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1.The Bad and the Beautiful
Directed by Vincente Minnelli | Starring Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Barry Sullivan, Dick Powell, Gloria Grahame | USA 1952 | 118min | Cert PG
One of the most enjoyable movies Hollywood made about itself, this warts-and-all portrait of a ruthlessly ambitious producer is also, one suspects, among the most truthful.
Now down on his luck, Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) wants to work once more with the director, star and writer whose movie careers he helped foster – but all they can think of is how he betrayed their trust. Chronicling Shields' rise to power in three long flashbacks, Minnelli and producer extraordinaire John Houseman bring just the right blend of affectionate satire and scathing drama to an account of movie-capital mores that feels unusually authentic. It helps both that many characters are clearly based on real people (think Selznick, the Barrymores, Faulkner, the Hitchcocks et al) and that Douglas hurls himself so fully into his role – the potent mix of charm, canniness and determination a pinnacle in the actor's career. Minnelli, meanwhile, directs to perfection, some scenes distinguished by a rare subtlety, others by a remarkable intensity. Utterly compelling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbRILHm-Gu4 |
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2.A Night to Remember
YEAR: 1958
RUNNING TIME: 123 MINUTES
CERTIFICATE: U
DIRECTED BY: ROY WARD BAKER
STARRING: Kenneth Moore, Ronald Allen
In 1912, the 'unsinkable' Titanic sails from Southampton with 2207 passengers on board. They excitedly dine and dance and the sea is incredibly calm. Then a look-out spots an iceberg looming up directly ahead. The boat steers away, but the submerged part of the berg rips a 300-foot gash under the waterline. The crew realise the vessel will sink in less than three hours. As those on board realise their fate, calm gives way to panic. There is a rush to the lifeboats, but there are not enough for all the passengers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ChwGrhx9Lc |
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3.Le Quai des brumes
Directed by Marcel Carné | Starring Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan, Michel Simon, Pierre Brasseur | France 1938 | 91min | Cert PG
A marvellously moody thriller, Carné's newly restored classic of 'poetic realism' gave Gabin one of his most memorably iconic roles as an army deserter on the run.
In the fog-bound, noir universe of Le Havre, Jean hopes to escape by boat to Venezuela, but his plans run aground when he falls for Nelly (Morgan), the young ward of the lecherous Zabel (Simon) and clearly an object of jealous desire for local gangster Julien (Brasseur). But how can Jean protect her if he's headed abroad? Jacques Prévert's typically astute script is merely the starting point for one of the most roundly satisfying rime movies of the pre-war years; with its gallery of garrulous low-lifes, Alexandre Trauner's magically evocative sets, the melancholy mists and shadows conveyed by Eugene Schufftan's camera, Coco Chanel's discreetly stylish costume designs and Maurice Jaubert's haunting score, the film is a wonder of collaborative artistry. The bittersweet atmosphere of fatalistic romanticism is brilliantly sustained by Carné and his cast; seldom has the seedy side of life seemed so utterly seductive…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BFFlAMcQu8 |
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4.Laura.
Directed by Otto Preminger | Starring Dita Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb| USA 1944 | 88 mins | Cert U
"I shall never forget the weekend Laura died..." So begins Preminger's masterpiece about erotic obsession, jealousy, deceit and deadly betrayal.
The narrator welcoming us into the pleasingly perverse upper-crust New York of the film is Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), a columnist who writes 'with a goose quill dipped in venom', first encountered at work in his bath by Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews), the detective investigating the recent murder of beautiful advertising executive Laura (Gene Tierney). But Waldo's not the sole suspect; there's Laura's fiancé Shelby (Vincent Price), and Shelby's somewhat older lover Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson)... And can McPherson's judgement really be trusted anyway, given that he too appears to have fallen for the dead woman he's hearing about? A brilliantly witty, tortuous script (including, very memorably, Lydecker's mordantly egotistical commentary) and Preminger's cool, sharp-sighted direction ensure that the film succeeds gloriously as both social satire and taut suspense. One of the subtlest, most sophisticated and most invigoratingly acerbic Hollywood crime movies ever made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6f8jRplej8 |
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5.The First Born
Directed by Miles Mander | Starring Miles Mander, Madeleine Carroll, John Loder, Margot Armand, Ella Atherton | UK 1928 | 88 mins
A philandering politician, the double standards of the upper classes, jealousy, miscegenation and a generation torn between centuries of tradition and a more modern morality... the plot of The First Born feels not unlike a lost episode of Downton Abbey. However, the film was expertly co-scripted by Alma Reville (Mrs Alfred Hitchcock) and it's hard not to see her influence in raising it beyond old-school melodrama to be a tour de force of late silent British cinema. Sir Hugo Boycott (Miles Mander) and his young bride (a pre-blonde Madeleine Carroll) have a passionate relationship, but it founders when she fails to produce an heir. This is a surprisingly 'adult' film and made with both elegance and invention. Particularly surprising among Mander's sometimes Hitchcockian box of visual tricks is a handheld camera sequence that allows the audience to become voyeur as Boycott stalks the marital bedroom to find his wife in the bath. The story is oddly reflected in reality: the 'first born' is played by Mander's own son and it was well known that the leads were involved romantically - well enough known to bring Mander's wife to the set to demand an explanation. This major new restoration by the BFI National Archive includes reinstated missing footage and the reintroduction of a beautiful range of tints.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQZT5hMnXXU |
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6.An American in Paris
Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris, is "discovered" by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry's art. Jerry in turn falls for Lise, a young French girl already engaged to a cabaret singer. Jerry jokes, sings and dances with his best friend, an acerbic would-be concert pianist, while romantic complications abound. Written by Scott Renshaw
[IMDB.COM]
Release: 4 October 1951
Running Time: 113 min
Awards: Won 6 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 7 nominations
Producer: Arthur Freed
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Writer: Alan Jay Lerner
Cast: Gene Kelly (Jerry Mulligan), Leslie Caron (Lise Bouvier), Oscar Levant (Adam Cook), Georges Guetary (Henri 'Hank' Baurel)
Genre: Musical, Romance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiiaJRXPAm4 |
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7.Deep End
Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski | UK - West Germany 1970 | 88 mins | Starring: Jane Asher, John Moulder-Brown and Diana Dors
The Swinging Sixties are over and the long, grey morning after has only just begun. But there are still eye-opening new experiences in store for wet-behind-the-ears teenager Mike (John Moulder-Brown) when he takes a job at a rundown London swimming bath. After one of its more mature visitors steamily attempts to take advantage (Diana Dors, in a superb cameo), he gradually wises up to find himself adrift with an increasingly obsessive interest in sassy, self-assured, spoken-for co-worker Susan (a seductive Jane Asher). Giddily he follows her into the grimy underbelly of Soho for a long dark night of the soul – soundtracked with great intensity by legendary Krautrock band Can. Will Mike sabotage Susan's relationship with her fiancé and get together with her instead? Jerzy Skolimowski's compelling, darkly poetic portrait of London life in an era of uncertainty and changing sexual mores now makes a long overdue return to the screen in a beautiful new digital restoration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCZcaqGZiaQ |
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8.Last Year at Marienbad
Directed by Alain Resnais | Starring: Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha Pitoëff | France-Italy 1961 | 94 mins | Cert U
Defining the words 'art film' for a generation, Marienbad is every bit as extraordinary today as when it was premiered in Venice, 50 years ago this August.
The plot is banal and, as in Hiroshima, the characters have no names. X (Albertazzi) pursues A (Seyrig) through the endless corridors of a luxury hotel, trying to persuade her that they met last year, while M (Pitoëff), who may be A's husband, looks on. But, in the eternal present of Robbe-Grillet's screenplay, drenched in the organ score by Francis Seyrig (brother of Delphine), there can be no 'last year' (and probably no future either). Don't miss the chance to see this timeless masterpiece on the big screen, for which the inky blacks and flaring whites of Sacha Vierny’s cinematography were made. There is, quite simply, no other movie like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5km-4o3EAY |
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9.Born to Kill
Run Time: 1 hours, 32 minutes
Video: Black & White
Released: July 5, 2005
Originally Released: 1947
Starring Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak, Elisha Cook, Jr., Philip Terry & Audrey Long
Directed by Robert Wise
Edited by Les Millbrook
Written by Richard Macauley & Eve Greene
Composition by Paul Sawtell
Director of Photography Robert DeGrasse
A sleek thriller about insecurity, infidelity, and murder, BORN TO KILL, based on a novel by James Gunn, is a dark and gritty melodrama that probes the ever-lurking dark side of human nature and the results of giving in to those impulses. The film opens with Sam (played by a brilliantly evil Lawrence Tierney) committing a double murder in a fit of jealousy. The bodies are soon discovered by the beautiful, wealthy Helen (Claire Trevor) who, not wanting to be involved, flees town and doesn't report the crime. In a neat twist, Helen and Sam soon find themselves on the same train, wildly attracted to each other. Visiting her estate, Sam learns Helen is engaged to be married, so he goes after her sister Georgia (Audrey Long), marrying her. But it isn't long before Sam's old life--and the murder he committed--comes back to haunt him. This inevitability, along with his insatiable jealousy of Helen, pushes Sam to new heights of brutality. The twists and turns in the story are supported beautifully by Robert de Grasse's moody cinematography. This unflinching film noir is a little-known Robert Wise gem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTexL4bRZsM |
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10.Clash By Night
Run Time: 1 hours, 45 minutes
Video: Black & White
Originally Released: 1952
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe, Julius Tannen, Silvio Minciotti, Keith Andes & J. Carrol Naish
Directed by Fritz Lang
Edited by George Amy
Screenwriting by Alfred Hayes & David Dortort
Composition by Roy Webb
Produced by Harriet Parsons
Director of Photography Nicholas Musuraca
Barbara Stanwyck and Marilyn Monroe star in Fritz Lang's CLASH BY NIGHT, based on a play by Clifford Odets. Lang (M, METROPOLIS, THE BIG HEAT) stays true to form with this disturbing yet subtle portrait of the dangerous undercurrents of everyday life and the push and pull of greed and loyalty in modern relationships. The film begins with Mae Doyle (Stanwyck) returning to the safe haven of her hometown, a small fishing community in Monterey, California. Upon her arrival, she is befriended by a newly married young woman working in the canneries, played by Monroe. Mae also finds a friend in a kindhearted fisherman whom she quickly marries. But before too long Mae has thrown herself into a tumultuous affair with another man.
In the second half of the movie, which takes place a year after the first, Mae willingly abandons her husband and child to pursue her affair. But she quickly learns that her new lover is a bitter, angry man. With him she's not the person that she used to be. She regrets her decision terribly and wishes that she could return to her husband--that is, if he could ever forgive her. Stanwyck's performance as a world-weary vamp is compellingly juxtaposed with Monroe's performance as a sassy, naive newlywed, as each character offsets the other's personal struggles. The storms that batter the coast of the gritty, realist locale mirror the storms that rage within each character as they search for the meanings of their lives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-rb7jSRf88 |
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11.Crossfire
Run Time: 1 hours, 26 minutes
Video: Black & White
Originally Released: 1947
Starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Sam Levene, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, Paul Kelly & Gloria Grahame
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Edited by Harry Gerstad
Screenwriting by John Paxton
Composition by Roy Webb
Cinematography by J. Roy Hunt
Produced by Adrian Scott
Plot Synopsis:
CROSSFIRE is a rare 1940s indictment of anti-Semitism and bigotry. The theme is wrapped around a murder case with Robert Ryan as the hateful murderer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dRDINoVTec |
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12.Dillinger
Run Time: 1 hours, 10 minutes
Video: Black & White
Originally Released: 1945
Starring Lawrence Tierney, Edmund Lowe, Anne Jeffreys, Elisha Cook, Jr. & Eduardo Ciannelli
Directed by Max Nosseck
Edited by Edward Mann & Otho S. Lovering
Screenwriting by Leon Charles & Philip Yordan
Composition by Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography by Jackson Rose
Produced by Maurice King
Willie Sutton robbed banks during the Depression because, he explained, "That's where the money is." Former Indiana farm boy John Dillinger also knew where the money was. And his string of early-1930s heists, murders and daring jailbreaks were so bold and notorious he became Public Enemy #1.
Dillinger, Oscar-nominated for its screenplay, is the bullet-paced story of the man whose crimes captivated and terrified the nation. Lawrence Tierney plays the title role, breaking free of screen anonymity and moving into a 50-year tough-guy career that would include 1947's Born to Kill and 1992's Reservoir Dogs. Perhaps it was a brutal early prison stretch that Dillinger from kid to killer. Perhaps he was a murderous thug to his core. Either way, Dillinger presents his story with film-noir style and lets you decide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7df6vmwoz7c |
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Post time 10-4-2012 12:54 AM
变色卡
Author
