Q - The Winged Serpent (Cohen, 1982): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.30pm
This 35mm presentation is part of the Film on Film festival at BFI. Full details here.
BFI introduction:
New York’s hectic streets get even weirder when the Aztec god
Quetzalcoatl, a giant flying lizard manifested through occult means,
makes a nest in the spire of the Chrysler Building and unleashes mayhem
on the Big Apple. Cult filmmaker par excellence Cohen once again turns
his joyfully creative eye to 1980s city life, stealing shots on the
street, juxtaposing fantastic murder with small-time crime, and sneaking
in some blunt but effective political commentary. Q borrows from the
creature-feature B-movie tradition, while also revelling in the sparky
interplay between Moriarty’s jittery Quinn and Carradine’s cool, calm
detective Shepard. The archive’s original UK release print of Cohen’s
film is a little worn, but otherwise shows good detail and colour.
Time Out review:
A plumed serpent ('Whaddya mean? That fuckin' bird?') is nesting in the
top of the Chrysler Building, from where it swoops and gobbles up
hapless New Yorkers. Cop David Carradine and robber Michael Moriarty form an uneasy
alliance to flush out the beast. This is the kind of movie that used to
be indispensable to the market: an imaginative, popular, low-budget
picture that makes the most and more of its limited resources, and in
which people get on with the job instead of standing around talking
about it. Cohen knows there isn't the time or money to question the
logic of anything, so he keeps his assembly so fast and deft that we're
prepared to swallow whatever he tells us; and his script has much droll
fun with a plot that keeps losing things ('Maybe his head just got loose
and fell off'). He also gets great performances from Carradine as the
cop who treats it all as part of a day's work, and (especially) Moriarty
as the jittery criminal whose 15 minutes of fame ('I'm just asking for a
Nixon-like pardon') leave him wondering if on some days it's better
just to stay home in bed. We have no hesitation in awarding Oscars all
round.
Chris Peachment
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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