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385,094 | 391,152 | 100,274 | 9 | Godard's most beautiful film ; definitely the best of his later work that I've seen | Most people will not like this film . It's difficult to understand what's going on in the narrative . This isn't uncommon in Godard's work , but it's especially true of his later work . I've seen , besides New Wave , First Name : Carmen , Hail Mary , and his segment from the omnibus opera film Aria . That segment is actually one of his best works as well . Sticking with the two other features , they are both interesting and beautiful but very slow films . New Wave seems a lot like them at first , especially in its confusing narrative ( I had to read a synopsis on it to find out exactly what the plot was ) . It shares their beauty , but its even more pronounced . If I were advising someone on this film , I would tell them to disregard the narrative completely . Just watch it for its pictorial beauty . And its sound . Godard's experiments in sound have always been one of the most prominent traits of his cinema . It goes back at least to Une femme est une femme , way back in ' 62 . This film contains the most interesting experiments in sound . The music is absolutely beautiful , and , like many of his other films , it stops abruptly , pops back up when you're not expecting it , and shifts volumes randomly . The sound effects are also quite beautiful . While New Wave was perhaps dull in its narrative ( it's an examination of capitalism and consumerism ) , who cares ? This is film . Film is a visual medium , and this is a visual masterpiece . Remember : RES , NON VERBA ( " things , not words , " an intertitle that appears frequently in the film ) . Oh , and Alain Delon , star of such great films as Rocco and His Brothers , stars . He's still a major stud ! . |
384,732 | 391,152 | 29,490 | 9 | Great | The River is a very wonderful documentary , covering the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States . It's Depression-era propaganda , yes , but it's so beautifully filmed , edited , and written , as well as read . The narration is absolutely poetic . This is a must-see if for all documentary enthusiasts . . |
384,583 | 391,152 | 203,612 | 9 | Near masterpiece , at least ; the next time I watch it , it will probably be a masterpiece | Teshigahara's debut , at least as a feature length director of fictional films . Like his most famous work , his sophomore feature A Woman in the Dunes , Pitfall is based on the work of Japanese author Kobo Abe . While Pitfall is far less famous than A Woman in the Dunes , it is at least as good . It's been a while since I've seen Dunes , but at the moment I'd rate Pitfall higher . The story is about a man and his son who arrive in a mining camp to start a new job . The child notices a lanky man in white following them about . The father ( Hisashi Igawa ) notices nothing . Following orders , Igawa goes down to the beach . The man in white follows and attacks with a knife . The child hides , watching his father's murder from afar . The film is a murder mystery . It is also a ghost story , as Igawa rises from the dead and wanders the camp looking for answers to his murder . The child hides and avoids contact with the human beings around him . The film plays out as an existentialist nightmare , people wandering through empty landscapes , surrounded by distant hills of dirt and rocks , abandoned settlements and seemingly unmanned mining equipment . The film-making style is very cold , very distant , very geometrical in its compositions and editing . It's quiet and frightening . It's incredible sad . And it's one of the best films I've seen in a long time . |
385,460 | 391,152 | 492,466 | 9 | Best doc of ' 06 , and one of the best films , period | Well , I finally found the very best documentary from 2006 . This exploration of Iraq is reminiscent of the beautiful ethnographic documentaries ( and faux-documentaries ) of pioneer Robert J . Flaherty . The images are awe-inspiring and completely indelible . The film is broken into three parts . In the first segment , we follow the life of an 11 year-old Sunni boy in Baghdad . The second depicts Shia Muslims in Southern Iraq , particularly the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr . And the third follows a Kurdish family in Northern Iraq . Unlike Flaherty's documentaries , Longley's film is entirely real . The man spent two years wandering Iraq by himself with a camera starting in April of 2003 , less than a month after George W . Bush famously declared that major military operations were complete . He's a white man , and it's stunning that he was able to infiltrate these people and film them on such an intimate level . The first and third segments probably held their own danger , but the second segment is especially impressive . How in Hell was Langley able to accompany Shi'ites as they kidnapped alcohol-peddling shopkeepers ? It's mind-boggling . This is a rare documentary that is both informative and incredibly cinematic . As a whole , I think Iraq in Fragments comes pretty close to being a masterpiece . There's a silhouetted sequence of some Kurdish kids burning a tractor tire that is one of the most gorgeous shots I've ever seen . Definitely one of the best films of 2006 . |
384,919 | 391,152 | 25,590 | 9 | Great Fields , Great Entertainment | If anything , this film is a must-see for two of W . C . Field's scenes : 1 ) Fields ' first meeting with Baby Le Roy ( who also appears in It's a Gift ) , which is easily one of the best comedy scenes in the movies , and 2 ) Fields ' juggling routine , for which he was very famous when he was a vaudevillian , justly so . There are several other great moments of slightly lesser value . Also , the plot and the supporting characters are consistently entertaining and endearing , so this one's a real winner . |
385,527 | 391,152 | 27,518 | 9 | Very good | I taped this based on its title alone . It's the kind of classic Hollywood film I really love because , while it's definitely a quality picture , it's also goofy in a lot amusing ways . The Devil Is a Sissy stars three child stars of the time , Freddie Bartholomew , Jackie Cooper , and Mickey Rooney . Bartholomew is a young British chap who is staying with his humble father ( Ian Hunter ) for six months in the middle of New York City . At his local public school he meets up with Cooper and Rooney , two little toughs . It takes a while , but soon Bartholomew has learned the customs of the people around him , like how to play American football ( the ball has points , unlike British football ) and what people do to squealers . Near the beginning , Rooney's father is executed for murder . I wouldn't call it anti-death penalty by any means , but it's nice to see a movie from this time deal with the way it effects the family of the person who is executed . Over the course of the film , Cooper and Rooney learn what comes from being bad . The title of the film comes from a speech given to them by a judge , who tells them that it is easier to be good than bad . The angels were good , and the devil was the real sissy . The lessons to be learned remind me a lot of Michael Curtiz's Angels with Dirty Faces , but The Devil Is a Sissy is a much better film . The three kids here are professionals . They are the heart of the film , where the titular angels were merely plot devices . That was just a James Cagney vehicle . The script here is much better , as well . In addition to the actors I mentioned , Peggy Conklin gives a great performance as Mickey Rooney's rich aunt . She and the kids ( and also her black maid ) sing a nice little number , " The ' Ah ' Song . " The script kind of tiptoes around why the aunt has money . At first I assumed it was because she was a singer , but it seemed to hint later on that she may have been a kept woman . I'm not sure . Conklin's career seems to have sputtered and died , which is far too bad . |
385,419 | 391,152 | 257,044 | 9 | Great , but flawed ; Tom Hanks is wrong for the role | A great film with a painful amount of flaws . Technically , it's gorgeous . Conrad Hall's cinematography is original and stunning , and Thomas Newman's score is one of the more memorable of recent years ( and it's only rarely overused ) . Mendes keeps up his great technical direction . And the supporting actors are magnificent . Jude Law ( whose character design is awesome ; the make-up artists should be remembered , as well ) , Stanley Tucci , Dylan Baker ( possibly a tad too dandy ) , and Daniel Craig are all excellent . Law and Craig ought to be remembered around Oscar time . I would almost guarantee that Paul Newman will get nominated . He's excellent as an aging Irish crime boss , pulled between his screw-up real son ( played by Craig ) and his better , though adopted son , Michael Sullivan ( Tom Hanks ) . Newman has some great lines . The flaws lie in the script and in the central performances of the film . In the script , there are a couple of sidetracks that are unnecessary and should have been cut ( most notably the cliched sequence at the farmhouse with the nice farm people , and then the end should have been worked out better ) . In addition to this , the themes of the film are never explored to their full potential . Road to Perdition is about the relationships between father and son . We never really see enough between Newman and Hanks . Part of the fault exists in the script , but Tom Hanks and Tyler Hoechlin ( who plays Michael Sullivan Jr . ) are really not up to the job , and therefore the film falls far below what it should be . Hanks is in totally over his head here . We were all curious whether he could play a bad guy , and the answer comes pretty clearly : he can't ( btw , if you saw it and didn't notice this : Hanks never kills anyone on screen ; although there are a couple of ghastly deaths in the film , we never see Tom Hanks directly pull the trigger and kill someone ; he's always slightly off screen when he kills someone ) . I like the guy , but he seems so unsure of himself in this film . He's supposed to be a quiet tough guy , and that's not Tom Hanks . His sensitive side keeps popping out at bad times . Someone else should have played this role . Johnny Depp , perhaps ? Maybe even Bruce Willis . But not Tom Hanks . Little Hoechlin's failure probably can be blamed on Sam Mendes . He never seems sure what he's supposed to be feeling from scene to scene , and he changes moods abruptly and often unexpectedly . We ought to see the burgeoning relationship between him and his father . If that would have come out better , the film would have been 100 % more successful . But I've complained more than I should . All I'm saying is that Road to Perdition ended up being a disappointment because it promised so much . When it's good , it's fantastic . There are a couple of the best set pieces ever in this film . Just watch the scene where Hanks mows down a bunch of Newman's bodyguards in the rain ( Newman is particularly fantastic in this scene , and I love the way Mendes has him act here ) . There's also a brilliant montage of bank robberies where the camera is always drifting to the right . . |
384,890 | 391,152 | 18,737 | 9 | A great film , but it loses a little steam early on | I had been hearing about this film for years now , and I have finally seen it . I must say that I was enormously impressed with the first third , up until the courtroom sequence . After that , it gets a little random . There's nothing necessarily wrong with that - none of those episodes is less than great - but if it were a little more solidly structured , it would probably be more powerful and thus a masterpiece . The theme that the film explores is the difficulties of life for a beautiful woman . Sure , you might think they're luckier , but this movie argues that it can be hellish . Lulu ( Louise Brooks , luminous in one of the best performances of screen history ) cannot help being attractive . Without even trying , she leads men ( and women , too ) along , eventually driving everyone crazy with jealousy and lust . I'm a bit disappointed , having heard it built up so often , but I have to say that it's no less than great . . |
385,323 | 391,152 | 311,289 | 9 | A great adaptation | Holes , the novel , was forced on me in an education course . I didn't think I would like a children's novel ; plus , the other couple of books I was forced to read for the class were really bad . But , to my surprise , I absolutely loved Holes . It really is one of the most perfectly written novels I've ever read . I think it has the rare quality that makes it appeal to pre-teens , teenagers , and adults . Everyone who reads it , I think , will walk away a better person . While I can't quite say that for the film , I am happy to say that they got it mostly right . I don't think viewers of the film will walk away as enriched , but they will certainly be entertained , without the side effect of being stupider when they sat down . It is an intelligent story , and it's very well told . I think it moves a tad too quickly . The novel takes more time in developing the characters . And the flashbacks come in and out so quickly that they don't have too much time to register . The interracial romance in the past feels more cliché and trite than it does in the novel . And the ending , which ties together all the loose threads , seems very ridiculous . It's exactly the same in the novel , but there's a sense of the absurd that doesn't quite exist in the film . It works a lot better . I also don't like the multitude of pop songs . I wish Disney didn't feel it such a necessity to sell soundtracks . The cast is across-the-board excellent , from the young kids to the old pros . Jon Voight is especially great . Not quite sure why we need Catwoman and the Fonze , though . . |
385,754 | 391,152 | 1,028,528 | 9 | The European / DVD cut is just as good as the Grindhouse cut , if not better | I honestly don't get the hate here . Tarantino is a smug bastard , to be sure , but he makes fairly entertaining movies . People complain about the endless dialogue , but I quite enjoy it here . I like the bad , B-movie dialogue of the first half of the film , as well as the more Tarantino-esquire stuff of the second half . They're all interesting characters and fine actresses , and I certainly don't mind listening to them talk . And that last half hour is so much fun that I'd still have a positive view of it , even if I had been bored by most of the rest of it . I had also heard a lot of bad things about this longer cut , but I do not agree with them . I'm not sure I'd say the film gets better ? and definitely I wouldn't say it's a lot better . But I don't think it's worse , that's for sure . This version , after all , does contain the lap dance , which was infamously " missing " from the Grindhouse cut . And it's HOT ( and has a great song playing ) . There's also a stronger connection between the two halves . It still feels like two different films , but it makes more sense now . It's been reported that the conversation scenes are all extended . I don't think they are at all . Certainly not in the second half , the conversation in the restaurant . It's the same as it was in the Grindhouse cut . There are a couple of brief bits in the first half that are extended , but nothing over which to get angry . The second half contains a pretty good sequence where the new chicks are introduced . I don't see anything at all to object to , and I was glued to the screen for the entire film . I had thrown it in thinking I would fall asleep . The adrenaline that was pumping in my system would not allow for that . |
385,139 | 391,152 | 42,593 | 9 | Fantastic film with Bogart at his very best . Gloria Grahame also gives one of her best performances . | The story concerns a Hollywood screenwriter ( Bogart ) who is suspected of being a murderer . Grahame , a neighbor , steps in to defend him ? she saw the murdered woman leave his apartment alone . Afterwards , they begin a relationship . But Bogart's nature is a violent one , and that violence keeps pushing forward . It makes Grahame rethink her earlier testimony , as well as fear for her own safety . It's quite a unique film for the time , one that actually deals with the possibility of an abusive man . Everything is perfectly done , and the script is wonderful . The film's tagline was ' The Bogart suspense picture with a surprise ending ! ' What is surprising about the ending is just how much weight it carries . . |
385,690 | 391,152 | 82,926 | 9 | Crazy send-up of American family life by John Waters | This is almost as good as Desperate Living , my favorite Waters flick . Divine stars as a beaten-down housewife married to a philandering porno theater owner . He leaves her for Mink Stole and hounds her relentlessly . Her daughter's a knocked-up skank and her son huffs like crazy and lusts after women's feet ? which he likes to stomp on . Meanwhile , her well meaning but mildly retarded friend ( Edith Massey ) , her former maid who received a hefty inheritance and is now nouveau-riche , tries to persuade her to take part in upper class activities . Like Desperate Living , the film is absolutely hilarious . It has some of the greatest lines ever . My favorite is " Don't you know it's bad luck to let retards in your home ? " , although " I never wanted to use macramé to kill ! " is pretty great , too ( nothing quite reaching " I don't want no white man touching my tampons ! " or " Your clothes are on backwards , stupid ! " ) . The film is especially famous for using a scratch and sniff gimmick , which it calls Odorama . Few gimmicks have been funnier . Unfortunately , I couldn't play along ( the scratch and sniff cards are fairly rare ) , but you could just imagine . It's probably funnier not to have smelled what's on screen . |
385,795 | 391,152 | 99,902 | 9 | Just a wrung below Raise the Red Lantern | In ten or twenty years , Zhang Yimou will be regarded as one of the greatest foreign directors . I think his film Raise the Red Lantern is one of the greatest films ever made , easily . Ju Dou is just one step below it . Its positive points are too numerous to mention in any great detail . Just let me warn you that , like almost every movie ever put on video , this film's video / DVD box lies horrendously about what you're about to experience . Ju Dou is not a passionate story of forbidden love . It is not Romeo and Juliette , and you're not going to desire to watch it every Valentine's Day . It is not erotic , but brutal . It is an utterly complex film which is consistently challenging . SPOILERS AHEADThe film starts off pretty conventionally with a mean old man purchasing a young wife in the hopes of producing a son with her . He spends several days beating her into submission . During this period , the old man's nephew , who is treated horribly by his uncle , begins to obsess over his new aunt's beauty . The aunt notices his obsession , and welcomes him as a sort of savior from the cruelty of her husband . We expect a plot where these two find a way to escape their common nemesis , or maybe even kill him . He seems like any other villain to us . The nephew and his aunt produce a child , which is passed off as the old man's . Soon after this , the old man is in an accident and is paralyzed below the waste . Now the young couple has their common tormentor at their mercy , and they use that to their full advantage with horrifying physical and mental torture . They almost instantly tell him that his son is actually the son of his nephew . They build him a tub with wheels ( the Chinese version of a wheelchair ) , and when he misbehaves , they suspend him from the ceiling . This behavior confuses us deeply . What would we do in a similar situation ? Maybe the same thing . But when we see it done , we cannot help but be horrified . Cruelty has begotten cruelty , and everything is spinning out of control . Meanwhile , the young child ages . He has not talked yet , and silently and painfully watches as his mother and cousin cavort , not hiding their lust in the least ( it does turn from passion to lust very quickly ) . The child does not feel that these two have any feelings for him , so he connects to the old man , whom he believes is his father . In fact , his first word comes when the old man is plotting to murder him : " Daddy , " spoken to the old man . The old man is ecstatic , not so much because his " son " has just spoken as because he knows the implications of the child knowing him as his father instead of his cousin . I won't go any further , but this film becomes more painful by the second . My complaints need to be voiced , too . They are few , but key . First , I think that the first half hour or so should have been fleshed out a bit . The relationships and even the characters could have stood to be more developed earlier on . I do not like how Yimou uses slow motion in this film . It does not feel right . My final complaint is with the very end of the film . It is a bit of a cop out , to end the story by burning the house down . I think the only problem in Raise the Red Lantern was also the very end , where Gong Li's character just goes insane . I think it is better to know that the character exists and will have to live with his / her mistakes forever . That is much more powerful , and a better ending . Anyhow , this film is a . |
385,482 | 391,152 | 253,754 | 9 | Don't listen to the critics on this one | I'm not a big enough fan of Star Trek to deserve the title " trekkie . " I've only seen about six whole episodes of the original series , and only the last three of the original movie series . And I've probably watched about three episodes total from the three most recent series , Deep Space Nine , Voyager , and Enterprise ( I don't think I've seen the latter at all ) . But I am a pretty big fan of The Next Generation and have probably seen about 70 % of the episodes , and all the movies . I've never seen a bad episode of ST : TNG . Yes , some silly ones , and perhaps a mediocre one or two , but no bad ones . It was an extremely intelligent show , and easily one of my favorites . It's one of the few television shows where I can watch individual episodes multiple times . As for the Next Generation movies , well , Generations and Insurrection did not at all live up to the television series . Insurrection was particularly bad . But First Contact I consider a great film . Of the four of them , it is the best . But not by much . Yes , I really liked Nemesis . I think it is an extremely strong Star Trek film , and a great film . The whole NG crew is here , and they're getting older , but not lesser . Most of them don't do much new here ; Picard and Data have the most screen time . But that is not a bad thing . A two hour movie only equals a little less than three episodes , and individual episodes generally focus on a couple of characters at a time . The only thing else that happens with the crew is that Deanna Troi and Will Fraker get married in an opening scene . The Enterprise's mission arises on their way to Troi's Betazoid home world for a second wedding . As usual with the Star Trek series , a villain takes up a lot of the rest of the screen time . And one of the reasons that I found this film so successful is the successful villain and his great-to-look-at alien entourage . The race the crew is up against this time is the Remans , the Romulans ' alter-egos who have been long oppressed by the Romulan Empire . There has been sedition and , for the first time , Remans have control of the government . SPOILERSWell , not exactly . When the Enterprise is asked by the new Praetor of the Romulan Empire , Shinzon , to visit Romulus and talk about peace , a long-desired goal of the Federation . When the Enterprise arrives at Romulus , they are met by a dangerous-looking ship called the Scimitar , which has Praetor Shinzon aboard . When members of the crew beam onto the Scimitar to meet the Praetor , they discover something shocking : he is a clone of Jean-Luc Picard , now in his twenties . Picard later meets with him alone and learns the story : many years ago the Romulans attained some of Jean-Luc Picard's DNA and cloned him , planning one day to replace the real Picard with the double . Long before this plan could be accomplished , the Romulan government was overthrown and the plot was abandoned . They instead sent the cloned Picard to labor in the dilithium mines of Remus . Some critics have been complaining that Nemesis represents the dumbing down of a series appreciated for its intelligence , but they're wrong . There is a lot of great dialogue about how we become who we are . Picard and Shinzon have the same DNA , but the vast differences in their life have made them completely different people . Still , is there something innate in us that determines who we are ? Picard counts on that , as he tries desperately to sway the violent course of life that his clone is on . Shinzon likewise spends a lot of time trying to hold up a mirror to Picard . The conflict here is doubled with Commander Data . Near the beginning of the film the crew finds pieces of an earlier version of the android , named B4 . Data has come a long way in his understanding of humanity , and it is interesting to see him confront a completely ignorant version of himself . No , the themes presented aren't pushed out to the fullest . That would have required an extra hour , and I don't even think fans would sit through three hours of a Star Trek film . The presence of these themes alone contradict the reaction of the critics , and puts Star Trek : Nemesis on a much higher level than the rather brainless , if fun , Attack of the Clones and Fellowship of the Ring ( I seriously doubt that the Two Towers will be better than Nemesis , although there's no doubt it will stomp it to dust at the B . O . next week ) . And there is a lot of action in the film . Good action , too . I was gripping my armrests at times . The other three films , however , have been just as action-oriented as this one . I should also point out briefly that the technical side is flawless . The sets and cinematography are especially worth noting . So why are critics so down on Nemesis ? I can't even think of a reason why they're so nasty . Of course there are bits of silliness . A chubby Chicago critic complains that every time a photon torpedo hits the ship , everyone shakes around and sparks shoot out of the walls and ceiling . " This civilization should be beyond electricity , " he croaks like a know-it-all toad . I don't find it implausible at all that they would use electricity , and , even if they don't , they have to use some sort of energy which would , yes , produce sparks when they're massively damaged . A better question might be this : why , if every time the ship is hit it throws everyone out of their seats , don't they have seatbelts yet ? Hell , at one point a whole chunk of the ship is blown apart , and , before the shields can be reconstituted in that area , a member of the crew ( I actually believe it's Usual Suspects director , Bryan Singer ) gets sucked out into space ! . |
385,801 | 391,152 | 60,153 | 9 | A helluva lot of fun | They were aiming for pure cornball with the 1960s Batman television series , and they hit a bullseye . This movie , which followed the first season , was given a lot of money to work with ? all of which was promptly ? and happily ? blown on some new bat-themed vehicles , the bat-copter , bat-boat , and bat-cycle , whose sidecar conveniently can change into a go-cart just so Robin doesn't have to walk around to the other side of the bat-copter . A lot of people aren't fans of the movie , but , to me , it really is the pinnacle of the series . That extra budget shows up in the most obvious of ways , which makes it funny as hell . The rest of the movie is like an uber-episode with the four major villains , the Joker , the Riddler , the Penguin , and Catwoman , plus a load of pirate goons , every one of which , of course , has a mother . The highlights are too many to list , but I will happily list a few . Lee Meriwether plays Catwoman for the first and only time , and I think she easily outstrips Julie Newmar in the role ( I've never actually seen an Eartha Kitt episode ) . She's the sexiest Catwoman ever , beating out such hotties as Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry . I also love her Ninotchka-inspired alter ego , Ms . Kitka , who hilariously refers to Batman and Robin as " masked Cossacks . " Everyone remembers the infamous " bat shark repellent " , but perhaps not the other sprays on that rack , which repel barracuda , mantis rays , and even whales . The Dynamic Duo are well prepared for any mantis ray attacks . And , of course , the film's greatest scene has Batman disposing of a Looney Tunes-style bomb with a never-ending fuse . You've got to love the detail of the two fat women who pay Batman no mind when he tries to evacuate the tavern . And the baby ducks are a stroke of genius . I do tend to think that they didn't really need that final line , " Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb . " Funny , yes , but I think the sequence itself is by itself funnier than that line . My favorite part of that whole bit is the fact that Robin thinks Batman should just have let everyone in the bar die a fiery death . The reason I watched this , of course , was because of the death of Frank Gorshin , the Riddler . What can I say ? I don't think it's insulting at all that he will always be remembered as the Riddler , even though his talent ran far beyond the role . If you want to see him give a really fine performance , check out Guy Maddin's Twilight of the Ice Nymphs . But Gorshin was a comedian first and foremost , and he is a delight in his most famous role . He brings it a strange , almost sexual subtext . He's very often thrusting his pelvis around . And there's a violence underneath the goofiness , much more so than his rogue-ish male co-stars , Burgess Meredith and Cesar Romero . Most of all , I just think Gorshin , as well as everyone else associated with the movie and the show must have had a load of fun working on them . It has a happy legacy that will last for a very long time . |
385,719 | 391,152 | 443,455 | 9 | Maddin should have dropped the narration for general release , but the film is still gangbusters | First of all , I have to say : finally ! I was almost positive that I was going to have to wait for DVD for this one , and God knows how long that was going to take . Secondly , I have to speak my only criticism of the film up front : the live show experiment might have been something truly awesome . I'll never know . But I do know that the disembodied voice of Isabella Rossellini , which you'll find in the general release , and presumably on the DVD , is extremely distracting . It works once in a while , but I would much prefer Maddin to have had a slightly separate version that was only silent . Unfortunately , several sequences wouldn't be comprehensible without the spoken narration , so I doubt we'll find it gone on the DVD ( though I do hope that they might include some of the other narrators they used in the live show ) . Thankfully , as the film progresses , she pops up less and less . If not for this , I would have had no problem calling this a masterpiece . What to say about Brand Upon the Brain ! ? It's a Maddin film , and if you've seen his other films , you know pretty much what to expect . Not that his style hasn't varied between films ( although all of his films since his first huge success , Heart of the World , have existed in a similar silent film milieu ) , but he is just so far beyond what anyone else has ever done , his style can be called entirely unique . As are all of the director's films , Brand is a hilarious nightmare . Maddin creates situations that can only ever exist in the subconscious . The plot of this one includes a lighthouse orphanage , a mad scientist and his sexually repressed wife , teenage detectives à la Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys , lesbian erotica , incest and the haunting presence of dead memories . Maddin is sometimes criticized as being little more than a snarky jokester , but the more I watch his films , the more I disagree with that assessment . His films are , of course , comedies . All of his films are meant to be funny . But I can also feel the pain , the yearning and emotional honesty behind his work . If the movies illustrate tapestries of the dreamworld , as I am certain they do , then the moods behind them , though melodramatized to high heaven , contain glimpses of the deeper truth . I think David Lynch is a rather similar director . Only where Lynch seems to look at the nightmares from the inside , Maddin's point of view is from that of a man who has just awoken . Nightmares sure are scary when we're in them , but they sure can seem ridiculous when recalled . |
384,748 | 391,152 | 209,144 | 9 | Truly , utterly brilliant | I had grave doubts going into this one . Its fans seemed to me to be the same people who like a lot of the movies I really hated over the past five years or so , movies like The Matrix , Run Lola Run , Fight Club , and many others . I avoided it for a long time , though I always thought I had to see it no matter what . And when the chance to see it for free came along , I jumped at it . Fortunately , Memento lives up to the hype . It's one of the few movies that can . Seriously , I wouldn't doubt that this movie will one day be counted as one of the best ever made . Perhaps not the ninth best ever , its current position on the imdb top 250 , but it will certainly have its place in the history books . The main reason for this is its unique narrative structure . Add this one to the ranks of Citizen Kane for its high level of narrative innovation . What it does is it tells its story backwards . It will give us one large chunk of narrative information , stop , and then rewind to the last place Leonard ( Guy Pearce ) began his small chunk of memory . You see , Leonard has this condition where he has little short-term memory . After a few minutes , he forgets everything that has happened to him since a serious injury . He reminds himself of his purpose every time he wakes up in a new chunk of memory through hosts of photos and notes that he has written to himself . His purpose : to avenge his dead wife . She was raped , and her rapist knocked poor Lenny on his head . This condition , which is the foundation of the narrative structure , is clearly false . You just have to suspend your disbelief as you watch , and , I promise you , you'll see something very unique . The best thing about this film is that it gives you some real mental exercise . It asks you to remember a large amount of information . Add to that the fact that not everything is trustworthy , and that truth and memory and facts and everything that we take for granted are constantly being questioned and warped , and you've got yourself an enjoyable uphill battle . The rest of the film is equally commendable , which ought to be remembered as long as you can retain it . The acting is quite good , especially Joe Pantoliano , so good in Bound , and Carrie-Anne Moss , with whom I was quite unimpressed in The Matrix . Here , she shows that she can play a complex character and that her main assets aren't her T & A . Guy Pearce is also quite good , though he was perhaps better in L . A . Confidential . I think someone else might have brought a bit more depth to the part , but perhaps not . One of the most difficult things about his role is the fact that he really has no complexities - he's a blank slate . One could honestly call him simply a tool of the plot . However , someone who would say that would be missing the fact that he is often being used as a tool by other characters . Christopher Nolan is not just a master scenarist , he's also an excellent director . Also great is the cinematography , sharp color with some spatterings of black and white . Perhaps there are some plot holes , but I didn't notice them . This is truly a masterpiece , a film to remember . . |
385,468 | 391,152 | 20,492 | 9 | Gripping Whodunit | This isn't a typical Tod Browning film . It's more or less a very basic filming of a stage play ( I gather ; I don't know that for sure , but it feels very stagey ) about a group of rich people who hire a medium to find out who killed their friend ( and , to some of the group , an enemy ) . When they go into their seance , right as the name of the killer is about to be spoken , one of the men in the circle , the one who was succeeding at questioning the medium , is stabbed in the back . They then call a detective ( Bela Lugosi ) who grills them , trying to discover who murdered both of these men . I don't generally like whodunits , especially the Clue variety , where a detective gathers all the suspects in a room and attempts to root out the real killer , but The Thirteenth Chair is exceptionally written . The characters , and there are many , are quite well developed . The climactic scene , while asking that we suspend our disbelief , is truly suspenseful . See this gem if you ever get the chance . . |
385,548 | 391,152 | 48,947 | 9 | Well deserved Oscar for Ingrid Bergman | Excellent film about a group of Imperial Russian expatriates who try to pass off a nobody as the Grand Duchess Anastasia , who was supposedly executed along with the rest of her family a decade ago . No one knows , not even the woman herself , whether she is or is not Anastasia . Ingrid Bergman plays this woman in her glorious return to Hollywood after several years of exile on account of the affair she had with Italian director Roberto Rossellini . History , or at least some of us film buffs , see her exile as something other than shameful , but you can't really judge Anastasia without seeing it as a homecoming . The story echoes Bergman's life , as I'm sure it was meant to . Can this Anastasia convince those who once knew her that she really is the long lost Grand Duchess ? Can Ingrid Bergman convince the American public that she is worthy to be taken back into their confidence ? To answer the first , you'll have to see the film . The answer to the second question is a definite yes , as the film was quite successful and earned Bergman her second Academy Award , which she much deserved ( her first was for 1944's Gaslight ) . She was not present at the ceremony in 1957 to accept that award , but I'm unsure of whether she was still in exile at that point . The film was made outside of the U . S . After Bergman , there is still a whole lot to love . As for the other actors , Yul Brynner , playing the man who enlists Bergman in his plot to win Anastasia's inheritance , gives a fine performance , easily the best of the three films he made in 1956 , even though he won an Oscar for his ridiculously over-the-top performance in The King and I . Akim Tamiroff , always reliable , gives one of his very best performances as Brynner's assistant . Helen Hayes is great as the dowager empress whose opinion is absolutely necessary to accept Bergman as the real Anastasia , and Martita Hunt gives a delightful comic performance as her attendant ( she was the best thing in the film , in my opinion ) . The musical score , by Alfred Newman , won the only other Oscar nomination for the film , and it is excellent . The dialogue is wonderful . There are only a couple of things I didn't like , and they are relatively minor . Nearer the beginning , for instance , the screenwriter ( or the original playwright ) has a problem keeping the ambiguity of whether Bergman is actually Anastasia or not . The hints the woman gives off are instantly convincing that she is the lost woman . Fortunately , this improves over the course of the film and the ambiguity becomes somewhat more pronounced . I'm not sure whether I liked the ending , either , although it has a great last line ( which I expect was even greater when it was a play ) . |
385,318 | 391,152 | 51,361 | 9 | The earliest Suzuki Seijun film available in Region 1 ; it's newly released on DV | For those who doubt the talent of Suzuki , for those who think that he was just some kind of a nut who really just didn't understand how to make a coherent film , I present to you his seventh film , Underworld Beauty , newly released on DVD by Home Vision Cinema . This is the earliest available Suzuki film , and the earliest I have seen . It is , by Suzuki's standards , very straightforward . The script , which is extremely good ( unlike some of his more famous films , e . g . , Tokyo Drifter ) , could just as easily been produced in America , or even by someone like Melleville in France . The director is already a master of style , and his brilliance is perhaps more recognizable even by those who don't like his later masterpieces . The story is too complicated to get into here . A gang is after some diamonds one of their defecting members swallowed just before he committed suicide . His close friend , Miyamoto , takes it upon himself to protect his younger sister , Akiko , who is now in danger , not only from the yakuza who want the diamonds but also from starting down the path of crime which led to her brother's death . Akiko doesn't even have the diamonds ; she never even knew about them . Instead , her boyfriend , a sculptor and a student of human anatomy , cut open her brother's stomach and took the diamonds for himself . IMDb doesn't have the actors credited to their roles , but the lead actress ( I think her name is Mari Shiraki ) is exceptional . The actor who plays her greedy boyfriend is also very good . My sole complaint about the film is with the lead actor , Michitaro Mizushima , and his character . He's just not that interesting , and the performance is rather dull . Other than that , it's a remarkable crime picture . The black and white cinematography , at which the Japanese were particularly excelling during this point in history , is gorgeous . I can't wait to get to the next two films that Home Vision has released , and I'm desperately hoping they'll release more in the future . You know how you can help ? Buy them now , silly ! ! ! |
385,862 | 391,152 | 35,937 | 9 | A brilliant thriller | A brilliant thriller . It's not as beautiful as some of the other Val Lewton movies ( I really think the director must make a difference ) , but the script makes up for any lack in such a quality . Apparently the story was stolen ; a subsequent lawsuit is the reason that this one is so rare . The film concerns a ship's third officer going on his first voyage as an officer . The captain ( Richard Dix ) takes him under his wing and tries to teach him his philosophy about authority . At first , the third officer is receptive , but it soon becomes apparent that Captain Stone believes that he has the power over his sailors ' lives or deaths . To prove this , he purposely leaves a heavy metal hook loose at night . The sailors are forced to risk their lives to tether it down . Later , when one expresses a very formal complaint about the Captain's ignoring procedures , the Captain locks him in the small room where the men are reeling in the anchor's chain . The third reports the Captain's apparent insanity when they get to port , and , to his surprise , the rest of the ship's crew , even those who were his friends , turn against him . Of course , the third is forced to quit to avoid embarrassment . Unfortunately , through an almost hilarious ( although entirely believable ) set of circumstances , he ends up back on the ship . Captain Stone seems a little too eager to have him aboard , and he has to fight for his survival . Richard Dix is just wonderful as the demented Captain Stone . The touch with the mute sailor - who narrates through this really creepy internal voice - is clever . I'm almost shocked at how well that worked ! The final confrontation is exciting , as the Calypso singer Sir Lancelot ( who also appeared in 1943's I Walked with a Zombie , easily my favorite of the five Val Lewton films I've so far seen ) sings a pacific tune . . |
385,861 | 391,152 | 25,423 | 9 | John Ford is by far my favorite director | No director impresses me more consistently than John Ford . Add The Lost Patrol to the list of his second tier triumphs - it's a cliche , but if anyone else had made this film , it would probably be their masterpiece . A British officer , riding through the Arabian desert in 1917 , refuses to share his orders with his subordinates . When he is sniped by an unseen assailant , his six companions have to fend for themselves . They luckily run into an abandoned mosque , where they hold up . Their pursuers , on the other hand , now have them cornered , and start picking them off one by one . Victor McLaglen , a year before he performed his Oscar winning role in Ford's even better The Informer , was not yet pigeonholed as the Irish drunk . He has a straight British accent in this movie , which somehow makes him a bit less great , in my opinion . I just guess I have a soft spot for him as a lout ! He's still excellent , however , as the troop's new captain . The other actors are also good . Especially worth mentioning is Boris Karloff as an overly religious man driven insane by the situation . That's a cliche now , but I'm guessing it wasn't in 1934 . I don't think I've ever seen Karloff not buried under make-up . He's still playing a horror role , I suppose . At one point he slowly tries to escape the mosque , using a cross as a walking stick . God , what a beautiful scene . Ford's direction is brilliant . Although this is a slightly darker movie than many of his others , there are still several touching Fordian moments in which the soldiers discuss their families . McLaglen has a particularly wonderful moment as he converses about his son , whose mother died in childbirth . At first he hated the child , but he really couldn't help but love him . The smile on his face when he describes his son's life is enormously affecting . Max Steiner's score , although a bit overused at time , is mostly exceptional . At one point , the troop's situation seems about to be relieved . The music becomes triumphant . But a well-aimed bullet stops the score dead in its tracks . This is a great film . . |
385,200 | 391,152 | 33,945 | 9 | Almost perfect ; | One of Fields ' best ( is there anything that's not ? ) , Never Give a Sucker an Even Break is basically his swan song . Never again would he star in a motion picture . And it is a glorious swan song , nearly as funny as his greatest film , The Bank Dick . It may even be his second best film , although several fight for that position : The Old-Fashioned Way , It's a Gift , You're Telling Me , The Man on the Flying Trapeze , etc . In a somewhat mournful way , the plot revolves around Fields , playing himself , trying to sell a script to a producer played by Franklin Pangborn ( a bit confusing , seeing he retains his real name ; Franklin Pangborn was an actor , though , not a producer ) . The film Fields wants to make is a lot like many other classic comedies : a bunch of gags strung together in a haphazard fashion . Part of the joke is that the plot doesn't exist as such . Tastes were changing at the time , and Pangborn is flabberghasted at the nonsensical plot . The funniest moments of Never Give a Sucker an Even Break take place as Fields ' own screenplay plays out . Like a lot of classic comedies , this one is also part musical , but unlike those same comedies , the music in this film isn't painful to sit through ( I'm lookin ' at you , Marx Brothers ! ) . It's actually quite marvelous . The songs are sung by Gloria Jean , a teenager playing Fields ' niece . She is beautiful and a wonderful singer . She's also quite funny when the film gives her that chance ( her audition for Pangborn is gold ) . Also joining the cast is the Marx Brothers ' favorite foil , Margaret Dumont , playing a woman who hates men so much she brought her daughter up on top of a steep precipice to raise her without the impediment of that gender . |
384,620 | 391,152 | 60,050 | 9 | Underrated | John Ford's swan song is very underrated . Anne Bancroft plays a chain-smoking doctor who has fled the United States ( for reasons unknown , unless they were explained during the minute or so I was away to answer the phone ) to work at a mission in China . Margaret Leighton plays the head of this mission , a devout Christian who controls her underlings with strict rules . Various troubles ensue , the most prominent being the threat of a cholera epidemic , a raid by Mongolian bandits , and a pregnant woman who is nearing menopause , which makes the birth a very difficult situation . It is the second problem which I mention that takes up most of the plot . The mission has heard stories of these Mongolians in the nearby areas . Leighton is sure that they will never dare attack her mission , by the grace of God and America . But they do , and they keep all the white women hostage after killing off every Chinese person in sight . They believe that they can win a ransom for them . The tough Bancroft bravely opposes them , but she can make no headway by those means . Instead , the leader of the bandits demands sex . In this way , she is able to influence the way the women are treated ( especially concerning the birth ) . The main conflict of the film is between Leighton and Bancroft . It's very 60s , with the progressive , liberated woman fighting against the strict , sexless one . The role of religion is very interesting in the film . It's shocking that Ford , a devout Catholic , would make the headmistress so foolish . It's a very intelligent criticism of the holier-than-thou attitude of some . When death looks imminent , Leighton seems almost excited to become a martyr ; and she's willing and ready to take everyone else with her . When Bancroft sees her chance to save the others , Leighton viciously attacks her for being the " whore of Babylon . " The final scene is quite excellent . What a great way for the greatest director of all time end his career . |
385,883 | 391,152 | 69,400 | 9 | Almost as good as Tati's best films ; very underrated ! | Tati's final theatrical film , which is often considered his greatest failure , is in actuality nearly as good as his masterpieces . In this film , Tati stars for the fourth and final time as M . Hulot . This time he has a job as an automobile designer , and it is his job to get his company's new Camping Car to Amsterdam for a big auto show . Accompanying him is a driver , François , and a public relations worker , Maria ( played marvelously by Maria Kimberly , who reminds us of the great lead actress roles played by Nathalie Pascaud and Barbara Denneck in M . Hulot's Holiday and Playtime respectively ) . Maria drives around in a little yellow convertible with her little fur-ball dog . Its fast and maneuverable . It can go pretty much anywhere it wants . Unfortunately , François and M . Hulot are driving a large truck . They often get into trouble when they're trying to follow Maria's car . Every problem that can happen does . Many observations are made about how people act when they're in their cars on the highway ( it's a non-stop traffic jam from Paris to Amsterdam ) . The jokes in Traffic are always hilarious . The first fifteen or twenty minutes are somewhat dry of them , which is mainly why I don't rank this one up there with M . Hulot's Holiday , Mon Oncle , and Playtime ( it's about even with Jour de fête ) . But when it gets going , it never stops . And it's beautiful , too , just as all of his other films . The final sequence is sublime , and the final shot will stay with me forever . . |
385,936 | 391,152 | 49,261 | 9 | Gorgeous piece of work | I thought Doctor Zhivago had totally ruined me for epics . I had taped Giant months ago , and had avoided it until this morning when , circa 5AM , I decided to watch it as an attack against my insomnia . It had quite the opposite effect . Giant is a marvelous film . I'll be the first to say that it has a lot of rough edges , but more often than not it works extraordinarily well . The rough edges actually give it character . James Dean is excellent , but you'd never know from word of mouth that he is a supporting player , albeit the most important secondary character in the film . Rock Hudson and Liz Taylor play the leads , the Benedicts , a rancher and his wife who marry and grow old together , in the meantime going through many trials and tribulations in their marriage . This may be Rock Hudson's best performance , although I cannot claim that I've seen him in too many other films . Taylor was better at least once , in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? , but we all know that she had many great performances , and Giant's is certainly one of the best . James Dean was actually better in Rebel Without a Cause ( I haven't yet seen East of Eden ) . To be sure , he's quite good in Giant , but his accent and mannerisms seem clearly contrived , not to mention that it is difficult to understand him through his mumblings and accent . His final scene in this film , which ended up being his final scene in filmdom , for he died when Giant was being edited , is truly embarrassing . He stumbles around drunkenly , but his drunk acting is awful , as drunk acting often was in classical Hollywood , truth be told . A lot of the scenes when Dean is older don't work too well . He's much better when he is young ( Liz Taylor doesn't really pull off the old makeup thing , either ; Hudson was the most convincing of the three ) . His character has possibly the most movie-ish name ever : Jet Rink . If I met someone named Jet Rink , I'd beat the heck out of him on principle ! This is one Hollywood epic that I wish was even longer . Several sequences pass by too quickly , and long periods of time are skipped in the Benedicts ' history . These are really endearing movie characters , and , as much as Giant allowed me to know them , I wish I could have known them more . . |
385,283 | 391,152 | 65,054 | 10 | Fosse's first film ( and big bomb ) is remarkable | There's just something about this movie that I love . I had seen bits and pieces of it some half a dozen times in the past couple of years . Tonight I finally sat and watched all of it . In theory it sounds like blasphemy : a musical remake of Fellini's Nights of Cabiria . But somehow first time director Bob Fosse pulls it off , and enormously well . Fosse is daring and innovative in his direction . Not just in the musical numbers , where you would expect it , but in every scene . He plays , and he's obviously having a ball . After the direction , a high percentage of the film's success is due to Shirley MacLaine , who was never better as Charity Hope Valentine . As much as I love and care for Giullieta Masina's Cabiria , I love and care for MacLaine's Charity . She's such an enormously lovable character , and MacLaine is simply brilliant . Her comic timing is impeccable . Sweet Charity also proves an interesting time capsule of late 60s New York City . In the scene cognate to the Picadilly Club in Nights of Cabiria , we visit a trendy night club where the girls where blue feathers as hats . Clips of Cleopatra ( the one with Claudette Colbert ) and an unidentifiable W . C . Fields movie play on a big screen in the background . We visit a religious ceremony for hippies who sing The Rhythm of Life . Sammy Davis Jr . is the priest ! In Cabiria , a parade of young people cheer her at the end of the film . In Sweet Charity , a group of hippies , amongst them a young Bud Cort , hand out flowers in the morning , just saying good morning to everyone they meet . This movie was a huge bomb when first released . Fosse is actually really lucky they gave him another chance at direction , and then he made a film instantly recognizable as a masterpiece , Cabaret . Sweet Charity did not deserve to fail so miserably . Just the fickle fingers of fate , I guess . |
385,773 | 391,152 | 28,212 | 10 | Easily one of Hitchcock's greatest films | Ah , yet another Hitchcock movie that is less than famous but then turns out to be one of the best films ever made . Every Hitchcock film that I see just makes me want to the rest of his films . Sabotage has a lot going for it . It is based on a novella by Joseph Conrad , the master writer who wrote Heart of Darkness ( truth be told , that's the only novel of his that I've read the whole of , but I've been told that he has plenty of great novels besides that ; I guess after Sabotage , I'm now obliged to read up ) . The story is excellent . Mix that with great characters played by great actors , and you've got yourself yet another Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece . Maybe this film is not popular because it is atypical for Hitchcock . It contains tons of suspense , maybe more than any of his films besides Rear Window , especially in a sequence where he demonstrates his famous theory that a bomb that does not go off creates the suspense . No , this film is atypical because it lacks Hitchcock's masterful humor . This is usually taken as one of his trademarks , but I've seen several of his films that lack humor ( or at least reduce it ) , and I find them just as good ( I Confess , Rope , and The Birds ) . Instead , Sabotage may be the most emotionally affecting Hitchcock film , competing with the likes of Vertigo and Rebecca . It gives you characters to care about , especially Mrs . Verloc , played masterfully by Sylvia Sydney as a happy wife who discovers the hard way that her husband is a terrorist ( don't worry , no spoilers here ; we find this out in the first scene ) . John Loder plays Ted , a detective who falls in love with Mrs . Verloc , although she is clearly not willing , while undercover at a grocer next door . The best performance is Oskar Homolka's , who plays Mr . Verloc . Only Norman Bates is a more sympathetic villain than Mr . Verloc . We never do see why exactly he wants to sabotage things ( and in this way , this movie is quite xenophobic ) , but we see that he does not wish to harm anyone , and that when he does he only does it through compulsion . He also cares greatly for his wife and her brother . Even at the end of the film , we understand why Mrs . Verloc wants nothing to do with Ted's advances . The film ends with an easy escape , but guilt remains heavy . |
385,909 | 391,152 | 15,324 | 10 | Almost certainly the funniest comedy I've ever seen . | Yes , counting all the comedies I've ever seen , silent or talkie , this is probably the funniest . I was lucky ( boy , was I lucky ! ) to see this in a theater with a live piano player . Ever scene is brimming with comic genius , cinematic inventiveness , and just plain perfection . I laughed almost nonstop from beginning to ending . Jokes that seem liked they lasted 10 minutes were funny for their entirety . After the performance was done , I think the audience clapped for 10 minutes , and they ( the pianist and Buster Keaton ) deserved at least that much , if not an hour more . |
385,347 | 391,152 | 30,643 | 10 | Like Being Punched Really Hard in the Gut | I took a class in French Poetic Realism and Italian Neorealism this past Fall in which I saw many of the best films I will ever see . The third film we watched in the class was Jean Vigo's L'Atalante , which is just about the most gorgeous experience in film viewing I have ever experienced . I left the building in a cloud of euphoria , and I have never stopped thinking about it . One week later , we watched Le Quai des Brumes ( Port of Shadows ) . It affected me greatly in the opposite direction of L'Atalante . It made me lonely and grief-stricken . That is in no way a criticism ; for the most part , any film that transforms my emotions , whether for the better or the worse , is a great film . Le Quai des brumes is about a man played by the great Jean Gabin ( the star of La Grande Illusion ) who has deserted the army ( a fact that is never mentioned specifically , since the French censors refused to let the filmmakers portray such an immoral deed ) . Everyone who he finds around him is morally corrupt . He finally befriends a dog , the most loyal of all animals , and then Nelly , a young woman who is being torn apart by her gangster suitor , Lucien , and her foster-father Zabel ( played by L'Atalante's own Michel Simon ) . The whole film falls into unavoidable and quite grueling violence . It is so depressing that the French director Jean Renoir ( of La Grande Illusion and Rules of the Game ) accused it of being Fascist . Those who know the film know this quotation , and have pondered it for the longest time . It does make perfect sense however . Hope leaves quickly after it is seen , and it is hard to get rid of . It fascistically knocks you down . |
385,249 | 391,152 | 32,551 | 10 | Note Perfect | There's probably nothing new I could say about this film - just the regular and much deserved praise : John Ford's direction is perfect , perhaps only surpassing it in The Searchers , as well as Greg Tolland's cinematography ; the next year , he would photograph Citizen Kane , and his work there is just the slightest hair better than his work here ( which , of course , means that this is one of the most impeccably photographed films ever made ) . And then there's the acting . Henry Fonda was , no doubt , one of the greatest actors of all times , and this might just be his best film ( other great roles of his include The Lady Eve , made the following year , and Hitchcock's underrated The Wrong Man ) . John Carradine has his shining hour here - too often he was cast in B-movies . Even in Stagecoach , his role was kind of , well , cheesy ( I'm not a big fan of that particular Ford film ) . That scene where Tom Joad meets him in the tent is excellent ; Carradine is brilliant ( and so is Greg Tolland ; man , look at the lighting job ! ) . I do , however , wish he had kept his mustache . It's hard to picture him without it ! But even with those two masterful actors , a viewer's attention will always shift to Jane Darwell , who plays the Joad matriarch . She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar , perhaps the most justly won Oscar in the Academy's history . There is a scene near the beginning of the film in which , as the Joad family is just about to flee their home , Mrs . Joad finds some old earrings . She puts them up to her earlobes and looks in the mirror . How long has it been since she was young or beautiful enough to wear earrings ? The past is past , and it will never come back . |
384,888 | 391,152 | 19,563 | 10 | A small masterpiece from director Tod Browning and actor Lon Chaney | Tod Browning is a marvelous director . I guess I've known this since i've seen his two most famous films , Dracula ( the Bela Lugosi version ) and Freaks . But neither of those films could have prepared me for the two films that I saw tonight ( well , okay , maybe Freaks did ; Dracula's not all that great a film ) . First , The Unknown from 1927 and , second , West of Zanzibar from the next year . Both of them starring Lon Chaney ( Sr . ) . They are two of the most well-acted , well-directed , inventive , literate , powerful , and beautiful films I've ever seen . The difference between the two is that I had before heard of The Unkown - it's plot is too bizarre to be all that unknown . It's easily mentioned in the same breath with Freaks ( in my opinion it is a step above it ; that film is only interested in showing the freaks , although there are a couple of great , great scenes ) ; there are thematic and plot similarities . But West of Zanzibar - it's not a typical film at all ( not that The Unknown is , either , mind you ! ) . In fact , it would be pointless to reveal any plot here , for if you've seen it ( and I have no clue how many have ) , you'll likely remember it . If you haven't , it would be nice to come in fresh . See this underrated gem , I implore you ! |
385,203 | 391,152 | 36,891 | 10 | Preston Sturges just could not go wrong | Yet another perfect film from Preston Sturges , Hail the Conquering Hero is perhaps his most touching film , too . If you've seen Miracle at Morgan's Creek , then you have to see this one , and vice versa . They are sister films : Bracken plays a young sap who couldn't fight in WWII because of health reasons . Where Miracle was mostly about Bracken's quest to win a girl who's dumbstruck at the sight of a man in uniform , Hail deals itself an even better hand . Bracken's in a tight situation . The struggles are both comic and poignant . |
385,315 | 391,152 | 56,371 | 10 | One of the most stunning pieces of filmmaking I've ever seen | Before the Revolution , Bernardo Bertolucci's second film , is kind of a mess . He was only 22 when he made it , and he must have made it immediately after he finished his first film , Grim Reaper . It's obvious that he's a genius from this film . Like I said , it's kind of a mess , but no more beautiful mess has ever been created in the cinema . The story is difficult to follow at times , but it is basically about a young bourgeois man who falls in love with his young aunt . Their relationship is socially unacceptable , so it immediately begins to break apart . As it does , politics rush into the film , confused politics , probably representing Bertolucci's own conflicting feelings at this point . The whole film feels very personal . I don't know . I really didn't catch too much of , well , what's going on . Which sounds bad , but there's a good reason for my missing everything : Bertolucci's direction is breathtaking . It is a nice cross between French New Wave and the Modernist movement that the Italian filmmakers were going through at the time . Bertolucci throws every single cinematic trick into the film that he can fathom . Everything works , though . It's showy , to be sure , but it's never less than one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced . It never seems less than amazing . The emotions of the film - and they really hit home , even if the story is difficult to follow - are fractured and manic . I need to watch Before the Revolution again . I feel , though , that even if I find it completely flawed the second time around , it could be nothing less than the greatest flawed masterpiece ever produced . 10 years after Before the Revolution , Bernardo Bertolucci directed what I consider my third favorite film , Last Tango in Paris . By then , he had perfected his style . I'll be adding another Bertolucci film to my list of favorites tonight . |
385,574 | 391,152 | 30,711 | 10 | Among the best animated shorts ever | I love musical animated shorts , so I was pretty much guaranteed to love this one . However , I think the animation of the title character , Sally Swing , who is discovered by Betty Boop when she's looking for someone to lead the swing concert at a college , is superb . I've never seen more fluid dance animation anywhere . Highly recommended ! . |
385,040 | 391,152 | 290,329 | 10 | A vile masterwork | Visitor Q is hard to deal with , but I think I'd call this a masterpiece . This is an update of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema . It's often compared to Pasolini's Salò because of its shocking content , but , plot-wise , it's virtually a remake of the 1968 film , brilliantly updated and moved to modern Japan . Teorema is not Pasolini's best film , but I do consider it a great one . It is a very simple allegory . Miike expands the concept even further . A family is falling apart , and a stranger whom nobody seems to know moves into their home and starts knocking some sense into them ( sometimes literally ) . There are some truly disturbing things in Visitor Q that few people of sound mind and body will want to sit through . Fortunately , I am not of sound mind or body . If you can take it , the film can be extremely funny , as well . And I think it actually captures something truthful not only about the decay of Japanese culture , but also the rest of the world . It just does this in the most extreme way possible . Most will probably judge that it goes too far . I thought it was amazing . |
384,896 | 391,152 | 23,814 | 10 | How shocking that this turned out to be so great . Stanwyck is miraculous . | During the opening ten minutes of The Bitter Tea of General Yen or so , I was absolutely cracking up . I mean , it was the most preposterous , dated , and unintentionally funny film I thought I ever had seen . The film opens with a wedding ceremony where a priest tells a story of his missionary days in Mongolia : " I was telling the story of the crucifixion to a group of Mongolian bandits . I thought I was really getting to them . They kept moving closer and closer and they seemed so intent . A few days later , a group of travellers were captured in the desert by these bandits - they crucified them . I had misunderstood their reaction to my story . That , my friends , is the nature of Chinamen . " The camera swirls around to the face of an old Chinese man who looks vaguely threatening . The second scene concerns a woman , Megan Davis , ( Barbara Stanwyck , on her way to be married at the aforementioned wedding ) in a rickshaw , and a car runs the rickshaw driver down . As the car's owner steps out to examine the accident ( this is General Yen ) , Stanwyck shouts to him : " Hey , you ran over my rickshaw driver ! " General Yen replies something to the effect : " Who cares . He's just one person among millions . " Yes , it begins as a profoundly racist film , racism so ridiculous that it comes off as ultimately laughable . The next time we meet General Yen , he is teasing Megan's groom , a missionary on a mission to save some orphans , for preferring " ancestorless brats " to his sweet bride . I rolled my eyes in disbelief : the bad guy's so ruthless that he'd gladly let orphans perish , while the good guy , the missionary , is going to risk his life to save them . How Hollywood , I thought . A bit later , Megan is forced into Yen's sphere , where she witnesses further scenes of ridiculous cruelty and cold-heartedness , such as prisoners ' executions right outside her window at the crack of dawn ( " But I don't have the rice to feed these prisoners , " argues Yen . " Surely it is more humane to kill them quickly than let them starve . " Well , there is a certain logic to that . . . ) . A young Chinese girl , a slave of Yen's , Mao Lin , is taking care of her . There is another American present in Yen's court , Jones , a real scumbag , as it seems . SPOILERS : As the film proceeds , a lot of tension arises . Mao Lin is captured as being a spy , but Megan butts in before Yen can have her executed . In a scene of marvellous writing , she debates with Yen and preaches her Christian ethos . It turns out for naught , since Mao Lin tricks the naive woman and continues spying , eventually causing the downfall of Yen's power . We as the audience don't care that Yen has been toppled - although we are shown a human side to him , he's still a ripe bd - but Megan is devastated . No , not at Yen's downfall , either , but by the fact that everything that she had preached and stood by , what she told Yen would eventually cause him to come out the better , has actually destroyed him . She says very little after she has been doublecrossed . As Yen himself told her , what she preaches is just words that she learned in Sunday School . Through all this , there is an ambiguous romance arising between Megan and General Yen . Ambiguous because of the interracial aspect of it all , to be sure , but the ambiguities add much to the artistry of the film . Does General Yen actually fall in love with her , or is he just playing games with her ? At first , I would guess that it is all just a game - can Yen , a rich playboy , really win over a white woman , one who is set to marry a missionary whom he particularly hates and thinks is a fool ? There's also the aspect that he's trying to demonstrate how hypocritical missionaries - and white people - are . When he finally accepts Megan's terms on Mao Lin's life , he is absolutely sure that Mao Lin will betray her , and says as much to her face . And when Megan tells him that they are all of the same blood , he touches her hand , asking , " Do you mean that ? " No , of course not . She removes her hand from under his immediately . In the final scenes , though , he does seem to have some deep affection for her . There is a sense that , since he has proved her wrong , he believes that she should give herself up to him , and ultimately to die in suicide by his side . She does not go that far , but she does symbolically give herself to him in the climactic sequence , one of quiet beauty and nobility . Megan retreats to her room where she finds a makeup case and dress . These items refer to an earlier scene where , when she requests a dress and makeup , she makes herself up to look Chinese - she , too , is playing a sort of game , the kind which a tourist might play in an exotic location . But then she realizes that it may lead Yen on , so she takes off the makeup and wears a less Chinese dress . Now , at the end , she finds these items and makes herself up like a glamorous Chinese woman - a facsimile of Yen's wife , who , we're told , does not yet exist ( an empty seat next to his at the dinner table waits for the day ) . She does not marry him , nor does she die with him , but she holds his hand and rests her head on his lap while he dies . The final scene , at first , seemed to me somewhat superfluous : Jones , the crooked " money man , " is taking Megan back to Shanghai and her fiancee ( whom , I might add , she hadn't seen since they were children before she was taken by Yen ) . Jones drunkenly debates with himself whether or not she will marry her fiancee , and where they will all go after they die . When the film opened , the rigid world in which Megan was living would have provided easy answers to those questions . She doesn't say a single word during this scene , but we can tell by her face that those questions are no longer easily answered . . |
385,132 | 391,152 | 407,304 | 10 | The best film of 2005 , in my opinion | As this was one of the more memorable films I saw in 2005 , and as it was also one of the most obviously flawed , I was afraid it would be worse upon a revisiting . I'm glad to say I was entirely wrong about that . It got better . In fact , when you know the flaws are coming , it's easier to concentrate on its strengths . I'm starting to think this could be Spielberg's best film . I don't think its themes , its intentions , or its results have been completely considered by either the director of the screenwriters , so the messages it emits are mixed . But I think that makes the film all the more interesting . In Munich , Spielberg's far more critically lauded film of 2005 , we are told what to think at every juncture . War of the Worlds emotes and informs at a more intuitive level . There's a lot more to think about with this film than pretty much any other film the man has ever made . The logic of the film is often flawed , but the images and the feelings they produce are palpable . Is it just utilizing the post - zeitgeist to create an entertaining actioner ? I think it's deeper than that , certainly . It is an action film , a summer blockbuster , but it's more deeply felt than any other I can think of . It's entertaining , but it's not the kind of film that you can walk away from feeling good . I think that's one of the main reasons for its failure with much of the audience . Whatever the case , this is the most memorable and effective film of the year , and I am now confidently ranking this as the best film of 2005 . |
384,616 | 391,152 | 50,598 | 10 | Vastly undervalued Chaplin masterpiece | It's not only one of Chaplin's best films , but one of the most important films about America ever made . Thrown out of the US for his liberal views , Chaplin became very irate at America . This is his response , a bare-knuckle boxing match with Uncle Sam - and this tramp doesn't pull punches . He doesn't leave a stone unturned , movies , music , high culture , television , education , fame , and especially the communist witch hunts . Best of all , he still exhibits his comic brilliance , and almost all the jokes land . Chaplin's son Michael is very good as a young boy who espouses communist ideals without the slightest provocation . The film ends without resolution , as this dark period of American history was still going strong . Only the hope that it is only a phase is expressed , but otherwise , the darkness is left to brood . People have accused the film of not being subtle , but it is far more so than the infinitely more popular The Great Dictator , and also more so than his other two talkies , Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight . All of those films are great , but they all end up with Chaplin telling us directly what he wants us to walk away with . A King of New York is , even if it has its clunky moments , an exceptional achievement . It's about time that it was rediscovered . . |
385,830 | 391,152 | 87,884 | 10 | PLEASE ! RELEASE THIS TO DVD ! ! ! | I have been in love with Wenders ' Wings of Desire since I first saw it several years ago , so I taped this movie off of HBO2 or some such channel . I could NOT find this at a video store , and they don't sell it in any format anymore . The only thing left to be sold is the soundtrack , which doesn't make any sense to me ( although it is a good soundtrack ) . More than one person thought that this film was an utter masterpiece , so why keep it off video ? It won huge honors at Cannes , but it is completely unavailable . I loved this movie . It made me cry and it made me feel alive . The scene where Travis confesses his sins to Jane through the glass is so perfect and so affecting . Please , somebody , release this masterpiece to DVD . I want to see it again and share it with others . |
384,719 | 391,152 | 112,767 | 10 | One of the best films I've seen in a while | The setup sounds a bit like The Bicycle Thieves , with a poor Saigon teenager getting his rented bicycle-taxi stolen by a group of gangsters . I was pretty sure this was going to be a film of the " sucks-to-be-poor " genre so common throughout foreign cinema , but Cyclo veers into much darker territory . The teen is forced into crime by the woman from whom he rented the bike , and falls in with a gang she operates ( lead by Chinese actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai , the most familiar actor in the cast ) . Meanwhile , the teen's sister gets involved with Tony Leung , as well , becoming his girlfriend , as well as his prostitute . The film plays this all as a nightmare , which it doesn't spell out all at once . The shift in tone from neorealist to abstract is at first difficult to perceive . Much like its characters ' dilemma , the film sneaks up on the viewer and catches you from behind . You never know what's hitting you . The hypnotic mood engrossed me completely . The film reminds me a lot of the work of Tsai Ming-Liang , one of my favorite modern directors . This vision is actually more horrifying than any of Tsai's films . Where Tsai stresses loneliness in the big city , Tran makes Saigon feel overcrowded and the mood is akin to paranoia . |
385,634 | 391,152 | 70,544 | 10 | Beautiful - a masterpiece | Science fiction is the perfect genre for animation . Unfortunately , very few films have taken full advantage of that . Fantastic Planet , though , uses the medium to its fullest extent . It is , without a doubt , one of the most imaginative films ever created . The animation is simple , with few drawings per second , but those drawings are gorgeous . A gigantic , blue alien race has brought members of the human species to their planet . We're the size of insects to them . Some humans , Oms , as they're called , are kept as pets , while others are wild . Terr , the hero of the film , is a tame Om . Eventually he escapes and joins a tribe of wild Oms . The aliens eventually realize that the Oms can be a threat to them , and begin to exterminate them . The film is filled to the brim with remarkable images , bizarre forms of life and odd landscapes , weird customs and events impossible to understand . Most other science fiction films , animated or otherwise , stop so far below Fantastic Planet . Personally , I think it's one of the best films I've ever seen . . |
384,753 | 391,152 | 24,025 | 10 | Grade A Entertainment ! An Underrated Gem ! | Flying Down to Rio will always be best known for being the movie that first paired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers , but , believe me , its worth goes far beyond just that stunning accomplishment . The lead actor is Gene Raymond , who was one of the funniest actors in early Hollywood . My other favorite Raymond movie is Hitchcock's only foray into straight comedy , Mr . and Mrs . Smith , where he starred opposite Carole Lombard and was more than up to it . Raymond's female opposite here is Delores de Rio , an actress with whom I am unfamiliar , but , man , is she a beauty . Astaire plays Raymond's best friend and cohort and Rogers plays a singer who tours with them . The film is wonderfully witty and actually very inventive . The editor goes a little crazy with the different types of swipes he uses throughout the film , but they're still neat . It doesn't bother me much that the filmmakers ' experiments don't always work . I'm just happy they were trying new things . The cinematography is often great and much more unique than in other RKO musicals . The music is marvelous , especially the show-stopping Carioca ( as opposed to Karaoke ! ) , which seems to last forever , but in a good way ! This is the number with the Astaire and Rogers dance . The other dancers in the scene are also wonderful , and the editing of that number is particularly amazing . The climactic musical sequence is as amazing as it is silly : seemingly hundreds of women dancing on the wings of flying planes . It's meant to be entertainment for the people below , but , well , the intricate movements of the girls could never have been seen on the ground ( reminiscent of the Busby Berkeley number in 42nd Street where the camera shoots the dancers ' pattern from above ) . Again , the editing here is simply remarkable . I can only imagine that the daring stunts perpetrated in the scene , though obviously fake , would have stunned the hell out of an audience in 1933 ! Today , in the 21st Century , Flying Down to Rio plays as one of the greatest pieces of fluff ever produced . . |
384,997 | 391,152 | 41,931 | 10 | A vastly underrated masterpiece | An enormous step forward from his three neorealist classics listed above . Unfortunately , I think it might still be suffering from its original backlash . It was pounded by the critics at the time , but that was all for reasons outside the film itself ( well , not exactly ; the film seems to mimic real life at the time , even if it wasn't meant to ) . Of course , I'm referring to the affair that Ingrid Bergman , the film's star , and Roberto Rossellini , its director , had during the shooting , which resulted in the birth of an illegitimate child . Not only were they not married to each other , but they were both married to others at the time . That wouldn't , of course , cause most people living in the United States to even blink today , but it was a huge scandal at the time , resulting in a box office dud for RKO Pictures , who had produced it . Fortunately , we can look at Stromboli objectively today and recognize it for the great masterpiece that it happens to be . Bergman , in possibly her best role , plays a young Lithuanian woman who has lived a sort of decadent life . She is now in an internment camp in Italy , praying to flee to Argentina . Her only other option is to marry the Italian soldier , several years younger than herself , who is flirting with her all the time . The first option falls through , so she is forced to go with her backup plan . All's well , until she finds out where the guy lives and has every intention of going back to : Stromboli , a volcanic island where only the toughest farmers and fishermen live . Bergman is immediately distraught . She has grown up wealthy , had a lot of luxuries . Now she is living in a hut on a dusty , barren rock with a husband who can only barely understand English , which is , incidentally , only a second language for Bergman , as well . There is little communication between them , and , indeed , in this land , that is not exactly important . Still , the husband really cares for her . In all actuality , although we can jerk our knees at his conservative ways , Bergman is the one who refuses to compromise . From the first day , she demands to be taken away from Stromboli , to America or Australia , maybe . But there is no money to do so . There are a lot of customs on the island which she doesn't understand . She doesn't even attempt to understand them . Even when a friend tells her she shouldn't enter a certain person's home , she goes in anyway , completely embarrassing her husband . When she complains to the priest that she is utterly unhappy , he replies that he understands , but her husband is just as unhappy , maybe moreso . After all , the first thing she did when he went fishing was store away all the pictures of his deceased family and a statue of the Virgin Mary . Stromboli is an amazingly fair film in this way . In fact , my only complaint would center on the print I saw ( on TCM , of course ) rather than the actual film : it is unsubtitled , which means that we are meant to see everything from Bergman's point of view , at least in this version . I think that the Italian should be translated in subtitles , because there are a lot of long segments where the Italians are talking to each other that go untranslated . Rossellini wouldn't have had this dialogue if he didn't want us to know what they were saying . Of course , it's not usually very difficult to figure out what they are talking about . Among other things , Stromboli contains two of the most amazing set pieces in the history of film . First , Bergman has someone row her out to see her husband while he and other Strombolians are tuna fishing . In an extremely lengthy sequence , we witness this event . This is far more reality than Visconti ever gave us in La Terra Trema a few years prior . Second , the volcano at the peak of the island erupts and the residents have to sail out to sea in their boats for a very long time . The film also has a masterful finale , although I think I personally would have directed Ingrid differently in the final scene . It still works wonders . . |
385,563 | 391,152 | 43,809 | 10 | Weird and wonderful step away from Neorealism by Vittorio de Sica and Cesare Zavattini | Perhaps the last film you would expect to come from Vittorio de Sica and Cesare Zavattini ( who wrote the novel on which this film is based ) . It's a neorealist fantasy , kind of an oxymoron , really . An old woman finds a baby in her cabbage patch and raises him as her own son . After a few years , the baby is a young boy ( named Toto ) and the adoptive mother is dying . He goes to an orphanage and , when he finally turns 18 , he leaves . Immediately , he finds that he has no home . Toto is optimistic , though , and won't let anything get him down . A man steals his valise , and instead of getting angry over it , Toto becomes his friend and goes and stays with him in a small shantytown . Toto takes some initiative and organizes the many homeless living in the area and they build a better shantytown . Soon , the landowner is trying to sell this plot of land , and the citizens of the shantytown have to protect themselves . After many attempts , the owner mounts a force of police to get rid of the homeless . At this point , the film becomes full-fledged fantasy ( before this it was more comedic / fantastic melodrama in the style of Charlie Chaplin ) . This stuff is so weird and shocking that it's probably best for others to see it for themselves . It's quite amazing , and very funny . There are objections you could raise about the plot of Miracle in Milan , most certainly . Fellini and Visconti were greatly criticized when they started to stray from Neorealism . I think I read this was widely criticized at the time of its release . At this point , though , it's so enjoyable - I loved it very much . It might be my favorite of Vittorio de Sica's films , although Umberto D and The Bicycle Thieves come very , very close . . |
385,313 | 391,152 | 32,728 | 10 | One of John Ford's best . Maybe THE best . | The Long Voyage home is not a typical film from this period . It differs in that it focuses on an ensemble cast instead of on a star . That's common nowadays , but not back then . Ford's Stagecoach , made the previous year , had quite an ensemble cast , but the film was always focused on Ringo and Dallas . Here , John Wayne is just one of the stars . Thomas Mitchell , who played Doc Washburn in Stagecoach , has a role that's as big as Wayne's in Voyage . Others are as prominent . The plot is also pretty tenuous and episodic . And , unlike most films of the time , the focus was not on a goal , but just on the events and lives of the seaman aboard the Glencairn . We see them sail through the war-torn Atlantic , between the U . S . and Europe . They have fun , they fight , they talk about home . It's all rather gentle and beautiful , very subtle . The script is great , which is probably due to Eugene O'Neil , for of whose plays this film is based on ( they are blended together seamlessly ) . The actors are marvelous . Mitchell and Wayne are probably the best known , but there are also Ian Hunter , Barry Fitzgerald , John Qualen , Ward Bond , Mildred Natwick , and many other great character actors . John Wayne was probably the draw , considering how popular Stagecoach had made him , but , as I said , his role is not out in the front . In fact , he doesn't have many lines . His schtick is that he is a Swede who can't speak English well , so he is generally pretty quiet ( Wayne can't muster the best Swedish accent , either , so that's kind of a good thing ! ) . He has one great scene where he has some long bits of dialogue . But even without the dialogue , he emotes so well in his face . I knew his character intimately by the end of the film . We don't often think of Wayne as a great actor , but he certainly was . Although The Searchers probably contains his best role , The Long Voyage Home would certainly be worth a major mention when talking about his career . If you could say that there is a single " star " of this film , that would have to be Greg Tolland . Of course , he photographed Citizen Kane in the next year , as well as Ford's Best Picture winning How Green Was My Valley and The Grapes of Wrath . The cinematography is some of the most impressive to be found in the American cinema . John Ford himself is just as much the star of The Long Voyage Home . He definitely put his heart into this one . The direction is beautiful , artful . It is as good here as it is in The Grapes of Wrath , My Darling Clementine , and The Searchers , that is , it is one of his very best films , if not THE best . To date , it's the only Ford film that made me shed tears . . |
384,857 | 391,152 | 37,077 | 10 | Not only funny , but completely lovable | There are some scenes which are just perfect in their comedic ability , such as the scene where Trudy subtly tries to make Norval propose to her . Much of the comedy is not of the laugh-out-loud variety , but rather of the smile and maybe giggle variety . Plus , it may be a bit hard for younger people to enjoy , for it is certainly dated . I . e . , you have to be aware of code restrictions and you have to accept them . Even if it weren't for the comedy , though , this film would be just as wonderful , anyway , for Sturges , a comedy genius , gives us characters whom we truly care for . We love Trudy and Norval . They are amongst the most endearing characters I've ever met at the movies . Emmy and the constable are just as lovely , and by the ending , I hardly wanted to leave them . |
385,920 | 391,152 | 38,991 | 10 | Vastly underrated Welles - one of his best films , one of the best thrillers ever | The Stranger is a little slow to start . Edward G . Robinson , playing a war crimes detective named Wilson , lets loose one of the right-hand men of an important Nazi war criminal named Franz Kindler ( Orson Welles ) who escaped prison and managed to erase his identity . He was the mastermind behind the concentration camps . No photographs exist of him , and only this goon might know where he is . Wilson tracks the goon to a small town in Connecticut , where Franz Kindler is posing as a history professor about to marry the daughter of an important politician . Immediately the goon disappears , but the professor arouses Wilson's suspicion . After the setup is over , The Stranger bolts ahead at a breathless pace . All the clues point to the professor , though there is nothing definitive . When his wife , Mary , finds out ( played by Loretta Young ) , she refuses to believe it . Kindler feeds her a nice lie explaining everything , and she's desperate to believe it . He's not sure that he can trust her . Welles pulls a ton of suspense out of the situation . He's so good at creating points of tension out of both the simplest means , like a group of college boys on a paper chase , a dog who won't stop digging in the leaves , or something much more gothic , like the ancient , broken-down clock in the church tower . Kindler was an expert on clocks ( which is one of the biggest clues ) , and when he revives this old monster , an iron angel with a sword chases away the devil and then rings the bell to the hour . To get to the top of the tower , an extraordinarily tall ladder must be climbed . This leads to as much or more suspense as existed in the cognate scenes in Hitchcock's Vertigo . In fact , I'm sure Hitchcock watched and liked this film . Everyone knows he admired Welles ' later Touch of Evil , which he mimicked in his own Psycho , so why not this film ? The acting is quite brilliant as well . We would expect it from Orson Welles , of course . This is actually one of his very best roles . He is amazing at telling believable lies to his wife and friends , but with the dramatic irony in which the audience is in possession , we see the depth and the nervousness and the evil . Edward G . Robinson has a pretty thankless role for a long time , but nearer the end he begins to expand . We cringe when he coldly suggests that Mary is in mortal danger . He is simply great in the climactic scene ( which I won't mention except to say that it is one of the best in film history , although some might find it a bit silly ) . Loretta Young is also great as a naive wife who so desperately wants to be the perfect wife and believe everything her husband says . If this movie were to be remade today , her character would have been developed further psychologically , but what is here is good . She is also great in the climactic sequence . Welles ' films often have thriller elements , but this is his most thrilling . It's also probably his least philosophical , and almost certainly his most conventional . He made the film as a concession . I think he was allowed to make The Lady of Shanghai in return , which is an even better film than this . That is no matter , though . It's a masterpiece anyway . . |
385,944 | 391,152 | 52,311 | 10 | Probably the single most entertaining masterpiece ever made | Most movies that are agreed to be masterpieces are usually somber films that almost take a film class to fully " get , " or at least a few viewings . Touch of Evil is different . It is so entertaining , that I was thinking , " This is too easy to enjoy to be a masterpiece . " It is one of the most exciting and perfectly written films ever made . The actors are all great , their dialogue delivered impeccably every second of the film . But then if you do start to look at this film more closely , it is enormously complex . I did see this film in a film class , and my professor pointed out many little things throughout the film . There are so many hidden things around this film , one has to look very closely . So watch this film dozens of times if need be . Every time is just as good . And I pray that Criterion will do a version of this movie , the same way they did the Third Man . Then they need to do Citizen Kane and the Magnificent Ambersons . Chop chop ! |
384,989 | 391,152 | 26,529 | 10 | Masterpiece ; one of John Ford's best films | Gypo Nolan ( Victor McLaglen ) is as poor as anyone on Earth . Living in 1920s Ireland , Gypo and his fellow Irishmen are part of an underground rebellion against the oppressive Brits . One particular rebel , wanted for murder by the English , arrives back into town secretly . He thinks he can trust his friend Gypo , but the £20 reward proves too tempting . Gypo gets his friend killed and sinks into a pit of despair and drunkenness . Meanwhile , the other Irish rebels are searching for the informer . Right away , Gypo , with money burning a hole in his pocket , is their main suspect , but they , who are his friends , don't want to believe it . The story of The Informer is simple in its plot , but complex in its moral and emotional issues . It's easily one of John Ford's most emotionally involving films . What Gypo did was wrong , but we can certainly understand his motives . We also understand his sorry character , and there's a lot of sympathy that arises for him . The script is very suspenseful , as well . It's the kind of suspense where we are pretty sure we know how everything will end up , so we have to grit our teeth and bear along with it . The acting is remarkable . Victor McLaglen , who acted in many of Ford's films , probably gave his best performance here ( and won an Oscar for it ) . Every other performer in the film deserves his or her kudos . In addition to an amazing script and acting , The Informer is one of John Ford's most expressionistic films . I love the darker side of Ford . In its mood , as well as in its themes , The Informer reminds me of two of my other favorite Ford films , The Long Voyage Home ( 1940 ) and The Fugitive ( 1948 ) ; it's also a bit similar to The Grapes of Wrath ( 1940 ) in these respects . . |
385,096 | 391,152 | 156,610 | 10 | Very creative ; a masterpiece | In the final days of the year 1999 , most everyone in Taiwan has died . A strange plague has ravished the island . Supposedly spread by cockroaches , the disease sends its victims into a psychosis where they act like the insects . Eventually , they die . The Hole takes place in a crumbling apartment building ( which is especially well created ; kudos to the set designer ! ) . Its two protagonists live right above and below each other . The woman is on the lower floor , and the pipes above her apartment are leaking fiercely , threatening to destroy her food supply , not to mention her sanity . She calls a plumber to go check it out , and he accidentally pokes a hole through the floor of the man's apartment . The two have never met before , and they come into contact through the hole . The script is quite brilliant . Few films are simultaneously this funny while remaining completely human , deeply exploring the human condition , especially feelings of loneliness and despair . Tsai's direction is simply beautiful . Like a lot of other Taiwanese directors , he uses a lot of long takes . But unlike , say , Hou Hsiao-Hsien , Tsai doesn't overuse them . In fact , I don't know if I've ever seen them used better . They're always effective and never tedious . It would be wrong to review this film without mentioning the musical numbers . Yes , The Hole is also a musical , and a great one , at that . In the film's best scenes - which is saying something , considering how good all the other scenes are - the man imagines that the woman is a singer , almost a cabaret singer . These numbers are fully choreographed , often with backup dancers and singers . In a stroke of genius , Tsai has these elaborately produced numbers take place in the crumbling building , the signs of apocalypse and decay unhidden . This provides both a sense of pathos and absurdity . The Hole is a film that begs to be seen . It ought to be a cult classic , if nothing else . Before I went to see this , I was told that it was a decent film , but probably Tsai Ming-liang's least good one . Well , if that is true , I just cannot wait to see another one ! . |
385,915 | 391,152 | 100,998 | 10 | Entirely Underrated . The Best Kurosawa Film I've Ever Seen | I have been exploring the works of Akira Kurosawa for about 6 months now , and I have seen most of those films which are generally considered masterpieces of film . There wasn't one of his films that I felt surpassed classics like 2001 , Citizen Kane , Raging Bull , or The Godfather . The one I had felt was the best was Ran , his adaptation of King Lear . But now I've found one that I believe is among the ranks of the classics of cinema . And oddly enough , Dreams is not considered a masterpiece . Maltin only gives it . I give it a square . I was skeptical at first . The first three pieces were nice , but I didn't find them extraordinary . The fourth one , " The Tunnel , " began to interest me , and about half-way through that one , I realized that putting dreams to film made a lot more sense than I had originally thought . I began to examine them from a psychological point of view . I became obsessed with the first three , diving deeply into them for their meanings , coming up with pearls of wisdom . I think this film affected my unconscious mind more than most films . Only 2001 , which works on every level , conscious , subconscious , and unconscious , simultaneously ( and it is alone among films in that respect ) , is similar . I will not go into any of the plots . One should experience everything in this film with no preconceptions . Besides , no one should on this site ; these comments ought to be only about why or why not the commenter liked the film he / she is commenting on . Just rent it , sit down , and let your mind absorb the beautiful images and the half-coherent thoughts expressed . When you fall asleep afterwards , you will certainly have the best dreams you've ever had . |
384,730 | 391,152 | 23,634 | 10 | A Whole New Ozu : The Old Ozu ! | I like Yasujiro Ozu's work , but , even after seeing some of those works that are generally considered best , I was still skeptical of his minimalist style . But then I saw the New Yorker VHS of the silent I Was Born , But . . . Let me just say that it is absolutely amazing . It's a nearly perfect film , with great direction , great writing , great jokes , and great acting . This is easily one of the best film about children ever made . The story revolves around two young boys whose dad has just moved to the suburbs near his boss . The kids have some trouble fitting in , and a gang of bullies accost them at first . But soon they conquer the leader of the gang and supplant him . Later in the film , the kids are challenged with their perception of their father . They think he's everything , of course , but they soon find out that he is only a salaryman . They watch his boss ' movies , which include shots of the father fooling around for the entertainment of his employer . The children are flabberghasted , and rebel against their father . I have said it is a great film about childhood ; it is also a great film about parenting , as the father and mother have to deal with their sons ' disappointment . Please , please watch this film , especially if you have been disappointed with other works such as Tokyo Story . In my opinion , I Was Born , But . . . is a much better film . . |
385,730 | 391,152 | 59,012 | 10 | In desperate need of restoration . We should start a charity fund . | It has grown mythic in my mind since several Europeans that I talkto on the internet began to tell me many months ago that Chimesat Midnight was an Orson Welles film that they preferred even toCitizen Kane . Yet it was unavailable in the US , and I thought that Iwould never see it . But finally I found a copy at a local alternativevideo store . I must say , to suggest that it beats Kane is giving it more creditthan it deserves . That film is today generally considered the verybest ever made ( on my own list , the latest version , it lands at # 12 ) , though that status was hard fought over those who overrate thecastrated version of The Magnificent Ambersons , though that filmis indeed , too , a masterpiece in its own right . But Chimes atMidnight is itself also a small masterpiece . Considering howcheaply it seems to have been made , the results are jaw - dropping . It is among Welles best , though saying that is asredundant as saying a play is ranked highly in Shakespeare'scanon . I have to confess to not knowing much about which Shakespeareplays Welles was using ; I don't have the necessary research toolsas I write this . I believe that he used a mixture of several plays , butnothing in the film seemed familiar to me , who have read only aquarter of them . Whatever Welles did , though , the results areamazing . His direction and editing give the film an enormouskinetic energy . The famous battle scene , the centerpiece of thefilm , ranks among the best ever created on film ( I would saycaptured , but Welles , presumably on account of the low cost ofproduction , creates the tension and fury of it by editing mostly , notcinematography or complex direction ) . Welles the actor is at thepeak of his form , though that is redundant , too . Did Welles evergive a bad performance ? I haven't seen too many outside of hisown directorial efforts , but the few I have seen I must concedewere beyond excellent . One other mention of acting : what the hellhappened to Jeanne Moreau ? Was Orson Welles stealing hermeals ? For Christ's sake , she looks like she's dying . I've seen six of the , what , ten or eleven films that Welles directed . Five of those I've given a , including Falstaff . Only Macbeth , which I felt paid too much attention to the technical aspects andnot enough to the actual play ( although it was only the secondWelles film I saw and that was a while back ) , I have given lessthan that , a . Falstaff I rank fifth out of the remaining five ( inorder : Citizen Kane , Touch of Evil , The Trial , The MagnificentAmbersons ) . Perhaps I would rank it as highly as my Europeanfriends do , but there is one issue that may be destroying itsbrilliance : the tape that I rented was in the most awful condition . Generally , my credo is that I won't watch a direct cinematicadaptation of a Shakespeare play unless I have read the original , but lately I have noticed that I can understand his dialogue quitesufficiently . However , as Shakespeare is difficult to comprehend byear alone , imagine hearing Shakespearean dialogue spoken byCharlie Brown's teacher ! As the print I saw was terrible , voices aresometimes impossible to understand . I think I only caught around of the dialogue , which made the plot somewhat difficult tofollow . The picture's contrast was quite bad , too , but notunbearable . The sound was definitely the biggest wound the filmhas received . But as films are being restored every day , andWelles's importance has never been denied , we must pray thatthis one is on someone's agenda . I pray for a Criterion edition witha great commentary track on the side that can decipher everythingI'll miss . |
385,621 | 391,152 | 85,838 | 10 | One of Sayles ' very best films | Sayles ' second feature as director , and his first great film . It's not perfect , has its share of clichés and is certainly dated , but it's wonderful . Linda Griffiths stars as Lianna , a young mother of two who is constantly suffering under her smarter , controlling husband , a film professor ( Jon DeVries ) . Lianna doesn't have much of a life , but she manages to sneak in a night class twice a week . She develops what seems to be a non-romantic crush on her professor ( Jane Hallaren ) . When her husband cheats on her , the relationship with her professor changes to a sexual one . It would be easy to hold the fact that Sayles is a man against the movie . However , Sayles does here what he does best : create strong , identifiable characters for whom we care . Lianna is really one of the best developed characters I can remember . I absolutely love the way Sayles makes her intellectually inferior to both her husband and lover . It gives her struggle a lot of weight . And I love the line she says to her husband : " Just because you can argue better doesn't mean you are right . " She breaks my heart . The power structure between her and her husband is brilliantly written . I also liked that Sayles creates a new power structure , and not one wholly different from the marriage , between Lianna and her lesbian lover . My only complaint is that Sayles does sometimes treat Hallaren's character too kindly . She's clearly taking advantage of Lianna , and at times she's clearly treating her badly . In fact , the relationship starts exactly the same way as the relationship between Lianna and her husband . She was once his student , as well . The parallel isn't underlined as well as it should have been . I think Linda Griffith's performance here is one of the best ever . It's a tragedy that she didn't become famous after this . I know that Sayles isn't the greatest director ( specifically referring to the direction ) in the world , but this is some of his best work on that front ( his very best is certainly Matewan ) . Of course his greatest talent is his writing ; he is such a remarkable writer of human interrelationships . Sayles also gives his best performance as an actor in this film . Lianna is such a subtle work of human emotion . It really doesn't have any big moments , and it doesn't end with any clear resolution . The film's power only hit me about 20 minutes after it was over . It's a small masterpiece . |
384,651 | 391,152 | 41,513 | 10 | The best Faulkner movie out there ( of the many that I've seen ) | This is easily the best cinematic version of William Faulkner's fiction that I've ever seen , and I've seen several of the most prominent ones . Filmed in Faulkner's hometown of Oxford , Mississippi , it really captures the feeling of Jefferson and Yoknapatawpha County . Intruder in the Dust is not one of Faulkner's best novel , but , even if it is a cliché to say this , it would be the crown jewel in any one else's career . It beats Harper Lee's good but simplistic To Kill a Mockingbird fifty feet into the ground ( I read that one in ninth grade , and that's exactly where it belongs ) . Two of Faulkner's most prominent characters play major parts in the film , Gavin Stevens and Lucas Beauchamp . Stevens is probably the single most common character in all of Faulkner's fiction . He's a lawyer and he works easily as a narrator , because , unlike many of his other characters , Stevens is a man of logic , not emotion ( at least when he's older ) . Lucas Beauchamp may be the most prominent of all of Faulkner's black characters ( he plays a major part in one of Faulkner's out-and-out masterpieces , Go Down , Moses ) ; unlike all of the other black folks in Yoknapatawpha , he refuses to bow down to any white man . He has pride , and many in the white population find that an execrable quality in a black man . One day , Lucas is found standing over a dead white man with a recently-fired pistol in his possession . Most of Jefferson and the surrounding areas don't see the need for a trial , and everyone's pretty sure that Beauchamp will be lynched before the evening's over , or at least the next day , as the murder and arrest occurred on a Sunday . Beauchamp , on the other hand , declares his innocence and tries to get Stevens to help him . Stevens refuses ; the case seems open and shut . But his young nephew , Chick Mallison , because Lucas had helped him in the past , is willing to help him now . As far as I know , no Hollywood film of this period deals with racism as overtly as this one . Hollywood films rarely persecute the black population , but instead prefer to relegate them to servant roles . If you're an African American actor , you might as well give up and accept that role as either the mammy , the maid , the servant , or the porter , because that's the only way you'll work . In Intruder in the Dust , there is to be found one of the most memorable non-porter roles a black actor ever had , Lucas Beauchamp . And Beauchamp , as I described above , is no stereotypical character , and might have been hard for audiences to accept . Even today , black characters are usually simple , magical , and kind . The recent arthouse hit Far from Heaven is a great example of that . Beauchamp is kind of a jerk , and he's very stubborn . Although he's perhaps a little less so here than he is in the novel , he's not any kind of stereotype . He's a complex human being . Juano Hernandez plays Beauchamp extraordinarily well . I haven't seen the film in a while , but he also appears in Robert Aldrich's 1955 film , Kiss Me Deadly , as well as the cinematic adaptation of Faulkner's final novel , The Reivers . All the actors are great in the film . I should also praise quickly Claude Jarman Jr . , who has the great role of Chick Mallison . The novel takes place from his point of view , and he is the conventional hero of the picture . Jarman is quite an actor ; he captures the character ( who also appears elsewhere in Faulkner's fiction , narrating , for example , events that happened a decade or more before he was born in the 1957 novel The Town ) perfectly . He would appear in another great role the next year in the underrated John Ford film Rio Grande . The only other film of Clarence Brown's that I've seen is National Velvet , quite a different picture than Intruder in the Dust . His job here is exceptional ; I really have to credit him with capturing Faulkner perfectly . Other famous Faulkner adaptations are too melodramatic ( The Long Hot Summer , filmed in 1958 , which I really like despite that ) or too cold ( Tomorrow , filmed in 1972 , which I do not like ; that coldness is a complete misunderstanding of Faulkner ) . The only other one that really does well according to its source material is Douglas Sirk's great 1958 filming of Pylon ( really a different sort of Faulkner novel altogether ) , Tarnished Angels . . |
385,207 | 391,152 | 32,338 | 10 | up there | Christmas in July is nearly as good as Sturges ' masterpieces , Sullivan's Travels , The Lady Eve , and Miracle at Morgan Creek . It's a nice film . The actors are good . It's funny and well directed . You couldn't ask for much more in a film . |
384,812 | 391,152 | 243,017 | 10 | May ( and should ) some day be considered a cinematic milestone | The worst part about Waking Life is that , after the lights come up , you find yourself sitting in a theater , stuck in utter reality . For 99 minutes , I almost believed I could fly , could do anything I wanted . Perhaps reality doesn't exist , I thought as the film progressed , and I am living in a dream . But then the lights come up , and I was still who I was 99 distant minutes ago . This is the power of film , and of art . |
384,987 | 391,152 | 63,442 | 10 | A milestone ; one of the best films ever made | When I recently , for fun , ranked my favorite films in a top 100 list , Planet of the Apes ended up at 33 . It was the second sci-fi on the list , after 2001 , which ranked # 1 . I have always been disappointed and irked at the ill-will that some people have towards Planet of the Apes . I almost assaulted someone who described Apes as " one of those so-bad-it's-funny type of movies " a few months ago . I take this film very seriously , and I wish others would do the same . I think one of the reasons there is so much animosity against this one is that it is undeniably dated . Not too much , but it would be difficult to sit a young teenager , raised on 1990s movies , down in front of it and have him / her enjoy it . Even a young adult , between the ages of 18 and 25 , would find it difficult . Planet of the Apes definitely exists in a specific time , the late 1960s . This was the best decade for film , churning out tons of both American and foreign masterpieces . Times were rough , and the Vietnam War was growing in intensity by the time Planet of the Apes was made . Because of this , we see many references to the current dilemma . The film willy-nilly debates issues like hunting , violence , animal rights , evolution vs creationism , class structure , and nuclear war . Taylor tells a young , rebellious , teenage chimpanzee not to trust anyone over 30 ( a common youth adage in the late 60s ) . Yes , it has so many topics that it seems to be about to burst at times . And , yes , the satire does go overboard once in a while . Still , it is all argued passionately . You can tell that everyone involved , even Heston , believes in what they are saying . In its own way , Planet of the Apes is as intellectual and philosophical a film as 2001 . I know that , when teens and younger people go see the Tim Burton remake ( which is not great , btw ) , there are going to be many who overpraise it and say that it is much better than the original . You would have to be mentally handicapped to honestly believe so . |
385,474 | 391,152 | 54,698 | 10 | One of the most satisfying Hollywood romances ever made | I really could not praise this film enough , nor could I really find adequate words to do so . All you have to know is that it is the most perfect romantic comedy I've ever seen , in that it is entirely successful at being both , a romance and a comedy . It's also a stunning drama with excellent characterizations . Holly Golightly , played by Audrey Hepburn , is a beautiful creation , a lot of which can be credited to Truman Capote , I assume , but it would be insane not to credit Hepburn , also . She is extraordinarily successful at expressing the innermost aspects of the character , her innate sadness and the intelligence behind the gold-digging , phony ( in a real way ) facade . I was very skeptical about George Peppard - I had never seen him without leather gloves and a giant cigar - but he pulls the role of Paul Barjak off with flying colors . Among many great supporting players , Martin Balsam , whom , the year before , was viciously murdered by Norman Bates in Psycho , has two especially hilarious scenes . I do have one complaint , and I'd bet , having not read through other reviews , that two out of every three reviewers bring this up : what the hell were they thinking with Mickey Rooney's Japanese landlord character ? I mean , talk about a major blemish on an otherwise masterful film ! I can't think of a more offensive racial caricature in ANY film , and I've seen a ton of other films , much earlier than 1961 , for Christ's sake , where white people played Asian , but I've never seen such gross stereotyping before . It's almost as if they started production on this film on December 8 , 1941 ! Besides that racist scar , the film has a couple of script problems , especially concerning the whole gangster part of the script . It feels very contrived , and they should have figured out a better way to shape the plot . Other than those two things , the film's perfect . If Mickey Rooney's part wasn't in the film , Breakfast at Tiffany's would surely make it onto my top 100 list . I'm still giving it a . I can't remember having cried as hard at an ending in the recent past . |
385,187 | 391,152 | 48,037 | 10 | One of Bunuel's top works | Perhaps my favorite of Buñuel's Mexican years . As a child , Archibaldo de la Cruz willed the death of his young , sexy nanny through the device of a magical music box . As an adult , he finds this box at a pawn shop , and it awakens the exciting feelings he had as he stood over the corpse of his nanny checking out her exposed thigh . He decides to become a serial killer , but it never quite works out that way . Every person he sets out to kill ends up being murdered by another's hand . Actually , I shouldn't say " person , " as Archibaldo's violent emotions only arise towards women . There is some heavy Catholic symbology to the picture , and the violence towards women obviously arises from the twisted mores of Catholicism . His first intended victim as an adult , for example , is a brazen tramp who openly expresses her wish to seduce him to get back at her husband . Buñuel had perhaps the most impeccable sense for creating finales , and the one here is as odd and remarkable as any other . Watch the two actions Archibaldo performs with his cane . I'm not 100 % sure what they signify , but I know that must be of the utmost importance . Ensayo de un crimen should be watched back to back with Buñuel's 1953 film , Él , also about a man being driven insane over his wife because of his strict religious beliefs . . |
384,572 | 391,152 | 32,376 | 10 | Beautiful , powerful movie | I love classical Hollywood as much as anyone I know , but I am also aware that the films are often mechanical and emotionally distant . Very few reach the level of Dance , Girl , Dance . The plot is great . It is not exactly original , but it seemed that way to me . I was entirely hypnotized . This is due to the direction , characterizations , and acting . This is one of the few Hollywood films of the era directed by a woman , Dorothy Arzner . Generally , you can't tell this fact , except for in the climactic scene of the film , where Maureen O'Hara delivers a powerful feminist speech . The direction is amazing , but it's definitely subtle and sometimes hard to catch . All the characters in this film , especially the lead two , are very well realized . They're people , and we believed them . The acting is the best of all . Lucille Ball may be best known for her television show , but she was a great movie actress , as well . I can't say that I've seen too many of her films , but it would shock me if she was ever better than she is in Dance , Girl , Dance . She is the spark of the film , and Maureen O'Hara is the emotional core . I think that her part represents one of the best female characters to be found in the cinema . O'Hara is simply fabulous as a ballet dancer who has to lower her artistic standards to make a living . And , like I mentioned before , listen for that speech she gives near the end of the film . I hadn't heard of this film before . I had never heard of Dorothy Arzner . I love the feeling that I've made a major cinematic discovery . This is most definitely one of those . . |
385,486 | 391,152 | 72,417 | 10 | A short comment | To see A Woman Under the Influence is to see how poorly every other movie about mental illness deals with its subject . Take 1975's Best Picture winner , One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . It's filled with quirky and amusing characters at whom we can giggle . If you extracted Gena Rowland's performance from A Woman , it actually might have easily fit in next to those crazies . Any other film would probably treat Rowland's illness as a joke , and we would have laughed at it . But this film shows us that there is nothing to laugh at . I could only cringe in horror and whimper at the events as they unfolded . There is nothing easy about this film . It's emotionally draining and it forces us to live through these pains . It provides no one to blame , and there is no kind of pat ending , neither happy nor tragic . Cassavetes ' realist direction is as perfect as it gets . Both Rowlands and Peter Falk give masterful performances . A powerful , powerful movie . . |
384,759 | 391,152 | 48,055 | 10 | Wow ! | This is such a fantastic movie , a Western about a self-concerned man ( Jimmy Stewart ) going up to the Klondike for gold . On the way , he gets hassled by a local sheriff in Alaska ( John McIntire , giving a wonderfully evil performance ) , whom he hassles back . McIntire threatens that he'll be a dead man if he ever comes back through his town , which is , unfortunately , the only way back to the States . The main chunk of the story is about the peaceful Klondike town of Dawson being turned upside down by new residents from McIntire's town . Ruth Roman , for instance , who has come with Stewart and his two companions ( Jay C . Flippen and Walter Brennen , who plays Stewart's best friend ) , builds a saloon ( a Hollywood front for a whorehouse ) and tries to run the town's restaurant and hang-out place out of business . She paves the way for McIntire and his goons to come up , too . In 1953 , Jimmy Stewart and director Anthony Mann made one of the peaks of the Western genre , The Naked Spur . The Far Country is just the tiniest bit less , and it contains 99 . 9 % of what made that film so special without , of course , feeling like a cheap copy . Like The Naked Spur , The Far Country boasts beautiful , on-location cinematography . The landscape is gorgeous . Stewart gives one of his best performances ( nearly equal to his biggest success of 1954 , Rear Window ) . I suppose it could be considered cliche , as he starts out a selfish loner and learns how that kind of existence plays out in the end . Still , Stewart plays it so damn well , he makes this character very human . And the supporting performances are universally fantastic . In addition to those I've mentioned , the adorable French actress Corinne Calvet is very good . And I ought to single out Walter Brennen , as well . He seems to have specialized in playing best friends . His relationship with Stewart is very touching , since he is , at first , the only character who is able to bring out any humanity in the cynical man . The screenplay is very well written , and Mann's direction is impeccable . A masterpiece . . |
385,233 | 391,152 | 30,448 | 10 | Probably the best of all the Mickey Mouse shorts | I was obsessed with this cartoon when I was a child , and now that I have the new DVD box set " Mickey Mouse in Living Color , " I can watch it every day ! This is just filled to the brim with some of the funniest jokes Disney ever created . The animation is simply gorgeous , as it always was in this era of Disney Studios . . |
384,816 | 391,152 | 78,073 | 10 | A vision of pure beauty | I'm at a loss over what I could say about Eric Rohmer's Perceval . I was so deeply affected by it . I'm guessing that many will be annoyed at the French New Wave style , which I personally love . I'm definitely a French New Wave fan . I'm not really a Rohmer fan , though . This is only the second Rohmer film I've seen , after his 1997 film An Autumn Tale ( I think that's what it's called ) . I was unimpressed with that . Perceval will probably lead me to see more of his films , although , from what I've heard , this film is stylistically different than anything else he has ever made . Heck , I haven't seen anything at all similar in style in the many , many films I've seen . It's as if it takes place within the world of the theater . Naturalism is thrown out the window . The landscape is reduced to a bare minimum . Trees are sculpted out of metal , and are more symbols of trees than trees themselves . Castles are small , like the skenes of ancient Greek theater . The palette is made up of mostly primary colors . White appears frequently , and there are a couple of scenes with some purple . Silver and gold are abundant . This goes for the sets and constumes . The acting is exaggerated , I think , to imitate a Medieval style . Best of all , a lot of the narrative is sung to gorgeous Medieval arrangements . This is perhaps the most hypnotizing aspect of the film . The only thing that has a tendency to disappoint is the narrative . It's choppy , things go unresolved and so forth . It didn't bother me too much . I've actually read some Medieval literature , and it doesn't generally obey Aristotle's rules . The main piece that feels unresolved is the story of Gawain . Only after about one hundred minutes does he become important , the story follows him for a while , and then it goes back to Perceval , never to return again . Still , this didn't bother me too much . There's not an individual scene in the film that lacks beauty . Several are amongst the most beautiful ever captured on film . Perceval even contains the second most powerful version of the Passion of Jesus Christ I've ever seen in a film , slightly behind the one in Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev . I know that I will come back to Perceval as soon as I can to study it closer and love it more . It's instantly one of my favorite films . . |
384,917 | 391,152 | 56,801 | 10 | Peak | I believe that I have seen all of Fellini's significant films now with the exception of Amarcord . There are two interpretations of his career . One opinion holds that his peak was La Strada , and as things went on Fellini became more self-indulgent . Of course , Nights of Cabiria is very similar to La Strada in a lot of ways . Andre Bazin called that film the end of neo-realism . The other opinion expresses that Fellini found himself in La Dolce Vita , and triumphed with it and 8 . My opinion is a mix between the two . I do prefer the neo-realistic films of his , especially La Strada , a film which is closer to me than any of his other films , and Nights of Cabiria , which also touched me deeply . I think that film is his most accessible ( though La Strada is in no way difficult to enjoy ) . But I do think La Dolce Vita was a peak of some sort , also . It is the most difficult of his films that is also worthwhile . It would be difficult to enjoy La Dolce Vita without researching it and its director afterwards . It still has some neo-realistic roots showing . With 8 , Fellini stood at the peak of his career . La Dolce Vita is rife with difficult symbolism , but it is restrained symbolism . One can enjoy the film without " getting " it . In fact , many people did , since it was an enormous hit all around the planet . 8 ' s symbolism is in no way restrained . It explodes with great fervor at the very beginning of the film , where the main character , a film director named Guido , dreams of being watched by everyone involved in a traffic jam , and then of being flown like a kite until someone yanks at his string , which sends him plummeting to the Earth . It would be simple to dismiss these opening images as pretentious nonsense . I personally think that symbolism is difficult to use in film , but that it can be done if used carefully . La Dolce Vita's symbolism seemed careful , while this seemed haphazard . However , this beginning symbolism does eventually help define the character of Guido . In fact , all of the symbolism of the film works excellently . It is not restrained , but it becomes integral to the film . It actually becomes fascinating . The final parade is miraculously effective , especially if you are familiar with Fellini's symbolic stock ( clowns , horses , prostitutes , people suspended in air , processions , magicians , musicians ) . Fellini made a film so thick with symbolism that a viewer may easily be overwhelmed . If that viewer is familiar with Fellini , he will not be . This was actually the second Fellini film I tried to watch , only after Satyricon ( far past his peak ) , and it just didn't work . I had watched about an hour and 20 minutes before I turned it off frustrated . Last night , I watched it without ever losing interest or involvement . So here is Fellini , standing at the very peak of his career , standing on a pile of symbolism that works , about to step over the peak and fall to his excess . His next film was Giulietta of the Spirits . It is bursting at its seams with symbolism , and it is all obvious , all drivel . I gave 8 a perfect 10 , but Giulietta a . It is sad when one does not realize when he has gone overboard . Well , here is 8 , and all the films he made before that , still great after 40-50 years . Enjoy them . |
385,654 | 391,152 | 26,423 | 10 | One of the best Silly Symphonies | This is just a superb retelling of the King Midas story , who asked that everything he touched be turned to stone . The jokes in this one are extremely clever . I especially like the visualization of the skeleton in the mirror and the elf . . |
385,966 | 391,152 | 26,421 | 10 | I think this is even better than ' 33 | Even without Busby Berkeley's trademark musical numbers , Gold Diggers of 1935 would be an utterly delightful comedy . From start to finish , it's a ball . Dick Powell and Gloria Stuart star . The supporting cast is full of Hollywood's finest character actors : Frank McHugh , Adolph Menjou , Hugh Herbert , Alice Brady and many more . Every single performer is excellent . And then , hey , there are these musical numbers ! There aren't as many as in Gold Diggers of ' 33 , but they're just as good . The song " Lullaby of Broadway " won the Oscar that year , beating out Berlin's Cheek to Cheek from Top Hat ( probably undeserved , but it is a fine song ) . These gold diggers unearth a real treasure ! |
384,667 | 391,152 | 120,663 | 10 | Kubrick's Second best after 2001 | I think the critics , even the ones who like this film , are missing the point . When 2001 came out , most every critic panned it completely . Pauline Kael , the uber-critic , called it dull and unimaginative . At that time , I can understand her view . Kubrick's famous films that far were The Killing , Paths of Glory , Spartacus , Lolita ( the only one on this list I haven't seen ) , and Dr . Strangelove . All of these are wonderful films , Dr . Strangelove usually being considered his second masterpiece after 2001 , but they lack the style of all the later Kubrick films . 2001 may be somewhat tedious to the average person once in a while , and it's almost uninterpretable , but it leaves posibly the strongest after-thoughts of any film . Kubrick's target was our love for narrative , but our unconscious minds . The pleasure of watching 2001 and Kubrick's other later films resides deep inside . It is too bad critics only have a few days to write their reviews . But by this time , they should have seen enough of Kubrick's films to realize this . The Shining , A Clockwork Orange , and Full Metal jacket all aged beautifully in my perception , and they all get better with each subsequent viewing . No other director who ever lived can do this . Only 2001 effects the unconscious mind more than Eyes Wide Shut . It is truly his second best film . It's images wander in my mind two days afterward as if I saw it an hour ago . I lay in bed the whole first night thinking about it , not sleeping for ten minutes . I didn't need to go to sleep to dream that night . The film seemed as if I dreamed it . The grainy film really added to that effect . And the color scheme . God , Kubrick was a genius to set this film at Christmastime . There are several gorgeous shots of Christmas lights . And a neon rainbow that especially lingers in my mind . And the religious orgy scene , which will undoubtedly become the most famous scene in the film , has colors that just made me weep with their heavenly beauty . Oh , and those purple sheets at the very end of the film . Critics complained about a speech near the end that undermined and ruined a nice murder mystery thread of the narrative ( see especially Roger Ebert's review ; though I love him , I think he's dead wrong this time ) . I think it would have been below Kubrick to end the film with a mysterious twist . Any director can give us a narrative trick at the end to put a goofy smile on our face . The idiotic ending of The Usual Suspects comes to the head of my mind . It's usually misinterpreted as genius because people don't realize that the sum of the parts ought to naturally be greater than one clever scene . If you want to see real genius , see Eyes Wide Shut , the second best film that Kubrick made , the second best film of the nineteen-nineties , and one of the best films ever made . |
385,666 | 391,152 | 17,743 | 10 | Not really a documentary , but some sort of masterpiece | Previously Merian C . Cooper and Ernest B . Schoedsack made Grass , a very great silent documentary inspired by the success of Nanook of the North ( which they hadn't even seen when they were flying off to the Middle East to film the long migration of a group of nomads ) . Grass was a real documentary , with little staging . Nanook , however , had a lot of staging , and has suffered a ton of criticism since its first release because of it . No matter how clearly Nanook is staged , Cooper's and Schoedsack's Chang is a hundred times more staged . I don't care . It's an amazing film . Call it a fictionalized documentary , or a fudged one . Whatever . Chang is an awesome movie . The story is gripping , the cinematography is great , and the filmmaking in general is wonderful . I'm sitting there wondering how the hell they got these shots of tigers and elephants and stuff . I'm thinking Carl Denham , the risk-taking filmmaker from their own later King Kong . This whole movie seems like a preparation for King Kong . A couple of the scenes are repeated there . This may be preparation , but it is as amazing in its own way . . |
384,569 | 391,152 | 375,063 | 10 | The best film I've seen so far from 2004 | Jonathan Rosenbaum theorized that critics liked Sideways so much is because it was about critics , and that it appealed specifically to them . He's right . I'm sure every critic is someone who wished they could have been a director or screenwriter , but couldn't make it . But I say , so what ? The film wouldn't appeal to them if it weren't insightful to the plight of its protagonist . I was expecting Payne to tease and ridicule Paul Giamatti's character throughout the film , because the tastes and skills of an oenophile sound superficially pretentious . For the first time , Payne restrains himself completely in this regard , and just lets the character live . On the other hand , the Thomas Haden Church character is often used for cheap jokes . He's a shameless womanizer who thinks nothing of spinning lies to get laid . However , we've all known people like him . Much like Giamatti in the film , I've only ever been partially disgusted with this type's behavior . In a way , it's fascinating , because I see these skills of manipulation that I don't understand at all . The biggest question of the film is why these two guys are friends at all . They don't seem to have anything in common . But that question enhances the film more than inhibits it . It's one of the things that makes it truly interesting . Sandra Oh ( who deserves a better career than she has ) and Virginia Madsen are both good , though , in my mind , their characters were never as interesting as Giamatti's and Church's . Church , who was very good on the sitcom Wings ( I'd say he's the best thing to come out of that , but Tony Shaloub also got his start there ) , is very funny . But Giamatti makes the movie . His performance is , in itself , a masterpiece . It's easily the best performance by an actor this year . It's an absolute travesty that he wasn't nominated for an Academy Award . . |
384,610 | 391,152 | 66,434 | 10 | One of the best of its sub-genre and probably the best movie George Lucas has yet ( read " ever " ) directed | Sure , Star Wars is a lot of fun . It's a great way to waste some time or to keep people entertained at a party or something . However , it's unbelievable how crazy people have become about it . In fact , people are so insanely in love with it that they actually convinced themselves that The Phantom Menace was a good movie . Now that's the power of persuasion ! Let's travel back in time three entire decades . In 1970 , George Lucas made his first feature after graduating from film school . Francis Ford Coppola , two years away from capturing one of the greatest films ever made , helped young Lucas produce it . It is THX 1138 , which is the name given to the film's hero , played by Robert Duvall , who was not yet extraordinarily famous ( perhaps people would recognize him from Robert Altman's MASH , in which he had co-starred earlier that year ) . The setting is a post-apocalyptic , underground complex . I have to throw out a caveat right here : I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic movies , and generally like all of them . And , in my opinion , this is one sci-fi sub-genre where the cheaper a production is , the better it is . My favorite ever is L . Q . Jones ' 1975 cult classic A Boy and His Dog . Heck , I even liked Robert Altman's Quintet quite a bit . What I like about these three films , what they have in common , is that they don't spend a lot of time explaining their back-stories . A Boy and His Dog gives a brief account of the major event in its history , but does not explain what came afterwards . THX 1138 is surely much more widely known than either A Boy and His Dog and Quintet , simply because of its creator . Lucas ' film gives us hardly anything to establish its setting in time . Of course , as conventions would determine , we all assume that it was some nuclear holocaust or unbearable pollution . But Lucas really gives us little information about what is going on . When sub-genres get so specific like this , where one film is so close to its predecessors , whether those predecessors are films or even novels ( no one could mistake the 1984ish tones of the film ) , the screenwriter and director really don't have to tell us much . So if these films are so close , why should anyone like them ? Well , because you're not supposed to rely wholly on the plot for the films ' worth . This is cinema , not literature . What we have to pay attention to is , well , one , the narrative structure , that is , how the story develops , not what the story is ( that's a part of literature , too , but it's a good variable in this genre ) . Two , these stories do differ in their settings , which is a major part of the authors ' creativity . Three , cinematic techniques . Well , THX 1138 can be credited with having a very good structure . It does progress linearly , but , as I said above , it gives just the tiniest hints of what's actually happening in the film and what the characters are thinking . There is very little dialogue , and a lot of it is difficult to decipher . The setting : George Lucas has great success here . He has all the sets as white as possible , and these sets mostly consist of hallways . Very cheap , and very effective . This comes in a lot if you're going to discuss the cinematography . Lucas also makes his characters wear white , scientific outfits , often covering everything but the characters ' heads or faces . In possibly the best sequence in the film , Duvall is put in a prison that has no visible walls or corners or doors or anything . It's just pure white , and it's simply deafening . And since the prisoners are wearing white , too , it looks like they're all lost in some sort of hideous limbo . Lucas also creates the best visual compositions in his entire career . Star Wars is rather bland visually . Nice colors , I suppose , but there's hardly any attention paid to composition . I was lucky enough to see THX 1138 in widescreen , and Lucas very carefully composed the shots . He's especially good here at posing his actors in an artistic way , while not making it obvious that he had deep artistic intentions when directing them . To tell you the truth , I couldn't relate what actually happens in this story at all . I have to blame part of that on my sleepiness tonight . However , even when I didn't fully understand it , I recognize it as a great movie , a masterpiece , perhaps . . |
385,516 | 391,152 | 120,681 | 10 | Truly effective Gothic horror film | I wasn't expecting much from this movie . The critics passed it over rather quickly , saying a few kind words but without a strong recommendation . The couple of people I knew who saw this said that it was " good , " but never cared to say much more than that and have never brought it up again . As I sat down to watch it , I thought it looked nice but moved too fast , was a little dumb . But by the end , I was astounded . I think it's one of the best films of 2001 . Sure , it's a triumph of style over substance , but I think we need a couple of good films like this every year . I love style . I would compare From Hell most closely to Alex Proyas ' 1997 triumph Dark City , which , like From Hell , made almost nothing at the box office . I hope , like Dark City , that From Hell will win a larger audience on video . It's not as intelligent as Dark City , which was brilliant in nearly every way , but From Hell equals it in visual virtuosity . Its story , while sometimes lapsing into silliness , is enormously gripping . It's also one of the few horror films to succeed at inducing a sense of dread in the audience . A Scotland Yard detective ( played well by Johnny Depp ) is on the case of Jack the Ripper , who is himself on the trail of a group of five prostitutes . On the way , Depp discovers that the ritualistic murders are part of a larger conspiracy . The film is full of great twists , the biggest one being simply hilarious in its level of audacity . The end is quite unpredictable ( although the climax is a little too predictable ) . There are several minor flaws in the film . It does go a bit too fast , but its breathless pace ends up paying off well in the end . Many people will be turned off at the level of gore in the film . Seriously , avoid it at all costs if you have a weak stomach . But if you could take it in Silence of the Lambs , Se7en , or Sleepy Hollow , you'll be fine . I actually felt that those three particular films flaunted their gore and were tremendously ineffective in their horror . Yes , even ( and perhaps especially ) Silence of the Lambs . I don't know why , but I didn't feel that way about From Hell . . |
385,404 | 391,152 | 68,379 | 10 | Strange , hypnotic , and somehow quite affecting | Ciao ! Manhattan is an avant-garde film that makes the films of Jean-Luc Godard seem conventional . That's not to attack Godard , mind you . I'm just comparing the two to express how far out Ciao ! Manhattan is . The slight narrative concerns a young Texan hippie traveling the American countryside just because he likes to see things . One night , he sees something quite unexpected : a beautiful young woman with bare breasts hitchhiking . He picks her up ( who wouldn't ? ) and finds that she has a couple of dog tags around her neck with her name , Susan , and address on them . He takes her home . Susan's mother thanks him and offers him a job taking care of her daughter . Susan was a young model in New York , a discovery of artist Andy Warhol . She lived a life of hard partying , and is now paying for it with a severe case of brain damage . Now Susan lives in a drained pool in her mother's back yard , and she spends endless hours drinking hard liquor and rattling off stories about the old days in New York . At first , Ciao ! Manhattan just seemed to me an excessively playful experimental film with a bunch of bizarre imagery and editing and stuff . I was laughing , it was fun to see the excesses of that sub-culture which I know so little about . But after a while , the film just started working , and really well . Susan is played by Edie Sedgwick , who really was a protege model of Andy Warhol . The film works a fine balance between reality and fiction . How much of Sedgwick are we seeing ? Is any of it fictional . She died three months before the film was released , and , edited into the last moments of the film , there is a shot of a newspaper headline that announces the death . Whether Ciao ! Manhattan was meant to be or not , it serves as a dirge , not only to Edie Sedgwick , but to the young generation of the time . I don't know , maybe I loved this film because I grew to adulthood so far after the hippie generation , but I'll tell you one thing : I have seen a ton of the greatest films ever made . It's a rare experience to come upon one that is as unique as this one . Perhaps there were a thousand films like this at the time , but none are available except this . Well , I choose to praise this . . |
384,578 | 391,152 | 74,235 | 10 | Passionate , poetic , exceptional filmmaking | At its base , Bound for Glory is just a simple biopic about Woody Guthrie . In execution , it turns out to be a lot more . We actually learn very little about Woody Guthrie's life . I don't know the exact statistic , but I would guess that it covers no more than a few years , with an end title that tells us briefly of his death . And basically all of the experiences shown onscreen can be seen in other films , most notably John Ford's brilliant American masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath . To be absolutely fair , the scenes of migrant workers ' woes are at least equal to those in its predecessor . A good one-line summary of Bound for Glory might read " a modernist equivalent of The Grapes of Wrath told from the point of view of folk singer Woody Guthrie . " But Bound for Glory has a few things that make it stand out from other films , that make it as memorable as The Grapes of Wrath . First and maybe foremost , you have the brilliant and gorgeous cinematography of the great Haskell Wexler . I'm no expert on cinematographers , but Wexler is one of only three I can name offhand ( the other two being , if you are interested , Vittorio de Sica and Sven Nykvist ) . I love Wexler's work in films like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? and Matewan ( a thematically similar film directed by the great John Sayles ) . But what Bound for Glory most resembles is Wexler's very controversial cinematography on Days of Heaven . Not controversial because of anything specifically photographed , of course , but , if you know the story , a different cinematographer took credit as lead DP , leaving Wexler with a credit that was something along the lines of " with additional photography by " . Wexler claims to have photographed more than 50 % of the scenes in the finished film . He has sat through the film several times , I have heard , with a stopwatch . Bound for Glory , at any rate , is one of the most beautiful films you're ever likely to see . It's golden colors are beautiful , and the camera is moved gently , but with precision . This film actually has the first shot that used a steadicam , although I had forgotten to keep an eye out for it when the film was playing ( I was far too engrossed ) . My favorite scene is one where Guthrie and a black hobo have left the boxcar of a train and move to the top of it . There they sit and converse as the most beautiful landscapes in our country pass by behind them . These are some of the best shots I've ever seen . And just because of those shots , even if the film didn't contain a plethora of other relevant materials , I would call this film one of the best ever made about the United States . Secondly and thirdly , this film is about Woody Guthrie , one of the greatest American artists of the past century . David Carradine , who , in other performances , has never convinced me that he was as good as his father , John ( who was in Grapes of Wrath , incidentally ) , or his brother , Keith , breaks apart my former opinion of him and delivers a masterful performance . I don't know whether I could identify why he is so good in this film . It's as if he has an aura about him . He really does , however , seem to enbody Guthrie's convictions . Throughout the film , Guthrie's music is played , whether sung or as an extra-diagetic score . This is great American music . So much of it has become part of the soundtrack to the American life . I mean , I remember learning songs like " This Land is Your Land " and " This Train " in elementary school music class . In his day , Guthrie had difficulty in getting those kind of songs out to the public . His bosses were constantly ordering him to tone down the political edge of his music . Luckily for America , he steadfastly refused to do so . Woody Guthrie was a true American hero . Bound for Glory depicts that as much as he could have hoped for . |
385,182 | 391,152 | 19,959 | 10 | Deeply moving | A gorgeous , all-black masterpiece . King Vidor directs a group of ( mostly ) non-actors to depict a picture of black life in the South . Daniel L . Haynes stars as Zeke , a none-too-smart cotton farmer who is tricked into wasting half a year's pay on gambling by a sexy little hoochie ( Nina Mae McKinney ) . When Zeke gets in a fight with the man who cheated to win his money , tragedy strikes . In a fit of grief , he begins to belt out a gospel song and the people around him think he should become a priest . Not only is this a great gospel musical , it's a great religious drama , one where the emotions of faith seem deeply felt and real . Vidor's direction is as good as it ever was . When a lot of the films of 1929 were clunky and static , this one has a beautiful visual and aural flow with only a couple of small stumbles along the way . |
385,945 | 391,152 | 417 | 10 | As much a masterpiece as any other bona fide masterpiece | The Voyage to the Moon should be included in the handful of bona fide masterpieces which includes Citizen Kane , the Godfather , and 2001 . It is short , but it is so delightful . The effects are not as crude as many might believe . The director was very surrealistic in his design . He had no misconceptions of what he was doing . He never thought that his models did not look like cardboard cutouts . The story and the acting is very funny . I watched this in a beginning level film class , so I may have a better understanding of it than many might , but I think I would have loved it as much anyway . This is the first film masterpiece I think ever made . without a problem . |
385,496 | 391,152 | 180,073 | 10 | Philip Kaufmann has produced yet another amazing piece of work | Quills is one of the best films of 2000 , in my reckoning , second best only to You Can Count on Me . It is one of the most brilliantly directed , acted , produced , and written films I've seen in a very long time . There is not a ( major ) character in this film that is not very complex , and the issues at stake are utterly important . Perhaps the greatest success of the film is how well it works on commenting both on its own time and situations and our own world today . The issues of free speech , creativity , dementia , corporal punishment , religion , sexuality and especially politics are woven into the film in amazing ways . Yes , politics , for it works as an allegory to the recent presidential scandals . There are two flaws , one major , one semi-major . The semi-major one involves the epilogue . It is not bad , but it is unnecessary . Perhaps the best way to describe it is superfluous and predictable . The major flaw would destroy any lesser film . Here , it is hardly noticable . Still , if one contemplates it , there is no getting around it . There is never a believable reason why Madeleine should be so helpful to the Marquis de Sade . They present a tiny one , but it is not good enough . Still , with its successes elsewhere , these flaws do not weaken this film . Without them , it would have been perfect . With them , well , just because it is flawed , doesn't mean it isn't a masterpiece . |
384,928 | 391,152 | 56,736 | 10 | A masterpiece | I saw this several years ago in a class . This was long before Criterion had a DVD , and the VHS we watched was simply awful . The subtitles were completely illegible , so I didn't get much out of it . I did like it , however . But revisiting it on DVD , the film is a revelation . It easily ranks as highly as any of Antonioni's other masterpieces . This may be his darkest , most frightening film . Monica Vitti plays a woman disillusioned with life . Her feelings are expressed in mostly abstract ways , via Antonioni's gorgeous visuals . I'm not sure any director expressed as vividly a person's feeling of being disconnected with the world around them . The story follows Vitti between two lovers , Francisco Rabal and Alain Delon . Both are self-obsessed jerks . As Vitti recedes from society , she leaves Rabal . She initially tries to resist Delon , knowing that fulfillment is equally impossible with him . But , in the end , she quietly fades back into a conventional life , giving up her existential crisis . It's a story of failure , really . And then comes the infamous finale : Antonioni separates us from the people we've become accustomed to , and we revisit the sites we've seen before . But we're alone . It's a severely ambiguous ending , and I'd guess that viewers have interpreted it any number of ways . My thought : Antonioni is challenging the audience with the same existential crisis that Vitti faced and then turned her back on . What is this strange world we live in ? When I used to recall this famous ending after the first time I had seen it , I remembered it without human beings . Not true . There are people in nearly every shot . We just don't know who they are . They seem completely foreign ( even though we've seen some of the people as extras earlier on ) , and it makes the world seem more alien , more severe . You go outside after seeing this film , you feel the same way . You feel all alone in the world . Like Tati's Playtime , it's the kind of film that can alter your perception of the world around you ( of course , Playtime has the opposite effect ? you feel more connected to the world around you ) . When he died , I was long past my Antonioni phase . I had seen all his best films years ago . It feels good to fall in love again . |
385,913 | 391,152 | 32,976 | 10 | The very definition of " Haunting " | I was quite interested in the film while I was watching it , but when it ended , I didn't feel impacted . Very soon afterwards , however , my mind began to feel very heavy . The first words of the film came floating back to me : " Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again . " I ruminated over the events of the film , and I began to tear up a bit . It creates one of the most unsettling atmospheres ever to exist in a film . I still feel enshrouded in the mist and smoke that curled around Manderly . I can tell that this is going to be one of those films that , when I recall it to memory , I will fall back into its mood . I can't say this for too many films . One of the reasons that I connected with it so tightly was the main character , the narrator , the new Mrs . de Winter . Joan Fontaine was perfect in this film . Out of the ones with whom I am familiar , I don't think that there is another Hitchcock heroine who was as well developed . Kim Novak's character Judy from Vertigo was close , and so was Janet Leigh's character Marion Crane from Psycho . Those two heroines provoked great pity in my soul . But the heroine of Rebecca beats them all . I was completely involved with her . She begins as little more than a slave to a domineering woman , Edythe van Hopper ( their relationship was a little confusing to me ; a hired friend ? This made me suspicious . I think that there was a lot of suggestive lesbianism in this film , perhaps between van Hopper and the heroine , but definitely between Rebecca and Ms . Danvers . Watch as she delicately shows the second Mrs . de Winters Rebecca's underwear . Also notice that Rebecca used Ms . Danvers ' name at the doctor's office , having gone there to find out whether or not she was pregnant ) . The heroine only escapes from one owner to go to her next owner , Maxim de Winters . He treats her even more cruelly than Edythe van Hopper did , calling her a " little fool " and an " idiot . " When he called her those names and reprimanded her , I trembled . As the movie went on , I think my mind actually became fused with the heroine's . I started to cry when she did after Ms . Danvers tortured her psychologically . When Ms . Danvers tried to convince her to jump out of the window , I felt as if I was about to fall to my death . I became rather disappointed when the focus moves from the heroine to Maxim . His predicament became more interesting near the end , but my sympathies , my whole attention were squarely focused on Fontaine's character . Thus arose my initial impression of the film . This small disruption can be forgiven , because the film as a whole just remains in my mind as a sad , beautiful masterpiece . Rebecca is one of Hitchcock's best films . Definitely a . |
384,998 | 391,152 | 361,127 | 10 | One of the best films of 2004 | The most underrated film of 2004 is this subtle , powerful and sad little independent starring Kevin Bacon . He plays a man just out of jail after 12 years ; he was there because he molested pre-teen girls . The movie perfectly captures the mind and existence of this man . His life is impossible . He can't look another human being in the eye . Only one person from his life before he was discovered will even talk to him . Everyone he works with is inherently suspicious of him , and , since his record is easily available over the internet , it's only a matter of time before everyone knows . The police are watching him , and a certain officer stops by to check on him ? and harass him ? at regular intervals . And of course , you can't feel too sorry for the guy . What he did was revolting . But the film really lets us know what it feels to be besieged by the past and your own shame . And also by your own desires . The desire for young girls does not leave Bacon . He even finds a woman ( played by Bacon's wife , Kyra Sedgwick ) , damaged in her own way and sorry for him , but it can't rewire his brain . All he can do is fight it , a task that becomes difficult as his life starts to collapse around him . The film's main focus is on Bacon's internal struggle . The painful romantic relationship that the two co-workers develop is exceptionally done . There is also a subplot ? one that many a review has focused in on ? where Bacon notices a man trying to lure a young boy into his car day after day . There's one major misstep , in my estimation , where Bacon describes this man's actions in a sports play-by-play style , and maybe a couple of things I questioned along the way ( Bacon moves in across from a grade school ? there are laws preventing this ) , but the rest nears perfection . Kevin Bacon , always a competent actor , gives a career best , and possibly the year's best performance . Sedgwick is also wonderful , if a tad too pretty to be playing this character . There are some surprising actors in the supporting cast ( if you enjoy Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon ? ) , but they are all excellent . The director , Nicole Kassell , delivers a masterwork in her first outing in feature length cinema . |
384,744 | 391,152 | 765,120 | 10 | I for one thought this was brilliant | Famously shoved aside at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival , which it opened , and barely plopped into theaters early in 2008 , with a couple of swears cut out to insure a PG-13 rating . I've seen all of Wong Kar-Wai's films , and while My Blueberry Nights has generally been considered a good example of wheel-spinning by many of his critics and fans , I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I think this is his best work yet . Sure , it's a Wong Kar-Wai film , there's no denying . It's mostly plot less , focuses more on mood and tone , and has its characters wandering through life listlessly . Wong is just one of those cinematic artists who inhabit their own universe and see no problem in returning to the same well over and over again . There are a lot of directors who are like this , and , for the most part , it seems useless to complain about it . If you don't like it , go somewhere else . For whatever reason , My Blueberry Nights captivated me even more than his previous films . The episodic plot involves Norah Jones as a New York City girl recently dumped by her boyfriend . In those stumbling moments right after that bomb has landed , she wanders into a diner near her former lover's apartment and makes friends with its owner , Jude Law . He also is a lost soul and a wanderer , who ended up where he is because of his own lost love . Every night , after standing below the apartment , Jones comes into the diner , sits at the counter and eats blueberry pie . It's the least eaten pie there is , according to Law , so it feels the most right . There is a deep connection between Jones and Law , but no true romance is able to form with Jones ' heart so recently destroyed . Eventually she wanders from New York to Memphis , and later on to Reno and Las Vegas . Each of these two sections includes its own adventure . The Memphis segment involves Jones coming into the lives of a broken married couple , David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz . Of course , this segment relates pretty directly with Jones ' own experiences . The Reno / Las Vegas episode has Jones meeting up with high stakes gambler Natalie Portman , a role that sounds , on paper , particularly ridiculous but in which she is entirely convincing . This is the best performance in her career . The two embark on a roadtrip to Las Vegas after Portman loses Jones ' savings in a poker game ( in which deal Jones receives Portman's new car ) . Portman needs to see her father to get a new wad of money for her habit , but she has a rocky relationship with the man . I admit this segment does not feel connected to the rest of the film . Still , I think it's meant to work as a buffer in Jones ' healing process . Plus , it's well worth having just for Portman's performance . I think what Wong and his co-screenwriter Lawrence Brock really capture in My Blueberry Nights is that drifting feeling that one gets when the life that they thought they knew and assumed that they would always know falls apart . It also beautifully depicts the way people can come into our lives like spirits , affect us , perhaps just a little or perhaps greatly , and then just vanish . And how we do that for other people as well . Wong frequently cuts back to Law in NYC , who is trying to find Jones , a spirit who disappeared from his own life before he could do anything about it . My Blueberry Nights is often a very sad movie ( the first two thirds had me constantly in tears ) , but it's also one of the most romantic I've seen . It's definitely a perfect movie to fall in love to . I hope history treats it better than the present has . |
384,772 | 391,152 | 74,360 | 10 | Simple , but labyrinthine . Truly fantastic . | A perfect sister film to one of my absolute favorites , Spirit of the Beehive . It also stars Ana Torrent and has similar themes . And I like it probably as much . Torrent , three years older but looking pretty much the same , plays the middle child of three girls . At the beginning of the film , their father has just died . Their mother ( played by Geraldine Chaplin ) died a while back . The film is told through the mind of Ana , who is still mourning her mother , and she often sees her . It can be confusing at the beginning . Chaplin also appears as the adult Ana , who narrates some of her thoughts , or possibly as what Ana believes she will become . This is very ambiguous . The girls ' aunt Paulina is now taking care of them . The duty was kind of forced upon her and , while she's trying her hardest , it's taking its toll . She's stern and not well liked by the girls , especially Ana . There isn't much plot , per se , and what little there is shouldn't be ruined . We often see Ana's imagination and memories come to life . We see her witness fights between her parents . Later on , she reenacts them with her sisters . The film is about what children observe , how they interpret it and how they act on those interpretations . The film also has political ramifications , subtle ones that are pretty difficult to grasp . The title is the beginning of a Spanish proverb that goes : " Raise ravens , and they'll tear out your eyes . " Like Spirit of the Beehive , the film depicts a child experimenting with her own cruelty and violence . Supposedly this is all a criticism of the Fascist government ( Franco had just died by this point , so his regime was just on its way out ) . It's a very dense and fascinating movie . You'd probably still be swimming through its mysteries on a hundredth viewing . If you thought possibly that Ana Torrent was not acting in Spirit of the Beehive , this will set you straight . Her blank , soulful expression is here in full force , of course , but here you see the slightest smile creep across her face , and you can just tell exactly what she's thinking . I'm afraid I've done an awful job reviewing Cría Cuervos . I haven't expressed how touching it is when dealing with Ana's loneliness ( there's a scene where she dreams that her mother pops into her bedroom to tell her a story that's just heartbreaking ) , or how it often straddles dark comedy , like the scenes between Ana and the maid . I think that difficulty in reviewing it shows just how layered and confounding the film is . It shoots right up my favorites list . It's easily the best film I've seen all year . Bravo to Criterion for bringing this one to DVD . Hope they also get to Saura's La Caza sometime in the future . |
385,592 | 391,152 | 45,152 | 10 | I love this film , but . . . | I think the dance numbers , and even some of the songs , are less amazing than those of its immediate predecessor , An American in Paris , made by gene Kelly a year beforehand . I know that the An American in Paris songs were just adaptations of Gershwin songs , but they're great , and they work . That rendition of " I Got Music " is wonderful , and the 20 minute ballet at the end is one of the greatest things I've ever seen in a film . There are several songs from Singing in the Rain which were a little weak , and the " New York Ballet " doesn't feel right at all in this film . It's obviously a grab for the success of An American in Paris and its amazing finale . That one made a lot of sense in that film ( and was itself inspired by the even more amazing ballet sequence from The Red Shoes ) . That ballet sequence had much more substance , and didn't seem excessive . The New York Ballet did seem a bit excessive , although nice to watch . What puts Singing in the Rain above An American in Paris is its plot . An American in Paris ' plot was almost completely filler material between the songs and dance . The ending to that film ( after the ballet sequence , that is ) was very abrupt and didn't even make much sense . Singing in the Rain is extremely interesting in its setting . It's very interesting from a historical perspective , and that's what pushes it to a for me , 1 above An American in Paris . |
384,533 | 391,152 | 154,420 | 10 | In the near future , say fifteen-twenty years , The Celebration will be ranked among the best films of foreign cinema | The Celebration is a remarkable film . It is actually the second Dogma film I've seen , after the Idiots . I am one of that film's few supporters ( there aren't even many people in the US who have seen it , and most who have , whether an American or not , don't like it ) , but The Celebration blows it away . Idioterne , though exhilarating , is flawed . This is partly due to the quickness of its conception , production , and editing . The Celebration , however , is flawless . It contains some of the greatest editing ever . Watch the scene where three characters are linked together in a split second around bath tubs and suicide . It is enough to make your heart skip a beat . Festen also has some of the most complicated characters you're ever going to see in a film , and they're involved in one of the most complex situations that could be conceived . You'll be laughing in one moment , then you'll be beaten down emotionally , and then you'll shake your fists in anger . There has been much said about the pretentiousness of Dogma ' 95 . I personally think it is a great idea . I have heard that " it seeks to destroy the very foundations of filmmaking that artists have tried for 100 years to build . " I say , good ! That's what Italian Neorealism sought to do , and it produced The Bicycle Thieves , Umberto D , and La Strada among others . It's also what the French New Wave attempted to do , and it produced Breathless , Shoot the Piano Player , and The 400 Blows . Need I say more ? I have hardly ever felt that a situation was more realistic in a film when the Dogma rules were used . The Idiots , The Celebration , and other films made in a similar style , Dancer in the Dark and Breaking the Waves . Dogma 95 is attempting to do something ORIGINAL . I know that scares the heck out of most people , but thank God for these directors . Even if they don't produce something as great as Idioterne or Festen , it will at least be interesting . I predict that in less than 20 years , The Celebration will be taught in film classes . |
385,545 | 391,152 | 18,119 | 10 | Pretty amazing | Robert Florey's Loves of Zero is , as we are told by an opening placard , " an impressionist film made for less than $200 . 00 . " And that it is ! Great-Grandpappy was right , though . You used to get a heck of a lot for your money back in the good old days . This is mostly just a few friends having a ball on film , playing with the potentialities . It's reminiscent of Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou in that way , except it's not meant to piss us off . The film is goofy , and it knows it , but it is also very beautiful and , ultimately , very poetic . It's certainly a short film that deserves to be more widely known . Just think of how many small masterpieces - or even large ones - from this time period have been lost . Loves of Zero has not been lost , but it might as well be . . |
385,435 | 391,152 | 62,622 | 10 | By Light Years the Best Film Ever Made | 2001 warps beyond every other film ever made . I have seen it nearly a dozen times since I first saw it in 1997 . I bought it right away on VHS , and when I got DVD , it was the only VHS tape I replaced with a DVD . So why is it the best film ever made ? Simply because it transcends narrative . No other film has really done that . Even surrealist films are rooted in narrative . Avant-guarde films sometimes do not use narrative , but they become only moving paintings . 2001 has narrative , but it never insists on it . It lovingly displays the amazing visuals . The narrative itself makes me feel that humanity could be so much more . Kubrick usually is kind of pessimistic , but at the end of 2001 , he shows Dave's transcendence . And he is moving towards Earth to bring the rest of humanity with him . Although it shows the state of humanity as it exists now as violent and unsympathetic to the plight of others , it shows hope for our future . I have a rather large complaint about how some people look at this film , though . The introductory comment to this film on this site mentions understanding it more since that person has read the novel . This is all misinformation ! Kubrick was inspired by the Clarke short story " The Sentinal , " which I have read . It is not really worth it . If you've ever seen Clarke on The Discovery Channel's " Mysteries of the Unknown " or whatever it's called , you know how pompous he is . The visions in 2001 are completely Kubrick's . Arthur C . Clarke was just a trampoline off which he jumped . The novel is not an original . It was written alongside with the film , and it was published afterwards . The university at Champaigne-Urbana celebrated Hal's birth in 1996 , the date it gave in the novel . It is 1992 in the film , of course . Those ungrateful losers . That is the difference between a technology nerd and a cineast . Then Clarke completely milked the greatness of this film to make a living . If you want to see how terrible he really is , see the sequel to 2001 , 2010 , which he wrote . It was so awful that I killed it after 20 minutes . Pay no attention to Clarke and his leech-like behavior to this masterpiece . Those complaints , of course , have nothing to do with the actual film . To me , it is the most inspirational film ever made . I would watch it over anything . infinite / 10 |
385,433 | 391,152 | 109,508 | 10 | One of the most ignored Masterpieces of our time | Crumb has not gotten its due credit . Very few films of the 1990s have been universally accepted as masterpieces . Crumb should definitely have been one of the few . On the back of the video's box , it proclaims " one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time . " It is probably the only film of the decade besides _ Schindler's List _ that could have claimed that without stretching the truth . Every critic proclaimed that it was one of the very best films of the year it was released . Gene Siskel put it as his # 1 picture for the year ( having said in his original review " I doubt I'll see a better movie this year " ) , and Roger Ebert put it as his # 2 only after _ Leaving Las Vegas _ ( the only 1990s film I'd put above it myself , too ) . So why do I claim that it is so great ? Well , I particularly think that documentaries are much more important than fiction films if they are done well . The purpose of [ great ] art is to study and try to educate us about human nature . Documentaries , since they are fact and not fiction , logically can tell us more about human nature than fiction films , which can tell us about human nature , but they necessarily teach it through the eyes of the artists who created the work . For instance , _ Hoop Dreams _ , which has been accepted by many already to be a masterpiece , s by far the best sports film ever made . No fiction film could have had more insight into the appeal of sports . Also , it is one of the most important films ever made to deal with racial issues for the same reason . Crumb is the most important film ever made on the subject of the artist . Never has a film had more insight into an artist's work than Crumb does into R . Crumb . Each time I watch it , his artwork becomes more deep and complex . Each drawing becomes extremely multi-layered . R . Crumb was hardly inhibited while Zwigoff was filming him , nor were the other people who were interviewed . Crumb spares none of his personal life . Because of this , we learn more about him than we have ever learned about a single fictional character in film history . Not Charles Foster Kane , not Jake LaMotta , not Travis Bickle . No one . R . Crumb is also extremely anti-capitolistic . I love this ! He has inspired me with his thoughts . He never existed as an artist to make money . He has enough to exist happily , but he does not live in a mansion , nor does he own a sports team . He does not own a fleet of vehicles . In fact , he can't even drive ! |
385,857 | 391,152 | 116,209 | 10 | Underrated | This movie has suffered from an undeserved Oscar backlash . It is truly a powerful film experience . The writing , direction , and acting are all perfect . All the passion of this film is overwhelming ! What did this film do wrong to anger so many people ? Was it the complexity of the characters and the situations that they were in ? Was it some anti-British sentiment ? No , I'm willing to bet that it is just plain stupidity . So get a life and watch this masterpiece again . |
385,308 | 391,152 | 65,622 | 10 | A great masterpiece | Pier Paolo Pasolini might be the most underrated director of all time . You hear almost nothing about him nowadays , except how disgusting Salo was . But , in my mind , Pasolini ranks evenly with the other great masters , Fellini , Visconti , De Sica , Antonioni , and Rosselini , perhaps better than them . Pasolini is probably the most humane of all of them ( even when considering Salo ) . The Decameron is a perfect representation of Medieval European humor . Perhaps those unfamiliar with Medieval literature should avoid it , but all Medievalists must see it at some point . The stories are hilarious , and the human stories are beautiful . Just take a look at any face in the film . Pasolini is such a great lover of beautiful faces . Not that all the faces represent the standard concept of beauty , but the ones that might be considered ugly are exceedingly beautiful . |
385,918 | 391,152 | 140,384 | 10 | An S & M masterpiece ; Please , release more stuff like this ! | A discovery like this reminds me how much more there is to Japanese cinema besides Kurosawa , Ozu , and Mizoguchi . Well , my two favorite Japanese filmmakers are Sezuki Seijun and Shinya Tsukamoto , maverick filmmakers in their own country . Yasuza Masumura may be thrown on that list pretty quickly here , although this production doubtlessly had more money than , say , Branded to Kill . I won't go into too much detail with Blind Beast . Suffice it to say that it's one of the best films I've ever seen . It's easy to compare it to some vaguely arty trash like In the Realm of the Senses ( and I say that in the best way ) . That film was discovered by the French . I wish they would have found this and canonized it instead . It's far more artistically accomplished , and much , much more emotionally and physically draining . . |
385,316 | 391,152 | 45,112 | 10 | Life's a bitch ! | Kenji Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu is the tragic , humanistic tale of , well , the life of a woman named Oharu . Born into luxury , she errs with a man of lower class . For this offense , she is exiled along with her parents , convicted of letting their child run wild . As the film progresses , Oharu goes through about a thousand hardships - hell , any normal person would have killed herself after experiencing just the first of Oharu's hardships ! Life of Oharu is very heavy , but it avoids emotional manipulation . It even has a couple of humorous moments . If you doubt me , watch the scene where the jealous wife pesters her husband , trying to force him to admit that he first met Oharu at a brothel . The man is being shaved by his personal barber , and his wife keeps riding up on his side . So the husband lifts his mirror and walks a few spaces away , just to have his wife sidle up right against him again ! The climax to this particular episode ( the part with the cat , if you're confused ) is also quite humorous . Still , most of the film is heart-rending . It's also amazingly directed by Mizoguchi . His camera movement is exquisite , absolutely exquisite . I was left a little disappointed in Sansho the Bailiff , often said to be his best film , but the direction of Oharu is original and masterful . The acting is also wonderful . . |
385,222 | 391,152 | 366,721 | 10 | Angelopoulos can do no wrong | I think anyone familiar with Angelopoulos knows what to expect with his films : long , drawn out , meticulously planned shots that slowly scan environments , with the image composed of not only the foreground but hundreds of yards into the background . I guess some are not impressed with the director's style , but that really astounds me . I definitely see the man as a master of his medium , and The Weeping Meadow is as good as any of his other films ? every one I've seen so far is a masterpiece or close to it . This film has a lot in common with the director's first big success , The Traveling Players . It follows a little girl , Eleni , from 1919 to the time of the Greek Civil War , at the end of WWII . And , as the title implies , it's a great tragedy . There is a lot of weeping . It may be long and slow , but it's always gripping . Angelopoulos ' imagery is second to none in modern cinema . There are just so many jaw-dropping sequences . My favorite was the one where the camera explored its way through a maze of bed sheets drying on clotheslines , discovering various musicians hidden within . It's not a complaint , per se , but if you're going to watch the film beware of its chronological ellipses . The film can skip ahead years in just a second , when the pace usually makes each second feel like years ( in a good way ! ) . I hope New Yorker video , or some other company , digs up the Angelopoulos films that have been unavailable so far , and puts The Traveling Players on DVD , as well . |
384,559 | 391,152 | 104,652 | 10 | Beautiful masterpiece | This has dropped slightly in my esteem since my first viewing , when I thought of it as Miyazaki's second best and one of the best ever made . Well , yeah , actually , I still consider it one of the best films ever made , but that definitely covers everything he's ever done . What can I say ? I'm an unabashed fan . Porco Rosso may be Miyazaki's most insubstantial . There's almost no plot , and what little there is is downright goofy . But that's okay . It's all a lot of fun . Miyazaki captures so many moments of sublime beauty that the film does indeed turn out to be something of a masterpiece . A small one , but a wonderful one . And I think the love theme of score is the most beautiful piece of music that Jo Hisaishi has ever written . |
384,962 | 391,152 | 56,869 | 10 | Fascinating ; Freudian analysis of The Birds | One would think , not having seen this film , that it is just a normal horror film where a mass of animals attacks people who run from them and scream . Well , this film is different , in that it was directed by the single greatest director of all times , Alfred Hitchcock . The Birds was made during his peak . It follows on the heels of such films as Rear Window , Vertigo , North by Northwest and Psycho . It is as well directed as those films . In fact , it is even more daring than those . Several classical Hollywood elements are missing from this film . For one thing , and perhaps the most effective choice made by Hitchcock for this film , there is no musical score . Even in his best films , Psycho and Vertigo , for instance , the films are swept along by the score . They are great scores , by maybe the best score composer who ever worked in the movies , Bernard Herrmann , but to see a Hitchcock film without a score is just fantastic . Even the best musical scores are meant to manipulate your emotions , so here we get a chance to see just how effective a film can be without one . Also , the end of this film is perhaps the most unconventional you're ever going to see ( although Vertigo also has a very unconventional ending ) . It is possibly the most startling image I've ever seen . Even if it just had Hitchcock's amazing direction going for it , The Birds also benefits from an absolutely masterful script . It is never as if the story is just that birds attack people . It is much , much more complex than that . And herein lies my Freudian Analysis . Of course , coming right after Psycho , Hitch was probably jumping to keep the whole Oedipus theme alive here . Annie , the school teacher , expresses this literally . But I would like to interpret the birds as more of a symbol than actual matter . Think back to the film Forbidden Planet . Remember the Monster of the Id , the invisible and immaterial beast who destroyed every person who attempted to take Dr . Morbius and his daughter off the planet , basically whoever threatened to steal his daughter from him ? I think the birds in The Birds serve the same function for Lydia . When Melanie Daniels , a supposed sexual predator , enters the small , peaceful town of Bodega Bay , she does so to prey on Mitch Brenner . We find out , just as much by her actions as by Annie's speech , that Lydia is very jealous of her son's women . Melanie is also introducing her carnality onto the town as a whole . She brings the love birds for Cathy . Mitch had at first asked that the love birds not be too willing to display their love , and the first thing that Cathy asks is , " How can I tell which one is male and which one is female ? " Notice also that the mother in the restaurant attacks her for being responsible . This ought to seem ridiculous , but it seems perfectly logical in the text of this film . The woman says , " I think you're responsible . Who are you ? WHAT are you ? " At the end of the film , Lydia does seem to accept Melanie . The birds are still there , but they do not harm them as they leave . Too often this film gets shoved into the horror genre and left there . I believe it was Hitchcock's most successful film , and for some reason , I think that more people could identify it and identify it as a Hitchcock film than any of his other films except for maybe Psycho . The Birds , and Psycho , too , which is also often classified as a horror film ( which it is not in any way ) are far too complex to be labeled with such a small label . They are both masterpieces . Psycho has always been regarded as one . The Birds is sometimes , but not as often . It is certainly one of Hitchcock's best . This man was a god . The Birds is a godly film . |
384,708 | 391,152 | 74,254 | 10 | Far , far , far better than it is given credit for . A great film , really | I can understand some of the arguments that people have made against this film through the years . Its revisionist history can seem pretty simplistic , and its depiction of Indians seems stereotypical and not particularly enlightened . Or at least that all seems true on first glance . But I can also understand why a few revisionist film critics , including some of us on IMDb , are beginning to re-examine Buffalo Bill . I've seen a couple of people refer to it as a masterpiece , and I'm very much leaning towards that direction myself . Even if one were to find its themes and message poorly done , it would be hard to deny the grand vision of Altman in this film . This is one of his most ambitious , perhaps surpassed only by Nashville . The entire movie takes place in and around Buffalo Bill's theme park-like show . The Wild West is pretty much dead , and Bill ( played by Paul Newman ) , who famously hunted buffalo and fought with Indians , has encapsulated the experience in a little world all his own . He's shined it up into some rip-roaring entertainment , a sort of Hollywood before Hollywood existed . The film is as much a show-biz exposé as The Player ( and I would say it's much more effective ) . We meet a fantastic cast of characters , played by many of the best actors around giving wonderful performances . Among them are Joel Grey , Kevin McCarthy , Burt Lancaster , Harvey Keitel ( really playing against type as Bill's goofy , childlike nephew ) , and Geraldine Chaplin ( as Annie Oakley ) . Everyone , including Buffalo Bill himself , is deftly characterized in a very Altmanesque way . They wander through a semi-story , often seen and heard only in glimpses . Chaplin in particular , who gives probably the most memorable performance in the film , has very few lines . Mostly she characterizes Annie through her face . The Wild West Show is becoming more and more popular , and grossing more and more money . Their newest attraction is Sitting Bull , the man who famously defeated George Custer at Wounded Knee several years earlier . To have Sitting Bull for his show makes Bill extremely proud . In his mind , he has now defeated and subjugated the one Indian who really gave the white man a run for his money , and , by doing so , he has single-handedly tamed the West . Unfortunately for him , Sitting Bull is no subject . He has only joined the show because he has dreamed that , if in the show , he would get to meet President Grover Cleveland . We only once see Sitting Bull speak , when he attempts to talk to Cleveland . The rest of the time , his servant , Halsey ( Will Sampson , from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ) , speaks for him . While he's participating in the show , he wants to change it in order to make it more factual . Altman's detractors will have a field day with Buffalo Bill and the Indians . The biggest complaint against the director , as it seems to me , is that he is overly cynical and hates his characters . I'll admit that that is sometimes true , but I also think that the detractors see that aspect where it just doesn't exist . It does exist in this film , however . Buffalo Bill is most certainly a target for derision . Most of the action in the film revolves around the man being humiliated by Sitting Bull . Bill thinks he's the greatest adventurer who ever lived , and the film delights in having him showed up by the Sioux chief . I do not believe that it is an artistically invalid to have a character as the central target of a satire . Network , made the same year , has Faye Dunnaway , for instance . Who can like her by the end of the film . The difference is , I suppose , that Dunnaway wins some pathos by the end of the film . Maybe that's a difference , anyway . Buffalo Bill might have a bit of it by the end of the film , I think . The character of Buffalo Bill is a wonderful satirical target because he really exists in such a state of absurdity . Once a genuine American military hero , Bill Cody wrapped up his entire experience and put it inside a bottle . In that bottle , the Wild West grew more and more fantastic , and less and less real . The environment is controlled , the goings on are fake , and any bit of history is freely created . It's not unfair , I suppose , to say Buffalo Bill and the Indians has a somewhat simplistic revisionist history behind it , but , in a big way , it is itself about revisionist history . Buffalo Bill Cody was revising history , creating entertainment out of true , historical human misery . And that's not only the suffering of the Native Americans , which is at the forefront of the film , of course , but also white settlers . The film begins with a rehearsal of an Indian raid on homesteaders . The bigger message is that was what Hollywood did , as well . Bill likes his world , loves it , in fact . It is a celebration of his ego ( the film often focuses on the gigantic portraits of Bill , which certainly would garner much criticism from some people ? and I would agree that it's not particularly subtle , but I would also say that it is pretty funny at times ) . Sitting Bull , one of the greatest Indian leaders and , from most accounts , an enormously clever and skilled man , completely undermines Bill's superiority as soon as he arrives . A blowhard as big as Buffalo Bill deflates pretty easily . Sitting Bull's presence also works to make Bill finally look around himself and begin to question the false world he has erected around himself . This thread of the film is resolved , at least as regards the narrative , in the climactic sequence , where Bill encounters Sitting Bull in a dream . This sequence is probably the low point of the film , I think . It more or less spells out everything that the film has been building to , and it doesn't really accomplish anything new . We know Altman for his amazing and original climaxes , and this one is certainly not one of his best . Still , it does work in a strictly functional way , and it is followed by a truly interesting and exquisite final sequence . This final sequence , which I won't discuss in this review , is not merely restating what has already come before , as I believe many viewers will take it . This , I think , is where the character of Buffalo Bill claims his pathos . Paul Newman's eyes in that final close-up are both frightening and quite sad , in any number of ways . Any film as shallow as many people like to claim this one is would never have given rise to this much depth in one man's expression . If you watch it and don't see it , I really think you've missed the point . Even if you don't buy into the content of Buffalo Bill and the Indians , it's hard to imagine being unimpressed by Altman's direction or any of the other technical aspects of the film . Many claim it to be a bore , but I think Altman was just light years ahead of his audience at times . It's very entertaining and especially very funny at times . There are any number of masterful sequences . In my opinion , it is second in achievement only to Nashville . |
385,087 | 391,152 | 51,047 | 10 | One of the great Westerns | I have seen the previous Budd Boetticher / Randolph Scott collaboration a short while back , Seven Men from Now . It was good , but not particularly memorable , except for Lee Marvin's ambiguous villain . The Tall T , on the other hand , is pretty much perfect , the kind of taut Western that Anthony Mann was making around the same time , and just as good as any of Mann's films . Randolph Scott is still a block of wood , but nothing more is really needed . He's a believably intelligent independent rancher , who uses his smarts to get out of a jam . That jam makes up the plot of this very short film . A newlywed couple , an accountant and the aging daughter of the richest man around , along with a stagecoach driver and Scott , a friend of the driver who has lost his horse and is just picked up along the way , are captured by a threesome of desperate rogues . They kill the driver when he makes a move , and , scared , the husband ( John Hubbard ) tells the bandits who his wife is and that they can ransom his wife ( Maureen O'Sullivan ) . They keep Scott for insurance , and for other reasons that are kept obscure for a while . It's the psychology of the three criminals that really makes the film . Richard Boone plays the leader ; he's smarter than his partners , makes them do the violent work . He actually has something of a soul . Henry Silva plays a half-Chinese man who is more interested in killing than money , and Skip Homeier plays a young , naïve man . As Scott learns more about them , he is able to use their personalities against each other . These three actors are superb , but my favorite performance of the film comes from Hubbard , who is so wonderfully slimy as the yellow husband . O'Sullivan is also very good . The film is one of the most economical I've ever seen . It skips out on so many scenes that any other movie would have included , and you see so clearly hear that these ellipses could have saved us hours and hours at the movies . If nothing else , The Tall T teaches us that a movie can be 78 minutes long and still as memorable as any three hour epic . . |
384,878 | 391,152 | 60,827 | 10 | Rambling on . . . | I don't know what to say about Persona , but I know I have to say something . I can say straight out that I did not fully grasp it , nor do I believe that it is fully able to be grasped . Like my favorite film , 2001 , Persona allows for a plethora of interpretations , none of which can ever be said to be correct . But I know now that I do not understand everything . And I love that about it . Jesus , it needs to be released on DVD . Criterion , are you listening ? ? ? Screw everything else for the moment , do a DVD edition of Persona complete with scholarly commentary ( and not the same scholar who commented on your edition of The Seventh Seal , because he did not answer my questions ) . Not that I want anybody to tell me definitively what anything means , because I doubt anyone can do that . I just want some people to share my thoughts with . I want to watch and rewatch this film dozens of times . With a DVD , a nice one , I could scrutinize it extremely carefully , as I have thankfully been able to do with such great films as The Seventh Seal , The Third Man , Nashville , etc , etc , etc . Watch a scene , quickly rewind , watch it again and memorize each and every word and motion . I'm starting to feel like the main character from Antonini's Blowup ! I rented this film two days ago and have watched it twice . If I had not been so tired the first night , I surely would have gone through it a second time that very same night . Doubtless , I would have done it again later . And I still have it for a couple of days , the rest of my life be damned ! All I can really comment on is the artistry of Sven Nykvist , the cinematographer , always been one of the very best , and on the acting skills of Liv Ulmann and especially Bibi Andersson , who gives one of the bravest and most powerful performances I've ever seen in a movie . I would compare her skill in this film to my favorite performance of all time ( that I've seen ) : Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris . It seemed to me that she was becoming extremely involved in her character . And this is where I need to just engulf myself in this film . While I cannot exactly " get " this film from a narrative angle entirely , the important thing , and the aspect of the film which will no doubt bring me back time after time ( as long as I can someday get it on DVD , because , as far as I'm concerned , VHS is only for rental anymore ) is the emotional aspect . While my intellect had a somewhat difficult time holding on to the text of the film , my emotions were right with the characters . It was an extraordinarily gut-wrenching film for me , and I felt , well , some weird feelings after it ended ( part of which certainly had to do with the fact that certain parts of the movie boggled my mind ) . So my final score is without a doubt a . Few movies compare . |
384,683 | 391,152 | 53,198 | 10 | Perfection | I first saw this film around three or four years ago for the first time . I had watched it late at night , and I was very sleepy after it ended . I was rather ambivalent towards it . To tell you the truth , I don't know whether I had even heard of it before I rented it . And I don't even remember if it was my first film by Francois Truffaut , either . I have seen two others , The Green Room , which I didn't like all that much , and Shoot the Piano Player , which I loved . My guess would be that I saw The Green Room first , then looked up what else Francois Truffaut had made , and which ones were considered his better films . Anyhow , by some route I rented The 400 Blows , and , as I said above , it left me unaffected . I went to bed afterwards without thinking much about it . It was only a couple of months later that I realized how good it was . The memories came flooding back one day when someone mentioned it to me . I have had similar experiences with La Dolce Vita and Casablanca , among others . As I thought more and more about it , I realized just how great it was . Still , I never went back to it until now . I am strange in that way . There are some movies , some of which aren't even that good , that I will watch over and over again , alone or with friends . There are other films which I know are great , but that I never feel I have time to revisit them ( there are always more films to be watched ) . The 400 Blows is one of those films , unfortunately . I don't know why . I have even considered purchasing it several times . I never did . So when I saw it tonight , it was like seeing something brand new . I remembered only a few of the most memorable scenes : the carnival ride ( followed by Antoine catching his mother with a strange man ) , the whole Balzac sequence , the psychologist's interview , and , of course , the famous final shot , the freeze-frame of Antoine Doinel looking into the camera . After this time , I will probably remember everything a lot better and a lot longer . The first time , when I was ambivalent , I had time to forget before I finally grabbed hold of those fading memories . Why is this film special ? Because it is the perfect example of childhood caught on film . I don't think there is anyone who could watch it without thinking that it rings true . Every piece of film that deals with a similar subject falls behind this one . The only one that I can think of that comes anywhere near is Federico Fellini's _ Amarcord _ . Jean Vigo's _ Zero for Conduct _ is also very interesting , and probably influenced this film a lot ( I know Truffaut was familiar with it , but that may not have been until after this film came out ) . Antoine Doinel is such an endearing character . I hope that sometime soon I can procure and see his other filmic exploits . And I really need to see more Truffaut in general . I'm far behind with him . Well , The 400 Blows deserves a , no doubt . It is easily one of the best films ever made , and one of those films that any knowledgable person would include it in a list of films that are absolutely necessary for a student of film . |
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