Screening Log
This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.
February 2008 activity
Total Log Entries: 38
- Adam (6)
- Chet (0)
- Chiranjit (1)
- Cullen (0)
- David (3)
- Eva (4)
- Evan (0)
- Ian (0)
- Jenny (0)
- Katherine (0)
- Leo (4)
- Megan (0)
- Rumsey (4)
- Teddy (0)
- Thomas (5)
- Victoria (1)
Total Comments: 22
- Juno (8)
- Electroma (1)
- The Room (0)
- Grave Robbers (0)
- The Roost (0)
- The Power of Nightmares (0)
- Axe (0)
- The Room (0)
- How She Move (2)
- Step Up 2 the Streets (0)
- The Phynx (0)
- The Oh in Ohio (0)
- Chicago 10 (0)
- Billy the Kid (0)
- The Visitor (0)
- Kisses For My President (0)
- Re-Animator (0)
- There Will Be Blood (3)
- The Ten (3)
- Atonement (0)
- Shoot ‘Em UP (0)
- Beach Girls (0)
- The Satanic Rites of Dracula (0)
- Fried Green Tomatoes (0)
- How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days (0)
- The King Of Kong (1)
- Duck Soup (0)
- The Golden Compass (0)
- Cloverfield (0)
- The Cremator (0)
- Great World Of Sound (0)
- Sweeney Todd (2)
- Throne Of Blood (2)
- Zodiac (0)
- Away From Her (0)
- Reeker (0)
- 27 Dresses (0)
- Subway (0)
Full Archive
The Cremator / Spalovac mrtvol / Czechoslovakia / 1968
Proclaimed on the DVD case as a classic European gothic horror, this is something far stranger- an avant garde character study and critique of fascism, and a bleaker, weirder take on many of the same themes Bertolucci explored in The Conformist the following year. The dauntingly dough-faced Rudolf Hrusinsky plays Kopfrkingl, the eponymous Cremator, a man in love with his job and his perfect family. But when the spectre of Nazism looms over Czechoslovakia, Kopfrkingl begins to fragment, allying himself with the invader in increasingly morbid, and eventually murderous ways.
This is a hard film to enjoy, keeping the viewer at arm’s length with intrusive, self advertising photographic techniques and lengthy, philosophical diatribes from the central character- Hrusinsky is barely offscreen, and for most of the runtime he literally doesn’t stop talking. For a time this is intriguing, particularly as the plot’s darker elements begin to reveal themselves, but as reality slips and Kopfrkingl begins to hallucinate, it becomes harder to care about the characters or their plight. Perhaps repeat viewings would reveal more and deeper facets to the story, but on first attempt this is a dark, difficult experience.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
04 Feb 2008 12:32 PM | Submit Comment
