Friday, 23 November 2007
Video Nasties, Video Lovelies: A Guest List
posted @4:04 p.m. by Richard Kelly
Those of you who enjoyed Fraser Macdonald's wander down VCR Memory Lane a few weeks back will now be pleased to meet today's Guest List-Maker DAN BERLINKA, who is mining a similar vein of 1980s adolescent viewing pleasure, but with all-new personal insights. For me this stuff is like reading Proust. Jenny Agutter was a pivotal figure for a lot of us back then. And I too knew someone who tape-recorded a movie (The Long Good Friday) so he could listen to it on a Walkman. All this before YouTube and the portable DVD player...
10 movies you watched on video round a mate's house in the 80s
By Dan Berlinka
#10. Phantasm (1979, dir. Don Coscarelli)
Probably the creepiest film I'd ever seen. I still remember walking home after seeing that one. The footbridge across the North Circular Road looked like a sinister portal to another dimension. It made NO sense, but it had the demented logic of a nightmare and the best use of the old reflection in a mirror scare ever.
"BOY!!!!"
9. An American Werewolf in London (1981, dir. John Landis)
Jokes, gore and naked Jenny Agutter. This was probably THE film of my adolescence. My best friend loved the movie so much, he transferred the whole thing onto audio cassette and would listen to it on his walkman.
8. Caligula (1980, dir. Tinto Brass)
The other legendary tape was "Sex on the Animal Farm", but I never saw that. What I did get to see was a tape of Caligula that only included the scenes they'd cut out. Quite an impressive compilation as I recall and probably the first really graphic sex scenes I ever saw.
7. I Spit on Your Grave (1978, dir. Meir Zarchi)
An under-the-counter job (see #2 below) and this time we understood why. One of our mates fell asleep so we cued the tape and woke him up so that the first thing he saw would be the bathtub castration scene.
6. The Wanderers (1979, dir. Philip Kaufman)
I remember nothing except people saying to each other "Leave. The kid. Alone."
5. The Warriors (1979, dir. Walter Hill)
It just seemed so exotic and other worldly. The film itself was very entertaining, but more than anything I think we were drawn to the video cover - all those weirdly dressed gangs. Particularly the Baseball Furies. They were definitely the coolest.
4. Quadrophenia (1979, dir. Franc Roddam)
I can't remember if anyone bought a tape of this or if they just taped it off TV. What I do remember is everyone wearing parkas and trench coats and yelling "Bell Boy!" at each other.
3. Carrie (1976, dir. Brian De Palma)
The shower scene at the beginning and the graveyard scene at the end. I don't think any of us were much concerned with anything that happened in-between.
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, dir. Tobe Hooper)
The first "banned" film I ever saw. Nowadays it's easily available on DVD and is one of my favourites, but back then it was strictly 'under-the-counter' and I remember thinking it was a bit of a letdown. Where was all the chainsawing? The dismemberment? The guts? We all dug the fact that Franklin got wasted, though.
1. Enter the Dragon (1973, dir. Robert Clouse)
The family two doors up were the first in our street to get a VCR. Every kid in the neighbourhood piled into their back room to watch Bruce Lee win the tournament, free the prisoners, avenge his sister, and get those really cool scars in his fight with Han (and his pimped-out claw hand).
Comments
I'm a big fan of American Werewolf and The Warriors. I would have put John Carpenter's The Thing on my version of this list.
I think John Carpenter's The Thing should be on EVERY list, but in fairness variety is the spice etc...
Even on a list of best costume dramas of the '70s?
There's a category! "Best costume dramas of the '70s" Not a blue-chip era for that genre, if I recall. But we could kick off with Peter Bogdanovich's much-maligned 'Daisy Miller'.
And Barry Lyndon, naturally.
The Duellists (1977, dir. Ridley Scott), which might be considered Kubrick-Lite. Werner Herzog has a few contenders here too, also Truffaut. Merchant/Ivory were getting going by decade's end...
Barry Lyndon & Aguirre for sure. Any takers for 'The Devils'?
Was it costume or decor or both that Derek Jarman supervised for The Devils? A strong contender, at any rate - and we're nearing the magic ten. Shall I throw in Fellini's Casanova? Can we stretch to Bresson's Lancelot du Lac or Dick Lester's Robin & Marian? Any Victorian London contenders? Anything from Australia? Days of Heaven? MacCabe and Mrs Miller?
I think Jarman did art direction on the Devils. If we're doing Dick Lester how about his Three / Four Musketeers? Is Four the one with Faye Dunaway? I think that's the one I liked best as a kid.
straying from the point slightly no? from TCM to 3 musketeers? anyway if youre picking "best 70s costume dramas" it has to be Picnic at Hanging Rock surely?
Your thoughts