Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (1979)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (1979) – G. Kromanov

I happened to be on Letterboxd and was checking out what some of the people I follow were watching and film critic Glenn Kenny had this one on his recently watched list (and he gave it five stars with a three word review: “more mind expansion”).  This piqued my interest but I could only find it at the internet archive.  It’s an Estonian film from 1979, so it has that 70s vibe (real phones with cords, European fashion/habits).  You might say it is a film noir (in colour) or perhaps it is one of those murder mysteries that takes place in a hotel where all of the guests are suspects.  This hotel is high in the mountains and the plot includes an avalanche that cuts off power and the roads and keeps everyone there, including the police inspector who got a mysterious call-out only to find that there was no crime to solve.  (An anonymous note soon advises him that a murder is about to be committed).  There is the usual allotment of suspects: a businessman and his flirtatious wife, a canoodling young couple, a paranoid man with TB, a physicist with an obsession about aliens, and then there’s the hotel proprietor and a Saint Bernard (rescued from the Dead Mountaineer who lent his name to the hotel).  Against the odds, the film held my interest when one of the young folks is found dead and the detective (Uldis Pucitis) begins to question the suspects.  Odd events start to pile up (including the arrival of a half-dead “foreigner” who seems to have a link to some of the guests) -- and then, somehow, everything gets very weird: as in, who thunk this (!) in 1979 (!).  Stay for the finale – it’s worth it!

 

Shoot the Piano Player (1960)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Shoot the Piano Player (1960) – F. Truffaut

A long time ago when I first explored the Nouvelle Vague, I thought this, Truffaut’s second feature, was pretty great, with its mix of old-timey silent film techniques, gangster plot, and French sensibility.  Revisiting it now (possibly for only my second viewing), I’m less confident that it is as great as I thought.  Not that it is bad or even average, it’s just been eclipsed by other more interesting films (perhaps).  French singing legend Charles Aznavour is a funny choice for lead, an introverted character whose thoughts we read more than hear him speak (as someone who has fled his previous fame as a concert pianist, although his thoughts do not explain this); his love life dominates the plot as much as the kidnapping of his younger brother by gangsters.  It’s bittersweet – possibly an influence on Wes Anderson – and graced with a melancholy ending that changes how the film is perceived. Writing this a week later and, acknowledging the film’s lack of predictability and its new wave features, I conclude it may be more enjoyable to reflect on than to watch. Or perhaps I just need to watch it again.

 

The Substance (2024)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Substance (2024) – C. Fargeat

While I am definitely on board with the central theme here (essentially “women are judged on their looks, objectified, sexualized”), the film felt too chilly or clinical for me and, let’s face it, it descended into a silly mess by the end.  Demi Moore makes a late career comeback (even if she never really went away) as Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading star relegated to aerobics videos who is tempted to take an underground drug that creates a new younger version of herself (“Sue” played by Margaret Qualley), apparently by some sort of genetic fission. Naturally, there are rules around the “use” of this younger self:  they must rotate every seven days, although there are some ways around this which Sue soon exploits.  It’s not subtle but the entertainment industry (and presumably the public at large) treats young Sue and older Elisabeth very differently (even though we are reminded that they are really one and the same) and the pressures they feel are similarly different.  Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat aptly doesn’t restrict things to the male gaze (epitomized by TV producer Dennis Quaid) but explores the competition for that gaze that is experienced by women (who would be hard-pressed to swim against the societal tide and rewards, forced to choose between becoming complicit or rejected; I exaggerate but you know).  Sounds great as a plot and premise, especially for those who like horror or sci-fi, but, yes, it doesn’t really land the finish, except in the most outré way imaginable, which I guess will cement its reputation as a cult film for all time.  

Flow (2024)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Flow (2024) – G. Zilbalodis

Latvian (though wordless) animated feature which won the 2025 Oscar and Golden Globe in that category. It’s hard not to see echoes of Studio Ghibli throughout the film (though which Miyazaki film is being referenced seems to keep changing) or perhaps Dreamworks (those lemurs!).  We follow a feral cat (no owners appear at least) on an epic-feeling journey when the world is suddenly flooded. Shades of Noah’s Ark perhaps but if there are other religious overtones, apart from a “let’s be friends and work together” vibe, then I missed them. Perhaps it is a plea for harmony amidst diversity (cat, capybara, tall birds, lemurs, dogs)? The cast spends most of the film on a boat, time on the water adding to the sense of “flow” – rarely does the motion stop. But as the film neared the end of its run time, we started to wonder where it was going to end up (perhaps like 2001: A Space Odyssey?).  In other words, what’s the point?  Ultimately, maybe it’s just some gorgeous animation for us to enjoy (although some in this household felt there was a disconnect between the detailed environments and the stylized/less realistic animals while others felt this was an artistic choice).  Worth letting it flow over you.

 

The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964) – J. Stefano

Writer-Director Joseph Stefano wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) but nothing else at that level of prominence.  This 80-minute TV-movie was apparently the pilot for a series that never got made, starring Martin Landau as an architect/psychic investigator. He lives in an incredibly stylish house jutting out over a cliff-face overlooking the ocean. Although this was the pilot, he’s already established and the plot revolves around events from a previous case (in which an American tourist is killed by the bleeding ghost of Sierra de Cobre) and in particular the presence of Judith Anderson (the housekeeper from Hitch’s Rebecca, 1940) as the new housekeeper to blind Tom Sincox (and new wife Diane Baker who hired Landau) who thinks his late mother is telephoning him from beyond the grave (she had a phone installed in her tomb).  If you were 10 or 11 years old, this might have scared the bejeezus out of you, if you caught it on TV.  Pretty creepy, even spooky, until the plot seems to wrap up abruptly in the final 10 minutes. That’s probably how the TV series would have been too.

 

Following (1998)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Following (1998) – C. Nolan

Christopher Nolan’s low-budget B&W debut feature is a noir-ish trial run for his more successful bigger budget chronological cut-ups (such as Memento, 2000, or Inception, 2010). A young man who may be called Bill (Jeremy Theobald) decides to follow strangers on a whim, possibly because he’s bored, possibly to find fodder for his hoped-for writing career.  This is a great weird premise. However, soon the plot shifts when Bill is confronted by one of his targets (Alex Haw), who turns out to be a philosophical thief, robbing people’s apartments more to see what sort of things they have hidden away than to make money. As the film progresses, we start to see short inter-cut scenes (Bill with shorter hair in a suit, Bill with a swollen eye, etc.) hinting at some future or past events. We even see Bill interacting with a potential femme fatale (Lucy Russell) before we see him rob her flat. When the usual Nolan (or film noir) twists begin to pile up, it’s slightly difficult to keep track of what’s happened (the DVD version apparently contains a cut that reshuffles scenes into chronological order).  But for 70 minutes, it’s easy to take, even if the overall feel is sort of amateurish (although that does add a weird sensation to the proceedings, as if it might be real).  

 

The Long Hair of Death (1964)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Long Hair of Death (1964) – A. Margheriti

Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (1960) starring Barbara Steele is a personal favourite and also a template of sorts for this film. In fact, it seems as though Italian horror spent the entire decade in mildewy damp castles (such as 1964’s Castle of Blood, also directed by Anthony Dawson a. k. a. Antonio Margheriti, probably shot on the same set as this one) with Steele as the haunted heroine or more likely an evil witch or ghost or demon (sometimes playing more than one role). As with Hammer films in the U. K., the sets and costumes – the mise en scene as a whole – are often the highpoint of the film with the plot a gauzy tissue holding together a few shocking setpieces.  The Long Hair of Death (great title!) begins and ends with people getting burnt to death.  In between, it’s a bit dreary.  The plot goes something like this: a suspected witch is burnt at the stake by a debauched lord with lecherous intent; her older daughter (Steele) is also killed but a much younger daughter lives and is adopted by the evil lord’s family, eventually marrying his spoiled son.  And then, somehow, Steele returns (from the dead) and leads the lord’s son astray and through a lot of secret passages. The film looks great but I recommend you start with Black Sunday (or even Castle of Blood) first.