Displaying items by tag: Cult

© Words Matteo Sedazzari
The Perfect Friday (1971 Directed by Peter Hall, co-produced by Stanley Baker)

Friday is a nice day, the week draws to a close, and many of us plan a pursuit of happiness and excitement, away from the mundane routine of work. And that is certainly the case for Mr Graham (Stanley Baker), a deputy bank manager, in a pin striped suit and bowler hat, with a sergeant major type moustache working at a plush branch in London’s Hyde Park, single and on the surface dull and happy to oblige his employers and clients.  

© Words Matteo Sedazzari
Baker may have left Wales, but was proud of the country of his birth “I’m a Welshman and proud of it. But I’m no nationalist. I think the Welsh nationalists are foolish and misguided people.”   stated Baker in 1969, a comment that could have alienated him.  However in 1970, in his home town  Ferndale, Rhondda, Baker attended the unveiling of a plaque placed on the house in which he was born Albany Street.  It seemed that Ferndale offered solace to Baker, and kept him grounded, as he would return to visit old haunts and catch up with old friends, “Acting can be an artificial business, that’s why I go home when I can to the Rhonda Valley, I do it to be with my own people. They love in a real way, It’s a great leveller. 

Brian Clemens is quite possibly Britain's greatest screenwriter. The man behind TV classic like The Avengers, Thriller and The Professionals and movies like Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, The Tell Tale Heart and a firm ZANI favourite And Soon THE Darkness.

Read the full interview on

http://www.zani.co.uk/brian-clemens-creator-of-the-professionals-and-much-more-talks-to-zani

The Hero Myth is marbled throughout all cultures and all ages, it's part of the fabric of human civilisation. There are Freudian, Jungian and other various anthropological links to this myth everywhere from the beginning of recorded history.

In the 20th and 21st centuries nowhere has the classic myth of the superhero who will save us from evil, while making his own painful journey, been more evident than in the comic book

At the height of their popularity in 1974, their then manager, Chas Chandler (former bass player of The Animals and former manager of Jimi Hendrix), suggested Slade do a film. Perhaps trying to emulate the success of The Beatles with A Hard Day's Night and Help at the height of Beatlemania, it seemed a logical step that The Black Country's answer to Merseyside's Fab Four should follow suit.

Dean Cavanagh is no stranger to ZANI. We've covered his film and theatre work with Irvine Welsh in the past and now he's taken a leap into directing. "Kubricks" is written and directed by Dean and his son, Josh Cavanagh, produced by Alan McGee and stars Roger Evans, Joanna Pickering and Gavin Bain.

Essex 1967, the careers officer raises his eye brows at the school boy, as he searches for the right words so he doesn't hurt the kid's feelings, "An actor, that's what you want to do as a job when you leave school? ". The blonde school boy with a small frame and short in height, nods with no enthusiasm. Since he yearned to become an actor, he has grown accustomed to the mocking, a disguise for jealously and envy. His peers recite lines from Shakespeare, which, most of the time, are misquoted. In fact the ridicules have hardened him. As living on a council estate in Essex has made him tough. He knew how to handle the lads,

I suppose it’s a question that anyone who appreciates something gets asked a once in their career of fascination. For me, my turn onto Tony Hancock began with “The Rebel”. I can’t tell you how much the film became a source of inspiration to me over the years. I dare say anyone who has done the commuting lark will connect with that classic scene with Hancock at the beginning of the film.

In the mid sixties, the world saw the birth of hippies. A counter culture, which questioned so much about society, and was not afraid to suggest an alternative lifestyle to the norm. A spectacular movement, with colourful clothes, magnificent music in the guise of The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and many more, with mind-bending drugs and free love. An ethos that went way beyond being a bored teenager, and got the whole world thinking.