Reviews

At times, the power of the venom Bergman directs towards God in his films makes it almost feel as if they might somehow succeed, where many civilizations worth of unanswered pleas for mercy and forgiveness have failed.

Just like how I felt at the beginning of the film, looking at that heart, and refusing to believe I have one too.

Watching Millers Crossing with the knowledge that Tom Regan is a man crippled by pride, and who lives with the fear that all of the feelings he hides inside might one day betray him and get him to chase after that metaphorical hat after all, will somewhat let us in on the inscrutable spell it cas...

After they share a long stare, possibly the only direct eye contact she will receive from anyone in the film, Emily pushes all of her chips in on someone who may or may not be an even greater threat to them than withering away under the unforgiving sun.

But while my nature may cause me to wince as I watch free-form island life sullied by the intrusion of watching a child learn the jockey trade, this does not mean I am entirely blind to the possibility that, when considered from both sides, the two halves of this film actually do have something...

We only know that he is naked, young, shivering, seemingly not permitted to speak (the camera cuts whenever he begins to say anything) and often looking towards the camera pensively to check that the film is still recording.

Instead, after making this film, he would fall directly into the world of sex films and pornography, the very industry he had condemned as not being forward thinking enough to appreciate his auteurs eye for debasement.

Babysitters have been brought in to permit the occasion, and with the excessive two hour run time of the film, that leaves a lot of time for lots of American babysitters to find their own kinds of trouble with closets.

In the beginning of the film, as we are introduced to his puppets, and also a mysterious Old Man (also played by Marceau) who teaches him the art of puppeteering living beings, it seems we are going into interesting places.

Its in The Beyond that two such scenes can be found, and while in typical Fulci fashion they cant help but grind the whole film to a momentary standstill, they also seem to strangely compliment the elusive, impossible to pin down strangeness of the surrounding film.