I pride myself in doing obits for the folks in arts and entertainment who get very marginal coverage in the mainstream press. A case in point is a third filmmaker who died this week. Bergman was a god, Antonioni was a genius, but Isidore Isou — now there was a troublemaker! I had just recently gotten a full-on introduction to Isou by watching his feature Venom and Eternity (1951), which is included on the new Experimental Cinema: Avant Garde 2 set that has come out from Kino International. The film is a major act of provocation, one that I was very happy to review on the show. I have uploaded the part of my review of the Kino box that pertains to the Isou film, plus four short clips from the feature, which is truly still, 50-plus years later, an overwhelming experience. For those who aren't familiar with Isou, here's an interesting Net biography of him, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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Thanks for turning me on to this! Very cool indeed.
ReplyDeleteYou can watch the whole of the earlier non-Kino cut for free at http://www.ubu.com/film/isou.html
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