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Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse

Of the many movies on my very long yet-to-see list, I was able to shorten it by one on an evening that, as I would soon learn after a quick internet search, was only several weeks after its director, Juan Luis Buñuel, had passed away. While he will not enter into the horror pantheon with the likes of Tobe Hooper or George Romero, who sadly both passed away in 2017, Juan Louis  Buñuel nevertheless made a meaningful contribution to, and arguably left an influence on, horror film in the form of  Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse (1973), aka At the Meeting with Joyous Death, or Expulsion of the Devil in the US. The film is certainly more than a mere footnote in Gérard Depardieu’s acting career or simply interesting for no better reason than having been made by the son of the great Luis Buñuel. In fact, I think Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse  was recycled into countless horror movies that followed. It’s a safe assumption that Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse was inspired by
Recent posts

Crumbs

CRUMBS from Lanzadera Films . From Spanish writer-director Miguel Llanso , this is a 68 minute Spain-Ethiopia-Finland co-produced science fiction love story from Ethiopia. And it looks like it is going to be one of the best films to come out in ages.

Ursula

Ursula (1961) by Lloyd Michael Williams

The Wormwood Star

Drag City has put out a Curtis Harrington bio called Nice Guys Don't Work in Hollywood . From Drag City: Starting in the midst of film's 1940s avant-garde heyday, Harrington made two deeply intuitive and evocative films: Fragment of Seeking, and Picnic, which were heralded by the likes of Maya Deren and Christopher Isherwood. He became a Hollywood insider, working as assistant for Jerry Wald while still keeping a foot in the world of experimental film, collaborating with Kenneth Anger on Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. As a director, he made the cult classic Night Tide, worked in the Roger Corman stable, and helmed several distinctive horror films including Games and What's the Matter With Helen? In the 1980s he began what he called his descent down the "slippery slope" of television work and soon found himself directing episodes of Charlie's Angels and Dynasty.

I am in training, don't kiss me

DIE ANDERE SEITE DES MONDES : CLAUDE CAHUN, AUTOPORTRAIT, 1927, FOTOGRAFIE, SILBERGELATINEABZUG, 10,4 X 7,6 CM, MUSÉE D'ART MODERNE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS, © JERSEY HERITAGE TRUST Claude Cahun, my latest mindmelt

Possum Trot

From Light-Saraf Films : Calvin Black was a folk artist who lived in California's Mojave Desert and created more than 80 life-size female dolls, each with its own personality, function, and costume. He also built the "Bird Cage Theater," where the dolls perform and sing in voices recorded by the artist. The film works on two levels. One is the documentation of the artist's legacy and commentary on women: grotesque female figures moving in the desert wind and the theater with its frozen "actresses," protected by his widow from a world she views as hostile. The other is the re-creation of the artist's vision through the magic of film, as the camera enables the dolls to move and sing and brings theater to life as the artist imagined it.

Dirty Movies

Me & Bruce & Art - 1966 Ben Van Meter "In 1966 Uncle Art Linkletter invited Bruce Conner and me to be on his show and give him the word about the difference between Art and Dirty Movies. It was one of those typical L.A. trips. The guy that drove us to and from the airport talked non stop about the laws on buying fully automatic weapons." - Ben Van Meter