Special Features - Straw Dogs and the BBFC

To coincide with the 40th anniversary of Straw Dogs, Santosh Sandhu explores the troubled history of Sam Peckinpah's notorious thriller here in the UK...

Many of the decisions the BBFC had made up to the early 1970s revolved around politics, religion and sex. Whilst then censor John Trevelyan had made the BBFC more accepting of sexual frankness, by 1971 sexual violence had become the problem. His concerns about the trend for violent movies coming from America which took increasing advantage of their newly relaxed censorship laws resulted in his retirement from the board. His successor Stephen Murphy had a difficult job on his hands as some of Britain’s most contentious movies would be released at this time.

An early example towards the worrying trend for films featuring sexual violence was Straw Dogs (1971). This film is about David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman), an American mathematician who moves with his young English wife Amy (Susan George) to a remote Cornish village which is also her birthplace. The film was made by director Sam Peckinpah - famous for his bloody westerns and often Neanderthal attitude towards women. This film is also essentially a western in which the couple’s farm is besieged by angry locals who are then violently dispatched by the Sumners.

Whilst the graphic violence was passed without cuts, censor Murphy’s handling of the rape of Amy by two men, one a former boyfriend, would inadvertently brutalize the rape further. Whilst Amy was originally taken from behind and her rape was vaginal, Murphy’s cutting of this scene now suggested she was sodomized.

However, in the years to come the most contentious issue raised about the rape scene would be that Amy appears to enjoy being raped by her former boyfriend. For the BBFC this worryingly played into rapists' fantasies. By 1977 there had been an increasing number of mainstream and exploitation films featuring the rape and degradation of women sometimes even rejoicing in it. The most extreme examples were banned outright by the BBFC.

With pressure from the growing feminist movement, Murphy’s successor James Ferman had strengthened the board’s policy on sexual violence by successfully bringing film under the Obscene Publications Act, which up to that time had only been applied to literature and theatre. In 1978, Ferman removed an entire gang rape scene from the film Emmanuelle (1974) under the deprave and corrupt test, which he felt promoted violence against women.

Straw Dogs had been released with an X certificate in 1971 and then without further cuts onto video in 1980. With the advent of the Video Recordings Act in 1984 whose criteria stipulated that the board would not allow material which endorsed sexual violence, Straw Dogs was withdrawn.

In subsequent years, a pre-cut US version of Straw Dogs which greatly reduced the second rape would be rejected again in 1999 when its video distributor failed to make further cuts demanded by the BBFC. The film would eventually be released onto DVD and video in 2002 in the original US release version after consultations with psychologists and members of the public on the potentially damaging effects of the rape scene.

Straw Dogs is a well made film which appears to suggest that even the most harmless of people are capable of brutal acts if pushed hard enough. The film builds tension very well with the killing of the couple’s cat a very effective moment. However, Amy is a very weak character. She squabbles with her husband as she feels neglected by him and taunts his inability to stand up to the locals. She is frequently argumentative and flirtatious presenting herself as eye candy to the lecherous locals even walking past them half naked at one point. Whilst the locals rape her for being a tease, the audience finds it difficult to sympathize with her as any redeeming qualities she may possess are never presented.

Moreover the rape scene is still problematic. After struggling with her former boyfriend Amy appears to succumb and allow him to violate her. He then holds her down so his friend can sodomize her which turns her feelings to shock once more. Essentially this second rape which was reinstated in 2002 convinced the board that the film did not endorse sexual violence as laid out by the criteria of the Video Recordings Act and the film was released uncut with an 18 certificate.

Now released onto Blu-ray and with an obligatory remake [from director Rod Lurie and starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgård and James Woods] about to hit cinemas, it will be interesting to see how the new version deals with the sequence which has caused the original such a troubled censorship history.

Straw Dogs: Ultimate 40th Anniversary Edition was released on Blu-ray this past Monday... be sure to enter our competition to be in with a chance of winning 1 of 3 copies (closing date is November 6th).

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

Steven Spielberg: World War II Revisionist

With the acclaimed mini-series The Pacific released this year, Santosh Sandhu presents an updated look at the influence of World War II on filmmaker Steven Spielberg's body of work...

Steven Spielberg’s father was a pilot in World War II and his stories formed a strong part in his son’s upbringing. Spielberg began making movies at the age of 15 and even at this young age his films Fighter Squad (1959) and Escape to Nowhere (1962) used World War II as a backdrop. It seemed inevitable that when Spielberg became a major Hollywood player he would make films about this war. Despite coming from the Vietnam generation, Spielberg has constantly revisited World War II throughout his career.

Having suffered anti-Semitism as a teenager, Spielberg sympathised with the civil rights movement but never felt comfortable with his own generation. He had little time for the counter-cultural movement of the late 1960s. With regard to filmmaking, Spielberg felt a greater affinity towards David Lean and Alfred Hitchcock than Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda. He was even more apathetic about the Vietnam War as it presented itself as an obstacle to his filmmaking aspirations.

Today, Spielberg has yet to make a film about the Vietnam War as it may be too difficult a subject or it simply does not appeal to him. World War II however is a different story as Spielberg has always felt a greater identification with this generation.

Starting with the silly slapstick of 1941 (1979), a technically accomplished but unfunny comedy about the chaos that ensues after a Japanese submarine is spotted off the coast of America, Spielberg managed to offend not only his father but John Wayne who was originally offered a part in the film. They both felt that the film was disrespectful to the soldiers who had fought and died in the war.

Since the caricatured Nazis of the Indiana Jones series, Spielberg’s films have matured over the years. The Empire of the Sun (1987) based on JG Ballard’s semi-autobiographical book about an English boy (Christian Bale) separated from his parents and forced to survive in a Japanese POW camp brought critical acclaim but was dismissed as a calculated attempt by Spielberg to win the Oscar that had so far eluded him. Looked at today the film is impressive in its lack of sentimentality as Bale and other British prisoners in the camp are portrayed as strong and resilient to all the hardships they are forced to endure whereas Bale’s American ‘friend’ (John Malkovich) is portrayed as a narrow minded opportunist. Such a derogatory representation of Americans is a rare occurrence in an American film.

Ever conscious of his own Jewish heritage, in 1993 after years of deliberating Spielberg decided to make a film version of Thomas Keneally’s book ‘Schindler’s Ark’. The resulting film Schindler’s List (1993) about an Austrian businessman saving Jews from the gas chamber by employing them in his factory won over audiences and critics and secured Spielberg his long overdue Oscar. What was interesting about the film was Spielberg’s willingness to change his style after years of making blockbuster films in the wake of his own Jaws (1975). Spielberg deliberately shot Schindler’s List in black and white to mimic old holocaust newsreel footage coupled with an almost constant use of hand held cameras. The film also eschewed Spielberg’s motif for strong sentimentality and audience manipulation for the most part and featured dimensional Nazi characters such as Schindler (Liam Neeson) and Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes).

In an interview for the BBC program ‘War Stories’ in 1998, Spielberg told interviewer Mark Cousins that he never would have made Saving Private Ryan (1998) without the influence of Vietnam, namely media coverage of atrocities committed by both sides. He had always wanted to make a boys-go-on-a- mission World War II movie but he had to do some growing up before he could do it. The resulting film with its bleached photography was about a squad led by Tom Hanks who after surviving the D-Day landings were sent on a mission to rescue the surviving brother of a family of soldiers killed in combat. Whereas in Schindler’s List, Spielberg had spared the audience the awful sight of the gassing of the Jews, Saving Private Ryan used all the latest digital technology to bring violence to the fore.

Since the late 1960s, censorship laws had been relaxed giving Spielberg free reign to use strong language and violence. The film’s opening D-Day sequence is now a benchmark in mainstream movie violence. The film has no music playing over the scene to heighten the drama just the sound of machine guns and mortars as the American assault on Omaha Beach goes disastrously wrong. Soldiers are seen drowning, losing limbs and being blown in half with blood and guts shown in graphic detail. Unlike the traditional World War II movies, soldiers do not die instantly but scream in agony from their wounds. Interestingly, soldiers being shot through their helmets and underwater has also rarely been seen in a World War II movie.

Spielberg used hand held cameras together with vibrating lenses (frame jumping) to give a disorienting effect and to transport the viewer to the battlefield. Surprisingly, when blood and sand were visible on the camera lens, Spielberg did not rectify this. In many ways Spielberg wanted to emulate the famous photographs taken by World War II photographer Robert Capa on Omaha beach. His instinct was that instead of a stills photographer taking pictures how would a filmmaker with a motion picture camera have captured the battle? The resulting cinema verite style gave the film an almost documentary feel and the excellent use of sound effects made the audience feel as if bullets were whizzing past their heads. The immediacy of this action sequence has resulted in many subsequent films borrowing its hyper real style.

A major negative criticism of the film however was its unoriginal story (though based on a real family) and characterization (Tom Hank’s squad were stock World War II types) which was very much in the vein of many boys-go-on-a mission movies. Spielberg's tendency to lapse into sentimentality was also denounced although when quizzed about this, Spielberg often admits that it is part of his character. The absence of other allies was also a contentious issue raised about the film.

While it is true that the Americans did not fight the war alone, it would be impossible to make a coherent movie featuring every single ally. The Longest Day (1962) and A Bridge Too Far (1977) featured all the allies that took part in those battles and these films suffered because of it. There was so much historical detail to get through and little time for character development that audiences were left watching one major battle after the next with little understanding of the soldiers taking part or their objectives.

Creative consultant on Saving Private Ryan was historian Stephen Ambrose, whose often compassionate style of writing was a major influence on the film which did not hesitate in its depiction of human suffering. Having read Ambrose’s Band of Brothers as research for his role in Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks decided to re-team with Spielberg and adapt it as a 10 part Home Box Office (HBO) mini series. The resulting series was about Easy Company 506th parachute infantry regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. Easy Company took part in every major battle in western Europe e.g. D-Day, Operation Market Garden, Battle of the Bulge, culminating in their liberation of a concentration camp and capture of Hitler’s Eagles Nest. This series proved a major success borrowing much of its visual style from Ryan.

Using the book as a starting point and sticking very closely to it, the makers of Band of Brothers (2001) were also able to use interview footage of the surviving members of Easy company as vignettes within the series. The series was therefore very well researched with actors sometimes being able to liaise with their real life counterparts to add a greater authenticity to the proceedings.

Due to its longer running time, Band of Brothers was able to explore its characterisation more fully. Criticisms of Ryan were that it didn’t depict the Germans in a favourable light. Band of Brothers however went to great lengths to depict the Germans as ordinary fighting men. In the series, Americans were seen killing German prisoners and evicting Germans from their houses. When Easy Company commander Captain Winters (Damien Lewis) killed an unarmed German soldier, the look of terror in the young man’s eyes played painfully on the Captain’s conscience. After the German surrender, a German Captain spoke to his men about the war and the bond between him and his men was the same as the bond between the men of Easy Company.

As this series was solely about Easy Company, the other allies only made fleeting appearances. The British and French were also featured albeit not in a very flattering way. During the Battle of Arnhem (Operation Market Garden) which was spearheaded by the British, Easy Company were ordered to take the Dutch town of Eindhoven. Easy Company walked straight into a German ambush as a British tank commander ignored an Easy Company member's warning to disable a hidden German tank. It was left to the closing credits of this episode to mention the 8000 British paratroopers who had died at Arnhem. Though this was a true incident and was taken directly from the book it seemed unfair to blame the failure of this mission on one British tank commander.

After the failure of Operation Market Garden, Easy Company rescued the British Red Devils trapped behind enemy lines. Though again this incident was taken from the book it played into the misconception that the Americans saved the British in the War. In the penultimate episode, the war in Europe was coming to a close and as Easy Company drove through Germany they saw a group of French soldiers brutally murdering German prisoners which was the only representation the French were allowed. Although these were actual incidents, as the makers had decided to include the other allies it would have been more admirable to also include the more positive contributions that they made as it was the allies that won the war.

Despite all this Band of Brothers was still an exceptional series. The battle scenes were riveting and realistic with soldiers cut down mid sentence. Easy Company triumphs such as the attacks on the guns at Brecourt Manor on D-Day and the capture of the French town of Carentan were better action scenes than any in recent cinema. Easy Company freezing, starving and lacking medical supplies through the Battle of the Bulge made for some heartbreaking episodes. The discovery of a concentration camp was truly horrific as it looked just like the real colour footage from the holocaust seen in the documentary America’s War: World War II in Colour (2002).

In the wake of Band of Brothers’ success, Hanks and Spielberg produced the follow up The Pacific (2010), another 10 part mini series this time about the Pacific theatre of war seen through the eyes of three marines. Partly based on the books Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie and With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge, The Pacific is a much more brutal experience than Brothers. Unlike the Germans the Japanese were not bound by the Geneva Convention and were an often cruel and remorseless enemy. Their horrific treatment of POWs has now passed into legend and the series doesn’t flinch in its depiction of atrocities committed by both sides.

Surrendering is seen as a disgrace to the Japanese Bushido code so rather than be taken prisoner the Japanese commit hari kiri with a grenade often taking a couple of marines with them. This compels the marines to give up taking prisoners entirely and to casually strangle, bayonet or shoot wounded Japanese soldiers. On finding the mutilated bodies of their comrades, the marines openly begin cutting out the gold teeth of dead Japanese soldiers to keep as souvenirs.

When not fighting the Japanese, the marines are constantly fighting the elements such as rain, heat, mud and disease. An entire episode is given over to Leckie (James Badge Dale) battling dysentery and meeting other soldiers who are suffering mental breakdowns. With a two hundred million dollar budget, this series has the best fight sequences yet with three whole episodes dedicated to the Battle of Peleliu. The series is especially impressive not just in its superb fight sequences but also that it shows the awful mistakes that happen in war. The marines sometimes shoot their own men and civilians including women and children get caught in the crossfire of battle. The most moving moment is when Sledge (Joe Mazzello) comforts a woman whose stomach has been blown apart by a bomb.

Although the fighting is meticulously researched with the Japanese attacking at night and favouring frontal assaults, it’s the slower character building episodes that are the most affecting. After his brave heroics on Guadalcanal, John Basilone (Jon Seda) is sent back to America to take part in demeaning propaganda to encourage the American public to buy war bonds. At first he indulges in all the five star treatment and loose women he is afforded but soon becomes disillusioned especially as he is aware that his comrades are still fighting and dying. His feelings of guilt soon see him volunteer to be sent back into action on Iwo Jima.

Criticisms of the series were that it just wasn’t Band of Brothers 2. That’s because Brothers was about the brotherhood which develops between soldiers in a war situation and The Pacific is more concerned with how racist war can be. The Japanese are constantly referred to as ‘Dirty Japs’ and ‘Yellow Monkeys’. Whilst not as instantly engaging as Ryan or Brothers partly due to its lack of a leadership double act to anchor the series, The Pacific is still an impressive addition to the Hanks/Spielberg canon. It will be interesting to see what they come up with next. Perhaps a series about the Burma campaign? After all Steven’s dad did fly with the Burma Bridge Busters.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

World Cinema: The Hong Kong Film Industry

Santosh Sandhu discusses the Hong Kong Film Industry...

Hong Kong has a population of about 7 million people. Despite its small size, Hong Kong has been a major player in world cinema for many years. Up to the mid 1990s, Hong Kong was the world’s third largest film producer, making 300 films a year in the Cantonese language. Hong Kong only has a limited number of cinema screens and is therefore reliant on overseas revenue mainly from other parts of Asia.

Martial arts have existed for hundreds of years and form a strong part of Chinese culture and this is often reflected in Hong Kong films. Martial arts films thematically are the cinema of the underdog triumphing over corruption and oppression with the main emphasis being on action which can sometimes take up to half a film’s running time. The early martial arts films were based on traditional folk legends and featured known characters such as Fong Sai Yuk and Wong Fei Hung.

The early 1970s saw the rise of martial arts films as an international force. Up to this time they had largely been made by the Shaw Brothers studios at Clearwater Bay in Hong Kong. Shaw Brothers employed most of the local filmmaking talent and owned a chain of cinemas in South East Asia. Raymond Chow, an executive at Shaw Brothers eventually left to set up rival studio Golden Harvest. Golden Harvest’s first film was The Big Boss (1971) which starred Bruce Lee who would become the first internationally renowned martial arts star. Golden Harvest adopted the Hollywood business method of profit sharing to encourage Lee to work for them. After making three films in Hong Kong, Lee’s last completed film would be the most famous martial arts movie of all time the Golden Harvest/Warner Brothers co-production Enter the Dragon (1973).

In 1979 Golden Harvest signed Jackie Chan, a former stuntman who pioneered Kung fu comedy films. Heavily inspired by the early slapstick comedy of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, Chan was able to cross cultural boundaries with his willingness to do his own stunts and his well timed kung fu routines almost shot like dance sequences. After gaining prominence in period martial arts comedies such as Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978) and Drunken Master (1978), Chan and his stunt team would perfect their craft in Project A (1983) and Police Story (1985) essentially bringing the genre up to date.

Conversely, Producer/Director Tsui Hark would stick to the period setting but combine the genre with supernatural elements for the visually astonishing Zu Warriors (1983). The film benefited greatly with special effects provided by a Hollywood team. Hark would build on this success by creating his own effects outfit and the supernatural genre would continue with Mr. Vampire (1985) and A Chinese Ghost Story(1987). Hark would also launch the career of Jet Li in Once Upon a Time in China (1991) where Li would reprise the role of Wong Fei Hung.

Apart from its martial arts films, Hong Kong is also famous for its crime thrillers most notably the work of John Woo. A Better Tomorrow (1986), would see the rise of the ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ series of films so called for their heavily choreographed shootouts which would continue to please action junkies with The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992). Much more concerned with plot and characterization, Infernal Affairs (2002) about a cop working undercover in the triads and a triad posing as a cop would inspire the Oscar winning The Departed (2006).

Hong Kong was a British Colony which was handed back to China in 1997. China has the largest population in the world with over 1 billion people. Most films made in mainland China are in Mandarin. Partly due to the language difference, China has not opened up as a major market for Hong Kong films. Hong Kong is still treated like a separate entity and so its films are still subjected to censorship and quotas. Also much of the Chinese market is dominated by Hollywood blockbusters or ‘dapian’ which make up to 70 percent of the domestic market. Only big name Chinese directors are able to compete with Hollywood.

Like Hollywood, China also has a studio system which was established in 1949. These studios were state funded for many years. Due to state cut backs in 1996, studios have looked to international productions for finance ever since. Today, foreign films shot in China have to be co-produced with a studio and the state owned China Film Co-production Corporation (CFCC). For international filmmakers, the CFCC offers good locations, cheap labour, equipment hire and transportation. Quentin Tarantino’s kung fu inspired Kill Bill (2003) was shot in Shanghai for these reasons.

Certain Hollywood films now have a Chinese martial arts influence such as The Matrix (1999), which employed a Hong Kong stunt crew for its fight scenes. The Oscar winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was a Chinese/American co-production utilizing an international cast and crew.

American studios such as Fox have also been involved in the distribution of Chinese films in Asia, including Hero (2002), which was marketed like a Hollywood blockbuster. Miramax handled the distribution of Hero in most western territories as it was responsible for much of the film’s 31 million dollar budget. Miramax also bought the rights to certain titles from the Shaw Brother’s film library and Golden Harvest sold many of its titles to Warner Brothers.

Sadly the Hong Kong film industry has suffered a decline in recent years with less than 100 films being produced per year. Domestic audiences now prefer Hollywood and rampant piracy has proved a deterrent for getting people into cinemas. Jackie Chan, Jet Li and John Woo are consistently working in Hollywood and filmmakers are now more likely to be looking to work with mainland China.

Related:

The Indian Film Industry
The French New Wave
The Rise and Fall of Italian Neo-realism

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

World Cinema: The Indian Film Industry

Santosh Sandhu discusses the Indian Film Industry...

With 1 billion people, India has the world’s second largest population. The majority are very religious and music plays a strong part in Indian culture. India has 15 languages which are mainly differentiated by dialect. Hindi is the most spoken language and is used in most mainstream movies. Despite much of India being illiterate, most Indians are able to understand this language.

Imported Hollywood movies are therefore dubbed into Hindi, though they only make up a small percentage of the domestic market which is dominated by home grown product. India imports roughly 100 Hollywood films each year and successful blockbusters gross over 2 million dollars, however India is not a prolific market for Hollywood films.

Cinemas in India are many but old fashioned ranging from 1500 seat auditoriums to mobile cinemas in villages. Multiplexes have only recently begun to grow in popularity. Ticket prices are relatively cheap so despite India’s poverty many Indians can afford the price of admission and often visit the cinema as a means of escaping the hardships of reality. In this regard, India has a very strong cinema going culture where 14 million people visit the cinema every day.

Movies are promoted on huge billboards in most major cities particularly Mumbai which has been a film making centre since the 1920s. Like Hollywood, Mumbai has its own studio system. The Mumbai film industry is now affectionately known as Bollywood. Part of the funding for Bollywood and other Indian films comes from the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) which is a state agency set up to assist in the production and distribution of Indian films. It is also involved in the construction of cinemas, import of foreign films and the development of new technologies.

India now has the world’s most prolific movie industry producing up to 800 films a year. It currently exports to 100 countries selling 6 billion tickets worldwide with a global box office revenue at around 850 million dollars.

Bollywood films are currently Indian cinema’s most popular export. Thematically these films are escapist fantasy musicals with colourful MTV style song and dance sequences shot against stunning locations. The production values are very impressive and film budgets are roughly between 1 and 10 million dollars. Hollywood is a major influence on these films and certain English language films have been remade as these Hindi musicals. The most revered Sholay (Flames of the Sun, 1975) is a ‘curry western’ reworking of the Magnificent Seven (1960) in which a pair of ex-criminals protect a village from bandits. The film spawned the biggest Bollywood star ever Amitabh Bachchan. His ‘angry young man’ persona dominated Bollywood in the 1970s and 1980s.

The formulaic structure of Bollywood films means that there is a strong emphasis on romance, religion, culture and tradition despite the strong western influence. The world wide appeal of these movies has resulted in internationally recognized movie stars and entries into foreign film festivals and award ceremonies. Devdas (2002) premiered at Cannes and Lagaan (Tax, 2001) about a group of farmers taking on their British landowners in a game of cricket during the days of the British Raj was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

The soundtrack market in India is bigger than the market for conventional pop artists and so the soundtrack is often used as a marketing tool for the movie. Cable TV is also very popular in India whose main output is movies and soundtracks. Advance sales of music, satellite and TV rights can cover half of a films production.

The Indian government’s strict censorship laws has meant that despite featuring violence and strong language, Bollywood films rarely feature kissing or sex and nudity. Certain imported Hollywood films are therefore heavily censored, though the thriving VCD and DVD market and access to the Internet has meant that audiences can bypass the censor entirely.

Piracy is a major problem in India as it is very easy and cheap to copy VCDs and DVDs. DVDs are appealing to Indian audiences as despite being of inordinate length, several Bollywood films can be stored on to one disc. The popularity of soundtracks means that DVDs come complete with song selection menus. It is therefore cost effective for Indians to stay at home and watch these movies with their entire family than pay to see them at a cinema.

Since the immigration of many Indians to other countries around the world, they often consume Indian films as a means of reminding them of where they came from. Indian cable channels are therefore available in America, Europe, England and other countries.

Due to its large Indian community, the UK is the most important international market for Bollywood films. Since Dil Se.. (1998) made the Top Ten, British multiplexes have continued to screen Bollywood films and they are also very popular on cable and DVD. Other nationalities also consume these films as they enjoy the music, dance, colour and exotic costumes. The melodrama and physical comedy can also be easily understood.

The recent permeation of Bollywood into the western mainstream has resulted in a series of co-productions most notably the multi award winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008). The film’s basic plot about two poverty stricken kids who lose their parents and are forced to fend for themselves borrowed heavily from Amitabh Bachchan’s early ‘angry young man’ series of films. Director Danny Boyle intended his movie to be a tribute to Hindi cinema which was highlighted in the film’s final dance sequence and animated end credits that mimicked old Bollywood style film posters.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

Extreme Cinema - Salò (1975)

Salò, 1975.

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Starring Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Umberto P. Quintavalle and Aldo Valletti.


SYNOPSIS:

In fascist Italy, a group of young people are raped and murdered by an oppressive regime.


Pier Paolo Pasolini’s final film Salò (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma, 1975) is based on the Marquis de Sade’s novel 120 Days of Sodom. Instead of France, the story is set in the republic of Salò in Fascist Italy towards the end of the Second World War. It features a group of young people being forced to endure a series of ritual (mainly sexual) humiliations at the hands of an oppressive regime. The regime consists of Masters and Storytellers who enact any sexual fantasy at will on these helpless victims. This consists of male and female rape, frequent sexual molestation, excrement eating and torture. If the victims attempt to escape they are killed. The stories told by the Storytellers are deliberately sexually charged and explicit designed to arouse the masters into performing these sadistic sexual acts.

In the film’s opening scenes, the masters choose their victims because of their natural beauty forcing them to strip in front of them so they can stare at their naked bodies and make a selection. The victims are then taken to a mansion where they are told what is going to happen to them. Assembled in a courtyard they are told that they will be treated like animals and used for the sexual pleasure of the masters in the hall of orgies. In the hall of orgies, as the storyteller tells a story a master will rape or molest a male or female victim. Apart from the rape scenes, the film also features heterosexual and homosexual sex. Much of the sex is from the rear. In fact the film leans towards homosexuality as one of the rules of the regime is that consensual heterosexual sex is forbidden. Therefore there are scenes of men kissing and having sex with each other and a scene where the masters cross dress so they can marry other men. The scenes featuring heterosexual sex are decidedly brief in comparison.

The film is also obsessed with bodily functions. A girl is forced to eat the excrement of a master as she annoys him for thinking of her mother. One of the most sickening moments in the film is when a storyteller relays a story about excrement eating which prompts the masters to organise a banquet in which everyone (masters and victims) eat excrement. Also during a story, a master has a girl urinate on him whilst another is content to watch a girl urinate and then urinate in front of her. The film then builds to a grotesquely violent climax in which the victims who have not abided by the rules of the regime are systematically tortured. A guard and a black servant girl are shot for indulging in heterosexual sex. A male victim has his tongue sliced off whilst another has his eye cut out with a knife. A girl victim is raped and then hanged and another has her scalp removed. The masters take turns to administer this sadism and watch each other from a window in the mansion as this takes place in the courtyard.

Salò had originally been submitted to the BBFC by its distributor United Artists in 1976. It was refused a certificate on the grounds of gross indecency which meant that if any part of the film was deemed as indecent the whole film would be rejected. This also meant that under law no artistic defense could be mounted on the film’s behalf.

The then president of the BBFC David Harlech disliked the film but chief censor James Ferman approved of it arguing that it made a strong anti-fascist statement and any censorship would lessen its impact. Ferman was however unable to release it as it became a prosecutable offence to do so. A prosecution case was prepared against the film but was never used. This came after the film was screened as part of a cinema club in 1977 uncertified and uncut at the behest of Ferman but was subsequently seized by police.

Eventually under the Obscene Publications Act the film could be taken as a whole and the charges of indecency dropped, though the film was still liable under the deprave and corrupt test in its uncut form. In an effort to get the film shown, Ferman excised six minutes and inserted an explanatory prologue and this version ran in selected cinemas through the 1970s and 1980s. An uncut version of Salò was later resubmitted to the BBFC by the British Film Institute in the year 2000. This coincided with the BBFC’s new classification guidelines in which it was decided that the film was no longer harmful and was unlikely to deprave and corrupt. The film was then re-released with an 18 certificate that same year and then onto video/DVD in the year 2001.

Despite much strong material, the film does not rejoice in the evil deeds of the masters. The sex scenes are never pornographic and the rape scenes are disturbing in their lack of sensationalism. The atrocities committed by the masters are simply deplorable. They behave as if they are civilized, spouting their fascist ideologies between bouts of rape and torture but are nothing more than sadists. When they force the victims to behave like animals, the film's message is clear that it really is the masters who are the animals. Salò is still a very strong film which is meant to shock and still does.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

Extreme Cinema - The Last House on the Left (1972)

The Last House on the Left, 1972.

Directed by Wes Craven.
Starring Sandra Cassel, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred J. Lincoln, Jeramie Rain, Gaylord St. James and Cynthia Carr.


SYNOPSIS:

A seemingly harmless couple exact brutal revenge on a group of criminals who have murdered their daughter and her best friend.


The early 1970s was the period in which America was a nation bitterly divided over the Vietnam War. Wes Craven, a then young director of exploitation films, did not support the war and wanted to make a film that honestly depicted violence as uncensored media coverage was showing him. He wrote a script based on Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960) which featured a rape revenge narrative. Wes Craven’s resulting film eventually entitled The Last House on the Left (1972) is about two teenage girls who are raped and murdered by a gang of escaped convicts, who are then in turn murdered by the parents of one of their victims.

In 1974, a pre-cut US version which removed much of the film’s gore was rejected by censor Stephen Murphy who saw no artistic merit in the film and was concerned about the film’s attitude towards sexual violence. The film was again refused a certificate in the year 2000 for its explicit and sadistic sexual violence. However, Leicester Council overruled this ban and screened the film uncut with an 18 certificate that same year. The film was eventually released onto video/DVD in 2002 with cuts made by the BBFC. These included the humiliation of one of the girls when she was made to wet herself, the two naked girls being forced on each other and a scene where one of the criminals used a knife to carve his name into a girl’s chest before raping her. The most disturbing scene however was a graphic disemboweling. Ironically, these scenes were included in a documentary on the region 2 DVD. It wouldn’t be until 2008 that the film would be released in its original uncut form.

Despite its reputation The Last House on the Left has dated horribly, looking like cheap exploitation even on DVD. Apart from the harrowing scenes in which the genuinely terrified girls are forced to strip naked in front of the gang and the brutal rape and murder scenes, the film is frequently unconvincing. Whilst Wes Craven’s hand held camera technique has stood the test of time, the easy listening soundtrack is grossly inappropriate for a horror film and is frequently intrusive as are comedy scenes of two bumbling cops looking for the missing girls. Due to this the film never really builds the tension it needs to be suspenseful.

Krug (David Hess) the leader of the gang has a very unusual look to him and is well built making his character intimidating. Sadie (Jeramie Rain) the only girl in the gang comes across as twisted and depraved, not least because she has a hairstyle like Moor’s murderer Myra Hindley. Weasel (Fred Lincoln) the suit wearing criminal looks the most harmless but is just as devious as the others. Unfortunately, the film can’t help but include the requisite easily led dumb criminal Junior (Marc Sheffler) who is simply annoying.

A more naturalistic style of acting would have benefited the film immensely as only Sandra Cassel as one of the original victims is convincing as a regular person. It is difficult to understand however why the film was banned as it never glorifies the rape and murder scenes. It appears the BBFC dismissed it simply because it is exploitation. That said Last House on the Left will always be remembered for its once status as an unobtainable video nasty together with the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Evil Dead (1981) regardless of its merits as a quality film. It was even deemed worthy enough for a 2009 remake.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

Extreme Cinema - The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist, 1973.

Directed by William Friedkin.
Starring Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller and Linda Blair.


SYNOPSIS:

A desperate single mother is forced into hiring a priest to perform an exorcism on her possessed daughter.


The Exorcist was made by former documentary maker William Friedkin who had then recently won an Oscar for The French Connection (1971). The film was based on a real life possession involving a young boy in 1949. In the film it would be a young girl (Linda Blair) who is possessed by a demon, prompting her single mother to seek help from two priests to perform an exorcism.

In 1971, the BBFC cut a sequence out of Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971) which featured a group of nuns raping a statue of Christ. Although retiring censor John Trevelyan liked the film he conceded further cuts suggested by members of the BBFC. These included scenes of nudity, masturbation, orgies and a fantasy sequence in which the priest Grandier (Oliver Reed) came down from a cross to make love to Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave). Despite the awarding of an X certificate and further excisions made to avoid a religious backlash, the film was seen as blasphemous by the Nationwide Festival of Light, a religious organization who succeeded in getting the film banned by several local authorities. By 1974, censor Stephen Murphy had passed The Exorcist (1973) uncut but its religious subject matter caused further consternation and resulted in its screenings being picketed by the Festival of Light who linked the film to the suicide of a teenage boy.

The film was passed uncut onto video in 1980 but was later withdrawn in 1986 after the introduction of the Video Recordings Act which stipulated that a film was liable if it caused potential harm to viewers. Due to media attacks and much negative correspondence the BBFC had received at the time of the film’s release, a video certificate was deemed irresponsible. Censor James Ferman would refuse the film a certificate again in 1988. This would continue for many years with Ferman arguing that video films were more accessible to children and that the film’s protagonist was a 12 year old girl which would prompt children’s interest in the film. Ferman was also concerned about the response from religious groups especially those who believed in demonic possession.

When Ferman retired from the board in 1998, his successor Robin Duval passed the film uncut the following year. Duval reasoned that many social and cultural changes had occurred since the film’s original release and that many children would be familiar with much stronger material. This also came at a time when the board had acquired a new president in Andreas Whittam Smith who was promoting a more lenient BBFC.

The Exorcist has surprisingly managed to retain much of its power, with director Friedkin’s documentary style giving the film an authentic feel. The cast are uniformly excellent especially the mother (Ellen Burstyn) whose breakdowns are very convincing as she struggles to cope with this supernatural occurrence. The scene where the possessed girl masturbates with a crucifix with blood pouring from her crotch is still strong even by today’s standards. Whilst some of the special effects have dated, some of the more subtle scenes are still very effective. These include a sequence in a church where a priest notices one of the statues is grotesquely deformed and the now reinstated scene in which the possessed girl descends a flight of stairs like a spider.

It is still confusing however as to why the film has caused so much controversy as it does flaunt a very strong pro-religion message. The girl is made to do evil things by the malevolent spirit that has possessed her, forcing her to shout obscenities and harm herself. In the film, doctors and psychiatrists are unable to help the girl so her atheist mother consults a doubting priest to perform an exorcism. He in turn joins forces with a much older and experienced priest and both die saving the girl. The final scene in which the liberated girl looks up at a priest and kisses him on the cheek as if to say thank you is a very poignant conclusion to the film.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

Extreme Cinema - The Idiots (1998)

The Idiots, 1998.

Directed by Lars von Trier.
Starring Bodil Jørgensen, Jens Albinus, Anne Louise Hassing and Nikolaj Lie Kass.


SYNOPSIS:

Unhappy with their lives, a group of misfits find solace in feigning disability.


Lars von Trier’s The Idiots (Idioterne, 1998) features the potentially offensive story of a group of middle class people who pretend to be handicapped as they are unhappy with society. The film begins with Karen (Bodil Jørgensen) a middle aged woman eating in a restaurant. Karen notices two men who appear to be disabled interrupting other customers. Their female companion Suzanne (Anne Louise Hassing) is trying to take care of them. When Stoffer (Jens Albinus), one of the disabled men takes Karen by the hand, she accompanies him and his two friends to their car and joins them for a car ride. Karen then realizes that these are a group of pranksters who did it deliberately to avoid paying for their meal.

The rest of Stoffer’s group is then introduced via straight to camera confessions which continue throughout the film. Karen is the last to join this group of misfits and looks uncomfortable when they visit an insulation factory and pull the same disabled prank. She tells the group leader Stoffer that she does not find the group’s activities amusing. Karen frequently suffers breakdowns and it becomes obvious that she is hiding an unhappy personal life. The group discusses Karen to camera and come to the conclusion that she needs them to find happiness as she is a lost soul. On a later expedition to the woods, Karen asks Stoffer why the group behaves this way as there are people who are genuinely disabled. Stoffer tells Karen that the group is looking for their ‘inner idiot’ as they are all unhappy with their conventional lives and are therefore enjoying ‘spassing out’.

As the group’s pranks continue the to camera confessions make it clear that the group have since dissolved and gone back to their original lives. As Karen leaves the group she tells them that she is happy and has enjoyed her experience. Having struck up a good friendship with Suzanne, Karen takes Suzanne with her when she returns to her family. Suzanne then learns that Karen’s son had died prior to her joining the group.

This film would not be very engaging if it wasn’t for Karen who in many ways represents not only the group’s conscience but also the conscience of the audience watching. The group did feel ashamed as they met a group of genuinely disabled people. At the end as Karen began to ‘spass’ out in front of her family, she began to realize that she couldn’t escape the reality of losing her son. She had joined the group hoping to cope with her loss but was still unhappy. This scene was very moving.

The film also featured full frontal nudity (male and female) and a graphic orgy scene with penetration shots. Thankfully this was relatively brief and was followed by a tender love scene between two of the younger members of the group with obvious strong feelings for each other. The film was not as offensive as its subject matter suggested though it was not an easy film to like as it didn’t make any good points about the disabled and their place in society. The film focused instead on a group of people who really should have known better. Despite the film’s controversial subject matter, the BBFC did not consider it as offensive to the disabled and released it uncut with an 18 certificate, seemingly because it was an art film only likely to appeal to a certain kind of audience.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

Extreme Cinema - Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, 1986.

Directed by John McNaughton.
Starring Michael Rooker, Tom Towles and Tracy Arnold.


SYNOPSIS:

A serial killer instructs a protégé in murder and escaping justice.


Filmed in a documentary style, Henry : Portrait of Serial Killer (1986) would cause serious problems for the British Board of Film Classification due to its cold attitude towards violence and sexual violence. Originally made in 1986 but submitted to the BBFC in 1990, Henry was loosely based on the exploits of real life mass murderer Henry Lee Lucas.

The film begins with a montage of Henry’s victims with their screams heard on the soundtrack. Henry (Michael Rooker) has been released from jail and has taken up a regular working class job. He soon meets up with his old friend Otis (Tom Towles) and Otis’s sister Becky (Tracy Arnold). Henry begins to bond with Becky as he appears to respect her whilst Otis frequently belittles her and even attempts to molest her. Otis is then introduced to serial killing by Henry when they pick up a couple of prostitutes who have their necks broken by Henry. Henry then dumps their bodies into a rubbish bin. Later the pair kill a television salesman and steal from him a television and video camera.

The film’s most shocking sequence is when Henry and Otis videotape themselves butchering an entire family. Arriving home late one night, Henry finds Otis attempting to rape Becky but Henry intervenes and kills Otis after Becky has stabbed Otis in the eye with a comb. Henry takes Otis’s body into the bathroom and dismembers it and puts it into plastic bags. Henry and Becky then go on the road together. Henry dumps Otis’s body parts into a river and he and Becky then stay the night in a motel. In the morning Henry is driving alone, he stops the car and takes out a large suitcase and dumps it onto the side of the road and drives off. It is obvious he has disposed of Becky in a similar fashion to Otis.

The videotaped massacre of the family caused serious consternation for censor James Ferman. The scene begins with a woman struggling with Otis whilst Henry films them. By Henry’s feet, a man is seen bound and gagged. A boy enters the room and sees what is going on and attempts to run, Henry puts the camera down and grabs the boy, throws him to the floor and snaps his neck. Otis then snaps the neck of the woman he is holding and molests her dead body. All of this is captured by the camera. In the next shot it becomes obvious that Henry and Otis are actually watching this event on their TV. This scene was cut by just over a minute for the film’s cinema release.

Unhappy with its potentially titillating sexual violence, Ferman had this scene cut by a further 52 seconds for its video release after discussing its potentially adverse effects with psychiatrists. This scene was also reedited so the shot of Henry and Otis watching the TV appeared earlier in the sequence so the neck breaks occurred off camera. This inadvertently lessened the impact of the scene considerably as it was meant to surprise the audience when they realized they were watching a video recording. Ferman then released this version onto video in 1991 with an 18 certificate. Under the new BBFC guidelines of 2000, the film was eventually re-released in its original uncut form onto video/DVD in 2003. This version also included a scene from the opening montage which was originally cut by the film’s distributors. It featured the body of a half naked woman slumped on a toilet with a broken bottle in her face.

Henry is still a very shocking film but a deeply moralistic one. The film maintains a sombre tone throughout with a very eerie soundtrack. The documentary style is very skillfully deployed. The acting by the principles is very natural and they are all very ordinary looking which is what serial killers actually look like. Ferman’s reasons for cutting the film were confusing as the film never glorified any of its violent scenes and simply appeared to be censored for being too bleak and realistic. It was a shame that this film was overlooked in favour of the overblown theatrics of The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

The character of Henry is featured in Only Good Movies Blog's Top 100 Movie Killers.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

World Cinema: The French New Wave

Santosh Sandhu discusses the French New Wave...

French cinema in the post war years consisted mainly of genre movies with high production values. It was often studio bound and formulaic. The Gaullist regime came to power in the late 1950s and wanted to promote a home grown industry to compete against the dominance of Hollywood. A film subsidy called the avance sur recettes was put in place which enabled many new directors to get their first films made. Roger Vadim’s commercially successful Et Dieu créa la femme (And God created Women, 1956) had given production companies faith in young directors working with low budgets.

In this regard, a group of new filmmakers began making their own films. Advancements in technology meant that film and sound equipment was cheaper and lighter making it easier to film on location. Many of these new directors did film on the streets of Paris. Their films were often independently financed without support from a major studio. The technical crews were relatively small and the actors were often non professionals. The actors in these films were young and lifelike often indulging in anti-establishment behaviour. These films had a contemporary setting and were distinctly French despite their sometimes foreign influences.

Some of these new filmmakers had been critics for the French film magazine ‘Les Cahier du Cinéma’ co founded by André Bazin in 1951. Heavily influenced by Hollywood, these filmmakers consisted of François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer and Jacque Rivette. As critics they had admired American, Japanese and European cinema but felt disgust for indigenous cinema particularly the ‘Tradition de Qualité’ (Tradition of Quality) classical French Cinema from the post war years.

These former critics felt that French cinema conflicted with their preferred concept of ‘politique des auteurs’ (Auteur theory) which promoted the role of director as ‘author’ of the movie. In this instance, the films these former critics made would be known to the public by the directors who made them. These new directors would collectively become known as the ‘La Nouvelle Vague’ (New Wave) together with other filmmakers who would emerge at roughly the same time.

Of the Cahier critics, one of the first to find success would be François Truffaut. Having had a troubled childhood of truancy and delinquency, François Truffaut was given a job by André Bazin writing for Cahier du Cinéma in 1953. In 1954, Truffaut wrote the article 'Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Français' (A certain tendency of French Cinema) in which he suggested that French cinema needed to be more personal as it had become seriously cynical. The article criticized the technically adept but pessimistic literary adaptations of the tradition of quality French cinema.

Truffaut often had very outspoken views which resulted in him being banned from the Cannes Film Festival in 1958. He would return triumphant a year later however as a director with his first feature length film Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows, 1959). The title is taken from the French phrase ‘faire les quatres cents coups’ which translates as ‘to raise hell’.

The film was semi-autobiographical and was about Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a troubled twelve year old boy rejected by his parents and sent to a reform school from which he escapes. The film was mainly shot on the streets of Paris in a documentary style using 16mm black and white film. The film’s protagonist was an unknown. The film was dedicated to Truffaut’s mentor André Bazin who died before the film was released. Truffaut took the Best Director award at that years Cannes Film Festival and it signaled the beginning of the French New Wave and a series of aesthetically distinctive French films.

Whilst he had been working as a critic, Truffaut had come across the novel Jules et Jim (Jules and Jim) by Henri-Pierre Roché in 1956. Truffaut’s third film (after Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Pianist, 1960)) would be an adaptation of this book. Made in 1962, the film would be a period piece with a decent sized budget. The film begins in 1912 and centers around two writer friends, Jim (Henri Serre) a Frenchman and Jules (Oscar Werner) an Austrian, and their various relationships sometimes even with the same women. They lead relatively carefree lives until they meet the eccentric Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) who initially has a relationship with Jules who she later marries. When the First World War breaks out Jules and Jim fight on opposite sides and constantly worry about killing each other, they do however survive.

After the war, Catherine and Jules have a daughter but their marriage is in trouble as Catherine is unable to stay loyal. Jim and Catherine then get together. When Jim moves in with Jules and Catherine, a bizarre threesome develops. Catherine continues to have affairs however especially with an acquaintance called Albert. After attempting to have a baby with Catherine, Jim leaves and goes back to his long time partner Gilberta. He receives correspondence from Catherine that she is pregnant. When he meets her they discuss why they shouldn’t be together. Jim has also decided to marry Gilberta. Catherine pulls a gun on Jim but he manages to get away. Jim meets Jules and Catherine a few months later in a cinema showing a newsreel of the burning of Jewish literature. Catherine then takes Jim for a drive and goes off a bridge into a river. Jules then has both their bodies cremated.

The film was very skillfully made with Truffaut exercising a firm grasp of directorial techniques. These included freeze frames, stills, documentary footage, narration and subtitles. Despite the film’s subject matter there was never any clear indication of suffering or pain. Catherine is self absorbed and treats Jules and Jim disrespectfully and their reaction to this is still admiration for her. Jules reaction at the breakdown of his marriage and the death of Catherine and Jim was surprisingly reserved and the full horror of war was only hinted at when Jim went looking for his fallen comrades in a cemetery. Catherine again is only thinking of herself when she drives off the bridge as the burning of Jewish literature signals the rise of Nazism and she now realizes she can no longer live a carefree life so she ends it taking Jim with her.

Truffaut would also provide the story for the breakthrough film of one of his Cahier colleagues, Jean-Luc Godard. A Boute de Souffle (Breathless, 1960) is about a criminal Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who kills a motorcycle cop and goes on the run. He meets up with his American girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg) who later notifies the police of his whereabouts. Michel is then gunned down by the police on the street. This film like Les Quatre Cents Coups made full use of location shooting with Parisian landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe clearly visible. The references to American cinema was also in evidence particularly to film noir as Michel modeled himself on Humphrey Bogart through his attire and stopped to admire a poster of a Bogart film called The Harder they Fall (1956). Patricia sported a very trendy short hairstyle and often wore sunglasses adding to the modernity of the setting. The couple were often smoking and conversing frankly about sex, relationships and sometimes trivial subjects. The pacing of the film was very brisk, notably due to the frequent use of jump cuts accompanied by a very pleasing jazz score. Godard also reminded the audience at times that they were watching a movie as Michel occasionally spoke straight to camera. Whilst the film was innovative in many ways there were also scenes that suggested inexperience. The shooting of the cop at the beginning and Michel’s death at the end were disjointed as the preceding events were not properly depicted. Despite this the film was very modern with an attractive young cast and was a big success.

Godard’s Bande À Part (The Outsiders, 1964) would also feature an attractive young cast heavily influenced by American culture who decide to take part in a robbery. Arthur (Claude Brasseur), Franz (Sami Frey) and Odile (Anna Karina) plan the robbery of the house where Odile lives but the robbery goes awry and Arthur is killed. Franz and Odile then escape together. This film had an imaginative title sequence with the main character’s faces flashing past in quick succession. Like Breathless, this film also featured a nice jazz score and swift editing but also included narration by Jean-Luc Godard. Godard’s narration often reminded the audience that they were watching a movie. When the three protagonists observed a minutes silence the soundtrack cut out completely. Moreover there was a fun sequence in a café where the trio danced. The music was interrupted by the narration but the trio continued dancing making for an interesting effect. There were further references to American culture as Franz and Arthur reenacted the killing of Billy the Kid by Sheriff Pat Garrett and as the three miscreants waited till nightfall to execute their robbery in homage to B- movie tradition. The trio also ran through the Louvre, again Godard making full use of Parisian locations.

New Wave films were often low budget and did well at the box office at home and in art house cinemas abroad. These films did not however need to rely on the box office abroad. By the late 1960s, New Wave directors were acquitting themselves to different styles and genres of filmmaking especially Truffaut. Godard’s aversion towards American involvement in the Vietnam War resulted in a series of politically motivated films which increasingly alienated his audience. Hollywood in the late 1960s was also going through a difficult period. American cinema had become increasingly stale with overblown big budget musicals flopping at the box office. Changing public tastes, the rise of television and the decline of the family audience were factors which contributed to this. Hollywood was governed by old men out of touch with the needs of the public. French New Wave films had grown in popularity in art house cinemas in the States. The writers David Newman and Robert Benton were heavily influenced by A Boute de Souffle and set about writing Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

Although based on an American legend, Bonnie and Clyde incorporated many stylistic elements from the French New Wave such as a young cast, themes of sex and violence, innovative cutting and a sometimes overbearing pessimism. Its most significant incorporation from French cinema however was auteur theory as the role of director grew in significance and popularity. This film appealed to a new audience namely teenagers and young adults. Since the rejuvenation of Hollywood in the 1970s by the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll generation, the influence of the French New Wave can still be felt today with director Quentin Tarantino often citing Godard as a major influence. Tarantino’s films are often low budget independent affairs with many pop culture references and in-jokes. In Reservoir Dogs (1992), a group of criminals plan to rob a jewellery store called Karina’s named after actress Anna Karina. Tarantino also named his production company Band Apart and reworked the film’s dance sequence in Pulp Fiction (1994). The New Wave’s lasting legacy will be that today films are deliberately targeted towards the lucrative teen market and that directors are now as important as movie stars to the public.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

World Cinema: The rise and fall of Italian Neo-realism

Santosh Sandhu discusses Italian neo-realism...

In Italy, the fascist movement came to power in 1922. Fascist leader Benito Mussolini took advantage of the Italian peoples’ disillusionment with the liberal government and its inability to bring prosperity in the aftermath of the First World War which saw mass poverty, inflation and unemployment. Having created a totalitarian state by 1939, Mussolini was now controlling all the political, economic and social activities of the Italian people without question.

Having taken over national cinema in 1935, this government was now subjecting Italy’s strong cinemagoing culture to formulaic costume dramas, farcical entertainments and propaganda films which promoted the cause of the fascists. The government had also introduced protectionist measures such as import restrictions and quotas to limit the number of imported Hollywood films and to promote the growth of the now centralized national cinema. Under this regime films and other media were also heavily prone to censorship and control by the state.

By the early 1940s and Italy’s entry into the Second World War, many people had become disillusioned with this government. Mussolini’s promises of prosperity had not materialized and the standard of living had depleted further for the common people. The Italian army had suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the allies with the Italian people and the Italian economy ill prepared for the war. Whilst support for the fascist regime was declining, a new wave of experienced filmmakers began making movies which honestly depicted the difficult times they were living in unlike the manufactured or idealized world the fascist propaganda movies had depicted.

An early example towards the post war trend for neo-realism was Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione (Obsession, 1943) based on American author James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. American fiction had been popular with Italian writers at the time for its gritty realism and melodrama and would be an influence on neo-realist writers and directors.

Ossessione was about a drifter who has an affair with a married woman and together they murder the woman’s husband. The story was reset in Italy with much of the melodrama removed and the characters changed to suit the environment. This film subjected Italian audiences to a new kind of national cinema. It was rebellious and allowed a form of protestation which was forbidden under the fascist regime. Its characters were natural, passionate, flawed and individualistic. Whilst not a neo-realist film in the conventional sense, Ossessione was certainly a major influence.

The first truly neo-realist film and box office success would be Roberto Rossellini’s Roma, citta aperta (Rome, Open City,1945). Many of the distinguishing characteristics of neo-realism would be employed here. These included a leaning towards realism by employing a documentary style approach and social and political commentary as the film took place during Nazi occupation and focused on the true story of a catholic priest and a communist partisan working for the resistance.

The film also featured a preference for location shooting as most of the film was shot outdoors utilizing natural light. Non professional actors were employed in many of the roles, with children often giving good naturalistic performances. The film was also shot without sound, with the dialogue recorded later in a studio. Though some of these techniques may have been employed by Rossellini due to material constraints. These included the unavailability of studio facilities (they had been bombed by the allies) and low production costs limiting the number of trained actors.

Rossellini would follow Rome, Open City with another neo-realist film Paisa (Paisan, 1946). Paisa featured a series of short stories about life during and after the Second World War. Shot in Italian and English (the film was partly funded by the Americans), it featured real documentary footage of Allied troops landing in Sicily before entering the first of six invented stories. The first story introduced the film’s recurring motif of misunderstanding between the Italian people and their liberators in which a local girl is mistakenly blamed for the death of a GI by a group of soldiers.

The second story featured a sympathetic black GI whose boots are stolen by a young boy he has befriended. When he catches up with the boy, he realizes the boy’s actions were only those of survival as he lives in a cave with other destitute people. Liberation has not improved the lives of these people just like victory will not improve the life of the black GI when he returns to a segregated and oppressive America. This was a truly groundbreaking depiction of a black soldier as Hollywood films at this time rarely acknowledged their existence.

The third story in Paisa would continue this theme of how liberation and the post war world were not living up to expectation. Six months after liberating Rome, an American soldier was now disillusioned whilst the innocent girl he had met at the time was now working as a prostitute. The fourth story was about a nurse desperately searching for her former lover who was a partisan leader. When she reaches her destination she receives news that he is dead rendering her journey meaningless. The fifth story was surprisingly comedic in its execution as it concerned a group of monks fasting to save the souls of two visiting chaplains, a protestant and a Jew. The final story was again dramatic. It concerned a group of partisans and allied soldiers captured by the Germans who are then all executed. As with Rome, Open City, Paisa made many social and political comments but also managed to punctuate the drama with comedy and uplifting moments.

One of the best known of the neo-realist films would be Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948) about a working class man who having been unemployed for a long time accepts a job as a bill sticker. In order to do this job he must be in possession of a bicycle. Having pawned his bed sheets in exchange for his bicycle, he sets out on his new job only to have it stolen. He then sets off on a fruitless quest with his young son to find it. Driven to the point of desperation he tries to steal one himself only to be captured and then released by the sympathetic owner.

This film told a simple story very well. The social commentary was very profound as to examining a society in which the theft of a simple bicycle can have such damaging repercussions. Although the protagonist was a sympathetic character, the effect this incident would have on his impressionable son had a greater resonance. As with many of the neo-realist films, Bicycle Thieves did not present any easy answers with the father and son disappearing into a crowd at the end.

Italian films of this period had often ignored the fact that they were once Germany’s allies (Mussolini had declared war on Britain and France in 1940) and suggested that many were against fascism and working with the resistance against the Nazi occupation. In 1943 Mussolini had lost power and Italy had joined the allies which would eventually bring the fascist regime to an end. Mussolini would be captured and executed in 1945 by anti- fascist freedom fighters.

At the end of the war and looking towards a democratic future, Italy was obviously attempting to wash its hands of its fascist past and did not want to present itself in this way to its own people and to the rest of the world. Acknowledging such facts in cinema would also undoubtedly have limited the commercial prospects of Italian films at home and abroad. By the early 1950s Italian cinema began concentrating on a more positive image of Italian culture eschewing neo-realism which was by now being considered as derogatory.

During the war years, Hollywood had been unable to distribute its films across Nazi occupied Europe. By the end of the war, Hollywood had a backlog of films waiting to be released including all time greats Gone with the Wind (1939), and Citizen Kane (1941). With the post war Italian economy in recovery, the Italian people demanded and received Hollywood films signaling an end to its once protectionism. It appeared that the need for spectacle, melodrama, and slick Hollywood entertainment had returned. Domestic Italian cinema was now being swamped by the popularity of Hollywood films with Italian filmmakers having to change tact to compete. Whilst neo-realist films were winning audience approval abroad and were being praised by critics such as Andre Bazin they were no longer appreciated in their domestic market as a commercial force. The directors who had made neo-realism famous were by now also embracing different styles. The early 1950s would also signal the beginnings of a trend for international co-productions. Italy would be making films with other European countries and also with Hollywood well into this decade. Whilst neorealism was no longer commercially viable its influence would undoubtedly continue even to this day.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

Extreme Cinema - Irreversible (2002)

Irreversible, 2002.

Directed by Gaspar Noé.
Starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, and Albert Dupontel.


SYNOPSIS:

A woman is raped and her boyfriend seeks vengeance in a narrative told in reverse.


Irreversible (2002) features strong language, sex, violence and sexual violence in its tale of a woman raped in a subway and whose boyfriend and ex-lover seek a bloody revenge on her attacker. When shown at the Cannes Film Festival, the graphic violence and rape scene caused audiences to walk out appalled. Like Baise-moi (2000) the film already had a reputation before it arrived in England. The length of the rape scene at 9 minutes also set alarm bells ringing.

The film begins with two men Marcus and Pierre (Vincent Cassell and Albert Dupontel) arrested by police and being taken out of a gay bar. Marcus’s arm is broken and so he is taken away in an ambulance. Another man with his face smashed in is also being taken away. Marcus and Pierre had entered the gay bar searching frantically for a man called Le Tenia. Marcus thought he had found him but attacked the wrong man and got his arm broken. His attacker was about to rape him but Pierre used a fire extinguisher to smash Marcus’s attacker’s face in. Marcus and Pierre had traveled to this place after being tipped off by a transvestite prostitute that her pimp Le Tenia was responsible for the rape and beating of Marcus’s girlfriend Alex (Monica Bellucci). Alex had left a party alone and decided to use a subway. She had then encountered Le Tenia beating the transvestite prostitute who managed to get away. Le Tenia had then turned his sights onto Alex and raped her at knifepoint before smashing her face in.

The film features a striking credit sequence which sets the tone and style with the credits written backwards and moving diagonally off the screen. The film also has a very impressive visual style with the camera constantly in motion and unusual camera angles deployed throughout. The minimalist soundtrack also adds to the overall disoriented feeling. The sequence where Marcus has his arm broken by the man in the gay club is shockingly realistic as is Pierre smashing in the attacker’s face with a fire extinguisher. These violent scenes are bearable due to the constant movement of the camera. The rape scene does not however employ any fancy camerawork and is shot directly and brutally. After Le Tenia has sexually assaulted Alex he brutally beats her leaving her face battered and bruised. Alex struggles relentlessly through her ordeal and keeps on screaming and yelling for help as Le Tenia holds his hand over her mouth.

The film was released uncut by the BBFC due to its very unglamorous depiction of rape and violence. Surprisingly the Daily Mail was also upset with this film, despite its message being rather more obvious than that of Crash (1996). It was rather unfortunate that the film’s rape scene would distract from a rather skillfully made film. The reverse narrative means that the audience anticipate awful things are to happen to the protagonists. As the film builds to its ‘happy’ ending there is an undeniable sense of loss as although Alex prior to her ordeal discovers she is pregnant, the audience is aware that her world and that of her partner Marcus will be destroyed.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.

Extreme Cinema: Baise-moi (2000)

Baise-moi, 2000.

Directed by Virginie Despentes and Coralie.
Starring Karen Lancaume and Raffaëla Anderson.


SYNOPSIS:

Two abused women embark on a robbery and killing spree in revenge against an oppressive society.


Baise-moi caused a great deal of controversy on its initial release in France when its original 16 and Over rating was raised to the rare X certificate by the French government in the wake of protests from the far right pro-family value group Promouvoir. This in turn led to the film being withdrawn as many X theatres no longer existed. The film’s frank depiction of sex and violence had also resulted in scathing reviews in the French media as it openly blurred the line between mainstream cinema and pornography. This was potentially alarming for the British because the French often have a more liberal attitude towards explicit sex and are generally not as easily offended. The title roughly translates as ‘Fuck Me’ so the film was obviously designed to be provocative.

The film is about two women, Manu (Raffaëlla Anderson), a porn star and Nadine (Karen Bach) a prostitute, who go on a robbery and killing spree pausing only to have sex with whomever they choose until the law catches up with them. Manu and a friend are brutally raped at the beginning of the film. Keeping in line with the BBFC’s stance on sexual violence, this scene was cut by 10 seconds to remove its erotic/pornographic content. This is a shocking scene as Manu allows her attackers to rape her, whilst her friend struggles relentlessly with them. Manu’s reaction is as if this is the kind of behaviour she expects from men so is not willing to put up a struggle and be humiliated by them. It is also obvious from the conversation the two rape victims have after their ordeal that despite Manu’s passive response she too did not enjoy her ordeal. This incident is then the catalyst for Manu’s later mentality as she kills her brother, takes his gun and steals his money. She then meets up with Nadine who has killed her roommate. The pair then decide to take revenge on society for what it has done to them.

The explicit sex scenes as the girls use men for their own sexual gratification continue throughout the film spliced with the random killings of whomever the women encounter. It’s confusing as to what the filmmakers want the audience to feel whether they are to be shocked by the violence or aroused by the sex scenes is completely unclear.

The film’s strong language together with its scenes of violence are not much stronger than in their Hollywood counterparts. The film begins well with an interesting grainy hand held camera style and the characters introduced as regular people marginalized by society particularly by the men in their lives. The relentless sex scenes however undermine this and render the film as nothing more than hardcore pornography. Manu is worryingly young looking making her sex scenes unwatchable. This film is nothing more than an exploitation film masquerading as a feminist statement. The film’s somewhat liberal 18 certificate did raise questions about whether the BBFC had been more lenient towards it simply because it is an art film.

Santosh Sandhu graduated with a Masters degree in film from the University of Bedfordshire and wrote the short film 'The Volunteers'.