06-10-2018, 09:58 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-10-2018, 10:22 PM by Drunk Monk.)
Stacy gave me this wonderful boxed set collection of classic Hitchcock, and we've been treating ourselves to it slowly, savoring them. I haven't been reviewing them, but perhaps I'll back-track.
Like Woody Allen, Hitchcock is a disturbed individual by many accounts, and that reflects in their twisted work. Frenzy is one of his later works, his first R, his return tin the UK after years in Hollywood. It was the first time I've seen this one and it's messed up for a lot of reasons. First off, the cast is really mediocre. No one I really recognized, no one really delivers except for the villain and he works for all the wrong reasons. He's such a cad, and so sick, but also such an everyman - could be anyone. Second, there's a lot of gratuitous nudity, which feels a bit shocking for Hitchcock, particularly because this is a serial rapist murderer tale, and most of the nudity is victims. There's a lot of shots of dead nekkid women, their faces contorted with tongues hanging out and nipples exposed in a way that one can't but wonder if it echoes some scene Hitchcock might have actually seen after abusing some actress. The first murder rape is graphic, not in that 'show it all' way so common from today's filmmakers, but in the commonality of it, the sense that this felt like real life, the details as the victim tries to cover up her exposed breast and the rapist's constant chanting of 'lovely' during it. The second murder rape is brilliant Hitchcock, happening to a major character, and when she falls into the trap, the door closes and it's a long single shot pull away from the apartment to the street, to the outside world which remains completely naive to the horrific crime happening. Very powerful scene, visceral punch in the gut using the viewer's imagination. The following scene when the villain struggles to cover up the crime is also horrid, but funny too in that black humor vein that's so Hitchcock.
In retrospect, this was a very unpleasant film. But it has really stuck with me in that traumatic retina scarring way.
Like Woody Allen, Hitchcock is a disturbed individual by many accounts, and that reflects in their twisted work. Frenzy is one of his later works, his first R, his return tin the UK after years in Hollywood. It was the first time I've seen this one and it's messed up for a lot of reasons. First off, the cast is really mediocre. No one I really recognized, no one really delivers except for the villain and he works for all the wrong reasons. He's such a cad, and so sick, but also such an everyman - could be anyone. Second, there's a lot of gratuitous nudity, which feels a bit shocking for Hitchcock, particularly because this is a serial rapist murderer tale, and most of the nudity is victims. There's a lot of shots of dead nekkid women, their faces contorted with tongues hanging out and nipples exposed in a way that one can't but wonder if it echoes some scene Hitchcock might have actually seen after abusing some actress. The first murder rape is graphic, not in that 'show it all' way so common from today's filmmakers, but in the commonality of it, the sense that this felt like real life, the details as the victim tries to cover up her exposed breast and the rapist's constant chanting of 'lovely' during it. The second murder rape is brilliant Hitchcock, happening to a major character, and when she falls into the trap, the door closes and it's a long single shot pull away from the apartment to the street, to the outside world which remains completely naive to the horrific crime happening. Very powerful scene, visceral punch in the gut using the viewer's imagination. The following scene when the villain struggles to cover up the crime is also horrid, but funny too in that black humor vein that's so Hitchcock.
In retrospect, this was a very unpleasant film. But it has really stuck with me in that traumatic retina scarring way.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse