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Heat (1972)
Joe Dallesandro is my hero
If you want to see movies in the style of John Waters without the theatrics, you are guaranteed to love any Paul Morrissey movie. Heat revolves around a few characters, a hag who runs a motel, an aging actress, brothers who have sex on stage in a nightclub act, a young lesbian who isn't quite sure if she is a lesbian, and yes girls..Joe Dallesandro.
Joey is a struggling child actor, who has come back from a stint in the army and hopes to get back into acting. He meets an aging actress, has sex with her and her attempts fail to get him any acting gigs. There really are no major plots or twists or even morals in any of Morrissey's movies even more so in heat. Half an hour into the film and you ask yourself.. what has happened? Well nothing..and boy is nothing interesting. The fact that a director can make movies based on real life exploits of real life people and make it interesting makes him a brilliant director.
This movie is ugly, sexual, amusing and obscure, the fact that nothing really happens shouldn't put you off, you will be entertained and amused by the actors, if you really get bored you could pick out the flaws such as- Why does everyone have a New York accent when they live in LA, or is that a man or a woman? But for us girls Morrissey delivers us another film in which we can drool over Dallesandro, sadly he doesn't spend nearly half the amount of time naked as he did in flesh. You might also notice the little homage to midnight cowboy in the movie; he comes in the form of a gay man named Harold. (Pat Ast is actually in Midnight Cowboy) For fans of trivia ..Heat is essentially an unofficial remake of Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard with Dallesandro playing William Holden's part.
I feel Paul Morrissey is a highly underrated director, every film I have seen of his has left me wanting more, left me shocked, disturbed, in hysterics and leaves me raving about how simplistic yet fantastic they are. His movies make you want to go find your trashiest friends and make movies about them.
Le samouraï (1967)
An amazing film....
Jef Costello is a contract killer, a lone wolf living in Paris in 1967. He is vocally inert, a modern day samurai who emulates the intensity and devotion of an old school samurai. Costello finds himself arrested for a murder that he is guilty of. He is taken to a line-up and identified by a select few who saw him leave the scene of the crime. Amazingly he gets away with it, this might be the only niggling thing in the movie, you feel it is impossible for a man to come so close with the law and not get charged. Alas, he is a free man. The rest of the film focuses on the police trying to bring him down, to crack his alibis, to catch him in the act. The final scene I can not comment on without spoiling. Melville certainly delivers on his statement that he likes to leave the audience confused. However you interpret the ending is the true meaning to you. It may frustrate some, but personally I think it is the most well executed ending I have seen in a long time.
This film radiates that dark brooding look that only European movies portray well. The simplistic yet striking sets make streets and the most mundane objects look like works of art. The audacious use of pop culture in the form of art and artifacts adds to the overall tone of the film. The mash up of elements, the sassy colors of the 60's, the sophisticated noir qualities and the undercurrent of Japanese cinema makes this film so remarkable. It sounds as if it would clash violently, and it does, but it works. You feel very detached watching this movie, free to interpret it how you want; there is little dialog which I would like to see more in movies. It is so suggestive; this film caters to those who do not like condescending films that spell out what is going on, as if you are watching an episode of Sesame Street. This film is simply epic. One that I am going to insist upon watching monthly.
Further more, Criterion really know who to spoil connoisseurs of film. I recommend you invest in buying the criterion collection edition of Le Samourai. It comes with a 32 page booklet including excerpts from Melville on Melville and essays by David Thomson and filmmaker John Woo, as well as 6 interview clips with various actors from the film and an interview with Jean- Pierre Melville.
Beat the Devil (1953)
Hungarians make the best gangsters
Bogart is Billy Dannreuther a man hired to purchase land by a group of swindlers wanting to buy African land rich in uranium. The movie revolves around the exploits of a gang of swindlers; they are a great looking bunch of guys, let me assure you that there are enough mustaches, eyebrows, accents and cigarette holders to make the girls blush and the boys want to imitate them.
Throw in an Italian diva and a blonde bombshell and the drama/romance section is covered. The usual story, the blonde falls for the leading mans sexy American voice and charm but what made this movie stand apart from me was the use of comedy especially with the scenes involving the girls. This film does not contain over the top thigh slapping humor, but witty jokes that some might not pick up on. The Italian diva is a caricature of epic proportions; her breasts might have as much personality as her face and are used in a cliché but comical way that can rival Jayne Mansfield in 'The Girl Can't Help It. Miss Gwendolyn seems to be some what of a pathological liar, and pulls off an intelligent Marilyn Monroe like quality. Considering it is usually the blonde who uses their body to lure men, I liked the fact that it was different from the usual stereotype of 'The Blonde Bombshell'.
The gang of misfits and molls travel on a ship to Africa, the ship sinks and they wash up on some unknown land. They are taken captive and questioned by an African man. They are let free partially on the grounds that Billy convinced the man that he does indeed know Rita Hayworth. They make their way back to Italy to be confronted by a policeman from Scotland Yard who is making inquiries about a murder. From here people come back from the dead, and everyone ends up with the man/girl that they want. And presumably the gangsters end up in jail after Gwendolyn rats them out.
Beat The Devil has been labeled many things, Bogart's best movie (despite his looks) and..has been classified as many ..of the following genres,.. film noir/crime/comedy/drama/romance . It portrays so many of these genres brilliantly and is a film I could not slot into one category. This film is filled with style and aphorisms, quotes ranging from Lord Byron to Hitler and last but not least many of the characters memorable lines. Sure the film is flawed and is a little vague in some areas, I think people who hate it with a passion do not..get that it is satire; to me it was a fun film with style and I would highly recommend it.
Rubin and Ed (1991)
Echo people....
Crispin Glover is Rubin Farr, a long haired, cat loving recluse who spends his days listening to Mahler and squeaking his dead cats mouse. He lives in a motel room in a motel that his mother runs and owns.
Rubin's mother is sick of Rubin having no friends and threatens to takes away his music and return it only when he bring homes a friend. Enter Ed. A hopeless failure with a massive anger problem currently active in an organization that he has no idea is a pyramid scheme.The two meet up and the chaos begins.
Rubin hijacks Ed's car to in order to find the perfect place to bury his dead cat Simon. Deciding finally to bury the cat in the desert, they make the trip only to have the car break down,and end up stranded. Simon finally rests in the cave of the echo people.
Meanwhile back in civilization the police are after Ed . Ed finds himself in a right mess, liable for Grand theft auto and kidnapping.As Ed says.... "it's going to get weird now, isn't it?".
The casting, the sets and costumes are flawless. If you love movies with offbeat characters and wacky story lines, Rubin and Ed will indulge you to the fullest. Whilst the comedy might not be favored by all, the showdown scene where Rubin flings his shoe at Rula(Karen Black)will be guaranteed to give everyone a laugh
Helter Skelter (2004)
Hollywood Trash
Helter Skelter is a remake of a 1976 TV movie. It is based on the true story of the Tate/Labianca murders committed by "The Manson Family". I will make my opinion clear; this is a tacky, tacky movie. It does not deserve the title of trashy or cult. It is pure tacky through and through, from the insane wigs to the over the top theatrical actor who plays Manson. Jeremy Davis was a convincing Manson, but went a little too far in some places. He got the accent and the body movements down well, unlike the actor in 'The Manson Family' (who came of more like Jesus to me). I felt this was the only redeeming quality of the movie, that and the 17 minute special feature of Jeremy's rehearsal footage, walking around trying to emulate Manson The look of this movie is all over the place, one moment it looks very gritty, the next a famous face appears and trippy camera effects are used and used badly. The news segments of the movie are horribly filmed, the effect used is over the top in an attempt to make the footage look real/old, the shots are unconvincing for news footage and resemble a shot you would see on MTV's head bangers ball, with the weird angles minus the zoom function. Whenever there is a killing scene in the movie the majority of it is shot in negative, to dramatize the event, but it comes off totally conceited, and seems as though they were too lazy to come up with their own experimental ideas.
The film is an hour too long, it runs for 2 hours and 10 minutes and is rather drawn out and pieced together badly. The murder scenes are a little more brutal than that of the Manson family in regards to sound effects and the dramatization of the scenes. Some people think this film is so bad its good, but it's so bad its bad. Do yourself a favor and rent/buy 'The Manson Family'. Meanwhile I am going to sit here and curse the fact that I paid $20 for this DVD.
In Cold Blood (1967)
Excellent true crime movie
Based on a true crime turned into a non fiction book by Truman Capote, In Cold Blood is the story of a heinous crime gone wrong. Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock ruthlessly murder the Clutter family, convinced by an ex cell mate that the Clutters have a safe containing $10,000 in their house; they kill all 4 family members walking away with only $43, a pair of binoculars and a radio.
I would recommend paying strict attention to this movie if you tend to talk throughout them, there is a lot of scene jumping throughout this movie which builds up to the last 45 minutes. The murder scene is not showed at the beginning but at the end, I was a little bit stunned when the killers walked up to the house and then it cut to a scene of the police arriving at the house, but it adds to the realistic grimness of the last 45 minutes, it makes more of an impact because you are constantly wondering what they did, what happened.
The killers drive down to Mexico after the killing, and hold up there for a while before returning to the states where they are captured. In Mexico, Perry has a flashback of his Mother seducing a man in front of her kids, a man proceeds to barge in, whip her and pour alcohol all over her body. These little insights to Perry's background indicate that maybe he was crazy/damaged, his Father or "The Lone Wolf" offers detectives stories of Perry as a child and insists he raised him well, Perry on death row tells of a psychotic Father who pointed and shot an unloaded gun at him for eating a biscuit.
Perry and Dick waited on death row for 5 years. They were both sentenced to be hung, originally on Friday the 13th. The gallows scene was pretty bad, I sympathized with Blake's character Perry, that and the fact that he was pretty suave and an interesting character with his leather jacket and rockabilly hair. This film made me come away from it feeling sick, in the final scene Perry's body is dangling and the words "In Cold Blood" come on the screen. It makes you think about capital punishment, isn't it just as bad as murder? The film looks amazing, has a noir edge to it, it is incredibly dark and at times exudes such a realistic quality that you forget it's a movie. The jazz soundtrack by Quincy Jones reminded me hugely of Angelo Badalamenti and Twin Peaks, (there is even a mention of cherry pie). I found no major flaws to this film, so if you are a goof nerd you will find them on here. I am not going to be picky over a make of guitar or someone saying $40 then $43. But here is a little bit of trivia for you, this was the first movie in the US to use the word sh!t.