The problem with a subversive idea is that it requires a vessel with which to present its case to an amenable audience. Even with the near universal accessibility of the films featured in this column via YouTube and other methods well-known to the savvy, many of the titles go un... Read More »
From the opening shots of a helicopter wielding the Jolly Roger and Confederate flags, descending upon a city in shots vaguely reminiscent of the opening sequence of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Putney Swope immediately sets out to put the lunatics in charge of the asylum, both behin... Read More »
Documentary footage of battling scorpions begins Luis Buñuel’s feature length masterpiece of surreal imagery and bold commentary on the lifestyle of the bourgeoisie. Such commentary is nothing new to art as it represents temporary salve for the unscratchable itch that we cannot ... Read More »
The gentle macabre voice of Kenneth Anger ushers in one of the most important and defiantly expressive films in the avant-garde canon, the “homosexual” intonation of his voice offering a beacon of light to the hopelessly lost and subversive confrontation to the unsuspecting react... Read More »
Director: A. Wise Guy Country: USA Genre: Adult | Short The following review is a continuation of Matthew Blevins’ Subversive Saturdays series. The illogical fear of our own sexual desires creates a confusing set of moral priorities that seems to be in diametric opposition ... Read More »
One would think by the reputation of Gustav Machaty’s Ecstasy that there were only one or two scenes in the film, but it was in the subtle complexities and secret polemics of the rest of the film that are sources of the greatest intrigue. Mainstream cinema typically posits promis... Read More »
The concept of visual taboo and the potential power that it can wield is a strange curiosity. We are fully aware that images alone are incapable of causing harm, but primal superstition bred from instincts required for health and survival work at chipping away our capacity for r... Read More »
For this evening edition of Subversive Saturday, we will be exploring the whimsical subversion of Emile van Moerkerken's Cuckoo Waltz. What starts as a seemingly nonsensical string of random images accompanied by the carousel tones of a manic waltz begins to expose a subversive ... Read More »
Each sequential frame of a film represents some manifestation of the truth that has been captured through the lens of a camera. Any manipulations of that truth through misrepresentations of context do little to detract from the absoluteness of the images being presented. Once a... Read More »
The propaganda films from East Germany from 1945 until its reintegration with West Germany in 1990 yielded a strange mix of confused ideologies and an interesting perspective on the dangers of tepid alliances between nations based purely on mutual enemies. These films weaved unt... Read More »
