Further reading for "The Other Side"-part 1

PLUS: PASSES NOW VERY SCARCE!

Mar 16, 2023

We are now just a little more than two weeks away from the opening salvo for “Papa Strikes Back!” (aka THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOST CONTINENT ‘23) and we want to continue providing you with background materials for as many of the 18 films in the series as we can. These will generally be briefer posts, with links to materials on the Internet (though Phoebe Green and I will cover several films in greater depth between now and “opening day” (April 1st).

BUT before we proceed, here’s some important news: for those of you who are still interested/on the fence about attending the entire OTHER SIDE experience, please note that all-festival passes are now down to a number that can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Fervent thanks to those who’ve already invested their hard-earned $99 with us, and we urge anyone who’s waited until now to make the purchase to do so as soon as possible. You can do that by using this PayPal link that will ensure that you can see all the films for the best possible price. We hope to see you there…

Single-ticket sales for remaining seats will go on sale on Wednesday, March 22.

NOW for some links for further reading. We’ll kick this off with some links related to the Louis Valray double bill (LA BELLE DE NUIT/ESCALE) that opens the series at noon on April 1st. These two films are part of the highly encouraging news from France concerning the escalating availability of titles from the “cinema de papa” period that have long been mothballed—happily, all that has changed a good bit since we began our efforts back in 2014.

Valray’s films, restored by Lobster Films’ Serge Bromberg, had their American premiere at MoMA in 2020 and created enough stir to get a “virtual tour” during 2021 (when most of us were still avoiding movie theaters). They received a lot of attention in the press during the virtual tour, and two of the best articles written about them are from Nick Pinkerton (at Artforum) and Jim Hoberman (for the New York Times). Here are the links to those articles (note—NYT may require a subscription):

Pinkerton at Artforum: “Decency and Disorder—Two by Louis Valray”

Hoberman at NYT: “Louis Valray Only Made 2 Movies. Both Are Incredible.”

BUT don’t forget about our third film in the opening triple salvo—Fyodor Ozep’s wild, strange AMOK (1934). If you think that American pre-Code films like RAIN and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS project a unique form of lurid psychoexotic excess, then you’ll likely be beside yourself when you encounter AMOK.

As noted by David Cairns, one of the notable pioneers in the rediscovery of rare 30s films, the “house style” at Pathé-Natan studios was awash with such overripe cinematic bravado during this time frame, and the Russian emigré Ozep fit right in. Cairns’s own essay on Ozep looks at two of his films during his time in France, including AMOK. And Mike Gebert takes us further into the strange, vagabond-like career and life of Ozep with his ominously titled essay “The Erased Auteur.”

Cairns at The Forgotten: “Gambling Hell”

Gebert at Nitrateville: “The Erased Auteur: Rediscovering Fedor Ozep”

WE will be back next week with more reading links for you as we move deeper into THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOST CONTINENT. It’s truly a unique series, even for us! We look forward to seeing you at the Roxie…