The Heights Theatre along with Take-Up Productions is proudly presenting the British noir classic Peeping Tom from famed director Michael Powell. The film is now known for killing Powell’s illustrious career due to its graphic and disturbing images of a serial killer who films his victims as he kills them. The film was so reviled by critics, that Alfred Hitchcock decided not to screen Psycho for them because he was so worried his film would receive the same treatment and kill any chances it would have to find box office success.
Some time ago I reviewed this now legendary film, and while I found it fascinating, the film is harmed by the fact that nearly every thriller has blatantly cribbed from this rather impressive source material, neutering the film to some degree compared to its modern counterparts, yet the film still is unquestionably a must see film for those who appreciate thrillers. Tickets are just $8 and there will only be one showing this upcoming Monday so make sure to make the time to see this fascinating film.
Peeping Tom
The Heights Theatre
January 25th
7:30 pm | $8
And the blockbuster season begins not with a bang, but a crappy X-Men film. Huzzah!
As for those of you brave souls who want to try something besides this week’s must see movie, there are some interesting films being released, though my favorite is easily Michael Caine’s latest, Is Anybody There? Far darker and morbid then I imagined, the film opens with a boy tape recording the sounds of a man dying and then continually listening to it, the film is not the old man bonding with young boy film that it is being marketed as. Besides the off kilter storyline, be sure to pay attention for the outstanding cinematography. Great use of negative space and using depth of field, it is truly one of the more artistically shot films of the year. As an extra added bonus, their is a guillotine scene that is worth the price of admission!
As for DVD releases, the big name is clearly the Criterion release of Benjamin Button, which I’m sure will be a fabulous disc from one of the premiere specialty DVD companies working right now. But outside of that release there isn’t a whole hell of a lot coming out, but I do have my eye on a small French supernatural thriller, Écoute le temps. Focusing on a woman (Émilie Dequenne) who’s mother was recently murdered, she returns to her home and begins to discover that their may b a connection to her mother’s murder and past events that occurred in the home. The trailer doesn’t give much away, but I’m all for seeing a French ghost story, especially after the overload of Asian ghost stories these past few years.
While mainstream theaters are being deluged with mediocre films, here in Minneapolis we have a few Independent films being released that look very interesting. First off is Frederico Fellini’sAmarcord, which is getting an exclusive re-release at the Lagoon. And while I’ve heard it is fantastic, the film I am even more interested in viewing is Everlasting Moments, the Swedish film perhaps best known for being submitted for Oscar consideration over Let the Right One In.
DVD releases are a bit drier as the mainstream films are almost universally awful, so the weight of the week falls upon the foreign film releases. Of course the big name release is Slumdog Millionaire, but make sure to keep an eye out for the French thriller Tell No One and the Spanish time travelling genre film TimeCrimes.
After reading a recent review of the Independent film Shuttle by Star Tribune film critic Colin Covert, I may or may not have challenged his sanity and his sobriety in this post. But in an effort to be fair I decided to attend the film anyways and see if Colin actually knew what he was talking about. The result?
I’m sorry to say that Colin Covert, film critic for the Star Tribune, and self-proclaimed “SANEST MAN ALIVEEEEE!” was right, Shuttle is a decent little thriller that does more with its premise then a certain recent big budget film that had a similar low brow concept and rode it to a $100 million American Box Office take.
It helps that Shuttle takes a truly absurd premise (an airport shuttle driver kidnaps his 5 passengers all while driving) and milks it for all it is worth and that the two primary leads, Tony Curran (Red Road) and Peyton List (Mad Men) are actually talented actors. Curran in particular is someone who really should be better known, and if you haven’t watched Red Road make sure to as soon as possible. It is a masterpiece.
Oh sure the film has plenty of holes and numerous continuity errors, but the plot whips along and the actors totally sell their roles. The film isn’t whip smart by any means, but it is performing at a level far greater then would be expected of such low grade fare. As an added bonus, the ending is fantastic and really helps drive home the film. Shuttle isn’t great art, but it is a pretty nice genre flick.
But make no mistake, even if he was correct in this instance, I’m still not sold on Colin’s sanity.
One of the real pleasures of running this site is it provides an easy excuse for me to continue searching out Ozploitation films. Ozploitation (a shorter, cooler term for the huge amount of films that fall under the umbrella of Australian exploitation cinema) is unique among exploitation film making for two primary reasons. The first is the sheer length of time in which Ozploitation were popular.
Starting in 1971, when Australia first introduced the R ratings, Ozploitation films quickly caught on and were made well into the 80’s. And while the “genre” took a brief rest during the 90’s, in recent years Ozploitation has once again reared its stylistic head to become one of the driving forces behind current Australian film making. While exploitation cinema was big for a time in the 70’s in the US, and various countries have dipped in the New Wave pool, that Australia has produced nearly two and a half decades of exploitation cinema is impressive to say the least. But what might be even more impressive, and surprising considering the quality, is that barely anyone has noticed. Which brings me to my second point.
Barely anyone knows anything about these films. Oh sure everyone and their mother knows Paul Hogan, Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman, all three of which got their careers jump started by Ozploitation films. Directors like Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford have dabbled in the American mainstream with success, but outside of that small lot the exposure of Australian film making is surprisingly light. Let alone heralded.
Oh sure the occasional Mad Max film would catch the general publics eye, but compared to the now iconic look of blaxploitation films, Ozploitation isn’t even given a first thought, let alone a second. The same can be said when Ozploitation is compared to other 70’s exploitation genres like women revenge flicks, or women in prison flicks, or Nazi women prison revenge flicks. Or heaven forbid these Australian films had to go up against Mexican midget wrestling pictures. They simply weren’t even a blip on the public’s radar, which is a low down dirty shame.
As I’ve been researching Ozploitation films I frequently ran across the usual band of lauded suspects; George Miller, Philippe Mora and Brian Trenchard-Smith are all frequently mentioned as the best known filmmakers operating within the genre. But time and again I ran across a name who, despite his relative lack of notoriety, was routinely referred to as the best filmmaker in the genre. This man was considered so talented that he was even frequently compared to his more “artistic” contemporaries like Weir and Fred Schepisi. He is even referred to as the Australian Alfred Hitchcock, due in no small part to this director’s obsession with Hitchcock films, though for the purpose of this review I shall call him a poor man’s Alfred Hitchcock. The director’s name? Richard Franklin.
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