MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: THE NAKED KISS (1964)

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Monday, May 26, 2008

THE NAKED KISS (1964)

KISS was the end of the line for maverick writer/director Sam Fuller before his brief "late bloom" (BIG RED ONE, WHITE DOG) in the ‘80s. This ironically challenged tale of a prostitute turned angel of mercy, and the small town ethics that derail her attempt at rejuvenation, is too ham-fisted to realize the Brechtian mode Fuller may (that’s may) have been aiming at. (A low budget can bring out the alienated expressionist in any of us.) And the much noted, "daring" (if oblique) use of child molestation as the film’s big reveal/plot twist, is tawdry in typical Fuller mode without earning its place. The hope isn't to reveal, but to shock. Cultists and academic/film magazine types rate this one a masterpiece, so by all means help yourself. But even Fuller agnostics who haven't drunk the Kool-Aid will want to see the famous OTT opening: the attack, the telephone & the secret that lies underneath the blond wig. Yikes!

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola