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Reviews
Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl (2014)
Don't be evil...
Invigorating no-budget agitprop craziness by Austrian art-tech-maniacs "monochrom". Grenzfurthner and his merry band of discourse-pranksters are well-known for creating interesting little universes (like "Soviet Unterzoegersdorf") to make entertaining political and philosophical statements. "Die Gstettensaga", their first feature film, is taking classic post-apocalyptic tropes to tell a story of subculture and its inevitable corruption and decay. Is it an allegory for the Egyptian Revolution of 2011? Or for the demise of punk? Or for the impossibility of freedom of information? All of it, I assume, and more... and spiced with plenty of nerdy references that will make you squeal with delight.
Gstettensaga is a lot of fun -- and it will leave you with a refreshingly bitter aftertaste.
Funny Games (1997)
The human condition?
The utterly senseless torture of the family in "Funny Games" isn't nearly as disturbing as our complicit witnessing on it... Upon first viewing, Haneke knows his audience better than we know ourselves. We believe that we only continue to watch "Funny Games" because we are empathizing with its characters. No. We are not. We love it. By watching, we are agreeing, we are complicit -- and Haneke is our Austrian dungeon master. A sadist. To be clear: I don't think I like Haneke's approach. It's like watching a pointless vivisection. It's destructive. His corpus of work is an anatomy of hatred, but I'm not sure what can actually be learned from it.
(As a side note: I think that there should be a pen & paper RPG about Haneke's worlds. About genital self-mutilation, cancer, sorrow, stunbolt guns. Would be way more extreme than "Call of Cthulhu".)
Crash! (1971)
JG Ballard's Fetishistic Pleasure-Walk
A little gem, but barely mentioned beyond Ballard fan circles. This short film was made for the BBC in 1971. The film is driven by a narration by author JG Ballard that moves, shifting from analysis of the psychology of the car to the examination of the role of the writer. Ballard's steady, calm narration is broken by short readings of extracts taken from Ballard's literary work detailing the fetishistic pleasure of the flow of women's bodies and cars. Accompanying these are scenes in which Ballard drives a large American car, walks around a car showroom and through a ruined car yard. An experimental, haunting piece of TV history.
The Universe: Sex in Space (2008)
What about sex in space?
Writer/director David Rajter was inspired by Laura Woodmansee's book "Sex in Space". His production company was responsible for creating episodes for History Channel's TV show "The Universe", and they were looking for something dramatic and attention-getting. Collecting an eclectic group of experts, the "Sex in Space" show reviewed the current knowledge about sexual relations in space, including physical, psychological and practical. What would babies be like if they were conceived in space... what if they were born in space? What are the limitations -- if any -- of having sex in a zero gravity environment? The TV show also covered some proposals for unusual techniques for having sex in space.
DEFCON: The Documentary (2013)
At the core of hacker culture
I feel part of digital culture, but not necessarily part of the strange realms of hackdom. I wanted to learn about it, and it felt a good idea to start with a documentary about the oldest hacker festival on the planet. But "Defcon: The Documentary" is not only a film about a convention, but about a culture, a way of life, about challenges in the past, and possibilities for the future. (I was especially pleased to see the debate about misogyny in tech circles.) A very rich film, full of sadness, joy, pride, and never-ending debate. Highly recommended... and it really doesn't matter if you know anything about hacker culture at all. Doubleplusgood!