Reviews

I haven't bothered to review a film for a while as it's essentially a pointless task, but I am forced to action (as a person of action might say).

WHY!?!?!? do people have a problem with sex in films. There are rumours that this film is being appealed against in Australia with the intention to ban it!! I do not find breasts offensive, not pubic hair. I certainly don't find a penis offensive, or I would be forced to slice mine off... (I'm quietly admiring of Rocco's, wish mine looked more like his)... so I don't have a problem with those things being portrayed in Anatomie de L'Enfer. There are a few challenging images in the film, but what is wrong with being challenged. Indeed, how could you go into this film and be shocked, the poster let's on what you are in store for, the films rating lets you know!

Why do adults have a problem with two adult characters discussing sex in a film? I thank Einstein that we have films other than the 'lets switch off our brains' U.S films (which there is a time and place for) to sometimes get our teeth into.

Lets cherish Catherine Breillat and look forward to her next production; I for one would love to meet her.

Cheers.

I was never so bored in my life as I was in this 'film'. I had sworn off Hollywood made horror films for the past few years as they never delivered the goods, were not frightening, and ARE ALWAYS DERIVATIVE. My fiends convinced me to go, "this will be different" and "I've read some great things about it". I was actually BORED, (not quite as bored as in that piece of crap 'Wrong Turn'- I think it was called, but almost that bored).

Anyway, the main reason I am writing this is that it is of concern how Hollywood is re-writing history. I was talking to some kids at uni who saw this abortion of a movie and took what was in it for fact. I have noticed this happening a lot lately (even highbrow films like 'Elizabeth' with Cate Blanchet are passed off as factual when they play fast and loose with the facts too). These kids think, as the movie states at the beginning, a bunch of kids were massacred by a chainsaw wielding maniac in Texas in 1974. I told them Ed Gein did his deed in the fifties, in Wisconsin, and he went about it in a much different way. The kids said, no, I'm wrong.. why would they change the facts. I said to make a (supposedly) better film. They walked away thinking I was wrong. I've read books on Ed Gein, they've seen a Hollywood film... this is the future.

P.S I did like the recent remake of Dawn Of The Dead, so I'm not a purist.

Nobuhiro Suwa is part of the current so called Japanese new wave; he is something of a new kid on the block with only two other films under his belt preceding this film. Pretty bloody good, is a good way to describe this film. The director, Suwa, plays a director making a remake of Alain Resnais' "Hiroshima mon amore", a seminal film of the French new wave. As with the original film, this film deals with memory, non-memory and contemporary life as people try to express the inexpressible. Recommended, but not if you want to be spoon fed.

Why take the time to bag a film? Why not do something useful, like yell at homeless people?? I need closure. I did not rent this film so I am not out of pocket, for that I thank the spiteful god up above. It happened slowly, I found all my energies being drained so I couldn't move from my rather comfy chair.. then I found my IQ dropping (left myself open for criticism there....), I found myself holding popular political views, beer did not alleviate my personal suffering. I warn all people who respect their independence NOT to watch this move. I am very much against censorship, otherwise I would outright call for its banning. Still, it is one star better than Mariah Carey's Glitter, but that is another story.

Hisayasu Sato was one of the most infamous of bad boy directors in the so-called Japanese new wave of the 90's. Some like Takashi Miike have become cult institutions; but Sato seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet. Still, when he WAS working he was something of a latterday Rainer Werner Fassbinder and very proloific... and as was the case with Fassbinders' films for a long time, it's really hard to track down and watch Sato's films. Which alone makes this film "An Aria on Gaze", sometimes boringly re-titled "The Bedroom" so important. If you like linear Hollywood stories, forget it, go rent some soft-core crap, this will bore you. I admit a large reason I wanted to watch this was to see real life convicted cannibal Issei Sagawa, who fled France to live a life of semi-celebrity in Japan. Sure, it may be morally questionable to watch him exploiting his notoriety, but I'm a human being and by our very nature we are curious beings. That's why we can build 'stuff' and dogs can't... but I digress. Imagine Rocco Siffredi directing a script loosely based on Last Year At Marienbad and you come close to imaging the world of Hisayasu Sato's stylised S&M collages.

I cannot pretend to defend the shakey moral foundations that this film rests on; that said I love the rather thin output of Ruggero Deodato. His flick "Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man" is one of the best of the Italian Violent Cop Thrillers of the seventies... his Cannibal Holocaust is notorious all over the world, but of the Italian Cannibal flicks of the early eighties sub genre, it's rather well made and acted - for what it is. This is sloppy, like all of the Italian sleaze directors U.S films are (particularily Umberto Lenzi), but it has a sleazy charm despite all the chicks being no more than rape magnets. Gotta love David Hess' acting work from this period too; the guy is, um, unique looking, to put it kindly. Check out his website, he takes himself soo-oo seriously; do all actors think they're artists?

We rented this one because we'd seen most stuff already in the shop etc etc; so our expectations were not high. The DVD box made the film look as though this could be a good sub genre film, looked gritty. What's that? Darren Oronfsky (Requiem For A Dream)exec prod & co-writer.. mm, sounding interesting. WRONG. Lame! Can Hollywood make gritty films anymore, what about even just gritty looking films instead of well lit flat photography. And what was the film trying to be? Horror? It wasn't that. Sixth Sense type shenanigans (it even had Olivia Williams from that film)? Cause that didn't work either. That said, we watched the whole film, didn't turn it off, but it was so frustrating at times, wanting it to take that step, to go up a notch and surprise us.... this was full of stuff I've seen a hundred times before, done a hundred times better. They win, they got my money, and I'll never get those 102 minutes of my life back. Could be worse though, still got my health........

Everyone has their roots, you and I have them, and quite clearly, Francis Coppola has his. Pretty typical of the nudie cuties made in the early sixties... I would say this is 'better' than many made titty films made then, clearly not Russ Meyers though; but he was a freak. It's better 'made' than many titties churned out then, by which I mean he was already showing that he new how to film, make it look good even on a low budget. Good to see Jack Hill's name on the credit. I wonder if they still talk? Maybe Francis could chip in a few bucks to get Mr Hill's career back on track; loved Jack's drive in movies of the seventies. As for Coppola, I've got to agree with another reviewer; this is better than 'Jack'. What was he thinking when he made that crud? Did he have a thing for Fran Drescher or something? Anyway, this is cute, looks tame these days, just some flouncy boobs and stuff, innocent times.....

D'Amato, God rest his soul, shuffled off this mortal coil a few years back. Starting out in cheesy horror, giving life to a few Emanuelle soft porns, he eventually found his way into hard core porn. He travelled back and forth between hard core, soft core and the occassional horror film till he passed on (there is an excellant doco on his 'work' worth seeing for those who are interested). Anyway. This is his 'masterpiece' in so far as his work in porn is concerned. When D'Amato met Siffredi it was a match made in heaven; I like to think D'Amato inspired Siffredi to become the trend setting porn director he is. Torero has everything you could want in porn... i.e, think of your favourite style and postion in porn.. ok, thought of one? Well, yep, it's in Torero! Siffredi seems to prefer an orifice that is still illegal in many states of the U.S, D'Amato seems to prefer filming said postion; I think that is why they worked together so well. If you like Torero check out their re-working of the Tarzan legend, it's slow to get started, but has some excellent moaning later in the view, plus a very attractive Jane! Anyhow, I give Torero a 4 out of 5 salutes.

German TV got a grab bag of independenlty minded directors from around the world to make a series of Erotc Tales; all the short films (about 25 minutes in length) are independent of each other. I have 2 favourites, one being Ken Russell's tale and this, Paul Cox's. Born in Holland but based in Australia, Cox is frustrating uneven but has been admirably independent, working along his own path ignoring what even Australia's small film industry has been doing. This story, "Touch Me" is damn sexy; I've always had a thing for Claudia Karvan, so seeing her give such a raw, uninhibited performance in this means I'm going to sit up and take notice, but this film has a very quiet message to tell... which made me feel sorry for myself; "If only I could turn my back on conventions and live by my own rules, like the characters in this play". Oh well. Erotic and a tad depressing if that makes sense... yet uplifting (spiritually that is, you dirty minded people). Hard to filnd but worth the look if you can track it down.

Holy cow. A lot of strange choices were made making this film. How the hell did Larry Clarke end up directing this film!?! Don't get me wrong, I appload the choice of left of field director, but I couldn't help but asking questions all the way through this film. Why re-make Teenage Caveman, then, not really follow the story of the original Teenage Caveman at all... might as well have called this, 'Strung Out Dope Kids Get Stoned & Laid In The Prescence Of Ziggy Stardust'. Unlike other reviews, I loved the Nudity... Ugly? I either have low standards or they have high... hope it's the later or I'll have a long conversation with my parents about how they raised me... think I'll give them a call actually...........

I enjoyed the first Matrix film as a clever little film that had some what turned out to be seminal special effects. But when I heard they were making sequels I was surprised. I never really had any interest in seeing the sequels, but I was given free tickets and went in 'the spirit of having a good time'. It was crap. That may not be an intellectual comment... but the film presented the most assinine spirituality and tried to pass it off as clever/significant to a largely gullible teenage audience if my screening was anything to go by. It cost me nothing (the ticket that is) and I still felt ripped off. I liked the white restaurant sequence a 'tad' because it promised to bring something new to the party, namely, sex (it didn't though, and I'm not even counting the interminable rave party scene Eisensteined with a sterile Carrie Moss Keanu Reeves make out leaving me limp sequence). One good car chase sequence, but is that the best they can do.. trailer at the end of the film left me, let me say, underwhelmed. For those who insist on rating films, I give it three yawns.

A film ahead of the rest; having a number "3" in the title I feel has resulted in it not being taken seriously... maybe if it had the title "Legion", being the title of the book it's based on, it would have been taken on its merits. Although Fox would not financed it probably. Most people I know agree that the scene in the hospital... don't want to give too much away, but they agree it has one of the best jolts ever. A film I cannot do justice to - just see it or I'll get irritated; and if you don't like it keep your bitchin' to yourself.