Lisztomania DVD details!

Hooray! Digital Classics has spilled the beans over at the Ken Russell Discussion Forum regarding the details of the forthcoming DVD! And here they are, directly from the lion's mouth:

The DVD will be released in an anamorphic transfer (...)

The DVD bonuses include a Directors Commentary, 8 page booklet and a theatrical trailer.

Hooray! Very much looking forward to seeing the theatrical trailer as I've never managed to see it and I don't even think it was included in the laserdisc version. Bring it on!

Vintage Japanese Movie Posters

You know how the japanese are, don't you? Severely talented at doing practically everything. Cool as hell cats, too. And when it comes to designing posters, there's no other way to put it: brilliant bastards. So here are a few of Ringo's movie posters as designed by some very clever niponic minds. If you can find more or know of more, please let me know. I'd be happy to include them on my little blog.

Caveman, the movie

Yes, I'm still here! Missed me? Yeah, I know - I'm starting to lose my audience. Let's see if the above poster will do the trick and get you all back again! Yep, I will be talking about Ringo's pre-historic one-off adventure, Caveman on my next post! Stay tuned!

To The Point!

See, I told you my next post was going to be "animated". The charming poster you see above is for one of only two animation feature films Ringo was involved with (the other one being of course, Yellow Submarine). And who better than me than Wikipedia to tell you all about it:

The Point! is a fable by American songwriter and musician Harry Nilsson about a boy named Oblio, the only round-headed person in The Pointed Village, where by law everyone and everything had to have a point.

"I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to point. I thought, 'Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn't, then there's a point to it.'" -- Harry Nilsson

The film version of The Point! first aired February 2, 1971, at 7:30pm on the ABC television network as a "movie of the week." The film was directed by Fred Wolf and produced by Murakami-Wolf Films in association with Nilsson House Music. In this version, there is a framing device of a father telling his son the fable as a bedtime story. In its initial airing, the voice of the father was provided by Dustin Hoffman, but for contractual reasons later airings of the film could not use Hoffman's voice and it had to be re-recorded. The initial re-recording was done by actor Alan Barzman. The VHS and DVD releases feature Ringo Starr as the father.

I don't know why but I just happen to love Ringo's monochordic voice with that particularly delicious liverpuddlian accent, so I guess this little movie with a big message is a no-brainer for me. That reminds me, I really should be putting some money on the side for all the Ringo Starr-ing movies I've yet to see. And so should you!

And to further prove that I'm your best friend, here's a link to that wonderful blog I'm always mentioning about that will take you to the version of The Point! narrated by Dustin Hoffman. See what things I do for you?

Magic's on the way!

Expect a magical post in the coming days...

Life's a drag, baby!

The poster you see above is the one that was created to illustrate this current month's movie theme on that weekly showing of films I do in Pátio - that kooky, quirky and very bohemian coffee-shop located in Vila do Conde. So, if you go there every Tuesday night at 10:30 p. m. sharp, you will be treated to a series of films centering on the very outrageous lives of that wonderful being called The Drag Queen. Wonderfully campy cinema, all month long!

Copy/Paste

The month of June is just around the corner (although judging from the weather, you'd think not) and another slew of films has been lined up for the viewing pleasures of that lovely motley crue of people that form the usual human landscape over at O Pátio, that curious little coffee shop in Vila do Conde that I mentioned earlier in the blog.

This month in particular, I'm playing a sort of two double-bills of movies that have been remade. So, if you go there on any Tuesday night of June at roughly 22:30 p.m., you'll find yourself wondering, "haven't I seen this one just last week?". Not quite, as you will see. Anyway, the invitation has been made so do come along!

David Cronenberg

Just a quick post before I continue to track down the soundtrack availability of most of Ringo's filmography (which I promise to do it tomorrow at roughly the same time).

As I mentioned earlier on this blog, I run a weekly showing of films in a small coffee-shop in Vila do Conde called O Pátio. This month of May, I am dedicating it entirely to that crazed genius of the Venereal Horror, David Cronenberg himself. Yep, no Ringo films as of yet but I will try to sneak one or two one of these months. Meanwhile, enjoy the poster:



It's on every Tuesday nights at 22:30 sharp!

Candy

The movie Ringo co-STARRed in that I'm going to write some words about today is readily available on DVD for quite a long time (though now currently Out of Print in the US but not in the UK), so if by the end of this post, you feel interested in checking it out, that particular task won't be as hard as the previously mentioned films in this little blog of ours.

It's called Candy, as you can see by the original theatrical poster on the left, and it was made in 1968 by frenchman Christian Marquand at the height of the hippie movement. And boy, does it show! Adapted from the novel by Terry Southern by the same name, it tells the story of a young ingénue named, you guessed it, Candy and her many adventures in search of... well, something. I've watched the movie quite a few times (rewatched it in fact just this weekend to prepare myself for these words) and I am still not sure what the movie is about.

Just so you can get a better picture of it, it involves a constantly wind-swept poet, a mexican gardener who's studying to become a priest (our own Ringo Starr, no less!), false indian gurus, homicidal surgeons, underground temples, members of the U. S. Army, a flying hunchback and the Mob! To confuse matters even more, apparently Southern's novel was loosely basen on literary classic Candide, by Voltaire, also the story of a naif character (a man, this time around) in search of Optimism. Sounds too erudite to you? Well, it should: it was written by a philosopher, if you're still wondering who Voltaire was.

With this sort of material, it should've been easy to make a fantastic movie, right? Right. But not in this case, though. Candy is yet another glorious cinematic mess that leaves you dumbfounded at the end and viewing it 40 years on, I'm quite sure that even the hippie crowd (clearly the target audience this movie was fabricated for) had a hard time figuring it all out. Nevertheless, it features some amazing cinematography by Fellini regular, Giuseppe Rotunno which achieves the impossible: to keep us glued to the screen for its whole two hours. No mean feat, I tell you.

And what about Ringo's part in it? Well, let's just say that his mexican accent sounds too liverpudlian to be believable but to see him on the big screen is always a pleasure (for me, at least). He seemed to enjoy it too, judging by the picture below with newcomer Ewa Aulin...

Lisztomania

Hello, blog-goers (just made up this crappy new word on the spot)! Well, here I am again to tell you a little bit more about Lisztomania, a 1975 Ken Russell film starring The Who frontman, Roger Daltrey and co-STARRing our one and only Ringo Starr in a very peculiar role as we shall see.

Apparently, this is the movie that Ken Russell (himself belonging to that rare and dying breed that constitute the Great British Eccentrics) wanted to make before he was approached by The Who to transform their double-album Rock Opera, Tommy, into a moving musical picture. Because that particular project was so successful, Russell got the go-ahead signal from the folks at Warner Bros. to come up with a fantasized bio-pic on classic composer Franz Liszt. For anyone wondering, Russell did not come up with the title - it was borrowed from a biography with the same name. Perfect, don't you think?

Anyway, this movie, like most of Russell's, is a love it or hate it affair. Those who like to indulge in the dizzy realms of that grand art that is High Camp, will find plenty to enjoy here, be it from the over-the-top sceneries and performances or from the liberty the author grants himself to go past over such silly and impractical things as historical accuracy or narrative plausibility. Not to worry, dear readers: it's all done in excellent bad taste.

Yes, we have giant penises, Richard Wagner dying and ressuscitating as Hitler, Richard Wakeman as a sort of mixture of Asterix and a Viking, a heavenly spaceship in the full sense of the word (I won't ruin this one for you as you have to see it to believe it) and finally, Ringo as the Pope, wearing cowboy boots. With that said, if you still haven't ran to get this movie at all costs, you simply'll never know how much fun you are missing. Yes, it's another MODVD, folks.

That reminds me: one of these days, I have to start making online petitions for those damned MODVD movies. And that's a promise! I leave you with a poster for Lisztomania I just found and one I've never seen before. Enjoy it!

À escolha do freguês

Just a small, harmless plug here: I am in charge of a weekly showing of films on a very nice Cafe in the town where I live. It's called O Pátio and it's quite the melting pot, as coffee-shops go! Below, you'll find the poster and the movies that are being played this month (it's People's choice, all April long) -

Franz Liszt! Chop Sticks!

Question: what do Roger Daltrey, Franz Liszt, Ken Russell, giant penises, Hitler, Richard Wagner, Rick Wakeman, Ringo Starr and the Pope have to do with the movie from which the above poster comes from?

Find out all about it in my next post as we journey into the unknown territory of Ringo's MODVD (missing on DVD, for those who'd like to know) filmography! Stay tuned!

Son of Dracula

Well, as promised here I am to tell you a little bit about the movie from which the poster I posted (a little aliteration never hurt anybody) down below comes from.

As you can easily tell, it's called Son of Dracula and reputedly, it's one of the worst movies ever made (which instantly makes it a "must see" in my book), having only played for a week in Atlanta in 1974, the year of its release (and my birth year, coincidently). It was directed by none other than Freddie Francis, cinematographer extraordinaire and the man behind the visuals of such great masterpieces such as The Innocents and The Elephant Man, just to name a couple of movies he was behind the camera.

Anyway, feeling a little bit lazy here so I'll just quote a small synopsis from Wikipedia:

Son of Dracula is a musical comedy film released in 1974 by Apple Films, starring Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr. It is also the title of a Harry Nilsson album released in conjunction with the film. It includes Nilsson songs that were showcased in the film as well as portions of dialogue, used as bridging sequences. All song tracks with the exception of "Daybreak" are from Nilsson Schmilsson (1971) and Son of Schmilsson (1972), albums previously released.

Ringo Starr appears as Merlin the Magician, who follows the birth and rise of young Count Downe, played by Harry Nilsson. Starr and Nilsson were longtime friends, and Starr had played drums on Son of Schmilsson, which had spoofed horror movie motifs. A year or so later, Starr decided to make a rock and roll Dracula movie, and invited Nilsson to come on board. Nilsson thought at first the whole idea came from his recent album; as it turned out, Starr hadn't followed its release, and until then-wife Maureen brought him a copy, he didn't even know Nilsson had already used a similar theme.

Intrigued? So am I. Want to watch it? So would I. But sadly there's never been any release of Son of Dracula on any home video format. Over at YouTube land, there used to be a way to watch it in its entirety but that option is now no longer available (I guess it must have been pulled down due to rights issues). The only way out is to find a decent bootleg DVD and buy it. Not that I'm endorsing bootlegging or anything like that but in extreme cases like these anything goes, me guesses.

One last thing: notice the similarity between the cover artwork for Harry Nilsson's The Son of Schmilsson and the soundtrack for Son of Dracula -

Q & A

So, in case you haven't guessed the mini-quizz on the post below, yes, it's The Beatles. No prizes for this one, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I think I should clarify in a more... um, clarifying way, what the purpose of this blog really is. You see, for years the mere vision or mention of Mr. Starr was a kind of baffling one. I mean, he's the odd one out, isn't he? And yet, the world would have been a poorer and sadder place without him. Being a sort of cinema buff, once in a while I would happen to catch or watch a film in which he STARRed in. And most of the time, he wasn't to be found amongst the best examples of the 7th Art, as it has come to be called. In fact, he's been in quite a number of cinematic misfires. The ones that are so off the beaten track that they cannot help themselves turning into cult classics. Just the kind I happen to love, actually.

So, what I'm trying to say is that my real appreciation for his talents came from watching those very same movies. And just like the world we live in, they would have been a lot poorer and sadder without Mr. Starr STARRing in them. I'll cut to the chase: for the duration of this blog, I will try to make my readers aware that Ringo (if he doesn't mind me calling him that) has had one of the most peculiar film careers ever and we're all the ones who should be thankful for that. Putting a little bit of fun in everything he touches. That's one of the main reasons I'm his fan.

Oh, and occasionally you can also expect to find some reviews of mine for his solo albums (also a most peculiar side to his overall career). And since I'm still a long way until I see each and every one of his movies and listen to each and every one of his albums, this blog will be just an adventure for me as it will be (maybe) to you, the reader. Are you up for the ride?

I leave you with the poster of a quite obscure movie that I will talk in more detail next time (and one I still haven't watched yet, though I'm dying to!).