It's been slightly more than two years since I went south of the border, when I finally went AWOL on wife and children and took the non-stop train to another part of [EDIT]... Surprisingly, the trains of SJ were right on schedule so that I could change trains in time and was spared the agony of waiting for the next transport right in the middle of purgatory...
Arriving at my destination, I was greeted by the sombre Count Weekend Horrors himself and his fearsome but trusty hound Zoltan. After a few civil conversations and reminiscing the past it was time for rare to medium kebab at the local abattoir, and we felt that it was good... Back in the Count's lair there was soon time for the first broadcast of some good ole family values:
Humbly I let my host take part in the life of the ASWANG (USA, 1993) and friends... and may I say the Count appeared to be quite impressed, indeed. But now we had passed the time for sobriety and felt the thirsty need for "wine" -- mixed and straight drinks of aged bourbon and rhum flowed in rivulets while we continued our cultural journey into the known and unknown worlds of advisory cinema.
DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (Les lèvres rouges; Belgium 1971) is a timeless masterpiece by Monsieur Harry Kümel, and though I find it so much more amazing and rewarding each time I watch it, my humble host is perhaps the film's most fervent acolyte. In any case, the dialogue, the colours, the music... and the characters (oh, how the seemingly weakest persona turns to have the most decisive part in the plot!) play a cat-and-mouse game towards the startling end of this wondrous ride; and for those who don't know what I'm telling ... well ... ;-)
So, after a few harsh and demanding units down the hatch we both felt ourselves enough softened up to take on an even more demanding task in our trekk towards the Ultimate Film of Family Values -- my Thai favourite, S.P. Somtow's LAUGHING DEAD (1989): You might not ever want to see this feature again, not in sober state, but this film is so awestrikingly laughable that it's completely life-threatening. Laughing Dead delivers one startling one-liner after the other: "She's not possessed; she's got Tourette's syndrome." ... "A disembodied head. Looks a lot like you..." and so on... There are a great deal of cool characthers in here: Apart from Somtow Sucharitkul himself, as the maddeningly piano-playing Um-tzec and the disbelieving catholic priest with a bastard son together with a fallen nun, there is the Aztec answer to Laurel and Hardy making a pretty mess of things... Well, but what about the film and the story -- Hey, you're kidding, right?!
And then...
(to be continued... should I remember further details...)
What can i say. Spot on, old chap! Of course i never drink... wine.
ReplyDeleteThank you! You're too gracious. And of course you don't drink wine - that would just be too healthy, wouldn't it, my dear boy... ;-)
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