Classic movies at second glance

"Red Beard" is a movie about the relationship between an old and a young physician. The older one teaches the younger one, who in first instance is only interested in getting rich, a lesson about ethics and compassion.

"Red Beard" is also a movie about an holistic versus a specialist view of medicine. It tells the story of different patients, and in each case Red beard (the nickname of the old experienced phycisian) approaches this patient as a person and not as a collection of organs. In so doing the root cause of the illness often turns out to be something rather different than the visible symptoms.

The most impressive scene is in my opinion the one in which Red beard learns his pupil patience in the treatment of a traumatized young girl. The black and white photography in the whole film, but especially in this scene, is marvelous. The image with only the eyes of the girl illuminated while the rest of her body is in the dark is of a nearly haunting type of beauty.

"Red Beard" was the last film in which Kurosawa worked with his regular lead actor Toshiro Mifune. It was also the beginning of a difficult decade that lasted until "Dersu Uzala" (1975).

An excellent film of the French Hitchcock. Less known then "Wages of fear" but at least as good. One of the most surprising endings I have ever seen.

Henri Georges Clouzot is often called "The French Hitchccock", but with respect to "Les diabolique" there is an additional reason to make this comparison. The film was based on a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac whose writings also formed the basis of "Vertigo" (1958, Alfred Hitchcock).

Nevertheless the film is unmistakebly French. Not only because the Deux CV riding across countryroads paved with cobblestones, but also thanks to lead actress Simone Signoret. Yes Signoret is blonde, but she is certainly not a Hitchcock type of blonde. For that she has a much too outspoken personality.

In my opinion the best early Bergman.

In his days the film must have been a revelation because of the spicy images of lead actress Harriet Andersson. This presumption was confirmed by the fact that in movies of the late fifties (I have not kept track of the titles of these films) I regulaly saw posters of "Monika" in the bedrooms of male adolescents.

Harriet Andersson is not the only beauty to be admired in "Summer with Monika". The landscape and the islands outside Stockholm are also very pretty. In a very long and relaxed take we watch Harry Lund (Lars Ekborg) and Monika Eriksson (Harriet Andersson) sailing out of Stockholm to experience their summer of love.

But after the summer inevitbly comes autumn and with autumn a baby and responsibilities announce themselves. It is striking how different the two main characters react to these responsibilities. Harry Lund fulfills them but Monika Eriksson refuses to accept that her youth is over and continues to party.

In this respect "Summer with Monika" definitely belies the normal roles of the sexes. How many films must have been made about boys running away from their summer sweetheart once she turns out te be pregnant? The choices Monika makes are subject to different interpretations. Some reviewers think they are irresponsibe, others interpret them as resistance against the established social order. It is difficult for this reviewer to look at Monika as a sort of feminist freedom fighter.

"The virgin spring" has obviously much in common with "The seventh seal" (1957, Ingmar Bergman). Both films have religious themes and both are situated in the Middle ages.

There are however also huge differences between the two movies. In "The seventh seal" religion = Christianity whereas in "The virging spring" the battle beteen paganism and Christianity is still raging in Scandinavia.

This battle is symbolised by the real daughter Karin (Birgitta Pettersson) who stands for Christianity and stepdaughter Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom) who prays to Odin in the beginning of the film and stands for Paganism.

At first sight the script seems te prefer Christianity. Karin rides at a white horse, Ingeri has a dark horse. Karin is pure (a virgin), Ingeri is pregnant with no man or boyfriend in sight. By portraying Karin as a spoiled little princess Bergman applies however nuances to this (all too) simple scheme of things.

Bergman never considered "The virgin spring" a key movie in his oeuvre. In my opinion it was nevertheless important for his carreer because of two reasons. In the first place it gave him his first Oscar for "Best foreign language movie" (the next year he would win again in this category with "Through a glass darkly" (1961)). In the second place, because his standard cinematographer Gunnar Fischer was occupied in another project, he switched to Sven Nykvist. Nykvist would remain his cinematographer ever since.

In my comment on "The virgin spring" (1960, Ingmar Bergman) I noticed that "The seventh seal" was about Christianity whereas "The virgin spring" is about the struggle between Christianity and Paganism.

This is true (look only at the title which refers to the Book of Revelations) but "The seventh seal" is also a variation on "Don Quichotte" (1605, Cervantes). The somewhat pompous knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) is Don Quichotte and the much more pragmatic somewhat cynical Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) is his Sancho Panza.

Antonius Block takes himself very seriously and begins a game of chess with the dead. That the film is all about symbolism is proven by the fact that not the slightest attempt is made to make the dead scary. It is just an actor with a black robe and a whitewashed face. That the film is not without humour is proven by the fact that Antonius Block prepares a combination involving a bishop and a knight. As crusader he knows what a deadly combination that can be.

His combination fails however and he loses the game. In the final scene he is led away bij the dead in a "Danse macabre".

There are two characters who escape this dance of death, the circus artists Jof (Nils Poppe) and Mia (Bibi Andersson). We are back again in Christian spheres because their names are obvious references to Jozef and Maria. They escape the dead because they are neither pompous nor cynical. They are rather naive and take life as it is.

In the twenties of the 20th century Sweden was a prominent country in the filming industry and Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller were the leading directors. The career of Sjostrom can be divided in three periods. First his Swedish period as a director, from which period "The phantom carriage" (1921) is the highlight. Then his American adventure which brought him not much commercial success, but with hinsight definitely yielded artisticly valuable movies such as "The wind" (1928). When he returned to Sweden he became the mentor of Ingmar Bergman and played in some of his films as an actor, most notably "Wild strawberries" (1957, Ingmar Bergman).

In "The phantom carriage" after his death a man looks back on (the consequences of) his bad deeds. Films in which the main character looks back on his life are not uncommon. A well known example is "It's a wonderful life" (1946, Frank Capra). In this film a man looks back when considering suicide. He looks back on (or rather an angel shows him) his good deeds. The angel shows him also the (consequences of) the good deeds he can't do when persevering his suicide plan. Last but not least the already mentioned "Wild strawberries". In this film the person who looks back is still alive, although of already advanced age. He looks back on a life of bad deeds, but they are not of a violent nature. They are more psychological defects (selfishness and lack of interest for his loved ones).

"The phantom carriage" is also of interest from a technical point of view. Sjostrom experimented with double exposure so that the world of the living and the world of the ghosts could be captured in one frame. He also experimentend with color (colored by hand of course, there were no colorfilms at that time). Brown meant warm and was used in interior scenes, Blue meant cold and was used for exterior scenes.

All in all, "The phantom carriage" is a film that would inspire many directors. One of them was Stanley Kubrick, who based his "Here's Johnny" scene in "The Shining" (1980) on "The phantom carriage".

"Ran" was made by Kurosawa when he was already 75 years old. It is his last great film. Kurosawa had a long career, but it was interspersed with difficult periods of "writers block". Therefore finding funding for his films was noy always easy, especially in the second half of his career. "Dersu Uzala" (1975) was financed with Russian money and "Ran" (1985) with French money.

From the three great Japanese directors after the Second World War (Ozu, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa) Kurosawa was the most Western one. The cultural influence went in both directions. Kurosawa had an influence on Western filmmaking. "The magnificent seven" (1960, John Sturges) was a remake of "Seven Samurai" (1954, Akira Kurosawa). On the other hand Kurosawa was inspired by Western literature, most notably by Shakespeare. Stange as it may sound Kurosawa is one of the most prominent Shakespeare adapters under the film directors. He brought MacBeth ("Throne of blood", 1957), Hamlet ("The bad sleep well", 1960) and King Lear ("Ran", 1985) to the screen.

King Lear is a pessimistic story in which a father is cheated by his elder sons. Only his youngest son remains faithful to him. In "Ran" the difference is visualised in the landscape. When the father is with his youngest son, the landscape is green. When the father is with the other sons, the landscape is black and consists of a volcanic type of sand. This black landscape is ideal for the fighting scenes because it provides a perfect background for the colorful banners of the different armies.

The last scene is mindbogling but also not easy to forget. A blind man is all on his own, staying on the edge of a cliff. In essence he can't make another step.

His American period was not a great commercial success for director Sjöström (in America he called himself Seastrom). Nevertheless artisticly this is a great film.

As the title suggests the elements play a big role in this film, especially the ever blowing wind. The film was made in the Mojave dessert and oftetimes the wind has to be induced artificially, a gigantic operation in those days.

The film is also interesting because of the role of Lillian Gish. Lillian Gish is a big name in the early history of film. She is in particular known for her roles in "Intolerance" (1916, D.W, Griffith) and "The night of the hunter" (1955, Charles Laughton). In the first mentioned film she mainly rocks the baby in between the episodes. In "The night of the hunter" she wobbles in her rocking chair, a riffle in her hand. For those who want to see Lillian Gish doing a serious piece of acting: watch "The Wind".

"Dersu Uzala" was in 1975 a come back film of Kurosawa, financed with Russian capital. It is one of the few films situated in Siberia. The only other one I know of being "The letter that was never sent" (1960, Mikhail Kalatozov).

Although taking place in Siberia the film has definite characteristics of the Western genre. In stead of "Go west young man" in this case it rather is "Go east young man"

The young man is captain Arsenyev (Yuri Solomin) of the Russian army being on an expedition. He encounters the nomadic Dersu Uzala (Maksim Munzuk) from the Nanai people. This "Western" being of the modern nature, there grows a friendship between the newcomer and the traditional inhabitant based on mutual respect.

For Arsenyev the wilderness is dangerous and in the city (in this film Chabarovsk) he is at home. For Dersu Uzala it turns out to be the other way around. When he is forced by old age to live in the house of his friend Arsenyev he is, despite the enjoyed hospitality, deeply unhappy. At last he decides to return to the forest, which by now is also dangerous for him.

"Dersu Uzala" has beautiful landscape imagery. Like "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962, David Lean) this can only be fully enjoyed on the big screen. Unfortunately I have never been able to see "Dersu Uzala" in a movie theatre.

Just like Ingmar Bergman Kaurismaki likes to work in trilogies. "The match factory girl" (1990) is the last film in the proletariat trilogy, who further contains "Shadows in paradise" (1986) and "Ariel" (1988).

The title of the film is obviously derived from "The little macth girl", a fairytail by Hans Christian Andersen adapted in 1928 by Jean Renoir. The storyline however has more in common with "Carrie" (1976, Brian de Palma).

Just like "Carrie" the film is about a girl (in this case the young woman Iris played by Kati Outinen) who is suppressed at home and a wallflower at parties. This facts are however presented in the typical melancholical (and not so spectacular) way of Kaurismaki. The mother of Carrie is religiously fanatical. The parents of Iris demand that she hands over to them all that she has earned. They do check this with her salary slip and Iris is in deep trouble when the amount doesn't match up to the last penny. Carrie is "elected" as queen on a school party in a mockingly fashion and then made fun of. The loneliness of Iris is represented by the endless row of Cola bottles besides her chair at the end of the evening or (even more) by the bored look in the eyes of her dance partner (when she finally found one).

The dialoque in the film is sparse. The more striking is the eloquence that Iris displays in a letter that she writes to a man she has met recently. Yes you guessed it right, this man is the dance partner of the previous paragraph. Once again Iris is in for a new disappointment. One thing however is proven by this eloquent letter, still waters run deep.

In the '90s there was a new wave of Iranian directors. The two most prominent of them being Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Abbas Kiarostami. Makhmalbaf was the youngest of these two and is strongly influenced by the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Gabbeh is the name of a traditional Persian carpet made by nomads. The motifs on a gabbeh are not abstract (like in normal Persian carpets) but are real life representations.The film was originally meant as a sort of commercial for this type of carpets. Makhmalbaf became so intrigued with the subject that the project grew out to a feature length film.

One of the typical elements of Iranian movies is the story within a story. This is also the structure of "Gabbeh". An aged couple goes to a little stream to clean their gabbeh. During the washing the illustration on the carpet comes to live. This illustration is about the courting of a young couple. It is left to the imagination of the viewer to decide of the old - and the young couple are the same persons.

'Gabbeh" uses a very bright (not to say dazzling) color palette. This reminded me of films such as "The color of pomegranates" (1969, Sergei Parajanov) and above all "Ju Dou" (1990, Zhang Yimou).

Georges Franju (1912 - 1987) has made a couple of good films, but his main contribution to the French Cinema was founding (together with Henri Langlois) the magazine "Cinematheque Francaise".

"Eyes without a face " is probably his best film. It feels like a Henri Georges Clouzot film. Just like the Clouzot "Diabolique" (1955) the screenplay was written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. "Eyes without a face" is one of the few horror movies in which I turned my eyes from the screen during a scary scene (the skin transplantation).

At first it seems clear that the film has a standard 'good guy - bad guy" division of labor. The bad guy is obviously surgeon Genessier (Pierre Brasseur), experimenting with young girls. The good guy (or good girl) is his disfigued daugther (Edith Scob), who ultimately puts an end to these experiments.

On second thaught things are not se clear however. The experiments of doctor Genessier arise from a feeling of love for (or guild towards?) his daughter. His daughter puts an end to this experiments only after it has become clear that they failed. So the characters in "Eyes without a face" are to complicated to fit into the "good guy - bad guy" dichotomy.

In "Cat people" (1942) Jacques Tourneur already proved that not showing can be more scary than making explicit. Franju is taking ths technique one step further. By letting the disfigured Christiane wear an (expressionless) mask the viewer automaticly asks himself the question what is underneath.

I still remember the excitement when I saw this film for the first time in an arthouse in the '90s. The film had just undergone a restauration financed by Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.

Director Mikhail Kalatozov is known for "The cranes are flying" (1957). A film critical on the Soviet system and characteristic of the greater artistic freedom of the Chroesjtsjov years. In 1964 the Chroesjtsjov years are over, the Brezjnev years are begun, and Kalatozov is making a propaganda movie.

But what for a propaganda movie! The film consists of four episodes. Two episodes about Americans misbehaving themselves in Cuba, and two episodes idolizing the liberator Castro. Particularly the first two episodes on the Americans make an impression. In the beginning there is a scene where the camara moves between a partying crowd and ends underwater in a swimming pool, and that in a time long before the handheld camera!

But in 1964 Castro was no longer a liberator but the new dicatator, and the Cubans did not warm up for the story the movie told them. After circulation in Soviet cinema's "Soy Cuba" went to the attic of film history, until Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola gave the film a second life.

"Le corbeau" was made during the Nazi occupation of France. Although it is anything but a propaganda movie, Clouzot was blamed for this collaboration with the Germans after the war was over. He couldn't participate in French cinema during a couple of years.

Central in "Le corbeau" are letters containing slander. With respect to this sort of letters three questions can be asked. (1) Who is the writer? (2) Are they true? (3) What kind of effect do they cause?

In "Caché" (2005, Michael Haneke) the third element is central. "Le corbeau" is more about the first and second element.

The slander refers to numerous citizens of the small French village. One wonders what is going on beneath the surface of this jovial and a little dull village life. Is this village maybe the French equivalent of Lumberton, the small city in North Carolina from "Blue velvet" (1986, David Lynch)?

"The cranes are flying" is probably the best known film of Mikhail Kalatozov. It is also the best known film of the relatively liberal Chroesjtsjov years. World War Two is not exclusively dealt with in a heroic fashion. When a soldier is about to leave his family, two Komsomol girls are passing by to hold a very nationalistic speech. The father of the soldier interrupts them and says: "Leave the speech and just have dinner with us". I wonder if this scene would have survived the censorship during the Stalin years. Also later in the film corruption is dealt with in an unusual explicit way for a Soviet film.

Within the genre of war films I particularly like those films that do not exclusively take place at the front, but also give an impression of the effect of war on the rest of the society. For that reason I really appreciate a film like "The deer hunter" (1978, Michael Cimino). "The cranes are flying" also finds the good balance between action scenes and scenes "at home".

In 1964, at the beginning of the Brezjnev years, Kalatozov would make the propaganda movie "Soy Cuba". Comparing the two films "The cranes are flying" is stronger with respect to content and "Soy Cuba" is stronger with respect to style. Nevertheless "The cranes are flying" also contains a few scenes that are stylistically impressive. I am alluding to the scene after the air raid when Veronika finds out she has become an orphan and the scene during the later air raid when Veronika is alone with Mark.

In 1957, Chroesjtskov or not, it probably required courage to make a film like "The cranes are flying". In 2019, during the Poetin years, again it probably requires courage to make a film about Wordl War Two that is not only heroic, a film such as "Beanpole" (2019, Kantemir Balagov).

"Throne of Blood" is an adaptation of the story of MacBeth by Shakespeare. It has much in common with "Ran" (1985, Akira Kurosawa). Not only is "Ran" also a Shakespeare adaptation (King Lear), but the filming locations of both films where in the neighborhood of a Volcano. "Ran"was shot near Mount Aso and "Throne of blood" in the neighborhood of Mount Fuji. Both films thus have also a visual similarity (black volcanic sand).

Kurosawa adapted the story of MacBeth rather straightforward, but nevertheless managed to give it a Japanese twist. In certain scenes the music and the movements of the actors are very much like the traditional Nô theatre.

Best scenes are in my opinion the two encounters of MacBeth with the ghost who foretells him the future. The landscape is foggy and mysterious. The language of Shakespeare is ornate ... and also mysterious.

In the second half of the '90s two Scandinavian directors made a successful debut that gave rise to an American remake a couple of years later. We are talking about Ole Bornedal ("Nightwatch", 1994) and Erik Skjoldbjærg ("Insomnia", 1997). Ole Bornedal made the American remake himself in 1997. The remake of "Insomnia" was made by none other than Christopher Nolan in 2002. Till the present day (May 2020) their debut is still the most valued movie for both directors.

"Insomnia" is about a murder case and falls in the detective genre. In modern crime stories the private life and - problems of the detective often play en essential part. Think of the Harry Hole character in the novels of Jo Nesbo. It is however unusual that the original case disappears into the background and that private problems of the detective take over the story completely.

What is special about "Insomnia" is the synchronisation of the inner mood of the main character and the environment he is working in. The detective is tormented by a bad conscience due to a grave mistake he has made (inner mood). At the same time he suffers from the midsummer night with its 24 hours of daylight (external environment). Together these two factors cooperate to deny him any sleep (insomnia).

In the second half of the '90s two Scandinavian directors made a successful debut that gave rise to an American remake a couple of years later. We are talking about Ole Bornedal ("Nightwatch", 1994) and Erik Skjoldbjærg ("Insomnia", 1997). Ole Bornedal made the American remake himself in 1997. The remake of "Insomnia" was made by none other than Christopher Nolan in 2002. Till the present day (May 2020) their debut is still the most valued movie for both directors.

Although both "crime movies", "Nightwatch" and "Insomnia" are very different films. "Insomnia" is charachter driven, "Nightwatch" mainly plot driven. It is difficult to write a review about a plot driven film without adding spoilers. Let me just say that "Nightwatch" is very tense with a hint of necrophilia.

Without giving away the plot I can draw the attention to two film quotes in "Nightwatch" The first is the fact that the perpetrator is eventually betrayed by the tune he whistles (alluding to "M" (1931, Fritz Lang)). The second is the fact that student Martin takes the job in the morgue thinking that it is just a form of paid studying, just like Jack Torrance thinks that being housekeeper in the deserted Overlook hotel is just a form of paid writing ("The shining", 1980, Stanley Kubrick). Both Jack and Martin get more than they are asking for.

"Haxan" is one of the strangest films ever made. Somewhere in between a documentary and a horror movie. The undertitle "Witchcraft through the ages" suggests a documentary, but maybe this suggestion is only used to save some images from the scissor of the censor

The genre is not the only thing that is unclear about "Haxan". So is the message. In the first half of the film the message seems to be that the women are innocent and that society / the church is to blame for witchhunts. At the end of the film there are some hints that there really is something wrong with women accused of witchcraft and that in modern times we "only" have substituted the psychiatrist for the inquisition.

Apart from these flaws the images are spectacular, in particular taking into consideration the time in which the film was made. The fasciniation with the subject proved to be something of all times. In 2015 Robert Eggers drew attention to himself with his debut "The witch, a New England folktale".

With "Touchez pas au grisbi" Becker made a French film noir that inspired Jean Pierre Melville to make "Bob le Flambeur" two years later.

Normally film noirs are about trickery and deceit, but "Touchez pas au grisbi" is more about loyalty and (male) friendship.

In three different scenes we see main character Max (an experienced criminal played by Jean Gabin)

• meet businesspartners in a nightclub;
• having a meeting with his gang in a local restaurant;
• spending en evening with his old partner in crime in his hiding appartment.

Lesser known film from Mikhail Kalatozov ("The cranes are flying" (1957) and "Soy Cuba" (1964)). Only since 2012 available on DVD.

Situated in the vastness of Siberia the film has something in common with "Dersu Uzala" (1975, Akira Kurosawa). In "Dersu Uzala" mother nature gives and takes. In "Letter never sent" she is only hostile, as if protecting her mineral resources (diamonds).

The images of the bushfire are spectacular and they form a pivotal point in the movie. Before the fire, he story is about the relationships between the members of the expedition. During and after the fire it is the expedition against the forces of nature.

"Bashu" was made by veteran director Bahram Beizai just before the "Iranian new wave" with directors such as Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf took the Western art cinema's by surprise. In reality there was no need for surprise, because (some of) Iranain cinema had a high quality standard since "The cow" (1969, Dariush Mehrjui).

"Bashu" certainly is one of these high quality films and it gives a multidimensional and sometimes surprising perspective on the Iranian society.

Multidimensional because of the variety of regions and landscapes. The film starts in the South of Iran from where a little boy (Bashu played by Adnan Afravian) flees for the war between Iran and Iraq. He ultimately arrives in Iranian Kurdistan (the Northwest of Iran) where he is adopted in a family run by the single mother Nail (played by Susan Taslimi). In contrast to the desert like South, Iranian Kurdistan is very green and very fertile. Also the languages c.q. dialects spoken in the South and in the Northwest are very different. Only halfway the movie Nail and Bashu discover that they can communicatie through Farsi (the national language).

Surprising because of the role of Nail. She is a very strong and independent woman, who not only runs her family alone (only towards the end of the movie her husband returns home) but who also does not give in to social pressure from the village community. All in all, not a character we expect in an Iranian movie. Maybe this type of character was after all not appreciated in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Actress Susan Taslimi emigrated to Sweden in 1987, that is between the making (1986) and the release (1989) of "Bashu".

Woody Allen is synonymous with Manhattan. It was therefore very unusual that his film "Match point" (2005) was situated in London. After that Allen made films situated in Barcelona "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (2008) and Paris "Midnight in Paris" (2011).

Aki Kaurismaki is synonymous with Helsinki. Thus it was very surprising that his new film after five years ("Lights in the dusk" (2006) was his latest) played in Le Havre.

Kaurismaki not only changed location, he also changed his theme. For the first time the story is openly political, treating the problem of immigration to Europe. The only thing that was not changed were most of the characters. As usual most of them are slightly seedy old men with their hearts on the right place.

In his next film "The other side of hope" (2017) Kaurismaki (unlike Woody Allen) would return to his beloved Helsinki. He remained true however to the problems of immigrants.

After the breakthrough of Abbas Kiarostami and Moshen Makhmalbaf in the '90s Asghar Farhadi took over as leading man of Iranian cinema at the beginning of the new century. His film "About Elly" (2009) was nominated for the Oscar of best foreign language film, but did not win. "A seperation" (2011) had more luck and won the Oscar. This gave Farhadi access to foreign capital. His film "Le passé" (2013) was financed with French capital.

Central in "A seperation" is a couple asking for a divorce. They still love each other, but the woman wants to emigrate for the sake of their daughters future and the man wants to stay in Iran to take care of his demented father. Remarkable is the prominent place emigration has in some Iranian movies, not only in "A seperation" but for example also in "Persepolis" (2007, Marjane Satrapi). After all the wish te emigrate is not really a recommendation for the country from which one wants to emigrate. However, one has to keep in mind that in Iran there is a rather strict seperation between art house cinema for the export (giving cultural prestige) and mass cinema for the home market. The latest category consists for an important part of Rambo like films in which the United States is the empire of evil.

"A seperation" is rich in beautiful scenes that may not be essential for the story line but gives us insight in the chracters . I think of the scene in which the father tutors his daughter. She has been shortchanged at the petrol station. The father insists that she goes back to settle the bill. After she has done that (very ashamed and nervously) as a reward she is allowed to keep the change.

Some scenes seem to be cut off prematurely. After a while the movie elaborates on things that have happened after the cut off point. Telling the story this way requires the constant attenion of the viewer. In an interview Farhadi has said that that was exactly the intention.

"Salt for Svantia" is an early film by Mikhail Kalatozov about the isolated people of Svanetia in the Northwest of Georgia. It was made in the early days of Communism and the purpose of the film was to integrate all the local peoples in the great Union of Soviet Republics.

Just as Sergei Eisenstein in "Old and new" (1929), Kalatozov didn't manage to suppress his creative ability's enough in making this propaganda movie. He was severely punished for this and his next noteworthy film happened to be "The cranes are flying" (1957), during the relatively liberal Chroesjtsjov years. After Brezhnev came to power Kalatozov was able to make a film that was creative and propaganda at the same time with "Soy Cuba"" (1964).

Just like in "Old and new" the most amazing thing from "Salt for Svanetia" are the extreme close ups of mostly old and worn out (but very intriguing) faces. You almost start to think that Eisenstein and Kalatozov were aware of "La passion de Jeanne d'Arc" (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer).

Film by Becker about a criminal gang in the belle époque in France. If one compares "Casque d'Or" with "Touchez pas au grisbi" ( a film Becker would make two years later), it strikes that in "Casque d'Or" the criminal world is just as tough but the film is somehow more endearing.

Maybe this has something to do with the fact that "Casque d'Or" combines crime with romance whereas "Touchez pas au grisbi" combines crime with nostalgia.

Another explanation could be that "Casque d'Or" is situated farther back in time, as accentuated by the fashion of the day. In "Casque d'Or" we imagine ourselves in the world of Guy de Maupassant.

John Ford is known for his Westerns, in which John Wayne often played the leading role.

Sometimes however he did not deny his ancestry from the old continent, more specific Ireland. I think of films like "The informer" (1935) playing in Ireland or "How green was my valley" (1941) playing in Wales and starring Maureen O'Hara.

In "The quiet man" both sort of films come together. John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara both have a leading role. The film is situated in Ireland but contains themes from the Western genre.

More specific the message of the film is that a real man stands up for his rights and is willing to fight if necessary. Someone who tries to keep the peace at all costst is a weakling.

Sean Thornton (John Wayne) is not a weakling but nevertheless tries to keep the peace for most of the film. This has something to do with his past as a professional boxer, a story element wich has definite similarities with "Body and soul" (1947, Robert Rossen).

The film contains some beautiful images of Connemara and the matchmaker Michaleen Oge Flynn (a superb supporting role of Barry Fitzgerald) makes it even more Irish. All prejudices regarding the preferences of the Irish for the pub and singing are confirmed. We have to keep in mind however that John Ford was of Irish descendancy himself. You can't have prejudices againt yourself, can you?

Director Gillo Pontecorvo had a strong political awareness. He always took the side of the oppressed. In 1960 he made a film about Jews in a concentration camp ("Kapo"), in 1969 he made a fim about a slave revolt ("Queimada") and in 1979 he made a film about the oppression of the Basque bij the Franco dictatorship ("Operacion Ogro").

"The battle of Algiers" (1966) is about the colonial war France fought in Algeria from 1954 to 1962. It ended in the indepence of Algeria. The film is situated in a time when the liberation movement of Algeria (FLN) rules the Kasbah and the French army is dominant in the European part of town. There are only a few films about the Algerian war. The only other one I know is "The day of the jackal" (1973, Fred Zinnemann) and this film only has an indiect link. The action in this film is set in motion by a part of the French army who is frustrated by the defeat in the Algerian war.

"The battle of Algiers" has a documentary look and feel. The film was even used as instruction film in military training. As a semi documentary the film gives a nuanced picture of the war. Pontecorvo takes the side of the FLN (the oppressed side) but that does not mean that he is blind for the cruelties they commit. There is a scene in which female solders of the FLN are installing time bombs on a busy place. After they have done their job, their gaze just glides over the crowd. A crowd from which many will be dead in a couple of minutes.

The French are led by Colonel Mathieu, a ruthless person who does not shy away for the most horrible forms of torture. He is however not only a savage beast but a cool politician as well. Somewhere in the film he remarks that the war ultimately will be decided in the public opinion at home. A statement that turned out to be very true for the Vietnam-war, that was still going on when this film was made.

"Rebecca" was the first American film of Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock still had to get used to the division of labor between the director and the producer in Hollywood, especially when the producer had the name of David Selznick.

"Rebecca" is based on a novel by Daphne Du Maurier. Two more Hitchcock films were based on the work of this writer: "Jamaica Inn" (1939) and "The birds" (1963).

In "Rebecca" a young woman is compared to a dead woman so often that it almost seems one is trying to reshape her after the image of the dead woman. This is also the theme of "Vertigo" (1958, Alfred Hitchcock). In Verigo it is a man who tries to reshape the woman, and so Vertigo is a psychological film with sexual undertones.

In "Rebecca" the adoration of the dead woman comes from a woman (the housekeeper Mrs Danvers played by Judith Anderson). Mrs Danvers moves around the house in complete silence and in so doing resembles a ghost. In the final scene Mrs Danvers shares the fate of the house she has been serving in for so long. Judith Anderson maybe a less known actress than Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier (the two stars of this film), in my opinion it is her performance that gives the film its gothic horror like mood.

"Barry Lyndon" is unanimously regarded as a technically stunning film. Special lenses had to make sure that candle light in interior surroundings looked natural.

In my opinion Stanley Kubrick is a master in using music in his films. A good example is "2001: A space Odyssey" (1968), but Barry Lyndon" is his Magnus Opus in this respect. All the music is from the same period as the story (Schubert, Bach, Handel etc) and is perfectly combined with the individual scenes. Listen to the music accompanying the duel scene between Barry Lyndon and Lord Bullingdon, just like a thunderstorm approachting from afar.

"Barry Lyndon" is a picaresque film. In such a film the main character has obvious flaws, but is sympathetic all the same. Most of the times the film has a happy ending for the main character. Just look at"Tom Jones" (1963, Tony Richardson).

Barry Lyndon however is anything but sympathetic. He is selfish and treats people who care for him badly. The film is a rather symmetrical "rise and fall" film in which the trickery and deceit that helps Barry in the first half, turns aginst him in the second.

The film ends decidely in a minor key. The negative view on human nature that permeates the film was responsible for the fact that the film didn't do well at the box office. Later the film was rehabilitated artisticly, but that didn't help Kubrick much to get enough finance for is his much cheried Napoleon project (which, if realised, would be situated in roughly the same time).

"Vertigo" is the number 1 film of all times in the 2012 edition of the "Sight and Sound" critics poll (the poll appears every decade beginning with 1952). In the "Sight and Sound" directors poll the film is number 7 on the list.

In "Vertigo" Hitchcock applies one of his favourite story telling techniques. Somewhat after halfway of the film he reveals to the audience the hidden truth, while his main protagonist remains totally ignorant. Curious enough this does not work as a spoiler. The tension of the film remains , but only takes on a different character. One asks himself no longer what the truth is, but if and how the main character will discover it.

The theme of "Vertigo" is the restyling of a living woman after the example of a dead woman. This is also the theme of "Rebecca" (1940, Alfred Hitchcock), but the two films couldn't be more different. In "Rebecca" the "force" behind the restyling comes from the house where the dead lady used to live, and especially from its repesentative the main housekeeper Mrs Danvers. "Rebecca" is a haunted house genre film. In "Vertigo" the "force" behind the restyling comes from a man's sexual fantasies and desires. "Rebecca" is thus a psychological drama.