"Ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha. As always, Magic Lantern has your
best interests at heart (ha ha), and so we're
bringing you a collection of madcap (ho ho) comic
films from the sharpest kino-eyes in the (Western)
world of experimental (hee hee) cinema. Wait,
wait, don't go, we're serious, but here's a joke:
A: KNOCK KNOCK.
B: WHO’'S THERE?
A: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA.
B: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA WHO-HO-HO-HA-HA-HA (laughter
trails off into tears)
Get
it? No? Well, let me explain historically, the
Avant-Garde hasn't been known for its ribald
sense of humor, and so by invoking a normative
mode of American joke-telling with the words
experimental cinema” as an abbreviated
punch line, the humorist engages in a sideways
critique of... Aww fugedaboudit. Suffice to
say that Magic Lantern is delivering the comedy
straight to your funny bone –in no short
order, we've got Zany Educational Films, Bears
and Nonsense, Bittersweet Blow-Up Doll Tears
of Joy, Droll British Street Scenes, Funny Page
Funnies, Drag Hippie Re-Enactments of Ex-President's
Daughter's Weddings, and So Much More. Seriously,
no, not seriously, no, seriously..." -
Ben Russell
Featuring:
What's Wrong With This Picture, Parts 1&2
by Owen Land (10:30, 16mm,
1972), Fluke by Emily Breer
(7:00, 16mm, 1985), Hold Me While I’'m
Naked by George Kuchar (15:00,
16mm, 1966), The Girl Chewing Gum by John
Smith (12:00, 16mm, 1976), Pinball
Laffs by Heather McAdams (4:20,
16mm, 1986), Mary Worth by Various Directors
from Milwaukee (15:00, 16mm, 2001),
Tricia’'s Wedding by The Cockettes
(33:00, 16mm, 1971)
What's
Wrong With This Picture, Parts 1&2
(10:30, 16mm, 1972)
Director: Owen Land
"The
first portion of this film is an old instructional
film about being a 'good citizen,' presented
intact; the second section is a color reconstruction
of this black and white film by Land. The
original film abounds in absurdities in both
image and sound; [Land's] 'copy' is even more
bizarre. Both are also extremely funny, and
the humor is not totally without meaning:
it comes out of the way that each line of
dialog, each direction given, implies a situation
or character so absurdly plodding as to be
almost inconceivable. In [Land's] version
he creates an additional paradox - one of
depth - by matting out certain parts of the
frame." - Fred Camper
Fluke
(7:00, 16mm, 1985)
Director: Emily Breer
A
barrage of images and scenes connected, in
some sense, by nonsense. Fish flying onto
heads of men riding camels in a desert. A
bear that can't get out of the frame by force
of an optical printer. Dust, ants and flies
are animated on top of found live action footage
and joined with a similarly wild soundtrack.
Hold Me While I'm Naked (15:00,
16mm, 1966)
Director: George Kuchar
"A
very direct and subtle, very sad and funny
look at nothing more or less than sexual frustration
and aloneness. In its economy and cogency
of imaging, HOLD ME surpasses any of Kuchar's
previous work. The odd blend of Hollywood
glamour and drama with all-too-real life creates
and inspires counterpoint of unattainable
desire against unbearable actuality."
-- Ken Kelman
"This
film could cheer an arthritic gorilla, and
audiences, apparently sensitized by its blithely
accurate representation of feelings few among
them can have escaped, rise from their general
stupor to cheer it back." -- James Stoller,
The Village Voice
The
Girl Chewing Gum (12:00, 16mm, 1976)
Director: John Smith
"Self-reflexivity
is another Brit kick, semi-spoofed in The
Girl Chewing Gum (1976), in which artist John
Smith directs street-level passersby via post-synched
voice-over, then bids buildings and the sun
to move through the frame. Smith takes the
piss out of mainstream auteurist ego, but
provides proof of the underground ethos: Even
with meager mechanical means, the artist can
command the universe." -Ed Halter, Village
Voice.
Pinball
Laffs (4:20, 16mm, 1986)
Director: Heather McAdams
"The
films of Heather McAdams...combine the collage
finesse of a Bruce Conner with the crude campiness
of the Kuchar Brothers." --Ruby Rich,
Chicago Reader
Mary Worth (15:00, 16mm, 2001)
Director: Various Directors from Milwaukee
From
the mad cinema geniuses of Milwaukee comes a
re-enactment of that oh-so-droll daily feature
of the funny pages. Mary Worth – in the
film-framed flesh, presented in glorious black-and-white
16mm film with all of the integrity of the original
comic strip. A re-enactment in the most direct
sense of the word.
Tricia's Wedding (33:00, 16mm, 1971)
Director: The Cockettes
The
world-famous hippie-drag-queen performance troupe
the Cockettes enact Tricia Nixon's wedding to
Edward Cox on June 11, 1971. Hurtme O. Hurtme,
television correspondent, covers the wedding
and interviews celebrities in attendance such
as Golda Mier, Indira Ghandi, Jaquelyn Onassis,
Queen Elizabeth, and Elizabeth Taylor. Coretta
King sings. During the reception, Eartha Kitt
puts LSD in the punch. All hell breaks loose.
