Antonionin lyhytelokuvia 2

Kortfilmer av Antonioni 2 / Antonioni Shorts 2. IT 1978-1997. Tapes and prints from Cinecittà Holding. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 31 August 2008.
Ritorna a Lisca Bianca. IT 1983. PC: RAI Tre. D: Michelangelo Antonioni. DP: Carlo Di Palma. 8 min. Betacam, alas. - Revisiting the location of L'avventura.
Gianni Moretti: Fotoromanza. IT 1984. P: Maurizio La Pira. D+SC: Michelangelo Antonioni. DP: Luciano Tovoli (video). 6 min. Betacam. - A music video to Gianni Moretti's pop song "Fotoromanza", a typical music video of its era. The artist in the room watching a monitor. Numbers flying from the telephone. Smoke emerging from behind the door. Slow motion. Solarization. Manhattan skyline and gangster cliches. Boxing motifs. Clumsy superimpositions. The music video now looks like a parody of the early MTV era, and the audience could not help but laugh.
Kumbha Mela. IT 1989. P: Enrica Antonioni. D: Michelangelo Antonioni. DP: Carlo Di Palma. 18 min. Betacam, alas. - A devout vision of the Hindi purification rites in the holy water of the river Ganges, beautifully shot, with haunting Indian music.
Roma '90. IT 1990. PC: Recta Film / Istituto Luce et Ministerio del Turismo e dello Spettacolo. D: Michelangelo Antonioni. DP: Fiorenza Muller. M: baroque classics such as Vivaldi. 10'. - A wonderful view of the beauty of the buildings, statues and paintings of Rome, focusing finally on the Cappella Sistina, Michelangelo meeting Michelangelo, final image: God's hand gives spirit to Man. In gorgeous colour in analogue 35mm.
Noto, Mandorli, Vulcano, Stromboli, Carnevale. IT 1992. D: Michelangelo Antonioni. DP: Felice de Maria. 11 min. A cluster of five short films from the Sicilian area and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Visions of volcanic power and a Sicilian carneval. Splendidly beautiful in a brilliant 35mm print.
Sicilia. IT 1997. PC: Arancia Cinema. D: Michelangelo Antonioni. DP: Maurizio Dell'Orco. 12 min. Volcano, ruins, clouds, fountain, market, woman on the beach. Delicious views in a gorgeous 35mm print.
Antonioni vista da Antonioni. IT 1978. PC: Unità Procuttiva CCS. D+interviewer: Lino Miccichè. DP: Luciano Tovoli. Interviewee: Michelangelo Antonioni. 26 min. Betacam, very bad visual quality with horizontal lines, sound unnatural. - Antonioni in good form in this interview that starts from Gente del Po. His early interest in the private and the social. The Italian episode of I vinti destroyed by censorship (Neofascism as a subject not allowed). The theme of the falsification of images. I have always had to fight to make my films, some have been huge commercial flops. When I started, melodramas such as Catene were popular. I made unfeeling melodramas. The market tried to isolate Antonioni. Le amiche: the outlook on life very different from Pavese. I focus on female characters because women are a more subtle filter of reality. The psychological stress in the working class because of the lack of money.

Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky / Happy-Go-Lucky. GB (c) 2007 [Southwark Untitled?] / Ingenious Film Partners / Summit Entertainment / Thin Man Films / UK Film Council. P: Simon Channing-Williams. D+SC: Mike Leigh. DP: Dick Pope - digital intermediate - 35 mm film print 1:2,35. M: Gary Yershon. Starring Sally Hawkins (Poppy), Alexis Zegerman (Zoe), Andrea Riseborough (Dawn), Samuel Roukin (Tim), Sinead Matthews (Alice), Kate O'Flynn (Suzy), Sarah Niles (Tash), Eddie Marsan (Scott). 118 min. Finnish release by Sandrew with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Taina Komu / Joanna Erkkilä. Viewed at Maxim 2, Helsinki, 30 August 2008. - A pleasant film look with warm and bright colour. - My favourite Mike Leigh movie. - An original comedy with the concept of jolly Poppy meeting a variety of often surly characters. - Can be compared with Amélie, but this movie is fresher. - The 30-something Poppy is the life of the party wherever she goes. She is a teacher of the junior level, who visits a bookstore, enjoys a girls' party, loses her bicycle, starts driving lessons, and practices the flamenco. Helping a disturbed kid who is a school bully she meets a child psychologist, and they date. Meanwhile, her driving instructor loses his mental balance. - A pleasant Gary Yershon score.

Käsky

Varghyndan / Tears of April. FI /DE/GR (c) 2008 Helsinki Filmi Oy / Thoke Moebius Film Company / Two Thirty Five. Premiere: 2008. P: Aleksi Bardy. D: Aku Louhimies. SC: Jari Olavi Rantala - based on the novel by Leena Lander (2003). "Der Erlkönig" (J.W. von Goethe). DP: Rauno Ronkainen - digital intermediate: Digital Film Finland, Generator Post - color - 35mm film print 1,2.35. PD: Tiina Pätilä. M: Pessi Levanto. Erik Satie, Beethoven, Chopin. CO: Tiina Kaukanen. ED: Benjamin Mercer. Starring Samuli Vauramo (Aaro Harjula), Pihla Viitala (Miina Malin), Eero Aho (Emil Hallenberg), Eemeli Louhimies (Eino), Miina Maasola (Martta), Riina Maidre (Beata Hallenberg), Sulevi Peltola (Konsta), Mikko Kouki (sergeant major). 116 min. In Finnish, with some lines in Swedish, German, etc. Released by FS Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Anitra Paukkula / Joanna Erkkilä. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, 30 August 2008. - Bleak digital intermediate look. - The Finnish Civil War of 1918 was a national tragedy. The subject is still sensitive, but films can offer an excellent outlet to discuss the historical trauma. - The film starts in April, as the White Army has already beaten the Red Army. The bloody retribution has started. The film starts with a gang rape and summary executions without trial by the Whites of women caught from the Red side. The White brave Aaro rescues the Red Miina from slaughter and brings her to military court. As Miina tries to escape at sea, they are shipwrecked for a week on an island. At the military court, they meet the mad judge Hallenberg. - The film is brave in its counter-statement to the dominant White version of history. - But of the characters, only Aaro and Miina are three-dimensional. Save Aaro, the Whites are caricatures of evil, grotesque figures of horror, monsters. - T.J. Särkkä was not famous for his subtlety, but his film "1918 - A Man and His Conscience" (1957) was richer in nuance. - The military court episodes are needlessly prolonged. - This is a film about brutalization and moral squalor. I don't think it pays justice either to the Reds or the Whites. - The composition of the shots is powerful. Unfortunately, much of the richness of the cinematography has been lost in the digital transition. The colour is cold and gloomy, as in the antechamber of Hell.

Professione: reporter

Ammatti: reportteri / Yrke: reporter. IT/ES/FR 1975. PC: Compagnia Cinematografica Champion. P: Carlo Ponti. D: Michelangelo Antonioni. DP: Luciano Tovoli - Metrocolor - 1:1,85. Starring Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider. 126 min. A Cinecittà International print. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 28 August 2008. - A dupe with flat colour. - I checked the start only.

Der Verlorene

The Lost One / [Kadotettu] / [Den förlorade]. DE 1951. PC: Arnold Pressburger Produktion. D: Peter Lorre. SC: Peter Lorre, Benno Vigny, Axel Eggebrecht - contribution: Helmut Käutner - [based on a subject by Egon Jameson, n.c.] [Not based on a novel by Peter Lorre.] DP: Vaclav Vich. M: Willi Schmidt-Gentner. Starring Peter Lorre (Dr. Karl Rothe), Karl John (Hösch / Novak), Johanna Hofer (Frau Hermann), Eva-Ingeborg Scholz (Ursula Weber), Lotte Rausch (Helene), Gisela Trowe (streetwalker). 98 min. A DIF print with e-subtitles in English from Goethe-Institut. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 28 August 2008. - A dupe. - A melancholy mood. The traces of crime and suffering on Lorre's face. The restlessly roaming camera. The overpowering shadows. A feeling for the underworld. The atmosphere of the train. The puppet on the string. The sensual radiation of the frustrated women. - Peter Lorre dives into Germany's psychic undercurrents in the same way as in Fritz Lang's M. It is the story of a serial killer, an amok-runner who has lost his sense of life a long time ago. Just like in M, Lorre conveys both the tenderness and kindness of the criminal (he is a well-loved doctor) as well as his irresistible urge to kill.

Zabriskie Point

US 1970. PC: MGM. P: Carlo Ponti. D: Michelangelo Antonioni. DP: Alfio Contini - Metrocolor - Panavision 1:2,35. PD: Dean Tavoularis. M: Pink Floyd, Jerry Garcia. Starring Mark Frechette (Mark), Daria Halprin (Daria). 110 min. A Cinecittà International print. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 27 August 2008. - A beautiful print with perfect colour. - Revisiting the first half hour of Antonioni's first and only American film.

I vinti

The Vanquished / Les Vaincus / [Voitetut] / [De besegrade]. IT/FR 1952. PC: Film Costellazione / S.G.C. P: Paolo Moffa. D: Michelangelo Antonioni. Ass. D: Francesco Rosi. SC: Michelangelo Antonioni, Giorgio Bassani, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Diego Fabbri, Roger Nimier, Turi Vasile. DP: Enzo Serafin. M: Giovanni Fusco. ED: Eraldo Da Roma. FRANCIA: Jean-Pierre Mocky (Pierre), Etchika Choureau (Simone). ITALIA: Franco Interlenghi (Claudio), Anna-Maria Ferrero (Maria). INGHILTERRA: Peter Reynolds (Aubrey), Fay Compton (Mrs. Pinkerton), Patrick Barr (Kent Watton). 113 min. Original version in French, Italian, and English. The all-Italian dubbed version print from Cinecittà Holding with English subtitles. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 26 August 2008. - The opening lecture is about the brutalization after the war, a new form of crime: teenage delinquents from quiet, well-off families, desire to emerge as heroes through crime and violence, deeds blown up by the press. - A bit wooden and conventional direction, Antonioni not yet in full bloom. - In the French episode the blocking of the actors in the wood is already interesting in the same way as Le amiche later. Mocky shot for his false notes. - In the Italian episode there is the chase of the young smuggler, already fatally hurt. - The English episode is the most interesting, apparently inspired by Strangers on a Train: the psychopathic self-centeredness and lack of empathy by Aubrey, the proposal of a diabolic pact, the strangling, the train, the tennis, "the death of a human being is of no importance". The episode also has interesting links with Blow-up (the corpse in the wood, the elusive motive). -
Splendid traditional music by Fusco. - The cinematography of Enzo Serafin cannot be fully appreciated in this duped print with a mediocre definition of light.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew - päivä täynnä elämää. GB (c) 2007 Focus Features. D: Bharat Nalluri. SC: David Magee, Simon Beaufoy - based on the novel by Winifred Watson (1938). DP: John de Borman - Super35 - anamorphic - film print 35mm - digital intermediate by Framestore - colour by DeLuxe - Panavision 1:2,35. Music: vintage tunes by Cole Porter ("Anything Goes"), "If I Didn't Care". Starring Frances McDormand (Guinevere Pettigrew), Amy Adams (Delysia Lafosse), Shirley Henderson (Edythe Dubarry), Ciarán Hinds (Joe Blumfeld). A FS Film release print with Finnish /Swedish subtitles by Arto Vartiainen / Ditte Kronström. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 3, Helsinki, 23 August 2008. - Good entertainment set in London on the eve of WWII as the middle-aged nanny becomes the social secretary of a chanteuse. - "I'm an expert on the lack of love". - There is a light touch and elegance in the film that threatens to stay superficial, but there are also moments of real feeling. In the music, the moment of true feeling is "If I Didn't Care". - The career of Joe Blumfeld from socks to brassières. - The Depression ambience of unemployment and soup lines. The recurrent motif of hunger during Miss Pettigrew's day. She eats the cucumber slices in the beauty parlor and tries to get the half-eaten apple from the floor of the railway station. - The happy endings are maybe too pat, but believable at first because of the sincerity of the actors. "I've been looking for you all my life".

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda / Kung Fu Panda. US (c) 2008 Dreamworks Animations. D: Mark Osborne, John Stevenson. M: John Powell, Hans Zimmer. Original material: digital - ARRI Digital - 35mm film print 1:2,35. Voice talent: Jack Black (Po), Dustin Hoffman (Shifu), Angelina Jolie (Tigress), Ian McShane (Tai Lung), Jackie Chan (Monkey), Seth Rogen (Mantis), Lucy Liu (Viper), David Cross (Crane), Randall Duk Kim (Oogway). A Finnkino (Paramount) release, original English version with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Marko Hartama / Janne Staffans. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 5, 24 August 2008. - Coinciding with the Peking Olympics, a big animation with Chinese themes. The slacker panda conquers the fearsome, devilish snow leopard master, having surpassed the Furious Five (Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey) led by the guru Shifu. - Visually, the stylized dream beginning and the ending are impressive, but as soon as the main story starts with its more full digital animation, its semi-naturalistic texture feels mediocre. - I liked the Chinese motifs in the animation, but some of the mannerisms of speech and behavior of the current animation boom are getting tedious.

Absurdistan

DE / AZ (c) Veit Helmer Filmproduktion. [2008]. D: Veit Helmer. SC: Veit Helmer, Zaza Buadze, Gordan Mihic, Ahmet Golbol. DP: Giorgi Beridze - 35mm - 1:1,85 - print from Babelsberg Kopierwerk. M: Shigeru Umebayashi. LOC: Azerbaidzhan, Georgia. Starring Kristyna Malérová (Aya), Max Mauff (Temelko). In Russian. In the presence of Kristyna Malérová and Max Mauff. A Beta Cinema print with English subtitles viewed at Espoo Ciné, Méliès d'Argent series, Tapiolasali, Espoo, 22 August 2008. - This print was oddly bleak, although the the subject would have required at least a normal colour vibrancy or even intensive colour. - Following Timo Kuismin's catalogue text: Veit Helmer returns to Tuvalu's silent film ambience with liberal helpings of magical realism and Kusturica-style dressings. Absurdistan is a fictive no-man's-land somewhere between the new states that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union. There is only one village, whose women start a sex strike because its work-shy lazybones cannot get the only water pipeline repaired. The war of the sexes divides the village into two. - Keywords to the style include naivism, tableau style, and a fuga structure (theme and variations). - Visual humour, rich comical inventions and a funny soundtrack, accented by horn sounds.

Popo

NL 2008. D: Richard Raaphorst. M: Reyn Ouwehand. Starring Victor Löw (Popo). Digital Betacam. 11 min. Espoo Ciné, Méliès d'Argent series, Tapiolasali, Espoo, 22 August 2008. - This video I watched separately on dvd. - Naturalistic portrait of a clown. This clown does not make children laugh, much rather, they cry. He really has long clown feet. Children do not laugh at the party when he produces a long willy out of a balloon. In his dream he bounces back when he jumps from the ceiling. Actually he is crushed to death. Reyn Ouwehand's music has a magic touch like Nino Rota.

Tres días

3 días / Before the Fall. ES (2008) Maestranza Films / Green Moon España / Pentagrama Films. D: F. Javier Gutiérrez. SC: Juan Velarde, F. Javier Gutiérrez. DP: Miguel Ángel Mora - shot on 35mm film - digital intermediate - print 35mm 1:1,85. Starring Daniel Casadellà (Emilio), Victor Clavijo (Alejandro), Mariana Cordero (Rosa), Ana de las Cuevas (Raquel), Elvira de Armiñán (Clara), Antonio Dechent (Urbano), Eduard Fernández (Lucio). 93 min. A Filmax print with English subtitles. Viewed at Espoo Ciné, Prix Méliès series, Louhisali, Espoo, 21 August 2008. - Bleak digital intermediate look. - Quoting the festival catalogue: a giant meteorite is about to collide with the Earth in 72 hours. Apocalypse is imminent. Alejandro decides just to stay drunk. But his mother asks him to help, as the psychopath Lucio plans to murder her four children. - Visually rugged, pared down, with striking inserts, high-contrast, often bleached look. - The main content is brutality towards children. There is a motif of hanging. The film becomes a spectacle for sadistic / masochistic violence. - The psychopath is conquered before the end of the world with a flash and darkness.

Las horas muertas

Killing Time. ES 2007. PC: Basque Films. D: Haritz Zubillaga. 14 min. A Filmoteca Vasca print with English subtitles. Viewed at Espoo Ciné, Prix Méliès series, Louhisali, Espoo, 21 August 2008. - The catalogue synopsis: "The caravan vacation of four friends is terminated abruptly as they become targeted by a faceless sharpshooter". - There are strong images in this nightmarish film about an inexplicable siege and massacre in the caravan. Charged close-ups, a feeling of the heat, grainy texture.

Vikaren

The Substitute. DK (c) 2006 Thura Fiction. Premiere: 2007. D: Ole Bornedal. SC: Bornedal, Henrik Prip. DP: Dan Laustsen - shot on 35mm - digital intermediate - color - film print 35mm Panavision 1:2,35. M: Marco Beltrami. Starring Paprika Steen (Ulla Harms, the substitute teacher), Ulrich Thomsen (Jesper), Jonas Wandschneider (Carl), Nikolaj Falkenberg-Klok (Phillip), Emma Juel Justesen (Rikke), Mollie Maria Gilmartin (Lotte), Sonja Richter (Maria). 93 min. Print: Det Danske Filminstitut, English subtitles by Jonathan Sydenham. Viewed at Espoo Ciné, Prix Méliès, Cinema Andorra, Helsinki, 22 August 2008. - Video look. - The substitute teacher turns out to be an alien from outer space. - Aliens come to the Earth to learn love and to abduct children. They arrive in the form of energy glimmer and incarnate a chicken farmer's wife, who becomes the highly energetic substitute teacher Ulla Harms. The children soon find out what's going on, but nobody believes them. - "Where I come from there is no love". - Excellent screenplay. The film proceeds dynamically, each scene motivated by the whole. - Top performances. Best of all: Paprika Steen as the surprising alien who terrifies by her wile, not violence. She can read minds, change surroundings, learn new things, conquer the suspicions by laughter and transform into one's dead mother. The gullible father and school psychologist are delicious. The children are excellent, starting with Jonas Wandschneider as Carl, who learns to accept the fact of his mother's death. - The strength of the film is that it is character-based: the people in it touch us, and Ulla terrifies us because she has no empathy. The message of love is ridiculed but it's the bottom of all. - Funny cheesy effects: the clouds opening, Ulla's quick shock metamorphosis, the final battle with the ball which controls Ulla's life force. - Malco Beltrami's music updates expertly B-movie conventions. Also the soundscape is delicious. - The director's forte is his sense of humour. He does not even need gags, he does very well just by setting the camera and directing the actors. There is a fine touch of parody all through the picture. - Young audiences probably will like it. - A film worth revisiting.

Bathing Buddies

Ilkikurinen tikka. US (c) 1946 Universal / Walter Lantz. D: Dick Lundy. Voices: Ben Hardaway (Woody Woodpecker) and William Demarest (Wally Walrus). AN: Paul Smith, Bernard Garbutt. Technicolor. 7 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 21 August 2008. - Colour fine in worn print. - Woody is the downstairs neighbour of Wally Walrus, who is taking a bath. With the common pipe connection Woody can completely control Wally's bath. The practical jokes escalate into catastrophe. Woody is still completely wacky.

The Disappeared

GB (c) 2008 Lost Tribe Productions / Minds Eye Productions. D: Johnny Kevorkian. SC: Johnny Kevorkian, Neil Murphy. DP: Diego Rodriguez. M: Christoph Bauschinger. DP: Diego Rodriguez - digital intermediate - 35mm print 1:1,85. Starring Harry Treadaway (Matthew Ryan), Greg Wise (Jake Ryan), Alex Jennings (Adrian Ballan), Finlay Robertson (Jason Saks), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Shelley Cartwright), Ros Leeming (Amy Tyler). 96 min. A Jinga Films print without subtitles. Viewed at Espoo Ciné, Prix Méliès series, Cinema Andorra, Helsinki, 20 August 2008. In the presence of Kevorkian and Murphy. - Naturalistic, bleak, cold visual look. - A realistic-looking supernatural horror film, where the ghosts are guides to a true crime (serial child abuse and murder by the man supposedly working for the church). - Most importantly, this is a film about losing one's mental balance. Matthew's psychic health is threatened as he receives strange, ghostly signs of his disappeared little brother. - The London milieu is naturalistically portrayed. - The films treads on the line between reality and nightmare. - The main guides (Amy, Shelley) turn out to be ghosts of the dead. - The nightmare of being buried alive. - The man working for the church talks about lost beliefs, lost faith. - The final vault of the abused and dead children brings to mind the cases in Belgium and Austria. And the scandals of the Catholic church.

Le Devoir

BG (c) 2007 Panache Productions etc. D+SC: Ariane Lippens. Starring Jonty Toosey. 35mm, no dialogue. 8 min. A La Big Family print viewed at Espoo Ciné, Prix Mélilès series, Cinema Andorra, Helsinki, 20 August 2008. - A man wakes up in a dirty prison pit and fights for food with a cat. The final twist: he is a research sample of a humanoid, and we witness an endless multitude of humanoids in the same task.

Chrysalis

FR (c) 2007 Gaumont / TF1. D: Julien Leclerq. SC: Julien Leclerc, Nicolas Peufaillit, Franck Philippon, Aude Py. DP: Thomas Hardmeier - shot on Panasonic AG-DVX100, negative: 35mm and video - digital intermediate - 35 mm print 1:2,35. M: aria from Lakmé. Starring Albert Dupontel (David Hoffmann), Marie Guillard (Marie Becker), Marthe Keller (Prof. Brügen), Mélanie Thierry (Manon Brügen), Claude Perron (Miller), Alain Figlarz (Dimitri Nicolov / Danis Nicolov), Patrick Bauchau (Charles Becker). 94 min. A CCV print with English subtitles. Viewed at Espoo Ciné, Prix Méliès series, Andorra, Helsinki, 20 August 2008. - Digital intermediate look: ugly, gray, cold, and dirty, almost monochrome. - A futuristic neo noir thriller with an Europol detective tracking down smugglers. - A vision of the future where state of the art surgery can change not only people's looks but also their minds. Memory can be changed and transferred. Bodies and souls can be switched. Manipulation of the brain is also used as a method of torture. Chrysalis is the method of digitizing memory. - The brutal action includes sadistic violence and gratuitous, prolonged beatings. There is a psychotic feeling in the violence. - In the end the policeman whose memory has been drained refuses the memory clip: the man I used to be scares me. I'm not sure I want him back.

Kaukosaaren kirous

Curse of the Remote Island / En fjärran ös förbannelse. FI 2008. PC: Indie Films. P: Tomi Riionheimo. D: CHRZU. Animation: Jan Andersson. M: Lauri Hannu, CHRZU, Vauhtihirmu. B&w 35 mm. 16 min. No dialogue. Viewed at Espoo Ciné, Prix Méliès series, Andorra, Helsinki, 20 August 2008. - A weird animation about Sir Void who chases his runaway moustache in the jungle.
A grotesque parody of the television world escalates into splatter. The remote control is used to manipulate time itself. The soundtrack is mixed with oldie-style sound effects.

[*REC]

[*REC] / [*REC]. ES (c) 2007 Castelao Productions. D: Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza. DP: Pablo Rosso - shot on video - blowup to 35mm 1:1,85. Starring Manuela Velasco (Angela). 85 min. A Finnish release print by Future Film with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Saliven Gustavsson. Viewed at Espoo Ciné, Prix Méliès series, Louhisali, Espoo, 20 August 2008. - Intentional video look. - Innocuous reality tv reportage about firemen turns into an all-out zombie massacre. This belongs to the current zombie cycle of films where the newsreel or industrial camera look is meant to trigger an instinctive feeling of authenticity. Basic visual devices: handheld camera, interrupted takes, camera artefacts. The colour palette is pallid and cold. The main setting is a Barcelona tenement building, where an elderly woman is suffering from some terrible infection. The rabies-like condition spreads immediately via saliva. The film-makers sketch strong vignettes of the inhabitants of the house, of many ages and various ethnic groups. The final shock awaits in the penthouse. Before that, maximum horror has already been in evidence with relentless screaming, bloodletting, panic, and hysteria.