Friday, October 12, 2012

The Hunger

R.I.P. Tony Scott.  Even though I don’t think you made the greatest movies I love you man.  You could’ve called if you wanted to talk.  I was here for you Tony.

This one was Scott’s first film and it’s really interesting.  There’s this vampire named Miriam (Catherine Deneuve (Repulsion)) who has a lover, also a vampire, named John (David Bowie (music shit)).  They’ve been together for hundreds of years but suddenly John ages decades in a single day.  Miriam puts him away in a box (coffin?) because he’s gotten to the point where he can’t really move much but he’s still alive.  In order to get a new companion Miriam goes after Sarah (Susan Sarandon (The Client, White Palace)), a doctor specializing in accelerated aging.

So we’re really at a transition point here and for most of the movie I thought it was an odd yet fascinating position to tell this story from.  Usually with these vampire flicks one blood sucker turns someone at the beginning (Interview with the Vampire) or attempts to put the bite on their target at the end (Dracula) so we have a whole picture with these characters.  Here the second most important role gets switched half way through.  But it’s not disappointing or awkward.  Instead it comes off refreshing.

However the story isn’t exactly the most important thing with this one.  I know that sounds pretty fucking stupid but just hang on a sec.  This is a mood piece.  The cinematography is some of the best I’ve seen and it was done by Stephen Goldblatt  who did Lethal Weapon 1 & 2, Young Sherlock Holmes, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin and Striptease.  Jesus, that’s a resume.  But of course it’s all under the direction of Tony Scott.  He definitely took some heavy influence from his brother Ridley.  There are tons of shadows, creative lighting, plenty of smoke and haze, dull blue and black colors with splashes of bright red thrown in for wonderful effect, great imposing and also personal camera work.  Scarves, birds, cages and other shit are put directly in front of the camera layering your view and there are good performances all around from the cast.  Scott and Goldblatt paint a beautiful picture for us to look at.

And also the editing is fucking crazy.  The first ten minutes or so are especially off the wall.  Almost Terrence Malick-y.  It’s more about a feeling and how the images add up as a whole than one particular shot and I dig that.

The music and sound design is yet another awesome feature of this movie.  The song played at the beginning, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus, is the perfect way to set this thing up.  It’s washed out, punkish and pretty gothy.  The rest of the soundtrack is either classical or sound effects and it all works surprisingly incredibly well.

I don’t want to leave out the makeup effects either or “make up illusions” as it says in the credits.  Holy shit do they look good.  They nailed the aging Bowie and rotting corpses.  Miriam with her pale complexion, vivid red lips and gold blonde hair is treated with just as much care.      

The ending was really great too.  This is where those make up effects blossom fully into damn creepy imagery.  It was totally not what I expected and badass.  Well except for the very last scene which the studio forced Scott to put in but the rest of the picture was so good that I can overlook it.

I liked this one a lot but this is definitely not for everyone.  In fact there’s a good chance that a whole bunch of you won’t be into it.  It’s slow and extremely moody.  Pretentious?  I would say yes except that it’s Tony fucking Scott.  The man went on to do Top Gun after this and Beverly Hills Cop II.  This is one of his best in my opinion and unlike anything else he would ever do in the rest of his career.  I never would’ve pegged him as such an arty fuckin’ guy but he created something special with this piece.

I’ll miss you man and take a moment of silence to pour one on the curb.  You were a good one.        

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