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Show 4 sees us puzzling over the Lament Configuration in Hellraiser: Bloodline, then listing, cross checking, and double copying Peter Greenaway's The Falls before we round off with a healthy dose of hairspray, opulence and egotism with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
A great show guys, and a fantastic selection of films.... I might just check out the Hellraiser film, even though I fell out of the series with the third film. I first saw Cliver Barker's original not long after it came out on video - I must have been 11 or 12, and at the time I thought it was the dirtiest thing I'd ever seen, with a perversity that really impressed me. Looking back on the film now, I wish Barker had gone further with the S&M thing and made it a heavier film. I really had no idea the series had gone so far in terms of sequels - the breaking point for me was with the third film's CD cenobite character, which was more ridiculous than I could take... Incidentally, I have a copy of Douglas Winter's hefty Barker biog The Dark Fantastic, which I must get around to reading one of the days. Clive Barker seemed like the Great White Hope of Horror lit when he first came on the scene, but his direction into the realm of fantasy seemed to put a stop to that - I really never heard much about him after Imajica...
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Jim's approach to The Falls - it's one of those very rare films that can be dipped into at various points, and whenever I revisit the film, maybe once a year, it feels like seeing the film for the first time - such is the density of information, there's always a new set of references, allusions and puns to ponder over. I definitely think the film is designed to be an enigma, despite the sheer volume of information at hand, some things are simply unknowable. Brian Eno once said that he always faded his music out because he liked the idea of music being infinite, that the music didn't end, it just went beyond the range of hearing, and with The Falls, I like the idea that there could be thousands of other Falls films out there, focusing on VUE survivors with names beginning with a different set of letters. The short films included on the BFI sets are great too, and it's fascinating to see Greenaway constructing the Tulse Luper mythology even as far back as the late 70's films. The level of invention is really quite extraordinary. Have you guys seen Rembrandt's J'Accuse, the companion film to Greenaway's 2007 Nightwatching ? It's very much in the vein of The Falls, as Greenaway investigates the various references and subtexts that Rembrandt layered his famous Night Watch painting. Fascinating stuff. Jim also mentioned John Cage - Greenaway's 1983 documentary Four American Composers, a portrait of Cage, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk and Robert Ashley, is well worth seeing, if a little hard to find these days. Sky Arts shows the Philip Glass segment from time to time but not the others. By the way, did Phil say there was some Pink Floyd on The Falls soundtrack ? I had no idea....
Cheers for the insights Wes and I completely agree with your sentiments about Hellraiser's wasted potential. That oldest of tests; time, is a harsh critic without mercy. I'd be really keen to read Winter's biography on Barker - he's someone I only really know vaguely threw scraps and snippets of the media. Certainly his theatre days sound fascinating and hanging around with Coil must have been quite the experience. Personally I've always had a lot of time for Nightbreed and consider it to be an underrated gem, not without it's flaws, but for sheer joyful creativity I think only Guillermo Del Toro has come close with his troll market in Hellboy 2 (intriguingly a world that sits parallel yet unseen next to our own).
ReplyDeleteI have indeed seen Greenaway's J'accuse, and you're absolutely right in that he approaches and executes his investigation with the same glee that he displays on his commentary tracks, which is a pleasure indeed.
I have the Four American Composers documentary; alas it lies amongst the towering piles of unwatched films that loom and rise like a digital Tower of Babel. But this is definitely a priority.
And as for Floyd on The Falls, I found out about it via this amazing resource (Biography 29): http://petergreenaway.org.uk/fallsmusic.htm
That's an amazing resource Phil many thanks... Jugband Blues in The Falls... a song I know really well - how did I miss this one ??
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