“I don’t belong in the world” **SPOILERS** This little gem from 1962 has been on my to see list for years. I’ve eyed the Criterion Collection version, almost buying it a couple of times, until finally looking away until I knew for sure it was worth purchasing. I can safely say that Carnival of Souls is well deserving of the Criterion treatment and soon a place in my film catalog. Director Herk Harvey has put together a real work of art and amazingly it was to be his only non-documentary/educational…
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REVIEW: Sisters [1973]
“There is no body because there was no murder” Many people out there seem to have some sort of indifference when it comes to the subject of director Brian De Palma. I’m not quite sure what it is, but I have enjoyed every film I’ve seen by him. In anticipation of his new The Black Dahlia, I decided to revisit one of his earlier films, Sisters. I hadn’t seen it in over five years or so, but always remembered finding it intellectually disturbing and containing one of the most surreal,…
Read MoreREVIEW: Charade [1963]
“Punch and Judy” After seeing the dismal Jonathan Demme film The Truth About Charlie, I was left aghast. The film had so much going for it. But it was a major letdown besides the surreal New Wave feel of the sequence just before the end credits. I flipped the disc over upon completion to check out the bonus movie Charade on which it was based. I fast-forwarded a bit and discovered the dialogue was pretty much the same in that part, so I took it out and returned the rental.…
Read MoreREVIEW: Belle de jour [1967]
French language director Luis Buñuel is a master at cinematic surrealism. After seeing his masterpiece Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie in film history class during college, I had been intrigued to seek out and see more from him. So, when the Sundance Channel recently aired Belle de jour I took the plunge. While at first glance it seems we have a straightforward narrative, it all soon unravels. The first glimpse of our main character, Séverine, occurs during a masochistic nightmare (or maybe welcome dream as we might later discern)…
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