Reviews

This review is for the uncut version of this film, complete with elderly gentleman having his member nailed to a piece of wood. It's obvious that for the more serious S&M scenes a body double was used for Bulle Ogier (the body double has hands that look about 20 years older than Ogier's and she was probably a professional dominatrix). Consequently it feels more like documentary footage shot in a dungeon. Combined with the real and graphic footage in the abattoir it all feels gratuitous and clearly thrown in just to 'sex' the whole thing up a bit. I'm sure at the time the shock value of this film was enough. But it's not aged particularly well. For instance, the scene at the châteaux loses it bite as it's immediately obvious to the modern viewer what's going on.

I watch a lot of art-house films, often from the 60s and 70s, and with depressing regularity the female characters get slapped about by their boyfriends. When Olivier tries that with Ariane (Bulle Ogier) she head-butts him. I don't think I can ever remember seeing a leading lady head-butting someone outside of a martial arts film. It's genuinely a shocking scene.

Despite all this if you strip all the exploitative material out you're left with quite a nice romantic comedy. Olivier (Gérard Depardieu) is such a buffoon, that despite the occasional thuggish outburst is rather non-threatening: the perfect romantic comedy staple.

The final reveal as to who Gautier is rather anti-climactic. I guess it's meant to be a fantasy within a fantasy sort of thing.

The best thing for me in this film were the Karl Largerfeld costumes.

Overall: 6/10.

This review is for the 1:49 (109 minute) version of the film in Japanese with English subtitles. I believe this is the 'uncut' version. I was quite worried before watching this film about what I was letting myself in for after having read some of the reviews. I feared it might be something like some of Pasolini's films. I needn't have worried. Admittedly you might not want to show it to your maiden aunt.

It's a sort of art house version of Showgirls (1995). The hallucination scenes reminds me a bit of the Mandrax infused scenes in Celine and Julie go boating (1974). So as a bit of trivia I'm guessing that is the drug Ai takes.

It's supposedly a warts and all look at the life of a Tokyo prostitute, Ai, who specialises in S & M set at the time of the economic bubble. Obviously this could just be a flimsy excuse for a lot of gratuitous footage under the guise of Art. I'm inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt. It's never going to be a great film, but at least it does pass the Bechdel test.

Films with a similar idea that spring to mind are Klute (1971) and Strella (2009). Both of which seemed like a more realistic portrayal, particularly Strella.I may be being a little unfair since some of it could have got lost in translation.

The producers of this series were clearly masochists. Why else would you cast a famous US movie actress, set the production in the rural north west of England, have the said actress play an Irish traveller (Mia) who is an assassin, and for good measure make the character trans. The logistics of making this production happen are mind boggling.

Having said all that it actually works. I enjoyed the entire series, frustrating as it was in parts. The cliff-hanger ending was possibly one of the most frustrating bits of TV I've ever watched; knowing that the second series hadn't been commissioned. It is sort of Emmerdale (British rural soap opera) meets Snatch meets the Crying Game.

Obviously the series isn't meant to be taken too seriously so I'm not going to point out the myriad of plot holes. There was just too much time taken up with shots of the countryside which got very tedious and too much time focusing Mia's family. It felt as if many of the characters in it would have been much more at home in a soap opera like Emmerdale and they were out acted by Chloe Sevigny.

I also think Chloe Sevigny portrayal of Mia is flawed. She seems more like Hayley from Coronation Street (another British soap). She is not street-wise enough to be a hit-man; someone who might be called the apex predator of the criminal underworld. I think the producers should have watched some modern LGBT cinema. For instance Mina Orfanou in Strella (2009), who plays the trans character of the title. Actually, I think Mia wouldn't last 5 minutes around Strella.

Overall episodes 1 and 2 were the most interesting, 3 to 5 just wasted too much time with John, and 6 was also good. I'd have liked to know more about the circus family.

As a bit of trivia the Butterfly scene in episode 6 is from "Branded to Kill" (1967) by Seijun Suzuki.

I hope that maybe in a few years this series gets a reboot, maybe set in America on US TV. It's too good an idea to go to waste.

The film could be described as 40% Alfred Hitchcock and 60% Raymond Chandler. It initially starts out as a very glossy chick-flick with our heroine Danielle Lang (Samantha Eggar) working as a PA in a chic Paris advertising agency for her dashing boss Oliver Reed. The Christian Dior dresses perfectly capture the glamour of very late 1960s Paris. I would have been happy enough with just that, but it gets darker and better as the movie progresses. Although Mademoiselle Lang plays the confused and helpless heroine for most (but not all) of the film, it does pass the Bechdel test. Samantha Eggars performance is first rate, but I have to say I think Stéphane Audran steals the show as Samantha Eggars former flatmate. However, as a long time Stéphane Audran fan I may be biased, and in fact that was the main reason I watched the film in the first place. Most of the supporting cast is very good also.

Where the film goes wrong is that it spends far too long on the 'mystery' aspect of the plot and when the 'reveal' happens it is too rushed. I think this may simply be bad editing since there are many many scenes in the 'reveal' sequence which are cut together in the space of a few minutes. Maybe if they'd been stretched out over 30 minutes it would have made everything feel more balanced. Particularly as the 'mystery' segment starts to drag toward the end.

It didn't help that I saw a really poor print of this. I would love to see the original, I'll bet the colours look sumptuous.

I was initially not optimistic about this thriller. The unappealing cover picture plus the IMDb synopsis and mixed reviews lead me to be rather dubious about watching it. Also I'd seen the superficially similar and awful Mascara (1987) which covers some of the same ground, namely, a Belgian location, corrupt police, serial killers targeting trans prostitutes, and opera. I'm very glad I did watch Mauvais Genre though; this is an excellent and original thriller.

The lead character in the film is Bo (played by Robinson Stevenin) who comes from a haute bourgeoisie Belgian family and whose father is a famous and politically well connected doctor. The twenty year old Bo is now living in reduced circumstances in a seedy part of Brussels and working in a cabaret after becoming estranged from her Father and her mother having committed suicide. Most of her friends now are prostitutes (though note that the IMDb synopsis is incorrect in saying Bo is a prostitute; she isn't).

The film opens with Bo's father being arrested for molestation and it's also at that point we learn that Bo is trans. The investigation of Bo's father forms a tightly contained subplot which adds depth to the main serial killer story.

The police's treatment of Bo and her friends range from the over familiar and intimidating to violence and worse. The senior policeman on the case, Huysmans played by Richard Bohringer, is excellently sinister. You never really know what his angle on all this is until the very end. He is in a power struggle with another senior policeman, Pryzuski (Stéphane de Groot). It's good cop bad cop or is it really bad cop bad cop? It's made clear throughout the film how socially privileged Bo was and to some extent still is. She regularly intellectually outmanoeuvres the police. Huysman is constantly going on about how incredibly intelligent Bo is and at one point Huyman actually says to Bo "You could be a famous doctor, lawyer or prosecutor. Society needs you." However, Bo still has charm, good looks, and 'Bon Chic Bon Genre' style.

At heart Mauvais Genre is a fairly traditional thriller and all the better for it. There are lots of maguffins and red herrings.

As the film progresses Bo starts a relationship with her abusive neighbour Johnny. Robinson Stevenin didn't really manage to convince me in his portrayal that Bo was falling obsessively in love with a man who treats her very badly. That was on of the films few weak points. The other was that Bo really can't walk in heels and keeps falling over throughout the film. This gets really distracting after a while. The idea that someone as together as Bo wouldn't be able to walk in heels seems unlikely. It seems to be a crude cinematic device to show that "Bo is not a 'real' woman" and really belongs in Carry On Films or the Dick Emery show.

Rather amusingly if you believe this film and Mascara everyone in Belgium seems to like opera and senior policemen have offices which look like art galleries and museums.

Overall this is a very enjoyable film. In particular if you like LGBT cinema then this is an absolutely must see. I watch a lot of LGBT cinema and can't think of another film with such a strong trans character as a lead.

The less you know about this film before watching the more fun you'll have.

This film is Almodovar homage to 1960s horror films. Personally I feel the film is actually more SciFi than horror with human-pig skin hybrids that are flame retardant (and also a total red-herring). There's a lot going on, it's almost as if Almodovar had all these great ideas but didn't know what to do with them and put it all in a blender.

The nonlinearity plot is clever because it makes the viewer have feelings for Vera that perhaps they might not have if they knew everything from the start (or perhaps they still would?). Elena Anaya brings an incredible sense of delicateness and fragility but also toughness to the part of Vera. Almodovar is such an experience director that the film looks and feels both beautiful and effortless. Everything looks like it's straight out of Architectural Digest. There's eye-candy aplenty, mostly with Antonio Banderias playing the role of a rich, suave, egotistical, but also dangerously obsessive plastic surgeon. He's so handsome that I'm sure some of the audience will envy the object of his desires, Vera - perhaps that's Almodovar's idea.

The final scene is great. I felt a bit sorry for Vicente though. But I don't feel that sorry because as Spanish horror master Paul Naschy once said "Someone always has to suffer for our pleasures".

I'll start by saying this is not a good film. This was probably good enough for audiences in the 1970s but it really creaks along today. The acting is often wooden. The cinematography makes poor use of the south of France location. James Mason makes no attempt to be play a French gangster and reverts to his usual film persona - he doesn't even bother with an accent. Antony Quinn is great though, particularly with the material he has to work with. His rage in the scene at the after work poker game is electric. The plot has holes but at least it sort of makes sense in the end. Overall it seems a waste of the talent in this film and the stunning locations. Having said all that I secretly enjoyed it.

Having watched a lot of by the numbers 70s thrillers I was a little jaded by the time I came to watch this. Although at times it also falls into that trap there is enough here to elevate it above that level. I think it's unfair to call this Blaxplotation. It's just a thriller where the lead happens to be a black women.

Most strikingly there weren't many women (black women at that) in the 1970s blowing criminals away with shotguns. Particularly ones who are completely self-driven. Frankly there aren't too many of those in Hollywood movies even today. Also I really like the the charm Pam Grier brings to the role whenever she's talking to good guys.

There are bits of comic relief such as the scene where the heavy-hitters say to the former driver of the gangster they've just brutally murdered "hey, why not come and work for us now? We're not bad guys really" - all said in a totally irony free way. Or the scene where Pam Grier does a Borat-style Jamacan impression.

There's some 'LA Confidential' style high level corruption shown, which again raises this above the usual standard of cheap 70s thrillers.

If you like 70s thrillers this is definitely worth seeing.

It's almost as if the film-makers only had enough material for 25-30 minutes after which they told the actors to 'just make it up as you go along' because really that's how it seems. The ending is dreadful. Poor Charlotte Rampling, looks lovely but has nothing much to do beyond being neurotic. Michael Sarrazin somehow convinces as a Belgian police superintendent despite being an foppish Opera buff with an American accent.

The trouble is how ever I looked at it I couldn't shake the feeling that Mascara was just plain exploitative. Sure the rich men are exploiting their playmates, but I actually think it's more than that: it feels like the director set out to make an exploitation film. It didn't feel camp to me.

The location really does the film no favours. I could certainly see this happening in New York or Paris, but a sea-side town on the Belgian coast with it own very high-end fetish club? I don't think so. The faded seaside grandeur gives the movie an inappropriately wistful feel.

Some of the actors are dubbed with strange voices. I'm not sure what the aim here was but it just doesn't work.

There are few powerful scene - the opera ones for instance. In the first 25 minutes there is some sizzling dialogue. And the dress with it's illuminating heart is a very striking and novel idea. Those reasons pull my rating of the film to 5/10 otherwise it'd be a straight 2/10.

This is the first Greek film I've had the privilege of watching. It is also the best film I've watched this year.

For me the film is about families, and how we cope when we find ourselves outside of traditional structures (of course there probably never was such a thing as a traditional family). Although many of the films characters are LGBT I would not describe this as being an LGBT film. The characters may be gay or trans, but it is simply a facet of them, mentioned in passing, and not their core identity.

There is a big twist in the middle, and my initial reaction on seeing it was that it really spoilt the film. However, 10 minutes later to my surprise there was another twist which pulled everything back perfectly. Not many screenwriters can manage to pull off something as complex as that.

Mina Orfanu is wonderfully cast as Strella. This is not an easy part to play and she carries it off with great alacrity, despite not being a professional actress.

It is a great achievement that, despite the sometimes extremely dark subject matter I left this film with a big grin. If only Hollywood would make films like this!

Pablo Thevenet (Paul Naschy) is a once famous actor now humiliatingly reduced to trying (and failing) to get bit parts in third rate films. That is until he makes a Faustian pack. One actually wonders if Paul Naschy was acting: it all feels like it might have been too close to personal experience. That gives the film a particularly edgy feeling.

Bibi Fernandez has real presence as Beelzebub. It would have been good if she'd had more of a role. Visually the film is let down by the nasty modern aesthetic which makes it feel like a TV movie. Also I think the snuff movie sequence felt a bit off-key and didn't feel fit with the tone of the rest of the film.