Man With A Movie List

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...

Director: Max Ophüls Year: 1933 Run-time: 1 hr 36 min Source: Youtube Notable for:  Ophüls is a German director who is better known for the films he made in the 50's, near the end of his career.  Liebelei , which translates to "fling", is about a casual romance that quickly develops into something serious before ending in tragedy.  It's set in the Imperial Era of Germany, but seems to me to speak more presciently about the Weimar era that it was filmed in.  The loosening of social mores that frequently characterizes that period feels true to the natural way that romance blossoms in Liebelei  - as such, the story feels relatable from a modern perspective, even though we live in a very different time still. Verdict : This is an obscure classic that I wouldn't mind revisiting in the future.  It took some searching on Youtube to find a good version with English subtitles, but I'm very glad I did - this is a bit of a tearjerker, but the depiction of ...

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer Year: 1932 Run-time: 1 hr 13 min Source: Criterion Channel Streaming Notable for:  Despite (or perhaps because of) sharing a director with Passion of Joan of Arc , this horror film is something of a cult classic.  At heart, it's a vampire story, which unlike Nosferatu  hews closer to the modern mythos (this came out after Bela Lugosi's Dracula , so it's not really a forerunner in that regard).  But the main vampire herself only appears in a couple brief shots, and the film is really more a series of very unsettling and effective vignettes that star our rather clueless male protagonist.  The long, exquisite close-ups of Dreyer's most famous masterpiece are not here, but we do get his propensity for excellent set design. Verdict : This is the first horror film in the series where I really felt something - no jump scares here, but there are some genuine slow-building horrors, such as a bitten woman slowly turning towards the cam...

Director: Leontine Sagan Year: 1931 Run-time: 1 hr 38 min Source: Youtube (there is a version in multiple parts with English subs, but it requires searching) Notable For : This is a film with a complicated legacy.  On the one hand, it could be considered the first popular internationally known film to prominently feature a female romantic relationship.  In Weimar Germany, this was not the taboo subject that you might imagine.  Characters in  Morocco  and Pandora's Box  were more or less explicit in their desires, and some contemporary critics of Madchen in Uniform  thought that it could have gone further in that direction, requesting additional kissing scenes.  On the other hand, it's not fair to call it a film about lesbianism, since this is a story about a young orphan and her largely unreciprocated attraction to her caring governess.  The intended message here is about the cruelties of the Prussian boarding school system. Verdi...

Director: Fritz Lang Year: 1931 Source: Criterion Channel Streaming Wikipedia Analysis from One Hundred Years of Cinema Roger Ebert's Review Notable For:   This is Lang's first sound film and one that he would later call his magnum opus.  The depiction of a serial killer is surprisingly nuanced for the era.  The film is frank about the terror his actions cause but at least tries to understand his compulsions, and directly questions the audience on whether it's right to kill someone who can't control himself.  There are a number of classic scenes here - certainly Lang's editing and use of montage were in top form here. Verdict :  Although it doesn't displace Metropolis  in my mind, it's definitely a masterpiece.  In addition to everything laid out previously, I find it effective as an attempt at greater realism in crime fiction, in comparison to Fantomas  or even Lang's earlier film Spies  (although the more outlandish depiction of...

Director: Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer Year: 1930 Run-time: 1 hr 13 min Source: Criterion Channel Wikipedia Notable for : Having all the hallmarks of a modern independent movie, including non-actors playing versions of themselves, and largely improvised scenes.   The film brought together five filmmakers at the beginning of their careers - most of them would later emigrate to America and pioneer the film noir genre. The film is also the perfect snapshot of Weimar Germany at its peak, showing five aimless young people with no idea of the tragedy that their country would endure before too long.  The film's naturalistic style would become hugely influential in America, and is another instance of the free exchange of ideas between America and Germany at the time.  Along with Pandora's Box and its epitome of the American "flapper", this film would embody American glorification of the working class.  (In many ways it parallels Mother Krause's Journey to H...

Director: Phil (or Piel) Jutzi Year: 1929 Run-time: 2 hr 1 min Source: Youtube Notable For : It's the first explicitly pro-communist film on the list not made in the USSR, produced by a German branch of a Soviet studio.  For that reason, it has been called the first "East German" film, although that doesn't mean much.  The influences are all over the place.  It has Eisenstein's choppy and frenetic style applied to a much more human story with distinct characters (it's probably closer to Boris Barnet and Girl With a Hat Box , which was made by the same studio), as well as Pabst's "Objectivist" philosophy.  It also cuts in real shots of people in poverty in a way reminiscent of Vertov. Verdict:   The story, especially the ending, hews towards the melodramatic and propagandistic in a way that Soviet directors were skilled enough to sidestep, but the fast, effective pacing makes it an entertaining watch regardless.  There are many fine details...

Director: Hanns Schwarz Year: 1929 Run-time: 1 hr 42 min Source: Bootleg DVD Notable for : An obscure film today, the main draw of this German romance is a chance to further appreciate Brigitte Helm, the actress best known for playing Maria and the doppelganger in Metropolis .   Her range of expression is pretty extraordinary, and here we have a much better showcase for her talents.  The film itself, not really fitting into any of the German cinematic movements of the period, is perhaps a sign that American trends were beginning to make their way overseas.  This is a romance similar in spirit to Street Angel or Docks of New York , with its own interesting class dynamics. Verdict :  Helm is extraordinary in this film, but the crux really lies in the dynamic between the two male leads, played by Francis Lederer (also of Pandora's Box ) and the British actor Warwick Ward.  Their rivalry, genial on the surface but hot-blooded beneath, is fascinating and adds...

Director: G.W. Pabst Year: 1929 Runtime: 2 hr 13 min Source: Kanopy Wikipedia Roger Ebert's Review Notable for: Pabst, the master of psycho-sexual drama, directing the iconic Louise Brooks as the ultimate free and easy seductress who will lead any man to his ruin. Verdict: Brooks really is outstanding, although the plot doesn't hold up to modern scrutiny.  I was also very impressed with the rest of the cast as well - few films up to this point in the list have been successful at really developing more than a couple characters.  It has the first true lesbian that I've seen on screen, and she's not a caricature. I wouldn't exactly call the film sympathetic toward its lead character, but it is at least more ambiguous than you would expect from a cursory synopsis.  Pabst makes it plain that it's the men around Brooks' character that can't behave themselves.  Although Brooks is remorseless throughout the film, in some sense she has to be, since...

Director: Fritz Lang Year: 1928 Run-time: 2 hr 30 min Source: Hoopla It's great to see a relatively unknown Fritz Lang film on the list, although anyone looking for another iconic piece of German Expressionism will be disappointed.  Spies  is a much more straightforward action-espionage thriller, more along the lines of Les Vampires  or Fantomas .  The lineage from those predecessors is clear, although Lang's film has benefited from a decade's advances in editing. The first twenty minutes give the impression that our hero, Agent 326, is a suave James Bond prototype - he certainly looks the part, and seems capable enough as he quickly uncovers an enemy double agent in his midst.  However, that impression is dispelled as he gets quickly duped by an enemy spy ring led by an evil-eyed bank president and a femme fatale henchwoman (whose love for our hero causes her to switch sides almost immediately). From my cursory overview, it would seem that  Spies ...

Director: Fritz Lang Year: 1927 Run-time: 2 hours 28 min Source: Kanopy "I have recently seen the silliest film. I do not believe it would be possible to make one sillier," begins H.G. Wells' review of Metropolis .  He found it to be extremely unrealistic, and hopelessly sentimental.  In modern terms, Wells wanted hard sci-fi, and Lang's film is as soft as it comes.  One of Wells' main points is based on economics.  In a truly mechanized society, Wells claims, there would be no lower-class workers, since the machines would equalize the distribution of wealth. Our future doesn't look on the surface like Lang's steampunk nightmare, but here he gets it right.  When machines can replace men, men need to act more like machines to get by.  Wells is right, though:  Metropolis  isn't hard sci-fi.  The strength of this movie is that it cares more about people.  We remember it for its stylized art style, and the incredible performance of Br...

Director: F.W. Murnau Year: 1922 Runtime: 1 hr 34 min Source: Amazon Video (Kino Restored Edition) Nosferatu  is the first film on the list that I've seen before, twice in fact, but even after a third viewing my respect for the film remains lukewarm.  I really want to love this movie, given its reputation, the great influence that it would (debatably) have, and the fact that its director Murnau would later create what might be my favorite film.  But ultimately the interest I have in Nosferatu  fails to go beyond an analytical detachment. If for nothing else, Nosferatu  is an absolute must-see film for its rarely-repeated take on the vampire mythos.  Count Orlok is never charming, debonair, and won't win over any teenage love interests.  He's a corrupt and vile abomination from the start that can barely contain his menace inside an ill-fitting nightgown, or whatever it is that he wears.  Max Schreck's performance makes for essential viewing,...