The Bad Sleep Well

We've been alerted to the serial killer in Japan who's taking revenge for corporate fraud, as described in this article in today's NY TIMES. But what no one seems to have noticed is that we've already seen this scenario in a film. THE BAD SLEEP WELL is one of Akira Kurosawa's masterpieces, and details how a man whose father was killed by corrupt businessmen exacts his revenge. Here's the excellent trailer.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 22, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Business, Crime, Death, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Movies, Foreign Customs, 1960s, Asia

American Monsters

I enjoyed visiting the American Monsters site, a resource for cryptozoologists.

But I regret that when I visited Crater Lake in Oregon, its scaly inhabitant was not showing himself.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Nov 16, 2008 - Comments (2)
Category: Cryptozoology, Fictional Monsters, Movies, 1970s

Take My Ambassador, Please!

It's not too soon for the new administration to be thinking about appointing some ambassadors...

Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 07, 2008 - Comments (1)
Category: Movies, Music, Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Comedians

Queen of Blood

Possibly not the movie that Dennis Hopper lists first on his resume....

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 05, 2008 - Comments (7)
Category: Horror, Movies, Science Fiction, 1960s

Boy With A Knife

Experience the juvie lifestyle!

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 05, 2008 - Comments (4)
Category: Family, Children, Juvenile Delinquency, Parents, Movies, Documentaries, 1950s

The Mothra Song

I think we all need a little more Mothra in our lives. I myself intend to sing this song in times of personal crisis.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 01, 2008 - Comments (6)
Category: Gods, Movies, Music, Foreign Customs, 1960s, Fictional Monsters

Going Steady

Any WU readers confused about "going steady" will certainly benefit from watching this video.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 29, 2008 - Comments (4)
Category: Education, Family, Movies, Documentaries, Sexuality, 1950s

Christmas on Mars

Is there a better "mainstream" weird band than the Flaming Lips? Possibly not. And surely their long-awaited feature film Christmas on Mars will be excessively weird as well.

Here's the trailer. Despite the allusion therein to a 2003 release, the delayed film has not yet appeared, although it will have a showing this Halloween in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 26, 2008 - Comments ()
Category: Holidays, Movies, Music, Performance Art, Surrealism

Land Without Bread

According to Wikipedia, Luis Buñuel is "one of the most important directors in the history of cinema." His most notorious film is the 1929 Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog) which includes the infamous scene of a woman's eyeball being sliced with a razor in slow-motion. This is the one film of his that the professor discussed in the film class I took in college.

Much less well-known is his 1932 Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan (Land without bread). The film is a short travelogue about the poverty-stricken Las Hurdes region of Spain. What makes the film unusual is that as one scene of misery after another appears onscreen, the narration proceeds in a "flat and disinterested manner" and Brahms's Symphony No. 4 plays as background music. Some historians argue that the film was actually the very first mockumentary, parodying the documentary form.

The film can be seen in its entirety on YouTube, but not in English. I'm not sure if there is an English-language version of it. The only scene in English I could find was the one below, in which a goat supposedly trips and falls off a cliff. In reality, Buñuel's crew shot the goat and threw its body down the cliff. This was in the days before PETA. YouTube includes a "Warning: Animal Abuse" label with the excerpt. As a student of the weird, I've become pretty much shockproof, but if the sight of a goat plummeting down a cliff will disturb you, you might want to skip the video.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 10, 2008 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Movies, Documentaries

Breakfast by Svankmajer

Thanks to High Weirdo Sandy Pearlman, we can all enjoy this little gem by filmmaker Jan Svankmajer.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 29, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Surrealism, Body Modifications, Food, Movies, Foreign Customs