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Reviews
Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)
Visually Stunning Crapola
Perhaps two stars is cheating what strengths this film had--I did make it all the way through after all. But perhaps that was only because I did enjoy the lighting, cinematography and the often stunning images and felt that it HAD to all go somewhere. Where it ultimately went, well, was just embarrassing. I have seen many glacially paced films, generally eastern European or Asian "art" cinema (the audiences in these cultures must have much more patience than the average American viewer.) However, this film moved more slowly than anything I have previously seen. Conversations, when they occurred, were protracted to the point of inducing hypnosis: a dialog which might transpire in a minute in real life was stretched to ten minutes; and then the words were most often softly slurred so as to necessitate the use of the subtitle button. Really, grass grows faster than the pace of this film.
There was a vague plot to be cobbled together, but figuring this out did not offer the satisfaction that a good "puzzle" film does. A project of a psych institute went bad, producing a spent, suicidal founder, a monstrous fellow who disguised his features, and a telekinetic near-mute girl. And the monster fellow was seriously and sickly fixated on the girl. OK, it doesn't really matter.
I have to think that the only way the filmmaker could get this thing distributed was to add to the s-l-o-w but visually fascinating main film with a more conventional horror/slasher ending. And so the psychedelically colored, arty, shifting setpieces suddenly turned, in the final minutes, to a conventionally filmed, sharply focused scene of a chase, culminating in the random appearance of two imbecilic stoners around a fire, coincidentally situated just between the monster-man and the mute waif. Thus the monster man chose to deal with these hapless assholes before confronting the waif. Gimme a break! I suppose that while the foregoing hour and a quarter had been an homage to Kubrick/2001 style and pace, the ending was an homage to a typical cheesy 80's slasher chase.
Does pasting those totally different elements together make any sense?
No. And neither does enduring the film.
There is a similarity of the images to those experienced under psychedelic drugs like LSD or a strong phenethylamine. Does this suggest that one under the influence of such drugs might enjoy the visuals? NOT RECOMMENDED! "Enjoy" would be the wrong word: someone tripping to this film would most likely have an intensely and excruciatingly bad trip.
Panic (1963)
British film noir with a beatnik hipster spin
This is a pretty entertaining movie, proving that the Brits were capable of film noir in the 60's. It has an interesting beatnik/jazz-era vibe more associated with late 50's US films. While it leans toward melodrama, particularly the acting of the beautiful lead actress, it stays true to film noir with its very dark behaviors and outcomes and a pervasive hopelessness. High contrast B&W (or is it just a cheap Sinister Cinema print--but thanks anyway, guys, for making this available!!), jaunty camera angles and nightmarish city images keep it interesting. (Side note: thru Amazon, many obscure noir and thriller titles, probably all public domain, are available in bare bones prints by Sinister Cinema for $8.99 each, a bargain for those interested in such fare.)