All right. I just watched, for the first time, Tarantino's Grindhouse edition of Death Proof. I have to specify: As you should know, Tarantino and Rodriguez did a double feature called Grindhouse, in about 2007, consisting of two feature films, Rodriguez's Planet Terror and Tarantino's Death Proof. Both of which are excellent movies. Death Proof is maybe Tarantino's best film yet, although Inglourious Basterds is close on second. Or first, maybe, I can't say for sure. And Planet Terror is a really good zombie flick that keeps very true to Romero in its political and sociological implications. I bought the Grindhouse BluRay because I never saw the double feature, including fake trailers, of which Machete eventually, you know, of course you know, blabla. Mentioning the fake trailers. I love Udo Kier, he is the German Christopher Walken, but on a much much higher level.
Well, I digress. What I wanted to talk about: There was no Grindhouse double feature in Germany, or the whole world other than the U.S., for what I know. Planet Terror and Death Proof were released in Germany six months apart as two 120 minute, stand alone feature films by two different directors. Even the marketing machinery made no connections between these two flicks. There were no fake trailers for Germany and no theater did a double feature without the trailers. But: the U.S. Grindhouse double feature is like exactly 3 hours long. That means that the U.S. version was about 23 minutes shorter per film than the German/European one (plus about 10/14 minutes that the fake trailers made up for). So tonight I, for the first time, watched the shorter, U.S., version of Death Proof.
And there is a whole lot to be missed! It is pretty easy to cut about 20 minutes from a film like this because it's whole aesthetics deal with missing and worn down film reels. But I don't understand the choices made (either way, if other scenes were cut, I would miss them, too, because there is nothing in this movie that deserves cutting). The two scenes that I missed most: 1) Vanessa Ferlito's lap dance for Kurt Russell. I knew that it wasn't in the U.S. version beforehand, and 2) The first meeting of Stuntman Mike with the second set of girls at a gas station. There are more beautiful close-upped feet in this one and a real good joke about female addiction to fashion magazines, with black and white scenes and everything.
I don't like to say this, but you American guys have been tricked. Somehow. And I think of something like the U.S. version of the first Silent Hill game had little ready-to-slay-children-monsters in it and for a German release they had to be replaced with little ready-to-slay-monster-creatures-that-don't-resemble-human-children-so-much because German censors don't appreciate violence towards children. But on the other hand, because Konami felt sorry for their European customers, we Europeans got a really nice making-of-and-international-trailers-DVD for and with Silent Hill 2, which the U.S. release didn't have. So, really. What I want to say. If you only know the U.S. Grindhouse double feature, try to get your hands on the European releases of Planet Terror and Death Proof as well. It is really worth the ride.
And the other thing is: Werner Herzog toured Germany last week because of the German theatrical release of Cave of Forgotten Dreams, which I am looking forward to so very much. And he was on Harald Schmidt and I had to realize, although I once idealized Schmidt as THE most intellectual German voice just a few years ago, that Werner Herzog is moving in another realm entirely. There is just no man, no father figure, of deeper knowlegde and wisdom around. Not even Ted Danson in Bored To Death. There is so much calm in everything Herzog says because he just emanates pure ethereal wisdom. And it doesn't seem to me to be a pure coincidence that Ted Danson mentions Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog a couple of times in Bored To Death.
I have to admit that I never saw any of Herzog's movies. I stumbled upon his documentaries a couple years ago and they are just so good and heartbreaking, and wise, and terrifying, and melancholic, and, foremost, true. You just cannot see Grizzly Man and be the same person anymore. Or Encounters at the End of The World. That penguin, running about 80 miles away from his peers, just running and runnning, alone, into the distance, straight into his certain, lonely death, still haunts me. This part of the nature of being is so utterly, heartbreakingly sad and I fear it being at the central nature of all being. Just as Herzog considers brutality and cruelty at the very heart of nature. Watching Herzog always raises so much questions. I'm so looking forward to Cave of Forgotten Dreams. And also to finally watching some of the Herzog/Kinski films. And to connect the first topic of the post with the second, just watch this clip (that you pretty certainly already know; when I wanted to write about Herzog and Kinski a few nights ago, but didn't, I wanted to name the post I Shot Werner Herzog, but this now seems to be a much better title; to watch the full interview, click here):
No comments:
Post a Comment