Nosferatu the Vampyre

Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog, 1977)

This Gothic homage to F.W. Murnau’s Expressionistic masterpiece of 1922, brings to the big screen another vision of the classic story of Dracula. Shot simultaneously in German and in English, Werner Herzog’s version of Nosferatu highlights the bleak bringing of the plague and the loneliness of its title character.

Suspiria

Note: this review is a translation of my original review of the movie I've seen in 2009. Since it was one of my first long reviews I've decided to translate it for everyone's benefit. I will do series of re-edits for the films that actually were reviewed in French in the first moments of this blog.

Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)

A newcomer to a fancy ballet academy gradually comes to realize that the staff of the school are actually a coven of witches bent on chaos and destruction.

Largely inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s oeuvre, Suspiria is Dario Argento’s most widely known film. The Italian director is recognized for his contribution to the Horror genre. Still working today, the quality of his later work left much to desire. Argento may have repeated himself along his career but his early construction of frames and inspired montage put him at the forefront of the Italian Horror genre. Few cinephiles remember that he is one of the two writers who penciled Once Upon A Time in the West. The other scenarist was no other than Bernardo Bertolucci. A gossip fact is also worth mentionning, Dario is the father of underestimated belle-laide Asia Argento.

A young American woman, Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper) joins a prestigious ballet school in Germany. The story is paced with a slow raise of tension and violence, filled with strange incidents and murders. The mystery will lead Suzy to discover that the school is more than just a dancing hall. It is a coven of evil leaded by witches. The simple plotline of this film flows well and Argento’s aesthetics serve appropriately the violent murders and their mise en scène is without a doubt some of the best and most inspired he has done since his debuts. 

Argento’s strength is also to deliver Horror with style and superb design. The imagery is likeable and as we often hear about his filming of the violence: he shoots beautiful murders. If it’s possible to say that it is quite right. Juxtaposed with the wonderful photography, the music by Goblin brings depth and an unsettling ambiance. Another interesting fact is to know that Goblin actually composed their music prior to see the movie.

However, just as Ed Howard’s, much more potent that mine, take on the movie points out:

The film never seems to be actually about a coven of evil witches who run a ballet school, even though that's a fair description of its plot. Suspiria is rarely constrained or dominated by its plot; at times it seems almost plotless, more of a mood than a story.

We are left with a very impressive execution of amazing skills with a lack of content and motives. Put in perspective, Darren Aronofsky’s batshit crazy Black Swan was loosely inspired by Suspiria while being a much more superior film in the use of actors, plot, and the storytelling in general. However, Argento’s movie is the obligatory entry in Giallo Cinema and will lead any Horror film buff to much obscure films in the subgenre. Worth a look. 

The American Friend (1977)

The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977)

Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, The American Friend stars Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz with co-stars directors Nicholas Ray and Sam Fuller. Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz) has very rare blood disease, he is a frame craftsman with a wife and a son. When the information of his disease came to the ears of a crooked frenchman, Zimmerman is offered a very big amount of money to do a well oiled mob hit.

Like Wenders' other films I had the opportunity to watch (Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire), the images are beautiful and naturalistic. the rythm of the film is perfect and it lets all the time to the story to take its place. The acting of Ganz and Hopper is just right and their relationship based on surprising events is very strong.
Flimmaker Wim Wenders was amongst the three major directors who emerged from the German New Wave, with fellow compatriots Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog. Fasbinder was mostly influenced by Jean-Luc Godard's work of the 1960's while Herzog may be the most German of the three with his intense , if not, extreme filmmaking. Wenders who gave us many road movies is the most Americanized of the three. He had a strong friendship with Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller. Their films of the 1950's was his major influence.

The American Friend works on the hope that Zimmermann will receive the right diagnostic for his diseasse. It also confronts the modern man to the isolation of the disease.At some point the story of the improvised hitman gets us close to Alfred Hitchcock way of involving the viewer in the action of the killer to be in the sequence of the first murder in the subway station.

The photogrphy of The American Friend diserves a special mention with its crude warm colors only attained by films of its time like Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.

Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz are outstanding as the two friends who'll have to unite their efforts to eliminate the bad guys who wanted to use Zimmermann as their cheap hitman. They bring their characters to a level that only Hopper with his manic persona could have acheived and Ganz with his reclusiveness.

With The American Friend, Wim Wenders attainned one of the most beautiful film of his career and besides copying his mentors he uses their lessons to make a work of his own. A master acheivement.

House (1977)

House aka Hausu (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)

A little late for Halloween but who cares... House is still a must see film a day you are seing it doesn't really care... It ain't no Christmas movie and that's for sure. College is over for the summer and the girls are happy to go on vacation. But Gorgeous's dad is going in vacation with his new mistress abandoning Gorgeous for the summer. She decides to ask her aunt to stay at her house with her girlfriends. At the aunt's mansion the girls will meet the aunt and many extravagant experiences.

The first part of the film is unsettling, because it's shot with saturated colors and innocent girlish scenes that do not prevent from the madness that will follow. The tone of the film is so candy eye-popping that it kinda felt like you are watching a fairytale. Moreover, many elements of the plot tend to let you think that you are actually watching a fairytale. The stepmother that "steals" Gorgeous's place with her father that felt like an Oedipus Rex complex.
Another element of the plot, the coming of age of the girl as a woman, first represented with the outfits of college girls and later the woman clothes and then the many parts of naked women representing the passage to adulthood. And finally the loads of blood representing the menstruations of the young women depicted. The aunt represents how the older woman that can no longer have children and must destroy her younger opponents to conquer men. The white cat probably reprensents evil itself.
The visual treatment of the film is probably the one thing that betrays it. The effects are outdated and the flamboyant-saturated images reflects the late 1970's. Althought, it gives dynamic images of constant movement. After a while instead of preventing the viewer to get bored, it annoys him because he doen't has the time to fully appreciate the "mise-en-scène".
An issue that annoyed me was the fact that some girls disappear and they are forgotten in the story, as if we were jumping over those details of the movie.

In the whole, this is exhuberant film deserves to be watched by every Horror film lover out there. It is fresh, unique and tells a lot about horror story telling even if it has some flaws...

The Sentinel (1977)

The Sentinel (Michael Winner, 1977)

Widely inspired from Horror hits like The Exorcist, Freaks, and Rosemary's Baby, Michael Winner's The Sentinel presents the story of a young mannequin who takes a new apartment in New York City. At night she encounters weird things from her neighborhood. Her neighbors, a weird lonely man, a couple of lesbians, a secluded priest and many other eclectic people live in her building. The inspiration of Rosemary's Baby is palpable, the new apartment, the modernism of the city is seen here. On the other side, the themes of catholicism like in The Exorcist are exploited but not in an intersting manner. The ending is precipitated and boring. The plot goes in everyway and the structure of the movie is fragile.

The lead actors are bad, especially Chris Sarandon with his "mustache". I put the "" because it doesn't really deserves the real name for it. The supporting cast has some familiar faces; Beverly D'Angelo (Christmas Vacation, Entourage, American X History), Ava Gardner, John Carradine, Jose Ferrer, and Jeff Goldblum.

Some parts of the film are laughable and some are simply pathetic, this is caused because the film is very outdated and that it doesn't really scare anyone anymore... The Sentinel doesn't have the depth of the classic horror films aforementionned because its story is only on the first level and it misses its target. Avoid this stupid waste of talented actors.