Vertigo
If there was a more hypnotic, seductive film than "Vertigo" this year, I want
to know about it. Alfred Hitchcock's 'restored' 1958 classic is still a
breathtaking psychological suspense drama that plumbs the dark recesses of
the human psyche with unwavering panache. Fetishism, necrophilia, insanity
and sex-role reversal are the scaffolding holding up Kim Novak's ravishing
beauty and Bernard Hermann's dramatic musical score. Films rarely get
darker than this.
Romeo And Juliet
Australian Baz Luhrmann does for Shakespeare's 400 year-old lovers in the
90s what Zeffirelli did for them in the 60s: breathed fresh air into the
stale lungs of 'serious theatre'. Edited at a crackling pace like a MTV
video, this sexy, violent film relies on its sophisticated, layered images,
not the bard's words, to transmit its tale of star-crossed lovers and their
woes to an audience that would normally swim a river full of piranha to avoid being force-fed
'the classics'. Highlights: Pete Postlewaite's
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Friar Lawrence and a gay Mercutio miming the disco anthem, "Young Hearts", in
drag.
The Pillow Book
A teasing, cheeky labyrinth of lust, desire and revenge, "The Pillow Book" is
the granddaddy of the publishing industry films. Britain's iconoclastic
director lifts cinema into the 21st century by melding a cornucopia of
shimmering images with the most tantalising words to produce a sumptuous
gateau that manages to avoid becoming too cloying. Best line goes to Vivian
Wu's, 'Treat me like the page of a book', as Ewan McGregor wields his very
impressive endowments.
The People Vs Larry Flynt
Milos Forman won a Golden Globe for directing and Courtney Love showed that she's a better actor than Madonna. Despite seriously failing to capture the
porn industry's sleazy underbelly, this sugar-coated life of "Hustler" magazine publisher, Larry Flynt, is, nevertheless, a timely and powerful
reminder of
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the importance of freedom of speech and the insidious nature of censorship. Anti-sex American feminists were up in arms about the film,
but, as always, they forgot that humour is a stronger weapon than kill-joy
rhetoric.
The Apartment
Gilles Mimouni, the director of the powerful French film, "The Hate", changed
course with this romantic menage a trois crowd-pleaser, set in a Paris that
makes you want to hop onto the next plane with your beret and piano
accordion. Mistaken identities, missed encounters, bad timing, strange
revelations that change the course of lives, glowing cafes and gorgeous
apartments are just some of the ingredients in this most exhilarating, stylish and sure-footed film of the year. Monica Bellucci's dreamy, doomed
heroine is impossible to forget.
Kiss Or Kill
Bill Bennett's psycho road-film won best film at the Australian Film
Institute awards in
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November and it's not hard to see why. Mixing ingredients
from "Gun Crazy" and "Bonnie and Clyde", and with not an ounce of originality
in the script, Bennett still manages to inject a peculiar brand of
eccentric Australian humour into the bizarre proceedings that follow. The
jump-cut editing creates a documentary-like detachment that focusses
attention on the minutiae of the character's behaviour and motivation. It
helps that Matt Day and Francis O'Connor, to name only two in a strong
cast, supply faultless performances.
Lost Highway
Seriously bizarre and sicko, this is David Lynch's return to form -- not that he ever fell out, in my opinion. More puzzling than an instructions
manual transliterated from Korean, this spooky noirish yarn about
dopplegangers, nasty visions and unfaithful wives is transfixing. Even as
you feel yourself getting lost without any hope of return, you keep asking
yourself how he manages to squeeze menace from the most mundane situations.
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Robert Blake's Mysterious Man is the scariest thing I've seen since Tori
Spelling appeared on television. Besides, any film that boasts the presence
of Henry Rollins, Marilyn Manson and the voice of Trent Reznor has my vote.
Face/Off
John Woo's delirious thriller is really a sentimental love story
masquerading as 90s ultra-kewl, ultra-violent cinematic poetry. At times
Woo is such an expert extrapolator of cinema that you think of Brian De
Palma at his best, and he shows such warmth and compassion for his characters that you realise why Tarantino's is a dead-end cinema. Who
better than John Travolta and Nicholas Cage to play not only nemesis, but
also mirror image of each other in the year's best and funniest
roller-coaster ride?
Crash
'The hand brake penetrates your thigh/ Quick let's make love before we
die!' sings Grace
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Jones in "Warm Leatherette", as her driver's dying agonies become her aphrodisiac. The song was inspired, of course, by J. G.
Ballard's warped cult novel now brought to the screen, with considerable
elan by David Cronenberg. His somnambulistic, fetishistic characters will
go to any lengths for a big bang -- and they often do. Blurring the line
between life and death, man and machine, leather and skin, Cronenberg
actually manages to improve on Ballard's celebrated book.
LA Confidential
Kim Basinger is back in sizzling form in Curtis Hanson's atmospheric epic
story of corruption and hypocrisy in a 1950s City of Angels. Based on James
Ellroy's novel, this is an uncompromising and brutal film about the
nature of power and state-sanctioned violence. But the real surprise here is Australian Guy Pearce's (remember him as the big min from "Priscilla
Queen of the Desert"?) winning performance as the basically good,
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but sanctimonious cop who will go to any lengths for kudos. The presence of
Basinger and Kevin Spacey almost, but not quite, saves the film from its
ludicrous tacked-on ending, which looks like it was demanded by a preview
audience from no-brains land. ![[ s e v e n ]](images/endartcl.gif)
Do you agree or disagree with this selection? Got your own
favourites? Send in your comments and selections to our Reader E-mails section through sevenmag@ozemail.com.au
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