| Author | Message | ||
     Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.254.93 |
For fun, and there's no spoilers here.... From the hit quirkie-comedy film JUNO, written by Diablo Cody; about 45 minutes in, shooting script page 53: ------------ Juno spots a VHS TAPE on the coffee table and picks it up. JUNO (reading title) The Wizard of Gore? MARK (distracted) Oh yeah. It's Herschell Gordon Lewis. He's the master of horror. JUNO Please. Dario Argento is the ultimate master of horror. Mark SWIVELS AROUND slowly on his chair, surprised. MARK Argento's good, but Lewis is completely demented. We're talking buckets of gore. Red corn syrup everywhere. And fake brains up the yin-yang. JUNO (examining the tape box) Frankly, this looks kind of stupid. Mark gives a look - "Oh, Really?" [CUT TO] INT. LORING HOUSE - DEN - AFTERNOON We see some particularly memorable footage from The Wizard of Gore. [Note: it's when some horrible gigantic stake is plunging through a screaming victim's torso] Mark and Juno are watching the movie and drinking root beer floats. They're sitting dangerously close on the sofa. JUNO (watching movie) This is even better than Suspiria. You've got decent taste in slasher movies, Mark. --------- I beg to differ....  | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.48.125 |
Well that makes me chuckle. WIZARD OF GORE & 2000 MANIACS are really the only two watchable HG movies. Oddly enough I suppose the same casual misogynism and over-reliance on visuals over plot could kind of link the 'godfather of gore' and the 'Italian Hitchcock'. And as has already been documented elsewhere if I had to choose between them I'd dump both and go for Fulci. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
OK, the joke's over. I know you're all just making these names up to have a laugh at my expense. Come on, admit it. I've caught you all out. Now, stop it. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.156.247 |
:-D | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.161.253.183 |
I saw that in Juno. Juno was great. Suspiria is miles better than any Fulci film I've seen, John. And what about Franco Pizzicato? We mustn't forget him. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.241.214 |
I can see John's point though: SUSPIRIA is a film of craft far greater than the craft portrayed in, say, THE BEYOND. Yet... THE BEYOND disturbs to levels that SUSPIRIA cannot. Probably because there is often no meaning, logic, thread, anything to grasp hold of, in this and many other Fulci films. Horror and humor are brother and sister, and you can see Fulci in a mood of laughter; or, another night, extreme dread.... You don't get that choice with Argento (well, mostly not). Perhaps he's more an artist of tension, of the thriller, than horror perse. His best - DEEP RED, TENEBRE, even much of SUSPIRIA - are "Hitchcockian." But Fulci wallows in the muck of madness and ghastly terror.... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
I saw Suspiria and Beyond at around the same time. At the cinema The Beyond actually made me feel sort of bored, whereas Suspiria, seen on a quite nice EMI vhs tape actually made me feel quite nerve-jangled and uneasy. Funny, isn't it? Horses for courses, as they say. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
To me, THE BEYOND feels like a nightmare, whereas SUSPIRIA feels like a light show. And HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY has a profuse sense of melancholy to it that Argento has never attempted, let alone reached. But as you say - horses for courses | ||
| Grant (Grant) Username: Grant Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 131.156.226.96 |
HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY also has that annoying boy.That voice of his... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.50.90 |
I've not seen them in decades. I have them both - maybe I should watch them and see, update my views. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
Good grief! I never did watch them. I have, however, watched Juno again. Lord, how old that film makes me feel, and how sad. So bittersweet. It's wonderful for those who've not seen it - one of the year's best and a predicted evergreen. So many hidden depths. It lives on, too, long, long after you've popped the disc out of the machine. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
If you saw The Beyond at the cinema, Tony, it would have been butchered by the BBFC. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.19.91.114 |
Do you mean the Jason Bateman character, Tony? The effects of time fascinate me. So intangible and yet responsible for so much. Why do opportunities close with age? The answers seem very subtle. Has anyone ever taken a photo of themselves every day for a 20 year period and morphed them into a time-lapse? It'd be a nice animated .gif on a passport. | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 99.225.111.224 |
People have done it for about a year and time lapsed it. Paul Auster & Win Wang's film, "Smoke", Auggie Wren walks out of his cigar shop every day at 9am and takes a photo of the street corner. He puts them into an album and had been doing it for years. It's like a history of the corner, with some faces familiar (people going to work at exactly the same time) and some not. It's an interesting idea, if nothing else. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 160.6.1.47 |
Yeah, a bit like that Robert Crumb strip. But someone should do it properly. A full morph from life to death. Then show it in schools. The trick to being happy in life is lowering expectations. Even I don't know if I mean any of this. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 160.6.1.47 |
I had an idea (in the pub, natch) for a CoffinCam. Someone's already done it, though. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
Yeah, Proto. I sort of felt like him, even though he was awful. But really, the sadness underneath it all, the sense of time moving on, people growing, is so painfully poignant. Sieze your fucking life, people, cherish it and take care of each other. Yes Ramsey - saw it when it came out. It did feel 'bitty'. I'll pop the dvd on sometime soon. Juno was even more affecting second time, btw. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.247.193 |
Yeah, I identified with him too. Is there any man who doesn't? Once he had kids Speilberg said he realised Roy Neary was irresponsible for getting on the mothership in CE3K. He's right, but God, the male urge to explore has really been muffled by society. Cronenberg believes when one is an artist, you owe nothing to society. I'm typing this on a commuter train, with hundreds of other people on their way to a jb they never thought they'd end up doing when they were younger. This thought doesn't have a satisfactory ending. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
Yeah, I heard that about CE3K, but then Spielberg rightfully says it's one of the three films closest to him and the ones he thinks the most important films generally (actually he and I's choices are pretty close). That's such a sad observation, Proto. As Spike so hauntingly said in Once more with Feeling, 'Life is just living.' Did you like Juon in retrospect? I remember going on about it and you seeming underhwelmed (that always happens when someone has raved about something, though). | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
I remember this bit in Waking Life, when this girl stops someone on the stairs from just walking past her, her suddenly demanding that they connect instead of just pasing one another like ants. Make eye contact with folk on the train, smile; that'll make a difference. Last week at a team meeting we were told this girl was leaving. My boss told me she'd been diagnosed autistic. Out in the car park, my boss out of earshot, my colleagues bitched the girl into the ground and pissed on the earth. I've never heard such venom for such trivial deeds. They bragged that they had left her asleep on a bus late at night and that she'd woken far from home, stranded. I knew it was her last day at a certain venue last week and so left her a message telling her that the people she supported (our clients) said they will all really miss her (which they did), and that I had seen from her diary accounts that she had been very sensitive to the clients needs, and insightful. I hope she read it. I used to feel really sorry for her - she used to cry in meetings and get really down. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Tony, white-collar office workers are the most vicious sub-species of social insect ever discovered. Their offhand wit and surface bonhomie disguises a poisonous cunning, intolerance and mob mentality. I always felt THE OFFICE was a documentary, not a comedy. But good all the same. It made HR managers all over the UK sweat. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
That's the thing - we aren't office workers, we're CARE WORKERS. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.22.92 |
"I always felt THE OFFICE was a documentary, not a comedy." I can vouch that NOTHING about THE OFFICE isn't based on reality. I should know, for I was an office worker for five whole years. It's all very recognizable - a department head everybody loathes, the backstabbing poof, developing love relationships between married people, imminent layoffs - we had 'em. Plus an ageing Miss Marple, a recently divorced health freak, two alcoholics, and a wifebeater who had an affair with a lady from Burundi. And the horror nut, of course. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.154 |
That is awful, Tony. I know of a similar incident -- someone who clearly has mental problems but is trying to live a life. She made a mistake and was hounded by semi-detached small-minded office scum so much that she almost took her own life. There's a certain group of people who have no spiritual dimension, who lack a soul. They're jackals. This woman is braver than all of them put together. She's created a life for herself against incredible odds. You did a great thing in giving that woman positive feedback. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.154 |
I was underwhelmed by JUNO too. Have only seen it once. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
'There's a certain group of people who have no spiritual dimension' That chills me, when I feel it's the case. It's like being in the presence of an automaton. You get the feeling if you could step inside their skin all you would feel and hear was howling wind. I'm not going to go on about chavs again, don't worry. They don't have the monopoly on being bad. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.44.101.224 |
See Juno again, with the bar lowered (after my rave). Don't go out of your way - just catch it. There was a bit when she was at a mall and saw the woman she was giving her kid to - the woman couldn't see her and was playing with a little girl in a play area. It was so moving because we could see Juno knew then and there that she was doing the right thing. It's odd, but the character of Juno only shows herself to us, her vulnerability, in scenes where she's on her own. And odd, how the boy's room is very much like the little tuckaway room of Bateman's, only there's the sense in the boys that he's bursting out not hiding. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
"white-collar office workers are the most vicious sub-species of social insect ever discovered. Their offhand wit and surface bonhomie disguises a poisonous cunning, intolerance and mob mentality." I couldn't agree more. I've always worked in offices, and I go out of my way not to connect with any of my work collegues and keep any sort of office politics at arm's length. I simply don't like these people. I let them think I'm slightly insane; it's safer that way, because they're too wary to bother me. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.22.92 |
Thing is, whether to want to hear about it or not, sooner or later you're going to know every detail about every colleague's home life. You're basically tied to your chair; go to the loo and they'll start talking about you; have a friendly chat with a female worker and they suspect you're having an affair; have a friendly chat with a superior and they think you're a snitch; disapprove of a song on the radio and they think you're an elitist snob; say you never watch television and they think you're insane. And so on, ad nauseam. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.53.174 |
It's Big Brother, isn't it?  | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.22.92 |
Part and parcel of the job. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.154 |
"I'm not going to go on about chavs again, don't worry." I'm not talking about them, actually, I've encountered it more with the middle classes. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.154 |
Just think about what an abomination a golf course is. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.3.57 |
The key to suriving an office environment, is to be beautiful. If you're beautiful, it's called "flirting"; if you're ugly, it's called "harrassment." If you're beautiful, it's called "joking"; if you're ugly, it's called "vicious." If you're beautiful, you're called a "go-getter"; if you're ugly, you're called a "miserable backstabber." Everyone loves a beautiful person entering a room, with a wide bright white smile, a hearty laugh, a sunshiney aspect. Even when they're f*cking phoneys, f*cking the company apart, as long as they're doing it with a wink and a grin.... Sheer beauty is the key to a happy office life. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.22.92 |
Yes, as long as the beauty in question isn't after you AND married to that union boffin who could squash you like a wormy apple if he wanted to. It happened to me. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
You must really suffer at work Craig | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.244.245 |
Well, the lurking uglies of course ruin it, Hubert. And come on, Weber... surely you can do better than that.... | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
Stressful day. Not operating to my usual low standards |