Out of the Past: The Week in Film

Cinema Cess Pool Selections:

1. Shocker (1989) Dir. Wes Craven - US

2. Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus (2009) Dir. Jack Perez - US

The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:
1. Cruel Story of Youth (1960) Dir. Nagisa Oshima - Japan

2. The Crazies (1973) Dir. George A Romero - US

3. Europa Europa (1990) Dir. Agnieszka Holland - Germany

4. Eden Log (2007) Dir. Franck Vestiel - France

Rewatched Goodies:
1. Suddenly Last Summer (1959) Dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz - US

Theatrical Releases:

1. Public Enemies (2009) Dir. Michael Mann - US 7/10

Astounding/Meritorious Cinema:

5. Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) Dir. Teruo Ishii - Japan

4. Whip & the Body (1963) Dir. Mario Bava - Italy

3. Harvey (1950) Dir. Henry Koster - US

2. The Spider Woman (1944) Dir. Roy William Neill - UK

1. What's the Matter With Helen (1971) Dir. Curtis Harrington - US (please read my Past Cinema Regression column)

Well my friends, I was bitchslapped with a vengeance this week, having seen two utterly, deplorably awful films that very nearly placed me in the throes of anaphylactic shock. Of course, I was prepared for the expected putridity of Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus (2009) starring Debbie Gibson (looking like the more fortunate--yet still in need of cosmetic assistance-- cousin of Sandra Bernhard) and D cinema and television staple, Lorenzo Lamas. Having seen better CGI effects in pornographic films, including better dialogue, this turkey doesn't even fit into the category of so bad it's good cinema---it's just fucking awful. But knowing that going in certainly helps. I love how the extras on the DVD sport Lamas talking about the misogynistic roots of his, ermm, character while also informing us of his death sequence---even though that ended up on the cutting room floor. One advantage of the snuff film is that you can only film one death sequence. Also, actor Vic Chao, starring as one of a numerous amount of Pan-Asians masquerading as Japanese people with better English speaking abilities than many white people, credits the director with casting an unusual love interest between a white woman and an Asian man. I hardly would credit Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus as a film breaking down any social barriers, however.

I was actually unprepared, on the other hand, about how certifiably fucking goddamn awful Wes Craven's 1989 trough Shocker was going to be. Starring that rodent actor Peter Berg (from "Chicago Hope," and The Great White Hype, 1996) whom my boyfriend decided looked a lot like the early 90's Juliette Lewis, Shocker was meant to be the beginning of a new franchise by Craven-apparently he was screwed over on some of The Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) profits. As a huge horror cinema fan, I must admit that I could never stand any of the Elm Street films---in fact, I don't even really like Wes Craven (with the exception of The People Under the Stairs, 1992, or maybe Red Eye, 2005). Needless to say, I'm far from disappointed to see his early 70's and 80's works being remade, as Craven is certainly a man of creepy and interesting concepts---he just doesn't execute them effectively. Shocker happens to also be an awful fucking concept, however. A serial killer put to death by the electric chair somehow manages to use electricity to come back from the dead and kill more people. It's up to Peter Berg (did you know, he directed Hancock, 2008?) the serial killer's biological son, to put a stop to it. Ghostly girlfriends, hammy Michael Moriarity, and an extremely over-the-top, embarrassing performance by Mitch Pileggi as the serial killer make this film shockingly bad and poorly conceived.

Working my way through the oeuvre of Japanese master Nagisa Oshima, I most certainly don't care for his earlier 1960's works, though Cruel Story of Youth (1960) isn't awful, it's just rather dull and meandering, which is sort of a rebellious youth story of 60's Japanese youths. The same goes for horror master George A. Romero's The Crazies (1973) which tries really hard to be a social commentary about using military force when an outbreak in a small town causes residents to go crazy and kill people. Again, Romero, like Craven, tries really hard, but I think he often misses his mark (why Diary of the Dead, 2007, received such high praise I will never know).

As for another entry in the burgeoning French Sci-Fi franchise, Eden Log suffers from a champagne taste on a beer budget. An excellent concept about a dark dystopia touching on energy resources and horrific immigration practices, Eden Log was shot on handheld cameras that make it hard to follow and hard to see, much like Marc Caro's solo debut, Dante 01 (2008). Eden Log is worth a look, and pays homage to several sci-fi genre greats, but make sure you're not sleepy.

I was disappointed in myself as I really wanted to like Europa Europa, the true story of a Jewish boy who survives WWII by posing as an Aryan youth. I quite liked the perverse Angry Harvest (1985), also from director Agnieszka Holland, and Europa Europa, while intriguingly touches upon a homosexual Nazi and a young, very Anti-Semitic Julie Delpy as a sex starved Nazi girl, I felt Europa Europa never quite elevated itself into a great film. As a youth that makes it into the Nazi party and attends Nazi school, the most compelling predicament is our main character, Solly, being forced to hide his circumcised penis. A compelling look at a survivor's story, the film ends rather abruptly and fails to add depth or substance to our main character, a handsome young man loved by all for his good looks---however, his looks make his characterization difficult.

Japanese cult director, Teruo Ishii's adaptation of an Edogawa Rampo story, Horrors of Malformed Men, most definitely wasn't what I expected, but it was strange and macabre, nonetheless. I had expected a Japanese treatment of The Island of Dr. Moreau, but instead it's a twisted and almost incomprehensible tale of familial dysfunction. At times a bit tedious, it's worth a look and seems to be one of the more accessible features from Ishii.

I've only ever seen one other Mario Bava picture, his most famous work, Black Sunday (1960) which made an international star out of scream queen Barbara Shelley (though I find her at her creepiest in Fellini's 8 1/2, 1963). But I made the mistake of watching too many giallos over a short period of time, and I now feel unable to sit through any more selections from the hokey genre. I think the dubbing gets to me. Anyhow, though Bava's Whip and the Body (1963) was actually filmed in English, it was still dubbed, which was a bit annoying, as British star Christopher Lee has a distinctive voice---but since he dies towards the beginning and haunts everyone through the rest of the film, his dialogue is thankfully minimal. A bit of a gothic ghost story romance, the most interesting aspect of Whip and the Body is the often unexplored sadomasochistic theme lining the film. Palestinian born foreign import Daliah Lavi stars as the woman that loves Lee....because he knows how to appease her abuse-lust via whipping. Never before have I seen such a beautiful woman swoon while being lacerated with a whip, which sets Bava's film intriguingly apart in its somewhat futile attempt at sexual exploration. Lavi was part of the group of foreign bombshells that never really took off in the US, though she appeared in the Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967).

A sentimental 1950's classic, Harvey (1950) stars Jimmy Stewart in Capraesque mode as a doofy simpleton having Harvey, an imaginary 6 foot 3 inch rabbit as a friend he drags everywhere. Stewart's schtick gets a little long in the tooth, but director Henry Koster's adaptation of the stage play is quite entertaining, with Josephine Hull as Stewart's well-meaning older sister lighting up the screen every minute she's on it (for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar).

The intriguing screen presence Gale Sondergaard (who graduated from the U of M, and was born in Litchfield, Minnesota) stars in The Spider Woman, an entry in the Sherlock Holmes films series starring Basil Rathbone. I have a feeling that I would have murderous intentions for Nigel Bruce, who stars as Watson, the bumbling bloody fool of a sidekick for Holmes, if I were to watch more of these films, but thankfully he's granted only a handful of scenes. Sondergaard was renowned as a character actress known for portraying evil yet hauntingly beautiful women. It is said that Disney's creation of the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was based on Sondergaard. She was also offered the part of the ugly Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard Of Oz (1939), a role that eventually went to Margaret Hamilton. Sondergaard was a casualty of McCarthyism, and unfortunately wasn't on the screen in the 1950's, but she's deliciously, wickedly entertaining in The Spider Woman as a femme fatale using spider poison to off down and out gamblers. Sondergaard was the first recipient of the Best Supporting Actress statue for Anthony Adverse (1936), and I highly recommend her evil performance in the Bette Davis film, The Letter (1940).

Please click here to read my column Past Cinema Regression, concerning this week's top flic pick,
"What's The Matter With Helen?"