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Low-Fi Sci Fi: (((Tetsuo: The Iron Man)))

Intro by Alex Cox

Low-Fi Sci Fi: (((Tetsuo: The Iron Man)))

Trying to describe Tetsuo is like trying to describe the aftermath of a plane crash -- one that you've just been in. Twisted scraps of metal mix with broken limbs and ruined bodies: at first it seems as though there's no sense to this snarled, wiry chaos, until we look closer and see through the frantic jumble of steel and blood.

Tsukamoto's 67-minute black-and-white film combines the frenzied roller coaster pace of a Sam Raimi film with the acute symbolism of David Lynch's Eraserhead and ends up a ferociously original 16mm nightmare that stands in a league of its own.

In what is less a coherent plot than a series of disturbing images loosely strung together, Taguchi plays the “Salaryman,” an average Joe who accidentally runs over a maimed “Metal Fetishist” with his car. The next day, while shaving, the Salaryman notices a tiny shard of metal growing out of his cheek. As the film progresses, the metal within him begins to spread, eventually taking over his whole body, cell by cell, and transforming him into a nonhuman creature: 90% iron, 10% flesh. Meanwhile, the Fetishist seeks out the Salaryman, urging him to join his cause to “create an entirely metal world.”

This little plot synopsis of mine does Tsukamoto's film little justice, though. Because the film works on so many different levels -- it can be viewed simultaneously as a metaphor for the Japanese encroachment in the world market, a Cronenbergian AIDS analogy, or whatever else you care to read into it -- it never fails to live up to whatever you perceive it as.

Tsukamoto, who single-handedly wrote, directed, shot, lit, and edited the film, has made excellent use of his 16mm black-and-white format; every droplet of sweat on characters' agonized faces comes across as hyper-real in its depiction, and the film's breakneck pacing leaves the audience exhausted at its conclusion -- amazingly, it's almost too much to take.

— Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle

Low-Fi Sci Fi: (((Tetsuo: The Iron Man)))

Sun November 16, 2014, 7:30 only, Muenzinger Auditorium

Japan, 1989, in Japanese, Black and White, 67 min, 1.37 : 1

recommend

Tickets

10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission. $7 w/UCB student ID, $7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.

Parking

Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.

RTD Bus

Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus

International Film Series

(Originally called The University Film Commission)
Established 1941 by James Sandoe.

First Person Cinema

(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.

C.U. Film Program

(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil Grillo.

Celebrating Stan

Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.

C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.

Thank you, sponsors!
Boulder International Film Festival
Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

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