A Hollywood filmmaker (Mike Jittlov) makes a short for an evil film studio. Unbeknownst to him, the producer has placed a bet of $25,000 that he won't come up with anything with a use. Luckily, our film creator gets the help of his friends.
Czarnoksiężnik prędkości i czasu, Magic Movie - Der Zauberfilm, Magic Movie, O Mago da Velocidade e do Tempo, El mago de la velocidad y el tiempo, Повелитель скорости и времени, 魔登大侠
France
Cannes Film Festival
USAPG
Germany
USAPG
France
Germany
USA
Pee Wee Herman’s older brother (who looks like a cross between Jeffrey Dahmer and Stephen King), does a fuckton of cocaine and makes a movie which is supposed to be about special effects but really is a hate speech about the bullshit bureaucracy of the movie business created as an alternative to going on a studio shooting spree (which wasn’t in style in the 80’s).
Also, it’s a kid’s movie.
100% brilliant!
In 1979 Mike Jittov made a short film called The Wizard of Speed and Time and then in 1989 released a feature film where he plays himself making that short film. Self indulgent? Yes. Charming as hell? Also yes. At the start of the credits Mike is credited as being played by "The Wizard." The Wizard is then credited as being played by himself.
This movie is neat in that the special effects techniques used by Mike Jittlov have become completely antiquated thanks to digital composting and computer generated imagery (along with all the other analogue motion picture production methods). However seeing everything being done by hand shows what independent filmmakers had to go through before advances in technology made…
The Wizard of Speed and Time is sublime! A visual feast and manic beast it's a non-stop symphony of insanity. Constant stimulus and ideas that are ridiculous the lack of logic is ludicrous! A special FX artist melting the screen into stardust! Stop motion madness that destroys any sadness as you float away in clouds of radness. A fast forward brain drain travelling like a cocaine laced adventure of a lifetime! A state of the art lasery sensory technological triumph and a suitcase that would win a race! A true mind melter causes sanity to take shelter. Make sure you ask for no squid on your pizza or you might get a full squid on your pizza! 🦑🦑🦑🦑 ahhhhhhhh!!!!
Part Hollywood revenge fantasy, part libertarian screed, part love letter to irrepressible DIY spirit, The Wizard Of Speed And Time is an overstuffed, perhaps morally corrupt mess, but there's really nothing quite like it. Jittlov's joy is infectious, even if the film is self-congratulatory to the extreme. Just one of those films that can't help but put a big grin on my face.
I’m gonna tell my grandkids that this is The Fablemans!
A quick shout out to the fine folks at the Chattanooga Film Festival. They have a Patreon called the Double Secret Cinema Society. On the 13th of every month, they screen a fairly rare and/or obscure film and have a watch along party on Discord. This film is the third in the series and it has been a ton of fun. Great people at the CFF and it helps support funding for next year’s festival (which remains my favorite genre festival as they have really leaned into the streaming option since COVID as many others have dropped it. Their commitment to accessibility is top notch and will continue to get my dollars).…
For totally arbitrary reasons I decided that my first watch of 2022 would be the first previously unheard of movie that got mentioned in the new year, so The Wizard of Speed and Time it was. This film is less "based on true events", but rather an only slightly exaggerated version of what actually happened and attitudes that definitely exist. Mike Jittlov is a self-taught maker of comedic experimental short films, and his work mostly involves a lot of stop motion and high speed photography to manipulate props and the world around his green-suited wizard character. He'd made a couple of short films for Disney television specials on visual effects in the late 1970s, however in that usual despicable Disney…
In many ways, an even stranger, more daring “feature length representation of an insane man’s warped vision” than Freddy Got Fingered. At least Tom Green had a comedy show! This is like if Tim Burton had cast himself as Beetlejuice! Pretty special stuff!
Viewed at a screening of Jittlov’s personal laserdisc copy, where he turned up at the end as a genuine surprise to collect it and tell a few stories. Hope to see him around the neighborhood!
Featuring a cameo by Ward “Big Dog” Kimball, baby!!!
Un milagro.
The Wizard of Speed and Time es una película rarísima. Mike Jittlov, quien pasó gran parte de su carrera trabajando en efectos especiales, dirigió un corto de 3 minutos en 1979 llamado The Wizard of Speed and Time. Por azares del destino y con un poco de ayuda de Disney, el corto logro algo de notoriedad (viralidad le llamarían hoy) y se volvió de culto. Y 10 años después Jittlov hizo una película con el mismo nombre que se trata sobre un experto en efectos especiales llamado Mike Jittlov el cual tiene que vencer a la horrible burocracia hollywoodense para producir un corto llamado The Wizard of Speed and Time. La saga de Jittlov está en constante batalla…
The misguided ramblings of a petulant child enforced upon the screen. Vaguely... Actually, exceedingly disagreeable, but dammit, I found it too likable to hate it. Sure, the film is essentially a manifesto against Hollywood (okay, sure), unions (hmmmm...) and... Anyone who doesn't think Mike Jittlov, the director, is a genius. Which is a shame, because the effects are honestly brilliant. But beyond the obnoxious verneer (which permeates the entire movie), I just... Found it relentlessly joyful. Jittlov made a self-congratulatory fictionalized autobiography because everyone told him he couldn't. Something about the ridiculous spirit of passion behind this I found infectious. Sure, it's heart may be sleazy and corrupted, but it presents itself in such a ridiculous, Pee-Wee-Hermanic fashion that I…
Another movie I'd never have discovered without Chattanooga Film Festival and their monthly Patreon hangout. This movie is absolutely wholesome, magical, and strangely enough, it's also quite relevant with the strikes happening now. This is a love letter to filmmaking and special effects. I definitely recommend finding it and watching it.
sometimes when lost in the endless digital inertia of the Great Cape Wars I eventually always come to my end stance — I will forever be on the side of art that challenges me, and starkly against art that flatters or impersonates my tastes. the asinine substandard morality of superhero flicks and their flattened milieu, even for tedious disasters like Endgame or ZSJL, always reeks of committee-think, of shallow Universes, of product and commodity rather than imagination. it’s not like I don’t watch them, but much for the same reason I’ll get drunk and go to McDonalds. I can chew on some fries and watch some bottle-blonde in a bland costume sass some half CGI genocide centrist with the equal…
