A round up of the weeks viewing.
Cat People (Region 2)
Paul Schrader’s film is a good example of how to do a remake. While the core of the story is the same almost everything else has changed, with the addition of the brother character and the incest element being the biggest differences.
The casting is excellent, Malcolm McDowell and Nastassja Kinski actually look enough alike to be believable as brother and sister and both give great performances. As does John Heard as the zoo curator who falls in love with Irena, this was the time I though he was destined for major stardom having made the excellent Cutter’s Way the year before but he’s ended up a reliable character actor instead.
Possibly the best thing about the film is Giorgio Moroder’s score that, even though it’s very 80′s, still sounds great and there’s even my favorite David Bowie song to accompany the end credits. There are also some pretty good make-up effects by Tom Burman who’d worked his way up through the slasher films of the early 80′s
And we get Ed Begley Jr singing the correct song (What’s New Pussycat?) just before getting his arm ripped off unlike the old VHS release that had the song replaced for copyright reasons.
C.H.U.D (Region 1)
