Hey folks, Harry here with that insane maddeningly busy bloke, Anton Sirius who is still laptopless... which sounds vaguely like he should get a tip in his g... but tipped or not and after the View Askew party he's inevitably crashed, I'm counting on the tipped Anton... He still manages to file his reports... this time... both are right up your alley... enjoy...
I'll keep this short, since the backlogged reviews are starting to pile up. Joe Coleman's in town with Asia (he's in the film as the sleazy Hollywood producer- see below) and might be coming to the interview. I'm also going to be sitting down with Guy Maddin, Ben Kingsley and maybe Sexy Beast director Jonathan Glazer (another video guy). Oh yeah, and CLARA LAW. hot damn. Rose Byrne too, the star of Goddess of 1967 who just won best actress at Venice.
New Prelude reviews:
4) Camera, by David Cronenberg
"One day, the children brought home an old camera..." Damn this one's funny. An old actor, played by Videodrome baddie Les Carlson, muses about photography and death while 'the children' play with their new toy, a fully functioning movie camera, and prepare to shoot the old actor, well, musing about photography and death. The 'monster shot' where the camera glides silently through the kitchen door, implacable and menacing, is priceless.
5) 24 fps, by Jeremy Podasma
This is the only one so far to get boos. Jeremy apparently narrates the piec himself, and his voice alone is enough to put you to sleep. He tells the story of his father's love for the film Les enfants du paradis, which is reasonable enough, but the whole thing is just so bloody earnest it makes you want to scream. Blah.
Now the real reviews...
American Nightmare (2000, directed by Adam Simon)
A documentary on the art of the horror film, by a director who is himself a product of the Corman School for Hard Knocks, sounds like a bit of a contradiction in terms. Nothing could be further from the truth. American Nightmare takes a long look at the last great horror boom in America (1968-1978) and makes a strong and compelling case that it was not just the case that these films existed to shock but that they were reactions to the tenor of their times just as much as 'more important' films such as Easy Rider and Apolcaylpse Now.
American Nightmare focuses on an elite group of directors from that time- George Romero (Night and Dawn of the Dead), Wes Craven (Last House on the Left), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), John Carpenter (Halloween), and... OK, he fudges and includes David Cronenberg (Shivers), who of course is Canadian. Also included is a fascinating chat with Tom Savini (who as Adam Simon said at the Q&A is one of the most influential people in film in the last half-century simply for the way he has changed how death is depicted on-screen) and the obligatory bits from John Landis. Each film, through the use of news footage and comments from academics, is given a historical context that leaves very little doubt that the films are commenting on their worlds, not hiding from them. Normally, this kind of doc would be very dry, but when the clip of film being discussed is the dinner scene from Chainsaw it's hard to get bored. And, as you might have guessed from my Crouching Tiger review, I think this kind of look at genre films is long overdue, horror films especially. The horror film is unique among the genres in the sense that the good ones don't simply reflect a given social concern but explicitly warn against the outcome if the situation is not rectified. Night's terrors reflect those of a country divided by race hate, Halloween's, people's fear of the very act that brought them into the world. And it is past time these undercurrents were recognized.
Scarlet Diva (2000, directed by Asia Argento)
Asia is film royalty if such a thing exists. Daughter of Dario Argento and Daria Niccolodi, actress and sex symbol, her first film is a gut-level reaction to growing up on camera. As such, while it's not a polished effort by any means, its passion cannot be ignored.
Asia stars as Anna Battista, Italian superstar actress. Anna is a troubled girl. Desperately lonely, she searches across the hollow world of the film industry looking for some connectrion, any connection, with another human being. Sex and drugs are just a diversion, a way to take her mind off the void in her soul. Finally, she thinks she finds it in a one-night stand with an American rock star. Her life growing increasingly bizarre and empty, she hopes the child she created that night will save her. But of course nothing can ever be that simple.
Asia obviously learned something from the directors she's worked with. Although raw the film definitely shares an energy with her father's early work, as well as a gift for finding evocative scores. And she shows a knack for out there, spot-on casting- her mother Daria plays Anna's mother (and OD's!), and 'outsider' (ugh, hate that term) artist Joe Coleman plays a sleazebag Hollywood producer. His performance is so over-the-top it's nearly amazingly lifelike.
Asia throws her public image in the audience's face here, daring you to believe that her life could actually be like this. Scarlet Diva isn't a great film, but it is a daring one, and I recall a certain other Italian director of the same name getting pretty far with the same combination of nerve and style. And it makes a wicked 'dark side' to Stardom.
No more time- got to try and find a way to get into the Sexy Beast industry screening today, so I'm ready for the interview with Ben. I'll try to send another update tonight, but a certain View Askew party might get in the way...
Ciao bellas!
