I love horror films, and I’d been meaning to watch this classic for quite some time.  Netflix is so good for making you finally get around to seeing movies you’ve always meant to see.

Summary:
Rosemary and her actor husband move into a new apartment despite protestations from a friend that the building has a bit of a history of odd things happening.  Their new neighbors are a friendly, elderly couple.  In fact, Rosemary finds them to be a bit too friendly, but her husband likes them and insists the friendship be kept up.  Soon Rosemary is pregnant, but there is something odd about her pregnancy she can’t quite put her finger on until it is too late.

Review:
This is the type of horror story I love.  Something sinister lurking in the background of the main character’s life.  Everyone around her telling her she’s the crazy one or that she’s paranoid with only the main character and the viewer seeing what’s really going on.  This gives such a different scared vibe than the more typical, oh we’re in a scary hotel room for one night ahhh.

The cinematography has that classic 1960s feel that I personally love.  Maybe there’s a technical term for it, I don’t know, but it’s that awkward shot.  Instead of every shot being perfectly clean cut like in modern films, the actors aren’t always in center and focused.  People are off to the side.  It gives almost a mockumentary film feeling without any of those staged interviews.

Mia Farrow’s acting is truly excellent.  Her facial expressions show the wheels turning in her head even when other characters are in the room with Rosemary.  You can see how Rosemary senses something is wrong, yet she isn’t sure what exactly.

Ruth Gordon, playing the elderly neighbor woman, also offers up an excellent acting job.  She plays to perfection that horribly annoying elderly woman who everyone else finds delightful but you just want to stop touching your throw pillows.  It may seem like an easy part to play, but it is a fine line to walk, and she executes it perfectly.

I think what kept me from loving the movie as opposed to just really liking it were the odd dream sequences.  These too have a classic 1960s feel, but not in a good way.   They feel fake, and jerked me out of the world I had been sucked into.  I think most of the dream sequences could have been done without.

There is no way to discuss the social commentary this movie makes without giving away a massive spoiler, so let me just say that women’s agency is central to the plot of this film and is one of the main reasons I liked it.

If you enjoy horror, 1960s cinematography, or subtle social commentary, you will enjoy this film.

4 out of 5 stars

Source: Netflix

Criança tem medo de tudo. Do escuro, do barulho, da sombra e do reflexo. Depois passa, dirão. Ou não?

Eu não era mais criança quando vi “O Bebê De Rosemary” pela primeira vez. Mas não estava nem perto de ser adulto. Atravessava aquela área nebulosa que hoje começa com um “pré” e termina com um “adolescente” já com idade pra ser gente. Antes não. Era tudo piá de bosta. Nada mais certo, penso eu.

Então, com meus sei lá quantos anos – mais de 10 e menos de 15, com certeza -, me peguei vendo o tal filme na TV, dubladão e com comerciais. E mesmo assim, dormi de luz acesa naquela noite, e por outras tantas fui deitar ainda impressionado, mas de luz apagada, que piá de bosta tem lá seu orgulho, ainda que proporcionalmente inferior ao cagaço.

Mas o que me marcou tanto assim neste filme, pra causar tanta meda?

Quase nada. Ou quase tudo. Porque “O Bebê De Rosemary” passa longe dos filmes de terror. Foge dos clichês. Não tem violinos de uma nota só tentando marcar sustos. Na verdade, nem sustos o filme tem. Nada de vultos que surgem do nada, ou gatos que despencam de caixas empilhadas bem alto nos armários. Nada disso. Você faz o terror sozinho. Ou quase. Polanski ajuda compondo o clima, ditando o ritmo, deslocando lentamente/lateralmente sua câmera para mudar de forma sutil o ponto de vista. E o incômodo vai se instalando de forma silenciosa. E sublime. Desde a canção de ninar que abre o filme. Desde o surgimento de bizarrices que, de tão pequenas, a gente releva. Mas guarda no canto do crânio. E sucedem-se suicídios e acidentes, mousses de chocolate e estupros delirantes, médicos atenciosos e vitaminas repulsivas, dores abdominais e medos ancestrais.

“O Bebê De Rosemary” é Polanski em sua melhor forma, fazendo com que todos os envolvidos com a produção também revelem as suas melhores formas e, no caso dos atores, atuações. Mia, John, Sidney, Maurice,Victoria – todos vivem o filme e a história de forma absurdamente intensa. Obviamente Ruth Gordon arrasa e merecia bem mais do que um Oscar pela composição de uma personagem tão divertida, irritante e sombria.

Se tudo isso que eu falei já era bom demais, o filme ainda tem final. E que final! Desde aquela primeira vez, ainda piá de bosta, o desfecho me arrebatou. E me assombrou. O berço negro. Os olhares “satânicos” dos convidados. O bebê que não se vê. A escolha de Rosemary. Pavor do bom e do melhor pra acompanhar a gente pro resto da vida. E influenciar uns bons pesadelos durante o percurso.

(Rosemary’s Baby – 1968) - Trailer
Direção: Roman Polanski
Roteiro: Roman Polanski (baseado no romance de Ira Levin)
Elenco: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Sidney Blackmer, Ruth Gordon, Maurice Evans, Victoria Vetri, Ralph Bellamy

The Exorcist trailer - Saw this in a college class and then had to walk home across campus in dense fog. Didn’t sleep a wink that night, nor did most of my friends. Yes, it was a Jesuit college.

Halloween trailer - I saw this screened at a NACA convention in a small classroom with about twenty people. At a critical point in the movie – when you could hear a pin drop - the guy next to me goosed the girl in front of him and she rocketed skyward with a bloodcurdling scream, which made most of us soil ourselves. Then a walk back across a foggy campus where the film distributor hired a Michael Meyers lookalike to drop from a tree. (I’m still washing that pair of shorts.)

The Blair Witch Project trailer - The very last scene makes no sense if you didn’t pay close attention in the beginning. If you did pay attention, it will scare the shit out of you. Kudos to the creators who took a shoestring budget and made one of the best viral movies ever, with special thanks for making that scary ending so subtle. Hope the creators of Paranormal Activity are slipping these guys a few bucks. 

House on Haunted Hill trailer - Where I grew up in NYC there was an afternoon matinee called Million Dollar Movie that aired from around 4:30 until 6:00. Occasionally they would show the same film Monday through Friday. I remember watching this film every day for five straight days and still jumping ten feet in the air every time scene with the “floating woman” came by…god, that still creeps me out! Starring Vincent Price at his smarmiest and featuring the always willing to chew scenery Elisha Cook, Jr. They have remade this movie several times but nothing touches the original.

Session 9 trailer - Contemporary horror movies are mostly gorefests. This was a thinking person’s movie, where the horror was deeper than any axe blade could cut. I thought David Caruso might even have resurrected his film career with this one, but I guess I was wrong. Subtle and pensive but very, very creepy.

The Shining trailer - Ever watched someone go insane right before your eyes? (Married people, step back.) Jack Nicholson channeling palpable dread… tempered only by the fact that I wanted to kill Shelley Duvall myself. Redrum!

Psycho trailer - Alfred Hitchcock’s movie trailers are better than some people’s movies. The screeching score was as much a part of the fright as the visuals. A landmark classic.

Rosemary’s Baby trailer - The scariest films are sometimes the ones with the most plausible characters (apart from the whole Satanic thing, of course). What brilliance to cast condo dwellers as the evil ones? Conspiratorial horror. I never looked at Ruth Gordon the same way again (even in Harold and Maude I wondered if she would snap Bud Cort’s neck and eat him).

Night of the Living Dead trailer - Yep, no big names, cheesey by modern standards, but at the time one of the creepiest movies ever made. You don’t spawn that many sequels and imitators by sucking!

Phantasm trailer - Speaking of cheeseball, some of the sets and (lack of) costumes will make some think it’s a lame movie, but when The Tall Man enters the screen, all bets are off. The last scene of this movie is one of the scariest moments on film. And has there ever been a better horror movie name than Angus Scrimm? Ice cream trucks, ponytails and the sphere.

Mental Floss

“A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they’re not dead, really. They’re just… backing away from life. Reach out. Take a chance. Get hurt, even! Play as well as you can. Go team! GO! Give me an L! Give me an I! Give me a V! Give me an E! L. I. V. E. LIVE! …Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room.”

Ruth Gordon (1896 – 1985) from Harold and Maude

“A lot of people enjoy being dead. But they are not dead, really. They’re just backing away from life.” ~~Maude Chardin

Director Hal Ashby announces his intentions for “Harold and Maude” in the opening scene, and those intentions are, shall we say, a wee bit impish: Bored, rich, purposeless 20-something Harold Chasen (Bud Cort) swings from a noose while his mother (Vivian Pickles) can’t be bothered to end her phone call. Staged suicides, we learn, are common in the palatial Chasen homestead and no cause for alarm — just annoying interruptions in mom’s quest to marry off her son. Those young adults, the things they do to stave off ennui.

And so begins “Harold and Maude,” an unconventional romantic comedy where the pursuit of life trumps all that mushy love stuff (yippee). But perhaps “unconventional” isn’t the right word to describe Ashby’s movie, for it hardly captures all the wild weirdness that makes the movie — based on Colin Higgins’ novel — such a strangely moving affirmation of life.

First, though, there’s the lovely mishmash of bizarreness to muddle through. It’s no wonder everyone calls this one a “cult classic”; “Love Story” it ain’t. (Chorus from Broken Record Girl: yippee.) Harold’s got absolutely no interest in life. But he’s cheeks over teacups in love with death, or at least the idea of it, so he spends his time staging elaborate suicides (the human torch bit is a personal favorite) and attending random funerals. It’s there, in a graveyard, that he meets Maude Chardin (Ruth Gordon), a 79-year-old widow with an irrepressibly optimistic worldview and a knack for lifting cars. She senses Harold’s stuck in limbo, so she befriends him, slowly wearing down his resistance. At first Harold is simply a tagalong in Maude’s madcap adventures — including the liberation of a potted tree that ends in a side-splitting car chase — but gradually he becomes a participant. The shift is subtle, but when you do take notice it’s so powerful that it almost knocks you over.

Which is true of “Harold and Maude” as a whole. At its core the film is a beautiful message movie, a retelling of that time-honored “carpe diem” speech. It’s the unusual script, however, that makes the message seem fresh. Higgins’ novel dials down the sentamentality and avoids cliches, and so, too, does Ashby’s film. Ashby elects to bury the insights underneath all the blackly funny suicides and Maude’s antics. (The scene where she plays war protestor to Harold’s gung-ho recruit? Priceless.) Instead, Ashby lets the insights emerge in quieter moments, like the one where Maude, desperate to save that potted tree from its stifling life of city servitude, tells Harold: “Grab the shovel.” It’s a little scene, a throwaway little line, but what punch it has. ”Harold and Maude” is jam-packed with these kinds of brilliant moments. And like any truly great movie, there’s just no end to them.

Those moments probably wouldn’t mean much without Cort and Gordon, who turn in wonderful performances as good today as they were in 1971. It’s a tricky dance, shifting from dark comedy to drama and back, but these two do it beautifully. Cort’s Harold is a strange creature, a boy who can’t fully embrace life but lacks the guts to commit suicide, and that is off-putting at first. But there’s a deep current of fear in Harold that Cort makes painfully real. “I haven’t lived. I’ve died a few times,” he says. What 20-year-old, staring into that void between youth and adulthood, hasn’t felt the same? Gordon plays nicely off that negative energy, making Maude less a lover (though there’s a scene that suggests she is) than a teacher. She wants to reach Harold, show him what it means to take that fear and use it, channel it. But she’s no soapbox preacher. She couldn’t give a fig about morality: ”It’s best not to be too moral. You cheat yourself out of too much life.”

That, you see, is Maude’s gift to Harold and Ashby’s gift to us: the reminder that backing away from life is its own kind of suicide. Call me sentimental, but when that truth’s hidden in a film this haunting, poignant, comical and original? I’ll fall for it every time.

Roman Polanski

 

Roman Raymond Polański (born August 18, 1933) is a Polish-French film director, writer, actor and producer. Polanski began his career in Poland, and later became a celebrated Academy Award-winning director of both art house and commercial films, making such films as Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974). Polanski is one of the world’s best known contemporary film directors.

Most of Polanski’s films are psychological suspense thrillers, notable for their deliberate pacing, carefully established mood and atmosphere, and often Gothic treatment of settings and characters. As a stylist, Polanski favors long takes, deep-focus photography, detailed mise-en-scène and wide panoramic compositions; jump cuts and montage almost never appear in his work.

A recurring theme in his films is the relationship between victim and perpetrator, and the unstable and shifting dynamics of these power relations are often resolved in sudden outbursts of senseless violence. Many of Polanski’s films (especially his early works) deal with characters struggling for mastery over an intractable situation and feature a circular plot structure — i.e., the action is framed by an ironic recurrence of events or reversal of fortunes at the conclusion.

In this sense, Polanski’s oeuvre — particularly, his most celebrated work from the 1950s through to the 1970s — seems to reflect a decidedly pessimistic and desolate absurdist worldview. However, Polanski’s old tendency towards unremitting bleakness appears to have mellowed in recent years, with films like Death and the Maiden, The Pianist and Oliver Twist ultimately imparting a more hopeful view of human nature and admitting the possibility of redemptive action in the face of a hostile and incomprehensible universe.

Trade Mark

Likes to arrange shots from the protagonist’s perspective and slowly pan around the room to points of interest as the character notices them.

Trivia

Has not been back to the United States since 1978.

He was convicted of the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl and fled to Europe to escape incarceration.

After Polanski fled from the American justice, the judge on his case swore to have him behind the bars. Though the judge died in 1989, the director still can’t enter the US; otherwise, he would be arrested.

Sharon Tate and Polanski

In 1969, while he was on out-of-town business, his wife, actress Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by members of Charles Manson’s cult family; though Manson only ordered the killing and was not present during the murders. She was eight-months pregnant with their first child at the time. He has said that his life’s biggest regret was not being present at the house on Cielo Drive, Beverly Hills the night his wife Sharon Tate and four others were brutally murdered.

Two children with Emmanuelle Seigner: Morgane and Elvis.

Shortly before her murder, wife Sharon Tate gave Polanski a copy of Thomas Hardy’s 1891 novel “Tess of the d’Urbervilles”, and he planned to film it with her. When he finally made the movie Tess (1979), he dedicated it to her.

Roman and his father are Holocaust survivors. His father was Jewish, and his half-Jewish mother (who was murdered in Auschwitz) had been raised as a Roman Catholic.

Received his first best director Oscar for the movie The Pianist (2002) five months after the awards ceremony. His friend, Harrison Ford, flew to France to present Polanski the award, since the director would be immediately arrested and incarcerated due to outstanding warrants stemming from his fleeing the US after his 1978 statutory rape conviction to avoid imprisonment. [8 September 2003].

Won the Best Director Oscar in 2003 for The Pianist (2002) at the age of 69 years and 7 months, making him the oldest person ever to win that award to that point in time. Polanski eclipsed the record previously held by George Cukor, who was 65 when he won for directing My Fair Lady (1964). This record was beaten in 2005 when Clint Eastwood won at the age of 74 for Million Dollar Baby (2004).

Within the Hollywood industry in the late 60s and early 70s he was often mocked as the stereotypical short, tyrannical European director.

Polanski & Mia Farrow - Rosmary's Baby

Was voted the 26th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Was one of the judges in the Miss Universe pageant in 1976.

When he fled from the U.S. in the late 70s, much was made about the director’s inability to ever make films in the States again. However, Polanski only shot 2 films in the States prior to his arrest: Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974) were shot in North America. All other English-language films before the arrest were shot in the UK, and all the ones since have been shot in Central Europe.

President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991

Is portrayed by Marek Probosz in Helter Skelter (2004) (TV).

Polanski was born Rajmund Roman Liebling in Paris, France, the son of Bula (née Katz-Przedborska) and Ryszard Liebling (aka Ryszard Polanski), who was a painter and plastics manufacturer. His father was a Polish Jew and his mother, a native of Russia, was brought up as a Catholic as she had a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother.

Was offered the chance to direct King Kong (1976) but turned it down.

Directed four actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Ruth Gordon, Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and Adrien Brody. Gordon and Brody won Oscars for their performance in one of his movies.

Different, and better, than I expected. Umm, nudity? 7/10 [Lucy Glib]

Buy it

While the term ‘Cougar’ is a relatively new definition – an older woman who ‘preys’ on young guys – the concept is certainly an age old one.  In fact, films have been exploring the subject for a long, long time.   Throughout the thirties, Mae West famously woo’ed a slew of young leading men (including a 20 something Cary Grant) and since then there have been several memorable films about this special kind of May/December romance.

Sunset Blvd. (1950)  -  Norma Desmond

Probably the most famous cougar in film (at the very least the most quotable),  Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond sets the mold for every modern day cougar.  She’s rich, well connected, elegant, and filled with enough promises and one liners to keep the object of her obsession, struggling screenwriter Joe, interested and around for a while.  Though perhaps a bit crazier than most cougars ( she does shoot Joe when he finally gets the balls to leave), she’s easily the most sympathetic.  For those of you who don’t know the story: aging and forgotten silent film star Norma Desmond toils away in her Sunset Blvd.  mansion – having funerals for her chimpanzes – until Joe Gillis accidentaly wanders in while trying to escape from repo men.  BOOM! Norma’s in love and thinks that Joe is the perfect man to write her comeback role… so she uses everything at her disposal to keep him in her life.

PENULTIMATE COUGAR SCENE: Norma dresses like Charlie Chaplin and gives Joe a performance as ‘The Tramp’ and his expression looks like he realizes he’s been abducted by some kind of alien. 

GREAT COUGAR LINE: Norma describes her assets to Joe:  “Shut up, I’m Rich. Richer than all this new Hollywood Trash!  I have a million dollars.  Own three blocks downtown,  I’ve got oil in Bakersfield pumping, Pumping, PUMPING!

THE GRADUATE (1967)   –   Mrs. Robinson

Coming in a close second to Norma Desmond would be Mrs. Robinson, played by Mrs. Mel Brooks… Anne Bancroft.  After reaquainting herself with young Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) at his graduation party, Mrs. Robinson begins her art of seduction even though she’s roughly the age of his mother.  When asked if he finds her attractive, Braddock’s reply is classic “Oh, yes, I think you’re the prettiest of my mother’s friends.”  Their hotel rendevous eventually end quite badly when Ben starts dating Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, and the elder Robinson suddenly morphs into a crazy, Disney level evil queen.

PENULTIMATE COUGAR SCENE: The first time Ben realizes Mrs. Robinson’s intentions… trapped in Elaine Robinson’s bedroom while Mrs. Robinson quickly strips. 

GREAT COUGAR LINE: “Benjamin I want you to know that I’m available to you, and if you won’t sleep with me this time I want you to know that you can call me up anytime and we can make some kind of arrangement.”

HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971)  -  Maude

Most people think this is one of the strangest movies ever made.  Bud Cort plays Harold, a rich kid – obsessed with death- whos parents think he should settle down, so they create a series of dates that go hilariously wrong.  Ruth Gordon plays Maude, an elderly woman living life to the fullest.  Their paths intersect at a funeral, where Harold spies Maude trying to steal his hearse, beginning their adventure.  Along the way, she steals several other vehicles, as well as Harold’s heart.  Maude teaches Harold to curb his suicidal appetites and embrace life like she has.  Like with all “Cougar Films” it ends in tragedy.  Maude, for all her talk of life, transplanting trees in parks to the forrest, lecturing Harold on how sad most people are, etc… has no intention of living past the age of 80.  Indeed, he meets her on her 80′th birthday, wishing her well, only to get the reply “I took the tablets an hour ago… I’ll be gone by midnight…”

PENULTIMATE COUGAR SCENE:  Harold gives Maude a gift – a coin with the engraving “Harold loves Maude.”  Maude admires it, then throws it into a fountain right in front of him.

GREAT COUGAR LINE: “Vice.  Virtue.  It’s best not to be too moral.  You cheat yourself out of too much life.”

** RUNNER UP (this line is not uttered by the Cougar in question, but it’s too amazing not to mention.)  Priest: ” I’d be remiss in my duties if I did not tell you that the idea of  intercourse – the act of your firm, young body… comingling with withered flesh… sagging breasts… and flabby b..b..buttocks… makes me want… to vomit.”

Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (2001)  -  Luisa Cortez

Road trip films are great, so even better that Alfonso Cuaron weaved into his mini masterpiece a cougar (Maribel Verdu) so enticing she could snag not one, but two young men (Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal)! The story involves two best friends who embark on a trip to a beach called Boca del Cielo with an older woman, Luisa, that they are both attracted to.  Little do they know her situation or intentions… Luisa has terminal cancer and just found out her husband is cheating on her and sees the road trip as an opportunity to teach her two co-pilots a thing or two about the ways of the world.

PENULTIMATE COUGAR LINE: ” You have to make the clitoris your best friend.”  RESPONSE: “What kind of friend is always hiding?”

GREAT COUGAR SCENE: Near the end, in a nearly wordless scene, Luisa takes the two guys out to a restaurant, plays from the juke box and her dance is enough to attract both guys into bed with her for one of the most talked about threesomes in recent film history.

Por Jaime Ramos

Inspirado por los útimos Clásicos de nuestro programa de radio, y por mi cariño hacia el personaje de Benjamin Linus en Lost, os traigo esta lista que debería haber llamado “Mis 10 villanos favoritos”, pero como la cosa va de maldad, mejor ser pretencioso, pedante y resabido. Allá vamos (espero no olvidar a nadie):

10. Javier Bardem en su papel de Anton Chigurh en No es país para viejos

Lo más o menos divertido, según se mire, de la construcción de este personaje, son los motivos que le llevan a matar, porque al igual que Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov y Brandon Shaw, él cree poseer una moral superior, solo que sin los fallos de base (conciencia y empatía) de los mencionados.

9. Hades en Hércules, encarnado por la voz de James Woods.

Sí, sé que me meto en un jardín introduciendo un villano de Disney, porque cada cual tiene su favorito, pero creo que Hades es el mejor conseguido de todos, después de una tendencia clásica a hacerlos a todos demasiado parecidos. Otro que me encanta es el malvado niño descuartiza juguetes de Toy Story.

8. El lobo de La historia interminable o Lars Von Trier (a elección del lector)

Un poco de 2.0, ¿no creen? Elijan lo que les aterrorizó más, ese malvado licántropo o ese director licántropo devorador de personajes (imagínense quedar encerrado en una de sus películas, donde ningún personaje tiene esperanza).

7. Ruth Gordon en el papel de Minnie Castevet en La semilla del diablo.

Este papel, de un clásico que recordamos hace poco en nuestra versión radiofónica, le dio a Ruth Gordon el Oscar a Mejor actriz de reparto. A mí, al menos, me parece la más malvada en la sección de vecinos espeluznantes, aquellos que tratan de cuidarte, pero por motivos más que diabólicos.

6. Jack Nicholson en su papel de Jack Torrance, en El Resplandor.

Cualquier motivo que dé en su respaldo se quedará muy corto. Un consejo, los que se la hayan perdido en versión original, descubrirán si la visualizan que es una película de terror. Y hablando de Jack Nicholson, esta es una decisión muy personal, como en el caso de Von Trier, en la que ustedes han de decidir irremediablemente (piénsenlo bien): ¿con cuál de los dos se quedan?

5. Hal 9000 en su papel de Hal 9000 en 2001 Odisea en el espacio.

Particularmente a mí me asusta más que cualquier versión Terminator porque de IBM no te lo esperas. Las órdenes contradictorias que le son dadas lo terminan convirtiendo en un psicópata muy silencioso. Sin embargo, permitan que rompa un condensador a su favor y en el de Chandra.

4. Alan Arkin por Roat en Sola en la Oscuridad.

Que es un psicópata lo tenemos claro, pero lo que honra tanto personaje como genial interpretación es la inteligencia que denota, que se plasma en imprevisibilidad para predecir su siguiente jugada, además de ser capaz de desdoblarse dentro del filme en varios personajes con apariencia inocente.

3. Ian McKellen por Magneto en X Men.

El villano, cuando es intelectual, es doblemente villano. Son aquellos que se vuelven contra el mundo después de que este no haya querido comprender su inteligencia superior. Para mí Magneto ganaría la partido al Lex Luthor de Superman interpretado por Gene Hackman (prefiero no hablar del último). Como el caso de Disney, el mundo cómic es terreno arenoso para tomar una decisión férrea sobre su villano favorito. Uno que me agrado mucho en los últimos tiempos fue Jeff Bridges en Ironman.

2. Louise Fletcher,o la enfermera Ratchet en Alguien voló sobre el nido del cuco.

Muchas veces el terror puede sorprender desde la persona que menos se espera. La enfermera Rachet representa en un solo personaje todas las barreras del ser humano por ser libre, es como el Gran Hermano corpóreo, como si Brazil hubiera tenido un villano específico. Aquella que extremando las reglas de nuestra sociedad, las utiliza para asfixiarnos.

1. Daniel Day Lewis, o Daniel Plainview en Pozos de Ambición.

Martin Scorsese demostró lo malo que podía llegar a ser Daniel Day Lewis, pero jamás imaginé que Paul Thomas Anderson pudiera elevarlo en interpretación hasta el nivel del ser Daniel Plainview. Un ser con la moral más perniciosa de la historia. El se reconoce como miembro de la sociedad, como persona, pero increíblemente el milagro de la existencia es tan solo algo secundario que pasa por casualidad por su capacidad para hacer el mal entre los que le rodean. Es el diablo en la Tierra, orgulloso de su condición, y lo peor de este personaje, es que hay que admitir que un día podemos reconocerlo, podemos cruzarnos con él. Y es que no son factores externos, o un engaño de su conciencia lo que le motiva: su maldad es propia, parte de él mismo. Me pone los pelos de punta su “I drink your milshake“

Antes de despedirme quería felicitar a los que se han quedado fuera de mi lista, sin ellos no hubiera sido posible esto (preparaos que son muchos): Alan Rickman, lo intentaste, pero no pudo ser; echaría de menos al Agente Smith; a Tom Hanks y Jude Law en Camino a la perdición; a los cuatro chicos de Funny Games; a algún que otro nazi, como Aman Goth; al malvado emperador Cómodo; a Jamie Foxx en Dreamgirls; a Max Cady; a Hannibal Lecter; a Nicolas Cage por él mismo; a Harry Powell; a Darh Vader y a su jefe; a Norman Bates, a Michael Corleone y ya me he cansado. ¿Se me ha olvidado alguien?

An expectant mother begins to suspect that her seemingly benign neighbors are all conspiring against her.

Title: Rosemary’s Baby
Year: 1968
Director: Roman Polanski
Writer: Roman Polanski, based on the novel by Ira Levin
Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy
Music: Krzysztof Komeda
Distinctions: Oscar for best supporting actress (Gordon); currently #215 on IMDb’s Top 250
Synopsis: a woman believes a Satanic conspiracy is after her unborn baby
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), August 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for cinematography and special effects/design)

Extremely effective. Suspense is constantly building. The ending is a bit of a let down, although I can’t think of any way to improve it.

1971 was a great year in my life for several reasons. My daughter was born, I was master of my domain, times were easy, rents were low, jobs were plentiful, and my favorite movie of all time hit the screen. A girl who lived below us saw it and couldn’t wait to tell me this was a must see film. So I did. Then I saw it again. And again. And again. I have no idea how many times i’ve watched it. I own it, of course. Harold and Maude. A brilliant black comedy, Zen meditation, satire and life affirming wonder all rolled into one.

Directed by Hal Ashby, who was also responsible for Coming Home and Being There, among others, and starring Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort. More on them later. I’ll give a brief synopsis of the film here, but nothing short of viewing it can really do it justice. It’s one of the few films I feel really can’t be described well enough, it simply has to seen.

It’s about a 19 year old, Harold Chasen (Bud Cort), growing up with his facile and self-involved mother in a mansion in the San Francisco Bay Area. He creates elaborate fake suicides in a desperate bid for his mothers attention, and to shock her. The film opens with him staging a hanging in a room he knows she’ll soon enter. She takes no notice, she’s seen it all before, and Harold is once again disappointed.

She gives him a Jaguar for his birthday, and he promptly converts it into a classy hearse. Harold has a morbid curiousity about death. He drives the hearse to the funeral of someone he doesn’t know, as he likes to do on occasion, and there he meets Maude, a septagenarian free spirit who also likes funerals. She offers him some licorish and introduces herself to a reluctant Harold. The film still above is of their first meeting.

From there Harold goes from being embarrassed and put off by Maudes carefree attitude to falling madly in love with her, completely misunderstanding her live-in-the-moment and to the fullest existance. He only knows that she’s everything he’s never experienced before and he wants to with her always. She ends up teaching him how to live and freeing him from the prison he’s made of his life. The ending is brilliant.

In between are many comedically brilliant scenes from one of the all time great actresses and an up and coming actor, Bud Cort, whom I feel never did realize his full potential. Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) lived a full and magnificent life. She began as an extra in silent films, made her way to Broadway, and then back to film. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Rosemary’s Baby. She went on to appear in twenty-two more films and at least that many television appearances through her seventies and eighties, including such successful sitcoms as Rhoda (which earned her another Emmy nomination) and Newhart. She also guest-starred on the late episode Columbo: Try and Catch Me. She made countless talk show appearances, in addition to hosting Saturday Night Live in 1977.

Bud Cort was discovered in a revue by director Robert Altman, who subsequently cast him in two of his movies, MASH and Brewster McCloud (in which he played the title role). His success in those films led to the starring role in Harold and Maude. On Broadway, Cort appeared in the short-lived 1972 play Wise Child by Simon Gray. Cort was invited to live with the famous comedian Groucho Marx in his Bel Air mansion, and was present at Marx’s death in 1977.

In 1979, Bud’s life nearly ended in a car accident on the Hollywood Freeway. From behind, he collided with an abandoned car blocking a lane into which he was turning. Years of plastic surgery, enormous hospital bills, a losing court case, and the disruption of his career ensued. Since, Cort has appeared in various film, stage and TV roles, but his career never really rose to it’s potential. At least not in my opinion.

I hope if you’ve never seen Harold and Maude that you’ll rent it. The film is number 45 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Funniest Movies of all time, number 69 in its list for most romantic, and number 42 on Bravo’s 100 Funniest Movies. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

The psychiatrist, feigning prescience, asks “What activity gives you a different sense of enjoyment from the others…what gives you that special satisfaction?” His patient, gazing fixedly into space, replies, “I go to funerals.”

Harold (Bud Cort, then a rising star and recent alumnus of MASH) is a laconic, morbid nineteen-year-old with no friends, an endless array of fine coats, his own hearse and several overbearing authority figures to corral him. He receives therapy at the behest of his mother, the glib Mrs. Chasen (Vivian Pickles, the English actress best known then for the poetic physicality of her performance in Ken Russell’s Isadora Duncan), following a particularly graphic example of Harold’s first hobby: performing his suicide. We do not gain any insight into what motivates these macabre theatrics, or his general disposition, through black-and-white psychoanalysis on the therapist’s couch (where Harold lies in state). What it takes for Harold to open up (to smile, to speak) is a series of encounters with a vivacious seventy-nine-year-old who also crashes funerals, though for opposite reasons. Maude (in an sonorous turn by Ruth Gordon) is recklessly insouciant, driven by her love for life and sense of connection to the world.

Before Harold can confess “that I enjoyed being dead”, Maude has already understood (with that acute sensibility of experience) the passive nihilism that ails him, and prescribed the best medicine: “try something new each day, Harold”. And with Maude, he must. Following an extended encounter that springs from Maude’s theft of his car, an affair ensues, over the course of which Harold is saturated with references to the leitmotif of organic growth and of joy at life in all its finitude.  He continues to play dead throughout, whether converting his new Jaguar into a hearse, or demolishing one of several arranged dates by staging self-immolation, but all with renewed joie de vivre. This culminates in a touching miniature melodrama, when Harold feigns seppuku before his final date, only to discover her joining in the performance. To his chagrin, he is not taken for dead, but for what he is: the player turning away from life. It takes nothing less than the tragic experience of the death of love for Harold to turn himself around fully.

The movie is a romance, a tragedy, a coming-of-age parable and a (laugh-out-loud) black comedy all in one. Yet director Hal Ashby and writer Colin Higgins have crafted no ungainly chimera: the film blends its tones and toys with genre expectations so effortlessly that it seems odd, retrospectively, that it was a commercial failure upon release and met with such mixed critical reception. It found its audience, going on to become a ‘cult classic’. Perhaps it is in light of the recent success of this same heady cocktail in the films of Wes Anderson, who acknowledges its heavy influence upon his work, that one can mistake Harold and Maude as coming before its time.

Yet this is a movie so very much of its time and place that it could not have come from another. For today’s viewer, the film’s setting in the San Francisco Bay Area of the early 1970s is far removed. The efficiency of its policing certainly left a lot to be desired, but for this we can be thankful, as Maude repeatedly (though playfully and apparently harmlessly) breaks the law and escapes the cops. Its politics too are particularly contemporary, with a strong undercurrent of discontent with the Vietnam conflict, to which the central message is intricately bound (and yet which transcends it timelessly).

Harold and Maude is concerned with paradoxes, in weaving a tale which observes and tries to resolve the confluence of apparent opposites. Replanting a stolen municipal tree in a forest, Maude exclaims with fists full of soil “the smell! It’s the earth! The earth is my body…all around us, living things.” In one of the original theatrical trailers, this scene cut to another of the most powerful images: Harold and Maude stand in a tremendous field of white stones growing ever-larger as the camera zooms out, revealing the full extent of what must be a war cemetery. Here, in the earth, are the dead. In the film proper, an analogy is drawn between this field of the dead and a field of daisies, which in turn symbolise the suffering that follows from individuals allowing themselves to be treated as a herd. This observation is the key to the most haunting aspect of these images, tracing as it does the connection to the Holocaust. Harold and Maude is a film as much about the existential condition of the Holocaust survivor, a role which it is heavily suggested Maude occupies, as it is concerned with the bathetic apathy of youth followed the unfulfilled promises of the late 1960s. In the collision of these states is the central paradox of the movie; in its solution is its central message.

Nineteen-year-old Harold plays dead while seventy-nine-year-old Maude plays young. One is of the pre-war generation, has lived through the horror of the concentration camp, and therefore came into intimate contact with the greatest crisis of meaning; the other is a baby-boomer in a society which affords no personal significance, and which fights a meaningless war. The two come together in a romantic liaison which denies their real ages (to the self-damning disgust of the establishment) thereby bridging the generational divide and bestowing, by virtue of experience, a sense of meaning (and connection to the world) on the young. This is an unambiguously grand thesis for a romantic comedy, but this is no ordinary rom-com, and it comes off with aplomb.

The film is rich in imagery, yet illustrated with subtlety. Ashby was clearly a masterful editor (he won an Academy award for editing In The Heat Of The Night four years earlier), and this shines through in the exquisite cutting of the movie, making excellent use of montage techniques in particular. The photography of John Alonzo is understated and elegant, employing variations between sober tones and radiant light to match the two halves of the leading couple. Higgins began the screenplay as his thesis for an MFA in screenwriting, and in it his highly trained yet mischievous imagination is manifest in the fantastic visual comedy and fine imagery. His characters are caricatures, but subtly nuanced and quite credible, a fact indebted in no small measure to the exceptional performances by a fine cast of actors (Cort’s controlled, minimalist movements; Gordon’s tics, trots and warbles; Pickles’ majestic poise). The truth in the treatment of these characters plays a significant part in articulating the universality of the theme. The optimism of its message is sustained throughout the movie with the winsome (if sometimes overly sentimental) soundtrack provided by Cat Stevens.  This too has been carefully tied to the thematic content, as the lyrics often strike an ironic note, or work closely with other motifs as in the case of the original composition “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out” (though by God, does it become nauseating after repeated exposure).

For all its thematic grandeur, Harold and Maude is good light entertainment with a sense of rhythm and something to offer a wide range of audiences. It’s full of great ideas and haunting images, and it’s a movie that is charming and affecting in equal measure: a classic, not just for the ‘cult’.

Harold and Maude, Dir. Hal Ashby, Writ. & Prod. Colin Higgins, Paramount, USA, 1971; available on DVD

Title: Harold and Maude
Year: 1971
Director: Hal Ashby
Writer: Colin Higgins
Starring: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles
Music: Cat Stevens
Distinctions: currently #248 on IMDb’s Top 250
Synopsis: whimsically morbid boy falls in love with a batty, hippie old lady
How I saw it: on video, twice (rented), most recently March 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 8/10
Objective Rating: 9/10 (1 point off for cinematography)

Cute movie. Pleasant and funny. We originally saw it about five years ago, and it’s good for watching every five years or so. Dramatically, the acting is notably lacking in places, but as far as the comedy goes, the performances are good. And of course it has one of the best soundtracks ever.

PICKING UP CHICKS AT A FUNERAL. It’s just your average 20-year-old guy with 80-year-old gal romance flick. Read Full Text

Posted By: Stella Glass

SG:Where you from & where do you stay at?

ES: I refuse to answer questions with improper grammar.

SG: Who is your Daddy, and what does he do?

http://www.charm.net/~ganymede/HTML/personals.html

SG: What is your problem?

ES: You.

SG: What sound or noise do you love?

ES: You getting out of my face.  And the sound of dolphins masturbating to Xanadu.

SG: Oysters or Peanuts at happy hour?

ES:  Oysterpeanuts.  A snack idea I plan on stealing from you, patenting, making millions, nay, BILLIONS off of, and then buying your soul for a mere $500,000 and a chance to lick my much gossiped-about philtrum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philtrum).  It’ll taste pretty salty by then.  Especially because I will have won a lawsuit over copyright infringment for use of Salt (an invention stolen from me years ago) and you will miss the sensation of not having to season your food with Molly McButter.  And Carl Reiner stole ALL of this from me when he directed The Jerk.  AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH I HAVE RABIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SG: If I was over at your house, would it be cool if I crash there?

ES: Rot in hell, Carl Reiner.

SG: Do you think you’ve “sold out”?

ES: Yes.

SG: Would you welcome the opportunity to “sell out”?

ES: No.

SG: What are the first 5 songs on your “recently played” playlist?

ES: Los Campesinos “Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats”
Joanna Newsom “Only Skin”
Kristin Hersh “Listerine”
Hot Lava “Resolutions ‘08″
MIA “Paper Planes”

SG: If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

ES: I’m torn between Ruth Gordon and Chris Lilley.

SG: Define the word “burrito.”

ES: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=burrito

SG: Name a food that you used to hate but you love now?

ES: Eggplant.

SG: What is the finest quality a person can possess?

ES: Compassion.  And a huge rack doesn’t hurt either.

SG: When are you happiest?

ES: When I have something to bitch and moan about.

SG: What’d you do today?

ES: Woke up.   Bitched.  Moaned.  Sent out an email blast.  Ate mediocre chinese food.  Saw “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.” Drank part of a honey vodka and cranberry cocktail (delicious!).  Came home and confronted the diarrhea I had been forced to control the entire evening (see above: mediocre chinese food).  Flirted with a New England cutie on the telephone.  Answered these questions.

SG: What’s a guilty pleasure for you?

ES: Facebook.

SG: What actor or actress’s fame is totally undeserved?

ES: All of them.

SG: You have to move to another city that you’ve never even visited and live there for at least one year.  Where do you go?

ES: Chicago.

SG: Invent a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor that incorporates the name of a band.  Go.

ES: Almond Joy Division?

SG: If  your country of origin suddenly adopted an Israeli/Italian policy towards defense, and you had to join the armed forces in some capacity, what would you choose to do?

ES: Kill myself. Although the food under this regime would be delicious.  Hmmm…

SG: Brandon, Dylan or Steve?

Dylan!  Sigh.

]]> http://zackapalooza.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/harold-and-maude/ Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:18:48 +0000 zackapalooza http://zackapalooza.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/harold-and-maude/

I saw this really, really good movie today on one of those old movie channels that I inexplicably now watch. It’s called Harold and Maude, and it’s about a 19-year-old boy named Harold (Bud Cort) who becomes best friends with an 80-year-old woman named Maude (Ruth Gordon). It was really witty, because Harold was all death-obsessed and Maude was full of youthfulness or something. And guys, it was really good.

Until Harold falls in love with Maude and Maude with Harold and he decides they should marry so let’s have sex and then talk about sex. It’s like the producer said “You know, I’m not sure if we’re getting enough shock factor with them falling in love. Let’s definitely have every other character say something about sex.”

I most definitely changed, terribly disappointed. I missed maybe the last 20 minutes, right after the montage where Harold’s uncle, counsellor, and pastor start talking about sexin’ up old people.

You can’t always get what you want unless, of course, you’ve got Alan “Mollymauk” Musgrave on your side! Featuring outstanding performances by Roddy McDowall, Tuesday Weld and a supporting cast that includes Lola Albright, Ruth Gordon and Harvey Korman, this “hilarious” (Variety) satire on teen excesses is “superbly comic” (Los Angeles Times)! With a special gift for manipulating the outcome of any situation, high-minded high schooler Mollymauk (McDowall) sets out to helpbeautiful new girl on campus Barbara Anne (Weld). Trouble is, Barbara Anne wants everything,and Mollymauk’s “help” is making a mess out of everyone’s livesincluding hers!

The term “cult movie” might have been invented for this little-known satire. Lord Love a Duck was the directing debut of screenwriter George Axelrod, who wrote The Seven Year Itch and adapted Breakfast at Tiffany’s. He displays little feel for directing, and the movie’s ideas spray out in a dozen directions (academic absurdity, Drive-In Churches, psychoanalysis), yet the thing is so weird it becomes distinctive. Roddy McDowall and Tuesday Weld are the every-which-way nonconformists, and Weld leaves no doubt she was a movie star who understood exactly how silly movie stars were (maybe that’s why she never broke through). Weld’s character has a scene modeling cashmere sweaters for her father that’s one of the loopiest Freudian pranks ever pulled in a movie. It never jells into something solid, but this film deserves a spot between The Loved One and The Knack on the shelf of 1960s pop satire. –Robert Horton

Lord Love a Duck is available at Amazon for $13.49. To Order click here
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Other Products of Interest

• The Loved One
• Pretty Poison
• The Knack… and How to Get It
• Drive-In Cult Classics – 8 Movie Set
• O Lucky Man! (Two-Disc Special Edition)