Review | Cagey Films

Francesco Rosi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979):
Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on September 9, 2020March 24, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Painter Carlo Levi is escorted by police to exile in a remote village in Francesco Rosi's Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979)

Francesco Rosi’s most emotionally resonant film, a four-part adaptation of the memoir of painter Carlo Levi, who was exiled by the Fascist government in 1935 to a remote corner of Italy, is a rich, contemplative study of a Leftist intellectual who comes to empathize with the harsh lives of peasants left behind by the modernization of Italy. Criterion’s new Blu-ray edition serves the striking imagery well and provides substantial supportive supplements which provide historical context and situate the film in Rosi’s politically informed filmography.

Two swansongs

Posted on September 2, 2020March 24, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Nothing goes right on board Stan's inherited yacht in Leo Joannon's Atoll K (1960)

A pair of Blu-rays from England showcase the final works of major artists who were considered at the time to be in decline: Laurel and Hardy’s last feature, Atoll K (dir. Leo Joannon, 1951) is a bittersweet mess which captures the Boys’ enduring charm while making their mortality all too clear, while Fritz Lang’s The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) comes full circle by reviving his Weimar criminal mastermind in a Cold War context which paved the way for James Bond’s high-tech thrills.

Clearing the docket: Arrow Video

Posted on August 26, 2020March 24, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

An indentured soldier faces down a giant cockroach in Takashi Miike's Terraformars (2016)

Another mixed bag of exploitation movies from Arrow Video featuring sleazy killers, unhealthy family feelings, nuclear war, vigilantes, tattoos and giant cockroaches on Mars.

D.A. Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus’ Town Bloody Hall (1979):
Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on August 19, 2020March 24, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Feminism and masculinity go toe-toe-toe in Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker's Town Bloody Hall (1979)

In D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus’ Town Bloody Hall (1979), the raggedness of the film – shot on the fly in 16mm – perfectly captures the chaos of the event it documents, a fractious panel held in New York on April 30, 1971, in which four feminists were pitted against Normal Mailer, who had just published The Prisoner of Sex, his problematic response to the feminist movement. Criterion gives the scrappy film a 4K restoration and loads the disk with fascinating contextual supplements.

In dreams

Posted on August 12, 2020November 23, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Anna (Charlotte Burke) finds herself in a landscape she drew in Bernard Rose's Paperhouse (1988)

Three movies from the 1980s rooted in the intersection of dreams and reality are rescued from obscurity with excellent Blu-ray editions — two in recent Arrow releases, Harley Cokeliss’ Dream Demon (1988) and Mike Hodges Black Rainbow (1989), and one, Bernard Rose’s Paperhouse (1988), on a now out-of-print French disk.

The good, the mediocre and the annoying

Posted on August 5, 2020March 24, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Calvin Lockhart as big game hunter Tom Newcliffe aims to bag a werewolf in Paul Annett's The Beast Must Die (1974)

A couple of recent disappointments from Indicator – excellent editions of two mediocre movies (Guy Hamilton’s Force 10 From Navarone [1978] and Paul Annett’s The Beast Must Die [1974]) – are offset by the terrific French television series of adaptations from the Maigret novels and stories by Georges Simenon, fifty-four feature-length movies centred on a magisterial performance by Bruno Cremer as the famous detective.

Shameless exploitation

Posted on July 29, 2020November 21, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Family retainer Isidro (Giuseppe Carbone) plays with the contents of the crypt in Mario Bianchi's Satan's Baby Doll (1982)

Shameless is a British label dedicated to exploitation movies (with a mission statement emphasizing sleaze and outrage) which has been issuing mostly Italian genre titles for more than a decade with mixed results in terms of quality; thanks to a recent on-line sale, I just binged some of their releases which cover the spectrum in terms of quality (both technical and creative).

A frustrating evening

Posted on July 22, 2020April 3, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Michael (Hywel Bennett) can't avoid the distrust, even contempt, of Ellie (Hayley Mills)'s relatives in Sidney Gilliat's Endless Night (1972)

When my friend Howard came over for an evening of movie-watching recently, we ended up with a highly idiosyncratic double-bill of problematic features, one representing self-conscious art, the other polished commercial craft – neither entirely satisfying: Josej Von Sternberg’s The Saga of Anatahan (1953) and Sidney Gilliat’s Endless Night (1972).

New disk label Cauldron gets impressive launch

Posted on July 18, 2020March 24, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Cult henchman Francis (Daniel Green) gets mad in Sergio Martino's genre hybrid American Rickshaw (1989)

New disk label Cauldron has launched with a pair of impressive Blu-rays which firmly declare the company’s devotion to exploitation and genre cinema: the Onetti Brother’s knowing tribute to the classic giallo, Abrakadabra (12018) and Italian genre master Sergio Martino’s unexpected genre blend of giallo, poliziotteschi and supernatural horror American Rickshaw (1989).

Fessenden and Stanley, together again

Posted on July 15, 2020January 25, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

The reactivated military robot turns Jill (Stacey Travis)'s apartment into a killing ground in Richard Stanley's Hardware (1990)

Having recently watched the latest features of Richard Stanley and Larry Fessenden, I decided to revisit their earlier work via Blu-ray upgrades of my DVD copies of Stanley’s Hardware (1990) and Fessenden’s No Telling (1991), Habit (1995), Wendigo (2001) and The Last Winter (2006). All these movies remain fresh and showcase their respective director’s skill in using genre to explore larger themes.

Category: Review