Recycled Movie Costumes

Image via Wikipedia

I had a lot of fun looking through all of the galleries at Recycled Movie Costumes.  Site tracks costume appearances in films.

I was especially surprised at the overuse of the Emma Thompson/Elinor Dashwood gown.

Movies I Watched in November 2009

Image by Spec_J via Flickr

1. Steamboy (2004)
2. Castle 1:1
3. Wedding Peach 1:1
4. The THING from Another Planet (1951)
5. Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
6. House 2:2
7. Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations 1:1
8. Hammish Macbeth 2:1
9. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 3
10. The Thing (1982)
11. Never Been Kissed (1999)
12. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
13. One Crazy Summer (1986)

Steamboy had some good animation both of people and of machines.  It was a bit too mecha for me but still well-done.

Castle is a frothy mystery series.  I like it because I like Nathan Fillion but the mysteries are not so good.

Wedding Peach is a clone of Sailor Moon and my nieces enjoyed it.

Thing from Another Planet – worth watching – here’s my take.

Intolerable Cruelty – George Clooney and Catherine Zeta Jones are hot together and it’s a good farce.

House M.D. – have I mentioned before that I thoroughly dislike Dr. Cameron.  I do.  Hugh Laurie as House makes up for it. All the other characters are fun and fun together.  I still check Polite Dissent to learn about the medicine in the show.

No Reservations – Bourdain went to New Jersey and to Paris.  He really had issues with Jersey, so that was less pleasant.  He loves Paris, though.  I liked the trip to the market best.

Hammish Macbeth – no my favorite series but then I don’t much care for the books by M. C. Beaton.

No. 1. Ladies Detective Agency – Must see. Superb in every aspect.  Jill Scott and Anika Noni Rose are wonderful.

The Thing – I was disappointed in this movie.  The special effects were OK but the characterization and the story were lacking.  Plus, the end was not nearly grim enough for me.

Never Been Kissed – Not much to it but it is a sweeter movie than I had remembered.

Grosse Pointe Blank – I had forgotten how much fun this movie is.  I must own it.

One Crazy Summer – The cartoon shorts are better than I remembered and the rest of it is less compelling than I remembered.

Trip to the Moon (1902)

Finally, I got to see the prototypical science fiction film. I was interested in seeing the full movie at last.

The basic ’story’ has a scientist proposing to travel to the moon. Despite the Academy’s reservations, the voyager hires a bunch of leggy engineers and travels to the moon. There the crew has an uncomfortable evening in the snow. Then they meet a horde of aggressive aliens who attack them. Fortunately, the voyagers discover that they can pop the aliens by jabbing them with umbrellas and whatnot. They land in the water on Earth and there is a celebratory parade.

It was disappointing. I think if you’ve seen any clips, you’ve seen the best part. You know, the rocket into the moon bit.

Other people feel differently:

From Three Movie Buffs: “By today’s standards this movie looks like drawings on a cave wall. Historically though it represents a huge leap in the art of the motion picture. Everyone should see it at least once.”

From Filmsite.org: “It has all the elements that characterize the science-fiction genre: adventurous scientists, a futuristic space voyage, special effects such as superimpositions, and strange aliens in a far-off place.”

From Scifilm.org: “Unfortunately, Melies never quite mastered cinematic story-telling techniques, so it can be quite difficult to tell what is going on at times.”

This is the problem I had with it too. It seems to be all spectacle and special effects and not enough plot to sustain it. Still, it’s a classic piece and short enough to make it easy enough to watch.

The THING from Another Planet (1951)

Image by ubberdave via Flickr

U. S. soldiers stationed in the Arctic are summoned by a camp of scientists and one journalist to investigate a possible meteor.  Only, it’s not.

There is some controversy whether the credited director Christian Nyby or Howard Hawks deserves the credit for this film.

Whoever was ultimately responsible, the movie is excellent.

The fast paced, overlapping dialogue ups the tension and sense of realism.  The story sets up the situation and establishes the characters efficiently.  The characters make more-or-less reasonable decisions.

It feels more like reading science fiction than watching it.  I mean that the point of the tale is how to achieve the goal with the tools at hand rather than a bunch of razzle dazzle.

The fire fight scene was especially tense – I remarked at the time that they were obviously new to fire work.  According to IMDB, it was the first time a stunt with full body on fire had ever been done.  It’s worth watching just for that scene.

Also, it has the famous “watch the skies” line.  I didn’t realize this movie was where that came from, so I was thrilled to hear it.

I wish they made SF movies like this today.

Movies I watched in October 2009

Cover of Carnival Of Souls (1962 Film)

I watched a lot of documentaries about horror movies to not disturb my housemates.  It was a satisfying experiment, I think.  I might try it again next year.  I was most pleased by Heroes of Horror which was on Peter Lorre and Vincent Price.  I plan to get the first volume in the series.  I also enjoyed Fantastic Flesh which was on film makeup in various movies.  Dark Dreamers was poorly constructed and dull.

The spooky movies I watched were Trick r Treat, Kakurenbo, and Carnival of Souls.  Kakurenbo looked beautiful but the story was too thin for me.  I could only watch Trick r Treat in short bursts and while I liked it, I want to watch it again in one piece next time.  Carnival was surprisingly entertaining though it fell apart at the very end.  Beautiful location shot of carnival/spa and lovely black and white photography.

I’m watching a number of TV series:  No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is pure pleasure.  Cadfael was not to my taste.  Castle is enjoyable fluff.  I enjoyed MST3K’s version of Touch of Satan but Zombie Nightmare was less enjoyable.

Laura’s Star and Kakurenbo were well-animated.  Laura’s Star was especially beautiful, and worth seeing for the visuals alone.  Both movies had rather thin stories.

Finally saw Trip to the Moon in its entirety.

1. No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency 1:1
2. Laura’s Star (2004)
3. Help! (1965)
4. Haunted History of Halloween (1997)
5. Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek (2005)
6. Cadfael: One Corpse too Many (1994)
7. Dark Dreamers 1:1
8. Trip to the Moon (1902)
9. Heroes of Horror 2
10. Twitches (2005)
11. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency 1:2
12. Trick r Treat (2009)
13. Harryhausen Chronicles (1998)
14. Bride of Monster Mania (2000)
15. Bloodsucking Cinema (2007)
16. MST3K: Touch of Satan (1971)
17. Fantastic Flesh (2008)
18. Carnival of Souls (1962)
    
19. Labyrinth (1986)
    
20. Monster Mania (1997)
    
21. MST3K: Zombie Nightmare (1986)

The final days of Edgar Allan Poe

Image via Wikipedia

Here’s an interesting theory as to Poe’s final days.  It is depressing but fascinating.

13 Feminine Horror Movies

Christine Spines wrote an article for Entertainment Weekly on men watching horror movies in their teens and women continuing to watch them into their 30s. After that, I read posts and comments to effect of “heaven forbid, not more Twilight!”

I disagree with categorizing Twilight as a horror film: it fits better in the family of the Gothic romance. Gothic romance defined as, “Weird place! Is my boyfriend going to kill me?” Examples might be Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Beauty and the Beast and so on.

After mulling this over, I decided to make a list of horror movies that I considered “feminine.”   They feature women protagonists dealing with issues such as childbirth, menstruation, sisters, and romantic relationships. I didn’t put the women from Alien/Resident Evil/Silence of the Lambs on the list because I was selecting characters who fit the type of the “angel in the house”or “fairy tale princess.”

Disclaimer: This is not suggest that any person of any gender should feel included or excluded from identifying with the issues raised or the characters depicted in these movies.

My list doesn’t include movies I haven’t seen. Or, Dark Water.

Here is the list:

• Cat People (1942)
• It’s Alive (1973)
• Carrie (1976)
• Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• Heathers (1989)
• Perfect Blue (1992)
• Boxing Helena (1993)
• The Craft (1996)
• Practical Magic (1998)
• Ginger Snaps (2000)
• The Others (2001)
• The Ring (2002) and Ringu (1998)
• The Orphanage (2007)

The Orphanage. My review is in an earlier post. Feminine Themes: motherhood, losing a child, inquisitive women (women are actively discouraged from trying to learn things.)

The Ring. Feminine Themes: motherhood, inquisitive women. Ringu. (1998) Feminine Themes: motherhood, magical female power.

The Others. Feminine Themes: motherhood, single parenting, running a household.

Ginger Snaps. Feminine Themes: sisterhood, puberty, menses, female sexuality.

Practical Magic. Feminine Themes: widowhood, sisterhood, abusive relationships, being stalked and threatened, magical female power, healthy female bonding.

The Craft. Feminine Themes: magical female power, toxic female bonding, puberty.

Boxing Helena. Feminine Themes: abusive relationships.

Perfect Blue. Feminine Themes: self image, career choices, being stalked and threatened.

Heathers. Feminine Themes: self image, toxic female bonding, abusive relationships.

Nightmare on Elm Street: Feminine Themes: being stalked and threatened, female craftiness, mother/daughter relationships.

Carrie: Feminine Themes: puberty, menses, magical female power, mother/daughter relationships, toxic female bonding .

It’s Alive. Feminine Themes: pregnancy, giving birth, motherhood.

Cat People. My description here. Feminine Themes: female sexuality, being stalked and threatened.

Haunted Houses – fictional

Cover of Hell House

As a follow up to my haunted house attraction post, here is a list of haunted house books and movies.  I was surprised that it was difficult to find a list of haunted house books to jog my memory.  My final list is short which makes me want to read a bunch more.  There is a nice list on Wikipedia for haunted house movies.

Haunted House books & short stories

• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898)
• The Open Window by Saki (1911)
• Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
• Hell House by Richard Matheson (1971)
• The Shining by Stephen King (1977)
• The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons (1978)
• Homebody by Orson Scott Card (1998)

Of these, Haunting of Hill House and Hell House were the most satisfying to me.  I think they both owe quite a bit to James’ governess.  Both feature psychic investigators who visit an allegedly haunted house and confront their own psyches as much as any supernatural force in the house.  Matheson’s book removes any doubt as to the supernatural events but manages to be just as disturbing I think.

A minor story concerning The Shining. Many years ago I moved into an isolated old farmhouse.  Not long after, I was on the second floor, sitting up with a sick child.  It was a dark and stormy night.  Or, at least it was raining hard and the house was creaking in the wind.  Once the child had fallen to sleep, I decided to read to keep myself alert and naturally I chose The Shining.  It didn’t make me sleepy.  By the time I reached the bit about the bathtub, I had to put it down and find something else.  Very quickly. I had to finish the book in the daylight hours.

Horror Movie Short: Mockingbird

From FEWDIO – this one is my favorite of their short horror flicks.

No gore but not for the sensitive.

Movies I watched in September 2009

The Losers:

Push I did not like.  It had an interesting premise:  youth with psi powers fight against a shadowy international organization that wishes to enhance their skills and use them as special agents or warriors.  However, the plot threads were left hanging about a third of the way through.  The finale was thoroughly unsatisfying.

Nights in Rodanthe was unwatchable and maudlin.  Schultze Gets the Blues – was somewhere described as a rollicking comedy but failed in both respects. The volume of My Name is Earl had less humor than usual.  Primer was a disappointment – such potential squandered.   Lost in Austen annoyed me.The anime The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was lovely but one viewer renamed it ‘the girl who crawled through time’ as it was a bit slow moving.

The Winners:

Very much enjoying Lie to Me and Tim Roth’s performance.  It’s apparently based on real studies.  The real people images that pop up to demonstrate emotions are the best part.  I don’t how it holds up as the seasons wear on but that was a good beginning.

Castle of Cagliostro was a delightful caper movie.  It’s a bit old fashioned in the animation style but still light years ahead in sophistication.  A real treat for caper fans or animation fans.

Death Note is a live action Japanese film based on a manga.  It was a nice puzzle and I’ve rented the sequel.    Waitress was charming/disturbing and I’ve long been distressed by story of the director Adrienne Shelly’s murder. I’d seen Cry-Baby before but it was a treat to watch it again.  The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer was cute and one of the few Cary Grant movies I haven’t seen.  Roman Holiday lived up to its reputation.  King of Kong gave an interesting look at the arcade gaming subculture, although  I’ve read reviews that state it was biased.   I liked The Prestige a lot and plan to review it for my science fiction project.

1. Lie to Me 1:1
2. Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
3. Push (2009)
4. Nights in Rodanthe (2008)
5. Schultze Gets the Blues (2003)
6. Lie to Me 1:2
7. Death Note (2006)
8. My Name is Earl 3:3
9. Waitress (2007)
10. Cry-Baby (1990)
11. Primer (2004)
12. Lost in Austen (2008)
13. Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer (1947)
14. Roman Holiday (1953)
15. King of Kong (2007)
16. The Prestige (2006)
17. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)