Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema 94, a monthly screening of new finds, old gems and offbeat oddities from Oddball Films’ vast collection of 16mm film prints. Drawing on his collection of over 50,000 16mm film prints, Oddball Films director Stephen Parr has compiled his 94th program of classic, strange, offbeat and unusual films. This
installment, Strange Sinema 94: Sex in Cinema is an eye-popping exploration of
sex in cinema and all its genres from industrial films, commercials, animated
features, amateur films, documentaries and musical shorts. Sex sells, they say and this program showcases
the vast variety of outlets for it. We lay the foundation for our program with The
Most (1963), a rarely screened, award-winning biopic by Richard Ballentine
and Gordon Sheppard, that chronicles Pl*yboy’s Hugh H*fner, the man known for selling
sex to America and creating a socio-sexual cultural phenomenon. Insightful and
ferocious, this doc uncovers the banal layers of H*fner’s lifestyle and narcissistic
“genius”. Winner of the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Golden Gate
Award. We continue our program with a jaw-dropping sexist commercial for Chemical
Bank (1970s)
“When her needs are financial her reaction is
chemical” and a 1960s inspired occult spot for Bigelow Carpets followed
by Wear
Safety Shoes (1970s), a fetishistic advertisement for safety shoes. Other
gems include a peek inside Fredericks of Hollywood (1970s) and
its sexist camp and over–the-top fanny pad saleswomen, Erik Is Here! (1960s) featuring a man, his
Viking ship and his sexy cigar, Sadie the Sunbather (1948), a rare, titillating soft-core
“nudie cutie” by Seaside films featuring a buxom female and a snarky sexist
narrator and Clorets
(1950s), a pseudo-scientific study of bad breath (!) and social stigmas. Other
highlights include Texas Strip (1948), the musical Soundie that inspired
the Devo video “Whip It”, where a singing cowboy flirts with cowgirls
sitting on a fence, then strips one of them with his whip (oh my!), the trailer for American
Dreamer (1971) the most pretentious, hilariously awful, mind-boggling
bio-sex film to ever come from the coked out head of Dennis Hopper. Other
eye-popping shorts include highlights from the infamous New York Erotic Film Festival (1971), a fashion trip to polyester land
as statuesque models show off Christian Dior Action Wear Hosiery and Yves St.
Laurent belts and scarves amidst the picturesque ruins of Athens in The
Greeks Have a Word For It (1969), Woody Woodpecker in romantic drag romances
Wally the Walrus in The Gate Crasher (1969) and don’t miss The Magician (1970s) as
he strips he-men naked through the wonders of stop-motion animation. We climax
with a Salvo soap ad starring Wally Cox (TVs Mr Peepers) as he plays two roles (one in drag) to sell laundry
detergent and Dirty Duck (1974) Charles Swenson’s infamous animated
cult film trailer produced by sleaze meister Roger Corman!
Date: Friday, November 6th, 2015 at 8:00PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
Web: http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com
Featuring:
The Most (B+W, 1963)
"It's
not very flattering but it's a work of art."-Hugh Hefn*r
“a witty and
ferociously loaded profile... The simple but devastating technique is to let
Hefn*r spout his philosophy, then, sandwich each banality between fleshy layers
of a Playboy party.”
The Sunday
Telegram July 26, 1964
This rarely screened, award-winning biopic by Richard Ballentine
and Gordon Sheppard, chronicles the man known for selling sex to America and
creating a socio-sexual cultural phenomenon, Hugh Hefn*r.
The documentary short, which won the 1963 San Francisco
International Film Festival's Golden Gate Award, is an incredibly savage length
of film. One wonders, in the face of all the evidence, if it really is a
documentary, if its subject-Hugh Hefn*r, Playb*y magazine, Pl*yboy Clubs,
Pl*yboy bunnies, the lot — exists at all. That man, strutting, preening,
posing, and spouting nonsense, is a new kind of animated cartoon, a sort of
mental Magoo who cannot possibly realize what he is saying when he admits, with
feigned modesty, "It's probably not
true that I have made love to more beautiful women than any man in
history," or when he asserts, "Going
by the strict definition of the word, yes, I suppose I am a genius."
The prince of playmates lives in an unspeakably vulgar
playhouse, with a swimming pool and, apparently, a perennial party. The film
shows Hefner's minions (one spits an ice cube back into his drink and says how
much "Hef" has done to change his life) and mignonnes. Or, there he
is again, in his office, late at night ("I often work in my pee-jays")
saying, "I don't think I'd change places with anyone in the world,"
and that, at least, is a good thing, for no one who has seen Richard Ballentine
and Gordon Sheppard's cinematic portrait of Hefner would he willing to switch
with him.-Newsweek Magazine September 2, 1963
Chemical Bank (Color, 1970s)
The New York Woman! “When
her needs are financial her reaction is chemical”.
is the sexist tagline for this hilarious and jazzed–up
commercial for Chemical Bank.
Bigelow (Color 1970s)
In a nod to sixties occultism, this commercial features the sexy
Erin Gray crawling around on shag carpet samples, purring about the carpet
line, specially designed for the signs of the zodiac. Beyond campy!
Safety Shoes (Color, 1970s)
Weirdo sado masochistic industrial short for safety shoes. Watch
sexy legs in sparkly tights do a little dance, before turning into a pair of
bare feet dancing around broken glass, cowboy boots, rusty nails, falling
cinderblocks and metal pipes, kitchen sinks, lawn movers, boat anchors before
we get the revealing punch line!
Frederick's Of Hollywood (Color, 1970s)
Here’s an inside look at Fredrick’s of Hollywood In all their
sexist glory.
Lines like “Since women aren't born equal it’s
Frederick's of Hollywood's job to make them more equal” and “Does Frederick's of Hollywood treat women
like sex objects, of course that's the point” showcase the company’s
mission statement an unabashedly and camped up vision of sexual stereotyping.
Erik Is Here! (B+W 1960s)
A Nordic man in a black turtleneck sails into New York harbor in
a Viking ship, smoking cigarettes in this hilarious advertisement. “Erik is here! the most interesting idea
from Scandinavia since blondes”
Sadie the Sunbather (B+W, 1948) A titillating
soft-core “nudie cutie” by Seaside films features the typical buxom female and
a snarky sexist narrator who starts out by stating “amateur sunbathing is the art of greasing yourself
up like a shock absorber”. It only gets better (and skimpier) from there!
Clorets (B+W, 1950s)
Bizarre commercial uses pseudo-scientific and social science to
study bad breathe. Recommendation: Use Clorets-
breath lozenges-don’t be left out!
Texas Strip (B+W, 1948)
This jukebox Soundie, inspired the Devo video “Whip It”. Watch as a singing cowboy flirts with cowgirls
sitting on a fence, then strips one of them with his whip (oh my!).
American Dreamer (Color, 1971)
The American Dreamer is
a multi-faceted document of the life and mind of Dennis Hopper, one of the 20th
century's great cinematic voices at the peak of his artistic and commercial
success. Shifting between being an insightful document of a complex artist in
the midst of his creative process and a self-reflective exploration and
explosion of vérité filmmaking tropes, The American Dreamer is a mesmerizing journey into the
private world of one of Hollywood's most hypnotic directors/stars. Fortuitously
timed, fantastically made, and virtually unseen, The American Dreamer is the great 70s film documentary you
always wished existed.
The above is how the film is now being promoted. In actuality
this trailer is the most pretentious, mind-boggling film to ever come from the
cocked out head of Dennis Hopper. Watch him spout lines in this (thankfully
short trailer) like “I don't believe in
reading. By using your eyes and ears you'll find everything there is." Or
how about "I'd rather give head to a woman than fuck them...Basically, I
think like a lesbian." We also get to watch him strip down in the
middle of a suburban street and stroll about, butt naked. Hilariously awful.
The First Erotic New York Film Festival (Color, 1971)
Film is a four letter word! Sexy and surreal highlights from the
infamous New York Erotic Film Festival.
The Greeks Have a Word for it. (Color, 1969)
In a play on Greek culture, and amidst the picturesque ruins of
Athens, Greece this Roger Dee Fashion Vision film waxes poetic in it’s over-the-top
metaphors of Aphrodite. Statuesque models show off Christian Dior Action Wear
Hosiery and
Yves St. Laurent belts and scarves, later modeling Monsanto-based
polyester swim and outerwear-the fabric of the future from the garden of the
gods! Don’t miss the laughable narrator’s depiction of these “mythic” models.
The Magician (B+W, silent 1970s)
This amateur soft-core short showcases a magician and his he-men.
Marvel as he magically strips them, (through the magic of stop motion
animation) of all their clothing before our very eyes!
The Gate Crasher (B/W 1969)
Woody Woodpecker dresses in drag in order to sneak into a barn
dance and eat a ton of food. Unsuspecting Mr Walrus takes him home and finds
out what this “Lady” is really made of. A laugh riot!.
Salvo Detergent with Wally Cox (B+W,1960s)
Wally Cox, famed goofball, and star of TVs Mr Peepers (and rumored lover of Marlon Brando) plays both the son
and his mother (while in drag) in this bizarre detergent ad from the 1960s.
Dirty Duck (Color,1974)
Bizarro trailer for the X-rated animated film directed by
Charles Swenson and funded by producer Roger Corman, Voiced by Zappaesque rock
legends Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (Flo+Eddie). Epic weirdness in a film
called “A sprawling undisciplined piece of sniggering vulgarity” and “one of the most overlooked animated
features of the 1970s, a glorious experimental mess of a film, which, from
today’s vantage point, looks incredibly creative and daring, and something
current Hollywood studios would never attempt.” A cult classic.
Stephen Parr
San Francisco archivist, imagemaker and curator Stephen Parr, founder of Oddball Film+Video has a long history of presenting and archiving the unusual. Since the 1970s Parr has produced and documented live performances of John Cage, Christian Marclay and The Ramones, screened his signature pop culture montages from the Danceteria in New York to the Moscow Cinematheque. He’s created found footage based films such as Historical/Hysterical?, The Subject is Sex and Euphoria! which have screened worldwide in venues such as The Anthology Film Archive, Jaaga in Bangalore, South India and the Leeds International Film Festival. He curates an eclectic weekly film series-Oddball Films at his archive and is a frequent presenter at film and media seminars and symposiums. He is an active member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. He has currently completed Laservision, a program of films exploring the history of lasers and holography inaugurating the Science, Art and Cinema series at Miami’s Frost Museum.
San Francisco archivist, imagemaker and curator Stephen Parr, founder of Oddball Film+Video has a long history of presenting and archiving the unusual. Since the 1970s Parr has produced and documented live performances of John Cage, Christian Marclay and The Ramones, screened his signature pop culture montages from the Danceteria in New York to the Moscow Cinematheque. He’s created found footage based films such as Historical/Hysterical?, The Subject is Sex and Euphoria! which have screened worldwide in venues such as The Anthology Film Archive, Jaaga in Bangalore, South India and the Leeds International Film Festival. He curates an eclectic weekly film series-Oddball Films at his archive and is a frequent presenter at film and media seminars and symposiums. He is an active member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. He has currently completed Laservision, a program of films exploring the history of lasers and holography inaugurating the Science, Art and Cinema series at Miami’s Frost Museum.
About Oddball Films
Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.
Oddball films is a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Silicon Valley, Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our screenings are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educational films, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.