"Você tem sete anos, agora já é um homem. Enterre seu primeiro brinquedo e o retrato de sua mãe." - El Topo em El Topo

Um bom número de espectadores ontem, novamente, na sala do Sesc Laces pela Mostra Jodorowsky. Na ocasião foi exibido o segundo filme do chileno, El Topo, em que pudemos observar grandes diferenças para com o filme anteriormente exibido, A Montanha Sagrada. El Topo ainda não tem todo o surrealismo que está presente n’A Montanha e seu enredo tem uma iconografia mais limitada, que circula sempre no cenário metafísico das regiões desérticas que se fazem cenário permanente no filme. Assim, se fosse necessário recomendar uma obra de Jodorowsky eu, certamente, recomendaria a estonteante Montanha Sagrada, embora ainda não tenha tido a oportunidade de assistir a mais nenhuma película do cineasta chileno.

Hoje, contudo, será exibido o filme Fando E Lis (o último da mostra), ao qual, infelizmente, não poderei assistir. Àqueles que se interessarem, porém, Fando e Lis é um filme, no mínimo, interessante. Trata-se de “(…)uma bizarra história de inocência corrompida, amor sadomasoquista, e paraíso inatingível”. Quem  puder assistir e comentá-la aqui no artigo, por favor, o faça.

Fando e Lis

As discussed in previous posts, I am teaching “Topics in Film Aesthetics” this semester, with a focus on what is known as “trash cinema.” For those unfamiliar with this term, trash cinema refers to films thathave been relegated to the borders of the mainstream because of their small budgets, inept style, offensive subject matter, and/or shocking political perspectives. All semester long my students have watched  marginalized films like The Sex Perils of Paulette (1965, Doris Wishman) and Sins of the Fleshapoids (1965, Mike Kuchar), interrogating and debating their style, subject matter, and ideology. Why are these films considered to be “bad” movies and what do we have to gain by studying them?

Kuchar's solution to the problems of post dubbing in Sins of the Fleshapoids

We also spent much of the semester discussing how and why certain films (The Rocky Horror Picture Show [1975, Jim Sharman], El Topo [1970, Alejandro Jodorowsky]) were able to achieve cult status as midnight movies and what drives audiences to perform elaborate rituals at film screenings. In keeping with these discussions, the class project was to host, promote and run a screening of a contemporary cult film, the notoriously awful The Room (2003, Tommy Wiseau). Since my students had read so much about midnight movies and the great lengths that theater exhibitors would go to draw in potential ticket buyers (known as “ballyhoo”), my hope was that the class would put some of those lessons into practice.

Ballyhoo for The Prince of Peace

Early in the semester the class broke themselves up into working groups: promotions, advertising, booking the venue, etc. The advertising group was responsible for designing flyers, posters and ad copy for the promotions group to implement. Although money is tight in my department, my chair was kind enough to allow us limitless copies for our flyers and $50 for two large posters (I limited my role in this project to obtaining funds for the $100 screening license and for adveritising materials):

One of my students, who is president of the Student Activities Board, was able to get us this prime advertising location in the student union

Another student designed poster

Once posters and flyers were created, it was time for the promotions group to start spreading the word. In addition to putting flyers up around campus and doing a word of mouth campaign, they started up a Facebook group for the event and convinced a writer for the campus newspaper, The East Carolinian, to mention the screening in an article about campus happenings.

Nevertheless, as the night of the screening approached I was a little nervous: I had not seen many flyers up around campus and I was beginning to doubt the class’ enthusiasm for the project. To make matters worse, the screening was held on a rainy night (ECU students are relcutant to do anything unless it’s 70 degrees outside and precipitation free) when District 9 (2009, Neill Blomkamp) was playing for free in the same building as part of the Student Activities Board’s fall film series. Finally, our event was booked in a difficult to locate area of the student union. It therefore made sense when barely 50 seats were taken 10 minutes before the start of the event.

At the last minute students put homemade signs up around the student union...

...to direct audience members to the screening.

I could tell that my students were also starting to get nervous — part of their grade would be based on how many people they could entice into the theater (after all, a theater exhibitor who couldn’t fill seats would lose his/her business). With a few minutes to spare, audience members began to appear in droves, wet from the rain but ready for a good time. By the time we started the film, we had at least 200 attendees:

The projector in our screening room needed to be replaced 30 minutes before the event began, hence the media cart parked in the middle of the aisle. Still better than a blurry image though...

Most of the people entering the theater took a bag of props to throw at the screen including: plastic spoons (whenever a framed picture of a spoon appears in the mise en scene), chocolates (during a supposed-to-be-erotic scene involving a box of chocolates), and footballs (several scenes feature the male characters tossing around a football, presumably because this is what Wiseau assumes American men do to bond with each other):

Handing out props

These footballs were leftovers from another student event and were perfect for our screening. Because they were free.

I told the students that in addition to gathering a large crowd they needed to foster a participatory screening environment. A silent audience was simply not acceptable. To encourage participation, audience members were handed a photocopied list of rituals selected by the class:

“SPOON!” – Nearly all the artwork in the film features spoons.  When they appear in the shot, yell “Spoon!” and fling yours at the screen.

“DENNY!” – Used to herald the arrival/departure of the tragic kidult.  “Hi & Bye” is encouraged.

“SHOOT HER!” – Yelled during Lisa’s couch conversation with her mother.  The throbbing neck is the cue.  Also acceptable, “QUAID, GET TO THE REACTOR!”

“BECAUSE YOU’RE A WOMAN!” – Useful after any comment made in regards to a female character.  Considered a dig at the film’s casual misogyny.

“FOCUS! UNFOCUS!” – Frequent shots slip in and out of focus and it is customary to yell “FOCUS” when it gets blurry.  Feel free to yell “UNFOCUS!” during the gratuitous sex scenes.

“FIANCE/FIANCEE” – This term is never uttered, instead Johnny or Lisa refer to one another as their future wife/husband.  That is the cue to scream “Fiancé & Fiancée”

“ALCATRAZ” – Yell this during scenes framed with bars & during establishing shots of the famous island prison.  Also encouraged, “WELCOME TO THE ROCK!” (Connery-esque only)

“GO! GO! GO! GO!” – Used to cheer on tracking shots of the bridge.  Celebrate when it makes it all the way across, voice your disappointment when it doesn’t.

“EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK” (Full House theme) – Sung during establishing shot of the San Francisco homes that look eerily similar.

“MISSION IMPOSSIBLE THEME” – Hummed during the phone tapping scene.

“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!” – Yelled when characters appear on screen that are out of place or unknown.  (Happens more than you think)

“YOU’RE TEARING ME APART, LISA!” – Johnny channels his inner James Dean near the conclusion of the film.  Yell along, louder the better.

While this is only a small list of ways to get involved, feel free to interject your own thoughts throughout the screening or join in with audience members who aren’t seeing the film for the first time.  All we ask is for you to be safe and respect those around you.  Enjoy!

The evening also opened with a brief introduction  to the film and its colorful production history. Our Master of Ceremonies encouraged the audience to participate and demonstrated a few of the rituals for the audience.

The Master of Ceremonies gets the crowd excited...

These tactics seemed to work because almost as soon as the film began, with its useless, extended establishing shots of San Francisco, the crowd was yelling at the screen. They followed the suggested rituals (with “Because you’re a woman!” and “Denny!” being two crowd favorites) but also lots of ad-libbing.

Note: Not from our screening.

When, for example, Lisa (Juliette Danielle) mixes Johnny (Tommy Wiseau) a cocktail of what appears to be 1/2 scotch and 1/2 vodka, someone behind me declared “I call it…scotchka!” [note: I just discovered that this particular line is already a Room ritual]. And whenever a character commented on how “beautiful” Lisa was, several audience members would yell “LIAR!” In fact, the room was rarely silent; people booed, groaned, clapped and heckled throughout the screening.

Note: Not from our screening.

I was hoping that the students would have come up with some more inventive advertising tactics, especially given the time we spent discussing how classical exploitation films like Mom and Dad (1945, William Beaudine) were advertised and promoted. Ultimately though, the class screening of The Room lived up to my expectations. The crowd was rowdy and interactive and everyone seemed to have a great time. Most importantly, I think my students had a great opportunity to experience firsthand what they had only been able to read about.

No More Heroes en Ps3 y Xbox 360 YEAH!

Como lo leen en el título de esta nota, la revista Famitsu acaba de publicar que No more heroes ya está siendo adaptado al Playstation 3 y el Xbox 360 y será lanzado con el nombre de No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise.

La fecha de lanzamiento en Japón será el próximo 25 de febrero del 2010, aún no hay nada sobre si este juego llegara a nuestro continente, aunque no creo que Ubisoft deje pasar la oportunidad de lanzarlo por acá.

Heroes paradise contendrá algunos extras, aparte de que será rehecho en HD y no tendrá controles de movimiento, también se habla de que contendrá voces en Japones, totalmente distinto a la versión de Wii donde solo estaba la pista de las voces en ingles.

No more heroes es un gran juego para el wii, considerado por muchos como el mejor de la consolita de Nintendo, esperemos que en verdad sea publicado por acá.

Vía Destructoid

Inicia-se hoje, terça-feira, no Sesc Laces (Rua dos Caetés, 603, 3º andar, Belo Horizonte, MG) a Mostra Jodorowsky, que tem como objetivo aproximar o público brasileiro/mineiro da arte vanguardista do cineasta chileno. Jodorowsky, filho de imigrantes russos (o que explica o sobrenome), nasceu ao fim da década de 20 na cidade de Iquique, estudou em Santiago, trabalhou como palhaço de circo e, aos dezessete anos, foi para Paris. Na França ele conheceu o teatrólogo espanhol Fernando Arrabal, com quem deu à luz o Movimento Pânico (referência ao deus Pan, que se manifesta, segundo Jodorowsky, por meio do terror, humor e simultaneidade), do qual também participou Roland Topor. Desde pequeno, a paixão do artista pelo absurdo era evidente e, quando começou a filmar, mesmo que tenha tido que sair pela porta dos fundos do cinema após a primeira exibição de uma película sua, isso ficou evidente. Seu primeiro filme, Fando e Lis, foi uma adaptação de uma peça de Arrabal e a segunda, o faroeste metafísico e primeiro “midnight-movie” da história El Topo, um trabalho autoral que foi considerado por celebridades como Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Yoko Ono e John Lennon uma experiência ímpar. Tal fato levou, inclusive, estes dois últimos a investirem cerca de 1 milhão de dólares no que seria próximo trabalho cinematográfico de Jodorowsky, A Montanha Sagrada, uma super-produção considerada por muitos sua obra-prima.

Porém, não só no cinema Alejandro teve trabalhos significativos. Como multiartista que é (diretor de cinema e teatro, ator, produtor, compositor, escritor, autor teatral, psicomago, filósofo, humorista, especialista em tarô e quadrinista), Jodorowsky é reconhecido em outras áreas, principalmente nos quadrinhos, sendo o idealizador do que é definido como um “gibi anarco-ecumênico”, o Incal. Esteve também envolvido, juntamente com o reconhecidíssimo italiano Milo Manara, na polêmica HQ Bórgia, com enorme repercusão internacional.

Incal

Bórgia

O trabalho de Jodorowsky, merece, portanto, ser conferido mais atenciosamente; não só no cinema (o que pode ser feito gratuitamente a partir de hoje e segundo o calendário abaixo), quanto em suas múltiplas áreas, sendo as HQs até relativamente fáceis de ser encontradas (na livraria Leitura da Savassi é comum encontrarmos tanto Bórgia quanto Incal). Mais informações sobre seus trabalho cinematográfico, especificamente sobre seus três filmes que serão exibidos nas Mostra, serão postadas logo em seguida ao assistimento dos mesmos. Confiram o calendário da Mostra (a classificação etária é de 16 anos e o horário, 20h):

17/11: A Montanha Sagrada (The Holy Mountain, MEX, 1973)

19/11: El Topo (Idem, MEX, 1970)

20/11: Fando e Lis (Fando y Lis, MEX, 1968)

A. Jodorowsky

El Topo (1970)

"You are seven years old. You are a man. Bury your first toy and your mother's picture."

El Topo is the classic Mexican film hailed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono enough that it was shown at midnight in many cinemas for years. It is often credited as starting the midnight movie countercultural that helped bring attention to, and build cult film audiences for movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and David Lynch’s Eraserhead. In that respect it is far from a mainstream film, but it got enough attention that it is celebrated even today. I feel that this is with good reason, as El Topo is one of best films ever made. Chilean born Alejandro Jodorowsky directs and stars as the title character.

Mara and the woman who takes her from El Topo

El Topo begins with its eponymous character in the desert with his son. He tells the boy to bury a picture of his mother and his toy in the sand as now it is time for him to become a man. The boy is vulnerable but El Topo leads him by example while protecting him in their various interactions with others. The film understands the western genre and the machismo that often accompanies it. El Topo is one bad cowboy who can guarantee protection for anyone he cares about. So it really sucks when he soon leaves his son behind with a bunch of monks after emasculating some evil banditos. He leaves with a girl he saved and he names her Mara. Mara loves El Topo for being the alpha male that he is, so she convinces him to kill the four best gunslingers so he can be the baddest cowboy of them all. He manages to defeat them in various significant ways. These scenes are rich in biblical and other religious references and operate allegorically to show that being a bad cowboy isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be. Nevertheless, for better or worse, El Topo kills all four of them and begins to learn four specific lessons along the way. These four gunman represent opposing philosophies; far eastern philosophies, science, atheism, and finally utter nihilism.  He begins to feel guilty and while he is caught off guard during the beginning stages of his enlightenment, he is defeated by the unknown woman who followed El Topo and Mara during their journey. Viewing El Topo as vulnerable, Mara betrays him and leaves with this unknown woman gunslinger. El Topo’s battered and shot up body is taken away to a cave by a multitude of unseemly characters.

El Topo and Mara in the desert.

El Topo vanquishing one of many unlucky foes.

Macrocosmically, the journey for El Topo overall suggests that his travels represent the rise and trials of Judeo-Christian theologies, with the son representing new Judeo-Christianity and El Topo representing the old philosphies. The second half of the film seems to comment on more contemporary dealings and even anticipates what will happen in the future. How will El Topo’s son grow? How will he react to the father who abandoned him but who has himself grown? How will the dominant faith evolve? How will it maintain its truth and purity with humanity at the wheel?

El Topo is reborn!

In the literal sense, the second half of El Topo forwards to a few years later after he is brought to a cave by this band of deformed pariahs. When he wakes up we soon realize that El Topo is a different man. He shaves off his beard and head and dresses as a monk. He makes a plan to free these people from their cave so they can join the community outside. He plans to fund the building of a tunnel to free these people. He does this by going to the town with his dwarven girlfriend to entertain them with comedy and dancing, among other small jobs. The town itself is by no means a utopia as it is wrought with slavery and violence. A new priest at the church in town is revealed to be El Topo’s own son who he abandoned years earlier. El Topo’s son plans to kill him but he decides not to do so until the tunnel is complete. The tunnel gets finished and El Topo’s son decides not to kill him. Meanwhile, the deformed people are free and as they head to the town the villagers there begin to shoot and kill all of them, to El Topo’s dismay. El Topo unleashes his vengeance on the villagers, killing them all and in the process freeing their slaves. El Topo then lights himself on fire, which was a timely parallel to the Buddhist monks who did the same in protest of the Vietnam War. During his death, El Topo’s new son is born to his dwarven girlfriend. If the Buddhist references are consistent then this would suggest that El Topo is reincarnated as his own son and religious truth will continue to surface again.

El Topo preparing to engage in self-immolation.

Monks protesting in 1963 Vietnam likely inspired El Topo's finale.

I think it is important to note that the content in El Topo could be perceived as both perplexing and offensive to many movie-goers.  Some people hate this film and the reasons run from its combination of provoking aesthetic content and challenging messages to the film’s overall misunderstood atmosphere.  Alejandro Jodorowsky kills real animals, he uses real deformed and dwarfed people, and liberally applies nudity and violence throughout.  Some of his sets are drenched in blood.  It doesn’t offend me at all but I knew my wife wouldn’t like it and I understand why, so I mention it here just in case.

One of many promotional posters. This one is from Italy.

El Topo is a complex story with many odd details as well as many religious and philosophical references, from almost all major world-wide religions to philosophers and scientists like Nietzsche and Jung, that comment on a much larger scale. I’ve seen it many times and in my first few viewings I didn’t understand it and thought it was entertaining but pretentious. It is not pretentious. Microcosmically, El Topo is a film about a human being finding himself, and finding out all alone what it means to be alive. It is about independently becoming a good man as a good man is defined in the eyes of Alejandro Jodorowsky. It is obviously a deeply personal film for its director and it may not touch on elements personal to everyone in its audience, but it definitely did for me. Jodorowsky invokes religious references as a vehicle to express his own torments and challenges and how the enlightment experience for El Topo is merely mirroring his own experiences. It’s commentary addresses oceans of issues in many layers. Conjuring up the imagination to produce this web of ideas so alive is indeed an ambitious undertaking. I find El Topo to be profoundly inspiring in a way that few films are. Its significance alone should at least justify one viewing for you and I hope you get the same satisfaction that I did. Perhaps you will like it enough to enjoy El Topo again and again.

My rating is 5 out of 5 stars.

El Topo fue el segundo largometraje del director Alejandro Jodorowsky, considerada como la primera pelicula de culto, John Lennon llego a ser tan fan de esta pelicula que pago por exibirla por todo un año a la media noche en un cine de NY.

Cortesia del Stumble Uppon encontre el su version digital, el texto donde Jodo nos explica escena a escena lo que nos quiere proyectar.

Solo dale el click aqui y pff!!!

Vielen Dank an Christoph von http://www.engelszunge.info/ für das Interview!

Wir sehen uns dann am Donnerstag!

[o melhor acontece a partir do minuto 5:50]

[sedução lésbica no minuto 4:40]

On Labor Day weekend every year in Atlanta Georgia one of America’s last standing Drive-In theaters holds a festival  featuring incredible bands from across the country during the day and a cavalcade of classic Drive-In trash once the sun goes down. In the past the Drive Invasion has lasted anywhere from two to three days. However, this year only lasted one glorious day. And what a day it was.

My lovely lady, Jessica, and I got up with the sun and headed to the Starlight 6 Drive-In Theater for 24 Hours worth of great bands and trashy movies.  We arrived as the gates were opening and it paid off in spades as we got an excellent spot  in front of the screen at the Starlight 6 Drive-In Theater. About 100 acres of beautiful sprawling black top sizzling in the warm summer sun. Jess and I were sure to get there as the gates opened to secure such a great spot. Fourth row back on the hill so no one was in our way.

As people began filing in, pitching the awnings and the PBR began to flow across this Trash Cinema Mecca, Jess and I took a nice long, sweaty stroll around taking in the sights of Rebel Flag Bullet trailers, rockabilly girls (my new thing) , artwork honoring the greatest Drive-In trash classics to ever grace the screen, and the awe inspiring Dixie Fried Car Show.

The band mix was an eclectic one to say the very least. Gargantua was the first band I went up to rock out to. Never heard of them before but I am an instant fan. Tose guys represented the only taste of pure metal at the Drive Invasion. Afterwards I took in tThe Vendettas, The Woggles (another new favorite and localAtlanta band), Deadbolt, Detroit Cobras, and after the sun finally went down Los Straightjackets took the stage and started off the 5 Deep drive-in movie marathon with some excellent original surf rock and a beautiful rendition on the theme from The Munsters.

Gargantua the Drive-In Metal Gods

The Woggles work the crowd.

Detroit Cobras singing about hot dogs.

But who stole the show? Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee and the Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson. The woman is 71 years old, had just flown to Atlanta from a performance in Toronto Canada the night before and put on a set that lasted about an hour and a half.

Talking to the audience, telling stories, and playing the acoustic guitar the entire time. They kept trying to get her off the stage but she kept playing and the audience just ate it up. She sounded clear as a bell and, for me, may have been the highlight of the entire Drive Invasion.

Wanda Jackson does her thing.

And then the movies began. Jess and I had made sure to load up on essential Drive-In snacks (Giant Coke, Tub-O-Popcorn, cheeseburger, nachos with extra cheese, etc.) before the first film began, The Blues Brothers. This flick was a huge success. People were laughing their asses off and even some guys were inspired put on their gorilla masks and run naked up and down the Drive-In parking lot screaming their heads off. At least I think they were men…

El Topo or El Buzzkill

Anyhoo, the Drive-In seemed in high spirits and ready to rock but then…a crucial misstep. El Topo. Don;t get me wrong, I like El Topo, it’s quite an interesting film. But a Drive-In flick? A fun, raunchy, weird, funny, Drive-In flick? No way, Jose. This is strictly art house material. The gang of conservatives next to me began slurring Obama ( claiming he was responsible for the movie? Or that only liberals like El Topo? Your guess is as good as mine) and began freaking out at the image of a naked, prepubescent child claiming that the film was for pedophiles. Some people are just…uh, what’s the word? Oh yeah! Idiots. But really, this film had no business on the line up really. It scared the hell out of people…no one expected an pretentious art film from Spain to be a part of the festivities. 

Mustaches and Red Diapers. Are you not entertained?

Needless to say a good majority of the crowd packed their shit up and skipped the rest of the marathon. The film that followed didn’t help boost spirits much either even though, again, it’s a personal favorite of mine. That’s right, Zardoz, the John Boorman sci-fi epic about a giant floating head, a post apocalyptic world, and a race of hairy mustachioed men in red diaper outfits led by Sean Connery. It’s not a thrill a minute movie and is actually filled with some deep, ponderous human questions. Again, where is Humanoids from the Deep? Coffy? Re-Animator? I dunno, it was another film that drove people away. 

Once the Drive-In had all but emptied they pulled out their wild card. Shanty Trap. One of the funniest slices of total and utter trash cinema I have ever witnessed. It’s basically To Kill a

Mockingbird with a whole lot of tits, PBR, biker gangs, lecherous revivalists, incest , murder, explosions, and a ten minute dance scene that is so funny and awkward you’ll be laughing long after it’s moved on to the next scene. I’ve also been told that this film was taken to the supreme court as an example of indecency in cinema. Luckily, in a rare stroke of brilliance, the supreme court said “If you don’t like it you don’t have to look.” and the whole thing was thrown out. I cannot recommend this weird-o movie enough. I know it is available through Something Weird and I recommend you try and track down a copy. SHANTY TRAMP is what the Drive-In’s all about. 

Sam Elliot established his badass reputation by kicking the shit out of some frogs.

Last, but not least, was the American International classic Frogs starring the coolest badass around, Sam Elliott. It’s a goofy nature revenge film I remember seeing when i was 5 or 6 on TBS or something. It’s a fun, trashy animal uprising movie. If you’re interested in checking out I know it’s gotta be on Netflix and I remember it floating and some 5 dollar bins a while ago. 

The sun came up during the conclusion of Frogs and by that point many people had either gone home or were passed out on the soon to be blisteringly hot asphalt. We had a great time, ate some excellent BBQ, nauseatingly scrumptious Drive-In cuisine, saw some killer bands and watched some damn cool movies. 

All in all it was an amazing trip. One we will be certain to make in 2010. And next time you all need to come with us. 

The sun rises on cheap white trash as Frogs reaches it's climax.

Stay Trashy,

-The Primal Root

Dit is een berichtje om de waarde lezer er op te wijzen dat Team El Topo, winnaar van de vorige jaargang van de Leidse Film Festival Filmquiz, wederom heeft gezegevierd. Ik zit er in, meld ik met grote trots.

(Dit bericht is niet helemaal van het niveau dat jelui gewend bent maar het was een leuke avond en ik ben blij.)

(En wat heeft Philip K. Dick ermee te maken? Vraag maar aan Rutger.)

Termine:

1. 05.11.09 – 19 Uhr Possession
2. 19.11.09 – 19 Uhr El Topo
3. 03.12.09 – 19 Uhr Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie
   
4. 17.12.09 – 19 Uhr Deadlock
5. 14.01.10 – 19 Uhr Angst + Schramm
   
6. 28.01.10 – 19 Uhr ¿Quién puede matar a un niño?
7. 04.02.10 – 19 Uhr Freakstars 3000
   
8. 18.02.10 – 19 Uhr

Für genauere Informationen bitte den Bereich “Termine” checken oder das entsprechende Datum anklicken!

Alejandro Jodorowsky é chileno. Descendente de judeus-russos. Radicado em Paris há décadas. Criador, adepto e praticante da chamada PSICOMAGIA. Escritor, cartunista e cineasta. Não é preciso dizer muito mais. A figura é interessante.

Antes do início das sessões, os filmes serão apresentados por um monitor do SESC e, além disso, a audiência receberá catálogos sobre o diretor.

O QUÊ: Exibição gratuita dos filmes El Topo, de 1970, e La montaña sagrada, de 1973.

QUANDO: Quarta-feira, dia 26 de agosto, El Topo. Quinta-feira, dia 27, La montaña sagrada.

ONDE: No Teatro do SESC Prainha: SESC Florianópolis
Travessa Syriaco Atherino, 100, Centro – CEP – 88020-183

CONTATO: (48) 3229-2208 / 3229-2209

QUANTO: Entrada franca. Grátis.

Mini-sinopses (fonte: site oficial do diretor):

A montanha sagrada: Conto sobre os indivíduos mais poderosos do sistema solar, que estão a ponto de transformar-se em deuses e controlar o universo.

El Topo: Conto sobre pistoleiros duros obcecados em vencer duelos no deserto para chegar a ser o gatilho mais rápido do Oeste. Com uma visão surrealista cuidadosamente construída com imaginação transbordante e simbolismos cifrados, Jodorowsky amplia o conceito de realidade a um nível desconhecido.

I watched an interesting documentary this evening. Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream takes a look back at the birth of late-night cult cinema, from David Lynch’s nightmarish Eraserhead to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s classic western El Topo.

I think that any film buff worth their salt has had a phase where they indulged in midnight movies. I recall just before the days of DVD when most of these films required driving endlessly between mom & pop video stores hoping to find a place that actually carried a copy of Eraserhead, so it was a communal experience when one of us got our hands on it that usually resulted in some Saturday night get-together where twelve of us would drink beer and wait for midnight so we could see what all the fuss was about.

While the film focuses primarily on the role these films have had in shaping the mainstream, it would have been nice if the director had given some kudos to those directors who are still proudly carrying the flag. Certainly Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Begotten spring to mind.

Personally I miss the freedom and open-mindedness of my youth which allowed me the liberty to drink half a bottle of Nyquil and stay up all night nodding to the Coffin Joe trilogy. To be 19 again…

TVE1 ya tiene fecha para el estreno de ‘El coche fantástico’. La cita es mañana jueves en prime time. La cadena volvió a emitir este fin de semana la tv movie de presentación de la serie en horario de tarde con fantásticos resultados, 2.089.000 espectadores y un 19,7% de share.

También tiene fecha de estreno ‘Vaya par’, el programa de cotilleo veraniego que presentarán en Antena 3 María Patiño y Jesús Mariñas. La cadena ya lo promociona para el próximo lunes a las 16.00 horas.

En Cuatro han comprobado que el parche ‘Friends’ ya no tapa bien los huecos, como ya ocurrió hace unos meses en horario de tarde. Tampoco ha estado a la altura ‘Sabrina, cosas de brujas’. Por ello, ambas series salen de la parrilla de la cadena. En su lugar, la cadena estrenará ‘Equipo de rescate’, una serie alemana de acción protagonizada por médicos y pilotos de avión. Parece que será como ‘Alerta cobra’ pero con médicos, ¿tendrá el mismo éxito?. Después emitirán ‘El último superviviente’, ese programa que tanto éxito tiene en los fines de semana en el que Bear Grylls se enfrenta a las situaciones más extremas posibles. Como Jesús Calleja llevado al límite y comiendo cosas raras.

Cuatro también hará cambios en su noche de los lunes. Desde que acabara ‘Hay alguien ahí’, la cadena venía ofreciendo cine en la primera noche de la semana, y desde este pasado lunes había decidido retomar en el late night reposiciones de ‘Cuenta atrás’, la serie que protagonizó (con poco acierto interpretativo) Dani Martín de El Canto del Loco. Los resultados de ‘Cuenta atrás no podrían haber sido peores, un 4,5%. Así, la cadena revitaliza este día con dos series juveniles. A primera hora de la noche, en pleno access prime time, a las 21:30, estrenará ‘Vida secreta de una adolescente’, emitiendo dos episodios. Después dará otra oportunidad a ‘Gossip girl’, y ya van tres, ya que la serie no funcionó ni en el prime time del jueves ni en los fines de semana. La combinación de series no es mala y está muy acorde con el público de Cuatro, pero la estrategia de empezar el prime time a las 21:30 no me parece buena, y menos aun para la cadena que suele empezar el horario estelar más tarde de todas, ya que cuando hay ‘El hormiguero’, las series de después se suelen retrasar hasta las 22.30.

El programa que también se cae de parrilla es ‘El topo’ de Telecinco, uniéndose a ese reducido grupo de realities que han fracasado en la cadena de Fuencarral, que son ‘Esta cocina es un infierno’, ‘La casa de tu vida 3′ y ‘Desafío bajo cero’. La topo en cuestión era una tal Natalia que a mí ni me dio tiempo a que me sonase su cara.

Me refiero como no a Guaypaut y a El Topo. Del primero, solo decir que es exactamente igual a Humor Amarillo. Solo se cambia a Takeshi Kitano (del que soy gran fan, lo cual me embrutece más) por Carmen Alcayde. Además, nos presentan el concurso como unas pruebas imposibles para cualquier persona, en vez de hacer gracias con las toñas, como se hizo toda la vida.
Del Topo solo decir que fue el peor debut de un reality, que no consiguió siquiera un 10% de share. Aparte que los decorados eran casi iguales (¿casualidad?) a los de Sálvame o Supervivientes. Se ve que Telecinco no puede hacer nada sin magnificarlo lo máximo posible, o al menos intentarlo. Si las cosas siguen así, estos dos programas acabarán en el mismo baúl que Angelino, Porque no te callas o A ver si llego.

Esta noche Telecinco estrena un nuevo reality. Nuevo para ellos, claro, porque el formato ya se ha emitido en Cuatro, en TV3 y en ETB-2, así que juegan con la ventaja de que la dinámica ya puede ser conocida por el espectador o, al menos, puede sonarle de algo. El topo está grabado en Australia y, como veis en el vídeo de arriba, para concursar en él hay que ser guapo. La novedad es que Telecinco ha decidido incrementar la dosis de reality del concurso y por primera vez se verá la convivencia de los concursantes gracias a las cámaras instaladas en el rancho en el que viven.

Los presentadores del concurso son Daniel Domenjó (presentaba La lista en La 1 hasta que se fue a Telecinco para ser sustituto de un montón de cosas), desde plató y Emilio Pineda (“el tirantes”), desde Australia. En cada gala podrá verse una prueba en directo y en plató habrá familiares de los concursantes y cuatro famosos de postín, que harán sus especulaciones sobre el infiltrado y que tendrán que soportar “sorpresas”, igual que pasa en Sálvame. Vamos, que han hecho un concurso a su medida.

Manuel Villanueva, Director General de Contenidos de la cadena, ha dicho que:

Es un concurso que atraviesa la telerrealidad.

Dicho esto, el programa tiene todos los ingredientes para triunfar. Yo he visto la versión de TV3 y hay que reconocer que la mezquindad humana es muy atractiva e hipnotiza ver cómo la gente es capaz de mentir a lo bruto por un puñado de pasta. En otros programas de este tipo la manipulación es un defecto pero este formato la convierte en virtud. Eso sí, la falta de un presentador con tirón es un escollo importante y para mi gusto Domenjó sobreactúa.

A pesar de todo, El topo se las tiene que ver esta noche con una película especial de Amar en tiempos revueltos en La 1, con el especial de El diario en Antena 3, que celebra los dos mil programas, y con el final de temporada de El mentalista en La Sexta. Anatomía de Grey en Cuatro y el cine en La 2 no creo que puedan estar a la altura de la competición por la audiencia. ¿Qué programa creéis vosotros que ganará la noche?