Since Spring Break

March 21 -

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - 1920 - Dir. Robert Wiene

This was actually my second time viewing the film. Visually, and emotionally this has always been one of my favorite silent films. Of course, most of the silent films I've seen are horror films because I wanted to see where the Universal monster films were drawn from. However, you can more see the impact that this film had on more modern cinema in one filmmaker: Tim Burton.

It is clear why he would be so inspired by this, and many of the German expressionist films though. This film is dripping with a signature style and a palpable mood. The reason for this could that it is much more like watching a nightmare than a film. Nothing is realistic and at the same time it seems to reflect a lot of what we feel in film.

My problem with the film lies in that it seems to be only about tone and style than the actual story. However, the story is was builds the tension, so I'm a little bit confused about this complaint from myself it is just how I feel about it. It strings you a long and there are sequences that played silently (my preference for watching it because I have not heard a score that works) would have made people grasp onto the seat when it came out. Great film.

March 23 -

Diary of a Lost Girl - Dir. G.W. Pabst

The Furies - Dir. Slavko Vorkapich - 1934

Dancing Skyscrapers

Money Machine

Prohibition

The Firefly - 1937 - Eisenstein

March 28 -

The Last House on the Left - 2009 - Dir. Dennis Iliadis

This is not a horror film. This is a human drama. An incredibly hard to watch human drama. Far superior to the original which has only garnered love because of how people think it is so "gritty" and realistic. I'm sorry, this film took what was HORRIBLE about the original, threw it out and kept the great story. While updating and making it more about survival than revenge.

The rape scene is so brutal and in your face that I had to keep turning away from the screen. Half the audience left. However, the half that stayed was treated to a great murders of the killers. I have never heard 10 people cheer so much. Far superior to the original, in my opinion. Thank god those stupid cops weren't there.

March 27 -

Stagecoach - 1939 - Dir. John Ford

If High Noon is the pinnacle of the Western film, then Stagecoach is the groundbreaker. It was the first Western movie to combine John Ford as director, John Wayne as star, and Monument Valley as backdrop. It was the first film that got John Wayne noticed and made him a star. And most importantly, it was the first Western that had a real plot and character development in addition to the requisite shoot-outs. A very fine film from that very fine year for movies, 1939. Standout performances from Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell, (who won the Oscar for this role in the year in which he also played Scarlett's father in Gone With the Wind, a reporter in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and the Beggar King in The Hunckback of Notre Dame!), and of course, Wayne, electric in his first moment onscreen, where he twirls a rifle and yells, "Hold it!" in his famous drawl, and not really any less than that afterwards. Good direction from Ford, great scenery even if the film's in black-and-white, and, (forgive me if I'm being politically incorrect), a very exciting shoot-out with the Native Americans, featuring stuntman Yakima Canutt's breathtaking drop in between the legs of running horses.

March 30 -

"The Beau Brummels" - 2686

Norman Thomas - "Harlem Mania" 827

The Jazz Singer - 1927 - Alan Crossling

Let me just say, that this is a fantastic film that is more memorable than just its technical side. I was very offended by the fact that the black face scene was shown out of context. Also, comment on the girl in the back: she was the biggest racist of all. "All of the horrible things white people did and still do." Stupid. "I'm beyond racism." That is the most pigheaded thing I've ever heard. This scene is about the separation and the totally other life he took over. He was two people in one. The black face showed that. Truthfully, if I was doing a movie about vaudeville I would do the same thing now. It is offensive but it is truthful to the times.

Freaks - Todd Browning - 1932

This is a film I love very much, being a large cult film fan. I have been telling people about this for years and then when you showed it I got really excited and almost shouted out Gooba Gabba One of Us!!!

Singing in the Rain - 1955 - Stanley Donen

Probably the best musical ever made from the big studio musicals. Great film. Fun and uplifting.

April 1 -

Grapes of Wrath - John Ford - 1940

This is another great John Ford film. And my personal preference over Stagecoach. It is a really well made and great film. Helped a lot by the fact that Henry Fonda is amazing in it.

Henry Fonda plays a man who becomes more and more desperate throughout the film as he cannot find money. His performance begins subtle and once he gets to his worst points you can't remember the other man because of how much he has shifted subtly in such a small amount of time.

Not only that however, but Ford leads a film through that would have hit extremely hard with the populace at the time. He made this at the very tail end of the depression. He was living it. Right in that time and everybody else would be watching it. He held a mirror up to society and I can only imagine the impact then. Really great work.

April 6 -

I missed the name of the first clip. It was a crazy experimental film that reminded me of a cross between Lynch and Cronenberg.

Golddiggers of 1933 - Dr. Mervyn LeRoy - 1933

Busby Berkley is probably the craziest choreographer of all time. The biggest and the most imitated. I mean, just look at the climax to some shows like A Chorus Line and you can see the influence in pretty much every big dance number since. All of them were cues off of this. It is also great to see his ultra sexualized stuff that you just know a young Bob Fosse saw and went "I must do that."

Horse Feathers - 1932 - Dr. Norman McLeod

I don't think this is the best of the Marx Brothers, of whom I'm a big fan. But this movie is very typical for them. It is big, crazy and all over the place. So many play on words that you have to watch the film multiple time to get all of them. My favorite sequence was probably the password scene. That was hilarious.

Golddiggers of 1935 - 1935 - Busby Berkley

1932 - Scarface - Dir. Howard Hawks

I have been trying to see this movie for a long time. I'm definitely going to have to check it out.

1931 - Public Enemy - William A. Wellman

James Cagney gives an awesome performance in this film that you know had to thrill anybody who has been in a gangster film since and the directing, especially the final firey sequence and the around the town scenes, I can just imagine seeing a little Marty Scorcese watching it and taking notes.

April 10 -

Bringing up Baby - Howard Hawks - 1938

This is actually the second time I have watched this film for a class. I took a screenwriting class at Sacramento State once and had to watch it for that. It makes sence though, since the dialog is so tight and fast that one cannot help but be impressed by the writers and the actors.

It took a very special kind of actor to pull this off and they got two of the best performers of all time: Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. This would not be the last time they would be together, as they have this chemistry that pops throughout the entire film really making us fall in love with them.

However, it is fairly episodic but hey, I can forgive that for all of the other great things that this film contains. The break neck speed and dialog are great. There really isn't much to say about Hawks visual direction though, except that it is very fluid and serves the purpose of his performers which I think is a ballsy move for a director who can be so visually dark and stunning.

April 15 -

I had missed the class before this because I threw out my back coming back home for easter. Anyways, on to the movie I saw this day.

Observe and Report - 2009 - Jody Hill

Ever watched "Taxi Driver" and thought, "you know what would be awesome? If this starred Seth Rogen." Then this is the movie for you. I loved it, but I can't recommend it. Almost every scene starts out funny, but then ends up twisted and depressing. Not fun at all frankly. The end is very strange though, and I actually believe it is a dream sequence as he is passed out on the ground from a brutal beating. Dark, funny, and just fucked up. I loved every moment of it.

April 20 -

It Happened on Night - 1934 - Frank Capra

I have always wanted to see this being a Capra fan, but I have never gotten around to seeing it. I only got to see the second half, but the famous moment of Gable's love confession was perfect and everything I had heard it was.

M - 1931 - Dir. Fritz Lang

We watched a clip in class, but I have actually seen this several times and I hope this can serve as my review. This was Lang's first sound film and man is it a debut. Not just for Lang's impressive use of sound but for Peter Lorre's performance.

Lang uses sounds just like he uses his visuals, and does it equally as well. The vocal tip off of the whistling is amazing and begins to strike fear into you throughout the film, however at a point that fear becomes very twisted and we start questioning it because of Lorre's performance of a man who wants to control himself. Who is trying, but just can't seem to get it together. He is a man who has been shaped this way, he feels, by society. It was his only option. Now, if that is true or not, Lorre makes us believe it. How could somebody be that creepy and sympathetic all at the same time? I don't know. But it sort of sucks for Lorre that he gave his best performance, in my opinion, in his big debut. It ended up landing him tons of jobs in the states, but always as a bumbling sidekick sort of role (his turn in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca and even Arsenic and Old Lace are all great).

Great movie.

Triumph of the Will - 1935 - Dir. Leni Riefenstahl

The Great Dictator - 1938 - Dir. Charlie Chaplain

I wish we got to watch this entire film as I find it to be Chaplain's best film. When Chaplain lets it rip, he lets it rip and this is social satire at its finest. I'm very glad the clip of his speech was shown cause that is absolutely hilarious and still holds up today, as I think the entire movie does.

April 25 -

Passion of Joan of Arc - 1928 - Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

Frankly, I think this film is overrated. It has a great performance and the angles are really nifty, but it is more like watching one painted canvas after another. Beautiful, but when I would perfer to have a film, frankly it just doesn't do much for me.

Which is strange, because I'm usually all about performance. I come from an acting background even though I'm a writer. So a lot of my work and tastes are very performance driven. Maria Falconetti gives a very good performance, but at the same time by the end of it I just don't care. This surprises me also because I love films like Laurence of Arabia that are long, slow and character studies with beautiful cinematography.

There is just something about this film that I don't connect with. Maybe it is the fact it is more like fine art than film. Truth be told, I'm not a fan of fine art. I can appreciate it but I can't focuse too much time on it or I become bored. I love the combination of visuals and sound and while this has this it just comes off far too static for me.

April 27 -

Citizen Kane - Dir. Orson Welles - 1941

When people usually bring this film up, my first words are "Fuck. That. Movie." I think it is extremely overrated just because it was the first to do things. I cannot deny a great performance by Welles nore can I deny what he did technically, but this does not make up a good movie.

The main thing that bothers me: The first scene. He is alone. In his room. We make a big deal about him being alone. It sets up the symbolism that he would end up alone in his life. Sad and isolated. So we are shown that he is alone, in his room. Whispers "Rosebud." Drops the snowglobe. In the reflection of the snow globe we see the nurse OPEN the door and walk in, she sees him. Then she puts the blanket over him. Nobody else is there. From that point on the film is structured around the quest for the word rosebud. Now, my question is "who the hell heard him say the word rosebud?" It couldn't have been the nurse. Now, I know the butler says it later on in the film, but this is just sloppy filmmaking. He could have put a shot of the butler in there. In stead it just comes off as a mistake and flaws the entire movie. It makes its brilliant structure shattered and flawed in so many ways for me and quickly it falls apart from then on.

That is all I have to say about that movie.