What's Your Favorite Color?

http://moviemorlocks.com/2014/06/15/whats-your-favorite-color/

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

It's been so long since I've posted anything to the IFS BLOG that I figured I'd share my latest from the Movie Morlocks site. It has to do with THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, which screens tomorrow on TCM:

http://moviemorlocks.com/2014/02/23/the-last-picture-show/#more-72385

Who Knew Christopher Lee's Hair Was so Awesome?

I recently got to see the 1973 British horror film The Wicker Man on the Big Screen. It had been on my radar for a long time, what with my unnatural love of early 70s transgressive films.

In a nutshell, a Scotts police sergeant (a pre-Breaker Morant Edward Woodward) travels to the Hebridean island Summerisle, in search of a girl missing from the main village. In the course of his investigation he discovers (not that anybody is hiding it) that the island is populated by pre-Christian pagans, benevolently governed by Laird Summerisle (Christopher Lee).

The premise “how would it be if a small community never accepted Christianity, but kept their old Celtic gods?” is a cut above standard horror templates, and I expected the easy conclusion--a Christian comes to town, and zap! He’s gotta go. But The Wicker Man surprised me by being subtle, by going deeper. The townspeople aren’t just wicked pagans; they’re quite happy with their lives, connected deeply to nature and the cycle of birth, joyous living, death, and rebirth. It’s Woodward’s character that seems pitiable, lashing out at a perfectly viable way of living, clinging to an imported religion that brings him little joy.

 The writer took pains to research the old religions of Northern Europe and show how modern people might live using a pagan ethical compass. It’s not a bad life. Lots of hanging out at the local pub (The Green Man, which should be a flag to any English majors out there), drinking, and having sex. (Not that staid, Christian sex in bedrooms with the lights off. Think orgies in the town park.) Refreshingly, the children are brought up knowing the Birds and the Bees, and sex is just another part of the cycle of life.

 

Of course, if the crops fail…well, I think we know what has to happen.

Christopher Lee has said that this was one of his favorite roles, and he obviously had a marvelous time. In fact he spearheaded the project, enlisting screenwriter Anthony Shaffer to create a script that would be more interesting than the Hammer horror roles he had been doing for the last decade.

Interestingly, none of the major actors are Scotts. However, Diane Cilento was married to a Scott at the time--Sean Connery. British horror fans may recognize Ingrid Pitt, the town librarian.

 

The Kids Love Miyazaki. Yes, They Do.

This weekend I watched My Neighbor Totoro with a theater packed full of kids and their parents. (It was the PSU campus theater, 5th Avenue Cinema, which meant the theater was rather small—still, it was the fullest I’ve ever seen it, and people were sitting on the floor in the back).

I won’t harp on the reasons you should go see Miyazaki’s works (although you should because they’re awesome, you heathen), but a few things came to mind.

The kids were very well-behaved—that is to say, they were sucked into the story, and paying attention. This is interesting considering that the spirits of the forest don’t even show up for a good 15 minutes.

Miyazaki, gratefully, does not hew to the Disney formula that demands comic sidekicks, princesses, and all that crap. He’s not afraid to let the camera linger over a beautifully-rendered landscape or closeup—to lead the audience gently, not prod them along like a carnival barker. When the pacing in a Disney movie threatens to slack, it's time to trot out a singing candlestick or two.

While Disney animation had greatly improved by the late 80s, it still had a two-dimensional, serviceable quality—it's slick, but not memorable. Miyazaki’s anime is gorgeous, with lush landscapes and closeups filled with meticulous details. I wonder if kids recognize that like the adults do.

Perhaps most importantly, in Totoro Miyazaki creates fantastic creatures that are benign, amusing, sometimes helpful—and also a bit scary. You’re not quite sure where they fit in the big scheme of things. None of the spirits of the forest talk. It’s understood that these spirits have always been in the forest, and they don’t have any truck with the religions of the humans. The father pays respect to them with his daughters, and asks them to watch over their family. But he does it politely, and maybe he’s not entirely being cheeky.  In my mind, the best childrens’ stories are a bit scary. That’s like catnip to a kid. Not shit-your-pants scary, but kids want to be scared a little. This is also what makes Spirited Away so awesome—you have no idea what the spirits are, if they’re good, if they’re evil, if they even notice the humans at all. They Just Are, going about business beyond mortal understanding. So you know, maybe you should treat them respectfully. Or just keep your distance.

Afterwards I asked my friend Nathan (who brought his family to the movie) what his kids thought of it. Four-year-old Evan was a bit apprehensive beforehand (because it might be scary!), but we assured him that he was totally tough enough to make it through.

"They thought it was awesome!"

Re-Animator Video Mashup

This is a nice little interview with Stuart Gordon, the writer and director of Re-Animator (showing at IFS this Thursday on All Hallows' Eve). Although the camerawork is terrible, he has great things to say about making movies, the value of a good script, and how you can never lose money on a horror film if you just make it cheaply enough.

Re-Animator did well enough at the box office that director Gordon and stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton reunited to make another Lovecraft movie--From Beyond (1986). Here's Combs talking about that experience:

Bruce Abbott was such a clean-cut dude in Re-Animator (1985):

But in the sequel Bride of Re-Animator (1989) he starts flirting with the mullet:

By the early 90s, Abbott's transformation is complete:

(For those of you with less-than-stellar German skills, that's the intro for the CBS series Dark Justice, which was part of CBS' Crimetime After Primetime slot after the 10pm news--just before the advent of late night talk shows. Interestingly, the first season was shot in Barcelona, and Abbott joined the series when production moved to Los Angeles for season two).

And the Winner Is...

Steve McQueen's newest film 12 Years a Slave is going to win big at the next Academy Awards. It's an amazing, gut-wrenching film, and doesn't pull any punches by portraying slavery as pure misery, punctuated by sadism, violence, and cruelty. I looked around the theater from time to time and saw people with their heads in their hands. During some of the more horrific scenes, other patrons walked out.

I guess it took a British filmmaker to tackle the issue head-on, since we Americans have had the cinematic opportunity for over 100 years, and just can't quite get around to making a clear-eyed movie about the Peculiar Institution.

My prediction? 12 Years a Slave will take:

• Best Picture
• Best Director
• Best Actor
• Best Supporting Actor

Go see this film. It really is that good.

Anti-texting: the New Slavery!

As many of you are no doubt aware, Madonna was banned from the Alamo Drafthouse Chain after texting whilst movie-viewing.

I think it’s fantastic. Alamo Drafthouse has a tough no-texting rule, and they’re sticking to their guns, even with a major celebrity.

If texting could be done during a movie without bothering me, I’d have no problem with it. But a cell phone screen lighting up during a movie distracts me and pulls me out of the movie, just like somebody kicking the back of my seat, or a pair of people who insist on talking during the movie.

For that reason, I’m anti-texting—no exceptions. If you want to text, or operate your cell phone in any manner, leave the theater.

Based on the amount of texting I see during movies—even at major film festivals—this is not universally accepted. Many people don’t seem to think texting during a movie is a problem at all.

I think texting during a movie destroys the film watching experience, and is rude to the other people in the audience. What do y’all think?