Videodrome and Beta Fetishism

One of the upcoming DVD releases I'm most looking forward to is the director approved 2 disc set of David Cronenberg's Videodrome being released by Criterion the end of this month. Of course, it has all the features you've come to expect from Criterion: an excellent and impeccable anamorphic transfer, commentaries galore, documentaries, and so many extras you can't possibly imagine what they could have neglected (including unedited footage of the pirate "Videodrome" transmissions). And dig the packaging! The discs come in a case that resembles a video cassette. And for all those early 80s video tape fetishists out there, it resembles a classic L-750 Beta cassette (I should know -- my family's first VCR bought way back in '81 was a top-loading Sears Beta)!
Speaking of the glory and bittersweet obsolescence of the Beta format, here's a page devoted to the earliest publication geared to the home video enthusiast, a mimeographed typewritten newsletter called the The Videophile's Newsletter that began back in September 1976, when Sony Betamax's were brand new and cost $1500 a pop (and blank tapes that only lasted one hour were $16.95 each, if you could find them). As pre-recorded tapes were still in the future, The Videophile's Newsletter was the only forum that allowed these early video collectors to discuss recording tips and trades in order to build their nascent movie libraries. One subscriber writes:

"... interested in 'bizzare (sic) films' and is particularly looking for: Alphaville, Zardoz, Creation of the Humanoids, Run Home Slow, Carnival of Souls, Night of the Living Dead, Homicidal, Nosferatu, Yellow Submarine, Rock All Night, and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Suddenly Stopped Living And Became Mixed Up Zombies (!). These must be complete and without commercials.... would like to see though not keep many others including: any movie with Eddie Constantine, any Starman or Prince of Space movie, Station 6 Sahara, Invaders from Mars, H-Man, Murder Party and others..."

Hopefully, this early collector is still around to enjoy the fruits of progress. Most of these films are definitely available, although I can't vouch for the availability of such obscurities like Murder Party (although Station 6 Sahara appears to be available).
It's interesting to note that these early tapers also wrestled with the same copyright issues that P2P traders do today, and they defend themselves in much the same way. Some things never change, I suppose. It's also remarkable that some of these pioneers felt they were performing a duty by recording, collecting, and archiving a lot of stuff that most people would think of as dross. As the newsletter's publisher Jim Lowe wrote:

I'd like to say a word in defense of commercials. Naturally you don't want them in the middle of Gone with the Wind. But with respect to current network shows, I feel that they have a certain historical value, and as we all know (pack rats that we are) it is the throw away culture of today that is so highly sought after tommorrow.

Indeed, a lot of the local TV programming from the 1970s that exists today exists only because some early taper, either intentionally or not, kept it around (the originating TV stations, in most cases, certainly didn't). Will DVR hard drives provide the same in the year 2034, or even later?

Hitchcock/Truffaut

Courtesy of Radio France, a series (Real Audio) devoted to the famous interview between François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock in 1962 that ultimately formed one of the most famous books on film, Hitchcock-Truffaut (which I monkishly re-read and studied throughout my teen years). After all these years, it's interesting to finally hear the audio that formed the book. In today's installment, Truffaut and Hitchcock discuss The Wrong Man and Vertigo. Hear Hitchcock describing James Stewart's character in Vertigo, as he waits for Kim Novak to emerge from the bathroom, having "...an erection like this!" One can imagine Hitch raising his fist in a triumphant salute of masculine potency.

The series is beautifully bilingual, as Truffaut did not speak English, nor Hitchcock French; but both are ably assisted by the seamless translation skills of Helen Scott, who worked for the French Film Office in New York at the time. The entire series is archived here.

Hooray for Nollywood

Rambunctious low-budget genre movie-making is alive and well in Nigeria. Shot on video on ridiculously meager budgets ($8000 to $10,000 on average), they are sold on street corners throughout Nigeria and surrounding countries, usually as $3 VCDs. These films are also becoming popular among African immigrant communities here in the states, where people want a little taste of back home. If you want a taste of what this new Nigerian cinema is all about, you can check out the downloadable trailers from this site. If you're overly acclimated to Hollywood production standards, these movies may seem shoddy and amateurish; but these action-adventures, family dramas, and witchcraft pictures seem to have a home grown, fly by the seat quality that American films can't touch. You can also buy them at africamovies.com.