Friday 29 May 2009

Fuori orario with Kenneth Anger

Kenneth Anger films were always unfairly impossible to reach in most of the countries, especially in Iran. Of course now there are three or four titles available in YouTube but thanks to the Italian national TV, Rai from tonight there will be a retrospective of Anger works in Raitre channel.
The program responsible for such a gracious act is 'Fuori orario' (means after hours) that I’ve followed for last 8 years.

This midnight round up begins around 1 to 2 (CET time) and runs for 5 or 6 hours long. There is a sleepy bedraggled host (Italian film critic Enrico Ghezzi) who talk his head off in a whispering voice and of course in Italian But this gentleman is the one who introduced lot of great films and cineastes to the midnight audience, masterpieces and rare stuffs like Rivette's Out 1, Silent Ozu's, Andy Warhol films, 5 versions of Mr. Arkadin (before criterion's Complete release), Ulmer, pre- American Max Ophuls, Welles TV works, lots of Melville, Chris Marker, Straub, almost complete Sokurov films, Frederick Wiseman documentaries, Val Lewton Horror films, an hommage to RKO with lots of unseen films, Louis Feuillade serials, Complete Tati (including TV works and shorts), Complete Russ Meyer, Otar Iosseliani, Miklós Jancsó, Treasures of Early cinema, Godard's histore(s) du cinema, Silent Dreyer and lost Dreyer (Two people), Boris Barnet, numerous Aleksandr Dovzhenko and so many other great films and directors.

All films in their original language with Italian subtitles, and that's something uncommon for a country with a serious addiction to dubbing, even for art films.
The program begins with the shots from Vigo’s L'atalante and Patti Smith's “because the night” (so Jonathan Rosenbaum isn't the only person who associates Patti Smith with European avant-garde!), this tune and images is the most cheerful thing in the early morning (Iranian time), because like any other Italian scheduled program you must be used to delays and at least it means that program has been started.
I began watching Fuori since school days. My good old VCR on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights was set on LP mood to record the whole program and next day, usually after returning from school, I've taken the remote control and able to dig 6 hours of Anthony Mann's early B pictures or Jacques Rivette’s 236 mins La belle noiseuse for the first time!


Back to Kenneth Anger on Raitre, the scheduled films on Furio orario are:

Tonight

Friday 29 May 2009 from 02:20 (Actually 30 May) CET (4:50 a.m. Iran's time)

Lucifer rising /1972/color/28 mins.
Mouse Heaven (aka Mickey Mouse parade) /2004/color/10 mins.

Plus films of Spanish painter and filmmaker Adolfo Arrieta (born in 1942). Some of these films are even not listed on Imdb.

El crimen de la girandola /Spain/1965/B&W/18 mins
La imitaciòn del àngel /Spain/1966/B&W/22 mins
Le jouet criminel /France/1970/B&W/36 mins
Le Chateau de Pointilly /France/1972/B&W/28 mins

Saturday 30 May 2009 from 01:50 CET (Iran: 04:20)

Invocation of my demon brother /1969/color/11 mins.
Inauguration of the pleasure dome /1954-78/color/38 mins.
Scorpio rising /1964/color/28 mins.

And again Mr. Adolfo Arrieta films:

Merlin /Spain/1990/color/58 mins.
Les intrigues de Sylvia Couski /France/1974/color/76 mins.

Next week, Friday 5 June 2009 from 01:50 CET (Iran: 04:20)

Puce moment /1949/color/ 7 mins.
Fireworks /1947/color/15 mins.
Eaux d'artificie /1953/color/13 mins.

And Arietta’s part consists of:

Grenouilles /1985/color/40 mins.
Flammes /1978/color/82 mins.
Kiki /1989/color/20 mins.


Pictures description from top to the bottom: Italian film critic Enrico Ghezzi, Kenneth Anger, Adolfo Arrieta.

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