Antonia Bird
4 connections found
Filmography
View:
Connections, in both directions
With films such as Julia Ducournau’s Raw , Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day , and even Antonia Bird’s Ravenous , cannibalism transcends gory spectacle into discussions of consumption, rage, and burning desire.
For many moviegoers, the act is so abhorrent that its depiction must be associated with a last-resort effort to survive (Alive, 1993), an uncivilized tribe (Cannibal Holocaust, 1980), families of regressed or inbred killers (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, 1974; The Hills Have Eyes, 1974), or a mythical spirit that compels the hunger (Ravenous, 1999).
Bones and All is Near Dark first, then Drugstore Cowboy and, of course, Ravenous in its gleeful carnage and delightful black humour.
It’s probably unfair to blame him as he also turned up in the equally brilliantly-cast Ravenous, and that film is a goddamn masterpiece, but if not Arquette then who?
Director Antonia Bird’s welcome sense of humour manages to relieve some of the film’s heavy-handedness, and Priest concludes with the most powerful portrayal of forgiveness since the native South Americans sank Robert De Niro’s armour in The Mission.
Seeing Linus Roache as a sexually-conflicted retiree here reminds us he first gained notice playing a tormented and closeted “Priest” back in 1994, and the presence of Rupert Everett pays tribute to his role in making gay characters mainstream, and the career price he paid for being out and the leading man roles he probably lost, handsome as he was in his youth.