6 Reviews: Hausu, Damage, REC 2 and more!
Damage (1992):
6/10
A good but not great Louis Malle film based on a Josephine Hart book that explores sexual repression through the passionate affair between a man and his son’s fiancée. The film’s notability comes from its sex scenes which many either find laughable or uniquely primal. I fall in the latter category. This film would have been almost forgettable if not for the awkward and clumsy intimacy taking place. They can neither be categorized as art house sex scenes or mainstream ones. They are doing something different which takes repression and passion, making it so strong that when it shows itself it is at a loss for graceful expression. The result is fascinating. The rest of the film does its job well. All of the performances are good especially Miranda Richardson who really stands out in the last act. There are few complaints outside of the unnecessary narration at the end. The film and the adaptation are simply good and not great as the story eventually gets tiresome and predictable. I liked Damage, but did not love it.
Hausu (1977):
10/10
Even thinking about writing a paragraph about this is daunting. There is no way to describe it. It is an experimental horror/comedy film by Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi. It is unlike anything that has ever or will ever be made. The pure delight that comes from this film is the fact that anything goes and it revels in its complete lack of convention. It is not for everyone and surely there are many who will see this thinking it is the worst film they have ever seen but they are so wrong. Every minute something that happens that is hilarious, genuinely effective, absolutely insane, completely random or incredibly fun. To watch it is to become giddy with excitement. An evil cat named Snowflake? Check. A girl being eaten by a piano? Check. A decapitated head biting a girl’s ass? Check. A man being turned into a pile of bananas? Check. This checklist could go on for hundreds of items and still be relatively incomplete in regards to this film. It was so refreshing in every sense to see something so set in its own goals and style, disregarding anything that came before it. It combines absurdist humor with fun archetypal characters and a sense of the unpredictable. If you throw in a large dose of randomness, the qualities of this film start to come together. To combine experimental filmmaking, comedy and horror is exactly what Hausu does and the result is a masterpiece of its own kind. The Criterion Collection recently bought the rights to the film so here is hoping it gets an official release sometime soon.
Juliet of the Spirits (1965):
5/10
Fellini’s first foray into color is visually consistent and stunning throughout and real life wife Giulietta Masina is always a joy to watch. However, the film is problematic. It starts out strong but by the end gets too over-the-top to take seriously in the context of the world it has created. The surrealist aspects are strong throughout though and provide some of the best parts of the film. Fellini seems too caught up in making the film for his wife, which he did, to notice that he was clearly making this for himself. The ‘liberation’ of the end feels false and Juliet’s arc feels forced and of Fellini’s doing rather than the characters. He seems to be forcing the way he wants her to be onto a character and actress that does not really want it. The film may be engaging for several reasons but the sense that Fellini is the puppet master of sorts comes in a bit too strong on this one.
REC 2 (2010)
4/10
REC 2 is taken down by its own unnecessity and by a format that offers little room for new techniques or surprises in a second outing. It is certainly not bad; just instantly forgettable. It starts out very rough in its first 30 minutes with the film picking up exactly where the first one left off. It deals with the people who come in afterwards which contain one group including a priest and members of the Ministry of Health and the other being a group of kids who find their way into the apartment building. The section of the film dedicated to the kids is a bit better than the first 30 minutes while the last half hour contains the best the film has to offer. There are a few new and interesting things that are done with the format and it leaves room open for the next sequel which is being made. Overall though, it delivers exactly what it is expected to without adding much to the premise and not having the same transitional intensity of the first.
The Hunger (1983)
2.5/10
I wish I could have said I liked this. Despite a great combination of elements (the cast, vampires, the 80’s and Bauhaus in the opening credits) The Hunger is a mish-mash of pretention culminates in a finale that holds no meaning or purpose and only serves to bring the story to the end it has to have. There were certainly aspects of the film that worked. The character of Alice and her death scene, the marvelous seduction scene (obviously) between Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve and John (David Bowie) dealing with his upcoming mortality were some of the highlights. Also, Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) in general felt rather sympathetic and whether or not they meant for her to be that way, the reaction felt towards her made the film more interesting.
Tony Scott is a director who largely irritates me but some of the awkward editing of the film actually works well. The problem the film had was its incessant desire to be vague in the hopes of achieving a mildly surrealist vibe that can be somewhat hip. In terms of the cult following it clearly wants, it succeeds since the film is considered a cult one, only heightened by the bad reviews it received upon release. It definitely holds some attraction but it created nothing with its vagueness and meanders from beginning to end, never allowing me to give a single care about anything going on within it outside of John’s mortality and Alice’s death. Most of all the film just bored me and failed to be creepy, engaging or meaningful in any way throughout the vast majority of its run time. While the cult following makes complete sense, it personally did not click at all and mostly felt like a pretentious drag.
The Red Shoes (1948)
5.9/10
Yet another film that disappoints, The Red Shoes has a 20 minute ballet centerpiece which represents one of the greatest sequences in film but is surrounded by such a thin and barely existent story that it ultimately fails to draw the viewer in. Moira Shearer is a delightful presence and her dancing is beautiful; if only she were given a character to work with. Anton Walbrook as Leremontov holds the story together with his endlessly engaging reaction shots. He is easily the best thing this film has to offer outside of the ballet portion. The ballet The Red Shoes is meant to parallel the story that takes place during the rest of the film. The story exists if only to remind us of these parallels and nothing more.
The film’s running time is over 2 hours. There is plenty of time to develop these characters and their relationships in order to make the ballet powerful because of the situations seen before it and afterwards because of the tragedy it mirrors. Victoria Page wants to dance badly and this is about all we learn about her. Julian Craster wants to compose music and this is about all we learn about him. These people simply remain as faces to the viewer and never truly become characters or even convincing archetypes. There is no real urge to see the faces pull through their problems and their actions in the final act are too melodramatic and extravagant. Even with the very little we know these faces; the decisions made feel false and contrived. The use of color is beautiful and innovative in the ballet sequence which is the reason this film is getting the grade it does. It has engaging enough spurts mainly due to Walbrook’s powerhouse performance. Overall though, its story is so thin, bland and undeveloped that not even the charm of Powell and Pressburger can redeem the story surrounding its masterful centerpiece.
Horrorphile
I've still yet to review Damage for my Cult Projections site, I haven't seen it in many years, but I really liked it.
Does the Japanese movie translate as House? Is that the movie?
I recently saw The Hunger for the second time on the big screen at the SFF, with an interval of 27 years!!! What had annoyed me about it during the time from my first viewing, didn't annoy me the second time, and it turned out to be one of the Festival highlights for me. I loved the listless mood and the ennui. Perhaps because I went into the screening with very specific feelings about it ... and that adage of the viewer changing with time, but the movie doesn't ...
Had you read my review before you saw it? I'm curious.
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Yes, the Japanese film translates to House.
I had read your review after I watched it actually but I was aware you reviewed it because that it what reminded me to put it at the top of my Netflix queue in the first place!
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Film & TV on DVD
Nice concise sharing of opinion there.
I had problems with Damages too.
The Hunger is a guilty pleasure.
I really hope REC 2 delivers more for me than it did you.
The Red Shoes I was dazzled by when I was younger but now seems a little flat compared to Powell's other masterworks.
Hausu I remember seeing on late night TV in Oz (SBS) when I was a teen. I was really impressed by it but haven't seen it since...thanks for the reminder, will certainly have a fresh screening soon.
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