Conall PendergastFiled under: Legend of the Seven Bloody Torturers, Movies | Tags: best, bloody, board, canada, carl, cinematography, elster, festival, film, legend, national, of, seven, the, toronto, torturers, wildsound
The audience at the WildSound Film Festival, where Legend screened on Nov 20, voted to honour Carl Elster’s stunning black and white cinematography with the abovementioned award. A summary of the festival, with video clips and some films (though not Legend) posted online, can be found here.
Screening facilities were excellent, with technically impeccable projection and sound, and the festival’s selection of films was diverse and well-programmed, with an emphasis on comedy in the first half of the program. Legend screened - appropriately, I thought - after an interesting and rather grim experimental film in the second half. Called Pillow Girl, it draws upon images from mid-20th century dime novel and men’s magazine covers featuring women in situations of peril and fetishistic torture. Its theme and odd tone, coupled with its direct referencing of cultural works that fall within that broad camp of ‘camp’, made Pillow Girl and Legend comfortable bedfellows; though, one would assume, rather kinky ones.
See more of Carl Elster’s work at his website.
