10 films: It’s a Wonderful Life to Alphaville
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]
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]