Terror in the midnight sun

Colonel David F. Friedman December 24, 1923 - February 14, 2011.

2011-02-14T19:13:00.003+01:00

Born on Christmas Eve, died on Valentine's Day, and in between he lived a hundred times more than you or I will ever do. Here's to a true innovator, raconteur, exploitation genius, dirty old man, and friend. Rest in peace Dave, I bet you are already doing outrageous sales pitches and telling indecent stories in heaven!

Heaven in Sweden

2008-11-17T12:43:00.008+01:00

I am very happy to announce that my fact-filled essay on Luigi Scattini's fake documentary Sweden, Heaven and Hell has just been published in Video Watchdog #145! The piece is called Sex, Lies and Bikini Lines, after a quip by Swedish singer Lill Lindfors (herself no stranger to a bit of daring controversy!) I spent a lot of time researching the film, consulting numerous sources including an excellent article on the Stupido News Network. The article talks about the film's relationship to Sweden, including an account of it's one-time screening on Swedish televion, and attempts to sort at least some of the facts from the exaggerations, creative inventions and outright lies which comprise the bulk of the film. The issue also features a number of my personal posters (credited to "The Lars Erik Holmquist Collection"!) and another piece on the film - part fact, part fiction - by Tim Lucas called Cincinatti, Heaven and Hell.

I am particularly proud of this because I consider VW the best fantastic film magazine currently published, a worthy heir to pioneers like Calvin T. Beck's Castle of Frankenstein and Frederick S. Clarke's Cinefantastique. Editor Timothy R. Lucas calls this issue of Video Watchdog "one of my favorites in our 19-year history" and a step towards a new direction for the magazine.

Video Watchdog #145 is available now in finer magazine stores everywhere, or directly from the publisher. The official Swedish PAL DVD release of Sweden, Heaven and Hell (with English soundtrack; recently reviewed by Tim Lucas in Sight and Sound) can be ordered directly from Klubb Super 8.

Below are a sneak peek of mine and Tim's articles (click and they expand to readable size). Note how graphic designer Donna Lucas did a wonderful job integrating the US pressbook and the Italian locandina for the respective title pages!

Sitges report published!

2008-11-08T15:56:00.004+01:00

For those of you who wonder exactly how to watch six movies and drink more than twice as many Mojitos in just two days (see demonstration below), head over to my Sitges Film Festival report at the great Eurocult site, lovelockandload.com! And stay tuned - I will post some of my favorite posters from Sitges here soon...

Back from Sitges!

2008-10-08T14:48:00.003+02:00

I am back from 2 tumultuous days at the Sitges film festival - I really hope I can stay longer next time! I'll be posting some cool posters and other stuff later, but right now I need to catch a plane to Singapore... Here are some teasers from outside the Sitges Melia hotel!

Sitges Film Festival

2008-09-27T16:39:00.004+02:00

Finally! I have been visiting the amazing Sitges Film Festival regularly since 2002, but my schedule has not permitted to go there since 2005. My schedule does not really permit me to go there this year either - but screw that! During a wet night out, myself and Tomas Seidevall of Swedish DVD company Klubb Super 8 decided we simply had to go to Sitges...

Said and done. We woke up the next day with two business class tickets to Barcelona and no turning back.

I will only be there for 2 full days (Friday, October 3 and Saturday, October 4) but I hope to report both to this blog and to lovelockandload, the excellent guide to European cult movie goodness! In the meantime, here is a picture from Sitges 2005, with Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth and company entering the main auditorium for the premiere of Hostel. In the background we can see a little of the gigantic movie poster display that cover the plaza during festival season!

SEE! "The Eden of Sweden!"

2008-09-14T00:08:00.005+02:00

To celebrate that I have just handed in an article about Luigi Scattini's infamous mondo movie Sweden Heaven and Hell to a well-known magazine, let's take a look at some ballyhoo from the pressbook!

SEE: "The Love Cruise"! A training trip for turned-on teens!
SEE: "The Bachelorette Party"! A bride-to-be's last fling!
SEE: "Monlighting Nudes"! Meter-maids by day - models at night!
SEE: "The Swap Shop"! A trade-in deal for married couples only!
SEE: "The Polar Bare Club"! The world's most beautiful snow-girls!

And so much more - I have included some scans at extra high resolution so you can find out for yourself!

Friends & neighbours

2008-08-19T00:03:00.005+02:00

As you might have figured out, I am pretty particular with the link list to the right - I only link to people & products I personally endorse, and where I have some kind of relationship to the people behind it. So it takes me great pleasure to introduce the newest link (even though it has been there for a while): Peter in Stockholm's Giallo Locandine! A blog of my taste, Peter is very particular in what he posts - only Italian giallo posters from his own collection! I am happy that such a stringent yet well-nourished blog is produced in Sweden, and even though we have never met, I feel our blogs are two of a kind.

To celebrate, here are a few giallo locandine of my own: the great grandfather of them all, Mario Bava's Black Sabbath (specifically the Telephone segment); the stylish upstart, Lucio Fulci's Perversion Story; and the genre-defining masterpiece, Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.

Lo Strano Vizio Della Signora Fenech

2008-08-18T13:08:00.003+02:00

Edwige Fenech was one of the most celebrated actresses of Italian popular cinema in the 70's, perhaps most known for her appearances in many breezy sex comedies. But she was also the iconic star of many classic giallos, including The Case of the Bloody Iris and the amazingly paranoid All the Colors of the Dark. Here we see four Italian manifestos for three of her thrilling giallos, made with two giants of the genre: The Strange Vice of Signora Wardh plus Your Vice is a Locked Door and Only I Have the Key, both by the reliable Sergio Martino; and Mario Bava's ironic 5 Dolls for an August Moon.

Profondo Paura

2008-06-19T22:19:00.007+02:00

Continuing the odyssey of the Italian manifesto, here are three classic horror and sci-fi movies featuring superb artwork - sometimes derivative of, but always superior to other countries' posters! First, a scene from the groundbreaking UK shocker Horrors of the Black Museum, where an unfortunate lady has just opened a grisly gift from Michael Gough's maniac! Then the cleavage-in-space epic The Green Slime, by one of Japan's most celebrated directors, Kinji Fukasaku, better known for the Pearl Harbour-based Tora! Tora! Tora! and survival horror masterpiece Battle Royal. And finally, Susan Denberg strikes a pose in Frankenstein Created Woman, one of Peter Cushing's more outlandish portraits of the mad doctor.

Esotika Erotika Psikotika

2008-06-16T19:09:00.005+02:00

Yesterday was no fluke - you'll see a lot more Italian 2-sheets on the blog, because I recently completed a mammoth photography project! (Next up are my Japanese posters...) Continuing in style, we have three erotic productions: Fernando Di Leo's amazing To Be Twenty, which in its original uncut version counts as one of the most shocking movies ever made; the original Black Emanuelle, with a career-defining performance by Laura Gemser; and one of the best Italian titles ever, for Radley Metzger's The Lickerish Quartet (a fantastic title in itself!)

Incidentally, Esotika Erotika Psicotika is also the title of a great book in the Diva Archives series from our friends at Glittering Images chronicling "sexual revolution and transgressive eroticism in Italian popular publications and cinema, from 1964 to 1973". Highly recommended - get it from the Glittering Images Web Site!

Seven and seven is...

2008-06-15T15:05:00.004+02:00

The Italian 2-sheet or manifesto might be the greatest poster format ever! Superb art and impressive size, without being as unwieldy as the US 3-sheet or French grande. Even minor movies are worth collecting for their art, such as these two female variations-on-a-theme - obviously inspired (at least in title) by Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and the western re-make The Magnificent Seven...

The facts of life, revisited!

2008-06-09T22:54:00.003+02:00

One of the great inspirations for this blog is the Italian mockumentary Svezia: Inferno e Paradiso aka Sweden Heaven and Hell. On our recent national holiday, one of Sweden's largest TV channels decided to do an extensive review of Klubb Super 8's new DVD of the film - click here to see the full clip in Swedish!

Wait for the end when the reviewer flips the DVD cover to reveal a Japanese poster, supplied by yours truly, and proceeds to gush over how cool and beautiful it is. The TV presenters have a good laugh at the film's perception of Sweden as an ultra-permissive country... and then continue the DVD reviews by showing a mind-blowing splatter scene from the Japanese revenge shocker Lady Snowblood! All this at 9 o'clock in the morning!

Above is a reprise of the Japanese artwork. I have some more goodies from the film coming up, but in the meantime read my original post and marvel at the German, Australian and Italian paper!

I am only following orders!

2008-06-08T15:39:00.006+02:00

Today we welcome the blog's very first guest spot, by poster collector extraordinaire Armin from Germany! Armin (aka Posteroid) is most known for his amazing Japanese collection, and just like me he seems to have a particular fondness for posters that reflect the national character of his native country. But while Sweden is more known for blonde girls, sexual liberation and fun in the sun (like in the more successful films of Ingmar Bergman), Germany has a slightly harsher reputation...

WELCOME TO THE LAGER

Female prisoners forced to strip in front of lusting German soldiers...
Sadistic SS guards whipping young, helpless women...
Dirty concentration camps where perverted doctors perform unspeakable experiments on human specimen...

Oh my, what on earth did Lee Frost think when he started all this?

It’s1969, Frost directs the "classic" LOVE CAMP 7, based on a script by Wes Bishop and Bob Cresse. It was the first feature-length Nazi exploitation film. Competently made for a low-budget trash movie and mildly provocative for a 60's roughie, it set the standards for a genre, which (unusual for the exploitation world) only really blossomed a few years later.

Maybe LOVE CAMP 7 wasn't the hit its makers had hoped it to be. Or maybe the time wasn't ripe yet. In any case, for now the world was a safe place again and the Nazis stayed quiet for a couple more years.

Cut to 1975: smut producer David Friedman must have remembered the little piece of dirt called LOVE CAMP 7 and set out to go where no man had gone before. He enlists director Don Edmonds to create the unforgettable and incredibly tasteless ILSA - SHE WOLF OF THE SS. Still provocative today, Edmonds obviously wanted to shock just about anyone brave enough to watch it (guys: don't ever show this to your girl friends unless you are ready for serious trouble).

Shocking it was; indeed it was so shocking that David Friedman took his name off the credits. But it must have made heaps of money....
ILSA - SHE-WOLF OF THE SS was a global hit - at least in those territories where it was allowed to be screened. And it spawned two direct and one indirect sequel, none of which had a Nazi reference.

But by now, the Italians, undisputed masters of the "If it makes money we will rip it off" genre, realised there was $$$ to be made out of the vile deeds or their former WW2 allies. The Italians were incredibly prolific and among the usual junk, they actually created a few interesting entries to the genre. The most memorable are GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (Cesare Canevari), DEPORTED WOMEN OF THE SS SPECIAL SECTION (Rino Di Silvestro), WOMEN'S CAMP 119 (Bruno Mattei), SS EXPERIMENT CAMP / SS CAMP WOMEN'S HELL (both Sergio Garrone) and NAZI LOVE CAMP 27 (Mario Caiano). The remainder of the Italian and French atrocities of the genre you better stay away from unless you are a completist or just a little insane.

None of these are truly great films, but that’s not the point. Those who have read on thus far are looking for pure sleaze entertainment and they will without doubt be rewarded.
Alas, here ends our journey to the world of political incorrectness. I hope you will spend a little more time here - but watch out for the guards…..

All that glitters

2008-06-06T19:32:00.007+02:00

Thanks for the great response to the Glittering Images post! I was particularly happy to hear back from Stefano himself:

Hello Lars,
I'm the one who has to thank you for your visit! My compliments for your fine blog... the photos you took here at Glittering are truly breathtaking!
Best
Stefano
Glittering Images edizioni d'essai

Do check out the Glittering Images web site which is now up again and offers information on all their publication!

I can't offer any details on the up-coming giallo book as I only had a peek at the cover in the layout software, but here are some bonus interiors...

And if anyone doubts how serious Armin really is about that copy of Love Camp 7, check back soon for some truly mind-blowing stuff from the German himself! In the meantime, another view of that Super 8 release and my tasteful Danish poster - according to the hyperbole it is "Completely banned in the rest of Europe!"

A Glittering Prize

2008-04-20T20:49:00.007+02:00

I recently had the opportunity to visit one of the greatest film book publishers in the world: Glittering Images in Florence, Italy! (note: the Glittering Images website seems to be offline at the moment) This outfit produces amazingly colorful and well-researched tomes on cult-films and related topics, all lavishly illustrated with rare posters, magazine covers and even specially commissioned comics! Most helpfully, despite being Italian in origin all of them contain parallel text in English! Among my favorites are their books on Jess Franco, Japanese "pink" horror, sexploitation filmmakers (including David Friedman) and classic Italian horror. They have also produced cross-over books on photo comics, racy magazines, and an extensive line of classic erotica. I was welcomed by Stefano Piselli, one of the founders, who has co-edited or written many of their books.

The combined office/warehouse houses a treasure trove of memorabilia, from original cover paintings and rare books to obscure Super 8 movies...

...and of course a full range of Glittering Images books!

After chatting with Stefano and picking out some choice books for purchase, I also got a sneak peak at their up-coming book on Italian Giallos - this could be one of their best books yet!

Black Dynamite

2008-04-20T20:24:00.005+02:00

Here are a few posters with Pam Grier, the Blaxploitation starlet who virtually defined the genre in a set of Jack Hill-directed revenge movies - Coffy and Foxy Brown. The first two posters are from the Swedish run, where each film was predictably cut to ribbons by the censors, and in the case of Coffy, originally banned outright - something the exhibitors made sure to mention on the posters!

Finally here we have the spectacular Italian manifestos for Coffy and The Big Doll House, the latter a sleazy women-in-prison epic from the Hill/Grier team!

Said the Spider to the Bat

2008-03-30T22:12:00.005+02:00

Superhero movies are almost always ridiculous, reinforced by the tongue-in-cheek style set by the Batman TV series of the 60's. One wonders how much of the intentional humor of the series was picked up by Maura Monti and friends in La Mujer murciélago, better known as Batwoman, the Mexican Batman imitation? Perhaps we should just be happy that unlike Monti on the Mexican one-sheet, below, Adam West never wore a bikini! The film is hard to see today but it did have an international release, playing Italy under the title L'Invincible Superdonna - as proven by this Italian two-sheet. Incredibly, it also played Germany under the more than bizarre title Draculas Tochter und Professor Satanas - I guess the Batman connection was not as hot over there! Too bad I can't show you that poster, some other time perhaps...

Obviously inspired by Italian superhero train-wrecks such as Superargo Contro Diabolikus, as well as the Japanese Spiderman, some internet entrepreneurs have released a fabulous spoof trailer for Italian Spiderman. It is pitch-perfect down to the releasing company logo ("Alrugo!") and fake video drop-outs, and comes complete with an implausible backstory about the only full-length print being lost in a shipwreck... But what finally tipped us off that this is not a real time-capsule artifact was not the made-up Italian accents, the more than inspired acting, or the fact that it seems to be filmed in a college dorm backyard - it is that no real Italian would drink his macchiato from such a big cup!

If anyone can fill us in on the real story behind this inspired trailer we'd love to hear it!

What happens to girls without men?

2008-03-27T22:18:00.004+01:00

The "women in prison" genre is a peculiar construct. I do not know exactly where and when it started, I honestly have not seen very many, but examples of the formula go back to the 1950's at least. In Girls in Prison, we get "a shocking tale of one man against 1000 women" according to the Swedish tag line. Both the poster art and the title are directly lifted from the US counterpart, but the censors decided to cut the film in several places before putting it before Swedish cinemagoers. Among the lost moments were "the scene with girls fighting", "knife threat against sleeping woman", "the assault and beating in the shed", "the scene where a girl falls off a lorry", and "the scenes with fighting and close-ups of a dying girl". One wonders if there was anything left to get excited about?

I'm sure the genre thrived in the 60's, but we forge ahead to the 1970's and of the more accomplished examples: Jonathan Demme's Caged Heat. This is actually a pretty good movie, with Euro-goth/horror queen Barbara Steele as the wicked warden. Nobody even bothered to try passing this by the Swedish censors, as it was doomed to fail. Leave it to the Italians to squeeze the most visuals out of this Roger Corman production...

By the time the Italians caught on and started producing these films themselves, the sleaze factor went up to the max and Laura Gemser had yet another career option. A typical 80's production would be Violence in a Women's Prison, from hack master Bruno Mattei, most notable because the poster would have been equally fitting in my rat collection!

E La "Sex-Bomb", Lotte Tarp!

2008-03-25T22:42:00.006+01:00

It is always gratifying to see how Swedish exploitation movies made their way around the world, especially considering how other countries often produced lavish promotion material for movies that were hardly seen in their native country! Here we have two lovely examples - Italian manifesto or 2-sheets (100*140 cm.) for the sex/horror hybrids Morianerna and Skräcken har 1000 ögon. Both are prime Swedesploitation, the first being directed by Arne Mattson who pioneered the genre by breaking the breast barrier in Hon dansade en sommar, the second being produced by Inge Ivarsson, the legend behind The Language of Love and still going strong at 90 years of age! Not forgetting La Sex-Bomb herself, of course. And hey, both titles are out on DVD from Klubb Super 8...

Tell Your Children!

2008-03-16T22:35:00.009+01:00

I was pleasantly surprised when doing some poster archeology the other day, and discovered this: A Swedish daybill ("stolpe") for Mom and Dad, under the title Din Kropp är Din ("Your Body is Yours"). Kroger Babb's revolutionary "sex education" roadshow picture gave many exploitation greats their start in the business as it toured America in the 1940's (and of course the same fearless young showman later brought some Swedish sensations to the US!). Babb's strategy was to set up tents outside cities, whip up interest in the shocking scenes to be seen, and do segregated screenings for men and women! The ticket take was part of the profit, but even more was had with the "educational booklets" as evangelized by the "eminent hygiene commentator" Dr. Elliot Forbes, in a rousing speech during the intermission. There were literally dozens of "Dr. Forbes" traveling the country, and one of the was none other than Colonel David F. Friedman, later to revolutionize the exploitation film world himself together with Herschell Gordon Lewis, through the early "nudie cutie" Lucky Pierre, and even more important, the first "gore movie", Blood Feast. When Friedman visited Gothenburg for the Something Weird 2000 tour in 1999, he regaled the audience at the Draken Cinema with a full Forbes routine, and always with an eye on the bottom line, he thoughtfully brought some pamphlets to sell too! I have not seen them but I am sure Swedish-language books were also printed - it was part of the business model - as was, as is apparent from the Swedish poster, sex-segregated screenings. And just as in America, the main selling point is the sensational final reel, containing "the miracle of birth"! I wonder who the Swedish Dr. Elliot Forbes was, and if there perhaps was another one working the country side while the film was playing at the China Theater in Stockholm?

For the full story on Mom and Dad, I recommend Joe Bob Briggs' excellent essay Kroger Babb's Roadshow, and his book Profoundly Disturbing.

Apparently this was not an isolated event. I also excavated this Swedish one-sheet for Test Tube Babies, a rather more blatant piece of smut masquerading as education. A racy poster for "the sensational American film about artificial insemination", and I wonder what exactly the people in the inset photographs have to do with such a clinical procedure? Anyway, it is good to know that Sweden had its fair share of "fearless young showmen", even though they did not quite approach the mastery of Babb himself.

A nice pair

2008-03-02T16:23:00.005+01:00

Rabid readers have probably seen these guys before, but I finally got around to framing them and putting them up on the wall in the living room!

These posters are special for me for several reasons. Both are linenbacked and restored by Dario Casadei, whom I wrote about some time ago (here and here). Grodorna is the Swedish 1972 release of AIP's "nature revenge" shocker Frogs (actually, very few frogs are seen), and was one of the first posters I ever bought - found in a pile of trash in a junk shop in Gothenburg in the mid-80s. This pile actually included over 20 posters, Swedish and American, for Hammer films, rock'n'roll, nudist and animal horror films from the 60's and 70's. I negotiated fiercely with the owner (who, like such people always do, claimed the posters were immensely valuable, but that the really great ones had been sent to be photographed and disappeared in the mail!) and finally got the whole kit for about $15.

This pile has followed me along many moves, most of them have been thumb-tacked to walls in one flat or the other, and Grodorna being one of the favorites deteriorated accordingly. But thanks to Dario it is now spiff and looking spankin' new again and has finally found it's dignified place!

I Draculas klor is the Swedish 1970 release of Hammer's classic Dracula. It is also out of a pile, this one found on a Swedish auction site a few years ago. Some of the posters in this batch were completely destroyed (seemed to have been sitting in a barn somewhere) but thankfully Dracula had only minor damages. The artist is Hans Arnold, who is well-known in Sweden for his thousands of delightfully horrific illustrations for magazines and books. He made very few movie posters, and as far as I know, never made any illustrations specifically for the movies - they were all originally published in books, magazines or other places. The ones I know of are Steven Spielberg's debut, Duel; Disney's Escape to Witch Mountain; and most exciting for me, Breaking Point, Bo Arne Vibenius' "follow-up" to Thriller - A Cruel Picture! If anyone in the world can find me the the last one, eternal gratitude and quite a lot of money will be yours...

Even better than TANK GIRL???

2008-03-01T17:38:00.006+01:00

So who can send me a DVD-R of Phoo Action, the new BBC3 pilot based on a comic by Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett? Looks awesome!

Swedesploitation Ground Zero

2008-02-22T18:52:00.006+01:00

Here we have it: the ur-text of Swedish exploitation, the most internationally successful Swedish film of all time (at least until Lena Nyman showed it all in I Am Curious Yellow), our greatest director's most popular work: I give you Ingmar Bergman's Sommaren Med Monika (Summer with Monika), re-titled, re-cut, and re-imagined by exploitation master Kroger Babb as Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl!

I guess they really are closed, then

2008-02-11T21:55:00.000+01:00

Secret Base, Harajuku, Tokyo, February 2008

Poster shopping around the world, part 3: Barcelona

2008-02-03T17:51:00.000+01:00

Barcelona is not only notable for its great Gaudi architecture and proximity to the Sitges Film Festival, it also has one of the best movie poster shops in Europe! Groucho y Yo have a nice storefront in an accessible part of the city, and also sell on eBay under the name fantomas38000. They have a nice variety of items from all over the world, but are particularly noteworthy for a well-organized selection of European and Mexican trash along with regular horror from Hammer and others. Here are some pics from a visit a few years ago...

I was even allowed to take a peek in the warehouse where thousands upon thousands of posters, lobbycards, pressbooks and other items are neatly stored!

Poster shopping around the world, part 2: Tokyo

2008-02-03T14:05:00.000+01:00

The Internet has all but destroyed the market for "brick-and-mortar" poster shops, but there are still a few left across the world, and nothing can beat the feeling of looking though hundreds of great posters in piles and on the walls of a really great shop. In Tokyo, the best deals can be had at Nakano Broadway, the "collector's supermall" a few stops outside the JR Yamanote line, or in second-hand shops at Jimbocho, the bookshop district. But for a high-class shopping experience, go no further than the Akasaka Cinematheque! A venerable store run by several generations of poster lovers, it has a great ambiance and is worth a visit, even though the stock does not seem to be changing a lot lately. But if you have time to sit down with their catalogs and you are bound to find a few gems, both Japanese and international. Beware that it is very hard to find as there is no sign of the shop outside the building - unless you read Japanese!

Poster shopping around the world, part 1: New York

2008-02-03T00:39:00.000+01:00

Here are some snaps from my New York holiday last year. We stumbled on an enormous warehouse/shop in Tribeca, with an absolutely incredible collection of linenbacked posters - movies, advertising, theatre and so on. I can't recall the name of the place, and they did not have any prices easily available (probably out of my league anyway) but it was a really cool place to visit, a poster collector's dream... check it out!

Bloody Velvet and Red Lips

2008-01-17T23:54:00.000+01:00

I just got a whole bunch of German posters from the late 60's, and here are my two favorites: Mario Bava's classic proto-giallo Blood and Black Lace (the superior Style B poster) and Jess Franco's ultra-entertaining pop-art piece Sadisterotica!

Quadrophenia

2008-01-13T15:55:00.000+01:00

Here's a change of pace, some fairly recent UK posters in the attractive Quad format! I don't usually collect modern posters but as a lover of British comedy I couldn't resist picking up these. In The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse the fantastic original television series' world crashes violently with our own reality - great fun for fans, almost incomprehensible for anyone else! More well-known outside of Britain is Shaun of the Dead, which was a loose continuation of the TV series Spaced, in which Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and co. perfected their art of pop-culture parodies. Are you local?

The Rain in Spain

2008-01-06T18:12:00.000+01:00

I was hoping to photograph and post some new posters this weekend, but the weather has been so bad I did not get enough light! I should get a professional photo lamp one of these days...

But just to keep the blog going, here are a couple of Spanish posters. In the 1960's and 70's, Spain had a lot of great poster artists and these are just a few of my favorites...

Rumble Monster Dooms Erostika!

2007-12-31T13:29:00.000+01:00

As promised, here are some posters by Rockin' Jelly Bean that I picked up at Erostika in Harajuku, Tokyo! (for full story, click here) The posters are beautifully printed and signed, in limited editions of 500 or less. I only regret one thing: that I did not buy ALL the posters in the store!

These two are my favorites, perhaps because they look like movie posters. But if these were real movies, they would be the greatest movies ever made - a bizarre mix of grindhouse / kaiju / explotiation / race car sleaze, all crashing together in Rockin' Jelly Bean's deranged mind!

I also love this series of 3 matching "Barbarockets"

Erostika also does big business in T-shirt featuring Rockin' Jelly Bean designs. I picked up this one, riffing off Japan's unique Sukeban (girl gang boss) and Sasori (female prison) genres.

Talking of Sasori, I'll finish with a T-shirt from Hardcore Chocolate in Shimokitazawa, another shop well worth visiting if you find yourself in Tokyo

Silent night, bloody night...

2007-12-23T13:10:00.001+01:00

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year - I hope to see you soon with more amazing posters from the vaults! Here's the Swedish poster for Black Christmas (1974), directed by Bob Clark, who was also behind classic like Deathdream, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, and, ahem, Porky's, but who died tragically in a car accident earlier this year.

Tales from Tokyo part 4: Pop on with the Wimpy's!

2007-12-10T17:59:00.000+01:00

My last night in Tokyo I went to a pop concert at Shelter in Shimokitazawa. Shimokitazawa is one of the nicest parts of Tokyo, with a lot of record shops and low-key bars, but is currently under threat since there are plans to build a motorway that would destroy the whole area! If you have a chance, you should go there and remember to take the South exit from the train - that is where the action is!

Due to a series of strange coincidences, I was introduced to Takeuchi "Hirocky" Hirokai of Oasaka indie pop combo The Wimpy's through Ola Hermansson, neuroscientist and singer in classic Swedish surf band Sonic Surf City. As luck would have it, The Wimpy's were supporting Australian garage rockers The Stems together with Japanese acts Faceful and Supersnazz! Being a long-term Stems fan and curios about the Japanese pop scene, I simply had to go...! I arrived early and had time to hang out with Hirocky (center), his wife Beccee and friend Lee (as in Marvin, not Bruce!)

First band on stage was Faceul, with an energetic female singer

Then came veterans Supersnazz, who started out as an all-girl rock band but now is gender neutral

Hirocky's band The Wimpy's were next, and I could see the connection with Sonic Surf City right away - both have a hard, poppy sound that really gets the crowd going!

Finally, The Stems - I thought they went away in the 80's but apparently they reformed 10 years ago and have a new album out!

It was a lot of fun meeting some musicians and fans and seeing some cool live music! And just to prove what a small town Tokyo sometimes can be, Ox from Rockin' Jelly Bean's shop Erostika showed up, and of course it turns out he knows Hirocky! Next time in Japan I really hope I can catch Rockin' Jelly Bean's surf band Jackie and the Cedrics who played Shelter just a few weeks ago!

Thanks to Hirocky and all the bands and the great people at Shelter! I won't be blogging for a while but stay tuned - next time I'll post some great poster from Japan and elsewhere...

Tales from Tokyo part 3: Biru Mecha!

2007-12-09T12:39:00.000+01:00

One night in Tokyo, when going out to an izakaya with some people attending the Tokyo Filmex, I happened upon this amazing contraption: A draft beer vending machine! Yes it is true: you put in some coins, place your glass, press a button and the machine pours your a perfect glass of beer, complete with foam crown!

Press play if you don't believe me, and excuses for the fact that I couldn't figure out a way to rotate the picture right...

Intermission: Plugging the pluggers

2007-12-06T14:32:00.000+01:00

Many thanks to Popcorn and Sticky Floors for the recent plug for yours truly! For a blogger who doesn't read many blogs, P&SF is easily the one I appreciate the most, and Colin and Michael are as close to being my soul mates as we can get without turning all gay here (don't know about that Jesse guy though). Group hug!

Our regular Tokyo Tales programming will return soon.

Tales from Tokyo part 2: Rockin' Erostika

2007-12-06T11:05:00.000+01:00

Finding anything in Tokyo is almost impossible unless you know exactly where it is. Well, you will stumble on the obvious things (Shinjuku crossing, Akihabara electronics shops, Kiddyland in Harajuku) but to go deep, you need help. The most interesting places are invariably hidden away in a basement (like Secret Base), or several floors up in an unmarked residential building (like Akasaka Cinematheque), or many train stops off the regular tourist haunts (like Nakano Broadaway). This is where alternative guides like Tokyo Underground and Cruising the Anime City are invaluable, because no matter how many times you visit the city, there will be places you never heard of.

Of all the new shops I visited this time the best one was Erostika, which can be found in a basement in Harajuku, and is the official shop of artist Rockin' Jelly Bean. The mysterious wrestling-masked avenger and part-time musician, with shops in Los Angeles and Tokyo, designs posters and T-shirts that are a delirious blend of rock'n'roll, sex, horror and exploitation - like the best grindhouse movies never made! I was led to the shop by film expert Marc Walkow, who was in town for a festival, but it also appeared in the Tokyo Underground guide. The Erostika operators had not seen the book so they were more than happy to pose with my copy!

I bought 5 signed limited-edition posters, a Sukeban (Japanese girl-gang) T-shirt, and a bunch of stickers. I'll post images of those later, but here are a few interiors...

Tales from Tokyo part 1: Shopping in strange places

2007-12-05T20:13:00.000+01:00

I'm back from Tokyo (and London and Cambridge and Amsterdam, but that's another story) and had a great time as usual! I only bought a few movie posters, but of course I shopped a lot of other stuff. A great help was the new book Tokyo Underground from Super 7. It's a detailed guide to shops selling designer toys, T-shirts and other amazing stuff, complete with maps (always a necessity to find anything in Tokyo!) Among the highlights I found through the book were Hardcore Chocolate in Shimokitazawa, which sell rock'n'roll, wrestling and B-movie wear; Graniph, great for unique T-shirts with shops in Shinjuku and elsewhere; and Secret Base in Harajuku, home of the bizarre Skullbrain toys.

But the most mysterious shop (at least for an un-initiated shopper like me) is Original Fake. Located in super-trendy Ayoma, in an exclusive basement shop next to Gucci, Prada and BAPE, I had a really hard time figuring out exactly what they sell! Most of the items seem to be either variations of artist KAWS' signature weird toys, or clothing with very subtle, almost invisible designs (like the XX embroidered on the sleeve of an extremely expensive plain black T-shirt!) - but almost nothing seemed to be actually for sale! Still, the space is amazing, with the signature feature being the almost 3 meter high KAWS "Companion" in the entrance - take a look...

Watch out for more Tokyo tales very soon!

The Blogger Travels Around Japan

2007-11-15T17:06:00.000+01:00

I will be in Tokyo next week (November 18-23), and even though it's mostly work I hope to check out one or two of the major poster haunts - good old Nakano Broadway in particular. I will also attend a concert at Shimokitazawa SHELTER with The Wimpy's, Faceful, Supersnazz and the mighty Stems from Australia! If you are in Tokyo and want to meet up for a meal at Watami, a beer in Golden Gai, or a trawl through DVD shops in Akihabara, get in touch.

When it comes to Japanese posters, I mostly collect gangster and girl-gang posters from the 60's and early 70's, but most of them are not properly photographed yet. Instead I'll show two of my favorite recent Japanese posters, for Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie from Montmartre and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away - both bought during previous Tokyo trips!

You! Killed! My! Teacher!!!

2007-11-13T20:13:00.000+01:00

Martial artist Bruce Lee was one of the world's greatest action stars. Director Robert Clouse was an untalented hack. Exactly why they worked together on Enter The Dragon is a mystery, but thanks to Lee's total control of the action scenes it became a classic. When Lee died, Clouse scooped up the 12 minutes of finished Lee footage of the planned follow-up, and constructed the abysmal Game of Death, a Frankenstein's monster of a movie made from dead bodyparts and Lee look-alikes. 30 years later, Bruce is finally avenged by Justin Lin's mockumentary Finishing the Game, about the imagined casting sessions of Clouse's disasterpiece. Check out the pitch-perfect 70's vibes in this trailer...

Mexican Mayhem

2007-11-11T11:02:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I showed some examples of the linenbacking and restoration undertaken by Dario Casadeo at Vintage Movie Art. But some posters need treatment even if the haven't been sitting in a barn with only some chickens for company in the last three decades! In particular, Mexican posters from the 1960's and earlier were printed on paper that is so thin and low quality, they can be in bad shape even if the have never been unfolded since leaving the printing press. Due to the acid in the paper, as well as dirt in the environment (like cigarette smoke) these posters slowly but surely deteriorate until there is nothing left. The only way to stop this process is to wash out all the acid and dirt, and then mount the poster on paper or linen.

Here is an example. This amazing 1962 poster for El Baron del Terror (re-named The Brainiac in the US) had never been used, yet the paper was is such bad shape, it was literally falling apart in my hands when I unfolded it.

After Dario had soaked the poster in his special bath, it did fall apart! The fold lines were so fragile the poster separated almost completely, and the paper was like mush - a very gentle hand was required to get it all out of the bath in one piece and mount it on linen.

But he made it! Here is the Baron looking better than ever, and ready to suck brains for many years to come!

Here is an example of a more recent Mexican poster. It seems that between the early 1960s and 1969, when Las Vampiras came out, paper quality was radically improved, and this poster was not on nearly as bad paper as the older examples. However, it still had many other problems - stains, tears, wrinkles, etc.

But this is where linenbacking shines - the dirt was washed away, the paper loss filled in ,and wrinkles magically disappeared! Here are Las Vampiras cleaned up and looking better than ever!

Finally, two recent restoration works by Dario. El Santo Contras las Mujeres Vampiro (1962) is another example of a poster that was literally crumbling in my hands when I first unfolded it, and one that would not have survived for much longer without linenbacking. Like the Baron, it separated in the bath but came together nicely in the end.

Blue Demon Contra las Diabolicas is of later vintage - 1968 - but apparently did not benefit from the better paper of the later 60's, being almost as brittle as some of the older posters. But with linenbacking the Demon is ready to fight another day!

Not all posters benefit from linenbacking, and many collectors prefer an un-backed poster in very good condition as opposed to a linenbacked copy. But if you have a poster that is worse for the wear, or one where the paper is visibly falling apart by age, or even one that the dog ate, you should drop Dario a line...

An Italian Master

2007-11-10T18:38:00.000+01:00

Movie poster restoration artist Dario Casadei has an unusual background. Born in Sweden by Italian parents, he moved to Vancouver, Canada with his family and was set to continue his father's restaurant business. But a chance discovery of some movie posters his father had brought over from Sweden prompted a change of careers. He set out to learn all about movie posters and the process of linenbacking, where a poster is washed in a bath and mounted on linen fabric. Linenbacking makes a poster much more sturdy and visually appealing, stops deterioration from acid and other substances common in poster paper, and is usually combined with minor or major restoration. Dario now runs a successful linenbacking business, Vintage Movie Art. I have used his services several times and been very pleased with the results - here are some examples!

One of the first posters I ever bought was also one of the first I linenbacked: The Swedish one-sheet for the revenge-of-nature thriller Frogs. It is not a valuable poster, but has a lot of sentimental value for me. Over the years it has spent time tacked to the walls of my many flats, been roughly folded through many moves and stored away in various cupboards, but somehow it always turned up again. When Dario was through with it it looked like a new poster - all the wrinkles, folds and small tears were gone!

Another poster that had a rough time was the superb psychedelic Spanish poster for Sergio Martino's thriller All the Colors of the Dark. This poster was wrinkled and dirty from many years of mishandling, but Dario made the crazy colors pop out like it was printed yesterday!

Another poster that had a rough time was one of my favorite Swedish posters of all times, Hans Arnolds amazing image for Hammer's Horror of Dracula. I bought this poster in a lot with a dozen others which must have spent the last three decades on a floor in a barn somewhere. Fortunately, Dracula was one of the best preserved, and with a little restoration magic it looks fantastic!

But linenbacking is not only a way to restore mishandled posters to their former glory. For some, even posters that have been stored folded since they were printed never been used, it can also be the only way to preserve them for posterity. Some countries, like Mexico, have printed posters on paper that is so low quality it literally crumbles in the hand. Check back tomorrow for a few mind-blowing Mexican horror and wrestling posters on linen...

Manly Men!

2007-11-04T01:51:00.000+01:00

I have received many complaints that I have been showing so many posters with good-looking women lately, and so few hunky he-men... well actually I haven't received any complaints at all, but there's nothing wrong with a little variety!

So here are a few handsome devils for your pleasure... We start of with John Philip law (flanked by Marissa Mell) in the rare, full-on psychedelic color variant of the French poster for Mario Bava's Danger Diabolik.

Then, one of my favorite posters of all time, the Japanese country-of-origin poster for Seijun Suzuki's off-beat yakuza classic Branded to Kill, where Jo Shishido portrays a professional killer who gets unusually excited by the smell of boiled rice.

And from noodles to spaghetti, here's Giuliano Gemma on a Swedish one-sheet "one of the toughest westerns ever made", Blood for a Silver Dollar.

And who wouldn't like to swap places with Ray Danton as Lucky the Inscrutable in Jess Franco's fun Eurospy parody, here seen on a Spanish one-sheet.

And finally, the manliest men of all time: Mexican wrestlers Blue Demon and El Santo, here seen in rare country-of-origin one-sheets for two of their most sensitive performances.

Locandina Ladies!

2007-10-14T15:59:00.001+02:00

When in doubt, a few Italian locandinas will always do the trick. Small, portable, and often with striking artwork, locandinas are a great and inexpensive way to start a poster collection. Here are a few tough girls from locandina-land...

Fulci Fever

2007-10-14T15:42:00.000+02:00

I've been traveling a lot the last couple of weeks, and only been at home a few hours in between, so I have not had time to prepare any blog posts or photograph new posters. Just to tide us over, here are a couple of cool posters from Italy's exploitation master Lucio Fulci. Poster-wise I tend to go not for Fulci's more well-known horror films (Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Beyond, etc.) but his earlier giallo and thriller stuff. Below are the Spanish and US one-sheets for the bizarre giallo A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, and Italian, German and Spanish paper for the early thriller Perversion Story aka One On Top of the Other.

Christina of Sweden

2007-09-24T21:31:00.000+02:00

Swedish model and movie star Christina Lindberg made two movies in Japan: Sex and Fury, which is out on R1 DVD from Panik House; and the less well known Poruno no joô: Nippon sex ryokô - literally, The Pornstar Travels Around Japan. When I hung out with her and Klubb Super 8 in Hollywood, Christina told me the story of how these films happened. She was on the plane home from the Cannes festival after promoting one of her earlier movies, and happened to be seated next to a Japanese business man. They started talking, and it turned out he was in the movie business! Christina gave him his card, and a few weeks later a representative from Toei called up and offered her to come to Japan and make movies! Toei wanted to give Christina - or Kurisuchina Rindobaagu as she became known in Japan - a five-year contract, but she was already on her way out of the business by then. She ended up making two movies in Japan, worked with female action star Reiko Ike, and had a fabulous time! Christina loved Japan, and wants to return some day. She still has a lot of clippings at home from Japanese magazines. She remembered that during one promotion tour, a wall-size portrait of her was painted on a building in fashionable Ginza! I can't compete with that, but here is the Japanese poster for Poruno no joô: Nippon sex ryokô...

Hot Snow, Dirty Fingers and a Trip to Hell

2007-09-23T15:10:00.000+02:00

The title of what is probably Sweden's first drug thriller, Hot Snow, refers of course to cocaine, which must have been a fairly exotic substance in 1968. The film is an unusual combination of sleaze and glamor, and feels more continental than just about any other Swedish film of the period. The cast is prime Swedesploitation: brilliant drama actor Ernst-Hugo Järegård as the evil drug lord, spitting out his lines in inimitable fashion; Sven-Bertil Taube, son of Sweden's national poet Evert Taube, as the race-car-driving playboy; and Norweigan import Grynet Molvig as the fashion interest. Well-known Swedish writer Sandro Key-Åberg shared the writing duties with director Torbjörn Axelman, who would later go on to work with Lee Hazelwood. The review on this Swedish insert heralds it as "Sweden's first real gangster movie"!

Arne Mattsson went from almost single-handedly creating the image of Swedish sin in the 1950s with One Summer of Happiness, to popular thrillers (e.g. Mannequin in Red), to increasingly exploitative fare in the 1960s and 70s. Dirty Fingers is a rock-hard drug thriller with torture, sex, murder and a gangster who wears a set of razor sharp knives on his glove - an inspiration for Freddy Kruger perhaps? According to the Swedish insert, it was even "an international smash hit"!

Finally, the whole reason for starting this thread in the first place. I am proud to present in my opinion one of the best and most unusual Swedish posters of all time - artist Olle Frankzén's one-sheet design for The Trip - re-named Trip to Hell by distributors Corona Film! This poster was part of the Swedish National Museum's exhibition of Swedish film posters in 1983. A great, stylized image that captures the feel of "psychedelic color" perfectly...

And very finally, no poster available but here's a plug for the best Swedish drug move of recent years: Brorsan Såsett, a no-budget epic from the little town of Stenungsund on the Swedish West coast. Created by two film-fanatics in their own spare time it is a surprisingly successful drug-drenched love story. There are rough edges but the warmth and humor of the story shines through. If you speak Swedish you should check out an excerpt here - one of the funniest drug trips on film in recent memory!

That's it for the drugs for now - but at some point I'll dig out a few Italian examples, including an amazing 2-sheet for The Trip.

Good Times on Drugs

2007-09-22T18:55:00.001+02:00

Unlike Bill Hicks I'm not too keen on drugs in real life, but I've sure seen enough drug movies to be something of an expert in theory. The mother of them all is still Reefer Madness, the 1936 call to arms against the threat of marijuana - the evil weed that is making youngsters go insane, have sex, kill each other, and play the piano really fast. I can also recommend the very entertaining musical adaptation of this "true" story, Reefer Madness the Movie Musical, which adds finger poppin' tunes, showstopping dance numbers, intentional humor and lots of gore to the mix. Here's a genuine 1950's poster for a typical marijuana scare flick, Narcotics Story. "Scene after scalding scene" of "sordid depravity" - sounds great!

And it seems they had the same killer weed problems in Mexico! Apparently, the Lujuria de Marihuana made youngsters go sex and violence crazy in Acapulco - and isn't that the spitting image of Robert Mitchum smoking bottom left, fitting as he was arrested for holding in 1948? Thanks to Peter M at NSFGE this has now been identified as an alternative title for 1968's Esclava del deseo - Slave of Desire - from prolific director/producer Emilio Gómez Muriel, the man behind such classics as Neutron Battles the Karate Assassins (a title I hope to find a reason to return to).

On to the harder stuff - our friend Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. The Trip is the quintessential drug movie, and it presents a surprisingly balanced view of LSD for a sensational 1960's AIP production. It is a well known fact that super-straight producer/director Roger Corman took a real trip to "research" the topic - now that's dedication. With a stellar exploitation cast including Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, a classic Jack Nicholson script, and genuinely psychedelic colors, The Trip still holds up well today. In fact, Nicholson became something of a drug script expert; he also wrote The Monkees' totally far out Head. Here's the classy US one-sheet.

But that's not all! Check back tomorrow for the Swedish drug connection...

R.I.P., you Delirious Crimson Executioner, you!

2007-09-20T22:15:00.000+02:00

Muscleman Mickey Hargitay, who died a year ago this week, was perhaps most know for being married to 60's sexpot Jayne Mansfield - twice. He was played by none less than Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Jayne Mansfield Story - but he had a considerably more interesting acting career than the future governor of California.

Hargitay worked with some of the world's exploitation and horror greats. Renato Polselli was not one of Italy's most prolific directors, but his movies remain among the most enjoyably insane pieces of trash ever committed to celluloid. In Delirium, Hargitay plays the movie world's least believable psychiatrist, who just happens to be the psychotic killer he pretends to be chasing! The movie is truly worthy its name and was so unhinged it was re-cut to appear as the deranged flashback of a war veteran - making it even more of a mess! Here is the Italian locandina.

But Hargitay's most iconic role was in Bloody Pit of Horror, directed by Massimo Pupillo. The exceedingly well-oiled former bodybuilder is beyond camp (not to mention distinctly homoerotic) as he runs around his old castle in a pair of tight red trousers and a mask, bellowing endlessly how he is "THE CRIMSON EXECUTIONER!" and picking off the large group of cover girls who just happened to stop by - how convenient. I'm happy to own the original release locandina, when the film was supposedly based on the writings of De Sade... yeah, right!

Finally, I'm happy to note Hargitay's talents made it to Sweden too. Delirium and Bloody Pit of Horror would not have had a chance with the men with the scissors, but Lady Frankenstein lost only about a minute (including "the pillow murder", according to the censor records). Shown here is the Swedish insert poster, probably based on Italian artwork, and the distinctly different US one-sheet...

Wayback Machine, Part 3: ZEDER takes a trip

2007-09-10T20:32:00.000+02:00

In the third (and final for now) part of this series, we go on the road to the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film... Original post date: April 6, 2004.

How me and ZEDER went to the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film

Sometimes life throws you a weird one. A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from BIFFF, the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Films, enquiring when I would send the 35mm print of ZEDER they would be showing in their retrospective this weekend. What print??? Turns out some wires had been crossed and I never got informed they wanted it. I regretfully informed them that there was no way for me to ship it now and thought that was the end of the story.

Two hours later they called and told me they had booked me plane tickets and a hotel room, and could I please bring the print in person? Having recently wreaked havoc on my personal and professional life by going to the Sitges festival, and considering I was just back from a business trip to Stockholm and would be in Amsterdam the next week, not to mention that the physical strain of lugging a 20 kilo film halfway across Europe would probably finally push my broken back over the edge and put me in hospital, this would be an extremely stupid thing to do.

Of course I said yes.

I got up early the next morning, and me and ZEDER checked in to the 6.40 flight to Brussels. It was somewhat surreal to see Pupi Avati's classic of under-stated Italian horror appear on the luggage belt in Brussels...

At the airport I was picked up by a guest host and received a royal treatment! A room was ready on the 19th floor of the festival hotel, I was taken to lunch, fed drink tickets, socialized with festival staff, and generally had a great time. Special thanks goes to Dirk van Extergem, the retrospective programmer who has put together some truly excellent series over the years and was my main contact (he wasn't responsible for the booking mistake though!)

The BIFFF festival is really the most friendly and laid-back festival I have been to, very different in style from e.g. Sitges. It is much smaller in that there are only 2 cinemas, and all premieres are at the main auditorium. Basically you can sit back and watch the whole festival from the same chair! Yet there are about 80 films shown, including many European and international premieres.

BIFFF is well-known for its additional acitvities - it's more than a film festival. The Vampire's Ball closing party is legendary and there are also art shows, costume contests, etc. But the most bizarre and amazing event is the Body Painting contest!

Here, artists spend some 4 hours painting models in the most imaginative styles, and then there is a parade on the main stage. The jury this year was presided over by film director Stuart Gordon - for lots of more bodypainting pics go to my BIFFF 2004 photo gallery!

I only stayed over night, but I did manage to see three movies. The festival is well-known for its noisy and ironic audience, and during the all-night horror events there's even crowd-rafting - people floating over the crowd in rubber rafts! Fortunately, the audience can also concentrate and show respect to films that deserve it. First up was THE TESSERACT, the most recent gangster drama from the brothers Pang, and it is a good and stylish film, though a bit heavy on the digital effects. THE IMMORTAL was truly unique: directed by comic book artist Enki Bilal, it is a strange mix of 3D-animated characters and real actors. It really looks exactly like one of Bilal's comics come to life! The story and acting had troubles, but the films was still a very interesting experience. Finally, ALEXANDRA'S PROJECT is a low-key domestic drama between a man and his wife, who has just left him but leaves behind a video tape of herself. Some very funny and surprising moment makes it worth seeking out.

Exhausted, I crashed at 2 in the morning (Dirk wanted to take me to the Cotton Club, the festival bar, but I just couldn't do it). The following day, I watched some of the Costume Contest, had lunch with Dirk, shopped a little, and went to the airport. The driver was yet another of those characters that make BIFFF so unique: a die-hard collector of Batman memorabilia, who always carried with him a sketch book signed by lots of famous comic artists (Bilal had just done a drawing in it)!

All in all, despite being a wreck the week after, I'm happy I did it, and I found my ultra-short visit to the BIFFF festival (despite the rowdy audience) a very good experience.

PS: The screening of ZEDER went without a hitch!

September 2007 postscript: I haven't been to BIFFF again, but I'd love to return, and even though Sitges has the edge size-wise, BIFFF has more parties and bodypainting! Speaking of which, here are a few more pics:

For even more pictures from BIFFF 2004, visit my photo gallery!

Wayback Machine, Part 2: At Home with Mike and Lisa

2007-09-09T15:42:00.000+02:00

Continuing the series of posts rescued from the Mobius Home Video Forum, here is a little reportage from one of my visits to Mike Vraney, founder of Something Weird Video, and Lisa Petrucci, kick-ass kutie artist extraordinaire. Original post date November 5, 2003.

At home with SOMETHING WEIRD's Mike Vraney - full-color photo reportage!

I've had the privilege of knowing Mike Vraney of Seattle's Something Weird Video for several years know, ever since he visited Sweden in 1999 for the SOMETHING WEIRD 2000 tour. With him were the legendary David Friedman, full of stories about the old days of exploitation cinema (he calls Mike his "illegitimate son"!) and Vraney's life partner, "kick-ass kutie" artist and SW art director Lisa Petrucci.

After that, I've had the opportunity to visit Mike and Lisa in Seattle a few times, most recently this October. We first went to Towers to get DVD's. Mike wanted BLACK SCORPION but it wasn't out yet, so he got THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) instead - "The best movie ever made!" according to Mike. At the house, we watched a dupe of the director's cut of EQUINOX (apparently also "The best movie ever made!") and checked out Mike's gigantic DVD collection. Lisa cooked dinner and we watched some amazing Mexican 60's fantasy films, including the incredibly weird SHIP OF MONSTERS (again, "The best movie ever made!" - this time I agree!)

When driving along with Mike, after a visit to a Burgermaster drive-in restaurant (great burgers - too bad the waitresses don't have roller skates anymore!) the topic of Mobius came up. Mike does not use a computer, but he does get print-outs from Mobius discussions sometimes, and has a good laugh at them! I said that Mobius readers would be interested in knowing a little more about how he lives and works. Since Mike is notoriously camera shy, I was very surprised to hear him go: "Hey - let's do it! You can take some photos! Let's make it totally staged and fake!"

So here we have it, Mike Vraney at his desk, working on the latest SW release (or is it?!)

The Vraney-Petrucci family home is an amazing place, full of collectors items from the American culture that SW is devoted to preserving - posters, board games, books and comics, dolls and every other imaginable object. Mike has his own house adjacent to the family home, filled to bursting with even more stuff! Here are some highlights...

Parts of the Something Weird archives:

A miniscule part of one of Mike's particular collecting passions, board games:

Mike's favorite movie (Criterion special edition NOT forthcoming!):

Mike's video equipment ("Are you gonna post that so people can laugh about my outdated equipment?")

And Mike and Lisa in front of a great Spook Show poster:

Finally, I should mention that what gets Mike REALLY going right now is the punk band DEK - Mike is their manager, and the members (including Mike's son Mark) are all between 14 and 16 years old! They really kick ass - I saw a live tape. Mike used to manage punk bands before the SW era, and with his experience and the kids energy, don't be surprised if they are the biggest punk band in America in a few years...

Read the original post and responses here (courtesy of Wayback Machine).

September 9, 2007 postscript: I still hook up with Mike and Lisa occasionally - check my Chiller photos on Flickr - but it's been a while since I visited them in Seattle. The Something Weird DVD business seems to be doing well and Lisa's art career is really taking off lately. DEK have grown a little and their third album is available for download. I couldn't find the photo used in the original post so I picked the cute Wattatata cover art by Lisa instead.

The "Criterion special edition not forthcoming" quip about EQUINOX is because at the time, Criterion had acquired the film as part of a package from producer Jack Harris - but nobody would have believed they were actually going to release this goofy no-budget film! But in fact, against all odds a Criterion special edition did appear in 2006.

Finally, due to the response at Mobius, I posted an additional picture of Mike proudly showcasing his very first Something Weird video release!

Wayback Machine, Part 1: Evil Dead in the Attic

2007-09-08T17:04:00.000+02:00

This weekend, instead of writing new stuff I will rescue a couple of my old posts from the Mobius Home Video Forum that were lost in a systems crash. First up, a trip to my attic and its lurking fears in a post from September 3, 2002!

The true aspect ratio of EVIL DEAD --- or --- "There's a print in my attic!"

Some time ago, in response to a Mobius discussion on if Sam Raimi's classic EVIL DEAD was shot and shown "hard-matted" or "open matte", I promised to go to the bottom of things - by physically examining the 35 mm print of said film that happens to reside in my attic! It turned out that I did not have a reason to go up and poke about in the attic until last weekend (and believe me, this is not something you do if you don't have to). So, here in words and pictures, is the full story of what happened THAT... FATEFUL... NIGHT! [cue thunderclaps and maniac laughs!]

So prepare yourselves for the terrible sight...

... awful, isn't it! Here are roughly 30-40 feature films, only cult items, both 16 and 35 mm, some of which are not and may never be on DVD or video. It may look pretty awful but film is sturdy and although the boxes are ragged, the content is usually fine. To give you an idea of what's in there, straight ahead I can see a 35 mm print of LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI with Sonny Chiba; a couple of GODZILLA on beautiful 16 mm; a bunch of trailers and, uh, that's probably some STREETFIGHTER movies, again with Sonny Chiba. A veritable Japanes pile! To the left lurks SHOGUN ASSASSIN in a nice 16 mm print (must have escaped from that other pile!) plus several Jackie Chan features on 35 mm including ARMOUR OF GOD II, CRIME STORY and SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW. Of the less Asian variety we have Fulci's ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS in 35 mm scope, nice prints of cult classics ANGUISH and ZEDER (aka REVENGE OF THE DEAD); there's Warhol/Morrisey/Margheriti's DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN (not 3D, unfortunately) and several Bava goodies on 16 mm including BLACK SABBATH, BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (uncut, natch) and HATCHET FOR THE HONEMOON. For the more obscure Euro-horrorists among you, there are some neat rarities on 16 mm: DEMONS OF THE DEAD aka ALL THE COLORS OF DARKNESS, and a complete print of the classic WHO COULD KILL A CHILD. There's not much in the way of North American films as you've noted, but at least Bigelow's NEAR DARK made it in there somehow.

But that's not why we're here! At the very bottom (of course) we find a copy of EVIL DEAD, here shown with its brother EVIL DEAD II (yeah, I've got that too, so sue me...)

Securely back in the comfort of our home, we open the box with tremling hands...

Yep, it's THAT film all right!

And here we have it! From the opening of reel 4 of this vintage theatrical print of EVIL DEAD, we can see Ash poking around at a graveyard IN GLORIOUS OPEN MATTE! The whole frame is revealed, with no hard matting evident, just as we all suspected. Case closed, my friends! Now excuse me, but I have some tidying up to do...

Read the original post and response on Mobius Home Video Forum (archived by the Wayback Machine)

September 2007 Postscript: I don't have any of those film prints in the attic anymore - a nice man came around one day and loaded them into a car, a metric ton or so of celluloid, much to the joy of my girlfriend... But watch this blog for a Wayback story of what happened to one of the prints, coming soon!

Good Vibrations

2007-08-28T23:12:00.000+02:00

Today was the first cold day of the season, reminding me that the summer is almost over. To keep it here just a little longer listen to The Explorers Club and their song Last Kiss (MP3 via Pitchfork) - the greatest Beach Boys song Brian Wilson never wrote!

The Only Thing More Terrifying...

2007-08-26T16:30:00.000+02:00

... Than The Last 12 Minutes Of Suspiria Are The First 92. I never quite figured out how they worked that out since the film is only 98 minutes to begin with, but here's a lovely US video release poster all the same...

Even more Swedish cultural imperialism

2007-08-26T15:55:00.000+02:00

So yesterday we had Italian posters with more or less tenuous connections to Sweden, and today we have... English posters with Swedish connections! How's that for seamless linkage? First up the UK quad for Anita - Swedish Nymphet, starring not only Christina Lindberg as the titular nymphet, but also Stellan Skarsgård as the young psychologist who takes her in. Stellan of course would go on to mega-stardom in Pirates of the Caribbean and other schlock, whereas Christina edits Flygrevyn, the leading Nordic magazine for flight enthusiasts. More UK quads: Christina also starred in Exposed, whereas Sex In Sweden is in fact an adaptation of Daniel Defoe's Molly from director Mac Ahlberg, who later enjoyed a career as one of Hollywood's top cinematographers. Finally, a film with no connection with Sweden whatsoever except the title! Brigitte Lahaie who played Greta, one of the Sechs Schwedinnen von der Tankstelle in this Erwin C. Dietrich production, is in reality French and appeared in many of Jean Rollin's dreamy vampire epics.

How many dimensions of what?

2007-08-25T23:29:00.000+02:00

In a completely seamless link from the previous post, we continue with 3D-movies, not at all coincidentally featuring Swedish actresses! We have an Italian photobusta and 2-sheet for Four Dimensions of Greta (it mysteriously lost one dimension in the Italian translation!) starring Leena Skoog, star of such epics as Laila (17) Takes a Bath. Then we have an Italian 2-sheet for Love in 3D, starring Christina Lindberg, who later gave eyepatch-wearing mutes everywhere a face in Thriller: A Cruel Picture. Watch out tomorrow for even more seamless linkage...

Put The Mask on NOW!!!

2007-08-25T17:49:00.000+02:00

The Mask is a truly unforgettable experience. (It should not be confused with the Jim Carrey vehicle of the same name, based on a comic book which drew on this 1961 film.) A Canadian 3D-production, it uses the third dimension in a very unique way. The story is about an ancient mask that induces hallucinations. For screenings, patrons were given cardboard 3D-glasses in the same skull shape as the mask in the film. Whenever someone puts on The Mask, a voice booms out: "PUT THE MASK ON NOW!!!" The audience puts on their own masks - and experiences the hero's hallucinations in glorious 3D! It's an incredibly suggestive and fun gimmick. I wish someone would put out this long lost gem on a special edition DVD, complete with 3D Mask replicas! In the meantime, lets rejoice in the fact that the film must have fried a lot of Swedish brains during its release here, and also take a look at the great US half-sheet (note the instructions to the audience!) and a wondrous UK double bill with Italian shocker The Young, the Evil and the Savage.

Kiss me, monster!

2007-08-17T23:41:00.001+02:00

Jesus Franco is probably the world's most prolific film director, and many of his films have stunning posters, especially those produced in the late 1960's and early 70's. I must have more than a hundred Franco posters from countries like Italy, Germany, Japan, US, UK and of course Sweden! Here are a few from the great man's homeland, Spain.

Final boot drops

2007-08-12T23:42:00.000+02:00

The dearly missed Lee Hazlewood (9 July 1929 – 4 August 2007) seen here in an amazing clip with Sweden's very own Siw Malmkvist!

Something in the air?

2007-08-12T20:06:00.001+02:00

So can anyone help me figure out what the movies advertised on these 2 Italian 2-sheets have to do with Sweden???

Kinski lives!

2007-08-11T20:00:00.000+02:00

I return from SIGGRAPH to the shocking realization that Gothenburg is more hot and humid than San Diego! There were a lot of cool shorts and special effects showcased in the animation program and electronic theater, but the most interesting one for this blog was Kinski Revisited from Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Through computer graphics, animators have recreated the features of the legendary actor as he would have looked were he alive today, 80 years old! The animation is good but not totally convincing - there were more successful examples at SIGGRAPH, such as David Fincher's ressurection of an old popcorn seller. But I love the fact that this quirky star of endless Eurotrash sleaze - as well as classic arthouse movies - now gets his digital due alongside the likes of previously re-animated celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra.

Living la vida loca

2007-08-05T08:00:00.000+02:00

I was in Mexico today, where I got a 1-dollar beer and resisted the temptation to buy a wrestling mask. We celebrate this event by looking at a few random Mexican lobbycards!

Nothing ever stripped your nerves screamingly raw like...

2007-08-02T22:23:00.000+02:00

I'm leaving for the SIGGRAPH conference in San Diego (along with some little wheeled friends) so there won't be any updates for a week or so. Celebrating my imminent trip to the States, here is a random grab-bag of North American posters! Just to make it more fun none of the films are actually from the US - but the tag lines certainly are! There's Jess Franco's insane Miss Muerte; Mario Bava's creepy Operazione Paura; the classic British witchcraft shocker Night of the Eagle (albeit written by Yanks Chuck Beaumont and Fritz Leiber); one of the best double bills ever - a Japanese two-faced manster in Kyofu coupled with George Franju's no-faced woman in Les Yeux Sans Visage; an equally brilliant double bill of nekkid French vampires from Jean Rollin; and finally the Japanese pop-art masterpiece Ore ni sawaru to abunaize. Why that's a whole foreign film festival right there!

See you later for more crazy movie paper! In fact you might be interested to know I'm awaiting a shitload of new Italian posters - most of which have the words Svezia or Svedese in the title...

Bella Italia!

2007-08-01T20:58:00.000+02:00

Of all the poster-producing countries in the world, Italy must be the most consistently great. Polish posters are artistic, US posters are lurid, and Belgian posters are nicely compact, but the Italians beat them all in variety and splendor. One day I will buy a mansion for all my Italian four-sheets - posters so big that no normal wall can hold them, and so unwieldy that only professionals can take reasonable photos!

In the meantime, here is a sampling of the more sensibly sized Italian manifesto or two-sheet, a mere 100 by 140 centimeters... In order: Jess Franco's delirious dreamscape Necronomicon; Jack Hill's blaxploitation ripper Coffy, starring Pam Grier; the obscure drug thriller L.S.D.; and an unusual interpretation of David Cronenberg's "body horror" debut Shivers.

Bergman Rock

2007-07-30T22:35:00.000+02:00

Today we mourn the passing of Sweden's most internationally famous filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman. Just like anyone remotely interested in films, I love Bergman's works. Of course, I always preferred his earlier, funnier movies. Smiles of a Summer Night is my favorite - a delightfully light comedy with the cream of the Swedish acting elite. Several of the other mid-50's films are also fantastic and well worth revisiting, like The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries.

What many don't know is that in the 1950's Bergman did his bit to create Sweden's filthy reputation (i.e. the one we are celebrating in this blog). The great exploitation maverick Kroger Babb bought the rights to Summer with Monika and turned it into something a lot more salable: Monika - the Story of a Bad Girl. This was done by cutting out most of the dialog while retaining all the sunbathing and skinny-dipping. The result was the most widely seen Ingmar Bergman film in the US to this day. While Svensk Filmindustri initially complained bitterly about what had been done to the film, they changed their tune when it started raking in the cash. Thus Monika was eventually released in the US in two versions: Bergman's original cut for the art house circuit, and Bad Girl for the raincoat crowd. The latter made such an impression on a young John Waters that when he visited the Göteborg Film Festival, his only request was to meet the film's star, Harriet Andersson (who seemed quite puzzled by the attention). Unfortunately, the exploitation version of Monika will never be seen in public again - at least not until the current copyright holders grow a sense of humour.

I'm afraid I don't own a single Ingmar Bergman poster, but I do own a few for a film by Bergman's assistant director on Persona - Bo Arne Vibenius.

Rats!

2007-07-29T18:02:00.001+02:00

Some stamp collectors concentrate on specific themes, like butterflies, sports, or Elvis. I have a particular weakness for posters featuring rats. Rats tend to look a little scary in movies, but believe me, they make wonderful pets!

Run for the hills!

2007-07-29T17:43:00.000+02:00

I'm not going to turn this into an MP3-blog (there are plenty of those around) but on a Sunday afternoon it might be nice with some soothing music. Enter Hellsongs, the Göteborg, Sweden, band that does what The Cardigans did to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - on repeat. My favorite is their version of Judas Priest's Breaking the Law but their take on another Sabbath number works too.

Vampires, vampyres and vampyros

2007-07-29T01:14:00.000+02:00

One of my favorite poster genres is vampire movies of all sorts - it seems they just bring out the best in poster artists, even when the movies themselves are so-so. Some of the best posters around are for movies by Continental auteurs such as Spain's Jesus Franco and France's Jean Rollin, but there are also great examples from UK's Hammer films and of course Mexico. Check 'em out - there are plenty more bloodsuckers where these ones came from!

FARG!!!!!!!!

2007-07-28T17:07:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Michael and the other guys over at Popcorn and Sticky Floors for an accurate summary of exactly why Sweden rocks, and some choice posters to boot! Us native speakers don't think about it, but there are some pretty odd-sounding words in the Swedish language - or as Posteroid put it: "RAGGARE! Sounds like a battle cry..." Another useful word, first picked up by Mrs. Bigfatass over at NSFGE, is of course "FARG". Farg (or actually "färg" with an umlaut) simply means "color", something which was apparently a draw for cinemagoers as late as the mid-70's. Check out thes FARG-tastic wonders for a sampling of what FARG really means!

...and more!

2007-07-27T22:11:00.000+02:00

OK, just talking about posters gets boring after a while. So meet my new favorite band, Los Campesinos! from Cardiff, UK! Sticking Fingers Into Sockets is out now, and the last time I enjoyed an EP by a new band this much was probably at the time of Tokyo Police Club's legendary debut...

Achtung!

2007-07-27T14:13:00.000+02:00

West German movie posters were among the ugliest in the world - fact! Bad art, bad graphics, just bad.. but there were exceptions. This abstract poster for Leone's A Handful of Dollars could almost have been designed by an East German or Polish poster artist.

And this sensational piece for Russ Meyer's "ode to the violence in women" Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is an acceptable alternative for those of us who can't afford the US original.

Italian horror movies faired pretty well too, like these two Mario Bava classics - The Whip and the Body and Kill Baby... Kill! (though it's anyone's guess what "Dr. Dracula" has to do with the latter!)

And while they're not the prettiest posters around, these two spy pieces are still a lot of fun, with a distinct German feel...

Strange bedfellows

2007-07-27T13:31:00.000+02:00

One of the most baffling practices of Swedish cinema exhibition in the 1970's was to pair up hardcore pornography with what would today be considered typical matine fare, such as silent comedy shorts. The canonical example is the one-sheet for Deep Throat which promises not only "The film that shocked USA - The world's most explicit sex film" but also "Laurel and Hardy in Liberty - perhaps their funniest!"

What were they thinking??? To put on a show for the whole family? Or that depictions of one kind of physical activity on film are as good as another? It is clear that it was not an isolated event; the insert poster for The Devil in Miss Jones features not only critical accolades (and even a complete review!) from major Swedish newspapers, it also promises "and... Charlie Chaplin!"

Maybe the exhibitors finally discovered that this kind of catch-all approach didn't quite work, because a few years later we find a slightly more sensible pairing: the 1975 "orgy of sex" The Wetter the Better matched with a heavy-weight boxing match featuring George Foreman! The local exhibitor has helpfully added a clarification: "Saga cinema shows: Boxing + PORN"!

I Spy

2007-07-26T20:04:00.001+02:00

In the wake of the first James Bond movies in the 60's, spy movies were all the rage and European producers rushed to produce their own variations complete with suave agents, cool music, hot action and glamorous women. And of course the poster artists went wild! Here are some great Italian spy-themed movie posters:

In Sweden, poster artists did not have as much freedom (or, frankly, as much talent) but the graphics on these spy items is quite striking - and the tag lines are hilarious (if you read Swedish, that is!).

Variations on a theme

2007-07-26T19:54:00.000+02:00

The title image for this blog is taken from the Italian locandina for the obscure thriller The Devil Has Seven Faces. It is interesting to compare the locandina with the Spanish one-sheet, by prolific poster artist Jano, as it re-works the theme of the screaming face to great effect.

Sweden... where the facts of life are stranger than fiction!

2007-07-25T20:16:00.000+02:00

While Vilgot Sjöman's talky artfilm I Am Curious Yellow and Torgny Wickman's heartfelt documentary The Language of Love did their bit to spread the picture of Swedes as sex-crazed maniacs, the one film that really solidified the image was not even Swedish! As you can see from the Australian daybill (left), the mondo (i.e. mostly fake) Italian "documentary" Svezia: Inferno e Paradiso depicts a country of teenage suicides, violent motorized gangs ("raggare") and stripping meter maids. A few well-know Swedish actors can be seen in the supposedly "real" footage, and the American voice-over is priceless! Incidentally, Piero Umliliani's score is probably more famous than the movie; the song Mah Nà Mah Nà was later used in a recurring sketch in The Muppet Show...

The movie was very successful and screened all over the world. In my collection I have material from the United States, Japan, Belgium, Germany, Australia and of course Italy, but paradoxically the movie was never shown in Sweden except in very shortened form on television. To this day, misconceptions created by the film live on in popular memory abroad, for instance the idea that Sweden has the most suicides per capita in the world (maybe they confused us with Switzerland?) But sometimes I wish I really lived in the exotic and wondrous country that only exists in this film - where violent "raggare" roam the street, where people dance wild to topless guitar bands at every basement club, where dozens of girls running from the sauna straight into the snow is a daily sight, and where the most common form of exercise are those nutty rubber balls seen on the Japanese one-sheet (above)!

Below are a few other choice posters: the evocative German one-sheet and two different variations of the Italian locandina - original and re-release - all based on the same art concept.

The film has been hard to see for many years, but all that will change soon. The unstoppable enthusiasts at Klubb Super 8 are preparing a DVD release which will include the English narration and lots of memorabilia, including the posters seen here and many more. Until then, the party is right here on YouTube...

Welcome!

2007-07-23T01:09:00.000+02:00

Well hello there! This will be a blog about things that interest me: cult movies, indie music, cool comics, odd books, weird Japanese T-shirts... you know the stuff, right? Maybe not, but you'll get the idea. I travel a lot in my work so perhaps I'll talk about that too. Anyway, the one thing I really want to get up here are pictures of movie posters from my own collection, including lots of wild exploitation art from Mexico, Italy, Japan and of course Sweden. If you like that kind of stuff stick around - there will be a lot of clickable images that have not been seen anywhere else!

I'll start off by explaining the name of the blog. It refers to the Swedish film Rymdinvasion i Lapland, aka Invasion of the Animal People, aka Terror in the Midnight Sun. This is the kind of stuff that makes me proud to be a Swede. Even though it is officially one of the worst movies ever made, this 1959 monster/sci fi epic, set in the northernmost regions of Sweden, played in cinemas all over the world! Pictured here is the Spanish 1-sheet poster. I love the crazy kid-with-crayons art style, and even more the fact that for many people, this was probably what defined their view of Sweden: snow, pine trees, skis, reindeer, and the occasional man in a furry monster suit. All that would change soon enough, thanks mainly to some enterprising documentary and art film producers, but that's a different story...

This indispensable film is out on DVD from Something Weird Video and Klubb Super 8 - here's a sample!