I saw "Eyes Without a Face" yesterday at the DIA. It was a fully restored version by Kino Films. They were the ones who redid Dr. Caligari. They are really doing some great things in video restoration. The movie itself was pretty good. It was a little weird to be lacking most of what makes horror horror. They couldn't have nudity because of the Italian market, no blasphemy because of the Spanish market, and no gore because of the English market. Despite these heavy restrictions, the movie manages to be quite striking. The visuals were cool. They managed to get across the feeling, without being oppressive, although I normally like those oppressively moody black and white films. I liked the slick black long coats. One of the great ways to bring out a character when you can't use color use to use the texture of the cloth. The pleather shining on scene did that quite nicely. It was used with more than one character and really help to set the mood. Only the beautiful women had these coats. Dr. Genessier dressed in subdued tones. His daughter was most often wrapped in flowing dresses that reminded me of the dressing gowns of Dark Shadows. The acting was also pretty good. Many French movies of the period have spotty acting, especially the ones in the horror genre. This one was pretty good from all those involved. The special effects were minimal but pretty good for the restrictions placed on the movie. Many people around me cringed and squirmed when the Dr. Genessier removed the woman's face. I also liked effect of showing his daughter's face. The director did a soft focus, from the point of view of the girl waking up from her drug-induced haze. That way, he got around showing her bloody, sans-skin visage, without having to actually show the gore. It worked, and it fit with how the girl waking up would see her as she awoke. The only thing I didn't like was the score. It was one of the worst scores I have ever heard. The rising notes turned to a shriek far too often. It had that pitch and tone that gives you an immediate headache. I don't know what effect they were going for, but they failed. A good score should just seem perfect for the scene. It should add to the scene whatever effect you intend. The score can make a car-ride a suspenseful voyage into despair, it could turn it into a lighthearted romp. I truly great score is so seamless that you barely remember it when you've left the theater, you only remember the feelings that it invoked.
I watched Sleepy Hollow with one of the classes I subbed for. I loved the black and white feel of the exteriors, mixed with the more lively colored interiors. Even the more colorful scenes weren't awash in color. They had just enough to make it feel warm, and safe. Perhaps this is what Tim Burton was going for. Much of the movie was about false securities and mistaken ideas. What you may think of as evil, is really trying to help. The people you see as aiding your cause, could be the reason for your trials. I'm not a huge Johnny Depp fan, but I felt he really did a good job in this role. He had a pale, slightly sunken appearance that just seemed to fit the Crane of the movie. It is not the awkward, buffonishly gangly weakling of the original Ichabod. This character is active in thwarting the menace, but still manages to be slightly unsure of himself, and not a very powerful man. It is a very tight line to walk. I think it is done beautifully in this instance. The score is highly effective but almost invisible to memory, exactly as it should be. Ricci is quite fetching. I think it fit very well giving her blond hair. I think it looked rather nice on her, even if I do love the sultry dark haired look.
I finished Werewolf Trace today. It was not what I expected. I see very similar lines to The Boys from Brazil. There was nothing that had anything at all to do with werewolves. Werewolf was the code name for the man who might, or might not, be Helmut Goebbels. The British intelligence has a theory that this man is supposed to be the phoenix that will help the Nazi party rise again. Sound familiar? This plot is structured in a way that the reader goes back and forth in their thinking. Cooling, the agent researching Werewolf, has to determine whether the man is Helmut, or a young Hitler Youth given a medal in the waning days before utter collapse, or if there was a switch and that young boy was the one found dead with the rest of the Goebbels family. By the end, I felt more sorry for Werewolf (Joseph Gotterson). Regardless of his past, he had put it behind him. Even if he was Goebbels, he wasn't positioning himself to lead a new Aryan movement. The British try to goad it out of him, but to what end? I liked the cutbacks between Cooling and the Gotterson household. That kept the plot going along somewhat. That said, the plot didn't really go anywhere. There was a supernatural element to the Gotterson's household that really wasn't dealt with enough in my opinion. There was some sort of ghost of a child who died in the house. This was used by the British to freak out the Gotterson's but it didn't come into play as much as it should have. I was really looking for more involvement in that. As it is, it just seems like a plot device to get into Gotterson's head. It is involved in the end, but it wasn't built up to so it feels hollow. The reader doesn't really get much effect from this menace, if it even is one. Why should we care if it is haunting someone else if we really don't have any feel for what that haunting really means. The whole plotline of finding out who Werewolf really was took too long. The entire book is set up to deal with this exact question, and it isn't really answered at the end. This would normally seem like a letdown, but I could get myself up enough to care. Like I said, I had more sympathy with Gotterson by the end. The driving force behind the British seemed like paranoid delusions. It was like they had read Boys from Brazil and were searching for someone who fit the bill of appointed leader of the new Reich. The back plots didn't add too much. They helped flesh out the characters, but didn't help much with their motivations. We do hate Cooling less as we know he has problems with how they are hounding Goebbels, but he doesn't do enough to get him off the hook completely. He is just likeable enough that we are apathetic to him. That is not a great reaction to someone who is supposed to be the hero of your story. He is not really memorable. Gotterson is not fleshed out as much as he could have been, so the reader has a harder time with him. Because we don't really get into his head, mostly to keep the suspense of his true identity, we don't feel much toward him. This leaves the reader mostly apathetic towards Goterson as well. Your two main characters, and the reader can't care about either? That doesn't bode well for a memorable novel. We are set up to hate the Deputy Director for his relentless pursuit of Gotterson, but he is just trying to stop the Nazis from rising again. We see that zealous drive, and can't fault him entirely for that reason. We have no one to hate, no one to love. The premise isn't that striking. The emotions are fairly flat. This was not a moving book. I'm not a big fan of political suspense, but I imagine even in that genre, this wouldn't be counted as one of the best works of this type. The Boys from Brazil was done better, even with its many faults. This was not a bad book, but I had expected more from John Gardner.
I'll talk some more about Manitou later. It's after 1am and I've got school tomorrow. I might wait until after I've hunted down the video so I can see William Girdler's take on the book.
On my writing, I think I might have finally broken my writers block. I wrote 7 sheets front and back while the kids were doing worksheets today, and they weren't crap. I'm thinking about the worries I have with my plot, and incorporating those worries into the plot. If I'm wondering about my characters' motivations, wouldn't the reader as well. I think when I finish working those issues out, the plot will be much more believable, and more solid. I found a way to link Steve and Jack that isn't heavy-handed. I think I can make that work. It will help tie in the minor characters as well and get some of their personalities out. I'm putting in a scene where Steve's parents come down and meet his girlfriend. I liked meeting them, but felt the scene with Jack was a very week scene. It moved the plot but didn't do much else. Now I can use it to bring out all their characters more and show interaction. It will make it deeper and show more about how Steve reacts to his parents. I can also work in stories about his past more easily. What mother doesn't have stories about her son to tell to his girlfriend? It will be a much more interesting scene than the one with Jack. I've also added a long dialogue with Alphonse where Steve has to convince him to help. I've changed Steve's motivation and put many of my thoughts about the subject into the open. I still haven't worked it out, but when I do, it should be fairly moving. Now I just have to write it. I have spent far too much time not writing these last few weeks. It's time to break out the old typewriter and get down to work. Damn. So much for my few quick thoughts before I went to bed.