Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
After something of a break from Nordic existentialism, Matt returned to his Bergman boxset, watching an early film by the director, Thirst (1949). Unfortunately the age of the film, and possibly the fact that Thirst isn’t exactly one of Bergman’s most memorable films, means that there isn’t a trailer to be found on YouTube – so, instead, please enjoy this trailer for Park Chan-wook’s 2009 vampire movie Thirst, loosely based on a 19th century French novel.
Meanwhile, Mege continued our ongoing freefall association with his Six Damn Fine Degrees post on movie murder – so let’s bring back that little Belgian man with the big moustache, in this case in the 1974 version of Murder of the Orient Express.
And all of this bloodshed brings us to our regular trailers for the week.
Matt: Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series of comics brought me back to the medium after not reading any comics since my adolescence. I’ve since read the series… well, a lot. I don’t love all of it equally, but I still consider it one of the most ambitious, exhilarating long-form narratives in comics. So, how do I feel about the upcoming Netflix adaptation of The Sandman? Honestly: fairly indifferent. I’m not sure I think it’s material that’s well suited to adaptation, and I wouldn’t necessarily want a straight adaptation of the comics anyway. There’s something about Gaiman’s 70+ issues, done with a number of different artists, that I suspect will be lost if the images are nailed down in such a literal medium as film/TV. The more stylised format of comics will be seen and understood differently by every reader. Also, it’s Netflix, the streamer that’s practically infamous by now for cancelling good series before their time and continuing mediocre material when it should’ve been put out to pasture – which means we’re left with a conundrum: is it better for The Sandman to be great and be cancelled before the story’s been told, or to be so-so but continue for as long as it is necessary to tell the story?
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 