La quatrième rencontre

Why do I watch movies like this ? - other than I have some weird misguided masochistic belief that one day I will find a true gem amongst all this dross I can't think one one good reason. This movie was dross from start to finish - but semi-hilarious dross. Where else but in a bad Italian dubbed movie could you find heated exchanges of surreal mangled English like this one between a honest military type and the sinister chief of a secret X-files like organisation dedicated to hiding "The Truth":

Man in Black: Silence is best for us until we are able to prove that the UFOs have no bellicose motives.

Military Type: In any event I find your interference abusive.

Man in Black: Whoever has to impose his will is.

I rewound the DVD (you know what I mean) a good half dozen times and I still can't make those lines mean anything sensible. My other fave line was:

"We can be quite hard on those who contravert our interests."

It's English Jim, but not as we know it.

The other highlights of this dull plonker of a movie for me were the totally spaced out acting of the photographer character at the start. Saddled with the worst haircut EVER in the history of everything, the man just wandered around looking like a stunned fish in a bad wig till kidnapped and forced to look at a piece of Plexiglas by some aliens. The aliens are most effectively not seen as a POV shot - hand held camera with a fish-eye lens - sort of spooky the first time but, used over and over again it lost its power (incidentaly, if it is a Point of View shot, it means the aliens always walk out of rooms backwards for some reason).

The film was set in "England". This meant the Spanish Italian set designers put some British number plates on a couple of English cars and put a Union Jack on our hero's press card... and that was about it. No other attempt to make it look like the UK at all.

Favourite moment? When the Foley artists didn't notice that characters they were foleying (is there such a word?) were no longer walking on gravel but were now on the lawn so their feet kept on making loud "crunch! crunch!" noises. Other than that, another total waste of 90 minutes of my life. I hope they prove those UFOs have no bellicose motives soon...

I like movies about UFOs, which is why I recently decided to rewatch EYES BEHIND THE STARS after seeing it when I was a kid back in the late 1970s. And now I'm compelled to write a review about it because I'm afraid I'll start forgetting everything about it FAST. You see, even though EBTS ain't bad, it's VERY dull and nondescript. The story is sorta interesting but flat. The actors are good but their roles are boring and a little confusing. The FX are terribly amateurish but I can overlook something like that if the movie is compelling, which, unfortunately, this one ain't.

Also, there's very little violence and there's no nudity whatsoever, which makes this 1970s Italian sci-fi opus a TRUE oddity, because if there's one thing that distinguishes Italian genre movies made in the 1970s from genre movies of other countries made in the same decade, it's the astonishing amount of violence and sex to be found in them. Oddly enough, because of the almost complete lack of exploitive elements, EBTS stands out from the rest of the pact. I don't know if this can be seen as a compliment though. Personally, I can enjoy a movie without sex and violence but I think EBTS NEEDED more violence and some sex here and there to spice it up because it is so deadly dull and dry. And the special effects aren't that special.

The story itself is actually interesting. It's a combo of THE X-FILES and Antonioni's BLOWUP: a photographer accidentally captures aliens on film during a fashion shoot in the country. The aliens know they were captured on film and they proceed to kidnap the photographer and a model, subsequently destroying any evidence of their presence on earth. The problem starts when the model meets a man at the recently abducted photographer's apartment (this taking place just before she's to be abducted herself). The man takes some of the negatives and leaves, with the aliens having no knowledge of the missing negatives. The whole story is about this man wanting to know more about the aliens and a secret spy group who want to get a hold of the negatives. The majority of the movie centers around boring political intrigue, in the spy vs spy variety. The UFO element of the story is almost unimportant and could have easily been replaced by any cold war McGuffin. But as dull as EYES BEHIND THE STARS is, it does resemble THE X-FILES a LOT! I wonder if Chris Carter saw this movie. Anyway, the best thing in EBTS are the POV shots, which are creepy and effective. But the rest is almost completely forgettable, including the goofy looking aliens.

Even though I've been mostly negative about this film, I sorta cherish it nonetheless. I still remember the effective ad campaign which scared me when I saw it as a kid. And I own the video. The film could have been so much more if it had been done properly. Oh well...

A man is doing a photo shoot with a model out in the middle of a field somewhere, and unknowingly he get's footage of alien craft, and aliens. Once he finds out what he's got he stashes the negatives. Sooner or later someone finds out about it,, a clandestine group within the World Government find out and they will stop and nothing to get the negatives back, because they feel if the information is released to the public at large, it will cause a worldwide panic. Meanwhile the photographer place is tossed and everyone is looking for the negatives, the model shows up later in the movie after being traumatized by the aliens although we do not see this part in the movie,, overall it wasn't bad the first half of the movie,, but the second half just turned me off. so that's why I'm going with a 4 rating.

What was this film?? It begins with the great Italian star Sherry Buchanan doing a phoot shoot in the woods, then the photographer thinks he took a photo of something odd. Then he realizes he took a photo of a UFO, then he goes back to that locaton, gets chased by something (we only see their POV) then gets abducted, then the aliens kill a local old man, and blinds his dog! Then they capture Sherry, then we finally see the aliens, who look like a bunch of guys in sji mask and goggles, then it becomes a detective movie with martin Balsam (dubbed by someone else) and the lead and Natalie Delon trying to find out what happened, as the Goverment "Silencers" are out to stop them! The ending is a real mess, and you realize that in the end, you couldn't root for anyone,and no clear explaniation on what the aliens were dong here, and why were they in cahoots with the baddies! A big bore from Italian cinema, but maybe if it gets re-released on video again, it might find an audience. Not with me though.

Photographer, Peter Collins (Franco Garofalo) is stalked, abducted, and duly probed by aliens. When his friend and model, Karin (Sherry Buchanan) goes looking for him, she winds up in the same predicament.

Unfortunately, Peter and Karin have little to do with the rest of the story, which delves into the investigation into the disappearances by a police inspector (Martin Balsam) and a reporter (Robert Hoffman).

There's also a secret government organization known as "The Silencers" (!). Peter has something that "The Silencers" desperately want.

This is supposedly an Italian sci-fi / thriller film, but those expecting any actual thrills may be disappointed. It's mostly driven by windy, UFO conspiracy theory dialogue. That is, right up to the final 15 minutes. Even the finale isn't all that interesting or exciting...