Memento and The Virgin Spring
There have been a few pretty good revenge films to come out lately. Michael Caine still kicks some ass in “Harry Brown”. “I Spit On Your Grave” got a remake last year and Korean director Kim Ji-woon takes a pretty damn good stab at it with his newest film, “I Saw The Devil.” This week we’re not just talking about revenge films, but more specifically, Arthouse revenge films.
“Memento” (2000) is about a man who is searching for his wife’s murderer. Unfortunately for him, he has no short term memory. He compensates by taking Polaroid’s and tattooing himself with all that pertinent information. The murder/mystery story told from a non-linear structure makes for a truly original experience. This film goes down as an experiment that succeeded in my book. Now with two Batman films and “Inception” under his belt, I think some of us have forgotten that this was Christopher Nolan’s first great film.
It’s hard to mention Arthouse without talking about Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. He has an amazing body of work and my favorite of his just so happens to be the 14th century rape-revenge film, “The Virgin Spring.” Wes Craven unofficially remade this classic as a midnight B-movie called “Last House On The Left” in 1972. While his version soared to grindhouse infamy, it never really attempted to be anything more. Bergman’s original however has the balance of grief and rage you would more likely find in the real world.
Enjoy.
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