Don’t Torture a Duckling
The first Fulci film I’ve seen that I really enjoyed! There was a definite turning point during the churchyard chain-whipping scene, where I went from liking it to loving it – what a sequence! Gruelling and emotionally shattering, didn’t know Lucio had it in him! I’d dismissed his Gates of Hell films for the preference of torturously extended schlock over things like style and atmosphere, so it was a surprise to find this film had both in spades! Think the rural setting had a lot to do with it, with some gorgeous location photography – this,
Torso,
House with Laughing Windows – loving the rural Italian horror! Technically the film is very impressive, feels very much like a director impassioned with the possibilities of filmmaking, something I never felt with his other stuff – deep focus, clever cross-cutting, performances straight to camera for dramatic impact, lots to admire here. Performance-wise it was all about Florinda Balkan for me. An immense screen presence – seeing her wondering the woods, almost feral-like, put me in mind (unfortunately) of Lucky McKee’s
The Woman, Balkan effortlessly putting that film to shame with her steely gaze!
Bad Boy Bubby
A mega-recommendation (and top birthday gift!) by Phurious, who’s been banging on about it for ages... With
Dogtooth being one of my favourite films of the past ten (ish?) years, don’t think there was any way I was
not going to like this film – and I did of course! It probably makes me sound a WEIRDO, but it was the opening 35 minutes that completely blew me away – by turns heartbreaking, hilarious, and confrontational (tough watching as a cat lover!). Off the top of my head I can’t think of a more striking first act. Nicholas Hope is frankly stunning in the lead, with a head-spinning level of detail to his performance – I particularly liked how Bubby studies the mouth of the person who is speaking to him – just like a cat (well, my cat at least)! The second act I enjoyed for the baton-passing storytelling style, as Bubby pinball’s from one encounter to the next (I reckon this film must’ve influenced Todd Solondz, especially with
Palindromes). I knew going in about the 35 (!!!) credited cinematographers and ‘binaural’ sound design, but I didn’t really notice either that much over the course of the film – it was a lot less overtly experimental than I was expecting, which isn’t really a criticism... I would LOVE to rewatch this with headphones to study the sound design in detail. Think it was only the third act, or final 15 minutes or so, that I wasn’t so keen on. The story resolution felt a little too ‘neat’ and easy to a pessimist like me! I’m not even gonna touch on the religious themes – loads to discuss here! But yeah, great film.
