and to get your name in the draw.

Enter the best of British film competition

DVD Review: Bellissima (1951)

It seems like you can’t turn on the idiot box these days without coming across the newest reality show star turn. Thirteen weeks of Big Brother and the great British public vote for a winner who thinks Shakespeare directed Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet simply because he was the nicest of a particularly motley crew.

Concerns about the dumbing down of TV aside, it does make you wonder what televisual legends we’re going to revere in twenty or thirty years time. Genuine talent seems to be in painfully short supply, and nowadays producers are reverting to the lowest common denominator, which is your basic common-or-garden talent revue. There’s no denying that there are some people in this green and pleasant land that do have genuine skill and presence, but that’s not exactly why people tune in – it’s to see either cute kids being pushed to the front of the stage by pushy parents living a dream vicariously through their offspring, or the judges arbitrarily ripping into self-deluded but honest people.

Cult Clip: The Cry Baby Killer (1958)

In 1958 Jack Nicolson made his film debut as a teary-eyed juvenile delinquent in a low-budget American B-movie called The Cry Baby Killer (1958). In the film Jack plays 17-year-old Jimmy Walker who finds himself in a gunfight against a couple of young thugs. After he mistakenly thinks he's killed someone in the fight, Jimmy goes on the run and takes some hostages in the process.

The Cry Baby Killer was undoubtedly part of the inspiration for John Waters' 1990 musical Cry Baby with Johnny Depp and the movie is well worth a look if you like late fifties era drive-in flicks or just want to see a very young Jack Nicolson in his first film role. The Cry Baby Killer (Back-to-Back Jack Edition) is available on NTSC Region-1 DVD from Amazon. View the original movie trailer for The Cry Baby Killer below and enjoy the terrific theme song:

- Kimberly Lindbergs

Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush at the BFI

Not often seen - and certainly not on the big screen - 1967's Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush gets a showing at NFT 1 at the BFI South Bank in London on Friday 21st September, kicking off at 6:15 pm.

It's the latest Flipside presentation, under the heading Psych Sunsplash '67. And as well as seeing forgotten teen star Barry Evans swinging to a Spencer Davis Group/Traffic soundtrack, you also get two other 60s rarities to entertain you.

A Valentine For Tony Blackburn and Barry Evans is just that - the two men receiving cards from adoring fans in 1968. While In Gear (Look At Life) from 1967 is a trip round the era's grooviest boutiques.

Add to that a Q&A with Hunter Davies (novelist and screenwriter of Mulberry Bush) and the night looks like a winner. See the BFI website for ticket details and pricing.

Find out more at the BFI website

Look Back at England: The British New Wave

The Pacific Film Archive at the University of California in Berkeley is currently running a spectacular retrospective of British films from the late fifties and early sixties called Look Back at England: The British New Wave. Some of the terrific films being shown in the coming weeks include The Servant (1963), Room at the Top (1958), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Georgy Girl (1966), The Knack... and How to Get It (1965), Alfie (1966) and If... (1968).

If you're in Northern California you won't want to miss the chance to see some of these classic films on the big screen. The program started in early September and runs until October 27th. For more information about this special retrospective and all the films being shown, as well as ticket prices and show times, please visit the official Pacific Film Archive site below.

Look Back at England: the British New Wave

- Kimberly Lindbergs

DVD Review: All Coppers Are... (1972)

Almost everything released by Peter Rogers Productions has been a Carry On movie. But there were a few exceptions, including All Coppers Are... - a film about as far away from the bawdy British comedies as you can get.

Set in the shadows of Battersea Power Station in the early 70s, it's a tale of a good guy, a bad guy and the girl in the middle. And it's pretty grim, but at the same time very watchable.

The good guy is Martin Potter as Joe the 'copper', the bad guy is Barry (Nicky Henson) and the girl in the middle is the dough-eyed Julia Foster as Sue. All three meet at a wedding, none knowing the background of the other two. Joe has a brief fling with Sue, but when she finds out he's married with a young child, she drifts towards the flash Barry, getting involved in his latest get-rich scheme - which inevitably ends in tears.

Tartan Grindhouse unveils new budget horror titles

Tartan's horror arm, Tartan Grindhouse, has a new range of titles set for an autumn launch and at a budget price - Basket Case, Society, Bride Of Re-Animator and Killer Barbys vs Dracula.

Basket Case needs no introduction, with one man and his basket seeking revenge on the doctor responsible for their plight. 25 years old and still with the ability to shock. This reissue tags on a trailer and image gallery, all for a £7.99 price tag from October.

November sees the reissue of Brian Yuzna's bizarre 80s debut Society, along with Yuzna's Bride of Re-Animator and a first-time UK release of Jess Franco's Killer Barbys vs Dracula - a mix of punk, vampires and the spaghetti western apparently, which sounds like a seriously tempting prospect. The latter titles all retail for £9.99. Hopefully we'll have reviews before the DVDs hit the shelves.

Find out more at the Tartan Video website

Frenzy (1972)

In 1972, Alfred Hitchcock returned to London to make his last significant movie, the disturbing tale of a serial killer on the streets of the capital - Frenzy. And well over 30 years on, Frenzy still retains a darkness and menace, even with a few obvious flaws.

The dominant presence here is Barry Foster, once more playing 'Jack the lad' (as he did so well in Twisted Nerve and The Family Way), but this time with a much darker side as necktie murderer Bob Rusk. Yes, he rapes his victims before strangling them with his tie.

The police can't track him down and a bit of luck is coming his way. After murdering divorcee Brenda Blaney, her ex-husband (and friend of Rusk) Richard Blaney (played by Jon Finch) is seen leaving her office. And that starts a chain of events linking the murders to Blaney, aided in no small way by Rusk's occasional intervention.

Flame (1975)

Films about the rock biz are pretty thin on the ground and you won’t have to take your shoes and socks off to count the British variety. After the shiny-shiny Cliff Richard and Beatles vehicles that populated the early to mid 60s the new decade ushered in a new breed of rock film to match the increasingly darker, ‘party’s over’ mood.

Conventions shifted as we witnessed star-in-the-making, Jim MacLaine’s rise and rise and fall over two convincingly executed movies in That’ll Be The Day (1973) and Stardust (1974). Convincing in that the warts, sleaze, muck, highs and lows of pop stardom were so glaringly, lovingly presented, augmented by realistic never-bettered performances from David Essex and Adam Faith.

The production company behind these films had previously brought us rock excess masterpiece, Performance (1970) and in 1975 they transposed the hard knock grittiness of these movies into a new film, Flame. Starring the kings of cock-rock Glam, Slade, basically playing themselves, starting from wedding gig roots to stadium concerts via band fall outs, car crashes and the machinations of agents, managers and music big wigs.

Coming to DVD: The Fly Collection 1958-1965

This week 20th Century Fox will be unleashing their all new NTSC Region-1 The Fly DVD Collection which will include The Fly (1958), The Return of the Fly (1959) and The Curse of the Fly (1965). This terrific 4 disc DVD set features all new transfers of each of these classic science fiction thrillers and the films are presented in their original widescreen aspect ratios. This is also the first time that The Curse of the Fly has been made available on DVD in the U.S.

Besides the three movies mentioned above, The Fly Collection also includes a bonus DVD with a Vincent Price A & E Biography made in 1997, a short feature called Fly Trap: Catching a Classic, still galleries, poster art galleries and more!

The Fly Collection promises to be a real treat for anyone interested in classic science fiction films and monster movies. Few films have been as influential as the original Fly (1958). The film spawned numerous sequels and remakes, but it still has plenty of surprises to offer first-time viewers.

For more information about The Fly Collection please see Amazon

- Kimberly Lindbergs

DVD Review: Sleeping Dogs (2006)

Comedians don’t generally translate well into script-writing, especially when it comes to film. Not nowadays, anyway. Britain’s seen enough of its finest comic talents who trod the boards on Saturday Live or The Secret Policeman’s Ball go on to make crappy big-screen adaptations of their best-loved characters (Kevin And Perry Go Large, Ali G Indahouse) to reinforce the point. Trouble is, most characters are a one-note joke – you can’t do a lot with a character that’s so ubiquitous thanks to a catchphrase or an action. Borat only really succeeded because he was a “sleeper” character, and as such was able to get away with a lot more than Ali G, for example, couldn’t. We knew what Ali G would say, but not Sacha Baron Cohen’s other creation.
   
Even in America, comedians tend to shy away from writing their own film scripts because they’re either too outrageous or they prefer the safety of television, where they only have to fill half an hour and they call the shots. Jerry Seinfeld, for example, will never make a Seinfeld film. There won’t ever be a Cheers or Frasier movie. Dave Chappelle, who was so successful with Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, only went with a ‘concert film’.

DVD Review: Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998)

Strictly speaking, films about homosexuality are no longer about an ‘alternative’ lifestyle. This isn’t a recent demarcation, off the back of say, Kissing Jessica Stein or Brokeback Mountain. Homosexuality hasn’t been illegal in most countries, and certainly Western democracies, for decades, and so films that deal in sexuality should no longer be taboo. Romantic comedies should deal in both sides of the argument.
   
But strangely, they don’t. This has less to do with social acceptance and more to do with the prudish attitudes of cinema audiences. I mean, think about it: homosexuals of both genders are responsible for some of the most brilliant, awe-inspiring and inventive entries into the artistic canon as any heterosexual, but because of a biological imperative and centuries of social conditioning, we have to distinguish between the two sexualities, especially in the fields of film and literature.

It sucks. Just because someone prefers to get up to something ‘other’ in the bedroom, it must be made clear that their art is different because they themselves are. Gender politics are too complicated an argument to place into a film review, but I will say this – if you can enjoy Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, you can easily sit through this “trifle” by director Tommy O’Haver.

Demons Of The Mind (1972)

By the early 70s, everyone was getting just a little bored with Hammer's continual remakes of Frankenstein and Dracula (not that it stopped them making more), so new ideas were needed. And although most of these weren't commercially successful, for me the latter years of Hammer were some of its more interesting.

Demons Of The Mind is a typical example. A strange film set in a typical Hammer location - a small village full of pitchfork-wielding yokels and busty young ladies, dominated  by a local manor on a hill. But instead of a vampire or a monster on the loose, we have a mad serial killer.

And no prizes for guessing where that serial killer lives. Yes, the local manor house. That's where a local baron (Zorn - played by Robert Hardy) keeps his children locked up and away from outside influence. You see, there's a 'madness' in the family and the baron wants to make sure the children don't succumb to it. But as the bodies piles up, is it too late? Or is someone else in the house responsible? Don't worry - the bizarre climax with burning torches, pitchforks and a rather nasty spot of mutilation will sort it all out.

Shameless Screen Entertainment label launches

A new video label launches on 1st October - Shameless Screen Entertainment - offering to dig out those lost shocker and exploitation 'gems' of the past,  all with lurid 80s video-style sleeves and most released for the first time in the UK.

In fact, apart from The Black Cat none of the titles coming out in 2007 have been released on UK DVD and all are presented in their longest ever versions. Initial titles include New York Ripper, Phantom of Death, Torso, Killer Nun, Venus In Furs and the previously-mentioned Black Cat.

We'll have previews of each title (and possibly reviews) as and when they're released. All titles will retail for £12.99 or less.

Find out more at the Shameless Screen Entertainment MySpace site

Coming Soon: Grindhouse Trailer Classics

Grindhouse seems to be a word to  drop for just about everyone operating on the shock/horror genres thse days, but if you want to know the real meaning of the term, you might want to check out Grindhouse Trailer Classics.

Essentially, it's a two hour collection of promo, trailers and clips from movies operating outside the mainstream in the 60s 70s - so expect sex, drugs, violence, destruction, monsters and freaks, all compiled by an expert of the genre - Marc Morris (co-author of Shock! Horror! Astounding Artwork from the Video Nasty Era).

With titles like They Call Her One Eye, The Thing With Two Heads, Three On A Meathook, Ilsa: She Wolf Of The SS, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, Blood Sucking Freaks, The Corpse Grinders and Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman, you should know what to expect. And if that's not enough, there's also a feature on the history of grindhouse, along with  sleeve by horror artist Graham Humphreys, the artist behind the theatrical poster campaigns for The Evil Dead and A Nightmare On Elm Street, and whose artwork has graced the album sleeves of bands such as The Cramps and The Lords Of The New Church.

Grindhouse Trailer Classics will be released on DVD by Nucleus Films on 24th September 2007. Expect to pay around £14.99.

More about the DVD at Amazon.co.uk