232 posts categorized "Literary Adaptation"

October 27, 2023

STARSHIP TROOPERS — SHOCKTOBER!

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Starship_troopersPaul Verhoeven's presciently cynical satire of American politics is loosely based on Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 science fiction novel which went on to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960.

The movie is equal parts comedy, war action, spectacle, and satirical commentary.

Verhoeven's outrageous sci-fi epic piles on layers of observations about the nature of militarization in a story about young-and-lovely high school graduates (equal opportunity for girls and boys) going off to war against an invading army of giant arachnid bugs from the planet of Kelndathu.

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All this wasted beauty. 

In the film's near future, American society has fully integrated political indoctrination through a constant barrage of public media propaganda to effect its fascist motives.

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In a world where "Service guarantees citizenship," even if the rich don't have the right to be citizens, every kid wants to do a great job for the Fatherland — and die! Oh, the glory of war. 

Starship-troopers

"Starship Troopers" is a canny war satire that outshines even Kubrick's great satire "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

The bugs, the bugs!

Rated R. 130 mins. 

5 Stars MR. CLEANCozy Cole

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October 25, 2023

FORBIDDEN GAMES — SHOCKTOBER!

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

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ColeSmithey.comRene Clement's 1952 adaptation of Francois Boyer's 1944 novel is an exquisitely pragmatic film about the corruptive effect of war on children. Fitting then that the wartime movie received a “G” rating upon its release.

The documentarian-turned-feature filmmaker Clement tells the horrifying story of devastating familial loss from the eyes of two traumatized adolescent protagonists.

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It is June, 1940. After her parents are killed beside her on a street leading out of Paris during the Nazi blitzkrieg, five-year-old Paulette (played by Brigitte Fossey) reaches out to compare he mother’s dead cheek with her own.

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In this one bitter moment the filmmaker sums up the depravity of all wars. Things can only get much worse before they get better. Paulette may have survived the attack, but she is doomed as a human being.

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The newly minted refugee carries her dead dog with her. She doesn’t even cry because she isn’t old enough to even begin processing the cataclysmic loss she has just endured, much less imagine a future for herself. Death will forever be her constant companion, mentor, and parent. War has turned Paulette into a monster in the blink of an eye.

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Later, Michel Dolle (Georges Poujouly), a 10-year-old peasant boy, discovers Paulette wandering alone in the countryside. Michel naturally convinces his family to take the little girl in to live with them.

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Puppy-love blooms. Sadism arrives.

Paulette requests that Michel go out and kill animals to add her private animal cemetery in an abandoned mill. Stolen crucifixes are a necessary part of Paulette’s alter of death. This little female Hitler has plans to eventually include human corpses in her collection. What starts out as a children’s game has far greater implications for the future. The traumatized little girl attempts to reenact her parents’ deaths that haunt her conscious and sub-conscious thoughts.

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"Forbidden Games" caused a scandal when it was released in 1952 because it co-opted a fictional story and embellished it with the recent realities of World War II. The film is every bit as controversial today for its transparently fuming view of the permanent damage that war inflicts on its youngest survivors. You’re never too young to repeat the atrocities of your elders, is a message that comes across loud and clear in this disturbing film, made all the more powerful via Rene Clement’s neo-realist approach.

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At the time of this picture’s release, Rene Clement was already a household name connected to war films due to his popular Resistance docudrama “Battle of the Rails” (1945) and “Les Maudits,” about intrigue on a German U-boat near the end of World War II.

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Clement’s early years spent studying architecture informed his ability to articulate the power of buildings, streets, bridges, rivers, and objects over the variable ability of children to extrapolate personal truths about their place in the world around them. Hope is just so much wasted effort in the face of bombs.

Not Rated. 86 mins.

5 Stars SF SHOCKTOBER!
Cozy Cole

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October 24, 2023

PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER — SHOCKTOBER!

ColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.comWelcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

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Thanks a lot acorns!

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ColeSmithey.com Opulent and grotesque, this brassy achievement from director Tom Twyker ("Run, Lola, Run") is based on the best-selling novel by German writer Patrick Suskind about a bizarre serial killer in 18th century France.

Ben Whishaw is a revelation of exceptional acting skill as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the orphan son of a cruel fishmonger, who compensates for his lack of personal odor with an uncanny sense of smell that he uses to categorize every aspect of his surroundings.

Screen Shot 2022-10-03 at 5.02.30 PM

"Perfume" takes on an epic quality as Grenouille grows into adulthood while apprenticing under Giuseppe Baldini (well played by Dustin Hoffman), a famous Parisian perfumer who takes advantage of Grenouille's otherworldly olfactory perception to invigorate his flagging perfume business.

Screen Shot 2022-10-03 at 5.03.43 PM

But Grenouille abuses his newfound knowledge for fabricating fragrances by killing nubile virgins to extract the essence of their aroma with the goal of creating a supreme perfume that will substitute for his lack of scent and emotional empathy.

Screen Shot 2022-10-03 at 5.04.53 PM

Although Twyker loses his grip on the material during the film's truncated series of endings, he evokes an abundant social canvas of primal urges and human weaknesses.

Rated R. 147 mins.

4 Stars COLE MONSTERCozy Cole

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