Jörg Buttgereit's MONSTERLAND

[mattman]

I already aired on German TV, but when is it airing on American TV or coming to American DVD?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305723/

That documentary sounds good.
:)

[Avery Guerra]

I did read something about this somewhere. It screened at "Sci-Fi London":

http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festival/2009/programme/documentary/monsterland.php

Here's his official "MySpace":

http://www.myspace.com/joergbuttgereitofficial

Some pics:

http://www.kongula.de/geparkt/monsterland/Bild1_min.jpg


http://www.kongula.de/geparkt/monsterland/Bild2_min.jpg

[kpa]

I saw MONSTERLAND a month or two ago. It's very "hit and miss"... there are some nice interviews with people like John Carpenter, Teruyoshi Nakano, Kenpachiro Satsuma, Greg Nicotero, and HR Geiger, and the production apparently had a good budget because they filmed in several countries and used quite a few movie clips (which aren't cheap to license).

The big flaw is that MONSTERLAND is completely unfocused. Documentaries generally follow the "term paper" format... begin with a presentation of the thesis, present material to support it, and then give a conclusion. MONSTERLAND doesn't do any of that, but instead bounces around randomly. There's a section about Godzilla but right in the middle of it the film cuts to scenes from the German movie KONGULA and then back to the Godzilla talk with no explanation. One minute someone's talking about a movie, the next some painter is describing his interest in real life murderers like Charles Manson and Ed Gein. That scene drags on and on and will probably bore most viewers who want to hear about movie monsters.

The few people I know who have seen MONSTERLAND have all had the same "WTF?!" opinion. And I heard one major North American film festival was offered the documentary and turned it down for the same reason.

If and when MONSTERLAND becomes available I would recommend it to monster fans because it does have some interesting interviews. Seeing Satsuma's home was great... he basically built a shrine to himself. That alone makes MONSTERLAND worth a look.

[G2KMaster]

John Carpenter? Godzilla? Guilala? THIS IS GOING TO BE GREAT! (People who know me that under kaiju, I am a John Carpenter fanboy). Though that scene break may effect me, I do like hearing crap about Charlie Manson and stuff. Though Satsuma's home? AWESOME!

I shall pray for this documentrie's release. Though I hope Starz picks it up. Afterall, they have done stuff on anime, comic books, and computer game films. This would be cool and go great with the unusualy large amount of showings of Godzilla 2000 that have been on the stars channels since January this year...

Thanks for the review Keith and the Links Avery...

[Avery Guerra]

WOW!! The entire documentary is up on "YouTube"!!:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=Monsterland+Part+-+J%C3%B6rg+Buttgereit&aq=f

Also here's more details:
http://www.sndfilms.com/catalog/tekst/documentaries/Monsterland.html

[G2KMaster]

Thanks Avery, though watching, part 2 is missing. Part 1 is prety much an introductory (with John having first apperance!!!), part two covers stuff like the slasher genre and king Kong and beings with Wolfman stuff. Though in part four, we get more wolfman stuff (and Amazing stuff from THE HOWLING, notice a DAIMAIJIN figure on a bookshelve when they start talking about Dracula)! Still watching.

[G2KMaster]

Just got done watching. Apparently Part two, the part which was taken down, was the part which had kaiju-material on it. I am going to get down to the bottom of this because I wanted to see the inside of Kenpachiro Satsuma's house very badly...

Part 5 has limited footage with JD Lees...

[kpa]

The version of MONSTERLAND that I saw was prepared for English speaking markets. There was no German overdubbing so you can actually hear what the interviewees are saying. People like Giger and Nakano spoke in their native language and were subtitled.

Of course, having all (or most) of the documentary on YouTube is certainly not going to help the chances of it getting picked up for distribution here.

[G2KMaster]

I could prety much tell what they were making out, and having John Carpenter there was just awesome. Though I could actualy see how the thing was focused. It had a nice intro, and just explained the three types of monsters most prevelent in today's cinema: slasher, kaiju, and classic horror (werewolves, Dracula, ect). And I feel that it is a good film for beginers to thoes wanting to know about monsters in general.

Notable Mention: I loved how John Carpenter explained the allegory. It was awesome. Though someone needs to ask him about his early film made via 8mm, "Gorgo vs. Godzilla". This kind of home made movies would be explicit with John's influence with Goji. Plus, it sounds cool. But I dobt someone will.

[lbh]

I should mention that this documentry will be shown at this years G-Fest for those who are going:)

[Avery Guerra]

Of course, having all (or most) of the documentary on YouTube is certainly not going to help the chances of it getting picked up for distribution here.


This just recently happened with "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus" as right when it released someone uploaded it to "YouTube" in segments. I was quick to contact the heads at "Asylum Ent." but even after they got it taken down the member just reposted it shortly after. Then they had it removed again. It's a never ending battle.

[ArmandV101]

Monsterland screened twice at G-FEST and it was well-received. It was broken up into topics or "themes," nobody had any difficulty in comprehending the message.

[G2KMaster]

How was the footage from Satsuma-san's house?

[ArmandV101]

How was the footage from Satsuma-san's house?

Interesting. It looked more like a shack than a house.