 |
| From http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/7/12/1342108415938/Stephen-Dwoskin2-008.jpg |
8th December 2012: Outside In (Stephen Dwoskin, 1981)
"This is probably a good time to mention Dwoskin's use of comedy:
Outside In is a film that deals with disability but is also funny and even
burlesque. Of course, only the disabled can use this mode to stage themselves
as disabled characters. Bergson states not only that "a deformity thay may
become comic is a deformity that a normally built person, could succesfully
imitate." (Michel Barthelemy)
Going through many of Dwoskin’s feature and short length films
within such close proximity to each other, I admit that my thoughts on them
have varied as much the height of a rollercoaster fluxuates as it goes on in
size. I will confess, with some guilt considering how personal they clearly were
to the late director, that the autobiographic works were usually the least
interesting. Outside In is the
exception.
Effectively a series of
sequences, comedic skits, visuals pieces and situations about how Dwoskin viewed living with the
disability that left him in crutches or a wheelchair for his whole life, the
film for the most part is consistently interesting, going from the hilarious to
the serious, erotic to the abstract. Dwoskin’s
frankness with his disability, where even letting a person pass him in a row of
cinema seats in cumbersome, is refreshing as he had no cap to his thoughts on
his condition and portrayed the situation in a variety of ways. Also unlike
some of his other, least effective work, he made each sequence and piece stand
out to emphasise the content of them; his use of repetition is the most
effective example of this, especially with a piece where a maid cleaning Dwoskin’s rented room transitions from a
stranger to having a physical relationship with him through a repeated
interaction. When Dwoskin was this rigorous,
from what I have seen in the last few months, it was considerably impressive as
was the case with Outside In.
 |
| From http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/mazes-and-monsters/w448/mazes-and-monsters.jpg?1305043246 |
9th December 2012: Mazes and Monsters (Steven Hilliard
Stern, 1982)
Bound together by a desire to play "Mazes and Monsters,"
Robbie and his four college classmates decide to move the board game into the
local legendary cavern. Robbie starts having visions for real, and the line
between reality and fantasy fuse into a harrowing adventure. (IMDB)
Oh lordy, finally seeing this
infamous film was grown inducing. It is far less the moral panic film about
Dungeons and Dragons, and its ability to corrupt the youth of time, that I
thought it would be, its drama softening the blow, but it’s still clear why it
is the butt of jokes from actual Dungeons and Dragons fans. The problem is not
necessarily the content itself but that it is all the worst tropes of a TV
movie together. I hate the stereotypical TV movie in all it meaning – bland visual
look, eye rolling moral messages or arch drama, fades to commercial breaks –
and with the great exception of Salem’s
Lot (1979), every film I have seen made for television was tedious or
monstrously bland. This film deserves credit of Tom Hank’s first starring role, which he does try his hardest to
flesh out, but his performance is sat within a really vacuous and, for fantasy gaming
fans, insulting drama whose saccharine ballad sonically sums up its vast
failings,
 |
| From http://horrorcultfilms.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/the-night-child-600x328.jpg |
10th December 2012: The Night Child (Massimo Dallamano,
1975)
When a documentarian delves into the dark world of satanic art for a
new film, he unearths a disturbing painting that leads him into a world of
post-Exorcist Italo-Horror where cursed medallions, possessed children and the
overwhelming power of the dark lord converge to create a visually stunning and
wildly eccentric exploitation classic from Massimo Dallamano (Venus in Furs,
What Have You Done With Solange?) (Arrow Film)
The Night Child begins for half of its running time setting itself
up but once its slow pace starts to quicken in terms of the narrative, it
becomes a good Italian gothic horror film, far from being a mere rip-off of The Exorcist (1973) it may look like on
the surface. Continuing on from Dallamano’s
Super Bitch (1973), it is a
beautiful looking, atmospherically rich film that, like the film I will be
writing about in a second, in is far better in quality because of this rather
than having numerous scenes of gore.
 |
| From http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/who-saw-her-die/w448/who-saw-her-die.jpg?1330366846 |
11th December 2012: Who Saw Her Die? (Aldo Lado, 1972)
A young girl is brutally murdered somewhere in France. Sometime later,
the same thing happens to the daughter of a well-known sculptor. This time the
parents (the sculptor and his wife) start investigating, and soon find they are
in way over their head. Meanwhile, the body-count keeps rising as the killer
now starts butchering all those who find out too much... (IMDB)
As said above, atmosphere and
mood is far superior for me in my horror films than high body counts, which is
apparent in this great giallo film. It is still pretty gristly though in terms
of its story and its scenes of murder that, while not as bloody as other gialli
I have seen, still cause one to cringe, matched by a plot that despite being
convoluted at the end still entices with the clues it gives you like narrative breadcrumbs.
The film is enhanced further by the evocative cinematography by Franco Di Giacomo which makes the Venice locations both luscious and oppressive
in how the characters interact within them. Also worthy of mention is child
actress Nicoletta Elmi who, by
complete chance by me in watching these films one after another, appears in
both this and in a main role in The
Night Child. Her filmography is slight, but is full of very well known
(and/or great) films that make her pretty significant within Italian genre cinema
of the 1970s.
No comments:
Post a Comment