Timecapsules – ABC GALLERY – Film Programme – February

ABC GALLERY 127 Campbell St Collingwood Melbourne 3066

1ST FEB Experimental Music Documentaries

Two BBC Four documentaries exploring the life works of composers who have helped re-invent music in the 20th century.

The Outsider / 2007 – 60 min Harry Partch was a celebrated young American composer whose mission was to bury classical musical conventions such as its notation, scales, and even its instruments. He constructed his very own orchestra replete with instruments with which to pursue his unique micro-tonal composition. Partch’s career was railroaded by the Depression, throughout which he became a Hobo; drifting the continent for 10 years, only returning to his work in the 50’s.

Alchemists of Sound / 2007 – 60 min Dick Mills, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson were amongst numerous sonic experimenters, composers and engineers who worked at the BBC Radiophonics Workshop from 1958 til 1995. Hand-crafting sounds for such films, television and radio shows as “Quatermass”, “Doctor Who”, “The Goon Show”, “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” and “Blake 7”. In the process they contributed immeasurably to the development of electronic and electro-acoustic sound.

8TH FEBRUARY Danger Diabolik – Mario Bava / 1968 – 99 minutes An adaptation of the popular Italian comic book “Diabolik” which details the exploits of a master criminal who plunders both government and organised crime syndicates alike. John Philip Law who played the blind angel in Roger Vadims’ “Barbarella”, sheds his wings and slips effortlessly into the black rubber and leather skin of an erotic demon. Most definitely a superior comic book adaptation than “Barabrella”, Bava eschewed excessive dialogue and kept to the style of the graphic novel. Like Louis Feulliades “Fantomas” films which inspired the original Diabolik character, “Danger Diabolik” gleefully revels in the pleasure of crime and destruction, without any recourse to moralism.

15TH FEBRUARY Kurotokage & (Black Lizard) – Kinji Fukasaku / 1968 – 88mins Screen-written by Yukio Mishima and directed by the man who brought us “Battle Royale”, “Kurototage” features transvestite actor Akihiro Maruyama, (now a voice behind Hayao Miyazaki’s animations) and music by Isao Tomita. “Kurotokage” is a parallel of the same impious spirit and excess as “Danger Diabolik”, and was released the same year. The Black Lizard is a female arch fiend who has set her eyes on the great jewel the “Star of Egypt”, and kidnaps the daughter of its owner. Tormented by her own fading beauty she is obsessed with the eternal beauty of her shimmering prize. A cat and mouse game between the Black Lizard and the detective hired to save both daughter and diamond evolves into a type of seduction culminating in increasingly bizarre scenarios. The Black Lizard turns those whom she seduces into preserved artefacts that she can enjoy forever… 22ND FEBRUARY Boom! – Joseph Losey / 1968 – 110 mins Joseph Losey was blacklisted by McCarthy’s HUAC for communist leanings and relocated to Britain using pseudonyms to release films in his native country. His work ranged from the acclaimed “The Servant” through to the maligned “Modesty Blaise”. “Boom!” (so aptly named after the crashing of waves on rocks) is perhaps the greatest blooper of his career, but that doesn’t stop it from being a pure comical gem. This insane rendition of “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” by Tennessee Williams features Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Noel Coward as “the witch of Capri”. Outrageously pretentious, overblown and over-dressed, this film is considered one of the greatest flops of the 1960’s, earning back a fifth of the money spent on it and becoming almost completely buried. “Boom!” was performed and shot by a cast and crew of drunkards… which only partially explains its psychotic qualities. John Waters has extolled it as his biggest inspiration, and has lecture-toured with it right across the world. 29TH FEBRUARY Best of Looney Toons / 120 mins DJ Delay brings a collection of his favourite animations from his personal collection, this time in their entire original sonic glory. Stay tuned for more details…