Michael Rymer
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Filmography
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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Directed by Robert Wiene
influenced Queen of the Damned (2002)
Visuals
Though The Queen of the Damned opens with an homage to Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, its visual style is more closely akin to Tarsem Singh's The Cell (though neither as trippy nor daring).
And the sound work even, to reference Tarkovsky, sculpts the slender movie further in time: one particular sequence plays out in CCTV footage, with ’60s pop tune “Angel Baby” playing softly throughout, but cutting in sync with the edits like a skipping CD.
An antediluvian doo-wop classic, “Angel Baby,” by Rosie and the Originals is used to creepy, taunting effect when Joe eventually metes out righteousness at the brothel.
But "Queen of the Damned" ultimately belongs in video-store hell, far away from better genre movies such as "Cronos" or "The Crow" and somewhere near Rice's last filmed failure, Neil Jordan's version of "Interview With the Vampire."
Some of the queen's over-dramatic entrances could have made one laugh aloud if you didn't know the poor girl was gone - so instead it was just sad- reminiscent of watching The Crow.
The humans, in turn, are human furniture -- I was dismayed to see Paul McGann, forever cool in my book for being the "I" in the British classic Withnail & I, reduced to a Basil Exposition role as a studious type who gives the vampire-huntress much-needed tips (hell, just throw some tweed on him and call him Giles).
Meanwhile, a sexy librarian (is there ever any other kind in the movies?), played by Marguerite Moreau, discovers that she may have a Vampire Aunt (Lena Olin) and sets out to find her, much to the consternation of her kindly mentor Paul McGann (whose presence in this is perhaps the film’s biggest shock – from Withnail & I to a bit-part in Queen of the Damned with practically nothing in between).
Though The Queen of the Damned opens with an homage to Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, its visual style is more closely akin to Tarsem Singh's The Cell (though neither as trippy nor daring).
(Jasin Boland/Warner Bros.) ( Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. ) "Lestat" ("Interview With the Vampire," "Queen of the Damned") Actors: Tom Cruise and Stuart Townsend Who played it best?: Cruise.
This collision of “Queen of the Damned” and “From Dusk Till Dawn” offers plenty of spectacle…