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Abel Raises Cain (2005)
...is the story of a true American eccentric, Alan Abel, and his family, and was directed and narrated by his daughter Jenny. These days, irony is laid on with a trowel by everyone, but Alan Abel applied irony with an Exacto knife, cutting deep to draw a very thin line between his outrageous fantasies and others’ perceived reality.
In the uptight early ‘60’s, he found plentiful targets in a population with moral codes so rigid that they could actually buy into the idea that he might find shame in the fact that animals don’t wear clothes. Abel could play it both ways, however - you can hear him do the same bit for the laughs of a sophisticated audience on his comedy album SINA: THE SOCIETY FOR INDECENCY TO NAKED ANIMALS." The full album is on youtube, as are other clips from Abel's long career.
Abel casts an enigmatic shadow in this consistently entertaining and totally unique documentary. Indifferent to his material circumstances, he lives for the next big hoax and only for the next big hoax. You can almost see the wheels spinning inside his head, and his combination of totally insane ideas and a desert dry presentation make it impossible to turn away. Although life with him couldn’t have been easy, he seems to be a beloved figure to his wife and daughter - and indeed, no one could really take his place and deliver what he delivers, however out of the mainstream it is. My personal point of view? Abel doesn’t ACT superior to others, he simply IS superior to others! Don’t miss this one!!!
...is the story of a true American eccentric, Alan Abel, and his family, and was directed and narrated by his daughter Jenny. These days, irony is laid on with a trowel by everyone, but Alan Abel applied irony with an Exacto knife, cutting deep to draw a very thin line between his outrageous fantasies and others’ perceived reality.
In the uptight early ‘60’s, he found plentiful targets in a population with moral codes so rigid that they could actually buy into the idea that he might find shame in the fact that animals don’t wear clothes. Abel could play it both ways, however - you can hear him do the same bit for the laughs of a sophisticated audience on his comedy album SINA: THE SOCIETY FOR INDECENCY TO NAKED ANIMALS." The full album is on youtube, as are other clips from Abel's long career.
Abel casts an enigmatic shadow in this consistently entertaining and totally unique documentary. Indifferent to his material circumstances, he lives for the next big hoax and only for the next big hoax. You can almost see the wheels spinning inside his head, and his combination of totally insane ideas and a desert dry presentation make it impossible to turn away. Although life with him couldn’t have been easy, he seems to be a beloved figure to his wife and daughter - and indeed, no one could really take his place and deliver what he delivers, however out of the mainstream it is. My personal point of view? Abel doesn’t ACT superior to others, he simply IS superior to others! Don’t miss this one!!!