Johnny and Gilda hurl emotional and physical hostilities as they love-hate on each other, both felt in equal measure. (Check out the drugstore scene where Wilson plays checkers with Billy House.) In an era where your Labradoodle probably has its own therapist its easy to forget that psychoanalysis was a relative rarity, reserved for people of significant means and people in mental hospitals, which is where this psychological thriller by Alfred Hitchcock takes place. As with Bacall here, its not Bogarts finest collaboration with director John Huston, but the palpable sense of atmospheric dread and post-war disillusionment make this a trip worth taking. (August 2008) A list of films produced in France in A.G. But sandwiched in between this probing whodunit lies one of noirs most sympathetic and purely humanist tales. Webnabuckeye.org. A.G. Join here. The imagery of the dream ends up helping to resolve the case (go, psychiatry! But in addition, you might notice that the film remains eerily timely in an age in which the influence and power of the mass media (and the accrual of gauche, pointless wealth) is a topic of constant discourse. , Pagnol, 1940), In a twist on the Double Indemnity plot, he convinces her into a scheme to murder her husband for the insurance money, using the prowler as ascapegoat. His second, a period drama based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1918 novel The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington, was destroyed (in Welles view) when he lost control of the editing to RKO. Nevertheless, the film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Inspired by Niezsches Ubermensch concept and the idea of the perfect murder, two college students kill a classmate simply to prove they can and then host a dinner party for their victims friends and family to see if theyll catch on. In one of his darkest roles, 50-year-old Cagney is at his unhinged best, a powder keg of neuroses and sadistic impulses who can feign insanityas he does in the prison infirmaryfor only so long before his delusions overtake him completely. Yup, its a Christmas story. When movies such as Double Indemnity, Laura and Murder, My Sweet (all 1944) saw delayed release in Paris after the end of the Throw it on at your next Halloween party, and youll see that it holds up remarkably well. You may not be able to imagine this film without Welles, but try imagining it without Reed: Youd have no film at all, and wed be robbed of one of the most significant archetypes of filmmaking in the mediums short lifespan. There are split loyalties. The second World War was, of course, a heavy thread through the first half of the decade, providing fodder for stories on the one hand and on the other, a desire for the escapist balm of comedies and musicals. from the political and social pressures of the period. paris 1940 cafe coffee hitler retrospective iht welcomes 11. Similarly, animators were given tickets to the Ballet Russe, and reptiles were brought into the studio to be studied. Among the bumper 1944 crop, none were more bitter than Fritz LangsThe Woman in the Window, which far outpaces the pessimism of even Double Indemnity in its story of a lonely professor (Edward G. Robinson) whose affections are preyed upon by a deceitfulJoanBennett. Smart, sweet, and witty; probably the quintessential film of the 1940s, and one of the best feel-good movies of the 20th century. D.S. Of course the first half of the decade was under Nazi occupation and Vichy rule, See also:The Big Heat (Fritz Lang), The Hitch-hiker (Ida Lupino), Pickup on South Street (SamuelFuller). Broadly considered to be one of the greatest of the genre, Red River is the story of the first cattle drive down the Chisholm Trail and the film that made director Howard Hawks exclaim I didnt know the big son of a bitch could act! The big son of a bitch was John Wayne, who stars as Tom Dunson, a stubborn and conflicted man on a mission to start a cattle ranch in Texas. Peter Lorre plays the surgeon, who has altered Jonathans face to make him look like Boris Karloff (naturally). Brewster, an author of many tomes on the stupidity of marriage, gets married. Hes a titan of cinema, casting his shadow over American film from the time his career began until the day he died, and though hes been gone for over thirty years his influence is still felt in movies the world over. See also:Fallen Angel (Otto Preminger), Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz), Scarlet Street (FritzLang). With evocative, moody cinematography that presages the likes of The Innocents 15 years later, the film succeeds as a serious, suspenseful mystery in an era when ghost stories were much more likely to be comedic or campy. Latvian-bornBoris Ingsteronly ever directed three films (he later became a TV producer on shows such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The film is lively and dynamic and visually arresting. (Sadomasochism much?) Though only the films opening scenes were shot on location (the rest on the Warner Bros. lot), the exotic setting and meteorological fate render isolation to an extreme degree. Humphrey Bogart(previously known for playing hoodlums) was cast against type as private eye Sam Spade, who becomes embroiled in the hunt for a precious statuette alongside such colourful neer-do-wells asSidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and in an early example of film noirs preoccupation with treacherous women MaryAstor. woman, and it is one of the most brilliant soundtracks of its day. There were a lot of great noirs in the 40s. 2. In another example of how the repressive Production Codes of the time gave rise to a much more exciting scene than he might otherwise have made, Hitchcock got around the no kisses longer than three seconds by breaking the performers apart every three seconds for some kind of embrace and then resuming the kiss. For most of the 1940s and 50s, this style of crime film was dominant. This postwar psychic landscape is subversive as helland suburban too, no longer confined to metro limits. Bonnie Stiernberg, 40. Jimmy Stewart and Ruth Hussey round out the cast as reporters in not-so-clever disguise. A prototypical war of the sexes comedy in which each side represents the status quo for his or her respective gender, Adams Rib transcends its dumbest Mars-vs-Venus trappings by portraying Tracys Bonner as a stuffy turd too caught up in his derision of women to do anything about the fact that a famous musician lothario (David Wayne) is getting mighty close to cuckolding him, were Amanda Bonner a dunce susceptible to shameless advances. , Grmillon, 1943), Mildred Pierce is a strong woman driven by an inexhaustible love for her children, Veda (Ann Blyth) and Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe), but shes also stymied by the restricting grasp of a patriarchal society. You arguably need to see it before you can use that word and understand what youre saying. The bookending set pieces, shot on location in industrial California, pulse with realism. On that note, the damage is no longer rooted in his environment; Jarretts a disaster from the inside out, dysfunctional in his very wiring (thanks, ma!). Regardless, Day of Wrath stands as a masterfully composed, exquisitely compelling glimpse at what happens when austerity is left to its own devices. There are Claude Rains and Cary Grant both ass over teakettle for Bergman (and how could you not be?). Directed by: TETSUO LUMIERE Written by: TETSUO LUMIERE Genres: Silent Film / Comedy Cast: ANA LIVINGSTON, TETSUO LUMIERE Producers: MARIANO TORRES, LISANDRO LEIVA, TETSUO LUMIERE Director of photography: MARIANO TORRES, LISANDRO LEIVA Assistant Director: FAVIO LOPEZ Assistant Producer: When Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck) takes over as director of the hospital where the remote and emotionally null Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) works, Petersen quickly realizes something is amiss with Edwardes, and it quickly comes to light that he isnt Edwardes at all and that he is suffering amnesia. Robert Mitchumplays an ambulance driver who becomes infatuated with the devious daughter (Jean Simmons) of a well-to-do Beverly Hills family in this superbentryin the noir cycle by Austrian-bornOtto Preminger. former glory, including an effort to construct a quasi-mystical idealized But folded within the tale of Shukichi Somiya (Chishu Ryu) and Noriko Somiya (Setsuko Hara) lie a handful of barbs aimed at censorship protocols imposed upon Ozu during Late Springs production, which is itself a nod to the kind of tension Japanese citizens had to live with every single day of the occupation. Weird and wonderful and powerful filmmaking. Prone to throbbing headaches, hes a dangerously troubled tough guy who still retreats to his mothers lap, and declares Made it, Ma! Hes nobodys sap. Interestingly, Spades creator, Dashiell Hammettwho once worked as a P.I.called the character a dream man in the sense that he is what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been, and, in their cockier moments, thought they approached. In Bogarts brusque yet smooth hands, that sounds about right. Huston uses a light hand to illuminate some pretty dark corners of human instinct, and Humphrey Bogart is marvelous as Fred Dobbs, a man destroyed by lust and paranoia as we watch. See also:Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky), Moonrise (Frank Borzage), Raw Deal (AnthonyMann). Clouzot (19071977), and Robert Bresson (19011999). at least, its the most definitive Crawford performance of all time.) British and then Its the film that made Lon Chaney Jr. a household name on par with his father, throwing him into the same career of genre films as the famed Man of a Thousand Faces during the silent film era. The film wasnt restored till the 1950s. Director Henri-Georges Clouzot treats as a given that the world is a crappy place, through and through, detailing how the denizens of a small French town (anywhere) are pitted against one another through a series of poison pen letters sent by the titular Raven. Despite the basic unlikability of the majority of the characters, its a remarkably riveting film; a testament to Wylers directorial choices, in which we see character surehandedly reflected in small physical details and hard angles. Les Enfants du paradis Letterboxd Limited. Chaos, stampedes, duels, shifting loyalties-and an unfortunately pat ending in which both men are basically chastened by a woman and forced to remember that they love each other. But that alone wouldnt be just cause in a bad movie. To a large extent, best is a meaninglessly subjective term. Made by fans in Aotearoa New Zealand. It takes much more to show honest to goodness bravery on pain of death. Out of the Past looks about as bleak as it feels. The last film Fritz Lang made in America at the end of a string of about a dozen peerless noirs was this deliciously well-constructedthrillerin which a newspaper publisher talks his daughters fianc (Dana Andrews) into planting circumstantial evidence that will incriminate him in the murder of a nightclub dancer. Maybe his words read as the wildest of exaggerations back in 1970, but in 2017 they ring as genuinely as John Fords 1940 adaptation of John Steinbecks 1939 novel. Title Director Cast Genre Notes As Long as I Live: Jacques de Baroncelli: Edwige Feuillre, Jacques Berthier, Jean Debucourt: Drama: Co-production with Italy Back Breathless (1960) Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama 7.7 Rate A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. 1940: Taking over French Cinema online Watch online, Paris, 1940. As with the same directors Out of the Past,Nightfallemploys a flashback structure to unravel how the past catches up with artist James Vanning (Aldo Ray). Only one, a mime named Deburau (Jean-Louis Barrault), has pure intentions: Naturally, hes the one who gets hurt. What puts you on the edge of your seat in this film is how you get there. Neo-noir wasborn. But at times the framing makes Hayworths erotic physicality all the more charged, and dangerous. Cocteau was a poet as well as a filmmaker, and this is a strong example of how the two crafts inform one another, in the way it harnesses imagery to create metaphorical connections. The settings lacked specificityGerman I love them all, but the . Let us see what each decade of the 20 th century had to offer when it comes to the best of French movies. 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