Film: The Wicker Man

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 19 Jan 10 - 07:12 AM

Sorry - 4got say - 100 - on last one.

BLTN    -- so 101!

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 19 Jan 10 - 11:41 AM

And I thought the Lego version was funny. The Teletubbies ending nearly had me rolling on the floor

-----------Nov 2010. Thread closed due to spamming. Contact Joe Offer if you want it reopened, please---------

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,john in Hamilton
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 06:36 PM

Anyone ntice the similarity between the maypole song and John Mayall's 'Room to Move'?

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 02:41 AM

"I read that Christopher Lee described Edward Woodward's part as "beautifully played".
Never been ale to take the film seriously because of the Christopher Lee character's uncanny resemblence to Maddy Prior (on speed).
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: Tom - Swords & Songs
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 09:08 AM

If anyone is in the North East there is a Wicker Man concert tonight in The Sage Gateshead.

The Memory Band are playing a set of tunes from the Wicker Man film and this is followed by a late night screening of the Directors Cut of the original 1973 film.

Information and tickets from here

Tom

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 05:24 PM

Stumbled on this: trailer for "The Wicker Tree", another film by director Robin Hardy, as a reimagining or revisitation of the themes of his 1973 film.

movie website
Wickipedia entry
IMDB entry, which gives it as 2010, rather than 2011. It's not released in the U.S. yet, is it out in the U.K.?

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: fretless
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 06:09 PM

Thank you for sending this along, Becky. That trailer and the description were fabulous--missionaries vs. the pagans, and guess who wins! I can't wait for the U.S. opening.

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 07:21 PM

Are you sure this whole thing isn't a spoof?

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 07:53 PM

The first link suggests it's "in select theaters (sic) from January 27th." Presumably that means U.S.?

http://www.filmdates.co.uk/films/3304-the-wicker-tree/ gives a UK release date of 9th October 2011, but I haven't been able to find any screening details. It's not on currently in any local (NW England) cinemas, and I can't find any listing site that will provide info beyond the current week.

Thanks for posting, Becky. There's a cinema not far away that may well run this film even if it doesn't get general release. I'll keep looking.

Ross

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 08:12 AM

from Amazon UK entry for paperback:
''Let's face it, there are strange communities in the world.' Purity rings in hand, a young evangelical Christian singer and her devoted fiancé leave the comfort of their Texas home to journey into heathen parts of the earth, hoping to spread the word of God across the land. Their mission takes them to a bizarre Scottish town whose people and practices turn their world inside out. To call it a culture clash would be too gentle. To reveal anything further would be a blight against the heavens.
38 years after directing THE WICKER MAN (and following a 22-year filmmaking sabbatical), celebrated iconoclast Robin Hardy has reunited with producer Peter Snell and returned to the Pagan pantheon with this hugely eccentric successor film, THE WICKER TREE. The distinction is an important one to make, as this is neither sequel nor re-imagining, but rather a film narrative cut from the same universe (or as its maker refers to it, 'a spiritual sequel'). Hardy is a one-of-a-kind filmmaker, and THE WICKER TREE is brimming with the stamp of his personality. It has ample Scottish colour, reaching out through tons of catchy folk songs interspersed throughout the film. Clever plays on religious iconography and an acute understanding of Pagan ritualism. Ethereal locations. A charged sense of the sexual. A dreamlike sense of the magical. Costumes, dances and animal masks.
An off-centre look at the absurdities of faith (in this case, neither Christian nor Pagan get off easy), THE WICKER TREE could be called a black theological satire, a strange breed of irony-fuelled comedy-musical-horror-thriller-drama. Call it however you like, it will bring a smile to your lips and, perhaps, a torch to your belief system. Based on Hardy's novel [...] and featuring appearances by Christopher Lee, members of the Beltane Fire Society and a compellingly show-stopping Graham McTavish, this is a film that's been brewing for many years, one that has proved exceedingly difficult to mount. Now, finally, it is here. Prepare to ride the laddie and join us in celebrating the second coming of one of cinema s great seers. May Day is upon us. THE WICKER TREE is about to burn' --Mitch Davis, Director of Fantasia Film Festival, on the motion picture The Wicker Tree
--Scottish Review of Books

Best wishes, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 09:46 AM

Review here.

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 10:38 AM

The Wicker Tree? What the f...?

Still, if I'm prepared to sit through endless sequels, prequels & reimaginings of Planet of the Apes, (pity my long suffering wife!) then why not this? And yes, if I had to make the choice it would be Planet of the Apes over Wicker Man every time. Why? Simply a matter of Zeitgeist and cinematographic impact really - after all, they're both essentially about the same thing : indvidual freedom vs. rabid idiotic mass compliance, though at least in PotA there are shades of dissent in the 'community', unlike the fascistic cretins on Summerisle. And they both end with a revelation of statuesque iconography and with our heros crying out in similar despair (though better Taylor's lot than Howie's). And dare I say PotA has a better soundtrack as well??? Hey, just a matter of opinion - I reckon TWM's faux-folk smorgasbord is served up to show how bogus the whole Summerisle set-up is anyway; hence the seque from a fairly traditional rendering of Highland Widow's Lament (beautifully sung by Sheila Mackie) into Giovanni's cunningly twisted Corn Riggs (beautifully sung by Giovanni himself). Stuff of genius really. Anyway - The Wicker Tree, eh? Definitely one to watch out for - along with At Swim Two Birds...

When the villagers turn out to be a murderous cult,
And set you ablaze in a wicker man,
When you cannot find the faith to exult...
A Pint of Plain is Your Only Man!

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 10:09 AM

For me, the best thing about the trailer for the film that I saw is that it introduced me to the music of Charlie Terrell. I don't know as yet if "Doxology Blues" is actually used in the film, but it certainly blew me away as it played over the second half of the trailer.

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 19 Apr 12 - 12:16 PM

I'm currently working on the idea that the earthy realism of Pasolini's Canterbury Tales stands in diametric opposition to pure kitsch of The Wicker Man. In TWM even the nudity is fake - as fake as the bogus paganism and the soppy reworkings of folk songs that just add to the overall atmosphere of fascistic fakelore. Pasolini's Canterbury Tales on the other hand is infused with the braw stench of sensual human filth and depravity with a raw soundtrack of real Traditional Song and Medieval Music to match. The nudity is real and yet in no way does serve to titilate; it's as honest and bawdy as anything you find in Traditional Song, which is the core here - this raw idiomatic idyll that lurks in the marginalia of Broadsides and Manuscript and Misericord and is integral to an essential cultural dreaming that somehow was missed entirely by the prudish revival, with significant exceptions of course....   Which are you? A Canterbury Pilgrim or a Wicker Man? Or is it (gulp!) possible to be both?

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 19 Apr 12 - 02:37 PM

Whatever happened to The Wicker Tree? January 2012 came and went, "selected cinemas" didn't seem to include any round here, appears to have gone straight to video (DVD from £10 on eBay or Amazon) and straight to YouTube, if you can stand watching a film in bits.

Ross

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 20 Apr 12 - 12:13 PM

I'm slightly uneasy about the current Scottish tourism TV advert, which shows a seaplane swooping over the coast while the solemn voice-over intones 'Scotland has a warm welcome for you.....very warm!'

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 20 Apr 12 - 02:37 PM

Still think that Cristopher Lee looks like Maddy Prior on speed
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 20 Apr 12 - 02:53 PM

"Which are you? A Canterbury Pilgrim or a Wicker Man? Or is it (gulp!) possible to be both?"

Pasolini is fabulous, like stepping into an oil painting and pig shit at the same time.

But the Wicker Man is a joy too, though arguably it worked better as a typical cheesy British horror quietly nestled alongside stuff like Blood on Satan's Claw and The White Worm before it became elevated as some kind of default cultural referent for contemporary alt.-folkie tweeness.

It's certainly possible to be a fan of both anyway.

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Merthercarole
Date: 21 Apr 12 - 05:02 AM

I loved this film although when I saw it for the first time, it didn't frighten me like I was expecting. When it first came out I guess it was quite controversial!

One memorable scene is when Howie is chasing Punch through the streets and he's filmed down an alley running backwards and forwards. It made me laugh out loud. Oh dear, am I sick?

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 21 Apr 12 - 05:24 AM

(I'm sorry, I'll post that again; I'm very hungover this morning after a roaring night at The Moorbrook. Actually the landlord was playing Logan's Run on the pub TV when we arrived which set the tone quite nicely - I've promised to lend him The Canterbury Tales DVD...)

It's certainly possible to be a fan of both anyway.

True, true - but, just compare those opening sequences, CS. In the TWM the rather earnest faux-traditional Highland Widow's Lament seques / detunes into Giovanni's somewhat precious arrangement of Corn Riggs, thus establishing the wonky agenda of the neo-pagan / neo-fascist regime on Summerisle. In TCC you get Francis McPeake's glorious rendition of The Ould Piper (no doubt under license from Peter Kennedy!) which serves to invigorate the soul as the pure drop itself. If that ain't diametric opposition I don't know what is. The Ould Piper recurs as a motif in one of the Tales* in which a bizarrely Chaplinesque chancer (who seems to have strayed out of a Spaghetti Western) uses it as part of his general insolence, or else immunity, in the face of whatever life throws at him - be it the prospect of a menage a trois with his gawky low-life pal & his pretty prostitute wife, or else ending up in the stocks as a result of his various misadventures. All together now: nyah-a-ah-a-ah-a-ah...

* I must confess to being a sucker for the Portmanteau film, a format common in horror films of the 60s / 70s (though the classic Dead of Night was made in 1945). One of these, The Vault of Horror (AKA Tales from the Crypt 2) from 1973, also features Tom Baker. Another, Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965), features an unlikely cast that finds Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee rubbing shoulders with Roy Castle and Alan 'Fluff' Freeman (not half!). I must also confess that one of the principle joys of watching Pasolini's Canterbury Tales was seeing the bald bloke with the big ears from Are You Being Served? in a monk's habit...

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Merther Carole
Date: 21 Apr 12 - 07:58 AM

Sergeant Howie sounds like a cartoon characture!

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 21 Apr 12 - 11:31 AM

"It's certainly possible to be a fan of both anyway."

of course it is !!!!

..any adolescent male growing up in the 70's was desperate for every opportunity
to gawp at minge late night on BBC2.

Even better if the local flea pit box office manager colluded in taking your cash
under the furtive pretence you were over 18...

We'd endure any arse numbing pretentious arty farty tripe in the quest for on-screen fanny.

And in so doing unwittingly benefited from an amazing and mind stretching self education
in cinematic art & culture that's held in good stead for a lifetime.

So much so that one of my old school and sneaking into "X" films mates
is now a very successful and well paid high profile film critic.

Also worth noting that British movie icon Robin Askwith appeared in "The Canterbury Tales "
and has chronicled a 'hilarious' account of his experience being directed by Pasolini.

"The Confessions of Robin Askwith" Ebury Press 1999.

probably 50p from ebay or 10p from charity shops...

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 21 Apr 12 - 07:53 PM

Merthercarole,
This is a regular part of the folk tradition, where he went East and he went West 'cause he had no sense of direction, O'

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man (ITV4, 9pm Wed 4 July)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 03:08 PM

Another regular part of the folk tradition - re-runs:-

Jade Wright previews the best films on TV tonight – The Wicker Man (ITV4, 9pm)

Ross

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 03:12 PM

Wicker Man? Pah! Give me Pasolini's Canturbury Tales any day - the greatest folk film of all time...

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 04 Jul 12 - 03:17 PM

I'll be watching Hulk!

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 05 Jul 12 - 12:25 PM

Do you know they missed a great opportunity in the Wicker Man, instead of incinerating all those animals, they should have gone for a couple of hundred politicians and several thousand Bankers, that would have made a lovely blaze and a much happier ending to the film.

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Michael J
Date: 06 Jul 12 - 11:59 AM

"Ritual" by David Pinner (mentioned earlier in the thread - the book that The Wicker Man is based on) was reprinted last year by Finders Keepers Records if anyone is interested.

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Steve Mann
Date: 10 Oct 12 - 11:10 AM

Great to see someone mentioning Pasolini's Canterbury Tales again. I thought the folk song selections simply magical and astonishing when I first saw it in 1987. I had images of PPP and Morricone going round doing a Cecil Sharp-job with a tape recorder and some pidgin English. In fact - as I recently found out - all the music is lifted from the "Folk Songs of England" selection of 10 discs. I have managed to pick up about 9 of those now from ebay and they really are great. I always loved PPP's selection of music in his Italian B/W movies from the 60's too. I have been trying to work out the locations from that film too so if anyone has any tips please let me know. On my last visit to the South of England we visited Hastings Battle Abbey (the Merchant's Great Hall in the movie), Southwark (where the Perkin Reveller scenes were filmed by the Clink), Chipping Campden in Gloucs (the Pardoners' Tale rat-poison market in the old market place), St Osyth Priory Essex (the Merchant's Hall and Garden), Layer Marney Tower in Essex (stocks scene) and the medieval tithe barn just outside Colchester which they used for the Tabard Inn. Good fun visiting these wonderful sites. I have identified some of the other ones for a future trip: the "old Man" scene in the Pardoners Tale in what looks like a marsh is the famous church in Romney Marsh (as seen in the BBC's "Great Expectations" last Christmas); the house of Alison's husband the carpenter is an old pub called the George in Bradford-on-Avon or thereabouts (used in lots of movies - eg Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones); the topiary gardens in the Merchant's Tale are at some stately home near Warwick ; the other "Inn" scene looks like the tithe barn at Glastonbury and the scenes with Tom Baker showing his all are at Lavenham in Suffolk. Apparently some scenes were shot at Wells and some at Canterbury but I am not sure what - perhaps the burning of the moustacheiode (how do you spell that) gay punter caught in bed with that actor off Vera Drake/ the Bill/ WofBath's wedding. Sorry to drone on a bit - but if anyone else has any interesting info about the locations please let me know at [e-mail]
Oh yes - I think the windmill of "Trumpington" was Rolvenden in Kent!

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Blandiver / Sedayne
Date: 11 Oct 12 - 06:21 AM

Thanks for that, Steve! Excellent. That's a few future holiday destinations sorted.

I can only add that the grilling / execution scene took place in the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral (with which I'm only familiar through pictures alone; hopefully soon...) and the dance scene in The Miller's Tale was filmed in The Chapter House at Wells Cathedral, which you reach via the stone steps. An amazing space - I was in there back in the summer photographing a few of THESE fellows imagining them looking down upon the merryment with certain approval...

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 12 - 04:37 AM

Thanks Blandiver Sedayne
I wonder if anyone has any idea where the wonderful brick and half-timbered buildings used in the Cook's Tale (Chaplinesque) for the "wedding-dance" might be? Stunning.
Thanks for clarifying which cathedral is which.
Any idea which cathedral was used for the interiors for the Wife of Bath's wedding to Jankin?
Just to clarify a couple of points in the last post:
Alison's house is at Norton St Philip not Bradford on Avon
The topiary garden where Pluto and Persephone appear is Packwood House near Warwick.
The church in the Pardoner's Tale is Fairfield Church at Romney Marsh.
The other queries I had were:-
1) Where is the ruined windmill where the widow gives her broker to the Devil? Perhaps somewhere Cambs way?
2) Nicholas and Martin wander down some lanes that look a bit like Oxford but I think might have been Cambridge? Any ideas?
3) How about the street of what look like alms-houses where January first sees May?
All the best
Steve

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Blandiver / Sedayne
Date: 12 Oct 12 - 06:28 AM

The street is in Wells too - the very famous Vicar's Close which adjoins the cathedral in fine old style:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicars%27_Close,_Wells

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 12 - 06:44 AM

That's great thanks!
I am heading down to CentreParcs in Wilts over New Year so will drive over and visit Wells when I am down there. I have always wanted to see it anyway so this is a bonus!
Thanks again.
Steve

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 12 - 10:48 AM

Blandiver .. do you think the wonderful brick buildings (and hall) seen in the wedding reception and "dream" sequence in the Cook's Tale might be buildings within the Cathedral precinct at Wells (from your personal knowledge of it)? It looks wonderful by the way and I am looking forward to visiting it, having booked a night at the George in Norton St Philip en route.

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST,Gallovidian
Date: 07 Jul 19 - 05:39 AM

Sorry about that- shaky fingers after Saturday night?

Local info is that a WEE WICKERMAN FESTIVAL is scheduled for 23/24 August, with a showing of the director's cut on 23rd and a live music, ( folk, rock, grunge !!) & village-brewed beer- outside if weather allows.

It's in Isle of Whithorn (a fishing village, not an island)- long way from anywhere, but sounds interesting, with repeat burning of the WM at Burrow Head, site of the event in the film...

Subject: RE: Film: The Wicker Man
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jul 19 - 11:54 AM

Is Britt Ekland going?