The premise was interesting enough but the execution was pretty bad, as were some of the performances (though Alexandra Stewart was okay). I guess if you have a fascination with Dutch/German productions in the English language, with Hitchcockian-like stories, this might be worth checking out, if only for the oddball nature.
Obsessions
(1969)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Cult Epics | NR – 91 min. – $34.95 | May 9, 2017
Date Published: 05/13/2017 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE — 2.25/5 |
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Obsessions (aka A Hole in the Wall aka Bezeten – Het gat in de muur) is a Dutch-German thriller from 1969 that is, to say the least, obscure, and probably only would catch a cinephiles eye due to the fact it was co-written by a young Martin Scorsese. The film certainly has Hitchcockian vibes with the story but the finished product is amateurish at best, plodding and overdrawn at worst.
The plot revolves around Nils Janssen (DIETER GEISSLER), a young man studying, although we never actually see him do so, to be a doctor. He lives in a studio apartment along a canal and has a beautiful girlfriend, Marina (ALEXANDRA STEWART) who works as a news reporter. At movie’s opening, a Vincent van Gogh painting falls from Nils’ wall, a small hole opens up with a small view to the next door apartment. Before you know it, Nils has become obsessed with the strange goings-on, not to mention some hot-and-heavy love making. Yep, our main protagonist is a peeping Tom. With suspicious things happening, Nils decides to break in (using some sort of master key; not sure how that worked as there’s a scene of him getting keys made) and inside discovers a nude young woman tied to a showerhead in a tub of water. He inspects the situation, finds some sort of substance and has it tested, later finding psychedelic drugs.
Meanwhile, there’s a side story with Marina as she turns into an investigative reporter after a U.S. serviceman is found dead and a woman Marina once interviewed is suspected of the crime. As you can imagine, the two plot lines connect (albeit clumsily). On the surface, I did find the plot for Obsessions to be intriguing. There were certain shades of Alfred Hitchcock here from Nils who definitely resembles Norman Bates to faked deaths and suspense-filled scenes such as one where Nils nearly being caught. Heck, Alexandra Stewart reminded me of Grace Kelly in Rear Window, getting more involved with Nils’ obsession with his neighbor; still odd that Marina wasn’t concerned with her bae being a peeping Tom…
Obsessions was co-written and directed by Pim De La Parra, a Dutch filmmaker whom I honestly never heard of and despite what could’ve been a half decent thriller, featured choppy editing, some poor performances and downright bad scriptwriting, though Bernard Herrmann’s score did stand out. As I mentioned before, the only reason this is even known was because it features co-writing by Martin Scorsese when he was only 27 and very early in his career. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.5/5 |
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Introductions – You can watch intros from either Dieter Gessler or Pim de la Parra. Interviews:
The first two are new interviews conducted especially for Cult Epics and are fairly expansive, both Geissler and de la Parra discuss their respective works on not only Obsessions but their careers on the whole. Scorpio Films (4:02; HD) is an excerpt from a documentary about the studio which produced Obsessions. Original Script Notes by Martin Scorsese is a text feature/gallery where you can read some of his notes for the movie. Theatrical Trailer (2:55; HD) Obsessions Photo Video Gallery (2:04; HD) |
VIDEO – 3.25/5 |
| This release, coming from Cult Epics, sports a new 1080p high-definition transfer culled from the original 35mm film. While this isn’t a very color-filled picture, in fact its drab in places, I did find detail to look fairly sharp and outside of some minor instances of scratch marks, as well as slight film damage, this is a respectable enough transfer. For a low budget film that’s closing in on 50 years old, it’s doubtful it’ll look any better without some studio putting in more work (and money) for a larger restoration. |
AUDIO – 2.25/5 |
| The disc comes with a standard Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track which is serviceable but hardly great. Dialogue came through well enough but along with that there was noise, pops and other imperfections. Obviously for a oddball 1960s thriller, I wouldn’t expect much and this delivered on the low expectations. |
OVERALL – 2.5/5 |
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Overall, the premise was interesting enough but the execution was pretty bad, as were some of the performances (though Alexandra Stewart was okay). I guess if you have a fascination with Dutch/German productions in the English language, with Hitchcockian-like stories, this might be worth checking out, if only for the oddball nature. This Blu-ray released through Cult Epic offers decent video, adequate audio and a fair selection of bonus features. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.