Reviews

The 1962 directed by Agnès Varda known as Cleo de 5 a 7 is a French film about a woman who's life seems to change because of a psychic's prediction. And she only goes to the psychic because of her health and she wants to know if she'll be all right. Throughout the movie she is depressed because her illness and doesn't know if its fatal. She believes that she has cancer and will soon die of this disease, so she walks around town just enjoying everything since she thinks it's almost the end for her. When she goes to the park she meets a soldier who is going to war the next day in Algeria and they start talking and kick it off pretty well. They go throughout town talking, well he did most of the talking, but at last they decide to visit the doctor to see if she is in fact ill or not. When they get there they find that the doctor isn't in, but decided to walk to his office anyway. The doctor appears in his car and tells Cleo that she will be fine that nothing is wrong with her, and from there she was happy and her and the soldier walk off together and the movie ends. The movie confronts several of the themes such as existentialism, including discussions of mortality, the idea of despair, and leading a meaningful life. The director did a great job with the film, putting the mood of the film the way Cleo felt throughout. Such as when she was feeling gloomy, the music was the same, and when she felt happy the same with the music. This movie was a great film to watch, which is why it won the Critics Award and nominated for the Palme d'Or.

Terrence Malick's own Days of Heaven was a great film, and winner of 10 awards as well as 8 nominations including winning Best Cinematography and Best Director. This movie is a story of a farm laborer, his girl friend, as well as his little sister and their life. The movie starts with Bill, the farm laborer, at a coal mill and his supervisor gets on his last nerve and once the supervisor put a finger on him Bill kills him with one hit of his shovel. The narration for most of the movie is by Linda, the little sister, which honestly bothers me so much because she is almost absolutely worthless in this film. She hardly ever talks, other than her narration, and she barely does anything to support her role in the film. But after a bit the three go on a train that leads them to a farm, and after a couple of days of working there the farmer gets a look at Abby, Bill's girl friend, and it was love at first sight. But because the two weren't married, they told everyone that they were really close siblings, so the farmer never knew they were together. But Bill overhears that the Farmer was dying and so he convinces Abby to get married to the Farmer so when he died they inherit everything. And as time goes on the Farmer isn't dying or getting worse, he's actually just staying normal. The farm foreman played suspects Bill's scheming plan and warns Bill of payback if something were to the wealthy Farmer. This backfires on Bill when Abby develops feelings for the Farmer resulting in an unstable love triangle and a series of unfortunate events. At the end of the film Bill and the Farmer die and it ends with Linda walking with a friend out of a orphanage to somewhere unknown. This is a story that shows that desire for wealth can sometimes comeback to destroy you.

Luis Buñuel's 1965 film named Simon del Desiert is a strongly religious film that involves a man who preaches to God for over 39 years on the top of a column. Was the winner of the FIPRESCI Prize as well as the Special Jury Prize, and nominated for the Golden Lion award all in the Venice Film Festival. Tis film is about a very deeply religious man, named Simon, who wants to be closer to God, so he climbs on top of a column and preaches there. But the Devil spends her time trying to get him to stop and get him to go back down to earth and try to seduce him. She goes to him with many different disguises such as an old witch, or a young teenager, or many other different disguises including God himself. And he always retaliated and kept preaching, and at the end the devil takes him to the future at a club and the movie ends that way. This movie is a Dramatic comedy with history in it. The movie is filmed in black and white and the characters speak in Spanish. The movie's setting is in a desert somewhere that isn't specified at all. Buñuel uses this film to criticize the Catholic Church for what he views are hypocritical teachings and practices that are done by Catholics. Actually the entire film can be and will be considered a mockery of the Catholic Church and those who carelessly follow it teachings for no reason. This shouldn't be confused with him criticizing religion in general as Simon is presented as a virtuous man whose attempts at reparation seems to not be fully understood by those who follow him. This film is directed pretty well and for the most part has a clear message. This film overall was fairly decent and was bizarre mostly.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Iranian sensation known as Gabbeh is a fantastic film that features a mythical young woman who is longing to be married to a certain horseback stranger from another clan. Gabbeh is spoken in their native language of Arabic, with English subtitles to make sure we understand. This is the story of the young woman named Gabbeh, who is played by Shaghayeh Djodat, wants nothing more than to get married to this horseback stranger, but there is one problem with her plan. Her uncle, played by Abbas Sayah, doesn't permit her to do so until he gets married first before her. But out of nowhere this mythical young woman appears when an elderly couple goes through their routine of cleaning their rug, while squabbling gently with each other. The Gabbeh's story is almost like a fairytale other than the actuality encompasses the old woman's real-life struggle with daily life and accomplishing her aspiration of matrimony. The director hides his analysis by the usage of colors, which is dominant throughout the entire movie. The vibrant colors that the women wear in the movie are a foundation of unity for women and give them an opening to express themselves in the patriarchal culture. This love story has a hint into a society that has Westerners, whom we have misconceptions or have stereotypes about. This is the first film I've seen from their region and it is a quite odd, but yet entertaining film. I'm expecting to see more films from this region or from this director. This director did a great job with this film with the use of vibrant colors as well as a great love story as well as what happens in the life of Gabbeh or others that are just like her. Overall this film got my attention.

Eagle Pennell's own The Whole Shootin' Match is what many Texans consider to be a "blue collar" Texan. This film was set around Texas' Capital, Austin, in all black and white. This film used actor and actresses from that region which made it better since they wouldn't have to act, just be themselves. Me being from Texas, these are the people I normally associate myself with since these are the kind of people I live by. This film is a story about Lloyd who is played by Sonny Carl Davis and his best friend and business partner Frank who is played by Lou Perryman. These two start up a number of small-time business ventures that start to inevitably fall apart. This causes them to often find themselves out of a job and broke, but they have a stubborn belief in their abilities, a determination to succeed, and are convinced that one day Frank will invent the right product or service that will have them strike it rich. As from the constant lack of work Frank has many other problems in his life. He is an alcoholic as well as his cousin is seducing his wife. He is also is an adulterer and does not even attempt to try to hide it. These problems caused several arguments between his wife, Paulette, played by Doris Hargrave. This movie has a powerful message of a powerful friendship between Frank and Lloyd and how they endure all the hardships, as well as how they trust each other. The flaw I believe is how naive the two are, and how they believe on the success of the other when they keep hitting an all time low, but I believe they are as close as brothers and this is why they believe in each other. This is one of the best movies I've seen in it's category.

South Africa's own Gavin Hood's famous criminal drama Tsotsi is a story of hardships of the underclass criminals that takes place all in the famous city of Johannesburg, South Africa. The movie is about Tsotsi's life of becoming a criminal to becoming a more sympathetic person. Tsotsi is nothing but a teenager without any feelings. Tsotsi kills a man in a robbery, beats a gangster named Boston almost to his death, humiliates a crippled beggar, as well as hijacks a car and there is a woman there and he shoots her. While driving away he finds out that woman is a mother and has a baby in the backseat. He spends the next six days with that baby, and everyday his behavior changes by a significant amount and at the end he finds the babies parents and gives them back their baby. But once he did he found himself surrounded by cops, and its left for you to figure out what happens to Tsotsi. This story is remarkable, and one of the best foreign language films. I enjoyed as well that because there in Africa he has the movie filmed in the country's native language instead of having it in English. This movie can make even the hardest person feel something inside. This movie draws out the audience's emotions with every decision Tsotsi takes with the baby. The ending of the movie is what made the movie better as well because its not like a lot of other films where he either he escapes or gets killed. The directing in this film was remarkable as well; because you nothing in the movie was unpleasant everything in the film was sublime. As well as the choreography and the setting was perfect for this movie, everything just made sense in this film, this gives me hope that the South African Film Industry is on its way to become one of the best.

Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's It's Always Fair Weather is a musical unlike any other. This film contains not just comedy, but drama as well in this musical. This film was a hilarious, but at certain points in the film they have serious moments to make it that this movie isn't all comedy and no plot. This film is about three GI's who go to a bar to celebrate that they are done with serving in the military and it will be their last day together. At the bar they make a bet with the bar tender that in ten years they will meet at this same bar and still be best of friends. Ten years come and the GIs meet once again, but to find out how there lives have completely changed and that time apart had them to talking about their life after the war, but they all seemed to irritate one another, and problems grow and grow and throughout the movie they end up on a show that showed the people about their bet and all three of them end up fighting against the mob who fixes boxing matches, goes on and they then realized why they were best friends and go on to be best friends again and go celebrate at the bar from the beginning. This movie was directed as well as choreographed very nice, all the dances and songs were perfect for each other. This movie was very enjoyable to me and if you like musicals that include bar fights this may be a good choice for you to watch. Because this films both has a lot of fun for the whole family to watch. Overall this movie was enjoyable to watch, and it honestly couldn't have been much better than it already is.

Ishiro Honda'a Gojira was a very well directed film. It displays horror, drama, as well as sci-fi. This film was made after the bombing of japan, because it was an American bombing's radioactivity that created Godzilla. This filmed entertained me a lot because I've seen the more updated version and wondered how the original Godzilla. This movie, regardless that it was Japanese and had to read the English subtitles, was a entertaining film that really made me wonder if people really got scared of this back then. In the movie the couple tries to get the professor to give up his plan that he knew will destroy the monster. After a lot of attempts the professor unveils his device to destroy Godzilla once and for all. Then he goes and sacrifices himself to destroy Godzilla with a device that takes out the oxygen from way and leaves them just in a skeleton. This movie ends with a happy ending for Japan to not ever have to see Godzilla ever again, and they will live to see the sun shine again. This movie had a lot of entertainment and it lived up more or less to my expectation, but their were some minor issues that kept the movie from being believable, other than the fact that there is a monster in the movie. For example, some of the props such as the broken helicopter or the car that rolls over in the film were toys that could easily be found at any Wal Mart or so. Even Godzilla at a certain point was also a toy since they will rotate him and his arms or mouth don't move. The directing in this film though was superb and the acting was fairly decent since some of the times the main character would burst out crying, but its not that, that was bad, is was how she over exaggerated it to a point where you know its not believable. But this film was entertaining to watch.

Roberto Rossellini's Paisan was a war drama film that basically depressed me. Because it was a long film with five episodes of depression, since people all have a misfortune happen to them in the end. Even more because its lack of a happy ending is what depressed me, but its not part of why what I think of the movie as a whole. Rossellini was set as the founder of Neo Realism, but was mostly underrated and never given much credit to his ability. The movie was a well-made film, with the many stories in it let you see how other people's lives are going on instead of focusing on just one person and his story. How many times have you watched a movie and wondered what happens to another character other than the main character, this movie gives you five different stories that all occurred at the same time and place. There is a story of a drunken black man who ends up spending time with some kids at the black market and he finds out how hard their life is, and has a different outcomes. Another was when a Italian hooker tries to get with a GI who was drunk, but he starts telling her of the girl he once met that was so pure and innocent, and the hooker who just happens to be that same girl and she leaves and gives him a note to go to an address the next morning. Next morning comes and she waits for him, but he never shows up because he thought the note was phony. This movie just has a lot of unfortunate endings occur to show that not everyone gets a happy ending in this life, and those who do are the ones who worked hard for it.

Boris Ingster's Stranger on the Third floor is a powerful drama that keeps you thinking on who is the killer in this remarkable film. The start of the film is with newly engaged couple of Michael and Jane are getting breakfast at a diner before the trial of Joe Briggs that Michael is in. This movie creates suspense when after the trial Michael is second-guessing himself whether Joe is truly guilty or not, and this bothers him all night. He keeps thinking what if he was in Joe's place, and starts getting nightmares. He then see's an unfamiliar face walk out of his nosy neighbor's place and finds that his neighbor is dead and goes on another twist because now the police thinks Michael is the killer since he discovered both of the murders. Shows all of what he thinks will happen and finally Jane finds the murderer and goes on the where both Joe and Michael are set free because the murderer was found and apprehended. This film is a hard to figure out until you figure out who is the stranger then, everything becomes predictable. The one thing that lowered the film in my view was how the murderer admits to the cops that he's the murderer and it just kept me wondering why the director would have that since I doubt anyone would admit to a crime, especially one this bold. This film could have been better, but the predictability as well as the title of the film gives the outcome of the film away. A lot of adjustments need to be made to make this film a huge success, because most of the movie's problems are predictability as well as cheesy lines and so on. Overall this film was entertaining a bit, but the fact that I could tell what happens next ruined the fun of figuring it out.

Fritz Lang's The Complete Metropolis was indeed a film to remember, because it was a film that showed the difference between the working class and the wealthy class. This video, unlike most films that take place in present or past, takes place in the future where it's all about skyscrapers, state of the art train stations that go high up to where you get a view of the city. It's the life of a young man named Freder, whose life seems made. He doesn't have to work, doesn't have to worry about a thing then when he first see's a woman (Maria) in which he immediately falls in love is when his life takes a dramatic turn. From there all he wants is to be with her, and he risks everything to do it. Joh Frederson (Freder's father) and his most trusted man, the Inventor, go on to find this woman to end Freder's run. Near the end, the story takes another turn to where the inventor betrays Joh Frederson and things go on from there to where the working class' homes start to get flooded all these things go on at once to where at the end Freder and Maria are together. I honestly found the movie predictable, nothing out of the ordinary that you see in other films, but that doesn't keep the movie from being good. The movie was a entertaining to say the least from somewhere near the start to the finish and it may be one of the better Sci-Fi movies out there. The only films I could think of to be better would be the Star Wars trilogy, but it's honestly difficult to compare films made in different times and different styles. But all and all this film was entertaining to watch this film.

Sergei M. Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin was a huge success involving the Russian revolution. Starts off when a hard working crew get's fed up with the captain's treating them like dogs because they fed them a piece of meat that was way past its prime, and so the crew revolts. This movie shows the innovations that were brought upon by Sergei Eisenstein. Because filming isn't just about making or directing films, it's about coming up with the newest way to film. He shows many new techniques that revolve around our films today. The feel of this film was a huge surprise to me because it easy to keep track of. This film continues and one of the crew members, I believe the one who started the revolt, was the first and only to get killed, and all of the crew honors him and gives them a somewhat unorthodox ceremony. They put his body at the port in a tent with a note on him explaining why he deserves such honor, and quite quickly the entire town is there to honor him. Then that's when all Hell broke lose when the Russian government, and it was the end for those at the port, and this film continues. Sergei Eisenstein's directing was superb and outright professional. The music kept me on my feet on what was about to happen next, and this film had a lot of those moments. This film had a clear image of how the Russian army was as well as the government. With a scene in the film, soldiers kill which included a mother who is carrying her baby in a carriage, and the soldiers look emotionless and keep going. If you want to see a great silent film that includes some action this is sincerely a film to watch.

D.W. Griffith's True Heart Susie was a masterpiece in the silent era; it's a love story between a boy and a girl who grow up together. Like most cases in life a girl loves a boy, but that boy doesn't know or pay attention to it. This film is no different from that. As well as another girl who tries to steal the guy away, sounds pretty close to our life today. But one difference, the girl wont say anything about how she feels about him and the other girl succeeds for the most part on stealing him from her. But from the start of this film she believes in him such as how most women today believe in their husband or boyfriend, but True Heart Susie shows why she has True Heart in her name when she sacrifices much of her own happiness to help him succeed in what he wants. This film was filmed with some scenes that are more normal back then, but are outrageously funny now a day. But this film was easy to keep track of and is a great film and I enjoyed it fully. I even wondered while watching this, if they could possibly remake this film with sound and more modern. This film has a lot of potential of being great, but there are some minor adjustments it needs, but I'm sure because the lack of technology back then that's what caused it. This film has a lot of similarities to the world we live in today other than a few things. Such as a girl falling for a boy who didn't now about how she felt and ends up falling for another. But D.W. Griffith had some key components in this film that would make it successful, he knew what the audiences' wanted and he gave it to them.

Lois Weber's Hypocrites was a film with a strong message behind it. Lois Weber normally makes films, which are over strong issues going on in the world today, and this film is no different from them. She started the film with the priest giving his usual Sunday Mass and you can notice not a lot of people are interested in it or even want to be there. After it, everyone goes and tells the priest on another great Mass, but they know in the back of their minds they didn't care, and felt like going to mass was a burden to them. The priest goes on to find the Naked Truth, and one woman goes with him not because of wanting to help him, but because she just wants to be with him. As people watch the priest go up a hill they have a decision whether to help or to keep on with their life, and that's what ends up occurring. Later on He reveals the statue of the Truth, which ended up being a naked woman, and he gets killed for it. He goes on with the Truth to go see into everyone and see what they believe or what they desire the most and it was disappointing what they want or believe. The priest then believes he it time for him to go. The film had a great song going on that fit the mood of the film as well as the film get's a bit confusing. This film is a kind of film that if you lose your attention for a bit, you will not understand what is going on in the film. But this film was one of the foundations to Lois Weber's industrious career. Because this film tackled issues that affected the world, it gave the film more purpose than just entertainment.