The Space as a Character This is the sixth or seventh in the series that I have seen. BBC has a policy of putting different creative crew in charge of each one, so they vary significantly. I found the “Alien” and “Batman” franchises to be a mini-lesson in film techniques, and this is a lot… Continue reading Miss Marple: At Bertram’s Hotel (1987)
Tag: 1980s
Films released in the 1980s
Beau-père (1981)
Music as Sex Nabokov’s “Lolita” is a milestone in literature — the narrator is obsessed to the point where anything he says is at least synthesised out of that obsession and at worse fabricated. It is only about sex in so far as giving a focus to the obsession of being. Here we have a… Continue reading Beau-père (1981)
Bad Taste (1987)
The World as Hamburger Sometimes, if we are lucky, a film plants itself deep in our souls and thrives there. Other times, a film is something different: an invitation to a party in the world of the filmmaker. In that case, it cannot touch you and as long as you know there is no danger… Continue reading Bad Taste (1987)
April Fools Day (1986)
The Opening By now you probably know that the meat of this is quite ordinary. It has an “it is all a joke“ sort of Scooby-doo ending. And this casts the whole thing retrospectively as a spoof of the genre. Not particularly interesting on that basis alone. But consider the beginning. When you stick close… Continue reading April Fools Day (1986)
And the Ship Sails On (1983)
Sleeping Chickens Fellini is a visionary mystic. He sees what he knows before he figures it out. So we have set design, costume design, even character design, before he fills things in with his narratives and allegories. I know this, so don’t come to be disappointed when the stories and allegories do not quite work.… Continue reading And the Ship Sails On (1983)
Altered States (1980)
A Beautiful Mind Another director would have been better for this material in my mind. The production is off: the effects, the drama and the love story all fail. But the idea behind the story… the idea, that has power and is enough to keep you sitting through this. The idea is that certain scientists… Continue reading Altered States (1980)
Jane Austin in Manhattan (1980)
The Chosen I am usually offended, retroactively offended by Ivory – Jhabvala films. They have a quiet, deep consistency that draws respect the same way a cathedral does. But the uncomplicated emotional links and the sentimental world in which they exist gets to me, and taints dreams for days afterward. Good news. Here is that… Continue reading Jane Austin in Manhattan (1980)
Ishtar (1987)
Farentheit I am writing this at a time when George Bush is still president, Michael Moore’s film has just appeared and the American people are beginning to understand what has happened. We all grasp at the movie we live in. At the moment, the “Republican” movie is in competition more with alternative comfortable movies instead… Continue reading Ishtar (1987)
Krull (1983)
Organic There may still be people who watch projects like this for adventure. Heck, there are even people who get their theology from such stuff, currently “Rings” and “Matrix.” But for me, the allure is a matter of style. This film was conceived in the shadow of 1979s “Alien,” and the 82 “Bladerunner,” both of… Continue reading Krull (1983)
The Beast of War (1988)
Mechanised Urges It is fine with me for a film to be just an anti war film, without all the embellishments of the more famous ones. Because of that I will advise you to find this and let it soak in. I write this at the beginning of the second year of the Ukraine war,… Continue reading The Beast of War (1988)