Paul Schrader’s sweaty, deviant remake of Cat People transcends the ’80s music and fashions that threaten to date it, making it a timeless psycho-sexual creepfest. Natassja Kinski is a girl with a secret who doesn’t know she has one. To her misfortune, she is plagued by a brother who knows all about it. Malcolm McDowell exudes a sensuality a little more than most women are looking for when they want a bad boy. He’s a bad boy with nine lives, and not a single one of them makes a good bedfellow.
The story’s premise will be familiar to anyone who has seen the Jaques Tourner classic: a race of people able to become leopards find it hard to have a normal love lives. And no one prepares them. Talk about lousy parenting. If anyone needs ”the talk,” it’s these folks. Watch it with someone you’re sure of.
Prepubescent David faces being “sent away” because he sees ghosts and giant bats. Governess Vicky agrees to come on a family trip that is supposed to soften the blow for David, but is really more of a husband hunting opportunity for Carolyn. Carolyn refuses to go, not wanting to leave Barnabas’ side.
Julia hypnotises Vicky once again, and forces her to see the coffin awaiting her if she become Barnabas’ bride. Vicky is none too pleased.
Carolyn discovers Julia’s plot and tips Barnabas off, putting Julia in grave danger. Cut to Julia, pursing her lips. This is shaping up to be Julia’s standard expression for close ups. I’m not sure if future episodes will reveal new expressions. I can only hope.
This moody bird rarely leaves its room, much to the annoyance of its beleaguered parents. Fond of loud decibels and video games, he is convinced that no one understands him. Although nothing can be done about its gratingly repetitive call, we can be grateful that we don’t have to listen to what’s on its Ipod.
Field Notes:
- Frequents mall parking lots.
- Unpleasantly spotty face.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Mark Bittner was a failed musician, squatting in a dilapidated cottage in the Telegraph Hill area of San Francisco. One day he picked up a book of poetry by Gary Snyder and became inspired to seek the nature around him.
It arrived in Technicolor. Within months, he was hand-feeding a wild flock of Cherry Headed Conure Parrots. He soon named the birds and began to observe their personality traits and interactions.
In short, he became a bohemian San Francisco version of Saint Francis. Bittner’s soft-spoken, gentle demeanor is winning, and the parrots are fascinating to watch. Rent it when you need a respite from the Badass Birds of the world.
Carolyn prods Vicky to visit Barnabas at the old house to take her mind off the fact that her fiance’s plane has crashed somewhere in the Amazon. Vicky is holding up amazingly well to the news. She doesn’t seem distraught although she keeps telling us that she is. She does not, however, want to visit Barnabas, thanks to Julia’s hypnosis. When Carolyn keeps insisting, she becomes suspicious.
Carolyn brushes off old boyfriend Joe’s offer to check on David’s stories. Joe and current squeeze Maggie are surprised by her reluctance. Maggie becomes suspicious.
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This intense avian is the proverbial early bird who caught the worm. It was more of a hostile take over, actually. You’ll see him power breakfasting with other birds of prey on the ledges of downtown buildings. Try not to mess with this one, or he’ll take you down.
Field Notes
- Sharpened beak, Armani tailfeathers.
- Often found perched on Beemers or hovering near a Starbucks.
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Carolyn threatens David that he will be “taken away” if he keeps telling people that Barnabas sucks the life from the living, sleeps in a coffin and has other bad habits. His father Roger Collins and Aunt Elizabeth are in favor of having David relocated, but one gets the feeling that this is in part because David is a genuine pill.
The music swells.
Dr. Julia Hoffman and Carolyn fight over who will bring Vicky to Barnabas. A catfight is avoided, but just barely.
The music swells.
Julia hypnotises Vicky and tells her of Barnabas’ plan to make her believe that she is his long lost love, Josette. When I say long lost, I mean that she has been dead for 150 years. A long time to carry a torch, but who am I to say. Julia’s aim is to scare Vicky away from Barnabas so she can have him to herself.
The music … well, you get the idea.
Hot Fuzz is a hilarious satire of “super cop” films made by the filmmakers who brought us Shaun Of The Dead. Fresh, funny and wholly original, it surpassed my very high expectations.
The story follows the dismissal of a gung ho cop played by Simon Pegg who gets transferred from his London post to a small village for being just a little too intense. But the idyllic village is not all that it seems to be. Wonderful details abound, including the lead character’s emotional attachment to his potted plant.
The film is chock-a-block with great English actors in small and large roles: Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Steve Coogan and Timothy Dalton all make appearances. It’s a special delight for Anglophiles, but you don’t have to be one to find this entertaining.
Two Kinks songs from their Village Green Preservation Society album are featured, which made me especially happy. (More on that madness in another post.) Here’s a YouTube video of that title song.
See this film and laugh. It’s good for you.
This majestic
yet foolish bird insists on building its nest on dizzying high precipices, despite its fear of heights. Once their terrified calls could be heard throughout our great land. They can now be seen principally in The Rockies, plummeting to a certain death.
Spoiler Alert
Dr. Julia Hoffman’s experiments to make her vampire crush Barnabas human go horribly wrong. He ages 100 years and takes a bite out of his lovely yet annoying cousin Carolyn to regain his youth.
Carolyn is ordered to discredit her pre-pubescent cousin David’s claims that Barnabas is a monster, and also to secure the cooperation of Barnabas’s dream girl, Vicky Winters, to come to him “willingly.”
Carolyn’s patrician uncle Roger Collins pours himself a Scotch. As well he should.
