Karloff, o mito*

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I'd like to leave you with a little story to think about as you drive home... through the darkness... Once upon a time, many, many years ago, a rich merchant in Baghdad sent his servant to the marketplace to buy provisions... and after a while the servant came back, white-faced and trembling, and said, 'Master, when I was in the marketplace, I was jostled by a woman in the crowd, and I turned to look, and I saw that it was Death that jostled me. And she looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Oh, master, please, lend me your horse, that I may ride away from this city and escape my fate. I will ride to Samarra and Death will not find me there.' So the merchant loaned him the horse and the servant mounted it, and dug his spurs into its flank, and as fast as the horse could gallop he rode towards Samarra. Then the merchant went to the market-place and he saw Death standing in the crowd and he said to her, 'Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?' And Death said, 'I made no threatening gesture - that was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him here in Baghdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight... in Samarra.'

*em Targets, de Bogdanovich, peça de tensão de uma potência desoladora, o Fuller parece que teve uma mãozinha no guião. É com o mito 'Karloff' que Bogdanovich "brinca", depois do Corman lhe dizer "pega, tens o Karloff durante uns dias e tens que usar imagens do meu último filme. Fá-lo barato!". Brinca a ponto de no fim, Bobby, o sniper, não saber se atinge o mito ou a pessoa, a imagem ou a carne. O resto, é a maneira como duas pessoas lidam com o vazio, aquilo que nos faz perguntar e decidir o que havemos de fazer a seguir. É possível fazer cinema com uns tostões furados. Mas não só cinema, cinema cheio de ideias: O plano final, do drive-in, só o carro do sniper, brilhante; a montagem final, construída como pirâmide, até às chapadas do Karloff, tau; Hawks e Bogdanovich, e outro plano, o zoom in em Karloff sob o signo da Morte (brincar com o mito, outra vez), em Criminal Code e a réplica do aprendiz, Bogdanovich, no plano em que Karloff profere as palavras em cima. Mais podia dizer, mas fico-me por aqui...