tag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-16:3098856In this strange complex of time and space anything can happenstrange_complexstrange_complex2022-05-20T16:40:19Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-16:3098856:69777622. The Haunted Palace (1963), dir. Roger Corman, broadcast 13 May2022-05-16T21:01:16Z2022-05-20T16:40:19Zpublic0The latest Cellar Club screening, and a really good one! It was the only entry from Corman's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Pictures#List_of_Corman-Poe_films">Poe cycle</a> which I hadn't seen, though of course in fact it isn't a Poe story at all. Instead, it's based on H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward' (framed by few lines of Poe's poetry), which I also haven't read, so it was all new to me. Extremely visually accomplished and a perfect role for Price.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/697776.html#cutid1">22. The Haunted Palace (1963), dir. Roger Corman, broadcast 13 May</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=strange_complex&ditemid=697776" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-16:3098856:69717320. The Comedy of Terrors (1963), dir. Jacques Tourneur, broadcast 6 May2022-05-08T17:11:17Z2022-05-08T17:13:21Zpublic10This film came at the end of what had felt like a long week, so I was in something of a state of torpor on the sofa by the time it came on and don't think I really engaged with it very productively. But I also don't think the problem was entirely me - it just wasn't really up to much, and I'm afraid has only confirmed my existing view that few horror comedies really are.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/697173.html#cutid1">20. The Comedy of Terrors (1963), dir. Jacques Tourneur, broadcast 6 May</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />And the credits roll. That was well-shot, had some great stars (not the least of which was Orangey / Rhubarb the cat) and gave them some decent individual lines. But overall it's confirmed my view that horror-comedy usually fails on both fronts. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=strange_complex&ditemid=697173" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-16:3098856:69610718. The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), dir. Roger Corman2022-04-30T13:37:56Z2022-04-30T13:42:03Zpublic1So, having finally got up to date with recording all my film-watching, I can transfer the tweets for the ONE film I watched last night here! It was a cracker, and indeed probably a lot better than I really captured given that I'd only just submitted an article and hastily cooked dinner in time to catch the beginning of the film.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/696107.html#cutid1">18. The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), dir. Roger Corman, broadcast 29 April</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />Absolutely loved that! A++ would watch again. A great film and a truly great way to unwind after a hard day's work. #CellarClub #TheFilmCrowd<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=strange_complex&ditemid=696107" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-16:3098856:69578510-17. The rest of my Cellar Club tweet-alongs to date2022-04-18T17:25:12Z2022-04-18T17:26:24Zpublic0Onwards with the Cellar Club tweet-alongs... Films 6 to 9 of 2022 were a bunch of Hammer vampire rewatches connected with the live webcast I did about them, and I wrote those up separately at the time (<a href="https://strange-complex.livejournal.com/700606.html">LJ</a> / <a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/690908.html">DW</a>). So this entry covers 10 onwards.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695785.html#cutid1">10. Burnt Offerings (1961), dir. Dan Curtis, broadcast 18 February</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695785.html#cutid2">11. Theatre of Blood (1973), dir. Douglas Hickox, broadcast 25 February</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___3" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695785.html#cutid3">12. Scream and Scream Again (1970), dir. Gordon Hessler, broadcast 25 February</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___3" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___4" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695785.html#cutid4">13. Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), dir. Bob Kelljan, broadcast 11 March</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___4" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___5" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695785.html#cutid5">14. The Vampire Lovers (1970), dir. Roy Ward Baker, broadcast 18 March</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___5" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___6" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695785.html#cutid6">15. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972), dir. Curtis Harrington, broadcast 25 March</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___6" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___7" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695785.html#cutid7">16. The Return of Count Yorga (1971), dir. Bob Kelljan, broadcast 1 April</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___7" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___8" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695785.html#cutid8">17. The House of the Long Shadows (1983), dir. Pete Walker, broadcast 15 April</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___8" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />YES I DID IT! 🥳 I am now up to date on my film write-ups. Just a honkin' great pile of books to tackle... 😬<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=strange_complex&ditemid=695785" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-16:3098856:6955491-5. Early 2022 Cellar Club tweet-along catch-ups2022-04-17T16:55:33Z2022-04-17T17:00:28Zpublic0It's Easter Sunday, and I am transferring a few more Cellar Club Twitter threads over here so I can find them more easily in the future. I really want to get up to date with these so that they're no longer hanging over me and I feel like I can watch new films of my own choosing.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695549.html#cutid1">1. Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968), dir. Vernon Sewell, broadcast 7 January</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695549.html#cutid2">2. I, Monster (1971), dir. Stephen Weeks, broadcast 14 January</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___3" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695549.html#cutid3">3. Quatermass and the Pit (1967), dir. Roy Ward Baker</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___3" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___4" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695549.html#cutid4">4. Doctor Blood's Coffin (1971), dir. Sidney J. Furie, broadcast 4 February</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___4" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___5" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/695549.html#cutid5">5. The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), dir. Roger Corman, broadcast 11 February</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___5" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=strange_complex&ditemid=695549" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-16:3098856:69436418-20. The Wicker Man, Island of Terror and A Candle for the Devil2022-03-27T21:15:19Z2022-03-27T21:16:23Zpublic0It's been a lovely weekend. I've done some errands, gone shopping, lounged about in <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://lady-lugosi1313.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://lady-lugosi1313.dreamwidth.org/'><b>lady_lugosi1313</b></a></span>'s garden, worked out some ideas for a lecture on Dracula I've been asked to deliver, eaten some lovely food and of course live-tweeted the latest Cellar Club film. Just the kinda stuff a girl can do when she's no longer devoting all her evenings and weekends to a largely hopeless cause! Anyway, talking of live-tweeting, I thought I'd get another few Twitter threads down here.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/694364.html#cutid1">18. Sing-along-a-Wicker-Man in Sheffield, 20 November</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/694364.html#cutid2">19. Island of Terror (1966), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 26 November</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___3" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/694364.html#cutid3">20. A Candle for the Devil (1973), dir. Eugenio MartÃn, broadcast 10 December</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___3" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=strange_complex&ditemid=694364" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-16:3098856:69358215-17. Dracula (1974), The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Zoltan (1977)2022-03-13T17:34:21Z2022-03-13T17:34:21Zpublic6It's time to capture a few more of my Cellar Club movie tweet-alongs. Do scroll on by if it's not your bag.<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/693582.html#cutid1">15. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1974), dir. Dan Curtis, broadcast 22 October</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/693582.html#cutid2">16. The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), dir. Val Guest, broadcast 29 October</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___3" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/693582.html#cutid3">17. Zoltan: Hound of Dracula (1977), dir. Albert Band, broadcast 19 November</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___3" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=strange_complex&ditemid=693582" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2017-04-16:3098856:69158312.-14. Hammer's Golden Trinity as Cellar Club tweetalongs2022-03-01T22:29:13Z2022-03-01T22:49:54Zpublic2In September 2021, Talking Pictures TV launched the Cellar Club, a Friday-night horror / SF triple-bill introduced and hosted by Caroline Munro. Usually they start with a good solid classic, followed up by two more films which are - shall we say? - usually more deservedly obscure. For the first three weeks, the top-billed movies were Hammer's Golden Trinity: <i>The Mummy</i>, <i>Dracula</i> and <i>Curse of Frankenstein</i> (working through them in backwards chronological order of production for some reason). Combined with Caroline Munro hosting them, of course I was going to make the effort to watch those live. And, as I could see that lots of my friends were also talking about them excitedly on Twitter, somehow it felt right to live-tweet them during broadcast.<br /><br />I don't usually live-tweet films. It's not really a great way to watch a film you haven't seen before, because half the time your eyes are on your device rather than the TV, so you miss visual details and quite often plot points too as you write about the last thing which happened. But I gradually realised there was a whole community of people watching and live-tweeting the top-billed Cellar Club film each week, led by the <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='http://twitter.com/TheFilmCrowd'><img src='https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico' alt='[twitter.com profile] ' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' width='16' height='16'/></a><a href='http://twitter.com/TheFilmCrowd'><b>TheFilmCrowd</b></a></span> account. Soon I was not just tweeting my own thoughts into the void, but engaging with other people's and getting feedback on mine. So, although it's still not how I would watch a film I really wanted to engage with deeply, I've come to consider it a different but fun way of watching in its own right. I've also made a bunch of new Twitter friends that way and really enjoyed interacting with them, including between the live-tweets.<br /><br />The whole thing has posed a problem for the way I record my film viewing in this journal, though. I've been writing at least something here for every film I've watched since 2007. It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it absolutely definitely means I don't watch as many films as I might if I didn't do it, because the 'cost' of watching any film is that I have to write an LJ / DW post about it. Although I tried to set a rule at the beginning that they didn't have to be extensive reviews, and just a record and quick reaction would be fine, that simply isn't what I'm like. I always have a lot of thoughts I want to record, which in turn becomes a burden. On the other hand, though, the knowledge that I'll need to write something down after watching has definitely made me more attentive to what I see, and the regular practice of articulating my thoughts has probably made me a better film critic. I'm pretty sure it's the reason why my Cellar Club live-tweets ended up getting me invited onto a live webcast to discuss Hammer films on Sunday.<br /><br />But I've been struggling with what to do about the fact that I've been gaily watching all these films, and without yet 'writing up' a single one here. Initially I told myself these views 'didn't count', because I wasn't watching 'properly' (due to looking at my device half the time), and at least initially had seen the films before so had written up 'proper' reviews here on earlier occasions anyway. But increasingly as the Cellar Club moved onto films I hadn't seen before, including some I'd been meaning to watch for a while, that position has become unsatisfactory. And in any case, the very nature of the whole thing means that I do have a written record of each film anyway. That's what the live-tweets are! They just aren't here.<br /><br />So, all this is by way of saying that I'm now going to perform the rather tedious (probably for both me and my subscribers) task of importing the content of these threads here, so that I can integrate them into the record of my other LJ / DW write-ups. Thankfully, every live-tweet is neatly threaded - something I did in the first place mainly to avoid swamping followers who weren't interested with a barrage of tweets about a movie they weren't watching. So my plan in each case is to link directly to the first tweet in the thread, which will mean I can see them again easily in their original context in future. But I'm also (this is the most tedious bit for me) going to copy and paste the content of each individual thread into the body of an LJ / DW entry, so that I don't <i>have</i> to go to Twitter for the details, and indeed I have an independent record in case some day Twitter ceases to exist. (More likely for LJ at the moment, but that's why I also use DW.)<br /><br />Some of the individual tweets won't make sense any more out of context, even to me, but that's the nature of the thing. I reserve the right to quietly correct typos, break hashtags which I don't want LJ to replicate or insert editorial comments where I <i>can</i> remember the context and want to clarify it, and indeed to include a paragraph of prelude or commentary where I want to say a bit more here than was included in the original thread. It'll take a few entries over a few weeks, so sorry for the spamminess while that's happening. Each thread will always be under a cut anyway, so hopefully not too annoying. And then once I've brought things up to date, I can just keep up the habit on a weekly-or-less-frequent basis, and I'll be back to business as usual but with a better record of my film viewing. Phew!<br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/691583.html#cutid1">12. The Mummy (1959), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 3 September</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___2" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/691583.html#cutid2">13. Dracula (1958), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 10 September</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___2" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___3" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://strange-complex.dreamwidth.org/691583.html#cutid3">14. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 17 September</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___3" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br />OK, that wasn't too bad actually. I think I can catch up in this way reasonably quickly. Probably not this week, as I'm going to Oxford on Thursday and need to pack for that tomorrow evening. But judging by this first experiment, it seems feasible and a reasonable compromise for the sake of my record-keeping. Cool.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=strange_complex&ditemid=691583" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments