HYENA: A Look at Matt Johnson from The The

If the name Matt Johnson sounds familiar, that could be because you enjoyed his score for Gerard Johnson's first feature film, Tony. (If so, congrats. It's a great score.) It could also sound familiar because you are a fan of Matt Johnson's alter ego/band The The. Congratulations (again)! You have excellent taste in music. And yes, Matt and Gerard are brothers.

Although Matt Johnson started playing music when he was only 11 (!), he didn't actually release anything until he was in his teens (take that, teens of today), when he placed an ad in the NME looking for musicians and synth player Keith Laws answered it. The The, whose name was actually suggested by Laws, has been around in some form ever since, with various members over the years, but always including Matt Johnson.

Since then, the band has only released six official albums, but don't let that fool you into thinking Matt Johnson is lazy or anything. In fact, he's the opposite: his music is meticiously crafted, with insightful, frequently political, and sometimes controversial lyrics ("Armageddon Days (Are Here Again)" was supposed to be the single for 1988's Mind Bomb album but the lyrics raised too many eyebrows). Also, The The is just flat out amazing; Matt Johnson has one of the most enjoyable and distinctive vocal styles you'll ever hear.  It's too difficult to categorize a band like The The, so here's a selection of some of their songs.

1983's Soul Mining (along with many other The The releases) features cover art from Matt's brother Andrew under the name "Andy Dog"; he did much of the cover art for the band over the years. (This is one talented family!)





For 1986's Infected, Johnson created a full-length film to accompany the music, with segments being directed by Tim Pope and Throbbing Gristle's Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, among others.



"Slow Train To Dawn" features vocals from Neneh Cherry.



For 1988's Mind Bomb, Johnson assembled a band instead of session musicians, including The Smiths' Johnny Marr. "Kingdom of Rain" features Sinead O'Connor.





Johnson worked with the same band for the recording of 1992's Dusk. And once again, a full-length film (From Dusk Til Dawn) was created for this album, directed by Tim Pope and filmed in both New Orleans and New York, and featuring Annie Sprinkle, Quentin Crisp, Curtis Sliwa, and Rick Savage, among others.





For 1994's Hanky Panky, Johnson recorded an entire album of Hank Williams covers, and if that seems odd to you, then you have obviously never heard his version of "I Saw The Light."



The The's last official album was 2000's NakedSelf, and included several songs co-written with Eric Schermerhorn, who also played with Iggy Pop, and vocal contributions from Dorit Chrysler.



Since then, Matt Johnson has been focusing on his soundtrack work as well as his Radio Cineola broadcasts and book publishing under the moniker Fifty First State Press. Hyena features his latest score, so don't forget to check out the movie's final screening at the Festival.

For more on Matt Johnson and The The, including some of his fantastic, provocative essays, check out his website, and read this great interview with him from The Quietus.

HYENA final screening:
Fri., Sept. 12th, 12:00 PM, BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

DUKE OF BURGUNDY Press Round-Up!

"Should we go into town to see a film?"

 There's one more screening of The Duke Of Burgundy and maybe you haven't quite decided if it is for you. Here's a little round-up of reviews to help. We like to help.

At Little White Lies, David Ehrlich has a nice review of The Duke of Burgundy, writing, "Peter Strickland's sapphic giallo dream is a tied-up and twisted masterpiece."

And adding:

A few minutes into Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy, the matron of a gorgeous European estate pulls her maid into a bathroom and pisses into her mouth. That’s the exact moment when it becomes clear that these two women are deeply in love with each other.

Perhaps the major discovery of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, The Duke of Burgundy is a Certified Copy riff for the S&M crowd, Strickland’s third feature cementing his status as a world talent while also assimilating shades of early Fassbinder and a diffuse (but palpable) giallo atmosphere into its cheeky exploration of relationships and their performative nature

At Screen Daily, Allan Hunter writes, "The Duke Of Burgundy is a complex, melancholy romance in which love is sustained by negotiating the limits of desire and understanding the expectations of your partner. It is an odd, original and beguiling work."

 Robbie Collin writes at The Telegraph:

In the same way Strickland’s last film, Berberian Sound Studio, invoked the black gloves and curdled screams of giallo horror without actually making a home for itself in that genre, The Duke of Burgundy draws on the sexually charged European chillers of the late 1970s, by directors like Jess Franco and Joe D’Amato – it operates at the same kind of sex-dazed remove as Vampyros Lesbos or Lorna the Exorcist, although here, that forbidden creaminess comes spiced with very British humour.

 Jordan Hoffman writes at The Guardian:

The Duke of Burgundy will have its detractors. But this is not just a filthy movie. It's a considerable work of art, and one that touches on a rarely discussed side of human sexuality completely free of judgement. You may be surprised to find shades of your own life in Evelyn and Cynthia's fragile relationship.

Meanwhile, Culture Addicts looks at the soundtrack by Cat's Eyes:

Cat’s Eyes have created a compelling atmosphere which beautifully showcases [Rachel] Zeffira’s classical leanings and [Faris] Badwan’s darker side, while drawing previously invisible arcs between Verdian Requiems, Phil Spector pop, and Paul Giovanni’s Wicker Man.

 Unfortunately, I can find no reviews of Peter Strickland's mole cricket 7".

Sorry, little guy.

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY Final Screening:

Monday, Sept 8th 3:15 PM SCOTIABANK 12

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY: 5 Question Interview with Director Peter Strickland

After astounding audiences with his tribute to giallo and foleying two years ago in Berberian Sound Studio, Peter Strickland returns to Vanguard this year with The Duke Of Burgundy, a film about the relationship between two women with conflicting desires and a shared interest in lepidoptery and entomology. Strickland was kind enough to answer a few questions. In this short interview, he talks about sound, the pressure to put on a persona, pheromonal perfume and mole crickets. ~ Carol Borden

Sound design played an integral role in Berberian Sound Studio and plays one again in The Duke Of Burgundy. What interests you about sound design and soundtracks in film, and how did you come to use insect sounds for The Duke Of Burgundy? 

There was a conscious effort to do something rigorous and defined for the sound design in Berberian Sound Studio. That approach would've felt frivolous had we done it for The Duke of Burgundy. Martin Pavey stripped a lot back for the sound mix. We probably put more time and thought into taking sounds away than in constructing anything. We tried to offer something sparse with air to breathe and most importantly, we didn't wish to draw attention to ourselves since sound was not the subject as it was with the previous film. But taking that into account, Martin is a highly inventive one-man show of a sound designer. He does the job of five people on any other film. We don't want to wow people with sound but we want to evoke a strong sense of place and feeling. Carefully looking for original field recordings to mix in with Rob Entwistle's work certainly helped. Certain animals were not available or on cue during the shoot, so we had to hunt down recordings of roe deer and scops owls during post production. I was very happy to include the wing sounds of Bombyx mori by Michael Prime (a member of Organum, one of my favourite bands).

I can't really explain my interest in sound and soundtracks. It's just something I naturally key into, though I greatly admire directors who resist soundtracks. It's all ultimately down to what most suitably serves the mood and subject of a film, whether that means no music or something incredibly lush. I came to use mole cricket sounds for The Duke of Burgundy because I put out a record of these in 2003 and couldn't sell any. I got tired of those boxes taking up so much space under my bed, thinking that if this film does well, I can finally sell those records. I'm kind of desperate to be honest and I'll be bringing a box with me to Toronto.

The Duke of Burgundy feels quite a bit like a lot of Lesbian literature, pulp melodrama and historical material from the 1930s and 1940s, while portraying a very emotionally believable relationship between two people. I was wondering what, if any, research you did and how it informed the film and your portrayal of Cynthia, Evelyn and their relationship. 

I didn't do much research. It's a completely artificial world which I wanted to exist on its own terms. In terms of the emotional resonance, that comes from somewhere or other. Just being a human, that side takes care of itself when writing. I didn't want to make a judgement either for or against BDSM nor did I want to send it up, but the practicalities of enacting any fantasy can be as ridiculous as the practicalities of doing foley work for a horror film. What I wanted to do was push the audience to a far point in terms of being able to relate to a sexual desire and almost lose them. But once the surprise at the lengths Evelyn will go to for her sexual kicks has gone, one can hopefully see what is at the crux of the film: how can compromise be reached between two lovers who have different intimate needs?

But research aside, I'm very fond of a lot of those euro sleaze films from the '70s, especially anything with Joe Dallesandro. My first meeting with Andy Starke was to do with remaking Jess Franco's Lorna the Exorcist. We ditched that idea but wanted to wade into that fantastical realm that Franco was notorious for. In some way, taking some core cues from Franco's films was a starting point for the script, but then with the process of writing it changed naturally into something else, though staying true to the sadomasochistic pulse of the majority of his work. The first proper job I ever had in the film industry was as an assistant on Bruce LaBruce's Skin Flick in 1998, so maybe something stuck.

Berberian Sound Studio explored the artifice of film, while showing the blurry line between reality and fantasy in people's lives. The Duke of Burgundy reveals the artifice necessary to make fantasy reality in the context of BDSM and, possibly, love. Is the relationship between people's inner and outer lives something you find particularly interesting? 

That's something I can only consider in hindsight. I wasn't really conscious of that when writing either script. What I found interesting from the films I had seen which explored different desires was that they rarely exposed the reality behind the fantasy. The dominant male or female is inherently so in these films. It seemed both more fun and truthful to peel off the ice queen mask and reveal an altogether different person - a reluctant dominatrix, which Sidse portrayed so vividly.  The ritualistic/repetitive aspect of the sexual role play is fascinating and you can manipulate that in a film as a means of altering one's perception of power, meaning and even time. The same words are repeated but with the accrued knowledge the audience have of the characters and their dynamic, the meaning is totally different. But ultimately, the most universal connection the film has is the pressure of putting on a persona. That's something that's always a demand on us in almost all aspects of our lives. 

Mole cricket via Listen To This Noise

The film is incredibly sensuous, not just visually and aurally, but appealing to senses less easily accessed by film. There are strong tactile elements, but I also noticed a perfume credited in the opening titles. Was it a scent worn by one of the actors? What role does it play in the film? 

That's a new perfume--je suis Gizella. She's an erstwhile javelin champion who had to take early retirement due to an in-growing toenail. The perfume is allegedly made from some clandestine serum but she won't divulge too much. It's quite pheromonal and was making a couple of the crew members too horny, which meant I had to confiscate the bottles.

Do you have a favorite insect or insect sound? 

It has to be the mole cricket. They're hated by golfers which gives them an instant thumbs up from me. I find them staggeringly beautiful even though they're probably the most elusive of insects. Also, the sound they make can be harsher than a Whitehouse record.

Thanks to Peter Strickland for taking time to answer my questions. And make sure you get a copy of his collection of mole cricket sounds! 

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY screening times:

Saturday, Sept 6th 10:00 PM TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 1
Monday, Sept 8th 3:15 PM SCOTIABANK 12

THE STRANGE COLOUR OF YOUR BODY'S TEARS: What's In The Soundtrack?

Today is a great day. Why? It's Italian film legend Dario Argento's birthday, for one. It also is the same day that you'll get to find out about the soundtrack for The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, one of the films at the Toronto International Film Festival's Vanguard Programme.

One of the coolest things about Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's new film is that they use a lot of well-known Italian soundtrack music. What's even cooler is that they listen to this music when they're writing, so having it in the movie is just an extension of their unique vision.

Here is some of the music from the soundtrack to The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears and background about the composers and the original films in which the music appeared.

Composer Ennio Morricone probably needs no introduction, as his career is nothing short of legendary, but here's a few titles to chew on: Once Upon a Time in the West, For a Few Dollars More, La Cage Aux Folles, Revolver, The Battle of Algiers, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (directed by Dario Argento! Happy Birthday!), The Thing, and The Mission.

There are a couple of Morricone pieces on the soundtrack to The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears as well. From the wonderfully titled Lacorta notte delle bambole di vetro a.k.a. The Short Night of the Glass Dolls, his chilling "Il bisturi" is not the kind of music you'd want to wake up to in the middle of the night, especially if you have glass dolls in your room.

"Erotico Mistico" pretty much sounds exactly like what you'd think from the title: drumbeats, Gregorian chant-like singing, and lots of breathy sighing. It's from the 1971 film Maddalena, which tells the story of what happens when a lonely lady meets a lusty priest.

Another imaginatively titled giallo, All The Colours of the Dark, stars the stunning Edwige Fenech (The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh) and the not-too-shabby-himself Ivan Rassimov. Bruno Nicolai's score includes "Magico incontro."

                       

Nicolai, who was a friend of Morricone and composed many scores with him, also provided music for Jess Franco films like Count Dracula and Marquis de Sade: Justine as well as 1979's Caligula. Yes, that Caligula.

Wikipedia claims that Guido and Maurizio de Angelis were some of the most prolific Italian musicians in the 1970s, and a glance at their profile on Discogs bears this out. In fact, they even had to use an alternate name "to avoid over-saturating the market." This alternate name was Oliver Onions (I couldn't even make up something this good. Under this moniker, they composed the insanely catchy "Zorro Is Back" theme from the 1975 film version with Alain Delon!)

Here is "Il racket (riprese 1)" from the soundtrack to 1976's Il grande racket, directed by Italian cult film legend Enzo G. Castellari and starring another Italian cult film legend, the awesome Fabio Testi.

Riz Ortolani, who was a jazz composer in the 1950s, was also popular back in the day for his scores for films like House on the Edge of the Park and Cannibal Holocaust, both from 1980. "Cosi Dolce . . . Cosi Perversa" ("So sweet . . . so perverse") is the title theme from the 1967 Umberto Lenzi movie of the same name, starring such legends as Carroll Baker and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Hot!

In 1970, there was an Italian/German film version of The Picture of Dorian Gray called Il Dio Chiatomo, directed by Massimo Dallamano, who lensed A Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars More. Carlo Pes and Giuseppe de Luca composed the score, including "Rito a Los Angeles," which borrows the guitar riff from Iron Butterfly's "In a Gadda Da Vida" but adds terrific drums. (It was later used in the soundtrack to Ocean's Twelve.)

 

Nico Fidenco's "My Boundless" originally appeared in Confessions of Emanuelle from 1977 (not to be confused with the other Emmanuelle, who was French). Jonathan Ruskin's synopsis on IMDB is classic:

Famous undercover journalist Emanuelle teams with her friend Cora Norman to uncover a white slave ring that traffics in women kidnapped from various locales around the world. Her investigations leave plenty of time, however, for globe-trotting and bed-hopping. As each lead turns up bad, Emanuelle begins to wonder if she can ever put an end to this horrible slavery ring. 

Won't it be fun to look for this music in The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears? I think so, anyway! Be sure not to miss the film when it screens at the Festival.

THE STRANGE COLOUR OF YOUR BODY’S TEARS Screening Times:

Wednesday, Sept 11th, 6:00 PM THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

Thursday, Sept 12th, 9:30 PM SCOTIABANK 3

Saturday, Sept 14th, 12:30 PM SCOTIABANK 8

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO: Giallo Playlist

Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio focuses not only on the love of a particular genre, giallo, but on a love for that genre's particular relationship with sound.  Gialli not only have viscerally powerful sound effects making even looking away no guarantee that a murder won't be deeply affecting, they also have a long tradition of ennervated, groovy, dynamic and even experimental soundtracks. Here's a playlist to get you in the giallo mood.

"Piume Di Cristallo" from Ennio Morricone's score for Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage/ L'Uccello Piume di Cristalli (1969).




"Sabba" from Bruno Nicolai soundtrack for Sergio Martino's Tutti I Colori di Buio / All the Colors of the Dark (1972)


Berto Pisano's funk-inflected opening theme for Andrea Bianchi's Strip Nude for your Killer / Nude per l'Assassino (1975).


Progressive rock band Goblin is probably best known for their soundtrack to Argento's Suspiria, but they got their start providing the tense synth mixed with classic Gothic organ soundtrack for Argento's Deep Red / Profundo Rosso (1975).


UK band Broadcast provides the soundtack for Berberian Sound Studio despite the untimely death of  band member, Trish Keenan. Broadcast completed the soundtrack using vocals Keenan had recorded before her death. I couldn't find any singles from it, but here's one of their earlier songs, "Paper Cuts."



Our friends at The Deuce have more suggestions for giallo soundtrack listening.

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO screens one more time: 
Tues., Sept. 11, 2:45PM CINEPLEX YONGE AND DUNDAS

The Guardian Interviews BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO Director Peter Strickland

The Guardian profiles Berberian Sound Studio director Peter Strickland. Strickland talks about 1970s England (Dorking, in particular), Toby Jones, giallo cinema and the power of sound in film.

But while 70s Britain was glued to Dad's Army, in Italy directors such as Dario Argento were turning out the floridly stylised gialli whose zealous attention to music and costume Strickland would later relish. His own film is a riot of sly references to the underground cinema and music he admits being obsessed by (the title alludes to avant-garde singer Cathy Berberian). Yet despite what Strickland himself calls the "trainspotting", his story pushes in unexpected directions. With nods to the trials of freelance employment and workplace bullying, this oddball horror-art movie has a firmer grasp of working life than many sober slices of social realism.

Click through for more.

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO screening times:
Mon., Sept. 10, 6:00PM:  The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
Tues., Sept. 11, 2:45:  Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 3