tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18024679138629296092024-03-19T04:48:43.134+00:00giallo feverTaking 'eurotrash' seriously – but not too seriouslyK H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.comBlogger1270125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-10168065005640751222016-10-18T16:43:00.002+01:002016-10-18T16:43:46.987+01:00Blood Money - A History of of the First Teen Slasher Film CycleIn this book Richard Nowell challenges some of the dominant understandings of the slasher film, while providing a model for charting the rise and fall of a film cycle. <br />
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Nowell argues that Carol J Clover's position in <i>Men, Women and Chainsaws </i>is less satisfactory than Vera Dika's. This is becase Clover's reading is based upon selective readings of a comparatively small sample and somewhat inchoate films. <br />
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Contra Clover, Nowell contends that slasher films had a broader audience than young males, with filmmakers and advertising targetting both genders. <br />
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To help show this Nowell performs a content analysis of key texts such Halloween and Friday the 13th. In addition to simply counting the number of deaths, he charts various features – the victim's gender, whether there was a scene of stalking, whether the death was protracted, etc. <br />
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Nowell also suggests that the influence of <i>Halloween </i>in the development of the slasher film was less than that of <i>Friday the 13th</i>. The difference between the two films stems from how they were distributed: Halloween was distributed independently, Friday the 13th by major studios, Paramount in the US and Warners internatiolly. The advantages of being distributed by a major were their ability to strike a greater number of prints to distribute to theatres and a larger advertising budget – indeed with many slashers the amount of money spent on advertising by the studio would outweigh the cost of film to make and acquire. <br />
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While selling a film to a major studio as a negative pickup meant backers would get a return on their investment in short order, it also meant that profits went to the studio. <br />
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This raises questions in relation to the different contexts of other national cinemas. In the case of Italy, for instance, there would appear to have been a similar situation in terms of production. For, as Christopher Wagstaff indicates, the industry was based around a large number of small scale producers, with production companies sometimes being established to make a single film or relying on the profits from one film to finance the next. What was different, however, was the relative absence of anything comparable to the Hollywood studio system – this despite the efforts of Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti. <br />
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The most important aspect of Nowell's study is, however, his emphasis upon the film cycle. A film cycle starts and ends when production of a particular film type – slasher, western, animal comedy, etc. – rises above what Nowell terms “base level”. Here we might consider the numbers of spaghetti westerns made in 1964 compared to 1965, or the number of gialli made in 1969 compared to 1970. <br />
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Nowell's model of the film cycle draws upon the American west for its terminology and conceptualisation. Simultaneously, however, he also emphasises the disproportionate importance of Canadian productions to the slasher cycle. <br />
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The first of Nowell's concepts is the “pioneer production”, exemplified by the (Canadian) <i>Black Christmas</i>. The film, however, was not particularly successful commercially and so failed to provide the “trailblazer hit” required to inaugurate a cycle. <i>Halloween</i>, a “prospector production” was a trailblazer hit, albeit one whose impact was reduced on account of its independent release. <i>Friday the 13th</i> was a “prospector production” and the wake of imitators following in its wake were “carpentbagger cash-ins”. This increase in base level production was unsustainable, resulting in the end of the cycle. <br />
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Applying these idea to the giallo we might consider <i>Blood and Black Lace </i>as a pioneer production which failed to become a trailblazing hit. <i>The Bird with the Crystal Plumage</i> provided the trailblazer hit, with subsequent films with animals in their titles (<i>The Bloodstained Butterfly</i>, <i>Lizard in a Woman's Skin </i>etc.) prospector productions. The era of carpetbagger productions appeas to coincide with the rise of the <i>poliziotto</i> in 1973-75. Here we might consider the emergence of hybrid thriller/cop films like like <i>What Have You Done to Your Daughters </i>and <i>Suspicious Death of a Minor</i>, with their professional rather than amateur detectives. Another indicator of the shift is the work of Umberto Lenzi, with his shift from the thriller to the crime film, and the presumably poor box-office of <i>Eyeball </i>(another animal referencing title in the original Italian –<i> Gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro</i>). K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-5208455450758681192016-06-24T15:24:00.003+01:002016-06-24T15:24:50.401+01:00A QuestionAre there any filmmaker/critic books where there is a real dialogue between them, one that sees the critic and the filmmaker go at one another in a dialogical or dialectic way? <br />
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This is prompted by reading Ebert on Scorsese and wanting to see Ebert ask Scorsese questions about <i>Taxi Driver</i> such as:<br />
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The Travis/Betsy date at a porn film: Is the context that of porno chic or afterwards? When Schrader wrote the script was it porno chic, so not so strange for a guy to take a gal to a hardcore film, with the potential for both to show their sophistication, but by the time the film was released had it been rewritten with a post-'Throat Cut' hardcore ghettoisation? <br />
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Does Scorsese know when the porn film within the film, <i>Language of Love</i>, played in 42nd Street grindhouses and the version it screened in? Did he ever go see it? Did he choose it as the diegetic porn text and the images we see and hear with any particular motivation/reference? <br />
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How did Schrader feel about Scorsese’s deciding to have Travis not only kill guys who are black? (Which spirals into another set of questions.)<br />
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Did Scorsese ever think of doing a fuck you to the MPAA etc. and <i>not</i> toning down the colour of the blood in the final showdown? <br />
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Was Romero a truer heir to Powell for <i>not</i> compromising with the MPAA on <i>Dawn of the Dead</i>?<br />
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Something with Godard in French maybe? Or Pasolini in Italian? K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-89999539987717833812016-06-21T18:57:00.001+01:002016-06-21T18:57:26.499+01:00Golgo 13This live-action adaptation of Takao Saito’s manga stars Ken Takakura as the titular assassin -- his pseudonym refers to Golgotha and Judas Iscariot’s role as the 13th man, the betrayer -- who is hired to identify and kill crime boss Max Boa.<br />
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Golgo's employer knows that Boa’s base of operations is Iran and has provided Golgo with photographs of several men bearing Boa’s name along with a somewhat implausible cover story of being on his honeymoon with his Iranian wife. But otherwise Boa is about as mysterious as Golgo himself. <br />
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The Iranian aspect is where Golgo 13 gets interesting beyond its Japanese action-movie formula. For we have a Japanese lead and crew filming in pre-revolutionary Iran with a cast that is otherwise Iranian -- and it is all dubbed into Japanese. <br />
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The closest point of comparison I can think of is Takashi Miike’s <i>Sukiyaki Western Django</i>, with its largely Japanese cast playing cowboys and speaking in phonetic English, except that here things are done without any obvious sense of parody or irony. <br />
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You’re not supposed to notice or bother when a car chase sees one vehicle, formerly containing four men, suddenly be empty when it crashes and explodes, nor that Golgo sticks out like a sore thumb as what seems to be the only East Asian man in the entirety of Iran, nor that the two hitmen brought in from France by one of Boa’s underlings to take him out look utterly un-French. <br />
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Instead it’s more a case of sit back and enjoy the unpretetentious does-what-it-says on the tin action, along with some impressive vistas that would not look out of place in a John Ford or Sergio Leone western, or the intrinsic documentary value of seeing then-up-to-the-minute images of westernising/modernising Iran inadvertently juxtaposed those that would become predominant a few years later. <br />
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Besides, Ken Takakura is the sort of guy -- think Toshiro Mifune through Clint Eastwood and back again -- who just has that effortless coolness to him... K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-44727134281952393982016-06-21T13:05:00.001+01:002016-06-21T13:05:04.849+01:00Macbeth UnhingedWatching a film adaptation of <i>Macbeth</i>, or any similar canonical work of theatre or literature, is an intrinsically different viewing experience from the usual. Knowing what’s going to happen, more or less – the only omission I noted here was Birnam Wood coming to life – you find yourself devoting a greater proportion of your attention to the mise-en-scene, the performances, the use of sound, and so forth.<br />
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Scotsman Angus Macfadyen’s adaptation – in addition to directing he also plays the title role – relocates the play in time to the present day, as signalled by the likes of African-American actor Harry Lennix playing Banquo; guns co-existing with daggers; magazine covers presenting Lady Macbeth as a style icon; and, above all, the locations for much of the narrative being the interiors of black limousines – that of Macbeth’s has the personalised number plate Lady Mcb, a nice touch that shows the power dynamics of their relationship before we get into the familiar text. <br />
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This stylistic device means that Macfadyen makes extensive use of close-ups and shot-reverse-shot, closing the play in rather than opening it out. The confined interiors make one think that much of the time the film must have been constructed in the editing rather than in the camera, with the actors delivering their performances individually rather than playing off one another as they were recorded by multiple cameras.<br />
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This sense of the importance of the editors’ contributions is further enhanced by the frequent use of superimpositions. These, it is important to note, are not used in a particularly obvious or consistent way – it is not that the ghost Banquo appears to Macbeth as a superimposition, for instance, instead being rendered normally to him but invisible to his wife. <br />
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The film’s sense of place is more ambiguous. Exteriors were shot in Virginia USA, but whether they are supposed to be Scotland, New York, or wherever is difficult to say. Being grey – except for three brief moments, two being gunshots vaguely recalling Hitchcock’s <i>Spellbound</i>, the film is shot entirely in monochrome – flat and featureless, they have the characteristics of what Gilles Deleuze described as the any-space-whatever. <br />
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This impression is strengthened by the way Macfadyen tends to shoot the exteriors, one that contrasts with the aforementioned limousine scenes, through use of more theatre-style long shots and tableaux. Suffice to say that if the Virginia film board were hoping that this film would showcase their state as an attractive place to visit or film in – unless you wanted to make a <i>Stalker</i> or suchlike – they probably didn’t get their money’s worth.<br />
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In sum, an interesting experiment, but not the sort of adaptation you’d want to use in a high school English class. K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-76217644526844057212016-05-03T00:32:00.000+01:002016-06-21T13:05:42.260+01:00Comics / Comix / XXXThe Edinburgh International Film Festival is doing one of its retrospectives on the live action comic book adaptation. It is focusing upon the 1960s and 1970s. <i>Diabolik</i> and <i>Baba Yaga </i> will be shown, though unfortunately a <i>Tarkan</i> or<i> Killing</i> seems unlikely. <br />
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In relation to this I was amused to discover <i>Erotik</i>, a hardcore <i>fumetti</i> <i>Diabolik </i>rip-off cum (groan!) parody. Or <i>Not Diabolik XXX, a Porn Parody</i>, <i>avant la lettre</i>.<br />
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<br />K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-63157121453973327282015-10-15T21:15:00.000+01:002015-10-15T21:15:04.459+01:00The Camp on Blood IslandIn the dying days of the Second World War the inmates in a Japanese prisoner of war camp learn that Japan has lost the war. This news is not a cause for jubilation, however, since the commander of the camp, certain to be executed for war crimes if Japan loses, will kill every prisoner, man, woman and child should he find out. <br />
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The strengths of Val Guest's <i>The Camp on Blood Island </i>(1958) are much the same as those of his other war is hell in the pacific entry <i>Yesterday's Enemy</i> (1959).<br />
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The director's quasi-documentary style is a positive, even if not as well realised as its successor due to an increasing focus upon action film elements later on.<br />
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So too, without reservation, are the sweaty atmosphere and tension that he conjures up, and the performances he elicits from a talented cast that includes Hammer stalwarts such as Andre Morell and Richard Wordsworth.<br />
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The writing nicely explores the ethical dilemmas facing those in command, both military and civilian, without didacticism or reducing these characters to mouthpieces. <br />
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This, however, also leads to one of the negatives, that the rank and file are again given less characterisation and attention – when six men are executed in reprisals for an escape all they are is a number, devoid of names and of individual identities. <br />
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Another flaw, at least for some, is likely to be the casting of actors of other ethnicities, such as the Anglo-English Marne Maitland and the white British Michael Ripper, as Japanese soldiers.<br />
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Here, however, I'd say it is important to consider the film as a product of its time and place and to recognise that, much like its companion piece, there is considerable thought-provoking ambiguity throughout.<br />
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So, for instance, Ripper's cameo role is one of a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, fated to die through no fault of his own.<br />
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Similarly, if the female prisoner who consorts with one of the soldiers is played by an East Asian actor, it is not that her character is set against the others by race, given that their numbers including other non-whites, rather by her placing of self above collective. <br />
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(As an aside, the film made me think about present-day debates around casting? Does being an actor and thus by definition playing people other than oneself render them irrelevant? Is the main issue an imbalance of power between majorities and minorities in who can play who? Is there a difference when the character being played is an actual historical figure or a religious one believed to be real?)K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-85955071354889467782015-10-14T23:15:00.006+01:002015-10-14T23:19:12.123+01:00Dracula and SonDracula and his son Ferdinand are forced to flee Transylvania after the communists come to power and lay claim to their castle. Fleeing to the west they are separated, Dracula winding up in London and Ferdinand in Paris. They are then reuinited when Dracula goes to Paris to work on a film. It is, of course, a horror film, its star having established himself as an actor whose gimmick, as far as the public are concerned, is that he believes himself to be a vampire. Initially father and son are happy to be reunited, but then come into conflict over a woman who just happens to be the spitting image of one of Dracula's brides – the one who was Ferdinand's mother!<br />
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As is well known, Christopher Lee was reluctant to reprise his career-making role as <i>Dracula</i> (1958) for Hammer, apparently fearing that he could become typecast in the role as the previous generation's Dracula, Bela Lugosi, had been. <br />
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What is less well known is that Lee quite happily traded upon his star persona in Italian productions such as the spoof <i>Hard Times for Vampires</i> (1959) and the Carmilla adaptation <i>Crypt of the Vampire</i> (1964) before his eventual return to Hammer and Dracula for <i>Dracula Prince of Darkness</i> (1965). <br />
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As is well known, Lee thereafter reprised the role for Hammer, but with increasing unhappiness at the conditions under which he was working. Eventually he refused to re-appear as the character following <i>The Satanic Rites of Dracula</i> (1973), thus compelling forcing the studio to find another actor to play the role in <i>The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires</i> (1974).<br />
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What is less well known is that he again played Dracula - here.<br />
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Some of <i>Dracula and Son</i>'s gags recall earlier horror comedies, as with some invisible in the mirror scenes reminiscent of <i>Dance of the Vampires</i> (1968), along with the deployment of a hammer and sickle as a crucifix in the manner of <i>The She Beast</i> (1966) during the <i>Blood for Dracula</i> (1974) recalling eviction scene.<br />
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These are, however, offset by the way in which the central self-referential conceit in turn prefigures <i>Shadow of the Vampire</i> (1999) by a good quarter century. (A vampire pretending to be a human pretending to be a vampire – how avant-garde – as <i>Interview with the Vampire</i>'s Claudia put it.)<br />
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In addition plenty of further laughs come from the way the film-makers explore the vampires' plight in the modern world, as with Ferdinand's needing to find a job where he is on a constant night shift and general reluctance to feed upon living human victims resulting in frequent stomach rumbling and failed attempts at raiding a hospital blood bank, working at a slaughterhouse and suchlike.<br />
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Lee's playing with his image is also a lot of fun, as is the all-in oedipal conflict between the two Draculas, while the early scenes set a couple of hundred years back prove surprisingly evocative as straight gothic romance, replete with fearful coach drivers, a creepy castle and the like.<br />
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Probably not Black Park, but certainly evocative of it.<br />
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Lee does his thing<br />
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Fans of French arthouse fare may care to note that <i>Fat Girl</i> director Catherine Breillat and her sister Marie Helene appear as the Draculas' love interests, making one wish that they had worked with Jean Rollin in the manner of the Catherine and Pony Castel, to further round out that familiar art/trash circuit. <br />
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I watched <i>Dracula and Son</i>, whose dialogue is a mixture of English, French and Romanian, in a German edition. This in itself was of interest when it came to the credits, in that these credited not only the performers but also their German dubbing voices. <br />
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Recommended.K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-72976909779631091752015-07-05T00:06:00.000+01:002015-07-05T00:06:03.318+01:00Chuck Norris versus CommunismThis HBO documentary, presented via Brett Ratner, presents an account of the distinctive video culture that emerged in Romania in the final years of the Ceacescu regime via a combination of interviews and reconstructions with both ordinary people and key figures in the samizdat video scene. <br />
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Up until the mid-1980s Romanian audiences had little access to western media. What was available was heavily censored by the authorities, sometimes for reasons that made sense only to them. One reconstruction, for example, presents the screening of a breakfast scene from a Hollywood film. The scene is cut because the amount of food on the table was in excess of what would be found in a comparable Romanian scenario and painted communism in a negative light vis a vis capitalism.<br />
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The VCR – imported and costing about the same as a car – changed this as a clandestine network of dubbing, duping, distributing and front room home screenings developed. Sometimes the multiple-generation copy would be so bad that viewers had to rely upon the dubbing track to tell what was going on, while the threat of a visit from the authorities was ever-present. <br />
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The main weaknesses of the documentary are the over-use of reconstructions and some failures of explanation. For instance, was not clear how everybody of a certain age seemed to know the name of one of the most prolific video dubbers, Irina Nistor, when the authorities apparently did not, all the more so since in her day job she worked for the regime. <br />
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I would also like to have had a bit more contextualisation and comparison. We see that the Romanian dubbing culture was one where an individual, male or female, would do all of the voices, providing a running translation of the English dialogue, but are not told whether this was standard practice. We also see that swear words would be replaced – which makes for amusing viewing when the film in question is De Palma’s Scarface – but are not told if this mirrored official practice and/or was a means of attempting to make the films family-friendly. <br />
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These things said, Chuck Norris versus Communism is worth watching for anyone with an interest in global video cultures. One parallel with the British case, for example, is how the act of banning something – Hollywood product there, the video nasties here – serves only to make it that more appealing. K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-30568567681969164972015-06-24T17:12:00.002+01:002015-06-24T17:12:27.301+01:00That Sugar FilmIt’s impossible to watch That Sugar Film and not think of Supersize Me as an obvious progenitor and reference point.<br />
<br />
Both are documentaries that see their director subject himself to a different diet for a period in order to chart the effects this has on his physical and emotional well being.<br />
<br />
This said, there are sufficient differences between the two films to allow for the existence of both. In Supersize Me Morgan Spurlock took it upon himself to eat only at McDonalds and to always take the Supersize option if it were offered to him. As such he was taking in a lot more calories than he had under his pre-film diet. Here Damon Gameau, who had previously switched to a diet free from added and processed sugars, takes it upon himself to consume the same quantity of these as the average Australian. As such he takes in the same amount of calories as he had before, but just shifts the proportions of fats and sugars in particular.<br />
<br />
If neither man’s new diet is one that the nutritional and other experts they respectively interview would recommend, Gameau’s is arguably more in line with dominant discourses. The film’s contention is that due to the debate over whether sugar or fat in the diet is (more) harmful having been won by the former lobby fats were removed from processed foods and replaced with sugars. <br />
<br />
This leads on to another couple of points of differentiation. That Sugar Film goes into the science of food a bit more than Supersize Me, and increasingly brings in other voices besides the filmmaker’s. <br />
So, for instance, Gameau visits an aboriginal community which began with its inhabitants following a traditional diet and then saw the introduction of western processed foods; as he community was alcohol-free changes in morbidity could not be explained away using that framework.<br />
<br />
The science aspects are presented, like the rest of the film, in a light, breezy and undeniably slick way. This all keeps the film accessible, but also possibly a touch light on fibre. K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-68693450959723317542015-06-24T15:10:00.004+01:002015-06-24T15:10:40.479+01:00Makeup RoomMakeup Room presents a classical unity of time, space and action, of one day behind the scenes on the shooting of a Japanese adult video (JAV).<br />
<br />
The backstage aspect is important: though there are a number of (female) AV performers playing the roles of AV performers Makeup Room is not itself an AV. All of the filming of the sex scenes occurs off screen such that what’s said and heard, including discussions of rape and incest scenes, is more pornographic than what is seen, which amount to a few, naturalistic, flashes of breasts and buttocks. <br />
<br />
Most of the comedy is based around the premise that anything which can go wrong will. If it is necessarily exaggerated it also comes across as having groundings in the experiences of the filmmakers.<br />
<br />
So, for example, the performer cast in the Lolita/schoolgirl role did not anticipate having so many lines to learn for the part. She and the performer cast as the mother, who has considerably fewer lines, have been made up and costumed for their roles when the matter of the schoolgirl’s having a tattoo comes up. It turns out to be a back-piece impossible to conceal with makeup, such that the performers have to swap roles, appearances and costumes – the last of which, of course, don’t fit...<br />
<br />
Or then there’s one performer having unknowingly been cast for a ‘lesbian’ scene and being reluctant to have her long fingernails cut seeing as she’s just spent several thousand Yen having them done. Her partner for the scene is correspondingly reluctant to be fingered by those nails...<br />
<br />
The performers and, through this, the director’s handling impress.<br />
<br />
Even if the film is maybe slightly over-long you also feel that this is deliberate, thought and worked through. A powerful dramatic scene between the makeup artist and one of the AV performers felt like a natural point of climax, but is followed afterwards by an anticlimactic coda as the community that has come together over the course of the day dissolves itself. Just another day at the orifice for most of those involved.K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-84378363575980540822015-06-19T17:23:00.000+01:002015-06-19T17:23:23.051+01:00Future Shock! The Story of 2000 ADNo film or book should ever be described as the story or history of its subject, whether as a title or a subtitle. There is not The Story of Film, nor The Story of 2000 AD. Rather there are stories, histories, accounts, necessarily incomplete and intentionally or unintentionally biased. <br />
<br />
One demonstration of this here is the absence of Alan Moore as one of the interviewees. His presence is felt, perhaps as a structuring absence, through comments from others, including his daughter Leah Moore and Neil Gaiman, on The Ballad of Halo Jones in particular. <br />
<br />
Another, which makes Moore’s absent presence that bit more surprising, is that the filmmakers provide others associated with the comic plenty of scope to be critical of others, of one another and of themselves. <br />
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This, crucially, is in line with the anti-authoritarian mindset typical (or presented as such) of 2000 AD’s writers and artists. An irony here is that 2000 AD is shown as coming from the banning of its predecessor Action, whose mistake was to present its anti-authoritarianism in a contemporary rather than science fiction/fantasy guise. (Here I’d hope that in an extended DVD version Martin Barker was included amongst the academic commentators and that Battle's Charley’s War was mentioned.) <br />
<br />
The most important question for 2000 AD’s creatives is presented as one of recognition. For whatever reasons -- likely worthy of a documentary in their own right -- most of those working in the comics industry were historically not acknowledged as the authors or given the rights according with this designation. <br />
<br />
2000AD’s crediting of its creatives proved a triple-edged sword. For the creatives it meant the ability to move onwards and upwards to the USA, Marvel and DC if they wanted to. For the comic it meant talent increasingly using it as a stepping stone towards greater audiences and remuneration. For comics, especially in the US, it meant a greater breadth. (The influence of Japanese comics on 2000 AD, and/or vice-versa, if there are such, are not mentioned.)<br />
<br />
The critical theme, and self-criticism, re-emerge. (In the spirit of self-criticism I don’t know if there is a chibi Dredd, say, but would like to.) One of 2000AD’s, and the comics industry’s failings, is given as the masculine focus. Halo Jones excepted the other key characters from the early days discussed -- Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Rogue Trooper, Johnny Alpha -- are male. <br />
<br />
So too, however, do the limits of the critique: the 1995 Judge Dredd film is bad, the 2012 film good. Rebellion Developments, the current owners of the brand, are good. <br />
<br />
Overall, though, a good documentary -- if you were not around in 2000 AD’s first decade you’ll likely learn something and, if like me, you weren’t around for much after that, you’ll likely also do so. K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-71107980663682403692015-06-18T16:40:00.002+01:002015-06-18T16:40:30.501+01:00Remake, Remix, Rip-OffThis German documentary on Turkish popular cinema impresses in many ways, from the number of behind and before the camera personnel interviewed and allowed to speak for themselves by the self-effacing filmmakers in this age of the celebrity documentarian; the insightful remarks of well-selected academics, critics and fans; the wider context given and, above all, the number of films cited and expertly edited together. <br />
<br />
The narrative begins with a number of luminaries from the Turkish popular cinema of the 1960s through 1980s commenting upon the finite number of plots that exist. They disagree on the exact number but together set up the titular three-R’s approach as inevitable and universal. There’s nothing new under the sun, indeed, though together those three R’s lead to others -- recombination, reinterpretation, reinvigoration, reflexivity -- when considered through an industry making 300 films a year on extremely tight schedules and low budgets. <br />
<br />
What does it mean to watch a Turkish version of The Exorcist, Seytan, for instance, when the religious context is that of Islam rather than Christianity? Or Dracula in Istanbul, when there is the historical context of the Ottoman Empire and the Romanian Vlad Dracul? Or a superhero romp in which Spiderman, albeit in a green and purple costume, is a sadistic killer? Clearly in each case it’s going to be a very different experience from what the viewer is used to. <br />
<br />
This said, there are plenty of reference points outside the hegemonic frameworks of Hollywood popular cinema and European/World art cinemas, with Bollywood, Italy, and Hong Kong being three that immediately come to mind. <br />
<br />
The elements that suggest themselves, in varying quantities, from these reference points include the importance of the family film, of melodrama, and of pleasing the audience, and the unimportance of elite critics and copyright. <br />
<br />
The discussions of the material realities of film-making in Turkey even into the 1970s are fascinating. Filmmakers did not have daily rushes and would instead only see what had been filmed after shooting had concluded. Film stock was in short supply, often only allowing for a one shot/take approach. If a filmmaker was supplied with 30 reels for each of five films, he might well opt to use 25 reels to enable him to make six films. If stock was bought on the black market it was liable to have different chemical characteristics, making colour matching an unpredictable business. Cinematographers rarely had filters to compensate for these vagaries and might improvise by using coloured gels derived from sweets -- which would then tend to melt under the heat from the lights. <br />
<br />
In sum, improvisation was the name of the game with the real triumph that of actually being able to get films made full stop. Or, rather, not just to get films made, but also made without regular fatalities when untrained stars were generally performing their own stunts. <br />
<br />
Though both a great introduction to Turkish popular cinema and a valuable guide for future viewing for those who’ve already seen some of the better known examples, such as Turkish Star Wars/Rambo/Star Trek/Wizard of Oz, there were a few niggles.<br />
<br />
The dates given occasionally seemed off. For example there are clips from what is identified as a version of Dillinger, credited as 1971. The clips are also used an illustration of another important aspect of the Turkish approach, namely the re-use of existing scores, in this case that for The Godfather. However the Godfather wasn’t released until 1972 and John Milius’s Dillinger until 1973. <br />
<br />
The discussion of how the political situation impacted Turkish filmmakers was a bit confusing. Though this could well be a consequence of the 1960s through early 1980s seeing a series of military coups and re-esablishments of civilian government, beginning this part of the narrative with the 1980 coup probably didn’t help. <br />
<br />
Still, any film that can supply you with the frisson of Enter the Dragon’s John Saxon being mistaken for Kriminal’s Glenn Saxson, only for the interviewee to correct himself and the filmmakers happily including this, cannot but be considered a must see, if you know what I mean... K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-18572939777449736062015-01-02T22:48:00.002+00:002015-01-02T22:48:28.879+00:00Hammer's Film LegacyThis 408 page book by Wayne Kinsey covers every Hammer production made between <i>The Quatermass Xperiment</i> in 1955 and <i>To the Devil a Daughter</i> in 1976 (including the is-it-or-isn’t-it Hammer <i>The Shadow of the Cat</i>) in chronological sequence. <br />
<br />
There’s thus next to nothing on Exclusive/Hammer in the periods immediately before and after the Second World War, nor on the likes of Terence Fisher’s <i>Three Sided Triangle</i> and <i>Stolen Face</i> from the early 1950s, nor on the present-day Hammer revival. <br />
<br />
Each of the 106 films included is approached in the same way: An image of its title card; listings of the crew and cast; distribution details; discussions of pre-production; casting; production; post-production and release. <br />
<br />
For the most part Hammer’s Gothic Horrors are given the longest and most detailed write-ups, their television sitcom adaptations the least. <br />
<br />
Besides reflecting the likely interests of the assumed reader, this is often a consequence of the back-and-forth between the studio and the British Board of Film Censors over script content at the pre-production stage. Mindful of costs, Hammer’s management could see no point in shooting material deemed too horrific or otherwise censorable. <br />
<br />
Discussions of these negotiations were also one of the major strengths of the author’s previous volumes on Hammer’s Bray and Elstree periods. This, in turn, raises the question of how necessary Hammer’s Film Legacy is for those who already own the two now out-of-print collections. Similarly, some of the details of the contributions of those behind the camera and behind the scenes may overlap with Kinsey’s more recent book on <i>Hammer’s Unsung Heroes</i>. <br />
<br />
For those owning neither of the Bray and Elstree volumes this is undoubtedly a worthwhile purchase considering the information it contains and the prices its predecessors now fetch. For those with them I would also argue that it is a worthwhile purchase, whether as an investment (as I write this the limited hardback edition of 500 must be nearly gone, mine being #412), for the material that hasn’t hitherto appeared elsewhere, or just to keep Kinsey and his publishers doing more of this stuff. <br />
<br />
In case my comments appear too gushing I’ll finish with a negative. There are some places where I wondered if what the author wrote was what he meant. Early on, for example, he characterises the purchase and establishment of Bray Studios as a “false economy”. While Bray was certainly an economic decision I don’t believe it was a false one, i.e. a decision that cost more than it returned. Similarly a reference to “sort solace” rather than “sought solace” seems a malapropism. <br />
<br />
Overall, however, well worth getting. K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-39376802380937083542014-09-20T06:17:00.001+01:002014-09-20T06:17:50.232+01:00The Amicus AnthologyCompared to some of the subjects of author Bruce Hallenbeck's previous books, most notably <i>The Hammer Vampire</i> and <i>The Hammer Frankenstein</i>, <i>The Amicus Anthology</i> likely provided a greater challenge -- one that he thankfully rises to. <br />
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For the Hammer <i>Frankenstein </i>films, excepting the one-off spoof/parody <i>Horror of Frankenstein</i>, are unified by the constant presence of Peter Cushing in the title role and, barring <i>The Evil of Frankenstein</i>, Terence Fisher as director/auteur. The Amicus anthology films, by contrast, were directed by Freddie Francis and Roy Ward Baker in approximately equal numbers and had no recurring characters. <br />
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The history of Amicus is intrinsically linked to that of its rival. Milton Subotsky presented Hammer with a script for a Frankenstein film. Hammer's bosses didn't like it, but learned that Mary Shelley's characters were out of copyright and thus made their own treatment. This became the epochal <i>Curse of Frankenstein</i>. <br />
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Subotsky and other Amicus mainman Max Rosenberg responded to Hammer by employing Christopher Lee for the atmospheric <i>City of the Dead</i>. While not an official Amicus film its present-day setting would emerge as something differentiating Amicus and Hammer horror on aggregate. <br />
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There are, in my opinion, three key reasons why <i>The Amicus Anthology</i> works.<br />
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First, Hallenbeck provides historical context to the horror compendium film in his opening and closing chapters, which reference the likes of <i>Waxworks</i>, <i>Dead of Night</i>, and <i>Creepshow</i>.<br />
<br />
Second, he contextualises Amicus's anthologies in relation to their single-story horrors, such as <i>The Skull</i>, and their non-horror films, such as the Amicus in all but name <i>Dr Who</i> adaptations with Cushing as (a) Who. (This Amicus/Who nexus is worth noting, with third and fourth Who's Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker both appearing in Amicus anthology horrors.)<br />
<br />
Finally, Hallenbeck makes you <i><b>think</b></i>: Do you prefer to see Amicus's guest stars or Hammer's character actors? Do you prefer segments or wholes? Do you prefer humour as punchline or intermittently? Does a great segment outweigh a good film?K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-6411783673892202182014-06-22T01:17:00.001+01:002014-06-22T01:17:30.315+01:00Doc of the DeadAs an introduction to the zombie film this documentary is a disappointment. There are two major reasons for this. <br />
<br />
First, while the inaugural zombie film, <i>White Zombie</i> (1932) is referenced, the history presented is very much from <i>Night of the Living Dead </i>(1968) onwards. Certainly, George A. Romero’s film inaugurated a paradigm shift in the nature of the zombie, from labourer-producer to flesh eater consumer, but this point could have been made clearer by referencing, for example, <i>Plague of the Zombies </i>(1966) as a point of contrast. <br />
<br />
Second, all the films mentioned – others include <i>Return of the Living Dead </i>(1985), <i>Shaun of the Dead </i>(2003), and <i>28 Days Later</i> (2002) – are Anglo-American. The contributions of continental European film-makers are entirely absent. This is a problem when you remember that Romero’s <i>Dawn of the Dead</i> (1978) was a co-production with Dario Argento and that the film’s success at the Italian box-office led to several tribute productions. Two of particular note here are Lucio Fulci’s <i>Zombie</i> (1979), for its fusion of old school voodoo zombie and new school flesh-eater, and Umberto Lenzi’s <i>Nightmare City </i>(1980), for featuring running zombies more than 20 years before <i>28 Days Later</i> or the remake of <i>Dawn of the Dead</i> (2004). <br />
<br />
With the film running only 82 minutes and feeling padded out even these these omissions are all the more striking. <br />
<br />
And, finally, if you are going to feature Joanna Angel talking about her zombie-porn crossover shouldn’t you also mention that Joe D’Amato, was there first? K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-40729311260907765422014-05-30T21:08:00.001+01:002014-05-30T21:20:00.501+01:00OffbeatWith Headpress's <i>Offbeat</i> editor Julian Upton presents 400+ pages on what the book's subtitle identifies as "British Cinema’s Curiosities, Obscurities and Forgotten Gems." Other than mentioning the films encompassed within this remit only cover a thirty year period from c. 1955-85 (so no Tod Slaughter or 30s Edgar Wallace adaptations, for instance; though there are certainly other places you can read up on these) it is a fair enough description of the films surveyed and reviewed within. <br />
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So, for example, if we’re talking Hammer then it is emphatically not the Gothics for which they are best known, rather their swashbucklers and adventure romps like <i>Captain Clegg</i> and <i>Pirates of Blood River</i>, or the brilliant <i>Cash on Demand</i> where Peter Cushing is for once outperformed by another, Andre Morell; admittedly Morell had played his role on TV and so had the advantage. Or, if it’s Hammer’s most famous house director, Terence Fisher, then it is one of the three sci-fi films he made for another studio, Planet, namely <i>The Earth Dies Screaming</i>. <br />
<br />
I’d like to think that I’m somewhat close to the ideal reader for the book, arrogant though you may judge me: I’ve seen about half of the films reviewed within and would say that I concur with the authors most of the time on these. Two things help here. One, the reviewers resist the urge to proclaim each and every film as a forgotten mini-masterpiece or suchlike. Rather they accept the films on their own merits, or lack thereof. Two, they provide their working rather than just their correct answer. That is they explain why they feel the way they do about a film. As such even if I do not agree with the reviewer of <i>No Blade of Grass</i>’s opinion I can understand that he is paying attention to the source novel, whereas I was not considering the film in terms of adaptation. <br />
<br />
Even more important, however, is that <i>Offbeat</i> provided further encouragement to seek out those titles I had heard of but not seen, and introduced me to others which I had not, or which I might have <i>grokked</i> at some point but since forgotten. <br />
<br />
In addition to the reviews Offbeat also presents several overviews of a time period, sub-genre, cycle or trend. These are informative as an orientation and also point out topics of further consideration. For example, the essay on the pop/rock musical posits a significant difference between the Elvis films from the US and the Cliff Richard and British Invasion films from the UK that followed them. The Elvis films were entrusted to older, established directors who worked to make Elvis a safer property, whereas the British films often took chances on younger filmmakers closer in age to their subjects, this resulting in a less predictable fare. The reviews generally run two or three pages, begin with production, cast and crew details, followed by a one-paragraph summary of the plot, followed by a more substantial discussion of the individual film’s merits (or lack thereof) and place in British cinema history. <br />
<br />
So, to sum up, if you read this you would probably like <i>Offbeat</i>. K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-53158126666340766522014-02-24T17:11:00.001+00:002014-02-24T17:11:27.742+00:00A brief surveyIt's been a while since I last posted, having been busy with other things. On this occasion, however, there's a bit of crossover.<br />
<br />
I'm doing a pilot study for a bit of research on horror film audiences. There are basically four questions:<br />
<br />
1. Do you like US and UK horror films? The answers here are yes, no and it depends on the film.<br />
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2. What do you especially like and/or dislike about US and UK horror films?<br />
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3. Do you like continental European horror films. Again, the answers here are yes, no and it depends upon the film.<br />
<br />
4. What do you especially like and/or dislike about US and UK horror films?<br />
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Either leave your answers as a comment or email me at <a href="mailto:hennesseybrown@gmail.com">hennesseybrown@gmail.com</a><br />
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Thanks in advance K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-61729656250886521102013-12-29T13:12:00.004+00:002013-12-29T13:12:59.220+00:00Hard to SwallowJust started reading <i>Hard to Swallow: Hard-Core Pornography on Screen</i>, edited by Gail Dines and Darren Kerr.<br />
<br />
The introductory chapter includes this howler, on Paul Schrader's <i>Hardcore</i>:<br />
<br />
"In this film, starring Rod Steiger, a morally upright evangelical preacher pursues his daughter when she runs away to the decadent west coast of the US, only to turn up in a porn movie. The plot takes us on a journey through the LA porn industry, in which all those he encounters are either damaged, or despicable, and wholly deserving of the beatings Steiger’s character dishes out."<br />
<br />
But it's not Steiger, rather George C. Scott. <br />
<br />
How can academics get away with such basic factual errors? <br />
<br />
Then, in discussing the biases of a documentary, <i>Porn Shutdown</i>, about the impact of a HIV outbreak on the LA porn industry:<br />
<br />
"That <i>Porn Shutdown</i>, in contrast, simply sidesteps James suggests once more that there is no complexity to men’s involvement in porn, nothing enigmatic – or, for that matter, visually interesting – about the male porn-performer."<br />
<br />
Female performer Jessica Dee, one of those who contracted HIV, was not a major figure in this documentary, So was there nothing interesting about the European porn-performer either?<br />
<br />K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-47932674805333303072013-11-30T15:17:00.001+00:002013-11-30T15:22:44.632+00:00Eurohorror<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Olney begins by this academic study by demonstrating that European horror cinema of the 60s through 80s has a surprisingly high profile amongst contemporary horror audiences. As evidence of this he cites the successful re-releases of Eurohorror by Grindhouse Releasing along with lavish DVD releases of both acknowledged genre classics such as Lucio Fulci's <i>The Beyond </i>and decidedly lesser entries such as Bruno Mattei's <i>Hell of the Living Dead</i>. <br />
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Following this Olney indicates that fan interest in Eurohorror has thus far not been paralleled with equivalent attention amongst academics, with the exception of some hybrid fan-academics. Olney posits that this paucity is partly explicated by the generally marginal position of European popular and genre cinema as a whole. It is also a reflection of the inherently problematic nature of many Eurohorror texts as far as progressive-minded critics are concerned, given not only their apparent sexism, racism, misogyny, and homophobia, but also their tendency to present transgressive combinations of sex and violence. <br />
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Olney then introduces his theoretical route out of this impasse, namely the concept of peformative spectatorship. Drawing upon the work of Judith Butler in particular, he posits that the distinctive challenge and opportunity posed by Eurohorror films is their uneasy dynamics. Whereas the Anglophone horror film invites our identification with the hero-protagonist, the Eurohorror film allows us to identify now with the hero-protagonist and now with the monster-antagonist. Paralleling this they allow us to take the roles of both sadist and of masochist.<br />
<br />
It is a strong thesis and one which Olney then goes on to demonstrate via detailed textual analyses of a range of Eurohorror films, including films by Dario Argento (<i>Suspiria</i>, <i>The Bird with the Crystal Plumage</i>), Mario Bava (<i>The Whip and the Body</i>), Jesus Franco (<i>Eugenie de Sade</i>, <i>Eugenie.. the Story of her Journey into Perversion</i>, Fulci (<i>The House by the Cemetery</i>, <i>The New York Ripper</i>), Ruggero Deodato (<i>Cannibal Holocaust</i>), and AntonioMargheriti (<i>Cannibal Apocalypse</i>) amongst others. <br />
<br />
There were two aspects of Olney’s analysis which I found slightly disappointing. First, there is little French or German Eurohorror cinema mentioned, with a strong bias towards Italian product. Second, why he looked at women and prison and nunsploitation films in the context of their sadistic-masochistic dynamic while omitting a third strand of women in total institution exhibiting similar dynamics, namely the Nazi sadism film. I would speculate that this is because it is relatively harder to get the typical viewer to temporarily align themselves with the Nazi. This is doubly so when it comes to the continental Europeans of the 1970s who would have been the original audiences for these films. <br />
<br />
The challenge now is perhaps one of operationalising the concept of performative spectatorship and seeing how useful it is with actual audiences - i.e. bridging the theory/practice divide.<br />
<br />
As it is, Olney’s ideas would appear applicable to many other European horror films that he does not discuss. Two that they made me think of were Terence Fisher’s <i>Dracula</i> and Werner Herzog’s <i>Nosferatu the Vampyre </i>and their respective treatments of the Jonathan Harker character. In Fisher’s film Harker is a vampire hunter intent on destroying Count Dracula, but falls prey to Dracula’s bride and thus himself turns into one of the undead. At this point his fellow vampire hunter Van Helsing becomes the narrative focus and destroys Harker. In Herzog’s film the destruction of Dracula leads to Harker, here just a lawyer, becoming the reincarnation of Dracula. Put another way, Fisher’s Anglo horror film retains the boundaries that Herzog’s Eurohorror film transgresses. K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-88315305857530120162013-08-17T02:25:00.001+01:002013-08-17T02:25:09.844+01:00Do as I say, not as I do?I have been reading <i>The American West in Film: Critical Approaches to the Western</i>, written by Jon Tuska and published in 1985. Tuska is concerned with seeing how the images of the West presented in Western writing and in Hollywood films (specifically) are true to history.<br />
<br />
Unsurprisingly Tuska finds that the films are rarely accurate, with this reflecting a lack of research and/or the deliberate obfuscation of truths about ‘how the West was won,’ namely through violence, treachery, and genocide. <br />
<br />
Then, in his conclusion, Tuska mentions the snuff film, which he views as actually existing, but apparently without bothering to undertake any research or fact checking.<br />
<br />
An ironic instance of ‘printing the legend’...K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-27644132686697461882013-08-04T14:39:00.001+01:002013-08-04T14:44:21.938+01:00Abuso di potere / Shadows UnseenWatching <i>Abuso di potere</i> – i.e. literally <i>Abuse of Power</i>, but released under the more enigmatic <i>Shadows Unseen</i> – in the same week as Berlusconi was jailed gives the 1972 film a certain continuing relevance.<br />
<br />
The more things change the more they stay the same... <br />
<br />
On a more personal level, it was also interesting to compare with my viewing of a few days ago, <i>Colpo rovente</i>, it being another police film exploring the same theme, high-reaching corruption, but a contrasting narrative structure.<br />
<br />
For whereas <i>Colpo rovente</i> begins with a death at the hands of persons unknown, here we begin with a death where the identities of at least some of those involved, if not their exact roles, are presented.<br />
<br />
Investigative journalist Gagliari goes to a club; talks briefly with Simona (Marilu Tolo); visits money lender Rosenthal (Corrado Gaipa), from whom he recovers a distinctive ring; indicates that he is leaving on business for a few days; departs with hooker Rosaria, and is then set upon, beaten and shot dead by a group of men.<br />
<br />
After some discussion amongst the police and political leaders, the decision is made to bring Inspector Luca Micheli (Frederick Stafford) in to conduct the investigation. Micheli has been persona non grata since he used the same illegal methods as many of his colleagues, but happened to do so on the wrong suspect/perpetrator – i.e. someone with connections. He’s also, predictably, the type whose dedication to the job has cost him his family.<br />
<br />
Aided more or less only by his loyal sidekick, Micheli begins his investigations. An anonymous tip-off leads them to Delogo, a known mafioso with an impressive record on beating the charges against him. After a beating Delogo confesses to the crime, but Micheli’s intuition tells him what we would already know, even if we had walked in to the film five minutes late; after all, we’re only one-third of the way into the running time.<br />
<br />
Getting the forename of the woman seen with Gagliari, Micheli pulls in a low-level drug dealer (Pasolini regular Ninetto Davoli) and extracts here whereabouts, this time more with the threat of violence. Visiting Rosaria’s apartment, the investigators find her dead, the victim of adulterated heroin. And so it goes until it becomes increasingly evident what we already more or less knew.<br />
<br />
The only matters that remain in doubt are whether Micheli will agree to forget what he discovers and become one of the conspirators, or whether he will continue to fight against them and, if so, with what type of outcome.<br />
<br />
Extreme cynicism was rife in the police film internationally in the early 1970s, as a basic schism between the ideals of law and order became increasingly apparent. To give a few examples:<br />
<br />
Callahan in<i> Dirty Harry</i> knew that Scorpio was the killer stalking San Francisco, but could not prove this and found his methods led to Scorpio’s being released by too-liberal judges.<br />
<br />
Then <i>Magnum Force</i> saw Callahan going up against a self-appointed execution squad of fellow cops who were going too far – a plot point that seems more about box-office than consistent characterisation, at least from a cursory recollection. Certainly I remember preferring Steno’s <i>La polizia ringrazzia</i>, with its decidedly more downbeat treatment of a similar theme.<br />
<br />
Or in the UK there is the first film outing of <i>The Sweeney</i>, in which Regan reluctantly investigates the death of a call-girl at the behest of a small-time villain, then realises he has uncovered a big-time conspiracy when said villain also dies and he is suspended from the force on trumped up charges. While the X-certificate given the film allowed for more sex, violence and bad language than the TV series from which it came, its televisual origins were also apparent. There was an obvious need for Regan to ultimately triumph. His regular boss, whose presence would have complicated the conspiracy narrative, was also a conspicuous – or is that structural? – absence.<br />
<br />
In each case a further tension is the divide between providing genre entertainment and socio-political critique – and further, what form that critique should take. Here the entertainment aspect is foregrounded in a brief interlude between Micheli and Simona, albeit one tempered by a clear sense that this is a matter of business and not love, and a Remy Julienne-staged car chase. There’s also a shoot-out, and a couple of punch-ups where the blows have that exaggerated, conventional car-door-slamming sound.<br />
<br />
The critique is, as might be expected, more muddled.<br />
<br />
But then that could be said to be a reflection of a perceived situation where no-one had the answers?<br />
<br />
But that could then be said to be a reflection of a perceived situation where no-one had the answers?<br />
<br />
The final shot of the film, noted by an IMDB reviewer, is curious in this regard. On one layer, it appears to be a freeze-frame. Clearly, however, it is in fact an optical printing, since on the other layer, there is the motion of a swinging telephone receiver. The two images, previously united, have become fragmented.<br />
<br />
On the subject of fragments, parts of Riz Ortolani’s score are reminiscent of cues for <i>Cannibal Holocaust –</i> the discordant strings, but minus the synthesiser bleeps – and <i>Don’t Torture a Duckling</i> – the powerful percussion, but minus Ornella Vanonni’s vocals, that accompany Maciara's death scene.
K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-82286948536815223232013-08-03T13:37:00.001+01:002013-08-03T13:39:37.497+01:00Colpo Rovente / Red Hot ShotWhen businessman Mac Brown is assassinated on a busy New York street,
there is only one man to head the investigation: Frank Berin. For the
previous year Berin had conducted extensive inquiries into Berin’s
business dealings, but had been unable to find incontrovertible evidence
of any criminal activity or conspiracy. Unfortunately for Berin,
Brown’s daughter Monica has put up a $250,000 reward for information on
her father’s killer(s). Worse still, the killers always seem to be one
step ahead of him...<br />
<br />
<i>Colpo Rovente </i>is stylishly directed by
co-writer Piero Zuffi, with some particularly good use of mirror shots
and of (then) high-technology to heighten the sense of modernist
paranoia.<br />
<br />
The film also benefits from smart deployment of New York and other US
locations, along with clever opportunism in some found moments of
spectacle, with Berin’s visiting Acapulco to follow up a lead inevitably
occurring during the Day of the Dead celebrations.<br />
<br />
The production
design, in what Tim Lucas has characterised as the Continental Op style,
nicely captures the contrasting milieus of their inhabitants – the
psychedelic hippie happenings; the criminal boardroom; the laboratory
replete with vials of brightly coloured liquids; the Greenwich Village
gay bar. Pierro Piccioni’s bold, brash crime-jazz score propels the
action along, as does the sharp editing by the incomparable Franco
Arcalli.<br />
<br />
In sum, even though the source of the fan-subbed AVI is cropped, with
some familiar names in the credits being somewhat chopped-off, the film
still looks good enough to convince that a digital restoration of the
original materials would be justified.
The main downside is that the narrative can be difficult to follow at
times, perhaps most notably when Berin goes undercover and infiltrates a
Hells Angels-type biker gang; aficionados of filone cinema will
recognise Ugo Fangareggi among their number. There is a justification
for this confusion, however, with the denouement also encouraging the
viewer to retrospectively re-evaluate a couple of scenes and some key
exchanges within them. It is the first of these, incidentally, that
seems to provide further explanation for the <i>Red Hot Shot</i> title.<br />
<br />
<i><b>[NB: Spoilers follow after the pictures]</b></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbsIhl3l2ihklOAY6iuKkpNsW-MHdvI8l99rMHGMos0Kp8IuAvuD4N6s7fjVNtTjooPQzHiGXkRmubLQP9lkc69gsvj_OzB-oBj45nlkN-eWBK2qowLwxdG-kB3Lc0hnsomanbShsEF4/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h12m28s55.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbsIhl3l2ihklOAY6iuKkpNsW-MHdvI8l99rMHGMos0Kp8IuAvuD4N6s7fjVNtTjooPQzHiGXkRmubLQP9lkc69gsvj_OzB-oBj45nlkN-eWBK2qowLwxdG-kB3Lc0hnsomanbShsEF4/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h12m28s55.png" /></a></div>
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<i>A blade in the dark... </i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjjKctpJQefTuqQ_3fmBJuJbjB0yVEOnNKzzBsQCU3KJAR-CO5u_4z-PsxrHPsKfStA25PQ2Dxlj8pkTrw-RvtERJ9qhanwxUSjp0ANX-bZTlR-UrYzr29AuOnm1qwLRVjzLfmKWW5VOs/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h12m59s121.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjjKctpJQefTuqQ_3fmBJuJbjB0yVEOnNKzzBsQCU3KJAR-CO5u_4z-PsxrHPsKfStA25PQ2Dxlj8pkTrw-RvtERJ9qhanwxUSjp0ANX-bZTlR-UrYzr29AuOnm1qwLRVjzLfmKWW5VOs/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h12m59s121.png" /></a></div>
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<i>Black gloves and a gun... </i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwHsY5u1FQrDMvbDXZJlUEXdufTNVrAHanoaUH63GTmjzbzjRSzfIiqAXRXBc-AAKLneQ2EVm4ZiIQ6d79Qn3_xdFziQ-Zo72GaEnx0bHFfWB0vPmlWSK0cV6ZcVJXsl7F_38-t3sn2k/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h14m00s222.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwHsY5u1FQrDMvbDXZJlUEXdufTNVrAHanoaUH63GTmjzbzjRSzfIiqAXRXBc-AAKLneQ2EVm4ZiIQ6d79Qn3_xdFziQ-Zo72GaEnx0bHFfWB0vPmlWSK0cV6ZcVJXsl7F_38-t3sn2k/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h14m00s222.png" /></a></div>
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There's a very good reason for the framing of this shot.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju2JPZXbXvjZlTNeWRcxPC5UmRfAALeN4rxnM2UQozG-5LEtwxwHVd51Gg5AKKW6smSCSMggxw2RGpluej7aH6hNzBOP4_0TVulSWo5ZRz-kH4c_it_tYPaOJ3JzaXaWb0yENMW54YzhU/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h14m41s117.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju2JPZXbXvjZlTNeWRcxPC5UmRfAALeN4rxnM2UQozG-5LEtwxwHVd51Gg5AKKW6smSCSMggxw2RGpluej7aH6hNzBOP4_0TVulSWo5ZRz-kH4c_it_tYPaOJ3JzaXaWb0yENMW54YzhU/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h14m41s117.png" /></a></div>
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<i>The press reports...</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieV6AdLerTtGuiziq7GnSZGjRlVsmX57DuuDXldo70pdLyswbHeZ7tGUxUWifGhAc53WAPx4OJE_qS-3RdGFY9mWiy6vVAveSNu7gNNgeP-6FY9N8N1r-EFrK48UVQ2ih2xWMW5QC-pYQ/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h15m20s242.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieV6AdLerTtGuiziq7GnSZGjRlVsmX57DuuDXldo70pdLyswbHeZ7tGUxUWifGhAc53WAPx4OJE_qS-3RdGFY9mWiy6vVAveSNu7gNNgeP-6FY9N8N1r-EFrK48UVQ2ih2xWMW5QC-pYQ/s1600/vlcsnap-2013-08-03-13h15m20s242.png" /></a></div>
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<i>The media reacts... </i><br />
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<i>The photofit #1 </i><br />
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<i>The photofit #2 </i><br />
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<i>Barbara Bouchet in her fancy penthouse</i>
<br />
<br />
More a crime drama than a giallo perhaps, the film might be viewed as an
alternate configuration of Elio Petri’s <i>Investigation of a Citizen
Above Suspicion</i>. There we know that the titular investigator, the
right-wing police chief, is also the his mistress’s killer. By being so
obvious about it his culpability, however, he effectively conceals it.
Here we don’t know that Berin set events in motion by assassinating
Brown. When we learn this we might reconsider the identity parade and
photo-fit session, where Berin uses himself as one of the reference
points for the portrait of the murderer. Likewise, his brutality against
a Bud Spencer lookalike festooned with bad tattoos, comes to make more
sense.<br />
<br />
Against this, though, we can also see that Berin has been responsible
for the deaths of some innocents – if, that is, the world depicted is
one where any innocents still exist, as certainly suggested the film’s
conflation of business and crime, along with the closing scene of
hippies over which are projected images from the film itself and culled
from the news. This would also tie in with the importance of drugs to
the narrative, even if the effects of LSD and heroin sometimes seem
conflated.<br />
<br />
All-told, gripping, stylish and provocative. And the always-welcome
Barbara Bouchet. And, for those with less mainstream tastes, an
appearance by experimental film-maker and all-round renaissance man
Carmelo Bene as her reviled husband.K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-47919156080123722792013-07-26T20:44:00.001+01:002013-07-26T20:44:16.437+01:00The Erotic Rites of FrankensteinNo sooner has Frankenstein (Dennis Price) re-animated his monster than he and his assistant Morpho (director Jesus Franco) are killed. The man behind the murders, Cagliostro (Howard Vernon), wants the monster so that he can mate it with a human female and create a master race. Cagliostro has already conducted his own experiments in creating life which have resulted in a bizarre half-woman, half-bird, blind, vampiric creature, Melisa (Anne Libert). Cagliostro is not going to have things go entirely his way, however, since Dr Seward (Alberto Dalbés) and Inspector Tanner (Daniel White) are investigating the case, as is Frankenstein’s daughter Vera (Beatriz Savón). <br />
<br />
When discussing <i>El Topo </i>Alejandro Jodorowsky was fond of remarking that what audiences would get out out of the film was dependent upon what they would put into it. If the spectator was limited then the film was limited.<br />
<br />
This is a useful notion to bear in mind when watching a Jesus Franco film. This is because they are replete with inter-textual associations, whether it is the re-use of character names, the casting of what amounts to a stock company of performers, allusions to other films or to art in general. As such a Franco film is often an exercise in hermeneutics, a search for the code that will break the hermetic seal to permit entry into the Francoverse. <br />
<br />
Name-wise, we have Morpho, Tanner and Orloff. Cast-wise, beside those already mentioned above, there are Britt Nichols, Luis Barboo and Daniel White – the last often Franco’s composers of choice, and who also provides the music here. <br />
<br />
Allusion-wise the film comes across as one of Franco’s tributes to 1930s and 1940s horrors, notably <i>The Mask of Fu Manchu</i>, via the sadistic torture devices in Cagliostro’s dungeon; <i>The Bride of Frankenstein</i>, via Cagliostro himself, as a Dr Pretorius type; and any of the X meets Y permutations and combinations along <i>House of Frankenstein</i> lines. <br />
<br />
At the same time, however, the film also has a more contemporary sensibility through the Bava-style red and blue lighting of Cagliostro’s dungeon; a <i>Lady Frankenstein </i>character (and here not forgetting that Rosalba Neri had earlier worked with Franco on <i>Lucky the Inscrutable </i>and <i>99 Women</i>) and the prescient ideas of mating the monster, as would be mooted in <i>Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell</i>, and of using it to create a master race, as would be foregrounded in <i>Flesh For Frankenstein</i>. <br />
<br />
The idea of mating the monster arguably gives an added element to one of Franco’s obsessions, namely the female pudenda shot. For some of those here seem reminiscent of Gustave Courbet’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Origine_du_monde" target="_blank"><i>L’Origine du monde</i></a>. (One can also conceive of Melisa having stepped out of a Max Ernst painting.)<br />
<br />
The version of the film watched was an AVI sourced from the UK Go Video release; it was also released along with companion piece <i>Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein</i> by Tartan on DVD. The longer cut includes an early appearance by Lina Romay. K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-53175947365814619682013-07-19T22:34:00.000+01:002013-07-19T22:42:03.395+01:00GBH / Grevious Bodily HarmClub own Murray is in trouble. Gangster Keller wants a cut of his profits in return for protection, said protection being from Keller’s thugs. Murray, however, is not one to back down and so recruits his old doorman and troubleshooter Donovan, who is just about to be released from prison after serving a six month sentence, a sentence that stemmed from the last time Donovan helped Murray...<br />
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<i>A Double bill with Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts?</i><br />
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Of course if Donovan had simply said no and walked away we would either not have a film or at least a very different one. So, much like the relationship between Terry McCann and Arthur Daley in <i>Minder</i>, Donovan is soon back to working for Murray.<br />
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My reference to Minder is not accidental, given that it was one of the highest rated series on British television at the time <i>GBH </i>and that lead – one hesitates to say star – Cliff Twemlow seems something of a McCann character in real life, having worked as a Manchester nightclub doorman for many years.<br />
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In part it is the choice of milieu that makes <i>GBH</i> work, since it is clear that the film-makers actually know about the world they are depicting on screen. More important than this, however, is their fundamental belief in what they doing. <br />
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For <i>GBH </i>could otherwise be compared to the various David Sullivan and Paul Raymond films of the era, such as <i>Queen of the Blues</i>, <i>Emanuelle in Soho </i>and <i>Paul Raymond’s Erotica</i> – except for the sense that co-writer, producer, composer (under the pseudonym John Agar) and lead Twemlow and his coterie of friends were intent upon doing the best they could rather than just the minimum required. <br />
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Yes, the narrative and characterisation are cliché. Yes, the writing and performances are frequently awkward. Yes, it was shot on video rather than film. Yes, there are basically two car door slamming type sound effects used for punches and kicks. Yes...<br />
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... but director David Kent-Watson also throws in some Dutch angles, slow motion and so on that he did not have to and also handles the action scenes well. Many of the exchanges written by Kent-Watson and Twemlow are also, in their own way, quite brilliant:<br />
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Donovan: Didn’t know this was a gay bar.<br />
Barman: It isn’t.<br />
Donovan: What about those two poofs over there?<br />
[Fight ensues]<br />
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Tracy: The big hard type?<br />
Donovan: Didn’t know I was showing.K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1802467913862929609.post-25615022299122608312013-06-24T01:58:00.001+01:002013-06-24T02:00:59.752+01:00Abducted by the DaleksThe plot?<br />
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Well, if you are familiar with any of other ‘films’ by director Don Skaro under his other pseudonym Roman Nowicki, you’ll anticipate that is is minimal.<br />
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The <i>auteur</i> of the <i>Fantom Kiler </i>and <i>Fantom Seducer</i> series is not exactly known for complex plotting. Rather it is about stringing together a few scenes with the same basic slasher/porno dynamic. Woman gets naked, then woman gets killed (in the former) or fucked (in the latter).<br />
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This is much the same, following the softcore dynamic of the former series, with Daleks in the place of Fantoms.<br />
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We begin with four women in a car, travelling through woods reputed to be the domain of the Serial Skinner, clearly a close cousin to the Fantoms. <br />
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Their car hits something (which we see is a Roswell type alien) so they get out to explore. Three of the four soon end up naked and prisoners of the Daleks.<br />
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Here I found it impossible not to think of Victor Lewis Smith’s <i>TV Offal</i> and his Gay Daleks skits, and of Jon Pertwee era Who companion Jo Grant actor Katy Manning appearing topless with a Dalek.<br />
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That said, the special effects are probably better than the original <i>Who</i>, if only by virtue of being 20-30-40 years later. (Is there a CGI setting to do CSO?)<br />
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Following the extermination (not insemination) of the women (white wee wee, white wee wee) an alien dominatrix in female form, indistinguishable from the others (i.e. bleached blond, silicone breasted, shaved pubis, heavy accented non-native English speaker) finds herself in the woods, where she is captured by a hunter seeking the Serial Skinner. <br />
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The Daleks intervene, attempting to teleport her back to their craft, but get the Skinner instead...<br />
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There are amusing aspects to <i>Abducted by the Daleks</i>, such as some of the credits (besides Don Skaro the script is by one Billy Hartnell, for instance) and the <i>Star Trek</i> TOS door opening/closing sound, but overall it is a tedious watch even at just 55 minutes.<br />
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Maybe Big Finish and Johnny Trunk / Wisbey should do an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Wisbey" target="_blank">audio collaboration</a> inspired by this? K H Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12032330558218087354noreply@blogger.com0