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Monday 28 March 2011
Tuesday 22 March 2011
Samuel Fuller, Pete Walker, Death In Venice, Los Olvidados, Bunuel
Recently been kind of re-discovering Samuel Fuller. I was always a big fan of Shock Corridor, Fullers psycho-thriller about an ambitious journalist who infiltrates an asylum by pretending to be mad, but I never realised the amount of other really interesting films he made. His films remain largely unknown, and mostly unavailable in this country, but he's a legend amongst his peers. Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese have both mentioned his films as a major influence. Fullers follow up to Shock Corridor, The Naked Kiss, is a strange, noirish melodrama about a prostitute who escapes her old life to become a nurse in a small town, only to discover that the handsome town patron whom she has an affair with, seen at the end of this clip, harbours a dark secret.
Also discovered these Pete Walker films, Die Screaming Marianne and Frightmare. Walker seems to have made quite a few decent exploitation movies during the 1970's, I see him as maybe like a British answer to Jess Franco. Like Franco, Pete Walker's films are characterised by camp dialogue, unnecessary nudity, bizarre sadistic characters, pacey and unpretentious plots and cinematography that sort of harkens back to classical hollywood and old gothic horror movies.
Having finally watched Death In Venice, the amazing film by Luchino Visconti, I can safeley say it's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen.
Recently I bought Los Olvidados, a film directed by Luis Bunuel, about street kids in Mexico City. Bunuel left Spain to escape fascism, its pretty clear if you watch any films of his, such as Viridiana or Exterminating Angel, that he was quite radically left wing and anti church. Los Olvidados is also famous for this dream sequence.
Un Chien Andalou's eye slicing sequence is probably the most iconic of any of his films.
Exterminating Angel is about a group of South American aristocrats at a dinner party who find themselves suddenly an inexplicably unable to leave their hosts small drawing room. It seems to be about what happens when culture and propriety give way to survival.
Also discovered these Pete Walker films, Die Screaming Marianne and Frightmare. Walker seems to have made quite a few decent exploitation movies during the 1970's, I see him as maybe like a British answer to Jess Franco. Like Franco, Pete Walker's films are characterised by camp dialogue, unnecessary nudity, bizarre sadistic characters, pacey and unpretentious plots and cinematography that sort of harkens back to classical hollywood and old gothic horror movies.
Having finally watched Death In Venice, the amazing film by Luchino Visconti, I can safeley say it's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen.
Recently I bought Los Olvidados, a film directed by Luis Bunuel, about street kids in Mexico City. Bunuel left Spain to escape fascism, its pretty clear if you watch any films of his, such as Viridiana or Exterminating Angel, that he was quite radically left wing and anti church. Los Olvidados is also famous for this dream sequence.
Un Chien Andalou's eye slicing sequence is probably the most iconic of any of his films.
Exterminating Angel is about a group of South American aristocrats at a dinner party who find themselves suddenly an inexplicably unable to leave their hosts small drawing room. It seems to be about what happens when culture and propriety give way to survival.
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