Cannibal Porn

No, really. The following is a review of a novelty item for those with strong stomachs and a healthy appetite for the bizarre.

The Bedroom (Shisenjiyou no Aria) (1992) is an artsy, weird, japanese softcore starring Issei Sagawa as Mr. Takano. For those of you to whom this means nothing, Issei Sagawa is better known for having killed and eaten a woman in France in the early 80's, getting away with it and returning to Japan to become a minor celebrity who is asked to do things like write articles for gourmet cooking magazines and appear in pornos. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issei_Sagawa)

The movie itself is actually a little bit interesting on its own merit, although of course the main appeal is watching a known cannibal fondle porn stars, and in fact certain points of the plot are clearly references to Sagawa's crime. The movie is essentially about voyeurism and control, and the plot centers around a sex club where men have their way with women who have taken the sleeping drug Halcion. Many of the sex scenes involve unresponsive, drugged women, clearly meant to represent the experience of being sexual with a dead body. These encounters are video-taped and photographed, again introducing the theme of voyeurism. In one scene, Sagawa's character photographs himself licking a drugged woman's thigh, which is the first body part that he ate in his real life crime. Another reference to Sagawa's crime are frequent shots taken from inside a refrigerator, and a scene in which a corpse is shoved into a refrigerator. In real life, Sagawa stored various body parts in his refrigerator for several days while he slowly consumed the body.

In terms of style, this movie is very dated and utilizes a lot of cheesy blue and red filters and oddly angeled shots. One interesting element is the use of video artifact and TV snow in certain shots, which comes to represent voyeurism.

I know the above description sounds more appropriate for a horror film than a porno, but I guess that depends on what you're into. I recommend this as a viewing option for anyone who really feels the need to know what people are capable of even conceiving of doing.

available for purchase on amazon.com

and happy new year!

Have some shame!

I recently took a long plane ride, and was lucky enough to be seated next to a hot Belgian chick. We hit it off, but she said something that really struck a nerve with me and by god I'm going to rant about it. What I am reporting now is about 2 minutes of a 4 hour exchange, but I feel I need to say something. We started out with a casual discussion about the entertainment for the trip, there were several movie channels and one of them was showing 'The Da Vinci Code' and she commented that it was a great movie that would lose something on the small screen. Now, I know I'm a movie nerd and I'm willing to concede that to people who aren't intimately involved in cinema, maybe 'The Da vinci Code' is a great movie. Why not. She goes on to explain to me that she has never read the book, but that her sister had read it so fast blah blah blah... OK, so we're making small talk, so I admit to her that I read it on a plane once and am ashamed to admit that I enjoyed it a little. Her reply was something about how people shouldn't be snobs about things like that.

Well, if being ashamed of enjoying the da vinci code makes me a snob, then I'm a serious snob. And I am PROUD TO BE ASHAMED. So listen up America, and Belgium, HAVE SOME SHAME. Yes, we enjoyed the da vinci code, it was exciting, it was a page turner, we spent a little less time with our TVs for the three days it took us to read it, but that is nothing to be proud of. It is a crap novel. A crappy, mindless detective story masquerading as pseudo-intellectualism. Not even bothering to masquerade as intellectualism, just picking up on popular pseudo-intellectual themes and incorporating that into a crappy, low-brow, detective story. Its sexy, it makes us think we're reading about history and culture, but we're not. And it's crap. Just to begin with, in the beginning the name that they claim is the true title of the Mona Lisa is incorrect. And thats just for starters. So now we have a book, no one had any false pretenses about it having any literary, structural, or theoretical significance, and now it turns out the author didn't even do his art history homework. Besides which, isn't it our shame that made the book so enjoyable? Isn't the dirty pleasure of getting wrapped up in a pointless, fictional intrigue, the escape from real life and serious thought, exactly what we liked about it? So yes, be ashamed, BE VERY ASHAMED.

When people talk about reading being good for you, exercising your mind, ect...that doesn't mean the physical act of reading. It means strenuous mental exercise, in which you consume and process logic structures and theoretical content embedded in language. Reading traffic signs all day long is not going to grow you any new neurons, and the da vinci code is not much better. Note that I am not telling you not to read this kind of crap, I'm just telling you to have some shame when you do. You'll enjoy it more.

Meow

My kitten just died. She had Leukemia and I had to put her down. I put a fez on a jar of pickles but it didn't cheer me up. Life just sucks sometimes.

My kitten!

My kitten is in the animal hospital and the vets don't know what is wrong with her. Everybody think happy thoughts about my kitty because she needs them right now! Two days ago she was the happiest kitten in the world, lets hope two days from now she will be bouncing off the walls and chasing my shoe-laces again.

Head (1968)

HOLY SHIT! In a surprising twist of fate, the Monkees movie turned out to be an amazing psychedelic surrealist freak out written by Jack Nicholson. Apparently, Jack Nicholson and the Monkees locked themselves into a hotel room for two days and got stoned out of their minds and wrote this movie. I don't have any reliable sources on that, but it's a charming story and after watching the movie it does not seem far fetched. I can't believe no one told me about this movie before, and therefor felt compelled to post about it. Totally mind-blowing movie, required viewing.

In other news: I spent all night Saturday dancing with the cutest girl in the world, and all Sunday morning being the most hungover girl in the world. But it was worth it.

Giants and Toys

Giants and Toys (1958) Yasuzo Masumura

Giants and Toys centers around the advertising campaigns of three rival caramel companies in post-war Japan. The movie uses the same fantasy space as many Japanese post-war technology nightmares to frame a different kind of nightmare: that of post-war Japan's westernized consumer culture.

One of the companies recruits a toothless girl from the slums to be their new spokes model, another promises to provide for one contest winner's needs, "From cradle to wedding," and the third markets exotic silver caramels, with the help of a loin-clothed jungle man. Through it all, a traditional Japanese man battles with his drive towards success and financial stability and his desire to keep his dignity.

The movie was ahead of its time in terms of both style and content; Japanese cinema did not really take off until the late 70's, so I was surprised to see the date 1958 on a movie this sophisticated. This phenomenon came about for a number of reasons, but was essentially because film was a Western invention and it took some time for Japanese film makers to make it their own. When silent film was introduced in Japan in the 1930's, Japanese theaters employed Benshi to narrate the film, in the tradition of the kabuki theater. This live narration of movies was unique to Japan and added an element of performance, or theater, to the experience of watching the film. While this was a uniquely Japanese addition, it was not uniquely filmic, but instead confused the film medium with a method of creating reproducible and easily distributable theater. It was not until the 60's, when French new wave cinema began to develop a grammar and syntax for film as a communicative and expressive medium, that Japanese film makers began to understand cinema as a distinct medium.

That being said, this movie is cool looking, proficiently crafted, distinctly cinematic, and distinctly Japanese. It uses a playful, quasi-fantastic atmosphere and scenario to discuss a deadly serious subject: the effects of the introduction of elements of western culture on traditional Japanese values. If it helps you to understand how serious this really was at the time, imagine a movie about Americans adapting to Islamic cultural values after having one of our major cities nuked. Now imagine that movie being kooky and off-beat. This movie is both interesting on its own merit and as a cultural artifact: definitely recommended.

Availability: For rental through netflix and for sale at Amazon.com

Lars von Trier

OK, so there's this story about Lars von Trier that I really feel I have to tell, right now. So my friend used to live in L.A and dated this movie critic, who will remain nameless because I don't know his name. At any rate, he was interviewing Lars von Trier and asked him about his views on women, framing the question by explaining that some critics have interpreted works like 'Dancer in the Dark,' in which he basically takes an innocent female character and destroys her in this long, drawn out, painful way, as being on some level misogynist. Lars von Trier commenced to tell this story:

He was out in a boat on a lake, it was a beautiful day and everything was peaceful and generally pleasant. At some point he noticed a swan on the lake. His boat drifted close to the swan, and he was sitting perfectly still observing this beautiful animal when the swan started freaking out and attacking him, making this horrible noise and trying to overturn the boat. He didn't know what to do, was trying to beat it off with a paddle, when all of a sudden the swan stopped attacking him and started preening its feathers as if nothing had ever happened. "And that" he says "is what I think of women."

Apparently this interview was committed to video, I'll try and get some info on its availability. Hope I did it justice. Makes me feel sort of warm and fuzzy inside, and is a good reminder that "good artist" does not mean "good person".

Social Cognition

An interesting review of the literature relevant to the neuroscience of human social cognition and decision making. Written so that those not familiar with the field can understand, but not dumbed down. Check it out.

http://helios.hampshire.edu/~jwcCS/PrisonersDilemma.pdf

Things I advocate

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Daisies

Sedmikrasky (Daisies) (1966) directed by Vera Chytilová

Two teenage girls named Marie decide that since everything in their world is spoiled, they too should become spoiled. The girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world about them. This movie is basically a surrealist, feminist, 60's, Czech version of 'The Simple Life,' if you can imagine that being pleasant at all. In the context of the time period, this movie can be interpreted as a biting social satire that whimsically and playfully explores the concept of ennui. Loaded with successful use of experimental film techniques, including hand painting on film, animation, and lovely fantasy sequences such as one in which the girls chop each others body parts off while their severed heads float around and giggle, this is definitely recommended viewing.

Availability: available for rental through netflix.com, and for sale on amazon.com

Forgotten cinema

One of my goals in starting this blog was to write about and hopefully promote interest in more obscure movies, art films and B-features alike. Everyone and their mother can tell you what they think about Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, but what does your friend's mom have to say about....

Blindman (1971) directed by Ferdinando Baldi. English language, Italian production spaghetti western starring Ringo Starr.

Tagline: Blindman, Blindman, what did he do? Stole 50 women that belong to you.

As you can tell from the limited information already presented to you, this movie is a genuine oddity. The plot centers around a blind gunman, who is hired to escort fifty mail order brides to their miner husbands.The women are re-appropriated by Mexican pimp Domingo and his brother Candy(RINGO STARR!!!) and Blindman pursues them into Mexico to attempt a daring rescue. To begin with, let me just say that I'm not talking blind like, 'all my other senses are heightened Zatoichi style blind'; I'm talking blind like seriously handicapped. The movie begins with Blindman's business partner taking advantage of him because he can't see, and while he does from time to time kick some ass, he is definitely handicapped. Also of note is the fact that this movie is set in a world where so many of the men have huge noses and ridiculous mustaches that I was not immediately sure which of the characters was played by Ringo Starr. Adding to my confusion was the decent script and cinematography, which demonstrated a good sense of fun and a developed, if kitschy, sense of aesthetics. Truly bizarre take on this genre, worth checking out, and have I mentioned, RINGO STARR?!? As a Mexican pimp!? Named Candy!!?!

available at: http://www.pimpadelicwonderland.com/

Cannibal Holocaust

Cannibal Holocaust (1980) directed by Ruggero Deodato

A film crew from New York goes into the jungle to investigate the disappearance of an earlier film crew who set out to make a documentary in the jungle.

Notes:

Deodato and one of the film's producers were arrested and the film seized a week after the premiere due to concerns that this was an actual snuff film. This was, of course, before it came to light that all snuff films were just low budget grindhouse flicks with footage from 'the last house on the left' spliced in. The only footage of human death in cannibal holocaust is footage of apartheid that was originally shot by Jacopetti and Prosperi for Africa Adio, which they had to claim was fake when they were tried for murder upon the release of that film. In Cannibal Holocaust, the apartheid footage is supposedly the work of the film crew that disappears into the jungle, making this film in a way about killing and eating Jacopetti and Prosperi.

The structure of the film, which consists of a film within the film, makes it possible for this brutal exploitative trash-fest to express something intelligent about the nature of film making and exploitation. Ortolani's kick-ass score, (he's also responsible for the scores of Mondo Cane, Goodbye Uncle Tom, and Africa Adio) and the genuine love and craft that went into shooting and editing this film, are possibly the most disturbing features of it.

Beautifully shot, admirably brutal, and impressively cerebral, Cannibal Holocaust deserves all of the notoriety and admiration it has received.

Availability:

OK, so generally there will be an availability section, but my Internet connection is being a little bitch right now so I can't find you those links. This movie is pretty available, so I can point you in the right direction. Download it at thepiratebay.org, or do it oldskool and rent it through netflix or buy it on Amazon. The uncut version is 95 minutes long, make sure you check that you are getting all the gore you signed up for!

I'll start with some bitching

First post. I think it's fitting that I start this thing with some good old fashioned bitching.

I recently started a new job, and mostly, things are going well. I'm working hard, being challenged, interested in my work... and really, really wishing that people had better things to do than dislike me for no reason. OK, OK, I guess I can't assume that there isn't a reason. But my sharp deductive abilities lead me to believe that after having two weeks worth of limited interactions with a person you aren't going to have a GOOD reason for not liking them.

A host of small incidents have started to make me feel as if one of my co-workers is absolutely out to get me, a terrifying thing to think when you have just moved to a new city to take on a job. I mean, I ONLY know the people I work with, I'd prefer it if they didn't hate me.

It started when my boss pulled me aside to let me know that she had gone to him with some complaints. We research brain development, so we deal with children and parents all the time, and she had gone to my boss to report that I had used the term "rock n' roll" as a colloquial expression meaning "cool beans" (which is the way she says it,) in front of a parent. OK, so maybe it's not as formal as "cool beans," but this is hardly worthy of talking to my boss about. Certainly seems like something she could have said to me.

Then yesterday she came to my office to talk to me. When I started work here, I had asked her if I could observe her performing some of the tests that I will eventually be administering. She has yet to let me know as she goes to administer a test, which I chalked up to us not having any research subjects who needed those tests. Apparently, I'm not being "pro-active" enough about observing. OK, fine. I asked her to let me know by email, or give me access to her calendar, so that I can find out when she will be performing these tasks. Her reply, "oh, well I never really know when I'm going to be doing it." OK great, and the point of chastising me for my lack of ability to read your mind? This little run in was completely unproductive. The only thing accomplished by this meeting was that now I know she doesn't think I'm performing well at my job. For whatever reason.

Finally, the icing on the cake. She asked me if I would take one of her subjects and administer a test she apparently does think I'm competent in, and I agreed to do it. I asked her what time she would need me and she said, "Oh, there are a lot of available times, how about after lunch?" I agreed and told her to knock on my door whenever she needed me, as I would be doing data analysis in my office all day. "After lunch" turned out to mean "during lunch," and she handed the subject off to me just as our office started having a party for one of our staff members who is leaving. Since the office was providing lunch at this party, I had not brought myself a lunch and ended up not eating all day. So I sat in silence in a closet in the back of the lab while the subject did a computerized test while the office was having a party, perhaps one of the only opportunities I would have had to meet my co-workers. Additionally, when I was done I asked if I could observe her administering one of the tests I am not being pro-active about observing, and was informed that she had already done it. I repeat, I was in my office all day waiting for her. I even scheduled a meeting for another day because I needed to be there, waiting for her.

In conclusion, I am not crazy, this girl really hates me. How disappointing to learn that meaningless drama based on nothing can overshadow the experience of doing rewarding and interesting work in an important field that I really care about.

More on neuroscience and cult film later. Possibly more bitching as well.