After directing more than fifty feature films including the three-part New York Stories (1989) with contributions from Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese and the re-edited/re-dubbed version of a Japanese spy thriller retitled, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966), Woody Allen has one of the most impressive filmographies of any living director in Hollywood. Regardless of what you think about him as a person due to the controversy that surrounded his marriage to adopted stepdaughter Soon-Yi Previn, one can’t deny all of the critical acclaim he has amassed over the years, which includes 24 Oscar nominations, three of which won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay (Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris). Not all of his films have been box office hits and some have been minor efforts or polarizing like September (1987) or Deconstructing Harry (1997), but the true acid test for any fan or critic who loves Woody Allen movies is Stardust Memories (1980), his most misunderstood and generally maligned tenth feature about the downside of being famous.
Continue readingTag Archives: Suspiria
There’s No Place Like Home
Spanish director Eugenio Martin is not a name familiar to the average American moviegoer but for fans of European genre films, he has developed a cult following over the years, thanks to the release on DVD and Blu-ray of some of his better known titles. Among these are the fast-paced, enormously entertaining sci-fi/horror/train disaster hybrid Horror Express (1970) with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas, the giallo The Fourth Victim (1971) starring Carroll Baker, and A Candle for the Devil aka It Happened at Nightmare Inn (1973) in which two religious fanatic sisters are behind a series of murders. Martin also helmed several entrees in the Spaghetti Western genre such as The Ugly Ones (1966), Requiem for a Gringo (1968) and Bad Man’s River (1971) featuring Lee Van Cleef, James Mason and Gina Lollobrigida but some of his efforts defy easy categorization like Aquella Casa en las Afueras (English title: The House on the Outskirts, 1980), which is like a woman-in-peril melodrama crossed with an “old dark house” thriller. Throw in some unspoken but implied social commentary on women’s birthrights and you have a rather unique film from post-Franco Spain.
Continue readingCult of the Arachnids
By the mid-1980s the Italian film industry was in a state of major decline. The glory years of the fifties and sixties were now fondly remembered footnotes in the history of world cinema and even the popular film genres – giallo, poliziotteschi, spaghetti western and horror – were near the end of their heyday. There were still a few determined stragglers such as Tinto Brass with his fetish based erotica (The Key, Miranda, Snack Bar Budapest) and Enzo G. Castellari, who soldiered on with formulaic hybrids like 1990: The Bronx Warriors, Tuareg: The Desert Warrior and Striker. But the horror genre, in particular, was suffering with masters of the macabre Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento trying but failing to top past high water marks like The Beyond (1981) and Suspiria (1977). It was during this downward trend that Gianfranco Giagni made his directorial debut with The Spider Labyrinth (Italian title: Il Nido del Ragno, 1988). Continue reading

