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ragsthetiger
Reviews
Siouxsie and the Banshees: Nocturne (1983)
One of the best concert videos ever, now available on DVD
Recorded at Royal Albert Hall in London over two nights in 1983, this concert video is a must for Goth fans, or anyone else who loved the "alternative" music scene in the 1980s. Siouxsie is at her charismatic best, in excellent voice and full Goth regalia, spinning, prancing, and capturing the crowd with inspired performances of some of the best of the band's early 80's material, including Israel, Cascade, Melt, Pulled To Bits, and the Beatles' cover Helter Skelter. As an added bonus, this was filmed during the tenure of one Robert Smith as the Banshee's guitarist--you may remember him from another band known as The Cure. Concert videos don't get any better than this. Now if someone would only get around to releasing The Cure's Live at Orange video on DVD...
Bell Book and Candle (1958)
Kim Novak bewitches Jimmy Stewart, and the viewer as well...
The John Van Druten Broadway hit is brought to the screen with a maximum of star power in this romantic fantasy about a modern-day witch who beguiles a successful Manhattan publisher. James Stewart may get top billing, but it is Kim Novak who steals the show as one of the most alluring witches ever to cast a spell on the movie screen. The lead pairing is, in fact, one of the movie's few weaknesses: the gray-haired Stewart seems a bit old for the role, and while it is easy to see why he falls hard for Novak, it's a little harder to understand what she finds attractive about him, as they seem mismatched in temperment and outlook. (It is one of the story's amusing conceits that witches and warlocks are portrayed as Greenwich Village beatniks and bohemians.) Curiously, the Stewart-Novak pairing would generate a lot more heat in "Vertigo", released the same year as this film, but then "Vertigo" had a compelling suspense story, and the benefit of Alfred Hitchcock's direction.
The film's comic moments are mostly provided by the stellar supporting cast, including a young Jack Lemmon (as Kim's warlock brother), Elsa Lanchester (their ditzy aunt), and Ernie Kovacs (!) as a befuddled writer. Hermione Gingold even shows up in a hilarious cameo as a sort of Grand Witch. There's lots to like in this movie--wit, romance, and a great cast--that is, if you can possibly take your eyes off the enchanting Miss Novak. I have seen the movie a half a dozen times, and I never can.