'Psycho Paul's Film Festival' is a bit of a cinematic oddity...25 copies of this film were made back in 1990 (10 of which remained with the films director...at least...thats whats implied in the extra features of this release). and until VHShitfest got involved and put this out on Bluray, that was kind of the beginning and end of it...Having now seen it, I kind of understand why.
In essence. This is a 'starter film' as in, this is a film made by a group of people (in this case Paul Van Dan Elzen, his brother and his mum) Who hadnt really made a movie before, experimenting with the medium to see what they could and couldnt do...As such, it doesnt really follow a lot of conventional film making process or coherency.
The setup is that 'Psycho Paul' is a film maker, he's present in the film as a host introducing various films he's made that he's showcasing in THIS film in a 'Festival' format...
That does kind of make it sound a bit grander than it is. In real terms, this is Paul and his family shooting several short films in their living room/kitchen and in front of a black backdrop, in the middle of winter. parodying low budget SOV cinema and doing breakaway gags here and there, such as intermittent commercials to buy the props seen in the short films for ludicrous amounts of money (an example being a characters shirt being offered for sale at the low low price of $777,777,777.77)
The shorts themselves all have really simple premises, such as 'Evil Ex-Wife must die' which is literally just Pauls Mum shot in front of a black screen shouting 'NO! NO! NO!' repeatedly with it periodically cutting away to Paul in a reverse shot flailing a knife and an electrical chord around...Or 'Vomit Master' which is just Pauls brother faking throwing up for 20 minutes (probably...it felt that long...).
A point of slight confusion is raised almost immediately with a note from VHShitfest, who've put an opening caption at the beginning of the feature that says that every single tape to do with this film (all 10 copies of the finished film, the master tape and the raw footage) were heavily mould damaged. So they've had to 'reconstruct' the feature as best they could...Im not sure if that means they followed the original finished edit and just recreated it, or if they totally remade the film using the raw footage...But this things an hour and 40 minutes long and feels like it goes on for longer than the Lord of the Rings Extended cuts.
Thats probably the biggest problem this film has all together, Everyone involved in shooting it had either limited or no experience in film making. Meaning the rules of film making are generally an after thought. Scenes just run on and on and on with no rhyme or reason...and they're not even entertaining. They almost feel like they're looping the same footage repeatedly for 10 minutes before changing to something else.
The parody stories are super basic and due to it being the middle of winter and them having no budget for this thing, All the films look and feel exactly the same, use the same locations and the same cast...making it feel even more incoherent.
Theres almost no consideration for levelling off the camera, creative direction or storyboarding. everythings just setup and shot however they wanted to do it that day. Sometimes...it works, i'd say theres half a dozen shots here that are genuinely REALLY cool and look and feel awesome...But for the vast majority of the sequences, its wonky, badly composed reverse shots, intercut with experimentation in colour bleeding and video feedback (by pointing the camera at a television screen) They experiment with audio feedback too...which again, works maybe once or twice...but for the most part is just super annoying.
Having studied film at a high school, college and university level. I have an appreciation for this film. Its intimate. It feels like im watching someones first forays into film making, and god forbid my first works ever get an international release because they're only marginally better than this. As such, giving this thing an (admittedly limited...but still international) release I feel is ACTUALLY insane.
I dont know who'll really truely love this film. I appreciated it as it gave me warm fuzzy nostalgic flashbacks to shooting my first movie on no budget out of my old bedroom at my parents place...and I could imagine other budding film makers who cut their teeth in the VHS or DV days will feel similar pangs of familiarity.
But for non 'filmie' viewers, or people who DIDNT grow up with that experience. I think they'll have a dreadful time. It's WAY too long (this should have been half an hour...if that) its messy, rambly, inaduible for large chunks of it. It really truely feels like they've distributed someones test footage. Some people will get it, Some people wont...I do...but that doesnt mean I 'like' it.
One for the film making/video art crowd. If you fall into one of those two catagories, I'd say it *might* be worth your time because, as an experimental work it DOES have one or two genuinely interesting moments in feedback play...for you non video art folk though? This isnt your rodeo I dont think...I certainly wouldnt recommend it unless you were DEEP into experimental cinema or SOV culture...
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/psycho-pauls-film-festival/
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