Tag Archives: short film

A Blast From The Past: Mia & Roman (dir by Hatami)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Mia & Roman is a short film that was filmed in 1968 to promote the release of the classic horror film, Rosemary’s Baby.

The film profiles director Roman Polanski and actress Mia Farrow, both of whom appear as being young and full of hope.  (It’s sad to think that, just a year after appearing happy and optimistic in the film, Polanski’s wife and unborn child would be murdered by the Manson family.  Polanski, of course, would later end up fleeing the country and he remains controversial to this day.  Mia, meanwhile, would eventually become both the mother of Ronan Farrow and an overrated SyFy live tweeter.)  Along with serving as a time capsule of the 1960s (and you know how much I love time capsules), Mia & Roman also features some behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Rosemary’s Baby.

Enjoy!

A Blast From The Past: Red Nightmare (directed by George Waggner)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi there!  Happy Labor Day!

Now, I have to be honest.  I’m not really sure what the point of Labor Day is.  I have no idea what we’re supposed to be celebrating today.  I’ve got the day off, which seems kind of unfair when you consider that people who have far worse jobs than me — i.e., the actual laborers — are having to work.

Like many Americans, I spent this weekend hanging out with my extended family.  On Sunday, I did a poll of every cousin, aunt, uncle, sister, niece, and nephew that I could find and almost every single one of them agreed with me that Labor Day sounded like something tedious that Jesse Myerson would come up with and then demand that everyone celebrate.  In short, it sounded communistic.

So, with that in mind, I think the best way to start out Labor Day would be by watching this educational film from 1962.  In Red Nightmare, Jerry Donavon (Jack Kelly) takes his freedom for granted.  So, Jack Webb shows up and casts a magic spell, which causes Jerry to have a dream about what it would be like to live in a communist society.  In fact, you could even say that Jack Webb gives Jerry a red nightmare!

So, there’s two ways to review a film like Red Nightmare.  We can either debate the film’s politics and get into a big discussion about economics and policy and all that crap and OH MY GOD, doesn’t that just sound perfectly tedious?  Or, we can simply enjoy Red Nightmare for what it is, a histrionic but sincere time capsule of what was going on in the psyche of 1962 America.

Red Nightmare!  Watch it before getting brainwashed by Labor Day!

A Blast From The Past: Cheating (dir by Herk Harvey)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the past, I have occasionally shared old educational films here on the Shattered Lens.  As everyone should know by now, I love history and these short films all serve as interesting time capsule of the era in which they were made.  Seeing as how August is traditionally the time when students go back to school, I figured now would be as good a time as any to share some wisdom from the past.

The film below is from 1952.  It’s called Cheating.  It’s about what happens when John Taylor forces his friend Mary to help him cheat.  When he gets caught, it not only harms Mary’s reputation but John soon finds his own position on the student council threatened!  Oh, the horror!

Now, I have to admit that I enjoyed this short film because, as I’ve mentioned before on this site, I occasionally cheated on a few tests while I was in high school.  But, beyond that, this film is interesting because it’s shot like a living nightmare, complete with crooked camera angles, expressionistic lighting, an atmosphere of existential dread, and an extremely judgmental narrator.  Director Herk Harvey goes all out in his direction for this one.  (Harvey is probably best known for later directing Carnival of Souls, his only feature film.)

Plus, there’s always the fun of listening to all those country accents.  It may be tempting to make fun of the “actors,” all of whom seem to have picked out of a local high school drama class.  But, there’s an authenticity to them that will make most viewers reconsider the importance of cinematic authenticity.

Anyway, the ultimate message here seems to be that you should only cheat if you know you can get away with it and that is a message that I happily endorse.  It’s something that all students should keep in mind as they return to school this month.

Enjoy Cheating!

 

Gloriously Insane Action That Is Kung Fury

Posted on by Arleigh

Kung FuryThe Insanely Glorious Action That Is Kung Fury

I grew up during the 1980’s and I do remember how it was a decade dominated by martial arts films and cop action films. Even looking back through rose-tinted goggles, I will admit that for a majority of films released under those two genres most were quite bad. Yet, they were bad and enjoyable in their own clumsy and low-budget way.

The short comedy action film Kung Fury arrives on the web today. Why a short film and not a full-length? Well, while it’s kickstarter campaign more than passed it’s goal of $200,000 dollars it failed to reach a stretch goal of $1,000,000 to turn the film into a full-length feature film. While I believe a full-length film would’ve been nice to see, I think this film works best in it’s short film format.

Kung Fury (written, directed and starring David Sandberg) is a pastiche of all the over-the-top action beats action film fans love about the genre during the 1980’s. It throws everything it could think of onto the screen and blends them together with no thought in mind of how ridiculous and insane it turned out. It’s a film that’s a homage and a parody of those very 80’s action and martial arts films that we know and love so much.

Yet, for all the insanity that occurs in the film there’s actually a weird logic to the film’s narrative that reaches a nice pay-off in the end that screams and begs for a sequel. What better way to end a film that’s a love letter to all things 1980’s action than making sure it ends in a blatant cliffhanger that screams sequel and franchise building.

If there’s one film you should see this weekend that doesn’t involve costumed superheroes, post-apocalyptic marauders, acapella throwdowns, and the next disaster porn then it should be the 30-minutes of insane martial arts, time-traveling, police action film called Kung Fury.

Star Wars: TIE Fighter Anime Short Film

Posted on by Arleigh

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There’s always been great combos throughout history. Whether it was Lee and Stonewall, Grant and Sherman right up to peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes two things alone and by themselves are very good, but only reach the level of greatness when put together.

This short anime film by animator Paul Johnson (Youtube user Otaking77077) done over four years in the traditional anime style is turning out to be one of the best things to come out this year. It combines two things that were already great on their own, anime and Star Wars, but when put together has reached epicness status.

It even puts the narrative (scored with heavy metal fashion by Zakir Rahman) completely on the side of the Galactic Empire. This is a narrative we rarely get to see since everyone seems to be all in Team Rebel Alliance.

Enough talk…just watch and enjoy.

A Blast From The Past: Are You Popular? (dir by Ted Peshak)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week’s blast from the past is a 9-minute educational film from 1947.  In Are You Popular?, we enter into the world of high school in the 1940s and we discover that our grandparents were amazingly judgmental teenagers.

We start out with a bunch of teenagers sitting in a cafeteria and debating why the new girl at school, Caroline, is so popular.  Then Ginny, the old girl at school, tries to sit at the table but no one’s willing to make room for her.  A stern-voiced narrator informs us that Ginny thinks that she’s popular because she goes “parking” with all the boys.  “No,” the narrator informs us, “girls who park in cars are not really popular…not even with the boys that they park with.”

Interestingly enough, none of the boys are condemned for all “parking” with the same girl.  No, instead, it’s all on Ginny.

Anyway, once Ginny has been properly shamed, the film becomes about the efforts of two boys to win a date with Caroline.  Caroline comes across like one of those girls in high school who would get upset whenever someone wore a short skirt.

Seriously, Ginny is too good for those losers….

Anyway, in the interest of providing a window into the deeply repressed and judgmental world that was 1947, here’s Are You Popular?

A Blast From The Past: Charlton Heston Explains The Ratings System

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi!

Are you confused by the ratings system?  Well, fortunately for you, Charlton Heston was willing to take some time out of his tennis game in order to explain it to you.  This short film is from 1972 so it’s a little bit out-of-date.  There’s no mention of PG-13 or NC-17, for instance.  (And, of course, Charlton Heston is no longer with us…)  But the point comes across regardless.

When I went to see Kingsmen at the Alamo Drafthouse, they showed this clip before the movie.  The audience absolutely loved it.

Happy Holidays and 5th Year Here at Through the Shattered Lens

Posted on by Arleigh

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We celebrate the 5th year anniversary of the site and as part of our yearly holiday ritual over here at Through the Shattered Lens, I present to all of you readers, visitors and passer-byes the greatest holiday film ever created since forever.

It is a film full of joy and happiness. Of giving and sharing with loved ones that which matters most. This is a film that best describes what Through the Shattered Lens stands for and works towards.

It even has a scene straight out of a Disney classic.

So, from all of us at Through the Shattered Lens….

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Back to School #12: The Ringer (dir by Jeff Lieberman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

If you’re a teen who lives in North Texas, then today was your first day back to school.  In honor of this event, I’ve been doing a special series of Back to School reviews: 76 reviews in 8 days, all dealing with either high school or being a teenager.  Today, we continue this series by taking a look at The Ringer, a clever 1972 film about drugs, music, and nose rings!

Over the course of 20 minutes, The Ringer tells several different stories.  A girl shoots up heroin and then reacts with disturbing passivity as blood starts to run down her arm in close-up.  A group of ad execs discuss the best way to convince teenagers to buy “ringers,” huge nose rings that will let people know what they believe in.  (While the whole idea behind the ringers is a play on the idea of people being “led by the nose,” it also accurately predicted future fashion and how many educational films can you say that about?)  A group of music executives discuss the best way to market a new band, agreeing that the best strategy would be to make it appear as if the band isn’t being sold while it actually is.  (One of them suggests that they shouldn’t have chairs at any of the band’s shows, in order to make the band seem unpretentious and seriously, we all know that would totally work…)  And finally, there’s the group of drug dealers who strategize about the best way to sell pills to teenagers…

Now, I have to admit that I have a weakness for old educational films but that’s largely because they tend to be so silly.  The Ringer is unique in that it’s actually a very clever and well-done film that deftly uses satire (as opposed to the heavy-handed messaging that we usually tend to associate with educational films) to make its point.  As opposed to many other anti-drug films of the period, The Ringer doesn’t spend any time telling horror stories about what people may or may not do while under the influence but instead, it ridicules and attacks those that get rich off of other people’s addictions.

The Ringer is also interesting because it was the directorial debut of filmmaker Jeff Lieberman, who brought a similar mix of satire and drama to such classic films as Blue Sunshine, Squirm, and Just Before Dawn!  If you keep an eye out, you can spot him playing one of the drug dealers!

A Warning From The Past: The Last Prom

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I’ve mentioned previously on this site, I love old educational films.  Not only do they serve as valuable time capsules but they’re also often so melodramatic and over-the-top that I can’t help but appreciate them.

After all, there’s a reason why one of my favorite DVDs is entitled Driver’s Ed Scare Films Volume Five.

And one of my favorite films on that compilation is 1980’s The Last Prom.  Taking place in the small town Indiana and featuring a ghostly choir wailing away on the soundtrack, The Last Prom tells the tale of Sandy, a junior who makes the mistake of going to the prom with a senior who owns a van.  Needless to say, the entire film is a bit of a downer but its worth watching just to see all of the old clothes and the old haircuts (not to mention the Sandy spinning around in circles montage).

Having watched this film several times, I have to say — in Bill’s defense — that tunnel was way too narrow.  But, seriously, don’t drink and drive.