Sunrises & Sunsets #4

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008 - Nicholas Stoller)

Sequences Of A Titular Nature #10

Eastern Promises (2007 - David Cronenberg) - I love the deep greys of the photography of these tattoos and it really adds a sinister feeling to Cronenberg's film before it even gets rolling. It's the perfect single item to focus on for this film - the tattoos not only mark these men as dangerous, but they mark them for life. There's no escape from their past. Though these tattoos are pretty bad-ass, the designs are pretty damn gorgeous too...

Private Parts (1972 - Paul Bartel) - In this spiffy little 70s psychological horror, director Bartel zooms in on sexual urges and the "dangers" of acting upon them. Young Cheryl flirts with George the photographer (a rather odd sort who has one of the more interesting studios you might come across), but don't expect you know the outcome of the film simply from these great, though slightly disturbing, titles. The saturated colours hint at the lurid scenes to follow - not to mention the flash bulbs across naked female bodies - and it ends with a great fade to a real naked couple having sex. You have to like a movie that states right up front what it's going to do (if not how it intends to get there).

High Fidelity (2000 - Stephen Frears) - The end titles - over the fantastic Stevie Wonder tune "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)" - look like typical local band stickers and posters for live club dates that have been plastered across the city on lampposts, construction site walls and even on street signs. This of course melds nicely with central character Rob Gordon's life which revolves almost entirely around music (his collection, his top 5 lists, his record store, his DJing, his record release party, his friend's band, etc.). These titles even have a spinning LP as a faded background image which ties right back to the opening of the film.

Casino Royale (1967 - Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, Richard Talmadge) - No, that's not the cast list next to the year - it's the list of directors for this movie. How's that possible? Well, after you watch the film you won't necessarily know how that happened, but you'll definitely believe that many different people were behind the camera - it's that schizophrenic. More enjoyable than I expected, but still a considerable mess of a movie with numerous different tones. Nice looking titles though. And consistent too.

One Of Those Scenes - "Aparajito"

1955's Pather Panchali (which translates roughly to "Song Of The Little Road") was Satyajit Ray's breakthrough on the international stage when it first made waves at Cannes. He followed it up the next year with the second part of his "Apu Trilogy" entitled Aparajito ("The Unvanquished") which furthered the story of young Apu. After a tragedy befalls his family in the first film, they move from their rural home to the city. In Banaras they live near the Ganges river where Apu's father goes for prayers every day while Apu begins to learn the same rituals in order that he too can work as a priest and bring some money into the household (even though he is only 10 at the beginning of the film).

An older gentleman also lives in their building and is always kind to the family. Apu's mother avoids eye contact with him and always raises her sari a bit higher over her head when he is around. This initially appears to simply be a sign of deference, but there's a moment in the middle of the film that shows her previous behaviour to have been concern about his presence. Her husband has fallen ill after one too many trips to the river (and the mammoth climb back up from it) and the older gentleman sticks his head into his room and calls to him. When the husband doesn't respond and is obviously too weak to even move, the old man moves to the doorway.

As we see Apu's mother working on the day's meal, the old man's body (from the neck down so that we don't see his face) shows up behind her. Though he sweetly calls "I say, dear...", her reaction and the camera's sudden zoom in on her immediately indicate that she feels no sweetness in his voice. And then, a sudden cut to his hand - outstretched fingers in anticipation - reveal that he meant no sweetness in that comment either. It's incredibly effective as there is no music and barely any sound (except for general city background noise). She's suddenly alone and unprotected.

The cut back to her close-up face shows fear in her eyes, but in a few seconds there's a subtle shift and a look of determination that comes over her. As he asks - again in an almost cute tone of voice like an uncle talking to his niece - what she's making, she rises up with a cleaver in her hand and makes her stand. This is a woman who has been through a lot (with more to follow) in a life that has been filled with sacrifice. But she still has resolve.

Sunrises & Sunsets #3

Aparajito (1956 - Satyajit Ray)

Now There's Something You Don't See Everyday...#7

Aparajito (1956 - Satyajit Ray)

A Single Image #24

"Synecdoche is a figure of speech based on association. Here we get the instance of the more comprehensive term used for a less comprehensive one. And vice versa."

Aparajito (1956 - Satyajit Ray)

Book review: "The Hammer Vault"

Also published at RowThree.

Let's state this right up front: Marcus Hearn's book The Hammer Vault is a gem. Whether you're a novice to the horror and thriller film output of Hammer studios from the late 50s through the early 70s or you've seen every last one of them countless times, this film by film survey of archival items (lobby cards, posters, on set photos etc.) and production notes is a fun and consistently fascinating stroll through the British company's history. The fantastic duo of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are both all over the book since they were the key figures of a huge chunk of the studio's output, but there's a wide range of coverage on a variety of personages (actors, directors, producers, etc.) as well as scripts, makeup/effects, marketing techniques, etc. If you have any interest at all in "genre" films, this book is well worth your attention.

I'm a big fan of these old Hammer films, but by no means a scholar on the subject. There's still a huge amount of their catalog I haven't seen yet (emphasis on "yet") and I've only scratched the surface of the history of the studio and its set of famed actors. So when I heard about this book (full title: The Hammer Vault - Treasures from the Archives of Hammer Studios), one of my first thoughts was that it may be a bit difficult to fully engage with the sets of artifacts, rare photos and marketing materials that form a large part of the book. It didn't take long, however, after the initial crack of the book's spine for all those concerns to bleed away - it just made me want to see all those movies I haven't yet seen all the sooner (not to mention revisit all the ones I have seen). Designed to be randomly browsed or read cover to cover, the book provides tons of facts, interesting snippets, great photos and loads of old promotional gimmicks which is perfect for fan and newcomer alike.

Laid out in chronological order with (typically) two pages per film, the book moves through a huge set of the proud British studio's horror, suspense and monster films (83 films in all) in full colour. The book is served well by being in a 12.5" x 9.75" format (which of course stretches out to an expansive 25 inches wide when open) showing a specific intention of allowing the eye to wander over each spread. Each film gets a couple of paragraphs detailing some production history, anecdotes about the cast or director and typically a few words about how the film was received critically and commercially. It's an interesting document of the changing times in England during that period - as the book steps through the films one by one, we get to hear about the public's reaction to the styles and topics within the films that Hammer was producing as the fortunes of the studio eventually start to decline. Though they tried to keep pace, reading the book straight through can feel somewhat like watching the slow death spiral of a company that keeps re-imagining itself while laying people off a bit at a time. You can only return to the Dracula and Frankenstein well so many times apparently (though those initial Dracula and Frankenstein films from the late 50s are prime examples of how to REALLY do a reboot).

I was exceedingly happy to see the book cover some of their lesser known thriller films like "Taste of Fear" (known as "Scream of Fear" in North America), "Maniac" and "Never Take Sweets From A Stranger" (swap out "Sweets" for "Candy" outside the British empire) - all of which are excellent and should be sought out immediately. The studio is known for it's gothic horrors, but it also very efficiently mined the vein of mystery thriller by bringing noirish sensibilities and great tension to some solid stories (or "mini-Hitchcocks" as Hammer referred to some of them). The background information on these films is just as interesting as the classic horrors and if their posters couldn't quite match the exotic nature of those scarefests, it didn't stop the publicity machine. A fine example of their ability to provide just a wee bit of exaggeration to their marketing is this quote from a publicity manual for "Taste Of Fear": "Final denouement explodes in your face with the force and unexpectedness of an atomic time bomb. Taste Of Fear will leave you a panting, gasping, nervous wreck!". Yeah!

Part of the fun of the book is trolling through the old marketing material - it's fascinating to see the older style approaches and find gems that would seem completely out of place on a modern day movie poster (not that today's blurbs are any better - just different). For example, this quote from the campaign booklet for "The Quartermass Xperiment": "Ask women this question - Would you steal your strangely afflicted husband from hospital?" Or this tag line from Dracula about its star: "Scream Boy. No, Dream Boy!" (granted, Christopher Lee was one helluva dashing young man). The book is also filled with loads of gorgeous, though never-intended-for-general-public-viewing, pre-production posters by Tom Cantrell (I have to say, the man knew how to paint a naked body...) and a section on unmade Hammer films with great titles like "The Reluctant Virgin", "Zeppelin v Pterodactyls" and "When The Earth Cracked Open".

The final chapters of the book cover the two brief Hammer TV series ("Hammer House of Horror" and "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense") plus the resurgence of the studio in 2008 (with its first new film in decades "Wakewood" followed by the widely released "Let Me In" and "The Woman In Black"). It's a marvelous optimistic way to end this part of the Hammer Studios story and after reading this beautifully put together book, any film fan will not only desperately want to see a good sized chunk of Hammer's back catalog, but also be thrilled that they seem to be determined to add to it.