I watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind again, having recently acquired an electronic copy and was struck by what a very curious film it is. More than curious - disturbing. Creepy even. Quite aside from the fact that it has eerie echoes of the present, or what conspiracy theorists would like us to believe about the present, what with the US ( Read more... )

I watched the documentary film The Ghost of Peter Sellers, which I had found while looking for something else on the subject of Peter Sellers. It deals with a film of Sellers’ that I had never heard of before: Ghost in the Noonday Sun. The title seems to come from Hans Richter’s Vormittagsspuk. It was, judging from the few clips we get to see, a ( Read more... )

I have finally got around to seeing Bob Guccione’s Caligula. I was aware of it when it came out but never had any desire to catch it then. It was just above my age range and I was put off by the fact that it had been cut to ribbons by the censors anyway. I wanted to see a whole film, not a film full of holes. Reviewers had complained the plot made ( Read more... )

(This post deals with the film Basic Instinct, along with other films and TV shows, and assumes the reader has a good famiiarity with the movie. Needless to say, there are many spoilers and some strong language.)

While I was over in Britain recently I picked up a copy of Basic Instinct in a charity shop. It was one of those cheap deals where you ( Read more... )

[This short essay was originally posted here on Livejournal on Thursday, 28 October 2010 but has since gone missing. I am reposting it purely for reference.]

I wanted to like it. I really did. I finally got around to seeing the hit film of the summer, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The first thing that struck me was that it appears to be called ( Read more... )

The first thing that got me thinking about the history of the vampire was this reference in a paper about witches in mediaeval Balkan mythology.

...Nikodimos condemned the practice of burning the bodies of the deceased, said to be boukolakoi (the souls of those who perished in violent death and could harm people). Different stories about ( Read more... )

Part I: Get the Goofs!

Spoilers? Plenty!

I thought I had written about this before but, oddly, it seems I hadn’t. I am of an age that I was able to see the film when it first came out. My appetite had been whetted by the decision of the film distributors to cash in on the surprise success of Star Wars by re-releasing 2001: A Space Odyssey, as one ( Read more... )

Part II: Screw Your Courage

Warning: Spoilers (lots and lots!)Fine. What you’ve read there, above, that’s all just dandy. But after I’d written the above and got it all out of my system, I asked myself why I wasn’t applying my methods. Never mind what biographical information you’ve read about the director. Never mind what that director has said ( Read more... )

Legal implications in the film Alien (1979)
Oh, yes... there are spoilers. Lots!

On watching one of my favourite films again, I see it as if with fresh eyes. I love the movie Alien (1979). I’ve seen it... I can’t remember how many times. Now I’ve been able to see the director's cut at last. Some missing scenes are restored, many minor puzzles are ( Read more... )

A more transcendent view of Alien.
Once again, spoilers aplenty!All the interpretations I have listed above are in accord with the idea that what we see in the film is supposed to be real. If this were a clear story of a hapless crew who encounter a monster and die trying to defeat it, then I contend that all of these images and symbols in the film ( Read more... )