One very important takeaway from this episode: many more people are now familiar with XTC, Isao Tomita, and Tangerine Dream.
It is important for me to say right now that much of the rating is due to the concept and how it was pulled off. The story is pretty meta (and at times very much so, depending on your choices) and truth be told this is the first Black Mirror episode I have ever watched. I know many love it but some of the things I've heard about it... I am fine with not giving the series a shot until now.
Like many, I read Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was a child and thought they were the bees' knees. As an adult I have loved games where players have free will to make decisions that impact the game. Of course, those games do not have as much free will as they really think as the games funnel themselves into one or a few different endings and the creators of that property are still the masters... which is one of the biggest themes of this episode. To give some examples, the Mass Effect trilogy is awesome (due to choice and the characters that have arcs throughout; let's just forget how Mass Effect 3 ended...), the Walking Dead games from the late Telltale was cool until I got tired of how it wallowed in misery, The Wolf Among Us was entertaining for a property I knew nothing about, and Skyrim was a lot of fun.
In Bandersnatch, the setting is 1980's England and Stefan is a young adult who lives with his dad and he is great at game design. He goes to Tuckersoft and has the idea to create an interactive game known as Bandersnatch, based on a giant Choose Your Own Adventure book for adult by a late author-the person who played him made me laugh and if you know 80's computer games you'll appreciate that they got him to make some brief appearances. Stefan is allowed to work on his own at home, and he starts to lose grip on reality as he thinks someone else is making choices for him... this is what I meant by “pretty meta”. As in those books, this encourages you to watch this multiple times, making different choices; after all, a few times the whole thing is pretty brief if your selection is “wrong”.
This is not as complex as it could have been and certainly, other works have done deeper dives on such themes (I mean, look at The Matrix or Fassbinder's World on a Wire, which definitely inspired The Matrix). Yet it was an enjoyable twisty loopy adventure where the outcomes are not happy ones, but I understand that's another Black Mirror trope. The cast as a whole did a swell job, but Will Poulter as fellow game creator Colin Ritman was a standout. You'll likely come across him giving a great monologue about the true purpose of PAC-MAN.
Entire paragraphs could be written about if interactivity is the way that viewers sometime in the future will be able to enjoy television and movies at home (along with if improvements in technology will even allow for this to occur; while there are obvious pauses in the film when someone has to make a choice, the entire experience is seamless which is impressive for something on a streaming platform) or this is just an experiment that will exist for years to come yet only be used sparingly. I was amused that one ending was pretty bizarre and totally unexpected, a la The Dog Ending of Silent Hill 2. I have never played any of those games but back like 15 years ago I was in college back in Illinois; someone I know was playing this and via a FAQ he went back to get all of the game's endings. That FAQ only explained the steps needed and did not spoil what those endings were. Lord was there plenty of WTF and LOLZ as we saw The Dog Ending, which is bizarre in or out of context.
One last thing: a keystone moment in this story eerily reminds me of something that happened when I was a toddler... July 6, 1985 to be exact as there are a few newspaper archives of what happened. My family and I were in the Black Hills of South Dakota, by Mount Rushmore. We went up in a helicopter for a tour. That went fine, but the next helicopter that went up (I believe that company had two), it crashed and well, I've known for years that your entire life could be different if one thing changed... or hell, your time on Earth could be cut short. You see, for years my parents have mentioned that if my mother had taken a shower that particular morning, we would have been on the helicopter that crashed... those that have already seen this will know why I am telling this story. It's not a cheery way to end this review but then again, Bandersnatch was not a happy uplifting story.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Monday, December 31, 2018
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (Il Tuo Vizio E Una Stanza Chiusa E Solo Io Ne Ho La Chiave (1972)
Runtime: 96 minutes
Directed by: Sergio Martino
Starring: Luigi Pistillo, Anita Strindberg, Edwige Fenech, Ivan Rassimov, Franco Nebbia
From: Lea Film
This was a fun way to close out 2018... Happy New Year, everyone:
In some ways, the black cat in this film being named Satan is appropriate.
As I mentioned in my last review (over a week ago) I was on vacation in Kansas to see part of my immediate family, which has become a yearly tradition now. Unlike the past few years, I did not have the time to watch any motion pictures. At random I made this giallo my first one back... OK, maybe not so much at random-I did realize I hadn't seen anything from this genre in a while and for years I've known of the title as one of the best in giallo... and that field has a plethora of unforgettable names.
Oliviero is a successful professor and writer who lives in a fancy mansion, but that building is from his late mother and he definitely has mommy issues-yet those aren't his only problems. He is a real A-hole who says and does some pretty awful things... so, modern day Louis CK, basically. Anyhow, some women who are linked to him suddenly start dying at the hands of a mysterious killer who wears black gloves and his weapon of choice is a sickle. That is all standard stuff for the genre, including wondering who the killer is and if the lead male is the slasher or he is being set up, and of course the bloody kills where people die from deep gashes.
Things become interesting when Edwige Fenech (playing Oliviero's niece) appears; she is billed first yet her first appearance is only in the beginning of the second act. I should mention that the lead also has a wife and naturally his behavior is the worst towards her; well, when wife and niece team up, things change. That includes the tenor of the story, which becomes more Hitchcockian and also something straight out of Poe... speaking of that, this was inspired by his tale The Black Cat, which is why Vice has a black cat present.
Come to think of it, “interesting” is probably stating things lightly; this movie takes quite the turn in the back half and the sleaze that is present throughout becomes even stronger. There are twists and turns that happen and what a delicious, intoxicating ending they came up with-I mean, it put the bow on things. It was nice seeing this film with plenty of genre veterans in front of the camera (Fenech, Luigi Pistilli, Ivan Rassimov, and Anita Stridberg) and behind it (director Sergio Martino, composer Bruno Nicolai); while it is different from the norm and not a pure giallo like Don't Torture a Duckling or What Have You Done to Solange?, if you like those films then you might like this one despite or maybe because of its differences.
Runtime: 96 minutes
Directed by: Sergio Martino
Starring: Luigi Pistillo, Anita Strindberg, Edwige Fenech, Ivan Rassimov, Franco Nebbia
From: Lea Film
This was a fun way to close out 2018... Happy New Year, everyone:
In some ways, the black cat in this film being named Satan is appropriate.
As I mentioned in my last review (over a week ago) I was on vacation in Kansas to see part of my immediate family, which has become a yearly tradition now. Unlike the past few years, I did not have the time to watch any motion pictures. At random I made this giallo my first one back... OK, maybe not so much at random-I did realize I hadn't seen anything from this genre in a while and for years I've known of the title as one of the best in giallo... and that field has a plethora of unforgettable names.
Oliviero is a successful professor and writer who lives in a fancy mansion, but that building is from his late mother and he definitely has mommy issues-yet those aren't his only problems. He is a real A-hole who says and does some pretty awful things... so, modern day Louis CK, basically. Anyhow, some women who are linked to him suddenly start dying at the hands of a mysterious killer who wears black gloves and his weapon of choice is a sickle. That is all standard stuff for the genre, including wondering who the killer is and if the lead male is the slasher or he is being set up, and of course the bloody kills where people die from deep gashes.
Things become interesting when Edwige Fenech (playing Oliviero's niece) appears; she is billed first yet her first appearance is only in the beginning of the second act. I should mention that the lead also has a wife and naturally his behavior is the worst towards her; well, when wife and niece team up, things change. That includes the tenor of the story, which becomes more Hitchcockian and also something straight out of Poe... speaking of that, this was inspired by his tale The Black Cat, which is why Vice has a black cat present.
Come to think of it, “interesting” is probably stating things lightly; this movie takes quite the turn in the back half and the sleaze that is present throughout becomes even stronger. There are twists and turns that happen and what a delicious, intoxicating ending they came up with-I mean, it put the bow on things. It was nice seeing this film with plenty of genre veterans in front of the camera (Fenech, Luigi Pistilli, Ivan Rassimov, and Anita Stridberg) and behind it (director Sergio Martino, composer Bruno Nicolai); while it is different from the norm and not a pure giallo like Don't Torture a Duckling or What Have You Done to Solange?, if you like those films then you might like this one despite or maybe because of its differences.
Friday, December 28, 2018
The Movie Known In Some Circles As Dial Code Santa Claus
Game Over (I'll go with the IMDb title; the original French title is 36.15 Code Pere Noel) (1989)
Runtime: 87 minutes
Directed by: Rene Manzor
Starring: Brigitte Fossey, Louis Ducreux, Patrick Floersheim, Alain Lalanne, Francois-Eric Gendron
From: Several French companies
For shame in me not posting this before Christmas, as I saw the movie a week and a half ago!
I am striking while the iron's hot. Considering the trailer for this French film (under the title Dial Code Santa Claus & presented by the American Genre Film Archive, who are showing it on the big screen in several locations this month, but of course none of them are close to Florida) went viral yesterday and even ended up on Entertainment Weekly's website, I might as well jerry-rig a method where I watch a poor quality version of the film w/ English subtitles that don't always match up to the picture (don't ask for details...) so I could see a movie I have known about for years yet haven't watched until last night.
After all, once you hear the plot description you'll realize why I never forgot about the film. A 10 year old rich kid named Tommy lives in a mansion with his single mother and diabetic, nearly blind grandfather. Tommy loves RAMBO, to the point that he not only does a combined working out and suiting up montage to some weird French Christmas song that sounds a lot like Eye of the Tiger, but even does his own wargames simulation where he pretends he is the Stallone character. If that doesn't sound great enough, via Minitel he communicates with a vagrant that pretends to be Santa Claus...
Actually, I better explain what Minitel is as not even I was too familiar with it until relatively recently. From the 80's all the way to 2012, the French gave everyone terminals that via the telephone line hooked up to various services... phone directories, online stores, train reservations, stock prices, and even the early forms of e-mail and chatrooms. This was done in part to help greatly improve what was a terrible telephone network. The reason why the original French title was 36.15 Code Pere Noel was that 36.11 and up was the prefixes used with Minitel... you'd type in some word after the prefix and in this case, Pere Noel brought you to a site where children could communicate with Santa. Now, I have no idea how Tommy and a vagrant on a public Minitel machine were able to communicate with each other or how this vagrant was able to communicate as Santa from his position, but either the movie was sloppy (and Lord is it ever clumsy at times) or I'll just chalk it up to me not fully understanding how Minitel works. But in either case, Minitel is pretty awesome as it was ahead of its time and only the French ever used such a system on a widespread scale.
Anyway, that communication allowed for this bum to know where Tommy lived and he invades, dressed as Santa. Tommy is starting to not believe in Santa, so he decides to stay up and via cameras connected to his fancy wrist computer, hopes to spot Jolly Saint Nick. Note that Tommy even knows what “decoupling” means and how to perform such a task. Well, “Santa” shows up, kills Tommy's dog, and Tommy decides to try and kill Santa! Naturally, Home Alone comparisons have been made, and funny that this was released before Home Alone... but of course this is far more serious than the film series with Kevin McCallister. Tommy even uses fire and makeshift bombs on fake Saint Nick! That is quite the feat for a child... but most children don't have EPIC MULLETS like our protagonist does here.
As previously mentioned, the movie at times is rather clumsy and that definitely could have been done better. Yet this film (whether you want to call it by its original French title or one of its seemingly half a dozen or so English titles) is so loony, so out there and so dark that even seeing this at home by myself was a fun experience-I can only imagine what a theatrical screening with a rowdy crowd would be like. To add to the insanity, the protagonist (Alain Lalanne) is the director's son and Mr. Lalanne has gone on to contribute to the visual effects on such films as Gravity, The Dark Knight and Avatar... so maybe our mulleted hero was a techno whiz when he was a kid in real life.
Runtime: 87 minutes
Directed by: Rene Manzor
Starring: Brigitte Fossey, Louis Ducreux, Patrick Floersheim, Alain Lalanne, Francois-Eric Gendron
From: Several French companies
For shame in me not posting this before Christmas, as I saw the movie a week and a half ago!
I am striking while the iron's hot. Considering the trailer for this French film (under the title Dial Code Santa Claus & presented by the American Genre Film Archive, who are showing it on the big screen in several locations this month, but of course none of them are close to Florida) went viral yesterday and even ended up on Entertainment Weekly's website, I might as well jerry-rig a method where I watch a poor quality version of the film w/ English subtitles that don't always match up to the picture (don't ask for details...) so I could see a movie I have known about for years yet haven't watched until last night.
After all, once you hear the plot description you'll realize why I never forgot about the film. A 10 year old rich kid named Tommy lives in a mansion with his single mother and diabetic, nearly blind grandfather. Tommy loves RAMBO, to the point that he not only does a combined working out and suiting up montage to some weird French Christmas song that sounds a lot like Eye of the Tiger, but even does his own wargames simulation where he pretends he is the Stallone character. If that doesn't sound great enough, via Minitel he communicates with a vagrant that pretends to be Santa Claus...
Actually, I better explain what Minitel is as not even I was too familiar with it until relatively recently. From the 80's all the way to 2012, the French gave everyone terminals that via the telephone line hooked up to various services... phone directories, online stores, train reservations, stock prices, and even the early forms of e-mail and chatrooms. This was done in part to help greatly improve what was a terrible telephone network. The reason why the original French title was 36.15 Code Pere Noel was that 36.11 and up was the prefixes used with Minitel... you'd type in some word after the prefix and in this case, Pere Noel brought you to a site where children could communicate with Santa. Now, I have no idea how Tommy and a vagrant on a public Minitel machine were able to communicate with each other or how this vagrant was able to communicate as Santa from his position, but either the movie was sloppy (and Lord is it ever clumsy at times) or I'll just chalk it up to me not fully understanding how Minitel works. But in either case, Minitel is pretty awesome as it was ahead of its time and only the French ever used such a system on a widespread scale.
Anyway, that communication allowed for this bum to know where Tommy lived and he invades, dressed as Santa. Tommy is starting to not believe in Santa, so he decides to stay up and via cameras connected to his fancy wrist computer, hopes to spot Jolly Saint Nick. Note that Tommy even knows what “decoupling” means and how to perform such a task. Well, “Santa” shows up, kills Tommy's dog, and Tommy decides to try and kill Santa! Naturally, Home Alone comparisons have been made, and funny that this was released before Home Alone... but of course this is far more serious than the film series with Kevin McCallister. Tommy even uses fire and makeshift bombs on fake Saint Nick! That is quite the feat for a child... but most children don't have EPIC MULLETS like our protagonist does here.
As previously mentioned, the movie at times is rather clumsy and that definitely could have been done better. Yet this film (whether you want to call it by its original French title or one of its seemingly half a dozen or so English titles) is so loony, so out there and so dark that even seeing this at home by myself was a fun experience-I can only imagine what a theatrical screening with a rowdy crowd would be like. To add to the insanity, the protagonist (Alain Lalanne) is the director's son and Mr. Lalanne has gone on to contribute to the visual effects on such films as Gravity, The Dark Knight and Avatar... so maybe our mulleted hero was a techno whiz when he was a kid in real life.
The Night Comes For Us
The Night Comes for Us (2018)
Runtime: 120 minutes
Directed by: Timo Tjahjanto
Starring: Several people who were in films like The Raid series
From: Several Indonesian companies, plus Netflix
Whoops, I did not post this when I wanted to, which was before I left for Kansas... I am still in Kansas now.
Safety starts with me.
As has become a tradition now, starting on Sunday I'll be out of town for about a week as I will be halfway across the country at the house of a sibling; I have things to do until then and with any luck I'll see some sort of film there new to me but if not... who knows when I will return. That out of the way, for the past few months I have heard plenty concerning this film. Despite the rave reviews and having seen several other productions involving the key players, I kept on putting off seeing this, until I finally pulled the trigger... or in this case, fired off countless rounds of ammunition from a semi-automatic weapon.
The plot is not what you'd call original: an enforcer for the Triad (Ito) decides not to kill a little girl in what was supposed to be a massacre of an entire village, and the Triad sends various assassins to try and kill Ito. At least he has some pals to assist him against the onslaught of thugs, such as a bearded dude only known as White Boy Bobby. To be frank, I could nitpick various aspects of the story and for sure, the film is WAY over the top when it comes to the action and how much bloodletting there is. For some it could be too much and in fact it almost became too much for me due to the filmmakers trying too hard. Yet it never reached that point for me of being too much.
Of course all that most people will care about while watching this is the action and violence; when several people from The Raid franchise are involved with this, expectations should be high. While I don't love the film overall like I do The Raid: Redemption, the action beats you get here are all tremendous, as many dudes (along with some women) just get wrecked... dozens of limbs are broken, gallons of blood are spilled, all sorts of makeshift weapons are used, and all of it is shot in a clear manner and sometimes stylishly so.
In addition, the musical score is interesting: always electronic and sometimes sounding like synthwave, but at times there is what sounds like Gregorian monks chanting. For those that love movies involving the likes of Iko Uwais, Julie Estelle, and Joe Taslim (and for the first time Uwais and Taslim face off on screen in an OOT battle) and/or you love ultraviolent action movies, this is a must-see and it is easy for many to see due to it usually being featured when you log onto Netflix.
Runtime: 120 minutes
Directed by: Timo Tjahjanto
Starring: Several people who were in films like The Raid series
From: Several Indonesian companies, plus Netflix
Whoops, I did not post this when I wanted to, which was before I left for Kansas... I am still in Kansas now.
Safety starts with me.
As has become a tradition now, starting on Sunday I'll be out of town for about a week as I will be halfway across the country at the house of a sibling; I have things to do until then and with any luck I'll see some sort of film there new to me but if not... who knows when I will return. That out of the way, for the past few months I have heard plenty concerning this film. Despite the rave reviews and having seen several other productions involving the key players, I kept on putting off seeing this, until I finally pulled the trigger... or in this case, fired off countless rounds of ammunition from a semi-automatic weapon.
The plot is not what you'd call original: an enforcer for the Triad (Ito) decides not to kill a little girl in what was supposed to be a massacre of an entire village, and the Triad sends various assassins to try and kill Ito. At least he has some pals to assist him against the onslaught of thugs, such as a bearded dude only known as White Boy Bobby. To be frank, I could nitpick various aspects of the story and for sure, the film is WAY over the top when it comes to the action and how much bloodletting there is. For some it could be too much and in fact it almost became too much for me due to the filmmakers trying too hard. Yet it never reached that point for me of being too much.
Of course all that most people will care about while watching this is the action and violence; when several people from The Raid franchise are involved with this, expectations should be high. While I don't love the film overall like I do The Raid: Redemption, the action beats you get here are all tremendous, as many dudes (along with some women) just get wrecked... dozens of limbs are broken, gallons of blood are spilled, all sorts of makeshift weapons are used, and all of it is shot in a clear manner and sometimes stylishly so.
In addition, the musical score is interesting: always electronic and sometimes sounding like synthwave, but at times there is what sounds like Gregorian monks chanting. For those that love movies involving the likes of Iko Uwais, Julie Estelle, and Joe Taslim (and for the first time Uwais and Taslim face off on screen in an OOT battle) and/or you love ultraviolent action movies, this is a must-see and it is easy for many to see due to it usually being featured when you log onto Netflix.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Santa Claus Conquers The Martians
Runtime: 81 long minutes
Directed by: Nicholas
Webster
Starring: A bunch of
random people, plus kid Pia Zadora
From: Jalor Productions
You know, Voldar made some good points...
I had seen this movie before, and not just on MST3K. I might as well give this pile of crap a proper review here even though many have seen it via MST3K and/or its offshoots, or at least know the general plot. I have no idea if the kids of the 60's actually enjoyed this or not, but as an adult in almost 2019... Martians is pretty painful.
The children of Mars now get television signals from Earth and it's rotting their minds; complaints about TV or smartphones doing that now... it's not a new phenomenon. The head Martian (“cleverly named Kimar, as in “King Martian”; some other characters have the same naming scheme) decides to kidnap Jolly Old Saint Nick and before you can say “Hooray for Santy Claus”, both him and two bad child actors... I mean “Earth children” are in a spaceship and they get their asses to Mars. Santa does not conquer anything but perhaps I am thinking too hard about that.
It seems like shooting fish in a barrel to nitpick how so many things here make zero sense due to the target demographic they obviously were going for... but this story does not really hold up to any kind of scrutinizing. I can be more forgiving of how incredibly cheap everything looked due to what had to be a minuscule budget; that includes the giant robot known as Togo, which (to borrow a phrase from a mutual) might as well have been named Torgo. The character of Dropo being way over the top in being obnoxious and acting like he has some sort of mental handicap, that is unforgivable to me.
The aforementioned Voldar-who is the villain of the film-had quite the look of a giant mustache to go along with the silly green outfit and green paint covering all of his skin. This last viewing, I realized he had some good points, although the film did not want his opinion to be seen as valid. But they were, whether it was talking about the Martians becoming soft or not wanting to bring the Earth kids along because they would F things up... Of course Voldar doesn't help his cause in the final act when he and his minions do something really stupid but even then I realize this bad guy was pretty entertaining between his look and his eternal grumpiness.
However, if you ever wanted to see a motion picture where Santa is rather naive and acts like he adds rum to his eggnog...
I had seen this movie before, and not just on MST3K. I might as well give this pile of crap a proper review here even though many have seen it via MST3K and/or its offshoots, or at least know the general plot. I have no idea if the kids of the 60's actually enjoyed this or not, but as an adult in almost 2019... Martians is pretty painful.
The children of Mars now get television signals from Earth and it's rotting their minds; complaints about TV or smartphones doing that now... it's not a new phenomenon. The head Martian (“cleverly named Kimar, as in “King Martian”; some other characters have the same naming scheme) decides to kidnap Jolly Old Saint Nick and before you can say “Hooray for Santy Claus”, both him and two bad child actors... I mean “Earth children” are in a spaceship and they get their asses to Mars. Santa does not conquer anything but perhaps I am thinking too hard about that.
It seems like shooting fish in a barrel to nitpick how so many things here make zero sense due to the target demographic they obviously were going for... but this story does not really hold up to any kind of scrutinizing. I can be more forgiving of how incredibly cheap everything looked due to what had to be a minuscule budget; that includes the giant robot known as Togo, which (to borrow a phrase from a mutual) might as well have been named Torgo. The character of Dropo being way over the top in being obnoxious and acting like he has some sort of mental handicap, that is unforgivable to me.
The aforementioned Voldar-who is the villain of the film-had quite the look of a giant mustache to go along with the silly green outfit and green paint covering all of his skin. This last viewing, I realized he had some good points, although the film did not want his opinion to be seen as valid. But they were, whether it was talking about the Martians becoming soft or not wanting to bring the Earth kids along because they would F things up... Of course Voldar doesn't help his cause in the final act when he and his minions do something really stupid but even then I realize this bad guy was pretty entertaining between his look and his eternal grumpiness.
However, if you ever wanted to see a motion picture where Santa is rather naive and acts like he adds rum to his eggnog...
Monday, December 17, 2018
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion De Jeanne d'Arc) (1928)
I now see why so many film fans are passionate about this late-era silent.
This played last night on Turner Classic Movies and I realized it was about time I finally sat down & partook in what is now recognized as a legendary film and not just a great silent but among the best motion pictures ever made.
The plot is not overly complicated: Joan of Arc is on trial for heresy (and most of the judges have funny haircuts) due to her claim that she was told by God to drive the English from France during the Hundred Years' War. Those that know of her life will know the result of that trial and her ultimate fate. Yet it was how director Carl Theodor Dreyer directed this that plays a big part in making this memorable. Much of the first 2/3rds or so is shot really close to the actors' faces, to the point you aren't too sure of the setting the actors are in. Besides the standard zoom in and outs, many flashy moves are done, which I won't dare spoil for those that have not experienced this before. It's not over the top to the point of being distracting or an irritant; it proved to be perfect for the film.
Of course the highlight of the movie is the performance of Falconetti (I've seen her billed as a few different names so I'll just go with her surname), which in modern times has been said to be historically great. Indeed it is tremendous. Without the ability to hear her speak, she still conveys everything with aplomb, letting her face and gestures say it all, including frequent bouts of crying. I now know there are differing accounts of whether or not Dreyer abused her to achieve that performance; I can just hope that was not the case.
All the hype I heard about this film was correct; it is a must-see for all serious film fans.
Runtime: 82 minutes
Directed by: Carl Theodor
Dreyer
Starring: Renee Maria
Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, Andre Berley, Maurice Schultz, Antonin
Artaud
From: Societae Generale
Des Films
I now see why so many film fans are passionate about this late-era silent.
This played last night on Turner Classic Movies and I realized it was about time I finally sat down & partook in what is now recognized as a legendary film and not just a great silent but among the best motion pictures ever made.
The plot is not overly complicated: Joan of Arc is on trial for heresy (and most of the judges have funny haircuts) due to her claim that she was told by God to drive the English from France during the Hundred Years' War. Those that know of her life will know the result of that trial and her ultimate fate. Yet it was how director Carl Theodor Dreyer directed this that plays a big part in making this memorable. Much of the first 2/3rds or so is shot really close to the actors' faces, to the point you aren't too sure of the setting the actors are in. Besides the standard zoom in and outs, many flashy moves are done, which I won't dare spoil for those that have not experienced this before. It's not over the top to the point of being distracting or an irritant; it proved to be perfect for the film.
Of course the highlight of the movie is the performance of Falconetti (I've seen her billed as a few different names so I'll just go with her surname), which in modern times has been said to be historically great. Indeed it is tremendous. Without the ability to hear her speak, she still conveys everything with aplomb, letting her face and gestures say it all, including frequent bouts of crying. I now know there are differing accounts of whether or not Dreyer abused her to achieve that performance; I can just hope that was not the case.
All the hype I heard about this film was correct; it is a must-see for all serious film fans.
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Thank God It's Friday
Thank God It's Friday (1978)
Runtime: 89 minutes
Directed by: Robert Klane
Starring: Such hot acts as Donna Summer & The Commodores, along with Jeff Goldblum, Debra Winger, the guy who would later become legally known as Otis Day, Ray Vitte and Terri Nunn
From: Both Motown and Casablanca
The past few days I've either revisited old films or not watched anything at all. However, Friday night I saw this infamous disco extravaganza:
This played (Friday) night on TCM Underground and it seemed like something I could at least laugh with (or if it was bad, laugh AT) so why not see this relic of an era long since passed? Disco music only was popular for a few years but wow was it ever white-hot in popularity. Thank God this film was not a chore to sit through.
To borrow a phrase, this is a “One Crazy Night” sort of story where the entire film spans only a few hour time period. Plus, a wide variety of different characters are followed throughout the film and much of the action is in the fictional The Zoo nightclub in Los Angeles, which was actually the real life club Osko's, but that was demolished many years ago. Naturally most of those characters are one-dimensional (examples include the wet blanket who is only there because his wife decides at the last minute to try out the hip new place, the two underage girls who try sneaking in, the sleazy club owner... played by Jeff Goldblum! There's also two girls who enter the dance contest as the prize is KISS tickets, some guys looking for chicks, etc.) and the movie is slight (a big deal is if the equipment van carrying the musical instruments for The Commodores will make it there in time) but at least it is fast-paced and never boring. A guy who calls himself THE LEATHERMAN (due to his outfit) teaches a schlub how to dance so he can get the girls... the movie is not mean-spirited, in other words.
Naturally, how you feel about this will depend on how you feel about disco music in general. I'll just say that I don't hate it and if you love that genre, the soundtrack will be epic greatness. Songs that don't even make the official soundtrack album release include Giorgio Moroder's From Here to Eternity, Alec R. Costadinos' Romeo & Juliet, The Commodores' Brick House, and two songs from The Village People. The other songs are from various popular genre acts and of course the most popular ditty from this flick was Last Dance from Donna Summer, which won a Golden Globe & Oscar, not to mention it was one of her most popular songs and will forever be one of the best and well-known disco anthems. Of course I loved the late 70's clothing, the décor of The Zoo, Donna Summer having a role as an aspiring singer, and the aforementioned Commodores-including Lionel Richie, who was still in the band at the time-and all the other elements that were mostly dated just a few years after this came out.
I even have to give this film credit for including some bits that were the less-heralded parts of the disco craze. Gay men were a big part of the scene, and the movie had a trans* character, a biologically male character who dressed as a female. That could have been grossly offensive by 2018 standards but thankfully wasn't. Sure there was a gag where she shaved with an electric razor and a guy sees her from behind and makes a flirty comment before she turns around but that character was not cringeworthy. Plus, drug use was shown and of course people needed to take speed or rip off a fat white line if they want to dance to 10 or 15 minute long 12 inch singles. The honesty in this fluffy cash grab was appreciated by me.
Runtime: 89 minutes
Directed by: Robert Klane
Starring: Such hot acts as Donna Summer & The Commodores, along with Jeff Goldblum, Debra Winger, the guy who would later become legally known as Otis Day, Ray Vitte and Terri Nunn
From: Both Motown and Casablanca
The past few days I've either revisited old films or not watched anything at all. However, Friday night I saw this infamous disco extravaganza:
This played (Friday) night on TCM Underground and it seemed like something I could at least laugh with (or if it was bad, laugh AT) so why not see this relic of an era long since passed? Disco music only was popular for a few years but wow was it ever white-hot in popularity. Thank God this film was not a chore to sit through.
To borrow a phrase, this is a “One Crazy Night” sort of story where the entire film spans only a few hour time period. Plus, a wide variety of different characters are followed throughout the film and much of the action is in the fictional The Zoo nightclub in Los Angeles, which was actually the real life club Osko's, but that was demolished many years ago. Naturally most of those characters are one-dimensional (examples include the wet blanket who is only there because his wife decides at the last minute to try out the hip new place, the two underage girls who try sneaking in, the sleazy club owner... played by Jeff Goldblum! There's also two girls who enter the dance contest as the prize is KISS tickets, some guys looking for chicks, etc.) and the movie is slight (a big deal is if the equipment van carrying the musical instruments for The Commodores will make it there in time) but at least it is fast-paced and never boring. A guy who calls himself THE LEATHERMAN (due to his outfit) teaches a schlub how to dance so he can get the girls... the movie is not mean-spirited, in other words.
Naturally, how you feel about this will depend on how you feel about disco music in general. I'll just say that I don't hate it and if you love that genre, the soundtrack will be epic greatness. Songs that don't even make the official soundtrack album release include Giorgio Moroder's From Here to Eternity, Alec R. Costadinos' Romeo & Juliet, The Commodores' Brick House, and two songs from The Village People. The other songs are from various popular genre acts and of course the most popular ditty from this flick was Last Dance from Donna Summer, which won a Golden Globe & Oscar, not to mention it was one of her most popular songs and will forever be one of the best and well-known disco anthems. Of course I loved the late 70's clothing, the décor of The Zoo, Donna Summer having a role as an aspiring singer, and the aforementioned Commodores-including Lionel Richie, who was still in the band at the time-and all the other elements that were mostly dated just a few years after this came out.
I even have to give this film credit for including some bits that were the less-heralded parts of the disco craze. Gay men were a big part of the scene, and the movie had a trans* character, a biologically male character who dressed as a female. That could have been grossly offensive by 2018 standards but thankfully wasn't. Sure there was a gag where she shaved with an electric razor and a guy sees her from behind and makes a flirty comment before she turns around but that character was not cringeworthy. Plus, drug use was shown and of course people needed to take speed or rip off a fat white line if they want to dance to 10 or 15 minute long 12 inch singles. The honesty in this fluffy cash grab was appreciated by me.
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