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DVD Eating Raoul
You'd think a black comedy about murder, tackiness, and sexual perversion would quickly become dated, but Eating Raoul (1982) feels surprisingly fresh and delightful. When Mary Bland (Mary Woronov) gets assaulted by one of the repulsive swingers from the neighboring apartment, her husband Paul (Paul Bartel) rescues her with a swift blow from a frying pan--only to discover a substantial wad of cash in the swinger's wallet. A lure-and-kill scheme follows, which nicely fills their nest egg until a slippery thief named Raoul (Robert Beltran of Star Trek: Voyager, making his film debut) stumbles onto the truth and insists on getting a share. When Raoul starts demanding a share of Mary as well, Paul has to take drastic steps. The key to Eating Raoul isn't the sensational content, but the blithe, matter-of-fact attitude Bartel and Woronov take to it; their sly underplaying makes the movie sparkle with wicked wit. --Bret Fetzer
I keep seeing people complain about the dvd transfer and wonder if there is a NEW version that maybe I got ahold of? My version is crystal clear and the picture is PERFECT! No squishing no elogated people etc. The picture looks GREAT!
As for the film, its a cult film alright! Taboo subjects and made in 1982 this film pushed the limit for many a moviegoer and quickly made this film a "fan" favorite and box office flop for mainstream movie goers. However Mary is my main attraction here as Ive loved her in MANY films Ive seen her in and this film is pretty funny if you like dark humor. some just don't "get it".
Great movie, horrible DVD
Talk about cult classics! Paul Bartel's darkly hilarious "Eating Raoul" was the first cult film I ever saw, way back in the early 1980s when the miracle that is cable television arrived at the house. I sat in openmouthed wonder as the movie unfolded, barely believing my eyes were seeing the twisted hijinks floating by onscreen. It's largely due to "Eating Raoul" that I became a Mary Woronov fan, and I also learned to appreciate as well as seek out any films made by Paul Bartel. He's an interesting guy, a man that looks like one of your balding uncles or an out of shape next-door neighbor, but he has a warped sense of humor that fits in well with 1970s low budget cinema. Audiences probably know Bartel, if they know him at all, for several films he made for Roger Corman in the 1970s: "Death Race 2000" and "Cannonball." These two films couldn't be more different in subject matter and tone than "Eating Raoul." The two Corman films deal with car races, crashes, and bloody violence. "Eating Raoul" is subtler, funnier, and much darker. Sadly, Paul Bartel passed away a few years ago from complications arising from liver cancer. His loss robbed us of a unique humor, as well as any hope that he and Woronov would reprise their roles in a sequel to this film.
"Eating Raoul" introduces us to two of the most boring individuals on the entire planet, Paul and Mary Bland. They dream of opening their very own restaurant, a dining establishment that will allow them to hobnob with society's elites. Heck, they consider themselves to be elites even though Paul has trouble holding down a job and Mary works as a nurse. After Paul loses his latest position as a clerk at a liquor store--a hilarious scene indeed--it seems as though the restaurant will never become a reality. They can't even get a bank loan since Mary brutally rebuffed the advances of loan officer Mr. Leach (Buck Henry). Then the two stumble upon an excellent way to make money. The apartment building the couple lives in is a place where residents continually throw wild parties that draw all sorts of immature people. One of them bursts into the Bland apartment and starts to make quite a fuss, so much so that Paul conks him on the head with a huge frying pan. The Blands feel horrible about the accidental killing until they find a huge wad of money in the guy's wallet. What if the couple lured strangers over to the apartment, killed them, and then robbed them of their money? That restaurant sure would become a reality much quicker, that's for sure.
But how will the Blands lure total strangers into their apartment without arousing suspicion? Well, it's rather easy when you live in Los Angeles. All you have to do is put an advertisement in a newspaper aimed at singles and the people beat down your door. Of course, the scheme requires Mary to dress up in some rather imaginative costumes and engage in highly charged dialogues with these clients, but all she has to do is keep the game going long enough for Paul to charge in and perform his magic with the frying pan. Mary and Paul get rid of all sorts of riffraff in this manner, including a hippie played by Ed Begley, Jr. The two even begin to believe they are doing society a favor by ridding it of such despicable human beings. Then a problem strolls in through the front door in the shape of a locksmith named Raoul (Robert Beltran). He quickly learns about the couple's seamy activities, but rather than turn them in he soon joins forces with them. Thanks to Raoul the Blands soon make a bit more money selling the clothing and the bodies of their victims. But Raoul has designs on Mary, and he also cheats the couple of their ill-gotten gains. At some point Paul and Mary must heal their relationship while simultaneously defending their treasure from the wily Raoul.
Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov provide "Eating Raoul" with its greatest strengths. Both of them play their characters so straight and on the level that it's hilarious to watch them take part in such extreme activities. "Square" is a word that doesn't do enough to describe these two; they wear matching pajamas to bed--single beds, that is. The film's funniest scenes occur near the end, when Paul and Mary attend a swank party hosted by a guy played by radio personality Don Steele. The double entendres fly fast and furious at this party until Paul and Mary can't stand it anymore. They dispatch the partygoers by tossing an electrical device into the hot tub, then sell off their cars and other valuables. As shocking as these scenes are, what is more shocking is seeing veteran character actress Edie McClurg turn up as an airhead engaged in a number of unusual peccadilloes. While I think parts of the film don't survive the test of time all that well, "Eating Raoul" is still such a darkly humorous film that the central themes easily overcome outdated clothing and set pieces. I wonder if there is a link between this film and the economic policies of recently elected Ronald Reagan?
The DVD version is horrible. While we get trailers for "Big Shot's Funeral," "Dark Crystal," and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," there are no other extras. Worse, the transfer is one of the worst I have seen on DVD. It looks like a compression problem, or a problem with the aspect ratio, wasn't fixed during the transfer. Most of the film looks squashed, for lack of a better term, and it's a most annoying problem that takes away from the viewing experience. Fix the DVD, give us a special edition, and I'll pick up a copy soon. You should, too.
Hilarious!
This movie is a tremendous amount of fun! It's also great to see Robert Beltran before he became the serious and spiritual
Chakote!
A volatile, toxic potion of satire and nihilism, road movie and science fiction, violence and comedy, the unclassifiable sensibility of Alex Cox's Repo Man is the model and inspiration for a potent strain of post-punk American comedy that includes not only Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), but also early Coen brothers (Raising Arizona, in particular), Men in Black, and even (in a weird way) The X-Files. Otto, a baby-face punk played by Emilio Estevez, becomes an apprentice to Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), a coke-snorting, veteran repo-man-of-honor prowling the streets of a Los Angeles wasteland populated by hoods, wackos, burnouts, conspiracy theorists, and aliens of every stripe. It may seem chaotic at first glance, but there's a "latticework of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Harry Dean Stanton - Emilio Estevez Director(s): Alex Cox DVD Release Date: Released the 20 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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After forming a match made in trash-movie heaven in John Waters's Polyester, Tab Hunter and Divine reunited for this deliciously tasteless Western comedy, which borrows its title from the nickname for Duel in the Sun, the turgid Western that inspired director Paul Bartel's affectionate spoofery. With Hunter wearing two hats as hero and coproducer, the movie indulges its own outrageous excess while staying true to the dustiest traditions of the Western genre. It's just good enough to watch without shame, and rude enough to hide from more offendable members of the family.
Nothing's sacred in Chile Verde, the wild western town where lone gunman Abel Wood (Hunter) arrives after rescuing corpulent saloon singer Rosie Velez (Divine) from being defiled by Hard Case Williams... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Bartel DVD Release Date: Released the 26 March 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Black comedies don't come much blacker than this cult favorite from 1972, and they don't come much funnier, either. It seemed that director Hal Ashby was the perfect choice to mine a mother lode of eccentricity from the original script by Colin Higgins, about the unlikely romance between a death-obsessed 19-year-old named Harold (Bud Cort) and a life-loving 79-year-old widow named Maude (Ruth Gordon). They meet at a funeral, and Maude finds something oddly appealing about Harold, urging him to "reach out" and grab life by the lapels as opposed to dwelling morbidly on mortality. Harold grows fond of the old gal--she's a lot more fun than the girls his mother desperately matches him up with--and together they make Harold & Maude one of the sweetest and most unconventional love... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bud Cort - Ruth Gordon DVD Release Date: Released the 27 June 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Paul Bartel's 1975 cheap-o satire about a futuristic international sport--an anything-goes car race where drivers score points for hitting pedestrians--stars David Carradine as a hero behind the wheel and Sylvester Stallone as his nemesis. The film is clever and macabre enough as a modernist satire, but finally overplays its hand in grim, decadent humor. The sets are gloriously artificial, and former Warhol star Mary Woronov is in sexy, comic form. A DVD release is available. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): David Carradine - Simone Griffeth - Sylvester Stallone Director(s): Paul Bartel DVD Release Date: Released the 09 September 2003 This item is currently not available.
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Tod Browning, who directed Bela Lugosi in the original Dracula, stepped into even eerier territory with this 1932 story of betrayal and retribution in the circus. Evil trapeze artist Olga Baclanova seduces and marries a midget in the circus sideshow, hoping to inherit his wealth. But in doing so, she has crossed the wrong folks: the tightly knit group of nature's aberrations, who stick together like family--and who set out to avenge their little pal. Browning brought in some of the most famous sideshow attractions of the era, include Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton and Johnny Eck the Legless Boy, as well as Zip and Pip, microcephalics whose appearance in this film inspired cartoonist Bill Griffith to create his comic strip, "Zippy the Pinhead." So disturbing that it was... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Wallace Ford - Leila Hyams - Olga Baclanova Director(s): Tod Browning DVD Release Date: Released the 10 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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