Esotika's Monthly Screening Log

February '08 Screening Log

2008-03-05T19:48:00.001-08:00

On Light, or the Ingression of Forms - Clint Enns
Neat experimental film that (true to the genre) experiments with a hacked webcam. The way it directly incorporated sound was neat too, the whole experience reminded me of a particularly potent noise song (in the Merzbow vein).

Nelda - Piero Bargellini
Visually interesting in the sort of polarization paired with the regular image. Conceptually I'm at a total loss. I have to admit to not watching it really hard, but I can't decide if I'm interested enough to try again. I sort of have this problem a lot with experimental/avant-garde stuff-- I know that a lot of it *is* really just literally "experimental" but, sometimes I have a hard time seperating the exercies from the impenetrable conceptual stuff that is hard to get at without context.

Intestinal Fortitude - Colin Barton [rewatch]
Still visual post-modern awesomeness that is just total eyecandy.

Journey to the Unknown - Kerry Laitala
To my suprise, this short experimental work steals both Francois de Roubaix's audio cues and Delphine Seyrig's voice from Daughters of
Darkness and creates a somewhat neurotic "journey to the unknown." What's really interesting about the piece, however, is the way that Laitala
uses the "flicker" effect with CMYK colors, creating a sort of neon trance. (as a note, I think I may have watched this before but it's not in my records and I can't remember for sure.) The rhythm is sort of fucked up though.

Home Stories - Matthias Muller
Like Richard Prince's photographs (particularly the early ones, like "Untitled (four women looking in the same direction)"), rephotographed advertisements that reveal the "doppelganger" of the women on display, Muller's film explores the similarity of the depiction of women in cinema via a smattering of Hollywood films. It sounds sort of generic, but it's done earnestly (with Muller's homosexuality being an interesting context) and it's just sort of neat.

Sucker - Tony Oursler
Kind of shitty... sort of vaguely resembles a lot of no-wave/cinema of transgression filmmaking, but not even half as good? I don't know.

Light - Jordan Belson
Belson's films are, from a level of pure aesthetics, totally beautiful and moving. Just pure sensory enjoyment. I've been meaning to read Youngblood's Expanded Cinema too, to see how Belson is discussed in that context.

Sricnina - Piero Bargellini
I don't remember this AT ALL and I just watched it two days ago.

Eyetoon - Jerry Abrams [rewatch]
I really need to start taking notes on the non-narrative stuff I watch immediately after I watched it, because I know I had something new to say about this, but I totally don't remember now.

A Family Finds Entertainment - Ryan Trecartin
God I am so in love with this guy's work. I finally got non-YouTube copies of his stuff, so I can re-evaluate. But it's interesting, I read an article today by Peter Weibel about "Multiple Narration," and Trecartin's methods totallly synthesize, so freaking subtly, everything that's awesome about post-modernist incorporation and post-structuralist rhizomatic structures and the decentralized narrative and man. I am going to rewatch I-BE-AREA in order and then probably write an article on him for my site eventually.

The Nines - John August
I have no real complaints about this, other than the fact that the ending didn't really accomplish anything, and grounded any mystery created in the film in a sort of retarded metaphysical-Matrix-fantasy. Ryan Reynolds sure is nice to look at, and the narrative is constructed in a fun-nice-well-done manner.

God - John August
Sort of entertaining campy short that came on the DVD for The Nines. I mean, I guess it was kind of funny, but also sort of obvious. Almost John Water-ish, that is, if he had kept down the road he was heading via Serial Mom-Pecker-Cecil B. Demented.

Eating Out - Q. Allan Brocka
In all objectivity this movie was awful, but the lead gay-for-gurlz guy had a killer jawline and a dumb demeanor that turned me on more than a bit, and I realize that even us fags need rom-coms every once in a while (...)

Turistas - John Stockwell
I liked this better than Hostel, despite being marketed as a Hostel rip off. Underwater chase scene was neat and kind of intense. Josh Duhamel is kind of nice to look at. Not really annoying at all = for the best.

The Gift - Louise Hogarth
Documentary that despite being about a pretty fascinating subject (bugchasing) ended up being really boring and annoying, really only focusing on three things that were only tangential to ___. Kind of ended up not approaching a larger idea, and just presenting disparate elements that don't add up to anything infinite.

In a Year With 13 Moons - RW Fassbinder
This was really really good. I don't know how to talk about it other than it was really really good, and probably the most beautiful Fassbinder film that I've seen outside of Querelle... it's got a sort of bizarre abject tone that fits perfectly, and makes it's 2h10m runtime flyby.

Richard McBeef: The Motion Picture - (director unknown)
Gee, it sure does recontextualize things when a school shooting happens at one's own university... regardless, since I had read these I was curious as to how long it would be before they were made into short films. It was, to be honest, hilarious, and exactly what I wanted. Oh, the internet.

Sodom - Luther Prince
Experimental/avant-garde "recreation" of the events in the biblical sodom that's main selling point was the way it filled a void of inspiration that I needed for a video art piece I'm working on.

Las Soledades - Raoul Ruiz
I do not understand why I haven't watched more Ruiz films yet, as everything I've seen from him has been great. This sort of magickally connects fictional narrative, documentary, and some sort of divine poetry into a weird portrait that adds up to something intensely WORTHWHILE. It's also remarkably evident as inspiration/fraternity avec Peter Greenaway.

Rape of the Vampire - Jean Rollin
Still not my favorite Rollin, but interesting as a starting point. Expanding review (possibly) coming for Esotika soon.

Murder Psalm - Stan Brakhage
I think the problem that I have with declaring Brakhage "awesome" is that 90% of his films, to me at least, don't become interesting until I've read what he's written about them. To me that is problematic, as all of these films are presented solely as just *films*, so I, being the critical dude that I am, find fault in the fact that there is not enough present on the screen to apply a reading of the film (I would say 30% of the time, however, this is due to me not actively watching the film enough; I have a bias against soundless-films). But, once I read what this was about, I ended up liking it a bit more, especially as a work of art-as-catharsis.

Mouse Heaven - Kenneth Anger
So, I need to stop watching anything Anger's made post-Lucifer Rising, because it almost seems to me that he's pretty much like TOTALLY forgotten how to make awesome films? 12 minutes of Micky Mouse collectibles cheaply animated and shot on video. Wow sounds great! PSYCH.

Noema - Scott Stark
This is far more conceptually interesting than in practice: the idea of decentralizing SOV porn by rhythmically displaying the "in between" moments (and with copious amounts of repetition via Stein's "repetition is erotic" mantra) is pretty rad, but I can't help but think that this was pretty poorly and cheaply made. I could make something better in (no joke) less than ten minutes with a pirate copy of Adobe Premiere. Maybe I should.

Lick the Star - Sofia Coppola
This might be my favorite Coppola movie (not that she's a prime fave or anything), but that's more due to the fact that it's a story about a clique of mean 12 year olds who are really into Flowers in the Attic. That plot line is pretty unbeatable, and Coppola + semi-riot-gurl soundtrack = awesome, since she uses pop music to drive the narrative anyway.

Shiner - Christian Calson
While I can appreciate the fact that the director, as he says in an interview included on the DVD, wanted to make a gay movie that wasn't a tired and busted gay romantic comedy, and I appreciate the fact that parts of this were pretty hot, it was still pretty poorly made and plotted, and all of it's epiphanic moments that I have the feeling were supposed to be utterly revelatory ended up flat. I really have issues when, on a low budget movie, the filmmakers don't even bother to clean up microphone hiss and clicks and just shitty unnecessary background noise, considering that's something you can fix in Adobe Audition in literally like ten seconds.

Exte: Hair Extensions - Sion Sono
Sono film number 4 proves to me that he knows what he's doing. The concept of this flick itself is remarkably tricky, and could have fallen completely flat. It's a weird hybrid of satire/horror/and family drama (which, let's face it, so was Suicide Club), and it actually manages to balance everything evenly. The satire element, weighing down on the tired state of what 90% of cinema goers assume to be the current state of Asian horror, takes it's start on what is ostensibly haunted hair extensions. It's completely ridiculous, yet immediately calls to mind the tropes of the genre, such as the little girls with epically long hair. But, fortunately for the viewer, Sono never really wraps up this story line to a cohesive state, which in my opinion the direct openness is a perfect way of addressing the arbitrary nature of much of the current day Asian exploitation (exploitation in the actual sense of it's definition; not in Tarantino and Rodriguez' post-modern bastardization). As a family drama it hits on one of Sono's favorte themes, the alienation between child and parent, though this time he revisits the abuse aspects he first visited in 2005's brilliant Strange Circus. There's an almost uncomfortable sense of satire in this element too, though I won't go into it here for fear of rambling too long when I probably just need to write a full review of this eventually (ha, how many times have I said that in the last few weeks?)

Eugenie - Jess Franco [rewatch]
Watching this again via Blue Underground's new DVD (with the wonderful French soundtrack; a first for me) I was struck by how different the film seemed in my memory from the way it actually was. I'm guessing that the difference exists out of my full immersion into the Franco canon now as opposed to the brief tinkerings I had experienced upon the former viewing.

Urbania - Jon Shear
I think, in a sense, this movie accomplishes what the director of Shiner set out to do with his movie. Aside from the convoluted and unnecessary beginning (among other minor flaws), this ended up working surprisingly well and affectingly, without ending up veering into majorly heavy-handedness or sentimentality (which is almost breeched in a weird metaphysical scene). Plus, this featured the hottest awkward masturbation scene that I've ever seen, and was more often than not hilarious in a bizarre sort of "gay-power" way.

Black Christmas - Glen Morgan
All things considered (this being a remake of one of my favorite movies), I don't have much to complain about here. I certainly have nothing to overly praise, but like I mentioned before, I can watch bitchy, shallow, and catty girls in almost anything. It's ridiculous, but in terms of escapism I was totally down and more surprisingly, not offended. It works camp in a totally non-annoying way, which I realized is why it works.

I'm Not There - Todd Haynes
I still can't really wrap my head around this (and not being a huge Dylan fan or knowing anything about his life, I'm sure certain subtleties will forever elude me), but I'm pretty sure this might have been the second best film I've seen from 2007 (though I obviously just saw this). It handles narrative and concepts in an indirect, profound way that, as I had an Exploding Kinetoscope moment, I realized was totally "speaking to me." It seemed to sort of approach certain ideals that I've encountered and been fascinated by most often in Dennis Cooper novels, and this totally different outlet for what was ostensibly the same concept (I am always a fan of conflicting identities) was fascinating to me, and to be honest, I think shined light on a truth that I'm generally hesitant to accept. More than that, with this being, in terms of Haynes' oeuvre, most similar to the excellent gay-phantasy-omnibus Poison, it's delightfully and earnestly experimental for such a high profile film. And yeah, like everybody's been saying, Cate Blanchett is amazing, and was easily the highlight of the film for me (other than the conceptually musings of the Rimbaud-Dylan).

Cure - Kiyoshi Kurosawa [rewatch]
It's been a very, very long time since I've seen this (this was the first K. Kurosawa film that I ever saw, and it was at least five years ago that I first saw it) and seeing it again was pretty much like seeing it for the first time. My mind was honestly blown, and it was really just an astoundingly profound experience in terms of how *into* the movie I was. Everything is so studied, tense, and aesthetically *perfect* that it's almost a sensory overload. There's also the neat fact that the tempo of the film lulls you into a mental position that is akin to that of hypnosis, and the viewing experience becomes so bizarre (of course, in all reality this might have more to do with the fact that I was remarkably tired while watching it).

All Orientals Look the Same - Valerie Soe
One and a half minutes that is worthwhile in theory, but I'm not quite sure how well it works in practice.

Technology Transformation: Wonder Woman - Dana Birnbaum
I guess this is one of the first examples of the television appropriation in terms of gender ideology... it's nice and theoretical, but I've said it before and I'll say it again; would it kill these experimental filmmakers to pay attention to rhythm? It really drives me nuts when it's just totally ignored...

It's a Wonderful Lohan - Michael Mouris
Remarkably mean spirited quick 'n' dirty animation that pretty much just pans the Lohan family. I happen to love Lindsay Lohan and I legitimately think that she's a brillian actress, but I still thought this was sort of funny in an empty pop culture sort of way.

Chocolade Haas - Sander Plug
Chocolate bunnies melting. Three of them.

Djinn - Eliane Lima
Meditative, enigmatic, and encapsulating Robbe-Grillet's tone in a pretty great way. Reminded me a bit of Ruiz's Colloque de Chiens, but a lot darker. Really good stuff.
(watch it here)

January '08 Viewing Log

2008-03-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

La Femme Qui se Poudre - Patrick Bokanowski [rewatch]
I've been mulling over how I'm going to write about this flick for a week now, and I'm still not convinced. I have a page of notes, but I can't decide on an entrance point. I think it's pure atmosphere and visual aesthetics that do this for me, but I know that there's something else there that keeps me coming back to it. I will (hopefully) be expanding my thoughts on this soon.

The Psychic - Lucio Fulci
Every once-in-a-while I get totally bummed out and sort of tired of watching movies but then I'll watch a totally balls-out example of European Genre Cinema and I'll immediately remember why movies are so awesome. I mean, this isn't a particularly potent example of super-awesomeness, but it was a pretty great flick. Aside from the swank visuals, awesome music, and pretty people that can always be expected in Euro-Cult, I particularly appreciated the subversion of the old "hallucination at the same time of the murder that reveals details" thing. I don't really have much to say other than this was really rad, and I've still yet to see a Lucio Fulci film that I didn't love.

Mary Janes Not a Virgin Anymore - Sarah Jacobson
This was mid-90s "indie" filmmaking that I found totally adorable and compulsively watchable, and even particularly hilarious ("Bite it like beef jerky!"). It's totally naive but it's honest in a sort of embarrassing sort of way, but not half as embarrassing as something retarded like Garden State. It's naive honesty is actually endearing, especially in the sense that characters actually end up making good decisions and learning things, all the while being awesome. Plus, the whole "working and hanging out at a movie theater with a bunch of kids in their mid-20s while you're in high school and having an adorable gay boss" is remarkably similar to my experience of working at a locally own video store while in high school. Of course, I didn't party in high school, but no matter. My purely subjective response is all I really need here.

Latter Days - C. Jay Cox
The adorable-gay-boss in the previous movie had me hankering for some more faggy-fun so I headed to the video store to find something satiate my need. This met it. For a gay film it's not particularly innovative or even special, but even I occasionally need a totally escapist romantic comedy that doesn't have totally irritating leads. I mean, watching stuff like this makes me realize the place in society for the million and one Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks rom-com's that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. I mean, film is great and awesome and intellectual and pretty much the best thing ever, but every so often it's nice to just sort of relax and watch a flick like the average passive viewer.

The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love - Maria Maggenti
More escapism via cute teen girls in love (hence the title), and a pretty neat soundtrack. I think early-to-mid-90s gay/indie flicks are my ultimate guilty pleasure. Of course, I don't really feel guilty about it. This was sort of totally unrealistic/artificial in the same way Hal Hartley films are, and there's the same sort of awkwardness and joie de vivre present.

Black Sun - Sue de Beer
The best thing about the internet is that it leads to me going to an artist's personal website, finding her email address, emailing her and asking if she would send me copies of her films, and then getting them in the mail two weeks later. Like, honestly, how else would this have happened? Drawing on texts from Dennis Cooper's Try and Period (one of my favorite books of all time), this is delightfully pretty to look at in it's artificiality, if not a bit "obviously exploring obvious art themes" for me. It was actually really great though, and I really enjoyed seeing a contemporary video art example of an artist who's still working with narrative. I actually plan on re-watching this (and the other two films she sent me) and writing a more in depth piece for Esotika, so if you're curious I guess wait for that.

North by Northwest - Alfred Hitchcock
Once in a blue moon I get really in the mood to watch a Hitchcock flick. I have no idea why, considering that I've not been really blown away by any of the Hitchcock flicks I've seen, and I never really have that great of a time while actually watching them. I mean, I guess in retrospect they're fairly enjoyable, but I just don't have the same reaction to Hitchcock as most film aficionados do- I can acknowledge that what he's done is definitely important and innovative and neat, but I can't acknowledge that they're enjoyable, because I don't immensely enjoy them or anything. Also, what the hell was up with Cary Grant in this flick? Blame might be due on the (once again) ancient VHS that I saw this from, but he just looked orange and frumpy and every woman in the movie immediately fell in love with him? I don't get it.

Moonland - Neil McGuire and William A. Connor
Interesting silent film that seems to draw it's inspiration from Little Nemo comics.

Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom? - Shunji Iwai
The music is awful and makes everything on screen even more sentimental than it already would have been to being with, but it's still compulsively watchable. There are some weird moments of totally inappropriate humour, and the titular event as a metaphor is kind of thin, but it's still fun.

La Terza Madre - Dario Argento
Uhm, pretty awful. I like Argento a ton and all, and I mean, I guess this was fairly entertaining, but aside from all the cameos/cast there really wasn't anything that reveals this as an Argento flick; rather, it looks like a cheesy imitation Argento flick (and Daria Nicolodi as the fucking corny ass ghost mom? puh-lease). Udo Kier, as always, is a treat.

The Last Clean Shirt - Alfred Leslie
No idea how to talk about this. Interesting? I don't know if I was active enough in my viewing to actually say anything yet, might need to try again, but I'm not sure if there's enough of interest here to try again.

Din of Celestial Birds - E. Elias Merhige
Merhige is a director I can appreciate both in his experimental output and his narrative output (Suspect Zero is one of my favorite light popcorn thrillers). His processes of how he applies so much texture to the film itself is still admirably, even though this is a bit more "hippy" in opposition to the beautiful nihilism present in Begotten. The image/music compliment each other remarkably well, and as an aesthetic experience, is wonderful.

One Missed Call - Eric Valette
Easy, passive remake of an easy, passive original. I (sort of) elaborated over here.

I-Be Area - Ryan Trecartin (Out of order, on YouTube)
This shit is insane and is not only post-modernist, it's fucking hyper-post-modernist. Incredibly textured in terms of narrative, the fact that it exists as such a cohesive story no matter what order you read it in is sort of amazing (maybe a bit like Cortozar's Hopscotch?). There is so much energy... for an artist who is ostensibly a YouTube film maker, he's incredibly progressive. He embraces the digital medium for exactly what it is, uses it to do what it does best, and approaching gender and queer theory from such a wildly entertaining angle... man. It all adds up to greatness.

Crimes of the Black Cat - Sergio Pastore
Possibly the most generic gialli flick I've ever seen, it steals virtually all of it's plot elements from other gialli flicks (fashion models/blind detective/soundtrack composer/photographer/clue in photo/etc). But, even with rarely an original thought, it entertains to some degree that the material it incorporates from does.

Measures of Distance - Mona Hatoum
Really more of a "visual prose-poem" (via the "found" photos and text), but pretty remarkable none-the-less. Something like this is always in danger of veering into sentimentality, but it's so honest and urgent it steers clear of that and remains something living.

Cloverfield - Matt Reeves
Really, really, really great. Some un-structured thoughts are here. I think I'll probably see it again this weekend (for the third time) and write something more "full" about it.

I Know Who Killed Me - Chris Sivertson
Considering how universally this was panned, I thought it was delightfully watchable. Of course, I have a soft-spot for virtually any Lindsay Lohan movies, and in terms of being "balls-out," this one is her best. Honestly, it's a bit of a hybrid between gialli and the over-done serial killer theme, but the gialli edge makes it seem fresh compared to the smattering of other crap that's come out.

Venus in Furs - Jess Franco [rewatch]
Full review up here.

Lucifer Rising - Kenneth Anger [rewatch]
I think this film really works as a culmination of all of Anger's work, and I think it might be due to the fact that Bobby B.'s score was composed directly for the films. With the sort of "majesty" that Anger often seems attempting to convey (in terms of a powerful being), pops songs serve more to undermine than to elevate (but, of course, the pop songs work exactly for this reason in Scorpio Rising). It's also Anger's most visually stunning film, the level of pure visual spectacle rivals even Jodorowsky, but becomes better than that because there is such a studied, inherent rhythm, and there is a narrative strand as well. In it's depiction of mysticicism, the film remains mystical, and literally 'casts a spell' over the viewer.

Kustom Kar Kommandos - Kenneth Anger [rewatch]
My friend John summed it up best: Buff that car muscle boy!

Cat Soup - Tatsuo Sato
I had read the comic version of this and thought it was interesting enough so I decided to check out the anime [which, for the record, I'm predisposed to hating the medium, so I'm trying my hardest to surpass my bias]. There are some neat visuals in this, but the narrative arc departs even further away from any semblance of sense than the comic does. It's enjoyable, but with so much happening in 42 minutes, there's really hardly anything happening in 42 minutes.

Dream to Believe - Paul Lynch
Hell of enjoyable teen-girl drama. I always forget how totally awesome Keanu Reeves was before the late-90s, but this served to remind me. There are some parts in this that are so incredibly fucking random it's mindblowing. Totally mindblowing in the best way possible.

DECEMBER SCREENING LOG

2008-03-05T19:24:00.000-08:00

Oh Dem Watermelons - Robert Nelson
Review up here.

Dionysus in '69 - Brian DePalma & Richard Schechner
This was totally fascinating, but I think it's due far more to the play that DePalma and crew are "documenting" itself than anything the filmmakers have to do with it. I've always read about these "breaking the fourth wall" in your face sort of experiential plays, but only reading about these things doesn't compare to seeing them, so as a literal DOCUMENT, this is great. I also was forced to accept the fact that there is a high possibility that I would have been terribly uncomfortable had I actually been present at this.

Sean - Ralph Arlyck
Interesting short documentary that sort of exploits a five year old growing up on Haight-Ashbury who has good-intentioned hippie parents, a house that is a crash pad for speedfreaks and other assorted types, and who habitually smokes grass, while hating cops. It's pretty straightforward and just shows him playing barefoot on the street and talking on a couch. I guess there's a "30 years later" documentary that might be interesting to check out.

Everything Turns, Everything Resolves - Hans Richter
Interesting in the way that it establishes the performative space of a literal stage at the beginning, and then violates the rules of how we could view a staged performance by innovative camera movements/angles/effects and a dash of surrealism/dadaism. Spectacle.
Tenderness of the Wolves - Ulli Lommel
I can't really figure out why this seems to often be billed as a horror flick, outside of the fact that the incident itself is literally horrific. It's pretty much a Fassbinder flick that's not directed by Fassbinder, with the anti-heroes sidekick trying his hardest to be Alain Delon. It was fascinating, and Fassbinder himself even has a small role, but overall there wasn't anything remarkably memorable about it. Some of Harmann's last words were poetic in a Bataille/Dennis Cooper sort of way, and the poeticism was totally ignored.

The House is Black - Forugh Farrokhzad
At first I felt this was getting a bit too sentimental in it's depiction of victims, but after the first ten minutes it sort of changes it's tone, and once the staged scenes come into play totally naturally the documentary form that I'm generally bored by becomes totally exciting. Farrokhzad's presence as a poet is obvious, because she isn't really concerned with the physical, corporeal reality as much as she is with the emotional and political implications of the leper colony. Really beautiful in a subversive sort of way as well.

Stick It - Jessica Bendinger
This is totally awesome. My roommate and I watched this while eating a delicious fucking pizza and it was perfect. All of the characters are like totally empty and exist solely to deliver totally retarded one-liners, and it's totally a Bring it On set in the world of gymnastics. Like, oh my god this was so retardedly good. Wei Wei is one of the best characters EVER, and her confused expressions are something that I want to see in every film ever.

You Are Not Alone - Lasse Nielsen
It seems like this most often gets brought up as an example of pre-pubescent/early pubescent gay love, but I didn't really think that was what this was about; in other reviews the reviewers complain that there are subplots that take away from the immediacy of the two boy's relationship, but I think the relationship itself feels like an under-developed subplot, despite the rather abrupt, sort of elliptic ending. As a youth-in-rebellion flick I thought it had a sort of easy going naturalness that let the kids really be kids (in the sense that this "naturalness" provided an environment for the plot to unfold in, which was necessary because the plot is fairly thin).

Sombre - Philippe Grandrieux
Review up here.

Unrest - Jason Todd Ipson
This is flawed, but in terms of what I like about Horror as a genre, this hits the nail on the head so much harder than anything I've seen in theaters in the last couple of years. It's plot is convoluted but that doesn't matter, there's at least a modicum of suspense built up, totally vacuous characters that are attractive and end up dead, and a LEGEND! I'll probably check out the rest of the "8 FILMS TO DIE FOR" stuff, because they look like horror films that aren't trying to be exactly like HOSTEL or the hyper-stylized violent bullshit that has populated current "mainstream" genre cinema.

The Three Trials - Randy Grief
Note to contemporary movie directors: just because you're shooting on video DOESN'T MEAN that you need to use EVERY STUPID VIDEO EFFECT that whatever cheap editing program you're using has to offer. Video effects look so shitty, and if I see one more low-budget horror film that uses the god-damn inverse filter I will scream. It's like people who get Photoshop for the first time and fall in love with all the built in filters like LENS FLARE and use them, but eventually you realize that unless you're really good at using the filters it's a REALLY BAD IDEA TO USE THEM. Seriously people.

But, in regards to the film itself, it was obviously deeply indepted to the narrative structure of De Sade (in it's method of introducing the protagonist as innocent and naive, then having her catch an authority/priestly figure in a compromising position, and then getting punished herself), the S&M approach that's hyper-present in both The Story of O and The Image, as well as the entire notorious sequence from Borowczyk's The Beast, which is honestly cheaply re-enacted almost exactly.

On the plus side, maybe because it just steals from the above (which I like all of), the story itself kept me interested in continuing to watch, and the guy who played the sadist was hot. Um, I was sort of planning on reviewing this for Esotika, but I hate reviewing things that I didn't like because it's not really a challenge at all and almost always just deteriorates into a rant (see my review of Visions of Suffering, the ultimate goth-clubkid wankfest). You should not throw random seques of shitty music video techniques into your feature films, and body-piercing in a club is not automatically hardcore and creepy. Okay I'm done.

Society - Brian Yuzna
I didn't really think that this, as a whole, was all that brilliant; in fact I thought it was kind of tedious. BUT, one that that I did think was brilliant was the way that the first hour or so are just like a totally stereotypical 80s teen horror movie, with genre trope and all, and then in the last twenty minutes it just turns so god-damned balls out and amazing and disturbing and INSANE, so that made the overall experience worth it.

Makimono - Werner Nekes
Immediate response:

I wasn't sure how much I was going to like it, since the first ten minutes or so led me to believe it was just going to be a half hour of panning from a mountain top, but when it starts to self-destruct into a sort of flicker film near the end it because almost unbearably beautiful, and the tension allowed by the progression works perfectly. The visual aesthetics were also absolutely 100% on par with the kind of visuals I'm obsessed with right now, so I ended up really really loving this.

I would put this alongside Ernie Gehr's Serene Velocity as a film that is really just an utter pleasure to watch. Admittedly, the flicker kind of made my eyes feel weird afterwards, but I was just sort of filled with awe during the viewing. I may be forcing myself to learn how to talk about experimental film, but I still have no words for such an aesthetic experience.

Fire in my Belly - David Wojnarowicz
This is up on YouTube courtesy of one of the editors for Semiotext(e), who uploaded it for Self-Portrait Day: Christmas Presents on Dennis Cooper's blog. It seems a bit naive to me, but it's so pressingly urgent, and the archetypal catholic imagery combined with Diamanda Galas' brilliant music works so incredibly well.

Lost in New York - Jean Rollin
Review up here.

La Griffe d'Horus - Jean Rollin (segment)
This was only about 5 minutes out of the 22 minute pilot that Rollin shot, so I'm not sure how well I can comment on it, but I think the idea of Rollin doing the serial film (Harry Dickson) as camp would have worked out pretty well. Early 90s video is just SO UGLY though.

The Mist - Frank Darabont
Before I say anything, I need to clarify something: I don't like Stephen King, I don't like his books, and 90% of the time I don't like movies based on his work (exclusions include Cronenberg's Dead Zone and De Palma's Carrie, the latter for purely sentimental reasons). Also, post-Night of the Living Dead, it's very rare that I like a movie where a group of antagonistic people are confined into a closed location while crazy shit is happening out in the rest of the world (oddly enough, I love murder mysteries where there is a group of antagonistic people confined into a closed location because generally what's happening out in the rest of the world is almost totally inconsequential to what's happening inside the closed location). That said, there were honestly only two reasons I even bothered to see this. One: Thomas Jane is ridiculously hot. Two: I like seeing horror movies in theater, no matter if they suck or not (which explains why I've seen a lot of "blockbuster" horror flicks and little else in terms of current releases). But on to the actual film, the main problem that I had was that the whole conceptual context created for the film virtually ignored any of the interesting elements (being, of course, the crazy ass tentacle monsters [though the "bugs" were kind of really lame], and the random three second "Oh shit we accidentally opened a portal to another dimension!" scene, which could probably, if they bothered to follow through on that at all, have made for a far more entertaining movie) in favor of creating an annoyingly done-to-death tableau where--wait for it, wait for it--it's really HUMAN BEINGS who are the monsters! OH MY GOD look how we can take a stupid monster movie and make it RELEVANT! All of the retarded social commentary in this movie is remarkably annoying and single-note, while being as frustrating cliche as possible. Is it too much to ask for a contemporary horror movie that's not a) a remake, b) boring gore shit like Hostel, or c) trying to appear less marginalized by addressing some half-hearted "social commentary"? Apparently, the answer the my rhetorical question is yes.

Out of Sight - Stephen Soderbergh
I rented this on a whim after Jeremy over at Moon in the Gutter was praising it. It was a fun little flick, and I think it's interesting that Soderbergh manages to sort of indirectly pay homage to the crime thillers of the 60s and 70s in a non-obnoxious, legitimate sort of way, without pandering to preconceived notions of "retro" film outside of clever plotting. Also, it's yet another movie that I think validates Jennifer Lopez as an actress, despite the fact that a majority of her career (whether in the realm of pop music or pop film) tends to de-validate it. George Clooney was great (and, like everybody else in the world, I find him remarkably attractive and suave; much more than Cary Grant [more on him later...]), and while writing this, noticing that I just commented on the two main actors in the film (while normally I don't say anything about the acting), I feel the need to point out that "acting" works best for me when it doesn't seem like the actors are trying to act. It's not necessarily a naturalism (which I've also expressed discontent over before), rather, (not to beat a dead horse here) it's when the actors fit perfectly within the context of the film that I appreciate "acting."

No Country For Old Men - Coen Brothers
This was the first Coen Brothers movie that I've seen, and I can say that I enjoyed it. A lot actually. I had a lot of fun watching it. To take the defensive route; I do have to say that I don't think it was the best film of the year, I don't think it was really heralding any intensely prevalent or deep "message" or "meaning," and I really didn't think it was suspenseful at all. There was certainly a consistent atmosphere throughout the film that I appreciated, but I found it remarkably lacking in suspense, which is why I got really confused when I heard my roommate say that he was "glued to the edge of his seat" (or whatever, some similar adage) throughout the flick. I'm not sure what that means (that I didn't find it suspenseful). So to move on. I agree with a lot of what's been said about the flick both in this community and over in r00b's journal, so I won't rehash most of it, but to sum it up: I agree with Dan that it was definitely ideologically flawed (and that it was interesting in the way it sort of establishes TLJ as the "wizened old white dude in the West" and then subverts the expectations that are prone to go with that archetype), I agree with r00b that the pointless bird shooting was indeed pointless and a bit pandering, and I agree with Rosenbaum about the way the "badass" serial killer tends to get fetishized/exoticized, particularly in times of war (the night after we saw the movie, my roommate was talking to one of his friends about how "awesome" Chigurh was [I know I know he wasn't technically a serial killer etc]).

All Over Me - Alex Sichel [rewatch]
This movie remains so weird to me; the weird balance between the psychotic best friend and the burgeoning teen lesbian relationship seem really at odds with each other, almost like two different narratives are co-existing and overlapping to no greater purpose. It's still interesting, but I can't say I really enjoy the film as most of the characters are totally demonized to such an extent that yes, as viewers we sympathize with the protag. and hate them with her, but beyond that it just becomes frustrating.

Deeparture - Mircea Cantor
This is conceptually interesting, but in practice it's sort of boring as hell. And only four minutes, which doesn't seem like enough time to establish that "natural" enemies in an "unnatural" habitat are totally uninterested in each other. From as aesthetic point of view it's pretty interesting, in the sense that the images are potent in their sharpness, the plain white walls and gallery floor a stunning contrast to the "wild beasts," but as a piece of conceptual art, an aestheticized concept so to speak, it feels more like a pure biological experiment posing as fine art, but it's a sort of poorly constructed experiment as well.

Vertical Sliding - Jonas Dahlberg
Architectural structures remain constantly interesting to me, though I'm still not sure why. 40 minutes of elliptical (vertical) tracking shots in a maquette of an imagined building actually becomes hypnotic and interesting, and it's fun trying to spot whether what you're looking at has been seen already. I tracked down a few more of Dahlberg's films and they've sort of brought up a question. When the purpose of a film is a purely aesthetic, experiential, visual one, and the images that you're seeing is a ten minute loop, how do you decide on the final run time? It seems fairly arbitrary whether or not the film should be forty minutes or four hundred minutes; or why not just keep it twenty? (I can see the relevance of looping at least once). I mention the other films because it's actually another Dahlberg flick (that I haven't watched) that brought up the question in my mind; it was a ten minute loop but the video was two hours long. Is that necessary? Would anybody watch for the entire two hour duration in a gallery setting? Am I expected to watch the entire two hours in my home? Can I assume that I've "seen" the film if I only watch ten minutes, or do I need to watch the whole two hours? This is why it's hard for me to write about non-narrative film people.

The Collector - William Wyler
Another flick that is really interesting in it's set up and execution, but marred by pacing. Terence Stamp is great, but not very "disturbing," or even menacing. Too naive and childlike (which I know is ostensibly part of the point), but to be honest it sort of got old pretty quickly, and it took me several sittings to make it through the entire movie. I might have enjoyed it more if I had watched a remastered DVD instead of a shoddy old VHS tape, but to be honest I'm not in any hurry to find out.

November Screening Log

2007-12-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

The Hunger - Tony Scott
One of the best opening sequences that I've seen in a long time. The rest of the film is nice and oneiric, but something prohibits it from totally coming together. I gather that it was based on a novel and I think the problem was trying to actually incorporate too much plot. Atmosphere would have been all this needed for success. Still lovely nonetheless.

Trasferimento di Modulazione - Piero Bargellini
A lesser version of Dwoskin's Dirty. Interesting though, I'm looking forward to checking out more from this director.

Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch - Ken Russell
Structured in virtually the same way as Russ Meyer's Eve and the Handyman, this was a fun little romp (joke-and-punchline). Doesn't have as much of the spectacle as many of Russell's other films do (although, I guess it sort of does in a more microcosmic way). Clever, but not so clever that it becomes annoying.

The Yes Men - Dan Ollman & Sarah Price
Another really fun film to watch. I found it odd that these guys don't seem to be massively politically informed, gathering most of their information in the short weeks before their "performances," but they still manage to pull off irony in an affecting way. But why was Michael Moore in this film at all? He doesn't really add anything. The spectacle of the Yes Men's pranks is what makes this worth it, and our main men are utterly charismatic (though oddly enough, totally depersonalized) enough to pull it off and make it entertaining.

The Eight Column Affair - Sriram Raghavan
Short, very creative film from India that subverts the general chasing-after-love cliche and makes it far more visually intersting.

Born in Flames - Lizzie Borden
Oh my GOD this was awesome. Somebody mentioned this before and piqued my interest. This was pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be: it's idealism is matched perfectly by it's aesthetics. It's urgent, potent, confused in the same way that people generally are, and holds an attitude of ferocity. Pretty great music too, this is the kind of activism that gets me excited: angry, sure of the goal but unsure of the means, active, and beautiful.

Spellbound - Alfred Hitchcock
Really not all that interesting outside of the door-within-a-door-within-a-door-within-a-door shot and the Dali-assisted dream sequence, and obviously very naive. It's not necessarily engrossing, but I never wanted to turn it off? I've never seen what all the fuss was about Hitchcock, and this didn't really help my opinion, but I enjoyed it nonetheless for it's utter mediocrity.

The Host - Joon-ho Bong
I feel it's a bit ideologically confused because I think it attempts to deal with so much; family relationships, US foreign policy, active response towards a disingenuous media, coping with grief, etc- that it doesn't really allow everything it approaches to fully develop. I mean, I can't expect it to fully expand upon everything it hints at, but the lack of attention towards certain elements make them seem less urgent and sort of subsidizes them often in favor of humor. I think it's actually the priority of the humor that often ignores the larger issues it establishes. But, I do think it's approach of the disparate family uniting in a time of crisis, and then ostensibly disbanding once the crisis has essentially been resolved is honest in a refreshing way. The ending was also sort of a let down for me, despite how beautiful the image of the shack alone in the snow on the river's edge. The protag., despite, efforts, never actually overcomes his part of "the fool" and ends up in virtually the same situation that he started in with only a modicum more of responsibility. The whole "he's lost his daughter so now he's putting effort into taking care of another child" card is a bit overplayed and that element doesn't really bring anything unique. But regardless of all that I did enjoy it and I appreciated the scope it attempted to handle, even if I feel it did, in the end, fail. But beyond that, as a monster movie it was rad.

A Christmas Story - Bob Clark [rewatch]
I think it's fairly worthless to comment on this since everybody (everybody who lives in the US at least) has seen this like four thousand times on TV around the holidays. But, I will comment that this is an over-watched X-Mas movie that I can still enjoy despite the fact that I've seen it four thousand times. It may not be Black Christmas, but I'm really glad Bob Clark made this and my family likes it so much.

Casino Royale - Martin Campbell
This may be a more "mature" Bond film, or whatever it is that critics are rallying behind to defend this, but I'll be honest here: I don't give a shit. However, despite not giving a shit that this is "mature," I thought this was really really awesome. As far as action entertainment goes, Bond flicks have always been a favorite, and this might be one of the best. BUT, I think the main reason behind this is that, well, THIS MOVIE HAD TO BE MADE FOR FAGS LIKE ME. How many times do we get to see Daniel Craig naked and/or shirtless? A LOT. How many times do we get to see Eva Green even approaching naked? NEVER. I mean, I don't know what the hell the director was thinking in that regards, but count me as a fan!

City of the Living Dead - Lucio Fulci [rewatch]
After being egged on to revisit this after I had claimed it one of Fulci's worst, I sat down with it again. I ended up liking it quite a bit; Fabio Frizzi's score is great, it's got some truly sublime moments, but over all I think the zombies fall totally flat for me. The priest ghost is enough, and the zombies only really give more excuses for gore, which is obviously what Fulci is (generally) known for, and I appreciate it because he's always really creative, but underneath all these amazing gore scenes Fulci generally hides a really good story--and it's the story that made me enjoy this as much as I did. I still don't think it's as good as The Beyond (which is probably my #1 Fulci at the moment), but I'm definitely glad that I gave it another chance.

The Insides - Igor Zimmermann
Some dude made something that would have been pretty neat as a sculpture and then decided that it needed to be animated with overly dramatic music.

The Velvet Vampire - Stephanie Rothman
This was a weird little flick. If I were writing one of those small capsule reviews that go into those big movie guides that say virtually nothing about the film I would say the following: "One part Jose Larraz, one part Jose Benazeraf, and one part Andy Milligan." What that means, of course, is that there were some pretty nice things going on. It takes an American setting in a Navajo desert, and is at times pretty beautiful. Until the completely ridiculous ending hits the atmosphere is great. But the one thing that upsets this film, the one thing that I'm generally totally impervious to, is the acting. It's fairly atrocious, and at times it totally ruins the film. The main complaint I have is the actress who plays Sherry; she is utterly vapid and ditzy throughout the entire film, especially at moments where at least some attempt at depth is necessary. Michael Blodgett (who plays Lance Rock in Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls) is also pretty mediocre, which I think really helps to shine light on the fact that Meyer's editing really did save his movies from being overcome with bad acting, or that Meyer is really good at getting actors to do what he needs them to. The female "vampire" is pretty par for the course as far as the role goes, so nothing to complain about there. There were also some really interesting ideas that get totally overlooked in favor of unnecessary genre tropes, but still vaguely interesting overall.

Hotel Chevalier - Wes Anderson
Darjeeling Limited - Wes Anderson
I think really the only way to read these two films is together as a whole, since in the cinema they are presented as "Part I" and "Part II" of The Darjeeling Limited. If taken separately, Hotel Chevalier doesn't work very well on it's own, and is almost obnoxious, but as background information for Schwartzman's character in Darjeeling it actually adds a bit of dimension to the part. Darjeeling itself was pretty much par for the course for Anderson, as I had heard, but I was refreshed to find that it was actually a little bit different: I felt that a lot of the dialogue was a bit less artificial and quirky and therefore worked a little better. The film is still wholly artificial and quirky, which is obviously what brings some of it's charm, but I think it's a step forward for Anderson, despite the fact that it's a small step. It might be slightly problematic to read the film's almost utter lack of post-colonial thought, with the three brothers existed in an arena of "otherness," but it's never really exploitative, it's simply an environment for the family relations to play out in.

Eastern Promises - David Cronenberg
While it constantly risks veering into overt sentimentality, the most interesting thing about Cronenberg's latest feature is his narrative restraint. The ending is particularly potent as it stays clear of any sort of epiphany, other than, I suppose, Nikolai's revelation of his ties to Scotland Yard. He avoids being totally morally "good," in the sense that he allows his involvement to become three dimensional, instead of positing the character as an unlikely infilitrator, purveyor of all that is right. Anna (Naomi Watts' character), if anybody in the film, veers far too close to the sentimental signifier of the "morally right," but her insistence is believable due to her occuptation (a clever choice by whoever wrote the script). It's not a perfect film, but it's far better than Cronenberg's History of Violence, especially in terms of the direction. Cronenberg lets his visceral fascination fall fully to the background, only letting it come to the front in terms of narrative importance. The only real problem I have is an overarching one, not specifically related to this film in particular: will there ever be a movie made about Russia or Russians by Americans that examines something other than declining social relativity, or the evils of a crimeworld? In terms of a situation that I'm generally tired of, this film handles it well.

OCTOBER 2007

2007-11-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

Mil Sexos Tiene La Noche - Jess Franco
The most wonderful Franco film I've seen in a long time, a definite new favorite. It seems like during his Golden Films period Franco reached an apex of combined techniques from experimental film and putting them to use in a narrative structure. There is an utterly brilliant sense of atmosphere throughout this, and what's strikingly unique is the intense sense of terror that is actually built up early in the film. The primary characters are more or less the same foursome from Sexual Story of O plus Lina Romay, and there is a definite continuation of themes played out in a more sublime context. The film also had totally brilliant, saturated colors, but I have the feeling that part of the saturation has to do with the age of the VHS tape that my DVDR transfer came from. I would love to see this in widescreen and restored. Couldn't understand the dialogue, but out of 93 minutes, I'd say there's only dialogue for ten. I was slightly disappointed with the ending (an ending more along the lines of La Comtesse Noire would have been perfect), but the rest of the film more than makes up for it.

Fuses - Carolee Schneeman
Full review up here.

Dr. Orloff's Monster - Jess Franco
Early Franco always fails to remind me, really, all that much of later Franco. It's still distinctively him, but it's so obvious that he hasn't let himself loose yet that it's like watching a different director. The story here is good, much more interesting (to me at least?) than the original Awful Dr. Orloff. There seems to be more emotion present here, even if it often gets cut short by genre tropes.

Deviation - Jose Larraz
Full review up here.

Rock Hudson's Home Movies - Mark Rappaport
Basically I'm very attracted to Rock Hudson, so watching an hour of clips from his movies is nice eye candy. However, there's a sort of, er, weirdness that arrives with the actor stand in super-imposed over Rock and occasionally commenting with a sense of enlightenment and occasionally reaching way too hard for something that's not there. If it had been any longer it could have been unbearable, and as it stands it still seems pretty amateur, but there's a kind of naive earnestness present that gives it an element of immediacy.

For My Crushed Right Eye - Toshio Matsumoto
Aesthetically, I'd say this is superior to Funeral Procession of Roses, which it seems to be ostensibly a "sketch" of, but it fails to deliver on the narrative element which makes FPoR so rewarding. Plus it doesn't star Peter which immediately makes it not as good. Very interesting; I need to get around to watching the rest of Matsumoto's experimental works, 'cause this was a fun trip.

Leo es Pardo - Ivan Zulueta [rewatch]
Full review up here.

The Shining - Stanley Kubrick
Upon my (probably) twelfth viewing, I've realize that I really don't like this film. There are elements of it that I do really still like (namely the tracking shots, the interiors, the furry blow job, and the use of editing when depicting the twins, of course above all SHELLY DUVALL), but as a flick, and a horror flick, it's pretty mediocre. This was the second time I've seen it in theater, and once again I was met with a barrage of audience laughter at what I previously assumed to be totally inappropriate moments, making me pretty damn angry (of course, does anybody besides me and a handful of other people actually take horror seriously any more? I hate how horror-comedy has bastardized my favorite genre). But, realizing that these were two entirely different groups of people laughing at virtually the exact same things allowed me to, pardon the pun, step outside of my box and maybe try to see what they're seeing. First of all I think the story is really disappointing; it seems pretty great at first but I've never thought that Stephen King could carry that great of a narrative, and the only stuff I like about films based on his works have been mainly the result of the directors handling the films (Cronenberg with The Dead Zone, DePalma with Carrie, and obviously Kubrick with The Shining). He's just too cliche. It's really damn formulaic, even without the knowledge of everything that happened in horror afterwards. The second thing is best expressed by a rhetorical question asked by my friend Mark after we walked out of the movie: "Explain Jack Nicholson to me." It's really his presence in the film that I think creates the comedic tension. His performance is funny, but it totally doesn't mesh with the atmosphere that Kubrick builds up in the film. He's just full of one-liners and funky eye-brow emotings. It's annoying. Like I mentioned before, I like my horror devoid of comedy, and this would accomplish this if it weren't for Jack. I mean, I'm not a huge fan of him in anything else either because I think he's one of the first cases of Hollywood non-acting, by which I mean a star gets accused of "great acting" when really they aren't doing anything successful but imitating what they think acting is instead of actually, you know, acting. Does that make sense? It's 3AM so who knows. But all in all I was sort of disappointed with myself for being blinded by a childhood response and, oddly enough, the critical response. The Shining is one of the films (along with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) that non-genre film fans love to herald to shows that "No! I like horror too!" (right, and I'm not racist because I have friends that are black etc...), and my sort of willingness to push horror into a less ghetto-ized arena has had me rooting for it as well. But I really don't like it all that much.

Snakewoman - Tina Lhotsky
I'm not quite sure what the point of this was; it revels in pop-culture and is "intentionally bad" in the same way the cinema of transgression and the Kuchar brothers were, but it brings none of the charm or perks of the aforementioned. It's weird, like total simulacrum, and totally empty, and totally watchable I guess.

Sin on the Beach - Jose Benazeraf
I was planning on doing a total review of this, but after finishing it I realized that I really didn't have anything to say. The SWV copy HAS to be totally chopped because there are some weird transitions that don't make any sense at all and scenes seem to be cut really really short. The atmosphere that's usually present in Benazeraf's films is mostly gone here, but it might be due to the terrible sound quality of my copy. I'd be interested in comparing the English language print to my copy of the French language version, but probably not any time soon.

Inland Empire - David Lynch [rewatch]
Full review up here.

Aquarium - Iván Zulueta
Kinkon - Iván Zulueta
Get Back - Iván Zulueta
Aquarium is the most developed all of these, and it's weird because the facial posturing that the protagonist puts on is remarkably similar to some of the classic Lung Leg expressions. BUT, the most interesting part of this to me was how Zulueta incorporates the entirety of Bride of Dracula into three minutes of the film, re-filming it, chopping it, speeding it up and slowing it down, and sort of actually doing something with it. Which, coincidentally, is also what happens in Kinkon, which is simply a sort of "chopped and screwed" version of the original King Kong. Get Back is ostensibly a music video with some sort of neat animation.

Eyetoon - Jerry Abrams
"Fuck for Peace." This had the kind of aesthetics that actually makes me like hippie-dom for a little bit. Visually great, very eye-catching and entertaining.

Living - Frans Zwartjes [rewatch]
Full review up here.

Dreamwood - James Broughton
My interest about this was piqued by Pimpadelic Wonderland's short write up that described it as a total trip, and it was, but in a not- obnoxious way. Just sort interesting progression and very low-rent images. Plus an amazing score. Also, I don't particularly enjoy Broughton's own sing-songy hippie voice over his films, so I was glad that this and the following were devoid of it.

The Bed - James Broughton
This is probably my favorite of Broughton's work, well, either this or the above. It is just sort of fun in the way it revels in total polymorphic love, unflinchingly, and not in a touchy PC sort of way. Everybody is naked!

Fall in the House of Usher - Jess Franco
After seeing this almost universally panned on the internet, I was expecting this to be one of those Franco films that have one or two really nice moments, but the majority of the runtime finds me suffering just for the sake of my devotion to Franco. Turns out it's actually quite good. The expressionistic lighting is amazing, and there is almost always a deep black present on the screen- the saturation is intense. Here's what I said in a comment to Bob Monell:

"I watched the US export version the other night (with French language/English subtitles) for the first time and was actually quite pleased with it. I was ready for it to be ultimately tedious after how much flack it's taken on internet forums and in reviews, but I found it both beautiful and moving, with both Antonio Mayans and Howard Vernon perfectly on the spot in their acting.

Also, despite the fact that the GRITOS EN LA NOCHE flashbacks tend to go on and on, I found it totally fascinating how Franco (or I guess the producer? could you clarify this) totally re-contextualized the footage into the film, sort of in the same way that in Alain Robbe-Grillet novels he would often take "poems" or shorter prose fragments found in his collaborative works (such as those with David Hamilton and Irina Ionesco) and reshape them into a larger narrative context. I think it's a great, easily recognizable example of Franco's intertextuality that lends support to the idea that Franco is intentionally reworking and subverting earlier themes (and films) instead of just running out of ideas. It was also totally beautiful to look at!"

Dirty Maria - Takahisa Zeze
Full review up here.

SEPTEMBER 2007

2007-10-03T00:37:00.000-07:00

Cinématon n° 0288 Jean-Pierre Bouyxou - Gerard Courant
Courant's Cinematons are portraits on film, that are never longer than about 3 minutes, and are silent. I'm not sure how much control over the content the subjects have, but in this case of Bouyxou it seems exactly how I would expect it to be; the entire Bouyxou persona on display for all to see. Sort of wonderful.

Cinématon n° 0434 Alain Fleischer - Gerard Courant
Simply strobe-lit Fleischer for three minutes; I don't know much about the man but once again seems very perfectly apt in terms of content versus subject. These are just sort of a joy to watch, and seem to cover most of my favorite counter culture French and Belgian people.

Go Ask Alice - John Korty
It's been about ten years (more?) since I've read this book, but the movie was pretty bad. There's absolutely no continuity and scenes just sort of occur one after another without being connected to the former. It was a made-for-TV movie, but I've seen some brilliant stuff that was made for TV. Also almost completely emotionally empty.

Godly Boyish - Cam Archer
I thought that Wild Tigers I Have Known was interesting and beautiful in a slightly creepy almost pedophilic way, but the ideas behind it made it work for me. This was even more conceptually interesting to me, touching on ideas that have, well, to be a bit melodramatic about it, haunted me for the last few years. It's not as beautiful as his feature, but the sound design is just as interesting, and overall worthwhile.

Marriage of Maria Braun - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
A pretty solid Fassbinder flick. I didn't love it as much of some of his works (particularly Querelle or Chinese Roulette) but it's better than others (like Merchant of Four Seasons, for instance). It's engaging throughout, and some of Fassbinder's subtleties and framings are pretty great. The ending is also deliciously ironic, though I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if my roommate hadn't built it up so much.

War Babies - Charles Lamont
Sort of hilarious and entertaining and made during a time when Political Correctness wasn't even a term yet. I think any viewings that read the film as vaguely paedophiliac are reaching a bit. It's just sort of innocent, pleasant, and a bit fun.

Devil Came From Akasava - Jess Franco
Soledad shines in this flick, which is better than the average Jess Franco "spy" flick but devoid of a lot of his more personal touches. I guess it's sort of a transition between the German/Janine Reynaud productions and the German Co-Productions most often marked by Vampyros Lesbos.

The Dead Man - Peggy Ahwesh & Keith Sanborn
Full review up here.

Paris Qui Dort - Rene Clair
Anarchic silent sci-fi that touches on themes that would be repeated in the cinema quite often down the line. I really liked the fact that while everybody is absent the group let chaos and decadence rule, and they eventually suffer boredom due to this. It's a cliche, but it's a bit ahead of its time.

AUGUST 2007

2007-09-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

Silent Hill - Christophe Gans
For my money, this is a "cult film" waiting to happen, and it doesn't have any trappings of the "we're so obviously trying to make a cult film." It's virtually devoid of humor, which is partially why I like this so much. It took the premise of the Silent Hill video games and treated them seriously. Some of the CGI is a little iffy and it's not exactly terrifying, but it's fantastique enough to be totally enjoyable.

1408 - Mikael Håfström
I guess this was pretty bad, and I don't know whether to blame that on Stephen King or the director (I haven't read the short story it's based on and frankly don't have any interest in doing so). I just wanted to see a horror movie in the theaters and this was the only horror flick playing around me. My main problem is the totally unnecessary sentimentalism that gets thrown in and never sits right throughout the entire thing. I like hotels a lot, but any potential this had was wasted.

Delerium - Lamberto Bava
I will undoubtedly be declared a heretic for announcing this, but despite how much I'm aware that Mario Bava has done for genre cinema, I always enjoy Lamberto's trashy flicks almost 10000x more. This was sort of a trainwreck, but was compulsively watchable for being a late80s entry into the gialli canon. There is nothing unique except for Russ Meyer sized Italian tits and Dario Nicolodi as a blonde, but I'm sure if I had been watching it closer I could have picked up on the everpresent may-not-be-intentional psychosexual commentary that gialli is more than likely to make (there's an interesting role for a fag in this too).

RSVP - Pamela Love
Short film that was produced and edited by an internet friend-- it had beautiful production design, and for some reason reminded me a lot of the Brothers Quay. I sort of wish the narrative element would have been fleshed out though.

Emmanuelle's Revenge - Joe D'Amato
Lovely lovely "female empowering" sexploitation from D'Amato with a frequently shirtless, studly George Eastman. The secret room in Emanuelle's apartment is also lovely, and god damned do I love modern interior design of the time.

Hour of the Wolf - Ingmar Bergman
Full review up here

Kiss Me Monster - Jess Franco
As far as the Red Lips movies go, I think I preferred this one a lot more than Two Undercover Angels; it's a lot more free wheeling and fun, not getting all bogged down by something I don't really know how to describe. Franco at his "funnest"

Faceless - Jess Franco
This is late-80s Franco with somewhat of a budget and a great cast (Helmut Berger & Brigitte Lahaie!). As far as the story goes it's typical; a more or less retelling of the Les Yeux Sans Visage homage that began with Franco's first acclaimed film, The Awful Dr. Orlof. But what's interesting is the accessibility of this film in comparison to the rest of Snr. Jess' filmography; it plays like a very well made gore film. But what's more interesting to me are two things: A) Franco's beloved voyeurism moves into the late 80s via video cameras and TVs. There's a scene where Brigitte Lahaie is totally feeling Helmut Berger up while they watch his sister sexually humilate the Morpho-esque man servant that is totally, totally hot. and B) more than anything else, this film worked to put the "villains" in a far more empathetic position than the "good guys," represented by the private detective trying to track down a rich playgirl who is more or less the textbook definition of ridiculous machismo (which was also typified by the late 80s action blockbusters). There will be an expansion of this when I start work on my Franco "beginner's guide," since I think, from what I've seen so far, this is his most accessible film (albeit a not very personal one other than obvious themes that are far spread throughout his career).

Virgin Report - Jess Franco
Franco does mondo movies! A very random mix of scenes about current views on virginity and practices from the past, some done with ridiculous black face! It would be terribly boring if it weren't for the quick pace/short runtime and the amazing pumping soundtrack by Daniel White.

Puppet Master - David Schmoeller [rewatch]
I saw this movie very early on in my life (albeit in a slightly edited version on the Sci-Fi channel) and rewatching is a really sort of bizarre trip down the emotional hangups of my memory. That may sound a bit odd for a film that is ostensibly pretty bad, but there's just something so abjectly bizarre about the mood and music and sexuality of the film that makes it utterly watchable for me. There's a particular scene in the movie that has never, ever left my mind since seeing it and has totally affected my psyche and view of sexuality. Um, back to the actual film, it's something that exists in the real world the exact same way it exists in my head, which says something about the movie I guess.

Superbad - Greg Mottola
This was interesting to me because I'm not generally a fan of comedy films; in fact I normally avoid them. I saw this on a whim and wasn't disappointed. I think the main reason it works is because the film recognizes that at the end of the day, life isn't actually funny. Of course, that is only slightly built into the film, there is still plenty of ridiculous juvenilia that occasionally distracts from any sort of enjoyment.

Raspberry Reich - Bruce LaBruce [rewatch]
This remains my favorite LaBruce film for it's utterly over-the-top politics and portrayals of said politics; it's in-your-face sexuality is the only thing that really holds it together with it's PoMo Video-Art editing styles, but you can't say no to hot guys fucking. Also, it was very interesting to watch something that contained hardcore gay porn with somebody else (who I am not/wasn't currently fucking at the time), it made me keep my hands outta my pants at least.

Halloween - Rob Zombie
Was slightly interesting in it's completely objective/distanced display of casual violence (by a kid no less), but over all was neither remarkable nor a huge disappointment. Nothing that I could get worked up to write anything in depth on.

JULY 2007

2007-08-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Dad - Stephen Dwoskin
Grandpere-pear - Stephen Dwoskin
So, take the idea from, say, Ken Jacob's Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son, being, of course, the recontextualizing pre-existing footage into something new (not quite like the compilation film, but you get my idea). Except now you're just throwing old footage together into some digital editing software and using shitty digital slow motion occasionally, and adding sub-par music. I really like the early Dwoskin that I've seen, but these were not interesting in the least.

Slow Slidings of Pleasure - Alain Robbe-Grillet
Review up here.

Diary of a Nymphomaniac - Jess Franco
Still getting accustomed to the De Nesle period of Franco's work. This was interesting in how it was far more explicit in events simply narrated from the titular characters diary as opposed to what was shown on screen. Has an absolutely stellar beginning, but it suffers a bit in the middle by sort of generic "drug freak-out" type stuff... almost devolves into a morality tale, but I'd say overall Franco saves it.

Dead Silence - James Wan
This was totally fine for mindless horror entertainment. It was league above the Saw franchise in terms of entertainment and like, you know, *suspense*, but I hate the comic-relief-cop archetype, played here by the ugly-as-sin Donny Wahlberg. It's totally unnecessary... I've never understood why good tension and horror is often just totally fucking RUINED by obnoxious CRCs or something similar.

Another Gay Movie - Todd Stephens
Hyperbole to the extreme, and works to satirize fags while entertaining them at the same time, which I guess is something I can appreciate. It's so utterly ridiculous and absurd that I have to admit that I was cracking up often, something I don't normally do during movies (of course, I don't often watch comedy). And even the satire on the HS love story managed to affect me in the same way the cliche bullshit always does.

Midori - Hiroshi Harada
I don't like anime. Pretty much at all. I will never ever understand when people tell me that the animation in some anime is "amazing." So, wait, LESS movement now makes ANIMATION better? I don't know, but qualms with anime aside, I really only watched this because I think Suehiro Maruo's Ultra Gash Inferno is probably the most violently beautiful comic ever, and I wanted to see something else that he was behind. It was alright. I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy reading the damn comic more than watching this. It was short though, so I can't say I'm angry at it or anything.

Seduction of Amy - Jean Rollin
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with this, as I had heard it was the only hardcore film Rollin had made that he actually signed his name to (the rest of his hardcore films were directed under the pseudonym of Michel Gentil), and I was expecting something more akin to the rest of his work, except with insertion. However, I watched an English dubbed copy, and I'm almost 100% sure that a majority of the non-sex scenes were cut, as there seemed to be some sort of plot that would occasionally pop up on screen, and there were elements that had the potentiality to be interesting. So I will of course save my final judgment for once I've seen the original French version.

The Murder Mystery - Dietmar Brehm
As everybody has probably noticed by now, I think it's really super awesome when people take techniques from experimental film and apply them to a sort of narrative structure in order to extend that narrative structure. I'm not positive if that's what Brehm does, as I watched both of these as I was falling asleep, but I'm *thinking* he does it to some extent (I'd say to the extent that Tscherkassky does). He also takes found pornography and makes it much more oneiric, which I can def. stand behind.

Soleil - Pierre Clementi
Clementi's visual style is really visually appealing, and somehow a 45 year old Clementi looks absolutely no different than a 25 year old one, but I was a bit overwhelmed by the non-stop monologue. To be fair I'm sure it wouldn't have been a problem if I were fluent in French and didn't have to be reading subtitles, but as it stood it was difficult to keep up with a sort of stream-of-conscious images while reading a somewhat stream-of-conscious monologue.

Blicklust - Dietmar Brehm
*see above*

Cigarette Burns - John Carpenter [rewatch]
I've seen this a whole bunch and it's just as awesome to me every time. It somewhat elaborates on everything that excites me about film (film as POWER; which relates to my favorite, possibly apocryphal Hisayasu Sato quote) and is fully entertaining, while only being an hour long. Plus Udo Kier is just so god damned awesome.

Delirium - Renato Polselli
Review up here.

Exhibition 2 - Jean-Francois Davy
Review up here.

Les Demons - Jess Franco
Pretty solid, but lacking much of Jess Franco's personality; rather it's a pretty standard nunsploitation flick; obviously inspired by Ken Russell's grandaddy of nunsploitation; The Devils. Music was really great though, and it was a very glossy for a Franco production (although I'm not sure that statement has much bearing anymore, because I've come to realize that *lots* of his productions are fairly glossy).

La Punition - Pierre-Alain Jolivet
Review up here.

99 Women - Jess Franco
Harry Alan Towers period, fairly standard Women-In-Prison/Jungle flick this time. I was watching it with a friend and he commented upon how it seemed to move "slower" as the film progressed, and I can't figure out if it was Franco intentional ennui this time or not.

Hairspray - Adam Shankman
Colorful and sort of adorable and still slightly subversive, I usually don't go in for musicals, but this only had about two songs that really made me embarrassed, Christopher Walken was hilariously awkward and James Marsden as Corny Collins sort of made me hard.

Alien - Ridley Scott
I hadn't ever seen this before, so decided that it was time. I was sort of amazed at the utter lack of tension in almost all of the scenes of "horror" outside of when Dallas is in the vents and the alien gets him, and even that wasn't done remarkably well. It had great production design in the way minimal sci-fi aesthetics, but overall I really don't buy the whole "masterpiece" thing. Like, the pacing and lack of tension really threw me off after what I was expecting!

Cthulhu Mansion - Juan Piquer Simón
This has virtually nothing that I can discern as related to Lovecraft, but it's sort of entertaining in the late80s/early90s "bad-ass punk kids" horror sort of way. JP Simon also directed Pieces, which I much prefer.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Mike Newell
Working at a bookstore when the newest Harry Potter book comes out means that you will hear about nothing else for about the week before and after. I had seen the first three but hadn't caught the fifth one, and when I realized how enjoyable the first three were to see in the theater, I realized I should probably get myself caught up just for the hell of it. I don't think they're remarkable movies, and I don't necessarily think that the whole arc has a remarkable story, but it's entertaining and well done enough to work.

Phantasm 2 - Don Coscarelli
The first Phantasm is so abjectly creative and *weird* that it works. In the sequel there are some nice things (the aesthetics of the Tall Man's "room" and "hell") but overall a predictability of plotting and humour that just doesn't fit or work gets in the way.

The Cave - Bruce Hunt
This is almost exactly like The Descent, except it's attractive super-model Hollywood-type men and women exploring the caves instead of quote-Normal-unquote women. Thumbs up for that, if I'm watching pure entertainment I'll take some eye-candy please. Also, it was devoid of any of the stupid sub-plot about one of the cave explorers daughter dying or whatever. Plus number two. The only thing that stops this from being better than The Descent is that the monsters look hell of stupid, whereas the monsters in The Descent look hell of cool and creepy. I would pretty much say both are equally entertaining, though The Descent is a tad more horror due to the increased atmosphere and creepy creatures.

Black Candles - Jose Larraz
Larraz has disowned this film, and I can sort of see why in the context of his horror filmography-- it doesn't really fit too well (Symptoms and Coming of Sin are both very different and more about atmosphere). However, for a Satanic Occult Horror movie from the early 80s it's about perfect, in terms of being entertaining. It doesn't bring up too much to think about, do anything really innovative with the form, and there's none of my beloved minimal-modernist/satanist aesthetics present, but it's still super entertaining. Being a sort of bastard-child of a Rosemary's Baby rip-off. Also, not suprisingly, significantly *less* sleazy than I was expecting.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - David Yates
This was a DAMN GOOD MOVIE. After every other one of the Harry Potter films I walked out saying "Well, that was entertaining." This time I walked out and was all like "DAMN GURL THAT WAS GOOD!" I have no idea why because it's hard to like pay attention to certain when you're letting utter escapism creep in, but it might have something to do with like really strong characters and editing that was suprisingly apt for the subject matter (the first time!).

Sweet Movie - Dusan Makavejev
I wanted to review this for my blog, but haven't yet. Half the time I feel like it's just as empty as a Jodorowsky film, but other times the political allegory actually manages to seep into my ignorant brain. As far as spectacle goes it's pretty amazing, and the music is great too. I could probably write loads about how the technique is rad, but it's good to me more because of a FEELING. Uhm... I guess parts of it kind of bother me in how eye-rollingly obvious they are ("Sometimes thinking can be dangerous") But then other things (Brando's face plastered next to Marx and Engels/Lenin and Trotsky) are really nice. PROBABLY MORE THOUGHTS COMING SOON.

Hellraiser: Hellworld - Rick Bota
Pretty bad, but not unwatchably bad. I think the problem is that it's just really un-interesting. Of course, every Hellraiser after the 4th has been this bad, so why I keep watching is a mystery.

The Simpsons Movie - David Silverman
The Simpsons got it's reputation by being funny, clever, and subtly subversive in it's critique of America. So, when you take away everything that it got it's reputation by when you make a movie of it, what do you have? Total crap, that's what. It's incredibly unfunny, falls into the retarded tropes of "bizarro" humour that haunts every retarded adult-oriented cartoon these days (oh look, let's arbitrarily have Homer hanging between a ROCK and a HARD PLACE! This is hilarious and clever right!). To give some objectivity here, I was already in a fairly sour mood due to the theater experience. First of all, if I EVER have to see the trailer for Rush Hour 3 again I'm gonna fucking stab someone. That looks like the absolute bottom barrel of un-funny Hollywood film making I've ever been forced to experience. Actually, virtually every trailer before the film was total crap. Like Dan Schank's realization of culture when he heard somebody laugh at Chris Tucker singing "Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting" in the RH3 trailer, after the trailer of Game Plan I actually heard somebody say "that looks good!" And then during the movie I had fucking Ray Ramano behind me laughing like a douche at everything stupid in the loudest way possible and then ending his laugh with a single clap. NOT COOL GUYS.

They Live - John Carpenter
This was fun and had a lot of Carpenter's creativity and weirdness, but Roddy Piper was annoying with his half-Schwarzenegger half-dumbass turn. I had no idea that the line "I came here to chew bubble gum and kick ass...[&c]" was actually from a movie, because it was totally fucking retarded when he said it. The characters are all fucked up in this too, but it's entertaining enough to save itself. Probably my least favorite Carpenter I've seen thus far. Also, I thought the twenty minute wrestling scene was tedious and annoying, not entertaining, funny, or fitting at all.

Amityville 3-D - Richard Fleischer
The weirdest thing about this was about 25 minutes into the movie I couldn't differentiate between whether I had *seen* the film before or if it was just so utterly cliche that an overwhelming sense of deja vu was present throughout the entire film. About 45 minutes into the film I realized that I had to have seen it before, because I knew more or less exactly what was going to happen in every scene. So I paused it and checked my records, but had absolutely nothing that would indicate me watching it, so I must have seen it either a long time ago on TV, or during the month in 2006 where I didn't write down anything I watched. The movie has approximately 1.5 intense scenes that are neat, but otherwise the movie is pretty lame.

Silent Hill - Christophe Gans
For my money, this is a "cult film" waiting to happen, and it doesn't have any trappings of the "we're so obviously trying to make a cult film." It's virtually devoid of humor, which is partially why I like this so much. It took the premise of the Silent Hill video games and treated them seriously. Some of the CGI is a little iffy and it's not exactly terrifying, but it's fantastique enough to be totally enjoyable.

1408 - Mikael Håfström
I guess this was pretty bad, and I don't know whether to blame that on Stephen King or the director (I haven't read the short story it's based on and frankly don't have any interest in doing so). I just wanted to see a horror movie in the theaters and this was the only horror flick playing around me. My main problem is the totally unnecessary sentimentalism that gets thrown in and never sits right throughout the entire thing. I like hotels a lot, but any potential this had was wasted.

JUNE 2007

2007-07-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

Breakfast (Table Top Dolly) - Michael Snow
This was interesting, but I still don't know how to talk about it. I like the idea, but the copy I watched had its soundtrack all fucked up so I don't know exactly how I can overall rate it.

Female Vampire - Jess Franco
This is really good Franco. It's slightly disjointed since there are five billion different versions in the world and none of them are exactly the "director's cut" so to speak, but this is a quintessential Franco film from start to finish, and probably the best one I've seen in a while (I'm up to 28 of his films by the way). Lina Romay immediately makes a presence in the film, handling her character perfectly without ever muttering a line of dialogue. I would even go so far as to say that Romay's presence in the film is as strong as any of Soledad Miranda's roles in earlier movies.

De grote tovenaar aka The Great Magician - Ruud Monster
Somewhat insightful into Frans Zwartjes persona, but doesn't really reveal anything about his films. He really only talks about specific films twice (Living and Pentimento), yet throughout the entire film clips of his work are shown. It's also not all that innovative and almost fairly generic in its methods of showing Zwartjes, but it's also slightly disjointed in what it brings up. Like, it's just sort of fragments of Zwartjes talking about various things, helping somebody direct a film, etc., and overall not all that interesting. However, there were clips from Zwartjes Medea near the end and it looks absolutely amazing, so I suppose that was worth it.

Tideland - Terry Gilliam
With this film immediately starting with Gilliam's introduction I was angry. If you really have to tack on an introduction telling you how to watch the film that's about to play then the film obviously doesn't succeed on its own, which was ultimately my decision. While I agree with some of what internet reviews have to say, I feel overall that the hyperbolic situations that Jeliza was subjected to were pretty much exploitive, and the point that Gilliam is apparently trying to make gets hammered in so hard that it surpasses his whole "childhood naivity/escapist" ideas and becomes offensive. Philip Ridley's The Reflecting Skin, in my opinion, and I think even probably from an objective stance, treads similar ground far more successfully. The difference might lay in the fact that Ridley is utterly subtle with his narrative methods and Gilliam is overly blunt; it's almost as if Gilliam was screaming LOOK HOW HARD LIFE IS FOR THIS GIRL BUT SHE'S OKAY EVEN THOUGH SHE'S SORT OF INSANE. It was like... thanks, I get it. I'm really not a big fan of Gilliam anyway, and that probably doesn't help things.

Legacy of Satan - Gerard Damiano
Damiano, if you're not familiar with the name, is the acclaimed director of such pornographic staples such as Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones, so upon discovering he made a straight up horror movie I was excited to check it out. There were parts of this that I really liked (the score, the way space is used, the atmosphere for a majority of the film), but overall it was fairly unsuccessful. In an interview Damiano himself pretty much distances himself from the film, but I'd say it's at least worth while, as some of the elements that make The Devil in Miss Jones such a powerful movie are put to use here in a straight horror context.

Window Water Baby Moving - Stan Brakhage
One of my goals this summer has been to read a lot more on avant-garde and experimental films in order to hopefully gain insight into a vocabulary to actually talk about these sort of films, since they generally resist the same methods of critique as narrative feature film takes. The book I'm currently reading (Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order) delved into a more in-depth analysis of this film at the end of a chapter that discusses the ways to read the "film poem" that's utterly prevalent in the American avant-garde of the 50s and 60s. So I thought I'd rewatch the film before reading the analysis so I could be more fully responsive. One thing that the analysis totally overlooks is the emotional impact that the film has; it spends a lot of time talking about the way Brakhage connects the image and how he produces the narrative ideal that is implicit, but the review doesn't ever touch upon the emotional power of the film, which is annoying as that is, in my mind, the main reason the film even is successful.

The Beyond - Lucio Fulci
I hadn't watched this in about five years, and when I watched it before I didn't think it was anything special, often referring to it as overrated. Rewatching it this week was a far more rewarding experience. Narratively the film is still frustrating, as there are a lot of really great ideas that it wouldn't actually be that difficult to expand into something more coherent and more powerful, but the existential and disconnected horror that's present is something great. Fulci also demonstrates a wonderful understand of the depth-of-focus of the camera, using it as a transitional tool and to depict narrative. The score is absolutely wonderful, and the ending definitely packs a punch. Space also plays a great part in this film, and it got me thinking about ideas that I'd like to expand upon sometime in an essay or article or something.

The Fury - Brian DePalma
This was superfun, and the ending was probably one of the most amazing things ever, even topping the head explosion scene in Cronenberg's Scanners. I sort of wish we could have seen more of Amy Irving's experiences at her school, as those scenes were probably my favorite. Certain ideas are underdeveloped, but the plot moves fast enough that I suppose it's not that important, and ends up being pretty great.

Doriana Grey - Jess Franco
Somewhat of a continuation of the themes found in Female Vampire (with Lina Romay once again taking the lead). This could have been really really great if there weren't more sex than plot. As it stands it's still (I would consider) a major Franco work, as the core themes that haunt his career are in plain display here. And don't get me wrong, the amount of sex that's here would be fine if there were more plot, not less sex.

Killing Car - Jean Rollin
Full review up here.

Linda - Jess Franco
Fully entertaining but remarkably empty Franco flick from the transition period between his late 70s work and his highly personal Golden Films flicks that he made back in Spain. The story is vaguely interesting in a softcore thriller sort of way, but it doesn't seem to really hit on anything that is remarkably Franco. But, as always, I love a story that largely takes place in a brothel, and the ending with Franco's beloved scorpions (the most Franco-esque part of the flick) is pretty fun, although a bit inept. The Linda of the title comes from a subplot that is completely irrelevant to the story other than as an outlet for the absolutely stunning Katja Bienert to be on screen, which makes me wonder if it was another "Franco shooting more than one film at a time" thing where he just recycled footage (remind me to write an article about intertextual films some day).

La Gemella Erotica - Alberto Cavallone
Full review up here.

Day-Dream - Tetsuji Takechi
Full review up here.

Gemidos de Placer - Jess Franco
Full review up here.

Body Snatchers - Robert Wise
The final Val Lewton horror flick I had left to see (I finally got to pick up the boxset) and it definitely wasn't my fave. I think mainly I just feel that Lewton's themes and ideas are so much stronger in an at-the-time contemporary setting rather than a period piece (I wasn't a huge fan of Bedlam either). It was well done, and had the appropriate mood, but didn't hit me the way some of his others have.

Flaming Creatures - Jack Smith
Third viewing with a better quality copy and having read a whole lot about it (not all recently), I think it's honestly a film that works better on the page than in actuality. I love the final third (basically once Mario Montez hits the screen) but the first two thirds are horribly paced.

Twice a Man - Gregory J. Markopoulos
I have the feeling that if I ever manage to see this in better quality and without utterly fucked up sound I'll love it even more, but it's one of the best things I've seen from the American Avant-Garde lately. Encapsulates the late 50s gay coming out in a not-overly-sentimental way and great use of editing to approach, you know, feeling. Plus Olympia Dukakis in her first role!

Rapture - Gordon Wilding
Short film from Canada that is one of those "shocking" films that likes to think it has something intelligent to say (oh my GAAWDDD look how DEEP it is that a pedophile is making a child-Madonna out of his own SHITT!) but really isn't. The art direction is nice though, so hopefully this director'll move on to something that actually means something.

Third Part of the Night - Andrzej Zulawski
Full review up here.

Hostel II - Eli Roth
Pretty bad, but better than the first Hostel. Enjoyed Edwige's all too brief cameo and the wonderful, utterly out of place scene with Heather Matazarro (or whatever) in full Erzebet-Bathory-glory (this concept made me wish the whole movie was about that woman-client). But the fact remains if I hear somebody say that Eli Roth is the new face of horror I'll slap them, 'cause let's be honest-- was this a horror film? No, it was a dark comedy that occasionally ventured into horror-comedy. I was also far less annoyed with female art students than retarded frat boys, and slightly pleased to see that the douche-hero from the first died. But really, an hour and forty minutes of build up for what amounts to a penis joke? Please.

The Abandoned - Nacho Cerda
Actually fairly terrifying in it's circular confrontation of the whole "you can't escape your past" thing but isn't quite as together or well scripted as it should be to actually work. It is decently intelligent, and probably one of the most rewarding horror films this decade, though I doubt many people will see it. Def. better than Cerda's early shorts (like Genesis and Aftermath).

Nancy Drew - Andrew Fleming
Totally empty, vapid fun. All of the characters are completely cardboard cutouts and often misplaced (what the hell is up with that Corky kid?) and utter hyperbole (particularly Nancy) but I still had fun watching it, being a fan of the books (sue me, I'm a homo).

The Hanging Garden - Thom Fitzgerald
Decent film about being a fat homo and escaping your dysfunctional family. The dialogue is clever enough and the lead is hot and it's not remarkably annoying which is generally all I ask for in fag-films. But the ending was remarkably frustrating how the guy is just like "oh okay I'll take my daughter that was a total accident that was more or less my mother-who-just-ran-away-from-her-family's fault."

Spin the Bottle - Jamie Yerkes
I don't believe for a second this movie is from 1999 when it clearly looks like it was made in about 1994. Regardless, a nice little gay revenge flick that has some really damn hilarious moments, and I don't even regularly like comedy.

Cowboy Jesus - Jamie Yerkes
Short film that is more or less just a pointless retelling of Jesus as a black lesbian

Shortbus - John Cameron Mitchell
Okay, so this film wasn't the most amazing thing EVER like some people try to say, but I appreciated the fact that it actually made me feel things AND the use of hardcore pornography (more on this later). Some of the plotting is terribly contrived and misguided (like, I'm still not sure what the whole deal with James is... he's depressed because he used to be a hooker? he gets UNdepressed by getting fucked?) and I'm not sure overall what it says about love and sex and being alone (it seems like Severin's problems were still just as present at the end of the movie as at the beginning), but it was funny and, dare I say it, *touching*. But more to the point, this was a 'mainstream' (comparatively) movie that incorporated hardcore sex scenes and they were never once distracted, or prolonged, or unnecessary. In the perfect Mike universe every movie gets over it's fear of showing unsimulated sex and this becomes a regular THING. It worked so well in this without being exploitive while remaining just as titillating as softcore does, yet is more affecting because it IS real or something? Like the threeway between James and Jamie and the uh model guy is really, really hilarious and not disgusting at all, which is really great and a total accomplishment. Note to world: hard dicks in movies are good things! Vaginas too! Actually, you could view this as a less heterosexist extension of late 70s genre cinema (I'm thinking of, for example, some Jess Franco films) that clearly aren't hardcore, yet still have erections and some penetrations but are still legitimate movies (but as well all know I already think porno can be legitimate). But yeah, I guess worth watching to see the incorporation alone.

Requiem for a Vampire - Jean Rollin
Full review up here.

1001 Films - Andre Delvaux
Interesting short that sort of takes the whole idea behind "compilation"/materialist films and throws them together in a sort of commemorative commentary. Uses a haunting image of Louis Brooks that creates a tension with the stock footage that follows.

La Chambre - Chantal Akerman
I'm not really sure what to say about this. It's basically three 360degree pans around a room where a woman (Akerman herself) lies in bed and eats an apple. It's interesting in the way that it explores space, and the colors are nice, but I'm not sure what it means, other than the fact that it successfully creates an environment, and extends a sense of time into that environment.

Footprints - Luigi Bazzoni
Full review up here.

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome - Kenneth Anger [Rewatch]
Upon a repeat viewing this stilll doesn't hold the same hypnotic power that Lucifer Rising does- it seems to me that the sense of rhythm is off and too much is repeated in a sort of forced manner. And while I'm totally into the idea of intertextuality in film/books/art/whatever right now, it takes me way out of the film whenever the footage from Puce Moment pops up. It doesn't mesh with the rest of the film (in my head) at all, and I'm not sure why he uses it. I'm sure I could watch it with commentary and find out, but whatever.

Puce Moment - Kenneth Anger [Commentary]
There's still something utterly enticing about this short, but Anger's commentary almost forces the viewer to de-mythify it with his blatant historical details.

Sexual Story of O - Jess Franco
The more of Franco's Golden Films output from the 80s that I see the more I like it. This was probably just as good as Gemidos De Placer (which I reviewed last week), but I could actually understand the subtitles. Somebody on a Jess Franco forum I frequent described it as "a beautiful movie about ugly things" and I think that is a perfect description. It's cast consists of only five actors and actresses who do exactly what Franco needs them to, and Franco, continuing his exploration of sensuous buildups in terms of the entire film nails it with the "orgasmic" and utterly visually amazing conclusion. And, like he says in the interview that accompanies the disc, the return to the sea at the end of the film (a repeated motif throughout Franco's filmography) is actually the only ending that works. Probably deserves further thought, as it's a very simple film but it's absolutely marvelous.

Wife Collector - Hisayasu Sato
Full review up here.

1/57 Versuch mit synthetischem ton (test) - Kurt Kren
Kren's first film that shows development of his editing (image/sound) style. Not really worthwhile for anything but historical value.

The Ghastly Ones - Andy Milligan
So, as a movie this is really a train wreck, but it's most definitely not the worst film I've ever seen. There's also something interesting/of value in the way that Milligan's camera objectifies his male characters far more than his female characters, which he really obviously doesn't give a shit about. The gore, for being utterly bargain basement, is on par with the gore in H.G. Lewis' flicks, which is pretty rad. I'm delving into Milligan's filmography as I'm reading his biography, which is sort of exciting, but the problem is I don't particularly like period pieces. Luckily you can't tell his films are actually period pieces most of the time.

Duelle (Une Quarantine) - Jacques Rivette
Review up here.

2/60 48 Kopfe aus dem Szondi-Test - Kurt Kren
Kren's second film (hence part of the title), this pushes his style (the invention of structuralism?!) farther and develops something amazing; the deconstruction of faces with such a deliberate pace is fascinating, and it's the deconstruction that actually constructs a sort of eroticized whole.

Lillian, The Perverted Virgin - Jess Franco
The first half of this is very similar to Sexual Story of O, but not as quiet and effective. The second half veers off into similar territory that Franco covered in Linda, but without as much energy; it's more, well, angry? It was also apparently the first legal hardcore film made in Spain, so there are random hardcore scenes galore, that luckily don't detract from the film. The opening sequence is a wonderful "real" fever-dream by the beautiful Katja Biernart. Good, but not Franco at his best.

Serene Velocity - Ernie Gehr
This was something that while watching I got kind of bored (which, to be honest, is generally what happens whenever I'm watching something longer than about 7 minutes that is utterly devoid of sound), but the images and the structure of them have stuck in my mind ever since. It develops an amazing tempo/progression that made me wish it was leading up to something instead of just existing as something. Pretty amazing though.

Unsere Afrikareise - Peter Kubelka
Anti-colonial sentiments that I really wasn't too into... the rhythm was lacking and the point came across fully in the first four minutes, but I suppose the hammering down of the idea helps to emphasize that actual political implications.

Les Mains Negatives - Marguerite Duras
This was probably completely useless for me to watch, as the narration (which I sure was necessary to the meaning of the film) was in French without subs, and the images were just a camera shooting the street from a moving car for fifteen minutes. No comment until I can see it and understand the dialogue.

Eddie Kid - Peter Greenaway (COI)
Women Artists - Peter Greenaway (COI)
Lacock Village - Peter Greenaway (COI)
These were three five minute shorts that Peter Greenaway directed very, very early in his career for the COI. They're mostly just normal TV Doc. shorts, but occasionally some pure Greenaway shows through (visual counting between scenes, type written text that is displayed and read by a narrator). For Greenaway completionists only.

Vapors - Andy Milligan
Jean-Pierre Bouyxou described Milligan as "halway between Warhol and Ed Wood," and now having watched one of his bargain basement genre pics and this more avant-garde work, I can say that I agree with that statement. It depicts a conversation between two first timers at a NY steam bath and it's utterly sentimental and depressing in a way that only 60s and 70s gay cinema can be. It was sort of amazing.

La Comtesse Perverse - Jess Franco
Since no single "directors cut" of this exists, it was odd watching this is the form I have it in, as it's utterly random at times. But I think overall it could be a major Franco work, and a good, legitimately accessible one at that. Transporting "The Most Dangerous Game" into a rocky island with one of the most amazing architectural complex's ever (El Xanadu) with trademark "Franco-ness." I think it may have been the first film from Franco's Naysles (I'm not sure if that name is right) period, as it had a sort of different mood than everything else of Franco's I've seen... in fact, parts of it, if they didn't have Lina Romay and Howard Vernon in them, I wouldn't have been able to tell you it was from a Franco flick.

La Verifica Incerta - Gianfranco Baruchello & Alberto Grifi
A sort of compilation film from Italy in the 1970's commenting on the ever-present cliche in the Hollywood film. Apparently this was 45 minutes and I managed to watch the whole thing without realizing long it was, so I suppose that counters my idea that the pacing was slow. However, I do think the same film could be made about 100 times better AND more effectively with non-linear editing.

Take Me - Stephen Dwoskin
Dwoskin filming an "action" that appears to be fabricated solely for the camera, with only one player; a slightly overweight woman more or less "throwing" her body at our eyes via Dwoskin's voyeuristic lens. It was interesting; the music was amazing and it really sort of seems like a psycho-sexual nightmare. At 28 minutes I think the length is also important, as it does help to develop an intensity and tension, but like I mentioned with Gehr's Serene Velocity I wish there was a climax or something; but that might be my mind still attuned to narrative cinema. Still, it's great.

Girl - Stephen Dwoskin
I think this was made, in the same way that Warhol's screentests exist, except to a higher degree, in order to force us to really LOOK at something, and then THINK about what we're looking at, and then WHY we're looking at it, and if so, it succeeds.

Private Collections - Just Jaeckin, Shuji Terayama, and Walerian Borowczyk
Review up here.

MAY 2007

2007-07-02T00:14:00.001-07:00

Night of the Hunted - Jean Rollin
This was the second Rollin film I had ever watched something like four or five years ago, and I finally revisited it. It worked far better for me upon a second viewing (in my current way of reading films) than initially, and I honestly think it's a late masterpiece in the Rollin canon. The most interesting thing, for me, is it seems to be the first movie where interior architecture plays a significant role in setting the tone of the film; most of Rollin's films take place either outdoor or in archaic castles. The "black tower" of this film is utterly modern, and the ideology behind the tower, the idea of the 'closed living community' subverted into more-or-less a psychiatric ward, is a really really excellent way to examine modern ideals. I have more to say about this, but I have the feeling I'll be rewatching it again very soon and writing a full-out review for my blog, so I'll stop for now.

Invitation to Hell - Michael J. Murphy
The only thing that saves this 43 minute British horror "feature" from ~1982 from being anything but totally fucking useless is the fact that due to its budgetary limitations and sort of ineptness, it exists in its own world that seem to be completely impenetrable to the average viewer. This distance placates the viewer into not questioning anything (i.e. easily suspending belief) that in a normal horror movie would get 'screamed at' (for example, when the victim is walking slowly and the viewer [in the all knowing position] can see the killer, the viewer might mentally [or even actually] yell at the character to watch out, or whatever--not in this flick)

Danielson A Family Movie - J.L. Aronson
I really like the music of Danielson, but for some reason this movie was really, utterly depressing to me. Like, sort of provides an example of how just basing your life on faith and creativity doesn't actually work out, which is the really depressing thing. There's a scene in the second half of the film where Daniel is talking about how his protege Sufjan Stevens (who I, by the way, am not really a fan of) has become famous and he thinks it's great, but there's an almost desolate look on his face while he says it; it's almost as if he knows that as a faith-based person the response he's giving is what he needs to be giving, but in reality he's deeply afflicted by it. I don't know, it was weird and interesting and def. worth watching.

Seats Two - Frans Zwartjes
Behind Your Walls - Frans Zwartjes
Living - Frans Zwartjes (rewatch)
Audition - Frans Zwartjes
Bedsitters - Frans Zwartjes
Sorbet - Frans Zwartjes (rewatch)
Birds - Frans Zwartjes
Spectator - Frans Zwartjes
A Fan - Frans Zwartjes
Spare Bedroom - Frans Zwartjes
Living is still probably one of the most amazing films I've ever seen, ever, and the rest of these hold varying degrees of greatness, but they're all definitately worth it. Zwartjes seems to be a director who more or less takes virtually ALL of my thematic obsessions, filters them through my aesthetic obsessions (tone movement and image), and then layers amazingly fracture atmospheric sound collages over them. I watched most of these straight through in one sitting, and it was a very, well, I don't even know the right word, but let's go with "bizarre" experiencing. The thing that Zwartjes is absolutely best at is creating and transporting the viewer into a world that is totally an utterly separate from reality, but you are pulled in in a totally dynamic way and it's amazing and unsettling and I don't know how else to describe it right now but god-damn I need to figure out how.

The Bloodthirsty Fairy - Roland Lethem
I think I probably missed a majority of the political commentary by not understanding 90% of the minute or two of dialogue, but otherwise it appears to be a deliciously sardonic little flick, and I'll definitely be popping it in ever so often as it's got the perfect mesh of late 60s horror and sex (towards a [presumably] greater good!) that I so admire.

Oh Dem Watermelons - Robert Nelson
The best part about this was that the soundtrack was one of Steve Reich's first pieces of music (I had read that Reich had made some music for experimental films in the 60s but I could never find which ones), and that the piece of music itself was really, really great. Like, imagine underdeveloped early ideas of Reich's oeuvre and then apply them to a poppy folk song with a brilliant 'round-ish' vocal style. The visuals are entertaining too, conveying a rhythmic intensity and somewhat half-assedly commenting on racial stereotypes. Looking in Film as a Subversive Art it almost seems like Vogel doesn't exactly know what to make of it either! Regardless, a very entertaining, fun example of the American Avant-Garde.

Georgia Rule - Gary Marshall
This was hell of not what I was expecting at all. I normally don't give two shits whether or not an actor was "good," but with a script that was absolute total shit, Lindsay Lohan (and actually most of the primary actors) did a really damn good job.

Idiocracy - Mike Judge
It's not exactly funny, and it's also not exactly entertaining as it's really just existentially terrifying. It also serves as sort of an odd idea that being a complacent "average Joe" is actually totally awesome and rewarding! which is unique, I suppose. One thing that I noticed was that racism seemed to more or less have disappeared in the future. This is interesting to me because it implies (whether intentionally or not) that intelligence has little to do with the idea of racism, or something. I don't know, I wasn't exactly trying to think to hard while watching this.

Sublime - Tony Krantz
I rented this because I wanted some easily digestible contemporary horror and because I have a humongous crush on Tom Cavanagh for some reason. So, basically I was not expecting to be quite as affected as I was. I think part of the problem was that I was half asleep and suffering from heartburn, but that more or less just emphasized the experience I suppose. I guess something that has also always conceptually *bothered* me (but not terrified me) is the idea of a Dr. fucking up and you suffering from it, and this movie TOTALLY goes into that full force with a fucking cold intensity that was honestly too much for me to take. It also fucks with your head (well, at least my head at 3:30 in the morning) by totally directly exploiting the idea of White Male Liberal Guilt which I've never seen exploited in something that's marketed as a horror film. And I honestly thought some of the gore was totally irrelevant (the psychological aspect was far, far more powerful) but I suppose that it's another example of "hey have x amount of gore and x amount of titties and you can do whatever the fuck you want in the movie" (which I think generates the best results [hah! comparatively]). I don't know. I need to see it again to figure things out and like make myself come to terms but like I was SO FUCKED from watching this I didn't really know how to handle it, and I haven't had that psychosomatic of a response to a flick in a LONG TIME so I guess that says something. Fuck.

Kill Your Idols - Scott Crary
The first half of this, which features interviews with a lot of the key players in the short lived New York No-Wave scene is definitely worth watching, especially if you're into No-Wave music as there's some nice rare footage and some fun reminiscing. However, the second half which focuses on ~2004 "hipster" New York bands (like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and A.R.E. Weapons, etc) is more or less completely useless, and feels very disjointed from the first half, mainly as there is no real musical connection between these 'retro' obsessed major label bands and what lay at the core of the initial No-Wave movement. Which is why as a film, overall, it fails, because it doesn't actually serve to draw parallels between the two, but rather just distancing them further, which makes it more of a reactionary piece, and if you're like me (like me implying that I wasn't aware that these bands were supposed to be compared to No-Wave bands) that reaction doesn't accomplish anything. It's fun to see Lydia Lunch rip these bands a new asshole though.

Pentimento - Frans Zwartjes
Zwartjes in feature form is just as accomplished as in short form, but remarkably more intense. After a single initial viewing I've not been able to formulate exactly what to say (or even what I think) in regards to the film, so for now all I'll comment on is the fact that watching this made me feel like I was watching something that was never ever intended to have an audience, and because of that it is something truly, utterly unique and worthwhile.

Daughters of Darkness - Harry Kumel (rewatch)
Full review up here.

Last House on Dead End Street - Roger Watkins (Rewatch)
Full review up here.

Intestinal Fortitude - Colin Barton
Form an aesthetic point of this this is almost perfect (in regards to my obsessions with colors and layering), but beyond that I can't get much out of it. The following is straight from the directors mouth:
"Intestinal Fortitude is a post-industrial visual monster...The initial idea was to have many films in one and to have each of those films stand on their own. The multiple layers of this film each contain separate and individual films, all of them representing different ideas, and their stacked complexity give it its punch. The ideas range from enjoying coffee to an industrial hell. Driven by the pure apathy of others, this film was an alarm or wake-up call to my then-current peers in school."
I'm also fascinated by the idea of having films that could individually stand on their own, but I'm not sure how well it works in practice. Definitely worth watching if only as eye candy.

Nude Caboose - Guy Maddin
Worthless, juvenile, ugly shot-on-video short from Maddin that accomplishes absolutely nothing.

Odin's Shield Maiden - Guy Maddin
I appreciate Maddin as a film maker, and this was a remarkable step up from Nude Caboose, but it seems like a lot of the time Maddin's acclaimed visual styles are more of a gimmick than something that add to the film. For example, the visual style on display here is somewhere between his initial experiments with Tales from the Gimli Hospital and the hyperkinetic intensity of Heart of the World (though it's not quite as kinetic as that), and while the visual styles perfectly complemented the storylines in the aforementioned films, here it seems that Maddin just wanted to make another film 'reminiscent of silent films' (but what silent films had this hyperkinetic editing?) and just cobbled a loose 'plot' quickly in order to start shooting. So I guess what I'm saying is that it seems like just an exercise instead of a short film in its own right. Maddin's newest (Brand Upon the Brain) is playing near me right now, and I think I'm actually going to see it with prerecorded sound since it's a third of the price of seeing it with the live extravaganza, because unless I get really surprised, I doubt it will serve as much more than a gimmick.

Studie II: Hallucinationer - Peter Weiss
Studie IV: Liberation - Peter Weiss
Swedish experimental films that really, as their titles imply, serve more as studies than films in their own right. The only really thing of interest to note would be the subtle homoerotic themes that pop up in Liberation.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters - Matt Maiellaro & Dave Willis
Utterly worthless. The only thing that makes the television show work half the time is that its runtime is only 15 minutes. Watching 70 minutes of this had me constantly checking my cellphone for the time because I was so bored--it was almost a reverse attention span sort of thing; as in I got bored because anything that could resemble a narrative was constantly changing, so anything that would start to be interesting was more or less abandoned several minutes later. It's also not that remarkably funny, once again probably due to the difference between 15 minutes and 70 minutes. I'm not a huge fan of the show, but in its small dosages I think it's fairly entertaining. When its the exact same type of stoner-absurdity humor on display for such an extended period of time all the jokes, despite being based on different whatevers, are essentially, at the core, the same.

Monster Squad - Fred Dekker
I don't know, childhood favorite that is terribly confused in what it's target audience is (preteens? teens? families?), but it still remains hilarious and fully entertaining.

Vacancy - Nimród Antal
As far as Hollywood Horror/Thriller films goes, this was actually amazingly well done. It, for the first time in what seems like forever, was a movie that relied more on tension and situations to create the thrills/terror than gore and jump shocks. It was also a vaguely interesting premise; pretty much a better version of the Hostel plot in my opinion, because the characters that are depicted as 'evil' aren't just overblown ridiculous archetypes that you imagine having evil lairs, rather they're squirrelly looking small town people. Also, I'm always a fan of movies that have very small casts and very few locations in order to help emphasize the whole sense of being "trapped"--whereas Hostel (just to note; I'm drawing the comparisons here because of the whole snuff thing, Hostel being the most recent example of exploiting the myth) had an endless amount of people and space that these people were vaguely 'trapped' in (and, it's worth noting, had virtually no problem getting out of). To be fair, it does nothing innovative, but as far as pure entertainment goes (which seems to be the only thing people are proclaiming they care about in current cinema any more) it utterly fit the bill in my book.

Wild Tigers I Have Known - Cam Archer
Fairly interesting 15 year old homo "coming of age" story that was produce by Gus Van Sant. Van Sant's mark is clearly on the film, as Archer focuses more on small incidents and details and sort of physical representations of the protagonist's emotional and mental state rather than some huge epiphanic event like most gay realization films take. However, it's flawed. It occasionally gets wrapped up in its 'poetic' visual style, meaning that often the images take precedent over the feelings and the progression of the film. Worth watching, but nothing amazing.

Fay Grim - Hal Hartley
I am a pretty big Hal Hartley fan and have been more or less totally disappointed by everything he's made since Amateur (though I guess The Girl From Monday was watchable at least). However, with this film he subverts ideas from Henry Fool (which this is the sequel to) and uses the same characters in a completely different sort of situation. Hartley also seems to have allowed himself to his BRILLIANT DIALOGUE (not to interrupt, but Hartley's dialogue totally achieves what everybody tries to tell me Tarantino's dialogue does; the difference being that Hartley's is actually effective in it's artificiality, quickness, and witticisms) return and within the spy/espionage framework it's pretty brilliant. Also, Hartley has managed to deal somewhat allegorically with the political state that the US is in a way that's totally not annoying or heavy handed, and perfectly suited for the film.

What Is It? - Crispin Glover
I feel slightly bad about passing any judgment on this due to the fact that I just watched a bootleg of the film, and therefore was divorced from the experience that Glover has sandwiched the film in. As a film by itself it's not really worth it; there is something vaguely hypnotic about the heavy handed usage of surreal 'taboo' images, but overall it doesn't actually add up to anything. I get the idea that Glover just through all of these images and signifiers into the film to force the viewer to react to them and ask themselves why said image/signifier is offensive, etc., but that's a really vague question to just ask, and to just ask over and over again for 70 minutes. It may work better with Glover's Big Slide Show and Q&A, but I still can't see those two *things* adding much more to the film itself. I appreciate what he's doing, I just think he hasn't gone about it in a very useful manner.

Lost Paradise - Masami Akita
Full review up here.

At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World - David Cronenberg
So this is Cronenberg tackling the whole reality TV thing in short film form, and while it is good, he's several years late. The Truman Show and Ed TV have come and passed, almost a decade ago, and while it's obvious that reality TV has now more or less eclipsed the rest of television, the ground he treads has already been satirized in virtually the same manner. I mean, Cronenberg's own Videodrome handles the concept better. But an interesting diversion nonetheless.

Adoration - Olivier Smolders
I was fortunate enough to have NOT read anything about this before I watched it, and my ignorance made it all the more powerful. Smolders style is really interesting and unique and I'm glad I've got a good 12 other of his short films to watch sometime. Definitely approaches the Issei Sagawa saga in a perfect way. Fairly visually stunning in it's deadpan style as well, and the use of the camera as an included element of the film is amazing.

The Thing - John Carpenter
Great fun popcorn genre fare. Doesn't hold up to his amazing Cigarette Burns, but this is in a totally different category. Plus five points for Kurt Russell's beard. Oh, and by the way, the badass Kurt Russell in this I much prefer over the hardass/sensitive pussy that Tarantino makes his character in Death Proof within the context of both films.

L'Etreinte - Paul Collet & Pierre Drouot
Full review up here.

Frustration - Jose Benazeraf
Full review up here.

Blue Rita - Jess Franco
Not actually a good film per se, but as far as my cinematic fetishes go, this includes all of them. There's amazing minimalist 70s modern sets, brilliant use of bright colors, rad nightclub scenes, a brothel, etc. It's obvious that this wasn't a personal film for Franco at all, but as an action-sex-comedy it works wonders in terms of entertainment.

INTRODUCTION

2007-07-02T00:04:00.000-07:00

Since I obsessively document my film viewing habits, and, ever since I read that Amos Vogel took notes after every film he saw, I've started doing the same, and have decided to share it with the general public. Keep in mind that these are just notes and ideas that I've more or less scribbled down; they're not full reviews and a lot of the ideas are not developed, but I'm trying my hardest to actually think and reflect upon everything that I watch. I am also occasionally crude in my emotional response.