‘IN A COMPLETELY SANE WORLD, MADNESS IS THE ONLY FREEDOM!‘
5 a4 {my
Blessed psychosis
Anticipating the releases of two films about outsider art — JUNEBUG and DERAILROADED — Paul Dale praises the mad, bad, genre-kicking movement.
lmost 35 years after art critic Roger (‘ardinal
coined the phrase ‘outsider art~ as an linglish
synonym for Art Brut. a label created by French artist Jean l)ubuffet to describe art created by insane asylum inmates. cinema seems finally to be ready to elaborate on one of the few cultural forms defined entirely by its dedication to insanity.
To be fair. outsider art was never going to find a happy medium in film. Having tumbled down from a rejection of the modernist art milieu through the cubist. dada. constructivist and futurist movements. ‘raw art’. as it was sometimes known. inherited an avant-garde penchant for challenging established cultural values. Cinema. by its very nature. has always been more about supporting accepted monetary institutions. refortifying cultural aristocracies and abandoning the meek in their own well of iniquity. Generally speaking. that is.
And yet one year on from the limited release of Jessica Yu's fascinating documentary In the Realms of
the Unreal. detailing the filthy. perverse. genuinely unglued life and times of janitor-come-artist recluse Henry Darger. comes not one but two films willing to meditate on this most primal of art forms.
The great veteran character actor Frank Hoyt Taylor (Big Fish. .lluteimn) gives arguably the first ever impersonation of an outsider artist in Phil Morrison‘s dreamy. funny indie .liiiieliiig (pictured). which rises the more progressive [’8 auction houses‘ recent obsession with outre art as a catalyst for a dissection of the cultural and class dichotomies that still tear down through lines of the union. For all its flaws.
42 THE LIST 13—27 Apr 2006
.liiiie/iiig contains at least two scenes of unblinking derangement that make one realise that J(i Ballard was on to something when he opined that 'In a completely sane world. madness is the only freedoml'
Better still is Josh Rtibin‘s Larry ‘Wild Mair Fischer documentary Derailroaded. an 86-minute trip through Fischer's paranoid schi/ophrenic mind and his discordant encounters with the music business. Institutionalised at In after attacking his mother with a knife. Fischer became an underground favourite after being discovered (and eventually discarded) by Frank Zappa. who cut his first album (the phenomenally cherishable xlii Iii-entire lt'llll ll’i'lrl Mun Fischer). Fischer has long been heralded as the father of outsider music. However. Fischer is also as mad as a loo brush with a tendency towards vagrancy when he is not riding his own bipolar emotional tidal waves. And yet it was to Fischer that Tom Waits. Jim Morrison. Janis Joplin and Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo) turned at the height of their careers for a new. purer direction in which to take their music. .\'ot that Fischer even noticed. If only ['5 sttidio bosses would follow their example. It‘s not like their films could get much worse and at the very least they may get the chance. like Fischer. to stand in a his .-\ngeles gutter. black handed and matted of hair singing about coconuts and merry-go-rounds. Now that really would be outside. man.
Junebug is on selected release from Fri 14 Apr. Derailroaded is out on DVD in July. See review, page 45.
Army in the Shadows .Jean Pieiie Melville's seminal 190‘.) l l(?ll('ll Resistance thiillei gets a new lease of life (H) a fresh print. I tl(‘.ls\’ us. See i'eView. page .13 li/nilioiise. lrlinbi/igh fro/n / n M ll’ll ."(l Apr.
Paradise Now Palestinian Golden Globe Best l oreign l iliii Winning comedy about suicide bombers. A ]()\/. See reviiew. page M. Cinewoi/rl Renti'ew Street. Glasgow. Cinewor/d, Edinburgh tron) l-ri M Apr.
Junebug Kooky fish out of water romantic drama which bravely tries to deal With the Min themes of US union line diViSions and outsider art. See feature. right and reView. page 45. Cinewor/d Rentrew Street. Glasgow and Cineworlrl. Edinburin from Fri M Apr.
CRAZY Deeply likeable familial drama set in the ffl/lls Ouebec. See interView and reView. page 45. Cinewor/r/ Rent/ow Street. Glasgow and Cinewor/d. Edinburgh from Fri 27 Apr.
The Squid and the Whale Stunning offbeat comedy drama about divorce. 808 style. General release.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Impressiver referential Tex Mex Western. Selected release.
Donald Cammell To mark the tenth anniversary of his death and the launch of a new biography this season encapsulates some of this great Scottish writer/director‘s very best work. Highlights include screenings of Performance. Demon Seed and Wild Side. Film/muse, Edinburgh from Mon 24 Apr.
Day of the Dead Special Edition Romero's greatest zombie flick gets a lush DVD makeover. This cannot be recommended highly enough. Out now (Arrowi
The Buster Keaton Chronicles The last word in silent comedy. Out now (Network).