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If I may break in and make an introductory video-rental
suggestion, if there are any here looking for an interesting
diversion, searching out a copy of Merchant-Ivory's Savages may
prove rewarding. It's not exactly a period piece, and thankfully
it's not exactly Slaves of New York either. From a script by the
late Michael O'Donoghue, of all people, and starring Ultra Violet
among others, including a strangely pink Sam Waterston, it tells
the story of a tribe of primitive mudpeople who follow the
trajectory of a mysterious croquet ball to an abandoned Long
Island estate. O'Donoghue's early 1970s peak of blending the
bizarre with the directly satirical is well utilized, along with
plenty of more typically subversive jokes. The psychoanalytical
explanatory narration, for example, is delivered in untranslated
German, and much of the first half of the film has that hand-tinted
film stock common among early silents. Lots of crude
tastelessness, too, naturally. I doubt it's something Merchant-Ivory
are often prone to pointing to at pitch sessions, but it is a
highly interesting oddity.
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