HAZY LAZY DAYS/ SUMMER FILMS OF MY HEART

                                       NIGHT TIDE 1961

                                                           

 Curtis Harrington's delightfully haunting and fantastical film, NIGHT TIDE, stars a cherubic- faced young Dennis Hopper, as Johnny, a sensitive sailor who becomes entranced with Mora "the Mermaid," an ethereal woman working at a sideshow, played by Linda Lawson. The eerie sunshine filmed in black and white, occult moments complete with ritualistic dancing and a pretty accurate tarot spread, NIGHT TIDE, has all of MY favourite themes, mermaids and mysticism! The local town warns naive Johnny not to fall into Mora's curse of her Sirens heritage but of course, he refuses to believe the myth. Will he drown in her well of danger?

 

                                             DIRTY DANCING 1987

Upstate New York, beautiful but boring family vacation becomes a coming-of-age tale with all the right moves for Baby Houseman, played by Jennifer Grey. Sure, it's right out of a every teenager's diary but who wouldn't want Johnny, the one and only beloved Patrick Swayze, to free you from your parents' thumb and become a great dancer in the process, showing them all that "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!" DIRTY DANCING is iconic and parodied, the best for me was seeing "My Big Gay Italian Wedding," the famous lift done with the two male grooms at their wedding. Besides the jokes and predictable happy ending DIRTY DANCING has hilarious character actors, and a surprisingly well-handled subplot with Penny's pregnancy, played by Cynthia Rhodes. I remember this part being highly edited on television when I was a kid. Also the wonderful Jerry Orbach, the golden age of the Catskills and a killer 60's soundtrack perfect for late-night dancing. The sharp contrast/attraction between  Baby's innocence yet  protected suburban upbringing to Johnny's working class dreams that got deferred realism, DIRTY DANCING delivers a classic summer romance. Thanks for reading and enjoy turning down the lights, cranking the AC and watching the summer tales unfold!

POSSESSION 1981 ISABELLE ADJANI=SHEER PERFECTION.

YOU ARE NOT DIFFERENT FROM ANYONE ELSE. WE ARE ALL THE SAME BUT IN DIFFERENT WORDS, DIFFERENT BODIES, DIFFERENT VERSIONS. INSECTS. MEAT.

 JUST WATCH IT. POSSESSION 1981 is one of my top 10 personal favourites. A good film buddy of mine said that this would be right up my realm of understanding and boy was he right. We went into the Film Forum a few months ago when it was showing and from the opening creepy electronic piano beats and Isabelle Adjani's panicking eyes (my 2nd favourite brunette)I knew I was in for a ride. 

 

I do not know, nor wish to dissect what POSSESSION is about. I know what it meant for me to be stunned, at the edge of my seat in a dark room for 2 hours. When it was over I couldn't speak and wandered throughout the city my whole sensory body tingling. Like David Lynch says, why try to analyze an emotion? Especially when there are so many dark tremors and searing pains on the screen that the brave director ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI chose to expose in a beautifully raw, honest and terrifying journey.

A messy divorce? Berlin, West Germany/The Wall? Supernatural happenings? HATE, LOVE, BLOOD and HYSTERIA? SURE, it's all these things. And it's not for the faint of heart.Vincent Canby of the NY TIMES compared POSSESSION to REPULSION, one of my other all time favourites, but said the latter was a far better film.  Personally I feel that POSSESSION deals/plays with some of the themes of REPULSION but brings it to an entirely different level of pure shocking exposure that didn't exist on film really in 1965. I find POSSESSION strangely refreshing and new. REAL terror and fear and cruelty is depicted in POSSESSION unlike most modern horror films that are cheap pornography/butchery.

This being said, I do enjoy horror films but I hate gratuitous violence for no apparent reason. POSSESSION is extremely gory but it's balanced out with scenes/shots depicting wide desolation, sterility and coldness that was West Berlin, a perfect back-drop.

 

 Luckily, you can watch this film which is currently unavailable for us Americans without multi-regional DVD players. That's all I will say without giving away the experience..

                    http://youtu.be/R_XPJHwOsHE
 

Have you ever been collared and dragged out into the street and thrashed by a naked woman?

REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE is one of Elizabeth Taylor's last greatest performance, although I am partial to her "good bad" movies like "BOOM!" and "Ash Wednesday." This John Huston knockout from 1967, filmed in a gorgeous golden hue is taken from the eerie short story by the incomparable Carson McCullers about "a fort in the South, where a murder happened a few years ago..."

Combining the themes of repressed sexuality, voyeurism, the raw freedom of nature versus strict military discipline, REFLECTIONS reminds you of how Hollywood CAN produce thought-provoking film and entertainment thanks to a star-studded cast and a gripping story. Along with Ms. Taylor, Marlon Brando is mind-blowing as the fuming general, a young male beauty Robert Forster and wonderful actors such as Brian Keith, Julie Harris and Zorro David as the fabulous Anacleto.

Without giving away too much, this film is an audience as well as an actor's dream come true, from Marlon Brando experimenting with cold cream and weight-lifting to horseback riding in the nude, stunning cinematography and my favourite, Elizabeth Taylor, owning the screen with her potent sex appeal and perfect performance, REFLECTIONS will leave your mind reeling for days. And that's why we love movies, don't we "old sugar!"

                                                       ~ The Divine Elizabeth Taylor~

I LOVE YOU, CINEMA STYLE.

                                                        Happy Valentine's Day, Lovers!

WILD AT HEART AND WEIRD ON TOP

 

David Lynch's WILD AT HEART (1990)

Tomorrow I'll post great screen kisses from all over cinema, but for tonight, I watch WILD AT HEART for the zillionith time, to reaffirm my individuality and my belief in personal freedom! I love, quote, obsess and preach the message of WILD AT HEART and all my friends know it. This Palme d'Or winning tale of love-on-the-run road movie through Lynch's version of the Deep South never ceases to disappoint. Why you ask?

Sailor and Lula are like you and me. Young and American, broke but not broken, hotter than Georgia asphalt and praying that we all meet the Good Witch one day so she can give us some really good advice....

Sailor and Lula are eccentric eye-candy but if they cast this movie today, I bet Nicholas Cage and Laura Dern, gems in my eye, wouldn't be "attractive" enough to market. WILD AT HEART has endured as a cult favourite for years because it appeals to the average yet extraordinary. Sailor and Lula look like my friends.  Lula was one of the few heroines onscreen that I could relate to for better or worse. They are kids with sick pasts trying to make something grow and all they have is each other, their devotion, love and passion which keeps them going despite an increasingly scary world. 

As the film gets stranger and creepier, Sailor and Lula's  tender love is tested more and more and I find more parallels to everyday love issues we hear on the street. Sailor hasn't had much parental guidance and doesn't think he's good enough for Lula...

Lula loves him despite all these things and luckily he realizes a valuable lesson with the help of Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender," and that's when I lose it every single time. If I could send you a cherry Valentine pie David Lynch, I'd send you 20! Thanks for believing in the story of Sailor and Lula and reminding us to that we're only "wild at heart when we fight for our dreams."

                                               "You take me right over that rainbow, baby!"