Tag: cinema
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Arrival (2016) Review
Arrival (2016) Director: Denis Villeneuve ★★★★★ Sometimes the science fiction genre feels tired, cliche, played out –but Arrival is a surprisingly fresh take on the alien invasion trope. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker. The plot is based on […]
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Visages d’enfants (1923) Review
Visages d’enfants (1923) Director: Jacques Feyder ★★★★★ “The Faces of Children” is a simple and beautiful film. It is a French-Swiss pastoral movie that takes place amidst the incredible landscape of the village of Saint-Luc in the mountainous Haut-Valais region of Switzerland. It is a psychological exploration, remarkably complex for the time, and it tells […]
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La Roue (1923) Review
La Roue (1923) Director: Abel Gance “Creation is a Great Wheel which does not move without crushing someone” -Victor Hugo ★★★★★ The special effects, camera angles, techniques, lighting, acting, unusual narrative styles, and great directing are all groundbreaking in this film. La Roue is a film which defined and solidified the train/railroad theme in early […]
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Camille (1936) Review
Camille (1936) Director: George Cukor ★★★★★ Camille is an elegant and beautiful MGM film starring Greta Garbo, and showcasing the heights of classic cinema in the 1930s. It is a story of a love-triangle, based on an 1842 story by Alexandre Dumas fils (the Younger), La Dame aux Camélias (“The Lady with the Camellias”). He wrote the story […]
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Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927) Review
Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927) Director: Walter Ruttman ★★★★☆ Some may call it avant-garde and excessive, while others call it valuable for its historical significance. Berlin is the quintessential “city symphony” film, of which there were other minor films in Paris or Manhattan. Berlin is a brilliant movie filled with powerful scenes of daily life in […]
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) Review
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) Director: Wallace Worsley ★★★☆☆ The Hunchback of Notre Dame presents a mix of gothic horror and pity for the underclass of medieval Paris, such as the deformed character Quasimodo. The medieval set constructions for this film are extraordinary, it took Universal nearly a year to build the massive sets […]
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