Brendan Jesus
Seven months ago I had the opportunity to review Bertrand Mandico’s sci-fi fantasy epic After Blue (Dirty Paradise), and what a film it was. I personally wasn’t the biggest fan of the movie but I am able to appreciate the film for what it is. I even went on to state, in the review, that I wholeheartedly believe Mandico will be the Alejandro Jodorowsky of our time. The film itself is a feat of magnificence and is one of the most visually interesting films I have ever seen. From its insanely beautiful score to the fully realized acting, After Blue has stuck in my mind for a long time. Thankfully, after months of waiting, Mandico is getting a theatrical run for the film! This truly is a film that I think many people will like and NEEDS to be seen on the big screen, I can promise you this is unlike anything you have ever seen in your life.
After Blue is a weird genre-bending ride that goes from 70s Sci-Fi to western, to body horror, to many many other things. It is not a bad film, by any means, even if it may come off that I feel that way. This film is original and unpredictable. It’s beautiful and ugly. Mandico has could very well possibly be the next Alejandro Jodorowsky; cultivating his own divisive style and creating an oeuvre to be unmatched by any. Whether you like him and his films or not, you cannot say that Mandico is not a forced to be reckoned with. (After Blue review)
Altered Innocence is bringing this film to the big screen on June 3rd. Currently here are the screening dates and locations:
6/3—Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown Los Angeles (L.A., CA)
6/3—Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Lower Manhattan (New York, NY)
6/3—Alamo Drafthouse Cinema New Mission (San Francisco CA)
6/3—Alamo Drafthouse Cinema South Lamar (Austin, TX)
6/3—Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Sloans Lake (Denver, CO)
6/3—Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Raleigh (Raleigh, NC)
6/3—Grand Illusion Cinema (Seattle, WA)
6/3—Sie FilmCenter (Denver, CO)
6/4—Nitehawk Williamsburg (Brooklyn, NY)
6/10—Gateway Film Center (Columbus, OH)
6/10—Cinemapolis (Ithaca, NY)
6/10—Suns Cinema (Washington D.C.)
6/10—The Dreamland Cinema (Sacramento, CA)
6/11—Alamo Drafthouse Winchester (Winchester, VA)
6/11—Stray Cat Film Center (Kansas City, MO)
6/15—Belcourt Theatre (Nashville, TN)
6/17—Metro Cinema (Edmonton, AB)
6/17—Plaza Theatre (Atlanta, GA)
6/17—Space Gallery (Portland, ME)
6/17—Center for Contemporary Arts (Santa Fe, NM)
6/24—Amherst Cinema (Amherst, MA)
7/15—Hollywood Theatre (Portland, OR)
Keep an eye out as there are more dates to come!
With filmmaker Katrin Olafsdottir, Mandico established a Dogme 95-like process of filmmaking called the Incoherence Manifesto, but where Dogme is a film movement Olafsdottir and Mandico treat [the] Incoherence Manifesto as an auteur style. The key basis of it is, “[T]o be incoherent means to have faith in cinema, it means to have a romantic approach, unformatted, free, disturbed and dreamlike, cinegenic, an epic narration. Incoherence that´s an absence of cynicism but not irony. It´s embracing the genre without penetrating it.” (After Blue review)
