Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
#40 in my ranking of Fritz Lang's filmography. I sometimes describe directors as on autopilot, when they make movies that speak to their thematic obsessions, but the films don't have the same kind of passion or craft as their best work. This a level below that. This is Fritz Lang going through the motions of… Continue reading American Guerrilla in the Philippines
#20 in my ranking of Fritz Lang's filmography. Fritz Lang revisited the procedural formula he had perfected in M while having to (and probably choosing to willingly) introduce elements that clash with that bedrock, making the unsentimental take on a hunt for an assassin more melodramatic than it should be while also bringing in a… Continue reading Hangmen Also Die
#3 in my ranking of Masaki Kobayashi's films. And so comes to a conclusion the epic tale of one idealist forced to confront the harsh realities of war and his degradation from purity through barbarity and into some kind of end. In some ways, it is a tale of the innocence of Japan itself being… Continue reading The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier’s Prayer
#3 in my ranking of Masaki Kobayashi's films. All filmed at once and released over a period of three years, The Human Condition is the Japanese, arthouse version of The Lord of the Rings or Manon of the Source, a single film production broken up into multiple parts for release reasons (who's gonna sit through… Continue reading The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity
#3 in my ranking of Masaki Kobayashi's films. This is one of the big reasons why I decided to do a Masaki Kobayashi survey. I'd seen the film many moons ago and bought it a couple of years ago, but it's hard to find time for a ten-hour film. Getting knee deep in director filmographies… Continue reading The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love
David Vining, Author 