In a Year With 13 Moons

In a Year With 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1978)

This drama follows the last few days in the life of Elvira (formerly Erwin) Weisshaupt. Years before, Erwin told a co-worker, Anton, that he loved him. "Too bad, you aren't a woman," he replied. Erwin took Anton at his word. Trying to salvage something from the wreckage love has made of his life, he now hopes that Anton will not reject him again.

The Fury

The Fury (Brian De Palma, 1978)

A government agent (Kirk Douglas) is determined to come to his son's (Andrew Stevens) rescue when a sinister official (John Cassavetes) kidnaps him to harbor his extremely powerful psychic abilities.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Dawn of the Dead (Zombi) (George A. Romero, 1978)

Let’s go  to the mall said Robin Sparkles, but here it is a question of survival that our four protagonists escape by helicopter and land on a mall in Pennsylvania. Two SWAT members Peter (Ken Foree) and Roger (Scott Reiniger), an helicopter pilot Stephen (David Emge) and his wife Francine (Gayleen Ross) take refuge in this suburban mall where they have food, ammunition's, and leisure to pass the time. However, the zombie infested lands of America isolate them from the rest of the world and zombies seem to be attracted by the shopping centre. Explaining why, the characters only summarize it by saying that it is their instinct of converging to a place that was important for them. As a consultant I have worked in a mall for two years straight at a client’s offices and I really enjoyed it and someone can almost never leave the place and live his whole life there. It wouldn’t be sane to do but most people may find it appealing. Even the central characters of the film go on a shopping spree and calculate how much the things they get costs.

Halloween (1978)

Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood for the murder of his sister, escapes and stalks a bookish teenage girl and her friends while his doctor chases him through the streets.

Shot in widescreen and used with great creativity, John Carpenter’s low budget slasher classic is the perfect treat for the day of the same name. Introducing to the world a young Jamie Lee Curtis, ironically the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh there are more than one link between both women. The later, known for a particular murder scene in a shower in a “little” film called Psycho, is one of the major influences on Halloween. Jamie Lee Curtis is nicknamed the Scream Queen, well she is the daughter of Janet Leigh without a doubt. Both movies, Halloween and Psycho, are violent in a way that works on a more subtle level than the actual display of gore or gratuitous violence. Just like Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the film, which he strongly defended, it is easy to put violence on film but it is not given to everyone to use it properly. Well, Carpenter demonstrates all his talent and reach with his use of deep focus and foreground and background action. The widescreen isn’t some sort of useless effect like 3D or CGI. It involves the audience in a way that we feel we are stick into the picture with the teenagers.

Those teens are portrayed as teens like we were and just like they are today. I couldn’t help myself but to think that the constant ringing of the phones reminded me that if it was shot today it would have been made with cell phones. But I digress, those teens are Michael Myers’ favorite victims: he seems to loath them especially when they fool around and they are having sex. The use of hand-held camera to illustrate his point of view is particularly efficient even if, by today’s standards, it has been used until burned out. Like aforementioned, the violence and the horror is one thing in a classic film like Halloween. But Carpenter’s real achievement if you ask me is the setting of the atmosphere and tone for Horror. The bleak but realistic day light scenes are very interesting and just like the opening sequence of Evil Dead or the long tracking shots of The Shining, those are the elements that make the difference between a good and a great Horror film.

Another important aspect of the ambiance is the simplistic omnipresent synthesizer score that brings an element of thrill and a constant fear of a possible scare coming.

Usually, I don’t recall the context of my viewings but this one was almost perfect I was alone in the dark in early October, my wife was sleeping and the night was just like in the dark scenes of the movie. Just like little Tommy and Lindsay, who watched Howard Hawks’ The Thing that John Carpenter would remake few years later, I was watching Halloween scared in the dark but I continued to watch because when I decided to sit and watch this film I knew I would get a nice movie experience. Many would say it was about time I watched this film, but I really appreciated this film. In fact, every John Carpenter movie I ever saw I actually liked. His films shouldn’t get snobed because they are Horror or slashers, they are superb pieces just like Alfred Hitchcock used to make with Psycho and The Birds. They might not be as deep or as Freudian, but their effect are in the same vein. Highly recommended.

Animal House

Animal House (John Landis, 1978)

At a 1962 College, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, but those troublemakers have other plans for him.

In my quest of watching every film on the list of the 1000 Greatest films of all time of the always pertinent folks at They Shoot Pictures Don’t They?, and my big interest in comedies it was about time that I watch John Landis’ Animal House. Starring the gone too young John Belushi, a very young Kevin Bacon, Donald Sutherland in a small role, and other lesser known actors like Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst, Karen Allen, and many others.

Written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney, and Chris Miller Animal House sets the standard of everything a College party comedy would have. It gave multiple follow-ups and rarely better and often worse teenage comedies involving drinking, sex, partying, etc. From Porky’s to American Pie, every College comedy must give credit to Animal House. Many comments on the film criticize the lack of laughs and the unoriginality of the whole thing. One must remember that it has been so many times replicated and every joke has been reused so much that they are practically worn out.

The story is quite simple and the situations are built up leading to jokes and moments. Set in 1962, the film doesn't has a vibe of being in the past and this is probably a quality. It is also set in fraternities, something I did not experienced in my College or University years but I could relate to some behaviors of my time at the College. It is sad that for a first time viewer in 2012 many scenes seem to felt flat.  While other moments were probably very funny at the time they are so predictable because Landis and his comedies have forged the comedy of today and as viewers we can see where they are going.

The best moment is the Otis Day show with the song Shout. It is during the biggest party of the movie and the moment almost make me got up in my living room and scream the lyrics out loud in front of my TV screen. It is also very interesting that Landis let the moment and keep the scene long without any other action than the music and the people singing together.

Animal House is one of the films listed on AFI’s 100 Laughs, and having only seen 46 of the 100 listed I’ve decided that I could sometime try to tackle and complete this list of classics. Since I am working on many lists, TSPDT 1000 Greatest films aforementioned and some titles are on both lists I could actually try to complete more than one tasks at a time. However, being on the 1000 GF list at number 683 I thought that the heritage of the movie might be the main reason why it is listed there. Because, I liked Animal House but I feel that it is a surprising entry when compared to Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us (#682) and Ernst Lubitsch’s Angel (#687) or Akira Kurosawa’s Red beard (#691). This movie is worth a look.