I'm currently studying surreal elements in film and stumbled upon this weird piece of movie making history. First of: I did not know what to expect, as Edgar Allan Poe is my all time favorite writer, but in my imagination the stories are placed in the 18th/19th century and surely filled with a lot of dark romanticism elements.
So, a movie adaptation of these beautiful stories... could be - everything.
1.) Vadim's Metzengerstein. I loved the beautiful voice over, narrating bits of the original story. But hell - while watching my thoughts went from "is this actually a very bad film?" to "is this supposed to be medieval period?" to "oh lord, this looks like a fairytale film for children - gone wrong". Overall: I HAD MY FUN! It was great to watch that mix-max of 60s eroticism, random Barbarella costumes, medieval inspired orgies and cliche-mystery elements from fairytales. Overall, I suggest to not take this approach too serious, as many reviews here do. What Vadim did very well, was keeping the 'essence' of a dark romantic gothic-novel: the sentimental elements (love and desire), the mysterious scenery landscapes, the forsaken castle, the mysterious spells - and so on. These are nevertheless elements of a classic gothic novel! It's just that the mix-up of 60s elements and modern film making interrupted that style of narration and makes it absurd (and for many viewers 'lame'). And yes, for those who expected hands-on suspense, they won't get any. But don't forget: Poe wrote overall lovestories. Dark ones, yes. But still.
2.) Malle's Doppelgänger story "Wilson": I really enjoyed that one and would not be too critical about that one, either. Sure, the elements of Doppelgänger is widely known and used in dark-romanticism (and ever since), it's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all over again. The anatomy theatre scenes are for me quite bizarre (good Lord, I am happy I haven't seen this as a kid! And how did they shoot that cut-scene where they cut the corpse? Is this a real man? Lord...), even though I have seen quite a bit of horror genre films. I loved how Malle made the card game so exciting, without any action tricks, blasting music and so on - that is a true master. In this time, I really think this a nicely executed re-adaptation of a well known topic. Sure, maybe not the most inventive one ever, but effective. Wilson seems quite disturbing - and that was the goal, right?
3.) Fellini! Widely known as the MASTER, als the reviews here rage for this film to be just a Fellini film. Yes, he has his unique language and I really did enjoy every detail of it. The colors, the costumes, the differently lit scenes, the set design, all was on point to underline the main characters rising madness throughout the 40 minutes story. This story focusses very much onto the character (and mental health decline) development of one man... and is it just me or did he resemble Master Poe's old portrait photographs somehow? Deeply psychodelic, colorful, moody and surely Fellini executes the surreal mood and mystery of Poe's story well.
Don't be too harsh on the other two not-fellini-segments, I think there are some Poe-eske elements in there, too. I loved to have all 3 in comparison and would not vote for any to be the 'best' one, as all 3 delighted me and made me question the film and Poe in different ways!
1.) Vadim's Metzengerstein. I loved the beautiful voice over, narrating bits of the original story. But hell - while watching my thoughts went from "is this actually a very bad film?" to "is this supposed to be medieval period?" to "oh lord, this looks like a fairytale film for children - gone wrong". Overall: I HAD MY FUN! It was great to watch that mix-max of 60s eroticism, random Barbarella costumes, medieval inspired orgies and cliche-mystery elements from fairytales. Overall, I suggest to not take this approach too serious, as many reviews here do. What Vadim did very well, was keeping the 'essence' of a dark romantic gothic-novel: the sentimental elements (love and desire), the mysterious scenery landscapes, the forsaken castle, the mysterious spells - and so on. These are nevertheless elements of a classic gothic novel! It's just that the mix-up of 60s elements and modern film making interrupted that style of narration and makes it absurd (and for many viewers 'lame'). And yes, for those who expected hands-on suspense, they won't get any. But don't forget: Poe wrote overall lovestories. Dark ones, yes. But still.
2.) Malle's Doppelgänger story "Wilson": I really enjoyed that one and would not be too critical about that one, either. Sure, the elements of Doppelgänger is widely known and used in dark-romanticism (and ever since), it's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all over again. The anatomy theatre scenes are for me quite bizarre (good Lord, I am happy I haven't seen this as a kid! And how did they shoot that cut-scene where they cut the corpse? Is this a real man? Lord...), even though I have seen quite a bit of horror genre films. I loved how Malle made the card game so exciting, without any action tricks, blasting music and so on - that is a true master. In this time, I really think this a nicely executed re-adaptation of a well known topic. Sure, maybe not the most inventive one ever, but effective. Wilson seems quite disturbing - and that was the goal, right?
3.) Fellini! Widely known as the MASTER, als the reviews here rage for this film to be just a Fellini film. Yes, he has his unique language and I really did enjoy every detail of it. The colors, the costumes, the differently lit scenes, the set design, all was on point to underline the main characters rising madness throughout the 40 minutes story. This story focusses very much onto the character (and mental health decline) development of one man... and is it just me or did he resemble Master Poe's old portrait photographs somehow? Deeply psychodelic, colorful, moody and surely Fellini executes the surreal mood and mystery of Poe's story well.
Don't be too harsh on the other two not-fellini-segments, I think there are some Poe-eske elements in there, too. I loved to have all 3 in comparison and would not vote for any to be the 'best' one, as all 3 delighted me and made me question the film and Poe in different ways!