Updates — so far…
I have decided to move the updates on Le Corps Atomique to Medium as it’s going to be a lot better than having to edit the site each time I want to update.
Here’s everything so far from thereisanothersystem.com
5th July 2021
Belated Happy Independence Day to my American friends. Three things to update on this week:
1: I’m continuing to reach out to some record labels for help and advice, but I am still to hear anything back. I understand. Everyone has made an album during lockdown, and I’m just adding to the pile with a confusing story and a lost film.
I’ll keep trying, as I would dearly love to find a way to release the Le Corps Atomique soundtrack with enough exposure that people can find it. This is why I have not put it on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, or looked into self publishing. I think it needs to be heard by more people than the few that would chance upon it.
2: I have received more anonymous emails to my personal account from different anonymous email providers. All of them say the same thing, Arrêter. Every time I email back, it bounces. Freaks me out each time I get one, I’ll be honest, so if this is someone I upset on Reddit — you can stop now. If it isn’t someone on Reddit, then…
3: Moving on. I got a local printers to make me a copy of the restored poster for Le Corps Atomique. I love it!
27th July 2021
A second, less ominous update. I got some feedback that the site was difficult to read. I know nothing about web design. I’m using the free website builder that came with the company I registered the domain. I’ve changed the fonts and taken another pass at the landing page text as it was all written in a rush. Hopefully this is a lot easier to read!
27th June 2021
This is an update that I’m not sure I should be making. Last week I got an anonymous email.
It’s from a service called guerrillamail, which allows users to send email from disposable email address.
I wouldn’t normally be concerned as the contact page has the email address for this site.
However, this was sent to my personal address. I have not disclosed any information about who I am as the family have asked for complete anonymity.
This seems like a threat, and it’s from someone who knows who I am.
23rd June 2021
This’ll be a longer update than normal. A week or so ago I posted on reddit’s r/Lost_Films to see if anyone could help with the search for information on Le Corps Atomique. The post received some upvotes and a couple of encouraging comments, but no additional information.
I decided to post on r/lostmedia as it had a larger user count. I wish I hadn’t. I don’t engage with the internet that much, so maybe I’m just not thick skinned enough.
The upshot is that most people thought what I posted was fake. Let’s be clear. I’ve never stated that this film actually exists. All I have is a film poster and a tape of music. My number one theory is that the film never existed, and the poster was possibly made for promotion to raise money to make the film. The soundtrack could have been music that my Uncle had already composed and it was compiled to help sell the vision of the film. I maintain this is my number one theory.
r/lostmedia unfortunately gives me a 4th theory, that this is a joke being played on me, possible by my late Uncle. I don’t want to believe that, but if it turns out to be true — I’ll accept it. I still have the recordings and as far as I can tell, they are original.
I’ll attempt to answer some of the points raised on the remove post as I feel like I wasn’t given an opportunity to respond. The post was taken down while I was asleep (UK time vs. US time).
·11h
Yeah sorry chief, gotta agree with u/BaseballCollector on this one. I ran some of the music samples through a DAW and saw how they lined up with a metronome. They were exact. If this really was a analog-to-digital transfer there would be a much less consistent tempo due to the medium. The production also doesn’t strike me as being particularly late-70s despite the use of analog synths, and it comes off as a little too clean for a lost tape.
I didn’t know what a DAW was until I looked it up. I’ve posted a video on YouTube (https://youtu.be/xOPDFvsfmmM) showing how I transferred the tape. Regards to the music being in time, I took a little time to listen to some Tangerine Dream from the late 70s this morning and, to my ear, also doesn’t sound out of time — but I’m no expert.
·10h
Took me one second looking at the poster and its fabricated condition to know it’s not real. The colored stripes gave it away.
Post this on a LARP or ARG subreddit where people actually enjoy fiction. This subreddit is for actual lost media. Not fakes like this or “Go For A Punch”.
One second is pretty quick. As I’ve already said — I can’t validate the poster, and again, I’m no expert.
·8h
My first reaction, this poster is not from the 78/79. So clearly photoshopped, it just is. The second thing that drew my attention was the name in the bottom right, this composers name does not ring true for the period. I therefore feel the project is an attempt to draw attention to the music through unconvincingly executed subterfuge.
As I’ve talked about in the section on my Uncle, the name comes from the 1970 film Colossus: The Forbin Project. It’s a film I know he loved because we watched it together. More information here: http://thereisanothersystem.com/TIAS/
·12h·edited 11h
What does that “G” Mean on that poster OP???
The French Age Rating System in the 1970s didn’t have a “G”
That doesn’t correspond to the dimensions of any French film posters from that era. What size is it buddy, the Moyenne? The Pantalon? Le Half Grande? No French posters from that era were stored in a tri-fold.
How many 1970s French film posters do you think I’ve seen. You were clearly not alive, nor a film collector, in 1979 because these things would be obvious to you.
This is a fake poster, photoshopped, and this is yet another scam to get people to listen to someone’s modern music via an internet “mystery.”
Well it’s no mystery, buddy, you’re playing a prank on us.
Get Off this Sub
the first thing is this. Very rarely are movie marketing materials, like posters, ever produced before the film is completed. Public Relations campaigns may exist, but posters almost always do not. The only exception were American Drive In companies where they “sold the sizzle.” This did not, however, happen in France. But you didn’t work in the film business in the 1970s, nor did you ever work for anyone who did, nor did you work for anyone who distributed French films in the US, however I did. so you made silly mistakes and got caught.
The G is not an age rating. It’s the logo for Gaumont at that period. As for the size, it’s 120 x 160 cm. The scale may have got stretch a little by the artist who restored it.
As for being a prank. It might be — but it’s a prank on me.
As for the rest. It’s impossible to really defend as it’s one person’s opinion vs. mine.
They continue:
·8h·edited 7h
Can I keep going? I hate to be a snot, but…
What is this movie’s NSS number?
a cataloged movie poster from the 1970s would 99% of the time be labeled on both sides with its NSS number, aka xxx/79 based on the number of releases that year or have a stamp of the title on the reverse.
I’m sorry. This was mocked up on Fiverr and kind of mimics the art Bob Peak was doing at the time. I spent my teenage years working with movie posters in the 1980s… the guy could have fooled us with press releases, press photos, script pages, anything except a poster which has to be officially published.
Another thing about the movie rating- because it’s advertising, movie posters either give the rating or mention that the film is “not yet rated.”
An unfinished film (where content is not final) cannot be rated. So it’s very very rare to see a pre-1980s (aka pre-Betamax/VHS) movie poster without detailed explanation of ratings- which is why advertising campaigns are not paid for- usually- before a film is completed.
What OP doesn’t get is that I can call and leave a message with Jacqueline Bissett’s manager. I know who he is. I have his office number. She’s still with us. I’m sure she wants the publicity, but who does he think inhabits lost media, but guys like myself who had show business internships decades ago?
I mean, if OP is Ross Harris or one of the more obscure guys making 1970s film scores on analog synths, like Roger Manning, like the score to “Logan’s Sanctuary,” I feel sorry for ripping him one, but please, just not on this sub.
Logan’s Sanctuary “soundtrack.” https://youtu.be/CPzBJYZrrfY
At first I didn’t even think about the multiple “fake soundtrack” work that I’ve heard before, but in the last hour I realized how much this particular joke has been made
https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/synth-soundtracks-for-films-that-dont-exist
There’s a lot to unpack here, and a lot of this is on the assumption that the film was released. I still maintain that my prime theory is that the poster and the soundtrack were used to try and raise funding for the film production. The only codes on the poster are ‘S.E.LALANDE COURBET 91 WISSSOUS’ and ‘Visa n°7495’.
This could have been made up to make the poster look as authentic as possible to further lure investment.
While the commenter seems to know a lot about film posters, he is unfortunately wrong about everything to do with the classification.
As previously stated, the G is for Gaumont. I know G is a classification in America, however G in the UK would be a U rating. I’m not sure about France. Also — American film posters might have had to put the rating on them, again — I’m not sure about French posters.
I would LOVE the commenter to contact Jaqueline Bisset’s manager. I don’t know who it is, or I’d be calling myself! Again — there’s a big assumption here that the film was actually made. They may have been pursuing Jaqueline Bisset as she was a big name around that time and would open the film to a more international audience.
I don’t know who Ross Harris is, or Roger Manning, however — the bandcamp post look great and I’ll be listening to that today, so cheers for that!
·11h
I know nothing about any of this stuff, but what exactly would the endgame be with this scam? This subreddit is pretty small. What’s the point?
The aim was to try and get more information, having also posted on r/Lost_Films earlier.
·10h
Never underestimate someone on the hustle
My guess is that the music would probably get the “legal clear” after a bit, after which the full songs would come out on a bunch of platforms to “help widen the search”
Not sure how to respond to this. Again — the commenters have decided I’m trying to pull a fast one on them and it’s their word against mine.
·13h
I heard some of the music samples and somehow I never heard anything like it so yeah it deserves to be found. Let’s just hope this should grab the attention of blameitonjorge and lsupersonicq
I thought this was a nice comment, so I’ll end with that.
I’ll be also posting this response on r/Lost_Film as well as the people there were very supportive of my efforts to find more information. I guess I just stepped into the wrong bar with r/lostmedia.
21st June 2021
I got the photo restoration back from the artist I found on Fiverr. They have repaired the main image, but decided it would be better to recreate the text and logo to keep everything as clean as possible. They managed to match the fonts and the whole thing looks amazing! They even did a cover for the soundtrack.
Le Corps Atomique -Poster
Repaired from the poster I received. I carefully scanned sections of the damaged poster as well as take photos so the artist had as much information about the original as I could give them. They have done an amazing job, and the poster still feels period appropriate.
Le Corps Atomique — Soundtrack Art
The artist also did this album mockup for me. I think one of the things I haven’t stressed enough is how amazing the soundtrack is. The clips I put on YouTube really don’t do it justice. I’m planning on reaching out to some record labels to see if they are interested in listening to it, but it’s hard to find contact details for record companies that are accepting submissions. Any help would be much appreciated.
14th June 2021
I finally found a photo restorer on Fiverr that will sign an NDA and try restoring the film poster. This took longer than expected as most of the people I approached wanted to be able to use the work for their portfolio. This, to me, break the anonymity that the family of my Uncle are requiring as the work could easily be traced back to me, an ultimately the family.
It has cost me a lot more than the regular photo restoration costs on Fiverr, but I’m confident the artist will be true to their word (and the NDA) and I hope to have something to share soon.
I’m also going to put a post of Reddit to try and get the word out a little more, and hopefully get some information on the film. I didn’t realise how hard it would be to try and generate interest. I am very naïve!
7th June 2021
I’ve taken to twitter to try and get a few more eyes on the website and hopefully help solve the mystery of Le Corps Atomique. You can follow the latest here: https://twitter.com/ThereIsAnSystem
In other news. I’ve reached out to a few photo restorers on Fiverr to see if they can work on a clean version of the poster. I’ve scanned it (very carefully) in sections so it can be reassembled and restored. Let you know when I get something I’m happy to show.
