Quentin Tarantino keeps copy-pasting old Ennio Morricone themes into his films. L' Arena, which is featured in both Kill Bill 2 and Inglorious Basterds, is from a film called The Mercenary by Sergio Corbucci, starring Fanco Nero and Jack Palance. I don't think its necessarily a bad thing to use old Morricone scores but I think its harder to appreciate them out of the context of the films they where written for.
Il Tramonto (The Sunset) is a piece of music Morricone wrote to introduce Lee Van Cleef in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, where his character represents 'The Bad' of the title. It only appears once in the film. I think this sequence is one of the greatest introductions to a character ever. Tarantino re-used it in Kill Bill 2.
Kind of been on a post-apocalyptic flex since I watched this film called A Boy And His Dog. Enzo Castellari contributed to this genre with a film called The New Barbarians. He made it under a false name but it looks pretty good.
Another post-apocalyptic film I saw recently is The Last Combat.
Its an old Luc Besson film, kinda wanna see Subway now, I think his early films are all pretty amazing.
Apparently Alejandro Jodorowsky wants to make a post-apocalyptic film... I do hope it happens. He was meant to make Dune but the producer, Dino De Laurentis, fired him and gave the project to David Lynch. I don't think Lynch was ready to make an epic film like Dune. In cinematic terms the finished product is a bit boring but its still well directed by Lynch and the art designs and costumes that Jodorowsky did with Moebius and H. R. Giger are still amazing. Many of them can still be seen in the film.
Moebius is a really unique comic artist. His stuffs a bit psychedelic. You can see his influence in Tron, Blade Runner, the first Alien movie.
Here's a video I found of Jodorowsky talking about his films.
Santa Sangre has to be one of the greatest movies ever made.
These are also quite interesting, about the making of Fulci's Lizard In A Womans Skin...
Recently been watching a lot of these old Italo-westerns, the latest one is Requiem for a Gringo a.k.a. Duel in the Eclipse. It's about a guy who uses various atmospheric elements to defeat a group of outlaws, in the end he uses an eclipse, hence the alternative title. I've also ordered a film called Mannaja: A Man Called Blade, the opening sequence on Youtube looks really incredible, like a western with elements of a horror film. It was directed by Sergio Martino, who is more famous for making these sinister Italian style 'Giallo' thrillers like Torso. The Giallo is another great Italian invention. It's basically like a murder mystery with an emphasis on violence and esthetics, for example the murderers often wear black gloves, shiny raincoats, use a mask or have their face hidden. These films are also characterised by the use of the subjective (point of view) shot, usually to represent the murderer who's identity isn't revealed until the very end. Although Bava really started them I guess Dario Argento perfected this style. In Italy in the early 70's, after Argento made The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, there was a surge of Giallo thrillers, nearly all of them with an animal in the title. Most Italian directors made at least one. The Italian film industry used to be huge in th 60's and 70's, some studio directors like Fulci or Bava where releasing two of three films a year, thats amazing compared to your average hollywood director making about one film every two years, if that. If you watch a film like Keoma by Castellari the cinematography is so far beyond anything being made in America at the time.
Keoma is pretty epic, it's like an opera. Franco Nero is also amazing in this film, just physically. He even sang on the song in this clip.
Aside from Italo-westerns, this film is also really great:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9QekeOkSi8
Its one of the films Charles Bronson made with Michael Winner a few years before they hit the big time with Death Wish. It's much better than Death Wish though. Michael Winner is obviously best known in this country for those amazing Esure adverts where he always tells people to calm down.
Wanna get this film called Samurai Reincarnation, think its basically a samurai film with zombies and sorcery.
It's by the director of Battle Royale, Kinji Fukasaku. He's one of the most prolific and respected Japanese directors but, similar to someone like Lucio Fulci, I think he's made a lot of 'trash' as well.
Finally saw The Serpent and the Rainbow. Easily Wes Cravens best film.
Richard Stanley made a film with the same actor, called Dust Devil. It was only his second film but after he made it he stopped making features, apparently he had a lot of problems getting it distributed properly or getting his cut released or something. His first film Hardware is also a classic.
Also finally saw this film, Beastmaster.
It's writen and directed by Don Coscarelli, who I think is the only true genius auter working in American cinema now. He also wrote and directed the Phantasm movies and a film called Bubba Ho-tep. All are a must see.
Watched The Outsiders recently, it's Coppola's companion piece to Rumble Fish based on another book by S. E. Hinton. It deals with similar subjects as Rumble Fish and it's basically a really good sort of chick flick with aesthetic references to Gone With The Wind. R.I.P. Patrick Swayze. Stay gold.
