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imdb-12257
Reviews
Howling III (1987)
Subtle balletic reference
Interesting feature of the film is not explicitly revealed, but is an excellent "in joke" - there's a scene where the Russian ballerina turns into a werewolf during a rehearsal. Anyway she's playing the part of "Cinderella" from Prokofiev's ballet, and the point at which she changes is "midnight at the ball"!!! Very moving and intense moment and typical of the subtle referential style of the film, which is generally acute and unobvious. Other notable moments include various allusions to "An American Werewolf in London" including parallel transformation scenes and a wonderful Mozartian arrangement of "Bad Moon Rising". The scene after the birth of the main female lead's baby is really beautiful and grotesque, with a gorgeous animated marsupial baby that looks really quite rude against her peculiarly pubic-looking hairy belly! Other great touches include the hilarious film director character who's almost libellously caricatured!! (No comment no spoiler!!) And of course a wonderful cameo from Dame Edna Everage!!!
AND of course Carole Skinner, who plays one of the werewolves, is the supremely evil "Nola McKenzie" from 'Prisoner: Cell Block H'!
Circle of Iron (1978)
A beautiful story
Laying aside the Zen considerations and the martial arts angle, what's beyond any doubt is that we have here a very nice script, some excellent acting, particularly the ten million roles of David Carradine, and a really really nice story!
The formula is a seeker, setting off on a journey (without the proper mandate) to find Enlightenment in the form of a dogmatic text containing all the answers one might want. What he finds is a complex companion who shows him a mixture of messages, and in the end well I'm not going to spoil what's in the book - after all you have to go with Cord on this journey in order to find Enlightenment!
How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
Masterpiece
Absolutely stunning tour de force for Richard E Grant, deeply moving, hilarious, superb script and impressive performances from all concerned.
Bagley's a complicated character : it's not fair to say that he was ever UNaware of what he was doing in advertising...... but certainly we catch him at a crossroads: he's decided that enough is enough and he simply can't carry on being the bad guy...... but times change again before it's too late, except his brief episode of goodness is enough to convince his wife that he's not worth living with........
tragic, beautiful, complex, with a great and moving film-score based in parts on Saint-Saens' organ symphony......
Baise-moi (2000)
Incredible what can be done with limited resources
Absolutely outstanding - a pretty "masculine" type of film made entirely by women, actresses taken from the underbelly which is the porn industry, crashing straight through the glass ceiling that normally separates the two and SHINING...... extremely convincing but subtle acting, no artificial lighting whatsoever and yet everything looks perfect. Great action, pace, story - just a brilliant film. Of course inevitably certain sections of the general uneducated public aren't going to understand something like this but who really cares about their views? Anyone with any sense can see that this is a towering achievement of pro-involvement cinema. Just a damned shame that people didn't throw a lot more work in the direction of the actress who later killed herself.
Absolutely stunning stuff all round.