What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[VicDakin]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

HUGO. A delightful, magical film about loss and belonging that works a treat, both visually and emotionally for adults. It bored the arses off my kids aged 5 and 7. It's way too long for a kids film, running in at 2 hours with the action scenes too few and too far apart. Interestingly my kids loved all the clips from the silent films in the film and the scenes recreating the making of the silent films. They also really liked the trailer for "The Artist" which was on before the film.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. This is a film that has taken me years to appreciate, having been a massive, obsessive fan of the book from the age of 14 to my early 20s and hating the over stylised look and feel of the film. In fact, on reflection this film is the reason I've avoided Kubrick's work for years. However, having watched snippets of it over the last couple of years almost monthly on ITV4 and not having read the book for 20 years, I'm finally able to see the film's beauty and wit. So dated by it's future vision, it runs the risk of today, descending into high camp but manages to avoid this by the skin of its teeth. Visually it reminded me a lot of my own childhood, growing up with hipster hippy parents in Britain's first New Town, Stevenage and how our psychedelically decorated house clashed with the cement monstrosity of the outside world.

I luv Clockwork Orange,from fuzzy pirate betamax to its first release after Kubrick died,I even had the poster and soundtrack before i had even saw the film,im often pass thru Thamesmead where the exterior to the flats were filmed.

just realised Ive never read the book

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by VicDakin

I luv Clockwork Orange,from fuzzy pirate betamax to its first release after Kubrick died,I even had the poster and soundtrack before i had even saw the film,im often pass thru Thamesmead where the exterior to the flats were filmed.

just realised Ive never read the book

Read the British version, it's longer and has a different ending to the film.

[Strange Things]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

Certainly 'Nekromantik', its sequel and 'Der Todesking' have played various places in the UK over the last 25 years. Actually, wasn't 'Der Todesking' distributed on VHS in the early nineties with BBFC certification? So obviously no legal problem there.
I don't know why the Leeds festival took the precaution of involving the BBFC, but I wonder whether people in these times might be more nervous about material containing references to necrophilia in the wake of legislation around so called 'extreme pornography' which obviously came into being with the 'Dangerous Pictures Act' around four years ago, and which does after all mention necrophilia as one of several target categories. Having said this, prior to 2009 the Obscene Publications Act probably would've done the same job where distributors and exhibitors were concerned.

You might be right about the extreme porn situation - better safe that sorry I guess, though as the BBFC haven't formally passed the film, that still wouldn't help if the cops did turn up.
Der Todesking WAS released in the UK, but in a version trimmed (by Buttgereit) to remove the castration scene, which wouldn't have passed the censors at that time.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Random viewings from over the last ten days:

CANNIBAL FEROX - Has been on these pages quite a lot recently, so I thought I'd give it another go. It's never been a favourite of mine, but I appreciate the appeal, excluding all the animal trashing. It dips and peaks in intensity unevenly, with moments of (for its time) trangressive splatter being pissed on by sagging passages of boredom. Nevertheless, it still manages to feel a bit dirty after all these years. But when it cmes to Lenzi I even prefer things like 'Ghosthouse', no matter how ridiculous this sounds. Plus, the theme tune sounds a bit like a bad funk outfit playing 'The Bill'.

FREEZE ME - OK to good Japanese rape revenge story. It's not a harsh Pinku by any means, more a dramatic horror flick based around suspense and tension rather than mind flaying viciousness and brute misogyny, although it has its moments. There are minor shades of 'Repulsion' / apartment based insanity and claustrophobia as, five years after the fact, the victim of a previous rape is visited (one by one, in slightly too convenient a manner) by her assailants. Her freezer gets pretty full by the end of the movie. I watched a dubbed version, which is really not the way to see a contemporary movie of its kind.

MS.45 - An easy choice from yesterday. I had a really punishing hangover and was stressed about one of my shitty sound art projects, so I reverted to a movie I've seen countless times. What can I say, it's a brilliant exploitation flick which dallies with a faint air of Euro-arthouse in its depiction of the fatal unravelling of a mute seamstress following two vicious sex attacks forced on her by horrible scum. This film does everything right - it's so lean and down to the bone. It's a tribute to Ferrara that it alienates and disorientates at the same time as it invites empathy. The slo-mo Halloween party shoot-out at the climax is wonderful. As is the rest of the film. An all time fave, couldn't possibly recommend it enough.

[ThePopeofCOSDS]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

MS.45 - An easy choice from yesterday. I had a really punishing hangover and was stressed about one of my shitty sound art projects, so I reverted to a movie I've seen countless times. What can I say, it's a brilliant exploitation flick which dallies with a faint air of Euro-arthouse in its depiction of the fatal unravelling of a mute seamstress following two vicious sex attacks forced on her by horrible scum. This film does everything right - it's so lean and down to the bone. It's a tribute to Ferrara that it alienates and disorientates at the same time as it invites empathy. The slo-mo Halloween party shoot-out at the climax is wonderful. As is the rest of the film. An all time fave, couldn't possibly recommend it enough.

Nice. I'm a huge fan of (old) Ferrara. Driller Killer is one of my absolute favorite films.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Read the British version, it's longer and has a different ending to the film.

The last chapter was missing from the american edition, this is the version Kubrick read, hence its missing from the film.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by keirarts

The last chapter was missing from the american edition, this is the version Kubrick read, hence its missing from the film.

I didn't know that and, because it's been years since I read the novel, it would be interesting to reread it knowing the film a lot better than I did when I first read it, seeing what might have been.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by keirarts

The last chapter was missing from the american edition, this is the version Kubrick read, hence its missing from the film.

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I didn't know that and, because it's been years since I read the novel, it would be interesting to reread it knowing the film a lot better than I did when I first read it, seeing what might have been.

From Wikipedia:

"The book has three parts, each with seven chapters. Burgess has stated that the total of 21 chapters was an intentional nod to the age of 21 being recognised as a milestone in human maturation. The 21st chapter was omitted from the editions published in the United States prior to 1986. In the introduction to the updated American text (these newer editions include the missing 21st chapter), Burgess explains that when he first brought the book to an American publisher, he was told that U.S. audiences would never go for the final chapter, in which Alex sees the error of his ways, decides he has lost all energy for and thrill from violence and resolves to turn his life around (a slow-ripening but classic moment of metanoia—the moment at which one's protagonist realises that everything he thought he knew was wrong).

At the American publisher's insistence, Burgess allowed their editors to cut the redeeming final chapter from the U.S. version, so that the tale would end on a darker note, with Alex succumbing to his violent, reckless nature—an ending which the publisher insisted would be 'more realistic' and appealing to a U.S. audience. The film adaptation, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is based on the American edition of the book (which Burgess considered to be "badly flawed"). Kubrick called Chapter 21 "an extra chapter" and claimed that he had not read the original version until he had virtually finished the screenplay, and that he had never given serious consideration to using it. In Kubrick's opinion, the final chapter was unconvincing and inconsistent with the book."

[keirarts]

I have mixed feelings about the books ending. It argues that the reckless, destructive and often antisocial behaviours of youth is something that can be grown out of, and as people become more mature and their outlook on life changes people are capable of making a self concious choice to be good and moral beings. The ludviggio technuique in the book removes that choice, so Alexes change in behavior is not a moral one and Burgess views this as worthless, the conciouss choice to change through free-will is arguably the more moral one and this I agree with.

However..


Some people don't/wont change their ways. Through the book I got the distinct impression that alex was a psycopath, and the extremes of behavior shown including rape, aggrevated assault and murder functioned at a level where rehabilitation is unlikely and reccidivism likely. Basically some people cannot change. Kubricks ending kept burgess moral argument imo, perhaps diluted a little without the ending to reinforce it, but most viewers and readers where sophisticated enough to probably grasp that without the final chapter so it was possibly a little heavy handed. I'm sure theres people who might dissagree with me but thats how I always saw it.

[Susan Foreman]

The final chapter certainly changes the entire meaning of the book