christopher-underwood

Over the years I have seen this amazing one several times. The first time it was, Witchcraft Through the Ages and a video which was a rather poor print but considering it being so old I still thought it was incredible. Later on I watched on DVD and narrating by William Burroughs, which was interesting and although the print was better although I preferred the intertitles. This time, thanks to Radiance I have four versions and three different scores and I watched the 'Esoteric Cut'. This was really more or less the same version but so much better than I had ever seen. Later I will watch another and one of The Witch versions. The film itself was made by Benjamin Christensen in 1922 and I understand that he first had several years before had a copy of the 15th century 'Malleus Maleficarum' that had been thought of as a German guide for inquisitors and their witch hunts. Christensen wondered if these hunts had really been of misunderstandings of mental or disorders triggering mass hysteria. And we see some of this. To make this stunning film he used drawings, woodcuts, and paintings and with actors using special-effect make-up and with puppetry, stop motion animation. So even if this sometimes seems a bit slow surely this has never been seen before.

I'm not a great fan of spy films or of Soderbergh but this is rather smart and amusing. Set in London and we see some of it and the photography is great, although it was only 90 minutes it can be rather complicated. I loved the dinner party game, although it wasn't really one and especially the other dinner party at the end. The dialogue is excellent and the cast great, of course, Michael Fassbender and I was surprised just how good Cate Blanchett can be. I had fun with Pierce Brosnan and thought that Marisa Abela was splendid and maybe I should have watched her in Back to Black (2014). I also wonder if I can enjoy a spy film by Soderberg, so maybe I could even have a look at his, Behind the Candelabra (2013)!

Much of this was in San Fransisco in the sixties and with some cats. At the opening credits there are several cats and some wonderful shots of the Golden Gate Bridge. Michael Sarrazin stars in this as Wylie and it begins in a rather odd way, out of one bed and into another, and the ending is rather odd as well. It seems he has ailurophobia, an excessive fear of cats, which is unfortunate as there are so many cats inside. He is so good but he would be the same year in, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?(1969). Gayle Hunnicutt, was usually on TV although her first film was Corman's, The Wild Angels (1966) and she does well here with Wylie and the cats. There are so many cats and I even start to find them rather worrying, whether they are fast or slow and just standing they can look a bit scary, staring with those eyes. As soon as the food goes down in that big meat bowl they really do look terrible, scrambling and fighting with their teeth. It is so well done that I certainly found it awful as soon as the blood appears and the stunning music by Lalo Schifrin it is surely horrific. There is a plot line and a scenario from Joseph Stefano who also did the writing for Psycho (1960) and dialogue is fine. There is some suspense and humour and this one is rather terrific.