YOUR ADSENSE CODE

Month: October 2020

Posted on

M (1931)

Director: Fritz Lang Cinematographer: Fritz Arno Wagner
M (1931) on IMDb

Fritz Lang’s first talkie, which was shot in just six weeks, is set in 1930’s Berlin and revolves around the actions of a serial killer (Peter Lorre), who preys on children. As mass hysteria mounts among the public, a manhunt begins, conducted by both the police and the criminal underworld. Propelled by Lorre’s career best performance (that caused an international sensation) and the fresh use of shadowy imagery and sound, M is both a high point in German expressionism and a huge influence on what would later be called film noir. It’s a visionary masterpiece that even ninety years on still has the power to astound first time viewers.

Buy or Rent (Watch Online)
The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]
DVD
Vintage Movie Poster Art 24×36
Movie Poster 01 11×17 Master Print

 

 

 

Lists:

CAST

  • Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert. M was Lorre’s first major starring role and before it he had mostly been known as a comedic actor. It boosted his career, even though he was typecast as a villain for years afterward in films such as Mad Love and Crime and Punishment. After fleeing from the Nazis he landed a major role in Alfred Hitchcock’s first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), picking up English along the way.
  • Otto Wernicke as Inspector Karl Lohmann
  • Gustaf Gründgens as Der Schränker (The Safecracker)
  • Ellen Widmann as Mother Beckmann
  • Inge Landgut as Elsie Beckmann
  • Theodor Loos as Inspector Groeber
  • Friedrich Gnaß as Franz, the burglar
  • Fritz Odemar as Falschspieler (Cheater)
  • Paul Kemp as Taschendieb (pickpocket with seven watches)
  • Theo Lingen as Bauernfänger (con man)
  • Rudolf Blümner as Beckert’s defender
  • Georg John as blind balloon-seller
  • Franz Stein as minister
  • Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur as police chief
  • Gerhard Bienert as criminal secretary
  • Karl Platen as Damowitz, a night-watchman
  • Rosa Valetti as innkeeper
  • Hertha von Walther as prostitute
  • Hanna Maron (uncredited) as girl in circle at the beginning
  • Heinrich Gotho as passer-by who tells a kid the time
  • Klaus Pohl as witness / one-eyed man (uncredited)

Directed by Fritz Lang
Produced by Seymour Nebenzal
Screenplay by Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou
Cinematography Fritz Arno Wagner
Edited by Paul Falkenberg
Running time 111 minutes
Country Germany
Language German

Posted on

Swing Time (1936)

Dir. George Stevens

The sixth of RKO’s Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers pairings of the 1930s, Swing Time starts off with bandleader Astaire getting cold feet on his wedding day. Astaire’s bride-to-be Betty Furness will give him a second chance, providing he proves himself responsible enough to earn $25,000. Astaire naturally tries to avoid earning that amount once he falls in love with dance instructor Ginger Rogers. Watch

Posted on

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Dir. Wes Anderson

Three brothers reunite on board a train called The Darjeeling Limited, having not seen each other since their father’s funeral a year earlier. They travel through a stunning Indian backdrop hoping to re-connect. While probably not Anderson’s best work, it is funny, melancholic and has a great soundtrack, particularly the songs by The Kinks. Watch

Posted on

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)

Dir. F.W. Murnau

The film is split into two chapters. The first, called “Paradise”, depicts the lives of two lovers on a South Seas island where nature and their community are in harmony, until they are forced to escape the island when the girl is chosen as a holy maid to the gods. The second chapter, “Paradise Lost”, depicts the couple’s life on a colonised island and how they adapt to and are exploited by Western civilisation. Murnau didn’t live to see the film’s premiere, the failure at the box-office or its subsequent acclaim as he died in hospital after a car accident a week before its first showing in New York City. Buy

Posted on

Black Swan (2010)

Dir. Darren Aronofsky

Psychological horror film that revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake by a prestigious New York City ballet company. Natalie Portman plays the ballerina who is consumed by a love of dance but loses her grip on reality when she faces competition for the main part from a new arrival. Overly melodramatic but gripping none the less, Black Swan is a technical marvel and has some wonderful performances. Watch

Posted on

Elizabeth (1998)

Dir. Shekhar Kapur

Kapur’s visually exciting political thriller sees a young Elizabeth Tudor (Cate Blanchett) elevated to the throne of a divided England on the death of her half-sister Mary I, who had imprisoned her. Elizabeth’s reign over the bankrupt realm is perceived as weak and under threat of invasion by France or Spain. For the future stability and security of the crown she is urged by adviser William Cecil (Richard Attenborough) to marry a foreign prince, but she prefers the company of the charming Lord Dudley (Joseph Fiennes). It’s a vivid recreation of Elizabethan England, intelligently written and with a star making turn from Australian Blanchett. Geoffrey Rush is the best of an interesting supporting cast as spymaster Francis Walsingham. Watch

Posted on

Brideshead Revisited (1981)

Dir.  Charles Sturridge, Michael Lindsay-Hogg

An adaptation of the novel Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn Waugh, the made for TV serial follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles Ryder (Jeremy Irons) including his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle. Buy

Posted on

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

Dir. Stephen Frears

The story focuses on Omar, (Gordon Warnecke), a young Pakistani man living in London, and his reunion and eventual romance with his old friend, a street punk named Johnny, (Daniel Day-Lewis). The two become the caretakers and business managers of a launderette originally owned by Omar’s uncle Nasser.

Posted on

The Master (2012)

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

It tells the story of Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a World War II veteran struggling to adjust to a post-war society, who meets Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a leader of a religious movement known as “The Cause”. Dodd sees something in Quell and accepts him into the movement. Freddie takes a liking to “The Cause” and begins travelling with Dodd along the East Coast to spread the teachings. Some terrific performances from the two leads but it’s arguable that the end of the film doesn’t match up to the fascinating build up.

Posted on

My Left Foot (1989)

Dir. Jim Sheridan

It tells the story of Christy Brown, an Irishman born with cerebral palsy, who grew up in a poor, working-class family and despite only having control of his left foot became a writer and artist. Propelled by outstanding performances, particularly the astonishing Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot is both a gritty and inspiring film.

%d bloggers like this: