Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)  comes for me from the list of 25 films to see (no one talks about) from Taste of Cinema. Caught up also with  Alois Nebel and Attila Marcel -though they have nothing in common it has the ring of a nice Pair :).

but this I wanted to see because the director, Panos Cosmatos is the son of one of the names of directors I knew as a child, italo-greek George Pan  Cosmatos, the late director of Cassandra Crossing, Escape from Athens, and allegedly stand-in /ghost director for guild credits reasons in Cobra, Rambo and Tombstone.
And this is Panos' debut, and it's inspired, as he says from his blurry memories of imagining watching films *that he was not allowed to*like 2001-A Space Odyssey, THX 1138, Altered States, Scanners, on VHS as a child. Images, feelings, more than normal narrative, cryptic storytelling in the Freudian way.
BtBR is dedicated to his mother, Birgitta Ljungberd, who was a surrealist sculptor.
The film is set in an alternative 1983, in Arboria, a a medical experimental facility where Elena (Eva Bourne) is kept prisoner by doctor Nyle (Michael Rodgers). The flashbacks of the foundation of the Institute go back into 1966 and deep into the drug culture gone wrong.

I can see traces of this going also into the hit series of the years, Stranger Things. 

this poster it's a bit tricky...

So, Beyond the BR is a one-of-a kind film, psychotronic, hypnotic, etheric, spellbinding, trippy, with the rhythm of a dreamscape /nightmare, and it brings in structures and triangle and prism shaped neons, from, well, The Neon Demon. 

Firstshowing net on The Neon Demon:

"Like some kind of wicked mix of Beyond the Black Rainbow and Suspiria with a dash of Elle Fanning."

The soundtrack, score and sound design. definetly could be an influence on Refn, even the sound of Drive. Its high time late seventies and 80’s analog synth with shades of Carpenter (again ?), and trippy electronica of Popol Vuh, Tangerine Dream,  -another influence of the director is Michael Mann's The Keep).

The music is by Jeremy Schmidt as Sinoia Caves, with an SSQ end track, Anonymous, and a splash of Angel Dust from... Venom !

A third act more explicit, logical and with a spped up narrative, ends with a dry finale, almost like a joke, and a final quote from Buckaroo Banzai (which is a classic and an old-all time favorite of mine), "No matter where you go…There you are”
Overlong at 1h50, but fascinating, one-of-a kind opus, that remains with you long after you saw it, with a better vine actually than during the screening.
3 1/2 out of Five, 7 out of TEN.
A great radiography of the film as a neo-retro piece can be watched here:

and a very good review here

Of Unknown Origin (1983)

 CULT MOVIE # 3

am văzut OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN
film cult (minor)cu şobo-bobo, v. Rats, Willard, mă gîndeam la Mouse Hunt şi la coridoarele din casă din People under the Stairs.
Cu Peter Weller, primul lui lead, filmat în Canada pentru New York, cu accent pe faptul că executivul nostru se ţăcăneşte cu home invasion-ul lui. A la Christopher Walken în Communion, după Wesley Strieber. Cu un pic de Repulsie şi shobolan în loc de iepure. Am adormit la comentariul lui George Pan Cosmatos (cu Weller), altfel drăguţ omul, puţin freaky, că a amurit în 2005,…de asemeni OUO are debutul lui Shannon Tweed, pe vreme aia (1983) playmate of the year, care arată un sân, doi, a bit exploitive…

Bazat pe romanul din 1979 The Visitor, scris de Chauncey Parker.

inintial am scris https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2007/02/poll-de-oscar-premii-bafta-shobolanul.htmlaici  despre el

ttps://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2007/02/poll-de-oscar-premii-bafta-shobolanul.html

intre timp fiul lui George P. (Pan/ Panos) a a juns mai ffaimos decit tiaca-su-  and he's agood director too, (Beyond the Black Rainbow, Mandy si cel mai cool episod din Cabinetul de curiozitati al lui Del Toro-The Viewing-2022)si asta e cel mai apropiat film care-i leaga :)  Actorul principal din The Viewing este tot Peter Weller!!!

trivia imdb zice: Out of all the films directed by his father, Panos' favorite is Of Unknown Origin (1983).

Stephen King has called Of Unknown Origin one of his favorite horror films. Trivia imdb zice HIS FAVORITE. 

John Waters cllaed it ¬the greatest rat movie¬. :)

Premii:

Peter Weller won the Best Actor Award, at the 1983 Paris International Festival of Fantastic and Science-Fiction Film, for his performance and Grand Prix award for the film's director George P. Cosmatos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Unknown_Origin

Halloween 2022 recommendations: The Cabinet of Curiosities, Halloween Ends, Barbarian, Pearl

Halloween 2022 recommendations 

that is if you haven't been trampled in (South ) Korea or you don't party with Elon Musk and the probably reptilian clique at Bran (Dracula's) Castle...

on netflix:

Guillermo Del Toro's The Cabinet of Curiosities 

an anthology of 8 stories, 8 different directors. Nice premieres, streaming two episodes per day in three days from Oct 25 to Oct 28. The best for me were The Viewing- directed by Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow, Mandy), featuring a great Paul Weller (a clin d'oeil to his father 1983 cult film Of Unknown Origin that starred Peter Weller!) , Autopsy-d:David Prior (The Empty Man, Voir)  with a fantastic F.Murray Abraham and Lot 36-d: Guillermo Navarro (great DOP and tv director), with a downbeat dark Tim Blake Nelson, based on a short story by GdT himself. 

Del Toro didn”t direct any of the eight, he presents every story in person in a Hitchcock or Rod Sterling manner, .also a la Tales from the Crypt. He did write 2 short stories of wich two episodes are based, the second one being The Murmuring (directed y Jennifer Kent-The Babadock). 2 episodes are based on stories by Del Toro and all horror lover's favorite, H.P. Lovecraft - Pickman's Model (d by Keith Thomas-The Vigil) and Dreams in the Witch House (director Catherine Hardwicke-Twilight).

 Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home at Night, The Bad Batch) The Outside episode is a body horror satire with a brave acting performance by Kate Micucci that loses but all wind in an hour when it could've been half . In opossition with Lot 36 which is the shortest of the whole bunch (45 min) except the Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice) episode, Graveyard Rats. The shortest film at 37 mins, it is a classic and morbid take on Edgar Allan Poe's tropes and can be seen also in Glorious Black and White version (for this version scroll down on Episodes on the screen to the Trailer and More section). All stories are set in the past to capture the spirit and style of the genre. 

Uneven as all anthologies are but tones better than the recent netflix fare The Midnight Club for ex. Season two is okțd for next year. 

in cinemas and PPW:

Halloween Ends -actually not so bad, Halloween mixed with Stephen King's Christine and other King themes. Music by John Caprenter, his son Cody and Daniel Davies.

It will not be the last if you're worried, in a few years they'll reboot it again. But it will be definetly the last with Jamie Lee Curtis. Anyhu, John Carpenter says he doesn't care...

on Disney ! (yes Disney, from Fox)

Barbarian 

written and directed by Zach Cregger, an effective thriller with creepy undertones works in three different acts and surprises you best if you know less about the plot (i had no clues whatsoever when bro cuz' kinosseur recommended it to me ;)

shades of Wes Craven (People under the Stairs) and some similarities with Don't Breathe (derelict Detroit neighbourhood)

and from wherever you can get it:

Pearl, the prequel to X by Ti West ( and Mia Goth 

Scorsese loved it, me to..and some more, some none---

it's the real Blonde film. Talk about bravura acting (even more so than in X where she did both roles of Maxine and Pearl, can't wait for the sequel now-Maxxxine). 

Wizard of Oz meets Psycho (someone wrote -like if Shelley Duvall was playing Norman Bates) with a bit of alligator fare from Tobe Hopper's Eaten Alive (aka Death Trap)

technicolor Reds and some great oneshots plus the last shot you won't forget...

Top Filme 2018

Top filme 2018 redux

Top 3 (aleator) internațional

Bad Times at El Royale -thrillerul sofisticat al lui Drew Goddard

Cold War  / Zimna Wojna/ Războiul rece de Pawel Pawlikovski (Ida) premiul de regie la Cannes și propunerea Poloniei la Oscar

Și țăcănela maximă, dance me to death- un rave/ balet vituoz al morții: Climax -Gaspar Noé.

O mențiune Arthouse pentru Lazzaro Felice de Alice Rohrwacher, pe care l-am văzut la Cannes la fel ca și alte patru filme din top, Climax, Mandy (The Nicolas Cage Award 2018), Cold War și The House That Jack Built.

Action/blockbuster

Mission: Impossible Fallout -Christopher Mc Quarrie

Muzicalul anului

Bohemian Rhapsody -Bryan Singer/Dexter Fletcher, cu un excelent Rami Malek care sper să se ducă pînă la Oscaruri, deocamdată premiat cu Globul de Aur și nominalizat la Independent Spirit Award.

Horrorul anului

Pentru mine e Mandy de Panos Cosmatos cu un Nicolas Cage fulminant -The Nicolas Cage Award 2018 :)

- dar la noi în cinema e Hereditary/ Moştenire diabolică, de Ari Aster. Pe netflix Bird Box de Susanne Bier. 
Mențiuni pentru Rabbia furiosa-Er Canaro de Sergio Stivaletti (alt goodie de la Dracula VI) și Hold the Dark de Jeremy Saulnier, tot pe Netflix.

Top 6 filme românești ale anului 2018

Charleston-Andrei Crețulescu

Morometii 2-Stere Gulea

„Îmi este indiferent dacă în istorie vom intra ca barbari”-Radu Jude

Soldatii, poveste din Ferentari -Ivana Mladenovic

Dragoste 1. Cîine -Florin Șerban

Moon Hotel Kabul-Anca Damian

Comedie

Vidar the Vampire/ VampyrVidar -Thomas Aske Berg (adus de noi și premiat la Dracula Film Festival VI)

Animație

The Isle of Dogs -Wes Anderson

Event movie of the year

The Other Side of the Wind -Orson Welles et co, după 40 de ani și documentarul de însoțire, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, pe care ăl declar documentarul anului !

The Shape of Water de Guillermo del Toro – ar fi în mod normal fruntaș în top, dar e un film de de anul trecut. Și I, Tonya de Craig Gillespie, deși e și el de anul trecut. Și Phatom Thread de Paul Thomas Anderson, same. Nu am văzut încă filme importante ieșite acum, precum Green Book, Vice, The Favourite, Suspiria, etc. 

Ar mai fi la mine The House That Jack Built, satira horror a lui Lars Von Trier, dar vine în săli din 18 ianuarie 2019. Ar fi intrat în top filme de cinema neapărat fascinantul western în vignete al fraților Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, prezentat la Veneția, a intrat pe Netflix în noiembrie. Și The Sisters Brothers, ciudatul western al lui Jacques Audiard, văzut însă on a big TV.

Sacrifice (2025)

 This curio is in Romanian theaters now -very limited.

For thouse who want a psychedelic experience, with great visuals, music and sound design, go for it !

The rest can wait for the Netflix relase on Oct. 16. 

It's a film by Romain Gavras, the son of legendary Costa-Gavras. 

It's about the end of the world (maybe?), a volcano, a benefit celebrity gala and a group of nutty Nordic eco-terrorists.

Chris Evans playing the Hollywood celebrity actor Mike Tyler ( that is now a mess) looks more like a young Nic Cage. Anya Taylor-Joy is the psychotic Terrorist boss, Vincent Cassel, bald and mean, as Ben Bracken, a bio-billionaire, John Malkovich more cameos as the mad scientist Gunnar. 

 The film looks more like directed by a Panos Cosmatos ;)

Simillarities with Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia (tho that was a remake). The film has a weird New Greek Cinema style and feeling.

Read there is a genre. `Eat the Rich' films like those of Ruben Ostlund (The Triangle of Sadness), The Menu and Blink Twice.

It's visully stunning, with great soundtrack, sound design and fabulous locations.

Greece (the stone quarry), Bulgaria (Podhodna cave aka The Eyes of God) and Iceland for the volcano.

Score by GENER8ION 

featuring Leonard Cohen, a cool version of SUPERNATURE with Charliexxx

and This is How We Walk on The Moon by Arthur Russell 

here's a video for GENER8ION -Storm, directed by Romain Gavras, who is a renowned music videos director. 

3 1/2 out of 5, 7 out of 10 !