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Mio figlio Nerone (1956)
Good historical analysis
This Italian-French film from 1956 may seem kitsch, but actually is a good historical analysis of the persons. The shot of the very important historical source Tacitus's Annales in the beginning already suggests a deeper layer to the film.
The insane situation of everybody plotting to kill each other was something that actually occured in the Roman Empire.
I have read many of the letters to Lucilius by Seneca the Younger, and I think this film gives a sharp, albeit slightly satircal, analysis of Seneca's character. In his letters he often writes about being happy while living in poverty and not needing luxury, but he himself lived a luxurious life as Nero's advisor. His philosophy is also pretty well incorporated as well as can be in a comedy.
Also the character of Nero is played well, and probably not even exaggerated, Nero was actually dangerously crazy and obsessed with performing music and theater.
Brigitte Bardot is gorgeous of course. According to Tacitus her character Poppaea did turn Nero against his mother Agrippina.
The scenery and stage of the film is also beautiful.
Family Plot (1976)
Beautiful Swan Song with one of the best scenes in the history of film
Family Plot is a very well made Hitchcock signature style film. The plot is good in how the different "family plots" weave together. Also the acting is very good. But in this article I will focus on one shot in the film that I think is particularily excellent.
My favourite shot in this film is the shot directly after Blanche en George are driving in the cab after her psychic consulation with Julia Rainbird and George suddenly has to stop for a pedestrian on a crossover. The perspective goes from inside the car facing George and Blanche from the front to outside the car, a from the top shot from behind the car. The camera then follows the pedestrian, who is a mysterious blond woman wearing black sunglasses, hat and trenchcoat, going from the starting position down in a curve towards her. The scene then changes from George and Blanche's "family plot" to the plot of the woman. It goes from a slightly comedic couple bickering to a very mysterious scene where the viewer does not know what is going on.
This shot/scene has such good cinematography and style, working with perspective, motion, visual mystery and an abrupt change in sphere, that in my opinion it is one of the best in the history of film.
Per qualche dollaro in più (1965)
Legendary Spaghetti Western
For a Few Dollars More from 1965 by Sergio Leone is probably the best, most solid "blueprint" Spaghetti western there is.
The corner stone of the story is two introverted and mysterious lone bounty hunters hunting for criminals.
Very interesting about the film is the relationship between Clint Eastwood's character Monco and Lee van Cleef's character Col. Mortimer. They start out as potential rivals both hunting the same criminals and having had the same anticipation of their behaviour and plan of robbing the bank in El Paso.
When the decide to work together it get something of a mentor-student element since Mortimer has much more experience. But Monco and him also don't completelly trust each other and Monco wants to go his own way at some point, while the Colonel wants to keep working together. At that moment Monco probably wanted to go alone because he didn't want to share the bounty, but at the end of the film it is revealed Mortimer's motive was vengeance for his sister.
In beginning of the film the bounty hunters come over as mainly egocentrical in their motive. But later in the film they turn in the morally good ones. This is on one hand by Indio's extreme cruelty. On the other hand by revealing of the Colonel's motive being vengeance for his sister and him letting Monco keep all the money and Monco in turn offering the Colonel his part.
The acting in the film is very good, Clint Eastwood and Lee van Cleef have the perfect looks and manner for this kind of film.
Also the wife of the hotel owner who likes Monco is perfectly cast.
The cinematography is excellent. The quietness and rawness in Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone Spaghetti westerns is unique and really an experience to watch.
Blow Out (1981)
Excellent De Palma thriller
Blow Out (1981) is a film by Brian De Palma in his signature theme: an outsider witnesses a murder; as is the theme also in his Sisters (1972), Dressed to Kill (1980) and Body Double (1984), in turn inspired by Rear Window. The film is also inspired by Blow Up (1966) by Michelangelo Antonioni and probably The Conservation (1974) by Coppola and the real world John Kennedy Assassination (the Zapruder film is referenced in the film).
The film is about a soudman who is send out by a director to record sounds for the film they are making (inspired by De Palma's experience making Dressed to Kill). He goes to a bridge over a river in a wood area.
This scene of Travolta's character Jack recording the sounds is very good and intriging, despite his goal of recording some background sounds being fairly simple. The couple with the woman being freaked out by Jack and the owl especially are excellent.
Stylistically in this scene is the zooming out from the close up of John Travolta to a shot from below with the road/aquaduct, which is above him, being seen as behind him and then further zooming out to a shot with the aquaduct above him and then zooming even further out to the shot with the large frog in the bottom right front. During the zooming out there was a sort of tapping sound; each zoom-out went with a 'tap'. After the last zoom-out it turns out a frog was making this sound.
What is great is that this scene ends with the start of the plotline for the rest of the film.
The plot of the film is exceptional, especially for a screenplay written by a director. For example the killer saying he framed the murder at the construction site as a sex killing, than a scene of him calling in that role and than a scene of a news anchor saying they found the victim by an anonymous lead. Each of these scenes have other scenes between them and the next makes the previous clearer.
John Travolta plays very good in his role as Jack Terry, his insomia during the filming makes it a very real performance.
Some complain about Nancy Allen portraying a cliché stereotype woman in distress, but in my opinion it is an exceptional performance as it is much better than other portrayals of this role, and it really fits the story.
Even the film within a film at the beginning is good, even more so that when the viewer gets annoyed by it being unrealistic the killer does not get noticed it turns out to be a low budget 'fake' film.
All in all an excellent thriller.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Masterpiece
The Night of the Hunter from 1955 by Charles Laughton is a film noir horror masterpiece.
The film is based on the novel of the same title which is based on the real case of Harry Powers (Harry Powell in the film).
Robert Mitchum's portrayal of Harry Powell is absolutely terrifying, one of the most ruthless roles ever put on camera. The singing, abusing the bible to justify his crimes and him talking to God as if He would agree with him, makes him a horrific villain.
The portrayal of John Harper by Billy Chapin is amazing. It is a very interesting and heartbreaking character of a young boy who suddenly needs to grow up and fill in the role of his father and protect his sister and himself against a monster.
The film portrays how the naive town's people bring in a wolf in sheep's clothing being mislead by his charm, and the little boy is the only one to see through him. Later in the film it happens again with Ruby, but thankfully now Rachel, who took in the children after their escape, sees through him.
The cinematography is very good, for example with the animals on shore during the boat travel.
The film was received very negatively when it came out and The Night of the Hunter would be the only film Charles Laughton ever directed, which is truly a shame considering that it is now justly seen as a masterpiece.
The Graduate (1967)
Iconic film for young men
The Graduate by Mike Nichols based on the novel with the same name by Charles Webb.
This film is a cultural landmark. It can teach young men a really important lesson about life purpose, relationships and love.
It shows that things and actions based only on lust will eventually not do you good and sabotage good things.
One of the best scenes is the "I got one word for you" "Plastics". Said by one of those uncles who try so appear smart to an intelligent younger men by just saying a term they heard somewhere. The scene is extremely funny, but also has an important symbolic message. Plastic is artificial and not pure, just like Benjamin's sex relationship with Mrs. Robinson that is only based on just (she does not even really want to talk to him).
Benjamin's relationship with Mrs. Robinson not only messes him up psychologically, but it also sabotages him when he falls truly in love with her daughter.
The second half of the film is also amazing. Benjamin's gets very depressed but does not give up. Things continue to go bad for him but at the end, finally it works out.
The final scene sequence surprisingly has a lot of suspense.
The cinematography of the film is also interesting with very good scene transitions.
The acting is also amazing.
All in all, a 10/10.
Casino (1995)
Good Las Vegas Mafia Film
Casino by Martin Scorsese is very well made film about mafia in Las Vegas.
The story is medium interesting , and not original necessarilly. The Las Vegas setting is always entertaining and it is refreshing to see a mafia film not set in New York.
I also liked the moral of the story. The calm and smart but immoral guy lost but survived, the killers died and the Las Vegas cowboys winned in the end. The face off between the mafia and cowboys was a very interesting setting.
It is in a lot of ways similar to Goodfellas except the setting and the character of Sharon Stone. Stone's hysterical acting is very good and comes over very believable. Rothstein, De Niro's character, is very well portrayed as a smart and tough guy who's mind to blurred by a woman he is very attracted to.
De Niro's wardrobe is amazing too.
The only downside of the film is Pesci's character is slightly unrealistic; a small guy really can't win all those fights.
All in all I give it a 8/10.
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
"Just a dream!"
The film starts out very interesting and mysterious. Escpecially the scenes like the back of Winkie's, the old woman smiling evil and the strange old woman warning at the door stand out.
The acting by Noami Watts and Laura Harring is excellent.
The film continues in it's mysterious and (hopefully seemingly) unexplainable fashion.
Then it get's even more bizarre, which makes you extremely curious for the conclusion; the answer to the mystery.
And then it turns out te be a dream, so all things that seemed illogical and unexplainable does not need to be accounted for, which really dissappoints the viewer. This film could have been a thriller masterpiece, but Lynch just builts up a lot of mystery he can not explain at all.
I get it a lot of things can be interpreted as symbolism, but almost everything can and the suggested symboles are not very sophisticated.
Furthermore, DREAM symbols referring to an already FICTIONAL character's personal life are not hard to devise and not that intelligent.
I think a lot of praise for the film comes from people smuggly thinking they are very intelligent because they understand the symbolism; they are not.
All in all, because of the great acting and scenes I still give it a 6.
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Ground Breaking Psychological Thriller
Shadow of a Doubt by the master of suspense Alfred Htichcock in an excellent thriller from 1943.
It's all about the acting, cinematography and filming, there a no spectacular stunts of any kind. This actually makes the film more interesting and makes it more suspenseful.
The main psychological theme, which was really ground breaking for 1943, is the strange relationship between 16 year old Charlie and her uncle Charlie (the niece is named after uncle). At first it seems like Charlie is in love with her uncle. Later she is informed he might be a murderer. At first she does not believe it ,but than the doubt kicks in. Then the relationship eventually changes to a murderous one. This psychological development and initial deviance makes this film in my opinion the first sophisticated psycholigical thriller. An excellent performance by Teresa Wright.
Also very good are the alienating scenes of the dialogues between the average family man type father and the neighbor Herbie about how they would kill each other.
Joseph Cotton's performance in scenes such at the paper house building and the diners is amazing too.
The film actually having been filmed in Santa Rosa, which was rare at the time, gives the film an excellent ambience.
All in all, still one of the best psychological thrillers, if not the best, ever made, a 10/10.
Starship Troopers (1997)
Good crossover between the war, sciencefiction and teen movie genres.
Starship Troopers by Paul Verhoeven is a very unique film.
The setting is a futuristic worldwide American empire where only military veterans are citizens and allowed to vote. This military is in space.
The beginning of the film is like a teen movie about a highschool. Very good is the hyper american indoor bounce football game. The whole ambience feels very believable for the setting.
When the protagonist goes to infantry training camp to impress a girl the setting completely changes with a drill trainer and assault courses. Very alienating and interesting is the shower scene with men and women in the same shower.
Later when a space war with giant insects breaks out it becomes more sciencefiction, but surprisingly believable sciencefiction.
The only weakness of the film is that the characters are somewhat psychologically shallow. And the whole film has a cartoon feel to it, but that has positive as well as negative sides.
Also interesting is how many of the (supporting) actors in this film later became famous tv series stars, Dean Norris in Breaking Bad, Brenda Strong in Desperate Housewives and Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother. This could be connected to the psychologically shallowness and cartoon feel to the characters.
All in all, I give it an 8/10.
Citizen Kane (1941)
Excellent and groundbreaking cinematography, but awful story.
Citizen by Orson Welles is seen by many as the best film ever made, I disagree.
The strenght of this film is the cinematography, especially the viewpoint changes and the spatial proportions in scenes like the spanish dancers scene, the theater scene and the scenes in Xanadu.
The plotline however is horrible. What happens at the end of the story is told before hand every time making the subplot lack any suspense and making them just anecdotes. This lack of suspense also take the potential power of the cinematography away.
Also Charles being sent away by his parents because there has been gold found on his mother's mine deed makes no sense at all. Why does his parents abandon him with no reason? And how does his mother's gold suddenly get him a business empire including a news paper?
The significance for cinematography and directing should not be underestimated, but just great cinematography does not make a good film. Like Hitchcock said: "To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script."
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Perfect Police Film
This 1997 detective starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kim Basinger is the perfectionization of the genre police films.
The acting of all actors, including smaller characters like James Cromwell as Smith and Danny Devito as Hudgens, is very good. In my opinion Kevin Spacey really sticks out portraying a very believable yet unfamiliar but also normal to some extent character.
The plot has a good plot twists that keeps being interesting yet does not develops too abrupt for the specific twist. The three main police characters storylines twine in together very well. It's overall a well balanced, interesting and intelligent plot.
The atmosphere is very good and believable for a 50's setting, which is rare for modern films. Especially the briefing scenes stick out for me.
What is interesting about Crowe's character White is that he violently hates wife beaters, which comes from his father's behavior and results in him degenerately falling in love with a prostitute. But due to his girlfriend being a prostitute he ends up slapping a woman himself.
The only downside is sometimes names not made familiar in the plot are thrown around and the plot does not have a theme unusual for police films.
All in all, I give it a 9/10.
Basic Instinct (1992)
Iconic scenes
This film by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, hase some of the most iconic Hollywood scenes. The famous interrogation scene is very well made, the lightning, the setting of the room, the reactions of the interrogators (escpecially the overweight DA) and Michael Douglas's character later reenacting it.
After the very interesting beginning however, the pace of the film goes down. In the whole hour long middle of the film not many things particularly significant to the plot happens, but the style is still interesting.
There are also a lot of similarities to Vertigo, a mysterious blond woman, San francisco and the filming of the stairwell. But nothing is done with the stairwell suggestions. The mysterious blond woman gets much to close too fast in Basic Instinct, but the mystery around her in the beginning is good and coming close is important for the rest of the plot. The score and scenery that seems to be inspired by Hitchcock is very good.
Also the wardrobe of Michael Douglas is very well done.
All in all, an stylistically and cinematograhpically excellent film with an average storyline.
The Shining (1980)
Excellent directing by Kubrick; King's story however is average.
The Shining was directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by him toghether with Diane Johnson.
What makes this film stand out is Kubrick's directing and the acting of Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall.
The directing, escpecially in the mysterious in-between scenes, makes the film very interesting to watch.
Jack Nicholson perfectly portrays a man who has gone insane, but he never really seems sane at the beginning either.
What not makes this film a 10/10 is the story line, which is too simple in my opinion. Stephen King did not write a great story, escpecially considering much of the best scenes in the film, like "Here's Johnny" were not written by King.
All in all; excellent directing, great acting and a simple, but by Kubrick and Johnson enhanced story. I give it a 8/10.
The Woman in the Window (2021)
Rear Window Inspired, But Mediocre Execution
Since Hitchcock made Rear Window in 1954 a lot of filmmakers have used the same concept, as it was a very interesting concept. Among the best of those films is Body Double by Brian de Palma.
This film however belongs to the lower regions of that category of films. It seems to also have been inspired by the great Vertigo. In Vertigo the protagonist has vertigo (hence the title), in this film the female protagonist (Anna) have agoraphobia. Unfortunately this theme is, besides one not very significant scene, not explored is the film. It is only used as the reason the protagonist does not come outside. In Rear Window the reason was the much better suited having a leg injury.
What the film does wrong is that there are no other interesting characters in the window besides. Also that there is very little built up to the alledged murder being seen. And that the interaction with the people Anna sees in way too early.
There is also a logical problem. Why wouldn't have David told Anna about Katie when Anna told him what see saw and thought.
It is also not explained clearly why Ethan killed his father's secretary.
There also seems to be anti-white racism around the Russells, "They are very white" films these days would never have that line about black people, so this is very hypocritical.
The acting in this film is sufficient but nothing more. The same goes for the directing
All in all I give it a 4/10.
Torn Curtain (1966)
Exceptional Espionage film
Torn Curtain is the 4th last film by the master of suspense, the in my opinion best of all time director Alfred Hitchcock. It was the second film he made after the extremely succesful quartet of Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho and The Birds.
The film has a very interesting plot and a for Hitchock films surprisingly changing setting. It has a lot of mysteries that keep the viewer interested but are revealed after not to long to keep driving the story forward and so it does not become too one-sided.
Among the best scenes are the murder of Gromek, the formula learning and the bus chase. As someone familiar with mathematics and physics I can tell that the formula learning scene is realistic and something almost never seen in other films. The bus chase has an excellent setting for continuous but not monotome suspense.
Another highlight was the acting of Lily Kedrova as the countess. Spoken of the acting; I see a lot of people complain about the acting of Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. But I really like that the couple does not have constant romantic tension, that makes it realistic.
Though the movie does not have the psychological depth of for example Vertigo or Shadow of a Doubt is has excellent directing, a very good plot, good acting and an interesting setting.
Forrest Gump (1994)
Low IQ film
This film is likely the most overrated film ever.
Tom Hanks acting is as always very unrealistic and just a gimmick; "buhox of chuocuolates". The story line is very unrealistic and childish, not qualitative at all.
An intelligent viewer would never be moved by the film because every aspect of it is not believable within the framework of the film. For example that Forest needs braces to walk but than suddenly he is the fastest runner in all of Alabama. This could be a good story line in a certain fictional framework, but this film is set in real American history. Also the fact that he gets to be at so many special events without a clear reason is not fitting for a history film.
All very unrealistic.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
Excellent travel comedy
Planes Trains & Automobiles is one of the best comedies of the 80's if not the best.
Starring Steve Martin as a marketeer who works in New York City who travels to his home in Chicago for Thanksgiving. The planes he took comes into a storm and needs to stop in Wichita, where he starts traveling with Del Griffith, whom he met earlier.
The portayal of Griffith by John Candy is very good. He plays a very absurd good guy who is very annoying to Steve Martin, but they made the character just self concious enough to find a good balance between funny are realistic.
The acting of Steve Martin is also excellent.
Gone Girl (2014)
Very well directed, story above average but not great
The film is very well directed by David Fincher. The story seems to be framed in a Shakespearean introduction-built up-climax-aftermath type story.
The introduction to climax part is very well done, the climax being Amy returning home after murdering her old boyfriend. Although a downside of this part is that there are a lot of unnecessary sex scenes that have mostly no relevance to the story, which is ussually a sign of trying to shock and grasp the attention of the audience in an unintelligent way. The series Mindhunter by Fincher also has this problem. But aside from this Fincher's directing in Gone Girl is excellent.
The last part of the story, what I call the aftermath, feels unfit. It is not rounding off the story in a logical way. It is also not a built up to a second climax like in Hitchcock's Vertigo. It is starting a new story line of Amy being pregnant while Nick does not trust her at all, but it is not worked out at all. There are some scenes that make large time jumps and then it just ends.
All in all, because of the excellent first part of the film, it gets a narrow 8.
In the Tall Grass (2019)
Demonstrating Stephen King's flaws
As with many films based on Stephen King novels the film grasps your attention with an interesting concept. Another film where this is the case is Christine. In In the Tall Grass the concept is field with tall grass (hence the film title) that lurs people in and then movies around in a way people can't get out anymore. But the story of In the Tall Grass does not progress after that and lacks any depth to that concept. Combined with standard story arcs it makes you not wanting to finish the movie, and when you eventually do it confirms the initial skepticism. The directing is just average, definitely does not compensate for the uninteresting story.
Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984)
Mediocre Bad Tasted Attempt at Absurdity
The movie by Kenny Everett starts out catching the interest of the audience with an interesting well directed mysterious murder scene at a country mansion. But from there the movie goes downhill. The scientists who are going to investigate 18 years later are not interesting characters and not well worked out. All the other jokes at bad tasted attempts at absurdity but are all to standard and don't have any intelligence behind them. Trying to shock the audience with sex jokes is very cowardly and demonstrating a lack of intelligence. An exception is increasingly fast cello playing turning out to be Everett playing the cello behind a door.
The Frozen Ground (2013)
Good Thriller set in Alaska
The movie starring with Nicholas Cage as protagonist state trooper Jack Halcombe is about him trying to catch serial killer Robert Hansen.
The movie combines the dark story with dark and ruff weather conditions of Alaska which creates a high suspense thriller environment. Really filmed in Alaska, the filming was delayed so it could be set during the transition from fall to winter; from cold without snow to snow and the days becoming darker. This weather transition matches the tension increasing on Halcombe to catch Hansen.
Nicholas Cage's performance is excellent.
The only downside is that 50 cent's character is a bit gimmicky.
But all in all a very well made thriller.
The Office: The Inner Circle (2011)
One of the worst
This episode is one of the worst of the normally so good show, and after this episode a lot of mediocre ones followed. Will Ferrell as Deangelo is a very bad fit for the show. He is basically Michael without the sympathetic aspects and most importantly without the salesman qualtities. The reason crazy Michael was not ridiculous as a manager was that despite the weirdness he was a very good salesman. Deangelo was also different in the previous episodes, in the beginning he respected Michael a lot and was insecure, then he didn't. He also became much more sadistic. After this episode the show reaches the lowest point since the first season. The last two seasons constantly shift in where the story is going and the characters change to much.
Margin Call (2011)
Finance thriller
This movie about the start of the 2007-2008 financial crisis is very high suspense and interesting.
The acting is very realistic, like the manager played by Kevin Spacey having to ask at what number to look at a mathematical model. That shows how specialized these quantative analysts are and that managers are often chosen for other qualities. What also stands out is the acting of Jeremy Irons, escpecially in the board meeting where he asks the analyst to explain the situation to him like he was a 5 year old, yet he remains his authority strongly.
The movie is a little less informative than for example The Big Short, but that's a good thing because it allows the movie to be much more realistic. The Big Short needs actors explaining in voice over and even stopping the scene with actors talking to the camera in order to explain everything to a layman audience. This explaining makes a movie very unrealistic, so it is very good that Margin Call does not have that.
All in All an excellent movie, probably the best finance movie ever made.
The Office: Charity (2002)
They just ended it
Although it's dissappointing that this episode starts the end of the show, it was also inevitable.
A boss, like David Brent, who didn't do anything right and just didn't make a report to his boss at all, would have been unrealistic to keep on in the show.
That's why in American Office they made Michael to be crazy, but also to be a great salesman. And there are several occasions where Michael really tries hard to still meet a deadline.
That they just cut off the series after 11 episodes (3 more to go) also shows that they didn't do it just for the money.
The episode also has a lot of funny moments like Gareth's friends and the dance.