I have a very obscure LP at home by Christian Vander, from around 1974, which purports to be the soundtrack to a film of "Tristan and Isolde" (not that I listen to it very often - if at all). The cover and back of the record have shots from the film - the photo on the back sleeve showing a bunch of mediaeval knights with very odd helmets + headgear battling one another and looking
exactly like a cross between Orson Welles' "Macbeth" and The Residents' "Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats?". Was this film ever released? Anyone seen it? Can I see it?
― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 October 2003 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)
This record is otherwise known as "Wurdah Itah", and is one of the major releases by Vander/Magma - it's the second chapter of the trilogy that includes MDK (the 3rd). It is available on CD as Wurdah Itah, and for my money, is the best Magma studio record (though it was released as a Vander solo).
I have not seen the Yvan Lagrange film. Here is IMDB's entry for it. 35 min in length (about the same as the record).
― dleone (dleone), Friday, 10 October 2003 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)
From
http://www.simplesoul.co.uk/ork_alarm :
"TRISTAN ET YSEULT - a film made in 1972 by Yvan Lagrange, released in 1974 using a 1971 rehearsal audio tape of 'Wurdah Ïtah' and 'Ündïa'. This is not the same music as released on the 1974 record. (See Ork Alarm! #10 for more information)
This was Lagrange's tenth film, but it was his first commercial release. One reviewer said it was an experience ideally suited to insomniacs! Lagrange not only produced the film and wrote the script, but he also played the part of Tristan himself. Iseult was played by Claire Wauthion. The costumes were made by Gilles Duche and the helmets were made by Jacquet and Lagenie. It was a Pierre Cardin cinescope presentation in Eastmancolor, and the cine film was distributed in Europe by Davis Films (Paris). Because some of you may have been a little curious about the movie for the last eighteen years, this is the official press release:
A "cinematic opera" on the universal themes of fate, love, madness, death and eternity. Tristan struggles in the cold and icebergs, to win Iseult's love, and death strikes for the first time. They escape together through the forest. For a long time, they are pursued by men who want to separate them. Then Tristan goes alone into the hottest deserts where he lives like an animal and encounters "madness ". And Iseult saves him from a second death. One day the men of the desert on their camels and all the horsemen meet on an endless beach. They go to war again and fight so bitterly that the sea is filled with their bowels and their hearts. Iseult wanders a long time amid the bodies and the blood and once again she finds Tristan. They lie down in the entrails of a skinned bull and go to sleep. The sea carries away their bodies and turns into an ocean of roses."
So there you go, the album has actually been reissued on Magma's label now as 'Wurdah Ïtah' and there's also a live version of the piece on the recent Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie triple cd. Can't see the film ever being made available again though, but as it's reportedly terrible you're probably better off just looking at the stills I reckon.
― udu wudu (udu wudu), Friday, 10 October 2003 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)
Not that it matters, but FWIW Klaus Blasquiz called it a "fucking bad film". Looks pretty funny from the still, though...
― Joe (Joe), Sunday, 12 October 2003 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)
Maybe you don't like Magma - or maybe you'd prefer either Kohntarkosz (less martial, more trance) or Attahk (sub fusion/disco/funk for prog).
― dleone (dleone), Monday, 13 October 2003 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)
I'm beginning to think I don't like Magma all that much too - "Kohntarkosz" is OK, the live album is pretty good but I've twice owned "1001 Centigrade" and twice sold it.
― Dadaismus (Dada), Monday, 13 October 2003 13:18 (twenty-one years ago)