https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0NWIxl2VJk
I just saw this cult classic after hearing about it for years. It's still not out on DVD but it's around online. Anyways I wrote this for a blog entry and since there is sadly no thread for it yet here we go.
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House (ハウス Hausu?)is a 1977 Japanese horror/comedy film directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. It is currently a huge obsession of mine. It is about 7 Japanese schoolgirls who stay at one of their aunts' haunted mansion for summer vacation. Each girl has a nickname that describes their character in the way animes would later be known for, and they are confronted with a demonic cat and the spooky demeanor of the aunt. On imdb people compare it to Beetlejuice or the Evil Dead series and indeed, it's as funny as it is scary. But it's also surreal and beautiful in ways that would put David Lynch to shame.
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This film is famous for the low-budget effects that are employed in the latter half of the film as the girls are killed off. One sequence involves rotoscoped keying; as a girl (Fantasy?) watches a breaking mirror pieces of her face begin to fall off an reveal fire, until she is a glowing red body.
Several sequences include gratuitous use of drawing directly on the film with markers to create frantic psychedelic borders as Melody realizes she is being devoured by the piano she is playing. That scene famously finishes with severed fingers suspended in the air, plonking away at the keys. When the song finishes, the sheet music falls, the piano cover comes crashing down, and blood splatters out. The film doesn't really come across as gory when you watch it, because it feels like something taking place in a surrealist dream rather than gruesome reality.
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As strange and subversive as these techniques and the horror-comedy atmosphere created in the second half of House is the truly surreal beginning sequence about the gorgeous Oshare's life at school with her friends and at home with a soon-to-be new mother. There are numerous film techniques that wouldn't be out of place 15 years later in an episode of [i]Twin Peaks</i]; odd superimpositions, heavily tinted images, counterintuitive sound effects, cross-fades that last MUCH longer than they ought to. The backgrounds are painted skies that are too beautiful to be real, the action cuts from scene to scene with effortless camera tricks that make it feel like you are watching a master sleight-of-hand magician. When the girls take a psychedelic train ride to the country, it resembles a daydream Michel Gondry may have had at Disneyland.
― Adam Bruneau, Monday, 8 March 2010 15:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Coming soon to a theater near you!!
THEATRICAL PLAYDATES
To inquire about a booking, or suggest a venue, contact book✧✧✧@janusfi✧✧✧.c✧✧.
Nightly late shows
New York, NY - IFC Center
March 19 - March 21
Wilmington, DE - Theatre N at Nemours (HD)
March 26 - April 1
Salt Lake City, UT - Salt Lake Film Society
March 26 & 27
Cleveland, OH - Cleveland Cinematheque
April 2 & 3
Columbus, OH - Wexner Center for the Arts
April 9
Williamstown, MA - Images Cinema (Digital)
April 9 & 10
Denver, CO - Denver Film Society
April 9 - April 11
Hartford, CT - Cinestudio
April 13
Boulder, CO - International Film Series
April 15 - April 19
Vancouver, BC - Pacific Cinematheque
April 16
Oberlin OH - Apollo Theatre (HD)
April 17
San Francisco, CA - Castro Theatre
April 23 & 24
Ann Arbor, MI - State Theater
April 30 & May 1
Albuquerque, NM - Guild Cinema
Cambridge, MA - Brattle Theatre
May 7
Schenectady, NY - Proctors (Digital)
May 7 & 8
Milwaukee, WI - Union Theatre
San Francisco, CA - Red Vic Movie House
May 13 - May 17
Edmonton, AB - Metro Cinema Society
May 14 & 15
Providence, RI - Cable Car Cinema
May 21 - May 23
Detroit, MI - Burton Theatre
May 22 - May 27
Austin, TX - Alamo Drafthouse
May 28 & 30
Rochester, NY - George Eastman House
June 4 - June 10
Santa Fe, NM - The Screen
June 5
Philadelphia, PA - International House
June 11 - June 13
Webster Groves, MO - Webster University Film Series
June 18 - June 20
Duluth, MN - Zinema 2
June 18 - June 24
Tucson, AZ - The Loft Cinema
June 25
Grand Rapids, MI - Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts
July 2 - July 7
Kansas City, MO - Tivoli Cinemas
July 9 - July 12
Waterville, ME - Railroad Square Cinema
July 13 - July 18
Atlanta, GA - Plaza Theatre
July 23 - July 29
Toronto, ON - Bloor Cinema
July 30 - August 1
Houston, TX - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
August 2 - August 4
Guelph, ON - The Bookshelf
August 6 - August 8
Portland, OR - Cinema 21
August 6 - August 9
Ottawa, ON - ByTowne Cinema
August 12 - August 14
Tempe, AZ - MadCap Theaters
August 12 - August 15
Regina, SK - Regina Public Library Film Theatre
August 20
Saskatoon, SK - Broadway Theatre
August 28
Huntington, NY - Cinema Arts Centre
September 10 - September 16
Keene, NH - Keene State College
October 13
San Diego, CA - ArtPower! at UC San Diego
http://www.janusfilms.com/house/dates.html
― Adam Bruneau, Sunday, 21 March 2010 16:06 (fourteen years ago) link
two years pass...
three weeks pass...