welcome to schlockville
Just when you thought nothing could freak you out any more, this month ACMI is serving up some of the freakiest, schlockiest, trippiest trash from the 1950's with our double bill Freaky Friday sci-fi sessions
Sci-fi wasn't always B-Grade, you know. The genre began during the silent film era with Georges Melies' 1902 Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon) which wowed audiences with its visual effects and early animation techniques, especially the iconic shot of the rocketship landing in the moon's eye.
Then, there was Fritz Lang's silent classic Metropolis, made in 1927. Again, the special effects and set designs were so beautiful and distinct, they continue to impress and influence modern artists and audiences today. Set in a futuristic urban dystopia, Metropolis critiques capitalism which is actually quite contrasting to a lot of the sci-fi that followed which endorsed ideals of capitalism and magnified fears of the unknown, of the 'other', of the invader.
It was really from the 1930's to the 1950's that many of the films to come out of the genre were low budget and trashy B-Grade flicks made at a time when production costs of an average feature made in the Hollywood system sat at about $200,000. It was after Kubrick's 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey that the genre became more seriously recognised as a potentially artful and valuable genre again. ACMI film programs are rarely short of cult classics and high art pieces - on the contrary, it's the schlock we often shun. But this month we will be embracing alien and albino mutant invasions, space spiders and sexy vixens looking for male specimens on earth with three weeks of trashy sci-fi double features.
We start with The Brain Eaters (1958) + The Mole People (1956) on May 1, follow that up with Cat Women of the Moon (1953) + Devil Girl From Mars (1954) on May 8, and lastly, a Phil Tucker double feature Cape Canaveral Monsters (1960) + Robot Monster (1953) on May 15! Click here for all the screening details.
Published Tuesday, 28 April 2009
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