THE CREMATOR (1969) by Juraj Herz and THE DEVILS (1971) by Ken Russell
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Reviews for THE CREMATOR:
“It’s an unforgettable film, a danse macabre executed with punctilious neatness, only to catch you unawares and whirl you into the mouth of political and pathological madness.” – Johnathan Romney, Film Comment
“The transitions are brilliant; they disorient the viewer in the seamless way we move from scene to scene, often not knowing until a moment or two has passed that we are in a different location and timescale… The frequent use of fish-eye and wide angle lenses, coupled with fantastical narrative leaps depicting the protagonist’s internal thoughts and quick-cut close-ups are often breathtakingly beautiful.” - Martin Unsworth, Starburst
“Blending the blackest of gallows humor with disorienting expressionistic flourishes—queasy point-of-view shots, distorting lenses, jarring quick cuts—the controversial, long-banned masterpiece The Cremator is one of cinema’s most trenchant and disturbing portraits of the banality of evil.” - Criterion Collection
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Reviews for THE DEVILS:
“It is a film that practices what it preaches, seeming to express the very depravity that it condemns. Such a reading is narrow-minded of course, and The Devils’s satanic wildness is but a by-product of its artistic exploration. The film at times borders on the ludicrous and laughable, but never fails to shock.” - Max Fedyk, Medium
“Director Ken Russell’s urgent masterpiece is overwhelmingly sublime, confronting standards of representation with its many disorienting contrasts: the sacred and profane, the spiritual and material, the sexual and repressed, the beautiful and abject. Russell’s many sensory assaults invite a passionate response, but his layers of history, literary theory, and intellectual critique fuel the picture just as imperatively.” - Brian Eggert, Deep Focus Review
“The Devils may have proven too controversial for mainstream audiences over fifty years ago, but the political messages are far more evident when viewed through a modern lens. Russell goes to extremes to make his point, but that just hammers the point home even harder.” - Ben Miller, Cinema Scholars
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[Peter]
October is horror month, and to quote Count Floyd of SCTV fame, “A-woooooooo! It's skeeery, kids, skeeery!" Our trio of movies this month all come from Europe and are of an older vintage, but that doesn’t mean that any of them have lost any of their power to confuse, disturb and offend modern audiences to this day.
We will start off on Oct. 19th with a double bill of movies that were banned almost immediately upon their original release. THE CREMATOR (1969) is considered a masterpiece of the Czech New Wave, a film directed by a Holocaust survivor whose titular character is a veritable portrait of smarmy creepiness and (in my opinion) one of cinema’s most memorable depictions of an average man’s descent into evil. (And it serves as an odd counterpoint to ENTER THE VOID, in the sense that it is an example of how to absolutely not interpret The Tibetan Book of the Dead.)
THE DEVILS (1971) was the unhinged creation of Ken Russell, who at the time was Britain’s directorial enfant terrible and who adapted Aldous Huxley’s historical treatise The Devils of Loudun into a salacious feast of a movie that somehow walks a fine line between campy comedy, biting political satire, and outright religious blasphemy. (Special shout-out to Vanessa Redgrave, who gives the performance of a lifetime.)
On Oct. 26th, we will conclude our sojourn in the cinematic netherworld with POSSESSION (1981), which…I don’t even know where to start with this one. Take THE WAR OF THE ROSES, ALIEN, and a John Le Carré novel, throw them in a blender, and leave everything in the hands of a Polish director (Andrzej Zulawski) for whom the phrase “Kieslowski on cocaine” immediately jumps to mind. Oh my, we will have lots to discuss this month!
You can watch THE CREMATOR on the Criterion Channel, or at the following link:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8oscfy
You can watch THE DEVILS on the Criterion Channel, on Shudder (where you can sign up for a free preview), or alternatively at the following link: https://vk.com/video653173939_456240724
Happy (oops, I mean scary) viewing!