Tuesday 20 March 2018

SHE IS SUFFERING - Richey Edwards influence on upcoming movie


The late glamorous Richey Edwards, guitarist of the Manic Street Preachers, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1995, has seen his lyrics become the inspiration for an upcoming film currently in production.  

Filmmaker Fabrizio Federico's next movie Teddy Bears Live Forever will be taking it's inspirations from Edward's final album with the Manic's, The Holy Bible. 
Considered one of the most harrowing albums ever recorded, it's lyrics are a horror show of desperation, elegance and self-affliction which reflect Edwards genius and eye for capturing the chilling beauty of suffering throughout the ages. 
An avid and voracious reader of political history and existential literature authors such as Primo Levi, Albert Camus, Philip Larkin, Yukio Mishima and Fyodor Dostoyevsky - his feelings of alienation and worthlessness were clearly reflected in his heartfelt lyrics which created a cult of personality around the guitarist.
Upon his disappearance a media frenzy occurred resulting in copycat disappearances, "a cause celebre among depressives, alcoholics, anorexics and self-mutilators, because he was the first person in the public eye to talk openly about these subjects, not with swaggering bravado and a subtext of "look how tortured and cool I am", but with humility, sense and, often, bleak humour" said The Times newspaper.

Federico has based this new film around a faded ''It girl'' called April suffering from severe multiple personality disorder, ''a lot of people identify with Richey, especially girls, there's something about his vulnerability that draws people in'' says the filmmaker, ''his lyrics are better then any script, they are so descriptive, especially songs like '4st 7lb', 'She Is Suffering' & 'Archives Of Pain' -  his talent for observation & detail are on a par with that of a criminologist, I find them incredibly inspirational and almost secret.''

The film looks at bringing Richey's alarming lyrics and infusing them with psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud was very resistant towards cinema and psychoanalysis coexisting, thinking it impossible to render the psychoanalytic process cinematically. Actress Marilyn Monroe famously used to go to her analyst for inspiration regarding character roles, Monroe was also one of Edwards favourite icons.   

The film was shot in 7 days in a bedroom as April discloses her world and struggles to have one of her personalities lose her virginity. ''It's a very intimate and poetic film, I want people to feel close to this character in the same way Richey's fans felt close to him, he was very brave talking about his feelings, I listened to that album not stop during that week and we could feel his aura during the films making, I dont know if he's dead or alive but it was unnerving and his presence is in the movie.''

Teddy Bears Live Forever  will be released in 2019
Official Website

Saturday 17 March 2018

THE JIMI HENDRIX OF CINEMA - Filmmaker Fabrizio Federico's Next Movie


''This film has no rules, it's an orgy of sight & sound stitched together to create mania.'' Movie-maker Fabrizio Federico's vision for his next film Teddy Bears Live Forever is miles away from being finished but finding it's voice organically is something that excites the underground filmmaker who is currently working on the editing phase of the film, ''I let the stars lead the way.''

A faded ''It girl'' suffering from a horrific schizophrenia disorder decides that it's time for one of her personalities to lose her virginity.
Whether her abuse problems first started in her teen's, from her celebrity modelling days - or was she abducted by Aliens; nobody knows.

The idea of the 'It girl' was first personified by actress Clara Bow in the movie 'It' (1927) which helped usher in the age of the flapper girl in the roaring 20's, also personified by wild child Louise Brooks, strong, opinionated and sexy. 
The role of the vivacious, sexual, youth-quake is something every teenage girl must live up to, and tame due to the countless magazines and music videos depicting this type of personality
Over the years there have been many 'It girls' who have captured our hedonistic times, such as Kate Moss, Twiggy, Cornelia Guest, Paris Hilton, Kendall Jenner... but there are even more examples of tragic lives cut short due to the pressures and seductions of fame, such as, Gia, Donyale Luna, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Peaches Geldof and Edie Sedgwick.          
  
Teddy Bears Live Forever captures the life of a faded 'It girl' called April who is suffering from multiple personality disorder. House bound she struggles with the voices in her head which brings to light her severe traumas. Even though April is not a virgin, one of her personalities is; and that personality, called 'Sam' wants to desperately lose her virginity. Watch as April sets out on her journey in order to quiet down forever the diabolical voices in her head.

Teddy Bears Live Forever will be released in 2019
Official Website

Friday 16 March 2018

MESSY FILMS: BRITISH EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA



Artist-filmmakers scorn when mainstream film plots explain things too much for an audience, it simply ruins the mystery. 
Letting people observe the characters is more rewarding for them because time is meaningless in cinema, it is eternal.
The thrill of watching non-professional actors & relishing their mistakes: as if you're watching a behind the scenes film, tricks the the viewer into not knowing if they are experiencing fact or fiction, while focusing on the dark side of cinema.

  • Borderline (1930) - Kenneth Macpherson
  • Herostratus (1967) - Don Levy
  • Loon (2017) - Fabrizio Federico
  • The Lacey Rituals (1973) - Bruce Lacey & Jill Bruce
  • The Sky Trembles & the Earth Is Afraid.. (2015) - Ben Rivers
  • Riddles of the Sphinx (1977) - Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen
  • Blackbird Descending – Tense Alignment (1977) - Malcolm Le Grice
  • Rapunzel Let Down Your Hair (1978) - Susan Shapiro, Esther Ronay & Francine Winham
  • Jubilee (1979) - Derek Jarman
  • So That You Can Live (1982) - Cinema Action
  • London (1994) - Patrick Keiller
  • By Our Selves (2015) - Andrew Kötting
  • Sleep Has Her House (2017) - Scott Barley 

These British experimental feature films; elliptical, black & white with a non-commercial improvised drama, feature much bewilderment with violent passages of avant-garde kinetic abstraction, whose hypnotic compositions & existential puzzles cheerily tests the physicality, endurance and intellect of an audience. 

Experimental DIY with no symmetry usually bewilders modern audiences on first viewings, but what endures is a lasting riddle, similar to a disorientating enigma while stretched out on the psychoanalysis coach of life. A captivating revelation for future cinefiles to discover. 

Fabrizio Federico - Film Retrospective