by SARAH ROWLAND

When most people think of Bob Log III, they think of a guitar-playing blues devil sporting a Super Dave Osborne jumpsuit. Rarely do they associate him with Germany’s arthouse set. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in this business it’s never underestimate a man profound enough to pen lyrics like “Clap Your Tits.” You can check out this other side of Arizona’s favourite redneck when the Goethe-Institut presents the best of Hamburg’s Short Film Festival Thursday, March 30, at 8 p.m., and Friday, March 31, at 6:30 p.m.

Among the 10 16-mm and Super-8s that will screen is none other than Bob Log III’s Electric Fence Story, a German-directed claymation that re-enacts Log’s Black Forest adventure. Here, the touring one-man show talks us through the whiskey-fuelled night in which he made the mistake of introducing some German friends to the Southern tradition of cow-tipping—with some humorous results.

Other films include Jens Grünhagen’s Vanya, a dry comedy about two roommates with very different ideas about how to get their damage deposit back. One paints, scrubs and cleans while the other sits on his ass giving moral support. Anyone who’s ever had to play Felix to someone else’s Oscar in order to cut down on rent will relate to this one. Then there’s The Story of the Red Ceramic Horse, in which a lonely and bored pothead spends the day tripping out on how disenfranchised she feels from all sunny, happy people in her neighbourhood. This isolating experience leads to a night of overeating, masturbation and more pot—natch. For more info, visit, www.goethe.de/ins/ca/mon/en1245064.htm.

At the Cinémathèque québécoise, the Jean-Louis Trintignant homage continues until Sunday, April 30. Of course, not all of Trintignant’s work will be showcased—that would take us well into 2007. Only 27 of his 134 features will be screened, including: his first important role in Roger Vadim’s 1956 Et Dieu... créa la femme, where he took a backseat to Bardot as she mamboed her way into international stardom; 1985’s Rendez-vous, aka the film that launched Juliette Binoche’s cinematic career in France; and 1968’s Les Biches, in which Trintignant plays an architect stud who comes between two bisexual St. Tropez babes. The seven-week tribute coincides with Trintignant’s visit to Montreal. From Thursday, March 30 till Saturday, April 1, the living legend will give a nightly reading of Apollinaire’s poetry as part of the 11th annual Festival international de littérature at Place des Arts. For more info, call 842-2112.

And if you prefer blood and gore to avant-garde cinema and French poetry, then you’re in luck. Vol. 1 of the Festival Spasm Horreur is officially out on DVD this week, featuring 13 (of course) locally made gory shorts. Plotlines run the gamut from killer washing machines to killer girlfriends and my personal favourite, killer Rotten Ronnie. For more info, visit www.spasm.ca.

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