Art vs. Entertainment, Part 1

When I have a strong negative reaction to a film nowadays, I just assume that I'm doing something wrong. Time and time again, I revisit films that I hated with the first viewing and found that they clicked the second time around. However, when it comes to art films, I have two thoughts: 1. I hate this shit and 2. I will NEVER sit through this shit again. At one time, my favorite movies were indie dramas and all manner of artsy fartsy nonsense. It wasn't until that fateful day while watching Fellini Satyricon that it suddenly dawned on me that I needed to become reacquainted with my old friend, the horror film. I wanted the decapitations but none of the boring shit that came with them.

You see, my need for horror went dormant during the 90s when good horror movies were hard to find. Had I known about genres like Euro-crime, spaghetti westerns (other than Leone), giallo, yakuza, etc. I might have been okay. But no, when the 90s rolled around, I retreated into the worlds of Kevin Smith and Wes Anderson to fulfill my hipster toilet humor emo (?) needs. I also delved into the worlds of Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman for... I don't know... my boring European crap needs. It was horror all along. Horror was always there, waiting for my triumphant return.

This brings me to Attraction AKA Nerosubianco by Tinto Brass. Now I enjoyed Deadly Sweet and found that its artsy diversions refreshing especially since late 60s gialli can sometimes be a little dry. But Nerosubianco, a syphilis-ridden nutsack of a movie, tested my patience through most of its running time. Now it is not a total loss as you'll see when you read my review but damn, I was really not into this one. I'll be reviewing Brass's The Howl soon so there will most likely be another tirade against pretentious junk again. Get me a bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be watching Gialli."

So yeah, in my review for Nerosubianco, you'll see my prudish side shining like a repressed star. I don't think I'm old fashioned or particularly skittish about sex films, I just don't care about them. I really don't care about films that break sexual taboos, especially ones that are now 40 years old. These flicks look very silly years later when it's all just a bunch of grubby hippies showing their (not so) goodies to the world.