Reviews

species II is one of the worst movies ever to hit the big screen ,of course, and its predecessor isn´t much better either, but it is somehow a very funny, unintentional comedy. Only two examples of great comedy: immediately after they are `born`, the alien/human kids wear a greyish suit, that is actually growing with them! Great dialogue, too:`that will f*** mankind out of existence!`, `i think of all the places i will never see`, and so on. So if you can handle extreme gore and do have a taste for very bad movies, go rent species II, see it with some good friends and laugh.

I saw this a few months ago on the big screen, just after Nosferatu, another silent classic. Both showings were supported by a live organ play, which has been composed directly for the movie, and which suited perfectly. I had seen Nosferatu before, but i didn´t know anything about `Jeanne`, and so i was in no way prepared for this overwhelming, soul-rapturing experience.

My eyes were immediately glued to the screen. Unfortunately i had missed the first minutes, so it started for me with the first (?) court scene. The camera wandered through the faces of the court members, circled and focussed on Jeanne´s face. So beautiful, naked, strong and defenseless! I could rave on the technical perfection of this film, it´s clever editing, innovative and gorgeous cinematography, proper historical settings and pure storytelling. Carl Theodor Dreyer created a masterpiece. But the most outstanding feature of this silent are the performances; Maria Falconetti delivers simply the best performance of all times, and i can´t remember of any ´corny` overacting, which distracts most silent movies from the modern viewer, even the accepted classics. `La passion de Jeanne d´Arc´ is purest cinematic art, timeless in every sense.

I have just seen Nachtgestalten, and i think it was quite interesting,touching and surprisingly funny. It tolds the stories of three different couples during a night in Berlin. Good actors and a good skript, but there are also some needed clichés as the rain for dramatic tension and the naive farmer for comic relief. But after several years, when light comedies dominated the german cinema, it is refreshing to see it maturing. 7/10

This is surely one of the best films of the decade. The story of a drunk and a hooker, who share a most desperate love, relying on each other ´til the end, is simple, sad and beautiful. Cage and Shue shine as the leads, especially Elisabeth Shue is outstanding. A definitive 10/10

The Night of the Hunter is quite a mystery to me. It is odd, dark, funny, clever, beautiful and thrilling at the same time. I can ´t think of a movie that could be compared to this one, it plays in a league of its own.

If you like this one as much as i do, you should definitely try to get the 1955 soundtrack, which was released in 1998 by a small german label. Charles Laughton narrates with biblical force a story of good and evil, the story of the hunter, the flight of the two children and the story of their final salvation. This movie is clearly intended to be a nightmarish fable, for those who can remember the fears of their childhood, one perhaps to be far from mom and dad, alone in the night and hunted by the hunter.

I have seen this one time on tv, and recently on the big screen. This showing was supported by a live organ play (directly composed for the movie), which suited perfectly. Nosferatu is a good, maybe even a great film, but only if you see it as classic. It is the first vampire movie, it is the first big Murnau feature and it set the tone for hundreds of followers. I can appreciate how innovative Murnau uses light and shadows in this typical expressionistic manner and why this must have been a scary film in the 20ies, but it does not scare me today. I like the 1979 version of Werner Herzog more, because it has better performances and, of course, better dialogue(: But if you are interested in the history of film, you have to check this one out.