The Vintagent Classics: If You're in it, you're in it to the limit - Bikies
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
IF YOU'RE IN IT, YOU'RE IN IT TO THE LIMIT - BIKIES (TV 1972)
Run Time: 27:31
Producer: Michael Scott-Smith
Director: John Charles
Cinematographer: Peter Janes
Key Cast: Hell's Angels, Auckland
FILM MAKERS
This film was banned upon release. Forgotten about until 2012, when it was added to the NZ On Screen website. No doubt it was seen as promoting a lifestyle that sent shivers up the spines and down the walk-shorted pants of the old men who used to run the country. It's a brilliant depiction of life in the Auckland chapter of the Hell's Angels. It's not just of anthropological interest, it's also a terrific depository of Triumph motorbikes and Nazi memorabilia.
The title, If You're In It, You're In It To The Limit might also apply to the guys who made the film. Producer Michael Scott Smith, a Brit who went to drama school with Peter O'Toole, went on to make such classics as Close to Home and The Governor. The director John Charles was better known as a composer, responsible for the music in some our best films, like Goodbye Pork Pie, Utu and The Quiet Earth.
Meanwhile, editor Jamie Selkirk has found great fame as Peter Jackson's cutter, working on Braindead, The Frighteners, King Kong, Lord of The Rings and as an executive producer, Forgotten Silver, LOTR, Predicament. - NZ Herald
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SUMMARY
The way I look at it: some people join the army, some people join the Salvation Army, some people join bowling clubs, some people join tennis clubs ... I join the Hells Angels.
This notorious film looks at '70s bikie culture, focusing on Auckland's Hells Angels (the first Angels chapter outside of California). These not-so-easy riders — with sideburns and swastikas and fueled by pies and beer — rev up the Triumphs, defend the creed, beat up students, cruise on the Interislander, provoke civic censure, and attend the Hastings Blossom Festival. After a funeral, Aotearoa's sons of anarchy head back on the highway. Bikies was banned by the NZBC — possibly due to the public urination, lane-crossing, chauvinism and pig's head activity. - NZ On Screen
RELATED MEDIA
Watch PART 2 HERE.
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The Vintagent Selects: Finding... The Electric Chair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMJ87rPj2uo
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
FINDING... THE ELECTRIC CHAIR (2022)
Run Time: 4:22
Producer: DicE Magazine
A Film by: Scott Toepfer
Key Cast: Jerry Burger, Joey Yeaman
FILM MAKERS
My path towards being a creative professional started as I abandoned my career in microbiology to pursue still photography full-time. I’ve never looked back, and have been able to travel the world with a crew that has become as close as family, shooting campaigns and commercials for some of the largest clients in advertising. I try to take a narrative approach towards almost every shoot by finding the thread that pulls the images or the films together for the viewer. - Scott Toepfer
SUMMARY
The word legendary is thrown around way too casually these days. From your mate Bernies legendary lasagne to that legendary night you won $78 and saw Flava Flav in Vegas (that actually happened to me).
What is truly legendary is this ‘39 Indian 4 built by Mike Fitzgerald in the 60’s which featured on the cover of the June 1969 “Choppers Magazine'“ only to go missing the next year & considered lost forever...
Lost for over 50 years until recently discovered under a dust sheet in Northern California.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: Motorcyklisten
https://vimeo.com/692271725
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
Motorcyklisten (1908) aka The Non-Stop Motorcycle (English)
Run Time: 3:35
Producer: Nordisk Films Kompagni
Director: Viggo Larson
Director Of Photography: Axel Sørensen
Key Cast: Knud Lumbye, Petrine Sonne, Frederik Buch
FILM MAKERS
From dogsleds in Copenhagen to spaceships bound for Mars. Discover the golden age of Danish silent films at stumfilm.dk. From around 1910, the Danish film industry was a world leader, both commercially and artistically, with Nordisk Films Kompagni (now Nordisk Film) at the forefront. Stars like Asta Nielsen, Valdemar Psilander and Fy & Bi were famous way beyond their home country, and Denmark’s greatest film director, Carl Th. Dreyer, was prolific during this period as well. Now the Danish Film Institute has launched stumfilm.dk (Danish Silent Film), where everyone can follow the digitisation of more than 400 works from the 1897–1928 period. As the films are digitised, they will be streamed on the site, accompanied by posters, photos, thematic articles, scripts and contemporary reviews.
Running over the next four years, this film-archaeological project will be both wide-ranging and unpredictable. Some of the old reels have not been viewed since the 1920s, but creating their path to stumfilm.dk also means that we are building the infrastructure continuously until the end of 2023.
We will contextualize the films in thematic collections, which highlight the fascinating, mysterious, awesome, sexy and funny stories hiding in the archive. Whether you are a researcher, enthusiast or just curious, you can dive into the early star culture, get an insight into the digitization process, or just browse your way through the cornucopia of cinematographic treasures.
Stumfilm.dk is the biggest film-dissemination effort ever in Denmark. A three-year Danish-German research project affiliated with the digitisation effort will map the cross-border traffic of ideas and people between two leading nations of the silent film era, Denmark and Germany.
The project is made possible by a donation of DKK 30 million from the A.P. Møller Foundation, the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation and the Augustinus Foundation. - Danish Silent Film
SUMMARY
A 4-minute, full-speed chase extravaganza through Copenhagen. Vroom-Vroom!
A young man, crazy about motorcycles, buys an Ellehammer and drives it out of the store at wild speed. During his unruly driving, he knocks over several people, all of whom set out to chase him.
This short film is a popular and time-typical example of the so-called “pursuit farce”, or “running farce”, as the genre was called by the film’s director Viggo Larsen. The action in a pursuit farce is sorely simple: under some pretext, a person is pursued over hedge and ditch, typically by more and more people. The genre demonstrates the new media’s unique ability to show movement. - Danish Silent Film
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM in the collection of Danish Silent Film at the Danish Film Institute
The Vintagent Trailers: Dust 2 Glory
https://vimeo.com/687291930
The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.
Dust 2 Glory (2017)
Run Time: 1:38:00
Director: Dana Brown
Writer: Dana Brown
Key Cast: Dana Brown, Carlin Dunne, Robby Gordon
FILM MAKERS
Dana Brown is an American surfer and filmmaker, and is the oldest son of filmmaker Bruce Brown, Director of On Any Sunday (1971). His films include The Endless Summer Revisited (2000) which is made up of unused footage from The Endless Summer (1964) and The Endless Summer II (1994), as well as some original interviews with the stars of those films. His first all-original film was Step Into Liquid (2003) followed by a documentary on the Baja 1000 titled Dust to Glory (2005). In 2009, he debuted a new film called Highwater during the 100th anniversary of the Santa Monica Pier; the film follows life on the North Shore and the surfers who compete in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. In 2014, the movie On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter continues the saga of motocross documentaries which began with the 1972 Academy Award for Documentary Feature nominated film On Any Sunday (1971).
SUMMARY
Dana Brown Films, in association with SCORE International and BCII, is proud to announce this new feature documentary film, which is a follow up to Dust To Glory (2005), about the legendary SCORE Baja 1000. This 18-month project, written and directed by this country's foremost action sports documentary superstar, will be the most in-depth and dramatic exploration of the world's toughest point-to-point desert race ever created. This is Dust 2 Glory.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM online at Amazon.
The Vintagent Selects: Chasing 200
https://vimeo.com/639892736
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
CHASING 200 (2021)
Run Time: 5:58
A Film By: Alexandra Lier
Director of Photography: John Orphan
Key Cast: Alp Sungurtekin, Jalika Gaskin
FILM MAKERS
Alexandra Lier is a German visual artist and filmmaker. She was born in Frankfurt, Germany. At a young age she developed an interest in Hotwheels, old cars, motorcycles, comics and rock music. As teenager she was member of the all girl Punk band Twiggy Killers, that hit the German and European scene.
Alexandra received her art, film and photography degree at the Frankfurt Academy of Visual Arts. Upon graduation, Lier worked as a award winning creative. After winning more than 40 advertising awards, she pursued her interest in arts. She started to combine her interest in underground subculture and storytelling. Over the last decade, she built a substantial reputation in fine art photography & film.
SUMMARY
Alp and Jalika, a motorcycle nerd and a supermodel decide to become a motorcycle team and set a previously impossible record with classic Triumph motorcycles and nitro power. A short documentary about love, freedom, passion, and teamwork.
Alp Racing & Design was founded by Alp Sungurtekin in 2001 in Los Angeles California. Jalika Gaskin joined Alp in 2007 and became the Crew Chief when we started racing in August 2011 at Bonneville Speedweek. Alp has a Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design and specializes in Transportation Design. He is currently a Southern California Timing Association and Bonneville Nationals INC. "SCTA-BNI" Motorcycle tech inspector and a member of the MILERS Racing Club.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Original: Vincent Black Lightning
https://vimeo.com/691012843
The Vintagent Originals: Stories We Need to Tell
VINCENT BLACK LIGHTNING (2022)
Run Time: 5:55
Director: David Martinez
Editor: Anais Bernard
Key Cast: Paul d'Orléans, 1950 Vincent Black Lightning courtesy Bryan Bossier / Sinless Cycles
FILM MAKERS
From David Martinez Studio: "My love of storytelling started when I was teenager photographing the San Francisco punk scene. What drew me to photography then is what I still love about it now - the endless ways you can use images to tell a story. What began as a solitary journey has evolved into a highly collaborative process - an integral part of my photography that I really love. I'm always humbled by how many people and places contribute to one single frame.
SUMMARY
The Vincent Black Lightning is simply legendary. It was the 'World's Fastest Standard Motorcycle' for over 25 years, after Rollie Free rode the prototype on the Bonneville Salt Flats at just over 150mph - in his bathing suit! As you could order a Black Lightning with full road equipment - as with this 1950 example - that claim was fully justified.
Vintagent founder Paul d'Orléans road tests this historic machine, discusses its history, and discusses why the Black Lightning deserves its reputation in song and story. The Lightning in our film is one of only 38 built by the factory, with a great back story: a Scandinavian racing champion ordered it new, but it only raced twice before he stored it in a chicken coop! It was pulled out once more for a grudge match against some BMW racers, which it won. It was purchased by an engineer who packed it away for decades, before it was reassembled by an expert with all original parts, and is now in amazing condition.
'Vincent Black Lightning' was filmed in San Francisco and west Marin County by David Martinez, who captures the beauty of the place and the motorcycle, and just as importantly the SOUND of this stirring vehicle. Dig it!
RELATED MEDIA
https://thevintagent.com/2022/03/08/the-vintagent-original-adv-overland-exhibit/
https://thevintagent.com/2020/10/20/the-vintagent-original-baja-scrambler/
https://thevintagent.com/2020/10/26/the-vintagent-original-silver-shotgun/
https://thevintagent.com/2017/10/29/the-vintagent-original-wheel-and-waves/
https://thevintagent.com/2017/08/13/the-vintagent-original-model-x/
https://thevintagent.com/2017/06/10/the-vintagent-original-the-ended-summer/
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The Vintagent Trailers: Dust To Glory
https://vimeo.com/687275335
The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.
DUST TO GLORY (2005)
Run Time: 1:37:00
Director: Dana Brown
Key Cast: Chad McQueen, Mario Andretti, Sal Fish
FILM MAKERS
Dana Brown is an American surfer and filmmaker, and is the oldest son of filmmaker Bruce Brown, Director of On Any Sunday (1971). His films include The Endless Summer Revisited (2000) which is made up of unused footage from The Endless Summer (1964) and The Endless Summer II (1994), as well as some original interviews with the stars of those films. His first all-original film was Step Into Liquid (2003) followed by a documentary on the Baja 1000 titled Dust to Glory (2005). In 2009, he debuted a new film called Highwater during the 100th anniversary of the Santa Monica Pier; the film follows life on the North Shore and the surfers who compete in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. In 2014, the movie On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter continues the saga of motocross documentaries which began with the 1972 Academy Award for Documentary Feature nominated film On Any Sunday (1971).
SUMMARY
An action-adventure documentary chronicling the most notorious and dangerous race in the world--the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. Rivaling the Indy 500 and 25 Hours of Daytona, the race across Baja's peninsula is unpredictable, grueling and raw--just like the uncharted American West of yesteryear. To capture the vast desert panoramas and intense action of the race, the film team utilized, fifty-five cameras, four helicopters, a four-passenger buggy camera car and a crew of over eighty people. Thousands of participants, generations of families and racing icons such as Robby Gordon, Mario Andretti, Jimmy Vasser and Motorcycle Supercross legend Mike Mouse McCoy joined together to experience the thrill and glory of the infamous race--an event of sheer human determination. - IMDB
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the full film on AMAZON
The Vintagent Original: ADV Overland Exhibit
https://vimeo.com/685588453
The Vintagent Original: Stories We Need to Tell.
ADV OVERLAND EXHIBIT (2022)
Run Time: 7:13
Producer: Motor/Cycle Arts Foundation
Director: David Martinez
Editor: Anaïs Bernard
Key Cast: Paul d'Orléans
FILM MAKERS
For David Martinez, photography is both a calculated science and a free verse art form. The controllable variables – the light, the shutter speed, the aperture – are all simply tools to allow the authenticity of a real moment to occur. David captures the beauty and sincerity of these scenes in the pictures he makes. Always at the forefront of technology (but still with a roll of medium format film in his camera bag), David has been shooting high definition video since DSLR technology made it more available. David is always ready for an adventure – with his surf bag packed and camera in hand.
SUMMARY
The ADV:Overland exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, July 2021 – April 2022. Subtitled ‘off-road to off-world’, ADV:Overland includes round-the-world and long-distance racing machinery from 1903 to the present, plus sci-fi and NASA overland explorers. The real-world adventure machines show dirt and scars from outrageous journeys, some even with their original bags, boxes, and tools in place, 90 years later. ADV:Overland showcases the living, breathing history of overland travel, and its counterparts in outer space.
In the beginning, every motor trip was an adventure, and every motorist a mechanic. Some heard a different call, seeking adventure in overland travel to far-distant places. In 1903, crossing the USA on wheels had never been done, but that changed when George Wymans rode a California motorcycle for 50 days from San Francisco to New York. In 1912, nobody had circled the globe on a motorcycle, but that changed when Carl Stearns Clancy straddled his Henderson Four and headed east. In the next 100 years, brave men and women struck out to see the world on wheels, making epic journeys recorded in books, films, and television. Folks more technically-oriented imagined travel off-world, on the Moon or Mars or beyond, in science fiction and actual space programs.
Exhibition curator and Motorcycle Arts Foundation co-founder Paul d’Orleans explains: “ADV:Overland celebrates the spirit of adventure. These remarkable machines tell a human story, of dreamers and reckless youth, stubborn visionaries and dogged competitors, all together in one place. It also includes the ultimate overland dream of surface exploration on other worlds, which is happening on Mars right now – and we have some of the NASA/JPL rovers. We told lenders not to wash their overland veterans: we wanted to show good honest dirt as proof of their rough duty.”
The contrast between the extremely simple overland machinery from the early 20th century to Charley Boorman’s electric LiveWire from Long Way Up is great, but the journey still had to be made on wheels. “The genesis of overland travel can be seen in the early bikes, like the 1912 Henderson Four that Carl Clancy rode around the world. These rudimentary machines captured the public’s imagination and fueled overland travel and competition we see today, like the Baja and Dakar rallies, and films like Long Way Up,” added MAF co-Founder Sasha Tcherekoff.
If 100-year old dirt-covered bikes don’t inspire you, then come to ADV: Overland for the far-out space exhibits. Two sci-fi overlanders from the Lost In Space series, including the spectacular 1960s tracked glass house, keep company with a futuristic 3-D printed electric “Lunar motorcycle” from Hookie.co. For an inspiring comparison between real and imaginary off-world overlanding, NASA/JPL loaned two actual Mars rovers – models of Opportunity and Sojourner – that have logged more miles on other worlds than any other vehicle.
Also on display is Charley Boorman’s electric LiveWire customized by Harley-Davidson for the Long Way Up television series. The Motor Company is also a sponsor of ADV: Overland in support of the 2021 launch of the Harley-Davidson Pan America. The Pan America marks Milwaukee’s first-ever adventure-touring motorcycle meant to compete in the growing ADV motorcycle space
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: Girl Shy
https://vimeo.com/683080515
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
GIRL SHY (1924)
Run Time: 1:27:00
Producer: The Harold Lloyd Corporation
Director: Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Writer: Sam Taylor, Ted Wilde, Tim Whelan
Cast: Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Richard Daniels
FILM MAKERS
This was Lloyd's first independent production after his split with Hal Roach. It is what Lloyd called a "character story" (as opposed to a "gag film"), and is notable for containing fewer of the stunts which characterize Lloyd's other films throughout most of its length, and instead focusing more on the relationship between Lloyd and Ralston. However, the lengthy finale of the film is one of the most exhilarating, non-stop action sequences of Lloyd's career.
It was also the second of six consecutive movies pairing Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston, who left Hal Roach Studios as well to continue working with Lloyd. Unlike the normal style for filmed romances prior to Girl Shy, both Ralston and Lloyd were featured in comedic scenes. - wikipedia
SUMMARY
Harold Meadows (Lloyd) is a shy, stuttering bachelor working in a tailor shop, who is writing a guide book for other bashful young men, "The Secret of Making Love," chapters from which are portrayed as fantasy sequences. Fate has him meet rich girl, Mary (Ralston), and they fall in love. But she is about to wed an already married man, so our hero embarks upon a hair-raising daredevil ride to prevent the wedding. - IMDB
*The Police Motorcycle which Lloyd steals is clearly a second prop bike on a trailer when Harold rides it. It is a stunt double riding for Lloyd in the cut away scenes.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM
Read also: The Silent Types
The Vintagent Selects: The Outcasts
https://vimeo.com/680274966
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
40 MINUTES: THE OUTCASTS (BBC TV 1985)
Run Time: 40:00
Producer: BBC
Photography: John Howarth
Key Cast: The Outcasts MC
FILM MAKERS
"Following in the wonderful spirit of the legendary Cane Toads comes this documentary detailing the life and grime of a motorcycle gang from East Anglia calling themselves The Outcasts. Made by the BBC as a one-off TV programme in 1985, it is undoubtedly one of the finest, most insane things I have ever had the pleasure of watching... this is not something that is available on DVD." Read more at BadMovies.org
SUMMARY
I (Corinna, The Vintagent's Curator of Film) am pretty sure the review of this documentary on BadMovies.org is one of the greatest things I've ever read, and so I'm simply directing you, dear readers straight to the source for character and plot outline, obsessive screenshots, things to watch for, as well as:
Things I Learned From This Movie:
- When a woman wants to state her intentions, she will smear carburetor fluid on her thighs.
- Embalmers are indecisive creatures.
- Torn leather pouches from rubbish bins are surprisingly expensive to buy.
- When creating a gang outside of society, make sure the rules are incomparably harsher.
- Be wary of any pub containing weight lifting equipment.
PLEASE read the full review and additional commentary on this film directly at the source that gave it 4 out of 5 slimes. - BadMovies.org
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: The Damned
https://vimeo.com/678713745
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
THE DAMNED (1963) aka THESE ARE THE DAMNED
Run Time: 1:27:00
Producer: Hammer Film
Director: Joseph Losey
Key Cast: Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors, Oliver Reed
FILM MAKERS
The Damned (released as These Are the Damned in the United States) is a British science fiction horror film, and a delightful bit of Cold War cynicism, following a small group of radioactive children being raised by the British government to repopulate a future post-nuclear Earth. based on H.L. Lawrence's 1960 novel The Children of Light.
Note: The English Punk Gothic band, The Damned took their name from the film.
SUMMARY
An American tourist, a youth gang leader, and his troubled sister find themselves trapped in a top secret government facility experimenting on children.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM courtesy of Cine Meccanica
H.L. Lawrence The Children of Light.
The Vintagent Classics: O Dreamland
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
O DREAMLAND (1953)
Run Time: 12:14
A Film By: Lindsay Anderson
FILM MAKERS
O Dreamland is a 1953 documentary short film by British film director Lindsay Anderson.
The documentary was made in 1953 by Anderson and his cameraman/assistant, John Fletcher, using a single 16mm camera and an audiotape recorder. Once completed, the film was initially shelved, with Anderson commenting, "you don't do anything with a 10-minute, 16-millimetre film. It's just there, that's all." In 1956 however, he was inspired to include it as part of the first Free Cinema programme.
The black-and-white film is a 12-minute exploration of the Dreamland amusement park in Margate, Kent and has no voiced commentary but a soundtrack of sounds recorded on site and music.
Gavin Lambert, a key supporter of the Free Cinema movement, said of the film "Everything is ugly... It is almost too much. The nightmare is redeemed by the point of view, which, for all the unsparing candid camerawork and the harsh, inelegant photography, is emphatically humane. Pity, sadness, even poetry is infused into this drearily tawdry, aimlessly hungry world."
SUMMARY
It is 1953. Members of the working class rush off to Dreamland Amusement Park in the English coastal town of Margate, where they gape at a show featuring torture devices, a lion pacing back and forth in a undersized cage, a ventriloquist's dummy dominating the scene with his sinister chuckle, and a dwarf praises his wares: "The dreams I dream are yours to see. Over there in reality." Director Lindsay Anderson interviews nobody, but uses his 16mm camera to record the entertainment and the people who are drawn to it, often in close-up. He records the visitors' facial expressions, kids eating sweets, and bored bottoms on barstools. The result is an impressionistic portrait of vapid entertainment, enhanced by a soundtrack that consists of the booming sounds of the amusement park and the constant, hollow cackle. Anderson released O Dreamland in 1956 as one of the first products of the Free Cinema movement, founded by Anderson and other filmmakers to free themselves from the strict rules of the documentary genre.
RELATED MEDIA
This film is included in The Vintagent Film Archive because of the Wall Of Death scene (George Todd's Wall), because we collect everything W.O.D!
Watch the FULL FILM
The Vintagent Classics: Some People
https://vimeo.com/678250563
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
SOME PEOPLE (1962)
Run Time: 1:32:00
Director: Clive Donner
Writer: John Eldridge
Key Cast: Kenneth More, Ray Brooks, Anneke Wills
FILM MAKERS
While hardly Quadrophenia, the neglected British film Some People (1962) remains a vivid depiction of working-class life, the lure of rebellion and the validation of belonging to some sort of youth culture – not that this was the original intention. Pre-dating both The Damned and The Leather Boys, Some People is the first of this early-sixties triumvirate of true British biker films, all set against the backdrop of the rocker community but hugely different to their US counterparts. (It is also the only one of the three filmed in colour.)
Notionally a long advertisement for the relatively new Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme, who commissioned the project, Some People manages to transcend its original purpose because of the talent involved. The screenplay was the last completed work by the documentary film maker John Eldridge, who had collaborated with Dylan Thomas at the Ministry of Information during the war. The film is also an early work by up-and-coming New Wave director Clive Donner, then on the verge of his career breakthrough with The Caretaker the following year, who had been cutting his teeth on low budget crime movies and melodramas. - Read more at The Bike Professor
SUMMARY
The story of three teenaged tearaways Johnnie, Bill and Bert who find themselves at odds with society. Following a brush with the law they have a chance meeting with a local choirmaster who offers them a way of making good.
In 1960’s Bristol three lads hang around, making nuisances of themselves after losing their motorbike licenses. Their only other interest is playing rock-and-roll so they welcome the offer from a supportive churchwarden of the use of his church hall. Things go well – with several new members including strong-voiced Terry, sort-of one of their girlfriends, they don’t sound bad at all – and one of the guys starts dating the churchwarden’s daughter. But his mate is increasingly suspicious that they are being sucked into behaving in a conventional way acceptable to the older generation.
The film was shot entirely on location in Bristol with Anneke Willis recalling the crew arrived in Bristol three weeks before shooting to get the feel of Bristol with the boys learning the local accent, riding motorbikes and visiting local dance halls with much of the script being ad-libbed.
RELATED MEDIA
Read more at Cine Meccanica
Buy the DVD at the Video Beat
The Vintagent Selects: L'hibernatus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSV04p6i51A
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
L'HIBERNATUS (2022)
Run Time: 1:42
Producer: A Piece Of Chic
Director: Fabien Didelot
Key Cast: Stan Dibben
FILM MAKERS
Sebastien Chirpaz, founder of 'A Piece of Chic', created the Alpine Classique in 2015. A perfectly chic yearly gathering of classic cars and motorcycles in Chamrousse, France. Watch a past year's event film HERE.
SUMMARY
For years, Sebastien had dreamed of hosting the first pre-war motorcycle race on ice, and now L'Hibernatus is here! This first test edition took place on January 14 2022, in the Isère resort of Chamrousse, where enthusiasts will gather for an epic ride on the frozen roads of the Alps, riding their pre-war motorcycles. The opportunity to relive the roads of the pioneers who did not hesitate to defy the elements and push back the capacities of their machines.
RELATED MEDIA
A Piece Of Chic
The Vintagent Classics: Cry-Baby
https://vimeo.com/670773537
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
CRY BABY (1990)
Run Time: 1:25:00
A Film By: John Waters
Key Cast: Johnny Depp, Ricki Lake, Amy Locane
FILM MAKERS
“John Waters’ musical ode to the teen rebel genre is infectious and gleefully camp, providing star Johnny Depp with the perfect vehicle in which to lampoon his pin-up image.” –Roger Ebert. Well said. Depp has always deftly embraced ironic roles to deflect the trappings of his undeniable handsome-as-hell looks. 21 Jump Street definitely had the potential to pigeon-hole his career, had he been a lesser actor.
Cry Baby would go on to become a cult classic, due largely to the pouty lipped, chiseled face of a young Johnny Depp in his physical prime, and on a Harley to boot. (They used a Sportster and K model, both red, that they swapped a few times in the film apparently with the thought that it would go mostly unnoticed.) For me the enduring 1950s aesthetic is always a draw, and Waters’ witty one-liners are priceless. And let’s not forget the interest that was stirred up back then by the young and sultry Traci Lords. It was her first non-nude screen role following her controversial (not to mention highly illegal) underage porn career that was still hot on everyone’s tongues and minds." - The Selvedge Yard
SUMMARY
The Cry Baby story centers on a group of delinquents who refer to themselves as "drapes" and their interaction with the rest of the town and its other subculture, the "squares", in 1950s Baltimore, Maryland. "Cry-Baby" Walker, a drape, and Allison, a square, create upheaval and turmoil in their little town of Baltimore by breaking the subculture taboos and falling in love. The film shows what the young couple has to overcome to be together and how their actions affect the rest of the town.
RELATED MEDIA
Cry Baby on The Selvedge Yard
Watch the FULL FILM FOR FREE
The Vintagent Selects: Vesuvius 2 Etna
https://vimeo.com/669227948
The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.
VESUVIUS 2 ETNA (2022)
Run Time: 3:26
A Film By: Fabio Affuso
Key Cast: Lesley Bray, Malaka, Adelio Lorenzin, Jose Sendra, with text/reading by Alan Watts
FILM MAKERS
My photography focuses on the daring and extrovert nature of men and women who live life to the fullest. My subjects are creatives, visionaries, sometimes impostors and very often self made professionals. They often have a taste for style, using fashion as a defining element of their personality and character. They reflect an attitude of self-confidence and freedom in a world where everything is possible. - Fabio Affuso
SUMMARY
Fabio Affuso and friends take CAKE electric motorcycles from Mt Vesuvius to Mt Etna in Italy, 'powered by solar'. It's a fun take on their journey, with a voice over by Alan Watts.
RELATED MEDIA
The Vintagent Classics: Angels Die Hard
https://youtu.be/qKjRkZAEmEk
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
ANGELS DIE HARD (1970)
Run Time: 1:26:32
Producer: Angel Productions
Director: Richard Compton
Writer: Richard Compton
Key Cast: Tom Baker, William Smith, Carl Steppling
FILM MAKERS
Angels Die Hard was the first film distributed by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Half its budget being provided by Roger Corman himself. Corman of course coined the phrase "Biker Flick" back in 1966 when directing Wild Angels, the film that opened the flood gates for the deluge of trashy Bike-Sploitation "B" films to follow between 1966-1972.
"Roger Corman's New World Pictures (1970-1983): The environment Roger Corman established at New World Pictures allowed young filmmakers like Jonathan Demme, Paul Bartel, Joe Dante, Jonathan Kaplan, Jack Hill, James Cameron, Ron Howard and me to gain invaluable experience making movies. Film scholars and general readers alike will find much to enjoy in this oral history. - Steve Carver (Director, Big Bad Mama, Capone, Lone Wolf McQuade). In 1970, Roger Corman launched his own film production-distribution company, New World Pictures. Over the next thirteen years, he would supervise the creation and release of more than one-hundred films, including such classics as Death Race 2000 (1975), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), Piranha (1978), and Rock 'N' Roll High School (1979). Filled with entertaining anecdotes and insiders' insights about the filmmaking process, Roger Corman's New World Pictures (1970-1983): An Oral History, Volume 1 features interviews with twenty individuals who worked on New World movies, among them Belinda Balaski, Jon Davison, Dick Miller, John Sayles, Lewis Teague and Jack Hill, as well a conversation with Corman himself.It's time for a collection like this about New World Pictures and the man that made it all happen, Roger Corman. Roger is the seed of more careers than you can imagine in Hollywood." - Belinda Balaski (Actor, Piranha, The Howling) - excerpt from the book: The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman's New World Pictures (1970-1983)
SUMMARY
The film which was written in three months, revolves around a gang of bikers who try to save people from a mining accident. Compton shot the film on location in Kernville, California, on the shore of Lake Isabella, an old gold-mining town that was used for filming early Hollywood Westerns.
Review courtesy of The Video Beat: The local rednecks frequent a juke joint called the Arcade Club. They're a nasty bunch of hicks who don't like bikers. The film opens with townsfolk leaping from their pick-ups wielding two-by-fours, pipes and other bludgeoning devices to kick the you-know-what out of the Angels who merely stopped in for a drink. The Angels are doing a good job of whooping some hillbilly butt when the sheriff arrives and breaks up all the fun. The Angels drunkenly agree to leave town.
The next day the town is having an annual celebration of some sort that includes American flags, pig wrestling and other stuff. Next we see the Angels sitting in what looks like a junkyard, drinking beer and reading poetry, when they discover that the town rednecks have just murdered an Angel on the other side of the town line.
The Angles, with their fallen brother in a pine box, return to town and proceed to wreck a pool joint and rape a busty waitress while they smear spaghetti all over her—and themselves. But believe it or not, the bikers are the good guys in this film.
Lots of original rock music on the soundtrack including Dewey Martin of Buffalo Springfield who gives us "Indian Child," and psychedelic rock band, Fever Tree who play "Death Is A Stranger."
There are several fine fuzz guitar workouts among the bands on the soundtrack. A large portion of the score was laid down by East-West Pipeline, a fairly obscure group from Colorado who play on nine tracks including the heavy sludge riffing of "You Could Be" and "Taking a Bath," and the sweet psychedelia of "Questions." Tom Baker, William Smith, Carl Steppling, Frank Leo, Alan DeWitt, Gary Littlejohn, Beach Dickerson, Rita Murray, Dan Haggerty, Bambi Allen, Dirty Denny, Dixie Peabody. Angels Die Hard.
RELATED MEDIA
Watch The FULL FILM via Cine Meccanica
Buy The DVD at The Video Beat
Read The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman's New World Pictures (1970-1983)
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The Vintagent Classics: Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown
https://vimeo.com/661235045
The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
RACE FOR YOUR LIFE, CHARLIE BROWN (1977)
Run Time: 1:15:48
Producer: Paramount Pictures
Director: Bill Melendez, Phil Roman
Writer: Charles M. Schultz
Key Cast: Charlie Brown (Duncan Watson), Snoopy (Bill Melendez), Woodstock
FILM MAKERS
Here at The Vintagent Film Archive, we draw a hard line as to what encompasses a motorcycle movie, or "Biker Flick" (a phrase coined by Roger Corman while directing the first of it's kind, Wild Angels in 1966). Mainly, is the motorcycle integral to the film? But sometimes, there must be exceptions (left to the discretion of the Curator). In this case, a cartoon homage to the iconic Easy Rider (1969) chopper in the 1977 animated classic Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown.
As a kid born 11 years after Easy Rider came out, this was one of the first motorcycles I saw on film, long before I saw it's inspiration, and it never left me. I definitely count Snoopy's chopper as a reason I ride motorcycles today. I've built my career as an authority on motorcycle movies by collecting and curating the good, the bad, and the bizarre of motorized cinema, and during this quiet, Covid holiday season, I think Peanuts is just what the Dr. called for, for those of us who chose to go our own way, and adventure off into the sunset. So, stay safe folks, and enjoy the genius of Charles M. Schultz and the Peanuts gang!
SUMMARY
The Peanuts gang heads off to Camp Remote somewhere in the mountains. Accidentally left behind by the bus while at a desolate rest stop, Charlie Brown is forced to hitch a harrowing ride on Snoopy's motorcycle in order to make the rest of the journey to the camp, accompanied by rock guitar type riffs while protesting Snoopy's wild driving...
RELATED MEDIA
