{"id":5579,"date":"2012-10-07T16:12:28","date_gmt":"2012-10-07T20:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=3472"},"modified":"2012-10-07T16:12:28","modified_gmt":"2012-10-07T20:12:28","slug":"hiss-and-boo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5579","title":{"rendered":"Hiss (and Boo)!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A dramatic high point? Not with that rubber toy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With Jennifer Chambers Lynch\u2019s Chained <\/strong>poised for release this week (via Anchor Bay), it seemed logical to jump back and fill in a review of Lynch\u2019s prior film on video.<\/p>\n

No, not Surveillance<\/strong> (2008), but the film she was making soon after in India \u2013 Hisss <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] (2010) – which took 6 months to complete, and was taken over by the producers & recut to suit their tastes after Lynch\u2019s \u2018more European paced\u2019 edit was rejected.<\/p>\n

Lynch is the daughter of David Lynch, and as she admits in the making-of doc Despite the Gods<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (2012) which screened at the 2012 HotDocs Film Festival, critics still can\u2019t forgive her for Boxing Helena<\/strong> (1993), the dreadful feature film which started and knocked down her film career in one shot.<\/p>\n

Hisss<\/strong> is truly awful \u2013 I doubt any edit can save it \u2013 but Despite the Gods<\/strong> is also a flawed work. Penny Vozniak\u2019s making-of doc is a film without an ending because Lynch\u2019s involvement with Hisss<\/strong> was stumped. Worse, Vozniak\u2019s film integrates no clips of the film, so viewers at HotDocs were pricked with weird material for which they had no context.<\/p>\n

Hisss<\/strong> is available on Amazon as a downloadble film and on digital, whereas Vozniak\u2019s doc has yet to reach screens, let alone home video. In a perfect world there ought to be a boxed set featuring the producers\u2019 and Lynch\u2019s cuts of Hisss<\/strong> + Despite the Gods<\/strong>, but that\u2019ll never happen, given Lynch and one of the film\u2019s co-producers aren\u2019t on speaking terms, and Hisss <\/strong>fails in almost every area, except for a few surreal shots where the snake goddess, brought to life to save her slithery beau, explores a streetlamp.<\/p>\n

In addition to the two reviews, I\u2019ve uploaded audio excerpts<\/a> from the audience Q&A with Vozniak during its festival run, at the now-dead Cumberland Cinemas. (It’s being transformed into a chic coffee house because the upscale neighbourhood needs more snooty places to drink pricey designer coffee.)<\/p>\n

So many stupid things in this city, including the likely decision the Princess of Wales Theatre will be demolished<\/a> to make way for 3 upscale, 80 storey condo towers. There\u2019s talk of it re-transforming the neighbourhood, and councilor Adam Vaughan\u2019s endorsed it.\u00a0My read: bullshit.<\/p>\n

There are no such things as affordable condos in chic areas, and anything built in the Theatre District will start around $500K, because that\u2019s the starter market for investors, not home owners. As for the absurdity of killing a 20 year old state-of-the-art house in the theatre district, well\u2026 that\u2019s as clear as black writing on white paper.<\/p>\n

Coming next: a review of the superb Danish TV series The Killing<\/strong> \/ Forbrydelsen<\/strong>, of which Seasons 1 thru 3 are poised for a 3-pack release in England, and we here in North America must wait, because the U.S. network that owns the domestic rights makes it so.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviews of Hisss (2010), Jennifer Chambers Lynch’s disastrous Bollywood supernatural shocker, and an expanded review of Penny Vozniak’s making-of documentary Despite the Gods (2012), which screened in April at HotDocs. Also included: excerpts from the audience Q&A with director Vozniak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1rZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5580,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions\/5580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}