Enemy at the Gates

I was in the mood for a war movie so I watched,

Enemy at the Gates (2001).

This movie is set in the Battle of Stalingrad and follows a young soldier turned sniper, Vassili (Jude Law) as he goes from a nobody to a heroic figure thanks to the propaganda created by his friend Commissar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes). Soon enough the Germans send their top sniper Major König (Ed Harris) to hunt him down in the torn apart ruins of the industrial city.

That is the story in a nutshell. We also have Rachel Weisz as Tania Chernova, Bob Hoskins as Khrushchev and Ron Perlman as Koulikov. Enemy at the Gates is directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud who also directed amongst others The Name of the Rose and Seven Years in Tibet.

First off I want to point out that the movie does many things that are not true. In the beginning, the Soviet troops are sent in to fight, but only every other man gets a rifle. This never happened. Ammunition could be incredibly scarce, but they never sent their troops into battle without weapons. There are other things like bombers flying way to low to the ground, the fact that it is not winter in the movie, but the real Battle of Stalingrad was blanketed in an unusually cruel and hard winter. There is also apparently no German records of a Major König, though it is proven that Vassili (who was real) did kill several highly skilled German snipers.

There are many errors like that throughout the movie, yet it doesn't really matter that much. Enemy at the Gates is two hours long and somehow it didn't feel that long. Annaud has done something special in this movie, and I'm not really sure what. Yes, the actors are really good and both Law and Harris were cast specifically because they are so good at acting with their eyes. The music is fine, and very reminiscent of other movie scores, but I can't say what and from where, but throughout the movie I had a strong feeling that I had heard the score before.

The movie itself is beautiful, which is weird to say about a war movie, but the way it was created is stunning. The ruins, the bombings, the masses of people all feel so real. Sure it is often panicking civilians or the dead and wounded, but the first thing a war movie needs to work is a sense of realism, and Enemy at the Gates has that in spades. The romance subplot between Law and Weisz is likewise realistic and quite sweet. Perhaps it is in the balance of the story that the genius lies? When the war part risks getting too overwhelming we get friendship or romance and when that starts to get a bit stale, we are back to the war.

My biggest complaint is the lack of actual sniping. The back and forth hunt between Vassili and König is incredibly tense and exciting, but there is a surprising lack of people actually getting shot. Being such a huge fan of the Sniper Elite games, I was hoping for more, but you get what you get. Although I'm 100% sure the developers of Sniper Elite has seen this movie several times since I found scenes and scenery that is incredibly close to scenery I have traversed in those games.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, I do. Fans of war movies that haven't seen it should see it, and even those who aren't that big on the genre could like it. Unlike other war movies I have written about, this movie has a solid arc, character development, and though I can't state that the movie has anything to really say, it has a story that makes sense. I won't go so far as to say Enemy at the Gates is a great movie, but it is solid and worth two hours.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Portrait of God

This week I want to do something different. While idly browsing Reddit, I came across a brilliant horror short, and I really want to spread it around. It is made by Dylan Clark who seems to have a few more, but I haven't seen any beyond his Portrait of God.   

So enjoy this awesome short horror piece and hopefully you will join me again next time. Until then, have a great and safe week!

Dylan Clark's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@dylanclark/videos

The Stone Tape, Not a Stone's Tape.

After having been told about this movie I watched;

The Stone Tape (1972).

Written by Nigel Kneale, the creator of Professor Quartermass, and directed by Peter Sasdy who also directed one of my favorite Hammer Horror movies, Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), The Stone Tape is a British made for TV horror movie.

A research team in the field of electronic recordings moves into a renovated old mansion in order to really be able to concentrate and come up with the next great recording medium before the Japanese eat the entire market. The team's computer programmer, Jill Greeley (Jane Asher) encounters a ghost in a stone chamber and very soon almost all others in the team also witness the apparition. The team lead Peter Brock (Michael Bryant) realize that the ghost might actually be a recording of events past rather than an undead creature and the team gets very excited. But, since this is a horror movie, things inevitably go wrong, very wrong.

The Stone Tape is a typical old school British science fiction / horror product. It is well made, the actors are excellent, and the story is good. The effects are sadly a bit underwhelming, either due to financial reasons or time constraints. But for what it is, I have no real complaints.

The story is the main selling point. Like with his other creation, Quartermass, Kneale does good work blending science and supernatural. Unfortunately, they don't have time to really get to grips with the concept, and the movie feels pretty rushed. All the relevant parts of the story are told, nothing is left hanging, but the plot has room for so much more. This is one of those cases where a well produced mini-series would be perfect. The idea that ghosts and maybe other things can be recorded and played back by something in the environment is tantalizing, but we don't really get much here. It is incredibly refreshing that we don't waste half the movie with no one believing the initial witness with accusations and counter accusations flying back and forth. The Stone Tape does feel rushed but that also means that it doesn't waste time.

If I have to nitpick something, there is a subplot, if you can even call it that, with another team lead who researches futuristic washing machines. He wants to also move his team into the mansion, something Brock is vehemently against. This “subplot” really adds nothing to the movie, but it also doesn't take anything away. Also, The Stone Tape isn't really all that scary for a horror movie. It has good atmosphere, yes, but it is really tame for a horror movie.

Fun fact. The Stone Tape made a big impression on John Carpenter who used it as inspiration for his Prince of Darkness (1987). Kneale wasn't impressed by this homage and wrote in The Observer; “For the record I have had nothing to do with the film and I have not seen it. It sounds pretty bad. With an homage like this, one might say, who needs insults?” Chill, Kneale. A bit harsh there, don't you think?

So, do I recommend The Stone Tape? Yes, I think so. It could be a good intro for someone who wants to get into horror but isn't ready for anything too heavy. Beyond that, it is a slick little production with a fascinating story that does deserve more, but is also good for what it is.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

The Perfume of the Lady in Black

I decided on a shot in the dark and watched:

 

The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1974).

 

Directed by Francesco Barilli and starring Mimsey Farmer (Four Flies on Grey Velvet) as the main character Silvia Hackerman.

One could be forgiven for thinking this is a Giallo, but it really isn't. It is Italian and made in the 70's, but it is a thriller/horror movie. There are few to none of the classic Giallo tropes in Perfume.

Silvia is a successful young manager at a chemical plant with a nice boyfriend, Roberto. She does however have a lot of anxieties that sometimes make her hard to deal with. We learn that she had an unhappy childhood, with an absent father in the navy or merchant marine (I'm not sure which). Her relationship with her mother was not good until the mother died while Silvia was very young.

Silvia's life starts getting stranger and stranger and soon enough she starts hallucinating, seeing her mother and others in such vivid imagery that it drives her into a panic. And this is where the movie shines. One could perhaps say that The Perfume of the Lady in Black uses an unreliable narrator, but that would be wrong. An unreliable narrator lies to you, while Silvia herself doesn't know what is real and what isn't. The movie might be lying to us, but Sylvie herself isn't.

Weird things keep happening, with mysterious things appearing in her apartment when she is out. A vase in a shop window vanishes and the owner swears she has never had such an item, only for the vase to appear in her home gift wrapped. It reminded me of the psy-ops the East German secret police, Stasi, used to unnerve and break down people they were after.

Little by little, Sylvia starts to break down, and this paranoia is felt by the watcher every time a person greets her, smiling politely only to stare after her with inscrutable suspicious glances. Some things can only be hallucinations and other things must be real since there is no way Silvia could know about it, unless she imagines things. Ultimately it is very difficult to know what did or did not happen. It could be a story about a mentally ill young woman, or a story about a victim of a sinister conspiracy. The wonderful creepy almost non-musical soundtrack really helps and the actors all do a credible job to create a really strange and creepy atmosphere.

I won't of course spoil the ending but I did not see it coming. In a way, everything makes sense by the end but you could be forgiven for believing that none or almost none of what happened took place.

The Perfume of the Lady in Black is a confusing movie that takes slow burn to a new level, but it had to. In order to slowly ramp up all the mysterious happenings, it needs to show you what is normal first. Some have compared it to Rosemary's Baby, and I can see why, but that isn't totally accurate either. The Perfume of the Lady in Black is it's own thing and you have to deal with it as it is.

So, do I recommend The Perfume of the Lady in Black? Yes and no. I had a great time in the end, but there were several moments when I was asking myself “What am I watching?”. I think it was worth it, but you have to be prepared to watch a really slow, strange film. If you are, go for it, otherwise watch something else. 

 

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

The Island of the Fishmen

It's time for some old school horror with;

The Island of the Fishmen (1979).

Fishmen is directed by Sergio Martino who's work has been featured on this blog before, most recently Torso (1973). It stars Barbara Bach, Claudio Cassinelli and Richard Johnson amongst others.

First off I need to point out the oddity of the US release which is the one I watched. It is called Screamers and was released under Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Corman added a new fifteen minute long beginning that has a hard time meshing with the rest of the movie.

So in the beginning we learn that the year is 1891 and a couple has come to the island to look for a legendary treasure. Soon the fishmen arrive and kill everyone in extremely gory ways. That's it.

Then the real movie begins. A small group of prisoners have survived a shipwreck together with the ship doctor. They wash up on the unnamed island where most die off quickly. The doctor and two prisoners soon meet the master of the island, Edmond Rackham (Johnson) who is very clearly the villain of the movie. He lives in a mansion tended to by a group of natives. We also meet Amanda Marvin (Bach) who takes a bit of a shine to the doctor. The relationship between Amanda and Rackham is a mystery at first but all is eventually explained. The eponymous fishmen lurk everywhere, killing where they can, and it is here we get the biggest disconnect between the new intro and the actual movie. I mentioned the heavy gore in the intro and that is nowhere to be found anywhere else. No one gets their head ripped off anymore, instead a light scratch across the face is enough to kill. I don't need the gore, but why add it in such a large amount if the movie isn't that bloody? Makes no sense to me.

Over all, The Island of the Fishmen is much more adventure than horror. Once you get to know more about what is going on, the horror essentially disappears and you are left with an old school adventure movie, and that is pretty awesome!

Unfortunately I can't explain anything more about the plot without ruining it, but this is an underrated gem of a movie. Yes, the effects are a bit cheesy, and the dialogue is a bit cheesy, in fact, it could be called The Island of the Cheesemen, but that is also the movie's biggest charm. It is a kind of innocent adventure movie with some pretty decent horror elements, sprinkled with a little bit of romance.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes I do. It works well within its budget, the effects are decent enough and the acting is fine. I found the movie on a list of Lovecraftian horror, and superficially it fits, but The Island of the Fishmen is its own thing and oozes with silly pulp action charm. If that is your cup of tea, then watch this movie.

That is that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

The Lighthouse is pretty heavy.

I crossed another movie of my to-watch list:

The Lighthouse (2019).

Written by Robert and Max Eggers and directed by Robert Eggers, this strange, weird, downright odd movie stars Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattison and Valeriia Karaman. The entire cast is ten entries and that includes Sully Seagull who actually is a seagull.

The Lighthouse is shot in black and white, on 35mm Double-X film that requires a lot more light than normal film. This creates some very vivid shadows and does wonders for the atmosphere. It is also shot on an aspect ration of 1.19:1 which is the same that was used in the early days of the talkies, and used by early directors like Fritz Lang and George Wilhelm Pabst. This was intentional to heighten the old-timey feel and to increase the claustrophobia.

The story is set in 1890 off the northeastern cost of the US. Two lighthouse keepers, veteran Thomas Wake (Dafoe) and newcomer Thomas Howard (Pattison), arrive to spend four weeks on a desolate rock in the cruel Atlantic. We quickly get a feeling that something is wrong, a feeling the only increases with every passing scene. Wake, as the senior is very demanding and assigns all the harsh physical labor to Howard. The one thing he insists on tending to is the light itself, turning very aggressive when Howard asks to go up to the top. A great part of the movie follows Howard as he struggles through his duties, becoming increasingly frustrated from day to day. Since Howard is the point of view character we practically sit on his shoulder as he suffers from day to day with his work, his sexual frustrations and what are probably hallucinations. I say probably, because we don't really know for sure. There is an element of unreliable narration, but not just against us. It also concerns the characters.

Most critics have labeled The Lighthouse a horror movie, and I don't disagree, but one critic stated that this movie is too odd to pigeonhole, and I absolutely agree with that. It is at times grim, brutal, gloomy, shocking and even funny. Time and time again I asked myself “what am I watching”, but at no time did I want to turn the movie off. It is absolutely brilliant, but as much a fever dream as it is a movie.

Robert Eggers has stated that "it's a movie where both Jung and Freud would be furiously eating their popcorn", and I can see why. I'm by no means a psychiatrist, but the psychology is clear for all to see. From the suggestive shape of the lighthouse to the complex relationship between the two men, I can absolutely believe that statement. Another huge influence on the movie is Greek mythology, mostly Oedipus and Prometheus. If this sounds extremely weird for a movie about two lighthouse keepers, or wickies, you would be right. It is odd, but it works!

The reason it works is two fold. On the one hand, The Lighthouse is incredibly well shot. Every scene is amazing in composition, shape and lighting. On the other hand these two actors act their hearts out. Both Dafoe and Pattison are incredible in this movie. Dafoe is often a bit odd in his roles but Pattison goes up to Daniel Day Lewis levels of acting and there were times when I had to remind myself who was actually on screen.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, I really do, but not to everyone. You have to be able to sit through 1h49m of sheer insanity that not only gets worse and worse but almost drags you along with it until you aren't really sure what is up and what is down. If that is alright with you, than watch The Lighthouse as soon as possible.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week! Oh, and stay away from old lighthouses.

 

Finnish Humor.

Today I have a trio sampler of the Finnish comedian Ismo Leikola and his observations about the English language. This wasn't my original plan for this week, but time, like a cat, didn't want to cooperate. Oh well, at least these videos are pretty damn funny. They are in English as well, so no need to worry.

So without further ado, please enjoy and I'll see you next time. Until then, have a great and funny week!