1/22/2007

VideOh!

Frontal reactions of girls getting waxed mostly is much too pedestrian a title for this montage of women framed head to mid-torso as they lean back in the salon chair in preparation for having their pubic hair waxed, and then as the wax is torn from their flesh. Their faces express their feelings with vividness and intimacy and a swinging electronic dance track makes their fear and pain seem a little less awful. It was directed by the British music video director Matt Kirkby, who also made Basement Jaxx's U Don't Know Me, starring Queen Elizabeth II.

How to Poop is a Japanese potty-training video starring animated cats and a dancing cartoon turd.

Parcheggio perfetto is four-plus minutes of the worst effort at parallel parking you have ever seen, with hilarious (unintelligible to the non-Italian speaker) commentary by the people around the camera, perched on a balcony above the street. Around 2:00 the driver has a shouting match with someone offscreen and the people by the camera crack up.

The Ten Stages of Opening a Jar is another comic short film by Aaron Yonda, of Madison, WI, one of the talents behind the celebrated Chad Vader series.

All the James Bonds sit at one poker table in this inspired remix called Casino Royal II - Let's Play Again by JMY. This would be a good one to show if you ever happen to teach the Kuleshov effect the same week that you teach fandom and participatory culture.

2 comments:

zoe p. said...

Honestly, "Girls Getting Waxed" was NOT as exciting as I'd anticipated.

I guess I might have gotten over-excited, though, as I'd just read about The Sartorialist's secret plan, I think, to wear leggings in Pittsburgh and he wanted to get, well, frontal reactions and I thought everything was really coming together rather nicely.

But waxing, I think, falls into the category of non-visual experience. It would have to be a very ambitious film.

Anonymous said...

Wow--never really thought about it, but using slash video to teach the Kuleshov effect is pretty brilliant. The Casino Royal II example you show works very well...