Re93animator's Review Thread

Our story is set amidst a nice snowy mountainous region. It follows an Estonian Bogey on a retreat to a secluded public lodging. Following a confining avalanche, he must probe an idiosyncratic cast in search of a murderer. Robots and aliens may follow, but don’t get your hopes up too much. Any synopsis of this film might make it seem more eventful than it is. It’s mostly a procedural thing with a dash of implied supernatural to add an element of unease. After so much anticipation, it does end on a high note though. Oh… and the screenplay is penned by Strugatsky bros.

After some strange events, the detective ends up conflicted between what he seems to believe and what he feels his obligations are. He’s a consummate pro, constantly reiterating his duty to the state apparatus. All the while, he must never forgo his apathetic noir demeanor. Despite what it may sound like, it’s not too boring. I’d hesitate to even call this an art film. At least not in the introspective Bergman-esque sense. It’s considerately paced, and the prime focus is on noir-inspired mystery.

The inside of the lodge feels kind of uneven with some dissimilar artistic superfluities, and it’s adorned with more flickering lights than a makeshift haunted house on steroids. I’m not really sure what style the movie was going for, or if the filmmakers even paid it much heed. Given the gimmick faulty electricity in the hotel, the movie is shot VERY dark. Oftentimes we’re given windowed glimpses of the snowy backdrop, complementing very dark with very cold. The movie also dabbles in some psychedelia, and feels like it’s about a decade older than it is.


You might have a hard time believing this, but this moderately rated, decades old Estonian Soviet film is difficult to come by now. Crazy I know! The first copy I watched was printed via potato, so it didn’t feel fair to give it a review then. The movie seemed to be filmed absurdly dark, and was mostly indiscernible. Now that I’ve obtained a clear copy, I can finally almost barely see the movie just a little bit. I don’t think it’s anywhere near great, but it does a solid for overly-dedicated fans of Eastern European sci-fi (all 12 of us).

Opening credits: I think we’ve got about 3 Jan’s, 4 Jiri’s, and a Milos. I know I’m taking a dangerously unnecessary gamble and hanging from an unstable limb by making the following conjecture, but I would venture to make the risky supposition that, perhaps, this might just be a Czech film. Just a wild stab in the dark though. Anyhoo, one of those Jan’s happens to be Mr. Svankmajer! If you know me, you know I love me some Svank. Of course, as a visual consultant his involvement is muy importante. Mysterious Castle is a very visually driven movie, and Svank’s legendary stop motion effects even make an appearance towards the end. That gets an inevitable pop from me. His collaboration with Lipsky is even more apparent in Dinner for Adele (1978).

Two gents go searching for a lady within a mechanized castle brimming with more steampunky contraptions than Jeunet & Caro can shake an external combustion stick at. The bigwig that operates the whole apparatus is an elegant, elderly fellow that emphasizes beards as much as Russ Meyer emphasizes boobs. The cast is supplied with loveable, bumbling fools. There are distinct protagonists and antagonists, but the point isn’t really to get engrossed in their silly dispute. Just to have fun watching it.

Of course, it’s bound to be a little surreal. There’s a ton of absurdism and over the top mad science-y stuff with fantastical art direction. It’s a far cry from early Bunuel though. It’s not ambiguous or abstract; there shouldn’t really be any incomprehension. It’s just another quirky example of strange Python-esque humor.

This should be a more renowned classic. Despite the obscurity, it’s hard to believe that Lipsky wasn’t a heavy influence on Gilliam, Jeunet, Caro, and so on. Much of the rural culture-savvy absurdist humor seems like a blueprint for Kusturica as well.

Given what sort of movie this is, I’ve got no complaints. Nothing seems out of place. There are no groan inducements. Any lapses of logic fit the flexible silliness of the narrative. A goat could’ve popped out of a hat and it’d somehow fit. Only pedestrian things would seem out of place. Thus, this should be a priority for any eccentric’s movie collection. It’s hilarious and picturesque with a ton of character.

Yeah. Count me in.

We’ve got galactic politics. We’ve got a grand orchestral score. We’ve got a fleshed out (no pun intended) universe. We’ve got the prophetic youth savior. We’ve got fat ugly aliens, and we’ve got tons of undue hype. For a special effects and art direction extravaganza, it has aged quite well. For a post-Star Wars projected blockbuster, ‘twas an unfortunate failure.

I guess the movie’s main problem might’ve been the Star Wars-esque commerciality unnaturally fused with Lynch’s inescapable weirdness. I really don’t think that Lynch, bless his heart, can help himself. Even The Straight Story has glimpses of it. After Eraserhead and the much more recognized Elephant Man, the studios should’ve known that they didn’t have Dune’s preordained blockbuster guy. The prospect of Lynch doing sci-fi intrigues me so much though. Being the cow that this is, I doubt we got that close to a true foray. It’s akin to the studio meddling with Gilliam’s cut of Brazil. The material is already so far gone, there’s little to no chance of salvaging it for a general audience. By tampering and watering it down, they’re alienating the potential cult base as well. Still, the notion of David mother*cking Lynch directing sweeping sci-fi action scenes is hilarious to me. Not as hilarious as the block fighting though.

My main personal pet peeve with certain sci-fi movies of this ilk (I’m sorry Star Wars fans) is the over-enunciated fantasy babble. Would it kill anyone to use some god*mn contractions? There’s also enough sci-fi jargon to drown a porflokik on planet xoynaplev. It’s hard to keep up. I feel this kind of stuff is more suited to sci-fi channel b-movies (fun as they are).

Brian Eno’s ‘Prophecy’ theme is beautiful. It makes me wish the entire score had strived for more ambiance instead of the more banal orchestral stuff. Thankfully, the bombast doesn’t beat itself to death during uneventful bits. Lynch’s tried & true dark soundscapes are still very present too.

Some of the art direction is… holy sh*t, breathtaking. This is one of those movies that, on certain fronts, was too big to fail. I’m guessing that the fellows working in the art department were paid far too well for it to be anything less than spectacular. Another front was the loaded cast… damn. I’m glad we got Kyle MacLachlan’s chin out of it. This has got problems, but since I’m a hopeless sucker for visually driven content, it’s impossible for me not to love this. It still contains plenty o’ weird to satisfy my taste too.

@re93animator

Glad to see another review of Dune...Was that your first time watching it?

Did you watch the Theatrical cut, or the extended version? IMO the extended version is pale and boring compared to the Theatrical cut. I agree with you that the visuals are amazing.

I saw theatrical (I think?) years ago. This was the extended one though. I kind of like pale and boring.

Nice review! I hope to get on Dune soon, as it's the one of the rare Lynch films I haven't seen yet. The visuals certainly look great.

Indeed. It's gotta be Lynch's most uncharacteristic though. If you're a fan of his, it's definitely skip-able. It's good for sci-fi/fantasy aficionados.

__________________

Very cool review. I need to revisit this, as it's been years, and on VHS, no less. How could this not at least be an interesting failure?

I'm not really that big on sci-fi, but will definitely try to see it soon, for my quest to watch his entire filmography before the new Twin Peaks season comes out.

I am curious. I've always been curious about how much involvement David Lynch had on Dune. Did he storyboard anything, request certain colors for set design, certain effects, certain beats for the actors to take? I kind of need to know this, as a selfish film gobbler.

How far did Lynch's hand extend into the making of Dune? If I knew this, I would be able to determine how much I respect the film, and also how much I enjoy the film. I want to see a slightly boring and failed Lynch sci fi film, like @re93animator said. Pale, etc. But is there any kind of documentation that attests to the production of Dune outside the realm of say, Wikipedia information?

I know there's a documentary about the original incarnation of Dune, but that's not what I'd be after. I mean, I could save all this typing and just go google investigate dvd/blu ray releases and scour the supplementary specs...but...then where would any kind of conversation be? It'd just be a "know-it-all", one sided snotty declaration. Someone show me and teach me, to quote a background ADR from the back alley basketball scene of Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment. "Show me...teach me..."

@Joel, from what I read, the executive producer of Dune, Dino De Laurentiis, had control over the final edit of the film and demanded it be no longer than 2 hours 17 minutes. That forced Lynch to give up on some planned scenes, condense other scenes in the editing room, forced him to create bridge scenes that took the place of longer more detailed scenes, and perhaps is why the internal dialogue is used for various characters. As far as everything else, I believe Lynch was in control of that, he even wrote the script. But he didn't get to control the all import final edit.

The theatrical release contains a very disturbing Lynch style scene that is cut from the Extended version.

What scene are you referring to?

The Thertical release contained this scene that was cut from the extended version (which means the extended version isn't just more material but is also minus a key scene)

Towards the start of the film, we're introduced to the bad guys, the Harkonnens. The cut scene, has a young effeminate boyish male enter the Baron Harkonnen's chamber, where he places flowers on the wall...and he's scared senseless! I mean he's little, puny and shaking all over, he looks like he's entered into hell. The Baron with a lusting, devious gleam in his eye walks over to him, caresses his face and then...pulls out his heart plug, with blood splattering the Baron in the face, who's loving it. As the poor young male is being drained of his blood, the camera cuts to a close up of the Baron's face, so that we can't seen what he does next to young male, but it appears to be something violent, sexually done as the poor victim dies.

Wow. David Lynch is a sick f#ck. I know he meditates and smokes like a chimney, but he's been doing that since the early 70's, at least. He's pulling up fish, all right. Not sure I wanna wrap em up in seaweed and take a bite, though. But, I'll still probably do it. Now I guess it's time to investigate the blu ray arsenal of Dune offerings.

Oh yeah, let me tell you, th-

... nevermind.


But, he was the director after all. His mark is left on it, just not glaringly like his other work. There's the Twin Peaks-y cast, the dark ambiance, odd violence, and some surreal-ish mashup bits. His style is just incredibly hampered. I wanted to see a totally Lynchian sci-fi movie too, like Lost Highway in space or something, but I still feel like that's not what I got (cool as it is).

... can you imagine if Lynch decided to make Return of the Jedi instead?

My mistake. I watched the theatrical one again then. I guess I'll take a look at the extended one eventually.

This is about as ambitious as it gets. It’s a three-hour multi-part epic following a society forming from the ground up, and continues all the way through their tumultuous dispute with wobbling killer bird people. It has a chilly blue tint, multifaceted dialogues, and some notably impressive costumes. This is also about as weird as it gets. Ummm… I’m almost speechless. It’s… just really f*cking weird.

There’s a considerable amount of humor (that I’m not sure was intentional?). The theater-esque acting is about as overblown as it gets. The air is probably sore from all of the characters fervently grasping at it. My synopsis wasn’t an exaggeration either. The enemies are giant wobbling charred Peeps. It’s funny and campy, but in a movie as artsy as this one, it just adds an extra layer of bizarre. I think that the crew must’ve been aware of how silly all of this would come across, especially with a pretty lauded cult filmmaker like Andrzej Zulawski (known mainly for the extremely polarizing Possession) at the helm. There’s plenty of savage and disturbing violence to top it off as well. This movie just… god*amn. I don’t know.

Much of the film is missing, so it’s filled in with bits of rapid explanatory narration and constant jump cuts that seriously hamper the first half. If you can make it that far, there’s still some pretty incomprehensible Shakespearean sort of dialogue and histrionics to get through. I hate using the P word, but it does come across as fairly… pretentious. It seems like a grower though. I didn’t like it initially, but I was compelled to watch it again and again. The style is cool, weird, and original enough to appreciate, but for those poor unsuspecting souls that don’t know what they’re getting into, ‘difficult’ won’t even begin to describe it.

The story follows a fellow drawn into a space station, responding to a distress signal. For much of the movie, in all truly Russian splendor, our lead gloriously brandishes a sweater with a burly dad bod that would make Fedor Emelianenko more envious than an anorexic in an ossuary. I suppose the meat of the movie is about persons being unable to escape their involuntary conscious, but it meanders into several realms of philosophy. The crew members’ imaginations manifest a human form, which seems to drive the crew to the brink. The lead is lucky enough to have a comparatively less destructive manifestation of his late wife initially, but the torment comes later in less overt ways. Since the story is told at such a meditative pace, any moments of explicit tension or distress stick out much more. The manifestations are immortal. They are neutrino-people, or are they not people at all? The pragmatist aboard the ship shows a strict lack of sympathy for the lead’s overtly sympathetic wife, while the humanist sees this coldness as an inherent flaw with humanity.

… I think.

In the beginning, rural parts are shot with some of that unmistakable Tarkovsky haziness. The grainy older film adds an extra dose of beauty to the smoggy areas. Maybe blu-ray isn’t the way to go for Tarkovsky. The space station isn’t the picturesque development that you might expect though. It’s scattered with debris, held up by battered skin-smeared steel, and pretty rudimentary in design. The only part of the station that’s given a concentration of beauty happens to be the distinctively roomy, 20th-century-looking meeting quarters, wherein the characters have a climactic philosophical discourse. Maybe the movie is suggesting that the technologically driven parts have distanced the science from the humanity? Or, maybe a cigar is just a cigar.

As mentioned above, we get a lengthy discourse questioning cosmonautic ventures and moral inconsideration in the name of expanding knowledge. Is it humanity’s duty to endlessly pursue knowledge, even in the face of potentially catastrophic consequences? Such was a prevalent sci-fi theme during the nuclear-fixated cold war. Clearly, I’m not a philosophy major, and I’m not gonna pretend to grasp it all, but I think these philosophical diatribes are the most interesting part of the movie. As long as you’re human (if you’re reading this thread, I’m not so sure), the themes are relatable.

I assume that most who express interest in this have an idea of what they’re getting. If not, let me give you the Tarkovsky preface: you may be bored, you may get tired (2 naps for me ), but hopefully you’ll like it. The lead roams the station about as fast as I roam my room at 3 A.M. feeling for a light switch. I know it’s the style, but methinks the editing could’ve been a wee bit tighter. I think this is one of Tarkovsky’s least photogenic too. I don’t know if the technologically advanced environment is intentionally unattractive, or if Tarkovsky just has more of knack for shooting natural or timeworn beauty.

… anti-climactic review ending.

Hey you posted your review of Solaris, cool I enjoyed reading it too! I liked this part … anti-climactic review ending. Ha!

You're right the space station is rather in a state of de-crapulation when he gets there.

I always wondered why the refrigerator thing is stuck in the floor at an odd angle?

Thanks!


“There are those who look at oddly positioned refrigerators, and ask why. I look at oddly positioned refrigerators, and ask why not” - RFK