Smitten with Švankmajer

Prior to this weekend, I had only seen his short films and some clips from movies but thanks to a suggestion from my brother, I got to catch Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer's Lunacy in full at the Siskel Film Center. Švankmajer creates weird and wonderful dark films that drift toward the horror genre using a mix of live action and stop animation, often using clay or food as his medium and sometimes stop animating live actors, creating unnatural, nightmarish movement. If you haven't had a chance to see one of his films in a theater and you live in Chicago, you can still catch the tail end of the retrospective at the Siskel!

This is the first Švankmajer short I remember seeing:

Big hair & bold colors

I was stuck at home for a week but fortunately had just picked up a pile of VHS tapes at a video store that's supposedly going out of business but which has been "going out of business" for close to half a year, so I'm hoping that means they'll be around for a while. Many movies were watched on the TV/VCR combo that week, and let me tell you, cheesy 80's movies are a no-fail mood lifter. Here's your video Prozac:




Just One of the Guys, 1985
Classic teen movie themes of nerds vs. jocks, high school crushes and prom mixed with drag and a little brother with a lot of great lines.




Making Mr. Right, 1987
A young John Malkovich plays both a scientist and his own creation - an android in his own likeness. The rest of the movie isn't that great but the double Malkovich is all I needed to enjoy it.




After Hours, 1985
How had I not seen this before? This is Martin Scorsese's dark comedy of one man's surreal night in New York, starring Griffin Dunne, who was also the star in An American Werewolf in London. If you haven't seen this, you need to watch it! I believe this is also streaming on Netflix right now.




Night of the Comet, 1984
There were some pretty good lines in this campy movie about two sisters trying to survive in L.A. after a comet kills off most people and turns the others into flesh-eating zombies (or just mutated jerks, in the case of some mall employees) but the radio station set was my favorite part:

-M

Tastes like death or maybe just pad thai

The dark lord careth not about spelling.

The real cause of the oil spill?

Too early?

All the Single Ladies

We've been taking a bit of a break lately while we try to enjoy the hot, sticky, Chicago summer but we'll be back in action in late July and August. Bear with us while we struggle to peel our thighs off of sweaty vinyl surfaces all over the city.  For now, be entertained by the joys of video dating via the Found Footage Festival.

Never gets old

Dave Chapelle: Prince plays basketball - watch more funny videos

-M

Meow Mix Tuesday

Okay, that title would have worked better if it was Monday but I don't have a time machine or any patience to wait until next week! Here's a meow mix for today:

(Also posted over here on our Facebook page)

-M