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Reviews
Il padrone del mondo (1983)
Probably the best Caveman / Primitive mankind film out there
Excellent. Several timeless, universal contrasting themes regarding humanity, connecting primitive man to today. Any viewer with basic film literary skills to recognize themes, symbolism and allegory will surely notice these, including the ending. The writing and characters are very good and represent these elments well. There are complex characters (3 initial tribe outsiders, 2 tribes) to represent the thematics with diverse human moments, along with unique and artistic direction, editing, sound design.
There are good and bad characters, light and dark, brutality and glimmers of good just like in real life, such a likely reflective of thousands of years ago to today. Many WWII films or modern history with them same or far worse brutality and social collectivism (ie. Nazism, socialist and communist genocides or in dictatorships in recent history, as real true examples) pale in context and carnage and brutality what is rationally shown here for obvious story of primitive man at an early stage.
It is pure fantasy to conjure an image of peaceful tribes without war or vying for power as seen here. You even have characters that fall outside these collectivist groups, which is more than any Hollywood movie today could or would show today (politically or otherwise in writing or with the same craft in direction, editing or original artistically superior soundtrack).
Given the subject matter, genre content, time period, context this film is more extreme and realistic than fantasy or fluff.
If you want Hollywood with Dolby sound, generic soundtrack, clean showered properly groomed media celebrity stars and mindless, theme-less safe entertainment movie, maybe Master of the World might not be for you.
If like a film with synth, ambient original soundtrack, creative artistic choices, editing, bold choices to reflect a gritty dark realism, good cinematography, characters, deeper themes, subject matter and even allegory than this might indeed be for you.
Not a mindless movie but a thought-provoking one requiring some semblance of intelligence at least a hair above that of a primitive.
Lubie nietoperze (1985)
One of the most unique and brillilant Vampire films.
Great and very unique Vampire film. Not graphic or explicit but from the school that focuses on presenting theme and original rendering of an old classic allegory. Very original. Recommended for those who are familiar with classic Vampire characters (like Isabella, the lead here). This is indeed a horror story, its themes that may take some effort, literacy, or familiarity with the Vampire subgenre, but the very final scene will confirm this fact for those who watch it to the end. It comes from an era of film, on the latter timescale for its genre, where a few Vampire films, like Martin (1977, Romero) for more famous example, strove to be more original, contemporary and imbued with larger scope of meaning and themes, in addition to weaving in story.
The settings: a small Polish city, forests, castle and beach. One Vampiress and her bats. One castle sanitorium and a clinical doctor who buys Izabel's batwinged tea cups one day...
I would go so far to say this is both a slower burn at first but brilliant, it shines in the conclusion where all is revealed.
VHS Massacre (2016)
Self-promotional, half-baked pseudo-documentary
The only VHS this documentary explores are basically less than a dozen classics and most the filmmaker and associates' own post-2000 indie movies, including literal trailer and promos!
It's rather shameful and shameless, focusing on a very limited set of people complaining about politics - net neutrality (which in reality concerning prior recent law was a lose-lose scenario and not much to actually do with the topic). This political point was simply a perspective unrelated by any meaningful form or discussion to greater topic.
I felt like I was watching a promo for a handful of super-indie film makers from New York extolling their opinions on political issues (without an sufficient knowledge or discussion on what the net neutrality actually entails). There's even a literal end screen text - hammering a call-to-action to 'Write your congressman and ask them to support net neutrality.' In reality Net Neutrality was not a clearcut simple superficial proposal - at the time is had two serious downsides of the coin, each bad - bad proposal in general. But none of this, the: what, how, where, why of net neutrality (or how it even relates) were discussed, just repeated and focused on in agenda in 'documentary' that is only relevant to the actual filmmakers given air time in their own perspective sans rational discussion or data.
The rest was half-baked filler to seem credible, self-promotion of participants own films and 2 inserts of two celebrities.
Lloyd Kaufman, the most experienced super-producer of trash or lowbrow indies (many that I admittedly enjoy) actually counters much argument of others and provides very logical and rational perspective at a few points on meaningful distribution, file-sharing etc - from an older man, certainly shared wisdom and reality in context. But again, this hardly has much to do with the actually replacement or 'massacre' of VHS. The whole setup was a complaint against and prmo piece for the film's own makers and just another piece of 'net neutrality' promotion at the time. So does this documentary have any lasting, wider objective value - very very little. Very limited maybe 2 points of minor interest.
Does not have intent to seriously focus on topic, but instead spray their own self-promoting media interest. Bad form.
Speaking of the VHS films actually discussed here you basically get some gratuities of Troma (an inclusive attempt to instill credibility and payback Kaufman participation), some early mentions of early 2000s phenom like The Room (2003) and footage of Blockbuster and Hollywood video as a crux of end of videos, which is true. And some basic detail otherwise on a limited scope or genre of VHS.
Again, Joe Bob Briggs is another celebrity harnessed who at one point try to display 'intelligence' and expertise about film stating, to paraphrase, "What is film? What are we talking about here? It is films of the late 1800s? The ethic neighborhood films of the early 1910s(??) or the Lumiere films, or quote "the RIDICULOUS films of 1930-1935 before they had sex in film?"
This last portion of statement shows extreme ignorance (and exposure) of Briggs to the wider pantheon of film! But is also displays the range of this 'documentary,' which speaks of nothing but a very very extremely limited set of VHS media and film - zero international, classic Hollywood or other non-niche horror product, which represented collectively the bulk of movies actually rented or sold to the public. Emperor wears no clothes.
Pinewood: 80 Years of Movie Magic (2015)
Absolutely nothing to do with "80 Years of Movie Magic" - A 2015 James Bond 'Spectre' Promotional episode under false title
Nowhere in this false documentary is coverage of even basic informational data or roster and discussion of either the classic Pinewood library of films or stars.
It is truly a completely self-absorbed self-aggrandizing public relations/marketing piece pushing both the James Bond 'Spectre' due out for release, spotlighting the current year's industry identity politic --- compliments of the neo-BBC, which has zero respect for "80 years of" a classic British film studio.
20 years ago, we had remakes taking over theaters, literally over-shadowing and overwriting classic films in both public consciousness and burying web search results of the originals. Ex. New generations of youth looking up a classic movie title would be deflected to find, discover and consume the current current salable commericial product and also be indoctrinated by it in some cases, extinguishing the old. And now we have a flurry of documentaries that distort, undermine and bury real history and context and informational in an ADD world.
With this documentary we have the same tactic with documentary: (b) one heavy exploitation tactic of using a false documentary title with lure to trick those to consume their promotional message for a pre-release of a corporate product (b) other bonus parts for the creeps is to impart some politics and at same time distort, hide, bury and undermine the real history and impace of Pinewood studios! (Ex. James Bond 'Spectre' is not equatable nor representative at all to the impact or even the categorical type of films in the Pinewood Studio canon)
Sadly, this is status quo - a bunch of bad companies, mega-corporate entities who control 99% of communications and web sites today, who seemingly use and malign 'words' to sound benign, but the sad reality is that their actions are completely misanthropic and corrupted by commericialism and bad ethics politics. It's called fraud and farce - like this documentary. Disingenuous supreme.
This is like the equivalent of making a documentay 80 years of Hollywood and then showing a large portion of running with lame host doing stunt car scenes and promoting a 2015 mainstream Hollywood picture due out in Summer.
While am not British, however have seen many Pinewood films over decades with a special appreciation for those made 1940s to early 1970s. This period are where the classics and heritage of British film industry lie --- not in absolute trash like 21st Century action movie banking off of past glorius franchises. And for a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) to fail so miserably and intentionally really says something about how little knowledge or care they actually for the topic, shockingly and with zero integrity. Given the nature and association such a company actually has historically with such an area, it certainly reflects on all their other current output - distorted news with agenda (motivated by commercial and politics interests) no matter if government, music, film, the arts. Very sad.
Additionally, if anything, it would not be far-fetched to assume that this documentary is just another example of some spiteful agenda to erase British film-making heritage, undermining it entirely with the tactic of merely give title, 'Pinewood - 80 Years of Movie Magic" and then discarding with little to no mention of its real history and classic output.
I think this documentary though is useful is exposing the completely selfish and disingenuous nature and goals of its creator - the BBC.
I was initially excited to see a documentary on Pinewood. But barely a mention of any star (besides later era Pinewood star Collins) nor any of the classics - no valuable data whatsoever. After 1/2 hour of James Bond Spectre promo, interview with a certain young actress in Bond (who has zero to do with Pinewood legacy or output really), and then the car stunt action mock segment, I skimmed and after 2 minutes seeing only a small segment with Joan Collins and then total FILLER in the weakest attempt to "cloak and justify" itself, finally turned it off. Right into the trash. Duped.
A true disgrace, insult to British film-making, culture and farce. I guess the BBC wants to burn it all, revise, replace, exploit for current self-interests and profit only.
The Looking Glass War (1970)
Unique counterculture era, allegorical spy thriller minor gem
The film is part allegory on the WWII betrayal of Poland by the United States (under FDR) and Britain, which like the main character (now obscure cult icon) Christopher Jones is used and then abandoned. Not to spoil, I will just mention there is a nice one-liner quote from one of the character that touches on both main themes in one shot. (Have to now read the John le Carré novel to see if it's in there or from the screenwriting). The location migrates from Great Britain in the half to East Germany in the second. The main character Leiser (Christopher Jones) is a Pole who is recruited and exploited for the UK government/military war-related mission (locating rockets) and who is sent to East Germany (hostile) in return for promise of citizenship.
The other major theme is a straightforward counterculture anti-war mongering theme, but certainly not presented in a cliche manner - quite the opposite and film must be viewed to its full conclusion to witness. Very simple and digestable theme for any viewer to get, regardless if they are educated in deeper history or not. So the film is effective thematically without knowing the deeper obscure 'classified' references.
It's a straightforward thriller with a very clear mission, easy to follow in plot, and that develops into an especially interesting artistic form in its second half. The ending is effective and somewhat poignant final scene, where the main impact and revelation is experienced.
There is a good amount of symbolism buried within the film as well, which makes for a film worthwhile of subsequent viewing for film students. Film also has two large act with a shorter final conclusion, which swap locations and style. Lots of film technique, very subtlely presented and well-structured.
The cast is fantastic starring Christopher Jones, but also a younger prime Anthony Hopkins, Pia Degermark and even Susan George in an important scene.
A pleasant surprise representing buried and hidden historical allegory, but also for its equally noble anti-war theme --- both symbiotic and written with perfect synthesis.
I cannot speak for the book as far as adaptation, but knowing the history and war references as well as being literate and a fan of counterculture era film, this hit the mark. And it even makes me want to read the book as well.
Very interesting film. Obscure, subdued. Significant.