Sounds Like

Book Arts

Lovely drawings from a 17th Century book about perspective illusions and an excellent little article on BibliOdyssey.
Fantastic illustrations by proto-scifi author Albert Robida from his 19th Century trilogy, La Vie Electrique. Courtesy of Retronaut.
Hip 50's infographics from an Anatomy textbook, via Brainpickings.

Crooked Country Trips

Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman chew lumps off each other in the sleazy 70's thriller Prime Cut. When Hackman's rural gangster refuses to pay his dues the Chicago mob send ice-cool Marvin down country to make things right. Both leads consummately trade variants of smiling menace but the wry scripting keeps things fresh and although it's pretty formulaic stuff it has a certain grubby period charm what with the lady auctions, human sausages and a Combine harvester chase scene. A solid, occasionally barmy, tale of sex trafficking and hubris that gets plenty of good stuff from Hackman and Marvin but is otherwise unremarkable.

There's far less charm in the greasy backwoods thriller Poor Pretty Eddie but it more than makes up for it by it's sheer derangement. A sultry Jazz singer gets stuck in hillbilly hell after her car breaks down and ends up in a motel run by a soused cabaret wash up and her two male companions, a giant idiot and a lusty Elvis impersonator. Unaccustomed to guests of colour her presence causes ructions and it's not long before she finds herself in serious danger after attracting the eye of the unstable young lothario, Eddie. The script is perfunctory and it looks terrible but it's quite loopy in a 70's shlock/exploitation sort of way and Shelly Winters as the mother hen provides good ham throughout. Low brow & raw, it's probably only going to appeal to trash cinema collectors.

Harrowed Souls

Robert Altman's 1972 film Images, is a twisted little chiller about madness and sanity that has more atmosphere than a dozen contemporary features. A children's author, plagued by mysterious phone calls, flees with her hubby to their country cottage only for her troubles to deepen and as she scrabbles about furiously for her missing marbles she decides to conquer her visions violently. There's a nebulous ambiguity to the film with momentary doppelgangers, missing time and jumbled identities all confidently sewn together by a stunning performance from Susannah York whose descent into madness throbs incessantly at the centre of the film.

Madness and paranoia plague another beautiful woman, Lena Hedley, in low budget chiller The Broken. After spotting her doppelganger in the streets of London our protagonist is involved in a car accident and finds herself questioning her own her sanity when other family members begin to seem a little 'different'. Though it lacks the subtlety and ambiguity of Images this is a nice little horror whose effectiveness lies on the measured yet tremulous central performance from Hedley rather than it's script which stumbles in the final third, over exerting itself explaining away it's mysteries.

HBO Home Truths

HBO has built up a fair catalogue of high quality TV productions and The Notorious Bettie Page is a good example of their efforts. Shot in a beautiful monochrome the biopic follows the career of the (in)famous model who appeared in a bevy of glamour and bondage magazines in the 1950's. Gretchen Mol fleshes out the naive, big hearted wannabe starlet with panache and is supported with a number of recognisable faces but the script/plot are a little timid and like so many biopics it struggles to balance the events of the subject's history with the necessary character development. Still it's a good watch and I can think of worse ways to spend 90mins than stare at Mol romping about in her undercrackers.

Citizen X is a dramatisation of the true story of a Soviet serial killer who managed to kill 50 before being caught. Stephen Rea's trammeled detective is tasked with the hunt by his sly boss, played by Donald Sutherland, and the pair must thwart Moscow's interference and professional incompetence in their years long search for the murderer. Though it's not as pretty to look at as Bettie Page the script and performances provide an effective atmosphere of quiet, tragic desperation though Rea does occasionally drift into Droopy-esque levels of morosity.

Scientific Scintillas

Curiosity takes a lovely self portrait. Via Space.com

Scientists have found photosynthetic cells in aphids. Nature

Parasitic infection may result in depression and suicide. SciDaily

Mutant Butterflies are showing up in Japan. Popsci

Sexually spurned flies turn to booze. Sciencemag

A new type of scan reveals the brain's neuronal structure may be actually quite simple. Singularityhub.

Newly developed titchy ion microthrusters could propel modest satellites. SciDaily

Game designed to alleviate depression more successful than counselling. Atlantic

New family of clawed spiders found in Oregon. BBC

Sellers Joy

Peter Sellers plays an Italian master thief in After the Fox written for stage and screen by Neil Simon and released in '66. Lured by an impending shipment of gold Sellers escapes from prison and teams up with his old crew and young carefree sister in a caper involving a visiting, failing Hollywood star, played by Victor Mature, and some naive villagers from a small coastal town. Mature's excellent, self parodying performance is matched by Sellers', who for once avoids the obvious national cliches, and as you'd expect with Simon holding the pen there's plenty of snappy banter and laughs from the get go. Sadly I found the finale a little underwhelming and it cast shadow over the previous fun and frolics, nevertheless a lesser Sellers is still worth 3 or 4 contemporary comedies so if you fancy a gust of light 60's farce it's worth catching.

In The Naked Truth Peter Sellers stars as a deviously twee Scottish TV personality who, like Terry Thomas and Shirley Eaton, are being blackmailed by a shady, supercilious tabloid editor. After joining forces they make increasingly deranged attempts to thwart his plans but never quite get it right. It's a lovely little, Ealing-eque farce that has plenty of great lines and laughs, all delivered by the excellent cast with an effortlessness that demonstrates their seasoned talents. Sellers gets an opportunity to don a number of disguises and flex his comic character muscles (as his wont) and it's to the credit of the rest of the cast that he never manages to outshine them. Another thoroughly enjoyable Sellers effort that's been unfortunately eclipsed by his prodigious successes elsewhere.

Grabbed by the Ghoulies

Tales from the Hood is a horror anthology which, although lacking in decent scares, has a nice line in social commentary and gangsta posturing. The frame story sees three thugs turn up at a funeral parlour to collect some 'product' but the owner, played with plenty of crazy by Clarence Williams, decides to entertain his guests with some grisly stories first. Although the segments are fairly typical fare they're given an added socio-political flavour with the inclusion of police brutality, child abuse, and racist politicians peppering the tropes. It won't raise a single goosepimple and the sfx are a pretty ropey but there's enough chuckles along the way to keep you moderately entertained. Good fun for fans of black culture but not for horror aficionados.

V/H/S on the other hand has a plethora of creepy moments and some deliciously grisly murders all filmed lovingly in that found footage style that I'm so fond of (but most seem to hate). The framing narrative sees a bunch of reprobates break into some old codger's house looking for a specific video cassette but when they're faced with dozens of candidates they decide to watch a few to help narrow it down. Amongst their better finds are a clubbing succubus, an unusual woodland slasher and a Skype haunting which are given fresh twists and turns that kept me glued to the screen. As always with these portmanteaus there some variance in the quality of acting and some of the 'artefacts' of the footage got a bit dull but they're all nicely scripted, cleverly shot (exploiting the found footage motif with more imagination than most) and there's enough blood and viscera to satisfy the gorehounds.