Sheitan (Satan) (2006)

Going to see this French "horror" film was an instance of catch-up or closure, since it is one of the ones that I skipped at the last FrightFest as starting far too late in the day for old-timers like PPP.  It finally got a limited theatrical release at the ICA and we were off to see it in a flash, especially since we have a lot of time for Vincent Cassel.  I'd love to be able to report that it was a great film or even that he was the whole show, but it was absolutely dire.  I gather he befriended the young director and his cast and offered to appear, but for my money he should have stayed in bed.

Three friends -- a gormless white young man, a black Lothario, and a Vietnamese -- leave a disco with the Algerian barmaid after the first is injured in a stupid fight.  They drive off to recover at the nearby countryside chateau of a young lady they've just met which is where we meet the demented-looking Cassel as the caretaker.  At first he affords some cheap laughs with his overplaying of an inbred pervert rousing up the Deliverance-like villagers, but there is little more worth mentioning.  The grand house is filled with rooms of broken dolls (usually scary) and puppets, but the action has little to do with these until the very last -- and frankly out-of-nowhere -- scene.  Cassel also, we find, plays his very fat and very pregnant sister, very definitely not played by his real-life wife Monica Bellucci who was also meant to appear in the movie.  It turns out she was a small-screen vampire briefly viewed in a TV film being watched by gas station attendent!  If this film was meant to have put back some steam into the dying French horror genre, they have a long way to go; even the recent cop-out "High Tension" was way, way better.

The Oscars

As I admitted below, it is something of a ritual for me to watch the Academy Awards each year, although I often have not yet seen many of the films and roles in contention.  As I have often written, I see just about everything in due course but I am usually in no rush to view the same movies immediately on their release.  But this doesn't stop my having my own very definite opinions on their various merits by a combination of those films I have actually seen (quite a few this year as it happens) and those I have read about, seen clips of, and what have you.

The results this year were largely what I had expected with one major disappointment.  Having won three of the early technical awards, I was flabbergasted to find that "Pan's Labyrinth" did not win best foreign film. Granted I have not seen the German film that did win, but I find it hard to believe that it was better made or more cinematic.  For my money the Mexican film should have been in the running for best overall picture, and Del Toro should certainly have been considered for best director.  But there you are: the Oscars are often full of surprises.

No surprises at Forest Whitaker taking the best actor Oscar, although as I wrote after seeing "The Last King of Scotland", he was if anything too good at portraying the monster that was Idi Amin and I thought the Academy might shun such a dispicable character.  With Alan Arkin taking the best supporting actor award, I briefly wondered if Peter O'Toole might also benefit from the good will accumulated for veteran actors, but it was not to be; 8 nominations and no wins, how frustrating that must be (and I understand there is a sound engineer who has had 19 nominations and no win).  At least Arkin prevented Eddie Murphy from winning that particular prize, although why I should feel so negative about his winning is a very good question, probably because he seemed so smug about it.

Finally, oh dear, Martin Scorsese at last has his elusive Oscar.  This appears to have been inevitable despite "The Departed" being far from his best work and despite the very worthy credentials of the other nominees.  There was too large a groundswell for him to fail again, but whether the film in question was a worthy best picture winner is very debatable.  Personally I think not, even if it was something of an improvement on the Hong Kong original, but then Oscar does have a history of making some very dubious best film selections.  Now if "Pan's Labyrinth" had been in the running....

Running Scared (2006)

Maybe I'm the sort of cinephile who should stick to the classics, but I always feel obliged to view current movies if they come my way.  This is one that I certainly would not have gone out of my way to view, despite its puzzlingly high rating on  IMDb.  Paul Walker (normally an extremely lightweight actor) has a heavy role here as a mobster who is charged with getting rid of some hot guns that were used to kill some bent cops, but one of these gets into the hands of his son's best friend, the abused child of a Russian hoodlum; the fact that Walker is actually an undercover cop does not interfere with the violent proceedings where nearly everyone ends of dead or bleeding and the dialogue consists of a profusion of  f-words.  Perhaps some modern viewers consider this kind of movie high art of a contemporary hue, but for my money you can take it and all its f-words and sit on it.  The excitement are display here is lethally deadly (in the most boring sense of the word).

Oscars tonight!  Always a highpoint of my year for totally inexplicable reasons.  But I will confess that I never actually stay up to the wee hours to watch them live.  I set them on the digibox and will watch them straight through when I am up and rested in the morning, being careful all the while to avoid the morning papers.  I don't think the additional few hours spoils the excitement and at least I should be sufficiently awake to enjoy the proceedings.  We must take our feeble pleasures where we can!

The Farmer's Daughter (1947) & A Woman's Face (1941)

I've been re-watching some of my "wimmin's pictures" this week and a happy viewing experience they are.  First up here is this Cinderella-ish story which has Loretta Young playing a very Swedish young lady in rural America who comes to town to train as a nurse and who ends up running for Congress.  She never did take up nursing since on her way to the big city she is duped by a no-goodnik who takes all her money and who later on attempts to besmirch her blameless reputation.  She becomes a maid in the grand political home of Joseph Cotton and Ethel Barrymore but makes her mark, not just for her efficiency but for speaking her mind as well at all the political hot air in the background.  She had an Oscar for best actress for this role which was probably deserved, but the film remains watchable for all of its able cast, the very high production values, and a sharp script.  We could use more of these nowadays.

The earlier film is a Joan Crawford vehicle directed by George Cukor who always managed to portray his female stars in the best possible light.  I've never been too much of a Crawford fan although I like a number of her early films where she was part of an ensemble cast rather than looking to hog the whole spotlight.  Here she plays a criminal type whose life has been blighted by her scarred face, but who finds love and redemption (and a restored face) with surgeon Melvyn Douglas.  On the way, however, she thinks she has found romance with charming but evil Conrad Veidt, who was always believable as a shifty villain.  Again the supporting cast rounds out the movie for me and while names like Donald Meek, Albert Basserman, and Reginald Owen don't ring many bells today, seeing these and other old friends always makes my day.

Heart of Midnight (1988)

As mentioned to the right I have "a little list" (ha!) of films that I would like to view and this was one of them.  The only problem is that I can't always recall what it is that I read or heard that made me list the title in the first place.  Since the star here, Jennifer Jason Leigh, is an actress about whom I have very mixed feelings, it must have been the artsy-craftsy horror/sex theme that piqued my curiosity.  As for Miss Leigh, I acknowledge that she is a very able actress, but at times her performances are so mannered that they completely put me off enjoying the rest of the movie; "The Hudsucker Proxy" and "Kansas City" are good instances of this.

In this film, however, her performance is more naturalistic, even if the storyline is not.  She plays a young and troubled woman with a history of mental problems who inherits a nearly derelict nightclub in a tacky part of town from a late uncle whom she can barely remember.  Anyhow, determined to get away from her overbearing mother, Brenda Vaccaro, she moves to the club and oversees its renovation with the intention of re-opening the dump.  Here's where things begin to go seriously weird as she is nearly raped by the workmen and discovers hidden rooms which suggest that the place was previously the haunt of sex fantasists.  At times one is uncertain whether what one is seeing is reality and accurate recollection (like how her uncle probably abused her when she was young) and what is a figment of her somewhat flaky mind.  She is befriended by Peter Coyote (always playing weirdies) and one wonders about his actual agenda and the shadowy backstory of the sister whom he claims to have lost to the perverted uncle.  Where the tale goes from there becomes more and more creepy and by the quite charming ending one no longer knows whether one is seeing a happy future or a bout of wishful demented thought.  There are a number of familiar faces in early roles amongst the cast, in particular I noted Steve Buscemi as one of the lecherous workmen, but I could have done without Rocky-Rambo's brother Frank as a laid back and useless cop.

Nobody Knows (2004)

This is yet another highly-considered film that takes a lot of watching and leaves the viewer devastated by the end.  A Japanese flick purportedly based on a similar story, it tells of a fairly feckless mother who takes a run-down flat with her eldest son (all of 12 years-old) not bothering to advise the landlord that she has three younger children who are then smuggled in (two of them in suitcases).  The kids all have different fathers and have never been allowed to attend school, but form a cohesive family unit and are all richly drawn personalities.  However, Mum is soon off in pursuit of her own happiness leaving the eldest to fend for himself and the others.  She returns periodically and even sends money occasionally, but as her disappearances lengthen and the money dries up, the kids face a hand-to-mouth existence in their increasingly dirty and unhealthy apartment since all of the services have been cut-off..  They do their best and even find some happiness in each other's company and with a shy schoolgirl who has befriended them, but one knows that some tragedy lurks just around the corner.  And it really, really hurts when it comes! 

The Illusionist (2006)

Nineteenth Century Austria: poor boy and aspiring magician becomes a close friend of rich and socially superior girl; her family will have none of it and their friendship is threatened apart.  Flash forward fifteen years to turn-of-the-Century Vienna: the boy is now a master illusionist wowing society audiences and is played by Edward Norton who has never given anything but masterful performances in films (and who is therefore not quite conventional leading man material) and the girl is now a mature beauty played by Jessica Biel (who has never before quite registered on my personal radar, but who does a fine and believable job here).  She is about to be engaged to the ambitious Crown Prince (Rufus Sewell).  Finally add to the entourage the always-watchable Paul Giamatti who aspires to be the Police Commissioner and who -- to that end-- serves as one of the Prince's lackeys.  When boy-again-meets-girl is it possible to achieve the requisite happy ending given their past and present entanglements.

The answer to this question is what drives this remarkable movie which previewed here last night and a handsome production it is too with sumptuous photography,  super scenery (probably Czech), lifting music, and the four wonderful performances.  Norton and Biel resume their relationship but the wrath of the Prince remains a stumbling block and ends in Biel's death.  However, remember, this film is about Norton's great skill as an illusionist and the action keeps the audience guessing until the end.  Recommended.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Yes, I have read all of the ecstatic reviews that this Ang Lee film garnered on its release, I understood the dismay when last year's best picture Oscar was "stolen" from it by some kind of supposedly anti-gay backlash, and I even read the short story/novella on which it was based (which I found incredibly moving).  Why then when I finally got around to viewing the movie did it result in such disappointment?  The simple answer is that I am not sure, but perhaps the hype that has surrounded this movie presented me with some false expectations.

Don't get me wrong, the film is masterly put together and much of the acting ranks with the very best, but perhaps it went on just that little bit too long, perhaps it was too opened-out from its slim outline.  Heath Ledger was truly remarkable as the lovelorn cowboy whose life never manages to find an acceptable compromise after the initial rough fumblings with Jake Gyllenhall and who can never find love or fulfillment without him; it has been ingrained in him since childhood that they can never have more than snatched days together over the 20-odd years of the story and his loneliness and despair are powerful.  Michelle Williams also gives a memorable performance as his homely wife who comes to realise that there is a rival for her love.  The weak link is, I think, Gyllenhaal.  I have some problem removing him from his young Donnie Darko persona and I never really felt that his feelings for Ledger's character were as deeply held.  He seemed very immature and less committed and, unlike Ledger for whom their relationship was both a passion and obstacle to any form of lasting happiness, Gyllenhaal seemed far more willing to take his pleasures where he might find them.  Yes, he had daydreamed that the two of them might live and work together, but his was not the same all-consuming love that ruined Ledger's life.

A couple of "downers"

It is possible to find viewing a movie a worthwhile experience but to be left feeling rather more miserable than one began.  Such is the case of two foreign-language films seen recently -- both well-made, both well-acted, but in the end rather dispiriting:

"Whisky" (2004):  This film had quite reasonable press on its release, but left the viewer wishing for a happier resolution.  Set in Uraguay, Jacobo is a 60-something owner of a run-down sock-manufacturing factory; when his more successful brother Herman is due to visit from Brazil for the unveiling of their mother's headstone, Jacobo asks his plain, middle-aged manageress, Marta, to pose as his wife to present a more successful picture to the brother he's not seen in many years.  She is equally lonely but certainly the more efficient of the two and seems to enjoy her unexpected role as a married woman, especially when encouraged to embrace possibilities by the more joyful younger brother.  The ending is left open, but one is left believing that Jacobo will continue with his unrewarding life but that Marta may just discover that there can be more to living than a fruitless day to day routine.

"The Sky is Falling" (2000):  The correct title of this Italian movie is "Il Cielo Cade" and it is set towards the end of World War II.  Jeroen Krabbe plays a cultured Jew living peacefully in the Italian countryside with his Aryan wife, Isabella Rossellini, and their two daughters.  When her two nieces come to live with them after their parents have died in a car accident, the viewer is presented with a child's eye view of the action from the elder, Penny.  One believes that, even in wartime, happy family life with its acceptable ups and downs can go on.  However as the occupying Germans face their final defeat, Krabbe is warned that he is in danger and reluctantly, thinking he and his family have nothing to fear, hides out with the partisans.  Unfortunately the losing and retreating Nazis have only contempt for his family and there is the inevitable slaughter to follow.  Realistic probably, but still pretty depressing stuff.

Merci la Vie (1991)

The title of this French film by idiosyncratic director Bertrand Blier translates as 'Thanks Life' as if said with a 'Gee' in front of it to express one's disgust with the world.  It's said initially by a young woman in a bridal gown who has been dumped from a car by the roadside and who is being beaten up by her current boyfriend.  When she (actress Anouk Grinberg) is found and taken home (on her wheelbarrow) by younger actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, the unlikely friendship begins between the sexually wise Grinberg and the naive but willing Gainsbourg. 

However this is just the jumping off point for a tale that moves between periods -- much of the second half takes place before Gainsbourg's birth and during the Second World War, even 'though she is there as an observer, and much of the action occurs during the making of a movie called "Life", where Grinberg is an actress, as are Gainsbourg's parents, so the viewer soon stops looking for a linear plot or the divide between reality and the imaginary.  Add to this a number of familiar faces in the cast, foremost of whom is Gerard Depardieu as an immoral doctor using Grinberg to spread her sexual disease to the entire town in order for him to prosper.  This is a consistently interesting film insofar as one can never be too sure where it is going, full of bizarre action, but I could understand some viewers being put off by both its randomness and its occasional bad taste.

 

 

The Man who Copied (2003)

I have seen a couple of pix worth my commenting time since I last wrote, but I promised to return to this Brazilian film first.  I guess you could describe it as a story about losers who become winners, and not in the most honest of ways, but it was charming and cheerfully immoral in the telling.  The hero is a very black young man working as a photocopy operator and living at home with his mother where in his downtime he draws cartoons and spies on the very white girl living with her father across the way.  (I should mention here that their different skin colour has absolutely nothing to do with the story).  The other two main characters are a sexy girl who works in the same shop and the weasly young "antique dealer" (for this read second-hand goods) who fancies her; she announces that although sexually adventurous, she is saving her virginity for a rich man.  In order to meet the girl of his dreams our hero needs money to buy something, supposedly for his mum, in the shop where she works -- so he photocopies a 50 reale note and changes it by buying a lottery ticket.

His friend suggests that he might try this ploy again and they briefly have limited success, but when he decides that he needs real money for his now girlfriend to marry him, he decides to rob a bank van.  And then he wins the lottery!  All of a sudden people keep coming out of the woodwork to get a piece of the money, but the four protagonists do manage to find their own happy futures.  The kicker is at the end when the viewer becomes aware that the sweet young girl who seems the most uptight of the four is in fact every bit as immoral and calculating, but one doesn't think any the less of her or the others because of this.  Obviously it all must be some kind of fairy tale; life is seldom this charming.

Presenting Lily Mars (1943)

I haven't written for a couple of days since most of what I watched over the weekend left a great yawning hole and didn't bear thinking about a second time, but yesterday was better.  I saw a rather sweet Brazilian movie called "The Man who Copied" which I hope to return to soon and the above vintage Judy Garland feature.  I say that my mood was 'happy', but in fact this was rather tinged with sadness when I compare the joyous Judy on screen here with her later descent -- not that she wasn't always capable of great performances until the end (but what a waste!)

Here she is in one of her early adult roles -- actually 21 at the time but playing a very believable 19.  On one level it's the standard 'aspiring entertainer goes to New York and makes good on Broadway' scenario, but that is too simple a summary.  Yes, she is the lead and center of the action, but half the musical numbers go to an operatic European peformer of the period (one Martha Eggerth -- and no, I'm not familiar with her either) who is in fact more suitable than Judy as the original love interest for leading man Van Heflin (who was 33 when this film was made -- and looks it).  However it is when Judy is on screen that the picture comes alive, not just for her fabulous voice and magnificent song-styling, but also for her freshness, her excellent comedic skills, and dare I add her sublime prettiness.  She is truly a breath of fresh air among the jaded Broadway types.  And for once the tale is not one of the youngster stepping in for the jaded or injured or difficult diva, but a more realistic spin on this.

Finally I must comment on my delight at seeing three of the old-timers in the cast -- for once all women.  We have the wonderful Spring Byington as Judy's Mum and the equally great Fay Bainter as Heflin's, but the standout performance is Connie Gilchrist's, playing a cleaner-cum-dresser at the theatre, who had the same dreams as Judy as a youngster, but who never quite made it.  However she is happy just being at a theatre, rather than anywhere else, and her brief duet with Judy reminds one of the many joys in life.

Night Must Fall (1937)

Going back to Hollywood in the '30s being able to produce "British" films using only local talent, this is another good example, although surprisingly enough two of the three main leads were in fact American.  Based on the stage play by British actor Emlyn Williams, it is the story of a nasty old moneybags played by Dame May Whitty abusing the subservience of her dowdy niece, a very drab Rosalind Russell, and falling for the good-natured blarney of her newest employee, Robert Montgomery, with some dreadful secrets in his past (including what is being kept in his heavy locked hatbox).  We know from square one that he is no good and quite probably a murderer, but he is so very likeable that we want to believe that he will not really hurt the old lady, however much she might in fact deserve it.  The thrills come more from the high standard of acting, particularly from Whitty and Montgomery, rather than from any scary suspense, but it is an absorbing old warhorse of a film.  Oddly enough the actual British remake in 1964 starring Albert Finney in the Montgomery role is nowhere near as good.

Hidden (Cache) (2005

Going back to one's expectations before watching a film, I had heard nothing but praise for this French film from Austrian director Michael Haneke, many of whose earlier movies were scarily good.  However, having now seen this film, I must report that I found it abso-bloody-lutely infuriating.  I don't like to use the word "cheat", but this is as good a description as any.  In its favour the director managed to provide an ongoing sense of suspense and threat and I truly wanted to understand what was behind the anonymous surveillance videos and nasty drawings being sent to media personality Daniel Auteuil and his wife Juliette Binoche.  Well, I'll never know since the film offers no believable explanations and these seem to be no more than a device from a look-at-how-clever-I-am director.  He appears to be making some comment about how successful people can not disassociate themselves from their pasts which will return to haunt them, except Auteuil's boyhood actions against an innocent Algerian orphan have left him with little or no guilt.  The movie is full of red herrings and totally unrelated scenes involving the couple's 12-year old son and is, in the final analysis, probably not that well-made.  It was a glossy but empty major disappointment.

Thumbsucker (2005)

When I view a movie about which I know little, I am always hopeful that it will turn out to be a delightful surprise.  I can't quite claim that for this teen angst/coming of age story, but it did have its merits.  Foremost of these was the lead actor -- the 17-year old thumbsucker of the title -- played by relative newcomer Lou Taylor Pucci; he was always believable as the confused youth looking to reconcile his life with his parents, his teachers, and with girls.  Keanu Reeves is a complete hoot as his hippy transcendental orthodontist who "cures" him of his infantile habit, but the young man is soon dependent on behaviour-controlling drugs to allow him to function without the comfort of his thumb.  Under their influence he becomes the star of the school debating team managed by teacher Vince Vaughn until he realises his addiction and goes cold turkey.  In the meantime he suspects that his mother, Tilda Swinton -- a nurse -- is having an affair with a TV personality under her care in rehab and finds it near impossible to relate to his dour dad, a frustrated would-be pro footballer played by Vincent D'Onofrio.  He eventually secures his immediate future by achieving university admission in far-off New York, but he has only managed this by proffering a string of lies about his background.  The big problem is that although the cast was able and the story sufficiently involving (if only to wonder where it was all going), none of the characters were that easy to like.  I don't think I would wish to know them better or revisit any of them.

(Jet Li's) Fearless (2006)

Martial Arts superstar Jet Li has announced that this will be his last action film and, if that is correct, it is a strong final statement.  However he is still only 44 years old (and good old Jackie is still going) and has lost little of his remarkable grace and fighting ability.  So it may well be like Sinatra's many farewell tours with further movies to come which I for one would welcome.  Here he plays a real life fighter named Huo Yuan Jia at the turn of the last century.  Having seen his father defeated in a championship battle and then humiliated by the victor's young son, he vows never to lose another fight.  He proves himself against a gigantic westerner and soon falls victim to both pride and the fake adulation of his disciples (who are only there for the beer as it were).  After attacking another Master whom he thinks has beaten one of his mates for no good reason (erroneously as it turns out), he kills him only to find that revenge is taken against his mother and young daughter.

Distraught he runs away and nearly dead lands on the shores of a rural village where he is befriended by a blind young peasant.  He sojourns here for some years until he realises the follies of his ways and returns home to honour his dead, promising her that he will return.  He finds that foreigners now have the dominant hand in his country and challenges the American fighter who calls the Chinese weak.  He also organises the many schools of wushu into one union, which still exists today.  Finally he is forced by the nasty foreigners to defeat four of their best men and when it seems that he may be victorious, he is poisoned.  His last opponent is a noble Japanese warrior who establishes Huo's legend by letting him die undefeated.

Directed by Ronny Yu in Mandarin this film certainly displays Li's abilities, but the middle section is too slow and sloppy and the end section does get a little holier than thou at times.  While it would make a suitable epitaph to his Martial Arts career, I can't help but hope that there will be more to come. 

Our Little Girl (1935)

Shirley Temple might have been the saviour of her studio in the 1930s and wildly popular, but how today's viewer reacts to her is a somewhat different proposition.  One can either be amazed and/or charmed by her precociousness or force back the gag reflex at her saccharine mannerisms.  I veer more to the former camp and find most of her performances both entertaining and palatable, although some of her films are easier to take than others.  I had not viewed this movie before, although I know all the others, and it is not really one of her best.  She has both a mommy and a daddy here (which is unusual in her movies), but daddy is doctor Joel McCrea who is too busy with his work and research and mommy is being wooed by the local playboy.  Misunderstandings occur and divorce seems inevitable, so Shirley tries to run away until a meeting with a gentle old tramp points her in the right direction for the requisite happy ending.  She has no musical numbers in this one and her pouting cuteness does begin to pall, but all in all it is to my mind a perfectly acceptable 62 minutes.

As You Desire Me (1931)

While I am on a Garbo and 1931 kick, I thought I would post some comments on this oddity.  Here she co-stars with Melvyn Douglas with whom she actually made three films in her relatively brief talkie career.  Based on a play by the Italian dramatist Pirandello, she is introduced to us as a nightclub singer in an unflattering platinum blonde wig; she is spotted by a friend of Douglas' who is convinced that she is the wife who had been missing for nearly ten years after being raped on their estate by enemy soldiers and, yes, she has no recollection of her past life.  She reluctantly agrees to go to Douglas and indeed there is a portrait that looks just like her (without the discarded wig) and he is convinced that she is really his lost love.  While Douglas was always something of a solemn actor, even in his comedic roles, the sexual frisson that he and Garbo generate is remarkable -- even more than in the Gable film below -- and there are some very suggestive pre-Code scenes.  The cherry on the icing here is the appearance of Erich von Stroheim as the writer whom she has left behind and who does all he can to discredit her new identity.  Often billed as 'The Man you Love to Hate', he directed some truly baroque and wonderful silent films, but has been on screen as well from 1915; two of his most notable roles were in "La Grande Illusion" and "Sunset Boulevard".  His Teutonic heel-clicking persona disguises the fact that he was an always welcome and memorable presence.

Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise (1931)

"I never knew they made a film together" said Michael as he walked in while I was watching this real oldie.  The "they" in this instance is Greta Garbo and Clark Gable, and why not, since they were both contracted to the same studio, MGM.  On the other hand, there are no Garbo movies with James Stewart or Spencer Tracy (also MGM-ers) so it is just our good luck to find these two starring here; in fact, it was Gable's first lead role.  What can I tell you -- she's gorgeous, he's dashing, and together they have a very hot sexual chemistry, but of course there would be no movie if that were the whole story.  She is on the run from her abusive family when they meet and fall in love; while he is away for a few days, they catch up with her, so she runs and ends up with a sideshow troupe (it's amazing how often these figure in '30s films).  The circus owner has his way with her while she is hiding from her pursuers and when Gable reappears, he rejects her for the slut he thinks her to be.  So while hating all men bar Gable, she uses her charms as first a dancer and then a kept woman; she contrives to meet Gable again in an attempt to further his career and again he rejects her.  (Gosh, he's a man of some weird principles!)  Ultimately she descends into being a bar hostess in overseas dives, all the while looking for her love, and he descends into the bottle -- until at last their paths cross again and they try to rise above their pasts.  In other words, it's a load of hokum, but nicely done, and at 75 minutes a guilty pleasure.

Singapore Sling (1990)

Any London-based film fanatic of mature years is likely to join me in mourning the demise of the Scala Cinema at Kings Cross.  It was here back in the late '80s and early '90s that one would go to view those films ignored by the more mainstream cinemas.  As a club, they were able to show uncertificated movies as well as many obscurities, and it became a place of pilrimage during my film education, where I was exposed to so many movies that previously were just mythical titles to me.  Unfortunately the Scala was forced into receivership in 1993 after losing a court case for an unauthorised showing of "A Clockwork Orange"; yes, I know it is freely available now, but it wasn't for many years before Kubrick's death.  I was devastated as I suppose many others were as well.

But back to the film at hand: I must have viewed it originally some fifteen years ago, but it has always remained fresh in my mind and I assumed I would never see it again.  Well thanks to locating an American DVD, I was able to have another look at this cult item which has been described as one of the sickest films ever made.  What I could remember is that it is a Greek movie (not many of those reach our shores), that it was shot in beautiful deep focus black and white, and that it played on the music and themes from the American classic "Laura".  The film is actually made in a mixture of Greek, English and French and does indeed boast brilliant cinematography and also uses other classical music to underline its action.  What I did not completely recall was the depravity on display as a shot loner searching for his old girlfriend stumbles upon a villa occupied by a murderous and sexually-demented mother and daughter.  They play perverse games and the images of their digging graves in the pouring rain and stuffing their faces at a groaning dining table will be hard to forget, along with the depths of their passionate love-making and game-playing.  You may now wonder why I am going on about a movie that you are unlikely to ever view, unless like me you deliberately search for a copy (and I warn you again that it is definitely not for the faint-hearted), but I really wanted to go on public record of adding this title to those that I have seen and will probably never forget.  It is worth adding that neither the director nor the three lead actors were particularly prolificor made other films of any note, but this movie will ensure their immortality for those who stumble across it.