UNIT 1 MOVIES REVIEW- LA BELLE ET LA BETE, 1942

LA BELLE ET LA BETE, 1942, Dir. Jean Cocteau

My first approach of this fairy tale was through Disney as “Beauty and the Beast”. When I was young, I didn’t really understand the meaning of love, yet I could understand the strong bond between the Beauty and the Beast. On the contrary to the colourful world and lively characters made by Disney, in La Belle et la bete, it has a strong, dark theatrical presence, and the characters act like they are on stage.

The story is but familiar to all of us, to help her father escapes death, the Beauty, Belle has to live with a beast in its cursed castle, where all the servants are speaking objects. Though saying the beast would take Belle’s life instead of her father, it asks her to marry it every night. While strongly opposes to the proposal, Belle gradually reveals the curtain behind the beast and the cursed castle. Eventually, she sees the human side of the beast and grows fond of him. Then at the end when she knows the beast is deeply in love with her, she realizes she also has fallen for it. Then all of a sudden, the beast turns into a beautiful prince. It is a fairy tale, is it not.

The moral of the movie is that love can triumphant outer appearance, as long as the two can see each other soul and devoted for each other. What I learn from watching the movie and life itself is that life would never be like fairy tale, the one you love would never *pop* in all sudden becomes beautiful, but to you, when you have fallen in love, he or she is the most gorgeous.

There is one more out-of-topic thing I think about when writing the reflection. Despite being the fearsome beast, it has a man heart, a man soul inside. Here is when I remember people say that inside a man there is always a beast. People you meet always appear nice at first, but when things come to light, they always have a motive behind what they do, a smirk masked in a friendly smile, a claws paw masked in a firm handshake. Girls like nice men, but why are nice? They want girls, right. So is making it the other way around actually better, when you can only see the true soul after all the courage to look into the beast’s fur?

I also thought about inside the beast, there is a soul of a man, but inside the man there is a beast, just like looking at a mirror in front of you reflecting you and a mirror behind. It won’t stop reflecting. Like when you realise, men are beasts after all. This is way too irrelevant from the movie reviews, but I think it’s ok to express my thought in my blog.

UNIT 1 MOVIES REVIEW- The Fly 1986

THE FLY 1989, Dir. David Cronenberg 

I remember watching this film when I was a little kid and it was one of the first horror movies I have ever seen. My eyes were open the whole time without flinching (except all the erotic scenes- mom’s order). I was probably too young to be scared and absolutely believed everything happened in the movie was all real. Because it was such an epic movie that nearly 15 years later, I still can remember I watched it, and this time I can come up with a review.

The movie is a remake of the original version made in 1958 by Director Neumann, so the plot can’t go far from that. There is one genius scientist supposed to get his Nobel Prize by inventing a transport machine that would help mankind overcome distances, a gorgeous journalist in love with him, and, well, a fly. I would not want to say much about the plot here like the previous review about the original Fly, because in my point of view, the revolution of the Remake comes from its special effects: The transformation. As I mention I believed absolutely what my eyes could see in the movie 15 years ago, one of it is because I was a kid, yes, the other is the awesome-realistic effects of the transformation. It was amazing how the man changes his human shape everyday- eventually into a human-fly. First it was his strength ( I wanted to snap my opponent’s wrist when arm wrestling just like him, once), Then it was his temper- he becomes arrogant, hot-head and selfish- then finally, his changes in appearance kick-in. The way Cronenberg makes the scientist’s human parts such as teeth, finger nails, ears etc- which excessive to a fly- get rotten and fall off, are so grossly realistic. He successfully makes us understand how the man’s internal organs are changing so dramatically just by the way outer appearance changes. It affects me a lot I have to admit that I think it is the most realistic transformation I have ever seen. Comparing to the plastic fly head the original scientist wears three decades ago to the wobbling human-fly at the end of the Remake, it is indeed one big leap.

UNIT 1 MOVIES REVIEW- The Fly 1958

THE FLY 1958, Dir. Kurt Neumann

This was the first time I was shown a classic movie and got to watch to the credit. Surprisingly, it was a pleasant experience. I am a movie lunatic, ever since I have pocket money I have been to the cinema. Watching The Fly original makes me see that all of the present greatest movies become that epic thanks to the early generations.

With that said, here comes my reviews of The Fly. The movie is about the genius scientist who wants to help the humanity overcomes distant difficulties by inventing a teleporting machine. Everything is fine from transporting objects from a dish to cool champagne bottle. Until the scientist himself gets in the port, he is brought disaster by a fly which somehow gets its way in the port. Voila, oh I mean, he merges with the fly and becomes a monster. While his mind being slowly eaten away by the insect’s instinct (I suppose?), he tries to save himself with the help of his wife, to catch the white-head-fly, which escapes after merging with the scientist, then he can teleport himself with the fly again, in hope of recovering. Later on, in my own opinion, it is a bit ironic when everyone trying to catch a fly in such tense atmosphere and with anxious faces. Well, all well ends well, in this case, the beginning is already reveals that she kills her husband, so we kind of predict everything before we see the scientist smashes himself under the pressure machine. However, the ending is really amazing, when we see the small version of the scientist- which is the white fly- screaming for help while trapping in a spider web (with a drooling spider approaching him, yes). This scene is quite affecting to me, but I thought for myself, why would he know how to yell help but couldn’t find his way back to his big version (because this one can’t yell help?) and stupid enough to get into a spider web? Well, I guess explaining logic for movie sequences is stupid.

What I see in The Fly 1958 is that it is one of the roots of all the great movies nowadays. From the beginning to the end, from the tense atmosphere, to the horrified surprises come from the movie that that Director Neumann succeeds in making the watchers feel, we can clearly see that most modern horror movies are highly praised thanks to theirs innovation from these classic movies. I can’t praise The Fly if I compare it to the modern movies obviously, so I just say that; had I lived in 1950s and got to watch The Fly, I would have cried for mommy.

UNIT 1 MOVIES REVIEW- THE ELEPHANT MAN, 1980

THE ELEPHANT MAN, 1980, Dir. David Lynch

The movie is a touching story about the life of a heavily deformed man from being “considered animal” in a freak show to his thrives to become a normal man accepted by people and the 1980s London’s society itself.

 John Merrick, the elephant man, discovered from a Victorian freak show festival by Doctor Frederick Treves, is not considered human by people and is treated as an animal for amusement purpose. Despite his appearance, he is a normal man with a sensitive soul. With the help of Treves, John is brought away from the freak show and proven to public that he is a man like anyone else, with the right to live as one.

"I am not an animal.... I... am... a... MAN!"

Saying that when cornered by the crowd thinking that he is an animal in human clothes, it makes people think of the harsh world we live in where people judge others by the cover- not the inside. The victim and the doctor have to stand up to the society which keeps denying his rights to be human. Here is when I thought if everyone looks like an elephant; a normal person would be an animal. It all comes down to people’s prejudgment by their eyes and what they believe. The story is moved because the man behind the deformed appearance proves himself to be an intelligent and sensitive man- he is more human than those out there that don’t accept him.

UNIT 1 MOVIES REVIEW- A COMPANY OF WOLVES, 1984

A COMPANY OF WOLVES, 1984, Dir. Neil Jordan

I have to say right away at the beginning of my review is that I was astounded the way the man transformed into the wolf!

The story based on the Red-riding hood- but way different from the original children fairy tale. I think it is fantastic the way a fairy tale could turn perfectly into a horror movie. “A company of wolves” is about a village deep in the wood inhabited by wolves, and were wolves- which described in the movie- as grandmother tells tales to her grand-daughter: there are wolves that “hairy on the outside” and wolves that “hairy on the inside” which implied were wolves in human form. The movie has a mysterious atmosphere that fascinated the watchers, and the tales about the wolves and the wood always intriguing and uncomprehend (too mysterious to comprehend for me though).

I especially like the transformation scenes, when the lost-husband transforms parts by parts to a hairy wolf, the change of the human anatomy to that of the beast is extremely realistic and logistic. However, I was not quite impressed about the story. The teenage grand-daughter is just too sexually inviting the opposite sex (including the were-wolves) and always wanders about the wood after hearing all the “precaution” tales. She greets strange man with such carelessness and totally sexually aroused. Perhaps the scenes when she sees her parents make out at night somewhat affects her. Yet taking a liking with a handsome but furry were-wolf that claws off her grandmother head is not making much sense to me.

UNIT 1 MOVIES REVIEW- CAT PEOPLE, 1942

CAT PEOPLE, 1942, Dir. Jacques Tourneur,

First thought comes to me when beginning to watch this movie, “is it because of this movie people often call women, “cats”? “ (then I thought “what about chicks then?” but that’s irrelevant here). It makes me excited to watch the movie, because I always believe that the way our world today is thanks to all those classic movies which greatly affects the later generations. But I was quite disappointed. The movie doesn’t have any affecting moment which would last long for generations of movies, all I could see is the implied sexuality between men-woman and animal instinct.

The story is about a beautiful Serbian artist who believes she inherits a curse of her village that she would turn into a panther the moment she arouses emotionally. Then she meets Oliver, a man she loves and then they get married. After being told about the curse by a mysterious woman claimed to be her sister, Irena then refuses to get intimate with her husband. Oliver then takes Irena to a psychiatrist to cure her of the fear- but the psychiatrist seems fond of the lady panther-to-be. Things begin to get worse when Irena gets jealous with Oliver’s co-worker Alice and then begin to stalk her- as a panther. Alice then contacts the psychiatrist to be careful about Irena, but he just makes the worst happens: he kisses Irena. The lady then turns into a panther and kill the psychiatrist. She then goes to the zoo to commit suicide by letting another panther kills her.

I don’t have any strong feelings about this movie really, and I felt disappointed about the transformation of Irena into the Jaguar (as I was waiting for it). The movie was around sexual emotions of men and women, which is the ‘basic instinct’, and when unable to fulfil the need leads to disorder.

My review about this movie is crap.

Big Eared Bat transformation

10%: Begin to change, muscles tense up

 30%: Bone structures change substantially, at some parts ripping through fleshes.

 70%: Flesh shattered due to the rapid changing of bone structures, Spine lengthened ,ripped through flesh and shows out

 Face changes into that of a bat, human jaw structure is excess to bat so it was ripped out. Eye sockets widened and getting out of the far sides of the skull, whereas ears extended size swiftly. Nose gets bigger to resemble that of the big-eared bat. Hair coming out and dropping off due to fast-changing.

 The transformation process slowed down and stopped, I have become a big-eard bat-winged human.

 First image when idea comes out, really influenced by the Fly-remake

...I actually want to make myself into 'this' though: