Category Archives: Decades

The decade in which the films were released.

Manhatta (1921)

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2007 #109a
Paul Strand & Charles Sheeler | 10 mins | download

Another ’20s city film, showing off (as you might guess from the title) parts of New York. The focus appears to be industrial — skyscrapers under construction, finished architecture, tug boats, trains near the docks; the people of the city only crop up at the start and close, and then only in faceless crowds. It’s interspersed with poetic intertitles, which make for an odd contrast.

Once again, I feel that, unless you want to go getting a bit pretentious (and, to be fair, at least some of these films were made for just that), the main interest here is in an historical perspective: it provides another snapshot of a time and place long gone.

2 out of 5

The full short is available on Wikipedia.

The Paleface (1948)

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2007 #109
Norman Z. McLeod | 87 mins | DVD | U

The PalefaceBob Hope and Jane Russell star in this Wild West comedy, in which Calamity Jane (Russell) has to stop a group of men smuggling rifles to the Indians. It’s clearly designed as pure entertainment, mixing styles in a way no film would dare attempt today — there’s broad comedy, gunfights, horse chases, and even a song or two!

It works too. OK, so the direction may be a little flat and some of the comedy old fashioned… but it was made in the ’40s and there’s still a good number of laughs, so it seems churlish to complain.

4 out of 5

Skyscraper Symphony (1929)

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2007 #108b
Robert Florey | 9 mins | download

Another ‘city symphony’ film, this time a short one of skyscrapers in New York.

It’s probably hard to ‘appreciate’ this without getting a little pretentious; certainly, it’s much more aimed at creating the feeling of a city, or a visual representation of it, or something like that, than it is with, say, showing pretty views of New York’s buildings. That said, in between the meaningful mucking about, there are some fairly impressive sights to be seen.

2 out of 5

Available on YouTube.

À propos de Nice (1930)

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2007 #108a
Jean Vigo | 23 mins | download | U

Short film about the French city of Nice, mixing documentary-style footage of people with shots of the architecture, as well as clearly staged scenes (a man getting sunburnt, for example).

There’s a certain playful edge to it all, not just with content such as a garish parade and crazy dancing, but with amusing tricks (again, the sunburning), camera tomfoolery (for example, moving it to follow the loops of arches at speed; or using slow motion and sped-up shots), and picking out shots of pedestrians apparently for their annoyance at being filmed.

It’s an interesting amalgamation, then: part art, part documentary, part sketch show.

3 out of 5

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)

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aka Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt / Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis

2007 #108
Walther Ruttmann | 65 mins | download

Berlin: Symphony of a Great CityGerman silent movie depicting a day in the ‘life’ of Berlin, part of the ‘city symphony’ genre that was popular around the 1920s. This makes it one of those films that is in some way Important, but sadly it’s still a bit, well, boring.

Essentially it’s a documentary showing many facets of city life and industry, though with no kind of narration and often edited in an artistic fashion (fast cutting and crazy angles to represent the chaos of a busy junction, for example). It has its moments (the opening train journey being the highlight for me), and I’m sure some would find the footage of ’20s life fascinating, but it’s the sort of thing that’s just too dull for my tastes.

For something similar which I enjoyed a bit more, try the Russian Man With a Movie Camera.

2 out of 5

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997)

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aka Shin seiki Evangelion Gekijô-ban: Air/Magokoro wo, kimi ni

2007 #107
Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki | 90 mins | DVD | 15

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of EvangelionEight weeks and sixteen films later than I’d’ve liked, I can finally complete the Evangelion story! (For my review of the first film, look here.)

First off, don’t even attempt this if you haven’t seen all of the (excellent) TV series — it won’t even vaguelly make sense. Sadly, if you have seen the series, it’s a disappointing climax. Promising a clearer ending than the original arty philosophical one, it winds up delivering something that’s almost as bad. It’s somewhat redeemed by what leads up to this final confusing half hour: some proper story, resolutions for some outstanding plot threads, and a few instances of decent action too. As a conclusion it’s far from satisfying, though.

One can only hope the new four-film remake of the whole story (the first of which was recently released in Japan), which promises another fresh conclusion, can come up with something more comprehensible. I wouldn’t count on it.

3 out of 5

Traffic in Souls (1913)

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2007 #106
George Loane Tucker | 88 mins | VHS

Traffic in SoulsSilent movie (Universal’s first feature-length release) about white slavery in America. You don’t expect that from a 1913 film, eh?

Of course, the issue is handled in a suitable way for the period: why the women are kidnapped is never alluded to (in reality it was for prostitution) and all the Bad Men are brought to justice.

It’s not all bad: in a surprising move for the time, the main villain is an apparently-respectable society gentleman who publicly campaigns against white slavery; by a similar token, the kidnappers are made up of women as well as men.

The first half zips along an intricate multi-stranded narrative covering several groups of unrelated characters, but as they come together it begins to slow: what seems to be the climax takes half the film to play out its immediately-obvious events. It sadly ruins something that was initially rather promising.

2 out of 5

Fantômas: Juve Versus Fantômas (1913)

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aka Juve contre Fantômas

2007 #105
Louis Feuillade | 62 mins | DVD | PG

Juve Versus FantomasSecond instalment of the early French film serial, adapted from a long-running series of pulp novels.

Fantômas is a criminal adept at disguise and avoiding capture by police inspector Juve. It’s full of crazy schemes and action set pieces, which means it’s actually a great deal of fun, relatively fast-paced and densely plotted, exciting and deliberately amusing (though, as with anything this old, there are things to point and laugh at if you’re so inclined). It also looks stunning for its age, with a stable and crisp picture, which incidentally makes great use of colour tinting (for example, turning from blue to yellow when someone switches on a light).

It’s not for everyone, but if you’re interested in early cinema this is one of the most entertaining examples I’ve seen. As you may have guessed, we were shown this as part of my degree; off the back of it I’ve ordered the DVD of the full serial.

4 out of 5

I never got round to watching the rest of Fantômas, though I’ve been meaning to ever since… (story of my life.)

Miracles (1989)

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aka Qi ji / Mr. Canton and Lady Rose / Black Dragon / The Canton Godfather

2007 #104
Jackie Chan | 122 mins | DVD | PG / PG-13

MiraclesI’ve always been a bit wary of Chan’s films: he’s renowned for using comedy in his action (to help break away from the frequently-applied “new Bruce Lee” label), which isn’t really to my taste; but after we were shown an impressive clip from this in a lecture I felt I had to give it a go.

It’s 1930s Hong Kong and Chan accidentally becomes the head of a mafia-like gang. The film follows a “gang war” plot for about 40 minutes before abruptly changing tack to become an identity-based farce! It’s all a bit messy and most of the genuinely funny bits are still in Chan’s excellent action sequences, which are mind-bogglingly impressive feats of acrobatics and choreography. Of course, it’s these that we’ve come for, and the film would benefit from less pointless farcing about, a shorter running time, and more evenly distributed action sequences.

Enjoyable, but flawed.

3 out of 5

Transporter 2 (2005)

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2007 #103
Louis Leterrier | 84 mins | DVD | 15 / PG-13

Transporter 2Sequel to 2002’s low-key, disposable-but-fun actioner.

The plot is almost senseless and thoroughly familiar from the likes of Man on Fire or M:i-2, but that doesn’t matter: the action’s the focus, and on that promise it mostly delivers. In spite of the odd bit of CG-aided silliness, or the lack of anything as inspired as the first film’s oil fight, the fights are still a lot of fun; one involving a fire hose is especially well executed. There’s also a good number of amusing moments (both intentional and not, it must be said).

It may not quite reach the first movie’s simple highs, but there’s still enough to like. More films in the series wouldn’t go amiss.

3 out of 5

Almost inevitably, Transporter 3 is on its way in 2008. Personally, I’ll wait for it on DVD, probably in a sale — but I’m somewhat looking forward to that day coming around.