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L.A. Haunted (2019)
A weird experiment with a ghostly imagery & nightmarish moods with comical twists!
It's not your regular horror. It's an experiment with a stylized ghostly imagery and nightmarish moods cut in a very innovative way and twisted with a black humor. It's like a collection of short abstract nightmares that might do a bad thing to your subconciosness... just kidding! The engulfing soundtrack is full of insane sounds and it contributes a big deal to this sick atmosphere of, I would say, cartoonish ghost activities that get damaged with the radio waves and TV glitches, trying to cut through with their incoherent stories that make no sense. The film doesn't want to be scary, but rather mesmerizing, puzzling and sometimes weirdly hilarious. And it also has some depraved sex surprises not found in the most ghost stories. If you like experimental films, go for it, otherwise skip it - no violence, no blood, no anything, just a strange dream.
In a Dream of a Muse (2018)
A highly imaginative, surreal horror/comedy short!
"In a Dream of a Muse" is an experimental short that makes you feel like you're seeing some strange dream of absurdity and surrealism. Part horror, part comedy and part of something else, this film doesn't really fit to any existing genre, but rather creates its own.
It's pretty much like a modern silent film, except the characters do some inarticulate utterances and the voices behind the screen read some bizarre poetry in several different languages. And it all sounds like crazy announcements at an invisible airport or something.
But of course it's the Steampunk visuals, interesting locations, music and soundscapes that contribute a lot to this film's special atmosphere and its intriguing mystery. Totally unpredictable, it takes you from one weird nightmare to another in a search of something continuously elusive.
The creator of this film, rock musician / filmmaker Arthur Mountaniol effortlessly plays the main role and the others, taking the viewer into the world of his nightmares and subconsciousness where things can stick together or fall apart in any order possible, without any coherency and where nothing seems to make any sense, especially to an eye of an ignorant philistine.
Recommended just for a few of those who might be looking for something genuinely artistic beyond the mainstream.
I also recommend to check out the music video "Ballad of the Evil Fate" because it offers another side to the same story which tells you what remains untold in this film.
Year of the Ram (2018)
Brilliant!
"Year of the Ram" is a beautiful music short that highlights the most colorful and exciting moments of the Chinese 2015 New Year Parade in Los Angeles.
Spiced up with the cool visual effects, cutting-edge editing, lavish colors and powered with the great Asian-style rock guitar theme, it offers a rather psychedelic experience like you've probably never seen before.
Must see!
Ballad of the Evil Fate (2018)
A sleepwalking journey into a beautiful nightmare!
"Ballad of the Evil Fate" is a sleepwalking journey into a beautiful nightmare filled with a bitter-sweet irony and collaged with a grotesque, dazzling imagery.
A perfect companion to your Halloween party. Surreal and imaginative with a Steampunk masquerade, this brilliantly crafted small-scale rock theater of horrors has a strange mesmerizing and mysterious quality.
Creatively photographed and artistically edited, scene by scene it takes you deeper and deeper into the workings of the director's subconsciousness that tells you the story of the vagabond who's been foretold a strange fate.
Arthur Mountaniol is a sole creator of this video. His song "Ballad of the Evil Fate" is the dark rock ballad sung in a weird vocal style. It haunts you like some ugly warlocks from the Medieval times, where as the trippy music itself vividly illustrates the overall dream-like vibe of this slow-paced spectacle.
The vagabond with his old concertina hanging loosely over his shoulder, drifts in chains through his nightmares, meeting some spooky characters and looking to escape from his destiny while the iron nun mocks him, playing a mandolin in her chamber of tortures.
"Ballad of the Evil Fate" is not a kind of music video you normally see nowadays. It's not aimed to promote the artist's next release or gigs. It's just all by itself like an auteur's work existing in its own dimension which can be appreciated only by its artistic merit, not popularity or sales statistics.
Train (2018)
A monstrous machinery of a sinister kind.
"Train" has no actors. The lead character in this experimental short is the train itself. The train and its evil parts. Actually their shadows to be exact. Creatively filmed in black & white and edited with the cutting edge techniques, it's reminiscent of the early French and German avant-garde films of the 1920's.
However, its strength in my opinion, comes from its modern industrial soundtrack. It's composed with a surgical precision, emphasizing every tiny detail. All the rusty squeaking, clicking, honking and everything else you could possibly imagine.
As the train gets more and more weird and crazy, grinding its strange, metallic fangs, fractured sections and blinding the viewer with the dazzling flickering, everything turns into a twisted collage of a mechanical mayhem.
The author of this film Arthur Mountaniol, who also produced its soundtrack, creates a rather unique 3 minute trip out of a very common object which in this case presents itself as some monstrous machinery of a sinister kind.
Pest Control (2016)
"Does humor belong in music?" - Frank Zappa
I believe that the creator of this video Arthur Mountaniol really thinks so. His music short "Pest Control" is a hilarious adventure stylized with the elements of grotesque images, British cop comedy and a la German Expressionism especially noticeable in those scenes with the machinery moving parts that remind you of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis". Yes, that's how high it gets, but only in its small, weird way. Like a friction between reality and illusion, it's filmed in black & white and some color and composed in a funny, cartoonish manner with a microscopic, rhythmical precision.
In terms of music, "Pest Control" sounds more like a mini opera with a great prog rock triumphal march, blues, rock and something else that's hard to define.
It tells the story of the crazy pest control guy on the mission.
Even though it all happens in LA, he wears a British bobby helmet and runs with a bunch of empty beer cans in the rain. Full of delightful lunacy and self-control, he operates the strange machine which presumably is his main tool of destruction. But there's another one - it's the poison "Made in the USA". He kills them all with it and they die just like mummies in the oven of Hell.
A glorious victory comes and then dissolves into the idyllic scene where our hero, with a blissful smile on his face, enjoys the cherry blossoms. But the final scene takes us back to reality where we see the darkness of his inner world # 22 falling apart. The director leaves us a room for imagination as he doesn't show much of what I've just described. It's just up to you.
"Pest Control" is not good for everyone, but nevertheless it's a unique music short that is both intelligent and entertaining and it's a kind of thing that can be appreciated only by those who dig that kind.
Zone Called Nevermore (2017)
A stylish, ironic and inventive showpiece wrapped around Halloween!
Music video "Zone Called Nevermore" by independent rock musician / filmmaker Arthur Mountaniol is a stylish and ironic showpiece based on his psychedelic rock song with the same name.
This video distinguishes itself with a sense of humor and inventiveness. The central visual element here is the Halloween parade movie showing on the screen where you can see a lot of interesting characters. However what really catches your eye is the audience of the blue men who watch it. They react in sync to everything that's going on in the movie, but every once in a while they instantly disappear one by one or in groups, and then reappear in all types of combinations, creating a funny, doll-like show of their own.
As the video plays on, the screen itself breaks into pieces and then reassembles into varies structures and geometrical figures and lines. Sometimes the invisible singer briefly shows up catching up with a song and then leaves the spotlight for the guitarist who looks like a glowing alien with an illuminating body who also splits into many of different sizes.
The song itself provides a good, visionary sound base with the exotic guitar solos, monster sounding chorus and surreal lyrics with an elusive meaning that makes you feel like you're always missing something, but that only gets you hooked up even more.
All in all, this video is quite amusing and rather sophisticated despite its low budget production. But there's a true artistry and originality here which I so much like and prefer over an ostentatious cliché that I see and hear over and over again in music videos by many of today's top artists.
Home (2017)
Simple yet magical!
Music video "Home" by musician/filmmaker Arthur Mountaniol is like a magic dream that you don't want to wake up from. Crafted with a simplicity and stylish grace, this artistically illustrated song will warm your heart with its beautiful melody and heartfelt vocals. It will make you think of The Beatles' "Yesterday" and "Let it be", filling you with joy, sadness and hope. Arthur Mountaniol is a talented musician and a sensitive filmmaker with imagination, who unlike most artists nowadays, knows what a human being really needs. A simple yet magical piece of work indeed!
Castle of the Dancing Fools (2018)
A little miracle that will make you smile!
"Castle of the Dancing Fools" is a little, inventive and surreal music film full of humor and imagination. Musician / filmmaker Arthur Mountaniol plays the three identical gentlemen who awkwardly dance and move around through the arks of the sunlit terrace. The set is creatively photographed, using overexposure and blurry photo effects that give it all a dreamlike, enigmatic look. A use of some other visual effects, makes other sequences look like an animation. The beautiful guitar soundtrack creates a very special mood that in many ways makes this film so enjoyable.
However there's another interesting element used in the film. It's like someone behind the screen continuously takes pictures of the dancing gentlemen. The frames freeze and unfreeze, creating their own rhythm. There are also other characters - a witch and a guitarist who sometimes looks like a clown with a balloon or a mad maestro. Arthur Mountaniol also uses a fast motion, cutting edge montage and lots of weird noises and sound effects. Brilliantly directed and performed by him alone, "Castle of the Dancing Fools" is an elegant and bizarre cinematic miniature that will make you smile.
Serpent Street (2014)
A surreal rocky horror crazy wild ride!
Arthur Mountaniol's "Serpent Street" is a fascinating piece of work. Part music video, part short film with elements of silent and experimental cinema. It offers interesting surreal visuals that go very well with the progressive rock song "Serpent Street" by Arthur Mountaniol as well.
Comical, dramatic and theatrical with the fantasy horror backdrops and decorations, it tells a story of a gentleman walking down the Serpent Street - a mysterious place where he tastes a forbidden fruit and rediscovers himself as a thrill-seeker. Finally it all leads him to a delightful madness.
The director uses a lot of slow and fast motion and visual effects as well as the saturated unnatural colors that help create that special look and mood of the film.
Starting at slow pace and gradually evolving into a crazy wild ride, Serpent Street gives a viewer a multi-dimensional experience like nothing else.
Wish I Could (2014)
A little, metaphysical phantasm!
"Wish I Could" is not just another music video that you see nowadays. Transcendental at its core, it has a rare, exotic beauty and spiritual depth. The song of a universal love sung by someone who might be a star man or a shaman from another galaxy, takes us on a journey to an unknown phantasmagorical reality.
Stalactite walls with a liquid orb moving around behind the singing man in a tribal make-up, stars, tai chi exercises, blinding sunbursts and other mysterious characters wearing some tribal headpieces with strange branches sticking out of them, create an abstract visual feast that brilliantly illustrates the song.
This video is a little, metaphysical phantasm with a cosmic perspective that opens our mind for an elusive meaning of life and existence beyond vanity.
Third Eye of The Shaman (2017)
Otherworldly and highly original, "Third Eye of The Shaman" is an extraordinary film that will blow your mind!
"Third Eye of The Shaman" is an experimental film by progressive rock musician and independent filmmaker Arthur Mountaniol. Psychedelic, mysterious and spiritual, it has some elements of mysticism, metaphysics, symbolism, ritual dancing and singing, poetry and experimental-rock music. It also has a certain connection to Japanese, Chinese and American Indian culture, exploring their relatedness.
This is a story of one man's shamanic journey told from the perspective of his soul separated from his body and stalked by a demon during his visionary quest.
There's an interesting, unorthodox idea at the core of this film, suggesting that defeating evil is not an option, but instead, a very coexistence of both - good and evil in you, is the only way to the universal balance. It loosely refers to the rule of Yin Yang which probably is a main invisible force behind it all.
The film defies any conventional filmmaking and seems to use a more intuitive and subconscious way of building a story. Slow-paced at first, it develops into an intense spiritual conflict between good and evil. In the first several chapters, the shaman almost never appears on the screen, but you can hear his soul telling you of its out-of-body experiences. There's neither dialogue nor monologue used in the film, but a narration. Time and space don't exist here either. They are totally abstract like in a strange dream. Every chapter will give you something new and unexpected as the story unfolds.
Beautifully and creatively photographed and edited with an artistic touch, using a palette of kaleidoscopic visual effects and saturated colors, this film has a very special look. Its mood though, owes a lot to its amazing soundtrack that mesmerizes you from the very beginning and takes you to the end where it explodes in an ultimate ecstasy.
Other than that, the nature itself, too, seems to play some significant role here. While the ritual ground offers another intriguing and probably the most memorable visual element that looks like an abandoned alien airdrome.
The filmmaker also uses a tribal make-up, strange music instruments and Asian masks. In fact, Oni mask (Japanese demon) was used for the character of "Stalking Demon" and Chinese opera mask and Kabuki wig for the character of "Shaman".
This film also has a lot to do with a cosmic consciousness, transformation, reincarnation and Demonism and it will probably leave you shocked, confused and lost in thought.
Arthur Mountaniol offers his own introspective look into this strange, obscure world that he has managed to express in a truly unique way. And of course the most surprising thing is that he has made it all entirely by himself.
Otherworldly and highly original, "Third Eye of The Shaman" is an extraordinary film that will blow your mind. A real trip to experience!