I Hated Black And White Movies
Movie reviews from a film ignoramus turned fanatic.
There isn't a movie that so much quoted and misquoted at the same time as this one. Being neglected during its initial run, Casablanca (1942) exceeded all expectations, won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, and became one of the most memorable films of all time. Directed by Michael... Continue Reading →
Directed by Robert Mulligan, and based on Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) simply tells a story about justice, in a way similar to Lumet's masterpiece 12 Angry Men, but different in overall tone. However, this is not a courtroom drama. This is a snapshot of injustice, bias, racial segregation, and a strong... Continue Reading →
A dead body of Joe Gillis, a struggling screenwriter, floats in the swimming pool at a mansion on Sunset Boulevard. In a flashback, the dead man as a narrator retells the events leading to his death. Directed by Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard (1950) tells the story of grand delusions, failure and defense mechanisms. Norma's face... Continue Reading →
One of the best-known Italian neorealism films depicts utter impoverishment and despair that leads people into committing crime. Vittorio De Sica, also born into poverty in Sora (Lazio), wanted to illustrate the poverty of post-war Italy using a new degree of realism. He used only real locations for shooting, not sets, and decided to cast... Continue Reading →
Until Straight Story (1999), I never got David Lynch. I remember myself proclaiming: "Lynch CAN make a good movie, but he just doesn't want to." After watching that one, and I hope to write my thoughts on it soon, I watched The Elephant Man (1980), and I once again had the same thought. It took... Continue Reading →
Given an amateur student project, John Ford would have made it into an Academy-award winning feature. I was familiar with Ford's work, but to me he was always the western guy. When I first watched The Grapes of Wrath (1940), I realized what an incredible director he was. Anyone can realize they're watching a Ford... Continue Reading →
When I started watching His Girl Friday (1940), I didn't know what to expect, and I was just there because Howard Hawks directed it. I mean, THE Howard Hawks, the magician director of the western movies, what is he doing in a screwball comedy? Well, here it goes. Until I watched Some Like It Hot,... Continue Reading →
When a person mentions Fellini, it always invokes the familiar titles in one's mind: Amarcord, La Dolce Vita, and, of course, 8 1/2. But for me, Federico Fellini is Nights of Cabiria, which tells the story of a prostitute roaming the streets and finding nothing but misery along the road. Giulietta Masina's Cabiria is similar... Continue Reading →
In 1931, Fritz Lang directed a thriller film called M, with a German subtitle Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder, i.e. A City Searches for a Murderer. In 1930, when Lang placed an advert that his next film is dealing with a child murderer, he began receiving threatening letters, and was banned to shoot the film... Continue Reading →
Initially, Night of the Hunter (1955) was not a critical nor box-office success, and Charles Laughton never directed another film. However, over the years, it has come to be regarded as one of the best movies ever made. I watched it a couple of months ago, sad for missing it when it was first screened... Continue Reading →
I Hated Black And White Movies 