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CARANDIRU
(Columbia/TriStar)
2004. 145 mins. In Portuguese with English Subtitles. 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. ‘R’ rated.
Director Babenco commentary. ‘Making of’ doc. Historical footage.
Directed and Produced by Hector Babenco. Director of Photography, Walter Carvalho. Production Designer, Clovis Bueno. Screenplay by Victor Navas, Fernando Bonassi and Hector Babenco. Based on the book Estacao Carandiru by Draizo Varella.

What knocked me out about this prison film – and it’s amazing any prison film could knock anyone out after Oz saturated our minds – was the odd and winning combination of hyper- real art direction/cinematography and naturalistic acting. I wouldn’t have bet on the combination working, but it does, marvelously, and creates a whole new prison world to vicariously dip our ids into. Robert Marcucci, who penned the liner notes on Synapse’s THRILLER, and weighs in on SANTA SANGRE a little further down in this column, suggested to me that perhaps the film’s warm, surreal color scheme isn’t that far from reality in Brazilian prisons. An odd notion to consider, that I might be taking reality for stylization…

Based on a true story, about a police rampage in Brazil’s largest correctional facility which resulted in 111 deaths, all supposedly of unarmed inmates, author Varella and director Babenco spin a dozen stories at us, making a grotesquely colorful, claustrophobic collection of rapists, murderers, drug addicts and prison transvestites into a very sympathetic society. We kind of see their world through the eyes of a humanistic prison doctor, although by the end of film he has remained the most inaccessible of all the story’s many characters.

Since the film is 2 1/2 hours long, it probably doesn’t need to be double-billed with anything.

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I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE
(Paramount Home Entertainment)
1958. 77 mins. Widescreen, enhanced for 16:9 monitors.
Produced and directed by Gene Fowler, Jr. Written by Louis Vittes. Special effects by John Fulton.
With: Tom Tryon, Gloria Talbott, Slapsie Maxie Rosenblum.

I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE. I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE. Outside of the titles, there is at least one additional striking resemblance. 30 mins 40 secs in, when Talbott, having followed her husband through the forest like the nurse follows her somnambulistic patient through the island’s high grass in ZOMBIE, approaches the wide-eyed shell of her husband, and we’re strongly reminded of the zombie guide from the Lewton/Tourneur film. Only a few other touches conjure comparison with either the storylines or poetry of the 40s RKO horror cycle, and I don’t know if director Fowler or screenwriter Vittes were aficionados of Lewton’s work.
What is equally elaborately present early on, and certainly feels like intentional subtext, is an openly expressed disdain for marriage and women, leading us toward an interpretation of the film as marriage trauma, the “I don’t really know this person I’m living with” syndrome. That puts a little flesh on the film’s bones, as do the effects by John Fulton, the man behind THE TEN COMMANDMENTS effects just a few years earlier, and the kind of liquid-smoke effects he employs has a parting of the Red Sea feeling to it.
Gloria Talbot and Tom Tryon are both exceptionally striking. Tryon, with his David Byrne features and carriage, was never more appropriate for a role than he is here. His wooden demeanor injured Preminger’s THE CARDINAL, but he’s just right as an alien, uncomfortable in a human body. Talbott, as his bewildered wife, is made-up and lit attentively: someone – either the director or DP – worshipped her and watched over her. Her almond eyes are constantly alluring, and one could easily accept her transforming into one of Lewton’s Cat People at a moment’s notice and giving her alien husband a run for his money.
Johnny Depp took a shot at a similar story not so long ago – THE ASTRONAUT’S WIFE, with less success, actually, than this little ‘B’. And IMDB states that Tryon and Talbott played the father of the bride in a TV remake, I MARRIED A MONSTER, in 1998, which creeps me out, since Tryon died of stomach cancer in ’91 (after a successful career as a novelist; Billy Wilder filmed one of his stories from the book ‘Crowned Heads’). Talbott could have done the cameo – she passed away two years later, in the year 2000, at the age of 69.

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FORBIDDEN ZONE Reviewed by Jay Bodnar
(Fantoma)
1980. Widescreen 1.78:l Enhanced for 16×9.
Dolby digital 5.1 SS. Isolated music track in digital 5.1 SS.
Audio Commentary by Richard Elfman & Matthew Bright.
Behind the scenes documentary. Oingo Boingo music video “Private Life” directed by Richard Elfman. 2 Complete scenes from the “Hercules Family.”
Deleted scenes and outtakes. Theatrical trailer Song lyric booklet.
Written by Richard Elfman & Matthew Bright, Nick L.Martinson & Nick James.
Directed by Richard Elfman. Animated Sequences by John Muto.
Original music by Danny Elfman.
Starring: Ugh-Fudge Bwana, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Virginia Rose, Phil Gordan,
Hyman Diamond, Susan Tyrrell, Gisele Lindly, Danny Elfman, Herve Villechaize,
The Kipper Kids, Viva, Toshiro Baloney AKA Matthew Bright and ample amounts of nubile bodies?

So did you ever think to yourself “Man, I would LOVE musicals if only people with my sensibilities could make one. People with interest in other dimensions, ample amounts of nubile bodies and an extra keen interest in the butt?” Well then, my soul brother, I have just the musical for you. Way back in the beginning of the wacky 80’s (1980 to be precise), the brothers Elfman and the musical talents of “The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo” (later to be known simply as “Oingo Boingo”) decided to make this little nugget of un-P.C. gold called FORBIDDEN ZONE. The ‘Forbidden Zone’ is also called “The Sixth Dimension” and also “Hell” and for some unexplained reason a door to it resides in the basement of some local yokels’ (The Hercules Family). The origin of the door is briefly explained in the beginning when a heroin-dealing pimp accidentally gets sucked into it, escapes, and then promptly goes back in to get his heroin, which he sells to the unsuspecting family “Hercules”. Cool huh?

The universe which is “Forbidden Zone” includes sets made out of paper and drawn on the ground and walls…musical songs that sound like a cross between early eighties pop and forties and fifties swing music…and a hot French chick protagonist. And to prove how hot she is, Herve Villechaize – who plays the king of the sixth dimension – tells his wife the queen (Susan Tyrrell) when she asks him if he loves the French chick, ‘She’s French! It’s that simple. Therefore she is part of the master race” Hell yeah!! We French rock!! The cast also includes Viva from Andy Warhol film-fame, as well as a young Danny Elfman in a cameo as Satan himself. And may I point out that this singing Satan has a marvelous voice. Is there some part of the bible I missed where Satan gave a ten star performance to the disciples in order to tempt them or something?

Anywhoo where was I? Oh yeah—you also get really old guys playing fat, mentally-challenged twelve year olds who like to fight and dry hump everything in sight, plus an actual fat kid who may or may not have been mentally disabled. I say this because apparently when they went to film his parts he went catatonic and wouldn’t move, so in the finished film they superimpose a singing mouth over his while he looks on like a deer in the headlights.

Also these weird bald guys who just kind of show up and sing in a non-language and make fart noises, and oddly I think they are equal to almost anything Mel Brooks has done in his career, and definitely much funnier than anything Mel Gibson has done with his (although I hear that his Christ movie was good for a laugh here and there).

Also, also, oh my God there is so much it’s starting to hurt my head, We mustn’t forget about the creepy frog-headed butler guy and the guy who moves like a cramped chicken, animation sequences that are not unlike Terry Gilliam’s work from MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS, and a whole bunch of naked chicks who run around and get whipped and do badly choreographed dance numbers.

So the story kind of goes like this. Grandpa Hercules forbids anyone to go into the “Zone”, for it is forbidden. Surely enough, a little bit later in the day after the children go to school, Frenchy(The Hercules Daughter)’s curiosity gets the better of her and she gets sucked into the “Zone” This process is illustrated by her being sucked through animated intestines and then being pooped out onto the floor by a giant paper butt. And before I get too far, the school scene is a chillingly accurate depiction of the modern school system. It’s comprised of groups. The pretty girl group. The fat kid with a Hitler mustache group, (notice the word “fat” being used more than usual in this review. This film absolutely embraces bigger people. Some would say it was fetishized. Others would say fat people in their underwear is always good for a laugh). Anyway, as most school days start, this one is no different – with a song and dance that eventually ends up as a gunfight between the teacher and the kids. Later, in a different class scene (yes it seems the teacher and the children made up), she is teaching them the alphabet by making them sing songs involving letters. The only two I can remember are “F is for fuck you” and “G is for gay”. If I had been allowed to use this method growing up, I am fairly certain I would have moved along a bit quicker then the snail’s pace in which I did.

Back in the “Forbidden Zone” the arrival of Frenchy has thrown the whole place into chaos, as The King has fallen for her French ways and is neglecting The Queen, so the Queen decides to kill her. She enlists the aid of her topless daughter the princess, while the king tries to stop them, mainly by sneaking around and being a peeping tom and having pity sex with his wife. The Hercules family is having none of their own sucked into no damn “Forbidden Zone,” so they decide to go rescue her. In this botched escape attempt we get to see more of the topless Princess (Thank God), a Jewish rabbi tour-guide (Note: Richard Elfman was accused of anti-Semitism, among other things for this. In the commentary he responds by making the point that 1) He is Jewish, and 2) It was his grandfather. And his Grandfather wasn’t acting, that was just how he talked). All of this and an ending that is equal in every way to all the great musicals of yesteryear…although I have actually never seen a great musical of yesteryear, so I may be wrong here. I am wrong a lot.

Now if anything above actually got your blood boiling, then I recommend that YOU NEVER WATCH THIS FILM. It is not racist but it definitely is in the same vein as BLAZING SADDLES or any early John Waters film. Which is to say that if you’re not comfortable enough to laugh at yourself and everybody else then you should just stick to “Bridget Jones” type comedies, but if you long for the films that Richard Pryor and Mel Brooks were making that nowadays would bring anti-defamation lawsuits, then this is the film for you. It is an amazing treat.

Also the DVD itself is pretty phenomenal. The packaging and menu are great. Fantoma is quickly becoming one of my favorite DVD companies for their fine attention to detail (Blue Underground rates high as well). Every time I open one of their DVDs I get so many gifts it feels like Christmas. Plus the print is amazing.

I recently had the privilege of seeing FORBIDDEN ZONE at the Sunshine movie theatre here in Manhattan as a midnight movie and Richard Elfman showed up. The film got a great response and he seemed very happy and surprised to see so many people in attendance. He had absolutely no idea that anybody even knew about the film, and he attributed a large part of it to his brother Danny’s success as a filmusic composer.

The extras on this disk are really cool. An early “Oingo Boingo” video directed by Richard Elfman. Also deleted scenes. The commentary track is really funny because it is mostly Richard Elfman and Matthew Bright telling funny stories and Matthew Bright waxing poetic about never sleeping with “Gisele Lindly”(the topless princess). In fact, anytime she is on the screen he just kind of moans with a weird, horny sadness, which I found hilarious.

Also the isolated music track is great because the disc comes with a lyric book so you can read along with the songs and learn them. You know? For karaoke night.

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