Na kometě, 1970 - ★★★

Na kometě, 1970 - ★★★
REVIEWED

"Its not a second sun, I think its a second Earth, but where is our continent ?"

Angelika (Magda Vasaryova)

A woman escapes a pirate ship and while swimming back to shore she chance meets a lonely soldier whose jumped from a cliff, at this point they notice that a second sun as appeared. It causes a drastic switch in global events, and everything starts to take a turn for the worse. Can the couple keep their freedom while waring factions including dinosaurs start to battle with each other.

Karel Zeman's "Na Komete" is based loosely on Jules Verne celestial journey On the Comet. Visually due to the over use of matte painted landscapes and tinted footage it does look somewhat similar to Terry Gillims animation. But the Czechoslovakian films not nearly as surreal has I'd been made to believe, in fact it plays pretty much like a children's fairy tale or old style Sunday morning matinée serial style ripping yarn. Its hard to know exactly who would love this movie, the stop motion/rubber creature feature fans will be bored senseless, its not artistic enough for the art snobs. Thats not to say its bad or anything, theres loads going on and Magda Vasaryova was mesmerizing as Angelika. Worth checking out for curiousity value.

[PRFR: Personal Reasons For Remembering]
Rubber monsters, matte overkill, tinted skylines & Magda Vasaryova.

Originally taken from Letterboxd

Legend of the Witches, 1970 - ★★★★½

Legend of the Witches, 1970 - ★★★★½
REVIEWED

"The symbolic whippings let him understand, from now hes subject to the disciplines of the cult."

Narrator

Viewed as part of my Beware the Docs of March Marathon 1. Brilliant and somewhat eerie B&W documentary oddity, covering English witches and paganism from medieval times through to modern day. It works as both a nature style docu with a narrator describing the actions of a witchcraft cult, and also includes the history of their beliefs, and how it predated Christianity.

For an old vintage film it really kicks ass, its got it all from debasing Christianity, a cock sacrifice, hallucinogenic herbs, sound induced trances and naked pagan fertility ceremonies. A little bit of the documentary uses old paintings or stock footage, but theres also heaps of marvelously filmed b&w footage of black masses and a bizarre Cornish witchcraft Museum, thats got jars of mutilated sex organs among its many delights. I was fascinated throughout, I learnt so much about my own countries darker history, plus it packed lots of boobs which sealed the deal for me. Its also given me a new twisted catchphrase "Piercing the wafer".

It could be argued that much of this is sensationalized performance pieces and not authentic witches in action. But aren't all docs subjects slightly playing up towards the camera, anyway out of all the great docs I've caught in March, this was probably my favorite (certainly in my top 3). I'm coming to the end of March now, but anyone recommend me any docu oddities please do so HERE.

Originally taken from Letterboxd