Killer of Sheep (US, 1977)

Staying close in adversity
16mm black and white does look good particularly in this film where Burnett uses long lens and unusual angles to great effect. The elliptical storytelling works well too, almost a collage of events with kids doing what kids do punctuated by Stan (Henry G Sanders) trying to make ends meet.
The ‘killer of [...]

From the Life of the Marionettes (Aus dem Leben der Marionetten, W.Germany, 1980)

Consoling passion?
It was interesting watching this ‘German’ Bergman in the midst of the New German films I’ve been looking at. Whilst I think of Bergman as a ‘philosophical’ filmmaker often dealing with characters’ metaphysical angst, watching these characters try to deal with their anomie, after yesterday’s Fassbinder, suggests that – in this film at least [...]

The Merchant of Four Seasons (Händler der vier Jahreszeiten, W.Germany, 1972)

Hans holds court

It’s striking that this bleak, overtly stylised film should have been a commercial hit. Whilst Fassbinder draws upon Sirkian melodrama, no one would mistake this for a Hollywood film. Fassbinder had the talent to create an almost surrealist mise en scene from a banal setting. For example, Irmgard is framed against a shop [...]

Alice in the Cities (Alice in den Städten, West Germany, 1973)

Peter and Alice try to understand where they are going

This film is a terrific, improvised road movie. Wenders, apparently, based the idea of the film on the rapport between his actors (pictured above) in The Scarlet Letter (Der Scharlachrote Buchstabe 1973). This fits well with Stroszek (blogged three days ago) as here the movement is [...]

Sophie Scholl (Germany, 2005)

Sophie tells the Nazis what she thinks
This is an intensely moving film. It dramatises the strength of will required to stick to your principles whatever the circumstances. However, the individual needs to ‘collective mass’ to resist the tyrants and it was the failure of the German people to stand up to the Nazis that precipitated [...]

Stroszek (West Germany, 1977)

Stroszek tries to earn a living

Bruno S plays Stroszek and there are clearly autobiographical elements in the character; whilst he’s patently a non-actor this works well in the role but might be off-putting at first. He and two other misfits go to live the American Dream where everyone who works hard can get rich. Does [...]

Into the Wild (US, 2007)

Lost in the wilderness

Add a ‘coming of age’ (or not, in this case) movie to a western and road movie with an arthouse aesthetic where the beauty of the image has portentous echoes, then you might get Into the Wild. It’s true story of Chris McCandless who rejects his family, and their bourgeois aspirations, to [...]

Adulthood (UK, 2008)

Noel Clarke: Bitten off more than he could chew?

Kidulthood (see June 24) was terrific; Adulthood? It’s an adage that sequels are never (rarely) better than the sequel; is it because all the good ideas have been used or because filmmakers feel they have to out-do the original so strain too hard? Whilst Clarke wrote and [...]

Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne, France, 2006)

‘The death of love’

Marvellously labyrinthine thriller (still haven’t worked out the significance of the bouquet) that manages to inject excitement into the ‘coming back from the dead’ trope; based on convincing performances, a terrific chase sequence, and humanising humour (the good cop).
At the heart of the narrative labyrinth is fatherly and sexual love. The stakes [...]

Wanted (US, 2008)

‘Who’s watching the watchers?’

Up until the last 20 mins I quite enjoyed this routine (ie heavily generic) action feature with some eye-popping stunts. Then its subtleties kicked in and it revealed itself as a very clever play on the action genre (with its boring rites of violence passage). The visuals are impressive throughout, presumably from [...]