Amph 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die: Now Disc. "Heat" (1995)

Damn! You were my last hope, as you were 3 for 3 on the others.

 

Next: "Intolerance" (1916)

USA; B & W; 163 minutes; Silent.

Directed & Produced by: D. W. Griffith

Written by: Tod Browning; D. W. Griffith

Photography: G. W. Bitzer; Carl Davis

Music: J. C. Breil; Carl Davis; D. W. Griffith

Cast: A huge one, including future directors Tod Browning, W. S. Van Dyke, and Erich von Stroheim

As Ebert says in his article on "Birth of a Nation", D. W. Griffith illustrated how racist a American could be without even realizing it. Griffith was terribly stung by the criticism of BOAN as racist, and he set out to address the question in this movie. The American South, however, did not get a treatment.

It owes something to the Italian movies "Cabiria" and "The Last Days of Pompeii", but typically Griffith's effort was full of showy technical innovations.

Four stories from different periods in history were intercut to illustrate "Love's struggle throughout the ages," and there was a framing story, with Lillian Gish.

The modern story started out as a movie on its own: "The Mother and the Law." Griffith crosscut it with a Babylonian religious story; stories from the life of Jesus; and the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

He uses suspense and huge production values (he invested $2 million of his own money, a huge sum in those days). The film was perhaps too ahead of its time and too long and perhaps too downbeat, since it failed at the box office.

The book says it influenced the Russian revolutionary cinema more than American. Don't believe it. It did start a genuine American tradition: the megalomanical American film director and credit hog (see Orson Welles et al.) It also influenced DeMille and the biblical spectacular. The failure also ended Griffith's artistic independence.

The film is like a good Victorian novel (think Dickens); extraordinary psychological insight and technical brilliance alongside sugary sentimentality.

The making of this film was the subject of the Taviani brother's "Good Morning, Babylon." (1987)

 

Next: "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (Das Kabinett Des Doktor Caligari)(1919)

Germany, Silent, B & W (tinted), 71 minutes

Directed by: Robert Wiene

Produced by: Rudolf Meinert, Erich Pommer

Cast: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover

Another great power in silent cinema, Germany, started up with this movie. The book says it was influenced by Melies; possible, but I doubt it. It's mittel-European Gothic cum Expressionism. The skewed viewpoint is conveyed by the deliberately distorted sets. The direction is less innovative and rather static.

It uses flashbacks, dream-sequences, story-within-a-story, and the horror genre.

There were several countries with vibrant cinema in the silent era: Germany was one, also France, Sweden, Italy and Russia (Don't know about Japan, have to ask Zombi.) Germany's a particularly sad case because all the talent and technical know-how they accumulated was destroyed by the rise of the Nazis and WWII. For instance, two actors in this movie, Conrad Veidt and Hans Heinreich von Twardowski, also appeared in "Casablanca" (1943). So did Paul Heindred. The reason? Well, Veidt and Heindred were married to Jewish women, so when the Nazis won power in 1933, they emigrated. So did numerous directors (Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Douglas Sirk, Max Ophuls, and many, many others), producers, actors (Marlene Dietrich, Paul Lukas), musicians, editors, and technicians. Some went to France, some to England and many to the USA, and a good portion of them never returned. Sometimes it was because they were Jewish, or married to Jewish partners, or because they were socialists, or anti-Fascists. Those who stayed (such as G. W. Pabst), were forced to make Nazi propaganda films, which caused them trouble after the war. The result was that German cinema was a backwater for an entire generation, until it started to make something of a stuttering comeback in the 70's. Contrast the other Axis members: Italian and Japanese cinema recovered nearly immediately after the war, and are still strong.

 

Next: "Broken Blossoms" (1919)

USA; Silent; B & W (tinted); 90 minutes;

Directed by: D. W. Griffith

Produced by: D. W. Griffith

Written by: Thomas Burke; D. W. Griffith

Music by: D. W. Griffith

Photography: G. W. Bitzer

Starring: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Donald Crisp

After the failure of "Intolerance", Griffith made a lavish WWI movie, "Hearts of the World", shot on location in France, and a big success. His next film returned to the subject of "Intolerance" but on a very small scale. He had learned something: the title was changed from "The Chink and the Child".

I haven't seen this films beyond a few clips, but according to the book, it has extraordinary production design, acting, and direction. Fellini based "La Strada" on this film, and despite its downbeat subject matter, it was a critical and popular success.

Has anybody seen this film, or the two previous ones?

 

I think the earliest film I've seen is in 1930 - I'll see you then, Zaz.

 

I have seen Dr. Calagari and Broken Blossoms but not Intolerance. Dr. Calagari is probably the first great film noir movie. It's very dark and spooky but also very entertaining. Broken Blossoms if one of the best black and white silent movies I've ever seen. It's about this chinese shopkeeper (and yes he's referred to as a chink within the movie) and he falls in love with Lilian Gish and she falls in love with him. It's been a couple years since I saw this but basically, the chinese man committs suicide (I think because he thinks Lilian Gish is dead) The movie is wonderfully acted by Gish and Richard Barthelmess and of all the movies mentioned so far, this is the one I'd encourage people to see the most.

 

I need you to post on these films, Tycho, because very few people have seen them. Often including me.

Next: "Way Down East" (1920)

USA; B & W; Silent; 100 minutes

Directed by: D. W. Griffith

Written by: A. P. Kelly, J. R. Grismer, & D. W. Griffith from two plays: "Way Down East" & "Annie Laurie"

Starring: Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess, Lowell Sherman

Adapted from a stage melodrama, and a by-word for corny melodrama.

Yet Griffith's sensibility made it into something more.

The story was the innocent young girl bit: Gish comes to live in the city with relatives; she meets a creep, who cons her into sleeping with him by a fake marriage ceremony. She becomes pregnant; he rejects her; her mother and baby die.

She gets a job at a farm, and falls in love with the farmer's son (Barthelmess). Her past surfaces, and she is turned out into a snow storm. Barthelmess rescues her from a ice flow (going toward a falls), the creep's lies are exposed and she and Barthelmess are married.

Again, I've only seen clips of this film--Gish's despair at the death of her baby, and early action scene of the rescue from the ice floes.

 

Oh, excuse me Zaz, I have seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari but not the other two. Nearly all my silent viewings have horror/suspense films.

 

I unfortunately have not seen Way Down East

 

Zombi, if you have seen "Caligari", can you give your impressions so we can compare with Tycho's? Perhaps you could compare silent horror films v. sound ones, do you see any great differences? BTW, the Japanese silent film link you gave me was extremely interesting, thanks.

Tycho, I know I promised to post somewhere in Census, but I can't find it...thread name?

 

Intolerance. As I recall, three stories woven Pulp Fiction style. Two were too similar for me to keep track of. But I believe that the DVD gives me the option of watching each story on it's own.

But that damn rocking cradle was shown too much.

 

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a seminal film that deeply influenced both certain forms of German Expressionism and created many important and pivotal cinematic innovations. A highly influential and frequently imitated film. So many talkies, in the classic era particularly, owe much to this single film. This is the one that basically started it all. Excellent film.

 

Congratulations, Pozzi, I think you were the only one to see "Intolerance".

Next: "Within Our Gates" (1920)

USA; Silent; B & W; 79 minutes

Directed by: Oscar Micheaux

Written by: Oscar Micheaux, Gene DeAnna

One of the 40 independant films produced, written, and directed by Oscar Micheaux between 1919 and 1948. Lost for 70 years, the film was discovered at the Filmoteca Espanola in Madrid and restored. Micheaux was Af-Am, and the film depicts the reverse side of "Birth of a Nation": "the physical, psychological and economic repression of African-Americans." Often heavily censored, because it includes rape and lynching scenes.

It would make an interesting double bill with BOAN.

 

Next: "The Phantom Carriage" ('Korkarlen') (1921)

Sweden; Silent; B & W; 93 minutes

Directed by: Victor Seastrom (aka Sjostrom)

Written by: Victor Seastrom (from a novel by Selma Lagerlof)

Photography: Julius Jaenzon

Cast: Victor Seastrom, Hilda Borgstrom, Tore Svennberg

Never heard of this film, but I know Seastrom, who directed two famous movies in Hollywood in the mid-20's--"The Scarlett Letter" and "The Wind"--both with Lillian Gish. He also starred as the lead in Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" in the 50's.

The book describes the film as a world-wide hit and highly influential at the time. The story concerns David Holm, "a hateful and self-destructive alcoholic", "who wakes up at the chime of midnight on New Year's Eve, only to stare at his own corpse, knowing he is condemned to hell." The spiritual world is shown as a "tormented limbo between heaven and earth."

Using double exposures to protray the spirit world, Seastrom also used flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks.

 

Okay, the first one on this list that I hadn't even heard of before I got the book.

Okay, adding to list: The Phantom Carriage.

Film # 10203120456021815210 successfully added to list.



Seriously, this one actually sounds pretty interesting.

 

You'd heard of "Within Our Gates?" I congratulate you. But "The Phantom Carriage" does look good, to judge from the still in the book.

Next: "Orphans of the Storm" (1921)

USA; Silent; B & W; 150 minutes

Directed by: D. W. Griffith

Produced by: D. W. Griffith

Written by: D. W. Griffith from a French play

Music by: L. F. Gottschalk; W. F. Peters

Photography: G. W. Bitzer et al.

Starring: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut, Monte Blue et al.

The last of Griffith's historical melodramas, this one is set during the French Revolution, and stars the Gish sisters. The book says they give the best performances of their careers, which is saying something.

 

Next: "The Smiling Madame Beudet" ("La Souriante Madame Beudet") (1922)

French; B & W; Silent; 54 m.

Directed by: Germaine Dulac

Screenplay: Denys Amiel, Andre Obey

Starring: Alexandre Arquilliere, Germane Dermoz, Jean d"Yd, Madeleine Guitry

Haven't ever heard of this one. The book describes it as: "the life of a provincial housewife trapped in a stifling bourgeois marriage." The only thing that saves her sanity and can make her smile is her extremely vivid day-dreams. When her husband starts appearing in--and spoiling--her daydreams, she has only one solution: kill him.

From the description, it sounds very interesting.

 

Next: "Dr. Mabuse, Parts 1 & 2" ("Dr. Mabuse, Der Spieler")(1922)

German; B & W; Silent; 95m; 100m;

Directed by: Fritz Lang

Producer: Erich Pommer

Screenplay: Norbert Jacques, Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou

Music: Konrad Elfers

Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Alfred Abel

Heard of this one, but haven't seen it. Lang's first big hit. It was a big success in Germany, because it included "thrills, horrors, politics, satire, sex (including nude scenes), magic, psychology, art, violence, low comedy, and special effects." The book says it used the figure of a 'master-of-disguise supercriminal to embody the real evils of the era.'

 

Next: "Nanook of the North" (1922)

USA; Silent; B & W; 79 minutes;

Director: Robert J. Flaherty

Producer: Robert J. Flaherty

Screenplay: Robert J. Flaherty

Photography: Robert J. Flaherty

Music: Stanley Silverman

Cast:
Nanook .... Allakariallak
Nyla .... Herself (Nanook's wife, the smiling one)
Cunayou .... Herself (Nanook's wife)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Allee .... Himself (Nanook's son)
Allegoo .... Himself (Nanook's son)

The first documentary feature, "Nanook" was a great hit in the 20's. It began the trouble in Flaherty's career, too: what's actually 'true'? As you see, he wrote a story and 'cast' actual Inuit in it, though Nyla was one of his own Inuit wives, not Nanook's. And though Inuit, including Flaherty's star, hunted seals with rifles by this time, Flaherty insisted he just use harpoons.

And in a later documentary film, "Man of Aran", Flaherty reputedly trained the Aran islanders to hunt whale so that he would have a suitable dramatic climax for the movie.

It's useless to suggest that a documentary film-maker doesn't shape his material, true or not. The question was whether Flaherty went too far with it. It led to a classic dust-up with F. W. Murnau on "Tabu" in 1931; Flaherty claimed that Murnau was distorting the material, which was a bit rich, coming from him.

Anyway, "Nanook" is reasonably interesting, though some of the scenes play like comedy routines (especially the unloading of the kayak). Fortunately for Flaherty, his star is a 'natural' and mugs good-naturedly and winningly for the cameras. The building of the igloo is fascinating. The scenery is beautiful, though Flaherty has little technique (sometimes this leads to great scenes, as when the rest of the family rush in from up-frame to assist Nanook with a harpooned seal.)

It's worth seeing, but you have to be patient.

A sad coda: The Inuit who played Nanook reputedly died of exposure two years later.

 

Next: "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror" (1922)

(in German: "Nosferatu: Ein Symphonie des Grauens")

German; B & W; Silent; 94 minutes.

Directed by: F. W. Muranau

Written by: Henrik Galeen

Photography: Gunther Krampf, Fritz Arno Wagner

Music: James Bernard (restored version)

Cast: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schroder.

Based (closely) on Bram Stoker's book "Dracula". The book says that they changed the names due to a dispute with the Stoker estate, but in the version I saw, the hero and heroine were called Jonathan and Mina Harker, though the film was played out in Bremen, not London.

In fact, I was a bit disappointed in this film, which I had not seen before. The early sound film "Dracula" with Bela Lugosi is very closely modeled on it--it's essentially a remake. I didn't much like "Dracula", either. It had some good imagery, but was hokey and static. I see now where it got the imagery: it cribbed it from this film.

It starts out in Bremen, where Jonathan Harker is a clerk for an estate agent, Renfield. The guy who plays the latter comes on like a flaming nutbar from the get-go; if he told me to go to some Transylvanian castle to see an unknown Court interested in local real estate, I'd run very hard in the opposite direction (no explanation of the strange symbols on the documents he reads). The actor who plays Harker looks like Hans Brinker on steroids and acts like a five-year-old; he practically skips across the screen. He's unbelievably awful.

Once in Transylvania, things pick up somewhat, and you can see the origins of every 30's Universal horror flick every made--the fearful innkeeper, the mysterious coachman, etc.

One advantage "Nosferatu" has over "Dracula" is the actor who plays the Count. Very tall, very thin, with a rat-like face, feral eyes, and very long finger-nails, Max Schreck isn't camp, like Lugosi. He's just plain scary. One look, and like Brave Sir Robin's minstrel, you'd be yelling, "Run away! Run away!" Not our hero, Hans Brinker, however, even when mine host practically spasms over his cut finger at dinner. The Count has the only good line of the movie, when he looks at a minature of Hans Brinker's wife and says: "Your wife? What a lovely throat!" Hee.

Anyway, Hans B. finally twigs to the fact that he's in trouble (the B stands for brains). He escapes from the castle.

Ye count also leaves on a ship bound for Bremen. This was the best part of the sound film, and it's the best part of this one, too. The crew are decimated one by one, and when the sole survivor decides to investigate the mysterious cargo, and the Count suddenly appears, it's a 'scream' moment. The footage of the ghostly, rat-ridden ship is terrific. There's also a great shot of Nosferatu strolling nonchalantly through the streets of Bremen with his coffin under his arm, which is amusing, though it doesn't make much sense. It's daylight, right, and vampires are supposed to evaporate in same. In fact, that's the main plot point. Anyway, Mina Harker lures the randy Count to his doom. Personally, I think it's a toss up as to who's worse: him or Hans Brinker, but there's no accounting for tastes.

The version I saw was very primitive in acting style (except for Schreck), and technique. It's worth seeing, but don't expect much.

 

It's stagy and I remember particularly the actor who played Harker. You're right about him; was he the template for all those 'emasculated males' from Capra, you think?

But Shreck saves it all . . . He's feral, grotesque, stunning.

In the fictionalized Shadow of the Vampire, a film that posits that Shreck was in fact a real vampire who Murnau got to be in the film by allowing him to actually feed on the actress who plays Mina, Shreck, masterfully and hilariously played to the hilt by Willem Dafoe, remarks, "Your wife has a beautiful bosom." Murnau, played with utter panache by Malkovich, says, "We'll leave it in; give the lip readers a thrill." Never actually checked to see if that's true or not.

The shot of him with the coffin under his arm is brilliant, as in the sleepwalker on the balcony railing and the count raising to a standing position, knees locked.

Schreck seems to be at his best when he's still . . . when Harker finds him in his coffin, his one eye staring straight up through a crack, it's really disturbing. When Harker's bedroom door opens of its own accord to reveal Orlock standing down the hallway in shadow, it's beyond disturbing, it's terrifying.

I'd call it a great film, mostly thanks to Shreck.

By the by, I would seriously recommend watching Shadow of the Vampire now . . . great companion and a great movie.

 

I will definitely have to see "Shadow of the Vampire", from your description.

 

I think, for what it's worth, that Herzog's remake is actually far superior to the original. I think it's on the list too, so that's good.

 

I read somewhere that Murnau also did a sound remake before he died in 1931.

 

Nosferatu is a masterpiece. Schreck's vampire is downright alien. The vampire in Stephen King's Salem's Lot is based upon it.

Lugosi's Dracula was also great, but the two are like apples and oranges, hard to compare.