Kino Fist: Apocalypse
After a 'summer' break, Kino Fist returns in a different place. In the wake of financial disaster, constant rumblings about nuclear perils and the many discussions about how the Large Hadron Collider might polish us off for good we will be showing films about the apocalypse as part of this event:
La Soufrière (Werner Herzog, 1976) (something about it here)
Threads (written by Barry Hines/directed by Mick Jackson, 1984) (see here for more details) [Warning: Threads is very likely to be the single most depressing film you'll ever see. Please don't come if you're feeling a bit down or weird - seriously, we'd feel awful about it]
We will be here:
The Wenlock Building
50-60 Wharf Road, N1 7RN
We will screen:
October 5th
roughly 2-5pm
As always, there will be a magazine. Please send texts (200-2000 words), illustrations, images to infinitethought[at]hotmail.co.uk
by September 24th (that gives you ten days!).
La Soufrière (Werner Herzog, 1976) (something about it here)
Threads (written by Barry Hines/directed by Mick Jackson, 1984) (see here for more details) [Warning: Threads is very likely to be the single most depressing film you'll ever see. Please don't come if you're feeling a bit down or weird - seriously, we'd feel awful about it]
We will be here:
The Wenlock Building
50-60 Wharf Road, N1 7RN
We will screen:
October 5th
roughly 2-5pm
As always, there will be a magazine. Please send texts (200-2000 words), illustrations, images to infinitethought[at]hotmail.co.uk
by September 24th (that gives you ten days!).
posted by owen hatherley at 6:07 pm
15 Comments:
At first glance, I didn't recognize the Bucky Fuller image; thought you'd put up a B&W still from Akira. (Also a fine bit of apocalyptic fiction, though not really in the vein y'all are going for...)
Nice pic! It reminds me of a subspace bomb from SSBB.
Seb - uncannily, I was going to use the very still from Akira you're thinking of.
Yay! Threads! Woo! etc etc. Gosh it's good. That bit at the end with the cot? Woo! Yay! (and so on)
OK, henceforth anyone who leaves any comment along the lines of 'wow cool pics here's my blog' etc will be instantly deleted...
taking cues from cyberlenin, are we?
p.s. maybe you could show threads with a laugh track, a la friends.
YOU WILL ALL BE BANNED
Threads is certainly depressing enough; but it makes an interesting contrast with The War Game, made twenty years earlier. Peter Watkins' film depicts the apocalyptic consequences of a limited nuclear strike, and raises the possibility of a first strike by NATO. In Threads, the Russians explode the first bomb, and thirteen years after an all-out global nuclear war there are good old-fashioned traction engines and nostalgic video shows for the kids and the old people.
The War Game is a great deal more politically sharp, which is no doubt why the BBC banned it (there's a Pilger essay from a while ago that is v good on this) - but as a film, for all it's brilliance, I just don't think it just comes close to the horrendous, relentless onslaught of Threads.
(also, the video show is not there as nostalgia! The point seemed much more to teach the children English, which the latter stages of the film shows being replaced with guttural shouting...)
Hmph. Those scenes I mentioned have always seemed to me an unfortunate lapse into silliness in an otherwise relentless and harrowing film, as though the worst things the BBC could find about a below-subsistence economy with mediaeval population levels were inefficient mechanisation and the lack of good quality VHS tape. But perhaps you're right; I'll bear that in mind next time I can pluck up the guts to sit through it.
Peter Watkins' film depicts the apocalyptic consequences of a limited nuclear strike, and raises the possibility of a first strike by NATO. In Threads, the Russians explode the first bomb, and thirteen years after an all-out global nuclear war there are good old-fashioned traction engines and nostalgic video shows for the kids and the old people.
It's certainly possible to criticize Hines, a politically committed writer, for underplaying the political dimension in favour of alleged "even-handedness" (by 1984, NATO's "Flexible Response" doctrine would have meant the West upping the nuclear ante as a matter of official policy), it could be argued that the storyline was an illustration of the Carter Doctrine at work, according to which any threat to American interests in the Persian Gulf would be met with (ultimately nuclear) force.
Those scenes I mentioned have always seemed to me an unfortunate lapse into silliness in an otherwise relentless and harrowing film, as though the worst things the BBC could find about a below-subsistence economy with mediaeval population levels were inefficient mechanisation and the lack of good quality VHS tape.
Strange how the gadgets necessary to furthering the plot survive the onslaught of EMP, whilst electric irons and the distributor in Jimmy's car are instantly frazzled!
I remember the US Airforce belatedly cottoning on to the dangers of EMP to their avionics systems, and cursing the devious Soviets for having kitted out MiGs with (impervious) valve circuitry for decades!
Strange how the gadgets necessary to furthering the plot survive the onslaught of EMP, whilst electric irons and the distributor in Jimmy's car are instantly frazzled!
Well, but the VCR we see may well be the only one in Sheffield, or the only one in the north of England, and the survival of some batteries or the rigging-up of a generator in a decade or so doesn't seem altogether beyond the bounds of possibility. The idea that the electricity thus available would be used in the furtherance of a liberal education policy might be stretching it a bit, though.
Here's one for the poster: "Unfortunately, there are reports of a man who, after watching the film, murdered his family before committing suicide."
Great post. Stay cool, man.
Good Article, nasyid shoutul harokah. thanks for your article. :)
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