What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Buboven]

Jindabyne(2006) pn BBC Iplayer

6/10

Not as good as Mystery Road (2011) I watched quite recently on Iplayer, which deals with a similar theme but still worth watching.

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

79 - Early eighties.

We aren't exactly talking decades different JK.

No, but if I had said it felt like an early 80's movie someone would have corrected me and told me it was made in 1979.....oh wait a minute...someone did!

[Frankie Teardrop]

BUG - I watched this for the first time yesterday on Netflix. Being a sort-of seventies horror completest, it was nice to catch something that had slipped through my flix net. 'Bug' is basically about some fire-causing insects and the effect they have on a small town. It features a standard set-up in many ways - aforementioned small town, scientist investigates, air of encroaching chaos. What interested me was the way in which 'Bug' evolved from playing out the usual sci-fi horror 'nature attacks' scenario into something darker and more intense. The last thirty or forty minutes show the scientist in isolation as he experiments on the bugs. The atmosphere becomes progressively more claustrophobic and angst ridden. The bugs start to communicate with scientist guy, and it feels like maybe a supernatural undercurrent creeps in. These scenes are full of foreboding, and leave a genuinely disturbing aftertaste. I liked 'Bug'. It met many of my requirements aesthetically too, with plenty of that seventies 'thing' in evidence ( I suppose in this case, 'thing' is best summed up by the TV movie-like feel of 'Bug' in places crossed with the jarring avant-garde electronic score.)

RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR - I've said stuff about this before, but hey, I'm still on a bit of a Mattei kick. This is one of his more competent films, but don't let that put you off. It still has a lot of charm. In fact, 'charm' is, realistically, about the only thing it has got. Mattei films are almost as stylistically identifiable as Argento's or Fulci's. That doesn't just rest on what he's infamous for - basically, nicking bits of other movies and stapling them together. Rather, there's an atmosphere - it's simultaneously leaden and hysterical. That's what's going on here. I always come back to 'Rats: Night Of Terror'. It's kind of up there with 'Videodrome', 'Black Christmas' and 'The Slayer' when it comes to movies I just can't seem to put down (I very rarely watch anything else more than once). In the case of 'Rats', it's on repeat partly because I can never remember what happens in it. And that's because, not a lot does happen really. There's a bunch of Kajagoogoo Mad Max pantomime tossers in a deserted house, and some rats, and some wandering around, and some shouting, and a few schlocky death scenes, some flame throwers, then more wandering around. Until THAT ending. But with this stuff, it's all about the feel, the tone, again, the sense in which it manages to be boring and delirious at the same time. A lot of it comes from the acting - I wonder whether Bruno primed his cast to overreact, to erupt in sudden spurts of character illogic, to mug like loons. Everywhere is a sort of wooden mania. Then there's the eighties thing, the bad fashion and the synth score. It's all very unreal, like being surrounded by people who are trying to pretend they're not clowns. In fact, the whole experience of seeing 'Rats' is like being faced with a strange riddle. Well, I've just finished watching it now, and until I can really answer the questions "What did that do for me? Who knows what lies behind the mystery of 'Rats'?", doubtless I'll see it again (and again) soon.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

BUG - I watched this for the first time yesterday on Netflix. Being a sort-of seventies horror completest, it was nice to catch something that had slipped through my flix net. 'Bug' is basically about some fire-causing insects and the effect they have on a small town. It features a standard set-up in many ways - aforementioned small town, scientist investigates, air of encroaching chaos. What interested me was the way in which 'Bug' evolved from playing out the usual sci-fi horror 'nature attacks' scenario into something darker and more intense. The last thirty or forty minutes show the scientist in isolation as he experiments on the bugs. The atmosphere becomes progressively more claustrophobic and angst ridden. The bugs start to communicate with scientist guy, and it feels like maybe a supernatural undercurrent creeps in. These scenes are full of foreboding, and leave a genuinely disturbing aftertaste. I liked 'Bug'. It met many of my requirements aesthetically too, with plenty of that seventies 'thing' in evidence ( I suppose in this case, 'thing' is best summed up by the TV movie-like feel of 'Bug' in places crossed with the jarring avant-garde electronic score.)

I'm guessing this isn't the brilliant William Friedkin film of the same name, based on the Tracy Letts play, with Harry Connick Jr, Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon! If it is, you have a very different interpretation of events than me!

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I'm guessing this isn't the brilliant William Friedkin film of the same name, based on the Tracy Letts play, with Harry Connick Jr, Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon! If it is, you have a very different interpretation of events than me!

Another cool film, very claustrophobic if memory serves. My 'Bug' was from '75.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

Another cool film, very claustrophobic if memory serves. My 'Bug' was from '75.

I guessed as much when you said you watched it as a 'sort-of seventies horror completest' and the synopsis didn't at all fit with the Friedkin film! It sounds interesting, and one I'll try and watch on Netflix in the next few days.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Duke of Burgundy (2014)

Two women, Cynthia and Evelyn, a life behind closed doors, fetish and discomfort, the exploration behind a relationship. It's unfair to those who wish to see this to delve too deeply plot wise into this surreal, gorgeous work from British director Peter Strickland.

A film about domination, but as far as the fetish aspect goes it's not a film about whips and leather. Instead we have facesitting, encasement, panty and lingerie, and peeing, in the womens game of dominance. It was lovely to see the two lead actresses were both beautiful older women, possibly bored by the typical aspects of a sexual relationship. It was also interesting to note there wasn't a single male character at any time.

Role reversal and who is really in control is turned on it's head after the 20 minute mark. Seemingly the main focus of the film, together with the womens overall relationship which behind the S&M facade is often very tender. This aspect of the film runs in tandem with the teachings about moths and crickets. The markings on their bodies and their use of deception to the outside world. A deception all too apparent in every aspect of the women's relationship. The fact that the dominated is also growing slowly more weary of her role gives the second half of the film a sympathetic feel which wasn't apparent during the opening forty or so minutes.

Strickland gives the film a wickedly funny streak at times. Lines such as "So, if i had ordered a human toilet none of this would have happened?" pepper the script and allow us often awkward laugh out loud moments of pleasure.

Strickland's film is definitely influenced by the erotic works of seventies Euro auteurs Jess Franco and Jean Rollin, in fact it doesn't take more than a passing knowledge of their work to come to this conclusion. So much so as it's the first thing the director talks about in the interview reel on the disc. It's not just Euro-erotica though, Strickland also revisits themes of his own such as the sound and vision of Berberian Sound Studio and the East European location work, in this case Hungary with the gorgeous photography of his debut Katalin Varga. Both elements which enhance the film's strengths. Strickland certainly has an eye for the Gothic as was hinted at in the aforementioned Katalin Varga. We are often treated to delightful night time Gothic imagery, such as girls in white robes wafting down dark stair cases lit only by the candelabra in their grasp.

The Duke of Burgundy's overall effect is a mesmerizing, melancholic, occasionally bewildering and often daring, piece of modern erotica which i enjoyed immensely. And do you know what? There wasn't a single scene of nudity at all, but you won't notice thanks to the onscreen inventiveness which captures that dark side of your imagination.

[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Duke of Burgundy (2014)

Two women, Cynthia and Evelyn, a life behind closed doors, fetish and discomfort, the exploration behind a relationship. It's unfair to those who wish to see this to delve too deeply plot wise into this surreal, gorgeous work from British director Peter Strickland.

A film about domination, but as far as the fetish aspect goes it's not a film about whips and leather. Instead we have facesitting, encasement, panty and lingerie, and peeing, in the womens game of dominance. It was lovely to see the two lead actresses were both beautiful older women, possibly bored by the typical aspects of a sexual relationship. It was also interesting to note there wasn't a single male character at any time.

Role reversal and who is really in control is turned on it's head after the 20 minute mark. Seemingly the main focus of the film, together with the womens overall relationship which behind the S&M facade is often very tender. This aspect of the film runs in tandem with the teachings about moths and crickets. The markings on their bodies and their use of deception to the outside world. A deception all too apparent in every aspect of the women's relationship. The fact that the dominated is also growing slowly more weary of her role gives the second half of the film a sympathetic feel which wasn't apparent during the opening forty or so minutes.

Strickland gives the film a wickedly funny streak at times. Lines such as "So, if i had ordered a human toilet none of this would have happened?" pepper the script and allow us often awkward laugh out loud moments of pleasure.

Strickland's film is definitely influenced by the erotic works of seventies Euro auteurs Jess Franco and Jean Rollin, in fact it doesn't take more than a passing knowledge of their work to come to this conclusion. So much so as it's the first thing the director talks about in the interview reel on the disc. It's not just Euro-erotica though, Strickland also revisits themes of his own such as the sound and vision of Berberian Sound Studio and the East European location work, in this case Hungary with the gorgeous photography of his debut Katalin Varga. Both elements which enhance the film's strengths. Strickland certainly has an eye for the Gothic as was hinted at in the aforementioned Katalin Varga. We are often treated to delightful night time Gothic imagery, such as girls in white robes wafting down dark stair cases lit only by the candelabra in their grasp.

The Duke of Burgundy's overall effect is a mesmerizing, melancholic, occasionally bewildering and often daring, piece of modern erotica which i enjoyed immensely. And do you know what? There wasn't a single scene of nudity at all, but you won't notice thanks to the onscreen inventiveness which captures that dark side of your imagination.

Fantastic review Dem.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Excellent review, Demdike. I saw Katalin Varga for the first time the couple of days ago and, when I have a few minutes when I'm not writing assignments, I'll try and review it. I thought it was brilliant and, because Berberian Sound Studio I'm really looking forward to seeing The Duke of Burgundy.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Make Them Die Slowly

Fantastic review Dem.

Cheers sir.