Thread by @jbouie

we are rewatching BATMAN RETURNS tonight, a “superhero” movie which begins with paul reubens and diane salinger tossing a child into a river, followed by penguins adopting that child as their own.

you know, Cinema.

not bizarre at all! the influence is there in batman 89 and it is only natural that burton goes all in with the sequel. this movie is packed with direct references to CALIGARI, NOSFERATU, etc.

https://twitter.com/NickP20/status/1304926177379971074

i love that when we meet bruce wayne again he is just brooding in his living room, cloaked in total darkness. it’s one of those direct references to NOSFERATU and it presents wayne as, like count orlock, a monster who lies waiting in the dark.

i also love the sequence with selina kyle reawakens as catwoman. michelle pfieffer does incredible physical work in the scene where she destroys her apartment, and her make-up and movement makes her strongly resemble the character of cesare in dr. caligari

hard to understate how insane it is that burton and the screenwriters took the penguin — a character whose name was metaphorical — and decided that, instead, he is actually a man-penguin raised by penguins

i saw it for the first time when i was 6 or 7 and the image burned itself onto my brain

https://twitter.com/_bemusedchunk/status/1304939711652298752

michael keaton’s bruce wayne and michelle pfeiffer’s selina kyle dancing and whispering seductively? *chef’s kiss*

that scene might be my favorite in this movie in fact

worth mentioning how many shots in this movie directly reference METROPOLIS

also just occurred to me that the shape and look of the penguin in this is very reminiscent of the antagonist of DR.CALIGARI

on second thought, my favorite scene in this movie is of six penguin pallbearers casting the penguin’s body into cold sewer in a sorrowful send off to their...son?

metropolis/batman returns

folks, this movie still whips. there’s almost nothing else like it in the superhero genre (sam raimi’s spider-man 2 comes close). weird, disturbing, intensely idiosyncratic. amazing that it got made.