Crossing the Great Sagrada (1924)

21 April 2010 • watchings
tags: cinema, civilization, comedy, documentaries, fantasy, fiction, found footage, humour, imagination, mankind, nature

Adrian Brunel
Original: 35mm, black and white, silent.

Crossing the Great Sagrada is a strange film with an odd sense of humour and a slightly postmodern feeling. It’s not a masterpiece, but in a sense it’s decades ahead of its time.

“(…) this journey is portrayed in an absurd manner, drawing attention to the artificial nature of the film. (…) Titles, intended to provide narrative orientation, constantly give conflicting information, producing a confused, comic effect. (…) Crossing the Great Sagrada satirises the colonial stereotype of ‘native’ people. It also places doubt upon the authenticity of many of these travel films (…) The film’s surreal humour prefigures that of later innovative British comedy, such as Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”

Jamie Sexton

Watchings

16 April 2010 • watchings
tags: animals, capitalism, cinema, consumism, documentaries, economy, found footage, humour, nature, politics, television, tv series, vampires, video

• Simplicité volontaire et décroissance (2007) [watch]
Jean-Claude Decourt

• The IT Crowd. Series 1-3 (2006-2008)

• Full Frontal (2002)
Steven Soderbergh

• Innocent Blood (1992)
John Landis

• Footprints (1992)
Bill Morrison

• The Bats (1998)
Jim Trainor

• C’mon Babe (1988)
Sharon Sandusky

• Swamp (1971)
Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson

• Hyas et sténorinques (1927)
Jean Painlevé

• Science Friction (1959)
Stan Vanderbeek

• Historia Naturae (Suita) (1967)
Jan Svankmajer

• Crossing the Great Sagrada (1924)
Adrian Brunel

• Supermâché, aire de pique-nique (2008)
Laurent Sfar & Jean Guillaud

Mental Colonization

21 March 2010 • out of context
tags: capitalism, consumism, documentaries, economy, politics, quotes, video

“La publicité (…) c’est la plus grande entreprise de colonisation mentale.”

Serge Latouche in Simplicité volontaire et décroissance [watch]

Watchings

7 March 2010 • watchings
tags: appropriationism, brain, cinema, comedy, documentaries, dreamachine, economy, fantasy, fiction, flicker, hallucinations, humour, sex, structuralism, television

• Flicker (2008)
Nik Sheehan

• Heroes, Volume 5: Redemption (2009-2010)

• Muchachada Nui, 4ª temporada (2010) [watch]

• The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
Steven Soderbergh

• Outer Space (1999) [watch]
Peter Tscherkassky

• Arnulf Rainer (1958-1960) [watch]
Peter Kubelka