Crispin Hellion Glover's What Is It? (Crispin Hellion Glover, 2005)

[Fletch F. Fletch]

From the Filmmaker magazine blog (http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/2 ... k-here.php)

Here's an excerpt:

As Trevor Groth writes in the Sundance catalogue:

After 10 years and numerous incarnations in the making, we are euphoric to present the world premiere of Crispin Hellion Glover's What Is It?... an aptly titled film that defies easy summarization but is a triumph of cinematic irreverence and uncompromising creativity.

"The film (which contains graphic sexuality) flows between controversial imagery and story lines: a minstrel in blackface who aspires to be an invertebrate by injecting snail enzymes into his cheek; a Shirley Temple dictator in Nazi garb; a naked man with cerebral palsy lying on a giant seashell, being fondled by a naked woman wearing a monkey mask; talking snails getting repeatedly salted; and watching over all, an enthroned Glover in a full-length fur coat.

Here's a link to the trailer:

http://www.crispinglover.com/WhatIsIt.html

Weeeeeird!

[rumz]

From his bio at the imdb:

In 1995, Glover began shooting his directorial debut, _What Is It? (2000)_ , a surreal film populated entirely by actors with Down's Syndrome. He later pulled footage from the film into a touring one-man show, "The Big Slide Show," which also incorporated snippets from his books and albums. The artist in Glover claims to be inspired by "the aesthetic of discomfort," a theme which has carried over into his public behavior. During a guest stint on David Letterman's NBC show in 1987, Glover emerged wearing a wig and platform shoes, then delivered a swift kick toward Letterman's head that prompted the producers to cut to a commercial.

[Dylan]

Wow! That looks deeply strange but quite wonderful! I'm a huge fan of Crispin Glover and I can't wait to finally see this (I've been hearing about it for a very, very long time). I'm also happy that he finally has his own webpage (and I look forward to buying the books he has written).

Dylan

[Lino]

OMG! That will probably be the cult movie of all cult movies!

That man is sick but I like him!

[Mr Pixies]

Holy crap, it looks so good! I too love Crispin Glover, and can't wait to get to see this.

[DDillaman]

Wow. I opened this thread planning to mention how I saw some footage on John Pierson's SPLIT SCREEN at one point and how deeply weird it was.

Then I read the description, and realized that I probably saw the *normal* part of the film.

[ben d banana]

he has a pretty good rant (about the movie), with the same title in this book. i've been waiting for it ever since. thanks for the trailer.

[THX1378]

Ok this film just made the top of my must see list so far this year, after reading about it and now seeing the trailer. I have a feeling that this film is going to be sorta like Even Dwarfs Started Small.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

A nice interview with The Man himself over at FilmStew.com:

http://www.filmstew.com/Content/Article ... ntID=11216

Here's an excerpt:

Unconventional as it sounds, this distribution plan has already yielded positive results, including a Best Narrative Film award for What Is It? from the Ann Arbor Film Festival. “I haven’t found on the whole that audiences disagree with the film,” Glover insists. “I’ve found that people in the media will report that audiences disagree with the film, and it really isn’t the case.”

“If I show the film to between 300-500 people at a time, I watch and see how many people get up and leave from the film. And there will be between five and seven people that will get up and leave…but that’s out of 300-500 people, so really that’s a very low amount. There’s probably more people that get up and walk out of an average film that just isn’t engaging.”

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Another interview with Crispin: http://www.cinemadmag.com/glover.html

[dekadetia]

I just learned that Crispin Glover is personally bringing What Is It? and its accompanying slide show to Pittsburgh, PA for three consecutive days in September. I looked for a comprehesive list of tour dates for the rest of the world and came up empty-handed -- his official site appears to be down at the moment. But for those looking forward to seeing this, this should be reassuring -- if he's spending three days with the film in a Pittsburgh, PA, he must be taking the film everywhere he can, and its probably not a matter of if, but when.

[Mr Pixies]

There's an interview with him in the new issue of Juxtapoz, talking about this movie. It's short but he has some good things to say.

[dekadetia]

I picked up Glover's THE BIG PROBLEM ≠ the solution. The Solution = LET IT BE CD today, and it got me in the mood to see the What is It? trailer again. It was pulled from crispinglover.com around the time of the Sundance screening, but I tracked it down, for anyone who missed it the first time around.

Also, the CD has this phone number listed on the back. An elderly woman (his mother?)'s voice on the answering machine asks you to leave your name and address to receive more information on his books and CDs. I love this sort of thing. So I did.

I can only assume the answer is "no", as this thread hasn't yet run red with the blood of the marked, but I'll ask anyway -- has anyone here had the chance to see this yet?

[neuro]

Hmm...cryptic answering machine messages, "Let It Be;" this smells a bit like Glover is doing his own "Paul is Dead" schtick.

[todcraproductions]

I LOVE that album. That album was pretty much my introduction to Crispin Hellion Glover (I mean, of course, i'd seen him before, but I never paid much attention to him; I liked him in Back to the Future, say, but I didn't really pay much attention) -- I got it because it's produced by Barnes and Barnes, whom I'm a big fan of, and found that the album was both excellent and could only be described as "the damnedest thing". Ever since then, I've gotten most his films in some form, 3 of his books, and, um, that's about it. But yeah. I think of "Ruben And Ed" as sort of a companion piece to that album -- aside from the reference to "Mr. Farr" on it, there's some dialogue that leads me to make a guess at The Big Problem (never found out if my hypothesis is correct, though).

Anyway, though, yeah -- champing at the bit to see What Is It. I hope it hits Seattle soon.

[dekadetia]

This is longish, but useful, I hope.

I saw What is it last night in Pittsburgh, PA at the Oaks Theater, preceded by Glover's "Big Slide Show", which is really just a reading from his reassembled books as the pages are projected against the screen. He read from ten different books, only about half of which have yet been published. If you've heard his CDs or read his books, you know what that was like. I'm still trying to piece my thoughts together regarding What is It? -- I'm conflicted, but I want badly to try to speak to this, so I'm posting two sets of divergent reactions to the film; this is less a matter of good + bad = just okay than like great and awful pulling hard as they can against one another. I hope that nothing here is seen as spoiling -- I don't personally think that What is It? is a spoilable film -- but consider this a SPOILER WARNING, anyway.

EITHER:
What is It? really is everything that we've heard and could hardly believe. It is a film with a cast of actors with down syndrome which the protagonist (Michael Blevis) searches a neighborhood and graveyard to find his way home, smashing and salting snails (Fairuza Balk) to death and receiving walkie-talkie directives and propaganda from Shirley Temple (herself) along the way. It is also about this character's inner psyche, a dark world inhabited by “Dueling Demi-God Auteursâ€

[toiletduck!]

Glover's coming to Chicago!

On November 17 and 18, Glover will be presenting his Big Slide Show and the Chicago premiere of What Is It? along with the requisite audience Q&A and book signing.

Ok this film just made the top of my must see list so far this year, after reading about it and now seeing the trailer. I have a feeling that this film is going to be sorta like Even Dwarfs Started Small.

And odd that you should mention it, because the evenings will culminate in Glover introducing his selection for the weekend's Midnight Movie -- Even Dwarfs Started Small.

-Toilet Dcuk

[Kirkinson]

Glover's coming to Chicago!

!!! Where is this happening? The Music Box?

[toiletduck!]

Ooops, forgot that lil' tidbit, didn't I? Yup, at the Music Box... tickets are $20 at the door for the whole shebang, but advance tickets went on sale today at ticketweb.com for $17 (which comes out to $19.25 after processing.)

I've already got mine, so have at it, everybody!

-Toilet Dcuk

[indiannamednobody]

I'm there.

[Via_Chicago]

Sounds crazy weird, but $20? I'm a broke-ass college student, I don't know if I want to risk $20 ($10 I can handle) on something I might hate; then again, even if I hate it, it would no doubt be pretty damn interesting.

[Brian Oblivious]

He's also coming to San Francisco along with What Is It? and an 8-film retrospective of his acting work, October 20-22.

[blindside8zao]

Did anyone else find his additions to all the Herzog commentaries to be nothing but annoying? He continually made speculations which were wrong, didn't really seem to get the "sense" of any of Herzog's films.

[Mr Pixies]

Did anyone else find his additions to all the Herzog commentaries to be nothing but annoying? He continually made speculations which were wrong, didn't really seem to get the "sense" of any of Herzog's films.

Kind of. I only heard the Even Dwarves Started Small track, and I loved hearing him, but thought he was wrong with a lot of things. What though, i don't remember.

[blindside8zao]

the other commentaries are exactly the same. edit: see fata morgana more specifically.