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"Requiem for a Vampire",
from Tuna
I'm talked out on Jean
Rollin movies. I don't even remember which one
this is. I think it's "Vierges et
vampires", which I saw in the U.S. as
"Caged Virgins". You can bet that it
involves two inseparable wide-eyed innocent girls
with no home, vampires, clown make-up, lonely old
castles. If I remember right, the distinguishing
marks of this one are: nobody says a word for the
first 40 minutes there isn't very much sex,
lesbian or otherwise The vampire is kind of a
sad, lonely, pathetic dude rather than a figure
of menace.
Thumbnails Marie-Pierre Castel (1,
2,
3,
4,
5)
Mireille D'Argent (we also saw her yesterday, in
clown makeup) (1,
2,
3)
the obligatory twosome (1,
2,
3)
Unknown (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10, 11, 12, 13)
"Caddyshack",
from Tuna
I ain't talkin' about
this one. If there is anyone out there who can't
do the voice, and impersonate Bill Murray
recalling his famous 18 holes with the Dalai Lama
(Big hitter, the Lama), well shame on you. And a
pox on you. And fie on you as well. Whatever that
means.
Thumbnails Cindy Morgan (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9)
unidentified (1,
2,
3)
"Incognito",
from Johnny Web
This movie had great
promise. After all, it's a fascinating subject,
and a truly high-risk proposition. Could the
world's greatest art forger create an
"Undiscovered Rembrandt" and completely
fool the art world? And would his partners let
him live to tell about it? Terrific premise.
And I really enjoyed the
set-up phase, which detailed all the things you'd
have to think about to create a Rembrandt. How
would you fool modern-day chemical and x-ray
analysis? What would your subject be? The forger
does his homework and determines that there was a
famous portrait of Rembrandt's father which was
probably lost in a shipwreck off the coast of
Spain. He decides to recreate the painting, using
all the same brushes available to Rembrandt,
creating all his pigments exactly as Rembrandt
did, melting down old lead figurines so that the
lead in the paint will be the right age. Great
stuff.
Unfortunately, the film
fails miserably when it switches from an art
theory lesson to a thriller. The plot has holes
in it so large that Joe Eszterhas could spot
them. Here's the most obvious. He's on trial in
an English court for murder and stealing a
Rembrandt. By a deus ex machina plot
twist, he's exonerated from the murder rap when
one of the bad guys unexpectedly double-crosses
the other. Next scene, we find out that the whole
world thinks it's a legit Rembrandt, yadda yadda
yadda, it ends up hanging in the Prado, he lives
happily ever after, yadda yadda yadda. See the
problem? Obviously he was cleared of the murder
charge, but what happened to the charge of
stealing a fifty million dollar painting? His
defense was that it wasn't a Rembrandt, that he
painted it, and that it actually belonged to him
because the bad guys never even paid him for it.
But nobody believed him, either in court or after
the trial. Everybody is totally convinced that it
is a Rembrandt, and therefore he was guilty of
stealing it from its rightful owners.
Remember last week we
read about the guy who got 16 years in a Texas
prison for stealing a Snickers. Compare that to
having the charges dropped for stealing a
Rembrandt. Here's a tip for you criminal
youngsters - live in England, not Texas.
In addition to the
penalty thing, there are other reasons why you
criminals should live in England: Most English
police are not armed. If they want you to stop,
they holler "halt, in the name of the
crown", or some such thing. English
criminals actually do halt, in the name of fair
play, and out of respect for the monarchy. But
you don't care about that crap. Just shoot the
silly blighters and continue with the crime of
your choice. Take the regular work week off and
relax in Brighton. The London police are working
then, and they are actually quite clever. But
English police don't do any more work on Sunday
than the rest of the people in the country. To
rob a jeweler, just wait until Sunday, during a
big soccer match is best, and drive your car
right up on the sidewalk in front of his shop,
break his windows, take what you want, and drive
off. It might be better if you do it from a taxi
to make sure you don't get lost in the tricky
London streets. The police will be by on Monday
to see what all the fuss was about. Even if they
catch you, they will drop the charges if you
steal less than the value of a Rembrandt.
Irene Jacob. These
images were either blurry or ill-lit. Not one
really good image of the lovely Ms Jacob. (1,
2)
Maja Otessen
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