Reading an old issue of Empire,I found a review by Kim Newman praising Arrow for bringing out Blu-Ray that have caused a major re- evaluation of "Adult" auteur film maker Walerian Borowczyk. Taking part in a poll on ICM for the best movies of 1981 whilst reading the review,I noticed a fellow poster share tantalising screenshots of a Dr. Jekyll adaptation,which led to me looking at Borowczyk for the first time:
View on the film:
Bringing Borowczyk's Dr. Jekyll into light,Arrow deliver a superb transfer,with the French/English dubs (the title was shot with no original soundtrack) being clean,and Arrow retaining the film grain on the picture.
Opening Jekyll's eyes with Giallo black gloves and a stylised,extended first person tracking shot,writer/production designer/director Walerian Borowczyk & cinematographer Noël Véry set their sights on fetish, masochism,with Borowczyk finding an unsettling elegance in shots whirling round a drenched in blood body,and a bath of Jekyll's potion having a grubby earthy appearance.
Backed by an excellent simmering electronic score from Bernard Parmegiani, Borowczyk heightens the masochism by taking the Gothic Horror to the level of a surrealist farce,as the guests, Miss Fanny Osbourne and Jekyll become entranced in a cocktail of transgressive aggression and horror decadence.
Entering this adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's book from a distinctive corner,the screenplay by Borowczyk brews a frosty nightmare horror state of Jekyll's future murder/sex attacks being threaded into the "present" dinner like a darkness on the horizon. Investigating the strange case between Jekyll and Osbourne, Borowczyk brilliantly builds a toxic bond which leads to them bathing in each other's potions, as Miss Osbourne and Dr. Jekyll discover the strange case of Mr. Hyde)
View on the film:
Bringing Borowczyk's Dr. Jekyll into light,Arrow deliver a superb transfer,with the French/English dubs (the title was shot with no original soundtrack) being clean,and Arrow retaining the film grain on the picture.
Opening Jekyll's eyes with Giallo black gloves and a stylised,extended first person tracking shot,writer/production designer/director Walerian Borowczyk & cinematographer Noël Véry set their sights on fetish, masochism,with Borowczyk finding an unsettling elegance in shots whirling round a drenched in blood body,and a bath of Jekyll's potion having a grubby earthy appearance.
Backed by an excellent simmering electronic score from Bernard Parmegiani, Borowczyk heightens the masochism by taking the Gothic Horror to the level of a surrealist farce,as the guests, Miss Fanny Osbourne and Jekyll become entranced in a cocktail of transgressive aggression and horror decadence.
Entering this adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's book from a distinctive corner,the screenplay by Borowczyk brews a frosty nightmare horror state of Jekyll's future murder/sex attacks being threaded into the "present" dinner like a darkness on the horizon. Investigating the strange case between Jekyll and Osbourne, Borowczyk brilliantly builds a toxic bond which leads to them bathing in each other's potions, as Miss Osbourne and Dr. Jekyll discover the strange case of Mr. Hyde)