Reviews

Bergman's The Virgin Spring gets a makeover for the 70's, both in hairstyles and explicit content. The result is this raw and unapologetic slice of cinema nastiness. The Last House on the Left has always been more of a black comedy at heart than a Horror film. With brilliant tongue-in-cheek humour running through it; underlined with David Hess' melodic songs and sarcastic use of nature shots. A pair of teenage girls are trying to score weed but are captured by Krug (David Hess) and his Manson type family who torture, rape and eventually kill them in the forest. After leaving the girls for dead they move on and only by accident end up at one of the girl's parent's house. Sadie (Jeramie Rain) is an iconic Horror chick, defying all cliché (she is neither a manipulated victim nor cold femme fatale) She's is just one of the boys. People often complain about the slapstick subplot with the two cops; as a pointless comic relief that only interrupts the real happenings. And that is the point; the silly humour only deepens the sadistic edge to the violent scenes of rape and murder we have just witnessed. (It also reminds me about the two Cops gag in Edgar G. Ulmer's Horror classic The Black Cat.) This might just be Wes Craven's finest film and I re-watch it at least once a year. The 2009 remake is absolutely terrible and has none of the charm the original has to offer. The same goes for all the other copycats over the years.

Calif (John Furlong) is released from prison and on his way to California (the place he was named after), but his way leads him to a small town called Spooner; where he starts to work on a farm and falls for the lady of the house, Hannah Brenshaw. Hannah is married to a brute named Sidney (Hal Hopper). Sidney constantly cheats on her, beats her and even rapes his wife when she denies him, yet she seams to forgive him or at least tolerate his actions. The film features many bizarre and wonderful Russ Meyer characters, including a beautiful deaf girl with her kitten, A crazy priest (played by Meyer regular Frank Bolger) and last but not least the unforgettably and ever so nutty Princess Livingston (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls) as Maggie Marie; I love that crazy old lady. A truly funny and sexy slice of cinema and essential Russ Meyer film.

One of my favourite Sci-Fi films of the 90's. I first saw Dark City during it's original theatrical release 20 years ago and I still love it today. Despite it's flaws, Dark City has just the right amount of Noir elements, Paranoia and weirdness. Kieffer Sutherland is at his best playing either villains or creeps (Freeway, A Time to Kill, Eye for an Eye) and his unhinged performance in Dark City is no exception. The photography, FX and look of the city still look stunning. A smart and eerie film that stands the test of time.

John Cassavetes vastly improvised and groundbreaking directorial debut still feels amazingly fresh today. Underlined with a fantastic Jazz score by Charles Mingus and saxophonist Shafi Hadi; Shadows takes you into the live of three siblings living in late 50's New York City. Exploring love, interracial relationships, the struggle to stay true as an artist and the aimlessness and alienation of youth. A milestone in American independent cinema.

It's the day of the first public meeting between Hitler and Mussolini, and all of Italy is out on the streets to witness this historic event, well almost everybody. Antonietta (Sophia Loren) a proud fascist and mother of six children is stuck at home with her daily chores and her monotonous role as a house-wife. Also not attending is the gentle Gabriele (Marcello Mastroianni) who lost his job as a radio announcer due to his homosexuality and anti-fascist stand. A chance meeting brings the two together for the duration of this one afternoon. To the sound of the Horst-Wessel Song and fascist speeches coming from the radio, the two form a special bond and finally give themselves over to each other, body and soul. A truly touching and wonderful film, so beautiful in it's simplicity with great acting and wonderful photography.

Gena Rowlands plays the role of Myrtle Gordon, a Broadway actress who rehearses for the part of "The Second Woman", a play about an aging woman, witnessing the death of a young fan makes her realize her own vulnerability. She is more and more left alone in trying to find herself in a role that does not make sense to her.

The director and her co-star often come over more patronizing than sympathetic towards Myrtle; and any compassion they do show towards her is more in sake of the play; which after having worked in theatre for years I can well understand; the play has to come first and no matter what happens "The Show must go on". However this does not justify the cruelty and lack of understanding. I'd even go as far as to suggest, that both the Director (Ben Gazzara) and her co-star Maurice (Cassavetes) initially take pleasure in setting her up as a victim and become harsher towards her as the story progresses. In a way every character is only playing a role and the play that is "Myrtle's break down". The catastrophe for an actor or actress is to be completely absorbed and transform into the character he or she plays and the death of the girl triggers something that vanishes the border between reality and acting (which is why she didn't want to be slapped on stage. The pain and the humiliation are real, even if the hand didn't strike her)

Myrtle also cannot accept that she has aged and that her career will be more limited if the audience accepts her in the part of an older woman. Myrtle beautifully explains the play's message being about the "gradual lessening of my powers as woman as I mature" the reality is that there is nothing gradual about this transformation, it hit Myrtle as hard an unexpected as the car that killed the girl. Myrtle is being told twice early on in the film that she is not a woman, first by Maurice when he tells her "You're not a woman, you are a professional" and only moments later Gazzara echoes this sentiment to her over the phone. It is not age alone that takes away her femininity, but those men in her life who lesson her powers (especially since both played a part in her personal life and know her weaknesses). Sara the author of the play is even worse when she implies that her time has passed and later in the dressing booth continues to patronize her and assaults her with underlined cruelty and lines such as 'It made me realize that you are not completely stupid'. Rarely have I despised a character as much as I did that old crone of a writer at first; but was surprised by her later on when she understood that there was something with the dead girl.

Myrtle continues to lose the ground under her feet and seeks refuge in the dead girl who becomes her alter ego and eventually turns against her. The only characters who seem to understand and show true compassion towards Myrtle are Wardrobe Lady Kelly and partially the Producer.

Rowlands is truly explosive (as always). There are those moments of pure tenderness in a kiss or an embrace that only Cassavetes can do so well, but I still think that "Opening Night" is in many ways one of his harshest films.

Love Streams follows middle-aged writer Robert (John Cassavetes) and his sister Sarah (Gena Rowlands), a recently divorced mother with a history of depressions, who together with her daughter Debbie visits ill and dying people. Sarah soon loses her daughter who decides she'd rather stay with her father. Hurt by this event Sarah has to take her trip alone.

Robert lives with a bunch of weird girls in a Playboy mansion style situation, roaming bars in search for subjects to write about. Among the colourful cast of characters he encounters he meets Susan, a black lounge singer with a wonderful voice who he seems to instantly fall for (just before literally falling down the set of stairs to her apartment). Despite his obvious interest in her he struggles and fails to make an emotional connection and things become more complicated for him when an ex of his brings over his son who he hasn't seen since the day he was born.

Just as the kid almost settled in with Robert, Sarah shows up at his place unannounced and the siblings are finally united on screen (followed by one of the most beautiful and tender embraces I have seen in a movie) and the emotional roller-coaster really kicks off.

Both Cassavetes and Rowland are at their best, and all of their scenes together are simply exhilarating. The film is filled with raw emotions, playful moments and surreal dreams and nearly tore me apart in ways I never expected. It's also one of Cassavetes most beautifully shot films (proving that he is not only capable to draw the interior of the soul but also has a painter's eye for the exterior world) "Love Streams" has a way of breaking the fourth wall without directly doing so. Many of the questions Robert poses to the girl he interviews early on could have easily been directed at the audience, same with Sara's psychiatric session. The most fantastic instance of this however is the ending, which has to be one of the most wonderful scenes I have ever seen.

Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody) a young and ambitious couple of scientists (a punkier version of Marie and Pierre Curie) make a great team, both in private life and in their professional field of gene splicing. The duo has been contracted by a pharmaceutical cooperation to develop a new amorphous Hybrid species spliced from numerous genes of several animals. When Elsa proposes to take the experiments to the next level and to use Human DNA, the company, afraid to be maligned by the press quickly pulls the plug. However Elsa won't give up this easily, and they continue their experiment in secrecy, splicing compatible human and animal DNA under the agreement, that their new species should never reach full term. Their experimental species hatches faster than expected; the result is a two-legged mouse-like creature, which seems to be suffering from rapid aging. Due to Elsa's sympathy for the creature (or perhaps just for the scientific glory) she convinces Clive to let it live, assuming that it will be dead soon. Within a few days the new species, now called Dren develops into an almost human looking little girl (apart from a tail with a stinger and the lack body hair). The couple continues to observe it and start dressing it in human clothing while Elsa becomes more and more like a mother to Dren. When Dren becomes too big they hide her at Elsa's old family farm and things start to turn ugly for everyone. Vincenzo Natali's "Splice" goes further than merely exploiting the cloning scare (which anyways died down a lot during the last decade) but rather works as a metaphor against child abuse and the unethical treatment of living beings. As soon as Dren matures into a more curvy being (Delphine Chanéac) Clive begins to sexually lust after her. Elsa fails to see the signs, instead she becomes jealous that Dren might like Clive more than her and slowly changes her motherly tone, starting to emotionally abuse her while keeping her imprisoned in the old run down farm. Elsa and Clive might not necessarily be bad people, but it's obvious, that they were not meant to be parents, and both are incapable of raising a child (especially one with special needs like Dren). Dren has to adapt to her environment, undergoing both a mental and evolutionary change in order to survive, leading to a shocking finale. Polley is excellent (A rare case where the female "Hero" is actually more menacing than "the monster"). The standout performance however comes from Delphine Chanéac, despite not having any lines (I loved the fact that Dren does not speak) and being hidden behind make-up and partial CGI. She conveys Dren's emotions wonderfully and makes her character compelling and interesting. The film is not without it's flaws; the ending seemed a bit rushed (They could have easily added another 20 minutes to build into the finale and allow it to breath easier) The Photography for most part is nothing to write home about - I have expressed my dislike for this cold green look already in the past. It is overused and ugly aesthetically, yet this glossy hospital look actually works better here (since many earlier scenes take place in a lab) and Natali does give us an occasional flavour of colour (mainly red - such as Polley's jacket and red couch pillows placed in the background). One of the better new Horror/ Sci-Fi films I have seen in quite a while, Natali's direction is strong and the script is in equal measures disturbing and a darkly funny. Also how can I not like a film that features two creatures named "Ginger and Fred"?

"In the beginning was the breast." -Marilyn Yalom. For the nine year old Teté (Biel Durán) breasts mean milk and milk means love. As his mother's maternal affections and breast milk turn to his newborn baby brother, Teté invokes the moon to bring him a breast of his own in this surreal coming of age comedy by one of Spain's greatest and most controversial auteurs, Bigas Luna.

'The Tit and the Moon' (La teta y la luna) first released in 1994, entered the competition at the 51st Venice International Film Festival. It follows Jamón Jamón and Golden Balls in Luna's 'Iberian passion trilogy' that won him international acclaim; yet remains the least talked about and most underrated film in the trilogy. It's also its warmest and most gentle entry.

In many ways Teté remains merely a spectator in his own story, a voyeur and narrator. His quest for finding his own set of breasts seems doomed from the beginning, Tete is too old to be breast fed and too young to be sexually active.

While this is most certainly the tale of his sexual awakening, Tete desires often to come over as asexual and naive. He seems to make no separation between his mother and other women and merely wants to reclaim his birth-right that has been unfairly robbed off with the arrival of his new brother. Tete loses himself more and more in his own fantasies and lives them out through the characters he spies on, such as flamenco singing teenage heartthrob Miguel (Miguel Poveda) and his friend the body builder Stallone (Genís Sánchez).

When the beautiful French dancer and cabaret artist Estrellita (played by Mathilda May - you might remember her best as the naked space vampire in Tobe Hooper's 'Lifeforce') arrives in town, Tete thinks his spell has worked and his prayers have been answered, but Estrellita seems well guarded by her partner (in life as well as on stage) theHarley Davidson riding elderly biker Maurice (Gérard Darmon) to whom she seems endlessly devoted.

Miguel as well soon begins to obsess over Estrellita and wants to seduce her through his Flamenco singing. While Miguel poses as yet another rival in Tete's life he also acts as a window for Tete to get closer to her.

The film touches on many of Luna's familiar themes such as virility and machismo; one scene shows strong man Stallone crack a walnut with his muscles after a workout session. The film is filled with phallic symbolism and quests of strength and conquering. This is already established in the opening scene when the villagers erect a phallic looking human tower known as castell. This Catalan tradition of building human towers dates back to the 18th century with its origins in a traditional folklore dance from the city of Valls. Tete tries to climb to the top but the tower collapses each time before he makes it to the highest point. Eventually Tete is replaced by another boy who reaches the top and is cheered by the exuberant crowd. I'm hesitant to say that the film touches on the occult or magic, but at the same time I can't help but feel that there is more to the images, themes and rituals on display, whether this is premeditated or comes from a more primal place. Male rivalry is also a central theme, while I already established Tete's envy over his younger brother's constant access to their mother's breasts; throughout the film men envy each other's women, motorcycles, singing abilities and muscles often with an underlined homoerotic desire.

Men, despite their shameless displays of machismo aren't violent gorillas, and most of them get a chance to show their sensitive side. With the exception of Stallone and Tete's father we see almost every male character cry on screen at least once.

Closeted homoerotic desires aside, the men only want one thing, breasts. On the other hand Estrellita (the only three dimensional female character in the film) has far more interesting and kinky desires, such as a fetish for smelly feet (we see her sucking on Maurice's foot before telling him it tastes like Roquefort and later she opens Miguel's boots to sniff his feet) as well as the taste of salty tears (she keeps Maurice's tears in a jar to lick them after sex). She also seems to find it romantic when her man farts for her. Farts and his motorbike don't just make him the object of desire in her eyes and envy of other men, but a star. Miguel and Estrellita's traveling act consists of her dancing ballet around him while he's sitting on his Harley before performing several circus tricks by farting loudly.

Though her grace and dance makes her the true artist on stage, she is merely perceived as a prop while the audience cheers for the man on the motorcycle setting his farts on fire. Her breast is exposed twice during their performance with her tit being treated merely as a punchline to his act.

The symbolism of the female breast has often been shaped by religious, political, and social ideas... whether they may be depicted as sacred object, symbol for life/ fertility or merely as a means of arousal or displayed for comic effect. Luna is certainly not the first to feature breasts or the act of breast-feeding in the movies, but all of these ideas and more are represented beautifully and often ironically in The Tit and the Moon. At the same time, the breast is almost a McGuffin in the film, a holy grail or a catalyst for desire, drama and milk, the magic elixir of life.

Other noteworthy and equally surreal examples of breast feeding in film would be Travis (Malcolm McDowell) being nursed back to health by a breastfeeding nun in Lindsay Anderson's 'O' Lucky Man', and Miss Monde's spiritual resurrection after being breastfed by a female member of the Vienna aktionists in Dusan Makavejev's 'Sweet Movie'.

Luna was no stranger to sex and taboo subjects, ever since he first started making films in the late 70's his work was filled with incest, sado-masochism, pathological obsession, nude bull fights, rape, machismo, meat and bestiality, often using sexual symbolism to mirror Spanish society. In Bambola several characters make liberating or destructive revelations about their own sexuality and desires after being raped. While his cold and equally poetic and horrifying masterpiece Caniche (aka Poodle) revolves around a woman's special relationship with her poodle (who goes down on her frequently) and her half-brother's frustrations of seeing the dog mount the woman he can't have, which he unleashes by mistreating and sodomizing wild dogs he keeps locked in cages before raping his sister in an explosive and bloody climax. The Ages of Lulu, an adaptation of the bestselling novel by Almudena Grandes, again featured incest as well as Bigas Luna would later note "my thing: transvestites and sadism." Much of Luna's work is often under attack for claims of sexism, homophobia and misogyny ('The Tit and the Moon' is no exception), though this would be missing the point entirely.

The Tit and the Moon deals with many similar all-consuming obsessions and sexual frustrations as his earlier films, but we never see characters downward spiral this deep into self-destruction. Compared to early shockers like Caniche and Bilbao - this is Luna light. Nor is it as sexually charged as Jamón Jamón and the Ages of Lulu or as multi-layered and ambitious as his innovative horror film Anguish (perhaps my personal favourite of his). In short, The Tit and the Moon is as "mainstream" as Luna could possibly get without losing his voice. This does not make the film's symbolic images any less powerful (and there is still plenty here for the easily offended to get all riled up about). As always Luna's trademark mix of lurid melodrama and surrealism ensures an unforgettable cinematic experience further heightened by Nicola Piovani's hypnotic score (Who also scored both of the previous entries in Luna's Iberian passion trilogy and would go on to win the Academy Award for Life is Beautiful just three years later) and stunning cinematography by Spanish master Jose Luis Alcaine (the first cinematographer to use fluorescent tubes as "key" lightning and frequent collaborator of Pedro Almodovar).

In the film's most famous and stand-out scene, Estrellita shoots milk out of her breast like an angel water fountain directly into Tete's mouth. This scene, like many others is only in Tete's fantasy world, while he never truly achieves to suckle on any real life woman's breasts. In grand bookends fashion the film ends with the building of a human tower one year later, and just like in the beginning Tete climbs the tower, only this time to make it all the way to the top.

I finally got around to watching Evil Genius: The True Story of America's Most Diabolical Bank Heist - The true crime series based on the pizza bomber case. I still haven't been able to quite get it out of my mind, and I come away with a lot of conflicting feelings about the documentary series. The sheer insanity of the story, the magnitude of the crime and the fascinating key players in the story make this a compelling watch with still many unanswered questions that continue to make you guessing - who, how and what. Over the 4 episodes we hear time and time again what a master manipulator Marge is... and maybe she is... but so are the makers of this documentary. And here is where I had problems with the doc. In one of the episodes we see a courtroom sketch artist explain that when the trial started he drew Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong more sinister, focusing on her crazy features... but as it progressed he learned more of her story and got a better feeling of who she was as a person and therefore started to draw her softer. This switch never occurred during the making (or should I say editing decisions) of the documentary. We get introduced to Marge as a person who "has never been normal" and the rest of the doc consists of trying to hammer that point home. That despite Trey's years of letters exchanged and faked friendship with Marge... often down-right bragging in the narration about betraying her trust time and time again for the sake of the documentary. Making it all feel dishonest and exploitative. The moment a documentary and it's makers start coming over as dishonest people you can't help but quickly lose faith in everything they tell you. I'm not suggesting that Marge is innocent and she could very well be the "evil genius" who masterminded the elaborate bank-robbery and murder of of Brian Wells. But even so, I can't help but feel that in many instances her full story was never told. Instead what we do get to see is a perfectly staged piece of sensationalism that IMO often lacks objectivity. Worth watching, but also highly infuriating at points.

Abel Ferrara and writer Nicholas St. John (in what would be one of their last collaborations) explore suffering and redemption in this original and thematically rich Arthouse Horror, It's basically "Philosophy 101" with Vampires. Lili Taylor gives the best performance of her career as young Philosophy student Kathleen who falls victim to a Vampire Femme fatale on her way home. Christopher Walken also has a fantastic albeit short appearance. The B&W photography works extremely well, pasting together the images on screen with stock footage from massacres and blown up photographs of the Holocaust creating haunting parallels. Add metaphors of drug addiction, rap music and a lot of dark humour to the mix and you have The Addiction. One of my favourites by Ferrara.