As the blog title suggests, this space will be used first and foremost to examine (marvel at, obsess over, celebrate) the narrative conventions of both the Krimi and Giallo genres. The rampant passages of dream-logic. The technically assured (sometimes uncanny) narrative experimentation. The genre-defining sound designs. The erotic and grotesque chunks of narrative, strung or stuck together until they amount to (in the best cases) something deliriously innovative (i.e., pure cinema).
We'll chronicle the tried, true, ingrained tropes. And plot points. And literary origins. And recurring cast and stock characters. We'll feature posts on the iconic visuals and the classic films from which they're often being quoted, appropriated, reclaimed. We will, above all, share our enthusiasm for all the site can contain. Share details of production history and the best home-video releases we know. Link to like-minded sites, forums, posts.
That is our first truth.
Our second expands into other genres, other corners, other neglected dark attics and basements of what keeps us interested in cinema. The Eurogothic, the Eurowestern, Eurocrime. The Japanese New Wave. The work of the Polish Ex-Pats. Ozploitation. Body Horror. Existential, telekinetic sci-fi. The longstanding (and almost always in play) tradition of ero guro nansensu (erotic grotesque nonsense), and all that that entails. Not only in Japanese art and literature and film, but also as it has seeped into the groundwater all around the world: Djuna Barnes' NIGHTWOOD. Andzrej Zulawski's POSSESSION. Elio Petri's whole body of work. Neonoir like NIGHT MOVES. Etcet. Etcet.
What it boils down to is that we love genre. And that all stories, hard or soft stories, narrative or not-stories, are part of a genre. ("Realism" is a genre; "literary fiction" is a genre; "arthouse" and "pulp" and "thriller" and "collage film" and and and ...) All genres, attached to an entire "decision tree" of related and sub-compacted other genres. Iterations. Homages. Riffs and steals.
And this: We don't want to waste energy arguing. We want our creative humors pumping not from trollish, a-hole-ish insecurities and bullshit. But from our shared, communal enthusiasm for that of which we speak. So let's get to it.
Leonard Jacobs
August, 2014
You're off to a great start. I'll have to bookmark this so I remember to check back regularly.
ReplyDelete(Incidentally, this is Hooded Justice from Letterboxd.)
Thanks for the support (and thanks for checking out the site)!
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed writing about these movies on LB, but the chance to add screenshots and play with the formatting a bit here is definitely attractive. I won't be expanding much past Krimi/Giallo material for the foreseeable future, but just hope to keep updates coming (at least weekly).