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franz66
Reviews
The Cry of the Owl (2009)
Depth, darkness, despair and danger in this eerie underhanded mystery.
This film immediately pulled me in with the first scene of driving-through-the-dark-night, unrecognizable glows of light flying by, signs of life in an otherwise black space and arriving at a warm glow in a quaint house and a woman washing dishes. Robert watches her from the safety of dark woods, night after night, although he has a top design job at an aeronautical firm.
The people throughout this film are all askew and odd, relating to each other around corners and the strange connection that occurs between Jenny, the woman in the window, and her voyeur Robert is a desperate attempt at something real made by two eccentric individuals marked by depression and solitude. Like all Patricia Highsmith material, life exists on the edge and comfort is not so easily had.
I enjoyed the contrast made between the big city, with Robert's malicious ex-wife living amidst its penthouses, and the small town Autumn leaved rurality that Robert has retreated to. Robert makes efforts to keep himself in his bubble but Jenny, upon discovering him, tempts fate and propels herself upon him, breaking up with her boyfriend to do so and thus setting into motion a weblike story of violence, deception, and the inevitable play of loss after loss.
I watched this after seeing Julia Stiles on this season's Dexter and I couldn't help but think the producers must have seen her in this, her characters in both being both haunted with pain, yet filled with resolve. Paddy Considine does a great job playing a man who seems to have been run through the washer and dryer a few too many times, both distant and filled with an undercurrent of emotion.
I highly recommend this film unless you demand nothing but car chases and narratives that spell everything out for you in the first ten minutes.
La mort en direct (1980)
I Didn't Know There Were 2 Versions:
SPOILERS!
I was shown this film in a course called "Modernism & Modernity" in the Cinema Dep't at Binghamton University back in 1986 and have never forgotten it (thank you Prof. Walsh). I have gone on to use it in my own Media Studies high school class, for it is perhaps even a more relevant critique of a celebrity and "reality" obsessed screen culture today than it was when it was released in 1980. It also serves as a fine example of how the genre of science fiction need not rely on "futuristic" expensive locations and effects, for it is incredibly location-driven and the bleakness of the Scotland it was filmed in reflects its interior contemplations on the "progress" of humanity via technology. (In these ways, it reminds me of the recent "Children of Men" by Alfonso Cuaron.)
The idea of video cameras being implanted in someone's eyes is brilliant and full of narrative possibilities. And unavoidable for us it seems. The portrayal of the reality TV show producer as being callous and only interested in ratings - with his firm belief that everyone/viewers have a "right to know" pushes the story into the opposites: "If everything is of interest, nothing is important", says the dying woman in a society where there is no natural death.
Sight as knowing and the eyes as technology opens up many theoretical discussions, especially because of the Oedipal-like scene where Roddy blinds himself for "knowing" too much.... for his shame in that knowing, as if sight gives you knowledge. (Yet as Hitchcock showed us again and again, sight is unreliable.) Reading in another user's comment that the original film's story had Katherine's death a falsity set up by the producers in order to set their show in motion made me gasp, for that makes all of the film's meanings even more powerful and painful. Wow.
This film may very well be the most memorable film I have ever seen and, yes, I agree with all the other comment-writers that it should indeed be brought into the light of day (WITHOUT "remaking" it!!!!!)
Stridulum (1979)
I LUV this film!
I found this film in the bargain bin and sensed that it was a lost treasure and right i was! I understand why some people dislike it so, but I see it as a classic of its time. Its low-budget, gritty location-driven shooting is hardcore 70's style cinema, with a twist of manic Giallo style editing thrown in. It is the story of a visitor from a planet that was overtaken by storms so that their children had to become pure force, as shown in some fantastically composed sci-fi images of a lone planetscape and a chaotic sky that reminded me of "The Man Who Fell to Earth".
On earth a fiercely independent widowed mother does not want to marry the wealthy man who she's dating, which is a good thing because he's really working for a mysterious group of wealthy men who want her to have a son so that they may harness his powers for their own greed and corruption. Her pre-teen daughter Katie has these powers, is crazily talented at ice-skating and gymnastics, and also wants her mother to marry so she can have a brother. She cripples her mother during a bizarre birthday party scene so that her independence is at risk and she is forced to marry, but still the mother is determined to remain single. The Visitor (played by John Houston) intervenes in order to strip Katie of her evil urges and reclaim her as a force of good.
It does indeed sound confusing, but I had no problems in 2008 keeping up with its twisting plot, and appreciate the (by now) retro big screen TV and pong game that Katie's always playing, as well as the use of 1970's architecture, mod sci-fi imagery, and the use of birds as a recurring violent motif manifesting the alien powers. My only complaint is the music they chose... way too heavy.
Shelly Winters is awesome as the housekeeper keeping tabs on Katie and her emerging evil ways.
People I Know (2002)
intensely sad and memorable
i liked this film. it is really a character study of a man on his way out, and on how times have changed since the idealism of the 1960s when people really felt that they could make a difference and change the world for the better. the plot involving a toy web camera, drugs and corruption amongst NYC powerbrokers is really a device to bring this to fruition. al pacino is surprisingly really good as a completely worn-out, pill-popping, haggard, incredibly unhealthy, chainsmoking publicist whose idealism concerning race relations goes back to his involvement with the civil rights movement. it takes place in just over 24 hours of his life. we struggle to like him as his jaded caustic personality, and constant schmoozing, makes him appear desperate and aged. he is asked by his one loyal client, an Oscar-winning actor played by ryan o'neal, to bail his famous TV star girlfriend out of jail and escort her to a waiting plane. tea leoni excels as another jaded, cynical druggie. she exposes him to an underground world of opium dens in a quest for her web camera, getting herself murdered as he blacks out, hidden away in her bathtub. kim basinger, as his dead brothers widow from virginia, plays the opposite, offering him a way out of the mess and immorality of the life hes known for too long, offering him peace and love without strings attached. without giving away anymore of the story, suffice it to say that his longings for brotherhood and equality are severely challenged on this fateful day. this character and his desperate attempts to hold onto "the dream" sticks with me. i don't know why this film didn't get more promotion.
The Devil's Advocate (1997)
better than expected
i actually enjoyed this film, though i expected it to be stupid, given the subject matter. I've become so sick of Al pacino, yet he wasn't as overbearing as hes been in more recent films. the "devils" could've been done with more special effects, but they weren't, and this was a good thing- its better to leave the "evil" defined by peoples actions and words. the locations in Florida and New York City were excellent and keanu reeves was far better than people give him credit for. his moral conflicts in the film as an ambitious defense lawyer are believable right from the beginning segment, when he realizes that the teacher hes defending against sexual abuse charges is actually guilty. as a lawyer he notices small things like hand gestures and shoes, that clue him into peoples character. i liked that detail. charlize Theron is excellent and has good chemistry with reeves (see also "Sweet November") and i can see how this was the role that convinced patty Jenkins to cast her in "Monster". as a story of how the devil can be manifested in our money greedy modern age, this is worth watching. it would make a good double feature with "The Ninth Gate".