It Couldn't Happen Here
April 3, 2015 5:50 PM   Subscribe

The Quietus examines the wobbly Pet Shop Boys' 1988 collaboration with Jack Bond, It Couldn't Happen Here [Vimeo], a film project created because PSB didn't want to tour, released as an accompaniment to their second album Actually. To date, the film has only been available on VHS (now discontinued) and Laserdisc (also now discontinued). PSB has mentioned a new release in the past, but that hasn't manifested so far. Check it out while you can, whether you're a fan or not. Edgy art film at its divisive finest.
posted by hippybear (7 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thank you.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 6:22 PM on April 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


divided by… zero
posted by readyfreddy at 6:55 PM on April 3, 2015


This is the exact kind of stuff i bring up whenever anyone goes "but, internet!" when i tell them i miss video stores full of tapes.
posted by emptythought at 8:42 PM on April 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


Watched this on laserdisc back in the day. Didn't get it at all, but was happy to have seen it.

Epic PSB-based mash-up video posted by the same user on Vimeo.
posted by Mothlight at 6:57 AM on April 4, 2015


I liked this as an exquisite set of still shots. Very beautiful indeed. But for the music, try Zappa's, It Can't Happen Here, more droll.
posted by Oyéah at 10:17 AM on April 4, 2015


Great, great album.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:26 PM on April 5, 2015


Not mentioned in the article: inspired by the Pet Shop Boys, British pop music situationists The KLF - also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, furthermore known as the JAMs - would go on their own sisyphean quest to make a feature-length theatrical road movie just a year later. It played like an ambient-house remix of It Couldn't Happen Here. They would never finish the film, but a remixed soundtrack proved to be hit, even spawning a well-known worldwide #1 hit single.

Four years later, The KLF deleted their catalog, took what was left of the residuals of the sales of The White Room soundtrack - one million pounds sterling - and visited the Isle of Jura to burn it. They filmed the event, and then toured the UK with the footage, a documentary movie entitled Watch the KLF Burn a Million Quid.
posted by eschatfische at 10:07 PM on April 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


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