What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Frankie Teardrop]

PETER, PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER - The Sutcliffe case laid bare via a strange hybrid of found footage, TVesque psycho-drama and arthouse surrealism. Not for every palate, but I liked it, despite the rubbish title. Benefits from its non-linear approach and features startling use of FGTH's 'The Power of Love' (soundtracking a particularly bereft psyche ward day room!) Captures the true essence of early eighties W Yorks scuminess... Red Riding only came close on the page. Look forward to more from director Skip Kite, if possible.
DRESSED TO KILL - The epitome of stylish eighties bad taste, featuring what must be the sleaziest ever opening sequence in mainstream movie history. De Palma has made better films and I prefer him elsewhere (ie in Sisters, Phantom of the Paradise, Blow Out), but this is still good crazy stuff with some inspired passages - the gallery sequence for one. Like the (possible) sense of Giallo spiralling another notch - from Hitchcock to Italian rip off to Italian rip off-rip off masquerading as Hitchcock homage?
VIOLENCE IN A WOMEN'S PRISON - WIP trash from Mattei. Not as sleazy as some of its kind, but entertaining anyway. Laura Gemser goes undercover in an Italian jail, hoping to expose corruption... predictably, a triumvirate of tits, ass and beaver is exposed instead. The flimsy plot serves only to roll out a series of more or less exploitative scenes, my faves being a fairly mental rodent attack and DeSalle turning on after an episode of queasy forced sex voyeurism... not to mention a baffling sequence during which Gemser is imprisoned within a cylindrical 'bell' and subjected to assault via metal percussion (I'm sure I clocked Blixa Bargeld stroking his silky villain's moustache in the background). Regardless, this one features on exemplary synth soundtrack which plays in my mind's ear whenever I lay back, close my eyes and whisper the letters 'V-H-S' over and over...

[Pete]

VIOLENCE IN A WOMEN'S PRISON is great fun and the soundtrack is great. Not so sure about that song that plays over the end credits though! Some parts of the soundtrack were also used in HANNA D: THE GIRL FROM VONDEL PARK (which was edited by Mattei)

Mattei's EMANUELLE IN PRISON (aka WOMEN'S PRISON MASSACRE) is even better.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Pete

VIOLENCE IN A WOMEN'S PRISON is great fun and the soundtrack is great. Not so sure about that song that plays over the end credits though! Some parts of the soundtrack were also used in HANNA D: THE GIRL FROM VONDEL PARK (which was edited by Mattei)

Mattei's EMANUELLE IN PRISON (aka WOMEN'S PRISON MASSACRE) is even better.

I like that end credts song, though! Well, I don't LIKE it but... it's always interesting when it sounds like they've written something specific to the film, a cheap film with a limited audience ie. never to be heard again. They just wouldn't do that these days.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Sam

Snowtown - bleak, depressing but really quite brilliant. Feel like I neeed to watch this again with the commentary to fill in some of the gaps but the overall feel and mood is perfect for the subject matter.

There's been so many glowing reviews of that on here, I think I'll take the plunge and pick it up as a blind buy.

[sawyer6]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

There's been so many glowing reviews of that on here, I think I'll take the plunge and pick it up as a blind buy.

You won't be disappointed!

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by sawyer6

You won't be disappointed!

I've ordered the BD from Amazon for only £9.99, so it's not a vast expenditure if I'm slightly underwhelmed, something I hope isn't the case as I quite like downbeat horror/thrillers.

[Nordicdusk]

Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects

10 to Midnight

Mr. Majestyk

The Mechanic

Went for a Bronson weekend.

[Frankie Teardrop]

HOUR OF THE WOLF - Bergman. Hadn't seen it for years until I put it on today. Remarkable atmosphere suffused with isolation and paranoia, existentially windswept as per expectation given the director - this time there's more of a gothic tinge. An artist goes mad on an island. The denizens of a local castle may or may not be out to get him. Much expressionistic fragmentation in the latter half, and features a few unforgetable scenes - 'the bite' for one is truly disturbing. To play for eternity as part of a fantasy triple bill with 'Repulsion' and 'Carnival of Souls'. Now my third fave Bergman after 'Persona' and 'Cries and Whispers'.
TROUBLE EVERY DAY - Rare excursion into the exotic territory of 'arthouse cannibal flick' courtesy of Claire Denis. Slow and moody, it will either envelope or bore you, depending on your circumstances and your stance towards long stretches of meaningful wordlessness. I was quite into it. I found it tonally absorbing and eccentric of concept (it really does play out like a moody late nineties euro-art film about an unravelling relationship but with added erm cannibalism). Relationships, intimacy, touch, flesh, engorgement, engulfment etc entwine against a silent canvas which foregrounds both distance and unbearable proximity. Could've done with a few more piles of steaming entrails though, Claire. Come on, we've all smoked a few Camels and waved our copies of 'La Nausee' around. Nice spare soundtrack by the always excellent Tindersticks.
THE WIZARD OF GORE - Always a pleasure to revisit. This time I got the vibe that Montag may be a forerunner of Brian O'Blivion? Could've made more of its trippy 'is it real?' theme, but remains pretty audacious for its time. I love the way H G Lewis flicks sometimes have really schizophrenic moments - in this case, the brash transit from a red filtered gothic graveyard scene to an 'advert' (come on, we know what it is) for Chicken Shack! Marvellous. And the on-stage murders, where Montag PLAYS with the guts of his victims whilst the whole sequence crashes through like a cubist collage... I'll buy that for a dollar!

[mercury]

Something Borrowed
Clive Barker's The Plague
The Vampire Lovers
Thor.....Wasn't expecting to enjoy this , but I did

[VicDakin]

Today I re-watched an old fav