More reviews of Barbazul!

Well, Barbazul is the subject of discussions and reviews. IMDB has the following review of Barbazul:

Excellent filmmaking!!!!, Beautiful photography, excellent scenery, complex character development with a perfect musical score fitting the storytelling, this was absolutely fantastic. A great story with unbelievable twists. A must-see for any Giallo, Mystery or Crime movies fan. Amy Hesketh’s second movie delivers with everything expected. It’s only her second movie and I can already see a great and promising career as a Director/Actress/Writer. My favorite detail was that among Barbazul’s wives, you see every type of woman from a psychological point of view. The character development is very realistic. I’m already waiting for Amy Hesketh’s next masterpiece.
Dean Andersson – at IMDB

The above review came before Dean Andersson posted his at IMDB. It’s very gratifying for Amy and everyone involved in this movie to get so great reviews from people that truly love the film for what it is, a great horror film and one that opens itself to very interesting discussions.

I believe that this film will have a nice and long stay in the world of film fans of the horror kind. Barbazul is placing Amy in a good place.

We were also very glad to see YikYaker‘s review of Le Marquis de la Croix. Another film making its mark. I’ll get to that one a bit later on this traditionally long post.

Since Amy posted Dean’s review in this forum, he revised it, adding a couple of paragraphs about the performances of some of the cast. Below an illustrated version of the review with some comments made by me which reflect the reaction of those mentioned in the review:

Amy Hesketh’s BARBAZUL is an effective horror film of great style and insight that would give Hannibal Lecter the creeps!,

12 February 2013
Author: C Dean Andersson
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Based upon the classic serial killer horror of Bluebeard, BARBAZUL presents a new and chillingly effective original version of the tale. Jac Avila skillfully plays Barbazul/Bluebeard with a charming sophistication that seduces innocent and worldly victims alike. As the advertising promo for the film says, he loves women, he just can’t stop killing them. And some of those murders in the film are written, staged, and directed by Hesketh in such a way that they crawled under my horror movie radar and jumped me from the inside. I have seen so many scary movies, but the kind that play it easy, using gore and jump-out-at-you scenes, fade as soon as the film is through. Others, like the suspense classics of Hitchcock or the shadowy mood pieces produced by Val Lewton, slip up on you and instead of making
you react by looking away, keep you watching, even when it begins to feel like you are intruding on something very private that you would really rather not see. But then it’s too late. You saw. It’s in your
mind. And it keeps coming back to you at odd moments the next day, and afterward. It is obvious Hesketh impressed me, again.

Amy was very happy with the comparisons to Hitchcock and Lewton and Jac was touched, deeply, with Dean’s insightful comment about Jac’s charm and sophistication. They particularly like the comment about the mesmerizing power of the movie.

Each of her films thus far, Le Marquis de la Croix and Sirwiñakuy, have been a unique and strong example
of how entertaining artistic films that break the mold and defy convention can be. Being a writer myself, of course I credit the way Hesketh creates the underlying story with how effective the work becomes. And her character in BARBAZUL is a writer whose demise is every writer’s nightmare! “Come
on, just give me another minute to finish this, I’m almost done, just a moment more, don’t interrupt me right now, come back later, let me finish!” It is a diabolical scene for a writer to watch. But at least, all of us who have been interrupted while trying to write do not, hopefully, have happen to us what Hesketh has happen to her character! And then, of course, it gets worse.

Amy’s character in Barbazul is full of inside winks and jokes, beginning with the name, Jane, which,
as you all know, she uses in our Red Feline productions. Jane, a writer of S&M stories and very much into the scene. A seductive woman, who, even when in bondage, appears to be in control. “Harder!” she
commands while handcuffed and under the whip. Amy turns Jane’s turn-on into a nightmare. She was particularly devilish doing that, wasn’t she?

All of the actors turn in excellent performances. Jac Avila’s stylish interpretation of
Bluebeard was aristocratic and cultured even as the sociopath within him does cold-blooded Evil, reminding me of Vincent Price’s best performances.

Jac loves that comparison as well. Vincent Price is one of his favorite actors. He grew up watching Vincent Price playing evil and tortured (psychologically) characters. In an interview on TV Jac mentioned that he actually thought of Tony Curtis in The Boston Strangler for his role in Barbazul, which, incidentally, is a movie in discussion in this forum, I’ll get to that later.

It’s important to note that nowhere in Dean’s review appears the word “subdued” when referring to Jac’s acting. Perhaps to some it may seem “subdued” when in reality there’s an intensity that grows with the character.

Roberto Lopez’s Walter is one of the creepiest butlers on film, sinister without being overt, very subtle and effective, one of those “there’s something wrong here but nothing I can put my finger on so it’s probably just my imagination, but–” kind of things…if there were an anti-Batman, this is the anti-Alfred,or even more, “Klove” in the second Christopher Lee Dracula film Hammer Films made, Dracula Prince of Darkness. Come to think of it, this could almost have been Bluebeard Prince of Darkness!

Beto was extremely happy for this comment. His dream came true. Beto said that he’ll print the review, make thousands of copies and pass them around El Prado, the busiest street in La Paz.

When Beto met Jac, way back in 1993, as a journalist writing about Jac for a national newspaper here, he joked: “You should use me as a butler in one of your movies, I could be a creepy butler”. Was that a prophetic comment? They met in 1993, but they knew of each other from their days in grammar school at the famed and elite school run by Jesuits, Beto was a classmate of Jac’s brother. Beto told Jac when they met that he remembered fondly how Jac used home made movies to raise funds for the poor during the fund raising campaigns the school held every year.

The ride to get to Barbazul’s plantation (castle) over the twisting, turning road (like the one leading to Castle Dracula) emphasizes how far from any kind of help the women he takes there are. And the countryside through which the road passed reminded me of the beautiful, vast emptiness of the high desert of Northern Arizona where I once lived.

One of the charms of the location was the long ride. It had to be in the movie! Amy wanted the very long shot of the road where it’s winding turns can be seen from the distance. It was one of the ways she wanted to emulate the Italian films from the 60’s. It was also a way of paying homage to the gothic films and novels she likes. Nothing like a long and winding road to doom and despair for a true damsel in distress. It reminds me of the day I took a plane in Budapest on my way to New York with a man I hardly knew … and shortly after an even longer flight to an even farther place from home, the high plains of the Andes. Why do some women take that long road?

Mila Joya’s innocent and noble character totally sells her growing unease and alarm as she becomes more and more aware that she has been trapped by a monster (like Jonathan Harker in Castle Dracula!–and it just occurred to me that Hesketh’s Dracula, if she ever chooses to do one, might finally nail Stoker’s classic better than anyone ever has…).

Mila is overjoyed. Barbazul is, after all, her very first film, even if Maleficarum and Le Marquis came out
earlier, Barbazul was her first acting experience. Maleficarum was shot AFTER Barbazul.

A couple of weeks before the beginning of the production of Amy’s film Jac shot a few scenes of the Inquisition movie, most of it had to be re shot.

The way Mila expresses herself in Barbazul, with looks and slight body movements, tell a lot more than pages of dialogues and that’s something that comes across in the movie. Amy wanted to continue with her style in Sirwiñakuy where the pauses, longing looks, silences, tell more about the characters and the story than any long speech. Amy succeeded, of course, and so did Mila.

Another “victim,” convincingly portrayed by Veronica Paintoux as an aggressive and worldly counterpart to Joya’s character’s helpless innocence, makes you believe she can damn-well take care of herself, which makes it even worse, for her, when she suddenly discovers that, no, not really, she can’t handle Barbazul, either.

Veronica takes all reviews with the calm of a professional. She smiles only as she can do it. She brings that “je ne sais quoi” to her roles. That worldly quality that it is recognizable anywhere as simply French.

In Barbazul Veronica shows the vulnerable side of her character, particularly when she’s working with the photographer and announces that she’s getting married. That scene alone shows Annabelle’s fears.

Original music by Brad Cantor and La Negra Figueroa added just the right touch to the film, reminding me, somewhat, in the best way of a Goblin score for an Argento classic. Finally, “Superb” does not really do this film justice. “Eros and Thanatos” writ large might be a better description, “Sex and Death,” “Beauty and Horror,” like the face of the great Barbara Steele’s “Muriel” at the end of NIGHTMARE CASTLE, or the visage of the Norse Goddess Hel, half beautiful and seductively alive, half dead and nightmarishly decayed. In BARBAZUL, you can’t have one without the other, see? As if you’d want to, right? And one extra bonus–if you happen to have seen Richard Burton’s portrayal of Bluebeard in that famous old film, Jac Avila will finally make Burton’s face stop flashing into your mind at the mention of the name, “Bluebeard.” So, in addition to this great new film, thank you, Amy and Jac, for that!

Move over Richard Burton. The last paragraph in Dean’s review takes Barbazul into a large territory, populated by classics of horror films, from Argento to Barbara Steele and comparing Jac to Richard Burton, one of the greatest of his generation. A quotable review, I think, a thousand times quotable, and it’s up there, at IMDB, for all to see.

But the discussion doesn’t end there and we hope it will continue as Barbazul moves navigates and glides into a larger world.

Bill K. Amy being bound nude in Barbazul and then strangled nude in the movie is erotic but in the Boston Strangler’s real life he raped them then strangled them – NOT erotic. Bluebeard was a fictional movie and the real life Boston Strangler case was real horrible event and to make it a gimp nude movie I would not want to see it.

I mentioned before that Jac based his portrayal of Barbazul in Tony Curtis’ interpretation of The
Boston Strangler. It was not consciously, however, Jac realized that after seeing the rushes. He told an interviewer how impressed he was with Tony Curtis, an actor known for roles so unlike the Strangler. Tony Curtis wanted that role but the producers thought he wouldn’t be good for it. A handsome, matinee idol, better known for classic comedies like Some Like it Hot, could not play a role like the strangler. Tony Curtis sent a picture to the producers with a phony name. Before taking the picture he applied some interesting make up to his nose and eyes changing his looks completely. The producers were impressed and wanted to see that ‘unknown actor” The rest is history.

There are two scenes in the film, when The Strangler goes after younger women. At the beginning he killed old ladies. In one he pretends to be a plumber, he’s showing the “plumbing problem” to his victim. She bends to see the problem, he comes from behind and starts strangling her. It’s a powerful scene that stayed in Jac’s mind. He mentioned the cold look of the killer’s eyes as he slowly takes the life of the woman.

Was it erotic? I think it was. It’s a very, very intense scene.

I have so many more things to say but I think I should do so in another post rather than expand this one to levels unseen before my two part famous opus of last year.

I’d like to address some points made by Lynn over torture methods of yore vs modern torments and tormentors.

I would also like to comment on YikYakker‘s excellent review of Le Marquis de la Croix. I think that review deserves a post of its own.

There’s one point that was discussed around Barbazul. Reality vs fantasy in film. As Amy pointed out, time casts a filter over events that when fresh are too hard to look into. Jac, for instance, can’t bring himself to watch movies about the attack to the WTC. It’s an event that it’s too fresh in his mind, even after 11 years. There are people he knew that died there. He’s, after all, a New Yorker.

But real life stories, like The Boston Strangler, are far in history and as in any historical event, once it becomes a ‘story’, that’s what it is, a story.

There are lot of erotic elements in WWII based stories, right?

Torture, rape and all of that, as horrible as it all is, for some unfathomable reason, turns a lot of people on, probably most people. And so it goes.

I’ll have news about Dead But Dreaming soon. The first cut is done and Jac is going into the last stretch of the post production. A release date will be set at the end of this month. A theatrical release might be coming at the end of May, but the DVD and Downloads release will come before that. Be prepared.

Important notification: Our server made some upgrades. This is causing our DVD store at Red Feline to be offline. We’re working on upgrading the store as well. We hope it will be back to normal shortly. The VermeerWorks store is running normally.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll return with more soon, very, very soon. And if possible, we’ll have our first YouTube friendly teaser of Dead But Dreaming up for all to see.

Read Amy’s post just below this one.