DEATH KNOCK!!!>>> • ZARDOZ (1974), •THE MELOMANIAC (LE MéLOMANE)
(1903), • DE DÜVA (THE DOVE) (1968), • THE MONSTER (1903), • PEACE ON
EARTH (1939), • THE TERRIBLE TURKISH EXECUTIONER [LE BOURREAU TURC]
(1904), • ZARDOZ (1974), <<<DEATH KNOCK!!!

TONIGHT: STRICTLY MEMBERS-ONLY
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SPLODGE! NOTES: 1st. Mon. NOVEMBER (03/11/03)
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4th. Quartile

NOVEMBER
AD 2003

Monday, 03rd.

Registration: 7.30 - 8.00 pm
Screening: >>>>> 8.00 (*EIGHT*!!!!) pm <<<<<

TONIGHT: STRICTLY MEMBERS-ONLY
MEMBERSHIPS STILL AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR ON THE NIGHT
DETAILS BELOW


DEATH KNOCK!!!

•THE MELOMANIAC (LE MéLOMANE) (1903),
In The Melomaniac, Méliès portrays a singing teacher who removes his
head six times as each is replaced and tosses the grimacing noggins
onto telegraph wires, where they remain to form the musical notes of
"God Save The King", played by an assembly of girls and a drummer. A
complex film to make, Méliès made multiple exposures of the same film
to achieve the effect of several heads perched on telegraph wires, to
comic and not a little horrific, effect. Dir. GEORGES MELIES. 2 mins.
NFVLS


•DE DÜVA (THE DOVE) (1968),
This is a brilliant satirization of the films of Swedish director,
INGMAR BERGMAN, especially THE SEVENTH SEAL (1958) and WILD
STRAWBERRIES (1957). It is a perfect parody in both style and
photography, but the best part is the writing. This is the
starkly-shot, black and white story of Nobel Laureate nuclear physicist
Viktor Sundkvist, whom we meet as an old man travelling through the
Swedish countryside on a crisp autumn day in his limousine. There are
long shadows from the trees and a chill in the air. Sundqvist, 76, is
being driven to a lecture at the university, when dove droppings
splatter the car's windshield. Answering nature's call, he stops his
driver near a bucolic outhouse, and sitting down, inside discovers a
ceramic dove on the floor. The dove reminds him of his lost youth.

Detouring at his uncle's old house, his mind wanders back to his youth,
when DEATH came to a family picnic to claim his sister, Inga. The young
Sundkvist recalls how he tried to prolong her time on earth by having
her challenge the black-robed figure of Death - whom he knows to be a
gambler - to a single-point game of badminton. During the game, an
errant dove interferes with Death's play of the shuttlecock by soiling
his cape, causing Death to curse at the bird, and distracting him
enough to miss the birdie. Having won the game, Inga is free, and she
and Viktor run off for, er, a swim in the lake.

The dialogue, seemingly Swedish, is actually Swedish-accented English
with most nouns ending in "-ska", augmented by hilarious subtitles.
Examples: Viktor begins his story in voice-over. "They callen me Viktor
Sundkvist." The subtitle reads, "My name is Viktor Sundkvist." Later
on, a youthful Sundkvist's cigar-smoking lesbian sister (MADELINE KAHN)
offers her brother a stogie, "Phallika symbol," she asks? The subtitle
reads, "Would you like a cigar?" It goes on from there.

Prod Co: Swedish Industries Productions. Prods: George Coe, Sidney
Davis, Anthony Lover. Dirs: George Coe, Anthony Lover. Phot, ed:
Anthony Lover. Scr: Sidney Davis. Cast: Pamela Burrell (Inga), George
Coe (Viktor), Sidney Davis (Death), MADELINE KAHN (Sigfrid), Stan
Rubinstein (Olin), Tom Stone (Gustav), Peter Turgeon (Uncle Anders),
David Zirlin (Chauffeur). 14 mins. NFVLS.


•THE MONSTER (1903),
In ancient Egypt, a prince requests a dervish revive his dead wife, who
is now a skeleton, but he is horrified when the neck of the woman,
covered by a sheet, grows to strange proportions and dances about.
After a time, the woman seems to return to normal, but when the prince
embraces her and lifts the sheet, he finds only her skeleton.

Another of George Méliès short films, this one lasting only a couple of
minutes. Once again, he jams as many camera tricks as possible into
such a short space of time. We are treated to such delights as a spooky
skeleton standing up and dancing. Its head then floats off and it
eventually turns into a beautiful young woman before turning back into
a skeleton. These effects are still enjoyable to watch after all these
years. The background image of the Sphinx also looks very realistic.
Méliès once again impresses his audience with his skilled camerawork.
http://www.stanford.edu/class/ihum22/media/TheMonster.mov Dir. GEORGES
MELIES. 3 mins. NFVLS


•PEACE ON EARTH (1939),
A small community of squirrels is slowly rebuilding their lives,
turning a landscape strewn with old weapons and helmets into a
colourful village. But the spectre of war is never far as young
squirrels are told stories of the Great War by their Grandpa. HUGH
HARMAN worked for MGM from 1934 to 1942 and directed, among other
titles, the famous A TALE OF THE VIENNA WOODS, 1934. PEACE ON EARTH, a
deeply felt hymn to peace and harmony, was released on 12 September
1939, on the outbreak of World War II. MEL BLANC is the (uncredited)
voice of Grandpa Squirrel. Made by MGM, this glorious Technicolor®
cartoon is set to a choral rendition of 'Peace on Earth to Men of Good
Will'. Prod Co: MGM. Prod/Dir: HUGH HARMAN. 8 mins. NFVLS


•THE TERRIBLE TURKISH EXECUTIONER [LE BOURREAU TURC](1904),
One of the earliest narrative depictions of the Middle East on film. A
terrible Turkish executioner beheads four prisoners by chopping their
heads off with a gigantic scimitar, and dumps their heads into a
barrel. However the severed bonces aren't happy with this treatment and
reattach themselves to their bodies, and exact revenge.

Amusing short which features plenty of the usual Melies camera tricks -
which are as impressive as ever. It's amazing to see decapitations and
the like on-screen this early, but they get shown in their full glory.
The highlight comes at the end of the film where the executioner
himself is chopped in half and both halves try to put themselves back
together again! It's a memorable moment. Méliès' shorts, like this one
here, usually only had the one location with a painted background. They
highlighted loads of early forms of special effects and also explored
techniques which are still used in films today. As a method of
experimentation, they're fascinating, and surprisingly well made. This
is as good as an example as any of the genius of Méliès. It's also a
good example of the "body horror" which made films like RE-ANIMATOR
(1985) so famous eighty or so years later.

Exactly *how* terrible is this executioner? Well, he can pull out his
great big sword and decapitate four men with one blow, which is
certainly efficient, and perhaps horrific enough for him to earn the
epithet "terrible." However, since the men don't die ( - which is the
point of an execution, after all - ), one might argue that this
executioner was totally ineffectual, hence he did a terrible job,
thereby making him in another sense of the word, "terrible." I would
therefore conclude that the executioner in question is indeed
"terrible" in every sense of the word. And now that I have spent
several minutes harping on the pun in the title, I feel the need to
point out that the movie is a three-minute Méliès short, and it takes
less time to watch it than it does to write this. (Isn't that just a
little bit pathetic of me, actually?) Dir. GEORGES MELIES. 3 mins.
NFVLS



and featuring:

•ZARDOZ (1974),
In CINEMASCOPE®!
It is the year 2293. A giant stone head floats through the sky over
green, unspoiled hills. A band of masked men on horseback gallop to
greet the head, which descends to hover a few feet above the ground.
The riders begin chanting a name: "Zardoz!" — the name of their god.
With a great, booming voice, Zardoz speaks, declaring that they are his
chosen ones "raised up from Brutality." To these, he has given the
"gift of the gun," with the declaration that "the gun is good, the
penis is evil!" — a phrase that the chosen ones immediately begin
chanting. Zardoz then begins spewing hundreds of guns and boxes of
cartridges out of his mouth, and orders his chosen ones to "purify the
Earth of the plague of men."

ZARDOZ is the brain-child of JOHN BOORMAN [EXCALIBUR (1981)], who
wrote, produced, and directed the film. It is a movie filled with lots
of interesting ideas, stunning visuals, and good performances. Boorman
had a budget of about one million dollars — two hundred thousand of
which went for the star, SEAN CONNERY, who was still struggling to
establish a post-James Bond career. Most of the rest of the budget
appears to have gone into the Zardoz head, bad hair dressers, and giant
plastic inflatables (of which Boorman is far too proud). Apparently the
key to immortality in the future is GLAD® Stand & Zip® Bags with
FreshProtect™. Boorman had complete creative control of the film and,
with nobody to rein him in, the whole thing crosses over into wackyland
at numerous points, and not just because of the inflatables.

The hero of ZARDOZ is Zed (CONNERY), one of the chosen ones, who stows
away inside the Zardoz head because he wants to learn the truth about
his god. He rides inside the head to an idyllic paradise called "The
Vortex", which is inhabited by a race of immortals. Curious to learn
how and why this "brutal" managed to find a way into the supposedly
impenetrable Vortex, the immortals decide to study him. The scientists
soon learn, however, that Zed is far more than just another brutal, and
that there is a diabolical purpose behind his coming to The Vortex.

The giant Zardoz head is really cool, both the model used for the
aerial shots and the full-sized head built on location. The set used
for the interior shots of the head is very good as well. Production
designer Anthony Pratt would also go on to work on EXCALIBUR with
Boorman. One of the things I like best about the look of ZARDOZ is the
combination of high and low tech. A good example of this is the bakery,
where the immortals grind their own flour and make their own bread by
hand, but they cook it in some kind of futuristic fusion oven. They use
horses and hand-carts for transportation, but have the technology to
levitate a 500 ton stone head. It's an interesting mix, and one that
works quite well, in my opinion.

The locations in Ireland are magnificent, and cinematographer GEOFFREY
UNSWORTH (SUPERMAN 1978, SUPERMAN II 1980) uses them to full effect.
Boorman would use many of the same locations in EXCALIBUR (sensing a
pattern here?), so if anything looks familiar, you'll know why.
Unsworth produces some amazing in-camera effects, making especially
good use of mirrors in a number of scenes. I particularly like the
scene where Zed discovers a communicator ring that projects holograms
into the air or onto other objects. Boorman and Unsworth manage to do
some very sophisticated looking effects in-camera that wouldn't even be
attempted today without CGI. The visuals alone make ZARDOZ worth a
viewing.

The performances are very good overall, though they go a bit over the
top whenever Boorman starts tripping over to wacky land. SEAN CONNERY
(OUTLAND 1981, HIGHLANDER 1986) is wonderful as Zed, with just the
right amount of physicality and intellectual curiosity. He does well
with some difficult scenes, such as when Zed mentally challenges one of
the immortals, Consuella (CHARLOTTE RAMPLING), and goes temporarly
blind in the process. He even plays one scene in drag! The actors that
play the lead immortals are very good as well. RAMPLING (Consuella)
brings a lot of energy to the role, with good intensity towards the end
of the film; she has perhaps the most awkward lines of the script, but
delivers them well. Sara Kestelman, who plays the immortal scientist
May, is very intense as well despite all the technical mumbo-jumbo that
Boorman gave her to say. JOHN ALDERTON (Friend) gives the film some
much needed comic relief, though I think he is under-used in that
respect.

The original music by DAVID MUNROW is very good, and Boorman also makes
nice use of Beethoven's 7th symphony.

If the '70s had instantly been transformed into the 23rd century, this
is a pretty good likeness of what it would be. Everything in this
future is plastic wrapped, from the people, to the plants, to the
buildings. Even CONNERYgets plastic wrapped at one point. If they're
not plastic wrapped, they're wearing pastels. The brutal executioners
wear bright red loin cloths and suspenders. The immortals wear
revealing knit tops when they wear anything at all. They actually seem
to spend quite a bit of time lying around naked on the windows (there
are a lot of sad little bare breasts in this movie and we even are
"treated" to an animated penis complete with erection).

Bad costumes would have been acceptable if John Boorman hadn't been so
out of control on the ideas, which are every bit, if not more, wacky
than the costumes. He's got way too much going on in this movie. Here's
a list of the messages identified in his "allegory":

Man is not meant to be immortal; it will ultimately destroy what it
means to be human.

God is in show business, and we are all puppets with somebody else
pulling the strings. ( - "Pay no attention to the man behind the
curtain!")

Immortality kills your sex drive — either that, or sex just becomes
boring after the first couple of hundred years.

Growing old, but not being allowed to die, is worse than just being
immortal.

"Apathetic" people can be revived by Sean Connery's sweat, first hand
is best, but second hand will do fine, if that's all you can get.

If you sit in the same spot long enough you'll eventually die there and
rot away to nothing.

Peer pressure works telepathically as well as verbally.

Okay maybe I'm taking it little far, but trust me, the movie takes it a
lot farther. There is so much "allegory" going on that it gets in the
way of the story.

The opening prologue is rather expendable. It features Arthur Frayn
(Niall Buggy) a.k.a."Zardoz" (or the immortal behind him anyway),
giving a discourse on the nature of existence or some such baloney,
ending with the enigmatic phrase, "Is God in show business too?"

ZARDOZ falls into the category of future dystopia that was so common in
the '70s, like SILENT RUNNING 1972, SOYLENT GREEN 1973, and LOGAN'S RUN
1977. ZARDOZ is worth a viewing for the visuals if nothing else. -
Gerry Carpenter. Prod: Twentieth Century Fox. Prod. Co: John Boorman
Productions. Dir: JOHN BOORMAN. Cast: SEAN CONNERY, CHARLOTTE RAMPLING,
Sara Kestelman, JOHN ALDERTON, Niall Buggy, Daisy Boorman, John Boorman
( - Farming Brutal Shot by Zed, & Zardoz-Mask & Head Model!). 105 mins.
RM



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Minor programme changes may occur due to unforseen
circumstances.
Feature runs last; shorts order may vary from listing.

* Acknowledging ACMI Inc. ;) *

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ADMISSION IS RESTRICTED TO MEMBERS FOR THIS PROGRAMME

THIS IS A FILM SOCIETY SCREENING OPEN TO MEMBERS

BUT IF YOU WISH TO BECOME A MEMBER, THE JOINING FEE IS SO LOW,
IT *MIGHT AS WELL BE FREE*!

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If you wish to join on the night, we strongly advise you to
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SPLODGE! GETS BOLSHY WHEN IT'S MATES ARE IN TROUBLE!

Our amiable hosts at The Empress Hotel, who supply us with a safe and
congenial space for our exclusive use and enjoyment ( - which we could
never otherwise afford - ) are under siege by nefarious anti-joy
forces, so we are rallying to their help!

If you support Splodge!, you can play YOUR part in helping fight the
sound restrictions unfairly placed on our beloved venue by signing THE
PETITION! And RETURNING IT! ( - You could send it back over to
Splodge!, or straight to the kindly folk at the Empress. If you're
coming to our future screenings, you'll find a hard copy of the
petition at our admin desk.)

http://www.theempresshotel.com.au/fair%20go.htm

- Splodge! says thanks for you consideration in this matter. You could
not begin to imagine how much our l'il film society owes these people!

"VicMusic supports it. Fair go 4 Live Music supports it.
100s, if not thousands, support it and enjoy it!

This call for help is wider, though, not only punters and musicians
need to respond to this call. Anyone who has taken advantage
of the colourful and diverse live music scene in Melbourne
will be affected by this. The Threat? One resident!

The Empress stands as a 16 year old supporter and promoter of live
music.

And her demise will undermine the value and joy of our inherent musical
talent, and jeopardise the future of local businesses and artists.
The solution? Well! Its starts with your support at the benefit gigs.

Highly regarded artists such as Vika and Linda, The Lucksmiths and
Machine Translations as well as locally celebrated artists such TZU,
Curse of Dialect, Music Vs Physics and The Dave Broadly Band, to name a
few have banded together, making a stand to save a stronghold of the
Melbourne Live music scene currently under fire.

The petition, already signed by so many across Melbourne, is available
at:

http://www.theempresshotel.com.au "


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