Reviews

This movie is completely wacky. Completely. Wacky. It concerns the story of a poor water seller in Baghdad who stumbles his way through ali baba and his 40 thieves, the tower of Babel, sinbad the sailor, the island of the sirens and many others stories that either i didn't recognise from the 1001 nights stories or were just made up by the animation team on one of what must have been many acid binges. The film was made in 1969 with a crew of about 15 animators and others (the same names pop up in multiple roles) and is thus forced to employ a number of techniques to cheapen the animation, using still frames incorporating live action shots (for such hard to animate things as the ocean) and shooting live action footage of miniature models for the landscape shots. Despite this there is a great deal of skill in the animation, especially in the number of things the morph into other things. Some scenes in this film are intensely erotic blending abstract and direct representations of sex scenes and orgies. The abstract sex scenes was some of the weirdest animation i've ever scene, essentially an undulating mass of pink springing forth the occasional phallus or feminine curve. It is interesting that although this movie does not conform to the styles and convention of Japanese anime there is visible in some characters prototypes of what would become staple anime genre identities. The mecha/ monster, the naive Kawaii girl, the gritty needs-no-man woman. However all in all this film is totally totally one hundred percent wacky. If a festival near you has got its hands on the only surviving print in the world, take advantage of the opportunity, go see it and take a tape recorder in with you and record the soundtrack, some classic psychedelic sixties music is attached to this movie.

myyyy god, do whatever you can do, but track this film down- it is amazing. it is basically a story of a little green man in goggles floating through a world of bubbles, holes and portals that undulate to the hypnotic rhythms of kraftwerk's epic masterpiece, "autobahn". "autobahn" is in my opinion one of the greatest compositions of the twentieth century and while the animation is not in itself masterful the fact that it holds its own against kraftwerk's soundtrack elevates it to a very high status. if you have ever wanted to know what it was like to exist inside a song, to physically float through music, this animation may be as close as you'll legally get.

Don't believe the hype- this movie is fantastic. Vanilla Ice was actually a reasonably good rapper, impressive producer (scratches and beat boxing are the movie's mood music) and pretty damn amazing dancer. His image is however, far from impressive (and in hip hop image has become everything) and he is thus not exactly remembered as a great musician. This movie is filled with all the things that made the early 90's great- neon colours, caps worn in ways we'd never dream of today, hip phrases ("sex me up!" and "I just be chillin in da hood") and gardens filled with light up spinning globes. Unfortunately nobody seems to worship the early 90's with the same enthusiasm as me so such stylish attributes tend to come of as dated. Please, abandon your preconceptions, embrace the era and delight as Vanilla Ice seduces the girl with the heart of stone by taking her out to the desert and breakdancing in front of her.

one of Lipsett's many found-footage films (films made up of footage 'sampled' from other films) this short uses a fairly abstract montage of shots to comment on the isolation and alienation of the modern man (1964 modern) in a mechanised society. the individual footage itself is quite amazing and the overall effect of the montage leaves one with a definate sense of unease. apparently george lucas saw this in film school and was inspired to make THX-1138. a premium example of the new hollywood film makers of the 70's technique of adapting highly experimental avant-garde films into their own relatively conventional narrative structures (see also Blow-up into Blow-out)

a found-footage film (film 'sampled' from other films) that seeks to replicate a time capsule for the year of 1954 (not entirely sure of the year). Starts with all the classic achievements of the year etc but then turns to much darker social commentary. an interesting insight into Lipsett's psyche (i believe his paranoia eventually got the better of him)