@nerdfuckerrr, with his impeccable taste, reminds me of this film with some beautiful GIFs that I'll share with you. Suspiria is a fascinating film of European Italian cinema, but it's popularly credited with inventing the excessive use of color seen in the post, when in fact that was the work of the Italian director Mario Bava (1914-1980). His name might not ring a bell (I myself have barely seen any of his films), but he was a key figure who largely defined what we understand as Italian horror cinema. Bava even comes up in the cinephile debate about who invented the slasher film, but I digress…
Dario Argento (1940-) is undoubtedly talented, but it's also true that he contributes to an existing tradition, and this (brilliant) use of color is a direct continuation, taking Bava's technique a step further. Suspiria is a well-deserved classic, but the problems have arisen with imitations that have gone beyond its already excessive use and extended those washes of color for longer periods of screen time. Now, something like this is cheaper, doesn't require studio tests or top lighting experts (a field where, incidentally, the Italians excelled), since everything is done in digital post-production, although the final result is noticeably different.
This has led to overuse. Similarly, drone footage is infinitely cheaper and more practical than the old aerial shots, but should a technique be used simply because it's available and/or effective? Adding to the different textures of post-production color washes is the problem of confusing terminology and assuming it's done in the style of Argento, or even imitating Italian horror films. This results in coloristically aggressive, or at least excessive, films that negate their own effect through constant repetition.
It's a very 21st-century flaw to try to reproduce the grandeur of the background by imitating its forms, getting stuck on aesthetics, small details, and giving in to this superficiality as a hollow game of imitating references where, moreover, parts are mistaken for the whole.
Italian genre cinema was never defined by slaps of basic colors, and the eighties weren't all bathed in neon. Remember how I complained about Synthwave, a toy of returning to a past style, so coincidentally similar to what Mark Fisher described about repeatedly revisiting and recreating past styles? This is something like that. And speaking of music, perhaps it would be more appropriate to aim for memorability than that kind of cinema by resorting to unusual and experimental bands. Just as memorable (or even more so) than those colorful moments is the soundtrack Goblin created for Argento's film, but alas, budgets!
This decade that is said to be magical has a list of forgotten and sometimes forgettable films, but they are worth seeing because they are strange, disconcerting and, as the Americans say, psychotronic.
It was a new exploited field to rescue them at the beginning of the century, and books listing them abound; but this is one of the most famous and is available for online consultation or download in the Internet Archive, let us know @spaceintruderdetector. Are you going to miss it?
Blesding skull book this one article talking about tare obscure film.
And we continue to offer material to cultivate cinematic tastes. And I use the plural because it's thanks to @spaceintruderdetector that I discovered these books… follow his blog.
Snobs culturales, cine de género y efecto Streisand en la carrera de David Cronenberg....
Cronenberg arranca su carrera gracias a un programa estatal canadiense para animar la industria de cine y hace cine de género porque es conocido por ser barato y rentable. Cuando cuenta que podía haber empezado haciendo cine de espías (bueno, su Scanners lo es hasta cierto punto) se refiere a que se colgó a las modas de su momento para hacer exploitation pero con ideas y talento cuando otros ponen desgana. Era el terror sangriento y las imitaciones de James Bond lo más rentable entonces.
Pero no contaba con que sería tachado de excesivo y que la ayuda pública con que contó haría escandaloso el asunto con un acoso en medios y acciones individuales propios de la cancel culture, pero que la prensa le señala como director de la peli más asquerosa del país a costa de dinero público resultó ser una campaña de publicidad... Sabía de ello pero no con tanto detalle como cuenta este video. Ahora entiendo su tranquilidad cuando Crash fue escandalosa en Cannes y se intentó sabotear su estreno, el pobre venía acostumbrado a lo que es eso cuando no era nadie y todo el país parecía en contra. Quizás otro día cuente de esa otra historia. Ahora tenemos esta....
Haxxan was a revolutionary film in narrative and special effects at the beginning of the 20th century. Coming from the cold corners of that strange Europe, it used the excuse of being a documentary with dramatizations (a film genre that, like all others, was still taking shape) to show the devil in witchcraft rituals with nudity.
The fact that @spaceintruderdetector published a book a few days ago about its creation, background, and interpretations for this era reminded me of it, and I'm taking this opportunity to share with you that book, along with a later version of the edit. Read on…
HERE'S the link to SpaceIntruder's blog post, where you'll find the link to Archive.org and the book's synopsis. But… what about the man next to the cover? Well, it's William Burroughs, who reappears today, and he's related, but you don't know how…
During the era of exploitation cinema in the 1970s, it was popular and even arty to go to seedy movie theaters in unsavory neighborhoods (as even the tourist heart of Manhattan was back then) and watch genre films, opportunistic with nudity and violence in cheap, double-screenings at night. This phenomenon is when and where Quentin Tarantino's love affair with cinema developed (lying about his age to get in), and John Waters, watching Argentine films with charismatic naked women.
Exhibitors were interested in films that were surprising and unsuitable for large, serious theaters, but demand was high, and shooting these films in the US was tricky. Russ Meyer worked exclusively for this as an independent filmmaker, but meeting that enormous demand led to the release of the aforementioned Argentine films, thus introducing American intellectuals to Alejandro Jodorowski's films. But I'm afraid to digress. What interests us now is that demand led to re-releases, and so Haxxan was reworked and transformed from a silent film into a film narrated in voiceover by William Burroughs! Burroughs, who was never known for his sensual voice, but was energetic and fascinating in his public readings. That's what I add to the book offered by the aforementioned blog. Enjoy!
