The Movie Orgy

Is there anything (still) more enjoyable than the Joe Dante of Howl (1981), Gremlins (1984) or Matinee (1993)? Probably: let's think of a twenty-something Joe Dante going on a cinematic binge with The Movie Orgy (1968), a pantagruelic filmic object that brings together for several hours snippets of TV movies, B-movies, hygienic or military propaganda... all drawn from the bowels of American popular culture in the 50s and 60s. Conceived as an event film intended to be screened during parties on various college campuses, this forerunner of mash-up programmes and cyber-video compilations is an unabashed and unabashed declaration of cinephile love. This orgy of passionately assembled, mixed and rethought material can only have its appropriate counterpart - this is our recommendation - in a jubilant audience ready to take this encounter with the audiovisual detritus of another era as a party that transcends the screening room. GABRIEL DOMÉNECH