Stalker (1979)

  
Keep your expectations in check, make sure you're settled in for a long and slow ride, and you'll have a totally spiffy time.

Tarkovsky this, Tarkovsky that, Stalker Stalker Stalker Stalker. You know, the damn well near universal acclaim and legendary cult status that this little film has built up around itself is really doing it more of a disservice by this point. I was expectantly waiting for the moment when my mind will be blown to chunks by the ultimate stage 10 mindfuckery hidden level special boss climax.

Only it never really happened, and it left a bit of a sour aftertaste in my brain. Then I realized that this was entirely my fault, and then suddenly the movie become significantly better.

So, if there's anything you take away from this, it is to keep your expectations in check. Also make sure you're in the mood for an almost 3 hour long and really rather ponderously paced arthouse 'scifi', put into 's because it's really not the sort of scifi you think of when you say scifi, but a slightly different breed. Even more scifier, I dare say, just don't expect lasers and flying saucers and that.

And with that out of the way, now I can a little more comfortably add my bit to the mountain of damn well near universal acclaim for this movie, because it really is rather good.

Firstly I have to mention DAT PHOTOGRAPHY, DAAAAAAMN. This is a slow moving film, and cuts are used sparingly. It was obviously shot very, very painstakingly. I kinda wish more movies did this. The composition was absolutely part of the storytelling, and not just a means to an end, or there for its own sake. It was in perfect harmony with the haunting score, and it created some wonderful moments.

And the second thing I wanted to mention... Well, I'm not even sure if I should mention it at all. I don't know if I just imagined it. I don't know if I saw these things because I was looking for a mindfuck, or because it really is there. Which, I suppose, could make it all the better, if you were to look at it that way. Certainly, if it was made any more obvious it would have utterly ruined everything. But having said that; I'm pretty convinced that a couple of times the film became self aware, and that it decidedly looked back at me through the fourth wall. At times it felt like the characters knew they were characters, and were addressing me. And I'm not at all talking about the monologue at the end.
Let me just say at this point that I fucking despise that. I hate it when a film or a book or whatever tries to be clever like that. It's like, it doesn't have to take responsibility for itself. If it's shitty, or if you didn't like it, well, it wasn't serious anyway, it wasn't really trying. It's a copout and I hate it.

The really cool thing here is that I'm just not sure if that is in fact what was happening or not. This is a very, very fine line to tread, and Stalker treads it beautifully. And the last thought I shall leave you with this evening which I thought was the absolutely coolest cherry on top of the coolest ever cake (highlight to read, I wouldn't wanna spoil anything.) -
The Stalker himself was an alien, taking humans into the room to learn more about us as a society. This is the reason his daughter had superpowers, and this is the reason why he got so freaked out when it was about to be destroyed. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOAOAOAOAOAOAAAOAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOO I'm not sure if you'll think this idea is as awesome as I do, but it thoroughly tickled my fancy.

And while you're at it, check out Tarkovsky's other masterpiece Solaris, which is one of my all time faves. And while you're at that, check out the 2002 remake which is surprisingly decent.

Black Moon (1975)

  
Uhmmmmm....... Yeah. I don't know.
I spent about 30 minutes reading about this film after having seen it, and I'm no closer to any answers than I was at the start. Apparently, 70s feminism and Alice In Wonderland, and stuff, I guess. If you feel like sinking your brain into a cinematic curiosity without any recognisable plot or discernible meaning by all means go for it. I spent most of the runtime bored and half-thinking about other, more engaging stuff like whether I should try that new brand of toothpaste the next time I'm at the supermarket. Occasionally I am in the mood for something like this, but it came at the wrong time and really rubbed me the wrong way.

There's an old babylady breastfeeding and talking with a rat, a horribly unmagical unicorn, a war between men and women, some weird, touch based telepathy, the original keyboard cat, a lot of farm animals and enough underage nudity to make any pedophile sweat. And as far as I'm concerned, the film contained zero sense. It did some fairly interesting stuff with sound, but beyond that it wasn't even made all that well and the cinematography was completely pedestrian.

With films of this ilk, you know, destructured, personal, where you're not even convinced that the filmmaker himself knew what the fuck is going on in it, there's still an ephemeral connective tissue there, a thread you can pick up and follow. A common theme, recurring elements, some barely-there cohesive glue; that is definitely not the case here, and Black Moon is one of the very few films where I wasn't able to identify anything of the sort. This is undoubtedly why I didn't like it much, and as I said already, I just wasn't in the right mindset for this type of fare either.
I'm just not sure what it was trying to say, or what it was talking about. And if there is nothing to say or talk about that's fine too, but then the rest of the film better have something else to offer - again, not the case here.

I'm not sure exactly how much this affected my experience with it, but I did see a pretty shitty transfer. Apparently there's a 2011 Criterion Collection edition and if their other releases are anything to go by, that's definitely the one to try to get your hands on.

Although, that ending... Well, it'll likely stick in my head for a while, I'll give it that much. Icky icky.

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