Mostly NP:At the movies

Mon Aug 6 11:13:41 CDT 2001

I missed "Audition". From what I've heard it must be "lovely stuff"
indeed... "Brotherhood of Wolves" was shown on the opening night of the
Cologne festival.

What is the Ring series?

Thomas

>
>
> Otherwise, some wonderful genre-busters: The American Astronaut, kinda
> like David Lynch directs a John Waters script. Gritty B&W musical
> about a space cowboy delivering a prime condition boy to all-female
> venus. Also, Brotherhood of the Wolf (I'm sure the French amongst us
> would have seen this): 18th Century rural French period piece about a
> giant wolf-lizard thing terrorising the countryside, strangers ride in
> to town (with Western soundtrack), lots of gore, sex, repartee
> and...did I mention the HK-style martial arts? Courtesy of an American
> Indian played by a Brazilian who teaches a native French aristocrat
> his ancient ways...well, it's not exactly played for realism.
>
>
>
>  >From: Dave Monroe
> >To: Thomas Eckhardt , "pynchon-l at waste.org"
> >Subject: Re: Mostly NP:At the movies
> >Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2001 23:46:46 -0700 (PDT)
> >
> >Now THIS is where I SHOULD have been this weekend ...
> >
> >--- Thomas Eckhardt
> >wrote:
> > > Just came home from my second day at the yearly
> > > Fantasy Filmfest in Cologne. A marvellous event.
> > > For a week or so they are showing everything between
> > > "Scary Movie II" and disturbing Japanese stuff about
> > > necrophilia and incest, as long as they find a way
> > > to call it horror, fantasy, or SF.
> >
> >Here see ...
> >
> >Hunter, Jack. Eros in Hell: Sex, Blood and Madness
> > in Japanese Cinema. London: Creation, 1999.
> >
> >http://www.creationbooks.com/frameset.asp?p=http://www.creationbooks.com/titles/1871592933.html
>
> >
> >I at least scored a copy of Mermaid in a Manhole (dir.
> >Hideshi Hino, 1991), though ...
> >
> >http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/mermanh.shtml
> >
> >http://www.metamovie.de/film/mermaid.html
> >
> >http://www.ultragore.com/mermaid.htm
> >
> >http://www2.pair.com/nlw/filme/splatter/gh/guineapi.htm
> >
> >Ad nauseum (literally). Will contrast nicely with
> >Disney's The Little Mermaid in my current little
> >project ...
> >
> > > Especially fine are their retrospectives: A few
> > > years ago we were treated to a few of those
> > > incredible Dario-Argento-slasher-flicks, and if the
> > > videos of his movies you can rent in the U.S. are as
> > > mutilated as the ones we get over here in Germany,
> > > some of you can certainly imagine what an immense
> > > pleasure it was to watch uncut versions of
> > > "Suspiria" and "Opera" on the big screen.
> >
> >I do believe the uncut versions are finally out on
> >video here. Opera is particularly nightmarish to me,
> >but Suspiria still holds up pretty well. My theory
> >is, it's so creepy because it's so brightly colored.
> >Sort of like that EC Comics look in Creepshow. Cf.
> >Riki-Oh, a.k.a. The Story of Ricky, even more horrific
> >for its dreamiscle color settings ...
> >
> > > Anyway, yesterday was the premiere of "Memento", a
> > > film, I understand, that is quite successful in the
> > > U.S. I will certainly go and watch it again when it
> > > is being officially released. Generally, I thought
> > > it was brillant. Any opinions?
> >
> >My claim was that it was the first great American film
> >of the new millenium. I've no doubt it'll be eclipsed
> >soon enough, if it hasn't been already, but there's no
> >doubt there's much to say about it. Memory, identity,
> >narrative, writing, the body, and the mutual
> >(de)construction thereof. No doubt there are
> >glitches, but it's also worth watching again, to catch
> >all the stuff one inevitably misses the first time
> >around ...
> >
> >See also director Christopher Nolan's only other
> >feature film so far, Following (1998). Similar
> >narrative chicanery. He's apparently working on
> >something called Insomnia with Al Pacino, Hilary Swank
> >("Beverly Hills 90210," Boys Don't Cry), Maura Tierney
> >("NewsRadio," "ER"), Martin Donovan (just about every
> >Hal Hartley film ever made) and, er, Robin Williams
> >...
> >
> >http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/05/movies/05LIDZ.html?todaysheadlines
> >
> >Will send to anyone who can't access (though a free
> >online NY Times subscription is a very useful thing to
> >have) ...
> >
> > > Tonight the first movie I saw was Sam Raimi's "The
> > > Gift", a rather gripping kind-of- supernatural
> > > thriller, vaguely reminiscent of "The Sixth Sense",
> > > set in Georgia. Not quite as good as the at times
> > > inbearably intense "Simple Plan", but highly
> > > recommended nevertheless.
> >
> >I was surprised that I didn't hate The Gift. Kinda
> >sorta predictable, in the end, but ... but speaking of
> >the great Sam Raimi, might I recommend ...
> >
> >Campbell, Bruce. If Chins Could Kill: Confessions
> > of a "B" Movie Actor. NY: LA Weekly Books, 2001.
> >
> >http://www.brucecampbellbook.com/
> >
> >Got lucky, he did an instore here, got a stack o'
> >copies signed for friends. And that Sam Raimi
> >Spider-Man film looks decent so far ...
> >
> > > The second movie was a docu about those nasty horror
> > > flicks of the Sixties and Seventies - "The Texas
> > > Chainsaw Massacre", "Last House on the Left", "Night
> > > of the Living Dead" etc. - and their relation to
> > > contemporary history and society. It was aptly
> > > titled "American Nightmare". As there has been some
> > > discussion on this list about the relationship
> > > between the Kennedy assassination and COL49 despite
> > > there being no explicit reference in the text (no, I
> > > haven't read Charles Hollander's essay yet, so
> > > please correct me if I'm wrong), this is why I
> > > put the "mostly" before the "NP" in the subject
> > > line: I was certainly aware of the fact that the
> > > ending of "Night of the Living Dead" referred
> > > to the clash between the Civil Rights Movement and
> > > those redneck sheriffs from the south of the U.S.
> > > Not explicitly but by means of the imagery and
> > > because of the involved characters. But it was
> > > certainly very interesting to hear from the likes
> > > of Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven (who way back then
> > > directed the probably most disturbing of those
> > > movies, "The Last House on the Left"), or George A.
> > > Romero, in how far they nowadays feel the violence
> > > in their films was related to events like the
> > > Kent State University shooting, the assassinations
> > > of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, and of
> > > course the war in Vietnam. Romero has always
> > > been in some sense a very political director, but it
> > > was also highly interesting to watch crucial scenes
> > > from "Last House on the Left" or "The Texas Chainsaw
> > > Massacre" cut against excerpts from documentary
> > > material from Vietnam or the U.S. Should be
> > > essential viewing for everyone who likes those
> >films.
> >
> >Okay, have to see this. I'm only just getting into
> >the horror film crit thing, but, on American race
> >relations in SF film, see ...
> >
> >Greene, Eric. Planet of the Apes as American Myth:
> > Race, Politics and Popular Culture. Middletown,
> > CT: Wesleyan UP, 1998 [Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
> > 1996].
> >
> >And a recent horror title that might be of particular
> >interest ...
> >
> >Hawkins, Joan. Cutting Edge: Art-Horror and the
> > Horrific Avant-Garde. Mpls: U of Minn P, 2000.
> >
> >Tod Browning (Freaks), George Franju (Eyes Without a
> >Face), Andy Warhol (Frankenstein), Jess Franco (don't
> >get me started ...), Yoko Ono (Rape). I was
> >interested even when I hadn't seen the films in
> >question. But, on the escalation of violence in
> >America et al., this reminds me of a line of Charles
> >Manson's: "A long time ago being crazy meant
> >something. Nowadays everybody's crazy" ...
> >
> >By the way, the July issue of Sight and Sound had an
> >interesting article on how British censors won't allow
> >a video release of Las House on the Left because of
> >that rape scene even as, against all expectations,
> >they've passed the French film, Baise-Moi ("Fuck Me,"
> >"Rape Me"), with only one minor cut (a penetration
> >shot) to a similarly violent rape scene ...
> >
> >http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/2001_07/index.html
> >
> >Co-directed by a porn director, starring porn stars,
> >and amorally, brutally violent even by American
> >standards, all the other nastiness was left intact.
> >And I'm pretty sure I saw it entirely uncut, as I
> >recall the shot in question. I actually liked the
> >film, sort of Thelma et Louise.
> >
> >Some great lines: "We've got to work on the dialogue
> >here. People are dying, we have to live up to that."
> >What Americans WISH they could get away with--all the
> >violence and then some, PLUS real live filth. Note,
> >however, the critical use of the "money shot" ...
> >
> >Williams, Linda. Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and
> > the 'Frenzy of the Visible.' Berkeley: U of Cal
> > P, 1989.
> >
> >See also Larry Clark's new film, Bully. Could have
> >called it Big Kids. Big Dumb Kids. But the crux of
> >the LHOTL vs. BM debate seems to be, art vs. trash,
> >art vs. exploitation, art vs. commerce, art vs.
> >non-art. A debate well worth taking up. Then again,
> >about a decade ago, Reservoir Dogs apparently couldn't
> >be released in the UK because of something that WASN'T
> >shown, didn't happen onscreen, was "absent" (!), so
> >...
> >
> > > P.S. Tomorrow, finally, the new Argento. Can't be
> > > worse than "Phantom of the Opera"...
> >
> >Well, let us know ...
> >
> >
> >
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