Oddball Films Media
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Jul 27, 2014
Fellini’s 8 ½ The Steam Bath Sequence (B+W, 1963)
"I was a little shocked when I saw on a church door a poster that had my name on it that had a black border... the poster said, 'Let us pray for the salvation of the soul of Frederico Fellini, public sinner.'"
This is Fellini's dramatic autobiographical film about a famous film director, Guido, (played by Marcello Mastroianni) who loses his inspiration in the midst of making a film. In this sequence Guido, the director, has a fantasy meeting with the Cardinal in a steambath. Guido's friends and associates exhort him to prostrate himself before the Cardinal and he does... but the Cardinal simply replies "There is no salvation outside the Church".
Two (Color, 1971)
Spoof of overwrought Italian films written by and starring Reneé Taylor (nominated for an Oscar for Lovers and Other Strangers). A delicious send up of your art house favorites by way the Borscht Belt! A glamorous pair of Fellini rejects find themselves on an empty beach and become tangled in an absurd frenzy of neurotic passion and brutal debasement! The Two lovers try to out-passion each other, then out-debase themselves until the woman walks away in disgust.In perfectly awful Italian and Yiddish with subtitled in English. Written by and starring Reneé Taylor (nominated for an Oscar for Lovers and Other Strangers).
In this Italian animation, three kings who tire of war turn to recreational bird hunting, sweeping the skies with barrages of arrows, and sending countless birds plummeting to their demise. One wily magpie, however, manages to evade the kings and, in turn, terrorize them with his antics, eventually amassing an army of bird troops to avenge themselves against the killer kings. Directed by Emmanuelle Luzatti, this film received an Academy Award nomination.
Image
This brilliant animation by Italy’s Bruno Bozzetto (of the cult favorite Mr. Rossi series) demands a re-screening. Opens with traditional comic strip-style animation until the factory-working family man goes to sleep and unleashes his subconscious thoughts, sending him into a battleground of situations. Utilizes a number of animation styles including optical printing and pop art imagery. Features a wild soundtrack by the ultra-lounge master Franco Godi…
The legendary Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto, in twelve animated vignettes, creates brilliant visual, satirical and comical treatments of some of man's great preoccupations: war, omnipotence, religion, democracy, advertising, drugs, television, hunger, "conquest" of nature. Newly discovered prints!
Mr. Rossi Buys A Car(Color,1966)
Italy was not well known as a hotbed of animation in the 60’s, with the exception of Bruno Bozetto’s (Allegro Non Troppo) great series of psychedelic screwball shorts starring the “everyman” Mr. Rossi. Unbelievable animated hijinks with appropriately off kilter soundscore.
Trailers for Fellini's The Clowns and Lina Wertmuller's political sex-farce The Seduction of Mimi, Luchino Visconti's Conversation Piece with Helmut Berger and Burt Lancaster
The Drag (Color, 1965)
Produced for the Canadian Department of Health and Welfare this jaw-dropping film montage depicts the difficulty of breaking the tobacco habit in a child-adulthood go-go frenzy of wild animation by Italian animator Carlos Marchiori. The story depicts the case history of a chain smoker-satirically told on a psychiatrist's couch, with the patient's recollections--illustrating the psychology of the smoking habit and the part that cigarette advertising plays in the addiction. With hopping music and brilliant kaleidoscopic montages.