ASHES AND FLAMES

Produced by Katherine Hare and Anthony Kane
Directed and Written by Anthony Kane
Director of Photography - Dave Porfiri

Aisha Prigann
Sasha DeMarino
Mark Schultz
Harsi Heilpern

Over the years there have been titles that graced the cover of EI Cinema's Alternative Cinema Magazine that I've longed to screen but simply couldn't afford. Movies like INVASION FOR FLESH AND BLOOD, IN THE HOOD, and BLOOD, BULLETS, BUFFOONS were kept from my grasp by my own cheapness. It's hard to justify paying $30 for a VHS release you know little about other than the small, and often biased, write-ups in genre publications, especially considering the burning I took over a $10 copy of Matt Walsh's KINGDOM OF THE VAMPIRE.

Five years ago, Anthony Kane's ASHES AND FLAMES almost had me dropping the coin. Almost, mind you, almost. I've always been a cheapskate and there's no way around it. But in the past five years I've learned that membership has it's privileges and Mike Raso is one heck of a nice guy. But $30 bucks is still $30, and for VHS that's almost a crime. Almost, mind you, Big Brother hasn't passed any legislation regarding mental sodomy, but he damn sure should.

Now $30 for DVD is another story, especially if it comes with all the bells and whistles. Then I don't mind paying so much. Great picture, great sound, all the things a release such as ASHES AND FLAMES deserves. Anything less is a crime. Not almost, IS. The source material is easily the best title in the EI catalog that I've viewed. It's pure visionary genius and deserves to be resurrected on the superior format. Even if it's paired with a newer release, and thus cutting down the supplements, it would be worth it just to see the expressionistic images in all their black and white glory.

Watching ASHES AND FLAMES is like channeling F. W. Murnau through David Lynch. It's a movie of pure visual expressionism about a world of pure sexual dysfunction. It's a movie where horrific images ring of horrific pain. It's a movie where complete sadness stands with an equal footing along side complete absurdity. Put simply, it's underground filmmaking at its most exhilarating.

It's hard for anyone to justify a statement like "underground filmmaking at its most exhilarating." Most will say its hyperbole at best, but let me ask you something, when was the last time a movie made you excited about the medium and what can be achieved? That's how I came away from ASHES AND FLAMES - hungry to stake my claim cinematically. It's not a matter of "trying to do better," I've found is often the case with micro-cinema inspiration, but more along the lines of finding a kindred sprit and wanting to explore artistic possibilities with them.

As beautifully layered a movie as Kane has produced, it's story is a simple one. A nameless woman is haunted by the spirit of her nameless dead sister. After years of sexual abuse at the hands of their father, one survived and one found peace. The one who lived finds comfort with a nameless man who loves the dead girl. The man has problems of his own, his entire life his mother has kept his manhood under lock and key.

There's no bonding between the two, only completion. He's the yin to her yang. The relationship is symbiotic. Neither needs nor wants what the other offers, but each sees a way through the other to grasp their needs. Kane never forces their pairing, but allows each the time to understand the other first.

Sometimes Kane's visuals are almost too over-the-head with their meanings, sometimes they're completely absurd in their weirdness, but never are they dull to look at. That's part of the magic of black and white. There's a classiness that compels me to watch each composition, taking them in like a prized snapshots in a scrapbook and committing them to memory.

And a memory is something I'd rather this movie NOT become. It's too good. Perhaps I've inspired some of you to e-mail EI and ask for a proper re-release, I can only hope so. This really is a great movie that any fan of indi-cinema should explore.

EI Cinema
Alternative Cinema