Season 3  - Game Of Thrones

Winter is coming,er, in March

The ten episode-long new season of Game of Thrones will be based on the first half of "A Storm of Swords," the third book in George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. However, whilst apart from a few exceptions, the first two seasons roughly corresponded to the first two books, the size of the third novel makes this virtually impossible to do the same. Consequently, it is anticipated that the plot line  will be divided between the third and a potential (Come on HBO!) fourth season. As per the previous two series when some episodes have contained out of sequence plot lines, this again may happen in season 3.

Plot, character and new cast details are being kept well and truly under wraps at the moment. However, from the few tit bits of information that have been released we know that Clive Russell will be playing the role of Black Fish and the delicious Charlotte Hope will be playing Myranda. 

I'll be watching. will you be too?

In praise of Universal Monsters

In praise of Universal Monsters

When writing about the output of horror material from Universal studios I could talk about many things. I could talk about a the impact Universal had on a previously belittled film genre, providing a rich source of material and in the process becoming immensely influential in the horror film genre. All of which is virtually irrefutable. 

I could talk in possibly grand terms about how Universal studios brought the themes and technical artistry of German Expressionism to Hollywood cinema and forever determined our concept of Gothic horror movies in the process.

I could also talk about how more than any other movie production company, the collection of work has left an indelible mark in the horror, thriller and Science Fiction cinema. In the process, becoming synonymous with the genre and creating some of the most iconic figures in all the history of film. The horror movie monsters that occupy our public consciousness all have their origins in the iconic 1930s and 1940s films produced by Universal. Yes, I could go on to talk about how there are some very early attempts at simultaneous  movie domain with the characters of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and the wolf man regularly transgressing into other movies from the Universal misters stable through sequels or 'guest appearances'.

  

But no, I won't mention those points…… I will though say simply that the impact on first seeing 'Frankenstein' as a young teenager was huge in regard to filling my world with amazing monsters and demons. To this day I can still recall the sense of shock and pleasure I felt on seeing those movies, particularly the first time I was allowed to stay up late and watch 'Frankenstein'. A result of which that night had me charging up the stairs to my room after the end-credits in an almost delicious blind panic that the monster would be waiting under my bed…..and no, I didn't dare look…….and do you know what? They have stood the test of time.

You may note that in the list below of my 5 favourite movies from Universal horror, that there is no entry or mention of a certain Transylvanian male vampire. This may or may not be controversial for some, but while Bela Lugosi's gave one of the iconic performances as Count Dracula, overall the film is actually rather disappointing. With the exception of a couple of performances, the majority of the cast are simply not very good. Moreover, whilst the iconic Gothic appearance of the film is there, the camera work is shoddy and lazy and there really isn't very much tension at any point in the film.

So anyone reading this may feel free to disagree with this list. But be warned, if you do I may just have to send my hunch-backed assistant out to collect you in the middle of the night…..Muraahahahahahaaaaaaa!

Frankenstein (1931)

"We are about to unfold the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create a man after his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation – life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even – horrify you. So if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now's your chance to – uh, well, we warned you."

There we have a rather courteous notice of intent before the opening credits of perhaps the most visually and stylistically iconic movies of all time about the scientist  who builds an artificial man by using parts from stolen bodies. He succeeds, with the aid of an electrical storm, in bringing the creature to life but, because his assistant has provided the brain of a criminal, the creation proves impossible to control. Eventually the monster escapes, accidentally killing a small girl, and is pursued and apparently slain by angry villagers in the most energised of movie climaxes.

The movie features a stunning performance from a previously little-known English actor who was born by the name of William Pratt, better known as Boris Karloff who gave intricate texture to a character that could have been laughed off the screen. In the end he produced a pathetic and entirely sympathetic creation that has been a template for monster portrayal in cinema ever since.

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Arguably a rare example of a movie sequel superior to the original and in my personal top10 movies of all time, Karloff reprises his role as the lumbering yet dignified monster. In the film, Dr Frankenstein is is now tormented by his previous actions and  an unenthusiastic assistant to Dr Pretorius, his former mentor who is now pursuing his own creations of new life.

The delicious Elsa Lanchester, adds a  touchingly mystified and vulnerable  performance as the Bride who his immediately horrified by her own existence. The last horror film directed by James Whale features an evocative and powerful musical score that only further make this production of the finest and most touching cinematic productions of any era. 

The Wolf Man (1941)

Although it is predated by an earlier Wolf Man film (The 1935 Werewolf Of London), this movie is regarded as the benchmark for inventing the cinematic werewolf legend, The ethereal atmospheres, complex scenes and another atmospheric musical score combine to make this a showpiece of the genre. The Wolf Man is a classic Universal horror movie, equal in every way in being as  influential as Dracula or Frankenstein, complete with a sad and reflective script by Curt Siodmak and memorable performances from Lon Chaney Jnr, Claude Rains and Bela Lugosi .

          


                                                               

    Dracula's Daughter (1936)

As I've previously mentioned, to some people It may be almost blasphemous  to say that the the original is actually a rather poor movie and that, Dracula's Daughter is a total improvement over the original….but in my opinion, its true. Gloria Holden is gloriously sexy as the Countess Marya Zaleska, who steals her her father's body from the authorities in the hope of cleansing her family from the horror of that nasty Vampire behaviour by burning his body. Of course, she is unable to resist the lure of the blood, in particular the blood of female victims which adds an interesting undertone of vampire Lesbianism that set the tone for Hammer productions some years later.

The movie cleverly contains range off inventive inclusions, apart from the lesbian subtext,comedy too is interjected.  Dracula's Daughter is  a gem that is often overlooked in the pantheon of Dracula-lore and should be regarded among the most peerless of the Universal horror films.

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

In my humble opinion, the last great release from Universal Monsters . A scientific expedition searching for fossils along the Amazon River discover a prehistoric Gill-Man in the legendary Black Lagoon. The travellers take prisoner the strange creature, but ( this being the Universal monsters universe) it naturally breaks free, returning to kidnap  Kay ( played by the delicious Julie Adams), fiancée of one of the expedition members, with whom it has become infatuated. The movie has provided another enduring legacy, finding itself referenced in both the movie medium and the general public consciousness. Featuring a wonderfully designed monster, this is an is an enduring tribute to the imaginative brilliance other Universal creators. A truly stunning epitaph for Universal monsters.

LEVEL 7

“Divided we live, united we die!” 

Most of us have certain books that provide a special resonance in our lives. Perhaps the book provides a meaning or explanation for our own life or some insight into society or wider human existence. Perhaps it represents a turning point in ones intellectual or artistic development. Or possibly, it may be a special book that simply provided escape from reality when we needed it most.

For me, in the case of this science fiction novel, it was probably the last two reasons as to why I fell in love, as a 16 year old boy with this somewhat bleak story of Nuclear Armageddon. 

Yes, once again we return to the subject of a dystopian future following the destruction of the planet……...

Level 7 is a book by the American writer Mordecai Roshwald written in 1959. The story takes the form of  the diary by Officer X-127, who is assigned responsibility to control the  "Push Buttons," a machine intended to set in motion the atomic destruction of the enemy - whoever they may be, in the country’s deepest emergency shelter four thousand feet underground. 
Level 7 has been built to withstand the most devastating nuclear offensive and to be completely self-sufficient to be able to function for up to five hundred years. Officer X-127, like the rest of the military personnel inhabitants of the shelter, has been selected according to a psychological profile that assures their willingness to obey their orders and essentially destroy all life on the planet. 

X-127 duly receives his orders to push the nuclear bomb buttons to begin the third world war , for which the duration of is merely a staggering total of just 2 hours and 58 minutes. As of that moment, the civilian population moves from the surface of the planet to a collection of underground shelter complexes on the the first 5 levels, while the military personnel already inhabit Levels 6 and 7. It later emerges that the orders given to blow the other side to pieces have been completely automated and that World War III has lasted less than three hours as a series of computer responses to an initial innocent misunderstanding between the two enemies. 

As the story progresses we learn that , the inhabitants are becoming affected by the war. Some of the military personal begin to question their blind obedience to their leaders - the most obvious case being the case of X-117 ( a friend of X-127) who commits suicide after he becomes overcome with guilt. Even here, the complete certainly of X-127 isn't shaken. "He certainly wasn't the right kind of man for Level 7" he says to himself. A couple from Level 3 go out to report on conditions, and are dead within 5 days, finding nothing but ash and darkness. In a short space of time, other civilians begin to be affected as the inhabitants of the surviving top shelters systematically begin to meet their deaths, as the surface radiation makes its way down past air filters and into ground water sources.

Level 7 has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the decades since it was written and should be quite rightly considered a masterpiece alongside such pieces of work as Huxley's 'Brave new World'  as an example of anti-Utopian literature. It is easily the most powerful and remorseless attack on the whole nuclear madness that any work of fiction has ever produced. Take for example the passage where X-127 states that the neutral countries in the war have asked for information on the make-up of the weapons so that they can effectively try to take care of their populations as best they can. Both X-127's country and the enemy refuse, on the grounds that it may mean giving some of their own secrets away.

The book real genius of the book is that it is  written in such a way to prevent the reader from identifying which side is which. References to society are structured as to be just as relevant to notions of Western democracy as to the construct of soviet Union society. Nor does the novel hint at any geographical references or individual names. It is left to us, the reader. Leaving the identification of nationality as ambiguous at best only emphasises to the book's themes of dehumanisation and blind obedience to authority and the illogicality of nuclear warfare. 

Yes at times it is grim and harrowing. It is a masterpiece warning against the stupidity of mutual destruction and a book that has as much impact on me now as it did to that 16 year old boy many moons ago.

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

"This is the story of two worlds, the one we know and another which exists only in the mind of a young airman whose life and imagination have been violently shaped by war", adding "Any resemblance to any other world known or unknown is purely coincidental". 

This is perhaps my favourite movie of all time. It was made by the British production team of Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger  in 1946 and is arguably one of their most stylish and sophisticated achievements, and incidentally, Powell's own personal favourite.  This is part fantasy, part romance, part surrealist courtroom drama. 

David Niven plays Peter Carter, a British Royal Air Force pilot trying to fly a badly damaged Lancaster bomber home after a mission over Germany. He has his crew bail out safely, realising that it is the end for him as there in no parachute left for himself. During his last moments alive he decides to talk to anyone out there who might be at the other end of the radio, and finds to June, a young American woman working for the USAAF. They are immediately attracted to each other. 
Peter jumps from his plane rather than burn to death and wakes up in the surf. We soon learn  from Conductor 71, played by the magnificent Marius Goring who quite simply steals the movie, that Peter should have died at this point. Conductor 71 is the guide sent to escort him to the 'Other World'. The problem is that the conductor missed him in the thick fog over the English channel. 

By the time the Conductor catches up with him 20 hours later, Peter and June have met and fallen in love. Conductor 71 stops time to spell out he predicament to Peter and urge him to accept his death and accompany him to the 'Other World '. However, Peter demands that the whole situation be appealed  as his life hangs in the balance through no fault of his own. He appears before a celestial court to plea for a second chance at life, with the always excellent Raymond Massey, an English-loathing American revolutionary, as the prosecuting council.

The cinematography by Jack Cardiff is truly stunning. Particularly impressive is the inspired contrast from the monochromatic textures given to the scenes played in heaven, and the coloured ones when the scenes come back to earth ( completely reversing the contrast of colour and black & white in 'The Wizard of Oz'.)  The black and white sequence that involves the long staircase to 'the other world' is often regarded as landmark in movie production.The cast, led by the magnificent David Niven, provide a tour-de-force in acting.

In an interesting side-note - Powell & Pressburger consciously never referred to "the other world" as heaven, as they felt that was too restrictive and limiting. The explicit statement at the beginning of the film ( & at the top of this page) only adds to the ambiguity of whether the other world portrayed is part of the world we know or part of Peter's hallucinations.

Ironically, when the film was distributed in the USA was renamed 'Stairway to Heaven' .The distributor believed that American audiences would not want to see a film with the word "Death" in the title, especially just after World War II. As a consequence, the ambiguity that Powell & Pressburger wanted for the destination of life after death was lost.

The movie is a classic of British cinema - a true gem. Below is the whole film split into 2 segments - if you have the time, enjoy this marvellous Fantasy film.

Part one

Part two

LA JETEE

The French short movie that inspired Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, Chris Marker's La jetée is a watershed of science-fiction film making, a 28-minute masterpiece told almost entirely in still frames. 

"The victors stood guard over an empire of rats."

Set in the near future, the Earth has barely survived an all encompassing nuclear holocaust, which has driven the remnants of humanity underground. The division between victor and vanquished is rather meaningless under these circumstances, yet there are those who subjugate others. With minimal resources, scientists entombed beneath the ruins of Paris are searching for salvation through the single avenue left open - Time. 

"His is the story of a man, marked by an image from his childhood. The violent scene that upsets him, and whose meaning he was to grasp only years later, happened on the main jetty at Orly, the Paris airport, sometime before the outbreak of World War III." 

The film goes on to tell the story of an unnamed man whose vivid childhood recollections of witnessing an unknown man die on an airport jetty and finding himself gazing into the entrancing face of a young woman, make him the perfect guinea pig for an experiment in time travel. 

"He was frightened. He had heard about the Head Experimenter. He was prepared to meet Dr. Frankenstein, or the Mad Scientist. Instead, he met a reasonable man who explained calmly that the human race was doomed. Space was off-limits. The only hope for survival lay in Time. A loophole in Time, and then maybe it would be possible to reach food, medicine, sources of energy."

After a lengthy and nightmarish period of conditioning at he hands of his subjugators, he is sent into the past, where he falls in love with the woman whom he once saw on the Jetty.

 At the experiment's successful conclusion After his successful passages to the past, the experimenters attempt to send him into the far future. In a brief meeting with the technologically advanced people of the future, he is given a power unit sufficient to regenerate his own destroyed society.

"Sometime after his return, he was transferred to another part of the camp. He knew that his jailers would not spare him. He had been a tool in their hands, his childhood image had been used as bait to condition him, he had lived up to their expectations, he had played his part. Now he only waited to be liquidated with, somewhere inside him, the memory of a twice-lived fragment of time."

Upon his return, with his mission accomplished, he discerns that he is to be executed by his jailers. He is visited by an advanced race, who offer him the opportunity to journey into their future world, but he instead requests that they send him permanently into the past, where he can remain with the woman of his dreams. He is returned and does find her, on the jetty at the airport. However, as he rushes to her, he notices an agent of his jailers who has followed him and realises the agent is about to kill him.

"Once again the main jetty at Orly, in the middle of this warm pre-war Sunday afternoon where he could not stay, he though in a confused way that the child he had been was due to be there too, watching the planes."

 In his final moments, he comes to understand that the incident which he witnessed as a child, which has tormented him for his whole life, was his own death.

Le Jetee - the full movie

The first time I saw this movie it was hidden away on some obscure cable channel. I was in my mid 20’s and it made an ineradicable impression which has never left. In fact it would be safe to say that La Jetee has become something of an obsession, a piece of art that I find myself returning to an a regular basis. It never fails to move me in its powerful depiction of the end of the world, human love and memory. 
In the original, the French narration adds to the poetic subtlety and drama. The version on here is the best quality available online, but with English narration. Hopefully, the original French version with English subtitles will be made available, as it seems to add a little more to the overall ambiance and feel of the movie. It certainly doesn't mean that the English translation for this version spoils the experience in any way.

I have heard it mentioned more than once that this film would be best described as avante-gard in nature. To me that description is disingenuous because it is actually a foremost example of how science fiction and drama can be constructed with style and fine distinctions, instead of a reliance on special effects.

This, then, is the La Jetée, a masterpiece of simple visual art. If you've never seen this movie, I implore you to watch the 2 parts above which form together to produce this classic of science fiction.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Without doubt, a classic of a television series ran from 1959 to 1964. It has been much copied and while some have come close, never equaled in it's use of  sci-fi/fantasy fables which examine all our deep seated ( and in some cases, not so deep seated) desires, fears, prides and bigotries.


The Twilight Zone regularly featured a who's who of established and soon to be established character actors such William Shatner, Dennis Hopper, Carol Burnett, James Coburn, Burgess Meredith and Buster Keaton.

The series was re-made in the latte 1980's to mixed results and reviews, as was the much vaunted movie adaptation in 1983 produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis.  But it's the inventive and often daring original series that originally blew my mind and in many respects still does today.

So here, in no particular order, are my top 5 episodes of this classic television series



1) Nightmare at 20,000 feet. (Season 5)

 Ok, so i fibbed a little - this my all time number one favourite TZ episode….

It features a terrific performance from William Shatner ( who just MAY pop up in the odd future blog or two). He plays a man who has just been released from a mental hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown and is flying home with his wife. Things begin normally enough on the flight but he but soon discovers that there’s some thing on the wing of the plane, and it seems to be trying to bring the flight down!. A beautifully played episode shows how fragile sanity can be, especially in those moments when you're trying to convince everybody that you're in the right and instead they think you're going coo coo ( not a strict psychological term I may add….).



2) Time enough at last. (Season 1)

Henry Bemis has just one wish in life, to spend his time reading, but in a world ( along with his wide and employer) that constantly demands his attention and which doesn't understand his love for reading, he can never seem to find the time.  Safely secured in a bank vault, Bemis is protected from a devastating nuclear blast that appears to annihilate the human race. Now Bemis has all the time he needs to read anything and everything
This story is an absolute classic personification of loneliness and heartbreak with another stand-out leading performance, this time from that great character actor,  Burgess Meredith). A twist near the ending of this episode means that you have no choice in watching  it for yourself.



3) Nick of Time. (Season 2)

This is the 2nd second episode to feature a pre-Star Trek William Shatner. This time he appears as one half of a newly-wed couple, who are on their way by car  to the city of New York. Their car breaks down, and while waiting at a local diner, they find a small fortune telling device on their table that will bestow predictions for a penny. This being the Twilight Zone, the predictions come true, and the couple  must battle with the temptations of knowing the future, and how that knowledge can impact on their own future choices . The two eventually leave, defying the will of the fortune teller, while another couple takes their place, and seemingly at its will until the end of time.

Its a another excellent story dealing with the notion of freewill, obsession and our never ending quest for answers about the meaning of life. (the answer to which is 42, but more about that in a future blog!).

4) It's a good life. (Season 3)

A monster has laid siege to a small town, cutting it off from the outside world. Residents are so petrified that they do nothing but feign happiness in an attempt to please the monster, who can read their every thought and emotion. If the monster is displeased, he grotesquely disfigures the residents or sends them into the cornfield, where their fate is unclear….but terrible. 

Soon we meet this monster, who turns out to be he is a blue-eyed, angelic looking young boy called Anthony. On a personal level, this episode is a close to a horror story that TZ ever produced. A near perfect example in how to scare a viewer with things simply left unseen, or unsaid. We never learn what is in the terrifying cornfield or what exactly the boy Anthony has done to make the entire population of the town fearful of his mere presence. Rather, it’s the look of horror on the faces of the townspeople at the prospect of someone upsetting Anthony that tells the entire story. A classic analogy of the power that real life figures of authority can induce.

5) A stop at Willoughby. (Season 1)

Gart Williams, a 38 year old businessman, is distressed by his job pressured by his wife. In short, he is on the edge of complete despair.. His only time of calm takes place on his daily train ride home, where he wakes up one day with the carriage transformed into one from the 1800s, pulled up at Willoughby. This is not a town with which he's familiar. It's certainly not a stop on his commuter trip from hell to hell each day. But one look out the window mesmerises him, softens him, appeals to him. A band concert is playing in the town oval. People are enjoying leisurely strolls. Boys are carrying fishing poles on the way to the local pond. It's idyllic. 

As things progressively worsen at home and at work, his stops become longer, tempting him to step off the train and into a more peaceful era. Eventually after having a meltdown at the office and irreconcilable differences with his wife, he takes the final step, and climbs out of the train at Willoughby, dropping his briefcase and being embraced by the inhabitants. The scene then cuts to a train conductor standing over his body on the side of the rails, saying that he yelled something about Willoughby before jumping from the cart. With that, his body is loaded into a stretcher, and taken to Willoughby & Son Funeral Home.

As in the best of the TZ episodes, it both taps into all our dreams from time to time of a more idyllic place to live, while also providing us a moment of revelation in the end with a dash of ambiguity that some might call tragic while others might see it as hopeful.

EPILOGUE

The Twilight Zone" brought a complexity and maturity to television that had never existed before and probably hasn't been seen since. The stories were nearly always ironic, inventive, and fascinating, and they often came with a moral lesson without ever preaching to the audience.The writers, Rod Sterling, Beaumont, and Matheson, were the best of their ( and many other) era.