Looking forward to watch this nice documentary about "Diabolikal Super kriminal"aka "Sadistik", another classic Fumetti (italian comic book for adults) from the 70's:
Official site:
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Danger Diabolik - M.Bava - Italia (1968) vs Kriminal - U.Lenzi - Italia - (1966)
Plot from Imdb: "Fey super-thief Diabolik runs around stealing jewels, gold, murdering innocent people, and being a nuisance to the government of a generic European country."
Inspired from the Fumetti by Angela and Luciana Giussani in 1962, Diabolik is a masterpiece and yet another confirmation of the amazing skills of Mario Bava. Shot for less than 500 000$, the movie is magnificent, with a tremendous use of matte-painting and visual special effect from that time. The framing is second to none, as Bava allows himself to play with it even more than usual, to match the comic book graphic style. Diabolik as a character is pretty nice, he does bad things but so stylistically and cleverly that we cannot keep from loving him. Deep down, he's not a real bad guy. He just has some issues with morality & the law. Who hasn't ? His willingness to sacrifice himself for his girlfriend makes him a romantic character more than anything else. The actors are great, John Philip law doing a good job as Diabolik, Melissa Tomei being beautiful and Michel Picoli not overacting as the police arch enemy of our anti-hero. The soundtrack is one of Morricone's best, if not the best. It's lush, hypnotic and pop as hell. A masterpiece. Well, what to say ? This is a complete success as far as it's intention: to be a 90 minutes fun trip into the extravaganza life of an European super criminal.
US Trailer:
The Beastie Boys did a video clip inspired by Danger Diabolik, check it out here!
Official Italian comic books site:
http://www.diabolik.it/
VS
Plot: " Escaping from his execution, purchased by Scotland Yard, Kriminal goes on doing what he does best: stealing jewelly and killing anybody in his way."
Kriminal, adapted from,another Italian Fumetti comic book, is a nice piece of Europop cinema from Umberto Lenzi, very crafted italian director from the 70's ("Cannibal Ferox", "Spasmo", "Roma a mano armata" ) . The main character is much more violent and psychopathic than Diabolik, and he's never reluctant to kill and deceit everyone. As such, he could have been a great character, but the movie doesn't really bring out the all dark side of him, it focuses more on the adventurous events of his journey. The cast is ok and the directing is well done, but clearly uninspired. The difference between this exploitation movie and the work from Bava on Diabolik is tremendous. When Bava is looking to always stay close to the graphic element of the comic book, Lenzi on the other hand is just shooting it like the "serial" it is and adds nothing to it. Even if it's quite well made, it's impossible to compare the two movies, as they are each on a different scale: Lenzi does his job well, Bava creates Art. Locations are great as we travel from England to Spain & Turkey (Istanbul was clearly a very popular destination in "Euro exploitation" movies from the 70's). Nice & enjoyable but minor movie.
Opening credits video:
Shiryô no wana aka Evil Dead Trap - T. Ikeda - Japan - (1988)
Plot by Imdb: "A TV station employee takes a camera crew out to an abandoned factory to investigate a purported snuff film that was made there, only to end up running for her life when a small, fetus-like creature murders her crew."
Wonderful trip back to the crazy 80's japanese video production years, even if this J-V is obviously very inspired by the gialli and the US slashers of that time. The music sounds like it came from a mix between Carpenter's electronic keyboard & The Goblins...The mysterious murderer wears a rain coat, like any slashers psycho from that time. Also typical from that decade, the murders are complicated and/or just weird in their execution. The story is filled with holes and is pretty ludicrous, specially the final. Lot's of weird murders, lot's of smoke, lot's of blue light (a typical lightning in the Japanese Video years) and finally a good time. Not the masterpiece I though it was but a solid slasher with a gory final. For the perverts out there, a noticeable supporting role by Hitomi Kobayashi, the queen of AV during more than a decade.
Trailer:
Monday, February 22, 2010
Los Bastardos - Amat Escalante - Mexico - (2008)
Plot from Imdb: "A 24 hour period in the lives of Fausto and Jesus, two undocumented Mexican day-laborers in L.A. Each day another task, each day the same pressure to find money. They go about their daily routine, standing on the corner at the Home Improvement Store waiting for work to come. Today, the job they are given is well paid compared to their poor usual wages. Today, Jesus carries a shotgun inside his backpack."
Great movie ! Super bleak & haunting, this one will not leave you for some time. It really is a frightening view into the life of desperation amongst the Mexican illegal immigrants. But the very interesting thing is that the social context never comes has an excuse for the action of Jesus & Fausto. I saw it in Spanish without subtitles (as I don't need any) but I think anyone can view it without subs, as they are almost no dialogues in the movie. There is a quality in this movie that made me think about Gaspard Noé 's movies. The actors are non professionals and apparently the production suffered many problems. The least I can say is that it doesn't show. At all. Everything is very well handled. The beginning is slow and might feel boring for some people but, as soon as Jesus is walking around with his shotgun, you know you're in for a complete tragedy. And the home invasion sequence is just revolting. Amazing murders, very brutal and realistic but much more revolting is the total incomprehension of two worlds, that lives together without ever mixing. And, like in any good tragedy, everybody ends up being a victim. A great great movie. Obviously not for everyone.
Trailer:
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