E.T.: THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL (1982)
Article 3654 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-1-2011
Posting Date: 8-16-2011
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Featuring Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote
Country: USA
What it is: Children’s science fiction movie

A young boy takes in a stranded extraterrestrial in the hopes of saving him from authorities that are searching for him. He develops a bond with the alien, and tries to help him find a way to return home.

It took this second watching for me to realize it, but I have a soft spot in my heart for this one. It’s one of the few movies from the era that I took the trouble to catch in the theater, and I did so before E.T.’s image was plastered over everything, so my first sight of him was in the movie itself, which I consider a real plus. For years I’ve been expressing some disappointment with the movie due to my problems with certain plot elements (especially with the levitation powers of E.T.), but at least one of my major issues turned out to be due to me misremembering certain details, and I’m glad I gave it a rewatching.

Of those that I’ve seen, this is perhaps Spielberg’s most manipulative film, and as such, I’m always a bit tempted to dismiss it on principal alone. Yet, I can’t deny that while the movie is actually playing in front of me, I find myself totally caught up in the actions and the situations; I laugh when it wants me to laugh, I cry when it wants me to cry. If nothing else, it makes me respect Spielberg’s skill at handling this sort of thing, and the only time I felt the movie pushed too hard while I was watching it was at the appearance of a rainbow near the very end. Once it’s all over, there is the temptation to pick it apart, if for no other reason than to avoid admitting that the movie did a number on me while it was on. But that’s what I did after the first time I saw it, and it still worked just as well on my second viewing. So I think I’ll just let it be and enjoy it for what it is.

ENGINEER GARIN’S HYPERBOLOID (1965)
aka Giperboloid inzhenera Garina, The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin

Article 3568 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-29-2011
Posting Date: 5-22-2011
Directed by Aleksandr Gintsburg
Featuring Evgeni Evstigneev, Vsevolod Safonov, Mikhaie Astangov
Country: Soviet Union
What it is: Science fiction thriller

An engineer has developed a ray that can penetrate the earth’s crust and find an unlimited source of gold… and can also be used to destroy his enemies.

You know, there’s nothing quite as disappointing as going into a movie with a word like “hyperboloid” in the title in the hope that the word will describe some clever new science fiction concept, and then to discover it stands for a concept as trite and overused as a death ray. In fact, for part of its running time, it looked like the death ray was going to be just another in a long line of Gizmo Maguffins, in which the whole plot revolves around people getting their hands on it rather than its actual use. To its credit, the movie actually does more with the concept than that; and it’s a lot of fun when the death ray is actually put to use. The movie is light on propaganda, has some nice stylistic touches, and sets its actions in the twenties, when the death ray concept was much more prevalent. On the down side, the movie is more than a little confusing; I was a good ways in before I could sort out the characters, and it may take an additional viewing to sort out the whole plot. Still, this was one movie that I liked better as it went along.

L’ESORCICCIO (1975)
aka The Exorcist: Italian Style

Article 3565 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-26-2011
Posting Date: 5-19-2011
Directed by Ciccio Ingrassia
Featuring Ciccio Ingrassia, Lino Banfi, Didi Perego
Country: Italy
What it is: EXORCIST parody

When his son is possessed by an evil spirit as the result of a talisman, the mayor of a small Italian village calls on a local con man posing as an exorcist to exorcise him.

The copy I found of this one was in unsubtitled Italian, so I can’t exactly say I understood all the subtleties of the story; some of the details of the plot description I got from other sources. However, it’s really not that horribly difficult to follow, and it uses visuals to tell things quite a bit. It does confirm one of my suspicions, and that is that I’ve long believed that the team of Franco and Ciccio would have been improved by one simple adjustment – remove Franco. This movie, without Franco but with Ciccio (one of the only two he directed as well) is much easier to put up with. During the course of the story, several people get possessed; the most direct parodies of THE EXORCIST occur when the teenage daughter gets possessed. It seems to get weirder and sillier as it goes along, and it gets a lot of its laughs with the running gag of levitating furniture. Not bad for a movie I couldn’t really understand, and, for my money, it’s also one of the better Italian takes on THE EXORCIST.

EMPIRE OF PASSION (1978)
aka Ai no borei
Article 3502 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-20-2011
Posting Date: 3-17-2011
Directed by Nagisa Oshima
Featuring Tatsuya Fuji, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Takahiro Tamura
Country: Japan
What it is: Erotic ghost thriller

The wife of a rickshaw driver has an affair with a man 26 years younger than her. Her lover talks her into helping him kill her husband and dump his body in an old well. But afterwards, the fear of discovery keeps the lovers apart, and people are starting to dream about the fate of the rickshaw driver… and his ghost begins appearing.

Nagisa Shima is an important Japanese new wave director who is best known in the US for having directed the controversially explicit IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES. This movie was screened at Cannes and won Shima the Best Director prize. This was his only foray into the Japanese ghost story genre, and some of the scenes are quite spooky; I’m particularly partial to the scene where the ghost appears to his former wife with his rickshaw, offering her a ride which she initially rejects, but then changes her mind. Overall, the movie is good, but I’m afraid I came away slightly disappointed, because I was expecting something that would be a little bit more than merely good. As it is, the movie gets a too mired in the theme of the guilt that the lovers feel (there’s a chance that the ghost may be part of their overactive imaginations). It’s interesting when they do such things as try to remove the body from the well; it’s dull when they endlessly argue with each other, fall into despair, have sex, and offer to take the blame for the murder so that the other will be let free. In short, the movie spins its wheels a bit too much, and the potentially shocking ending loses its punch because it was simply too long in coming. I don’t find the movie quite as interesting as some of the other Japanese ghost stories I’ve seen.

ENDANGERED SPECIES (1982)
Article 3472 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-10-2011
Posting Date: 2-15-2011
Directed by Alan Rudolph
Featuring Robert Urich, JoBeth Williams, Paul Dooley
Country: USA
What it is: Cattle mutilation thriller

A renegade ex-cop joins forces with the female sheriff in a small Colorado town to investigate the cause of mysterious cattle mutilations occurring in the area.

Director Alan Rudolph has delved into fantastically-themed cinema before; he gave us NIGHTMARE CIRCUS, aka BARN OF THE NAKED DEAD. For what it’s worth, this movie is much better than that one. The movie actually builds a nice sense of mystery about the cause of the mutilations, which is a bit surprising, because it actually gives away the game early on in the proceedings. At one point or another, several of the more common theories for the mutilations are trotted out, some of which are obviously smokescreens and others distinct possibilities. Director Alan Rudolph has worked with Robert Altman on occasion, and there are moments where the complexity of the characters here shows a bit of that influence, but sometimes the extra character development seems extraneous and distracting. Overall, I quite like the movie, but found the ending confusing and a bit muddled, and there’s still a few unanswered questions. In short, this one is interesting, if not quite successful.

EUGENIE… THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION (1970)
aka Eugenie
Article 3362 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-15-2010
Posting Date: 10-28-2010
Directed by Jesus Franco
Featuring Maria Rohm, Marie Liljedahl, Jack Taylor
Country: Spain / West Germany
What it is: Jess Franco movie

A businessman is seduced into letting his daughter spend a weekend with a libertine brother and sister on an island. Their designs on her are certainly not innocent…

Look at the title. Now look at the director. Know that the movie is based on a book by the Marquis de Sade. Quite frankly, this told me a lot about the movie already, and it’s pretty much what I expected. The biggest question I had going in was whether this was going to turn out to be Franco in top form or Franco on automatic. It’s the former; it’s definitely one of Franco’s better movies, and he shows a real commitment to it; from what I hear, it’s the movie of his Franco says he hates the least. Granted, it’s an acquired taste, and since I don’t share his fascination with de Sade, my use for it is very limited. But that doesn’t mean the movie lacks a point and a purpose. The horror content becomes clearer near the end, as it involves human sacrifice; the movie is also somewhat ambiguous as to whether it’s really happening or all a dream. At any rate, like it or not, it does appear to be one of Franco’s touchstones.

THE EYES BEHIND THE STARS (1978)
aka Occhi dalle stelle
Article 3348 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-29-2010
Posting Date: 10-14-2010
Directed by Mario Gariazzo
Featuring Robert Hoffmann, Nathalie Delon, Martin Balsam
Country: Italy
What it is: UFO conspiracy movie

A photographer and a model encounter UFOs and are kidnapped. Reporters and police investigate. A secret group tries to cover up the story.

I like the title; it has a nice poetic feel to it. It’s a pity that the movie itself is a dull and tired affair. It’s one of those movies that I like to place in a special subset of science fiction movies that are primarily of interest to those who firmly believe that we have been visited by UFOs constantly over the last fifty years but, due to a government conspiracy, all knowledge has been suppressed. This movie is pretty much a sop to that outlook, and the minute the brutal cover-up group known as the Silencers shows up, I saw this turning into a typical conspiracy thriller with the usual ending, and that’s just what it is. I’d say the movie is a downer, except saying that would imply that the movie engaged you enough to get you emotionally involved in the first place, and such is not the case. There are much better UFO and conspiracy movies out there.

THE EVICTORS (1979)
Article 3347 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-28-2010
Posting Date: 10-13-2010
Directed by Charles B. Pierce
Featuring Vic Morrow, Michael Parks, Jessica Harper
Country: USA
What it is: Horror thriller

During World War II, a young couple moves to a farmhouse in Louisiana so that the man will have a job that will make him too valuable domestically to be drafted. However, the house has a history of violent death somehow tied to an eviction fourteen years earlier that turned violent.

I don’t mind the deliberate pacing of this horror thriller, though a horror movie that goes on for almost twenty-five minutes before it even hints that it may be a horror movie is bound to turn off some people. I also really like the strong period and regional flavor of the movie. And, as a thriller, it works well enough for most of the movie. The movie loses steam near the end, though, as it starts relying on plot twists that tie the action to the somewhat muddled and confusing opening eviction sequence. Then it tries for one final twist which is especially hard to swallow, partially because there’s no logical reason for it and partially because it’s hard to believe that someone would go for nineteen years without replacing a broken pair of reading glasses. It’s supposedly based on a true story, but count me among the dubious.

THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)
Article 3346 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-27-2010
Posting Date: 10-12-2010
Directed by David Lynch
Featuring Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft
Country: USA
What it is: Biography of a deformed man

A noted doctor rescues a hideously deformed man from a freak show. But can this man ever hope to have a normal life in his new environment?

This is one of those movies that always brings tears to my eyes when I watch it. Granted, that’s one of the intentions of the movie, and occasionally it tries a little too hard to jerk the tears; there’s a number of lines and moments that would benefit from a bit of rewriting and careful pruning. Yet these moments don’t damage the movie as a whole because there’s something so compelling in the way that the movie tries to get us to understand and empathize with John Merrick and what his life must be like having been born with such extreme deformities. It makes sense that he might himself weep when the doctor’s wife treats him with courtesy; the idea that a pretty woman might treat him this way after all the others have run away screaming may be unthinkable to him. No, the movie doesn’t turn away from the darkness or difficulties; we have moments where the doctor ponders his own morality in his use of John Merrick, and even when the actress visits Merrick, there is a real awkwardness to the meeting that makes one wonder whether the she herself is questioning her own motives. And the lower class exploiters (Bytes and the night porter) are never very far away. Mel Brooks of all people was an executive producer, albeit uncredited, and this would be the second full-length movie made by cult director David Lynch; it would prove to be one of the real anomalies in his oeuvre.

As a final note, I always found it interesting that the stage production Merrick attends near the end of the movie seemed more like a compendium of special effects than a real-life stage production. It was only watching it this time that I realized that we were seeing it through Merrick’s eyes, and it made me wonder what it would have been like had I never seen a movie in my life but was then allowed to see one and only one; I wonder how my memory would have recorded that experience.