Para aquele que está chegando na região do Butantã é provável que passe perto das ruas Dráusio, Camargo, Martins, Miragaia ou mesmo da MMDC. Se for ao Ibirapuera será impossível não se deparar com o gigantesco obelisco que está implantado em frente ao parque sobre um mausoléu.

Em diversas outras regiões da cidade https://galm55.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpde São Paulo ou do interior do estado vai encontrar inúmeras referências – museus, monumentos, ruas, praças – a Revolução Constitucionalista de 1932.

Nenhum outro evento marcou tão fortemente a história ea memória dos paulistas quanto a Constitucionalista de 1932. Talvez por ter surgido junto com a sociedade de massas, por ter se valido já de meios de comunicação mais amplos, por ter sido trágica, pelos politicos terem manobrado e capitalizado sobre sua memória, enfim, por muitos motivos. Mas, certamente, é a lembrança mais viva do estado.

Curiosamente, apesar de a cada ano o número de pessoas diratemente envolvidas com os eventos de 1932 diminuir, por motivos óbvios, lá se vão mais de 70 anos, a memória continua viva, a ponto do governo do estado de São Paulo decretar há alguns anos o Nove de Julho feriado estadual.

Assim como na França permanece viva a memória dos combatentes da Reistência ao nazismo, em São Paulo permanece a memória da resistência ao governo de Getúlio Vargas e 1930.

Sim, é claro, boa parte dos que levaram São Paulo às armas em 1932 havia apoiado Vargas em 1930. Mas muitos franceses haviam apoiado Hitler também. Toda guerra contém inúmeras idiossincrasias e, além do mais, o tempo das mudanças políticas – inclusive das convicções – é muito rápido.

O fato é que a memória da Revolução de 1932 muito rapidamente se instaurou entre os paulistas e estes souberam fazer disso, com o passar do tempo, um elemento de fortalecimento das instituições no estado e de ganhos políticos e econômicos no contexto da nação.

Ás vezes a memória gera ressentimento, rancor, noutras gera coesão, capacidade de regeneração. Por isso simpatizo com a memória de 32, por ela não ter se transformado em memória rancorosa e acusadora da história.

O Obelisco do Ibirapuera (também chamado Obelisco de São Paulo) é um monumento funerário brasileiro localizado no Parque do Ibirapuera, São Paulo.

Símbolo da Revolução Constitucionalista de 1932, o Obelisco é o maior monumento da cidade e tem 72 metros de altura. A construção do monumento foi iniciada em 1947 e e concluída em 1970. Tombado pelos conselhos estadual e municipal de preservação de patrimônio histórico, o mausoléu do Obelisco guarda os corpos dos estudantes Martins, Miragaia, Dráusio e Camargo (o M.M.D.C.) – mortos durante a Revolução de 1932 -, e de outros 713 ex-combatentes.

My Top 10:

Peter Lorre in Fritz Lang's brilliant M

1. M
2. King Kong
3. Duck Soup
4. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
5. The Invisible Man
6. The Blood of a Poet
7. The Mummy
8. Little Women
9. Dinner at Eight
10. The Private Life of Henry VIII

Academy Awards:

• Best Picture:  Cavalcade
• Best Director:  Frank Lloyd  (Cavalcade)
• Best Actor:  Charles Laughton  (The Private Life of Henry VIII)
• Best Actress:  Katharine Hepburn  (Morning Glory)
• Best Adaptation:   Little Women (from the novel by Louisa May Alcott)
• Best Original Story:  One Way Passage

TSPDT Consensus Top 5 Films:

• M – #53
• Duck Soup – #103
• King Kong – #115
• Trouble in Paradise – #162
• Love Me Tonight – #405

Top 5 Awards Points:

1. Cavalcade – 265
2. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang – 185
3. Little Women – 175
4. Lady for a Day – 170
5. A Farewell to Arms – 160

AFI Top 100 Films:

• King Kong – #43  (1998) / #41  (2007)
• Duck Soup – #85  (1998) / #60  (2007)

Nighthawk Awards:

Katharine Hepburn won the Oscar in 1933 for Morning Glory, but should have actually won for Little Women

• Best Picture:  M
• Best Director:  Fritz Lang  (M)
• Best Actor:  Peter Lorre  (M)
• Best Actress:  Katharine Hepburn  (Little Women)
• Best Supporting Actor:  Adolph Menjou  (A Farewell to Arms)
• Best Supporting Actress:  Elsa Lanchester  (The Private Life of Henry VIII)
• Best Adapted Screenplay:  I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (from the book by Robert Burns)
• Best Original Screenplay:  M
• Best Foreign Film:  Boudu Saved from Drowning

Nighthawk Notables:

• Best Film to Watch over and over:  Duck Soup
• Best Scene:  The revelation of The Invisible Man
• Best Ending:  The dark despair of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
• Best Line  (comic):  “Go, and never darken my towels again.”  (Duck Soup – Groucho Marx)
• Best Line  (dramatic):  “How do you live?”  “I steal.”  (I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang – Helen Vinson and Paul Muni – final lines)
• Read the Book – Don’t See the Movie:  Oliver Twist

Ebert Great Films  (in order of being added):

• M
• Trouble in Paradise
• Duck Soup
• King Kong

This is the last combination of years as the Academy made their dates of eligibility August 1, 1932 to December 31, 1933, trying to align with the calendar year.  It was also the period when the National Board of Review decided to start giving out a Best Picture of the year, instead of simply a Top 10.  Horror films continued to be fantastic (three of my top 10), and once again, the best film of the year was a Fritz Lang film.  There is a current general consensus on the best films of the year (M, King Kong, Duck Soup) and they combined for 0 Oscar nominations.

Film History: Acts of the U.S. government allow for the vertical integration of production companies, essentially allowing them to act like monopolies, something that will last until the Supreme Court bans the practice in 1948.  Sergei Eisenstein flops in the Western Hemisphere, as, defeated by Hollywood, and unable to finish Que Viva Mexico, he returns to Moscow.  In response to AMPAS calls for wage cuts due to the Great Depression, both the Screenwriters Guild and the Screen Actors Guild are formed.  Flying Down to Rio is released, the first film teaming Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers.  Fatty Arbuckle dies, 12 years after being banned by Will Hays.  Hedy Kiesler (soon to be Hedy Lamarr) creates an international sensation with her long nude scene in Ecstasy.  David O. Selznick moves from RKO to MGM, run by his father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer (prompting the comment “the son-in-law also rises”).  According to Fritz Lang he is offered the position of film supervisor by Josef Goebbels.  He flees for Paris that night, leaving behind his wife, Thea von Harbou, who had joined the Nazi Party the year before.  Darryl F. Zanuck forms 20th Century Pictures, which two years later will merge with the Fox Film Corporation.  The British Film Institute forms in London in September of 1933.

Academy Awards: Cavalcade was only the second film to win Best Picture and Best Director and according to Inside Oscar “received 50 percent more votes than first runner-up, A Farewell to Arms, with Little Women in third place”, but today it is largely forgotten (and not widely admired).  When Frank Lloyd won for Best Director, Will Rogers simply said “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.  Come up and get it, Frank!”  Except while he was talking to Lloyd, Frank Capra, nominated for Lady for a Day, got up, thinking he had won.  Capra had come in second, two votes ahead of George Cukor.  May Robson had finished a less distant second to Hepburn (20% behind) and Paul Muni close behind Laughton (10% behind).  A Farewell to Arms becomes the first film to ever win multiple technical awards (winning Best Cinematography and Best Sound).  Walt Disney winning the second of 8 consecutive Oscars for Short Subject (Cartoon), expresses thanks for winning an “Oscar,” the first public use of the term.  His Three Little Pigs gets 80% of the vote.

• Worst Oscar:  Best Art Direction for Cavalcade
• Worst Oscar Nomination:  Best Picture for She Done Him Wrong
• Worst Oscar Omission:  Best Sound for King Kong
• Worst Oscar Category:  Best Original Story – three lackluster candidates when they ignored King Kong, Duck Soup and Trouble in Paradise
• Best Oscar Category:  Best Actress – three of the four best and the other one was for Katharine Hepburn, who was already one of the nominees

Awards: The National Board of Review starts giving out, in addition to its Top 10 films and Top 5 Foreign Films, actual awards for Best Picture and Best Foreign Film.  For 1932, the winners are I Am a Fugitive for a Chain Gang (a full fourteen months before it would be nominated by the Academy) and A Nous La Liberte.  For 1933, the winners are Topaze (very difficult to see now) and Hertha’s Erwachen, a German film so forgotten now that the IMDb has no user votes and no user comments on the film.  It is hard to verify that the two Foreign films actually won.  Tom O’Neill’s book Movie Awards lists them as winners in the yearly recap, but not in the text and the official NBR list does not indicate any winners among the top 5 Foreign Films.

The Story of Temple Drake (1933): the pre-code film that helped bring on the Production Code

Over-looked film of 1933:

The Story of Temple Drake (dir. Stephen Roberts)

The film world has not been particularly kind to William Faulkner.  He worked in Hollywood for a while, but never particularly thrived there.  At one point he said that he was more comfortable at home than at a studio office and asked to write at home.  The studio was surprised to find that he went all the way home to Oxford, MS (Faulkner’s problems working in the industry and the heavy drinking he did in Hollywood are the basis for John Mahoney’s character in Barton Fink).  Faulkner would return in the 40’s and be a part of the two brilliant Bogie / Bacall / Hawks films: To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, but would fail to get Oscar nominations for either one (Have, based on Hemingway’s novel is the only film to make use of two Nobel Prize winning writers).  Faulkner’s own novels have had mixed success on screen, with several adaptations in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, none of them getting much in the way of an audience or critical approval and several of them getting big plot changes (The Sound and the Fury) or even title changes (Pylon was filmed as The Tarnished Angels).  Many of these films are now hard to find.

You could say part of the problem is Faulkner’s style, a stream of consciousness that doesn’t lend well to adaptation.  Part of the problem as well is that Faulkner’s dark, Southern Gothic aspects (rape, murder, incest) weren’t meant for films being made under the auspices of the Production Code.  But then why is it that no feature film has been made from one of his novels since 1969?  Several of his novels would lend themselves well to a new cinematic treatment and no one has bothered to make the attempt.  The prime example of what can be done when given the chance with a Faulkner novel is that The Story of Temple Drake, the first film version of Sanctuary, is probably the best film version ever made from a Faulkner novel.

Yet, in these days of DVD releases, with three box sets of “Pre-Code Classics” it still remains that the only place to see The Story of Temple Drake is on YouTube.  Given that Joseph Breen, the enforcer of the Production Code demanded that it never be re-released and it was lost until the fifties and still remains widely unavailable today, completely unavailable on either video or DVD, rarely even being aired on TCM, it is amazing it can even be seen on the web, but there it is, in its entirety.  I am not a fan of uploading copyrighted content to YouTube, but when a company (in this case, Paramount) either refuses to make a film available or no longer seems to have a copyright hold, then I relent.  Films should be available for people to see, and for classic films, if the companies won’t do it, and users can, they should.

Of course, there are numerous reasons why this film should be made available.  First of all, there are the Faulkner fans, and believe me, I am not the only one out there.  Most of the film versions of Faulkner’s novels are hard to find, but we’ll try to find them, because even if they’re terrible, it’s a chance to see it.  Then there is the historical aspect of the film.  It has been widely written about, is incorporated in many film history books as “the film banned by the Code,” with several pages describing the film, its plot and various critical reactions in Thomas Doherty’s Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934.  Then of course, there is the other reason to see it.  It’s a good film.

Again, it is probably the best adaptation of any Faulkner novel.  Tarnished Angels is mediocre at best, The Sound and the Fury and The Long Hot Summer suffer a bit from the overwrought Southern melodrama pushed in by the screenwriters, Intruder in the Dust and The Reivers are good, but not great and the Lee Remick version of Sanctuary is near impossible to find (Sound and the Fury isn’t easy either – I bought a VHS copy off Ebay several years ago).  But Story is a good film, with a very solid, sexually lurid performance from Miriam Hopkins as Temple.  It captures many of the best aspects of the novel (including putting the baby in a drawer to sleep to keep it safe from the rats), holds well enough to the story and the horror of the novel without bottoming out into the truly lurid details that even the Pre-Code Era wouldn’t have allowed on screen.  Yes, at the end of the film there is the trial and that seems to sum up and conclude the film in true Hollywood fashion, but it moves well, has good cinematography, is well directed and captures the essence of the novel more than I would have thought possible.  So see it, while you still can, even if you have to watch it online.  Because films are made to be seen and film history deserves to be preserved, even if it’s only in 10 minute long clips on YouTube.

My Top 10:

Paul Muni as Tony, the crazed gangster and Ann Dvorak as his sister in Scarface

1. Scarface
2. Vampyr
3. Frankenstein
4. A Nous la Liberte
5. Horse Feathers
6. Freaks
7. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
8. Wooden Crosses
9. What Price Hollywood
10. Grand Hotel

• Academy Awards:
• Best Picture:  Grand Hotel
• Best Director:  Frank Borzage  (Bad Girl)
• Best Actor:  Frederic March  (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) / Wallace Beery  (The Champ)
• Best Actress:  Helen Hayes  (The Sin of Madelon Claudet)
• Best Adaptation:  Bad Girl (from the novel by Viña Delmar)
• Best Original Story:  The Champ

TSPDT Consensus Top 5 Films:

• Vampyr – #183
• Freaks – #207
• Frankenstein – #365
• Scarface – #490
• A Nous La Liberte – #506

Top 5 Awards Points:

1. The Champ – 245
2. Bad Girl – 220
3. Shanghai Express – 145
4. Arrowsmith – 135
5. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – 135

AFI Top 100 Films:

• Frankenstein – #87  (1998 poll – not on 2007 poll)

Nighthawk Awards:

Marlene Dietrich as Shanghai Lily in Shanghai Express

• Best Picture:  Scarface
• Best Director:  Howard Hawks  (Scarface)
• Best Actor:  Paul Muni  (Scarface)
• Best Actress:  Marlene Dietrich  (Shanghai Express)
• Best Supporting Actor:  Boris Karloff  (Frankenstein)
• Best Supporting Actress:  Miriam Hopkins  (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
• Best Adapted Screenplay:  Vampyr
• Best Original Screenplay:  Horse Feathers
• Best Foreign Film:  Vampyr (from the novel In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu)

Nighthawk Notables:

• Best Film to Watch over and over:  Horse Feathers
• Best Scene:  the creation scene in Frankenstein
• Best Line:  “I married your mother because I wanted children. Imagine my disappointment when you arrived.”  (Horse Feathers – Groucho Marx)
• See the Movie – Don’t Read the Book:  Vampyr

The ignored genre finally gets some respect.  Not only do Horror films account for 4 of my top 7, but they actually take all of the top 3 spots from TSPDT.  Yet, those same three films were ignored at the Oscars and the one that did get some attention (Jekyll) wasn’t actually nominated for Best Picture, in spite of being better than any of the actual nominees.  Scarface, the best film of the year, is ignored by the Oscars and savaged by the authorities for not giving gangster Tony Camonte an ending befitting his crimes.  Like City Lights, the NBR places it in the Top 10.  Battles with the Hays Office and local censors delayed the film’s release for close to a year.

Film History: While Irving Thalberg has a heart attack, reducing his power at MGM, Harry Cohn becomes president of Columbia.  Under Cohn’s reign, Columbia would win Best Picture 6 times, but he was more hated than anyone in Hollywood and at his funeral, in response to the crowds, Red Skeleton noted “Give the people what they want to see and they’ll show up.”  Johnny Weismuller debuts as Tarzan (side note: in the early 50’s, my uncle would break his hand punching Weismuller’s son in the back).  Thomas Edison, the inventor of the cinematograph dies in late 1930 and George Eastman, the inventor of flexible film dies in early 31.  D.W. Griffith release his final film, The Struggle.

Academy Awards: This was an Oscar year unlike any other.  Grand Hotel is still the only film to win Best Picture while having no other nominations.  It would be another 57 years before another film won without a Best Director nomination.  It would be 19 years before a BP wasn’t in the top two in Oscar points and only one other film (The Greatest Show on Earth) would fail to finish in the top 3 (and it finished fourth while Grand Hotel finished sixth).  Frank Borzage would win his second Oscar (the first to do so) and would fail to win Best Picture again (a mark matched only by John Ford and George Stevens).  Academy rules (not actually in effect, but from the year before) would allow Wallace Beery to claim an Oscar when he finished one vote behind Frederic March.  March and Helen Hayes would eventually both win second Oscars after long gaps (14 years for March, 38 for Hayes).  March would be the last Best Actor winner from a film not nominated for BP until 1947.  All the Best Director nominees would be from BP nominees (easy to do with 3 Directors and 8 films), a trend that would continue, with 2 exceptions until 1943 (My Man Godfrey in 1936 and Angels with Dirty Faces in 1938).  Surprisingly enough, I actually agree with the award for Grand Hotel among the nominations.  While Shanghai Express is fairly good, Grand Hotel is really the only one of the 8 that deserved even a nomination (***.5 or better).

• Worst Oscar:  Best Original Story for The Champ
• Worst Oscar Nomination:  Best Picture for The Champ
• Worst Oscar Omission:  Best Director for Scarface
• Worst Oscar Category:  Best Picture – only Grand Hotel was worthy, The Champ was an embarrassing choice and One Hour With You is weak Cukor and weak Lubitsch
• Best Oscar Nomination:  Best Art Direction for A Nous La Liberte – the first Foreign nominee, and completely worthy

Groucho Marx as Professor Wagstaff in the under-appreciated Horse Feathers (1932)

Overlooked film of 1932:

Horse Feathers (dir. Norman Z. McLeod)

Duck Soup, in spite of its lack of financial success when it was originally released is now revered as a classic.  Ebert hailed it, the Top 1000 ranks it high and it’s been on both AFI lists.  It’s the best of Marx Brothers by the consensus of pretty much everyone.  So what about Horse Feathers?  It’s the second best of the Marx Brothers, has hilarious lines, great interplay back and forth between the brothers, wonderful songs and is almost completely ignored.

You could make a few arguments against the inclusion of Horse Feathers as a great film and all of them have counter-arguments.  First, it has only a flimsy plot.  On the other hand, all Marx Brothers films have flimsy plots and it is not more flimsy than the plot of any big action film.  Second, the way Groucho throws his lines out at times seem to befuddle everybody and bring things to a halt.  But that was the way Groucho was.  As he said, poor Margaret Dumont never got any of his jokes.  It doesn’t like any cast members ever get his jokes except his brothers.  But the lines are always worth it.  Third, the film only remains today in a cut version.  Even in the newest DVD releases, there are jumps in editing and obviously parts that are missing.  This is due to the re-editing after the enforcement of the Production Code so that it could get a re-release and this is the best we have.

Then we have the greatness of the film.  We have the brilliant lines that Groucho keeps throwing at us (“You’re a disgrace to the name of Wagstaff, if such a thing is even possible.”  “You know, this is the first time I’ve been out in a canoe since I saw ‘The American Tragedy.’ “  “I think you know what the trustees can do with their suggestions.”).  We have the great scene at the speak-easy where Groucho tries to figure out the password (reminiscent of this classic Sesame Street scene).  We have the craziness that ensues whenever Chico is asked to do something (this pretty much happens in every Marx Brothers film).

Then there are the songs.  Sometimes early Hollywood songs get forgotten because there was no Academy Award for Best Song until 1934.  But this film has two of the best early ones.  First we have Professor Wagstaff’s earnest disapproval of any idea that has already been presented (“I’m Against It”).  But then we have the Marx Brothers most beautiful song, one which would give Woody Allen the title of his own musical: “Everyone Says I Love You.”  What makes the song even more enchanting is how, during the course of the film, all four brothers sing it to Thelma Todd.  What could be a little throwaway verse becomes a classic song as it helps tie the parts of the film together into a cohesive whole.

I probably wouldn’t ever see Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr if it wasn’t for The 1001 Movies You Must See that I recently joined. This sucker was hard to find, but I managed to find the Criterion Edition of this classic vampire tale. I made the same mistake again by watching a semi-silent movie at night. I dozed.

Allan Gray (Julian West) religiously studies of the occult, devil worshiping and vampires lore. He becomes so obsessed that he could not distinguish between real and the supernatural. One night, he wanders into a creepy chateau down by a river in a town called Coutermpierre.

When he gets settled in, he hears what appears to be an incantation from somewhere in the inn. He investigates. Allan doesn’t see anyone and returns to his room. In the midst of sleep,  the lord of the manor (Maurice Schutz) bursts into his room and babbles to Allan about leaving the place before the house takes him over. He leaves a mysterious package on desk to be opened after his death. After the lord leaves,  Allan fears that someone– not himself–  is in trouble.

During his stay at the chateau, he sees shadows dancing on the walls, but nobody is there. He meets more of the inhabitants like the scythe-wielding man that carries a bell. Allan explores more of the chateau and the strange happenings around the place. The lord’s daughters, Gisèlle (Rena Handel) and Léone (Sybille Schmitz) have been suffering for what appears to be anemia.

The lord of the house is shot by one of the shadows and Allan is asked to stay away from the family with a servant to get the village doctor (Jan Heironimko). After the lord’s death, Allan opens the package to find a book, “The Strange History of Vampires” by Paul Bonnard. It chronicles the history of vampire lore. He reads the passages and suspects that there is a vampire amongst them.

This movie was made in1932. I want to know how they got the skulls or the shadows to move independently. This is a fascinating movie that I thought was a silent film. It has probably ten minutes of actual dialogue in the movie. Most of the time is Allan exploring the chateau.

The one complaint I have to the movie is the camerawork. It felt jerky. The way that the camera follows the characters in and out of rooms felt jerky and sped up the suspense to be effective.

Judgment: I would recommned this for the people who don’t want to be the blood and gore of other vampire movies.

Rating: ****

pisoteada num show do Panic At The Disco!

Eu confiava que Jennifer’s Body ia ser um great flick mas na verdade Zombieland foi bem melhor. Começo logo dizendo assim, ao falar dos novos filmes. Não que JB seja ruim, simplesmente não valeu tanto a pena quanto Zombieland (mesmo este aqui não sendo um filme de terror, mas dizendo isto, nem posso dizer por completo que JB seja também, mas o roteiro é mais característico do gênero. Zombieland é comédia, e romântica). Mais abaixo eu recomendo um clássico, agora eu vou permitir a mim mesmo destrinchar um pouco destes dois filmes atuais.

JB tinha toda aquela expectativa por conta da Diablo Cody e da Megan Fox, ícones moderninhos do sucesso, depois que uma fez o roteiro elogiadíssimo de Juno e a outra, sei lá, simplesmente começou a ser a bunda mais apreciada do momento (melhor dizendo, os peitos. Nos EUA eles valorizam mais os peitos. Tenho um quê de Estado-unidense hoje em dia também). Mas o filme, apesar de funcionar bem como um radar da juventude destes idos de dois mil e tantos, fica em um lugar que eu chamo de “terreno de ninguém” – ele tem muitas características boas e ao mesmo tempo muitas características ruins; não é de um gênero, nem de outro, nem de outro, nem sequer é uma mistura muito bem definida; e nessa bagunça, o que eu achei foi a problemática na tentativa de agradar uns e outros. A direção não é falha, e o problema não está no roteiro. É que simplesmente, colocando na balança, o filme fica no meio termo mesmo. Se tivesse que existir uma prateleira onde se colocar o filme, sei lá, ele estaria entre Ginger Snaps, Amaldiçoados do Craven, e algum filme teen qualquer do final dos 90, que nem precisaria ser especificamente de “terror” (entre aspas) como Eu Sei o Que Vocês Fizeram… blablabla. Basta ser teen. E o filme consegue ser teen, mais teen impossível, e mais antenado com o teen atual, impossível também. Mas apesar disso, é inegável que tem cenas muito bem dirigidas, e muitas coisas do roteiro que são sacadas interessantes. Mas pra mim, o melhor mesmo foi uma blusinha que a Megan Fox usa com o logo de Evil Dead. Tem pra macho?

Regra #1: Boa condição física.

Zombieland é uma alegria só! uma comédia, com toques de romantismo e heroismo, composta de míseros 80min, mostrando que filme fast-food é feito pra ser divertido e rápido, e que ainda assim pode ser criativo e reunir muitas características boas. Digamos que a pesquisa pro filme foi bem-feita. Ele é uma versão cômica da HQ perfeita The Walking Dead, que por sua vez é uma quadrinização realista do já non-sense Romero. O filme também lembra o livro Manual de Sobrevivência… já que o personagem principal cria um livrinho cheio de regras básicas, que acabam por tornar a situação toda mais cômica ainda. O ator tem a cara nerd de Superbad, contracena com a (lindinha) Emma Stone (de Superbad) e com o doidão Harrelson, nosso Natural Born Killer, que está atuando como o quê? um Natural Born Killer. O cara nasceu pra isso!! E por fim, o que parecia a meu ver que poderia dar errado, mesmo sendo engraçado, foi um ótimo filme com uma trilha bastante diversificada (até a música tema de Ghostbusters tá na soundtrack) mas que, depois de assistida a obra, faz todo o sentido; enquanto que JB, até a trilha, mesmo coerente, escorrega feio. Panic At The Disco? pelo amor de JC! Bota um For Whom The Bell Tolls na abertura que já é!! (falando em trilhas, atualmente a melhor, que eu indico que vale a busca no google por um rapidshare ativo, é a de Taking Woodstock – não é de um filme de horror, mas a trilha é exemplo de trilha bem planejada e 100% boa. Pra ouvir sem pular faixas!).

Então, foi assistindo o Harrelson em Zombieland que eu me lembrei do cara que caçava por prazer – o Zodíaco do filme homônimo baseado em fatos reais dirigido por David Fincher. Quando o principal suspeito Arthur Leigh Allen é interrogado pelo personagem de Mark Ruffalo e cia policial, tal qual o ocorrido na Califórnia do início dos anos 70, assume gostar bastante da short story publicada em 1924 por Richard Connel chamada The Most Dangerous Game, traduzida no Brasil como “O Esporte Mais Perigoso”. Logo os policiais se lembram da primeira mensagem criptografada pelo Zodíaco (a única decodificada até hoje) onde ele diz que o que ele faz é the most dangerous game… no conto, um náufrago aficcionado pela caça acaba sendo caçado por um aficcionado um tanto mais perverso, que em sua ilha caça sobreviventes de naufrágios como animais, pelo mero prazer do esporte. O personagem maluco interpretado por Jake Gyllenhaal em Zodíaco logo reconhece a citação na mensagem codificada, lembrando-se do general Zaroff, pela interpretação de Leslie Banks na adaptação cinematográfica homônima do conto, de 1932, estrelado inclusive pela rainha da selva: Fay Wray. O conto ainda inspirou mais filmes como Bloodlust! com Robert Reed, e o ótimo Battle Royale (antiga paixão), e até outras obras literárias como O Senhor das Moscas de William Golding (eterna paixão) e é um exemplo e tanto como conto de horror. (Leia no original!)

"Explicando o Sexo" com o prof. Zaroff

Como eu já pretendia passar meu haloween reassistindo Demons de Lamberto Bava, demorei um pouco mais pra caçar The Most Dangerous Game na net. Mas quando assisti, que impacto! Fez com que eu quisesse voltar no tempo pra assistir ele no 31 de Outubro, como merecido. O filme é impecável, o tique de que Leslie Banks criou para o general Zaroff (a coçadinha na cicatriz marcada no crânio por um búfalo) vai me perseguir para sempre. Ultimamente meu cérebro está ou regredindo, ou progredindo, ou as escolhas simplesmente andam sendo boas, porque todos os filmes que assisto da década de 30 parecem melhores que muitos que tenho reassistido dos clássicos que amo dos anos 80, e dos 40, 50, 60. No filme, o cenário da floresta – a mesma utilizada para a ilha da caveira em King Kong – se torna um battlefield e realmente assusta. Sem papas na lingua, com uma hora de duração, o filme consegue paralisar o espectador na cadeira a partir do segundo ou terceiro minuto. O diálogo inicial, onde o náufrago que será personagem (vitima) principal na trama, reconhece na caça “o esporte mais recompensador” – e é retrucado com “não para o jaguar” – coloca a questão do medo em primeiro plano, e nos coloca a partir daí no lado frágil, não do caçador, mas do caçado. A trama se desenvolve basicamente em torno da terrivel sensação de não ter qualquer saída e estar em desvantagem, tal qual o jaguar que, apesar de superior na floresta onde habita, nada pode fazer com suas garras e presas diante de um experiente homem equipado até os dentes com armas de fogo e localizadores. Fotografia impecável, Bela cinematografia, dramatização memorável, trilha de arrebatar qualquer um. Entre qualquer lançamento atual e obras como The Most Dangerous Game, no entanto, não temos como realizar uma comparação em termos de qualidade, visto que isto é isto e aquilo é aquilo, sem precisar dizer mais; o fato mais chocante sempre será ver que JB, por exemplo, custou $16,000,000 pra ser realizado;  Zombieland, $24,733,155; e TMDG, em 1932, com equipamentos pesados e caros, tecnologia nula, efeitos especiais e cenários improvisados? míseros $218,869. E ainda assim, um filme imbatível. Te amo, RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

P.S.: Talvez o mais legal de JB tenham sido as fotos que vazaram de Megan Fox com os peitos de fora. (Mesmo com aquele adesivo de tampar o bico! >/). E aquela gofada de petróleo!! \m/

Saul Mendez para o Gore Bahia 06/11/2009

1932 Stutz Indy Race Car Jones Special c 1637×868 image image of 1932 Stutz Indy Race Car Jones Special c 1637×868
to view full size click1932 Stutz İndy Race Car Jones Special C 1637X868 image ( 1932 Stutz İndy Race Car Jones Special C 1637X868 image )

1932 packard 900 sedan wjat Classic 1024×810 picture picture of 1932 packard 900 sedan wjat Classic 1024×810
to view full size click1932 Packard 900 Sedan Wjat Classic 1024X810 picture ( 1932 Packard 900 Sedan Wjat Classic 1024X810 picture )

1932 8-1973-AMC-Gremlin Classic 1280×914 picture wallpaper of 1932 8-1973-AMC-Gremlin Classic 1280×914
to view full size click1932 8-1973-Amc-Gremlin Classic 1280X914 picture ( 1932 8-1973-Amc-Gremlin Classic 1280X914 picture )

The Communal Award was announced by the British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald in August 1932 to grant separate electorates to minority communities, including Muslims, Sikhs, and Dalit (then known as the Depressed Classes) in India.

The Award was highly controversial and opposed by Mahatma Gandhi, who fasted in protest against it. It was supported by many among the minority communities, most notably the dalit leader, B. R. Ambedkar.

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Landmark cult film about the relationship between a long legged trapeze artist named Cleopatra and Hans, the dwarf she marries. Uncategorizable film is creepy and disturbing, but also touching and sweet. What makes this film so unique is director Tod Browning’s controversial step in casting real people with deformities as the so-called sideshow “freaks,” rather than using costumes and makeup. However it is these performers that come off as trusting and honorable, while two of the “normal” members of the circus are portrayed as the real monsters. Although certainly one of the most unusual films ever produced by a major Hollywood studio, the message of sympathy and acceptance is admirable. The well publicized revulsion with which audiences originally greeted this film seems unjustified. A fascinating movie that remains a curious oddity.