I know, how can I review HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME and BEFORE THE RAIN on the same posting. Well, go figure.
Happy Birthday to Me
I watched this classic shlock on my Birthday, recalling how I was affected by it when I first saw it with my graduation date back in 1981. Not much has changed since. And while the film has not particularly aged it still reeks of its vulgarity and crassness. This spawn of slasher films - made right here in Montreal - tries to up the ante in shock value with an overly sullen MS Anderson - looking as if drugged to the party - playing against a pudgy faced Tracy Bregman. Neither is terrible but, then again, neither do they fare particularly well. Why is Glenn Ford in this? Clearly for the money. What begins as scary ultimately becomes purely uncomfortable.
Before the Rain (Pred dozhdot)
AFter fifteen years, I revisited BEFORE THE RAIN in its Criterion Collection edition. I remembered loving it but forgot how powerfully haunting it is and how beautifully and sadly it unfolds to reveal the ugly truth of ignorant hatred. A film so telling that it would resonates so profoundly even today and perhaps, unfortunately, for the rest of our lifetime. The Macedonian war of religious zealots may be of unique significance to the time and place but will forever our ignorance everywhere. Deeply effecting without an ounce of manipulation. Oh yes, and one of the few films that uses the elliptical narrative devise without abusing it and still sending its important message through its unique stylization.
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