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November 9, 2009

The Dark Side of Porn









The Dark Side of Porn
Format
Documentary TV Series
Starring
None
Country of origin
United Kingdom
Production
Running time
50 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel
Channel 4
Original run
2005 – present
The programme kicked off with a mention of Charles Manson. There is a theory that Manson and his family were the originators of the Snuff movie, by allegedly filming the terrible murder of Sharon Tate, the then wife of director Roman Polanski. Rumours that the tapes got passed round is said to be the first example of a want for Snuff videos.
The documentary went on to review the first film regarded to be akin to a Snuff movie, which was called Cannibal Holocaust. The film was littered with beheadings, castrations and a girl impaled on a huge stake. The film was shot in a haphazard 'documentary style' which led many to believe that the film was filled with "real killing and torture". Uproar and outcry inevitably followed, but looking back, it was plain to see that it was no more than a B-Movie (complete with fantastic Moog soundtrack).
The notoriety of the film made it a huge success, which led to another 'video nasty' called Guinea Pig 2 - The Flower of Flesh and Blood. The clips shown in the documentary were indeed difficult to stomach. One scene included showed a Samurai hacking a young girl's hand off. The thing that set this apart however was the overt sexual nature of the film, which 'climaxed' with a shot of the murderous Samurai licking blood from a decapitated head. Many believed the film to contain genuine murder and torture (which is still believable even now) but alas, it was a sophisticated special effects bonanza.
The main difference between a video nasty, like for example, A Clockwork Orange, and what is deemed to be a snuff flick is the nature of the killings involved. Murder scenes don't make a snuff movie. It would seem that the main thing that defines a snuff film is not just the barbaric and unnecessary murder of someone, but the sexual nature involved. It isn’t a case of, like one copycat murderer sentenced to death in Japan in the early eighties, that a snuff movie should only fulfil one person’s bizarre gratifications, but have some kind of production value.
However, with the development of home video cameras, it would become increasingly difficult for the police and censors to determine which videos were fake, and which were real events.
Germany saw the first real sign that snuff movies are not a thing of fiction. Two German men kidnapped a prostitute and filmed the gruesome torture and abuse of her. The victim had “suffered the most agonising pain possible”. Hans Dieter Kausen and his accomplice were convicted and the evidence needed was all on tape. This has sinister links to Mrya Hindley and Ian Brady, who, if the means were possible, would have made a snuff film of their moors victims, and when they made their tapes, they had made “snuff audio”.
The internet has seen an increase in snuff, as it has made the genre so much easier to distribute and view. Daniel Pearl’s decapitation in Iraq is a perfect example of the ease in which death can be distributed over the web. ‘Happy Slapping’ is the latest link to snuff, and David Morley, the first death in the craze that has apparently swept across the nation.
The programme doesn’t really confirm the existence of snuff films. It certainly seems that there is a lack of evidence to support the claim, but the makers have missed films such as ‘Der Todesking’ which contains real death, and “Executions” a self explanatory film, which was briefly on sale in Woolworths up and down the country.
It would seem that deciding what defines a snuff movie is quite difficult, but it has become the stuff of urban myth. Regardless of the lack of proof or expose, ‘Does Snuff Exist’ was a fascinating look into the darkest most despicable area of cinema.


The Dark Side of Porn is a documentary series that examines the Adult Entertainment Industry. It is produced for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. As of June 2006, it is in its second season.


Worst Jobs for Sale

World's Worst Jobs - Oddee.com

Janitor at a Porno Theatre

Janitor, in itself, is a pretty bad job. But, porno theater janitor is the worst job on the list. The main responsibility of the porno theater janitor is to take his mop and rag and wide up after each show is finished. Unlike a traditional theater, it's safe to assume that sticky substance under the chair is something other than Coca-Cola Classic! At least you get to see all that porn for free and you'll probably be very popular among your male friends, although this is probably not a job you want to talk about with your mother, or your wife for that matter.
(Link)


Guard at Buckingham Palace

Guard duty at Buckingham Palace is regarded as one of the worst jobs in the British Army. Besides the fact that they have to stand for hours, no laughing allowed, they also have to look their best. Soldiers spend several hours each day cleaning and pressing their uniforms and polishing their boots in preparation for one of the many kit inspections that they are likely to face before taking up their positions outside one of the royal palaces. Any soldier whose turn-out is less than immaculate is likely to face a variety of punishments, such as extra guard duty. (Link)


Animal Masturbator

Researchers who want animal sperm -to study fertility or for artificial insemination-have a suite of attractive options: They can ram an electric probe up an animal's rectum, shove an artificial
vagina onto the animal's penis, or simply do it the old-fashioned way-manual stimulation. The first option, electroejaculation, uses a priapic rectal probe to send electricity pulsing through the animal's nether regions. "All the normal excitatory signals that stimulate ejaculation, like touch, sight, sound and smell, can be replaced with the current from the probe," says Trish Berger, professor of animal science at the University of California, Davis. "It's fascinating. Of course, this is a woman talking." Electroejaculation generally requires anesthetizing the animal and is typically used on zoo dwellers. The other two methods-the artificial vagina, or AV, and the good old hand-require that animals be trained to the procedure. The AV-a large latex tube coated with warm lubricant -is used primarily to get sperm from dairy bulls (considered the most ornery and dangerous of bovines). The bull gets randy with a steer; when he mounts the steer with his forelegs, a brave technician, AV in hand, insinuates himself between the two aroused beasts and deftly redirects the bull's penis into the mock genitalia, which he must then hold tight while the bull orgasms. (Talk about bull riding!) Three additional technicians attempt to ensure this (fool)hardy soul's safety by anchoring themselves to restraining ropes attached to a ring in the bull's nose. Alas, this isn't always absolutely effective: Everyone who's wielded an AV has had at least one close call, and more than a few have been sent to the hospital. The much safer "digital pressure" is used mostly with pigs, who are trained from an early age to mount a small bench while the researcher reaches around with a gloved hand and provides appropriate pleasure-er, pressure. (Link)


Sewers Cleaner

Ramesh Sahu works in the sanitation department of Calcutta, cleaning out the city's sewers. On a regular basis, Rakesh sits in a low crouch at the bottom of a seven-foot-deep manhole, sloshing away in a swirl of human waste and sediment. Equipped with a hoe and a steel bar, and wearing only a pair of loose purple underpants, Rakesh empties the thick black sludge from a clogged sewer into a bucket that his fellow crew members hoist up and dump in the middle of a narrow road. A small mountain of decaying excrement accumulates between the manhole and a rickety wooden vegetable cart. Two co-workers reach down and yank Rakesh out by his sore, extended arms, his body splattered with putrid muck. At 27, with a wife, three young daughters and a monthly income of about $100, he has been a sewage worker for the Delhi Jal (Water) Board for the past 10 years. (Link)

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) - The Criterion Collection

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) - The Criterion Collection

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Nicolas Roeg

United States

1976

136 minutes

Color

2.35:1

English

304

Synopsis

The Man Who Fell to Earth is a daring exploration of science fiction as an art form. The story of an alien on an elaborate rescue mission provides the launching pad for Nicolas Roeg’s visual tour de force, a formally adventurous examination of alienation in contemporary life. Rock legend David Bowie, in his acting debut, completely embodies the title role, while Candy Clark, Buck Henry, and Rip Torn turn in pitch-perfect supporting performances. The film’s hallucinatory vision was obscured in the American theatrical release, which deleted nearly twenty minutes of crucial scenes and details. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Roeg’s full uncut version, in this exclusive new director-approved high-­definition widescreen transfer.

Cast

Thomas Jerome NewtonDavid Bowie
Nathan BryceRip Torn
Mary-LouCandy Clark
Oliver FarnsworthBuck Henry
PetersBernie Casey
Professor CanuttiJackson D. Kane
TrevorRick Riccardo
ArthurTony Mascia

Credits

DirectorNicolas Roeg
ProducerMichael Deeley and Barry Spikings
Executive producerSi Litvinoff
ScreenplayPaul Mayersberg
From the novel byWalter Tevis
Associate producerJohn Peverall
EditingGraeme Clifford
CinematographyAnthony Richmond
Production DesignBrian Eatwell
Musical directorJohn Phillips
Costume designerMay Routh

Disc Features

AVAILABLE IN BOTH DOUBLE-DVD AND BLU-RAY DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITIONS:

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Nicolas Roeg
  • Audio commentary by Roeg and actors David Bowie and Buck Henry
  • New video interview with screenwriter Paul Mayersberg
  • Performance, new video interview with actors Candy Clark and Rip Torn
  • Audio interviews with costume designer May Routh and production designer Brian Eatwell
  • Audio interview from 1984 with author Walter Tevis, conducted by Don Swaim
  • Multiple stills galleries, including Routh’s costume sketches; behind-the-scenes photos; and production and publicity stills, introduced by set photographer David James
  • Gallery of posters from Roeg’s films
  • Trailers
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Plus: Walter Tevis’s original novel, reprinted specially for this release, and a 28-page booklet featuring a new essay on the film by critic Graham Fuller and an appreciation of Tevis by novelist Jack Matthews (NOTE: the novel is not included in the Blu-ray edition)

From the Current

The Criterion Collection
Goes High Definition!

Dec 15, 2008

Critics have had our debut Blu-ray releases for weeks, and the word is out, coast to coast: http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2008/11/criterions...

PRESS NOTES: SEEING BLU

Dec 11, 2008

Criterion Blu-ray editions debut next week—with Chungking Express, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bottle Rocket, and The Third Man—and the reviews are already coming in. “Chungking Express, Criterion’s first Blu-ray release, is nothing short of magnificent,” say the folks at the...

The Man Who Fell to Earth:
Loving the Alien

by Graham Fuller Sep 26, 2005

Science-fiction drama, western, love story, metaphysical mystery, satire of modern America—The Man Who Fell to Earth is the most beguiling of the films that, in a dozen years embracing the 1970s, established Nicolas Roeg as a mainstream heir to such 1960s...

The Man Who Fell to Earth

by Robert Lloyd Mar 11, 1993

Released the year before Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars, Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth is a science-fiction film without science, a terrestrial space opera minus matte shots, models, or pyrotechnics that leaves us not wondering at the stars but...

Gimme Shelter (1970) - The Criterion Collection

Gimme Shelter (1970) - The Criterion Collection

Gimme Shelter

David Maysles, Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin

United States

1970

91 minutes

Color

1.33:1

English

99

Synopsis

Called “the greatest rock film ever made,” this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When 300,000 members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hell’s Angels at San Francisco’s Altamont Speedway, direct cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin immortalized on film the bloody slash that transformed a decade’s dreams into disillusionment.

Cast


Mick Jagger

Keith Richards

Mick Taylor

Charlie Watts

Bill Wyman

Credits

DirectorDavid Maysles, Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin
EditingEllen Giffard, Robert Farren, Joanne Burke and Kent McKinney
Associate producerPorter Bibb
Special helpStanley Goldstein
Assistant film editorsMirra Bank, Susan Steinberg and Janet Lauretano
Filmed byThe Maysles Brothers
CameraPeter Adair, Baird Bryant, Joan Churchill, Ron Dorfman, Robert Elfstrom, Elliott Erwitt, Bob Fiori, Adam Giffard, William Kaplan, Kevin Keating, Stephen Lighthill, George Lucas, Jim Moody, Jack Newman, Pekke Niemela, Robert Primes, Eric Saarinen, Peter Smokler, Paul Ryan, Coulter Watt, Gary Weiss and Bill Yarrus
SoundMichael Becker, John Brumbaugh, Howard Chesley, Pepper Crawford, Stanley Cronquist, Paul Deason, Tom Goodwin, Peter Pilafin, Orly Lindgren, Walter Murch, Art Rochester, David Thompson, Nelson Stoll and Alvin Tokunow

Disc Features

  • Breathtaking new high-definition transfer of the uncensored 30th Anniversary version, remastered and restored from the camera original
  • Exclusive Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround sound mixes
  • Never-before-seen performances of the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden in 1969, including “Little Queenie," “Oh Carol," and “Prodigal Son," plus backstage outtakes
  • Audio commentary by directors Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, and collaborator Stanley Goldstein
  • Excerpts from KSAN Radio’s Altamont wrap-up, recorded December 7, 1969, with new introductions by then-DJ, Stefan Ponek
  • Altamont stills gallery, featuring the work of renowned photographers Bill Owens and Beth Sunflower
  • Original and rerelease theatrical trailers, plus trailers for Maysles Films’ classics Grey Gardens and Salesman
  • Filmographies for Maysles Films and Charlotte Zwerin
  • Restoration demonstration
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
  • Optimal image quality: RSDL dual layer edition
  • PLUS: “The Rolling Stones, Altamont, and Gimme Shelter”: A 44-page booklet with essays by Jagger’s former assistant Georgia Bergman, music writers Michael Lydon and Stanley Booth, ex-Oakland Hell’s Angels chapter head Sonny Barger, and film critics Amy Taubin and Godfrey Cheshire

From the Current

Summer 2009 Cineaste: Bardem, Maysles

Jun 25, 2009

Robert Koehler takes a long “second look” at Death of a Cyclist in the summer 2009 issue of Cineaste, sizing up Juan Antonio Bardem’s 1955 political melodrama in terms of Spain’s national identity and the legacy of neorealism. Check it out on the magazine’s http://www.cineaste...

Gimme Shelter:
The Decade That Spawned Altamont

by Michael Lydon Nov 13, 2000

In the fall of 1969, I landed the coolest possible writing gig: touring with the Rolling Stones on assignment from The New York Times (the Times rejected the 100-page piece I turned in, but radical Ramparts printed it). The tour across America was a wild...

Gimme Shelter: Rock and Roll Zapruder

by Amy Taubin Nov 13, 2000

Gimme Shelter documents the last ten days of the Rolling Stones’ 1969 North American tour, from the band’s ecstatic appearances at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving weekend to the disastrous free concert on December 6th at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco. An estimated...

Gimme Shelter:
The True Adventures of Altamont

by Stanley Booth Nov 13, 2000

The first words we hear are Sam Cutler’s: “Everybody seems to be ready, are we ready?” We were nowhere near ready for what was to come, there at the bitter end of the ’60s. I remember that rainy day so well, when the opening scene of Gimme Shelter was filmed. We drove...

Gimme Shelter: Snapshots from the Road

by Georgia Bergman Nov 13, 2000

By the end of the summer of 1969 my life with the Rolling Stones had taken on a fairytale quality. The Stones were the Lost Boys and I was Wendy. True, Brian Jones...

The “Demonic Charisma” of Gimme Shelter

by Godfrey Cheshire Nov 13, 2000

Gimme Shelter is the film I've seen more than any other. I guess you could say I was obsessed with it for a spell, back when. I saw it first during its premiere New York run, in late 1970. Back home in North Carolina shortly thereafter, I followed it through the celluloid food chain...

Gimme Shelter:
From Let It Bleed

by Ralph "Sonny" Barger Nov 13, 2000

All the opening bands had finished playing, and it was time for the Stones to come out. The sun was still out and there was plenty of daylight left. The crowd had waited all day to see the Stones perform, and they were sitting in their trailers acting like prima donnas. The crowd was getting angry;...