10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliantly Woven Experience, December 22, 2008
This review is from: The H.P. Lovecraft Collection, Vol. 3: Out of Mind (DVD)
Highly recommended to HP Lovecraft fans. Christopher Heyerdahl plays HP Lovecraft in this wonderfully folded in on itself story within a story, dream within a dream within a dream. The best moments to me are those of Heyerdahl doing monologues in a remarkable impersonation of Lovecraft himself.
The story springs from the monologue by Lovecraft in his beliefs and motivations and then zooms to the future where Randolph Carter comes into his inheritance - the Necronomicon. And then starts flipping in time from there into a pre-history to the modern segments.
But that oversimplifies the constant folding of the story line and characters as they themselves start to meet and try to unravel who is dreaming who.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A real masterpiece, May 5, 2005
I have no doubt that, along with Carpenter's "In the mouth of madness", "Out of mind" is the masterpiece in the weird and fascinating field of the so-called Lovecraftian cinema, being in itself an excellent homage to the man and writer who now peacefully rests at Swan Point Cemetery. It doesn't have the visionary and apocalyptic qualities of Carpenter's movie, but it really expresses the sense of the world and, I dare say, the philosophy conceived by H.P. Lovecraft.
"Out of mind" deals with dreams and reality, life and art, fictional characters meeting their author, in a surprisingly subtle, intelligent and unprecedented way (at least as far as Lovecraft is concerned). Some sequences are really worth of their literary model, even if the movie can't be considered a real adaptation of any of Lovecraft's tales. Seeing the magnificent Heyerdahl playing (somehow "being") Lovecraft, speaking his own words and in his own accent, always leaves me happily amazed. The final sequence is particularly unforgettable and, in a very peculiar way, touching, especially if one, like me, spent some minutes in front of the real grave of Mr. Lovecraft in Providence, RI.
As always in Lurker Films, the dvd is rich in other short movies (John Strysik's "The Music of Erich Zann", a kind of classic in the genre, would deserve another review...), audio comments (two comments for "Out of mind"!), trailers, etc., not to say the most interesting interview with S.T. Joshi. "The Call of Cthulhu" trailer is specially beautiful and funny. By the way, in the useful and well-written booklet of the dvd you find the name Cthulhu written "Cthuhlu": it's not a problem, but maybe in future editions this little mistake could be corrected.
Luca C. Foffano (Milan, Italy)
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent and entertaining look at Lovecraft & his works., April 12, 2005
This third collection by Lurker Films has the wonderful Television biography episode shown on Bravo! Canada entitled Out of Mind: The Stories of H. P. Lovecraft. The film seamlessly melds a documentary about Lovecraft with elements of actual Lovecraft storys, and a Lovecraft inspired plot of its own. The result is an excellent sampler of the Lovecraftian world. The disc also contains a couple of audio commentaries which were ok, trailers for upcoming films, interviews, and a few shorts the best of which is The Music of Erich Zann. Recommended.
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