Rewatched 17th March 2025
I had seen Billy Wilder's late era film long before the Karina Longworth/You Must Remember This podcast series for 2025, a compelling one which got me back into the podcast itself, called The Old Man is Still Alive which covered the late careers of classic Hollywood filmmakers. This and Fedora (1978), both I had seen if Fedora now becoming obscure to access in the UK again, were films I was lucky to see ahead of time…
Viewed 17th March 2025
I was hoping for a bit more with Valentin Merz's At Night All the Cats Are Black, just for that cool title, but also as a film which promised a mix of genre cinema, drama and nods in the promotion of this film to Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Weerasethakul is one of my favorite directors and also suggesting an unconventional attitude to tonal, genre and pacing choices, which places a lot of promise on this Swiss production. I…
Watching this, I realise the 1) Italian genre cinema deserves as much praiseas being great cinema in craft and that 2) Enzo G. Castellari needs to be placed in the higher tier alongside the Fulcis and Bavas. He feels like a working director, not an author of his work, and he has some inconsistent films in what I've seen, but he needs more than a cult status behind him. This is good already, don't get me wrong, as it lead…
Ah, has it really been four years since the last documentary? The last box set for the first documentary has sat proudly in my DVD case, then suddenly a new chapter appears with the addition of two extra discs on Section 3 films, which I even made a list for - letterboxd.com/coheed/list/video-nasties-section-3/ - and I can add the new set side-by-side with the original.
In terms of the documentary, its your standard structured work in the genre, although I'm significantly…
