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.