Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy (Blu-ray)

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

*** Résumé en anglais seulement ***Imagine if Troma Films had been hired to make a Sid & Marty Krofft Saturday morning kids’ show, and you have some idea of the unspeakable strangeness of VISITORS FROM THE ARKANA GALAXY, a truly gonzo Croatian sci-fi / fantasy / comedy about a struggling writer, Robert (Zarko Potocnjak), who dreams up a story of gold-skinned alien androids named Andra, Targo and Ulu from a distant planet. Incredibly, his fictional alien creations become reality, causing chaos in his relationship with his girlfriend Biba (Lucie Zulová) and threatening his small seaside village. The alluring lead robot Andra (Ksenia Prohaska) looks like H.R. Giger re-designed the Maschinenmensch from Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS; watch for the scene where she pours hot coffee and cream out of her fingertips. But for sheer jawdropping insanity, nothing rivals the Mumu Monster -- created for the film by legendary Czech animator Jan Švankmajer --, a rubber-suited, multi-tentacled creation that destroys a wedding party, ripping off heads and spouting plumes of toxic green smoke while a blind accordion player blithely plays his squeezebox. VISITORS was a rare live-action feature from animator Dusan Vukotic (1927-1998), best known for his stunning UPA-style cartoon shorts including “Cow On The Moon” (1959) and the Oscar-winning “The Substitute” (1961). This long-unavailable genre treat has been newly restored by Deaf Crocodile and Zagreb Film for its first-ever Blu-ray release. In Croatian with English subtitles. • New scan of VISITORS FROM THE ARKANA GALAXY with restoration by Craig Rogers for Deaf Crocodile. • New commentary track by film historian Samm Deighan. • New essay by film historian and professor Jennifer Lynde Barker. • 5 rare animated shorts by Dusan Vukotic: “Krava na mjesecu” (Cow On The Moon), 1959, 10 min. – in Vukotic’s delightfully jazzy, beatnik-influenced cartoon, an adorable young girl creates a rocket ship to annoy a hipster teenage boy. “Piccolo”, 1959, 9 min. – two neighbors wage war over a noisy harmonica in Vukotic’s animated short featuring stunning mid-century artwork and design. “1001 crtez” (1001 Drawings), 1960, 14 min. A fascinating B&W short mixing live action and animation to reveal how cartoons are drawn. (In Croatian with English subtitles.) “Surogat” (The Substitute), 1961, 10 min. – a typical Everyman spends a day at the beach where everything is inflatable, from his tent to the BBQ grill to a toothy shark. Vukotic’s Oscar-winning short is a masterpiece of angular mid-century style. “Ars Gratia Artis”, 1969, 9 min. – in Vukotic’s surreal blend of animation and live action, a man eats a vinyl record, razor blades, thumb tacks and more. • Blu-ray authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion.