(1973)
Dir - Johannes Schaaf
Overall: MEHAn anarchist, dystopian nightmare, Dream City, (Traumstadt), is the type of arthouse, European cinema that was particularly prominent in the 1970s when more adventurous exports were making their way into grindhouse and midnight movie friendly theaters. A clear critique on mankind's inability to embrace utopia due to our selfish, hedonistic nature when such things can blossom unchecked, it is a narratively challenging work that grows increasingly surreal as it goes on. Per Oscarsson and Rosemarie Fendel, (the latter who also served as a co-writer), are a married couple that are invited to live in a secretive village where complete freedom is the only law upheld; a village full of artists from various mediums who seem to inevitably succumb to madness under the romantic yet unfeasible conditions. The two-hour running time is excessive and the barrage of decadent, destructive set pieces eventually wear out their welcome with a story line that purposely does not go anywhere. It all creates the appropriate cataclysmic tone and many of the images are surreal and striking, but it also definitely meanders to the point of being tiresome.
(1974)
Dir - Bob Thénault
Overall: MEH
A French television adaptation of Marry Shelley's novel that skews virtually every plot point therein, Frankenstein: A Love Story, (Frankenstein: Une histoire d'amour, Frankenstein 95), is only an interesting variation in parts. The only film from director Bob Thénault, it suffers from lethargic pacing which is particularly problematic in the first act. Emphasizing the proud and cold mental psyche of Victor Frankenstein, it paints him as a hugely unsympathetic protagonist. Even Peter Cushing at least had a devilish charm to his vile portrayal, but Gérard Berner here is left with only being arrogant and nasty, coming off underwritten in the process. The events of Shelley's source material are significantly tweaked or omitted altogether and the emphasis is more on Frankenstein's smug, blasphemous bravado that spits in the face of religious superstition which puts him at odds with the fiercely committed clergy that excommunicates him first from his university and then from his town. We are never shown the monster that he creates, (which does not come into existence at all until past the halfway point), only hearing his chilling and calm voice as he torments his creator to the point of damnation. It is too low on action and unfocused to recommend, but it is certainly singular amongst the heard of other Frankenstein movies.
(1975)
Dir - Don Edmonds
Overall: WOOFThe first in a series of textbook Nazisploitation films and arguably the sleazy sub-genre's most prominent entry, Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS is abysmal stuff that is well deserving of its notorious reputation. Such movies were a clear precursor to torture porn and this one plays out as both of those things; torture and porn. Nearly every character on screen has their clothes removed at some point, (though mostly the women), and many are subjected to various atrocities against their will. It is at least a saving grace that the camera shies away from explicitly showing some of these moments, including a castration and female prisoners getting their vaginas electrocuted. Naming every other unabashedly sadistic display that is actually front and center on screen is a fruitless endeavor as it is all tasteless and played too straight to notice any tongues in cheek, if that was even the tone that the filmmakers were going for in the first place. Dyanne Thorne in the title role is perfectly cast as the ice cold, sex-crazed, Aryan Kommandant and though both her and director Don Edmonds openly admitted that the material was appalling, they certainly delivered such nonsense in a professional manner.
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