A Reflection on the Films of Johann Schwarzer.
It's not every day you can sit down and watch the entire existing body of work of a prolific director. Today, I managed to do that with Johann Schwarzer, the Austrian director of nudie films. In their day, these would have been wildly scandalous softcore pornography, while today they simply play like strange little views into a different time and place. Apparently, Schwarzer was very proud of his films, insisting they were…
Entire generations of Mexican kids had their brains forever warped by this movie, and I am jealous of them in ways I cannot describe. If the only copy of this online didn't look like complete garbage, I would show it at film club. Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters isn't exactly good in the traditional sense, but it's way too much fun to be bad. I grinned ear-to-ear the whole time.
This could have gone on forever and I would have kept watching.
Bravo, Marty.
This is gonna need some time for reflection, and maybe [edit: definitely] another watch. But it’s basically the culmination of Scorsese’s entire career, even if it isn’t his best film (and that’s the part I’m not sure on yet).
I sobbed in the back of the theater. Heartbreaking.
The Films of Martin Scorsese
I'm tempted to try and guess at Scorsese's motivations for this film, but don't want to try to dig too deep and get things wrong. Over the last week and a half, since I first saw the film, I've listened to him speak about it in a dozen interviews, and I've simply come to the conclusion that he obviously felt compelled to make it because America's first sin (greed) bothers him. This, of course, puts…
