Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950)

Director: Otto Preminger
Country: United States 

Mark Dixon is a tough cop who is labaled for skulduggery and who hates thugs because his father was one of them, but despite of being on the right side of the law he finds himself in a tricky situation and decides to solve it in a dirty way. 

This Preminger film is based upon the novel Night Cry by William L. Stuart, and is a unique noir masterpiece, a great story in its three acts that holds you from the beginning, keeps the intensity and the mistery and most importantly it breaks many clichés. 

With solid performances especially those by the legendary Karl Malden (On The Waterfront, How The West Was Won, etc) as Lt. Thomas a skillful cop, and Dana Andrews as Dixon, a solid supporting role by the beautiful Gene Tierney as Morgan, and a gorgeous cinematography work by Joseph LaShelle which is not necessarily bleak as in many other noir films but it's superb, he made amazing exterior shots although very few (considering the low-budget) of New York City, we can feel the streets, we can see the lights and the vibrant and glamorous life in the city at the time (and even the EL in some scenes). 

In conclusion, this is a simple film masterfully written and directed, film noir at its finest, so don't waste more time and watch it right now.

 

Branded To Kill (1967)

Director: Seijun Suzuki
Country: Japan 

"Branded to Kill" is like free jazz: no rules, no conventional timing, no straight narrative and no romantic bullshit, instead it is an acid trip, or if you prefer is Melville, Buñuel, Furukawa, Godard and Andy Warhol mixed in a blender. 

Full of abstract, surrealist and artistic scenes and surprisingly pop-art images encrusted into the film, a beautiful chiaroscuro cinematography in combination with Naozumi Yamamoto incredible acid-jazz soundtrack, which provides a fastidious synchronicity that helps to maintain the energy through the entire film, this picture has been labeled as noir, but that's only part of it, because it's also a mistery-thriller with a chunk of satire and dense sex scenes that imply sadism and fetichism (snuffing the boiled rice and leg fetichism as well) and of course with a lot of action sequences too. 

Branded To Kill is starred by the magnificent and legendary actor Joe Shishido -well known for his role in "Youth Of The Beast", another Suzuki tour de force- is about a cold blooded killer who becomes the target of a Yakuza organization after failing the assasination of a foreign detective, he also becomes obsessed both with a woman (Mizuku) and with the misterious number one gunman. It has many remarkable scenes but I would like to write about the ones that fascinated me more. 

One of the most famous "eye scenes" in the history of cinema is from Luis Buñuel's "Un Chien Andalou" (1929) but in Suzuki's Branded To Kill we have a very powerful and brutal scene involving an eye too, also Suzuki created a beautiful pop-art picture in movement in this film, when Goro Hanada shoots the first of four men behind a billboard's animatronic lighter, that sequence is simply beautiful, and maybe the most ingenious one is when Hanada shoots the second guy in the face through a pipe drain (Jim Jarmush stole this one for his 1999 film "Ghost Dog") . 

Technically Suzuki used jump cuts, fade out transitions, static, handheld camera and point of view shots and in addition to the animated images he also used inverted colors in some scenes; silence is executed in a deftly way and complements the acid-jazz soundtrack .

Due to its complex, tricky and non-conventional narrative, the audience can get lost while watching the movie, but that's the beauty of it, maybe the number one never existed and Hanada gone crazy, maybe the woman he loves is actually dead or if you want to think that everything could be an hallucination feel free to do it, you can think whatever you want about the plot, the story and the ending, because Suzuki made one of the most twisted and unique movies ever; this is an absolute and crazy masterpiece that I saw twice in a row and no wonder Suzuki got fired and banned from the Japanese industry during 10 years after this!. 

If you want to know more about the production and background of this film click here to check out this film essay written by the great saxophonist John Zorn who is also a big fan of "Branded To Kill"   enjoy!

                                 

Witchhammer (1970)

Director: Otakar Vávra
Country: Czechoslovakia

The Catholic Inquisition has been one of the most horrible things "invented" by human beings, along with other terrible chapters in the history of humanity as the Otoman Empire, the Nazis, the Atomic Bomb or the Communist regimes around the globe. "Kladivo na čarodějnice" in its original title, is a film about the massive witch trials that took place in the 18th century in Europe during the Austro-Turkish War perpetrated by the Catholic Inquisition. 

The storyline is focused on two characters, Boblig Von Edelstadt, an inquisitor judge, a ruthless and greedy murderer bastard who lives as a king and Kristof Lautner, a Presbyterian priest, a reasonable and compassionate man who fights against injustice and cruelty. Most of the people falsely accussed of witchery were women, all innocent, and most of them rich, so the clergy and judges could get rid of them and take over their possesions, i.e all this inquisition bullshit was a matter of business instead of spirituality as they claimed at the time. 

Boblig Von Edelstadt is the evil himself, he uses extreme methods of torture to get the confessions he wants, such as the "Spanish boot" which puts a brutal pressure on the victim's legs to the point of crushing the bones or the "thumbscrew" which crushes the victim's thumbs in a horrible and excrutiating way, his guide to obtain these confessions from the "witches" in order to judge them is a book called "Witchhammer" (whose name gives the title to the movie). Innocent people died not because of their religious beliefs but because their money was the real target.
  
This is a great film for many reasons, is well constructed, has precise dialogues and superb acting, the torture scenes are very realistic and I think is very accurate about this topic, also the film was supposed to be a criticism of the Communist regime which took over Czechoslovakia after World War II, if that was the case this parallelism between the Catholic Inquisition and Communism is fair because in my opinion Communism was a terrible and evil way of ruling a country, they deprived people from civil rights, freedom of speech, they tortured and dissapeared hundreds of people accused of subversion and homosexuality was criminalized, so basically it was "you are with us or against us" just like the Inquisition times. The scene that exemplifies that perfectly is when the judges are eating and making fun of people and telling disgusting sexual jokes, we can see that they were the real evil, and of course if somebody has any other thing in mind he was whether possesed or was a wizard and therefore should be executed. 

We also see similarities with the Betrayal and Crucifixion of Jesuschrist when father Kristof is imprisoned and like Jesus who was judged for crimes he did not commit including witchery and blasphemy, Kristof is tortured and accused of having made a deal with the Devil because the people who testified against him were tortured as well.The ending of the film is bleak, no happy-ending here, we can read "Mr. Boblig Von Edelstadt lived in piece and prosperity and still be married" and we have to take that punch because Mr. Boblig is one of the most brutal villians in the history of cinema; I would like to add that this film could be a perfect suplemental for another great movie about witchery: Häxan (I have written about it too on this blog), so you can watch both movies and see how evil the Catholic Church was at the time. 

      
                                    
                                           

A Hard Day's Night (1964)

Director: Richard Lester
Country: United Kingdom

A Hard Day's Night shows us a day in a life of the rebellious group of youngsters from Liverpool during the touring years after returning from America, or in other words the years of "The Beatlemania". They have to do multiple things such as travelling by train, replying letters from fans, partying, attending press conferences full of journalists asking stupid questions and obviously getting answers full of sardonic sense of humor from the Fab Four, reharsing and playing on live TV and also running away from crazy fans and hiding themselves in customs and fake moustaches. 

John Lennon pretending to snort coke and the whole group getting excited about an orgy are two spicy moments in the film, I'm pretty sure they did that shit though (or at least Lennon himself). We can see the funny side of the touring years, but in the end of this adventure we can see how was to be a Beatle, and despite all the fun, money and fame it became a nightmare and an overwhelming and painful activity for the Fab Four and paradoxically they ended up trying to be "normal" citizens and having a break like in Ringo's segment. 

Richard Lester made a simple film with some flaws but an important piece of history because it's The Beatles, although it has some interesting technicalities such as the usage of handheld cameras, close-ups, scenes in time lapse, different camera angles (from above, below, behind, far away, etc) editing tricks and real footage, which combined delivered a great result, a magnificent documentary-fiction film. 

The acting by The Beatles is not really important because they were charming and funny in front of the camera and basically they were acting like themselves, which is great because we can see a group of four guys playing music and smiling and this Beatles' era was fantastic, they were young, beautiful, fresh and kind of innocent, they were living a beautiful dream before things turned sour and densed starting with the infamous "We are more popular than Jesus" quote by John Lennon, and the internal battles before and during the production of "Rubber Soul". This is a must-see film for any person who loves The Beatles.

                              

La Terra Trema (1948)

Director: Luchino Visconti
Country: Italy

As in "Rocco and His Brothers", Visconti tells the despondent fate of a Sicilian family of fishermen unwilling to eat shit from the salesmen and other organizations that exploit the workers, paying them a fistful of coins instead of a real salary which could enable them of making a decent living, so they decide to put at risk their house and to buy a fishing boat in order to be independent and make real money. Sicily was insular and empoverished at the time, many people faced unemployment, a low-quality of life, injustice and labour exploitation which is a form of modern slavery, we can see all those aspects affecting the life of the Valastra family and his fellow citizens in the film. 

Young and capable guys who want a revolution unlike their parents and grandparents who never complained about a thing and accepted life as it came, unfortunately they fail due to bad decisions and another burden: pride, however they claim it was bad luck instead of assuming the consequences of those wrong decisions. 

The family has to face ignominy: out of work, broken and ejected from their own house by the bank, Cola leaves the town when a stranger from America appears, maybe he goes to New York City as many Italians did, Mara the little sister is bought by an official instead of accepting the love of Nicola, a hard-working construction worker who is in love with her, and finally Tony has to bend his knees in front of the bosses and get the job he used to have. 

Visconti made a real crude pessimistic portrayal of the world, with some humorous moments and a voice over through the film narrating certain events which adds a depressive mood, techinically using static and long takes, minimalistic dialogues, natural light and real-life people instead of professional actors, "La Terra Trema" is pure neorealism that unfortunately we still living nowadays, the film is a criticism of the capitalism (the boss taking a big cut and leaving left overs for his employees) but also an analysis of going against it without the appropiate plan. 

The Valastra family suffers from the social and economic enviroment in which they live in and which also it is bigger than their good intentions. As in Luis Buñuel "Los Olvidados", The Valastra family still exists nowadays in any part of the world both in developed countries and in developing ones, 100% guaranteed.

                
                          

Häxan (1922)

Director: Benjamin Christensen
Country: Denmark

I was totally flabbergasted by this incredible fiction-documentary silent film divided in eight vignettes telling the history of witchcraft and how it has existed since Egyptian times, how it was manufactured (along with the existence of the Devil) and fueled by superstition, fear and different sets of beliefs mainly based on Catholic doctrines which interferred with the development of science, medicine and even in people's affairs of the heart . 

Using different brutal torture methods and techniques many people were forced to confess deeds they did not do; we can see how the power of the mind (autosuggestion) played an important role in supernatural events such as demonic posessions or collective paranoia; mental disorders such as histery or sleep walking were interpreted as a form of witchery or a deal with the devil; the misconception of genetic physical disabilities or physical ugliness, those ones suffering from that were also accused of being Devil's pupils; and human emotions such as jealousy or sexual attraction were interpreted as Devil's forces.

Christensen plays himself the role of the Devil and the film has an amazing production design, customes, superb dramatized reenactments full of details and disturbing images divided between real and unreal (or imaginary) situations, which Christensen decided to differentiate on the screen using a simple cinematography technique, red color for the former ones and blue for the latter ones, also the soundtrack is powerful and well adapted into the film. 

Watching Häxan nowadays could be laughable at times because science has taken the place of superstition and ignorance, but when it was released one can understand why it was censored and chopped off in many theaters around the world. A powerful horror film and a masterstroke of pure cinema.

Surcos (1951)

Director: José Antonio Nieves Conde

Country: Spain

A modest family from the Spanish country side decides to emigrate to the capital city of Madrid in an effort to earn more money and become part of the post-war society but soon they struggle to survive and have to face the hostile environment of the concrete jungle: poverty, misery, unemployment and crime among other hindrances. 

 

The main story revolves around the three brothers (like in Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers, except that this one was made 9 years before): Pepé, Tonia and Manolo, whom their different ambitions corrupt their souls little by little while coping with thieves and gangsters like Chamberlein, greedy and materialistic women like Pili or with the inability to find a job due to lack of skills and techniques to perform any job in the industrial field (like the scene when their father is in a factory and he's about to faint, that sequence contains a nice mixing of images and sounds and maybe is the only highlighting moment in the editing department). 

 

We can see how Spain was a developing country at the time, living with the consequences of the Spanish Civil War and the economic impact of the Second War World. This film is considered part of the Spanish neorealism, and was shot basically without technique like many other neorealist films from the era such as Vittorio De Sica's "Ladri di Biciclette", also the ending and some parts of the movie had been adultarated and censored by the Spanish goverment and the Catholic Church but fortunately they were restored in recent years. 

 

I personally enjoyed the dark humor dialogues in the film that work very well, especifically the ones on machismo and sexism. A great Spanish film which unfortunately has been forgotten over time.

                              

María Candelaria (1943)

Director: Emilio Fernandez
Country: Mexico

Written and directed by Emilio Fernandez, the story revolves around Maria Candelaria (performed by the gorgeous Dolores del Rio) a beautiful indigenous woman and her relationship with Lorenzo Rafael (Pedro Armendariz) whose story is told by a misterious painter. The action takes place in 1909 in an empoverished and underdeveloped but beautiful village of Xochimilco. 

For some reason the villagers hate Maria Candelaria, whose mother's life is never revealed, was she a prostitute or a witch? the only thing we know is that she was killed for being a "sinner". This film could be considereded a social one despite its love story, because we can see the division between white Mexicans and the indigenous, with the former ones being medical doctors, priests, artists and bureaucrats, and the latter ones being oppressed by the system and the Catholic Church, which in combination with the indigenous superstitions and the close-minded life style they have, the results are catastrophic such as the rejection of medical care, law enforcement or artistic disciplines, and characters such as "la chismosa", "la huesera" or the ruthless "patrón" are excellent examples of it. 

The film also has many dark humor and satiric dialogues that give balance and help to keep the pace, the cinematography by the legendary Gabriel Figueroa (Los Olvidados, Macario, The Fugitive, Animas Trujano, etc) is stunning and one of the best in Figueroa's career, with a masterful use of natural light, shadows and a perfect framing we can see how beautiful Xochimilco was at the time, and the performances of Dolores del Rio and Pedro Armendariz are very accurate, because portraying indigeous characters was not an easy task for sure, there was the risk of being ridiculous or fake, but they changed their accents and manners so well and the result was succesful. 

Definitely a must-see in the Golden Age of the Mexican Cinema and one of the key films of Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez.



                               

Salvatore Giuliano (1962)

Director: Francesco Rosi 
Country: Italy

This is a dense political-social film based on real facts, shot in a documentary style following a non-linear narrative about the circumstances around the assesination of Salvatore Giuliano, a bandit and the leader of a separatist movement in Sicily, that was responsible for a massacre against members of a communist party, he only appears as a corpse three or four times in the film. 

We can see how Sicily was after the departure of the allies, an empoverished, dejected, dangerous and corrupted place controlled by the local mafia, full of street codes such as the Omerta, and curfews by the military (North Italians who look down on Sicilians calling them savages.) Shot by the legendary Gianni Di Venanzo, the film has a stunning cinematography and a  pure neorealist look . 

Amazingly this film portrays how some goverments around the world still operating nowadays!, with the help of local mafias and bandits, definitely an incredible film.

                                 

Le Trou (1960)

Director: Jacques Becker 
Country: France

For the first time in my blog I'm not writing too much about this film, I don't want to spoil anyone's experience, all I can say is that this is the best minimalistic film ever made and my favorite in the prison genre of all time, Becker only needed little dialogue, five characters and one room, so if you want to have a great night, turn off the lights, turn on your DVD player in a quiet room and concentrate on this tour de force, period.

                               

Classe Tous Risques (1960)

Director: Claude Sautet
Country: France

A ruined criminal looking for help is trying to escape with his family and children from Milan to Paris after many years of criminal activities but a death sentence is waiting for him. Lino Ventura is Abel Davos, a cold-blooded crook, a decaying mafioso, but a tough mothefucker who once was a respected guy in the underworld, and a kind of "godfather" for some of his friends who now disrespect him, and this film is precisely about respect, loyalty, honor, friendship and betrayal and by no means idealistic gangster bullshit. 

We can see the human side of Abel Davos as a father, a husband a friend and struggling moments in his life which make him think he's a kind of King Midas in reverse. A young Jean-Paul Belmondo as Eric Stark in the pivotal role is very solid too, not to mention Sandra Milo (Eric's girlfriend) was stunning and gorgeous at the time. 

The film was adapted from a novel by Jose Giovanni (an auteur, a great writer who also wrote works like "Le Trou" and "Le Deuxiemme Souffle", which later became cinema masterpieces), Sautet made a great job, basically he just needed a car, two main characters and some pistols to make a great storyline, he also made a precise usage of the voice over, the silence, the dialogue, the editing and some shots from the car's point of view. 

These kind of films were the foundation for future crime films (like those of Jean-Pierre Melville) and we can see how iconic characters in American TV Series like The Sopranos were influenced by all those French crime-noir films as well, Classe Tous Risques is unfortunately an underrated masterpiece.

                                  

Battle of Algiers (1966)

Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Country: Italy

"Should France remain in Algeria? if you answer 'yes', you must accept all the necessary consequences."

Told from the point of view of Ali and General Mathieu (who is based upon a real life soldier named Jacques Massu) it's a great juxtaposed story based on real life events. An Algerian guerrilla movement trying to get independence from France, starts a bloody battle and is willing to die for the cause no matter what. 2015 and 2016 have been difficult years for developed democracies in Europe and the rest of the World, terrorist attacks, radicalism and insurgent militias in the Middle East have been some of the problems, and is amazing how this movie made in the 60's can explain many things happening right now, so whether if you want to know how terrorism and radicalism work or how many soldiers work, you gotta see this film.  

Pontecorvo not only shows us how radicals approach children, women, vendors, old ladies, etc and turn them into terrorists, they are heartless fanatics indeed, but also he shows us the brutal practices of the military, in particular the many forms of torture and ruthless acts such as chopping up heads of political prisoners or burning people with blowturches . 

The film portrays in a realistically way how colonialism worked in Africa for years: an apartheid system, where European whites lived apart from the native population while oppresing any form of political discomfort, just like the European conquistadores "worked" for centuries in the Americas. Pontecorvo is a genius because he's always neutral, he does not interfere with the story and let us alone to judge the situations, such a huge contrast compared with those American movies about Vietnam War or Second War World, where American troops are martyrs and heroes in contrast with the evil communist Asians and Nazis who wanted to destroy the world. 

A solid, superb piece of work with a critical and incisive argument which is remarkable because for Pontecorvo would have been easy to be biased and to portray the military as the villians (due to his communist past and marxist ideology) but he chose not to. Pontecorvo's masterful use of camera, documentary and guerrilla style shooting are superb, we can see close ups, detail shots, kinda news footage and along with Ennio Morricone's soundtrack, consisting mainly of percussive instruments and background pre-recorded music which adds tension to the images, such as in the simultaneous terrorist bomb attacks, the result is so powerful. 

This is a very complex film, shot in a minimalistic way and in my opinion it's one of the best films about social conflicts ever made . The French won the Battle of Algiers but were defeated and finally kicked out from Algeria in the real life, and then unfortunately the native people faced years of repression and dictatorship...

                            

Saltimbancos (1951)

Director: Manuel Guimaraes 
Country: Portugal

The first Manuel Guimaraes' film, who had been an apprentice of the legendary Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, "Saltimbancos" (which is a derogative word for a street artist) it's a tragic-comic neorealist film adapted from the novel "Circo" by Leao Penedo, about a group of circus artists struggling to make a living in an impoverished Portugal, the film belongs to the Portuguese Golden Age of Cinema and was made with a very limited budget.

The film starts with a voice over narration by Toni (Artur Semedo) who is looking for a job, and whose past is never revealed except for his passion for circus, he finds O Circo Maravilhas which is managed by Miss Dolly (Maria Olguim) an old woman , her husband Felismino (José Victor) and her daughter, a beautiful blonde named Delmirinha (Helga Liné) the circus is destroyed during a rainstorm and since that moment things get hard because they have to deal with poverty, misery, hungry and debts, Delmirinha's mind shifts during the road to Lisbon, because she wants to live a decent life and to have a steady job but those goals clash with her background and traditions and her boyfriend (Toni) knows it. 

Ambition fades away in the face of death but loyalty remains intact. One of my favorite moments in the film is when Felismino is trying to train his beloved friend named "Pombinho" (which means little pigeon), a stubborn but smart donkey, in order to perform a circus act, the donkey is the only animal acting in the film, and he did a great job. 

The narration through the film sounds beautiful and melancholic, and the movie brings Saudades of an innocent age when children enjoyed going to the circus, after all, Portuguese language is the language of the poets. Guimaraes was severely criticized at the time by the Portuguese critics, his movies were chopped up and he never received the recognizition he deserved, otherwise we would be talking about the Portuguese Fellini. This is a beautiful Portuguese gem and unfortunately a hidden and almost forgotten treasure that everybody must see.

The Wrong Man (1956)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock 
Country: United States 

We can see Hitchcock's shadow at the beginning of the film and listening to him quoting: "This is Alfred Hitchcock speaking, in the past, I have given you many kinds of suspense pictures, but this time, I would like you to see a different one. The difference lies in the fact that this is a true story". 

Henry Fonda was a deftly actor, he did not need too much dialogue, make up or whatever to express his emotions and thoughts, and he made it amazingly well in The Wrong Man, performing a jazz musician (Manny) who gets confused with a criminal when asking for a loan (to help his woman to get a teeth job) at an insurance office. Shot on location in New York City, this film is about human condition, and how a hard-working man living a normal life with his family can be ruined in less than 24 hours all over a human error. 

Also Vera Miles made a magnificent supporting role as Manny's wife, we can see her shift, from a sweet woman to a paranoid, demented one . Hitchcock is all about editing: point of view angles, close ups, soft transitions (one of the best transitions ever in the history of cinema is here, when we can see Manny's doppelganger's face matching with his) and silence in combination with atmosphere dissonant sounds made by the genius Bernard Hermann, who also made a jazzy-spicy score to highlight Manny's musical world, are equal to a powerful visual result . The film is perfect except for the ending, which is explained to the audience instead of leaving it to an open interpretation, that would have been excellent.

The cinematography by Robert Burks (The Verdict, House of Wax, The Rear Window, Dial M for Murder) who was one of the key Hitchcock's collaborators during the 50's and 60's, set up a magnificent tonality for The Wrong Man, shot it as a reenacment (but in a fastidious way) and with dramatic combinations of lights and shadows, which print a special mood in the film.

This amazing Hitchcock film was a precedent for another contemporary masterpiece, Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line, which as The Wrong Man, is about an innocent man accused of a crime he didn't commit. Definitely this film is a very solid, mature, unique and underrated work in Hitchcock's filmography.


                             

Stromboli (1950)

Director: Roberto Rossellini 
Country: Italy

A Lithuanian refugee woman named Karin (Ingrid Bergman) who had a good life before war mets Antonio, an Italian war prisoner (Mario Vitale), while waiting in a refugee camp for the approval of his Argentinian Visa, when her Visa application is denied, she decides to get married with Antonio and go with him to his home in Stromboli, a little Italian island near Sicily. During the Visa interview the film shows us how Europeans were looking for a new home in developed countries after the Second World War such as America, Australia or Argentina. 

At the moment she arrives to Stromboli, she realizes has made a big time mistake because the village is destroyed, underdeveloped and with a Volcano next to it, representing a deadly hazard, that place is paradoxically even worse than a prison or a refugee camp, with nothing much to do and uneducated close minded catholics as neighbors, Karin realizes that she gotta get outta there as soon as possible, but without money her chances are reduced. 

Also we can see other elements of this movie through the descriptions of the villagers who returned from America, and we can compare the almost uninhabited village to the industrial New York City and its people enjoying the benefits of the post-war boom such as driving new cars, working in factories, eating hot dogs, attending baseball games or wearing nice clothes. 

Composed by long shots, actual documentary footage (the volcano eruption scenes), minimalistic but powerful dialogues and non-professional actors, which was a characteristic of the Italian neorealism, Rossellini made a great work, not only because of that, but also because we can deduce and imagine many things without flashbacks, words or sequences in other place, that's why this film is a masterpiece. 

Likewise, many people in the film were real villagers like Mario Vitale (a real life fisherman) who made a great performance and later became a succesful actor but like in Stromboli he quit the industry to came back to his village, Bergman is stunning, beautiful and a great performer (married at the time with Rossellini), After having made powerful films such as "Rome, Open City", "Paisa" or "Germany Year Zero", Rosellini started with "Stromboli" another trilogy starring Bergman, the "Trilogia della Solitudine" keystone in the history of cinema.

                                

The Killing (1956)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Country: United States

Maybe this was the first heist movie I saw, and since then I became fascinated with this sub-genre; full of great dialogues, a first class acting by Sterling Hayden, a superb cinematography work by Lucien Ballard (who also worked in Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch), and a powerful score by Gerald Fried which enriches the story.

"The Killing" is super entertaining, Kubrick orchestrated every frame, dialogue and scene perfectly, he already was a master of filmmaking at the time without a doubt and unlike many other American films of the same genre which haven't aged so well, "The Killing" stills looking fresh to some extent after 60 years! 

The lighting is beautiful and scenes such as the one taking action in the Chess Club, when "Johnny" meets "Maurice" (the bald guy in the chess club with a thick accent), played by Kola Kwariani, Georgian and a real life former wrestler and professional chess player at the time or the racetrack robbery whole sequence, which is very suspensful, are really unique.

The last time I saw this film was in a public library, I'd already seen it when I was a teenager, but the images weren't fresh in my mind, so I decided to go to the projection and it was a great experience and completely different from the typical cinema screenings, people sitting around watching the film respectfully and quietly, I loved it , The Killing is my favorite Kubrick's black and white.

                             

Shock Corridor (1963)

Director : Samuel Fuller 
Country : United States 

Shot by the great cinematographer Stanley Cortez (The Night of The Hunter, The Magnificent Ambersons) and directed by the legendary Samuel Fuller, Shock Corridor is about a journalist obssesed with winning the Pullitzer, who decides to get himself into a mental institution to investigate a murder committed inside. 

The film begins with a prologue and with Johnny Benett's (the main character) narrating the story in voice off, which adds a noir-style to the film, the editing and set up of the film is unique since the first scene, especially in the color footage combined during the dreams and hallucinations sequences, which add a sense of madness. 

It's curious how the patients hallucinate with sensitive chapters in the American history such as the K.K.K, The Civil War, and the Cold War, maybe Fuller was trying to tell us his perspective about those events, were they crazy and nonsense?, also Pagliacci is a very interesting and disturbed character because Pagliacci is an opera about a murder. 

This movie is never predictable and could have been easily a Twilight Zone special episode, which Rod Serling would have been very proud of without a doubt, due to its twisted and suspensful dramatic plot, excellent camera work, storyline, acting and substance, plus its dark humor and shocking ending. So the question is: Johnny Benett was already insane before entering the hospital? or he turned into one of those freaks hallucinating with the Civil War?. Special mention to Constance Towers (Cathy in the film) who looks gorgeous. A disturbed film and a must-see in the Fuller's filmography.

                                   

Repulsion (1965)

Director: Roman Polanski
Country: United kingdom

A cracking, scary film with many implications: sexual trauma, paranoid-schizoid personality disorder and supernatural forces. Roman Polanski is one of the greatest artists in the history of filmmaking and visual arts along with Buñuel, Hitchcock, Fellini, Chaplin, etc, and as an old-school filmmaker, Polanski does not explain anything to the audience, you gotta decide and judge by yourself, that's why those filmmakers were transcendental, because their works got substance (something lacking nowadays) and fortunately and wisely Polanski did not made a big Hitchcockian-Pyscho mistake here and nor did it later when completing  The Apartment Trilogy (with Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant) 

Polanski's deftly use of narrative, camera angles, lighting, music and silence, and theatrical images perfectly adapted for the screen, resulted in a first class supense-horror-psychological-thriller that engages the viewer from the beginning 'til the end. 

The legendary cinematographer Gilbert Taylor (Dr. Strange Love, A Hard Day's Night) set up a wonderful staging, full of dramatic shadows and detailed and jump shots (like the one when Deneuve's character sees a man in the mirror) not to mention the iconic image of the film, when Carol (Deneuve) sees the hands coming out from the wall, is disturbing and beautiful at the same time. 

Catherine Deneuve made an amazing job too, performing a character with little dialogue, which is not always easy, but she did it in a masterful way (in part because of Polanski's directing perfectionism) with the right gesticulation, pantomime and expresiveness, succesfully projecting the isolation and phobias suffered by Carol. Without a doubt Polanski is a real master both in the writing and the direction departments, he has been able to craft powerful claustrophobic movies like this one, with only one character (and the other being the flat itself), and that accomplishment is brutal. 

The new DVD version is simply beautiful, forget about the "old-school" bullshit about the grain, if you haven't seen this one, you gotta do it whether on Blu Ray or in the latest DVD release right now!

                              

The Boxer and Death (1962)

Director: Peter Solan
Country: Czechoslovakia

We have seen many films about the Second World War such as Roman Polanski's "The Pianist", Samuel Fuller's "The Big Red One" or "The Great Escape" starring Steve McQueen, films that portrayed a variety of themes such as The D-Day, The Holocaust or The Battle of Berlin, but few people have seen this Czechoslovakian film, which is one of best films ever made about this topic. 

A German officer obssesed with boxing finds a contender in a concentration camp, which ignites his hunger for competition, two bodies and two minds against each other, no matter if one is black and the other is white, no matter if one is Jewish and the other is Catholic, the best will win. 

The prisoner suddenly becomes a kind of star inside the concentration camp and he got the chance to train and to take meals to become a decent contender and sparring. 

Also, he has the opportunity to leave the camp during training, which is beautiful because we can see a peaceful enviroment and the mother nature in a quiet atmosphere contrasting with the horrors of war and the atrocities taking place in the concentration camps (one as the viewer can not stop thinking about the historical context of the film which is a great accomplishment of the director who invites you to connect with the characters without explanations, flashbacks or sentimental bullshit, we also can infer that not every soldier in the Nazi Germany was a cold-blooded murderer) 

In addition, and just like in films such as "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", the viewer can realize about the stupidity of war and violence and some questions are brought in to us: is he gonna make it or is he gonna be humiliated and then killed by the Nazis? 

Minimalistically but masterfully directed and photographed this is an amazing underrated gem which deserves more attention and recognition.

                           
                            

Rififi (1955)

Director: Jules Dassin 
Country: France

Silence generates tension, and tension produces anxiety, that's what a thriller is all about. This Dassin's film is a chef d' oeuvre, not only for its well written dialogue and brilliant direction and adaptation from the novel, but also for its atmosphere and dynamic story and choreographies like the robbery sequence, which is brilliantly performed and certainly influenced later movies of the genre. The cinematography is noir-style, dramatic, and not exactly impressionist like many other noir films, the plot and narrative are bleak and twisted, nothing to do with its counterparts from Hollywood. This is a first class heist-thriller, containing all the crime-noir elements executed in a skillful way, a must-see film in the genre.

                              

I Fidanzati (1962)

Director: Ermanno Olmi
Country: Italy 

The Italian filmmaker Ermanno Olmi elaborated one of the simpliest and most beautiful films ever, "I Fidanzati" which is an impressive piece of work, characterized by its minimalistic use of the camera and an inspiring cinematography work, the opening sequence is a long shot masterfully conceived to introduce us two lonely souls, two characters with real emotions and real flesh. 

 

This film is about separation, nostalgia and how emotions and love slowly fade away with time: Giovanni got a new job as a welder in a plant located in Sicily, hence he gotta leaves his girlfriend named Liliana behind. We can find loneliness and sadness between them at the same time as well as we can see the transition of Italy after the Second World War from a destroyed country to an industrial one. The telephone is the intermediary in their long-distance relationship and sometimes Giovanni even misses the fights and arguments he has had with Liliana, he also misses the moments of passion and love between them. 

 

While seeing the film some questions popped out of my head such as: are they better when they are far away from each other?, love is an arduos discipline? or it is just a moment of glory?. The ending is bittersweet, and we have to deduce what happened with them, they waited for each other or they broke up?, indeed love is a big mistery. 

 

 The editing, the diologue and the voice over we listen to in the last minutes when they read the letters they received from each other is very powerful, in addition the black and white cinematography by the prolific Lamberto Caimi (who also worked with Olmi in "Il Posto" another excellent film) moving from noir through novelle vague style is a superb work in conjuction with the flashbacks. Definitely an underrated treasure that deserves more recognition.

                            

Gertrud (1964)

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Denmark 

"One day your visit will be only a memory as all the other memories I cherish."

Every single living thing on earth will born, grow, reproduce (or not) and finally die, and that includes love. I know it fuckin sucks, but whether or not that's a fact we gotta face, and this film is about that. Gertrud is an absolute dejecting work, I felt a dagger in my heart throughtout the whole screening with every single dialogue and scene, and affected me so much in many ways, 'cause Gertrud is a lonely soul who wants to love and being loved in a perfect way, unfortunately that can't happen. 

 

Gertrud's marriage is boring and has techinically ended and fate is cruel with her 'cause Gertrud falls in love with a handsome younger musician who only wants to have an adventure, but not a serious commitment. Dreyer did a magnificent  job, shooting long shots and writing realistic and pesimistic profound dialogues, if you are in the middle of your honeymoon I don't recommend you to see this film, otherwise prepare yourself to face some crude facts about love and life; magnificent movie and one of my all time favorites.

                           
                          

O Pagador de Promessas (1962)

Director: Anselmo Duarte 

Country: Brazil 

A wonderful and forgotten Brazilian gem written and directed by Anselmo Duarte. The first and the only Brazilian movie to this day whom has won the "Palme d' Or" in Cannes, due to its articulated argument, excellent acting and masterful use of simplicity (no technical bullshit here). 

 

The film is about a man called "Zé do Burro" in Portuguese (which can be translated as "Joseph The Donkey") who has made the promise of carrying a Cross from his house to the church of Santa Barbara in order to save the life of his best friend, a donkey named Nicolau, we can't see the donkey on the screen but we can imagine that he is a great friend and a fabulous co-worker, but when Zé finally arrives at the entrace of the church the priest denies him the entry acussing him of trying to be Jesus Christ himself! 

 

It is also about prejudice, injustice and a form of modern inquisition, due to the social violence against the main character who is a loyal and devoted catholic, and whose only pupose is to save his best friend's life, but the catholic regime in Brazil is outraged by the fact that he made that promise during local african white-magic ritual called "candumblé", which in the eyes of the catholic church is considered a "crime" and synonym of blasphemy, heresy, paganism, witchcraft among many other "sins", also we can see another fact at the time in Brazil (and in many Latin American countries) which was the predominance of white people in the clergy. 

 

The ending is tragic, but it's a movie that makes you think and revalue your beliefs (in case you are Catholic) and I made myself another question: why films involving donkeys do always have tragic endings?

                            

Il Demonio (1963)

Director: Brunello Rondi
Country: Italy

If you want to know where all those witchcraft-posession and alike modern movies come from, you have to see Brunello Rondi's "Il Demonio", a film about superstition, witchcraft and an exorcism. Certainly the most famous film about exorcism is William Friedkin's blockbuster "The Exorcist" and possibly the best known film about witchcraft is Roman Polanski's American debut "Rosemary's Baby", but Brunello Rondi not only made "Il Demonio" involving both themes, 10 and 9 years before them respectively but also he added the social reality of the poor country life in Italy. 

The film takes action in a rural community in Italy and it is about a woman obsessed with an engaged man who has rejected her many times, in order to destroy his relationship, she invokes the invisible forces, and apparently she becomes possesed by the devil (or by some sort of demon at least) 

Full of powerful close-ups and an impressive acting by Daliah Lavi who shows a great use of the pantomime technique, especially in the exorcism scenes, "Il Demonio" was a groundbreaking film and to my surprise it contains many references to "The Exorcist" or better said Mr. William Friedkin appearently took ('cause he has never mentioned this film as a direct influence in the making of The Exorcist) a lot of angles, concepts and even scenes from Rondi's film! specifically the exorcism scene in the church when the posssesed girl walks in a spider-walk-style! It sounds familiar?

Definitely "Il Demonio" could fit into the Italian neo-realism era, 'cause it portrays perfectly well how Catholic uneducated people thought at the time, and maybe how many catholics around the world and particularly in Latin America (where a huge chunk of Catholics live) still have a huge amount of superstition beliefs. I wish I would have seen "Il Demonio" before seeing "The Exorcist" so in case you haven't seen the latter, now you know which one to see first.

                                   

Au Hazard Balthazar (1966)

Director: Robert Bresson
Country: France

Bresson, the master of simplicity made it again and he only needed a bunch of non-professional actors, specific camera movements, classical music, and a couple of donkeys (a foal and an adult one). This is really the most heartbreaking story I ever seen, it punched my heart and soul so hard and pulverized my feelings completely (I went into a deep funk for two or three weeks maybe) to the point of wanting to turn off my home video equipment and throw away the material. 

The beginning of the film when the little kids christened the little donkey named Balthazar (which is the main character in the film) in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was a very sweet moment that stayed with me, but saddly things get complicated for Balthazar and Marie, his owner, in their respectives lifes. This movie shows us the human condition in every single way: greed, cruelty, sexuality, loneliness, love and hate, and finally death, Bresson made the passion of Christ performed by a simple and beautiful donkey, which as Christ who was christened, then betrayed and finally killed, 

Balthazar becomes a Catholic Saint, only to be betrayed and killed like Jesus, Is it very difficult not being reduced into nothing after seeing Balthazar being mistreated with cruelty by their respective owners like in the sequence when he's in the circus and he looks at other animals (a tiger and a big bear) as well as in the scene when he becomes a mathematician donkey, which honestly I couldn't take it and I wept. 

After finally seeing Balthazar dying surrounded by sheeps I collapsed emotionally (I love donkeys so much, so the feeling was stronger), and my heart blow out, this movie is a complete masterpiece and for the first time in my life I felt myself so vulnerable while watching a movie, and just writing and thinking about it moves me to tears 'cause (paraphrasing Orson Welles) this movie would make a stone cry.

                                       

Cruel Gun Story (1964)

Director: Takumi Furukawa
Country: Japan

I have two words to describe this japanese masterpiece: PURE NOIR, no sentimentality bullshit here, a perfect work in editing, dialogue, storyline and what an amazing performance by the legendary Japanese actor Joe Shishido, this movie goes straight to the point, also it incorporates interesting non-static shots (which were the water-mark of Japanese cinema for many years). Shishido's role as a cold-blooded criminal, who has been released from jail with the help of a powerful Yakuza boss in order to execute a last big hit with fatal consequences, is really impressive. Without a doubt this noir-thriller paved the way for movies like Michael Mann's "Heat" or John Woo's "The Killer", a story about greed, violence and betrayal, a real gem that includes a fuckin brutal shootout!

                          
                              

Freaks (1932)

Director: Tod Browning
Country: United States

I was just a little kid when I saw "Freaks" by happenstance on public television with my father, I was very impressed and scared at the same time for watching real "freaks" acting on the screen, especially the girls joined at the hips, "The Living Torso", "Half Boy", "Schlitzie" and some others, also I remember being upset about the main theme, which is the Cleopatra's betrayal of Hans . 

The scene in the movie that shocked my early sense of morality and ethics was the one when Hans and Cleopatra (who is not a "freak" like the rest of the circus' members are) get married, but later on, she and Hercules kiss each other in front of Hans, that was out of my league, I was so angry about it and at the same time I felt so sorry for the good-hearted Hans, who is in love with Cleopatra and is willing to eat shit from her, in order to be her husband. 

Solidarity and friendship are the main values in this amazing film, in which the freaks are so united and have a strong sense of justice and hence Cleopatra and Hercules pay the price for their heartless acts . I consider myself fortunate for having seen this historical horror masterpiece on TV as a child. 

"Freaks" stills powerful to new audiences and just imagine if they (the studios) had preserved the original ending in which Hercules gets castrated, would have been even scarier, fortunately the film got the recognition it deserves after many decades of being banned in many countries and now is a cult-classic film, also it has been homaged many times in popular culture, especially in TV shows like "South Park" and "The Simpsons". If you haven't purchased a copy of this, you gotta do it right now! (and it has great supplementals)

                               

Modern Times (1936)

Director: Charlie Chaplin
Country: United States 

This is one of the most entertaining movies ever made, Chaplin was ahead of his time, he was a genius and a real visionary who could portray the life of a factory worker in a world ruled by factories and machines, obliging him to work full time and leaving his rights, hobbies and personal life in a second or even third place, because whether he does that or he can find himself starving in the middle of the street. 

 

This could be catalogued as a "comedy" but I would say it's a satirical, dark humor film that portrays exactly how capitalism has worked from the beginning: a form of slavery in exchange of a fistful of coins for the employee, but sacks of money for the owners. 

 

The dynamics, pantomime and acting performed by Chaplin are absolutely unbelievable, also the production design was great, the factory has a futuristic look that stills looking fresh after 80 years!, that's very difficult to achieve even for films released only 20 years ago, and at least but not less, this movie was a mix of silent and "talkie" cinema, my favorite Chaplin movie, a real classic.

                               

Marty (1955)

Director: Delbert Mann
Country: United States

Filmed on location in the Bronx, New York City, Delbert Mann's debut feature film about "Marty" portrayed by the legendary actor Ernest Borgnine, a butcher in his thirties who lives with his mother and everybody wonders when he's gonna get a woman, this is maybe the simpliest and most beautiful love story I ever seen. Betsy Blair as Clara did a terrific job also, portraying a simple, compassionate and innocent woman looking for love, just like Marty himself, faith or coincidence?

 

The film reminded me of "I Vitelloni" but in the love affairs department, two desperate souls looking for a chance to love someone, because they are tired and bored of living alone, and it hurts so much because they are getting older, and that's a strong reason to be together, but most importantly, they really want to love each other.

 

When I saw this film I felt myself so connected with it, and consoled me in many ways that just writing about it makes me feel emotional, an unforgettable and absolute New Yorker pièce de résistance.

                               

Seven Samurai (1954)

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Country: Japan

I'm gonna say it plain and simple, if you haven't seen Seven Samurai, you can't call yourself a cinephile, a film buff, or whatever the hell you refer to the fact of loving and being addicted to cinema, because this one is the quintessential Kurosawa's film, and in terms of innovation, story telling and filmmaking techniques is at the top. 

 

Three hours of action, well developed characters and choreographies shot in a superb way as the result of a perfectionist filmmaker like Kurosawa, who spent many days in the editing room in order to join the puzzle . The legacy of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai can be seen in movies like John Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven" (which was the American adaptation of Seven Samurai) or in other American classics like the original Star Wars Saga and even in American pop-culture comics like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, that's the impact of Seven Samurai, an inspiring and beautiful action film.

                          

Los Olvidados (1950)

Director: Luis Buñuel
Country: Mexico

I remember seeing this one for the first time on sunday at my grandmother's when I was a child, and what a brutal, realistic and powerful experience I had. Portraying the darkest side of Mexico City and its people, especially the most fragile and unprotected: the young ones, Buñuel created possibly the best Mexican movie ever. 

As a child, the main character of "El Jaibo", performed by Roberto Cobos, scared the hell out of me, he is more than a bully in the film, he's one of the most cruel young delinquent psychopaths I ever seen on the screen, along with other evil characters such as Pedro's mother "Marta" a cruel-careless mother who rejects his own child (the Mexican audience was shocked because of that fact, alleging that Mexican mothers were sweet and protective) and "Don Carmelo" the blind man who reaveals himself as a child molester . 

Despite the fact of the "realism" of the film, Buñuel made some surrealist and brilliant sequences, not to mention, the director of photography was the legendary Gabriel Figueroa. Los Olvidados is a universal classic film whose impact can be seen in many other works, for example in Mathieu Kassovitz's "La Haine", Fernando Meirelles' "Cidade de Deus" or in the films of the Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa. Buñuel not only portrayed the forgotten ones from Mexico City, but also from other places too, and stills depicting the current situation in many suburbs of the big cities around the world, including Mexico...

                                 

The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)

Director: John Huston
Country: United States 

"These burros have a long road ahead of them!"

This is a treasure I discovered thanks to Mr. William Friedkin, (and I will always be grateful to him for that), a combination between film noir and western, resulting in a simply beautiful work. "Sierra Madre" is one of the most complete films I ever seen and a magnificent adventure through Mexico with unexpected consequences. 

 

Walter Huston, Humphrey Bogard and Tim Holt did excellent performances, creating the perfect chemistry and atmosphere to build a story in which greed and corruption rules the world, or at least theirs, John Huston did a superb directorial work too, writing a great screenplay by himself, choosing the perfect actors (including his own father) and locations in Mexico and hiring one of the best composers of all time: Max Steiner, who was already famous for his work in "King Kong" (1933), "The Oklahoma Kid" (1939), "Gone With The Wind" (1939), "Casablanca" (1942), among many others. 

 

I recommend you to buy some cervezas, turn off the lights, turn up the sound and be ready to see the greatest movie ever made about greed and...burros.