Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.
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Not only is Nosferatu another take on Dracula, but it's also another take on Nosferatu -- the specifics of which vampire fans are also pretty familiar with, thanks to the 1922 original, and Shadow of the Vampire. But as you say. done well enoiugh to be pretty enjoyable.
The new Nosferatu just didn't connect with me. I'd seen the original probably 3 times in the last few years -- a couple of times with a live score accomanying it. (When we saw it in New Orleans, when Hutter uncovers Orlock's coffin, the bandleader drawled "that is one gone pecan..." It's a phrase that's suck with me ever since, especially at that moment. And, unfortunately, at funerals.) I think my hopes for it were too high, and I might appreciate it more on a second viewing. But as it is, what I'd really like to see in Werner Herzog's 1979 Nosferatu the Vampyre, with Klaus Kinski in the title role. I know it's streaming on Tubi right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was on some other, commercial-free streamer we're subscribed to.
I thought Renfield was a ton of fun, and hope to get around to seeing the Last Voyage of the Demeter and Shadow of the Vampire one of these days.
JD DeLuzio > Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)January 7, 2025 at 6:17pm
I saw the Herzog Nosferatu back in the 80s. Rather a dark adapation.
I watched the Herzog Nosferatu the Vampyrea few nights ago, and while there are some moments that are more striking in the Eggers version, overall I think the Herzog film is more effective. In that one, Lucy seems more actively heroic, sacrificing herself to destroy Dracula. (It uses the Stoker names, rather than the Murnau invention of Orlock and the rest). And she's viscerally heroic -- seeing Isabella Adjani climb an outdoor stairway full of rats, you can't help be admire her willpower and strong stomach. In fact, the whole cast is to be commended in this regard -- particularly a group of people in one of the film's most wrenching scenes, feasting on the street while rats are all around, knowing they've all contracted the plague and will die soon, but determined to enjoy their final moments. Which, again, is a sumptuous feast WHILE RATS SWARM ALL AROUND. Shudder.
Love this one, and love the ending (SPOILER), as Bruno Ganz waits in a corner until the maid sweeps up the bits of the eucharist that Lucy left in front of him. Then he gives an unnerving step away from the magic circle and we see his vampiric affliction come to light. Completely unnerving. Loved it.
Also loved seeing how useless Van Helsing was, compared to any other version of Dracula I'd ever seen. This highlights Lucy's heroism, and makes her the only one who can truly act against the count.
The squat, gleeful Renfield (Roland Topor) makes me long for a chance to see Stephen Root in the role. I think he'd kill.
This is available on Prime, but only dubbed in English; I got to see the German version on Kanopy.
Over the last couple months I've been re-watching non-Connery 007 films that were streaming on Pluto including Man With The Golden Gun, For Your Eyes Only and View To a KIll with Roger Moore, the two Timothy Dalton Bond's The Living Daylights and License To Kill along with On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Looking at the series as a whole I think both Dalton and Lazenby might rank higher among Bond fans if they had only starred in more entries in the series.
After Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton was my favourite Bond. (Mr. Connery will always be the James Bond, of course.) After sitting through a showing of The Living Daylights in the officers' wardroom, I was so impressed with Mr. Dalton that License to Kill was the only non-Connery Bond film that I willingly sought to view.
Unfortunately, Dalton suffered from a mischance of timing. The Bond producers had decided to move away from the lighter-hearted, gag-laced emphasis of most of Roger Moore's Bond films, and return to the darker, sardonic-humoured attitude of the Connery films. Mr. Dalton, who was probably chosen to play Bond for that very purpose, was undone, to some extent, by the "return to basics".
In relevant conversations during the time of the two Dalton Bond films, I noticed a curious pattern in others. In general, those who disliked Timothy Dalton's performances as Bond were those who had jumped on the Bond train with the lighter Moore films. That was how they perceived James Bond. They had never seen the harder-edged Connery Bonds; thus, they did not like the shift to a darker tone in Dalton's films.
But those who, as I had, started with Connery as Bond, enjoyed the return to a more serious attitude, and, consequently, enjoyed Mr. Dalton's performances.
(In all fairness, the lighter, jokier Bond films didn't do Roger Moore any favours, either. It rather marked him as a semi-comedic actor---an evaluation with which I once agreed, based on his performance as Beau Maverick in the television series Maverick. But, a couple of years ago, I binged-watched the entire run of The Saint, and I was unexpectedly impressed in Mr. Moore's ability to give Simon Templar nuance. Aye, he was casual and insoucient when the plot's circumstances called for it. But, as the situations shifted, Moore believably adopted a harder, darker edge.
I remember one Saint episode in particular [forgive me for not taking the time to run down the episode title and air date] in which Templar determines that an old friend, an expert in precious gems, is behind the theft of a shipment of diamonds. The crime was planned to leave no casualties, but one of the villain's henchmen over-reacted and killed the two guards transporting the shipment. In the climax, Templar confronts his friend with knowledge of his guilt. It starts as one of those scenes in which hero and villain casually discuss the details of the event. Playing on their friendship, the mastermind tells Templar something to the effect of, "Look, the police have caught my henchmen. I've got a fortune in diamonds to retire in luxury, enough to even give you a cut, if you want. The insurance company will reimburse the diamonds' owners. Nobody gets hurt."
Moore as Templar suddenly turns cold, and in a delivery worthy of Sean Connery, replies, "Tell that to the widows of the two guards." What he does to the villain, then, is not pleasant.)
Jeff of Earth-J > Commander BensonJanuary 11, 2025 at 10:28am
Whenever the topic of Connery/Moore/Dalton Bonds comes up I always make the same observation, so excuse me if you've heard this before. James Bond must be equal parts lover and killer. Moore was convincing as a lover and Dalton was convincing as a killer, but of the three, only Connery pulled off both roles successfully.
I re-watched Magic Trip (2011), mainly comprised of the footage shot by the Merry Pranksters in 1964 on their cross-America trip. It's worth a look. Revealing-- though it avoids certain aspects of that experience.
Tubi's capsule description, inexplicably, identifies it as the journey that inspired Kerouac's On the Road, published in 1957 and based on events that happened up to ten years before then. Both Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac appear in the film (the latter only briefly), and the events did inspire certain other works, most notably Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
And Dating Amber (2020), an Irish teen comedy about a gay teen and a lesbian who date in 1995 to avoid suspicion from their conservative, homophobic village and school. It's worthwhile, and clocks in at an hour and a half, as comedies regularly used to do.
Replies
Not only is Nosferatu another take on Dracula, but it's also another take on Nosferatu -- the specifics of which vampire fans are also pretty familiar with, thanks to the 1922 original, and Shadow of the Vampire. But as you say. done well enoiugh to be pretty enjoyable.
The new Nosferatu just didn't connect with me. I'd seen the original probably 3 times in the last few years -- a couple of times with a live score accomanying it. (When we saw it in New Orleans, when Hutter uncovers Orlock's coffin, the bandleader drawled "that is one gone pecan..." It's a phrase that's suck with me ever since, especially at that moment. And, unfortunately, at funerals.) I think my hopes for it were too high, and I might appreciate it more on a second viewing. But as it is, what I'd really like to see in Werner Herzog's 1979 Nosferatu the Vampyre, with Klaus Kinski in the title role. I know it's streaming on Tubi right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was on some other, commercial-free streamer we're subscribed to.
I thought Renfield was a ton of fun, and hope to get around to seeing the Last Voyage of the Demeter and Shadow of the Vampire one of these days.
I saw the Herzog Nosferatu back in the 80s. Rather a dark adapation.
I watched the Herzog Nosferatu the Vampyre a few nights ago, and while there are some moments that are more striking in the Eggers version, overall I think the Herzog film is more effective. In that one, Lucy seems more actively heroic, sacrificing herself to destroy Dracula. (It uses the Stoker names, rather than the Murnau invention of Orlock and the rest). And she's viscerally heroic -- seeing Isabella Adjani climb an outdoor stairway full of rats, you can't help be admire her willpower and strong stomach. In fact, the whole cast is to be commended in this regard -- particularly a group of people in one of the film's most wrenching scenes, feasting on the street while rats are all around, knowing they've all contracted the plague and will die soon, but determined to enjoy their final moments. Which, again, is a sumptuous feast WHILE RATS SWARM ALL AROUND. Shudder.
Love this one, and love the ending (SPOILER), as Bruno Ganz waits in a corner until the maid sweeps up the bits of the eucharist that Lucy left in front of him. Then he gives an unnerving step away from the magic circle and we see his vampiric affliction come to light. Completely unnerving. Loved it.
Also loved seeing how useless Van Helsing was, compared to any other version of Dracula I'd ever seen. This highlights Lucy's heroism, and makes her the only one who can truly act against the count.
The squat, gleeful Renfield (Roland Topor) makes me long for a chance to see Stephen Root in the role. I think he'd kill.
This is available on Prime, but only dubbed in English; I got to see the German version on Kanopy.
Over the last couple months I've been re-watching non-Connery 007 films that were streaming on Pluto including Man With The Golden Gun, For Your Eyes Only and View To a KIll with Roger Moore, the two Timothy Dalton Bond's The Living Daylights and License To Kill along with On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Looking at the series as a whole I think both Dalton and Lazenby might rank higher among Bond fans if they had only starred in more entries in the series.
After Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton was my favourite Bond. (Mr. Connery will always be the James Bond, of course.) After sitting through a showing of The Living Daylights in the officers' wardroom, I was so impressed with Mr. Dalton that License to Kill was the only non-Connery Bond film that I willingly sought to view.
Unfortunately, Dalton suffered from a mischance of timing. The Bond producers had decided to move away from the lighter-hearted, gag-laced emphasis of most of Roger Moore's Bond films, and return to the darker, sardonic-humoured attitude of the Connery films. Mr. Dalton, who was probably chosen to play Bond for that very purpose, was undone, to some extent, by the "return to basics".
In relevant conversations during the time of the two Dalton Bond films, I noticed a curious pattern in others. In general, those who disliked Timothy Dalton's performances as Bond were those who had jumped on the Bond train with the lighter Moore films. That was how they perceived James Bond. They had never seen the harder-edged Connery Bonds; thus, they did not like the shift to a darker tone in Dalton's films.
But those who, as I had, started with Connery as Bond, enjoyed the return to a more serious attitude, and, consequently, enjoyed Mr. Dalton's performances.
(In all fairness, the lighter, jokier Bond films didn't do Roger Moore any favours, either. It rather marked him as a semi-comedic actor---an evaluation with which I once agreed, based on his performance as Beau Maverick in the television series Maverick. But, a couple of years ago, I binged-watched the entire run of The Saint, and I was unexpectedly impressed in Mr. Moore's ability to give Simon Templar nuance. Aye, he was casual and insoucient when the plot's circumstances called for it. But, as the situations shifted, Moore believably adopted a harder, darker edge.
I remember one Saint episode in particular [forgive me for not taking the time to run down the episode title and air date] in which Templar determines that an old friend, an expert in precious gems, is behind the theft of a shipment of diamonds. The crime was planned to leave no casualties, but one of the villain's henchmen over-reacted and killed the two guards transporting the shipment. In the climax, Templar confronts his friend with knowledge of his guilt. It starts as one of those scenes in which hero and villain casually discuss the details of the event. Playing on their friendship, the mastermind tells Templar something to the effect of, "Look, the police have caught my henchmen. I've got a fortune in diamonds to retire in luxury, enough to even give you a cut, if you want. The insurance company will reimburse the diamonds' owners. Nobody gets hurt."
Moore as Templar suddenly turns cold, and in a delivery worthy of Sean Connery, replies, "Tell that to the widows of the two guards." What he does to the villain, then, is not pleasant.)
Whenever the topic of Connery/Moore/Dalton Bonds comes up I always make the same observation, so excuse me if you've heard this before. James Bond must be equal parts lover and killer. Moore was convincing as a lover and Dalton was convincing as a killer, but of the three, only Connery pulled off both roles successfully.
I re-watched Magic Trip (2011), mainly comprised of the footage shot by the Merry Pranksters in 1964 on their cross-America trip. It's worth a look. Revealing-- though it avoids certain aspects of that experience.
Tubi's capsule description, inexplicably, identifies it as the journey that inspired Kerouac's On the Road, published in 1957 and based on events that happened up to ten years before then. Both Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac appear in the film (the latter only briefly), and the events did inspire certain other works, most notably Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
Thanks for the tip! I just added Magic Trip to my Tubi queue.
And Dating Amber (2020), an Irish teen comedy about a gay teen and a lesbian who date in 1995 to avoid suspicion from their conservative, homophobic village and school. It's worthwhile, and clocks in at an hour and a half, as comedies regularly used to do.
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