Fedor Sendak
26jan: of the death of love
SCREENING on MONDAY JANUARY 26th
FILM: DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE ( Cemetery Man) 1994
Directed by Michele Soavi
105 minutes
In English
In this gem of a film Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett), is the Cemetery Man, who lives a lonely life with a dead-end career. He works and resides in a cemetery that holds a dark, hidden secret. Those who are buried in Dellamorte\'s cemetery have the tendency to rise from the dead. Francesco\'s job is to make sure the dead remain dead. When they rise, he must hunt them down and ensure they get their eternal rest. His job takes up all his time, and has become quite routine...until one day when he sees a knock-out chick who is attending her fathers funeral. Sound like an unusual pretext for a film? It certainly is!
This film is a cult favorite and is brilliantly executed with a relaxed but gripping speed. The cinematography is poetically baroque. The performances by the main actor is flawless. A totally unique film in the annuls of cinema history because it mixes things which are not normally allowed to mix, and therefore this film will hopefully strike you as exquisitely as it did me.
I have to warn the audience that there is indeed gore in this film, but I should also say that when it happens its always done with a sense of black humor and is executed in a tongue-in-cheek manner! I should also mention that we will be screening the English language version of the film, because, despite it being an Italian film, this is the best copy available image wise, and also because the main actor is English which means we hear his real voice!
One enthusiastic viewer had this to say, and he puts it perfectly:
\"The great thing about this movie is that it\'s not scared to walk a dangerous line between two rarely compatible genres - tongue in cheek horror comedy and European art flick. On its simplest level, it\'s a schlock zombie flick - pandering to the gore fans. But on another level, it has enough thought-provoking material and poetic direction to please your local arts and drama society. Director Michael Soavi risked alienating both camps with this approach. After all - do fans of George A. Romero *really* want to hear philosophical dialogue about the blurry line between what is alive and what is dead? And conversely - do the coffee-house beatniks really want their poetic escapism dampened by bullets through a nun\'s head???
On the side appealing to my sense of aesthetics and intellect - Michael Soavi\'s direction was wonderful. The screen is alive with wide angles, slo-mo flowing silks and drips of water. Reminiscent of Ridley Scott in his better days in fact. But wait? What\'s this cutting through the arty pretension? A Sam Raimi style track and pan here? A Jean Paul Jeunet style superimposition there? The whole film is an exercise in visual flair. I can only wish that hollywood had more directors of this calibre. On top of this - the screenplay was superbly written. It delivered shock, comedy or deep sentiment with perfect timing. The climax was stunning and left me very quiet throughout the closing credits.\"
DE NIEUWE ANITA
Frederik Hendrikstraat 111 (Hugo de Grootplein)
Doors open at 19:30
Film starts at 20:30 sharp
Amsterdam, NL
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