Started off the year focusing on rewatching a bunch of titles. Still managed to fit some new-to-me films, however.
Major highlights were Leslie Stevens's surreal, folk horror Incubus and Robert Eggers's latest film Nosferatu.
Film:
Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak, 1944)*
Where the Sidewalk Ends (Otto Preminger, 1950)*
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (José Mojica Marins, 1964)
Incubus (Leslie Stevens, 1966)*
Up the Chastity Belt (Bob Kellett, 1971)
The Devil (Andrzej Żuławski, 1972)*
The Night of the Devils (Giorgio Ferroni, 1972)
Scream… and Die! AKA The House That Vanished (José Ramón Larraz, 1973)*
Vampyres (José Ramón Larraz, 1974)
The Silent Partner (Daryl Duke, 1978)
Dressed to Kill (Brian De Palma, 1980)
Roadgames (Richard Franklin, 1981)
Knife Under the Throat (Claude Mulot, 1986)*
Juice (Ernest R. Dickerson, 1992)
Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993)*
To Die For (Gus Van Sant, 1995)
The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)*
Polytechnique (Denis Villeneuve, 2009)*
YellowBrickRoad (Jesse Holland, Andy Mitton, 2010)*
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)
Train to Busan (Yeon Sang-ho, 2016)
Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023)
Nosferatu (Robert Eggers, 2024/2025)*
Television:
Elvis Presley: '68 Comeback Special (Steve Binder, 1968)*
Doomwatch - Season 1: Episodes 1 & 4 (Kit Pedler, Gerry Davis, 1970)*
Top of the Pops - Episode #34.3 (Anne Gilchrist, 1997)
*First time viewings.
Dada Debaser Notes:
- Highlights of Siodmak's film noir Phantom Lady were the striking scenes exemplifying his German Expressionistic roots, Ella Raines as the besotted secretary turned amateur sleuth, and an erotically charged drum solo. Overall, a decent film.
- Preminger's Where the Sidewalk Ends can be casually summed up as a proto-Bad Lieutenant. Dana Andrews plays the rogue cop with a penchant for roughing up thugs, because he doesn't want to be like his no-good old man. Gene Tierney is the enchanting smokeshow, who realistically ought to have ditched Andrews for his actions. Enjoyable, but I really wish it ended on a darker note to fit better.
- Everyone harps on about Żuławski's Possession (1981), and rightfully so, but rarely do I hear much about his other films. Found The Devil, a period drama/horror set during the Prussian invasion of Poland, a real slog to sit through, regrettably. Film wound up being banned by the Communist government; wouldn't be surprised it was because of it being so boring than politically subversive.
- It might not have aged as well as Deep Cover (1992) but Juice works as a perfect time capsule of music and fashions from the early '90s under the guise of a crime drama. Don't think I ever noticed some of the brief rap cameos like Special Ed before.
- Both The Lives of Others and Polytechnique deal with dark chapters in the '80s. Something else they have in common in their dark subject matter, is clichéd, Hollywood style character writing; turning them into almost derivative dramas, virtually sucking away their respective impact.
- Flabbergasted by all the praise for Leigh's poverty p0rn drama Naked. A deluge of tediously, long pseudo-intellectual monologues, conspiracy theories and misanthropic rants delivered by David Thewlis (looking a lot like Catweazle, I might add) become incredibly exhausting after a while. The rest of the cast play unbelievably moronic characters, but you do get Ewen Bremner as a foul mouthed, homeless Scot which is genuinely funny.
- Florence Guérin and Brigitte Lahaie are completely wasted in the misogynistic and sleazy French giallo (shouldn't it be jaune?) Knife Under the Throat. It's a thoroughly inept thriller in every sense. Both actresses would appear again the following year with the superior Faceless (1987). Watch that instead!
On a final note:
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