Our Weekend at Cinema Wasteland

This past weekend, Donna and I drove four hours north of Cincinnati to Strongsville, Ohio -- near Cleveland -- where we attended the Cinema Wasteland convention. Among the guests of honor was Maestro Lamberto Bava, with whom I have been corresponding and speaking by phone since 1980, twenty-eight years ago. Travel makes me nervous, but (as I told him in an e-mail a couple of weeks ago), Lamberto could not come halfway around the world to my state without me making the effort to join him. I am so glad that I did. This picture was taken within minutes of our first meeting at Lamberto's table.

There was an instantaneous sense of warmth and familiarity, and our rapport was immediate, happy and intense. I was with Lamberto for most of Saturday and until about 1:00pm on Sunday, and despite my general lack of Italian and Lamberto's fractured English, our communication was nearly non-stop. I love this picture because it captures some of that intensity.

I snapped this picture of Donna and Lamberto. They were charmed by each other and it was such a treat to see them interact.

While snapping some "official portraits" of Lamberto and I, Donna suddenly told us, "And now just look at each other." (She got a kick out of "directing the director.") Thus resulted my favorite picture of the two of us. There is a similar photo of Donna and me from the early years of our marriage, in which the look we're exchanging seems to miraculously summarize who we are to each other. This picture has a similar quality.

I guess this is our "John Bender meets Francesco de Masi" moment, but it wasn't a conscious recreation. The emotion here is very sincere. To communicate with Lamberto from long distance is one thing, but it was so much more meaningful for me to communicate with him in person. His eyes twinkle; he's a truly genial person, and it was a treat to sit beside him at his table and see him greeted by a constant procession of his admiring public. Most of what has been written about Lamberto's work in English has been of the "He lives and works in the shadow of his father, Mario Bava" school, and while that may be the general critical view, it's not a realistic view. I saw numerous awestruck people approach Lamberto's table and tell him that his movies -- his, not his father's -- inspired them to become artists, writers, painters, actors, or just horror fans. I felt so pleased for him.

My favorite overheard story came from a couple who run a day-care center, who told Lamberto that DEVILFISH was loved so much by their kids that one group actually watched it five times in two days! I'm sure that's the best review DEVILFISH ever had!

When Lamberto was talking with me, sometimes his English failed him and he asked fellow guest of honor Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni (the Dario Argento diva also featured in Lamberto's own DEMONS 2: THE NIGHTMARE CONTINUES and GHOST SON) to translate his thoughts. Meeting Coralina was one of the sweetest treats of the weekend for us, and I refer you to today's posting at the Bava Book Blog for more about this special lady.

Also present was Italian horror director (and Coralina's lucky companion) Mariano Baino, whose DARK WATERS was released here on DVD by No Shame in a deluxe box set with amulet. I haven't yet seen DARK WATERS, which Lamberto gave a strong and persuasive endorsement, but I much enjoyed meeting and talking with Mariano, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema and likewise had that combination of warmth, friendliness and intensity.

I was so pleased to finally be in Lamberto's company that I never left his table except to attend to the call of nature. On Sunday, we got into the dealer's room early and I had a little time to visit some of Lamberto's immediate neighbors on Celebrity Row and that's when I discovered that, just a few seats to my right, all along, was none other than writer-director Jeff Lieberman! As a horror fan hitting all the drive-ins back in the 1970s, Jeff became an instant genre luminary with the release of SQUIRM, and he completed his Big Three with the cult classics BLUE SUNSHINE and JUST BEFORE DAWN. In reviews I wrote at the time, I compared Lieberman to David Cronenberg and the later release of REMOTE CONTROL (his VIDEODROME, if you will) supported the comparison. Jeff told me about some exciting new irons he has in the fire, and I look forward to seeing more of his work, which has always been original and healthy for the genre.

Sitting to my immediate right throughout the weekend was the great Brett Halsey, who starred in two Mario Bava films (FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT and ROY COLT & WINCHESTER JACK) and also worked with him during the filming in some sequences for the Riccardo Freda costume adventure THE SEVENTH SWORD. I've known Brett via phone and e-mail for five or six years, and this was our first meeting. Now that the Bava book is done, I was able to broaden the scope of our subject matter and he told me some fascinating stories about working with Freda and he also gave me a surprising insight into the personality of the late Steve Reeves, someone I approached to be interviewed for the Bava book a few times without success. He told me that it was his understanding that Reeves' parents were deaf-mutes and that Steve himself did not learn to speak until he was seven years old. This is something I don't recall ever reading about, and it explains a good deal of Reeves' personal reserve. Brett kindly gave me a copy of John Murray's new book about his career (from Midnight Marquee Press) and I bought the new edition of his novel THE MAGNIFICENT STRANGERS, out of print since the 1970s, and newly revised and expanded in its current edition from I-Universe.

During our Sunday morning stroll along Celebrity Row, we met Betsy Palmer, who was wearing either her original Mrs. Voorhees sweater from FRIDAY THE 13TH or something very like it! Now 83, Betsy turned out to be a real sweetheart and hugged us both for commemorative photos. As die-hard fans of I'VE GOT A SECRET, we asked for some behind-the-scenes stories about her curmudgeonly co-star Henry Morgan (a personal favorite), and boy, did we get 'em! A short but very sweet encounter.

The surprise of the weekend came when Donna and I were heading to the elevators to get ready for dinner on Saturday, when I heard an unmistakable voice call my name from around the corner. It was Don May, Jr. of Synapse Films! Don (seen here at the right, with his partner Jerry Chandler in the middle) has been a friend and reader/supporter of VIDEO WATCHDOG since the beginning, then became a contributor of articles about HIGHLANDER and THE EVIL DEAD, and now he heads one of the most important independent horror/exploitation DVD labels around. As this photo shows, every moment I spent with these two guys was an absolute joy. Support Synapse Films and Impulse Pictures products! They tell me they'll be bringing Christina Lindberg to the next Cinema Wasteland convention!

I don't have a photo to commemorate the event, but during Saturday night's dinner with Lamberto, Coralina, Mariano and Mike Baronas (who brought everyone together at this event -- bravissimo, Michele!), our table was approached by an effusive admirer of Lamberto's whom I immediately recognized as Adrienne King, the female lead of the first FRIDAY THE 13th. It seems Adrienne is quite an admirer of classic Italian horror, knew all about the movie's debt to TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, and we invited her to join us. She added still more excitement to an already happy and animated table, and Brett Halsey also dropped by, completing a perfect evening.

This weekend also allowed for a personal reunion for Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni and her aunt and uncle, Bruno and Rose Botti, whom she hadn't seen in about five years. She told me that they weren't very familiar with her work in movies, and the convention gave them an opportunity to see their famous niece in her professional element. They were very nice, friendly people, clearly very proud of their niece, and you can see how moved Coralina was to be in their company again.

As the clock ticked down the moments to the time of our departure on Sunday afternoon, we finally succeeded in assembling the Italian horror contingent for a commemorative photo. From left to right: Brett Halsey, Donna Lucas, John Saxon (so consistently in-demand at his signing table that we had very little time to get reacquainted), Tim Lucas, Mike Baronas, Lamberto Bava, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni and Mariano Baiano. The photo was taken by John Saxon's fiancée Gloria Martel, a terrific lady, and I consider it one of the great keepsakes of my life.

In fact, once Gloria started setting up the shot, she was suddenly joined by a half-dozen other photographers... and as the flashes started going off, they were joined by other camera bugs who followed the bombardments of light over to our corner. Soon, our eyes were all dazzled by the blue afterburns of flashing cameras.

This picture was snapped dozens upon dozens of shots later, just as we thought we had finally finished. Then one of the many photographers, a member of the Cinema Wasteland staff, suddenly exclaimed, "This is too good to pass up; I'm getting in on this!" -- then handed his camera to his girlfriend and sidled through the tables to stand in front of the group. More pictures ensued. And then more people joining the group to be photographed ensued! The expressions in this candid shot -- the way Donna and Mike and I are laughing, the way Coralina is looking at me, the way John is looking at the Cinema Wasteland staffer who wants a piece of this historic moment ("Oh yeah? You want a piece of this?") -- capture the spirit of the weekend in ways that the posed shot doesn't, and that's why I cherish it just as much.

The Rolling Stones Do Lovecraft

Didja ever wake up to find

A day that broke up your mind

Destroyin' your notion of circular time?

It's just that Evil Eye

... that got you in its sway.

Words: "Sway" by the Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, from the album STICKY FINGERS (1971).

Images: "Dreams in the Witch-House" (2005) by Stuart Gordon, based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft. From the series MASTERS OF HORROR, available from Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Note 10/9/08: I've had a few e-mails from helpful readers who inform me that, according to the song lyrics posted on whatever website, I've got the lyric wrong and that the real line is "It's just that demon life has got you in its sway." I know, I looked around for lyrics, but finally went with what's on the actual recording. "Demon life" may have been part of a rough draft, it might even be in the background vocals, but it's not what Mick Jagger is singing. I have the album and I studied the recording carefully prior to, and even after, posting. It's a common saying that the evil eye or malocchio has one in its sway, or thrall. "Demon life" in this context would make no sense. Granted, Jagger sings the song like he's a couple of bottles of cognac to the wind, but I believe "evil eye" is fairly plainly heard, considering how some entire other verses are slurred.

Farewell, Cirio Santiago

Cirio H. Santiago, in a 2007 photo from the Search for Weng Weng blog.

The PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER has reported the death of Filipino exploitation master Cirio H. Santiago, best-known as the line producer of New World Pictures' popular WIP quartet of THE BIG DOLL HOUSE, WOMEN IN CAGES, THE HOT BOX and THE BIG BIRD CAGE (the first and last of which were directed by Jack Hill). As a director, Santiago was also responsible for such legendary '70s drive-in fare as T.N.T. JACKSON (scripted by Dick Miller), COVER GIRL MODELS, FLY ME, VAMPIRE HOOKERS and FIGHTING MAD. The DAILY INQUIRER report, written by Marinel Cruz, reads as follows:

Filmmaker and producer Cirio Santiago, who award-winning Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino considers a big influence and inspiration, died Friday night of complications from lung cancer. He was 72.

Santiago, who was diagnosed early this year, was pronounced dead at 11:50 p.m. at Makati Medical Center. His doctors declared respiratory failure as the immediate cause, his sister Digna, an official of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, told the Inquirer by phone on Saturday.

Like Cirio, Digna is a film producer for the family-owned Premiere Productions.
At the time of his death, Cirio was chair of the Laguna Lake Development Authority.
Cirio’s son Cyril died of testicular cancer six months ago, said Digna. “Cirio became very depressed.”

She said her brother was taken by ambulance to the hospital on Sept. 18 after he complained of difficulty breathing. “His family learned of his condition in March, after his son, Cyril, was buried,” Digna said. “He didn’t even tell us, probably because he didn’t like too much attention.”
He is survived by wife Annabelle; children Christopher, Cathy, Claudine and Cirio Jr.; and siblings Digna and Danilo.

Cirio was cremated on Friday. A Mass will be held tomorrow, 10 a.m., at Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati.

Cirio, who also used the screen name Leonard Hermes, was chair emeritus of Premiere Productions. In 1995, he was president of the Philippine Film Development Fund.
In 1960, he was one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of the Philippines, for Movies.

Among Cirio’s better-known films were T. N. T. JACKSON (1975) and FIREHAWK (1993). In the 1980s, he made low-budget Vietnam war movies, working with American producer Roger Corman and directors Jonathan Demme and Carl Franklin.

Several of these B-movies have become cult favorites, cited by such “renegade” Hollywood filmmakers as Tarantino. During his first visit to the country last year, Tarantino sought a meeting with his two “idols,” Cirio, and Filipino director, Eddie Romero. Tarantino proudly announced that he had based some of the characters in his iconic film, KILL BILL, on those in Cirio’s earlier movies.

At the time of his death, Cirio was filming ROAD WARRIORS [sic, actually ROAD RAIDERS], produced by US-based 147 Productions, as the sequel to his [1983] sci-fi flick STRYKER. He was to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Film Academy of the Philippines next month.

Among Santiago's other productions were THE BLOOD DRINKERS, EBONY IVORY AND JADE, UP FROM THE DEPTHS, BLOODFIST I and II, and DEMON OF PARADISE. Thanks to Joe Dante for sharing this news with me.

The Missing Page in VW #144

Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that there is a missing page in the new issue of VIDEO WATCHDOG. Its absence cuts off the bulk of Michael Barrett's BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! review and the first paragraph of John Charles' review of CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS. For some reason, instead of page 51 leading to page 52, it leads to a repetition of page 25, a section of M.J. Simpson's Dabbs Greer interview. Mind you, this was not an editorial glitch, but an accident of the printing process. We've had individual issues come back from the printer with strange anomalies before, but this is the most serious widespread error we've experienced -- and our printer is very apologetic about it.

We intend to reprint both full reviews in VW #146 (December 2008), the next issue on our production schedule, for the benefit of those readers without online access. In the meantime, we want to provide immediate satisfaction for as many of our readers as possible. At the top of this posting is an enlargeable jpg. of the missing page, which you can click on to read. Also, this link will take you to a downloadable pdf file that readers with color printers can print-off and insert into their issue. We have also added this missing page to the free samples selection appended to VW 144 on our website -- just click on the cover.

Thanks for your understanding, and please pass the word along to other VW subscribers you may know.

HELP! Yourself

A word to the wise: If you hurry, there's a chance you could score a mint copy of the deluxe box set edition of HELP! (which lists at $134.99) for less than twenty dollars.

Amazon.com's sellers page for the film opens with a dealer called Warehouse Deals whose orders are fulfilled by Amazon.com. They are offering copies of the set for only $16.62, noting that there is a "Large crack on boxed set case. Large cut on boxed set case. Large mark on boxed set case. Large scratch on boxed set case. Manufacturer shrink-wrapped. All purchases eligible for Amazon customer service and 30 day return policy."

Marty McKee, via John Charles, informed me and a group of other correspondents that he ordered a copy and received a deluxe edition in mint condition. Knowing a good deal when I see one, I promptly did the same and today also received a mint condition, sealed copy.

I don't know how long the supply of mint copies will last, so interested parties should roll the dice now. I'm not saying you won't get a cracked, cut, marked copy like the one described by the seller, but Marty and I didn't.

Unveiling the Diabolika and Diabolik Angel

Reader Mark Turner has kindly sent us a link to the Carscoop blog, where he found a tantalizing profile of the new Diabolika car being offered by Fiat. That's right: the great antihero creation of the Giussani sisters is being celebrated with his own car. It's enough to make me want to learn how to drive, or at least a black leather catsuit for Donna to wear as she chauffeurs me from place to place. Wait till you see the tire tread!

Oh, how I wish John Phillip Law was still around to see this! He'd flip. Speaking of whom...

... I've just had the pleasure of reading JOHN PHILLIP LAW: DIABOLIK ANGEL, a new bilingual book by Carlos Aguilar and his wife Anita Haas, published in Spain by the magazines SCI FI WORLD and QUATERMASS. Carlos (who wrote the Jess Franco volume for Glittering Images' "Bizarre Sinema!" series) and Anita befriended John at various Spanish festivals and tributes and got him to agree to a career-length interview, which forms the core of this book, which is also mostly illustrated with stills from John's personal archive. Among the visual highlights are photos from the legendary censored sex scene from VON RICHTOFEN AND BROWN and a couple of stage productions starring JPL as Dracula!

It was the nature of my friendship with John that we mostly talked about one film, DANGER: DIABOLIK, and occasionally the other two films that framed it, DEATH RIDES A HORSE and BARBARELLA, and this book soothed my curiosity about his feelings about his other work while also telling me much more about him as a human being than I ever expected to learn. (I had no idea that he was a distant relative of George Washington, or that he was a Christian Scientist, or the candid details of his past love life and drug usage, or that he had been the co-owner of the first sushi restaurant in Los Angeles!) I'm very grateful to Carlos and Anita for the education and all the more sorrowful that John is no longer among us for further conversation about these and so many other things. I will be reviewing the book in more detail for VIDEO WATCHDOG, but, for now, I will just say that it's a great gift to JPL's fans, as well as an engrossing insight into the actor's life (and I mean "the actor's life" generally, not just specifically) and an object lesson in how to live life to the fullest by putting one's personal search for happiness and fulfillment before professional ambition. Great cover and production values, too. The book's ISBN number is 978-84-612-4501-7, and it can be ordered online here.

Thoughts On The Need For Critics

In response to the question posed on the cover of the current issue of SIGHT & SOUND -- "Who Needs Critics?" -- VIDEO WATCHDOG publisher/art director Donna Lucas replies, "I do... to take out the garbage!"

We had a good laugh about this (hers was somewhat lustier than mine) but, in hindsight, taking out the garbage is not a bad metaphor for what a critic does. (And this is me, turning a sow's ear into a silk purse: another thing critics do.) Film critics don't work for everyone, it's true; they work for people with little time to spend at the movies, who value their time and need to have the wheat separated from the chaff; they are also for those people who see everything and like to hone their understanding of the films they've seen but not necessarily processed. Critics give the Everyman access to intensive thought and quality conversation. A good critic is someone who not only has a gift for fashioning an impressionable sentence or phrase, but also the depth and breadth of experience as a viewer to approximately assess a new film's standing by using an internal historical slide rule that runs the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous. I really don't care how many John Ford movies a critic has seen; it tells me more if he or she knows as much about the lower registi on the keyboard. It tells me even more if their idea of the lower register is my idea of the middle register. Even Dante had to visit the many levels of his Inferno before he could lend language to his Paradiso.

I was fortunate enough to receive an e-mail from the star of the film I reviewed in this month's SIGHT & SOUND: Claudine Spiteri of Lech Majewski's marvelous THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS. "The cover of this particular edition of SIGHT & SOUND really made me chuckle!!" she wrote. "‘Who Needs Critics'?!!! If there’s one person in the world who needs a critic right now, it’s me!!" Claudine gives an extraordinary performance in this film, which was made in 2004 and which I now consider one of my favorite films of all time... but it wasn't widely seen, and my review is probably one of the most conspicuous it has received in the five years since it was made. Claudine is brilliant in the film, but she has made only one other movie since, a horror film that didn't make particularly good use of her. She is presently retired from acting and working as the director of a British production company. I cherish the note of appreciation she sent to me, and I'm delighted she felt her work vindicated by my review, as this points out another important value of the critic that is completely divorced from the general public: critics can sometimes prove beneficial to careers.

Pauline Kael's famous NEW YORKER review of THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS, in which she heaped high praises on the young director Steven Spielberg, is a classic example. On the other end of the spectrum, I can remember how Lester Bangs' seminal 1970 CREEM piece "Of Pop and Pies and Fun" caused me to jump aboard the Iggy and the Stooges cult when it was still at ground level, when Iggy had yet to bottom out for the first time. John Cassavetes used to tell a story about the first public screening of his directorial debut, SHADOWS: the theater seated 600 and 400 people were turned away; during the screening, the audience began to leave until, by the end of the picture, only the cast and crew and one other person remained; that other person turned out to be Jonas Mekas, who walked over to Cassavetes and told him, "That was the most amazing film I've ever seen." Cassavetes initially wanted to punch Mekas out, thinking his high praise was sarcasm, but he learned soon enough that this is how innovative filmmaking is commonly greeted -- with mass indifference or hostility, and maybe (if the film is lucky) one influential voice shouting hosannas in the void. It's true that the Internet can create curiosity about a new film, as it did with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT or CLOVERFIELD, but it's doubtful that it can create the same level of cultural excitement as a single well-placed review or think piece; it's too diffuse -- think of Cable TV's 900+ channels times, oh, a million.

In the time I've been writing the "No Zone" column for S&S, I haven't received much written feedback from readers, but I have received other notes of appreciation or forwarded comment from some filmmakers whose work has impressed me. I was very pleased when Brad Stevens wrote to me about showing my review of MYRA BRECKINRIDGE to its director Michael Sarne, who said in reply, "Wow, he really got it, didn't he?" (It wasn't a purely enthusiastic review, either; I simply delineated the good in it and tried to make sense of the rest.) I've also received thanks from independent filmmakers like Jonathan Weiss (THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION) and Pola Rapaport (WRITER OF O) for bringing wider attention to their marvelous work, which was immensely gratifying. After more than thirty years at this job, it still amazes me to find out that some filmmakers really do value evidence that their work was properly understood as much as they prize commercial success and recognition or, failing those, notoreity.

Back in the 1980s, when I was writing mostly about David Cronenberg's work for various magazines, it was my goal as a critic to write about Cronenberg's movies in a manner that represented him as much as they represented me, to reach a common level of clarity that would be equally illuminating for me the writer, for him the director, and also for our shared audience. In watching parts of Cameron Crowe's ALMOST FAMOUS again on television the other day, I noted the same approach present in young rock journalist William Miller's attitude toward interviewing Russell Hammond and Stillwater -- so it must have been an approach that Crowe brought to his own early work for ROLLING STONE. In the film, William (who started out in this business as young as I did) approaches his job seriously, but also as a fan and a friend -- as I did. I suppose it can be dangerous to wear your heart on your sleeve like that, but what's the worst that can happen? A broken heart is going to make you a better artist while it's healing, and the scar will always be there like a pang in your ribcage to remind you that you've lived. It's better to risk the hurt by fully embracing your subject than to hold back and produce superficial work.

Some terrific writing usually results when a critic drops his/her defenses to adopt the attitude of a fan; unfortunately, I've rarely seen the same happen when a fan has adopted the attitude of a critic.

Boo Hiss

For months now, I have been eagerly awaiting the 9/23 release of KEN RUSSELL AT THE BBC, a three-disc collection from BBC Warner that was announced as including all of the director's early innovative work for the BBC. Though any of the films Russell made for British television in his salad days (ELGAR, DANTE'S INFERNO, SONG OF SUMMER, etc) would brand this set as indispensible, word of its pending release was made all the more exciting by the promise that it also would include his scandalous, impossible-to-see Johann Strauss biopic DANCE OF THE SEVEN VEILS, which was shown only once in 1970. As far as I know, it has never even been available on the grey market.

The Strauss family was reportedly so upset by Russell's fever dream approach to the material that they blocked it from being rebroadcast, an embargo supposedly still in effect until 2019. Since all of this set's promotional copy lists DANCE OF THE SEVEN VEILS as included, I assumed the embargo was only in effect where TV broadcasts were involved, but apparently not.

That's right: despite what Amazon.com and all the other DVD outlets are claiming, DANCE OF THE SEVEN VEILS is not included on KEN RUSSELL AT THE BBC. Months of anticipation wasted, and my day is ruined.

I don't mean to discourage anyone from acquiring what is bound to be a most impressive collection otherwise, but if anyone feels like burning their Strauss albums in protest, I'm in a mood to gladly provide the matches.

I Don't Like Ike

In case anyone has been trying to call our offices, we have been without power for most hours since Sunday night -- no electricity, no computers, no e-mail, no telephone, no movies, no television! And no way to work on our next issue and keep to our production schedule -- in short, a nightmare! Our previously reported 16-hour outage of Sunday-Monday was followed by a surprise bonus outage that lasted roughly 25 hours, from 6:10 Monday evening till just after 7:00 tonight. We're hoping the power will stay on this time, but only time will tell. So if you've been trying to renew a subscription or place an order by phone, that's why we haven't been able to answer. But things seem to be working now, he said warily as his thoughts turned to whether the satellite dish was still functioning...

VIDEODROME Arrives

My author's copies of my new book VIDEODROME arrived today from Millipede Press, and I'm very pleased.

I was expecting a book of a certain size and heft because this "Studies in the Horror Film" series has its basis in the "BFI Modern Classics" book series, so I was welcomely surprised when I unwrapped the first copy. VIDEODROME measures 6" x 8.5" and weighs a full pound, so it has the feel of something substantial, a book in its own right rather than a slim softcover postscript or sidebar to the main event (that is, the movie in question). The paper quality is exceptional and, detail of details, it even smells good. If the Bava book was 32 years in the making, this one covers a 27 year gestation period (admittedly, with a lot of off-time between 1983 and 2007), so seeing the job finally done properly gives me a feeling of nearly equal satisfaction.

I'm also delighted by this book because, although I've been working as a critic in print for over 30 years, I haven't had too many film books published outside my own imprint. So it's a pleasure to see my film-related writing published by someone else, and to see the job done so well. Furthermore, although I have contributed to many books in my time, VIDEODROME is, by my count, the tenth book to carry my name as author or co-author -- so it marks my advent into the double-digit phase of my book career.

1. YOUR MOVIE GUIDE TO MOVIE CLASSICS VIDEO TAPES AND DISCS by the Editors of Video Times (Tim Lucas and Alex Gordon, 1985)

2. YOUR MOVIE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY VIDEO TAPES AND DISCS by the Editors of Video Times (Tim Lucas, 1985)

3. YOUR MOVIE GUIDE TO HORROR VIDEO TAPES AND DISCS by the Editors of Video Times (Tim Lucas, 1985)

4. YOUR MOVIE GUIDE TO MYSTERY/SUSPENSE VIDEO TAPES AND DISCS by the Editors of Video Times (Tim Lucas, 1985)

5. THE VIDEO WATCHDOG BOOK (1992)

6. OBSESSION: THE FILMS OF JESS FRANCO by Lucas Balbo, Peter Blumenstock and Christian Kessler, with special material by Tim Lucas (1993)

7. THROAT SPROCKETS, a novel (1994; four different editions: US trade paper, UK hardcover and trade paper, French mass-market paper in translation as SALLES OBSCURES)

8. THE BOOK OF RENFIELD: A GOSPEL OF DRACULA, a novel (2005)

9. MARIO BAVA: ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK (2007)

10. VIDEODROME ("Studies in the Horror Film," 2008)

Our vendor's copies of VIDEODROME are not yet in stock, but we are expecting them soon... so, as they say in the realm of video, stay tuned.

Damage Report

Cincinnati was hit yesterday by high winds, fallout from Hurricane Ike, the likes of which I have never seen except in newsreels. Donna and I went to the local Healthplex yesterday morning for our regular Sunday swim/exercise regime, and everything was fine as we went in; when we stepped out, around 1:00pm, the trees were bending and the decorative bird feeder outside the door was on its side.

Driving home, we found a runaway shopping cart endangering cars at a busy intersection, and I leaped out of the car, chased it, grabbed it and rolled it back onto a sidewalk, where I wrestled it onto its side. Pulling into our driveway, we saw a chunk of one of our two Dish Network satellite dishes resting on our front lawn. I immediately checked our reception and found out that we were still receiving our Dish service; evidently the other dish is the old one they never bothered to take down when we upgraded.

Then, around 3:00, our power went out -- no electricity, no computer (= no work), no TV. So we opened the shades and used our windows for television as the high winds carried parts of trees, garbage cans and lids and recycling bins down the street. (Of course, it was garbage night in our neighborhood, as it always seems to be when high winds strike.) We watched in amazement as a section of vinyl siding from a blue house across the street came loose, began flapping in the wind, and finally sailed off somewhere into its rear yard, leaving large sections of insulation exposed. Then I went into the kitchen for some reason and saw, through one of the windows there, that our next door neighbor's deck was covered in bricks and other detritus -- one of their chimneys had collapsed! A good thing they hadn't let their dogs out. How our rickety chimneys withstood the same winds is a question for the ages.

I went outside for a better look. In addition to our neighbor's indeed fallen chimney, the house next to theirs had lost some stripping from its aluminum siding, and a house on the block behind us had lost its entire back surface of siding! Fortunately, the worst we got was that piece that fell off the dead satellite dish. That is, until our power continued to be lost... for a total of 16 hours. Sixteen hours with no lights, no TV (hence we missed the second night of IN TREATMENT's Alex episodes, adding to my generally pissy mood), no phones, no computers... in short, no distraction from the fact that we live in Cincinnati, Ohio! As the hours wore on, we got so bored, sitting here in the dark with our candles, we decided to get in the car and go out to dinner. That's when we realized how widespread the blackout was -- it reached well into northern Kentucky, yet there were also houses less than a mile from us that did have their electricity. I'm hearing that 750,000 people here lost their power last night, and some are still without it.

As we drove, we had to turn back on some familiar streets because of fallen trees. Amazingly, we saw trees whose entire trunks had been snapped in half. We saw one overturned tree and, as we drove past, saw that it had fallen on top of a parked car. I felt like we had driven into some sort of George Romero "martial law" picture with Mother Nature standing in for the usual zombies.

We ended up at Appleby's around 9:30 -- a half hour wait, crowded as a Bengals locker room after a victory, and the entire staff seemed stressed out. Our waitress confessed to breaking down in tears in the kitchen earlier, once the crush of business started easing off, because it was the busiest night they had ever had, with cars actually circling the place earlier. Dinner was fairly miserable; I'm afraid Appleby's isn't very vegetarian friendly, if tilapia isn't your favorite.

We then went home, got into our iPods and spent fairly separate evenings in the dark, Donna sewing by candlelight. Unlike me, she's really cut out for this sort of pioneer days adversity. I sat outside for awhile, smoking a Frisco and listening to Scott Walker -- surveying a yard covered in green leaves, tree branches and snapped twigs, thankful that our chimneys survived the onslaught -- and saw, behind the dense cloud cover of the southeastern sky, what looked like the aurora borealis. It flickered and turned the dull slate blue sky different shades of deep blue, red and violet. It lasted less than a minute but it was a welcome coda for such a distressing day. I was in bed before 2:00am, most unusual for me.

The return of our electricity this morning prompted me to rise early, and I went around resetting clocks and checking the e-mails I should have received yesterday. It feels good to be reconnected to the world!

THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS reviewed

Claudia and toad in Lech Majewski's THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS.

... in the October 2008 issue of SIGHT & SOUND, now on newsstands, and also on their website here. This is one of the most impassioned reviews I've written for my "No Zone" column in S&S, but I feel very strongly about Lech Majewski's film. I am annoyed with myself, though, for apparently referring to the film's protagonist Claudia Casson with the similar first name of the actress who played her, Claudine Spiteri. Actually, as I look around the web, I see I'm not the first source to commit this error (beginning with the IMDb and the film's own website!), but the confusion may be a tacit tribute to how completely Spiteri makes this haunting character, and this magical film, her own.

About IN TREATMENT

Donna and I have become engrossed in HBO's reruns of their psychiatry series IN TREATMENT, starring Gabriel Byrne (pictured) as psychologist Dr. Paul Weston, which somehow premiered under our radar last January. It's an American remake of an Israeli series (which I'd like to see with subtitles someday), with each episode presenting a real-time therapy session involving five different patients (two of them a couple, played by Josh Charles and VWSE cover girl Embeth Davidtz). Every fifth episode showing Paul himself in therapy with his doctor, Gina (Dianne Wiest).

I became captivated with the series somewhere near the middle of the 43-episode first season and watched it through to the end, intending to catch up with the first half when the shows were issued on DVD later this month by HBO Video. Unfortunately, it seems that HBO have pulled the plug on this release for reasons tied to the green-light recently given to the show's producers for a second season. We assume the first season set's release will be rescheduled to help cross-promote the show's return "sometime in 2009."

Currently, HBO's subsidiary channel HBO Signature is running the first season again but with a twist -- this time, they are showing all the individual case studies back-to-back, four episodes on Saturdays and Sundays, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm eastern. They began this past weekend, so the arc featuring Laura (Melissa George), a sexually compulsive anaesthesiologist who falls in love with Paul, concluded last night. However, for those of you who still haven't seen the program, you still have time to capture the very best of the first season this weekend (9/13-14), in the arc featuring Blair Underwood as Alex, a guilt-ridden Army bomber -- the following weekend (9/20-21) with Mia Wasikowska as Sophie, a teenager seeking escape from a broken home in athletics. Underwood and Wasikowska give the most powerful performances of the season, as does the Emmy-nominated Glynn Turman who shows up in a later episode as Underwood's father. Start watching these and I guarantee you'll search out the remaining episodes.

Happy Birthday to Rebecca Umland!

After Donna, VIDEO WATCHDOG's most constant female presence over the years has undoubtedly been Rebecca A. Umland, who is celebrating a birthday today. (I know I've been using this blog to send out a lot of birthday greetings of late, but, if you look over your own list of friends, chances are you'll find that more of them were born in one month than any other -- and September seems to be that month for us.)

As best I can tell, Becky and her good husband Sam have been reviewing films for VW since our 45th issue, beginning with their coverage of Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN, and our affiliation -- amazingly, now in its tenth year -- has been a very happy one for us. She and Sam are both faculty members at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (where TERMS OF ENDEARMENT was filmed!) and they've written some fine books together, including the recent DONALD CAMMELL: A LIFE ON THE WILD SIDE. They have also been regular contributors to the annual Favorite DVDs of the Year posted here at Video WatchBlog. Donna and I finally got to meet the Umlands (and their son John) a couple of summers ago when they swung through town, and enjoyed a most memorable evening of conversation and laughter together -- the kind that made us wish they lived closer. You can read all about it in my WatchBlog posting of July 17, 2006.

In reply to an e-card that we sent her, Becky tells us that Sam is presently engaged in playing a major role in a local stage production of Chekhov's THREE SISTERS, which is in rehearsal later this evening, so they are planning an early dinner with cake and a nice bottle of red wine. Sounds like a plan! So here's to Becky Umland... Happy Birthday, dear, and Many Happy Returns!

Buon' compleanno, Ernesto Gastaldi!

Rare photo of Ernesto Gastaldi, taken during a 1956 trip to Spain.

For some reason, his birth date is not recorded on the IMDb, but today marks the 74th birthday of screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, who in the literal sense was arguably the most important auteur of the Italian popular cinema of the 1960s and '70s. He worked for all the great Italian horror directors from Freda (THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK) to Bava (THE WHIP AND THE BODY) to Polselli (THE PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE) to Margheriti (THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH) to Lenzi (SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE) to Martino (THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH) -- and, in my opinion, had a knack for enticing titles second only to Ian Fleming. Unlike his more specializing colleagues, Gastaldi also left his mark on such diverse genres as Italian sci-fi (THE 10th VICTIM), sword-and-sandal adventure (THE GIANTS OF ROME), erotic drama (SECRETS OF A CALL GIRL), police thrillers (FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION), and of course the Spaghetti Western (MY NAME IS NOBODY). He also did uncredited script work on such pictures as SODOM AND GOMORRAH and ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA.

Especially in this day and age, when 50 is being called "the new 30", it's disheartening to me that this protean artist -- now "the new 54" -- hasn't written a new film since 1998, especially when he tells me that he has a number of unproduced scripts from his heyday littering his file cabinets, including one that he calls "the most perfect thriller machine I ever concocted." Quentin Tarantino (or any other filmmaker aspiring to hew some acreage of their own from the turf QT has claimed for himself) should pick up the phone, go back to the source, and call this maestro out of his premature retirement.

Ernesto Gastaldi in 2004.

I've had the good fortune to be a personal correspondent of Ernesto's for perhaps 15 years now, and I'm still wowed when I realize that the pen-pal who occasionally sends me friendly encouragement is the same fellow responsible for so much amazing cinema -- movies that, without him, would never have existed. WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY... THE MURDER CLINIC... ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK... THE CYNIC, THE RAT AND THE FIST... AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK... TORSO. He invented Sartana.

I don't know what Ernesto is doing tonight, but I hope he is surrounded by the warmth of family and friends, enjoying himself and bound for still more adventures in filmmaking.

Would You Believe... TWO New Books?

You know you've been really busy/distracted when someone has to remind you that you actually have two books coming out in a given month.

Yes, in addition to my Centipede Press book on VIDEODROME, I have another book streeting on September 16. It's not entirely mine, but I am one of the many contributors to THE BOOK OF LISTS: HORROR (edited by Amy Wallace, Del Howison and Scott Bradley) along with Stephen King, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, VW's own Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman and Richard Harland Smith, Johnny Ramone, Karl Edward Wagner, John Skipp, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, Steve Niles, F.X. Feeney, James Gunn, Poppy Z. Brite, Jorg Buttgereit, Paul M. Jensen, Lisa Tuttle, Stephen Volk, Jack Ketchum, Barry Gifford, Richard Stanley, Ann Magnuson, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Thomas Ligotti and many other luminaries. There's also an Introduction by the legendary Gahan Wilson. Scott Bradley tells me that I wrote the book's single longest article, which is titled "10 Horror Films That Aren't Horror Films," and Gahan singles it out for special mention in his Intro, so I feel very pleased about being a part of this project. It's a pleasure to share a forum with so many colleagues, friends and heroes -- not least of all Ann Magnuson, who I don't know, but for whom I've harbored a secret crush for at least twenty years. I'm told that her list is called "Ann Magnuson's 22 Sexiest Movie Monsters (Human and Otherwise)" and I'm looking forward to reading this core sample of her erotic imagination. THE BOOK OF LISTS: HORROR also has a MySpace page, which you can access here, and Richard Harland Smith shares a list of his own early favorite entries from his contributor's copy here.

Speaking of the VIDEODROME book, I received a call from Centipede's Jerad Walters over the weekend and he tells me that the first printing is now in hand. I'm expecting my personal copies to arrive within the next few days. I will be signing pages for a very limited hardcover printing, coming later, but signed copies of the VIDEODROME softcover will be available through Video Watchdog. There's a full-page ad in our next issue, #144, with full details -- and we'll also be presenting that ordering info here and on the VW website once our initial order is received.

Footage Missing from Franju's JUDEX

Channing Pollack as the costumed avenger of Georges Franju's JUDEX.

VIDEO WATCHDOG contributor Brad Stevens informs me that Masters of Cinema's new Region 2 DVD release of Georges Franju's JUDEX is missing some minor footage that is present in Sinister Cinema's DVD-R/VHS release of the film's US theatrical version, as originally distributed by Continental Releasing. There are seven cuts in all:

1- 52m 58s. 33 seconds are missing; the end of the shot showing a man walking away from the camera; the whole of the following shot, showing the doctor walking behind a pair of children; the start of the next shot of the doctor.

2- 53m 11s. After the woman tells the children "This isn't a sight for you," they walk away. In the MoC edition, the shot ends here; in Sinister's tape, it continues for an additional 5 seconds with the boy turning around and shouting at the woman.

3- 53m 23s. The whole scene (46s) showing the man getting into a car and talking to the nun has been cut.

4- 54m 37s. A 35s shot has been cut; this shows two men carrying a stretcher into a room and placing a woman on it.

5- 55m 8s. Shot slightly shortened.

6- 57m 20s. A 3s shot showing a man getting out of a car is missing.

7- 58m 1s. 4s of dialogue is missing after the man says "It's quite a walk, you know."

The same cuts (amounting to roughly two minutes) are present in the earlier French release, with which the Masters of Cinema disc shares the same transfer. As both releases were licensed directly from the film's producer and struck from the original negative, it appears -- judging from the fact that all of the gaps occur within a 5m section of the picture -- that the negative suffered some damage during its decades of storage.

Mind you, the cuts are not disruptive or critical, and these Region 2 releases do offer the best quality for this important title we are likely to enjoy. That said, the completists in our audience may still wish to acquire the Sinister disc while it's still available as a reference copy of what now appears to be lost footage.

Update 9/9/08 2:13am:

Glenn Erickson of DVD Savant responds: "Your description of missing bits from the DVD of JUDEX doesn't read like the result of film damage. The choice of connecting tissue omitted indicates that someone trimmed 'unnecessary' footage to perk up the pace (the slow, 1901 pace we love). This happens more often than one would think, and to the original negative sometimes... a distributor or other nefarious party suddenly decides to 'improve' the film. First it's the 'unnecessary' beginnings and endings of scenes. Soon thereafter, they're cutting METROPOLIS in half! I remember the kid yelling... I hope the little pieces aren't gone forever."

Happy Birthday to...

... VW's own Richard Harland Smith, seen here paying his respects at the Edgar Wallace memorial plaque at Ludgate Circus in London, England in 2003. Well, that's the sort of bloke he is. Husband (his wife Barb is casting that shadow at the bottom of the frame), doting father of two (Vayda and Vic were but gleams in his eye at the time), screenwriter, samurai and friend, he also blogs brilliantly at TCM's MovieMorlocks site. Click on the pic for a much more detailed look.

First Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG #144

Our October issue is now at the printer, which means it's time for me to offer Video WatchBlog's monthly advance peek at our next cover and a link to our website's "Coming Soon" page, where you can find a comprehensive list of its contents and contributors and an enlargeable, four-page free preview sample.

I'm very pleased with the way this issue turned out. When Dabbs Greer died last year, I cast my net looking for an unpublished interview to pay proper tribute to this fine character actor, and found one in the hands of our valued occasional contributor, M.J. Simpson. Unfortunately, Mike didn't have any photos to illustrate the interview (which was conducted in 1999), so I had to assign myself to do screen grabs from a wide variety of his work, ranging from movies like IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, THE VAMPIRE and Joe Dante's RUNAWAY DAUGHTERS to his extensive TV appearances in shows like TWILIGHT ZONE, THE OUTER LIMITS, THE WILD WILD WEST and THE RIFLEMAN. It was hard work, but fortunately I had a lot of this material on hand and the piece is now very handsomely adorned. It's a terrific interview that reveals the ubiquitous Mr. Greer as a very savvy fellow whose memory was understandably selective but who had some great stories to share. I wish he was still around to see how well Mike's interview turned out.

Doug Winter is also trying something new in his "Audio Watchdog" column by focusing for the first time on a feature film: Anton Corbijn's Ian Curtis biopic CONTROL -- and he will continue to follow this very interesting vein in our next issue's column, in which he will write about the music of Curtis' seminal post-punk group Joy Division (which became New Order following the suicide of Curtis in 1980). It might be fair to say that Joy Division's music falls outside the scope of fantastic cinema, but it has been a seminal force in terms of the expression of horror, existential dread and anomie within the arts, and has left its mark on film and other areas of the arts other than music. I consider this VW's first step in the direction I outlined in our current issue's editorial, where I talked about wanting VW to go back somewhat to its original roots as a place where our contributors can more deeply explore their current obsessions, and write about films available on video from stances other than "the DVD review."

My own contributions to the issue include my promised full-length reviews of Zulawski's THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO LOVE and Dallamano's VENUS IN FURS (both subjects of recent bloggery here), as well as a full-length review of Tinto Brass' THE VOYEUR and my Blu-ray coverage of CLOVERFIELD.

Plus there's Ramsey Campbell on Cecil B. DeMille's SIGN OF THE CROSS, Bill Cooke on the Hammer ICONS OF ADVENTURE set, Kim Newman on SIMON KING OF THE WITCHES, the Umlands on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: RAZOR, John Charles on CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS with Gordon Liu, more from new contributor Michael Barrett, and (whew!) pretty much something for everybody... so reserve your copy now!

Where I'm At

Sorry for my disappearance over the past week but, as soon as I completed my work on VIDEO WATCHDOG #144, I jumped right into a new screenplay project. It's going really well, with nearly 40 pages written already, so this blog isn't much on my mind at present. I'm just hoping to get a solid first draft together before I have to start on VW #145, two weeks from now!

VIDEO WATCHDOG #143, with the Rodd Dana cover, is now back from the printer... for the second time! The shipment was actually delivered yesterday and, a short time into the mailing process, I discovered that the issues were cut a fraction of an inch too tall to fit into our deluxe VW binders! We immediately halted the mailing (none of these copies were actually sent out) and our printer recollected the entire order, cut every issue down to its intended size, then redelivered half the order last night and the other half this morning. So the mailing of #143 is now back on track, and copies should begin reaching our First Class and Air subscribers sometime next week.

Finally, for those of you who have taken an interest in my Vita Nuova, yes, I'm still vegetarian and still swimming three times per week. I don't see either of these things as a fad, but as facets of a new approach to living. I've lost twenty-odd pounds in the past month and am now wearing a belt I haven't been able to pull around myself in at least eight years -- on the third notch. I'm pretty happy about that, though not exactly satisfied, which seems to me the healthiest outlook to maintain.

SIMON, KING OF THE WITCHES reviewed

Real-life couple Andrew Prine and Brenda Scott redefine screen magnetism in the quirky SIMON, KING OF THE WITCHES.

SIMON, KING OF THE WITCHES
1971, Dark Sky Films, DD-2.0/16:9/LB/+, $14.98, 98m 54s, DVD-1

Despite its scary title and the violent, druggy, sexist, black magic trappings of its original promo campaign, this isn't a horror film at all, nor a particularly exploitative one; it's actually part character study about a homeless, mostly likeable, cigar-smoking practitioner of White Magic who lives in a storm drain and a satire of the myriad cults arising from the ashes of psychedelicized Los Angeles of the early 1970s, informed to some extent by the gnostic legends of Simon Magus.

Andrew Prine stars as the affable Simon, who starts out with little more than his own seemingly insane self-beliefs and a bag of cheap trinkets (including a "Pentagram of Solomon," a likely nod to low-budget producer Joe Solomon), but quickly ascends the power chain of LA, using genuinely caring relationships with naïve streethustler/minion Turk (George Paulsin─picture Peter Noone with a Jack Nicholson grin) and the pill-popping daughter of the district attorney (Cincinnati-born Brenda Scott, looking intensely vulnerable and distracted), to reach effete socialite Hercules Van Sant (Gerald York). Stiffed with a bad check by one of Hercules' party guests, Simon proves his abilities with a death curse and soon has enough cash and clients to buy into some real accessories, like an oval mirror that allows him to venture onto the astral plane like a Dr. Strange of the counter-culture, and set about his ultimate plan to expose the corrupt nature of the city at large, its officials as well as its lawbreakers and flakes.

There's a jokey Black Mass scene featuring Warhol acolyte Ultra Violet, some non-sexualized nudity and one or two nearly bloodless stabbings, and a goat─but it's all fairly mild, eclipsed by the humor of scenes like Simon's solution to Turk's priapic problem. Scripted by Robert Phippeny (THE NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY), an alleged warlock himself, the film's cleverly etched characters, general air of hedonism, and baroque dialogue ally it with the more personal works of screenwriters Charles B. Griffith and Robert Thom. There's far more talk than action, explaining the unusually long running time, but hit-and-miss as it is, it can't be faulted for not talking straight. Alternately interesting, intelligent, moving, rambling and incoherent but, as one character says, "At least it's different!"

The anamorphic 1.78:1 mono transfer is colorful and well-balanced but with variable sharpness traceable to limitations in the original cinematography. The supplements, overseen by Michael Felsher, interview an affable Andrew Prine (16m 53s) and director Bruce Kessler (11m 58s), adding on a 1m trailer and a 58s radio spot accompanied by a lobby card slide show. The Prine interview makes the editorial mistake of illustrating his reference to a naked "ditz" on an altar in the Ultra Violet sequence with footage of Brenda Scott in a similar situation, inadvertently denigrating his ex-wife and a serious actress. For a backstage peek into the casting of the blonde on the altar, see Roger Ebert's profile of producer Joe Solomon in the classic reference book KINGS OF THE B'S.

8/23/08 Update, 1:06 a.m.:

SIMON supplements director Michael R. Felsher responds...

Glad to see a review of SIMON KING OF THE WITCHES on the site. It’s a great little movie and one that a lot of people have never had the opportunity to see. It’s certainly the best movie ever made about a warlock who lives in a storm drain.

I noticed though your comment about an editorial mistake in SIMON SAYS where Prine refers to a “ditz on a platform” as being mistakenly played under a shot of Brenda Scott from the film which you felt added an unintended backhanded comment about Scott from her former husband.

What was left out of the final featurette due to some audio issues and some fragmented sentences from Mr Prine during the interview were some more direct references to that exact scene in the film where Simon seduces Scott’s character and gets her naked on the platform/slab in his abode. Prine was asked by the interviewer to restate the answer and that’s the take I used in the final featurette, which was more concise but did leave out a few details which were garbled by a microphone squelch in the previous answer. As a result, some of the contextual info surrounding his discussion of this scene was lost. I can assure you he was not referring to Scott personally but her character, and was also not referring also to the later scene(s) with Ultra Violet. I noticed at the time, that this “ditz” reference could be taken somewhat out of context, which is why I chose to use this bit to lead into Prine’s discussion of his fond memories of working with Scott on the picture which I felt would clarify his relationship with her and make it clear that his previous comment had only been about the characters.

If the context of his remarks come across as unclear, it was certainly not intentional in any way, but I stand by my editorial decisions in this piece, and hope that this email puts any confusion to rest.

Loving THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO LOVE

For a couple of years now, I have resisted seeing Andrzej Zulawski's THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO LOVE [L'important c'est l'aimer, 1975] a second time, because I was afraid that it wouldn't -- couldn't possibly -- live up to my recollection of it. Sometimes the oddest films can seem like masterpieces because you happen to see them under a certain phase of the moon. I can well remember seeing Alan Rudolph's TROUBLE IN MIND for the first time on cable and hugging a pillow more and more tightly to me as the story advanced... and seeing it again, some time later, and wondering what the hell had captivated me so the first time around. But yesterday, the time came to put my feelings about Zulawski's film to the test, and I'm pleased to say that it is the masterpiece my earlier viewing suggested it was. I like Zulawski's work more often than not, but this film I find the most spellbinding of them all, due in no small part to the central performance of Romy Schneider, without whose beauty and gravity at its core I suspect the entire zany, enraptured film might collapse like a house of cards.

She plays a 30-year old B-movie actress fallen on hard times, a once-promising talent whose career has nose-dived into pornography ("NYMPHACULA" is one of the fictional movies she's supposed to have done), drugs, prostitution and a marriage to a deranged admirer that seems more like captivity. A paparazzi (Fabio Testi) tries to score a photo of her, is beaten up for his troubles, but she takes amused pity on him when he persists and promises that he can sell better shots as magazine covers. Thus begins one of the most peculiar and affecting love stories I've ever seen, rooted in Testi's earnest belief that, if he intrudes into this woman's life (as he feels he must), things may end badly, but that if he doesn't, they will certainly end much worse.

The movie's effectiveness boils entirely down to the chemistry between these two. It's mysterious, captivating, utterly convincing and never quite explained. It's not a sexual relationship, though the offer is on the table and the tension is palpable between them, enough to sometimes send her pitiable husband (Jacques Dutronc) out of the room when they are brought back into each other's orbit. My theory about Testi's reticence is that he knows that what this woman needs in her disintegrating life, much more than another lover, is a friend -- and he rises above his own urges, and her own cruel and self-destructive taunting, to provide that.

The trouble with THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO LOVE is that, for all of its strange magic to kick in, in order to hear its actual heartbeat, you have to watch it in French. It's the live sound option, the one that was recorded as these performances were given (except for Testi, who is post-synched but effectively so), and this is particularly vital to appreciating Schneider's luminous yet ashen performance -- which she considered to be her own best work, and which won her the very first César Award for Best Actress in 1975. (Schneider died at age 43 in 1982, officially of a heart attack, though she was known to have been inconsolable and increasingly dependent on pills and alcohol following the accidental death of her 14 year-old son the previous year. There are currently two different films about her life in production, a feature and a TV movie, respectively starring Yvonne Catterfield and Jessica Schwarz, both remarkable look-alikes.) Unfortunately, while the French version of Zulawski's film is available on DVD, it comes with no English subtitle option. I've only seen that version shown once on the Sundance Channel, as part of a tribute to the late, great Z Channel -- and I prize my DVD-R of that broadcast. A German import from New Entertainment World also exists called NACHTBLENDE (meaning "Day for Night," oddly enough, a translation of the title of the Christopher Frank novel LA NUIT AMERICAIN on which the film is based), which contains audio options in French, German and English -- but only German subtitles are provided. The English dub is kind of heroic in many respects, but cannot help but occupy a much lower level than the exalted plane of the French version.

I failed to mention that it also stars Klaus Kinski, giving one of his most tortured, incandescent and emotional performances. Reason enough to see any movie, but an "also ran" here.

This German disc is available from Xploited Cinema with a choice of three different clamshell covers, based on the German and Belgian poster art. The Belgian poster cover is priced slightly higher and represents a limited edition of only 999 copies. If interested, I would hurry because Xploited has announced their intention to retire from activity and will not be reordering any discs once their current supply expires. Furthermore, the under-construction website of a new company called Mondo-Vision has announced L'important c'est l'aimer as one of three Zulawski pictures on their roster of upcoming releases, but offers no information about its release date or language/subtitle options.

I'm inclined to promote THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO LOVE to my Top Ten; that's how strongly I feel about it. I'm going to watch the French version again before I decide. If the German disc is your only means of seeing the film, go for it. It's unlikely that any other issue is going to outperform it in terms of extras, which include PC exclusives as well as Georges Delerue's haunting soundtrack in its five-track entirety. The track called "Largo" is as close as the Maestro ever came to recapturing the tortured gravitas of his unforgettable tragic theme for Godard's CONTEMPT, which happens to be a key word in the screenplay of this film. My fuller review of THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO LOVE will appear in VIDEO WATCHDOG #144, now in production.

Top 10 Lines of Dialogue from Dallamano's VENUS IN FURS

Laura Antonelli strikes a pose for her lover's pleasure -- and agony -- in Massimo Dallamano's VENUS IN FURS (1969).

With frosted sand-colored hair and a cocoa-butter complexion, Laura Antonelli is at her most delectable in Massimo Dallamano's VENUS IN FURS, a contemporary adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's definitive S&M novel. The Velvet Underground captured the spirit of the book better; in Dallamano's hands, it's the Salem cigarette ad-looking story of Severin (Régis Vallée), a perverse would-be philosopher about sexual matters who is happy for reasons buried deep in his childhood only when he's made to feel miserable... up to a point. He meets his match in Wanda (Antonelli), a former stripper and erotic exhibitionist whom he meets at a Spanish resort. Once they discover they're... er, compatible, they marry, move into an Italian villa, enter into a cosplay game of mistress and chauffeur, hire a couple of lesbian maids, and -- this being a product of macho Spain and Italy -- Severin eventually learns the hard way that man was not meant to serve as his woman's bitch. At times it seems more like a writ of bitterness from someone who hasn't quite gotten over a bad divorce, rather than something based on the gospel of whips and leather. It's not great, but there are various delights to be found here, including Gian Franco Reverberi's infectious Eurotrash score (it sounds like the sitarist was imported from the VAMPYROS LESBOS sessions), a classic beauty in its prime, and scads of the most deliriously quotable dialogue you've ever heard. To wit: 

1. "If deep pleasure is born most of all from suffering, then this is the woman of whom I've always dreamed!"

2. "It's very difficult to act like a prostitute when one is in love."

3. "You're all the same, you men! When you love a woman, you want to lock her up in the most secret cell of the Pyramid of Chaos."

4. "Women are always forbidden the most amusing things."

5. "Wanda, will you marry me?" "Yes, yes, I will marry you, because I want to betray you, bring you to desperation! I will make you unhappy, you'll see!"

6. "Such happiness as this... almost makes me unhappy." 

7. "Sometimes women are whores uselessly, and the vulgar side of this is its uselessness."

8. "You're too beautiful to belong to just one man." (Did I hear an "amen" in the house?)

9. "All I can say is, after two months, you've become like any other husband!"

10. "I must resign myself to being normal."

Need I say more? VENUS IN FURS is available from Xploited Cinema in two different editions: the preferable 16:9 Shameless Screen Entertainment PAL Region 0 import for $24.95 (82m 3s -- trimmed of roughly 55s of a red-tinted scene by the BBFC), and the fullscreen IVC's Japanese NTSC Region 2 import (83m 26s, unmatted fullscreen and reportedly uncut, but if so from the wrong projection speed, with one instance of optical fogging) for $39.95. The material missing from the Shameless disc has been posted on the label's website for free viewing by those claiming to be 18 years of age or older, and involves an extension of a non-explicit rape scene in which the violation becomes pleasurable to the victim. (The tinting on the scene emphasizes that it's a fantasy of Severin's, rather than something that actually happens, making the cut seem particularly gratuitous and ill-considered.) The Shameless disc includes a widescreen trailer featuring alternative takes and shots, some including nudity, not found in the feature version itself.

Kihachiro Kawamoto Films Reviewed

Here's a link to my review of stop-motion animator Kihachiro Kawamoto's feature THE BOOK OF THE DEAD and the short film collection THE EXQUISITE FILMS OF KIHACHIRO KAWAMOTO (both released by KimStim/Kino on Video), as published in the new September 2008 issue of SIGHT & SOUND.

First Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG #143

It's now at the printer! That's Rodd Dana as Marcellus in CLEOPATRA on our front cover, as classically rendered by the ever-talented Charlie Largent. For more details and samples of this fabulous issue yet to come, check the "Coming Soon" page of our website.

Scenes From My Vita Nuova

First things first: VIDEO WATCHDOG #142 was shipped to subscribers and retailers at the end of last week. If you are one or the other, it should be in your hands soon -- or sometime later, if you're a bulk rate subscriber.

I'm going through a weird, distracted phase that's tied up with some important changes I've made in my life and my attempts to map out my future. I mentioned a blog or two ago that I've started swimming; I'm now doing it three times per week and have already dropped more than twelve pounds. Also, about three weeks ago, in fact to the day, I decided to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle and I'm liking that -- although the soup aisle at the grocery store (my former idea of health food), now throws up more "Forbidden" signs than are found in the archives of the Catholic Legion of Decency. I always loved the foods I am now swearing off, and to be perfectly honest, I'm not completely happy about my decision to live without them, but I am, I think, settled. Once you get into this, you realize it's more than just a dietary decision; it's also a code of morality. Until I can learn to cook for myself, which I don't foresee in the immediate future, thank God for the folks at Morningstar Farms.

I started working on a new novel this past week, made respectable progress (maybe 20 pages), hit the right tone, then realized it was not what I should be writing at this time. I hope to get on with the right project sometime this week.

In the meantime, and I recognize the danger of this, I feel myself losing a lot of old interests. I must have more than a month of ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOURs and WHAT'S MY LINE? episodes piled up on my DVR hard drive, but the prospect of dubbing them over onto my DVD recorder to get the commercials out of them is something I'm not ready to face and presently have no interest in doing. I don't understand why I ever collected anything. I have stopped watching more movies at or before the halfway-point this past week than I can count; these are movies that I've sometimes seen and know I like, but it seems a movie has to be really extraordinary to hold my attention these days. Fortunately, there was one: Lech Majewski's THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS (2004), which streets tomorrow on the Kino on Video label. I think this movie is an absolute masterpiece, and it's also the first movie I've seen since my first viewing of Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST at the age of 12 that I like so much, I'm actually wary of seeing the director's other works. I feel like I want to be faithful to this one, it's so good. I was faithful to ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST for at least 10 years; then I bit the bullet and saw Leone's other films, all of which had their own qualities but none of which ever equalled or surpassed my introduction to his work. Kino sent me three other movies by this amazing director -- THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO HARRY, THE ROE'S ROOM and GLASS LIPS -- and I apologize, but they'll just have to wait till I'm over this one.

In other news: To my surprise and honor, a young punk band from the Glendale, California area has adopted the name of Throat Sprockets. Lead singer Miss Lonelyhearts tells me "I think it's the best band name since Led Zeppelin!" If you go to their MySpace page, you can hear/download their first offering, "Keep Your Distance."

And finally, Jerad Walters of Centipede Press tells me that he has received the first six advance copies of my VIDEODROME book from its Hong Kong printer. He says "They look magnificent!" Hopefully the book's Amazon page will soon be corrected to reflect its "in print" status. In the meantime, you can order the book directly from the publisher here. Copies begin shipping in three weeks. Donna and I have not made arrangements with Centipede yet, but I imagine we will also be selling the book through Video Watchdog.

HAZEL COURT - HORROR QUEEN reviewed

HAZEL COURT - HORROR QUEEN
An Autobiography
by Hazel Court
Tomahawk Press (www.tomahawkpress.com), 152 pages, $25.00, trade softcover

British actress Hazel Court passed away earlier this year, on April 15, just a month or two before the announced publication date of her long-promised autobiography. A copy of this sadly timed Tomahawk Press release arrived here yesterday, courtesy of Amazon.com (now offering the book for the sale price of $16.50), and I read it straight through in an evening.

The book's advance word of mouth has been beating the drum about the fact that it contains a never-before-seen color image of Hazel topless, as she was filmed for a continental release of THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH (1959). The photo is in the book, and different to the four sequential filmstrip images previously seen on the inside cover of LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS #16, but not printed large enough to permit much detail. Even so, it's neither the most beautiful or ravishing image in the book, which is loaded with lovely images of Hazel at all the different stages of her life. The two that particularly took my breath away can be found on the Acknowledgements page (which appears to be post-retirement) and page 38 (a photo from her first professional session at age 16).

As loath as I would be to say this to the dear lady's face, pretty pictures and a nice interior layout aside, I found the book a disappointment. Why? Because the opening chapters are so arresting, so complete and vivid a recreation of her early years, and so revelatory of an unexplored gift for writing, that the later chapters about her life in movies seem sketchy and shallow by comparison. There is an almost palpable feeling of difference here between chapters written by hand and others that might have been obtained otherwise, as through a transcribed tape or ghostwriter. I don't know how difficult a book it was for her to write, if other duties were in the way of her concentration, but the early chapters give us dense, delicious portraiture while the later ones give us snapshots.

The early chapters do offer the reader some insight about how this working class girl from Birmingham acquired her regal bearing onscreen and how she wore those period costumes with such ease. There is also a heartbreaking story about her first love, identified only by his initials, who went off to war and died in 1941, but not before taking the photographs (by gaslight) that led to Hazel's first screen test. Her first marriage to actor Dermot Walsh is almost elliptic in its modest coverage, and none of the reasons for their "painful" divorce are gone into, nor really is the story of how she came to fall in love with second husband, actor/director Don Taylor (obviously the great love of her life). A strange emphasis of photos showing Hazel in the company of artist Fred Yates, with whom the text mentions only one brief anecdotal meeting, begs curiosity. There are also odd instances of padding, with surprisingly detailed film synopses added in (complete with dialogue), and quotes taken from recklessly identified sources. One quote, allegedly from TV GUIDE, is far too long and critical in character to have ever appeared there, and it's an embarassment when the book reaches out to the IMDb for information anyone could find there for themselves. The text is also guilty of some inattentive editing (repeated information, etc) and proofreading (Edgar "Allen" Poe, "Heaven's" no!, etc).

Despite these unworthy birthmarks, it's still a pleasure to spend time in her thoughts and reveries, and a shade of her book's early substance eeks into its latter pages, which focus on her development as a sculptress, her widowhood, and her last years in a log cabin in the High Sierra Mountains. But my abiding feeling about the book, after closing it, is that it makes me wish that Hazel Court was still here with us, so that she might be coaxed into sharing even more details of her life and times as ably as she began to put them down here.

Also included are loving and observant Forewords by her daughter, animation art authority Sally Walsh, and Vincent Price (signed with a "V" I've never seen in his signatures before) and notes of affection and respect from Roger Corman, Ken Annakin and producer Harvey Bernhard.

PSYCHO - The Director's Cut?

In today's mailbox (8/4/08), an interesting letter from reader Simon Coombs of London, England, alerting me to the fact that a pre-US-censor cut of Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO has been shown on the German television station RTL. Simon included this link to a German video site where Universal's most recent DVD issue of PSYCHO was reviewed in tandem with a list of scenes missing from this current version, illustrated with grabs from the RTL broadcast. Hopefully the right people at Universal can be made aware of this missing footage and ensure that it is restored to their reportedly forthcoming two-disc remastered edition, which only then could be called a true "director's cut."

UPDATE: Reader Stephan Held informs me that the site Movie-Censorship.com offers an identical breakdown of the shots missing from the current PSYCHO DVD with English text. You can find it here.

Furthermore, VW contributor Brad Stevens tells me that this more complete version of PSYCHO used to be shown regularly by the BBC in the 1980s, though he does not know which version is currently being shown.