A pretty interesting, however farfetched tale starring one of my favorite and one of the more fascinating actors, Peter Lorre in his American film debut. Directed by Karl Freund, the renowned cinematographer known for his work on Metropolis, M, and many more, creates a chilling expressionistic atmosphere. The mise en scene, cinematography, and camera work is sensational. Only drawbacks are the subpar supporting acting and bits of slapstick comedy that don't seem to fit the mood.
A very lazily written hodgepodge of the original and the remake. It comes as no surprise that Michael Bay produced this piece of shit. The whole premise of being a prequel is basically canceled out after the first 20 minutes of the film as we are given the entire exposition and halfassed back story of leather face and his family mostly through montage. The whole marketing for the concept is to show and and why the killing spree began to in the first place, but really there is no motivation for the madness, which was ultimately the biggest disappointment for me. Despite having a unique opportunity to explore the characters motivations, emotions, personalities, etc. and make them fascinating and complex, the filmmakers settle for run-of-the mill one dimensional drivel. It's embarrassing how predictable the film is. Even the bad remake at least made Leatherface multi dimensional. Since the film elected focus purely on the horrific violence and suspense rather than the characters, I expected some intense and gruesome scenes, but in fact there was really only a moment of two that delivered the goods for me. Perhaps this is due to an increased desensitization after watching the Saw movies, but I suppose that's also a testament to Saw's superiority.
Based on Alan Ayckbourn's stage play Private Fears in Public Places is an uninteresting character study that offers nothing new as it's basically just another ensemble piece that loosely connects a group of people through hard to swallow coincidence. Even worse, the film is excessively talky, and I found the sets and lighting, as well as the acting to be overly stagey and artificial. The use of the falling snow as a transition between scenes is also rather phony and becomes redundant. The film is all too melodramatic and not so subtle, commenting on solitude, alienation, relationships, the guise of religion, etc. At times it felt like I was watching a television movie you'd see on the Lifetime channel, which is why I'm usually not fond of stage plays converted to film.
Bad acting, and even worse dialogue aside, Saw IV delivers in terms of box office reception as well as entertainment satisfaction. I've never valued the series as a great achievement in cinema, but like I've said before I can't stop watching it. Saw IV is by far the best film in the series since the original. The twists are actually pretty brilliant as are the traps as always. The flashbacks became a bit tiresome, but it was nice to learn more about Jigsaw's character. I suppose my biggest complaint would have to be the improbability of all of the film's events taking place within a 90 minute time period. The visual effects are pretty incredible, but the sound design is what really sells the cringe worthy gore in all of the films for me. I was also pretty impressed with an editing technique used throughout the film, that I really can't recall seeing before where different scenes in separate locations sort of overlap each other seamlessly through transition. It's difficult to explain, but for instance there is a scene in which Jigsaw turns around and is staring in the direction of his ex girlfriend, however it appears as if he has somehow teleported to the scene in which the detective is interrogating her, and then he slowly fades away.
A series of 8 short films produced for the internet mainly as a marketing tool, showing off different performance aspects of various BMW automobiles. Each of the films star Clive Owen as the mysterious BMW driver, and each is directed by a different director well known director.
Clive Owen must rescue an old diamond smuggling passenger from a group of criminals in this suspenseless car chase sequence which is basically just a fancy overlong car commercial.
Overall the story is pretty shallow as Owen rescues an Asian child chosen for a strange ritual, but Ang Lee provides something unique in his car chase scene. The score works wonderfully as the cars almost perform a ballet dance of sorts. The final shot foreshadows Lee's future work on The Hulk, as the child gives the driver an Incredible Hulk band aid as a gift.
Forest Whitaker, Mickey Rourke and the most gorgeous woman on earth, Adriana Lima join Clive Owen in Kar Wai Wong's rendition. Wong makes this film his own with his signature style including voice over narration, gorgeous photography, and familiar shot selection and editing patterns.
Embarrassingly bad, from the acting of Madonna and her manager, to the broad comic style, terrible dialogue, and empty story. Another really expensive, and really cheesey car commercial.
Easily the best of the series, Iñárritu manages to shed the focus of the car, and really hone in on his character and their emotions. Not to mention the subject matter contains much more substance than the others as we follow the driver as he attempts to help a war photographer cross the border with incriminating photos of a mass execution before a terrorist group can intercept them. The cinematography is very gritty and documentary like and serves to enhance the realism.
Aside from our hero Clive Owen, the cast includes the late great James Brown as the passenger wanting to renegotiate his contract with the devil played by Gary Oldman. Danny Trejo and Marilyn Manson also make brief appearances. I appreciate the editing tactics, but in the end the subtitles, flash cuts, jumps, split screens, etc. are all just meant to distract us from the incoherent story.
Black Moon is appropriately tagged as an apocalyptic Alice in Wonderland. The first fifteen minutes grabbed my attention without any use of dialogue including images of a badger? getting hit by a car, a unicorn, and the images of men at war against women. Unfortunately the movie becomes stagnant upon entering the home of a decrepit old woman and never quite managed to regain the excitement and awe established in the opening minutes.
A beautiful and chilling portrait of a man battling his own inner turmoil and self loathing as he contemplates suicide. A lovely piano score accompanies this emotionally riveting film as Alain Leroy (Maurice Ronet) visits his old friend's from his youth the day he has set to kill himself. Dubourg, Alain's dramatic foil, who love's life and embraces the changes that come with adulthood, insists his friend is stuck in adolescence. Alain himself admits that he refuses to grow up.
"I too hate sleeping on tombs, when it's so easy to sleep inside."
Louis Malle shows off his versatility as a director as he applies New Wave sensibilities to a vibrantly colored and playful farce that satirizes French society. Catherine Demongeot is adorable as Zazie, and the character as well as the film's aesthetics were most likely an inspiration for Jeunet when he was making Amelie.
A wonderfully constructed thriller with a clever yet conventional storyline, told in an unconventional fashion with a superb original score by Miles Davis. Malle, directing first fiction feature, masterfully crafts a noir tale with plenty of tension and suspense following three different plotlines. The only thing that really bothered me were the two murder scenes that really didn't work for me. The first was excusable, although I was still left wanting more, seeing as it was a pretty crucial scene in the plot. Malle blatantly avoided showing violence and edited around it. I was most annoyed when the gun was completely out of the composition, but we hear the sounds of the bullets firing during the murder of the German couple. Aside from those minor complaints, it's a fantastic film.
Like D.W. Griffith's Intolerance before it, Abel Gance's masterpiece, Napoléon was a financial disaster, yet an artistic triumph, and perhaps even the greatest film ever made. Unfortunately many people misconstrue the silent film era as being a stale, insipid period in the history of film making with little camera movement, however this film among others slaps that notion in the face. Gance understood the power of cinema more than anyone else, and he utilized each of it's many elements to the fullest capacity. He astonishingly employs just about every technique imaginable in the film language arsenal and even invented his own methods to stimulate and thrill audiences as well. To convey his goal of "super cinema" he needed a personality as big as Napoléon carry such a spectacle. This nearly six hour biopic was far ahead of it's time in many aspects and despite being meant for a mainstream audience, Gance boldly incorporated many avant-garde techniques. The film ends with Napoléon's invasion of Italy in 1797 because it was intended to be part one of six, however because of the difficulty of setting up three projectors in different theaters as well as the ushering in of the sound film, Napoléon basically faded into obscurity until it's incomplete restoration in 1980 (at least 90 minutes of footage still missing).
The editing of this film is quite an accomplishment in and of itself given the daunting nature of it as it combines both the traditional seamless Hollywood style with the frantic collision style editing of the Soviet montage directors. The film consists of overlapping imagery, juxtapositions, intercutting, pioneering hand held camera work, a 9 frame split screen, tinted and tones scenes, tracking shots, dolly shots, etc. The shot compositions are also particularly gorgeous, with variations of silhouette shots, mirror shots, low angle shots, overhead shots, extreme long shots, extreme close ups, and everything in between. Perhaps the most iconic scene is the snowball fight during the title character's childhood days at school which resembles an actual military battle. There is also a fantastic scene where we see inside the mind of Bonaparte as he converses with fallen leaders and political figureheads. Another memorable sequence in the film crosscuts between Napoléon struggling against fate as his boat is tossed around at sea in a storm, and the storm of political uprising at the convention. As the people of France revolt, the camera moves like a pendulum over their heads, simulating the crashing waves. Most notably Gance envisioned the widescreen format over 20 years before it became widely accepted in the culminating final twenty-minute triptych sequence, which alternates widescreen panoramas with complex multiple- image montages projected simultaneously on three screens. In the concluding minutes each of the three screen is tinted a different color. One Red, one white, and the other blue, to simulate the French flag.
Ratcatcher is told through the eyes of a child living in poverty in Glasgow, 1973 while the Dustmen are on strike. The environment is one of my favorite aspects of the film as garbage bags and disease infested rats pollute the neighborhood. We journey with James as he interacts with his family members and neighbors, discovers sexuality, hopes for a brighter future, and attempts to overcome his own guilt. The narrative and the acting plays pretty naturally and realistic. I believe a lot of nonprofessional actors were used. It's quite an astonishing, poetic, and original debut film from Lynne Ramsay. The Criterion release also includes three of her short films which are impressive as well.
This was Lynne Ramsay's graduation film at the National Film and Television School in England and winner of the Jury Prize for Best Short Film at Cannes. The film conveys three different everyday incidents in the life of a girl, each at different ages.
A recovering junkie spends his days lying in his flat, remembering dark moments from his childhood, his life as a criminal, and the time he spent in prison.
