Classic cinema - thoughts and questions

Yeah, some are certainly better than others. But, I do not think there are really any "bad ,bad" ones. I originally watched these as re-runs when I would get home from school or on the weekends. They were shown out of order (not that the order really matters), but it is nice seeing the evolution of the show. I have probably seen many of these (the half hour ones) 5+ times, but this is the first time in order.


edit: also cool seeing "It's A Good Life" after seeing part of the intro in the Tower of Terror pre-show at Disney
 
Hitchcock presents is very good as well, I am pretty sure I have seen all of those. But might add it to the Netflix queue one of these days. Outer Limits and One Step Beyond as well

I just started up "A Little Girl Lost" good episode that the Simpsons did a nice job on in a Treehouse of Horror
 
I need to get more into Hitchcock (I loved Rear Window though) and Kurosawa (foreign films in general actually) and my knowledge of early black and white cinema is minimal but I would consider myself a film buff, a huge appreciator of films between the 60s through the 90s. I often watch films with my parents as i'm very close with them and they love watching films with me so there's many movies I haven't been able to get to cause we have to watch something we all want to watch. But i'd like to at least consider myself a film buff, if a very incomplete one.

Forostar said:
The last years I saw many old films (from "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) till let's say the fifties/sixties).
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"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is an excellent film.

Forostar said:
1. What are your favorite films?
2. Do you also appreciate older films? Which ones?
3. Do you have favorite directors?
4. Do you have favorite actors?
5. Which genres do you prefer?
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1. "Back to the Future"
Many Steven Spielberg films
Many Disney and Pixar movies
"Star Wars" Trilogy
"American Beauty"
"Forrest Gump"
"Almost Famous"
"High Fidelity"
"The Shawshank Redemption"
"Ed Wood"
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
"Monty Python's Life of Brian"
"Blazing Saddles"
"City Slickers"

Those are just a few that come to mind.
2. Expirations dates don't always exist, so yes. Yes I do.
3.Spielberg for sure, but I will give a nod to a couple underrappreciated ones. John Landis is the greatest comedy director of the 80s IMO, and I also love Barry Levinson's films, even though his name doesn't often pop into my mind.
4. Tom Hanks has always been my favourite. His performances in "Forrest Gump" and "Philadelphia" are breathtakingly good.
5. Comedy and Drama have always stuck out to me the most as they're both enormously cathartic. I'm open to anything though.
 
On the German Karl May films (I still haven't seen one :/ ):
Perun said:
I'd say the value of these films is more historical than artistic. Back in the mid-sixties, they were the biggest item in German popular culture, and all succeeding generations (like me) grew up with them as Saturday morning viewing. I guess that is fading by now, but I'm pretty sure that if you ask any (former west) German of my age and older, he'd instantly recognise any picture or piece of the score from those films, and name the leading actors and characters.
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Icon in Germany, Winnetou actor Pierre Brice (who never read a Karl May book before he was asked to play the role) is now riding the eternal hunting grounds/plains.

1968:
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Article:

http://www.dw.de/winnetou-actor-pierre-brice-dies/a-18499820

... Gregor Gysi, a veteran leading figure in Germany's Left party, said Brice as Winnetou was also an "idol of a whole child and adult generation" in the former communist East Germany.

"Pierre Brice embodied a truly good and clever Indian, " Gysi said. "In his films were lots of good Indians, only a few bad Indians. lots of bad white villains, but also a few good whites."

"All that contradicted the official [East German] portrayal of the USA," Gysi said on the fringe of his party's convention in the western city of Bielefeld on Saturday. ...
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Yeah, it's all over the news here. To be honest, I thought he'd already been dead.
 
"Old Shatterhand" died 42 years earlier.

edit:
YouTube has German and English versions online of the first film. Filmed on location in Croatia.
 
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When thinking of horror / monster movies, Christopher Lee was especially remembered for his many Dracula appearances, but in fact, there are many more other (and better) horror films in which he played the bad guy. He played in 22 films with his good friend Peter Cushing. Many of these were Hammer Horror movies. Most of the time, Lee was the bad guy. Here an interesting exception: Lee plays the good guy and Cushing .... well, you'll see! There's also a strong role by Barbara Shelley!

The Gorgon from 1964.

In early-twentieth-century middle-Europe, villagers are literally becoming petrified. Although the authorities try to hush the matter up, it is apparent that at the full moon, Megaera, a Gorgon, leaves her castle lair and anyone looking on her face is turned to stone. When this fate befalls a visitor, experts from the University of Leipzig arrive to try and get to the bottom of it all.



EDIT:
And this is fantastic:

The City of the Dead from 1960.

Not a Hammer film, this is an American production. Threatening atmosphere, looks great, interesting plot. There are comparisons with Psycho (structural similarities), read here (but better after you've seen it!)
 
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I watched Deutschland bleiche Mutter (1980) today... what a depressing movie. Good, but depressing as hell

The film is narrated by Anna, a German woman who tells the story of her parents before, during and after World War II. Her mother, Lene, meets her father, Hans, and they fall in love and marry. As the war breaks out, Hans is conscripted into the army and Lene suffers through air raids in Berlin. Her relationship with Hans becomes increasingly strained during his infrequent returns home on leave. She gives birth to Anna, and undergoes great hardship to keep her safe, crossing a forest in winter to escape to her family in the country, and later living a life of poverty in the ruins of postwar Berlin. As life returns to normal after the war, she and Hans are unable to rekindle their love, and Lene spirals into depression, exacerbated by the affliction of a crippling facial paralysis. The film ends with the suicidal Lene facing a hopeless future.
 
Yeah, I always thought Dr Zhivago was his number one film.
 
Have heard of it but still haven't seen it, nor thought of acquiring it! *puts it on wishlist* *puts Genghis Khan also on wishlist*
 
:eek:


Nosferatu director's head stolen from grave in Germany
The skull of legendary vampire film director FW Murnau was reported missing from his family plot, as some speculate possible occult motives for theft.

In what sounds like a scene from one of his legendary horror films, the head of Nosferatu director FW Murnau, who died in 1931, has been stolen from his family plot in a cemetery in Germany.

The grave-robbing occurred in Stahnsdorf, about 12 miles south-west of central Berlin, according to Variety. The graves of Murnau’s brothers were reportedly not disturbed.

Wax residue is said to have been found near the grave, suggesting that candles had been lit, and a possible occult motive for the theft.

Murnau was best known for the expressionist classic 1922 black-and-white vampire horror, later remade by Werner Herzog. He also directed Sunrise, which won several Oscars at the first-ever Academy awards.

Murnau died in a car crash aged 42 in California and was buried in his native Germany.

Der Spiegel reports that the cemetery overseers are considering whether to seal Murnau’s grave. They added that this is not the first time that it has been disturbed.
 
Saw that on the news screens in the tube today. Talk about creepy...
 
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