Films made outside the established studio system with affordable equipment (toy cameras, CCTV video, iPhone's) proves anyone with an inclination to make a movie can now do so, but when you mix that with a powerful dose of adrenaline and confidence, then that my friend creates cinema heat.
This pro-active independent filmmaking community is part of the Misrule Movement. A boom of arthouse films originally came out of the UK under this banner and then spread across the world, pushing the boundaries of cinema and its power to enchant and transfix viewers. This enlivened film-making as an art form and a new wave was born. YouTube directors obsessed with European cinema and countercultural attitudes set the world alight with their micro budget masterpieces. Philosophical, commercial and occult styles blended with experimental elliptical Pick-A-Mix editing techniques. Add a dose of sex, violence and psychedelics and you have a Molotov cocktail approach to filmmaking.
Taboo topics such as social problems, poverty, abortion, drug addiction and prostitution are also tackled giving it a human connection as well as an esoteric champagne pop-culture aura. Both zippy, suggestive and also deliriously good fun.
Internationally recognized as an agent provocateur, controversial British filmmaker Fabrizio Federico led the charge with his provocative movies and the Straight-Jacked Film Festival, bringing together an army of new filmmakers who's movies run the gauntlet of outrageous themes such as espionage, marriage, mind control and radiation challenge the viewers conceptions. These auteurs explore timeless subjects with a new richer and unhinged eye. The language of cinema who's tools of sound, moving images and music was revolutionized when these filmmakers bestowed their individual vision, style & themes onto the international stage.
April is a young faded ''It girl'' suffering in exile from multiple-personality disorder (brought on by a UFO Cult & Hollywood) and she decides that one of her six personalities must lose her virginity. As April suffers bizarre flashbacks in a solitary room, sleepwalking, telephoning rent boys, listening to The Carpenters and terrorising her old guardian with her untamed sex appeal. She ultimately set's out to become a modern saint. ''I made the film on intuition and a sensation to focus on some powerful messages (trauma, anti-establishment, false idolatry, existential angst and spirituality) wrapped up in an isolated feline martyr quality. The main character April is fighting to regain a state of grace that she lost as an ''It girl'' living in a superficial society obsessed with illusion while working in Hollywood. April is trying to penetrate the essence of her problems by being brave, screaming & articulating her pain through the film. She's trying to release the poisoned fragrance of her trauma. She's deprogramming her self by losing her mind. In the beginning of the movie we're shown a glimpse into her former ''It girl'' pop-culture life, at the complete absolute zenith of her fame, which is full of tacky excitement, flashes, games, disciples, vibrations and action. But then the film moves to the aftermath of all that, and to her current isolated life in London after rejecting her followers. But now she is battling her six personalities, so in a way she's leading six different realities and levels of consciousness. Each personality is a different level of consciousness, but music is her true prayer. She listens to The Carpenters while in exile, because she identifies with women who suffered, like Karen Carpenter, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe etc... but she also enjoys hanging herself by visualising her suicide. The film is also an insight into gurus, and how they deal with their followers problems, whether they are suffering from family or social suffering. The movies about spiritual terms instead of adolescent terms.
So while she's living out Hollywood, April get's mixed up with this UFO cult, has an outer body experience and is raped by the cult. After this trauma and because she's already mixed-up with this narcissism of her glamour lifestyle, it finally turns her into a stretcher case. In the film we watch her fighting to win back her sanity. She constructs this mission to cure the most evil of her multiple-personalities, to lose her virginity and to feel touch, which gives her a fresh enthusiasm and a existential mission; the glorification to start communicating again. In general terms, she is coming out of a isolated fog and is looking for a universal consciousness. This girls story actually represents the whole elemental goal of humanity. Feeling lost and sending signals into outer space, maybe that's why she joined a UFO cult to begin with. But she's still looking for an atomic attraction, or a spiritual push to come and save her. Dealing with six personalities will push anyone's sense's to the limit, but because she's in self-imposed isolation she cant really receive life's true miracle cure: human touch. Touch is the sparkling combination of feeling all of your senses all at once. So she decides to recapture her salvation by losing the virginity of the most evil, of all her multiple personalities, called Sam. Sam is a mythological anti-hero personality, a complete freak who suck's on her bloody tampons, wears wigs and sexually terrorises her old guardian that she's living with. But in many ways April is sacrificing her sanity in order to purify her soul from Sam's sinister presence. In order to become a divine being again and to grow. OFFICIAL WEBSITE
An upcoming film dedicated to Kurt Cobain of legendary band Nirvana is being set for release in 2019 by outspoken ''Youtube filmmaker'' Fabrizio Federico, ''the film captures the spirit of Kurt's morals, not his life, but about how straight men like him can be in harmony with both their male and feminine side. We are Zen. I think Kurt was a great example of that vibe, he wanted to point us towards a more progressive society, saying 'why bother hurting each other, and all that other crap' you know, nevermind, as the lad once said.'' It's an ugly film, so ugly that it's the perfect experimental pop culture film for a new generation of 'Me Too movement' supporters. April's terrifying reality; spat out by the modelling industry, burned out, and now being tortured by her own inner demons is brought to light by the films soundtrack of doughy classical, Indian and trap music, including an end credits anthem called Wrong's by Mao, (their last album was recorded at Aleister Crowley's old haunted home facing Loch Ness) which is very uplifting in a Total Eclipse Of The Heart, way, that Kurt would have loved, his pop sensibilities were always the secret weapon behind Nirvana's power.
''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 wild flapper girl in the roaring 20's along with other intellectual sirens such as Louise Brooks. The role of the vivacious, sexual, youth-quake secretly fascinates every teenage girl early in life, and who must secretly and subconsciously try to, live up to/ or tame. Before either eventually self-destructing or simply growing out of it. In world culture, magazines, music videos, books and films have depicted this prototype historical personality of the goddess Maenad, her name literally translates as "raving ones". Over the years there have been many 'It girls' who have captured our hedonistic times, and our public's imagination with either cheap karaoke or artistic flair, girls like Kate Moss, Twiggy, Kim Kardashian, Cornelia Guest, Cara Delevingne, Paris Hilton, Kendall Jenner - but there are strange and tragic examples also of young ''it girls' lives being cut short by the seductions of glory and fame, such as, Gia, Donyale Luna, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Peaches Geldof and Edie Sedgwick.'' In the film her problems first started either after April become an edgy out of control teen model in Hollywood, or after joining a Las Vegas cult and being abducted by aliens while living near Area 51, nobody knows, it just started one day. Today she exists in five different realities. Now living in London, April is not a virgin, but one of her personality's, called Sam, wants to desperately lose her virginity at any cost. While she falls apart right in front of our eyes, she screams, scratches and bites away while combing her hair to smithereens, eating disgusting cold cheese and milk while switching personalities; whom one of them likes the taste of her own bloody tampons in a hot bath, wearing just a bright green 'Pulp Fiction' UV wig. Federico's been planning and toying with his new film Teddy Bears Live Forever for the past 2 years, capturing a sonic mess that resembles the warped feeling of destruction in Aprils own sweet bleached mind. The female psyche is deeply explored in the film, Federico spent a week filming in a single room filled with 70's Carpenters albums, ladybirds, Disney films, paintings and snakes capturing the mindset of April's fragile like glass breakdown.
Teddy Bear's has a built in mythology, the idea of paradise lost. Ancient mythical allegorical lands like Arcadia, Atlantis and April's titanic memories of her disembodied identity, it's weird and just plain heartwarming.
April's dream like sense of living in limbo, after retreating into an imaginary worldwithout a place and purpose, is indulged by her old fashioned 60's Carnaby Street grandfather, but her multiple personality disorder keeps her isolated from the world; re-living her faded out unreachable past. ''The film was also inspired by the Fibonacci sequence, UFO's and men with a strong feminine side such as Kurt Cobain and the tormented but brilliant missing guitarist Richey Edwards.''
The films shades of greatness is best summed up by Federico and his enthusiasm for misrule cinema ''learning how to make a feature film nurtures independence, confidence and staying power. But it also free's your imagination and passion for making a connection with something beyond everyday drudgery.'' Q: What Nirvana song, comes to mind when watching Teddy Bears Live Forever? A: Id say it's best summed up by 'Rape Me' & 'Come As You Are' I grew up with him, I learnt a lot from Kurt when no one else could reach me.
''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, Im at a crucial number in the Fibonacci sequence.'' A cryptic, doughy, non-linear, scratchy ride focusing on April, who has multiple personality disorder, but how did this happen? Either her problems first started after April become an edgy out of control teen model in Hollywood, or it happened after she joined a Las Vegas cult and was abducted by aliens while living near Area 51, nobody knows, it just started one day. Today she lives in five different realities. Now living in London, even though April is not a virgin, one of her personalities called Sam wants to desperately lose her virginity asap. Watch as April sets out on her twisted journey in order to forever quiet down the diabolical voices in her head.
''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 along with other wild child beauties such as Louise Brooks. The role of the vivacious, sexual, youth-quake secretly fascinates every teenage girl early on, and who secretly and subconsciously tries to live up to, or, tame these urges before either eventually self-destructing or growing out of it. In modern international culture countless magazines, music videos, books and films have depicted this prototype personality of the goddess Maenad, her name literally translates as "raving ones".'' Over the years there have been many 'It girls' who have captured our hedonistic times and the public's imagination, such as Kate Moss, Twiggy, Kim Kardashian, Cornelia Guest, Cara Delevingne, Paris Hilton, Kendall Jenner - but there are even more examples of tragic lives cut short due to the pressures and seductions of glory and fame, such as, Gia, Donyale Luna, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Peaches Geldof and Edie Sedgwick to think about.''
Teddy Bears Live Forever captures the life of a faded 'It girl' called April. Teddy Bears Live Forever will be released in 2019 Official Website
Death & cinema has always been a powerful union, people are fascinated by serial killers, car crashes and violence in general, but in art-house films ambiguity & uneasiness is much more involved on a personal level. ''My maxim has always been create in the dark, shine in the light'' says Loon's director Fabrizio Federico. ''I call it Mistakeology, it's best to stamp on the eggshells of Neoism. This is my darkest film yet!'' The lo-fi experimentalism is a big plus from the filmmakers point of view, in that he has completed the movie he dreamed of making, and since it was on zero-budget,if the film bombs financially it doesn't matter. It's a long list of filmmakers living the cinema dream this way, film outlaws such as Abel Ferrara, Jim Jarmusch, Larry Clark, John Cassevetes, Todd Haynes, Alex Holdridge and all the way to the present day. Loon is an irrational movie, and a natural extension to this cannon of filmmaking. ''I don't want to smooth out my rough edges, like using a script or being linear, it's probably never gonna fucking happen I enjoy being spontaneous and childlike too much. Being avant-garde is normal to me, it's like a spider's web.'' When a director decides to use as the soundtrack to his new film, an album recorded at the cursed Boleskine house in Scotland, previously owned by the notorious magician Aleister Crowley and then Led Zeppelin's virtuoso guitarist Jimmy Page, you know that you're about to enter into Grimm's fairy tale's. But not everybody's gonna understand this film's purpose I can guarantee that. This is the cinema for the future, but the speed of the attention span of this movie is diabolical.
''I don't think my true fans have been born yet.''
Films such as Natural Born Killersand We Need To Talk About Kevinhave addressed the issue that goes into the making of a murderer. The beauty of Loon is that it takes the primal experimental side Oliver Stone's Killers and the poetic stillness of Lynne Ramsay Kevin and transfuses them together.
In LOON you witness the family environment, including how the NHS is responsible for encouraging the parents to judge their children and label them under the umbrella of a medical condition. But mix it with delusions of grandeur, drum lessons, a Folie à deux relationship and a lunatic streak, what you get is a ticking time bomb.
The main character Charlie brings to mind lone killers who one day snap and go on an uncontrollable rampage, such as Charles Whitman, Mark Chapman, and Jodie Foster's stalker John Hinckley Jr. A person can change his home, religion and passion but not his family. What this film understands is the root of what creates a serial killer. The invisible puppet master from your past trauma, pulling the strings that creates new tragedy. ''I just want people to find the movie, it's been a complete DIY operation filmed on a CCTV camera, and is only gonna be available in digital form (it's on YouTube), I've got the passion and commitment to do it all myself but to keep it simple, without going through the headache of having a team... I should treat myself to an ice cream.''
Independent films are the life blood of the film industry, they have the wildest ideas and set the trends. The auteurs; independent because they cannot stand to make the films they truly want within a system they despise. They live by their own vision and are stubborn, driven, talented, crafty, observant and tender all at the same time. Taking risks and inventing new characters that are from the margins of society has never been Hollywood's main cultural demographic. Budget limitations mean nothing to filmmakers like Fabrizio Federico, hoodwinking is part of the game, and they are driven to tell their negative pick-up fables, ''I was stabbed with a fork while filming but I was so in the zone that I didnt feel a thing''. Fabrizio has a desirable decadence mixed with an artistic atmosphere. His hippie, freaky teenage upbringing of moving countries, which impacted his gift of the gab and a sense of adventurousness. ''When I was a kid I would get all my village friends to pretend to be the Ex-President bank robbers from the movie Point Break, I was Ronald Reagan. That's when I became a filmmaker''. Federico appears to have two quite distinct personalities co-existing (the dysfunctional filmmaker and the blissed-out stoner) his bohemian lifestyle puts him at odd's with authority figures ''I watched a lot of surfer movies and street films as a teenager like Midnight Cowboy, Panic In Needle Nose Park, Another Day in Paradise and I always rooted for the bad guys''.
Some big themes come up in Federico's work such as injustice, soul sacrifice, addiction and strangelove. He see's underground and experimental cinema as a force to be appreciated by a bigger international mainstream audience. ''I like the idea of treating the audience to a chaotic, compelling aesthetic, to scramble their brains. I want to show them an uncomfortable time, I feel they can take it. They are not as innocent as they look.'' Loon has a random mix of stoned, catatonic moments, mixed with subliminal Kubrick messages, which then switch to troubled intimate teenage situations in bedrooms, somewhere their parents cant hear them, ''the film is just a glorious unmade bed.'' Most importantly the film is fun and trashy but intriguing in a deeper way, full of nonlinear narlyness. At the centre lies the films Dismaland pop-culture, main character Charlie Sheen is a petty thief, tied in a folie a deux relationship with his sinister older cousin Georgia. Suddenly his chaotic life style reaches a climax, ''this movie will make you take your mom to court''. Authenticity of expression is a non-actors main virtuosity, meaning they are in the NOW, you can call it Zen filmmaking, they dont care about pretending to be someone else, there's no strings attached and they definitely dont give a fuck about the directors vision. But they are self-serving to express themselves, knowing that this is the only movie they will ever be in. Sometimes they use real drugs on camera to get in touch with their anxieties and phobias,and the effect is so voyeuristic it's uncomfortable viewing. Loon is his 3rd feature film in a body of work that is strangely cohesive and definite for such a new artist. His identity is so embossed boldly onto each film that it feels less like something he created and more like an extension of himself. In art-house films, ambiguity and uneasiness is much more involved on a personal level, The big plus from the filmmakers point of view is that he has completed the movie he dreamed of and since it was zero-budgetif the film bombs financially it doesn't matter. It's a long list of filmmakers living the cinema dream this way, film outlaws such as Jim Jarmusch, Larry Clark, John Cassevetes, Todd Haynes, Abel Ferrara, Alex Holdridge and all the way to the present day. Loon is an irrational movie, and a natural extension to this cannon of filmmaking.
Independent films are the life blood of the film industry, they have the wildest ideas and set the trends. The auteurs; independent because they cannot stand to make the films they truly want within a system they despise. They live by their own vision and are stubborn, driven, talented, crafty, observant and tender all at the same time. Taking risks and inventing new characters that are from the margins of society has never been Hollywood's main cultural demographic. Budget limitations mean nothing to filmmakers like Fabrizio Federico, hoodwinking is part of the game, and they are driven to tell their negative pick-up fables, ''I was stabbed with a fork while filming but I was so in the zone that I didnt feel a thing''. Fabrizio has a desirable decadence mixed with an artistic atmosphere. His hippie, freaky teenage upbringing of moving countries, which impacted his gift of the gab and a sense of adventurousness. ''When I was a kid I would get all my village friends to pretend to be the Ex-President bank robbers from the movie Point Break, I was Ronald Reagan. That's when I became a filmmaker''. Federico appears to have two quite distinct personalities co-existing (the dysfunctional filmmaker and the blissed-out stoner) his bohemian lifestyle puts him at odd's with authority figures ''I watched a lot of surfer movies and street films as a teenager like Midnight Cowboy, Panic In Needle Nose Park, Another Day in Paradise and I always rooted for the bad guys''.
Some big themes come up in Federico's work such as injustice, soul sacrifice, addiction and strangelove. He see's underground and experimental cinema as a force to be appreciated by a bigger international mainstream audience. ''I like the idea of treating the audience to a chaotic, compelling aesthetic, to scramble their brains. I want to show them an uncomfortable time, I feel they can take it. They are not as innocent as they look''. Loon has a random mix of stoned, catatonic moments, mixed with subliminal Kubrick messages, which then switch to troubled intimate teenage situations in bedrooms, somewhere their parents cant hear them. Most importantly the film is fun and trashy but intriguing in a deeper way, full of nonlinear narlyness. At the centre lies the films Dismaland pop-culture, main character Charlie Sheen is a petty thief, tied in a folie a deux relationship with his sinister older cousin Georgia. Suddenly his chaotic life style reaches a climax. Authenticity of expression is a non-actors main virtuosity, meaning they are in the NOW. They dont care about pretending to be someone else, there's no strings attached and they definitely dont give a fuck about the directors vision. But they are self-serving to express themselves, knowing that this is the only movie they will ever be in. Sometimes they use real drugs on camera to get in touch with their anxieties and phobias,and the effect is so voyeuristic it's uncomfortable viewing. Loon is his 3rd feature film in a body of work that is strangely cohesive and definite for such a new artist. His identity is so embossed boldly onto each film that it feels less like something he created and more like an extension of himself. In art-house films, ambiguity and uneasiness is much more involved on a personal level, The big plus from the filmmakers point of view is that he has completed the movie he dreamed of and since it was zero-budgetif the film bombs financially it doesn't matter. It's a long list of filmmakers living the cinema dream this way, film outlaws such as Jim Jarmusch, Larry Clark, John Cassevetes, Todd Haynes, Abel Ferrara, Alex Holdridge and all the way to the present day. An irrational movie like Federico's newest film Loon is an extension to this cannon of cinema making.
I wish I could say no persons were harmed in the
making of this film, but that would be a lie.
The director was stabbed with a fork. Then, in addition to sustaining
some scrapes and bruises from a particularly physical scene, the lead actor was
admitted into a mental institution shortly after filming.
Now, make no mistake, I say this not with
derision, but with understanding. I myself have stayed at so many mental
institutions in my adult life, I could probably rate their menus for Zagat’s.
(By the way, don’t ever order the macaroni and cheese at Rush in Chicago.
Sometimes they make it with decent shell noodles, and sometimes they just make that powdered-cheese shit from the
box. You won’t know until you get it, and by then it’ll be too late.)
It’s kind of an interesting story how I was given
an advance viewing of Loon to begin with, and I suppose we have the
late-and-great Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd to thank for that. It was through a
Facebook group dedicated to the music of Syd that I first began talking to the
film’s creator and director, Fabrizio Federico. I’m not sure exactly why he
decided to accept a friend request from a weird American blonde girl on the
internet who wears too much eyeliner in her profile pictures, but for some
reason he did – and here we are.
At first I didn’t even think that was his real
name. I thought it resembled that of Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini so
closely, it had to be pseudonym. But no, to the best of my knowledge, Fabrizio
is indeed a real person. If anything he’s the Anti-Fellini, about as far away
from the chic and scintillating high-society classics as a filmmaker could
possibly be.
When I viewed his previous works, I got the
impression that – and I mean this in a good way – they were filmed on an acid
trip (which is no surprise, considering how I found him on a Syd Barrett page.)
It didn’t take me long to find out that Fabrizio abhors any kind of imposed
structure. He won’t even use scripts, which to me (with my stringent,
classically-trained literary sensibilities) was unthinkable. Quite honestly, I
never would have thought a completely improvised film could possibly be as good
as Loon is.
The opening credits feature a jarring, discordant
instrumental theme by the band Mao. Actually, the band recorded the entire
musical score at Aleister Crowley’s allegedly-haunted Boleskine House on the
shores of Loch Ness, wherein Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin also resided for some
time. Even if you’re not the kind of person who believes in ‘vibes’ or
‘energy’, the otherworldly background themes will seem to echo from whichever
spirit realm you may or may not believe in.
From the first scene – which turns out to be an
idle teenager’s experiment with autoerotic asphyxiation – you will be
uncomfortable, even disturbed. And you should be. That’s the whole point. Then,
after the first few nightmarish images, you’ll be introduced to an 18-year-old
English kid named Charlie.
The interesting thing about Charlie is that he
is, with no disrespect, psychologically afflicted in real life as well as the
film; but he plays a fictionalized version of himself as he goes about his normal(ish)
routine. Actually, none of the characters were professional actors. They were
just people in Charlie’s everyday life who consented to being filmed in their
natural habitat, you could say.
But then isn’t it just reality TV? Or a
documentary? Well, no. I believe (and correct me if I’m wrong) that reality TV
is often carefully scripted, rehearsed, and molded unto what the intended
viewers supposedly want to see.
For that same reason, most documentaries are
meticulously edited to make some thesis statement, usually in order to appeal
to an audience of a certain ideology, usually political.
No, Loon has no target audience. It has no point
to prove, no statement to make, and no didactic school of thought to promote.
The film exists only to offer a glimpse into one man’s troubled mind, so that
his screams don’t die unheard. It recognizes no politics except for maybe
Thomas Hobbes’ state of nature.
Still, the background track resounds with
newscasts from the recent terrorist attacks on British soil, grounding the film
solidly in the present. Doom-saying news anchors, as they calmly describe acts
of violence and disorder, merely echo the pandemonium raging in the confines of
Charlie’s mind. The macrocosm is marginalized, and the microcosm is brought to
the forefront. To put it simply, compared to Charlie’s drawn-out mental
breakdown, global terrorism is merely an afterthought.
In contrast, the film has its lighter moments. It
features the comical Dismaland, an amusement park parody of Disneyland that is
actually a large-scale art installation. It features frowning personnel, bleak
scenery, and underwhelming rides such as a spinning mobile home. And yes, this
is a real-world place that actually exists. It also concretely illustrates how
even the happy-ish moments in Charlie’s life are laden with despair.
Still, Charlie proves himself to be endearing,
even adorably charismatic. You may laugh and shake your head at his antics or
deride his immaturity; but you might also secretly hope that he’ll succeed in
his naïvely unrealistic pursuits.
At first, it might seem like the antagonist is life itself - until it takes
the form of Charlie's psychopathic nineteen-year-old cousin. I'm told she's also a psychopath in real life, which even further blurs
the distinction between the film's characters and the real people involved. In
the story, Character-Charlie's feelings for her are anything but appropriate.
Unfortunately, she is too preoccupied with dildos of a certain ethnicity (also
a true-to-life detail) to reciprocate the attraction, leaving Charlie
frustrated and unfulfilled in nearly every aspect of his life. Still, his
youthful enthusiasm is undeterred. Perhaps it's a fortunate coincidence that
the entire film is shot in black-and-white, and therefore uncannily reminiscent
of another monochromatic character named Charlie. There's something sadly
Chaplin-esque about our Charlie's doomed optimism, oblivious to the cruel joke
that the universe itself seems to be playing on him.
Unfortunately, the real Charlie's misfortune didn't just end when they
finished shooting. I don't know the exact details of his real-life condition
(into which Fabrizio never inquired, in order to remain impartial and
unprejudiced while filming). Even if I did, I wouldn't disclose the nature of
his illness out of respect for Real-Charlie's privacy and that of his family.
If you're an especially sensitive person, I suppose you could argue that the
entire film is unethical and exploitative of mental illness. Yet, speaking as a
mentally ill person myself, I don't think that's the case. All who participated
in this project did so of their own free will, and knowingly consented to be
filmed. (Except for the guy who stabbed Fabrizio with a fork; he was left out
as per his own forcefully-expressed wishes.)
That being said, I'm going to break my own taboo on emotional
involvement to say that I really am concerned for Real-Charlie's well-being.
I'll say what people are supposed to say; that I wish Charlie the best in his
treatment and recovery, and extend my sympathy to him and his family; and I do.
But anyone who's really been through hell knows those words don't mean shit. No
amount of encouragement and well-wishing will ever be enough to free someone
who's being held captive by their own mind. I doubt Charlie will ever read this
in real life, and even if he does, I'd be the worst possible person to offer
any kind of advice on dealing with demons I can barely deal with in my own
life. All I could tell him is the same thing I tell myself: Never stop fighting.
When life kicks you down, get up and kick it right back. (Of course, I haven't
lived long enough to tell if that actually works, but I suppose I'll find out
eventually).
All subjectivity aside, however, I do believe this is a film of
considerable merit. It's as brilliant as it is dark and melancholy. I don't
believe anyone's made a better film on a budget of £100, which translates
roughly to $200. Yes, two-hundred dollars, you read that correctly.
"Perks of working with real people," the filmmaker told me.
"I just paid for the food and they were happy."
Other than that, he wouldn't reveal much about the film itself. When I
asked him if my interpretation of the Ouija Board scenes was correct, his
cryptic reply was, "It's multi-layered, so anything goes."
I still think my theory is the best possible one, and anyone who thinks
otherwise can fight me with the nearest kitchen utensil. (No, I'm just being
facetious; don't actually do that.)
Regardless of my personal interpretation of the story, it took me a while
to characterize the nature of the film as a whole. It exists as neither
completely real nor as a work of pure fiction. So far, I've observed similar
habits only in other Millennial writers who insist on throwing time-honored
conventions in the garbage and setting them on fire, for better or worse. The
most fitting term I could give it is Oblique Realism, for the way it rides a
thin, crooked line between reality and fiction.
And no, that's not actually a thing. But maybe it should be.
That being said, I’m not sure who would be more qualified to give Loon (as in, British slang for a crazy person, not the bird) a proper analysis: a professional film critic, or a licensed clinical psychiatrist. Instead, you’ll have to settle for the perspective of a twenty-something female writer of horror-fantasy fiction, so I hope that won’t be a problem. (But if it is, I don’t apologise.)
Considering Syd Barrett's relatively slight musical output, the absence of "Vegetable Man" leaves a sizeable hole in his canon, thankfully both songs have finally been released. The former was penned in 1967 as a spontaneous response to manager Peter Jenner's request for a follow up to Pink Floyd's then-recent single, "See Emily Play." Though often interpreted as a self-portrait of his own mental disintegration, it actually vents his contempt for the vapid nature of fame and his own role as a pop star. Delivered with a sarcastic sneer, it's disturbingly direct in its anger.
The name of the song, Vegetable Man, is based on a 1572 painting called Summer by an Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo who created imaginative portraits made entirely of vegetables, fruits, flowers, fish, tree roots and books. Summer featured a composite man made from intricate painted vegetables; a vegetable man, if you will. Syd even appeared in a promotional photo with spring onions tied to his head. The song has also proved inspirational to British underground filmmaker Fabrizio Federico. ''LOON's main character is based on Vegetable Man, he's pilled to the gills on med's and his world isn't real. He doesn't want to think or feel, it's a life choice that many people make.''
According to Peter Jenner, the song was written in his apartment moments before leaving for the recording session. "On 'Vegetable Man,' the description of the person in there is him," he told author Rob Chapman. "What he was wearing, what he was becoming. I was with him in the room when he was writing it. He was in one corner and I was in the other. Then he read it out and it was a description of him and what was going on in his head."
The track was recorded in the second week of October 1967 and earmarked as the band's third single, backed by another Barrett composition, "Scream Thy Last Scream." Promotional videos were recorded for both songs, but their release was cancelled at the last minute for fear that they were too dark.
Uncomfortable with the pointed lyrics and troubling imagery, the band also decided to leave both songs off their second album, 1968'sA Saurcerful of Secrets.
Though Jenner admits that the songs expose Barrett's fragile psyche "It's like psychological flashing," he's quick to argue in favour of their artistic merit. "I always thought they should be put out, so I let my copies be heard," he said in 2005. "I knew that Roger [Waters] would never let them out, or Dave [Gilmour]. They somehow felt they were a bit indecent, like putting out nude pictures of a famous actress. ... But I thought they were good songs and great pieces of art. They're disturbing, and not a lot of fun, but they're some of Syd's finest work – though God knows, I wouldn't wish anyone to go through what he's gone through to get to those songs."
