Reviews

The Movie Hypocrisy was released in 1916 and was a silent film that was produced by the Fox Corporation. Overall, I feel that the film was very well made for its time. The storyline was excellent and the actors did a good job of portraying emotion on screen without any sound. The film is about a pastor at an American church whose congregation is not living the values that he preaches. The film follows the pastor as he makes a statue that portrays hypocrisy. Many of the scenes in this film are symbolic. I suspect that the film makers had to do this because there was no sound for the actors. The film makers had to find a way to present their message to the viewers without sound. They did this by labeling items and having the actors perfect their body language and facial expressions. Considering this is one of the earliest films made, it seems very well done and refined. The storyline is very well developed and engaging. The movie seems to have a point to it and it seems like the audience would have walked out having learned something. I suspect that this movie would have been very controversial at the time because of the nudity in the movie. However, I think that the nudity adds to the story and is important because it shows that people are more upset about that than they are about alcohol and the fact that many men have mistresses. Overall, I thought that this was great movie with a storyline that is still relevant. The film makers did an excellent job with making the audience get the point of the film without sound or dialog. The moral of the film is something that can still be applied today, which makes this film still relevant.

The Film "Chungking Express" was released in the United States on March 8 1998. It was written and directed by Kar Wai Wong. The film is about two police officers that are in love and their stories. They have both recently broken up with their long time girlfriends. This movie takes place in Hong Kong in the 1990's. The type of filming that the director, Kar Wai Wong, used in this movie was really interesting. He used a film technique that showed impressionistic splashes of motion and color. The main characters, Cop 663 and Cop 223, are played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Takeshi kaneshiro. These two actors played their role very well. They seem to be heartbroken over their breakup with their girlfriends. That turns out to be one of the main points of the movie. Their female lead counterparts are Faye and an air hostess. They are played by Faye Wong and Valerie Chow. An interesting thing that the film makers did in this movie was that they divided the story into two separate parts. These parts are not overlapping and are separated in the middle of the film. This film won several film awards from the Hong Kong Film Awards. It won awards such as best actor, best director, and best picture. Overall, the best aspect of the film was the filming techniques used. They are very innovative and I haven't seen them before. The actors that are in the film are also very good. They played their parts very well. Overall, this was a decent film that portrayed Hong Kong. The acting was mediocre buy the film techniques that were used seem to be innovative.

The movie "Lost Boundaries" was released on July 2, 1949. It was directed by Alfred Werker. The film is about a man that is part black who goes to medical school and is based on a true story. He marries and has children. He is the doctor of a small town in New England. His children never know and the townspeople never know that he is black. Everyone eventually finds out and comes to terms with the situation. This was an amazing movie. The subject matter that this movie covered was somewhat ahead of its time. This movie was released in 1949, which was over a decade before the civil rights movements and the military was in the process of desegregation. The film makers did an excellent job at making the story believable. The characters are portrayed as a normal family that has lived in the high class of the small New England town for twenty years. The actor that plays the main character of Scott Mason Carter, Mel Ferrer, did an excellent job of portraying his character. Scott Mason Carter was portrayed as a person who was very well like in that small town. His wife, Marcia Carter, who was played by Beatrice Pearson, was also portrayed in a positive manner. Both of them are high class social figure in their town which, if they had been black, they could not have become. Overall, this is an excellent movie that covers a subject that was very controversial at the time. The movie has the theme that African Americans could have the same personalities and the same type of life that white people have. The film has a high quality and seems to be very well made.

The film, "Le quai des brumes" was a French film that was released on October 29 1939. The film was directed by Marcel Carné and was set in France just prior to World War II. The movie was about a French deserter who wants to leave the country. However he falls in love with a local girl that has some history. This film was very well made and has great actors. The actor for the character of Jean, Jean Gabin, did an excellent job with his part. He came across to the audience as the perfect character that is very considerate. The actress for the female lead of Nelly, Michèle Morgan, also comes across to the audience at the perfect person for the part. She plays her part very well as a troubled girl that is falling for Jean. She gives the attitude of a person who has dealt with a lot in her life. The storyline for this film also was good. It allowed the characters to develop and let the audience get to know the characters before the movie was over. It seemed like it was not a movie over an event, but just telling a story about a certain part of their lives. As this film was released in 1939 just after Europe erupted into World War II, I find it odd that the war or at least the threat of war was never mentioned in the film. I guess this film was meant to be a form of escapism. Overall this was a very well made film that has characters and a storyline that go well together. The actors that were in this film seemed very good at portraying their characters. I did find it odd that a film that was made this close to World War II did not have any references to the war.

The film, "Oktyabr" was a Russian propaganda film that was released on January 20, 1928. The film was directed by Grigori Aleksandrov and Sergei M. Eisenstein. The movie portrays the Russian revolution that occurred during World War I. It follows the citizens as they attempt to overthrow the ruling class and the government of Russia in 1918. The silent film was released to commemorate the ten year anniversary of the revolution. In my opinion, the film was more of a documentary than a story being told and it could have been better if the film had followed a few main characters instead of focusing on the population in general. However, the style of the film is excellent. The directors used many innovative filming techniques such as montages that helped the film explain events without spending a great amount of time on one event. The acting in this film is also very good. The actor that portrayed Lenin in the film portrayed his character in a very historically accurate manner. In this movie, the directors used the real places where the events of the revolution took place. The winter palace was used for the final scene of the movie and that is the exact place where the revolution ended just ten years earlier. Since the film was made only ten years after the real revolution, it allowed the writers and directors to get input from many people who were a part of the revolution. Overall this was an excellent Russian propaganda film that portrayed the Russian revolution. The film was historically accurate because it was made only ten years after the real revolution took place. The directors do an amazing job with their filming techniques by using innovative filming techniques such as a montage.

The film," North by Northwest" was released In the United States on July 17 1959. The film was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In the film Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken as a government agent. He is pursued across the country by people trying to kill him. This film is very well made and the director was one of the best in the business. Alfred Hitchcock knew how to make a movie. He paid attention to details in his movies. He knew how to make the audience have the reaction he wanted. The main character in this film, Roger O. Thornhill, was played by Cary Grant. He plays his character very well. His character comes across as the type of person that is trying to figure out what is going on. This film is filled with suspenseful scenes. An example is the many chase scenes of the movie, the audience doesn't know if the police or secret agents will catch him. The audience will always be engaged with the movie during these types of scenes because they can't look away during one of these chase scenes because if they do, they might miss something. Hitchcock is able to keep the audience interested the whole time, which is a big accomplishment even in today's Hollywood. The Female lead in this movie was ale excellent. The leading female character, "Eva Marie Saint" did an amazing job with her role. Her along with Cary Grant have great chemistry on the screen. Overall, this film was an amazing display of the talent that Alfred Hitchcock has. He manages to keep the audience interested in the film from start to finish using suspenseful scenes. The actors that are in this film portrayed their characters very well. Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint do an amazing job at portraying their characters as calm, cool, and collected.

The Film "Eight and a half" was released in the United States on June 25, 1963. It was directed by Federico Fellini. This film came to the United States from Italy and is in Italian. Because of the need for subtitles, the film can be somewhat difficult to understand. The main character of this film, Guido Anselmi, was portrayed by Marcello Mastroianni. He portrays a character that seems to know what he is doing. He plays his character very well and seems to not have any problems. The film is about a director that has lost his will to make a film and goes into his dreams to come up with new ideas. After much deliberation, he comes back with a newfound energy to make his film. The movie follows his interaction with his wife, an actress in his movies and many other people. In this movie we see the life of a film maker and the type of life that he lives. The main problem that I have with the film is that the film seems to go nowhere. It doesn't seem to have a point. The big event at the end with the movie premiere seems to be what the movie was leading up to but this doesn't seem like a big enough event to be a climax. I guess that overall the film seemed boring and there was nothing to hold the interest of the viewer. Overall, I felt that the film was not able to hold the interest of the viewer. The acting in the film was great although it was kind of hard to tell because it was in Italian. The main character was played very well by the actor and comes across as the all knowing Hollywood director.