BIRTH. MOVIES. DEATH. February 2015 Issue 20

NASTY HABITS (1977) 2

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CONTENTS A Message About The Birds And The Bees From The Editor The Controversy Of Sex: Seven Sex Scenes That Riled Up Audiences And Critics Alike Love Is The Drug: Sex and Death and David Cronenberg On Booze and Libido Grey Area: SECRETARY And The Limits of Control A Filmmaker Needs An Army: Director Sean Mullin on the Making of AMIRA & SAM Juicing Up the Green Inferno Video Vortex: The Hocus Pocus of AMERICAN COMMANDO NINJA Class Act: KINGSMAN Kicks James Bond In The Upper Crust The Last Word With AMIRA & SAM’S Martin Starr

Editor-in-Chief Devin Faraci

Managing Editor Meredith Borders

Associate Publisher Henri Mazza

Art Director Joseph A. Ziemba

Graphic Designers

Zach Short, Stephen Sosa, Kelsey Spencer

Copy Editor George Bragdon

Contributing Writers

Devin Faraci, Britt Hayes, Phil Nobile Jr, Scott Wampler, Andrew Todd, Bill Norris, Meredith Borders, Stephen Thrower, Joseph A. Ziemba

Public Relations Inquiries Brandy Fons | [email protected]

All content © 2014 Alamo Drafthouse | drafthouse.com | badassdigest.com Promotional images and artwork are reproduced in this magazine in the spirit of publicity and as historical illustrations to the text. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the respective filmmakers, actors, and studios.

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A Message About The Birds And The Bees From The Editor DEVIN FARACI Badass Digest Editor-in-Chief @devincf Read more at badassdigest.com

February is, historically, the month for love. And in 2015 it’s also the month for kinky sex, as Universal releases 50 SHADES OF GREY (and you know, we don’t have an article about this in the issue, but how weird is it that an explicit S&M TWILIGHT fan fiction would become first a best-selling series of novels and then a major motion picture? Maybe there’s hope for my hardcore Bazooka Joe comics yet). In honor of Cupid’s month and the release of a major bondage motion picture, this issue of BIRTH. MOVIES. DEATH. is largely preoccupied with sex. But through our own prism, of course. Which is why we’re tackling Cronenberg and sex, two great tastes that morph into an oozing mass together. We also look at the history of controversial sex onscreen, seeing how people got freaked out by flesh over the last century. Let’s put it this way: they used to get mad about kissing. Then we take a look at SECRETARY, which did BDSM well before 50

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SHADES OF GREY and probably imprinted itself on a whole generation. A whole generation who relies on booze to get in the mood, and we examine the relationship between alcohol and sex. It’s not all carnal knowledge this month: we take a look at the new Drafthouse Films release, AMIRA & SAM, which is a love story. And then there’s KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE, which is low on onscreen sex but high on making sweet love to your kickass pleasure centers. Also, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, which -- admittedly -- is a little bit outside of the larger theme. So find your preferred partner and dive into this twisted, sweet and sexy examination of Cinematic Copulation. 6

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The Controversy Of Sex: Seven Sex Scenes That Riled Up Audiences And Critics Alike THE BADASS DIGEST STAFF

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THE KISS William Heise, 1896 1896’s THE KISS (also known as THE MAY IRWIN KISS) is acknowledged to be the first kiss shown on film. Infamous for causing an uproar in its day, it’s a contextfree 47 seconds of an older couple canoodling before the man plants one square on the woman’s lips. It might surprise modern viewers to learn that the moment was a recreation of the finale of THE WIDOW JONES, a hit play of the day, and the filmed moment was screened in order to publicize the show. (Does that also make it the first spoiler in film history?) What’s most fascinating about the event is that the uproar wasn’t so much over BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

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the onscreen kiss as it was over the fact that the people engaged in the snogging were deemed too ugly. Sure, a clergyman or two harumphed (one particular man of God called the film “a lyric of the stockyard”), but the only complaint that really seems to have taken root is by a critic named Herbert Stone, who wrote that “...neither participant is physically attractive and the spectacle of their prolonged pasturing on each other’s lips was hard to beat when only life size. Magnified to gargantuan proportions and repeated three times over is absolutely disgusting!” For all the controversy this film apparently caused, this is the quote you will find repeated over and over in any historical account of the the public’s outcry. Nearly 120 years later, criticism of women’s sexuality in mass media still seems to center around how attractive the female is or isn’t. (Phil Nobile, Jr.)

seriousness.” Certainly a more measured reaction than one would have expected from a religious leader in 2014, much less 1956. Even more surprisingly, other Catholic leaders (in Paris and Britain) came out and publicly disagreed with Spellman, and actually praised the film! The ACLU sided with BABY DOLL, charging the Catholic church with violating the First Amendment. TIME MAGAZINE, curiously, sided with Spellman. BABY DOLL made less than two and a half million dollars at the box office; it did not turn a profit. It’s unclear how much the controversy hurt BABY DOLL’s legacy, but the film never gained the same level of historical traction as Kazan’s other films of the era. It’s possible the furor might have kept it out of the television rerun cycle that's so important in cementing the legacy of older films, and a generation of people who know the “I coulda been a contender” speech by heart have been denied the pleasures of BABY DOLL. A shame, as it’s an excellent film, with performances and dialogue that are frequently more fun to watch than the revered, safer bets from Kazan’s filmography that are taught in film history classes. Thankfully, Warner Archive reissued the film in recent years and it’s now available to stream or buy on Amazon. Nice try, Cardinal Spellman! (Phil Nobile, Jr.)

BABY DOLL Elia Kazan, 1956 Elia Kazan’s adaptation from a Tennessee Williams play caused an absolute shitstorm when it was released. Given the film’s billboard -- featuring a nubile blonde in a crib, wearing a revealing nightgown while sucking her thumb -- the uproar was perhaps to be expected? The film’s plot, about a 19-year-old bride nicknamed Baby Doll (Carroll Baker) who won’t fuck her husband (Karl Malden) until she turns 20, probably didn't quell anyone’s outrage. And a scene in which her husband’s business rival (Eli Wallach, in his first film role) seduces her, and may or may not have his hands under her skirt while doing so, caused religious leaders, particularly Cardinal Francis J. Spellman, to flip. So when the Catholic League Of Decency gave BABY DOLL a “C” rating (for “Condemned”!) the film was pulled from most theaters, and the Catholic Church forbade its parishioners from seeing the film “under pain of sin.” But shortly after Cardinal Spellman's tantrum, the Rev. Dr. James A. Pike, a Protestant Episcopal religious leader, came out in support of the film! Denouncing Spellman’s condemnation, Pike wrote a long response in THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, stating “the church's duty is not to prevent adults from having the experience of this picture, but to give them a wholesome basis for interpretation and serious answers to questions that were asked with BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST Martin Scorsese, 1988 You can see how Jesus Christ having sex (and children!) with Mary Magdalene might raise a hackle or two, but the response to THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST was outrageously oversized. A guy drove a school bus into a theater showing the movie. French theaters were bombed. Death threats were made. And everybody who got mad about the scene -- where the Devil shows Jesus a vision of what his life could be if he simply got down off the cross and denied his Messianic destiny -- missed out on a truly beautiful movie about the emotional weight of Christ’s sacrifice. Martin Scorsese shows us not just that Christ gave up his life, but the possibility of a happy, fulfilling life. (Devin Faraci)

EYES WIDE SHUT Stanley Kubrick, 1999

KIDS Larry Clark, 1995 Director Larry Clark’s cinema verite approach inspires immediate feelings of uneasy voyeurism, particularly in the opening scene, which features 17 year-old “Virgin Surgeon” Telly taking the virginity of a 12 year-old girl -- a moment he’ll later describe in graphic detail to a friend. Clark maintained that the actress was of age at the time of filming, but her impossibly youthful features make the opening scene feel particularly grimy -- a feeling and tone commonly associated with Clark’s films. This opening sex scene is appropriately jarring for our introduction to this world of rowdy and troubled kids, a world that’s inspired by the real-life experiences of writer Harmony Korine, who was just 19 when he penned the script. KIDS takes an honest and often disquieting look at the realm of teens in the ‘90s, and the truth is that it sadly wasn’t (and sadly still isn’t) uncommon for 12- or 13-year-old girls to hook up with 17-year-old boys. This scandalous sex scene challenges us from the outset to face the stark reality of youth culture. (Britt Hayes) BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

When Warner Bros. announced that Stanley Kubrick was returning to the filmmaking fold in 1996, there was much rejoicing. And when it became clear that EYES WIDE SHUT (the director's first movie in over a decade) would be an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's sexually-charged 1926 novella TRAUMNOVELLE, rejoicing quickly turned into feverish rumormongering: websites claimed Kubrick was filming the world's first mega-budget XXX-rated movie with stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman; that one of the film's original co-stars, Harvey Keitel, was fired from the production after ejaculating on Nicole Kidman during filming; that the film's explicitness all but guaranteed it would be unreleasable. Virtually all of these rumors turned out to be bullshit, save for one: the version of EYES WIDE SHUT Kubrick turned into Warner Bros. days before his death in 1999 was, in a sense, unreleasable -- the MPAA slapped that cut with an NC-17, restricting the film's chances at wide release. Kubrick was contractually obligated to have final cut on the film, but he was also contractually obligated to deliver an R-rating. The studio's solution? Digital obstructions (CGI potted plants, faux-spectators and the like) were added into the film's infamous "orgy scene" to obscure some of the scene's more risqué goings-on. Kubrick purists were outraged -- and the Kubrick estate was surely not amused -- but the solution worked, and EYES WIDE SHUT received its R-rating. The original, unedited cut was eventually released in 2007. It's definitely the less silly version. (Scott Wampler)

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THE BROWN BUNNY Vincent Gallo, 2003 Rarely has the controversy over a single moment from a film eclipsed the whole as totally and as completely as the onscreen blowjob in 2004’s THE BROWN BUNNY. Occurring late in the film, the scene in which Chloe Sevigny fellates Vincent Gallo’s character on camera has, ten years later, effectively transformed the word combination “brown bunny” into “Chloe Sevigny blowjob.” Is it simply because it’s an unsimulated sex act? Is it because it’s a well-known actress performing that sex act, in perhaps the last year before streaming video (and the accompanying sex tapes) took over the web, negating the naughty exclusivity of such a moment? Is it because the penis belonged to a willfully reprehensible public figure (who wished cancer upon Roger Ebert, following the critic’s negative review of the film)? Who knows. It’s a moment that might have been taken a little more in stride in a European arthouse film of the ‘70s. But in the perfect storm described above, that blowjob scene both sank the film and vaulted it into the annals of legend. But the real shame of the event is that the actual film was lost to the controversy. THE BROWN BUNNY is a film you might hate, but there IS a film to hate underneath all the scandal and hand-wringing. Gallo’s film, following a somber individual on a cross-country drive, speaks in a visual language of regret and loss, filled with endless scenes of tedious repetition -- driving, staring, driving, more driving. The images stay up on the screen for so long they burn into your mind’s eye for days afterward. What Gallo created is not a particularly pleasant film to sit through, but it’s so much more than its reputation conveys, and the experience of having seen it is a singular, resonant one. Sadly, it’s an experience most will never bother to know. Why watch “the Chloe Sevigny blowjob movie” when you can just find the scene on Google? (Phil Nobile, Jr.)

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BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Ang Lee, 2005 Substantially, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN’s “big sex scene” is no more graphic than the average PG13 sex scene. Granted, there’s no romantic music. Its cramped physicality evokes awkward first-time sex more than choreographed Hollywood sex. Bucking another convention, it isn’t treated as a reward for courtship. But in terms of skin shown, it’s pretty chaste. In most movies, this scene wouldn’t merit a double-take. But for the first time in a major motion picture, the participants happened to both be male, sullying the all-American cowboy archetype with dirty ol’ homosexuality, so of course Jack and Ennis’ lovemaking sparked a furor in the religious Right. The usual conservative pundits -- Fox News, Focus on the Family, Rush Limbaugh -- spouted everything from slur-infused jokes to invocations of the Hollywood gay agenda boogeyman. Cinema chains, cities and countries outright refused to screen it. If you believed everything you read, you’d think BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN was singlehandedly responsible for the downfall of modern society. Unsurprisingly, the controversy extended into awards season. Despite winning nearly every other award around (and making bank at the box office), BROKEBACK lost the Oscar to CRASH, an altogether safer choice. Even Best Picture presenter Jack Nicholson was visibly surprised. (Andrew Todd) 6 This month, the Alamo Drafthouse celebrates Sex&Movies. Check drafthouse.com for listings.

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Love Is The Drug: Sex and Death and David Cronenberg PHIL NOBILE JR Badass Digest Contributor @philnobilejr Read more at badassdigest.com

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In the early ‘80s, before horror directors looked like horror fans, very few pieces written about David Cronenberg passed up an opportunity to mention just how normal he looked. Journalists lined up to eagerly point out the juxtaposition of the filmmaker’s milquetoast appearance and his nihilistic onscreen viscera, as if they were the first ones to notice it. Cronenberg would react politely each time, explaining that, as a storyteller, he was never really all that invested in mayhem or gore. Ever since childhood, he said, he was interested in writing and in science. He was a quiet, booksmart guy who figured out early on that his creative preoccupations -- which were closely tied to his scientific interests – could get financial backing if they were couched in the language of a commercial horror film. Cronenberg himself would never be so reductive, but it’s not a stretch to guess that his early interest in science, and the way it creatively manifested itself, came from watching his father die. As Milton Cronenberg’s body gave up on him -- organs would fail, bones would break from rolling over in bed -- his mind remained intact. Watching our dearest loved ones disintegrate in a hospital bed is the purest horror most of us will ever feel. Witnessing his father’s sharp mind become trapped in a shell with a rapidly approaching expiration date was not only a devastating loss for Cronenberg; it was a wake-up call about the inevitability of disease and the certainty of death. As Cronenberg has said, “the idea that you carry the seeds of your own destruction around with you, always, and that they can erupt at any time, is…scary. Because there is no defense against it; there is no escape from it.” An oeuvre was born. David Cronenberg’s early films are certainly rife with biological mayhem, but he’s not simply reliving his early autobiographical trauma. That universal, existential nightmare -- the idea that our consciousness, our essence, is inextricably tethered to a rotting bag of bones headed for the slab -- is really just an engine that drives his true thematic thread: the pursuit of transcendence. As an atheist, Cronenberg holds fast to the idea that we are finite; we are corporeal beings who will one day end. But as a storyteller, he seems to enjoy the fantasy of being able to shed the physical, biological restrictions of reality. Cameron Vale’s body bursts apart -- and into flames -- in SCANNERS, but in the end his mind has escaped, living on in another person’s skin. In THE BROOD, characters develop the ability to send their emotions beyond their psyche, through their skin, and out into the world. Seth Brundle goes from categorizing his horrific transformation in THE FLY as a “bizarre form of cancer” to declaring “I’m becoming something that never existed before.” At the end of VIDEODROME, Max Renn is told “you’ve gone about as far as you can with the way things are...your body has BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

changed a lot but it’s only the beginning...don’t be afraid to let your body die.” Cronenberg, outspoken atheist and staunch right-to-die proponent, dangles the promise of a higher plane of existence in front of his protagonist, who happily blows his own brains out as the film cuts to black. “Body horror” gets thrown around to describe the director’s stock in trade, but over and over Cronenberg’s films concern themselves with moving out of the dying flesh, transforming, transcending the finite flesh. The body horror was always just a messy, voluminous side effect; an afterbirth, if you will. The gore tapered off as Cronenberg left behind the fantastical, but that theme of humans needing to grow beyond their bodies remained. And when you strip away all the science fiction and “body horror” from that very universal human urge to escape our own shells, what devices are left to us on that front but drugs and sex? Sex and drugs have been how we cope with death for a really long time. They make us happy. They make us feel better. They make us forget all about our pain and misery for a little while. And for a scientific, atheist mind like Cronenberg’s, sex and drugs are the closest things to attaining a higher plane of existence, of leaving our physical selves behind. Though drugs and altered states are a common thread in his work, he’s more interested in what sex does to us, what we do to sex, and why it’s as crucial to us as it is. And time and again, Cronenberg’s findings come down to transcendence. To be fair, the sex was always there: from his earliest experimental features and the sexually transmitted mania of both SHIVERS and RABID, to the kink of VIDEODROME and the sexual awakening of Seth Brundle in THE FLY, sex and death went hand-inhand for Cronenberg. SHIVERS in particular offers a keen look at the director’s less-than-prudish attitude toward fucking one’s way toward nirvana. In the film, an apartment complex becomes infected with a parasite that takes over one’s libido and turns its victims into sexcrazed hedonists. At the end of the film, every human in the complex has been “infected” and they set out smiling over the end credits to spread the parasite across the world. It’s a near-certainty Cronenberg means for this to be a happy ending: a world in which we’ve abandoned all sense of self in the name of unending ecstasy? Who among us wouldn’t at least consider such an existence? Even the largely asexual SCANNERS sneaks in a psychic orgy, a scene in which a roomful of telepaths explore each others’ minds, their blissful faces shining with joyful discovery, very much advocating this new form of free love. For over 40 years, sex has been portrayed by the director as a freeing experience, and it’s only when we deny what we are that we run into trouble. The shared sexual conquests of the drug-addicted Mantle twins in DEAD RINGERS is less about perversion and kink than it is

about trying to make sense of the idea that a part of you (in this case, a twin) exists outside your physical body. The Mantles want to escape their shell like any other Cronenberg hero, but their one “self,” as they have interpreted their reality, happens to come in two halves. Rather than leave a man behind, they willingly plunge hand in hand into the abyss. NAKED LUNCH and M. BUTTERFLY are an odd double feature in the context of sex à la Cronenberg. They feel like a rather potent one-two punch, both arguing against the toxicity of denying your own sexuality. Bill Lee and his “homosexuality as cover story” in NAKED LUNCH bookends intriguingly with the strange sense of denial at the heart of M. BUTTERFLY’s René Gallimard. Both are curiously shoving an autobiographical story into a detached third-person account -- NAKED LUNCH through hallucinogens and M. BUTTERFLY through a heartbreaking epilogue -- and both are uncharacteristically (for Cronenberg) sentimentally tragic at their conclusions. Cronenberg is no romantic; it’s significant that he wrings so much sadness from these two men denying their true sexual selves.

people so addicted to pleasure, so consumed with losing themselves in each other, that their cravings and passions give rise to an entire subculture in which violence becomes sex, sex becomes violence, a secret society where in fact anything physical or corporeal is instantly sexualized. The characters in CRASH aren’t so much following their bliss as engaging it in a high-speed chase, and only finding it among the flesh-and-metal wreckage at the end of that road. But these kinky disasters, so jaded that they’ve taken to sexually penetrating each other’s accident scars, are at the end of the day chasing the same thing as the infected sex zombies of SHIVERS. It’s the same thing we’re all chasing, every time we indulge in a shot, or a line, or a sexual partner. They just want to feel good, to feel bliss and ecstasy. They want the rapturous, fleeting freedom of escaping oneself. Cronenberg’s sex-obsessed protagonists, often presented by the director as addicts and/or artists, are simply engaging in what Cronenberg once said is the ultimate goal of any artist: “...trying to take control of life by organizing it and shaping it and recreating it. Because he knows very well that the real version of life is beyond his control." 6

CRASH might be the director’s perfect synthesis of what all this sex and violence has always been about. CRASH is filled with emotionally and/or physically broken

David Cronenberg's MAPS TO THE STARS screens this month at the Alamo Drafthouse. Check drafthouse.com for listings.

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On Booze and Libido BILL NORRIS Alamo Drafthouse Beverage Director @wnorris3

"No. No use. Impossible. The will but not the way. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Try again. No. The booze, it must be. See Macbeth. One last try. No, no use. Not this evening, I’m afraid." George Orwell, KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING From the time of Shakespeare, wits have noted the paradoxical effects of imbibing strong drink and the resultant effects on sexual performance. As the Porter notes of drink in MACBETH, “It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance,” and therein lies the rub for those who’d put a bottle of wine or tumbler of whiskey up as an aphrodisiac: by the way it impacts the body, booze may make you want to get it on, but it may keep your freak flag flying at half-mast. The Brain is the Sexiest Organ In moderation, alcohol can enhance sexuality and sexual performance. A couple of drinks can do wonders; at a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .05 (about two standard drinks in an hour for a 160lb man or a 140lb woman), alcohol starts to do a little jig with the brain. In particular, the frontal lobe, the portion of the brain tasked with decision making and impulse control, gets disrupted. Sometimes, this leads to bad choices; sometimes it leads to a lowering of inhibitions and a night of consensual racy fun. But as you drink more and your BAC rises, you reach a state called Alcohol Myopia, which leads to a search for immediate gratification of impulses and desires, consequences be damned. Moreover, the Amygdala, the portion of the brain charged with warning you about danger, starts to slow down at about .05 BAC. Coupled with the disruption of the frontal lobe, more than a few drinks in an hour can create a perfect storm, leading to immediate BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

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desire, action on that desire and post-coital regret. Toss in the Cerebellum’s job -- primarily tasked with preserving memory and, perhaps more important for our purposes, controlling movement and coordination, and your suave moves start to fall apart around a BAC of .08, making you more clumsy than sexy. But it is small amounts of booze that lead to alcohol’s questionable aphrodisiac reputation. A couple of drinks, consumed convivially, and with water on the side, can indeed be a useful and helpful social lubricant, lowering inhibitions and lending a sense of adventure to the proceedings, while leading to sense of relaxation in both partners and a lack of self-consciousness. But it can also make you stupid, especially as you drink more, and studies have shown that even moderate drinking leads to a rise in risky sexual behavior, including having unsafe sex and going home with someone you’d normally pass on. Even worse, studies have consistently shown that there’s a sort of placebo effect working here -- subjects who’ve been told they’re consuming booze when they have not actually believe themselves to be drunk, and demonstrate decreased inhibitions. Anthropologists call this phenomenon the “think-drink” effect, and it shows our ideas about how alcohol affects our sexuality and guides our behavior more than actually being intoxicated; it could be the belief that alcohol makes you more relaxed and experimental rather than the actual effect of drinking that gets you there. But assume for the moment that you’re in a stable relationship, either happily coupled or with a consistent friend with benefits. Surely a few drinks in that scenario can only make for better sex? A few, yes. More than a few, not hardly. Warnings for Men First, some good news. Because alcohol depresses the central nervous system, moderate consumption can have one terrific, tangible benefit for guys (and their partners). Alcohol slows down pretty much all of the body’s systems, and one impact is that, in moderation, it can delay men’s orgasms, leading to longer performance. But, like all things with alcohol and sex, moderating the intake is key here, because there is a line, and when that line is crossed, orgasm is not delayed by alcohol, but by a total failure to achieve or maintain erection, a lack of sensation or arousal, and lower pleasurability and intensity of orgasm if he can get there. Booze is a vasodilator, meaning that it expands blood vessels. That sounds great for sex, but it reality, not so much. The expanded blood vessels are a two-way street, meaning that any blood that runs into fill them up can also slide right back out. So while the spirit may indeed BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

be willing after a mess of cocktails, the body frequently can’t keep up with the spirit’s demands. Even worse, chronic and acute alcohol consumption have both been shown to decrease testosterone production. This is primarily an issue for problem drinkers, but it can work in smaller ways on any given night when a drinker has crossed the line from giddy to hammered. Moreover, alcohol is well documented as a cause of dehydration, and you need water in your system to get wood. Warnings for Women First, some good news. For many women, moderate consumption of alcohol has been shown to truly increase desire. The theory is that, unlike in men, alcohol stimulates production of two hormones, testosterone and estradiol, that have been linked to women feeling randy. But, again, there is a line and it is easily crossed. As BAC rises, dehydration and vasodilation can lay down a double whammy on the ladies, leading first to vaginal dryness and decreased blood flow to the genitals, and then to delayed or decreased orgasms. On the flipside, some women report that with increased BAC, they feel more interested in sex, but physiological studies that measure arousal do not show this effect, so it may be a case of alcohol’s brain impacts coupled with the “think-drink” effect that creates this notion. The Crux of the Matter Booze can make things better in the bedroom for everyone. A little bit of booze. Too many drinks can lead to less fun, bad choices and a wrecked night behind closed doors. So, consume in moderation, down some water with your whiskey and get your freak on. A Classic Cocktail to Set the Mood This drink is credited to Ada Coleman, head bartender at The Savoy in 1925. It’s a complex, elegant sipper and one should be enough to stimulate some conversation and get you in the mood. Hanky Panky 1.5 oz. London Dry Gin 1.5 oz. Sweet Vermouth 2 dashes Fernet Branca Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with cracked ice. Stir until ice cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist, expressing the oils over the glass. 6

Grey Area: SECRETARY And The Limits of Control BRITT HAYES Badass Digest Contributor @missbritthayes Read more at badassdigest.com

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One of the greatest human flaws is our desire to control the uncontrollable -- the heedless determination to bend circumstances to our will, and the relentless frustration and resigned despair when life refuses to conform to our desires. We have many ways of coping with these daily defeats: we can simply accept that we have no control over others or the situations that will arise regardless of our preferences to the contrary; we can reject that which is inevitable and attempt to force a different outcome, resulting in further unhappiness; or we can seek relief through various vices against our better judgment, redirecting our energy and focusing on that which we can control. In SECRETARY, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Lee Holloway seeks comfort in the form of self-mutilation, ritualistically cutting her skin -- it’s a symbolic act which allows her to feel as though she determines her own fate, that she holds the power over what happens to her life. She cuts to feel. She cuts to stop the feeling. She cuts to distract herself from her father’s alcoholism, and her mother’s overbearing and needless nurturing, from the well-meaning boy who likes her and the pressure to settle. She cuts so she can see her inner pain rise to the surface, so she knows that she is here, that she is alive, and that her pain is real. She cuts herself so that her outsides can reflect her insides; the physical pain is both relief from and evidence of her suffering. E. Edward Grey (career sexual deviant James Spader) hires Lee as his secretary at his private law office, and through his measured pauses and calculated sentences we come to understand that Mr. Grey also desires control. We understand that his ex-wife emasculates him and has perhaps driven him to engage in dominant behavior as a defense mechanism, as a way to ensure that his heart cannot be broken again. Both Lee and Mr. Grey have constructed thick walls to guard themselves emotionally, and while Lee tries to supplant her inability to control her circumstances with self-harm, Mr. Grey attempts to nurture his inner wounds by establishing dominance over women like Lee -- a woman who can hardly admit to herself that she enjoys suffering because it always leads to the relief that comes from cutting, from ultimately submitting to the pain. Years before FIFTY SHADES OF GREY tackled the subject of dominance and submission, Steven Shainberg gave us the poignant and darkly humorous SECRETARY. It’s an incredibly sexy and beautiful film, a wonderfully and appropriately quirky story about exploring sexual power dynamics in order to reconcile our issues with control. The sexually-charged interplay between Mr. Grey and Lee as he guides her

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into submission, punishing her for her clerical errors with stern lectures and spankings, escalates right up to the edge of actual sexual interaction without ever granting that release. Their relationship is the embodiment of the practice of edging, masturbating without ever allowing yourself to orgasm; similarly, Mr. Grey engages Lee in dominant and submissive roleplay (saddling her like a horse, instructing her to crawl, verbally berating her for her errors) without interacting with her sexually. Even still, their dynamic is just as intimate as intercourse. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY approaches the dominant and submissive relationship by portraying the submissive as utterly powerless and without agency. In actuality, the submissive party is the person with all the power, the person who asks to be dominated, and the person who often initiates, and both parties have equal agency -- either partner can call the whole thing off at any time, for any reason. This becomes problematic when SECRETARY’s Mr. Grey masturbates and ejaculates on Lee’s back, essentially using her and treating her like a fragile, crumpled wad of tissue. In this moment, Mr. Grey has completely dismissed Lee’s desires, and she becomes less of a willing participant and more like a reluctant tube sock. SECRETARY isn’t solely about using sexual domination as a means to rectify our everyday powerlessness, but about the ways we can learn through this roleplay to surrender ourselves and accept our lack of control. Mr. Grey’s obsession with domination is about both his prior emasculation via his ex-wife and his need to mentally sculpt a woman to create an ideal partner. Lee’s obsession with submission is just as complex: she needs to loosen up and learn to let go, but she also enjoys physical pain as a form of relief. From this relationship, Lee gathers the self-esteem and confidence she needs to be a more dominant human being, expressing herself more directly than she ever has, and refusing to bend to the will of others. Lee is able to unite both her dominant and submissive sides, while Mr. Grey simply refuses to submit -- to Lee, to love, and to accepting that he can’t possibly have control over every aspect of his life … or Lee’s, for that matter. She is still a human being with her own wants and needs, with her own desires and feelings. Love is the ultimate act of submission -- allowing yourself to love and allowing yourself to let someone else love you. In order to love, we must surrender and tear down the walls that we put up to keep people away from the most vulnerable parts of ourselves. But those walls have a tendency to keep the good out as well as the bad. Lee finds it hard to open up to Mr. Grey, arriving on his

doorstep in the middle of the night when her father is hospitalized, tripping over her own words: “I wanted you… I needed you…” And that’s when they’ve both reached a line that, for Mr. Grey, cannot be crossed; her half-finished sentences betray her true feelings enough. In the end, Mr. Grey must surrender himself to Lee and allow her to love him, and submit to his love for her in return. “We can’t do this 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he says, and a teary-eyed Lee defies him: “Why not?”

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Lee stages a strike at Mr. Grey’s desk, refusing to eat, drink, or move until he finally relents. In this moment she is both dominant and submissive because one half cannot function without the other to make it whole. People are not simply either/or, sub/dom -- love ultimately functions in that grey area in between. 6 SECRETARY screens at the Alamo Drafthouse this month as the Drafthouse celebrates Sex&Movies. Check drafthouse.com for listings.

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A Filmmaker Needs An Army: Director Sean Mullin on the Making of AMIRA & SAM MEREDITH BORDERS Badass Digest Managing Editor @xymarla Read more at badassdigest.com

BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

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AMIRA & SAM is Drafthouse Films’ latest release, a beautiful, hilarious film about two outsiders who find their place with each other. I got a chance to speak with first time feature director Sean Mullin -- a veteran like Sam, a Captain of the Army and Ground Zero first responder who’s also worked as a stand-up comedian and improv actor. That balance between hilarity and solemnity is what works so well in AMIRA & SAM, and it’s what makes Mullin such an interesting subject. Q: Sam is a different kind of veteran than what we usually see onscreen. Can you talk about how important that was to you? A: Absolutely, I think that was the initial premise: to make a film about a veteran that hasn’t been seen before. I think every veteran role is usually in a war movie, and it’s always about a veteran with posttraumatic stress, at least every one that I’ve ever seen. So I wanted to flip that premise on its head and ask the question, ‘What happens if a veteran comes home, and he’s fine, but the country lost its mind?’ In many ways, it’s an exploration of the idea that the country has PTSD after September 11th, and Sam was fine. And I thought, in the way that I look at the world, that was inherently comedic. Some people might look at it as dramatic, but I thought there was some really great comedic potential in that. Q: There are some autobiographical elements to Sam’s character. How hard was it to cast that character? A: It’s funny, Martin joked with me at least three or four times during the shoot. He would just look at me and say, ‘Sean, how many times did they have to tell you that you couldn’t play this role before you cast me?’ It was pretty funny. But no, I never, ever wanted to cast myself in the part. But, that being said, I did want to find somebody -- I have a background in stand-up comedy and improv theatre, and I studied at UCB, the Uprights Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City in the first few years that it was built, and I was there basically around the same time I was working at Ground Zero, and I’d spend twelve hours a day at Ground Zero in the New York National Guard, and I’d spend my nights doing stand-up comedy and improv theatre, so it was kind of a balance between the two worlds. So when I was casting Sam, I needed somebody who had the gravitas and the stoicism of a

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vet, that Martin definitely had, and at the same time the timing and the humor, and really, Martin is a rare beast. He possesses both. And he’s never had a lead before! He’s never been a lead actor in a film, which blew me away, so it was really an amazing opportunity for me to give him that chance, and for him to give me the chance of directing my first feature. So as with any independent film, a director, when casting it, the key is that everybody involved needs to be getting something out of the relationship -- as with any relationship, you want it to be mutually beneficial. And I think for him, this being his first lead in a film was really exciting, and also frightening in some ways, and the amount of trust that he placed in me was something that I was extremely grateful for. But at the same time, it was a two-way street. We both had something to gain from the relationship. Q: With casting Dina for Amira, how did you know when you hit upon the right chemistry between the two characters? I’m assuming you cast Martin first. A: I did cast Martin first, and then the chemistry was something that I just had a hunch about. Because we didn’t have time to get them together; we cast it so quickly, and the way it came together -- it’s the typical ‘hurry up and wait’ thing with independent films, where it took me a few years to get the whole thing together, but once we did get Sam and had our dates, we just didn’t have time. So Dina and Martin actually didn’t have a chance to meet until we were in rehearsal, so I just took a leap of faith that their chemistry would be amazing, but I based that leap of faith on what I had seen of Martin over the years, and then this audition that Dina had. She put herself on tape, and her audition was so incredible, it was one of those real kind of Hollywood moments where you see an actress and you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s her. That’s Amira.’ I don’t even think I made it through the whole audition; I think I stopped it about halfway through and called my producers and said, ‘I found Amira, and we’ve got to go with her.’ And then I met her in person, and she’s just such a lovely, smart, warm, strong, engaging human, that I just knew, I just knew that she and Martin would hit it off. I knew they’d hit it off, but I had no idea the kind of magic that they’d actually produce.

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Q: Are we going to get to see that tape? A: Yeah, it’s going to be a DVD extra, so that’s one more reason to pick up the DVD! Q: You have this long, one-shot scene with Amira and Sam, where they first share Sam’s bed, and it’s the crux of the movie. It’s sort of the moment by which the movie lives or dies. Did you rehearse it? Can you talk about staging it and filming it? A:Yeah, hands down, that’s the most important scene in the film, and I always envisioned it as a director as one take with no cuts, because every time you cut, you have the opportunity to lie, and a moment like that had to be 100% authentic. Everything had to be just right, and the audience had to experience them falling for each other in real time, at least in my mind. I didn’t want to have to cut around anything, I just wanted them to see it unfold. And there’s a tension that exists with long takes -- that’s almost a sevenminute scene, and so, over the course of those seven minutes, you really see them falling for each other. So we got no coverage of it; it’s the only shot we got. It wasn’t the only take -- we got twelve takes, and we used the ninth. Well, it was the ninth or twelfth that we used. So it took most of the day to get, but it’s the most important scene in the film. And once we had that, I knew that we were onto something. Q: There’s a sort of running joke in David Wain’s THEY CAME TOGETHER about romantic comedies, where they keep saying ‘New York’s a character in the movie!’ But the city really does feel like a prevalent part of this movie in a way that’s more organic than it often is in romantic comedies. How did you go about making the movie feel like an authentic New York experience? BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

A: You know, I lived in Manhattan for eight years, and I lived in all the grittiest parts. I spent my time in the areas where most people probably don’t spend their time. And so there’s this huge swath of Manhattan that I would just never visit, basically fifteen blocks north and south of Times Square. I would always spend my time in the grittier parts, and when I was in graduate school, I bartended, and some of the places I bartended weren’t the nicest joints. And also I drove a limo part-time out of Queens, so my fifteen-hour day included an hour commute out on the subway, and then a twelve-hour day, and then an hour, hour and a half back on the subway up near Columbia where I was going to grad school. So I just drove all over -- I drove to Staten Island, I drove to Brooklyn, all the parts of the city that don’t get represented. I feel like a lot of times people who make films in New York, at least romantic comedies or big, broad, studio films, they haven’t really lived in New York. And especially being down at Ground Zero, I feel like New York is such a part of who I am. My father was born in Brooklyn. I went to undergrad at West Point, which is right up the river, so when I was at West Point, I used to sneak on down to the city all the time, and go get drunk in shady joints. So the city’s a really big part of who I am, and then going to grad school in Columbia, as well, I’ve just spent a large part of my life in New York. I know it very well. Q: Are there any films that really informed you when you were writing and making AMIRA & SAM? A: Yeah, absolutely. From a love story standpoint, there’s a film from 1955 called MARTY with Ernest Borgnine, which is one of my all-time favorites. It’s about these two kind of outsiders that everyone’s

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really forgotten about, and they’re pushed together by their circumstances. So that was a big inspiration, and I went to rewatch it recently, and Marty’s a vet, which I hadn’t remembered. It’s not a big part of that film, but there’s this monologue that he gives about him coming home from the war and thinking about taking his life. It’s this really serious monologue that he gives, and it’s something that just slipped by me. So yeah, MARTY really informed me, and I’d say that the original ROCKY, the first one in 1976. You’ve got Adrian, who never talks, and Rocky who talks but doesn’t make too much sense, and they’re these two kind of, again, outsiders who just find each other. And I’m always fascinated by that, by love stories that are about people who are on the fringe of society. I’d say the third influence would be this movie called ONCE, this Irish film from ’06, a few years ago, about these musicians who are on the fringes. So I’m always drawn to people who are misunderstood, you know? I feel like that makes the most powerful romantic films, when you get two people who are misunderstood by everybody, but somehow, they understand each other. Q: When you’ve sat in on audience screenings, is there one joke or moment that you really hoped would land that you’re gratified to discover really does land? A: You know, it’s funny, yeah. The film plays better with audiences than I ever really hoped for. You were there at the Austin screening -- I felt like we had wall-to-wall laughs. It was pretty incredible. So the film plays great as a comedy. I’ve kind of been talking about this one moment recently: the difference between a screenplay and a film is really evident in the film where [Amira] gives the prostitute line, she’s at the party -- you know that moment, right? What’s interesting about that is that on the page, that line is okay, it’s kind of funny, maybe, not really -- maybe you’ll give a little chuckle or a little smirk if you read the script, like ‘Oh, a prostitute, that’s so funny, whatever.’ But when you see it in a theater with an audience, it’s hands down the biggest laugh, consistently. I’ve seen the film now at 14 festivals, we actually won six best film awards at festivals this fall, which is awesome. And so, yeah, I was able to see the film with thousands of people now, and that line gets a huge laugh. And the reason it gets a huge laugh is, again, the difference between a film and a screenplay. In the screenplay, you’re reading it, it’s on the page. But when you’re watching the film, we introduce Sam and he kind of gets kicked in the face at work, and we introduce Amira and she gets kicked in the face at work, and so we’re rooting for both of them individually. And after that long bed scene, we’re now really rooting for them as a team. A primal

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instinct kicks in, and we’re rooting for them together. And they’re at the party, and they’re kind of kicked again. It’s just this kind of primal bark that comes out of the audience, you know? And it’s not because of what’s on the page, it’s because of the performances. Q: Is there one thing you really hope audiences take away from this film? A: I would say just the idea that perceptions always need to be challenged, and stereotypes need to be challenged. The thing that interests me about storytelling is finding characters who live in this world between perception and reality, right? The way that people are perceived is not the way they really are, and there’s a tension that exists between that, and I feel like these characters live in that middle zone. And as a writer and a director, and a storyteller in general, I feel like if I can use this film in any way, it would be to have audiences rethink their perceptions of veterans and immigrants. Because there’s this narrative that’s being pushed by the media that every veteran’s a loose cannon and every immigrant’s a criminal, and that’s just bullshit. Q: You were an Army officer. Are there any similarities between being an Army officer and directing a movie? A: Absolutely. I mean, more than you would think. I would get that a lot -- I remember when I first went to Columbia, I told them that I’d gone to West Point and I was a Captain of the Army, and they were like, ‘What are you doing here?’ and I told them, like, ‘Well, fuck you. I’m here to make movies.’ When you’re in front of your crew and you’ve got a plan and you’ve got to execute that plan, and things are going to go wrong and you need to lead without being an asshole, I mean, that’s really the first commandment of any sort of leadership: inspiring your troops. It’s very similar to being in front of your platoon and having a mission and knowing that things are going to go wrong. I think it was Eisenhower that said ‘When it comes to battle, plans don’t mean shit, but planning means everything.’ And that’s very similar to filmmaking, I feel like. And there are quotes about the army throughout film history where you have directors comparing themselves. Orson Welles said, ‘A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.’ Of course, nothing compares to war, that’s obviously in its own world, but when it comes to the leadership skills needed, I don’t think there’s a better film school in America than West Point. 6 Drafthouse Films presents AMIRA & SAM at the Alamo Drafthouse this month. Check drafthouse.com for listings.

Juicing Up The Green Inferno STEPHEN THROWER Author of NIGHTMARE USA, THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE EXPLOITATION INDEPENDENTS, BEYOND TERROR; THE FILMS OF LUCIO FULCI, and co-founder of the group Cyclobe

With a film as cruel and upsetting as Ruggero Deodato’s CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST it can seem trite to discuss the beauty and creativity of the soundtrack. Here, after all, is a movie whose bad reputation rests on its capacity for grimy, traumatic realism, and the killing of live animals on camera. And yet, as anyone who’s seen the film will attest, the score provides a vital emotional register for the film; one could go so far as to say that Riz Ortolani’s music is the conscience of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Riziero ‘Riz’ Ortolani was born on the 25th March 1926 in Pesaro, Italy and died in Rome on the 23rd of January 2014. He studied at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica in Pesaro and got his professional start as a musical arranger for the Italian TV network RAI. His first major success came with the international boxoffice smash MONDO CANE (1962) directed by BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi and Paolo Cavara. This was the film that birthed the ‘mondo’ movie craze of the 1960s and 1970s; a genre which presented a hotchpotch of outrageous, amusing or sickening clips filmed mostly in third-world locations. Masquerading as serious documentaries, the voyeuristic (and often fake) mondo movies fulfilled a role that the internet delivers today; a platform for the grossest, wildest, most bizarre images the world has to offer. Ortolani’s lush, melodious title theme lent a grandiose sweep to the titillatory travelogue, and such was its quality that in 1963 it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song (with the addition of words by British lyricist Norman Newell). The score was also nominated for a Grammy in 1964. Evidently comfortable working with Jacopetti and Prosperi, Ortolani went on to score the same directorial team’s LA DONNA NEL

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MONDO (1963), AFRICA ADDIO (1966), and their confrontational but massively misjudged slavery ‘exposé’ GOODBYE UNCLE TOM (1971). Elsewhere in Italian cinema, Ortolani was in demand for his ability to combine brooding modernist string arrangements with jazz-inflected cues. He created two magnificent scores for Lucio Fulci, ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER (1969) and DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972), delivered classy material for Umberto Lenzi’s SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE (1969) and SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS (1972), and provided memorable soundtracks for such disparate Italian thrillers as Armando Crispino’s THE ETRUSCAN KILLS AGAIN (1972), Flavio Mogherini’s THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE (1977) and Maurizio Pradeaux’s DEATH STEPS IN THE DARK (1977), the latter of which strongly anticipates his work on CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. His chief collaborations, however, were with Antonio Margheriti, Damiano Damiani and Pupi Avati. For Margeriti he wrote an incongruous but deliciously cool jazz score for THE VIRGIN OF NUREMBERG (1963) and intense, neurotic string arrangements for CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964), WEB OF THE SPIDER (1971) and SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE (1973). For Damiani he scored eleven projects, including four of the director’s signature dramas about corruption in the Italian establishment: CONFESSIONS OF A POLICE CAPTAIN (1971), HOW TO KILL A JUDGE (1975), THE BODYGUARD (1977) and THE WARNING (1980). From the 1980s onwards he became the composer of choice for Pupi Avati: horror fans revere his brilliant theme for Avati’s ZEDER (1982) but may be less familiar with the many other scores he wrote for the Emilia-Romagnian director, including their first collaboration, AIUTAMI A SOGNARE (1981) and Ortolani’s last recorded work, the TV mini-series UN MATRIMONIO (2013). Nothing else in the composer’s career, however, packs quite as much punch as his work on CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Ruggero Deodato recalls that although he approached Ortolani on the basis of his work on the 1960s mondo movies, he was worried that the composer would balk at the extreme nature of the film! Luckily for Deodato, Ortolani watched a rough cut of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, declared it a work of genius, and agreed to start work immediately. In any other context, Ortolani’s instrumental title theme would sound like a sweet and lovely easylistening number, perhaps awaiting the tender ministrations of Europop warbler Demis Roussos. The only hint of strangeness is the synthesised choral melody line, which has a muffled, slightly corroded quality; a fading dream of comfort instead of the real thing. Title sequence aside, there is almost no

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music in the first half of the film, as Robert Kerman’s investigator treks into the jungle looking for a lost documentary expedition. For Kerman’s scenes with the Amazonian Yacumo and Yamamomo tribes there’s just a simple non-committal drum pattern; emotional overtones are suppressed. All of this changes in the second half, which concentrates on the material shot by the doomed documentarians, retrieved by Kerman still fortuitously in its cans. Now, as the emphasis shifts to the found footage, Deodato pushes the music high in the mix and uses it ironically. It has been laid over the images by an enterprising editor, we are told, to ‘juice things up’ for the benefit of TV executives viewing the material for possible transmission. It’s a bitter joke about the media’s manipulation of reality which is more relevant than ever, given the tendency of even the most sober news networks to prostitute documentary footage with ‘mood music’, stylised graphics and histrionic voice-overs. “Adulteress’ Punishment” sets the tone for the horrific scenes. A powerfully ominous synthesiser riff underpins the gravest of string arrangements, drooping with a sense of portent and tragedy, an orchestra with the weight of mankind’s wickedness on its shoulders. “Massacre of the Troupe” features Ortolani’s most alarming and intense string arrangement, with microtonalism rendering his massed unison chords and glissandii subtly deranged, fraught with unresolvable tension. “Crucified Woman” meanwhile adds an aching elegaic tone to one of the most appalling and brutal scenes, with strings accompanied by the subtle incongruity of country-folk acoustic guitar and bass, reminding us that the film is intended as a diatribe against, among other things, American involvement in the affairs of the Third World. A prominent feature of Ortolani’s approach to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is the use of synthesisers and electronic percussion, in particular a device called the ‘Syndrum’, a touch-sensitive drum pad triggering electronic sounds, used on a great many pop and disco records of the period, most famously Rose Royce’s “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” (1978) and Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell” (1979). It also featured, in a very different context, on Joy Division’s first album UNKNOWN PLEASURES (1979), specifically the tracks “Insight” and “She’s Lost Control”. In Ortolani’s hands the Syndrum takes the notion of the tribal drumbeat and imbues it with a morbid, stomach-churning sleaziness. Ortolani had already embraced synthesisers on THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE two years earlier, but they play a much more striking and oppressive role here, with a brutal quality that underlines the savagery of the cannibals and the callousness of the white protagonists, not to mention the technological modernity that enshrines ‘documentary’ images of slaughter.

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CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is packed with cynical, mean-spirited characters, so it is not toward their emotional lives that Ortolani turns for inspiration. Instead the music acts upon the presumption of a moral response in the viewer. Along with horror an incredible sadness permeates the compositions, as though a sorrowful omniscient eye is being cast over the human animal. Ortolani once described his score as a “religious adagio” and there is indeed a metaphysical aura, something of the pulpit to the stern and critical position it takes. At an emotional level one can hear common ground with Samuel Barber’s famous “Adagio for Strings” (1936) or Remo Giazotto’s “Adagio in G minor” (1958), although Ortolani’s penchant for stridency gives a colder, more ascerbic slant, as does the near-absence of vibrato in the violin technique. Deodato’s directorial approach, on the other hand, has no religiosity; under his control the film is a hardto-swallow mixture of amorality and moral censure. The mismatch sticks out like a peeled thumb; there’s no credible way to square Deodato’s amoral strategy of killing animals on camera with his tub-thumping anger at the immorality of Western media, or to correspond his relentless depiction of sexual violence against native women with his assertion that the film has the sanctity of Amazonian tribal culture at its heart. Only as a dissertation on manipulation does the film

have credibility. Deodato’s ironic use of music results in a fractured relationship between film and audience not unlike Jean-Luc Godard’s use of Georges Delerue’s compositions in CONTEMPT (1963). Ortolani scores as though addressing the Fall of Man; Deodato remains detached, applying the cues metatextually. His use of music, though structurally disciplined and coherent, is as cynical as the rest of his conception. The dissonance of these two approaches -- Ortolani sincere and emotional, Deodato ironic and intellectual -- adds yet another level of discomfort to CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Why did Deodato wish to make such a horrifying and distressing film? If one believes recent interviews it’s because he was concerned about the oppression of indigenous peoples by white cultural incursion and felt critical of the Italian media’s bloodthirsty reporting of homeland terrorist atrocities. Riz Ortolani’s reason for agreeing to score the movie remains obscure, but one thing is for sure; his engagement with the images was heartfelt. Thanks to his moving and indelible music, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST inspires intensely complex feelings; of compassion mixed with horror, and despair at the depths of human depravity. 6 The CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST soundtrack is available for the first time ever on vinyl from Mondo on February 14th. Go to www.mondotees.com for more information.

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Video Vortex: The Hocus Pocus Of AMERICAN COMMANDO NINJA

JOSEPH A. ZIEMBA Alamo Drafthouse Art Director and Programmer @JosephAZiemba

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It's common knowledge that the most important ninja skill is stealth. It's a lesser known fact that stealth can be achieved while wearing green parachute pants. In the 1980s, filmmaker Godfrey Ho was responsible for the creation of approximately one-hundred-and-fortythree patchwork ninja movies. They have titles like NINJA AMERICAN WARRIOR, BIONIC NINJA and NINJA DEMON'S MASSACRE. The method of attack was simple. Ho and his partner would purchase a movie that had nothing to do with ninjas. Then they would insert newly-shot scenes of ninjas, add unlicensed songs, and attempt to create a narrative through dubbing. In DIAMOND NINJA FORCE, a softcore POLTERGEIST rip-off was combined with scenes of Richard Harrison talking on a Garfield telephone and dismembering ninjas while most of ARCHITECTURE & MORALITY by O.M.D. played in the background. No matter the "genre," Ho's ninja movies are fascinating and stupefying. They don't have the ingrained passion of other multi-sourced collages, like RUN COYOTE RUN or DESPERATION RISING. But they do guarantee an exhilarating state of anti-consciousness that's rivaled only by Turkey's most ruthlessly deranged filmmakers. So what happens when Godfrey Ho puts down his 35mm film camera, picks up a camcorder and makes a legit shot-on-video (SOV) ninja movie that contains zero recycled footage? It's called AMERICAN COMMANDO NINJA. It's also called a life-changing free-for-all with an agenda of desecration against your senses. A non-American, un-commando, sometimes-ninja named Larry wears electric blue short-shorts and Hawaiian shirts, usually at the same time. Larry spends his time sitting in front of paintings, making objects move with his thoughts and sparring with ninjas who might be ghosts. Meanwhile, a scientist named Tanaka has created a formula that will revolutionize "germ warfare." A gang of evil ninjas who practice "hocus pocus" are out to get that formula, as are some American gangsters. Larry will not stand for this! And so, he assembles a team of martial arts warriors to help Tanaka. One of the warriors wears a denim jumpsuit with rhinestones. The other wears Union Jack shortshorts. They do not change these clothes before fighting ninjas. As long as you don't think about it, the plot of AMERICAN COMMANDO NINJA is easy to understand. That's probably because it has the same general structure as CLASH OF THE NINJAS and dozens of other Godfrey Ho productions. But the plot isn't the focus. It's not the thing that causes you to convulse and sweat because your body doesn't know

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what to do with itself in the face of such misguided confidence. That honor goes to the execution. Watching AMERICAN COMMANDO NINJA is like drinking a suicide soda that was built from three thousand flavors. It makes your eyes burn and your insides buckle, but there's no other experience like it. And there never will be again. Because Ho's technical decisions are as ridiculous as the fashion choices of his cast. When Tanaka drives a car slowly on the highway, digs a hole, or sits on a couch, one-fingered guitar shredding accompanies him. When Larry jumps off of a table, climbs a tree, or lights a candle, he does so in slow motion. As a climactic battle rages between Larry and a ninja, we cut to Larry on a dinner date. There's a constant influx of unknown characters, illogical jump cuts and nonsensical conversations. Everyone speaks English, but that means nothing to us. How can it? When Larry defeats a ninja, he glances at his friend's crotch and says, "You're quite a guy!" This movie can't be criticized. It's an hypnotic, unbeatable snapshot of SOV madness that stands alone. Or it did stand alone, until Godfrey Ho made a direct sequel called SILENT KILLERS. The sequel reveals the effect that Tanaka's deadly formula has had on the world. It also reveals the same locations with the same cast wearing the same clothes. Plus bumper boats. It should also be noted that AMERICAN COMMANDO NINJA is the only ninja movie in existence to showcase a fist fight between a man and La-Z-Boy recliner. 6 AMERICAN COMMANDO NINJA screens this month at the Alamo Drafthouse. Check drafthouse.com for listings.

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Chiller is the leading network devoted exclusively to the horror/thriller genre, delivering edge-of-your-seat entertainment 24/7/365. Chiller features exciting series, spine-tingling reality, and thrilling movies—from cult classics to cutting-edge premieres. Our growing slate of Original Programs includes wickedly fun pop-culture specials and visionary feature films.

BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

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Class Act: KINGSMAN Kicks James Bond In The Upper Crust DEVIN FARACI Badass Digest Editor-in-Chief @devincf Read more at badassdigest.com

It’s easy to spoof James Bond. There’s been a cottage industry of it for fifty years, with most of the world’s filmmaking nations getting in on the action. In 1964, two years after DR. NO exploded on screens, there were no less than four Bond spoof films, and the ball has kept thundering ever since. Everybody from Woody Allen to Mike Meyers to Sean Connery’s brother has gotten in on the act over the years. It’s much harder to homage James Bond. It’s because the best of Bond -- the classic gentleman spy era -- is so broad already that it almost counts as a spoof of itself. What’s more, Bond is rooted so deeply in postColonial class structure and racial attitudes that maybe homaging this stuff isn’t for the best. Even the latest Bond films, the reboots starring Daniel Craig, have BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

consciously moved away from much of what makes Bond Bond (although with SKYFALL they’ve begun to move towards embracing some of the fun they left behind along with the neanderthal attitudes). Matthew Vaughn has solved this problem in KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE by simply making the movie about those very retrograde attitudes. It’s a film that attacks Bond’s snooty upper class airs right in the bollocks, making the argument that being a gentleman spy isn’t about breeding, it’s about bettering yourself. Anyone can be a gentleman because it’s an attitude, not a genetic gift. This attitude lets Vaughn (and co-writer and longtime partner in cinematic awesomeness Jane Goldman) have

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their cake and eat it too -- KINGSMAN is a pop movie spectacle jammed with gadgets and high fashion, cool villain lairs and badass spy action. This is Vaughn’s second adaptation of a highly-flawed Mark Millar comic book, and while he wasn’t exactly able to get past the nihilism of KICK-ASS in KINGSMAN, Vaughn makes KINGSMAN very much his own, and uses it to speak to larger class issues -- as well as poking some fun at the modern technology that has been breaking down our everyday civility. All of that is, of course, secondary to the fun, and Vaughn brings plenty of it. There’s something eternally cool about a guy in a nice, tailored suit using the minimal number of moves to take out thugs, and BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

KINGSMAN is full of such scenes. The action is thrilling -- there’s a lengthy battle in a church that’s going to rocket to the top of your ‘best scenes of the year’ list immediately. While the Bond films promise to get back to big, fun antics with SPECTRE -- reintroducing Bond’s old nemesis Blofeld in the process -- Matthew Vaughn has beaten 007 to the punch, making a gentleman spy film that romps through the good times of the ‘60s while maintaining a very 21st century approach to class. That’s the most impressive gadget of all. 6 KINGSMAN screens this month at the Alamo Drafthouse. Check drafthouse.com for listings.

The Last Word With AMIRA & SAM'S Martin Starr Q: What's your earliest movie memory? 

Q: What is the movie you believe everyone should see? 

A: Watching the action-packed kids’ movie BLANK CHECK.

A: GROUNDHOG DAY.

Q: What's the first movie you saw that made you understand that movies can be art?  A: Certainly my idea of art has evolved, but I think it would be BLANK CHECK.  Q: What is your guilty pleasure movie?  A: Any cheesy feel-good movie. Q: What type of role do you want to play before you die?  A: A real badass villain. Q: What was your most magical cinema experience?  A: Magical? Uh, TOY STORY was pretty wonderful. Or do you mean working on a movie with a magician? I haven't had the fortune of that experience so far.  BIRTH. MOVIES.DEATH. / FEBRUARY 2015

Q: Only one of your movies can continue to exist after you're gone - which one is it?  A: That's already come out? ADVENTURELAND. That hasn't? AMIRA & SAM. Q: If you weren't born to act, what else would you be doing?   A: I'd clearly be a veterinarian. Friend to all animals. A superhero to wounded pets.  Q: Why do you make movies? A: It all started quite simply for me as a child riding the high of making people laugh. 6

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