IdleRich

IdleRich
"Watched Death Laid an Egg and Death Smiled at Murder. (Thanks, Rich!)"
No problem. Are they your reviews above?
I'm with you anyway, I think that DLaE is a fairly normal film with some odd moments and shot in an odd way which makes it seem a bit weird. It's not the total madness that people often describe it as but it is interesting. Also, obviously, it's not the "art film" it's dismissed as in that review up thread.
I thought that Death Smiled At Murder was much the better of the two films. Strange how it just randomly chucked in little bits of loads of Poe stories and then failed to follow any of them to the end but then lots of it was strange I guess.
 

Octopus?

Well-known member
haha, i didn't really - she was merely in the same room, just surfing the net. In fairness to her, it was bloody awful, and not in a good way. Not sure what i was expecting really.

Ah, this thread is glorious...I'll have to dig around when I have more time.

My advice, taken from personal experience, is that "Sadomania" isn't exactly a lady-pleasing outing either.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
No problem. Are they your reviews above?

Ah yes indeed, I got a bit carried away, as normal! Anyway, I'll get these back to you. I'm having some problems getting through Immoral Women I must be honest.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"My advice, taken from personal experience, is that "Sadomania" isn't exactly a lady-pleasing outing either."
Depends on the lady I think - isn't there a film called Sadomania as well?

"Ah yes indeed, I got a bit carried away, as normal! Anyway, I'll get these back to you. I'm having some problems getting through Immoral Women I must be honest."
OK, just checking that it was indeed you with which I was agreeing. Good reviews anyway.
No real hurry to get them back to me, I doubt I'll watch them again any time soon.
The only one worth watching in Immoral Women is the middle one with the rabbit. Have you seen Immoral Tales or La Bete? Both are better in my opinion.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
profondorosso.jpg


I love this era of Italian film posters. They'd produce about 50 for every film: essentially, stills from the movie aranged in dynamic blocks. Fantastic. Imagine these up all over town. These, and J&B billboard posters.
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
I saw Ordeal the other week, kind of arty Belgium horror with black comedy and surrealist elements, not sure what to make of it...
 

craner

Beast of Burden
a14671.jpg


Street Law (Enzo G. Castellari)

"What the shit were you trying to do? Be a hero?"


A balls-out, fully unrepentant excercise in violent, cartoon machismo. My take on cinema is that it reduces to three base elemants: sex, violence, velocity. You could say that this film amps up the violence and velocity at the expense of sex: but then you'd ignore the heavy homoerotic undertones swilling around this film, though it's hard to tell if they're actually intentional. (Noting the character of these guys, I suspect not. I remember hearing a story from a man who once met Ruggero Deodato and questioned him on the seemingly unquestionable homoeroticism of his sole polizia Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man; Deodato shot back a look of hostile incomprehesion and replied, "are you on drugs?")

As per your usual polizia (although this is more of a Death Wish style revenge-binge than a strit polizia) Italy is broken down, rotten with grim, grainy violence, vice, and social decay, set around urban slums as bleak and barren and Spaghetti Western towns and deserts. A world away from the consumer decadence and international jet-setting of the giallo and sexploitation flicks.

Franco does his best here and is amazing: a cartoon sketch of a humiliated and raging uber male (as usualy, it helps that he dubs himself with his fine and funny Italo-English). He visits his lawyer, to loudly exclaim his vigilante passion, and when his lawyer councels restraint for his own safety, he barks back: "you should be proud of my fight! My anger!" Confronting Marlboro chain-smoking, J&B swigging, granny-mugging young punks, debonair student robbers, and hardneed Milano mafioso, he's breathless, desperate, and hoplessly out of his depth, raging constantly, "where the fuck are the police??" or "I have just started to shout!!"or "I'm going to keel them! I swear!" or, simply, "I keel you!!" Or to his lovely girlfriend, Barbara Bach, "how many cowards are people with sense?" It's all about male self-respect. Yes, righteous. Hit your girl and go and swat some baddies. Kicking soundtrack, courtesy of Guido and Maurizio de Angelis: "driving all around, looking for the one..."

It's a ludirous, hearthbreaking, unfettered performance that perfectly suits Castellari's bombastic, bullshit direction, pumping everything with maximum power, volume, sadism. Franco is never as physically punished in any film as he is here, not even in Django. At one point he's just be busted from a near-death basement dungeon and finds himself bullfighting a Mercedes driven by a psychopath - Hemingway shit! Of course, he wins, but half his body is falling off, his heartrate going haywire. He survives, and his robber-buddy (lover!) ... takes him to "the girls" to fix him up, i.e. deck him out in a David Hasselhoff circa Knightrider leather jacket.

That kind of film. Sorry, can't be bothered to finish this review properly. Too drunk.



Fuck the polizia.
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
I need to get onto some Krimis movies

My mate described them to be thus -

kind of like proto-giallos with similarly convoluted plots and depraved beasts skulking around cities. Great to see German movies recreating a alien view of London and rural English settings, spoken in German (by actors including the likes of Klaus Kinski) and redubbed into English! I think one film even has a shot of Big Ben and the House of Parliament (i.e. a short-hand establishing shot for a London setting) with bagpipe music! These feel otherworldly.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Mate of mine went to see a reformed Goblin at the Scala tonight. Can't belive I missed this! Vexed doesn't touch it.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Well, I'm not usually a fan of the live experience (and I'm not a huge fan of Goblin - I just went 'cause one of my mates from out of town was going and he was staying at my place) but I thought Goblin were pretty fucking good. I mean, they played most of their best tracks in front of projections from the relevant films and they all sounded nice and clear and heavy - and funky at times. They looked as though they were genuinely enjoying it as well which added something.
I saw the second half or so of Miasma and I thought they were good too - kind of gothic carousel music in a proggy style building up to some music that would easily fit into a Giallo. Good choice of support I think. Plus they looked the part and had some cool vintage equipment.
I'm afraid that I didn't film the gig on my phone because my phone doesn't do that.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I can't believe I only started this thread a year ago! Its seems more like 2 or 3. Is time finally slowling down? Seen a few gems recently to revive it, if I get around to writing them up. Idlerich, I think you should divert some of your gems you post on Best Films... to this if appropriate! But, then, this is my baby, and I want to keep it alive. I think it deserves it.
 
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