When I had initially read the disturbing description for director and writer Tom Six’s The Human Centipede as, “a nutshell, it’s about a mad doctor who sews the mouths of living humans to the asses of others, in hopes of creating and sustaining a centipede-like monstrosity”, my first thoughts were, I have to see this. When I was done watching it at the IFC theater in NY City, my second thoughts quickly reverted to,  “Oh… I really wish I never saw that.”

Predictable, ridiculous, and uncomfortable, this movie was everything I didn’t think it was going to be.

I must say, I felt let down. How could a movie about mouths getting sewn to asses go wrong? I walked into the theater almost positive this was going to be it; the movie that I could finally walk away from bubbling over with enthusiasm, making others envious at my awe of how spectacular it was to witness the first human centipede…ever. Not.

First off, you have two stereotypical American girls, Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie) and Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams), who are traveling throughout Europe, but they just happen to not know how to follow directions or change a flat. You would think that they may possibly be more on the adventurous side, being that they are traveling alone throughout an entire continent. Instead, they happen to be complete inept airheads, who would typically be found gyrating with muscle heads in some Long Island club to the sounds of “Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me”?

So of course, they get a flat tire, in what seems to be in the middle of nowhere, while it is raining, in the dead of the night, and end up walking aimlessly through woods. With no houses in sight, they finally end up at the front door of the one house that they happen to stumble upon, which just so happens to be residence of a mad surgeon, Dr. Heiter (Dieter Laser).

In all honesty, I was able to look past the idiot girls and the predictability, cause heck, every horror movie, is known for its contradicting characters and predictable story line, so I still didn’t totally give up on the movie at this point. There was still hope, and my attention was still there, and I actually was finding all of this quite humorous and entertaining.

Then, to make matters worse, the doctor is the creepiest looking dude in existence. He offers the girls water, and but of course they accept, and who would of thought, but oh no, there’s GHB dissolved in it, the date rape drug!

So after Dr. Lunatic is successful at drugging the girls, he transports them to a bed, where they are consequently tied up, while connected to an IV.

Long story, short, Dr. Heiter is looking for three blood matches, so that he could connect the three together successfully. Previous to the girls, he had captured a chubby truck driver, who he found on the side of the road as he was performing “number two”, shooting him with a tranquilizer-filled dart gun, at his most vulnerable state of outdoor excretion. Fortunately for him, he is not a match with the two girls, and so the good doctor must go out and find the right third, who turns out to be Japanese character, Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura).

Katsuro, Jenny, and Lindsay awake from their sedation, in Dr. Heiter’s cellar, alongside each other, in separate hospital beds. Dr. Heiter is not only kind enough to introduce himself and his background as a surgeon, specializing in separating Siamese twins, but he also takes the time out of his busy schedule, to present them with a visual presentation of how he is going to perform the mouth to ass surgery, on none other than, the three of them. He also elaborates on the digestion process, and how all three will be connected by one connective system of digestion, where the food will be eaten by the first, then passed through the anus, into the mouth of the second, upon which the same is repeated through the third, and finally, excreted. Understandably, they all freak out upon hearing this, especially Katsuro who rages in Japanese, screaming at how he is going to kick the doctor’s ass, but obviously unable to, due to the hand restraints.

We see Dr. Heiter performing parts of the surgery, but not all that much of it, and it may have been more visually appealing if they showed more of the actual cutting.

During the surgery, I kept thinking that if it were me that were one of the parts of the centipede, I would definitely prefer to be the first part, therefore my mouth would not have to be on anyone’s ass, and of course I would not have to ingest anyone’s feces.

Luckily for Katsuro, he gets to be the lead, and also have a girls mouth on his ass, so I don’t know why he keeps bitching throughout the movie. Not so lucky for the second segment, which is Lindsay, who literally has to take his shit. While Jenny’s mouth is connected to Lindsay’s rear, she is fortunate enough to escape the second passing, because there seems to be a god after all; Lindsay just happens to be constipated!

I had a problem with the way the centipede looked in its entirety. The connection between the mouths and asses were actually covered by bandages, so it didn’t really seem all that real. I also had an issue with the constant crying and moaning of the centipede. Not only did it feel like a strange porno, but it was annoying and distracting, and while I can handle any amount of gore, I think that too much of an unpleasant sound can become psychologically irritating.

Also, I didn’t really like the doctor’s relationship between him and the centipede, and how abusive and domineering he was toward it. Call me strange, but perhaps, if he was loving towards his Frankensteinian monstrosity, in a creepy sort of way, it would have been easier to watch.

At a Northern American premiere of The Human Centipede, when Tom Six was asked what his inspiration for the film was, he said, “It’s a really simple idea.” “I always made the joke to friends… if somebody was nasty or annoying…I said…to stitch his mouth to the ass of a fat truck driver…that’s horrible. That is really horrible and I thought that’s a great idea for a horror film,” he said.

Six explained to the audience that he actually went to a surgeon in Rome, who was also a movie lover and read the script. The surgeon ended up giving Six a detailed version of how such an operation would be performed, and also claimed that the procedure in the movie is  100% medically accurate and that if it were to be done in reality, the centipede could actually live a “really long time”.

After watching Six’s appearance at the premier, I came away with the impression that he has a good sense of humor and does not seem to take himself, or the idea too seriously. His lighthearted approach towards the film adds a different perspective towards it, and while I do think that the concept of the movie is fascinating, its execution was not, so much so.

By Chrysa Pik

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing newly emerging artist Lucinda Lin, who goes by the art moniker of “Happymooncake Artworks”, after attending one of her latest showings at Toast Coffeehouse in Port Jefferson, New York.

Lin presented eight of her newest paintings and collages during the showing, which was a multi-media production entitled Electric Womb, collaboration, with artist, Aleks Degtyarev of FreakCast, who presented video stills and a live video performance at the end of the show.

The event was hosted by FRESH Art of Long Island, whose main mission is to bring recognition to underground artists, such as Lin and Degtyarev.
 
Lin who currently resides in Great Neck, New York, is a first generation Chinese-American, native to Long Island, originally from a small town by the name of Rocky Point. Growing up, just a short stroll away from the beach, Lin’s interaction with nature played a big role in her artistic influence.

“I was very lucky to grow up by the water,” Lin said. “In the summer I would spend almost every day there and I believe this nurtured my love for nature, especially for it’s solitary and unique aspects.” “It being free of crowds made it private and secluded, a perfect environment for imagination.”
 
Both of Lin’s parents were born in China, but grew up in Taiwan, and came to the United States to pursue their careers as scientists. Her father worked as a physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, and her mother currently works there as a microbiologist. Both of her parents sketched and painted as hobbies as well. Her father mainly created charcoal paintings of people and landscapes, and her mother still paints landscapes and traditional Chinese calligraphy. Her mother’s mother is an accomplished traditional Chinese painter, and her father’s mother is skilled in embroidery.

Lin discovered her interest in art when she was about eight years old, at an art studio class in summer camp, as she was working on a collage painting made from old wall paper. Reminiscing, Lin remarked, “I remember being so focused on painting my lines perfectly and working very long on this one piece, almost obsessively.” “My instructor was impressed and I was happy.”
 
Carrying over such childhood techniques to her collage work as an adult, Lin prefers to use bits and pieces of materials that she finds laying around that catches her eye, such as an old page from a 1975 magazine or a funny looking gum wrapper.
 
When asked how she sometimes goes about creating her collages, Lin responded, “I might begin with a piece of something, say a menu I have saved from a restaurant in Prague, during my visit there.” “That particular painting will then grow around the menu and thus all the memories I have attached to that restaurant.”

When it comes to her paintings, Lin enjoys working with oil paints, but has been using acrylics, more so lately, which predominated her artwork during Electric Womb.

Her creations are influenced by her own memories, emotions, and even other art, and are also inspired by the imagery found within nature, flora, fauna, animals, myths, legends, and magic.

Even though she has been involved in art since she was a child, she has only exhibited her work at a handful of places, such as the student art gallery at the State University at Stony Brook, Walt Whitman Museum in Huntington, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and a few informal art fairs.

Being that Electric Womb was one of the most public showings for Lin, she found the experience to be worth the exposure, commenting, “I used to be very private with my work sharing it only with close friends and family,” said Lin. Now I enjoy the pressure and fear of showing my work to strangers-I think it only makes my work improve.”
As I stood back and observed the crowd, it seemed that Happymooncake’s display served as a great conversational piece, stirring curiosity within the dialogue of the participating art viewers. It was quite apparent to the discerning eye that the involved paintings did not just contain passive slabs of color that looked pretty, but instead were productive in inciting questions and personal opinions as to what the abstract images could be.

The pieces provided a challenge to analyze and dissect, because they all seemed to tell a diverting story. I overhead random speculators wondering as to the potential symbolism of a few of the paintings, based on their own intuitive interpretations. It was creatively invigorating to hear all types of people, within heterogeneous subgroups of both artists and non-artists, verbally formulating out loud as to their own personal theories which ranged from “female anatomy”, “internal organs”, “body fibers and nerves” or “a spiritual mandala”, while another simply remarked, “it almost reminds me of a photograph”.

 
Whatever the pieces may have intrinsically meant for Lin, while creating them on an individual level, holistically, they all represented something greater, much deeper than the symbols held within their four corners.
 
“The pieces I made for Electric Womb, the show at Toast, represent collaboration,” said Lin. “Working alongside my boyfriend Aleks on the show was a new experience for me as I had never shared a show with anyone before. Being more open allowed for a more osmotic environment and has drastically enriched my creativity and skills. This osmosis of ideas is the basis of the theme of Electric Womb.”

Richard Ritter, a fellow artist who attended Electric Womb and had exhibited with Lin last year, said, “She’s an amazing artist.” Ritter added: “I actually met her through an art group called Art Studio 85 and we all exhibited at the Walt Whitman Museum.”
 
While Electric Womb was successful in showing Lin’s latest work publicly, it was also for other reasons as well. “The show was successful because my friends and family showed up to support us and because I accomplished what I set out to do in a short amount of time,” Lin said.
 
Alison Schnoor, an old childhood friend of Lin since elementary school, shared every high school art class with her and is probably the most familiar with her work than anyone else. Schnoor said after the show, “She was a very good artist in high school and she established her style early on, and when she went away to college in her art classes she seemed to stray away from her own personal techniques.” “In the show I noticed that she incorporated her own artistic interpretation, experience, and knowledge and seemed to come home back to herself and her original style.”
 
What I personally appreciated about all of Lin’s pieces is that they were each so different from one another, yet they simultaneously shared the notable essence of belonging to the same parent. Lin applied the technique of interbreeding collage and paint within the same creation, stimulating the visual senses, by presenting an aesthetically appealing variation in both imagery and texture. The paintings were optically engaging and fun to look at.

 
“I have fun when I make art,” Lin said. “I am absorbed in my art while I am creating it. I can escape into it if I want, especially if I am alone.”

I asked Lin’s mother, who was present at the showing, what she thought about her daughter’s paintings, and she said, “I think it’s very…it’s…different, but interesting.” Lin added: “It opened my eyes and raised my perception about art. I didn’t know my daughter had such an abstract mind. I think now she is more mature and her art really reflects much deeper emotion and she is very good at using colors.”
 
As far as Lin’s personal interest in other artist’s work, enjoys graffiti street art, particularly the work of artists SEAK, ElDone, CORAIL, but also enjoys more traditional and renowned artists such as Klimt, Dali, and Van Gogh.

 Lin just recently completed working as Assistant Director on the set of Degtyarev’s short film Shoe Fits, which will be shown at the Brooklyn International Film Festival, as part of the Roger Smith Shorts Series, featuring the films of five new directors.

For those interested in seeing more of Lin’s work, she can be found on Facebook at profile “Happymooncake Artworks” and anyone interested in purchasing art pieces or prints may send an email to happymooncakeartworks@gmail.com.

By Chrysa Pik

Reminiscing back to the eighties, I can say for myself, that Joan Jett was a familiar name during that time, and a name that for many, sparked a mental image of the iconic female rebel of rock n’ roll. One thing that both Jett and I have in common, is that we were both born on the same month and day of September 22nd, making us both Virgoans on the cusp of Libra. Other than that similarity, I would have to say that I never started an all girl rock band, or had a #1 hit cover, or been the epitome of coolness, at least outside of my own mind.

Although, I didn’t really know that much about The Runaways, the all girl teen-aged rock band, that Jett started in 1975, I knew that they came to fruition somewhere in the 70s, and were one of the predecessors in paving the way for other exceptional females, such as The Go-Gos, The Bangles, Hole, Bikini Kill, L7, and The Donnas. The curiosity to know more about Jett’s history as a musician, and the band’s history as a whole, is what really prompted me to go see the movie.

The Runaways, is based on the book, Neon Angel: A Memoir of the Runaways, which is written by Cherie Currie, and Tony O’Neill. Currie was the lead singer of the The Runaways, and O’Neill, a New York based author and one time musician.

The film is directed by Floria Sigismondi, and produced by Joan Jett, Kenny Laguna, and Brian Young. Sigismondi is known for directing music videos for artists such as Marilyn Manson, David Bowie, Bjork, The Cure, The White Stripes, Interpol, Incubus, Christina Aguilera, Muse, Sigur Ros, and Incubus.

Director, Floria Sigismondi

The opening scene did grab my attention, primarily because it involved bodily fluids. A drop of blood on the street as two teenaged girls dressed in skirts cross to the other side, running to the bathroom, to switch underwear. The menstruating victim turns out to be Cherry Currie, played by Dakota Fanning, and the movie opens, as it focuses on her close relationship with her sister Marie Currie. Marie Currie is played by Riley Keough, daughter of Lisa Mary Presley, and oldest grandchild of Elvis.

The two sisters grow up in California, in a dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic dad, and a self-obsessed mom who impulsively decides to just get up and move to Indonesia with her fiancée. Marie is the more boring and responsible older sister, who works a steady job at a fast food joint, while Cherrie escapes her empty family life by fantasizing about rock n’ roll, specifically David Bowie. We see her idolization of him at her high school talent show, where she lip syncs to “Lady Grinning Soul” with her face dressed in glam rock makeup. Students boo her off the stage, and she walks off while flipping the bird to the audience with both hands.

I was curious to see Dakota Fanning, being that I haven’t really seen her in anything since War of the Worlds, so for me this was going to be my first viewing of her in a more “adult” role, even though she is only 15 in the movie. Great role for Fanning to break out with, as her unspoken announcement to the world that she is no longer a child actress, incase there were those who weren’t aware.

Fanning plays a drug induced Currie, who was also only 15-years old when the band started, and is scantily clad in a corset, fishnets and platform boots. I was particularly impressed by her acting in a specific scene where the group was being filmed in Japan during their performance of “Cherry Bomb”. Crushing uppers beneath her platform boots, right before snorting them off the floor, she lets it all out on the stage, and performs as the 16 year old Currie did, more than 30 years ago.

The idea that Twilight star Kristen Stewart was playing Jett, was one of the reasons why I didn’t want to see this film. I’m not a big fan of Stewart, being that she is not exactly known for her high-energy acting, and sometimes watching her act is as exciting as watching a dog urinate. I must admit though, that I actually think she wasn’t as bad as I thought she would be, compared to her previous roles. Even though critics, and Joan Jett herself, claimed she did such an impressive job, describing her work as “quiet intensity”, I still wasn’t all that moved by her performance.

I was surprised to see that Fanning seemed to steal the show, being that Stewart seemed to be more of the focus in previews. Fanning’s role dealt with the most struggle and inner conflict, and the band’s existence seemed to revolve around her, so for those reasons, she took the lead on this one.

Although, Stewart’s character is significant, because after all Jett is the pivotal reason the band comes together, but she doesn’t seem to say all that much in the film, and her part seemed to be somewhat underwritten. Although, I have read that Jett has been described by some as being quiet, until she performs.

It was impressive to see that both Stewart and Fanning actually sang themselves, in the movie, which helped in adding to the believability of the band.

Something else that helped in strengthening the movie was Michael Shannon, who played eccentric and eyeliner wearing producer Kim Fowley, son of actors Douglas Fowley and Shelby Payne.

Jett convinces Fowley after just meeting him outside a rock club, that he should start an all girl rock band, in which he agrees to, and then introduces her to drummer Sandy West. Jett and West practice in a garage until Fowley realizes that they’re missing something. That something is sex, and so, they go out to the local club searching for an attractive girl to front their band, which is where Currie comes in the picture.

Shannon, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Revolutionary Road (2008), does a great job with his eccentric performance as Fowley, and was casted well in this part. Shannon comes across effectively as blunt and crude, and also brings some humor into the movie, although according to some, Kim Fowley was nothing more than a sexist who made money off of exploiting the vulnerable females, especially Currie.

“He’s a genius,” said Kim Fowley about Shannon in an interview with Chris Estey from KEXP Blog.” “He’s the new Christopher Walken. And I’m privileged that he was able to get enough of me to make it watchable. It transcended the printed page. He’s working with Martin Scorcese on his Broadway project, that’s what he’s doing now. This guy’s like John Garfield or Humphrey Bogart playing you. I mean, wouldn’t you like that?”

Kim Fowley, present day

The Runaways existed from around 1975-1979. Band members included Joan Jett (rhythm guitar and vocals), Cherie Currie (Vocals), Lita Ford(Lead Guitar), Sandy West(Drums), and both Micki Steele and Peggy Foster played bass guitar briefly but were replaced in 1975 by Jackie Fox. In 1977, Vicky Blue replaced Fox on bass, and in 1978 Laura McAllister replaced Blue.

The actual band, The Runaways. From left: Joan Jett, Sandy West, Cherrie Currie, Jackie Fox, and Lita Ford.

Overall, the movie was entertaining, on a superficial level. The Runaway’s unraveling, from the middle to the end of the movie, happens so fast, and without any depth, that it’s hard to understand the dynamics within the band that ends up destroying them. We get the obvious gist that there was a whole lot of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll involved, but the only person it seems to affect in the most negative sense is Currie, not being able to deal with all the attention and addictions, while Jett just seems to be more concerned with her music.

At the end of the movie, the focus then transfers over to Jett, and the viewer gets a sense of how she goes off on her own to start the beginning of her very own career.

The film on a whole seemed to be more concerned with projecting the bands image, and I can already foresee its marketing tactics succeed as a bunch of teenaged girls will most likely be running around wearing “The Runaway” tee-shirts tucked in their tight leather pants.

“And Jett hastens to explain that ‘The Runaways’ is absolutely not a biopic,” said Gary Graff, writer from Film Journal. “It’s not fact-for-fact. What they did was basically take elements from the Runaways story and created a parallel narrative.”

Not really a movie to take seriously, but a fun flick, to watch. It was interesting to learn about the backgrounds of the singers and how they came together. The Runaways made me want to revert to my younger years, when mortality was overlooked and life seemed everlasting. It also made me want to do a lot of drugs, listen to music, and be really irresponsible. Unfortunately, I had to wake up early the next morning to go to work, so I opted instead to just have a cup of coffee, and went to bed an hour later than usual. What can I say… it’s the rebel in me.

I just recently attended my first experience at Cinemonde, an invitation only, “private Manhattan series for thought-provoking cinema”, held in the Tribeca Grand Hotel on 2^nd Avenue of the Americas.

I thought the night was going to start off on a somewhat awkward note when we discovered, to our dismay, that our names were not on the guest list.  An anxiety-induced scene of getting tossed out of the front door and forever blacklisted was soon cut by the cordial greeting of Jerry Rudes, host of the event, who took our word that we were in fact invited guests and allowed us in.

Rudes is also the founder and director of both the 25-year-old Avignon Film Festival in France, and the 13-year-old Avignon Film Festival in New York.

I thought things couldn’t get any better until I was greeted by my long lost friend, Martini.  Martini sat atop the bar along with some other friends, also by the name of Martini.  Martini and Martinis were all perfectly lined up in formation, ready for the call of duty; It was a beautiful sight that brought tears to my eyes.   In the middle of getting choked up in this happy reunion, I nearly fell to my knees. Waiters began swirling around me with trays of gourmet hors d’oeuvres, each one was either hot, cheesy, crusty, or spicy, but all were calling my name. Eventually I came to and realized there were living and breathing people all around me as well:  Russian actors and writers, purse designers, a Swedish singer, Scottish men in skirts who offered lethal shots of whiskey, an aspiring director seeking an American producer to shoot his screenplay, but of course only in Amsterdam, and a myriad of other cinematic lovers and entrepreneurs.

While there were so many compelling reasons for me to be at Cinemonde that night, including the raffle drawing that held the potential of winning a bottle of Paris Hilton’s Siren perfume (which I ended up winning), the main reason was the screening of an Italian film, Pranzo di Ferragosto, translated as Mid-August Lunch. I was especially excited to see this film because it is Italian actor and screenwriter Gianni Di Gregorio’s directorial debut. Gregorio also wrote the screenplay and stars in the film, as well.

Being a small production based on a simple plot, with vibrant characters, Mid-August Lunch reminds me why I love watching foreign films.

Gregorio plays Gianni, a single man in his mid-sixties living in Rome with his 93-year-old Mamma, Valeria, played by Valeria De Franciscis. The film takes place during the summer holiday of Ferragosto, where almost everyone in Italy celebrates the feast by going on vacation, everyone that is except for Gianni, his mother, and anyone else who has nowhere to go.

Gianni is having trouble keeping up with his bills, so when the building supervisor Luigi, makes a deal with him to help him out financially, he can’t refuse. The only catch is that Gianni must watch over this man’s elderly mother, Marina, so that he can be free to go on vacation. Although resistant to the idea, Gianni eventually agrees, reluctantly, and before you know it, he is suckered into watching this man’s aunt Maria, in addition to the mom, after he squeezes her in last minute. Just when you think that it can’t get any worse, his friend Marcello, the neighborhood doctor, stops by to give Gianni a check-up because he is experiencing chest pains. As he tells him to take it easy, he also throws in his mom Grazia into the mix as well, since he is also going on vacation.

.

Poor Gianni! While everyone else is away to frolic, he is left to baby sit these four feisty women, who come with instructions, warnings, disputes, and plenty of idiosyncrasies, and how he handles this whole situation is a comedy in itself.

Gregorio is charming and comes across as warm and gentle soul, who is able to laugh at himself and the card he has been handed. While most people would be pulling their hair out, Gianni escapes this circus within his countless glasses of wine, and only agrees to wait hand and foot on the demanding ladies, only after they bribe him with monetary incentive, which he doesn’t even think twice about accepting.

All of the women, with their own unique personalities, are adorable and subtly hysterical, and I craved watching more of their quirky dispositions.

There’s the one who inappropriately repeats the same thing over and over again, another who sneaks in cheese casserole into bed at night because her restricted diet doesn’t allow her to have any, and another who aggressively hits on Gianni after having one too many drinks.

Gianni’s mother Valeria, is a bright and colorful character and has a childlike presence that tickles the viewer with delight. She speaks with an elegant and devilish sense of humor, as is always instructing her son on what he needs to do. I was surprised to find out that she is new at acting, because she was such a natural, and seemed to have a lot of experience, as an actress.

I loved the shots in the movie, which displayed a great sense of realism, especially in the apartment, which happens to be Gregoria’s actual living quarters in real life. Also, the outdoor scenes when Gianni is roaming the streets of Rome on the back of his buddy Viking’s Vespa, were beautifully captured.

This is the kind of movie that does not adhere to one type of viewer, but can be enjoyed by both young and old, and within any type of culture. It looks at the humorous side of aging, rather than the gloomy, and reminds the viewer that life shouldn’t be taken so seriously.

This was one of my favorite movies I have seen this year. Un bel film! Thanks to Cinemonde for the experience!