Man With A Movie List

Director: Hiroshi Shimizu Year: 1933 Run-time: 1 hr 8 min Source: The Criterion Channel Notable For : This list would be entirely different had not the great bulk of Japanese films in the 20's and 30's been lost in the destruction of war.  Hiroshi Shimizu was an incredibly prolific director who made over 160 films, and was a great influence on Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi, but he's relatively unknown today. Verdict :  Japanese Girls at the Harbor  reveals the maturity of his style, with a simple, effective silent melodrama (very Borzage-esque) with few close-ups, but rather some of the most emotional long shots so far yet.  The director conveys a lot with the way that his wonderful actors position themselves in relation to each other, and how they hold their bodies.  As with Mizoguchi's work, the focus is on the women - the male characters are weak-willed, and helpless without the support of these women.  Also, I don't often say this, but the war...

Director: Fritz Lang Year: 1933 Run-time: 2 hr 4 min Source: The Criterion Channel Notable For : The wonderful period of Weimar cinema is coming to an end.  Hitler came to power at the start of 1933, and Lang's latest crime thriller was censored upon release, ostensibly for its focus on lawlessness and anarchy.  Lang would later claim that the "age of crime" promoted by the titular villain (a ghost that possesses a psychiatrist) was a secret reference to the Nazi party. Verdict:  Whether you believe in this symbolism or not, it's Lang's finest, most suspenseful film carrying the legacy of the old crime serials of Feuillade.  For the first time, the heroes and villains seem somewhat evenly matched, with the mysterious crime syndicate being opposed by a lead homicide investigator as well as a defector from the bad guys (together with his unbelievably understanding wife).  The special effects are top-notch, and the film is tightly plotted, with a dollop of a...