Columnists
Entries from November 2007
Cinema Retro's Dean Brierly takes a look at an offbeat Japanese film series new to DVD.
As film attendance in the United States declined dramatically
in the 1950s due to television’s increasing popularity, the Hollywood Empire
struck back with a wave of widescreen Technicolor spectaculars to lure
audiences back into theaters. When a similar small vs. big screen scenario
played out in Japan in the late sixties and early seventies, major studios like
Nikkatsu, Daiei and Toei staved off financial disaster by co-opting the “pink
film,†a type of softcore porn previously the domain of small, independent
studios. The big outfits raised the pink film into the mainstream via higher
production values, compelling narratives and superior direction, a formula that
proved potent both from a commercial and critical perspective.
From the pink film was spawned a wild subgenre that came to
be known as “pinky violence,†in which studios amped up the sex and violence
quotient of the female swordplay, women in prison and girl gang film. All
featured tough, independent heroines equally comfortable wielding their
sexuality as meting out lethal retribution. These highly stylized films
brilliantly walked a mind-bending tightrope between sleazy exploitation and
female empowerment. There are few equivalents to these kinds of films in
Western cinema, outside of such early seventies Pam Grier vehicles like Coffy
and Foxy Brown. The pinky violence influence also lives on in such
Quentin Tarantino epics as Kill Bill and Death Proof.
Toei’s late-sixties “Legends of the Poisonous Seductressâ€
trilogy, recently brought to DVD by Synapse Films (in association with Panik
House Entertainment), was in the vanguard of the pinky violence movement.
Although not as sexually explicit as later films in the genre, they did boast a
more intense eroticism than Japanese audiences were used to, along with
head-turning doses of ultra-gory violence. And while most pinky violence films
were set in contemporary Japan, the Poisonous Seductress trilogy unfolds during
the Sengoku, or warring states period (between the 15th to 17th centuries),
familiar to viewers of such Kurosawa epics as Seven Samurai. The period
setting, with its political context of intrigue and upheaval, contributes to
the films’ unique atmosphere and provides a down-to-earth contrast to their
over-the-top visual aesthetic.
Continue reading "VENGEANCE IS PINK: JAPANESE EROTICISM ON SCREEN"
The polyphonically, unfairly talented and fiendishly busy actress
Karen Black (who’s also my good
friend and upcoming interviewee in the print edition of Cinema Retro) recently premiered her own one-woman show, “How I
Learned to Stop Worrying and Sing the Song†in Washington, DC, to rave reviews.
She received three standing ovations and by her own admission, “I almost
couldn’t stand there and accept that much acknowledgment!†In the show Karen
recounts her life through musical interludes and anecdotes, beginning as a
struggling actress in New York in the early 60s (where she famously said “no
thanks†to Lee Strasberg after he invited her to join The Actors Studio),
through her move to hippie-era Hollywood and her steady rise to fame as one of
the leading actresses of the 70s. Karen treats the audience to absorbing
first-hand accounts of her work on such legendary films as Easy Rider (1969), her Oscar-nominated performance in Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Day of the Locust (1975), Nashville (1975), Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982) and
more. If you’re surprised to learn Karen Black is also a singer, don’t be. She
can absolutely floor you with her
voice. If you remember the scene in Nashville, in
which she plays country star Connie White, the song she performs in front of
the Grand Ole Opry she not only composed herself but made it sound like a
viable country hit from that period. Karen grew up in a musical family in
suburban Chicago
and her grandfather was the esteemed classical musician Arthur Ziegler, who was
the first violinist for the Chicago Symphony. Another film in which she sings
is Henry Jaglom’s quirky comedy Can She
Bake A Cherry Pie? (1983) and the more recent Firecracker (2004) in which she plays a carnival chanteuse and really shows off her
range. Henry Jaglom, Karen’s long-time friend from Actors Studio days back in New York, cast Karen in
his runaway indie hit Hollywood Dreams (2006)
as a vainglorious actress of a certain age who is having a secret tryst with an
A-list “gay†actor with a secret: he’s straight. Between rendez-vous with Karen’s character Luna, he toys with the idea of
“coming out†against the advice of his managers.
She also appears in Jaglom’s upcoming Irene
in Time (2007) and this year’s Suffering
Man’s Charity (2007), directed by Alan Cumming. I’m eager for everyone to
read the interview with Karen in the next issue. Her career is a revelation to
those who pigeonhole her as a fixture of
70s disaster or horror flicks, even if she did important work in both of
those genres as well.
Cinema Retro columnist David Savage gives us his top two DVD picks for the month: two worthy films that were largely overlooked during their theatrical runs in the 1970s.
The Other (1972) dir. Robert Mulligan. This Late Show creeper from
the early 70s from the same director as Summer
of ’42 (1971) seems like it was made for TV, but research seems to indicate
it did have a theatrical release (does anyone out there remember seeing it at
the theater?) In fact most people remember it from its annual broadcast on
television during that decade, after which it seemed to disappear altogether
and become something of a bad dream remembered by a handful of night owls. A
few years ago it was released on DVD and it's well worth a revisit. Based on
Thomas Tryon's taut, psychological novel, the story examines the lives of a
pair of twins -- one boldly evil, the other sweet but a follower – who are part
of a large farm family in Depression-era
Connecticut. They run rampant
around the farm with assorted cousins and neighbor kids, inventing games and
pulling mean pranks. Their loving grandmother, Ada (played by Uta Hagen, here in Method
overdrive) teaches them something called 'the game' as a way to escape the
mental pain caused by their bedridden mother's condition. Horrible accidents
start to befall neighbors and family members (look for a very young John
Ritter), all of which seem to result from the twins' actions, prompting Ada to intervene in a
final mortal decision. Even if it weren't for a few dreadful scenes involving
live rats, pitchforks in the haystack and drowned babies, the film would still
be disturbing in that it suggests something far more troubling: can a child be
born evil? The sunny, horror-in-broad-daylight cinematography of Robert Surtees
(Ben Hur, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Graduate) adds to the
atmosphere. Identical twins Chris and Martin Udvarnoky, here in their only
film, play the roles of the twins Niles
and Holland Perry. CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE OTHER DVD DISCOUNTED FROM AMAZON
Smile (1975), dir. Michael Ritchie. This largely forgotten mid-70s
slice-of-life from Michael Ritchie, who had a respectable run in the Seventies
with Downhill Racer, The Candidate, and The Bad News Bears
(sadly dying in 2001 at the young age of 62) is a deadpan delight in the
tradition of Nashville.
Indeed, Ritchie's style is often called "Altman-esque" for its flat
gaze upon the ridiculous at the center of everyday life. Here, the context is a
teen beauty pageant in a small California
town, which Ritchie appears to simply let unfold in all its folly and sad
hilarity, proving that there are some things in life which are so intrinsically
comic that its better to just watch rather than direct. There is not so much a
plot as several intersecting storylines, giving the impression of a camera
catching a thousand mini-tragedies and humiliations with each random turn.
There are the inauspicious rehearsals, a local salesman in mid-life crisis,
horny, ogling teens (led by Eric Shea of The Poseidon Adventure), and a
hilarious "pre-pageant interview" sequence before the judges.
And this being the mid-70s, the hair, clothing and interior décor are reason
enough to watch, mouth agape. With Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon (Get Smart)
in lead roles, supported by a smashing Annette O'Toole as the most seasoned of
all the pageant's contestants. Also look for an older and foxier Denise
Nickerson of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory whom I would love
it interview one day, and a very young Melanie Griffith in one of her first
roles.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Gobble
gobble! CLICK HERE TO ORDER SMILE DVD DISCOUNTED FROM AMAZON (Look for an interview with David Picker, the producer of Smile in an upcoming issue of Cinema Retro)
Cinema Retro columnist David Savage brings us up to date on the movie event scene in New York City.
It's nearly Thanksgiving and as the holiday season breaks into full gallop,
the film calendar is already bursting here in New York. Is it possible not to overcommit oneself? A major
Pasolini festival gets underway November 28th at the Film Society of
Lincoln Center (see below), followed by the 16th edition of Spanish
Cinema Now, also at FSLC, beginning December 7th. Newly restored
35mm prints of Pietro Germi's classic Divorce Italian Style (1961) and
Albert Lamorisse's The Red Balloon (1956) are playing at Film Forum (filmforum.org) through November
22nd, not to mention the roster of foreign and indie features
rolling out weekly for the press, and the seductive eye candy of newly
remastered and special edition DVD box sets from Warner Bros., Universal,
Criterion, etc. winking on the shelves – how is a film reporter supposed to
keep on top of this all and keep a steady job at the same time?
Thanksgiving doesn't bring to mind many great movies, but rather a few
memorable movie moments. One I’d like to offer up is the scene in Annie Hall
(1977) when Woody Allen's character Alvy Singer is invited by Annie (Diane
Keaton) to Thanksgiving dinner at her parents' house. Allen correctly
identifies Thanksgiving as the WASP-iest of all holidays, given its Pilgrim
roots, and turns it into one of the funniest Jewish-Among-WASPs moments in
movie history. In the sequence Allen recreates Norman Rockwell's famous
painting of a New England family at
Thanksgiving dinner and inserts himself into the tableau vivant. As the
struggling comic Alvy tries out joke after joke on Annie's family, presided
over by a frosty Colleen Dewhurst as Annie's mother, all of them fall with a
thud in confused silence. Eventually we see him transform into a rabbi at the
table. It's one of those scenes that showcased Allen's loose brilliance as a
director during the period, and also reminds me how few young directors today are
willing to mine the WASP/Jewish culture clash for comedy. There was the original
The Heartbreak Kid (1972) with
Charles Grodin and Cybill Shepherd, written by Elaine May, and Jerry Stiller
and Anne Meara have perhaps made the most of their comic culture clash of a
marriage of all entertainers. But since then? A few recent exceptions are Meet the Fockers (2004) and Meet the Parents (2000), both written by
Jim Herzfeld, and this year’s Knocked Up
(2007) from Judd Apatow. While the story doesn’t address the topic explicitly,
Apatow makes the most of the contrast between the Jewish central character, Ben
Stone and the tall blonde shiksa
Alison Scott, whom he unwittingly knocks up after a fateful meeting in a
nightclub. The screenplays that treat this subject usually come from a Jewish
writer, suggesting that the satirical perspective (following conventional
wisdom) comes from the cultural outsider, as was the norm for the last half
century. But now that WASPS are rapidly dying off as a demographic in the U.S., and more
importantly as a cultural force, it will be interesting to see if a comedy
comes along from a WASP’s perspective. It might be controversial, if said
writer is so fortunate. If I’m missing any obvious examples other than the
above-mentioned, do let me know.
Continue reading "DAVID SAVAGE: A POTPOURRI OF MOVIE NEWS"
A major new book about the history of Hammer films has just been published. One of Cinema Retro's London correspondents, Adrian Smith, was at the star-studded London book launch and brings you the inside story.
On the 27th October 2007 a crowd of Hammer
film fans gathered at the Cine Lumiere in South Kensington,
a stone’s throw from The Natural History Museum and the V&A. The occasion
was the launch of The Hammer Story by
film historians Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes, and to celebrate a number of
Hammer alumni were gathered to meet fans and sign autographs, along with the
screening of three films rarely shown and not available commercially: A Case for P.C. 49 (1951), The Two Faces of Doctor Jekyll (1960)
and Never take Sweets From a Stranger
(1960).
Amongst the guests was Jimmy Sangster, who not only
directed and produced some films but also wrote several of those considered
classics, including The Curse of Frankenstein,
The Mummy and Dracula (aka Horror of Dracula). The latter film is
currently being screened theatrically all around the UK following a restoration by the
British Film Institute. Sangster has been kept busy with interviews for the
last couple of weeks with the likes of Jonathon Ross and The Today Programme,
but still found time to talk to Cinema Retro:
“I’m amazed (about the re-release of Dracula)! It’s a film we made fifty
years ago. When we were making it it was just another movie. I’m very pleased! I
don’t think Hammer are still going though are they? I haven’t seen the new film
(Beyond the Rave). Why didn’t they
ask me to write it? They should give me a call!â€
Also attending was Janina Faye, who was especially
pleased that Never take Sweets From a Stranger
was being screened. Faye starred in this controversial child abuse drama
when she was only ten, having already taken smaller roles with Hammer in Dracula and The Two Faces of Doctor Jekyll. Its depiction of a small town
protecting a known paedophile was too shocking for audiences at the time, and
it was given an X certificate, despite having support from various national
agencies such as The National council of Women, who said “it should be seen by
all parentsâ€. It did not do well commercially, and was banned in several
countries, including France
and Ireland.
When asked about the film, Faye enthused,
“It was such a huge change from what Hammer used to
do. They had tremendous problems from the BBFC whilst shooting the film. In the
courtroom scene we had to change the dialogue because they weren’t allowed to
say rape. To keep the drama within the cast the director (documentary maker
Cyril Frankel) didn’t tell us what was going on, or what happened to any of us.
I wasn’t allowed to see the film, and didn’t see it until they showed it at the
Barbican (in 2004). I think it’s still an incredible film. It’s so powerful.â€
Cinema Retro agrees wholeheartedly, and wishes the
film were available on DVD. DD Home Entertainment have announced an R2 release
in late 2007, but this is currently looking unlikely due to financial
difficulties. We remain hopeful!
Continue reading "EXCLUSIVE! CINEMA RETRO ATTENDS HAMMER FILMS BOOK LAUNCH IN LONDON"
|
|