“Dust” (2001) is an audacious Southeastern European Western directed by Milcho Manchevski. The film’s narrative cross-cuts between two stories: one in which a thief is cornered at gunpoint in a New York apartment by an elderly woman and a second involving love and vengeance between two brothers caught up in a revolutionary struggle in Macedonia. The parallel narratives are unified by themes of greed, redemption, and the transformative power of storytelling.
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Though I don’t have cable and rarely watch network television online, there’s definitely programs and artists of enduring value I’ve discovered through television. One prime example is “Night Flight”, a carefully curated block of late night programming reminiscent of a YouTube channel for a counterculture blog (long before blogs and YouTube existed). It aired every Friday and Saturday at 11 pm on the USA Network and was probably the best source of fringe culture on air at the time (outside of local public access programs).
A typical Night Flight episode would consist of clips of varying length played nearly back to back separated only by short voice-over introductions. Though the content of each episode was often unpredictable and featured clips from varying sources, they sometimes had recurring themes which would appeal especially to college-age crowds (ie. drugs, punk rock, experimental films, etc). On a single episode one might see a short avant-garde student film followed by a stand-up comedy clip, a drug documentary and music videos (first aired on June 1981, Night Flight preceded MTV by two months). Shows also featured hilariously re-dubbed serials, profiles of comedians, musicians and video artists, archive footage, and cult movies such as Fantastic Planet, Reefer Madness, and Music of the Spheres.
Night Flight was created by Stuart Shapiro who, judging from his wiki page, has long had an eye for comedy and music/cult cinema. The show’s programing director was Stuart Samuels, author of the classic cult film book Midnight Movies (and director of the documentary based on it). Night Flight has an informative fan page (that’s unfortunately plagued by spammy ads) which provides the following info:
In July of 2001, DirecTV started airing Midnight Rider. Created by Night Flight originator Stuart Shapiro, Midnight Rider was similar to Night Flight but only shown on Pay-per-view partially because of its adult content. Midnight Rider was a 2 hour show featuring standup comics, animation and of course music videos and was narrated by Night Flight veteran, Pat Prescott. Apparently the show didn’t do too well because less than a year later, in June of 2002, their web site (www.midnightrider.tv) was gone and a Best Of Midnight Rider was being released to video stores.
Dailymotion members jeffdevil1 and philodrummond have kindly uploaded large chunks of Night Flight for our enjoyment (complete with cheesy commercials).
Robert Downey Sr.‘s Putney Swope is an unusual film that splits audiences into two camps without breaking a sweat: those who absolutely love it and think it’s an unheralded masterpiece, and those who utterly loathe it (Check out Amazon reviews!) A third and far larger category would be comprised of everyone who’s never even heard of this odd little gem in the first place. Back in the early 80s, when super rare cheap to license cult films would often appear on some schlocky video label long before some mainstream films became available Putney Swope would often show up in the “Midnight Movies” or cult films section of video rental shops. After that it more or less disappeared until it came out on DVD. Every once in a while it’s on TV, too, but it’s still, sadly, Putney Swope is not a widely known film.
The Coen Brothers, Chris Rock, Dave Chapelle and Paul Thomas Anderson are all known to be big fans of the film. Jane Fonda declared it a masterpiece to Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show in 1969 and the Beastie Boys have sampled from it and rapped about it. Anderson even lifted a scene from it for Boogie Nights.
The first three times I saw Putney Swope I thought it was an incredible masterpiece. I was stunned by it. I laughed out loud. I sobbed. It was amazing. It was profound and symbolic of everything! Then again, the first three times I saw the film I was ridiculously high on LSD and I watched it over and over again, by myself, three times in the same night!
When the acid wore off I still thought it was a great and profound film, perhaps just not as great. That didn’t stop me from being an evangelist for this weird little movie, which satirized race, how race was portrayed in advertising, race in the workplace, black militants, white privilege and corporate corruption (there’s even a hint of Orwell’s Animal Farm in it), to all of my friends. Man did I force this film on a lot of (grateful!) people. I’ve easily seen it 30 times.
The plot goes something like this: Arnold Johnson (who later played “Hutch” on Sanford and Son) is Putney Swope, a middled-aged black man who works at a Madison Avenue advertising agency with a bunch of corrupt corporate buffoons. When the founder of the agency dies mid-speech, the board holds a vote to find his successor while his body goes cold on the table. Everyone writes down a name on a piece of paper. They are informed that they cannot vote for themselves and so each man tears up his ballot. They cut deals with each other and then all vote for the one guy who they think no one else will vote for either, Putney Swope, the only black guy.
So Swope becomes the new CEO with a landslide. His motto is “Rockin’ the boat’s a drag. You gotta sink the boat!” He promptly fires all of the white executives (save for one), renames the agency “Truth & Soul” and hires a young, idealistic and politically militant black staff who want to tell the actual truth in advertising. “Truth & Soul” refuse to take accounts from cigarette manufacturers, liquor companies or the war machine. They become so successful that the government becomes alarmed. Eventually everyone becomes corrupted, even Putney himself, who takes to dressing like Fidel Castro.
That’s about it, plot-wise, but a lot of stuff happens in Putney Swope that would be difficult to try to describe here. The film is mainly in black and white, but the commercial parodies are in color. Antonio Fargas Jr. (“Huggy Bear” on Starsky & Hutch) has a memorable role as “The Arab,” Putney’s Muslim advisor and prankster Alan Abel is also seen in a cameo role. Putney Swope has great lines like “Anything that I have to say would just be redundant”; “A job? Who wants a JOB?”; and “Are you for surreal?!” that have been quoted over and over again (at least in my house). The US president and his wife are played by midgets who engage in a threesome with a photographer. There is a Mark David Chapman-type weirdo hovering around. It’s hard to describe, you really just have to see it. I think Putney Swope is one of the great, great, great American counterculture films of the 1960s. One day. I predict confidently, it will be seen as the equal to Easy Rider or Five Easy Pieces. I’m surprised that French cinemaphiles haven’t discovered it yet… but they will. They will.
This probably isn’t the best way to watch the film (grab the Putney Swope DVD on Amazon) but DO watch the first scene up to the point where Putney takes over the advertising agency. If that doesn’t make you want to watch the rest, I can’t do much for you…
Because tomorrow marks the birthday of Jack Nance, I’d like to bring attention to “I Don’t Know Jack” (2002), a documentary on cult actor Jack Nance exploring the uniqueness of his character, his unconventional career, and the strange circumstances surrounding the death of his wife in 1991 and himself five years later. The film features interviews with family and friends including Catherine Coulson, Brad Dourif, Dennis Hopper, David Lynch and Charlotte Stewart.
“I Am Cuba” (1964) is a Soviet-Cuban co-production directed by Mikhail Kalatozov which ties together several stories depicting different aspects of the Cuban experience during the pre-Castro era. Upon release (and long after), the film was largely ignored, being too Communist for western audiences and not revolutionary enough for audiences in the Soviet Union. Fortunately, in the 1990s the film was re-discovered and championed by prominent directors such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola who with Milestone Films re-released the film at New York’s Film Forum in 1995. I Am Cuba is notable for inspiring and emotionally powerful scenes as well as technical achievements such as complex tracking shots and striking cinematography utilizing wide angle lenses and infrared film stock.
“Light Years” (1988) is the US version of the film “Gandahar” directed by René Laloux who previously directed the mind-bending animated sci-fi classic “Fantastic Planet”. While the animation in Light Years is of lesser quality than Fantastic Planet, it’s just as imaginative and ambitious in its depiction of an alien world. Its plot centers on the bioengineering based civilization of Gandahar who, with the help of a mutant race they created struggle for survival against an army of automatons. While the French version has a superior soundtrack by Gabriel Yared, the US version does feature fine voice actors including Glenn Close, Bridget Fonda, David Johansen and Christopher Plummer as well as an intelligent screenplay adaptation by Isaac Asimov.
“Kamikaze Girls” (2004) is a film adaptation of the novel and manga “Shimotsuma Story” directed by Tetsuya Nakashima. It’s about the unlikely friendship between girls of vastly different subcultures; one a “Lolita” obsessed by Rococco-era French fashions and the other a member of a “Yanki” biker gang modeled after 1950’s American rock and rollers. Besides the underlying theme of friendship transcending cultural differences, it’s also a coming-of-age story with a positive message about the importance of pursuing one’s dreams, rejecting conformity, and thinking/acting independently. Similar to Nakashima’s other films such as “Memories of Matsuko” and “Paco and the Magical Book” (as well as Jeunet’s “Amélie”) the viewing experience of Kamikaze Girls is enhanced by surrealistic touches such as over-saturated colors and inventive camera/editing work.
Update: no longer on YouTube but still available with subtitles here.
“Kontroll” (2003) centers on Hungarian Metro ticket collector Bulcsú and his random encounters with neurotic colleagues, belligerent passengers, shadowy criminals, rival coworkers and a mysterious love interest. The film was an impressive debut for first-time writer/director Nimród Antal featuring great acting and cinematography, an interesting mix of genre elements and a darkly humorous screenplay.
“Dust” (2001) is an audacious Southeastern European Western directed by Milcho Manchevski. The film’s narrative cross-cuts between two stories: one in which a thief is cornered at gunpoint in a New York apartment by an elderly woman and a second involving love and vengeance between two brothers caught up in a revolutionary struggle in Macedonia. The parallel narratives are unified by themes of greed, redemption, and the transformative power of storytelling.
is an unusual film that splits audiences into two camps without breaking a sweat: those who absolutely love it and think it’s an unheralded masterpiece, and those who utterly loathe it (Check out 
!) A third and far larger category would be comprised of everyone who’s never even heard of this odd little gem in the first place. Back in the early 80s, when super rare cheap to license cult films would often appear on some schlocky video label long before some mainstream films became available 
After the Crash 