Out of the Past: October 2013

Oh the mountain of must-see movies and my humble attempts to scale it...

Progress will be compiled at the end of each month with films listed in order of preference.

Singin in the Rain

Stanley Donen (1952)

Gene Kelly plays a silent cinema star moving into the sound era in Stanley Donen’s soaring, dreamlike musical. Set in a Hollywood studio, Donen’s film acknowledges - almost pokes fun at- the falseness of the dream factory before giving us perhaps the most beautiful example of what that falseness can do. I smiled from start to finish. And for a good while later. In a word: Perfect.

The American Friend

Wim Wenders (1977)

We’re in Hamburg, and a bit in Paris. Bruno Ganz plays an artist with a fatal blood disease. He meets a shady international art dealer played by Dennis Hopper and the two form a bond. Hopper’s boss hears of Ganz’ troubles and so offers him a late pay day if he’s willing to ‘take out’ some of his buddies in return. He has a wife and kid and so, agrees. Ganz is terrific here; despite his character’s fantastical circumstances, his tender, low-key performance somehow keeps the whole thing grounded. It reads like a thriller but Wenders seems more interested in the unlikely friendship between his two stars; reserved Ganz and wild Hopper. Almost a decade before he unleashed Frank Booth in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet- a character which would define the later part of his career- the Hollywood cowboy  bubbles with that same intensity. The antithesis to Ganz’ gentle craftsman, he’s Stetson-clad and wild, but still… he’s a mate.

A Moment of Innocence

Mohsen Makhmalbaf (1996)

Mohsen Makhmalbaf was a leader of Iran’s Cultural Revolution and more recently one of the state’s fiercest dissidents. At 17 years old under the Shah’s regime, he was imprisoned and tortured for stabbing a policeman. In 1996 the policeman visits Makhmalbaf. He’s big and awkward and an actor too. He’s also a bit of a gent. He asks Makhmalbaf for a role in one of his films so the director decides that the two men will cast their younger selves and re-enact the fated event. Playing with fiction and reality like a kid with a ball, Makhmalbaf gives a delicate, funny and ultimately astonishing portrayal of how we remember things or, perhaps, how we choose to.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Tobe Hooper (1974)

A group of teens get terrorized by a chainsaw wielding maniac and his family of cannibals while visiting their grandparent’s old home. You might think you know the drill but Hooper’s film feels so much stranger than what’s come since. Its bogeyman, Leatherface, is more a simpleton with a certain love for arts and crafts than a demonic monster. Halloween was celebrated for its low budget stylish aesthetics and yet this film, made for a quarter of the price, looks even better. The ghastly set design is remarkable and it’s DP, Daniel Pearl on his first movie, does an incredible job. The dinner table scene could have been lifted from a Stanley Kubrick nightmare.

The Wicker Man

Robin Hardy (1973)

Christopher Lee plays the Lord of a pagan Island in this legendary folk horror. A straight edge Presbyterian policeman comes to the Island to investigate a case of a missing girl but stumbles upon something far weirder. The place is rife with sex, songs, hedonism and perhaps much more. It seems were following the copper, but the locals- despite all the madness- have a lot more charm. Endlessly bizarre, the film looks in good health as it hits 40 years of age.

The Fog

John Carpenter (1980)

Carpenter followed up his slasher smash Halloween with this spooky seaside tale. A small town are celebrating their centenary when a strange fog rolls in and starts causing havoc. It's great in parts but dreadful in others; on one hand Carpenter points a finger at the genocide of the Native Americans while on the other only offers us the most ridiculous of ghouls.  Still, it’s very well shot by Dean Cundey, who would go on to shoot Jurassic Park, and Carpenter himself provides another memorable score.

All I desire

Douglas Sirk (1953)

One of Sirk’s earliest melodramas at Universal concerns a mother, played by Barbra Stanwyk, who -having left years before to become an actress- returns to suburbia to see her daughter’s play. In 1953 it seems Sirk was yet to sharpen the knives but this story of a broken family still flickers with subversion. Stanwyk is, as ever, electric.

Un Femme est Un Femme

Jean-Luc Godard (1961)

Anna Karina stars in the French New Wave’s answer to the Hollywood screwball comedy. Following this film, Karina would go on to become the director’s muse and while both the film and performances are full of colour and youth, Godard seems to indulge Karina a touch too much. But then, who wouldn’t.