- Messages
- 14,871
- Reaction score
- 2,384
- Trophy Points
- 228
Viridiana (1961)
Director: Luis Bunuel
Country: Mexico / Spain
Length: 90 minutes
Type: Drama, Comedy
There are some initial plot similarities between this and Luis Bunuel's later film 'Tristana', plus Fernando Rey plays a similar figure. A novice nun enters the country estate of a wealthy uncle (but this is no 'The Sound of Music') who becomes sexually obsessed with her, leading him to commit suicide. She inherits his estate along with his playboy illegitimate son. He determines to renovate the property and enjoy the money, while she moves a group of riotous thieves and tramps in to live there, perhaps hoping to be saintly. Bunuel mocks religion, class, sexuality and morality, most obviously posing the vagabonds as a degraded version of Da Vinci's 'Last Supper'. Handel's 'Messiah' also plays on the gramophone as they destroy the paradise Viridiana has provided for them. The Vatican branded the film blasphemous and it was banned in Spain for 16-years. This was mid-level Bunuel for me.
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The Bird with The Crystal Plumage (1970)
Director: Dario Argento
Country: Italy
Length: 96 minutes
Type: Horror
An all-round assured debut from Dario Argento, if not quite as visually dazzling as his later movies. Beneath the sexy, arty and violent Giallo exterior, this is just a really well executed murder mystery plot, that had me guessing and theorising 'til the very end. Ennio Morricone's score in suitably unnerving but I did miss the Goblin synths.
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Fox and His Friends (1975)
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Country: Germany
Length: 123 minutes
Type: Drama
'Fox and His Friends' (aka 'Fist-Right of Freedom' aka 'The Right of the Strongest') is written by and starring West-German Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fox is a sweet, coarse and naive working-class gay man who wins big on the lottery. He soon becomes acquainted with a circle of middle-class "friends" and starts a relationship with Eugen, the imperious son of a factory owner. Eugen spends Fox's money like there is no tomorrow, constantly derides him for his lack of sophistication and ultimately swindles the trusting Fox, who only wants to please Eugen. Although it's about this central relationship, it's an inherently political story, attacking the bourgeoisie for their lack of morals hidden behind polite manners. Unlike other Directors I could mention, Fassbinder is actually a very fine actor and really makes you feel sympathy for poor Fox. By the way, it was great to see Karlheinz Böhm, star of Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom' in something else.