DeZ Vylenz Log

A captain's log of activities and projects, affiliations and developments involving the Shadowsnake ship and various guerilla film expeditions. Updated in between storms by DeZ Vylenz, Writer - Director - Martial Arts Choreographer

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Jerome Charyn: Crime through a magical filter

When it comes to the mystery or crime genre, most people are familiar with the hard boiled detective fiction that for example Raymond Chandler is mostly famous, for or the more contemporary work of James Ellroy. The Black Dahlia is a riveting hard crime thriller in an adrenaline fuelled first person narrative-- reminiscent of Dashiel Hammet's Red Harvest -- and recently made into probably one of the worst cinematic adaptations in film history (picture a friendly and naive family theme park Verina of this dark work of fiction, with talking period costumes).

But when it comes to a more surreal crime atmosphere, Jerome Charyn is an author who has carved out his own unique world in his novels, mostly set in New York. Blue Eyes is one of my favourite books and along with Montezuma's Man, Little Angel Street highly recommended reading.

Charyn is a critically acclaimed, yet a lot of people are not familiar with his writing. The style is very minimal, seemingly simple prose, but with an incredible economy whole worlds of urban crime kings and porno queens are conjured up. He lives and works in New York and Paris most of the time and has also experimented with the graphic fiction medium, notably The Magician's Wife and Billy Bud (illustrated by Francois Boucq) are very original works, layered with symbolism and literary references.

Metropolis: New York as Myth, Marketplace and Magical Land is a fantastic work of non-fiction, after reading it, a simple walk through the Big Apple will never be the same. In the most sordid of conditions Charyn is able to recognise the mythical levels of existence.

I don't see the mystery pockets anymore, they used to publish a lot of his work (including the Isaac Sidel novels, about an old grumpy Jewish inspector) in these beautiful black pockets with a painting on each cover. It's a shame I could never find them in regular main stream book stores, but only in second hand bookshops, mostly in Amsterdam. But I guess that was part of the appeal, to find his work was a detective mission on its own every time. If you can find Paradise Man and Elsinore you're in for a serious trip.

Check it out.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Jodorowsky at NFT

Spring has started and it's new moon, so new energy is in the air.

As mentioned last week I didn't have a ticket for the Jodorowsky talk at the NFT and fortunately I did find a standby ticket, although there was a considerable queue in front of me. Overall it was a very engaging and amusing talk, and greatly inspiring to see the legendary writer and director still vital at 78. Especially given the fact that a lot of young people in the bloom of their life seem saturated and lethargic in comparison.

The spontaneous flow of his thoughts and expressive articulation were a very good representation of his work. In general I'm always fascinated with people who've lived through various stages of the last century in any case, as they've seen the developments from no TV to black and white to colour broadcasts, computers etc. With artists it's interesting to see how their world view remains fairly consistent, ripening in the process.

His anecdotes ranged from the problems on his film projects to his interest in the spiritual, martial arts and psycho therapy. What's also interesting is that as a pantomime artist he developed the now famous routine of 'The Cage' together with Marcel Marceau. He even demonstrated 'the man who walks without moving' which (if I understood it correctly) was developed years before a more main stream artist called Michael Jackson made this famous as 'the moonwalk'.

Was also good to briefly meet him after the talk as some fans were queueing up to have their books signed, so promised to send him a Mindscape DVD when it comes back from the manufacturer next week. Will be very interesting to see what his next films will be, considering he's finally getting the recognition he deserves from the industry, which he always had from his audiences.

It still remains a great shame that a man with such incredible imagination didn't get the chance to make more films, while directors with not only a percent of his talent had big budgets to mess around with and produce works of forgettable mediocrity. Jodorowsky own phlegmatic attitude is perhaps the best approach: "If I can't make it into a film, I make it a comic. If I can't do a comic, I write a poem."

In the end it's the internal drive and energy we all have inside that we have to learn to channel and express in various media or parts of our life.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Been so busy that I didn't even manage to update my weekly blog yesterday. Saw Alejandro Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain at the National Film Theatre last Monday and have to say it is probably the most surreal and trippiest film I've ever seen. Even though I watched it about seven years ago, it seemed completely new and unpredictable and made me realise my mind probably wasn't entirely ready for it at the time. It reminded me why he remains one of the great influences on my work, despite the fact that I haven't read or seen the majority of his whole oeuvre. No point in my analysing it, but to get a good summary:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071615/

Jodorowsky is also known as a succesful author of graphic fiction books: The Technopriests, The Metabarons, The Incal of Light (with Moebius), Bouncer and much more. His themes often revolve around his own theory of Psychomagic, analysing ones own position and problems in life from the family tree of ancestors, as described in his autobiographical book La Danza de Realidad (The Dance of Reality).

In terms of fascination with magic, alchemical transformation and imagination, I often compare him to Alan Moore, although Jodorowsky's work is different in feel, much more over the top and less focused on narrative structure. There is an incredibly virile creative energy pervading the body of his work.

I think the greatest movie never made is probably his version of Dune. With a score by Pink Floyd, Salvador Dali as the emperor, Orson Welles as the Baron, and great designs by Giger and Moebius --way before Hollywood took note of these artists--, it would have been an incredible experience. The conceptual designs and storyboards later circulated around Hollywood after the financing fell apart and most likely influenced Star Wars, Alien and many other Sci-Fi classics. Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the screenplay for Alien and some other great Sci-Fi films and comics was intended as script writer.

Santa Sangre is probably one of his most accessible films and more "commercial" films and another great visual experience. Apparently, Marilyn Manson is a great fan.

In short, Jodorowsky was in many ways too ahead of his time, but has always had an underground cult following. It's also another great example of extremely gifted and passionate filmmakers who didn't get the opportunity to actually make the films they wanted to. This Friday he's appearing for a talk at the NFT, which I didn't even manage to get tickets for. Fully sold out.

Will be interesting to see El Topo, his again after almost 8 years. Perfectly described in the NFT program as a "wild quasi-Spaghetti Western head-trip."

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Adaptations: 300

As I'm a filmmaker and not a film critic I don't want to make a habit out of writing about other films here. I know how difficult it is to get a film off the ground, so to criticise a colleague's work is not my intention. However, I also know how much difference just a little bit of attention to script and larger context can make.

Went to see 300 last Sunday at the IMAX London, great visual experience overall and I did enjoy large parts of it, but the dialogue, political context and lack of nuance were not exactly of the mature kind. Constant references to the Asian hordes that had to be stopped and the fact that it was presented as a simplistic battle of evil against good, androgynous freaks pierced up to the ass against bodybuilding hetero (?) sexual squares and East against West didn't help.

Fighting for freedom against invasions is always a good theme to start with and it's good fun sometimes to catch some great battle scenes with popcorn in hand, but just a bit more nuance could have made it a more universal experience instead of a music video with hints of army propaganda. Because whether film is supposed to be pure entertainment or not, an increasingly large segment of the population can't simply switch off the intellect entirely when watching a film for approx 2 hours.

Plenty has been written about it already, the themes of sexuality being off the mark and confused etc. but only thing I'd like to point out: In the last part of the film one of the Spartans has his going to battle speech: "This is where we stop mysticism and tyranny." ?!? Didn't know the two were related at all, on the contrary if you ask me. And without mysticism we would not have the algebra and other foundations of our modern world and sciences, so the non-sense radar flipped into overdrive at the end of it. I hope they release the DVD with the option to switch out the dialogue and keep the music, then it would be a great piece of escapism and the world view wouldn't seem so limited.

Last news is that the same director has been commissioned to direct Watchmen, so hopefully he will take more time to study the socio-political and metaphysical context of the story before the visuals, as those elements are the main strength of Watchmen.

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with Alec, a British film journalist and writer, and he made a good point that the comic fans had been complaining for years that film adaptations were not faithful to the comic. But now with Sin City and 300 it seems they are getting exactly what they want, exact copies of the comic on to screen.

I love both media, but agree with Alan Moore that the two are completely different. The kinetic effects and intensity achieved in comics need to be transferred to the big screen by other means than merely exact frame by frame carbon copies of the comics.

Batman Begins is a good example of how just exploring the psychological side of a character can be much more fascinating than super hero exploits. The first half doesn't even show the suit. But technically, in terms of fight choreography 300 was shot much better and crisper, while the Batman scenes were interestingly gritty, but confusing to watch.

Other than that, rather pissed off with all the bureaucracy you have to wade through nowadays to get any small part of business done. Some of these call centre people speak in a programmed sort of talk without even listening. Makes you wish you can swap the battlefield of bureaucracy for an actual one a few centuries ago and chop some heads instead. Life was probably a lot harder, but also had more clarity and sense of purpose.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Film Classics 2: Lone Wolf and Cub

Last Wednesday of the month again. As I just came back from another exhausting trip, pushing my suitcase through half deserted airport corridors, marching mile after mile from train to plane to automobile from one mission to the next, etc, I got some flashbacks from that classic manga Lone Wolf and Cub (Kozure Ōkami).

The film to see as an introduction to this would be Shogun Assassin. Although a simplified American edit from Sword of Vengeance (Dir: Kenji Misumi) and one or two more of the Baby Cart Assassin series, it's still a very enjoyable piece.

You won't get the same atmosphere as from the Japanese originals, but if you're in for a bloody narrative of a lone warrior on a mission of destruction and retribution, check it out. Then quickly move on to see the six Japanese originals, the first one from 1972, the last from 1974.

These films were cult classics for a long time and had influenced films like Kill Bill and so on. At times they're leaning towards the exploitation genre, but at the core of it there is a very interesting look at the philosophy of Martial Arts and a great beauty in the middle of the carnage and bloodshed. The characters and faces are fantastic, along with the Leone westerns another great reminder of the times that actors were not pampered slick teenage heart throbs worrying about getting their finger nails chipped or their botox sagging as in the last decade of celebrity driven film industry.

No point commenting extensively on these films, as they have a different effect on everybody, for some it might but just gore, for myself they have an intense personal resonance of how to follow the path you believe in with no obstacles to stop you. A metaphor for pure determination.

Fascinating late night material.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz