Oct
8
Meat Grinder (2009 - Thailand)
Filed Under DVD, Horror, Movies | Leave a Comment
| Meat Grinder |
|
| Year | 2009 |
| Director | Tiwa Maytaisong |
| Actors | Mai Charouenpura Rattanabunlhung Thosawad Duangta Toongkamanee |
| Disc Layers | 1 |
| Source | DVD |
| Image Quality | Excellent |
Meat Grinder is one of those movies where the main character, a woman who murders people and feeds them to her restaurant customers, is so psychotic and morbid that, at first, I didn’t think I was going to be able to sympathize with any of the characters. But that’s not the case at all. In fact, by the end of the movie I really pitied her. She’s had a rough life, and it’s easy to see how circumstances led her to such a disturbed psychological state.
This is a slow-paced, beautifully shot horror movie. Thai director Tiwa Maytaisong turns grotesque imagery into art with vivid colors constrasted against a gritty, grimy background. 
The result is a Hotel-esque movie, but instead of the nihilistic celebration of violence common in American films, we get a sympathetic look at a woman whose gruesome tendencies have been shaped by an unfortunate life. A sort of horrific drama, if you can imagine it. That being said, there’s enough blood, dismemberment, and meat grinding to satisfy the most jaded horror fan.
At the time of this writing, there is no retail version of Meat Grinder available with English subtitles. The DVD I have was subtitled by a fan from the original Thai DVD. The picture looks great - very sharp, colorful, and clean.
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Jul
29
The Early Films of Peter Greenaway 1
Filed Under DVD, Experimental, Peter Greenaway, Short Films | Leave a Comment
| The Early Films of Peter Greenaway 1 |
|
| Year | 1960s-1970s |
| Director | Peter Greenaway |
| Actors | None |
| Disc Layers | 1 |
| Source | DVD |
| Image Quality | Very Good |
Peter Greenaway’s artistic and painterly approach to filmmaking is polarizing. Most of us get our first exposure to Greenaway through one of his feature films (typically one from the 1980s) and we pretty much know right away whether we like him or not.
His early films manage to be both entertaining and tedious, with Greenaway’s admittedly self-conscious style in full effect. Here we see his experiments with superimposed text, a fascination with paintings and other forms of art, and the way in which he combines documentary-style imagery with quirky, often ludicrous narrative.
Included on this DVD are the beautifully preserved films:
A Walk Through H - (40min) - In this film, the longest on the DVD, the narrator takes us on a journey through the fictional town of “H” by presenting several painted maps he has collected over the years. The maps have been organized and displayed by his friend, Tulse Luper, and the narrator delivers many personal stories about how he obtained the map, what its relevance is, and what eventually happened to it. The paintings were actually painted by Peter Greenaway and make for an interesting film.
H Is For House - (9min) - An exploration of the alphabet and how it brings together unrelated words in its fairly simple organizational structure.
Windows - (3min) - Shots of windows with narration about the number of people who died after falling out of windows “last year.”
Intervals - (6min) - Lessons in Italian are delivered over black and white shots of Italy.
Dear Phone - (17min) - Humorous tales of telephone obsession are told over shots of various English telephone boxes. Interesting both for its visuals and its narrative.
Water Wrackets - (11min) - A difficult-to-understand study of some type of water creatures is discussed over poorly lit and boring close-ups of stagnant lakes.
The DVD also includes two incredible galleries of Greenaway paintings, as well as a 15 minute introduction in which Greenaway discusses these films and his early experiments. The best way to watch this disc is to go to the “Special Features” and select the option to view each film’s introduction, followed by each individual film.
On a side note, I once drove several hours to see Greenaway present a screening of The Pillow Book which, at the time, he didn’t think would be picked up for distribution in the United States. I missed the earlier, snobby showing at the American Film Institute and instead caught a much later (and I imagine much more enjoyable) screening at a local theater that night.
May
7
Hardware (M.A.R.K. 13)
Filed Under DVD, Horror, Movies, Science Fiction | Leave a Comment
| Hardware (M.A.R.K. 13) | |
| Year | 1990 |
| Director | Richard Stanley |
| Actors | Dylan McDermott Stacy Travis Iggy Pop |
| Disc Layers | 1 |
| Source | DVD |
| Image Quality | Excellent |
UPDATE: Hardware is now available in the United States on 2-disc DVD and Blu-Ray. I no longer trade this title.
Richard Stanley’s first feature film is one of those movies that could only have been made in the late 1980s - a visually artistic, post-apocalyptic/science fiction/horror film that has more in common with the films of Ken Russell than it does with The Terminator. Many of us lucky enough to see Hardware during its limited theatrical run became life-long fans of the man who, in 18 years, has really only directed two full-length features.
Long before the debacle of Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau, Stanley’s film about a robot killing several less-than-likeable humans explored the concept of our own unusual creations becoming a threat to our existence. At the time of its release, I remember reading an interview with Stanley in which he claimed to be filming a documentary in the desert when he received word of Hardware’s funding. He had been carrying a wounded friend on his back for a day or so.
Hardware has much of the late 80s/early 90s post-apocalypse style: a washed out orange/red tint to the image, the implication of a Big Brother-type government, a population of nuclear-mutated homeless people, and a pessimistic attitude that everything is not going to be okay. It’s slow and it mostly takes place in a single room. It’s a movie that just wouldn’t work in the 21st century.
The beauty of Hardware lies in the presentation. With a minimal budget, Stanley created an artistic film with loads of surrealism and memorable imagery that manages to be intelligent and absorbing without being pretentious. A dose of gory violence (which initially earned the film an X rating) keeps things from getting to self-conscious. This is, after all, a movie about a killer robot.
There was a time when Hardware was slated for a Region 1 release. Time stretched on and on until eventually it was clear that it wasn’t going to happen. Fortunately, it was released in limited numbers in one or two other regions. In an age of High Definition, the intentionally washed-out look of the image takes a few minutes to adjust to, but then it starts to add to the movie’s dreamlike feel. A great score, a slight bit of philosophy, and a few quirky characters round out the experience.