Cannibal Holocaust
dir. Ruggero Deodato
Plays Sat April 12
Hollywood Theatre
Cannibal Holocaust is exactly as tasteful as its title
implies. The organizers of the Grindhouse Film Festival, who’re
sponsoring this screening, promise, “This film is absolutely guaranteed
to shock, offend, and disgust.” Yeah, that’s pretty much right.
Granted, this is a rare chance to catch this oft-banned 1980
exploitation film, but you’re going to want to know what’s in store for
you ahead of time: a lot of raping, killing, cannibalism, and a whole
slew of on-screen animal cruelty. Sound good? Then get on down to the
Hollywood!
In the spirit of the mondo films of the ’60s and ’70s, the
Italian-made Cannibal Holocaust “documents” a crew of four
filmmakers who travel deep into the “Green Inferno” of the Amazon to
film two indigenous tribes. The filmmakers never return, and two months
later, a famed anthropologist goes in search of the crew—only to
discover their horrifying footage. Back in New York, the anthropologist
and a team of TV folk view the gory reels and learn what happened to
the crew.
Cannibal Holocaust is a sadistic romp, overflowing with ugly
commentaries about the savagery of the human soul. It’s definitely
worth checking out, if only for the fact that it gets away with murder.
(Literally, with a whole ark-load of animals. R.I.P., giant majestic
turtle.) To borrow a line from the film, “It’ll rape your senses!” Poor
violated senses. COURTNEY FURGESON
Filmed by Bike
dirs. Various
Fri April 11-Sun April 13
Clinton St. Theater
Kicking around since ’03, Filmed by Bike is an annual
Portland film festival to which amateur filmmakers and bike enthusiasts
submit films, mostly of eight minutes or less. Guidelines are otherwise
loose, producing a wide range of topics and styles, with bicycles being
the only connective thread. It’s a weekend-long event, featuring beer
and other fanfare, but the film screenings are by far the main event.
Picking up speed each year, 2008’s Filmed by Bike received over 100
entries, which were juried down to a selection of about 40, split into
two programs.
A selection of what you’ll find: Bicycle Jerry, a
puppet-acted film about a mildly retarded boy that actually turns out
to be surprisingly gory, sad, and disturbing; The Pull, a talky
love story about a relationship in which two gay men pre-arrange an
expiration date on their partnership and how that affects the way they
view and treat each other and their interactions (bikes are in the
periphery, appearing when they go on bike dates, etc.); and My
Girl, another love story about a cyclist dude trying to woo a
rollerblading chick. Like all such endeavors, it’s a mixed bag of
impressive craft, impressive dorkiness, and the occasional moment of
poignancy—all of which goes better with beer. MARJORIE SKINNER
Noise
dir. Matthew Saville
Opens Fri April 11
Hollywood Theatre
Based on the opening scene, it’s easy to imagine the
Australian Noise is a simple horror film: An attractive female
walks onto a subway car, only to find everybody on the train is dead.
She panics, we fade to black, and the rest of the film is spent piecing
together what happened.
But excepting those first few minutes, this isn’t a horror
flick—it’s a crime thriller that, ironically, doesn’t focus on
the crime. Instead, Noise is played out in the world of
low-level policeman Graham McGahan (Brendan Cowell), a guy who doesn’t
even investigate the crime—he’s just the policeman whose tedious
job it is to wait for evidence to become available. McGahan’s passive
role is one that could’ve been boring, but it benefits enormously from
a powerful performance by Cowell.
In fact, the whole story is well acted, and the intense film is
enhanced further by expert sound editing: McGahan suffers from
tinnitus, a ringing in the ears that serves as both an indicator of his
declining mental health and a device to make every scene that much more
stressful. (It is called Noise, after all.) While a few red
herrings and random characters occasionally throw the film off track,
writer/director Matthew Saville ensures that the focus remains on
Noise‘s stressful, engrossing story. DREW GEMMER