King of the B's

The recent edition of the Locarno Film Festival inaugurated a new sidebar section, the King of the Bs, where the goal is to present innovative works that would qualify as B movies.

The section was inspired partly by the 1997 work "King of Bs, Working Within the Hollywood Section" from filmmaker Todd McCarthy, who is also a jury member this year. Marco Muller asked him to choose three films that were subversive in terms of filmmaking and thus the section began.

Ko-Rei fom Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan) follows one couple, who becomes embroiled in a kidnapping scandal of a child and are later haunted by his ghost. Un Giudice di rispetto (Outsider) from Walter Toschi (Italy) is set in the middle of the 70s, an era in which Italy was rife with political tension. One enterprising judge is transferred to a small village where he must confront Mafioso bands and political struggles. Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club from Rachel Samuels tells how, in the UK in 1899, a young and suicidal army captain created a "suicide club" that guaranteed its members a fatal exit.

Overall, this B series brings little to the genre that was not already seen in the 70s, in the days of double features. The first, Ko-Rei is essentially a spin-off of the recent success of Ring from Hideo Nakata; the second film, Un Giudice di rispetto, is so trite that might as well be a 70s thriller re-released with a new title. Fortunately, Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club, (despite the fact that it is a re-make of "Treasure Island" brings a much-needed freshness to the genre.

Rather than being faithful to the goal of seeking the newest in the genre, festival organizers opted instead to open King of the Bs to already established directors and producers. This plan may have been approved by the masses, but we can still wonder what might have motivated the selectors (perhaps the presence of Todd Mc Carthy at the festival?) to select such films. If Ko-Rei can be called a "respectable" fantasy film, it owes the praise to the reputation of its director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who in general moves characters and situations to the next level.

However, Un Giudice di rispetto is a diffrent story, a film which deserves to be in the "Z" category. What is worse is that the Bruno Matti lent his name and time to the editing, supervision and editing of this film. To be fair, the film was strong for the first half hour, but dismal afterward.


The saving grace of this sidebar was Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club, produced by Roger Corman, the man who first introduced us to the "Z" genre. Rachel Samuels' film marvellously exploits its tiny budget, making it a surprising B film in the classic gothic style.

This first edition of the King of the B's certainly gave the Locarno audience a better exposure to an otherwise unknown genre (and one which is usually forgotten entirely at such large festivals). One can only hope festival organizers hone their vision for next year's edition.

Christophe Pinol