Month: October 2022

31 Scary Movies that are 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon: ‘The Piano Teacher’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Piano Teacher” (2001) – Did you take piano lessons?  I did.  Admittedly, I didn’t enjoy playing and, unfortunately, lost interest in the instrument.  Looking back, that’s a shame, and my teacher was really pleasant, kind, and patient.  Oh well. Another piano teacher, one living in Vienna, isn’t so understanding, and she’s a woman to be feared. Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert) is a skilled piano professor, but she’s a lonely woman who harbors resentment and jealously, and these contemptable traits lash out when we least expect them in Michael Haneke’s…

31 Scary Movies that are 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon: ‘The Seventh Continent’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Seventh Continent” (1989) – Michael Haneke doesn’t shy away from dark material.  He sprints towards it.  Haneke has made a career of capturing the shadowy aspects of the human soul and bravely displaying them on the big screen, including his first feature film. The setting is modern-day times in Austria, and a small nuclear family – Georg (Dieter Berner), Anna (Birgit Doll), and their daughter Evi (Leni Tanzar) – fit nicely in society with work and school.  However, one day, Georg and Anna give up on their lives, quit…

‘Godland’: This daunting, immersing 19th-century journey is an instant classic

Jeff Mitchell

“Godland” (2022) – “The island is very different from Denmark.  People there…the weather, the winter, everything is different.” In the late 19th century, an experienced Danish man of the cloth (Waage Sando) delegates an assignment to his young, pious subordinate, Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove).  Lucas, a late 20-something or 30-something priest, is willing to please Vincent (Sando), or perhaps, he doesn’t have the will to reject his mentor’s wishes.  Regardless, the said task is an intimidating one:  travel to Iceland, hike across endless kilometers of desolate prairies, mountains, and rivers,…