MrRING
Android Futureman
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2002
- Messages
- 6,053
(I'm totally cribbing my own posts from another board to post this here)
While looking up Marta Kristen's career, I came across the existence of a film called ONCE. From the Marta Kristen FANSITE comes this description:
Here's a video on it:
http://www.mortonheilig.com/
Two of the songs are on Youtube - the trippy synth-laden soundtrack definitely still exists:
Interesting in finding out more about it, I contacted the Morton Heilig website, and this is what I ultimately heard about it from Mr. Heilig's daughter in law:
My question about this now is what happens next? If USC has it, is the film relegated to being something where you have to go to USC to see it? Or do distributors sometimes pick up films held by USC for DVD/BluRay distribution?
While looking up Marta Kristen's career, I came across the existence of a film called ONCE. From the Marta Kristen FANSITE comes this description:
Creation (Christopher Mitchum) washes up on a beach. He awakens to find himself alone. In this barren world, Creation and Destruction (Jim Malinda) exist in balance. Creation makes life, and Destruction, failing in attempts to create, simply destroys.
Then Creation creates Humanity (Marta) for companionship. It takes little time before Humanity becomes a pawn in the bitter struggle between Creation and Destruction.
When Humanity becomes vain and independent, Creation strikes out at her hubris. Unrepentant Humanity begins to embrace Destruction's path, as evidenced by the building of a house of branches (civilization). But soon, Destruction's true nature becomes evident, and Humanity is all but destroyed by the fiery collapse of the house. Creation saves Humanity, and only then does Humanity realize the gift that Creation offers. In a climactic battle, Creation uses the newfound love by Humanity to finally defeat Destruction.
All the reviews I read have been very helpful, and it makes me think that many wouldn't like it, but I think I would. This sounds exactly like the sort of crazy 70's art/fantasy cinema that I dig. Weirdly, it seems like the storyline of Once would make it an interesting counterpoint to the art horror of Begotten. It was directed by Morton Heilig, who apparently created a 3D virtual reality machine called Sensorama in 1962!Then Creation creates Humanity (Marta) for companionship. It takes little time before Humanity becomes a pawn in the bitter struggle between Creation and Destruction.
When Humanity becomes vain and independent, Creation strikes out at her hubris. Unrepentant Humanity begins to embrace Destruction's path, as evidenced by the building of a house of branches (civilization). But soon, Destruction's true nature becomes evident, and Humanity is all but destroyed by the fiery collapse of the house. Creation saves Humanity, and only then does Humanity realize the gift that Creation offers. In a climactic battle, Creation uses the newfound love by Humanity to finally defeat Destruction.
Here's a video on it:
http://www.mortonheilig.com/
Two of the songs are on Youtube - the trippy synth-laden soundtrack definitely still exists:
Interesting in finding out more about it, I contacted the Morton Heilig website, and this is what I ultimately heard about it from Mr. Heilig's daughter in law:
"Once" was shown a few times in the US. Then, since Mort couldn't get a distribution contract for it, it was put away in cold storage,
Recently his widow, Marianne passed away, and his inventions and his movie "Once" were donated to the University of Southern California (USC), School of Cinematic Arts (Just now, on Dec. 15th, 2018. They tell us the original films are not in very good condition. They plan to patch up the film at least to the point that it can be digitized and put on DVD. Until then we all have to wait. (I myself have never seen the film either)