tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-183773892024-03-13T00:50:42.710-04:00Cinevistaramascopefreak out in a moonage daydream oh yeah!Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.comBlogger779125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-59870008288718066842016-02-10T15:33:00.003-05:002016-02-13T18:58:19.089-05:00Top 10: 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Last year, I kind of punted on an introduction for my top ten. I was still processing my dad's death - I <em>am</em> still processing it, but it was still very fresh - and I needed to just enjoy movies without feeling pressure to explain or defend why I like the stuff I like. I'm past that point now, but the way I look at movies and why they matter to me has changed a lot in the past few years, both because of my dad and because, this year, <a href="https://youtu.be/I_3a4Yxh41w">I made a movie</a>. I've made things before, but this was the first legit production I've led, with a professional crew, fancy equipment and 12-hour production days (or more). The movie's finished now; we've got exciting news ahead that I can't share yet, but I can't wait for all of you to have the chance to check it out. I was at the start of this experience a year ago, and now that I'm on the other side of it, it's also changed the way I look at movies and, especially, film criticism.<br />
<br />
This isn't going to turn into an anti-criticism screed that amounts to "You think you can do better than me?" There are a number of critics I read regularly, and a handful that have helped shape the way I look at movies. But going through the filmmaking process has made me realize how often people writing about movies make assumptions about a filmmaker's choices that have little relation to how movies are actually made. I realize now that even the most brilliant filmmakers, the ones that seemingly orchestrate every tiny detail in advance, must have to make a hundred choices a day that they weren't anticipating because of the countless variables beyond their control. The best critics understand this, but more and more, I find myself rolling my eyes at the ones who make assertions about a director's intentions when they couldn't possibly know what was going through the filmmaker's mind when they made a particular choice on the day (if it was even their choice to make). Even Kubrick had to wing it sometimes.<br />
<br />
Editing was a particularly eye-opening experience; as I was obsessing every day over, say, whether to make a particular shot twelve frames longer or eight frames shorter, I couldn't watch other movies without being extremely conscious of every cut and wondering about the balance of artistic and practical considerations behind each one. In the case of my favorite movie of the year, <em>Mad Max: Fury Road</em>, I marveled at how George Miller and his editor, Margaret Sixel, took a gargantuan amount of raw footage from what was, by all accounts, a grueling shoot, and fashioned it into a film that is not just coherent but will serve as a model of thrilling, economical and emotionally compelling action moviemaking for years to come. But a smaller movie like my runner-up choice, <em>Carol</em>, is as much of a marvel in its own way, a delicate masterpiece of gestures, glances and subtle details that accumulate to devastating effect. <br />
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I started this blog a little over ten years ago - looking back for my top tens last month was a little awkward, and I hope that I'm a better writer and have stronger judgment than I did then. Obviously, I don't write here as often as I used to. Between making a movie and trying my best to keep up with the different sites I contribute to, there's not a lot of time left over for the blog, which is a good problem to have. I like to keep it open for this and other annual traditions like Halloween (which I whiffed last year) and the White Elephant Blog-a-thon, and for old times' sake. When I started this blog, I never imagined anyone other than my close friends would read it, and I'm grateful for the opportunities it's led to and, especially, the people I've gotten to know because of it. The Muriel Awards, and the people I've met through them, were one of the first of those opportunities, and it's been exciting to watch them grow to the point where the company I'm in as a voter is frankly ridiculous. I'm not sure when the Muriels begin announcing their winners this year, but keep an eye on <a href="http://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/">their blog</a> for the results.<br />
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My top ten:<br />
<br />
1. <i>Mad Max: Fury Road </i><br />
2. <i>Carol</i><br />
3. <i>Creed</i><br />
4. <i>Crimson Peak</i><br />
5. <i>Magic Mike XXL</i><br />
6. <i>Brooklyn</i><br />
7. <i>Straight Outta Compton</i><br />
8. <i>Mistress America</i><br />
9. <i>It Follows</i><br />
10. <i>Inside Out</i><br />
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The rest of my Muriels ballot:<br />
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Best Lead Performance, Female<br />
<br />
1. Charlize Theron, <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i><br />
<b>2. Saoirse Ronan, <i>Brooklyn</i></b><br />
3. Rooney Mara, <i>Carol</i><br />
4. Cate Blanchett, <i>Carol</i><br />
5. Nina Hoss, <i>Phoenix</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<i><br /></i>
Best Lead Performance, Male<br />
<br />
<b>1. Samuel L. Jackson, <i>The Hateful Eight</i></b><br />
2. Michael B. Jordan, <i>Creed</i><br />
3. Tom Hanks, <i>Bridge of Spies</i><br />
4. Michael Keaton, <i>Spotlight</i><br />
5. Leonardo DiCaprio, <i>The Revenant</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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Best Supporting Performance, Female<br />
<br />
1. Jennifer Jason Leigh, <i>The Hateful Eight</i><br />
<b>2. Jada Pinkett Smith, <i>Magic Mike XXL</i></b><br />
3. Rose Byrne, <i>Spy</i><br />
4. Sarah Paulson, <i>Carol</i><br />
5. Jessica Chastain, <i>Crimson Peak</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<i><br /></i>
Best Supporting Performance, Male<br />
<br />
<b>1. Sylvester Stallone, <i>Creed</i></b><br />
2. Mark Rylance, <i>Bridge of Spies</i><br />
3. Tom Noonan, <i>Anomalisa</i><br />
4. Oscar Isaac, <i>Ex Machina</i><br />
5. Rick Springfield, <i>Ricki and the Flash</i><br />
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Best Director<br />
<br />
1. George Miller, <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i><br />
<b>2. Todd Haynes, <i>Carol</i></b><br />
3. Ryan Coogler, <i>Creed</i><br />
4. Guillermo del Toro, <i>Crimson Peak</i><br />
5. Gregory Jacobs, <i>Magic Mike XXL</i><br />
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Best Screenplay<br />
<br />
1. Phyllis Nagy, <i>Carol</i><br />
<b>2. Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, <i>Mistress America</i></b><br />
3. Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington, <i>Creed</i><br />
4. Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley, <i>Inside Out</i><br />
5. Charlie Kaufman, <i>Anomalisa</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<i><br /></i>
Best Cinematography<br />
<br />
1. Edward Lachman, <i>Carol </i><br />
<b>2. Fernando Velázquez, <i>Crimson Peak</i></b><br />
3. Emmanuel Lubezki, <i>The Revenant</i><br />
4. Matthew Libatique, <i>Straight Outta Compton</i><br />
5. Mike Gioulakis, <i>It Follows</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<i><br /></i>
Best Editing<br />
<br />
1. Margaret Sixel, <i>Mad Mad: Fury Road</i><br />
2. Claudia Castello and Michael P. Shawver, <i>Creed</i><br />
<b>3. Eddie Hamilton, <i>Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation</i></b><br />
4. Mary Ann Bernard, <i>Magic Mike XXL</i><br />
5. Ryan Denmark and Hye Mee Na, <i>Chi-Raq</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<i><br /></i>
Best Music<br />
<br />
1. Ennio Morricone, <i>The Hateful Eight</i><br />
<b>2. John Williams, <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i></b><br />
3. Disasterpeace, <i>It Follows</i><br />
4. Junkie XL, <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i><br />
5. Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham, <i>Mistress America</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<i><br /></i>
Best Documentary<br />
<br />
<b>1. <i>Call Me Lucky</i></b><br />
2. <i>The Look of Silence</i><br />
3. <i>Amy</i><br />
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Best Cinematic Moment<br />
<br />
1. <i>Magic Mike XXL </i>- "I Want It That Way"<br />
2. <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i> - Furiosa's scream<br />
3. <i>Creed</i> - "I'm going to knock that son of a bitch down."<br />
<b>4. <i>Ricki and the Flash </i>- "Drift Away"</b><br />
5. <i>Anomalisa - </i>"Girls Just Want to Have Fun"<br />
6. <i>Kingsman: The Secret Service </i>- "Manners maketh man."<br />
7. <i>It Follows</i> - Opening shot<br />
8. <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i> - Kylo Ren vs. Finn & Rey<br />
9. <i>Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation</i> - <i>Turandot</i><br />
10. <i>Furious 7</i> - Skyscraper jump<br />
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Best Cinematic Breakthrough<br />
<br />
<b>1. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, <i>Tangerine</i></b><br />
2. Daisy Ridley, <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i><br />
3. Marielle Heller, <i>The Diary of a Teenage Girl</i><br />
4. David Robert Mitchell, <i>It Follows</i><br />
5. Céline Sciamma, <i>Girlhood</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<i><br /></i>
Best Body of Work<br />
<br />
<b>1. Jennifer Jason Leigh (<i>The Hateful Eight</i>, <i>Anomalisa</i>)</b><br />
2. Matthew Libatique (<i>Straight Outta Compton</i>, <i>Chi-Raq</i>)<br />
3. Oscar Isaac (<i>Ex Machina</i>, <i>Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i>)<br />
4. Kurt Russell (<i>Furious 7</i>, <i>Bone Tomahawk</i>, <i>The Hateful Eight</i>)<br />
5. Richard Jenkins (<i>Bone Tomahawk</i>, <i>Spotlight</i>)<br />
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Best Ensemble Performance<br />
<br />
<b>1. <i>Straight Outta Compton</i></b><br />
2. <i>What We Do in the Shadows</i><br />
3. <i>Brooklyn</i><br />
4. <i>The Hateful Eight</i><br />
5. <i>Magic Mike XXL</i><br />
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<br />Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com89tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-2956503789321755852016-02-03T15:01:00.000-05:002016-02-03T15:01:29.585-05:00Top 10: 2005<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
1. Munich (Spielberg)<br />
2. The New World (Malick)<br />
3. A History of Violence (Cronenberg)<br />
4. The Devil's Rejects (Zombie)<br />
5. Grizzly Man (Herzog)<br />
6. The Squid and the Whale (Baumbach)<br />
7. Brokeback Mountain (Lee)<br />
8. The Proposition (Hillcoat)<br />
9. King Kong (Jackson)<br />
10. Broken Flowers (Jarmusch)<br />
<br />
Ten years ago:<br />
<br />
1. Munich<br />
2, A History of Violence<br />
3. Grizzly Man<br />
4. The New World<br />
5. King Kong<br />
6. The Squid and the Whale<br />
7. Brokeback Mountain<br />
8. Last Days (Van Sant)<br />
9. Broken Flowers<br />
10. Sin City (Rodriguez & Miller)Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-47180456463889604732016-02-02T13:54:00.001-05:002016-02-02T13:54:14.240-05:00Top 10: 1995<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
1. Dead Man (Jarmusch)<br />
2. Seven (Fincher)<br />
3. Heat (Mann)<br />
4. 12 Monkeys (Gilliam)<br />
5. Safe (Haynes)<br />
6. Crumb (Zwigoff)<br />
7. Before Sunrise (Linklater)<br />
8. Casino (Scorsese)<br />
9. The Usual Suspects (Singer)<br />
10. In the Mouth of Madness (Carpenter)<br />
<br />
Ten years ago:<br />
<br />
1. 12 Monkeys<br />2. Seven<br />
3. Safe<br />
4. The Usual Suspects<br />
5. The City of Lost Children (Jeunet & Caro)<br />
6. Casino<br />
7. Crumb<br />
8. Dead Man Walking (Robbins)<br />
9. To Die For (Van Sant)<br />
10. Braveheart (Gibson)Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-45952629018899774082016-01-19T14:38:00.000-05:002016-01-19T14:38:10.244-05:00Top 10: 1985<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
1. Ran (Kurosawa)<br />
2. Brazil (Gilliam)<br />
3. After Hours (Scorsese)<br />
4. Fright Night (Holland)<br />
5. Day of the Dead (Romero)<br />
6. The Purple Rose of Cairo (Allen)<br />
7. Lost in America (Brooks)<br />
8. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Schrader)<br />
9. Blood Simple (Coen)<br />
10. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (Burton)<br />
<br />
Ten years ago:<br />
<br />
1. Brazil (Gilliam)<br />
2. Ran (Kurosawa)<br />
3. After Hours (Scorsese)<br />
4. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Schrader)<br />
5. Blood Simple (Coen)<br />
6. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (Burton)<br />
7. Day of the Dead (Romero)<br />
8. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (Miller/Ogilvy)<br />
9. Re-Animator (Gordon)<br />10. Back to the Future (Zemeckis)Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-29544290945186811392016-01-08T16:28:00.000-05:002016-01-08T16:28:07.081-05:00Top 10: 1975<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
1. Nashville (Altman)<br />
2. Jaws (Spielberg)<br />
3. Barry Lyndon (Kubrick)<br />
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Forman)<br />
5. Dog Day Afternoon (Lumet)<br />
6. Black Moon (Malle)<br />
7. The Passenger (Antonioni)<br />
8. Jeanne Dielman, 25 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Akerman)<br />
9. The Mirror (Tarkovsky)<br />
10. Night Moves (Penn)<br />
<br />
<br />
The list I made ten years ago:<br />
<br />
1. Nashville (Altman)<br />
2. Jaws (Spielberg)<br />
3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Forman)<br />
4. The Passenger (Antonioni)<br />
5. Dog Day Afternoon (Lumet)<br />
6. The Day of the Locust (Schlesinger)<br />
7. Tommy (Russell)<br />
8. Dersu Uzala (Kurosawa)<br />
9. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Sharman)<br />
10. Love and Death (Allen)Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-15724971506913294472015-10-31T19:45:00.001-04:002015-10-31T19:45:19.939-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Zombie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7MUVO6YrhoM/VjVSJWFGD7I/AAAAAAAACbk/uQmmX7emf8w/s1600/zombie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7MUVO6YrhoM/VjVSJWFGD7I/AAAAAAAACbk/uQmmX7emf8w/s400/zombie.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>#11 (tie) - 11 votes</b></div>
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<i>Before the month is over, I wanted to share this contribution from </i><a href="http://letterboxd.com/vv/" style="font-style: italic;">Vanessa Vinci </a><i>on Lucio Fulci's </i>Zombi 2 <i>(aka </i>Zombie<i>). Thanks, Vanessa!</i></div>
<div class="qowt-stl-Body" id="E22" is="qowt-word-para" qowt-eid="E22" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.2; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0px;">
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<span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E23" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E23" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lucio Fulci</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E24" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E24" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E25" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E25" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s <i>Zombi 2</i> (aka <i>Zombie</i>, aka <i>Zombie Flesh Eaters</i>) is probably the most obscure late 70s Italian gorefest that everyone</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E26" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E26" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E27" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E27" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s heard of and generates some fantastic Abbott and Costello-style descriptions of the movie itself:</span></div>
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<div class="qowt-stl-Body" id="E29" is="qowt-word-para" qowt-eid="E29" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.2; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0px;">
<span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E30" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E30" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E31" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E31" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If I haven</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E32" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E32" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E33" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E33" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">t seen <i>Zombi </i>1 or 2, can I watch <i>Zombi 3</i>?</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E34" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E34" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span></div>
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<div class="qowt-stl-Body" id="E36" is="qowt-word-para" qowt-eid="E36" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.2; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0px;">
<span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E37" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E37" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E38" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E38" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Zombi 2</i> is the first one, there is no <i>Zombi 1</i>.</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E39" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E39" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span></div>
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<div class="qowt-stl-Body" id="E41" is="qowt-word-para" qowt-eid="E41" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.2; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0px;">
<span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E42" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E42" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E43" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E43" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So<i> Zombi 3</i> is <i>Zombi 2</i>?</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E44" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E44" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="qowt-stl-Body" id="E46" is="qowt-word-para" qowt-eid="E46" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.2; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0px;">
<span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E47" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E47" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E48" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E48" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Zombi 2</i> is <i>Zombi 2</i>.</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E49" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E49" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span><br />
<span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E51" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E51" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E52" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E52" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then what</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E53" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E53" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E54" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E54" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s <i>Zombi 1</i>?</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E55" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E55" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span><br />
<span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E57" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E57" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E58" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E58" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Dawn of the Dead</i>.</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E59" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E59" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span></div>
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<div class="qowt-stl-Body" id="E61" is="qowt-word-para" qowt-eid="E61" style="background-color: white; border-style: none; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.2; list-style-type: none; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0px;">
<span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E62" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E62" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks to Italian copyright law, Lucio Fulci</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E63" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E63" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E64" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E64" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s<i> Zombie</i>, the first in the <i>Zombie Flesh Eaters</i> series, borrowed the popularity of Romero</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E65" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E65" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E66" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E66" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s cynical allegory and used it to return audiences to the voodoo-inspired roots of <i>White Zombie</i> or<i> I Walked With a Zombie</i>. After the chilling opening scene where a seemingly abandoned sailboat drifts into the Hudson (as perfect a horror opener as ever was and used in everything from<i> Dracula</i> to <i>The Strain</i>), the action shifts to the mysterious island where interloping doctors have been tampering with local superstition to find a scientific explanation for zombie-ism. Here, though, there is no witch doctor, no grand evil mastermind puppeteering the undead for a greater scheme; the dead are rising and both science and magic are equally useless at explaining or controlling the devastation.</span></div>
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<span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E69" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E69" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Plot, acting, characterization and dialog aren</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E70" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E70" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E71" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E71" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">t the movies strong points. The characters are the kind of stock horror movie folk where the men stick around places that are clearly unsafe far longer than self-preservation would dictate while the women are prone to things like topless scuba-diving in shark ridden waters. The zombies don</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E72" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E72" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E73" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E73" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">t move very fast, but with this crowd they don</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E74" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E74" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E75" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E75" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">t have to. </span></div>
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<span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E78" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E78" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fulci keeps the stripped down storyline of Romero</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E79" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E79" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E80" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E80" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s Dead movies but without the better actors. What he does use well is atmosphere: like <i>Night of the Living Dead</i></span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E81" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E81" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E82" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E82" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s secluded farmhouse and <i>Dawn</i></span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E83" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E83" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E84" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E84" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s shopping mall, <i>Zombie</i> combines the sweltering tropical setting with the relentless drumming score to create a world where everything feels fetid. When his zombies start rising en masse from a cemetery with their worm-ridden orifices it makes total disgusting sense because of course anything buried in the dense island loam would show the worst kind of putrefaction.</span></div>
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<span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E87" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E87" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In today</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E88" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E88" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E89" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E89" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s zombie-saturated pop culture Zombie still deserves credit for one of the most beautiful sequences in a zombie film and one of the most brutal. Eyeball torture is a universal fear and, unlike any comparable scene in a torture-porn flick, desensitization never enters the equation. Even <i>Un Chien Andalou</i> doesn</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E90" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E90" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E91" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E91" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">t have those squishy sound effects to amp up the experience. And that zombie vs. shark sequence. What an awesome, almost balletic interaction between two apex predators, neither of whom knows what to make of the other or even how to experience the other except by taking a big ole</span><span class="qowt-font4-ArialUnicodeMS" id="E92" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E92" style="display: inline; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, Arimo, sans-serif !important; white-space: pre-wrap;">’ </span><span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" id="E93" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E93" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bite out of it. The scene is colorful, eerie and totally mesmerizing, like the all the best moments of the film.</span></div>
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<span class="qowt-font5-Helvetica" is="qowt-word-run" qowt-eid="E93" style="display: inline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>U.S. Release Date: </b>July 18, 1980 (Also released that week: <i>Cheech and Chong's Next Movie</i>, <i>Honeysuckle Rose</i>, <i>The Little Dragons</i>)</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2UYvhyzugtA" width="420"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-87230621112017513212015-10-30T17:08:00.000-04:002015-10-30T17:08:28.767-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Complete Results<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H7JsK2Ve97Q/VjPaMyAcX9I/AAAAAAAACYs/ZfWRwnhfxUw/s1600/Halloween1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H7JsK2Ve97Q/VjPaMyAcX9I/AAAAAAAACYs/ZfWRwnhfxUw/s400/Halloween1.jpg" width="400" /></a>
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Alas, I think it's time for me to admit defeat. I've been running month-long, Halloween-themed lists and such at <i>Cinevistaramascope </i>for a few years, and it's been a pleasure, especially with the polls I've run last and this year. But I have to be honest - it seems that, between writing for other sites and finishing and promoting the premiere of my<a href="https://vimeo.com/140603581"> movie</a>, I've fallen way, way behind on the '70s poll this month. So, I'm faced with two options:<br />
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1. Write about 17 more movies in the next 24 hours or so and post a bunch of rushed, subpar writing.<br />
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2. Publish the full list now.<br />
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So, I've decided to breathe a little and publish the full list below. I'll still eventually write about the remaining movies, but I'll admit that allowing myself to do it at my own pace is a relief. I hope it's not too much of a disappointment for all of you. Also, I'll be running the one piece I received from a contributor later today. Hopefully I'll have the time and energy next Halloween to commit to a longer project, but as it is, being so busy with writing and making movies that I don't have much time to blog is a pretty good problem to have. Thanks again for your lists, and have a happy Halloween!<br />
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<b>The List:</b></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Enzkdh0nSxw/VjPaNXEc-jI/AAAAAAAACY8/oCx7CyYny3o/s1600/Halloween2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Enzkdh0nSxw/VjPaNXEc-jI/AAAAAAAACY8/oCx7CyYny3o/s320/Halloween2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>1. Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) -26 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ea8BoCwvD0g/VjPaKfjcoII/AAAAAAAACXw/bwFDPJSTpmM/s1600/Alien.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ea8BoCwvD0g/VjPaKfjcoII/AAAAAAAACXw/bwFDPJSTpmM/s320/Alien.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>2 (tie). Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979) - 25 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l4LaJcIDY1Q/VjPaQ_hBG1I/AAAAAAAACaU/v_X0hN23woM/s1600/Suspiria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l4LaJcIDY1Q/VjPaQ_hBG1I/AAAAAAAACaU/v_X0hN23woM/s320/Suspiria.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>2 (tie). Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977) - 25 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c-xLrHoOqr8/VjPaRZ3-RjI/AAAAAAAACbE/kZGcP1jkm2I/s1600/TexasChainSawMassacre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c-xLrHoOqr8/VjPaRZ3-RjI/AAAAAAAACbE/kZGcP1jkm2I/s320/TexasChainSawMassacre.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>2 (tie). The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974) - 25 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HEGBMuGaBvQ/VjPaLrxh7iI/AAAAAAAACYY/E-IpdpGQPXU/s1600/DawnoftheDead.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HEGBMuGaBvQ/VjPaLrxh7iI/AAAAAAAACYY/E-IpdpGQPXU/s320/DawnoftheDead.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>3. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1978) - 24 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jDhtAQqp9zI/VjPaK-zTMeI/AAAAAAAACX4/0GBXkOjtt8o/s1600/Carrie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jDhtAQqp9zI/VjPaK-zTMeI/AAAAAAAACX4/0GBXkOjtt8o/s320/Carrie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>4. Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976) - 23 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P51kOZFsGEU/VjPaMsjyaGI/AAAAAAAACYo/5WtRs7JI0Lg/s1600/Exorcist.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P51kOZFsGEU/VjPaMsjyaGI/AAAAAAAACYo/5WtRs7JI0Lg/s320/Exorcist.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>5. The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) - 20 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u4VNf6GzG6c/VjPaOODU8pI/AAAAAAAACZI/f9NIaRZ10i4/s1600/Jaws.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u4VNf6GzG6c/VjPaOODU8pI/AAAAAAAACZI/f9NIaRZ10i4/s320/Jaws.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>6. Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) - 18 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qKDTigWJkME/VjPaKO9r8FI/AAAAAAAACXo/rKq4Ds8jhCQ/s1600/BlackChristmas.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qKDTigWJkME/VjPaKO9r8FI/AAAAAAAACXo/rKq4Ds8jhCQ/s320/BlackChristmas.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>7 (tie). Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974) - 17 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YaAcVW1BRy4/VjPaSOMUvXI/AAAAAAAACaw/Q8QwbnDE-AU/s1600/WickerMan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YaAcVW1BRy4/VjPaSOMUvXI/AAAAAAAACaw/Q8QwbnDE-AU/s320/WickerMan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>7 (tie). The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973) - 17 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wZrrtrP5AII/VjPaNSl_yuI/AAAAAAAACY0/_9bEjW0Ov7c/s1600/House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wZrrtrP5AII/VjPaNSl_yuI/AAAAAAAACY0/_9bEjW0Ov7c/s320/House.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>8. House (Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, 1977) - 15 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zg_BUyZ0yLk/VjPaMtSLRAI/AAAAAAAACZY/fx03TAiu8iM/s1600/Eraserhead.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zg_BUyZ0yLk/VjPaMtSLRAI/AAAAAAAACZY/fx03TAiu8iM/s320/Eraserhead.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>9. Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977) - 14 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3LciKtZ-E64/VjPaK1EgYfI/AAAAAAAACX0/HTkr_UYyn1Y/s1600/Brood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3LciKtZ-E64/VjPaK1EgYfI/AAAAAAAACX0/HTkr_UYyn1Y/s320/Brood.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>10. The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979) - 13 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x13lylO--oU/VjPaLUv2bNI/AAAAAAAACYI/SdevAfu76Sg/s1600/DeepRed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x13lylO--oU/VjPaLUv2bNI/AAAAAAAACYI/SdevAfu76Sg/s320/DeepRed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>11 (tie). Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975) - 11 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ErIyXKn5hdc/VjPaSXIDQ2I/AAAAAAAACa4/otnvHpdmoGo/s1600/Zombie.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ErIyXKn5hdc/VjPaSXIDQ2I/AAAAAAAACa4/otnvHpdmoGo/s320/Zombie.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>11 (tie). Zombie (Lucio Fulci, 1979) - 11 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xXNeIrg-w-A/VjPaMI01EeI/AAAAAAAACYc/hWXKneQ9Gc8/s1600/Devils.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xXNeIrg-w-A/VjPaMI01EeI/AAAAAAAACYc/hWXKneQ9Gc8/s320/Devils.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>12 (tie). The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) - 10 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yXYHQsSO0sM/VjPaMSn-LMI/AAAAAAAACYk/JeOUIx9At5A/s1600/DontLookNow.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yXYHQsSO0sM/VjPaMSn-LMI/AAAAAAAACYk/JeOUIx9At5A/s320/DontLookNow.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>12 (tie). Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973) - 10 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UjtVBkKnF5M/VjPaP_AQIgI/AAAAAAAACaM/icrE4GAfLdo/s1600/Phantasm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UjtVBkKnF5M/VjPaP_AQIgI/AAAAAAAACaM/icrE4GAfLdo/s320/Phantasm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>12 (tie). Phantasm (Don Coscarelli, 1979) - 10 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zs8Wm_Rddq8/VjPaOcl9XAI/AAAAAAAACZQ/AgS8kNn47os/s1600/Martin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zs8Wm_Rddq8/VjPaOcl9XAI/AAAAAAAACZQ/AgS8kNn47os/s320/Martin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>13. Martin (George A. Romero, 1977) - 9 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8-rv2Bh3MMw/VjPaKQOoENI/AAAAAAAACXs/HV2v_5h7MFQ/s1600/BodySnatchers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8-rv2Bh3MMw/VjPaKQOoENI/AAAAAAAACXs/HV2v_5h7MFQ/s320/BodySnatchers.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>14. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978) - 8 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ez9oykAvvlQ/VjPaPGqt6eI/AAAAAAAACZ8/KT12OLSHlGA/s1600/Nosferatu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ez9oykAvvlQ/VjPaPGqt6eI/AAAAAAAACZ8/KT12OLSHlGA/s320/Nosferatu.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>15. Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog, 1979) - 7 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1XUpBSgwRAQ/VjPaOs1qnUI/AAAAAAAACbM/qLydgzII6gk/s1600/Messiah-Of-Evil1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1XUpBSgwRAQ/VjPaOs1qnUI/AAAAAAAACbM/qLydgzII6gk/s320/Messiah-Of-Evil1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>16. Messiah of Evil (Willard Huyck, 1973) - 6 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PzeO6Qn52fc/VjPaPXPRs-I/AAAAAAAACZw/4gmMLPRVrms/s1600/Omen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PzeO6Qn52fc/VjPaPXPRs-I/AAAAAAAACZw/4gmMLPRVrms/s320/Omen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>17 (tie). The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976) - 5 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oSLFS6Np5NQ/VjPaRVbZKmI/AAAAAAAACa8/sEroj2hjD0o/s1600/Tenant.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oSLFS6Np5NQ/VjPaRVbZKmI/AAAAAAAACa8/sEroj2hjD0o/s320/Tenant.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>18 (tie). The Tenant (Roman Polanski, 1976) - 5 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m3zi6jQTzD0/VjPaLGr279I/AAAAAAAACYQ/OM1MdG2X7RM/s1600/DaughtersofDarkness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m3zi6jQTzD0/VjPaLGr279I/AAAAAAAACYQ/OM1MdG2X7RM/s320/DaughtersofDarkness.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>19 (tie). Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kumel, 1971) - 4 votes</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m8GkmSzuCNM/VjPaPwoR7JI/AAAAAAAACaI/6qIMRQOeO1s/s1600/Piranha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m8GkmSzuCNM/VjPaPwoR7JI/AAAAAAAACaI/6qIMRQOeO1s/s320/Piranha.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>19 (tie). Piranha (Joe Dante, 1978) - 4 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1uczDT1U-j8/VjPaQwI6CxI/AAAAAAAACac/-uhh3oDycoU/s1600/Sisters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1uczDT1U-j8/VjPaQwI6CxI/AAAAAAAACac/-uhh3oDycoU/s320/Sisters.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>19 (tie). Sisters (Brian De Palma, 1973) - 4 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-poEYRcxv2mQ/VjPaO7fOUCI/AAAAAAAACZc/wlLN9Hwv2jU/s1600/MrsWardh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-poEYRcxv2mQ/VjPaO7fOUCI/AAAAAAAACZc/wlLN9Hwv2jU/s320/MrsWardh.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>19 (tie). The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Sergio Martino, 1971) - 4 votes</b></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sqQV2OEOln8/VjPaR_4Rq1I/AAAAAAAACa0/mQILu7lfX8M/s1600/WakeinFright.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sqQV2OEOln8/VjPaR_4Rq1I/AAAAAAAACa0/mQILu7lfX8M/s320/WakeinFright.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>19 (tie). Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971) - 4 votes</b></div>
Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-24968317084066366222015-10-27T21:05:00.002-04:002015-10-27T21:07:35.214-04:00'70s Horror Poll: The Devils<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nrnSEYpPLeg/VjAeN5s9i0I/AAAAAAAACXY/5SyeKYrmYas/s1600/devils.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nrnSEYpPLeg/VjAeN5s9i0I/AAAAAAAACXY/5SyeKYrmYas/s400/devils.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>#12 (tie) - 10 votes</b></div>
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Some of you may have noticed that I've fallen a bit behind schedule this month. I do intend to finish this project by Saturday, even if it makes for a busy weekend. However, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't relieved when I remembered that <a href="http://cinevistaramascope.blogspot.com/2011/04/satan-is-ever-ready-to-seduce-us-with.html">I wrote about <i>The Devils </i>at length</a> a few years ago for the White Elephant Blog-a-Thon, so go ahead and check out the review that prompted comments like "Such a wonderful blog i ever read. Please keep posting good blogs. Thank you very much..." (from reader "Stockmeds Viagra") and "I fully tie in with everything you have printed" (from "escortsit.es"). And while you're at it, check out<a href="https://www.facebook.com/FreeTheDevils"> the campaign</a> to persuade Warner Bros. to give <i>The Devils </i>a long-overdue home video release!<br />
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<b>U.S. Release Date: </b>July 16, 1971 (Also released that week: <i>The Hunting Party</i>)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="252" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tPConeKY3WA" width="448"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-36663956186962798652015-10-26T21:53:00.001-04:002015-10-26T21:53:32.302-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Martin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-06dL92dAQL0/Vi7Y6ttBKGI/AAAAAAAACXI/mXTxLJISlMU/s1600/Martin-Romero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-06dL92dAQL0/Vi7Y6ttBKGI/AAAAAAAACXI/mXTxLJISlMU/s400/Martin-Romero.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>#13 - 9 Votes</b></div>
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While George A. Romero is rightly celebrated for his iconic zombie movies and the influence they've had on the subgenre, an unfortunate result is that his non-zombie movies tend to be a bit overlooked. One of those is <i>Martin</i>, which he made just before <i>Dawn of the Dead</i>. The movie is anchored by John Amplas' peculiarly effective performance as the title character, a young man who believes himself to be a vampire. The twist is that there's no physical evidence that Martin is a supernatural being - he can go out during the day, isn't repelled by garlic or crucifixes and, without any fangs, relies on razorblades to bleed his (usually attractive female) victims. It's an unusually character-driven horror movie, as we follow Martin as he stalks his victims, gets involved in a sort of romance, confesses his crimes to a local talk radio show and, ultimately, is hunted by his elderly uncle, who shares his nephew's belief in vampires.<br />
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I had an opportunity, at a Q&A a few years ago, to ask Romero about the movie (if you ever have the chance to meet Romero, he loves being asked about his movies that don't have <i>Dead</i> in the title). I'll never forget when Romero said that "I never saw Martin as a vampire. I thought he was just a fucked-up kid." This sums up the movie's uniquely chilly atmosphere - it's an fascinatingly subtle counterpoint to the garish splatter he's better known for, with the dilapidated Pittsburgh locations contributing greatly to the film's sense of dread. And the makeup effects by Tom Savini, while not as gory as much of his later work, still have the ability to make me wince.<br />
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<b>U.S. Release Date: July 7, 1978</b><br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E9pXeLwMIwc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-2317830787157854292015-10-23T10:34:00.000-04:002015-10-23T10:34:22.914-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Invasion of the Body Snatchers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a2ok4vhJkvg/VipE-tMSWrI/AAAAAAAACW4/lufS9QwTb6s/s1600/invasion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a2ok4vhJkvg/VipE-tMSWrI/AAAAAAAACW4/lufS9QwTb6s/s400/invasion.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>#14 - 8 votes</b></div>
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Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake of <i>Invasion of the Body Snatchers </i>isn't usually listed among the decade's best paranoid thrillers, but it's as great as any of them. Transplanting the original's McCarthy-era paranoia to the Me Decade was an inspired move on the part of screenwriter W.D. Richter, as characters who suspect there's something not quite right with their friends and family members who have been replaced by pod people are instead encouraged to regard their suspicions as a projection of their own anxieties. As the city's population is quickly replaced, Kaufman does a masterful job of heightening the movie's own sense of anxiety by carefully including background actors behaving just a little strangely and other odd details at the margins of the frame, at first mostly unnoticed by the characters (Edgar Wright surely had the movie in mind when he made <i>Shaun of the Dead</i>). While it's less overtly political than <i>The Conversation</i>, <i>The Parallax View </i>or other celebrated '70s thrillers, it shares the same mounting sense of unease that, not only are sinister forces secretly running the show, but they're already winning.<div>
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From the opening sequence, which follows microscopic alien organisms travelling across the universe to our planet and slowly, almost imperceptibly replicating harmless-looking flowers, it's the rare movie about aliens that feels truly otherworldly. Cinematographer Michael Chapman favors naturalistic, largely practical lighting towards the beginning, only to include more expressionistic use of light and shadow as the characters realize what's going on. Along with Douglas Stewart's jagged, disorienting editing, Ben Burtt's sound design and Danny Zeitlin's unique electronic score, the movie creates an atmosphere of subtle but insidious and growing dread that still feels not quite like any other science fiction movies, then or now. The cast also deserves a great deal of credit for the movie's success - star Donald Sutherland (the most underrated actor of his generation?) and a great supporting cast including Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright and Leonard Nimoy keep their characters' anxieties frighteningly grounded and credible. </div>
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The first time I watched <i>Invasion of the Body Snatchers</i> was late at night on TV-38's <i>Movie Loft</i> when I was eight or nine years old; it was the perfect way to experience the movie, as the movie's peculiar atmosphere did a number on my sleepy brain until I was suddenly jolted awake by moments like the fate of the banjo player and his dog or, especially, the final scene, one of the all-time best. <i>Invasion of the Body Snatchers</i> is fairly well-known today, but it doesn't seem to be as much of a Halloween mainstay as a lot of late-'70s horror classics, and it deserves to be.</div>
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<b>U.S. Release Date: </b>December 20, 1978 (Also released that week: <i>Every Which Way But Loose</i>, <i>King of the Gypsies</i>, <i>The Last Wave</i>)</div>
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4Y4dv1TWv5M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-79245300993740595652015-10-22T12:25:00.001-04:002015-10-22T12:25:02.223-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Nosferatu the Vampyre<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sYbciS2Ovj4/VikNfysVUXI/AAAAAAAACWo/MnG67pz_ipg/s1600/nosferatu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sYbciS2Ovj4/VikNfysVUXI/AAAAAAAACWo/MnG67pz_ipg/s400/nosferatu.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>#15 - 7 votes</b></div>
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Werner Herzog's 1979 remake of F.W. Murnau's <i>Nosferatu</i>, titled <i>Nosferatu the Vampyre </i>in the U.S. and <i>Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht </i>in Europe, is one of the handful of remakes I prefer to the original. Measuring a silent film against a movie made five decades later is unfair, and Murnau's original is a great film that remains creepily effective nearly a century later. But while Herzog intended to honor Murnau and his film with his own, recreating iconic images from the original, his <i>Nosferatu</i> stands on its own as a uniquely poetic and haunting experience.<br />
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Klaus Kinski's performance as the cursed Count Dracula - unlike Murnau's film, Herzog was free to use the character names from Bram Stoker's novel - is my favorite of his and Herzog's legendary five-film collaboration. His Dracula is neither as purely monstrous as Max Schreck's Count Orlok nor the tragic, sexy version played by Frank Langella in the big-budget production of <i>Dracula </i>that was also released in 1979. Kinski's count is truly alien, an otherworldly presence that inspires our pity if not empathy. In his scenes with the perfectly cast Isabella Adjani - the movie would be the ideal center of an Adjani triple feature bookended by <i>The Story of Adele H. </i>and <i>Possession</i> - Kinski is less menacing than chilling, as Herzog is less interested in the romantic readings of the story than in what would be the pitiful reality of a vampire's existence.<br />
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Like the ghoul in Fuseli's <i>The Nightmare</i>, the vampire bound to destroy any object of his affections and literally bring death wherever he goes. As in Murnau's version, Dracula spreads a literal plague, which gives Herzog the opportunity to stage an eerily silent apocalypse that ends on a more unsettling note than the original. Along with the movie's hallucinatory images of bats filmed in slow motion, real, rotting mummies and other characteristically Herzogian images of nature as threatening and ominous, <i>Nosferatu</i> is subtly but thoroughly frightening. Herzog isn't interested in big scares, and I know this one makes some horror fans sleepy, but viewed in the right frame of mind, <i>Nosferatu </i>is quite freaky in its own peculiar way.<br />
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<b>U.S. Release Date: </b>October 5, 1979 (Also released that week: <i>10</i>, <i>Starting Over</i>)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZeYpGsEdEZU" width="420"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-34759958298087200722015-10-20T13:41:00.000-04:002015-10-20T13:41:45.802-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Messiah of Evil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g0hCkRHo_Sw/ViZ8SfCRPuI/AAAAAAAACWU/gOkah8uaS58/s1600/messiah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g0hCkRHo_Sw/ViZ8SfCRPuI/AAAAAAAACWU/gOkah8uaS58/s400/messiah.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>#16 - 6 votes</b></div>
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At first glance, <i>Messiah of Evil </i>could be mistaken for one of the many forgettable, generic horror movies that played at grindhouses and drive-ins before fading into obscurity and an afterlife spent as a public domain DVD on dollar store shelves. If one were to just describe its murky narrative - about a young woman searching for her father who ends up in a town full of possessed, vampire-like townsfolk controlled by a mysterious character known as "the dark stranger" - it doesn't sound like anything special. And yet, like <i>Carnival of Souls</i> before it, <i>Messiah of Evil </i>is a case where a simple story is elevated by the movie's surreal unsettling atmosphere, which is equal parts Lovecraft and post-'60s psychedelia. As lead character Arletty (Marianna Hill) and the group of unafflicted people she meets in the town are preyed upon by the stranger and his minions, the movie delivers a couple of spectacularly frightening setpieces, and director Willard Huyck sustains the movie's nightmarish tone through its eerily unresolved ending.<br />
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<i>Messiah of Evil </i>is also notable for being one of those low-budget movies from the period that would prove to be a nexus of important figures in '70s American film. Huyck and his co-writer, producer and wife Gloria Katz would go on to co-write <i>American Graffiti</i> (released the same year), <i>Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom </i>and, er, the Huyck-directed <i>Howard the Duck</i>. Walter Hill appears in the movie's opening scene, and one of the production designers was Jack Fisk, whose subsequent credits include <i>Mulholland Drive</i>, <i>There Will Be Blood </i>and all of Terrence Malick's films. Fisk and Joan Marcoe's contributions to <i>Messiah of Evil </i>are key to the movie's success; the giant, trippy, vaguely threatening murals contribute greatly to the movie's atmosphere. Cinematographer Stephen Katz also deserves a lot of credit, particularly for the movie's best-known scene, as he uses the harsh flourescent lighting of a supermarket to turn the familiar suddenly threatening. The best compliment I can give <i>Messiah of Evil</i> is that I watched a fullscreen version of the movie with washed-out colors to write this, and yet its images got under my skin anyway; I'm looking forward to eventually checking out Code Red's widescreen release of the movie, as I suspect I'll grow to love it.<br />
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<b>U.S. Release Date: </b>May 2, 1973
Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-56075713404991298522015-10-16T19:56:00.000-04:002015-10-16T19:56:06.546-04:00'70s Horror Poll: The Tenant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mYU4ptGT5H8/ViGMcswB7aI/AAAAAAAACV4/sYIkq1XJp5I/s1600/Tenant1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mYU4ptGT5H8/ViGMcswB7aI/AAAAAAAACV4/sYIkq1XJp5I/s400/Tenant1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><br />#17 (tie) - 5 votes</b></div>
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The first time I saw Roman Polanski's <i>The Tenant</i>, I didn't care for it at all. I watched it with a friend who'd heard that it was an inspiration for <i>Fight Club</i>, only to find out that the connection between the two films was very specific and limited. Going into it, though, with "<i>Rosemary's Baby</i> meets <i>Fight Club</i>" in mind, I was disappointed to discover it's actually a slow burn starring Polanski as Trelkovsky, a meek guy who moves into an apartment previously occupied by a woman who attempted suicide by jumping out the window. The movie hints at a supernatural conspiracy among Trelkovsky's neighbors, but it gradually becomes apparent that the truth is much less frightening (to my 19-year-old self, at least), and I could only shrug at the movie's ironic ending.<br />
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I've seen it a few more times since then, and I enjoy it, especially, as a black comedy, especially the absurd final minutes. <i>The Tenant </i>has been interpreted as being about the dissolution of the self, or as a metaphor for the horrors of the Third Reich. Those things are almost certainly in there, but I enjoy it most as a more literal cautionary tale about the horrors of apartment dwelling, only taken to an absurd degree. Trelkovsky tries harder and harder to accommodate his neighbors, even as their complaints become increasingly unreasonable; I'd be lying if I said I didn't get the lengths he goes to in order to avoid confrontation, and my laughter at the consequences this has for Trelkovsky is very much the laughter of recognition.<br />
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<b>U.S. Release Date: </b>June 11, 1976 (Also released that week: <i>The Cars That Ate Paris</i>, <i>Deep Red</i>)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="252" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B4bUxCF0o48" width="448"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-71867940524611014362015-10-14T12:52:00.001-04:002015-10-14T12:52:20.851-04:00'70s Horror Poll: The Omen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eIiSmzYVbC4/Vh6H--mhodI/AAAAAAAACVs/HRmtf4zBZv0/s1600/omen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eIiSmzYVbC4/Vh6H--mhodI/AAAAAAAACVs/HRmtf4zBZv0/s400/omen.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>#17 (tie) - 5 votes</b></div>
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When <i>The Omen</i> is mentioned, the first things most people probably remember are Gregory Peck's performance as the adoptive father of the Antichrist or Jerry Goldsmith's haunting, Oscar-winning score. Personally, I always think of what is my all-time favorite decapitation scene - I won't spoil it here, but anyone who has seen the movie knows what I'm talking about (and not just because it's the only decapitation in the film). Released a few years after <i>The Exorcist</i>, <i>The Omen </i>was clearly greenlit in the wake of the earlier movie's massive success, as both movies are rare A-list horror productions with sizable budgets, casts of well-respected actors, and serious-minded approaches to their supernatural subject matter. But while <i>The Exorcist </i>works so brilliantly because its story of demonic possession is grounded by William Friedkin's frighteningly credible, "realistic" approach to the material, the balance between verisimilitude and "Boo!" moments in <i>The Omen </i>is uneasy. With its long, portentous, dialogue-heavy stretches suddenly punctuated by moments of graphic gore that wouldn't be out of place in an exploitation movie, <i>The Omen </i>has actually proven to be a far bigger influence on subsequent demonic possession/apocalypse movies than <i>The Exorcist</i>.<br />
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When I first saw <i>The Omen </i>as a kid, my family attended a church that was pretty big on Revelations and such. After the movie left me feeling pretty anxious, I asked one of the Bible studies teachers if the end times would be like the movie and was assured that, yes, the Antichrist's return will be much like that. Now, I'm pretty sure that, if Satan were to return, it'd probably be less pulpy. Not that I'm knocking the movie - I actually enjoy it most when it's at its most disreputable, especially the over-the-top death scenes and Billie Whitelaw's hilariously weird performance as Damian's nanny. I also have a soft spot for the more shameless trashiness of the sequels. While <i>The Omen</i> isn't a favorite of mine, it mostly holds up well as a reminder of the brief moment when horror movies flirted with respectability.<br />
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<b>U.S. Release Date: </b>June 25, 1976 (Also released that week: <i>Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson</i>; <i>Logan's Run</i>; <i>Murder by Death</i>)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="252" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V7CEbd7ffNw" width="448"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-88254138097570494922015-10-12T18:04:00.003-04:002015-10-12T18:04:22.732-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Wake in Fright<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1e-nlCJCmg/Vhwt1qqUT7I/AAAAAAAACVY/qZzNmgUr3VA/s1600/Wake-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1e-nlCJCmg/Vhwt1qqUT7I/AAAAAAAACVY/qZzNmgUr3VA/s400/Wake-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>#4 (tie) - 18 Votes</b></div>
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The 1971 Outback-set thriller <i>Wake in Fright </i>has had a peculiar history. After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival and playing theatrically in the U.S. and elsewhere, the movie disappeared from distribution, rarely showed up on TV and only received a home video release a few years ago after a restoration of the film premiered, again, at Cannes. Viewed today, it's an exciting lost gem, even as it's easy to see why it faded into obscurity - it's an unrelentingly tense film about a teacher, played by Gary Bond, who gets stuck in a remote mining town. Between the escalating, alcohol-fueled tension between Bond and the locals - especially Donald Pleasance as a very dubious "doctor" - and a disturbing, protracted sequence depicting a real kangaroo hunt, <i>Wake in Fright </i>is an often off-putting experience, but a powerful one for those who can stomach it. I'd love to see it and <i>Cul-de-sac</i> as a double feature of merciless attacks on conventional notions of masculinity featuring Pleasance.<br />
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Viewing the movie a few years ago, what stuck with me most strongly was its perversely unconventional structure. The clash between the "civilized" teacher and the boozing, brawling locals primes one to expect the movie to build towards a violent standoff akin to the same year's <i>Straw Dogs</i>. Without giving anything away, that's not what happens here, and what disturbed me most greatly about the movie is how director Ted Kotcheff (who'd go on to direct higher-profile movies like <i>First Blood </i>and <i>Weekend at Bernie's</i>) keeps the tensions on a constant simmer without letting it boil over, denying us the catharsis we've come to expect. There's truly no escape here, which is largely why the movie lingers uncomfortably in my memory. <i>Wake in Fright </i>isn't a "fun" horror movie, or even a horror movie in the conventional sense, but if you have a taste for the strong stuff, few movies are more deeply unnerving.</div>
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<b>U.S. Release Date: </b>October 13, 1971 (Also released that week: <i>Macbeth</i>, <i>Murmur of the Heart</i>, <i>Shoot Out</i>)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tn4f_RgreiI" width="420"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-84016824859976276162015-10-08T19:50:00.002-04:002015-10-08T19:50:55.056-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Sisters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--RYslik8Dc8/VhcBULOpYOI/AAAAAAAACU8/0p6ZT35rLSY/s1600/sisters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--RYslik8Dc8/VhcBULOpYOI/AAAAAAAACU8/0p6ZT35rLSY/s400/sisters.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>#18 (tie) - 4 Votes</b></div>
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It's remarkable how, early in Brian De Palma's filmmaking career, the preoccupations, fetishes and visual trademarks that would run throughout his career were already fully formed. In the opening scene of Sisters, a blind woman in a dressing room disrobes in full view of a male customer; as the man watches her, we're also invited to gawk against the character's will. However, De Palma quickly reverses the situation, upending our expectations and making us feel a bit self-conscious about the act of watching the movie. It's the same trick De Palma would find countless, endlessly inventive ways to play on us throughout his career; as he's probably best known for paying homage to another filmmaker, it's worth noting that De Palma is a nakedly personal filmmaker, and possibly the most underrated of his generation.<br />
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I'll admit that, the first time I saw <i>Sisters</i>, I'd seen and loved a few De Palma movies, but the movie's many twists and turns lost me. The murder that happens about 30 minutes into the movie is a brilliant setpiece, employing what would soon become a signature De Palma device, the use of splitscreen to observe the action simultaneously from two perspectives. But from there, the story becomes increasingly convoluted, as the focus shifts from disturbed model Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) to investigative reporter Grace Collier (Jennifer Salt). Grace's investigation expands to include not only Siamese twins but also multiple personalities, mind control and a mysterious mad doctor played by William Finley (a frequent De Palma collaborator and an incredibly underrated actor). By the time the movie arrives at its oddly anticlimactic, deadpan final shot, I was wondering if it was supposed to be funny.<br />
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Having seen most of De Palma's films, I feel confident that, in fact, it is supposed to be funny. De Palma would repeat this story structure several times, piling one increasingly absurd development on top of another. Quentin Tarantino once observed that <i>Raising Cain </i>was De Palma's admission that he could only get interested in making another thriller if he focused on amusing himself rather than playing to the audience's expectations. <i>Sisters</i> is clear evidence that De Palma has always done things that way - taken literally, it's a fun, weird, ultimately frustrating whodunit, but I realized that De Palma is having a laugh and letting us in on it, I found it perversely hilarious, especially as Salt (who currently writes for <i>American Horror Story</i>) makes for an entertainingly atypical thriller heroine. Though, in retrospect, Bernard Herrmann's gleefully bonkers score should have clued me in.<br />
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<b>U.S. Release Date: </b>March 27, 1973 (Also released that week: <i>The Devil in Miss Jones</i>)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="252" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UgYQNRQG63E" width="448"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-85912998097287976292015-10-06T13:45:00.001-04:002015-10-06T13:47:31.897-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Piranha<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q2NGlZNR6jA/VhQINyz38BI/AAAAAAAACUs/b1uWEhEL9fo/s1600/piranha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q2NGlZNR6jA/VhQINyz38BI/AAAAAAAACUs/b1uWEhEL9fo/s320/piranha.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>#18 (tie) - 4 Votes</b></div>
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Of the many <i>Jaws </i>ripoffs released in the years following Steven Spielberg's original classic, <i>Piranha </i>is by far the best. It's good enough, in fact, that Spielberg is a fan - Universal was attempting to block the movie's release the same summer as <i>Jaws 2</i> until Spielberg saw the movie and persuaded them not to, later hiring Joe Dante to direct a segment of <i>Twilight Zone: The Movie</i> and the Amblin production <i>Gremlins</i>. I suspect that Spielberg enjoyed <i>Piranha </i>because, rather than overtly parodying <i>Jaws</i>, it's a genuinely witty horror-comedy that works better as a thematic sibling to <i>Jaws</i> than that movie's own sequels.<br />
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With the movie's genetically engineered fish serving as a smaller-scale version of the Great White, much of <i>Piranha </i>feels like a knowingly miniaturized distillation of <i>Jaws</i>. The profit-minded business owners and politicians who allowed character, the owner of a kitschy water park, and screenwriter John Sayles (who'd soon go onto writing and directing more serious-minded fare) sneaks in some social commentary with the military scientists responsible for creating the weaponized fish and letting them escape. Producer Roger Corman famously let his directors do pretty much whatever they wanted provided the movie ran about ninety minutes and met his quota for bare breasts and gory death scenes, and Dante made the most of the opportunity - what could have been a generic knockoff has as much personality, dry wit and affection for B-movie stars like Miller and Kevin McCarthy as Dante's subsequent work.<br />
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Besides being quite funny, <i>Piranha </i>also works very well as a monster movie, making the most of its modest budget thanks to the early work of future effects legends like Rob Bottin, Chris Walas and Phil Tippett. While the movie's schools of tiny, razor-tooth villains aren't entirely convincing, the old-school practical effects work remains charming. <i>Piranha </i>delivers plenty of gross-out gags while still remaining safe for horror-loving kids to enjoy - it was one of the first movies I showed my son when he first started expressing an interest in the genre, and it's still one of his favorites. It also features a lot of welcome familiar faces from Corman's '70s repertory company (I especially enjoy Paul Bartel's performance as a prissy camp director). And the movie became something of a franchise in its own right, spawning a James Cameron-directed sequel and '90s TV remake (I've never seen either), an Alexandre Aja-directed remake that is the best 3D theatrical experience I've ever had, and a sequel to Aja's movie that should be avoided at all costs.<br />
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<b>U.S. Release Date: </b>August 3, 1978 (Also released that week: <i>Eyes of Laura Mars</i>, <i>Interiors</i>)<br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XoCKGvVlNYM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-46158099654323945842015-10-05T09:00:00.001-04:002015-10-05T09:00:43.575-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Daughters of Darkness<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b>#18 (Tie) - 4 Votes</b></div>
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No survey of '70s horror movies would be complete without a few lesbian vampires. While <em>Dracula </em>has been a perennial influence on the genre, the 1970s saw a wave of movies that drew inspiration Sheridan Le Fanu, whose short story <em>Carmilla</em>, about a young woman preyed upon by a female bloodsucker. Of all the movies of varying quality indebted to <em>Carmilla </em>and Le Fanu's real-life inspiration, 18th century serial killer Countess Elizabeth Báthory - whose beauty regime, it was rumored, included bathing in the blood of virgins - <em>Daughters of Darkness </em>is notable for actually featuring an immortal Báthory as its baddie. As played by Delphine Seyrig, Báthory arrives for a stay at a seaside resort in Belgium with her "secretary," Ilona (Andrea Rau), when she targets a newly married couple as her next prey. The Countess and her "secretary's" attempts to seduce and destroy the hip young marrieds almost plays as subversive - a queer triumph over bourgeois heteronormativity - though the movie's leering, porn-y vibe discourages that reading. Not that I'm complaining about the porniness, mind you. <br />
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I hadn't seen <em>Daughters of Darkness </em>before checking it out for this list, and my first impression is that it's a hysterical clash of the most highbrow and lowbrow trends in '70s cinema. The stylish art direction and costume design, evocative lighting, portentous dialogue and the casting of Delphine Seyrig - who'd worked with directors like Resnais, <span style="color: black;">Buñuel </span>and Truffaut - all suggest a horror movie that could have easily played in art houses. At the same time, the movie's frequent nudity and sex have a distinctly softcore Europorn vibe. The contrast between the high-minded approach to genre and gratuitous T&A are a reminder that flashes of nudity were one of the main selling points for European art house fare in the '60s, and that art films and smut weren't all that far apart. <br />
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In any case, as a vampire movie, <em>Daughters of Darkness</em> is a slow burn with a payoff that I found not entirely rewarding. As far as vampire movies with Sapphic overtones go, I remain partial to Hammer's Karnstein trilogy. Still, it's beautiful to look at, and I can see why director Harry Kumel's uniquely atmospheric approach to the genre has its fans. Also, cast members are naked and/or screwing around in full frontal, unshaven '70s glory every other scene, although, it must be noted, sex of the Sapphic variety is limited to a few tight-lipped kisses.<br />
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<strong>U.S. Release Date: </strong>May 28, 1971 (Also released that day: <em>Big Jake</em>, <em>The Grissom Gang</em>, <em>Kuroneko</em>)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="252" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v54xoceJv_M" width="448"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-21259770320221322812015-10-04T09:34:00.003-04:002015-10-04T09:34:33.139-04:00'70s Horror Poll: The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>#18 (Tie) - 4 Votes</b></div>
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Hopefully the only "the dog ate my homework" post I'll have to share this month, <em>The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh</em> (AKA <em>Blade of the Ripper</em>, AKA <em>Next!</em>) is one of the movies on this list that I hadn't seen before. I found Sergio Martino's 1971 <em>giallo </em>on YouTube only to discover, as I sat down to watch it this week, that none of the uploads of the Italian-language movie that I could find featured subtitles. I watched anyway, relying on plot summaries of the film, so I'd have <em>something </em>to write about, but apologies in advance, as this will (hopefully) be the briefest entry I write this month.<br />
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Thankfully, there are two aspects of the movie I was able to enjoy that transcended the language barrier. The first was the lovely Edwige Fenech, who plays the unfaithful wife of a diplomat (I learned this from other reviews, though I ascertained that she's a jet-setter who likes to bang a lot) who finds herself targeted by a mysterious killer. Fenech appeared in several movies that showed up on people's ballots; she's a scream queen before the term had been coined, and for good reason. She's mesmerizing whenever she's onscreen, and while I can't speak to the quality of the script, her performance makes for a strong <em>giallo </em>counterpart to Susannah York in Robert Altman's <em>Images</em>, released the following year. She's both a great screen presence and, as the movie becomes more hallucinatory, manages to deliver a credible performance despite the kind of late-in-the-game plot convolutions (if I understood them correctly) that are as much a part of <em>gialli </em>as their stylish death scenes.<br />
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And as far as death scenes go, <em>The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh</em> nails it. Unlike Argento's protracted, hyper-stylized setpieces, Martino's murder sequences are stylish but quick, gory and disturbingly economical. Coupled with the movie's blunt nudity, Martino's movie reminds of the influence <em>gialli </em>would have on slasher movies several years later. Martino, who would go on to direct <em>Torso</em>, <em>2019: After the Fall of New York</em>, and <em>Island of the Fishmen</em> (re-titled <em>Screamers </em>when it was released, with a hilariously misleading trailer, by New World Pictures), among many others, seems less interested in aestheticizing violence than most of his peers, but having to rely entirely on the images to get through the movie, I can at least report that he has a great eye, and I'm looking forward to revisiting <em>The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh </em>and more of his movies when I can know what the hell everyone is saying.<br />
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Sidenote: Nora Orlandi's haunting <a href="https://youtu.be/BQjWFocWqas">theme for the film</a>, which has been stuck in my head for a couple of days, was used by Quentin Tarantino for the soundtrack to <em>Kill Bill vol. 2.</em><br />
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<strong>U.S. Release Date: </strong>August 6, 1971 (Also released that day: <em>The Brotherhood of </em>Satan, The<em> Horseman</em>, <em>Let's Scare Jessica to Death</em>, <em>The Love Machine</em>)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="252" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m8jggLpdAJw" width="448"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-73019295307622191152015-10-02T22:51:00.002-04:002015-10-03T06:00:21.755-04:00'70s Horror Poll: Honorable Mentions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Unlike last year's '90s poll, which offered the deliberate challenge of coming up with ten genuinely worthy horror movies from a decade that was a mixed bag for the genre, the 1970s offers no shortage of genuine classics, underrated gems and interesting obscurities. Many thanks to all of the people who shared their top ten lists with me; as you can tell from the honorable mentions listed below, the results were wonderfully eclectic (this may be the only list where <em>Cries and Whispers </em>and <em>Death Bed: The Bed That Eats </em>are two slots apart). <br />
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I'll unveil the movies that got the most votes one day at a time, starting tomorrow. I should admit upfront that my schedule is busier (in a good way, mostly) than the past few Octobers, so I may not write at as much length about each movie as I have in the past or always manage to post one per day. However, I'll write at least a little bit about each (along with some guest writers who'll be contributing later in the month), and by Halloween, I'll have the entire list unveiled. <br />
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Movies that recieved one vote:<br />
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Airport 1975 (Jack Smight, 1974)<br />
Alucarda (Juan López Moctezuma, 1977)<br />
The Amazing Transplant - 1<br />
<b>The Amityville Horror (Stuart Rosenberg, 1979)</b><br />
Arcana (Doris Wishman, 1970)<br />
Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976)<br />
The Baby (Ted Post, 1973)<br />
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (Seth Holt, 1971)<br />
The Blood on Satan's Claw (Piers Haggard, 1971)<br />
Blue Movie (Alberto Cavallone, 1970)<br />
The Cannibal Man (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1973)<br />
Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter (Brian Clemens, 1974)<br />
Countess Dracula (Peter Sasdy, 1971)<br />
The Creeping Flesh (Freddie Francis, 1973)<br />
Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)<br />
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Cyclone (René Cardona Jr., 1978)<br />
Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (George Barry, 1977)<br />
Deathdream (Bob Clark, 1974)<br />
Delirium (Peter Maris, 1979)<br />
Don't Deliver Us from Evil (Joël Séria, 1971)<br />
Don't Look in the Basement (S.F. Brownrigg, 1973)<br />
Doriana Gray (Jesús Franco, 1976)<br />
Dracula (John Badham, 1979)<br />
The Driller Killer (Abel Ferrara, 1979)<br />
Epileptic Seizure Comparison (Paul Sharits, 1976)<br />
<b>Exorcist II: The Heretic (John Boorman, 1977)</b><br />
Flesh for Frankenstein (Paul Morrissey, 1973)<br />
Footprints on the Moon (Luigi Bazzoni, 1975)<br />
From Beyond the Grave (Kevin Connor, 1974)<br />
God Told Me To (Larry Cohen, 1976)<br />
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Horror Express (Eugenio Martin, 1972)<br />
House of Whipcord (Pete Walker, 1974)<br />
The House that Dripped Blood (Peter Duffell, 1971)<br />
The House with Laughing Windows (Pupi Avati, 1976)<br />
I Drink Your Blood (David E. Durston, 1970)<br />
I Spit on Your Grave (Meir Zarchi, 1978)<br />
The Iron Rose (Jean Rollin, 1973)<br />
It's Alive (Larry Cohen, 1974)<br />
The Last House on Dead End Street (Roger Watkins, 1977)<br />
The Legend of Hell House (John Hough, 1973)<br />
Lips of Blood (Jean Rollin, 1975)<br />
<b>Magic (Richard Attenborough, 1978)</b><br />
Mandingo (Richard Fleischer, 1975)<br />
Mumsy, Nanny, Sunny and Girly (Freddie Francis, 1970)<br />
The Night Child (Massimo Dallamano, 1975)<br />
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The Night of the Seagulls (Amando de Ossorio, 1975)<br />
Night Train Murders (Aldo Lado, 1975)<br />
Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma, 1974)<br />
Phase IV (Saul Bass, 1974)<br />
The Phone Box (Antonio Mercero, 1972)<br />
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)<br />
Private Parts (Paul Bartel, 1972)<br />
Race with the Devil (Jack Starrett, 1975)<br />
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (Emilio Miraglia, 1972)<br />
The Return of Count Yorga - (Bob Kelljan, 1971)<br />
Rituals (Peter Carter, 1977)<br />
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)<br />
<b>Salem's Lot (Tobe Hooper, 1979)</b><br />
Satan's Triangle (Sutton Roley, 1975)<br />
The Sentinel (Michael Winner, 1977)<br />
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The Shiver of the Vampires (Jean Rollin, 1971)<br />
Shock Waves (Ken Wiederhorn, 1977)<br />
The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973)<br />
The Stone Tape (Peter Sasdy, 1972)<br />
Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)<br />
Tales from the Crypt (Freddie Francis, 1972)<br />
Thriller: A Cruel Picture (Bo Arne Vibenius, 1973)<br />
<b>The Town That Dreaded Sundown (Charles B. Pierce, 1976)</b><br />
The Track (Serge Leroy, 1975)<br />
Trilogy of Terror (Dan Curtis, 1975)<br />
Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees (Masahiro Shinoda, 1975)<br />
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Vampyres (José Ramón Larraz, 1974)<br />
Vampyros Lesbos (Jesús Franco, 1971)<br />
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (Jesús Franco, 1973)<br />
The Visitor (Giulio Paradisi, 1979)<br />
<b>Werewolf Woman (Rino Di Silvestro, 1976)</b><br />
What Have You Done to Solange? (Massimo Dallamano, 1972)<br />
The Witch who Came from the Sea (Matt Cimber, 1976)<br />
The Woman who Powders Herself (Patrick Bokanowski, 1972)<br />
Woods Are Wet (Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1973)<br />
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (Sergio Martino, 1972)<br />
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Movies that received two votes:
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The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Robert Fuest, 1971)</div>
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A Bay of Blood (Mario Bava, 1971)</div>
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The Blood Spattered Bride (Vincente Aranda, 1972)</div>
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Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971)</div>
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Eaten Alive (Tobe Hooper, 1976)</div>
Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog, 1970)<br />
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The Hills Have Eyes (Wes Craven, 1977)</div>
<b>Let's Scare Jessica to Death (John Hancock, 1971)</b><br />
The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (Jorge Grau, 1974)<br />
Psychomania (Don Sharp, 1973)<br />
Salo (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)<br />
Shivers (David Cronenberg, 1975)<br />
Tombs of the Blind Dead (Amando de Ossorio, 1972)<br />
Torso (Sergio Martino, 1973)<br />
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Movies that received three votes:<br />
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<b>Alice Sweet Alice (Alfred Sole, 1976)</b><br />
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970)<br />
Burnt Offerings (Dan Curtis, 1976)<br />
Fascination (Jean Rollin, 1979)<br />
Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)<br />
The Grapes of Death (Jean Rollin, 1978)<br />
The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972)<br />
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (Lucio Fulci, 1971)<br />
The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978)<br />
Theatre of Blood (Douglas Hickox, 1973)<br />
Who Can Kill a Child? (Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, 1976)Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-40618983196707880292015-08-25T13:25:00.002-04:002015-08-25T13:25:22.063-04:00Halloween Horror Poll: '70s Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I jumped for joy yesterday when I realized that it's almost October. Not that I haven't had a great summer, but there's something about the crisp fall weather, Halloween decorations and watching as many horror movies as I can possibly cram into a month that feels like bliss to me. Since I had a lot of fun tallying everyone's choices for the best '90s horror movies last year, I'll be hosting another poll this season. While the '90s poll was an interesting opportunity to highlight the underdiscussed gems in what wasn't a great decade for the genre, this year I'll be focusing on a decade, the 1970s, that has no shortage of great horror movies to choose from (honestly, I could probably come up with a solid top ten for any year that decade).<br />
<br />If you'd like to contribute to the poll, please submit your own top ten via e-mail (bangfilmsnh@gmail.com), Twitter, Facebook, Letterboxd or in the comments sections here by 9/20. And if you'd be interested in writing about one of your choices, please let me know. I'm blessed with the problem of several other writing gigs and my <a href="https://vimeo.com/133468690">movie</a>'s premiere in November, so I can certainly use the help.<br /><br />A few things:<br /><br />- You can rank your list if you want, but it won't affect how I'm tallying the votes.<br />
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- Release dates are determined by the movie's first commercial (non-festival) release anywhere in the world. If you want to make a case for a movie that you think should be an exception, I'm happy to consider it.<br /><br />- TV movies/miniseries and shorts are allowed.<br />
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- "Horror" can mean whatever you want it to.<br /><br />Thanks in advance - I'm looking forward to seeing your lists!Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-29291606316484110012015-06-09T18:13:00.002-04:002015-06-09T18:13:24.126-04:00My Top 5%<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been using <a href="http://www.flickchart.com/">Flickchart</a> for several years now. It's a site that randomly pits two movies at a time against each other - you click the one you prefer, and the site gradually produces a ranked list of your highest-rated movies. The site has never taken off the way Letterboxd has - it doesn't allow you to write extended reviews or keep a viewing diary, and it's considerably nerdier than Letterboxd. However, it's one of my favorite time wasters.<br />
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This past weekend, I saw that my list had grown long enough that, according to Flickchart, I've now seen 5000 movies (the five thousandth was John Sayles' <i>Lianna</i>, which I quite liked). Granted, their definition of "movies" extends to things like <i>Michael Jackson: Moonwalker</i>, Gallagher stand-up specials and the straight-to-video <i>My Pet Monster</i> tie-in movie that I watched too many times as a kid. Still, I'll take it. To celebrate the occasion, I thought I'd post my top 250 according to my Flickchart rankings. I gave up making any sort of deliberately ranked best-of list a few years back, and this makes for a fun alternative - the first twenty or so are pretty close to the list I'd make if I sat down and thought about it, but after the first fifty, it gets a little more idiosyncratic. It's like a list made by an alternate universe version of me, slightly hipper and with less regard for good taste. I'd trust this guy's opinion over mine, honestly. He just likes the stuff he likes.<br />
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1. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)<br />
2. Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)<br />
3. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)<br />
4. Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)<br />
5. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)<br />
6. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)<br />
7. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)<br />
8. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)<br />
9. Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)<br />
10. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)<br />
11. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)<br />
12. Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)<br />
13. Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)<br />
14. Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)<br />
15. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)<br />
16. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)<br />
17. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975)<br />
18. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)<br />
19. Kill Bill vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2004)<br />
20. Kill Bill vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)<br />
21. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)<br />
22. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1979)<br />
23. Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)<br />
24. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)<br />
25. The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)<br />
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26. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)<br />
27. Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht (Werner Herzog, 1979)<br />
28. Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)<br />
29. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)<br />
30. Fargo (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 1996)<br />
31. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)<br />
32. Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)<br />
33. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)<br />
34. Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)<br />
35. Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)<br />
36. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960<br />
37. The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)<br />
38. Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979)<br />
39. McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)<br />
40. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)<br />
41. 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)<br />
42. Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)<br />
43. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)<br />
44. El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)<br />
45. The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 1988)<br />
46. Jules and Jim (François Truffaut, 1962)<br />
47. Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)<br />
48. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)<br />
49. Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986)<br />
50. The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)<br />
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51. Secretary (Steven Shainberg, 2002)<br />
52. Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)<br />
53. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)<br />
54. Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1996)<br />
55. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)<br />
56. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)<br />
57. Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)<br />
58. The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)<br />
59. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)<br />
60. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958)<br />
61. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)<br />
62. Modern Romance (Albert Brooks, 1981)<br />
63. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)<br />
64. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)<br />
65. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)<br />
66. Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)<br />
67. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950)<br />
68. Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)<br />
69. Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)<br />
70. Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)<br />
71. No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2007)<br />
72. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)<br />
73. Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981)<br />
74. Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)<br />
75. City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)<br />
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76. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)<br />
77. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)<br />
78. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)<br />
79. Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)<br />
80. Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 1990)<br />
81. Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma, 1974)<br />
82. Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)<br />
83. Creepshow (George A. Romero, 1982)<br />
84. Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)<br />
85. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)<br />
86. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011)<br />
87. Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino, 2007)<br />
88. My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991)<br />
89. The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 1998)<br />
90. The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese, 1983)<br />
91. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)<br />
92. Spirited Away (Hiyao Miyazaki, 2001)<br />
93. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)<br />
94. Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)<br />
95. True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993)<br />
96. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)<br />
97. Fearless (Peter Weir, 1993)<br />
98. The Dark Crystal (Jim Henson and Frank Oz, 1982)<br />
99. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982)<br />
100. One From the Heart (Francis Ford Coppola, 1982)<br />
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101. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)<br />
102. The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, 1982)<br />
103. Lost in America (Albert Brooks, 1985)<br />
104. A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès, 1902)<br />
105. Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon, 1985)<br />
106. Y tu mamá también (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)<br />
107. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)<br />
108. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)<br />
109. The World's End (Edgar Wright, 2013)<br />
110. The Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir, 1982)<br />
111. Planes, Trains & Automobiles (John Hughes, 1987)<br />
112. Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986)<br />
113. Bambi (David Hand & various, 1942)<br />
114. Eating Raoul (Paul Bartel, 1982)<br />
115. Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme, 1984)<br />
116. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)<br />
117. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)<br />
118. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)<br />
119. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)<br />
120. Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970)<br />
121. Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)<br />
122. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013)<br />
123. Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)<br />
124. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)<br />
125. Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1979)<br />
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126. Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)<br />
127. The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987)<br />
128. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Buñuel, 1972)<br />
129. Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock, 1972)<br />
130. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)<br />
131. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)<br />
132. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)<br />
133. Images (Robert Altman, 1972)<br />
134. The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977)<br />
135. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)<br />
136. Roma (Federico Fellini, 1972)<br />
137. Aliens (James Cameron, 1986)<br />
138. Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)<br />
139. The Secret of Roan Inish (John Sayles, 1995)<br />
140. Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)<br />
141. Bad Timing (Nicolas Roeg, 1980)<br />
142. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000)<br />
143. Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002)<br />
144. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940)<br />
145. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)<br />
146. The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957)<br />
147. Solaris (Steven Soderbergh, 2002)<br />
148. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939)<br />
149. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)<br />
150. Diner (Barry Levinson, 1982)<br />
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151. Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beiniex, 1986)<br />
152. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)<br />
153. Performance (Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, 1970)<br />
154. Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982)<br />
155. Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (Joe Layton, 1982)<br />
156. Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)<br />
157. M (Fritz Lang, 1931)<br />
158. A.I. (Steven Spielberg, 2001)<br />
159. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)<br />
160. Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004)<br />
161. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)<br />
162. Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994)<br />
163. Macbeth (Roman Polanski, 1971)<br />
164. The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)<br />
165. The Road Warrior (George Miller, 1981)<br />
166. Day of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1985)<br />
167. Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980)<br />
168. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)<br />
169. The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emetic Pressburger, 1948)<br />
170. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)<br />
171. The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)<br />
172. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)<br />
173. Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)<br />
174. If.... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)<br />
175. Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa, 1980)<br />
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176. Catch-22 (Mike Nichols, 1970)<br />
177. Coming Home (Hal Ashby, 1978)<br />
178. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)<br />
179. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)<br />
180. Three Kings (David O. Russell, 1999)<br />
181. Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002)<br />
182. Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960)<br />
183. Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960)<br />
184. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993)<br />
185. Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi, 1964)<br />
186. Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960)<br />
187. Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979)<br />
188. Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975)<br />
189. Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1983)<br />
190. La jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)<br />
191. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)<br />
192. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)<br />
193. A Star is Born (George Cukor, 1954)<br />
194. North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)<br />
195. Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, 1929)<br />
196. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1944)<br />
197. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)<br />
198. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)<br />
199. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)<br />
200. An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981)<br />
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201. 3 Women (Robert Altman, 1977)<br />
202. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)<br />
203. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007)<br />
204. Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 199)<br />
205. The Iron Giant (Brad Bird, 1999)<br />
206. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)<br />
207. Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955)<br />
208. Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)<br />
209. The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 1956)<br />
210. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)<br />
211. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)<br />
212. Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975)<br />
213. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (F.W. Murnau, 1922)<br />
214. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)<br />
215. The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)<br />
216. Raising Arizona (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 1987)<br />
217. American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)<br />
218. Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)<br />
219. Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987)<br />
220. The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky, 2006)<br />
221. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)<br />
222. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)<br />
223. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)<br />
224. The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993)<br />
225. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)<br />
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226. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2014)<br />
227. A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984)<br />
228. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993)<br />
229. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)<br />
230. Popeye (Robert Altman, 1980)<br />
231. Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)<br />
232. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)<br />
233. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)<br />
234. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)<br />
235. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Kay Garnett, 1946)<br />
236. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)<br />
237. To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962)<br />
238. Belle de jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967)<br />
239. Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994)<br />
240. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)<br />
241. Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)<br />
242. The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)<br />
243. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)<br />
244. Breaking the Waves (Lars Von Trier, 1996)<br />
245. Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)<br />
246. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)<br />
247. Black Moon (Louis Malle, 1975)<br />
248. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Terry Gilliam, 1988)<br />
249. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)<br />
250. Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emetic Pressburger, 1947)Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-43605581018497674762015-06-01T16:31:00.001-04:002015-06-01T16:35:16.260-04:00I am into tacos like you are into turqoise.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">This is my contribution to this year's <i>White Elephant Blogathon</i>, hosted by Philip Tatler IV at his blog <i><a href="http://profoundlyrewarding.blogspot.com/2015/06/its-2015-white-elephant-blogathon-people.html">Diary of a Country Pickpocket</a></i>.</span><br />
<br />
If a movie is repeatedly described by its fans as "Dadaist," isn't the joke on anyone who tries to write about it? Putting aside the question of whether "Dada" is a descriptor that has any real meaning outside of the zeitgeist that birthed it - WWI-era Europe - if a work, like Robert Downey Sr.'s <i>Two Tons to Turquoise to Taos Tonight</i>, is indeed deliberately artless as a protest against the crimes of polite society, is there anything else to say except to note its existence and move on? Maybe, but as I've been assigned <i>Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight</i> to write about, I will try.<br />
<br />
For what it's worth, I wouldn't call the film (originally titled <i>Moment to Moment</i>) Dadaist so much as cheerfully nonsensical - while Downey's movies, most famously <i>Putney Swope</i>, were often designed to rankle the status quo, this plotless collection of brief sketches seems less like a calculated provocation than the result of Downey and his friends screwing around with a camera for their own amusement. One scene crashes into the next - there are men on horseback playing baseball, there's a scene aboard a spaceship, and at one point, it seems like the apocalypse might happen, but then it doesn't. The results are uneven as that sounds, though I admire the spirit of the movie even as the experience of actually watching it was something of a chore to get through. Writing that makes me feel like the lieutenant played by Fred Willard in <i>This is Spinal Tap </i>who tells the band he's a fan "not of your music personally, but the whole genre of rock and roll." That's how it is, though.<br />
<br />
It's entirely possible that my feeling that I just watched a version of <i>The Kentucky Fried Movie</i> without jokes is on me for not being on Downey and his cast's wavelength. Everything about the way the movie jumps formlessly from one vignette to the next without concern for beginnings, endings or any kind of context suggests that, if it made Downey laugh, that was good enough for him. And as <i>Putney Swope </i>and some of his other movies combine this anarchic sensibility with more focused, pointed satire, I assume that he didn't set out to make a more conventionally satisfying comedy and screwed it up. This is the movie he wanted to make, and there's something admirable about how it's defiantly its own thing, even if I didn't enjoy it very much.<br />
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What enjoyment I did get out of it is reflected in the <a href="https://youtu.be/LJUxPQzlIDs">interview for the movie's Criterion release featuring Downey and Paul Thomas Anderson</a>, where the younger director is clearly tickled by the notion that Downey convinced his cast - including his wife, Elsie, who appears in nearly every scene - to act out whatever crazy nonsense they could come up with, which is absurd in the way that all moviemaking is inherently absurd but which few movies acknowledge. My main takeaway is that Elsie, who, according to Downey, never said no to anything, must have been a real hip lady (young Robert Downey Jr. also appears in what seems to be home movie footage). <i>Two Tons to Turquoise to Taos Tonight</i> goes beyond personal into the realm of private filmmaking, and while I found myself thinking "that's clever" but not actually laughing throughout the movie, maybe it'll click with me if I revisit it sometime. And, while it's cheap to dismiss any surreal movie by accusing its makers of being on drugs, as the cast literally does lines at one point in the movie, it seems safe to say that I would have had a different experience if I was high.<br />
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Sidenote: I submitted one of my favorite movies, <i>Dead Man</i>, to the blog-a-thon, thinking that the person who was assigned it would be very lucky indeed. He actually hated it and spent <a href="http://www.thewhitetanktop.com/2015/06/stupid-fucking-dead-man-white-elephant.html">multiple paragraphs rolling his eyes at it</a>. Oh well, Jarmusch isn't for everyone. But I have to say, to the person that contributed <i>Two Tons to Turquoise to Taos Tonight</i> to the blog-a-thon: it wasn't my favorite, but if it's one of yours, thanks for nudging me to watch it, and I hope I haven't let you down.<br />
<br />Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-47877368385409193952015-03-10T08:50:00.003-04:002015-03-10T08:50:57.604-04:00Blatant self-promotion.I'm making a movie this spring. It's called <i>Most Likely</i>, and it's a comedy about a group of lifelong friends spending a weird weekend in the country together for a wedding. We're scheduled to shoot in New Hampshire's White Mountains region in April, and we've assembled a talented cast and crew to make the movie, but we need your help. Please check out our Kickstarter page to learn more about the movie - at the very least, I highly recommend giving our ridiculous video a look. Whether or not you're able to contribute, sharing the link with your friends would be enormously helpful. Thanks very much!<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="420" scrolling="no" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/235766836/most-likely/widget/card.html?v=2" width="220"></iframe>Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18377389.post-28144816974381775742015-02-02T00:45:00.001-05:002015-02-02T09:37:13.832-05:00It's not groovy to be insane.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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I'm not sure exactly where to begin with <em>Inherent Vice</em> - I've seen it twice now, and I haven't completely wrapped my head around it, but I know it's a movie I'll be returning to for the rest of my life. It's not a problem of not understanding the plot, as the mystery at the center of <em>Inherent Vice</em>, while deliberately convoluted and elusive, isn't nearly as impenetrable as many of the reviews have made it out to be. It's that, beyond all of the missing real estate tycoons, Nazi bikers, Mansonoid conspiracies and coked-up dentists, at the heart of the movie is a pervasive undercurrent of melancholy that ties together its parade of sight gags and stoner humor and familiar faces popping up for brief, weird vignettes. It's a feeling captured perfectly by the song that plays over the end credits (and if you consider an end credits soundtrack cue a spoiler, consider yourself warned). I think I've listened to Chuck Jackson's version of "Any Day Now" every day since seeing the film - I was startled to hear it as the movie cut to black, but it's as perfect a coda for Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's book as it is unexpected. <br />
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<em>"Then my wild beautiful bird<br />You will have flown<br />Any day now<br />Love will let me down<br />'Cause you won't be around"</em><br />
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The song serves as a requiem both for a lost love and for a brief, perfect moment that, as the movie begins, is already almost over, with the idealism of peace and love giving way to the inexorable march of time and "the ancient forces of greed and fear," as they're called by the movie's narrator, the possibly etheral, probably immortal flower child Sortilege (Joanna Newsom). Those forces are represented by the Golden Fang, the mysterious crime ring with a seemingly limitless reach that, as the movie begins, has apparently kidnapped real estate developer Mickey Wolfmann (Eric Roberts). The movie opens with muttonchopped private eye Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) being paid an unexpected visit from his ex-old lady and Mickey's current lover, Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katharine Waterston), who asks Doc for help. Watching the movie a second time, this entire scene took on a different meaning - it's clear that Doc, who is rendered defenseless by Shasta's "heavy combination of face ingredients," is being played, and throughout the movie, our well-meaning but hapless hero will be repeatedly manipulated into being in the right place at the wrong time, particularly by the ex and current old ladies in his life.<br />
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As the plot quickly expands and it becomes clear that the missing Mr. Wolfmann is only a fraction of a far greater conspiracy that encompasses heroin smuggling, a syndicate of dentists and a saxophone played turned government informant (Owen Wilson), Anderson - adapting Pynchon's novel mostly faithfully - is clearly having fun overloading us with information. One of the movie's many hilarious throwaway gags is Doc's diagram of the story's many players; our hero is as lost as we are. Some of the movie's fans have insisted that the plot doesn't matter, but it's not that, exactly - it's that, when by the time we meet the guy (or one of the guys) pulling the strings, it feels beside the point. The two obvious cinematic reference points for <em>Inherent Vice</em> are <em>The Big Lebowski </em>and Robert Altman's hazy, meandering film of Raymond Chandler's <em>The Long Goodbye</em>, and those are both unavoidably a part of the movie's DNA. But I also found myself thinking about <em>Chinatown</em>, another Los Angeles mystery where the specifics of the central shadowy plot are less important than our hero's realization of everything that he'll never know or be able to change. In <em>Chinatown</em>, this realization transfoms the <em>noir </em>into a horror story; here, it's met with a dopey shrug that betrays more than a hint of sadness, mixed with the hope that, if our hero or any of us can save one little kid from the little kid blues, maybe all isn't lost. <br />
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If <em>Inherent Vice</em> is lamenting the end of an era, it works as well as it does because it never underlines this point. The loss of an idealized memory of a perfect moment that maybe never existed is crystallized in the scenes between Doc and Shasta, seen in flashback in a perfect moment, scored to Neil Young's "Journey Through the Past." I can't help feeling like I'm wasting a lot of words when film critic Miriam Bale has already written the perfect one-sentence review of the movie on Twitter, observing that "Sometimes I think <em>Inherent Vice</em> is only for those who have exes that seem like certain Neil Young albums." Contrast that with a scene late in the film where Shasta uses her sexuality to manipulate Doc; Waterston is remarkably fearless in the scene, which is - sexy isn't the right word, but it's made doubly disturbing because it's not entirely unarousing for any male audience members of the audience who'd like to think of themselves as better than that. The scene casts a dark shadow over the rest of the movie, a lingering reminder that, whatever our attempts at living the hippie lifestyle then or now, our own animal attraction to power and control - whether we'd prefer to be on the giving or receiving end - thwarts us as much as the Golden Fang ever could.<br />
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It's scenes like this that set Doc Sportello apart from Jeff Lebowski, as much as both are the men for their times and places. Whereas the Dude is a truly Zen creation pulled into a situation beyond his control, there's a constant tension in Doc best illustrated by his favorite gesture, a peace sign followed by a middle finger. At one point, Doc casually jots down the phrase "Paranoia alert" in his notepad, and Phoenix's performance is a masterpiece of muttered asides and little gestures, facial expressions and whimpers that suggest he's always just barely keeping a full-blown panic attack at bay. He's matched by Josh Brolin as Detective "Bigfoot" Bjornsen, a Jungian shadow of sorts for Doc - Brolin uses his rugged screen presence to great effect, suggesting a wounded and strangely empathetic soul underneath the macho bluster, and Bigfoot and Doc's complicated relationship culminates in a scene that had me in hysterics both times I've seen the movie. The rest of the star-studded cast is terrific - I particularly enjoyed Martin Short, who does the most hilarious bump in film history; Michelle Sinclair (nee Belladonna), whose scene ends in a neat reversal of the same moment in the book; and Reese Witherspoon as Penny, an assistant D.A. and Doc's sometime lady. Penny's an upstanding citizen who sneaks away to Doc's shack at the fictional Gordita Beach for occasional deviance, and frankly, her simultanous giving Doc a hard time while clearly being totally into this weed-addled mess of anxiety and frayed synapses reminded me of me and my old lady. Perhaps it's not a great sign of how I'm doing if I'm relating to Doc Sportello, even if Sortilege assures him he's doing good*; on the other hand, out of recent releases, better that I see myself in Doc than in <em>Birdman</em> or <em>Listen Up Philip </em>or, especially, those knuckleheads in <em>Whiplash.</em><br />
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But I digress. The real star here is Paul Thomas Anderson, and while he's content to translate much of Pynchon's book faithfully to the screen, it's still unmistakably his movie. Anderson has made enough movies now to chart an evolution from the look-at-me <em>wunderkind</em> who filled <em>Boogie Nights</em> and <em>Magnolia</em> with jaw-dropping tracking shots and bold gestures like, say, frogs falling from the sky. As a teen, my reaction to these moments was "Oh my God, this guy is fucking awesome and I want to be him when I grow up." Now I'm older than Anderson was when he made those movies, and I can also see how desparate he was for validation, which actually only makes me love them (and him) more. If <em>There Will Be Blood</em> and <em>The Master</em> signaled that he was becoming a more "mature" filmmaker, then <em>Inherent Vice </em>is both a logical next step and a surprising left turn for the director. Anderson has cited the Zucker brothers as an influence, and during the second viewing I caught enough ingenious peripheral sight gags (How did I miss the machine gun-toting Jesuses the first time?) that I'm eager to discover more. At the same time, the few elaborate tracking shots or other big stylistic flourishes are very brief and precisely chosen - for the most part, Anderson favors letting scenes unfold in long master shots, and any camera movements are very carefully motivated, including some beautiful handheld camerawork (just when I thought I was sick to death of handheld). <br />
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Probably the most impressive thing about Anderson's work here is his confidence in the material - this was never going to be a major crowd-pleaser, but it's obviously work of a guy who is content to follow the stories that interest him. It's a movie for anyone tuned into its own peculiar wavelength, the straight world be damned. While it would have been nice if, somehow, the movie became a hit, it really never stood a chance, and that's okay. I drove an hour to see <em>Inherent Vice</em> the first time, to a college town I'd never been to; on the way home, driving through the beautiful northern reaches of my state, the movie still buzzing around in my head, I felt alive in a way no new movie had made me feel in quite a while. It feels inevitable that <em>Inherent Vice </em>is on its way to becoming a cult classic - not on the order of <em>The Big Lebowski</em>, perhaps, as it doesn't lend itself as easily to costume contests and bowling tournaments, but I look forward to the movie gradually finding its audience. In the meantime, I'm as content to love it for my own reasons as Anderson clearly was in making it for his.<br />
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*Sidenote: I wasn't familiar with Joanna Newsom before the movie, but now, I'd gladly listen to her narrate anything. She could turn an industrial training video into a lullaby. Andrew Bemishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06097037829531087694noreply@blogger.com0