The best movie I saw in 2008

It's that time of year again when film critics work themselves into a frenzy and give us their Best and Worst Movies of 2008 lists. Now, I'm at quite a disadvantage when it comes to cobbling together any kind of Best/Worst list because my wife Sarah and I haven't seen enough movies that would "officially" qualify for 2008 release. In light of this sorry state of affairs, I'm picking only one movie as my "best" of 2008 and that's The Fall.

It took like four years to make and was shot in practically every country in the world except for the United States even though, funny enough, a majority of it is supposed to take place during the early days of Hollywood. Anyway, I love everything about this movie, plain and simple. If I really loved a movie, I could maybe watch it two or three times in a given day. The Fall I can watch all the live long day and not get tired of it. It has everything you could ask for in a movie -- it's beautiful to look at, you laugh, you cry, you see stuff you've never seen before. It's amazing.

One thing in particular that I love is the way the movie implies that the creator of a story, any story, has a commitment and a responsibility to the characters they create as if they were living, breathing human beings. It's somewhat of a gross oversimplification of one of the themes that the director, Tarsem, either consciously or unconsciously put into the movie but, regardless, I still find myself thinking about it, in that context, even months after first seeing it. I'd also like to add that Catinca Untaru, she's the little Romanian girl that plays Alexandria, is absolutely wonderful, and cute as a button to boot.

So, that's it, that's my favorite movie of 2008 as of this writing. You never know though, maybe one of these days Sarah and I will actually watch a movie made after 1975 again. Sorry about that Angel.

Carnival of Souls (1962)

You ever have one of those days where you feel like you're out-of-sync with the rest of the world? People aren't just passing by, they're passing through.

Around 1960 director Herk Harvey decided to make a movie about that feeling. While driving through Salt Lake City he drove by an old, abandoned amusement park. This was the seed that would bear the fruit that would become his one and only masterpiece, 1962's Carnival of Souls. Harvey directed hundreds of industrial and short-films for the Lawrence, Kansas-based Centron Corporation. Carnival of Souls was his one and only feature. It was, ironically enough, the only thing he ever did that wasn't produced by Centron. It took less than a month to shoot, cost almost next-to-nothing, and, other than the lead actress (the absolutely amazing Candace Hilligoss), the movie is populated with local "actors". What an astonishing movie it is.

Carnival of Souls is all about atmosphere. Horror movies from the early 1960s had an uncanny knack for being eerie, especially if they were Italian and directed by some Mario fella (more on that someday soon in an upcoming blog). You can punch holes in the story until the cows come home, it doesn't matter. Story isn't our main concern. What's important here is the feeling that something's wrong. You know something's off but you just don't know what it is.

I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the movie's beginning, shall we. Mary Henry and a few of her girlfriends are out joyriding in when suddenly they're challenged to a race by some young male whippersnappers. What's a carload of young females to do? The race is on! Just as it's getting good Mary and her friends crash through the side of a bridge and into the murky, cold water below. Cops arrive, people search, no bodies are found, dead or otherwise. Hours pass by and there, on a muddy ridge, suddenly appears the eerie, ghost-like visage of one cold, wet, and trembling Mary Henry. She's the only survivor.



We catch up with Mary presumably days later just as she's packing up her life and moving to Salt Lake City where she's got a new job playing a church organ. That night, on the desolate road, Mary passes by the abandoned carnival (Utah's real-life Saltaire Amusement Park). She feels a sudden, ghost-like pull to the carnival yet she has no idea why. She's never driven by it before, never even heard of it. Yet, there it is, beckoning her. Here's where Mary comes face to face with this guy...



Mary spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out why this ghost, ghoul, zombie, whatever he is, is always popping up at the most unexpected times and ruining what fragile little semblance of a social life she's managed to cobble together for herself. This is where I stop talking about the plot because, well, A. I don't want to ruin it and B. I find writing out plot synopses pretty boring. You really want to know what happens? Watch the movie.

Now, you're probably asking yourself "hey, that sounds pretty good. Where can I get me one of them?" Well, you're in luck. The Criterion Collection released an absolutely gorgeous print of Carnival of Souls on DVD around 2000 and it's still pretty easy to find, especially if your shopping is of the internet variety. Yeah, you heard me right, THE CRITERION COLLECTION. What? You thought they just released Bergman and Fellini movies over there? Hell no! They recognize an amazing and eerily beautiful horror classic from the early 60s when they see it and so should you.

Bob Clark's Deathdream (aka Dead of Night)

You might not know it but you're probably a huge fan of director Bob Clark already. You know that little movie you end up watching about two or three times every December, A Christmas Story? Yeah, that's one of his. What about Porky's? Ever hear of that one? Sure, who hasn't. That's one of his too. He also directed my personal favorite Sherlock Holmes movie, Murder By Decree (1979). Clark also did something else, something he rarely ever gets credit for. He directed two of the greatest horror movies of all time. The first was the incredibly-ahead-of-it's-time and immensely influential Black Christmas (1974). The second, shot in 1972 but not released until 1974, was Deathdream, aka Dead Of Night, aka something something.

Deathdream is, to my knowledge, the first movie to deal with the Vietnam war in any way, shape, or form, a full four years before either Coming Home or The Deer Hunter. Clark's movie doesn't deal specifically with the war itself (Vietnam is never mentioned). The movie instead focuses mainly on the war's aftermath and how it affects not only the soldier that fought in it but also the family he comes back to. In Deathdream, our soldier's name is Andy.



The movie opens with Andy and his platoon marching through a forest at night. As Andy and his platoon glide silently through the wilderness they're suddenly ambushed. The camera pans and swivels wildly as bullets zip through the silent night. Andy is hit. As he lays there struggling to stay alive he is shot again, this time at what appears to be point blank range. Suddenly, over the soundtrack, we hear a woman's desperate voice, praying. Andy's mother is pleading with God to bring her son back home. As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.

Andy does indeed come home, but he's not the same person he was. He spends most of his time alone in his room with the lights out, slowly rocking back and forth in an old rocking chair. Andy's mother (the amazing amazing amazing Lynn Carlin) sees nothing whatsoever odd about Andy's new behavior, she's just elated that he's back home. Andy's father, on the other hand, slowly but inevitably sees otherwise.



I know, doesn't really sound like a horror film, does it? Well, that's because there is nothing like Deathdream. It's sad, it's depressing, and it most definitely IS a horror movie. I first saw it when I was about six or seven years old and never forgot it. The final image of Andie at the cemetery as he quietly bangs his hand against his self-made tombstone as his mother craddles his limp, zombie-like body in her hands, is a tour-de-mother-fuckin'-force of a scene. One of the absolute best, most affecting endings I've ever seen in a movie.

Nowadays, most people know of Deathdream (if at all) as being the first movie Tom Savini ever worked on. Alan Ormsby (who also wrote the script and makes a cameo as the chatty bystander outside the doctor's office) actually did a lot of the make-up work himself, just like he did on his first collabaration with Clark, 1972's Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. It's a testament to his awesomeness that, to this day, the make-up work he did on Deathdream hasn't aged a single bit. The scene of Andy rising up from the back seat of that car, his face bone white, blood around his eyes and mouth, remains absolutely terrifying.



Richard Backus up there plays Andy. His performance is subtle, quiet. When we finally see the monster he's become we're shocked, yet we feel pity for him too. John Marley plays Andy's dad, Charles. You might not know his name but I'm pretty sure you know who he is. Jack Woltz ring a bell? No? Godfather? Horse's head? Yup, that's him. As powerful as that scene in The Godfather is I NEVER associate John Marley with that role, he'll always be Andy's dad from Deathdream to me. As I mentioned earlier, Lynn Carlin is Andy's mom and she is SO good in this movie. Every scene she's in makes me want to cry. She's best known for her Oscar nominated role as Maria Forst in John Cassavetes' Faces from 1968 yet, again, she'll always be Andy's mom from Deathdream to me. Yes, I agree, the diner cook and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the diner drunk probably could've been handled better. Their comic-relief just doesn't feel right. Nonetheless, it's a small thing and doesn't really take anything away from the greatness of the movie itself.

In 2004 Blue Underground released Deathdream on DVD and it's really beautiful. The extras are really cool (I really wish that they could've included the longer opening, if it's even still around) and the interview with Backus is really informative and entertaining. Gotta love that grin!

So, Deathdream is typical of what I want Ciné à la Mondo to be all about. A place you can come to read about movies other than Iron Man or Twilight. Don't get me wrong, I loved Iron Man (I even have the Blu-ray shaped like his head), and I haven't seen Twilight yet (really liked the first 100 pages of the book though) but if you really want to read about those movies I'm sure you can find quite a few places around the net or in print that'll help you out. Not that Ciné à la Mondo won't be touching upon mainstream cinema at all but just don't hold your breath waiting for a thousand word write-up on Transformers 3 anytime soon. Sorry.

Until next time...stay fuckin' sick.