Saturday, September 12, 2015
Friday, September 11, 2015
He Walked by Night (1948)
Police are on the hunt for a resourceful criminal who shoots and kills a cop.
Effective crime thriller in a semi-documentary style, a bit naive, but honest and straightforward and with an exciting finale that obviously inspired Carol Reed for The Third Man.
Halliwell*: "Interesting if rather flatly handled documentary melodrama in clear imitation of Naked City."
Maltin***: "Great climax in L.A storm drains; photographed by the great John Alton. This clearly inspired Webb's creation of Dragnet."
New Stuff: Wolfgang Müller
Wolfgang Müller, member of the art/music collective Die Tödliche Doris, presents a quite comprehensive description of 80s subculture in Berlin.
Chicago Joe and the Showgirl (1990)
During World War II, an American serviceman in London decides to impress his English girlfriend by acting as an American gangster, which soon turns deadly.
Ambitious wartime semi-Noir drama that drowns its intentions by staging a true-crime story in entirely artificial settings.
Halliwell (no star): "Based on actual events, but a movie that rarely seems more than a laboured fantasy and one that the public ignored."
Maltin**1/2: "Famed British tabloid fodder gets the low-budget "period" treatment. Mildly interesting account never quite jells, though some of the violence offers surprisingly stylized jolts. Lloyd is a lot more intersting than her costar here."
New Stuff: Cerro Torre: Schrei aus Stein
I know that everybody's saying this movie isn't good, but it's Werner Herzog and I haven't seen it yet...
First Lines: Reginald Hill - Deadheads
Mrs Florence Aldermann was distressed by the evidence of neglect all round her.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
New Stuff: La religieuse
After having watched Jacques Rivette's version I noticed that there is this new adaptation of Diderot's novel, so I need to see this one as well.
New Stuff: Helena Hauff
I read about Helena Hauff in The Wire and Der Spiegel and thought I've give her a try.
Contre-enquête (2007)
A cop investigates whether the man convicted of murdering his daughter is really guilty.
Intense
crime mystery with some psychological twists has an excellent
convincing cast, and: it's refreshingly short (compared to so many
overlong movies being released nowadays).
The Sentinel (2006)
A Secret Service agent is framed as the mole in an assassination attempt on the President.
Standard, but professionally made thriller with a good star cast, which manages to maintain suspense to the end.
Maltin**1/2: "Slick action-thriller is lively and entertaining until a crucial moment three-quarters of the way through, when it goes flat and credibility becomes a serious issue."
New Stuff: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Simply wanted to see this one again after more than 30 years.
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