43. Storm Over Asia (Potomok Chingis-Khana) (1928)

Directed By V. I. Pudovkin


Synopsis

I just wrote a fucking huge synopsis followed by a huge fucking review and firefox crashed! Thanks God! If I believed in you I'd turn Satanic! Guy gets put as puppet ruler of Mongolia because he is a supposed descendent of Genghis Khan, he is not a puppet and Brits get buggered hard.

Review

ARRRGGH! I've already written it! Here goes a very abridged version of what might have been one of the greatest pieces of criticism that no one will ever know!

Film could be shorter, otherwise good. Very Modern perspective on the image of the "native"... blah blah something about it not delineating itself as either a piece of fiction or a documentary.

Something about how it is very well acted and edited and how Pudovkin is a great bloke. But film could have been better with 30 mins cut out of it's 2 hour long length. Buy it at Amazon UK or US and shit.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

Fuck, shit, fuck, shit, fuck ... ad nauseam.

Big Poo to Firefox!

42. Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)

Directed By Charles Reisner & Buster Keaton

Synopsis

Steamboat Bill owns steamboat. King is steamboat's Rupert Murdoch. King comes to town to put Bill out of business. Bill Jr. arrives from Boston all poncified, Bill teaches him to be tough. By strange coincidence Bill Jr. is in love with King's daughter. Hurricane comes, Bill Jr. saves the day and gets the girl! Houses do cartwheels, yipeee.

Review

Buster Keaton never disappoints. He is consistently brilliant in his films, not just due to the visual gags but because of the sheer complexity of the sets in this case. The final scene of the film which involves a hurricane devastating a small town is extremely complicated, parts of houses fly about, a house lands on Keaton, a wall falls on him and he escapes by luckily standing on the exact spot where the 2x2 feet hole of a window falls. One foot left and Keaton would be dead.

Keaton just had the guts that no one else had at the time, this is complemented by his amazing artistic vision, which I think is most distilled in the short Sherlock Jr. but is present here in a most spectacular way. That is why his films were so successful and why in this list he is the greatest representative of silent comedy. We have reviewed one Chaplin film (there will be 2 more, one of which is silent) and one Harold Lloyd, but 5 Keaton's.

So frankly, Chaplin is overrated and Keaton is immensly underrated. When we look at images of silent film comedies they always seem to portray facile obvious slapstick or charming naivité. That is just not true. I thought I should write this as we are approaching the end of the silent era on this blog. I never imagined to be so surprised by the quality, innovation and experimentalism of these early films. I feel a better and more complete person for having watched them. So should you.

Back to Steamboat Bill... a truly amazing film, not much can be said about it that I haven't said in previous reviews of Keaton. He stands heads and shoulders about any other silent comedian. All you need to know. Buy it now at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Steamboat Bill's finest moments come during its cyclone sequence. The film was shot in Sacramento, building $135,000 worth of breakaway street sets on a riverbank and then filming their systematic destruction with six powerful Liberty-motor wind machines and a 120-foot crane. Keaton himself, who calculated and performed his own stunts, was suspended on a cable from the crane and hurled him from place to place, as if airborn. The resulting sequence on film is astonishing and still watchable as spectacle, if not comedy. And it comes punctuated by Keaton's single most famous stunt. Keaton stands in the street, making his way through the destruction, when an entire building facade collapses onto him. The attic window fits neatly around Keaton's body as it falls, coming within inches of flattening him. Keaton did the stunt himself with a real building section and no trickery. It has been claimed that if he had stood just inches off of the correct spot Keaton would have been seriously injured or killed. The stunt has been re-created several times on film and television, though usually with facades made from lighter materials.

The director was Charles Reisner, the credited writer was Carl Harbaugh (although Keaton wrote the film and publicly called Harbaugh useless but "on the payroll"), and also starred Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron, and Tom Lewis.

The movie was parodied by Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, which also was the first Mickey Mouse movie to become commercially successful..

41. The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928)

Directed By Carl Th. Dreyer

Synopsis

The film tells the tale of the trial and execution of Joan of Arc.

Review

This is probably the best film I have reviewed up until now. It is a truly amazing film, not only in terms of technique but also of acting and sheer emotional power. The version of the film that I watched is the one published by Criterion, it comes with a soundtrack recently compsed for the film entitled Voices of Light, which does a good job of enhancing the film and that I reccomend vividly, as there is no "original" soundtrack as the film was lost for a long time and only recovered in 1985.

The story of the film is common knowledge, but Dreyer tells it like no other before or after and frankly all the films about Joan Of Arc that I had the misfortune to see are really crap. So it was done right the first time. Dreyer tells the story mostly through close-ups which are extremely effective. Firstly he chose a roster of freaks to represent the Church judges that surely had a great influence on the later film made of Name Of The Rose by Jean Jacques Annaud. But even more impressive than the faces of the judges is the constantly suffering face of Joan.

Maria Falconnetti who plays Joan must have had one of the toughest parts in the whole of silent cinema. She is either crying, on the verge of tears or looking at the camera with a glaze over her eyes in schizophrenic religious ecstasy. She also gets all her hair cut in preparation for jail. And the film doesn't pull it's punches, the image of a bent over carbonised Joan burning at the stake will stay with you.

A truly powerful and beautiful film which needs to be seen. If anyone knows of a showing of it in the big screen in the UK drop me a line. Buy it urgently at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

Feel Good Movie of the Year!

From Wikipedia:

Story and style

The film details the last hours of Joan of Arc after she has been captured by the English. It details her trial, imprisonment, torture and final execution similar to that of a passion play. What especially stood out at the time Passion was made was the film's camera-work and emphasis on the actors' facial features. Dreyer shot a great deal of the film in close-up and forbade his actors to wear any makeup, the better to tell the story through their expressions. Falconetti — in her second and last movie role — was commended for her multifaceted performance as Joan.

Passion was originally intended to use the new technology of sound, but Dreyer did not have sufficient financing and so the film is silent.

Dreyer intended the film to be watched in complete silence with no musical accompaniment. However, in 1994 composer Richard Einhorn wrote an oratorio based on the movie, entitled "Voices of Light". This piece is now available as an optional accompaniment on the Criterion Collection's DVD release of the film. In 1999, American indie singer/songwriter Cat Power provided musical accompainment at several screenings of the film in America.


Responses and legacy

Some critics claimed that Passion was the best silent film ever made, and Pauline Kael wrote that Falconetti's portrayal of Joan of Arc "may be the finest performance ever recorded on film." However, it was banned in Britain for its portrayal of crude English soldiers who mock and torment Joan in scenes that mirror biblical accounts of Christ's mocking at the hands of Roman soldiers. The Archbishop of Paris was also critical, demanding changes be made to the film. Whether or not this request was honored in any way is unknown.

The original version of the film was lost for decades, after a fire destroyed the master negative. Dreyer himself attempted to reassemble a version from out-takes and surviving prints, but he died believing his original cut was lost forever. Almost miraculously, a virtually complete print of Dreyer's original version was found in 1981 in a janitor's closet of an Oslo mental institution. This version is now available on DVD.

40. Un Chien Andalou (1928)

Directed by Luis Bunuel

Synopsis

Stuff Happens.

Review

Well, that was surreal.

At only 16 minutes long, you won't waste much time watching this film, and I definitely reccomend that you do just that. As the defining surrealist film, there is no plot to talk about, in fact everything is created in a way that there is no possible interpretation of what happens on the screen. All attempts to give interpretations to what the hell is going on in it are really not understanding what the film is about at all.

That said there are somethings that you can get out of the film, but they tell us more about who made the film than really anything else. One thing that is immediately apparent is that there is an obsession with the human body and with it's two most powerful images, those of the body as a sexual object and as a dead object.

Eros and Thanatos are the two real main characters here, the images of death and mutilation are there side by side with a sexualisation of the body, sometimes with split seconds of separation, like when the man is fondling the woman's breasts and the following shot of his face shows him in a sexual ecstasy where his eyes are white and he's dribbling blood from his mouth. Watch it. You can buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

The purple donkeys lap up the milk of the lizard's head while the nun kills the leopard.

39. The Docks Of New York (1928)

Directed By Joseph Von Sternberg

Synopsis

Man is stoker on boat. Very dirty with coal. Very dirty. Gets shore leave. Saves girl who has thrown herself to the sea in suicide attempt. Steals dry clothes for her. Whirlwind night and marries her. Next morning gets on boat. Goes back to girl who is going to jail for stolen dress. Saves her and goes to jail himself. There was much rejoicing.

Review

This is a stylish film, if nothing else. Both the setting and characters are beautiful, mostly set at night in New York, with the underworld of the docks. Everyone smokes, main character has great tattoos of women's names in his arm, as well as a naked lady and a heart... gotta love that!

On the other hand there isn't much of a plot here, it is the story of a one night stand that might possibly be something else. Although this is quite risqué for the time it doesn't make it a great story. The acting is amazing however, everyone is very blasé, very despondent and cool. Bill, the stoker, swaggers around the screen like no one before and his wife has a constant look of sultry depression which is lovely.

So, it is a good film, and silent cinema is definitely come of age by now. It is almost a pity that it's era is almost coming to an end. You can buy it at Amazon US on VHS as there is no DVD version and the UK doesn't sell it. It is a pity, really that so many of these silent films have not yet made the transition to DVD.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

Josef von Sternberg was born Josef Sternberg (the von was added by a Hollywood studio head) to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria but spent much of his childhood in New York City where his father, a former soldier in the army of Austria-Hungary, tried to make a new life for himself. Sternberg grew up in poverty and dropped out of high school. As a youth he got a job cleaning and repairing movie prints and soon found himself apprenticing in the movie industry. He made his directorial debut in 1925 with The Salvation Hunters (called by some the first American independent film) and had commercial success later in the decade with a series of early gangster films including Underworld and Thunderbolt.

His new found prosperity made it possible for him to commission an impressive mini-mansion from the famous architect Richard Neutra. Even after its demolition Von Sternberg house remained an example of modernism in Architecture.

38. The Crowd (1928)

Directed By King Vidor


Synopsis

Man is born on the 4th of July! He is not Tom Cruise, father dies when 12, moves to NY. NY's big city with many people, gets married, marriage gets stale, gets 2 kids. 1 kid dies. Bummer. Tries to put his life back together.

Review

The plight of the common man! In glorious silence! King Vidor was a great director, his camera work is both understated and extremely effective. Napoleon had more spectacular camera work, but you were much more aware of it than here. Vidor is much more subtle, which also suits this story better.

What is innovative for this film is the fact that there are no heroes here, it is truly a story about a common man. He is named John Sims, and the whole Sims family (I wonder...) goes through the activities of everyday in what would be a pretty monotonous film if it weren't for the artful direction and screenplay (I wonder even more...).

All in all a good film, which has as it's greatest plus it's greatest minus. It is an original depiction of everyman, but it is also a depiction of everyman, excitment is limited. The narrative is also quite simple, but that is as much the fault of the silent film medium as anything, and it may also be purposeful, as Vidor is trying to show a simple story that might happen to any one of the crowd. To the theatre-goer with which the last shot of the film identify the Sims. And in that it is a victory, there is something in this film that almost every one can identify with. So watch it. Buy it at Amazon US. There seems to be no version available for the UK, and this one is in VHS, a pity.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The Crowd was a remarkably groundbreaking film, but it was released just as the Great Depression and the arrival of sound films combined to radically change filmaking. Due to the limitations imposed by early sound filming techniques, the film's moving camera innovations would not be equalled for another decade. Likewise, Depression-era audiences sought escapism from The Crowd's style of stark realism, and filmakers would not embrace such realism again until after the end of World War II. Director Jean Luc Godard was asked in the 1960's why more films were not made about ordinary people, and his response was "Why remake The Crowd, it has already been done."

Vidor used the John and Mary Sims characters again (with different actors) in his 1934 film Our Daily Bread. He also provided an insightful interview on the making of the film in a segment of the 1980 documentary "Hollywood", by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. Vidor wrote an unrealized screenplay based on the tragic life of The Crowd lead actor James Murray, who fell on hard times eerily similar to those of the character for which he is remembered.

37. The Kid Brother (1927)

Directed by Ted Wilde and J. A. Howe


Synopsis

Geeky kid brother falls in love with pretty girl who is with Medicine Show. Father of said geek has raised enough money to build a dam. Money gets stolen by other members of Medicine Show. Geek saves the day by recovering money and gets the girl in the process.

Review

Ok, this is a pretty good film. Harold Lloyd is considered the third great of silent comedies, after Chaplin and Keaton. He is definitely not as good as Keaton but there is a case when comparing him to Chaplin. I actually prefer Lloyd.

In terms of comedy, Lloyd is actually more similar to Keaton in terms of physical gags and endangering himself for our pleasure. His gags are not as elaborate, however, and he does not retain the stone-face of Keaton. Still he is pretty good.

If there is one thing I can say about Lloyd is that the film was not just about the comedy, it did in fact have quite a well paced plot and there is not a moment of boredom in it. Still, it doesn't leave you flabbergasted like Keaton. These might be unfair comparisons after all, and taken by himself Harold Lloyd is quite an entertaining performer.

So I advise you to watch this film, but if you miss it the world will not end. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

* Lloyd wanted the film to have more gags than any of his previous features, so around eight writers and gagmen worked on the script. In later years, Lloyd said that this was his personal favourite of his own films.
* This was the last of Lloyd's features to star Jobyna Ralston, who starred as leading lady in five of his previous films. She would go on to play a supporting part in Wings.
* The rural setting was a contrast to most of Lloyd's urban films of the mid to late 1920s. It was filmed in then-rural Glendale and Altadena (near current-day Long Beach), and the derelict ship scenes were filmed at Catalina Island.
* Lewis Milestone directed a majority of the film, in an uncredited capacity. He left the production due to contract problems with another studio.
* Lloyd made his final major public appearance in 1970 at a benefit screening of The Kid Brother in London.

36. Napoleon (1927)

Directed By Abel Gance

Synopsis

Napoleon takes a snowball with a rock in it in the head. Gets a bit miffed. Conquers Italy.

Review

This film was originally 8 hours long... the version I've seen is the 1980 Coppola 4 hour version, and there was a new restoration in 2000 making it over 5 hours. You can't get this one on DVD due to Francis Ford's litigiousness. If that wasn't enough it was supposed to be the first of 6 films on Napoleon! This one finishes with the triumphant Italian campaign, 5 more films would follow Napoleon in an exhaustive cinematic tour de force.

This said, if the other 5 films existed I would probably watch them. This is a frankly impressive film, no one is as good in camera movement, not even Murnau and only Eisenstein approaches Abel Gance in editing. Of course the plot is simplistic and the characters are cardboard, it is a nationalistic film after all. The technical brilliance is such, however, that you can get through all that easily. One of the most original tricks is seen towards the end where Gance has split the action between 3 different screens which were actually shown with 3 projectors in order to create a panoramic feeling.

Gance keeps punching you in the face with powerful imagery, and he manages to create a riveting film for the whole of 4 hours. You are never really bored, which happens with some Eisenstein stuff, where you watch it for the next display of editing brilliance. Gance is able to sustain the story between the moments of genius and is a better man for it.

At times the trypthic effect is not even showing a panoramic scene, but is simply bombarding you with different ideas and imagery in order to create an emotionally overwhelming feeling. I can only imagine what this looked like in an actual cinema. The effect is very lost on a regular TV set like the one I used. It is still impressive. So, shit characters, simplistic ideology and brilliant technical prowess. The last one is so great that it eclipses the others, so do make sure to see it. If ever your local Multiplex shows it be sure to attend. You can buy it at Amazon US or where I got mine on DVD from eBay (there is a Spanish DVD edition, if you turn off the Spanish subtitles you get an English edition on the DVD, well worth it).

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film historian Kevin Brownlow supervised the reconstruction of the film in 1980 including the Polyvision scenes. This reconstruction was re-edited and released in the United States by American Zoetrope (through Universal Pictures) with a score by Carmine Coppola performed live at the screenings. The event brought Gance out of obscurity. Further restoration was made by Brownlow in 1983 and again in 2000, including footage rediscovered by the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. Altogether, 35 minutes of reclaimed film had been added, making the total film length of the 2000 restoration five and a half hours. Also, the tinting and toning processes made by Pathé for the original film were recreated and used in the 2000 restoration.

The film is properly screened in full restoration very rarely due to the difficult requirement of three projectors for the Polyvision section; the last screening was at the Royal Festival Hall in London in December 2004, and included a live orchestral score of pastiche classical music arranged and conducted by Carl Davis. The screening itself was the subject of hotly contested legal threats from Francis Ford Coppola via Universal Studios to the British Film Institute over whether or not the latter had the right to screen the film without the Coppola score. Ultimately, the film did screen for both planned days, although there are suggestions that a fight is on the horizon.

35. The Jazz Singer (1927)

Directed By Alan Crosland

Synopsis

Jewish boy likes jazz. Jewish Cantor father doesn't. Father beats son, son runs away. Son becomes big Jazz Singer. Father is near death. Son sings at synagogue. Father dies forgiving son. Son wears blackface and sings Jazz for a living, while being a bit gay and Jewish.

Review

Wow, probably the first film with a Black, Gay and Jewish main character... well, he wears blackface anyway, and is not openly gay but has an unhealthy mother obssession who he addresses as dahling, and when he speaks you get a huge spike on the old gaydar. There's always the excuse that that is how "show business" people speak. Jolson was actually married for 12 years, but he ain't fooling me. Darling.

All that aside and the fact that blackface is quite a repugnant practice, this is not a bad film, and although it's main value is the fact that it is the first talkie, there is something to be said about the story. The talkie part can be overemphasised, in fact most of the film is silent with only the bits sorrounding the songs and the songs themselves being in actual speech.

The story itself is not that bad, Jack Rabinowitz or Jack Robin is a character caught between two worlds, that of Jazz and of a traditional Jewish family, as well as the seedy underbelly of Gay bondage and S&M in 1920's New York (I might be making up the last part, you'll just have to watch it and find out), and the film actually presents some interesting questions in terms of cultural identity for second generation Jewish immigrants. So, not a totally brainless experience, also worth watching for Al Jolsons completely over the top camp speech. Buy it at Amazon UK or US

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Screenplays for you:

After an emotional reunion with his mother, Jack tells her about his big
break and sings and plays for her Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies," the song
he's going to do in the show. After one chorus, Jack turns from the piano
and speaks to his mother. Throughout this exchange her replies and
protestations are heard very faintly and indistinctly.

JACK
Did you like that, Mama?

MOTHER
Yes.

JACK
I'm glad of it. I'd rather please you than
anybody I know of. Oh, darlin', will you give
me something?

MOTHER
What?

JACK
You'll never guess. Shut your eyes, Mama. Shut
'em for little Jakie. Ha. I'm gonna steal
something.
(Kisses her. She titters.)
Ha, ha, ha, ha. I'll give it back to you some
day, too, you see if I don't. Mama, darlin',
if I'm a success in this show, well, we're
gonna move from here. Oh yes, we're gonna move
up in the Bronx. A lot of nice green grass up
there and a whole lot of people you know.
There's the Ginsbergs, the Guttenbergs, and the
Goldbergs. Oh, a whole lotta Bergs; I don't
know 'em all. And I'm gonna buy you a nice
black silk dress, Mama. You see Mrs. Friedman,
the butcher's wife, she'll be jealous of you.

MOTHER
Oh no--

JACK
Yes, she will. You see if she isn't. And I'm
gonna get you a nice pink dress that'll go
with your brown eyes.

MOTHER
No, Jakie, no. I-I-I-

JACK
What? Whatta you mean, no? Who is -- who is
telling you? Whatta you mean, no? Yes, you'll
wear pink or else. Or else you'll wear pink.
(He laughs.)
And, darlin', oh, I'm gonna take you to Coney
Island.

MOTHER
Yeah?

JACK
Yes, I'm gonna ride on the Shoot-the-Chutes.
An' you know in the Dark Mill? Ever been in
the Dark Mill?

MOTHER
Oh, no. I wouldn't go ...

JACK
Well, with me, it's all right. I'll kiss you
and hug you. You see if I don't.
(Mother starts blushing.)
Now Mama, Mama, stop now. You're gettin'
kittenish. Mama, listen, I'm gonna sing this
like I will if I go on the stage. You know,
with this show. I'm gonna sing it jazzy. Now
get this ...

Jack launches into a few more lines of the song. He bangs at the
keyboard with his right hand and turns to his mother.

JACK
Do you like that slappin' business?

34. October (1927)

Directed By Sergei Eisenstein

Synopsis

Goverment made up from bourgeois bad men. The masses dislike bourgeoisie. Masses topple fat capitalists. Mother Russia belongs to the unwashed proletariat. Lenin makes cartwheels in St. Petersburg's main square. Yiipeeee!

Review

Eisenstein was a genius. There is no argument here, he could make a montage like no one else, and he was the director most able to put across abstract ideas just through the art of editing with no need for sound or colour. A good example, in fact an excellent example of this is the "For God and Country" scene, where particularly the representation of god is not only complex but also immensely amusing. If I didn't know that acid was a later invention I'd say he was on it.

Now for the downside. Eisenstein had no idea of how to tell a compelling story, he didn't have it in Strike! or in Potemkin and he certainly is lacking it in October. If you are expecting to learn anything from this film forget it. You would benefit greatly from having a good idea of the process of the October 1917 revolution or else you will be completely lost in this crazy, sprawling film.

Still I have to worship at Eisenstein's feet because he is such a good technical director. The rapid cutting from the nozzle of the machine gun to the face of the soldier firing it is an amazing idea to mimic the sound and speed of a machine gun shooting, but don't watch it if you have a headache. The film is unfortunately overly long, it loses itself by being in love with itself, it is too overindulgent, while being nothing more spectacular than a crass propaganda film at heart. A very well directed Reefer Madness. Buy it at Amazon UK or US

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wiki:

Eisenstein used the film to further develop his theories of film structure, using a concept he described as "intellectual montage", the editing together of shots of apparently unconnected objects in order to create encourage intellectual comparisons between them. One of the film's most celebrated examples of this technique is a baroque image of Jesus that is compared, through a series of shots, to Hindu deities, the Buddha, Aztec gods, and finally a primitive idol in order to suggest the sameness of all religions; the idol is then compared with military regalia to suggest the linking of patriotism and religious fervour by the state. In another sequence Alexander Kerensky, head of the pre-revolutionary Provisional Government, is compared to a preening mechanical peacock.

Weird fuckhead.