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The Bootleg Files: Dylan Thomas

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BOOTLEG FILES 848: “Dylan Thomas” (1962 Oscar-winning documentary short featuring Richard Burton).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: It doesn’t appear to have been released.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There could be a rights issue preventing its release.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.

Here’s a question for Academy Award trivia buffs: What is the only Welsh film to win an Oscar? The answer is the subject of this week’s column: “Dylan Thomas,” which earned the 1962 Best Documentary Short Subject Award.
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There’s Something In The Barn (2023)

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One of the aspects that hinders Magnus Marten’s “There’s Something in the Barn” from being a real home run of a movie is that it never quite decides what it wants to be. Sometimes it’s a horror movie, sometimes it is fantasy, sometimes it’s just downright comedy, and it builds up this intricate universe with not a lot of explanation or extrapolation. “There’s Something in the Barn” could be good. It could be “Krampus” good, but it leans so much toward this fish out of water comedy that it loses sight of the whole premise involving killer elves, and this weird pact that is never fully explored or fleshed out.

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Barbarella (1968): Arrow Video Limited Edition [Blu-Ray]

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Now that Hollywood is once again considering a remake of “Barbarella,” it’s that perfect time to re-visit Roger Vadim’s wonky science fiction mind fuck. Jane Fonda fresh off of beginning her Oscar caliber career took a break to headline what is one of the trippiest science fiction adventure films ever produced. Decades later it’s shocking how much “Barbarella” was a precursor to magazines like “Heavy Metal” allowing the writers to build a world and an engaging heroine, while also fully embracing the inherent sexuality of the narrative.

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Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Saules aveugles, femme endormie’) (2023)

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Director Pierre Földes is not an artist prone to just giving us something that’s easily digestible and worthy of leaving us dangling. “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” is probably one of the most uncommercial movies of the year, and the fact that it’s fully animated also works in its favor. The animation style that is used along with the often intentional drabness of it all allows for an almost ethereal aesthetic; it’s one that feels so dream like. It’s almost like someone just ripped random imagery from someone’s subconscious and manifested it through some pretty good rotoscoping and 3D animation.

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Wish (2023)

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I say this with the utmost honesty, that despite the initial criticism of “Wish” looking like generic AI produced junk, I was very optimistic about it. I defended it often. I loved Ariana DeBose in “West Side Story,” I’m a big fan of Chris Pine, I love Alan Tudyk, so its just so sad that Chris Buck, and Fawn Veerasunthorn’s “Wish” really does end up feeling like Disney is going for the bare minimum with audiences. In a year filled with humongous milestones like the 100 year anniversary and the SAG and WGA strike (which hurt their image with a lot of audiences), you’d assume Disney would pull out all of the stops for their newest animated movie.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hair-Raising Hare (1946)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Hair-Raising Hare (1946)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Ted Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Ben Washam

“Hair-Raising Hare” is one of my all time favorite Bugs Bunny Toons. It not only features one of the more simplistic but clever premises of his library, but also introduces one of his most underrated nemeses, the monster known as Gossamer. The entire set up or “Hair-Raising Hare” doesn’t really demand a lot of thinking which works to the benefit of the short as the best element of “Hair-Raising Hare” is the interplay between Bugs, Gossamer, and the audience.

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