| Out of Mind (***¾) The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft | ||||
| Produced by: Ciné Qua Non Films, 56 mins | ||||
| Director and scriptwriter: Raymond Saint-Jean | ||||
Stating that film/TV adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's works have been uneven would be a tad of an understatement. The full
range of such productions are discussed in some detail here. Suffice it to say that few
have captured the Lovecraftian atmosphere or rewarded us with more than a standard schlock-fest. Fewer still have made any
attempt to focus on Lovecraft's early dream tales. Nonetheless, a lot of money has been thrown at Lovecraft films over the
years. Now comes a small, Montreal-based film company, specializing in French language high-brow documentaries, and pulls
it off. Maybe not quite the miracle of industrial training film veteran Herk Harvey, and his classic
Carnival of Souls (1962), but certainly a peg up on the Hollywood-version of Lovecraft.
I first saw Out of Mind on the BRAVO! NEWSTYLEARTS CHANNEL here in
Canada, but had missed the beginning. There, in what appeared to be a 30s-era newsreel, was H.P. Lovecraft, uncomfortable
and uneasy, gaunt and pasty, speaking in an educated 19th century New England accent, displaying socially awkward mannerisms,
and sitting at a desk talking about his work. I'd read a lot about Lovecraft, and had never heard any mention of him ever
having been filmed, but the illusion was so well done, that it had me thinking, just for a second, that somebody had dug up
some long-lost footage of Lovecraft. It is part of this attention to detail, for example the use of material drawn directly
from Lovecraft's voluminous body of letters in the newsreel monologue that really places this portion of the film a cut above.
What is also fascinating about the film is that it seamlessly melds a documentary about Lovecraft, actual Lovecraft story
segments, and a early-Lovecraft-inspired plot of its own into a fascinating immersion into the Lovecraftian world. Without
being didactic, it introduces us to Lovecraft the person (which through the brilliant characterization of Christopher Heyerdahl
is as close as anyone today will come to meeting H.P.L.), and to the major concepts and objects of Lovecraft's fictional
world. Of course, for the Lovecraft cognoscenti, there's lots of in-jokes, a lawyer named Angells, a Professor Armitage, and
so on. A couple of Old Ones or parts thereof do show up all burbling and viscous, but the filmmakers keep their on-screen
time very short, presenting them rather matter-of-factly, so the movie is clearly not an attempt to gross anybody
out. The plot revolves around a modern day artist who inherits a copy of the Necronomicon, reads from it (will they never learn!)
and begins a series of nightmare excursions into his familial past -- to say more would spoil the best and funniest
scene of the film, from the dream meeting of Carter and Lovecraft. The end of the film, while not inconsistent with the
plot thread, is a bit abrupt and inconclusive about some things, but this is probably in large part due to the more art-film
than Hollywood feel to the movie.
The filming locations... wow! the filmmakers obvious put a great deal of care into choosing them. Some scenes were done in the
financial district of Old Montreal, some apparently around a pine plantation in the Laurentians region north of Montreal, some
in an old brick-walled basement turned artist's studio. But where they filmed the scenes of Randolph Carter going to
visit Prof. Armitage -- double wow! -- the house from the outside just oozes 20s old Ivy League professor's quarters... albeit
I'm not sure Miskatonic University was ever admitted into the Ivy League. The inside of the house is gorgeous, oak panelling,
opulent early 20th century university decor... the inset bookcases with the moldering leather bound tomes, everything just
right... just as Lovecraft would have been exposed to in his time. I also appreciated the fact that, in most scenes, the filmmakers
did not create the perfectly arranged home/location one sees in Hollywood films... when Carter goes down to
the basement of Dr. Armitage's home, there are poorly tacked down wires sticking out from the baseboard, some old paint cans on a
dusty shelf, clearly giving the impression of a lived-in home, largely done, I presume, by leaving well enough alone and simply
not messing with the filming site. The Lurker website dedicated to film and TV adaptations of Lovecraft,
gives Out of Mind its highest rating, stating: "This is one of the highest ratings we have given a film yet. It is very
gratifying to see a serious treatment of Lovecraft and the world he created." I heartily concur, and hope this film, originally
released in 1998, gets a lot more exposure that it has so far. People at Ciné Qua Non Films directed me to the following
specialized video store for orders or to pick up a copy (VHS Tape) on site:
Georges Dodds is a research scientist in vegetable crop physiology, who for close to 25 years has read and collected close to 2000 titles of predominantly pre-1950 science-fiction and fantasy, both in English and French. He writes columns on early imaginative literature for WARP, the newsletter/fanzine of the Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association and maintains a site reflecting his tastes in imaginative literature. | ||||
 
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