The Movie Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)

SMALL WORLD 299

What else to watch: Funny Face (1957) ■ The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, p.173) ■ Delicatessen (1991) ■
The City of Lost Children (1995) ■ Alien: Resurrection (1997) ■ A Very Long Engagement (2004)

techniques all serve as platforms routine to the point where he Amélie (Audrey Tautou) plays jokes
for the director’s skill without losing doubts his own sanity, such as by on the bullying grocery-store owner
touch with an intimate story: that swapping around door handles in (Urbain Cancelier) for his cruelty to
of a young woman finding herself. his apartment and changing the Lucien (Jamel Debbouze). She secretly
alarm time on his bedside clock. falls for Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz, far left).
Saying without words By the same token, when she tries
Amélie has a very pronounced to reignite her father’s dream of because she sees the world in a
visual showmanship, which seeing the world, she does so by different way. She notices things
underscores one of the movie’s key “kidnapping” his garden gnome other people don’t and acts in a
themes—that the most valuable and sending her father photos of way other people would not. This
communication is done without it appearing in several exotic is especially so when Amélie finds
words. Its central protagonist, the locations. These are disparate herself face to face with her love
young waitress Amélie, is so shy goals. One is an act of social interest, Nino. There is no speech
that she plots elaborate ways to vigilantism, the other a familial of any kind. They simply look at
convey things she is incapable of gesture of love. Yet Amélie goes each other, seeing into the person
putting into words. For example, about both in the same way, honestly, and realize they are meant
instead of confronting a shop owner manipulating reality to get the for each other.
she sees abusing his employee, she person to the place she wants
subtly disrupts the owner’s daily them—not out of malice, but Though some criticized Amélie
for what was seen as a dated portrait
She doesn’t relate to people, of Paris, others fell in love with
she was always a lonely child. the way it merges ambition with
soulfulness, juxtaposing high-
Amélie / Amélie energy visuals and narrative
adventure with the simple story of
a boy and a girl falling in love. ■

300

WHAT AN
EXTRAORDINARY
STANCE!

LAGAAN / 2001

IN CONTEXT A story about a village cricket The movie is not just a story.
match in India under the It is an experience. An
GENRE British Raj in the 1890s, experience of watching
Musical drama Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan, Once something that puts life
Upon a Time in India (to give it its
DIRECTOR full title) is one of the few Indian into you, that puts a cheer
Ashutosh Gowariker movies to have achieved audience on your face, however
and critical acclaim both within
WRITERS India and far beyond. depressed you might be.
K. P. Saxena (Hindi Sudish Kamath
dialogue), Ashutosh The scenario is a simple one. At
Gowariker (English a time when the remote village of The Hindu
dialogue) Champaner in Gujarat is suffering
from a drought, one of the villagers, old-fashioned adventure in which
STARS Bhuvan (Aamir Khan), goes to the plucky underdogs get together
Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, local British officer, Captain Andrew to take on the bullies, and it has
Rachel Shelley, Paul Russell (Paul Blackthorne), to plead everything you’d expect from such
Blackthorne; narrated for relief from the lagaan, or crop a classic story. There is a romantic
by Amitabh Bachchan tax. Russell dismisses his plea, but triangle, as Captain Russell’s sister
before Bhuvan leaves, he sees the Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley) falls for
BEFORE British playing cricket and mocks Bhuvan, who is already pledged
1957 Mehboob Khan’s the game. Incensed, Russell offers to local girl Gauri (Gracy Singh).
melodrama Mother India to cancel the villagers’ taxes for There is a jealous lover, Lakha, who,
is the first Indian movie to be three years if they can beat his men spurned by Gauri, helps the British.
nominated for the Best Foreign in a game—but if they lose, they There are comic characters galore,
Language Movie Oscar. will have to pay triple. To the horror and even the poor outsider who
of the villagers, Bhuvan accepts the turns out to be a hero.
AFTER challenge. The match occupies the
2004 Gowariker’s acclaimed entire second half of the movie, right
follow-up to Lagaan, Swades, up to the final, crucial ball.
tells the story of a NASA
scientist who returns to Crowd-pleasing story
his native Indian village. Lagaan’s success at the box office
was partly due to its sheer
entertainment value. It is a stirring,

What else to watch: The Pride of the Yankees (1942) ■ Mother India (1957) ■ SMALL WORLD 301
Playing Away (1987) ■ Salaam Bombay (1988) ■ Jodhaa Akbar (2008)
Ashutosh Gowariker
He who has truth and courage in Director
his heart shall win in the end.
Ashutosh Gowariker is
Bhuvan / Lagaan renowned for beautifully shot,
well-crafted stories. He was
But this is much more than just an but that is also where its political born in Mumbai, India, in
entertaining romp. The movie carries message lies: feeling good, feeling 1964. After earning a degree
a Gandhian message of redemption valued, is essential to healing the in chemistry, he pursued a
and unity, as the fight against the wounds that divide people. career in movies as an actor.
oppressor is undertaken entirely It wasn’t until he was in his
without violence or bitterness. The Above all, Lagaan is a celebration 30s that he directed his first
team’s inclusiveness is Gandhian, of India. It is a beautiful movie that movie, Pehla Nasha (First Love,
too: the players include Hindus, a captures the rich and exuberant 1993). His big breakthrough
Sikh, a Muslim, and even a Dalit, a colors of the landscape, with its came with Lagaan, followed
member of the untouchable caste. ambers, browns, and yellows. by Swades. Romantic comedy
Bhuvan has to fight to persuade the Added to this is the acclaimed What’s Your Raashee? (2009)
other villagers to accept Kachra, the soundtrack of A. R. Rahman, was a change of direction,
Dalit, but Kachra’s maimed hand, that punctuates the movie with but his period drama Khelein
the physical symbol of his social captivating songs and music. ■ Hum Jee Jaan Sey, about the
handicap, turns out to be his trump Chittagong uprising, put him
card, as his misshapen fingers give Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) dances with back on familiar territory.
him a remarkable ability to spin the Gauri (Gracy Singh) as the rest of the
ball. Lagaan is a feel-good movie, village looks on in one of the movie’s Key movies
set-piece musical numbers.
2001 Lagaan
2004 Swades
2010 Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey

302

IT ALL BEGAN WITH
THE FORGING OF THE
GREAT RINGS

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP
OF THE RING / 2001

IN CONTEXT N ot since the biblical epics exploits its special effects, it does
of Hollywood’s classical not depend on them. Its success
GENRE era has a movie been owes far more to the skill of its
Fantasy made on the scale of The director, Peter Jackson, who also
Fellowship of the Ring, the first cowrote the screenplay.
DIRECTOR installment in the Lord of the Rings
Peter Jackson trilogy. For many years, J. R. R. Jackson understood that he had
Tolkien’s sprawling fantasy novel to compress the intricate backstory
WRITERS was considered to be unfilmable. as much as he could, keep the
Peter Jackson, Only with rapid advances in narrative pace fast, and
Phillippa Boyens, Fran computer-generated imagery did maintain focus on the
Walsh (screenplay); the mythic locations, creatures, central character of
J. R. R. Tolkien (novel) and vast battle scenes become a Frodo Baggins (Elijah
possibility for a movie director. Wood). In doing so, he
STARS However, although the movie fully pulled off the notable
Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, feat of pleasing the
Viggo Mortensen
Much of the
BEFORE movie’s critical
1994 Heavenly Creatures, and box-office
based on a notorious New success was due to
Zealand murder case, brings Jackson’s trimming
Jackson critical prestige. of the plot,
enhancing the
AFTER action sequences,
2005 Jackson’s box-office
blockbuster King Kong is a and expanding
remake of the 1933 classic. the female roles.

2012–14 Jackson repeats
the success of the Lord of
the Rings trilogy with a
three-part adaptation of J. R. R.
Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit.

SMALL WORLD 303

What else to watch: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) ■
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) ■ King Kong (2005)

novel’s worldwide legions of fans him, but he does not lose his innate Peter Jackson Director
while also engaging with those goodness. Although he has guides
viewers who had never read it. and magical objects to aid him on Born in New Zealand in 1961,
his journey, in the end it is his Peter Jackson grew up
Frodo is an innocent, a hobbit goodness that shields him. fascinated by the fantasy
who has come into possession of movies of animator Ray
the long-lost ring of power, and Good vs evil Harryhausen, and began
with it holds the fate of Middle Behind the complex story is a very making shorts with a Super 8
Earth. Guided by the wizard straightforward fight between good cine camera at nine. He
Gandalf (Ian McKellen), he sets and evil. What gives this struggle received no formal education in
off on a quest to destroy it in the added nuance and jeopardy is the film, and learned through trial
fires of distant Mordor, the evil ring’s insidious power to corrupt and error. His first feature, the
land where it was forged. He is all who come near it, including cult-classic horror Bad Taste,
protected by a fellowship of eight those on the side of good—the was made in 1987. Fame came
others, including men, a dwarf, and stout-hearted members of the with Heavenly Creatures
an elf. Frodo’s character matures fellowship. Frodo alone is immune (1994), based on a true-story
with each ordeal he overcomes; to the ring’s evil, but his duty as murder committed by two
knowledge and experience change the ring bearer becomes an schoolgirls, which won the
increasingly burdensome one. Oscar for best screenplay. In
1999, Jackson got the go-ahead
In the hands of a lesser director, to make The Lord of the Rings
the movie might easily have into three big-budget movies,
become a convoluted sword-and- in a deal with Hollywood
sorcery saga. Happily, Jackson’s studio New Line Cinema,
realization of Tolkien’s world is although the movies were shot
entirely in New Zealand. The
instead one of the most Return of the King (2003), the
successful novel-to- final episode of the trilogy,
movie adaptations won 11 Academy Awards,
ever produced. ■ including Best Picture. In 2005,
Jackson directed a blockbuster
Four hobbit friends, remake of King Kong, his
Merry (Dominic favorite childhood movie.
Monaghan), Frodo
(Elijah Wood), Key movies
Pippin (Billy
Boyd), and 1994 Heavenly Creatures
Sam (Sean 2001–03 The Lord of the Rings
Astin), set 2005 King Kong
off on their 2012–14 The Hobbit
epic quest.

YOU NEED MORE THAN

GUTS TO BE A

GOOD GANGSTER.

YOU NEED IDEAS

CITY OF GOD / 2002



306 CITY OF GOD S tylish, compelling, and de Deus in Rio de Janeiro, and how
hugely entertaining, organized crime there corrupted,
IN CONTEXT Fernando Meirelles’ City and, in many cases, destroyed its
of God (Cidade de Deus) also has local youth. Yet Meirelles does not
GENRE a serious point to make. Told lecture his audience. Instead, he
Gangster, crime from the perspective of Rocket uses every stylistic trick in the
(Alexandre Rodrigues), an aspiring cinematic book, from inventive
DIRECTOR photographer, it is a movie about montages to adventurous camera
Fernando Meirelles one of Brazil’s most notorious and work, to ensure the story is vividly
impoverished favelas, the Cidade and energetically realized, and
WRITERS
Bráulio Mantovani engages the audience with
(screenplay); Paulo Lins the human tragedy.
(novel)
In one scene, a gang of
STARS children walks through the
Alexandre Rodrigues, favela, joking about taking
Leandro Firmino, over the slum and the people
Alice Braga they would need to kill in the
process. It is darkly humorous
BEFORE but also horrifying to see
1990 Martin Scorcese’s children bred into violence
Goodfellas tells the story
of the Mafia from the point from so young an age.
of view of mobster-turned-
informant Henry Hill. Tale of a city
The movie’s action is played
AFTER out at an ambitious scale.
2005 Meirelles’s Hollywood Its story spans more than
debut, The Constant Gardener, a decade and charts the
is a love story set in Kenya.
Most of the movie’s
2008 Blindness, Meirelles’s actors were inhabitants
movie about an epidemic of of the favelas portrayed in
blindness in an unnamed city, the movie. Several went on
receives mixed reviews. to appear in Meirelles’
sequel, City of Men.

Fernando Meirelles Director

Born to a middle-class family City of God, which earned him
in São Paolo, Brazil, in 1955, an Oscar nomination for Best
Fernando Meirelles studied Director. Since then, he had
architecture before winning further critical successes with
several awards at Brazilian film The Constant Gardener and
festivals with his early shorts. Blindness, for which he was
He went on to find success in nominated for the Palme d’Or.
Brazilian television, most notably
the children’s show Rá-Tim Bum. Key movies
His first feature was a children’s
movie, The Nutty Boy 2 in 1998. 2001 Maids
He made his name nationally in 2002 City of God
2001 with the comedy Maids, and 2005 The Constant Gardener
internationally a year later with 2008 Blindness

SMALL WORLD 307

What else to watch: Goodfellas (1990) ■ Casino (1995) ■ Bus 174 (2002) ■ The Constant Gardener (2005) ■
City of Men (2007) ■ A Prophet (2009)

experience of growing to adulthood of voice-over, as Rocket summarizes Dadinho, or Li’l Dice, (Douglas
in the City of God. To achieve this, the favela’s defining moments, from Silva) is the psychotic kid whose
Meirelles did not bind himself to the downfall of the Tender Trio in criminal career takes off after he
the narrative constraints of one the late 1960s, to the rise of Li’l Zé massacres the inhabitants of a
person’s story. The movie does have as a gang leader in the early 1980s. motel during a robbery.
a central character in Rocket, but Rocket observes everything as
he is a photographer, an observer characters flourish and die, as high- the opportunity for more stylistic
who acts as an audience surrogate, rise buildings rise and cartels fall. experimentation. The movie
involved but not involved, there to shifts its focus from one central
witness the events in the City of The use of voice-over also protagonist to another, taking turns
God as they occur. The movie allows for bolder visual techniques, telling their stories. It takes up the
clarifies this intention with its use such as montages that enable a tales of Shaggy, the leader of the
faster passage of time, as well as Tender Trio, Benny, the pacifist
friend of Li’l Zé, and Knockout Ned,
A kid? I smoke, I snort. I’ve killed a working man dragged into gang
and robbed. I’m a real man. warfare after his family is attacked.
With these switching perspectives,
Steak-with-fries / City of God Meirelles turns the favela itself ❯❯

308 CITY OF GOD

Relationships, allegiances, and enmities the wicked to thrive and the
innocent to perish. This is
Angélica Loves Rocket Brothers Goose demonstrated starkly in the
Boyfriend (Narrator) Friends movie’s opening sequence, in
Benny Clipper which two chickens are about
Brothers Shaggy Friends Kills to be plucked and cooked by Li’l
Kills Li’l Zé Zé’s gang. A knife flashes as it is
Blackie Partners in crime sharpened against a rock. One
chicken flinches as the other is
Kills Enemies killed, and makes a break for it,
Carrot but there is no escape.

The Tender Trio Team up against Li’l Zé Rapes When Knockout Ned tries
to draw a line between being a
Knockout Boyfriend Ned’s hoodlum and his noble vigilante
Ned Girlfriend mission against Li’l Zé, the City
of God intervenes, just as it does
into the central character, with when Shaggy tries to flee the
other characters entering only criminal life in the name of love, or
when they matter to the overall when Benny decides that he’s too
story of the slum. good a person to be a gangster.
Each time a character gives in to
The sacrificial chicken The city as fate their better nature, that character
conveys with the force of a One of the main themes Meirelles is punished. They are protagonists
blunt instrument how cheap explores is the favela’s corrosive in their own Greek tragedies, with
life has become in the ghetto. effect on everyone it touches. The the city in the role of Fate.
violence it spawns does not simply
Peter Bradshaw stay among the criminals, but Journalistic ethics
rather is all consuming and City of God is a gangster story,
The Guardian perpetuates a culture of suffering an impassioned piece of social
for all the inhabitants. Meirelles commentary, and an ambitious
presents the City of God as an work of visual cinema. Rocket’s
entity in itself, a place that allows role as a photographer also allows
the movie to touch upon the ethics
of journalism in a war zone, or in
this case, the act of dramatizing
very real problems of poverty and
violence. This is highlighted when
Rocket confronts a newspaper for

Minute by minute 00:32 1:09 1:40
At the beach, Rocket Benny is shot by Blackie at Rocket’s photo of Li’l Zé
00:10 photographs his friends, his farewell celebration. Blackie appears in the newspaper.
The Tender Trio rob a motel and meets Angélica for was aiming at Li’l Zé. Carrot He is offered a job, and
with Li’l Dice as lookout. We the first time. He buys then kills Blackie. Li’l Zé is pleased by
later find out that Lil’ Dice pot to impress her. the publicity.
went back afterward and
shot everyone in the motel.

00:00 00:15 00:30 00:45 01:00 01:15 01:30 02:00

00:30 00:50 1:26 1:52
As he tries to run from Li’l Dice becomes Li’l Zé Knockout Ned joins Knockout Ned is killed by
the police, Shaggy is shot dead. and starts a killing spree to forces with Carrot in a Otto, the son of a murdered
Rocket sees his first camera as take over the drug business war against Lil’ Ze. A year security guard. Li’l Zé is
a man photographs the body. in the City of God. later, the favela is divided. gunned down by the runts.

SMALL WORLD 309

publishing without his permission Breathtaking and terrifying, set up a workshop in the favela to
the pictures he took of Li’l Zé. urgently involved with its train a group of around 100 amateur
Rocket is sure that this has placed characters, it announces a actors. The cast of City of God
his life in danger, but from the was drawn from this pool of talent.
paper’s perspective, the story new director of great gifts and Over the course of several months,
comes first. As it turns out, Li’l Zé passions: Fernando Meirelles. they developed scripts through
is delighted by the publicity, and improvisation sessions. The social
his battle with Knockout Ned is Remember the name. commitment continued after
played out in full media glare. The Roger Ebert filming ended as the actors
newspaper staff manipulate Rocket received ongoing help to build
into taking more pictures in the time there simply were not new lives for themselves. ■
war zones of the City of God, and enough black actors in Brazil
the tensions between the desire to make this kind of movie. Two Police corruption
to highlight social problems to sell years before filming, Meirelles and rampant drug
papers and compassion for those
involved in the stories told to do dealing lead to
so are never totally resolved. gang wars in
the City of God,
Actors from the favela where Rocket
The majority of the cast for City of finds himself
God were not professional actors. caught in
As the director explained, at the
the middle.

Why return to the City of God,
where God forgets about you?

Stringy / City of God

310

LAUGH AND THE WORLD
LAUGHS WITH YOU. WEEP
AND YOU WEEP ALONE

OLDBOY / 2003

IN CONTEXT O ldboy (2003) is the second body. This theme intensifies as
entry in the Vengeance the movie progresses, with both
GENRE trilogy by Korean director protagonist and antagonist waging
Revenge thriller Park Chan-wook, coming between a war of minds with each other in
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) which their motives are defined by
DIRECTOR and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance suffering, rather than by their urge
Park Chan-wook (2005). The fact that Oldboy is the for violent revenge. In this sense,
only one without “vengeance” in Oldboy is more than a revenge
WRITERS the title is telling, and signifies a movie. It is an examination of
Park Chan-wook, Lim difference in focus from the others. despair. When Oh escapes,
Chun-hyeong, Hwang he sets out to discover the
Jo-yun, Lim Joon-hyung Oldboy is certainly a revenge identity of his captor and
(screenplay); Nobuaki movie, but it is concerned more avenge himself, only to
Minegishi (comic); Garon with the corroding effect of an
Tsuchiya (story) obsession than with the catharsis
of killing the one who has
STARS wronged. The very
Choi Min-sik, Yu Ji-tae, concept, in which
Kang Hye-jeong an unassuming
loser, Oh Dae-su
BEFORE (Choi Min-sik),
2000 Park’s first movie Joint is abducted and
Security Area is a thriller set kept prisoner in a
on the border with North Korea. room for 15 years
without knowing
2002 Park directs Sympathy why, or by whom, is
for Mr. Vengeance, the first more about torture of
part of his Vengeance trilogy. the mind than of the

AFTER A guard restrains Oh Dae-su
2009 Park tries his hand at just as Oh learns the reason for
horror with Thirst, the story of his imprisonment. In a gesture
a priest becoming a vampire of remorse, he commits a
after a failed experiment. gruesome act of self-harm
with a pair of scissors.

SMALL WORLD 311

What else to watch: Vertigo (1958, pp.140–45) ■ Infernal Affairs (1990) ■ Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) ■
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) ■ Mother (2009) ■ Thirst (2009) ■ Stoker (2013)

Oh Dae-su attacks the guards of the
prison where he has been held captive
for 15 years. The long fight scene was
filmed as one continuous shot.

find that his imprisonment had orchestral. One gruesome sequence is trying to break free from his
itself been designed to avenge is accompanied by the Baroque body. The director forgoes realism
an old wrong. chamber music of Vivaldi’s “Four in order to communicate the
Seasons.” The original score, by character’s emotional state.
Blood opera Jo Yeong-wook, is also classical
Perhaps Oldboy’s most vital in style. This creates a grandiose, A similar stepping-out-of-reality
ingredient is a stylistic and operatic feel that elevates the story occurs at the end, when we see an
technical artistry that above the violence. The same elaborate flashback to the events
serves as a counterpoint is achieved visually, too, most we now realize sparked the story
to the movie’s violence. memorably in a remarkable special into life. Visually, key characters
The director achieves effect in which the camera pans should be young—but no, they
this in a number of ways. around Oh Dae-su in his prison look exactly the same as they do
First, the sound cell, and his face appears almost to in the present, Oldboy suggesting
track is highly vibrate out of its skin, as if his mind that they never escaped the
trauma of their past. (Do any
of us, the movie asks?)

Hi-tech violence
South Korean movies at the turn of
the century became noted for their
violence, but what has been less
noticed is the technical artistry
that accompanies them. This was
never more aptly represented than
in Oldboy, a movie that is certainly
brutal, but high-mindedly disturbs
as much as it viscerally shocks,
a revenge movie for both the
connoisseur and the gore hound. ■

Park Chan-wook Director

Park Chan-wook movie was The Moon Is the
was born in Sun’s Dream (1992). This was
Seoul, South not a success and it was five
Korea, in 1963. years before Park got his next
While studying chance to direct. He is best
philosophy at college, he known for his Vengeance trilogy.
discovered a love of film, and
started a film studies group called Key movies
the Sogang Fil Community. After
graduating, he wrote for movie 2003 Oldboy
journals before becoming an 2009 Thirst
assistant director. His first 2013 Stoker

312

YOU DON’T
KNOW ME BUT
I KNOW YOU

THE LIVES OF OTHERS / 2006

IN CONTEXT T he Lives of Others was Germany’s Communist regime. It
inspired by an image was one of the first serious
GENRE formed in the mind of attempts to capture the day-to-day
Drama German director Florian Henckel hell of the East German state, in
von Donnersmarck. He pictured a which people attempted to live
DIRECTOR secret policeman, inert and gray- normal lives without the right to
Florian Henckel faced, headphones clamped to his privacy or individual thought.
von Donnersmarck ears, listening in on the lives of
others because it was his duty to The listener in the attic
WRITER “know everything.” Was it really The story centers around a model
Florian Henckel possible, Donnersmarck wondered, Stasi officer, Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich
von Donnersmarck that this policeman could remain Mühe), who is given the routine job
unsentimental about the private of finding incriminating material
STARS lives under his surveillance? on a playwright, Georg Dreyman
Ulrich Mühe, Martina (Sebastian Koch), by spying on him
Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Set in East Berlin in 1983, and his lover, the famous actress
Ulrich Tukur this powerful movie offers a Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina
glimpse into the workings of the Gedeck). Installed in the roof of the
BEFORE Stasi, the secret police of East
1989 Ulrich Mühe stars in
Spider’s Web, West Germany’s Modern German cinema
last submission to the
Academy Awards before the After the acclaim that greeted the subject of The Baader
country’s dissolution in 1990. the New German Cinema of the Meinhof Complex (2008),
1970s, German movies of recent while The Lives of Others
2003 Wolfgang Becker’s Good years have tended to concern and Good Bye Lenin! offered
Bye Lenin! is a comedy about themselves with the past. There audiences a human take on the
the reunification of Germany. have, of course, been exceptions, dissolution of East Germany.
but the most highly regarded
AFTER German movies of this century Key movies
2008 The Baader Meinhof have been fascinated by the
Complex tells the story of country’s modern history. The 2003 Good Bye Lenin!
far-left West German militant Counterfeiters looked back to 2004 Downfall
group the Red Army Faction. World War II, as did Downfall. 2006 The Lives of Others
The terrorism of the 1970s was 2007 The Counterfeiters

SMALL WORLD 313

What else to watch: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) ■ The Conversation (1974) ■
Wings of Desire (1987, pp.258–61) ■ Nikolaikirche (1995) ■ Black Book (2006) ■ The White Ribbon (2009, p.323)

During an evening at the theater,
Wiesler’s boss, Lieutenant-Colonel
Anton Grubitz, points out the target
for Wiesler’s surveillance.

and personal integrity. The movie
underscores this psychological
pressure and dread with its
desolate depiction of East Berlin,
a shadowy, nightmare city of
invisible eyes and ears.

couple’s apartment building with his the Minister of Culture lusts after Redemption and fall
listening equipment connected to Christa-Maria and wants to While The Lives of Others had
microphones hidden in the home’s eliminate Georg, Wiesler’s idealism a particular potency for German
light switches and walls, Wiesler deserts him. “Is this what we audiences, its success in winning
eavesdrops on the couple’s phone signed up for?” he asks his amoral the Oscar for Best Foreign Movie
calls, conversations, lovemaking, superior, Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur). proved that its power traveled
and arguments. Gradually, he beyond borders. The venality of the
begins to appreciate the basic Georg, however, is indeed Stasi was familiar to many who
decency and humanity of Georg having politically disloyal thoughts. had felt the chill of repressive
and Christa-Maria. When he learns As he falls under suspicion for regimes, or who simply feared a
that Georg is being targeted not for writing a subversive article about surveillance state. And in the story
any political disloyalty, but because the country’s suicide rate, and the of Georg and Christa-Maria the
government’s callous indifference movie featured a classic tortured
You never know, from one toward it, for a West German romance, with the sad-eyed secret
moment to the next, what magazine, the Stasi blackmails policeman as its mute witness. ■
course any of the characters Christa-Maria into betraying
him. And this is where the movie
will choose. resonated so strongly for many
A. O. Scott former East Germans. The regime
functioned by making everyone
The New York Times, 2007 complicit in a brutal system, using
fear to compel ordinary people to
betray their neighbors, colleagues,
and families. It forced moral choices
between career and love, safety

The movie was praised for its
accuracy, except in one regard.
Historians note there is no record of a
Stasi agent ever having saved a target.

314

YOU’LL SEE THAT
LIFE ISN’T LIKE
FAIRY TALES

PAN’S LABYRINTH / 2006

IN CONTEXT F airy tales abound with the unsettling audiences for more
sinister and the macabre. than a decade before making Pan’s
GENRE Good invariably conquers Labyrinth. In the manner of the
Fantasy, war evil, but the battle is hard fought best fairy stories, he succeeds in
and evil is not without power. It finding a way both to challenge
DIRECTOR seems fitting, then, that one of the innocence and to celebrate it.
Guillermo del Toro directors who has best captured
the essence of the fairy tale on Fantasy vs reality
WRITER movie is one who made his name in Pan’s Labyrinth consists of two
Guillermo del Toro horror. Mexican director Guillermo narratives unfolding at the same
del Toro had honed his talent for time. One tells the story of Vidal,
STARS a captain in General Franco’s
Ivana Baquero, Sergi In this magical and Nationalist army who has been
López, Maribel Verdú immensely moving film, the sent to the mountains to round
two sides of the film come up the remnants of the defeated
BEFORE Republicans in the aftermath of
1984 The Company of Wolves together to constitute an the Spanish Civil War.
is an early example of the allegory about the soul and the
“dark fairy tale” movie genre. The other is the story of his
national identity of Spain. stepdaughter, Ofelia. She is a young
2001 The Devil’s Backbone, Philip French girl who is very much lost in the
described by del Toro as the world and who, either through her
“brother movie” to Pan’s The Observer imagination or by magic (the movie
Labyrinth, follows a group of cleverly leaves this question open),
boys in a haunted orphanage. escapes to a fantasy realm where
she assumes the spirit of a long-
AFTER dead fairy princess.
2013 Blockbuster Pacific Rim
is del Toro’s take on Japanese A faun sets her three tasks
kaiju (monster) movies. to complete before she can be
permitted to take her rightful
place in the magical kingdom. ❯❯

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What else to watch: La Belle et la Bête (1946, pp.84–85) ■ Spirit of the Beehive (1973, pp.214–15) ■ The Company of
Wolves (1984) ■ Cronos (1993) ■ The Devil’s Backbone (2001) ■ The Others (2001) ■ Hellboy (2004) ■ The Orphanage (2007)

This poster
with the original
Spanish title shows
the protagonist,
Ofelia, in the main
image. Below her is
the gnarled, hollow
tree that Ofelia
must enter for
her first task.

316 PAN’S LABYRINTH

Vidal and Ofelia can both be way to die.” Ofelia shows the same The film works on so many
considered true believers, each conviction when attempting the levels that it seems to change
fully convinced of the validity of faun’s tasks. The sense that Vidal’s shape even as you watch it.
the world they have built around bad qualities mirror Ofelia’s good
themselves. Vidal believes in ones adds a complexity to events Stephanie Zacharek
Franco’s cause and admits that as they unfold.
he is hunting the stragglers “by The Village Voice
choice.” He is a man without doubt, Whether or not Ofelia’s fantasy
just as Ofelia is without doubt realm is real is left to the viewer to Both stories feel as textured and
when she braves the decide. It is also up to the audience vivid as the other—the Grand
horror of the child- Guignol set design of the Pale
eating Pale Man to decide which world
to pass the they believe in Man’s lair is matched by the
second of the more: Ofelia’s specificity of Vidal’s quarters
faun’s tests. or Vidal’s. and his eerily controlled shaving
In Pan’s routine. This is where the success
Labyrinth, of Pan’s Labyrinth lies—not simply
evil is just as as a twisted fairy tale, but one that
convinced of its righteousness also explores the sadness of the
as good. Vidal is not a hypocrite need to escape into a fantasy world.
or a coward, and charges into
battle without fear. He even
tells a doubting comrade that
this “is the only

Although Ofelia must trust the faun
as her guide to the fairy-tale world, he
is a mysterious and morally ambiguous
character whose ultimate motivations
are hard to discern.

Guillermo del Toro Director

Guillermo del Toro was born in well as setting two movies in
Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1964. His Franco-era Spain, The Devil’s
debut feature Cronos was released Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth,
in 1992, and proved to be enough to great critical acclaim. Most
of a success for producer Harvey recently, he directed the kaiju-
Weinstein to grant him a $30 influenced action-adventure
million budget to make Mimic, an Pacific Rim.
American-set studio horror. It was
also around this time that his Key movies
father was kidnapped and del Toro
was forced to pay a large ransom 1993 Cronos
for his release. Del Toro went on to 2001 The Devil’s Backbone
achieve Hollywood success with 2004 Hellboy
the Hellboy horror franchise, as 2006 Pan’s Labyrinth

SMALL WORLD 317

The movie taps into the traditional The portal will only open if we offer
fear of the wicked stepparent, the blood of an innocent. Just a drop
a staple of fairy tales. Vidal is of blood: a pinprick, that’s all. It’s the
uncaring toward Ofelia, even final task.
callous toward her pregnant mother,
Carmen; he is using his wife solely The faun / Pan’s Labyrinth
as a means to produce a son. With
her mother bedridden, Ofelia’s information, and when the doctor movie’s most powerful moments,
closest relationship with an adult is puts the dying man out of his we ask ourselves whether she can
with the housekeeper Mercedes, misery, Vidal is genuinely puzzled. truly prove she is better than Vidal,
who cares for her when her mother When asked why he disobeyed, and if good can still vanquish evil.
dies in childbirth. In this respect, the doctor replies contemptuously,
the movie subverts the traditional “Captain, to obey—just like that— One common criticism of
fairy tale, because while Vidal for obedience’s sake, without fantasy movies is that they lack
very much fits the traditional evil questioning, that’s something only a grounding in humanity. Pan’s
stepparent mold, Mercedes’s role people like you do.” At that, Vidal Labyrinth is a retort to this, a movie
shows that family is not simply shoots the doctor, even knowing deeply rooted in emotion even as
blood, but whatever works when it that in doing so, he is putting his it dreams up terrifying monsters. ■
comes to support and affection. wife’s life at risk.
The child-eating Pale Man, whom
Breaking the rules Later, in the fairy story, Ofelia is Ofelia encounters during her second
Obeying rules, even if morally given a frightful order handed down task, is a nightmarish creation—but
wrong, is integral to Vidal’s world to her by the faun. In one of the the real monsters are all too human.
view. He tortures a partisan for

318

THIS IS OUR
DESTINY

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE / 2008

IN CONTEXT Set in Mumbai, Slumdog The story begins with Jamal
Millionaire tells the rags-to- Malik (Dev Patel), a penniless
GENRE riches story of a kid from the orphan from the slums of Mumbai,
Drama slums who tries his luck on a game just one question away from
show. The movie’s influences are winning 20 million rupees on
DIRECTOR wildly cross-cultural. The source Indian TV’s “Who Wants to Be a
Danny Boyle novel, Vikas Swarup’s Q&A, was Millionaire?” But when the show
Indian, but the director Danny breaks before the crucial final
WRITERS Boyle and screenwriter Simon question, he is arrested on
Simon Beaufoy (screenplay); Beaufoy are British. They present suspicion of cheating—for how
Vikas Swarup (novel) a Mumbai where traditional Indian could a poor “slumdog” know all
and modern global influences are the answers? A cynical police
STARS stirred together, backed by a sound inspector (Irrfan Khan) spends the
Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, track by A. R. Rahman that mixes night interrogating Jamal, who
Madhur Mittal, Anil Indian classical music with hip-hop explains how his answers have
Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and house, Bollywood, and R&B. been tied to events in his past.

BEFORE Jamal (Dev
1996 Trainspotting, a gritty Patel) and
black comedy based on the Latika (Freida
novel by Irvine Welsh, shoots Pinto) overcome
Danny Boyle to fame. adversity and
prejudice to
2002 City of God shows the find love.
potential of dramas set in the
developing world to have
worldwide box-office appeal.

AFTER
2012 Boyle directs the 2012
London Olympics opening
ceremony, including a
Punjabi song composed
by A. R. Rahman.

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What else to watch: Los Olvidados (1950, p.332) ■ Pather Panchali
(1955, pp.132–33) ■ Central Station (1998, p.285) ■ City of God (2002, pp.304–09)

The movie delves back into earlier The nation watches enthralled Danny Boyle Director
moments in Jamal’s life, showing as Jamal (Dev Patel) progresses
how he learned each answer. The through the rounds with correct Known for his versatility,
audience learns his life story in answers, heading for the 20 million ability to work in many genres,
a series of flashbacks, each rupee jackpot. and kinetic camera angles,
corresponding to a question. It Danny Boyle made his name
begins with the moment when de vivre. Cinematographer Anthony directing tough, funny movies
Jamal is five and he and his brother Dod Mantle, using digital cameras with pulsating sound tracks.
Salim are fleeing the 1992–93 to their fullest potential, puts the Born in Lancashire, UK, in
Bombay Riots. They run into young audience right in the heart of 1956 to Irish parents, he
Latika, who will become the love of frantic, vibrant Mumbai. An was brought up Catholic
his life. The story reveals other exuberant Bollywood-style dance and considered entering
moments in which Jamal and Salim at a train station only further the priesthood. Instead, he
use their wits to survive everything cranks up the adrenaline. studied English and Drama
from chilling encounters with at Bangor University in Wales,
gangsters who maim street children The movie was showered with becoming a theater director
to Jamal’s heartache over Latika. acclaim, eventually winning eight and working at the Royal
But will it be enough to convince Oscars, including Best Picture Shakespeare Company and
the police inspector to set him free, and Best Director for Boyle. And the Royal Court. In 1987,
and to find his sweetheart? yet in India and elsewhere, some he started working in TV,
felt Slumdog had only gained producing many TV movies.
Mixed reception recognition because it had a British He claims that his love
The reception of Slumdog Millionaire director, while “real” Indian movies for movies started with
in the West was overwhelmingly were ignored. Others felt that its Apocalypse Now (1979):
positive. The movie bubbles with view of the Mumbai slums was “It had eviscerated my brain
feel-good energy and a raucous joie unrealistic and that the rags-to- completely.” His first feature
riches plot was implausible. ■ movie, the black comedy
Shallow Grave, was a UK hit.
We used to live right there, man. Two years later, Trainspotting,
Now, it’s all business. a stylish movie about drug
addicts in Edinburgh, propelled
Jamal / Slumdog Millionaire him to international attention.

Key movies

1994 Shallow Grave
1996 Trainspotting
2002 28 Days Later
2007 Sunshine
2008 Slumdog Millionaire

320

THIS BOX IS FULL
OF STUFF THAT
ALMOST KILLED ME

THE HURT LOCKER / 2008

IN CONTEXT S cripted by reporter Mark of footage that was edited down
Boal, Kathryn Bigelow’s The to just 131 minutes. The movie was
GENRE Hurt Locker follows the story praised for portraying a viscerally
War movie of a three-man US bomb disposal intense, real war experience,
team during the Iraq War. It was although detractors criticized its
DIRECTOR shot on location in Syria, near the lack of a moral stance. Bigelow offers
Kathryn Bigelow Iraqi border. Four handheld little or no comment on the purpose
cameras were used to of the war; instead
WRITER give a powerfully she focuses
Mark Boal plausible newsreel narrowly and
effect, out of 200 hours
STARS
Jeremy Renner, Anthony Staff Sergeant William
Mackie, Brian Geraghty James runs from the scene
of a controlled explosion.
BEFORE He will recklessly return
1986 Oliver Stone’s Platoon to pick up his gloves.
shows a ground-level view of
the Vietnam War.

2001 Black Hawk Down
emphasizes the comradeship
of soldiers even as it seems to
criticize American policy.

AFTER
2010 Paul Greengrass’s Iraq
war movie Green Zone uses a
handheld camera technique
and has a political message.

2012 Kathryn Bigelow makes
her adrenaline-fueled movie
Zero Dark Thirty about the
hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

SMALL WORLD 321

What else to watch: Platoon (1986) ■ The Battle of Algiers (1966, pp.182–87) ■
Black Hawk Down (2001) ■ Green Zone (2010) ■ Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Bigelow’s movie won carriers. Their Kathryn Bigelow
Academy Awards for commander is Director
Best Movie and Best battle-hardened
Director. It was the maverick Sergeant With The Hurt Locker, Kathryn
lowest-grossing movie William James Bigelow became the first
ever to win Best Picture. (Jeremy Renner). woman to win the Oscar for
His team, Sergeant Best Director. Born in California
sympathetically on the Sanborn (Anthony in 1951, she began making
dilemmas and mental Mackie) and movies even before graduating
states of the three main Specialist Owen from Columbia University,
characters. In doing so Eldridge (Brian with a short called The Set-Up
she in fact creates an Geraghty), become so (1987). Soon she was making
anti-war movie more concerned by James’s action movies with Blue Steel
powerful than others. recklessness when he (1989), Point Break (1991), and
acts without waiting for the bomb science fiction Strange Days
Addicted to war disposal robot and without wearing (1995). Her next movie, K-19:
The Hurt Locker opens with a his protective suit, that they discuss The Widowmaker (2002), was
quotation by US journalist Chris killing him before he gets all three a submarine thriller. Oscar
Hedges from his book War is a of them blown up. Yet, interestingly, success came with The Hurt
Force That Gives Us Meaning: “The they also seem to admire his Locker, based on reportage
rush of battle is a potent and often craziness, and understand what is of the Iraq War. Her movie
lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” driving it. The adrenaline of his about the hunt for Osama
The Hurt Locker shows how this death wish makes him feel alive. Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty
After a failed attempt to remove a (2012) was acclaimed but
addiction affects the human bomb vest from an Iraqi civilian, also attacked for what
psyche. The narrative follows Sanborn begins to unravel critics saw as an apparent
the three men through their psychologically, admitting that he endorsement of torture.
year’s tour of duty, as they cannot cope with the stress. Once
deal with unexploded home in the US, James, on the other Key movies
bombs, snipers, and hand, does not cope with real life. He
civilians used feels that his purpose is to be in the 1991 Point Break
as bomb conflict zone, where the perpetual 2008 The Hurt Locker
danger made his life meaningful. 2012 Zero Dark Thirty
The movie drew criticism for
focusing on a bomb disposal unit:
soldiers without the troubling duty
of killing anyone on screen. Most,
however, praised Bigelow’s feat in
putting the viewer inside the “hurt
locker”—a psychological prison of
pain that comes from constantly
being near explosions. ■

As you get older, some of the things you
love might not seem so special anymore.

Sergeant William James / The Hurt Locker

322

IF I DIE WHAT A
BEAUTIFUL DEATH!

MAN ON WIRE / 2008

IN CONTEXT S creen portraits of one The documentary, a hybrid
person, whether drama or of actual and restaged
GENRE documentary, are usually footage, is constructed
Documentary about two kinds of lives: those that like a first-rate thriller.
are interesting in themselves, and Roger Ebert
DIRECTOR those noted for achieving something
James Marsh remarkable. James Marsh’s Man Chicago Sun-Times, 2008
on Wire portrays a life that fits into
WRITER both categories. It is the story of an night that Petit and his crew broke
Philippe Petit (book) audacious high-wire walk between into the World Trade Center and the
the twin towers of the World Trade hurdles they had to overcome to
STARS Center in 1974, yet it speaks to the enact their stunt; the other tells the
Philippe Petit, larger theme of how far a person will broader tale of Petit’s life leading up
Jean-François Heckel, go for art. The movie presents French to the event. Everything—from wire-
Jean-Louis Blondeau high-wire walker Philippe Petit as a walking across the two towers of
man whose art is all consuming, to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris or
BEFORE the point that he risks his life for it. the Sydney Harbour Bridge to
1999 Marsh’s Wisconsin Death Rather than burnish its subject, Man moving to New York City—was in
Trip reconstructs strange on Wire derives its power from its preparation for the World Trade
events that took place in a focus on Petit’s flaws as well as his Center walk. For Petit, this was
small American town at the talent and determination. The more than an ambition—it was the
end of the 19th century. viewer is left marveling at how such very reason for his life. ■
a restless personality can attain the
2005 In Marsh’s drama The Zen-like concentration needed to
King, a man named Elvis walk across an abyss on a wire.
tracks down his reluctant
father, a pastor. Raison d’être
The movie is structured into two
AFTER parallel narratives: the event and
2014 The Theory of Everything, the life. One strand follows the
Marsh’s biopic of physicist
Stephen Hawking, earned a What else to watch: Wisconsin Death Trip (1999) ■ Touching The Void (2003)
Best Actor Oscar for its star, ■ Project Nim (2011) ■ The Imposter (2012) ■ The Theory of Everything (2014)
Eddie Redmayne.

SMALL WORLD 323

I’D LIKE TO ASK YOU
SOMETHING FATHER

THE WHITE RIBBON / 2009

IN CONTEXT H aving spent most of his Murders go unsolved, and mayhem
working life in TV, Michael reigns. Meanwhile, the local pastor
GENRE Haneke was 47 when he forces his children to wear a white
Historical drama made his first movie, The Seventh ribbon for any misdeed they have
Continent, in 1989. Since then, his committed. The ribbon is meant
DIRECTOR reputation as one of Europe’s most to symbolize the innocence from
Michael Haneke important directors has only grown, which they have strayed, but it
with movies that are as stark as actually seems to represent their
WRITER they are sophisticated, exploring violation by those institutions that
Michael Haneke humanity to disturbing effect. should keep children safe—home,
family, and church. The ribbon
STARS The specter of death means nothing to anyone because
Burghart Klaußner, Shot with an exquisitely detailed there is no purity to be found.
Christian Friedel, sense of realism, The White Ribbon
Leonie Benesch tells the story of life in a small There is a shard of optimism in
German village just before World the form of a young couple falling in
BEFORE War I. There, a series of cruel and love, but the terrible realization is
1997 In Haneke’s Funny mysterious events sow fear and that a generation of children whose
Games, two psychopaths play confusion among the villagers, from development is being warped by
cruel “games” on the family the tenant farmers to the baron. authority in the movie would come
they have taken hostage. of age as the supporters of Nazism. ■

2001 Haneke’s The Piano The congregation
Teacher tracks the destructive that worships in
power of sexual fantasies. the village church
is rife with secrets
2005 In Caché (Hidden), and resentments; is
Haneke exposes a family to the violence in their
its past, but who is behind midst a sign of the
the ensuing violence? barbarism that will
follow during the
AFTER two world wars?
2012 Old age deals a
cruel hand in Haneke’s What else to watch: Le Corbeau (1943) ■ Rashomon (1950, pp.108–13) ■
Amour (Love). The Seventh Seal (1957, pp.136–39) ■ The Tin Drum (1979) ■ Caché (2005, p.342)

324

EVERYONE PAYS FOR
THE THINGS THEY DO

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA / 2011

IN CONTEXT Police work and all Eschewing
that comes with cop-show
GENRE upholding the law clichés, Nuri
Crime, drama has long been a source of Bilge Ceylan’s
fascination in movies. The Once Upon
DIRECTOR police represent order, and a Time in
Nuri Bilge Ceylan for the common good they
must endure terrible things Anatolia
WRITERS on our behalf. Turkish portrays the
Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s drudgery of
Ceylan, Ercan Kesal brooding, tragic movie police work
Once Upon a Time in with raw,
STARS Anatolia is a tale of cops, unflinching
Muhammet Uzuner, doctors, and lawyers as they honesty.
Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner search through the night for
Birsel, Firat Tanis the body of a murder victim. The policemen and lawyers in
Stripping out the artificial Once Upon a Time in Anatolia are
BEFORE glamour and excitement that define forced to deal with the horrors they
1997 Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s these professions in most movies, witness while also fulfilling the
critically acclaimed debut the movie presents their work as a demands of their respective
feature The Town is a punishing journey in an endless bureaucracies. Unable to express
dreamlike examination of night that is filled with frustration, their true reactions to what they
childhood and family. tension, and very little glory. Here, see, they are allowed very little
the officials who uphold law and catharsis. Police officer Naci
2008 In Ceylan’s Three order are heroes not because they (Yilmaz Erdogan) is repeatedly
Monkeys, a politician offers a always catch the bad guy, but rebuked for his impulsive reactions
family money to cover up a because they give up a part of their to setbacks. When a body is found,
hit-and-run accident. humanity so that we don’t have to.

AFTER Nobody just dies because they said
2014 Winter Sleep earns they would.
Ceylan the Palme d’Or at
the Cannes Film Festival. Cemal / Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

SMALL WORLD 325

What else to watch: The Big Heat (1953, p.332) ■ Le Doulos (1962) ■ In Cold Blood (1967) ■ A Short Film about Killing
(1988) ■ Insomnia (1997) ■ Zodiac (2007) ■ Three Monkeys (2008) ■ Leviathan (2014)

hog-tied and buried in the ground, Nuri Bilge Ceylan Director
Naci is the only one in his team to
react to the sight truthfully, and for Nuri Bilge Monkeys (2008) and Once Upon
that he is taken aside and sternly Ceylan was a Time in Anatolia. He won the
told to behave more professionally. born in 1959 Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2014 for
in Istanbul, Winter Sleep.
Due process Turkey, and
A similar incident occurs later studied electrical engineering. Key movies
in the movie when Doctor Cemal His first movie, The Town,
(Muhammet Uzuner) conducts an gained him instant international 1997 The Town
autopsy and discovers something acclaim. His third movie, 2002 Distant
horrific about the death. Like the Distant, won a host of awards, 2011 Once Upon a Time
police officers, the doctor is not and he continued to enjoy in Anatolia
allowed to be affected. All he can critical success with Three 2014 Winter Sleep
do is suppress his feelings, write
up his report, and stare through Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a trajectory of the characters’ own
the window at the victim’s family thoughtful, original take on some lives: each of them is destined to
as they walk away—just as he very well-covered ground. It is not be worn down by their job until
will have to do next time, and interested in presenting the police they reach the point of degradation,
the time after that. as unflappable action heroes, or just like the body they must find to
lawyers as righteous crusaders, eventually put in the ground. There
The practicalities of due process or doctors as kind and benevolent. is no rest, and no end in sight. ■
mean that good men are asked to Rather, it focuses on the human
treat horror in the same way that cost of being required to witness Kenan (Firat Tanis, center) is
the monsters they are hunting treat and interact with the worst of one of two suspects who must travel
it; they surrender their right to feel, humanity. The metaphor of one with the police in order to help them
because papers need to be filed and endless night symbolizes the find the murder victim’s body.
the process needs to be respected.

326

SO WHAT DO
YOU LIKE ABOUT
BEING UP HERE?

GRAVITY / 2013

IN CONTEXT O n one level, Gravity is a Gravity features action sequences
simple affair—the tale of shot in long, unbroken takes. When
GENRE astronaut Dr. Ryan Stone Stone, trying to reach the safety of
Thriller, science fiction (Sandra Bullock) stranded in orbit the International Space Station, is
after her shuttle is destroyed, pelted by orbiting debris, the camera
DIRECTOR surviving on her wits in the hostile follows her every move, swooping
Alfonso Cuarón environment of space. However, and spinning as she tumbles
while its story of a lone adventurer through space. These nonstop
WRITERS trying to get home could have been sequences allow the audience to see
Alfonso Cuarón, told in any movie since the medium with pin-sharp clarity the endless
Jonás Cuarón began, director Alfonso Cuarón expanse around her—and to feel
uses the very latest in filmmaking exactly what she’s going through. ■
STARS technology, including stunning 3D
Sandra Bullock, effects, to create an experience that Before the disaster that destroys
George Clooney physically pulls in the audience. their shuttle, Stone (Sandra Bullock) and
The result feels like a landmark her colleague Kowalski (George Clooney)
BEFORE in cinema history. collaborate on repairs to the telescope.
1995 Ron Howard’s Apollo 13,
about the disaster-stricken What else to watch: A Trip to the Moon (1902, pp.20–21) ■ 2001: A Space
space mission of 1970, evokes Odyssey (1968, pp.192–93) ■ Alien (1979, p.243) ■ The Right Stuff (1983)
a mix of claustrophobia
and desolation.

2006 Children of Men,
Cuarón’s first science-fiction
movie, is set in a future in
which all people are infertile.

AFTER
2014 Christopher Nolan’s
Interstellar follows mankind’s
urgent quest to leave dying
planet Earth and find a new
home among the stars.

SMALL WORLD 327

WE’RE ALL JUST
WINGING IT

BOYHOOD / 2014

IN CONTEXT I n his own low-key, low-budget Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke) offers
way, Richard Linklater has some rare fatherly advice in a tender
GENRE always been interested in scene with his son (Ellar Coltrane); for
Family drama revolutionizing movies. Filmed in both, perhaps, childhood has ended.
his native Austin, Texas, like his
DIRECTOR debut Slacker, Boyhood is at once an
Richard Linklater incredibly simple idea and a hugely
radical one. Probably one of the most
WRITER authentic coming-of-age stories ever
Richard Linklater told, it follows its protagonist, Mason
(Ellar Coltrane), from the age of six
STARS right up to his graduation from
Ellar Coltrane, Patricia school at 18. And if the movie feels
Arquette, Ethan Hawke real, that’s because it practically is,
with Linklater shooting with
BEFORE Coltrane and the other cast for a few
1993 Dazed and Confused, days every summer for 12 years, the
Linklater’s coming-of-age actors aging in time with the story.
movie set in 1970s Texas,
does poorly at the box office Capturing childhood which capture the bittersweet,
but soon acquires cult status. Boyhood deals subtly with the haphazard, scrapbook nature of
changing times: as family life shifts childhood and adolescent memories.
1995 Before Sunrise is the and changes, iPods replace CD
first movie in a romantic players and Barack Obama replaces While the focus is on Mason, the
trilogy by Linklater starring George W. Bush as president. After other performances are captivating
Ethan Hawke as an American Mason’s flaky father (Ethan Hawke) too—notably from Hawke as the
in Europe and Julie Delpy as leaves, his mother (Patricia Arquette) man who married too young, Lorelei
his French lover. embarks on new relationships. Linklater (the director’s daughter)
Everything and nothing happens in as Mason’s sister, and Arquette,
2012 Linklater’s Waking Life, a the exquisitely paced 165 minutes, who would go on to win an Oscar
story that takes place within for her role in the movie. ■
a dream, uses a technique
called rotoscoping to make real What else to watch: The 400 Blows (1959, pp.150–51) ■ Slacker (1991) ■ Before
actors look like animations. Sunrise (1995) ■ Before Sunset (2004) ■ Before Midnight (2013) ■ Girlhood (2014)

DIRECTO

RY

330

DIRECTORY

A ny list of the greatest movies of all time, whether it is 10, 100,
or 1,000 titles long, will inevitably be subjective in both its
selections and omissions. Indeed, much of the fun of the debate
comes from the disagreements it provokes. This section features a
selection of the movies that came close to being included in the main
section, but did not quite make the final cut. It is, like the main list,
subjective in nature, but helps fill some of the inevitable gaps. Spread
widely across time, place, and genre, the list provides additional samples
from world cinema over the last century or so, a selection of movies to
celebrate and to argue over, to watch and to rewatch. Each movie title is
followed by the director’s name and the year the movie was released.

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY Max Schreck, who played Orlok, THE JAZZ SINGER
the movie has a vampire like no
Edwin S. Porter, 1903 other, one that is more rat than bat Alan Crosland, 1927
in appearance.
This 12-minute short was possibly See also: Sunrise 30–31 The first full-length “talkie” feature
the first Western, with cowboys, movie, The Jazz Singer marked the
six-shooters, and a rowdy saloon. DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER beginning of a new era in cinema.
The robbers use a fake telegraph to There are about two minutes of
stop the train, rob the safe, and Fritz Lang, 1922 synchronized dialogue, plus six
hold up the passengers, then take memorable songs, mixed with
off on horseback—only to be caught Nine years before making his serial- intertitles. Al Jolson plays Jakie,
by a posse, also summoned by killer masterpiece, M, Fritz Lang who defies his religious Jewish
telegraph. At one point, a robber explored his fascination with the father in order to pursue a dream
fires into the camera— a scene that criminal mind in this silent great of becoming a jazz singer. Jakie
had contemporary audiences of German Expressionist cinema. changes his name to Jack and
ducking for cover. In doing so, he created the first adopts a “blackface” persona on
movie archvillain: the manipulative stage. The story of an immigrant’s
NOSFERATU mastermind Dr. Mabuse, who struggle for identity is still a
steals secret information to make powerful one, but the blacking up
F. W. Murnau, 1922 a fortune on the stock exchange, makes the movie an uncomfortable
and cheats at cards to rob the watch for modern audiences.
Murnau was a leading light of the wealthy denizens of a decadent,
German Expressionist movement, degenerate society. Lang tapped UN CHIEN ANDALOU
which emphasized style and into the mood of the Weimar-period
symbolism, and this comes to the Germany, which was in political Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, 1929
fore in his vampire movie Nosferatu. and economic turmoil. His trick
It is packed with memorable of revealing both the villain and The 16-minute short Un Chien
images, from the dark shadow of his methods to the audience Andalou (An Andalusian Dog)
the vampire Count Orlok creeping as a device to build suspense was the first movie by Spanish
through his castle to Orlok’s look influenced Alfred Hitchcock. director Luis Buñuel, who made
of terror as he faces the rising See also: Metropolis 32–33 ■ it in collaboration with Spanish
sun before vanishing. And in M 46–47 Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. It

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is most famous for a heart-stopping the book down to focus on the MESHES OF THE
moment in which a girl appears family and their endurance against AFTERNOON
to have her eyeball sliced open. the odds. As Ma Joad says at the
The movie is a montage of end: “They can’t wipe us out, they Maya Deren and Alexander
strange scenes with no apparent can’t lick us. We’ll go on forever, Pa, Hammid, 1943
connection, but Buñuel was later ’cause we’re the people.” The movie
eager to stress that there is no marked the first major success for Ukrainian-born choreographer
symbolism in this movie. He said Henry Fonda, who played Tom Joad. Maya Deren was one of the most
that the eyeball scene came from See also: The Searchers 135 important experimental filmmakers
a dream, and that its meaning of the post-World War II years, and
can only be established through THE MALTESE FALCON Meshes of the Afternoon, made
psychoanalysis. with her husband Alexander
See also: The Discreet Charm John Huston, 1941 Hammid, is a landmark of the avant-
of the Bourgeoisie 208–09 garde. It lasts just 18 minutes, and,
Humphrey Bogart played hard- through unsettling camera angles,
FREAKS bitten private detective Sam Spade spirals through the dreams of a
as if born to the role in John woman falling asleep at home,
Tod Browning, 1932 Huston’s The Maltese Falcon, a where ordinary objects—a knife,
stylish and atmospheric thriller. a key—become frightening and
Tod Browning’s disturbing US Spade was an entirely new kind of surreal in her subconscious. The
horror movie Freaks was banned hero, a tough guy who never yields revelation that movie could explore
in the UK for 30 years because of for a moment to sentimentality, and the workings of the mind in this
the way it seemed to exploit the Huston’s low-key, shadowy lighting, way was hugely influential.
physical attributes of its cast, who and often startling camera angles,
worked in a circus sideshow. It brilliantly created the movie’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY
has since become a cult classic. shady world. The Maltese Falcon is
At a circus, Cleopatra, a beautiful considered the first American film Billy Wilder, 1944
trapeze artist, agrees to marry the noir. It turned Bogart into a
dwarf Hans in order to poison superstar and launched Huston’s Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity
him and take his money. But her career as a major Hollywood director. uses the classic film noir setup,
plan is foiled and the circus’s other with a femme fatale, shabby
“freaks” take their revenge on her SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS motives, betrayal, and murder;
in a truly gruesome way. The however, the movie has romance
original movie was destroyed, and Preston Sturges, 1941 at its heart. An ordinary insurance
only the marginally less unsettling man is persuaded by a beautiful
cut version still exists. The movie Sullivan’s Travels is a witty send- blonde (Barbara Stanwyck) to
ruined Browning’s career. up of pretentious filmmakers who issue an insurance policy in her
make socially worthy drama. Young husband’s name, and then to
THE GRAPES OF WRATH director John “Sully” Sullivan (Joel murder him in a staged accident,
McCrea) is renowned for his frothy but the plan unravels horribly
John Ford, 1940 comedies, but goes on the road as each believes the other has
disguised as a tramp in order to betrayed them. The movie gains an
Based on John Steinbeck’s 1939 gather material for a serious movie edge by casting against type: Fred
novel, The Grapes of Wrath is set in about the downtrodden. He meets MacMurray, so often Mr. Nice Guy
Oklahoma, in the Depression years the Girl (Veronica Lake), who hopes in Disney movies, plays the seedy
of the 1930s. It tells the story of the to be an actress, and soon realizes insurance man; while Edward G.
Joad family, who lose their farm that making comedies that take Robinson, so often the gangster,
and journey across the US to people’s minds off their worries is plays the decent investigator.
California in search of a better life. of more social use than a serious See also: Sunset Boulevard
The movie pares the narrative of movie with a profound message. 114–15 ■ Some Like It Hot 148–49

332 DIRECTORY

BRIEF ENCOUNTER heart of film noir. A private eye “everything but the bloodhounds
(Robert Mitchum) tries to escape snapping at her rear end,” Eve
David Lean, 1945 his seedy past and start a new life worms her way into Margo’s life
with a decent girl, but he is and takes over her celebrity—but
British director David Lean’s haunted by a beautiful femme at a price, since she ends up in
early masterpiece is a simple story, fatale (Jane Greer), with whom the power of manipulative theater
based on a Noel Coward play, and he may or may not be in love, and critic Addison DeWitt. The movie
very different from the epics, such who may or may not be in love with also features a brief appearance
as Lawrence of Arabia, for which him. They are tied together by fate, by a young Marilyn Monroe.
he later became better known. and, as she goes on the run for
Housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) murder, their mutual destruction LOS OLVIDADOS
and Doctor Alec (Trevor Howard) becomes all too inevitable.
meet at a train station café. Luis Buñuel, 1950
Tempted into an adulterous affair, THE RED SHOES
they pull back because both are, Also known as The Young and
at heart, deeply decent people. The Michael Powell and Emeric the Damned, Los Olvidados is
shadowy light of the station, and Pressburger, 1948 Buñuel’s retort to neorealist movies.
the music of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Set in the slums of Mexico City, it
Concerto No. 2, give emotional Powell and Pressburger’s The is the story of two boys: El Jaibo,
weight to Johnson’s and Howard’s Red Shoes is both a glorious and who escapes from prison; and
understated performances. seductive tribute to the ballet and a Pedro, who is led astray by El Jaibo
horror movie full of menace, as as he tracks down and kills the boy
MURDERERS AMONG US ballerina Victoria (Moira Shearer), is he thinks put him in jail. To this
driven to despair by the ruthless and gritty scenario Buñuel adds his
Wolfgang Staudte, 1946 obsessive demands of an impresario, own brand of realism, including
Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). The dreams, which for him were as
Murderers Among Us was one of movie contains a story within a much a part of life as pots and
the first German movies made after story: the 20-minute ballet sequence pans. He eschews a liberal social
World War II, completed in the telling Hans Christian Andersen’s conscience for a confrontational
Soviet-occupied sector, and tale of “The Red Shoes,” in which a approach that got the movie
reflecting Germany’s struggle ballerina is danced to death by a banned in Mexico for many years.
to come to terms with its past. pair of magic shoes, echoes the See also: The Discreet Charm
Shot in the ruins of Berlin, it tells movie’s main story. of the Bourgeoisie 208–09
the story of a military surgeon See also: A Matter of Life
who returns home to find his and Death 86–87 THE BIG HEAT
home destroyed. He moves in
with a young woman who survived ALL ABOUT EVE Fritz Lang, 1953
the concentration camps. The
surgeon plans to kill his captain, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950 “Somebody’s going to pay…
who murdered Polish civilians in because he forgot to kill me…”
the war, but the woman persuades Dark and bitingly witty, Joseph L. reads the tagline on the poster for
him to let the man go to trial. Mankiewicz’s All About Eve is Fritz Lang’s taut film noir, scripted
one of the bleakest movies ever by crime reporter Sidney Boehm.
BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH made about show business. At Glenn Ford stars as an honest
its heart is a riveting performance homicide detective who becomes
Jacques Tourneur, 1947 by Bette Davis as the aging caught up in a world of organized
star Margo Channing, who is crime and police corruption. Gloria
Known in the US as Out of the Past, targeted by ambitious actress Grahame is the memorable femme
the movie Build my Gallows High Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). fatale, a gangster’s moll who turns
captures the grand tragedy at the With a sob story that has against her boyfriend, brutally

DIRECTORY 333

played by a young Lee Marvin. visual style and fast-paced political allegory, but it is unclear
Much of the violence occurs editing, plus his ability to give whether its message is attacking
offscreen, but that reduces none scenes a huge emotional kick, turn communism, or the oppression and
of the movie’s power—honesty it into an epic of true heroism. paranoia created by McCarthyism.
may win out in the end, but only The movie is also a study in
after exacting a terrible cost. The Japanese social mores, as two TOUCH OF EVIL
movie is the ultimate refinement of mutually distrustful social classes
Lang’s realistic, brutal style. uneasily come together in pursuit Orson Welles, 1958
See also: Metropolis 32–33 ■ of a common cause.
M 46–47 See also: Rashomon 108–13 Crime thriller Touch of Evil was
one of the last of the classic film
LA STRADA RIFIFI noirs. It is extravagantly theatrical,
with the gigantic presence—
Federico Fellini, 1954 Jules Dassin, 1955 literally and figuratively—of Orson
Welles, who wrote and directed
Fellini’s La Strada (The Road) can In French heist movie Rififi, the the movie, and who also plays the
be seen as his reaction against the robbery of a jewelry store on bent and bloated cop Quinlan.
neorealist movement of which he Paris’s Rue de Rivoli takes place Set on the Mexico–US border, the
had been part. It is a determinedly in 20 minutes of almost total story focuses on a Mexican drug
unrealistic fable of three circus silence. The effect was so enforcement official (Charlton
performers, for whom a theatrical believable that some critics have Heston), who realizes that Quinlan
façade hides their inner sadness. called the movie a guide for is corrupt. The movie is famous for
The strongman Zampanò buys the criminals. Dassin hated the novel its uninterrupted, three-minute-
waif Gelsomina from her mother to on which the movie was based (he long crane tracking sequence,
be his comic foil, but he continually changed the villains’ ethnicity to which moves slowly through four
abuses her, until she eventually make the story less racist), but this blocks of the troubled town.
leaves him for high-wire artist Il only made him work harder to give See also: Citizen Kane 66–71
Matto. In a fit of jealousy Zampanò the movie both tension and heart,
kills Il Matto, and Gelsomina is paying meticulous attention to ASCENSEUR POUR
desolate. The movie features Fellini’s detail in a way that was to be L’ÉCHAFAUD
trademark visual themes, such as imitated later by movies such as
figures suspended between heaven Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. Louis Malle, 1958
and earth, and a desolate seashore.
See also: La Dolce Vita 160–65 INVASION OF THE Known as Elevator to the Gallows
BODY SNATCHERS in the US and Lift to the Scaffold
SEVEN SAMURAI elsewhere, Louis Malle’s Ascenseur
Don Siegel, 1956 pour l’échafaud is a dark thriller
Akira Kurosawa, 1954 about a pair of lovers, Florence
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a (Jeanne Moreau) and Julien (Maurice
Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai was science-fiction thriller that reflects Ronet), who plot to murder Florence’s
inspired by Hollywood Westerns, the paranoia of the Cold War era. husband. The plan goes horribly
and it, in turn, inspired the Western The idea is simple: a doctor is wrong when Julien is trapped in an
The Magnificent Seven, but it is mystified when all his patients elevator on his way from the crime
very much a Japanese movie, complain to him that their families scene. The claustrophobic shots
steeped in the traditions of the have been replaced by impostors. of Paris at night give the movie a
Samurai warrior class and notions He soon discovers that the town noirish feel, but there is a sense
of honor. The story is a simple has been colonized by alien of realism that anticipates the
one—seven warriors band together seedpods that can replicate French New Wave. The action is
to protect a village against humans in all but their emotions. accompanied by an atmospheric
bandits—but Kurosawa’s stunning The movie has been seen as a jazz score from Miles Davis.

334 DIRECTORY

PEEPING TOM played out between New York semiautobiographical novel,
gangs, with the Sharks on one side and focuses on the relationship
Michael Powell, 1960 and the Jets on the other. The between two friends—shy Austrian
movie is made exhilarating by writer Jules and French bohemian
Peeping Tom received a negative Leonard Bernstein’s sophisticated Jim—and a free-spirited girl,
response on its release, but it is score, hugely memorable songs Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), whom
now considered a masterpiece. A such as Tonight and Somewhere, they both fall for. It celebrates
photographer (Karlheinz Böhm) with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, friendship but ends in pain
introduces himself to women as a and the spectacular dance and betrayal.
documentary filmmaker, then sequences directed by Jerome See also: The 400 Blows 150–55
murders them while using a movie Robbins. It won 10 Oscars, more
camera to record the terror of their than any other musical, including THE MANCHURIAN
dying moments. The movie opens one for Rita Moreno, who made CANDIDATE
itself up to various psychoanalytic the song America her own, as Best
interpretations as it homes in on Supporting Actress. John Frankenheimer, 1962
the phallic role of the camera. Italso
throws a chilling spotlight on the way THE INNOCENTS Shot during the Cuban Missile
movies turn audiences into voyeurs. Crisis, when paranoia about
See also: A Matter of Life and Jack Clayton, 1961 encroaching Soviet power was at its
Death 86–87 height, John Frankenheimer’s Cold
The Innocents is a chilling British War conspiracy thriller captures the
PSYCHO supernatural thriller inspired by spirit of the times perfectly. It
Henry James’s 1898 novella The Turn concerns an apparently heroic
Alfred Hitchcock, 1960 of the Screw. Miss Giddens (Deborah American officer, Shaw (Laurence
Kerr) is employed as a governess to Harvey), who was captured by
Psycho had an extraordinary take care of a girl and a boy, and the Soviets and brainwashed to
effect on contemporary audiences. finds that they are haunted by the commit murder when triggered to
The shower scene, in which a ghosts of their former governess and do so. Major Marco (Frank Sinatra)
woman (Janet Leigh) is stabbed the alcoholic valet who seduced her. is the friend who discovers that the
repeatedly, is now one of the most Director Jack Clayton brilliantly KGB “operators” controlling Shaw
famous in cinema. The movie set uses dissolves created by editor Jim are actually his mother (Angela
new standards for horror movies Clark to suggest ghostly presences, Lansbury) and stepfather. Dark,
with its psychological complexity and to bring tension and terror into surprising, and inventively shot in
and the way Hitchcock ratcheted everyday scenes such as lessons a style that owes a debt to the
up the tension to fever pitch— and bath time. The innocence of French New Wave, it is a gripping,
helped by Bernard Herrmann’s the children gradually transforms disturbing satire.
extraordinary jagged string score— into something “secret, whispery,
as disturbed motel owner Norman and indecent.” DRY SUMMER
Bates (Anthony Perkins) dresses up
as his mother and turns murderous. JULES ET JIM Metin Erksan, 1963
See also: Vertigo 140–45
François Truffaut, 1962 Metin Erksan’s powerful story of
WEST SIDE STORY passion and greed upset critics in
Truffaut’s Jules et Jim was a classic his home country when it was
Robert Wise and Jerome of the French New Wave, shot in made, because of what they
Robbins, 1961 black and white, and packed with considered its negative portrayal of
stylistic innovations such as freeze Turkish people, but it is now widely
West Side Story takes William frames, wipes (frame transitions), regarded as a masterpiece. The
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and voice-over. The story is based movie tells the story of a selfish
and turns it into a dynamic musical on Henri-Pierre Roché’s 1953 tobacco farmer who builds a farm

DIRECTORY 335

to stop water from being lost to his I AM CUBA PERSONA
neighbors’ crops, and who is in love
with the village girl whom his Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964 Ingmar Bergman, 1966
brother marries. Shot in shimmering
black and white, the movie elevates Hidden away in Soviet archives Persona, by Swedish director
melodrama into poetry. for three decades, Kalatozov’s Ingmar Bergman, is an intense
I Am Cuba was restored following psychological drama that turns
JASON AND THE a campaign led by US director into a horror movie as the central
ARGONAUTS Martin Scorsese in the 1990s. A relationship unravels. A young
joint Soviet–Cuban production, it nurse (Bibi Andersson) is
Don Chaffey, 1963 was not well received on release, assigned to take care of a well-
and had been mostly forgotten. known actress (Liv Ullmann),
Underpinned by Bernard Yet the movie is an extraordinary who has mysteriously become
Herrmann’s stirring brass music, document of its time, telling the mute. To fill the silence, the nurse
Don Chaffey’s movie makes the story of oppressed peasants in confides in her about her life,
most of Ray Harryhausen’s stop- 1950s Cuba, and their resistance, including having an abortion as
motion animation of clay models to spurred on by the hope that Fidel a young girl. But things turn nasty
bring to life the story of Jason, the Castro’s revolution would bring a when the nurse discovers the
hero of Greek mythology who led brighter future. The movie is now actress has been psychoanalyzing
his crew, the Argonauts, on a quest also celebrated for its extraordinary her. The actress’s silent rejection
for the legendary Golden Fleece. tracking shots in which the camera of the gender-restrictive roles of
Harryhausen’s animations have a seems to float magically about— motherhood and nursing is, some
distinctive style, and his army of an effect achieved by strapping the critics believe, the focus of the
skeletons rising from the ground camera to the cameraman’s waist movie, but it also explores the
is impressive even today. Seen on and moving him along a carefully bleakness of illness and madness.
the big screen in full color and linked set of pulleys. See also: The Seventh Seal 136–39
sound, Jason and the Argonauts
remains a genuinely stirring epic. CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS THE GRADUATE

ONIBABA Jirí Menzel, 1966 Mike Nichols, 1967

Kaneto Shindo, 1964 Set in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, At the time it was released, The
Jirí Menzel’s Closely Observed Graduate seemed daring in its
Kaneto Shindo’s Onibaba works Trains (known in the US as Closely subject matter, dealing as it does
both as a horror movie and a period Watched Trains) is a wry and with intergenerational sex. Young
drama. It tells the story of a mother touching look at the perils of sexual college graduate Benjamin Braddock
and daughter who set traps and awakening. The grim realities of (Dustin Hoffman) embarks upon a
murder samurai in order to survive war are never far away as young sexual relationship with Mrs.
during a time of civil war in 14th- station guard Miloš strives to lose Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and then
century Japan. Shot in a decidedly his virginity, but Menzel’s witty falls in love with her daughter Elaine
chilling black and white, it is a screenplay, inspired by Bohumil Robinson (Katherine Ross), when he.
parable of the suffering undergone Hrabal’s book, keeps the focus The apparently conventional happy
by all the innocent bystanders firmly on a universal human ending, in which Benjamin stops
throughout history. When the problem. Like other movies of the Elaine from marrying the wrong
old woman kills one samurai, she Czech New Wave, the movie serves man and escapes with her on a
pulls off his mask to find his face as a reminder to Czechs of the bus, is not quite what it seems. The
disfigured like a hibakusha (a brutalizing effects of the system movie deliberately aimed to tap into
victim of the nuclear bomb). under which they live, but the youth culture with its iconic sound
When she wears the mask, her tone is sardonic and gentle rather track (by Simon and Garfunkel),
face becomes disfigured too. than strident. setting a trend for youth movies.

336 DIRECTORY

BELLE DE JOUR SALESMAN of the build up to a shoot-out, rather
than the shoot-out itself. The music
Luis Buñuel, 1967 Albert and David Maysles, 1968 by Ennio Morricone gives an epic
quality to long, drawn-out scenes
Spanish director Luis Buñuel’s This fly-on-the-wall documentary in which almost nothing happens.
French movie Belle de Jour appears follows four traveling salesmen
on the surface to be a conventional as they peddle illustrated Bibles KES
male sexual fantasy in movie form. around suburban New Jersey.
A bored housewife, played by the The movie is an example of the Ken Loach, 1969
ravishingly beautiful Catherine “direct cinema” movement of
Deneuve, spends her afternoons documentary making, in which Based on Barry Hines’s 1968 novel
as a prostitute in a local brothel, lightweight cameras were used A Kestrel for a Knave, Kes was the
indulging all kinds of strange to capture everyday life with a first fiction movie made by British
requests—a lady of the day (de minimum of interference from director Ken Loach following a
jour), rather than of the night. In the filmmakers. The four men string of raw and powerful
Buñuel’s hands, the story becomes appear remarkably unaffected docudramas. It tells the story of
a poetic, psychological study in by the presence of the cameras, emotionally neglected and bullied
which the sex is never graphic but the precariousness and quiet teenager Billy Casper (David
and appears almost incidental. desperation of their existence Bradley), who finds inspiration in
It blends reality and dreams in a is plain to see. At a motivational training a kestrel he takes from a
hallucinatory and beguiling way meeting, the area manager nest on a farm. Through the bird,
that leads toward an ending in chillingly points out that he has Billy learns to open his eyes to
which, unexpectedly, the woman “eliminated a few men.” The money broader horizons. The lyrical realism
and her husband are happy at last. is out there, he says, and if you of the movie and the beautiful shots
See also: The Discreet Charm can’t get it, that’s your fault. The of the bird in flight help make this a
of the Bourgeoisie 208–09 movie was made in the late 1960s, moving, uplifting movie despite its
but depicts an America that has almost inevitable sad ending.
ROSEMARY’S BABY changed little since the 1950s.
A year later, the Maysles brothers MIDNIGHT COWBOY
Roman Polanski, 1968 would document a very different
world with their movie Gimme John Schlesinger, 1969
Roman Polanski’s horror movie Shelter, in which they followed
about satanic possession was the Rolling Stones on tour. Reverberating to Harry Nilsson’s
filmed with an understated realism, jaunty song Everybody’s Talkin’,
which has the effect of making ONCE UPON A TIME Midnight Cowboy is a poignant
it more frightening. Rosemary IN THE WEST movie that homes in on the
(Mia Farrow) and her husband loneliness of the seedy side of life in
Guy (John Cassavetes) are Sergio Leone, 1968 the city, yet delivers an ultimately
portrayed as a convincingly real upbeat message about the power of
couple with a typical set of marital This tense, slow-burning Western relationships. It follows young
issues, before their situation takes was a critical and box-office flop on Texan Joe Buck (Jon Voight) as he
a sinister turn. Eschewing the its release but is now recognized as arrives in New York determined
normal conventions of suspense, Leone’s greatest movie. It is a to make a fortune as a gigolo. Joe’s
Polanski gives plenty of hints simple tale of greed and revenge in naivety ensures that his seedy
about what is really happening a small town where the railroad is encounters come to nothing, and he
next door. Ruth Gordon excels as due to arrive. With Henry Fonda ends up bonding with consumptive
the couple’s strange neighbor, cast against type as a killer and con man Ratso (Dustin Hoffman).
and won one of the few Oscars Charles Bronson as the mysterious When it transpires that Ratso is
ever to go to a horror movie. loner out to get him, the movie dying, Joe gives up his ambitions
See also: Chinatown 216–21 revels in the atmosphere and ritual and takes him on a trip to Florida.

DIRECTORY 337

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE LAND OF SILENCE unpredictability in the desert
AND DARKNESS that is absent from the ordered
Stanley Kubrick, 1971 world of the city.
Werner Herzog, 1971 See also: Don’t Look Now 210–13
Adapted from Anthony Burgess’s
dystopian novella, A Clockwork Werner Herzog’s documentary THE HARDER THEY COME
Orange is an anarchic and follows a deaf-blind German
inventive satire that aroused so woman who works on behalf of Perry Henzell, 1972
much controversy over its violent other deaf-blind people. The movie
content that Kubrick himself depicts the isolation of severely Perry Henzell’s The Harder They
withdrew it from release in the disabled people who are largely Come is the movie credited with
UK for 30 years. In futuristic excluded from modern life. The popularizing reggae music beyond
London, sociopathic delinquent woman, Fini, has lost her sight its Jamaican home, with a sound
Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and and hearing in her youth, but track by Desmond Dekker and The
his gang of “droogs” go on a spree many of those she visits have Maytals, and a title track by Jimmy
of “ultraviolence” that ends in been born deaf-blind, and struggle Cliff, who also plays the movie’s
rape and murder. Alex is later to connect with others in any lead, Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin. Country
arrested, and the institutional way. Their obvious distress is boy Ivan comes to Kingston,
violence to which he is in turn harrowing, but Herzog also tries Jamaica, full of hope, but when
subjected robs him of his humanity. to convey the possibilities of a every avenue leads to nothing,
See also: Dr. Strangelove 176–79 ■ rich inner life for someone whose including the song he wrote and
2001: A Space Odyssey 192–93 contact with the world is through recorded, he turns to drug dealing,
taste, smell, and touch. Since the and becomes a trigger-happy
HAROLD AND MAUDE 1970s, Herzog has made a number gangster. Despite the movie’s grim
of documentaries that attempt to ending, it has an energy that
Hal Ashby, 1971 capture a poetic truth about matches its sound track.
their subjects’ everyday lives.
Hal Ashby’s dark comedy Harold See also: Aguirre, the Wrath A WOMAN UNDER
and Maude breaks many taboos in of God 206–07 THE INFLUENCE
its story of an unlikely relationship
between a young man and a 79- WALKABOUT John Cassavetes, 1974
year-old woman. They meet
through their mutual interest in Nicolas Roeg, 1971 A Woman Under the Influence was
funerals, but their characters could a family affair, with the director’s
not be more different. Harold Based on James Vance Marshall’s wife Gena Rowlands taking the
(Bud Cort) is morbid and suicide novel, Nicolas Roeg’s beautiful lead, and with both of the couple’s
obsessed, doing his best to thwart and haunting movie Walkabout is mothers in the movie, too.
his mother’s efforts to make him about a teenage schoolgirl (Jenny Rowlands plays Mabel, who is so
conform to the expectations Agutter) and her young brother (Luc unstable in her desperation to
of his privileged upbringing. Roeg) stranded in the Australian please that her husband Nick (Peter
Maude (Ruth Gordon) relishes every outback after their father kills Falk) commits her to an institution.
moment of life, with a complete himself. They meet an Aboriginal However, Nick proves no better
disregard for rules and disdain for boy (David Gulpilil) who helps than Mabel at looking after their
money. The movie’s ending reveals them survive in the wild, though children. Upon her release Mabel
a secret that explains Maude’s communication between them seems unable to cope, but the
attitude. In the background looms is difficult. Metaphors abound children’s profession of love for her
the threat of Vietnam for Harold, as in Roeg’s movie, and the outback seems to offer hope. Cassavetes’
his uncle tries to persuade him to has a hallucinogenic intensity, picture of the family is unflinching
enlist. It is a warm, irreverent movie full of movement and color, but ultimately liberating in its
with moments of comic genius. suggesting a vibrancy and an freedom from judgement.

338 DIRECTORY

SHOLAY elite following independence, who Morricone. The movie begins in
exploited the poor and became 1916 and tells the story of Chicago
Ramesh Sippy, 1975 pawns in the colonial game. steelworker Bill (Richard Gere) who,
after a bust-up with his boss, flees
Often credited to director Ramesh ERASERHEAD to Texas with his girlfriend Abby
Sippy’s producer father G. P. Sippy, (Brooke Adams) and teenage sister
Sholay is a Hindi action-adventure David Lynch, 1977 Linda (Linda Manz), who narrates
movie, which transported the the movie. They work long hours
conventions of the Hollywood David Lynch’s debut feature was in the fields until, seeing a chance
Western to India, to create the an enigmatic, low-budget movie to escape poverty, Bill encourages
country’s first blockbuster. Set in that became a cult hit. The story Abby to marry the farmer, who
the rocky terrain of Karnataka in focuses on Henry Spencer (Jack has apparently just a year to live.
southern India, it tells the story of Nance), a label printer with a weird However, the farmer lives on, and
two small-time villains, Veeru and shock of hair, whose girlfriend has the story spirals into a tragedy of
Jai, who become heroes when a reptilian-looking premature baby. jealousy and biblical plagues.
they are hired by a retired police But the basic plot is just a hook for
officer to help capture the dacoit an increasing array of unsettling APOCALYPSE NOW
(bandit) Gabbar Singh, who is images and scenarios. The movie’s
terrorizing their village. Some title comes from a moment when Francis Ford Coppola, 1979
critics condemned the movie’s part of Henry’s head is removed
glorification of violence, but it was and taken to a pencil factory to Inspired by Joseph Conrad’s 1899
a huge hit at the box office in India, be made into erasers. novella Heart of Darkness, Coppola’s
and quotes from the movie (“What’s See also: Blue Velvet 256–57 Apocalypse Now is set during the
going to happen to you now, Vietnam War, as Captain Willard
Kaalia?”) are embedded in Indian DAWN OF THE DEAD (Martin Sheen) is ordered to go
culture. It is the defining “masala” deep into the jungle and kill Colonel
movie—a blend of action, drama, George A. Romero, 1978 Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a decorated
comedy, romance, and music. officer who has gone insane and
Dawn of the Dead is the classic commands his troops as a
XALA zombie horror movie, an demigod. The difficulties faced
unrestrained follow-up to Romero’s while filming in the Philippines are
Ousmane Sembene, 1975 1968 feature Night of the Living legendary, but the result was a
Dead. After the US is devastated by movie of hallucinatory power, with
Xala is a movie by Senegalese an infection that reanimates the a relentless sound track that swings
director Ousmane Sembene, dead, four friends escape by from roaring helicopter blades to
adapted from his own novel. “Xala” helicopter and hole up in a the pounding rock of The Doors.
(pronounced “hala”) is the curse of shopping mall, where they have all See also: The Godfather 200–05
sexual impotence that businessman their needs met but are besieged
El Hadji believes has befallen him by the living dead. While the movie RAGING BULL
after his third marriage. As he is generally regarded as a clever
searches for a cure, El Hadji critique of American consumerism, Martin Scorsese, 1980
neglects his business. Finally, a it is also an unashamed gore fest.
beggar who has haunted his office Robert De Niro’s Jake La Motta is
for years reveals it was he who laid DAYS OF HEAVEN a hungry and desperate boxer who,
the curse on El Hadji, for ruining after finally winning a champion’s
his own life years before. El Hadji Terrence Malick, 1978 belt, descends into a world of seedy
will only be cured by standing bribes. He abuses his wife and all
naked while beggars spit on him. Days of Heaven is most memorable his friends, and ends up bloated
The movie is seen as a metaphor for for its sumptuous Texan landscapes and overweight. It’s a measure of
the French-speaking Senegalese and its captivating score by Ennio Scorsese’s and De Niro’s skill that

DIRECTORY 339

viewers retain their sympathy for government agents move in. The PARIS, TEXAS
this angry, frustrated man as he movie is also notable for some
desperately tries to prove himself outstanding performances by its Wim Wenders, 1984
to the world. child actors, including Henry
See also: Taxi Driver 234–39 Thomas as Elliott and Drew Paris, Texas opens with a man
Barrymore as Gertie. (Harry Dean Stanton) wandering
THE SHINING See also: Jaws 228–31 lost in the Texan desert, and
follows his slow and painful return
Stanley Kubrick, 1980 SCARFACE to his old life, as his brother drives
him across the country to Los
Adapted from Stephen King’s book Brian De Palma, 1983 Angeles to be reacquainted with
of the same name, Kubrick’s The his son and wife. Playwright Sam
Shining turned the author into a Violent, graphic, and over the top, Shepard wrote the script, producing
household name. Jack Nicholson Brian De Palma’s remake of the a sensitive and understated
plays the writer (and recovering 1932 Howard Hawks movie pulls no character study that explores the
alcoholic) Jack Torrance, who takes punches as it charts the rise and nature of family and fatherhood,
an off-season caretaker job at the fall of gangster Tony Montana, as the man, who starts the movie
Overlook Hotel in the Colorado played with relish by Al Pacino. mute, gradually regains his voice
Rockies, bringing his wife Wendy Montana spirals so far out of control and identity. Shot by Wenders’s
(Shelley Duvall) and young son, that he kills his sister’s husband regular collaborator Robby Müller,
Danny, to stay with him in the vast, on her wedding night. The movie the movie features stunning, bleak
empty building. Over the weeks, divided critics. Some reveled in its shots of the desert and of the
Danny is haunted by increasingly detailed characterization; others seedy neon world of the city.
horrifying visions as Jack slowly found it unpleasant and clichéd. See also: Wings of Desire 258–61
becomes homicidal, eventually
chasing his family with a fire axe BLOOD SIMPLE COME AND SEE
and the now-famous cry, “Heeere’s
Johnny!” Kubrick laced the movie Joel and Ethan Coen, 1984 Elem Klimov, 1985
with symbolism to produce a horror
masterpiece, although King is said The Coens began their directorial Soviet director Elem Klimov’s
not to have liked it. careers with this blood-soaked Come and See is one of the few
See also: Dr. Strangelove 176–79 ■ debut, a noirish thriller that movies to show the devastation of
2001: A Space Odyssey 192–93 features many of the themes they war without a redeeming gleam
would revisit in later movies. A of heroism. Drawing on Klimov’s
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL sleazy bar owner (Dan Hedaya) own boyhood trauma of fleeing
hires an even sleazier private the besieged city of Stalingrad
Steven Spielberg, 1982 detective (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill during World War II, the movie
his wife (Frances McDormand). follows the boy Florya, who
Few screen creatures have Through crossing, double-crossing, joins the Belarusian partisans
captured the hearts of the world and plain incompetence, the hit to fight the Nazis but is separated
as effectively as Spielberg’s E.T., goes bloodily wrong for everyone from his unit. An explosion shatters
with its giant, baby eyes and the involved. Yet the Coens succeed his eardrums, and from then on the
distinctive cute, rasping voice in making the outcome absurd, movie moves through a series of
(spoken by Pat Welsh). Spielberg’s funny, horrible, and inevitable. ever more dire scenes, including
direction and Melissa Mathison’s Critic Roger Ebert has remarked one that shows his home village
script mix sentiment, sadness, and of the Coens’ skill in plotting that piled high with corpses. There
comedy in just the right proportions “they build crazy walls with is no redemption in the movie, or
to keep the audience enthralled as sensible bricks,” and this was never flinching, and yet Klimov finds
E.T. befriends 10-year-old Elliott more true than in Blood Simple. a strange beauty in the terrible
and then faces danger when See also: Fargo 282–83 images he creates.

340 DIRECTORY

BRAZIL a priest to perform a passion play. gunrunning ring. It is relentlessly
To prepare a thought-provoking pacy and uncompromising in its
Terry Gilliam, 1985 production, Daniel draws on violence, with explosive action
academic research relating to scenes and slow-motion gunfights
Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (which takes the life of Christ, but his novel that become almost balletic even
its title from a 1939 song) is part interpretation of the story upsets as they horrify. The centerpiece
satire, part fantasy. It is set in a the Church authorities, and he finds of the movie is an action scene in
surreal future where people are himself undergoing an ordeal that which a handheld camera follows
trapped in humdrum urban lives parallels the Passion itself. The the two cops in a single shot, guns
controlled by a Kafkaesque Ministry movie seems to challenge the blazing, through a hospital unit
of Information. When an innocent established Church hierarchy, and up in an elevator to another
man is wrongly arrested due to a suggesting that it would fail to floor. Woo’s action style has since
bureaucratic error and dies in understand Christ if he returned. been widely imitated.
custody, records functionary Sam
Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) tries to HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A RESERVOIR DOGS
make it right, and in the process FILMMAKER’S APOCALYPSE
falls in love with the enigmatic Jill Quentin Tarantino, 1992
(Kim Greist) whom he fears may be Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper,
a terrorist working against the and Eleanor Coppola, 1991 Tarantino’s debut feature focuses
ministry. The movie is probably the on the aftermath of a diamond
most complete representation of Filmed by the director’s wife, heist gone wrong, as the gang
Gilliam’s absurdist humor. Eleanor, this behind-the-scenes gathers in a warehouse and tries
documentary follows the troubled to identify the traitor in its midst.
DOWN BY LAW making of Francis Ford Coppola’s The movie made Tarantino a star,
1979 Vietnam War movie and drew strong performances
Jim Jarmusch, 1986 Apocalypse Now. The production from its mostly male cast, including
was beset with difficulties that Michael Madsen and Tim Roth.
Shot on a low budget in black and paralleled the movie’s actual Its ultraviolence is made theatrical
white, Down by Law adopts a narrative, with drunk, high, or by smart, rapid-fire dialogue laced
laconic take on life. At some uncooperative stars, bad weather, with pop-culture references.
moments bleak and others cheerful, and political problems on location Combined with sharp suits and
it tells the story of three misfits— in the Philippines. The movie a retro sound track, the movie
down-at-heel disc jockey Zack includes interviews with the introduced Tarantino as a new
(Tom Waits), hustler pimp Jack surviving protagonists, in which and stylish filmmaker.
(John Lurie), and lost Italian Coppola reflects on the experience: See also: Pulp Fiction 270–75
tourist Bob (Roberto Benigni)— “We were in the jungle, there were
who happen to end up sharing too many of us, we had access to too NAKED
a prison cell and decide to make much money, too much equipment,
a break for it. As they go on the and little by little we went insane.” Mike Leigh, 1993
run through the Louisiana forests, See also: The Godfather 200–05
the story seems part dream, part Naked follows a young man from
postapocalyptic nightmare. HARD BOILED Manchester, Johnny (David Thewlis),
who, with nowhere else to go, turns
JESUS OF MONTREAL John Woo, 1992 up at the London apartment of an
old girlfriend (Lesley Sharp). Johnny
Denys Arcand, 1989 Hard Boiled is a high-energy wanders the streets, where he has
thriller about two unconventional chance encounters, including one
Jesus of Montreal tells the story of Hong Kong cops, Tequila (Chow with night security guard Brian
a company of actors led by Daniel Yun-Fat) and Alan (Tony Leung), (Peter Wight), who shows Johnny
(Lothaire Bluteau) who are hired by who team up to break a the workings of his mundane job.

DIRECTORY 341

“Don’t waste your life,” warns kill Pauline’s mother when she tries so, God will cure Jan. Scandalized,
Brian, but this bleak movie ends as to keep them apart. As the girls her local church casts her out, but
it began, with Johnny on the move, blur the line between reality and when, at the end, she sacrifices her
in the process of doing just that. the fantasy world they create with life, Jan is apparently cured.
Director Mike Leigh uses a long stories, pictures, and plastic
rehearsal process with his actors to figurines, so does Jackson, creating TASTE OF CHERRY
develop characters and scripts for a movie that deals with a grim
his movies, and in Naked, he story in a surprisingly uplifting way. Abbas Kiarostami, 1997
provoked a stunning performance See also: The Lord of the Rings:
from Thewlis—egoistic, bitter, and The Fellowship of the Ring 302–03 Taste of Cherry, by Iranian director
nihilistic, yet funny and endearing Abbas Kiarostami, is a minimalist
at times. DRIFTING CLOUDS movie about a man who drives
around Tehran, looking for someone
SHORT CUTS Aki Kaurismäki, 1996 who will bury him once he has
killed himself. We never find out
Robert Altman, 1993 Drifting Clouds, by Finnish director why he wants to die. As he drives
Aki Kaurismäki, is a wry, tender he picks up various candidates.
Based on nine short stories by look at the lives of an ordinary Kiarostami had no script, but
Raymond Carver, Robert Altman’s couple brought low by a recession. improvised the dialogue almost as
Short Cuts follows the fortunes of Ilona (Kati Outinen) works in a a series of interviews, either from
22 ordinary people in Los Angeles restaurant and her husband Lauri the man’s point of view or that of
as their lives interweave over a (Kari Väänänen) is a bus driver. The his passenger. The end, in which
few days. The people, played by couple scrape by until both lose the man is seen waiting for death
an all-star cast that includes Jack their jobs. Lauri loses his licence for in his grave, is surprisingly uplifting.
Lemmon and Julianne Moore, have medical reasons, and although Ilona
little in common, and do nothing finds a new restaurant job, she is WERCKMEISTER
especially dramatic, but beneath cheated out of her wages. It ends HARMONIES
their lives is a sense of insecurity ambiguously, but hopefully, with
and unease about the future, the couple opening a restaurant Béla Tarr, 2000
symbolized by a plague of flies and seeing it fill with customers.
and earthquake warnings. Altman The Hungarian movie Werckmeister
creates a sense of something BREAKING THE WAVES Harmonies consists of just 39 long
heroic in their willingness to keep shots in black and white, each a
trying, hoping for something better. Lars von Trier, 1996 complete scene in itself. The story
is set in a bleak town in winter. A
HEAVENLY CREATURES Set in a remote part of Scotland circus arrives, and a stuffed whale
in the 1970s, Breaking the Waves is its main attraction. The story is
Peter Jackson, 1994 is the strange story of Bess (Emily seen through the eyes of the wise
Watson). Deeply religious and fool János (Lars Randolph). János
After an early career making low- naive, Bess begins to come out looks after György (Peter Fitz),
budget splatter movies, Peter of her shell when she impulsively who believes the world’s problems
Jackson had a dramatic change of marries Swedish oil rig worker Jan began with the musical theories
direction with this touching movie (Stellan Skarsgård). Things change of 17th-century organist Andreas
based on a true story about a dramatically when Jan is paralyzed Werckmeister. It may be an allegory
murder in Christchurch, New in a rig accident. He tells her that for Communist-era Hungary. Its
Zealand. Two misfit teenagers, rich they can still have a sex life—by target could also be capitalism
English girl Juliet (Kate Winslet) proxy—if she will sleep with other or totalitarianism; either way, its
and shy New Zealander Pauline men and describe for him her acts. view of humanity is pessimistic,
(Melanie Lynskey), develop an Bess debases herself sexually with showing acts of collective brutality
intense relationship and decide to other men, believing that by doing committed for no clear reason.

342 DIRECTORY

AMORES PERROS and visual inventiveness. On finds himself obliged to care for it.
the face of it, the movie tells the The movie is driven by the vibrant
Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000 story of aspiring actress Betty Kwaito music of Zola, described by
Elms (Naomi Watts) who arrives one critic as “slowed-down garage
Sometimes translated as Love’s in Los Angeles and makes friends music,” and a dynamic score by
a Bitch, the Mexican movie Amores with amnesiac “Rita” (Laura Mark Kilian and Paul Hepker.
Perros paints a disturbing world, Harring), but it follows many other
especially with its graphic scenes little stories whose connection is CACHÉ
of dog fighting. The movie is set in cryptic. Lynch described the movie
Mexico City, and consists of three as “a love story in the city of Michael Haneke, 2005
stories of loyalty and disloyalty, dreams,” and offered no more
each involving a dog and briefly explanation than that. Michael Haneke’s Caché (Hidden)
linked by a car accident. Octavio See also: Blue Velvet 256–57 is a French psychological thriller
runs off with his brother’s wife; starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette
Daniel leaves his wife for a model GOOD BYE, LENIN! Binoche as a well-to-do couple who
who then loses her leg; and the are sent a series of anonymous
hitman El Chivo is trying to make Wolfgang Becker, 2003 surveillance videos showing
contact with the daughter he the exterior of their home. The
abandoned at two years old. Wolfgang Becker’s tender movie videos take on a more disturbing
tells a story set in East Berlin just significance when they are
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE before and after the reunification accompanied by crayon drawings
of Germany. In 1989, Alex’s mother that reveal an intimate knowledge
Wong Kar-Wai, 2000 suffers a nearly fatal heart attack of the man’s early years, when his
when she witnesses him being family was considering adopting
Chow (Tony Leung) and Su (Maggie arrested while involved in an an Algerian boy. The movie is
Cheung) are neighbors in a Hong antigovernment protest. She falls partly about the repressed memory
Kong apartment block in 1962. Each into a coma and doctors warn Alex of la nuit noire, the night of October
is convinced that their spouse is that any sudden shock—such as the 17, 1961, in Paris, when French
having an affair—perhaps with the news that the Berlin Wall has just police massacred demonstrators
other’s spouse—and they meet to fallen—could kill her. And so, when against the Algerian War. Haneke
discuss it. They are aware that they she awakes, Alex goes through an skillfully handles the political
may be in love with each other, but elaborate and touching charade to message while keeping a taut,
resist, unwilling to make the same keep her believing that life is edge-of-the-seat menace that
mistake as their partners. The carrying on as normal in the GDR. carries the movie along.
resignation to their fate is perfectly See also: The White Ribbon 323
underpinned by the movie’s TSOTSI
luminous cinematography and the TIMES AND WINDS
slow, mesmerizing sound of a Gavin Hood, 2005
repeated Nat King Cole melody. Reha Erdem, 2006
Adapted from an Athol Fugard
MULHOLLAND DR. novel, Gavin Hood’s Tsotsi is the Reha Erdem’s Times and Winds is
story of David, an inhabitant of a visual poem. It is an affecting
David Lynch, 2001 a Johannesburg shantytown. As a look at the lives of three adolescent
boy, David finds himself homeless children in a mountain village in
Originally conceived as a TV series, and has to grow up quickly to Turkey—two boys, Ömer and Yakup,
Mulholland Dr. leaves the viewer become Tsotsi, the brutal leader of and a girl Yildiz. Life in this bleak
hanging, almost as if it were a a violent gang. He is stopped short place is harsh, as the villagers try
trailer for episodes that will never when he finds a baby in the car of to scratch a living from the soil, but
happen. It is full of Lynch’s one of his victims. The helplessness the challenges the three children
characteristic enigmatic twists of the baby challenges him as he face in growing up are harder still.

DIRECTORY 343

This is no coming-of-age movie, driven insane. The movie seems to brothers used incidental music
but a deeply felt and realistic get to the nub of capitalism’s true for this movie, explaining that its
portrait that captures the pain nature: that, ultimately, it is about fairy-tale structure required it.
and beauty of young life. domination not profit.

TEN CANOES THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES HOLY MOTORS

Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, 2006 Juan José Campanella, 2009 Leos Carax, 2012

Ten Canoes was the first Australian Retired Buenos Aires federal agent Holy Motors, a fantasy drama by
movie ever made completely in an Benjamín (Ricardo Darín) is writing French director Leos Carax, has
Aboriginal language, and with an a novel, but has writer’s block. So been described as a parable of
exclusively Aboriginal cast. But it he calls on former colleague Irene human relationships for the internet
would be a mistake to think it was (Soledad Villamil) to go over the age. It is a hard movie to pin down,
notable for these things alone. In details of a case they worked on however, and is certainly surreal.
fact, it is a charming and hugely together 25 years earlier. As It follows businessman Monsieur
imaginative movie in which there Benjamin revisits the case, he Oscar (Denis Lavant), who is taken
is rich complexity behind apparent rekindles a buried passion for Irene, around Paris in a white limousine,
simplicity. Set in the remote as well as revealing the obsessions driven by Céline (Edith Scob),
Arnhem Land, at first the story of the other people involved in the entering a bizarre sequence of
seems like a simple fable of young case. Campanella splits the action worlds and roles: as assassin,
love, but with flashbacks to ancient between the 1990s and the 1970s, a raging father, bag lady, and many
times it becomes a mesh of time of brutal military dictatorship, more. It defies narrative logic, and
different perspectives. The most in which political murders were seems to combine the worlds of
modern time period is shot in black sanctioned by the state. The result Lewis Carroll with those of David
and white, while the past is is a movie that works both as a Lynch and Luis Buñuel.
brought to life in color, a beautifully tightly scripted thriller with a very
simple idea that illustrates how the clever twist, and as a frank THE GRAND
past can be as vital as the present. examination of Argentina’s BUDAPEST HOTEL
The movie is narrated by David troubled recent past.
Gulpilil, who starred in Nicolas Wes Anderson, 2014
Roeg’s Walkabout, and one of the THE KID WITH A BIKE
cast is Gulpilil’s son Jamie. In The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2011 Anderson maintains his reputation
THERE WILL BE BLOOD for walking the line between folly
The Kid With a Bike (Le gamin au and genius. Set in a fictional central
Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007 vélo) is the tender story of 12-year- European state between the two
old Cyril (Thomas Doret) finding world wars, the story recounts in
At the heart of Paul Thomas comfort with a young woman called flashback the comic adventures
Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is a Samantha (Cécile de France) who of Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), a
remarkable performance by Daniel gives him a bicycle after his father legendary concierge, and his
Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, the abandons him. Samantha is in trusted bellboy Zero Moustafa
silver miner turned oilman in his some ways a fairy godmother, but (Tony Revolori and F. Murray
ruthless pursuit of wealth. To the Dardenne brothers’ directing Abraham). The plot is driven by
persuade small landowners to allow keeps the movie realistic. Their Gustave H.’s attempts to get his
him to drill on their land, Plainview work owes a clear debt to neorealist hands on a priceless painting, with
presents himself as a prophet of classics about childhood such the rise of fascism providing the
profit. He becomes so obsessed as Kes and The Bicycle Thief. In background tension. The film is a
with finding oil and destroying his a departure from their previous, fast-moving farce, a love story, and
competitors that he is eventually intensely naturalistic work, the a lament for a vanished aged of spa
hotels and their eccentric guests.

344

INDEX

Numbers in bold indicate main entries. Apocalypse Now 197, 205, 206, 226, Bergman, Ingrid 72–73, 75, 143
319, 338 Best Years of Our Lives, The 45
3D 106, 269 Bicycle Thief, The 37, 45, 94–97, 132
8½ 162, 165 Apollo 13 326 Big Deal on Madonna Street 162, 165
12 Monkeys 172 Arcand, Denys 340 Big Heat, The 47, 332–33
39 Steps, The 44 Arletty 81 Big Sleep, The 12, 65, 75
400 Blows, The 94, 107, 150–55, 158 Armstrong, Robert 49 Bigelow, Kathryn 269, 320, 321
2001: A Space Odyssey 159, 179, Arquette, Patricia 327 Biggest Heroes, The 286
L’arrivée d’un train en gare de Bird, Robert 246
192–93, 247 Birds, The 142, 143
La Ciotat 12 Björnstrand, Gunnar 137, 138
A Artist, The 122 Black God, White Devil 174–75
Ascenseur pour l’échafaud 333 Black Hawk Down 253, 320
À bout de souffle 158, 166–67, 169, Ashby, Hal 337 Black Narcissus 86, 87
196, 286 Ashes and Diamonds 146–47 Blackthorne, Paul 300
Audran, Stéphane 198 Blade Runner 193, 227, 250–55
Abel, Alfred 33 Astin, Sean 303 Blair Witch Project, The 288
Academy Awards 19 Australian New Wave 233 Blind Chance 276
action adventure movies 228–31 Blindness 306
Adam, Ken 177 B Blood Simple 282, 283, 339
Agee, James 118 Blue Angel, The 19, 36
Aguirre, the Wrath of God 206–07 Bacall, Lauren 72, 75 Blue Velvet 197, 227, 256–57
Aiello, Danny 264 Back to the Future 229 Boal, Mark 320
Aimée, Anouk 163, 165 Baader Meinhof Complex, The 312 Body Snatcher, The 180
Albertazzi, Giorgio 170 Bahr, Fax 340 Bogart, Humphrey 13, 45, 72–74, 75,
Aldrich, Robert 134 Banderas, Antonio 262
Alekan, Henri 85 Bandyopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan 133 166, 219
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul 159, 222–23 Banerjee, Karuna 133 Boileau, Pierre 107
Alien 226, 243, 252, 253, 298 Banerjee, Subir 132 Bonnie and Clyde 159, 166, 190–91
All About Eve 106, 332 Barbarella 159 Boot, Das 226, 248–49
All the President’s Men 226 Barranco, Maria 262 Borchert, Brigitte 37
All That Heaven Allows 106, 130, 222, 223 Barrault, Jean-Louis 81, 82 Borgnine, Ernest 195
Alland, William 69 Barravento 174 Boucher, Le 159, 198–99
Allen, Woody 226, 240, 241 Barrymore, Lionel 92 Boyd, Billy 303
Almodóvar, Pedro 227, 262 Bastos, Othon 175 Boyhood 15, 269, 327
Altman, Robert 341 Battle of Algiers, The 158, 182–87 Boyle, Danny 269, 318, 319
Amélie 281, 298–99 Battleship Potemkin 19, 28–29, 106 Brackett, Charles 114, 115
L’Amore 106 Beatty, Warren 190, 191 Bradshaw, Peter 97, 218, 308
Amores Perros 342 Beaufoy, Simon 318 Brando, Marlon 106, 116, 117, 184, 190,
Amour 323 Beauty and the Beast 84, 227, 280
Anderson, Lindsay 50, 51 Becker, Wolfgang 312, 342 196, 202, 203, 204
Anderson, Paul Thomas 269, 343 Beckett, Samuel 175, 247 Brasseur, Pierre 81
Anderson, Wes 343 Before Sunrise 327 Brazil 340
Andersson, Bibi 137, 335 Belle de Jour 159, 336 Breaking the Waves 341
Andrei Rublev 244, 245 Belle et la Bête, La 84–85 Brecht, Bertolt 175
Andrews, Dana 79 Belmondo, Jean-Paul 166 Breslin, Jimmy 185
Andrews, Julie 180–81 Benchley, Peter 229 Bride of Frankenstein, The 52
Annie Hall 226, 240–41 Benny, Jack 76 Brief Encounter 332
Antonio das Mortes 175 Bérard, Christian 84 British New Wave 158, 159, 168–69,
Antonov, Aleksandr 28 Bergman, Ingmar 107, 136–38, 139,
Apartment, The 148, 149 222
240, 335 Brokeback Mountain 295
Brown, Joe E. 149
Browning, Tod 331
Bryant, Chris 212

INDEX 345

Buchheim, Lothar-Günther 248, 249 Christie, Julie 210 Curtis, Tony 14, 148–49
Buena Vista Social Club 261 Cinderella 20, 53 Curtiz, Michael 72
Build my Gallows High 118, 332 Cinema Novo (Brazil) 175 Cybulski, Zbigniew 146, 147
Bullock, Sandra 269, 326 Citizen Kane 13, 45, 66–71, 100,
Buñuel, Luis 19, 50, 159, 208, 209, D
102, 180
330–31, 332, 336 City of God 268, 304–09, 318 Day, Josette 84
Burn! 184, 187 City Lights 19, 38–41, 95 Dalí, Salvador 19, 50, 208, 330
Buscemi, Steve 282 City of Lost Children, The 298 Dalio, Marcel 60, 61
Clair, René 50 Darabont, Frank 278, 279
C Clansman, The 22, 23 Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre
Clarke, Arthur C. 192
Caan, James 205 Clayton, Jack 334 and Luc 343
Cabaret 180 Clockwork Orange, A 159, 179, Dark Water 288, 289
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The 18, 24–27 Das Gupta, Uma 133
Caché 323, 342 192, 337 Dassin, Jules 333
Cain, James M. 78 Clooney, George 263, 326 Dasté, Jean 51
Calamai, Clara 78 Close Encounters of the Third Kind Davies, Marion 71
Campanella, Juan José 343 Davis, Bette 106, 134
Canby, Vincent 207, 232 193, 226, 228, 230 Dawn of the Dead 338
Canudo, Ricciotto 14 Close, Glenn 249 Day the Earth Stood Still, The 106, 180
Cape Fear 118, 239 Closely Observed Trains 335 Day for Night 152
Capra, Frank 90–92, 93 Clouzot, Henri-Georges 13, 106, Days of Heaven 338
Carax, Leos 343 Dazed and Confused 327
Carette, Julien 60 107, 128 de Heer, Rolf 343
Carné, Marcel 45, 80–82, 83 Cocteau, Jean 84, 85 de Landa, Juan 78
Caro, Marc 298 Coen, Joel and Ethan 268, 282, De Niro, Robert 226, 236, 239
Carr, Charmian 181 De Palma, Brian 239, 339
Casablanca 45, 72–75 283, 339 De Sica, Vittorio 37, 45, 94, 97, 132
Casares, Maria 82 Colbert, Claudette 91 Dead Man Walking 278
Cassavetes, John 134, 263, 337 collision 29 Dead Poets Society 232, 233
Cassel, Vincent 281 color 14, 57 Dean, James 131
Castelnuovo, Nino 173 Coltrane, Ellar 327 Decroux, Étienne 81
Castle of Cagliostro, The 296, 297 Come and See 339 Deer Hunter, The 239
Catch-22 159 Committee Investigating Un-American Del Rey, Geraldo 174–75
Central Station 285 Delicatessen 298
Ceylan, Nuri Bilge 269, 324, 325 Activities 45 DeMille, Cecil B. 114
Chabrol, Claude 166, 198, 199 Company of Wolves, The 314 Demy, Jacques 173
Chaffey, Don 335 Constant Gardener, The 306 Deneuve, Catherine 173
Champlin, Charles 193 Contempt 46, 167 Departed, The 237
Chandler, Raymond 115 Conversation, The 159, 205 Deren, Maya 331
Chanel, Coco 171 Cool Hand Luke 278 Dern, Laura 256
Chang Chen 295 Cooper, Merian C. 49 Deschanel, Zooey 56
Chaplin, Charlie 18, 19, 40, 41, Coppola, Eleanor 340 Devi, Chunibala 132
Coppola, Francis Ford 159, 202, 204, Devil’s Backbone, The 314, 316
44, 51, 95, 96 Diaboliques, Les 107, 128
Chelsea Girls 159, 188 205, 206, 239, 338 Dietrich, Marlene 19, 36, 143
Cheng Pei-pei 294 Corman, Roger 213 Dirty Harry 159
Chiaki, Minoru 110 Cotten, Joseph 70 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Chien Andalou, Un 19, 50, 159, 208, The Counterfeiters 312
Coward, Noel 102 159, 208–09
330–31 Crash 268 Disney, Walt 34, 44, 53, 227
Children of Men 326 crime movies 46–47, 134, 190–91, Distant 325
Children of Paradise 45, 80–83 216–21, 270–75, 304–09, 324–25 Divorce Italian Style 165
Chinatown 159, 216–21, 226 Cronenberg, David 227, 268 Django Unchained 275
Chloe 284 Cronos 316 Djigirr, Peter 343
Choi Min-sik 310–11 Crosland, Alan 330 Do the Right Thing 264
Chow Yun-fat 293 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 268,

290–95
Crowther, Bosley 84, 165, 167
Cruel Sea, The 248
Cuadrado, Luis 214
Cuarón, Alfonso 269, 326
Cukor, George 58, 62, 63
Cuny, Alain 164

346 INDEX

documentaries 322 F gangster movies 200–05, 304–09
Dogme 95 manifesto 268, 286, 287 Ganz, Bruno 258, 259
Dolce Vita, La 158, 160–65 Fahrenheit 451 152, 213 Garbo, Greta 19
Dommartin, Solveig 260 Fairbanks, Douglas 19 García Lorca, Federico 208
Donen, Stanley 122 Falconetti, Maria 35 Garland, Judy 56
Don’t Look Now 210–13 Falk, Peter 258, 260, 261 Gaynor, Janet 30
Double Indemnity 114, 115, 331 Fallen Idol, The 103 Gedeck, Martina 312
Double Life of Veronique, The 276, 277 Fargo 268, 282–83 Generation, A 146
Down by Law 340 Fassbinder, Rainer Werner 159, Geraghty, Brian 321
Downfall 312 German Expressionism 18, 26, 27, 32,
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 58 222, 223
Dr. Mabuse the Gambler 32, 33, 47, 330 Fehér, Friedrich 26 45, 118, 121
Dr. No 158 Fellini, Federico 107, 162, 163, 165, 333 Ghost Actress 289
Dr. Strangelove 158, 176–79, 192 Fernán Gómez, Fernando 215 Giger, H. R. 243
Dracula 44, 45 Festen 268, 286–87 Gilliam, Terry 172, 340
Dreyer, Carl Theodor 35 Field, Shirley Anne 169 Gimpera, Teresa 215
Dreyfuss, Richard 230 film noir 78, 79, 100–03 Girotti, Massimo 78
Drifting Clouds 341 Finney, Albert 169 Gish, Lillian 23, 121
Dry Summer 334–35 Fisher, Carrie 242 Gladiator 253
Duck Soup 48, 240 Fistful of Dollars, A 110 Gleiberman, Owen 275
Duellists, The 253 Fitzcarraldo 206 Glengarry Glen Ross 149
Dugan, Tom 77 Five Easy Pieces 218 Godard, Jean-Luc 46, 152, 158, 159,
Dullea, Keir 193 Fleming, Victor 56–57, 58, 62–63
Dumont, Margaret 48 Fonda, Henry 91 166, 167, 196, 286
Dunaway, Faye 190, 191, 218 Fonda, Peter 159, 196, 197 The Godfather 159, 200–05
Dune 257 For Whom the Bell Tolls 72 The Godfather: Part II 159, 202, 205,
Duras, Marguerite 170 Forbidden Planet 107
Ford, Harrison 218, 233, 242, 249, 236, 239
E Godzilla 14, 106, 107, 129
252, 255 Goebbels, Joseph 44
Ealing comedies 45, 98–99 Ford, John 135, 331 Golstein, Coco 51
East of Eden 117, 131 Forrest Gump 275 Gone Girl 113
Eastwoood, Clint 249 Foster, Jodie 237, 238 Gone with the Wind 45, 56, 58,
Easy Rider 159, 196–97, 218 Frankenheimer, John 334
Eat Drink Man Woman 295 Frankenstein 33, 44, 45, 52, 214 62–63
Ebert, Roger 14, 75, 101, 124, 133, 135, Frantic 218, 221 Gong Li 265
Freaks 331 González Iñárritu, Alejandro 342
188, 199, 236, 260, 264, 285, 309, 322 Freeman, Morgan 279 Good Bye, Lenin! 312, 342
Edison, Thomas 12 French Connection, The 159 Goodfellas 236, 237, 306
Egoyan, Atom 284 French, Philip 63, 314 Goring, Marius 87
Eisenstein, Sergei 19, 28, 29, 245 French New Wave 51, 83, 97, 107, 152, Gowariker, Ashutosh 300, 301
Ekberg, Anita 163 Graduate, The 159, 335
Ekerot, Bengt 137 155, 158, 166, 167, 171, 173, 175, 199 Grand Budapest Hotel, The 343
Elephant Man, The 256, 257 Frend, Charles 248 Grand Illusion, The 60, 61
Enter the Dragon 159 Freund, Karl 18, 46 Grant, Cary 64–65, 142, 149
Entranced Earth 175 From Here to Eternity 106 Grapes of Wrath, The 135, 331
epics, historical 22–23 Front Page, The 64 Gravity 269, 326
Eraserhead 256, 257, 338 Funny Games 323 Great Depression 40, 41, 44, 62,
Erdem, Reha 342 Furneaux, Yvonne 163
Erdogan, Yilmaz 324 91, 118
Erice, Victor 214, 215 G Great Dictator, The 40
Erksan, Metin 334 Great Train Robbery 18, 330
Escape from Alcatraz 278 Gable, Clark 63, 91 Green Mile, The 278, 279
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 227, 230, 339 Gallipoli 232, 233 Green Zone 320
experimental movies 170–71, 188 Gangs of New York 237, 268 Greenaway, Peter 170
Exterminating Angel, The 208 Greene, Graham 45, 47, 101–03
Greengrass, Paul 320
Greenwood, Joan 99
Griffith, D. W. 18, 22, 62
Grimm, Brothers 53, 85
Guillén, Fernando 262
Guinness, Alec 45, 98, 99, 158, 242
Gunton, Bob 279

INDEX 347

H Hobbit, The 269, 302–03 Jo Yeong-wook 311
Hoffman, Dustin 159, 190, 249 Joan of Arc 58
Hackman, Gene 159, 191 Holden, William 115, 195 Johnson, Ben 195
Hadjadj, Brahim 185 Holm, Ian 284 Johnston, Sheila 73
Hagen, Jean 123 Holy Motors 343 Joint Security Area 310
La Haine 281 Honda, Ishiro 129 Jolson, Al 19, 30
Haley, Jack 57 Honma, Noriko 110–11 Jules et Jim 152, 334
Haller, Ernest 63 Hood, Gavin 342 Julien Donkey-Boy 286
Hamer, Robert 98, 99, 168 Hopper, Dennis 159, 196, 197, 218, 256 Jurassic Park 228
Hamill, Mark 242 House of Flying Daggers 292
Hammerstein II, Oscar 180, 181 Howard, Leslie 63 K
Hammid, Alexander 331 Howard, Ron 326
Hand, David 53 Howard, Trevor 101 Kael, Pauline 15, 50, 80, 133, 148, 213
Handke, Peter 258–61 Hudson, Rock 130 Kalatozov, Mikhail 335
Hands of Orlac, The 26, 27 Human Beast, The 60, 61 Kamath, Sudish 300
Haneke, Michael 269, 323, 342 Hunter, Kim 87, 116 Kanal 146, 147
Hannah, Daryl 253 Hurt Locker, The 269, 320–21 Kane, Charles Foster 68–71
Hannah and Her Sisters 240, 241 Huston, John 148, 218, 331 Kapò 184, 187
Hanson, Curtis 268 Hutchinson, Pamela 31 Karas, Anton 100
Hara, Setsuko 126, 127 Karloff, Boris 44, 52, 121, 159
Hard Boiled 340 IJ Kassovitz, Mathieu 281, 299
Harder They Come, The 337 Kaurismäki, Aki 341
Harold and Maude 337 I Am Cuba 335 Kaydanovsky, Aleksandr 246
Harryhausen, Ray 49, 269, 303 Ice Storm, The 292, 295 Kazan, Elia 106, 116, 117, 131, 203
Hauer, Rutger 252 Idiots, The 286 Keaton, Buster 18, 19, 34, 44, 114
Hawke, Ethan 327 Ill Met by Moonlight 87 Keaton, Diane 205, 240–41
Hawks, Howard 64, 65, 148 In the Mood for Love 342 Keitel, Harvey 236, 239
Hayden, Sterling 176 Indiana Jones 226, 229, 230 Kelly, Gene 122–23, 124, 173
Hays Code 44 Innocents, The 334 Kelly, Grace 143
Hearst, William Randolph 45, 71 Inside Llewyn Davis 282 Kes 336
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Interstellar 326 Khan, Aamir 300–01
Intolerance 18, 22–23 Khan, Irrfan 318
Apocalypse 340 Invasion of the Body Snatchers Khan, Mehboob 300
Heaven 276 Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey 301
Heavenly Creatures 302, 303, 341 107, 194, 333 Kiarostami, Abbas 341
Hedges, Chris 321 The Invisible Man 45, 52 Kid Auto Races at Venice 18
Hedren, Tippi 143 It Always Rains on a Sunday 98, 168 The Kid with a Bike 343
Hellboy 316 It Happened One Night 90, 91, 93 Kieslowski, Krzysztof 276, 277
Helm, Brigitte 33 Italian neorealism 94–97 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 269, 272, 275
Helmore, Tom 142 It’s a Wonderful Life 88–93, 142 Kind Hearts and Coronets 45,
Henckel von Donnersmark, Florian 312 Ivan’s Childhood 245
Henreid, Paul 73–75 Jackson, Peter 269, 302, 303, 341 98–99, 158
Henzell, Perry 337 Jackson, Samuel L. 274 King, The 322
Hepburn, Katharine 13 Jacob, Irène 276 King of Comedy, The 236
Hermann, Irm 222 Jagger, Mick 210, 213 King Kong 44–45, 49, 84, 269
Herrand, Marcel 81 Jamieson, Wendell 93 King Kong (remake) 302, 303
Herrmann, Bernard 70 Jannings, Emil 36 King, Stephen 278, 279
Herzog, Werner 206, 207, 337 Janowitz, Hans 26 Kinski, Klaus 206
Hickenlooper, George 340 Jarmusch, Jim 340 Kiss Me Deadly 134, 272
Higashiyama, Chieko 126 Jason and the Argonauts 49, 335 Klimov, Elem 339
Hiroshima mon amour 170 Jaws 14, 15, 226, 228–31, 243 Koch, Sebastian 312
His Girl Friday 64–65 Jazz Singer, The 19, 30, 40, 122, 330 Korda, Alexander 62, 103
Hitchcock, Alfred 19, 27, 44, 71, 91 Jesus of Montreal 340 Korine, Harmony 286
Jet Li 292 Kosma, Joseph 81
107, 128, 142, 143–44, 198, 199, 227, La Jetée 159, 172 Koundé, Hubert 281
230, 256, 334 Jeunet, Jean-Pierre 298 Kovacs, Ernie 149
Hitler, Adolf 36, 40, 69, 77, 149

348 INDEX

Kragh-Jacobsen, Søren 286 Loach, Ken 97, 168, 184, 336 Married Woman, A 167
Krzyzewska, Ewa 146, 147 Lockwood, Gary 193 Marsh, James 322
Kubrick, Stanley 158, 170, 176–78, Lodger, The: A Story of the martial arts movies 159, 268, 290–95
Martin, Jean 186
179, 192–93, 226, 247, 252, 337, 339 London Fog 19 Marx Brothers 44, 48, 240
Kuleshov, Lev 29 Lombard, Carole 76
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter 282 Look Back in Anger 168, 169 Chico 48
Kundun 237 Lord of the Rings, The: The Fellowship Groucho 48, 241
Kurosawa, Akira 13, 106, 107, 110, Harpo 13, 48
of the Ring 302–03 Zeppo 48
111–13, 129, 333 Lord of the Rings, The trilogy 269, 302 MASH 159
Kürten, Peter 46 Lorre, Peter 46, 47, 75 Mastroianni, Marcello 162–63, 165
Kyô, Machiko 110 Lost Highway 268 Matsushima, Nanako 289
Lubitsch, Ernst 45, 76, 77 Matter of Life and Death, A 86–87
L Lucas, George 226, 242 Matthau, Walter 64, 149
Lugosi, Bela 44 Mauch, Thomas 206
LA Confidential 268 Lulli, Folco 128 Maura, Carmen 262
La Pointe, Ali 184, 187 Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis Mayer, Carl 26
Lady from Shanghai, The 102 Mayer, Edwin Justus 76
Lagaan 300–01 12, 14, 18, 20 Maysles brothers, Albert and David 336
Lanchester, Elsa 52, 118 Lynch, David 13, 170, 227, 256, 257, Mean Streets 236, 237, 239
Land of Silence and Darkness 337 Meeker, Ralph 134
Lang, Fritz 13, 18, 19, 30, 32–33, 44, 46, 268, 338, 342 Meirelles, Fernando 268, 306, 307–09
Méliès, Georges 12, 13, 18, 20,
47, 79, 252, 330, 332–33 M 21, 84, 269
Larsen, Thomas Bo 287 Menzel, Jiri 335
Lasseter, John 280 M 32, 44, 46–47 Merrill, Virginia 40
Last Tango in Paris 203 McCarey, Leo 48 Meshes of the Afternoon 331
Last Temptation of Christ, The 237 McDaniel, Hattie 62, 63 “Method” acting technique 117, 203
Last Year at Marienbad 159, 170–71 McDormand, Frances 283 Metropolis 19, 30, 32–33, 46, 47, 252
Laughton, Charles 118, 121 MacDowell, Andie 263 Mickey Mouse 34, 53
Laura 79 McKellen, Ian 303 Micmacs 298
Leachman, Cloris 134 Mackie, Anthony 321 Midnight Cowboy 159, 336
Lean, David 98, 332 MacLachlan, Kyle 256 Mifune, Toshiro 110, 111
Léaud, Jean-Pierre 152 Macy, Wiliam H. 282 Miles, Vera 135
Lebanon 248 Mad Max 226 Miller, Arthur 94
Lederer, Charles 64 Magalhães, Yoná 174 Mira, Brigitte 223
Lee, Ang 268, 292, 295 Maggiorani, Lamberto 94 Mist, The 279
Lee, Bruce 159 Magnificent Seven, The 110 Mitchell, Margaret 62
Lee, Spike 227, 263, 264, 272, 281 Magritte, René 209 Mitchum, Robert 118
Lefebvre, Louis 51 Maids 306 Miyazaki, Hayao 296, 297
Legrand, Michel 173 Malanga, Gerard 188 Modern German Cinema 312
Leigh, Janet 143 Malcolm, Derek 83, 166 Modern Times 40, 96
Leigh, Mike 340–41 Malcolm X 264 Monaghan, Dominic 303
Leigh, Vivien 62, 63, 116, 117 Malick, Terrence 338 Monroe, Marilyn 148–49
Lemmon, Jack 64, 114, 148, 149 Malle, Louis 333 monster movies 44–45, 49, 52, 106, 129,
Lengyel, Melchior 76 Maltese Falcon, The 45, 72, 75, 100, 228–31
Leone, Sergio 336 montage 29
Levring, Kristian 286 166, 218, 219, 331 Montand, Yves 128
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The 210, 213 Montenegro, Fernanda 285
Man Who Knew too Much, The 144 Mori, Masayuki 110
86, 87 Man on Wire 322 Moritzen, Henning 287
Life of Pi 295 Manchurian Candidate, The 334 Morrissey, Paul 188
Lindblom, Gunnel 137 Manhattan 241 Mother India 300
Lindsay, Joan 232 Mankiewicz, Herman J. 71 Motorcycle Diaries, The 285
Linklater, Richard 263, 272, 327 Mankiewicz, Joseph L. 332 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Little Fugitive 155 Mantle, Anthony Dod 319 90, 91, 93
Lives of Others, The 312–13 Maoz, Samuel 248 Mühe, Ulrich 312
Livingston, Margaret 30 Marais, Jean 84 Mulholland Dr. 256, 257, 342
Marker, Chris 172