Sunday, July 16, 2017
First Lines: Jules Verne - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten.
M (1931)
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.
One of the few true masterpieces in cinema history, meticulously made in all departments, every single take in itself an expressionistic work of art; as a clairvoyant social (and political) melodrama it stills grips even today, and Peter Lorre's performance is arguably one of the greatest of all time.
Halliwell***: "An unmistakable classic whose oddities are hardly worth criticizing, this is part social melodrama and part satire, but entirely unforgettable, with most of its sequences brilliantly staged."
Maltin****: "Harrowing melodrama...Riveting and frighteningly contemporary; cinematically dazzling, especially for an early talkie. Lorre's performance is unforgettable."
O.J.: Made in America (2016)
A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.
Grand-scale documentary doesn't bring up any new facts, but its enormous revelatory power is in putting it all together and into full context not only with its period, but with today's U.S.A. and its unresolved racial and social conflicts as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
