It’s been a year since Through the Shattered Lens lost one of it’s own: Semtexskittle.
In honor of his passing I’d like to share one of the films he and I share a love for. I think he may have been one of the few who truly wanted this film to be nominated as one of the ten films picked for Best Picture for the year it came out. While the Academy voters were sorely shortsighted for not nominating the film, it still remains one thing Chris shared with everyone at the site. Whether it was his love of sports, anime, video games and everything in-between.
As for me, I’m just going to share two videos. One is the trailer for the German film, Christiane F.This trailer — which I consider one of the best trailers ever made — is scored to David Bowie’s Heroes. (Both Bowie and the song also play a large and important in the film itself.) Secondly, I want to share a scene that I love, this one from Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and featuring Bowie’s Theme From Cat People reimagined as an anthem of the French Resistance.
David Bowie has passed away and the world is much less brighter with his passing.
While I’ve been a fan of most of David Bowie’s music, I consider myself more of a fan of his rare appearances playing other characters in other people’s films. Whether it was as the alien Thomas Jerome Newton in The Man Who Fell to Earth, to John in The Hunger and right up to his role as Jareth, King of the Goblins in the fantasy film Labyrinth, Bowie has always made himself such a presence whenever he was on the screen.
One of my favorite roles he played recently was in the 2006 film The Prestige by Christopher Nolan. In it he played the role of the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla who gains as a patron Hugh Jackman’s magician, Robert Angier. Not as showy a role as some of the others mentioned above, but Bowie easily conveys not just tired and beaten down Tesla who by this point has been hounded by Edison for years, but also understanding that his own genius has led him to obsessing over what his intellect has come up with.
Even as he battled cancer these past 18 months before losing his fight, David Bowie continued to do what he loved. Releasing a new album this month and now he lives on in his music and up on the silver screen.
“Commencing countdown, engines on…Check ignition and may God’s love be with you.”
It is Star Wars month as we move closer and closer to the release of the latest film in the Star Wars franchise. I chose a few weeks back a favorite scene from the very first Star Wars which came out in 1977. This favorite scene is the first of three that make up the three specific scenes I love from Star Wars: A New Hope.
This second favorite scene also shows up in the early part of the film. The first scene I chose showed the wow factor of the space battle and capture of the Rebel Alliance frigate and the introduction of one of filmdom’s greatest and most iconic villains in Darth Vader. This latest chosen scene introduces us to his polar opposite in the young Luke Skywalker on the planet Tatooine.
It’s a scene that focuses on the hope and dreams of a young man stuck in a place he knows he doesn’t belong. He believes that he’s meant to be doing something more important and we find out later on in the film that his feeling is correct. It helps that the scene was helped by the score of one John Williams whose musical track playing in the background — aptly titled “Binary Sunset” — gives it a sense of longing and a promise of a better future.
Today marks 30 more days before the release of the next chapter in the Star Wars saga. It’s been almost a dozen years since the prequels finally ended and the fandom was split between those who railed against it and those of the younger generation whose first entry into the Star Wars universe were the prequels instead of the original trilogy.
For those who grew up watching the original trilogy over and over throughout the years, the prospect of the franchise returning to it’s adventure roots instead of delving into the soap operatic backstory that made up the prequels was enough to create the massive swell of hype and anticipation for a film unheard of even in these current era of superhero tentpole blockbusters and massive sequels.
Star Wars: A New Hope was my gateway to the fandom and no scene helped usher me into becoming a devoted fan than the very first few minutes of the film as we see the message crawl to start then the massive bulk of the Imperial Star Destroyer chasing down a fleeing ship of much smaller size. Yet, the scene doesn’t end there. No, it continues inside where we finally get our first introduction to one of film’s most iconic villains to ever grace the silver screen.
The Imperial Star Destroyer opening was the hook and Darth Vader pulled one in.
Since I just shared 4 shots from 4 Dario Argento films, I figured why not take this week’s horror scene that I love from an Argento film as well?
Argento’s 1995 film The Stendhal Syndrome has always gotten mixed review but I think it’s actually one of the better of his post-Tenebrae films. In the scene below, police detective Anna Manni (Asia Argento) wanders through Florence and finds herself overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the place. Eventually, while looking at Bruegel’s Landscape With The Fall of Icarus, Anna is so overwhelmed that she faints and has a fantasy where she swims through the ocean and kisses a fish. Of course, as this happens, she is watched by serial killer Alfredo Grossi (Thomas Kretschmann).
I have to admit that one reason why I like this scene (and this film) is because I had a similar experience when, the summer after graduating high school, I visited Florence. No, I didn’t faint but I definitely found myself wandering around in a bit of a daze. Standing in Florence is like finding yourself in the middle of living painting. It’s an amazing experience and one that I recommend to everyone.
This particular scene was my third favorite from Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot.
There’s much to love about this scene. It’s a very claustrophobic sequence with our protagonist Ben Mears (played by David soul) left in the morgue by his friend Bill Norton for just a few minutes. The scene itself gradually builds in tension as Ben realizes that at any second the body on the morgue table could get up. The word vampire rarely gets uttered during the first third of the series, but Ben suspects the worst and he knows that he’s ill-prepared to deal with his fears if they bear fruit.
There’s a definite tv network quality to the way the scene is shot, but Hooper milks the creeping dread and terror with each passing second as Ben creates a makeshift crucifix and begins to chant random Bible passages as a way to bless his home-made icon. When his fears have been confirmed there’s not a sense of relief that he’s not crazy, but one of sheer terror.
This third joins part one and part two of my favorite scenes from Salem’s Lot and when witnessed as a set should give an idea just how terrifying and underrated this mini-series adaptation of the classic Stephen King vampire novel really is.
It would be difficult to get through October and not point out one of the best scenes in horror ever.
There’s Janet Leigh’s performance which conveyed the utter terror the scene wanted to convey. We have Bernard Hermann’s discordant film score highlighting the attack. Despite being a very bloodless sequence the way Hitchcock filmed the scene made audience imagine that they were actually witnessing something more violent and gory.
We all have Alfred Hitchcock to thank for this most iconic of all horror scenes.
I’ve never actually seen the 1987 film Slaughterhouse Rock. I’ve just seen the trailer included in a few compilations and, thanks to YouTube, I’ve seen the scene below. The only context that I can give for this scene is what I read on Wikipedia.
Apparently, in this scene, a ghost played by the great choreographer Toni Basil does a dance that gives the main character’s spirit the ability to roam free of his physical body. And, during the dance, we see a lot of earlier scenes from the movie. Or something like that. I don’t know. I just like the scene because of the music and Toni Basil.
I’ve always felt that dancing can take you into a spiritual realm of existence. This scene proves my point.
This scene that I love comes from the classic 1931 horror film, Frankenstein. In this poignant scene, Frankenstein’s Monster (Boris Karloff) meets young Maria. Maria is the first human to treat the Monster with true kindness. Unfortunately, the Monster does not understand that, unlike flower petals, Maria does not float.
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