Guns Don't Kill People, Cowgirls Do

Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950)

Went into Joseph H. Lewis's crime thriller largely oblivious to its prestigious film noir reputation. A status posthumously given long after its initial flop. Gun Crazy (AKA Deadly is the Female, 1950), a B-movie from gambling siblings turned film producers the King Brothers, would eventually be discovered by cinephiles as a subversive indie film that was ahead of its time. I honestly thought it was going to be more of an exploitation offering, along the lines of The Violent Years (1956), to be perfectly honest.

Preceding with the young, formative years of one Barton "Bart" Tare, Gun Crazy depicts various instances where the young lad has a more than keen obsession with guns. This unhealthy interest leads to him smashing the window of a gun store to steal a hand gun. Caught by the law, he's placed on trial. Both his sister and friends recollect moments where young Bart had an aversion for killing. From feeling repulsed with himself after shooting a chick with a bb gun, to refusing to kill a mountain lion caught in his sights at the behest of his friends. Nevertheless, the kid is sent to a reform school and subsequently joins the military teaching marksmanship.

Now an adult, Bart (John Dall) meets up with his old friends and they visit a travelling carnival. It's there where he meets trickshot cowgirl Annie Laurie Starr (Peggy Cummins). It's an instant attraction between the two. The sexual chemistry between the pair as they show off their gun skills, putting each other's lives at dangerous risk, is off the hook. For anyone with an above room temperature IQ, it's plainly obvious Annie is a nutcase and in the Danger Zone. Nevertheless, Bart briefly winds up working at the same carnival to be with Annie and to earn a dollar. It's there where the sideshow clown, Bluey Bluey, lays the most profound pearls of wisdom which go unnoticed by Bart:

Bluey Bluey: It's just that some guys are born smart about women and some guys are born dumb.

Bart Tare: Some guys are born clowns.

Bluey Bluey: You were born dumb. 

 

After the gun loving lovebirds quit the carnival life and get hitched, it's not long where Annie’s expensive tastes leave them hungry and broke. And thus, a series of robberies and heists turns the newlyweds into America's most wanted outlaws.

Adapted from MacKinlay Kantor's short story of the same name, the screen play would be given the script doctor treatment by the black listed communist Dalton Trumbo (credited as Millard Kaufman). Trumbo would turn Kantor's story into a Bonnie and Clyde style tale, laden with sexual symbolism and plenty of gun toting violence. What's also noteworthy about the film's writing is how it differentiates the two characters' codas despite their obvious love for firearms. Bart may be an expert crack shot, but is awkwardly uncomfortable in committing any potential harm to anyone throughout the story. Meanwhile, Annie lacks any real kind of moral compass to keep her head straight; killing anyone who might piss her off or obstruct her. Not only a femme fatale, but an actual psychopath. This obviously results in a destructive path for the pair. Utimately leading to a thrilling and surreal finale set around a misty swamp, which had me thinking the pair were in Heaven for a split second.

Other than its sexually suggestive content, which must have drawn some controversy for its time, what makes Gun Crazy so revolutionary are some of its innovative filming techniques. The most obvious being the incredible long take shot in the back seat of our protagonists' car, before and after a bank robbery. The scene was shot with a camera mounted on a horse saddle and moved on a greased plank of wood. A makeshift steady cam. The viewer becoming an unwitting accomplice to the off-screen robbery. This ingenious scene was a result of not having the budget nor the time to film inside a bank setting. A great example of the humble B-movie creating cinematic gold.

Perhaps an overly familiar crime saga seventy-five years later, but it did pave the way for other outlaw couples in film. Breathless (1960) by the French New Wave ponce Jean Luc Goddard is a notable example. Both films feature doomed love stories and film making innovations. I wonder if Peggy Cummins's beret was what sealed the deal for the overrated auteur. Jim McBride's superior 1983 remake would reference Gun Crazy by having its two lovebirds hide from the law inside a cinema screening the film noir.

Always feel compelled in rooting for the underdog in most films. In the case of Gun Crazy, it's not only applicable for its outlaw couple running from the law and their thrilling and tension filled heists, but it's also for its incredibly modern film making style. It definitely deserves its reputation for being ahead of its time. Therefore, Gun Crazy earns the Dada Debaser seal of approval.

The Art of Watching Without Watching

There are a multitude of reasons why Sight and Sound's The Greatest Films of All Time list sucked harder than the cabin pressure in Auric Goldfinger's plane. Accepting nominations made by a film critic who hadn't even watched Enter the Dragon (1973) until its fiftieth anniversary, and taking them remotely seriously, has got to be a major one.

Your host wouldn't have Enter the Dragon on his list either, but is still a fan regardless; copping an uncut bootleg during the BBFC regime era, and even owning the classic OST by Lalo Schifrin. The question is: how could any professional film critic have a movie blindspot as massive as the one that's associated with turning Bruce Lee into a global superstar and still be respected?

This example really does give validity to Paul Schrader's claims in an IndieWire interview that the poll was rigged by "not actual film critics", regardless of it coming off like unapologetic film snobbery. Additionally, in that very same piece, he loosely blamed the current state of film criticism on Quentin Tarantino's attitude and opinions being constantly regurgitated by the masses. As much as I enjoy QT's thoughts on film rather than his own recent material, he did piss off Shannon Lee, Bruce's daughter, and ended up doubling down on his negative portrayal of the martial arts legend in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Might not be on a critic's payroll, but even I know that indulgent, meandering mess was greatly inferior to Enter the Dragon. Shame on any film critic thinking otherwise.

Hitchcock/True Foe

The Bride Wore Black (François Truffaut, 1968)

François Truffaut might very well be known to cinephilles for being part of the Nouvelle Vague, potentially pornographic sounding movies like Jules et Jim (1962) and The 400 Blows (1959), he's probably more likely to be known to sci-fi heads for his adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451, and for playing the French bloke in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Truffaut also happend to write a book about the portly master of the macabre Alfred Hitchcock's films and craftmanship; subsequently, it followed with him helming the revenge thriller The Bride Wore Black (1968) a couple of years later. The Hitchcockian influence is abundantly evident.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and in the case of Jeanne Moreau's newly wedded bride, her joyous day is instantly ruined as her other-half is shot dead while they're both exiting the church. With the love of her life gone, she's left feeling suicidal and comes up with a new set of vows: to eliminate those responsible for her husband's dead. Truffaut's film focuses on our vengeful bride's determination to hunt down her husband's killer(s); travelling all over the country, befriending or seducing her prey and then killing them. As a result, The Bride Wore Black plays out like a series of chapters focusing on the last days or hours of  her enemies.

Based on Cornell Woolrich's 1940 pulp novel (who also penned Hitchcock's seminal Rear Window (1954) and Mississipi Mermaid (1969), another Hitchcockian style film by Truffaut), the film adaptation entirely omits the on-going police investigation, as well as the protagonist's unhinged mental state resulting with the murdering of innocent men, à la Ms .45 (1981). Therefore, the film can leave the viewer perplexed with just how Moreau is able to track down the persons on her hit list, along with how freely she is able to operate in achieving her goals.

There's a lot to like about The Bride Wore Black: it's well shot and breezily paced above all else. The modern architectural shots and sixties decor remind me of a Jess Franco film without all the unnecessary hairy muff, but, much like Red Sun (1970), the German New Wave film covered here recently, it's another film where its unintentional comedy has me drawn to it like a moth to a flame. The fact that her victims are completely trusting brainlets is a major example of this. The first one hilariously climbs over a high-rise penthouse balcony to retrieve her scarf before he's predictably dispatched. Another ends up being locked under the stairs and is suffocated. Also, beauty might proverbially be in the eye of the beholder, but in the case of our victims, they definitely should have gone to Specsavers. A short, doughy, middle aged looking woman doesn't exactly pose in the head cannon of a French femme fatale, like say Brigitte Bardot or Catherine Deneuve. This especially rings true when she poses as an artist's model and has to dress up as Diana, the Roman goddess of hunting and looks completely ridiculous. However, what's beyond criticism for me is Moreau's actual performance, it's legitimately great as her immense bottled rage feels so tangible on screen.

Veteran composer and Hitchcock collaborator, Bernard Herrmann provides the score for Truffaut's film and it's laced with all his typical idiosyncracies. Worth stating that he also provided the score for another Hitchcockian thriller during the same year with the Boulting brothers' Twisted Nerve. I much prefer the latter film's score, but Herrmann composing any thriller is a win, in my opinion.

Finally, I can't really sign off without the obligatory comparisons to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill (2003 - 2004) duology being evidenet. The bride's revenge plot line is the obvious one, of course, but there are also the scenes where the bride crosses out the names of her victims that are notable, too. Let's be honest, The Bride Wore Black isn't exacty the only film to inspire Tarantino's work, particularly one that serves as a massive geek-out for genre film fanatics.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Surfer

Well done, everyone! We fired a shot across the bow of pretentious film snobbery when Fun City Editions' release of Jim McBride's Breathless (1983) went completely out of stock (limited and standard editions) in just a few days.

Hopefully, this occurence is a sign that Godard's preponderous status as a deity amongst film critics and the like, might be beginning to erode away. The possibility of his legacy being a forgotten memory whilst I'm still alive, would have me dancing like Richard Gere during Breathless' final moments.

Sadly, I gave F.C.E's release of Breathless a miss on account of spending way too much on other films recently. Therefore, I won't berate any of the blind-buying idiots who copped the film and shared pics of it on their badly made beds for social media kudos points. The enemy of my enemy and all that.

Breathless (Fun City Editions trailer)

Jim McBride, 1983

Keep Rollin, Rollin, Rollin, Rollin

Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin (The Iron Rose clip)

Dima Ballin & Kat Ellinger, 2022

 

Feeling entirely vindicated right about now over my completely shallow appreciation for Jean Rollin's The Iron Rose. Haven't done a dedicated review on it, nor any of Rollin's other films for that matter, but I left some honest thoughts on it in a post from last year. Imagine my surprise when I watched a clip of the new documentary on Rollin and my simpleton thoughts were completely echoed by whoever that scholarly person was they interviewed. Desperately want to see this documentary, but signing up to any subscription service to stream it is an immediate turn off.

Jean-Denis Bonan's lost French New Wave / genre mash-up made its worldwide debut on blu this month. Imagine if Jean Luc Godard had helmed Dressed to Kill during the Paris '68 protests and that might give you some idea what the film might be like. It features Rollin in an early cameo as a policeman. Mixed feelings over the film, but it gets the honour of being part of La Nouvelle Vague where it didn't make me want to throw a brick at my TV (even though the tuneless, French folk singing that serves as part of its soundtrack is utterly horrendous). Worth it for the extras, since I learnt about crusty, French activists almost driven to rioting after a screening of The Rape of the Vampire (1968), one of Rollin's earlier films. Très bon, Jean!

A Woman Kills (Trailer)

Jean-Denis Bonan, 1968

 

 

February seems to be the month of all things Jean Rollin, since the folks over at Indicator revealed the first of their Rollin home releases last week and I'm seriously tempted to cop both of them.

Viewings: December 2022

With 2022 in its final death throes, I almost managed a movie a day with a final tally of 343 this year.

Favourite discovery this month was Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's chilling, alternate-history mockumentary, It Happened Here. Despite coppin' a physical copy of the film ages ago, my lazy arse didn't watch it until a nice quality rip hit YouTube earlier this month.

Other new finds that I really liked were Dennis Hopper falling head over hills for a sideshow mermaid in Night Tide, and Yuen Biao exacting vigilante justice in Righting Wrongs.

 

Film:

The Maze (William Cameron Menzies, 1953)*

Creature with the Atom Brain (Edward L. Cahn, 1955)*

Night Tide (Curtis Harrington, 1961)*

Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962)

Witchcraft (Don Sharp, 1964)*

It Happened Here (Kevin Brownlow & Andrew Mollo, 1965)* 

Zeta One (Michael Cort, 1969)*

Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)

Futureworld (Richard T. Heffron, 1976)*

Porridge (Dick Clement, 1979)

Rock 'N' Roll High School (Allan Arkush & Joe Dante, 1979)*

The Scaremaker AKA Girls Nite Out (Robert Deubel, 1982)

Don't Open Till Christmas (Edmund Purdum, 1984)

Yes, Madam! (Corey Yuen, 1985)*

Righting Wrongs (Corey Yuen, 1986)*

The Dead Pool (Buddy Van Horn, 1988)

Trapped Alive (Leszek Burzynski, 1988)*

Meet the Feebles (Peter Jackson, 1989)

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)

The Invisible Maniac (Rif Coogan, AKA Adam Rifkin, 1990)*

Basket Case 3 (Frank Henenlotter, 1991)

Evil Toons (Fred Olen Ray, 1992)

Rubber’s Lover (Shozin Fukui, 1996)*

Devil’s Prey (Bradford May, 2001)*

Elvira’s Haunted Hills (Sam Irvin, 2001)*

Havoc (Barbara Kopple, 2005)*

Santa’s Slay (David Steiman, 2005)*

WΔZ (Tom Shankland, 2008)*

All Through the House (Todd Nunes, 2015)*

Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell, 2018)

The Good Liar (Bill Condon, 2019)*

Cow (Andrea Arnold, 2022)* 

The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022)*

Hounded (Tommy Boulding, 2022)*

Matriarch (Ben Steiner, 2022)*

Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)*

 

Television:

The Fast Show Christmas Special (Brendan O’Casey, 1996)

The Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook (Ronnie Barker & Ronnie Corbett, 2005)

Christmas University Challenge 2022 (Don Reid, 2022)*

FIFA World Cup 2022 (2022)*

Mastermind - lost count of episode numbers since the rugby (Bill Wright, 2022)*

Werewolf by Night - TV special (Michael Giacchino, 2022)*

 

*First time viewings.

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Never caught the Westworld (1973) sequel from start to finish until now. Great conspiracy premise, but the film looks terribly cheap. Many scenes were shot in some grotty industrial plant. Yul Brynner's return as The Gunslinger scene was completely bonkers.
• Loved the gothic splendour of Menzies' The Maze, but the film's climax is perhaps one of the most unexpected film twists I've witnissed. Somewhat spoilt the film for me, sadly.
  
• Lost count how many times I've watched Goodfellas, but it's only now I noticed Saw's Jigsaw was Henry Hill's parole officer.
  
• The homie Tommy Bunz (R.I.P.) was dead right about Havoc. Pure cringe from start to finish.
  
• Career lows for both James Robertson Justice and Charles Hawtrey appearing in the British sci-fi/sexploitation romp, Zeta One.
• Not a fan of musicals, but I can't hate on Rock 'N' Roll High School for having The Ramones as its main focus; plus, P.J. Soles helps a lot in what's otherwise a very erratic film. 
• The sixth form politics and class commentary in Östlund's Triangle of Sadness would almost be tolerable if it didn't bludgeon me over the head with it continuously throughout its lengthy, two hours and twenty-seven minutes run time. The dinner scene was the main highlight from the film.
• Usually get film trivia correct on quiz shows, but I'm dead proud I got none of the French New Wave set of questions right on University Challenge. 
• Adding Hounded to my list of Brit flicks which caters to The Daily Mail's readership. Dumb fun, despite its flaws. Doubt I'll ever bother seeing it again, though.
  
• Michelle Yeoh might be TIME's icon of 2022 , but her Hong Kong action flicks are undisputably better than any of the Hollywood film and TV shite she's been lacing us with over recent years. Loved seeing her kicking arse alongside Cynthia Rothrock in Yes, Madam, even if the slapstick comedy didn't work for me half the time.
  

Gonna tell my grandchildren this was Pepsi & Shirlie back in the day.

Heroes and Villains of 2022

Decided to list five heroes and five villains that summed up my film world of 2022. They left an impression on me - be it positive or negative.

Heroes

Damien Leone: Terrifier 2 might not be one of Dada Dada's best films of 2022, but it's definitely amongst the most respected for what it's accomplished. Other than flossin' his dope Class of 1984 poster for his Zoom interviews, Leone, a self-taught make-up expert and film maker, delivered what was arguably the greatest success story of the year. An unrated and ultra gory slasher that managed to rake-in approximately $11.5M at the worldwide box office on a miniscule budget of $250K. Little wonder a number of film studios have approached Leone since then. In an interview, Leone dreamt of rebooting the Friday the 13th franchise, or helming a Romero-esque zombie film with Sylvester Stallone. That boy is the golden goose, let him make them.

Hanna Bergholm & Siiri Solalina: Two of the best debuts this year were by director Hanna Bergholm and her young lead, Siiri Solalina for the body-horror fable Hatching (2022). Bergholm claims inspiration from Luca Guadagino's Suspira (2018) remake, but I won't hold that against her as Hatching is an incredible debut film; thanks in part to Solania's strong performance and Bergholm's wonderful eye for visual splendour. Also, props to Bergholm for not letting Hatching be another cliched horror film that's a metaphor for puberty.

S.S. Rajamouli: Hollywood is like cunnilingus: for anyone who won't; there's somebody who will. It's tragic that the epic action movie has mostly become appropriated into superhero flicks, while the traditional action forumla has been mostly relegated to straight-to-video, B-movie hell. When Rajamouli delivered a stellar, Michael Bay-esque, bromance of a blockbuster which ran for over three hours, heads weren't ready for this spectacle from India. It came immediately after the Covid lockdowns and sated the appetite of many nostalgic action anorak pining for something with more real heart than Tony Stark's. Netflix took note of the film's success which ushered in a potential new audience opening  eyes towards action cinema from the Indian subcontinent. One of those rare times I won't shit on Netflix. Props to Rajamouli's success.

Joseph Winter & Vanessa Winter: This husband and wife team are also graduates from the Class of '22. Newbies who not only managed to breathe fresh life in a tired old format we know as the found footage subgenre with Deadstream, but also managed to rescue V/H/S/99 (2022), an excrutiatingly dull horror anthology, with the short story, To Hell and Back; which does exactly what it says it does on the tin. The Winters are relative unknowns in the game, but their work this year has me interested in whatever further films they might be working on.

Peter Bradshaw: More often than not, myself and Poncey Pete never crossed the streams since he seemed happier than Larry Clark at a youth centre covering pretentious film shite, or mourning over an overrated hack; however, I've enjoyed reading some of his reviews this year, like his belated Robocop review for instance. His pièce de résistance is undoubtedly telling it like it really is regarding the massively, overrated Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). The clapback that ensued in the comments section for his review from hive-minded morons, who were incapable of accepting a difference of opinion, was way more entertaining to me than the actual film. 

Peter Bradshaw after posting his Everything Everywhere All At Once review.

Villains

Mark Kermode: How the mighty have fallen. One of my favourite critics now suffering from a latelife crisis. His increasing tendency to discuss issues irrelevant to his film expertise became more apparent this year. From March 2022, Comrade Kermode was no longer under the watchful scrutiny of the BBC, thus his petulant, political tweets (foreign and domestic) began to manifest more bluntly into his professional film reviews. The Quiffed One is from Chipping Barnet and blessed with a very privileged educational background; thus, whenever he rides his moral and ideological high horse, championing some shitty slacktivist's film, because it has the right politics rather than it containing any genuine artistic merit, it smacks of every elitist, crusty performer preaching their sermon on stage to the trustfund masses at Glastonbury. If only he was self-aware enough to see how at odds he appears. Allegorically at odds with himself in the same way his quiff serves as a combover to his bald patch.

Jordan Peele: Film makers tend to have a habit of failing up in Hollywood. Peele is a good example as he's only had one genuinely great movie in his catalogue and has been producing slop ever since. This swill has been lapped up by both critics and gullible simpletons with the misguided belief he’s the next Alfred Hitchcock. Having to slog through one hundred and thirty minutes of Nope (2022), which I found so terribly dull that even Daniel Kaluuya looked bored out of his skull in it, was a task I never want to repeat ever again. To add further salt, Peele, the writer and producer, has been to existing intellectual properties what Dr. Harold Shipman has been to his patients; writing and producing The Twilight Zone (2019 - 2020), and one of the worst films I watched from last year Candyman (2021), has been lethal.

David Gordon Green: Not content with helming the absolute turd that was Halloween Kills (2021), David Gordon Green capped off his rebooted sequel trilogy with an even worse offering, Halloween Ends (2022). For any self-respecting horror fan, the writing was horrendous since Michael Myers played second fiddle in his own climactic movie. What was even more farcical, was the fact that it took four awful writers (including Danny McBride) to come up with a plot that they knew would piss off a large contingent. Subversion is one thing, but not to the detriment of a franchise that is beloved by many. Can't respect it, then leave it be! Too bad Green feels the need to tackle another reboot sequel trilogy; this time The Exorcist, no less. Perhaps this will finally give Kermode his mojo back.

Sight and Sound's G.O.A.T films poll: Expected this once in a decade, overrated film poll being a shitshow time ago; what I didn't predict, however, was just how much worse it would be. Hats off to all of those esteemed plebians who voted for the sake of being edgy and managed to piss off even the ponciest of film snobs with the likes of Ingmar Bergman only getting one film in, while P.T. Anderson stans were all in a tizzy on Reddit when their god had no film listed. The uproar was almost worth the poll's villainy since it got Paul Schrader to post a thinly veiled "fuck you!" post on his Facebook. Still, the orchestrated controversy might have backfired and killed the only prestigious aspect about S&S, proving just how toxic many of its voters really are in the wake of this predicatble travesty.

Kier-La Janisse's followers: One of the greatest film related books published over the last ten years was Kier-La Janisse's House of Psychotic Women: An Autobigraphical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation, largely because I liked all the glossy pictures. That book made Kier-La a popular figure for journo-types and hipsters; one that has turned her into a pied-piper of genre cinema.  Imagine my horror recently when I spotted Queen Kier-La this year wearing a Massacre at Central High T-shirt - one of my favourite exploitation films from the seventies, I knew then that the kulcha vulchas would have a field day ruining one of the best kept secrets in seventies cinema. R.I.P!

Kier-La Janisse's followers. The pits.

Viewings: September 2022

Which is worse; 2022's continuous cinematic dreck, or all the wretched S.O.V vintage titles I watched in September? The all important question which had this humble blogger's brain short-circuiting like Landru in Star Trek.

Fatih Akin's The Golden Glove was my favourite discovery this month. An excellent film that I would have imported already if the pound hadn't flatlined.

More recent films that didn't go out of their way to annoy me and just tell a good story were Jean Luc Herbulot's Saloum which I posted about, and Joseph Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick turned out half decent; with those great aerial combat scenes.

Had taken forever, but I finally completed my 101 G.O.A.T British Films List this month.

 

Film

Bunny Lake is Missing (Otto Preminger, 1965)

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (Martin Ritt, 1965)

Neither the Sea Nor the Sand (Fred Burnley, 1972)*

The Last House on Dead End Street (Roger Watkins, 1973)

Seizure (Oliver Stone, 1974)*

Slade in Flame (Richard Loncraine, 1975)*

Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (Joe D'Amato, 1978)*

The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978)*

Thirst (Rod Hardy, 1979)

Crimes of Passion (Ken Russell, 1984)*

Hard Rock Nightmare (Dominick Brascia, 1988)*

Streets of Death (Jeff Hathcock, 1988)*

Nemesis (Albert Pyun, 1992)

L.A. AIDS Jabber (Drew Godderis, 1994)*

Red Lips (Donald Farmer, 1995)*

The Necro Files (Matt Jaissle, 1997)*

Duck! The Carbine High Massacre (William Hellfire & Joey Smack, 1999)*

The Golden Glove (Fatih Akin, 2019)*

Bodies Bodies Bodies (Halina Reijn, 2022)*

Jikirag (Alexander J. Baxter, Leigah Keewatin & Jessica Moutray, 2022)*

The Munsters (Rob Zombie, 2022)*

Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022)*

Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot, 2022)*

Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022)*

Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022)*

 

Television

Romper Stomper - Season 1 (Geoffrey Wright, 2018)*

Cobra Kai - Season 5 (Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, 2022)*

The Queen's death on every channel (2022)*

 

* First time viewings.

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Finally got off my arse and sat back down again to watch The Shout. First impression; I thought it was just ok, but it has marinated a bit more favourably for me since then.
  
• Ken Russell's Crimes of Passion has this amazing neo-giallo quality to it at the start of the film, but it derails into relationship drama territory; almost ruining it for me. Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins are very memorable in it, however.
  
• Rewatched The Spy Who Came in From the Cold for what's undoubtedly one of Richard Burton's finest performances. Feeling relieved that I picked The Iprcress File over it, however. John Le Carré's material just goes over my head at times.
  
• Aussie horror, Thirst has aged like fine wine.
  
• George Miller completely wasted his time and mine with that genie movie.
  
• Can thoroughly relate to Daniel Kaluuya looking completely disinterested in Jordan Peele's latest film, Nope. Such an overrated and boring film.
• There is no way Rob Zombie's The Munsters cost $40M to make. Terrible film, regardless.
  
• Did not expect to find a condom in one of my blu-ray purchases this month.
  

Misery-en-scène

Depressed cinephiles maybe in mourning over their beloved film god Jean-Luc Godard popping off this mortal coil earlier this week, but for us godardless heathens, it was Tuesday. Although, no doubt we'll be deluged with the inevitable obituaries and think pieces of how innovative he was.

Absolutely love finding out about respected creatives feuding with one another: be it film directors shittin' on other film directors; rap diss songs sans the smokescreened subliminals; to critics poppin' off at their once venerable heroes. Which segways nicely to one of my favourite all time Kermode rants. I refuse to believe any of this hilarious annihilation of both Godard and his film Socialisme (2011) was not rehearsed by Mark Kermode. It's too perfect to just fly as an off the cuff rant. It also feels somewhat tragic that the Quiffed One treads more cautiously with his more recent film critiques nowadays.

Socialisme (Review)

Mark Kermode, 2011

Kind of funny how the one thing that immediately came to mind upon hearing of Godard's passing was this classic video, and judging by the comments section, I wasn't the only one either.

Dada Debaser's 101 G.O.A.T British Films

The most appealing characteristic pertaining to British cinema is it runs the gamut of dealing with various subject matter and aspects of  life, and handles them in an uniquely distinctive way. This national psyche tends to come across as somewhat eccentric to non-Brits. "Having a bad day? I'll put the kettle on." Touch of the Dunkirk spirit, know what I mean?

Came up with this idea before I even created this blog and the biggest palaver was having to determine whether or not some of these films would even be classed as British; as mentioned in a recent and older post. This detail is unnecessarily restrictive when you consider just how many different cultures are thrown into the melting pot resulting in something so idiosyncratically British like fish and chips.

The best part about compiling any kind of "best of... list" on your own is having the luxury of being utterly selfish and not having to justify them to some contributor completely ignorant and oblivious to why you love these films. The worst thing about compiling any kind of "best of... list" on your own is the chance you'll run the risk of not seeing the wood from the trees and forgeting some notable titles. Having had to endure various film critics and talking head pundits gushing over movies which either failed to resonate with me, or were placed on a much higher pedestal than they deserved to be, this is significant payback time - albeit if it happens to be written on an obscure blog in the internet ether. 

101 G.O.A.T British Films

Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 1936) 

The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938) 

A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946) 

Brighton Rock (John Boulting, 1948) 

Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949) 

The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) 

The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 1951) 

The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955) 

Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourner, 1957) 

The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957) 

Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1958) 

Ice Cold in Alex (J. Lee Thompson, 1958) 

Beat Girl (Edmond T. Gréville, 1959)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Terence Fisher, 1959)

Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

Village of the Damned (Wolf Rilla, 1960)

Cash on Demand (Quentin Lawrence, 1961)

The Curse of the Werewolf (Terence Fisher, 1961)

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (Val Guest, 1961)

The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)

The Haunting (Robert Wise, 1963)

Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey, 1963)

The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963) 

First Men in the Moon (Nathan Juran, 1964)

Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964) 

Zulu (Cy Endfield, 1964) 

Bunny Lake is Missing (Otto Preminger, 1965)

The Collector (Willaim Wyler, 1965)

The Hill (Sidney Lumet, 1965)

The Ipcress File (Sidney J. Furie, 1965) 

The Nanny (Seth Holt, 1965) 

Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)

Alfie (Lewis Gilbert, 1966)

Carry on Screaming (Gerald Thomas, 1966) 

Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (Gordon Flemyng, 1966) 

The Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling, 1966)

Quatermass and the Pit (Roy Ward Baker, 1967)

The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher, 1968)

Twisted Nerve (Roy Boulting, 1968) 

Where Eagles Dare (Brian G. Hutton, 1968)

Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, 1968)

Carry on Camping (Gerald Thomas, 1969)

The Italian Job (Peter Collinson, 1969) 

And Soon the Darkness (Robert Fuest, 1970)

Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970) 

Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly (Freddie Francis, 1970) 

10 Rillington Place (Richard Fleischer, 1971) 

A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)

The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) 

Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)

Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)

Straight on Till Morning (Peter Collinson, 1972)

Tales from the Crypt (Freddie Francis, 1972) 

Tower of Evil (Jim O'Connolly, 1972)

Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973) 

Steptoe and Son Ride Again (Peter Sykes, 1973)

Theatre of Blood (Douglas Hickox, 1973)

The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)

Frightmare (Pete Walker, 1974)

The Internecine Project (Ken Hughes, 1974)

From Beyond the Grave (Kevin Connor, 1974)

House of Whipcord (Pete Walker, 1974) 

Vampyres (José Ramón Larraz, 1974)

The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston, 1975)

The Boys from Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978)

Death on the Nile (John Guillermin, 1978)

The Medusa Touch (Jack Gold, 1978) 

Porridge (Dick Clement, 1979) 

Scum (Alan Clarke, 1979) 

The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)

The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie, 1980)

An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981)

The Appointment (Lindsey C. Vickers, 1981)

Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981)

Nineteen Eighty-Four (Michael Radford, 1984) 

Threads (Mick Jackson, 1984) 

Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985) 

Mona Lisa (Neil Jordan, 1986)

When the Wind Blows (Jimmy T. Murakami, 1986) 

Hellraiser (Clive Barker, 1987)

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989) 

The Firm (Alan Clarke, 1989)

Shallow Grave (Danny Boyle, 1994)

Croupier (Mike Hodges, 1998)

Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer, 2000) 

28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2002) 

The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005) 

V for Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2005)

Children of Men (Alfonso Cuorán, 2006) 

Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright, 2007) 

Bronson (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2009)

Triangle (Christopher Smith, 2009)

Four Lions (Chris Morris, 2010)

Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011)

Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland, 2012) 

The Woman in Black (James Watkins, 2012)

Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012)

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (Declan Lowney, 2013) 

Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)

'71 (Yann Demange, 2014) 

Last Night in Soho (Edgar Wright, 2021)

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Loathe Simon Pegg with a passion, but Hot Fuzz is the biggest standout in his filmography, as he isn't acting like a spoilt whiny man-child throughout it.
  
• The use of the slide whistle as a comical sound effect is of greater entertainment value to me than any so-called bourgeois comedy loved by poncey film critics.
• Unlike the 1990s, there were plenty of contenders from the 2010s that were considered, but not enough to take a coveted spot.
• Take note, Mike Leigh: the Severin cellar >>>>>> the Criterion closet.
  

Had naively hoped to share this list with the gawd Kim Newman, but contacting him over at his website is via an agent. Forget that! Twitter is out of the question since it's a hellhole. Oh well, mustn't grumble! Good to finally have this done, regardless.