A Bad Seed at MUFF

Mick Harvey with Marina Lutz from The Marina Experiment and I at MUFF this week.

Charlie Brooker genius

Yes, its true. Watch season five of his media critique show and tell me if you disagree…you tit.

Metlink calls the Karma Police

Remember those Connex/Metlink Fare Evader ads that told you people who didn’t buy a ticket should not breath? If not, see below. They signaled, at least for me, an example of the overt threat that is often hidden within Capitalism’s framework being revealed publicly here, at least in a small way. Well the threatening side of Capitalism’s advertising campaign world has gone all new age, and called in the karma police. See here.

Now, if you don’t buy a ticket you will hit by lightning, or sit on a chair with wet paint, etc. This also brings out and unconceals the hidden threat in much new age philosophy.

It is all crap don’t you think? Public transport should be and could be free, for example, at small cost to Government. For a small outlay of money (250 mill a year), it would enable many poor people to use public transport more often, and encourage people of further means to leave their cars behind and reduce carbon emissions, traffic congestion, and other car pollutions.

Fuck this stupid ad campaign, I say. Thoughts?

The Metaphysics of the Saw pentalogy

Saw Saw V. I liked it. Its one of the best in the growing series. I then saw Saw 4 to fill in the gaps on DVD as I missed its theatrical. Here comes Tricky Dicky’s analysis of the saw Pentalogy of films, that shows no signs of stopping as it moves next year onto a hexology!

The Saw films are about torture. But they also claim to about existential authenticity. The Saw films are presented as a caveat about the dangers of not appreciating life in its fullest existential dimensions. I have commented elsewhere that while the Saw films offer us a picture of ‘torturing for your own good’, they have failed to meet up to the challenge of their own thesis on occasion. The problem? The Saw film series premise often has tortures that no one would care to survive alive. So, built into the ‘torture for life’ motif is its own erasure with the ‘you will be tortured until you don’t want to live or sustain injuries to be sure you won’t’ motif.

This negative dialectic is part of the series charm and appeal, I suspect. Its extreme nihilism has resonated with the under 30’s of today. The torture conundrum of its plot they must relate to on some deep level, as it probably best condenses the emptiness of their lives into short torture porn vignettes.

The Saw series is highly original in its theme and gruesome nature all the same. It presents a metaphysics of torture that is both disturbing and prescient, albeit negative.

The new movie Saw V is one of the best of these films. The director of Saw V is David Hackl. The name Hackl recalls to my mind the early proto-fascist biologist and eugenicist Ernst Haeckel who believed and advocated the scientific guidance of all nature coming together to form the perfect organism; i.e. the monism. Interestingly a Haeckel motif is at work in Saw V! That of perfecting the organism. Jigsaw does it through torture. Haeckel did his work and theorising through science. The desired result: Nature perfected!

Hackl, the director, weaves two stories together in Saw V. The first concerns a detective hunting down a renegade psycho cop who is now carrying on Jigsaw’s work. The second is about a group of five people who have to survive the Jigsaw advocate’s games. A third element concerns more Jigsaw back story, which is always fun if you like Tobin Bell, as I do. The torture scenes in the second segment slowly apply Social Darwinistic laws to the five folks under Jigsaw’s world view made flesh. Soon only two are left. The challenges up to now have been believable and challenging but leaving the all important room for survival unscathed. The last torture though is absurd and revolves around ripping your arms to shreds to feed blood into a trap to release you. Again here the return of nihilistic motif of complete and utter hopelessness and defeat.

The metaphysics of the Saw series could be and should be more fertilizing with its clever premise. Still after five films they are still Nihilista par excellence. Maybe this metaphysics of nihilism is the key to the series success? It is now the biggest horror franchise in US history. James Wan and Leigh Whannell can be very proud of that fact. My favourite Saw film is still Number one, where Jigsaw’s games had some semblance of possible escape and a more fertilizing mythology of violence.

But at bottom it seems the films and their makers are aware of the twisted nihilistic logic of the Saw pentalogy and are afraid to fix something that ‘aint broke. Financially, that is of course, due to the films continued dominance at the B.O. every Halloween. With future installments could the franchise be moved in the direction of a more fertilising orgy of positive violence? And less the cul de sac of unending nihilism? I would hope so…

Whatever happens these films need to receive more serious critical attention. They are often dismissed as ‘torture porn’ or just gruesome, going over the heads of most reviewers afraid to confront what the films might actually portend. This dismissal from critics only goes to show the disturbing intellectual and cultural issues at the heart of the Saw series. Issues that I hope would receive more serious attention from film critics world wide.

Richard Dreyfus calls Oliver Stone a fascist

Richard Dreyfus, who I have always liked since Jaws, seems to have done an excellent job playing gray eminence Dick Cheney in Oliver Stone’s W. biopic. See interview below, where he calls Oliver Stone a left wing fascist and talks about W. being a sympathetic, and hence pro Bush movie in essence. His candor is admirable.

Was Jorg Haider assassinated?

The conspiracy theories grow. See here and here.

I’m beginning to think it is a possibility. What do you all think?

As my last film Pearls Before Swine was about an assassination attempt on a right wing revolutionary, its a topic that I find fascinating to muse on…

Here is his car with many anomalies not akin to a run of the mill car accident. See sites above for more theories…

Thousands turned up for his funeral. See here.

MUFF Festival Director picks for 2008

There are some truly amazing films playing MUFF 2008. Here’s is a festival director’s pick of fifteen totally ace must see flicks, that only scratches the surface of MUFF 9:

Gates Of Hell, new Oz horror starring Michael Piccirilli from Kelly Dolen and David Parker

Acolytes, Jon Hewitt, Joel Edgerton, Michael Dorman, Belinda McClory as baddies and serial killers, Clarkesque teens, combined = magic.

Wicked Lake, sexy girls, blood, mayhem, very naughty.

The Horseman, raped daughter, pissed off Dad goes after those who hurt ‘his little girl’, amazing new Oz genre film! With Steven Kastrissios in person!

Deadgirl, straight from Toronto’s Midnight Movies section to MUFF, a sexy female corpse and two horny teenagers. You do the math.

Soi Cowboy, straight from Cannes, Thomas Clay (Great Ecstasy Of Robert Carmichael) in Thailand, hookers, gangsters, a stylish and powerful new film.

Cannibal Suburbia, a bizarre first feature from Jean Luc Syndikas, what Suburban Mayhem should have been! Think Papa Lazorou from League of Gentlemen torturing
a bug eyed freak all in sunny Melbourne suburbia.

The Run, a young broke UK couple import drugs in their stomachs to Her Majesty’s Kingdom, all goes swimmingly well, until it doesn’t. Directed by expat Aussie Tania Meneguzzi.

When You Comin Back Red Ryder?, Marjoe Gortner intimidates the fuck out of everyone he meets in this classic 70’s exploitation flick and reveals that life’s message is essentially shit.

Mishima, Paul Schrader’s bio of Japanese writer and avant garde fascist Yukio Mishima.

Atrocity Exhibition, Ballard’s most controversial and experimental novel adapted.
A brilliant film that equals Cronenberg’s Crash in daring.

The Story of The Eye, Bataille’s controversial novel made into a film. Say no more!

Devils Gateway, Micheal Piccirilli (Gabriel, Gates Of Hell) cements his position as the actor leading the new wave of Ozploitation films. Great new Oz spook horror!

Xaviera Hollander: The Happy Hooker. Amazing MUFF doco in Sexy MUFF about 70’s erotic writer and icon, with John Patti out from the States as our International Guest to tell us all about Xaviera and making this tres cool doco.

Tin Can Man, our Closing Night Irish masterpiece from major directorial discovery Ivan Kavanagh. A surreal violence and intimidation symphony with the amazing Micheal Parle. My pick of the festival.

Add to that Dean Bertram’s a Night Of Horror shorts down from Sydney with Dalibor Bakovic’s superlative terror short The Ancient Rite of Corey McGillis , Ivan Borgnino’s cool SPLIF shorts from Perth, Paul Elliot’s Polyester Books short and Salo doco’s happening, Mitch Davis’s Canadian Horror shorts, Avant MUFF from Mike ‘Bad Lit’ Everleth, classic Mini MUFF shorts,  put that all together and we have the best MUFF ever!

Still above from Gates of Hell. See you all at Opening Night!

Antony longs for Another World

The new Antony and the Johnsons single is here, from the Another World EP. Beautiful as usual, and it about sums things up.

Another World…shame there appears to be only one.

Everyone’s Critique of The Melbourne International Film Festival

Copy of text being distributed at MIFF 2008. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF) critique of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). This year MIFF is a massive cinematic behemoth filled with some films you don’t want to see, some you do and indeed should see, and a pile of other so-so material to look politically correct and culturally diverse. We at MUFF have been somewhat quiet about MIFF and its new director Richard Moore, allowing him 18 months to settle in (…to be fair). And with the theme at MIFF being “Everyone’s a critic”, we couldn’t resist actually taking MIFF’s theme seriously and providing our wee critique of their 2008 festival. Tally Ho!

Everyone’s a Hypocrite

Richard Moore, the new MIFF director has been changing his festival, as you can see from this year’s catalogue and last year’s. He has been moving it more in the direction of MUFF and transgressive cinema, and good on him for that we say.

But, due to the choice of the Opening Night film, Not Quite Hollywood, and some issues it raises Vis a Vis genre filmmaking in this country, we can’t help but point out a huge hypocrisy at MIFF in 2008.

Not Quite Hollywood is made by local filmmaker Mark Hartley, who has a video clip and film background. He also put together many of the DVD extras for Jeff Harrison’s Umbrella Entertainment. Mark Hartley and I go way back, as he was a Production Manager on my first feature, Bloodlust. Hartley, like myself, and many other Australian filmmakers under 50, has been a big fan of the golden years of Australian genre filmmaking.

A little back-story… At MUFF we can take a little credit for fostering an interest in Ozploitation cinema, I believe. At MUFF in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2005, we have curated retrospectives (Turkey Shoot, Alvin Purple, Patrick, Thirst, Pure Shit etc.) which focussed on playing many of these classic Australian genre films featured in Not Quite Hollywood and the Ozploitation retrospective at the MIFF in 2008. I have been a huge fan of this Australian genre cinema, and as soon as I started MUFF in 2000, I made it a yearly agenda for us to focus on it. At MUFF 2000, Jeff Harrison and I had lunch to talk about good films that could come out through Umbrella Entertainment. I suggested a few different areas of interest, particularly the need to get the aforementioned classic OZ films out on DVD. This happened after the MUFF in 2001 as well.

Jeff Harrison went on to successful release these classic Oz genre films on DVD (and many others we never played at MUFF) in Australia, and Mark Hartley started amassing interviews from the classic filmmakers, crew and their stars creating the DVD extras for Umbrella. From this resource, the project Not Quite Hollywood was born. We fully applaud and support the documentary Not Quite Hollywood for turning this fascinating era into what sounds like a fascinating feature film.

But I digress… The hypocrisy I speak of comes from MIFF suddenly implying that they are fans of Australian genre films. They lauder Not Quite Hollywood (deservedly) and programme some of the classic films it documents BUT, and it’s a big BUTT, they still reject new Australian genre films, year after year… and continue to do so this to this very day!

I mean, is Not Quite Hollywood, as MIFF understands it, a ‘wake’ for the good old days of Australian films, or a springboard for a new onslaught of exciting, new Australian genre films?

In the new Australian feature films section, there is ONE genre film. ONE, which is my friend Jon Hewitt’s excellent Acolytes, and we fully applaud its inclusion and recommend you all see just  how excellent it is! But in the past eight years, many, many Ozploitation films of today have been rejected from MIFF – a figure close to 50 features at least! To name but a very few of the great OZ genre films rejected from MIFF: Razoreaters by Shannon Young, Stygian by James Wan and Shannon Young, The Magician by Scott Ryan (accepted in its redux government funded form a few years later), A Nocturne by Bill Mousoulis, Demonsamongus by Stuart Simpson, Narcosys by Mark Bakaitis, Black Water by Andrew Trauckl and David Nerlich, Reign in Darkness by Kel Dolen, Gabriel by Shane Abess, Defenceless by Mark Savage, The Money Shot by Anna Brownfield, The Garth Method by Gregory Pakis, Four Jacks by Mathew George… I can go on and on.

So, what I am trying to say is: “What is going on here?”  MIFF wants to be a champion of Ozploitation (in the ‘safe’ past) but foil every attempt at its revival, by its non-inclusive and non-supportive programming?

MIFF can programme what it likes, but it is the opinion of many in the Australian film industry that we need to make more genre films in this country – which is what people want to see! And… with the industry in such a disastrous state, how can we ignore the need for innovation and change heralded in Robert Connolly’s excellent paper Embracing Innovation?

This year at MIFF, you have Richard Moore praising the classic days of genre filmmaking, but yet still not accepting the very filmmakers who would bring back these golden days of genre in a heartbeat! i.e. If anyone ever gave them the support they need, like festival screenings, decent budgets etc., If this occurred, who knows what could happen?

MIFF is Australia’s largest and most attended festival. Therefore I feel that it has a duty of care to Australian filmmakers, to support and promote their work, etc. (Hence our critique here!)

The classic selection of genre films from the likes of Brian Trenchard Smith and Richard Franklin is great. We have promoted Ozploitation at MUFF many times over the years, as previously mentioned. However, we have followed it up by playing every genre film from this country that we could get our hands on! Part of MUFF’s vision is to foster a return to genre filmmaking in this country, and we do everything we can on our non-Government funded budget to help support and promote this ethos. MIFF, on the other hand, fully flushed with funding, presents this safe historical look at the ‘good old days’, all the while stifling any attempt to bring back this vital and dynamic style of filmmaking to Australian screens.

I have contacted Richard Moore about some form of open dialogue on this issue, and so far we have not heard anything back. I challenge Mr. Moore to a debate, see end of this rant for details.

The point is that MIFF should not be allowed to get away with looking like they support genre in OZ cinema, when in practice they do not. This could change in the future, and we hope it does.  Many of Moore’s improvements in programming like the George Romero retro / forum, transgressive sections like Forbidden Pleasures and Night Shift, have had journalists   question me on how much MIFF is like MUFF this year. In response I say, “That’s cool – its only MIFF catching up with the zeitgeist”.

What we at MUFF are concerned with is, why does MIFF not support the burgeoning ‘horn o plenty’ of local low budget genre films and filmmakers? All these filmmakers need is a larger festival like MIFF to get behind them, and to help push this movement from the underground and onto the world festival stage and … ‘Voila’! Imagine a second Oz genre film renaissance. We should all remember a little New Zealand filmmaker from the late 80s and early 90s named Peter Jackson who made crazy little genre movies like Bad Taste. If MIFF could support and champion genre, thereby helping stem the disastrous tide of rubbish in the local film industry, it would really be serving its mandate. As opposed to merely presenting us with a safe historical retrospective of a time when we once had an exciting and vital film industry.

We could have that industry now if people like Moore and others at various state and federal levels just got behind genre films and filmmakers in this country. You would soon have enough material for Not Quite Hollywood 2 and a burgeoning 2nd Renaissance in Australian cinema after the 70s.  A comeback that we have long pined for at MUFF since the publication of our manifesto in 2005 (see: http://www.muff.com.au/manifesto.htm).

Everyone’s a Copycat

So we mentioned MUFF’s retrospective of Australian Cult Cinema from MUFF 1, 2, 3 and 5. We also did a section called Free Radicals at MUFF 4. So, in 2008, MIFF proudly presents: Free Radicals! MUFF has always played transgressive cinema, erotica (even porn films) and midnight movies. Hey presto… Forbidden Pleasures at MIFF 2007/8, Romero as a guest and Night Shift midnight movies. There’s even a nod to right wing shenanigans that MUFF is known for, with the dicing of the PC Iranian and Middle East sections of MIFF in favour of our military and political ally Israel’s cinema.

Far from criticising this, we say excellent!  A move in the right direction. We don’t claim credit for all this, of course, but hopefully we might have inspired some of it…
I met Richard Moore at the 2006 AFI’s. A nice guy, I thought. We were chatting amiably before we knew who the other was. Then some tit came up and said, “Hey MIFF and MUFF conversing, ha, ha” and we both went “Ohhh” realizing whom the other was. We laughed and I said, “Let’s be friends”, and Moore said, “Yes, lets”. As a good will gesture, I moved MUFF away from MIFF to September last year and October this year. This minimised the competition between the festivals and allowed us to co-exist more peacefully. Moore and I have exchanged friendly emails and had coffee together before his first MIFF in 2007.

At the AFI’s that night, I said to Richard Moore, “What are you going to do with MIFF?”,  to which he quipped: “I’m going to make it more like MUFF”.

This whole critique comes from a love of MIFF and our local industry for which I’m happy to claim a certain patriotic fervour. It comes from the desire for debate, open exchange of ideas and a little good old-fashioned trouble making. This industry is in need of a shake up and at MUFF we have been trying to do our bit to make people question a failing system.

Everyone’s a critique

This year’s theme, Everyone’s a Critic, we like. But its not really true, is it? But it should be. People should be more independently critical. Too often, cinema lovers are spoon fed by publicists who manipulate big articles in the mainstream press. I couldn’t help but laugh at the Saturday Age’s three page story on Ozploitation. Where was that article the four years in a row MUFF championed Ozploitation? Its all publicists and media ‘focus generation’. We need to think cinema culture beyond this.

Criticism is needed in the local Australian Film Industry too, with everyone from Jim Schembri, Leigh Paatsch and many others bemoaning the problem. Film Victoria is holding forums like Mindshift on industry change, but we need to see more action taken, not just words. We all need to stand up and let our voices be heard, our opinions voiced about remedies and solutions for the local film industry doldrums. This critique and MUFF’s own agenda over the years has been to promote just such free speech and critique, by example.

Everyone’s Debate

We challenge Richard Moore to a debate about why his MIFF doesn’t support more low budget genre films at the Melbourne International Film Festival (and other related topics).  This debate will be held at Glitch bar on Sunday he 24th of August at 7.00pm. It will be a FREE MUFF event and open to the public. Come along and share your opinions about MIFF. See if Mr. Moore turns up. If he doesn’t, I’ll play a film bound to please all comers!

Enjoy MIFF, come to MUFF, and don’t be afraid to be a critic at MIFF 2008.

Best Regards,

Richard Wolstencroft
Filmmaker, MUFF director and MIFF gadfly

The Neo Nazi New Yorker Cover

Famous East Coast conservative magazine The New Yorker has published the following cover, that many pundits in the US think would be better suited to a Neo Nazi periodical. It shows Obama, in Muslim dress in the oval office fist pounding his Black Panther revolutionary wife, who has a AK47 over her shoulder. On the wall is a portrait of Osama Bin Laden and on the fire the American flag.

If you didn’t know this already, this US election is going to get dirty, baby.