In the 1940s and 1950s, legendary Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) and Vampyr (1932)) directed a series of short documentaries focusing on national institutions such as the church and on safety warnings. Of these, They Caught the Ferry (1948) stands out. Ostensibly a film warning of the dangers of speeding, Dreyer’s direction…
Month: January 2019
One of the Missing (1968)
Tony Scott’s first short movie bears few similarities to his later glossy thrillers (Top Gun (1986) and Days of Thunder (1990), for example), but as an example of an efficient and punchy, folk-horror tinged drama, One of the Missing is exceptional. An adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce short story, the film follows an American civil war soldier on…
Floating Weeds (1959)
“Let me part tonight as his uncle, as before. Next time I come back here I’ll be a good actor” There is something fundamentally human about Yasujirō Ozu‘s films. Low-key, underplayed and melancholic, both Floating Weeds and the more famous Tokyo Story (1953) drill down into the personal nature of the protagonists but in such a subtle way that…
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
“I know what gold does to men’s souls.” Directed by John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a psychological action thriller set in Mexico in 1925. Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston (John’s father) play Fred, Bob and Howard, three grizzled prospectors who are thrown together and head to the hills in search…
The Favourite (2019)
“As it turns out, I’m capable of much unpleasantness.” Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite is a darkly comic, camp and cynical historical drama. Set in 1708, Britain is at war with France (again). Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne, a remote, childlike monarch who relies on her close advisers. The closest is Sarah Churchill, played by…
Film Ark 