Experiment in Terror
Films about psychotic killers arne’t what they
used to be..
Psychotic killers used to be just everyday people like you and me
(except, you know, they’re psychotic.
Now, there’s all this unrealistic
bullshit that doesn’t even make much sense, let alone scare people.
Anyway, this film, despite being shot in 1962, is a goddamn
masterpiece! You can’t get anymore common-place, just-like-you-and-me
than a killer that goes by “Red” and has asthma. Anyway, ‘ol “Red”
tries to force a bank teller to give him $100,000 (I guess that was a
lot of money in 1962). “Red” terrorizes the girl enough to convince her
to do some stupid shit.
Anyway, the film ends in candlestick park (did I tell you it takes place in San Francisco? – yeah, well it does), and it ends spectacularly.
-- Richard St.Ofle
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Zidane: a 21st century portrait
The heat has worn off.
The soundtrack to this film is at least as good as the film itself.
The film (and more abstractly, the soundtrack) follows the footballer
(ahem, soccer player) Zinedine Zidane around for a 90
minutes. Zidane was playing for Real Madrid at the time, and the film
is absolutely magnificent. The camera buzzes around him, goes out of
focus, zooms out. The ball whizzes by, and Zidane stands.
Spits.
Wipes his forehead.
then, like he’s cracked from a cannon, he runs at top speed.
Smashes his foot into the ball.
Sweat drips all over as he places the ball perfectly on Ronaldo’s foot.
Zidane gets the ball back.
Weaves through defenders.
Dribbles the ball.
Loses it.
Stops.
Spits.
Wipes his forehead.
Etc.
Incredible.
I had read about it, and expected something boring. Perhaps as you’re
reading this, you, too, are picturing something boring
Anyway, it’s a game about the buildup. You have to lend your
imagination to it.
-- Richard St.Ofle
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Grizzly Man
Here
it is;
This is a film about a man that gets eaten by Grizzly bears in Sarah
Palin’s Alaskan wilderness.
There are two, and only two reactions to this film.
1. Timothy Treadwell is a fucking idiot.
2. Timothy Treadwell is an brave person that led a compelling and
compassionate life, and died tragically.
Either way, this film is a captivating character study about someone
who – by all accounts – leads a strange life.
The best part of the entire film comes at the end, after Treadwell
gallantly decrees that he "will protect these bears with my last
breath”. Treadwell is eaten by one of the bears he swore to protect,
and (because, once they get the taste for human flesh, they’re ruined)
the bear is shot dead.
The irony?
Treadwell was more dangerous to the bears than anything else.
-- Richard St.Ofle
www.grizzlyman.com/
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Strangers on a Train
Hitchcock
made this film
in 1951.
It was written by the same woman that wrote “The talented Mr. Ripley”
Can you tell?
Hitchcock’s cameo comes about 10 minutes into the film, carrying a
double-bass onto the train.
I read (on wikipedia) that there’s actually a porno based on this film
too!
“In the 1988 pornographic film Strange Curves, directed by John
Leslie, one character proposes to another (played by Joey Silvera)
that they trade murders, and both actually make reference to
Hitchcock. Silvera's character's wife (Victoria Paris) is indeed
murdered, and he spends the rest of the film trying to avoid being
blackmailed, framed, or forced to commit murder himself.”
Weird.
There’s also a Bollywood movie, a CSI episode, a Law & Order
episode,
and a remake coming out in 2011 all based on this one.
This is probably the strongest, most complicated plotline on earth.
-- Richard St.Ofle
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M
This
was Lang's first
film with sound, or so I read how cool is that?
Remeber how the murderer's advocate told the crowd that the state has
to take care of him, not the crowd? and the crowd almost falls over by
laughter? Germany had the Weimarer Republic stage, and that was
supposed to be a fucking joke!
This film is in fire! This is the film that started the Film Noir
genre, and (did you know) Alfred Hitchcock actually worked on the set,
and drew the storyboards for this film (he interned with Lang in
Germany)
fuck, this movie is good!
-- Richard St.Ofle
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ZooThis film is about taking a disgusting situation, erasing the bad part, and making the rest as beautiful as possible.
I think a lot of people won’t see this because of what it’s about.
I can only imagine these guys trying to get people to invest in a documentary about a man that dies from having sex with a horse.
The director describes the film as:
"The complete antithesis of what you expect ... To begin with,
'Zoo' is neither graphic nor exploitive. Most of it takes the form of
recreations, but from the point of view of the men who met for years
without disturbance in the shadows of Mt. Rainier"
I see this film as a running joke about the viewer’s expectations of what the film will look like.
everything is a running joke.
It’s beautiful.
-- Richard St.Ofle
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