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My movie year (so far)

My latest attempt to catch up with chronicling what I've seen, featuring a good one and one of the the worst movies I've ever seen.

1) The Python (2003 - Nigeria), directed by Amayo Uzo Philips. Let's start with that worst movie I mentioned. This is one of the African horror movies I mentioned last time, but I had no idea what a horror it would be. It's an African Christian horror movie! Although it begins with a folk story about a giant python that feeds on the village for past sins, most of the running time consists of theological arguments between the village elders and a young Catholic priest, who brings them all to Jesus. When he does, the snake reverts to its human form, and an unattractive woman writhes around on the beach for a minute or two as the snake spirit inside her dies. The End. At least I think this is what happened, because the print I saw had a soundtrack so distorted that even though most of the dialogue was in English, I couldn't understand a word of it.

The snake itself seems to be made from an abandoned fire hose. There are lots of scenes of fleeing villagers, all running down the same road and staggering out of the same grass, intercut with shots of a section of snake being dragged along the ground. All it lacked was a wrestling match with Bela Lugosi (or is that Lagos-i?). But it's nice to know that the U.S. doesn't make the worst movies in the world after all.

2) Accatone (1961 - Italy), directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Pasolini's first film, ostensibly the study of a street hustler and his world. But it's really about starvation-- everyone in the film is uncertain about the next meal, and they taunt each other over how hungry they must be. When one of his buddies asks if it's true that he hasn't eaten in two days, Accatone replies, "Yes, but if I vomited on you, you'd eat for a week." Dialogue like that doesn't come from feelgood movies, of course, and this is as bleak a look at life as any movie not set in a prison. But Pasolini had a grim sense of humor, and there are laughs mixed with the poverty-stricken horror. And it has a last line that is a perfect punchline to it all. Recommendation of the week.

Posted by Steve Monaco at March 28, 2006 12:34 AM

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