Todd Haynes’s “Far from Heaven” – Sam’s choice for best film of 2002

 

by Sam Juliano

In 2002’s Far From Heaven, director Todd Haynes uses his lead actress Julianne Moore to explore the theme of suburban alienation, which was basically the same combination that worked so effectively in his feature debut, Safe (1995).  But the issues, time period and terrain in the newer film aren’t contemporary, and are set back in a time when taboo concerns were enshrouded in mystery, issues that were raised but never explained. 

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Beauty’s Exotic Dance: Torture! (no 50)

by Allan Fish

(Japan 1977 83m) DVD2 (Japan only, no English subs)

Aka. Hakkinbon bijin ranbu yori: semeru!

What a bad karma!

p  Yoshihiro Yuhki  d  Noboru Tanaka  w  Akio Ido  ph  Masaru Mori  art  Takeharu Sakaguchi

Jinko Miyashita (Tae), Hatsuo Yamatani (Saiu Ito), Hiroshi Cho (doctor), Maya Kudou (Shima, 1^st wife), Sumiko Minami (Kane, Tae’s mother), Aoi Nakajima (Toki, 2^nd wife), Toshihiko Oda (Saeki, the photographer), Kunio Shimizu (assistant photographer),

“When I abuse a woman, I can see her many faces…nothing is more fun than toying with a living human being.”  If the title wasn’t enough to convince you, that quote should tell you we are strictly in the ‘not for Aunt Edna’ realms of seventies taboo.  Noboru Tanaka, if he’s remembered in the English speaking world, is known more for A Woman Called Abe Sada – a version of the same events depicted by Oshima in Ai No Corrida – or by The Watcher in the Attic.  Though neither were really major films, they both contrived to be rather memorable, but both pale beside this, his most shocking and yet impressive film.  Along with Kumashiro’s The Woman With Red Hair it probably represents the summit of that most lowly of cinematic strains, Japanese pinku eiga. 

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