Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden (2016) Dieter Berner wanted young people to play young people, and cast the male model Noah Saavedra as Schiele even though “he couldn’t memorize two lines.” Subtler and more dynamic performances characterize Maresi Riegner as Gerti, the sister, and Valerie Pachner as the devoted Wally, perhaps due to … More Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden
Rodin (2017) The problem with this version of Rodin is that it will always be judged by the extraordinary Camille Claudel, Bruno Nuytten‘s 1988 biopic, starring the incomparable Isabelle Adjani, for which she received both a César and an Academy Award. Jacques Doillon takes a fairly conventional approach, through a series of tableaux that put … More Rodin (2017)
Final Portrait (2018) Stanley Tucci wrote and directed this independent film that focuses on the unrelenting obsession of Alberto Giacometti when at work making a portrait of his friend James Lord, who wrote about the experience. Geoffrey Rush provides a credible performance as the artist, and Tony Shalhoub surprises as his brother Diego. The excruciating … More Final Portrait (2018)
Meat Weed Madness (2006) The only short at the TROMA Festival that was booed by the entire audience was made by Aiden Dillard who subsequently wrote and directed this follow-up. Offending the audience becomes post-punk sport. Naked babes and incest fantasies feature performance artists Hells’ Belles as parricides, with a Bullpucky minotaur added for classical … More Meat Weed Madness (2006)
Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) Billy Jack, Ex-Green Beret hapkido expert, a half-Cherokee liberal who preaches peace but is quite willing to kick the ass of all right-wing racist cops and politicians, created and played by Tom Laughlin, here reprises the plot of Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in the last … More Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977)
Judex (1963) Jacques Champreux, the grandson of Louis Feuillade, convinced Georges Franju to remake Judex in the tradition of early French serial crime dramas. A banker is sent a threatening letter, demanding that he return all money swindled from other clients. It is signed “Judex,” which means either “justice” or “revenge.” The result is a … More Judex (1963)
The Mummy (1959) This film remains my favorite because when Christopher Lee as the Mummy reaches archeologist Peter Cushing, he really intends to strangle him. Terence Fisher directs this Hammer classic that captures the 1890s British society in exquisite costuming [Mary Arbuthnot], sets [Bernard Robinson] , and cinematographic color [Jack Asher]. Yvonne Furneaux never looked … More The Mummy (1959)
Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) Banned in Japan, Teruo Ishii directed and co-wrote this nightmarish sequence of shifting points of view, adapted from tales by Edgawa Rampo. For a portion of the movie, the narrative is from the mind of an inmate who claims to have been falsely incarcerated in an insane asylum. He escapes, … More Horrors of Malformed Men (1969)
The Diabolical Dr. Z [aka Miss Muerte] (1966) Alejandro Ulloa provided the exquisite black and white cinematography for Jesse Franco’s dissociative collage of horror. Irma [Mabel Karr] takes revenge on the doctors who mocked her father’s research on “the moral centers of the human nervous system.” Dr. Z is himself less a moral center than … More The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966)
Married to the Mob (1988) Jonathan Demme directed this Romantic comedy about a mob wife, Angela del Marco [Michelle Pfeiffer] who tries to start a new life after her husband’s murder. The FBI Agent, Mike Smith/Downey [Matthew Modine] wires her apartment up and then falls in love with her. However, the great Mercedes Ruehl as … More Married to the Mob (1988)
