To Catch a Thief (1955)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant.

“For what it's worth, I never stole from anybody who would go hungry.”

When I lived in dreary old Bostontown with its interminable winters, I would often put on a movie that is set in a beautiful sunny location to escape the gloom outside of my window. To Catch a Thief was definitely one of those films that I employed to cheer me up during those bleak days. The French Riviera locale is certainly gorgeous and watching Cary Grant and Grace Kelly light up the screen with their easy style and grace is a delight. Then there are the wild vivid technicolors, the fireworks, and Edith Head’s wonderful costuming. The thing that ties it all together for me is the witty mischief that runs throughout the film from Robie’s opening escape from the police to his final entrapment with Frances and her mother.

The other thing about Hitchcock that is so fun is looking for his cameo appearance. In To Catch a Thief, he makes his appearance rather early on in the film as a passenger on the bus sitting next to Cary Grant. It’s one of the most blatant of his cameo appearances - there is no missing it. Cary Grant gets a good long look at him in the scene while Hitchcock stares straight ahead, expressionless. I also like the cat and the canary reference. It makes me wonder about Hitchcock’s persona and recognizability. When did his image become as well known as his movies? Which came first the chicken or the egg?

In the famous Truffaut/Hitchcock interview he says this of his cameos:

[the first cameo in The Lodger] was strictly utilitarian; we had to fill the screen. Later on it became a superstition and eventually a gag. But by now it's a rather troublesome gag, and I'm very careful to show up in the first five minutes so as to let the people look at the rest of the movie with no further distraction.

This is a fun and generous film. The perfect pick-me-up for a bleak winter day in New England or a clear autumn evening in New Mexico.

Wake In Fright (1971)

Directed by Ted Kotcheff

I cannot accept your premise, Socrates. Affectability... progress... are vanities spawned by fear. A vanity spawned by fear. The aim of what you call civilisation is a man in a smokin' jacket, whiskey and soda, pressing a bottom... button, to destroy a planet a billion miles away, kill a billion people he's never seen.

I am fairly notorious for falling asleep during the best films but I am surprised that I slept through the action of this wild ride. I was all in when Kai suggested that we watch this together. I had never heard of it before and he’s got good taste in these things. He’s also got nice arms and when he wrapped them around me, off to sleep I went. This morning, I picked up where I left off - right when things start to come completely unhinged for our schoolteacher hero John Grant. This is the tale of a seriously lost weekend - the kind that simply just appears; sucks you in as though you have no will; spills out like a pile of hot guts and leaves you forever altered (the experience of watching the film is kind of like that too). The kind where you live a lifetime in the course of a few days and then are deposited back as an alien in a familiar landscape. Doc Tydon (played by Donald Pleasence - from Halloween!!!), is the cultured savage, our Virgil, who takes John by the hand and leads him through the Inferno of Yabba. And in the final scene, as John returns to his post at Tiboonda, is that God himself sitting on the porch smiling?

The Life of Brian (1979)

Directed by Terry Jones

What’s Latin for “Roman”? Indicative, or imperative? How many Romans?

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Also: https://eidolon.pub/turning-the-tables-on-dominance-and-diversity-in-classics-2467fe45734c

Playtime (1967)

Directed by Jacques Tati!!!

How do you say "drugstore" in French?

Tati is always a delight and this movie is his masterpiece. The day after watching Playtime, I came across the phrase or concept “cognitive dissonance in isotropic spaces,” which is attributed to the artist William Fox. Mr. Fox is referring to the loss of orientation that is experienced in the vast openness of desert landscapes. My mind, however, went straight to the isotropic cityscape that Tati created for this film. A world that baffles our lovable Monsieur Hulot and delights the viewer with its absurdity. There is so much going on in Playtime that it is good for multiple viewings - you’ll always see something you didn’t catch before. It’s also more fun to watch with a friend. I watched this with Kai, who noticed that there were black and white cardboard characters in some of the cubicles in the office scene. This time around, I was rather taken by the fella who is trying to find his way home by reading the veins in a marble column as though it was a map. Good stuff that!

The Haunting (1963)

Directed by Robert Wise. Story by Shirley Jackson.

We who walk here, walk alone.

It is interesting to be able to watch an old film and see specifically how it influenced later filmmakers. For instance, the cabin in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead exhibits similar characteristics to Hill House. And there is the wooden door that starts to bend into the room as though something is trying to come through it that reminds me of the TV screen in  David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. 

I watched the biopic Shirley earlier this year so it was particularly interesting to revisit this film that is based on Shirley Jackson’s story The Haunting of Hill House. It starts out like an episode of Scooby-Doo but with far less likable characters. Just as I was about to get hopelessly bored with the melodrama, things started to kick in. While it is not a subtle movie, the building idea that the house is a reflection of Eleanor’s spiraling insanity is interestingly teased out in the use of mirrors in the lead up to the action. 

Burroughs: The Movie (1983)

Directed by Howard Brookner

Loneliness moans across the continent like fog horns over still oily water of tidal rivers.

I’ve been thinking about William Burroughs lately. Probably because of all the cockroaches in my house — that I find belly up in the kitchen every morning. [I’d love to rewatch Cronenberg’s take on Naked Lunch. Alas, I have not been able to find it streaming.] Burroughs is a man that held a key to another realm. One of my favorite parts of this film is when, standing in front of his childhood home in St. Louis, he recalls the story of an "old Irish crone” teaching him the art of toad calling. I bet that old crone sprinkled some Irish fairy dust on that little boy’s head too.

There was a time in the not too distant past when I spent so much time walking in the woods that they began to fall away from me. A sort of psychedelic disintegration without the psychedelics. The pine trees began to talk to me. I believe that this happened because I had withdrawn so deeply from society, spending so much time walking in the woods of my childhood, that I unwittingly walked through a portal to another realm. These episodes lasted only for brief moments and I think about them often. That’s how it is with glimpses, I suppose.

Cat People (1942)

Directed by Jacques Tourneur. Produced by Val Lewton. Starring Simone Simon.

Even as the fog continues to lie in the valleys, so does ancient sin cling to the low places, the depressions in the world consciousness.

Wow, the lighting is so incredible in this film. Most notably for me in the scene that is lit by the table light boxes so that the actor’s faces are illuminated while the panther prowls in the darkness under the tables. Also, the shifting light from the reflections in the pool scene that underscore the idea of the shapeshifting of Irina from human to panther. The pool scene immediately made me think of It Follows, the wonderful 2014 horror flick from David Robert Mitchell, which also effectively uses what you can’t see to scare the bejeezus out of you.

Tourneur directed one of my favorite noir films, Out of the Past. The cinematographer on both of these films was Nicholas Musuraca (who also worked on Blood on the Moon that noir western I watched a few weeks back). Cat People is the first of a series of classic war-time horror produced by Val Lewton.

The Wicker Man (1973)

Directed by Robin Hardy. With Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, and Britt Ekland.

 You’ll simply never understand the true nature of sacrifice.

This is the case of a film that I have seen before but it might as well be the first time for all that I remember of it. I mean the culminating vision of the horrific sacrifice is pretty much seared in my memory but everything leading up to it is gone - sorry Britt. Last Halloween, I watched Ari Aster’s folk horror film Midsommar and I can certainly see the influence that The Wicker Man had there. But, The Wicker Man is so much more sinister in the end. I even think the promise of seeing Britt Ekland naked was a genius plot to lure men (or anyone really for aren’t those delightful tater-tots) to the movie, much like the hapless detective was lured to the island in search of the missing girl - maybe, maybe not. I’m not out to provide deep analysis (though I do read that stuff), but I agree with the theory that this film has a lot to say about where we find ourselves in America today — two parties with deeply held and contradictory beliefs that are willing to use their righteousness to justify whatever actions they deem as necessary no matter the consequences. Sounds familiar.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Directed by George A. Romero. Written in collaboration with Dario Argento. Special effects Tom Savini. Starring David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross.

When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.

I felt the need to balance out the vampires with some zombies. One of my favorite films ever is Night of the Living Dead, and so I often pass over Romero’s other films to watch it. Dawn of the Dead was brought to life by the wicked trifecta of Romero, Argento, and Savini. Like Night, it is a tale of zombies but Dawn is made with a slightly bigger budget, in garish color, and more shocking bedlam.

Roger Ebert, who labeled Dawn of the Dead as one of the greatest horror movies ever made, went on to say “nobody ever said art had to be in good taste.” Amen! Savini’s effects are over the top grotesque fantasy which, to me, mirrors Romero’s none too subtle commentary on our grotesque consumerist obsession with living the fantasy life that we saw in an advertisement and purchased down the mall. There are so many levels of thought and cultural reference in this film and it is fun as hell to watch. I might even love it more this time around.

Read Ebert’s 1979 review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dawn-of-the-dead-1979

Heathers (1988)

Directed by Michael Lehmann. Starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater

I like to suck big dicks. Mmmm! Mmmm! I can't get enough of 'em! 

Do you ever have the feeling that a movie was made just for you? Heathers was the balm for my own teen angst bullshit. I must have watched it a hundred times. I felt so closely aligned with Veronica’s struggle (I looked a lot like Winona Ryder back then too). Rewatching it was pretty fun. It made me realize just how much I still quote this movie thirty years on. There are so many great one-liners. Plus those outfits!

My teen angst has shifted to a more-or-less constant state of existential contemplation combined with perpetual awe of the world. Back then, I was just becoming a woman - now, I’m in the throes of that equally confounding process called perimenopause. I no longer feel a desire to off the Heathers of the world. These days, I’d definitely be content to forget them and go watch videos with Martha Dunnstock. I’m still Gen X through and through though, so I still get it.

Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922)

Directed by F.W. Murnau with the great Max Schreck as Count Orlok

Watching Nosferatu again makes me rethink my allegiance to zombies. (Don’t worry George Romero, you’re still my favorite.)

Well, it’s October and that means I’m on a horror movie bender. Max Schreck’s Count Orlock is the most lovable creep. Here’s another film that has been restored since I first saw it. I’m on the fence about the color tinting - it distracts me as I am constantly trying to figure out what the colors signify. Mostly though, I think I am just attached to my memory of the darkness of this film in black and white. The scene that I remember most is the ghostly unmanned ship containing Orlok and his coffins filled with black plague earth sailing into the unsuspecting port. Haunting and beautiful. My memory gave much more screen time to this scene than there actually is. Perhaps I am compounding my memory of this filmed scene with the same from Bram Stoker’s Dracula which I read a few years ago while in Sligo, Ireland (a great fucking book, by the way). This time with Nosferatu, I was compelled by the visually stunning windswept scenes of Hutter’s wife Ellen at the seashore awaiting her lover - ah, but which one?

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Directed by Robert Wiene

Awaken for a moment from your dark night.

I have seen this film before. However, I am beginning to realize that my memory is not particularly good. I suppose that fact makes this project all the more exciting because I feel like I am watching these films for the first time. To be fair, the version I watched last night has been restored and is tinted with amber, blue, and pink to denote different locations and/or times of the day and a modern soundtrack has been added. It is a far cry from the version I would have seen twenty years ago.  

The most fantastic thing about this film is the way it looks - the angles, the patterns, the distortions all work to make you feel disoriented and uneasy. The topsy turvy sets are an invitation to leave real-world expectations behind. It is a tale of insanity and murder, control and submission, delusion and authority, apathy and horror. While it is a century old it feels so very relevant to modern struggles. Its portrayal of the dark side of humanity will always be horrifying.

Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922/1968)

Directed by Benjamin Christensen in 1922. Re-edited and re-released in 1968 with narration by William S. Burroughs and a jazz score by Daniel Humair.

But isn't superstition still rampant among us?

First time with this film. I wasn't feeling so hot last night so I randomly put this on thinking no big deal if I fall asleep while watching it. Holy shit was I wrong about that. Once it got going, it was impossible to turn away from the wild visuals of witches, satan, wicked clergymen, and spawn of satan. So trippy I might have to watch it again tonight! Inspired by the scene of the old witch birthing satan’s spawn. Amazing.

Videodrome (1983)

Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring James Woods and Debbie Harry.

Long live the new flesh.

“Whatever happens on the television screen emerges as reality.”

Cronenberg leaves me excited and speechless every time. I remain a fan. In my twenties, my ex and I went deep down the Cronenberg rabbit hole. We even initiated a few others by conscripting them to weeks long Cronenberg viewings at our home - our very own Cathode Ray Mission. How insufferable. This is a fantastic movie and as relevant as ever, maybe even more relevant. Watch it again - you won’t be able to turn away.

Breathless (1960)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Starring Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo.

I don't know if I'm unhappy because I'm not free, or if I'm not free because I'm unhappy.

I was in my mid-twenties, newly in love, and maybe even pregnant when I first saw this film. I really only remember the segment that was filmed inside of Patricia’s small Paris apartment. I had no recollection of her potential pregnancy but that really stuck out to me this time around. I remember being young and discovering that I was pregnant and how that discovery sort of high-jacked my brain.

Also, seeing some similarities between Seborg’s Patricia and Loden’s Wanda.

Metropolis (1927)

Directed by Fritz Lang.

One would think that I would have seen this before but apparently I missed it. Thankfully that oversight has been corrected.

Harold & Maude (1971)

Directed by Hal Ashby.

I was in my mid-twenties when I first saw this film. It’s just as wonderful now as it was then.

Another May to September romance.

Daisies (1966)

Written and directed by Věra Chytilová.

First viewing. My god, how could I have not known of this before today!

Someone recently referred to my artwork as absurdist. (I don’t think they meant it as a complement either.) I have to admit that I wasn’t totally sure what they were talking about so off I scurried to seek guidance from our good friend google. 

absurdism: 1. Intentionally ridiculous or bizarre behavior or character 2. The belief that human beings exist in a purposeless, chaotic universe.

Fuck yeah! That bitch pretty much hits the nail right on the mutha fuckin’ head. Aside from now having a label to apply to what I am doing, the really fantastic thing about this revelation was that it lead me to Daisies — you know, down the internet k-hole go I. This film just blows me away. It is like candy, I can’t get enough. It’s a visual delight and these two women are a riot. 

Vera Chytilová may well be my new shero. Daisies was banned by the Czech government who accused it of “depicting the wanton.” The wanton apparently being a menace to society. She was consequently forbidden from making another film until 1975.

More like this, please!

Blood on the Moon (1948)

Directed by Robert Wise. Starring Robert Mitchum and Barbara Bel Geddes and the lovable Walter Brennan.

When there’s blood on the moon, death lurks in the shadows.

First viewing of this film. Who could resist the title and Robert Mitchum? Mitchum is the consummate outsider, the dangerous good guy, in this noir-western beauty from the director who would later bring us The Sound of Music! I love Mitchum’s portrayal of the cowboy hero disillusioned by the dark side of western expansion’s shady nation-building tactics.

Alice (1988)

Directed by Jan Švankmajer.

“Close your eyes, otherwise you won’t see anything.” 

This is such an important film to me. It’s a beautiful dark delirium that shifts between reality and fantasy like the lucid dream/nightmare of an imaginative child that is filled with dread and delight. I was in high school when I first saw it and it totally blew my mind. I mean some sort of internal paradigm shift occurred during the course of watching this fantastic re-envisioning of Alice in Wonderland. I don’t know if I can pinpoint it exactly. Ultimately, I think it helped me understand how to be who I needed to be. After all, I was little weirdo growing up in a very conservative environment and my “strange” ideas were not always well received. I needed a mentor and this film was the freaky fairy dust that would set my mind free. It’s so great to re-visit Alice. It has lost none of its power to inspire and enthrall me. It’s also a great reminder that you can be inspired by something that already exists in the world, use it as the basis for your own work by bringing something unique to it. Hasn’t everything already been done anyway? But not by me!