Tag Archives: Obsession

Thinking Aloud About Film: Pastor Hall (Roy Boulting, 1940)/ Obsession (Edward Dmytryk, 1949)

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Pastor Hall (Roy Boulting, 1940)/ Obsession (Edward Dmytryk, 1949)

 

Richard I talk about two films screened recently at Cinema Rediscovered in Bristol, that will be touring around art cinemas this Autumn and will also be released through Indicator.

 

PASTOR HALL is an early anti-Nazi film that somehow feels very timely now. A small village in Germany, a happy recognisable place, patriotic, is taken over by a platoon of stormtroopers and suddenly young women are being brutalised, jews have their homes destroyed and even the Pastor is in trouble. Based on a true story about how German pastor Martin Niemöller got sent to Dachau concentration camp for criticising the Nazi Party. In the podcast we discuss how the film raises questions of morality, ethics, collaboration, resistance, how easily it lends itself to current events in the US now, and how much people knew about concentration camps then.

 

OBSESSION is a British noir in which Robert Newton kidnaps his wife’s lover to murder him at a later date and commit the perfect crime. It’s directed by Edward Dmytryk (FAREWELL MY LOVELY, CORNERED, CROSSFIRE) then on the run from the House of Un-American Activities and finding temporary shelter in the UK. We discuss it as a noir, as a British film, and praise the way the film uses the bombed out setting, London in ruins as setting for a life in ruins, an Empire dissolving and Americans walking ‘our’ streets and stealing ‘our’women.

 

Two old films that feel newly relevant and are worth looking forward to.

 

The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may also be listened to on: Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

“The Silent Village” which Richard mentions in relation to Pastor Hall is available for free in the UK online  on BFI Player:

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-village-1943-online

Pastor Hall screenedd at Film House in Edinburgh August 9th and 10th as part of Cinema Rediscovered on Tour..

José Arroyo

OBSESSION (Curry Baker, 2025)

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OBSESSION (Curry Baker, 2025) is a supernatural horror that is currently being much praised and which I intensely disliked watching. The praise is easy to understand: It’s an imaginatively directed and expressively lit film that takes an old trope (what you wish for now might become your worst nightmare) and adds a new twist (where is consent when another is tricked or bewitched into loving?); it is efficient at creating tension, creeping one out and making audience members practically jump off their seats. An achievement in itself and made more so considering the film’s budget was under $1 million. What I disliked about it was that the source of terror is that old misogynist trope of the unknowable, out of control, hysterical harridan – unleashed. The film begins with a sweet young man (Bear, played by Michael Johnston) unable to tell a girl (Nickki, played by Inde Navarrette) that he likes her; he can’t even do it when she asks him flat out; so he resorts to tricks. One of the reasons the film is so interesting is that it begins with male obsession, then more than suggests that that hysterical harridan is a male projection, something men call up even as it might eventually kill them. It is objectively a very interesting film. I personally couldn’t stomach it because watching that sexist male projection for 97 minutes was hard to take, particularly as played by Narvarrette, very pretty and effectively deployed, to suggests a woman dispossessed of herself, and the male projection that’s possessed her, but in my perhaps solitary view, not quite skilled enough. It might be argued that what I disliked so much about it is due to its effectiveness. Curry Barker is certainly a director to watch.

José Arroyo

POFCRIT PODCAST 2024: Madeleine Lear on One Hour Photo (Mark Romanek, 2002)

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Starring Robin Williams in one of his most unsettling roles as Sy, ‘the photo guy’, One Hour Photo follows Sy, a photo technician, as he forms an obsession with the Yorkin family before taking it upon himself to avenge his shattered fantasy and lost childhood innocence. In the accompanying podcast, Madeleine Lear shows how Romanek skillfully extends this film’s sense of unease into its cinematography and mise-en-scène, delving into the intricate depths of the human mind, exploring themes of obsession, isolation and voyeurism.This podcast discusses portrayals of mental health within cinema while looking towards this film’s visuals as a way of depicting isolation and loneliness.
The podcast may be listened to here: