This is certainly not a movie for the casual viewers since it's a film directed by Richard Mahler who is an alias used by Roger Watkins, the director of the great horror film Last House on Dead End Street. This isn't the usual eighties fuckfest, but more an artistic film which blends reality and imagination. The mixing of the grainy black and white films that Robert (Bobby Astyr in one of his best career performance) and Thomas (Michael Gaunt, also excellent in this film) watch with the color pictures of the real world is what is used to create this atmosphere and often we can no longer distinguish what is true from what is false. The performance of Tish Ambrose is also excellent, but it is obvious that this film is a two men show and the other performers are secondary and accessories (Taija Rae, one of the most gorgeous women to have made this type of cinema is one of those accessory characters). The film ends with the two central characters watching a movie (Menopausal Males in Bondage) together. This film is a 10 minutes montage of almost everything that has happened to them previously in the movie, it can be easily interpreted as a reflection on us the watcher who live his life through what happens on the screen. Honestly one of the best productions of the 80s who actually sleeps in the vault of VCA Pictures, which is not necessarily a bad thing when we know how little respect this company had for its materials.
This film is not available on dvd, but it deserves a special edition ... It is a shame that this film doesn't belong to Video-X-Pix since this label understands the importance of their archives.
What an interesting blog you have. Totally unique.
ReplyDeleteI just watched this movie, and I'm left with the feeling that it was saying something that I wasn't able to understand. I got the general sense that something was being satired (is that a word?), but that's about it.
Also, when Robert and Thomas are sitting in the restaurant at the very end of the movie...is that "real"? Or is that still part of the "menopausal males in bondage" movie that they made(?)?
My head hurts.