Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Amazon launches "NEVER BEFORE ON DVD" store


It's been common practice among a few American film companies to release films in the DVD-R format the past couple of years. Now, while this is obviously not the best way to release films it does mean we get the chance to watch stuff that might not otherwise get a DVD release. And some of these films are presented in their correct ratio and remastered so we're not necessarily talking about copies off old VHS tapes that are quickly slapped onto a DVD-R (although reportedly not all releases look equally great).

However, so far it's been a bit of a jungle as to what has been available in the DVD-R format and what hasn't - not least since most regular shops don't stock these "releases". This week it all became just a little easier as Amazon has just launched a special store where you can browse all these titles!

According to this article the shop will list both old releases as well as new upcoming ones. You can browse either via genre or all films at once (the genres are listed on the left). Unfortunately, the DVD-R store is an Amazon.com store only, i.e. you can't access it via Amazon UK (I haven't checked Amazon Canada or the other branches but I wouldn't think they've put up similar stores either). A full-on kick in the nads to Eurotrash and Brits alike as this means higher postage rates and the risk of getting an extra customs fee slapped on top of the price. But is that going to discourage the fanatical film fan? Not at all, not at all.

For the new NEVER BEFORE ON DVD shop go here.







Friday, May 25, 2012

Alabama's Ghost (Fredric Hobbs, USA, 1972)


I watched Fredric Hobbs' ALABAMA'S GHOST tonight and what a wild and crazy film it is! Wauw, I mean... just... WAUW!!! It's part blaxploitation/crazy voodoo/magic/supernatural/ghost/what-have-you film all mixed into one. There's an insane Nazi scientist too (a woman this time). I'm not even gonna try and review it or explain the story-line but I'll just reprint FRED ADELMAN's (RIP) review from CRITICAL CONDITION here:

by FRED ADELMAN
ALABAMA'S GHOST (1972) - When Alabama (Christopher Brooks) accidentally drives a forklift through a wall in the basement of San Francisco's famed Earthquake McGoon's nightclub, he finds a hidden passageway that leads to a room that contains all the possessions of "World's Greatest Magician" Carter The Great (E. Kerrigan Prescott), who mysteriously died years before.

Alabama finds a box that contains the address of Granny (Ken Granthan), Carter's "sister". The box also contains some magical herb (called "raw zeta"), which he and Granny smoke in a pot pipe. Alabama is forced to team up with Zoerae (Peggy Browne), Granny's assistant, as he wants to become a master magician using Carter's found possessions. This leads Alabama on a weird journey that includes vampires, robots, voodoo ceremonies, ghosts, rock music, go-go dancers, a disappearing elephant, a biker gang, a disembodied heart and the occasional drooling fanatic.

Alabama puts on magic shows at Earthquake McGoon's, billing himself as "Alabama, King Of The Cosmos", to packed houses. He is picked-up by promoter Otto Max (Steven Kent Browne), who tells Alabama, "Surrealism is in. Surrealism is where it's at!" Otto books him on a tour across the United States, where he achieves much acclaim. Things start going wrong for Alabama when one of his female assistants is severely injured while he performs a sword trick (she also has two puncture wounds on her neck). More accidents happen which leads up to the grand finale: A world-wide televised showing of Alabama doing Carter's "disappearing elephant act", which will have dire consequences on anyone who watches it. How it ends: I'll never tell. I've barely scratched the surface on this off-the-wall, rarely-seen supernatural thriller.

Director/producer/writer Fredric Hobbs (ROSELAND - 1970; GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS - 1973) has crafted an intricate, multi-layered film which can only be described as one-of-a-kind. Hobbs was way ahead of his time, kind of a David Lynch of the 70's. ALABAMA'S GHOST veers off into many different directions, but never disappoints the viewer. Watch it straight or stoned; it doesn't matter. It's a facinating experience no matter what state you're in. E. Kerrigan Prescott, Christopher Brooks and Steven Kent Brown have appeared in all three of Hobb's above mentioned films. Also starring Karen Ingentron as Dr. Caligula, Ann Weldon as Mama-bama, Ann Wagner Ward as Marilyn Midnight and Neena the elephant. With special appearances by musical groups The Turk Murphy Jazz Band and The Landing Zone and improvational group The Cockettes.

I've unofficially heard that Hobbs gave up film to become a sculptor after making GODMONSTER. That's filmmaking's loss. This film screams out for a re-release as it is now only available on VHS on the OOP ThrillerVideo label hosted by Elvira, who interrupts the film midway to do some of her shtick. Anchor Bay should do a restoration and release it on DVD so it can get the cult following it deserves. Believe it or not, this film was Rated PG when originally released. This is the strangest PG film you will ever view!


The copy I watched wasn't the VHS Fred mentioned but a bootleg DVD from ZDD in the UK. Their "release" uses an old TV broadcast as source. Fortunately that version came without the ridiculous comments from Elvira. I'm fully aware a lot of fans, especially in the US, are fond of Elvira (she does have nice tits) but I really can't stand someone making a name for themselves by mocking the psychotronic films I love. Boobs or no boobs (besides she's a third rate clone of Vampira and without the latter's '50s sex appeal). I certainly hope ALABAMA'S GHOST is gonna get a proper DVD release some day. More people need to see this wild & crazy psychotronic masterpiece.


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Up your's to that guy who said music in the 80s was nothing but boring mainstream crap...

...you just had to dig a little deeper to find the good stuff (hence it being UNDERGROUND music).



In the 80s there were about five people in Denmark who knew about cool German new wave music (aka Neue Deutsche Welle). I wonder who the other four were. ^_^

Check all three videos, they're all great! xD






Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza,
oh, die ist lecker, die muß ich jetzt essen.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza,
du hast Hunger, worauf wartest du?
Sie ist zwar nicht die jüngste und auch leicht verbogen,
doch ich habe Hunger, mein Bruder hat gelogen.
Es gibt nur diese Pizza, das sagt auch mein Magen.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza,
du hast Hunger, worauf wartest du?
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza,
du hast Hunger, worauf wartest du?
Pizzas die sind lecker, das weiß jedes Kind,
d'rum ess' ich gerne Pizzas, weil die lecker sind.
Pizzas die sind lecker, das weiß jedes Kind,
d'rum ess' ich gerne Pizzas, weil die lecker sind.
Sie ist zwar nicht die jüngste und auch leicht verbogen,
doch ich habe Hunger, mein Bruder hat gelogen.
Es gibt nur diese Pizza, das sagt auch mein Magen.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza!
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza!
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Komm und nimm sie, iß die alte Pizza!
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.
Draussen am Bahnhof liegt 'ne alte Pizza.

Monday, May 21, 2012

The only way to play surf... JACKIE AND THE CEDRICS... in glorious mono



This is, like, more awesome than awesome!! Wild insane surf music by the Japanese band JACKIE AND THE CEDRICS recorded sometime in 1997 (or some such). How often would you see stage diving at surf shows in the old days, ay. Haha. This is fucken rad! Burning instruments, wild guitars, crazy acrobatics, hot Japanese teen babes in skirts!!! (and do notice towards the end when one of the guitar players falls off the monitor, LOLZ.). Wild!!!

Friday, May 18, 2012

[pop a top polis]


I watched the new(ish) documentary film about JIM WYNORSKI last night and it was a blast! I'm gonna watch it again. I haven't watched too many of his films but the ones I have watched were all cool. And his debut film, THE LOST EMPIRE, is one of my favourites. I urge you to seek out the documentary if you have any interest in entertaining psychotronic lowbudget flicks. The DVD is avaliable from their website.



The Danish release of THE LOST EMPIRE - unfortunately it's not on official dvd (there's a UK dvd but it's said to have VHS picture quality and I guess it's likely to be a boot).

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Hugh Gallagher's gore trilogy at CINEMA J today


I watched Hugh Gallagher's entire gore trilogy today; GOROTICA, GORGASM, and GORE WHORE and what can I say but WHAT A TREAT!!!

GOROTICA (1993) is about a heist gone wrong. Two crappy burglars have the fuzz hot on their heels so they decide that one of them better swallow the most valuable jewel. It would've been a grand idea if a Cop hadn't arrived and shut dead the guy who just swallowed the stone. For the rest of the film his buddy drags him (i.e. the dead corpse) around as he doesn't want to lose his ticket to a better life. Fortunately he runs into a chick who digs him - or so he thinks anyway but actually she prefers his dead friend. There lots of gore and nudity. In contradiction to Gallagher's other two films this one contains quite a few graphic real death photos (at the beginning when the necro chick masturbates to a video tape that shows the photos). The film clocks in after 60 minutes.


The main character of GOREGASM (1990) is on the opposite side of the law compared to the main characters in GOROTICA. He's a cop (albeit a crappy on) who gets assigned to track down a killer who ties up men in their home and stabs, slices or carves them to death. At the house of the first dead guy he finds an erotic fanzine with ads for a woman who promises "the ultimate climax". Altho the cop mucks up his investigation he does end up in the hands of the ultimate climax woman. Or was it a hand he lost? Hmm. With a running time of around 20 minutes longer than GOROTICA I thought it dragged for a bit too long. I would have preferred a tighter narrative of 60-70 minutes but over-all almost as good as the first one, and lots of gore and boobs in this one too. Each film is different to one another and Gallagher should get kudos for not repeating himself!


In the first film we had necrophilia, in the second one we had an escort girl who finished off her customers real good, and in the last film, GORE WHORE (1994), we have... ZOMBIES! (but no need to worry, fake dicks and tits (not fake) in this one too!). A scientist hires a depressed private investigator to find his female assistant who's taken off with some very important documents. What are the documents about? Don't ask, just get them! The private dick finds and follows the ex assistant who spends her time having lesbian sex and killing a woman (in the most gory scene of the three films. It's like Hugh Gallagher and his buddies each had a ketchup bottle and just sprayed the stuff around, haha) and she is then off to, surprise-surprise, the graveyard to get some, uh, green dick. This final entry to Gallagher's gore trilogy is no less enjoyable than the first two films.

The director wrote a piece on the film in his magazine DRACULINA and I seem to remember he said he found the "actress" (I use the term loosely) by placing an ad in a newspaper and that she was really a stripper. If she really was a stripper it must have been from the cheapest seedy end of whatever crumb-bum town she came from. Sorry, but she looks like a crack ho (if you think I'm being too rude here sorry about that but that was my impression). In the film she so skinny you'd think the only thing she had digested for many months before the shoot was cum (and what's with her walk? Looks like she'd crapped her pants. No fucking kidding!). I forget how long the film runs and I'm not gonna check again. Let's say 70 minutes or so. Btw, there is a familiar face in GORE WHORE; the truly lovely D'Lana Tunnell (who plays a cop) was also in the very cool SORE LOSERS. I urge you to seek out SORE LOSERS! (it's a film about a hitman from the 1950's who was abducted by aliens and who returns to Earth to do one last hit so he can finally rest in peace. He's played by whatshisface from the old multo cool'o garagerock band THE OBLIVIANS - and the equally cool Japanese garagerock band GUITAR WOLF is in there too. It's on vhs and dvd).

These movies are home-made films, sure, but they are well done and they contain a crudeness and lack of "good taste" that you'll usually find in bigger productions. Sure, judging by the films none of the actors seemed to have grand acting careers ahead of them, and the special effects are cheap ass cheap. But when one necrophilia girl says, "Love doesn't last, hate is forever" (and has sex with a corpse in the bathtub) you know you're no longer in Kansas. I've tried several times to get in contact with the director but he flat out ignores my emails. I guess he's somewhere else in life now and doesn't give two shits about the films he made when he was 20 years younger. Too fucking bad if you ask me.


ABOUT THE TAPES AND THEIR RELEASES:

Like I said, Hugh Gallagher's three Gore movies are low budget indie productions ("indie" is what we used to call underground movies back in the day!) and I believe the video label was the director's own company (probably only set up to release these films); Ill Tex Productions on the last two film and Main Force Pictures on the first film (the p.o. box is the same with all three releases).

GOREGASM was made in 1990 but the Main Force Pictures copyright date on my VHS states 1993. Why the copyright is dated three years after the film was made I have no idea. Maybe Gallagher released the film on an earlier tape that wasn't released on Main Force Pictures? My copy of the tape is from 1998 so I assume it's a re-release but how many times he released the film I don't know. GOROTICA; made in 1993 and my VHS has a copyright date that says 1993. Finally, GORE WHORE is from 1994 and I have two copies, one from 1993 and one from 1998. The covers are identical, only the tape labels are different and on the tape from '98 there is an FBI duplication warning but it's not on the first release (on GOROTICA the copyright warning states that Gallagher is gonna kill anybody who bootlegs the tape and he'll use their corpses in GOROTICA 2, haha).

The films only came out on VHS (small cardboard cases only) and have never been re-released on DVD, and they're probably never gonna get a re-release either. Someone is selling copies of one of the films on DVD on eBay but it's clearly a bootleg. All three tapes are very rare which is unfortunate as the movies are pretty cool. The most frequent of the three tapes to get listed on eBay is the last one, GORE WHORE. I've seem GOREGASM two or three times there. And I think I've only seen GOROTICA listed twice (and I won it one of those two times).

All three films are probably on torrent sites and on dvd-r from iOffer. And you can get copy of GORE WHORE from Amazon.com if you're loaded (right now a new copy is $510 and a second hand one is $110. ARGH!!).

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Bury me an Angel - trailer



Someone mentioned BURY ME AN ANGEL from 1972 to me yesterday; I checked out the trailer and... whoah!... this looks totally rad! Unfortunately, it seems there's no official DVD release (there is a PD set that reportedly looks like ass!). Too bad. Check the trailer. Awesome voiceover! RATED RRRRRRRR.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

James Chance and the Contortions - "Contort yourself"



You should have this on the turntable on "repeat" all thru the night. "James is a wild man so bug off!"

Killer Angels - again!


I'll be getting yet another version of one of my old HK faves, THE KILLER ANGELS starring cute ass-kicker Moon Lee. I'm exited about this version as it's the US Chinatown VHS in Chinese (I assume it's Cantonese) with English subs. Awesome cover too. I already own the unsubbed HK VCD, the English dubbed version on a bootleg DVD, and a Mandarin dubbed DVD with English subs from Taiwan (which is sourced from a video tape!!). There's a German DVD but I have no idea whether it's uncut or not and it doesn't have English subs (I'm not even sure if it only carries a German dub?).

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

New rags



The other day I told you about one of my new T-shirts (check here) and here's some more that I have received this week. Living in Shitsville used to mean it was totally, insanely and uber-ly, difficult to get cool T-shirts but with the invention of the Internet it's become a lot easier. That doesn't mean it's exactly easy to find the cool stuff, in order to get there you'll have to wade thru 3 billion tons of crappy shit shirts. TEENAGE JESUS AND THE JERKS was one of the original no-wave bands from New York. The picture on the shirt is from a live cassette tape that was only available from Lydia Lunch's webpage. Unfortunately, I never got hold of the tape but at least I have the T-shirt now. ^_^


This one sports the cool picture from the French pressing of THE GUN CLUB's first album "Fire of Love" - the zombie cover. The original edition (and the new vinyl re-print) uses a much inferior picture if you ask me.


Nick Cave's old band THE BIRTHDAY PARTY. Probably thee most dangerous band ever. They simply radiated dangerousness.


DNA!! Unknown to most. Adored by few. I'm one of the latter. They were also part of the no-wave movement in New York in around '78/79. The seller had sold out of L and didn't want to get more in as they were selling very slowly. I grabbed an XL and good thing too cos it turned out to be the last one! It's not that much bigger and I intend to get fat anyway so it's alright.


Some SONIC YOUTH T-shirts are meh but this one is cool. Actually so cool that I bought it again when I discovered that altho the first copy was the right size... it was a slim-fit for chicks. I put it on and looked like a human size condom. Hahaha. Anyhoo, it was my own mistake (gotta learn to READ the seller descriptions!!!) so I didn't wanna bother swapping it. Besides, I would have had to cover the return postage to the UK which would have made it even more expensive anyway.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Ghost on the Highway (USA, 2008)

Yesterday, I received the film GHOST ON THE HIGHWAY about the band THE GUN CLUB and its charismatic frontman JEFFREY LEE PIERCE and being a long time fan I could do nothing but dig into it right away!

What immediately struck me is a note on the back of the cover that states the film doesn't contain any music by the band whatsoever!! I've later learnt that the director tried to get music from the first two LP's but didn't have the money.

Too bad but in a way it's actually not that much of a loss as it keeps the documentary from becoming somewhat of a concert movie which often happens and which would have annoyed me endlessly. I'd rather see and listen to interviews by the people who where there. And we get that. Actually that's ALL we get!

There are interviews with the original old "disgruntled" (as Jeffrey Lee called them on the back of the cover of the album "Danse Kalinda Boom") members WARD DOTSON, TERRY GRAHAM and JIM DUCKWORTH. DEE POP (who was in the band on the "Death Party" EP is there too and thankfully also KID CONGO POWERS (who was also in THE CRAMPS of course). The always interesting HENRY ROLLINS is there too and so is MIKE MARTT from the awesome band TEX AND THE HORSEHEADS.


And there are more people who dealt with Jeffrey and the band too. Oh, and LEMMY from MOTÖRHEAD is interviewed (at a bar of course) but, uhh, don't get me wrong I love Lemmy and Motörhead but I fail to see why he's in the film. He's got nothing to say about the subject matter and he probably never even met THE GUN CLUB.

In about 95% of the film everyone talks shite about Jeffrey Lee and says what a cocksucker he was (except for Kid Congo) but I guess that's alright if that's how they feel. I would rather they spew out bile than give us the usual polished Hollywood bullshit in which previous back-stabbers kiss arse to make it seem like they were the main character's fucking soul mate or some such. You're hardly gonna get THAT impression of neither Ward Dotson nor Terry Graham after this documentary. I'm not blaming them by any means. If everyone says he was a dick then chances are he probably was.

But on the other hand sometimes the best and truest artistic creations come from people who lack basic skills in the social department. Artists who focus all their energy on creating something unique. And the music of Jeffrey Lee Pierce has been amongst my fave music for almost 30 years now and I don't see my love for that change just because it turns out he was a dick.

However, having said that, I do wish they would have found some old interview bits of Jeffrey and given him his own voice so to speak. He doesn't get to say his own piece in this film while almost everyone else is dissing him and that's not fair. It's a one-sided story.

Anyhoo, this is a crappy review so I suggest you go here and here to read some more incisive ones. The film runs around 96 minutes and despite its shortcomings it is highly recommended.

I ordered the DVD from CDBABY in the States. 25 dollars + postage.




By the way, I actually got to see THE GUN CLUB once. Like Jeffrey Lee Pierce I spent the late 80s in London and in 1990 I saw them at the Town & Country Club. I bought the "Mother Juno" LP the same year (check out the awesome track from it that I'm posting here). There were a couple of support bands, one of them being THESE IMMORTAL SOULS. I had the bootleg poster from the gig (it cost £1!) on my wall until very recently.


Sunday, May 6, 2012

Ninja, Say Your Prayers!



Here's some rad scenes from Cinehound members Harm's unfinished film NINJA, SAY YOUR PRAYERS! It's the best I've seen in a long time. A crime to humanity he didn't finish it. Godfrey Ho would have been red with envy that's for sure! xD

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Bowery at Midnight (Wallace Fox, USA, 1942)



At some point during the wee hours I ate fried rice and watched Bela Lugosi in BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT. It's one of the "quickies" he did for Monogram studios and if you check IMDb you'll see a bunch of whiners complaining about the movie. I don't know what these sorry ass wankers want from their old b/w horror movies; Obviously Bela couldn't keep re-making DRACULA and went on to do other exciting stuff. Hmm, come to think of it BOWERY isn't actually so much a real horror movie as it's a "evil no-gooder doing insane stuff" movie! Bela teems up once again with Dave O'Brien whom he also did the excellent horror movie THE DEVIL BAT with. And just like in that film Bela gets to play an insane criminal mastermind who... does criminal insane stuff like killing his own men and leaving a corpse every time he does a new robbery! What a trademark, eh! In THE DEVIL BAT he wanted to kill people for revenge, in BOWERY he's simply a schizoid loco. LOL.

There's also a good looking babe and a (I suppose) handsome looking male detective but - lo and behold - as something of a surprise they DON'T get to get each other in the end nor even fall in love. In fact the babe's douchebag boyfriend gets killed halfway thru the movie (or becomes a zombie, whichever fits the description, LOL).

BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT runs just over an hour and doesn't overstay its welcome. I wanted to get the restored DVD from Roan Group but it's unfortunately OOP and is now way too expensive so I bought a cheapie disc from a label called Imavision and expected it to look like ass but was pleasantly surprise to find that the print looks excellent!! The DVD is a release from Quebec (my first Quebec DVD actually) but apart from the address and optional French subs it didn't look terribly Québécois to me. The cover text is in English and the same goes for the menu. There's no extras. I'm not gonna bother checking but from memory I think I paid around £3 for it via Amazon UK. Oh, did I mention it has zombies!! But they're crappy ones. Don't buy it for the zombies, haha.




EDIT: I just checked Amazon.com after all and now the Roan bastard is down to 11 dollars and they're selling second hand copies for a buck, argh!! I hate you all, you scum Marketplace sellers!!!

Friday, May 4, 2012

The Expendables 2 trailer is here!!!



Homer Simpson drool here! ^_^

The first one was great fun. Not awesome and in no way worthy of even touching RAMBO 4's dirty boxers but then again few new action films are. LMFAO. I look forward to this one if it's at least as fun as the first one I'll be happy.

EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO (René Cardona, Mexico, 1968)

aka SANTO Y EL TESORO DE DRÁCULA



Ian Jane posted about this long lost EL SANTO film over on the ROCK!SHOCK!POP! forum. I haven't seen the film yet so I'll re-post his forum entry here (I hope he's alright with it). It certainly looks very cool! Also, check out this blog post over on the multo cool'o and imformativ'o TEMPLE OF SCHLOCK blog (which used to be a print fanzine altho I never got any of their issues). And there are some screen grabs on this Spanish lingo blog.


by IAN JANE

Santo fans have probably heard about the fabled 'sexy' Santo film that was made but which never saw the light of day. It was found a year or so ago and while Santo's son doesn't want it released (for fear of tarnishing the kid friendly image his father's movies had), it did get a TV showing recently and someone taped it, subtitled it, and uploaded it to a certain file sharing site.

I'm pretty stoked that even if this isn't amazing quality that it is at least available now, with subs no less. Hopefully the movie gets a proper release, as I'd love to hear a commentary from an expert on the Santo movies discussing the bizarre history of the film. If that'll happen or not, who knows - and the image quality of this isn't going to floor you, but just to have the chance to see it after reading about it years ago and figuring it would never surface warms my geeky heart.

There's a pretty interesting article about the find on Reuters here. Basically this is the color and sexified version of Santo In The Treasure Of Dracula which Rise Above made available a few years ago (I miss that company).



Thursday, May 3, 2012

Update on the ONAR dvd sale - by Ali Murat Guven

By ALI MURAT GUVEN

Dear Turkish cult movie fans and friends of Onar Films,

We had a friend who was searching for the old fantastic Turkish movies, who dedicated his life to dig these lost jewels… We lost our dear fellow Vassilis Barounis or as we all know “Bill” in age of 48 in October 2011.

I met Vassilis Barounis in 2006 thanks to cinema historian Metin Demirhan who is another hero we lost couple of years ago. He was collaborating with Metin and asked me some technical help. So started our friendship...

First, I prepared interviews for “Tarzan İstanbul’da”, “Süpermen Dönüyor” and “Ölüler Konuşmaz ki…” Metin and we send them to Athens so we had a very nice way of working together.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Kunt Tulgar -famous Turkish producer, director and actor- went to Athens, Greece as a friendly representative to Bill's widow, Julia Barounis.

Julia knows us very well because we all helped to Bill for his commercial efforts many times.

Mr. Tulgar and his wife took many DVD's from Vassilis' home-office and carried them with their luggages as much as they can carry with themselves and returned to Istanbul two days later.

Now, we are trying to sell these first party of the Onar DVD's one by one.

This is not a commercial activity for me or for Mr. Tulgar. We, the Turks never forget our good friends and Vassilis was a very good friend. Everybody thinks that Turks and Greeks hate each other. But, we were "brothers". My nickname for Vassilis was always "brother" on his e-mail messages. Novadays, I try to deserve this emotional nickname.

All the payment which is coming from the sales is collecting in a bank account. We earn "zero" on this procedure. Everything is for Julia and her little daughter.

You may check this info by writing to Julia, to Athens. If you wish, I can send her e-mail to anybody. She knows everything on this sales operation, my friendly aim and trusts me. Therefore, you are buying this DVDs for "Bill's family", not for me.

After releasing these adverts on the trash film websites, everyday, I receive more than 20 messages from all around the world and reply all of them one by one.

I sold 120 DVD’s to date, in the first 10 days. And I sent all of them via registered airmail post to their owners from USA to Australia. And I added to all personal signed photos of Mr. Kunt Tulgar and Mr. Aytekin Akkaya. For only one DVD or for 10 DVD's, I always added 2 A4 color posters inside every parcel. This is our little present as the sales team for the supporters of this operation.

You must know this firstly... Only "Cellat" (The Executioner) finished... It was really and certainly finished. As the honorary representative of Onar Films in Turkey, I have only ONE COPY from "Cellat" in my library now. And Julia has not got this title in Athens. There was only 9 copies in Athens and Mr. Tulgar bringed them to me. And if we don't print a new 500 legal copies with Onar label as an independent work, it will never be again.

In the other side, "Kilink Istanbul"da is almost finishing. Last copies of this title are in Istanbul, in my office and I have only 25-30 copies from this title.

Another important info for you... "Karanlık Sular", "Kadın Dusmanı","Demirpence Korsan Adam" is AVAILABLE. But, their copies are in Athens now. Mr. Tulgar will fly to Athens again at the beginning of next May and will also bring me these titles.

I will keep you up to date via Murat Tolga Şen and Utku Uluer from Öteki Sinema (www.otekisinema.com) and Sinematik Yeşilçam (sinematikyesilcam.com) websites.
If you need any titles and want to support this operation, then write to me via:

onarfilms.lastfilms@yahoo.com

Best regards to all,

ALI MURAT GUVEN
Turkish film critic / Cinema historian
Onar Films’ Honorary Representative in Istanbul-Turkey

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

My and my buddy Lydia


Yay! Spiffy!! My new T-shirt!!! Well, my new T-shirt that I've ordered and paid for that is, I haven't received it yet. It's the ad for Richard Kern's FINGERED that stars Lydia Lunch. I got those Kerns films almost twenty years ago thru tape trading. And when Another World Entertainment started out many years ago head honcho Jan Schmidt sent me the reg. 1 "Hardcore Collection" dvd (which contains most of Kern's old New York underground films) which Jan was distributing thru his other distribution company at the time (I believe that label dealt with music releases for most part).

Jan really must have dug those films (understandably!) cos he has just released them on the AWE label! Beyond cool if you ask me! The fact that AWE screw up Lung Leg's name on the cover (and on their website) is very embarrassing though! "Leg Lung", hahaha. Hmm, that reminds me of something that happened 7 or 8 years ago. I didn't have internet at home at the time and instead I'd go to the local library and use their computers. One day I received a mysterious email; A guy somewhere in America sent me an article he'd written about Lung Leg and he said I could print it if I wanted to. I assumed he'd somehow got hold of my English language fanzine "Banned in Britian" which was being distributed in various parts of the world back then. And then... nothing. He just disappeared as mysteriously as he popped up.

The article was a long well written piece on Lung Leg and the mystery that surrounded her at the time; After she made the underground films in New York she completely disappeared for many years. Rumour was she was dead, probably of a drug overdose. The article tried to dig into what might have become of her. As I said it was well written and all but I never got to print it simply because I never published another issue of "Banned in Britain". And even if I were to publish another issue (which I'm not) there's now a new problem: Lung Leg has actually surfaced which kinda renders the article void!! Hahaha. There's a (short) Wiki page on her that mentions her new(ish) work.


Anyway, this isn't a review of the Richard Kern films (it's a post about my new cool T-shirt!) but I highly recommend them. Those New York underground films are everything film making should be about. Nasty, gritty, ugly, in black & white, crude, full of violence, and not holding back. There's even love too. Kind of (in a "I really-really hate you and I would stab you if I had a knife or fork or pencil" way). There's a guy called Henry in there as well. How can underground films with a guy called Henry not be awesome (he uses to be in a band called Black Flag too). Oh, and I didn't even mention Nick Zedd. Man, Nick Zedd had the most pissed off face of any faces. Johnny Rotten would've died for that face!!! When THE CRAMPS has a line that goes, "She's got a look on her puss like she was weaned on a pickle" - THAT'S Nick Zedd!!!!! Forever weaned on a pickle.

Check the AWE disc here. It's in rotten Danish but you can have a gander at the pix.

Wild Indo action on the wall


I received two gigantic French cinema posters yesterday. They're for the two Indonesian films LADY EXTERMINATOR ("Violent Killer" in France) and FIVE DEADLY ANGELS. I didn't realise just how big they are till I got them: 47 x 63" inches (120x160cm)!!! But they sure are nice to look at. :D
- not cheap either! :(