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Reviews
Cat People (1982)
Erotic & Eerie
Immediately Giorgio Moroder's score captures you in the darkness with its sensual rhythms, then Schrader entices us into a labyrinthine journey of sex and death seen through the eyes of the dark & beautiful Irena (Kinski). Her brother Paul, played by a Malcom McDowell welcomes Irena to New Orleans ( a perfect location for this erotic & fetishistic tale ) dressed as a priest, this is their first 'reunion' since infancy & orphanage. Paul takes her home and introduces her to his housekeeper Female (played by the great Ruby Dee). Their joy is short lived, as Paul's incestuous overtures are rebuffed by an innocent Irena and his disappearance coincides with a visit by the police to investigate Paul's possible involvement in a 'ritualistic' murder involving a panther. Female is arrested as a possible accomplice to Paul's crimes. In jail, she advices Irena to 'not love' and 'pretend the world is what men believe it to be'. Irena is quickly taken in by Oliver ( John Heard ), curator of the New Orleans Zoo, after he startles her sketching a recently captured black panther. Irena settles into a life working at the zoo and begins a relationship with Oliver, much to the dismay of Alice ( Annette O'Toole ), ostensibly Oliver's love interest until Irena's arrival. Paul resurfaces after a tragic attack by the panther on a zoo keeper (played by Ed Begley, Jr.) in front of Irena, Alice & Oliver. Paul's presence is now menacing and his previous advances are now violent and threatening. He tells Irena that 'only she can save him': by being with him as they are like their parents- brother & sister and of an ancient and incestuous race, unable to mate with only their own kind, lest they transform-returning to human form only after killing. Schrader captures the dark, sensual and moody atmosphere of the New Orleans night with this tale of occult, sex, blood & lycanthropy.
Rêves de poussière (2006)
Don't miss seeing this rare and beautiful film.
Director Laurent Salgues' 'Buried Dreams', opens with the strange sight of people emerging from the earth, as if planted there. This the first among many dream-like images, from Cinematographer Crystel Fournier that Salgues uses to draw us into a cinematic netherworld, skirting the line between the fantastic and a world that at times seems all too real: gritty, greedy and dangerous. The camera also reveals the landscape of an internal world, written on the faces and etched in the hearts and minds of his characters. 'Buried Dreams' is a semi-allegorical tale, its 'Everyman' is Mocktar, played with dignity and nobility by Makena Diop. Mocktar is a refugee from Niger, a 'man with a past'- like so many of classic film/literary characters: men not particularly striving for anything as much as escaping themselves through struggle and survival. Mocktar seeks employment in an Essakane mining camp, run by a greedy, and cowardly buffoon.
Here 'mines' are holes in the desert, dug straight down without supports or safety equipment. Miners are given flashlights that they strap to their heads for light and digging tools.
All of Mocktar's co-workers are digging for tiny scraps of gold in order to survive, but we learn that they are seeking a currency of another kind, dreams of a better life: marriage, escape & education, restoration of family fortune. In other words, hope. Mocktar befriends Coumba (played with quiet strength by Fatou Tall-Salgues) a young window & mother, attempting to raise her young daughter, amid the squalor and poverty of a desert work camp. Coumba dreams of sending her small daughter away to Paris, to get an education and a better life.
Don't miss seeing this rare and beautiful film.