The Vintagent Trailers: Grit

https://youtu.be/SprliLpVp6g

The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.

GRIT - A HISTORY OF BOARD TRACK RACING (2023)

Run Time: TBD
Producer: Archive Moto
A Film By: Chris Price
Music: Anyone - Keith Kenniff
Key Cast: TBD

FILM MAKERS

a three part documentary series looking at the history board track racing, one of America’s most infamous and sensational sports.

Part 1 of GRIT will be available first for supporters of the Archive Moto Patreon, and later available exclusively on Youtube. To support the project, consider becoming a Patron at http://Patreon.com/TheArchiveMoto.

SUMMARY

Often conflated with carnival thrill shows and the massive wooden speedways of the 1920s, America's original timber race tracks, called motordromes, were dangerous and exhilarating saucers where the toughest of the tough went elbow to elbow for a taste of the glory and the gold. For just 5 short years between 1909 and 1914, only 26 of these perilous stadiums were ever built, many having only hosted motorcycle races for a season or two. Still, inside their steeply banked walls, the heroes of a thrilling and often deadly sport captivated the country, cementing a legacy and mythology which continues to sends chills through those that learn about it.

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The Vintagent Classics: Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7KiFiRSyno

The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us. 

STRAY CAT ROCK: DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS (1970)

Run Time: 1:20:00
Producer: Hori Production, Nikkatsu
Director: Yasuharu Hasebe
Writer: Hideichi Nagahara
Key Cast: Akiko Wada, Meiko Kaji, Kôji Wada

FILM MAKERS

Stray Cat Rock: Female Boss (女番長野良猫ロック, Onna banchō nora-neko rokku) aka Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss, is a 1970 Japanese outlaw "Bōsōzoku" biker film. It is the first entry in the five-film Stray Cat Rock (aka Alleycat Rock) series and was followed by Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo, Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter, Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal and Alleycat Rock: Crazy Riders '71.

The Stray cat Rock series was conceived  by Nikkatsu to compete with Toei's Delinquent Boss series, which, in turn, had been inspired by Roger Corman's early outlaw biker film, The Wild Angels (1966). Nikkatsu also meant the film to showcase the popular singer Akiko Wada, and to appeal to her young audience. Co-star Meiko Kaji, however, attracted the most audience attention, and she became the star of the remaining episodes in the Stray Cat Rock series. Nikkatsu regarded Stray Cat Rock: Female Boss as a prototype for a new direction for the studio and its success ensured the studio's move towards youth-oriented action films.

Director Hasebe and cult screenwriter-director Atsushi Yamatoya wrote the script to Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss. Because of the film's low budget, the studio gave Hasebe and Yamatoya more creative freedom than was generally the case for Nikkatsu's staff at this time. Of the distinctive look of the film, Hasebe recalled, "I tried to infuse those movies with the culture of the time. I spent a lot of time visiting places where people hung out. At the time, protest songs were popular, so I included them in the soundtrack. I remember, one day I noticed a big fuss near the west entrance of Shinjuku station. Activists were gathering and protesting against the US-Japanese Security Treaty. These people were like the hippies in the States. I found them interesting. Cinematic. I wanted my film to be this modern."

SUMMARY

Tough girl biker Ako (pop singer Akiko Wada) comes across Mei (Meiko Kaji) and her girl gang, the Stray Cats, as they are about to have a knife fight in Shinjuku, Tokyo with another gang of girls. When the second gang calls in their boyfriends for help, Ako joins in and turns the tide for Mei and her gang and becomes a leader figure for the girls. Meanwhile, Mei's boyfriend Michio (Koji Wada) wants to join some right-wing nationalists, the Seiyu Group. To prove himself, he induces an old friend Kelly (Ken Sanders) to throw a boxing match so the Seiyu Group can cash in betting against him. But when the boxer, encouraged by Ako and Mei, wins the fight, the Seiyu Group takes their anger out on Michio until Mei and the Alleycats rescue him. But Mei and the girls are now on the run from the powerful group. Mei is eventually killed and Ako leaves Shinjuku, roaring away on her bike.

RELATED MEDIA

Read more about Japan's Bōsōzoku films HERE

Watch the FuLL FILM (with English subtitles) for Free on Youtube


 

 


The Vintagent Selects: Django Djang "Wor"

https://vimeo.com/66585349

The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.

DJANGO DJANGO WOR (2013)

Run Time: 5:00
Producer: Jane Third, Alex Hoffman, Posy Dixon
Director: Jim Demuth
Editor: Iain Pettifer
Key Cast: Mohammad, Saaved, Parveen

FILM MAKERS

Jim Demuth, a freelance Director, has experience in post-production as an editor. He says, “I am interested in finding unique stories that explore the boundaries of art, science, and technology – and where they intercept.” Jim works closely with producer Posy Dixon, touching upon various topics.

SUMMARY

"Now I think Death is inevitable."

Mercury Music Prize nominees Django Django became obsessed by the infamous Indian Well of Death riders in Allahabad. So, naturally, they asked Noisey if we’d be up for travelling over to India and standing right in the middle of large lumps of precariously speeding metal for a day, to film a video for their track “Wor”. We happily obliged, getting our shoes stolen in the process, but it was worth it to meet a bunch of guys with the most rock solid testicles we’ve ever come across. - Jim Demuth

RELATED MEDIA

Buy the Album: smarturl.it/DjangoDjango

Website


 

 


The Vintagent Classics: Delinquent Boss

https://youtu.be/PQhP6DLX1Hc

The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us. 

DELINQUENT BOSS aka BAD BOSS aka WOLVES OF THE CITY - 不良番長 (1968)

Run Time: 1:29:00
Producer: Toei Studio
Director: Yukio Noda
Writer: Isao Matsumoto, Hideaki Yamamoto
Key Cast: Tatsuo Umemiya, Hayato Tani, Shigeru Katsumi

FILM MAKERS

The Wild Angels (1966) was the first film to coin the phrase Biker Flick, and would spur an American genre that racked up dozens of films between 1967 and 1972. But America did not have a monopoly on motorbike hooliganry. Following in our burning tire smoke, Toei Studio in Japan released 'Delinquent Boss' in 1968, spurring it's own genre of biker flicks known as Bōsōzoku, which translates literally to "running out of control tribes". Delinquent Boss and the Bōsōzoku films to follow definitely live up to the name. These films are cult classics in Japan, but virtually unknown in the States. Very little exists online. DVDs are rarer than hen's teeth... and forget about finding a subtitled copy!

SUMMARY

Delinquent Boss (1968) is the first in what would become Toei's most successful, longest-running bosozoku film series. The Delinquent Boss series (also known as the Wolves of the City series) lasted from 1968 till 1974 through seventeen films. The series starred Tatsuo Umemiya as the leader of a motorcycle youth gang called the Capones. Full of shock-value & "pinku" soft-core sex, nudity, violence, gunplay, & a lot of mainly pointless foolishness. Co-opting racist nazi imagery, and inventing a non-existent youth culture void of morality. The motorcycle gang takes on police, gangsters, & the general public, with frequent excuses throughout the series for women to take at least some of their clothing off & even to wield swords partially naked.

Kosaka Hiroshi is the leader of a motorcycle gang in Shinjuku and a small time swindler. He lives for money but has never been able to hit the jackpot. His luck seems to change when he hits it off with the daughter of a Yakuza. When he gets involved in a scheme to blackmail a Yakuza gang and a land developer, he soon realizes he might have chewed more than he could bite.

RELATED MEDIA

Read more: Bōsōzoku: The Rebellious Film Legacy of Japan’s Unruly Biker Gangs


 

 


The Vintagent Trailers: Speed Is Expensive

https://vimeo.com/866808017?share=copy

The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.

SPEED IS EXPENSIVE: PHILIP VINCENT AND THE MILLION DOLLAR MOTORCYCLE (2023)

Run Time: 1:20:00
Director: David Lancaster
Writer: David Lancaster
Narrated by: Ewan McGregor
Key Cast: Jay Leno, Ewan McGregor, Paul Simonon

FILM MAKERS

Here at The Vintagent, we're been following filmmaker David Lancaster's efforts to bring the story of Philip Vincent to the screen for several years, including web exclusive on location reports from Los Angeles (2018), Australia (2019), a Teaser Trailer (2019), the Film Trailer release (2022), and an in depth look at Lancaster's obsession with the project in an interview with Greg Williams (2022). And now, a new trailer as well as the news that the long awaited feature film is here! Screenings have begun in the UK and US with more to come, as well as film festival screenings and awards. The film is also now available on DVD and as a Digital Screener direct from the film's website. So pop up some popcorn and enjoy the film!

SUMMARY

Philip Vincent built the fastest and most glamorous motorcycles in the world - yet he ended his days in poverty. Some 40 years after he died, one of his machines sold for over $1 million. This is his untold story.

Speed is Expensive brings to the screen one of the most dramatic stories in automotive history – the rise and the fall of the Vincent motorcycle. These fast, revolutionary machines were produced by eccentric engineer Philip Vincent and his small team in war-ravaged England. Their bikes took on the world – and often won – gaining more speed records than any other manufacturer during their brief production. In 1955, the firm claimed the ultimate prize: the outright world speed record of 185mph… Yet, just months later, the company pulled out of the motorcycle market. The bikes’ creator, Philip Vincent, never designed another vehicle which would go into production. He died in 1979 – the family fortune exhausted pursuing his obsession with speed. Today, high-profile riders such as Brad Pitt, Ryan Reynolds and Jay Leno revere the bikes. Racing models fetch $1 million at auctions and in private sales.

But Speed is Expensive is more than the story of automotive endeavour. It is also a detective story. The film talks to the men and women who built the bikes; racers, friends and family to learn how Vincent, Phil Irving and his workforce built such revolutionary motorcycles and the secrets behind the bikes’ amazing performance. The film reveals how the fate of the company turned on a high-speed accident on a wind-swept airfield near the factory in the winter of 1947.

This journey of augmented by a rich colour and black and white archive of high-quality film footage shot by Vincent himself, shared by his family, showing his private and professional life from the 1930s onwards. Today, Philip Vincent is seen as nothing short of a genius… the man whose frame designs the Japanese would borrow years later; whose Black Shadow model remained the fastest motorcycle the public could buy right up until the early 1970s. Now, the full story of the pioneer who changed motorcycling forever can be told.

RELATED MEDIA

Buy the DVD or Digital Screener on the website


 

 


The Vintagent Selects: The Setting Sun - The Past and Present of Bosozoku

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-GATxfUq00

The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.

THE SETTING SUN: THE PAST AND PRESENT OF BOSOZOKU (2015)

Run Time: 32:00
Producer: Ty Demura, Vice Japan
Director of Photography: Sebastien Stein
Editor: Akira Kamitaki
Key Cast: Kazuhiro Hatsuki, Eguchi, Akira Nakano

FILM MAKERS

"I believe that the reason the biker gangs have disappeared is because the country of Japan has been perfected. In countries where the government is sloppy or in times of change, outlaws always lead the weak, but I think it means that Japan has now become a country that does not allow any opening for outlaws to play an active role."

SUMMARY

The biker group "Specter" was founded in the 1970s by Kokushikan students. The Specter group originated in Machida and had branches in Asakusa, Shinjuku Nakai, Minami Senju, Kanamachi, Nerima, Sagami, Mitaka, Higashi Nagasaki, Nakano, Urawa, Nagatsuta, Hachioji, Ichikawa, Matsudo, Narashino, Yamanashi, Ehime, Sendai, Ibaraki, Tochigi, and other areas, and further increased its members in other areas through the division of goodwill, becoming the largest single motorcycle gang group in Japan. The group boasted the largest scale of a single motorcycle gang in Japan. Kazuhiro Hatsuki was the 21st head of the Narashino Specter in 1989. The rallies were so large that the streets were filled with headlights, the passion for the suicide uniforms that were proof of the team's control and embodiment of the delinquents' souls, and the fierce motorcycle gang fights that even resulted in deaths.... Looking back on those days, we will visit the current Narashino Specter, which is now alone, the still-running Kamagaya Minami-Mujo A-arm, Ryuichi Otake and Yasutetsu Igarashi of the Killer Union Nina-Mona, and Keizo Kanami, the legendary leader of the Specter, and talk about their hot, intense and exciting times, as well as their future They also talk about their "dreams" for the future.

RELATED MEDIA

History of Bosozoku


 


The Vintagent Classics: Black Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9V2gN_a3P8

The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us. 

BLACK RAIN (1989)

Run Time: 2:05:00
Producer: Paramount Pictures
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Craig Bolotin, Warren Lewis
Key Cast: Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Ken Takakura

FILM MAKERS

Bōsōzoku arrives in Hollywood! "Just a few years after releasing his own cyberpunk masterpiece via Blade Runner (1982), Ridley Scott delivered Black Rain (1989), a macho and somewhat racist blockbuster starring Michael Douglas as a bike fanatic detective who journeys to Japan after becoming embroiled in a yakuza conspiracy in New York. 

The film opens with Douglas’ character engaging in a testosterone-fuelled drag race beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, but it's Japan’s biker gangs who make heads roll later on. They’re a recurring source of intimidation in violence on behalf of their yakuza buddies in Osaka, showing up wearing bandanas and bearing flags down neon-soaked back streets, embodying what had clearly now become stereotype." - Another Magazine

 

Black Rain is a neo-noir action thriller directed by Ridley Scott and starring Michael Douglas, Andy García, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw, Yūsaku Matsuda and Tomisaburo Wakayama. The film focuses on two NYPD detectives who arrest a member of the Yakuza and must escort him back to Japan. Once there, he escapes, and the two officers find themselves dragged deeper and deeper into the Japanese underworld.

The film was released by Paramount Pictures on September 22, 1989. It received much publicity beforehand as it was Douglas's first film since his Oscar winning role in Wall Street- a span of nearly two years. Upon release, it received generally mixed to positive reviews from critics, which praised the performances, action sequences, Hans Zimmer's musical score, direction and editing but criticized the screenwriting, clichéd story and lack of character development.

In the years since, the film has become a cult film and has been widely praised. It was also a huge box office hit, grossing over $134 million worldwide in front of a production budget of $30 million, and was nominated for Best Sound and Best Sound Editing at the 62nd Academy Awards.

Black Rain was the final film role for actor Yūsaku Matsuda. Matsuda knew he had bladder cancer and that his condition would be aggravated by acting in the movie. He elected to do so anyway, unbeknownst to director Sir Ridley Scott, reportedly saying, "This way, I will live forever." On November 6, 1989, less than seven weeks after the film's American premiere, Matsudo died of his bladder cancer at the age of 40. The film is dedicated to his memory.

SUMMARY

An American Cop in Japan. Their country. Their laws. Their game. His rules.

Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. In Japan, however, he manages to escape. As they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game the Japanese way.

RELATED MEDIA

Watch the FULL FILM on Youtube


 

 


The Vintagent Trailers: Biker Boyz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zcR0xTFMxw

The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.

BIKER BOYZ (2003)

Run Time: 1:50:00
Producer: Dreamworks Pictures
Director: Reggie Rock Bythewood
Writer: Michael Gougis, Craig Fernandez, Reggie Rock Bythewood
Key Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Derek Luke, Orlando Jones

FILM MAKERS

Biker Boyz is based on a 1999 article of the same name by freelance journalist Michael Gougis for the now defunct alternative weekly publication, the New Times. Gougis reported on the world of African-American motorcycle clubs in Southern California, and the "Biker Boyz" feature was a tour of that world, guided by Manuel "Pokey" Galloway, the president of Valiant Riders of Pasadena, California.

The film features an ensemble cast including Laurence Fishburne, Derek Luke, Meagan Good, Djimon Hounsou, Brendan Fehr, Rick Gonzalez, Larenz Tate, Terrence Howard, Orlando Jones, Salli Richardson, and Kid Rock. It also features Lisa Bonet and Vanessa Bell Calloway.

Biker Boyz was released on January 31, 2003 in the United States by DreamWorks Pictures, received generally unfavorable reviews, and was a box-office failure.

* If anyone finds a copy of the New Times LA feature by Michael Gougis, please send it our way!

SUMMARY

A son of the leader of a legendary urban biker gang tries to retain his championship street drag racing title.

A mythic motorcycle tale of father and son, this is the story of Manuel "Smoke" Galloway, also known as "the King of Cali", the president of a motorcycle club whose members are all African-American men, mostly white-collar workers who exchange their suits and ties at night and on weekends for leather outfits and motorcycle helmets. The focus of this story takes place at an annual drag-racing event in Fresno, as Manuel tries to retain his championship title.

RELATED MEDIA

Watch the FULL FILM on Amazon

Read more Los Angeles Times, 2003

Read 'Bridge', by Michael Gougis


 

 


The Vintagent Trailers: The Bikeriders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SolhWny1zF4

The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.

THE BIKERIDERS (2023)

Run Time: 1:56:00
Producer: New Regency Productions
Director: Jeff Nichols
Writer: Jeff Nichols, Dany Lyon
Key Cast: Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy

FILM MAKERS

Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, The Bikeriders tells a fictional story inspired by the 1967 photo-book of the same name by Danny Lyon and stars an ensemble cast that includes Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, and Norman Reedus.

The Bikeriders premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023, and is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 1, 2023, by 20th Century Studios.

SUMMARY

"I've been thinking, I can run this club forever. I've built this from nothing. This is our family. You and me kid."

Kathy, a strong-willed member of the Vandals who is married to a wild, reckless bikerider named Benny, recounts the Vandals' evolution over the course of a decade, beginning as a local club of outsiders united by good times, rumbling bikes, and respect for their strong, steady leader Johnny.

Over the years, Kathy tries her best to navigate her husband's untamed nature and his allegiance to Johnny, with whom she feels she must compete for Benny's attention. As life in the Vandals gets more dangerous, and the club threatens to become a more sinister gang, Kathy, Benny and Johnny are forced to make choices about their loyalty to the club and to each other.

RELATED MEDIA

The Bikeriders, Danny Lyon (1967) - Purchase on the Aperture website for the current reprint that is true to the original.

Danny Lyon Website


 

 


The Vintagent Trailers: The Place Beyond The Pines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjes7u9Vewc

The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (2012)

Run Time: 2:20:00
Producer: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Electric City Entertainment, Verisimilitude
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writer: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder
Key Cast: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes

FILM MAKERS
The Place Beyond The Pines is an American epic crime drama, directed by Derek Cianfrance with a screenplay by Cianfrance, Ben Coccio and Darius Marder from a story by Cianfrance and Coccio. The film tells three linear stories: Luke (Ryan Gosling), a motorcycle stunt rider who supports his family through a life of crime; Avery (Bradley Cooper), an ambitious policeman who confronts his corrupt police department; and two troubled teenagers (Emory Cohen and Dane DeHaan) who explore the aftermath of Luke and Avery's actions fifteen years later. The supporting cast includes Eva Mendes, with Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Harris Yulin, and Ray Liotta. The soundtrack was composed by Mike Patton and included music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and Ennio Morricone.

Co-writer and director Derek Cianfrance says that his financier would give him the budget he wanted if he shrank the 158-page script to 120 pages. Without removing anything, he used a smaller font and extended the margins. He says no one noticed.

Erwin Urias performed the Globe Of Death stunt riding in the film for Gosling. Erwin is a 4th generation globe rider who has been preforming with his family since he was 14. The Urias Family still performs today in the original 16 foot diameter Globe that was built by their great-grandfather almost 100 years ago. Erwin's son and daughter are now the 5th generation keeping the legacy alive with their family as the Urias Globe Of Death.

SUMMARY

A mysterious and mythical motorcycle racer, Luke, (Ryan Gosling) drives out of a traveling carnival Globe of Death and whizzes through the backstreets of Schenectady, New York, desperately trying to connect with a former lover, Romina, (Eva Mendes) who recently and secretly gave birth to the stunt rider's son. In an attempt to provide for his new family, Luke quits the carnival life and commits a series of bank robberies aided by his superior riding ability. The stakes rise as Luke is put on a collision course with an ambitious police officer, Avery Cross, (Bradley Cooper) looking to quickly move up the ranks in a police department riddled with corruption. The sweeping drama unfolds over fifteen years as the sins of the past haunt the present days lives of two high school boys wrestling with the legacy they've inherited. The only refuge is found in the place beyond the pines.

RELATED MEDIA

Watch the FULL MOVIE on Youtube



The Vintagent Classics: Portrait Of An Assassin

https://youtu.be/sYa835M_c5w

The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us. 

PORTRAIT OF AN ASSASSIN / PORTRAIT D'UN ASSASSIN (1949)

Run Time: 1:40:00
Producer: Hubert Vincent-Bréchignac
Director: Bernard-Roland
Writer: François Chalais, Henri Decoin, Marcel Rivet
Key Cast: Maria Montez, Erich von Stroheim, Arletty and Pierre Brasseur

FILM MAKERS

"I expected my shooting mishap to be followed by a legal mishap. Well, what do we do now? Shall we have a drink? Make love? Throw things at each other?"

Portrait of an Assassin (French: Portrait d'un assassin) is a 1949 French drama thriller. The film was financed by a French furrier. It was originally announced that the film would be called Portrait of a Murderer and would star Maria Montez and Orson Welles. "Could be the battlingest picture of the century", wrote Hedda Hopper.

Orson Welles and Charles Lederer were hired to rewrite the script. They wrote a new script in just a few weeks, but the producers didn't use it, didn't make the last payment on their salaries, and on top of that, sued them. In My Lunches With Orson, Welles says "They didn't use one word we wrote. But they used the story." Furthermore, "We got paid by a black-market producer who came to the Lancaster hotel with the money wrapped in newspaper."

SUMMARY

Fabius: "I never once got on that bike, not even one night, for the last two years without thinking it would be the last time."

Martha: "So you wanted to kill me because you were afraid something would happen to you?"

Christina (Montez) is the sadistic manager of a circus show, who uses her attractiveness to seduce men and force them to do dangerous acrobatic acts. One such lover, Eric (Von Stroheim), became handicapped.

Christina seduces Fabius (Brasseur) but his wife Martha (Arletty), turns up and performs the acrobatic act and dies. Fabius then murders Christina in revenge, does the act himself, survives and confesses.

RELATED MEDIA

Buy the DVD on Amazon


 

 


The Vintagent Trailers: The Motorcycle Diaries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWBsQArUkQY

The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (2004)

Run Time: 2:06:00
Producer: FilmFour, South Fork Pictures, Tu Vas Voir Productions
Director: Walter Salles
Writer: Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Alberto Granado, Jose Rivera
Key Cast: Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Mía Maestro

FILM MAKERS

The Motorcycle Diaries is a 2004 biopic about the journey and written memoir of the 23-year-old Ernesto Guevara, who would several years later become internationally known as the Marxist guerrilla leader and revolutionary leader Che Guevara. The film recounts the 1952 expedition, initially by motorcycle, across South America by Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado. As well as being a road movie, the film is a coming-of-age film; as the adventure, initially centered on youthful hedonism, unfolds, Guevara discovers himself transformed by his observations on the life of the impoverished indigenous peasantry. Through the characters they encounter on their continental trek, Guevara and Granado witness first hand the injustices that the destitute face and are exposed to people and social classes they would have never encountered otherwise. To their surprise, the road presents to them both a genuine and captivating picture of Latin American identity. As a result, the trip also plants the initial seed of radicalization within Guevara, who would later challenge the continent's endemic economic inequalities and political repression.

The screenplay is based primarily on Guevara's trip diary of the same name, with additional context supplied by Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary by Alberto Granado. Guevara is played by Gael García Bernal (who previously played Che in the 2002 miniseries Fidel), and Granado by the Argentine actor Rodrigo de la Serna, who incidentally is a second cousin to the real-life Guevara on his maternal side. Directed by Brazilian director Walter Salles and written by Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera, the film was an international co-production among production companies from Argentina, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile, Peru and France.

SUMMARY

"The Che of The Motorcycle Diaries is more akin to Jack Kerouac or Neal Cassady than Marx or Lenin." - Paul Webster, executive producer

In 1952, a semester before Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara is due to complete his medical degree, he and his older friend Alberto Granado, a biochemist, leave Buenos Aires to travel across South America. While there is a goal at the end of their journey - they intend to work in a leper colony in Peru - the main purpose is initially fun and adventure. They desire to see as much of Latin America as they can, more than 14,000 kilometres (8,700 mi) in just four and a half months, while Granado's purpose is also to bed as many women as will fall for his pickup lines. Their initial method of transport is Granado's dilapidated Norton 500 motorcycle christened La Poderosa ("The Mighty One").

Their planned route is ambitious, bringing them north across the Andes, along the coast of Chile, through the Atacama Desert and into the Peruvian Amazon in order to reach Venezuela just in time for Granado's 30th birthday on 2 April. However, due to La Poderosa's breakdown, they are forced to travel at a much slower pace, often walking, and do not make it to Caracas until July.

During their expedition, Guevara and Granado encounter the poverty of the indigenous peasants, and the movie assumes a greater seriousness once the men gain a better sense of the disparity between the "haves" (to which they belong) and the obviously exploited "have-nots" (who make up the majority of those they encounter) by travelling on foot. In Chile, for instance, they encounter a penniless and persecuted couple forced onto the road because of their communist beliefs. In a fire-lit scene, Guevara and Granado ashamedly admit to the couple that they are not out looking for work as well. The duo then accompanies the couple to the Chuquicamata copper mine, where Guevara becomes angry at the treatment of the workers.

However, it is a visit to the ancient Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru that solidifies something in Guevara. His musings are then somberly refocused to how an indigenous civilization capable of building such beauty could be destroyed by the creators of the eventually polluted urban decay of nearby Lima.

Later, in Peru, they volunteer for three weeks at the San Pablo leper colony. There, Guevara observes both literally and metaphorically the division of society, as the staff live on the north side of a river, separated from the deprived lepers living across the river to the south. To demonstrate his solidarity, and his medical belief that leprosy is not contagious, Guevara refuses to wear rubber gloves during his visit as the head nun requires, choosing instead to shake bare hands and interact normally with the surprised leper patients.

At the end of the film, after his sojourn at the leper colony, Guevara confirms his nascent egalitarian, revolutionary impulses, while making a birthday toast, which is also his first political speech. In it, he invokes a pan-Latin American identity that transcends the arbitrary boundaries of both nation and race. These encounters with social injustice transform the way Guevara sees the world and his purposes in it, and by implication motivates his later political activities as a Marxist revolutionary.

Guevara makes his symbolic "final journey" at night when, despite the danger and his asthma, he swims across the river that separates the two societies of the leper colony, to spend the night in a leper shack, instead of in the doctors' cabins. Later, as they bid each other farewell at an airport, Granado reveals that his birthday was not 2 April, but rather 8 August, and that the aforementioned goal was simply a motivator: Guevara replies that he knew all along. The film closes with an appearance by the real 82-year-old Alberto Granado, along with pictures from the actual journey and a brief mention of Che Guevara's eventual 1967 CIA-assisted execution in the Bolivian jungle.

RELATED MEDIA

Read The BOOK
Follow the MAP of The Motorcycle Diaries
Watch the FULL FILM on Youtube


 

 


The Vintagent Classics: Touki Bouki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaWmfqrQjU4

The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us. 

TOUKI BOUKI (pronounced tukki bukki), Wolof for 'The Journey of the Hyena' (1973)

Run Time: 1:25:00
A Film By: Djibril Diop Mambéty
Key Cast: Magaye Niang, Myriam Niang, Christoph Colomb

FILM MAKERS

Touki Bouki is a 1973 Senegalese drama film, directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty. It was shown at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and the 8th Moscow International Film Festival. The film was restored in 2008 at Cineteca di Bologna / L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory by the World Cinema Foundation. It was selected as the 93rd greatest film of all time by the Sight and Sound Critic's Poll. This film is now part of the Criterion Collection, spine #685. This film is believed to be Africa's first avant-garde film, although Oh, Sun (1967) could also make this claim.

Based on his own story and script, Djibril Diop Mambéty made Touki Bouki with a budget of $30,000 – obtained in part from the Senegalese government. Though influenced by French New Wave, Touki Bouki displays a style all its own. Its camerawork and soundtrack have a frenetic rhythm uncharacteristic of most African films – known for their often deliberately slow-paced, linearly evolving narratives. However, it has been asserted that the jump cuts and radical spatial shifts of the film are inspired by African oral traditions. The word "Bouki" in the title refers to a popular folk character, known for causing mischief and cheating his way to what he wants. Through jump cuts, colliding montage, dissonant sonic accompaniment, and the juxtaposition of premodern, pastoral and modern sounds and visual elements, Touki Bouki conveys and grapples with the hybridization of Senegal.

West African cinema contemporaneous with Touki Bouki was primarily financed and distributed by the French Ministry of Cooperation's Bureau du Cinema, which ensured that scripts had to conform to cinematographic standards acceptable to the French Government. Touki Bouki, in contrast, was made without any French financial assistance, allowing Mambéty relatively significant autonomy in production of the film. Mambéty's ready adoption of French New Wave techniques was to a degree motivated by meagre financial resources, circumstances similar to those of the film-makers of the early French New Wave. Narrative and cinematographic techniques associated with the Western genre (known for dehumanizing depictions of Native Americans and minorities) were also subversively utilized by Mambéty in the production of the film.

During the production of Touki Bouki, Mambéty was arrested for participating in anti-racist protests in Rome, and bailed out by lawyers from the Italian Communist Party after appeals from friends such as Bernardo Bertolucci and Sophia Loren. The experience of receiving a request from the Italian Communist Party to compensate them for the legal fees spent in his defence served as an inspiration for a character in his later film, Hyènes. - Wikipedia

SUMMARY

Mory, a cowherd who drives a motorcycle mounted with a bull-horned skull, and Anta, a student, meet in Dakar. Alienated and tired of life in Senegal, they dream of going to Paris and come up with different schemes to raise money for the trip. Mory eventually succeeds in stealing the money, and a large amount of clothing, from the household of a wealthy homosexual while the latter is taking a shower. Anta and Mory can finally buy tickets for the ship to France. But their wealthy victim phones the police who begin to tail the duo, and when Anta and Mory board the ship in the Port of Dakar, the loudspeaker summons Mory to see the captain. Upon hearing this, Mory leaves Anta and runs away madly to find his bull-horned motorcycle, only to see that it has been ruined in a crash that nearly killed the rider who had taken it. The ship sails away with Anta but not Mory, who sits next to his hat on the ground, staring disconsolately at his wrecked motorcycle.

RELATED MEDIA

Complete Interview with Djibril Diop Mambéty (1997)

Martin Scorcese on Touki Bouki

Watch the FULL FILM or Buy the DVD on Criterion Collection


 

 


The Vintagent Classics: Scotland Yard: The Wall Of Death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4rpIg8E9ck&feature=youtu.be

The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us. 

SCOTLAND YARD, EPISODE #15: THE WALL OF DEATH (TV 1956)

Run Time: 30:00
Producer: Alec C. Snowden
Director: Montgomery Tully
Writer: Montgomery Tully, Judith Warden
Key Cast: Edgar Lustgarten, Cyril Chamberlain, Vernon Greeves

FILM MAKERS

Scotland Yard is a series of 39 half-hour episodes produced by Anglo-Amalgamated. Produced between 1953 and 1961, they are short films, originally made to support the main feature in a cinema double-bill. Each film focuses on a true crime case with names changed, and feature an introduction by the crime writer Edgar Lustgarten.

The earlier films were produced by Alec C. Snowden, who was succeeded by Jack Greenwood. Directors included Ken Hughes and Montgomery Tully. The principal character in each film is a Detective Inspector, played by a variety of actors but most frequently by Russell Napier (usually portraying DI Duggan). Many of the films feature, in supporting roles, actors later to become well-known. They include Jill Bennett, Peter Arne, Harry H. Corbett, James Villiers, Edward Judd, Arthur Lowe, Peter Halliday, Wilfrid Brambell, Rita Webb, Peter Bowles and Roger Delgado.

All of the episodes were shot at Merton Park Studios in London and on location on monochrome 35mm film. Most of the episodes were presented in the old Academy screen ratio of 1.33:1, whilst a handful of the later episodes were shot in a hard-matted widescreen ratio of 1.66:1

SUMMARY

A Scotland Yard detective investigates the death of a man who died on an amusement park ride.

The rider is Tornado Smith, riding his own wall at the Kursaal, Southend. Research continues into whether this episode was based on a true crime. Stay tuned!

RELATED MEDIA

Buy the complete series DVD Box set on Amazon


 

 

 


The Vintagent Classics: Beach Blanket Bingo

https://youtu.be/BEhnHynXa6w

The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us. 

BEACH BLANKET BINGO (1965)

Run Time: 1:38:00
Producer: Alta Vista Productions
Director: William Asher
Writer: William Asher, Leo Townsend
Key Cast: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley

FILM MAKERS

"It's the wettest, wildest game in town!"

Beach Blanket Bingo is a 1965 American beach party film directed by William Asher. It is the fifth film in the Beach Party film series. The film stars Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Linda Evans, Deborah Walley, Paul Lynde, and Don Rickles. Earl Wilson and Buster Keaton appear. Evans's singing voice was dubbed by Jackie Ward.

The story involves a missing pop star, a mermaid, and Eric Von Zipper's gang. Timothy Carey is wild as zonked-out hipster South Dakota Slim, a pool playing, biker sadist, and kidnapping tap dancer who is a swell guy.

The Hondels rock on "The Cycle Set." Tons of other songs are performed by Frankie, Annette, Donna Loren and Linda Evans. Frankie Avalon, Linda Evans, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Donna Loren, Marta Kristen, Timothy Carey, Don Rickles, Paul Lynde, Bobbi Shaw, Buster Keaton, Brian Wilson, The Hondels.

SUMMARY

A singer, Sugar Kane (Linda Evans), is unwittingly being used for publicity stunts for her latest album by her agent (Paul Lynde), for example, faking a skydiving stunt, actually performed by Bonnie (Deborah Walley).

Meanwhile, Frankie (Frankie Avalon), duped into thinking he rescued Sugar Kane, takes up skydiving at Bonnie's prompting; she secretly wants to make her boyfriend Steve (John Ashley) jealous. This prompts Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) to also try free-falling. Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his Rat Pack bikers also show up, with Von Zipper falling madly in love with Sugar Kane. Meanwhile, Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falls in love with a mermaid named Lorelei (Marta Kristen).

Eventually, Von Zipper "puts the snatch" on Sugar Kane, and in a Perils of Pauline-like twist, the evil South Dakota Slim (Timothy Carey) kidnaps Sugar and ties her to a buzz-saw.

RELATED MEDIA

Watch the FULL FILM on Amazon

Buy the DVD at Video Beat


 

 


The Vintagent Trailers: We Ride

https://vimeo.com/842904942?share=copy

The Vintagent Trailers: A preview of our favorite feature films out there.

WE RIDE (2022)

Run Time: 14:00
A Film By: Romain Thomassin
Editor: Angelita Mendoza
Key Cast: Jane Love, Agata Dabkowska, Lanakila MacNaughton

FILM MAKERS

Romain is a French director and producer living in San Francisco. He started his filmmaking career in Brooklyn where, for 10 years, he shaped a keen eye for subcultural movements and authentic human stories inspired by artists, musicians and designers for whom he directed film portraits, short docs and music videos. While in Brooklyn, Romain also worked at Vice Media for four years, where he developed a raw, visceral yet entertaining approach of storytelling and learned a motto that he often makes his own: "make serious stupid, make stupid serious". Amongst multiple Vice projects Romain wrote and creative-directed Encore: a Never-Ending Story, a short doc about the history of the encore tradition at music shows (feat. Dolly Parton, Har Mar Superstar, Grouplove, Mac DeMarco, Michael Stipe and many others). He also co-wrote, along with director Laura Herrero Garvín, the short film Borrando la Frontera following contemporary artist Ana Teresa Fernández "erasing" the U.S.-Mexican border wall. The film premiered at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in 2018. In 2019, Romain founded Saturated, a Brooklyn and SF-based production company focusing on nonfiction cinema, social media videos and branded content. Saturated produced videos for Parrot Drones, New York Fashion Week, IDEO, WantedDesign, Jellysmack and French Embassy’s artist residency: Villa Albertine. Romain’s latest short film We Ride, draws a parallel between Hunter S. Thompson’s Hells Angels and a new generation of women motorcyclists. It premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in May 2023.

We Ride will be releases for view online in 2024. Stay Tuned!

SUMMARY

Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels is given new meaning when compared, contrasted and appropriated to describe the hell-raising antics of groups of fierce and free-wheeling women who hit the road on their own custom bikes and their own terms.

Motorcycles have long been considered the property of men. Amongst them: the outlaws from the Motorcycle Clubs, once described with surgical precision by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson in his first book: Hell’s Angels (1967). But a new generation of women riders is hitting the road, low in the saddle of the Harley choppers. Fueled by a passion for speed and mechanics, they created riding collectives, motorcycle camps, clothing brands, custom shops and garages... embracing the codes of iconic biker culture but also revolutionizing it from within. From the streets of New York to the pine forests of Oregon, they transform the horsepower of their engine into a force for personal empowerment. Juxtaposing Hunter S. Thompson’s writings about male biker gangs in the 60s, with contemporary stories of women motorcyclists, We Ride questions the persistent stereotypes in motorcycle culture, ultimately proving that riding has no genre. “Ah, these righteous dudes, they love to screw it on..."

*'We Ride' was granted the rights to use Hunter S. Thompson's cult classic Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (Ballantine, 1967) by his estate and his wife Anita, who created the Gonzo Foundation dedicated to promote literature, journalism and political activism through the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson.

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Website

Instagram


 


The Vintagent Classics: Mabel At The Wheel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUsYq2MbFOI&t=3s

The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us. 

MABEL AT THE WHEEL (1914)

Run Time: 23:22
Producer: Keystone Film Company
Director: Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett
Writer: Charles Chaplin
Key Cast: Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Harry McCoy

FILM MAKERS

Mabel at the Wheel is a 1914 Keystone Studios slapstick comedy produced by Mack Sennett, written and directed by Mabel Normand. It was the first two-reel film starring Charlie Chaplin (credited as Charles Chaplin)

The Keystone Comedy Studio was built on nonsense and slapstick, a product of the fertile, perhaps warped, mind of Mack Sennett. How curious, then, to think that the foundation of Keystone’s success was a small dramatic actress by the name of Mabel Normand. Mack, and his partners, promised her dramatically-oriented comedies to match her classical training. While many of her films with Keystone were slapstick, her main job was to create what Chaplin called the 'pulchritudinous influence', which would afford balance to the otherwise zany pictures. Until Mabel, Keystone films had merely been situation comedies, but Mabel took the studio further, crafting equal parts drama and comedy into complex and endearing story lines.

SUMMARY

Chaplin plays a villain, a Dutch immigrant (a character made famous by Ford Sterling, the star of Keystone, whom Chaplin had been asked to replace... and imitate, which he would not tolerate for long). Mabel Normand, meanwhile, is the girlfriend of a pilot (Harry McCoy). On the occasion of the Vanderbilt Cup, a famous car race which takes place in Santa Monica, Chaplin kidnaps Mabel's boyfriend to prevent him from participating in the competition. But Mabel is not discouraged and gets into the car herself. In spite of all the attempts of sabotage of the perfidious little mustachian, she will manage to gain the final victory.

The story goes that Sennett asked Chaplin if he’d ever ridden a motorcycle, to which he answered “yes”, but it turned out he’d only ever ridden a pedal cycle. They began to shoot the scene where Chaplin takes Mabel for a ride on his motorcycle. Charlie was sitting on the 1912 Thor chain drive Model M Type IV , and Mabel climbed on. Charlie pushed off, the motor fired, Charlie gave it full throttle and the machine roared off. However, they’d only gone five yards before the thing went into a huge wobble. After a few high-speed seconds, Mabel was thrown from the bike, and cast unceremoniously into a ditch, in a flurry of Parisian petticoats. They later pried Charlie from among the wreckage of the cycle... - The making of Mabel At The Wheel

RELATED MEDIA

The making of Mabel At The Wheel
The life and times of Mabel Normand
Mabel, a motorcycle girl


 

 


The Vintagent Selects: Norton Commando at 50

https://vimeo.com/303847065

The Vintagent Selects: A collection of our favorite films by artists around the world.

NORTON COMMANDO AT 50 (2018)

Run Time: 8:00
A Film By: Roberto Serrini
Key Cast: Allan Tannenbaum, Kenny Cummings, Elspeth Beard

FILM MAKERS

Roberto Serrini has many credits and awards under his belt. Including a handful of motorcycle films including Earned: The Story Of Keith Hale's Ducati 750SS (2021, All The Pretty Things (2021), The American Wall Of Death (2016), and Moto Borgotaro (2015).

SUMMARY

The Norton Commando motorcycle was first produced in 1968 and Brooklyn's Union Garage and the UK's Belstaff celebrated the anniversary in style. This film gives a look into some of the characters of the NYC motorcycle scene and an homage to an English tradition and "the cutest version of an American chopper you've ever seen."

RELATED MEDIA

Serrini - website

Allan Tannenbaum - website

Allan Tannenbaum - Prints for sale