gamma films - scatola a sorpresa

That's what the Berberian Sound Studio must have been like with good working conditions and happy staff, before it all went Giallo...

I stumbled upon the name Roberto Gavioli in a 1971 issue of Graphis magazine and was happy to find a promo of his Gamma Film studio in Milan on YouTube. It seems to have been an important studio for animation film, especially for commercials. Check the reel below, especially the last bit, starting at 18:42 minutes, a pop culture exploitation ad for a washing machine if I got that right.



Update: I found some additional information on the first film on the website of the Museum of Industry and Labour in Brescia, Italy, where the estate of Gamma Film seems to be. The film, called "Jack in a box", was made in 1963 to promote the studio complex "Cinelandia". Over 200 people used to work there. It was not only an important animation film studio. Furthermore, many famous Italian bands and musicians recorded there. Sadly, the studio complex is used by one of Berlusconi's TV production companies.

Louise's apartment

Louise, the main character in Eric Rohmer's les nuits de la pleine lune (1984), is an interior designer who renovates her flat in Paris during the movie (to escape the life in the suburbs with her boyfriend basically). In one scene, her friend (whom she suspects of having an affair with her boyfriend) brings her a Memphis catalogue as a souvenir from Milan. Complicated love and interior design.
Furniture credited to Michel Cadestin, Michel Toraille and Lucas Hillen.

Ester Krumbachová

Some portraits captured while watching "Pátrání po Ester", Vera Chytilová's 2005 film about Ester Krumbachová (1923-1996).

Previously on Dispokino: Vražda Ing. Čerta (the fourth picture above shows her on the set of this film)

Vražda Ing. Čerta

Ester Krumbachová was a seminal figure of Czech cinema. As a writer and designer, she was involved in legendary films such as Sedmikrásky and Ovoce stromu rajských jíme, Valerie a týden divu, O slavnosti a hostech, Malá morská víla and many others.
Vražda Ing. Čerta (1970), the only film she directed, is lesser known. During most of its 77 minutes, the two main and almost only characters cook (Ona, played by Jirina Bohdalová) and eat (Ing. Cert / the devil, played by Vladimír Mensík) inside Ona's appartment.
It's quite a trip. Bon appetit!

Zdravi ljudi za razonodu

"Zdravi ljudi za razonodu"("Healthy People For Fun" or "The Litany of the Healthy People") by Karpo Godina, Yugoslavia 1971, portrays the peoples living in the multicultural Yugoslavian province Vojvodina (today part of Serbia).
"Nations and ethnic groups in the province of Vojvodina live in harmonious coexistence. However, members of the same ethnic groups paint facades of their houses the same color -- Croats red, Hungarians green, and Slovaks blue... The film delighted audiences at the premiere and won an award at the Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival, but it was soon banned because of alleged subversive elements." (Motovun Film Festival).
I saw this amazing film in the cinema last night, in a programme compiled by Aleksandra Domanovic, in the context of her fantastic exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel. I featured her own work previously on this blog here.

Okay Okay. Der moderne Tanz.

Christoph Dreher and Heiner Mühlenbrock's "Okay Okay. Der moderne Tanz" is (probably a bit too) exactly what I expected from a debut movie by film school punks in West Berlin in 1980: urban decay & mean modernism, concrete, scrap yards (incl. junk press action), garbage dumps etc., set against a soundtrack of Pere Ubu, Chrome, Wire and co. A fine movie, beautifully photographed. It contains some fantastically filmed footage from a Wire concert at the legendary SO36 club (picture above) and the following haunting final scene with music by the Residents. Luckily one minute of it was used in a TV documentary and put on YouTube: