Man With A Movie List

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: Josef von Sternberg Year: 1932 Run-time: 1 hr 20 min Source: DVD Notable for : This is the second, and not the last collaboration between von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich to appear on the last.  It's also perhaps the most iconic, since it concisely captures the strengths of both actress and director.  Like in Morocco, the "exotic" actress is paired with a rich, international setting.  But here Gary Cooper's "what you see is what you get" machismo is traded in for the more complex reservedness of the British actor Clive Brook.  There's also a diverse (i.e. Americans in make-up) and cosmopolitan supporting cast. Verdict : Dietrich is in top form here as the seductress with many layers, a master of expressionism.  Von Sternberg knows how to capture all of her little revealing moments, and there's a lot of brilliant shots, most famously the moment where she hides from the leading man with a cigarette, her face lit in pure black and whi...

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: James Whale Year: 1931 Run-time: 1 hr 11 min Source: Amazon Video Notable For : It's the most iconic adaptation of Mary Shelley's great novel (here she's unfortunately credited as Mrs. Percy Shelley) and the second and probably the most successful in Universal's series of monster movies from this period.  Boris Karloff's performance as the monster with a hint of humanity was compelling for audiences of the time, and the film was a huge commercial success. Verdict :  It's not a bad film by any stretch, but it's not as interesting to me as Nosferatu  before it, and not nearly as gripping as Shelley's novel.  One could say that there are "shades" to Karloff's character, but there are also silly artifices working against that notion, such as the scientist's use of a "criminal's brain".  A modern viewer isn't going to find much that's thrilling in Frankenstein  - the most compelling aspect of the film t...

Director: Alexander Korda Year: 1931 Run-time: 2 hr 7 min Source: Criterion Channel Streaming Notable For :  Adapted from a play by Marcel Pagnol, Marius is the first in a trilogy of films set in Marseille that develops Pagnol's rich and diverse cast of characters.  Pagnol's dialogue deftly maneuvers between comedy and dramatic poignancy.  Few films of this era can make appropriate use of so many wonderful characters, including but not limited to Marius himself, his paramour Fanny, and their respective parents Cesar and Alida.  Korda's direction respects the script but enhances the sense of place, a small, comfortable town on the French coast which Marius longs to escape.  It's a landmark French film that mixes drama and comedy in a different way than Chaplin pioneered. Verdict :  Marius is an accessible, charming film that deserves a bigger audience (although it certainly has its champions).  The performances are strong, and though the story is...

Director: Mario Peixoto Year: 1931 Run-time: 2 hrs Source: Criterion Channel Streaming Notable For :  Peixoto is a one-time Brazilian director who created what may be the greatest cult silent film.  Formally as experimental as Vertov's work, Peixoto used a poetic, non-narrative structure to explore the frailty ("limits") of human experience.  With four recurring characters, but almost no dialogue, interpretation of the film is left open-ended, but unlike in Dovzhenko's work, the symbolism is almost always universal and easy to parse, and the emotions of the characters are at the forefront.  Verdict:  It's not an easy film, and at two hours it tests the viewer's patience, but I can certainly see why it remains very beloved, and have respect for the dedicated historians who heroically managed to keep it intact throughout the decades.  The pressures of pushing forward in the list don't often allow me to revisit films, but this is one I could see return...

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...