A Message from LWBP Board of Directors:

At LWBP HQ (to be relocated in November – more information, on this completely unrelated topic, to follow shortly) we have received several requests for more information concerning what is still (as of October, 2010) our largest ever project: The Erysichthon-cycle. This largely ignored, poorly received, and mostly misunderstood, multi-media[1] endeavour, by Swedish exile John Lundberg, stands as the inaugural bid for fame by a production company (yes, us) that refuses to play downstream (come on, that’s where the pee ends up, and you know it). Art, we feel, is not about expression, communication, or to be understood. That is for political propaganda and ads about diapers (no, not a redundancy, the latter is for controlling and limiting the former). However, given the ever-plummeting levels of education amongst today’s youth (yes, that could be you), we agreed to try to get the artist to give some initial introductory information, to ease the reception of his opus. He flatly refused: “There is no such thing as an introduction”, said a hand-scrawled note in a soiled brown envelope thrown through our office windows shortly after midnight.

Some time later, at the LWBP-vaults, we found a brief text, and a VHS-cassette labelled “Introduction - or: the problem at hand.” The short film included on the cassette[2] turned out to be a summary of the entire project in the most lucid, clear and direct form. We present it here for your viewing pleasure.

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[1] Including, but not limited to, works in film, comics, painting, poetry, and, hopefully one day, a MFA.

[2] Other items included (mostly audio material) will be released at a later date, together with the text. They are of little interest to the problem at hand.

COMING SOON:

Part 1 of the Erysichthon Interviews...

Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!
Write penguin Write!

A Poem.
by Hatman. April, 2010.

Negotiations (1953/2010)

Written and animated right after the now largely forgotten 1952 SMPTE-riots in Los Angeles, the movie was a scathing commentary on the state of economics in the film industry. Butch is seen operating here in the tradition of such works as Eduard Manet’s L’Exposition Universelle (1867); That is to say with the intent of entering, violently, into the debate about current affairs. The film, made in black and white, was roughly 5 minutes long (there seems to have been a first cut that was 7 minutes, but the version that was shown in cinemas the following year was just under 5 minutes – conflicting sources say either 4 min 30 sec, or 4 min 50 sec). The shoddy animation in and of itself was understood as an attack on the way workers were being treated (expected to grovel and beg for even the slightest salary increase – there has even been mention (in C. Faggins: Interspecies Breeding, Fish, and Strikes. The Life of a City. HardFact Press; Los Angeles, 1985. p. 67ff), of the supposed thank-you meeting that workers were to have with then California governor Earl Warren as one of the reasons for the riots).

Butch presents the negotiations, in his usual deadpan way, as quite removed from the reality of any actual work-situation. The worker (who is never shown) is at the mercy of these blundering idiots, who seem eternally unable to articulate any kind of actual opinion on the matters at hand. The musical score reinforces the sense of discontinuity between the two protagonists, and between the “negotiations” and the surroundings. This complete distrust of the possibility of any attempt at actual organized collective resistance would later garner severe condemnation from left-oriented critics. (Butch at one time answered this criticism in his usual succinct manner: “I am ambidextrous; I can jerk of with both my left and right hand.” - Quoted in: Semi, T. The Rhythms of Light. Looking at experimental cinema in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. CFI Press; Ontario, 1978)

All of these aspects have been updated for a modern audience by award-winning German director Harold Gefälscht, for this 2010 “reimagining”. Gefälscht, famous for his 1997 stop-motion political satire, Der Politikerin Esel-ficken, seemed the ideal person to tackle this crude subject in an appropriately honest way. Working with a large budget, and using two of Germany’s top voice-over actors, Gefälscht has produced a film very much in the spirit of Butch’s original, and we are proud to present it here in it’s entirety.

Yesterday, Friday the 26th, Hatman entered our offices in Montevideo by force. He requested, violently, that we be the official distribution company for his new film, called “Engaño”. We tried to refuse, but, considering the safety of our employees, and that of their families, had, in the end, to give in.

This is the only known photo of Vlad Butch, taken in the spring of 1955 by Ralph Cohen.

VLAD BUTCH

It is unfortunate that so few people today remember a man using the name Vlad Butch, who lived in Los Angeles during the early 1950s. An autodidact, he wrote, produced, and directed a series of truly extraordinary short animated films. Beyond that little is known about this recluse. Most of the people who knew him seem to think, due to his accent, that he was of French ancestry, but he never spoke of his origins with anyone. He lived alone, and dedicated all of his time and money to produce a small, but critically acclaimed, body of work, consisting of a total of 13 short animated films. All of them were destroyed in a mysterious fire in 1971.

Although not a single frame of film has been found since then, LWBP has managed to acquire a large collection of preliminary sketches, detailed music cues, and four complete scripts (and a vast quantity of assorted notes). LWBP has now launched a project, in association with 2Step Animation Inc., to recreate several of Butch’s shorts, beginning with the four extant scripts, and using state of the art CGI-based animation. The first film to be released is “Negotiations” (originally Butch’s second film, finished in 1953) animated and directed by Saito Yukiko. All four films are slated to be released during 2010.

The last time anyone saw the man calling himself Vlad Butch was at a small bar on Fedora Street, on the 4^th of November 1957.

We would like to dedicate this project to his memory.

There are two conflicting eyewitness accounts that claim to have seen him in Europe, seven years later, on the same day; one in Paris, and one in Verona. It is also reported that a man fitting the description of Butch made impertinent and/or obscene remarks at a conference in October of 1966, at the John Hopkins University. This information seems less reliable, although it has not (as of yet) been completely disproven.

Concept Art (Character):
The Architect.
JL, 2010.