Time and Film and Florida
Death Curse of Tartu (1968)
directed by William Grefe
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
I was hoping for another blown-out masterpiece like Strangler of the Swamp, but that just didn't happen. I don't know if what I got was better - no, it wasn't - but it was strange. One-of-a-kind strange. It's this year's Tormented, and although the spell it weaves is not so complete (that movie really stuck with me), there is a spell here, a little one, like standing outside and wondering when it got to be so late.
William Grefe made low-budget horror. He came from Miami and this movie takes place on a hillock in the Everglades. The wind blows all the time. The footage looks like home movies, and Death Curse of Tartu plays out that way, with a vacation-like narrative (beginning, end) but no real story, no climax, nothing for someone to do but watch it and look all around the frame at random birds. 8mm, maybe? 16mm? All these years and I still don't know! The colors are beautiful, though, and the swamp itself is so much a part of things. The only clear point of comparison is Louisiana Story, but believe me when I say that is not a good comparison.
But it works. There is mystery and loss and quiet, but here it's at the corners, as if Grefe spent his spare time in a canoe and on foot but didn't think a documentary would do a better job than this at showing off the land he loved. I spent a good portion of the movie following the lines of thought that images or moments inspired. Not "how would I do this differently?" but "couldn't that skull be a kind of covered bridge that the medicine man can't pass?" The thoughts weren't mine; they were there, onscreen, but slightly covered as if by dust. At one point, an archaeologist muses about the ocean's undiscovered secrets, and here, too, is a realm we really know so little about. A half-submerged Atlantis.
Much of the movie is almost wordless except for the sound of chants and Florida breezes. Much of it is poorly acted, but the cast feels familiar enough as to be friends. They scream a lot. Few survive. And this: Death Curse of Tartu, hands down, has one of the best opening credit sequences I've ever seen. The spirit of a dead Seminole seeks vengeance on an archaeologist who disturbs his tomb. As the archaeologist dies, the Indian takes the map that led the man here and throws it on the ground. The map is the title screen. Incredible.
directed by William Grefe
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
I was hoping for another blown-out masterpiece like Strangler of the Swamp, but that just didn't happen. I don't know if what I got was better - no, it wasn't - but it was strange. One-of-a-kind strange. It's this year's Tormented, and although the spell it weaves is not so complete (that movie really stuck with me), there is a spell here, a little one, like standing outside and wondering when it got to be so late.
William Grefe made low-budget horror. He came from Miami and this movie takes place on a hillock in the Everglades. The wind blows all the time. The footage looks like home movies, and Death Curse of Tartu plays out that way, with a vacation-like narrative (beginning, end) but no real story, no climax, nothing for someone to do but watch it and look all around the frame at random birds. 8mm, maybe? 16mm? All these years and I still don't know! The colors are beautiful, though, and the swamp itself is so much a part of things. The only clear point of comparison is Louisiana Story, but believe me when I say that is not a good comparison.
But it works. There is mystery and loss and quiet, but here it's at the corners, as if Grefe spent his spare time in a canoe and on foot but didn't think a documentary would do a better job than this at showing off the land he loved. I spent a good portion of the movie following the lines of thought that images or moments inspired. Not "how would I do this differently?" but "couldn't that skull be a kind of covered bridge that the medicine man can't pass?" The thoughts weren't mine; they were there, onscreen, but slightly covered as if by dust. At one point, an archaeologist muses about the ocean's undiscovered secrets, and here, too, is a realm we really know so little about. A half-submerged Atlantis.
Much of the movie is almost wordless except for the sound of chants and Florida breezes. Much of it is poorly acted, but the cast feels familiar enough as to be friends. They scream a lot. Few survive. And this: Death Curse of Tartu, hands down, has one of the best opening credit sequences I've ever seen. The spirit of a dead Seminole seeks vengeance on an archaeologist who disturbs his tomb. As the archaeologist dies, the Indian takes the map that led the man here and throws it on the ground. The map is the title screen. Incredible.
posted by NPK at 12:01 AM
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