Thursday, August 13, 2009

Rollators, Scottsdale, Az.

Vampire . The vurdalak family of Alexei K. Tolstoy



distant cousin of Leon and multidisciplinary writer, Alexei wrote these two short works in full swing in mid-nineteenth century Europe in favor of the vampire myth, or vurdalak, as it is called in the Slavic tradition. After the short introduction
symbol novelization by Polidori, the fever for the character extended its tentacles across the Atlantic, and so to this day. For Tolstoy, the two stories, separated only in its implementation for a few years corresponding with the transition from vampire story between Gothic fashion - The vampire - that is, between how classic horror story, and modern narrative - vurdalak The family - which will reach its final expression Stoker's Dracula and eventually the myth and fully inserted into the celluloid in the last century.

The first of two stories is relatively concentrated structure in the manner of Potocki and his Manuscript Found in Saragossa, and the aroma of the works of Ann Radcliffe, where horror becomes no more than incidental and where turbulent situations, mysterious and supposedly terrifying end up merely absurd misperceptions or misunderstandings. Although unlike in the novels of the great lady of the Gothic less taken, in Tolstoy's vampire is still room for ambiguity, for the event yet inexplicable. Aims to advocate the grand guignol , but still remains in the dark of flashing cartoon comedy and lightweight. Even so, remain for posterity the caustic atmosphere of Sugrobina old mansion, where they end up developing all matters of the heart and blood, with that cast of characters and occurrences between the decidedly bizarre and grotesque.



Very different is "vurdalak family." Set in rural Serbia and inhospitable, it is a wonderfully disturbing and modern adventure, in which the protagonist describes his experience as host of a farm family where the patriarch after the departure of it, triggering the most diverse events that will lead to an unstoppable corruption in the heart of progeny, the victim of an indelible stigma and the most pressing food needs.
The house, surrounded at a certain point of a hungry brood willing to cross the barrier that separates him from his prey, not only refers to genre cinema at its most current version of vampire, but, thanks to its refined and refined description reminds us of the most memorable zombies frames, George A. Romero ahead. Not to mention the movie directly inspired by its pages and its meager but crucial narrative vein as The Three Faces of fear or that giallo, The Night of the Devils. Being a much shorter story than the first, but it is also much more agile and sweeping, real touchstone of successive plots and subplots of contemporary terror.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Vince Makes Trish Strip

unknown Lady (Robert Siodmak, 1944) Ana LĂșcia



Along with the classic "The Spiral Staircase" and the underrated "Through the Looking Glass, this is one of the most successful teacher supplies Siodmak. Based on the novel by William Irish, one of the authors robbed of literature-detective-in movies and, of course, never as appealing as the self-titled, "The unknown lady" benefits, however, a pristine plot architecture, and a perfectly crimped almost imperceptible crescendo succeed as its nearly ninety minutes of footage, to crown one of the masterpieces of the forties.

of how to prove an alibi as he has just committed the murder of the wife of the accused, and the inability to achieve (it is true that here the actor who plays the accused, although innocent, lacks credibility on its own intrinsic , both their role as their own interpretation, being by far the worst of the film), and how his selfless secretary will land, sea and air to give the key witness, a mysterious and troubled woman and thereby stop the inevitable sentence hanging over your head. Siodmak precisely affects speech at the anonymity of the unknown female showing it in the first minute with his back to the camera, emphasizing the unreachable and misty air of the character.



Among winks to the myth of "Mad Love", the murderer and the hands that can not handle, and classicism rather than sober black, this film makes for good performances retina (Ella Raines above all) and, above all, flawless scenes of pure anxiety (especially under the short-term marking witnesses, as the sequence of the subway in New Jersey, captivating atmosphere, that of the jazz band , obsessive and never derivative) and in general, a domain of the script almost insuperable, and filling seamless, compressed and accurate. The power that it presupposes only the largest.