Von Trier’s Antichrist Morbid but Far from Mundane

©2009 Zentropa Entertainments23 ApS, Zentropa International Köln GmbH, Slot Machine Sarl, Liberator Productions Sarl, Arte France Cinéma, Memfis Film International AB, Trollhättan Film AB, Lucky Red SRL.

Throughout much of human history, the forest has always been considered a place of danger and foreboding and in Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist,” fear of the forest takes on a whole new level of anxiety and shock.

While He (Willem Dafoe) and She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are having sex, their young child falls from a window to his death in agonizing slow motion all the while Handel’s “Lascia ch’io pianga” plays in the background.

He, who happens to be a psychotherapist, agrees to council his grief-stricken wife with the caveat that they move to Eden, their cabin in the woods.

At first, a gaunt and perpetually bony She substitutes sex for grief throughout much of “Antichrist” but as they both discover, sex is never the antidote for grief especially when it comes to losing a child.

Acorns and trees become objects of dread as do the sounds of the forests which become more and more horrific as She spirals into a deeply imbedded madness.

A constant droning sound similar to that in David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” becomes synonymous with dread.

In one scene, a more sinister version of Mr. Fox from “Fantastic Mr. Fox” tells He that “chaos reigns” which is true in most Von Trier films but so what?

Later, HE reads She’s diary with its incomprehensible writings peppered with motifs suggesting witchcraft and a complete devolution which opens a window into the ravings of a lunatic.

As proof, She asks He to “hit her until it hurts” but when He hesitates at first, She exclaims that “You don’t love me.”

More “Eraserhead”-like music provides the eerie backdrop to fornication in the woods and in a woodshed where She (in a fit of rage) makes a failed attempt at copulation with her husband.

©2009 Zentropa Entertainments23 ApS, Zentropa International Köln GmbH, Slot Machine Sarl, Liberator Productions Sarl, Arte France Cinéma, Memfis Film International AB, Trollhättan Film AB, Lucky Red SRL.

Instead of moving on like most normal couples, She clobbers He in the groin with a piece of split wood rendering him unconscious.

In a “Misery”-esque moment, She takes an antique wood drill, pops a nice hole in He’s leg and immobilizes him by attaching a heavy weight to the leg.

“Antichrist” seems to give new meaning to the phrase: Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn.

After regaining consciousness, He attempts an escape by crawling through the forest where he fights off a raven that wants to make a meal of his leg.

At this point, one almost hopes a giant tree limb would fall on He, She and the entire Von Trier production crew such is the sense of intense, ultra-violent psychosis in this film.

The biggest mistake here is not moving out to the country cabin to heal but He’s insistence on acting as his wife’s psychotherapist which comes into alarmingly sharp focus as She plods through the woods screaming “Where are you, you bastard?”

The level of pain and suffering in this film are on such a massive scale as to almost render this film comical and beyond hyperbole such that the hyper-violence in “Misery” and “A Clockwork Orange” come to mind as being almost sophomoric.

Despite the morbid subject matter and depressing montage and script, “Antichrist” draws the viewer into a kind of morbidly weeping vortex reminiscent of a diabolical peep show.

She’s actions toward the climax of “Antichrist” are clearly meant to precipitate a type of suicide-by-cop action by her husband.

The climax itself is beyond watchable except in some countries where self-mutilation is still acceptable (spoiler alert).

Gainsbourg, as Von Trier’s bony yet electrifying muse, is as usual intelligent and dynamic in her believable depiction of a broken woman who slides into madness following a tragic loss.

Dafoe too is great in a performance that rates him high as the quintessential actor’s actor.

“Antichrist” is dedicated to the Russian director Andre Tarkovsky who may have agreed with the notion that if there is any redeeming message to be gained from this film, it’s that the ugly side of human nature has its place among all forms of human artistic endeavor including cinema, but that doesn’t mean that the ideology of art for art’s sake is for everyone.

It’s not a stretch to say that “Antichrist” may be perceived as being completely inaccessible to all but the biggest Von Trier fans but it’s also a film that the viewer can’t help but watch simply out of curiosity much as motorists slow down to view a horrific automobile accident.

Still, based on Von Trier’s catalog of films to date, I’m sure that he would be okay with that assessment.—-Steve Santiago

Bachelorette a Walk on the Wild Side

If there’s one valuable lesson to be learned in life, it’s that best friends can sometimes be your worst enemies even if they’re your BFFs.

Such is the fundamental premise of Leslye Headland’s freshman offering “Bachelorette” which is based on her well-received play of the same name.

Portly Becky (Rebel Wilson) is all set to marry the handsome but immemorable Dale and it’s up to feisty careerist Regan (Kirsten Dunst) to handle the maid of dishonor duties starting with four-alarm phone calls to high school buddies Gena (Lizzy Caplan), a smart-ass, sarcastic bohemian and Katie (Isla Fisher) a ditzy party girl.

Becky and Regan form the core of the clique but it’s only because BFF in their case means Bulimic Friends Forever.

2012 Gary Sanchez Productions, BCDF Pictures, Weinstein Company, RADiUS-TWC

Even after Becky finds out that a wasted Regan and Katie destroyed her wedding dress by trying to squeeze into it for a Facebookesque photo op, Becky can only reminisce about the times she and Regan spent in high school puking up lunch in the girls’ room.

Much raunchier than kindred chick flicks like “Bridesmaids” or anything starring Jennifer Aniston, one could probably say with fair accuracy that “Bachelorette” is more like a raunchier version of “Sex in the City” meets “The Hangover.”

The “Sex in the City” similarities go right down the principals sporting the same hair color too–two blondes, a redhead and a brunette.

Headland, better known as a TV and screen writer of the soon-to-be-released “About Last Night” and “Terriers,” a 20th Century Fox Television and FX Network co-production, pulls out all the stops in the one-liner department.

As the girls frantically search for tailor to repair Becky’s dress, Headland lets loose with zinger after zinger in a script that is tight and punchy―as in punch to the gut.

Casually relaxed pronouncements using the C-word and B-word are peppered throughout the tight 90-minute romp.

A perpetually tooted-up Gena lets her cell phone go to voicemail with a greeting that prompts the caller to “Eat a d**k.”

Katie overindulges at the reception and gradually spirals into a drug-and-drink-induced stupor.

“I don’t know what to do around people I really like, either sleep with them or get really drunk,” she relates.

After Katie overdoses on Xanax paramedics are called.

And with only minutes to spare before the wedding and no wedding dress in sight, a frazzled Regan chastises an inflexible wedding planner who notes that the cascade of mishaps aren’t on the itinerary.

“Providing a fucked up b*tch wasn’t on the itinerary either,” Regan snaps.”It’s Manhattan on Saturday ―five minutes is like 30 minutes.”

With a goofy wedding band and an eclectic soundtrack borrowing from the classics, 80s and 90s, “Bachelorette” is blisteringly uneven in parts but in a wickedly entertaining way if you can look past the vulgar language and cancer and bulimia references.—Steve Santiago

Artist entertains but Chaplin it’s not

Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo star in "The Artist," 2011, The Weinstein Company

When I first saw “The Artist,” I couldn’t quite make out whether this film was a gimmicky effort made to appeal to a niche segment of cinephiles or a finely crafted homage to the silent era.

Directed by the relatively unknown Michel Hazanavicius, “Artist” (2011) has garnered glowing critical review including three Oscar nominations for Hazanavicius: best director, best original screenplay and best editing.

Despite that, “Artist” is still not in the same league as its cinematic ancestors: “The Passion of Joan of Arc” (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928), “The Battleship Potemkin” (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925), “Greed” (Erich von Stroheim, 1924), “The General” (Buster Keaton, 1926) and “Metropolis” (Fritz Lang, 1927) are just a handful of films from that era that should, at the very least, receive a special screening by the academy prior to handing out any statuette for “Artist.”

But with its legions of gushing critical followers, that seems unlikely to happen.

In any event, “Artist” opens with a screening of George Valentin’s (Jean Dujardin) latest silent picture “The Russian Affair” during which aside from him being tortured by a Frankenstein-like electrical device, not much else happens.

But after the screening, a starstruck fan, Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo),  accidently inserts herself into media frenzy outside the theater and is photographed planting one on Valentin’s face.

When his wife Doris (Penelope Ann Miller) sees the photo on the front page of Variety the next day, she is none too amused by both Valentin and his kooky Jack Russell Terrier, Uggie, who is trained to mimic Valentin’s pantomime.

The Weinstein Company, La Petite Reine, Studio 37

Meanwhile, Peppy Miller is ecstatic at having been photographed by Variety and decides to go on an audition at Kinograph Studios.

While waiting for her audition, she shows a butler (a bored Malcolm McDowell) the magazine cover and is dejected when he still doesn’t recognize her.

After earning a role and receiving a nod of approval from the casting director, Peppy celebrates with a Tiger Woods-like fist pump.

She then turns to a still seated McDowell and says “My name is Peppy Miller” to which McDowell wryly smiles and shrugs it off.

The Weinstein Company, La Petite Reine, Studio 37

Valentin later suggests Peppy paint a fake mole above her upper lip to attract more attention and miraculously she starts commanding better roles.

As time rolls on to 1929, sound technology comes into being and Valentin’s relationship with Doris

becomes more mundane and strained.

On top of that, Studio head Zimmer (John Goodman) screens one of the first rushes employing sound and Valentin laughs it off  as a joke.

“If that’s the future, you can have it,” he sniffs (perhaps echoing the same criticism Walt Disney received when he first proposed producing animated feature-length films).

Not surprisingly, Valentin inexplicably wakes up to an entire world using the new technology of sound only he is unable to speak, still silent and still holding on the a bygone era.

It turns out to be a Buñuelian dream from which Valentin awakens sweating and clearly disturbed― so much so that the normally outgoing actor becomes introspective on the ride to the studio at which he discovers that most of the silent actors and stage hands are gone.

Kinograph Studios has decided to halt production of silent films in favor of talkies.

“You and I belong to another era, George. The world is talking now,” Zimmerman tells a stunned Valentin.

In a matter of hours, Valentin discovers that he has gone from yesterdays box office idol to today’s washed up actor―it wasn’t possible back then to hang on for dear life by coining boorish phrases like “winning.”

Meanwhile though, Peppy Miller is winning having signed a deal with the newly reinvented Kinograph Studios.

She still believes in Valentin and eventually helps resurrect his career but only after Valentin makes one more desperate attempt at producing and acting in his own silent film which fails miserably.

The Weinstein Company 

“Artist” is an entertaining, well made and aptly researched and edited piece but the effusion of positive critique of it as something new rather than novel is puzzling and makes one wonder whether or not some critics are really familiar with the silent film canon.

Still, in addition to the categories for which it is nominated, “Artist” should probably also be nominated for best costume design, best cinematography and music score.

Everything is period correct even down to interior light switches and poster fonts.

Under ideal circumstances, there should probably be more of a push to restore original silent films and screen them at modern theaters but as they say, “every dog has its day” and if there were such a thing as an Oscar for dogs, Uggie would certainly earn my vote.―Steve Santiago

 

‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ delivers again and again

Noomi Rapace & Michael Nyqvist in 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' (2009) Yellow Bird, Nordisk Film

To say that Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a gripping crime thriller really barely scratches the surface of what is really a sweeping work of fiction that  delivers an eye-opening look at how wealth and immorality corrupts and destroys a prominent family while at the same time condemning certain aspects of modern Swedish society.

Helmed by the relatively unknown Danish director Niels Arden Oplev, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  really does have it all―sex, violence, marital infidelity, political intrigue, corporate corruption and of course numerous references to Sweden’s brief WWII experiment with Nazism.

The Girl with the Dragon  is based on Stieg Larsson’s wildly popular “Millennium series” of novels which were released shortly after his death in 2004.

All three novels in the series (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, (The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest) dissect the underbelly of 21st century Swedish society while the stark beauty of the Sweden’s countryside provides a naturally dramatic backdrop.

In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is an investigative journalist who loses a libel case involving a wealthy but corrupt businessman named Hans-Erik Wennerström (Stefan Sauk).

Despite being sentenced to three months in prison and ordered to pay thousands in damages, Blomkvist is hired by Henrik Vanger, the former CEO of Vanger Corporation, to investigate the disappearance of his great-niece Harriet.

Because Harriet has been gone so long, Henrik rationalizes that Harriet was murdered yet each year on his birthday he receives gifts of pressed flowers leading him to suspect that either it’s a joke from the killer or Harriet is still alive.

It’s no secret that Henrik deeply despises his family which only further muddies the waters of potential suspects.

“For all intensive purposes the Vanger family was made up of a thoroughly unpleasant bunch and there was a mutual hatred among us,” Vanger tells Mikael.

Girl takes place around Christmas time but there is anything but cheer and tidings of joy.

Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is a surveillance agent/computer hacker initially hired by Vanger’s lawyer to investigate Blomkvist but she believes Mikael has been set up and eventually is arm-twisted into joining his investigation into Harriet’s disappearance.

Rapace’s portrayal of the rakish, antisocial Lisbeth is brutally ice-cold yet brilliantly believable and consistent throughout the entire 152-minute film.

When Lisbeth is assaulted by a group of thugs in the subway, she manages to fight them off with a broken bottle.

And when her guardian/probation officer Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson) threatens to withhold money from her unless she performs sexual favors, she frames him by secretly videotaping her own rape.

 

Peter Andersson & Noomi Rapace (2009) Yellow Bird, Nordisk Film

                                                                                                                                

Like most modern films, product placement rears its ugly head in the form of prominent placement of Apple laptops.

But that’s not really as annoying as how it seems every time a computer is hacked, the screen displays “ACCESS GRANTED” as if that needs to be spelled out every time.

Still, Girl has returned nearly $105 million in box office which might explain why American production companies caught a whiff and decided to remake a 2011 version directed by David Fincher and starring the latest “Bond” muse Daniel Craig.

I’m also not sure how Daniel Craig, more known for his action roles, will come across as an investigative journalist although he does have an uncanny resemblance to Michael Nyqvist.

What really sets the Swedish version apart from its inevitable American clone is that in this version, the music and dialog are consistent throughout the film.

Absent is the typical American penchant whereby inaudible dialogue is followed by ear-shattering audio simply for dramatic emphasis.

The astonishing climax is reached through steady and surefooted building of plot points in a way any adult would appreciate because the editing in Girl is methodical and mature without being boring.

Early theatrical promotions for the David Fincher-helmed Girl made it seem like the film would be the next great MTV music video rather than a high-quality dramatic thriller which this film is supposed to be.

It is said that imitation is the best form of flattery but in this case you’re probably better off seeing the original.—Steve Santiago

   

‘Twilight’ saga getting soggy with ‘Breaking Dawn: Part 1’

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattison share a moment in 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 1', Summit Entertainment, LLC

Once upon a time, Hollywood  made movies intended to be seen in one sitting usually lasting 90 minutes or so.

You told a story with a beginning, a middle and an end—voilà, there’s your movie.

But toward the end of the 20th century when executives decided to establish the sequel as the preferred business model in the American film industry—and theoretically ensure a stream of income lasting years if not decades—brevity no longer equaled bankroll and all bets were off.

So it comes as no surprise that the fourth release from the Twilight machine, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, should once again prove to be a huge maybe even record-breaking commercial success.

By some estimates, the Twilight film franchise has already earned nearly $2 billion to date—equal to the entire GDP of some foreign countries.

But just why do films like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 reap huge box office receipts over and over again?

Some may argue that the story line is well written and that alone should ensure success while others may point to pioneering franchises like The Godfather, Back to the Future and Star Wars for having really perfected the model.

All of that may be true but in reality, sexy, well-dressed, young werewolves and vampires + exotic locations + an army of devoted fans ranging from tweeny boppers to cougars = blockbuster.

So with a time-tested formula in place for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1,  Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner again reprise their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen and Jacob Black respectively.

Billy Burke (Charlie Swan), Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen) and Peter Facinelli (Dr. Carlisle Cullen) also return.

This time around the fun begins when 18-year-old Bella finally chooses to marry Edward despite his aversion to the idea in the last installment, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

In Eclipse, it was Edward who insisted they wait to get married so Bella can “experience life” a little more despite the fact that once Bella decides to become one of the undead, experiencing life becomes an oxymoron along the lines of jumbo shrimp, etc…

Not surprisingly, Bella decides to forego a college education (and a career?) opting instead to marry into the classier Cullen clan over the perpetually shirtless Jacob and the Quileute wolf pack—even though it was the lovelorn Jacob who risked his life and was severely injured fighting Victoria and her “newborn” clan in Eclipse.

Alas, things finally appear to be looking up for Bella and Edward.

After a fairy-tale wedding which takes place in the forest—apparently all the wedding halls in Forks were booked—Bella and Edward nix the idea of going to a Sandals-style resort opting instead to honeymoon on the Brazilian island of Esme.

In the much gushed over honeymoon scene, it’s hard to differentiate the characters Bella and Edward from Pattison and Stewart who are a romantic item in real life.

The morning after consummating their marriage, Bella discovers she is bruised and tired as a result of Edward’s night stalker mojo.

She soon discovers that she is knocked up (surprise, surprise) with Edward’s super seed—a human-vampire hybrid capable of growing faster in Bella’s womb than her body can physically handle.

Fearing the rapidly developing fetus will literally destroy her, the couple returns to Forks and Dr. Carlisle’s sparsely staffed medi-clinic where Bella decides to deliver her spawn.

Unlike Mia Farrow’s Rosemary Woodhouse, who gives birth to a demon child so ugly she screams in fear when she first sees it, Bella gives birth to a beautiful vampire crossbreed named Renesmee.

Fortunately, director Bill Condon spares us the blood and gore of a graphic childbirth suggested by Meyer in the novel and opts for the PG-13 birth.

Commenting earlier to Entertainment Weekly, Stewart agreed with Condon in that she thought the birth scene was too tame and should have been filmed as was written in the novel but that would have earned Breaking Dawn – Part 1  the dreaded R-rating and leave hordes of  Twilight minions theoretically unable to see the film.

The richly layered lens work of Mexican cinematographer Guillermo Navarro (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Hellboy, Zathura, Pan’s Labyrinth, Night at the Museum, I Am Number Four) will certainly satisfy those seeking a “shooters” film.

Still, the sumptuous cinematography shot in Rio de Janeiro, Vancouver and Louisiana combined with the bubblegum-chewing appeal of its beautiful cast won’t be able to steer Breaking Dawn Part 1 away from its own formulaic linearity and seemingly unending storyline.

The four Twilight novels combined produce almost 2,500 pages of text while most modern versions of the King James Bible run a scant 1,280 pages by comparison.

By the time the fifth film in the series (Breaking Dawn Part 2) is released sometime in November 2012, one can’t help but wonder if this franchise isn’t morphing into what could be a made-for-television series.

Diehard Twilight fans will undoubtedly be counting the days to the next installment in 2012 but for those who would choose a good night sleep over breaking dawn (otherwise known as pulling an all-nighter to grown-ups) perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Isn’t 2012 the same year the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end?—Steve Santiago

Melancholia It’s What’s For Dinner

"Melancholia," 2011, Zentropa, Nordisk Film Distribution, Magnolia Pictures

If you’re on the fence as to whether you’ll have a big lavish wedding—don’t, otherwise you could have an entire planet crash the party and ruin the festivities.

Such seems to be the message of Lars Von Trier’s latest offering, “Melancholia” starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling and John Hurt.

The film is presented in two parts entitled “Justine” and “Claire” which at first glance would seem to suggest some sort of meaningful dichotomy but  in reality is just a single unified treatise on how depression runs in families.

At first, “Melancholia” stylistically resembles Zack Snyder’s “300” in its visual richness combined with the psychological tension of a Bergman film.

In one of the first few shots, Justine (Dunst) is seen in close up looking like she scraped herself off the sidewalk after an all-night rave party.

Next, Melancholia itself appears out of the abyss as a stunningly beautiful, benign orb while Justine floats down an idyllic stream in her wedding dress almost right out of a Tennyson poem.

As the film’s title would suggest, Justine inexplicably falls into a severe depression on her wedding night.

The reception is at a gorgeous Victorian-era mansion owned by Justine’s sister Claire (Gainsbourg) and her husband John (Sutherland).

But perhaps in a sign of things to come, Justine and Michael’s (Alexander Skarsgård) stretch limo almost doesn’t make up the narrow unpaved road leading to the mansion.

Then things go from bad to worse as Justine’s shrewish mother Gaby (Rampling) and bumbling father Dexter (Hurt) almost single-handedly derail the nuptials.

Justine and Michael share a moment

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Gaby toasts the happy couple. “I myself hate marriages especially when they involve some of my closest family members.”

With parents like that, it’s no wonder Justine goes off the deep end.

She refuses to consummate her marriage to Michael and eventually gets dumped that same night but not before she boffs her co-worker,Tim (Brady Corbet) outside on the lawn.

Meanwhile John, despite channeling Jack Bauer, goes from self-assured lord of the realm to basket case.

At first he appears to be the only level-headed character in the film but when he discovers that Melancholia won’t just graze Earth but actually slingshot back and collide, he decides to check off the planet by committing suicide.

With all the depression running amuck, it’s no wonder John forgot that his primary responsibility to his family was to provide for them and protect them from harm.

Not that he could do anything about a rogue planet impacting Earth, but he could’ve saved face by at least pretending.

“Melancholia” was beautifully lensed in champagne golds, rich earth tones and brooding blues by Manuel Alberto Claro (“Reconstruction,” “Dark Horse,” “Allegro”).

Hey, if the world’s going to end, at least everything looks pretty.

Von Trier’s choice to score “Melancholia” almost exclusively from Richard Wagner’s “Tristan & Isolde” catalog definitely sheds light on why everyone’s in a bad mood.

“Melancholia” premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival where the verbally unedited von Trier made controversial statements that some perceived anti-Semitic.

Still, Dunst (who battled her own melancholy back in 2008) won the award for Best Actress and really put in a performance not seen since her role as Claudia in
“Interview with the Vampire.”

Stellan Skarsgård sans pirate makeup puts in a fine effort as Justine’s priggish boss Jack.

“Melancholia”is a well-crafted movie that’s worth seeing on the big screen, just remember to have a big bottle of Prozac on hand afterwards.—Steve Santiago

5 Reasons Why The Rocky Horror Picture Show Still Rocks

L-R: Patricia Quinn, Tim Curry, Nell Campbell, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 20th Century Fox Film Corp.

For more than three decades, one film has enjoyed the longest run of any theatrical film release in U.S. history.

The home version of the video game Pong was released the same year as its initial debut and the U.S. National Film Registry recently gave it a nod as being historically significant enough to warrant preservation.

Yet simply showing up at a midnight screening makes it highly likely you’ll be pelted with rice and leave soaking wet— making this film the first (and possibly only) interactive movie.

But just how Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show went from British stage musical to cinematic sideshow to

international cultural icon is an unlikely mystery to many, but it did.

Here are a few theories as to why the RHPS is still cool today:

Fearless depiction of alternative lifestyles

The Rocky Horror Picture Show above anything else is cheeky expression of sexual freedom mixed into a cocktail of horror, sci-fi and B-movie comedy.

Riding the wave of the already in-progress sexual revolution, RHPS challenged the notion of monogamy and the institution of marriage notably when the newly engaged Brad Majors and Janet Weiss both end up being seduced by Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

It also celebrates rebellion against societal mores with an in-your-face verve that was new and that Americans, having always been a rebellious lot, naturally gravitate toward.

Nowadays, the “Sweet Transvestite” from Transsexual, Transylvania, as Dr. Frank-N-Furter is known, barely elicits a yawn but back in 1975 when RHPS was released, LGBT lifestyles were still largely unacceptable both on and off screen despite activism throughout large cities across the U.S.

The connection to pop music, art and theater

It’s often a matter of timing when art clicks on a large scale and RHPS is no exception.

One thing RHPS had going for it is that during the mid 1970s, Glam rock, Punk rock and Disco were all vying for the attention of countless fabulous nobodies packing American nightclubs and concert halls.

Whether RHPS was the vanguard or merely emulated pop culture is not as relevant as its success at tapping into the of-the-moment vibe notably in the areas of costume design, soundtrack and graphic arts.

At the time, the gender-bending S&M outfit worn by Dr. Frank-N-Furter and the striptease ensemble gracing Columbia and Magenta were considered risqué and daring.

Today, recording artists like Britney Spears and Rihanna borrow heavily from Rocky’s closet while companies like Party City routinely sell Rocky-inspired costumes on the Web.

Likewise, Riff-Raff’s austere butler uniform became the costume de rigueur for countless ghouls in movies like Phantasm (1979) and others that followed.

The garish art direction seen in RHPSshares an uncanny similarity with graphic art designs employed by groups like the Rolling Stones.

     “Some Girls,” EMI,Virgin, Rolling Stones Records

The Stones’ red lips graphic, the Warholesque packaging seen the in the Stones “Some Girls” album and the jacket of The Rocky Horror Picture Show LP bear a striking resemblance to one another.

The stage version of RHPS (which preceded the movie) was one of several rock-inspired musicals that dominated the Broadway stage back in the 1970s.

Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell along with The Rocky Horror Show would enjoy great box office success along with later productions like the hugely successful A Chorus Line, Raisin, Dreamgirls and The Wiz.

Original soundtrack,Rhino Records

It was well cast

More than anything else, Rocky springboarded the acting careers of cast members Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick and Meatloaf.

After his breakthrough role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Curry went on to play Pennywise the Dancing Clown (seemingly using the same makeup artist) in Stephen King’s It and later the less believable Dr. Petrov in The Hunt for Red October.

Sarandon’s performance as the milquetoast Janet Weiss would later seem like a practice run compared to her Oscar-winning performance in Dead Man Walking which was in stark contrast to her vamp-like roles in The Hunger, The Witches of Eastwick and Thelma & Louise.

Barry Bostwick parlayed his role as the wuss-like Brad Majors into a part in Weekend at Bernie’s II and a glut of TV roles most recently as Tim Stanwick on Fox TV’s Glee.

And before finding success from “Bat Out of Hell” (and threatening to beat the
crap out of Gary Busey on season 11 of  The Apprentice), Meatloaf  portrayed the forgettable delivery boy Eddie who (like the actor’s moniker suggests) gets served up as the main course of a dinner party hosted by Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

“Don’t be upset,” Frank-N-Furter quips. “It was a mercy killing. He had a
certain naive charm but no muscles.”

That’s what Gary Busey said.

But more importantly, she would go on to open the highly successful New York City nightclub Nell’s which was a huge hit with the model crowd during the 1990s.

It’s got a huge recyclable fan base

No other film encourages fans to bring their own props to showings like RHPS does.

Fans typically show up at the theater (whether it’s allowed or not) with rice, squirt guns, rubber gloves and confetti among other things.

Without this huge, ravenous fan base that seemingly transcends generations, RHPS would no doubt be unable to continue the long-distance run it’s enjoyed for decades.

Said supply of ravenous fans is largely supported by the innumerable fan sites found on the Web.

One such site, http://www.rockyhorror.com, recently listed some 84 venues worldwide where RHPS is screened.

With that volume of free advertising, it’s no wonder why RHPS keeps breathing long after its presumed shelf life.

It’s got memorable songs

Audiences love musicals mainly for the memorable songs that with the right luck often become American classics.

“The Sound of Music” and “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music immediately come to mind.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is no different.

Songs like “The Time Warp,” “Fanfare/Don’t Dream It” and “Sweet Transvestite” put RHPS on the map and kept it there but like many musicals, it has its share of bombs that make you want to go outside for a cigarette break.

“Dammit Janet,” “Over at the Frankenstein Place” and “Planet,Schmanet, Janet” easily come to mind as songs that would like find a better reception on Sesame Street than on the silver screen.

Likewise, songs like “Eddie” have a cool 1950s rock sensibility but still don’t
seem to fit into the rest RHPS glam 1970s soundtrack.

“Time Warp” though cracked the top 50 of Billboard 200 back in 1978.

But above all the other cultural references, Rocky Horror really delivers an
accurate snapshot of what was “happening” in America back then—at
least in the big cities.

Punk, Glam, Disco and the fashion trends that come with them are all represented in RHPS.

Still, what really makes The Rocky Horror Picture Show cool is that it’s a unique experiment of sorts which encourages audience participation in a way that has never been duplicated since and probably never will.—Steve Santiago

Panic in the streets

"A Town Called Panic" 2009, La Parti Production, Made in Productions, Mélusine Productions, Beast Productions, Gebeka Films,

The past few years have witnessed a resurgence of decent stop-motion animated films that are slowly but surely reintroducing the genre to audiences who may recall classics like Art Clokey’s “Gumby” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” but not much else.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the iconic “Gumby” (which for decades provided hung-over college students with fodder for papers on pop culture) and “Rudolph” (really an early PSA on dealing with bullies and marginalization) but they both needed a dusting off.

Enter “Panique au Village” or “A Town Called Panic,” an out-of-competition selection screened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Directed and animated by the Belgian team of Stéphane Aubier  and Vincent Patar, the labor-intensive, French-language film clocks in at 76 minutes and utilized over 1,500 plastic toy figures over a 260-day production period.

The plot of “Panic” is relatively simple yet refreshingly twisted:

Cowboy (Coboy) and Indian (Indien) realize they forgot fellow roommate Horse’s (Cheval) birthday, so instead of buying a practical gift like a saddle, they decide to build him a barbeque grill from scratch.

When the Bert-and-Ernie-like roommates attempt to order the bricks online, they leave a coffee cup on top of the keyboard zero key and mistakenly order 50 million bricks instead of the 50 bricks the project requires.

Thus, the panic ensues—a chain of events that can only simultaneously be called absurdly surreal and knee-slapping funny.

Cowboy and Indian complete the barbeque in time to celebrate Horse’s birthday but can’t figure out what to do with the rest of the bricks so thinking Horse won’t notice, they stack the bricks on top of the house– which of course results in the whole place collapsing.

Each day they rebuild the house and each night the walls are stolen by mischievous aquatic creatures called Atlanteans who occupy a parallel universe inside a pond owned by a perpetually agitated farmer named Steven.

When the trio discover the Atlanteans stealing the walls of their house, a chase ensues during which the three heroes get chased by an angry bear, fall down a hole to the center of the earth, get trapped inside a giant snowball-throwing penguin and eventually confront the thieving sea creatures but not before escaping a school of angry barracudas.

Rounding out the frantic village people are : Jeanine (Steven’s wife), Policeman, Madame Longray (a music teacher and Horse’s love interest) and an assortment of barnyard animals.

“Panic” was originally developed as a 20-episode series for French and Belgian television in 2003 but the idea of using animated, cheap plastic toys first came to the creators during the 1980s when the directors were art students in Belgium.

By employing a frenetic, Gumbyesque editing style and what the creators describe as character vocalizations “filled with laughing gas,” “Panic” evokes a filmic quality more commonly associated with auteurs like Luis Buñel and Jean Cocteau yet it is stylistically 21st century.

And although the TV series enjoys a cult following in Europe, Shrekkies and Pixar followers across the pond may not warm up to a film like “Panic” simply because there simply is a lot crazy stuff going that does not employ a linear narrative but then again that’s where the real beauty (and fun) of this film actually lies. —Steve Santiago

Contagion a flick without a cure

Contagion (2011) Warner Bros. Pictures, Participant Media, Imagenation

With an all-star cast and people like writer Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!), one would expect director Steven Soderbergh (Sex,Lies, and Videotape, Erin Brockovich, Traffic) to knock one out of the park with his latest fare Contagion, a film about the ease at which pandemics can spread in an age when international travel is within the reach of millions.

The problem with Contagion though isn’t with an unknown superbug, it’s more that it’s a lumbering hulk of a movie that would have played much better as a public service announcement about what people should be doing in their everyday lives as a matter of basic hygiene—covering your mouth when sneezing, washing hands often, etc…

Despite its popularity with many critics and its tagline: “Nothing spreads like fear,” (which is probably what’s compelling audiences to see it) Contagion comes off as fresh only to those who’ve never heard of the History Channel and the numerous times this plot has been featured ad nauseam on shows about natural disasters and hypothetical pandemics.

And even though Contagion is packed with a literal who’s who of stars—Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet—it makes very little use of the talent on hand and delivers even less in the form of character development.

Beth Emhoff (Paltrow) succumbs first to the virus after having travelled to Asia but not before stopping off in Chicago for a quickie with an ex-boyfriend who also gets sick and ends up dying.

Poetic justice? Maybe.

In a bid to keep his sanity (while society unravels and after losing his wife and son to the virus), Mitch Emhoff (Damon) alternates between standing on line for MREs (meals ready to eat) and peeling his daughter’s (Anna Jacoby-Heron) horny boyfriend off of her all while planning his great escape to Wisconsin of all places.

Meanwhile, a stone-faced Dr. Ellis Cheever (Fishburne) icily admits “we have a virus with no treatment protocol, and no vaccine at this time” but is more preoccupied with evacuating his healthy wife Aubrey (Sanaa Lathan) than he is with his top field investigator, Dr. Erin Mears (Winslet) who after contracting the virus is unceremoniously buried outside a hockey arena in a mass grave.

On the other side of the planet, World Health Organization official, Dr. Leonora Orantes (Cotillard) is surreptitiously held hostage by Asian villagers while mega-blogger Alan Krumwiede (Law) sips forsythia tea and wanders around London wearing a jerry-rigged hazmat helmet that looks as if it were made from the plastic covering found on some sofas.

This is the kind of film that makes me wish I owned stock in a hand sanitizer company.

Still, Contagion manages to cough up (insert laugh track here) a couple of fine performances mainly from Dr. Ian Sussman (Elliott Gould, yes that Elliott Gould from MASH) who reminds Krumwiede that “Blogging is not writing. It’s just graffiti with punctuation” and Sanjay Gupta who plays himself.—Steve Santiago

“Incendies” a conflagration you don’t want to put out

"Incendies" (2010), Micro_Scope Productions, TS Productions,Phi Group

“War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it, and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out.”

So said Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman during the American Civil War but it also quite aptly describes the underlying plot of “Incendies,” a Canadian film released in September 2010.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve and adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s play “Scorched,” “Incendies” literally translates from French as “fires” and delivers nothing less than a film characterized by epic brutality and terror counterbalanced by moments of human sweetness, empathy and sacrifice.

At a reading of their mother’s will, twin siblings Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette) are puzzled by her seemingly mad requests.

Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal) insists on being buried face down, without a coffin and sans a headstone.

The twins always thought their mother had a screw or two loose but never really knew why.

When Nawal requests through notary Jean Lebel (Rémy Girard) that her children deliver two letters—one for a brother they never knew and the other to a father they presumed was dead—Simon walks out in disgust.

At first only Jeanne makes the trip back to the Middle East but once she starts piecing together who her mother really was—a student turned freedom fighter, assassin and later tortured political prisoner—Simon agrees to join her and find out the truth about their mother.

Although not directly stated in the film, “Incendies” takes place during the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990 during which up to a quarter million people were killed, over one million people displaced and Beirut, once regarded as the “Paris” of the Middle East, was destroyed.

Director of Photography Andre Turpin adroitly captures the vastly vacant, dusty landscapes of the Middle East with an uneasy beauty that avoids turning this film into a travelogue.

The horror of war is particularly brought to the forefront during a scene in which a bus carrying Arab travelers is ambushed members of a Christian militia who at a checkpoint riddle the bus with gunfire and torch it.

“Incendies” is a film that keeps driving forward like a wild herd of mustangs until delivering its unbelievable climax.

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011, much of “Incendies” takes place during a period of war yet is not about war per se, but about how war and cruelty destroy the human soul and strip it of its brilliance and beauty.—Steve Santiago