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« on: September 09, 2004, 03:26:25 PM »
Vlad, I'm aghast at your report that reviewers have been dismissing the R. Corman/V. Price Masque film as "trash"--when I was a young'un, the movie was widely regarded as the high point of the Corman Poe AIP series, beautifully stylised with exquisite images and a literate, provocative screenplay. Only The Tomb of Ligeia surpassed it because it was just a bit more finished and had a more understated approach to the subject matter. Perhaps today's critics regard Ligeia as trash, too.
I don't think people appreciate true subtlety or symbolism in film any longer. Like Midnite, I've been impressed with the comments cult auteur Harry Kumel made in connection with Daughters of Darkness (although I have only heard the version of his comments recorded on the DVD). He talks about his formalist methodology and his view that films should be treated as dreams, not representations of reality. It's not the only way to do film, but it's a technique that I think can be found a great deal in Dark Shadows--both literally in the dream sequences and figuratively in the balletic representation of narrative.
For those whose brains have been rotted out by the explo posturings of certain highly touted present-day filmmakers (I won't name names though I am aching to do so), of course, anything made with a higher degree of imagination than budget is automatically "trash."
cheers, Steve