Roderick Gauci
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2002
- Messages
- 165
THRILLER – A CRUEL PICTURE (1974) ***
Yesterday, I watched this much-hyped rape/revenge film (particularly in the wake of Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL [2003/4] saga) via Synapse’s excellent DVD presentation. Of course, I had never seen it before and actually I’d only heard about it only recently (when Synapse first announced it for release).
Anyway, I felt it was pretty good and thus fully deserving of its cult status. Still, for all its undoubtedly exploitative qualities, grindhouse aficionados may well be put off more by the film’s extremely languid pace (a distinct Scandinavian trait, I might add) than by any of its would-be shocking images; it has an overall pretentious feel to it, in keeping with the ‘typical’ arthouse stuff, which is really not that surprising when considering that writer-director Bo Arne Vibenius had served his apprenticeship with the likes of Ingmar Bergman! Incidentally as I watched the film (in its original Swedish language), I was reminded more of Bergman’s own rape/revenge drama, THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960), than its direct American counterparts THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) and I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978)! Even so, THRILLER remains consistently interesting throughout mainly due to Christina Lindberg’s quietly powerful and iconic performance but also, I feel, because it’s a reasonably well-made film in its own right.
Its moments of sex and violence are not as over-the-top as they’ve been played up to be: the former, especially, is restricted to occasional (but always brief) insert shots – as opposed to the lengthy hardcore footage of, say, Walerian Borowczyk’s LA BETE (1975), Jess Franco’s DORIANA GREY (1976) or Nagisa Oshima’s AI NO CORRIDA (1976) – and this is done in order to accentuate the degrading state to which the child-like Lindberg has been reduced. As for the numerous slow-motion action sequences, well, I think that they serve the purpose of demonstrating the girl’s emotional release at finally being able to have her revenge; still, they do go on for an excessively long time and aren’t quite as creatively edited as those in the films of Sam Peckinpah (which probably inspired them to begin with). Interestingly, I almost preferred the alternate harbor fight presented among the DVD extras, which substantially diminishes this rather flamboyant effect to the point where you can actually follow what is going on with Lindberg and her opponents
!
This is not really a film where one needs to study the logic of the plot but it does stumble, so to speak, over a few points – so I’ll just mention them and move on: even if we only see a couple of Lindberg’s clients throughout the picture (due no doubt to the limits imposed by the budget), it’s feasible that there were a lot more during the whole time she stayed at her pimp’s home – which is why I deem it highly unlikely that the latter would go to the trouble of informing any of these about Lindberg’s unexpected revenge-seeking odyssey, let alone assemble them in a public place for just this purpose!; we never learn how Lindberg (a disfigured mute prostitute, mind you) is able to organize her rigorous training sessions so easily without once arousing the pimp’s suspicion (and it just happens that none of these instructors think of taking advantage of her just like practically every other character in the film has!); also, why does Lindberg linger in the harbor (after having offed the two hitmen dispatched by the pimp to eliminate her) awaiting the arrival of the police…when she knows the main culprit of her sad fate is still at large?!
One last thing: I’m certainly glad that Don May Jr. and Synapse Films have gone ahead and released this film on DVD in the face of their ongoing (and much publicized) legal battle with Bo Arne Vibenius, whose generally unprofessional attitude in this whole matter can only be described as shameful.
Synapse’s DVD transfer is highly satisfactory to my eyes (and which, reportedly, is a vast improvement over previous editions of the film) while the supplements, though not exactly bountiful, complement the main feature very nicely indeed.
Yesterday, I watched this much-hyped rape/revenge film (particularly in the wake of Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL [2003/4] saga) via Synapse’s excellent DVD presentation. Of course, I had never seen it before and actually I’d only heard about it only recently (when Synapse first announced it for release).
Anyway, I felt it was pretty good and thus fully deserving of its cult status. Still, for all its undoubtedly exploitative qualities, grindhouse aficionados may well be put off more by the film’s extremely languid pace (a distinct Scandinavian trait, I might add) than by any of its would-be shocking images; it has an overall pretentious feel to it, in keeping with the ‘typical’ arthouse stuff, which is really not that surprising when considering that writer-director Bo Arne Vibenius had served his apprenticeship with the likes of Ingmar Bergman! Incidentally as I watched the film (in its original Swedish language), I was reminded more of Bergman’s own rape/revenge drama, THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960), than its direct American counterparts THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) and I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978)! Even so, THRILLER remains consistently interesting throughout mainly due to Christina Lindberg’s quietly powerful and iconic performance but also, I feel, because it’s a reasonably well-made film in its own right.
Its moments of sex and violence are not as over-the-top as they’ve been played up to be: the former, especially, is restricted to occasional (but always brief) insert shots – as opposed to the lengthy hardcore footage of, say, Walerian Borowczyk’s LA BETE (1975), Jess Franco’s DORIANA GREY (1976) or Nagisa Oshima’s AI NO CORRIDA (1976) – and this is done in order to accentuate the degrading state to which the child-like Lindberg has been reduced. As for the numerous slow-motion action sequences, well, I think that they serve the purpose of demonstrating the girl’s emotional release at finally being able to have her revenge; still, they do go on for an excessively long time and aren’t quite as creatively edited as those in the films of Sam Peckinpah (which probably inspired them to begin with). Interestingly, I almost preferred the alternate harbor fight presented among the DVD extras, which substantially diminishes this rather flamboyant effect to the point where you can actually follow what is going on with Lindberg and her opponents
!This is not really a film where one needs to study the logic of the plot but it does stumble, so to speak, over a few points – so I’ll just mention them and move on: even if we only see a couple of Lindberg’s clients throughout the picture (due no doubt to the limits imposed by the budget), it’s feasible that there were a lot more during the whole time she stayed at her pimp’s home – which is why I deem it highly unlikely that the latter would go to the trouble of informing any of these about Lindberg’s unexpected revenge-seeking odyssey, let alone assemble them in a public place for just this purpose!; we never learn how Lindberg (a disfigured mute prostitute, mind you) is able to organize her rigorous training sessions so easily without once arousing the pimp’s suspicion (and it just happens that none of these instructors think of taking advantage of her just like practically every other character in the film has!); also, why does Lindberg linger in the harbor (after having offed the two hitmen dispatched by the pimp to eliminate her) awaiting the arrival of the police…when she knows the main culprit of her sad fate is still at large?!
One last thing: I’m certainly glad that Don May Jr. and Synapse Films have gone ahead and released this film on DVD in the face of their ongoing (and much publicized) legal battle with Bo Arne Vibenius, whose generally unprofessional attitude in this whole matter can only be described as shameful.
Synapse’s DVD transfer is highly satisfactory to my eyes (and which, reportedly, is a vast improvement over previous editions of the film) while the supplements, though not exactly bountiful, complement the main feature very nicely indeed.
