Two years ago I received Michael Lesy's WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP for Christmas.
The following April I visited Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and stayed at the Brumder Mansion.
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Carol, the owner, immediately began telling me about a weird, artsy documentary that had recently been made there called WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP. I told her I had a copy of the book. She actually handed me her copy to look at, and I got the feeling she wasn't used to running into anybody who'd ever heard of it. Carol is involved in local theater, and it turned out she played a few characters in the film and was involved in rounding up period props. I stayed in a room where one of the murders was filmed. While there I watched the video of WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP. Does this seem as weird to anybody else as it does to me? Anyway the book is amazing, and the film is amazing. A lot of great camera shots and music by John Cale.
The Brumder Mansion event served as a trigger for the book I have coming out in September.
PRODUCTION NOTES
Writer/Director James Marsh's first feature, WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP, is an intimate, shocking and sometimes hilarious account of the disasters that befell one small town in Wisconsin during the final decade of the 19th century. The film is inspired by Michael Lesy's book of the same name which was first published in 1973. Lesy discovered a striking archive of black and white photographs in the town of Black River Falls dating from the 1890's and married a selection of these images to extracts from the town's newspaper from the same decade. The effect was surprising and disturbing. The town of Black River Falls seems gripped by some peculiar malaise and the weekly news is dominated by bizarre tales of madness, eccentricity and violence amongst the local population. Suicide and murder are commonplace. People in the town are haunted by ghosts, possessed by devils and terrorized by teenage outlaws and arsonists.
Wisconsin Death Trip
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9 comments:
Very weird and very very cool.
That kind of thing is right up my alley. I can't wait to read the book that will come from that, Anne.
Sounds spooky and fun.
But no zombies? Hmm....
Freaky nonetheless.
tribe, thanks for the interesting additions. and thanks for reminding me of the book and movie to begin with.
Did you hear any weird noises or witness anything flying around the room at night while you were there?
I don't know why I love this creepy kind of stuff, but I do! :)
jeff:
no, but after getting home i read an article about my room supposedly being haunted. guests have claimed to find blood in the bathtub.
You watched a video portraying a murder in the room you were staying in? That seriously rocks. Kind of like eating popcorn during an autopsy.
I wonder if they found the blood before or after adding the bubble bath....
Anne, you have wonderful, eclectic taste. I'll have to check this out.
P.S. The word verification today is Ohfoug. Love that.
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