once more unto the Breach

Since when is late August supposed to be Vaguely-Described-Premise Thriller ad season?

600 giorni di Salò

No sequel to Salò (that I know of). Thankfully no remakes from desperate, would-be extremist filmmakers, but an interesting project inspired by Salò is out there, if tough to come by. In 1997, career controversialist German film and theater director Christoph Schlingensief made 120 Days of Bottrop (a city in western Germany), or 120 Days of Bottrop: The Last New German Film. Bottrop follows a German director engaging in a disastrous attempt to remake Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Information is somewhat sparse, but very little I could tell you, beyond that premise, would be more convincing than this translated info from Schlingensief's site. Note (with amusement to taste) that "barrel binder" is translated from Fassbinder.

The last survivors of the old barrel binder guild do together, in order to turn on the Potsdamerplatz the really all-last New German film, a remake of Pasolini's “120 Days of Sodom.” Schlingensief is to lead direction, however of a certain “Sönke Buckmann” is replaced, to which promptly Katja Riemann presents the Federal film award. An homage at Rainer Werner barrel binder, to the Exzentrik and the insanity of one lengthens past time.

“Sound, shrill, obscene - faraway of custom, sense and order… Mr. Schlingensief, you need a psychiatrist” (Bild)

“Deconstructing scoring steel [ed: Riefenstahl] & barrel binder: The German illness film, the Triumph of the Will to the Kömödie, all that must be dead-made. One had to settle this dirty job. He did it for us.” (taz)

“If one Schlingensief sees, white one which the German cinema, so obligingly/pleasingly it come along may, mostly goes off: Characteristic.” (Michael Althen, SZ)

“Naturally earns Christoph Schlingensief alone the Federal film award - for publicly lived, in art continuous puberty and the successful fusion transformed of self-pity and serious unserious.” (BZ)

“… Experimentalorgie the their-same searches. Schlingensief's best film for years.” (The Standard, Vienna)

AnthropophAugust

Is there a holiday I don't know about?

Today's DVD re-releases: Salò, Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Terror, and Delicatessen.

Salò and Cannibal Holocaust are two of the most reviled (and celebrated, depending) films in history, both often banned and found in most any controversial-films or extremist-braggadocio list, though Entertainment Weekly puzzlingly left Salò off the Top 25 in favor of at least a couple flashes in the pan...Aladdin? The Da Vinci Code? Time Out's recent list had Salò at #1, the Disturbo 13 list has it at #1, etc..

Cannibal Terror is of significantly less stature, though it keeps Cannibal Holocaust company as its down-the-street neighbor (with Cannibal Man residing between the two) on the official British list of Video Nasties, which means it'll always have completists willing to watch. Delicatessen lives several streets over in an entirely different type of neighborhood, but it too includes the consumption of certain cuts of meat. Salò won't show up on any cannibal keyword searches, but it deals with other sorts of human consumption, both the literal and metaphorical kinds.

On a remakey note, the American remake of South Korean comedy megahit My Sassy Girl arrives on DVD today as well. I was under the impression it was a straight-to-video release, but through the magic of IMDb, I am able to tell you that it made $23,606 on 24 screens during its opening weekend in Thailand.

Father's Little Dividend

Taking a short hiatus. I've been asked to officiate the wedding of good friends, a couple The Apple fans who met at one of my annual Halloween horror-movie parties (/singles mixers, apparently). It's coming up in a couple of weeks, and I'd like to give preparation the better part of my attention. I'll leave you to your own devices to mull over rumors of both Eli Roth and The Office's B.J. Novak cast in Quentin Tarantino's remake of Inglorious Bastards, Britney Spears in Quentin Tarantino's remake of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, and whatever you got on The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. See you soon.