{"id":13415,"date":"2016-04-08T13:44:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T17:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13415"},"modified":"2016-04-08T13:44:22","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T17:44:22","slug":"book-cult-cinema-an-arrow-video-companion-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13415","title":{"rendered":"Book: Cult Cinema – An Arrow Video Companion (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ARROW_BOOK_COVER_s\"Book<\/strong>:\u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Authors:\u00a0<\/strong>Anthony Nield (Editor)<\/span><\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0Arrow Films \/ MVD Visual<\/a><\/p>\n

Date:<\/strong>\u00a0 April 11, 2016<\/p>\n

Format \/ ISBN:<\/strong>\u00a0 0993306012<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0Film History \/ Cult Movies \/ Home Video<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arrow Video\u2019s first venture in publishing is this limited hardcover book that gathers many of the essays, intros, and preambles designed to not only accompany selected Blu-ray & DVD releases in England and America, but contextualize the films and series which represent a variety of genres that have been under-represented on home video on Blu.<\/p>\n

On one hand, Arrow\u2019s move seems natural: take some of the best essays out there written by historians, experts, and eccentric uber-fans designed to instill curiosity, and hopefully drag a newcomer to a previously unseen genre and whet their appetite for more. Why Criterion hasn\u2019t done a similar move after decades of contextualizing and supporting their chunks of film history is a mystery \u2013 maybe it\u2019s a case of too much already published, and therefore too late, or Criterion super-fans already owning the discs, making a book redundant \u2013 but Arrow\u2019s move is also quite savvy in promoting the quality of insight and appreciation that\u2019s part of their signature Special Editions.<\/p>\n

Most of the essays within this hefty tome speak to familiars and newcomers, and the variety of subjects \u2013 specific directors, actors, and genres \u2013 cover a lot of ground, stretching from Asia, Canada, the U.S., Britain, and from perspectives that in most cases stem from a distinctly British stance.<\/p>\n

Arrow\u2019s raison d\u2019etre is perhaps subliminally tied to the paranoia of the Video Nasties<\/a> (a period covered in the book as well), as there\u2019s a subtle sense that part of the company\u2019s mandate is to bring out definitive editions of touchy films just in case<\/em> the political paranoia shifts once again to the extreme, and overly sensitive, nanny-minded, special interest groups and tabloid publications drum up another wave of outrage over the horrors that are seeping back into the households of innocents \u2013 distinctive works of art and moral depravity.<\/p>\n

Several of the films and filmmakers represented in the book \u2013 zombie and yakuza films, Christmas shockers, directors Brian De Palma, J\u00f6rg Buttgereit, George Romero, Tinto Brass, Wes Craven, Larry Cohen, Mario Bava, David Cronenberg \u2013 had their run-ins with censors, ratings boards, and suffered less than flattering video releases (if any) prior to DVD and Blu-ray, while others were genuine cult films whose fan bases remain solid: Roger Corman\u2019s The Fall of the House of Usher<\/strong>, all things Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, Joe Dante\u2019s The \u2018Burbs<\/strong> (probably the best film about suburban paranoia every made), and the remarkable work of Asian filmmakers like Seijun Suzuki (Tokyo Drifter<\/strong>) and Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale<\/strong>), and striking actresses Pam Grier (Coffy<\/strong>) and Meiko Kaji (Blind Woman\u2019s Curse<\/a><\/strong>, Lady Snowblood<\/strong>, Stray Cat Rock<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Also spotlighted are gialli (Blood and Black Lace<\/strong>), spaghetti westerns (Day of Anger<\/a><\/strong>), the aforementioned Christmas Horror (Christmas Evil<\/strong>) by Kim Newman, Food Horror (The Stuff<\/strong>), and last human on Earth sagas (rebranded as Empty Sci-Fi), and personal favourites include Robin Bougie\u2019s chronology of \u2018the golden age of exploitation\u2019 with nods to Kroger Babb, and Douglas Weir\u2019s compact history of super 8 \u2018digest\u2019 editions of films \u2013 edited down film versions of classic and major movies which were ultimately rendered into collector oddities once VHS and Betamax gave film fans the whole movie.<\/p>\n

Kevin Gilvear\u2019s profile of late great British labels who brought forth previously unseen and neglected Asian shockers is another fine chronicle of home video history, and Bougie provides an intro to another little-known genre, Brazil\u2019s pornochanchada (women in prison porno mashup-ups) that sound completely insane.<\/p>\n

A good essay will also provoke even naysayers into giving a film a second chance, and my personal favourite remains Vic Pratt\u2019s Withnail & I<\/strong>, a movie I never quite got (I\u2019ve several friends who could probably re-enact the script in seconds, and verbatim), but should give another go, if not to grasp its odd humour, than for the political subtext.<\/p>\n

Actor Herve Villechaize is also spotlighted in a semi-poignant piece tied to Richard Elfman\u2019s bonkers Forbidden Zone<\/strong>, and David Flint\u2019s overview of Tinto Brass contextualizes the filmmaker as a rare survivor from the days of Italian sexploitation, finding his own niche when most of his colleagues and competitors had retired or simply died off. (If I had access to Brass\u2019 early shorts and his Vanessa Regrave-Franco Nero couplet La vacanza <\/strong>and Dropout<\/strong>, I\u2019d write a lengthy tome on his work, with a specific examination of his inventive editing techniques. One day.)<\/p>\n

Canadians will be delighted by the nods to CanCon via Caelum Vatnsdal\u2019s very personal essay on discovering David Cronenberg, and the history of CanCon via Rue Morgue\u2019s Paul Corupe (both authors whose writings also appeared in the recent anthology The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Organized into Cult Movies, Directors, Actors, Genres (and Sub-Genres), a few essays have been expanded from their original home video editions, and the book is prefaced by an intro from Ben Wheatley is one of several wholly new writings, including several of the aforementioned genre and home video essays.<\/p>\n

The limited nature of Arrow\u2019s videos (plus some being restricted as U.K. only editions) ensures there\u2019s some essays collectors haven\u2019t read, but what the book also rekindles is a renewed use of the physical film resource, a real guidebook for fans and unfamiliars that mandates sitting down and reading the hefty thing rather than scanning paragraphs for potentially interesting bits on a web page while fighting off shockwave ads flashing and shifting in the page margins.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a book in which to get lost and keep among some of the other books which comprise one\u2019s personal library and archive, preserving opinions and data that will likely fade as books go out of print, and websites fold, taking with them a chunk of ephemeral film history.<\/p>\n

Given the monthly scope of Arrow\u2019s output, it seems likely a Vol. 2 in already in the works.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2016 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

External References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor’s Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arrow Video\u2019s first venture in publishing is this limited hardcover book that gathers many of the essays, intros, and preambles designed to not only accompany selected Blu-ray & DVD releases in England and America, but contextualize the films and series…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[125],"tags":[4376],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3un","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13415"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13445,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13415\/revisions\/13445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}