Films Folded
Ted Goranson is a writer and consultant who works with structured narrative as well as other topics. New visitors may want to read this information about how the site is structured.
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May 14, 2008 The General: Loco and Motive
Ted's Evaluation: 3 / 4
IMDB Rating: 8.3
DVD at Amazon
No one will top Keaton for physical risk, and risk is what deep film experiences are all about. This might be classed as a comedy, but for me it touches deeply enough. Its about a man who needs to prove himself by taking risks and being true. And its by a man who takes even greater risks and is more true. True to the spirit of the social compact, here displayed as the chummy south.
He's always done stunts that amaze. Many of his other films have things in them that if the timing were only a little off, he'd be seriously injured, or die. But this takes the cake. Its almost as if he started with the idea that he'd have three locos to play with and had a year to think up stunts.
And the stunts are so physical! And so dangerous. And so, so very effective.
His trademark is the deadpan face placed as a sort of innocent cluelessness. Its particularly funny when you see the physical movements and you know that 1) they take incredible preparation and timing to pull off and 2) the fellow you see that looks so puzzled by the reality you see is the guy that devised and directed those stunts.
May 12, 2008 To the Devil... The Death of Hammer: A Final Klaus
Year: 2002Ted's Evaluation: 2 / 4
IMDB Rating: Unrated
Its not common to find a DVD extra that really tells you something.
This one is strange in how cheesy its production is and at the same time how informative. It sent me to find the "100 years of Horror" series which was produced in something of the same way, but will less value.
Here we discover why this movie turned out so rotten. Why the ending was so slapdash; the original ending was deemed too similar to an earlier one. We don't discover much about Ms Kinski, and the way her body became the point of the film. But we do hear the tantalizing bit that they hoped to get both father and daughter, but the father couldn't guarantee more than a week or so drugfree.
I replayed this entire film in my head with him in it, as one of the three male roles: the nun's father, the satanic priest, the investigative journalist. Actually I could see him playing all three roles with significant ambiguity. Oh what a rich thing that would have been, and in fact simply imagining it makes this a better experience than many movies I paid for this year.
May 12, 2008 The Ghost of Frankenstein: Bad Brain Science
Ted's Evaluation: 2 / 4
IMDB Rating: 5.8
DVD at Amazon
I went on a binge, watching all four of the first Universal Frankenstein movies. I know that many believe "Metropolis" to be the first mad scientist movie. But that wasn't about science or scientists, but about repressive society. The "science" there was actually technology and had as much to do with things as the devices in "1984."
This, this, I think is the first movie series where the whole point was that science was inerrently evil in its tendencies. Its different than a Faust story, where powers were conveyed for selfish ends; here the ends are discovery. Its no mistake that there's the heavy hand of religion in the village context that surrounds the man and his work.
So when I watch these, I pay attention to two things. One is how science is portrayed. Its radically different in all four. And the second is how the cinematic grammar is used to present that notion. Its a sort of hobby of mine to compare sequels and remakes.
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In this fourth one, we go through yet another change in how science is handled. Once again it shifts from the cosmic to the ordinarily human. Its about brains doing science and science on brains. We are reminded that the original scientist was not misguided, it was just his stupid assistant who made the mistake of using a "criminal" brain. Otherwise, all would be well. The doctor this time is a brain healer, and he has guess what? A dumb assistant who makes a critical mistake in substituting brains.
The foreboding oboe of the last film gives way to a plaintive bassoon. The little boy of the last to a little girl. I think the shift in gender subtly supports this shift in science to human again.
The ghost is not the ghost of the monster, who we learned last time has this cosmic invulnerability. It is the ghost of the original science visited upon his son to advise against killing the creature, merely fixing the prior brain error.
May 12, 2008 Son of Frankenstein: Cosmic Science
Ted's Evaluation: 3 / 4
IMDB Rating: 7.2
DVD at Amazon
I went on a binge, watching all four of the first Universal Frankenstein movies. I know that many believe "Metropolis" to be the first mad scientist movie. But that wasn't about science or scientists, but about repressive society. The "science" there was actually technology and had as much to do with things as the devices in "1984."
This, this, I think is the first movie series where the whole point was that science was inerrently evil in its tendencies. Its different than a Faust story, where powers were conveyed for selfish ends; here the ends are discovery. Its no mistake that there's the heavy hand of religion in the village context that surrounds the man and his work.
So when I watch these, I pay attention to two things. One is how science is portrayed. Its radically different in all four. And the second is how the cinematic grammar is used to present that notion. Its a sort of hobby of mine to compare sequels and remakes.
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In this third one, we go even further away from the notion of science than before. That last one had a folded wrapper, an enclosing narrative. This one has a much simpler wrapper, a train ride in and out, using what seems different lens and film stock.
This time, the science is changed again. Now the scientific notion is back on discovery, but its not about life from the human perspective. Now it is more cosmic, more celestial and yes, even godly. The son — who is smarter than his dad — knows that what his dad thought was the power in lightning was REALLY cosmic rays. They are the source of all life. So it isn't merely a matter of humanity, it is a matter of understanding god.
Note that even though the filmmaker and support are less talented, they strike out in a radically new direction cinematically. Now we do get German influence. We get a Prussian inspector who is seeking in precisely the same manner the doctor is. We get German fairy tales. The sets are theatrical in themselves, not supportive. They are simpler and starker. We have boiling pit of sulfur in the lab, not mentioned before. We have the charming intrusion of music folding in. Gone are the violins of previous films, now substituted by reeds, particularly an oboe that is mirrored by Igor.
Its a different twist on the science, possibly the one least twisted of the four in this respect.
