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Today, 04 July 2009

> IRB called in on Botha ban

> Lions roar in Johannesburg

> Rugby live scoring

> United States of Africa?

> The iafrica.com debate

Yesterday, 03 July 2009

> A slap in the face

> I'm no thug - Schalk

> 'Jews, Arabs to live apart'

> Smit slams Bakkies ban

> Lions warn Boks

Welcome to the first edition of Cult de Sac, iafrica.com’s weekly round up of all that is cult, obscure and offbeat.

Each week you’ll find a selection of film reviews and stories on the classic, the cult and the alternative.

Here you’re less likely to find the likes of Steven Spielberg than you are to discover Cronenberg, Todd Browning or Peter Greenaway. But let’s keep an open mind because even Richard Donner, who brought you Lethal Weapon (1987) and Scrooged (1988) cracked the cult nod with The Omen (1976). There’s weirdness in all of us.

Cult films include a diverse cross-section, ranging from Metropolis (1926) and Nosferatau (1922), to Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and Shallow Grave (1994). Whether intentionally or not they are all offbeat, original and enduring films, and whether it’s a giant killer tomato, transsexual aliens with a penchant for lounge singing, or drug abuse on the streets of Edinburgh, all good cult films are memorable and lend themselves to repeated viewing.

But having said this, the chances are good that if you’re reading this, then you probably already enjoy cult films and appreciate their quirks and eccentricities. Of course you could also just have clicked on the wrong link. Either way read on…

Watching VH1’s top 100 albums of all time this weekend, I was struck by how much stock we place in music; how much it shapes and affects us, and how ridiculous many of the artists seem in retrospect. No by-product of the sixties was more ridiculous than the many-rear-view- mirrored-mopeds of the Mods, compared to the hulking American machines preferred by their arch-rivals; the Rockers.

And so pops up a rather opportune link into this week’s film focus; Quadrophenia (1979) directed by Franc Roddam.

Andrew's obsession with cult films began at midnight at the age of ten, and involved a bowl of popcorn, an old television set and John Carpenter's Halloween. Little has changed since then, besides age, the popcorn and the fact that he can now climb dark stairwells after a horror movie by himself. Andrew is a published writer of horror fiction, a screenwriter and a freelance journalist. His time is spent largely in pursuit of a truly original horror film. Failing that he has threatened to make his own.

Quadrophenia, based on The Who’s rock-opera, produced by the band, and featuring an impressive soundtrack from the same, tells the story of Jim Cooper, an average lost teen in sixties’ London. The narrative follows him on his journey of self discovery, taking in Brighton en route, a place notorious for attracting running battles between the Mods, Rockers and riot police.

The film itself is sedentary in its pace and at times reluctant to reach its conclusion, but when it does the effect is really quite moving. Quadrophenia is also an important film. Firstly it contributed to the Brit-film tradition of gritty realism and expository narratives. Without it and films like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), films like Trainspotting, Nil by Mouth, The Firm and others like them would simply not have been made.

In terms of its merits as a musical cult film it also predates Pink Floyd The Wall by three years. This isn’t to detract from the obvious merits of The Wall, but Quadrophenia certainly set a precedent others would have to have taken into account.

Quadrophenia is a brutally honest film and while naïve to some degree in its portrayal of Jim and his gang, presents a portrait of a Britain seething with repression. It also features a much younger Sting as Ace, the Oberon of the Mods.

The British musical cult film is a well established, though impoverished genre and includes Pink Floyd The Wall (1982), Tommy (1975) and This is Spinal Tap (1984).

Ultimately artistic expressions like music, and the films based on it interpret the events of the day in a way no history lesson or piece of journalism can. That is invaluable. That is cult.

Until next week…thanks for reading.

Feel free to disagree with all of the above and contact me with ideas, suggestions and abuse. I’m open to all three, although I do prefer qualified abuse.