Fatal Femme: Park Circus Guest Picks

 

Loved writing this - got to pick my favourite 'Fatale Femmes' for Park Circus in the lead up to Halloween.

There are so many characters to choose from but I think these women needed a special mention.

You can read the full list HERE.

Neo Noir: In the Cut

 Back in 2017, I wrote a peice for Curzon Film Blog about Jane Campion's films and the Female gaze. Through each of Campion’s films, the characters are exposed at some point in the stories and experience moments of pure pleasure, even in the more innocent of love stories. They show that women can feel these emotions and that it is perfectly normal for women to discover and live out their fantasies. They aren’t glamourised or suffer the notorious ‘male gaze’, the characters and films are an erotic exploration of the female soul. This is what makes Campion such a unique and championing filmmaker.

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Although perceived by some as a film that yielded to the typical genre tropes, In The Cut can also be viewed as challenging film noir’s exploration of female sexuality. Frannie (Meg Ryan), a high school English teacher who collects memorable quotes, pretty phrases and dark words, finds herself embroiled in a dark and seedy world of crime after a young woman is brutally murdered. 

Frannie goes through a period of self-discovery and erotic encounters with a police officer working the case. This break from her ‘normal’ shakes her to her core, but despite the danger she knows she is walking into, she is drawn like a moth to a flame into this new world. Frannie is seen as an object of desire by one of her students and then by Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) who is taken with her after a couple of meetings; but unlike the femme fatale character in most film noir stories, Frannie is not so easily swayed, she isn’t led by her need for men but instead her want for sexual contact. Ultimately it is her curiosity that leads her down a dark path, but Campion makes Frannie her own hero and even has her draw blood to save herself.

For more #noirvember & #NeoNoir follow @little_sister_filmnoir

This is an exact from a post first posted as in 2017

Noirvember: The Killing

 

“You like money. You've got a great big dollar sign there where most women have a heart.” – Johnny Clay, The Killing, 1956

 

Before The Shining, before A Clockwork Orange, before Lolita, (named) one of the most influential directors, Stanley Kubrick adapted another story for the big screen. Film noir The Killing, based on Lionel White’s novel Clean Break wasn’t the first feature film Kubrick made but it is the one that caught people’s attention. A heist movie with a group who don’t know all the details, only what they need to know was a heavy influence on Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. The opening sequence of The Dark Knight also paid homage to The Killing with The Joker wearing a very similar mask to the one Johnny Clay wears during the heist.

 

Newly released from prison, Johnny Clay plans to do one last big heist and start a new life. He decides to rob the racetrack on the day of a featured race and ensembles a group of men who need the money for various reasons. Amongst the group is a corrupt cop and a couple of employees from the racetrack itself. Clay also enlists the help of a wrestler and rifleman to provide distractions on the day. The only one of the group to know everyone and the whole plan is Clay to avoid accountability. Everything seems to be in place but betting teller George’s spoilt viper tongued wife Sherry finds out about the heist and the money at stake and sets about making her plans.

 

Like all of Kubrick’s films, The Killing is unlike his others, apart from Killer’s Kiss, which is also a film noir. The film’s unique storytelling is shown out of sequence revealing what each of the gang members are doing and where they will be next. The overbearing voiceover was not originally part of the film and was only added when the studios insisted claiming an audience wouldn’t understand what was happening. It’s a shame that Kubrick’s narration free version won’t ever be shown. This feels as if the filmmakers underestimated their audience. The characters that make up the group each have their own strength and role to play in the grand scheme of the heist. Looking for the familiar film noir genres traits, they are all there, including Marie Windsor’s femme fatale who betrays her husband. But there are no happy endings to be found, nothing is that simple. The film ends on murders, a mishap and an over stuffed suitcase with an incident at the airport being quite unexpected.

 

Although the film performed poorly at the box office upon its initial release, the film lived on to critical acclaim, being named of the greats of its genre.  The Killing doesn’t ‘feel’ like a Kubrick film but something the director made because of his curiosity, which we can appreciate now and in the future. 

 

For more #noirvember, follow @little_sister_filmnoir

 

This was first posted for Check the Gate at the Prince Charles Cinema

Let's Play!

Park Circus are doing what they do best, celebrating classic films. This month their attention has been on films that embody the theme of 'play'.

When we think of ‘playful’ cinematic films, what could be more playful than two desperate out of work musicians, Joe and Gerald, who witness a mob killing and got on the run disguised as women. Of course, Billy Wilder’s classic comedy is much more than the premise. With fun, fast laughs and jazz, real hot, the fact that Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are dressed as their counterparts Josephine and Daphne is only the surface.

 Men dressing up as women has been a comedic play in many a film, but what sets this film apart is the details ranging from the stereotypes such as the perverted old millionaire who sets his sights on Daphne or the mobsters who hide their weapons in interesting places to the ridiculous, involving ice being dropped, causing an emergency stop of the train. In fact, one the most playful elements of the film is when Joe dresses up as a man again, but this time, he’s an emotionally stunted millionaire, in an attempt to seduce Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), singer of the all-girl jazz band. It’s strange to think a man dressed up as a woman but dresses up as a man is the oddest delight in the film’s narrative.

Celebrating its 60^th anniversary, the film stands the test of time through its comedic timing, performances (especially Lemmon) and heart, whether its broken, beating or bruised. Despite being a film ‘of its time’ it can still be watched through a modern lens with appreciation, because, well, ‘nobody’s perfect’. 

For a more in depth look at 'Some Like it Hot' have a read of what I wrote HERE.

Getting back in the water

You know the music, imagine that as you read this before you check out the latest post by Ben Flanagan and myself which can be read on the Cineworld blog HERE.

Thanks to Park Circus, who is bringing the original Summer blockbuster back to the big screen. Check out where ‘Jaws’ is showing HERE.

See you on Amity Island film fans!

@ParkCircusFilms

 

The Strange Love of Kubrick and His Bomb

My first collaboration piece, written with B.P Flanagan, thanks to Park Circus and Picturehouse is up on the latter's website.

With the release of Kubrick's 'Dr Strangelove' back in cinemas, we write about the film, the climate at the time of release and about Matt Wells' short film centered around the now iconic film.

Whether you're a fan of the film, never seen it or debating a second watch, have a read HERE.

@ParkCircusFilms

If You Go Down To The Woods Tonight...

...You're sure of a big surprise.

 

Cult films used to be honoured over time and thus given the status of being ‘a cult hit’. But the trend in aiming to make a film that already demands to be ‘a cult film’ has increased in the last decade, films usually involving blood, gore, killer soundtrack and a thin plot. But ‘Mandy’ is different, it has a not so subtle or secret weapon, it has Nicolas Cage.

Set in 1983, Logger Red lives in the middle of a forest with his fantasy artist girlfriend Mandy. They are content with their quiet reclusive lives until they are attacked by A sinister deformed LSD hooked biker gang and an evil hippie cult who’s leader, Jeremiah, who has become obsessed with Mandy after seeing her in the woods. After Mandy is brutally murdered, Red, left for dead, gathers weapons and goes out on a blood soaked rampage into the forest, seeking revenge on the cult and the biker gang.

  

The film exudes an unsettling atmosphere throughout and never really leaves you, not even after the film ends. The use of glowing red and purple light creates the sense that what you’re seeing, isn’t real, it’s a fantastical world where evil things happen. The use of demonic imagery grounded in reality, such as the bikers, stretches the idea that high doses of LSD made them this way when really daily doses of a high concentrated version of the drug would surely kill you. But in this fantastical world, evil creatures like the bikers exist alongside the outwardly human cult members. The feels like a novel, split into chapters with clear-cut good and evil characters. Its fantasy elements also prelude to later events, with a smell of magic in the air. The final shot of the film even resembles a cover of a book of that genre. Fierce orange toned moons looming over the desolate forest, it sends chills down your spine.

 

Nicolas Cage is on top form and has several new scenes he can add to that screaming show reel on Youtube. The character of Red is a perfect role for him to play with. With less dialogue than characters such as Jeremiah, Red is a man of few words and his actions speak volumes more than anything he says. The bloody violence is also something a grizzled actor like Cage can handle and he wields his homemade axe well. Although Andrea Riseborough’s Mandy is the film’s namesake, she only really appears in the first half of the film but with unearthly present, long hair and jet black eyes, she leaves a lasting image with Red as well as us, the audience. 

Co-written and directed by Panos Cosmatos, the film at times does feel like death metal band’s music video but throughout, the story seems to be as if it was lifted directly from the pages of a dark fantasy novel, similar to the one Mandy reads in the film. The imagery alone is enough to have a field day of analyzing what everything means, but at the same time can be rationalised that this isn’t one long LSD trip. Thanks to Park Circus, I was lucky to see the film screened in Union Chapel, with similar lighting used in the film, red and purple, it felt as if we were being immersed into the film, a perfect setting to see this story unfold.

 

Mandy is no doubt a ‘cult film’ in the making. From the font used in each chapter, the ethereal presence of Mandy after death, the demonic evil cult and deformed bikers to the soundtrack that is somewhat over powering but still manages to keep order. The film is a horror that is evokes fear and disgust but it also has a few laughs, but its Nicolas Cage so what would you expect? 

 

 @ParkCircusFilms