In 1975, a small miracle happened – British director Lindsay Anderson’s film “O, õnneseen!” was released in Estonian cinemas.
Hardi Volmer was currently studying at Lydia Koidula 2nd secondary school in Pärnu. “Western rock music was recorded from hand to hand, records were moved, but to be able to see a British band performing in color in the cinema, to drive around England in their tour bus – it was a complete culture shock for us,” recalls the well-known filmmaker and musician almost 50 years later.
The music of Alan Price, founding member of the band The Animals, plays an important role in the film.
But that was not the only thing that attracted young Volmer. “Looking at the film, it became clear that Taies contained several additional values: the absurd action mechanisms of the free market economy, the sci-fi dystopia of transplant medicine, the grimace of neo-colonialism, amazing acting and all of this in the sauce of restrained black humor.”
Now he shows his old source of inspiration and talks about how it has influenced him at another event of the Haapsalu Film Club, which will take place on Wednesday, October 16 at 6 p.m. in the basement hall of the Haapsalu Cultural Center.
“Oh, Lucky Mushroom” is the story of Mick Travis, an aspiring coffee salesman, who in his pursuit of riches finds himself in situations that are at times comical and at the same time horrifying. It is a Kafkaesque surrealist mind story that reached Soviet theaters only because it is a “relentlessly critical work of bourgeois society,” as Kino, an advertising magazine introducing new films coming to theaters, proclaimed in 1975.
The film stars Malcolm McDowell, of A Clockwork Orange fame, and is part of the so-called Mick Travis Trilogy, along with Anderson’s other films, When… and Ravila Britannia.
The film club that meets once a month in Haapsalu invites well-known Estonian filmmakers to visit and asks them to bring a film that has had a significant impact on them. This is a unique opportunity to meet the author face to face in a relaxed atmosphere.
Joining the club is still free – for this you need to fill out a form that can be found at the event or on the website of the Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival.
Source: online.le.ee
