Why VHS Still Matters

Our friends at Grolsch Film Works have a website where you can find out what they’ve been up to and read/watch interesting stuff about films. Every week we'll be plucking the highlights. This is that.

The VHS format croaked it commercially around 2008, but since then a cult of videotape worshippers has sprung up around the world. Though replaced by digital formats such as DVD and Blu-ray, the humble and crappy quality of videotape is still something movie fans and collectors adore, spending hours sifting through bargain bins, flea markets and eBay searching for forgotten treasures, or just gloriously naff movies. Rewind This! is a fascinating documentary that plunges the viewer into the history and cultural legacy of the hallowed format. Ahead of its premiere at Film4 FrightFest, we spoke to director Josh Johnson about why VHS still matters.

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As Morrissey strides onstage at the start of James Russell’s slavish concert-tribute, that familiar above-it-all look firmly in place, you fear that once again he got last pick of the ageing-indie dress-up box. He’s wearing a bright floral shirt, baggy jeans and pointy shoes, weighed down with a bling-chain somewhere between Pete Doherty and Ol' Dirty Bastard (it comprises of both dog tags and a gigantic Christian cross). The short back and sides and flowing quiff now surrounds a bald patch. However much veggie food he packs away, the mid-life spread long-ago softened his signature hipster skinniness.

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Everyone has a different idea of punk. To some it’s defined by sweat-soaked meatheads with bad tattoos, passionately smashing their mics against their square heads (think GG Allin or Henry Rollins). To others it’s about politics, abstaining from booze, cigarettes and most things that would seem tame even by your parents’ standards (think of the Straight Edge likes of Minor Threat). We, however, take more of a broad definition of punk that encompasses all of the above. So with The Punk Syndrome, a new documentary about a Finnish punk band out this week, we thought it was high time we picked our top 10.

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Certain types of film are made to be awkward. From the American gross-out likes of American Pie and There’s Something About Mary to the neurotic ramblings of a twentysomething, speech impedimented mumblecore (and their nods to the king of awkward comedy: Woody Allen), these films delight in making you cringe and claw at your cinema seat. But what about those films that unintentionally make you squirm: the bad actor, the terrible pun or that naïve yet offensive use of prosthetics (cough cough, Cloud Atlas). Then there’s all the full-frontal, getting down ‘n’ dirty scenes that always seem to start about five seconds before your parents/ respected elder walks into the room to catch you sweating, nervously clicking forward on a suddenly non-functioning remote control. If you’ve ever had a DVD freeze up on you, on taken someone on a date to see a film about love withering slowly, then this list is for you.

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Keep your peepers peeled for more Grolsch Film Works updates next week. Go to grolschfilmworks.com to see what’s happening right now.