dammit, avengers isn't on till next week....
dammit, avengers isn't on till next week....
Martyrs - 2008
I think I'm still in a state of shock after having just watched this French directed film. It's so harrowing, so relentlessly violent...So depraved that I often questioned why I was watching it in the first place. What I'm trying to say is this is probably not the kind of movie you want to take a girl to see on your first date. I am definitely NOT a fan of the new wave of torture horror ala Hostel, however, Martyrs uses violence more as a plot device. It's not senseless violence if you get me.
The film follows the story of 2 women and is broken into two parts. If I had to name them as chapters I'd call the first "Revenge" and the second "Despair".
The first part is pretty darn awesome. It's very full on in terms of violence, but as mentioned before this fits in with the story and is easier to take because of this. There are some really original ideas here which amplify the tension. I thought the way the main character dealt with her guilt was disturbingly inspired, and very Silent Hill! I wish I could say more about this but to do so would be unfair.
The second chapter is an altogether different beast and the movie really shifts in tone at this point. I was thinking to myself: Oh no, please don't go there. Don't be that awful....No, no, no, noooooooooo. And of course it went there. And it's pretty horrendous. I mean the intro to the second chapter is pretty interesting, it's just that you have to endure the next hour of viewing. You'll know what I mean if you've seen it. I can see why they went down this path and why it dragged on but man, I had to take breaks from this one and I never do that.
The ending wasn't as big a revelation to me as it seemingly was for a lot of people, I kind of expected more given what the second chapter put me through (essentially making me a martyr!!) but I guess it was kind of poetic? It's good in so far as you can interpret it in your own way, but there's not a whole lot to think about after (apart from how many therapy sessions you'll need to get over the previous hours viewing). It's a good movie, possibly even a great one. Definitely not for the faint of heart!
Movie theatre critics thread time? Gold Class has it's pros and cons.
Pros: The seats are great, the theatre is small and people paid a lot so you are unlikely to get bored teenagers chatting on their phones, you can call for service at anytime instead of going out for a drink or popcorn, and you can drink alcohol.
The main con: it can feel like every ten minutes (or less) the staff come in to deliver somebody their food or drink or popcorn or whatever which is distracting. They can come in to start clearing plates/glasses from the tables a bit too soon too, sometimes during the big climax. It can also feel a bit more lonely if you go by yourself since it's set up for 'couples/pairs'.
I've been several times (saw the first two TF films that way and just last weekend saw Titanic 3D in Gold Class for examples) and my main criteria for choosing GC is to avoid the annoying crowds on opening days and for long films. Relaxing on a fold out chair was great for a film over 3 hours like Titanic.
Inside (À l'intérieur) - 2007
This is the second film I've chosen to watch as part of my "extreme French horror" weekend. The premise is this: A pregnant lady crashes her car, the boyfriend dies (baby lives). Late one night she receives a knock on the door from an unknown woman. Madness ensues.
As with Martyr's this film left me emotionally and physically exhausted! What a movie though, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. No one is doing horror like the French these days, they are quite simply in a league of their own. Martyrs and Inside truly are horror movies, they don't have any supernatural elements, they don't try to lighten the mood with humour, they don't provide much in the way of hope. They are realistic as all hell and that's what makes them so incredibly effective. In all of these French films (and another one I saw lately, Ils) the antagonists are all fascinating and part of the fun is finding out what drives them. This is one of the key separators between these kind of films and the garbage that Hollywood puts out. They make the bad guys interesting!!
In the case of Inside, the bad guy is in fact a woman known only as La Femme (the woman ). This lady is the embodiment of evil! La Femme is largely what makes this film so utterly insane. I've not seen this actor before but she does an amazing job, I'm struggling to think of a more effective villain in recent times and I got nothing. The way she dresses in black with a matching corset, those facial expressions *shudder*, her witch-like presence, her body-shape even. What makes her more fascinating is that she often shows her vulnerable side reminding us that this is a normal person (albeit a very fubar in the head one).
The atmosphere this film creates with the sets and the use of light & shadows is beyond anything I can remember. The main set (this film mainly predominantly takes place in someones house) has a kind of hazy, smokey look to it which gives it a fantastic dream-like quality. It's terrifying before anything's even happened!
I could go on about this movie for ages but I'm not sure if anyone will even read this. Don't want to score Inside or Martyrs as they're both experiences that no horror movie fans should miss (if you can stomach them!).
I can sort of see how it'd get annoying having staff continuously walk in front of you or into the cinema to serve you or others something especially during intense parts of movies.
Damn I'm busy all weekdays and am only really free weekends. Ah well, least it was a birthday present.
Have you seen Anti-Christ with Willam Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourgh? Now that's when sh!t really hits the fan.
I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan and though I've only seen a handful of horror movies in my lifetime, but do want to see The Cabin in the Woods as it was co-written and produced by him.