February 17, 2006
Liquid Sky
Year: 1982
Directed by: Slava Tsukerman
Written by: Anne Carlisle, Nina V. Kerova & Slava Tsukerman
Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: Medium
Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: Very Low
Key Cast Members:
Overview: Liquid Sky is another movie that makes a number of cyberpunk lists. Personally, I don’t think so. It has absolutely NO cyber aspects (it does have scifi aspects though). However, it’s so strong on the punk side that from a visual standpoint I suppose a case can be made for inclusion. This is a very low-budget art film that is emphasizes “weird” from the get go. If I were to rename it, I would call this “The movie where the Punks say Fuck!” as they do so every other word. The real effort here is NOT in the acting (most is horrible, but Carlisle is decent), or the story, or the pacing. The goal is to create a weird punk immersion that gives the film an other-worldly quality. This is emphasized by the completely non-sensical alien pie-plate spaceship.
Liquid Sky takes place in modern times (early 1980s) where a very small alien space ship is looking for a heroin fix and settles on top of a punk-apartment building where drug addicts are the order of the moment. The space ship “steals” the emotional state of the heroin addicts to give itself energy. We soon find out that the aliens can also get their fix from people having orgasms. In line with this, the aliens follow around Margaret (played by Liquid Sky writer, Anne Carlisle, who also plays the role of the androgynous Jimmy in the picture above), who is continually getting raped and forced into having sex with people she doesn’t like. She never orgasms, but her partners always do. At first, the aliens appear to steal this energy by impaling the victims with a crystal scepter, but later, the victims just disappear. Anne starts to think her vagina has the power to kill, and either tries to stop having sex with people she likes (which fails) or seeks out those she hates in order to kill them. All the while, a European scientist, who’s big on the narration (this is the only way we learn what’s going on) is tracking down the alien ship and is attempting to warn the punks.
Overview: This movie is a massive cheesefest in every sense of the word. It is quirky enough to be interesting though (hence the 5 stars instead of 4), and is certainly original to the point that I could certainly imagine some enjoying this multiple times. Again, for the moment I’ve decided to include it as a cyberpunk flick, but I’m sorely tempted to move it to the “not cyberpunk” category. Even though the visuals qualify in a strange way, there is no cyberpunk themes to speak of here.
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Tags: cyberpunk movie review LiquidSky
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11 Comments on Liquid Sky »
April 15, 2006
Glam Creature @ 2:36 pm:
I liked this movie ( but soundtrack could be much better).
In review the characters are called to be “punks”. Punks as subculture stereotipicaly always were and are related more to rock music and culture. Here we see and hear no rock at all. All the characters clothes, make-ups, lifestyle, dancing in the clubs reffer more to “electro” culture. Even the soundtrack is not electro. Of course, electro has connections with punk, as characters are
“underground freaks” as well punks are, and were is such musical genre as “electro-punk”, but the subculture itself is autonomic from punk. So I think in review should be mentioned movie’s connection with 80’s electro culture.
SFAM @ 5:42 pm:
Hi Glam, yes, this is a good point. Liquid Sky definitely borders more with an androgenous David Bowie, Gary Newman and company than it does Black Flag and so forth. I would still say this is clearly a punk underground movie, but as you mention, there are many shades of “punkness.”
Glam Creature @ 11:43 pm:
I would say it’s art and dance underground movie. Also it needs to notice that this movie is often mentioned as very influental to 90’s-00’s “electroclash” culture ( which is related to 80’s electro and electro revival, but is not the same).
June 23, 2006
Dixie Flatline @ 12:19 pm:
Believe me I watch a lot of cheesy movies but Liquid Sky is pure trash. There is nothing arty or underground about it. Every aspect of it from script, dialogue, acting up to cinematography and set design is horrendous up to the point where an amateur home video has higher quality. Finally, it has no connection whatsoever to cyberpunk.
SFAM @ 2:50 pm:
Hi Dixie, I think my review indicates my wavering on this, but I decided to include more for the punk - as I state in the review, the visuals are the only portion of this that qualifies as cyberpunk at all. I certainly don’t agree that Liquid Sky is worse than your average amateur home video though - this is a pretty bizarre statement unless you’re just trying to stress your distaste for the flick.
I also doubt you’ll find virtually any amateur home videos that have the immersive quality that Liquid Sky does - this is truly what the director is after.
June 24, 2006
Glam Creature @ 6:20 pm:
June 23, 2006
Dixie Flatline said:”There is nothing arty or underground about it.”
Motiveless statement; unless you’re an expert in New York’s 80’s underground art, fashion and music tendencies, which are context of this movie.
October 3, 2006
br79 @ 8:46 pm:
a little side note: There is(was) a New York based Jungle record company named Liguid Sky. They had medium popularity in the early jungle/drum n bass movement around 93-96.
October 4, 2006
SFAM @ 1:06 pm:
Hi br79, Liquid Sky seems like a great name for an off-beat record company to adopt. It gives it a pretty clear mood right off the bat.
September 20, 2007
Anne V.O. @ 9:35 pm:
As the director of this movie, S. Tsulerman, sais, this is a movie about the punk-culture, about the philosophie of this subculture. It’s not a simple movie. The caracters are playing themselves. The actress Anne Carlisle was playing her-self. If you watch this movie you should be more open-minded to the art, you should understand the images, think about the film.. what’s it about? The ACID maybe? the drugs? the life of a person who wants to be unique? it’s about the punks in general
April 22, 2008
TeleFrank @ 7:24 pm:
Dixie Flatline, how can you say there’s nothing arty or underground about Liquid Sky? Even allowing the bad acting and low budget production values, the music, costuming and makeup are totally arty, and all these people seem to know each other from the downtown NYC club scene from way before it became popularized by the infamous NY Club Kids. That would seem to me to be the very definition of underground.
July 10, 2008
oldschool_CAS @ 5:44 pm:
I hung out in the Liquid Sky retail shop in NYC around 1994….they really helped spark the NYC club/elctro scene in the early to mid 90s….then they dissappered??where did they go…