Reviews (25)

Antonio Banderas Was Better When Euro Film Star
I watched Banderas in his European movies before he became an American movie star. I really liked all of his work then whereas now his work is very uneven in quality. "Evita" is the only work of his I've admired since his "conversion." This film was his very best prior to his coming to America. I'll confess that director Pedro Aldomovar's 2 most commerical films, of which this is one, appeal to me more than his other films. The other is "Woman On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown." Perhaps this is because these two works involve heterosexual love affairs and are also comedic and satiric. They're broadly played but enjoyable for a bigger audience than Aldomovar's work normally gets. Banderas is incredibly sexy in this film as the patient fresh from a mental hospital who wants a regular married life and seeks to find it with a porno star woman. Bringing these two together for a black comedy was a stroke of genius. The Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down in the title refers to the woman's liking kinky stuff and Banderas's literally tying her up and down to the bed. This is a very sexy, romantic even, film and for those who feel Aldomovar's films typically are aimed to please only gays and not straights, this film should convert them to becoming fans of his considerable talent. It will also make them sad that Banderas decided to become an American movie star.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (¡Átame!) is one of the two movies by renown director Pedro Almodóvar (the other being Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) that got wide attention in the US, albeit in the art house scene. Nothing since Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (made in 1990) has gotten nearly as much attention, despite several efforts since than by Almodóvar. Both movies have a similar style, but Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is a bit more disturbing as it revolves around a kidnapping.

Marina Osorio (Victoria Abril) is a former porn actor and junkie trying to make a more respectable living as a B movie actor. Ricky (Antonio Banderas), is a troubled youth who has just been released from a mental institution where he had spent the last several years due to his constant running away from orphanages and reform schools. Somehow Ricky has decided that Marina is his future wife and after some very lame attempts to get her attention on the set of her new movie, decides to break into her apartment and "kidnap" her until she is convinced to love him as he does her.

This seems somewhat straightforward, but most would assume that this would be a terror-filled, disturbing film about stalkers and people who's reality is warped. It is disturbing, but not for those reasons, but rather for its very light-hearted atmosphere and slapstick comedy in the face of this rather serious situation. One might call it a black comedy, but the mood is generally so light, that a better term might be "gray comedy." Marina, though occasionally showing some terror, seems more angry and annoyed at being tied up and kept captive than in fear for her life. One thing ran through my mind when watching this - that quote from Die Hard with the expert commentator on the news talking about how kidnapped victims sometimes go through the "Helsinki Syndrom" and start empathizing with their captors. Well, it does not take all that long for Ricky to actually convince Marina to love him. This again, leads to the very light-hearted and surreal nature of the film, and everything in the film seems to have this quality, almost as if what is happening is not real, but being acted on stage. This relates to the film that Marina is acting in at the beginning of this movie, where likewise, everything is pretty fantastic and unreal.

Other than the shear oddity of this film, the main other noteworthy quality seems to be in its steamy sex scenes with Abril and Bandaras. The film actually got an NC-17 rating due to this, which shows the hypocrisy of the MPAA which gives incredibly violent films like Saving Private Ryan an R, but because of a little sexual content will brand a film with NC-17 and make it hard to sell at the box office in most communities.

The DVD is lackluster, containing no special features except for a Trailer. The anamorphic transfer is a good one, very clear with vibrant colors. The audio is the original mono Spanish and is very clear for a mono soundtrack.

If you are a fan of the offbeat, you may enjoy this film for the shear "different" quality it has compared to most mainstream movies, but its light treatment of very disturbing theme may be too much for others.

"You can't be that kinky."
Pedro Almodovar's film "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" stars one of the director's favourite leading ladies--Victoria Abril as Marina--a former adult film star with a nasty narcotic habit. Marina is trying to stay clean with the help of her protective, responsible and non-stop talking sister, Lola. Marina has almost finished making a second rate horror film, "the Midnight Phantom." The film's wheelchair bound director, Maximo is obsessed with Marina. There's something about Marina's fragile sensuality that makes men want to protect and possess her. Ricky (Antonio Banderas)--just released from a mental hospital--is also obsessed with Marina. Ricky decides that he will kidnap Marina and keep her tied up until she falls in love with him.

Of course, there's a fundamental flaw in Ricky's plan, but Almodovar's playful script shows how the obstacles to Ricky and Marina's relationship are overcome. Victoria Abril is--as always--splendid, and Banderas is at his best. As with all Almodovar films, "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" is full of great, eccentric characters (the pistol-packing pharmacist, for example), and Almodovar's humour, acceptance and generosity towards human flaws always ensures some sort of good outcome.

"Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" contains a controversial scuba-diving gadget scene, and many Almodovar fans will note a very similar scene in "Talk to Her." (...). I loved the scenes when Maximo's frustration is shown by his endless circling in the wheelchair, and when he dances in his chair with Lola. The film also includes some amazing Spanish music. Almodovar and Abril fans will not be disappointed in this film--displacedhuman

A loving kidnapping drama...
Ricky (Antonio Banderas), a newly released mental patient, enters society with hope of building a family after have convinced the woman in his life that she loves him. This woman is Marina (Victoria Abril), a former heroin addict and porn star, that is filming a horror film with a director who has recently suffered a severe stroke. Ricky enters the film studio and retrieves Marina's keys, which he uses when he breaks into Marina's apartment and kidnaps her. In doing so Ricky wants Marina to get to know him and fall in love with him as they have had a brief affair once before, which changed Ricky's life.

Pedro Almodóvar knows how to make the absurd feel authentic and in this story he does it well as Marina and Ricky get to know each other. The story is planned down to every last detail as both characters have some heavy luggage from their pasts, which serves as a solid foundation for them to relate and understand one another. Almodóvar uses vibrant colors that improves visual representation of the likes and dislikes between Ricky and Marina as it expands on the audience's understanding of what is going on. There are also several interesting shots that are out of the ordinary as they draw attention to the characters and develop the persona around the characters. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! fades away from the silver screen with a good cinematic experience, which can be pondered over a glass of sangria.

Subverting types!
When originally writing this film, Pedro Almodovar asked himself the question "Can love be calculated or sketched the same way one could study for an exam?" This is certainly the conviction of the Antonio Banderas character who seeks to capture his former lover and eventually convince her of her love for him. Although one could initially interpret the theme of the film as overtly misogynist - man tries to physically force woman to love him - gender stereotypes are typically subverted in true Almodovarian fashion.

It would seem that the women are the figures of power in this film and both Ricky and wheelchair-bound film director Maximo are at a loss in trying to seduce the object of their desire in any conventional sense. They are both addicted to Marina, but the only thing she's ever been addicted to is heroin. By the end of the film the Antonio Banderas character is almost totally domesticated, making food, cleaning the appartment, making sure Marina has enough drugs etc.

There's also the reference to the Sacred Heart at the beginning of the film and masochism has often been perceived in some of the more archaic rituals of our Roman church.

None of these subtleties were apparantly noticed by the American classification board who initially wanted to give this film an 'X' rating because of playing with toys in the bath! (?) ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

A young Paris housewife, Séverine, grows bored with her stable husband. When she learns of the presence of a high-class brothel in her neighborhood, she quietly goes to work there--but only during the day, until five o'clock in the afternoon. This sublime 1967 film is one of the latter-day masterpieces of the Spanish-born director Luis Buñuel, whose career forms one of the greatest and boldest arcs in cinema. By the time of Belle de jour, Buñuel had become almost completely deadpan in his style, which not only leaves the motivation of Séverine a mystery (despite a few flashbacks to degradations of her youth), but also casts the entire plot in doubt. An old surrealist from the 1920s (when his first classic, Un chien andalou, was made in collaboration with Salvador Dali), Buñuel suggests that what we see may be real, or simply Séverine's imagination. Because he was the least pretentious of directors, Buñuel keeps his material playful, wicked, yet cutting. As Séverine, the impossibly lovely Catherine Deneuve uses her cool demeanor to great effect--she never breaks her deadpan, either. In 1995, after having been out of official circulation for years, Belle de Jour was re-released in America and became an unexpected art-house hit. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (54)

5 Star Movie, 1 Star DVD
The movie is a Bunuel classic. But the dvd looks horrible. Yes, it's an old film. But I refuse to believe that this is the best it can look. It's been said many times, but Criterion should have been the ones to handle this. There is a TON of dirt speckled all over the screen throughout the film. Scratches pop up WAY to often. The colors frequently change, fading or changing tint, during many scenes. There is an overall lack of sharpness as well. Basically, anything that could be wrong with the picture quality, is.

It's watchable, and by all means worth renting. But I can't recommend buying it. One can only hope it is cleaned up and given better treatment at some point. But don't let the poor video quality stop you from viewing, or re-viewing, the movie.

As has been pointed out by many others, there is no interview with Deneuve. However, at least there is a commentary track. While far from the best analytical commentary I've heard for an older film, this is still worth a listen. Julie Jones clearly knows her subject and she provides a very listenable track.

Criterion has done such a bang up job with three other Bunuel classics, it's a shame that they weren't able to make this film look as fantastic as it probably can. With any luck, sometime in the future we'll see a much better transfer.

Erotica According To Bunuel.
"Belle De Jour" by the great Luis Bunuel is the best example of what true eroticism is in the cinema. It is an exquisite, seductive and stylish, also surreal, fantasy that enraptures us by not only picking at the main character's brain, but at ours as well. This is not a movie about sex, or at least, the physical aspects of it, this is a movie about the idea and fantasy of sex, it delivers the reason why we're attracted to sexuality or sexually stimulating images in the first place. This also makes it a rare psychological movie. Some may say it is also a perfect portrait of the masochist woman, and this indeed may be true (Bunuel was a big fan of the Marquis De Sade) considering Severine (the lovely Catherine Deneuve), we notice, is especially turned on by the violent aspects of what she is doing more than the secretive. This is required viewing for fans of erotica, surrealism and brilliant filmmaking. Notice how Bunuel sets a completely seductive air without a single sex scene, this movie shames trash like "Caligula" and "Y Tu Mama Tambien." Here is one of the masters giving a lesson on what is erotic. Much of what we perceive as sexually alluring (weather it may be "twisted" or "normal") is born in our imaginations and this is one point Bunuel makes, it is Severine's fantasies that really drive the movie. Visually the movie is very stylish with the elegant clothing, settings and of course, Deneuve, one of the beauties of her time. There are the usual Bunuel touches, bizaare scenes of surrealism (as when Severine is caked in mud by her husband before a herd of bulls in a dream sequence) and shots following Severine's feet (Bunuel was a well-known foot fetishist). His brilliance for characters and scenarios is here too, giving complex deliveries with simple-looking set-ups. Bunuel remains one of the giants of filmmaking, having made the notorious and classic 1929 surrealist film with Salvador Dali, "Un Chien Andalou" with the famous image of a razor slicing a woman's eyeball. His Mexican films like the highly influential "Los Olvidados" and the controversial "Virdiana" are also hypnotic gems, but when he returned to European filmmaking in the late 60s his career really took off and "Belle De Jour" is one of those first great masterpieces. It is a movie done with style, taste and truth.

okay
Somewhat disappointed, very limited action, easy enough to follow.

Belle de Jour indeed!
Luis Bunuel's classic "Belle de Jour" must have been enormously, outrageously shocking to audiences when it debuted in the late 1960s. It may well continue to shock today, although for completely different reasons. At the time, I suspect people objected to the idea that a woman would not only fantasize about debasing herself, but also actually act upon these desires. Now, the outrage would involve the concept that a woman would choose to do such a thing at all. Why, feminists would say today, when a woman can chose so many different outlets would she decide to subordinate herself to men? In a world highly charged with feminist influences, the story about a woman who attains sexual arousal only when strange men treat her like garbage would cause the most strident libber to cough and sputter with rage. Whatever the case, Bunuel's film is an interesting one to watch. I still cannot say whether I enjoyed it or not. My girlfriend, no frothing at the mouth feminist, found the film extremely tiresome. She almost fell asleep several times, and urged me to turn it off. Not a ringing endorsement, to be sure, but there are intriguing elements to the film well worth looking for if you try hard enough.

Severine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) lives a posh existence. Her husband, a wealthy, busy doctor, is willing to buy his wife anything she desires. He even likes spending time with her on occasion, but he treats her like a child. It is obvious Severine finds her spouse boring in ways both sexual and emotional. As an outlet for her boredom, Serizy imagines elaborate fantasies involving whippings, rapes, and being splattered with mud. Why? Because Severine doesn't have the nerve to do something about her growing ennui. Life goes on as it always has until our heroine cannot stand it anymore. She finally goes into town and signs on as help at a local brothel, agreeing to turn up a few afternoons a week for several hours of degradation and debasement. It takes forever for Severine to fully engage her clients because she continually hesitates to follow through on her fantasies. After meeting with her first client, which turns out to be a total disaster, she stays away from the brothel for a few days. The fantasies and boredom of married life drive her back, however, and she soon racks up a list of clients who favor this emotionally frigid yet beautiful woman.

Problems emerge when Severine enchants a violent thug named Marcel. Here's a customer Serizy can appreciate, a brutish lout who will fulfill her violent desires. Unfortunately, Marcel also has his own desires, namely obtaining Severine on a permanent basis. This won't work at all since Serizy never wishes to abandon her easy life with her wealthy husband. The criminal is not to be deterred as he stalks Severine and eventually discovers where she lives. A violent act committed against her husband, an act that leaves the man permanently scarred, leads to a sort of rapprochement at the end of the film between man and wife. At least I think it does. You're never exactly sure what is going on here because the director's use of surrealism blends reality with Severine's outrageous fantasies. The movie's moving along at a nice clip, you're following the plot, and suddenly there is a scene with Severine doing something naughty under a table. Huh? The mix of wild nonsense with conventional scenes isn't as bad as it sounds, though. In fact, it's often funny.

"Belle de Jour" is the sort of film that necessitates multiple viewings. There is just too much going on here to absorb in a single sitting. I am not sure whether Bunuel was a communist or not, but I suspect the film is an artfully constructed attack on the European bourgeoisie. The director uses Severine as a symbol of upper class decadence, as a symbol of everything that is wrong with the wealthy. Here's a woman who seemingly has it all and yet she cannot find satisfaction in her life. Heck, she's only been married to her husband for a year and already she's looking for new thrills, new acquisitions. On the other hand, Marcel is your typical proletariat, a common man who is secure in his identity and in his desires. He should have spent his time attempting to destroy the bourgeois Severine instead of bedding her. As it is, his attempt to possess her leads to his destruction. Whatever this movie ultimately means-and there are plenty of interpretations out there awaiting your attention-Catherine Deneuve is amazing to watch in the role of Severine. She's a beautiful woman, and it's quite something to watch a woman who looks this good engage in these sorts of activities. The mud scene alone is worth the price of the film.

The DVD is a mixed bag. The picture quality is awful considering how prized this film is to millions of cinema fans. I've seen the arguments about retaining the "purity" of Bunuel's best-known film, but the grain, streaks, and general haphazardness of the presentation made me wonder why a Criterion treatment for "Belle de Jour" isn't in the works. What would the film really lose if the techies made a once over on the negative? At least the transfer is in widescreen, with a commentary by a Bunuel student and some trailers thrown in for good measure. When it comes right down to it, I would watch "Belle de Jour" again. It's a movie interesting enough to merit subsequent viewings if for no other reason than to try and get to the bottom of just what Bunuel was trying to say.

Jaw-droppingly unique!
The first time I saw this film, I fell instantly in love with it. The further I was drawn into the film, the deeper I was taken into the mystery of the story.

Great storytelling by the French who have always been progressive in filmmaking. This is a very sexy film starring the ageless beauty, Catherine Deneuve. She is beautiful in the film and is the reason for the unforgettable quality of the film. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Can I have my two hours back please?
I absolutely adore Vincent Perez. I think he's an amazing actor, I love some of his other work and he ain't too bad on the eyes, if you know what I mean...(See La Reine Margot and Indochine!) However, this movie was a drag. I am an avid movie fan, but this was the first time I had ever really noticed the effects of bad casting and NO on-screen chemistry. Nilch. The scenery was beautiful and the cast had great potential, but the weak script, underdeveloped storyline, and the director's awful attempt at the occasional "artsy" camera shot drove me nuts. I felt no emotional attachment to the characters or the passion they SHOULD have had for each other. Such a waste! See this movie ONLY if you need a quick Perez fix or if you have too much free time...

For those of you who like period pieces...
Don't listen to the other reviews concerning zero chemistry! Polly Walker and Vincent Perez may not be another Scarlett and Rhett, but they are by no means a Richard and Winona from "Autumn in New York." This bittersweet tale involves a beautiful young Irish woman and her adventures as a governess in Spain. As a war stirs in the background, the governess deals with issues of doomed love while she fights to remain brave during her year in Spain. Will she forget about her "true love" back home? Will she consummate her relationship with her employer's married son? Enjoy the lovely scenery of Spain as you take a trip back in time with this intriguing drama. If you liked "House of the Spirits," you'll probably like this movie.

A Thoughtful Film about Revolutions - Political and Personal
TALK OF ANGELS is a beautifully photographed, well written, and sensitively acted story about how political upheavals alter our interpersonal relationships. The time is 1936 and the place is Spain in the throws of Fascism and Franco. A wealthy family (Marisa Paredes is the mother, Franco Nero the father with three daughters the eldest of whom is Penelope Cruz) in an unnamed Spanish city has just hired a governess from Ireland to teach their children proper English. The governess, Lavelle, (Polly Walker) has taken the job to put distance between her Irish activist betrothed and herself, finding the need to explore the world before settling for what she has. In her new Spanish home Lavelle encounters other Irish expatriots who have fled Ireland's upheavals only to find those of Spain. Among these eccentric women is one (Frances McDormand) who falls in love with Lavelle. The family for whom Lavelle works attempts to stay outside the political upheaval that fills the streets at night. All proceeds smoothly until the son Francisco (Vincent Perez) visits with his wife and family in tow. Francisco supports the Spanish activists, and Lavelle slowly falls in love with him - the embodiment of the ideals of her own betrothed. Sides are drawn and defined in the political arena and in the personal arena, and it is the resolution of both that provides an open end to the story.

The acting is first rate with Polly Walker incandescently beautiful and delivering a character role with great sensitivity. Vincent Perez is her perfect foil and the rest of the fine cast draw unforgettable characters. There is much to be learned here about the political milieu in Spain in the 1930s. And there is even more to experience in the beauty of the conversations, the dancing, the vistas of Spanish landscapes. The musical score is lush and wisely orchestrated. This is a little sleeper of a film that deserves repeated viewings to catch all the levels of meaning. Recommended.

A Great Film for Romantics
The scenery and the story are beautiful as our the lovers Polly Walker and Vincent Perez. Candace Serviss

Excellent.
This wonderfully acted tale takes place in the mist of the Fascist's rise to power in Spain. The movie tells the story of an Irish nanny, how she contends with her peers and the family she works for. She falls in love with the married son of the family--but while a theme in the movie, it is not the major one. Instead, the movie focuses in on the family dynamic and how different members of the family contend with the social and political strife around them, told through the eyes (to use a cliche) of the nanny.

Sadly, because this movie doesn't rely on nude scenes, things blowing up every five minutes are cursing every other word, few have heard of this movie. My recommendation would be that you get a copy of this movie ASAP. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Film as art
This movie by Carlos Saura is an ambitious attempt at recreating the life of celebrated Spanish artist, Francisco Goya. The cinematography is spell binding as the artists works are recreated masterfully, only to be matched by the magnificent time period recreation. The acting is very good, good enough to garnish a Goya(Spanish equivilent of an Oscar) for leading actor and actress. Veteran actor Francisco Rabal, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the real Goya and Maribel Vernu as Cayetana, the Dutchess of Alba, both won a Goya for their performances. If all this reference to Goya is confusing it is because I'm laying the foundation for the problem with this movie. The story of Goya is told to his daughter through a series of flashbacks that are at times very perplexing. It is not so much that they are confusing but that no explanation is given to the circumstances of Goya's life. Saura makes the leap that everyone knows about Goya rather than explaining. Maybe everyone in Spain knows about Goya but not all viewers are Spanish. It helps to be up on your Spanish history prior to viewing to understand the political nature of the times and the reason for his self imposed exile to Bordeaux in his later years. I did some reading afterwards but it would have been better to know the why before viewing. Anyway the sets and lighting are works of art in themselves as the paintings and walls in one sequence come to life. These hallucinations are part of the torment that Goya suffers and is reflected in his art. Some insights are given into the life of Goya but it is hard to distinguish fact from fiction. Goyas mixing in the royal court and hob nobing with the rich and famous are perfect backdrops for his cavorting with Cayetana. Saura has created a work of art in his homage to one of Spains master painters. Goya's life and death, as represented in this film, is the end of an era linked to Velasquez and the birth of modern art in Spain. Recommended for art enthuisists with deep pockets.

Film as art
This movie by Carlos Saura is an ambitious attempt at recreating the life of celebrated Spanish artist, Francisco Goya. The cinematography is spell binding as the artists works are recreated masterfully, only to be matched by the magnificent time period recreation. The acting is very good, good enough to garnish a Goya(Spanish equivilent of an Oscar) for leading actor and actress. Veteran actor Francisco Rabal, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the real Goya and Maribel Vernu as Cayetana, the Dutchess of Alba, both won a Goya for their performances. If all this reference to Goya is confusing it is because I'm laying the foundation for the problem with this movie. The story of Goya is told to his daughter through a series of flashbacks that are at times very perplexing. It is not so much that they are confusing but that no explanation is given to the circumstances of Goya's life. Saura makes the leap that everyone knows about Goya rather than explaining. Maybe everyone in Spain knows about Goya but not all viewers are Spanish. It helps to be up on your Spanish history prior to viewing to understand the political nature of the times and the reason for his self imposed exile to Bordeaux in his later years. I did some reading afterwards but it would have been better to know the why before viewing. Anyway the sets and lighting are works of art in themselves as the paintings and walls in one sequence come to life. These hallucinations are part of the torment that Goya suffers and is reflected in his art. Some insights are given into the life of Goya but it is hard to distinguish fact from fiction. Goyas mixing in the royal court and hob nobing with the rich and famous are perfect backdrops for his cavorting with Cayetana. Saura has created a work of art in his homage to one of Spains master painters. Goya's life and death, as represented in this film, is the end of an era linked to Velasquez and the birth of modern art in Spain. Recommended for art enthuisists with deep pockets.

An Exploration on the Role of the Artist in Society
Saura's newest film follows in the tradition of <>, <> and his most recent film <>. All explore the role of the artist as <> within society. <> is no exception. The film features Francisco Rabal, now the elderly Goya, who recounts his life to his young daughter in a series of artistic flashbacks, many of which cross the boundaries of time and space. Integral to the plot are his recollections of his affair with Cayetana, the famed Duchess of Alba, and who torments his thoughts throughout the course of the film bringing an element of reality to the artist's sometimes surreal world, a world where Goya's paintings serve as backdrops to illustrate the historical period. In addition, unusual lighting and music contribute to the film's artistic flare, all blending into a lush and virtual feast for the eyes. I truly enjoyed this creative experiment. It is a must for Saura fans and for those who enjoy Spanish art and history.

love goya
i don't watch too many foreign films, not really my kind of thing, but this is easily one of my favorite movies. has a wonderful look to it. if you like foreign movies you should check this out.

Indeed, a masterpiece
After seeing this film twice at the Vancouver Film Festival, visiting from my home in Mexico, I could hardly wait to own it, even though it was only available in VHS. I find it fascinating and disturbing that Saura's masterpiece, as non-linear and right-brained as any great work of art, should be maligned by critics such as Roger Ebert, and others. Here's to those who've written their praise for the film on these pages!
This is extraordinary creation, a fusion of both outer and inner realities that the logical mind cannot grasp - and why must it? Does it really matter what happened factually to Goya? Aren't those fiery skies and the music of Boccherini, reflecting the fire and brimstone in Goya's mind, enough to tell us that the film is mythic? Shakespeare did the same thing with his tragic heroes because the Elizabethans and the alchemists believed in "as above, so below". Macbeth's turmoil is reflected in the storms outside, and the bloody battles raging around him. Yet that's fiction and we believe this world is reality..
I buy few films, and I cherish this one. I'm still longing for "Providence" to come out on DVD because Resnais interweaves life and art from the same perspective...an old man, a writer, dying among his living, breathing creations. I live in an Mexico's oldest city, on a street named "Cinco de Mayo" Every day I'm reminded of Goya's painting, and this film is shown at least once a month on TV because the Mexicans love it - the Latin world has no problem suspending reality in the name of art - which is why Andre Breton called Mexico the ultimate surrealism. Thank you Saura, once again. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Antonio Banderas Was Better When Euro Film Star
I watched Banderas in his European movies before he became an American movie star. I really liked all of his work then whereas now his work is very uneven in quality. "Evita" is the only work of his I've admired since his "conversion." This film was his very best prior to his coming to America. I'll confess that director Pedro Aldomovar's 2 most commerical films, of which this is one, appeal to me more than his other films. The other is "Woman On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown." Perhaps this is because these two works involve heterosexual love affairs and are also comedic and satiric. They're broadly played but enjoyable for a bigger audience than Aldomovar's work normally gets. Banderas is incredibly sexy in this film as the patient fresh from a mental hospital who wants a regular married life and seeks to find it with a porno star woman. Bringing these two together for a black comedy was a stroke of genius. The Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down in the title refers to the woman's liking kinky stuff and Banderas's literally tying her up and down to the bed. This is a very sexy, romantic even, film and for those who feel Aldomovar's films typically are aimed to please only gays and not straights, this film should convert them to becoming fans of his considerable talent. It will also make them sad that Banderas decided to become an American movie star.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (¡Átame!) is one of the two movies by renown director Pedro Almodóvar (the other being Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) that got wide attention in the US, albeit in the art house scene. Nothing since Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (made in 1990) has gotten nearly as much attention, despite several efforts since than by Almodóvar. Both movies have a similar style, but Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is a bit more disturbing as it revolves around a kidnapping.

Marina Osorio (Victoria Abril) is a former porn actor and junkie trying to make a more respectable living as a B movie actor. Ricky (Antonio Banderas), is a troubled youth who has just been released from a mental institution where he had spent the last several years due to his constant running away from orphanages and reform schools. Somehow Ricky has decided that Marina is his future wife and after some very lame attempts to get her attention on the set of her new movie, decides to break into her apartment and "kidnap" her until she is convinced to love him as he does her.

This seems somewhat straightforward, but most would assume that this would be a terror-filled, disturbing film about stalkers and people who's reality is warped. It is disturbing, but not for those reasons, but rather for its very light-hearted atmosphere and slapstick comedy in the face of this rather serious situation. One might call it a black comedy, but the mood is generally so light, that a better term might be "gray comedy." Marina, though occasionally showing some terror, seems more angry and annoyed at being tied up and kept captive than in fear for her life. One thing ran through my mind when watching this - that quote from Die Hard with the expert commentator on the news talking about how kidnapped victims sometimes go through the "Helsinki Syndrom" and start empathizing with their captors. Well, it does not take all that long for Ricky to actually convince Marina to love him. This again, leads to the very light-hearted and surreal nature of the film, and everything in the film seems to have this quality, almost as if what is happening is not real, but being acted on stage. This relates to the film that Marina is acting in at the beginning of this movie, where likewise, everything is pretty fantastic and unreal.

Other than the shear oddity of this film, the main other noteworthy quality seems to be in its steamy sex scenes with Abril and Bandaras. The film actually got an NC-17 rating due to this, which shows the hypocrisy of the MPAA which gives incredibly violent films like Saving Private Ryan an R, but because of a little sexual content will brand a film with NC-17 and make it hard to sell at the box office in most communities.

The DVD is lackluster, containing no special features except for a Trailer. The anamorphic transfer is a good one, very clear with vibrant colors. The audio is the original mono Spanish and is very clear for a mono soundtrack.

If you are a fan of the offbeat, you may enjoy this film for the shear "different" quality it has compared to most mainstream movies, but its light treatment of very disturbing theme may be too much for others.

"You can't be that kinky."
Pedro Almodovar's film "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" stars one of the director's favourite leading ladies--Victoria Abril as Marina--a former adult film star with a nasty narcotic habit. Marina is trying to stay clean with the help of her protective, responsible and non-stop talking sister, Lola. Marina has almost finished making a second rate horror film, "the Midnight Phantom." The film's wheelchair bound director, Maximo is obsessed with Marina. There's something about Marina's fragile sensuality that makes men want to protect and possess her. Ricky (Antonio Banderas)--just released from a mental hospital--is also obsessed with Marina. Ricky decides that he will kidnap Marina and keep her tied up until she falls in love with him.

Of course, there's a fundamental flaw in Ricky's plan, but Almodovar's playful script shows how the obstacles to Ricky and Marina's relationship are overcome. Victoria Abril is--as always--splendid, and Banderas is at his best. As with all Almodovar films, "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" is full of great, eccentric characters (the pistol-packing pharmacist, for example), and Almodovar's humour, acceptance and generosity towards human flaws always ensures some sort of good outcome.

"Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" contains a controversial scuba-diving gadget scene, and many Almodovar fans will note a very similar scene in "Talk to Her." (...). I loved the scenes when Maximo's frustration is shown by his endless circling in the wheelchair, and when he dances in his chair with Lola. The film also includes some amazing Spanish music. Almodovar and Abril fans will not be disappointed in this film--displacedhuman

A loving kidnapping drama...
Ricky (Antonio Banderas), a newly released mental patient, enters society with hope of building a family after have convinced the woman in his life that she loves him. This woman is Marina (Victoria Abril), a former heroin addict and porn star, that is filming a horror film with a director who has recently suffered a severe stroke. Ricky enters the film studio and retrieves Marina's keys, which he uses when he breaks into Marina's apartment and kidnaps her. In doing so Ricky wants Marina to get to know him and fall in love with him as they have had a brief affair once before, which changed Ricky's life.

Pedro Almodóvar knows how to make the absurd feel authentic and in this story he does it well as Marina and Ricky get to know each other. The story is planned down to every last detail as both characters have some heavy luggage from their pasts, which serves as a solid foundation for them to relate and understand one another. Almodóvar uses vibrant colors that improves visual representation of the likes and dislikes between Ricky and Marina as it expands on the audience's understanding of what is going on. There are also several interesting shots that are out of the ordinary as they draw attention to the characters and develop the persona around the characters. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! fades away from the silver screen with a good cinematic experience, which can be pondered over a glass of sangria.

Subverting types!
When originally writing this film, Pedro Almodovar asked himself the question "Can love be calculated or sketched the same way one could study for an exam?" This is certainly the conviction of the Antonio Banderas character who seeks to capture his former lover and eventually convince her of her love for him. Although one could initially interpret the theme of the film as overtly misogynist - man tries to physically force woman to love him - gender stereotypes are typically subverted in true Almodovarian fashion.

It would seem that the women are the figures of power in this film and both Ricky and wheelchair-bound film director Maximo are at a loss in trying to seduce the object of their desire in any conventional sense. They are both addicted to Marina, but the only thing she's ever been addicted to is heroin. By the end of the film the Antonio Banderas character is almost totally domesticated, making food, cleaning the appartment, making sure Marina has enough drugs etc.

There's also the reference to the Sacred Heart at the beginning of the film and masochism has often been perceived in some of the more archaic rituals of our Roman church.

None of these subtleties were apparantly noticed by the American classification board who initially wanted to give this film an 'X' rating because of playing with toys in the bath! (?) ... Read more

Reviews (8)

People need help
To those who gave this movie more than two stars or found it remotely interested: GET PROFESSIONAL HELP! Your lives are as boring as Anthony Anthony's acting. I'm so ashamed to even have seen the Batman movies after finding out Batman's butler is in it.

There is only one positive thing to say about this movie: HOT CHICK!

The Ultimate in Cheese
I've always had a soft spot for this movie. We (my wife and I) first saw it in the early eighties and loved it. What makes this movie so special was that it was filmed in Spain (for the most part) and that is where we lived at the time. That scene where Tony Anthony walks down that passageway underneath that waterfall is where we used to walk. Driving down Paseo Del Prado and then the scenery in Madrid as they go to the museum gave us a thrill. When they went to the snow to get the drunk, that was Navacerrada, a ski resort we used to visit all the time even in the summer.

The second thing I like about this movie is that it is so awful it is great. Sort of like a Plan 9 for the Indiana Jones set. You can see the string holding up the props that are supposed to be 3-D. Shoving everything into the camera unnecessarily is really dumb but cool. The plot is ok but there are only three crowns (like a previous reviewer pointed out) and the dialogue is only a notch above Plan 9. Still, it was an absorbing story that had us hooked at that time. I had a recording of the movie and lost it over the years. Just found a copy in a video store and rented it. They would not sell it to me though. I tried to look up a history of the movie and there is not much out there. It seems like Treasure was Tony Anthony's last movie as his movie history cuts off at that point.

Overall, if you like cheesy Mystery Science Theater type movies, this one is for you! Highly recommended.

One of the best, worst movies ever created by man!
As the founder of the Theatre of Cheese film club for the appreciation of hideously awful / camp cinema, I must credit Treasure of the 4 Crowns for starting me on the road to bad movie heaven. Just to set the stage, I was in Russia, on a student exchange trip when my host insisted we see a movie. Since this one was in 3D we figured, "Hey, why not?" Within the first 10 minutes my American friend and I were literally falling out of our chairs, and we couldn't stop laughing for long enough to breath properly. This was at that point the worst movie I had ever seen (I have since seen "Manos, the Hands of Fate", "Hobgoblins" and "Tomcats" but I am not proud of this). The funniest thing? The Russians weren't laughing...
Anyway, Treasure of the Four Crowns is a grade D Indiana Jones clone, centering on our middle aged, hairpiece toting hero J. T. Striker. He and his band of semi-elderly misfits are recruited to retrieve three (yes, only three) enchanted crowns from the compound of a twisted cult leader. I have never laughed harder than this at a bad film... EVER. Why? Where to start? It's all golden cheese. From the most dodderingly [simple] line readings in history, to the huge spots that disappear and reappear from the camera lens, to a hero who seems like he's going to wet himself whenever he's trying to seem heroic, to some downright inexplicable special effects... Ok, wait, have to calm down.
Okay, I'm just going to tell you that if you are a lover of bad film, perhaps even if you've collected every MST3K episode, you NEED this movie. I assure you, the price is steep, but it is worth every penny. If nothing else, this is a classic example of 3D technology in the hands of people who really shouldn't be using it. Everything gets shoved into the camera at some point ("Hey, could you pass me that magnifying glass?" zoooOOOOOM...) And the best thing is that unlike some other films, this one practically MST's itself. It's actually FUN to watch, and it's a riot with friends. You will thank me. Please, keep the cheese alive, and buy Treasure of the Four Crowns, one of the best times I've ever had at the movies...

four crowns stuck in my mind for 18 years.since 1982
i first saw this movie in 1982 it was ahead of it's time,because this movie was in 3-d when i saw it.i had to wear those 3-d glasses. this movie took me until march 2000 before i finally found it again,thanks to the internet and amazon.com i found it.all i can remember is that i loved this movie,things were jumping out of the screen at me, it seemed so real snakes and animals etc,there were four crowns that had rare jewels on them,they had to find all four of them,then place them in a certain four corners of this place,and something would happen,magical or they would get rich or something,i don't remember. i'm buying this movie for my collection.i loved this movie that's all i remembered for 18 years. this movie is a must see movie,for all fortune hunters,like me who like adventure,and plenty of action and mystery and surprize and suspense,thriller. 5 stars especially at 1982 ahead of it's time when i saw it. mr. gale star hollywood. movie lover.

Treasure of the Four Crowns
Music in this movie was not bad. The special effects was not bad for the year it was made and what they had to work with. The actors were not the greatest, but they did a good job in acting. A must to see - Watch it at least twice a year. ... Read more

Reviews (62)

The most underrated suspence thriller!!!!
Not only was the film deep, and insightfull to the inner soul of a human being in the situation of, in a desperate attempt to be free of the self made prison of these four criminals. To drive accross trecherous terrain of primevel forests of South America in trucks loaded with dynamite so unstable with the nitro leaking from the sticks of death. one wrong move and BOOM! The music was absolutely incredible. Tangerine Dream did a soundtrack that scared the **** out of me!! Don't forget, all this was brought to us in 1977! I was very young and left an impression in my brain! This movie is the prime spark for me getting into Digital Synth Music. All actors were intense and suffered much for the shooting of this film! A MUST GET for armrest gripping viewing!

An overlooked gem
Forget "Wages of Fear" for a moment and look at the merits of the DVD release of William Friedkin's "Sorcerer."

I would have overlooked this film had Siskold and Ebert not flagged it as an under-rated film and under-rated it is. I caught it on HBO and later purchased the Laserdisc.

But the DVD is a step up from there. The color is excellent and the DVD sound is spectacular with the score by Tangerine Dream. Vivid is the word.

Friedkin, who cut his teeth in commercial television, doggedly sticks to his 1:1.33 aspect ratio for this release, but one sees his way of looking at the scenes in this way.

And, oh the cargo! Cases of sensitive dynamite leaking nitroglycerine carried in two trucks driving 15 minutes apart over "pre-Columbian" roads for 200 miles through a South American jungle past, over, or through every danger one can imagine. Dynamite truckers are sometimes called "suicide jockies" even on regular roads. This is downright kamakazi.

Once the journey starts and Tangerine Dream plays the score, it becomes a white knuckle journey not only for the drivers, but for the audience as well. Not good men (after all their are on the lam) but I wound up caring for all of them -- and that says something for the way Friedkin draws the viewer in.

Perhaps the "superior characterization" of the earlier film appeals to those who like the personal stories and certainly there is a place for that, but for the raw imagery of the journey, "Wages" does not touch Sorcerer. If anything, both films should be seen and enjoyed, each for their different focus.

I especially liked the opened ended ending of Sorcerer -- open to debate -- does the theme music mean the end, or yet another spin of the wheel?

Is this a never-ending story? Is it the story of "everyman?"

THERE IS NO WIDESCREEN DEBATE ON THIS FILM.
THIS IS NOT THE INTENDED VERSION!!The Spotlite review by ZENCIRCUS is WRONG!! Yes, William Friedkin was a television director. And yes, he has been quoted as saying he hates widescreen formatting. But this version HAS BEEN MODIFIED to fit a standard TV screen at 1.33:1. When you play this DVD version; IT STATES THIS at the beginning of the film. This underrated masterpiece was SHOT in a ratio aspect of 1.66:1. What that means for those of you who don't understand: if your screen was 1 foot high it would be 1.66 feet wide. This version is only 1.33 feet wide as it is 1 foot high. So, this version is NOT as wide as it was originally shot. Some of the image on the sides HAS been lost. Although, when you look at the ratio, not much is being lost. But to a real film purist, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

YOUR WRONG ZENCIRCUS!! Another version of this classic DOES EXIST. Get your facts straight. And don't hold strong opinions about things you don't understand. Anyone who really loves film, should go to GOOGLE, type in "UNDERSTANDING ASPECT RATIOS," and learn about it. I did. Apparently ZENCIRCUS didn't do his homework. Unless William Friedkin chimes in here to correct me, his review is WRONG and should be removed from the Spotlite.

Don't Overlook This One
Everything that has been previously written about SORCERER touches on all the points I myself would make, save one: I was fortunate enough to see this in 1977 when it was first released in theatres. I was interested in Friedkin's work, and anxious to see what this new movie was. It was a Saturday evening show, but the theatre was populated by myself, a friend, and maybe a dozen other people, several of whom walked out. They should have stayed--they missed a truly great film! We were riveted to our seats for the full two hours, gripping the seat arms and each other, praying that at least one man would make it out of this Hell alive. And a few months later, when our local revival house played a double bill of SORCERER and THE WAGES OF FEAR, you bet we were there to compare and contrast and enjoy! Two very fine films which deserve more wide attention. Most people didn't know what kind of a movie SORCERER was: the poster showed a still from the unbelievably treacherous river crossing over that now-iconic rope and wood bridge, with the words "A William Friedkin Film" and "SORCERER" prominent. If they hadn't seen a trailer beforehand, many thought they were going to see a fantasy film. The film ran only a few weeks, and did poorly at the boxoffice. (I've always felt that every film released during the summer 0f 1977 -- except two -- suffered greatly because of the monstrous success of STAR WARS; that film eclipsed everything else except SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT and the latest James Bond film, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. Go figure.) Universal hasn't booked it a lot on cable over the years, so it has remained a bit of an enigma, except to the privileged few who have been able to see it. I can't recommend this film any higher. Please see it: as long as you have an open mind and do not fall victim to preconceptions, it will enthrall you. And see the original Clouzot film as well: they each have their great strengths.
One bone of contention: the score by Tangerine Dream is perfect! An orchestral score was not neccessary. Friedkin has made it known that after discovering the Dream when finishing off THE EXORCIST, he wanted to have them score an entire feature for him. This is a genuine marriage of film and score, each complimenting and enhancing the other.
One last thing: While true that SORCERER wasn't a widescreen (2:35 to 1) release, I believe that it was 1:85 to 1, so maybe Universal will see fit to repackage the DVD with the original artwork in this ratio. It would be cool.

Alternately painful and enthralling
Sorcerer showed up in the mail via NetFlix and for the life of me I couldn't remember why I ordered it. One theory is that I thought it was a fantasy flick. The title has little to do with the movie itself and it's certainly not about fantasy sorcerers casting spells. Another possibility, and more likely, is that I was writing a review of Vertical Limit and someone mentioned that Sorcerer did it first.

It doesn't matter, I watched the movie anyway. And what I saw was alternately painful and enthralling.

Sorcerer is about four men down on their luck. Actually, that's an understatement. They're not just down on their luck; they're at the very rock bottom of their lives. They are each one step away from complete oblivion, be it at an assassin's hand or their own.

The movie starts out with little apology tracking these four independent threads. The first half hour of the film makes no sense because we don't know what we're seeing: one Frenchman businessman is ruined and flees the country; a New York wheelman crosses the wrong gang; a Middle Eastern terrorist bombs a dwelling; one is an assassin. They are all on the run from their respective countries.

They all end up in Vera Cruz, in South America, a stinking fissure in the earth. Naked children and dogs wander the streets. Everything is encrusted in dirt and the slime of sweat, rain, mud, and oil. The only place a man can find work is at the oil company upon which Vera Cruz depends for its survival.

An explosion sabotages the well. The oil burns and will burn forever unless it is covered - and that requires explosives. Of course, in the South American jungles the nearest cache of nitroglycerine has been festering for years and become highly unstable. It can't be lifted by helicopter, so trucks must carry it. One strong bump and the nitroglycerine explodes.

Finally, the movie gets interesting. We have four unlikable characters forced to work together. They must battle the elements, bandits, and human stupidity to ensure their cargo and their lives make it to the oil well intact.

If you recall Vertical Limit, the concepts were the same: different groups armed with nitroglycerine must brave nature and the elements for some noble cause. While not as gut wrenching as Vertical Limit, Sorcerer manages to inject pathos into the characters. They weep, they take desperate measures, and they become more noble as they rise to each crushing challenge.

Ultimately, all of them came to Vera Cruz to flee something else. Now that they have come to Hell, like Orpheus and Dante they must descend to its bowels to escape it. The journey with the nitroglycerine is their purgatory.

It's no surprise that few of the characters survive, but the movie goes one step further. The sole survivor finds solace in the dirt and horror of the town itself. In short, his journey to get enough money to escape was about selfish ends until he realizes that his struggles had purpose - he saved the town's fate, at least for a little while. His own life is precious. And so, he uses his last moments before leaving to dance with a haggard woman rather than make his escape. His redemption will not be satisfied with anything but his death.

And the name of the movie? Sorcerer is the name of the truck. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

HEAVEN CAN WAIT
Shot in black & white, spanish director Luis Bunuel's VIRIDIANA won the Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Festival. VIRIDIANA is the first spanish movie of Bunuel since L'AGE D'OR and UN CHIEN ANDALOU, two Movie History classics.

Silvia Pinal plays the character of Viridiana, a young girl about to take her vows as a nun. Just before taking this decision, she visits her uncle, played by the bunuelesque Fernando Rey, who falls in love with her because of her tremendous resemblance with his own wife who died during their wedding night. He tries to take advantage on her while she is sleeping but abandons this idea at the last minute. Viridiana decides then to stay at the family farm and take care of the poor people of the nearby village.

Unpitiful, the movie shows how Viridiana will be forced to abandon her mystic hopes to bring some good in this world. The beggars she has offered a home to are cheating on her and will almost rape her. The last scene of VIRIDIANA is masterfully ironic, a visual metaphor of the victory of materialism over spirituality only a genial Luis Bunuel has been able to create. Another scene which will stay in our memory and in Movie History is the recreation of La Cena by Leonardo da Vinci with the beggars in the role of the Christ and the Apostles. A great moment.

A movie zone No Respect.

Splendors and Miseries of a Virgin
Exiled from the safety of the convent, Viridiana is forced to see the world in its magnificent perversity and savagery. Since this is a Bunuel movie and even the chaste Viridiana is not entirely innocent. Her religious rituals borders on the sadomasochistic. Is Bunuel suggesting a parallel between religious and sexual ecstacties? And what's up with Viridiana's uncle's morbid fetish? When the camera follows a group of beggars, it finds them violating the space and honor of their benefactress. The scene climaxes into a mock reenactment of the Last Supper. Everyone's a Judas.Viridiana is the work of a Spanish discontent. This film (re)viewer found it the most 'Spanish' of his movies, in which Bunuel statement that 'every one of his films are meant to be pornographic' comes into lucid fruition. What could be more pornographic than seeing an innocent, holy fool degraded into seeing the world as it really is? The final scene explains it all. A masterpiece.

THEY WHO INHERIT THE EARTH
When Franco came to power in Spain, Luis Bunuel chose self exile. (After all, they DID shoot Lorca.) In 1959 the Franco government was convinced it would help lighten their fascist image by inviting Bunuel back to Spain & giving him some money to make a movie. They must have breathed a sigh of relif when Bunuel said he would base his movie on the life of an obscure Spanish Saint, Viridiana. But when it was finished the government took one look & was so horrified by what it saw that it threw Bunuel out of Spain permanently & tried to get the rest of the world to ban his movie. The rest of the world, instead, started giving it prizes. Two cousins inherit their uncle's farm. The niece, a pious, convent bred girl about to take vows toward becoming a nun, decides she can do God's work in the world. She collects the local homeless & sets them to work in her fields with hoe & pitchfork. The nephew, a wordly man who likes his creature comforts, hires people adept in the latest in agricultural sciences, moves in modern equipment & the housekeeper into his bed. The film then becomes a study in contrasts: Old vs new, sacred vs profane & superstition vs reason. The climax (literally) comes when the cousins are in town attending to personal business. While they are away the rag-tag band of the blind, the lame & the halt decide to have their own little Festival of Fools up at the big house. And this is when all hell breaks loose. Some people were so appalled by what they saw that they thought all hell really DID break loose. (When you see the movie you'll know what caused the ruckus & why.) Fernando Rey is the goatish uncle with decidedly de Sadean intentions toward his neice. Silvia Pinal as Viridiana seems, as usual, to be in someone else's movie but given her character here perhaps it works. (She's like Judith Anderson's Mrs. Danvers but without the passion.) Francisco Rabal as the nephew who is also an observer (possibly standing in for Bunuel) catches the requisite tone of irony & he gets the last line in the movie which suggests a sort of MARIAGE A LA MODE. The film doesn't have the deftness & flow of the French films which were to follow beginning with Bunuel's very next movie THE DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID. Instead it is primitive & crude like the Mexican films before it. Still it has all the exuberance of a little boy splashing about in a mud puddle. He knows his betters will think he is being naughty & that eventually he will have to pay a price but for the moment he is having so much fun that he just doesn't care.

Hypocrisy exposed
This is one of the best pictures I have seen in my short life of 75 years. The plot is economical and exellent. The direction of Bunuel is outstanding (hardly news that). The plot exposes the hypocrisy of the devout, the fallibilty of human nature, the hopelessness of poverty and the uselessness of instictive philantropy. It would be difficult to make a better picture on the subject. I have seen it many times and I would see it again and again. Bunuel had to smuggle it out of Spain while Franco was ruling it but Franco loved it too... He would watch it in private...

Bunuel dares you to laugh.
'Viridiana' begins like a mad Spanish variant on Roger Corman's Poe adaptations. Don Jaime is the Vincent Price-like mad widower (his wife died of heart-attack on their wedding night), haunting his crumbling manor, neglecting his decaying lands, mournfully playing an old piano or listening to Bach and Handel records. At night, by a coffin in which is draped his bride's wedding dress, he wears her shoes and corset. In his past is a shameful story of youthful transgression, and an abandoned, illegitimate son. He invites his niece, Viridana, a dead ringer for his wife, to stay with him for the few days before she takes holy orders. In a fantastic ritual, he asks her to wear the wedding dress and proposes marriage; when she refuses, he drugs her, with the aid of his devoted servant - to whose daughter he gives the skipping rope that takes on an importance from the merely symbolic into the fetishistic and violent - and takes the niece to the bedroom for a necrophiliac rape. Prior to this, he had caught her in one of her sleepwalking trances, throwing her knitting into the fire, and pouring ashes on her uncle's bed. Pure Poe.

Poe was one of the acknowledged precursors of the Surrealists, and in 'Viridiana', Bunuel makes use of two Gothic tropes - the Gothic house/castle/manor is often a figure for the disintegrating mind, but also a metaphor for the nation: Don Jaime's madness, his gentility masking a dangerous egotism, his passion perversely and inwardly directed so that it feeds on itself, his neglect of the land, are all tenets of Franco's Spain, a pinched, gnarled, sterile world in this film.

The Gothic was also the genre in which society could dramatise those anxieties - death, sexual deviance, social disruption - not talked aobut in the middle class public sphere. Gothic novels often featured representative, hyper-virtuous heroines who had to negotiate evils such a society would cast out. Such a reading applies to 'Viridiana' also, with the title character, who has spent most of her life closed off from the world, hidden from its temptations, confronted with unpalatable distortions of desire, family, the body, community, class etc.

In 'Viridiana', however, Bunuel conflates these two movements - the Gothic as social allegory, and as site of released repressions. The film's infamous second half - in which Viridiana attempts to atone for a suicide by caring for beggars and outcasts, and her uncle's son's attempts to modernise the home - savagely mixes them up. The beggars, embodying a whole antheap of qualities, desires, realities the Spanish ruling class and bourgeoisie everywhere suppress, take over the mansion, mishandle its possessions, parody its civilising artefacts (food, music, painting, sculpture), a destructive Bacchic frenzy contemptuous of viewers - we may cheer when the meek inherit the earth, but a greater pack of brutal thugs, informing sneaks, loathesome lepers or frothing rapists you'll never see; while Don Jaime, for all his monstrosity, has a quiet grace absent from the other characters. His servants assume their own thuggish hierarchy when faced with the amoral vagrants, asserting their perceived superiority. The celestial Viridiana's initiation into the 'earthy' is not something anyone, whatever their politics, can buy.

It is wholly characteristic that Bunuel should couch this moral dynamite in one of his most visually beautiful films - the recurring Bunuel motifs (feet, ropes etc.; religious paraphernalia as bondage gear); the dense compositions, at once framing characters in their environment and mocking them; and the startling zooms out, from intimate close-ups on parts of the body to the shocking realisation that someone is always watching. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Brillaint Antonioni. A must!!
For years this film was not available, and when it was made available, only in a dubbed format. The VHS I am reviewing from is fine, but not excellent. DVD engineeers need to get at this film, it is most important in understanding the other two films of Antoninoni, which, with Eclipse, constitute a loose trilogy, with Eclipse as the last entry.The other two: L'Avventura and La Notte, both available on DVD.

The performances here are electrifying, as Monica Vitti and Alain Delon bring out in stark ways the meaninglessness of the so-called high vibration Italian tech world they live in. The conclusion is not be missed, for there is nothing like it in all of cinema.

Try to get a tape, and pray for the DVD to come forth!

Criterion or some other company must get this and re-release it.

Antonioni's Eclipse is a masterpiece!
Michelangelo directed a trilogy of sorts in the 1960s, beginning with his breakthrough film L'Avventura, continuing with La Notte, and ending with my personal favorite, L'Eclisse (The Eclipse). All were preoccupied with the theme of alienation, and all featured more or less neurotic and disaffected performances from the striking actress Monica Vitti (as a blond in L'Avventura and L'Eclisse, and as a brunette in La Notte). L'Eclisse begins with the Vitti character's romantic breakup, and continues with her affair with a young stockbroker. The affair is destined for failure, however, as she ultimately finds it impossible to experience meaningful contact with other people. There are several notable sequences in the film - the dull fatigue of the opening breakup scene, raucous and frenetic scenes in the stock market, even Vitti and her friends dressing up and dancing as African natives! The most striking for me, however, is the final several minutes, in which the lovers have agreed to meet but neither shows up, and we see a series of deserted spots (mostly locales from earlier scenes) in a mounting crescendo of emptiness and apathetic horror. The stark and impersonal "modern" sixties architecture, headlines about nuclear terror, and a quietly eerie and horrific musical score combines to make this one of the most powerful sequences ever filmed. It shocks me to learn that when originally released in America the sequence was cut as extraneous!

It's a shame that this masterpiece is currently out of print. There are copies floating around that are dubbed from British sources, and there are also some from an American release several years ago, which had generally very good picture and subtitle quality. I can only hope that someone, maybe Criterion, chooses to release L'Eclisse on DVD - I would give my right arm to get it! ... Read more

Reviews (23)

A Guilty Pleasure
This Italian-Spanish Made 1980 Science Fiction Horror action thriller is about an airplane that lands in Madrid but unknown to the military that the Passengers were contaminated with Radioactive waste turning them into Rotten-fleshed Blood Sucking Knife-weilding Vampire-like Zombies who go around the city sucking the blood of the living and causing death.

Yeh, the acting stinks so does the dialog and the plot maybe farfetched but this is a very fun movie that i liked, i have seen it in the cut version " City of the Walking Dead" but thinking of owning the Uncut DVD " Nightmare City". The Zombies do kind of look like " The Toxic Avenger" but more vicious, these aren't your kind of Romero/Fulci-Esque Zombies, these undead fiends who run fast, came from Radioactive material and are very intelligent. This is a true guilty pleasure that i enjoy, also good for fans of MST3K.

Similar movies recommended: Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Zombie, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, Return of the Living Dead, Hell of the Living Dead, Resident Evil, C.H.U.D, Class of Nuke'Em High, Slugs, The Toxic Avenger, Alligator, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, Scanners, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Rock, and From Dusk Till Dawn.

CITY OF THE WALKING DEAD suprising GOOD
I did not expect the movie to be this good for the price. Many twists & turns throughout with an unexpected ending. Worth the cheap cost of the video!

Laughably Bad Zombie Film
Nightmare City (aka City of the Walking Dead) is probably one of the worst zombie films EVER made. It induces unintentional laughter at times and provides much entertainment for the viewer trying to pick apart all the plot holes. The story begins with a mysterious C-130 with no identifying insignia (why the aircraft has none is never explained) that lands uninvited at an unnamed city airport. Soldiers and police surround the plane only to be attacked and dispatched rapidly by an army of living dead pouring off the transport aircraft. (At this point, one must give the film credit for making the zombies VERY fast and very intelligent. In fact, the zombies act smarter than the Civil Defense people in the city.) Departing from many zombie films, the zombies in Nightmare City survive by constant drinking of blood usually provided from a slashed throat. The film goes back to more traditional zombie film rules when it is learned that the only thing that can kill a zombie is a gunshot to the head. (In one of the film's many plot holes, a general is shown issuing orders for police and soldiers to shoot attacking zombies in the head but inexplicably hardly anyone does this.) The film then follows a reporter who desperately tries to rescue his wife from a hospital in danger of falling to the living dead. Then the pair try to flee the city.

For gore fans, there's precious little in this film. Most throats "slashed" open by the zombies hardly bleed at all. Anyone wanting a good storyline will be disappointed. About the only ones who won't be disappointed with this film will be diehard zombie enthusiasts. Still, it's not as bad as the awful Zombie 4: The Afterdeath.

Classic Horror Gem
This underground movie is awesomely entertaining. The fact is most reviewers discredit the film thinking that it is about fast running zombies. This is actually not accurate.

Basic Storyline:

Based on a true historical fact when an Italian countryside Nuclear Plant disaster caused a small population of people to become infected. Now this movie was based on this fact ( see DVD interview with Italian Director Umberto Lenzi ) speaking in his native language ( subtitled in English ) and Lenzi expounds on this premis and makes the infected a raging horde of fresh blood seeking cannibals who need the new blood transfusions because of their own contaminated blood. The raging and evolving infected ones, growing in numbers at an alarming rate, create an apocolyptic hysteria over the city with the two main characters on the run ( a tv station reporter and his doctor wife ). For what this is, a fast-paced, italian-horror-blood-squirting-fest, this is definitely an entertaining movie to add to your horror DVD collection for sure.

Again these are NOT zombies, but rather nuclear-disaster infected-people-turned-malicious-cannibals.

Great music and interesting locations.

LENZI'S zombie's are original!! GREAT little zombie flick!!!
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO SAY THIS ISN'T A TRUE ZOMBIE FLICK,because the zombie's in this movie arn't really dead they are living people who have been exposed to some type of toxic chemical that kills there blood cell's and makes them crave more blood.kind of like vampire/zombie but leaning way more towards the zombie genre.the makeup & style of LENZI'S zombies are much different than ROMERO'S OR FULCI'S zombies(which is somthing he did on purpose) thats one of the main reasons this movie is good because its original,NOT a carbon copy!!!no disrespect to the great FULCI or ROMERO they are geniuses(..)! its just that its nice and refreshing to see a different view of the zombie genre especialy when it was made back in the early 80's ("the hieght of zombie mania")anyway there is no BLUE PRINT for zombies no one ever said that zombies have to be dead(..)!my opinion is if you have got mass amounts of vicious blood thirsty mutated people that will only die from a bullet to the head or fire and there chasing you down and killing everything in its path,ID SAY YOU GOT YOUR SELF QUITE A ZOMBIE PROBLEM(..)!YES THIS IS A REAL ZOMBIE FLICK(..)!not your normal average everyday zombie flick but a great little zombie flick none the less(..)! saying this isn't a zombie flick is like saying that "SHOCK WAVES" & "28 DAYS LATER" isn't a zombie flick(..)!ZOMBIE FANS HURRY UP AND GET THIS AWESOME DVD IT HAS A COUPLE OF REAL COOL EXTRA'S GET IT BECAUSE GREAT LITTLE B ZOMBIE FLICKS LIKE THIS MAY NOT BE EASY TO FIND ONE DAY(..)!P.S.thanks for such a goofy cool and original zombie movie Mr Lenzi(..)! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Bunuel Was So Much More Than His Legend.
This beautiful film, one of Bunuel's personal favorites of the many films he made, is shot in a soft, but clear, b&w that has an almost organic feel to it and is so very easy on the eyes that as the fascinating story flows along one can lose track of the consistent beauty of its detailed composition. Of particular note is a brief shot in which a solitary child is approaching along the dirt street of a village that has been ravaged by plague. A ghostly white sheet suddenly obscures the view and all at once the deathly atmosphere is fully created. Very powerful.
This film, not seen in America nearly as much as many other later Bunuel works, is so much more than a mere sardonic satire. It is Bunuel's most severely penetrating and compassionate look at religion. It follows the story of the indigent village priest, Father Nazario, who is prepared to completely sacrifice himself in order to show the villagers the radically giving, humble, selfless way of life that he believes is the true Christian calling. But he discovers that most of the peasants are incapable of understanding him and the Church itself is appalled by this true Christian. Bunuel leads Father Nazario through some very deep shadow and finally lands him in jail for the crime of taking Christian teaching too seriously. Never once does Bunuel mock or scorn Father Nazario. The sharply humorous and satirical blades fly everywhere in this film, but none of them ever strike the priest. Instead Bunuel leads the priest to an encounter with ruffian criminals in which the priest sees that in fact there may be no God watching over him. It is a harrowing moment of revelation very sensitively unfolded by Bunuel. After this Father Nazario is no longer certain of what he believes, but he discovers in the last frames of the film that in spite of his mental and emotional confusion he can not turn his back on compassion. Bunuel rejects the priest's religion, but embraces him in a compassionate human solidarity. Very moving. Highly recommended. Certainly one of the greatest films ever made. Bunuel was more than his legend.

funny, brilliant attack on hypocritical church & society
i love some of the obscure films of Bunuel's mexican period. This one's hilariously sardonic, as a sincere, long-suffering ("nazarene") do-gooder priest in a small village is accused of crimes, de-frocked, and forced to roam the countryside with a failed suicide, a whore, and a lascivious dwarf. I won't say more....Buy the film! If you loved Viridiana or Simon of the Desert, you'll love this one too! ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Antonio Banderas Was Better When Euro Film Star
I watched Banderas in his European movies before he became an American movie star. I really liked all of his work then whereas now his work is very uneven in quality. "Evita" is the only work of his I've admired since his "conversion." This film was his very best prior to his coming to America. I'll confess that director Pedro Aldomovar's 2 most commerical films, of which this is one, appeal to me more than his other films. The other is "Woman On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown." Perhaps this is because these two works involve heterosexual love affairs and are also comedic and satiric. They're broadly played but enjoyable for a bigger audience than Aldomovar's work normally gets. Banderas is incredibly sexy in this film as the patient fresh from a mental hospital who wants a regular married life and seeks to find it with a porno star woman. Bringing these two together for a black comedy was a stroke of genius. The Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down in the title refers to the woman's liking kinky stuff and Banderas's literally tying her