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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Hand of Night (1968) in Movies
May 29, 2020 (Updated May 30, 2020)
So-so British horror movie, one of a number of genre films made in north Africa in the mid to late sixties. A troubled man (William Sylvester, presumably fairly fresh from 2001: A Space Odyssey) visiting Morocco finds himself torn between a vivacious young French girl and a sultry woman who may or may not be (hint: she is) an ancient vampire.
Admirably serious tone and the central metaphor is coherent, but the problem with a lot of these foreign-shot films is that all the money seems to have gone on plane tickets, and the photography is often primitive and flat (a bit like a travelogue from the Moroccan Tourist Board). The pace is also not all it could be. Some decent bits here and there but the drabness of the film and its lack of incident counts against it. A case of potential not being realised.
Admirably serious tone and the central metaphor is coherent, but the problem with a lot of these foreign-shot films is that all the money seems to have gone on plane tickets, and the photography is often primitive and flat (a bit like a travelogue from the Moroccan Tourist Board). The pace is also not all it could be. Some decent bits here and there but the drabness of the film and its lack of incident counts against it. A case of potential not being realised.
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in Movies
Sep 20, 2020
Trippy ending space stuff > HAL stuff > ape stuff > monolith stuff
Was fully ready to come out of this being like "Yeah this ain't really all it" but it was, it really fucking was all it. I've seen big budget studio movies from less than a year ago (including but not limited to a certain superhero-led murky monstrosity involving a big purple thumb villain and some exposition stones) that look demonstrably worse than this - which, for all intents and purposes, is the best looking movie of all time (considering the time, anyway). There isn't a lone shot that looks anything less than astounding, what people must have felt back in 1968 watching this doesn't even have anything remotely comparable today. I can understand why some people wouldn't gel with this; some scenes are played out way too long and much of the William Sylvester stuff is dull as a doorstop not to mention stifled by the visual gimmick - but it avoids being the easy style over substance vehicle it could have been (which for the record I still would have been all for) by actually having a truly ingenious and thought-provoking screenplay with go-to quotes out the wazoo. And I think even this film's supporters don't give it enough credit for how continually unnerving this is, either. Obviously there's nothing more constructive one can even add about the greatness of the film or its score, acting, effects, etc. It rules.
Was fully ready to come out of this being like "Yeah this ain't really all it" but it was, it really fucking was all it. I've seen big budget studio movies from less than a year ago (including but not limited to a certain superhero-led murky monstrosity involving a big purple thumb villain and some exposition stones) that look demonstrably worse than this - which, for all intents and purposes, is the best looking movie of all time (considering the time, anyway). There isn't a lone shot that looks anything less than astounding, what people must have felt back in 1968 watching this doesn't even have anything remotely comparable today. I can understand why some people wouldn't gel with this; some scenes are played out way too long and much of the William Sylvester stuff is dull as a doorstop not to mention stifled by the visual gimmick - but it avoids being the easy style over substance vehicle it could have been (which for the record I still would have been all for) by actually having a truly ingenious and thought-provoking screenplay with go-to quotes out the wazoo. And I think even this film's supporters don't give it enough credit for how continually unnerving this is, either. Obviously there's nothing more constructive one can even add about the greatness of the film or its score, acting, effects, etc. It rules.