tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post5964410838094260896..comments2023-10-05T07:46:44.392-04:00Comments on And Now the Screaming Starts: Movies: The cat came back.CRwMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896615209770501945noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-24766628354538902142007-12-06T19:46:00.000-05:002007-12-06T19:46:00.000-05:00Screamin' Cattle,Marty's special is also going to ...Screamin' Cattle,<BR/><BR/>Marty's special is also going to replace the current doc that appears in the five-disc collection - so anybody who already bought it is SOL. But, for folks cooking up a wish list for the holidays, the new Scorsese hosted doc is an added incentive.CRwMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07896615209770501945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-41433829153049560652007-12-06T19:44:00.000-05:002007-12-06T19:44:00.000-05:00Screamin' Spacey,I was thinking as I watched the o...Screamin' Spacey,<BR/><BR/>I was thinking as I watched the original that it would appeal more to fans of old school Hollywood melodrama than horror fans. Lewton's approach seems to have been to bring the mainstream Golden Age Hollywood sensibility to horror cinema rather than take horror and bring the production values up. The result is that you get horror movies that sometimes don't seem all that interested in being horrific.<BR/><BR/>That said, I think that, as the years go on, the '80s remake looks more and more dated while the original looks more and more like a visual classic. There's one shot, when Ollie and the Blonde are in the office, and there trapped in the corner, and the only light is coming from this table-top light-boxes. And, on the wall above them, are a series of design tools - abstracted into crosses and arrows and the like by the dark shadows - and all one can see in the light is a series of measure markers on the wall (they're ship designers and they need to have a sense of scale, so they painted foot markers all along the entire length of the office). That one shot alone - our heroes, lit from the floor, in a corner, between a tangle of mauled and uncanny crucifixes and a rigid minimalist number line - could have come from Peter Greenaway. That's the allure for me.CRwMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07896615209770501945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-65488840585364516732007-12-06T15:06:00.000-05:002007-12-06T15:06:00.000-05:00I have never seen the Lewton version of the film.B...I have never seen the Lewton version of the film.<BR/>But, I see that there's going to be a new TCM special on Val Lewton and his studio output presented by Martin Scorsese (!) which I think is scheduled for two broadcasts on January 14 (double check that date, though).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-3947762568333291462007-12-04T20:50:00.000-05:002007-12-04T20:50:00.000-05:00As a teenager, I was pretty fascinated by the weir...As a teenager, I was pretty fascinated by the weird mix of sleaze, excellent horror effects, new wave soundtrack and overall confused plot of the Cat People remake.<BR/><BR/>The original 1942 version was one of my first ventures into sampling some classic cinema. This was probably due to some review of the remake that described it as crappy, big-budget shadow of the original.<BR/><BR/>To be honest, I don't think I gave it much of a chance. There were a few neat scenes I remember, like the "morphing" footsteps. But I also remember the Ollie character seeming too wooden or goofy. In the end, it was a bit too tame to hold my attention.<BR/><BR/>What saddens me is that if they were to re-make the film again, a teenager today would probably see the 80s version in the same way that I saw the original.<BR/><BR/>P.S. I thought the movie version of Bowie song wasn't too bad. I would agree that the album version on "Let's Dance" is incredibly bland and unlistenable.<BR/><BR/>Whenever I hear the movie version, with the long, slow buildup with the drums, I never can figure out if it's going to be "Cat People" or "Better be Good to Me" by Tina Turner. Try comparing the two sometime.spacejackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14902182763527176185noreply@blogger.com