What are you watching?

[Keeth Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeth]

Last night was Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs dvd. Excellent film that looks pretty good but I'd upgrade to bd. Sure hope a company grabs this film in the near future.

Last weekend, I was watched most of Species & Species II. The first has nudity going for it & the second has a lot of gore but the monsters look terrible.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Boris Godounov (Andrzej Zulawski, 1989) - If El Topo is an "acid western" then this qualifies as an "acid opera". Probably second to On the Silver Globe in terms of scope and ambition, this is one of Zulawski's most unusual films and that's saying something. Not to sound base, but its really quite mental, featuring amongst other things a man smashing about in a tub of cabbage, a woman having mashed potato's smeared across her face just because, a man cutting off warts on his face and the titular Boris having visions of a murdered child.

Fascinatingly, Zulawski breaks the fourth wall several times with several instances of a camera crew floating by on tracks, numerous sightings of stage lights and even more interesting, the film is bookended with shots of a live audience watching everything unfold on a stage and the orchestra making a few appearances as well.

Being an opera (AND a Zulawski film) it obviously isn't going to be to everyone's taste but the music itself is gorgeous and at times downright hypnotic when coupled with some of the bizarre going's on in the storyline. The sets and costumes are fucking incredible and again are on the same epic level as On the Silver Globe. Really an outstanding film.

[Quot Bark! Go away Find all posts View Profile Close Quot]

Flooding with Love for The Kid (Zachary Oberzan, 2007) ****/****

A remake of a classic that, in many ways, is profound and heartfelt to a degree the original could only aspire.

That "original" was First Blood (itself, based on the book by David Morrell). That's right: the Rambo movie.

The remarkable part about this "remake" is not that it adheres much more closely to the book's themes, nor even the fact that someone else attempts to fill the shoes of the iconic character forever immortalized by Sylvester Stallone. No, the remarkable part is the fact that this is a film by Zachary Oberzan: he adapted, directed, filmed (with no crew), designed, edited, did the makeup and special effects, and performed all the roles (over two dozen). Including all the female roles. And the dogs. He filmed the entire thing in his 220 sq ft studio apartment in New York City. On a budget of $95.51.

And it works.

As hard as that may be to believe, rest assured that Oberzan is fully aware of the inherent absurdity of the undertaking. Several of the supporting roles feature characters with odd accents, or are seemingly played for laughs. But that's not really true of many of the primary characters (Rambo, Sheriff Teasle, Colonel Trautman) who are all played with an earnestness that provides a real (albeit goofy) emotional investment, and is much more accurate in its characterization of the "father-son" relationship between Teasle and Rambo.

Oberzan invites you to use your imagination -- demands it really -- in helping transform his small apartment, and the props contained therein, into the town of Madison, Kentucky and the mountainous forests that surround it. An apartment where kitchen sinks become creeks, shower and bathtub doubles as waterfalls, rivers, mudslides, you name it. Who would have ever imagined that a vertigo-inducing cliff-face could have so stunningly been recreated by a bunk bed? Or that mere closets could be both a Vietnamese prison cell AND a a mountain cave in which to hide out? A refrigerator serves double duty as both a diner and a gas station (which gets blown up, of course), and a police radio is actually a toaster. My favorite is the helicopter, with two chairs (seating sharp-shooter Zachary Oberzan and pilot Zachary Oberzan) in front of an elevated, upside down ceiling fan (with real, whooshing helicopter blade sounds). Add in a few scattered branches around the living room and...Voila! You have a forest (never mind the bookshelf or rack of cd's in the background). In First Blood, Rambo kills and cooks forest critters for sustenance. Here, he kills a teddy bear.

Ah ingenuity. Thy name is Zachary Oberzan. Apparently, he also does a live stage performance of this and oh, what I wouldn't pay to see him perform this live.

You can pay $5 to see this film on Vimeo. I heartily recommend it.

And if you don't believe me...

“Oberzan has not just walked the line between irony and sincerity, he's erased it.”—VOGUE

"A thrilling and mind-boggling experience...sheer logistic complexity...[an] extraordinary achievement."--FILM QUARTERLY

“One man's pulp is another man's perfection...brilliant.”—NEW YORK TIMES

"Bat-shit insane...disarmingly effective - a guerrilla assault on the notion that high production values are necessary for compelling storytelling."--THE GUARDIAN (UK)

"An outsider-cinema masterpiece...Oberzan's mania knows no bounds."--TIME OUT NEW YORK

"A landmark in the history of DIY filmmaking...Oberzan's work uncovers levels of poetry, irony and compassion heretofore unexplored."--GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE

"The excellence of his performances — physically daring, vocally exaggerated, precisely characterized — stabilizes a solo act that might otherwise seem demented."--LA WEEKLY

"A deliberately naive piece of work, and even if Oberzan's performances suggest multiple
personality disorder run amok (at one point, using crude double exposure, he looks up his
own ass), you can't say he didn't mean it...so far, it's the best movie of 2010."-- VILLAGE VOICE

"Oberzan delivers with passionate commitment and a wire-walker's daring...its charm comes from its heartfelt loyalty to the ancient storytelling tradition."--SALON

“An absolutely amazing concept. Wildly creative and energetic.”—DAVID MORRELL, New York Times bestselling author of First Blood

[Keeth Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeth]

Last night:

Sleep Tight followed by The Nameless

Today (so far):

Force: Five followed by The Boogey Man (1980)

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

Predator 2 (was on tv) still entertaining action flick in the classic 80's / 90's tradition... with Glover, Busey and Paxton all chewing the scenery..hard boiled cops, rasta gangsta and bullets flying everywhere....good stuff!

[Cinematic Shocks Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cinematic Shocks]

I really like 'Predator 2'. An underrated sequel.


Day of Anger (1967)

***1/2 out of *****

[Nabonga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nabonga]

Frustration
Low budget shenanigans from José Bénazéraf.
I don't know, there are some good stuff in here,
shots here and there.

Janine Reynaud kills it (amazing look and presence),
Michel Lemoine looks intense as fuck as usual and the
other actress is bland as hell. The whole thing dragged
and started to really test my patience. And it's fairly short
to begin with. I'm guessing they didn't have much of a script.

It smells of artsy fartsy riffing on the spot at times. It felt
like a lesser talented Franco admirer woke up one morning
and said "I can do this", gathered his friends, got a couple of
name actors and knocked it together over the weekend.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Frustration
Low budget shenanigans from José Bénazéraf.
I don't know, there are some good stuff in here,
shots here and there.

Janine Reynaud kills it (amazing look and presence),
Michel Lemoine looks intense as fuck as usual and the
other actress is bland as hell. The whole thing dragged
and started to really test my patience. And it's fairly short
to begin with. I'm guessing they didn't have much of a script.

It smells of artsy fartsy riffing on the spot at times. It felt
like a lesser talented Franco admirer woke up one morning
and said "I can do this", gathered his friends, got a couple of
name actors and knocked it together over the weekend.

Bénazéraf and Lemoine would work on the dialogue in the mornings before shooting. Bénazéraf didn't really like scripts which is why so many of his films feel so on the spot so it wouldn't be surprising if the majority of it was improvised. Clearly there are moments in the film that he planned out ahead of time. That scene of Reynaud hallucinating in that endless hallway of doors for instance.

I love Frustration to death. One of the best films from the golden age of Euro sex/horror and Bénazéraf's masterwork. Certainty one of the most underrated psychotic women films. Reynaud is indeed incredible and manages to be both sympathetic and terrifying. Out of curiosity, did you find the ending to be as open to interpretation as I did? I still really don't know what exactly happened and to be honest I'm not sure I want to. Makes it all the more powerful.

[Cinematic Shocks Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cinematic Shocks]

If.... (1968)

**** out of *****

[Nabonga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nabonga]

Bénazéraf and Lemoine would work on the dialogue in the mornings before shooting. Bénazéraf didn't really like scripts which is why so many of his films feel so on the spot so it wouldn't be surprising if the majority of it was improvised. Clearly there are moments in the film that he planned out ahead of time. That scene of Reynaud hallucinating in that endless hallway of doors for instance.

I love Frustration to death. One of the best films from the golden age of Euro sex/horror and Bénazéraf's masterwork. Certainty one of the most underrated psychotic women films. Reynaud is indeed incredible and manages to be both sympathetic and terrifying. Out of curiosity, did you find the ending to be as open to interpretation as I did? I still really don't know what exactly happened and to be honest I'm not sure I want to. Makes it all the more powerful.

Figures. You could tell. The inquisition stuff went on forever. The hallway sequence was a highlight though, for sure. Same with the scene in the bar with Reynaud and Lemoine. Yeah, I was thoroughly confused by the ending. Maybe I'll revisit it sometime in the future.

[Cinematic Shocks Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cinematic Shocks]

The Harvest (2013)

***1/2 out of *****

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Fata Morgana (Vicente Aranda, 1965) - The second feature from the future director of The Blood Splattered Bride (1972) and Amantes (1991) and a benchmark film from the "Barcelona School of Film" style. Spanish surrealism at its finest, yet despite being Spanish (the inevitable Buí±uel comparisons certainty aren't without warrant) it sort of feels more French at times. Not so much nouvelle vague, more nouvelle roman ala Alain Robbe-Grillet. While there's no explicit fourth wall breaking as seen in Robbe-Grillet's work, there is the constant sense of Aranda winking at the audience, that everything playing out on screen is some sort of absurd game and the rules are being made up on the spot. It can be thoroughly confusing at times yet always fun and playful. It actually makes more sense after the fact when the meaning of the title "Fata Morgana", or "Left-Handed Fate" sinks in.

Its also rather funny at times. Seeing Teresa Gimpera (who's so good looking it hurts. She's even more beautiful in the The Exquisite Cadaver (1969), Aranda's criminally underrated follow-up film) being followed by an armored bus/tank contraption while the unseen driver tries to chat her up via megaphone is quite a hilarious sight. There's also a bit of a futuristic sci-fi bend to it with the film taking place in a deserted Barcelona with constant references of a city wide evacuation. Its never stated exactly why (and all the empty streets add to the surreality) but there are hints of some kind of nuclear disaster and at one point in the film most unusual scene a man is shown sporting some pretty intense, monster-esque mutations.

I guess Troma either owns this or owned it at some point. It has a very sparse listing on their website although no release of any kind has turned up.

[Cinematic Shocks Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cinematic Shocks]

Hush (2016)

**1/2 out of *****

[Cinematic Shocks Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cinematic Shocks]

Imprint (2006)

Takashi Miike's excellent Masters of Horror episode that's possibly the best one of the entire series.

**** out of *****

Blood Rage (1987)

This was a viewing of the composite cut; the most complete version of the film.

*** out of *****

[John W. Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close John W.]

I watched a couple of old Karloffs I hadn't seen before. The Strange Door was alright/decent, with nice atmosphere, lighting/photog, and Charles Laughton, but I wish I hadn't bothered with The Climax.