Post by galacticgirrrl on Feb 7, 2023 5:29:30 GMT
Wisconsin Death Trip (1999)
Nowhere in the length and breadth of this great continent of ours can be found a more desirable residence than Black River Falls
Book: 1973
Film: 1999
Short Trailer:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00lpznb
When people long for the good old days...
My thoughts drift to childhood adventures at Bethel Church in the Wildwood and it's haunting pioneer cemetery; all the inspiring, joyous, sad & heartbreaking stories that live there still, stuck forever in amber. This a movie for those who wonder with amazement at the hard scrabble lives distant relatives carved while settling this land.
An eerie, beautiful film
Stylishly unites documentary and drama
Compelling viewing for the open minded
You know you are in cult movie territory with reviews like these:
Disturbing, Pointless Movie-making. Worth Avoiding at all cost.
Death would have been a relief.
Don't be fooled by all the fantastic reviews! I was, and now I've wasted $23 bucks on this amateurish piece of junk.
Many are aware of the 1973 historical nonfiction book by Michael Lesy but don't know of the equally haunting 1999 film written for the screen and directed by James Marsh. It tells the story of happenings from Black River Falls and its environs from one winter to the next.
The book most certainly has reached cult status. In the years following its publication, Wisconsin Death Trip has been cited as an inspiration for numerous other works of music, literature, and film.
The film was rejected for distribution by several European companies, who deemed it "morbid, distasteful and obsessed with the wrong aspects of human life", and the filmmakers' submission of it to the PBS series American Experience was met with no response.
Wisconsin Death Trip features a mixture of actual historical photographs of individuals and scenes from the events depicted, along with black-and-white reenactments featuring actors. The reenactment footage contains no dialogue. Director James Marsh stated that he felt the book was "unfilmable," and chose to utilize its photographs juxtaposed with reenactments of the stories presented.
You will never think of whispering in the same way after watching this movie.
BOOK
Is available for digital loan at the Internet Archive
archive.org/details/wisconsindeathtr00lesy
FILM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW9X6hxxsnE
WINTER
Winter hits town hard
Trouble with children & much disease...the mines close down & the banks collapse...
Some Germans & Norwegians go mad
Diphtheria burned houses
SPRING
Trouble with the young people...
drug taking, arson & lovelorn suicides...
curious superstitions amongst the Norwegians....& a terrible murder leads to a manhunt
SUMMER
Trouble with courting couples...drunkenness & vexations over religious matters...
Mary Sweeney tours Wisconsin...witches, devils & murder...
FALL
The tribulations of the middle age...
marital strife leads to much shooting...hard times afflict the nation and the town...
& a famous opera singer mysteriously arrives at the station
WINTER
Trouble with old people & their amorous desires
a horrifying discovery...ghosts...more news of Mary Sweeney & Pauline L'Allemand
Nowhere in the length and breadth of this great continent of ours can be found a more desirable residence than Black River Falls
Book: 1973
Film: 1999
Short Trailer:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00lpznb
When people long for the good old days...
My thoughts drift to childhood adventures at Bethel Church in the Wildwood and it's haunting pioneer cemetery; all the inspiring, joyous, sad & heartbreaking stories that live there still, stuck forever in amber. This a movie for those who wonder with amazement at the hard scrabble lives distant relatives carved while settling this land.
An eerie, beautiful film
Stylishly unites documentary and drama
Compelling viewing for the open minded
You know you are in cult movie territory with reviews like these:
Disturbing, Pointless Movie-making. Worth Avoiding at all cost.
Death would have been a relief.
Don't be fooled by all the fantastic reviews! I was, and now I've wasted $23 bucks on this amateurish piece of junk.
Many are aware of the 1973 historical nonfiction book by Michael Lesy but don't know of the equally haunting 1999 film written for the screen and directed by James Marsh. It tells the story of happenings from Black River Falls and its environs from one winter to the next.
The book most certainly has reached cult status. In the years following its publication, Wisconsin Death Trip has been cited as an inspiration for numerous other works of music, literature, and film.
The film was rejected for distribution by several European companies, who deemed it "morbid, distasteful and obsessed with the wrong aspects of human life", and the filmmakers' submission of it to the PBS series American Experience was met with no response.
Wisconsin Death Trip features a mixture of actual historical photographs of individuals and scenes from the events depicted, along with black-and-white reenactments featuring actors. The reenactment footage contains no dialogue. Director James Marsh stated that he felt the book was "unfilmable," and chose to utilize its photographs juxtaposed with reenactments of the stories presented.
You will never think of whispering in the same way after watching this movie.
BOOK
Is available for digital loan at the Internet Archive
archive.org/details/wisconsindeathtr00lesy
FILM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW9X6hxxsnE
WINTER
Winter hits town hard
Trouble with children & much disease...the mines close down & the banks collapse...
Some Germans & Norwegians go mad
Diphtheria burned houses
SPRING
Trouble with the young people...
drug taking, arson & lovelorn suicides...
curious superstitions amongst the Norwegians....& a terrible murder leads to a manhunt
SUMMER
Trouble with courting couples...drunkenness & vexations over religious matters...
Mary Sweeney tours Wisconsin...witches, devils & murder...
FALL
The tribulations of the middle age...
marital strife leads to much shooting...hard times afflict the nation and the town...
& a famous opera singer mysteriously arrives at the station
WINTER
Trouble with old people & their amorous desires
a horrifying discovery...ghosts...more news of Mary Sweeney & Pauline L'Allemand