"Stronger Bullitts"

DRIVE

Year: 2011
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 1097
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks
Oscar nominations: Best Sound Editing
Cannes: Best Director

Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive is what some one would call some kind of cult film, such as Fight Club or Reservoir Dogs. It has some of the same characters and some of the same unforgettable elements. But the problem is the plot, which isn't that original, but the way the whole movie is filmed, its graphic shock violence, heavenly cinematography, and its amazing soundtrack, makes it definitely a well crafted film, that are done right with real professionalism.

Drive is the story about a driver (Ryan Gosling) who remain nameless through the movie, is working in a garage, and some times works as a stunt driver in movies. But at night, he's a professional driver who is hired to help criminals get away from the crime scene. He owns both the night and day. But one day he falls for a young alone mother named Irene (Carey Mulligan), who live next door, and helps her and her son occasionally, and starts to appreciate life. But she has a husband, who is in prison, and are soon coming back. It's a forbidden love story. Meanwhile the Driver is hooked up with the mafia who is literary at war with each other.

Drive is a well made film technically, the colors, the cinematography and the 80s soundtrack. Ryan Gosling also does a good job in portraying a foggy and confused soul. A pour soul that has no way out of this evil oasis. His handsome look doesn't bother me at all. Although many people would have preferred a Steve McQueen kind of guy. But it's different times, and Gosling is the ugliest they got. I'm just kidding. He's as perfect as he was in his Oscar nominated performance in Half Nelson. He has a good chemistry with co-star Carey Mulligan, though I'm little pleased with, or have very mixed feelings for her performance in a role that she isn't fit for, plus she's too young and always acts like an innocent little deer who we always feels sorry for. But it also creates a sense of innocence and likableness to the whole story. The innocent couple against all the cruel mobsters.

This film is truly special in case of stile, its 80s style, mixed with some shocking violence scene that will give you a shock, and that some film lover will find interesting, and a little funny or surprising. But it's no doubt that this movie have something for every one. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"They See Me Rollin"

THE WHEEL

Original title: La Roue
Year: 1923
Country: France
Language: Silent
Number: 19
Director: Abel Gance
Starring: Séverin-Mars, Ivy Close, Gabriel de Gravone, Pierre Magnier

Abel Gance's La Roue, is the epic story about the railroad worker Sisif, who witness a fatal train crash that causes many people's life. He rescue a young girl named Norma English from the ruins, whom he adopts and raise as his own, along with his own son, Elie. Then we jump fifteen years forward in time, where we see a drunken and miserable Sisif, who is that way because he has fallen in love with his own adoptive daughter. His son does not know, but there is still a very strong connection between them. Sisif tells this secret to the railroad owner Jacques de Hersan, who propose that he might help Sisif, by marrying the young and beautiful Norma, in order to take her off Sisif's mind. Which of course Sisif does. But does it really help?

La Roue is a masterpiece of epic proportions. Gance's use of fast editing is also quiet amazing. This was some years before Sergei Eisenstein started experimenting. We have the fast editing when the train is rolling too fast, to make us audience more scared. And it also feature the very first "life flashed before my eyes" scene, with a bunch of random images from the past. There's no doubt that La Roue is a technical wonder. But the story itself is also great. It's an epic tale about forbidden love and selfless devotion. It's such a deep story, with a lot of deep characters. It's certainly no ordinary love story. It might even be something that todays directors can learn from. Thumbs up.

Grade: A

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"Close-Up Paradise"

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC

Original title: La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc

Year: 1928

Country: France

Language: Silent

Number: 41

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer

Starring: Maria Falconetti, Eugène Sulvain, André Berley, Michel Simon

Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc is the story about one of the most legendary warriors in western history. A woman that has been the subject for a countless of screen adaptions. Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) was just a normal peasant girl, whom according to herself was chosen by god to lead the French to victory against the British. But after she failed to defend Paris, she was handed over by her own to the British, who of course burned her at the stake, because of her heresy. She was just nineteen.

Dreyer's film evolves around Joan's trial in England, where all the priest and judges tries to convince her that she was send by the devil, and that she is lying. While Joan on the other hand is truly convinced that she is the messenger of god, and that she acted only according to gods words. After getting tortured, she then sign a document that she acted by the devil, but then change her mind and choose to die a martyr death for her belief.

The Passion of Joan of Arc was not a great success when it was released in 1928. It was such a big flop that Dreyer couldn't make a movie for ad least ten years, with the exception of "The Vampire". It was believed lost, until 1981 when an original copy was found in a mental institution in Norway. And has from then been counted as one of the greatest films ever made.

What makes this film so great, is the use of close ups, which are perfect, because they capture every emotions and horror in everyone's faces, every bodies facial expression, meaning that this is a film unfit for Nicholas Cage. The walls are white. The focus is entirely on the peoples faces. And Maria Falconetti who's never acted before, does a marvelous performance as Joan, she pulls it off like a professional. Even though I think it's a little to much crying, it's still a stand out classic. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"Everybody Looks Like Ants!"

THE CROWD

Year: 1928
Country: United States
Language: Silent
Number: 38
Written by: King Vidor, John V. A. Weaver
Director: King Vidor
Starring: James Murray, Eleanor Boardman, Bert Roach, Estelle Clark
Oscar nominations: Best Picture - Unique and Artistic Production*, Best Director - Drama*
*there were two best picture and best director categories that time

King Vidor's The Crowd is the story about a young and ambitious hillbilly named John, who at the age of twenty-one goes to New York City, where he finds himself as small and unimportant as all the other ants living there. He works in an office all day. But after one night out on the town with a fellow employee, John meets the love of his life, Mary, whom after one date with, he propose to. Even though their honeymoon was a dance on roses, their marriage is quiet the opposite, with two brothers-in-law that criticizes John all the time. And when their young daughter suddenly get hit by a truck and dies, John becomes so devastated that he looses his office job, and finds it very hard to find a new job.

French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard was once asked why no one was making films about ordinary people. He then replied "Why remake The Crowd? It has already been done." The Crowd is indeed a movie about ordinary people, with all their ups and downs. Vidor also picked unknown amateur actors to play the roles of ordinary people, including his own wife, Eleanor Boardman as Mary. The cinematography is just amazing, with all the tall skyscrapers, all the big crowds, and all the identical office desks, which inspired Billy Wilder's famous opening scene in "The Apartment". The Crowd was suppose to have a dark ending, but the producers wanted a happy ending. So Vidor made seven different endings. And the ending he chose was a great ending, because it was not the perfect ending, but an ironic one, which I truly loved. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"From A to B movies"

DETOUR

Year: 1945

Country: United States

Language: English

Number: 180

Written by: Martin Goldsmith, Martin Mooney

Director: Edgar G. Ulmer

Starring: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald

Edgar G. Ulmer, The King of B-Movies made a film noir called Detour, about a nightclub pianist named Al Roberts (Tom Neal) who hitchhikes all the way from New York to Los Angeles to marry his girlfriend Sue. On the road he's being picked up by a bookie named Charles Haskell Jr. But while Al drives by night, Charles suddenly dies. Al believes that if he tell the truth as it is, the police wouldn't believe him. So Al hides the body and take Charles' car and clothes, and heads for the east-coast. But on his way, Al himself picks up a hitchhiker, a woman named Vera (Ann Savage), who happens to know Charles, and know that Al is an impostor. So this means blackmail, if Al don't want himself caught.

Detour is a great Noir B-movie, with an unknown cast, and a down to earth plot and setting. Cheap, short and good. Even though it's as cruel to women as any other film Noir. But I did like the relationship between Vera and Al, or should I say, lack of chemistry. You would have thought that all the times they yell at each other they would have kissed and have sex on the floor already. But since this is a forties movie, you know it's not gonna happen. But there's a drunk scene where they almost do it, and that's close enough. I did like Detour, it's realisticly dark, and not as glossy as the other mainstream Noirs. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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"That Annoying Kid!"

THE KID WITH A BIKE

Original title: Le Gamin au vélo
Year: 2011
Country: Belgium/France/Italy
Language: French
Number: 1094
Written and Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Starring: Thomas Doret, Cécile De France, Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione
Cannes Film Festival: Grand Prize of the Jury, Golden Palm

The Dardenne brother's latest film The Kid with a Bike is the story about a 12-year-old boy named Cyril, who's recently been left in an orphanage by his father, who have suddenly disappear without telling Cyril where. Cyril then runs away from the orphanage and goes back to his father's apartment, only to find out that he's left. His father also sold Cyril's bike, which was bought by a woman Cyril meets at the clinic. The woman, Samantha, returns the bike to him, and she also tries to helps Cyril finds his father, and she also get attached to little Cyril and sometimes works as his foster mother.

The Kid with a Bike is a good idyllic indie film, with the great handheld camera, the same naturalism, and the same depth to it's characters. It is so good that I would have given it five stars, but like the Star Wars prequels, it was ruined by a kid. What a story needs to catch my interest, is that the protagonist neexd to be empathic, which in this case the protagonist isn't. Cyril is a restless kid that won't take a break for a second. He's rude. He never listens, and is stubborn. To say it more informal: He's a dick. I can't help it. But overall this film is digestible, and I really liked the other characters, and Cyril seems also to get better, but the first half is unforgivable. Thumbs up.

Grade: B-

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"Twilight in 3D"

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

Original title: Låt den rätte komma in
Year: 2008
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish
Number: 1071
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl

Forget Twilight, True Blood and all the other gay vampires, and watch the Swedish vampire flick "Let the Right One In" by Tomas Alfredson instead. In this film we follow the twelve-year-old boy, Oskar who's an outcast, who the other kids always bullying and hits. On the playground one evening where he lives, he meets a girl named Eli, a thin and ice cold child, who's also his new neighbor. And what's worse, is that she's a vampire which means that's she feeds on blood in order to survive, and it's her father who has to kill innocent people and tap their blood, so that his daughter don't have to draw suspicion by doing the killing herself.

Yes, there's a love story between Oskar and Eli, but it's loaded with so much innocence because they are kids. I love that the director tells us so little. The word vampire is barely mentioned. It's a sad story about two outcasts, which is the opposite case with Twilight where it's a forced love story with nothing but sexual attraction that is displayed in five movies. We know that Oskar and Eli belongs together and it's clear from the start, but they can't be together, which is a real tragedy, which is sad. While Bella and Edvard on the other hand gets a designer house in the middle of the forrest. I also like the tone of the film, and the cinematography of an ice cold Sweden. And there's a lot of satisfying violence as well. A vampire movie as it should be. Thumbs up.

Grade: B+

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