CLASSIC CONSPIRACY CINEMA: "I COMME ICARE" (1973)

What if a powerful head of state was murdered by a shadowy faction within his own government? And his assassination was blamed on a lone nut assassin? What if this patsy was to die in prison before coming to trial? And what if a white-wash commission was set up to investigate the whole sorry mess? And what if that commission was mostly made up of former opponents of the murdered head of state? And what if there was one exception to this, and what if this one honest man refused to sign on, choosing instead to conduct a potentially deadly dangerous investigation of his own?

This wonderful, little known (outside of the English speaking world) gem of paranoid 70's conspiracy cinema is very much worth watching, even if you don't understand French (the language in which it was filmed) or Spanish (the subtitles). For one thing, Stanley Kubrick's visual stamp isn't all over it... and y'all know how much I love me some Kubrick! I especially love the loosely fictionalized vision of the United States created for this film... it's vision of a totally compromised, unanswerable, purely symbolic, figurehead type of government order is so close to the way things have turned out, it's actually kind of scary. 

THE ORIGINAL 'MATRIX'?

Based on the 1964 cybernetics-themed sf novel Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye, the videos below feature both parts of the 16mm film version directed by legendary German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder for German TV, called Welt am Draht. Both parts come with English subtitles.

Here is Part One...

And here is Part Two...

ATTACK OF THE RANDROIDS!

I wrote this essay in 1998, and I published it independently on a bit of web space I was allotted by the first ISP I ever signed up with. Aside from rants on alt.movies.kubrick, it's the first thing I ever published online, and it was soon noticed by the influential proto-blog Suck.com, who liked it so much they devoted half a day's edition to it. I present it here, now as an archival curio that still holds up, if I do say so myself. Enjoy! - YOPJ

Reading Does a Body Good!

In early 1998, the Modern Library Association (a division of Random House) assembled a group of America's leading literary figures in order to compile a list of the "100 Greatest English Language Novels of the 20th century." Even though it was a marketing ploy obviously geared towards getting more Americans to peruse Random House's catalog of classic literary works, THE LIST was given major coverage by many international media outlets, including CNN and most of the various news-oriented magazines. For the first time in a long time, it seemed, books were "big news." 

Continue reading at Daily Dirt Diaspora Blog!

CREEPY 1985 CLAYMATION

I don't know about you guys, but when I was a kid flipping channels and I came across claymation, I stopped and watched, no matter what the subject. There's just something about the process of claymation that seems magical and otherworldly... almost Biblical, really. After all, what are we if not God's Golems; shaped clay with the magical spark of life inside of us? Anyway, I find it amusing that this claymation adaptation of an unfinished Mark Twain story addresses that very point, in very effective and extremely creepy fashion. Some might find it distasteful that such disturbing subject matter was deemed appropriate for children. Personally, I think it's fine, and well worth watching. So I share it with all of you. As always, comments are welcome!