Pieter van der Lugt is a freelance writer based in Cape Town. He's available for work in Afrikaans or English and his specialist fields are entertainment, pop culture and literature. See about me for a full CV and contact details.

LUCKY DAY!

YOURS. OR MINE.

fritz lang

Metropolis The best story about Fritz Lang might not true in every detail, but he told it well. Two days after his film The Testament of Dr Mabuse was banned in Germany, he was summoned to the Nazi ministry of propaganda to meet Josef Goebbels who explained the film was undesirable because Nazi slogans were put in the mouth of a villain and then offered Lang the job of production supervisor at the UFA studios. His first film would be about Wilhelm Tell.
Lang thought it was a trap and answered: "My mother had Jewish parents." He says Goebbels replied: "We'll decide who's Jewish!" All Lang wanted to do at that moment was get out of there, get to the bank and flee with all his money. Soon after he sold his wife's jewellery and took a train to Paris. Thea von Harbou, who was also his script-writing partner, stayed behind and divorced him that same year.
Maybe this encounter cemented his personal theme: individuals facing the powers of organisations, bureaucracies and organised crime - all the big brother machinery - and ending up destroyed rather than sticking it to the man like a Hollywood hero.
Lang was born in Vienna in 1890 and studied art there before becoming a director. His early films are thrillers, as intense and frenetic as silent movies get. He liked big budgets, epic stories, the latest in camera tricks and special effects and always wanted to reach a big audience with a strong message. To make it even even more digestible he invented the omnibus format - short films shown together as one feature - which became a genre that still pops up regularly nowadays.
Metropolis poster The futuristic horror story Metropolis (1927) didn't survive in one piece, but that didn't bother audiences who flocked to see a coloured version with a rock soundtrack by Queen in the eighties. Now everyone knew Lang's famous robot again, but critics still can't decided which of his other movies deserve classic status. There are the intricate and sophisticated silent films such as the Dr Mabuse trilogy. The film M is now considered as good a study of a serial killer as you'll ever see. But his work in America, where he went in 1934, divides the critics even further.
Even on public domain sites it's hard to find Lang movies, but I like every one I've seen so far. Scarlet Street is almost unbearably sad, Moonfleet is a lovely suspense film with great acting by Stewart Granger and the kid who's the main character, Clash by Night is a bit of melodramatic noir with Barbara Stanwyck at her best and Fury is an explosive drama about a man taking revenge on those who convicted him wrongly of murder.
More evidence of how the critics struggle with Lang: he got only two honorary awards and a Walk of Fame star in his lifetime. This might be because he was supposedly tough on actors and hard to work with, which won't win you any votes from Academy members. Funny, then, that he sounds rather modest and humourous in a 1962 interview (sound bite below).
What's so great about Lang might be the way he makes the most of every element in his film: the camera, lighting, soundtrack, dialogue... and actors. Nothing is a minor detail, few words are wasted and you're not left wondering what he was trying to achieve. All that is enough to keep me interested - and to help me remember a director's name.
Fritz Lang soundbyte (click to listen).

TAKESHI KITANO

Violent Cop His face was partially paralysed in a motorcycle accident, but he can express any emotion with his eyes and body language. He's a director, script writer, actor, newspaper columnist, author and poet and appears in up to eight Japanese TV shows per week. That insane game show Takeshi's Castle on the Animax channel was dreamt up by Takeshi, who started out as a comedian.
As a teen Takeshi was a maths wizard and a good boxer. He studied engineering until he was kicked out of university for rebellious behaviour. He turned to stand-up comedy, performing as the duo "Two Beat"with a friend, before taking up acting.
Though Takeshi was unforgettable in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, he didn't get much else from Hollywood. Soon enough he was back in the spotlight with Violent Cop, introducing his trademark long takes and miserly dialogue along with his cruel, yet likeable brand of anti-hero to the world. Boiling Point, Sonatine and Zatôichi, a reworking of the blind samurai legend, are among the other Takeshi films worth slaying for.

TAKASHI MIIKE

He's huge in Japan and revered by Aisa Extreme fans but not so popular with, say, the critics at Rotten Tomatoes. Takashi cracked the international market in 2000 with the horror movie Audition and the yakuza epic Dead or Alive, both made the year before.
Audition has a classic scene in which the crazy woman lets out a cheerful little "whoop" every time she pushes an acupuncture needle into the body of a guy she paralysed by lacing his drink. Dead or Alive is stylized violence at the hardcore end of the scale. Both feature Takashi's trademarks: extreme gore, dark humour, cartoonish characters and jabs at the restrictions of Japan's censhorship laws.
His most violent yet is Ichi the Killer (2001), based on the manga of the same name about a sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer. For its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival the audience got vomit bags decorated with the film's logo.
There's another side to this intriguing man as seen in the road movie The Bird People in China with its romantic story and elegant scenic shots. Takashi is becoming more radical all the time but also edging towards the mainstream with films like the excellent thriller One Missed Call (remade by Hollywood).
As for his humour, try the bisarre The Happiness of the Katakuris. You'll laugh when you see it the second time: the first time you'll just be staring at the screen, gob-smacked.
Takashi swears, by the way, that Starship Troopers is his favourite movie ever.

SHINYA TSUKAMOTO

tetsuo In 1986 he hit the indie world full-blast with Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a movie shot on 16-mm film about a troubled guy who slowly turns into a walking heap of scrap metal. It's dead serious and gloomy but will also make you laugh nervously with some bisarre sex scenes. Eroticism and violence are closely related, he's said: "Both originate from our animal instinct. They are as basic as the need to eat."
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer, was equally impressive and this time the gore was in full colour. It follows an office worker who turns into a massive, destructive weapon after his son was kidnapped by a gang of punks.
These movies are powerful parables on what makes us human and what dehumanizes us. They might give you nightmares for a while, but you won't forget them either.