Cinematic Turkeys

Donna Lethal's Phillipine movie advertisements got my brain a bubbling about bizarre foreign films. Turkey has a well deserved reputation for having turned out.. well, some cinematic turkeys. During the 1970's, Turkish cinemas were flooded with a wide assortment of 'reinterpretations' of Hollywood films. Often these celluloid clones featured soundtracks and large chunks of footage from their original sources. Unfortunately, much of what survives today, represents a small portion of what filmmakers were churning out during the heyday of Turkish moviemaking. It's hard not to enjoy the downright surreal hodgepodge of American icons shoehorned into low budget, low concept scenarios. YouTube has a decent selection of clips, a few of which are posted below. Two DVD companies I am aware of that have Turkish offerings include MONDO MACABRO and ONAR FILMS. MONDO has a great all region double bill of THE DEATHLESS DEVIL and TARKAN VERSUS THE VIKINGS, both of which are of a reasonable quality. ONAR is based in Greece with a modest library of Turkish films like 3 DEV ADAM and TURKISH SUPERMAN. DVD's from ONAR are PAL format and the quality can be pretty damn rough, however they may be the only venue for some titles.

In 3 DEV ADAM, Spider Man is not living with Aunt May or struggling with his awkwardness around Mary Jane - he's one evil sum' bitch and he's not afraid to prove it by taking a girl's face off with a boat propeller. Captain America and Santos arrive in country at the request of authorities and will not rest until the psychotic webhead's crime ring is smashed.



Oodles more action than Singer's SUPERMAN RETURNS. Is it just me or does it look like TURKISH SUPERMAN is sucking in his gut and holding his breath every time he has a frontal shot?



Training montages are an essential component of any action film and TURKISH STAR WARS is no exception. Hang through the first few minutes to see our hero really take it to the limit! (new music added to the Youtube clip)



New to me - this clip of TURKISH RAMBO features a climatic orgy of gun violence as our bare chested, headband sporting he-man scurries about blasting off his RPG only to find additional rounds for his weapon wherever he kneels. I want more!



TARKAN VS THE VIKINGS is a homegrown hero that adventures about Europe with his faithful dog and faces off against the vicious Vikings. Despite lots of goofy props like the cephalopod in the clip below, TARKAN has a genuine core of Turkish values which are fascinating for this North American viewer.

Deborah Sengl

Deborah Sengl: Paintings; drawings; sculptures; other media.

Collages by Bezembinder

'birth of earth'

Collages by Eduard Bezembinder.

Poodle Exercise

For the love of God, make it stop!

Thanks to borderline of StumbleUpon fame for this.

Laughing German Midget and Camel

While I'm waiting for the boomp3 to kick in and work, let's move forward with the German Midget Video. Bunuel outtake? Nazi propaganda? Who gives a flying crap? Let's all take a hit of Purple Haze and enjoy the spectacle!


Postscript: This clip has been identified as as segment from "Even Dwarfs Started Small" directed by Werner Herzog circa 1970.

Herzog's second film is an orgasm of cinematic irreverence. With a cast that's comprised entirely of dwarves, you can look at their subsequent rebellion as a metaphor for the violent consequences that imprisonment breeds, or you can simply sit back and laugh as they take over their institution and wreak havoc on the land.

8 X 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements

Directed by Jean Cocteau and Hans Richter in 1957 [IMDb].
Starring Cocteau, Paul Bowles, Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and several others. (70 min) (via Videos with Bibi)

Updated: phantomoftheradio alerts us about another Hans Richter masterpiece from 1928 "Ghost before breakfast". Thanks!

Henriette Valium

'Der Überlebende'
Click image for better view at source.

"Henriette Valium (born May 4, 1959), whose real name is Patrick Henley, is a comic book artist and painter based in Montréal, Québec. Although Valium did gain substantial recognition from the underground comics scene in Europe and North-America since his beginnings in the early eighties, his provocative and hallucinogenic style has kept him well away from the mainstream comic book industry. ..." [Quoted from Wikipedia entry]

Henriette Valium, fascinating art works and brilliant comic pages. (via Hugo Strikes Back! )

Shary Boyle

Shary Boyle: Sculpture and Painting. (via Geisha Asobi)

Yvonne Todd

'Suchard' From 'The Bone Of Jupiter' 2004 & 'Rebecca Weston' From 'Sea Of Tranquility' 2002

The photographical art of Yvonne Todd (via Conscientious)

Fantastic Planet

Some screencaps from the animated sci-fi movie La planète sauvage (Directed by René Laloux in 1973) aka Fantastic Planet at Nostalgia Party No. 2

10:58 clip from start.

Video clip added by WalleyTV

If you want to see the whole movie at YouTube - go ahead, knock yourself out: Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7