Part 3 of Brett Watches Too Many Criterion Films! Let's get started, shall we?

World on a Wire, part 1 (1973): The first half of a two-part sci-fi miniseries for German television, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. This was his only foray into sci-fi, and much like Godard’s Alphaville, it’s one with no special effects or built sets. Fassbinder shoots modern Germany in an eerie, foreign way to MAKE it look futuristic, all flat surfaces, glass and mirrors. His obsession with shooting through reflections and glass surfaces got on my nerves, as did the stiff acting and weird unexplained things happening, but it kept me locked in the entire time. It feels heavily influenced by the work of Philip K. Dick, with the plot revolving around a virtual reality simulator filled with unique personalities and the protagonist’s own reality being called into question. Part 2 is sadly not on Hulu (yet), so I haven’t gotten to finish it. As frustrated as I was the whole time I was watching it, I was still really into it and hope to get to finish it soon, one way or another.

Kuroneko (1968): An incredibly good old-fashioned Japanese ghost story. The opening is pretty brutal, with no dialogue at all until ten minutes in. Beautifully shot, surprisingly erotic, with a story that’s actually pretty moving and a dizzying conclusion.

Godzilla (1954): Not on Hulu Plus, I finally got my hands on the Criterion bluray, but it still counts, right? I don’t even know what to say, this is another classic, the start of a franchise that I’ve been a fan of all my life. The first half or so of the movie does a great job of building tension, with Akira Ifukube’s score being used very sparingly. We’re hit with a lot of reports of ships sinking in the ocean, shots of footprints where Godzilla stomped through a tiny village, but the first two sightings of the monster himself are nothing more than that. No attacks, just brief, frightening appearances before he slinks back into the ocean. When he finally faces off against the military and proceeds to smash his way through Tokyo, it’s pure, bleak carnage. I realized that the ending of Pacific Rim actually lifted quite a bit from this, which is interesting. If you’re even remotely interested in kaiju films, you need to see it.

Jubilee (1978): You know, I have a lot of friends who are more deeply into punk culture than I am, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of them talk about this movie before? John Dee summons the angel Ariel to show Queen Elizabeth I what the future of her kingdom will be: a burnt-out England ruled by punks. Lots of people from the early punk scene are in this, including Adam Ant before he blew up, which of course means the soundtrack is also great. Fantastic visuals, too. No real plot, the movie mostly just follows a gang of women with names like Amyl Nitrate, Chaos, and Mad, as they roam around London killing and fucking whoever they like. The movie just meanders from one scene to the next before deciding to abruptly end.

L’Avventura (1960): This is where an attempt to expand my horizons and push my limits basically faltered. Italian cinema in general is a little beyond me, I didn’t like 8½ and have been unable to get into any of Fellini’s other work. Even giallo movies don’t work for me most of the time, I don’t know. But I nevertheless watched L’Avventura, considered a classic, and…yeah, it didn’t work for me either. I can see how it was so significant when it came out, the way it follows no set structure, has no particular message or argument to make. A woman mysteriously vanishes during a pleasure cruise, and her fiancé and best friend wind up falling in love with one another as they search for her. It’s beautifully shot, and Monica Vitti is intoxicating as Claudia. Her face is unlike any I’ve seen before, unearthly gorgeous, and seeing her, hair swept by the wind, crossing the volcanic island in search of Anna, with its sharp rocks and steep cliffs is a compelling image. But once they left the island, I started losing interest, and just never quite got it back. I’m surprised I even managed to finish it. I guess between this and my distaste for French New Wave, I’ll never be a True Film Snob.

Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell (1968): Probably deserves an award for best film title ever. After practically falling asleep during L’Avventura the night before, I knew that the next movie I would watch had to be something with teeth, something short and mean. Goke does not disappoint. The movie’s runtime is 83 minutes, it hits the ground running and doesn’t slow down until it reaches its grim ending. Tarantino ripped the opening shot from this movie (an airplane flying through blood red skies) for Kill Bill, though it’s a shame he didn’t also throw any faces splitting open with silver goo pouring out into the movie. After being pelted by birds and almost hitting a UFO, the plane crashes in a rocky, mountainous area. Tensions are high enough as it is with the survivors not being terribly fond of each other before the crash, and things get worse when one of them, an assassin, gets his body taken over by a mercurial alien slug thing that turns him into a vampire. It’s wild, low budget madness, imaginatively shot, and the dramatic score even includes a theremin. I love it, and I HAVE to own it. It’s part of a 4-film Eclipse set, and while I wasn’t too into the X From Outer Space, the other two movies (the Living Skeleton and Genocide) look like a lot of fun, so I’ll probably watch them next.

Next time: those other two horror movies I just mentioned, possibly more Kurosawa, and another misguided attempt to expand my horizons probably.