First, I was way too young when I first saw Nekromantik. I don’t remember exactly when it was, but it must have been around when I was 13 and met this guy who had access to a weirdly huge variety of movies, considering it was 1990. Some he got through his parents, but I doubt even they would have let their kid see a movie like this that young. Then again, you never know.
Europe. The Old World. The home of Guy, Bergman, Denis, Fellini, Bresson, Akerman, Sciamma, Dreyer, Murnau, Varda… The origin of all those obscure art movies which that one friend of yours always claims to have seen. You know, those thoughtful black and white pieces of cinema, light on plot and heavy on character. Well, none of that shit here.
This is partly a reminder that not all auteurs are directors. I would argue Tom Cruise is an auteur. He makes movies that fit his personal brand and he has a strong vision of how to present himself on the screen. Sure, he has at times moved away from this, but everyone knows he has a very specific way of approaching the movies he stars in.
I did not know of the existence of this streaming service until a few weeks ago, but there is something to be said for a service that has movies like Ömer the Tourist in Star Trek, The Return of Superman (Turkish Superman) and Wrasslin′ She-Babes Vol 07 right there on the front page. They also have a section of movies you can watch for free (you do have to register) and they seem to be pretty representative of what the service looks like on the whole, so you could actually try the service out first before paying (and the service is much cheaper than most streaming services).
I don’t know much about de la Iglesia. Maybe I should as I have seen quite a few of his movies (well, just over half of his features, but still there aren’t that many directors I’ve seen nine movies from) and he has had a prolific career with some international success despite being very Spanish in his output. Or at least I would assume many of the references in his movies are very obscure anywhere outside of Spain.
Maybe I should have worked up to him instead of putting him this early in the series.
I think I might be emphasizing directors here a little too much, but they are an easy place to start.
Who the fuck is Ken Russell? I know the name and I’ve seen some of his huge filmography, but he has also always remained an elusive figure to me. I have never seen that many of his films and there doesn’t seem to be a real throughline in the ones that I have seen. Except that they are all weird.
I will start with an admission: I have seen quite a few of his movies, but I remember them in a weird haze where I’m not sure what is from what movie, so I won’t discuss specific movies very much.