Rosemary's Baby's Recent Activity - Spout

Film:Rosemary's Baby

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:54:01 GMT

Title: Rosemary's Baby
Year: 1968
Director: Roman Polanski
Plot: In Roman Polanski's first American film, adapted from Ira Levin's horror bestseller, a young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes), move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and only elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castevet (Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon) soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building; despite Rosemary's reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, Guy starts spending time with the Castevets. Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Minnie starts showing up with homemade chocolate mousse for Rosemary. When Rosemary becomes pregnant after a mousse-provoked nightmare of being raped by a beast, the Castevets take a special interest in her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castevets' circle is not what it seems. The diabolical truth is revealed only after Rosemary gives birth, and the baby is taken away from her. Polanski's camerawork and Richard Sylbert's production design transform the realistic setting (shot on-location in Manhattan's Dakota apartment building) into a sinister projection of Rosemary's fears, chillingly locating supernatural horror in the familiar by leaving the most grotesque frights to the viewer's imagination. This apocalyptic yet darkly comic paranoia about the hallowed institution of childbirth touched a nerve with late-'60s audiences feeling uneasy about traditional norms. Produced by B-horror maestro William Castle, Rosemary's Baby became a critically praised hit, winning Gordon an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Inspiring a wave of satanic horror from The Exorcist (1973) to The Omen (1976), Rosemary's Baby helped usher in the genre's modern era by combining a supernatural story with Alfred Hitchcock's propensity for finding normality horrific. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 63
Number of Lists: 55
Number of blog posts: 11
Number of discussion threads: 7
SpoutRating: 3

Spout Post: Weekly Theme for January 26: Female Hysteria

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:13:59 GMT

Post By: leeroy711
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 1/26/2009 8:13:59 PM
Body: Did anyone listen to this week's Filmcouch?................ No?? Well, I did. It was good. They talked quite a bit about horror movies and they actually touched on something I've been thinking about using for a Weekly Theme for a while now. They mentioned women in horror films and the stereotypical shriek so often heard at the moment of their imminent peril. Well, I'd like to talk about a broader topic. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's right, I wanna hear about all those "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF" moments that have somehow become a part of film culture in general. Do any women actually act like this? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How about Betty Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Or one can't forget Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby. Also, the third act of a very old film called Häxan takes a very interesting turn that fits this theme. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it. OK your turn. Do you have a favorite moment. Or do y'all just hate this whole idea? I wanna hear it.

Spout Post: Alternative Nativity: Five Movies about Life, Death, and Babies

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:00:40 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 12/23/2008 4:00:40 PM
Body: Christmas is a time of peace and harmony, where we remember baby Jesus, born into a manger. There were shepherds, wise men, sweet hay and swaddling clothes. But we often forget how dark the Christmas story actually is. First of all you’ve got poor Joseph, convinced that his fiance has been knocked up by another man. Then she gives birth in a barn, which would not be sweet or pleasant in any way. If that weren’t bad enough, the wise men tip Herod off to the fact that a new king has been born, and he goes and kills all the first born sons in Judea, forcing the Holy Family into exile. Real smooth, wise men, did you miss the star that told you to keep your mouths shut? There are plenty of movies about Christmas, a few about the nativity and plenty more about Santa. But there aren’t any that capture the despair and desperation of the original tale. Placed within the larger narrative of the Christian gospel, the nativity is about a god being subjected to the vulnerability of an infancy, in order to enter a cruel world whose purpose it is to kill him. Sure, it all works out in the end, but it’s still a pretty dark story. This lack of grit in Christmas movies became clear to me two years ago. Around Christmas, 2006, both The Nativity Story and Children of Men were released. I saw them both within a few days of one another. I was struck by how boring The Nativity Story was, especially compared to Cuarón’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece. When I think of a baby bringing peace on Earth, I can think of no better image than Clive Owen stumbling out of a shattered building with a screaming infant, its cries literally silencing tanks. In that spirit, here are five gritty movies where everything rides on the tiny shoulders of a baby. Children of Men The sweet little child in this movie is the inspiration not only for this list, but for all of humanity (at least in the film). Cuarón creates a brutal world of the near future where women no longer get pregnant, and society crumbles. One reason I like thinking about this movie as an alternate nativity is that it illustrates what Jesus’ second foray into humanity could look like. According to the Bible, the baby in the manger was only part one, Christ is coming back. While I don’t think that Cuarón meant the child to be seen as the second coming, a miraculous birth giving hope to a world in the midst of the apocalypse serves as a nice illustration of God’s ultimate Christmas gift to humanity. Tsotsi This 2005 South African film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It tells the story of young Tsotsi and his gang of Johannesburg thugs. A car-jacking goes bad, and Tsotsi kills a woman. He then discovers her baby in the back seat of the car. As movies like Three Men and a Baby and Raising Arizona make clear, there’s nothing like a baby to inspire self-improvement. Confronted with the shame and guilt of his violent lifestyle, Tsotsi goes on a mission to make things right. Maybe this relates to why the image of baby Jesus is so popular, even though it’s such a small part of the Bible. No one wants to do wrong if they think they’ll hurt a baby. Pan’s Labyrinth This movie is full of pseudo-nativities (spoilers ahead). Young Ofelia and her pregnant mother go to live in the mountains with Ofelia’s new stepfather, a cruel fascist general in Franco’s Spain. While the baby’s birth is a turning point in the climax of the film, the more fitting parallel to the Christ child is actually Ofelia. The opening scene tells the story of Princess Moanna of the Underground Realm, a supernatural being who takes human form. Throughout the film, Ofelia has encounters with fantastic creatures and locations, including a faun. The faun gives her various missions, the last of which is to shed innocent blood of her baby brother in order to open the portal to the Underworld, so Ofelia (Princess Moanna) can go home. She refuses to let her brother be harmed, and is shot by her stepfather shortly after. The baby is saved, but as Ofelia dies, her innocent blood opens the portal and she rejoins her father, the king, in the supernatural Underworld. Granted, it’s not a Sunday school lesson, but it’s pretty close, right down to Ofelia’s (Christ’s) blood being the link to the heavenly father. If you want to go even further, you could start looking for parallel’s between Franco’s Spain and the Roman occupation of the Holy Land during the first century, but for our purpose here we’ll leave at the innocent blood thing. Kill Bill While not nearly the gospel-like parable of Pan’s Labyrinth, Quentin Taratino’s revenge epic does use a child as the central motivating force. A pregnant Beatrix Kiddo is shot and left for dead by Bill, the baby’s father. Four years later the wakes from her coma, assumes her baby is dead, and seeks revenge against her former team of assassins. Kill Bill isn’t about the redemptive effect of an innocent baby as much as it’s about motherhood, and what a mother will do to protect that innocence. Beatrix’s similarities to the Virgin Mary probably end there, but it’s still worth noting the central role that the maternal instinct plays in the film. Kill Bill is gratuitous in every way: it’s violent, it samples from an absurd amount of source material, and the total run time of the two volumes is over four hours. The plot is pretty spare, but Tarantino never has trouble sustaining a sense of urgency. In Kill Bill, as in the nativity, looking out for the welfare of a child is a motivation that never needs to be explained. Rosemary’s Baby Rosemary’s Baby isn’t an alternate nativity as much as it’s an anti-nativity. A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, move into a spooky old apartment building. Their meddlesome old neighbors, Minnie and Roman, seem harmless at first. After eating a few bites of Minnie’s chocolate mousse, Rosemary faints and has a dream where she is raped by a demonic presence. Minnie and Roman suggest an obstetrician who tells Rosemary her pains and cravings of raw meat are totally normal. Clearly something sinister is afoot, but will Rosemary forsake her own child, or join the dark conspiracy? Blood is thicker than water, as they say. And while giving birth to God must have been burden for Mary, how much tougher would it be to give birth to the Devil? Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Re:Pick a Pair

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:42:12 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: Movie Games
Post Date: 12/2/2008 9:42:12 PM
Body: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Hostel would be a good match as well as The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby ! How about Easy Rider and Pee Wee's Big Adventure ? I have both of those movies together on a VHS tape and I have watched that double feature a couple times ... < GOR >

Spout Post: Horrorigins: A Brief History of the Horror Movie

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:00:30 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 10/31/2008 5:00:30 PM
Body: It’s Halloween, a time when sales of candy and rentals of horror movies spike off the charts. Candy has been around since the time of the ancient Egyptians, but the horror film is barely 100 years old. The genre is enjoying a resurgence in popularity over the past several years: right now you’ve got Saw V in wide release, Let The Right One In in limited theaters, the vampy teen Twilight coming up in a few weeks and True Blood making waves on HBO. Studios can’t seem to go more than a few months without releasing some sort of a zombie flick, and vampires are coming back into their own. But what was the first real horror film? Before movies existed, people had to get their scares from books and the local newspaper, but now you can just switch on cable and tune into NBC’s Chiller channel for instant scares. Check out a brief history of the horror movie after the break, and look just how far we’ve come. Georges Méliès is best known for his short film A Trip To The Moon, with the iconic image of the Man in the Moon with spaceship embedded in his eye like a bullet. He was born in France in 1861 and eventually became a successful stage magician, although he found more fame (but no fortune) as a filmmaker in the then newfangled art of cinema after seeing a demonstration by the Lumiere brothers in 1895. For the next several years he created some of the first films to feature special effects, especially using the “stop-trick” of stopping the camera and substituing something into the frame before resuming filming. Just watch any episode of Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie to see this used ad infinitum. One of Méliès’ first films was Le Manoir du Diable, or The House of the Devil, which is considered to be the world’s first horror film. It’s two minutes long, extremely grainy, and not scary at all by today’s standards. It premiered on Christmas Eve in 1896, and was the first in a string of many short horror films, including Le Diable Noir, Le Monstre (check out the dancing skeletons!), and Le Chaudron Infernal. By the early 1900s, Germany was producing full-length feature horror films with Der Golem in 1913 (remade in 1920), as one of the first Frankenstein-esque films, Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari in 1919, which influenced the look and feel of the classic horror films of the 1930s, and Nosferatu in 1922, which was one of the first enduring vampire stories. These movies eventually made their way to Hollywood, and by the 1930s Universal was making many of the horror films which are considered the “Universal Classic Horror” movies. Films like Dracula, The Mummy, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame were just some of the films that terrified audiences and launch the careers of actors like Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff. These movies persisted through the 1950s, although by then the fear of the atomic bomb had given rise to movies about irradiated creatures terrorizing mankind, like Them! and Tarantula. The possibility of aliens invading the Earth and having their way with humans was also a common theme in horror films, from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to It Came From Outer Space. The late 1950s also featured often gorier films, a trend that continued heavily through the 1960s. Hammer Films seized on the new obsession with gore and churned out low budget bloodfests often starring Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee. This period was also when Vincent Price rose to popularity, having starred in the very popular House of Wax in 1953, he went on to star in a series of low budger horror flicks for Roger Corman, based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Although films that were based in gore continued to be made through the 1960s and 70s, they were considered camp and didn’t break into the top ten. In 1960 Alfred Hitchcock turned the tables to show that it was often unhinged people who were more terrifying than ever with Psycho. Gone were the supernatural creatures, the irradiated monsters, and so on. But by now horror had become splintered and fractured with many different subgenres and categories. The late 1960s through the 1970s saw popular horror movies like Rosemary’s Baby, Jaws, The Exorcist, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. By the 1980s, Jason, Freddy, and Michael were the top trio of movie monsters, who spawned multiple sequels that were all extremely formulaic and repetitive, and by the 1990s the fervor for horror movies had died down. Although in the early 2000s, horror movies became extremely popular again with supernatural movies like 1999’s The Blair Witch Project jumpstarting the craze that went on to movies like and The Grudge and The Ring, and “torture-porn” began filling seats with people begging to be grossed-out in movies like Saw and Hostel. We’ve come a long way since Georges Méliès flickering short films entertained audiences, and he could probably have never imagined the kind of horror movies people would be watch today. But he’d probably be fascinated by the special effects, and making inventive scary movies of his own. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Re:Extreme Films

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:47:48 GMT

Post By: filmgal81
Post To: Extreme Cinema
Post Date: 10/30/2008 9:47:48 PM
Body: When I think Extreme Films, the first thing to come to mind is totrure porn films like Saw. The original one is brutal- when they threaten to pull that woman's mouth apart from the corners...i shrudder just thinking about it. As the Voice put it in a brillant article on Rosemary's Baby, "Horror movies provide a snapshot of the zeitgeist" and today's horror films "reflect the age of "enhanced" interrogation techniques." Happy Halloween. [quote user="Dr_Gor"] First off I would like to thank our host, Stinger839, for starting this most promising group! The subject matter of Extreme Cinema has a lot of potential for some interesting conversations. I think I will be here regularly talking about many movies that are near and dear to me! So let's start this thing off with a 'bang', shall we? Last night when my partner Phantasma-Gore-ia and I became the first people to join this group we quickly discovered that we were not able to list any films on the existing group list so I started my own list called Extreme Films... The first three movies I listed on here are legendary examples of Extreme Cinema. First off, Deliverance ... John Boorman's take on the infamous James Dickey novel is a phenomenal film that deals with man's survival instincts in the face of overwhelming odds. Although most people can not get past the homosexual rape scene and the subsequent murders and Burt Reynold's compound fracture of his thigh bone that would make ANYBODY wince! Yeah, this movie is a little bit over-the-top... Next on the list is Mandingo . This shocking story of slavery in the old South is nothing short of being 'politically incorrect' ... Former heavy-weight boxing champion Ken Norton stars as 'Mede', a Mandingo warrior who is captured and sold to a wealthy southern family and is trained to be a "fightin' nigger" who is forced to fight against other slaves for the betting pleasure of his owner. Sexual debauchery abounds in this perverse tale that ends with Mede being shot and boiled alive and 'pitchforked' to death! ... Next is Pretty Baby ... Brooke Shields made her movie debut in this shocker about prostitution in New Orleans. Susan Sarandon is a prostitute in a New Orleans brothel who becomes pregnant and decides to keep her child. That child (Brooke Shields) is raised in the brothel until she becomes 12 and then her virginity is auctioned off to the highest bidder. About this time she becomes the obsession of a French photographer named Bellocq who is actually more interested in photographing he young girl than he is in touching her! Although there is deffinately a physical relationship that is more hinted at than actually shown! The thing is this... 12 year old Brooke Shields spends much of this movie running around naked! This movie received a wide theatrical release back in the day and was a 'mainstream' movie! Today this movie would be called 'kiddie-porn' and it would be illegal to even THINK about it! That is pretty extreme in my book... Obviously no list of 'extreme' films would not be complete without the scariest, most disturbing Horror movie ever made so I must go now and add The Exorcist to my list as well as Nekromantik ! < GOR > [/quote]

Spout Post: Re:Help Jim

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:22:27 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: Community Recommendations
Post Date: 10/1/2008 8:22:27 PM
Body: So you find Horror films to be "too boring" , eh? I'm afraid I would have to agree with you about MOST of the 'newer' films (and by 'newer' I mean later than 1990 or so). But what about the 'older' classics? Have you ever SEEN The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby or Psycho or Jaws or The Sentinel or Wait Until Dark ? How about the original versions of Night of the Living Dead or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Halloween or The Hills Have Eyes or The Haunting ? I am afraid you are missing out on some true gems, my friend... < GOR >

Spout Post: Re:The Wicker Man

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:57:54 GMT

Post By: SkyPilot
Post To: PulpFiction1975
Post Date: 9/11/2008 9:57:54 PM
Body: [quote user="Risselada"] I was still terrified after I figured out that he was the one they were going to sacrifice. I didn't know he would get burned alive though. And the figure they put him in was just real creepy. It aggrivates me for the same reasons you say it "gets under your skin". What do you mean exactly when you say it get under your skin? Is that a pleasant feeling or not? Maybe it's hard for me to believe that a group of people who had never sacrificed another human being before (even if they had sacrified animals) would be so willing to do it. And take so much pleasure in doing it! And at the same time it's not that hard for me to believe, and the fact that I can almost believe it makes me feel even more sick. [/quote] Oh, I totally misunderstood you Rizzo! I thought you were aggravated or frustrated by the movie's style or something. Instead it sounds like we had really similar reactions. By "getting under my skin" I meant that I found it demented and creepy, but also somewhat believable. All the elements work together to make it a really memorable film for me. I've heard Rosemary's Baby creates a similar feel in the viewer, so I have to see that. Does Wicker Man remind you guys of anything else? Okay, possibly bad news: they're remaking Rosemary's Baby. I read so many disappointed reviews of the Nic Cage Wicker Man that I decided to skip it.

Spout Post: Thriller!

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:09:50 GMT

Post By: Tenenbaums
Post To: Tenenbaums Blog
Post Date: 9/6/2008 4:09:50 PM
Body: I saw The Exorcist for the first time last night, and while I was ready to have the tuna salad scared out of me, I thought it was pretty low on the fright-o-meter. There are definitely several "whoa" scenes where you can't believe that what's onscreen is actually happening, but that doesn't make it scary. It would definitely be terrifying to be in the same room with a possessed Regan and the paranormal activity that occurs is pretty mesmerizing, but that doesn't make it scary either. What stood out to me was the intensity of the exorcism scene and how well Max von Sydow played his part throughout the sequence. It was some hardcore, ghostbustin' ass shit with a devilish twist, but I wasn't nearly as freaked out by it as I was with Rosemary's Baby, which I consider to be a much better film. When I think of "scary," I refer back to a pair of films that still give me the chills each time I watch them: Psycho and Halloween, most definitely not their respective remakes. There are still times when I get a little paranoid while taking a shower. I can't see and can barely hear what's going on outside of the curtain, so there exists an air of terror that something may be creeping up on me with a knife or other painful object. This sense is heightened when I'm alone in a house, and while I don't let the feeling overwhelm me, it's definitely something that pops up from time to time. I have Alfred Hitchcock to blame for that, and I'm rather thankful for it. Michael Myers is a strong reason to be afraid of the dark. You think you see something, then you look back and it's gone. He could be behind you at any time, and you have no way of knowing he's there because he doesn't make noise when he moves. Plus, he can't be killed. What???? And that musical score, probably the most terrifying since Psycho. Whenever I hear it, I look around to make sure I'm safe. Gah! There it is, playing in my head!!! John Carpenter, you are a genius! Well, you were when you made this film. These are scary moments. Not a girl with Satan inside her strapped to a bed. Maybe it could have been, but it wasn't. While I'll admit that I'm easily frightened, though I often crave these feelings in a controlled environment (movie theaters, roller coasters, etc.), I find it hard for a film to successfully move me to this emotion. I have no interest in all the Final Destinations (how can there be more than one "final"? I thought that meant it was the end...) and Hostels, so I won't make an effort to be scared by bags full of poo. Instead, give me the real spine-tinglers like Psycho and Halloween. I'll take them every time.

Spout Post: Jeff Goldblum: The Media Diet, Telluride 2008

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:26 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 8/30/2008 8:00:26 PM
Body: Jeff Goldblum is at Telluride to promote his new film, Adam Resurrected, directed by Paul Schrader. The film follows the story of a Holocaust survivor who also happens to be a clown. Committed to an asylum after the war, he becomes a ring leader of sorts. On the opening day of the festival Goldblum was graciously hugging young fans and striking odd poses for snap-shots. We got a chance to ask him about his media intake, which includes a substantial amount homework from Schrader. Spout: What movies have you seen and enjoyed lately? Jeff Goldbloom: I’ve gone to the movies theaters recently and saw two movies I really enjoyed. The Woody Allen movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I had a very very good time at that, loved that. Then I saw this documentary called Man on Wire. It’s really, really good, I enjoyed that to no end. Spout: Have you been watching anything lately on television that has compelled you? Goldbloom: The Democratic Convention. Spout: Yes, I see your Obama t-shirt there, that was pretty good stuff. What about on the internet, in terms of reading or watching any video online? Goldbloom: Hhhmm, haven’t seen much of that recently, that I can say. Spout: If you were on a desert island, and you had five pieces of media, they could be books, they could even be websites, they could be movies, to entertain you until your death, and you are all alone, what would you bring with you? Goldbloom: Oh God, very difficult. I’m reading now Talks With Ramana Maharshi, I guess I’d bring that. I like… let me see… let me see… oooooh… oooooh… Spout: What about a movie, a favorite all-time film that you will never get sick of? Goldbloom: How about Rosemary’s Baby, or Being There. I like those movies Paul Schrader suggested I see before we made Adam Resurrected: Rules of the Game, Tokyo Story, l’Eclisse by Antonioni, Masculin Féminin by Godard, Vertigo, his favorite Hitchcock, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul… Spout: That is a great movie, we (FilmCouch) discovered that about a year ago, I don’t know how Paul found it, but it’s incredible. Goldbloom: Yeah, it’s really something. Seven Men from Now, Budd Boetticher, he puts that on his recommended list. Spout: That’s a great list, thanks for your time. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: 15 Films that Offended Religious Groups

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:00:57 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 6/19/2008 3:00:57 PM
Body: This week we have two big-time offenders: Mike Myers’ The Love Guru, which has brought concern from Hindus, because the comedy seems to be making fun of the Hindu religion; and Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons, the “sequel” to The Da Vinci Code, adapted from Dan Brown’s bestseller. Earlier this week, the Vatican banned the latter production from all Catholic churches in Rome. The following statement from Father Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the diocese of Rome, was a favorite quote from the story: “Usually we read the script but in this case it wasn’t necessary. Just the name Dan Brown was enough.” Of course, these days, religious organizations taking offense to a movie seems so commonplace that news like this is hardly even considered bad buzz. Neither The Love Guru nor Angels & Demons will be too aversely affected by the protests or boycotts. Both films will merely be added to the following list of major offenders (in alphabetical order so as not to offend anyone who thinks one is more offensive than another), as almost a genre cataloging than an inventory of condemned. Brokeback Mountain - Because of its promotion of “the homosexual lifestyle,” many right-wing Christian groups protested Ang Lee’s film. Most famously, it was pulled last-minute from a multiplex owned by Mormon businessman and Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller, though his motivation was not necessarily claimed to be religion-based. Despite there being hundreds of gay films throughout the years, because of its popularity, this one was the worst offender. The Da Vinci Code - I already mentioned this above and in a recent post on movies that overcame bad buzz, so I’ll make it short: banned, boycotted and protested throughout the world due to its blasphemous (and fictional) allegations that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child together. The Devils - Many of the following films were banned in Italy, but with Ken Russell’s blasphemous adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s “The Devils of Loudon,” there was also threat that stars Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave would be arrested if they entered the country. The most offensive scene, labeled “the rape of Christ,” depicted a mock exorcism involving fully nude nuns masturbating with a large crucifix. The scene was removed prior to the film’s release, but there were plenty of other controversial sequences that led to protest. A very low-quality DVD of the film was released a few years ago with the “rape of Christ” scene put back in. Dogma - I understand how comedy can be seen as offensive, especially in the case of stereotypical caricatures like the one in The Love Guru. But Kevin Smith’s religious satire is so silly and all over the place that I can’t imagine that viewers would take its contents seriously. Yet enough protests required the film to be disowned by Miramax/Disney and then eventually be released (courtesy of Lionsgate) with a disclaimer stating that it is merely “a work of comedic fantasy.” Hail Mary - Jean-Luc Godard’s modern retelling of the Nativity was criticized by none other than Pope John Paul II, himself. He was quoted as saying that it “deeply wounds the religious sentiments of believers.” But even better was the response from another man who took offense to the film and decided to throw a shaving cream pie in Godard’s face at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival. Also this is probably one of the rare circumstances in which the filmmaker is the one trying to prevent Italian distribution and is actually unable to do so. The Last Temptation of Christ - Like Dogma, Martin Scorsese’s film came with a disclaimer that noted it is not based on the gospels and is a work of fiction. But like the case against The Da Vinci Code, the idea or depiction of Jesus and Mary Magdalene getting it on is never forgivable. Life of Brian - I can’t believe that anyone actually took offense to the joke about the three wise men initially approaching the wrong stable, but apparently that was one of the many blasphemous scenes in this Monty Python satire of the life of Jesus. Also: how could anyone be upset about the crucifix scene? Eric Idle’s song is just too catchy to mind its offensiveness. The Message (aka Mohammad, Messenger of God) - Much of the protests against this epic movie, about the founding of Islam, came mostly because of pre-release assumptions. For instance, some groups thought Anthony Quinn was starring as Mohammad (or Muhammad), a problem both because the prophet is not permitted to be represented in human form in any medium and because Quinn is Mexican-American, not Arab (as noted yesterday, all it takes is facial hair to change that). Other preproduction rumors were that Peter O’Toole and Charlton Heston were up for the part of Mohammad. Of course, the prophet is never seen, and Quinn merely portrays his uncle, Hamza. Unfortunate, nobody told certain extremists, even when the film came out, and apparently many cinemas received phone calls with death threats. Also, a tragic hostage situation in Washington D.C. began the day The Message opened, leading to the death of a police officer and the non-fatal shooting of future-mayor Marion Barry. One of the demands of the hostage-takers was for The Message not be released. The Passion of the Christ - A rare modern film about Jesus that didn’t seem to offend any Christians. Actually, of course it offended some groups, but their protests were clearly overshadowed by the protests from Jewish groups, who took offense to the movie’s apparent placing of blame for Jesus’ death on the Jews. Considering Mel Gibson’s later controversy involving his drunken, anti-semitic outbursts, the offense definitely seems to have more merit than initially recognized. Priest - Five years before Miramax/Disney was forced to disown Dogma because of Catholic protestors, the Weinsteins distributed this “blatantly anti-Catholic” film about a homosexual priest. Of course, it was mainly criticized by people who hadn’t seen it, such as New York Cardinal John J. O’Connor, who likened the film to graffiti found on bathroom walls. Rosemary’s Baby - There’s now a whole slew (I guess a whole subgenre) of horror films dealing with the occult, Satanism and the Antichrist, but this was the hit that pretty much started it all. And because of the parallels between Rosemary and the Virgin Mary, it’s possibly the most offensive to Catholics. Even the media used it against its director, Roman Polanski, when his wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered a year after its release; prior to revelation that Tate and the rest were killed by the Manson “family,” reporters speculated that it was the result of the Polanskis’ alleged satanism and some even claimed the tragedy was deserved. September Dawn - Until last year, Jon Voight’ most offensive movie was probably Karate Dog, but in 2007 he starred in this alleged anti-Mormon propaganda (called such before the Church of Latter-Day Saints viewed it, of course), which portrays an historical incident in which a Mormon militia massacred a wagon train of emigrants. The greatest offense is apparently the claim that Mormon leader Brigham Young (played by Terrence Stamp) was directly involved. Another criticism was that Hollywood made the film to somehow affect Mitt Romney’s campaign for President. Submission - Theo van Gogh’s ten-minute film criticizes the treatment of women in Islam and was apparently offensive enough that it led to the filmmaker’s assassination at the hands of a Dutch Muslim ma The Triumph of the Will - While Leni Reifenstahl’s propaganda film is well-regarded and highly respected today by film critics, scholars and historians, many Jewish groups see its celebration as being “morally insensitive.” Viridiana - Luis Bunuel made plenty of movies that mocked the Church, but this 1961 Palme D’or-winner was perhaps the most publicly protested by the Vatican and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who had it banned in Spain until after his death. Bunuel’s excellent plea of ignorance: “I didn’t deliberately set out to be blasphemous, but then Pope John XXIII is a better judge of such things than I am.” Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Tag:love

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:08:37 GMT

love
Number of films tagged: 12478

Number of people who tagged: 336

Number of times used: 1477

Spout Tag:Classic

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:54:36 GMT

Classic
Number of films tagged: 816

Number of people who tagged: 312

Number of times used: 1453

Spout Tag:Great

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:11:49 GMT

Great
Number of films tagged: 231

Number of people who tagged: 202

Number of times used: 371

Spout Tag:drugs

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:36:00 GMT

drugs
Number of films tagged: 1643

Number of people who tagged: 130

Number of times used: 488

Spout Tag:scary

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:30:07 GMT

scary
Number of films tagged: 155

Number of people who tagged: 104

Number of times used: 197

Spout Tag:sci-fi

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:33:53 GMT

sci-fi
Number of films tagged: 217

Number of people who tagged: 102

Number of times used: 375

Spout Tag:Creepy

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:55:54 GMT

Creepy
Number of films tagged: 170

Number of people who tagged: 81

Number of times used: 211

Spout Tag:cult

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:20:54 GMT

cult
Number of films tagged: 449

Number of people who tagged: 71

Number of times used: 162

Spout Tag:rape

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:36:01 GMT

rape
Number of films tagged: 1050

Number of people who tagged: 54

Number of times used: 124

Spout Tag:bizarre

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:12:13 GMT

bizarre
Number of films tagged: 228

Number of people who tagged: 53

Number of times used: 113

Spout Tag:pregnancy

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:22:12 GMT

pregnancy
Number of films tagged: 1306

Number of people who tagged: 44

Number of times used: 110

Spout Tag:revolution

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:32:33 GMT

revolution
Number of films tagged: 1036

Number of people who tagged: 42

Number of times used: 68

Spout Tag:baby

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:39:51 GMT

baby
Number of films tagged: 418

Number of people who tagged: 38

Number of times used: 88

Spout Tag:supernatural

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:07:53 GMT

supernatural
Number of films tagged: 515

Number of people who tagged: 35

Number of times used: 55

Spout Tag:paranoia

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:07:45 GMT

paranoia
Number of films tagged: 236

Number of people who tagged: 32

Number of times used: 52