A staple of the horror film is the "sudden face/monster/ghost/killer in the mirror" cliche. This has occurred so many times in horror pictures. THE FUTURIST! was heard talking about this with his barber the other day. IT always happens. Film protagonist or supporting character looks in a mirror and sees him/herself ... then looks again or closes medicine cabinet door and * JARRING SCARY BLAST OF MUSIC ON SOUNDTRACK * there's another face there behind them staring or about to kill. THE FUTURIST! had this happen last October. He was getting a new suit and was adjusting the suit coat lapels and looked down to see if they were nice and flat and contoured with the shape of the coat ... then he looked up to see the results and BLAM!!! there was the ugly countenance of the tailor. What a little scary troll beast he appeared to be. "Can I help you, Sir?" he asked THE FUTURIST!. Composing himself, THE FUTURIST! merely swallowed and replied, "The pants seem to be damp."
Below is a 4 min. and 12 second wonderful montage of scary mirror sequences from numerous films. This would have been a wonderful SHOCKtober post, but we can love it now, can't we?
P.S. At the 1:20 mark you will see an actual dramatization of THE YOUNG FUTURIST! being scared by a bedraggled child creature in a mirror. It's good. Watch for it.
Director Stanley Donan's Faust parody written by and starring the brilliant Peter Cook and Dudley Moore is one of THE FUTURIST!'s favorite dark comedies. If you are only aware of the Harold Ramis revolting CGI bloated remake with Brendan Fraser, well ... THE FUTURIST! wants to bitch slap you ... then he will embrace you and console you as you weep and fully realize your utter stupidity. The only way to atone is by queuing up your NetFlix and renting the surrealistic one and only BEDAZZLED from 1967.
The score to the film was written by Dudley Moore, who was a talented pianist and composer. Yes, he did make a series of bad films in the 80s, after he separated from his comedy marriage with Peter Cook, but he was a very funny man and musician. The two of them together were influential figures in British comedy and should be rediscovered by those not familiar with their sharp (mostly ad-libbed) dialogues. Please rent their recently released DVD of their early 60s British TV program. THE FUTURIST! tingled with pure delight while viewing it.
Below is a fantasy sequence from BEDAZZLED in which Moore's character wishes to be a great pop singer in order to attract the girl he secretly adores. Cook is Satan with whom he decides to sell his soul in order to achieve his most cherished dreams. Each of his wishes come to a bad end, due to Satan's knack for toying with happiness and, well, because he's evil. Satan allows Moore's character to fulfill the pop singing fantasy, but throws a malevolent monkey wrench into the dream by appearing as an even more alluring pop fantasy known as ... Drimble Wedge.
Listen:
BEDAZZLED performed by Peter Cook from the film BEDAZZLED (1967)
The above picture is being used as THE FUTURIST!'s Twitter avatar. Upon its first appearance, @iFiction, a very intelligent and philosophical THE FUTURIST! follower on the 140 character communication social network, loved it and called it "pretty fantastic". When THE FUTURIST! asked him what the picture "said to him", @iFiction replied:
"it 'says' that identity, framed and separated into an individual ego, is ultimately a reflection of the surrounding universe."
THE FUTURIST! likes that reply.
It could say that ... or it could be THE FUTURIST! peering at his new iSad computer tablet, which is available exclusively in Utter Despair, N.J. It is being test marketed in the saddest place in the United States. It enables you to read emails, check websites, view High Def films, like CRIES AND WHISPERS, and can be used to read depressing eBooks. THE FUTURIST! is currently reading NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND by Dostoevsky.
THE FUTURIST! has mulled this idea over for awhile and thought about the consequences of admitting to certain things that he embarrassingly feels some sort of strange attraction to ... and recoils at the thought of disclosing said attraction. Of course, there are some things THE FUTURIST! may like very much that he would admit to though others detest it, even though they would shake their heads or hide their faces in the palms of their hands upon hearing his admissions.
This is commonly known as a GUILTY PLEASURE. THE FUTURIST! sought the correct definition of this phrase on Wikipedia. He often consults Wikipedia for knowledge, as he did recently regarding a rash on his inner calf. It was merely excessive corduroy pants friction. A common affliction according to Wiki. The informative internet encyclopedia cited GUILTY PLEASURE as:
something one considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. Often, the "guilt" involved is simply fear of others discovering one's lowbrow or otherwise embarrassing tastes, rather than actual moral guilt.
Fascinating.
THE FUTURIST! will start his therapy session, of sorts, with this recently discovered video of a set of performing "musical" twins called Jedward. After watching this, THE FUTURIST! was heard to say, "They appear to be some kind of X Factor creation." Brilliant deduction. They were and are. After intensive research that equaled the work done by Dr. Jonas Salk on a polio vaccine, THE FUTURIST! watched a few videos from The X FACTOR featuring Jedward. They can not sing and are hyper 17 yr old egomaniacs who think they are stars. The X Factor tries to mask many of their contestants faults through large spectacular production numbers and this is true in a Busby Berkeley sense with Jedward. All flash and lights and sound and dancing, but no talent.
So why,? Why is THE FUTURIST! about to admit to his fascination and unbridled glee in watching the video he is about to present below? THE FUTURIST! can not explain it ... it could be the music, though he detests rap. It could the production number. He does like clever film musical production numbers. It could his envy over the twins hair. They have a lot of it, but they do fashion it in a combination style of cotton candy and a human paintbrush. That is strange. It certainly isn't the appearance of Vanilla Ice in the latter half of the video. THE FUTURIST! dislikes Vanilla Ice very much. And the enhancement of sound tweaking and direction and editing and production value is throwing a deflection shield over the fact that the boys can't really warble at all.
One explanation could be those black suits with mustard vests under the boys' suit jackets. They look stylish. And what of the full display of unleashed energy on display as the young dolts jump and gyrate and punch the air in front of that tiny light bulbed logo of their stupid name? Oh, THE FUTURIST! is hurling derogatory adjectives in this post regarding Jedward ... obviously an excuse to thwart any reader's jaw dropping reaction to what they are about to see and his confession of how it fills THE FUTURIST! with momentary happiness. At the same time, THE FUTURIST! hates himself for liking it. It's packaged poisoned commercial candy. THE FUTURIST! feels like a farm hog rolling in his own slop and feces and smiling. Are you ready? The bomb bay doors are opening and the GUILTY PLEASURE BOMB is about drop ...
The Late Sir Laurence Olivier is considered one of the greatest actors of stage and screen. He has won numerous awards for his tour de force acting turns in many productions, including an Academy Award for his role as Hamlet. THE FUTURIST! found his performances in SLEUTH, MARATHON MAN, HENRY V, SPARTACUS and his beautiful understated role in REBECCA to be all memorable. However ... yes ... however, Sir Larry could instill the chill of complete cringe worthy tremors with some of his "acting". Terrible hammy mannerisms and forced accents that could make one wince and, yet, want to laugh in horror marked many of his later film performances. THE FUTURIST! will now list his favorite unfavored 5 .... which surprisingly are all from 1978 to 1980.
TOP 5 WORST SIR LAURENCE OLIVIER FILM ACCENTS
1. Cantor Rabinovitch in THE JAZZ SINGER (1980) Possibly Jewish, Balkan, German, Swedish or Venusian
2. Prof. Abraham Van Helsing in DRACULA (1979) Possibly German, Jewish, Czech, Irish and Elmo
3. Ezra Lieberman in THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978) Possibly German, Jewish or Alvin of the Chipmunks
4. Loren Hardeman in THE BETSY (1978) Possibly Texan, Foghorn Leghorn or Yosemite Sam
5. Julius in A LITTLE ROMANCE (1979) Definitely Pepe Le Pew and Jewish or German
