Soy Cuba - Mikhail Kalatozov - Cuba/URSS - (1964)

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058604/ 

Plot from Imdb: "Four vignettes in Batista's Cuba dramatize the need for revolution; long, mobile shots tell almost wordless stories..."

Where to start ? To begin with, it's a movie from genius director M.Kalatozov, who won the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 1958 for "The cranes are flying", another great movie. But "Soy Cuba" is a tremendous leap forward, because it contains almost all of the modern cinema techniques. Some shot are so innovative for that time, it's almost unbelievable. It starts with a slowly moving, grand angle sequence, in a pirogue, it cuts to one of the most famous scene of this movie, the "wild capitalist party" sequence shot, that starts in a hotel roof to end IN a pool, ten floors below. And so on, and so on...I could tell you also about the "procession" sequence, with "flying cameras", etc... but there is no end to it. It goes on and on, it's mesmerizing and overwhelming. This movie has been shelved during years by the communist authorities, that though that it didn't do its works well as a piece of propaganda (the "wild capitalist party" looks great, I must say), therefore nobody knew about this movie until Francis Ford Coppola & Martin Scorsese found it, restored it and distributed it. Thanks to these greats directors, we can at last see this masterpiece !

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

trailer: 

Roof-pool sequence shot:

CHOPPER - Andrew Dominik - Australia - (2000)

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221073/ 

Plot from Imdb: Chopper tells the intense story of Mark "Chopper" Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a jail sentence in prison. His book, "From the Inside", upon which the film is based, was a best-seller.

Great Insane movie about a legendary man, Mark "Chopper" Read. After watching the movie, I was so much interested in the character that I bought his first book and read it. And it's fucking hilarious...You can't believe the shit this man has been through but it helps to understand why he sometimes acts so roughly. A one of a kind criminal, he attacked, tortured and robbed- or killed drug dealers & other fellow criminals only. Never laid a finger on a "civilian".  That's nice for us. My kind of criminal: a hardcore gangster, with a code. I guess everyone has to live by a code.

Andrew Dominik's movie, thanks to the AMAZING performance by Eric Bana , is really great and does the book justice. Just go & watch it, it's an all time classic crime/prison movie !

Cheers, mates !

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 The real Mark "Chopper" Read:

 

And for those of you,  rapists & woman bashing pieces of shit, a warning from Chopper:

The Trip - Roger Corman - USA - (1967)

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062395/ 

Plot by Imdb: Paul Groves (Peter Fonda), a television commercial director, is in the midst of a personality crisis. His wife Sally (Susan Strasberg) has left him and he seeks the help of his friend John (Bruce Dern), a self-styled guru who's an advocate of LSD. Paul asks John to be the guide on his first "trip". John takes Paul to a "freak-out" at his friend Max's (Dennis Hopper) pad. Splitting the scene, they score some acid from Max and return to John's split-level pad with an indoor pool. Paul experiences visions of sex, death, strobe lights, flowers, dancing girls, witches, hooded riders, a torture chamber, and a dwarf. He panics but John tells him to "go with it, man." Would you trust John? 

Roger Corman is my MAN ! Peter Fonda in the main role and a script by Jack Nicholson (you can laugh), it's written you'll end up with a weird movie for sure. Did I mentioned Dennis Hooper as an Acid Freak Master (this guy is a republican, now ? Come on !) ?  The plot is really funny because it's very cliché, everything is what you'd expect to see from a movie about the "LSD experience", a very incommunicable experience indeed. The hallucinations sequences are hilarious, specially the "middle-age" part (as the dwarf say in "Living in Oblivion": Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it? Do you know anyone who's had a dream with a dwarf in it? No! I don't even have dreams with dwarves in them. The only place I've seen dwarves in dreams is in stupid movies like this! "Oh make it weird, put a dwarf in it!". Everyone will go "Woah, this must be a fuckin' dream, there's a fuckin' dwarf in it!".) And there is a dwarf in it. And hooded riders. Year I know. Hallucinations are not what they used to be. 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Intrepidos Punks - Francisco Guerrero - Mexico - (1980)

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0236328/ 

Fucking ridiculous punks, nuns with guns, pathetic car chases, "novella" gang rapes, "Mad Maxian" cave orgies, good guys with stetson and mustaches and "todo en Mexicano"...Make sure to check the main couple, with the chief (the Mexican wrestler with a disco mask) and the beautiful (I have a wig but don't tell) blonde . Whoa ! A real treat for serious weirdos like us !

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Man with the movie camera (music from the cinematic orchestra) - Dziga Vertov - Russia - (1929)

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019760/ 

 The film Man with a Movie Camera represents
AN EXPERIMENTATION IN THE CINEMATIC TRANSMISSION
Of visual phenomena
WITHOUT THE USE OF INTERTITLES
(a film without intertitles)
WITHOUT THE HELP OF A SCRIPT
(a film without script)
WITHOUT THE HELP OF A THEATRE
(a film without actors, without sets, etc.)

Un-fucking-believable experience watching this classic Russian experimental movie. It blew my mind !  Those guys had invented EVERYTHING, from all kinds of editing techniques to framing, angles, depth of shot, multiple screens, etc....This version is even more amazing , thanks to the wonderful music from the Cinematic Orchestra (Edited by Ninjatune)

 

  

  

  

  

  

Watch it entirely here, it's only one hour long. But one hour really, really, really well spent !

Ilha das Flores - Jorge Furtado - Brazil - (1989)

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097564/

Very well done & powerful short movie, that tells us something about contemporary society.

Watch it entirely in Brazilian with english subtitles, part 1:

part 2:

In spanish:

Australian Modern Western: RED HILL - Trailer

When a young police officer, Constable Shane Cooper, relocates to the small high-country town of Red Hill with his pregnant wife, he does so in the hope of starting a new family. But when news of a prison break in the city sends the local law enforcement officers into a panic, Shanes first day on duty quickly goes from bad to worse.

 

Tough Shit !

Tough Guy Challenge 2010