ISMN: “Kingdom in the Clouds” (1970) - Thursday Nov. 10th 7:30 PM @ the “Springville Mansion”
Not Available on NetFlix Vol. 14!
This week’s feature, Romanian fantasy:
”Kingdom in the Clouds” (1970)
VHS/87 Mins/Dubbed/Rated G
I found out about this film a couple years ago while seeking out rare and unusual kiddie matinee and foreign fantasy. I began collecting the Xerox ‘Specially for Kids” VHS series which seems to carry some of the best foreign kiddie films I had come across (some have already been shown at ISMN i.e. “Just Because You’re Grown Up” etc). This series of VHS tapes that were only made available to public and school libraries, are now highly sought out by cult film collectors and have been included on many a DVDR gray market site.
A very eccentric and enjoyable film, which I took this to be another Russian fantasy film, but it wasn’t until stumbling across the website “Foreign Horrors” that I was informed that this film was Romanian! Check out #7 on the incredible blog post:
The unknown world of ROMANIAN horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films
A full description of this film can be found on the amazing website KiddieMatinee.com (Warning: Full of spoilers)
A favorite IMDB review:
very fine traditional and unusual fairy tale, 29 May 2003
Author: lerelieurfou from montreal, quebec
i saw this movie dubbed in French as La Clé d’or… Elisabeta Bostan got friends with Quebec film maker and distributor Rock Demers. Faroun films is a Rock Demers distribution company he created in 1965 and wich distributed La Clé d’or in Quebec TV at the time. Rock Demers created then films La Fête, and together with other european film makers produced quite a big series of ‘contes pour tous’, still classics in Quebec (La guerre des Tuques, Opération beurre de pinottes, Aventuriers timbre perdu, etc….
But this here movie was made in 68 in romania… and has the european coloration of fairy-tales produced at the time by Alexander Rou, and other russian and czech producers… It’s is a great tale about the Truth and the PureHeart always winning over the King of Liars, and all that is against us in life : Time, Nature, etc… The sets are just artificial enough for a fantasy…that’s what so good about these movies, no big fuss about special effects and all…
the overall impression is just a litte 60’s-kitsch tone with a very good scenario and great casting and makeup : ahhh the witch is so….a witch!!!
a mustsee musthave movie….but very hard to find i would think
The above newspaper clipping makes me dream of a world where “Kingdom in the Clouds” would’ve been seen as a double bill with “Hot Pants, Inc.!”
I wish I had been alive when Kiddie Matinee was in it’s prime, and had seen Kingdom in the Clouds on the big screen, as well as other odd classics like the ever returning screening K. Gordon Murray’s “Santa Claus” (aka The Mexican Santa Claus) or even the mind numbing “Santa Claus Meets the Ice Cream Bunny”. Cartoonist Steve Bissette once told me he saw “Ice Cream Bunny” with friends on the big screen. I can only imagine there was lots of drinking and heckling from his crowd. Regardless, I’m green with envy. I too would have gone to see these films as an adult! I would choose to see these over films like “Speed”, “Fight Club 2” or 3D animation drivel like “Shrek pt 7” any day.
Blah blah blah. Ok, enough of my rant….
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Bonus Short Film:
“The Boy with Two Heads: Episode 5, The Secret Cave” (1974)
Yes, the odd mini series we started last spring, continues! What will happen to the young Brit kids and their un-PC Mexican talking magical severed shrunken head? This series effected me deeply subconciously as a young wanderer on planet earth.
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Time: Thursday Nov. 10th @ 7:30 PM
Place: The home of Joseph Winter and Will McAllister etc. - 363 w 300 s, Springville, UT
Off the main road in Springville, turn right before “Allen’s Super Market”. Drive straight for several blocks. It’s the last house on the left of the street that looks like an old mansion by the train tracks. Plenty of parking at this location, and more space than my living room. Hope to see some of you there :)
See ya there!
- BC Sterrett
PS. All Lost Media items are now 50% off at booth #76 in the Treasures Antique Store in Springville.
