Jonas Ferry’s blog

It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946). After a startling space animation cooler than the introduction to Superman Returns, an angel gets a job to earn his wings. He’s supposed to help a self-sacrificing man find happiness, and finds him at an all-time low during Christmas. James Stewart is good enough, and the film actually works until they get carried away towards the end and showers the viewer in melodrama. [6/10]

King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005). A couple of former apes travel to a remote island and bring back a current ape. The big ape runs amok in the big city and climbs a skyscraper with a woman in one hand. That’s the whole story. For some reason Peter Jackson thought it wise to add a lot of shots where the ape wrestles dinosaurs, where the hairless apes fight giant bugs and so on. This did nothing to improve the experience from the original from 1933. [6/10]

The Lodger (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927). A man moves in with a family while the city is plagued by a killer of blonde women. The man behaves in strange ways around the blonde daughter of the family, and goes out late at night for unknown reasons. Soon they suspect him of the murders. A great silent film by Hitchcock. Some of the special effects are really cool, like a see-through floor, and the suspense from his later films is already present. [9/10]

The Devil’s Backbone (original title: El Espinazo del diablo) (Guillermo del Toro, 2005). A young boy moves to an orphanage and realizes it’s haunted. I expected more from the premise, but was somewhat disappointed in the actual execution. [7/10]

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Lewis Milestone, 1946). A crime is committed with two boys and a girl involved. When they grow up she marries one of them, but is drawn to the other. A nice love triangle, with great characters. Martha is a true femme fatale in this noir, as she’s constantly changing her allegiances and her story whenever it suits her. [8/10]

Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982). A down-and-out private detective in a future city is hired to find a bunch of renegade replicants, artificial people. The beginning was kind of lame, as I don’t think you should ever need to have a introduction text in a film. The music is very suitable, and the film is a good example of science fiction that’s about ideas and feelings as much as special effects. [9/10]

Harrison Ford as Deckard in Blade Runner (1982).

Look at Me (original title: Comme une image) (Agnès Jaoui, 2004). A French author is surrounded by people that want to be noticed, but he’s not able to see anyone but himself. A feel-good film that’s still watchable, maybe in part because I really like films about writers. [8/10]

Kes (Ken Loach, 1969). A young boy adopts a pet falcon, and is more comfortable with that than with people. You get a glimpse of a life where peoples’ greatest ambition is to work in the local mine and get drunk on weekends, and where people that are different are ridiculed. [8/10]

It’s All About Love (Thomas Vinterberg, 2003). Something is killing people around the world in this film set in the near future, but the focus of the film is on a relationship on the brink of ending. In some ways the film is really strange, but if you accept it as a fantasy it’s not that weird. I’ve seen it before. [9/10]

Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965). A secret agent is on some kind of mission in a dystopian future city called Alphaville. The plot is never clear and the characters always bizarre, and you can really tell Godard was inspired by 1984. [7/10]

Moznosti dialogu (English title: Dimensions of Dialogue) (Jan Svankmajer, 1982). In three short animated films Svankmajer examines different forms of communication. These are wild, imaginative and playful shorts that are both fun and thought-provoking. [9/10]

The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio De Sica, 1948). An Italian man gets a job that requires a bike, and all is well until it gets stolen. Slow moving film that feels predictable, but with nice portraits of people. [7/10]

The Return (original title: Vozvrashcheniye) (Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2003). The father of two boys returns and takes them on a trip to make up for lost time, but not all goes well. A very moody film, filled with symbolism, but mostly very realistic. [8/10]

Armbryterskan från Ensamheten (Helen Ahlsson and Lisa Munthe, 2004). A documentary on the Swedish female arm wrestler Heidi Andersson and her road to the world championship. It’s always nice to see strong women instead of the all-too-common “be beautiful, it’s all you’re good for” stereotype that plagues women. Heidi’s boyfriend the Night Watch (original title: Nochnoy Dozor (Timur Bekmambetov, 2004). The forces of light and darkness fight it out in present day Russia, with the main character caught in between. Nice production values, an interesting if somewhat muddled story and a nice combination of comedy and horror. [7/10]

Bande à part (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964). Two men and a woman decide to rob the place where the woman lives. Very fun film, with Godard using tricks like when the characters have a silent minute all sound disappear, fast-paced and cool. [9/10]

The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach, 2005). When a man and a woman separates their two sons fall between them, gravitating to a parent each. A nice drama, very intelligent and Kafkaesque. No, not really, that’s a joke for the people who have seen the film. [8/10]

Hem ljuva hem (Dan Ying, 2001). A family abused by the father hits back, but the abuser survives and haunts them from his wheelchair. A portrait of a really bad man, but it still feels real enough. [7/10]

M (Fritz Lang, 1931). The “M” stands for murderer, a murderer of young children in a German city where the public take matters in their own hands. This is one of the first German “talkies” if I’m not mistaken, but still very good. Even if the world hadn’t seen the famous 20th century serial killers yet, this film feels like it treats the subject matter without being silly about it. [8/10]

The accused murderer from M (1931).

Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974). When a private detective is hired by a wife to spy on her husband and the wife turns out to be someone else, he realizes something’s not right. A great modern noir with all the trappings of the old ones, with the same themes of jealousy, murder, and occupying the same gray moral zone. [9/10]