attn: Frankenbuddha
I bought a DVD of
Dementia
this weekend (not to be confused with Francis Ford Coppola's first movie
Dementia 13).
It's undoubtedly the best beat noir silent expressionist psychodrama of the early fifties I've ever seen.
As I watched the movie (only 55 minutes long) it seemed both utterly unlike anything I'd ever seen, and naggingly similar to a very few other movies.
It's shot in Venice, CA, so automatically it resonates with
Touch of Evil
(also shot in Venice. They both use the lone arcade in Venice which looks so great in b/w). In fact, I had the feeling Welles might have seen this, because it really seems to foreshadow some things in ToE.
It also reminded me of
Plan 9 From Outer Space
- that is, if Ed Wood were pretentious and competent. It's beautifully shot - by the very same cinemtographer that worked with Wood.
But mostly it reminded me of
Carnival of Souls.
It's odd and haunting.
The Freudian psychodrama was too explicit at times - schematic and paint-by-numbers. But it still managed to touch on that same magical vibe you find in key surreal films as varied as Feuilldes serials, Maya Deren's
Meshes of the Afternoon
and, of course, Bunuel and Cocteau.
But...fifties. With a big scene in a jazz nightclub. With noir lightning. And, I mentioned its a silent movie from the fifties, right?
The movie couldn't get past the film censor board (it was submitted 11 times). So odd, because it's really not explicit in anything, but just disbturbing in its atmosphere and the Freudian hoo haw. It got bought, and Ed McMahon (of all people) slapped on a portentious voice over and it was finally released years later as
Daughter of Horror.
Kill Bill question:
When Uma's character sees someone that causes her to flashback in a fit of rage, there's this loud music that plays as teh screen goes red. I recognize the music - something from a '70s TV show?
It's been bugging me since I first saw vol. 1.
That was the one with the dude in the wheelchair, right?
Haven't seen that show since I was a kid.
As I type this, Uma is wheeling herself in a wheelchair....
That was the one with the dude in the wheelchair, right?
Raymond Burr no less. That high-pitched, shrill siren-y bit is at the start of the
Ironside
credits which shows an assassin siting on Ironside, then lowering the gun to shoot his spine and leave him in a wheelchair. Then it goes into the regular theme (by Lalo Schifrin, I think).
Lalo also did the theme to
Medical Center
which was a way-more kickass theme than that show really needed. (Lalo's most famous, of course, for the
Mission: Impossible
theme, and various early 70s movies like
Bullitt).
Hero
is glorious. Most beautiful movie I've seen all year, both emotionally and visually. (Great soundtrack, too, but it's based on an album I already own.) I'll be interested to see what ita makes of the martial arts; all I knew or cared about was the glory of people in robes and trailing hair sweeping about with swords.
I suspect there will be little of me to make of the martial arts. Wuxia and reality are not closely related. Beauty and magic are paramount.
I was a little sleepy when I saw Hero, and it was perfect. I just let all the visuals wash over me.
I am watching Showgirls. How long before my head explodes?
Beauty and magic we have in spades and notrump. Lovely, lovely movie, and I shall be dashing out to buy the DVD when I can. I don't love it quite as much as CTHD because I love CTHD's plot more. But the colors... manoman.
