| BLOOD
FOR DRACULA
(1974, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
If you wanted to enjoy Blood for Dracula as pure entertainment, Morrissey
gives you this outlet in spades. However, behind the goofiness lies the
heart of a film that actually bothers to look at Dracula in a way that
hadn't been done before.
BURDEN
OF DREAMS
(1982, Colour) Director: Les Blank
'Burden of Dreams' documents the making of Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo.
The film is a fascinating record of an obsessed film-maker's battle to
finish his work against all odds.
CRIMINALS
(1996, Colour) Director:Joseph Strick
This a fierce documentary about crime in America featuring the action
of decoy squads police videotapes of crimes in progress, unimaginable
confessions and some heroic resistance.
FLESH
(1968, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
The opening sequence of Paul Morrissey’s
Flesh compellingly breaks all of the rules cinema (notably, never frame
a single shot longer than thirty seconds), but in so doing signals the
start of an amazing treatise on family life in the laissez-faire world
of the late ‘60s.
FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN
(1973, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
In most filmed versions of the Frankenstein
legend, Baron Frankenstein is merely a mad scientist whose reanimation
project leads to monstrous results. Morrissey's black comedy takes a different
approach to the story. In Flesh for Frankenstein, the baron is a degenerate
married to his sister. Holding his own silent, voyeuristic offspring in
contempt, Frankenstein's reanimation experiments are aimed at producing
a "perfect," beautiful pair of zombies who will in turn produce
children.
HEAT
(1972, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
Continuing his examination of fading society,
Morrissey turns to fame and travels from New York to Los Angeles for this
outrageously funny but almost painfully sharp comedy.
With a much bigger budget than the earlier films, slicker editing, glorious
photography and a strong John Cale score, this is a polished, dialog-based
film . But as it takes a swipe at everything from sexuality to showbiz,
it stays consistently entertaining and very telling.
INTERVIEWS
WITH MY LAI VETERANS
(1970, Colour) Director: Joseph Strick
Terrifying and indescribably
sad, this piece of cinema-verite is a series of interviews with five men
who participated in the My Lai action in Vietnam, all of whom are now
out of the army. These clean-cut American lads recount with smiles, indifference
and poise, how and why they murdered.
JANICE
(1973, Colour) Director: Joseph Strick
Two young truck drivers
set out from New Jersey with a load of meat. On the journey they pick
up Janice - for a price. From that moment on bad luck strikes at them
from all sides...... An original work of art - the Observer
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JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY
(1959,
Colour) Director: Bert Stern
In
1958, a 28 year old Bert Stern had built for himself a reputation as one
of the world's leading fashion and advertising photographers. Although
he had ambitions to turn his talent to film, the opportunity did not present
itself until the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival invited him to "take
some pictures". That request would evolve into a full-fledged motion picture
presenting some of the most remarkable scenes of live jazz ever brought
to the screen. Performers include Louis Armstrong, Gerry Mulligan, Mahalia
Jackson, Thelonius Monk, Chuck Berry and Chico Hamilton.
MADAM WANG'S
(1981, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
Lutz (Patrick Schoene), is a self-proclaimed
East German sailor-spy who has jumped ship while in Long Beach harbor
so he can prepare the way for a planned Soviet invasion. Lutz is a handsome,
musclebound type who attracts a following as diverse as a mixed salad:
a rotund mother and son whose affection for hamburgers, fries, and ice-cream
is self-evident, a gay pimp cum door-knob collector, an attractive call-girl
from the Temple of Dance Arts, and other flotsam and jetsam of the human
condition. The antics of this troupe enliven the film as they head to
Madame Wang's punk show, where Lutz shows off an eccentricity of his own.
MIXED
BLOOD
(1985,
Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
Brazilian
drug dealers in the lower east side of Manhattan start a war with a rival
gang of Latino drug dealers. Their soldiers are Latino kids all under
17 because, as Rita La Punta says, "They can kill and not go to jail."
The war escalates to include their German heroin supplier, his sexy English
girl friend, a Puerto Rican ex-cop, and the Japanese police captain. This
movie is about racism, police corruption, junkies and drug dealing. There
is plenty of killing and even a visit to a store dedicated to the Latino
pop group "Menudo."
MUSCLE
BEACH
(1948,
B/W) Director: Joseph Strick
On a beach in Southern California acrobats and muscle- builders flaunt
their skills and poses. A singing narration takes note of their obsessions.

A PORTRAIT
OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN
(1977, Colour) Director: Joseph Strick
Joseph (Ulysses) Strick returns to his favourite author James
Joyce. An outstanding achievement - Films & Filming.
THE
SAVAGE EYE
( 1958, B/W) Director: Joseph
Strick
Judith McGuire, young and divorced, suddenly finds herself cut off from
the life she knew so well. To escape the ghosts of old memories she immerses
herself in every form of pleasure and sensationalism she can find......
A work of startling and
disturbing brilliance - The Daily Mail
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SCORSESE
X 4
(1964-74,
Colour& B/W) Director: Martn Scorsese
Scorsese Four brilliant films revealing the influences that produced 'America's
greatest living director'. What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place
Like This? (1963), made while Scorsese was still at University, he
describes as a tale of 'pure paranoia'. It's Not Just You, Murray!
(1964) foreshadows 'Mean Streets' in its portrayal of the small-time hoods
of Little Italy. The Big Shave (1967), a gruesome fable, won Scorsese
his first European prize. Italianamerican (1974) offers a definitive account
of the community that continues to shape Scorsese's greatest films - plus
his mother's recipe for spaghetti sauce!
STEPPENWOLF
(1974, Colour) Director: Fred Haines
This Faust-like and magical story of the humanization of a middle-aged
misanthrope is a self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human
and half wolf. This stunning film is as faithful an adaptation of Herman
Hesse's poetical novel as one could possibly expect.
TRASH
(1970, Colour)
Director: Paul Morrissey
Joe Dallesandro stars as the impotent heroin-addict,
suspended in a state of asexual bliss and perpetual disconnection, and
the film thinly – and mostly hilariously – follows the attempts
of many women (and men) to seduce him, and those of his live-in girlfriend
to salvage him/them-as-a-couple (a great, celebrated performance by transvestite
actress, Holly Woodlawn). Those brave enough to venture into the film
will be rewarded with an unyielding canvas of transitory but chilling
emotional truths. At the end, it's up to the viewer whether to take it
seriously or not, but either way, it's essential viewing.
WOMEN IN REVOLT
(1971, Colour) Director: Paul Morrissey
This film is a satire of the women's
liberation movement, staring a trio of female impersonators. Candy (Candy
Darling) is an aloof heiress caught in an unhappy relationship with her
brother. Jackie (Jackie Curtis) is a virginal intellectual who believes
women are oppressed in contemporary American society. And Holly (Holly
Woodlawn) is a nymphomaniac who has come to loathe men, despite her attraction
to them. Together, they join a militant feminist group, P.I.G. (Politically
Involved Girls), but their newfound liberation doesn't make them any happier.
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