* (restored)
‘Born in 1931, Bruno Mattei grew up in Rome, Italy, where his father owned a small film editing studio. At age 20 Bruno started working odd jobs at his father’s company as his assistant, then went on to other small spots. He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps as a film editor, and soon found himself working as an editor for a number of directors, including Roberto Bianchi Montero and Nick Nostro. Mattei claimed to have edited over 100 films in the 1960s and early 1970s.
‘After working with famed Spanish director Jess Franco, Mattei made his debut as a director with the drama Armida, il dramma di una sposa (1970) under the alias “Jordon B. Matthews”. He eventually had more pseudonyms than any working director in the world. He returned to editing before making another comeback in 1976 with two low-budget Nazi exploitation films, KZ9 – Camp d’extermination (1977) (aka “Women’s Camp 119”) and Hôtel du plaisir pour SS (1977) (aka “SS Girls”).
‘Mattei followed these taboo-breaking films with excursions into porno films and mondo “shockumentaries”, all directed under his many pseudonyms, concentrating on “shock value” with films such as Mondo erotico (1973), “Libiodomania” and “Libidomania 2”. Always on the lookout for new exploitation avenues, Mattei followed with “nunsploitation”, with the softcore sex film The True Story of the Nun of Monza (1980) and the violent sex thriller L’autre enfer (1981). Both films involved a partnership with writer/director Claudio Fragasso, who helped him write and direct the back-to-back productions.
‘Using yet another alias, “Vincent Dawn”, Mattei directed Hell of the Living Dead (1980) (aka “Night of the Zombies”), a low-budged zombie picture inspired by other zombie cannibal movies such as Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Lucio Fulci’s Zombie (1979). “Virus” was filmed in Spain and used jungle footage from New Guinea and a patch soundtrack from Goblins “Dawn of the Dead” soundtrack, which was a minor hit in Italy and abroad.
‘After directing two women’s prison films starring Laura Gemser, Mattei moved to directing sword-and-sorcery flicks, starting with I sette magnifici gladiatori (1983). Both Mattei and Fragasso collaborated on the sci-fi/horror flick Rats: Night of Terror (1984), inspired by the futuristic movies of the early 1980s. Mattei considers this his best work, despite his still having to work with a very low budget.
‘He worked relentlessly through the 1980s, directing a pair of “spaghetti westerns”, some action flicks and about half of Zombie 3 (1988) after Lucio Fulci was taken off the production, though Mattei was not credited with it. In the early 1990s Mattei directed a series of erotic thrillers and a made-for-TV movie, Cruel Jaws (1995), which was inspired by Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975). Mattei continued making films, with more than 50 to his credit by the 200s.
‘In early 2007 his health began to decline rapidly after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Despite his doctor’s warnings, he went through with a surgical operation to have the tumor removed in May of that year. After the surgery he fell into a coma from complications, and died a few days later on May 21, 2007 at age 75. Though some people consider his films to be cheap, insipid and technically inept due in large part to their low budgets and poor production values, Bruno Mattei remains an influential cult film director around the world for his radical film making and willingness to direct pretty much anything with a taboo-breaking topic.’ — collaged
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Stills
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Further
Bruno Mattei @ IMDb
Bruno Mattei DVDs
Tales From the Vault: Zombi 3
Bruno Mattei – Master of Rip-Off Cinema
BM @ letterboxd
Critique de Virus cannibale – Faites que je n’ai pas le virus…
The Bruno Mattei Show
WR427 – Bruno Mattei – Master of Rip-Off Cinema
RIP BRUNO MATTEI
BM @ Horreur.Com
Hommage à Bruno Mattei
THE BRUNO MATTEI VISUAL EXPERIENCE
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Extras
BRUNO MATTEI – Interview discussing the making of RATS
Bruno Mattei interview (in Italian only)
The Last Works of Bruno Mattei!
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Interview: Geretta Geretta
from Coming Soon
SHOCK: What was a nice American girl like you doing flitting around Italy in the 1980’s?
Geretta Geretta: Well even nice girls gotta eat! In actuality, my roommate at the time who has gone one to be a rather renown script supervisor, Dale Wyatt, was offered the role first… Guess Chocolate was ‘Dark Chocolate” in the first draft? Hmmmm…anyway she was horrified when she heard the pay. It was beyond low. Actually it was low for us, we were being paid like studio players or contract players. We got lunch, we got our name in lights we got a very small check each week. I think it was my second film in Italy. I did not really speak a word of Italian at the time. I translated the entire script with a travelers pocket dictionary, The set ups, the dialogue, everything… and low and behold it became a breakthrough for me.
SHOCK: What kind of man was Bruno?
GG: Oh, Man, the best! The absolute best. He had this funny little crooked smile. He used to yell at me from the moment I got on set until I left. The spats we got into! This was during my “difficult actress” stage! I didn’t know anything! I thought you were supposed to be like that! Actually, a kind Ad later told me “Uh, you’re picking up bad habits. Actresses as a rule don’t talk back like you do to Bruno.” I was thunderstruck! I mean, really, I had no idea.
SHOCK: People often mumble that writer Claudio Fragasso really directed much of RATS. Any truth to that?
GG: Hell no. And that’s a quote for the dopes! What people don’t get – and trust me. I hear the same crap regarding Dario and Lamberto when we were all on DEMONS – is that really talented people like Bruno, allow other people to have opinions, chime in, come up with stuff. But RATS is Bruno’s film. It’s classic Bruno.Come on. The rubber rats on the conveyor belt thing? So Bruno. On second thought, maybe I SHOULD say that it was all Claudio’s idea (laughs)! Only Bruno came up with that kinda of no-budget but brilliant kinda stuff. And no one knows or knew more about camera angles and set ups and how to get two for one and do 20 set ups a day than that old Italian veteran. Claudio had lots of good ideas and Bruno would sort of pull on his chin in silence then if he liked it he’d say ‘Va Bene”. And plenty of times he did not say “Va bene”. A nice girl can’t repeat what he would say when he thought the idea was “stupido.”
SHOCK: Did you think the fact that the sole African actress in RATS being called “Chocolate” was a bit lazy? Did you have any reservations about the role?
GG: Claudio came up with that name. I have been called worse. Didn’t even think about it twice. “Chocolate” .”Negra”. “Ragazza De Colore”. “Colored Girl.” “Foxy Lady”. At least they’re “calling ya” is how I felt about it. At the same time in the States, with the exception of Susan Seidelman, who cast me in SMITHEREENS, I wasn’t getting called anything so yeah, you go where the work is. We, meaning all of us in the film, felt it was tongue in cheek, I mean, there was “video” too, We all had those post apocalyptic names. It was an 80’s thang, ya had to be there!
SHOCK: The rats themselves are nasty. Did you ever get bitten?
GG: No, but Bruno was all about saving money so he re-used the dead ones for days! That was nasty and smelled!
SHOCK: What did you think of the flick when you finally saw it?
GG: I have to tell you…I never saw it! I don’t think it even had a premiere! Years – and I mean years – later I saw a VHS copy of it in those old arthouse rental stores. I never in a million years even knew anyone knew anything about those films. Shoot, I forgot about them! But every now and then an old friend from Rome would contact me in the States and say “Sis, they messed up your voice in the Italian dubbed version. It’s too sweet.”
SHOCK: Did you have any off-screen romances with any of your co-stars?
GG: Of course. I had big hair and a big heart! I was dating Gianfrancco Gianni before the film started and I had some sort of “special friendship” with Claudio for a minute. He used to come to my place and I helped him write the movie he got his directorial debut on. I even introduced him the money people. Bruno used to always say “Fuck, Janna (which was my name back then), if you were gonna help somebody why didn’t you help me?” Right up until almost the end when I saw him last around 2002, he would still laugh and say that. He was like an Uncle to me. When I had my directorial debut, man, it was so low budget, even using the roll outs, I didn’t have enough footage to get it to 80 minutes never mind 90 for distribution. He was Like “Come here give it to me”. And I let him, without even questioning it, splice my negative! He hooked that sucker up in like 20 minutes and then told me to run the credits real long thank everybody then put a surprise at the end. Bingo, bitches! My film was now 90 minutes. I loved him!
SHOCK: On that note, you did evolve into a very interesting artist but do you look back fondly on those wild days in Italy?
GG: Of course! I arrived as a Greenhorn model and I left… well, a name in that genre. Not bad for a knocked kneed girl from Oregon!
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18 of Bruno Mattei’s 55 films
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Private House of the SS (1977)
‘SS Girls is an example of Naziploitation. This cycle of Nazi sexploitation films are predominantly Italian in origin and emerged for a brief period between 1975 and 1977. In Bruno Mattei’s nazi-themed films, the settings are Nazi bordellos and are concerned with staging explicit sexuality.’ — WK
Trailer
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Women’s Camp 119 (1977)
‘This is a sleazy film. Make no mistake about that. There are lots of naked women being abused, whether they’re whipped, or forced to have sex with frozen pilots to thaw them with their body heats, or having their heads dipped in water, or getting raped by crazy Kurt. Wieker kills prisoners by removing their uteri and transferring them into infertile women in order to propagate the Master Race. The sole male inmates, both homosexuals, are forced to have sex with women, and understandably are somewhat resistant. Mattei’s take on the Nazis and their experiment is brutal, though I can’t vouch for its historical veracity or lack thereof, and while it never reaches the excesses of Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Women’s Camp 119 is pretty graphic.’ — Diary of a Madman
Excerpt
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Hell of The Living Dead (1980)
‘The curious thing about Hell Of The Living Dead is that its gore scenes are probably its least offensive aspect. The real issue here centres upon the inserted stock footage—the way in which it is used in-story, and the way in which it tied to the film’s philosophy. (Oh, yes, it has “a philosophy”: you can thank Fragasso for that.) The pilfering from La Vallée is always highlighted in any consideration of Hell Of The Living Dead, probably because that is quite a well-known production in its own right, but in fact the bulk of the re-used material comes from other sources: some of it from the French-Belgian documentary Des Morts (Of The Dead), which is an almost-silent contemplation of death and funerary rites around the world, but most of it from the Italian-Japanese co-production Nuova Guinea, L’Isola Dei Cannibali, better known as Guinea Ama (and recently released on DVD as The Real Cannibal Holocaust).’ — AYCYAS
Trailer
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The Other Hell (1981)
‘The director of this mess is credited as “Stefan Oblowski”, but don’t be fooled: it’s the dreaded team of Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso. These are the people who inflicted Virus/Night of the Zombies/Hell of the Living Dead, Rats: Notte del Terrore and Zombi 3 on an unsuspecting world. In The Other Hell, they manage to rip off Carrie, The Exorcist, The Devils and The Omen (among others), while the music is stolen from various Goblin-scored films, including Buio Omega. And don’t miss the Mario Bava riff — the scenes in the convent attic, which almost succeed in being atmospheric and disturbing. That is, until you ask yourself: “What is a room full of dolls hanging from chains doing in a convent?”‘ — Braineater
Trailer
the entire film
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Violence in a Women’s Prison (1982)
‘There is no plot in Violence. It’s mostly just a series of erotic or gruesome vignettes that don’t lead to anything or tie together. Basically it’s just a bunch of women in prison. The people running the place are sadists. There’s no development or escalation of this conflict. Things kind of happen… Things kind of get resolved… Roll credits.’ — trashmenmedia
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Women’s Prison Massacre (1983)
‘Emanuelle, a reporter, comes just a little too close to exposing a corrupt official, and is sent to prison on trumped-up charges. In the prison, the inmates are constantly humiliated and tortured by the prison staff. Overly affectionate prisoners are forced underwater, while others are obliged to look on. Emanuelle finds an enemy in the deranged Albina, who “runs the prison.” For the pleasure of the warden, Emanuelle and Albina are forced to fight each other with knives. Bad becomes worse when four men awaiting execution escape and take over the prison. Gore flows like water.’ — letterboxd
Excerpt
Excerpt
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Rats: Night of Terror (1984)
‘One of Bruno Mattei’s most beloved films by fans, not because it’s great, but because it’s laugh out loud awful! The fun factor is high and the cheesy characters and English dubbing are both major players in providing the entertainment. Special mention also to the Rats in the film and their complete lack of enthusiasm in their roles as bloodthirsty maneaters, the poor buggers are kicked, stamped, thrown and torched all over the place! There are a couple of decent kills but I was expecting a bit more gore so marks off for that. Overall not quite as enjoyable as Zombie Creeping Flesh but still a good fun watch with friends and beers.’ — Lee/RT
Trailer
the entire film
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Zombie 3 (1988)
‘Shortly before completing the sequel to his classic ZOMBIE, the legendary Lucio Fulci became ill and left the Philippines-based production. But when director Bruno Mattei (SHOCKING DARK) and writers Claudio Fragasso & Rossella Drudi (TROLL 2) stepped in to finish, the result became the most “insanely enjoyable” (The Lucid Nightmare) zombie romp in EuroCult history.’ — Diabolik
Trailer
the entire film (with actors’ commentary)
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Robowar (1988)
‘What Mattei is also known for is creating films so inept that they take on a certain charm all their own. That’s the case with Robowar – it’s a film with low-rent standins for most of the characters in Predator, from the superstitous soldier with the sixth sense to the agent who knows what’s really going on to the damsel in distress. And of course, Reb Brown is about the cheapest stand-in for Arnold Schwarzenegger you can find.’ — WMEM
the entire film
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Terminator II (aka Shocking Dark) (1989)
‘If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then a 1989 Italian film called Shocking Dark pays James Cameron the ultimate compliment: it openly steals from not one but two of his 80s hits. Now, it’s no secret that B-movie filmmakers have long taken ‘inspiration’ from hit genre movies – Star Wars, Alien, Jaws and Mad Max are some of the most imitated films of the 70s and 80s, spawning such cult B-movies as StarCrash, 1990: Bronx Warriors and Contamination. Shocking Dark, on the other hand, occupies its own special place in movie history. We’re not just talking about an attempt to evoke the general atmosphere of a successful film here – we’re talking about the wholesale recreation of entire sequences.’ — Den of Geek
Trailer
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Night Killer (1990)
‘Though it was released in Italy under the title Non Aprite Quella Porta 3 — which would have made it The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 for particularly fascinating and lax copyright law reasons — the 1990 film Night Killer is its own kind of riff on a then-contemporary icon. The quilt of a horror classic was made by husband-and-wife team Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi (Troll 2, Zombi 3 and Zombi 4), with some post-production and gore footage courtesy of Bruno Mattei (Terminator 2: Shocking Dark, The Other Hell). Not quite Bad Dreams or The Invasion — the respective champions of ripoff and quilt cinema — Night Killer is nevertheless a special kind of whatsit that any fan of horror or psychotronic cinema should be amped up for.’ — Nashville Scene
Excerpts
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Cruel Jaws (1995)
‘The coastal town of Hampton Bay is threatened when a tiger shark starts chomping up their vacationers in the king of all Jaws rip-offs, Cruel Jaws. Days before the annual Regatta celebration, the townspeople are faced with financial ruin if something isn’t done about their newfound shark problem. If that wasn’t enough, the owners of the local amusement park have been subject to a hostile takeover from a prospective businessman looking to cash in on their prized property. It’s up to the sheriff, the park’s owner, and a shark expert to head out and destroy the killing fish before the summer economy is slashed and the park is left for the bulldozer. Directed by Italy’s foremost expert on rip-off cinema, Bruno Mattei (under the name William Snyder), Cruel Jaws features a heap load of footage taken from Enzo Castellari’s The Last Shark, as well as snippets from the first two Jaws flicks, plus musical cues from none other than Star Wars.’ — Whistlejacket
the entire film
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Mondo Cannibale (2003)
‘You may think you’ve witnessed the most extreme examples of the Italian cannibal genre, but leave it to late Italian sleaze master Bruno Mattei – notorious director of HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD, RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR, SS GIRLS and CALIGULA’S PERVERSIONS – to lower the bar to depraved new heights. In this shameless rip-off of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, Mattei (under the name ‘Vincent Dawn’) unleashes the sleazy saga of a ratings-hungry American TV crew whose Amazon jungle report becomes a nightmare of gut munching, brain-scarfing, sexual atrocities, insane moralizing and much more. Claudio Morales and Cindy Matic (IN THE LAND OF THE CANNIBALS) star in this jaw-dropper – also known as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST: THE BEGINNING.’ — Diabolik
Trailer
the entire film
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In the Land of the Cannibals (2004)
‘If you’ve seen “Predator”, you’re always several steps ahead of the screenplay. The action sequences are poorly done and there’s only a disappointingly small amount of gory make-up effects to enjoy. Acting performances are weak and the total lack of sleaze is unforgivable. Cindy Jelic Matic stripped off all her clothes in “Mondo Cannibale” (which was shot back-to-back with this one), so the least she could do was show some ravishing flesh here as well. Oh well, at least these recent cannibal-exploitation movies don’t feature any gratuitous animal killings, I suppose. Unfortunately, I can’t give any praise to Bruno Mattei regarding this film, as it really sucks, but at least he kept the Italian horror industry running till the day he died.’ — Coventry
Trailer
the entire film
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La tomba (2006)
‘This extremely low budget film was shot on a Digital camera so that there doesn’t work with me from the start. I was hoping Mattai would get back to his so bad it’s good film-making style but that never happens and by the ten minute mark I was wanting to turn this thing off. Needless to say but the performances are all horrid and Mattai still doesn’t know how to make a film move at a good pace. This one here goes very slowly with nothing happening for it. As with other Mattai films, this one here rips off countless other films including lifted scenes from Army of Darkness and a scene for scene remake of the dance sequence in From Dusk Till Dawn.’ — Michael Elliott
Trailer
the entire film
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The Jail: The Women’s Hell (2006)
‘After the “golden age of Italian exploitation” concluded at the end of the ‘80s — no one told goremeister Bruno Mattei (HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD, RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR) to stop making ‘80s Italian exploitation movies! In the 2000s, Mattei produced nearly a dozen exploitationers with the same verve and whackadoo style that were hallmarks of his work in the classic period. For this Philippines-lensed filth fest from 2006(!), Mattei returned to the genre that established his reputation as a true maestro of EuroSleaze. When a group of women are sentenced to a jungle hellhole prison known as “The House of Lost Souls”, they enter a sweaty nightmare of sadistic guards, menacing lesbians and rampant nudity. But Mattei — here under his alias “Vincent Dawn” — also packs his final babes-behind-bars saga with enough degradations, perversions, jaw-dropping violence and over-the-top performances to set all-new standards of genre depravity.’ — American Genre Film
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Island Of The Living Dead (2007)
‘Anyone not knowing who Bruno mattei is would probably take one quick look at this and dismiss it as cheap crap. It is cheap crap but maestro Mattei always did a decent job, no matter how tacky and silly the material was. Island of the living dead is a good example of this: the whole thing has a cheap look reminiscent of a daytime soap and some of the zombie makeup consists of dimestore halloween masks. The acting is awful and the dubbing atrocious but Mattei still treats it like a genuine movie. There are some decent locations in the Philippines, lots of cheap violence and a decent pace to ensure that you are never bored. I can’t really hate this but it isn’t for anyone. Mostly those of us that look back at the era of italian exploitation of the 80s with fondness.’ — Joachim Andersson
Trailer
the entire film
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Zombies: The Beginning (2007)
‘Unless you live in another planet, people that watch this type of movies have seen Alien II This story line and progression of the movie, it’s that other way better movie. I like low, low, low budget movies, and I think this one actually had a few dollars, just to bad they forgot to pay the writer some money to come up with something original. Asian Zombies, I’m cool with that, but please, better dub would not have hurt. The movie in not even worth renting, but it was fun to see this people’s version of the space marines.’ — WhoFan
the entire film
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p.s. Hey. The blog will be taking a one day vacation tomorrow because I have to get up early and travel out to the Paris suburbs to take a required physical exam for my French visa. I don’t know how long that’s going to take, so I’ll just go ahead and skip tomorrow, and you’ll get your escorts a day late on Thursday. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Congratulations! What a relief. The new leader doesn’t seem like a picnic, but he’s gotta be hugely better than Orban, no? Will he roll back the LGBTQetc. oppression? Anyway, yay!!! Lag is dying rather slowly but inevitably. I’m okay, catching up on stuff mostly. Thanks, love, my eye hasn’t gotten worse at least. Love explaining the eternal appeal of low budget gory horror movies, G. ** Adem Berbic, I don’t think the US has an exact equivalent of that kind of erudite, glamorous fiction writer. I guess years ago dudes like Wolfe, Vidal, Updike and so on were as close as we got. The US class thing is sort of more complicated and free floating maybe because of the whole ‘anyone can grow up to be President’ thing there. And it’s very integrated with racism, sexism, etc. Noise stuff is always, or, well, usually a plus. That sounds ripe. ** Charalampos, The first two Pinback albums and all the EPs in that era are unimpeachable. The Pinback song squib in our film is under wraps for now. Howdy from semi-chilly here. ** Carsten, I haven’t had to go the antibiotics route at least yet. Saline solution is quelling it a bit so far. My favorite Soderbergh is ‘The Limey’. I think maybe Reed’s grumpy demeanor keeps him from having the charisma he should. ** _Black_Acrylic, Big up to you, sir. ** julian, The blog does mysteriously swallow comments sometimes. And one of my eyes is crapped out, so it could’ve been me. Thanks. It must be relaxing to think sex is uncomplicated. You good? What’s going on with you? ** Brendan, Upper East Side, swank! I know it’s all gentrified and everything, but I still really like hanging out in the East Village. I feel like all the things I like are there even though that’s not true. I want to hear about your early adventures. That sounds great, B. Congrats! ** Matthew Simmons, Hi, Matthew! How really, really nice to see you! I’ll go find ‘Eclipsium. I’ve been looking for a reason not too spend $60 for the new ‘Resident Evil’. Thanks a ton for coming in. I hope everything’s super great with you. ** Laura, Hi. So far saline drops are keeping my eye from becoming too unsightly. We’ll see. It may be weird, but I think I feel the most exalted when I’m the least horny. Thank you for the borrowing honor. Loathing does not seem possible. ‘RT’ is tentatively to begin its streaming life and its life on BluRay in July or thereabouts. But that’s in the States. You’re in Spain, right? I’m not sure about there. There’s a streaming service in Spain that has our earlier films, so maybe they’ll want it. We’ll look into it. I’m the kind of person who expects my body to behave, so I’m just waiting for my eye to get with the program. ** jay, Hi. All props to Kevin. I’ll locate ‘Rez’, or, rather, test it out. Thanks. The mom thing was pretty scary. She was pretty scary in general. Back in my brief time at university living in the dorms, when I got really bored of my fellow students I would play Capt. Beefheart’s ‘Trout Mask Replica’ at full blast, and, let me tell you, nothing turns boring people into raving, screaming maniacs like that record, for future reference. Nice about the marathon piano playing and the shaking. Sometimes I romanticise working on a factory assembly line for maybe the same possible reason. ** HaRpEr //, I don’t think ‘Casanova’ fits comfortably into the terrible category. It’s too inventive. But, hey, there might be a movie or two in the post today that would do the trick, though they tilt far more towards the terrible than the genius. ‘Tiptoes’, no, I don’t know it. Nice title. Wow, I’ll find it. Sounds kind of exciting. Thanks, pal. The UK has this particular kind of class thing that doesn’t really happen in the US. Like even the old Blur vs. Oasis thing, or, way back, the Beatles vs. Rolling Stones thing. I can’t think of a US equivalent. ** Gustavo, Hi, Gustavo! Thank you. Brazil, nice. I think there is at least one more commenter who’s in Brazil named Minet. One of my brothers used to live there somewhere near Brasilia, but I’ve never been there. Any comics or games you recommend? ** Steve, I’m hoping I won’t have to get to the antibiotics phase. We’ll see. Luckily, I can see well except with this kind of blurry framing around my sight caused by bloated eyelids. I really liked the Rotterdam festival when ‘PGL’ premiered there. And Amsterdam’s only an hour away by train. I’ll look at the YouTube channel, thanks a lot. ** rewritedept, I’m post-drugs, but I find clarity really interesting. Never imagined I would. My lag is sort of barely hanging on, but I’m mostly the boss of it now. Mostly. Rob Crow is great. He actually popped into the blog years ago to say hi because he heard I was a Pinback fan. That was cool. I want to meet him. Zac’s a big fan of his too, and it would be fun to collab with him some film music, I think. Monday was sort of ok, but Tuesday might improve upon things. Yours should rock. ** Okay. I decided to bring back this old post about Bruno Mattei for whatever reason. See what you can find therein to like, and I will see you on Thursday.
Now available in North America 
Hi Dennis, that’s totally fine, I understand you’re busy, I sent you an email anyway so just let me know what/if anything works!
Yeah, I understand class to be a lot more diffuse and intersectional in the US – not that it isn’t bound up with race and other things in the UK too, but its solo determining power and cultural weight here is really cartoonish – and you really see it up close going to the university I did. The idea of living somewhere with that American Dream ethos interests me, even if it’s demonstrably untrue much (most? all?) of the time.
Good luck with the physical, and the optical trouble as well. I feel like today’s post is a deep cut in a slightly different way to how posts are usually deep cuts. Up top I was getting Mattei confused with Joe D’Amato – I heard someone describe Beyond the Darkness as great ‘I’m a bad person for watching this’ cinema once, and I’m inclined to agree.
This morning we got a text from a random person, yesterday they found the cat trapped in a garden near-ish ours and let him free, then saw him on one of the posters we put up – so, on paper, he’s still alive and well and hopefully relatively close to us. I’m crossing my fingers tightly today. Tadhg’s on patrol right now, I’m taking over after work.
Hi, Dennis. Can i ask you when George Miles birthday?
Hello good morning. Today I walked outside to say to the sun and remind myself to go slow and such, but was met with this permeating smoke around the complex and genreal area. I tried tracing it by taking a small stroll, in that time admiring the beautful sun before me as it led me, but could not trace it. I do note that yesterday there was a firetruck pulling in to the complex across mine as I was waiting for the bus. Odd.
Hope your visa physical exam goes well, you should stop and get something as a reward after for the self. Or maybe not, that tends to be a current flaw of mine lately due to having more money, but at the same time, I feel I would trade that money aspect for not having to work “so much” in the kitchen (based on my own energy level) in trade for mental exhaustion and overwhelmed feelings. To be fair, im not supposed to work more than 20 hours, for my disability, and im probably going to have to talk to my manager about that today. Sometimes I think im holding so much in my body that im going to explode. I will hold my black tourmaline closely and remind myself the day is still a day and I am always present within it no matter how stressed and unnerved I feel. Stress can be alleviated by strong and confident internal reminders. Life goes on, and tranquility can manifest in a heartbeat, as it was a week ago when I felt so ready for everything, and was so exuberant. TO be fair, I feel ive definitely been accomplishing alot lately. Too bad my body cant feel that sort of empowerment…but I think it will get better! Just need ONE day to myself and nothing else.
I think, like, an autistic persons favorite person to get along with is not even another aspie its just that one externally logical and normal open-minded person, yet once you know them, they’re definitly eccentric and weird, idea-wise especially, and just is like “huh, woah thats nice. interesting!” after the other say the most aspiest eccentric thing ever. And all that to say is that I feel that is definitly you. Although granted, we havent yet held a in person conversation. Just a sidethought.
This is a song I heard the other night and it’s been in my head. Its Istanbul groove electropop. Break down the Istanbul dancefloor back in the 80s if you heard it?
Yali Yali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGILR4txS7w&list=RDUGILR4txS7w&start_radio=1
So bittersweet emotions after I finished Jean Genet’s Theifs journal 4ish weeks ago.
Since then, a bigger novel I started is Neuromancer. Just finished The poetry book “Look” by Iraquian writer and teacher Solmaz Sharif. Also finishing the book on bjork’s homogenic, both very thin breezy reads.
I hope your doing good and that your coffee taste exceptional this week. The reason I asked about the Florida viewing is because I was born in Florida (If you couldnt guess, hehe)
Also rip Shozin Fukui 🙁 He died earlier this month and I didnt even notice. 🙁 The sadness that immersed me in the mental hopsital upon hearing of Brian WIlson’s death has now overcome me again.
oi Yali Yali, huuuge banger <3 The Chemical Brothers owe Neşe Karaböcek and Basement Jaxx owes her too
I’m pretty sure I’ve been sharing a clip from one of these female prison movies as a joke with my friends for about two years now. I hope I didn’t make it sound like I don’t think sex is complicated in real life, just that “sexy” art is generally more boring to me than deliberately unsexy art. So I think we agree? I’m doing pretty good! It was my birthday as well as my high school friend’s spring break recently so he came out here and stayed with me for a week and we threw a party, which was all very fun and eventful. And now it seems like it’s everyone else’s birthday this month so I’ve got lots more parties to go to. I was experiencing sort of a creative drought the past couple of months, but I think I’m out of it now. I’ve been writing a lot more because of the poetry class that I’m in, and I’ve been getting good feedback on all of the poems I’ve turned in so far. I also have an idea for my next musical project. Something with a lot of baroque instruments like strings and horns and harpsichord and no guitar, kind of like later Scott Walker or Nico.
Hi!!
Thank you! I can still barely believe it. I’m cautiously optimistic about the new prime minister. We’ll have to wait and see what he’s actually like as a leader, but he did briefly address the LGBTQ+ community in one of his speeches, saying that it’s time for Hungary to finally be a country where people have equal rights, regardless of their orientation, so… yeah. Cautious optimism. In the meantime, though, it’s just such a fucking relief and joy that Orbán has finally been forced off his throne.
I hope that by the time you read this, both your jet lag and the eye infection have died! How did the mandatory physical exam go? I mean, it won’t mess with your visa, will it?
They have a special flavor of charm, don’t they – low-budget gory horror movies? Love ordering a pack of 150 tiny ducks from Temu because he can’t resist miniature things, Od.
Rats: Night of Terror… I have actually seen this one and I believe that my mum has too! Was maybe about a decade ago when I gave it a shot, and she has far less tolerance than I do for this kind of thing. The film provided me with what I was after.
Been in a happy mood today as last night Leeds United won at our arch-rivals Manchester United for the 1st time since 1981! The records are tumbling and it seems this season is turning into something triumphant. The Yorkshire v Lancashire rivalry has been going on since the War of the Roses back in the 15th century, so you could call it a grudge match alright.
My childhood friend always supported Man U for some reason. Of course he was good-looking, more sexually mature, could play the guitar etc. And his football team would always win everything. Last night’s victory has been a long time coming!
Yeah the UES is weird. I live in this extremely non-swank walk up, but it’s surrounded by these crazy buildings with door men and immaculate awnings. It’s right around the corner from the NY Society Library which is incredible. I stop by there whenever I can. And I love sitting in the park in the evening. I’ll keep you updated. Lots of photos to be made, I’m sure.
hi Dennis!
well ‘most exalted when least horny,’ this is v interesting to me. not like me but also not nothing for you to say, uh, in your writer’s capacity. now i sort of wanna delve into it to graphic death lol, but maybe not here. whenever we meet tho..? behold ample warning =)
damn, now you have to go get yr physical while jet lagged and eye-fucked? hope you’re doing better on both fronts, friend. sending up du’a for a totally blah exam which you’ll ace regardless of present annoyances.
Mattei! gotta love him, right. guy yodeled fuck you forever to p much everything, including decorum, budgets and his own name. my only issue w him is his super cursed misuse of rats— like man, rats are so fucking precious and deserve everything from everyone, him included >:
i originally watched yr films abroad, but more recently here in Valencia via Filmin, maybe? they’ve got to take RT too, right… srsly Dennis so miffed i’ve not seen it yet =D
glad you’re not loathing that bit of intertext in my novel! ^_^ thing is relatively intertext-heavy & there might be more of a you-related appearance yet to be written, sort of v important but i can’t do that w/o you having read the rest first and heard the pitch and said either ok or fuck off. =)
ugh today’s writing. an insane chunk of the day has been spent trying to find a Pomak song from a specific region for a handful of my characters to sing to one another like blink and you missed it — so many poor translations out there tho, instantly making everything 150% more irritating. like i speak a bit of russian, right, so i can tell when the original lyrics are saying ‘i’m dying, mama, i’m dying’ but the translator is like ‘whatevs, it’s not even standard Bulgarian so we’ll just skip that part’. like whyyy. what else are they keeping from me lol. i’ve maybe never felt more like a philologist than today. also trying to figure out the normie words for a wedding trousseau so i don’t gaffe and have someone understand Rup who shouldn’t. ugh. this is all fun v deep down tho ^_^
btw i couldn’t sleep last night (morning, whatever) so i picked up yr God Jr and that book makes me feel so understood, maybe bc i think i understand everything, like a priori even. no confusion and yet all the mystery, that doesn’t happen a lot… so thank you for the potential mind meld ^_^
speaking of, my new fav actor released a little art short and i liked it and now there’s a lot of brokeass discourse bc ppl are shook (‘he’s morally weird!’). fr this is hardly an epiphany, just a rant lol, but film is grossly misunderstood bc mfs en masse are confident that quirky conventional films w an indie aesthetic are art films and experimental films are nothing and everything surreal is Lynch & being weird means being edgelordesque in the saddest Aronofsky and Lanthimos way, and this is so bad for everyone lol. ‘the appearance of x’ convincing us it’s better than ‘x’ is just so bad.
anyway, back to my Pomak situation here. may the night be soft! maybe even exalted in horniness ^_^
<33
Just out of curiosity, what’s the film?
I haven’t seen any Mattei. That image at the top is pretty great.
Some pretty mental video games yesterday. I’m not much of a gamer, but I had to check out some of the trailers and playthroughs.
Funny to read your remark about some of Lee Bul’s pieces needing projections or something. That’s exactly what I thought when I made my way through Souterrain. I like how uncomfortable it was, but when I got to the end, I was wondering where was all the stuff promised by the description.
While I’m in the mysterious orient, John Waters had his 80th birthday party:
https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/john-waters-birthday-22206145.php
You might enjoy his remarks on theme parks and haunted houses.
Bill
d-
uneventful day. listened to lots of fela/africa 70 and bailterspace at work. now some ramen and then some porno and then bed.
i know i’ve seen some of bruno matei’s work, just can’t remember what offhand. i’ll find a good one to dive into.
that cannabis tincture i made does the trick for sure. it’s potent. very like wow in the best ways. you were never big on grass, yeah? it’s like the one drug i could probably never give up, though caffeine and nicotine give it some stiff competition. speaking of stiff competition, saw cheap trick a few months back and they played that song, but even cooler than that, tom petersson sang i’m waiting for the man. that was neat.
ok, i gotta eat something so i don’t pass out in the shower. hope yr wednesday rules. talk soon.
-c.
ps. i just realized i go through two 20-ounce bottles of worcestershire sauce a year, and i barely ever cook at home. it’s my favorite sauce. i’m having a psoriasis outbreak on my toes and it hurts SO MUCH, but i’m not gonna tell you more about that because it’s gross.
Long time no see! Sorry to hear about extended jet lag and eye troubles. and oh wow, escorts time already? Do you find them throughout the month or do you sit down and do it all at once?
Re: sexiness, I find sexual desire in connection with other people to be pretty exalting, but consuming art that’s made with the sole aim of arousing is not usually something that’s super fulfilling. The best stuff in that regard usually has at least equal attention to some other aim. I don’t know if this is the thing Laura’s getting at, but I *am* curious whether “this is/would be hot” is something that’s a consideration in your writing? In talking to people who write super explicit stuff, I’ve encountered an almost even split of people who say that despite their writing being about sex, they themselves are totally uninvolved/unaroused while writing it, and people who are clearly really motivated by their own arousal. Both types seem to write stuff of equal quality and it’d be hard to guess from the outside.
Good, I hope the saline solution works. Gotta be careful with antibiotics, they’re over-prescribed & stop working effectively when taken too often. Everything go well at the physical?
I’ve never actually seen “The Limey”, though I heard it’s Soderbergh’s riff on “Point Blank” or at least very much inspired by it.
Saw what you wrote there about using “Trout Mask Replica” as a weapon & had to laugh, cause I’ve done that too.
My neighbor was blasting “The Rhythm of the Night” in his yard the other day & I wondered if I’m the only person in town whose mind instantly flashes to Denis Lavant dancing at the end of “Beau Travail”. Musical associations are such a weird & intimate thing.
Re. Ishmael Reed: I dig his grumpiness. Fits his pugnacious style. Plus he’s usually right, which helps. But again, just as with the Corona song & thinking of “Beau Travail”, I know I’m in the minority with that reaction.
Hey! Not sure if any of my recs are your cup of tea, I will try.
For comics: Blame!, it’s less about the plot and more about the impossible architecture of its world, which causes me anxiety for some reason, I find it intriguing; Transmetropolitan, I am a big cyberpunk fan, it’s more conventional tho, it’s about a drug-fueled “gonzo” journalist in a world that has moved away from the concept of objective reality; From Hell, this one is a really weird examination of the geography of London and conspiracy theories and psychology.
For games: Disco Elysium, it’s a detective RPG based in the fictional world of Revachol, the mechanic that fascinates me is that parts of your character’s brain and body communicate with him and each other, also the writing is great, it has a lot of humor and energy; The Witness, this one is purely formal I guess, it’s a puzzle game that really mess with your perceptions and there’s no written tutorial, you learn its rules from the enviroment, some people call it pretentious tho; Bloodborne, it’s a mix between goth and victorian aesthetics with Lovecraftian mythology, I love the art of this one; and for last, Hotline Miami, because it’s very addictive and its repetitiveness and music actually keep the game engaging.
I have seen Rats: Night of Terror by Mattei, I respect how it disregards logic for an absolute fever dream, it’s funny , maybe I should watch the rest of his work.
Hope your visa thing went well.
Did the physical go alright? Does the government need any test results before granting you a visa?
Another mark of the finality of my parents’ passing: their estate has gone all the way through probate. I’m still sorting out little leftover bits and pieces, like my dad’s final pension check.
Yves Tumor is starring in MATADOR BOLERO, a sci-fi horror film opening in May!
The fact that I can quickly head to Amsterdam is a mark in Rotterdam’s favor. Locarno is an hour’s ride from the nearest airport, which would be Milan.
Hey Dennis.
I just got back from England today so I’m too tired to be that in depth, but I was wondering; do you know any good resources to find out stuff by the artist rammellzee? Have you ever done a post on the blog about his work?
Hope your appointment went well 🙂
Hey! I hope your eyes are on the mend and that the trip to the doctor wasn’t the typical waiting room hell.
I once went into my room and played Scott Walker’s ‘Tilt’ extremely loud and sang along to it deranged and operatically after my flatmate at the time unexpectedly invited the entire floor of the dorm I lived in the previous year into the kitchen for some class project. Those people hated me to no avail and made my life hell. It was so strange how they one day all showed up at my new place.
I’m interested in writing a sexual climax that never actually climaxes or comes to anything. In the novel I’m writing, the sex is all fake and part of films the main character stages and makes. But most of the ‘sex’ in the book is masturbation. The fake sex is also paraphrased, basically. I’m leaning into being pathetic. I don’t like when people think writing real sexy makes them cool.
The Beatles vs The Stones class thing is interesting because the stones were kind of finance bros but could freely adopt wild, sexy personas since they had their backgrounds to fall back on after having their characters put into question. The Beatles were actually working class kids and therefore had to pretend to be four well dressed nice young lads at the start.
As for Oasis vs Blur, the class thing was way overblown there. Blur were called ‘art school wankers’ in a time when it would have been free to go to art school. My dad is the same sort of age as Damon Albarn, and he went to art school and left not having to pay a thing. I think he was the last year of that though. Alex James grew up on the wealthier side, I know that, but the upbringings of both bands are not too dissimilar. Oasis were just against anyone taking an overt interest in ‘art’ or anything less than macho beer-swilling football culture (with Blur ironically did contribute to by adopting the iconography of, however ironically).