I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey.

– The Criminologist

The cult classic musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been entrenched in American culture since it bombed at the box office in 1975. I always wanted to go to the midnight showings of this movie, but I didn’t want to feel like a noob going there. I am familiar with the music seeing that I have the soundtrack to the 2001 Broadway revival. I get a kick out of going back into a time warp to visit Dr. Frank-N-Furter and his cretins of the night.

Nostalgia floods back when the first thing you see is those flame red lips singing the opening number about this tale of an uptight couple; Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) getting stranded one fateful night in a rainstorm. The Criminologist (Charles Gray) that recalls the events of that night narrates the tale.

They arrive at the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) with his band of misfits, abused manservant Riff-Raff (Richard O’Brien), maid Magenta (Patricia Quinn) and groupie Columbia (Little Nell). Brad wants to use the telephone to get the car fixed, but the Doctor has other plans for the twosome.

He wants them to witness the birth of his perfect companion, Rocky Horror (Peter Hinwood). As the night progress, the Transylvanians’ influence corrupts the good couple.

Everybody knows that the acting is not good bordering on soap opera melodrama. The music is spastic like the cast sucked helium before recording the soundtrack. Is it bad or is it so bad that it’s good?

Judgment: There is something enjoyable about this trainwreck of a movie.

Rating: ***1/2

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975 – Direção: Jim Sharman – Elenco:Tim Curry,Susan Sarandon,Richard O´Brien.

Meu musical preferido. Pronto. Acabou. O que vier a seguir só vai encher linguiça.

Abertura mais foda impossível. Tem as músicas mais toras impossíveis. Tem as atuações, mais perfeitas impossiveis. Tem coreografias mais bizarras impossíveis. Tudo é impossível!

O filme – logo após sua abertura cantada por uma boca e apenas uma boca -começa em uma casamento onde somos apresentados a nossos heróis. Ingênuos e simpáticos -de mais até – eles começam a cantar uma música tão assustadoramente contrária a cena que se passou que me faz babar até hoje mesmo revendo o Brad gritar: “Dammit,Janet,I love you…”

Dai você já sabe que não é apenas mais um musical. Tem um “Dammit’ bem no meio. Um palavrão e uma coreografia toda louca com um coral bizarro repetindo “Janet” em referência clara a American Gothic e que está caracterizado assim sei lá pra que mesmo. O mais engraçado é que o quadro americano reaparece, só que de uma forma verdadeira, logo após essa cena, quando os personagens já estão na casa.

A casa, sim, tem um “horror” no título. Então esperamos terror certo? Uma casa mal- assombrada e tudo mais, ne? Claro, a até uns dois minutos depois de terem ultrapassado a porta da casa bizarra e assustadora por fora nós acreditamos que ficaremos com medo em instantes e que algum fantasma aparecerá, afinal, o mordomo já apareceu. Só que do nada aparece uma governanta bizarra também e se junta ao mordomo corcunda e com voz grave e começam a cantar: “Let’s do the time warp again!”(vamos fazer a dobra do tempo de novo”). Surreal já sabemos que é. Mas o mais bacana é ver que tem toda uma mise-en-scéne por trás dessa e das demais cenas.

O filme segue com uma penca de números já eternos. Dos quais os que mais gosto são, os dois acima que já falei, Don’t Dream It – Be It, Rose Tint My World, Sweet Transvestite…Quer saber? Todos! Todos são geniais, das letras ao último movimento coreografado.

As atuações são parte da perfeição adquirida no filme. Susan Sarandon traz uma moça ingênua, mas que não esconde suas fraquezas e desejos sexuais, tudo de forma exagerada e cômica, o que acaba a transformando em uma musa pra mim, seus gestos exagerados e sua voz gemida só me fazem gamar mais. Barry Bostwick transforma seu Brad em tudo que ele foi feito pra ser: um americano normal e bocó. O idealizador do musical no teatro, Richard O´Brien, tem um dos melhores personagens aqui. Seus trejeitos e modo de falar são excepcionais. O destaque maior, e é claro que não daria pra não ser clichê falando nisso de novo, fica com Tim Curry, que faz um dos melhores personagens da história, eternizado justamente pela sua atuação. O travesti alienígena que dança e tem sua primeira aparição ao som de: Sweet Transvestite. Musica genial.

Vale citar também, que o filme possui o recorde de filme que ficou mais tempo em cartaz na história. Exibido em um cinema em Munique por 27 anos todas as semanas. Só que como milhares de filmes geniais, em sua estréia foi escrachado pelo público e crítica da época. O que depois desses 27 anos só o transformou em um dos mais cults já produzidos. Tem gente que se veste como os personagens e os imita durante a projeção do filme até hoje.

Se conseguir, ouça o Soundtrack o mais rápido possível, ainda mais sem ver o filme e se apaixone pela maior obra-prima do mundo cinema/musical já feita. Divertida, original, assustadora, nojenta, desafiadora… Meu musical preferido!

5/5

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.

This hasn’t been updated since pre-Halloween and that, ladies and gentleman is a sad state of affairs.  But don’t think I’ve been neglecting you, my dear little blog; I have simply been excessively preoccupied.  I suppose I should start with Halloween and attempt to work my way forwards.

Halloween morning I was up bright and early for cue-to-cue for Antigone.  That meant I was sitting in the theatre in my costume at nine o’clock in the morning; maybe not super high on my list of fun things to do, but as it was theatre I supposed I could drag my sorry ass out of bed that early on a weekend.  My costume, for those curious few, started out simply as a cowgirl [what can I say, I like simplicity], but morphed into Jessie from Toy Story 2, because really, having a specific costume is always better than a generic one.  Anywho, fast forward through twelve generally fun-filled hours (because I really do love theatre almost more than oxygen – true story; no sarcasm) and I finally stumble back to my apartment at nine o’clock at night.  At this point I am utterly exhausted; twelve straight hours of theatre will do that to a person.  I come in to find not one, but two parties occurring in my tiny little apartment.  KT and “I” [I put that in quotation marks because, as I informed KT, I would not be coming back until the party was already in full swing] had friends over and then our other apartment mates had friends over, who were technically getting ready to go to a “real” Halloween party.  This meant that we had me, KT, Lace, Mooch, Kari, Kari’s boyfriend, Drew and then all of our apartmentmates’ friends (which amounted to about 7 more girls) crammed in an apartment that feels crowded when just the four of us are home.

After succumbing to the fear that our apartment was likely to explode with so many people inside (or more accurately: get busted), KT and I took our party on the road (in a sense).  We headed over the haunted barn where, for a dollar, we could be led on a creeptastic tour.  We girls made the boys take a protective stance around us to protect us from whatever scary creatures might jump out at us.  It only took us about three minutes to get through, but the adrenaline rush was worth it.  Plus, it managed to do what all the sugar they’d force-fed me before we left had failed to do: wake me up.  And if you aren’t really a fan of haunted houses, Mooch is the perfect person to go in with.  He jumps back at anything that jumps at us and is more likely to attack a “scary creature” then the poor creature is.  I’m afraid we got known as “that jerk group”, but it was worth it.  When you’re laughing it’s a lot harder to scream.  After we finished with the haunted barn we went over to Gay Hall for the haunted floor.  Now, I haven’t been in a lot of haunted houses because of a bad experience I had with them in kindergarten [long story short: don't send kindergarteners through a haunted house], but that thing was pretty freakin’ spooky.  Gay is the dorm that has all sorts of twisty, turny maze-like hallways without windows.  I get lost enough in there during the day, but they’d turned all the lights off, so we were basically walking through in the pitch black and there were things jumping out at us and grabbing at us.  It probably would have been a lot scarier without Mooch there to “battle back the demons”.  As it was, 1 had shown up and joined us for the haunted hall, so I could latch onto him in my fright.  [That was also the day he kept stealing my cowboy hat and wearing it.]  After the haunted hall Lace, 1, and Drew left us, but the rest of us went back to our now vacant apartment where we watched part of The Exorcism of Emily Rose (which I really don’t feel any need to finish) until midnight, when we went and saw Rocky Horror in Edson.  When Rocky Horror was done, KT and I bid our friends goodnight and returned to our blissfully quiet apartment where I fell into bed, completely done out.

Of course, cue-to-cue marked the beginning of tech week (aka hell week), which meant I was back at theatre the next day for first dress and every subsequent day that week.  We opened Thursday and ran through Saturday, when we had two shows.  I loved every minute I was at theatre and I loved our cast to death.  Mamiami and Dad came up to see the show at the Saturday matinee and took Doc out to lunch, who I suppose I should mention was fired from his CA job because he was caught drinking on call.  So he was moody and depressed all week, too.  Friday, the sixth, I was kidnapped over to KG’s apartment where we had a girls night and watched My Fair Lady (so now I can cross that off my list of movies I need to watch).  Saturday, after the final show, there was a cast party, which I attended.  Only my second real college party, but the first one that I actually enjoyed.  I was pissed off at myself because Kari was playing a game with 1 where she gave him names of different girls and he either nodded or shook his head to indicate if he thought they were cute.  Of course, who should she start off with but me.  And in some bizarre self-preservation weird thing (that’s my only explanation, folks) I looked away from them, so I don’t know what his answer was!  And it wasn’t like some big game they were playing in front of everyone, it was just between the two of them, and obviously I can’t ask either of them.  Yes, it sounds a bit petty, but I mean come on, how often do you get a chance to find out if the guy you like, likes you without actually having to ask him?  So I missed my big chance to find out how he feels; sad day.

Sunday was the day from hell.  I didn’t get back from the party until three in the morning [way past my bedtime].  I woke up late, feeling like crap, still tired, aching, physically and mentally exhausted, severally depressed because theatre was over, to find an overcast and drizzly day.  And then I had to move Doc all the way across campus to his new residence in the upperclassmen dorms since he was fired and all.  Of course, even though he’d had a week, he wasn’t completely packed yet, so KT and I had to help him with that.  Then we had to lug his stuff across campus and drag it up to the third floor.  His new CA hadn’t bothered to tell his new roommate that Doc was moving in, but that was rather irrelevant, because Doc’s new roomie wasn’t there anyways.  Of course, Doc wasn’t in the most spectacular of moods either, seeing as how he’d just been demoted and uprooted.  Anytime KT and I were away from Doc, we had to insist the other person stay strong, otherwise both of us would have just broken down crying and run away.  When we finally got him moved in [which took much longer than it should have], I had just enough time to grab dinner before I had to go to my scene rehearsal.  Yes, you read that right; even though I’d finished with Antigone, I still had rehearsals to attend to.  These were not nearly as enjoyable, as they didn’t involve the Antigone people, whom I’d grown quite fond of.  But Ray only gave us two weeks to put our scenes up, and as I’d had Antigone the week before, I had no choice but to rehearse every day of this past week.

And then, just to make my week even more fun, I caved under the desperate pleas of the Dance Ensemble people and agreed to be their ASM for the shows this weekend.

I am so freakin’ exhausted and I haven’t had a real weekend since fall break.  You all have no idea how excited I am for winter break so I can just sleep.  KT and I agreed to have a “do nothing” day today, so we stayed in our pjs all day (well, until dance ensemble) and did absolutely nothing but watch movies and eat junk food.  It was so much fun and very much needed.

God, this is ridiculously long.  If I’d put this much effort into my NaNoWriMo piece, just think how much further along I could be.

Be sure to catch fellow “Adaumbelle’s Quest” participant Daphne Rubin-Vega live on stage in tonight’s (11/4) installment of “Cedar City Falls” at 7pm and 9:30pm. For details visit:http://www.cedarcityfalls.com/Home.htm.

Miércoles/ “The Rocky horror picture show” dirigida por Jim Sharman

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show, dirigida en 1975 por Jim Sharman sobre el musical The Rocky Horror Show, de Richard O’Brien, es una película de culto sobre una pareja que, tras una avería en su coche, se ven obligados a pasar la noche en la mansión del Doctor Frank-N-Furter que celebra la convención de transilvanos con motivo de la creación de su criatura, Rocky Horror, un hombre perfecto cuyo “medio” cerebro pertenece a un delincuente juvenil. La película no tardó en ser objeto de culto y pasar a la historia siendo todavía exhibida en cines donde se montan auténticas fiestas en torno a la película.“

Extraído de Wikipedia.

Ver además:

http://www.rhps.es/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073629/

http://www.pasadizo.com/portada.jhtml?ext=1&cod=126

Los títulos seleccionados  son una muestra de los materiales actualmente en préstamo de los fondos de la Biblioteca del Instituto Internacional.

Si te interesa ver o leer ésta recomendación puedes consultar su disponibilidad en el catálogo la biblioteca del IIE.

The Rocky horror picture show. [DVD] / Jim Sharman. — Madrid : Twentieth Century Fox, 1975. — 2 DVD (96 min.) : son., col.

Idiomas : inglés ; Subtitulos: castellano, inglés.

Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard OBrien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Jonathan Adams, Peter Hinwood, Meat Loaf.

No recomendada para menores de 13 años.

ZW .S53 R63 1975

This past weekend has been crazy with school and Halloween and I’m feeling another crazy week up ahead. To tide you over, I have music news! I know, I know, I’m supposed to be talking about film, but I haven’t watched anything new. Watched The Rocky Horror Picture show this weekend, in the name of tradition. Shame on all of you who didn’t integrate Janet & Brad into your Halloween weekends! Here’s a classic song from the movie for anyone missing Halloween already:

So today I went to HMV and spent way too much money. Two of my purchases: the new Tegan &  Sara and Julian Casablancas CDs.

Tegan and Sara, my two favorite Canadian lesbian sisters, just came out with Sainthood, which is, as I expected, amazing. Their classic good songwriting at work once again. I can’t wait for their concert in January. The song Ocean is absolutely stunning, I can’t stop listening to it.

When you wake, what is it that you think of most?
When your bed is empty, do you really sleep alone?
If I imagine your
Body next to another

Another CD that came out this week is Julian Casablancas’ solo work, Phrazes for the Young. The Strokes’ singer’s first solo album is pretty good, though I have to admit that as a HUGE The Strokes fan, I expected a bit more. The single 11th Dimension is by far my favorite song off of it. It’s really very good aka worth listening to! As my friend (you know who you are) put it, We love Julian because he sounds like such a dirty little boy. I agree

Drop your guard, you don’t have to be smart all of the time
I got a mind full of blanks
I need to go somewhere new fast

Be sure to catch the premiere of “FUQ” (Frequently Unasked Questions), a new play by musician and Broadway actress Daphne Rubin-Vega (fellow “Adaumbelle’s Quest” participant) this Tuesday, November 3 at 9:30pm at The Public Theatre. “FUQ” is being put on as part of the LAByrinth Theatre’s Live Nude Play Series. Tickets are being given out starting at 9pm. This will be a night to remember!

FREQUENTLY UNASKED QUESTIONS
Written by Daphne Rubin-Vega
Directed by John Gould Rubin

Its a play! And a concert! The life and music of DRV are completely intertwined. In
FUQ’s, she explores the life of her mother who immigrated from Panama and the
resulting consequences of her choices.

Top Halloween Shows

1. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
3. The Shining
4. Hannibal Rising
5. The Nightmare Before Christmas

"What's so funny?" John Carleton, http://www.flickr.com/photos/johncarleton/284011194/

Because I am late with my Old School Friday selection, I am going to kill two ravens with one headstone and combine the official OSF theme, Songs That Make Me Smile, with a tribute to one of my favorite dates on the calendar. Here are Halloween-flavored songs that make me smile.

I may as well start with the obvious. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” has become more than a song. It is a cultural institution. From prisoners to wedding parties to my little brother’s recent swim team talent show, everyone at some point in their life must find reason to participate in a reenactment of the Thriller choreography.

Of course this Halloween the song is bittersweet, with the recent death of MJ and the thus-far enormously successful film This Is It. “Thriller” is still one of those Halloween-appropriate songs that makes me smile.

Another highly participatory Halloween song that always puts a smile on my face is from one of the most uproariously fun movies of all time. If you ever meet me in person remind me to tell you the story of the first time my friends and I, in high school, went to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show downtown, bringing bags full of raw eggs and rocks and filled water balloons—all of which were confiscated by the security guard at the door. Or, about the time we took my exchange student from Yugoslavia to see it for his first time, and he got mad when the audience yelled “VIRGIN” to him when he said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

My last pick is probably the best song ever made to send a chill up your spine. It makes me smile because ever since I was a child I have loved scary movies—and The Exorcist is one of the scariest ever made.

Have a safe Halloween weekend!

*******************

As always, a big thank you to OSF hostesses, Marvalus at Conversations with Marva and MrsGrapevine.

Please check out the rules for joining and list of other OSF participants here.

E’ sold out lo strepitoso spettacolo The Rocky Horror Picture Show in cartellone questa sera al Cinema Mexico di Zona Tortona.

Una coppia di casti fidanzati (Susan Sarandon e Barry Bostwick) si trova con la macchina in panne nel bel mezzo di un temporale in piena notte. I due decidono di chiedere aiuto in un vicino castello che si rivelerà però abitato da strani personaggi venuti dal pianeta Transexual della galassia di Transylvania…

Questa è, in breve, la trama di un film del 1975, diretto da Jim Sharman e divenuto in tutto il mondo un vero e proprio movie-cult.  La pellicola è tratta dal musical The Rocky Horror Show (Londra, 1973), nato dalla mente di Richard O’Brien, sceneggiatore ed autore delle musiche usate successivamente anche nel film, dove lo stesso O’Brien compare come attore nel ruolo del misterioso servitore Riff Raff. Accanto a lui troviamo Tim Curry nel ruolo del Dr. Frank-N-Furter e una giovanissima Susan Sarandon nella parte di Janet Weiss, ruolo che la consacra definitivamente agli occhi della critica.

La pellicola, approdata tra il 1976 e il 1977 al Cinema Mexico, dopo 33 anni, fa ancora il tutto esaurito. Lo spettacolo propone il film in lingua originale sullo sfondo e un cast di attori che ne interpreta dal vivo gli accadimenti, esortando il pubblico – formato dai tantissimi affezionati vestiti e truccati come i personaggi del film stesso e da spaesati neofiti – a prendere parte alla messa in scena armati di riso, carta igienica, pistole d’acqua, guanti in lattice e le istruzioni per ballare il Time Warp.

Una curiosità: nel 1981 al Cinema Mexico di Milano si forma il primo cast amatoriale italiano capitanato da Claudio Bisio nel ruolo di Brad.

Se non siete riusciti ad accaparrarvi il biglietto in tempo,  non disperate, è già possibile prenotare i posti per venerdì 6 e venerdì 13 novembre 2009.

“Don’t dream it, be it”

Cinema Mexico, 30 ottobre 2009, 22.00, Via Savona 57 – Milano

For your surreal entertainment – two songs from the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show sung in Japanese with a bit of English by ROLLY Teranishi.

Rolly Teranishi was a member of the Japanese rock band Scanch before going solo.

Here ROLLY performs “Science Fiction/Double Feature” and “I’m Going Home.” He’s a big fan of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and has played Dr. Frank-N-Furter in Japanese stage versions.

This was at the 2009 Tokyo Decadance Halloween party.

Meat Loaf, Rock Music legend. Meat Loaf, lead vocalist on Ted Nugent’s 1976 Free For All album. Meat Loaf, a guest investigator on Ghost Hunters. Meat Loaf playing the role of Eddie in the cult film classic - The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Oh, heck, I could make quite the list of Meat Loaf career achievements here. I have not even touched on awards, records sold or concert receipts. Meat Loaf has been a lifetime favorite Rock/Hard Rock vocalist for me. I get all happy to see Meat Loaf in the limelight, no matter what the platform may be. I have said it before, Meat Loaf just seems like a down to earth guy that has continuously risen above the star status of plasticity.

I have never been a fan of using vintage Rock songs for commercial purposes. Attaching a legendary song of any Rock or Metal Music genre, to a product for the sole purpose of marketing and selling such product, just takes away from the original Rock spirit of the song. That is my Metal opinion. Step in A-1 Steak Sauce, um, please. You see, I witnessed the other night, while watching whatever on television… Meat Loaf in an A-1 Steak Sauce commercial. Yes I did. Meat Loaf… steak sauce. (I think this commercial appeared during the Yankees vs. Angels game 6 playoff game on Fox). All I know is this commercial came on late, therefore my Metal memory has a few cobwebs. Meat Loaf looked fine, just as he looked on a recent episode of Ghost Hunters. In this A-1 Steak Sauce commercial, he actually looked like a dude you would approach at a family or company picnic… asking him where the cold beer is hidden.

The classic Meat Loaf song – I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That), is heard during this A-1 Steak Sauce commercial. Plus, Meat Loaf is shown singing along to this song, apparently showing his affection towards A-1 Steak Sauce. Meat Loaf is also shown wearing a bath robe and bunny slippers too. Yup. Hey, I’m all for a free enterprise, this is America. I also believe in the semi-fabulous words of wisdom… live and let live. Metal be damned though, I will forever now attach this great Meat Loaf song to a stinking bottle of steak sauce. The marriage of commercial products and my favorite Rock songs have an imbedding power within my Metal mind, this has always been the case my entire life. Once the attachment of a Rock song and it’s commercially related product occurs… that’s it. I cannot shake the connection loose once I hear such song(s) again.

There are many positives to be explored with this Meat Loaf meets A-1 Steak Sauce commercial just the same. Three quick positives come to my Metal mind: One – Meat Loaf is in the public eye, where he rightfully should be. Two – Meat Loaf is working and getting paid. Three – I will now and forever link and associate the A-1 Steak Sauce bottle that sits atop many restaurant tables, to a Rock Music icon whose voice has entertained and inspired me for decades. Reaching for that bottle of A-1 Steak Sauce will never be the same for me again. Long live Meat Loaf.

* I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) appears on the 1993 Meat Loaf album – Bat Out of Hell ll: Back Into Hell. This fantastic song was written by Jim Steinman.

TIM CURRY
Played a sex-crazed alien transvestite, and yet he’s still more family-friendly than Miley Cyrus.

(Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon)

She does come from a “friendly” family.

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da qui

Lo vidi a Londra, tanti anni fa. Ero giovane, mi sembrò una cosa strana, anche perché non capivo le parole. Tutto era strano nella Londra di quei giorni, dove mio zio, per farmi fare un’esperienza, mi mandò a lavorare nel mailing office della Mobil. Gli impiegati mi prendevano in giro, ma ero contento perché conobbi gente interessante, tra cui quella che più tardi diventò la compagna di Baglioni. Sua madre sospirava: Eh, tu saresti l’ideale… Il tempo dimostrò il contrario. Tornai a casa con quelle immagini negli occhi: Frank-N-Furter che ammazzava Eddie con l’accetta, il dottor Scott sulla sedia a rotelle, Janet Weiss con la sua conversione alla libidine. Da allora, quando penso a Londra, mi vengono sempre in mente reggicalze e giarrettiere.

I think you two are a little underdressed

(Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon)

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Halloween is only 26 days away but our adult costume party is on the 17^th.  This  means I have less than two weeks to figure out my costume and I am so ready to let my freak out!   To find my inspiration and to get into the spirit of the season, I’ve been spinning some spine-tingling tunes.

It’s astounding.  Time is fleeting.  Madness takes its toll.

The Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show conjures up some great memories from my youth.  With rice, toast and umbrellas in hand, my friends and I would dress-up and catch the midnight showing of Rocky Horror. 

I remember doing the Time Warp
Drinking those moments when
The blackness would hit me and the void would be calling
Let’s do the time warp again…
Let’s do the time warp again!

Nowadays, no Halloween party is complete without pumpkin ale and The Time Warp. 

It’s just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
With your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it’s the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane,
Let’s do the Time Warp again! 

Let’s do the Time Warp again! 

When I first watched Tommy Wiseau’s The Room (2003), in preparation for my Trash cinema class, I watched it alone. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience but it was not until this week, when I screened it for 21 undergraduates, that I got the full effect of this masterpiece of cinema terrible. I had prepared my students for what they were about to watch: I told them the film had a strong cult following, that it has been dubbed the “Citizen Kane of bad movies,” and that fans had developed their own set of rituals, such as spoon-throwing. But, my students’ enthusiastic, joyous response to the film truly exceeded my expectations.

The moment Tommy Wiseau enters the frame in the film’s first scene and utters the words “Hi Lisa” in his strange, unidentifiable European accent, the room erupted in raucous laughter. And it only built from there. Usually, when I screen a film for students they remain quiet, laughing or gasping when appropriate and occasionally making a stray remark. But when watching The Room my students immediately sensed that it was acceptable to laugh, whoop, and even yell at the screen. When, for example, Lisa (Juliette Danielle) has a prolonged, Cinemax-style sex scene for the 3rd time one of my students exclaimed “But we saw this already, right?” And when a random couple appears in Johnny’s (Tommy Wiseau) and Lisa’s apartment (as characters often do in The Room), another student yelled “Who the hell are they?” When the film was over the students burst into applause, something which has never happened at a screening in my 7 years of teaching film classes to undergraduates.

In our discussion of the film yesterday in class, I asked the students to consider several key questions: Why is The Room considered to be a “bad” film? What codes, conventions, and expectations does it violate and why do these violations provoke laughter (as opposed to boredom or annoyance)? And if this film is so poorly made, then why do audiences gain so much pleasure from watching it?

Here is what we determined:

1. It’s Just Plain Bad
The movie violates almost every rule of storytelling: characters pop in and out of scenes with little explanation, plotlines are addressed and then dropped forever (Lisa’s mother’s cancer, Denny’s [Philip Haldiman] drug problems, etc.), and character dialogue is frequently nonsensical. Wiseau inserts establishing shots of San Francisco into the middle of scenes for no apparent reason and spatial continuity is nonexistent (does Johnny live in an apartment or a house and how do they get up to that roof deck anyway?). These problems are so pervasive that it almost seems as if Wiseau is making these blunders on purpose–but according to reports from his former crew, Wiseau was simply inexperienced.

Wiseau’s senseless dialogue:

One of many scenes that make no sense and do nothing to further the plot:

Who takes wedding photographs one month before the wedding?

Wiseau’s arbitrary use of establishing shots:

The film’s inability to convey the passage of time:

Is it “tomorrow afternoon” already?

2. It’s Camp
The Room is enjoyable precisely because it proposes itself seriously and yet we cannot take the film seriously because it is so over the top. Susan Sontag writes that, “Camp asserts that good taste is not simply good taste; that there exists, indeed, a good taste of bad taste.” My students agreed that in terms of bad taste, The Room is as good as it gets. For example, in one of the film’s many sex scenes, Wiseau employs rose petals, gauzy bedding, bad R & B music, and a sinewy man thrusting away at a woman’s pelvis (I would include this clip but when I uploaded it to YouTube it was determined to be “pornography” and was removed). As my students pointed out, these sex scenes bring together every cliché of the Hollywood sex scene and the effect is overwhelming.

3. It’s Passionate
In Land of a Thousand Balconies: Discoveries and Confessions of a B-Movie Archaeologist (2003), Jack Stevenson argues that a great camp film is “the product of pure passion, on whatever grand or pathetic scale, somehow gone strangely awry… pure camp is created against all odds by the naïve, stubborn director who in the cynical, hardball, bottom line movie business can still foolishly dream he is creating a masterpiece without money, technical sophistication, or (orthodox) talent.” Indeed, The Room is infused with Wiseau’s passion. From its awkward dialogue to its nonsensical plot, the film is the embodiment of this strange, quixotic man. Watching The Room is, in many ways, like the reading the diary of a tortured teenage writer. My students agreed that it was Wiseau’s unadulterated passion and hubris that made the film so engaging to watch, despite its frustrating plot and characterization.

The best example of this passion can be found in the infamous “You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!” scene, a blatant rip off of a similar scene in Rebel without a Cause

But, if The Room is so very personal, if it is Wiseau’s soul up there on the screen, then is it wrong to subject this film to scrutiny on a regular basis? Is mocking this man’s art akin to walking into an art gallery and pointing and laughing at a painting that you think is shit? Or going to the theater and yelling at an actor for being bad at his job?

Fans react to “You’re Tearing Me Apart, Lisa!”:

4. It Makes Us Feel Better About Ourselves
This leads me to the final characteristic of watching The Room: it makes the viewer feel better about him or herself. In his famous study of taste cultures, Distinction (1984), Pierre Bourdieu writes, “Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social subjects, classified by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, in which their position in the objective classifications is expressed or betrayed.” When we watch The Room and mock it we are essentially saying “I am better than this. I am superior to this.” For example, during the following scene my students howled with laughter–and when we rewatched it during our class discussion they laughed even harder. Why? As one student put it, “This scene is intended to show us that Johnny’s character is a good guy because he is always buying roses for Lisa. But it just FAILS.”

So are we cruel for laughing at Wiseau’s film, for laughing at Wiseau himself? On this point my students were divided. Some said yes, that they felt guilty for laughing because the film was so personal. Others argued that the moment Wiseau made his film and put it in a public theater, he agreed to public ridicule. Personally, I am torn on this issue–but that won’t keep me from watching The Room. And laughing.

This is a transcript of parts of an interview you can find here, in which he discusses how he’d like to be buried, his experiences working with Jon Pertwee and Harry Hill, and the many times he’s worn dresses and fish-net stockings.

Q: I never realised that your mentor was Sir John Gielgud. How big an influence has he been for you?

A: Well when I was a very young actor I found him rather magical to look at and to listen to. I mean his voice is not to everyone’s choice but it was when I was young, because of course Shakespeare is my, as it were, my governor. I wish I could do some more Shakespeare and I hope I do. He was a hero of mine, he spanned such a long period from the 1920’s, 1930’s right up, and he’s still living now, albeit he doesn’t often take much work. He (Gielgud) wrote several books that influenced me enormously, on his attitude to his work and how he thought actors should comport themselves and behave, and he just became a major hero of mine.

Q: In your opinion, what’s better to do – live theatre or recording in a studio?

A: Well I think at the end of the day, probably live theatre. I started in live theatre before I went into television and films, and I think live theatre is most satisfying because you get that tremendous feedback from the audience, you get that rapport between audience and actor. One of the things that is very pleasurable for an actor, performing in comedy or tragedy of whatever, and you can feel an audience’s attention, if they’ve very gripped by what you’re trying to do. Of course in comedy, to get a laugh is lovely… and sometimes it’s wonderful, if you want to, to kill a laugh, and if you can manage to stop the audience laughing when you want to, I think it gives you qutie a sense of power. So I think having starte in the theatre, that’s my first love, but I love all branches of the profession, really. There’s something to be said for each one of them. Television is fascinating, one learns a lot. Of course my first television I ever did, I was appalling, because I was pulling too many faces. I hadn’t realised I wasn’t in the theatre.

Q: Of course it’s different when you’re doing ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’…

A: Yes, I did that one stage and I learnt a lot doing that. (laughs) That was 1980. I think, as a joke, on the last night of our tour the narrator, which is the part that I played, had a smoking  jacket but below that I had fishnet stockings. Just as a bit of a joke.

Q: You had the pleasure of working with Jon Pertwee for so many years. What is the one thing about him that people don’t know about?

A: Well I think one of the things that people don’t know about him is… Actually, we were talking about it this past weekend, because we’ve just had a big ‘Doctor Who’ convention in Coventry, which is quite near Birmingham, and we had a very successful weekend… But one of the things that I think maybe many people don’t know about Jon Pertwee is, in my view he was a very good leading man to have at the head of a company, because when we started a story – apart from the regular people who we got to know – we had our first read-through of the script, we’d then go upstairs and have some coffee, and he would make it a point with all the guest people who were with us, to find out about them, to find out what made them tick. He took an interest, and he made everyone feel very much at home. And that’s why he was a particularly good leading man. He wanted to find out about other people, and I suppose by doing that he found out more about himself. He was a very hard worker, he drove himself very hard.

Q: And you were in ‘The Mousetrap’?

A: Yes. Doing a play like that night after night for a year, you’re bound to get to a point, maybe six months in or whatever, where it becomes very repetitive and you’ve got to make sure that it isn’t repetitive because the audience has paid good money to see it, and you’ve got to bring freshness to it. You’ve got to bring fresh energy to it every night, and not amble or walk through it, because it’s very unprofessional to do that, and very rude to the audience. That’s quite a discipline. It was hard work, that, very very hard work. It was very nice for the security, to have a year’s work, but it was very hard work to try to keep fresh all the time.

Q: In the 1980’s, when you were an established film, stage and television actor, did you ever think that appreciation for the Brigadier would come back like this? Beginning with ‘Mawdryn Undead’, then ‘Battlefield’, did you think all this would happen, when you did your first ‘Doctor Who’ back in the 1960’s?

A: No, no I didn’t. When I did my first ‘Doctor Who’, as Brety Vyon in ‘The Dalek Masterplan’, to me it was another job, an engagement for four episodes, and I thought ‘Well that was fun’ and got on with it. I think the director, Douglas Camfield, more than anyone else has been responsible for my longevity in that part, because he directed me as a colonel in ‘The Web of Fear’ and then he directed me in the first Brigadier story with Patrick Troughton, and of course later with Jon Pertwee, and of course he directed me with Tom Baker as well, in ‘Terror of the Zygons’. Of course he was an army man himself, he was a 2nd Lieutenant, I was only a private, I didn’t have any ambition to be a serious soldier… and he (Douglas Camfield) saw in my performance in ‘The Web of Fear’ that I was a natural for officer material, and I told him that I’d only been a private, but he said I came over naturally as an officer type. My father was a real army officer in the first world war, before becoming a diplomat, and it must have rubbed off on me, observations of my father, and indeed observations of officers under whom I served during my national service period.

Q: So Graham Chapman’s take on the Brigadier in ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’, was that flattering?

A: I’m trying to remember that.

Q: One thing that sticks out is the blacmange episode, Monty Python’s take on ‘Doctor Who’, and Graham Chapman’s imitation of you doing the Brigadier was spot on.

A: Oh, yes, I find that very flattering.

Q: And speaking of comedy takes of the Brigadier, you’ve been on TV tap-dancing with Cybermen?

A: Well not quite tap-dancing. This is a show I recorded about four weeks ago, a comedy by Harry Hill who’s got a very special type of comedy show, satirical, whacky, I don’t know very esoteric, a very particular type of comedy – incidentally, a very nice man, very charming – and the reason I got that part, and I did another part last year with another actor – and these are the leading men now who grew up with the Brigadier, so that’s great that I’m being booked by these younger people. Harry Hill called my agent and asked me to do a guest spot, and I said ‘Sure’, and I got on very well with the whole company, I had a very enjoyable three days.

I don’t exactly tap-dance with the Cybermen, it’s a very satirical programme and what happens is that Harry Hill announces that the new Dr. Who is going to be Clare Short. She’s the minister for development in the present government, and she’s a very full, large lady indeed, well fairly large anyway… and then the Brigader says ‘Well we at UNIT are thrilled that Clare Short is going to be the new Doctor’, and I have to say this with a very straight face, ‘We’re delighted that she’s going to join us and we’ve got a present for her’, and it’s a cut-glass vase, and then a Cyberman appears and breaks the glass, and the Brigadier turns to him and says ‘You always have to break things, don’t you? You can’t keep anything nice around here’, and he almost breaks into tears. It’s all comedy, it’s lovely stuff. Then later on in that show, I appear again in a sort of space send-up, space spoof. The Brigadier suddenly breaks in, fires a few shots into the air, and a puppet’s head flies off, and Harry Hill says ‘UNIT got a tip-off that someone was here’, and then later the Brigader… there’s a song, there’s a group called The Communards, pop music, well the Brigadier sings three lines of ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’. So it’s a whacky show.

Q: I want to talk to you about dresses.

A: Dresses? Yes, well I did a show, a comedy show, and again this was written by a fan of the show, and it’s set in Wales, and I’m playing a sort of public schoolboy who went to the bad and his life fell apart, he was left without a penny, and the Welsh family out of the kindness of their hearts put him up, but he’s so ashamed of himself he hangs himself. So one scene I had, this guy is dead and in heaven, he likes to wear dresses, this guy, he’s a transvestite. So there’s the Brigadier in a long white gown and sipping a glass of wine and he’s happy now, because he can wear what he likes in heaven. That was a thing called ‘Satellite City’.

Q: If the royal armed forces said to you that, in the event that you pass away, we’d like to give you a full military burial, what would you say?

A: Well that would be very nice, very interesting indeed. Not that I’d be around to enjoy it! I’ve made my will, and when I go I want to be cremated and I want my ashes to be scattered, ideally in the Mediterranean sea, or any sea would do, but ideally the Mediterranean because I was born and grew up in Egypt and France and all that and I love the sea. I feel very close to water, and I feel very comfortable with water.