200 Motels — Prime Video
You wouldn’t pick Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention as the band to star in a rock documentary, but in 1971 Zappa and British director Tony Palmer wrote and directed this uneven but still uniquely surreal portrait of the band stuck in the hell of the fictional town of Centerville, “a real nice place to raise your kids up”. With a little help from friends like maverick The Who drummer Keith Moon and a bemused Ringo Starr, the film may not be for non-Zappa fans but there’s still plenty of cringey 1970s effects in this singular Zappa version of the rockumentary and lots of the complicated and playful music that made him a legend and cult favourite.
The Odyssey — YouTube
South African viewers of a certain age may remember this lavish 1997 miniseries adaptation of the foundational text of Western literature starring Armand Assante as Odysseus, Greta Scacchi as Penelope and a supporting cast that includes Geraldine Chaplin, Irene Papas, Christopher Lee and Isabella Rossellini. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, it remains one of the more extensive attempts to bring the great epic to screen, ahead of director Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated and hyped adaptation, which lands in cinemas next week.
Boxcar Bertha — Prime Video
Martin Scorsese was only 30 when he directed this, his second feature for the legendary indie producer Roger Corman. It was loosely adapted from the 1930s book Sister of the Road, a pseudo-autobiography of Bertha Thompson, played by Barbara Hershey and set against the ruthless backdrop of the Depression. Scorsese’s version is a mess of violence, blood and obvious religious symbolism.
The Odyssey: The Real Story — Rent or buy Apple TV+
Another pre-Nolan Odyssey fix, this time in the form of a brisk but fascinating examination of Homer’s epic against recent archaeological evidence. Host Carole English takes viewers on a journey back in time to examine how much of the story of the long voyage home taken by the hero and his crew may have been real, and how much remains in the world of myth and legend.
Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog — Mubi.com
German director Julian Radlmaier plays an irritating, neurotic intellectual version of himself in this sharp satire from 2017. Filmmaker Julian meets and falls for an expat he encounters at an art gallery. Determined to impress her, he sets about creating a fake, righteously angry, communist-inspired film for his new obsession to star in. Taking broad swipes at everything from capitalism to the patriarchy and the loud words that often hide inaction, Radlmaier’s brisk experiment offers a thoughtful critique of a modern world where empty sloganeering comes up against hard economic and social realities.
Business Day
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.