Another short movie today and this time it’s Conor Finnegan’s graduate film. Fluffy McCloud stars a cloud and is a “short film about man’s misunderstanding and mixed relationship with mother nature”. Which sounds a lot more serious than the film actually is…

FLUFFY MC CLOUD from conorfinnegan on Vimeo.

Today a short movie by Marc Druez from France. It’s not unlike early Lynch (pre-Eraserhead). The title is Echelle Noire (which means Black Shell) and it’s five minutes long. The music (or should I say soundscape) is by the band Les Tetines Noires (whom you may know from their Tool-like video
Têtes fards et lombrics). This short film was made in 1995.

P.S. There’s no dialogue in the film, so don’t worry about it being French.

Two weeks ago the Avenue posted part of a Newswipe episode, where journalist Marina Hyde tackled celebrities who were backing good causes. Now Jude fights back. Fast forward six and a half minutes and that’s when it starts.

Now we’re not saying that Jude Law isn’t doing something good, but…

- the Newswipe clip did make Jude look like a bit of a tit. Or a bad actor. “Ooh, when are you going? July? Hmm, I’m free as well.” Send an Oscar.
- Secondly and most importantly… he may not have remembered the journalist’s name (adding “Thank God”), but when he’s reminded of her name, he spits on the ground. Always a sign of bad manners.
- … and then he adds he’s doing all the great work and how this journalist “with her fat arse” shouldn’t dare to be critical of him and ‘Angie’ Jolie, who are hard-working celebrities and who are making the world a better place. Not only does he miss the entire point of Marina Hyde’s views in her book (she is critical of the celebs who are doing it to improve their image, but she’s even more critical of the news media, who have made it thus that things are only news-worthy when Jude Law pops up), we’re not also sure Ms Hyde has a fat bottom. Anyway, what we are sure about is that Marina Hyde doesn’t only write about celebrities, she also writes about sports and politics.

But then again, that is the difference between looking something up (like we do) and making rude remarks about people with different opinions. Then again, it does take more time to google someone (or, heaven forbid, read a book) than it does to spit on the ground. But that is why Jude Law is an asshole.

(interview by Movies.ie)

When the cast of a movie is mentioned only by their first names, it can only mean two things: either you’re watching a porn movie or a film with musicians. And a title like “Give gas, I want fun” doesn’t exactly help clarifying which of the two you’re watching. Which may explain why the English title of this film is Hanging Out. Which… come to think of it… may also be a sexual reference.

But no, dirty mind, Gib gas, ich will Spass is not smut, but a music film with Markus and Nena. The former a highly successful pop star, the latter an unknown pop star. And now, a quarter of a century later, the roles seem to be reversed. Because there’s a lot of chance you know Nena from her global hit “99 Luftballons” (a.k.a. 99 Red Balloons), but who is Markus? Think of Patrick Wolf who is accidently teleported to the 1980s and – these teleportations never go great, just watch The Fly – discovers his poppiest of sounds. Mind you, this film was made in 1983, when Germany found its new voice and answer to punk and new wave by inventing the Neue Deutsche Welle (literally New German Wave). Back in 1982, “Ich Will Spass” by Markus might have been refreshing rather than annoying. Make up your own mind because this is Markus’s biggest hit and the title track of the film (as performed in a music show where the average age of the viewer was 56):

So he wants fun, our Markus. And he’ll get it in this film as he’s the new boy in school, short trousers but a fast bike. Because rebellion, like a mullet, doesn’t grow in one day. Markus, who plays Robby, has the hots for Tina, as portrayed by Nena. Tina finds Robby silly rather than sexy and has more sexual feelings for Tino, who works full time on a fair and has his own convertible. And a mullet. And – what would romance be without language? – because Tino and Tina sounds cool.Tina convinces Tino to run off together, but when she can’t make it to the rendez-vous spot in time, Tino drives off with another chick. Her suitcase already packed and hoping to see Tino again, Tina convinces Robby to drive away together. Robby, naive enough to think Tina loves him as much as he loves her, gladly accepts. Tina’s feelings towards Tino are addressed in one of Nena’s biggest hits Nur geträumt: “Ich hab’ heute nichts versäumt, denn ich hab’ nur vor dir geträumt” (I haven’t wasted today, because I only dreamt of you). Don’t believe me, here’s the clip from the English dubbed version of the film:

And, of course, the search for Tino will ultimately end in Tina losing her heart to Robby. Seems like a sugar sweet teen flick, how can this be of any value to the cult-loving readership of DV? Well, there are several reasons: no matter how bad this film can be – and believe me, this will be a guilty pleasure – it’s nowhere as embarrassing as Crossroads or most of Madonna‘s output. The director is Wolfgang Büld, who had previously made a couple of documentaries about punk and reggae. Büld had noticed the Neue Deutsche Welle movement was becoming more mainstream and felt like pushing the genre by making a teen flick with the movement’s protagonists in several of the roles. Apart from Markus and newcomer Nena in the leads the film also included a cameo by the band Extrabreit.
Nevertheless, the film is pretty weak in as much as the ‘story’ is flimsy (it’s basically Robby and Tina driving after Tina’s love interest you couldn’t care about) and the jokes are either silly or horrible: one running gag is Tina’s classmate, seen in the clip above, who is always eating meat products. It’s not that I explained it badly, that’s what he does: he mainly boasts about how much he loves eating sausages and how many he can eat. I’ll pause briefly, so you can chuckle at this hilarious concept. A boy who eats fried meat… utter and utter genius! Equally hilarious is having older actor Karl Dall play a handful of tiny roles, in an attempt to make the viewer chuckle “Look, it’s Karl again, ha-ha!” And of course it doesn’t help that it’s a movie that’s mainly made to push the music. In the following clip, Robby and Tina have made it to the airport, just too late to catch Tino. Tina manages to make contact with him and they agree to meet each other in Venice. After this, Nena has to link the fluttering Tina running back to Robby to one of her songs (Ganz oben). The result, complete with a hilarious drunk pilot, looks like this:

Which makes it all the more surprising to see Robby and Tina end up in Venice. While arguing, Robby is abducted by a group of nymphomaniacs (I wish I was making this up) and Tina chases the gondola on foot, with Nena’s Tanz auf dem Vulkan as soundtrack to the scene. But watch at (or fast forward to) 2:47 to spot a surprising cameo…

Admit that this is a cameo you wouldn’t have expected in such a bubblegum movie. Ultimately, Carla Rhode of Der Tagesspiegel reviewed the film best: “I would have like to have fun too, but Nena, Markus and director Wolfgang Büld left me unsatisfied. What did the film attempt to be? A story about runaways, a musical or was it just a handful of uninspired scenes chucked together to fill the voids between songs by Nena and Markus?” Then again, I told you this would a guilty pleasure and it’s up to you whether a couple of Nena songs, Nena’s nude back and a reference to Don’t Look Now are enough to watch a corny movie for 85 minutes. Not that the film pretended to be Goethe. After all, the title is Gib Gas, Ich Will Spass.

3/10

P.S. Büld must’ve liked the experience because, two years later, he made Der Formel Eins Film, an equally corny film promoting Formel Eins (the German Top of The Pops) and featuring a.o. Falco (Jeanny, Rock me Amadeus, …)

Not a lot of time this week, so posts will be short and sporadic. But this might be a good time to give a shout out to 6music, the BBC radio station that heard the BBC will probably close the station at the end of the year (or next year). No fin de siècle doom if you tune in though, just of the better alternative radio stations out there. When 6music closes, people like me will be forced even more into the worlds of music blogs, Spotify, Last.fm and the likes.

One thing is good though: since the announcement the station’s listening figures seemed to have grown significantly (from 700.000 a year ago to just over a million now). In the words of former DJ Phill Jupitus (in an article for The Guardian): “As I listen to 6 Music today, I keep hearing tracks and thinking, where else would I hear this kind of radio during the day? The tragic answer to that question is nowhere. The end of 6 Music at this moment in the BBC’s history is not only an act of cultural vandalism, it’s also an affront to the memory of John Peel and a slap in the face to thousands of licence-payers.”

So don’t forget to tune in before it’s too late.

Edit (Jun 15): the Avenue’s computer is no more. All hail the new Avenue computer! I’m trying to get my sparkly new computer as ready as it should be. Which means the next update will be posted later than usual.

It’s June, which means posting here is at a reasonably slower rate. That’s right, even slower than usual. But fear not, because now we’ve done something rather clever. Here’s a rant that we’ve spread over two posts, rather than one (the usual amount of space and time a rant is generally allowed to have).

This first part is part of a show broadcast in January on BBC4. It’s Newswipe with Charlie Brooker and in this clip mister Brooker himself introduces a colleague (well, they both work for The Guardian, so colleague is the best term) who will give her opinion on whether celebrities are always the best champions for good causes.

(The video is uploaded to YouTube with consent of Charlie Brooker.)

Back to the heroes! And today it’s Tarkan who battles the Vikings (which explains the title) as well as a sea monster that looks more disturbing than scary. And let’s not forget man’s best friend, who’s kind enough to run up a wall to save Tarkan. (Well, or so the director would have you believe. Pity they forgot to end the scene just a nanosecond too late.)

Tarkan vs. the Vikings is available on the Mondo Macabro “Turkish pop cinema” dvd.

Here’s the June schedule of ARTE Trash. It promises to be quite a month…

Jun 4: Zinda Laash (Dracula in Pakistan)
Professor Tabini is experimenting on an elixir that he believes will beat death. When he tries it on himself, however, things don’t work out as planned and he dies. When his assistant finds him no longer among the living, she carries him down stairs and slaps him into the crypt in the basement. Unfortunately for her, he rises from the grave and chomps down on her neck.

Jun 11: Mercano, El Marciano (Mercano The Martian)
When his pet is killed by a probe from earth, Mercano, a Martian, travels to earth angered. Landing in Buenos Aires, at first noone takes any notice of him.

Jun 18: Gib Gas, ich will Spass
Pert Tina (played by Nena – of “99 Luftballons” fame) is sick of school and the muff in her Bavarian village. She wants to go with Tino – attendant of a visiting auto-scooter – who has to leave the place for dubious reasons. However he lets her down and leaves alone. Now Tina persuades fellow student Robby, who has a crush on her, to take her on a random trip with his motor-scooter. It seems only to be a matter of time until he realizes that she’s just using him to follow her boyfriend – or will the shy Robby manage to win her heart on their chaotic journey?

Jun 25: O Fantasma
Young and handsome Sergio works the night shift as a trash collector in Lisbon, Portugal. He can’t force himself to connect with his pretty female co-worker Fatima, who displays an avid interest in him, so instead Sergio roams the city with the trash company’s pet dog. Eventually Sergio becomes fascinated with a sleek motorcycle, and then also its arrogant owner – a young man totally indifferent to Sergio. The frustrated trash collector’s surfacing desires unleash his darkest impulses, sending him down a dangerous path of violence, depravity and degradation.