Memento Mori, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, & Elevator to the Gallows

Memento Mori is actually not a horror story. Unless you think sympathetic portrayals of Korean schoolgirl lesbians is horrific. Which basically means I'm clearly out of that group. It's a sort of sequel to Whispering Corridors, but only in the sense that they're both about Korean schoolgirls and are sort of ghost stories. Whereas Whispering Corridors was more about the actual horror film aspects of it, Memento Mori was almost entirely about the relationship. Which was, of course, a complete shock to the backwardsness of Korean society. Because apparently, they measure heights, weights, and breast size in class and announce numbers in front of everyone. And 71 cm? That's frickin' tiny, even for a 17 year old Asian girl. It just seems like the uber-repressive society is just backwards when it comes to how to not have a lot of teenage girl suicides. And, again, there's a bit of teacher-on-student violence. Is this acceptable? And if so, what the hell, South Korea? Seriously, that's just really messed up. Maybe you should be a little less repressed and then you'll have more sex. Even if [redacted] is what caused the major problems in the story in the first place. Anyway, it's very good, very good at building suspense, only occasionally confusing near the beginning (it's those damn uniforms, I really can't tell them apart when they all dress the same), very much about the characters, and only the ending, which makes the ghost story aspect explicit, has anything I didn't entirely care for. Apparently there's a six-disc set of the movie, with an edit of the film that's about twice as long as the one released here. I can't imagine. Well, actually, I can, because the movie originally was much more explicit in the treatment of the physicalness of the lesbian relationship (note that it's a Korean movie, so it's not really explicit nudity, if any at all). So you'd have more kissing and touching and probably even more dealing with the societal backlash against their holding hands and kissing in public. Or maybe just more of them on the roof. Either way, I think it works very very well as it is.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie has an outstanding performance from Maggie Smith in the lead, and a good performance from Pamela Franklin as one of her students. I was bothered by the apparent love of fascism, but then again, I think it was supposed to be bothersome. Definitely a movie worth watching.

Elevator to the Gallows is both Louis Malle's first film, and it has a score by Miles Davis. One of those is just of some interest, and the other is absolutely imperative. Miles Davis was just reaching the height of his talent, and while it wasn't his best backing band, it wasn't too shabby. As an early French New Wave film, it's a very strong little thriller, and while it's not quite as visually stylish as some of the later movies, the score and performances are very much worth it.