Attention Deficit Delirium

Image courtesy of MSN Movies.

Oh joy, it’s back to school time. Those hallowed high school halls are heaven for some, hell for others and a chance for all to reflect on our ever-deteriorating educational system. But hey, think of it this way — the good old days of education weren’t always so good.

Don’t believe me? Check out my latest MSN Movies feature, “Be Cruel To Your School,” which examines reforms on both sides of the teachers’ desk, from the Fifties through to today. The story was inspired by the Twisted Sister song “Be Chrool to Your Scuel,” which included the lyric: “Be cruel to your school/’cause you may never get another.” The song’s controversial video, which featured a high school invaded by flesh-eating zombies, was banned from the airwaves in 1985. Luckily the movie Dance Of The Dead took the premise into feature-length territory in 2008 with hilarious results.



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Photographer Franck Doat stands
before a sampling of his work.
(Photo © 2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

While I was visiting Monte-Carlo back in June, I wandered by an elegant apartment complex that housed an art gallery on its second floor. An intriguing display outside of the front window caught my eye, with the surreal imagery of photographer Franck Doat luring me back in the next day, when his exhibit first opened. I managed to have the gallery to myself for a little while just prior to the arrival of the artist himself, who came in to do a television interview for a local station.

Doat speaks French and little English; I speak English but have regrettably become very rusty with my French. Regardless, I was able to express my admiration for his work and traded contact information and was later sent the images you see below. The images in the exhibition were evidently shot in or near Paris and Beirut.

Much of Doat’s work has that strange, distorted look one experiences when spying one’s reflection in a funhouse mirror, and many of his images give curves and fluidity and breathe life into chiseled or constructed objects with sharp edges (like statues and buildings) that allow you to look at them in a trippy new light. Many of his photographs feature duplicated images that have been warped or anthropomorphized in the same way, hence the title of this story, although clearly he offers other perspectives as well. You can see for yourself below. (I have captioned the photos with my own tongue-in-cheek words. Hold your mouse pointer over the image for the title.)

During our brief chat, Doat told me he would like to come to New York. Hopefully we’ll be seeing his work in Manhattan soon. It’s far more engrossing to absorb it in person. By the way, it turns out that Doat also paints and is a sculptor as well.



Doat on display.
(Photo © 2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

Meeting the public.
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

Atlantis is rising again!
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

Give us a big metal kiss.
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

Slithering metal snakes over Paris.
Where's Godzilla?
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

Could this be the way to Shell Beach?
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

It's the Grinder that Judas Priest warned you about.
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

That's a tricky catwalk to straddle.
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

Alien architecture.
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

An unused set from A Clockwork Orange,
when the set designers did too much acid.
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

I could get all Freud with this...but I won't.
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

City of the future.
(Photo © Franck Doat.)

The Original Cylon and The Original Droid




Clay Enos: Photographing The Watchmen





Prince Colwyn shows off
the power of the Glaive.

One of my favorite Eighties fantasy movies — okay, really one of my favorite ever — is the sword ‘n’ sorcery spectacle that is Krull. Released in the summer of 1983, amid the frenzied activity of both the post-Conan fantasy boom and the Stars Wars-inspired sci-fi wave, this was an over-the-top cinematic epic that combined Errol Flynn-like swashbuckling with (then) modern sci-fi/fantasy action, storytelling and effects. It was also rather tongue-in-cheek, featured future stars Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane, had some fantastic, surrealist set design in the Black Fortress and offered up a stirring score by James Horner. And let’s not forget the Glaive, that flying, five-pointed, bladed weapon with intense laser power that was a driving gimmick in the story.

La-La Land Records recently reissued the Krull soundtrack in a limited edition, two-disc version, and it is essential for any fan of the film. Despite some people today deriding this movie as cheesy, it is a hell of a lot of fun, and part of that is due to Horner’s rousing compositions. At the time the composer was still a relative newcomer to the Hollywood scene, although he had already written and conducted the scores for Wolfen, The Hand, 48 Hrs. and Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan. We now know him as the man responsible for the music in Titanic, Avatar, Aliens and Field Of Dreams, among many others.

Following is a montage of Krull clips set to some of the score. (Admittedly it uses key scenes, so proceed with caution. You could also simply listen.) Experience the power of the Glaive and the majesty of a young James Horner!






The Avengers assembled for the first time in 1963. Their big screen debut arrives in 2012.

As a lifelong comic book fan, I am ecstatic that special effects and production values have reached the level where superheroes like the X-Men, Iron Man and Thor can be brought to the big screen in larger-than-life form, rather than the limited and often cheesy incarnations of the past. But have you ever wondered what would have happened if such iconic figures had been brought to life on the big screen fifty or more years ago?

The following fan-created Avengers ’52 trailer is by Ivan Guerrero, who does a lot of “pre-makes” like this. He cleverly culls material from movies like Thunderball, The Amazing Colossal Man (transformed into Giant Man here) and Captain America serials from the ’40s, along with television series such as The Avengers (British secret agent Emma Peel is now the Black Widow) to envision the Marvel superhero team hitting movies in 1952, eleven years before the first issue hit the stands. Consider it an alternate universe trailer. I love the inclusion of Yul Brynner as X-Men leader Professor Xavier. See what other Marvel character cameos you can spot.

For a clip-by-clip breakdown of Marvel references in the Avengers ’52 trailer, click here.





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