Today Infringing Upon: // Korrupte Parallelmontage // Geschichte als Verunreinigung //

Disclaimer I:
I stole the term // Korrupte Parallelmontage // corrupt parallel montage // from Lukas Foerster and his intriguing text on MANILA IN THE FANGS OF DARKNESS, because it's lovely, and it opened up like a flower or a fist, and then I went all awww! and stole grabbed it.

Disclaimer II:
I stole the term // Geschichte als Verunreinigung // history as contamination // from him, too. He coined it during his introduction to the TRACES OF A THIRD CINEMA film retrospective, which is currently shown at the Zeughauskino, Berlin. - - The history of a curatorial concept - - from trace as past and present -neat and tidy- to trace as past and present -corruptive, disruptive, contaminative-.

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CorruptParallelMontage (1)



This is not a one way street. This is not a film by Khavn. This is not James Dean.
This is not a one way street. Nevertheless, he only goes in one direction. Where does it take him? To a woman?
Where does it take me? (d.g.) Me, CPM (1)-(4). d. g., where does it take you?
This is not a one way street. This is a one way street. This is not a one way street. It's the sign that's wrong, you'd have to behead that arrow. He's going nowhere. Or, a 90 degree turn, he's going sideways. He ends up with the back against the wall, facing his flagellants, where he had been standing all along. Yet, this is not a circle. This is a one way street. (a.h.)
Alright, this seriously was some kind of brain wreckage on my part. In fact, I don't think the sign is wrong. He's not going sideways, but straight down till he reaches the end of the road. With nowhere left to go to. (d.h.2)

Stills from (left) MANILA IN THE FANGS OF DARKNESS (Khavn, RP 2008) and (right) MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF NEON (Lino Brocka, 1975) and (left/right/center) MANILA IN THE FANGS OF DARKNESS (not a film by Khavn, RP 2008).


CorruptParallelMontage (2)

„What's it gonna be“, he says, „art or revolution?“ Every Monday at noon. He enters the office. He stares at the coffee pot, „What's it gonna be“, he takes a cup from the rack. He fills his cup. He turns towards the desk. He lifts his cup. He pauses. He blinks. He motions with his right hand. He enunciates the options, „art or revolution?“. On days, which never fall on Mondays, it is not a question, but a corrupt parallel montage. He rephrases a lot on Mondays. He reads Taylor Mead. A lot on Mondays: // The movies are this exciting thing, you see. The movies are a revolution. //

Art and revolution, two paranoids in stand-off:
A: „You talkin' to me?“
R: „You talkin' to me?“


CorruptParallelMontage (3)

The contamination of the present by the past - like oil in water, you send in Greenpeace, but it keeps on lurking about, actually it's just swimming. In After the wood, after having chopped down the trees with Deleuze, the rhizom, nature's corruptparallelmontage? Corrupt as in (bad word) paranoid, (good word) schizophrenic?


CorruptParallelMontage (4)


In Major Kontra's lair: ??, Rambo, Jesus on the cross and a star-spangled banner.


In Major Kontra's lair II, preaching to the rebels: Who's it gonna be who saves your soul, Jesus or America?

Stills from ORAPRONOBIS (Lino Brocka, RP 1989) = MANILA IN THE FANGS OF DARKNESS (not a film by Khavn, RP 2008).

Revolution as corruptparallelmontage: Vigilantes who were rebels now fighting rebels who were fighting dictatorship now fighting for human rights who vigilantes call phoney intellectuals. I am not even pretending that I got any of it right.
This is not about revolution. This is about an angry man, involuntarily walking in circles. Repeating now non-revolutionary movements of the past which maybe were revolutionary then. Trying to break the circle into a spiral to advance to anywhere. (d.g.)
I disagree about the angry (yet, I can't think of a better word, so maybe I agree after all), the involuntarily and the circles and the breaking (see (1)), and it is about the revolution (in terms of the oil swimming along, see (3)).
d. g., I love your image of spiraling advancement - - I usually picture spirals as leading downward onto some hard ground or fluffy madness; and advancement sneaking up on you from behind, tapping you on the shoulder or kicking you in the knees - - -
So, we're dizzy, d. g., but for the better? (a.h.)
No, sorry. I don't think so. Just dizzy. No better. And that's my last word about this movie. (d.g.2)

All four stills have been screencapped from the World Revolution Media page whose tagline is „It's right to rebel.“ Rebel as in the neat and tidy living ideology of MarxismLeninismMaoism. Major Kontra, what are you pointing at now?
Anywhere! - No.
At a woman? - No.
With his back to a wall, facing a bunch of flagellantes.

Couldn't he be pointing only at them? (d.g.) - Yes. (a.h.)