1980s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

[Tommaso]

I think Kalat's article isn't very fair to Ottinger. While I completely share his criticism about the lack of dvds available to a general audience outside of art institutions or very rich people, as the prices she charges are beyond most normal people's means, it is not quite true anymore. Her last two films, "Prater" and "Unter Schnee" got released by 'normal' labels in Germany and sell at a normal price. Unfortunately, these are not her strongest works. Her website says that new dvds of "Bildnis einer Trinkerin" and "Dorian Gray" are in preparation, although it must be assumed that they will again be self-released, and are thus probably forbiddingly expensive again.

However, when Kalat claims that " by relegating her works to screenings at women’s studies courses, Ottinger self-selects her audience to people just like her, who already share her viewpoint", then that's simply not true. There were quite a few Ottinger retrospectives in German cinemas last year in order to celebrate her 70th birthday (open to everyone, of course), many of her films were shown on TV (and have been regularly since the 1980s, though not exactly often), and she's also a highly respected and well known person because of her many art exhibitions and installations. And her works today have little to do with her origins; the feminist stance has more or less been replaced by a more general study of humanity, through her interest in ethnography and ritual. I'm not even sure that a 'feminist audience' would necessarily "share her viewpoint"; she got herself into a lot of trouble with some feminists in the 1970s and 80s because of her interest in extravagant style and perhaps fetishism (see especially "Madame X", but also "Bildnis" and "Dorian Gray"). But in general I think Kalat's info is not quite up to date, as he mostly quotes from statements she seems to have made in the 1980s, and I have the feeling that things have changed a bit for her now.

Her unwillingness to compromise for me is one of her greatest assets, but in this respect she is no different to Peter Greenaway or Derek Jarman (I think these two filmmakers are perhaps the best comparisons with Ottinger, at least for her early films), and what she says about the German institutions' choices for supporting/financing films is undoubtedly true. If she says "I have nothing in common with Schlöndorff and his conventional, conservative literary adaptations", well: in Germany this was/is very daring to say, and I'm happy that someone has said it.

Yes, Ottinger's work is undoubtedly complex, but as Satori indicates, if you can 'get' Rivette, than Ottinger shouldn't be 'difficult' either. I find her works mostly astonishingly approachable, actually, perhaps because I don't care too much about what they actually 'mean'. But the ideas, images and performances are so original and striking that these films are simply complete 'sensual' pleasures. Very, very original cinema.

[The Narrator Returns]

Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen, 1984) The first time I watched this, I really liked it, but wasn't overly impressed. Watching it again, it was funnier than I remembered, and I was more willing to go along with its modest charms. Provided Hannah and Her Sisters isn't an unexpected disaster, Allen's streak from Zelig to Radio Days is shaping up to be an all-time great for any director. I'm hoping September is up to snuff so I can extend that streak into Crimes and Misdemeanors, though I fully realize that outcome is highly unlikely, given that not even extreme Woody Allen apologists have any use for September.

(Full disclosure, the reason for this revisit was a trip to Carnegie Deli that day. I was greatly amused to see that they had a "Woody Allen sandwich" on the menu, and I felt like ordering it out of principle.)

[knives]

At worst September is still a good if not great film. If you liked the comedy stylings of Another Woman you should get along with it too. It is also really beautiful.

[domino harvey]

Broadway Danny Rose is one of the most rewatchable Allen films. TNR, I was like you at first too-- I enjoyed it, but that was about all. But now I revisit it every Thanksgiving and it feels like an old friend-- there's so much warmth and optimism. I know Allen is a warmer director than he gets credit for, but this is one of his most decent films, and a great holiday tradition. Also, how great is it that Woody Allen was nominated for Best Director for this movie? What a wonderful left-field but apt choice from the director's branch for an underrated classic like this

[Shrew]

I just finished my Woody Allen viewing for the 80s with A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, which is far and away his worst of the decade. Even then, there's actually a lot to like in the film, like Jose Ferrer's pompous professor (if only he could have been as much energy to Brooks's To Be or Not to Be), the Willis cinematography and Loquasto costuming, and the way sex is continually built up and deflated. But the double tonal shifts of the ludicrous ending are like braking for a red light only to be rear-ended and pushed into the intersection where you immediately get slammed from both sides by oncoming traffic. It doesn't help that my mind leaps to the infamously awful Star Trek: TNG episode "Sub Rosa," which if you haven't seen because you aren't a nerd, read the damage here.

I agree with Knives that September is good not great. I'd put it ahead of Interiors but still a good deal below Another Woman as far as Allen's Bergmany dramas go. The look is great and the opening scene is really promising, but the Waterston/Wiest dynamic isn't nearly as interesting as everything else in the film and drags it down.

My own top Allen pic is probably Stardust Memories, because I'm a sucker for the b/w Gordon films and I want to beat up on everyone's Fellini loves too. But I'll probably have room Hannah, Crimes, and Broadway Danny Rose, plus maybe even Radio Days and Another Women. My current list is a little skimpy, and judging by the state of most of the 80s comedies I've been through of late, I'm tempted to pull a nothing and vote for Any 4 Episodes of Cheers.

[pandroid7]

So, I’m a longtime lurker and first time poster. Be gentle!

Anyway, a lot of my 80s project has been spent reviewing films I loved as a kid, along with films I’ve never seen but always wanted to see. I think viewing films in the former category has been far more interesting, as it’s always cool to see how your opinion of a movie changes over time.

The first film I want to talk about is Au Revoirs Les Enfants. Now, I had kind of a weird, French culture obsessed family. As a result, I saw a lot of French films from different eras when I was wee one. Au Revoir Les Enfants was one that kept my rapt attention above all. I watched it countless times the first year I saw it (almost more than I watched the more lighthearted Ferris Beuller’s Day Off that same year), and while part of the attraction was the fact that my elementary school self thought the boy who played Julien was adorable, a big part of why I found it entrancing was that it was a war story from a kid’s perspective and I was a kid at the time. I don’t think I fully realized this until seeing it as an adult though. It really is beautiful and relatable how this boy sees war in the microcosm of making a friend at boarding school, only to lose him because he’s deemed “the enemy” by parameters he doesn’t fully understand. I think it definitely made me understand war more than a lot of textbook articles did around that time in my childhood, and I thank Louis Malle for that. It was really interesting to revisit it and finally understand why I was so enthralled with it at such a young age.

Another film that I rewatched was Sixteen Candles. This had a really different effect on me. I LOVED this movie as a kid (note the previous mention of Ferris Beuller; I thoroughly loved John Hughes early on), but completely hated it as an adult. I’m a woman who was raised with pretty healthy gender role ideas (be how you want to be and fuck all the rest), but I guess grade school age was too early for me to understand the super creepy rape implications in this movie (as it should be, I guess; 11 is too young to be fully aware of that stuff yet). I mean, Jake Ryan blatantly says “I could violate her ten different ways if I wanted to” when Caroline is passed out. Subsequently, he hands her over to “the Geek” (Anthony Michael Hall), strongly implying that he has free reign over her passed out body. It’s really uncomfortable, and being violated as a young woman seems to be a pervasive theme, even evidenced from smaller, less invasive scenarios like Sam’s grandma freely touching her newly developed breasts. The whole film had this tone and it was really disappointing and shudder-inducing to watch as an adult! I still stand by John Hughes, but NOT THIS ONE!

[knives]

I agree with Knives that September is good not great. I'd put it ahead of Interiors but still a good deal below Another Woman as far as Allen's Bergmany dramas go. The look is great and the opening scene is really promising, but the Waterston/Wiest dynamic isn't nearly as interesting as everything else in the film and drags it down.

My own top Allen pic is probably Stardust Memories, because I'm a sucker for the b/w Gordon films and I want to beat up on everyone's Fellini loves too. But I'll probably have room Hannah, Crimes, and Broadway Danny Rose, plus maybe even Radio Days and Another Women. My current list is a little skimpy, and judging by the state of most of the 80s comedies I've been through of late, I'm tempted to pull a nothing and vote for Any 4 Episodes of Cheers.

I've still got two more Allen's to go, but he'll probably get three on my list. Definitely two in the top ten. But as far as straight comedies go the ZAZ Ruthless People is one I hope makes others' lists too. It's a pretty brutal updating of o. Henry's The Ransom of Red Chief. It goes for a few obvious dark comedy jokes and seems more fitting for Devito's output as a director than theirs. It punks out slightly at the end with basically everyone getting their happy ending, but until that last second it is stunning.

[zedz]

However, when Kalat claims that " by relegating her works to screenings at women’s studies courses, Ottinger self-selects her audience to people just like her, who already share her viewpoint", then that's simply not true. There were quite a few Ottinger retrospectives in German cinemas last year in order to celebrate her 70th birthday (open to everyone, of course), many of her films were shown on TV (and have been regularly since the 1980s, though not exactly often), and she's also a highly respected and well known person because of her many art exhibitions and installations.

For the record, my encounters with Ottinger have been exclusively in the context of screenings / seasons organized or facilitated by the Goethe Institut, which surely constitutes 'establishment' endorsement. Only one of those screenings was in a vaguely 'feminist' context (Dorian Gray as part of a survey of work by contemporary women directors).

Reading Kalat's piece, I'm pleased to say that my memory of Dorian Gray As Represented in the Popular Press was nothing like the film he described. If pushed for a running time, I would have guessed around 100 to 110 minutes. It was such a cavalcade of Stuff I'd Never Seen Before that I'd never have guessed it was two and a half hours long. Likewise, that amazing opera sequence runs in my memory about five to ten minutes, not two whole reels, and I can still feel the tingle of astonishment when the opera house curtains parted and we see a vast, real landscape, with the performers tiny figures miles away from us. Filmed theatre opening up into pure cinema.

[domino harvey]

Welcome to the board, pandroid7. I agree with your comments on Sixteen Candles-- I never saw it as a kid, and as an adult, it was... pretty icky, really. As seen in our Hughes discussion, he can hit his target on occasion, but despite the legacy this is a hard one for me to see in a positive light. At least Pretty in Pink has Duckie

[colinr0380]

I haven't seen Sixteen Candles, but Family Guy picked up on similar elements about that film too!

[ohtani's jacket]

Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies) -- I liked the general idea here of the film being like a series of snapshots and fragmented memories, but the singing was a bit much after a while, and I did wonder whether the film's aesthetic dulled the impact of the kitchen sink style drama. Davies did manage to capture the collective memory of 40s and 50s working class Liverpool, but even that was no great revelation. I guess what I'm saying is I've seen the working class drama aspects done better.

Damnation (Bela Tarr) -- I really wanted to like this as I do like a lot of Tarr's films, but this was 30 minutes of story stretched over two hours, and even Tarr admits that the plot wasn't particularly important to him. Did he really need so many slow pans, or to linger on a shot for so long? There were some beautiful compositions in this, but I couldn't justify liking it.

The Times of Harvey Milk (Rob Epstein) -- Fascinating doco about Harvey Milk, human rights activist and the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in the state of California. I have to admit I knew nothing of Harvey Milk before watching this, so I probably found it a lot more captivating than people who know the story, but if fulfilled the basic requirements I have from a documentary which are that it interests me and I learn something from it.

Shanghai Blues (Tsui Hark) -- Slapstick romantic comedy done at the usual frenetic pace. I was deep in the third act of this when I realised that I really loved it and the ending was one of the great "feel good" moments of the project thus far. I've always loved screwball comedies and while it's hard to say this is a screwball without knowing if the dialogue has the same wit in Cantonese, the plot was every bit as contrived as the best screwballs and I loved it.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman) -- I'm going to repeat myself here and say Kaufman was good at epics. Despite the running length there was scarcely a dull moment here. I'm not sure there was anything of tremendous great substance either, but I haven't read the novel it was based on so I can't say for sure whether that's true of the source material. I enjoyed it, but the film's philosophies didn't really grip me and neither did its take on politics or sexuality. Basically, I was left thinking it was a well made film.

Typhoon Club (Shinji Somai) -- Great film. I wasn't sure what to expect from this going in, as for some reason I thought it would be more esoteric. The Breakfast Club comparisons are way off in my opinion. What impressed me was how fearless Somai was in presenting not only teenage sexuality, but the darker elements of adolescence, particularly mental health issues. This is in direct contrast to the idealised image of adolescence that is so often portrayed in Japanese television dramas or in anime series. I also liked Somai's sparse, minimalist style and look forward to seeing more of his work.

Farewell to the Land (Mitsuo Yanagimachi) -- Another great Japanese film from the decade. As the father of a young child, I found the opening almost unbearable, and the story that sprawled out of it was a captivating and messy family drama that almost felt biblical at times in terms of the conflict between brothers. The ending was as tragic as the beginning and left me with a lot to ponder. Yanagimachi is a guy I've never heard of, and I live in Japan and have watched a huge amount of Japanese films. Another guy I hope to see more of before the project is over. Recommendations please!

City on Fire (Ringo Lam) -- fun HK action flick. You know what you're getting with this one -- a breezy, easy-to-watch popcorn flick that satisfies the action taste buds. Pretty much what I hoped it would be, and satisfied an itch to watch something easy.

[Gropius]

I almost posted this in the OK thread:

Weather Diary 1 (George Kuchar, 1986)

This is great. Kuchar is better known for the lurid underground melodramas he made with his brother (and solo) in the 60s and 70s (a touchstone for John Waters, Guy Maddin, etc), but he later turned to introspective video diaries. Here, he spends his holiday (as he frequently did) in a run-down motel in El Reno, Oklahoma, timidly chasing storms from the confines of his room (he didn't drive), watching the Weather Channel on TV, and complaining about everything in his signature Bronx drawl. His interactions with other humans are minimal, although he is followed by a resident dog. What could have been just a dull home movie is, in Kuchar's eccentric hands, a fascinating cinematic document, by turns broodingly melancholic and vulgarly scatological (a touch of Beckett, perhaps), and he brings out the aesthetic qualities of VHS.

(Viewable on YouTube, which is okay, since it's pretty lo-fi anyway.)

[bamwc2]

Enter if you dare to see a list so macabre and twisted with horror lurking behind every corner. With each title more horrific than the last can you survive the terror that is My Spooktacular Skewering Log of 80s of Madness!:



The Children (Max Kalmanowicz, 1980): What begins as a group of small town doe eyed kids singing "Hail to the Bus Driver" quickly turns to terror as a their afternoon ride drives through a chemical cloud that transforms them into undead monsters who suck the life out of the living with a single burning touch. Initially Sheriff Hart (Gil Rogers) investigates the occurrence as a missing persons case when he discovers the bus sans any occupants. John Freemont (Martin Shakar), the father of one of the little monsters, aids the sheriff in his search, but when the horribly mutilated bodies begin showing up, it becomes clear that something is very wrong. Although the film has some intriguing themes that it could have explored with the industrial accident that birthed the horror, it instead decides to go the route of introducing morally suspect characters and picking them off one by one. Evil children can be a frightening tool in the hands of the right team, but little works here. Supposedly this one was one of the biggest releases of 1980 before settling in to a much deserved obscurity.

Christmas Evil (Lewis Jackson, 1980): Brandon Maggart stars as the criminally insane Christmas loving Harry Stalding who spends Christmas Eve dressed as Santa Claus and alternates between bringing presents to children and killing those on the naughty list. It seems that Harry's problems started early. When he was a boy he witnessed his father dressed as Santa performing cunnilingus on his mother. Somehow this experience, along with his older brother's assertion that Santa isn't real set him off on this path. I watched this one at the recommendation of Domino, and though I can't give it a positive review, it definitely was a more interesting film than either of the Silent Night, Deadly Night films. Maggart does an fairly decent job occupying his role with the fairly dramatic tonal shifts in his character, but there's not too much of interest plot wise. However, I really dug the ending where...

Spoiler

while his van was being chased by the police Harry hit a ramp and began flying away a la Santa's slay to the sound of jingling bells.

City of the Living Dead (Lucio Fulci, 1980): Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy starts off here, examining the story of a town haunted by the suicide of a priest. It seems that when he hanged himself, the priest deconsecrated the cemetery where he did the act, and opened a portal to Hell in his crypt. Soon the town of Dunwich (gee, where have I heard of that one before?) is overrun with slow moving undead who are there merely to murder the living. I have to say that I dug this one more than I did the middle part of the trilogy, The Beyond, though I can't exactly say why.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow (Frank De Felitta, 1981): In one of the most popular made for TV films of all time, a group of southerns led by postal worker Otis P. Hazelrigg (Charles Durning) kill the mentally challenged Bubba Ritter (Larry Drake, who would also spend the latter half of the decade playing another mentally retarded character on TV's LA Law) after they mistakenly believe that he murdered a young girl. The quartet of killers assassinate poor Bubba as he hides in the shell of a scarecrow hanging in his mother's field. Soon after they are acquitted mysterious scarecrows begin appearing in their own fields. Is this the work of Bubba from beyond the grave? Though the film is far from great, it's still might be the best on one this list. Durning turns in a typically great performance as a a pedophile/murderer with a fixation on Bubba's playmate.

Deadly Blessing (Wes Craven, 1981): A stern rural religious community called the Hittites is by Isaiah Schmidt (Ernest Brognine) and torments those surrounding them with talk of an evil incubus corrupting the land. Sure enough a trio of buxom coeds (including a pre-fame Sharon Stone) rents out a farmhouse connected to Hittite land, leading Isaiah to step up his reign of terror. Soon a series of grizzly murders begin taking place in the community. Is Isaiah behind the killings or could he be right about the town's curse of a demonic spirit? Today the film is mainly remembered as the early lull in Wes Craven's oeuvre between The Hills Have Eyes and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Sadly this seems apt. Borgnine does a great job in his role, but otherwise there's little worth remarking on in this one.

Demons (Lamberto Bava, 1985): Preceding Bigas Luna's Anguish by two years, the Bava Jr.'s film tells the story of a horror film being shown at a movie theater where real murders begin occurring. This time the film is a zombie flick that transforms one of its viewers into the walking dead, setting off zombie dominoes that result in the theater being overwhelmed by the walking dead. Unfortunately for the survivors, they find themselves bricked in behind the doors that they had originally entered through. Not too surprising when you realize that they were all given the special invitations to attend by a silent man in a golden Phantom of the Opera mask. Sadly Jr. doesn't have the charms of his father's best work, though there was some interesting material here. I see that there was a sequel. God help me, I'm gonna track it down.

Friday the 13th (Sean S. Cunningham, 1980): I'm not sure how, but I somehow managed to have seen every other film in this franchise without viewing more than a few minutes of the original. Now that that's rectified, all I can say is 'meh'. It's a pretty poor franchise, and this one, famous for being the only one that's missing Jason Voorhees, stands out only for that reason. Otherwise it's pretty much the same formula as the others: a group of horny teenagers travel to Camp Crystal Lake where they get picked off one by one until there's only one left standing. I suppose that this is one of the better examples of that genre, but that's not saying much...

Grotesque (Joe Tornatore, 1988): A group of punk rockers invade a family home whose patriarch is a special effects makeup artist. I'm sorry to say this, but the only thing scarey about this Roger Corman produced flick, is the fact that its the career nadir of Tab Hunter and Linda Blair. Both have some pretty low entries in their imdb pages, but this is likely the worst for each.

The House By the Cemetery (Lucio Fulci, 1981): Since I've already seen and didn't care for The Beyond, I decided to skip rewatching it and instead move on to the final entry in The Gates of Hell trilogy. This one tells the story of a college professor played by Paolo Malco, who moves his family to a house that was once occupied by notorious serial killer Dr. Freudstein(!). He's there to take over for his colleague who has mysteriously committed suicide, but his son's psychic connection to a local town girl warns him about the dangers that lurk in the basement. It's easily the most self-contained of all the films in the series, but keeping all of the action confined to the basement struck me as a mistake.

House of Long Shadows (Pete Walker, 1983): Desi Arnaz Jr. stars as Kenneth Magee, a novelist who
bets his editor $20,000 that he can write a novel like Wuthering Heights in 24 hours. Taking him up on the bet, his editor lends him the use of his abandoned manor, which leads him to meet the gorgeous and mysterious ingenue Mary Norton (Julie Peasgood) and a quartet of mysterious individuals who are the real stars of the film (Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine). This quickly devolves into a comedic murder mystery, but is there really a killer on the loose or is this all an attempt to keep him from winning the bet? I for one didn't care. Despite overflowing with talent, there wasn't a single thing keeping my attention here. The film was supposed to be played for laughs, but there was nothing funny. The masters of horror here were merely going through the motions, and the ending was profoundly stupid.

Human Lanterns (Chung Sun, 1982): This awesome Hong Kong martial arts/horror/revenge centers around Chun Fang's (Lo Lieh) quest for vengeance against Master Lung (Tony Liu Yong) for reasons that are never fully explained. He plans to trick Master Tan (Chen Kuan Tai), a fellow provincial governor, into killing Lung by framing him for the abduction of his wife. Unbeknownst to Tan, Fang has already kidnapped Lung's wife and sister and, well, skinned them alive to make lanterns out of their epidermis. It's pretty sick and brutal stuff, but so very well done. The fight scenes between the three principles are handled very well, and the Lo Lieh does an outstanding job bringing the creepy Fang to life.

The Keep (Michael Mann, 1983): Michael Mann's bizarre Nazi themed horror film tells the story of a a battalion of soldiers from the Third Reich who take over a remote provincial castle occupied by superstitious caretakers and crosses lining the bricks. One crucifix made out of pure silver capture's a grunt's eye, and when another soldier helps him to pry it loose, the two unleash a golem that has been locked away since the middle ages. The golem is predictably unhappy by when he learns about the circumstances of his return, and goes on a protracted Nazi killing spree. I'm unsure if this one was genius or terrible. It's such an odd story and so heavily stylized that it seems unlikely to occupy anything but one of those to extremes.

New York Ripper (Lucio Fulci, 1982): Jack Hedley stars as NYC detective Lt. Fred Williams, a tough as nails cop who's on the trail of a serial killer of women in his city. Coming from Fulci you can probably guess the levels of blood, gore, and sexualized violence in the flick. Yep, it's pretty grimy stuff. However, it's also a fairly good giallo thriller. There's little novel here, but what it does, it does well.

Night of the Demons (Kevin Tenney, 1988): A group of horny teenagers (who could have guessed?) awaken a demon that possesses a haunted stretch of land every Halloween. This broad group of archetypes wreak havoc when staring into a mirror brings the demon out to possess the body of Suzanne (screamqueen Linnea Quigley), who quickly spreads the demonic possession to her fellow teens through kisses and murders. The plot is dumb as hell, but there's a lot of interesting things going on here, not the least of which is the unique cinematography and visuals effects. This was really better than it had any right to be.

Poison for the Fairies (Carlos Enrique Taboada, 1984): Flavia (Elsa María Gutiérrez) a ten year old new to her school in Mexico where she has no friends. Verónica (Ana Patricia Rojo), the only child who is nice to her is also a self-professed witch who leads Flavia through a series of adventures that begin innocently enough, but soon take a sinister turn that will end in tragedy. Both of the child actors do a decent enough job in their roles. I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Return of the Living Dead (Dan O'Bannon, 1985): How's this or a premise? In the 1950s an army test site in Pittsburgh experimenting with chemical compounds stumbled upon a gas that reanimated corpses. They stop the zombies by putting them in containment units, but a young man named George Romero finds out about the events. His cult classic Night of the Living Dead is based on a true story, but with enough changes made to protect him. In reality, the dead are sentient, intelligent, and can communicate with the living. You can't kill them by damaging the brain. Their hunger from brains? As it turns out, their in constant pain from feeling their own bodies decomposing, but eating brains alleviates the pain. Of course a pair of dufuses accidentally open one of the pods, releasing the undead and leading to an entire cemetery of reanimated corpses that go after a group of punk rockers (including a continually nude Linnea Quigley). This one was soooo much fun.

Rhythm of a Crime (Zoran Tadic, 1980): Ivica (Ivica Vidovic) needs a flatmate and ends up subletting his place to Fabijan (Fabijan Sovagovic), an eccentric mathematician who spends his days crunching statistics about murder. Eventually Fabijan lets Ivica in on his research, which he claims can be used to predict future occurrences of murder. Fabijan's algorithm seems to be full proof until it's not, but what lengths will he go to in order to set everything back on course. Imdb lists this as a horror film, but it's more of a pitch black comedy. Either way, it's a very well done flick and an easy recommendation.

Scorpion Thunderbolt (Godfrey Ho, 1988): So this one has an interesting history. It began it's life as the 1983 Grudge Of The Sleepwalking Woman, a Hong Kong horror film about a woman who is half human and half snake god. Despite her best efforts to live her life as an urban reporter and stay in human form, a mysterious flute player triggers her transformation which result in her killing the men she's with. However, the film was re-edited for western audiences with a white star à la Godzilla. The result is in incoherent mess; even more of an incoherent mess than the original. Now Richard Harrison's American martial artist finds himself fighting some sort of evil cabal headed by a topless witch that apparently control snake lady from afar. Let me repeat myself, NOTHING HERE MAKES ANY SENSE. Some parts are kind of fun, but it just felt like to much of a task to understand how one scene related to any other in the film.

Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzik, 1983): Angela Baker (Felissa Rose) is the only survivor from a speedboat accident that killer her father and sibling. Now a few years later she finds herself a nearly mute teenager, painfully shy and unable to make more than rudimentary connections with those around her. Soon after arriving, a series of people who have crossed Angela die one by one. Is she behind the killings or could it be the boy that wants to defend her? Might it be the boy that has a crush on her? Like Friday the 13th, it's another by the numbers slasher flick set at camp where the naughty kids get punished. However, by the time the dust settles, the formula of who gets to survive is a bit inverted. The film is also memorable for quite possibly being the most homoerotic horror film I've ever seen with no female nudity, but a plethora of bare male teenage butts including one that gets kissed by another boy. Heck, even...

Spoiler

the killer is a transexual who apparently sleeps with a boy before beheading him and revealing her penis to the camera in all its prosthetic glory.

Time Walker (Tom Kennedy, 1982): Another abomination from the Corman factory finds an Egyptology professor who unknowingly awakes the mummy of an alien through x-raying its' remains. Inside they find jeweled balls that get passed around to the students, but send the mummy and his toxic touch out looking for them. The film is all kinds of awful, but it at least it ends on a positive note: the promise of a sequel that never materialized.

[YnEoS]

Scorpion Thunderbolt (Godfrey Ho, 1988): So this one has an interesting history. It began it's life as the 1983 Grudge Of The Sleepwalking Woman, a Hong Kong horror film about a woman who is half human and half snake god. Despite her best efforts to live her life as an urban reporter and stay in human form, a mysterious flute player triggers her transformation which result in her killing the men she's with. However, the film was re-edited for western audiences with a white star à la Godzilla. The result is in incoherent mess; even more of an incoherent mess than the original. Now Richard Harrison's American martial artist finds himself fighting some sort of evil cabal headed by a topless witch that apparently control snake lady from afar. Let me repeat myself, NOTHING HERE MAKES ANY SENSE. Some parts are kind of fun, but it just felt like to much of a task to understand how one scene related to any other in the film.

Director Godfrey Ho and Producer Joseph Lai made a whole slew of these cut and paste movies, often taking old obscure action movies they distributed in the 1970s and flooding the western VHS market with their updated versions. They're particularly well known for the large volume of ninja films they made with this method, where they could film a few talking scenes with western actors, often on a telephone, replace them with stuntmen in colorful ninja costumes for all the action scenes and edit it all into the plot line of some other film.

The quality can vary pretty widely, since sometimes the source film isn't particularly interesting, or it is interesting but the newly shot ninja footage just slows things down. But a good number of them manage to take some pretty wild source material and further build on it to incoherent extremes. Two of my favorites are Ninja Terminator (1985) and Ninja Operation - Knight & Warrior (1987) (aka Ninja Silent Assassin aka Black Ninja). Another interesting feature, is since these were never released locally in Hong Kong, and depend on dubbing for their plots to pretend to make sense, sometimes there are instances where one language dub is preferred over another by fans. So for example the the French Dub of Hitman the Cobra became pretty popular on youtube and inspired some fan remakes and remixes.

[Mr Sausage]

Demons (Lamberto Bava, 1985): Preceding Bigas Luna's Anguish by two years, the Bava Jr.'s film tells the story of a horror film being shown at a movie theater where real murders begin occurring. This time the film is a zombie flick that transforms one of its viewers into the walking dead, setting off zombie dominoes that result in the theater being overwhelmed by the walking dead. Unfortunately for the survivors, they find themselves bricked in behind the doors that they had originally entered through. Not too surprising when you realize that they were all given the special invitations to attend by a silent man in a golden Phantom of the Opera mask. Sadly Jr. doesn't have the charms of his father's best work, though there was some interesting material here. I see that there was a sequel. God help me, I'm gonna track it down.

The man in the mask was actually played by (then assistant) director Michele Soavi, who would go on to direct the third (somewhat unofficial) sequel: The Church. Argento and Bava were originally planning to make a third Demons film, but when Lamberto left the project over creative disputes, Soavi took over and they left 'Demons' off the title. The script is full of problems, the result of too many hands (and an overbearing Argento), but it's a stunner, visually. Unlike Bava, Soavi was an ambitious and creative filmmaker, and he fills the movie with captivating visuals (my favourite: a man rips out his own heart and holds it up, still beating, against the blood-red skyline at sundown). If any of these movies are worth a watch, it's this one. It has an interesting score by Goblin and Philip Glass, too.

[domino harvey]

bamwc2 (We need to figure out a more palatable nickname for you-- Bam? Bammy? Water Closet Number Two?), luckily Demons 2 is far more interesting (I wrote it up somewhere in this thread or the horror thread, can't recall which), even if it has a lot of the same problems. Night of the Demons and Sleepaway Camp are two of the most abrasively ugly films I've ever seen, especially in dialog and character. Just horrid films, though they both have a strong cult following. I'm sort of with you on the New York Ripper (which I know Sausage has come out strong against in the past), which comes off as more exploitative than misogynistic (a fine line, perhaps, but notable in tone and intent I think), though I don't think Last House on the Left has the same issues I Spit On Your Grave has in terms of audience surrogate-ness. Fulci's "Gates of Hell" series are all awful to my sensibilities and I'm sure I tore them a new one years ago in the Horror Thread. Agreed that Return of the Living Dead is surprisingly fun, Deadly Blessing is the worst Wes Craven film I've seen (Now that is a real barometer for bad), and I'm sorry you didn't get more out of Christmas Evil.

[bamwc2]

Sausage, thanks for the info! I've actually seen The Church before, but had no idea about it's relation to the Bava flicks.

[bamwc2]

Oh, and Domino, you can always call me Brian. I wish that there was a good story behind the handle, but it was just the start of a randomly generated email address that was assigned to me when I joined the forum. I used to post on the older Criterion forums under a couple of different names, but the only one that I remember right now is NihilismCynicismSarcasmOrgasm. I'm sure that a forum of film nerds will have no trouble recognizing that reference.

[knives]

It's really surprising how close we are coming to the end. I nearly feel like sending one in, but who knows?
The Terrorizers
If nothing else this is a tremendously beautiful film. I think it leans a little too heavily on its ellipsis to lift up what isn't the strongest narrative ever. That's fine though since when they do hit the right mark like the cut to the camera or the entire blue music video sequence the effect is sublime. The more actively conflicted elements particularly with the white coats are probably the weakest portions both with the writing and the editing. Additionally this is clearly a younger man's film with the conflicts feeling more trite than in YiYi despite the film making a bigger deal about them. Yang doesn't seem to yet have the courage to be unassuming. That's all far more negative than my overall feelings on the film, but it has so much good going for it and was built up in such a massive way that even the smallest bad elements seem larger than they actually are.

The DVD everyone was talking about is a great transfer with excellent (in so far as grammar and spelling are proper) subtitles leading me to believe it is a direct rip of the Bluray.

Burst City
This has all of the wonderful weirdness and visual interest of Electric Dragon V80 000, but improbably betters it with a truly amazing sense of purpose. The events (story is pushing things slightly) seems relevant outside of the film itself leaving the sense that in all of this heightened show Ishii is dealing with some very real stuff. That said the rock music and grisly editing are what keeps it at the top.

Diva
It's really unfortunate that French B movies aren't as popular an import as their Italian counterparts (though I suppose Luc Besson is trying his best) because they're always really fascinating even when terribly awful. Fortunately this isn't with a nice cheap style probably inspired by and bettering Serpico. It's not a mature or deep themes breathing with themes or experimentation. It doesn't need to be though given how beautiful the film is working like a classical noir yet with a truly ingenious use of colour instead of black and white. There's a little Chabrol in the way the violence is played with a cryptic humour (the death at the carnival is absolutely hilarious) and that's one area where the style doesn't bring a uniqueness to the text. Even as a Chabrol riff (who could have thought that possible) though it survives as a great one. This is all very guarded on my part because though it's clearly a great piece of trash it doesn't really have that extra push which the best of these old school small films have making it more than a cool film. Even the plays at art commentary with the Diva's press conference and the like are broad enough to slip into platitudes by mistake.

Twilight Zone: The Movie
Fares fairly well as far as omnibuses go. Even the weakest segment, Spielberg seems a case of reality affecting the art. Ignoring that all of the segments are pretty good with Dante's in particular being a great example of an auteur manipulating a subject to his will. It even manages to be legitimately suspenseful entirely due to mood. George Miller seems to be working on a similar plane, but doesn't quite reach the sustained tension of Dante though I suspect that has more to do with the comedy by lunacy he's playing with. Landis' prologue is a bit better than his actual segment, but even that is actually pretty good.

Altered States
Russell really shines this turd. The dialogue is awful even by Chayefsky's standards and the way the script chooses to express its dull ideas is typically monologue bound nothingness. Even the plot is frustrating in how it refuses to make sense in a fashion leaning closer to bad sci-fi writing than the generalized insanity of something like Lair of the White Worm. Yet I can't dismiss or dislike the film for two basic reasons. Firstly Hurt is insanely good. I've gotten a new appreciation for him lately by seeing so many strong and varied performances in this limited space. Rather than just being an obnoxious tool for shouting pseudo religious and not even pseudo science clap trap Hurt's face and inflection gives him a tragedy on the level of Goldblum's Brundlefly. The second great element is Russel's direction which seems very impish in contrasting the script's dull melodramatics with the lunacy he imbues the non-scripted montages and inserts. It's often like a new musical from him, though as played by intense editing. Hell, the direction even gives the religious stuff some weight. So while this isn't ever going to be amongst my favorite films I an appreciate why it is for others.

Mesmerized
Despite Jerzy Skolimowski being a credited writer on this I didn't have much hope going in due to the perfect mixture of star and (to me) obscurity so colour me surprised outside of a few bad accents this is a pretty genius work on all levels. The cinematography is especially great looking and being staged as a '50s melodrama right down to the papery way the colour is attached to the forms leaving an imprint of a theatrical third dimensionality. There's a real old fashioned grace to the camera too being static often, but moving when it needs to. The use of space is almost Quinne like in that the spatial parameters are always carefully explained in a way that never shows off only to mess around with that establishment to evidence how weird Foster's life is. And what a weird life that is with John Lithgow as her husband in one of his most violently demented performances going full Bluebeard in seconds of their meeting. The interesting thing on a performance and script level is how separate his actions are from her and yet how directly they suggest violence to her. Through conversations and life she's ignored to the point of being kitchenware. Their most intimate interactions being a trim for example. The violence is there though. Mostly its in speech, the way he asks for the shave is terrifying in a manner that the scene on the page doesn't really suggest, but occasionally it is literal as an earlier instance with a rat. Lithgow's showboating helps out a lot since it's enough to appreciate Foster's actions throughout the rest of the film. Her partner in running away has no character whatsoever, but makes sense given how he's the first person who is willing to talk to her in the whole movie. In short he's as great a presence here as Vincent Price in Dragonwyck (a film this owes more than a little to). The movie even does a little to humanize this living beast as being misguided by society (personified in a creeping paternal hostility by Harry Andrews). But these human explanations never seem like acts of sympathy or care. He's vile even if there's a source to that vileness and a human want for family. The film would be frankly perfect even without the later actions of the film given the full quality Foster's life is given. Speaking of this might be her best performance. She rarely talks and much of the plot happens to her with her few moments of agency backfiring in a greatly sad fashion. Yet in what might hobble a weaker actress she utilizes these limitations to expand on the film's themes of isolation and societal structure. She does her best to fall into the background as a non-entity by body while her face quietly commands attention by asking for it. It's like she's stuck in the silent era.

Baby It's You
This is basically Grease as a great movie right down to an even better '50s soundtrack, but done with an enormous level of maturity and close to no winking at its setting. Even though the film is completely heightened away from the story's realism like Eight Men Out there's a level of honesty to the sheer loving stupidity of youth (highlight being the scene with the gun) that grounds it totally. The best part of the film though is how subtle the film is in its period setting. There's a few basic give-aways, but the direction and screenplay leave it open to be a contemporaneous film. All you'd need to do is update the clothes and cars.

Moon Over Parador
Bananas by way of The Prisoner of Zenda. Entertaining enough on its own especially when Jonathan Winters and Raul Julia pop up to drive the crazy to an all time high, but it really is more of the same overall. There's a few good meta gags about Mazursky's own insecurities as an actor, but he's done it better elsewhere. Though as a light bit of nothing it does its job as well as needed.

[Satori]

Baby It's You
This is basically Grease as a great movie right down to an even better '50s soundtrack, but done with an enormous level of maturity and close to no winking at its setting. Even though the film is completely heightened away from the story's realism like Eight Men Out there's a level of honesty to the sheer loving stupidity of youth (highlight being the scene with the gun) that grounds it totally. The best part of the film though is how subtle the film is in its period setting. There's a few basic give-aways, but the direction and screenplay leave it open to be a contemporaneous film. All you'd need to do is update the clothes and cars.

I watched this fairly recently as well. I like how it foregrounds the class dynamics of the couple in a complex way and ends with a properly ambivalent note. My impression is that the typical Reagan-era teen film uses romance narratives as a way of displacing and resolving class and gender anxieties, but this film doesn't let us forget how incompatible the couple would be as they grow older. Structurally, it also feels a lot looser than the standard teen film of the era as well. I didn't think about it at the time, but you are completely right about the period piece aspects of it not being tremendously important. I get the feeling that Sayles (or Amy Robinson, who wrote the story) is more interested in character than milieu.

Sayles might be my favorite U.S. filmmaker of the decade, mostly because of how he can take any setting or genre elements and build a set of believable characters who we care about and who interact in a complex way. His range in the 80s is extraordinary: a lesbian coming out story, a cross-class teen romance, a sci-fi race allegory, a 1920s labor movement film, and a baseball movie. All of them are great, although my recent viewings of them have me leaning toward Lianna and Brother From Another Planet as the best. Lianna seems underrated in the Sayles canon- it is the most minimalist in setting or genre elements of the 80s films, letting the characters' emotional development carry the narrative. Its representation of Lianna's sexual awakening and its messy consequences for her financial and social standings feels real to me; once again, Sayles doesn't give us any easy narrative outs. Brother is kind of the polar opposite: an absurd afrofuturist sci-fi film that uses these genre elements to explore racial and class dynamics in Reagan's America. It might be a bit heavy handed at times (the drug stuff), but there are a lot of brilliant moments, especially the bar scenes.

[bamwc2]

I need a clarification on Amir Naderi's The Runner. imdb has it listed as 1990 even though it premiered in 1985 at the Nantes Three Continents Festival (also via imdb).

[swo17]

Well that's confusing! I've only seen something like that before when a release date has just recently been added for a film. So maybe that's the case here, and the issue will resolve itself in a few days? Even if not, I'm fine calling this an '80s film, since it seems like a potential glitch with IMDb's website. Is this something that you're seriously considering voting for, or are you just trying to make my life more difficult?

[bamwc2]

No, Swo, I just got through half of it last night and wanted to know if I could include it on my viewing log. It's a fascinating film thus far, but I doubt that it'll make my list.

[zedz]

The Runner is definitely an 80s film. It was one of the first international hits of the New Iranian Cinema and it would be ludicrous to date it after the dozens of films it inspired.

[knives]

Of course the 1000th post here has to be this sorry excuse of a coalition.

Betty Blue
This is a truly and utterly frustrating film since it balances several moments of the sublime with utterly trashy awfulness that is more repugnant than fascinating. Every aspect is a double edged sword making perfect sense for what the film needs to accomplish while also coming up with an unlikable product. Maybe if the film had a few more moments like the early cut to make it seem like the lead is laughing at himself or the late fishermen observing them horsing around which achieves the best tone for the movie. Otherwise I can't think of something to cure these failing successes.

4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle
Watching this made me realize something which in retrospect should have been very obvious and I'm sure everyone else has made a connection with. Rohmer really succeeded in being a cinematic Plato. Obviously he talks about philosophy thoroughly early on with Pascal during My Night at Maud's, but here, especially starting around La Marquise d'O, he's shifted to that Plato state where the characters breed that deep and sometimes new philosophical situation which I at least find a bit more convincing than the typical fashion. Certainly it seems now to me the primary way to discuss his movies though he remains an expert at traditional characterization too.

Emergency Kisses
This is only my second Garrel, but it is already leaving me shocked that he isn't more widely available on disc and more highly considered. Both films feel like a real continuation of the best aspects of Eustache with a sumptuous black and white look that emphasizes the blacks in a way that doesn't feel like another tired noir pastiche. The square aspect ratio is also pretty perfectly utilized never quite showing off, but betraying a knowledge of beautiful images that resembles photography (though here the camera does move a fair bit). The most surprising thing between reality and reputation though is how fun and accessible the film is. There's nothing here really outside of the realm of your average French art film though Garrel handles it better than most. I should say that overall this isn't as good a film, to me, as Regular Lovers lacking the action that made that film so shocking and personal.

Silverado
So I finish Kasdan's work of the '80s with a sigh and a shrug. While none of these four are bad I can't really call any them good on the whole either with this being the most Kasdanian of them all. It's filled with actors I love giving the sense of enjoyment, but even as I watched it the pleasant nothingness compromising the story wasted away in the mind. That said there are still some pronounced issues with the film such as a thirty minute episodic prologue which needlessly and without an ounce of momentum sets up all the characters getting together. Kasdan is pretty clearly inspired by The Wild Bunch even giving Danny Glover the Mexican's plot from that movie so it begs the question of why he didn't take the best lesson from that movie and shave down the narrative particulars since most audience members could figure it out. In its worst moments as the plot progresses the film feels like a western version of Haggis' Crash. At the very least it would save us from John Cleese giving what seems to be an attempt at a dramatic performance.

Detective
Not entirely sure what to think. There's a huge number of great gags spread throughout the film and it's not exactly anonymous, but this is probably the Godard I've seen (even including his '60s work) which most resembles an ordinary narrative. Even when the film slips into Godardian weirdness like the boxer and his girlfriend early on he manages to make it at least seem ordinary by scene's end. This leaves the film not quite experimental enough to feel like something new or even an evolved movement yet not narrative enough for the plotting to really matter. The best guess I have is that the film is an Antichrist like joke on producers and audiences under which eye the film is significantly more enjoyable if not for me great. In fact I'd say that Godard better played with the idea of making a popular noir styled film with Alphaville (which wasn't the first film for Lemmy Caution). That doesn't undermine what this film accomplishes, but it makes them seem less unique to his career. The film also seems to hint at a more personal story for Godard. Little moments like the "fame" conversation suggests the film is about how Godard views the making of the film which could be interesting, but at least on first watch doesn't hold up the whole film. I am totally open to being persuaded more toward the film though.