Jeff Vandermeer once described me as a Duran Duran apologist and he’s right. I am, and I’m not going to apologise for my apologism. I love that band’s later music, although I do wonder how I ever came to hear it at all. By time my inner fangirl kicked in, their CDs were lining the five dollar bargain bins. Before Notorious, it was all just teeny bopper shite to my ears. Anyway, last year Rob bought me a couple of Duran Duran music DVDs from JB Hi Fi when he found them in the bargain bin and this weekend I decided to play them to accompany my daily treadmill routine. The first one, Sing Blue Silver was awesome. Footage from their big US tour 23 years ago. The boys were so goddamn pretty! Lipstick pretty with mullets reaching up to the ceiling. Awful hair and awful clothes. But the doco was good. All showing and no telling. I fell in love with them, their rouged cheekbones and their shocking trousers.
But the second deev, Arena, was a whole other kettle of fish. Made, apparently by our own Russell Mulchay, that artiste who brought us Razorback (aka Pig Movie) and most of the Duranies trail blazing MTV soft porn mulletextravaganzas, it was an attempt to turn some expensive live concert footage into a quasi sci fi movie. Interlaced with bits from Barbarella, the movie that inspired their name, and what looked like costume leftovers from Time bandits and a b-grade knock off set from Terry Gilliam’s basement, Arena sucked worse that anything I’ve ever seen before, including van Damme’s Cyborg which was the sci fi suck arse title holder up until this moment.
Seriously, Russell, what were you thinking? What were you on? There’s a making of Arena special on the deev too. I haven’t watched it yet because my treadmill broke down in disgust.
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I like the Wild Boys video clip. That was always kickass.
their early clips are all so gauche, but they were trailblazing back in the day. I’d have preferred to watch a bunch of clips to the abomination they concocted instead.
Touch of Synchronicity there – Jamie and I saw the latest work of Russell Mulcahy’s ouevre on Saturday. Resident Evil-Extinction. Mad Max meets La Femme Nikita meets Reanimator meets everyothersffilminthelastdecade. Having said that, it was fun in places.
I’m seeing a picture emerging here. When did it all start to go bad? With Arena, that’s where.
Maybe you’re on to something. That reminds me of my Razorback story. I was in the pub at Silverton north of Broken Hill out where they filmed the Pig Movie and on the wall of the pub at the time was a picture of Lewis Morley sitting on the back of a ute nursing the big pig head.
wow! Now that’s something you don’t see every day! last time I saw Lewis he was nursing a piece of Nick’s birthday cake.
After watching a bunch of Russell Mulcahy’s Duran Duran videos back to back (on a video DVD), suddenly I knew exactly where his insane work on Highlander II came from…
Highlander had a mullet, didn’t he?
APOLOGIST!
jeffV
[sound of raspberry blowing]
Tussle with Russell
Russell Mulchay once put his hand on my knee in a car while I was working on Razorback….
N.
Re: Tussle with Russell
Like I’m supposed to be surprised???
that is you, Nick, yeah?