Mark Gatiss's
Horror Europa, quick, before it disappears:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nmsw7/Horror_Europa_with_Mark_Gatiss/
It was fine, I suppose. A cheap thrill to see Mario Bava on British TV, even if Gatiss didn't quite do him justice. I don't understand why he opened with and lingered on
Daughters of Darkness, which is an elegant, sexy and sinister film, but certianly not the masterpiece he seemed to suggest. Far too long on two decent and influential French films which otherwise substitute for a largely missing Gallic horror tradition (and if you
are going to talk about French horror, you really should not avoid mentioning Jean Rollin). Also, there was a long and slightly pointless section on Spanish horror, which could have been cut if not excised.
This lasted for an hour and a half. I think it should have been divided thus:
-- 15 minutes on German Expressionist horror and Krimi.
-- 15 minutes on Hammer and British horror.
-- 60 minutes on Italian horror.
-- Passing nod to Spain.
-- Fuck the French.
It was amazing that Fulci and Deodato only merited one singular derogatory mention each. Also, apart from
Daughters which looked like it was the Blue Underground restoration, a lot of the clips seem to have been ripped from bad VHS-quality sources. This was notably so during the Bava and Argento sections. Gatiss rhapsodised about the baroque beauty and extreme colour tones of these films over washed-out, murky prints. Anybody who had not seem them before must have thought he was over-egging. A few of us felt slightly mortified. "No, no, you really do have to watch these films properly, honestly..."
Applause and gratitude to Gatiss, though, for having the imagination and panache to produce this documentary at all. If only they would show some of the actual
films now.
Edit: I suppose that
ought to be hats off to the commissioning editor.