release schedule (more french horror)

yesterday howard came up to visit - they went for a walk upon the common, howard announced he was hungry so they went for a bag of chips (the first horsemouth has had since lockdown). they then sat outside on the front doorstep (er. drinking beer).

they discussed a digital release schedule - it goes a little something like this,

•  18/07 first ‘single’ 
• 01/08 ‘album’ - with live ‘gig’ enabled by the new technology. 
• 15/08 ‘EP’ of covers 
• 29/08 final ‘single’ 
• september/ october etc. various electronicas from howard’s past. 

at various points between these howard will be off on holiday.

horsemouth continues with his investigations into georges franju’s nuits rouges described, in terms approved of by the writer, as a gentle parody of fantomas. our super-villain has a mask, a secret identity, a disguise (as an old lady who runs a needle and thread shop in a run down parade of shops seemingly in the middle of some wasteland), a secret underground lair (full of office workers in gimp suits), a female accomplice in a cat suit, a plot about the hidden treasure of the templars.

there’s not just the movie - its extended rooftop fight scenes with gayle hunnicutt filmed in belgrade because it was cheaper to get the sets built there- or so it seemed until the serbian crew ran off with the 35mm film stock forcing the director to complete with blow ups of the 16mm fim stock they’d been shooting at the same time for the tv series.

ah the tv series l'homme sans visage - 8 episodes (horsemouth has found four online).

the money wasn’t there to film fantomas in period costume with high production values (like franju and the writer jacques champreux wanted) so they made something like the avengers - a 60ies romp. of course it all sounds much better in french.

there are a number of genius franju set pieces - the rooftop fight, a pack of knife weilding robot men advance in unison. later this kind of kitsch becomes irma vep (vampire - get it?) - a parody not just of early film serials but also of cineastes wanting to re-make them.





horsemouth is continuing with his french horror serial investigations - les compagnons de baal and belphigor . it’s all very 60ies doctor who (cheap as chips with lots of talking).




jacques champreux on the right;

 'les compagnons de baal est une mini-série française en 7 épisodes de 50 minutes en noir et blanc réalisée par pierre prévert. elle a été diffusée du 29 juillet au 9 septembre 1968 sur la deuxième chaîne de l'ORTF....'

you may have noticed horsemouth has not commented on politics in a while - because there is none. there’s the ongoing mismanagement of covid, there’s the blue-collar workers being trooped off to their doom in the death factories and death-trains (like the robo-men above) and meanwhile the white collar workers and managers ‘work from home’ and contemplate moving to bermuda, or barbados, or perhaps the countryside. but if we wear masks it will all be ok won’t it and everything (well not quite everything) can go on as just before.