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Post by helrunar on Dec 29, 2023 22:13:38 GMT
Interesting, Bluetomb. I briefly owned the original (not the revised) edition of this collection of Corpse Roads poetry which included some images as well. It was really poorly put together and a lot of the poetry just did not ring my chimes, so I gave the book away. folkhorrorrevival.com/2020/02/03/corpse-roads-revised-edition/There are some really intriguing folk traditions in various parts of the world about corpse roads. A lot of them start with just how a dead person has to be removed from a home. In some cultures, the entire house (usually a hut) has to be completely disassembled before the body is taken out. There are many ritual directives around such actions and events. It wasn't clear (I think because the opening paragraph in the synopsis seems to have been left out) that this was about people bearing a coffin and following a corpse road--but that does fit what is shown in the clips. It really sounds like a gripping bit of film. cheers, Hel.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 3, 2024 19:44:00 GMT
The Witch of Kings Cross (2020, directed by Sonia Bible) Stumbled on it while browsing Prime. I guess like most of random viewers I thought this to be some obscure horror movie, but it is a documentary.
Australian Artist Rosaleen Norton faced allegations of satanic rituals, obscene art and sex orgies in 1950s Sydney. I never heard of her, but according to the docu she was into the occult and paganism. A book with her art was seized, the conservative 50s authorities had it in for her. She met English classical music composer and conductor Sir Eugene Gossens, who was then in Australia and had an interest in the occult. They had an affair. After the police seized some his letters from her home they arrested him when he brought some porn into the country. This 'scandal' destroyed his career. I am in two minds about the movie. It featured a lot of Norton‘s occult themed artwork which was impressive. I don‘t care much for dance scenes, which here were used often to symbolize both paganism and Norton. After a while they became tedious. Also I thought the presentation of magazine and press articles about Norton and her trails a bit too stylized; I often wondered if they were real or just dramatic license and faked. Or were they both? For such a topic this was counter-productive. A bit more journalistic restraint, a smidgen of humor or irony and grey tones instead of one-sided disgust would have made a better and more believable docu-movie. (Even in the 50s with crappy laws and abusive vice officers, did the Australian authorities really burn two of her paintings?) Aside of this it is an interesting story of censorship and a literal witch-hunt which even back then must have reeked of stupidity and rabid moralists.
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Post by jamesdoig on Feb 3, 2024 20:09:27 GMT
I didn't know about the doco - I'll have to give it a go. She also wrote three horror stories for a newspaper when she was a teenager - they've been collected into a thin, nicely produced volume but it costs a small fortune as these things usually do. Same with her art books, though I always thought she was overrated - not much more than a competent illustrator. As you say, an interesting outsider who was hounded by the authorities and the press. There's even this novelisation with a couple of subtle name changes:
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Post by helrunar on Feb 3, 2024 21:03:05 GMT
Hi James, the documentary is really well done. I think her paintings are incredible--they came from visions she had. But to each his own. The documentary makers used software to make the paintings "come alive" which worked a bit better for me than I might have expected. I don't really understand why this was necessary, but it seems to be one of the current fads that people get listless and bored if they're asked simply to look at a work of art on the wall.
Yes, it would be nice if there were a reasonably priced book with full color repros of her work. The ones I've heard about are very expensive.
One thing that the film made me realize was just how indescribably squalid her living arrangements were for much of her life. In the US in the 21st century, a social worker might have arranged for her to get on social security disability, but in Australia in the 1950s, she just scraped by with what she could because she really was too much on her own "plane of reality" to manage coping with 99 percent of the population.
cheers, Steve
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Post by jamesdoig on Feb 5, 2024 20:06:39 GMT
the documentary is really well done. I agree - it was excellent. I also watched a Dario Argento doco that looks quite recent - made me realise I haven't seen any of his films after about 1980.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Feb 5, 2024 20:15:17 GMT
the documentary is really well done. I agree - it was excellent. I also watched a Dario Argento doco that looks quite recent - made me realise I haven't seen any of his films after about 1980. Try TRAUMA (1993), his American film. Argento fans tend to hate it, but it is actually wonderful.
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toff
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 72
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Post by toff on Feb 6, 2024 0:24:03 GMT
I have a bit of an Argento collection. I recall Trauma (1993) being OK. Even La sindrome di Stendhal (1996) had its moments. Most of what followed was poor to awful, though, possible exceptions being the two episodes for the series Masters of Horror in 2005-2006. His last, Dark Glasses (2022), was just staggeringly awful - as was a movie by others meant to be a tribute to him, Onirica (2019). But even for the worst, there are some apologists among his hardcore fans as can be seen on IMDb.
Have been watching a lot of shows on MHz Choice. The French Perfect Murders, Murder In..., and Blood of the Vine series have been enjoyable. Swiss and German The Undertaker and Crime Scene Cleaner and the Swedish Agatha Christie's Hjerson and the Italian Nero Wolfe I have liked as well. Not so much horror stuff there, other than some crime/detective shows getting dark.
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Post by jamesdoig on Feb 6, 2024 5:19:52 GMT
I have a bit of an Argento collection. I recall Trauma (1993) being OK. Even La sindrome di Stendhal (1996) had its moments. Most of what followed was poor to awful That was pretty much the take of the documentary. I'll have to try the Agatha Christie's Hjerson - I think it was on here, but I didn't dip into it.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 6, 2024 11:45:39 GMT
I have a bit of an Argento collection. I recall Trauma (1993) being OK. Even La sindrome di Stendhal (1996) had its moments. Most of what followed was poor to awful, though, possible exceptions being the two episodes for the series Masters of Horror in 2005-2006. His last, Dark Glasses (2022), was just staggeringly awful - as was a movie by others meant to be a tribute to him, Onirica (2019). But even for the worst, there are some apologists among his hardcore fans as can be seen on IMDb. La sindrome di Stendhal is a nasty one. I know, art and actors and all, still I thought it strange how he could cast his daugther in this role. I share your opinion. I have a soft spot for his Dracula, which I thought in parts interesting, but thought Mother of Tears a crushing diappointment, even badly made in terms of craft. Giallo was the last one of I watched, which also was bafflingly inept and poor. Couldn't even muster the energy to see Dark Glasses.
An Italian Nero Wolfe? Wow, sounds bizarre. Also Agatha Christie's Hjerson, which I missed. Okay, this is rather meta, but at least they could invent him from scratch.
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toff
Crab On The Rampage
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Post by toff on Feb 6, 2024 21:25:09 GMT
An Italian Nero Wolfe? Wow, sounds bizarre. Also Agatha Christie's Hjerson, which I missed. Okay, this is rather meta, but at least they could invent him from scratch.
They came up with a reason for Wolfe to have moved to Italy. I wasn't really familiar with the novels, but my mother who had read many of them did enjoy the show too. Decent broad review of it here: katewoodbury.blogspot.com/2019/01/another-great-nero-wolfe.html. With Hjerson, I suppose they're licensing the Christie name from her estate? I'd guess something similar happened with Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, which I liked better.
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Post by andydecker on Feb 7, 2024 9:18:26 GMT
They came up with a reason for Wolfe to have moved to Italy. I wasn't really familiar with the novels, but my mother who had read many of them did enjoy the show too. Decent broad review of it here: katewoodbury.blogspot.com/2019/01/another-great-nero-wolfe.html. With Hjerson, I suppose they're licensing the Christie name from her estate? I'd guess something similar happened with Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, which I liked better. Thanks for the link. Will watch out for it in the flood of crime tv on pay tv. In my youth I think I read every Stout novel, still have a batch of them, both translated and original. (Same with Gardner. Prime put Perry Mason with Burr on its Freevee channel these days and I watched more than I care to admit; I had forgotten that I have so many of the novels in some forgotten corner). Mostly I remember about Stout that the murders and its conclusions never made much if any sense to me, but the setting was so bizarre and so wish-fulfilment in a cosy Hallmark kind of way that they still were fun.
As Hjerson as far as I know only was mentioned by Poirot's writer pal Ariadne Oliver, it surely could be the name and concepts only. The writers of Suchet's Poirot had a lot of fun with making him ever more bizarre sounding in those episodes Oliver was present; actress Zoe Wannamaker did do those lines with a lot of conviction and gusto.
Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie was quite clever in writing and fun to watch before the usual fatigue set in. The French did some good crime shows in the past. I have seen that Depardieu did a new Maigret movie. Reviews seem to agree that he is good in the role but the story is rather weak.
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toff
Crab On The Rampage
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Post by toff on Feb 8, 2024 14:48:34 GMT
I just watched Panico last night. One of the striking moments was Opera star Cristina Marsillach being apparently really shook up when being asked "who is Dario Argento?" and just not having an answer. Yikes. Also interesting to hear Asia addressing the difficulty of shooting certain scenes with him, something every viewer has had to wonder about. And the idea of their making Trauma (1993) as some kind of intervention regarding his stepdaughter Anna's anorexia without having done any research on the subject was... definitely odd. I might finally go about seeing the two Argento features I've missed, Le cinque giornate (1973) AKA Five Days of Milan and Dracula 3D (2012). The earlier was touched on in the documentary, but I don't remember if Dracula was even mentioned. Not expecting much from either. A couple other things not mentioned in the documentary that I've been curious about I see are on YouTube and I will check them out too: Gli incubi di Dario Argento (1987) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6MKXFmkfusTrusardi Action (1986) www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2FqUkH14wYI was sorry they hadn't included more about his initial screenwriting career. Once Upon a Time in the West did get some discussion, but his work was pretty extensive: 1966 Pardon, Are You For or Against? 1967 Qualcuno ha tradito 1968 Today We Kill... Tomorrow We Die! Comandamenti per un gangster Commandos La rivoluzione sessuale Once Upon a Time in the West 1969 Cemetery Without Crosses Metti, una sera a cena Probabilità zero Battle of the Commandos The Five Man Army La stagione dei sensi 1973 Man Called Amen Also sorry that nothing was said of his work with George Romero, the European cuts of Dawn of the Dead and Martin, and the co-directed Two Evil Eyes. Similarly nothing that I recall about his role with the movies Demons, Demons 2, The Church, The Sect/The Devil’s Daughter, M.D.C. - Maschera di cera, and the TV series Turno di notte except maybe glimpses of the poster art for some. Nor his commercials, though admittedly they're not exceptional and if he's really not done others, then that's not too surprising: Fiat (1991) youtu.be/Mbdj-j95k_E?si=GK8KXW7e12jSn41UAIMA: Vicolo cieco (1999) youtu.be/wG8uVg9N3xc?si=gKZZGvmzYs__c4L-Eridania Zefiro (2002) www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS7Bp-eaavw
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Post by andydecker on Mar 9, 2024 18:55:42 GMT
Diabolik (2021) directed by Antonio and Marco Manetti
Diabolik is a Italian comic series published since 1962. The basic plot is about Diabolik, a master criminal and killer, and his lover and partner in crime Eva Kant. Created by the sisters Giussani the comic had and has not much in common with the flood of Italian crime and horror comics in the 70 with their flood of blood, sex and violence like Zora la vampira, Oltretomba or Kriminal. It was a black and white comic which was (and is) family-friendly, if you ignore the hero is a ruthless killer who never gets caught by the police. Maybe its tameness is a factor of its continuing success. It first was filmed by Mario Bava in 1968 which due to its time was made into a camp superhero movie. Still it is much fun, thanks due to its terrific cast. This new version, the first of three movies, takes the theme and the original comic seriously. Basically it is based on an early comic which tells the first meeting of Diabolik and Eva. It is done as a period piece, right down to Diabolik‘s face masks made so famous in Mission Impossible. Most of the reviews on IMDB are pretty bad. That doesn‘t say much about the movie, of course. But I also was disappointed. It looks great, it nailed its 60s setting, the cast was okay to excellent, Miriam Leone as Eva Kant is wonderful. But the pacing was off, the story much too fragmented and the movie just boring. This could have been so much better.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 9, 2024 19:14:48 GMT
Diabolik (2021) directed by Antonio and Marco Manetti I had no idea this existed. I am a big fan of the DIABOLIK fumetti. They are an excellent way of improving your Italian.
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Post by andydecker on Mar 10, 2024 19:51:18 GMT
Diabolik (2021) directed by Antonio and Marco Manetti I had no idea this existed. I am a big fan of the DIABOLIK fumetti. They are an excellent way of improving your Italian. I have a few Italian copies, there was even a (very) short-lived translation in 2001. But to be honest I thought the ones I read rather lame. The most interesting thing about it is the relationship of Diabolik and Eva Kant. This is one of the few femme fatale characters which really work.
Do you know the Italian publishers site? Impressive what product and marketing events they still do. Some of those series like Tex or Dylan Dog are seemingly unstoppable.
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