A Single Image #6

The Naked Spur (1953 - Anthony Mann)

Eclipse celebrates Allan King

On the 1 year anniversary of his death, the Eclipse label has announced a set of 5 films by Canadian filmmaker Allan King. He passed away last year at the age of 79 from cancer after having put together a remarkable 50 year career of 44 credits in TV and film. He's won buckets of awards, had retrospectives at major film festivals (including Toronto in 2002) and also received the Order of Canada.

He's best known for his cinema verite style documentaries which he termed "actuality dramas". In his words, these films capture "the drama of everyday life as it happens, spontaneously without direction, interviews or narrative". The Eclipse collection will parcel up 5 of his better known films from this style from both ends of his career - three of his older features (Warrendale, A Married Couple and Come On Children) plus two of his more recent features that made an impact (Dying At Grace and Memory For Max, Claire, Ida And Company).




Though I'm pretty sure the Hot Docs Film Festival have shown all of them in the last few years, I've still yet to see any of these titles. As I look to plug holes in my knowledge of Canadian cinema (and there are plenty of holes), Allan King has remained one of the biggest. This was especially reinforced once I started going to Hot Docs - his influence was felt far and wide across the spectrum of documentary filmmaking and when other filmmakers spoke of him it was with the deepest of respect. I have actually seen a bit of footage from "Come On Children" since the recent documentary on the band Rush showed a clip of guitarist Alex Lifeson (then called Alex Zivojinovich) from the film when he was a mere teenager. He was part of a group of 10 young people who went to live on a farm for 10 weeks to explore their views and issues with the establishment and their feelings about the future.




Looking at his web site, you can see that he worked through different stages of life via his own films in almost chronological order. Though he directed many episodes of TV and even made fictional films, these life stage films are the sole focus of this announced set. The most recent films of the five are both about the process of dying - one follows 5 terminally ill cancer patients through their final months and the other documents several patients in a geriatric home who suffer from dementia and memory loss - and his last (unfinished) film was titled "Endings".

I'm thrilled that King is getting this set. Not only because all 5 of these films have long been on the "to-see" list and sound intriguing and thought-provoking, but because it will raise further awareness of a man and a career that has already influenced so many. My expectation is this release will provide even further inspiration to an even wider group of artists.

Basking In The Cesspool Of Filth #16

Look how happy he is with his hair...Bastard.


Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare (1968 - Yoshiyuki Kuroda) - In reviews for the two other Yokai Monsters films made during the late 60s, I mentioned that one of my minor complaints was that there just wasn't enough screen time for the many creative ghostly apparitions that appear on screen. Whatever faults this knowingly goofy and fun-spirited middle movie of the series may have, that's certainly not an issue this time out. As a matter of fact, there's little story or human characters to really get in the way of them all. Here's the basic framework: a long dormant spirit from Babylonia is awakened and makes its way to the shores of Japan; after killing a local magistrate and sucking his blood, it takes his form and sets itself up in his house to bring forth new suppliers of blood; a pesky local Water Imp doesn't appreciate being tossed out of his abode so he gathers some of his spirit friends to battle against this intruder from a far off land. It's pretty silly stuff, but it's also great fun. The spirits actually suffer a bit from overexposure in the film, but when you have a long-tongued umbrella spirit, a snake-necked woman and a creature that can display remote viewings of events on his bloated belly, well, you kinda want them to get as much screen time as possible anyway. The special effects for these part human, part beast and part spirit apparitions are all handled via lighting, camera angles, edits, models, costumes, superimpositions, etc. This is one of the movie's main charms as sometimes the simplest effects can be what's required. The battle scenes between the many Yokai and the newly arrived spirit aren't exactly spectacular, but they still entertain and fit the tone of the film. Considering its kid-friendly nature, slapstick humour is also quite prevalent and the Water Imp is the main focus of many of those scenes (quipping at one point "You Suck, Buddha!"). Even with some bright red simulated blood, these films are appropriate for all ages and - outside of Miyazaki - provide some of the best representations of Yokai from Japanese folklore that I've seen.

The Seventh Curse (1986 - Hgai Kai Lam) - Well that was odd...This weird mid-80s Hong Kong martial arts, voodoo, adventure, gory goofest feels so slapped together at times that I was sure I had somehow turned on the random shuffle option for scene selections. It settles down a bit once the main plot of rescuing of a young woman from a Thailand tribe begins, but it doesn't really alter the weird factor much. There's a variety of really fun scenes (love that skeleton kickin' some butt), some icky scenes (I mentioned goo, right?), some decent fights and some absolute crap (ie. anything with dialog). The DVD was of dubious quality so it's hard to say if that impacted my feelings towards the film. Could this have fared better with me if I had a pristine version without it feeling like entire sections of the film were dropped? I'd be hard pressed to say yes, but it certainly had its moments. And, of course, it's always good to have Maggie Cheung in your movie...Even when she plays a terribly annoying character (like she does here), I can somehow forgive that.









The Two Faces Of Dr. Jekyll (1960 - Terence Fisher) - Hammer continues to get play on my TV since there's just something I find highly entertaining about just about all of their films. Of course, the beautifully lit and wonderfully colourful scenes are a big reason for that, but I think it comes down to the overall approach they take towards their stories. Go big, but never quite go over the top into campy territory. In this case, this allows good old Mr. Hyde to play with his evil tendencies with a sense of abandon, but it still manages to keep the story moving forward and not descend into random silliness (not that I have anything against that either...). In some ways the Dr. Jekyll character (all scruffy, sweaty and pale) is even more of a fright than his clean shaven counterpart since he begins to shun all human contact. Hyde, however, embraces his impulses at every opportunity.









The Hand (1981 - Oliver Stone) - This was the last remaining movie for me to watch from Warner's Twisted Terror Collection (released about 2 and a half years ago). I've kinda taken my time shambling through the six film set, but it's been worth it - two extraordinarily bad (but fun) cheesy films ("Dr. Giggles", "Deadly Friend"), two minor TV-like thrillers that scored a few good moments ("Someone's Watching Me", "Eyes Of A Stranger") and one great Amicus anthology ("From Beyond The Grave"). Turns out that this was a good way to end the set - it's actually quite the solid psychological-thriller/study of a cartoonist who loses his hand in a car crash and then struggles to rebuild his life. It's dark, moody and plays with shadows and light quite nicely. It's occasionally a little slow and doesn't really deliver a great deal of "scares", but that's OK - it never gets overly silly (and when you have a disembodied hand strolling about, you certainly have that as a danger) and Michael Caine is suitably intense throughout.

Sequences Of A Titular Nature #5

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about this batch too...


Only Human (2004 - Dominic Harari, Teresa Pelegri) - A jewel of a film. This may now be my go-to movie for any questions about "hidden gems". I stumbled across this a couple of years ago by randomly snagging it from my local Videoflicks store and then buying it for myself shortly thereafter. I really should do a better job in getting the word out on this Spanish film (whose title is actually "Seres Queridos") - it does such a wonderful job in combining slapstick scenes and setups with subtle character-based laughs. Each of the characters is flawed, but also charming and detailed. The plot is simple (as I mentioned in my earlier post: "Woman brings recent boyfriend home to meet her slightly eccentric family. Hijinks and misunderstandings follow."), but offers a whole lot more around that central premise. It was only on this recent re-watch that I noticed the titles are each set against different backgrounds that appear in the film: a comforter on a bed, the tiled wall of a bathroom, the rug from another room. Not only do these make for wonderfully colourful titles that put you in the mood for what's to follow, but it puts a smile on your face when you begin to recognize those little swatches in the film itself. It's yet another finely tuned detail in this terrific movie. Seek it out if you can.











Illegal (1955 - Lewis Allen) - OK, nothing spectacular here at the beginning of this darn good noir, but I love the tabloid style typeface that gets splashed across the screen. The camera first pans across the squad room along with the titles and then begins to show some of the individual details and aspects of a cop's job. Edward G. Robinson definitely deserves his name above the title credit since it's his show pretty much all the way. He plays successful lawyer Victor Scott who has never lost a case, resorts to dirty tactics and is looking for his 100th win in a row. Unfortunately, that win just happens to be at the expense of an innocent man and Scott fails to save him at the last minute from the electric chair. He ends up in private practice and slowly gets sucked into defending the mob. The plot zips along and it's filled with tightly-constructed great scenes and also some incredibly ridiculous courtroom pranks that would never be allowed. Jayne Mansfield has one of her first roles in a small part, but doesn't really impress much. Fortunately the rest of the cast are superb.










Caprice (1967 - Frank Tashlin) - One of the oddest title sequences I've seen of late - just about every new title is done in a different font, colour, size and with a different background. I suppose that's appropriate given that the story revolves around an industrial designer and Frank Tashlin is at the helm, but unfortunately the film is just about as messy as this sequence feels. Ray Walston is a lot of fun (isn't he always?) and there's style galore in just about every scene (clothes, sets, etc.), but Doris Day drags things down. She just doesn't fit the role of an industrial spy and every scene she is in just loses any of Tashlin's manic energy. Granted, she's handicapped slightly by a shifting script that has her alternatively clever and bumbling.















Spider Baby (1968 - Jack Hill) - One of my absolute favourites of the 60s set of cult-classic features, I just couldn't believe how much fun this film was the first time I saw it. The actors give it their all and are obviously having fun with the parts while "the maddest story ever told" unfolds. Though Hill is obviously on a tight budget here, he also makes this thing look pretty damn fantastic with shadows lurking everywhere (especially in the latter half of the film). The titles compliment it perfectly - fun and with a solid eye for doing a lot with very little.