Hellfire Video Club: Can’t Get Out!
Feeling claustrophobic and cut off? Then, of course, you’ll be wanting to watch films about other people being claustrophobic and cut off, to make you feel better. These kinds of subjects are undoubtedly ripe pickings for the kind of nonsense we spend our time watching. But this time around we’ll lay off the more obvious horror genre choices, for a trio of titles exploring the subject in a less predictable context.
La Cabina
Antonio Mercero, Spain. 1972.
Edgy and curious Spanish short film about a man who enters a phone box to make a call and finds himself trapped in there. Members of the public try increasingly frustrating ways to free him until a van from the phone company arrives…. a simple premise that is constantly surprising and hooks you in. It’s an obscurity but worth seeking out for sure… it’s on youtube in its entirety so you’ve got no excuse!
Hell In The Pacific
John Boorman, US. 1968.
Boorman reunited with Lee Marvin following their cult hit “Point Blank” (1967) for this two-actor isolationists daydream. A US and a Japanese pilot both crash land on opposing sides of a deserted island. Neither speaks the other’s language, and they are still in the midst of the second world war, so a slow and rambling game of cat-and-mouse ensues on the insanely beautiful beaches and jungles. Constant power-shifts and lots of scenes of the mighty Lee Marvin muttering to himself and growing a beard. Stylish and enthralling, with a decent Lalo Schiffrin score… Just don’t read the Pauline Kael review of it!
Woman Of The Dunes
Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japan. 1964.
(alternatively known as ‘Woman in the Dunes’, fusspots take note!)
A schoolteacher is stranded in a small coastal village, and under the auspices of help, is sent for refuge in a strange house situated in a sand quarry. He soon realises he is trapped there, alongside a mysterious and virtually silent woman who seems to have tasked him with keeping the house from being consumed by the ever-encroaching sand. Faced with an inescapably pointless and seemingly endless task, he is initially desperate to escape, before beginning to ponder his existence in more radical terms… It’s not hard to understand why so many were wowed by this upon its release in the 60s. Its starkly beautiful monochrome images, eerie minimalist soundtrack, and palpable sense of off-key dread still seem visionary over 50 years later. A hypnotic and haunting classic!
