Sinister Cinema THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH

Raven Banner Sinister Cinema The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh May 9, 2013 GAT PR Press Summary

Interview: Aaron Poole, “The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh” Leslie James May 9, 2013 10:39:52 AM

http://www.680news.com/2013/05/09/interview-­‐aaron-­‐poole-­‐the-­‐last-­‐will-­‐and-­‐testament-­‐of-­‐rosalind-­‐leigh/

If you’re up for a special scare, the Sinister Cinema series continues at 9:30 p.m. May 9 at select Cineplex theatres. Film critic Leslie James spoke with actor Aaron Poole about “The Last Will and Testament Of Rosalind Leigh.”

Poole, along with writer-­‐director Rodrigo Gudiño, will be at the Cineplex Odeon at Yonge and Dundas Square in Toronto. http://pmd.680news.com/podcasts/news_features/Aaron-­‐Poole-­‐ interview_News-­‐feature_2013-­‐05-­‐09.mp3

Motor City on fire in Burn http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/05/02/motor_city_on_fire_in_burn.html

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH: A handsomely mounted thriller that marks the feature debut of Rue Morgue publisher turned filmmaker Rodrigo Gudino, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh makes its hometown premiere as part of Sinister Cinema, Raven Banner and Cineplex’s new program of fresh horror flicks. Gudino’s tale of the macabre — narrated by none other than Vanessa Redgrave — plays six local Cineplex theatres on May 9 at 9:30 p.m. with an additional screening to follow May 10 at the Yonge-­‐ Dundas location

Well, this is unexpected Toronto’s newest rep cinema, brought to you by Cineplex

By NORMAN W ILNER

http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=192478

When AMC bugged out of Canada last year, industry watchers fretted about what would happen now that Cineplex had essentially no competition on the megaplex front. (Empire Theatres and Rainbow Cinemas operate on a far smaller scale.) Would Cineplex go mad with power? Would smaller movies be shut out of the running entirely? What about the children?

It’s turned out surprisingly well. Cineplex did snap up a number of AMC houses, including the downtown Yonge-­‐Dundas 24, but for the most part the new owners haven’t interfered with the business model. The programming is a mixture of studio blockbusters and smaller titles, with a scattering of Indian and Asian films in exclusive Toronto runs. And over the past few months, Cineplex has quietly turned Auditorium 16 into a repertory theatre. They call it the Event Screen.

Admission for most screenings is just six dollars, though Saturday morning children’s features are only $2.50. (Premium prices are in effect for special presentations like the Sinister Cinema horror screenings, which currently features The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh.)

There are music docs, themed series – this month, it’s “Romance Me,” with William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and Amélie, and “Vegas Baby,” offering Honeymoon In Vegas, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, Swingers and the original Ocean’s 11 – and revivals of classics like Roman Holiday and Full Metal Jacket. The new HD restoration of Cleopatra will screen at 2:30 pm on May 22, in advance of its Blu-­‐ray release on the 28th.

The recent Tragically Hip documentary Bobcaygeon screens this week in the “Mostly Music” series; next week, it’s Bachman & Turner: Live At The Roseland Ballroom NYC, with Randy Bachman himself in attendance for the May 17 show. And on May 14 and 28, Ryerson sociology professor Murray Pomerance will discuss Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation in the “Film 101” series.

The May schedule (PDF link) looks remarkably like a rep-­‐cinema pullout from the glory days of the Bloor, before its reinvention as a documentary venue. And maybe that’s the point; in the 21st century, the repertory theatre as we knew it can only survive within the host body of a corporate megaplex. Who’d have imagined we’d end up here?

Film Friday: Room 237, Graceland, The Great Gatsby and more A quick scan of new releases in theatres this week Compiled By NOW STAFF

http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=192476

The Last W ill and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (Rodrigo Gudiño) is a horror film about an antiques collector (Toronto’s Aaron Poole) who inherits a house from his estranged mother only to discover that she had been living in a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult. 82 min.

Opens May 9 at Coliseum Mississauga, Colossus, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, SilverCity Fairview, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for tim es.

CTV film critic Jim Gordon reviewed the film, showed clips -­‐ no archive available online

ENTERTAINMENT

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh challenges horror conventions Haunted house film is first from director Rodrigo Gudiño

By Sean Plummer, May 8, 2013 http://entertainment.ca.msn.com/movies/features/the-­‐last-­‐will-­‐and-­‐testament-­‐of-­‐rosalind-­‐leigh-­‐ challenges-­‐horror-­‐conventions

The old filmmaking adage ‘never work with children or animals’ apparently extends to never filming with them in the same house.

It is a point illustrated by an anecdote related by Marco Pecota, producer of the haunted house film The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh. Director Rodrigo Gudiño’s feature debut,

about the strange goings-­‐on in a haunted house, was shot in an odd west end Toronto home, which Pecota describes as “basically a museum in house form.”

But the owner, oddly, refused to vacate herself, her children, or her animals for the duration of the nineteen days of filming. Instead, they settled into an unused section of the house. That strange circumstance, Pecota says, led to an unusually quiet shoot. “‘Is the pigeon sleeping? Okay: roll sound!’”

Fittingly, perhaps, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is an unusual kind of horror film, one that eschews gore and jump scares in favour of what Gudiño calls a “slow burn” and a “literary” approach to the genre that “kind of naturally comes out of me.”

The literary aspect makes sense. Gudiño made his name as the publisher of Rue Morgue, an award-­‐winning Toronto-­‐based magazine that explores horror “in culture and entertainment,” according to its front cover mission statement. Instead of concentrating on film set visits and graphic photography, like its main competitor Fangoria, Rue Morgue boasts arguably a more intellectual approach to the macabre, with articles about film, yes, but also art, music, travel, and history. (Disclosure: I am a long-­‐time friend of Gudiño and have written for Rue Morgue since shortly after its founding in 1997.)

But Gudiño’s ambitions were not limited to the magazine world. In 2006, he segued from publishing into filmmaking, directing a trio of acclaimed horror shorts, all released under the Rue Morgue Cinema shingle. (He also co-­‐directed the surreal “In the Dark” video for Toronto dark pop band The Birthday Massacre.)

Then a 2009 press release announced that the Mexican-­‐born but Mississauga, ON-­‐raised director’s full-­‐length feature debut would be a remake of 1972’s Cut-­‐Throats Nine, a hyper-­‐ violent Spanish western about a sergeant escorting a group of vicious convicts through a mountain pass who are set upon by even more vicious bandits. Danish superstar Mads Mikkelsen (TV’s Hannibal), American actor Harvey Keitel (Bad Lieutenant), and Canadian Roy Dupuis (The Rocket) were attached to star, with production set to start in early 2010.

But various obstacles, including finding the money to make it, prompted Gudiño, he says, to attempt something “not as ambitious” for his first feature. So he combed through his unproduced short films scripts for “seeds” which would inspire what became Rosalind Leigh. A shooting script was turned around in just three weeks in order to take advantage of funds from federal filmmaking agency Telefilm. A cast and crew were quickly assembled.

The resulting film casts Aaron Poole (This Beautiful City) as Leon Leigh, an antiques collector who inherits his estranged mother’s house after her death, only to discover that she had been part of an angel-­‐worshipping cult led by identical twins the Rahn Brothers (played by Cube’s Julian Richings). Meantime, several strange incidents lead Leon to think that he is being hunted by a creature which may or may not be real.

Gudiño’s history with Rue Morgue and the praise that has accrued to his short films guarantees Rosalind Leigh the attention of the horror community. But the film may find itself

attracting mainstream attention thanks to the casting of Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave (Julia).

She narrates the film, providing the voice of Leon’s mother, the titular Rosalind Leigh.

Gudiño says he was looking for “a very particular voice, someone who could evoke their presence without being seen.” Glenn Close and Angelica Huston were briefly considered before Gudiño heard Redgrave’s voice in an interview. He was convinced he had found his Rosalind.

“It was the voice of experience,” he says. “It had tragedy and a full life in it, and maybe a few cigarettes.”

Pecota and Gudiño got in touch with Redgrave through a casting director in London, England, with whom they had recently worked. Pecota says she liked the script, telling Gudiño it was “a piece of poetry.” Recording took place in New York under Gudiño’s supervision.

Asked about what seems to be a casting coup for a low-­‐budget Canadian film from a first-­‐time director, Pecota says simply: “You don’t get it if you don’t ask for it.”

While Poole and Redgrave never met, the “spoiled” relationship between their characters forms the twisted heart of Rosalind Leigh’s story.

“The bond between a mother and a son, or a mother and a daughter, is probably the strongest, because you were physically tied to this person at one point, which never happens, unless you’re a Siamese twin,” Gudiño says. “And it’s a very dramatic tie, I think, for most of us.”

The director, who grew up Catholic, plays down notions that the religious aspect of his upbringing perhaps influenced the film’s creation.

“I’ve always thought religious horror films are always creepy,” he says. “God can be as creepy as the Devil, if not more so. And when you have an angel... It’s a very ambivalent image because on the one hand it’s a helper – it’s supposed to show you to the light or whatnot; it’s a very positive force – but on the other, if you don’t accept it, there’s a punishment. It can be very dreadful as well.”

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh plays select Canadian theatres on May 9 as part of Cineplex’s Sinister Cinema initiative. Look for the film soon on DVD and Blu-­‐ray through Anchor Bay Entertainment.

World FM Edmonton -­‐ interviewed with director Rodrigo Gudino – Not archive available online

Exclusive

5 Questions With 'The Last Will And Testament Of Rosalind Leigh' Director Rodrigo Gudino http://bloody-­‐disgusting.com/news/3232152/5-­‐questions-­‐with-­‐rodrigo-­‐gudino/

Rodrigo Gudino‘s The Last W ill and Testament of Rosalind Leigh, stars Aaron Poole and Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave, is the epitome of a slow burn movie. Taking place in largely one location, it’s a haunting (literally) tale of a mother and son being divided even in the afterlife.

I recently hopped on the phone with Gudino to talk about the film’s inception, how he found the house it takes place in (which is a character unto itself) and the coup of landing Vanessa Redgrave for the project.

“The film centers on an antiques collector who inherits a house from his estranged mother only to discover that she had been living in a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult of angels. As night falls, he comes to suspect that his mother’s oppressive spirit still lingers within her home and is using items in the house – especially the statues of angels – to contact him with an urgent message.”

The film hits Canadian cinemas today. Head inside for the interview!

How did you segue into filmmaking from Rue M orgue and how did you settle on this being the story you wanted to tell?

I started Rue Morgue about 15 years ago and even at the beginning I wanted to get into film, it was sort of my introduction to the industry. And then I started making shorts in 2006 to just get a feel for making films, obviously I was an editor and a publisher before that. Those shorts were my very first time before the camera.

My producer approached me with this project and asked if I could write something in a specific budget range and TeleFilm Canada, which is one of the funding bodies for this country, was interested in finding something for me. So I wrote it at a breakneck speed, in like 3 weeks.

As far as where it comes from, I took some ideas from short films I hadn’t made. I wanted to experiment. I actually pitched the movie as one guy in a house, and for the rest of the movie you don’t see anybody. It’s a very psychological film and I wanted to experiment with what the audience is expecting and perceiving.

As well as telling a scary story.

The location is also a character in the film.

When I was writing the script I needed to write around the location because it’s very precise, there are camera moves written around the location. So I needed to find something first. I started looking around Toronto and I was kind of influenced by Stanley Kubrick who shot everything a few miles from his house, even Full Metal Jacket, and looking around my neighborhood there were plenty of interesting things. Sure enough this house came up and the family, a mother and her two kids who lived there, were collectors and they had an eccentric side. And I fell in love with the house obviously and added it to the story.

I messed around with the house a little bit and added walls, the geography you see in the film isn’t the exact geography of the house. We needed a big environment and the house fit that perfectly.

If you’re going to have a substantial amount of voiceover in your film you could do worse than Vanessa Redgrave. How did you manage to get her involved?

As you’re saying, the film has quite a bit of voiceover. I needed somebody who could really emote and carry the lines, it’s not just a matter of saying the lines I needed someone who could carry the emotion.

The film is a haunted house/ghost film, but at its heart it’s a movie about a broken relationship between a mother and her son. I really needed a certain amount of pain and pathos. I really fell in love with her voice and I got the script to her and she liked it enough to be a part of the project, which is pretty amazing.

How did you work to establish the relationship between Aaron Poole’s character [Leon] and Rosalind, since they’re not in the same room [exactly]?

The emphasis is sort of not on communicating and not making contact, so I didn’t have any of the voiceover of the Rosalind Leigh character during Aaron’s shoot. He’s sort of in his own world and he’s trying to rationalize himself through this night of bizarre occurrences.

And how did you settle on the element of the cult Rosalind has in her past?

The main thing is, religion drove these two people apart. And this is common, I think. It’s certainly something I’ve experienced on a personal level. Religion in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, it’s just the way its wielded. And this religious group isn’t necessarily good or bad, it’s sort of right on that line and the viewer has to determine exactly what it is they were doing. The mystery of the cult is more interesting to me than spelling stuff out.

Interviewed director Rodrigo Gudino -­‐ will appear in special horror issue – out July 24

Review: The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh http://www.horror-­‐movies.ca/2013/04/review-­‐the-­‐last-­‐will-­‐and-­‐testament-­‐of-­‐rosalind-­‐leigh/ In a world where horror movies tend to be ugly, devoid of color and lacking any visual appeal beyond boobs and blood; The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is a breath of fresh air that captures the eye with beautiful layers of imagery. However, is Rosalind Leigh all show and no go? Read on to find out!

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is the first feature length film by director Rodrigo Gudino who also handled the writing duties. The film follows Leon (Aaron Poole), a young antiques collector, who returnsto his estranged mother's home after her passing. Inevitably the night grows dark and Leon soon suspects he might not be alone in the house.

Rosalind Leigh is part ghost story and part psychological thriller, straddling the line between the two elements it manages to tell a tale that keeps you guessing. Is Leon crazy? Are there ghosts and demons running amok? The film deftly maneuvers between the two ideas and leaves you wondering up until the very end.

How these ideas are conveyed is also something that should be commended. While Leon is our main character, he actually has very little to say throughout the film. Instead we get the meat of our story from a narrator. At first it's a little off putting because so much of the story is told this way, but as the film plays out the reason for the narrator becomes clear and even adds a sort of depth to the story. By the time the film hits its climax, the narration comes full-­‐circle in a way that is impactful for the viewer.

It should also be mentioned that Leon is primarily the only character we see on screen. This leads to long moments of quiet solitude where Aaron Poole must convey a lot of emotion and depth without really saying anything at all. It would be a challenging role for any actor, but Aaron manages to pull it off. He makes Leon a sympathetic individual by displaying a lot of vulnerability in key scenes. It's the kind of thing that's so small and seemingly insignificant, but if it hadn't been there the audience would be completely disconnected from the character.

I touched on this in the beginning, but I just want to reiterate how beautiful this film is. When Leon first enters the house in the daytime, it's aesthetically pleasing. Everywhere Leon looks, there are statuettes of angels and naturalistic decorations that make it look like the outside is bleeding in. It's a beautiful mess that makes sense when you consider the state of mind Leon's mother was in.

However, when it becomes dark, all of these beautiful and serene images take on a menacing shape as their shadows and silhouettes in the background make you constantly think you're seeing things that aren't there. It's a clever way of bringing the audience into Leon's state of mind. Is there really something in the darkness? Or is it your imagination?

The lighting is also done in a way that helps to not only enhance the story, but make the film visually appealing. Deep shadows and whitewashed tones serve to create stark contrasts that highlight underlying themes in the story and create visual tension. It's also not overly used, so when these scenes pop up it immediately grabs your attention.

I should warn you, if you're looking for intense scares you won't find them here. Rosalind Leigh is chilling and provides a few jump scares, but what it does best is make you feel uneasy. This isn't the kind of movie that'll keep you up all night thinking about the boogeyman under the bed. Instead, you might be up thinking about the bitter reality of loneliness and regret. It's the sort of movie that plays on real emotional fears that we all have, but utilizes abstract terrors to invoke those feelings.

Bottom Line: The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is a quiet piece of horror that says a lot about human relationships. If you like your horror to be more subtle and personal rather than brutal and violent, this film is for you.

Release: Nationwide in Canada on May 9th Director/Writer: Rodrigo Gudino Cast: Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Richings, Charlotte Sullivan, Stephen Eric Mcintyre, Mitch Markowitz

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH (Review) THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH (2013) Directed by Rodrigo Gudiño Starring Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Richings, Charlotte Sullivan, Stephen Eric Mcintyre, Mitch Markowitz

review by AARON ALLEN ,http://horrorinthehammer.blogspot.ca/2013/05/the-­‐last-­‐will-­‐and-­‐testament-­‐of-­‐rosalind.html

“It's quiet. Too quiet."

We've all heard that cheesy movie line at least once in our lives or something approximating it. When it comes to the topic of contemplative, slow-­‐burn horror films, I for one enjoy a little quietness in my horror films. Not every fright film needs to be big, loud, and bloated with smash cuts and shaky on-­‐the-­‐run POV footage. But then again, there's also such a thing as a horror film being tooquiet. The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh, the debut film from Rue Morguepublisher Rodrigo Gudiño, is so quiet that it might as well be whispering. It barely makes an impression, and when it does it's almost impossible to make out.

Whatever you do, don't blink.

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh opens with some real cinematic promise. As the dearly departed Rosalind Leigh, Vanessa Redgrave reels us in with an eerily disembodied opening narration about death, the frailty of faith, and the crushing weight of loss while a roaming camera creeps over her beautiful old house adorned with a staggering collection of antiques and relics including broken dolls, stained-­‐glass windows, gargoyle statues, suits of armor, and most importantly a host of stone angels. Into this house steps Leon Leigh (Aaron Poole) who has inherited his mother's home after a very long period of estrangement. Settling himself uneasily into the home he left long ago after his father's death and his own subsequent rejection of his mother's Faith, Leon comes to realize that his mother's soul may still linger in the house and her shrine to a mysterious angel cult may hold the key (figuratively and literally) to her final urgent message. Eerie happenings, visions, and general weirdness ensue. What starts as a very (and I meanvery) slow burn of dread eventually turns into a fizzle of indifference as the film becomes lost in its own self-­‐indulgent camera work and a ill-­‐advised, prematurely induced "twist" ending that is ambiguous to the point of rendering the whole plot moot.

Home is where the haunt is As an atheist with deeply buried agnostic tendencies, I found myself superficially hooked by the beautiful yet creepy Christian iconography in which The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is steeped. Even in my Sunday School days, I've never found the concept of angels very comforting, and when they're rendered so absolutely and emphatically in stone statues they're particularly unnerving. Like angels, Faith itself is a terrifying proposition for the atheist, as it is for Leon, who steadfastly rejects his mother's posthumous pleas to BELIEVE. Exquisitely excessive set dressings and pitch-­‐perfect sound design help drive home the spiritual subtext. If only the script had more substance and the story a more judicious pace

While I contemplated napping, we watch Leon go on tapping, forever gently rapping, tapping on his small key board 30 minutes in, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh proves itself to be a substantial disappointment. The story is fraying at the seams because it's so thinly stretched. The pace is sluggish, to put it nicely. From the very start, the film's baffling attempt to avoid substance while allowing Gudiño to overkill the mood and atmosphere provides the audience with enough rope to hang themselves once they've reach their limit on the number of times they can sit through another scene of Leon walking around the house following sounds that go nowhere and looking at things that seem to bear only fragmentary meaning. Clearly, a healthy dose of mystery can help instill a film with intrigue and a life beyond the frame, but you need to make something happen in the frame for us to care about first. Film is a visual medium for telling stories, after all. No one's going to accuse The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh of being visually dull. It's just that pesky story part that really needs work.

I bet Leon really misses hanging with his mom I don't understand why The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is so grudgingly slow. You could cut a solid 20 minutes of this film, and it could still establish a satisfyingly contemplative tone and preserve its most effective creepy moments and confrontations, as sparse as they may be. Even the film's theme about Faith and loneliness could retain enough presence to justify cutting a lot of the repetitive scenes and languidly long camera pans. Then why all the filler? Oh, why ask why?

Put your faith in this: despite a thoughtful idea and beautiful production values, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh will test your patience.

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh Directed & Written by Rodrigo Gudiño, Canada, 2012 David Fiore

http://www.soundonsight.org/the-­‐last-­‐will-­‐and-­‐testament-­‐of-­‐rosalind-­‐leigh-­‐lays-­‐ bare-­‐the-­‐landscape-­‐of-­‐loss/

There are, broadly speaking, two types of haunted house stories: those in which some more or less innocent stranger gets caught in the middle of some festering saga of ancient wrong, and those in which the ectoplasmic chickens of past personal wrongdoing come home to roust some more or less guilty party from his or her comfort zone. The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh, audaciously, fits both descriptions – and neither of them.

Written and directed by Rue Morgue magazine publisher Rodrigo Gudiño, this subtle horror film eschews the full frontal theatrics one generally associates with the genre, opting instead for a psychological pincer movement that captures the viewer in a chilling crossfire of intergenerational dread and regret. Gudiño’s two-­‐pronged tale examines the smashed remains of a once-­‐loving mother and son relationship from both sides of the grave. The carefully constructed film couples a tensely dramatized presentation of antique collector Leon Leigh’s (Aaron Poole) angst-­‐ridden night in the house he has just inherited with the grief-­‐stricken voice-­‐over lament of its recently-­‐departed owner (the eponymous Rosalind Leigh, heartbreakingly brought to life-­‐in-­‐death by Vanessa Redgrave).

Poole brings a wonderfully defiant vulnerability to his difficult role, which calls for him to play most of his scenes opposite the decaying relics of his troubled childhood, more recent audio-­‐visual reminders of the forces that wrought such havoc in his family, and a variety of disembodied voices (some heard, and some only vaguely felt, on telephones, slipping around heavy doors and whispering plaintively from a place that Leon refuses to believe in). There are innumerable terrors lurking in the shadows of this Val Lewton-­‐like dark night of the soul, but the worst of them emanate from the focal point of an angel statuette that doubles as the tombstone of Leon and Rosalind’s emotional connection.

An insightful study of the damaging effects of religious fanaticism, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh deviates sharply from the path signposted by genre classics like DePalma’s Carrie. By refusing to treat his angel-­‐obsessed narrator as a pure-­‐and-­‐simple monster (and his protagonist as merely a victim of abuse), Gudiño is able to pose some unnervingly universal questions – i.e. how important is it that the ones we love believe as we do? How much responsibility do we bear for refusing to engage the imaginative lives of the people we care about? And can any of the stark satisfactions of certainty ever truly make up for missing out on the nebulous knowledge that only comes from reaching out to another?

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH -­‐ Review By Greg Klymkiw -­‐ Raven Banner's delectable "Sinister Cinema" series returns to Cineplex Entertainment's Front Row Centre Events All Across Canada with "Rue Morgue" founder and publisher Rodrigo Gudiño's feature debut http://klymkiwfilmcorner.blogspot.ca/2013/05/the-­‐last-­‐will-­‐and-­‐testament-­‐of-­‐rosalind.html

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012) *** Dir. Rodrigo Gudiño Starring: Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Richings

Review By Greg Klymkiw

A voice from the dead -­‐ at times determined, at others tremulous -­‐ cascades through the large, dark and cluttered house as if it were a living, breathing, moving thing. It is as much a will and testament as it is a warning -­‐ infused with portent -­‐ rendered for the benefit of one who's been gone for too long, but has now appeared to both claim and dispense with a lifetime of worldly goods.

You, Sir, will spend the night.

Alone.

This is perhaps not the wisest move when, in life, you broke away from your mother for the longest time and have returned, after her death, to profit from an antique-­‐filled treasure trove. You're riddled with memories of a difficult childhood past, a strained relationship, a fundamentalist -­‐ nay, downright fanatical upbringing. As much as you want to rid yourself of all the things that bring back flashes of a pain long-­‐repressed, your mere presence in this, your recently deceased mother's house, infuses you with second thoughts, upon second thoughts.

You will slowly seek truth, but if the truth finds you first, it could kill you.

And, dear sir, there appears to be a creature you don't want to mess with.

Suffice it to say that Rue Morgue Magazine's founder/publisher Rodrigo Gudiño has crafted an unexpectedly restrained genre picture for his feature length debut as a director. Restraint in horror can be a very good thing and The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is nothing if not restrained. Fans used to a preponderance of gore, lightning bolt pacing and an emphasis upon cheap shock tactics will be less than enthralled, but if patient, many of the film's rewards will creep up on them and bite them most indelicately on the ass.

That said and in spite of the picture's considerable virtues, it would only be fair to point out that the film is saddled with a few elements that don't quite gel. In terms of narrative and pace, the film takes a profound dip in its middle portion. We're treated to a slow, measured and riveting first act and a final act that delivers very nicely in the drawer-­‐filling department. Part of the problem stems, I think, in Gudiño's screenplay. Not adequately tying the central character Leon (Aaron Poole) to his late Mother's mania (or at least rooting it more firmly within the mise-­‐en-­‐scene) is something the film has a hard time shaking. This is one of the causes for the movie to sag in its second act.

Another problem is the house itself. An exterior shot reveals a standard and seemingly (or at least relatively) modern suburban home. Once

inside, the decor of the structure itself shrieks modern or at least, modern reno. As well, many of the set decorations and props feel out of place -­‐ either in and of themselves or within the context of the interior's physical structure and look. Given the character of Rosalind Leigh herself, the "antique pieces" are not (at least for this fella') reflective enough of who we think she is. When Leon steps into that house, we expect, but do not experience the kind of bygone atmosphere necessary for us to check our thought process at the door because the stately and (often) effective pace give us too much time to notice when touches like these are amiss. Where this hurts the film most is that it loses a lot of the "creepy" factor in the middle act that both the pace and narrative are begging for.

A major speed bump that keeps the movie from attaining stratospheric heights might seem unfair to level at Gudiño, since the picture is what it is at this point, but here goes. Maybe it's just me (I don't think so, though), but even genre-­‐bending efforts like this gain a whole lot more mileage when you have the presence of a female lead. A young, hot, preferably nightie-­‐and/or-­‐undie-­‐adorned babe is what I'm talkin' about here. Think Catherine Deneuve in Polanski's Repulsion, the final half hour of Ridley Scott's Alien and a goodly portion of one of my all-­‐time low budget faves, Richard Stanley's Hardware.

Just do the math:

Hot babe + monster/ghost/robot/weird-­‐shit = Unbeatable Combination.

Not that Gudiño's lead Aaron Poole doesn't acquit himself nicely -­‐ it's a finely textured performance, but changing the character to a woman and having a babe in the role would have worked wonders. Even when Polanski re-­‐imagined Repulsion as The Tenant and cast himself in the perverse twist on Deneuve's loner in the apartment role, he made damn sure to find numerous opportunities to slide the ravishing Isabel Adjani into the picture (in addition to putting himself in drag).

More math: Polanski in Drag + Hot French babe = DynOmite!!!

Not meaning to be a Philistine here, but I do think something changes when you have a woman in peril -­‐ not in a stereotypical, misogynist sense -­‐ but to actually address a myriad of issues within the framework of cinematic storytelling that ultimately allow for more compelling viewing. Then again, I always recall the hilarious story of a genuinely famous Canadian producer who once cautioned a young filmmaker about to embark upon his first feature with a litany of Old Country advice. It culminated with: "Goddamn son of bitch, you want to show man too much! Is not to my taste. Is to be truthful, very distasteful to have too much man. But I tell you something for sure, everybody like to see the woman. The man, he like to see the woman. And the woman, she like to see the woman too."

Sage words from a wise member of the Eastern European diaspora.

Aside from my aforementioned niggles, this is a worthwhile effort that signals a directorial talent we'll want to hear more from. In fact, Gudiño's displayed enough filmmaking savvy and chutzpah here to make you grateful you got in on his ground floor, so to speak. On the level of fashioning an ideal low budget movie, the screenplay cleverly approaches a few supporting roles that not only work perfectly within the context of the narrative, but allowed the filmmaking team to affordably cast and get a super performance from Vanessa Redgrave (not to mention fine work from the inimitable Julian Richings and Steven Eric McIntyre among others).

My dissatisfaction with the look of the house and its interiors notwithstanding, I was delighted with cinematographer Samy Inayeh's work. His compositions are first-­‐rate, his moves infused with grace and his lighting is both delectably and suitably moody. Frankly, I think there's a lot of latitude in his footage to go back into the colour timing suite and darken the picture substantially to deal with the less than stellar interior design.

Inayeh has done his bit to make the house's interiors look like Miss Haversham's home in David Lean'sGreat Expectations or the mysterious house the old crone in Val Lewton's Curse of the Cat People lives in, but he's only able to go so far and I'm really convinced one could safely heighten contrast whilst maintaining detail in a John Alton noir style. (By the way, every filmmaker, D.O.P. and production designer needs to read Alton's great book "Painting with Light".)

In any event, get thee hence to a Cineplex Entertainment complex near you and see this sucker on a big screen. It has the potential to look great in all manner of ancillary delivery formats, but it's going to be way more fun seeing it theatrically.

Full info on the Sinister Cinema series from Raven Banner below:

Raven Banner Launches Exciting Genre Film Series Across Canada by Greg Klymkiw Raven Banner, the exciting genre-­‐friendly company that specializes in strategic project management of innovative independent motion pictures is launching an extremely exciting series for genre fans in Canada. Sinister Cinema is a brand new monthly showcase of what promises to be some very cool horror movies. In addition to the movies, there will be a grand sense of showmanship allowing for added value goodies (consider it DVD/Blu-­‐Ray extras -­‐ LIVE at Big-­‐Screen venues). Personal appearances, Live Q & A's and exclusive pre-­‐recorded intros plus interviews are just some of the planned delights to enhance the movie-­‐going experience. The movies will screen at 25 Cineplex Entertainment screens across Canada.

Director Rodrigo Gudino on The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh

http://www.reviewsontherun.com/all/spotlight/director-­‐rodrigo-­‐gudino-­‐on-­‐the-­‐last-­‐will-­‐and-­‐testament-­‐of-­‐rosalind-­‐leigh-­‐2/

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh Directed by Rodrigo Gudino REVIEW S | FILM | M AY 08 2013 http://exclaim .ca/Reviews/Film /last_will_testim ony_of_rosalind_leigh-­‐ directed_by_rodrigo_gudino

By Scott A. Gray4 What this horror thriller lacks in tension, it also lacks in scares; however, writer/director Rodrigo Gudino confidently manages to infuse his film with an oppressive atmosphere of Catholic guilt.

It's kind of refreshing to see imagery from that morbid faith used in the service of fear, even if that fear is rather toothless. Aaron Poole (Killing Zelda Sparks) largely has the screen to himself as Leon, the son of Rosalind Leigh (Vanessa Redgrave), a severe woman who lived as a devout member of a strict angel cult.

We learn about Mrs. Leigh through the narration of what is presumably her will as Leon explores the

house she left him.

The spooky abode is cluttered with religious paraphernalia and a specific angel statue shakes loose a trickle of memories in Leon. Freaked out and dealing with childhood anxieties connected to his dead mother, he begins seeing things.

An undefined friend named Anna (Charlotte Sullivan, The Colony) is his lifeline to sanity. We only ever hear her voice on the phone, talking Leon down from hallucinatory panic attacks; in fact, other than a few brief spectral images of Rosalind Leigh, no other characters show their faces—no other human characters anyway.

For a movie with such obvious budgetary limitations, the creature effects are well done and smartly employed.

Whatever "it" is (every time a critic shares a spoiler, a baby auteur dies), we see just enough of not enough of it. This helps the picture gain a few pounds of creepiness in the home stretch but it's still nowhere near being menacing or freaky. Most of the film sluggishly inches by while Leon investigates mysterious VHS and cassette tapes left behind by his mother. Those tapes provide most of the exposition, as Gudino made the respectable decision of having Leon not be the sort of person that talks to himself.

That's what's frustrating about The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh: Gudino displays some promising instincts and his story is clearly very personal but overall the film feels cheap and flimsy in a distinctly Canadian way that a more assured aesthetician would have been able to overcome.

(Raven Banner)

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH Canada, Feature, Runtime: 80 minutes http://firstweekendclub.ca/site12/films/film-­‐database/item/the-­‐last-­‐will-­‐and-­‐testament-­‐of-­‐rosalind-­‐leigh

Director: Rodrigo Gudino Genre:Feature Release Date: Thursday, 09 May 2013 W riter: Rodrigo Gudino Producer: Marco Pecota Production: Rue Morgue Cinema Distribution: Raven Banner Entertainment IMDB:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2332831

CAST Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Richings, Stephen Eric McIntyre, Charlotte Sullivan, Mitch Markowitz

Publicity handled by GAT PR