Sampo
Blu ray
Deaf Crocodile/Vinegar Syndrome
1959 / 2:35:1 / 91 Min.
Starring Anna Orochko, Andris Ošiņš, Eve Kivi
Written by Väinö Kaukonen, Viktor Vitkovich, Grigori Yagdfeld
Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko
Mosfilm’s Sampo, a Russian fantasy from 1959, and Paramount’s White Christmas, a Yuletide bauble released in 1954, were both state of the art products of a big studio system. But each were Cold War entertainments driven by very different agendas: White Christmas was a gung ho military musical prettified by candy canes, VistaVision and Technicolor. Sampo was a movie out of time—a gravely beautiful folktale set in a bone-chilling winter wasteland. In short, America ladled on the optimism while Russia served up existential dread with a little popcorn on the side.
Mosfilm, aka “Russian Hollywood”, was a monolithic entity with the combined creative juice of MGM, Universal, and Paramount under one roof—established in 1920, the studio was a dream factory...
Blu ray
Deaf Crocodile/Vinegar Syndrome
1959 / 2:35:1 / 91 Min.
Starring Anna Orochko, Andris Ošiņš, Eve Kivi
Written by Väinö Kaukonen, Viktor Vitkovich, Grigori Yagdfeld
Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko
Mosfilm’s Sampo, a Russian fantasy from 1959, and Paramount’s White Christmas, a Yuletide bauble released in 1954, were both state of the art products of a big studio system. But each were Cold War entertainments driven by very different agendas: White Christmas was a gung ho military musical prettified by candy canes, VistaVision and Technicolor. Sampo was a movie out of time—a gravely beautiful folktale set in a bone-chilling winter wasteland. In short, America ladled on the optimism while Russia served up existential dread with a little popcorn on the side.
Mosfilm, aka “Russian Hollywood”, was a monolithic entity with the combined creative juice of MGM, Universal, and Paramount under one roof—established in 1920, the studio was a dream factory...
- 8/2/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Isle of the Dead
Blu ray
Warner Archive
1945 / 1.33:1 / 72 min.
Starring Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Katherine Emery
Cinematography by Jack MacKenzie
Directed by Mark Robson
The Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin produced several versions of Isle of the Dead in the late 1800’s—none of them suggested a typical tourist attraction but more than a few artists used that gloomy seascape as a port of inspiration; Rachmaninov composed a symphony, Dalí produced a surrealist tribute, and Strindberg sketched the fragments of a play, Toten-Insel. There’s even a hint of the painting’s portentous cliffs in Welles’ Xanadu. In 1945, Val Lewton, Mr. Dark Shadows himself, conceived an entire film built around Böcklin’s haunted island.
Directed by Mark Robson, Isle of the Dead is thematically rich, even for a Lewton project; set in Greece at the end of the Balkan wars, a plague joins forces with the supernatural to wreak havoc...
Blu ray
Warner Archive
1945 / 1.33:1 / 72 min.
Starring Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Katherine Emery
Cinematography by Jack MacKenzie
Directed by Mark Robson
The Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin produced several versions of Isle of the Dead in the late 1800’s—none of them suggested a typical tourist attraction but more than a few artists used that gloomy seascape as a port of inspiration; Rachmaninov composed a symphony, Dalí produced a surrealist tribute, and Strindberg sketched the fragments of a play, Toten-Insel. There’s even a hint of the painting’s portentous cliffs in Welles’ Xanadu. In 1945, Val Lewton, Mr. Dark Shadows himself, conceived an entire film built around Böcklin’s haunted island.
Directed by Mark Robson, Isle of the Dead is thematically rich, even for a Lewton project; set in Greece at the end of the Balkan wars, a plague joins forces with the supernatural to wreak havoc...
- 3/30/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Foreplays is a column that explores under-known short films by renowned directors. Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville's Liberté et Patrie (2002) is free to watch below. Mubi's retrospective For Ever Godard is showing from November 12, 2017 - January 16, 2018 in the United States.I. One of the most beautiful essay films ever made, Liberté et Patrie (2002) turns out to also be one of the most accessible collaborations of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville. The deeply moving lyricism of this short may astonish even those spectators who arrive to it casually, without any prior knowledge of the filmmakers’s oeuvre. Contrary to other works by the couple, Liberté et Patrie is built on a recognizable narrative strong enough to easily accommodate all the unconventionalities of the piece: a digressive structure full of bursts of undefined emotion; an unpredictable rhythm punctuated by sudden pauses, swift accelerations, intermittent blackouts and staccatos; a mélange of materials where...
- 12/11/2017
- MUBI
The title is literal: this video essay looks at some of David Lynch’s key visual inspirations, including Rene Margritte, Edward Hopper, Arnold Böcklin and Francis Bacon.
- 6/29/2017
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The man behind the Godzilla: Generations Covers is FM-favorite artist Bob Eggleton—multiple Hugo Award winner, Chesley Award recipient, and all-around awesome dude who is an endless source of creativity and monsters. We sat down with him at Big Wow! In San Jose to chat mythology and giant reptiles .
Famous Monsters. As a painter primarily of things that don’t actually exist, how do you reference them? Is it all your imagination, or do you derive things from existing animals like snakes and lizards?
Bob Eggleton. I do look at existing snakes and reptiles. Form is going to follow function wherever you are, even if you’re on another planet or in some mythical realm. Muscles will work like muscles; arms will work like arms. It’s just a matter of physics and biology. Especially if the creature is created for its environment. Something that is, say, in a lighter...
Famous Monsters. As a painter primarily of things that don’t actually exist, how do you reference them? Is it all your imagination, or do you derive things from existing animals like snakes and lizards?
Bob Eggleton. I do look at existing snakes and reptiles. Form is going to follow function wherever you are, even if you’re on another planet or in some mythical realm. Muscles will work like muscles; arms will work like arms. It’s just a matter of physics and biology. Especially if the creature is created for its environment. Something that is, say, in a lighter...
- 5/29/2014
- by Holly Interlandi
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
Ryan Lambie Apr 26, 2017
To celebrate Alien Day, we pay tribute to the work of the late artist Hr Giger, and follow the making of his masterpiece of design...
It’s the summer of 1978, and the UK’s Shepperton Studios simmers in the heat. Secreted away in his own personal workshop, a Swiss artist works feverishly on his paintings and sculptures, either fashioning strange shapes from gigantic blocks of styrofoam or spraying them with his airbrush.
See related 50 upcoming comic book TV shows, and when to expect them
This is 38-year-old Hr Giger, and he cuts an unusual figure. His shock of black hair is slicked back away from his pale forehead. He refuses to take his leather jacket off despite the searing heat. On a bench sits row after row of human and animal bones - skulls, femurs, vertebrae - plus a weird assortment of ribbed hoses, wires and mechanical...
To celebrate Alien Day, we pay tribute to the work of the late artist Hr Giger, and follow the making of his masterpiece of design...
It’s the summer of 1978, and the UK’s Shepperton Studios simmers in the heat. Secreted away in his own personal workshop, a Swiss artist works feverishly on his paintings and sculptures, either fashioning strange shapes from gigantic blocks of styrofoam or spraying them with his airbrush.
See related 50 upcoming comic book TV shows, and when to expect them
This is 38-year-old Hr Giger, and he cuts an unusual figure. His shock of black hair is slicked back away from his pale forehead. He refuses to take his leather jacket off despite the searing heat. On a bench sits row after row of human and animal bones - skulls, femurs, vertebrae - plus a weird assortment of ribbed hoses, wires and mechanical...
- 5/14/2014
- Den of Geek
We pay tribute to the work of the late artist Hr Giger, and follow the making of his masterpiece of design, the Alien...
Feature
It’s the summer of 1978, and the UK’s Shepperton Studios simmers in the heat. Secreted away in his own personal workshop, a Swiss artist works feverishly on his paintings and sculptures, either fashioning strange shapes from gigantic blocks of styrofoam or spraying them with his airbrush.
This is 38-year-old Hr Giger, and he cuts an unusual figure. His shock of black hair is slicked back away from his pale forehead. He refuses to take his leather jacket off despite the searing heat. On a bench sits row after row of human and animal bones - skulls, femurs, vertebrae - plus a weird assortment of ribbed hoses, wires and mechanical parts taken from old Rolls Royce motorcars. Quietly, obsessively, Giger is building his Alien.
The story...
Feature
It’s the summer of 1978, and the UK’s Shepperton Studios simmers in the heat. Secreted away in his own personal workshop, a Swiss artist works feverishly on his paintings and sculptures, either fashioning strange shapes from gigantic blocks of styrofoam or spraying them with his airbrush.
This is 38-year-old Hr Giger, and he cuts an unusual figure. His shock of black hair is slicked back away from his pale forehead. He refuses to take his leather jacket off despite the searing heat. On a bench sits row after row of human and animal bones - skulls, femurs, vertebrae - plus a weird assortment of ribbed hoses, wires and mechanical parts taken from old Rolls Royce motorcars. Quietly, obsessively, Giger is building his Alien.
The story...
- 5/14/2014
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
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