The Offbeat Marquee: Film and TV Reviews

INTRODUCTION As a fan of animation, I have found a bizarre safe haven of sorts in Europe. I have been shocked find some of the most creative, enchanting, and thought-provoking works of this medium in Europe. Anything, from the warped world of Jan Svankmajer to the dreamlike lands of Yuri Norstein. But the film for this review hails from France. Rene Laloux's La Planate Sauvage is a 1973 Franco-Czech animated science fiction film featuring the design work of imaginative illustrator Roland Topor. With the English title of Fantastic Planet , Laloux's cinematic debut is a truly fantastic tale. On the planet known as Ygam, Oms (or humans) are enslaved and toyed with by the planet's natives, large blue creatures called Draags. However, one Om by the name of Terr escapes his owner and finds himself in the company of radical Oms who defy the Draags. THE PROS La Planete Sauvage is film is chock full of allegories. From fighting oppression to the basic pleasures of gett...

INTRODUCTION Yes. This is where I'm starting, right at the top. It's been lauded, analyzed, and lauded even more after further analysis. Critics raved, it's own posters proclaimed "It's Terrific," it has been called the best movie ever made. But here, I'm not going to discuss the meaning of Rosebud or sit Mr. Kane down on Freud's couch. I'm going to tell you, it's a spectacular film that I think the modern public will sleep through.  THE REVIEW It features all the marks of a fantastic film. The tale being told is that of the rise and fall of newspaper tycoon, Charles Foster Kane, and the mystery of his last word, "Rosebud." Orson Welles is a superb director, he is able to pull the best performances out of his cast, the crowning jewel being his own. He is his character, he is Kane. That I feel was the gift of Orson Welles, he could become the character he played. The script he and Herman J. Mankiewicz co-wrote deserve...