Video Watchdog Issue 130

I am particularly impressed with the newest issue of Video Watchdog (featuring a cover shot of FORBIDDEN PLANET) that Tim Lucas and company have put together so I thought I would post a couple of thoughts on it here.

A main selling point is a new article on the fascinating GANJA AND HESS written by David Kalat. It is real exciting to see a feature article again about this stirring film. Reading it I was reminded of Watchdog's original groundbreaking article back in the magazines earliest days that turned me on to this film, one of the best and most mystifying I ever seen. Kalat's excellent new article focuses on the origins of the film, how Bill Gunn become involved with it and what the company expected from him. This article brings new things to light but it also manages to make the film seem even more mysterious.

Another feature focuses on the late Freddie Francis. Ted Newsom does a great job here in respecting Francis' directorial career and still being honest about it. It's a solid tribute to a very important figure.
Of the many reviews I really admired Shane Dallmann's take on CRANK, a film that I really loved and I am glad to see it getting some attention in a publication like Watchdog. Kim Newman delivers an excellent and long DVDSpotlight on Universal's new BORIS KARLOFF COLLECTION as well as a review of THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE which I recently covered here. He doesn't like the film as much as i do but I enjoyed reading his thoughts on it.
Tim Lucas offers us a fascinating Watchdog Barks editorial on his upcoming Bava book as well as in depth look at the DR. MABUSE dvds from Retromedia.
Many other noteworthy reviews are given for films ranging from domestic releases like SATAN'S BLOOD to THE NIGHT STALKER collection and imports such as ARIZONA DREAM and WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS.
The main highlight, outside of the new GANJA AND HESS piece, is Ramsey's Campbell's excellent and insightful look at Gasper Noe's IRREVERSIBLE. This is one of the best reviews I have read of this searing and important film and I agree with Campbell when he says that Noe (along with Aja) is "France's greatest living exploitation filmmaker." I also appreciate that Ramsey recognizes that the film's backwards narrative isn't just for show and that, in my opinion, thematically it gives the film a major emotional force that might have been lost in a strictly linear telling. It's a great piece that made me think about elements of the film that I hadn't before.
Finally, cheers to Douglas Winter for noting that Clint Mansell's score for THE FOUNTAIN is possibly the best score of last year. This haunting album was near the top of my list for the best cds of 2006 and it is quickly becoming an all time favorite. Winter's article on minimalism in film scoring is very informative and very well done.
Issue 130 also marks Watchdog's return as a monthly publication. This is a great issue of the best magazine on the planet and I am pleased to highly recommend picking it up if you haven't already.

Video Watchdog Issue 135

The newest issue of VIDEO WATCHDOG is out now and it is a splendid one. Issue 135 is the first since the publication of Tim Lucas' MARIO BAVA biography ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK so it is a significant one.
The excellent Charlie Largent cover is probably one of the most terrifying in VW's history with its shot of the already legendary pale man from PAN'S LABYRINTH, and the back features a sweet photo of the beguiling Judi Bowker.
The issue is real winner with Tim's editorial, and the first few pages, focusing on the Bava book. A shot of Lamberto Bava and family holding the massive book is particularly touching.

Review wise there are several highlights. John Charles has a nice look at VACANCY and I am glad to see I'm not the only one who admired this little undervalued film. Sheldon Inkol has a long and excellent piece of the original BEDAZZLED which is very informative and entertaining. This was one of my favorite discs of the year so it is nice to see it treated so seriously. Kim Newman provides his usual number of well written reviews including a look at THE MONSTER SQUAD and and import of 1984. Tim himself is on hand to review several films including Jess Franco's WOMEN BEHIND BARS and a DARK SHADOWS DVD COLLECTION. Frankly all of the reviews this month were fascinating.
Douglas E. Winter's always great Audio Watchdog has a terrific portrait of the new Simon Boswell collection, along with some Morricone discs, and in Biblio Watchdog Kim Newman reminds me why I need to buy Stephen Thrower's NIGHTMARE USA as soon as possible.
Three items though make this issue particularly memorable. The long interview with Judi Bowker by Mark F Berry is very well done and beautifully written. I knew very little about this actress so this was an extremely interesting read.
I was also thrilled to see one of my favorite films of the decade finally getting some English language attention. While Tim Lucas doesn't value the final collaboration between Andrzej Zulawski and Sophie Marceau as much as I do, his thoughts on FIDELITY were extremely nice to read. I am really pleased that VW chose to cover it in their import section.
The real jewel of the issue though is Tim's take on PAN'S LABRINTH. Tim's six page look at the film is one of the best things I have read on Del Toro's masterful film, and it will definitely be an article I return to the next time I revisit this special work. I am also glad Tim took the time to salute actress Maribel Verdu for her work as not many critics bothered to. Verdu has now managed to give two of my favorite performances of the decade, in this film and Alfonso Cuaron's incredible Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN.
Video Watchdog 135 is currently available and is highly recommended.

Video Watchdog Gives Eli Roth's Hostel Part 2 a Big Thumbs Up

I have been really curious since its release last year what the country's leading Genre publication, Video Watchdog, would think of of Eli Roth's controversial Hostel Part 2 so when I got the new issue yesterday and saw it mentioned on front I flipped eagerly to the review of it. I am thrilled to report that Shane M. Dallmann, one of my favorite writers from V.W., gives the film a high recommendation and his long review of it is among the best I have read.
Dallmann pretty much gives due to everything I love about the film, including how well acted it is and how it improves upon repeated viewings. I especially appreciate that Dallmann notes that the film's more gruelling horror sequences "are staged for maximum emotional effect" and later that "the horror derives equally from what's happening and from who it's happening to." two keys to the film few other critics picked up on.
Dallmann also wisely point out how much Hostel Part 2 is lovingly designed after the Italian Giallo of the seventies, with special mention going to both Sergio Martino's Torso and Aldo Lado's Night Train Murders.
All in all it is a fantastic look at a sorely undervalued film. Roth should be proud that his film has been given the seal of approval by one of Video Watchdog's best writers.
As for the rest of issue 137, I haven't had a chance to read through it all yet but it looks like another cracking one after last month's Grindhouse issue, which was one of their best ever. The cover star and moving center story belongs to The Curse Of The Cat People's Ann Carter and other reviews include looks at works ranging from Fulci's The Psychic to The Beatles in Help!

Twenty Years of Video Watchdog

Tim Lucas is reporting over at much missed Video Watchblog that this month marks the twentieth year that his overwhelmingly influential Video Watchdog has been in existence. In an era when it is next to impossible to keep an independent publication anywhere near above water, the fact that Tim and Donna Lucas have managed to keep Video Watchdog alive and kicking is more than worthy of a celebration. The fact that Video Watchdog has also managed to be consistently far and away the most important genre, and film in general, publication around is even more remarkable. So, congratulations to Tim and Donna, and here’s to twenty more years of Video Watchdog!

Video Watchdog's Dog Days Sales Event

All through August the Video Watchdog website is running a major sales event. Each day will bring a different sale over at VW, 31 absolutely wonderful reasons to visit their site throughout August. The first sale, five dollars off Tim Lucas' essential Video Watchdog book, is up and running and I have added a little panel over to the side to make it easy for folks reading here to click over there all month. So throw some support Tim and Donna Lucas' way, and at the same time get your self some discounted VW goodies all throughout August.

Symptoms of a Chronic Collector

Sometime in my early twenties I found one of those great, now almost all long lost, privately owned video stores that would offer perhaps something a little different from the local Blockbuster. This particular one was called Video Dave's in Frankfort, Kentucky. The store was so great that I would actually drive 35 minutes from Lexington on a regular basis just to rent films. One evening I came across a film in the horror section that caught my eye. I'm not sure if it was the odd title, the striking artwork or the promise that 'the only thing more terrifying than the last ten minutes of this film are the first 90'. Something about it pulled me in and that night I found myself at home watching my very first Dario Argento film.
Suspiria became one of those great moments that a person will have just a few times in life. One of those moments when your mind is suddenly opened to something new. It was like hearing Nico's The Marble Index for the first time or discovering an Alain Robbe-Grillet novel. It was that feeling that I had found something amazing that no one else knew about.
I soon learned that actually quite a few people knew about it and that there was an entire cinema that I wasn't aware of. I had loved many foreign films up to this point and had a good grasp on the accepted circle of directors like Godard, Bertolucci and Polanski. Now I was confronted with names like Franco, Fulci, Zulawski and Bava. One of the major things that happened just after I saw Suspiria was discovering the mighty Video Watchdog. It was still a pretty young magazine at that point and Tim Lucas' publication became like a bible to me. Soon I was discovering all kinds of directors and films that would provide me with magic keys to open amazing unknown doors.
It was through obsessively pouring over each issue of Watchdog that I found out about mail order companies such as European Trash Cinema, Midnight Video and Video Search of Miami. Each month or two I would look forward to the catalogues and updates from these companies and face the daunting task of picking out which films I could order on my limited budget. There was such an excitement to it in that period. Visually many of these tapes would be poor quality. Some would be full screen, some in English and some not. It was an adventure and it was exciting being in it. Soon I began to learn the particulars of each company. VSOM had the most but with the poorest prints. ETC had some of the rarest and owner Craig Ledbetter provided the best service. Video Midnight had the best quality, many from import laserdiscs, but were the most expensive. Each company had their strengths and weaknesses but they all provided a great service and I will never forget getting packages in the mail with titles like The Perfume Of A Lady In Black, Four Flies On Grey Velvet and The Pyjama Girl Case.
I remember clearly getting that very first package. With the stamp ETC on it and inside a tape holding a terrible print of a remarkable film, Jose Larraz's still hard to find Symptons.
I met a friend around this time to who shared my same obsessions and he was the first one who showed me uncut prints of Fulci's The Beyond and Argento's Tenebrae. We began to trade our monthly orders, each making copies and doubling our collections.
Books on the subject began to come into play, the still indispensable Immoral Tales and also imported British magazines like Flesh and Blood. In the mid 90s Louisville Kentucky got an amazing gift in the store Wild and Woolly Video. We now had a store specializing in these films and I have such fond memories of long conversations with the store's owner Todd and sifting through his new releases and import soundtrack section.
A major change happened in the late 90s that was both a major blessing and a bit of a personal curse. When DVD arrived I don't think anyone would have guessed that it was about to give a legitimate home to many of these once forgotten films. That's precisely what it did and suddenly the precious little secret that many of us held so close was taken from us.
I couldn't believe it at first. That strange moment when I held Anchor Bay's first uncut, widescreen Argento releases still sticks with me. It was a bit like that moment when Jane's Addictions Ritual De Lo Habitual broke, it wasn't ours anymore. I was envious of the people who were going to discover these films on DVD but knew that I had lived through something special in that a lot of the pleasure had been in the hunt and discovery.
I'm a bit spoiled at this point, as i think many of us are. We'll complain about the most minor of problems with a new disc. We'll always prove that fans of the fantastique are the most dedicated around because we will know of every missing frame and we'll take personal offense to any cutting of corners. Sometimes I have to remind myself of just how honored I was, before DVD made it so easy, to just see these films in any condition.
I don't order from those companies anymore, I just can't afford it and still keep up with newer dvd re-issues of my favorites. I have now bought Suspiria at least 4 times in different formats since that fateful night at Video Dave's and have no doubt that I'll by it at least a few more before I am gone. I doubt if it will ever feel as special as it did that night though.
Video Dave's closed many years ago, and its once proud building now stands abandoned. Flesh and Blood is no more to my knowledge but thankfully Video Watchdog is still kicking out the jams and changing lives. My trading friend and I lost touch and I live too far away from Wild and Woolly to have my talks with Todd anymore.

European genre film fans haven't had it this good in years and this year promises special editions of everything from Bava's Kill Baby Kill to Joe D'Amato's Black Emanuelle series, as well as the publication of Tim Lucas' much anticipated Mario Bava biography. It's a phenomenally lucky time to love these films but for those of us that have been at this for awhile, let us not forget when it wasn't so easy.

Dylan On The Road

Tim Lucas has posted a really interesting personal review of his first Bob Dylan show over at the always great Video Watchblog. I read this with great interest as I will soon be seeing the same tour, and I plan on posting my thoughts on it here afterwards. This will be the third time I have seen Bob and I am extremely excited about it. The first time I saw him was transcendent, while the second was disappointing mostly due to the audience so I am curious to see what this tour will bring.
Opening up is Elvis Costello, who has been transcendent each time I have seen him and I expect nothing less from him later in the week...Zimmerman and MacManus on the same bill, I am expecting my mind to be blown.

Cinzia Monreale and the Art of the Euro DVD Extra

We have become so used to extras on dvds that it is easy to forget just how special, and actually how important to film history, the idea of them really is. The ability to see deleted scenes or behind the scenes footage from your favorite film might seem commonplace now but it has really just been since the arrival of the dvd format that this kind of thing has been readily available to anyone outside of the people making the films. There have always been promotional featurettes and on the set documentaries but only a handful of these were available to the home market. Laserdiscs and then DVDs changed the way a lot of us view films, at their best they give us an inside view to the filmmakers intentions and journey. Unfortunately as we have gotten more and more expectant of these extras, they seem to have gotten more and more superficial. Many of the current discs being produced use the special features sections just as back slapping promotion or as a teaser to a future double dip release, it seems to be getting rarer to see quality extras.
Thankfully many smaller companies have, since the dawn of the format, continued to attempt to give us something that speaks about the quality and importance of the film we have purchased. Criterion has, since the days of laserdisc, been at the top of the line in regards to their extra features. The first audio commentary I ever heard was on the laserdisc of Silence Of The Lambs. I still recall the excitement and mystery of it, I just couldn't believe that I was going to be able to listen to the filmmakers discussing their craft and memories for the whole film. We take this so much for granted now that we forget just how revolutionary the idea for an audio commentary was.
Audio Commentaries are a good place to start, in listing some of my favorite extras, and since I am mostly focusing on Euro genre films I won't go into American favorites like the cast commentary on Boogie Nights, Jodie Foster's talks or Abel Ferrara's strange but spellbinding talks on Driller Killer and King Of New York.
The best commentaries can, and should, be fun and insightful. Some can be made up just of special memories and stories. What Italian horror fan didn't rejoice to hear Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck recalling Fulci's The Beyond, or John Phillip Law talking about Bava's Diabolik with Tim Lucas? Many of the best commentaries just have the feel of a pleasant afternoon spent remembering, this can often be as eye opening as an in depth critical commentary and can be as moving as the feature itself.
Commentaries can also be combative, think of Umberto Lenzi and John Morghen's piece for Cannibal Ferox. It's as though the two men are watching separate features and we can hear years of bitter thoughts coming through our speakers. Asia Argento's at times acidic commentary for her Scarlet Diva perfectly compliments the film and places us in the position of an armchair psychologist.
Criterion remains the king of critical commentaries but Tim Lucas has delivered some splendid ones for Mario Bava's work. The upcoming Bava collections promise more Lucas talks and one can hope that future Argento discs continue to have the great work of Alan Jones helming them.
Documentary work has become more and more in-substantial on mainstream dvds, often short promotional featurette's take the place of an actual in depth look at the work. Many companies specializing in Euro obscurities, such as No-Shame, Blue Underground, Grindhouse, Shriek Show and Anchor Bay, have delivered splendid documentary work for their films. Shriek Show as been barraged with complaints about some, admittedly, shoddy work they have done on some of their discs and this has overshadowed that early on they delivered some incredible extras. Their Fulci releases for Zombie and Lizard In A Woman's Skin each contained in depth looks at the films containing dozens of interviews with surviving cast and crew members, they stand as fine examples of how much depth hands on studies of these films can provide.
Edwige Fenech had been absent not only from early dvd extras but her films took awhile to finally start appearing on the format. You would think that her early Gialo work with Sergio Martino would have been prime candidates for early release but it's just within the past few years that her films have started to make a big push into the market. No-Shame dvd has put out the majority of them and it was with them that she sat down and did a series of filmed interviews. Every fan-boy's, including myself, heart jumped into their throat when they saw that she was as beautiful as ever. All of these interviews show a charming, intelligent woman more than ready to talk about her work in everything from giallos to the sex-comedys she filmed in the seventies. No-Shame did a real service to the Euro fan community in conducting these interviews and I don't think it was a coincidence that shortly after they began to appear that Eli Roth cast her in his upcoming Hostel sequel.
A very different, but no less captivating, kind of interview appears on Grindhouse's amazing double disc set of Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust. One of the most interesting extras on the disc is an half hour plus talk with Robert Kerman. It's an incredibly open interview with a talented, seemingly disappointed man who never completely fulfilled his potential. Kerman comes across as arrogant, oddly touching and always brutally honest. The thing I like most about the interview is that it appears unedited, at one point Kerman asks the interviewer to keep something he says in and Grindhouse, to their credit, does just that. The whole disc has an outlawish anarchic feel to it, just like the film it is celebrating.
Finally the best dvd extras are the ones that hit you on a more personal level. Perhaps they point out something small you never noticed before, perhaps a simple small memory of an actor or director can give you more insight into the art of film than you ever imagined you could have. The best extras are inevitably produced by people who love film, which is why more mainstream dvd releases are becoming more and more shallow, they are viewed as promotion and nothing else and are being manufactured by businessmen not artists.
My favorite dvd extra is just about 11 minutes long and doesn't contain any great insight. It's cheaply shot on video and takes place just outside a college in Italy. The pretty casually dressed woman being interviewed outside, under a tree, would go unnoticed by most film fans but lovers of Italian horror know her, and this short interview with Cinzia Monreale on Shriek Show's dvd of Joe D'Amato's Buio Omega is one that I keep coming back to.
I can't really put my finger on what it is that draws me to this interview, at first it was the sheer novelty of seeing the woman who played the blind Emily in Fulci's The Beyond being interviewed. The talk is casual, the interview seems a bit unsure of his questions, and she seems a bit amused at the attention but also honored. She remembers Fulci and especially D'Amato fondly. At one point it seems like she wants to say something negative about a Buio Omega co-star but then just smiles and compliments them. I think the thing that gets me about this short clip is that I just know this woman really from those two films, she is forever locked in time for me in them. There is just something really special about watching this still incredibly beautiful woman who is in between classes recalling, what is for her, also a moment locked in time. I love the clip and I can forgive Shriek Show for their sometimes very careless work just for this short supplement.

This piece, scattershot as it is, was in part inspired by a recent Mobius board talk on why someone should buy two copies of Mario Bava's Kill Baby Kill just because one has an audio commentary. Speaking just for myself, a film like Kill Baby Kill is symbolic for the essence of my love for European films. It'll be a pleasure to add two copies of it to my collection and if I have to sell a couple of discs of commercial modern Hollywood films that really have no meaning for me to get it, I gladly will. Ten or fifteen years ago an audio commentary on a film like this would have been unheard of and the day that I don't support an important release in this genre that I love so much is the day that I stop loving film.....and that day is no where in sight.

My Memory Of Not Seeing Henry And June

Tim Lucas has a really nice post on Philip Kaufman’s Henry and June (1991) over at Video Watchblog that everyone should check out when they get a chance. Reading it reminded me that I really need to go back and give this film another look as it has been well over a decade since I have seen it.
I remember pretty vividly when the film came to Evansville, Indiana during my Senior year of high school. I was a huge fan of both Kaufman’s Invasion Of the Body Snatchers (1978) and The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (1988) and had greatly been anticipating Henry And June. Making the film even more appealing was the fact that I had also just discovered Miller’s Tropic Of Cancer and Nin’s Delta Of Venus the year before and was nursing a serious crush on Uma Thurman.
It was raining the Saturday afternoon I drove down to the one theater in Evansville that was willing to show NC-17 films. It was a small two screen theater in the downtown area that had been there for years and I wasn’t too familiar with it so I recall going early in order to find a parking spot. I found one on the street because parking garages have always made me nervous and ID in hand I excitedly walked into the theater for the showing.
The first thing I noticed was that there wasn’t any real promotional material up for the film and it was listed on the marquee but in much smaller letters than the other film they had showing. Walking up to the ticket counter I noticed a hand written sign that said no one under 18 would be allowed into Henry and June which I thought was odd since it was rated NC-17. I asked for a ticket and showed my ID and was promptly denied admission for being just 17.
My initial reaction to this was disbelief and I pointed out that the rating was NC-17 not NC-18 but the rather pompous kid behind the counter refused to budge. I saw some movement in the back office and asked to speak to the management figuring the kid was just being difficult. A rather stodgy older gentleman came out to see what all the fuss was about and I attempted to explain the rating and how at 17 I should be let in. At this point I was starting to panic as the film was getting ready to start and I had to be at work afterwards so I couldn’t go to a later show.
To make a long story short I never got to see Henry and June on the big screen. The manager of the theater explained he knew what the rating meant but he had decided to make the cut off age 18 instead of 17. He couldn’t articulate why but his disapproving aura made it clear he didn’t want to show the film in the first place. I walked out of the theater totally dejected and it was gone after a week.
I saw the film when it hit video but I have always suspected that my opinion of it would have always been higher had I seen it on the big screen that afternoon. It’s funny but I don’t really remember much about it…just moments really with one image of Uma Thurman walking sadly down a hallway with some sort of puppet being the most vivid. Tim’s post makes me want to watch it again and I agree with him that a Special Edition would be very nice.

Reading The Movies (A Meme)

I’ve been tagged by the always terrific Dancing Image in a meme going around focusing on the film books that have proved inspirational in the way I think and write about films. It’s a terrific idea for a meme and I am more than happy to participate. I’ve selected a dozen or so of my favorite books on cinema that have proved invaluable references to me throughout the years, and I would recommend any of them to any fellow film lover. While these choices definitely show me as a cineaste more interested in film history rather than theory or criticism, I could have easily selected any number of critical works from a Kael, Rosenbaum, Ebert or Sarris that I have left off here…I just went with my gut though and these were the books that jumped out at me as I was constructing the list.

In alphabetical order by title:

Abel Ferrara: The Moral Vision: Brad Stevens penetrating look at the films and career of Ferrara is one of the great film studies I have ever read. Carefully balancing history and criticism with one of the sharpest pens around, Stevens finds the depth and complexity in Ferrara’s work that so many others miss.

Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters: Derek Hill’s wonderfully perceptive book on a movement most haven’t even noticed yet will continue to resonate for years to come, especially when the work of folks like Sofia Coppola and Wes Anderson have had time to really sink into film history’s collective psyche.

Double Lives, Second Chances: Annette Insdorf’s tremendous book on Kieslowski’s life and career is my favorite on the much-missed Polish director. As with her studies on Truffaut, Insdorf brings an equal amount of passion and intelligence to her look at Kieslowski and her thoughts will make even the most seasoned watchers notice something new in his films after reading.

Flesh and Blood Compendium: Flesh and Flood was a daring British film magazine that stretched throughout the nineties. This massive best-of collection features many of their best interviews, reviews and studies. Just like the magazine, it is a truly ambitious and quite astonishing look at the outer edges of cinema history.

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner: Paul Sammon’s extremely exhaustive and entertaining book on the making of Blade Runner remains perhaps the finest single look at the making of a film ever written.

Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy: The ever popular “Films of” type book has been done time and time again but never has it been so meticulously researched or as beautifully presented as Mark Vieira does here.

Immoral Tales: I have written of the profound effect this Tohill and Tombs book has had on me, and it has lost none of its importance in the near fifteen years since it first hit American shores.

Mario Bava: All The Colors of The Dark: Tim Lucas’ monumental book is not only one of the great biographies ever written on a filmmaker, but it also stands as one of the great film histories ever published. Tim’s ambitious work will make you rethink not only Mario Bava's place among the great filmmakers of the 2oth Century, but also the history of film itself.

The Exorcist: BFI Modern Classics: I love these little BFI film books and Mark Kermode’s look at William Friedkin’s much-misunderstood classic is a great read.

The New Wave: James Monaco’s book had a huge impact on me when I discovered it in high school, and I still think it is the best thing ever written on the films of perhaps cinema’s most influential movement. I like it so much that I am choosing it over another favorite, Godard on Godard.

The Other Hollywood: Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osbourne's extremely entertaining and informative work on the part of film history so many like to ignore is important stuff. The first half of the book covering the earliest days of the adult film industry up through the early eighties when video take over is always eye opening and at times jaw dropping.

Truffaut by Truffaut: I have an entire book shelf dedicated to books on Truffaut and this gorgeous coffee table collection is my favorite. Told through his own words and including hundreds of rare documents and photos, this is my favorite book on my favorite director.

I would love to see the lists of the following...so consider yourself tagged, but don't feel any pressure to join in if the timing isn't right:

J.D. at Radiator Heaven.

Kate at Love Train for The Tenebrous Empire.

IbeTolis at Film for the Soul.

Amanda at Made for TV Mayhem.

Brandon Colvin at Out 1.

A Tribute To Mimsy Farmer in Argento's Four Flies on Grey Velvet

This is part of my Four Flies on Grey Velvet Tribute Week at Harry Moseby Confidential.

***A few of the quotes below contain some spoilers***

The films of Dario Argento are not usually noted for the quality of their actor's performances but it is this very thing that keeps me returning to Four Flies On Grey Velvet even though finally it is perhaps not among his greatest works.
I find Mimsy Farmer's beautifully bruised performance to be one of the best the Italian genre cinema ever offered up...a surprisingly moving and powerful turn from an actress who has always been undervalued as one of the best of her generation. Farmer's performance is totally captivating and unforgettable, specifically in the last two scenes of the film that rank along the best of any Argento ever shot.
Here is a photographic tribute to Mimsy in Four Flies on Grey Velvet along with some quotes by Mimsy herself (taken from the out of print Spaghetti Nightmares by Luca M. Palmerini and Gaetano Mistretta) and from Dario and co-star Michael Brandon as well (taken from the essential Profoundo Argento by Alan Jones). I am also including a couple of quotes from both Roger Ebert and Tim Lucas on Mimsy's performance.

"Argento must have seen More and decided that I was good at playing the part of the neurotic woman." (Farmer)

"Mimsy Farmer had made a strong impression on me in Barbet Schroeder's More." (Argento)

"I had a great time...Argento invented the Italian thriller, so in a way he did for suspense films what Sergio Leone did for Westerns, in that he neglected the characters, the psychological aspects and the story in order to focus on the effects..." (Farmer)

"The movie is Four Flies on Grey Velvet, an Italian suspense film that has very little going for it except for Mimsy Farmer. She's the slight, blond girl who starred in More, a sex-drugs-violence movie shot with a certain hypnotic effectiveness in Morocco. She also starred in a few cheapo motorcycle movies about five years ago. She looks a little like Jean Seberg, has a marvelously sculptured face and deserves to get some of those Mia Farrow roles." (Roger Ebert)

"Argento made us work hard, even 14 hours a day." (Farmer)

"There is, however, the interesting Mimsy Farmer, who has the best mouth since Joey Heatherton." (Ebert)

"As for Dario, I rather liked him, except that the way he wanted to come across as neurotic all the time seemed ridiculous to me. Perhaps he was a little neurotic-all of us are to some extent-but certainly not as much as he wanted people to believe." (Farmer)

"Working with Mimsy Farmer is not of my clearest memories. I think she purposely withdrew from me because her Nina character turned out to be the killer and she wanted to keep it real and method." (Brandon)

"I didn't establish much of a relationship with him (Argento), although we spent several hours of the day together. We weren't alone, the crew was there too, and we only talked about work." (Farmer)

"Away from the film we didn't hang out or socialize. That's what she wanted." (Brandon)

""I think he overdid it slightly with his neurosis...but basically I think he was perfectly aware of what needed to be done in order to make the film a success." (Farmer)

"How else can you put a psychotic killer across on a thematic level unless you make their actions disturbing for those watching?" (Argento)

"I remember that this (the final monologue) was another scene we shot very late at night, around 3:00am. It didn't take long to do it because Dario used three cameras to shoot the master, the American plan and the close-up simultaneously. I think that on the whole we repeated the scene two or three times at the most." (Farmer)

"As always, the sharper the picture, the more attentive we can be to matters of performance and Mimsy Farmer gives one of her most interesting and brittle performances here." (Tim Lucas at Video Watchblog, from his post on the newer German DVD release.)

"My face was made up to look very pale and my lips, by contrast, quite red." (Farmer)

"Mimsy Farmer plays Brandon's wife with the brand of porcelain calm and bared electric wiring that is her trademark; when she is revealed as the puppet-master behind her husband's carefully engineered torment (I'm not revealing anything here that wasn't revealed in the movie's stills set), she's as convincing a psychopath as Argento ever showcased. McDonagh's book reveals that FOUR FLIES was the only one of Argento's films in which the director did not stand in for his killer; she surmises that this is because Brandon's resemblance to the director satisfied his narcissistic needs, but I can well imagine the white-coiffed Ms. Farmer flashing her clenched teeth at Argento the moment he got too near her black gloves and sending him cowering to the nearest corner." (Tim Lucas again at Video Watchblog, this time in his original look at the film.)

"Argento's idea was good, he wanted the character to shoot at the other person without aiming, as though it were a mechanical gesture rather than mediatated. It's an interesting idea. I shot without looking, carried away by the memories; I talked about my past and shot randomly, without hate." (Farmer)

"Four Flies on Grey Velvet wasn't bad...the effects were good, but it's a film I don't particularly care for...I think the film did well, though, and I believe Argento achieved what he had set out to do." (Farmer)

For my older tribute to Mimsy, focusing on her entire career, please visit here.

Images From My All Time Favorite Films: David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983)

I am posting this special Friday edition of Images From My All Time Favorite Films to not only salute my favorite David Cronenberg film, but also to alert anyone who might not know that Tim Lucas' long awaited behind the scenes book on Videodrome is out. Signed copies can be ordered directly from Video Watchdog here and Amazon also carries the book. Congratulations to Tim for his new book, I can't wait to give it a read.

The Video Watchdog Digital Archive Kickstarter Campaign!

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Into the Black: Jess Franco's THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF (1962)

It's one of the most brilliant and shocking openings in horror film history.  As we are greeted with the first flickering of celluloid we see a seemingly abandoned alley only visibly lit by a lantern in the foreground.  The black and white photography is immediately jolting and that, combined with the deadening silence on the soundtrack, makes us think we are perhaps watching an expressionistic film from the silent era.  As the camera begins to pan down to the street we suddenly hear a the sound of a woman singing and the first strains of the film's audacious and dissonant jazz score.  A lady of the night comes into frame as the camera pans down even more.  She is holding a purse in one hand and a wine bottle in the other and she is clearly intoxicated.  She sings, and even twirls, as she stumbles down the street to a door as the camera lingers and the music on the soundtrack gets progressively more percussive, more intense.  The credits begin to roll as she opens her door...L'Horrible Docteur Orlof or The Awful Dr. Orlof depending on which version you are watching.  What an utterly bizarre title that is and yet even before we are even a minute into the film it seems to capture the sheer oddness of everything that is beginning to play out in front of our eyes.  The woman makes her way into her flat but our eyes are left on the alley, once again seemingly abandoned, as the credits continue to roll.  After a moment the camera begins to slowly pan up the side of the building and we notice the first edit in the film and it is almost a subliminal one.  A light appears in the window and BOOM edit number 2 but this one is jolting...even harsh.  We are suddenly in the woman's apartment and the dark oppressive lighting outside has been transformed into something brighter but somehow even more menacing.  The woman continues to sing and stumbles around her room as the camera quickly pulls back, its stillness replaced by a sudden frenzy.  She takes yet another drink and is then momentarily entranced by her own reflection in a mirror.  The music takes on a brief eerie stillness as our unnamed heroine shuffles to her closet where, upon opening, she is greeted by a truly horrifying sight as the soundtrack swells into a deafening shriek.  Another jolting cut, a zoom-in on a man in the closet, his eyes bulging and lifeless.  Is he wearing a mask or is he horribly disfigured?  We only get a glance before another cut, this time a close-up of our female victim before another edit takes us back into the room where we witness a brutal attack.  A fight ensues, the man pushes the woman towards her window and then we are suddenly back to our spot on the street looking up.  The edits then take on a frenzied rapid fire approach cross-cutting rapidly between the fight, a shocked boy staring out of his apartment window and a man awakened by the sounds of his neighbor screaming.  We see the lamp in her apartment knocked over in the scuffle as the as of yet unnamed assailant renders her unconscious and carries her possibly lifeless body out of her apartment back to our abandoned alleyway.  Our attacker wanders aimlessly down the alley way until the sound of cane tapping against a nearby wall alerts him to follow.  We see a stranger in the distance waiting and then leading this mysterious monster, and our doomed lady, down another isolated alley way into the deep dark black of the night. 

 

 

While Gritos en la noche, or The Awful Dr. Orlof as it is more universally recognized, wasn't the first film that Jesus Franco Manera had directed it was the work that would forcefully announce him as one of the most daring and distinctive filmmakers of the sound era.  Viewed now more than fifty years after its original 1962 release date The Awful Dr. Orlof stills feels as perverse and shocking as ever.  While it is much more controlled and subtle, mostly due to the rigid censorship that was in place in the early sixties, than Franco's most personal later works it remains one of the most progressive horror films ever made.  As Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs would write in their indispensable Immoral Tales, "there was nothing old hat about this dank masterpiece, it pulsed with a new freshness, ransacking the annals of cinema with a deviant vigor."

 

 

I must admit that I have never felt the remaining portion of The Awful Dr. Orlof ever quite matches the absolute genius that is on display during its opening few minutes.  Aspects of the film have a certain procedural quality that I don't completely respond to but there is no question that it is one of the most important films in Jess Franco's unbelievably prolific career and one of the most important films of the sixties.  While actors Howard Vernon, Diana Lorys and Richard Valle (so unforgettable as the monstrous Morpho) all give star-making turns my favorite aspects of the production remain Franco's daring direction (which transcends the film's incredibly low-budget and chaotic shooting schedule in every shot), the incredible black and white photography of Godofredo Pacheco (which manages to tip its hat to decades old classics while being totally transgressive) and the ferocious cutting of editor Alfonso Santacana (who would put many of the skills he had learned working with Franco to iconic use a couple of years down the road for Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars).  Despite its budget, and forgiving some continuity errors that were caused by the varying versions of the film prepared, The Awful Dr. Orlof is an incredibly well-made and effective film.  It remains perhaps the easiest, and most natural, entry-way into the world of Jess Franco even though ultimately I think he would perfect many of the films themes and stylistic touches in later works. 

 

 

The Awful Dr. Orlof has recently been released as a splendid special edition DVD and Blu-ray by Redemption/Kino Lorber.  Containing the more explicit French-language cut (with the English dub offered as a separate audio-track) this newly struck print of The Awful Dr. Orlof looks quite good.  Some print damage is apparent throughout the film but I have never seen a version of this work that is visually as detailed and intoxicating.  Like their other most recent Franco releases (A Virgin Among the Living Dead and Nightmares Come at Night) The Awful Dr. Orlof comes armed with some really splendid extras including a David Gregory directed and Elijah Drenner produced interview with the much-missed Franco and a terrific new near 20 minute documentary on the film from director Daniel Gouyette.  A trailer for the film, and other Franco titles, is also on hand as well as a photo gallery and the very moving Gouyette work Homage to Jess that also graces the other new Franco releases.  Last but certainly not least we have a wonderful new Tim Lucas audio-commentary, that is a wonderfully detailed and an essential listen for fans of the film, Franco and horror-cinema in general.  If I have one complaint about this new special edition release of The Awful Dr. Orlof it is that it doesn't contain the longer alternate Spanish version that is mentioned numerous times on the film's supplements.  Otherwise this is a stellar new release and a major upgrade for an undeniably important film. 

 

-Jeremy Richey, 2013-