A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
German and German-language Films
G W Pabst, “Pandora’s Box” (1929) On its cinematic release, this German movie garnered little attention for its American star Louise Brooks in her home country…
Ingmar Bergman, “Brink of Life” (1958) Even in these supposedly more “liberal” times when no topic seems taboo to speak about openly, a director, male or…
French and French-language Films
Francois Truffaut, “The 400 Blows” (1959) This debut feature film by director Francois Truffaut is a very affecting one. By the standards of its time (1950’s),…
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, “Alien: Resurrection” (1997) The idea behind this movie was to give new life to the Alien movie franchise but despite some interesting ideas about…
Mary Harron, “American Psycho” (2000) Based on the Brett Easton Ellis novel of the same name, “American Psycho” is a satirical survey of the people working at…
Crisitan Mungiu, “4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days” (2007) A bleak and often heartbreaking offering from young Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, this movie about a…
Andrei Tarkovsky, “Andrei Rublev” (1966) Loosely based on the life of the eponymous 15th century Russian icon painter, “Andrei Rublev” examines the relationship of an artist…
David Fincher, “Alien 3” (1992) At least in this third episode in the Alien series, people finally figured out a new original way of killing the…
Alfred Hitchcock, “Rope” (1948) Adapted from a play by Patrick Hamilton and based on an actual murder case in which two young men strangled a teenage…