1903: The Great Train Robbery

I guess you ought to have seen it once. In the end, someone shoots at the screen. (5)

1964: The Train

The movie about a team of French resistance members trying to keep the Nazis from deporting a collection of world-renowned paintings to Germany is another one of those incredibly well-crafted 1960s Hollywood pics that provide really good entertainment, but don't even intend to grab you by the lapels. (7)

1953: Ugetsu monogatari

Mizoguchi's film about two men who go out into the world to try their luck does have its moments of (typically Japanese) beauty, but overall it's hard for me to see what all the fuzz is about. (6)

2010: The Social Network

The Film Everybody's Talking about, a courtroom drama of sorts, is an all-around good, funny and well-photographed dramedy, though it's a little too textbook to excite me. (7)

1921: Manhatta

This silent ten-minute documentary, if you want to call it that, portrays a day in the life of Manhattan. Watching completely silent films (without music) is an experience I'm only getting used to, but it helps to look at the film as a series of animated photographs. "Moving pictures", you might say. (7.5)

1987: Kárhozat (Damnation)

Bela Tarr's early film deals with a man in love with a married woman in a small Hungarian town, but what it's really about is light and shadow and movement in space. Not quite Werckmeister, but recommended in the unlikely case you're into this kind of thing. (7)

1961: Léon Morin, prêtre

In a Nazi-occupied French village, a priest, played by Belmondo, converts a woman (Emanuelle Riva) from one false belief system (communism) to the next (christianity). Will he get into more than just her mind? - Melville's commercially most successful film, and of those I've seen the one I found least interesting so far. It's not bad, but it doesn't have a lot to recommend it either, except for a little of that old French film charme that's hard to pin down. (6)

1920: The Neighbors

The best Keaton short I've seen so far, with lots of cool stunts. A bit like The General, only shorter and without trains. (7)

1927: The Lodger

Though it is sometimes hailed as Hitchcock's first masterpiece, I was not that impressed by the story of a family who rents an apartment to a man who may or may not be the serial killer the whole town is looking for. Some interesting visuals at the beginning; apart from that it seems a little old, probably because it is. (6)

1958: Les amants

A woman is torn between her rich but boring husband and her fiery Latin lover. The film moves along decently until, while lying in the bathtub, she decides to solve this conflict by falling in love with a completely uncharismatic student. As he doesn't mind either, we get treated to a scene in which the lovers walk through nature accompanied by the sound of a string quartet, which possibly marks the low point of the use of classical music in the history of movies. At some point, the film ends. (4.5)

1935: Triumph des Willens

Riefenstahl's supposed masterpiece of propaganda filmmaking turn out to be surprisingly pedestrian. Though there are some nice shots, there's nothing that is truly spectacular apart from the sheer mass of people in some scenes. Not in the same league as Eisenstein, but recommended for fans of people marching. (5.5)

The Best of September 2010

1. The American (2010) - 7.5
2. Stardust Memories (1980) - 7.5
3. A Cock and Bull Story (2005) - 7.5
   
4. Masculin feminin (1966) - 7.5
5. Mildred Pierce (1945) - 7
   

Films Not Finished: September 2010

El espiritu de la colmena, Il Gattopardo, Gran Torino, Rich and Strange, Theatre of Blood