monstrosity ( film )
‎monstrosity (1963) directed by joseph v. mascelli • reviews, film + cast • letterboxd
in the monthly season of december 2017 ,
monstrosity
was awarded best web and new media film in calcutta international cult film festival, in india .
unnatural reproductions and monstrosity and over 2 million other books are available for amazon kindle. learn more
monstrosity is a danish horror film by kasper juhl and rose milling. a danish tribute to fred vogel' s
august underground
.
hellbound productions presents
monstrosity
. a film by kasper juhl & rose milling. a sick and disturbing tale from the depths of denmark! on dvd april 2014 urltoken
director of photography samrod shenassa works with writer - director alyssa price on the set of “the monstrosity. ” / / contributed
monstrosity (1964) aka the atomic brain. stars: marjorie eaton, frank gerstle. director - joseph mascelli. moria - the science - fiction, horror and fantasy film review .
monstrosity skirts that extremely fine line between being unwatchable garbage or a mildly amusing farce. those expecting classic andy milligan will be disappointed / delighted with the film’s gutter punk silliness rather than the usual milligan melodramatic misanthropy. monstrosity’s take on the golem legend begins like most classical farces with a light - hearted rape by some geriatric (not joking) punks setting off a chain of death, destruction, and jon balogh taking his shirt off. monstrosity also has a guardian angel, more geriatric (of the non - raping variety) punks, and an adorable carrie anita as the bride of the monstrosity .
one of the best books written about a horror film and one of the best contributions to film reception studies .
. however jamie lee curtis didn' t make a horror film until 1978, only 11 years before this film was made .
monstrosity is a short starring jamey anthony, sebastian michael barr, and kim bateman. earth and a planet inhabited by monsters collide, when a scientist' s experiment goes wrong .
a bus ride on the first day of school proves to be more challenging than expected for milly (leanna zamora), left in the movie “the monstrosity” that stars local children and was written and directed by former valley resident alyssa price. the film will have its world premiere at the santa barbara international film festival this week. other local actresses in the film include monica berch, center, and alexis healey. / / contributed
15. steven schneider ,
monsters as (uncanny) metaphors: freud, lakoff, and the representation of monstrosity in cinematic horror .
in horror film reader, ed alain silver and james ursini (new york: limelight editions, 2000), 167 - 91 .
hutchings, peter (2004) the horror film. essex: pearson education limited
( 1959)  and was supplanted by the atomic monster and alien invader film .
deftly weaving together similar strands of queer theory, childhood studies, and horror film scholarship, andrew scahill argues for the queer pleasures and revolutionary potentials inherent in the figure of the monstrous child. his work makes a significant contribution to the growing scholarship on childhood and monstrosity, offering fresh perspectives on iconic bad kids from rhoda (
address monster studies and intersectionality. of particular interest to the editors are popular depictions of monstrosity and disability, non - binary gender and sexuality, feminism, and non - traditional / deconstructed families within a broad identity politics frame. .
the film was directed by rocky morton and annabel jankel, who created “max headroom. ” this is their first feature, showing an almost sensuous love for the shadows and secrets of film noir .
the book not only offers a feminist interrogation of gynaehorror, but also a counter - reading of the gynaehorrific, that both accounts for and opens up new spaces of productive, radical and subversive monstrosity within a mode of representation and expression that has often been accused of being misogynistic. it therefore makes a unique contribution to the study of women in horror film specifically, while also providing new insights in the broader area of popular culture, gender and film philosophy .
scheunemann, dietrich (2006) ‘activating the differences: expressionist film and early weimar cinema’. in expressionist film: new perspectives. edited by dietrich scheunemann, pp. 1 - 31. new york: camden house
“it was alarming working with toby, and when you’re playing a deeply disturbing serial killer that’s not someone you want to hang with, ” moffat said. “he’d come storming off the set, scrunch himself up in a corner, and keep hold of the monstrosity. ”
of course, the case for establishing a connection between the depiction of a monster and creating / seeing a film as a horror film no longer needs to be made. steven jay schneider' s classification of monster metaphors as primary cues in horror films demonstrates how different kinds of monsters function as signifiers of horrality in cinema. [ 15 ] but is a film that contains a monster always a horror film? certainly not. it becomes a horror film only when, and because, the monster' s role in the narrative renders a specific and reasonable meaning to all (or most) of the film' s other signs and metaphors .
tries to combine the atomic monster and mad scientist film, a genre amalgamation that one is surprised was never more popular than it was  about the only other film that ever did so was edward d. wood jrs
a visual feast of science fiction that left audiences cold, dune is the epic and unbeloved adaptation of frank herbert' s much loved 1965 novel. now, 20 years on, and after some memorably poor dvd releases, we have a plush special edition two - disc release that not only presents the film beautifully but also takes a frank look back at this intriguing monstrosity of cinema .
“the monstrosity” will be screened as part of the “local filmmakers” series at 7 p. m. thursday, feb. 3, at the lobero theatre and at 10: 30 p. m. saturday, feb. 5, at the metro theater, both in santa barbara .
robert weine’s 1920 film the cabinet of doctor caligari is unanimously agreed to be both a prime example of german expressionist cinema, and also a seminal horror film. however, the film is also something of an enigma, combining as it does, a mixture of gothic, psychologically motivated narrative, and expressionist set design. the film’s influence on the horror genre can certainly be attributed to this gothic narrative, but the influence of it’s expressionist aesthetic has to be considered far more sceptically than it has been by past theorists. the question of why the expressionist aesthetic influenced film noir so strongly, and not horror, has to be asked when considering the film’s legacy as horror .
starting from the premise that monsters / monstrosity allow for the (dis) placement of anxieties that contemporary social mores do not otherwise sanction in the public space, editors artenie and szanter seek original essays for an edited collection on manifestations of monsters and monstrosity in all facets of popular culture and entertainment with an emphasis on film and television. within the last years, there has been an explosion of movies and television shows that incorporate monstrous characters such as the vampire, zombie, werewolf, revenant, witches, and ghosts. while monsters continue to remain strong in the human conscious, the recent proliferation of monstrous characters includes new and innovative interpretations that not only attract mainstream audiences but transform traditional folklore and mythologies. this collection aims to analyze the new forms taken by monsters in film and television for their cultural impact on modern entertainment and popular culture .
the film: still terrence malick' s best film ,
days of heaven
is an infinite tragedy, a film that' s at once both unspeakably beautiful and bluntly matter - of - fact. a hardscrabble romance, a
timeless american idyll ,
a portrait of the american soul frozen in amber... it' s all of these things and more in 94 minutes of indelible imagery, narrated by what might be the most perfect voiceover in film history .
why the criterion is essential: jonathan rosenbaum' s commentary track is among criterion' s finest, and a documentary on the film' s tragic hero (the film itself hardly qualifies as such) is a revelatory thing to watch. as if that weren' t enough, criterion kindly includes
the traveler ,
abbas kiarostami' s first feature film .
naremore, james (1998) more than night: film noir in its contexts. london: university of california press .
on its long road to a theater near you, “tangled” had a few different titles. as far as i know, none of them were “rapunzel: based on the novel ‘push’ by sapphire, ” but the film’s portrait of maternal monstrosity may remind you of “precious, ” albeit without the incest, the poverty or the violence. (a weaponized frying pan does come into play, but not as an instrument of domestic abuse. )
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
ernest mathijs is lecturer in film studies at the university of wales, aberystwyth. his current interests include the reception of horror film, cult film and reality television, and cinema of the low countries. essays appeared in literature / film quarterly, tv and new media, cult movies (ed mark jancovich, et al), foundations of science, and cinema journal (forthcoming). he is currently editing books on the cinema of the low countries, big brother international, and alternative european cinema .
you know, those horror films made on a micro budget that the film maker sells themselves. i' ll try and stick…
the revised edition of tracking king kong updates a groundbreaking study of king kong as the iconic character enters the twenty - first century. scholars of film and television studies as well as general readers interested in film and popular culture will appreciate this significant volume .
erb’s book, revised from her earlier 1998 version, comprehensively details global and national interpretations and analyses of king kong, and includes a section on peter jackson’s king kong. it is indispensable for film studies scholars who want to situate the film within competing discourses .
this week' s release from the criterion collection is
the tree of wooden clogs ,
an italian film from ermanno olmi (
il posto
). set in the 19th century the film follows four peasant families who all work the farms for the same landlord. the film has been praised for its dedication to realism as the majority of the actors are actual farmers, rather than professional actors. the film takes a long look at the decaying italian social structure and the cruel relationship between landlord and the families in their emply .
“when i started pre - production on ‘the monstrosity, ’ i decided to go back to my hometown to hold auditions and give local kids a chance to participate. the turnout was very encouraging — with only two days’ notice, over 40 local kids showed up and i was able to cast more than 20 of them, ” she said .
why the criterion is essential: the dvd is sufficient, i suppose, but the way criterion' s blu - ray renders and preserves the film' s murky blue lighting ensures that the suffocating mood of melville' s greatest film won' t be diminishing anytime soon .
this book offers an in - depth analysis of women in horror films through an exploration of ‘gynaehorror’: films concerned with all aspects of female reproductive horror, from reproductive and sexual organs, to virginity, pregnancy, birth, motherhood and finally to menopause. some of the themes explored include: the intersection of horror, monstrosity and sexual difference; the relationships between normative female (hetero) sexuality and the twin figures of the chaste virgin and the voracious vagina dentata; embodiment and subjectivity in horror films about pregnancy and abortion; reproductive technologies, monstrosity and ‘mad science’; the discursive construction and interrogation of monstrous motherhood; and the relationships between menopause, menstruation, hagsploitation and ‘abject barren’ bodies in horror .
the film philosophy which underpins the exploration of these films is primarily continental philosophy, rather than the more dominant field of cognitive film philosophy, utilizing increasingly attractive philosophers for film theory such as deleuze, guattari, ranciere, foucault, irigaray and kristeva. the series ultimately seeks to establish a refined and sophisticated methodology for re - invigorating issues of alterity both in the films chosen and the means by which continental philosophers of difference can paradigmatically alter ways of address and representation that lifts this kind of theory beyond analysis and criticism to help rethink the terrain of film theory itself .
bordwell, david and thompson, kristin (2001) film art: an introduction (6 th ed) new york: mcgraw - hill .
in tracking king kong cynthia erb charts the cultural significance of the character of king kong, from the early 1930s, when merian c. cooper and ernest b. schoedsack’s classic film king kong was first released, to peter jackson’s 2005 remake. although king kong has received much academic attention over the past twenty - five years, the bulk of these analyses deal with the film’s human characters rather than kong himself. in this revised edition of an influential study, erb argues that king kong is a particular kind of cultural outsider who represents a cross - penetration of americannotions of exoticism and monstrosity. tracking king kong considers problems such as race and gender in the king kong tradition, as well as historical, international, and contemporary audience and fan responses to this classic film and its popular protagonist .
this early 1960s black and white
horror
film is a prime example of the misunderstood evil genius - reanimated zombie genre typical of the era .
an excellent essay, well done! the theme of otherness i too believe, is omnipresent in caligari even though it takes different forms. on the one hand being the sinister mesmerist / murderer and on the other a benevolent psychiatrist, caligari is certainly an ambiguous figure, even when it comes to his monstrosity. perhaps this also fits with the theme of the doppelganger you mentioned above .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
why the criterion edition is essential: though it arrived just before the time when criterion started releasing everything on bluray, this standard definition transfer is nevertheless the best the film has ever looked, and it shed some much - needed light on what is maybe the best film of godard’s 60s period. – cm
i see a new world. the family dysfunction, the toilet bowl film prints, the period piece melodrama; the ghastly ones kick starts it all .
we are the flesh ,
a rare non - catalog release from arrow films, is a mexican horror film from director / writer emiliano rocha minter. set in a post - apocalyptic world ,
we are the flesh
follows a brother and sister as they try to survive in the barren world. it' s a particularly difficult film to wade through as the horrors of the wasteland prove to be incredibly brutal and salacious. minter' s story is vicious and primed to offend. it' s well made, but be prepared for a film that shares many characteristics with the notorious
a serbian film .
“‘the monstrosity’ follows in the tradition of ‘the wonder years, ’ but from a female perspective, ” price said. “it’s about a brand new sixth - grader named milly who is entering george adams middle school... . when dylan, the cutest boy on the bus, makes fun of a huge zit on her forehead, she realizes that fitting in is going to be harder than she expected .
the film: the cinema of robert bresson is dedicated to destroying those false constructs as people encounter them at a corporeal level, his films mining the mundane to unearth the divine .
au hasard balthazar
, as bresson' s most mundane film (it' s protagonist is a donkey), is the bresson film most completely devoted to this idea, every element of its construction designed to confound and contradict the ideologies which orient our existence around the transactional rather than the transcendental .
film philosophy at the margins picks up on the burgeoning field of ‘film philosophy’ - the shift from film analysis and explication to bringing together film with philosophy - and coalesces it with films, genres and spectator theory which have received little critical attention. these films could be defined as marginal due to containing marginalizing representations of violence and marginal invocations of sexuality and queer performativity, showing the margins of bodily modification from disability to performance art, being marginal in their abstraction of representative codes or in reference to their address to the politics of social control, spectatorship and cinematic pleasure as marginal due to its unique status and quality, and many other interpretations of extreme .
the film: from the top drawer of the “more relevant than ever” file we have gillo pontecorvo’s
the battle of algiers
, a ground - level portrait of colonial resistance unlike anything else ever committed to film. shot in gritty black & white on the streets of the casbah, pontecorvo’s film uses the transformation of a politically radicalized criminal (brahim hagiag as ali la pointe) as his primary means of chronicling the algerian struggle for independence against occupying french forces that scarred the area throughout the 1950s .
one of the best books written about a horror film and one of the best contributions to film reception studies. i don' t know of a book that brings these two areas together more richly than tracking king kong. erb combines dazzling historical research with a clear and engaging prose style to make her book refreshing for the academic reader and a pleasure for every sort of reader. the most ardent lover of the original king kong will learn new things about the film' s enduring impact and its myriad cultural manifestations .
10. thomas elsaesser ,
look deep inside yourself: the silence of the lambs .
paper presented at the 1st european psychoanalytic film festival, london (2001) .
( 1994), an early film by director peter jackson, chronicles the true story of pauline parker and juliet hulme, two adolescent girls in 1954 new zealand. in the film, the girls develop a deep romantic friendship based in shared fantasy, but their forced separation leads the pair to descend into madness and commit matricide. the book turns to feminist / queer theory, postcolonial theory, auteur analysis, apparatus theory, new media studies, and reception studies to unpack the film’s complex portrait of adolescent turmoil and tragedy .
one of the best books written about a horror film and one of the best contributions to film reception studies. i don' t know of a book that brings these two areas together more richly than tracking king kong. erb combines dazzling historical research with a clear and engaging prose style to make her book refreshing for the academic reader and a pleasure for every sort of reader. the most ardent lover of the original king kong will learn new things about the film' s enduring impact and its myriad cultural manifestations .
according to kracauer, this change effectively converts almost the film into the hallucination of a mad man, not a revolutionary story of rebellion against authority. as kracauer puts it ,
in the remainder of this essay, i will look briefly at a couple of significant examples of metaphors and aspects of hannibal that are discussed by reviewers in relation to either their identification of the film as horror, or to the difficulty they have in coming to terms with attributing a label to the film that doesn' t quite fit. first, there is the general remark many critics make about hannibal' s structural unevenness, with regular reference to the fact that the film consists of several parts, some successful, others not .
, is an amusingly lurid b budget film from the 1960s. the production came from producer / writer jack pollexfen who had made various other b genre films in the previous decade 
a movie that stars santa ynez valley children, written and directed by former valley resident alyssa price, will have its world premiere at the santa barbara international film festival this week .
tatty, rather sad, no budget, stitched together mess from andy milligan has a backyard monster taking revenge on useless rapist / bullies. a lot of it takes place in a shed and the film just... ...... .... . ends. bizarre' anti - film' home movie best left for milligan completists .
the film: in 1952, kurosawa had death on the brain. so he made a movie called
to live ,
or
ikiru
, and takashi shimura was finally given the chance to carry a film on his own, a film that would feed off of his unformed slab of a face and its echoing cavities. ikiru is the unassuming, faustian tale of an unthinking and unloved bureaucrat named watanabe, who we are uniquely privileged to learn in the film' s first frame is dying from terminal stomach cancer. watanabe is a cog in a meaningless machine, and after learning of his impending demise he' s confronted with his own pitiable insignificance - he doesn' t even have the moxie required to feel bad for himself. and then... well, and then in a way more wistful, delicate, and profound than any film before or since, kurosawa and shimura unpack and distills the human condition. recreationally. depending on when you ask me ,
ikiru
might be my favorite film, but shimura' s work as watanabe is always my favorite performance. (original )
why the criterion is essential: criterion spared no expense on this (sadly still relevant) release, putting a must - own version of this must - watch film into stores across the united states. the disc is loaded with passionate and informed talking heads, but is truly worth owning for the collection of milk' s audio recordings that were ultimately excised from the film .
on the minus side, such a wonderfully lurid and amusing stew of b movie elements fails to come to a boil as a film. joseph mascellis direction is drearily dull and the photography downright primitive. the drama is accompanied by a portentous and dull musical score. judy bamber who plays bea affects what is possibly the worst attempt to create a british accent ever recorded on film .
* all of the reviews / articles on hannibal mentioned herein are located in the belgian royal film archive library. in total, 87 reviews from seven countries have been consulted for this essay .
the influence of the cabinet of doctor caligari on the horror genre is not its expressionist aesthetic. the film’s world is certainly a terrifying place, an external physicalisation of a nightmare, it is horrific, and the film deserves its place as part of the birth of the horror genre, but its influence on the genre must not be confused with what the film is famous for – its expressionism. the true influence of the film is what it shares in common with many other weimar films which are not expressionist, though they have been mistakenly referred to as such. these films share a common gothic, romantic narrative structure, and themes like the monster, the male anxiety, the ‘other’. it is these themes which have lived on to shape horror today .
the film: made at the pinnacle of godard’s early period and arriving just before his sudden break from traditional narrative filmmaking, “2 or 3 things about her” represents one of godard’s most intriguing fusions of essayistic experimentation and standard dramatic practice, resulting in a film that’s both deeply heady and emotionally compelling—a fertile middleground he’d not return to until the early 1980s, a period criterion has unfortunately neglected .
the german film industry re - fashioned modernism’s formal and stylistic innovation for its own purposes, and expressionism provided the most material for experimentation with perception, subjectivity and objectivity (budd, 1990: 25). the cabinet of doctor caligari was inarguably the most successful example of this selective use of expressionism in film, retaining a conventional narrative structure whilst wowing the audience with its breathtaking expressionist scenography .
, the production company went bankrupt about halfway through shooting, leaving no money to finish the film. they tried fixing it in the editing room over the next few years, but it was impossible .
falls into the sub - genre of mad scientist films that was all the rage about two decades earlier. the mad scientist film had fairly much died away during the 1950s  apart from odd throwbacks like
despite jack carter being so abusive about the place, geordies took the film to their hearts. with it' s re - release in 1997 it also attracted a huge uk fan base with constant tours of the locations, with excerpts from the film being re - enacted. consequently, when the demolition of the car park was mooted, a groundswell of opposition managed to delay its destruction for decades .
the film (excerpted from
why' breathless' will always be relevant
): one of the defining features of “breathless” is the degree to which its characters self - identity through the lens of the cinema, seeing in its images idealized reflections of themselves and modeling their attitudes and mannerisms to better cohere with that vision. perhaps unsurprisingly, that’s one of the film’s most enduring characteristics: as we find ourselves increasingly subsumed in pop culture, our personalities cultivated to best reflect our tastes and interests, the quintessential film about living out a life inspired by the movies is bound to resonate. – cm
how wonderful to have cynthia erb' s tracking king kong updated. added to the first edition' s remarkable insights and methodological syntheses is a definitive reading of peter jackson' s remake. demonstrating that film' s intricacy and arguing that it is a quintessential example of melancholic cinema, erb expertly tracks the cultural fate of kong into the present and beyond. an extraordinary contribution to film studies .
a work of insight, scholarship, and substance,' tracking king kong' is informed, informative, and a highly recommended, core addition to academic library film studies history and reference collections .
the question with which this essay began has now been answered. hannibal is indeed a horror film. this is not just because extra - textual factors, coming from the film' s surroundings, have led people to label it as horror, but, just as importantly, because we have been able to link these extra - textual elements to textual features—to what belongs to the film text itself. the dominance of the developing horror discourse around the sotl - character hannibal did and still does play a crucial role in determining what the film
is .
on a broader level, i hope i have shown how elements of reception and, more generally, ancillary discourses, are not limited to extra - textual discussions. they can have, and in fact do have, an impact on how we think about films, what we think particular films
are
and, in some cases (as with hannibal), they influence debates concerning what a film will become, even before such determinations have been made .
one of the big surprises of the year was denis villeneuve' s
arrival ,
an intellectual sci - fi film starring amy adams as a linguistics professor asked to communicate with the alien creatures who have landed in various locations around the world. are they peaceful? or do they come as conquerors? let this film heal the carnage that
independence day: resurgence
caused to our collective souls .
erb begins her examination of king kong in the 1930s, when the original film was produced and released, extending through the 1970s, when the film and its hero reached the height of their cultural visibility in a remake by dino de laurentiis, and concluding with a look at peter jackson’s version in 2005. the book includes a detailed production history of the original 1933 film based on primary historical and archival sources; a genre study examining kong’s relations to horror, jungle adventure, and travel documentary genres; an analysis of kong’s influence on the japanese film godzilla; and a look at sequels, remakes, and spinoffs related to king kong, such as mighty joe young. erb also analyzes jackson’s remake of king kong, to determine how and why jackson revised the main character, casting him as a melancholy hero .
kracauer, seigfried (1947) from caligari to hitler: a psychological history of the german film. new jersey: princeton university press. (2004 version, revised and expanded, edited by leonardo quaresima )
in revisiting graverobbers, it seemed only appropriate to watch the movie that inadvertently introduced me to it. somehow i still remember the day that i bought this video kart dvd release, it was in a now defunct media play in rochester, new york, when dvds slowly started pushing out all of the vhs merchandise. sure, i became obsessed with the b - side of the [ andy milligan ] monstrosity release, but it was this somewhat misleading coverart that convinced my drug - addled brain it was a must - have .
why the criterion is essential: universal’s 20th anniversary bluray edition completely botches the color scheme central to the movie’s aesthetic, making criterion’s (sadly out of print) dvd the definitive version of this film. – cm
jackie stacey in her essay ‘she is not herself’, explores the theme of teratology – the scientific study of monsters and marvels – and also the motif of the double, in the horror and sci - fi genres, especially the theme of abjection, and what she calls “the monstrosity of sameness” (stacey, 2003: 3 - 7). this motif of the artificially created and programmed double or the doppelganger has been integral to the horror genre from its very inception, stemming from its gothic roots, and the motif of the doppelganger .
it is the idea of ‘otherness’ which is the key to defining the horrific element of the monster. robin wood explores the theme of ‘otherness’ in horror. wood posits that the ‘other’ is a project of a repressive society in which powerful groups impose or project identities upon subordinate groups (wood, 1986: 73). however hutchings warns that over emphasis on this interpretation results in the assumption that “a horror film deals with notions of the other because that is what horror films do, and if a film is not doing this in some way, then it is probably not a horror film at all” (hutchings, 2004: 102) .
the film :
tokyo story
is routinely acknowledged as one of the greatest films ever made (the directors surveyed in sight & sound ’s most recent poll concluded that it is the greatest film ever made), but what often gets lost in the deserved swirl of accolades is something that’s at the heart of yasujiro ozu’s masterpiece. it’s accurate to label the film as “wise” or “wistful, ” but perhaps the reason that people immediately reach for such flowery terms of appreciation is because it’s easier to reflect on the tragic truths of ozu’s film than it is to confront them. in other words ,
tokyo story
is “sad” when you’re able to keep it at a distance, when you’re able to watch it as a movie about the things that happen to other people. but the film is unshakably chilling when you accept that it’s a movie about you, and everyone you know - - a movie about the things that you can see hiding under the bed, but are powerless to prevent. it’s a movie about... your parents coming to visit .
the film: forget best criterion release—powell and pressburger’s 1943 technicolor epic is perhaps the greatest movie ever made, period. foregoing the major points of interest of the traditional life - story template in favor of the minor details and the color of the in - between, “colonel blimp” is overflowing with the passions and tragedies of lived experience, coming as close as any film has before or since to encapsulating what it’s like to be alive .
8. janet staiger ,
taboos and totems: cultural meanings of the silence of the lambs .
in perverse spectators: the practices of film reception (new york: new york university press, 2000) .
the movie is filled with gestures that meaningful. like the bfg, it cares about the little things, and it moves with a grace that belies its size. it' s a film about about dreaming and storytelling, parenting and childhood, nostalgia and pragmatism, and the necessity of standing up for yourself even when you know you can' t win. but most of all, it' s a film about two unlikely friends .
other local children selected for the film were alexis healy as joanna, caden scott fallon as sam, elton roberts as milly’s younger brother, preston gorr as milly’s youngest brother, and beau allen of santa barbara as dylan .
price is a writer, director and producer who won los angeles magazine’s “get l. a. ” film competition last year with her entry titled “pearl, ” the story of an actress’ day told from her car’s perspective .
the film: without
the spirit of the beehive
there probably wouldn' t be a guillermo del toro (i' ll leave judgements as to the severity of that hypothetical tragedy up to you). a haunting yet ineffably beautiful fairy tale about two young girls who are attempting to make sense of the world in post - franco spain, victor erice' s greatest film begins with a print of
frankenstein
being wheeled into a rural village, and resolves with a sense of wistful wonder that resonates with even today' s most film - saturated viewers. the castilian landscapes are so scarred and barren, but by the end they feel like home .
the film: one of the truffaut’s most enduringly popular films in many ways encapsulates the charming side of the french new wave, its romanticized atmosphere and free - spirit sensibility both hallmarks of a movement split cleanly in two .
1. martin barker ,
news, reviews, clues, interviews and other ancillary materials: a critique and research proposal .
scope: an online journal of film studies (forthcoming 2002): 3 - 6 .
however, in their rather overconfident assertion, referring to the asylum ‘framing device’ of the film, that “ [ i ] n caligari, the expressionist stylisation functions to convey the distorted viewpoint of a madman. we see the world as the hero does” (bordwell and thompson, 2001: 407 - 8) is woefully simplistic, and is an example of the mis - readings and debates around the framing device and the perspective of the film .
why the criterion is essential: worth it alone for the feature - length documentary about the making of this game - changing film (but stick around for godard' s 1959 short ,
charlotte et son jules
) .
provides the reader with information on the production of king kong and reception of the 1933 film, including animation of willis o’brien. includes reviews, discussions of the writing, interpretations, animation, and an interview with fay wray .
“it perverted, if not reversed, their intrinsic intentions. while the original story exposed the madness inherent in authority, wiene’s caligari glorified authority and convicted its antagonist of madness. a revolutionary film was thus turned into a conformist one…”
why the criterion is essential: david downton' s cover art is among criterion' s best, and makes this a shelf standout, but my favorite thing here is an 18 - minute video essay starring “sexual - politics activist” susie bright, who focuses this no - holds barred look at the film through a very particular lens. bright is fiercely intelligent, and should effectively unmoor any readings of the film that have become a bit too settled and secure .
elsaesser, thomas (2006) ‘weimar cinema, mobile selves, and anxious males: kracauer and eisner revisited’. in expressionist film: new perspectives. edited by dietrich scheunemann, pp. 33 - 71. new york: camden house
the film: on a purely aesthetic level, wong kar - wai’s “in the mood for love” is practically peerless: its sumptuous, expressionist cinematography—by none other than chris doyle, of course—is enough to make you want to simply sit back and bask in the style. add to that the fact of its emotional maturity, intelligent conception of time and memory, and utterly heartbreaking ending, and you start to wonder whether this isn’t the best film of the past twenty years .
one contemporary phenomenon is the almost mystical status paid to locations used in films and television. many have become places of pilgrimage. i must take responsibility for one such place – the car park owned by the property developer cliff brumby, one of many villains in my 1971 film get carter. whilst most of the locations featured in the film have long since been demolished, the trinity centre in gateshead has survived. until today. this morning it will meet the wrecking ball .
the film: with the tenenbaums, wes anderson may not have created america' s favorite family (though they' re not far from it), but – for all of their wealth and strict eccentricities, he may have created its most honest. a beautifully measured portrait of disappointment and second chances that somehow straddles the divide between family album and fairy tale ,
the royal tenenbaums
is the rare film that makes us love how strange we are while appreciating how strange we' re not .
why the criterion is essential: well, for starters, you get peter bogdanovich reading a commentary by alexander sesonske, so that' s something. there' s also a david thompson video series, writings by renoir, tributes to the film by paul schrader, robert altman, wim wenders and more... criterion did this one right. the transfer inevitably inherits some flaws from the surviving negative, but i' d wager that the film hasn' t looked this good since its first run .
the film: this is a good movie about people and stuff. i like the quiet older guy and also i like the loud jumpy guy, too. and (looks at title), there are like five other guys who are also pretty cool .
armed with the knowledge he has long been seeking, victor spends months feverishly fashioning a creature out of old body parts. one climactic night, in the secrecy of his apartment, he brings his creation to life. when he looks at the monstrosity that he has created, however, the sight horrifies him. after a fitful night of sleep, interrupted by the specter of the monster looming over him, he runs into the streets, eventually wandering in remorse. victor runs into henry, who has come to study at the university, and he takes his friend back to his apartment. though the monster is gone, victor falls into a feverish illness .
the film: i don' t mean to dismiss edward yang' s masterpiece (one of several, really) as
comfort cinema ,
but
yi yi ,
as much if not more so than any other film, is the movie i return to time and again for respite and guidance. a deceptively casual three - hour drama about the wishes and regrets of a contemporary taiwanese father and their impact on his extended family, yang' s film seems to contain the entire world. i think of that bit in
you' ve got mail
where tom hanks swears that everything you need to know about life can be found in
the godfather ,
and i' m reminded that
yi yi
didn' t come out until a few years later .
the film (excerpted from an essay i wrote for film school rejects): the best biopic ever made, paul schrader' s
mishima: a life in four chapters
fuses form and function to the point where its very structure is hugely expressive of its subject. a trite and true biopic of the conventional mold (think
amelia
, if you can) would have implicitly drawn a line between mishima and his image, whereas schrader’s approach blends it all together, uniting man and myth in much the same way as mishima ostensibly harmonized pen and sword. but if the film assumes the fractured shape of mishima’s ideology, schrader is equally careful that he’s never beholden to it. schrader doesn’t cooperate with mishima so much as he uses him to reach a higher strata of portraiture .
the references to horror have not stopped since hannibal' s release, with critics and reviewers describing it as a horror film on an international scale. although donald o' donoghue calls it a
serial thriller
in the headline of his rte review, throughout the actual article he repeatedly emphasises the horrific elements of both novel and film, singling out the gruesomeness of earlier script versions, the
terrified reactions
of preview audiences and, of course, the
grisly conclusion featuring man - eating pigs .
both le monde and echo de la bourse refer to the film as
horror
in their headlines, whereas the guardian weekly describes it as a
guignol horror comedy .
finally, david ansen, in newsweek, devotes at least one paragraph to a discussion of why he doesn' t like the film: for its lack of
suspense
( thriller) and its emphasis on
disgust
and
yuk
( horror). other terms which appear frequently in reviews include
grotesque ,
baroque
and numerous variations on
cannibalism .
is ridley scott' s hannibal (2001) a thriller or a horror film? it is a question that could keep film theorists occupied for decades, debating the futility of straightforward genre classifications in contemporary hollywood cinema, analysing the historical overlap between the two genres, interpreting the weight of prior labels (was jonathan demme' s the silence of the lambs [ 1991 ] horror or thriller? what about thomas harris' s source novel ?) and, finally, questioning the film' s style, the psychology of its characters and the implications of its story and design on the audience (are they scared? what if they' re only
so - so
scared ?). arguably, there would be no way out of such discussions, apart from perhaps a settlement on the basis of authority .
i don' t even know what to say about what i witnessed while viewing this film. it is a really bad movie, but worth being part of my collection. the gore scenes are entertaining, not bad, but not executed the best. this sort of has a troma quality to it, that is the only comparison i can give it. i believe this was andy milliagan' s last film. he definitely went out in appropriate b - movie style... or should i say c - movie? this is only for the viewer who has patience. a lot of patience. i sort of felt the same way i did after i saw my first porn video. you know, asking questions like ,
where did they get these people from - to do this on film
.
why the criterion is essential: because enshrinement in the criterion collection ensures that pasolini' s final film will be considered as a profound work of art, and not just a vile provocation. and because you really need to read gideon bachmann' s diary from the set .
prior to hannibal' s opening at the festival of berlin, newpapers and magazines carried headlines declaring their expectation that the film would
make berlin shiver .
[ 5 ] in addition to all this, side stories on veteran producer dino de laurentiis (no stranger to the horror genre), satanic film series in the history of cinema [ 6 ] and stephen king' s remark that hannibal lecter (anthony hopkins) qualifies as the
dracula of the cellular phone era
all made the connection to horror, if not explicitly then certainly by inference .
scheunemann, dietrich (2006) ‘the double, the décor, and the framing device: once more on robert weine’s the cabinet of dr. caligari ’. in expressionist film: new perspectives. edited by dietrich scheunemann, pp. 125 - 156. new york: camden house
why the criterion is essential: disc two includes about ten minutes of footage from orson welles’s still - unreleased final film, “the other side of the wind”, couched in the middle of a (very good) documentary on the second disc. worth the price of admission alone. – cm
can you feel it? that’s hate. pure, voracious hate. you and i would never think about, let alone act upon, impulses such as these. but somewhere else, people do. proof exists. just examine any film that begins with “photographed and directed by andy milligan” .
the film: with the exception of his most well - known and well - regarded film, his debut “citizen kane”, orson welles films are nearly impossible to find in good quality and in their original form. “mr. arkadin”, or at least the version of “mr. arkadin” that welles had intended to make and release, was long thought to be lost to time and rights issues in much the same way that “magnificent ambersons” and “the other side of the wind” continue to be—we thought we’d have only a botched version if one at all. this set is an crucial historical corrective .
why the criterion edition is essential: besides the obvious reasons, these dvds boast some of the best non - hd transfers ever committed to disc: the film grain is so rich that it’s practically palpable, especially on the nearly perfect - looking disc for “a woman under the influence”. – cm
man kann diesen film hier als deutlich billigere version von der august underground reihe abstempeln .
billig
ist hier nicht unbedingt als schlecht oder laienhaft gemeint! schließlich ist das hier doch nochmal etwas anderes. die essenz der vorlage ist komplett mit dabei. jedoch bekommt man hier eine dynamik zu spüren, welche ich bei…
note: it’s true. legacy of horror has yet to stumble onto dvd. it’s often confused with legacy of blood aka legacy of horror, which stars john carradine and features the same plot. that film appears on several public domain dvd packs, including a recent release under the “elvira’s movie macabre” dvd line .
the films: if you came across experimental filmmaker hollis frampton in a dark alley, you’d probably be a bit startled, and not just because he’s been dead for almost 30 years. the man looked like he was 70% lsd, with a few wisps of hair running across his balding head and a beard so thick that even an editor of his skill couldn’t seem to cut it. by the time he finished his career with magellan, a 36 - hour monstrosity intended to reimagine the history of cinema as it should have been, it’s likely that frampton had lost it completely. but his legacy endures, in part because his exploratory tinkerings maintained a warmth rare in such nonnarrative works, and in part because his structuralist confections made questioning the cinema as fun as watching it. (original )
monstrosity is a 1963 film directed by joseph v. mascelli . it is perhaps better known under its alternate tv release title , the atomic brain . 
monstrosity is a 1963 film directed by joseph v. mascelli. it is perhaps better known under its alternate tv release title, the atomic brain.
monstrosity is a 1963 film directed by joseph v. mascelli. it is perhaps better known under its alternate tv release title, the atomic brain.