Contents The Cinema Of Larry Buchanan

Anyone who grew up watching the Creature Features on the late late show undoubtedly encountered at least one of the seven no-buck science fiction-horror films that Larry Buchanan had directed for AIP, which were sold to television. Their titles are the stuff of legend: The Eye Creatures, Zontar The Thing From Venus, and of course, Mars Needs Women. Everyone endearingly refers to them as classic 'bad' movies, but in this massive study, Rob Craig bravely deconstructs that stigma and re-evaluates these works. Convincingly attaching theories of feminism, military concerns, suburbia, civil rights and even pop art to these poverty-row pieces, under Rob's pen these films now emerge as integral pieces of and about the 1960's.


This special issue features detailed analyses of each of these seven films: The Eye Creatures, Curse Of The Swamp Creature, Zontar The Thing From Venus, Creature Of Destruction, In The Year 2889, Mars Needs Women and It's Alive.

Contents What the term 'Independent' really means, and how it fits in with life, the universe and everything.


Non-Linear Motion: Over two dozen capsule reviews of experimental films and also an article on the works of Jack Chambers.


49th Parallel: The section reserved for Canadian films, examines Michael Snow's recent feature, *Corpus Calossum.


Discoveries In the Dark: The arty experimental featurette HWY, by Jim Morrison.


Words on the Bottom: The final half of the piece on Luis Bunuel's 'director for hire' years in Mexico, and how he managed to sneak his surrealist subversion into seeming commercial material.


Midnite Movies: The 3D softcore epic, The Stewardesses.


Plus the usual book reviews and a whole bunch of miscellaneous movie reviews.

Contents A tribute to the late great avant-garde legend Stan Brakhage (1933 - 2003), creator of 300-plus diverse, non-linear, visually dense works (often made frame by frame). Brakhage began in the trance film movement (Reflections In Black), and also made many works which examine aspects of the life cycle (Loving, Dog Star Man, The Act Of Seeing With One's Own Eyes) . He also made camera-less works (Mothlight, Coupling), in which images were glued or painted right onto the emulsion itself.


Avant-garde legends: The films of Jonas Mekas.


49th Parallel: From Balifilm to Picture Of Light, Peter Mettler defies categorization. He is one of the most unique filmmakers in Canada or abroad.


Words on the Bottom: The great Yugoslavian film Who's Singing Over There? This dark, surreal comedy was a huge hit in its own land, yet is still not commercially available in North America.


Discoveries in the Dark: In the 1970's, the great Nicholas Ray (best known for Rebel Without A Cause) was a film professor, and We Can't Go Home Again, a quasi-experimental series of sketches, was the culmination of his work with his students. Screened in Cannes at 1973, and then re-edited for years afterwards, this largely unseen piece emerges as Nick Ray's most personal film.


Print Film: I Was Interrupted, by Nicholas Ray (Susan Ray, Ed.); Movie Journal: The Rise of a New American Cinema, by Jonas Mekas.


Short Takes: capsule reviews of: The Amazing Mr. X (1948; Bernard Vorhaus), Backs Turned (1957; Mario Arrabal), Beyond Therapy (1987; Robert Altman), Code Name Alpha (1968; Ernst Hofbauer), Four Times That Night (1969; Mario Bava), The Gong Show Movie (1980; Chuck Barris), Gumby: Robot Rumpus (1957; Art Clokey), Iguana (1988; Monte Hellman), J-Men Forever (1979; Richard Patterson), Mystery Of The Leaping Fish (1916; John Emerson), Pete Kelly's Blues (1955; Jack Webb), Roy Colt And Winchester Jack (1970; Mario Bava), Somebody To Love (1994; Alexandre Rockwell), Street Of No Return (1989; Samuel Fuller), West Of Zanzibar (1928; Tod Browning), What Price Hollywood? (1932; George Cukor).

Contents The great decade of American Cinema-- the 1970's

BBS And Their Pals: A Safe Place (1971; Henry Jaglom), The Hired Hand (1971; Peter Fonda), Drive, He Said (1971; Jack Nicholson), The Last Movie (1971; Dennis Hopper), The King Of Marvin Gardens (1972; Bob Rafelson).


Counterculture: Zabriskie Point (1970; Michelangelo Antonioni), Hi Mom (1970; Brian DePalma), The Panic In Needle Park (1971; Jerry Schatzberg), Born To Win (1971; Ivan Passer), Cisco Pike (1971; B.W.L. Norton), Cocksucker Blues (1972; Robert Frank).


The Nostalgia Machine: The Grissom Gang (1971; Robert Aldrich), What's Up Doc (1972; Peter Bogdanovich), Play It Again Sam (1972; Herbert Ross), The Lords Of Flatbush (1974; Stephen Verona, Martin Davidson), The Black Bird (1975; David Giler), Silent Movie (1976; Mel Brooks), American Hot Wax (1978; Floyd Mutrux).


Turning Genre On Its Ear: DOC (1971; Frank Perry), Zachariah (1971; George Englund), Minnie And Moskowitz (1971; John Cassavetes), The Long Goodbye (1973; Robert Altman), Bugsy Malone (1976; Alan Parker).


Black Cinema: Watermelon Man (1970; Melvin Van Peebles), Across 110th Street (1972; Barry Shear), Uptown Staturday Night (1974; Sidney Poitier), Claudine (1974; John Berry), Car Wash (1976; Michael Schultz), Leadbelly (1976; Gordon Parks). Plus: Pam Grier!!


Screw The System: Taking Off (1971; Milos Forman), Little Murders (1971; Alan Arkin), Get To Know Your Rabbit (1972; Brian Depalma), Steelyard Blues (1973; Alan Myerson), Blue Collar (1978; Paul Schrader).


And The Road Leads To Nowhere: Two Lane Blacktop (1971; Monte Hellman), Vansihing Point (1971; Richard C. Sarafian), Aloha Bobby And Rose (1975; Floyd Mutrux).


The Underground: Trash (1970; Paul Morrissey), The Devil's Cleavage (1973; George Kuchar), Thundercrack (1975; Curt Mcdowell), Andy Warhol's Bad (1977; Jed Johnson).


Veterans: Fat City (1972; John Huston), Hustle (1975; Robert Aldrich).


Excess: At Long Last Love (1975; Peter Bogdanovich), Sorcerer (1977; William Friedkin), New York New York (1977; Martin Scorsese), 1941 (1979; Steven Spielberg), Popeye (1980; Robert Altman).


Discoveries In The Dark: Robert Altman's Long-Lost Images.


Print Film: Two key books about the 1970's in American Cinema: American Film Now, by James Monaco; Easy Riders and Raging Bulls, by Peter Biskind.