Bedsheet, 4 thumb tacks, 16 mm movie projector, 15 folding chairs, and 10 films by or about the Kuchar Brothers *

* (restored)

 

Introduction
by John Waters

George and Mike Kuchar’s films were my first inspiration. George’s ”Hold Me While I’m Naked,” Mike’s ”Sins of the Fleshapoids” — these were the pivotal films of my youth, bigger influences than Warhol, Kenneth Anger, even ”The Wizard of Oz.” As a Baltimore teenager in the mid-60’s, I initially read about these filmmaking brothers from the Bronx in Jonas Mekas’s Village Voice column, Movie Journal. Here were directors I could idolize — complete crackpots without an ounce of pretension, outsiders to even ”underground” sensibilities who made exactly the films they wanted to make, without any money, starring their friends. Devouring my favorite magazine of the time, Film Culture, I learned more about their entirely original work, the lurid plot lines, their home-grown movie goddesses, the ludicrous thrift-store costuming — it was enough to make me run away to New York to actually see one of their opuses.

Boy, was I not disappointed. There it was on the silver screen — the Kuchars’ famous low-rent Douglas Sirk lighting, the melodramatic soundtracks stolen from bad Hollywood films, male and female nudity. A vision so peculiar, so hilarious, good-natured and proudly pitiful that I realized (with a little help from LSD) that I too could make the films of my dreams. The Kuchar brothers gave me the self-confidence to believe in my own tawdry vision. I went back to Baltimore, renamed a neighborhood friend Divine and made my first real trash epic, ”The Roman Candles.”

The real heyday of ”underground movies” didn’t last long in the 60’s, but the Kuchar brothers have managed to survive with their sense of humor and original style intact. They didn’t want to cross over. They still make funny, sexy, insanely optimistic films and videos every day of their lives, and nobody tells them what to do or how to make it more ”commercial.” The Kuchars may be the only real underground filmmakers left working in American today.

Come on, MacArthur grant committee. What are you waiting for? Every year I expect to see the Kuchars’ names on the list of your so-called genius awards, but so far no luck. If they don’t deserve it, who does?

— from ‘Reflections From a Cinematic Cesspool’

 

1.

Mike Kuchar ‘The Craven Sluck’ (1967)

‘The Craven Sluck seems like a practical primer for John Water’s mischievous Mondo Trasho as well as his far more accomplished Multiple Maniacs. Like Mondo, Sluck is shot in black and white, features a blousy blond out cruising for men, and deals with wholly desperate and debauched characters. Maniacs uses Kuchar’s unconventional narrative style, along with an equally surreal yet satisfying ending to create artistic anarchy. The best part about Sluck is its star. Forty-plus year old Floraine Connors (a Kuchar company member) does her best bombshell gone to seed shimmy as the sexually frustrated spouse of a bumbling bloated husband. Her silent scenes (dialogue was later dubbed in to give some semblance of a storyline), including a couple of inspired “glamour fits” are absolutely hilarious and she really wants to come across as the middle-aged answer to Marilyn Monroe. Unfortunately, she’s more like Mamie Van Doren circa an episode of Fantasy Island. Still, we want to follow this flubbery femme if only because her passions practically pulsate off the screen.’ — Bill Gibron, DVD Talk

 

2.

Watch George Kuchar’s ‘Corruption of the Damned’

Corruption of the Damned Without the corruption of the damned

‘Kuchar’s films are overtly insane. Anyone who lived in such a world would be mad inside an hour. Perhaps the Marx Brothers might survive, but I doubt it. Godzilla, King of the Monsters, might have a better chance. But the utter insanity, the insanity of perverted cliche, is the genuine unwholesome appeal of Kuchar’s outlook. CORRUPTION might seethe with violence and sex, the two most attractive things you can put on the screen, but beneath them a twisted outlook pervades. Something is very much wrong with the Kuchar world.’ — Leonard Lipton, Berkeley Barb 1965

 

3.

George Kuchar ‘The Mongreloid’ (1978)

‘This short film by George Kuchar may be the best thing I’ve seen by the master of madcapped melodrama. A man, his dog, and the regions they inhabited, each leaving his own distinctive mark on the landscape. Not even time can wash the residue of what they left behind. “The MONGRELOID documents my relationship with my dog and parts of it were shot by an ex-student of mine so I guess you can look at it as him getting his revenge since I was photographed in my own habitat which makes me automatically look like an idiot.” – George Kuchar’ — Made out of Mouth

 

4.

Mike Kuchar ‘Sins of the Fleshapoids’ (1965)

‘Along with Anger’s SCORPIO RISING and Warhol’s CHELSEA GIRLS, Mike Kuchar’s SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS remains one of the most influential films of the ’60s American Underground. Mike and his brother George (who co-wrote FLESHAPOIDS), were the godfathers of bargain basement cinema, pioneering a hilariously campy, lurid style between Ed Wood exploitation and Douglas Sirk melodrama. Set a million years in the future, after “The Great War” has scourged the planet, mankind has forsaken science for self-indulgence in all the carnal pleasures afforded by art, food, and lust. Work is left to a race of enslaved androids. One rebellious male robot (Bob Cowan) tires of pampering his lazy masters, and joins the humans in sin.’ — Other Cinema

 

5.

George Kuchar ‘Pagan Rhapsody’, Parts 2 & 3 (1970)

‘Since this was Jane Elford and Lloyd Williams’ first big acting roles, I made the music very loud so it would sweep them to stardom. She once hurt Bob Cowan’s back by sitting on it so this time I had her laying on his stomach. Donna Kerness was pregnant during her scenes but her stomach was kept pretty much in shadow and it’s not noticeable. My stomach was the same as always except it contained more mocha cake than usual since that type of cake was usually around when I filmed in Brooklyn Heights. Being that the picture was made in the winter, there are no outdoor scenes because it’s too cold and when the characters have to suddenly flee a tense situation, it’s too time consuming to have them put on a coat and gloves. Originally not scheduled as a tragedy, things swiftly changed as the months made me more and more sour as I plummet down that incinerator shaft I call my life.’ — George Kuchar

 

6.

George Kuchar’s ‘I, An Actress’ (1977)

‘I, an Actress features Kuchar as a teacher in San Francisco showing an acting student how things should be done. It’s hilarious and self-explanatory], so instead of saying more about it, and because it features Kuchar in his real-life role, I’ll quote a few lines from Kuchar’s essay “Teaching Film” about realism: ‘Realism only comes to the screen when the film jams in the projector and the image begins to bubble. An instinctual fear of the dark manifests when the projection light fails…heightened by the little furry things with long tails that scamper beneath the seats. The electrical nature of sex becomes apparent as the hair on your neck bristles when that pervert to your left makes knee contact. In these moments of truth, cinema reveals her face of realism’.’ — Douglas Crimp

 

7.

Mike Kuchar ‘Definitely No, Possibly Yes’ (1:45)

‘Mike Kuchar’s video of a downtown NY art gallery opening on Halloween’ — Artflux

 

8.

George Kuchar ‘Butter Balls’ (2003)

‘I made two films working with film and theater students as my collaborating cast and crew. To counteract the talkie I had done with graduate student the day before, this undergrad project has no dialogue but just a steady stream of images we dreamed up on the spot. A psychodrama that’s heavy on the beefcake, our picture deals with the sexual dementia of a sex addict undergoing hypnotherapy. It’s a mixture of fantasy and desire with some animals thrown in and lots of strange angles of the leading actor’s attributes.’ — George Kuchar

 

9.

This is George Kuchar: The Making of Queen Konga’ (2006)

Documentary short on the making of Queen Conga by Ronaldo Barbachano, 2006, 12 min., video. Featuring interviews/performances by, Linda Martinez, Bob Moricz, Evie Mpras, and others.

 

10.

A short interview with Mike Kuchar, 2007 (8:13)

 

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi, D!!!! So far so good: my back. I wondered if, due to your counselling work, you would pick the first option. Truth be told, I probably would too. But I’d charge them a lot. A lot. There must be people who’ve tried or even ‘succeeded’ in contacting Richey Edwards through a seance or that sort of thing, no? Love stuffing his bedroom inside a tumbler, G. ** cal Hi, cal. I just saw your email in my box and I’ll open it and get back to you. Thanks for the link/video. Yum. Have a super swell beginning to your weekend. ** _Black_Acrylic, Whew, good news about your dad. Continued psychic balm from my end. And good news galore in the form of the dawning of a new PT! Everyone, Have you hopped on _Black_Acrylic’s Play Therapy train yet? Yes, no? If no, whatever’s stopping you is a liar. Here’s your new chance, and, dudes, seriously, take it and shake it. _B_A: ‘The new episode of Play Therapy is online here via Mixcloud! Ben ‘Jack Your Body’ Robinson returns to bring you Algerian rhythms, Minimal Synth and some Italo curios too.’ ** David, Thanks, bud. RIP Meatloaf, yes, the prime interpreter/singer of the great songbook of the great auteur songwriter Jim Steinman for which Meatloaf will always be immortal. Enjoy whatever Eastbourne is. ** David Ehrenstein, Non-link. But I assume it was Meatloaf related. RIP ** Maria, Isabella, Camila, Malaria, Gabriela, Hi, lustrous crowd. Yes, Tears for the Loaf. As a nearly lifelong vegetarian/vegan I prefer my meatloaf with a human, singing face, but thank you for the thought. Have what I can only imagine will be an exciting weekend. ** Bill, That TM moment does stand out within the oeuvre of my otherwise drab and terrifying dream life. ‘History of the Occult’ sounds very intriguing indeed. I’ll check my sources. Thank you, sir. I hope SF coddles you through Monday morning at the very least. ** Steve Erickson, ‘I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’ is such a great song. I should have included it in my faves the other day. Maybe not as great as ‘My Feet Keep Dancing’, but what could be? I will most certainly take a peek and listen re: Hainbach’s youtube channel. News to me. Thank you! ** Okay. Another restoration for your this weekend, this one celebrating the works by the unimpeachable avant-film creators the Kuchar Brothers. Plunk yourself down on one of the imaginary folding chairs and do yourselves a world of good maybe? See you on Monday one way or another.