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Black Widow (1987)
Guilty Pleasure
I watch this film when it's snowy and freezing outside. It makes me want to take a tropical vacation. It's trash. Glorious trash. The editing is too chopping fast, the acting is thin at times. The dialogue is both powerful and cheesy. Dennis Hopper is criminally underused. The scenery is envy inducing. Debra Winger has IT. Theresa Russell is perfect. It's absolutely 100% garbage and I love every minute. Don't expect anything brilliant. Expect sleaze in its most exquisite form.
The Midnight Gospel (2020)
People Who Talk About How Smart They Are Often Sound Foolish
My friend recommended this to me, spinning a tale of how enlightening and intelligent she found it, and it spurned some life changing re-evaluations she took away from it. I read about it, found that it is basically a series of animated podcasts, or, that type of interview and discussion. I saw the animation style and saw parallels between it and AdventureTime, which I have seen a handful of episodes and found it to be bizarre but enjoyably and appropriately so. I wish I could say the same of Midnight Gospel.
Watching the series felt like I was listening to the ramblings of an overly talkative, self involved, reasonably educated crackhead on public transportation, all while watching chaotic, almost psychedelic animation. I do not enjoy listening to those who think they are intelligent and insist on telling everyone else why they are so intelligent. People who feel they have reached enlightened states of being attempting to explain themselves and their findings and feelings,,, it makes them sound rather foolish to me, while also sounding like they feel they are superior to those who have not attempted or are able to pursue the metaphysical and mystical realms they have broached. I did not connect with what they were trying to convey here. And, I had troubles following what was being discussed. Dialogue along with the animation made it very distracting. I simply did not enjoy the series. It did not resonate within me. Perhaps I am not intelligent enough, or my interests don't line up with what the creators' vision for this project is. Whatever the trouble, I found Midnight Gospel to be tedious. Imagine Sunday School but taught by Hippies who drop LSD every weekend.
Objectively speaking, it isn't a bad show, I think it has likely influenced good things with viewers. The content is positive, and is deep enough to start conversations between people; from conversations comes action, and actions put forth change. That's a good thing! Just because I did not enjoy it, does not mean it is bad. I think Midnight Gospel belongs best to a niche crowd of like minded people who are into a certain lifestyle, which will be quite obvious to those who watch it. It will find a home with them. Myself? I'm going to go back to my favorite 70s Italian sex thrillers and let my mind do it's pondering on its own time.
Den sommaren (2017)
The Past or the Present?
I will keep this brief.
This is a movie that has no purpose other than to show more treasured footage of Big and Little Edie Beale. The film is comprised of memories and musings of the way things were.
If you love the Beales, you will enjoy this curiosity. I loved seeing them pre Grey Gardens, while their mansion was being raided by the village of East Hampton. It was fascinating. We get another viewpoint from Lee Radziwill, niece and cousin to the Edie's. The backstory of how Grey Gardens came to be is complex, and this movie brings that to light in an artistic way.
I liked it. Worth a watch.
Docteur Jekyll et les femmes (1981)
Dark, Violent and Unforgettable take on Jekyll/Hyde
What a movie! Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne is a strange and intense experience, that still holds shock value and artistic quality today, 30+ years later. This is how Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was intended to be. The story is a bit different than the novel, in that Borowczyk added Fanny Osbourne, writer Robert Louis Stevenson's real life wife, into the movie. However, it feels completely natural, and the way things are presented to us are quite original, unique, and at times, horrifying. The film itself is on the extreme side of things; it is not for the conservative. Violence, sex, nudity, sexual violence, and aberrant behavior abound.
We all know the story of Jekyll and Hyde, so I won't go into it, but where this marvelous adaptation really excels is in its atmosphere and strong references to man's evil within himself. Jekyll seems a decent man, but as Hyde is a more dominant persona, unaware and uncaring of any societal rules and regulations, he makes wild and corrupt choices without feeling anything but the deliciously wicked sense of pure animalistic freedom. That very feeling of chaos consumes Jekyll until there is no way for him to turn back. Miss Fanny Osbourne loves her fiancé Jekyll so much, that she is willing to give up being a law abiding, good citizen to join Hyde in a life of anarchy and destruction, a much freer and enjoyable existence. The things people do for love...
The cinematography is outstanding, really and truly. It has a very soft, gauzy haze to it, almost like its misty or smoky. The house it was filmed in is very striking, and feels like a maze almost, with its closed rooms, tall staircases, and winding passages that seem to lead everywhere and no where. The music is jarring and startling, but appropriately. Acting is good all around. The real star of this picture, though, is the atmosphere. It's other-worldly!
Borowczyk was known for his highly sexual and bizarre films, and this surely ranks as one of his most developed, fully realized movies. The symbolism of man's dark half inside everyone, waiting to come out at the right time, with the right person, is there and true about all of us.
I recommend this film highly if you can handle extreme content.