Screamin' Jay Hawkins : I Put A Spell On Me dvd (2002. Nicholas Triandafyllidis)

Mr. Hawkins is one of, if not, THE greatest singers of all time (just ask Helle
Hellcat or Marco Burro), and apparently there hasn't been made a documentary of him since this Greek director came along!?! I basically thought this was just a filmed concert of his tour 1999 Greek tour, boy, was I wrong. Any youngsters who think Marilyn Manson or even Alice Cooper were the first to do 'shock rock' seriously need to get their fuckin' heads examined cuz this voodoo daddy was the first! Mr. Hawkins sadly died in 2000 so the film is fortunately packed with interviews with people who knew him like Bo Diddley, Jim Jarmusch, Eric Burdon and a very old looking Andre Williams (must've been out boozing the day before, haha). But even greater, there's
tons of interviews with the man himself who's looking pretty young and fit at 70. There's also clips all the way back to 1957 from an Alan Reed show where he rises from a coffin. Jay talks about insane girlfriends, one fucked up broad shot him 5 times and tried to cut him in half with a knife, well, he chased that bitch for 4 blocks before passing out! Rudi Protrudi, Fuzztones frontman who dragged Jay outta obscurity and played with him in the 80s, jokes about asshole hiphoppers and their 'streetcred' about shooting people, and Jay talks about killing 30 (or so) Japanese soldiers in WWII and being captured and torturing in a POW camp for months. He hated white people for years and tells a story about Frank Sinatra calling him a nigger, Jay answered back; "I'm not your nigger, you already got one in Sammy Davis Jr.!".
He later left America for Europe cuz "If the KKK don't get ya, the American
government will!". The wellmade documentary is packed with wild anecdotes that'll blow ya fuckin' mind and also some great songs from his Greek tour. Kickass rocker Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones also contributes with some high praises of one of the 20th century's greatest legends. Anyway....I'm drunk and tired of ranting - Get this dvd and drink some alligator wine, okay? Look up the word 'badass' in the dictionary and if it doesn't say Jay - shoot the goddamn editor! Screamin' Jay Hawkins was the original punkrocker and Henry Rollins can kiss my hairy ass.....etc.

Jens

"2LDK" (2003. Yukihik Tsutsumi)

Two young actresses who are up for the same acing job live together in a 2-room appartment. Jealousy and paranoia start to built up between them in one nite. The film takes place in real time, the appartment is the only set, and there's only 2 actors. The two women start to accuse each others of sleping with a film director. Verbal abuse leads to violence and it all ends in all-out gory carnage. "2LDK" is a very simple but very claustrophobic tale of the human condition, and it's incredibly well acted. It's both an experimental film and a horror drama, and probably the most original piece of filmmaking I've seen in a long time. The little intense psycho thriller is only 75 minutes long but if you're sick and tired of seeing mediocre "Ringu" ripoffs then by all means try and see this modern Japanese cult classic.

Jens