#DARIO UNHINGED ERA

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[sloshed-cinema]

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage [L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo] (1970)

Dubbing is an unfortunate commonality of Italian cinema of this era.  But it’s rare that a movie play it fast and loose not only with the spoken word but with animal species themselves.  The titular creature is claimed to be from farthest Siberia, and yet its on-screen stand-in is a grey-crowned crane from Africa.  While I’m sure this has enraged whoever is the Neil DeGrasse Tyson of ornithology beyond reason, the rest of us can chuckle and let it slide.  Hey, at least the dubbing is better than usual.  We have that much to go off.

When any movie would be lucky to have even just one of the sequences that makes this film a standout, it’s shocking that this masterclass in slick tension-building was Dario Argento’s directorial debut.  His choices simply ooze confidence, and he knows how to control the audience experience through camera movement and shot selection.  Tension is generated eloquently through the most basic of ideas: what is seen and unseen, what is bathed in light or cast into shadow.  While he later goes full-tilt with rich jewel tones and neons, here he uses simpler palettes to great effect.  Tina’s murder sequence is exquisitely shot, the light ominously flicking off as the victim begins to climb the spiral staircase of her apartment building.  She lights a match, a halo of light surrounding her innocent face as the rest of the frame is plunged into inky dark uncertainty.  The question Argento always seems to be asking himself is, “How can I depict these actions in the most unexpected way possible?”  When that killer comes for amateur sleuth Sam Dalmas’ girlfriend Julia, before the lights are cut she knocks over a lamp.  It’s a happenstance gesture, and yet the end result is a far more interesting lighting of the character from below, harsh shadows heightening the fear of Julia’s attempts at escape.  Extreme closeups of eyes glancing around mirror the audience’s desire to know what’s around the next corner, where the killer might be lurking.  And there’s a slyness to the camera which lightens up this dark narrative.  Pursuing his would-be hitman, Sam thinks he spies the assassin’s distinctive yellow jacket through a door, but upon opening it finds himself to be in a space occupied by nothing but people with that exact jacket, a meeting of ex-prizefighters.  There’s a Hitchcockian wink to this twist which makes it all the more rewarding.

Speaking of Hitchcock, this falls under the Psycho rule that if your movie is good enough, you can get away with a lame final scene where a psychologist explains the root of the madness behind all of this.  The attempted murder which kicks off the action of the film is strange and barren, the viewer and key witness deprived of sound and the victim behaving strangely, an oddness to the events which falls into place upon the final reveal.  In subverting the notion of a male killer assaulting and victimizing women, Argento allows for the wonderfully unhinged performance by Eva Renzi as Monica Ranieri, a woman seemingly under the thumb of her husband but rather instead playing out her dark fantasies with women the city over.  Her final confrontation with Sam is exquisitely unhinged, terrifying as the woman plays with her knife, toying with her ensnared prey.  Argento threads the needle of off-kilter in his high points as a director.

THE RULES

SIP

Black gloves appear onscreen.

Someone takes a photograph.

Closeup of eyes.

BIG DRINK

The score goes “la la la laaaa la la” etc etc

The hitman misses a shot.

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Retrospective Review: Dalton and Brosnan Bond Era

So finally I am at the era of Bond films that I know a bit more of. I had not seen The Living Daylights or License to Kill in their entirety before, but I had seen all 4 Brosnan movies. He was the Bond I knew first before I saw Casino Royale. But I was looking forward to seeing Dalton's Bond movies because I had heard they were more serious and grounded.

For me, the both the Dalton films are really solid Bond movies. They are a refreshing break from what the Roger Moore had become towards the end. Not to mention, Dalton actually looks like he's in the type of shape and age to be a secret agent, running from country to country. The Living Daylights is good. There is immediately a more grounded story of espionage. But the better Dalton movie imo is License to Kill. Which is the revenge movie that we never got after Tracy Bond's death. License to Kill is really good. There is less romantic entanglement because Bond is more focused on what he wants to accomplish. And there is a slightly unhinged edge to him. Plus, you can tell that the movie is going into some darker stuff compared to previous Bond movies.

When it comes to the Brosnan era, I have a bit of a bias since he was the first Bond I ever saw. I genuinely like 3 out of the 4 Brosnan movies. GoldenEye is arguably one of my favorite Bond movies. It is fast paced, it has a good villain, it moves away from the stereotypical cold war era Bond plot, the Bond girls are good, and the action is splendid. Its the best of the Brosnan era. Given its made by Martin Cambell who also made Casino Royale, it doesn't surprise me. I know people aren't necessarily big fans of Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough, but I like both. Tomorrow Never Dies is really fast paced. There are some really solid action sequences, including a big bike chase which is quite fun. I actually liked the news mogul as villain idea. Its maybe more relevant now with the idea of 'fake news'. The World is Not Enough is more classical Bond. Its a more personal plot because M and Bond are more intricately involved with some of the players. Bond also has more of edge and is harsher in this movie which is actually pretty cool to watch. There is also a really disturbing element with the relationship between Renard and Elektra King which is also interesting. Die Another Day is unbelievably dumb for sure. To be fair, its fun in a dumb way but it goes into full blown science fiction with the whole idea of DNA being changed and a Korean man becoming a white british guy. Then there is the whole beam of sun villain plot. It is incredibly cartoonish. Its also the most effects heavy of the Bond movies and the effects have not aged well at all. The Brosnan era is one full of really cringey double entendres from Bond. In every movie, there are at least 4-5 and everyone of them is just so cringeworthy now but it seems that the writers were so proud of themselves when they wrote those lines.

The Bond girls across all these eras were a mixed bag to be sure. Kara Milovy, the Cellist from The Living Daylights is a bit on the dimmer side for sure. But there is some humor there because you see Dalton's Bond get really frustrated with her at times. Pam Bouvier is a pretty good Bond Girl because she is actually quite important to the story and plays an active role in rescuing Bond. Lupe is also not bad. In the Brosnan era, Natalya was pretty good. The romance between her and Bond wasn't really necessary and could have been taken out, but she is at least a competent person who is not dependent on Bond doing everything. We also get maybe the hottest side villain of all time in Famke Janssen's Xenia Onnatopp. I loved how sexually charged and batshit crazy she was. I had a crush on Teri Hatcher in the 90's when she was Lois so I always love seeing her even though she's there just to be killed off in TND. Michelle Yeoh was a badass even then. So she was cool. TWINE has the first Bond girl who is the main villain. I loved Sophie Marceu in that role of Elektra King because you are not sure how much to feel sorry for her in how her mind was warped by her trauma and how much to be a bit disgusted by her. Denise Richards on the other hand is perhaps the most hilarious piece of miscastings in a movie that I have seen. She is so completely wrong for the role that its almost entertaining to watch how bad she is. I would love to hear the casting director try and justify her casting for the role in any way other than to say that she is hot. Rosamund Pike and Halley Berry are probably the biggest names out of all the Bond girls. They have done much bigger and better things since but in Die Another Day, they are basically just there to fight each other and be bedded by Bond.

The villains are similarly a mixed bag. In The Living Daylights, the villains are nothing much to speak of. License to Kill has some good villains because Sanchez has some menace to him as does a young Benicio Del Toro as Dario. I think Sean Bean is one of the best Bond villains. Jonathan Pryce seemed to be having a ball in Tomorrow Never Dies. And I already mentioned that Marceu was damn good as Elektra. Renard is more the physical villain in TWINE but he feels more like a henchman for Elektra by the end. Gustav Graves is just completely ridiculous an a villain that just can't be taken seriously. He also wears a power rangers looking suit by the end of the movie which doesn't help.

One of the big plusses of the Brosnan era is the inspired casting of Judi Dench as M. She was so good that they kept her in the rebooted Craig era, despite a possibility of confusing the audience. M in the past was just a figure who gave Bond the mission and occasionally told him off. Judi Dench brings a personality and a weight to the character. She has a combative relationship with Bond but you still see that they share mutual respect, especially when you see where she admits that he's the best agent she has in TWINE. After the Roger Moore era, there was a refreshing in some cast such as Moneypenny which changed to Caroline Bliss under Dalton, and then to Samantha Bond under Brosnan. We also got the introduction to John Cleese as the new Q in the last two Brosnan films, taking over from Desmond Llewelyn. Robbie Coltraine has an entertaining supporting role in GoldenEye and TWINE. The Dalton era also saw the last use of Felix Leiter until the Craig era.

When it comes to the Bonds themselves, I think Dalton is extremely underrated. I think he is a precursor in spirit to Craig's Bond. I love the darker edge to his Bond. He gets angry and frustrated. It humanizes his Bond so we see he's not a superhero. He doesn't have the suaveness and charisma of a Moore or Connery but he has the physicality for it. He sells the action scenes far more than Moore did. He is really good in License to Kill which played to Dalton's strengths as an actor. Brosnan's portrayal split the difference between Moore and Dalton. He feels very much like a mixture of the two. He has the suaveness and charm to feel like the womanizing Bond, but he also brings out moments of anger and harshness. Even in the goofiness of Die Another Day, you always feel that Brosnan is giving it his all. I really like him particularly in GoldenEye and TWINE. I do feel both Dalton and Brosnan are underrated as Bond because they were both very good.

Anyways, now only the 4 Craig films, coupled wit No Time to Die. Not sure if I should do a restrospective on the 4 Craig Bond films and then do a separate one for No Time to Die or just include them all together to do a Craig era review since those films are so interlinked.

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Every decade has its share of great horror movies, and the very best have become true cinematic classics that are every bit as important as more "prestigious" films. From Bride of Frankenstein, Psycho, and Night of the Living Dead to Halloween, The Exorcist, and The Shining, these are movies which even the most casual horror fan knows, and they continue to influence the genre today. But what are the other films that true horror fans need to have seen? Everyone has their favorites, but we've gathered 22 movies that all lovers of zombies, ghosts, killers, and demons need to check out. How many have you seen?

Black Sunday (1960)

Mario Bava is the godfather of Italian horror, and one of the most influential filmmakers ever to work in the genre. Black Sunday is perhaps his finest film; a striking, dreamlike slice of gothic madness that feels very different to the movies that were being served up by better known horror flick production houses such as Hammer at that time. Black Sunday is best known for the opening scene in which Barbara Steele has a metal mask hammered onto her face, but the whole movie is a macabre must-see.

Society (1990)

There's no other horror movie quite like Society. A satire of 1980s class and privilege, it plays out like a weird, gloopy soap opera, as ex-Baywatch star Billy Warlock discovers that his privileged, status-obsessed friends and parents are in fact shape-shifting, power-mad sex mutants. Directed by Re-Animator producer Brian Yuzna, Society is funny, cheesy, disturbing, and a deeply subversive one-off.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920)

The silent era threw up many great horror movies, but few have the power of Robert Wiene's masterpiece of German Expressionism. Wiene adopted a surreal, dreamlike tone for this story of an insane hypnotist who uses his power to make others commit terrible crimes. The weird set design, crazy camera angles, and shocking final twist made the film feel way of ahead of its time, and they still impress today.

Martin (1977)

In the years between his undead masterpieces Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, George Romero tried his hand at a few non-zombie movies, the best of which was this vampire classic. A disturbing tale of addiction and urban alienation, Martin took familiar vampire myths and placed them in the real world, as a lonely young man attempts to fit in with regular society while fighting an uncontrollable lust for blood.

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Part of the 3D craze of the 1950s, Creature from the Black Lagoon might play out like a more typical '50s monster movie when watched today, but it still holds an eerie power. The creature is one of all the all-time great movie monsters, and the underwater sequences are still hugely impressive, as the iconic Gill-Man glides and dives through the water, stalking scientist Julie Adams, with whom he is besotted.

Re-Animator (1985)

The 1980s was the decade of comedy horror, and there are few better than Re-Animator. Stuart Gordon's adaptation of HP Lovecraft's short story features a hilariously unhinged performance from Jeffrey Combs as maverick doctor Herbert West, who is obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. Re-Animator has it all--great characters, a hilariously sharp script, wonderfully meaty make-up effects, and tons of madcap energy.

Freaks (1932)

While most infamous horror films have been endlessly copied, remade, and recycled, there is no other movie like Tod Browning's Freaks. After the success of the Bela Lugosi-starring Dracula, Browning used the leeway he had with the studio to make this tragic story of life among a family of circus freaks. At heart this is a moving family drama about outsiders, but the movie’s nightmarish tone and disturbing imagery led to over 20 minutes of cuts. Sadly, the full version is lost forever, but even in its truncated form, Freaks remains one of the most notorious movies of all time.

Pulse (2001)

Part of the wave of Japanese horror that followed the success of The Ring in the early 2000s, Pulse stands apart from the rest. It's weird, ambitious, funny, and very, very scary. While many of the individual elements might be familiar to fans of Japanese horror--long-haired ghosts, freaky children, young people being menaced by an unseen terror--director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's treatment of this material is anything but traditional. The film is a strange, surreal experience that strains the boundaries of logic and combines a persistent sense of impending doom with some truly terrifying scenes.

The Innocents (1961)

No horror list would be complete without a creepy kid movie, and there are few creepier that The Innocents. Adapted from the classic ghost story The Turn of the Screw, it's a restrained slice of gothic terror, about a governess who is employed to look after a pair of kids who she comes to believe have been possessed by ghosts. As well as the potent atmosphere, eerie sound design, and striking monochrome photography, the movie also boasts a groundbreaking electronic score.

The Beyond (1981)

He might not be as critically revered as Dario Argento or Mario Bava, but for many fans of Italian horror, Lucio Fulci is every bit as vital. The Beyond is a potent blend of zombie shocker and gothic mystery; at times it's stilted, clunky, and silly, but it also possesses an oppressive atmosphere of otherworldly strangeness and some outrageously over-the-top gore effects.

Cat People (1942)

This 1942 classic marked the first collaboration between producer Val Lewton and pioneering director Jaques Tourneur. The studio expected a horror quickie with a snappy title, but alongside the melodrama and sometimes dated acting, Lewton and Tourneur brought a level of artistry unusual for this sort of low-budget fare. The idea of cat women becoming deadly through arousal was radical for the age, and Tourneur's directorial style differed substantially from his horror contemporaries, with the use of shadows and sound creating some truly memorable sequences.

Suspiria (1977)

Legendary Italian director Dario Argento's supernatural chiller is one of the most distinctive horror movies of the 1970s. The mix of intriguing mystery, gory violence, eye-popping visuals, and an ear-splitting score made the director a favorite among horror aficionados across the world. Much of this crazy tale of ballerinas and witches might not make logical sense, but man, it looks and sounds incredible.

It Follows (2014)

Perhaps the best indie horror of the past decade, It Follows avoids many of the cliches of modern teen horror and places a group of believable kids into a terrifyingly surreal situation, evoking a constant feeling of dread without relying on lavish effects. The film has an almost fairytale-like tone, with gliding camerawork and terror that results almost entirely from scenes of people walking quickly in the direction of the main characters.

Dracula (1958)

While Bela Lugosi was the first actor to officially portray Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire, for many horror fans, Christopher Lee is the definitive Drac. Hammer’s first Dracula movie (retitled Horror of Dracula the US) remains one of the very best. Lee is a suave and charismatic Count, while Peter Cushing is every bit his equal as Van Helsing. It's a stylish, bloody, exciting gothic treat.

Audition (1999)

Japanese maverick Takashi Miike might be one of the most prolific directors working, and Audition is one of his very best. What starts as a quirky romantic drama about a lonely businessman looking for love ultimately turns into a terrifying, disturbing vortex of physical and psychological torment. The film takes its time to reach the horror, but when it does, it delivers one of the genre's most shattering final sequences.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

One of the most controversial horror movies of the 1980s, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a raw, unflinching look at the day-to-day life of its titular killer, as he moves from town to town, victim to victim. Anchored by a terrifying debut performance from future Guardians of the Galaxy star Michael Rooker, Henry's power comes from its stark, non-judgmental tone and matter-of-fact depiction of violence. It's still a tough watch, but it's up there with the decade's finest movies.

Black Christmas (1974)

While Halloween was the movie that started the slasher craze of the late '70s and '80s, it was predated by this seasonal Canadian shocker. A group of students are menaced at Christmas by a campus killer who torments them over a phone line. It's tense and scary, and features one of the earliest uses of the now-clichéd killer's POV shot. Director Bob Clark later made another Christmas classic, the perennial family favorite A Christmas Story, which features a lot less hacking and slashing.

Inside (2007)

The late-2000s saw a wave of bloody French horror movies, including Switchblade Romance, Martyrs, and Frontier(s). Inside is argubaly the most gruesome of the lot, and while it lacks Martyrs' fearsome intelligence, the breathtaking level of inventive splatter and super-stylized gore makes it a must-see for gorehounds. Given the entire plot revolves around Beatrice Dalle trying to get an unborn baby out of her victim's belly, it's certainly not for the squeamish. But for those with a strong enough stomach, it delivers the meaty goods.

Eyes Without A Face (1960)

One of the very best horror movies to emerge from France, Eyes Without a Face was a controversial take on the mad scientist genre. Directed by former documentary-maker Georges Franju, it focuses on a scientist who kidnaps young women at night and transplants their faces onto the disfigured features of his daughter. While many critics and viewers were impressed by the movie's style and haunting atmosphere, just as many were were appalled by its dark themes and graphic scenes of surgery.

Phantasm (1979)

Don Coscarelli's mind-bending debut is a true independent effort, with few concessions made to the rules of conventional filmmaking. This small-town tale of brothers who become involved with a sinister corpse-harvesting operation was shot on weekends over the space of many months, with the script written and rewritten as it went along. And it shows, in the best possible way, in everything from the flying blood-draining metal spheres and killer grave-robbing space midgets to the iconic villainous Tall Man. This no-budget gem inspired four sequels and is also one of JJ Abrams' favourite movies; he produced the recent 4K restoration, and used the killer spheres as his inspiration for The Force Awakens' Captain Phasma.

Onibaba (1964)

Long grass has never been scarier than in this masterpiece of Japanese horror. It's a period folktale about an impoverished mother and daughter-in-law who survive by murdering soldiers and selling their possessions. That is, until the day they encounter a samurai with a cursed mask. It's the incredible atmosphere generated by film's setting--desolate swampland populated by grass tall enough to entirely disappear into--that helps build the movie's unique, terrifying power, as the women descend into madness.

The Changeling (1980)

George C. Scott stars as a grieving father who moves into a haunted house in this super creepy chiller. The Changeling is old-fashioned in the best sense of the term, taking its time to set up the story and ensuring that the audience is fully invested in the characters before delivering the horror goods. Director Peter Medak is a master at evoking maximum chills from minimal props; who would've thought that a bouncing rubber ball or a wheelchair could be so scary? The movie also features one of the most frightening seances in horror--an unnerving scene that was a clear influence on latter-day horror hits like The Conjuring and Insidious.

from GameSpot http://ift.tt/2gw1r8e