Earth, air, fire and water personified. Made at the San Francisco Art Institute by Michael Wiese and Steven Arnold, their first collaboration. “THE ELEMENTS depicts personifications of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, in metaphor. The bodies of each blending in movement.” –Lenny Lipton, BERKELEY BARB
Three identical prints of a single 100 foot fixed-camera take are shown from beginning to end-roll light-flare, with a few feet of blackness preceding/bridging/following the rolls.
Centring on the legend of the four ancient Chinese heroines, the film was a novelty for audiences at the time, as the singing performance was in Cantonese and used huangmei operatic rhythms—a popular trend in the 1960s, yet it retained traditional flavours by using operatic luogu percussion in the battle scenes.
There's nothing like a good, opulent, gaudy musical to lift the spirits, but when it's a 1960's Hong Kong musical orchestrated by a Japanese director and composer, it breaks through the ranks as a classic of campy kitsch.
Sam Moran is a Honolulu charter-boat captain who leads fishing expeditions in the tropical paradise. When his daughter is found murdered at the party of a wealthy young playboy, he seeks the truth about the murder.
A Southern soldier in the American Civil War is sent to reconnoiter the enemy positions and becomes trapped beneath a huge pile of rubble by Northern cannon fire.
Anthony Steffen, as a young gunman who works as a circus performer, witnesses the killing of some outlaws, carried out by their leader and is credited with the deed.
Comments
Have you watched The Elements yet? What did you think about it?