What classics did you see last week ? (29 Dec - 4 Jan 2020)

Hi all,I hope everyone is having a good weekend and a happy New Year,I had the chance to see two unique Musicals in the run-up to the end of the 2010's:

Musical duo:

On Dec 27th,I went with a pal to Birmingham to check the sales,and also attend a revivial screening at The Electric, on what turned out to be the day the cinema turned 110 years old.



Having only seen The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) once in 2012, I was taken by how Demy kept what could have been a heavy Melodrama,playful, along with the melancholy touch in the snow-covered final. My rating has gone from 8,to 9.

In the run-up to X-Mas,I read reports that in a weeks time Universal were going to remove the original print to a Musical, due to how badly it was bombing. Suspecting this could be a "special" movie-but finding no one else crazy enough to see it,I went on Boxing Day night to town,and saw:



Cats-The original CGI glitches Midnight Movie cut (2019.)

A truly,"So Bad,It's Good"-8/10!

Stating in interviews at the premiere that he was still working on CGI sequences just hours before the screening, director Tom Hooper & cinematographer Christopher Ross cough up a $100 million (plus another $100 million for marketing) "So Bad,It's Good" grand furball folly. From the opening shot descending into the world of Cats, a utterly strange atmosphere wiggles on screen, shaking in the CGI proportions of the cats changing between shots,and even the CGI fur on the hands/faces of the cast re-appearing/disappearing from shot to shot (and they spent millions on this!)

Having made Les Misérables (2012-also ) reviewed, Hooper gives the impression of unintentionally making a anti-Musical, where would-be decadent vast settings for the cats dancing on the streets of London, is melted by Hooper into appearing it's been dipped in tie-dye acid dripping colours down Hooper's distorted, weaving camera moves on dance movers,originally performed with a skillfulness by dancers, that is hilariously dented by Hooper placing ill-fitting CGI cats skeletons to copy the dance moves.

Closing in with hand-held shots towards the I Dream A Dream-style set-piece with Memories, Hooper makes it come off as a unintended spoof,due to his regular composition of placing the performer into the far side of the screen, causing the fever dream vision of the half human/half animal CGI animals, (complete with human faced bugs,who get eaten!) to be sneezed into the melting backdrop.

Clawing into Andrew Lloyd Webber's Musical adaptation of T.S. Eliot's poems already giving them the challenge that the stage version spends 90% on set-up/intros to the Cats, the screenplay by Hooper and lee Hall try in desperation to place new, additional tension over who will go to the Heaviside Layer, that gets in the way of the tail-shacking, joyfully nonsensical, disconnected to cat buglers (get it?!) old cat dames, and the railway cat who got the cream.

Dr Goldfoot trio:



Goldfoot 1 (1965) 6

Cackling as each new bikini-clad robot comes off the conveyor belt, Vincent Price succeeds in stealing the film with a wonderfully hammy turn, thickly sliced by Price snarling like a 007 baddie at Gamble and Armstrong's attempts to stop him. Whilst Gamble is slick as the fish out of water Gamble,Susan Hart zaps the big slap-stick Comedy punch-lines as Diane, thanks to a mix of sass in a gold bikini, and playing all the gags in a deadpan manner.

Stacking the screen with bikini robots, director Norman Taurog & cinematographer Sam Leavitt spin a groovy atmosphere which blends the Teen Beach Party flicks eye candy with the Euro Spy coolness,as the brightly coloured lair of Goodfoot allows the makers to use sets/ wide-shots of the Price film Pit and the Pendulum. The most expensive AIP production at the time, Taurog puts the $1 million budget on screen in a mad dash zany whip-pans final chase to Armstrong and Gamble unzipping Goodfoot's bikini machine.

Goldfoot 2. (1965)3

Commenting later on the films, Vincent Price said "It could have been fun, but they cut all the music out". For this TV special, director Mel Ferber put the music back in, for dance numbers, which could have been swinging, but missteps with flat dancing shot with stilted cameras, and plodding, dry lyrics. Designed as a way to hype up the first film, Vincent Price is the lone bright spark in this special, thanks to Price gleefully laughing at creating the bikini machine of Dr. Goldfoot.

Goldfoot 3 (1966)3

Finding the mix of Beach Party movie hip teens and Euro Spy coolness to make the first Goldfoot a hit in Italy, studio AIP decided to make a Goldfoot just for the Italian market, where they got rid of the teens and Euro Spy quirks, in exchange for a dire "Slap-Stick" Comedy. Stupidly shoving Vincent Price's Goldfoot and sexy Laura Antonelli's sultry Rosanna to the sidelines, (the only two good actors in the film)the 4 writers (!) instead float in a showcase for comedic duo Franchi & Ingrassia's plodding, gurning act.

Attempting to get out of the contract to make this version (a different English version was shot at the same time,on which he was given no say over the production) director Mario Bava & his regular cinematographer Antonio Rinaldi display some of Bava's unique colourful flourishes in Goldfoot's lair, but otherwise are clearly bored in waiting for this girl bomb to go off.

Gialli Queens duo:



The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968) 8

Falling the honeymoon bliss of Deborah and Marcel off a knife edge into a pit of murder and betrayal, director Romolo Guerrieri & cinematographer Marcello Masciocchi wed the couple to the first psychological-driven wave of Gialli with a pristine, corrupt bourgeoisie atmosphere of the couple being wrapped in glistening white surroundings, which Guerrieri merrily spoils with dollops of candle wax blood.

One of only two Gialli he made, Guerrieri displays a sharp eye in moving towards the ultra-stylisation which would grip the genre, offering a artful eyeful of topless Deborah, and a groovy nightclub dance with Batman on the wall. Playing on the notes of paranoia with Nora Orlandi's dreamy score bringing up Marcel's suppressed memories, Guerrieri brilliantly uses obscured angles to heighten ambiguity in the Giallo set-pieces over who is getting stabbed in the back. Setting the stage for what Sergio Martino (who worked as a general manager here) would do in the Giallo, Sergio's brother Luciano joins Ernesto Gastaldi for a female-led, doubtful couple Giallo terror screenplay, as the writers tighten the screws on fears that Deborah and Marcel might both be losing their minds.

Dipping into the death of Marcel's past partner with fractured flashbacks, the writers raise doubts between the couple by each of them hearing music and phones ringing that appear to be coming from a unseen place. Working on both Gialli made by Guerrieri, Jean Sorel gives a terrific turn as Marcel, whose sorrow Sorel carries with a heaviness which remains even as the Giallo twist ending wraps around him, whilst George Hilton tugs at flamboyant ambiguity as Robert Simack (get the ref?) Initially holding hands with Marcel in a cheerful state, alluring Carroll Baker gives a excellent performance as Deborah, thanks to Baker taking the loved-up state of Deborah and peeling it away to raw, calculating mistrusts which covers the sweet body of Deborah.



Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975) 8

Backed by a uber funky score from Berto Pisano, co-writer/(with Massimo Felisatti and Gene Luotto) director Andrea Bianchi & cinematographer Franco Delli Colli blissfully place one layer of Giallo sleaze on top of each other,via Bianchi ogling the naked fitties in slick panning shots round their lavishly spread out apartments. Whilst offering viewers a eyeful of Edwige Fenech's giallos,Bianchi balances the glamour shots with a proto-Slasher grittiness into the ultra-stylisation of the Giallo, via striking extended first-person tracking shots reflecting on the visor of the biker-helmet wearing killer, opening to icy long creeping silent shots towards the short,sharp, shock murder set-pieces pulling a red gash across the screen.

Turning the taps onto what led to this wave of killings in flashback droplets, the screenplay by Bianchi/Felisatti and Luotto take a richly cynical stab at all in this tale, where the bourgeoisie victims reek with corruption, and a deep desire to keep misdeeds under water (a major theme of the Giallo genre.) Rolling out a ripe twist ending, the writers make this Giallo mystery a winning strip, thanks to each additional victim bringing into focus for the investigating Carlo (a jet-set,spinning on curiosity Nino Castelnuovo) and Magda (a sexy,lusting Edwige Fenech) uncover the event which led to the victims stripping for the killer.

Other flicks:



"People talk without understanding each other."

"Girlfriend now,I have a have a girlfriend now ,No way, no how I get a girlfriend now."

Featuring a detailed booklet, Masters of Cinema present a superb transfer, with the picture being crystal clear whilst retaining a film grain,and the soundtrack being smooth. Stating in a interview that filming had to be stopped for 2 and a half months due to the original studio going bust, co-writer/(with Suso Cecchi D'Amico and Alba De Cespedes) directing auteur Michelangelo Antonioni & his regular cinematographer from this era Gianni Di Venanzo layer foundation over the behind the scenes troubles, to magnificently gaze at the progression of Antonioni's recurring motifs.

Inviting the audience in with a opening shot of Clelia looking in a bathroom mirror of her hotel room, as a glamorous dressed Rosetta lays dying from a overdose in the adjoining room,Antonioni perfectly captures his distinctive stylisation, reflecting in the recurring use of mirrors and glass surfaces the detachment the girlfriends have from the image/person looking back at them,which shines onto elegant, long, stilted wide-shots subtly building a separation between the girlfriends and the viewer.

Entering each of their households, Antonioni highlights the beauty of each girlfriend in close-ups set against a earthy, (separated by their high-class living) ravaged landscape. Getting the role just two days before filming began after turning heads with a photo shoot,Madeleine Fischer gives a terrific turn as Rosetta, with Fischer using the limited number of credits she had gathered to give Rosetta a dying wallflower innocence, looking outwards as all around her become more insular. Later called the "Diva" of the set who "felt that she had to act as such,without success." by Antonionoi, the beautiful Eleonora Rossi Drago gives a magnetic performance as Clelia, with her state of being a outsider entering Rosetta's friendships, leading Drago to emphasize a separation between Clelia and the girlfriends.

Freely adapting Cesare Pavese's novel, the writers welcome the girlfriends with outstanding dialogue pulling on how even when they appear deep in conversation,everyone is reflecting complete isolation and a inability to process difference of opinion. Stated later by Antonionoi that he directed each actress in different ways, the writers dress each of the girlfriends in wonderfully at odds styles, from the outward looking Rosetta and the glamour of Momina, (played by Hammer Girl Yvonne Furneaux) to Clelia standing as a square peg in the middle of the girlfriends.