THE MOST DANGEROUS PROPAGANDA MOVIES EVER

The question of whether great art can be a service of evil is a difficult question that has put art on trial several time in history, but it is a question worth pursuing. 

Colonel Gaddafi set up a state-funded channel that constantly replayed his favourite film: ''The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai''. 
Kim Jong-Il kidnapped his favourite South Korean movie director Shin Sang-ok, and forced him to make films for the North Korean government. 
And failed artist Adolf Hitler allegedly drew his favourite Disney characters in secret.
Stalin fancied himself as a director, producer and screenwriter and, according to historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore, ordered the assassination of John Wayne following the screening of one of his films. 
Benito Mussolini approached Columbia Pictures with a million dollars to make a biopic about his life, even offering to write the script himself. Columbia (thankfully) refused. 
And Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein plunged $30 million of government money into the production of an epic war movie starring British acting legend Oliver Reed. Called ''Clash of Loyalties'', it was made in 1983 - though it swiftly disappeared into obscurity. Infamous despots have long had a deep love of cinema.
And on a conspiracy level, did Stanley Kubrick film the 1969 moon landing on a movie sound stage in order to win the space-race against Russia? 

Despite being diametrically opposed to much of what Hollywood stands for, fascist and communist dictators alike have often fallen in love with the Californian dream factory. Some even rubbed shoulders with the stars. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini even invited American talent over to Italy.

''Triumph of the Will' records the gathering together of hundreds of thousands of Nazi Party members, troops and supporters on September 1934 in Nuremberg. Directed by Leni Riefenstahl it is considered the most artistic propaganda movie ever created, with an ambitious grandiose scope resembling a Wagner opera, manipulation on a grand scale that shows off the dictator as a Godhead adored by millions, similar to how Hollywood celebrities are adored. A sobering thought: Most of the people on the screen were dead within a few years. 

The American film ''Birth Of A Nation'' by D. W. Griffith was both a critical and commercial success in 1915, the film is technically brilliant but its intolerant message is a capsule of early 20th century society. Some say that ''Top Gun'' is one long advertisement for the navy. In order to keep costs down, the producers made a deal with the government: they could use warplanes and aircraft carriers for a reduced price if they simply gave up some creative control in return.

American cinema was never far from the mind of Kim Jong-Il, either. "Kim personally did love Hollywood films and Hollywood stars, the James Bond films, Friday the 13th films, and Elizabeth Taylor are often mentioned as personal favourites. "He amassed arguably the largest private collection of movies anywhere in the world, and his worldview was shaped by movies. "He was a national leader who had never really left his own country, so films were a huge chunk of his experience of the outside world. 

Brexit-Britain is also captured in the film ''LOON'' directed by Fabrizio Federico, the movie follows the tragic story of a doomed working-class family while a dogmatic Brexit society acts as a surreptitious character in the background, influencing the viewer to see the type of people who mainly voted for the UK to leave the European Union and implying that Democracy is not always right. Especially if the majority of the voters make the wrong political decision on a mass scale, creating economical chaos but because the vote was made in the name of democracy it cant be retracted. In the films final scene Federico knocked out the main actor by banging his head with a fridge door.

North Korea's best known film is ''A Flower In Hell'' directed by Shin Sang-ok, a more obscure tragic side to propaganda films is what can happen to the films cast if they fall out of favour with the dictator, who is usually the producer at the time. North Korean actress Woo In-Hee who was having a secret affair with Kim Jong-Il fell out with him after she was found making love to another man in a car. His response was to execute her by firing squad and then systematically erase her from history, cutting her out of all her movies, not caring about the films continuity in the process. 

Adolf Hitler was allegedly a big fan of Austrian born director Fritz Lang, who directed ''Metropolis'' and ''M''. Modern historian Aristotle Kallis, of Keele University, explains that Hitler took a "hands-on" approach to film in his rise to power - and utilised it to bring the Nazi party to the forefront of German politics. "I would say that audio and video are key," notes Kallis. "Hitler built up a reputation after 1928 when, with the money from politician Hugenberg, he used modern media better than anyone else to campaign." It was, however, Joseph Goebbels - the Reich minister of Propaganda - who used film to manipulate the masses. Kallis suggests that Goebbels often preferred drama over documentary. "Goebbels understood the power of film as a propaganda tool. "For him, the most effective propaganda was the 'fictional', not the didactic or documentary-style. He funded a lot of blockbusters, especially during the war."

In the case of Kim Jong-Il, the dictator's love of film formed part of his desire for control. "This was man who had grown up in turmoil," he says. "He was exiled from Pyongyang during the Korean War as a child for his protection. His mother died young. 
His father had a string of affairs and then married a secretary the younger Kim loathed. "By the time Kim was in his late twenties and power-hungry, he volunteered to run the state film studios after a political purge. "He was smart enough to see that his father had the monopoly on military and political glory, but that the way for him to make his own name could be in the arts and propaganda. "It could give him the power to mould reality." In the end, perhaps it's no surprise that individuals hell-bent on bending the world to their will would find so much to like in the fantastical and manipulative possibilities of film.

Other Great Propaganda Films

• The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956) ...
• I am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov, Michail Kalatasow, 1964) ...
• Three Songs about Lenin (Dziga Vertov, 1934) ...
• Red Psalm (Miklós Jancsó, 1971) ...
• The Cloud Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960) ...
• Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1926) ...
• Class Relations (Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, 1984)
• Yankee Doodle Dandy (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
• Stukas (Karl Ritter, 1941)

ANTI-EASTWOOD - The New British Art-House Cinema

Cult Hero, the Lizard King, Enfant Terrible, Mr Voodoo Trick, but what is certain is that filmmaker Fabrizio Federico is helping widen a generation gap in the film industry by doing what isn't expected of a movie director. 

He releases his films for free online, used mobile phones and CCTV cameras, casts street-superstars and doesn't use scripts or relies on funding to create his films; in the process, retaining 100% creative power over his movies. 
He has always insisted on his own talentlessness, presenting it as a challenge to anyone who thinks they could do better. His mystique not only comes from his popstar good looks and outspoken views, but from the fact that his films appeal to the tribal magic that lurks in the shadows of cinemas hidden frames. It's primeval & occult qualities that he and filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger, Dennis Hopper & Gaspar Noe have also embodied. The raw sour milk of human bitterness from these directors of adult fare. It is a very seductive juju charm that the mainstream has long been weary of. 

The manic and rowdy quality of Federico's films stem from his cinema manifesto Pink8 which has spawned an international collective of outsider filmmakers who are seeing the manifesto as a creed for a radical new step for a purer form of cinema. Federico never studied how to make films, learning everything from ground zero with some heartbreaking consequences, ''I lost my 1st film because my computer blew up; damn Dell computers, had to start all over again from scratch.'' 
His film Pregnant focuses on technology addiction in the 21st century. The mass hypnosis of a generation, as we witness each character's inner spiritual stagnation and mass disconnection from society. His debut feature film Black Biscuit is a portrait on wild youth and its lust for sex, drugs and money. His psychedelic editing & rhythm convey a shamanic quality to his films. Disorganised but focused, a slightly awe-struck air, his films are completely improvised. ''What appeals to me is the beauty and terror of particular vibes, from there I streamline each films path.''

Trouble also seems to follow him like a manic flame. Mainstream critics loath his films, to the point where Federico and film critic Chase The Whale have developed a long standing feud regarding critical hack jobs. And during a live radio interview in America, Federico was involved in a on air argument with several film critics after they had failed to watch his film. But his confidence and fearless attitude may originate from the fact that he survived a house fire at the age of five. ''I tasted deaths appetite at an early age, the world has seemed like an illusion ever since.'' There has also been rumours that he has sold his soul to the devil.

Challenging censorship his footage has been confiscated by the police because of his helter skelter commando style shooting tactics. But all this stems from his pure love for cinema. ''To me film is like a myth, a collection of all of the strengths and failings of humanity, magnified for us to figure out.'' 

Federico has currently set up the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival, he also starred in his first movie Kingdom of Shadows directed by the movie duo Clara Pais & Daniel Fawcett, and has also created a Ziggy Stardust style alter-ego of a film director from Mars, called Jett Hollywood. His new film LOON was released on Halloween 2017.''I enjoy the beauty of life, but Im also turned on by the dark absurdity and surrealism that life has to offer. Its a circus.'' 

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

TOXIC DOUBLE BILL SCREENING - LOON & THE HONEYMOON KILLERS

THIS MOVIE WILL MAKE YOU TAKE YOUR MOM TO COURT - 'LOON' Trailer

Unorthodox independent films are the unsung life blood of the film industry, they have the wildest ideas and set the trends. They also have an intimidating and thrilling aura that mainstream films lack; a unique and sublime revolutionary undercurrent. 
These film auteurs are 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 ''I like to put ice cubes in the actors mouths if I want a certain reaction''. His hippie, freaky teenage upbringing of moving countries has impacted his gift of the gab and his 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-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 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.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

MOVIE News: THE DEATH PARADE - THE UNHOLY SMOKE OF 'LOON'

Fabrizio Federico (filmmaker)

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 Killers and We Need To Talk About Kevin have 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.''

http://fabriziofederico.co.uk/

*GONZO CINEMA* THE STORY OF 'LOON' - ''IT'S A GLORIOUS UNMADE BED''

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-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 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.

LOON - Released on Halloween 2017
OFFICIAL WEBSITE

FILMMAKER OF THE MONTH - FABRIZIO FEDERICO

                                                   

*GONZO CINEMA* THE STORY OF 'LOON' - ''IT'S A GLORIOUS UNMADE BED''

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-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 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.

LOON - Released on Halloween 2017
OFFICIAL WEBSITE

CULT OF PERSONALITY - THE STORY OF 'LOON'

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's fables, ''I was stabbed with a fork while filming but I was so in the zone that I didnt feel it''.

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 little I would get all my village friends to pretend to be the ex-president bank robbers from the movie Point Break, I was Ronald Regan. That was the start of me as 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, which then switch to wild troubled intimate teenage situations in bedrooms, so 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. 
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-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 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.

Loon was released on Halloween 2017
OFFICIAL WEBSITE

CHAOTIC CINEMA - 'LOON' A CURSED MASTERPIECE [WATCH FREE]

When the director decides to use as the soundtrack to his new film an album recorded at the cursed Boleskine house, previously owned by the notorious magician Aleister Crowley and then Led Zeppelin's virtuoso guitarist Jimmy Page, you know that the sweet sinful life is on the horizon.

We'll have to wait and see how the film Loon divides audiences, and what intellectual debates will materialise over the films topics on family, obsession, abuse, racism, homophobia and Brexit. But what this experimental chaotic tale is really designed to show is a sick twisted family saga that could be happening right next door to you - they could even be your very own neighbour.

Ladies and gentlemen meet the Sheen family.

A spectacle machine is never a good neighbour. Their teenage son Charlie is both goofy and violent, but his racist/homophobic perspective is driven by his twin obsession of becoming a superstar drummer like his idol Keith Moon, which is matched by his uncontrolled passion for his batshit crazy but sensuous older cousin, Georgia. 

The director Fabrizio Federico is very quiet but also very funny and slightly unusual, the whole nutcase thing came from him smoking pot because he didnt really have a temper before that. ''I just say how things make me feel, I hate being let down and I lose it sometimes, other then that Im happy to chill and see what happens.''
He's a very ambitious person and see's underground & experimental cinema being appreciated by a much younger international audience. ''Im giving the audience the benefit of the doubt, Im guessing if you're into my films your a bit wild to begin with'', ''a family can be like a war zone, only these characters dont care about landing on a mine.''

Getting that buzz-film reputation, Fabrizio is as much an intriguing character as his films, with a dark depth to them concerning shamanism, reincarnation, sex and addiction, they also have that pop-culture pulse beat that early Tarantino and Korine bring to cinema. That vivid film geek quality, except instead of being into genre films he's into cinematic anarchy.

Folie à deux (/fɒˈli ə ˈdu)  French for "madness of two"

• Bonnie & Clyde
• Ian Brady & Myra Hindley
• Sid & Nancy
• Kurt & Courtney
• Charles Starkweather & Carol Ann Fugate

History is littered with similar couples, egging the other partner on to see how far the other will go.

filmmaker Fabrizio Federico

  

HEART OF DARKNESS [Film Review] – Loon (2017)

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.)

Film Review by

A. Tamara Ware