Modern acting. Very flat. Restrained. Low emotion, low charisma even during allegedly emotional moments. If someone did a legit psychodrama it might affect the audience like The Great Train Robbery at this point.
Mario Bava on the troubles he faced while making 'Planet of the Vampires' (1965):
"I wish that the audience and the critics knew the conditions under which I am forced to make movies. For 'Planet of the Vampires' (1965), I didn’t have anything to work with. There was only a studio, completely empty and squalid, because there was no money: I had to turn that into a [mysterious, alien] planet.
So what did I do? In the studio next door there were two big plastic rocks, a leftover prop from a sword-and-sandal movie or something. I took these two rocks and I put them in the middle of my studio, then I covered the floor with smoke and I darkened the white wall in the background.
I shot the whole movie by moving the two rocks around the studio. Can you believe it? And, while I was shooting, there was this American screenwriter who kept rewriting the script, changing scenes and dialogues… After a while, I stopped listening to him.
Do you remember that, at the end of the movie, the astronauts land on planet Earth at the beginning of its existence? Well, the screenwriter wanted the astronauts to get off the spaceship and meet Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which was located in Missouri, USA. Naturally, I refused to shoot this kind of stuff."
(Mario Bava's interview with Luigi Cozzi, translated by Cinepugno, 1970)
Danzig loves Z-grade movies, and not in an MST3K Gen X irony-bro way. He genuinely loves them. Their imagery and DIY aesthetic really informed his version of punk. When you read his zine movie reviews, you can tell he turns his nose up when the production values are too high
***ANNOUNCEMENT***
Coming on July 27th on Blu-ray in the UK from @SecondRunDVD: #JiříTrnka: #PuppetMaster (1953/1947)!
Czech artist Jiří Trnka (1912–1969) is the internationally revered master of puppet animation, often dubbed 'the European Walt Disney'. Painter, illustrator, designer, and author of fantastic tales, Trnka came from a family of toymakers and the era of marionette theatre, and in his films created magical worlds with his sets, costumes and puppets. Often borrowing from Czechoslovak folklore while inventing novel techniques in stop-motion cinematography, many of his films use allegory to produce political satire, often evoking the ire of State censors.
This collection brings together two of Trnka's most beloved and intricate works - Old Czech Legends (Staré pověsti české, 1953) and The Czech Year (Špalíček, 1947), two epic animation spectacles combining elaborate camera work, design, and puppetry with magical storytelling and a cast of delightfully fanciful creations.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
• **FIRST PRESSING LIMITED EDITION SLIPCASE - strictly limited to 2000 copies**
• Old Czech Legends (Stare povesti ceske, 1953) and The Czech Year (Spalicek, 1947) presented from 4K restorations by the Czech National Film Archive.
• Introductions to both films.
• The Puppets of Jiri Trnka documentary.
• Archival Czech newsreels on Trnka.
• The Hand (Ruka, 1965): Trnka's renowned animated short film.
• Badly Painted Hen (Špatně namalovaná slepice, 1963): the acclaimed animated short film by co-screenwriter of Old Czech Legends and regular Trnka collaborator, Jirí Brdecka.
• Trailers.
• Booklet with writing by experts on Czechoslovak cinema Peter Hames and Jonathan Owen.
• New and improved English subtitle translation.
• Region free Blu-ray (A/B/C).
• World Premieres on Blu-ray.
All features subject to change
Technical details:
• Language: Czech
• Subtitles: English
• Running times: 85 minutes / 80 minutes
• Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
• Colour
• Video: BD50 x 2 / 1080p / 24fps
• Audio: 2.0 Dual Mono LPCM (48khz/24-bit)
• Discs: 2
• Region A/B/C (Region Free)
#BluRay #PhysicalMedia #BluRays #BoutiqueBluRay #CultMovies #DiscConnected #SecondRunDVD #SecondRun #Puppetry #Animation