Dario Argento: Fiction and Facts (sort of)

If one approaches Dario Argento’s Tenebre (1982) as a vicious, primal murder spree, then it works, but not everything in this revised giallo makes a great deal of sense. (Who was the lady wearing the red shoes seen after the agent’s death? And, uhm, how’s it no one saw the killer sneak off with a long, bloody knife in a busy public square?)

There are scenes that work (the girl being menaced by the most psychotic Doberman ever put on film) and scenes that don’t (same girl throwing crumpled murder pictures at the killer instead of running for her freakin’ life and avoiding the firewood ax) but it has some clever ideas that will undoubtedly be riffed and ripped off by filmmakers for a while.

Phenomena (1985), however, is still a perplexing hybrid of fantasy, fable, and supernatural abilities and horror that often comes off as very silly… but it does feature a grand decapitation, the porta-pike, and a pit of flesh-eating maggots. Oh, and Donald Pleasence also talks to a Bonobo monkey.

Both films – a giallo and a supernatural thriller – are part of Anchor Bay’s 5 Films by Dario Argento tin, and unlike prior DVDs, these editions of Tenebre and Phenomena offer anamorphic transfers previously available as 4:3 in 1999.

Like their 1999 counterparts, the 2008 discs replicate all the important extras, including extracts of behind-the-scenes footage seen in Luigi Cozzi’s 1991 documentary/profile, Dario Argento: Master of Horror, a film originally released on VHS and Japanese laserdisc (but still apparently unavailable on DVD). We’ve added a review of the 80 min. film HERE, and also included a review of Argento’s appearances on a very weird Italian show created by Enzo Tortora for RAI 3 from 1987 called Giallo, where the director introduces several 3 min. thriller vignettes that were pretty darn gory for TV. Be forewarned the Giallo review contains spoilers.

Next DVD reviews: westerns with grand aspirations: Fox’ The Big Trail in Grandeur (1930 widescreen!), MGM’s melodramatic racist mush Cimarron (1931), and Westlake Entertainment’s The Painted Desert (1931), a very low budget oater notable for Clark Gable’s sound film debut.

And imminent: MVD Visual’s Gil Scott-Heron concert DVD, plus a rare documentary.

- MRH



Visit KQEK.com’s Main Page HERE!
Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

Colin Towns, and More Soundtracks

I’ve bumped the DVD review of Doc Martin Season 1 + 2 for a bit, but have uploaded an interview with Colin Towns, who wrote the show’s wonderful theme and soundtracks. To read the interview, click HERE, and to read the soundtrack review, click HERE.

Additionally, here’s Part A of several new reviews:

- from Disney, Thomas Newman’s WALL-E (I want that robot, or at least a mechanical toy 99.9 % as accurate) and Harry Gregson-Williams’ epic Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

- and from Italy’s DigitMovies, Ennio Morricone’s Escalation (1968), and the Gloria Guida diptych: Vittorio Pezzola’s La Liceale (1975) / aka The Teasers, and Gianni Ferrio’s La Liceale nella classe dei ripetenti (1978). We previously reviewed the label’s prior Guida CD, La Ragazzina (1974), which is equally silky and tarty.

Upcoming CD reviews in Part B will include Colin Towns’ Guest House Paradiso, Santa Maria Romitelli’s Hatchet for a Honeymoon / Il rosso segno della follia from DigitMovies, and Ryan Shore’s jazzy compilation of themes from Numb / Kettle of Fish / Coney Island Baby from MovieScore Media.

Next DVD reviews: Dario Argento’s Tenebre and Phenomena, plus westerns with grand aspirations: Fox’ The Big Trail in Grandeur (1930 widescreen!), MGM’s melodramatic racist mush Cimarron (1931), and Westlake Entertainment’s The Painted Desert (1931), a very low budget oater notable for Clark Gable’s sound film debut.

And imminent: MVD Visual’s Gil Scott-Heron concert DVD, plus a rare documentary.

- MRH



Visit KQEK.com’s Main Page HERE!
Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

Powell & Pressburger x 5

My new DVD column at Music from the Movies covers Criterion’s new Thief of Bagdad 2-disc set, which features both a stunning transfer of this gorgeous 1940 Technicolor film (damn, this better make it to Blu-Ray), plus oodles of extras, including Miklos Rozsa’s score isolated in a music and sound effects track.

The column digs into the film, and examines the Bagdad-related extras, and closes with a tally of other recent DVDs featuring unique film music extras (most, yet again, from Fox, who seem to be the only ones interested in film music preservation right now. Ha-rumpf).

The second film on the Criterion set, Powell’s 1939 WWII propaganda film The Lion Has Wings (I keep thinking it’s The Eagle has Wings, but that’s too logical) is covered at KQEK.com, and we’ve added reviews of some related films:

- The Spy in Black (1939), made prior to Thief of Bagdad, and starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson (previously available on a long out of print Embassy VHS tape).

- Contraband (1940), a quasi-Hitchcockian anti-espionage thriller (think A Canterbury Tale, and it makes sense) where Powell re-teamed Veidt and Hobson. Available on KINO DVD.

- The Silver Fleet (1943), which is more of a cousin to One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942), since both films deal with the Dutch Resistance. Produced by Powell and Pressburger and co-directed/co-written by Vernon Sewell, Silver Fleet is a dramatic propaganda vehicle that was previously available on a long out of print VHS tape from Connoisseur Video in England, along with Red Ensign (1934) – the latter of which we’ll review at a later date.

During the time-consuming/time-wasting/procrastinating factoidal search, I also found a fascinating Powell & Pressburger site that contains some very engrossing ephemera and bio details, which fans should check out HERE.

Next: Soundtrack update Part A !

- MRH



Visit KQEK.com’s Main Page HERE!
Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

The Return of Goblin (circa 2005)

In conjunction with the recently reviewed Dario Argento DVDs, we’ve uploaded a pair of albums that may have fallen below the radar of soundtrack collectors.

Back to the Goblin 2005 is a non-film work that had core members Fabio Pignatelli, Massimo Morante, Maurizio Guarini, and Agostino Marangolo collaborate on original compositions.

Currently available only from the official Goblin website, the CD has an eclectic mix of tracks that reflect the various styles and technological innovations that were essayed by the musicians since the band released their first album, Cherry Five, in 1975.

Dawn of the Goblin (2005) is a wholly different animal: cover versions of three major themes from George Romero’s bloody Dawn of the Dead/Zombi (1978). The orchestrations and performances by Dark Water Transit are superb, and the cues are far longer than the original album versions, with some effective techno tweaks that work really, really well.

Coming next: Doc Martin (Seasons 1 and 2) PLUS an interview with the show’s composer, Colin Towns!

And imminent: More soundtrack reviews, plus Criterion’s latest must-have release – The Thief of Bagdad (1940) – plus some rare Michael Powell goodies.

- MRH



Visit KQEK.com’s Main Page HERE!
Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

Eccentric Visions Old and New

Reviews for the next two films in Anchor Bay’s 5 Films by Dario Argento tin, The Card Player / Il Cartaio (2004) and Trauma (1992), have been uploaded, and in a quirky coincidence, we just added Boarding Gate (2007), the latest corporate espionage eroto-thriller from art house writer/director Olivier Assayas, released by Magnolia in the U.S.

Both Trauma and Boarding Gate star Asia Argento, but in one film she’s a novice 17 year old actress giving a spastic performance under her father’s tutelage, and in the other she’s a mature actress delivering an eerie low-key performance as a messed-up, wannabe drug smuggler on the lam from the police. Or is it as the harchetwoman of high-up corporate goons who force her to hideout in Hong Kong. Or maybe the victim in an elaborate plan by the wife of her boss/lover. Or maybe –

Boarding Gate is muddy, not that erotic, not that thrilling, nor very coherent, but like Assayas’ prior work, it’s its own thing, and it makes way more sense than Demon Lover (2001), which took a right turn into Looneyville and alienated whoever was still watching the movie’s last reel.

Filmed in Paris and Hong Kong, Boarding Gate has some fine cinematography, and probably offers Michael Madsen his first decent role in years, given he’s been trapped in direct-to-video hell for a while now, if not appearing in amateurish gunk like Bloodrayne (2005).

Coming next: Doc Martin (Seasons 1 and 2) PLUS an interview with the show’s composer, Colin Towns!

And imminent: More soundtrack reviews!

- MRH



Visit KQEK.com’s Main Page HERE!
Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

Slavery on the Big Screen

Slavery in pre-Civil War America has always been a controversial subject for filmmakers because it’s frankly easy to mess it all up; make a drama too polite, and it’s a sanitization of humans being inhumane to each other; make it frank and coarse, and depending on the era, the film will either get cut to pieces prior to a general release (the sixties), or the onscreen cruelties will serve as an adjunct to a sleazy, sex drama that embraces bigamy, incest, rape, drunken debauchery, and prostitution (ah, the seventies!).

When Dino De Laurentiis made Mandigo (1975), it was during an era when many film taboos had already been broken down, and the MPAA’s film ratings committee perhaps felt the political and social climate should allow franker dramas on hot-button topics (or maybe they just couldn’t keep up with the raunch from the sexploitation realm, increasingly nastier raunch from Europe, and emerging raunch from the major studios who tried to cash-in on trends a few years too late).

Mandingo is rough going for a studio film because the racist language and behaviour of plantation owners is far uglier than in prior Hollywood productions, and it makes a pretty clear point that slavery was damn lousy.

But being an oversexed drama, the narrative deals more with smutty behaviour than anything else, so whatever message was inferred kind of gets smothered by very bad behaviour, with boxing champ Ken Norton trying to act between all the screaming, whipping, punching, biting, and hot toddies.

The DVD from Legend Films’ is the uncut American release with all the naughty bits, and it’s also 1.85:1 anamorphic, made from a decent print that should please fans who’ve been waiting for a decent home video release for a while now. Check out the review HERE.

Drum (1976) , the sequel which also starred Norton, was handled by UA, and remains unavailable on a Region 1 DVD, but it’s part of a small sub-genre perhaps best described as Southern sleaze, which includes films like The Klansman (which is available on DVD, and a title we’ll cover in the coming weeks).

Perhaps the oddest attempt to mount an epic drama of slavery is Onkel Toms Hutte / Uncle Tom's Cabin, a German-Italian co-production from 1965 that lavishly filmed Harriet Beecher Stowe’s classic abolitionist novel with an international cast headed by John Kitzmiller (Dr. No, Son of Captain Blood) in his final film, and Herbert Lom as scumbag extraordinaire, Simon Legree.

Still apparently unavailable on home video in North America (besides a fleeting VHS release), we’ve reviewed the 142 min. German version, although it’s a far cry from the original 70mm six-track stereo version that played in Germany. A print does exist, but this flawed but engaging production has yet to receive a DVD release using elements faithful to its original theatrical engagement. An expanded soundtrack of Peter Thomas’ weird orchestral-pop score was released on CD, but the film still languishes in multiple lengths and multiple dub versions.

(Perhaps the most insane example of a big budget epic with multiple international co-producers is The Battle of Neretva, the Oscar-Nominated 1969 Yugoslavian war film, which exists uncut on a Serbo-Croatian DVD, a bit shorter on a German dub version, a bit shorter on a Spanish DVD with English and Spanish dub tracks, and brutally hacked to pieces on the American version.

There’s also two music scores for differing versions, and actors voices are dubbed by others when not in their native tongues. Somehow I don’t think Criterion could make sense of the mess, but we will, at some dead point this year, take the time to write a lengthy piece so as to bring attention to this other neglected epic.)

Coming next: Dario Argento's The Card Player and Trauma from Anchor Bay/Starz, and the Back to the Goblin 2005 album.

And imminent: Doc Martin (Seasons 1 and 2) PLUS an interview with the show’s composer, Colin Towns!

- MRH



Visit KQEK.com’s Main Page HERE!
Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

Argento strikes again (sort of)

When La Terza madre / The Third Mother premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, Dario Argento's long-awaited sequel and the final chapter in the Three Mothers Trilogy was given a very mixed response.

First came Suspiria (1977), then came Inferno (1980), and then a long wait, as fans hoped Argento would deliver a shocker worthy of the first film. Unlike many of his more recent thrillers, Terza has enjoyed a much broader theatrical run in Europe, and it was purchased last year for U.S. distribution by the Weinstein Company for a June 2008 release, to be followed by a planned DVD edition later this year.

Arriving in time for the Terza's theatrical run is a new Argento tin from Anchor Bay/Starz Home Entertainment, which gathers five films in one set, including newly expanded special edition DVD releases of Phenomena and Tenebre.

We've decided to work backwards and review Argento's films from his most recent to oldest, beginning with the Region 2 DVD of La Terza madre from Optimum, and Do You Like Hitchcock? / Ti piace Hitchcock? (2005) from Anchor Bay/Starz, to be followed by the remaining 4 films in the tin, plus a few surprises.

Additionally, in the May issue (#78) of Rue Morgue Magazine, I profiled Argento's 1973 TV series Door into Darkness / Porta sul buio, a 4-part production that was filmed on 16mm film and released decades later on DVD in a super-limited set in Germany. NoShame had slated a February Region 1 release, but the title was subsequently bumped to March, and then seemingly cancelled without any explanation.

Because the NoShame set was unavailable for review, I used the German release for reference (which happily includes English subtitles for the Italian language production), and will upload a longer and more detailed examination of the series as we progress towards Argento's work from the early seventies, which will also include reviews of the two films Argento directed around the show's filming: Four Flies on Grey Velvet / 4 mosche di velluto grigio (1971), and Five Days of Milan / Le Cinque giornate (1973).

For as many of the films as possible, there will also be corresponding soundtrack reviews, since the scores for Argento's films - including the rareties - have appeared on LP and CD at some time. A shorter review of Claudio Simonetti's Terza madre CD will appear in an upcoming issue of Rue Morgue, and will be followed by a longer version at KQEK.com.

Coming next: Mandingo from Legend Films, and a film review of Onkel Toms Hütte / Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965).

And Immiment: Dario Argento's The Card Player and Trauma from Anchor Bay/Starz, and Back to the Goblin 2005, a reunion album featuring new material composed and performed by Fabio Pignatelli, Massimo Morante, Maurizio Guarini, and Agostino Marangolo. (Click HERE for more information.)

- MRH



Visit KQEK.com’s Main Page HERE!
Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

Nice Movies

Yes, sometimes we review movies that feature amiable characters, light humour, and tender orchestral music scores by skilled composers. A while back we reviewed two soundtracks released by MovieScore Media, and we’ve now got corresponding film reviews, although only one is available in Region 1 land.

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont stars Joan Plowright, was directed by Dan Ireland (The Whole Wide World), and is based on a novel by Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress. The author). The film was recently released on DVD by Westlake Entertainment, and contains an appropriately affectionate commentary track by the film’s director and co-producer, both of whom pay homage towards newcomer Stephen Barton, who composed the film’s lovely music.

Like the film proper, Nigel Clark and Michael Csányi-Wills’ music score to The Rocket Post was also released last year, nearly 3 years after the film’s completion. It’s an odd, sometimes creative dramatization of one Gerhard Zucker, a German rocket scientist who traveled to the isle of Scarp in pre-WWII Scotland to sell a prototype for sending mail to and from the mainland by rocket. (This weird historical footnote was also given a nod in BBC’s Coast series, Season 1, episode 7: Solway, Firth to Skye.)

Like Mrs. Palfrey, the film boasts a beautiful score, and shifts from a lighthearted comedy to more dramatic plot twists. Manipulative? Sure, but in a good way, PLUS it stars Shauna Macdonald, best known for her appearance on Spooks / aka MI-5, Season 2, and more importantly, as the kick-ass chick who keeps slimy CHUDS at bay in Neil Marshall’s excellent thriller, The Descent (2005).

It’s a shame the film has yet to enjoy a release in North America, but we’ve got a review of Lionsgate’s Region 2 DVD.

Coming next: The first titles from Anchor Bay’s new Dario Argento Collection.

And imminent: Ill-conceived, exploitive odes to Black Power – Legend Films' release of Mandingo (1975), plus a film review of Uncle Tom’s Cabin / Onkel Tom’s Hutte (1965).

- MRH



Visit KQEK.com’s Main Page HERE!
Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews

Independent Minds

The latest trio of reviews focus on independent-minded filmmakers and personalities, and we begin with Olivier Smolders, an experimental writer/director from Belgium who recently made the leap from shorts to feature-length movies with Nuit Noire / Black Night (2004).

Fans of that film will definitely want to check out Cult Epics' other Smolders release, Spiritual Exercises (2007), a 10-film compilation that showcases Smolders' sometimes shocking mix of prose and imagery.

From Westlake Entertainment comes a pair of documentaries that may have fallen under the radar of genre fans.

The most intriguing of the set is The Outsider, Nicholas Jarecki’s all-access doc of writer/director James Toback, shot during the production of When Will I Be Loved (2004), which starred Neve Campbell and her birthday suit (plus some other people, like Mike Tyson).

Toback is very open about his past, his addictions, and his fixations, and he’s kind of the refined Abel Ferrara with a university background; both men have no qualms about showing some raunch, but Toback’s films aren’t nearly as emotionally indulgent, and they’re less hampered by vague if not incoherent plotting. (Toback can also complete his sentences, which isn't the case with Ferrara.)

Jarecki’s doc is larded with some serious names, including veteran screenwriter Robert Towne, filmmaker Woody Allen, critic Roger Ebert, and author Norman Mailer. It’s probably one of the best filmmaker portraits out there, and worth hunting down, now that Toback's own documentary of Mike Tyson premiered at Cannes.

Note: the DVD sleeve makes no mention of any extras, but The Outsider is loaded with a superb pair of commentaries tracks by Jarecki and Toback, plus 90 mins. of deleted footage.

Running with Arnold is a bit of a head-scratcher because it had the potential to be an incisive chronicle of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rise and annointment as Governor of California, but it’s less than half of that. Director Dan Cox fumbles through a clumsy intro before the film clicks, and although very flawed, for international audiences, it shows what happened in California after the celebratory confetti was cleared from Schwarzenegger’s victory hall.

Is Arnie a Republican puppet? Does he have an ounce of original policy in his brain? Is his recent pro-green stance an effort to reclaim the approval of his constituency after a massive tumble in the polls?

None of these three questions are answered, but one does get a sense he’s learned a few pointers from his first year of on the job training; whether he makes good before his term is up is the big question.

Coming next: two lighthearted comedy-dramas, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont from Westlake Entertainment, and The Rocket Post from Lionsgate (U.K.). Note: neither film contains an ounce of bloodshed.

And imminent: Anchor Bay’s new Dario Argento Collection. Note: all films contain oodles of bloodshed and occasional brain goo.

- MRH



Visit KQEK.com’s Main Page HERE!
Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews