* Dementia 13 – The first feature film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Dementia 13 (1963)  Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather (1972), Apocalypse Now (1979), Youth Without Youth (2007)), starring William Campbell (Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)), Luana Anders (Night Tide (1961), That Cold Day in the Park (1969)) and Patrick Magee (A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975)).  Dementia 13, a horror thriller, and the first feature film directed by the immense Francis Ford Coppola, is, at best, at pseudo-quasi-Hitchcockian psychological thriller, with a screenplay, written by Coppola, that is extraordinarily fragmented, if not desperately lost in its loose ends.  Nevertheless, as Coppola’s first feature directorial effort, at the very least, and thanks to some wonderfully moody directing of scenes in an ancient, and haunted, Scottish castle, and a clear feel for the building of psycho-thriller tension, Dementia 13 is a must-see for any fan of Coppola, B-movie psychology, or, in fact, kitsch. Perhaps the promotional film poster says it all. (PR)

See our post on the film Youth Without Youth, written, directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola.

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The Game

The Game (1997)(DVD) Directed by David Fincher (Alien 3 (1992), Seven (1995), Fight Club (1999), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)!), starring Michael Douglas (Traffic (2000), King of California (2007), Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), Haywire (2012, in post-production, and, of course, Wall Street (1987) and many others), Sean Penn (Mystic River (2003), Milk (2008), and many others), Deborah Kara Unger (Crash (1996), White Noise (2005), 88 Minutes (2008) and others.  The Game, called a “neo-noir psychological thriller film”, was directed by Fincher immediately following his excellent film Seven (starring Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Morgan Freeman) and is, in fact, a twisty, thrilling, visually rich ride.  Michael Douglas is just perfect, and, as Roger Ebert has said, ” He can play smart, he can play cold, and he can play angry. He is also subtle enough that he never arrives at an emotional plateau before the film does, and never overplays the process of his inner change”.  Entertaining and edgy. (PR)

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Black Swan

Black Swan theatrical release poster

Black Swan (2010) Directed by Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Wrestler (2008)); starring Natalie Portman (Mars Attacks! (1996), Star Wars, Episodes I-III (1999-2005), Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (2007)), Vincent Cassel (Elizabeth (1998), Ice Age (2002) (voice only; French language version), Adrift (À Deriva) (2009)), Mila Kunis (Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997), American Psycho 2 (2002), Max Payne (2008)), Barbara Hershey (Boxcar Bertha (1972), The Right Stuff (1983), Last of the Dogmen (1995)), and others.  A psychological thriller, as most have seemingly called it, Black Swan, from the trendily titillating lesbian affair (imagined or otherwise), to the heavy-handed pseudo-psychology, the boringly clichéd dialogue, to the monodimensional acting, the incoherent visual cinematics, to the lack of meaningful narrative, or other, evolution, can’t help but leave one surprised at the uncommon poverty of critical intellectual perception, wondering whose rose-tinted glasses were shared around, and one can only be dismayed by the apparent lack of “crowd-sourced” clarity.  Nonetheless, it seems that Aronofsky, Portman and Cassel haven’t hesitated to compare the film to any of a variety of Roman Polanski‘s films (including Repulsion (1965) for Aronofsky, and Rosemary’s Baby (1968) for Portman).  Even so, apart from the fact that Portman looks every day as old as her 28 (or 29) years (if not, let’s say, five years older) and as such seems a poor choice for the role of the young ballerina making it big, a quick comparison to previous “Best Actresses” is even more disheartening.  Natalie Portman?  Really? (PR)

See our post on the film The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman.

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