Earlier than they have been TV stars and vainness restaurant moguls, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone made Cannibal! The Musical, a low-budget retelling of the story of Alfred Packer, the old-timey prospector who was convicted of cannibalism. Though actually, it was a thinly-veiled allegory for Parker’s failed relationship, as evidenced by the truth that he named Packer’s horse after his ex-fiancée.
Random celeb cameos weren’t unusual within the early days of South Park (though Jerry Seinfeld refused the chance to voice a Thanksgiving turkey), and Cannibal! The Musical additionally featured a shock look from a notable determine.
The opening credit listing a forged starting with star “Juan Schwartz.” After all, Schwartz was actually writer-director Parker, who was sick of seeing his personal title within the credit and opted to make use of a stage title as a substitute. The final credit score reads, “And introducing Stan Brakhage as Mr. Midday.”
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Movie followers probably did a double take at this point out as a result of Stan Brakhage is likely one of the most vital experimental filmmakers of all-time. Over the course of his life, Brakhage created “practically 380 movies” in varied codecs, together with maybe his most well-known work, the four-part collection Canine Star Man, which was chosen by the U.S. Library of Congress for the Nationwide Movie Registry.
Whereas Brakhage appeared in a few of his personal non-narrative movies (together with Canine Star Man), he wasn’t an actor by any means. But he reveals up within the first act of Cannibal! The Musical, briefly taking part in Dian Bachar’s gruff father.
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So why is that this legendary movie artist performing in a film by which a shirtless Parker sings a love track to a horse?
Nicely, Parker and Stone have been college students of Brakhage’s on the College of Colorado Boulder whereas they have been making the film, which started as a faculty venture. As Brakhage instructed Motive journal in 2001, college students asking professors to take roles in movies wasn’t uncommon. “We do fairly various things, however they’ve respect for me,” Brakhage mentioned of the South Park guys.
There have even been rumors that South Park’s Stan Marsh was named after Stan Brakhage, and not less than one author has instructed that “the animation of South Park resembles the collage model that Brakhage usually utilized in his experimental movies.” Positive, why not.
Through the infamously drunken DVD commentary for Cannibal! The Musical, Parker shouted out the “world well-known Stan Brakhage” and famous that “what’s humorous is that Stan Brakhage, who actually is taken into account the daddy of avant-garde cinema, is carrying just a bit windbreaker and a extremely small hat on this factor.”
Weirdly, Brakhage’s minor position is likely one of the causes that Troma Leisure determined to choose up the film for distribution, owing to president Lloyd Kaufman’s reverence for the filmmaker.
Sadly, as soon as Parker and Stone hit it massive, they by no means invited their previous trainer to, say, battle Barbra Streisand alongside Leonard Maltin.
You (sure, you) ought to observe JM on Twitter (if it nonetheless exists by the point you’re studying this).
